Hierarchical quantum classifiers

Quantum circuits with hierarchical structure have been used to perform binary classification of classical data encoded in a quantum state. We demonstrate that more expressive circuits in the same family achieve better accuracy and can be used to classify highly entangled quantum states, for which there is no known efficient classical method. We compare performance for several different parameterizations on two classical machine learning datasets, Iris and MNIST, and on a synthetic dataset of quantum states. Finally, we demonstrate that performance is robust to noise and deploy an Iris dataset classifier on the ibmqx4 quantum computer

Unnatural Markets: The politics of biodiversity offsetting and failed environmental market-making in England

This thesis examines the biodiversity offsetting programme for England initiated by the UK government in 2011 and abandoned in 2014. Offsetting enables developers to purchase biodiversity credits, representing conservation gain somewhere else, to compensate for residual loss on the development site, ensuring no net loss of biodiversity overall. Recent years have seen increasing interest globally in market-based instruments for nature conservation, which advocates promise will deliver win-win outcomes, facilitating economic growth and safeguarding of nature at the same time, through market efficiencies. Political ecologists, on the other hand, have long highlighted the contradictions encountered in efforts to commodify nature. Drawing on Marxist political ecologies and literature on the neoliberalisation of nature, this thesis examines why the UK government was unable to establish its proposed biodiversity offsetting programme in a particular geographical and historical setting, in a climate of fiscal austerity and growth-orientated deregulation. As the government attempted to enrol sympathetic actors, disputes soon emerged over the purpose and technical details of the proposals. Deeper tensions were quickly revealed: the government’s non-negotiable position that offsetting should impose no new costs on developers, that it should be voluntary and that no new resources would be provided for planning authorities administering the policy locally, meant that it could not convince offsetting’s advocates – let alone its detractors – that it would achieve either meaningful biodiversity outcomes. Nor could it stimulate a substantial offset market, which it hoped would lubricate the planning system and accelerate land development, which was its primary goal. The thesis explores how the government’s non-interventionist, strictly pro-growth conditions played out in different moments of the policymaking process. It argues that it was precisely offsetting’s appeal to government, predicated on its promise of a win-win for development and conservation, in a neoliberal world of limited and diminishing public resources, which undermined the possibility of its implementation. Though the English case is specific, the thesis concludes that this underlying tension appears politically hard-wired into the very concept of offsetting, raising questions over its meaningful implementation anywhere

Flight Readiness Review (FRR): Are you ready to fly?

A Flight Readiness Review evaluates the readiness to begin and safely conduct flight tests or flight operations. FRR approval is necessary in order to determine that the system under review can proceed into its test environment having met the standards to be considered airworthy. These standards require that the aviation system be under configuration management, have flight clearance, approved flight test plans, discrepancy tracking, and appropriate risk assessment processes in place. As an Autonomous Flight Lab we are interested in developing a protocol that will make this processes more accessible to individuals trying to utilize UAVs for various research projects. Currently there is no process in place to assist individuals in preparing an FRR. We have been working on generating a user friendly guide to developing quality student presentations in the form of FRRs. We began by observing student FRR presentations, determining the best procedure for risk assessment, and specifying base line operation requirements. In order to do so one must first identify the vehicle being used, the mission details, the necessary crew members, and the operational environment. Ultimately we hope that by having a procedure in place to assist individuals in developing FRRs, we can greatly reduce lab member dependency and need for multiple FRR revisions

A memory model of presymbolic unconscious mentation

The biological energy concepts used by Freud to account for unconscious mental processes in psychoanalysis are discredited by modem biological findings. As a result, different psychoanalytic schools developed new foundational theories in order to verify unconscious mentation. The present study argues that these theories are unsuccessful for two main reasons. Firstly, replacing Freud's drive energy theory with other equally hypothetical foundational constructs does not solve the problem of finding proof for the existence of unconscious mentation. Secondly, the clinical psychoanalytic definition of unconscious mentation as imaginary, internally generated processes, autonomous from the external world is misguided. External sensory data may play a formative role in producing unconscious mentation. In particular, neurobiological findings on sensory data encoding and storage in human infants may throw light on the nature of unconscious processes. The present study therefore compares ideas derived from Lacanian psychoanalysis with neuropsychological memory and infant research findings to ascertain whether unconscious mentation is linked to the memory encoding of sensory data in infants. This analysis is in tum contrasted with a more contemporary psychoanalytic synthesis of findings on infant memory and unconscious mentation (Lichtenberg, 1989, Lichtenberg, Lachmann, and Fosshage, 1992). The latter theory identifies connections between unconscious mentation and the encoding of sensory memories in infancy, but does not connect the episodic and procedural memory constructs used in this account to specific neurolo·gical mechanisms in the brain. The present study's original contributions therefore involve firstly connecting the development of aversive episodic and procedural memories to neurological mechanisms in the brain during the period between birth and 28 months of age. Secondly, this memory model suggests that the storage of aversive memories in infancy has lasting unconscious motivational significance for subjects. Presymbolic memories may unconsciously manipulate conscious attention and memory retrieval in verbal subjects, inviting comparison with the psychoanalytic concept of dynamic unconscious mentation. Thirdly, the presymbolic memory model contributes towards a novel understanding of false memories of childhood sex abuse, and the dissociation of real traumatic memories that occur in many cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.PsychologyD.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology

ADP release is the rate-limiting step of the MT activated ATPase of non-claret disjunctional and kinesin

AbstractThe motor protein non-claret disjunctional (ncd) moves towards the minus ends of microtubules (MTs), whereas its close relative kinesin moves in the opposite direction towards the plus ends of MTs. The mechanisms of movement and directional reversal for these motor proteins are unknown. Here we report the rate constants for MT activated ADP release from a recombinant double-headed ncd protein, GST-MC5, and a recombinant double-headed kinesin protein, KΔ401, measured using the fluorescent nucleotide analogues methylanthranilyol ATP (mantATP) and mantADP. Comparison of the maximal MT activated mantADP release rates for these proteins with their maximal MT activated mantATP turnover rates indicates that ADP release is the rate-limiting step for ATP turnover for both ncd and kinesin. This data supports the view that directional reversal may result from structural rather than chemical kinetic differences in the way the motors interact with MTs

A 24-week study to evaluate the effect of rilapladib on cognition and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease

AbstractBackgroundThe lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 inhibitor (Lp-PLA2), rilapladib (SB659032), is being evaluated as a potential treatment to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD).MethodsOne hundred twenty-four subjects with possible mild AD and with neuroimaging evidence of cerebrovascular disease were randomized to placebo or 250-mg rilapladib once daily, for 24 weeks, in addition to stable background acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and/or memantine. The study assessed the safety and tolerability of rilapladib and its effects on cognition, mechanistic, and disease-related biomarkers. Although the overall intent behind the study was to take a broad exploratory view of the data, two primary end points of interest (cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] amyloid beta peptide 1–42 [Aβ1–42] and CogState executive function/working memory [EF/WM] composite score at week 24) were prespecified in the analysis plan for inferential statistical analysis.ResultsRilapladib was well tolerated with no significant safety concerns. A significant difference from placebo was observed for rilapladib on change from baseline in EF/WM (effect size, 0.45; P = .026). There was no significant difference between groups on the change from baseline in CSF Aβ1–42 (P = .133). Preliminary evidence of effects was detected on other mechanistic (albumin quotient) and disease-related biomarkers (tau/P-tau and neurofilament light chain).ConclusionThese data provide initial evidence supporting Lp-PLA2 inhibition as a novel treatment for dementia.Clinical Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01428453

A new badnavirus in Ribes species, its detection by PCR, and its close association with gooseberry vein banding disease

Gooseberry vein banding disease (GVBD) affects Ribes species and cultivars worldwide. It is the second most important virus-like disease in these crops after black currant reversion disease. In this paper, we describe a bacilliform virus, Gooseberry vein banding associated virus (GVBAV), which is associated closely with GVBD, and provide evidence that GVBAV is a distinct species within the genus Badnavirus. Purified GVBAV particles were ca. 120 × 30 nm in size and contained dsDNA. The sequence of a 1.5-kb DNA fragment amplified from viral genomic DNA was similar to those of a wide range of badnaviruses and contained motifs characteristic of the RNase H domain of the badnavirus open reading frame (ORF) III polyprotein. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that GVBAV is most closely related to Spiraea yellow leaf spot virus. Using sequence derived from the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified DNA fragment, virus-specific primers were designed. These primers were used in PCR to assay for GVBAV in a range of Ribes germplasm affected with GVBD, with other unrelated virus-like diseases and viruses found in Ribes, and in healthy plants. GVBAV was detected in all of 58 GVBD-affected plants from diverse sources, but not from healthy Ribes plants nor from plants infected with other viruses

Seasonal, Taxonomic, and Local Habitat Components of Bird-window Collisions on an Urban University Campus in Cleveland, OH

Author Institution: Department of Biological, Geological & Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State UniversityAuthor Institution: Department of Ornithology, Cleveland Museum of Natural HistoryMigrating birds congregate near the shores of Lake Erie during migration and may be funneled through small green spaces within the urban matrix of Great Lake coastal cities, where they are at risk of higher mortality from manmade structures. Bird deaths due to window collisions were assessed amongst a complex of low-rise buildings (<30 m) on a university campus in Cleveland, OH. A 1.8 km route was surveyed three times per week during a 12-month period. Deaths were tested against null hypotheses that season, taxonomy, and building attributes had no significant relationship with avian mortality. We recovered 271 dead birds of 50 species, all of which were consistent with regional bird lists and Neotropical-Nearctic and North American migrants through Ohio. Deaths occurred non-randomly by week, month, and migratory status with 90 percent of deaths occurring during spring and fall migrations. Consequently, migrants (warblers: 34 percent of species richness, 30 percent of deaths; sparrows: 14 percent of richness, 35 percent of deaths) were observed nine times more frequently than residents. Neotropical-Nearctic migrant species outnumbered North American migrant species. Although there was no statistical difference between the compass direction of a building facade and the number of deaths, deaths were not randomly distributed among campus buildings. Rather, significantly more deaths occurred at facades with higher percentages of glass. The presence of trees within 5 m of a window and the reflection of trees in windows were also associated with a greater risk of fatality. A better understanding of the factors associated with bird-window collisions is a pressing issue in the conservation of migratory birds

Endothelium-derived contraction in a model of rheumatoid arthritis is mediated via angiotensin II type 1 receptors

A role for endothelium-derived constricting factors (EDCF), and the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) pathway, in the vascular impairment found in the rat Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA)-model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was examined. FCA arthritis was induced in rats±losartan. Vehicle-treated rats served as controls. Knee-joint swelling and red blood cell (RBC) aggregation were measured as indicators of inflammation and endothelium reactivity assessed by response to acetylcholine (ACh) on aortic rings. Results show that knee-joint swelling and RBC aggregation were elevated in the FCA+vehicle group and restored to control levels in the FCA+losartan-treated animals. ACh-induced relaxation of aortic rings taken from FCA+vehicle animals was significantly impaired compared to vehicle-controls and this vasoreactivity was restored to control levels in the FCA+losartan-treated group. Further examination of aorta from the FCA+vehicle animals revealed an EDCF that was reliant on cyclooxygenase-2 (but not cyclooxygenase-1), generation of superoxide anion generation (but not hydrogen peroxide) and activation of thromboxane-prostanoid receptor. Losartan administration in vivo or ex vivo (to aortic rings) prevented the generation of the EDCF. In summary, this is the first evidence of an EDCF in a model of RA and identifies this mechanism as potentially significant in the cardiovascular disorder associated with the disease