968 research outputs found
Experimental verification of entanglement generated in a plasmonic system
A core process in many quantum tasks is the generation of entanglement. It is
being actively studied in a variety of physical settings - from simple
bipartite systems to complex multipartite systems. In this work we
experimentally study the generation of bipartite entanglement in a nanophotonic
system. Entanglement is generated via the quantum interference of two surface
plasmon polaritons in a beamsplitter structure, i.e. utilising the
Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) effect, and its presence is verified using quantum state
tomography. The amount of entanglement is quantified by the concurrence and we
find values of up to 0.77 +/- 0.04. Verifying entanglement in the output state
from HOM interference is a nontrivial task and cannot be inferred from the
visibility alone. The techniques we use to verify entanglement could be applied
to other types of photonic system and therefore may be useful for the
characterisation of a range of different nanophotonic quantum devices.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Governance and human resources for health
Despite an increase in efforts to address shortage and performance of Human Resources for Health (HRH), HRH problems continue to hamper quality service delivery. We believe that the influence of governance is undervalued in addressing the HRH crisis, both globally and at country level. This thematic series has aimed to expand the evidence base on the role of governance in addressing the HRH crisis. The six articles comprising the series present a range of experiences. The articles report on governance in relation to developing a joint vision, building adherence and strengthening accountability, and on governance with respect to planning, implementation, and monitoring. Other governance issues warrant attention as well, such as corruption and transparency in decision-making in HRH policies and strategies. Acknowledging and dealing with governance should be part and parcel of HRH planning and implementation. To date, few experiences have been shared on improving governance for HRH policy making and implementation, and many questions remain unanswered. There is an urgent need to document experiences and for mutual learning
Learning SO(3) Equivariant Representations with Spherical CNNs
We address the problem of 3D rotation equivariance in convolutional neural
networks. 3D rotations have been a challenging nuisance in 3D classification
tasks requiring higher capacity and extended data augmentation in order to
tackle it. We model 3D data with multi-valued spherical functions and we
propose a novel spherical convolutional network that implements exact
convolutions on the sphere by realizing them in the spherical harmonic domain.
Resulting filters have local symmetry and are localized by enforcing smooth
spectra. We apply a novel pooling on the spectral domain and our operations are
independent of the underlying spherical resolution throughout the network. We
show that networks with much lower capacity and without requiring data
augmentation can exhibit performance comparable to the state of the art in
standard retrieval and classification benchmarks.Comment: Camera-ready. Accepted to ECCV'18 as oral presentatio
Observation of quantum interference in the plasmonic Hong-Ou-Mandel effect
We report direct evidence of the bosonic nature of surface plasmon polaritons
(SPPs) in a scattering-based beamsplitter. A parametric down-conversion source
is used to produce two indistinguishable photons, each of which is converted
into a SPP on a metal-stripe waveguide and then made to interact through a
semi-transparent Bragg mirror. In this plasmonic analog of the Hong-Ou-Mandel
experiment, we measure a coincidence dip with a visibility of 72%, a key
signature that SPPs are bosons and that quantum interference is clearly
involved.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Observation of Andreev Reflection Enhanced Shot Noise
We have experimentally investigated the quasiparticle shot noise in
NbN/MgO/NbN superconductor - insulator - superconductor tunnel junctions. The
observed shot noise is significantly larger than theoretically expected. We
attribute this to the occurrence of multiple Andreev reflection processes in
pinholes present in the MgO barrier. This mechanism causes the current to flow
in large charge quanta (Andreev clusters), with a voltage dependent average
value of m = 1+ 2 Delta/eV times the electron charge. Because of this charge
enhancement effect, the shot noise is increased by the factor m.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures include
RAMESES publication standards: realist syntheses
PMCID: PMC3558331This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Spironolactone and risk of upper gastrointestinal events: population based case-control study
OBJECTIVE: To confirm and quantify any association between spironolactone
and upper gastrointestinal bleeding and ulcers. DESIGN: Population based
case-control study. SETTING: A primary care information database in the
Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: All people on the database who were aged 18 or
more between 1 January 1996 and 30 September 2003. Patients with a history
of alcoholism or gastrointestinal cancer were excluded. Ten controls were
matched to each case of gastroduodenal ulcer or upper gastrointestinal
bleeding by age (year of birth), sex, and index date. MAIN OUTCOME
MEASURES: The occurrence of an upper gastrointestinal event (bleeding or
ulcers), adjusted for potential confounders with conditional logistic
regression analysis. RESULTS: Within the source population of 306 645
patients, 523 cases of gastric or duodenal ulcer or upper gastrointestinal
Increasing access to health workers in underserved areas: a conceptual framework for measuring results
Increasing access to health workers in underserved areas: a conceptual framework for measuring results
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