Subclinical microcrania, subclinical macrocrarnia, and fifth-month fetal markers (of growth retardation or edema) in schizophrenia: a co-twin control study of discordant monozygotic twins.

Summary: We tested the hypothesis that gestational injuries in some patients with schozophrenia would leave their mark as a subtle reduction in head circumference (subclinical microcrania). Conclusions: The head circumferences of all subjects were in the normal range. Decreased head circumference in affected MZ co-twins (relative to unaffected MZ co-twin) characteriazes discordant MZ pairs with larger finger-ridge-count differences (i.e., second-trimester fetal-size differences). This study using ideal genetic controls suggests that, while present only in some patients with schizophrenia, the decrease in head circumference is most likely a consequence of in-utero nonshared environmental deleterious events manifesting as groth retardation or as fetal edema and occurring around the fifth prenatal month

Coherent manipulation of charge qubits in double quantum dots

The coherent time evolution of electrons in double quantum dots induced by fast bias-voltage switches is studied theoretically. As it was shown experimentally, such driven double quantum dots are potential devices for controlled manipulation of charge qubits. By numerically solving a quantum master equation we obtain the energy- and time-resolved electron transfer through the device which resembles the measured data. The observed oscillations are found to depend on the level offset of the two dots during the manipulation and, most surprisingly, also the on initialization stage. By means of an analytical expression, obtained from a large-bias model, we can understand the prominent features of these oscillations seen in both the experimental data and the numerical results. These findings strengthen the common interpretation in terms of a coherent transfer of electrons between the dots.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

The Common Law of Partial Disability and Vocational Rehabilitation under the Pennsylvania Workmen\u27s Compensation Act: \u3cem\u3eKachinski\u3c/em\u3e and the Availability of Work Doctrine

The Pennsylvania law governing an injured worker\u27s partial disability status and right to vocational rehabilitation under the Workmen\u27s Compensation Act is governed exclusively by court cases rather than by statute. The rule established by these court precedents constitute what is commonly referred to as the doctrine of job availability, and are found in two categories of judicial decisions. The first set of cases establishes precisely what job availability consists of, and what an employer must demonstrate under the Pennsylvania Act to suspend or otherwise reduce its liability by showing a claimant\u27s transition to partial disability. The second set of cases deals with the more thorny issue of when the job availability showing must be undertaken. This article undertakes a critical analysis of the historical development of the job availability doctrine, seeks to set forth the contemporary positive law of the doctrine, and analyzes the need in Pennsylvania for a statutory law of partial disability and vocational rehabilitation

Immunity and Subrogation in Pennsylvania Workmen\u27s Compensation after \u3cem\u3eHeckendorn v. Consolidated Rail Corp.\u3c/em\u3e: Too Absolute a Victory for the Employer

In Heckendorn v. Consolidated Rail Corp., the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that an employer which has paid workmen\u27s compensation payments to an injured employee is entitled to full subrogation to a recovery made by the employee against a tortious third party, regardless of allegations of negligence on the employer\u27s part. After discussing the interpretive history of the subrogation and non-joinder provisions of the Pennsylvania Workmen\u27s Compensation Act, the author examines whether, as has been suggested by Professor Arthur Larson, a policy such as that created in Heckendorn results in too absolute a victory for the employer. The author concludes that the Heckendorn court has reached not only a correct interpretive conclusion, but one that is necessary both to vindicate the workmen\u27s compensation bargain entered into between employers and employees, and to maintain an environment conducive to the continuing economic viability of Pennsylvania employers

Constitutional Law - Fourteenth Amendment - Right to Abortion - Regulatory Framework - Standard of Review

The United State Supreme Court has held that the state may not, in its regulation of abortion, deviate from accepted medical practice, and that all pre-viability abortion regulation shall be subject to strict scrutiny under the compelling state interest standard of substantive due process analysis. City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, Inc., 103 S. Ct. 2481 (1983)

The Rules of Evidence under the Pennsylvania Workmen\u27s Compensation Act: Sources and Theoretical Considerations

The first portion of this article is devoted to exploring the parameters of the application of the evidence rules under the Pennsylvania Act. Next this article examines various theoretical considerations which better define the parameters of the application of the evidence rules. Among these considerations is the principle of liberal application which is applied to the evidence rules in compensation practice. The second part of this article also examines the practical approach taken by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in analyzing evidence questions arising in workmen\u27s compensation hearings. Finally, this article makes suggestions with respect to guidelines for application of the evidence rules in compensation cases. In the course of this article several theses are set forth and advocated. Perhaps the pervasive thesis of this article is, however, that there is indeed a coherent law of evidence under the Pennsylvania Workmen\u27s Compensation Act

Full coherent control of nuclear spins in an optically pumped single quantum dot

Highly polarized nuclear spins within a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) induce effective magnetic (Overhauser) fields of up to several Tesla acting on the electron spin or up to a few hundred mT for the hole spin. Recently this has been recognized as a resource for intrinsic control of QD-based spin quantum bits. However, only static long-lived Overhauser fields could be used. Here we demonstrate fast redirection on the microsecond time-scale of Overhauser fields of the order of 0.5 T experienced by a single electron spin in an optically pumped GaAs quantum dot. This has been achieved using full coherent control of an ensemble of 10^3-10^4 optically polarized nuclear spins by sequences of short radio-frequency (rf) pulses. These results open the way to a new class of experiments using rf techniques to achieve highly-correlated nuclear spins in quantum dots, such as adiabatic demagnetization in the rotating frame leading to sub-micro K nuclear spin temperatures, rapid adiabatic passage, and spin squeezing