69 research outputs found
High coherence hybrid superconducting qubit
We measure the coherence of a new superconducting qubit, the {\em
low-impedance flux qubit}, finding s. It is a
three-junction flux qubit, but the ratio of junction critical currents is
chosen to make the qubit's potential have a single well form. The low impedance
of its large shunting capacitance protects it from decoherence. This qubit has
a moderate anharmonicity, whose sign is reversed compared with all other
popular qubit designs. The qubit is capacitively coupled to a high-Q resonator
in a configuration, which permits the qubit's state to be read out
dispersively
A simple all-microwave entangling gate for fixed-frequency superconducting qubits
We demonstrate an all-microwave two-qubit gate on superconducting qubits
which are fixed in frequency at optimal bias points. The gate requires no
additional subcircuitry and is tunable via the amplitude of microwave
irradiation on one qubit at the transition frequency of the other. We use the
gate to generate entangled states with a maximal extracted concurrence of 0.88
and quantum process tomography reveals a gate fidelity of 81%
Efficient measurement of quantum gate error by interleaved randomized benchmarking
We describe a scalable experimental protocol for obtaining estimates of the
error rate of individual quantum computational gates. This protocol, in which
random Clifford gates are interleaved between a gate of interest, provides a
bounded estimate of the average error of the gate under test so long as the
average variation of the noise affecting the full set of Clifford gates is
small. This technique takes into account both state preparation and measurement
errors and is scalable in the number of qubits. We apply this protocol to a
superconducting qubit system and find gate errors that compare favorably with
the gate errors extracted via quantum process tomography.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, published versio
Genome-wide association study identifies a variant in HDAC9 associated with large vessel ischemic stroke
Genetic factors have been implicated in stroke risk but few replicated associations have been reported. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in ischemic stroke and its subtypes in 3,548 cases and 5,972 controls, all of European ancestry. Replication of potential
signals was performed in 5,859 cases and 6,281 controls. We replicated reported associations between variants close to PITX2 and ZFHX3 with cardioembolic stroke, and a 9p21 locus with large vessel stroke. We identified a novel association for a SNP within the histone deacetylase 9(HDAC9) gene on chromosome 7p21.1 which was associated with large vessel stroke including additional replication in a further 735 cases and 28583 controls (rs11984041, combined P =
1.87×10−11, OR=1.42 (95% CI) 1.28-1.57). All four loci exhibit evidence for heterogeneity of effect across the stroke subtypes, with some, and possibly all, affecting risk for only one subtype. This suggests differing genetic architectures for different stroke subtypes
WriteSim TCExam - An open source text simulation environment for training novice researchers in scientific writing
BACKGROUND: The ability to write clearly and effectively is of central importance to the scientific enterprise. Encouraged by the success of simulation environments in other biomedical sciences, we developed WriteSim TCExam, an open-source, Web-based, textual simulation environment for teaching effective writing techniques to novice researchers. We shortlisted and modified an existing open source application - TCExam to serve as a textual simulation environment. After testing usability internally in our team, we conducted formal field usability studies with novice researchers. These were followed by formal surveys with researchers fitting the role of administrators and users (novice researchers) RESULTS: The development process was guided by feedback from usability tests within our research team. Online surveys and formal studies, involving members of the Research on Research group and selected novice researchers, show that the application is user-friendly. Additionally it has been used to train 25 novice researchers in scientific writing to date and has generated encouraging results. CONCLUSION: WriteSim TCExam is the first Web-based, open-source textual simulation environment designed to complement traditional scientific writing instruction. While initial reviews by students and educators have been positive, a formal study is needed to measure its benefits in comparison to standard instructional methods
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