Tunable coupling of superconducting qubits

We study an LC circuit implemented using a current-biased Josephson junction (CBJJ) as a tunable coupler for superconducting qubits. By modulating the bias current, the junction can be tuned in and out of resonance and entangled with the qubits coupled to it. One can thus implement two-qubit operations by mediating entanglement. We consider the examples of CBJJ and charge-phase qubits. A simple recoupling scheme leads to a generalization to arbitrary qubit designs.     

Use of very long-distance NOEs in a fully deuterated protein: an approach for rapid protein fold determination

The high sensitivity of modern NMR instrumentation, in combination with full deuteration, enabled the measurement of long-range NOEs between amide protons in a fully deuterated protein corresponding to distances up to 8A. These are beyond the limit normally observed in protonated samples. Such long-distance NOEs could be observed using long mixing times, which became possible due to reduced spin diffusion and T1 relaxation of the amide protons in the fully deuterated sample. This information was used in combination with secondary structure restraints derived from secondary chemical shifts for structure calculations. With these backbone amide proton NOEs only, a unique fold could be obtained with positional root mean square deviations from the average of 1.30 and 2.25 A for backbone and heavy atoms, respectively. Despite the low density of restraints, no mirror image problems were observed. Addition of sidechain NOE information increased the precision of the ensemble and in particular of the core packing. The structures obtained in this way were close to the published crystal structure. NOE completeness analysis revealed that the cumulative completeness is still more than 80% for an 8.0 A cut-off distance.     

Stability and linear oscillations of liquid bridges with varied boundary conditions under zero gravity

This article deals with stability and small linear oscillations of liquid bridges between fixed solid surfaces (parallel plates, spheres, ...) under zero gravity. A general investigation method for any kind of axisymmetric liquid bridge is exposed but the author focus his work on the spherical liquid bridge cases. In particular, he exposes a full theoretical study of spherical liquid bridges between two spheres, plates and cones.     

The structures of the α‐alums RbCr(SO4)2·12H2O and CsCr(SeO4)2·12H2O at 293 and 12 K

The crystal structures of the α‐alums rubidium chromium bis(­sulfate) dodecahydrate, RbCr(SO₄)₂·12H₂O, and caesium chromium bis[tetraoxoselenate(VI)] dodecahydrate, CsCr(SeO₄)₂·12H₂O, have been determined by X‐ray diffraction at 293 and 12 K. The metal atoms lie on sites and the anions lie on threefold rotation axes. The accurate and extensive data sets lead to much more precise determinations than are available from earlier work, particularly at 12 K. The changes in the atomic displacement parameters between 293 and 12 K correspond to the respective predominances of intermolecular and intramolecular vibrational effects.     

Abstract parabolic problems with critical nonlinearities and applications to Navier-Stokes and heat equations

We prove a local existence and uniqueness theorem for abstract parabolic problems of the type when the nonlinearity satisfies certain critical conditions. We apply this abstract result to the Navier-Stokes and heat equations.

     

Temperature dependence of electron properties of Sn doped nanobelts

This paper reports on the measurements of transport properties of high crystalline quality Sn doped In₂O₃ nanobelts. The samples presented metallic conduction in a large range of temperatures; however, at low temperatures, the resistivity showed a slight increase and the current–voltage curves showed a tendency to saturate even in the low-voltage range. From these observations, we discuss some arguments on the possibility of low dimensional conducting channels as the main responsible for the conduction at low temperatures. Additionally, we present an alternative technique for production of low resistance ohmic contacts, which can be further used in devices’ construction.     

Inferring topological features of proteins from amino acid residue networks

Topological properties of native folds are obtained from statistical analysis of 160 low homology proteins covering the four structural classes. This is done analyzing one, two and three-vertex joint distribution of quantities related to the corresponding network of amino acid residues. Emphasis on the amino acid residue hydrophobicity leads to the definition of their center of mass as vertices in this contact network model with interactions represented by edges. The network analysis helps us to interpret experimental results such as hydrophobic scales and fraction of buried accessible surface area in terms of the network connectivity. Moreover, those networks show assortative mixing by degree. To explore the vertex-type dependent correlations, we build a network of hydrophobic and polar vertices. This procedure presents the wiring diagram of the topological structure of globular proteins leading to the following attachment probabilities between hydrophobic–hydrophobic 0.424(5), hydrophobic-polar 0.419(2) and polar–polar 0.157(3) residues.     

Coherent thermal emission by microstructured waveguides

Following Greffet et al. [Coherent emission of light by thermal sources. Nature 2002;416:61-4], we study in this article, the possibility to engineer thermal coherent sources with waveguides. The idea is to rule a grating on a waveguide made of a slice of germanium deposited on a participating media such as glass. The guided waves, thermally excited are coupled to the far field by the grating and increase the system emissivity in certain directions and wavelengths. We numerically compute the diffraction of a plane wave by the grating by a rigorous coupled waves algorithm (RCWA). The reflected, transmitted and absorbed energy calculated allows to obtain the system emissivity by means of the Kirchhoff law.