Decoherence dynamics induced by two-level system defects on driven qubits

Recent experimental evidences point to two-level defects, located in the oxides and on the interfaces of the Josephson junctions, as the major constituents of decoherence in superconducting qubits. How these defects affect the qubit evolution with the presence of external driving is less well understood since the semiclassical qubit-field coupling renders the Jaynes-Cummings model for qubit-defect coupling undiagonalizable. We analyze the decoherence dynamics in the continuous coherent state space induced by the driving and solve the master equation with an extra decay-cladded driving term as a Fokker-Planck equation. The solution as a distribution in the quadrature plane is Gaussian with a moving mean and expanding variance. Its steady-state reveals as a super-Poissonian over displaced Fock states, which reduces to a Gibbs state of effective temperature decided by the defect at zero driving limit. The mean follows one out of four distinct dynamic phases during its convergence to a limit cycle determined by the competing driving strength and defect decays. The rate of convergence differs according to the initial state, illustrated by a Poincare map

Towards Intelligent Decision Making in Emotion-aware Applications

In this paper, we propose an intelligent emotion-aware system (IES), which aims to provide a systematic approach that can make use of the online technology to improve the intelligence of different emotion-aware mobile applications. IES is constructed to provide multi-dimensional online social community data collection and processing approaches for decision making, so as to recommend intelligent services for emotion-aware mobile applications. Furthermore, we present a flow of intelligent decision making process designed on IES, and highlight the implementation and orchestration of several key technologies and schemes applied in this system for different emotion-aware mobile applications in run-time. We demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed IES by presenting a novel emotion-aware mobile application - iSmile, and evaluate the system performance based on this application

Moisture content distribution model for the soil wetting body under moistube irrigation

This study investigated the moisture distribution characteristics of a soil wetting body under different influencing factors to inform the design and management of a moistube irrigation system. A mathematical model of soil moisture movement under moistube irrigation was established based on Hydrus-2D software. The suitability of the Hydrus-2D simulation model was verified by laboratory experiments. Numerical simulations were carried out with Hydrus-2D to investigate the influence of soil texture, initial moisture content, moistube specific discharge and irrigation time on the moisture distribution of a soil wetting body. The soil moisture content is highest at the moistube, and its value is related to the moistube-specific discharge and soil texture. The soil moisture content at any point in the wetting body decreased linearly with increasing distance from the wetting front to the moistube in the five set directions (vertical downward, 45° downward, horizontal, 45° upward and vertical upward). This trend is applicable to fine-textured and coarse-textured soil. An estimation model of soil moisture content including soil saturated hydraulic conductivity, initial soil moisture, the specific flow rate of the moistube and the maximum value of the wetting front distance in all directions is proposed. The model estimation is good (root mean square error = 0.008–0.018 cm3·cm−3, close to 0; Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient = 0.987, close to 1), and it can provide a practical tool for moistube irrigation design and agricultural water management

Interactions between dislocations and three-dimensional annealing twins in face centered cubic metals

Annealing twins often form in metals with a face centered cubic structure during thermal and mechanical processing. Here, we conducted molecular dynamic (MD) simulations for copper and aluminum to study the interaction processes between {1 1 1}1/2 \u3c1 1 0\u3e dislocations and a three-dimensional annealing twin. Twin boundaries are characterized with Σ3{1 1 1} coherent twin boundaries (CTBs) and Σ3{1 1 2} incoherent twin boundaries (ITBs). MD results revealed that dislocation-ITB interactions affect slip transmission for a dislocation crossing CTBs, facilitating the nucleation of Lomer dislocation

Fenofibrate Enhances the In Vitro Differentiation of Foxp3+ Regulatory T Cells in Mice

Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a critical role in maintaining immune self-tolerance. Reduced number and activity of Tregs are usually found in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and enhancing the differentiation of Tregs may be a promising therapeutic strategy. Some reports suggested an anti-inflammatory and anti-autoimmune potential for fenofibrate, a hypolipidemic drug used worldwide, whose lipid effects are mediated by the activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα). In the present paper, we found that fenofibrate dose-dependently increased transforming growth factor-β and interleukin-2-induced Treg differentiation in vitro, by 1.96-fold from 0 to 20 μM (12.59 ± 1.34% to 24.69 ± 3.03%, P < 0.05). Other PPARα activators, WY14643 (100 μM), gemfibrozil (50 μM), and bezafibrate (30 μM), could not enhance Treg differentiation. In addition, PPARα could not upregulate the promoter activity of the Treg-specific transcription factor Foxp3. Fenofibrate might exert its function by enhancing Smad3 phosphorylation, a critical signal in Treg differentiation, via Akt suppression. Our work reveals a new PPARα independent anti-inflammatory mechanism of fenofibrate in up-regulating mouse Treg differentiation

Micro/Nano Gas Sensors: A New Strategy Towards In-Situ Wafer-Level Fabrication of High-Performance Gas Sensing Chips

Nano-structured gas sensing materials, in particular nanoparticles, nanotubes, and nanowires, enable high sensitivity at a ppb level for gas sensors. For practical applications, it is highly desirable to be able to manufacture such gas sensors in batch and at low cost. We present here a strategy of in-situ wafer-level fabrication of the high-performance micro/nano gas sensing chips by naturally integrating microhotplatform (MHP) with nanopore array (NPA). By introducing colloidal crystal template, a wafer-level ordered homogenous SnO_2 NPA is synthesized in-situ on a 4-inch MHP wafer, able to produce thousands of gas sensing units in one batch. The integration of micromachining process and nanofabrication process endues micro/nano gas sensing chips at low cost, high throughput, and with high sensitivity (down to ~20 ppb), fast response time (down to ~1 s), and low power consumption (down to ~30 mW). The proposed strategy of integrating MHP with NPA represents a versatile approach for in-situ wafer-level fabrication of high-performance micro/nano gas sensors for real industrial applications

Research on vibration and deflection for drilling tools of coal auger

Coal augers is a new type of mining equipment used in thin coal seam, and directional drilling performance of its drilling tools becomes the key issue in the equipment service life and drilling efficiency. The drilling test bench of a three-bit coal auger is constructed to study vibration and deflection performance of its drilling tools in this paper. Based on some reasonable simplifications and hypotheses of drilling tools, simulation model of a three-bit coal auger is established to analyze its vibration and deflection performance with different drilling depths. Then a novel drill rod stabilizer is designed and the simulation model of a three-bit coal auger with this stabilizer is constructed compared with a normal coal auger to study vibration and deflection performance of drilling tools, which provides scientific basis for stabilizers’ arrangement form. Research shows that: the simulation results accords with test results, which verifies correctness and rationality of simulation; vibration and deflection of drilling tools become greater with drilling depth increasing; drill rod stabilizers can effectively reduce drilling tools’ vibration and deflection, and are arranged every 5 drill rods and air pipes which is optimal decision