Experimental realization of quantum cheque using a five-qubit quantum computer

Quantum cheques could be a forgery-free way to make transaction in a quantum networked banking system with perfect security against any no-signalling adversary. Here, we demonstrate the implementation of quantum cheque, proposed by Moulick and Panigrahi (Quantum Inf Process 15:2475–2486, 2016), using the five-qubit IBM quantum computer. Appropriate single qubit, CNOT and Fredkin gates are used in an optimized configuration. The accuracy of implementation is checked and verified through quantum state tomography by comparing results from the theoretical and experimental density matrices.     

An Integrated Approach to Designing and Evaluating Collaborative Applications and Infrastructures

Collaborative systems include both general infrastructures and specific applications for supporting collaboration. Because of the relative newness and complexity of these systems, it has been unclear what approach should be used to design and evaluate them. Based on the lessons learned from our work and that of others on collaborative systems, we have derived an integrated approach to researching collaborative applications and infrastructures. The approach can be described as a sequence of steps: We decompose the functionality of collaboration systems into smaller functions that can be researched more-or-less independently. For each of these functions, we adopt general (system-independent) principles regarding the design and implementation of the function, identify collaboration scenarios at multiple levels of abstraction, identify requirements based on the scenarios, adopt an interaction model to meet the requirements, realize the interaction model as a concrete user interface, develop a logical architecture of the system, identify a physical architecture for placing the logical components in a distributed system, develop infrastructure abstractions, use the abstractions to implement applications, and perform lab studies, field experiments, and simulations to evaluate the infrastructure and applications. As in other models with multiple phases, feedback from subsequent phases is used to modify the results from the previous phases. In this paper, we describe, illustrate and motivate this research plan.     

A flexible edge matching technique for object detection in dynamic environment

Considering the robustness, stability and reduced volume of data, researchers have focused on using edge information in various video processing applications including moving object detection, tracking and target recognition. Though the edge information is more robust compared to intensity, it also exhibits variations in different frames due to illumination change and noise. In addition to this, the amount of variation varies from edge to edge. Thus, without making use of this variability information, it is difficult to obtain an optimal performance during edge matching. However, traditional edge pixel-based methods do not keep structural information of edges and thus they are not suitable to extract and hold this variability information. To achieve this, we represent edges as segments that make use of the structural and relational information of edges to allow extraction of this variability information. During edge matching, existing algorithms do not handle the size, positional and rotational variations to deal with edges of arbitrary shapes. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-based flexible edge matching algorithm where knowledge is obtained from the statistics on the environmental dynamics, and flexibility is to deal with the arbitrary shape and the geometric variations of edges by making use of this knowledge. In this paper, we detailed the effectiveness of the proposed matching algorithm in moving object detection and also indicated its suitability in other applications like target detection and tracking.     

Tracking biological cells in time-lapse microscopy: an adaptive technique combining motion and topological features

This paper presents a vision-based method for automatic tracking of biological cells in time-lapse microscopy by combining the motion features with the topological features of the cells. The automation of tracking frequently faces problems of segmentation error and of finding correct cell correspondence in consecutive frames, since the cells are of varying size and shape, and may have uneven movement; these problems become more acute when the cell population is very high. To reduce the segmentation error, we introduce a cell-detection method based on h-maxima transformation, followed by the fitting of an ellipse for the nucleus shape. To find the correct correspondence between the detected cells, the topological features, namely, color compatibility, area overlap and deformation are combined with the motion features of skewness and displacement. This reduces the ambiguity of matching and constructs accurately the trajectories of the cell proliferation. Finally, a template-matching-based backward tracking procedure is employed to recover any break in a cell trajectory that may occur due to the segmentation errors or the presence of a mitosis. The tracking procedure is tested using a number of different cell sequences with nonuniform illumination, or uneven cell motion, and is shown to provide high accuracy both in the detection and the tracking of the cells.     

Speed Control of DC Motor with MRPID Controller in the Presence of Noise

Speed control of a DC motor has always been a challenge because of its variable torque. But it becomes more challenging when noise enters the system at its input. Therefore, there is a need of more advanced controllers. In this paper, a multi-resolution proportional integral derivative (MRPID) controller has been proposed to be utilized to control the speed of a DC motor. It works well even in the presence of noise as compared to the conventional PID controller. Also, performance of a PID controller deteriorates when nonlinearity or uncertainty arises in the system. This degraded performance can be improved by utilizing the multi-resolution property of wavelets, which decomposes the error signal into various frequency components. Further, wavelet coefficients of these decompositions are used to generate the control signal for controlling speed of a DC motor. In this paper, performances of a MRPID, a fractional order PID (FOPID) and a conventional PID controllers are compared in the presence of noise for speed control of a DC motor. The results obtained using a MRPID controller are observed to be better in terms of improved transient characteristics and disturbance rejection for a DC motor as compared to those obtained with PID and FOPID controllers.

     

In Vivo Behavior of Ultrasmall Spherical Nucleic Acids

The biological properties of spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) are largely independent of nanoparticle core identity but significantly affected by oligonucleotide surface density. Additionally, the payload-to-carrier (i.e., DNA-to-nanoparticle) mass ratio of SNAs is inversely proportional to core size. While SNAs with many core types and sizes have been developed, all in vivo analyses of SNA behavior have been limited to cores >10 nm in diameter. However, “ultrasmall” nanoparticle constructs (<10 nm diameter) can exhibit increased payload-to-carrier ratios, reduced liver accumulation, renal clearance, and enhanced tumor infiltration. Therefore, we hypothesized that SNAs with ultrasmall cores exhibit SNA-like properties, but with in vivo behavior akin to traditional ultrasmall nanoparticles. To investigate, we compared the behavior of SNAs with 1.4-nm Au₁₀₂ nanocluster cores (AuNC-SNAs) and SNAs with 10-nm gold nanoparticle cores (AuNP-SNAs). Significantly, AuNC-SNAs possess SNA-like properties (e.g., high cellular uptake, low cytotoxicity) but show distinct in vivo behavior. When intravenously injected in mice, AuNC-SNAs display prolonged blood circulation, lower liver accumulation, and higher tumor accumulation than AuNP-SNAs. Thus, SNA-like properties persist at the sub-10-nm length scale and oligonucleotide arrangement and surface density are responsible for the biological properties of SNAs. This work has implications for the design of new nanocarriers for therapeutic applications.     

Optimum Filter Design for a Single-Phase Solid-State UPS System

A systematic design procedure for the output filter of a singlephase uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system is developed. The basic specifications for the UPS system are first established. Four different output filter configurations are then analyzed and compared for sinusoidal pulsewidth and single-pulse modulated inverter output (i.e., filter input) voltage. On the basis of the above comparison, ``optimum' filters are selected for both modulation techniques. Using a minimization function for filter cost and size, a set of filter design parameters corresponding to each type of modulation are obtained on the per unit basis. The theoretical results are verified on an experimental breadboard utilizing a current commutated thyristor inverter. Finally, the overall filter design procedure is outlined and a design example is presented.     

Viscous flow past a porous sphere with an impermeable core : effect of stress jump condition

An arbitrary flow of a viscous, incompressible fluid past a porous sphere of radius `a' with an impermeable core of radius `b', using Brinkman's equation in the porous region is discussed. At the interface of the clear fluid and porous region, stress jump boundary condition for the tangential stresses along with the continuity of normal stresses and the velocity components are used. On the surface of the impermeable core no slip condition is used. The corresponding Faxen's laws are derived to compute the drag and torque acting on the surface r=a. It is found that the drag and torque not only change with the change of the permeability, but also a significant effect of the stress jump co-efficient is observed. The variation of drag and torque with permeability for different thickness (a-b) of the porous region as well as for different values of stress jump coefficient is discussed when the basic flow is due to uniform flow, two dimensional irrotational flow, doublet in a uniform flow, stokeslet, rotlet. In case of uniform flow the flow field has been plotted. In all the cases, a significant effect of the stress jump coefficient has been realized.     

A generalized approach for the steady-state analysis of resonantinverters

A generalized approach is presented for the steady-state analysis of resonant inverters which leads to the selection of an optimum scheme for a particular application. Six load-commutation schemes are combined into a single commutation scheme, referred to as a generalized load-commutation circuit, and the steady-state analysis for the circuit with RL load is presented using a Fourier series approach in the continuous-current mode. The equations for different load-commutation circuits are obtained as the particular cases of the generalized configuration. This type of unified approach simplifies the method of analysis for different commutation schemes and eliminates the need for the separate analysis of different schemes. Also, in a computer program, the results for a particular configuration can be obtained simply by opening or shorting the nonrequired commutating components of the generalized scheme. The method of analysis is used to select resonant inverter schemes with resistive load, based on certain constraints. Experimental results are presented for the selected schemes to support the theory