Advantage of quantum coherence in postselected metrology

In conventional measurement, to reach the greatest accuracy of parameter estimation, all samples must be measured since each independent sample contains the same quantum Fisher information. In postselected metrology, postselection can concentrate the quantum Fisher information of the initial samples into a tiny post-selected sub-ensemble. It has been proven that this quantum advantage can not be realized in any classically commuting theory. In this work, we present that the advantage of postselection in weak value amplification (WVA) can not be achieved without quantum coherence. The quantum coherence of the initial system is closely related to the preparation costs and measurement costs in parameter estimation. With the increase of initial quantum coherence, the joint values of preparation costs and measurement costs can be optimized to smaller. Moreover, we derive an analytical tradeoff relation between the preparation, measurement and the quantum coherence. We further experimentally test the tradeoff relation in a linear optical setup. The experimental and theoretical results are in good agreement and show that the quantum coherence plays a key role in bounding the resource costs in the postselected metrology process

SPHINX: The Joint Mixing of Weights, Tasks, and Visual Embeddings for Multi-modal Large Language Models

We present SPHINX, a versatile multi-modal large language model (MLLM) with a joint mixing of model weights, tuning tasks, and visual embeddings. First, for stronger vision-language alignment, we unfreeze the large language model (LLM) during pre-training, and introduce a weight mix strategy between LLMs trained by real-world and synthetic data. By directly integrating the weights from two domains, the mixed LLM can efficiently incorporate diverse semantics with favorable robustness. Then, to enable multi-purpose capabilities, we mix a variety of tasks for joint visual instruction tuning, and design task-specific instructions to avoid inter-task conflict. In addition to the basic visual question answering, we include more challenging tasks such as region-level understanding, caption grounding, document layout detection, and human pose estimation, contributing to mutual enhancement over different scenarios. Additionally, we propose to extract comprehensive visual embeddings from various network architectures, pre-training paradigms, and information granularity, providing language models with more robust image representations. Based on our proposed joint mixing, SPHINX exhibits superior multi-modal understanding capabilities on a wide range of applications. On top of this, we further propose an efficient strategy aiming to better capture fine-grained appearances of high-resolution images. With a mixing of different scales and high-resolution sub-images, SPHINX attains exceptional visual parsing and reasoning performance on existing evaluation benchmarks. We hope our work may cast a light on the exploration of joint mixing in future MLLM research. Code is released at https://github.com/Alpha-VLLM/LLaMA2-Accessory.Comment: Work in progress. Code and demos are released at https://github.com/Alpha-VLLM/LLaMA2-Accessor

Precision Spectroscopy and Nuclear Structure Parameters in 7Li+ ion

The optical Ramsey technique is used to obtain precise measurements of the hyperfine splittings in the 2\,^3\!S_1 and 2\,^3\!P_J states of $^7$Li$^+$. Together with bound-state quantum electrodynamic theory, the Zemach radius and quadrupole moment of the $^7$Li nucleus are determined to be $3.35(1)$~fm and $-3.86(5)$~fm$^2$ respectively, with the quadrupole moment deviating from the recommended value of $-4.00(3)$~fm$^2$ by $1.75\sigma$. Furthermore, we determine the quadrupole moment ratio of $^6$Li to $^7$Li as $0.101(13)$, exhibiting a $6\sigma$ deviation from the previous measured value of $0.020161(13)$ by LiF molecular spectroscopy. The results taken together provide a sensitive test of nuclear structure models

Detection of quantitative trait loci affecting haematological traits in swine via genome scanning

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Haematological traits, which consist of mainly three components: leukocyte traits, erythrocyte traits and platelet traits, play extremely important role in animal immune function and disease resistance. But knowledge of the genetic background controlling variability of these traits is very limited, especially in swine.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the present study, 18 haematological traits (7 leukocyte traits, 7 erythrocyte traits and 4 platelet traits) were measured in a pig resource population consisting of 368 purebred piglets of three breeds (Landrace, Large White and Songliao Black Pig), after inoculation with the swine fever vaccine when the pigs were 21 days old. A whole-genome scan of QTL for these traits was performed using 206 microsatellite markers covering all 18 autosomes and the X chromosome. Using variance component analysis based on a linear mixed model and the false discovery rate (FDR) test, 35 QTL with FDR < 0.10 were identified: 3 for the leukocyte traits, 28 for the erythrocyte traits, and 4 for the platelet traits. Of the 35 QTL, 25 were significant at <it>FDR </it>< 0.05 level, including 9 significant at <it>FDR </it>< 0.01 level.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Very few QTL were previously identified for hematological traits of pigs and never in purebred populations. Most of the QTL detected here, in particular the QTL for the platelet traits, have not been reported before. Our results lay important foundation for identifying the causal genes underlying the hematological trait variations in pigs.</p

Replication of a pathogenic non-coding RNA increases DNA methylation in plants associated with a bromodomain-containing viroid-binding protein.

peer reviewedViroids are plant-pathogenic molecules made up of single-stranded circular non-coding RNAs. How replicating viroids interfere with host silencing remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effects of a nuclear-replicating Potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) on interference with plant RNA silencing. Using transient induction of silencing in GFP transgenic Nicotiana benthamiana plants (line 16c), we found that PSTVd replication accelerated GFP silencing and increased Virp1 mRNA, which encodes bromodomain-containing viroid-binding protein 1 and is required for PSTVd replication. DNA methylation was increased in the GFP transgene promoter of PSTVd-replicating plants, indicating involvement of transcriptional gene silencing. Consistently, accelerated GFP silencing and increased DNA methylation in the of GFP transgene promoter were detected in plants transiently expressing Virp1. Virp1 mRNA was also increased upon PSTVd infection in natural host potato plants. Reduced transcript levels of certain endogenous genes were also consistent with increases in DNA methylation in related gene promoters in PSTVd-infected potato plants. Together, our data demonstrate that PSTVd replication interferes with the nuclear silencing pathway in that host plant, and this is at least partially attributable to Virp1. This study provides new insights into the plant-viroid interaction on viroid pathogenicity by subverting the plant cell silencing machinery

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein TaqIB polymorphism and its association with serum lipid levels and longevity in Chinese Bama Zhuang population

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Taq</it>IB polymorphism in the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) gene has been reported to be associated with serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and longevity in several populations, but controversial results also arose probably due to racial/ethnic diversity. Bama is a remote and mountainous county located in the northwest of Guangxi, People's Republic of China, which has been well known for its longevity for centuries. The current study was to investigate the possible association of CETP <it>Taq</it>IB polymorphism with serum lipid levels and longevity in the Bama Zhuang population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The CETP <it>Taq</it>IB genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism in 523 long-lived inhabitants (long-lived group, LG; aged 90-107 years) and 498 healthy controls without longevity family history (non-long-lived group, non-LG; aged 40-69 years) residing in Bama County.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The levels of total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were higher but TG, HDL-C/LDL-C ratio and the prevalence of dyslipidemia were lower in LG than in non-LG (<it>P </it>< 0.001 for all). There were no differences in the allelic and genotypic frequencies between the two groups (<it>P </it>> 0.05). Serum HDL-C levels and HDL-C/LDL-C ratio in LG were different among the genotypes (<it>P </it>< 0.01 for each), the subjects with B2B2 and B1B2 genotyes had higher HDL-C levels and HDL-C/LDL-C ratio than the subjects with B1B1genotye, whereas the levels of TC and HDL-C in non-LG were different among/between the genotypes (<it>P </it>< 0.01 for each), the B2 allele carriers had lower TC and higher HDL-C levels than the B2 allele noncarriers. Serum TG and HDL-C levels and HDL-C/LDL-C ratio were correlated with genotypes in LG, whereas serum TC and HDL-C levels were associated with genotypes in non-LG (<it>P </it>< 0.05-0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The association of CETP <it>Taq</it>IB polymorphism and serum lipid profiles is different between LG and non-LG in the Chinese Bama Zhuang population. CETP <it>Taq</it>IB polymorphism might be one of the longevity-related genetic factors in this population.</p

Sub-picosecond photo-induced displacive phase transition in two-dimensional MoTe<inf>2</inf>

AbstractPhoto-induced phase transitions (PIPTs) provide an ultrafast, energy-efficient way for precisely manipulating the topological properties of transition-metal ditellurides and can be used to stabilize a topological phase in an otherwise semiconducting material. Using first-principles calculations, we demonstrate that the PIPT in monolayer MoTe2 from the semiconducting 2H phase to the topological 1T′ phase can be triggered purely by electronic excitations that soften multiple lattice vibrational modes. These softenings, driven by a Peierls-like mechanism within the conduction bands, lead to structural symmetry breaking within sub-picosecond timescales, which is shorter than the timescale of a thermally driven phase transition. The transition is predicted to be triggered by photons with energies over 1.96 eV, with an associated excited carrier density of 3.4 × 1014 cm−2, which enables a controllable phase transformation by varying the laser wavelength. Our results provide insight into the underlying physics of the phase transition in 2D transition-metal ditellurides and show an ultrafast phase-transition mechanism for manipulation of the topological properties of 2D systems.</jats:p