Flipping quantum coins

Coin flipping is a cryptographic primitive in which two distrustful parties wish to generate a random bit in order to choose between two alternatives. This task is impossible to realize when it relies solely on the asynchronous exchange of classical bits: one dishonest player has complete control over the final outcome. It is only when coin flipping is supplemented with quantum communication that this problem can be alleviated, although partial bias remains. Unfortunately, practical systems are subject to loss of quantum data, which restores complete or nearly complete bias in previous protocols. We report herein on the first implementation of a quantum coin-flipping protocol that is impervious to loss. Moreover, in the presence of unavoidable experimental noise, we propose to use this protocol sequentially to implement many coin flips, which guarantees that a cheater unwillingly reveals asymptotically, through an increased error rate, how many outcomes have been fixed. Hence, we demonstrate for the first time the possibility of flipping coins in a realistic setting. Flipping quantum coins thereby joins quantum key distribution as one of the few currently practical applications of quantum communication. We anticipate our findings to be useful for various cryptographic protocols and other applications, such as an online casino, in which a possibly unlimited number of coin flips has to be performed and where each player is free to decide at any time whether to continue playing or not.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Cell surface properties of Pseudomonas stutzeri in the process of diesel oil biodegradation

Pseudomonas stutzeri, isolated from crude oil-contaminated soil, was used to degrade diesel oil. Of three surfactants, 120 mg rhamnolipids 1−1 significantly increased degradation of diesel oil giving 88% loss after 14 days compared to 54% loss without the surfactant. The system with rhamnolipids was characterised by relatively high particle homogeneity. However, the addition of saponins to diesel oil caused the cells to aggregate (the polydispersity index: 0.542) and the biodegradation of diesel oil was only 46%. The cell yield was 0.22 g l−1

Relationship between site of oesophageal cancer and areca chewing and smoking in Taiwan

Among 309 male patients, those who had heavily consumed betel and tobacco were more likely than nonchewers (OR = 2. 91; 95% CI = 1.36-6.25) and nonsmokers (OR = 2.49; 95% CI = 1.02-6.08) to develop cancer in the upper and middle third of the oesophagus, respectively; the effects of alcohol did not dominate in any third

Systematic review of safety checklists for use by medical care teams in acute hospital settings - limited evidence of effectiveness

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patient safety is a fundamental component of good quality health care. Checklists have been proposed as a method of improving patient safety. This systematic review, asked "In acute hospital settings, would the use of safety checklists applied by medical care teams, compared to not using checklists, improve patient safety?"</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and EMBASE for randomised controlled trials published in English before September 2009. Studies were selected and appraised by two reviewers independently in consultation with colleagues, using inclusion, exclusion and appraisal criteria established a priori.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nine cohort studies with historical controls studies from four hospital care settings were included-intensive care unit, emergency department, surgery, and acute care. The studies used a variety of designs of safety checklists, and implemented them in different ways, however most incorporated an educational component to teach the staff how to use the checklist. The studies assessed outcomes occurring a few weeks to a maximum of 12 months post-implementation, and these outcomes were diverse.</p> <p>The studies were generally of low to moderate quality and of low levels of evidence, with all but one of the studies containing a high risk of bias.</p> <p>The results of these studies suggest some improvements in patient safety arising from use of safety checklists, but these were not consistent across all studies or for all outcomes. Some studies showed no difference in outcomes between checklist use and standard care without a checklist. Due to the variations in setting, checklist design, educational training given, and outcomes measured, it was unfeasible to accurately summarise any trends across all studies.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The included studies suggest some benefits of using safety checklists to improve protocol adherence and patient safety, but due to the risk of bias in these studies, their results should be interpreted with caution. More high quality and studies, are needed to enable confident conclusions about the effectiveness of safety checklists in acute hospital settings.</p

Residents' perceptions of a night float system

Background. A Night Float (NF) system has been implemented by many institutions to address increasing concerns about residents' work hours. The purpose of our study was to examine the perceptions of residents towards a NF system. Methods. A 115-item questionnaire was developed to assess residents' perceptions of the NF rotation as compared with a regular call month. The categories included patient care, education, medical errors, and overall satisfaction. Internal Medicine housestaff (post-graduate years 1-3) from three hospital settings at the University of Pittsburgh completed the questionnaire. Results. The response rate was 90% (n = 149). Of these, 74 had completed the NF rotation. The housestaff felt that the quality of patient care was improved because of NF (41% agreed and 18% disagreed). A majority also felt that better care was provided by a rested physician in spite of being less familiar with the patient (46% agreed and 21% disagreed). Most felt that there was less emphasis on education (65%) and more emphasis on service (52%) during NF. Overall, the residents felt more rested during their call months (83%) and strongly supported the 80-hour workweek requirement (77%). Conclusion. Housestaff felt that the overall quality of patient care was improved by a NF system. The perceived improved quality of care by a rested physician coupled with a perceived decrease in the emphasis on education may have significant implications in housestaff training. © 2009 Jasti et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Having a lot of a good thing: multiple important group memberships as a source of self-esteem.

Copyright: © 2015 Jetten et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedMembership in important social groups can promote a positive identity. We propose and test an identity resource model in which personal self-esteem is boosted by membership in additional important social groups. Belonging to multiple important group memberships predicts personal self-esteem in children (Study 1a), older adults (Study 1b), and former residents of a homeless shelter (Study 1c). Study 2 shows that the effects of multiple important group memberships on personal self-esteem are not reducible to number of interpersonal ties. Studies 3a and 3b provide longitudinal evidence that multiple important group memberships predict personal self-esteem over time. Studies 4 and 5 show that collective self-esteem mediates this effect, suggesting that membership in multiple important groups boosts personal self-esteem because people take pride in, and derive meaning from, important group memberships. Discussion focuses on when and why important group memberships act as a social resource that fuels personal self-esteem.This study was supported by 1. Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT110100238) awarded to Jolanda Jetten (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 2. Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP110200437) to Jolanda Jetten and Genevieve Dingle (see http://www.arc.gov.au) 3. support from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being Program to Nyla Branscombe, S. Alexander Haslam, and Catherine Haslam (see http://www.cifar.ca)

Enforced PGC-1α expression promotes CD8 T cell fitness, memory formation and antitumor immunity.

Memory CD8 T cells can provide long-term protection against tumors, which depends on their enhanced proliferative capacity, self-renewal and unique metabolic rewiring to sustain cellular fitness. Specifically, memory CD8 T cells engage oxidative phosphorylation and fatty acid oxidation to fulfill their metabolic demands. In contrast, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) display severe metabolic defects, which may underlie their functional decline. Here, we show that overexpression of proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α), the master regulator of mitochondrial biogenesis (MB), favors CD8 T cell central memory formation rather than resident memory generation. PGC-1α-overexpressing CD8 T cells persist and mediate more robust recall responses to bacterial infection or peptide vaccination. Importantly, CD8 T cells with enhanced PGC-1α expression provide stronger antitumor immunity in a mouse melanoma model. Moreover, TILs overexpressing PGC-1α maintain higher mitochondrial activity and improved expansion when rechallenged in a tumor-free host. Altogether, our findings indicate that enforcing mitochondrial biogenesis promotes CD8 T cell memory formation, metabolic fitness, and antitumor immunity in vivo

Osteoporosis-related life habits and knowledge about osteoporosis among women in El Salvador: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder, characterized by reduced bone mass, deterioration of bone structure, increased bone fragility, and increased fracture risk. It is more frequent to find among women than men at a 4:1 ratio. Evidence suggests that to adopt changes on some life habits can prevent or delay development of osteoporosis. Several osteoporosis-risk factors have been confirmed in the US and western Europe, but in El Salvador there are neither reliable epidemiological statistics about this skeletal disorder nor studies addressing osteoporosis-risk factors in women. The aim of this study was to determinate the extent of osteoporosis knowledge, the levels of both daily calcium intake and weight-bearing physical activity, and the influence of several osteoporosis-risk factors on these variables in three age groups of Salvadorean women. METHODS: In this exploratory cross-sectional study, an osteoporosis knowledge assessment questionnaire incluiding a food frequency and a physical activity record section were used to collect data and it was delivered through a face-to-face interview. A convenience sample (n = 197) comprised of three groups of women aged 25–35 years, 36–49 years, and over 49 years was taken. Among-group comparisons of means were analyzed by two-way ANOVA. To determinate the overall influence of osteoporosis-risk factors, the multivariate analysis was used. RESULTS: Study results indicated that better educated women had more knowledge about osteoporosis than women with a low education level, regardless of age, even though this knowledge was rather fair. Older women got more weight-bearing physical activity at home and less at place of employment than reported by the younger women; however, neither group performed sufficient high-intensity WBPA to improve bone mass. Regardless of age, the most women consumed 60% or less than the Dietary Reference Intake of calcium and depend on household income, lactose intolerance and coffee rather than milk consumption. CONCLUSION: In summary, the majority of women in this study have modest knowledge on osteoporosis. The knowledge base is not linked to preventive health habits, including sufficient calcium intake and performance of weight-bearing physical activities. They are thus at increased risk for low bone mass

Targeted calcium influx boosts cytotoxic T lymphocyte function in the tumour microenvironment

Adoptive cell transfer utilizing tumour-targeting cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) is one of the most effective immunotherapies against haematological malignancies, but significant clinical success has not yet been achieved in solid tumours due in part to the strong immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment. Here, we show that suppression of CTL killing by CD4+CD25+Foxp+ regulatory T cell (Treg) is in part mediated by TGFβ-induced inhibition of inositol trisphosphate (IP3) production, leading to a decrease in T cell receptor (TCR)-dependent intracellular Ca2+ response. Highly selective optical control of Ca2+ signalling in adoptively transferred CTLs enhances T cell activation and IFN-γ production in vitro, leading to a significant reduction in tumour growth in mice. Altogether, our findings indicate that the targeted optogenetic stimulation of intracellular Ca2+ signal allows for the remote control of cytotoxic effector functions of adoptively transferred T cells with outstanding spatial resolution by boosting T cell immune responses at the tumour sites

Neonatal Gram Negative and Candida Sepsis Survival and Neurodevelopmental Outcome at the Corrected Age of 24 Months

Objectives: To evaluate the long term neurodevelopmental outcome of premature infants exposed to either gram- negative sepsis (GNS) or neonatal Candida sepsis (NCS), and to compare their outcome with premature infants without sepsis. Methods: Historical cohort study in a population of infants born at <30 weeks gestation and admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam during the period 1997-2007. Outcome of infants exposed to GNS or NCS and 120 randomly chosen uncomplicated controls (UC) from the same NICU were compared. Clinical data during hospitalization and neurodevelopmental outcome data (clinical neurological status; Bayley -test results and vision/hearing test results) at the corrected age of 24 months were collected. An association model with sepsis as the central determinant of either good or adverse outcome (death or severe developmental delay) was made, corrected for confounders using multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Of 1362 patients, 55 suffered from GNS and 29 suffered from NCS; cumulative incidence 4.2% and 2.2%, respectively. During the follow-up period the mortality rate was 34% for both GNS and NCS and 5% for UC. The adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) [95% CI] for adverse outcome in the GNS group compared to the NCS group was 1.4 [0.4-4.9]. The adjusted ORs [95% CI] for adverse outcome in the GNS and NCS groups compared to the UC group were 4.8 [1.5-15.9] and 3.2 [0.7-14.7], respectively. Conclusions: We found no statistically significant difference in outcome at the corrected age of 24 months between neonatal GNS and NCS cases. Suffering from either gram -negative or Candida sepsis increased the odds for adverse outcome compared with an uncomplicated neonatal period