Quantum states with strong positive partial transpose

We construct a large class of bipartite M x N quantum states which defines a proper subset of states with positive partial transposes (PPT). Any state from this class is PPT but the positivity of its partial transposition is recognized with respect to canonical factorization of the original density operator. We propose to call elements from this class states with strong positive partial transposes (SPPT). We conjecture that all SPPT states are separable.Comment: 4 page

Empowering Women in Underserved Communities: Using CBPR Approaches to Improve Health Literacy and Community Capacity

Moderator: Elena Carbone, DrPH RD, LDN, Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition, UMass Amherst Presenters: Jennifer Manganello, MPH, PhD Janine M. Jurkowski, MPH, PhD Elena T. Carbone, DrPH, RD, LDN Session Description Promoting health literacy empowers individuals and communities to better navigate the health care system and health information environment, and allows for informed decision making for choices and actions that affect health. Empowerment Theory and health literacy are inherent in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) with low-income and disadvantaged populations. In order for representatives to be engaged as equal participants in the research process, research and health capacity building need to occur. This breakout session will be presented in three parts. The first presentation will provide an overview and introduce how Empowerment Theory and health literacy can be used to build the capacity of community representatives and patient stakeholders. The other two presentations will highlight CBPR research projects currently underway or planned. What is Health Literacy? Presenter: Jennifer Manganello Health literacy refers to a person’s ability to obtain and understand health information and navigate the health system, as well as the health care environment itself. Definitions of health literacy will be discussed, along with how health literacy is relevant at each of the levels of the socio-ecological model (i.e., individual vs. community). We will provide a brief overview about health literacy research conducted in community and clinical settings. This presentation will also discuss how health literacy is related to empowerment. Communities for Health Living (CHL): A CBPR Childhood Obesity Prevention Intervention Guided by Empowerment Theory Presenter: Janine M. Jurkowski CHL is an intervention research project that uses a parent-centered community-based participatory research (CBPR) in an RCT scale up of a childhood obesity prevention intervention guided by Empowerment Theory. CHL recognizes parents as family experts, engages them as co-researchers and embeds the resulting empowerment-focused intervention into Head Start, a national system of care reaching over one million low-income families. Building on a successful pilot assessment CHL researchers are collaborating with Boston/Somerville/Cambridge Head Start serving over 2000 children to expand the CBPR approach by engaging parents, community representatives and Head Start staff to adapt CHL to a new, more diverse setting. CHL is rigorously testing its efficacy to prevent obesity in children. To ensure the timely translation of this work this study is a practical behavioral trial that maintains a rigorous assessment of program efficacy. Primary innovations of this study are its explicit incorporation of Empowerment Theory into its participatory approach and intervention, which deviates from the traditional model of nutrition education to address broader family realities. Mpower: Empowering Mothers for Health Presenter: Elena T. Carbone This project responds to the WUN Shanghai Declaration and the United Nations General Assembly call to promote health literacy in parents and empower women as a global strategy to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Because many NCDs originate in early development and from health disparities, the maternal health literacy of women in poverty is especially vital. Maternal health literacy refers to the cognitive and social skills which determine the motivation and ability of mothers to gain access to, understand, and use information in ways that promote and maintain their health and that of their children. Despite its importance, preliminary results of two scoping reviews indicate that few studies have examined maternal health literacy; fewer still have focused on skill development or empowerment of women in poverty. This project is designed to develop a long-term and sustainable research plan to fill these gaps and is part of a five-stage approach to develop a universal research strategy to promote health literacy in parents and empower women globally. Moreover, this project introduces an innovative community-based participatory method to the field of health literacy; and focuses on critical health literacy skills, empowerment, and health literacy for health protection and promotion -- all of which have been largely ignored

Engaging Low-Income Parents in Childhood Obesity Prevention from Start to Finish: A Case Study

Prevention of childhood obesity is a national priority. Parents influence young children’s healthy lifestyles, so it is paradoxical that obesity interventions focus primarily on children. Evidence and theory suggest that including parents in interventions offers promise for effective childhood obesity prevention. This case study engaged parents’ as co-researchers in the design, implementation and evaluation of an intervention for low-income families with a child enrolled in Head Start. Parent engagement mechanisms include: (1) targeted partnership development (2) operationalizing a Community Advisory Board (CAB) that was the key decision making body; (3) a majority of CAB members were parents who were positioned as experts, and (4) addressing structural barriers to parent participation. Lessons learned are provided for future research, and practice

Generalized entropy and global quantum discord in multiparty quantum systems

Using Tsallis-q entropy, we introduce the generalized concept of global quantum discord, namely the q-global quantum discord, and provide its analytic evaluation for two classes of multiqubit states. We also provide a sufficient condition, for which the pairwise quantum correlations in terms of q-global quantum discord is monogamous in multiparty quantum systemsopen

Dynamic and strategic aspects of executive processing

Abstract Executive cognitive functions have been postulated to include both dynamic behavioral selection and strategic goal-setting or response preparation. To investigate the relation between these aspects of executive processing, we embedded an event-related oddball paradigm within a blocked design. Subjects responded to infrequent targets presented within a series of standard stimuli that required no response; this task alternated with a visually similar nontask condition. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that a set of brain regions including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), insular cortex, cingular cortex, and the basal ganglia demonstrated transient activation both to target stimuli and to the onset of task blocks. Within the parietal cortex, there was a dissociation such that the supramarginal gyrus exhibited greater activity to the target stimuli than to block onsets, while the converse pattern was observed in the intraparietal sulcus. Sustained positive activity during task blocks was present in the caudate and supplementary motor area, while sustained negative activity was present in the precuneus and medial parietal cortex. We conclude that dlPFC and related brain regions mediate both dynamic and strategic processing, through the preparation and selection of rules for behavior.

The Caulobacter crescentus DNA-(adenine-N6)-methyltransferase CcrM methylates DNA in a distributive manner

The specificity and processivity of DNA methyltransferases have important implications regarding their biological functions. We have investigated the sequence specificity of CcrM and show here that the enzyme has a high specificity for GANTC sites, with only minor preferences at the central position. It slightly prefers hemimethylated DNA, which represents the physiological substrate. In a previous work, CcrM was reported to be highly processive [Berdis et al. (1998) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 95: 2874–2879]. However upon review of this work, we identified a technical error in the setup of a crucial experiment in this publication, which prohibits making any statement about the processivity of CcrM. In this study, we performed a series of in vitro experiments to study CcrM processivity. We show that it distributively methylates six target sites on the pUC19 plasmid as well as two target sites located on a 129-mer DNA fragment both in unmethylated and hemimethylated state. Reaction quenching experiments confirmed the lack of processivity. We conclude that the original statement that CcrM is processive is no longer valid

Targeted epigenetic editing of SPDEF reduces mucus production in lung epithelial cells

Airway mucus hypersecretion contributes to the morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic inflammatory lung diseases. Reducing mucus production is crucial for improving patients' quality of life. The transcription factor SAM-pointed domain-containing Ets-like factor (SPDEF) plays a critical role in the regulation of mucus production and, therefore, represents a potential therapeutic target. This study aims to reduce lung epithelial mucus production by targeted silencing SPDEF using the novel strategy, epigenetic editing. Zinc fingers and CRISPR/dCas platforms were engineered to target repressors (KRAB, DNA methyltransferases, histone methyltransferases) to the SPDEF promoter. All constructs were able to effectively suppress both SPDEF mRNA and protein expression, which was accompanied by inhibition of downstream mucus-related genes [anterior gradient 2 (AGR2), mucin 5AC (MUC5AC)]. For the histone methyltransferase G9A, and not its mutant or other effectors, the obtained silencing was mitotically stable. These results indicate efficient SPDEF silencing and downregulation of mucus-related gene expression by epigenetic editing, in human lung epithelial cells. This opens avenues for epigenetic editing as a novel therapeutic strategy to induce long-lasting mucus inhibition