A simulation model for football championships

In this paper we discuss a simulation/probability model that identifies the team that is most likely to win a tournament. The model can also be used to answer other questions like ‘which team had a lucky draw?’ or ‘what is the probability that two teams meet at some moment in the tournament?’. Input to the simulation/probability model are scoring intensities, that are estimated as a weighted average of goals scored. The model has been used in practice to write articles for the popular press, and seems to perform well.

Farmers’ reaction upon receiving economic information in controlling somatic cell count

Adoption and implementation of efficient somatic cell count (SCC) control practices is an action of behavioral change, which is notoriously difficult to achieve and sustain, even when substantial production and economic gains are to be expected. In the current study, it was tested whether farmers are aware of these potential gains and whether providing farmers additional information on projected economic losses on a regular basis may motivate them to implement enhanced control practices. In-depth interviews revealed that the majority of the dairy farmers perceived cow-specific and herd-specific projected losses, due to elevated SCC levels, as not very relevant to them. Farmers posed that SCC was already monitored regularly at cow-level and provided them adequate information to support decision making. Actions were rationalized in a specific context comprising the intertwined notions of intentions and efficacy believes. Understanding of these notions is essential when advising farmers, being either veterinarians or others providing agricultural extension, to support farmers implementing enhanced management decisions

Spherical Code Key Distribution Protocols for Qubits

Recently spherical codes were introduced as potentially more capable ensembles for quantum key distribution. Here we develop specific key creation protocols for the two qubit-based spherical codes, the trine and tetrahedron, and analyze them in the context of a suitably-tailored intercept/resend attack, both in standard form, and a ``gentler'' version whose back-action on the quantum state is weaker. When compared to the standard unbiased basis protocols, BB84 and six-state, two distinct advantages are found. First, they offer improved tolerance of eavesdropping, the trine besting its counterpart BB84 and the tetrahedron the six-state protocol. Second, the key error rate may be computed from the sift rate of the protocol itself, removing the need to sacrifice key bits for this purpose. This simplifies the protocol and improves the overall key rate.Comment: 4 pages revtex, 2 figures; clarified security analysis. Final version for publicatio

Прогнозирование геологической среды земной коры по материалам ГСЗ и петрофизического термобарического исследования минерального вещества

Some features of methodical means of petrovelocity thermobaric modeling have been considered. An example of the construction of a deep petrovelocity model of a crust part of the Ukrainian Shield is given and analysed

Історія Гамаліївського Харлампієва монастиря

Стаття присвячена історії Гамаліївського Харлампієвого монастиря та ансамблю його пам’яток.Статья посвящена истории Гамалеевского Харлампиева монастыря и ансамблю его памятников.I his article deals with a short history of Gamaliivskyi Kharlampievyi monastery and a band of its sights since its foundation up to hour

Noisy Preprocessing and the Distillation of Private States

We provide a simple security proof for prepare & measure quantum key distribution protocols employing noisy processing and one-way postprocessing of the key. This is achieved by showing that the security of such a protocol is equivalent to that of an associated key distribution protocol in which, instead of the usual maximally-entangled states, a more general {\em private state} is distilled. Besides a more general target state, the usual entanglement distillation tools are employed (in particular, Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS)-like codes), with the crucial difference that noisy processing allows some phase errors to be left uncorrected without compromising the privacy of the key.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in Physical Review Letters. Extensively rewritten, with a more detailed discussion of coherent --> iid reductio