Unambiguous State Discrimination with Intrinsic Coherence

We investigate the discrimination of pure-mixed (quantum filtering) and mixed-mixed states and compare their optimal success probability with the one for discriminating other pairs of pure states superposed by the vectors included in the mixed states. We prove that under the equal-fidelity condition, the pure-pure state discrimination scheme is superior to the pure-mixed (mixed-mixed) one. With respect to quantum filtering, the coherence exists only in one pure state and is detrimental to the state discrimination for lower dimensional systems; while it is the opposite for the mixed-mixed case with symmetrically distributed coherence. Making an extension to infinite-dimensional systems, we find that the coherence which is detrimental to state discrimination may become helpful and vice versa.     

用PCA方法模拟光子鉴别

The shower shape of n, n^-, p, p^-, K^＋, π^＋ and photons, generated by JPCIAE code for 5.5 TeV/A ^208pb＋^208pb collisions, incident on the ALICE photon spectrometer （PHOS）, is analyzed with the principal component analysis （PCA） method. The efficiency dependence of purity for the photon discrimination is simulated for the deposited energy ranges 0.5-2 GeV, 2-10 GeV, 10-50 GeV and 50-100 GeV. The result shows that in the energy range of 0.5 to 100 GeV, the efficiency of the photon identification can reach 90% with purity of 90%.     

线性光学实现量子普适确切态识别

给出一种量子普适确切态识别的线性光学实现方案.此方案只用到双光子的干涉和符合测量,在实验上是简单可行的.同时提出一种改进方案,通过一定量的辅助光子,使得上述方案成功概率得以提高.这一方案将可应用于量子密钥分配等安全信息交流中. 关键词： 确切态识别 线性光学     

Pitch discrimination abilities in classical Arab-music listeners

The current experiment examined pitch discrimination thresholds in listeners of classical Arab music, and listeners of Western popular music. Classical Arab music is characterized by modes (“Maqamat”, plural of “Maqam” in Arabic language) of which the smallest interval is a quarter tone. In contrast, the smallest interval in Western music is a semitone. We hypothesized that daily exposure to a musical style involving minuscule pitch differences may have a positive effect on pitch discrimination abilities. Results demonstrate superior pitch discrimination abilities in the classical Arab music listeners. These results indicate that musical cultures may differ in their influence on perceptual abilities, depending on their basic acoustic characteristics.     

Stereospecific reactions and interactions in tri-ortho-thymotide clathrates

The emphasis in this paper is on the interpretation of physicochemical phenomena occurring in tri-ortho-thymotide (TOT) clathrates in the light of crystallographic data.Enantiomeric discrimination of guest included in the cageP3₁21 clathrates, first suggested by H. M. Powell, has been studied for about twenty guest molecules. Practical applications include preparative resolution and determination of the absolute configuration of guest molecules via TOT clathrates. The observation of similar position and orientation within the cage of stereochemically related guests, provides a clue for the chiral discrimination in terms of crystallographic data. The influence of different factors (guest size, crystallographic disorder, etc.) is analyzed, as well as the difficulties in obtaining a precise assignment of the chirality of host/guest interactions.TOT clathrates including stilbene and cinnamic acid as guest undergo photoisomerization reactions whose pathway is different from that observed in solution or in the pure guest crystal, due to the different microenvironment around the olefinic molecule.It is shown that symmetry, as well as crystallographic disorder, is the most important factors governing these phenomena. The analysis of these factors bears similarities with the problems arising in chiral discrimination. In particular, the flexibility of the TOT molecule is probably strongly correlated with the physicochemical phenomena so far studied, as well as with the large variety of crystal forms. The comparison of the TOT molecular configurations in five different crystallographic environments allows a critical discussion on the pertinent molecular parameters which reflect the TOT flexibility.Dedicated to Professor H. M. Powell.     

Effect of redox label tether length and flexibility on sensor performance of displacement-based electrochemical DNA sensors

This article summarizes the sensor performance of four electrochemical DNA sensors that exploit the recently developed displacement-replacement sensing motif. In the absence of the target, the capture probe is partially hybridized to the signaling probe at the distal end, positioning the redox label, methylene blue (MB), away from the electrode. In the presence of the target, the MB-modified signaling probe is released; one type of probe is capable of assuming a stem-loop probe (SLP) conformation, whereas the other type adopts a linear probe (LP) conformation. Independent of the sensor architecture, all four sensors showed “signal-on” sensor behavior. Unlike the previous report, here we focused on elucidating the effect of the redox label tether length and flexibility on sensor sensitivity, specificity, selectivity, and reusability. For both SLP and LP sensors, the limit of detection was 10 pM for sensors fabricated using a signaling probe with three extra thymine (T3) bases linked to the MB label. A limit of detection of 100 pM was determined for sensors fabricated using a signaling probe with five extra thymine (T5) bases. The linear dynamic range was between 10 pM and 100 nM for the T3 sensors, and between 100 pM and 100 nM for the T5 sensors. When compared to the LP sensors, the SLP sensors showed higher signal enhancement in the presence of the full-complement target. More importantly, the SLP-T5 sensor was found to be highly specific; it is capable of discriminating between the full complement and single-base mismatch targets even when employed in undiluted blood serum. Overall, these results highlight the advantages of using oligo-T(s) as a tunable linker to control flexibility of the tethered redox label, so as to achieve the desired sensor response.     

External optical feedback effects in a frequency locking dual frequency laser

We present a systematic study of external optical feedback effects on the output characteristics of the two orthogonally polarized modes in a frequency locking dual frequency laser. Accompanied by the change of the external cavity length, the length of the resonance cavity is changed very slowly to set the oscillating modes sweeping across the laser gain curve. Comprehensive results are obtained and a strong mode competition is observed. Particularly, when the laser runs in the middle region of the gain curve, which mode can oscillate is determined by the movement direction of the external feedback mirror. Based on the phenomenon, a displacement sensor with directional discrimination is proposed and its capability is also discussed.     

Flexible Probes for Characterizing Surface Topology: From Biology to Technology

In nature, several species use flexible probes to actively explore their environment and acquire important sensory information, such as surface topology, texture, and water or air flow velocity. For example, rats and other rodents have an array of facial vibrissae (or whiskers) with which they gather tactile information about the external world. The complex mechanisms by which mechanical deformations of the probe lead to neuronal activity in the animal’s nervous system are still far from being completely understood. This is due to the intricacy of the deformation mechanics of the flexible sensors, the processes responsible for transforming the deformation to electrical activity, and the subsequent representation of the sensory information by the nervous system. Understanding how these mechanosensory signals are transduced and extracted by the nervous system promises great insight into biological function, and has novel technological applications. To understand the mechanical aspect of sensory transduction, here we monitored the deformation of a rat’s vibrissa as it strikes rigid objects with different topologies (surface features) during locomotion, using high-speed videography. Motivated by our observations, we developed detailed numerical models to study the mechanics of such flexible probes. Our findings elucidate how active sensation with vibrissae might provide sensory information and in addition have direct implications for several technological areas. To put this in perspective, we propose strategies in which flexible probes can be used to characterize surface topology at high speeds, which is a desirable feature in several technological applications such as memory retrieval.     

应用可见/近红外光谱进行黄酒品种的判别

为了实现对黄酒品种的快速判别,采用可见/近红外光谱对不同品种的黄酒获取光谱曲线,然后采用主成分分析方法对光谱数据进行聚类分析,并将其提取的主成分作为BP神经网络的输入值,建立了黄酒品种鉴别模型。该模型将前6个主成分作为神经网络的输入变量,加速了神经网络的学习速度,提高了模型的预测精度。随机选取每个品种的15个黄酒样本,共45个样本组成预测集,剩余的145个黄酒样本组成训练集建立训练模型,并用预测集样本对其进行验证。将品种鉴别的偏差标准定为±0.1,结果表明,只有1个未知样本超出偏差范围,该方法的品种鉴别正确率为97.78％,获得了满意的结果。说明文章提出的方法具有很好的分类和鉴别作用,为黄酒品种的快速鉴别提供了一种新方法。