Towards a UK co-operative for the advancement of quantum technology

The meeting was the fourth in DSTL's series of community meetings and had a Systems Engineering theme – recognising the increasing importance of this topic for many in the Quantum Technology (QT) community. There is a growing recognition that, although there are significant research challenges associated with realising the commercial and societal benefits anticipated from quantum technologies, there are also other challenges which concern the physical, commercial, societal and regulatory environments into which these new technologies will be integrated. Similar difficulties have been faced and overcome by the information and communications industry. One of the striking characteristics of this sector over the past 20 years has been the speed at which advances in semiconductor technology have been exploited by industry. Each new generation of semiconductor devices has led to new system designs and to new user capabilities which represented a major advance upon the systems and capabilities that came before them. However, to achieve this required a large number of different components and tools to become available at the right time, and at an affordable price. The routine achievement of this is evidence of how companies and institutions within the sector have been able to communicate effectively and establish a high level of collaboration, whilst still maintaining intense competition at the product level. QT is very different to the semiconductor industry. While a number of target applications exist the discipline is very much in its infancy. At one end of the spectrum, there are some applications in communications and sensors that are relatively close to market, and, at the other end, there are some applications in computing and simulation that are still far from market. Many choices of enabling technologies and materials have yet to be fixed, and there is, as yet, very little first-hand experience of the problems that will arise when companies seek to establish repeatable manufacture of quantum components and systems. What can we learn from the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) that might benefit the Quantum Technology community? Generating an additional quantum roadmap would merely duplicate previous work – but establishing a small number of cross-community working groups might be a way to assist UK industry to gain a competitive edge in the application of quantum technologies, without duplicating the existing activities by other bodies such as InnovateUK, British Standards Institution (BSI), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) etc. This document reports on discussions held at the meeting around this question and, leveraging this input, seeks to provide clear and appropriate recommendations to the UK QT community

Crop Updates 2011 - Nutrition, Precision Agriculture & Climate and Forecasting

This session covers sixteen papers from different authors: Nutrition 1. Balance® used in conventional cropping practice with half of the upfront fertiliser rate can sustain crop yield and build soil biological fertility, Deb Archdeacon1, Andrew Gulliver2 and David Cullen2, 1Agronomica, Wellington Mill, WA, 2Custom Composts, Nambeelup, WA 2. Effects of potassium (K) supply on plant growth, potassium uptake and grain Yield in wheat grown in grey sand, Qifu Ma1, Richard Bell1, Ross Brennan2 and Craig Scanlan2, 1School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 2Department of Agriculture and Food 3. Improving fertiliser management: redefining the relationship between soil tests and crop responses for wheat in WA, Wen Chen1, 2, Ross Brennan2, Geoff Anderson2, Richard Bell1 and Mike Bolland2, 1School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, 2Department of Agriculture and Food 4. Improved phosphorus and potassium management: redefining the soil test and lupin response relationships in WA, Wen Chen1, 2, Ross Brennan2, Geoff Anderson2, Richard Bell1 and Mike Bolland2, 1School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Western Australia, 2Department of Agriculture and Food 5. Converting phosphorus retention index (PRI) to phosphorus buffering index (PBI) for Western Australian soils, Peter Rees and Sandy Alexander, Summit Fertilizers 6. Variability of radiometric potassium and Colwell potassium relationships across the Great Southern, Frank D’Emden, Precision Agronomics Australia 7. Rotary spading and mouldboard ploughing of water-repellent sandplain soils fulfils promise, Stephen Davies, Craig Scanlan and Breanne Best, Department of Agriculture and Food 8. Soil nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes are low from a grain legume crop grown in a semi-arid climate Louise Barton1, Klaus Butterbach-Bahl2, Ralph Kiese2 and Daniel Murphy1, 1 School of Earth & Environment, University of Western Australia, 2 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Meteorology & Climate Research, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, 9. Mouldboard ploughing of sandplain soils – more grain, fewer weeds, Peter Newman Department of Agriculture and Food Precision Agriculture 10.What’s preventing growers from implementing precision agriculture (PA)? Roger Mandel1, Roger Lawes2 and Michael Robertson2, 1Curtin University, 2CSIRO 11. On how many paddocks does precision agriculture (PA) deliver a return? Roger Lawes1, Michael Robertson1 and Roger Mandel2, 1CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, Floreat, WA, 2Curtin University 12. Demonstration pf precision agriculture (PA) principles in the Great Southern, Western Australia, Derk Bakker1, Jeremy Lemon1, Alison Lacey1, John Paul Collins1, Roger Mandel2, Frank D’Emden3, Glen Riethmuller1, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2Curtin University, 3Precision Agronomics Australia Climate and Forecasting 13. Statistical seasonal rainfall forecasts for south west Australia, Fiona H Evans Department of Agriculture of Food 14. How has changing climate recently affected Western Australia’s capacity to increase crop productivity and water use efficiency? David Stephens, Department of Agriculture and Food 15. Is Yield Prophet® a useful tool in Western Australia? — an agribusiness perspective, Caroline Peek, Department of Agriculture and Food 16. A season of Yield Prophet® — how it saw the dry, Tim Scanlon and Caroline Peek Department of Agriculture of Foo

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals

Two Genes on A/J Chromosome 18 Are Associated with Susceptibility to Staphylococcus aureus Infection by Combined Microarray and QTL Analyses

Although it has recently been shown that A/J mice are highly susceptible to Staphylococcus aureus sepsis as compared to C57BL/6J, the specific genes responsible for this differential phenotype are unknown. Using chromosome substitution strains (CSS), we found that loci on chromosomes 8, 11, and 18 influence susceptibility to S. aureus sepsis in A/J mice. We then used two candidate gene selection strategies to identify genes on these three chromosomes associated with S. aureus susceptibility, and targeted genes identified by both gene selection strategies. First, we used whole genome transcription profiling to identify 191 (56 on chr. 8, 100 on chr. 11, and 35 on chr. 18) genes on our three chromosomes of interest that are differentially expressed between S. aureus-infected A/J and C57BL/6J. Second, we identified two significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) for survival post-infection on chr. 18 using N2 backcross mice (F1 [C18A]×C57BL/6J). Ten genes on chr. 18 (March3, Cep120, Chmp1b, Dcp2, Dtwd2, Isoc1, Lman1, Spire1, Tnfaip8, and Seh1l) mapped to the two significant QTL regions and were also identified by the expression array selection strategy. Using real-time PCR, 6 of these 10 genes (Chmp1b, Dtwd2, Isoc1, Lman1, Tnfaip8, and Seh1l) showed significantly different expression levels between S. aureus-infected A/J and C57BL/6J. For two (Tnfaip8 and Seh1l) of these 6 genes, siRNA-mediated knockdown of gene expression in S. aureus–challenged RAW264.7 macrophages induced significant changes in the cytokine response (IL-1 β and GM-CSF) compared to negative controls. These cytokine response changes were consistent with those seen in S. aureus-challenged peritoneal macrophages from CSS 18 mice (which contain A/J chromosome 18 but are otherwise C57BL/6J), but not C57BL/6J mice. These findings suggest that two genes, Tnfaip8 and Seh1l, may contribute to susceptibility to S. aureus in A/J mice, and represent promising candidates for human genetic susceptibility studies

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals

The seeds of divergence: the economy of French North America, 1688 to 1760

Generally, Canada has been ignored in the literature on the colonial origins of divergence with most of the attention going to the United States. Late nineteenth century estimates of income per capita show that Canada was relatively poorer than the United States and that within Canada, the French and Catholic population of Quebec was considerably poorer. Was this gap long standing? Some evidence has been advanced for earlier periods, but it is quite limited and not well-suited for comparison with other societies. This thesis aims to contribute both to Canadian economic history and to comparative work on inequality across nations during the early modern period. With the use of novel prices and wages from Quebec—which was then the largest settlement in Canada and under French rule—a price index, a series of real wages and a measurement of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are constructed. They are used to shed light both on the course of economic development until the French were defeated by the British in 1760 and on standards of living in that colony relative to the mother country, France, as well as the American colonies. The work is divided into three components. The first component relates to the construction of a price index. The absence of such an index has been a thorn in the side of Canadian historians as it has limited the ability of historians to obtain real values of wages, output and living standards. This index shows that prices did not follow any trend and remained at a stable level. However, there were episodes of wide swings—mostly due to wars and the monetary experiment of playing card money. The creation of this index lays the foundation of the next component. The second component constructs a standardized real wage series in the form of welfare ratios (a consumption basket divided by nominal wage rate multiplied by length of work year) to compare Canada with France, England and Colonial America. Two measures are derived. The first relies on a “bare bones” definition of consumption with a large share of land-intensive goods. This measure indicates that Canada was poorer than England and Colonial America and not appreciably richer than France. However, this measure overestimates the relative position of Canada to the Old World because of the strong presence of land-intensive goods. A second measure is created using a “respectable” definition of consumption in which the basket includes a larger share of manufactured goods and capital-intensive goods. This second basket better reflects differences in living standards since the abundance of land in Canada (and Colonial America) made it easy to achieve bare subsistence, but the scarcity of capital and skilled labor made the consumption of luxuries and manufactured goods (clothing, lighting, imported goods) highly expensive. With this measure, the advantage of New France over France evaporates and turns slightly negative. In comparison with Britain and Colonial America, the gap widens appreciably. This element is the most important for future research. By showing a reversal because of a shift to a different type of basket, it shows that Old World and New World comparisons are very sensitive to how we measure the cost of living. Furthermore, there are no sustained improvements in living standards over the period regardless of the measure used. Gaps in living standards observed later in the nineteenth century existed as far back as the seventeenth century. In a wider American perspective that includes the Spanish colonies, Canada fares better. The third component computes a new series for Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is to avoid problems associated with using real wages in the form of welfare ratios which assume a constant labor supply. This assumption is hard to defend in the case of Colonial Canada as there were many signs of increasing industriousness during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The GDP series suggest no long-run trend in living standards (from 1688 to circa 1765). The long peace era of 1713 to 1740 was marked by modest economic growth which offset a steady decline that had started in 1688, but by 1760 (as a result of constant warfare) living standards had sunk below their 1688 levels. These developments are accompanied by observations that suggest that other indicators of living standard declined. The flat-lining of incomes is accompanied by substantial increases in the amount of time worked, rising mortality and rising infant mortality. In addition, comparisons of incomes with the American colonies confirm the results obtained with wages— Canada was considerably poorer. At the end, a long conclusion is provides an exploratory discussion of why Canada would have diverged early on. In structural terms, it is argued that the French colony was plagued by the problem of a small population which prohibited the existence of scale effects. In combination with the fact that it was dispersed throughout the territory, the small population of New France limited the scope for specialization and economies of scale. However, this problem was in part created, and in part aggravated, by institutional factors like seigneurial tenure. The colonial origins of French America’s divergence from the rest of North America are thus partly institutional