A Flexible Representation of Quantum Images (FRQI) is proposed to provide a representation for images on quantum computers in the form of a normalized state which captures information about colors and their corresponding positions in the images. A constructive polynomial preparation for the FRQI state from an initial state, an algorithm for quantum image compression (QIC), and processing operations for quantum images are combined to build the whole process for quantum image processing on FRQI. The simulation experiments on FRQI include storing, retrieving of images and a detection of a line in binary images by applying quantum Fourier transform as a processing operation. The compression ratios of QIC between groups of same color positions range from 68.75 to 90.63% on single digit images and 6.67-31.62% on the Lena image. The FRQI provides a foundation not only to express images but also to explore theoretical and practical aspects of image processing on quantum computers.

Adopting a generalization of the DiVincenzo criteria for the physical realization of quantum devices, a standalone component each, is proposed to prepare, manipulate, and measure the various content required to represent and produce movies on quantum computers. The quantum CD encodes, prepares, and initializes the broad content or key frames conveying the movie script. The quantum player uses the simple motion operations to manipulate the contents of the key frames in order to interpolate the missing viewing frames required to effectively depict the shots and scenes of the movie. The movie reader combines the projective measurement technique and the ancilla-driven quantum computation to retrieve the classical movie sequence comprising of both the key and viewing frames for each shot. At appropriate frame transition rates, this sequence creates the impression of continuity in order to depict the various movements and actions in the movie. Two well-thought-out examples demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework. Concatenated, these components together facilitate the proposed framework for quantum movie representation and production, thus, opening the door towards manipulating quantum circuits aimed at applications for information representation and processing.

No abstract

a b s t r a c tThree design strategies for constructing new geometric transformations on quantum images from other transformations are proposed. The strategies focus on the affected areas in the images, the separability, and smoothness of the transformations by exploiting a representation of images on quantum computers extensively. The complexity in terms of the number of basic gates and the depth of the corresponding circuits are analyzed to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. Examples to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed strategies are presented. The strategies provide high level tools to explore and analyze transformations which are necessary to build practical image processing applications on quantum computers.

Both the association between lymphocytic thyroiditis (LT) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), and the prognostic significance of lymphocytic infiltrate in patients with thyroid malignancy, remain controversial. We examine the above relationships by retrospectively reviewing our series of patients treated for differentiated nonmedullary thyroid carcinoma at University of California-San Francisco over a 25-yr period (1970-1995). Of the 631 patients with complete data for analysis, 128 patients (20.3%) showed concomitant histologic evidence of LT and 503 patients (79.7%) had no evidence of LT. Prognostic outcome was assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival plots and analysis of risk factors by Cox's proportional-hazard modeling. The cohort with LT revealed a higher frequency of PTC (97.7% vs. 87.3%) and female patients (85.2% vs. 66.8%), a lower frequency of extrathyroidal invasion (7.8% vs. 23.3%) and nodal metastases (25.8% vs. 43.3%), and absence of distant metastases (0% vs. 4.8%), respectively, compared with those without LT. At initial surgery, a significantly greater proportion of patients with LT belonged to lower pathological tumor-node-metastasis stages, compared with those without LT (stage 1, 86.7% vs. 73%; stage 2, 4.7% vs. 8.3%; stage 3, 8.6% vs. 15.3%; and stage 4, 0% vs. 3.4%). Over a mean +/- SE follow-up period of 11.1 +/- 0.4 yr, patients with LT had significantly lower cancer recurrence rate (6.3% vs. 24.1%; P < 0.0001) and cancer mortality rate (0.8% vs. 8.0%; P = 0.001), respectively, compared with those without LT. In summary, our series showed a relatively common occurrence of LT in patients with PTC, and we believed that lymphocytic infiltration developed mainly in response to the tumor itself. We also found a more favorable course of PTC in the presence of LT; this supports the hypothesis that lymphocytic infiltration represents a form of immune reaction to control tumor growth and proliferation.

No abstract

Number of seeds per silique (NSS) is an important determinant of seed yield potential in Brassicaceae crops, and it is controlled by naturally occurring quantitative trait loci. We previously mapped a major quantitative trait locus, qSS.C9, on the C9 chromosome that controls NSS in Brassica napus. To gain a better understanding of how qSS.C9 controls NSS in B. napus, we isolated this locus through a map-based cloning strategy. qSS.C9 encodes a predicted small protein with 119 amino acids, designated as BnaC9.SMG7b, that shows homology with the Ever ShorterTelomere1 tertratricopeptide repeats and Ever Shorter Telomere central domains of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) SUPPRESSOR WITH MORPHOGENETIC EFFECTS ON GENITALIA7 (SMG7). BnaC9.SMG7b plays a role in regulating the formation of functional female gametophyte, thus determining the formation of functional megaspores and then mature ovules. Natural loss or artificial knockdown of BnaC9. SMG7b significantly reduces the number of functional ovules per silique and thus, results in decreased seed number, indicating that qSS.C9 is a positive regulator of NSS in B. napus. Sequence and function analyses show that BnaC9.SMG7b experiences a subfunctionalization process that causes loss of function in nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, such as in Arabidopsis SMG7. Haplotype analysis in 84 accessions showed that the favorable BnaC9.SMG7b alleles are prevalent in modern B. napus germplasms, suggesting that this locus has been a major selection target of B. napus improvement. Our results represent the first step toward unraveling the molecular mechanism that controls the natural variation of NSS in B. napus.Elite Brassica spp. (majorly Brassica napus) with low erucic and glucosinolate content is the third leading source of both vegetable oil and oil extraction meal worldwide (Rondanini et al., 2012). Yield enhancement has been one of the most important goals of B. napus production and genetic improvement. As a complex quantitative trait, the seed yield of a B. napus plant is comprehensively determined by three components: number of seeds per silique (NSS), number of siliques per plant, and seed weight, all of which are typical quantitative traits (Clarke and Simpson, 1978). Although there is rich variation for each of the three components (Zhang et al., 2012a), it is critical to balance the three traits during the breeding program, because significant negative correlations among them have been extensively observed Zhang et al., 2011). Thus, it is highly desirable to identify the genes responsible for each component and subsequently, understand the genetic mechanisms underlying the natural variations. Toward this goal, a large number of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with these yield components in B. napus has been identified in different mapping populations (Quijada et al.,

RGB multi channel representation is proposed for images on quantum computers (MCQI) that captures information about colors (RGB channels) and their corresponding positions in an image in a normalized quantum state. The proposed representation makes it possible to store the RGB information about an image simultaneously by using 2n+3 qubits for encoding 2n× 2npixel images, whereas pixel-wise processing is necessary in many other quantum image representations, e.g., qubit lattice, grid qubit, and quantum lattice. Simulation of storage and retrieval of MCQI images using human facial images demonstrated that 15 qubits are required for encoding 64 × 64 colored images, and encoded information is retrieved by measurement. Perspectives of designing quantum image operators are also discussed based onMCQI representation, e.g., channel of interest, channel swapping, and restrict version of color transformation.