Ground State Spin Logic

Designing and optimizing cost functions and energy landscapes is a problem encountered in many fields of science and engineering. These landscapes and cost functions can be embedded and annealed in experimentally controllable spin Hamiltonians. Using an approach based on group theory and symmetries, we examine the embedding of Boolean logic gates into the ground state subspace of such spin systems. We describe parameterized families of diagonal Hamiltonians and symmetry operations which preserve the ground state subspace encoding the truth tables of Boolean formulas. The ground state embeddings of adder circuits are used to illustrate how gates are combined and simplified using symmetry. Our work is relevant for experimental demonstrations of ground state embeddings found in both classical optimization as well as adiabatic quantum optimization.Comment: 6 pages + 3 pages appendix, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Sparse experimental design : an effective an efficient way discovering better genetic algorithm structures

The focus of this paper is the demonstration that sparse experimental design is a useful strategy for developing Genetic Algorithms. It is increasingly apparent from a number of reports and papers within a variety of different problem domains that the 'best' structure for a GA may be dependent upon the application. The GA structure is defined as both the types of operators and the parameters settings used during operation. The differences observed may be linked to the nature of the problem, the type of fitness function, or the depth or breadth of the problem under investigation. This paper demonstrates that advanced experimental design may be adopted to increase the understanding of the relationships between the GA structure and the problem domain, facilitating the selection of improved structures with a minimum of effort

Comparative aspects of phytase and xylanase effects on performance, mineral digestibility, and ileal phytate degradation in broilers and turkeys

Two experiments were performed, using broilers or turkeys, each utilizing a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement, to compare their response to phytase and xylanase supplementation with growth performance, nutrient digestibility, and ileal phytate degradation as response criteria. For both experiments, 960 Ross 308 or 960 BUT 10 (0-day-old) birds were allocated to 6 treatments: (1) control diet, containing phytase at 500 FTU/kg; (2) the control diet with xylanase (16,000 BXU/kg); (3) the control diet supplemented on top with phytase (1,500 FTU/kg); (4) diet supplemented with 1,500 FTU/kg phytase and xylanase (16,000 BXU/kg); (5) the control diet supplemented with phytase (3,000 FTU/kg); and (6) diet supplemented with 3,000 FTU/kg phytase and xylanase (16,000 BXU/kg). Each treatment had 8 replicates of 20 birds each. Water and diets based on wheat, soybean meal, oilseed rape meal, and barley were available ad libitum. Body weight gain and feed intake were measured from 0 to 28 D, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) corrected for mortality was calculated. Ileal digestibility for dry matter and minerals on day 7 and 28 were analyzed in addition to levels of inositol phosphate esters (InsP6-3) and myo-inositol. Statistical comparisons were performed using ANOVA. Xylanase supplementation improved 28D FCR in broilers and turkeys. Increasing doses of phytase reduced FI and improved FCR only in broilers. In broilers, the age × phytase interaction for phosphorous digestibility showed that increasing phytase dose was more visible on day 7, than on day 28. Mineral digestibility was lower in 28-day-old turkey compared with 7-day-old turkey. InsP6 disappearance increased with increasing phytase levels in both species, with lower levels analyzed in turkeys. InsP6 disappearance was greater in younger turkeys (day 7 compared with day 28). In conclusion, although broilers and turkeys shared several similarities in their growth and nutrient utilization responses, the outcomes of the 2 trials also differed in many aspects. Whether this is because of difference in diets (InsP or Ca level) or differences between species needs further investigation

Health care and hospitalisation costs of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Thailand

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become a leading cause of death and disability in Thailand due to the unhealthy lifestyle of the populace; triggering high risk of exposure to CVD, increase in the number of hospital admissions year on year. Objectives: The concerns generated by the inflation in the health care expenditure among service providers motivated this study to examine the costs of hospitalisation of inpatients with (CVD) conditions in Thailand, 2009. Methods: Anonymised secondary data of 327,435 CVD inpatients under “Universal Coverage” (UC) health care scheme were obtained from the National Health Security Office (NHSO), Thailand. The data(51.69%- women and 48.31% - men) were classified using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code, of which I20-I25 are Ischemic heart disease (IHD), I60-I69 are stroke and I00- I99areallCVD conditions. Results: Average costs of treatments for all CVD conditions, IHD and stroke were ฿21,921 (£1 = ฿50), ฿32,884 (highest) and ฿25,617.67per patient respectively. Absolute total cost increased with age and the cost of admission of male patients is higher than female. The average (three months) length of stay for stroke patients was found to be the highest. Conclusion: Providers generally spent a total of ฿7,177 million on the treatment of CVD with IHD and stroke taking ฿2,544 million and ฿1,920 million respectivel

When do young birds disperse? : Tests from studies of golden eagles in Scotland

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Design requirements for laminar airflow clean rooms and devices

Laminar airflow and airborne contamination control concepts with clean room specifications and laminar flow facility design

The impact of resources on decision making

Decision making is a significant activity within industry and although much attention has been paid to the manner in which goals impact on how decision making is executed, there has been less focus on the impact decision making resources can have. This article describes an experiment that sought to provide greater insight into the impact that resources can have on how decision making is executed. Investigated variables included the experience levels of decision makers and the quality and availability of information resources. The experiment provided insights into the variety of impacts that resources can have upon decision making, manifested through the evolution of the approaches, methods, and processes used within it. The findings illustrated that there could be an impact on the decision-making process but not on the method or approach, the method and process but not the approach, or the approach, method, and process. In addition, resources were observed to have multiple impacts, which can emerge in different timescales. Given these findings, research is suggested into the development of resource-impact models that would describe the relationships existing between the decision-making activity and resources, together with the development of techniques for reasoning using these models. This would enhance the development of systems that could offer improved levels of decision support through managing the impact of resources on decision making

Living with a very low fat diet

Aims: This study investigated compliance with the very low fat diet used by some clinics in the UK to treat severe hypertriglyceridemia and the patients’ experience of the diet. Methodology: Eight adults with severe hypertriglyceridemia attending the Lipid Clinic at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK took part in the study. Compliance with the therapeutic diet was assessed by analysis of telephone based diet histories and diet diaries using dietary assessment software. The patients’ experience of the diet was investigated using telephone based semi-structured qualitative interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. Main findings: The diet histories revealed the mean percentage energy contribution from fat was 22.5%. This is significantly higher than the target of 15% prescribed by the very low fat diet. The qualitative interviews revealed that patients considered complete compliance difficult. The patients understood the health benefits of the diet. Their level of adherence was affected by their perception of vulnerability to the health consequences of non-adherence. Barriers to adherence included lack of accessible nutritional information, increased patient burden, lack of appropriate food choices, other peoples’ ignorance with regard to the diet, lack of flavour and variety in the diet, a desire to broaden the palate, cost, social pressure to conform and negative experiences with dietitians. Enablers to compliance included nutritional awareness, desire to maintain good health, building on their nutritional knowledge base, behaviour and lifestyle modification, developing a routine, the support of family and friends and supportive eating environments. Conclusions: Compliance with the very low fat diet could be improved through extensive education on labelling, eating during special occasions such as Christmas, birthdays and eating out of home. Dietetic professionals need to work with food retailers and outlets to promote clear disclosure of the nutritional content of food to facilitate adherence to therapeutic diets