The socioeconomic burden of SLE.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, relapsing-remitting, multisystemic autoimmune inflammatory disorder that predominantly affects women of childbearing age. Much has been written about the clinical course and long-term damage associated with SLE, as well as the reduced life expectancy of patients with this condition. In addition, studies have emphasized the socioeconomic and psychosocial impact of SLE, although the monetary cost of caring for patients with the disorder has only been evaluated in a modest number of studies and a restricted number of countries. SLE has a negative impact on quality of life and is associated with high health-care costs and significant productivity loss. Factors associated with increased cost of SLE include long disease duration, high disease activity and damage, poor physical and mental health, and high education and employment levels. Similarly, high disease activity and damage, poor physical health, certain disease manifestations, as well as poor family and social support are associated with poor health-related quality of life outcomes. SLE incurs a great burden on both the patient and society. Long-term prospective studies should be encouraged to monitor the costs and psychosocial impact of this condition, and to better understand the factors that are associated with poor outcomes.postprin

Inflammatory Rheumatic Disorders and Bone

Inflammatory joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, as well as other rheumatic conditions, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and ankylosing spondylitis, comprise a heterogeneous group of joint disorders that are all associated with extra-articular side effects, including bone loss and fractures. The concept of osteoimmunology is based on growing insights into the links between the immune system and bone. The pathogenesis of osteoporosis in these patients is multifactorial. We have, more or less as an example, described this extensively for patients with SLE. High disease activity (inflammation) and immobility are common factors that substantially increase fracture risk in these patients, on top of the background fracture risk based on, among other factors, age, body mass index, and gender. Although no fracture reduction has been shown in intervention studies in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases, we present treatment options that might be useful for clinicians who are treating these patients

Repeated Quantum Error Detection in a Surface Code

The realization of quantum error correction is an essential ingredient for reaching the full potential of fault-tolerant universal quantum computation. Using a range of different schemes, logical qubits can be redundantly encoded in a set of physical qubits. One such scalable approach is based on the surface code. Here we experimentally implement its smallest viable instance, capable of repeatedly detecting any single error using seven superconducting qubits, four data qubits and three ancilla qubits. Using high-fidelity ancilla-based stabilizer measurements we initialize the cardinal states of the encoded logical qubit with an average logical fidelity of 96.1%. We then repeatedly check for errors using the stabilizer readout and observe that the logical quantum state is preserved with a lifetime and coherence time longer than those of any of the constituent qubits when no errors are detected. Our demonstration of error detection with its resulting enhancement of the conditioned logical qubit coherence times in a 7-qubit surface code is an important step indicating a promising route towards the realization of quantum error correction in the surface code.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure