Solar surface rotation: N-S asymmetry and recent speed-up

Context. The relation between solar surface rotation and sunspot activity still remains open. Sunspot activity has dramatically reduced in solar cycle 24 and several solar activity indices and flux measurements experienced unprecedentedly low levels during the last solar minimum. Aims. We aim to reveal the momentary variation of solar surface rotation, especially during the recent years of reducing solar activity. Methods. We used a dynamic, differentially rotating reference system to determine the best-fit annual values of the differential rotation parameters of active longitudes of solar X-ray flares and sunspots in 1977-2012. Results. The evolution of rotation of solar active longitudes obtained with X-ray flares and with sunspots is very similar. Both hemispheres speed up since the late 1990s, with the southern hemisphere rotating slightly faster than the north. Earlier, in 1980s, rotation in the northern hemisphere was considerably faster, but experienced a major decrease in the early 1990s. On the other hand, little change was found in the southern rotation during these decades. This led to a positive asymmetry in north-south rotation rate in the early part of the time interval studied. Conclusions. The rotation of both hemispheres has been speeding up at roughly the same rate since late 1990s, with the southern hemisphere rotating slightly faster than the north. This period coincides with the start of dramatic weakening of solar activity, as observed in sunspots and several other solar, interplanetary and geomagnetic parameters.Comment: Astron. Astrophys. Lett. (accepted

A Conservative Discontinuous Galerkin Scheme With O(N-2) Operations In Computing Boltzmann Collision Weight Matrix

In the present work, we propose a deterministic numerical solver for the homogeneous Boltzmann equation based on Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods. The weak form of the collision operator is approximated by a quadratic form in linear algebra setting. We employ the property of >shifting symmetry> in the weight matrix to reduce the computing complexity from theoretical O(N-3) down to O(N-2), with N the total number of freedom for d-dimensional velocity space. In addition, the sparsity is also explored to further reduce the storage complexity. To apply lower order polynomials and resolve loss of conserved quantities, we invoke the conservation routine at every time step to enforce the conservation of desired moments (mass, momentum and/or energy), with only linear complexity. Due to the locality of the DG schemes, the whole computing process is well parallelized using hybrid OpetiMP and MPI. The current work only considers integrable angular cross-sections under elastic and/or inelastic interaction laws. Numerical results on 2-D and 3-D problems are shown.Mathematic

Distributed Deep Learning for Question Answering

This paper is an empirical study of the distributed deep learning for question answering subtasks: answer selection and question classification. Comparison studies of SGD, MSGD, ADADELTA, ADAGRAD, ADAM/ADAMAX, RMSPROP, DOWNPOUR and EASGD/EAMSGD algorithms have been presented. Experimental results show that the distributed framework based on the message passing interface can accelerate the convergence speed at a sublinear scale. This paper demonstrates the importance of distributed training. For example, with 48 workers, a 24x speedup is achievable for the answer selection task and running time is decreased from 138.2 hours to 5.81 hours, which will increase the productivity significantly.Comment: This paper will appear in the Proceeding of The 25th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM 2016), Indianapolis, US

Characteristics of Bose-Einstein condensation in an optical lattice

We discuss several possible experimental signatures of the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) transition for an ultracold Bose gas in an inhomogeneous optical lattice. Based on the commonly used time-of-flight imaging technique, we show that the momentum-space density profile in the first Brillouin zone, supplemented by the visibility of interference patterns, provides valuable information about the system. In particular, by crossing the BEC transition temperature, the appearance of a clear bimodal structure sets a qualitative and universal signature of this phase transition. Furthermore, the momentum distribution can also be applied to extract the condensate fraction, which may serve as a promising thermometer in such a system.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures; Revised version with new figures; Phys. Rev. A 77, 043626 (2008

Accuracy Assessment on Drone Measured Heights at Different Height Levels

The advancement in unmanned aerial system (UAS) technology has made it possible to attain an aerial unit, commonly known as a drone, at an affordable price with increasing precision and accuracy in positioning and photographing. While aerial photography is the most common use of a drone, many of the models available in the market are also capable of measuring height, the height of the drone above ground, or the altitude above the mean sea level. On board a drone, a barometer is used to control the flight height by detecting the atmospheric pressure change; while a GPS receiver is mainly used to determine the horizontal position of the drone. While both barometer and GPS are capable of measuring height, they are based on different algorithms. Our study goal was to assess the accuracy of height measurement by a drone, with different landing procedures and GPS settings

Dark viscous fluid described by a unified equation of state in cosmology

We generalize the $\Lambda$CDM model by introducing a unified EOS to describe the Universe contents modeled as dark viscous fluid, motivated by the fact that a single constant equation of state (EOS) $p=-p_0$ ($p_0>0$) reproduces the $\Lambda$CDM model exactly. This EOS describes the perfect fluid term, the dissipative effect, and the cosmological constant in a unique framework and the Friedmann equations can be analytically solved. Especially, we find a relation between the EOS parameter and the renormalizable condition of a scalar field. We develop a completely numerical method to perform a $\chi^2$ minimization to constrain the parameters in a cosmological model directly from the Friedmann equations, and employ the SNe data with the parameter $\mathcal{A}$ measured from the SDSS data to constrain our model. The result indicates that the dissipative effect is rather small in the late-time Universe.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. v2: new materials added. v3: matches the version to appear in IJMP

Large-Alphabet Time-Frequency Entangled Quantum Key Distribution by means of Time-to-Frequency Conversion

We introduce a novel time-frequency quantum key distribution (TFQKD) scheme based on photon pairs entangled in these two conjugate degrees of freedom. The scheme uses spectral detection and phase modulation to enable measurements in the temporal basis by means of time-to-frequency conversion. This allows large-alphabet encoding to be implemented with realistic components. A general security analysis for TFQKD with binned measurements reveals a close connection with finite-dimensional QKD protocols and enables analysis of the effects of dark counts on the secure key size.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, submitte

Two-parameter quantum general linear supergroups

The universal R-matrix of two-parameter quantum general linear supergroups is computed explicitly based on the RTT realization of Faddeev--Reshetikhin--Takhtajan.Comment: v1: 14 pages. v2: published version, 9 pages, title changed and the section on central extension remove

Nonlinear screening and ballistic transport in a graphene p-n junction

We study the charge density distribution, the electric field profile, and the resistance of an electrostatically created lateral p-n junction in graphene. We show that the electric field at the interface of the electron and hole regions is strongly enhanced due to limited screening capacity of Dirac quasiparticles. Accordingly, the junction resistance is lower than estimated in previous literature.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. (v1) Original version (v2) Introduction largely rewritten, minor typos fixed throughou

Status and future directions of anti-metastatic cancer nanomedicines for the inhibition of cathepsin L

Angiogenesis, tissue invasion and metastasis in the tumour microenvironment are all critical hallmarks of cancer. Upregulation of cathepsin L plays an important role in angiogenesis and metastasis through its ability to degrade the extracellular matrix, facilitating tissue remodeling and tumour cell invasion. Thus, cathepsin L is a potential therapeutic target for anticancer nanomedicine, with its inhibition emerging as an innovative and potentially promising therapeutic intervention for the development of anti-invasion and anti-metastatic enzyme therapies. Nanotechnology-based platforms have been extensively tested in the anti-cancer nanomedicine field with effective anti-tumour efficacy. These nanodrugs can suppress tumour cell proliferation, thereby reducing tumour growth. Recently, nanomedicinal approaches have also emerged as effective anti-metastatic strategies, including the use of graphene oxide and gold nanoparticles. With a focus on recent advances in developing nanotechnology to inhibit cathepsin L, this review provides an in-depth examination of this stimulating field in the context of tumour microenvironments. Innovative anti-metastatic agents may lead to new options for the treatment of cancers