Quantum Computers and Dissipation

We analyse dissipation in quantum computation and its destructive impact on efficiency of quantum algorithms. Using a general model of decoherence, we study the time evolution of a quantum register of arbitrary length coupled with an environment of arbitrary coherence length. We discuss relations between decoherence and computational complexity and show that the quantum factorization algorithm must be modified in order to be regarded as efficient and realistic.Comment: 20 pages, Latex, 7 Postscript figure

On the role of the environments and star formation for quasar activity

We investigate the host galaxy and environment properties of a sample of 400 low z (<0.5) quasars that were imaged in the SDSS Stripe82. We can detect and study the properties of the host galaxy for more than 75% of the data sample. We discover that quasar are mainly hosted in luminous galaxies of absolute magnitude M* -3 < M(R) < M* and that in the quasar environments the galaxy number density is comparable to that of inactive galaxies of similar luminosities. For these quasars we undertake also a study in u,g,r,i and z SDSS bands and again we discover that the mean colours of the quasar host galaxy it is not very different with respect to the values of the sample of inactive galaxies. For a subsample of low z sources the imaging study is complemented by spectroscopy of quasar hosts and of close companion galaxies. This study suggests that the supply and cause of the nuclear activity depends only weakly on the local environment of quasars. Contrary to past suggestions, for low redshift quasar there is a very modest connection between recent star formation and the nuclear activity.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, proceedings of the conference "QUASARS at all cosmic epochs", accepted for publication on Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Scienc

Portable test and stimulus standard properties and use

Abstract. Verification is a key part in the System-on-chip (SoC) design process. SoCs are constantly getting more and more complex, which makes verifying them harder and more time consuming. New standards and methods are constantly being developed to try and make the verification process easier and more effective. The portable test and stimulus standard allows automated generation of tests and reusing test environments across multiple different platforms.Portable test and stimulus standard : ominaisuudet ja käyttö. Tiivistelmä. Verifiointi on tärkeä osa järjestelmäpiirien suunnitteluprosessissa. Järjestelmäpiireistä tulee jatkuvasti suurempia ja monimutkaisempia kokonaisuuksia, mikä myös tekee niiden verifioimisesta vaikeampaa ja aikaa vievän prosessin. Uusia käytänteitä ja metodeja kehitetään jatkuvasti, jotta piirien verifiointi prosessia saataisiin tehokkaammaksi ja nopeammaksi. Portable test and stimulus standardin avulla testien generointia voidaan automatisoida ja testiympäristöjä voidaan uudelleen käyttää eri alustoilla

Interactive voice response system and eye-tracking interface in assistive technology for disabled

Abstract. The development of ICT has been very fast in the last few decades and it is important that everyone can benefit from this progress. It is essential for designing user interfaces to keep up on this progress and ensure the usability and accessibility of new innovations. The purpose of this academic literature review has been to study the basics of multimodal interaction, emphasizing on context with multimodal assistive technology for disabled people. From various modalities, interactive voice response and eye-tracking were chosen for analysis. The motivation for this work is to study how technology can be harnessed for assisting disabled people in daily life

The effect of admixtures on the mechanical properties and durability of Fe-rich alkali-activated materials

Abstract. Alkali-activated materials (AAM) as a potential alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) could decrease CO2 emissions and increase valorization of various metallurgical wastes and side streams in the construction sector. Ferich precursors are potential materials to be utilized in AAM production. Unlike usual AAM precursor materials in which the constituents and the main reaction products are known the role of iron in AAMs is not fully understood. This limits the utilization of Fe-rich precursors in AAMs since the optimal activation parameters, such as activating solution composition or curing regimes, remains unclear. The goal of this thesis is to study the effect of low molarity of NaOH solution as a sole activator and different additives on the mechanical and durability properties of alkali-activated Fe-rich slag. NaOH molarities used in this study were in a range of 1–9 M. To enhance the performance of the AAM, Ca(OH)2, CaO, MgO, and silica fume additives were used in different dosages up to 20 wt.%. Mechanical properties of the produced mortars were determined with unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test at different curing periods of 7–28 days. The durability of selected mortars was studied with free-thaw and chemical resistance tests using 3 wt.% NaCl, MgSO4, H2SO4, and HCl solutions and water as a reference medium with 14 and 28 days of treatment time. The composition and microstructure of the produced mortars and pastes were studied with XRD, FT-IR, and SEM. Environmental leaching tests were carried out to study the solubility and content of harmful substances. The results indicate that the increasing molarity of NaOH solution from 3M to 9M did not significantly increase the UCS. Ca(OH)2 and MgO additions did not enhance the mechanical performance of the AAM. In contrast, CaO and silica fume additions were found to be beneficial to the UCS development of the mortars. The addition of CaO affected the compressive strength even when using 1M NaOH, while higher molarity up to 3M was needed to incorporate silica fumed into the reaction product. The positive effect of using CaO at low molarities can be attributed to the formation of katoite observed by XRD. The higher compressive strength of the samples with silica fume is due to the more uniform microstructure observed by SEM and the higher degree of polymerization observed by FT-IR. Resistance to a salty environment was found to be good on average the UCS decreased only by 4%. Sulphate resistance of the mortars against MgSO4 caused strength loss on all mortars on average UCS loss being 15%. Both acid treatments had a significant degradation effect on the mortars UCS loss on average was 18% and 39% with H2SO4 and HCl, respectively. All of the mortars retained rigidity and were not brittle. With and without additives, regulatory leaching limits of some elements from mortars were exceeded in the environmental leaching tests. Interestingly salt and MgSO4 treatments reduced Mo leaching and acid treatments reduced V leaching below the regulatory limits. The results shed light on the alkali-activation of Fe-rich materials and the effect of mineral additives. The obtained durability results offer great insight into the possible utilization of Fe-rich materials in industrial applications. The results should help future research on this topi

“In English below”:Finnish-into-English translations of events organised by student societies at the University of Oulu

Abstract. This pro gradu thesis examines how event descriptions in events organised by the student societies at the University of Oulu are translated from Finnish into English. The event descriptions are analysed by comparing the source (Finnish) and target (English) language texts. The primary data for this research comes from the public Facebook events, created by the student organisations. It is assumed that the event descriptions are translated by volunteer, amateur translators, and thus the texts offer an intriguing look into the varied translation strategies utilised in them, as well as the translations of cultural items related to student culture in Oulu. The focus of this study is on how cultural terminology is translated from the source language to the target language, what items are explicitated or omitted in the translations, and how the meaning and function of the original text is conveyed in the translations. The theoretical framework for this study draws on translation studies and presents two differing translation strategies: explicitations and omissions. Explicitation expands upon the original text; making explicit in the target language text what the source text implies, or sometimes explaining the event information in greater detail. Omitting as a translation strategy removes some elements when translating from the source to the target text, such as condensing the text. Further analysis is done by applying the concept of languaging which is used to describe settings in which multiple languages are used simultaneously. As a conclusion, the event descriptions and the translation strategies utilised in them vary greatly. Based on the analysis, it can be stated that both the Finnish and the English event descriptions require a certain level of cultural awareness from the reader regarding student culture. There also seems to be a tendency of omitting extraneous information in the translated descriptions, such as additional activities the students can participate in, or highly expressive language that is translated from Finnish into a more simplified English version. The event descriptions also have a relatively uniform layout and textual elements that recur in almost all of them.Tiivistelmä. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman aiheena on Oulun yliopiston opiskelijajärjestöjen tapahtumakuvausten kääntäminen suomesta englantiin. Käännöstekstejä tutkitaan vertailemalla lähdekieltä (suomi) ja kohdekieltä (englanti). Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu opiskelijajärjestöjen Facebookissa julkaisemista, julkisista tapahtumakuvauksista. Oletus on, että opiskelijat ovat itse kääntäneet tapahtumatekstit, joten nämä amatöörikääntäjien tekemät tekstit tarjoavat mielenkiintoisen näkymän erilaisiin käännösstrategioihin sekä oululaisen opiskelijakulttuuriin liittyvän sanaston kääntämiseen. Tutkimuksen erityinen painopiste onkin siinä, miten kulttuurisidonnaista terminologia käännetään lähdekielestä kohdekielelle, mitä asioita käännösteksteissä selitetään tai jätetään kääntämättä, ja miten käännökset tuovat esille lähdetekstin toiminnan ja tarkoituksen. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys esittelee erilaisia käännöstutkimuksia ja esittelee erityisesti kaksi erilaista käännösstrategiaa, eli täsmällistämisen ja poistot. Täsmällistämisessä käännöstekstissä tuodaan eksplisiittisesti esille se, mitä lähdeteksti implikoi, ja joskus tämä tapahtuu tapahtumien yksityiskohtien tarkemmalla kuvaamisella. Poistaminen käännösstrategiana tarkoittaa tiettyjen tekstin osien kääntämättä jättämistä tai lähdetekstin huomattavaa tiivistämistä. Analyysissä hyödynnetään myös kieleilyä, eli ilmiötä, jossa kahta tai useampaa eri kieltä käytetään yhtäaikaisesti samassa yhteydessä. Tutkimuksen tuloksena voidaan huomata, että tapahtumakuvaukset ja niiden kääntämiseen käytetyt käännösstrategiat vaihtelevat suuresti. Sekä suomenkieliset että englanninkieliset tapahtumatekstit vaativat lukijaltaan huomattavaa opiskelijakulttuurillista tietoa. Analyysin perusteella käännöksistä usein poistetaan tapahtuman tärkeimpään sisältöön liittymätöntä tietoa, kuten tapahtumissa mahdollisesti olevia ylimääräisiä pieniä aktiviteetteja, tai hyvin kuvainnollisen kielen yksinkertaistamista. Tapahtumakuvauksilla on myös hyvin yhdenmukainen ulkoasu sekä lukuisia, lähes kaikissa kuvauksissa toistuvia samankaltaisia osioita

Ab initio analysis of meta- and para-aminobenzoic acid molecules

Abstract. Ab initio methods such as the Hartree-Fock method, the Moller and Plesset perturbation method and the Coupled-Cluster method can be used to solve the electronic Schrödinger equation and calculate the total and orbital energies of the system. The total energy can then be used for optimizing the geometry of the system. The binding energies of the molecule can then be approximated from the orbital energies at the optimized geometry with Koopmans’ theorem, which states that the one-electron orbital energy can be taken to be roughly the negative of the ionization energy of the electron from that orbital. The approximations of binding energies can then be displayed as a density of states spectra and compared to experimental binding energy spectra. By optimizing the geometries of the two rotamers of meta-aminobenzoic acid and the para-aminobenzoic acid molecules with ab initio methods and comparing the results with the experimental binding energy spectra of meta-aminobenzoic acid it is easy to identify most of the peaks from the experimental spectra and analyze the differences between experimental and calculated binding energies. By comparing the approximated binding energies of the two rotamers of meta-aminobenzoic acid molecules to each other and the experimental meta-aminobenzoic acid molecule binding energy spectra it can be seen that it is difficult to differentiate between rotamers based on the experimental spectra, as most of the differences are small and the larger ones are in binding energy regions where they would be difficult to notice. The differences between experimental and calculated approximations of binding energies for meta-aminobenzoic acid molecules and the calculated approximations of para-aminobenzoic acid’s binding energies can be used to form a decent approximation of what para-aminobenzoic acid’s true binding energy spectra would look like

Домашня та шкільна освіта старообрядців у ХVІІІ – на початку ХХ ст.: аспекти історії

The random β-transformation K is isomorphic to a full shift. This relation gives an invariant measure for K that yields the Bernoulli convolution by projection. We study the local dimension of the invariant measure for K for special values of β and use the projection to obtain results on the local dimension of the Bernoulli convolution