Recent Advances on Computational Proteomics

In this work we report the recent progresses that have been achieved by our group in the last half decade on the field of computational proteomics. Specifically, we discuss the application of Molecular Dynamics Simulations and Electronic Structure Calculations in drug design, in the clarification of the structural and dynamic properties of proteins and enzymes and in the understanding of the catalytic and inhibition mechanism of cancer-related enzymes. A set of examples illustrate the concepts and help to introduce the reader into this important and fast moving field.

A Programmer’s Survey of the Quantum Computing Paradigm

Research in quantum computation is looking for the consequences of having information encoding, processing and communication exploit the laws of quantum physics, i.e. the laws which govern the ultimate knowledge that we have, today, of the foreign world of elementary particles, as described by quantum mechanics. This paper starts with a short survey of the principles which underlie quantum computing, and of some of the major breakthroughs brought by the first ten to fifteen years of research in this domain; quantum algorithms and quantum teleportation are very biefly presented. The next sections are devoted to one among the many directions of current research in the quantum computation paradigm, namely quantum programming languages and their semantics. A few other hot topics and open problems in quantum information processing and communication are mentionned in few words in the concluding remarks, the most difficult of them being the physical implementation of a quantum computer. The interested reader will find a list of useful references at the end of the paper.

Photon Localization inside a Waveguide Modeled by Uncertainty Principle

In the present work, an attempt is made to understand electromagnetic field confinement in a subwavelength waveguide structure using concepts of quantum mechanics. Evanescent field in the waveguide is looked as inability of the photon to get confined in the waveguide core and uncertainty of position is assigned to it. The momentum uncertainty is calculated from position uncertainty. Schrödinger wave equation for the photon is written by incorporating position-momentum uncertainty. The equation is solved and field distribution in the waveguide is obtained. The field distribution and power confinement is compared with conventional waveguide theory. They were found in good agreement with each other.