U-Note: Capture the Class and Access it Everywhere

We present U-Note, an augmented teaching and learning system leveraging the advantages of paper while letting teachers and pupils benefit from the richness that digital media can bring to a lecture. U-Note provides automatic linking between the notes of the pupils' notebooks and various events that occurred during the class (such as opening digital documents, changing slides, writing text on an interactive whiteboard...). Pupils can thus explore their notes in conjunction with the digital documents that were presented by the teacher during the lesson. Additionally, they can also listen to what the teacher was saying when a given note was written. Finally, they can add their own comments and documents to their notebooks to extend their lecture notes. We interviewed teachers and deployed questionnaires to identify both teachers and pupils' habits: most of the teachers use (or would like to use) digital documents in their lectures but have problems in sharing these resources with their pupils. The results of this study also show that paper remains the primary medium used for knowledge keeping, sharing and editing by the pupils. Based on these observations, we designed U-Note, which is built on three modules. U-Teach captures the context of the class: audio recordings, the whiteboard contents, together with the web pages, videos and slideshows displayed during the lesson. U-Study binds pupils' paper notes (taken with an Anoto digital pen) with the data coming from U-Teach and lets pupils access the class materials at home, through their notebooks. U-Move lets pupils browse lecture materials on their smartphone when they are not in front of a computer

Continuous stochastic Schrodinger equations and localization

The set of continuous norm-preserving stochastic Schrodinger equations associated with the Lindblad master equation is introduced. This set is used to describe the localization properties of the state vector toward eigenstates of the environment operator. Particular focus is placed on determining the stochastic equation which exhibits the highest rate of localization for wide open systems. An equation having such a property is proposed in the case of a single non-hermitian environment operator. This result is relevant to numerical simulations of quantum trajectories where localization properties are used to reduce the number of basis states needed to represent the system state, and thereby increase the speed of calculation.Comment: 18 pages in LaTeX + 6 figures (postscript), uses ioplppt.sty. To appear in J. Phys.

The visible spectrum of zirconium dioxide, ZrO2

The electronic spectrum of a cold molecular beam of zirconium dioxide, ZrO2, has been investigated using laser induced fluorescence (LIF) in the region from 17 000 cm−1 to 18 800 cm−1 and by mass-resolved resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI) spectroscopy from 17 000 cm−1–21 000 cm−1. The LIF and REMPI spectra are assigned to progressions in the ÃB21(ν1, ν2, ν3) ← X̃A11(0, 0, 0) transitions. Dispersed fluorescence from 13 bands was recorded and analyzed to produce harmonic vibrational parameters for the X̃A11 state of ω1 = 898(1) cm−1, ω2 = 287(2) cm−1, and ω3 = 808(3) cm−1. The observed transition frequencies of 45 bands in the LIF and REMPI spectra produce origin and harmonic vibrational parameters for the ÃB21 state of Te = 16 307(8) cm−1, ω1 = 819(3) cm−1, ω2 = 149(3) cm−1, and ω3 = 518(4) cm−1. The spectra were modeled using a normal coordinate analysis and Franck-Condon factor predictions. The structures, harmonic vibrational frequencies, and the potential energies as a function of bending angle for the ÃB21 and X̃A11 states are predicted using time-dependent density functional theory, complete active space self-consistent field, and related first-principle calculations. A comparison with isovalent TiO2 is made

Quantum chaos in open systems: a quantum state diffusion analysis

Except for the universe, all quantum systems are open, and according to quantum state diffusion theory, many systems localize to wave packets in the neighborhood of phase space points. This is due to decoherence from the interaction with the environment, and makes the quasiclassical limit of such systems both more realistic and simpler in many respects than the more familiar quasiclassical limit for closed systems. A linearized version of this theory leads to the correct classical dynamics in the macroscopic limit, even for nonlinear and chaotic systems. We apply the theory to the forced, damped Duffing oscillator, comparing the numerical results of the full and linearized equations, and argue that this can be used to make explicit calculations in the decoherent histories formalism of quantum mechanics.Comment: 18 pages standard LaTeX + 9 figures; extensively trimmed; to appear in J. Phys.

Quantum trajectories for Brownian motion

We present the stochastic Schroedinger equation for the dynamics of a quantum particle coupled to a high temperature environment and apply it the dynamics of a driven, damped, nonlinear quantum oscillator. Apart from an initial slip on the environmental memory time scale, in the mean, our result recovers the solution of the known non-Lindblad quantum Brownian motion master equation. A remarkable feature of our approach is its localization property: individual quantum trajectories remain localized wave packets for all times, even for the classically chaotic system considered here, the localization being stronger the smaller $\hbar$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figure

Artificial reefs: from ecological processes to fishing enhancement tools

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

<i>De Novo</i> and Rare Variants at Multiple Loci Support the Oligogenic Origins of Atrioventricular Septal Heart Defects

Congenital heart disease (CHD) has a complex genetic etiology, and recent studies suggest that high penetrance de novo mutations may account for only a small fraction of disease. In a multi-institutional cohort surveyed by exome sequencing, combining analysis of 987 individuals (discovery cohort of 59 affected trios and 59 control trios, and a replication cohort of 100 affected singletons and 533 unaffected singletons) we observe variation at novel and known loci related to a specific cardiac malformation the atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD). In a primary analysis, by combining developmental coexpression networks with inheritance modeling, we identify a de novo mutation in the DNA binding domain of NR1D2 (p.R175W). We show that p.R175W changes the transcriptional activity of Nr1d2 using an in vitro transactivation model in HUVEC cells. Finally, we demonstrate previously unrecognized cardiovascular malformations in the Nr1d2tm1-Dgen knockout mouse. In secondary analyses we map genetic variation to protein-interaction networks suggesting a role for two collagen genes in AVSD, which we corroborate by burden testing in a second replication cohort of 100 AVSDs and 533 controls (p = 8.37e-08). Finally, we apply a rare-disease inheritance model to identify variation in genes previously associated with CHD (ZFPM2, NSD1, NOTCH1, VCAN, and MYH6), cardiac malformations in mouse models (ADAM17, CHRD, IFT140, PTPRJ, RYR1 and ATE1), and hypomorphic alleles of genes causing syndromic CHD (EHMT1, SRCAP, BBS2, NOTCH2, and KMT2D) in 14 of 59 trios, greatly exceeding variation in control trios without CHD (p = 9.60e-06). In total, 32% of trios carried at least one putatively disease-associated variant across 19 loci,suggesting that inherited and de novo variation across a heterogeneous group of loci may contribute to disease risk

Lack of association of the CIITA -168A→G promoter SNP with myasthenia gravis and its role in autoimmunity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The major histocompatibility complex class II transactivator (CIITA) regulates MHC class II gene expression. A promoter SNP -168A→G (rs3087456) has previously been shown to be associated with susceptibility to several immune mediated disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS) and myocardial infarction (MI). Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disorder which has previously been shown to be associated with polymorphisms of several autoimmune predisposing genes, including <it>IL-1</it>, <it>PTPN22</it>, <it>TNF-α </it>and the <it>MHC</it>. In order to determine if allelic variants of rs3087456 increase predisposition to MG, we analyzed this SNP in our Swedish cohort of 446 MG patients and 1866 controls.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No significant association of the SNP with MG was detected, neither in the patient group as a whole, nor in any clinical subgroup. The vast majority of previous replication studies have also not found an association of the SNP with autoimmune disorders.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We thus conclude that previous findings with regard to the role of the <it>CIITA </it>-168A→G SNP in autoimmunity may have to be reconsidered.</p