943 research outputs found
Melt-Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing of Transparent Fused Silica Glass
In recent years, additive manufacturing (AM) of glass has attracted great interest in academia and industry, yet it is still mostly limited to liquid nanocomposite-based approaches for stereolithography, two-photon polymerization, or direct ink writing. Melt-extrusion-based processes, such as fused deposition modeling (FDM), which will allow facile manufacturing of large thin-walled components or simple multimaterial printing processes, are so far inaccessible for AM of transparent fused silica glass. Here, melt-extrusion-based AM of transparent fused silica is introduced by FDM and fused feedstock deposition (FFD) using thermoplastic silica nanocomposites that are converted to transparent glass using debinding and sintering. This will enable printing of previously inaccessible glass structures like high-aspect-ratio (>480) vessels with wall thicknesses down to 250 µm, delicate parts including overhanging features using polymer support structures, as well as dual extrusion for multicolored glasses
Towards structured sharing of raw and derived neuroimaging data across existing resources
Data sharing efforts increasingly contribute to the acceleration of
scientific discovery. Neuroimaging data is accumulating in distributed
domain-specific databases and there is currently no integrated access mechanism
nor an accepted format for the critically important meta-data that is necessary
for making use of the combined, available neuroimaging data. In this
manuscript, we present work from the Derived Data Working Group, an open-access
group sponsored by the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) and the
International Neuroimaging Coordinating Facility (INCF) focused on practical
tools for distributed access to neuroimaging data. The working group develops
models and tools facilitating the structured interchange of neuroimaging
meta-data and is making progress towards a unified set of tools for such data
and meta-data exchange. We report on the key components required for integrated
access to raw and derived neuroimaging data as well as associated meta-data and
provenance across neuroimaging resources. The components include (1) a
structured terminology that provides semantic context to data, (2) a formal
data model for neuroimaging with robust tracking of data provenance, (3) a web
service-based application programming interface (API) that provides a
consistent mechanism to access and query the data model, and (4) a provenance
library that can be used for the extraction of provenance data by image
analysts and imaging software developers. We believe that the framework and set
of tools outlined in this manuscript have great potential for solving many of
the issues the neuroimaging community faces when sharing raw and derived
neuroimaging data across the various existing database systems for the purpose
of accelerating scientific discovery
Quantum Zeno Effect in the Quantum Non-Demolition Detection of Itinerant Photons
We analyze the detection of itinerant photons using a quantum non-demolition
(QND) measurement. We show that the backaction due to the continuous
measurement imposes a limit on the detector efficiency in such a scheme. We
illustrate this using a setup where signal photons have to enter a cavity in
order to be detected dispersively. In this approach, the measurement signal is
the phase shift imparted to an intense beam passing through a second cavity
mode. The restrictions on the fidelity are a consequence of the Quantum Zeno
effect, and we discuss both analytical results and quantum trajectory
simulations of the measurement process.Comment: 4.5 pages, 3 figure
Photodetection of propagating quantum microwaves in circuit QED
We develop the theory of a metamaterial composed of an array of discrete
quantum absorbers inside a one-dimensional waveguide that implements a
high-efficiency microwave photon detector. A basic design consists of a few
metastable superconducting nanocircuits spread inside and coupled to a
one-dimensional waveguide in a circuit QED setup. The arrival of a {\it
propagating} quantum microwave field induces an irreversible change in the
population of the internal levels of the absorbers, due to a selective
absorption of photon excitations. This design is studied using a formal but
simple quantum field theory, which allows us to evaluate the single-photon
absorption efficiency for one and many absorber setups. As an example, we
consider a particular design that combines a coplanar coaxial waveguide with
superconducting phase qubits, a natural but not exclusive playground for
experimental implementations. This work and a possible experimental realization
may stimulate the possible arrival of "all-optical" quantum information
processing with propagating quantum microwaves, where a microwave photodetector
could play a key role.Comment: 27 pages, submitted to Physica Scripta for Nobel Symposium on "Qubits
for Quantum Information", 200
Hierarchical heterogeneity across human cortex shapes large-scale neural dynamics
The large-scale organization of dynamical neural activity across cortex emerges through long-range interactions among local circuits. We hypothesized that large-scale dynamics are also shaped by heterogeneity of intrinsic local properties across cortical areas. One key axis along which microcircuit properties are specialized relates to hierarchical levels of cortical organization. We developed a large-scale dynamical circuit model of human cortex that incorporates heterogeneity of local synaptic strengths, following a hierarchical axis inferred from MRI-derived T1w/T2w mapping, and fit the model using multimodal neuroimaging data. We found that incorporating hierarchical heterogeneity substantially improves the model fit to fMRI-measured resting-state functional connectivity and captures sensory-association organization of multiple fMRI features. The model predicts hierarchically organized high-frequency spectral power, which we tested with resting-state magnetoencephalography. These findings suggest circuit-level mechanisms linking spatiotemporal levels of analysis and highlight the importance of local properties and their hierarchical specialization on the large-scale organization of human cortical dynamics
Parity Violation in Proton-Proton Scattering at 221 MeV
The parity-violating longitudinal analyzing power, Az, has been measured in
pp elastic scattering at an incident proton energy of 221 MeV. The result
obtained is Az =(0.84 +/- 0.29 (stat.) +/- 0.17 (syst.)) x 10^{-7}. This
experiment is unique in that it selects a single parity violating transition
amplitude, 3P2-1D2, and consequently directly constrains the weak meson-nucleon
coupling constant h^pp_rho When this result is taken together with the existing
pp parity violation data, the weak meson-nucleon coupling constants h^pp_rho
and h^pp_omega can, for the first time, both be determined.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX4, 3 PostScript figures. Conclusion revised. New
information about weak coupling constants adde
Time-optimal CNOT between indirectly coupled qubits in a linear Ising chain
We give analytical solutions for the time-optimal synthesis of entangling
gates between indirectly coupled qubits 1 and 3 in a linear spin chain of three
qubits subject to an Ising Hamiltonian interaction with equal coupling plus
a local magnetic field acting on the intermediate qubit. The energy available
is fixed, but we relax the standard assumption of instantaneous unitary
operations acting on single qubits. The time required for performing an
entangling gate which is equivalent, modulo local unitary operations, to the
between the indirectly coupled qubits 1 and 3 is
, i.e. faster than a previous estimate based on a similar
Hamiltonian and the assumption of local unitaries with zero time cost.
Furthermore, performing a simple Walsh-Hadamard rotation in the Hlibert space
of qubit 3 shows that the time-optimal synthesis of the (which acts as the identity when the control qubit 1 is in the state
, while if the control qubit is in the state the target
qubit 3 is flipped as ) also requires the same
time .Comment: 9 pages; minor modification
Measuring surface-area-to-volume ratios in soft porous materials using laser-polarized xenon interphase exchange NMR
We demonstrate a minimally invasive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
technique that enables determination of the surface-area-to-volume ratio (S/V)
of soft porous materials from measurements of the diffusive exchange of
laser-polarized 129Xe between gas in the pore space and 129Xe dissolved in the
solid phase. We apply this NMR technique to porous polymer samples and find
approximate agreement with destructive stereological measurements of S/V
obtained with optical confocal microscopy. Potential applications of
laser-polarized xenon interphase exchange NMR include measurements of in vivo
lung function in humans and characterization of gas chromatography columns.Comment: 14 pages of text, 4 figure
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Searches For High-Frequency Variations In The B-8 Solar Neutrino Flux At The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
We have performed three searches for high-frequency signals in the solar neutrino flux measured by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, motivated by the possibility that solar g-mode oscillations could affect the production or propagation of solar B-8 neutrinos. The first search looked for any significant peak in the frequency range 1-144 day(-1), with a sensitivity to sinusoidal signals with amplitudes of 12% or greater. The second search focused on regions in which g-mode signals have been claimed by experiments aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory satellite, and was sensitive to signals with amplitudes of 10% or greater. The third search looked for extra power across the entire frequency band. No statistically significant signal was detected in any of the three searches.Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, CanadaIndustry Canada, CanadaNational Research Council, CanadaNorthern Ontario Heritage Fund, CanadaAtomic Energy of Canada, Ltd., CanadaOntario Power Generation, CanadaHigh Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory, CanadaCanada Foundation for InnovationDept. of Energy, USNational Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, USScience and Technologies Facilities Council, UKAstronom
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