Efficient quantum algorithms for simulating sparse Hamiltonians

We present an efficient quantum algorithm for simulating the evolution of a sparse Hamiltonian H for a given time t in terms of a procedure for computing the matrix entries of H. In particular, when H acts on n qubits, has at most a constant number of nonzero entries in each row/column, and |H| is bounded by a constant, we may select any positive integer $k$ such that the simulation requires O((\log^*n)t^{1+1/2k}) accesses to matrix entries of H. We show that the temporal scaling cannot be significantly improved beyond this, because sublinear time scaling is not possible.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, substantial revision

Energy consumption in animal production : case farm study

v2012o

More Active Mobility in Everyday Life: Finland Benefits from Reducing Car Use

The Ministry of Transport and Communications’ National Programme for the Promotion of Walking and Cycling aims to increase the combined modal share of walking and cycling from the current 30% to 35–38% by 2030. In order to achieve the target, the current measures are not enough. Without more decisive action, the health, economic, and environmental benefits of increasing walking and cycling will remain a dream. Cities have a long tradition of car-based transport and urban planning. This is reflected in the reduced physical activity and, consequently, the decline in public health and increasing health care costs. While the car-centric lifestyle still prevails, there are weak signals of a shift towards more active, healthy, and sustainable mobility patterns: carlessness is becoming more common in dense and large cities. In the Oulu region, the popularity of cycling is significant compared to other urban areas in Finland. In Helsinki, the conditions for reducing car use have increased. According to the recent national studies measuring school children’s physical activity, children in urban areas are more active than those in rural areas. Behaviour change takes time. To bring about and consolidate change, we need to better understand people’s daily lives as well as create long-term plans across different sectors and levels of government to support active travel. This policy brief is the first in its series from the Healthy Lifestyles to Boost Sustainable Growth (STYLE) project, combining interdisciplinary knowledge on trends in transport and physical activity. Interpreting them through infrastructure and service designs and changing lifestyles, we generate insight on novel business opportunities and intervention models that induce physical activity. This provides innovative pathways towards current national policy targets and promotion of the societal vision. The project is funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland. Read more: www.styletutkimus.fi/e

Guiding and Trapping Electron Spin Waves in Atomic Hydrogen Gas

We present a high magnetic field study of electron spin waves in atomic hydrogen gas compressed to high densities of 10^18 cm^-3 at temperatures ranging from 0.26 to 0.6 K. We observed a variety of spin wave modes caused by the identical spin rotation effect with strong dependence on the spatial profile of the polarizing magnetic field. We demonstrate confinement of these modes in regions of strong magnetic field and manipulate their spatial distribution by changing the position of the field maximum.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Lisää aktiivista liikkumista arkeen: Suomi hyötyy autoilun vähentämisestä

Kaupunkeja on suunniteltu pitkään autojen ehdoilla. Se näkyy ihmisten fyysisen aktiivisuuden vähentymisenä ja siitä seuraavina heikentyneenä kansanterveytenä ja terveydenhuollon kustannuksina. Liikenne- ja viestintäministeriön kävelyn ja pyöräilyn edistämisohjelman tavoitteena on nostaa vuoteen 2030 mennessä kävelyn ja pyöräilyn yhteistä kulkutapaosuutta nykyisestä noin 30 prosentista 35–38 prosenttiin. Nykytoimilla tavoite ei toteudu. Ilman pontevampaa päätöksentekoa kävelyn ja pyöräilyn lisäämisen terveys-, talous- ja ympäristöhyödyt jäävät haaveeksi. Turun yliopiston koordinoima Suomen Akatemian strategisen tutkimuksen hanke ’Liikunnallinen elämäntapa kestävän kasvun aikaansaajana (STYLE)’ on julkaissut päättäjille suunnatun toimenpidesuosituksen toimista, joita tarvitaan kävelyn ja pyöräilyn kulkutapaosuuden nostamiseksi kansallisen strategian mukaisesti. Käyttäytymisen muutos vaatii aikaa. Muutoksen aikaansaamiseksi ja vakiinnuttamiseksi on ymmärrettävä paremmin ihmisten arkea ja luotava pitkäjänteisiä suunnitelmia aktiivisten kulkutapojen tukemiseksi läpi hallinnon sektoreiden ja tasoje

Economic and environmental analysis of energy efficiency measures in agriculture. Case Studies and trade offs.

This report is the result of the collaboration of the partners of the AGREE work-package “Economic and environmental analysis”, which is based on case study analyses of the partners in seven countries of the EU. The case studies show economic and environmental trade-offs in the different regions in the EU, for which each partner is responsible. Nevertheless prior to the reporting of the case studies an intensive discussion on a common methodological approach has been accomplished and applied to the case studies. The case studies show a wide range of different perspectives of energy efficiency in agriculture, but they are all based on the common methodology presented in Chapter 3. In Chapter 4, the case studies are presented, with authors indicated at the beginning of each section. Each section of Chapter 4 ends with a synthesis analysis of the results from the different case studies. Chapter 5 summarizes and concludes the report by highlighting the major findings of the analyses. The report builds upon the “State of the Art in Energy Efficiency in Europe” published separately by the AGREE consortium (Gołaszewski et al. 2012), which shows the status quo of energy use and possible energy efficiency measures in agriculture across different production systems and regions in Europe. This report presents an economic and environmental analysis based on in-depth case studies which show the potential for, and constraints on, energy efficiency measures in agriculture with respect to the specific environments in Europe

Finnish DMP evaluation guidance

This guide gives some general tips for evaluators. It can be used when evaluating DMP by students, peer reviewing or when evaluation is conducted by a data steward. The working group hopes you develop the guidance further in order to meet your specific needs and policies.Ideally data management plan will be read and evaluated together with the research plan. In the DMP context, ‘data’ is understood as a broad term. Data covers all the information and material research results are based on (like codes, software, notes, etc). </p

Glutathione <em>S</em>-transferase P1 (<em>GSTP1</em>) directly influences platinum drug chemosensitivity in ovarian tumour cell lines

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy response in ovarian cancer patients is frequently compromised by drug resistance, possibly due to altered drug metabolism. Platinum drugs are metabolised by glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1), which is abundantly, but variably expressed in ovarian tumours. We have created novel ovarian tumour cell line models to investigate the extent to which differential GSTP1 expression influences chemosensitivity. METHODS: Glutathione S-transferase P1 was stably deleted in A2780 and expression significantly reduced in cisplatin-resistant A2780DPP cells using Mission shRNA constructs, and MTT assays used to compare chemosensitivity to chemotherapy drugs used to treat ovarian cancer. Differentially expressed genes in GSTP1 knockdown cells were identified by Illumina HT-12 expression arrays and qRT–PCR analysis, and altered pathways predicted by MetaCore (GeneGo) analysis. Cell cycle changes were assessed by FACS analysis of PI-labelled cells and invasion and migration compared in quantitative Boyden chamber-based assays. RESULTS: Glutathione S-transferase P1 knockdown selectively influenced cisplatin and carboplatin chemosensitivity (2.3- and 4.83-fold change in IC(50), respectively). Cell cycle progression was unaffected, but cell invasion and migration was significantly reduced. We identified several novel GSTP1 target genes and candidate platinum chemotherapy response biomarkers. CONCLUSIONS: Glutathione S-transferase P1 has an important role in cisplatin and carboplatin metabolism in ovarian cancer cells. Inter-tumour differences in GSTP1 expression may therefore influence response to platinum-based chemotherapy in ovarian cancer patients

Discovery of four recessive developmental disorders using probabilistic genotype and phenotype matching among 4,125 families.

Discovery of most autosomal recessive disease-associated genes has involved analysis of large, often consanguineous multiplex families or small cohorts of unrelated individuals with a well-defined clinical condition. Discovery of new dominant causes of rare, genetically heterogeneous developmental disorders has been revolutionized by exome analysis of large cohorts of phenotypically diverse parent-offspring trios. Here we analyzed 4,125 families with diverse, rare and genetically heterogeneous developmental disorders and identified four new autosomal recessive disorders. These four disorders were identified by integrating Mendelian filtering (selecting probands with rare, biallelic and putatively damaging variants in the same gene) with statistical assessments of (i) the likelihood of sampling the observed genotypes from the general population and (ii) the phenotypic similarity of patients with recessive variants in the same candidate gene. This new paradigm promises to catalyze the discovery of novel recessive disorders, especially those with less consistent or nonspecific clinical presentations and those caused predominantly by compound heterozygous genotypes