New Slant on the EPR-Bell Experiment

The best case for thinking that quantum mechanics is nonlocal rests on Bell’s Theorem, and later results of the same kind. However, the correlations characteristic of EPR-Bell (EPRB) experiments also arise in familiar cases elsewhere in QM, where the two measurements involved are timelike rather than spacelike separated; and in which the correlations are usually assumed to have a local causal explanation, requiring no action-at-a-distance. It is interesting to ask how this is possible, in the light of Bell’s Theorem. We investigate this question, and present two options. Either (i) the new cases are nonlocal, too, in which case action-at-a-distance is more widespread in QM than has previously been appreciated (and does not depend on entanglement, as usually construed); or (ii) the means of avoiding action-at-a-distance in the new cases extends in a natural way to EPRB, removing action-at-a-distance in these cases, too. There is a third option, viz., that the new cases are strongly disanalogous to EPRB. But this option requires an argument, so far missing, that the physical world breaks the symmetries which otherwise support the analogy. In the absence of such an argument, the orthodox combination of views – action-at-a-distance in EPRB, but local causality in its timelike analogue – is less well established than it is usually assumed to be

UK Renal Registry 18th Annual Report : Chapter 12 Epidemiology of Reported Infections amongst Patients Receiving Dialysis for Established Renal Failure in England 2013 to 2014: a Joint Report from Public Health England and the UK Renal Registry

From 1st May 2013 to 30th April 2014 there were 35 episodes of Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemia in established renal failure patients on dialysis. This is now fairly stable year-on-year equating to a rate of 0.15 episodes per 100 dialysis patient years, following an initial decline in rates from 4.0 episodes per 100 dialysis patient years in 2005 when reporting began. Methicillin sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) bacteraemia rates were slightly higher this year at 2.23 per 100 dialysis patient years (compared with 1.59 episodes per 100 dialysis patient years last year) with 526 episodes of blood stream infection reported. In 2005, the first year this was reported, there were 1,114 MSSA bacteraemias in 54 centres. There were 247 Clostridium difficile infection episodes with a rate of 1.05 per 100 dialysis patient years, slightly higher than last year at 0.55 episodes per 100 dialysis patient years. Escherichia coli infections occurred at a rate of 1.49 per 100 dialysis patient years, very similar to the rate reported last year (1.32 episodes per 100 dialysis patient years). This report has utilised a new methodology to identify cases, linking all established renal failure cases known to the UK Renal Registry (UKRR) with all infections reported to Public Health England and avoids the need for the local microbiology team to flag the patient as a renal patient. This may have increased the reliability of diagnosis at the UKRR level. In each infection for which access data were collected, the presence of a central venous catheter appeared to correlate with increased risk.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Direct Iterative Reconstruction of Multiple Basis Material Images in Photon-counting Spectral CT

In this work, we perform direct material reconstruction from spectral CT data using a model based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) approach. Material concentrations are measured in volume fractions, whose total is constrained by a maximum of unity. A phantom containing a combination of 4 basis materials (water, iodine, gadolinium, calcium) was scanned using a photon-counting detector. Iodine and gadolinium were chosen because of their common use as contrast agents in CT imaging. Scan data was binned into 5 energy (keV) levels. Each energy bin in a calibration scan was reconstructed, allowing the linear attenuation coefficient of each material for every energy to be estimated by a least-squares fit to ground truth in the image domain. The resulting $5\times 4$ matrix, for $5$ energies and $4$ materials, is incorporated into the forward model in direct reconstruction of the $4$ basis material images with spatial and/or inter-material regularization. In reconstruction from a subsequent low-concentration scan, volume fractions within regions of interest (ROIs) are found to be close to the ground truth. This work is meant to lay the foundation for further work with phantoms including spatially coincident mixtures of contrast materials and/or contrast agents in widely varying concentrations, molecular imaging from animal scans, and eventually clinical applications

Massively parallel single-molecule manipulation using centrifugal force

Precise manipulation of single molecules has already led to remarkable insights in physics, chemistry, biology and medicine. However, widespread adoption of single-molecule techniques has been impeded by equipment cost and the laborious nature of making measurements one molecule at a time. We have solved these issues with a new approach: massively parallel single-molecule force measurements using centrifugal force. This approach is realized in a novel instrument that we call the Centrifuge Force Microscope (CFM), in which objects in an orbiting sample are subjected to a calibration-free, macroscopically uniform force-field while their micro-to-nanoscopic motions are observed. We demonstrate high-throughput single-molecule force spectroscopy with this technique by performing thousands of rupture experiments in parallel, characterizing force-dependent unbinding kinetics of an antibody-antigen pair in minutes rather than days. Additionally, we verify the force accuracy of the instrument by measuring the well-established DNA overstretching transition at 66 $\pm$ 3 pN. With significant benefits in efficiency, cost, simplicity, and versatility, "single-molecule centrifugation" has the potential to revolutionize single-molecule experimentation, and open access to a wider range of researchers and experimental systems.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Beef improvement terminology

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Sundry Papers I

Since its creation two years ago, the Center for International Education has devoted most of its energy to building a viable entity and to starting new programs. This collection of papers represents an attempt to begin to consolidate and analyze our efforts and includes some of the first results of the Center\u27s programs and adaptations of new approaches to problems in international education. The papers reflect the diversity of topics and techniques which characterizes the Center. They are reproduced for the purpose of communicating with others interested in the field, rather than representing traditional academic-style research efforts. We hope the availability of this publication will give incentive to other Center members immersed in innovative programs to share their results. The five papers also reflect the Center\u27s three major thrusts: cross-cultural training, the teaching of non-western studies in US schools, and education for national development. Hartwell and Blackman explore one aspect of cross-cultural training in their work in microteaching with teachers in Navaho schools. Grant and Shuey tout two methods of making non-western studies more effective, by using foreign students and by employing film as a tool for understanding other cultures. Higginson and Hoxeng, both of whom are interested in out-of-school education, examine training schemes now being used in the Caribbean and in Mexico. DR

Naked singularity formation in the collapse of a spherical cloud of counterrotating particles

We investigate collapse of a spherical cloud of counter-rotating particles. An explicit solution is given using an elliptic integral. If the specific angular momentum $L(r)=O(r^2)$ at $r\to 0$, no central singularity occurs. With $L(r)$ like that, there is a finite region around the center that bounces. On the other hand, if the order of $L(r)$ is higher than that, a central singularity occurs. In marginally bound collapse with $L(r)=4F(r)$, a naked singularity occurs, where $F(r)$ is the Misner-Sharp mass. The solution for this case is expressed by elementary functions. For $4 <L/F<\infty$ at $r\to0$, there is a finite region around the center that bounces and a naked singularity occurs. For $0 \le L/F< 4$ at $r\to0$, there is no such region. The results suggests that rotation may play a crucial role on the final fate of collapse.Comment: 6 pages, Accepted for Publication as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review D, Some Minor Correction