Opportunities for information sharing: case studies

Personal information provided to government and non-government service providers is highly sensitive. Appropriate collection, management and storage of personal information are critical elements to citizen trust in the public sector. However, misconceptions about the frameworks governing sharing personal information can impact on the coordination of services, case management and policy development.   The NSW Department of Premier & Cabinet engaged the Social Policy Research Centre to develop three case studies that identified the challenges to sharing information appropriately, and the opportunities for better personal information sharing between government agencies and non-government organisations. Improved sharing of personal information in these areas can support more effective policy development, leading to improved service delivery performance and coordination.   The Social Policy Research Centre identified the legislative and policy framework for each case study, conducted qualitative research on the interpretation of this framework, and developed three case study reports

Caps, apps and other mobile traps

This report outlines the major policy and legal issues on mobile phone ownership for children and young people

Rayleigh scattering, mode coupling, and optical loss in silicon microdisks

High refractive index contrast optical microdisk resonators fabricated from silicon-on-insulator wafers are studied using an external silica fiber taper waveguide as a wafer-scale optical probe. Measurements performed in the 1500 nm wavelength band show that these silicon microdisks can support whispering-gallery modes with quality factors as high as 5.2 x 10^5, limited by Rayleigh scattering from fabrication induced surface roughness. Microdisks with radii as small as 2.5 microns are studied, with measured quality factors as high as 4.7 x 10^5 for an optical mode volume of 5.3 cubic wavelengths in the material.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; contains minor correction to doublet splitting theor

lntracluster rearrangement of protonated nitric acid: Infrared spectroscopic studies of H^+(HNO_3)(H_2O)_n

Infrared spectra of clusters of protonated nitric acid and water exhibit a marked change with cluster size, indicating that an intracluster reaction occurs with sufficient solvation. In small clusters, H_2O binds to a nitronium ion core, but at a critical cluster size the NO^+_2 reacts. A lower bound of 174 kcal/mol is found for the proton affinity of HNO_3

Mild and moderate pre-dialysis chronic kidney disease is associated with increased coronary artery calcium.

BackgroundIt is increasingly evident that patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are more likely to die from heart disease than kidney failure. This study evaluated whether pre- dialysis CKD is an independent risk factor for coronary artery calcium (CAC).MethodsA total of 544 consecutive patients who underwent CAC scoring were analyzed. Eleven patients requiring hemodialysis were excluded. Patients were divided into three groups: normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (GFR > 90 mL/min/1.73 m²), mild CKD (90 ≥ GFR > 60 mL/min/1.73 m²), and moderate CKD (60 ≥ GFR > 30 mL/min/1.73 m²). Continuous and categorical variables were compared using analysis of variance and the χ² statistic. A multiple logistic regression model was used for detecting the association between total CAC score and GFR. An unadjusted model was used, followed by a second model adjusted for covariates known to be related to CAC. Another multivariable binary logistic model predicting the presence of CAC (>10) was performed and odds of incidence of CAC (>10) were calculated among the three GFR subgroups.ResultsAfter adjustment for covariates, patients with mild CKD had mean CAC scores 175 points higher than those with the referent normal GFR (P = 0.048), while those with moderate CKD had mean CAC scores 693 points higher than the referent (P < 0.001). After adjustment for covariates, patients with mild CKD were found to be 2.2 times more likely (95% confidence interval 1.3-3.7, P = 0.004) and patients with moderate CKD were 6.4 times more likely (95% confidence interval 2.9-14.3, P < 0.001) to have incident CAC compared with the group with normal GFR.ConclusionMild and moderate pre-dialysis CKD are independent risk factors for increased mean and incident CAC

Targeted genomic rearrangements using CRISPR/Cas technology

Genomic rearrangements are frequently observed in cancer cells but have been difficult to generate in a highly specific manner for functional analysis. Here we report the application of CRISPR/Cas technology to successfully generate several types of chromosomal rearrangements implicated as driver events in lung cancer, including the CD74-ROS1 translocation event and the EML4-ALK and KIF5B-RET inversion events. Our results demonstrate that Cas9-induced DNA breaks promote efficient rearrangement between pairs of targeted loci, providing a highly tractable approach for the study of genomic rearrangements

Low-control and robust quantum refrigerator and applications with electronic spins in diamond

We propose a general protocol for low-control refrigeration and thermometry of thermal qubits, which can be implemented using electronic spins in diamond. The refrigeration is implemented by a probe, consisting of a network of interacting spins. The protocol involves two operations: (i) free evolution of the probe; and (ii) a swap gate between one spin in the probe and the thermal qubit we wish to cool. We show that if the initial state of the probe falls within a suitable range, and the free evolution of the probe is both unital and conserves the excitation in the $z$-direction, then the cooling protocol will always succeed, with an efficiency that depends on the rate of spin dephasing and the swap gate fidelity. Furthermore, measuring the probe after it has cooled many qubits provides an estimate of their temperature. We provide a specific example where the probe is a Heisenberg spin chain, and suggest a physical implementation using electronic spins in diamond. Here the probe is constituted of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers, while the thermal qubits are dark spins. By using a novel pulse sequence, a chain of NV centers can be made to evolve according to a Heisenberg Hamiltonian. This proposal allows for a range of applications, such as NV-based nuclear magnetic resonance of photosensitive molecules kept in a dark spot on a sample, and it opens up possibilities for the study of quantum thermodynamics, environment-assisted sensing, and many-body physics