2,771 research outputs found
EPR Steering Inequalities from Entropic Uncertainty Relations
We use entropic uncertainty relations to formulate inequalities that witness
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering correlations in diverse quantum systems.
We then use these inequalities to formulate symmetric EPR-steering inequalities
using the mutual information. We explore the differing natures of the
correlations captured by one-way and symmetric steering inequalities, and
examine the possibility of exclusive one-way steerability in two-qubit states.
Furthermore, we show that steering inequalities can be extended to generalized
positive operator valued measures (POVMs), and we also derive hybrid-steering
inequalities between alternate degrees of freedom.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Quality of life in patients with intermittent claudication
© 2017, The Author(s). Background: Intermittent claudication (IC) is a common condition that causes pain in the lower limbs when walking and has been shown to severely impact the quality of life (QoL) of patients. The QoL is therefore often regarded as an important measure in clinical trials investigating intermittent claudication. To date, no consensus exits on the type of life questionnaire to be used. This review aims to examine the QoL questionnaires used in trials investigating peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Material and methods: A systematic review of randomised clinical trials including a primary analysis of QoL via questionnaire was performed. Trials involving patients with diagnosed PAD were included (either clinically or by questionnaire). Any trial which had QoL as the primary outcome data was included with no limit being placed on the type of questionnaire used. Results: The search yielded a total of 1845 articles of which 31 were deemed appropriate for inclusion in the review. In total, 14 different QoL questionnaires were used across 31 studies. Of the questionnaires 24.06% were missing at least one domain when reported in the results of the study. Mean standard deviation varied widely based on the domain reported, particularly within the SF36. Discussion: Despite previous recommendations for Europewide standardisation of quality of life assessment, to date no such tool exists. This review demonstrated that a number of different questionnaires remain in use, that their completion is often inadequate and that further evidence-based guidelines on QoL assessment are required to guide future research
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Rotational 3D Printing of Sensor Devices using Reactive Ink Chemistries
This paper charts progress in three key areas of a project supported by both UK
government and UK industry to manufacture novel sensor devices using rotary 3D printing
technology and innovative ink chemistries; (1) the development of an STL file slicing algorithm
that returns constant Z height 2D contour data at a resolution that matches the given print head
setup, allowing digital images to be generated of the correct size without the need for scaling;
(2) the development of image transformation algorithms which allow images to be printed at
higher resolutions using tilted print heads and; (3) the formulation of multi part reaction inks
which combine and react on the substrate to form solid material layers with a finite thickness. A
Direct Light Projection (DLP) technique demonstrated the robustness of the slice data by
constructing fine detailed three dimensional test pieces which were comparable to identical parts
built in an identical way from slice data obtained using commercial software. Material systems
currently under investigation include plaster, stiff polyamides and epoxy polymers and
conductive metallic’s. Early experimental results show conductivities of silver approaching
1.42x105 Siemens/m.Mechanical Engineerin
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British research in accounting and finance (2001–2007): the 2008 research assessment exercise
No abstract available
Percolative shunting on electrified surface
The surface discharge of electrified dielectrics at high humidity is
considered. The percolative nature of charge transport in electrets is
established. Particular attention is given to the phenomena of adsorption and
nucleation of electrically conducting phase in the cause of percolation cluster
growth on electrified surface. The critical index of the correlation lenght for
percolation cluster is found, and its value is in good agreement with the known
theoretical estimations.Comment: 4 pages with 1 figure, revtex, published in Tech. Phys. Lett. 25
(1999) 877-879 with one additional figur
Reachability in Higher-Order-Counters
Higher-order counter automata (\HOCS) can be either seen as a restriction of
higher-order pushdown automata (\HOPS) to a unary stack alphabet, or as an
extension of counter automata to higher levels. We distinguish two principal
kinds of \HOCS: those that can test whether the topmost counter value is zero
and those which cannot.
We show that control-state reachability for level \HOCS with -test is
complete for \mbox{}-fold exponential space; leaving out the -test
leads to completeness for \mbox{}-fold exponential time. Restricting
\HOCS (without -test) to level , we prove that global (forward or
backward) reachability analysis is \PTIME-complete. This enhances the known
result for pushdown systems which are subsumed by level \HOCS without
-test.
We transfer our results to the formal language setting. Assuming that \PTIME
\subsetneq \PSPACE \subsetneq \mathbf{EXPTIME}, we apply proof ideas of
Engelfriet and conclude that the hierarchies of languages of \HOPS and of \HOCS
form strictly interleaving hierarchies. Interestingly, Engelfriet's
constructions also allow to conclude immediately that the hierarchy of
collapsible pushdown languages is strict level-by-level due to the existing
complexity results for reachability on collapsible pushdown graphs. This
answers an open question independently asked by Parys and by Kobayashi.Comment: Version with Full Proofs of a paper that appears at MFCS 201
Advances in startercultures and cultured foods
With 2005 retail sales close to $4.8 million, cultured dairy products are driving the growth of dairy foods consumption. Starter cultures are of great industrial significance in that they play a vital role in the manufacturing, flavor, and texture development of fermented dairy foods. Furthermore, additional interest in starter bacteria has been generated because of the data accumulating on the potential health benefits of these organisms. Today, starter cultures for fermented foods are developed mainly by design rather than by the traditional screening methods and trial and error. Advances in genetics and molecular biology have provided opportunities for genomic studies of these economically significant organisms and engineering of cultures that focuses on rational improvement of the industrially useful strain. Furthermore, much research has been published on the health benefits associated with ingesting cultured dairy foods and probiotics, particularly their role in modulating immune function. The aim of this review is to describe some of the major scientific advances made in starter and non-starter lactic acid bacteria during the past 10 yr, including genomic studies on dairy starter cultures, engineering of culture attributes, advances in phage control, developments in methods to enumerate lactic acid bacteria and probiotics in dairy foods, and the potential role of cultured dairy foods in modulation of immune function
Directed Percolation and Generalized Friendly Walkers
We show that the problem of directed percolation on an arbitrary lattice is
equivalent to the problem of m directed random walkers with rather general
attractive interactions, when suitably continued to m=0. In 1+1 dimensions,
this is dual to a model of interacting steps on a vicinal surface. A similar
correspondence with interacting self-avoiding walks is constructed for
isotropic percolation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let
Incomplete Incorporation of Tandem Subunits in Recombinant Neuronal Nicotinic Receptors
Tandem constructs are increasingly being used to restrict the composition of recombinant multimeric channels. It is therefore important to assess not only whether such approaches give functional channels, but also whether such channels completely incorporate the subunit tandems. We have addressed this question for neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, using a channel mutation as a reporter for subunit incorporation. We prepared tandem constructs of nicotinic receptors by linking α (α2–α4, α6) and β (β2, β4) subunits by a short linker of eight glutamine residues. Robust functional expression in oocytes was observed for several tandems (β4_α2, β4_α3, β4_α4, and β2_α4) when coexpressed with the corresponding β monomer subunit. All tandems expressed when injected alone, except for β4_α3, which produced functional channels only together with β4 monomer and was chosen for further characterization. These channels produced from β4_α3 tandem constructs plus β4 monomer were identical with receptors expressed from monomer α3 and β4 constructs in acetylcholine sensitivity and in the number of α and β subunits incorporated in the channel gate. However, separately mutating the β subunit in either the monomer or the tandem revealed that tandem-expressed channels are heterogeneous. Only a proportion of these channels contained as expected two copies of β subunits from the tandem and one from the β monomer construct, whereas the rest incorporated two or three β monomers. Such inaccuracies in concatameric receptor assembly would not have been apparent with a standard functional characterization of the receptor. Extensive validation is needed for tandem-expressed receptors in the nicotinic superfamily
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