928 research outputs found
Superqubits
We provide a supersymmetric generalization of n quantum bits by extending the
local operations and classical communication entanglement equivalence group
[SU(2)]^n to the supergroup [uOSp(1|2)]^n and the stochastic local operations
and classical communication equivalence group [SL(2,C)]^n to the supergroup
[OSp(1|2)]^n. We introduce the appropriate supersymmetric generalizations of
the conventional entanglement measures for the cases of and . In
particular, super-Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states are characterized by a
nonvanishing superhyperdeterminant.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, revtex; minor corrections, version
appearing in Phys. Rev.
Wrapped branes as qubits
Recent work has established a correspondence between the tripartite
entanglement measure of three qubits and the macroscopic entropy of the
four-dimensional 8-charge STU black hole of supergravity. Here we consider the
configurations of intersecting D3-branes, whose wrapping around the six compact
dimensions T^6 provides the microscopic string-theoretic interpretation of the
charges, and associate the three-qubit basis vectors |ABC>, (A,B,C=0 or 1) with
the corresponding 8 wrapping cycles. In particular, we relate a well-known fact
of quantum information theory, that the most general real three-qubit state can
be parameterized by four real numbers and an angle, to a well-known fact of
string theory, that the most general STU black hole can be described by four
D3-branes intersecting at an angle.Comment: Version appearing in Phys. Rev. Lett, includes Type IIA description
as well as Type II
Four-qubit entanglement from string theory
We invoke the black hole/qubit correspondence to derive the classification of
four-qubit entanglement. The U-duality orbits resulting from timelike reduction
of string theory from D=4 to D=3 yield 31 entanglement families, which reduce
to nine up to permutation of the four qubits.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, revtex; minor corrections, references
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Natural history of a visceral leishmaniasis outbreak in highland Ethiopia
In May 2005, visceral leishmaniasis (VL) was recognized for the first time in Libo Kemken, Ethiopia, a highland region where only few cases had been reported before. We analyzed records of VL patients treated from May 25, 2005 to December 13, 2007 by the only VL treatment center in the area, maintained by Médecins Sans Frontières-Ethiopia, Operational Center Barcelona-Athens. The median age was 18 years; 77.6% were male. The overall case fatality rate was 4%, but adults 45 years or older were five times as likely to die as 5-29 year olds. Other factors associated with increased mortality included HIV infection, edema, severe malnutrition, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and vomiting. The VL epidemic expanded rapidly over a several-year period, culminating in an epidemic peak in the last third of 2005, spread over two districts, and transformed into a sustained endemic situation by 2007
A Theoretical Analysis of Two-Stage Recommendation for Cold-Start Collaborative Filtering
In this paper, we present a theoretical framework for tackling the cold-start
collaborative filtering problem, where unknown targets (items or users) keep
coming to the system, and there is a limited number of resources (users or
items) that can be allocated and related to them. The solution requires a
trade-off between exploitation and exploration as with the limited
recommendation opportunities, we need to, on one hand, allocate the most
relevant resources right away, but, on the other hand, it is also necessary to
allocate resources that are useful for learning the target's properties in
order to recommend more relevant ones in the future. In this paper, we study a
simple two-stage recommendation combining a sequential and a batch solution
together. We first model the problem with the partially observable Markov
decision process (POMDP) and provide an exact solution. Then, through an
in-depth analysis over the POMDP value iteration solution, we identify that an
exact solution can be abstracted as selecting resources that are not only
highly relevant to the target according to the initial-stage information, but
also highly correlated, either positively or negatively, with other potential
resources for the next stage. With this finding, we propose an approximate
solution to ease the intractability of the exact solution. Our initial results
on synthetic data and the Movie Lens 100K dataset confirm the performance gains
of our theoretical development and analysis
Time trends in breast cancer survival: experience in a single centre, 1975-89.
The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to investigate whether survival of patients with breast cancer has changed over the period 1975-89. A total of 2604 women diagnosed as having invasive breast cancer at a clinical oncology unit in London were followed up for between 5 and 20 years. Patients were divided into four groups according to menstrual status (pre or post) and the staging of cancer (operable or inoperable). For each group, survival from diagnosis was compared between three consecutive 5-year cohorts, both with and without adjustments made for relevant prognostic factors. No temporal patterns were found in patients with inoperable cancer, in whom the survival rate was consistently low. Of women with operable cancers, differences were seen only among post-menopausal women, for whom the best survival patterns were seen in patients diagnosed between 1985-89. This is probably due to tamoxifen being commonly prescribed as adjuvant treatment for this cohort of patients. We cannot explain an apparently worse survival in the group of patients presenting in the early 1980s compared with that observed in the late 1970s
Treatment of bone metastases from breast cancer with (3-amino-1-hydroxypropylidene)-1,1-bisphosphonate (APD).
Twenty-eight patients with progressive symptomatic bone metastases from breast cancer received (3-amino-1-hydroxypropylidene)-1,1-bisphosphonate (APD) 30 mg in 500 ml of 0.9% saline infused over 2 h every 14 days. No other systemic therapy for breast cancer was prescribed. All patients had progressed on at least one previous systemic treatment. APD was continued until the disease progressed. Patients were assessed for objective response by the UICC criteria. In addition, subjective response was determined by a pain questionnaire. Radiological evidence of bone healing with sclerosis of lytic disease (UICC partial response) was seen in 4 patients. The median duration of response was 10 months. Eleven patients had stable disease for at least 3 months (median 5 months) and 9 progressed. Symptomatic response occurred in 9 patients and 12 reported an improvement in quality of life. Treatment was tolerated well with no significant toxicity. In conclusion, long-term inhibition of bone destruction is possible with APD therapy alone and both subjective and objective responses are seen
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