A generalization of Margolus-Levitin bound

The Margolus-Levitin lower bound on minimal time required for a state to be transformed into an orthogonal state is generalized. It is shown that for some initial states new bound is stronger than the Margolus-Levitin one.Comment: 6 pages, no figures; some comments added; final version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Tell Me How You Feel: Designing Emotion-Aware Voicebots to Ease Pandemic Anxiety In Aging Citizens

The feeling of anxiety and loneliness among aging population has been recently amplified by the COVID-19 related lockdowns. Emotion-aware multimodal bot application combining voice and visual interface was developed to address the problem in the group of older citizens. The application is novel as it combines three main modules: information, emotion selection and psychological intervention, with the aim of improving human well-being. The preliminary study with target group confirmed that multimodality improves usability and that the information module is essential for participating in a psychological intervention. The solution is universal and can also be applied to areas not directly related to COVID-19 pandemic.Comment: 16 page

Automatic Adaptation of SOA Systems Supported by Machine Learning

Part 3: Service OrientationInternational audienceRecent advances in the development of information systems have led to increased complexity and cost in terms of the required maintenance and management. On the other hand, systems built in accordance with modern architectural paradigms, such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), posses features enabling extensive adaptation, not present in traditional systems. Automatic adaptation mechanisms can be used to facilitate system management. The goal of this work is to show that automatic adaptation can be effectively implemented in SOA systems using machine learning algorithms. The presented concept relies on a combination of clustering and reinforcement learning algorithms. The paper discusses assumptions which are necessary to apply machine learning algorithms to automatic adaptation of SOA systems, and presents a machine learning-based management framework prototype. Possible benefits and disadvantages of the presented approach are discussed and the approach itself is validated with a representative case study

Adapting a HEP Application for Running on the Grid

The goal of the EU IST int.eu.grid project is to build middleware facilities which enable the execution of real-time and interactive applications on the Grid. Within this research, relevant support for the HEP application is provided by Virtual Organization, monitoring system, and real-time dispatcher (RTD). These facilities realize the pilot jobs idea that allows to allocate grid resources in advance and to analyze events in real time. In the paper we present HEP Virtual Organization, the details of monitoring, and RTD. We present the way of running the HEP application using the above facilities to fit into the real-time application requirements

OGLE16aaa - a Signature of a Hungry Super Massive Black Hole

We present the discovery and first three months of follow-up observations of a currently on-going unusual transient detected by the OGLE-IV survey, located in the centre of a galaxy at redshift z=0.1655. The long rise to absolute magnitude of -20.5 mag, slow decline, very broad He and H spectral features make OGLE16aaa similar to other optical/UV Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs). Weak narrow emission lines in the spectrum and archival photometric observations suggest the host galaxy is a weak-line Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), which has been accreting at higher rate in the past. OGLE16aaa, along with SDSS J0748, seems to form a sub-class of TDEs by weakly or recently active super-massive black holes (SMBHs). This class might bridge the TDEs by quiescent SMBHs and flares observed as "changing-look QSOs", if we interpret the latter as TDEs. If this picture is true, the previously applied requirement for identifying a flare as a TDE that it had to come from an inactive nucleus, could be leading to observational bias in TDE selection, thus affecting TDE-rate estimations.Comment: Accepted in MNRAS Letter

Niezwykłe współwystępowanie nietypowego guza przysadki wydzielającego TSH i przewlekłej białaczki limfatycznej

Thyrotropin-secreting adenomas (TSH-oma) are very rare pituitary tumours. They are macroadenomas usually presenting with signs and symptoms of hyperthyroidism, and mass effects. They can co-secrete other hormones such as growth hormone or prolactin. Different malignancies, including haematological ones, are reported in patients with pituitary diseases. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) occurs mostly in older patients, more often in males. CLL is associated with increased risk of second malignancies such as other blood neoplasms, skin and solid tumours. We present a successful neurosurgical outcome in a patient with an interesting coincidence of atypical TSH-oma and asymptomatic CLL. (Endokrynol Pol 2014; 65 (2): 144–147)Gruczolaki wydzielające TSH (TSH-oma) są rzadkimi guzami przysadki. Zwykle są makrogruczolakami dającymi objawy nadczynności tarczycy i następstwa masy guza. Mogą wydzielać także inne hormony, jak hormon wzrostu czy prolaktynę. U chorych z chorobami przysadki występują inne nowotwory, także układu krwionośnego. Przewlekła białaczka limfatyczna (CLL) występuje głównie u osób w starszym wieku, częściej u mężczyzn. Występowanie CLL wiąże się ze zwiększonym zagrożeniem innymi nowotworami: krwi, skóry, guzami litymi. W pracy przedstawiono opis skutecznego leczenia neurochirurgicznego pacjenta z interesującym współwystępowaniem nietypowego guza przysadki wydzielającego TSH oraz chorującego na bezobjawową postać CLL. (Endokrynol Pol 2014; 65 (2): 144–147

A Planet in a 0.6-AU Orbit Around the K0 Giant HD 102272

We report the discovery of one or more planet-mass companions to the K0-giant HD 102272 with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. In the absence of any correlation of the observed periodicities with the standard indicators of stellar activity, the observed radial velocity variations are most plausibly explained in terms of a Keplerian motion of at least one planet-mass body around the star. With the estimated stellar mass of 1.9M$_\odot$, the minimum mass of the confirmed planet is 5.9M$_J$. The planet's orbit is characterized by a small but nonzero eccentricity of $e$=0.05 and the semi-major axis of 0.61 AU, which makes it the most compact one discovered so far around GK-giants. This detection adds to the existing evidence that, as predicted by theory, the minimum size of planetary orbits around intermediate-mass giants is affected by both planet formation processes and stellar evolution. The currently available evidence for another planet around HD 102272 is insufficient to obtain an unambiguous two-orbit solution.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Measurement of the invariant mass distributions for the pp -> ppeta' reaction at excess energy of Q = 16.4 MeV

The proton-proton and proton-eta' invariant mass distributions have been determined for the pp -> ppeta' reaction at an excess energy of Q = 16.4 MeV. The measurement was carried out using the COSY-11 detector setup and the proton beam of the cooler synchrotron COSY. The shapes of the determined invariant mass distributions are similar to those of the pp -> ppeta reaction and reveal an enhancement for large relative proton-proton momenta. This result, together with the fact that the proton-eta interaction is much stronger that the proton-eta' interaction, excludes the hypothesis that the observed enhancement is caused by the interaction between the proton and the meson