Controlling single-photon transport with three-level quantum dots in photonic crystals

published_or_final_versio

Measuring Coverage of Prolog Programs Using Mutation Testing

Testing is an important aspect in professional software development, both to avoid and identify bugs as well as to increase maintainability. However, increasing the number of tests beyond a reasonable amount hinders development progress. To decide on the completeness of a test suite, many approaches to assert test coverage have been suggested. Yet, frameworks for logic programs remain scarce. In this paper, we introduce a framework for Prolog programs measuring test coverage using mutations. We elaborate the main ideas of mutation testing and transfer them to logic programs. To do so, we discuss the usefulness of different mutations in the context of Prolog and empirically evaluate them in a new mutation testing framework on different examples.Comment: 16 pages, Accepted for presentation in WFLP 201

Theory for the coupling between longitudinal phonons and intrinsic Josephson oscillations in layered superconductors

In this publication a microscopic theory for the coupling of intrinsic Josephson oscillations in layered superconductors with longitudinal c-axis-phonons is developed. It is shown that the influence of lattice vibrations on the c-axis transport can be fully described by introducing an effective longitudinal dielectric function. Resonances in the I-V-characteristic appear at van Hove singularities of both acoustical and optical longitudinal phonon branches. This provides a natural explanation of the recently discovered subgap structures in the I-V-characteristic of highly anisotropic cuprate superconductors. The effect of the phonon dispersion on the damping of these resonances and the coupling of Josephson oscillations in different resistive junctions due to phonons are discussed in detail.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. B, corrections following referee repor

Influence of corruption on economic growth rate and foreign investments

In order to investigate whether government regulations against corruption can affect the economic growth of a country, we analyze the dependence between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita growth rates and changes in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). For the period 1999-2004 on average for all countries in the world, we find that an increase of CPI by one unit leads to an increase of the annual GDP per capita by 1.7 %. By regressing only European transition countries, we find that $\Delta$CPI = 1 generates increase of the annual GDP per capita by 2.4 %. We also analyze the relation between foreign direct investments received by different countries and CPI, and we find a statistically significant power-law functional dependence between foreign direct investment per capita and the country corruption level measured by the CPI. We introduce a new measure to quantify the relative corruption between countries based on their respective wealth as measured by GDP per capita.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, elsart styl

Quantitative relations between corruption and economic factors

We report quantitative relations between corruption level and economic factors, such as country wealth and foreign investment per capita, which are characterized by a power law spanning multiple scales of wealth and investments per capita. These relations hold for diverse countries, and also remain stable over different time periods. We also observe a negative correlation between level of corruption and long-term economic growth. We find similar results for two independent indices of corruption, suggesting that the relation between corruption and wealth does not depend on the specific measure of corruption. The functional relations we report have implications when assessing the relative level of corruption for two countries with comparable wealth, and for quantifying the impact of corruption on economic growth and foreign investments.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

High-efficiency Urban-traffic Management in Context-aware Computing and 5G Communication

With the increasing number of vehicle and traffic jams, urban-traffic management is becoming a serious issue. In this article, we propose novel four-tier architecture for urban-traffic management with the convergence of vehicle ad hoc networks (VANETs), 5G wireless network, software-defined network (SDN), and mobile-edge computing (MEC) technologies. The proposed architecture provides better communication and rapider responsive speed in a more distributed and dynamic manner. The practical case of rapid accident rescue can significantly cut down the time for rescue. Key technologies with respect to vehicle localization, data pre-fetching, traffic lights control, and traffic prediction are also discussed. Obviously, the novel architecture shows noteworthy potential for alleviating the traffic congestion and improving the efficiency of urban-traffic management

Evaluation of the health-related quality of life of children in Schistosoma haematobium-endemic communities in Kenya: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Schistosomiasis remains a global public health challenge, with 93% of the ~237 million infections occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Though rarely fatal, its recurring nature makes it a lifetime disorder with significant chronic health burdens. Much of its negative health impact is due to non-specific conditions such as anemia, undernutrition, pain, exercise intolerance, poor school performance, and decreased work capacity. This makes it difficult to estimate the disease burden specific to schistosomiasis using the standard DALY metric. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In our study, we used Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), a modular instrument available for ages 2-18 years, to assess health-related quality of life (HrQoL) among children living in a Schistosoma haematobium-endemic area in coastal Kenya. The PedsQL questionnaires were administered by interview to children aged 5-18 years (and their parents) in five villages spread across three districts. HrQoL (total score) was significantly lower in villages with high prevalence of S. haematobium (-4.0%, p<0.001) and among the lower socioeconomic quartiles (-2.0%, p<0.05). A greater effect was seen in the psychosocial scales as compared to the physical function scale. In moderate prevalence villages, detection of any parasite eggs in the urine was associated with a significant 2.1% (p<0.05) reduction in total score. The PedsQL reliabilities were generally high (Cronbach alphas ≥0.70), floor effects were acceptable, and identification of children from low socioeconomic standing was valid. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We conclude that exposure to urogenital schistosomiasis is associated with a 2-4% reduction in HrQoL. Further research is warranted to determine the reproducibility and responsiveness properties of QoL testing in relation to schistosomiasis. We anticipate that a case definition based on more sensitive parasitological diagnosis among younger children will better define the immediate and long-term HrQoL impact of Schistosoma infection

6Questionnaire-based approach to assess schoolchildren's physical fitness and its potential role in exploring the putative impact of helminth and Plasmodium spp. infections in Côte d'Ivoire

BACKGROUND: Disability weights (DWs) are important for estimating burden of disease in terms of disability-adjusted life years. The previous practice of eliciting DWs by expert opinion has been challenged. More recent approaches employed quality of life (QoL) questionnaires to establish patient-based DWs, but results are ambiguous. METHODS: In early 2010, we administered a questionnaire pertaining to physical fitness to 200 schoolchildren in Cote d'Ivoire. Helminth and Plasmodium spp. infections were determined and schoolchildren's physical fitness objectively measured in a maximal multistage 20 m shuttle run test. Associations between objectively measured and self-reported physical fitness and between self-reported physical fitness and infection status were determined. Spearman rank correlation coefficient, uni- and multivariable linear regression models adjusting for children's age and sex, ambient air temperature and humidity, Fisher's test, chi^2 and t-test statistics were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium, Plasmodium spp., Schistosoma mansoni, hookworm and Ascaris lumbricoides in 167 children with complete parasitological results was 84.4%, 74.9%, 54.5%, 14.4% and 1.2%, respectively. High infection intensities and multiple species parasite infections were common. In the 137 children with complete data also from the shuttle run test, we found statistically significant correlations between objectively measured and self-reported physical fitness. However, no statistically significant correlation between the children's parasitic infection status and self-reported physical fitness was identified. An attrition analysis revealed considerably lower self-reported physical fitness scores of parasitized children who were excluded from shuttle run testing due to medical concerns in comparison to parasitized children who were able to successfully complete the shuttle run test. CONCLUSIONS: Our QoL questionnaire proofed valid to assess children's physical fitness in the current study area. Reasons why no differences in self-reported physical fitness in children with different parasitic infections were found are manifold, but do not preclude the use of QoL questionnaires in the elicitation of DWs. Indeed, the questionnaire was particularly useful in assessing physical fitness of those children, who were - supposedly due to parasitic infections - unable to complete the shuttle run test. Hence, we encourage others to use QoL questionnaires to determine not only physical fitness, but also more subtle morbidities

Artificial Topological Superconductor by the Proximity Effect

published_or_final_versio

Deep-level Transient Spectroscopy of GaAs/AlGaAs Multi-Quantum Wells Grown on (100) and (311)B GaAs Substrates

Si-doped GaAs/AlGaAs multi-quantum wells structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (100) and (311)B GaAs substrates have been studied by using conventional deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and high-resolution Laplace DLTS techniques. One dominant electron-emitting level is observed in the quantum wells structure grown on (100) plane whose activation energy varies from 0.47 to 1.3 eV as junction electric field varies from zero field (edge of the depletion region) to 4.7 × 106 V/m. Two defect states with activation energies of 0.24 and 0.80 eV are detected in the structures grown on (311)B plane. The Ec-0.24 eV trap shows that its capture cross-section is strongly temperature dependent, whilst the other two traps show no such dependence. The value of the capture barrier energy of the trap at Ec-0.24 eV is 0.39 eV