Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal Control for One-Qubit Quantum Sensing

Quantum systems can be exquisite sensors thanks to their sensitivity to external perturbations. This same characteristic also makes them fragile to external noise. Quantum control can tackle the challenge of protecting quantum sensors from environmental noise, while leaving their strong coupling to the target field to be measured. As the compromise between these two conflicting requirements does not always have an intuitive solution, optimal control based on numerical search could prove very effective. Here we adapt optimal control theory to the quantum sensing scenario, by introducing a cost function that, unlike the usual fidelity of operation, correctly takes into account both the unknown field to be measured and the environmental noise. We experimentally implement this novel control paradigm using a Nitrogen Vacancy center in diamond, finding improved sensitivity to a broad set of time varying fields. The demonstrated robustness and efficiency of the numerical optimization, as well as the sensitivity advantaged it bestows, will prove beneficial to many quantum sensing applications.
Image potential in scanning transmission electron microscopy

In the framework of the classical dielectric theory, the role of the image potential in electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) of fast electrons commonly used in scanning transmission electron microscopy travelling near a surface is studied. Relativistic and dispersive corrections are evaluated to establish the range of validity of this theory. The spatial resolution of the EELS technique is discussed for valence and core electron excitations. The eect of the quantal nature of the probe is also discussed. Finally, several problems involving planar surfaces, small particles, cylinders and truncated targets of interest in nanotechnology are studied. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Soft Floors in Auctions

Several of the auction-driven exchanges that facilitate programmatic buying of internet display advertising have recently introduced “soft floors” in addition to standard reserve prices (called “hard floors” in the industry). A soft floor is a bid level below which a winning bidder pays his own bid instead of paying the second-highest bid as in a second-price auction most ad exchanges use by default. This paper characterizes soft floors’ revenue-generating potential as a function of the distribution of bidder independent private values. When bidders are symmetric (identically distributed), soft floors have no effect on revenue, because a symmetric equilibrium always exists in strictly monotonic bidding strategies, and standard revenue-equivalence arguments thus apply. The industry often motivates soft floors as tools for extracting additional expected revenue from an occasional high bidder, for example a bidder retargeting the consumer making the impression. Such asymmetries in the distribution of bidder preferences do not automatically make soft floors profitable. This paper presents two examples of tractable modeling assumptions about such occasional high bidders, with one example implying low soft floors always hurt revenues because of strategic bid-shading by the regular bidders, and the other example implying high soft floors can increase revenues by making the regular bidders bid more aggressively. This paper was accepted by Juanjuan Zhang, marketing.
2 Models for Underlying Assets 2 . 1 Geometric Brownian Motion

Financial derivatives pricing aims to find the fair value of a financial contract on an underlying asset. Here we consider option pricing in the partial differential equations framework. The contemporary models lead to one-dimensional or multidimensional parabolic problems of the convection-diffusion type and generalizations thereof. An overview of various operator splitting methods is presented for the efficient numerical solution of these problems. Splitting schemes of the Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) type are discussed for multidimensional problems, e.g. given by stochastic volatility (SV) models. For jump models Implicit-Explicit (IMEX) methods are considered which efficiently treat the nonlocal jump operator. For American options an easy-to-implement operator splitting method is described for the resulting linear complementarity problems. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the actual stability and convergence of the splitting schemes. Here European and American put options are considered under four asset price models: the classical Black–Scholes model, the Merton jump-diffusion model, the Heston SV model, and the Bates SV model with jumps. Karel in ’t Hout Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Antwerp, Middelheimlaan 1, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium, e-mail: karel.inthout@uantwerp.be Jari Toivanen Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA, Department of Mathematical Information Technology, FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland, e-mail: toivanen@stanford.edu, jari.toivanen@jyu.fi
Approximate T matrix and optical properties of spheroidal particles to third order with respect to size parameter

© 2019 American Physical Society. In electromagnetic scattering, the so-called T matrix encompasses the optical response of a scatterer for any incident excitation and is most commonly defined using the basis of multipolar fields. It can therefore be viewed as a generalization of the concept of polarizability of the scatterer. We calculate here the series expansion of the T matrix for a spheroidal particle in the small-size, long-wavelength limit, up to third lowest order with respect to the size parameter, X, which we will define rigorously for a nonspherical particle. T is calculated from the standard extended boundary condition method with a linear system involving two infinite matrices P and Q, whose matrix elements are integrals on the particle surface. We show that the limiting form of the P and Q matrices, which is different in the special case of spheroid, ensures that this Taylor expansion can be obtained by considering only multipoles of order 3 or less (i.e., dipoles, quadrupoles, and octupoles). This allows us to obtain self-contained expressions for the Taylor expansion of T(X). The lowest order is O(X3) and equivalent to the quasistatic limit or Rayleigh approximation. Expressions to order O(X5) are obtained by Taylor expansion of the integrals in P and Q followed by matrix inversion. We then apply a radiative correction scheme, which makes the resulting expressions valid up to order O(X6). Orientation-averaged extinction, scattering, and absorption cross sections are then derived. All results are compared to the exact T-matrix predictions to confirm the validity of our expressions and assess their range of applicability. For a wavelength of 400 nm, the new approximation remains valid (within 1% error) up to particle dimensions of the order of 100-200 nm depending on the exact parameters (aspect ratio and material). These results provide a relatively simple and computationally friendly alternative to the standard T-matrix method for spheroidal particles smaller than the wavelength, in a size range much larger than for the commonly used Rayleigh approximation.
Supervised gene expression data analysis using Support Vector Machines and Multi-Layer Perceptrons

We apply supervised machine learning methods to the recognition of human lymphoma, using gene expression data from ”Lymphochip”, a specialized DNA microarray developed at Stanford University School of Medicine. We show that MultiLayer Perceptrons and Support Vector Machines can correctly separate cancerous from normal tissues, giving also insights into the role of sets of coordinately expressed genes in carcinogenic processes of lymphoid tissues. Moreover our experimental results show that two subgroups of cells can be distinguished inside the class of Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma , confirming the existence of two distinct tumoral diseases inside this type of aggressive malignancy of mature B lymphocytes.
The association between gas and galaxies – I. CFHT spectroscopy and pair analysis

We investigate the relative distribution of the gaseous contents of the Universe (as traced by a sample of Lyman α (Ly-α ) absorbers), and the luminous baryonic matter (as traced by a redshift survey of galaxies in the same volume searched for Ly-α absorbers), along 16 lines-of-sight (LOS) between redshifts 0 and 1. Our galaxy redshift survey was made with the Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) on Canada- France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and, when combined with galaxies from the litera- ture in the same LOS, gives us a galaxy sample of 636 objects. By combining this with an absorption line sample of 406 absorbing systems drawn from published works, we are able to study the relationship between gas and galaxies over the latter half of the age of the Universe. A correlation between absorbers and galaxies is detected out to separation of 1.5 Mpc. This correlation is weaker than the galaxy-galaxy correlation. There is also some evidence that the absorbing systems seen in CIV are more closely related to galaxies, although this correlation could be with column density rather than metallicity. The above results are all consistent with the absorbing gas and the galaxies co-existing in dark matter filaments and knots as predicted by current mod- els where the column density of the absorbing gas is correlated with the underlying matter density.
Spectral Points of Type $\pi_+$ and Type $\pi_-$ of Closed Operators in Indefinite Inner Product Spaces

We introduce the notion of spectral points of type $\pi_+$ and type $\pi_-$ of closed operators $A$ in a Hilbert space which is equipped with an indefinite inner product. It is shown that these points are stable under compact perturbations. In the second part of the paper we assume that $A$ is symmetric with respect to the indefinite inner product and prove that the growth of the resolvent of $A$ is of finite order in a neighborhood of a real spectral point of type $\pi_+$ or $\pi_-$ which is not in the interior of the spectrum of $A$. Finally, we prove that there exists a local spectral function on intervals of type $\pi_+$ or $\pi_-$.
Early Performance Evaluation of Supervised Graph Anomaly Detection Problem Implemented in Apache Spark

Apache Spark is one of the most popular Big Data frameworks. Performance evaluation of Big Data frameworks is a topic of interest due to the increasing number and importance of data analytics applications within the context of HPC and Big Data convergence. In the paper we present early performance evaluation of a typical supervised graph anomaly detection problem implemented using GraphX and MLlib libraries in Apache Spark on a cluster.
Impact of Software Refactoring on Software Quality in the Industrial Environment: A Review of Empirical Studies

The main aim of software refactoring is to improve the software quality by changing the internal structure of software systems with the maintenance of their external behaviour. Previous empirical studies have assessed the impact of refactoring on software quality, in terms of internal and external quality attributes in both academic and industrial environments.It is broadly believed that software quality can be improved by refactoring.However, several studies claimed that the impact of refactoring on software quality may be positive, negative or no effect. This paper presents a review regarding empirical studies on the impact of software refactoring on software quality in the industrial environment. The main objective of this paper is to investigate impact software refactoring on software quality in the industrial environment in order to identify any consensus or contradictions among the researchers regarding the application of refactoring in this environment; and to identify the applied refactoring techniques, internal and external quality attributes that have been examined. The results showed that refactoring positively affects software quality in the industrial environment. Additionally, several gaps have been identified that need more investigation in the industrial environment
HUMAN-ROBOT INTERACTION AND TRACKING USING LOW COST 3 D VISION SYSTEMS

This paper describes a platform which allows humans to interact with robotic arms using augmented reality. Low cost “kinect” cameras (Xbox 360) are used for tracking human skeletons and locations of robot’s end effectors. The main goal of this paper is to develop robust trackers on this platform. Concretely, a Kalman filter is used for tracking robotic arms using data received from these sensors. It comes to finding a low cost platform for human-robot interactions.
FACTORS TRIGGERING POVERTY IN DISTRICT THARPARKAR SINDH, PAKISTAN

Poverty is one of the most unadorned problems of Pakistan; about over one third of the population is declared as poor. Several programs planned by the government and NGOs to eliminate the poverty could not succeed in their high honored goals. Current study has strived to discover the factors related with poverty in Tharparkar district of Sindh, Pakistan. The survey data in the study showed that three-fourth of the population this district lives below poverty line. Maximum likelihood method was used to estimate the factors associated with poverty. On an overall basis the logistic regression model could correctly classified about 81.5% of the total cases. Furthermore, the highest probabilities for poor were likely for less educated household heads, bigger household size and the female household heads were more exposed than male household heads to risk of being poor at the level of significance set at 0.05.
Effect of nanoparticles and polymer nanoparticles implementation on chemical flooding, wettability and interfacial tension for the enhanced oil recovery processes

The nanotechnology has been widely used in several other industries, and the interest in oil industry is increasing. Nanotechnology has the potential to profoundly change enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and improve the mechanism of recovery, and it is chosen as an alternative method to unlock the remaining oil resources and applied as a new enhanced oil recovery method in the last decade. EOR processes aims to recover trapped oil left in reservoirs after primary and secondary recovery method. Chemical flooding is of increasing interest and importance due to high oil prices and the need to increase oil production. Nanochemical flooding is an immature method from an application point of view. With the decline in oil discoveries during the last decades it is believed that EOR technologies will play a key role to meet the energy demand in years to come. New materials and additives are needed to make EOR economical in challenging reservoirs or harsh environments. Nanoparticles have been widely studied for EOR, but nanoparticles with polymer chain grafted to the surface known as polymercoated nanoparticles (PNPs) are an emerging class of materials that may be superior to nanoparticles for EOR due to improved solubility and stability, greater stabilization of foams and emulsions, and more facile transport through porous media. This paper therefore focuses on the reviews of the application of nanotechnology in chemical flooding process in oil recovery and reviews the applications of nanomaterials for improving oil recovery that have been proposed to explain oil displacement by polymer flooding within oil reservoirs, and also this paper highlights a related class of materials comprised of surfactant and nanoparticle blends and studies of PNPs for improving mobility control, altering surface wettability, and for investigating their transport through porous media in EOR applications.
Influence of bacterial uptake on deep‐ocean dissolved organic carbon

Particulate organic carbon (POC) sinking out of the sunlit euphotic zone at the surface of the ocean feeds the deep sea and alters the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere. Most of the sinking POC is reoxidized to dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) before it hits the sea floor, but the mechanism for this is poorly understood. Here we develop a global model of the microbial loop in the aphotic zone based on new measurements of deep ocean bacterial metabolism. These together imply that a significant fraction of the decreasing POC flux with depth is converted to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) rather than directly to DIC as is commonly assumed, thereby providing the substrate for free‐living bacteria in the deep ocean. The model suggests the existence of a substantial DOC‐pool with a relatively fast turnover time in the deep sea. By implementing the microbial loop in a model of the global ocean circulation, we show that the observed gradient of DOC in the deep North Atlantic can be explained by the temperature dependence of bacterial metabolic activity in conjunction with the formation of deep‐water at high latitudes.
FTIR AND RAMAN SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATIONS OF A CONTROLLED RELEASE CIPROFLOXACIN / CARBOPOL940 MUCOADHESIVE SUSPENSION

Very few formulations are available, at present, from which the drug is absorbed uniformly, so that safe and effective blood level of Ciprofloxacin could be maintained for a prolonged period. Considering this limitation, a controlled release mucoadhesive suspension of Ciprofloxacin with Carbopol polymer (Carbopol940) has been prepared following a novel method of ultrasonication. The chemical interaction between Ciprofloxacin and polymer in formulation has been studied by FTIR and Raman Spectroscopy. From the spectral interpretation, it has been found that in formulation, the carboxylic groups of Ciprofloxacin and hydroxyl groups of Carbopol940 undergo chemical interaction, leading to esterification and hydrogen bonding. The formation of micellies due to esterification and hydrogen bonding causes more drug entrapment and a stable formulation. Due to that the formulation of Ciprofloxacin gives better controlled release and mucoadhesive action in the gastrointestinal tract. Hence, Carbopol940 could be considered as an effective carrier for Ciprofloxacin.
OPTIMISM AND PAIN INTERFERENCE IN AGING WOMEN

Abstract Pain limits individuals’ ability to engage in activities that promote well-being. This longitudinal-burst daily diary study tested reciprocal relationships among pain, optimism, pain interference, and activity in older women. Multilevel models tested between- and within-person relationships among these variables. Pain best predicted interference (person: γ001 = .227, SE = .022, p < .0001; wave: γ010 = .267, SE = .014, p < .0001; day: γ100 = .246, SE = .010, p < .0001); optimism best predicted activity (γ002 = .684, SE = .101, p < .0001). In linear regression models, baseline optimism (sr2 = 0.560, p < .0001), less interference (sr2 = 0.064, p < .0001), and more activity (sr2 = 0.015, p = .013) predicted higher end-of-study optimism. Ultimately, more optimistic women were significantly more active than less optimistic women, and less interference and more activity promoted increased optimism, creating a virtuous cycle that enhances well-being among older women.
Spatio-temporal variability of NDVI–precipitation over southernmost South America: possible linkages between climate signals and epidemics

Climate–environment variability affects the rates of incidence of vector-borne and zoonotic diseases and is possibly associated with epidemics outbreaks. Over southernmost South America the joint spatio-temporal evolution of climate–environment is analyzed for the 1982–2004 period. Detailed mapping of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and rainfall variability are then compared to zones with preliminary epidemiological reports. A significant quasi-biennial signal (2.2- to 2.4-year periods, or QB) for joint NDVI–rainfall variability is revealed. From rotated EOFs, dominant NDVI patterns are partitioned according to their lead frequencies: (1) the ‘QB group’ (2.1-to 3-year periods) includes six modes over southern Brazil, Uruguay, northern-central Argentina (two modes), the southern Paraguay–northern Argentina border, and the Santa Cruz Province; (2) the QB1 (2.4- to 3-year periods) + quasi-quadrennial (QQ) mode over the Misiones Province; and (3) the QB2 (2.1- to 2.5-year periods) + QQ + inter-annual (IA) (3- to 7-year periods) two modes over south-eastern Argentina. Modes within the ‘QB group’ are positively correlated with global climate signals and SST. The Uruguayan mode is correlated with global ENSO (8-month lag) whilst the southern Entre-Rios/northern Buenos Aires provinces are correlated with central equatorial Pacific SSTs (3-month lag). The Santa Cruz (Patagonia) Province is most correlated with the Pacific South America (PSA) index and SST patterns (3-month lag) along the Antarctica circumpolar current. The spatial distribution of lead NDVI modes includes the Formosa, Misiones, Chaco and Buenos Aires provinces among others, known for being prone to vector-borne epidemics such as dengue fever, malaria, leishmaniasis (American cutaneous leishmaniasis or ACL), hantivirus, chagas and Argentine hemorrhagic fever (AHF). Some provinces also correspond to regions where lead NDVI PCs’ modes are associated with high-frequency climate signals such as the quasi-biennial oscillation in northwest Argentina. The joint preliminary results (climate–environment–public health reports) presented here for the first time are meant: (1) to contribute to a better understanding of climate–environment–epidemics process-based and modeling studies and (2) to facilitate, in the long run, the implementation of local and regional health early warning systems (HEWS) over southernmost South America. The latter is becoming crucial with ever-increasing migration, urban sprawl (re-emergence of dengue fever epidemics since the late 1990s), all embedded in a climate change context.
First Report of the Papaya Mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), in China and Genetic Record for Its Recent Invasion in Asia and Africa

Abstract The papaya mealybug, Paracoccus marginatus Williams and Granara de Willink (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), is a polyphagous pest that damages many tropical crops. It is a native of Central America and spread to the Caribbean region and South America in the 1990s; since then it has accidentally been introduced to some islands in the Pacific region and some countries in Africa and Asia. We recorded its presence in China for the first time in 2013 from Guangdong Province and Yunnan Province in southern and southwestern China, respectively. Our genetic analysis revealed that only 1 haplotype of P. marginatus has been recorded in all of Asia, including China, reflecting the very recent invasion of P. marginatus in Asia. This study also includes a summary of the global geographical distribution of P. marginatus.
Natural Rubber/ Reduced Graphene Oxide (Rgo) Composite Development

In recent years, graphene-based nanofillers have gathered attention worldwide academically and in industry. It has been proposed as a promising new material due to its outstanding physical properties such as high electron mobility, thermal conductivity, mechanical stiffness, strength and elasticity. In this research, natural rubber (NR)/ reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposites was prepared at different loading using two roll mill. Morphology study of the nanocomposites showed that at 1.0 phr rGO loading, the best dispersion of the filler in rubber matrix was achieved. Agglomeration occured in NR/1.5 phr rGO nanocomposites as shown by field emission scanning electron images (FESEM). The optimum properties was obtained at 1.0 phr rGO loading with tensile strength of 18.46 MPa, modulus at 100% elongation of 6.63 MPa, modulus at 300% elongation of 7.73 MPa. However, NR/ 1.0 phr rGO composite showed the lowest elongation at break of 501.60%. The highest hardness value of 46.7 HRA was also achieved for NR/ 1.0 phr rGO. Chemical resistance study revealed that NR/ 1.0 phr rGO nanocomposite exhibit the highest chemical resistance with Mol % uptake of 1.24 and 1.03 for toluene and n-hexane respectively. The Swelling Index were 1.15 and 0.88 for toluene and n-hexane respectively.