Families of pure PEPS with efficiently simulatable local hidden variable models for most measurements

An important problem in quantum information theory is to understand what makes entangled quantum systems non-local or hard to simulate efficiently. In this work we consider situations in which various parties have access to a restricted set of measurements on their particles, and construct entangled quantum states that are essentially classical for those measurements. In particular, given any set of local measurements on a large enough Hilbert space whose dual strictly contains (i.e. contains an open neighborhood of) a pure state, we use the PEPS formalism and ideas from generalized probabilistic theories to construct pure multiparty entangled states that have (a) local hidden variable models, and (b) can be efficiently simulated classically. We believe that the examples we construct cannot be efficiently classically simulated using previous techniques. Without the restriction on the measurements, the states that we construct are non-local, and in some proof-of-principle cases are universal for measurement based quantum computation.This work was supported by EPSRC grant EP/K022512/1.This work was supported by EPSRC grant EP/K022512/1

Quantum steering ellipsoids, extremal physical states and monogamy

A Corrigendum for this article has been published in 2015 New J. Phys. 17 019501Any two-qubit state can be faithfully represented by a steering ellipsoid inside the Bloch sphere, but not every ellipsoid inside the Bloch sphere corresponds to a two-qubit state. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for when the geometric data describe a physical state and investigate maximal volume ellipsoids lying on the physical-unphysical boundary. We derive monogamy relations for steering that are strictly stronger than the Coffman-Kundu- Wootters (CKW) inequality for monogamy of concurrence. The CKW result is thus found to follow from the simple perspective of steering ellipsoid geometry. Remarkably, we can also use steering ellipsoids to derive non-trivial results in classical Euclidean geometry, extending Eulers inequality for the circumradius and inradius of a triangle.The EPSRC and the ARC Centre of Excellence grant no. CE110001027. DJ is funded by the Royal Society. TR would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust. SJ acknowledges EPSRC grant EP/ K022512/1

Workshop: Urban Green Spaces, Built Environment and Urban - Mental - Environmental Health outcomes

Environmental sustainability, especially in an era of growth health inequality, is one of the most important challenges facing Public Health systems around the World. Environmental sustainability is responsibly interacting with the planet to maintain natural resources and not jeopardize the ability for future generations to meet their needs. The SDGs put environmental sustainability at the center of sustainable development. Environmental Health is the branch of Public Health concerning all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. It is targeted towards preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially affect health, such as pollution, poverty and inadequate energy solutions. Urban Health is an intersectoral arena that links both the public health and the urban planning sectors, mainly captured by SDG3 (including Mental health) and SDG11. Both during the first waves of the Covid-19 pandemic period and in contemporary cities, urban environments were stressed; the resilience of our cities were tested, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the urban contexts, not always capable to pro-mote and protect the population health status. Urban Green Spaces (UGS) have proved essential role as ‘‘tools’’ to improve Urban Public and Mental Health. Unfortunately, the heterogeneous distribution of UGS inside the contemporary cities, together with the disparity in quality of such spaces, led to some exclusion phenomena. Evidence/experience-based research strongly demonstrated the positive effects on Public Health of the UGS, and for this reason, they are now becoming the strategic and challenging issue of many urban regeneration programs. The importance of UGS as a key infrastructure has generated the necessity of developing new health-centered design criteria able to conform to their new role in urban environments. The augmentation of UGS surface alone, does not necessarily make cities more livable. An increase in area and surfaces does not translate in ease of accessibility from all social groups or from all the cities’ neighborhoods, or not does it give data on the qualities of such areas, like potential for social engagement or Physical Activity. Aim of the Workshop - organized by the three EUPHA Section URB+MEN+ENV - it would like to be to build the capacity and knowledge between participants about the main topics and urban features capable to have relevant Urban Public, Mental and Environmental Health outcomes. Additional scope is to collected case studies and research experiences considered virtuous at the international level, analyzed in detail to highlight the main urban and architectural features of those healthy experiences and the related health outcomes, such as sedentary lifestyle reduction, increase of the attractiveness of places, reduction of air and noise pollution

Workshop: The city of proximity: Accessible, Inclusive, Sustainable, Healthy and Salutogenic

According to the ‘‘Urban Health Rome Declaration’’ at European meeting ‘‘G7 Health’’ that defines the strategic aspects and actions to improve Urban, Environmental and Public Mental Health into the cities, and referring to the Agenda 2030 in which the 11th SDG argue about ‘‘Sustainable Cities and Communities. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’’, one of the most expressive syntheses of the challenging relationship between urban planning and Public Health is stated by WHO (2016): ‘‘Health is the precondition of urban sustainable development and the first priority for urban planners’’. Referring to the Healthy Cities & Urban Health definitions, we can consider Public Health not merely an aspect of individual health protection and promotion, but a collective condition, strongly influenced by the environmental context and by the strategies implemented by local Governments. The ‘‘Health in All Policies’’ strategy, clearly underlines how health depend by the quality of outdoor and indoor living environments. In this scenario, healthy living and the requirements for healthy places, infrastructure for the public good and Public Health, cycling, walking, disintegrating the role of polluting traffic from the urban environments, social vulnerability and equality are just a few aspects in complex puzzle when designing the urban spaces for healthy, active, walkable cities. The lockdown due to the pandemic has prevented travels, forcing many people to work at home and reducing the possibility of accessing services in the territory. This condition has further highlighted the importance of urban living areas capable of satisfying basic needs within a reasonably easy range of accessibility. The concept of the ‘‘15 minutes city’’ is a useful vision to represent the city of proximity, where it is possible to meet the needs for sustainable, fair, quality, and healthy living. This dimension of proximity can be central to formulating strategies to improve the quality of urban life. A place of proximity, therefore not only defined based on the physical characteristics and people’s uses, but also based on the data collected from a public health perspective in which it is also possible to try to test different types of information and build the conditions to suggest suitable policies and projects. Aim of the Workshop - organized by the two EUPHA Section URB+ENV - it would like to be to build the capacity and knowledge between participants about the main topics and urban features capable to have relevant Urban Public and Environmental Health outcomes. Additional scope is to collected case studies and research experiences considered virtuous at the international level, analyzed in detail to highlight the main urban and architectural features of those healthy experiences and the related health outcomes, such as sedentary lifestyle reduction, increase of the attractiveness of places, reduction of air and noise pollution

Vrste plesni na kukuruznom klipu uskladištenom u koševima na teritoriji opština Vrnjačka Banja i Kruševac

Corn cob owned by individual producers is stored on multiple ways: in barns, attics, sheds etc. If corn cob is not dried properly when stord in barns, it represents ideal foundation for field and storage molds.For our examinations we used corn from 20 barns originating from ten plain and mountain villages in Vrnjacka Banja municipality. Mold isolation was performed on saburo ager on temperature of 27oC. Most commonly isolated sorts of mold were: Penicillium sp., Aspergillus ustus, Alternaria tenuis, Yeast, Mucor mucedo, Fusarium roseum, Aspergillus candidus, Trichoderma viride and Aspergillus flavus. Our results show that dominant role was frequently represented by field molds – Alternaria and Fusarium, most common of storage molds were molds from the genus Aspergillus and Penicillium, and most common progressive decay molds were Mucor and Rhisopos. Infection of grain was by rule 100% with rare exeptions.Kukuruzni klip u vlasništvu individualnih proizvođača skladišti se na više načina: u koševima, tavanima, šupama i dr. Ukoliko se kukuruzni klip, nedovoljno osušen, skladišti u koševe on predstavlja idealnu podlogu za razvoj poljskih i skladišnih plesni. Za ispitivanja smo koristili kukuruz iz 20 koševa koji su poreklom iz 10 sela ravničarskog i planinskog predela sa područja opštine Vrnjačka Banja. Izolaciju plesni vršili smo na Saburo agaru na temperaturi od 27°C. Najčešće su izolovane sledeće vrste plesni: Penicillium sp., Aspergillus ustus, Alternaria tenuis, Kvasnice, Mucor mucedo, Fusarium roseum, Aspergillus candidus, Trichoderma viride i Aspergillus flavus. Naši rezultati pokazuju da su dominantnu ulogu u frekvenciji predstavljale plesni s polja- Alternaria i Fusarium, od plesni uskladištenja najučestalije su bile plesni iz roda Aspergillus i Penicillium, a od plesni uznapredovanog kvarenja Mucor i Rhisopus. Infekcija zrna je bila po pravilu 100% sa retkim odstupanjima

Maximally and minimally correlated states attainable within a closed evolving system

The amount of correlation attainable between the components of a quantum system is constrained if the system is closed. We provide some examples, largely from the field of quantum thermodynamics, where knowing the maximal possible variation in correlations is useful. The optimization problem it raises requires us to search for the maximally and minimally correlated states on a unitary orbit, with and without energy conservation. This is fully solvable for the smallest system of two qubits. For larger systems the problem is reduced to a manageable, classical optimization.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Роль фактора некроза опухоли-альфа в прогнозировании тяжести и исхода сепсиса у пациентов неотложного отделения с системным воспалением

Aim of the study was to determine whether the TNF-a levels, proximal inflammatory mediator, in septic patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) and admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) are associated with progression to severe sepsis, septic shock or death. Material and methods. A retrospective observational study was performed on a sample of one hundred adult subjects presenting to the ED with systemic inflammatory response syndrome of 2 etiologies: presumed (and later confirmed in the ICU and/or operating room) severe acute pancreatitis or generalized peritonitis. Blood TNF-a samples measurements were taken shortly after ED admission. TNF-a was measured by commercial ELISA test in plasma. Results. Mean values of TNF-a on admission (day zero, in ED) were 191,5-fold lower in group with septic shock compared to severe sepsis group and were 63-fold higher in survivors (p<0.01). The area under the curve (AUC) for the TNF-a plots for severity of clinical status was 0.813 and for outcome 0.834. Patients with TNF-a levels lower than 7.95 pg/mL had a 3.2-fold higher probability of septic shock development than those with higher values, at the cutoff level sensitivity was 83,9% and specificity 72,5%. Patients with TNF-a levels higher than 10.5 pg/mL had a 4.8-fold higher probability to survive than those with lower values, at the cutoff level sensitivity was 83,0% and specificity 77,4%. Conclusion: Decreasing in TNF-a concentration leads to the septic shock development and fatal outcome. TNF-a is very good predictor of sepsis severity and outcome. Key words: sepsis, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, emergency medical services, survival rate, severity of illness index.Цель исследования — определить, связаны ли уровни ФНО-a, ключевого медиатора воспаления, у пациентов с сепсисом, поступающих в отделение неотложной помощи и переводящихся в отделение реанимации, с прогрессированием его до тяжелого сепсиса, септического шока и смерти. Материал и методы. Ретроспективное обсервационное исследование было выполнено на выборке в 100 взрослых человек, поступивших в неотложное отделение с признаками системного воспаления двух возможных этиологий: тяжелый острый панкреатит (предполагаемый, а затем подтвержденный в отделении реанимации и/или операционной) или общий перитонит. Производили измерения ФНО-a в крови сразу после поступления. ФНО-a измеряли коммерчески доступным ELISA-методом в плазме крови. Результаты. Средние уровни ФНО-a при поступлении (день 0, в неотложном отделении) были в 191,5 раз ниже в группе с септическим шоком по сравнению с группой тяжелого сепсиса и в 63 раза выше у выживших (

A Photo-catalytic Process for Hydrogen Production: Selecting New Semiconductors as Co-Catalysts

Hydrogen is the ideal fuel for the future because it is clean, energy efficient, and abundant in nature. Solar photocatalytic water splitting is environmentally friendly technology with great potential for low-cost and clean hydrogen production; the simultaneous production of hydrogen with degradation of organic contaminants in water is a potential successful technology for harvesting clean energy from wastewater and help to recycle water. TiO2 has been a widely-used catalyst for photocatalytic water splitting because it is stable, non-corrosive, cost-effective and most important, its energy levels are appropriate to initiate the water-splitting reaction. Despite the many advantages of TiO2, its efficiency in the partial mineralization of the organic compounds to produce molecular hydrogen from the wastewater is still quite low. Many recent studies were focused on identifying alternate options such as the use of dopants for TiO2 in order to make solar photocatalytic water splitting with TiO2 more efficient and also enhance its visible-light response. This project is at the initial stages and we will present a literature review in order to summarize the state-of-the-art efforts for promotion of the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 via doping with different cations and ions. Its purpose is to identify (and test) suitable co-catalyst agents (i.e. semiconductors) to be doped into TiO2 for the simultaneous production of hydrogen with contaminant degradation in water solutions

A measure of majorisation emerging from single-shot statistical mechanics

The use of the von Neumann entropy in formulating the laws of thermodynamics has recently been challenged. It is associated with the average work whereas the work guaranteed to be extracted in any single run of an experiment is the more interesting quantity in general. We show that an expression that quantifies majorisation determines the optimal guaranteed work. We argue it should therefore be the central quantity of statistical mechanics, rather than the von Neumann entropy. In the limit of many identical and independent subsystems (asymptotic i.i.d) the von Neumann entropy expressions are recovered but in the non-equilbrium regime the optimal guaranteed work can be radically different to the optimal average. Moreover our measure of majorisation governs which evolutions can be realized via thermal interactions, whereas the nondecrease of the von Neumann entropy is not sufficiently restrictive. Our results are inspired by single-shot information theory.Comment: 54 pages (15+39), 9 figures. Changed title / changed presentation, same main results / added minor result on pure bipartite state entanglement (appendix G) / near to published versio

Single-qubit thermometry

This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Distinguishing hot from cold is the most primitive form of thermometry. Here we consider how well this task can be performed using a single qubit to distinguish between two different temperatures of a bosonic bath. In this simple setting, we find that letting the qubit equilibrate with the bath is not optimal, and depending on the interaction time it may be advantageous for the qubit to start in a state with some quantum coherence. We also briefly consider the case that the qubit is initially entangled with a second qubit that is not put into contact with the bath and show that entanglement allows for even better thermometry