High Speed Chaos in Optical Feedback System with Flexible Timescales

We describe a new opto-electronic device with time-delayed feedback that uses a Mach-Zehnder interferometer as passive nonlinearity and a semiconductor laser as a current-to-optical-frequency converter. Bandlimited feedback allows tuning of the characteristic time scales of both the periodic and high dimensional chaotic oscillations that can be generated with the device. Our implementation of the device produces oscillations in the frequency range of tens to hundreds of MHz. We develop a model and use it to explore the experimentally observed Andronov-Hopf bifurcation of the steady state and to estimate the dimension of the chaotic attractor.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, to be published in IEEE J. Quantum Electro

Cultural Belonging and Divine Encounters: An Adoption Story Told through the Arts and Humanities

At its core, the arts and humanities seek to understand the essence of the only creation to be made in God’s image: humanity. Through the eloquence of words, literary authors and historians document our experiences. Through the immersion of the senses, artists and musicians attempt to crystallize poignancy. This search for significance has always been particularly meaningful to me, but it became divine with the adoption of my two Russian daughters. Prior to adopting, I was vaguely aware of Russia’s role in the Soviet Union and the Cold War. With the decision to adopt, Russian history and culture became relevant to my life. Suddenly, I longed to know how Russian history was expressed in its culture and what comprised cultural belonging from a Russian perspective. I was determined to have the knowledge that my daughters would leave behind them when they came to the United States. My autodidactic study became the means through which I could more fully appreciate the sovereignty of God in my daughters\u27 lives. My first sense of Russian kinship was found in a passage of Russian literature. When I picked up an English copy of Anna Karenina that had been left in our Russian host’s home, the description of Anna’s son’s “delicious sleepy warmth and fragrance that is only found in children,” resonated with me very strongly. Only that week, while visiting her in the orphanage, I had discovered the calming scent of Sophie’s hair. Since our trips to Moscow, I have read historical accounts of the sufferings and experiences of my daughter\u27s predecessors, but the most poignant accounts were recorded by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago. Through my readings, I learned of the tragic beauty of the Russian experience, and that has produced a profound thankfulness in me for the way God has redeemed my daughters’ lives

Controlling Fast Chaos in Delay Dynamical Systems

We introduce a novel approach for controlling fast chaos in time-delay dynamical systems and use it to control a chaotic photonic device with a characteristic time scale of ~12 ns. Our approach is a prescription for how to implement existing chaos control algorithms in a way that exploits the system's inherent time-delay and allows control even in the presence of substantial control-loop latency (the finite time it takes signals to propagate through the components in the controller). This research paves the way for applications exploiting fast control of chaos, such as chaos-based communication schemes and stabilizing the behavior of ultrafast lasers.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Physical Review Letter

Relactation: A Phenomenological Approach

Relactation: A Phenomenological Approach Abstract Background: Human breast milk is uniquely suited to the human infant’s nutritional needs. Breast milk is a live substance with immunological and anti-inflammatory properties that protect against a host of illnesses and diseases for both mothers and children.1 Research shows that mothers without reliable perceived support, access to breastfeeding support groups, lactation specialists, or support from family may lack the confidence to breastfeed or may discontinue breastfeeding before the recommended amount of time.2 Relactation is the process of re-establishing a breast milk supply that has diminished or ceased. Reasons women relactate include untimely weaning, separation of mother and infant due to premature birth or illnesses, infant is unable to tolerate artificial infant milks, or natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes.3,4 A mother needs access to knowledgeable healthcare professionals who can assist her with the process of relactation. She also needs to have support from family, friends, and providers that can encourage and empower her to successfully relactate. Objective: To explore the lived experiences of women living in Montana who chose to attempt relactation. Methods: This qualitative research study focused on describing and interpreting the lived experiences of women who attempted relactation using a phenomenological approach, which makes no assumptions about the outcome, nor guides the participant to talk about any specific aspects of their experience. To ensure this unadulterated approach, interviews were completely unstructured. Participants were encouraged to describe the experience in their own words, and to talk about the issues that were important to them. This is the basis of a true phenomenological approach. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed by the researcher and assistant. Interviews ranged from thirty minutes to two hours in length. Eight interviews were conducted in person, in a place of the participant’s choice which was usually in their home. Two were completed via telephone. A qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the data.5 The essence of IPA lies in its analytical focus, which directs attention towards the participants’ attempts to make sense of their experience. IPA is an iterative and inductive method which draws upon different processes such as line by line analysis of experiential claims, concerns, and understandings, identification of emergent patterns, coded data, participant’s psychological knowledge about what it might mean to have these experiences, and the development of a structure or frame which illustrates the relationships between themes.5,6 Results: An overarching theme that could have impacted the initial breastfeeding experience, and furthered the need for relactation, was having a difficult baby. Examples of being difficult included colic, latching issues, or a lack of bonding felt by the participant. Conclusion: Participants in this study all had one thing in common- they described their babies as difficult; either with latching, nursing because of excessive crying, or difficult to care for because the maternal-child bond was absent. All participants were surprised at how difficult breastfeeding was, and rightly so; they all had non-typical breastfeeding experiences. Women need to share their experiences instead of be ashamed of them, and they might realize many others have bumps in the road to breastfeeding. Well Established: Relactation is a process for re-establishing a breast milk supply when it has decreased or diminished. Reasons for relactation include, but aren’t limited to: untimely weaning, separation of mother and infant, inability to tolerate artificial infant milks, or natural disasters. Newly Expressed: This study provides insight into the lived experience of relactation and gives a voice to women who have attempted the process. While the general protocol for assisting a woman is well documented, this study highlights an emotional depiction of the experience described from the findings. 1. Lawrence RA, Lawrence RM. Breastfeeding: A Guide for the Medical Professions. Maryland Heights, MO: Elsevier Mosby Publication; 2011. 2. Lauwers J, Swisher A. Counseling the Nursing Mother: A Lactation Consultant’s Guide. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning; 2011. 3. Wiggins PK. 911 Breastfeeding. Mothering. 2007;145:64-69. 4. American Academy of Pediatrics. Infant nutrition during a disaster, breastfeeding and other options. http://www.aap.org. Accessed May 25th, 2013. 5. Smith JA, Flowers P, Larkin M. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method, and Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2013. 6. Smith JA. Hermeneutics, Human Sciences, and Health: Linking Theory and Practice. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2007;2:3-11

Correction: what potential has tobacco control for reducing health inequalities? The New Zealand situation

This is a correction article

Type‐I interferons suppress microglial production of the lymphoid chemokine, CXCL13

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108063/1/glia22692.pd

Controlled Quantum Secret Sharing

We present a new protocol in which a secret multiqubit quantum state $\ket{\Psi}$ is shared by $n$ players and $m$ controllers, where $\ket{\Psi}$ is the encoding state of a quantum secret sharing scheme. The players may be considered as field agents responsible for carrying out a task, using the secret information encrypted in $\ket{\Psi}$, while the controllers are superiors who decide if and when the task should be carried out and who to do it. Our protocol only requires ancillary Bell states and Bell-basis measurements.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figure, RevTeX4; published version with minor change

Data sharing: not as simple as it seems

In recent years there has been a major change on the part of funders, particularly in North America, so that data sharing is now considered to be the norm rather than the exception. We believe that data sharing is a good idea. However, we also believe that it is inappropriate to prescribe exactly when or how researchers should preserve and share data, since these issues are highly specific to each study, the nature of the data collected, who is requesting it, and what they intend to do with it. The level of ethical concern will vary according to the nature of the information, and the way in which it is collected - analyses of anonymised hospital admission records may carry a quite different ethical burden than analyses of potentially identifiable health information collected directly from the study participants. It is striking that most discussions about data sharing focus almost exclusively on issues of ownership (by the researchers or the funders) and efficiency (on the part of the funders). There is usually little discussion of the ethical issues involved in data sharing, and its implications for the study participants. Obtaining prior informed consent from the participants does not solve this problem, unless the informed consent process makes it completely clear what is being proposed, in which case most study participants would not agree. Thus, the undoubted benefits of data sharing does not remove the obligations and responsibilities that the original investigators hold for the people they invited to participate in the study