Nanofiber-based high-Q microresonator for cryogenic applications

We demonstrate a cryo-compatible, fully fiber-integrated, alignment-free optical microresonator. The compatibility with low temperatures expands its possible applications to the wide field of solid-state quantum optics, where a cryogenic environment is often a requirement. At a temperature of 4.6 K we obtain a quality factor of $\mathbf{(9.9 \pm 0.7) \times 10^6}$. In conjunction with the small mode volume provided by the nanofiber, this cavity can be either used in the coherent dynamics or the fast cavity regime, where it can provide a Purcell factor of up to 15. Our resonator is therefore suitable for significantly enhancing the coupling between light and a large variety of different quantum emitters and due to its proven performance over a wide temperature range, also lends itself for the implementation of quantum hybrid systems.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Effects of a selectively bred novelty-seeking phenotype on the motivation to take cocaine in male and female rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gender and enhanced novelty reactivity can predispose certain individuals to drug abuse. Previous research in male and female rats selectively bred for high or low locomotor reactivity to novelty found that bred High Responders (bHRs) acquire cocaine self-administration more rapidly than bred Low Responders (bLRs) and that bHR females in particular self-administered more cocaine than the other groups. The experiments presented here aimed to determine whether an individual's sex and behavioral phenotype interact to affect motivation to take cocaine.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined motivation for taking cocaine in two experiments using a range of doses on a progressive ratio (PR) schedule of responding in bHR or bLR males and females. Additionally, we included a measure of continuing to respond in the absence of reinforcement, a feature of addiction that has been recently incorporated into tests of animal models on the basis of the criteria for substance use disorder in the <it>Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition</it>. Statistical analyses were performed using PASW Statistics 18.0 software. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance followed by a Bonferroni correction <it>post hoc </it>test when applicable.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found sex differences as well as effects of novelty reactivity on the motivation to self-administer cocaine. Specifically, females demonstrated higher breaking points on the PR schedule compared with males, regardless of phenotype, and bHR males and females exhibited higher motivation than bLR animals at a number of the doses studied.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>An individual's sex continues to be a predisposing factor with respect to drug abuse liability and can be compounded by additional individual differences such as reactivity to novelty.</p

Emergency ambulance service involvement with residential care homes in the support of older people with dementia : an observational study

© 2014 Amador et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BACKGROUND: Older people resident in care homes have a limited life expectancy and approximately two-thirds have limited mental capacity. Despite initiatives to reduce unplanned hospital admissions for this population, little is known about the involvement of emergency services in supporting residents in these settings.METHODS: This paper reports on a longitudinal study that tracked the involvement of emergency ambulance personnel in the support of older people with dementia, resident in care homes with no on-site nursing providing personal care only. 133 residents with dementia across 6 care homes in the East of England were tracked for a year. The paper examines the frequency and reasons for emergency ambulance call-outs, outcomes and factors associated with emergency ambulance service use. RESULTS: 56% of residents used ambulance services. Less than half (43%) of all call-outs resulted in an unscheduled admission to hospital. In addition to trauma following a following a fall in the home, results suggest that at least a reasonable proportion of ambulance contacts are for ambulatory care sensitive conditions. An emergency ambulance is not likely to be called for older rather than younger residents or for women more than men. Length of residence does not influence use of emergency ambulance services among older people with dementia. Contact with primary care services and admission route into the care home were both significantly associated with emergency ambulance service use. The odds of using emergency ambulance services for residents admitted from a relative's home were 90% lower than the odds of using emergency ambulance services for residents admitted from their own home. CONCLUSIONS: Emergency service involvement with this vulnerable population merits further examination. Future research on emergency ambulance service use by older people with dementia in care homes, should account for important contextual factors, namely, presence or absence of on-site nursing, GP involvement, and access to residents' family, alongside resident health characteristics.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

A Novel Framework to Predict Relative Habitat Selection in Aquatic Systems: Applying Machine Learning and Resource Selection Functions to Acoustic Telemetry Data From Multiple Shark Species

Resource selection functions (RSFs) have been widely applied to animal tracking data to examine relative habitat selection and to help guide management and conservation strategies. While readily used in terrestrial ecology, RSFs have yet to be extensively used within marine systems. As acoustic telemetry continues to be a pervasive approach within marine environments, incorporation of RSFs can provide new insights to help prioritize habitat protection and restoration to meet conservation goals. To overcome statistical hurdles and achieve high prediction accuracy, machine learning algorithms could be paired with RSFs to predict relative habitat selection for a species within and even outside the monitoring range of acoustic receiver arrays, making this a valuable tool for marine ecologists and resource managers. Here, we apply RSFs using machine learning to an acoustic telemetry dataset of four shark species to explore and predict species-specific habitat selection within a marine protected area. In addition, we also apply this RSF-machine learning approach to investigate predator-prey relationships by comparing and averaging tiger shark relative selection values with the relative selection values derived for eight potential prey-species. We provide methodological considerations along with a framework and flexible approach to apply RSFs with machine learning algorithms to acoustic telemetry data and suggest marine ecologists and resource managers consider adopting such tools to help guide both conservation an

Cosmological Constraints from the SDSS maxBCG Cluster Catalog

We use the abundance and weak lensing mass measurements of the SDSS maxBCG cluster catalog to simultaneously constrain cosmology and the richness--mass relation of the clusters. Assuming a flat \LambdaCDM cosmology, we find \sigma_8(\Omega_m/0.25)^{0.41} = 0.832\pm 0.033 after marginalization over all systematics. In common with previous studies, our error budget is dominated by systematic uncertainties, the primary two being the absolute mass scale of the weak lensing masses of the maxBCG clusters, and uncertainty in the scatter of the richness--mass relation. Our constraints are fully consistent with the WMAP five-year data, and in a joint analysis we find \sigma_8=0.807\pm 0.020 and \Omega_m=0.265\pm 0.016, an improvement of nearly a factor of two relative to WMAP5 alone. Our results are also in excellent agreement with and comparable in precision to the latest cosmological constraints from X-ray cluster abundances. The remarkable consistency among these results demonstrates that cluster abundance constraints are not only tight but also robust, and highlight the power of optically-selected cluster samples to produce precision constraints on cosmological parameters.Comment: comments welcom

Inter-cultural differences in response to a computer-based anti-bullying intervention

Background and purpose: Many holistic anti-bullying interventions have been attempted, with mixed success, while little work has been done to promote a 'self-help' approach to victimisation. The rise of the ICT curriculum and computer support in schools now allows for approaches that benefit from technology to be implemented. This study evaluates the cross-cultural effects of a computer-based anti-bullying intervention on primary school-aged children's knowledge about bullying and relevant coping strategies. Programme description: FearNot! is an interactive computer-based virtual learning environment designed for use as an anti-bullying intervention. It includes interactive virtual agents who assume the most common participant roles found in episodes of bullying. FearNot! was used by children over three consecutive weeks to allow its effectiveness to be evaluated in a longitudinal in situ programme. Sample: Two comparable samples were drawn from the UK and Germany. In the UK, 651 participants (aged 8-11) were recruited from primary schools in Hertfordshire, Coventry and Warwickshire, whereas the 535 German participants (aged 7-10) were sourced from Grundschulen in the Bayern and Hessen regions. Because of lack of parental consent, late joiners and absences/missing responses, data from 908 participants (UK 493; Germany 415) were analysed. Design and methods: A quasi-experimental, pre/post-tests control group design employed pre-published and bespoke questionnaires to collect data. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Results: UK students possessed higher coping strategy knowledge scores than German participants, but German children's scores improved over time and as a result of the FearNot! intervention. Conclusions: Overall, while not effective at increasing children's coping strategy knowledge in this study, the FearNot! intervention could prove a useful classroom tool to approach the issue of bullying as part of a wider initiative. Cultural differences at baseline and reactions to the intervention are discussed

Survey in radiation oncology departments in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: state of digitalization by 2023.

PURPOSE The aim of this work was to assess the current state of digitalization in radiation oncology departments in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. METHODS A comprehensive survey was conducted in a digital format, consisting of 53 questions that covered various aspects of digitalization including patient workflow, departmental organization, radiotherapy planning, and employee-related aspects. RESULTS Overall, 120 forms were eligible for evaluation. Participants were mainly physicians or medical physicists responsible for digitalization aspects in their departments. Nearly 70% of the institutions used electronic patient records, with 50% being completely paperless. However, the use of smartphone apps for electronic patient reported outcomes (ePROMs) and digital health applications (DIGA) was limited (9% and 4.9%, respectively). In total, 70.8% of the radio-oncology departments had interfaces with diagnostic departments, and 36% had digital interchanges with other clinics. Communication with external partners was realized mainly through fax (72%), e‑mails (55%), postal letters (63%), or other digital exchange formats (28%). Almost half of the institutions (49%) had dedicated IT staff for their operations. CONCLUSION To the best of our knowledge, this survey is the first of its kind conducted in German-speaking radiation oncology departments within the medical field. The findings suggest that there is a varied level of digitalization implementation within these departments, with certain areas exhibiting lower rates of digitalization that could benefit from targeted improvement initiatives

Impact of Cigarette Smoking Status on Pain Intensity Among Veterans With and Without Hepatitis C

Objective: Chronic pain is a significant problem in patients living with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Tobacco smoking is an independent risk factor for high pain intensity among veterans. This study aims to examine the independent associations with smoking and HCV on pain intensity, as well as the interaction of smoking and HCV on the association with pain intensity. Design/Particpants: Cross-sectional analysis of a cohort study of veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) who had at least one visit to a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) primary care clinic between 2001 and 2014. Methods: HCV was identified using ICD-9 codes from electronic medical records (EMRs). Pain intensity, reported on a 0-10 numeric rating scale, was categorized as none/mild (0-3) and moderate/severe (4-10). Results: Among 654,841 OEF/OIF/OND veterans (median age [interquartile range] = 26 [23-36] years), 2,942 (0.4%) were diagnosed with HCV. Overall, moderate/severe pain intensity was reported in 36% of veterans, and 37% were current smokers. The adjusted odds of reporting moderate/severe pain intensity were 1.23 times higher (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.14-1.33) for those with HCV and 1.26 times higher (95% CI = 1.25-1.28) for current smokers. In the interaction model, there was a significant Smoking Status x HCV interaction (P = 0.03). Among veterans with HCV, smoking had a significantly larger association with moderate/severe pain (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.50, P \u3c 0.001) than among veterans without HCV (adjusted OR = 1.26, P \u3c 0.001). Conclusions: We found that current smoking is more strongly linked to pain intensity among veterans with HCV. Further investigations are needed to explore the impact of smoking status on pain and to promote smoking cessation and pain management in veterans with HCV

BCL-2 Inhibition Targets Oxidative Phosphorylation and Selectively Eradicates Quiescent Human Leukemia Stem Cells

SummaryMost forms of chemotherapy employ mechanisms involving induction of oxidative stress, a strategy that can be effective due to the elevated oxidative state commonly observed in cancer cells. However, recent studies have shown that relative redox levels in primary tumors can be heterogeneous, suggesting that regimens dependent on differential oxidative state may not be uniformly effective. To investigate this issue in hematological malignancies, we evaluated mechanisms controlling oxidative state in primary specimens derived from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) patients. Our studies demonstrate three striking findings. First, the majority of functionally defined leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are characterized by relatively low levels of reactive oxygen species (termed “ROS-low”). Second, ROS-low LSCs aberrantly overexpress BCL-2. Third, BCL-2 inhibition reduced oxidative phosphorylation and selectively eradicated quiescent LSCs. Based on these findings, we propose a model wherein the unique physiology of ROS-low LSCs provides an opportunity for selective targeting via disruption of BCL-2-dependent oxidative phosphorylation