Adaptive weight estimator for quantum error correction

Quantum error correction of a surface code or repetition code requires the pairwise matching of error events in a space-time graph of qubit measurements, such that the total weight of the matching is minimized. The input weights follow from a physical model of the error processes that affect the qubits. This approach becomes problematic if the system has sources of error that change over time. Here we show how the weights can be determined from the measured data in the absence of an error model. The resulting adaptive decoder performs well in a time-dependent environment, provided that the characteristic time scale $\tau_{\mathrm{env}}$ of the variations is greater than $\delta t/\bar{p}$, with $\delta t$ the duration of one error-correction cycle and $\bar{p}$ the typical error probability per qubit in one cycle.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Supersensitive PSA-Monitored neoadjuvant hormone treatment of clinically localized prostate cancer: Effects on positive margins, tumor detection and epithelial cells in bone marrow

Objective: The present study was done to investigate the effects of supersensitive PSA-controlled inductive treatment on positive margins, detection of tumor and epithelial cells in bone marrow of 101 patients with untreated and clinically localized prostatic carcinoma (cT1-3N0M0). Methods: Hormonal treatment was given until PSA (DPD Immulite(R) third-generation assay) reached 0.3 ng/ml in only 1 case. Of the 101 patients, 82 had a measurable hypoic lesion on initial transrectal ultrasound. 84% of these became smaller, 7.5% remained unchanged and 8.5% increased. Of the 101 prostatectomy specimens, 20 (20%) were margin-positive. The incidence of affected margins was relatively high (35% from 55 patients) with cT3 tumors, but almost negligible (2% from 46 patients) in cT1-2 tumor. Our pathologists, despite their great experience in evaluating hormonally treated prostates (>500 cases) and using immunohistochemical staining, were unable to detect carcinoma in 15 (15%) specimens. Whereas only 2 (4%) of the 55 cT3 specimens were without detectable tumor, this incidence rised to 28% (13 of 46 prostates) in patients with cT1-2 tumors. Of the initial 29 patients with epithelial cells in bone marrow, only 4 (14%) remained positive after controlled induction and all of them had fewer cells than before. Conclusion: Endocrine induction controlled by a supersensitive PSA assay and continued until reaching PSA nadir is highly effective in clearing surgical margins and eliminating tumor cells from bone marrow. It seems to be clearly superior to the conventional 3 months of pretreatment at least in cT1-2 tumors in respect to surgical margins and detectability of tumor in the resected prostate. A definitive statement about the value of endocrine induction can only be given by prospective randomized studies, with optimal drugs, doses and treatment time. But the conventional 3 months of pretreatment are far from exploiting the possibilities of this therapeutic option

Cyclotrons as Drivers for Precision Neutrino Measurements

As we enter the age of precision measurement in neutrino physics, improved flux sources are required. These must have a well-defined flavor content with energies in ranges where backgrounds are low and cross section knowledge is high. Very few sources of neutrinos can meet these requirements. However, pion/muon and isotope decay-at-rest sources qualify. The ideal drivers for decay-at-rest sources are cyclotron accelerators, which are compact and relatively inexpensive. This paper describes a scheme to produce decay-at-rest sources driven by such cyclotrons, developed within the DAEdALUS program. Examples of the value of the high precision beams for pursuing Beyond Standard Model interactions are reviewed. New results on a combined DAEdALUS--Hyper-K search for CP-violation that achieve errors on the mixing matrix parameter of 4 degrees to 12 degrees are presented.Comment: This paper was invited by the journal Advances in High Energy Physics for their upcoming special issue on "Neutrino Masses and Oscillations," which will be published on the 100th anniversary of Pontecorvo's birt

Luther\u27s Concept of the Atonement Before 1517

Recent years have seen a delightfully refreshing interest in Luther\u27s writings. One might almost speak of a Luther renaissance. Luther scholarship in Sweden immediately comes to one\u27s mind. But other countries as well have made their contributions, and other religious groups besides the Lutheran. We may think of such men as Werner Elert and Erich Seeberg in Germany, Philip S. Warson in England, and Roland H. Bainton in America. This number could easily be multiplied

Roman Catholic Child Welfare in the United States

Roman Catholic child welfare is concerned with the dependent child, including the delinquent child, which for one reason or another has gone wrong. Roman Catholic social workers recognize the change that has taken place from the days when education was the distinctive function of the home-first, on the mother\u27s knee, and then beside the father in the fields to the present time, when this function has largely been institutionalized and schools for the most part exercise this responsibility

Book Review. - Literatur

Book Review. - Literatu

The Schism of the Eastern and the Western Churches

For a thousand years the church was regarded as a unit in spite of various sects and occasional violent disagreements among prominent churchmen. Nine hundred years ago it broke into a Greek and a Roman segment. Repeated efforts have been made to heal the breach, but only with passing success. It took a millennium to effect the schism; there is at present no indication that the two segments will ever reunite. The year 1054 has been accepted as the date of the schism. This date, however, merely serves the convenience of the historian. It is a handy road marker along the path of history. Actually the break between the East and the West had taken place in the hearts of many long before the dramatic incident of that year, when, on July 13, Cardinal Humbert desecrated the altar of the Hagia Sophia with his blasphemous pronouncement of the Patriarch\u27s excommunication

Book Review. - Literatur

Book Review. - Literatu

A Basic History of Lutheranism in America

Abdel Ross Wentz, the author of this book, may be regarded as the dean of historians of the Lutheran Church in America. Among the significant contributions to the history of Lutheranism in this country is his Lutheran Church in America History, the precursor of the present volume. His History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Maryland and The Beginnings of the German Element in York County, Pennsylvania, have set a pattern for other historians, demonstrating the kind of work that must be done elsewhere before a final and comprehensive history of Lutheranism can be written. The same may be said for his interesting History of the Gettysburg Theological Seminary, parts of which every Lutheran school boy should know