FORECASTING THE GLOBAL BURDEN OF ALZHEIMER\u27S DISEASE

Background: The goal was to forecast the global burden of Alzheimer’s disease and evaluate the potential impact of interventions that delay disease onset or progression. Methods: A stochastic multi-state model was used in conjunction with U.N. worldwide population forecasts and data from epidemiological studies on risks of Alzheimer’s disease. Findings: In 2006 the worldwide prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease was 26.6 million. By 2050, prevalence will quadruple by which time 1 in 85 persons worldwide will be living with the disease. We estimate about 43% of prevalent cases need a high level of care equivalent to that of a nursing home. If interventions could delay both disease onset and progression by a modest 1 year, there would be nearly 9.2 million fewer cases of disease in 2050 with nearly all the decline attributable to decreases in persons needing high level of care. Interpretation: We face a looming global epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease as the world’s population ages. Modest advances in therapeutic and preventive strategies that lead to even small delays in Alzheimer’s onset and progression can significantly reduce the global burden of the disease

On the completeness of quantum computation models

The notion of computability is stable (i.e. independent of the choice of an indexing) over infinite-dimensional vector spaces provided they have a finite "tensorial dimension". Such vector spaces with a finite tensorial dimension permit to define an absolute notion of completeness for quantum computation models and give a precise meaning to the Church-Turing thesis in the framework of quantum theory. (Extra keywords: quantum programming languages, denotational semantics, universality.)Comment: 15 pages, LaTe

The Impact of Alzheimer's Disease on the Chinese Economy.

BACKGROUND: Recent increases in life expectancy may greatly expand future Alzheimer's Disease (AD) burdens. China's demographic profile, aging workforce and predicted increasing burden of AD-related care make its economy vulnerable to AD impacts. Previous economic estimates of AD predominantly focus on health system burdens and omit wider whole-economy effects, potentially underestimating the full economic benefit of effective treatment. METHODS: AD-related prevalence, morbidity and mortality for 2011-2050 were simulated and were, together with associated caregiver time and costs, imposed on a dynamic Computable General Equilibrium model of the Chinese economy. Both economic and non-economic outcomes were analyzed. FINDINGS: Simulated Chinese AD prevalence quadrupled during 2011-50 from 6-28 million. The cumulative discounted value of eliminating AD equates to China's 2012 GDP (US$8 trillion), and the annual predicted real value approaches US AD cost-of-illness (COI) estimates, exceeding US$1 trillion by 2050 (2011-prices). Lost labor contributes 62% of macroeconomic impacts. Only 10% derives from informal care, challenging previous COI-estimates of 56%. INTERPRETATION: Health and macroeconomic models predict an unfolding 2011-2050 Chinese AD epidemic with serious macroeconomic consequences. Significant investment in research and development (medical and non-medical) is warranted and international researchers and national authorities should therefore target development of effective AD treatment and prevention strategies

Call-by-value non-determinism in a linear logic type discipline

We consider the call-by-value lambda-calculus extended with a may-convergent non-deterministic choice and a must-convergent parallel composition. Inspired by recent works on the relational semantics of linear logic and non-idempotent intersection types, we endow this calculus with a type system based on the so-called Girard's second translation of intuitionistic logic into linear logic. We prove that a term is typable if and only if it is converging, and that its typing tree carries enough information to give a bound on the length of its lazy call-by-value reduction. Moreover, when the typing tree is minimal, such a bound becomes the exact length of the reduction

Impurity and quaternions in nonrelativistic scattering from a quantum memory

Models of quantum computing rely on transformations of the states of a quantum memory. We study mathematical aspects of a model proposed by Wu in which the memory state is changed via the scattering of incoming particles. This operation causes the memory content to deviate from a pure state, i.e. induces impurity. For nonrelativistic particles scattered from a two-state memory and sufficiently general interaction potentials in 1+1 dimensions, we express impurity in terms of quaternionic commutators. In this context, pure memory states correspond to null hyperbolic quaternions. In the case with point interactions, the scattering process amounts to appropriate rotations of quaternions in the frequency domain. Our work complements a previous analysis by Margetis and Myers (2006 J. Phys. A 39 11567--11581).Comment: 16 pages, no figure

Composable security of delegated quantum computation

Delegating difficult computations to remote large computation facilities, with appropriate security guarantees, is a possible solution for the ever-growing needs of personal computing power. For delegated computation protocols to be usable in a larger context---or simply to securely run two protocols in parallel---the security definitions need to be composable. Here, we define composable security for delegated quantum computation. We distinguish between protocols which provide only blindness---the computation is hidden from the server---and those that are also verifiable---the client can check that it has received the correct result. We show that the composable security definition capturing both these notions can be reduced to a combination of several distinct "trace-distance-type" criteria---which are, individually, non-composable security definitions. Additionally, we study the security of some known delegated quantum computation protocols, including Broadbent, Fitzsimons and Kashefi's Universal Blind Quantum Computation protocol. Even though these protocols were originally proposed with insufficient security criteria, they turn out to still be secure given the stronger composable definitions.Comment: 37+9 pages, 13 figures. v3: minor changes, new references. v2: extended the reduction between composable and local security to include entangled inputs, substantially rewritten the introduction to the Abstract Cryptography (AC) framewor

A novel role for the root cap in phosphate uptake and homeostasis

The root cap has a fundamental role in sensing environmental cues as well as regulating root growth via altered meristem activity. Despite this well-established role in the control of developmental processes in roots, the root cap's function in nutrition remains obscure. Here, we uncover its role in phosphate nutrition by targeted cellular inactivation or phosphate transport complementation in Arabidopsis, using a transactivation strategy with an innovative high-resolution real-time P-33 imaging technique. Remarkably, the diminutive size of the root cap cells at the root-to-soil exchange surface accounts for a significant amount of the total seedling phosphate uptake (approximately 20%). This level of Pi absorption is sufficient for shoot biomass production (up to a 180% gain in soil), as well as repression of Pi starvation-induced genes. These results extend our understanding of this important tissue from its previously described roles in environmental perception to novel functions in mineral nutrition and homeostasis control

Geographical interdependence, international trade and economic dynamics: the Chinese and German solar energy industries

The trajectories of the German and Chinese photovoltaic industries differ significantly yet are strongly interdependent. Germany has seen a rapid growth in market demand and a strong increase in production, especially in the less developed eastern half of the country. Chinese growth has been export driven. These contrasting trajectories reflect the roles of market creation, investment and credit and the drivers of innovation and competitiveness. Consequent differences in competiveness have generated major trade disputes