The Pontic King of Bosnia in Anti-Ottoman Crusading in the Mid-1470s: Crusader Curiosities from Italian Archives

The paper focuses on a selection of documents from Italian archives that have not been included in the standard reference source collections from the past two centuries. The documents reveal certain “curiosities” such as the identity/identities of the king of Bosnia in the mid-1470s or papal appeals to support a Greek rite Christian lord against the Ottoman Turks. The newly found or re-found information allows new insights into the complex connections that shaped the growing area of contact between Free Christendom and the Ottoman Empire. The same information also indicates the limitations–recent or not–of different “over-reaching” interpretations of partially known documentary evidence

Synthesis of Topological Quantum Circuits

Topological quantum computing has recently proven itself to be a very powerful model when considering large- scale, fully error corrected quantum architectures. In addition to its robust nature under hardware errors, it is a software driven method of error corrected computation, with the hardware responsible for only creating a generic quantum resource (the topological lattice). Computation in this scheme is achieved by the geometric manipulation of holes (defects) within the lattice. Interactions between logical qubits (quantum gate operations) are implemented by using particular arrangements of the defects, such as braids and junctions. We demonstrate that junction-based topological quantum gates allow highly regular and structured implementation of large CNOT (controlled-not) gate networks, which ultimately form the basis of the error corrected primitives that must be used for an error corrected algorithm. We present a number of heuristics to optimise the area of the resulting structures and therefore the number of the required hardware resources.Comment: 7 Pages, 10 Figures, 1 Tabl

Software Pauli Tracking for Quantum Computation

The realisation of large-scale quantum computing is no longer simply a hardware question. The rapid development of quantum technology has resulted in dozens of control and programming problems that should be directed towards the classical computer science and engineering community. One such problem is known as Pauli tracking. Methods for implementing quantum algorithms that are compatible with crucial error correction technology utilise extensive quantum teleportation protocols. These protocols are intrinsically probabilistic and result in correction operators that occur as byproducts of teleportation. These byproduct operators do not need to be corrected in the quantum hardware itself. Instead, byproduct operators are tracked through the circuit and output results reinterpreted. This tracking is routinely ignored in quantum information as it is assumed that tracking algorithms will eventually be developed. In this work we help fill this gap and present an algorithm for tracking byproduct operators through a quantum computation. We formulate this work based on quantum gate sets that are compatible with all major forms of quantum error correction and demonstrate the completeness of the algorithm.Comment: 5 Pages, 1 figure, Accepted for Design, Automation and Test In Europe (DATE'2014

Photo-responsive semi-interpetrating network hydrogels based on poly(ionic liquids) and a poly(N-Isopropylacrylamide-Spiropyran-Acrylic Acid) copolymer

Poly(ionic liquids) are a subclass of ionic liquids that feature polymerizable groups in either the anion, the cation or both. They are used as a building block for a wide range of materials which can be used for a broad spectrum of applications, including conducting materials in solar cells, lithium rechargeable batteries, actuators and other electrochemical devices [1]. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNiPAAm) is known to exhibit a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in an aqueous medium [2]. By incorporating other co-monomers in the pNiPAAm network, such as spiropyran (SPA) photochromic units, materials which exhibit are both thermo- and photo-responsive can be synthesized [3]. By crosslinking a poly(ionic liquid), such as tributylhexylphosphonium 3-sulfopropylacrylate (PSPA), in the presence of a linear poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-spiropyran-co-acrylic acid) (pNiPAAm-SPA-AA) copolymer, a semi-interpenetrating network (sIPN) was synthesized. The following research focuses on the synthesis of and characterization of linear (pNiPAAm-SPA-AA) and its incorporation in a sIPN. The photo-induced shrinking of the resulting sIPN was characterized in the presence of deionized water and NaCl solutions of different concentrations

Poly(ionic liquid) based dual responsive smart hydrogels

Poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) are a subclass of ionic liquid that feature polymerizable groups either in the cation, the anion or both. Applications of these materials include solid ion conductors, CO2 absorption and energy storage. Furthermore, a branch of PILs feature lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behaviour, making them suitable for the synthesis of temperature responsive materials. The aim of this study was to synthesize thermo-responsive crosslinked PIL hydrogels based on phosphonium PILs. Moreover, taking into account that these PIL hydrogels consist of polyelectrolyte chains, the effect of added salt was also investigated

Semi-interpenetrating network photo-responsive hydrogels containing poly(ionic liquid)s

Poly(ionic liquid)s are a subclass of ionic liquids that feature polymerizable groups in either the anion, the cation or both. They are used as building blocks for a wide range of materials which can be used for a broad spectrum of applications, including conducting materials in solar cells, lithium rechargeable batteries, actuators and other electrochemical devices [1]. Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNiPAAm) is known to exhibit a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) in an aqueous medium [2]. By incorporating other co-monomers in the pNiPAAm network, such as spiropyran (SPA) photochromic units, materials which are both thermo- and photo-responsive can be synthesized [3]. By crosslinking a poly(ionic liquid), such as tributylhexylphosphonium 3-sulfopropylacrylate (PSPA), in the presence of linear poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-spiropyran-co-acrylic acid) (pNiPAAm-SPA-AA) copolymer, a semi-interpenetrating network (sIPN) was synthesized. The following research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of linear (pNiPAAm-SPA-AA) and its incorporation in a sIPN. A series of sIPN hydrogels have been synthesized, each having a different concentration of the (pNiPAAm-SPA-AA) linear copolymer, and their photo-response was analyzed in deionized water and in a series of NaCl solutions (0.5 wt%, 1 wt% and 5 wt%). For the sIPNs containing 100%, 200%, 300% and 400% w/w linear copolymer, the total area contraction after 30 min white light irradiation in deionized water was ≈3%, ≈6%, ≈10% and ≈13%. In conclusion, a linear p(NiPAAm-SPA-AA) copolymer was synthesized and incorporated in a crosslinked PSPA matrix to create photo-responsive sIPNs with finely tuned photo-actuation properties. References: [1] J. Yuan, D. Mecerreyes, M. Antonietti, Prog. Polym. Sci., 2013, 38, 1009-1036. [2] C. Boutris, E. G. Chatzi, C. Kiparissides, Polymer, 38 (1997) 2567-2570. [3] K. Sumaru, M. Kameda, T. Kanamori, T. Shinbo, Macromolecules, 37 (2004) 4949-4955