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    A Speed Limit also applies in the Quantum world

    February 22, 2021, Categories  Physics

    A speed limit also applies in the quantum world
    First author Manolo Rivera Lam (left) and principal investigator Dr. Andrea Alberti (right) at the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Bonn. Credit: © Volker Lannert/Uni Bonn

    Even in the world of the smallest particles with their own special rules, things cannot proceed infinitely fast. Physicists at the University of Bonn have now shown what the speed limit is for complex quantum operations. The study also involved scientists from MIT, the universities of Hamburg, Cologne and Padua, and the Jülich Research Center. The results are important for the realization of quantum computers, among other things. They are published in the prestigious journal Physical Review X, and covered by the Physics Magazine of the American Physical Society.

    Suppose you observe a waiter (the...

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    A System that Automatically Generates Comic Books from Movies and other Videos

    February 20, 2021, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    A system that automatically generates comic books from movies and other videos
    The overall pipeline of the researchers’ system. (a): Keyframe Extraction and Stylization. (b): Automatic Multi-Page Layout Framework, red, purple and green dotted boxes mean different groups. (c): Balloon Generation and Placement. In step (a), we perform keyframe selection and stylization to get the stylized keyframes of the input video frames. In step (b), we first obtain four layout parameters of the frames including region of interest, importance rank, semantic relation, and allocate the frames across different pages. Then, we perform the layout algorithm in [2] for multi-page layout. In step (c), we designed an emotion-aware model for balloon generation and placement. Credit: Yang et al.

    Over the past few years, computer scientists have created numerous computational techniques ...

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    This Robot Doesn’t Need any Electronics

    February 19, 2021, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Image
    The robot’s walking process is driven by a series of valves. 

    Walking quadruped is controlled and powered by Pressurized Air. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have created a four-legged soft robot that doesn’t need any electronics to work. The robot only needs a constant source of pressurized air for all its functions, including its controls and locomotion systems.

    The team, led by Michael T. Tolley, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, details its findings in the Feb. 17, 2021 issue of the journal Science Robotics.

    “This work represents a fundamental yet significant step towards fully-autonomous, electronicsfree walking robots,” said Dylan Drotman, a Ph.D...

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    New hope for Treating Chronic Pain Without Opioids

    February 17, 2021, Categories  Physics, Biology/Biotechnology

    According to some estimates, chronic pain affects up to 40% of Americans, and treating it frustrates both clinicians and patients — a frustration that’s often compounded by a hesitation to prescribe opioids for pain.

    A new study from the University of Michigan School of Dentistry confirms that a low dose of a drug called naltrexone is a good option for patients with orofacial and chronic pain, without the risk of addiction, said first author Elizabeth Hatfield, a clinical lecturer in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Hospital Dentistry.

    Naltrexone is a semisynthetic opioid first developed in 1963 as an oral alternative to naloxone, the nasal spray used to reverse opioid drug overdoses. When prescribed at doses of 50 to 100 milligrams, naltrexone
    blocks the effe...

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