The SLIM (Social learning for the integrated management and sustainable use of water at catchment scale) Final Report

Background: SLIM stands for 'Socuak Learning for the Integrated Management and Sustainable Use of Water at Catchment Scale'. It is a multi-country research project funded by the European Commission (DG RESEARCH - 5th Framework Programme for research and technological development, 1998-2002). Its main theme is the investigation of the socio-economic aspects of the sustainable use of water. Within this theme, its main focus of interest lies in understanding the application of social learning as a conceptual framework, an operational principle, a policy instrument and a process of systemic change

Rotation of Low-mass Stars in Taurus with K2

We present an analysis of K2 light curves (LCs) from Campaigns 4 and 13 for members of the young (~3 Myr) Taurus association, in addition to an older (~30 Myr) population of stars that is largely in the foreground of the Taurus molecular clouds. Out of 156 of the highest-confidence Taurus members, we find that 81% are periodic. Our sample of young foreground stars is biased and incomplete, but nearly all stars (37/38) are periodic. The overall distribution of rotation rates as a function of color (a proxy for mass) is similar to that found in other clusters: the slowest rotators are among the early M spectral types, with faster rotation toward both earlier FGK and later M types. The relationship between period and color/mass exhibited by older clusters such as the Pleiades is already in place by Taurus age. The foreground population has very few stars but is consistent with the USco and Pleiades period distributions. As found in other young clusters, stars with disks rotate on average slower, and few with disks are found rotating faster than ~2 days. The overall amplitude of the LCs decreases with age, and higher-mass stars have generally lower amplitudes than lower-mass stars. Stars with disks have on average larger amplitudes than stars without disks, though the physical mechanisms driving the variability and the resulting LC morphologies are also different between these two classes

Standard Model Physics and the Digital Quantum Revolution: Thoughts about the Interface

Advances in isolating, controlling and entangling quantum systems are transforming what was once a curious feature of quantum mechanics into a vehicle for disruptive scientific and technological progress. Pursuing the vision articulated by Feynman, a concerted effort across many areas of research and development is introducing prototypical digital quantum devices into the computing ecosystem available to domain scientists. Through interactions with these early quantum devices, the abstract vision of exploring classically-intractable quantum systems is evolving toward becoming a tangible reality. Beyond catalyzing these technological advances, entanglement is enabling parallel progress as a diagnostic for quantum correlations and as an organizational tool, both guiding improved understanding of quantum many-body systems and quantum field theories defining and emerging from the Standard Model. From the perspective of three domain science theorists, this article compiles thoughts about the interface on entanglement, complexity, and quantum simulation in an effort to contextualize recent NISQ-era progress with the scientific objectives of nuclear and high-energy physics.Comment: 63 pages, 5 figure

Equilibration of quantum many-body fast neutrino flavor oscillations

Neutrino gases are expected to form in high density astrophysical environments, and accurately modeling their flavor evolution is critical to understanding such environments. In this work we study a simplified model of such a dense neutrino gas in the regime for which neutrino-neutrino coherent forward scattering is the dominant mechanism contributing to the flavor evolution. We show evidence that the generic potential induced by this effect is non-integrable and that the statistics of its energy level spaces are in good agreement with the Wigner surmise. We also find that individual neutrinos rapidly entangle with all of the others present which results in an equilibration of the flavor content of individual neutrinos. We show that the average neutrino flavor content can be predicted utilizing a thermodynamic partition function. A random phase approximation to the evolution gives a simple picture of this equilibration. In the case of neutrinos and antineutrinos, processes like $\nu_e {\bar{\nu}}_e \leftrightarrows \nu_\mu {\bar{\nu}_\mu}$ yield a rapid equilibrium satisfying $n( \nu_e) n({\bar \nu}_e) = n( \nu_\mu) n({\bar \nu}_\mu) = n( \nu_\tau) n({\bar \nu}_\tau)$ in addition to the standard lepton number conservation in regimes where off-diagonal vacuum oscillations are small compared to $\nu-\nu$ interactions.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, 1 appendi

Enhancing Qubit Readout with Autoencoders

In addition to the need for stable and precisely controllable qubits, quantum computers take advantage of good readout schemes. Superconducting qubit states can be inferred from the readout signal transmitted through a dispersively coupled resonator. This work proposes a novel readout classification method for superconducting qubits based on a neural network pre-trained with an autoencoder approach. A neural network is pre-trained with qubit readout signals as autoencoders in order to extract relevant features from the data set. Afterwards, the pre-trained network inner layer values are used to perform a classification of the inputs in a supervised manner. We demonstrate that this method can enhance classification performance, particularly for short and long time measurements where more traditional methods present lower performance.Comment: 16 pages, 23 figure

Potential role of the intestinal microbiota of the mother in neonatal immune education

Mucosal dendritic cells are at the heart of decision-making processes that dictate immune reactivity to intestinal microbes. They ensure tolerance to commensal bacteria and a vigorous immune response to pathogens. It has recently been demonstrated that the former involves a limited migration of bacterially loaded dendritic cells from the Peyer's patches to the mesenteric lymph nodes. During lactation, cells from gut-associated lymphoid tissue travel to the breast via the lymphatics and peripheral blood. Here, we show that human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and breast milk cells contain bacteria and their genetic material during lactation. Furthermore, we show an increased bacterial translocation from the mouse gut during pregnancy and lactation and the presence of bacterially loaded dendritic cells in lactating breast tissue. Our observations show bacterial translocation as a unique physiological event, which is increased during pregnancy and lactation. They suggest endogenous transport of intestinally derived bacterial components within dendritic cells destined for the lactating mammary gland. They also suggest neonatal immune imprinting by milk cells containing commensal-associated molecular pattern

Potential role of the intestinal microbiota of the mother in neonatal immune education

Mucosal dendritic cells are at the heart of decision-making processes that dictate immune reactivity to intestinal microbes. They ensure tolerance to commensal bacteria and a vigorous immune response to pathogens. It has recently been demonstrated that the former involves a limited migration of bacterially loaded dendritic cells from the Peyer's patches to the mesenteric lymph nodes. During lactation, cells from gut-associated lymphoid tissue travel to the breast via the lymphatics and peripheral blood. Here, we show that human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and breast milk cells contain bacteria and their genetic material during lactation. Furthermore, we show an increased bacterial translocation from the mouse gut during pregnancy and lactation and the presence of bacterially loaded dendritic cells in lactating breast tissue. Our observations show bacterial translocation as a unique physiological event, which is increased during pregnancy and lactation. They suggest endogenous transport of intestinally derived bacterial components within dendritic cells destined for the lactating mammary gland. They also suggest neonatal immune imprinting by milk cells containing commensal-associated molecular patterns.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta

Potential role of the intestinal microbiota of the mother in neonatal immune education

Mucosal dendritic cells are at the heart of decision-making processes that dictate immune reactivity to intestinal microbes. They ensure tolerance to commensal bacteria and a vigorous immune response to pathogens. It has recently been demonstrated that the former involves a limited migration of bacterially loaded dendritic cells from the Peyer's patches to the mesenteric lymph nodes. During lactation, cells from gut-associated lymphoid tissue travel to the breast via the lymphatics and peripheral blood. Here, we show that human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and breast milk cells contain bacteria and their genetic material during lactation. Furthermore, we show an increased bacterial translocation from the mouse gut during pregnancy and lactation and the presence of bacterially loaded dendritic cells in lactating breast tissue. Our observations show bacterial translocation as a unique physiological event, which is increased during pregnancy and lactation. They suggest endogenous transport of intestinally derived bacterial components within dendritic cells destined for the lactating mammary gland. They also suggest neonatal immune imprinting by milk cells containing commensal-associated molecular patterns.Facultad de Ciencias Exacta