The critical properties of the agent-based model with environmental-economic interactions

The steady-state and nonequilibrium properties of the model of environmental-economic interactions are studied. The interacting heterogeneous agents are simulated on the platform of the emission dynamics of cellular automaton. The model possess the discontinuous transition between the safe and catastrophic ecology. Right at the critical line, the broad-scale power-law distributions of emission rates have been identified. Their relationship to Zipf's law and models of self-organized criticality is discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, published in Physica

Ischemia and reperfusion injury in kidney transplantation : relevant mechanisms in injury and repair

Ischemia and reperfusion injury (IRI) is a complex pathophysiological phenomenon, inevitable in kidney transplantation and one of the most important mechanisms for non- or delayed function immediately after transplantation. Long term, it is associated with acute rejection and chronic graft dysfunction due to interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy. Recently, more insight has been gained in the underlying molecular pathways and signalling cascades involved, which opens the door to new therapeutic opportunities aiming to reduce IRI and improve graft survival. This review systemically discusses the specific molecular pathways involved in the pathophysiology of IRI and highlights new therapeutic strategies targeting these pathways

Realization of a classical counterpart of a scalable design for adiabatic quantum computation

We implement a classical counterpart of a scalable design for adiabatic quantum computation. The key element of this design is a coupler providing controllable coupling between two bistable elements (in our case superconducting rings with a single Josephson junction playing the role of a classical counterpart of superconducting flux qubits) The coupler is also a superconducting ring with a single Josephson junction that operates in the non-hysteretic mode. The flux coupling between two bistable rings can be controlled by changing the magnetic flux through the coupler. Thereby, the coupling can be tuned from ferromagnetic trough zero to to anti-ferromagnetic.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures v2: extended discussion experimental result

Measurement of the ground-state flux diagram of three coupled qubits as a first step towards the demonstration of adiabatic quantum computation

The ground state susceptibility of a system consisting of three flux-qubits was measured in the complete three dimensional flux space around the common degeneracy point of the qubits. The system's Hamiltonian could be completely reconstructed from measurements made far away from the common degeneracy point. The subsequent measurements made around this point show complete agreement with the theoretical predictions which follow from this Hamiltonian. The ground state anti-crossings of the system could be read-out directly from these measurements. This allows one to determine the ground-state flux diagram, which provides the solution for the non-polynomial optimization problem MAXCUT encoded in the Hamiltonian of the three-flux-qubit system. Our results show that adiabatic quantum computation can be demonstrated with this system provided that the energy gap and/or the speed of the read-out is increased.Comment: accepted for publication by Europhysics Letter

The relationships between internal and external threat and right-wing attitudes: A three-wave longitudinal study

The interplay between threat and right-wing attitudes has received much research attention, but its longitudinal relationship has hardly been investigated. In this study, we investigated the longitudinal relationships between internal and external threat and right-wing attitudes using a cross-lagged design at three different time points in a large nationally representative sample (N = 800). We found evidence for bidirectional relationships. Higher levels of external threat were related to higher levels of Right-Wing Authoritarianism and to both the egalitarianism and dominance dimensions of Social Dominance Orientation at a later point in time. Conversely, higher levels of RWA were also related to increased perception of external threat later in time. Internal threat did not yield significant direct or indirect longitudinal relationships with right-wing attitudes. Theoretical and practical implications of these longitudinal effects are discussed

Simultaneous Spectrophotometric Calibration of Wavelength and Absorbance in an Interlaboratory Survey Using Holmium Oxide (HO2O3) in Perchloric Acid as Reference, Compared with p-Nitrophenol and Cobaltous Sulphate Solutions (1978-1984)

Peer Reviewe

Four-qubit device with mixed couplings

We present the first experimental results on a device with more than two superconducting qubits. The circuit consists of four three-junction flux qubits, with simultaneous ferro- and antiferromagnetic coupling implemented using shared Josephson junctions. Its response, which is dominated by the ground state, is characterized using low-frequency impedance measurement with a superconducting tank circuit coupled to the qubits. The results are found to be in excellent agreement with the quantum-mechanical predictions.Comment: REVTeX 4, 5pp., 7 EPS figure files. N.B.: "Alec" is my first, and "Maassen van den Brink" my family name. v2: final published version, with changed title, different sample micrograph, and several clarification

Coupling Superconducting Qubits via a Cavity Bus

Superconducting circuits are promising candidates for constructing quantum bits (qubits) in a quantum computer; single-qubit operations are now routine, and several examples of two qubit interactions and gates having been demonstrated. These experiments show that two nearby qubits can be readily coupled with local interactions. Performing gates between an arbitrary pair of distant qubits is highly desirable for any quantum computer architecture, but has not yet been demonstrated. An efficient way to achieve this goal is to couple the qubits to a quantum bus, which distributes quantum information among the qubits. Here we show the implementation of such a quantum bus, using microwave photons confined in a transmission line cavity, to couple two superconducting qubits on opposite sides of a chip. The interaction is mediated by the exchange of virtual rather than real photons, avoiding cavity induced loss. Using fast control of the qubits to switch the coupling effectively on and off, we demonstrate coherent transfer of quantum states between the qubits. The cavity is also used to perform multiplexed control and measurement of the qubit states. This approach can be expanded to more than two qubits, and is an attractive architecture for quantum information processing on a chip.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Natur