Asymptotic Entanglement Dynamics and Geometry of Quantum States

A given dynamics for a composite quantum system can exhibit several distinct properties for the asymptotic entanglement behavior, like entanglement sudden death, asymptotic death of entanglement, sudden birth of entanglement, etc. A classification of the possible situations was given in [M. O. Terra Cunha, {\emph{New J. Phys}} {\bf{9}}, 237 (2007)] but for some classes there were no known examples. In this work we give a better classification for the possibile relaxing dynamics at the light of the geometry of their set of asymptotic states and give explicit examples for all the classes. Although the classification is completely general, in the search of examples it is sufficient to use two qubits with dynamics given by differential equations in Lindblad form (some of them non-autonomous). We also investigate, in each case, the probabilities to find each possible behavior for random initial states.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures; revised version accepted for publication in J. Phys. A: Math. Theo

Physiological characterization of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotypes, water-stress induced with contrasting response towards drought.

Among the three annual common bean seasons in Brazil, two of them are subject to drought. The objective of this study was to identify physiological traits in common bean under water restriction. The common beans genotypes, BAT 477 (tolerant to water-stress) and Perola (sensitive to water-stress), were grown under greenhouse conditions under two different watering regimes: irrigated (control treatment) and non-irrigated (stress treatment). The water deficit treatment consisted of suspension of irrigation to the plants at 10 days after emergence (DAE) (at the V2 physiological stage) for 30 days, followed by the irrigation?s re-establishment at 40 DAE (at the R6-R7 physiological stage) up to the phase of physiological maturity of the grains for assessment of grain yield and production components. Under water-stress, BAT 477 showed less reduction in grain yield (33%), more capacity for osmotic adjustment (0.30 MPa) and superiority in the root system´s development (~50%) compared to Perola that showed a 53% reduction in the grain yield and 0.06 MPa of osmotic adjustment. In this study, the robustness of the root system and osmotic adjustment are the main physiological indicators of tolerance to water deficit in common bean plants

Public Policies for Information Literacy in Portugal: An Agenda in the Making

4th European Conference, ECIL 2016, Prague, Czech Republic, October 10-13, 2016, Revised Selected PapersThis theoretical study seeks to contribute to the reflection on public policies in the field of information literacy in Portugal. For this purpose, we look at the status quo of how information literacy has been addressed in Portugal, discussing the aspects concerning public policies, which include an interconnection between scientific knowledge and public action. So, the main objective is to describe Public Policies for Information Literacy in Portugal. Public policies usually result from a sustained effort which places a certain topic on the social agenda. This public action agenda seeks to draw the attention of society and obtain the support of influential groups or people and politics of different levels of the government. At the same time, we look at the way scientific knowledge gives rise to legislation, guidelines or policy recommendations. Finally, we propose a series of lines for reflection and debate on this matter.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Caracteres de produção para tolerância à seca em uma coleção nuclear de arroz de terras altas.

O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar respostas relacionadas à produção em uma coleção nuclear de arroz de terras altas (subespécie japonica tropical), cultivado com e sem deficiência hídrica.Resumo 951

Fly's time

The struggle between public and private efforts to sequence the fly genome is the subject of Michael Ashburner's new book, Won for All: How the Drosophila Genome Was Sequence

Remote frequency measurement of the 1S0-3P1 transition in laser cooled Mg-24

We perform Ramsey-Bord\'e spectroscopy on laser-cooled magnesium atoms in free fall to measure the 1S0 \rightarrow 3P1 intercombination transition frequency. The measured value of 655 659 923 839 730 (48) Hz is consistent with our former atomic beam measurement (Friebe et al 2008 Phys. Rev. A 78 033830). We improve upon the fractional accuracy of the previous measurement by more than an order of magnitude to 7e-14. The magnesium frequency standard was referenced to a fountain clock of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) via a phase-stabilized telecom fiber link and its stability was characterized for interrogation times up to 8000 s. The high temperature of the atomic ensemble leads to a systematic shift due to the motion of atoms across the spectroscopy beams. In our regime, this leads to a counterintuitive reduction of residual Doppler shift with increasing resolution. Our theoretical model of the atom-light interaction is in agreement with the observed effect and allows us to quantify its contribution in the uncertainty budget.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures. Accepted in New Journal of Physic

Mecanismos morfofisiológicos envolvidos na tolerância à seca em uma coleção nuclear de arroz de terras altas.

O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar características morfofisiológicas em uma coleção nuclear de arroz de terras altas (subespécie japonica tropical), submetida a duas condições de irrigação distintas (com e sem estresse hídrico).Resumo 785

Evaluation of urinary cysteinyl leukotrienes as biomarkers of severity and putative therapeutic targets in COVID-19 patients

Background Cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLT) are potent inflammation-promoting mediators, but remain scarcely explored in COVID-19. We evaluated urinary CysLT (U-CysLT) relationship with disease severity and their usefulness for prognostication in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The impact on U-CysLT of veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) and of comorbidities such as hypertension and obesity was also assessed. Methods Blood and spot urine were collected in severe (n = 26), critically ill (n = 17) and critically ill on VV-ECMO (n = 17) patients with COVID-19 at days 1-2 (admission), 3-4, 5-8 and weekly thereafter, and in controls (n = 23) at a single time point. U-CysLT were measured by ELISA. Routine markers, prognostic scores and outcomes were also evaluated. Results U-CysLT did not differ between groups at admission, but significantly increased along hospitalization only in critical groups, being markedly higher in VV-ECMO patients, especially in hypertensives. U-CysLT values during the first week were positively associated with ICU and total hospital length of stay in critical groups and showed acceptable area under curve (AUC) for prediction of 30-day mortality (AUC: 0.734, p = 0.001) among all patients. Conclusions U-CysLT increase during hospitalization in critical COVID-19 patients, especially in hypertensives on VV-ECMO. U-CysLT association with severe outcomes suggests their usefulness for prognostication and as therapeutic targets.This work was supported by a RESEARCH 4 COVID-19 grant (project 519, reference number: 613690173) from FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (special support for rapid implementation projects for innovative response solutions to COVID-9 pandemic). CS-P is a recipient of a Ph.D. fellowship from FCT and MedInUP (UI/BD/150816/2020). P-PT was supported by a research contract within the scope of the RIFF-HEART project funded by FEDER via COMPETE, Portugal 2020-Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032188) and by FCT (PTDC/MEC-CAR/32188/2017). Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on)