A Geospatial Analysis of CDC-funded HIV Prevention Programs for African Americans in the United States

Given the increase in HIV/AIDS infection rates among racial and ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans, this study was undertaken as part of a larger research effort to examine the distribution of HIV prevention services focusing on African American populations within the United States. Data were gathered via a national survey of community-based organizations (CBOs) funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A geocoded national database was constructed to identify, locate, and map these HIV prevention programs. A total of 1,020 CBOs responded to the survey, yielding a response rate of 70.3%. These CBOs administered a total of 3,028 HIV prevention programs. Data describing intervention types and persons served, combined with the address and service area of responding CBOs, were integrated with census data (2000) and analyzed by using a geographic information system (GIS). The results of our national level analysis show that HIV prevention services for African Americans have fair coverage where African Americans comprise a substantial proportion of the population in urban areas in northeastern states, but that HIV prevention services for African Americans are inadequately distributed in the southeastern states. A local-level analysis was conducted for Alabama, where 68% of HIV/AIDS cases are among African Americans. Specific interventions such as street and community outreach, health communications, and public information are fairly well provided to African Americans in more urban cities in Alabama, however, individual- and group-level interventions have poor coverage in rural areas where a large percentage of African-Americans live. Overall, our study illustrates that the use of GIS adds value when used with other data sources to provide prevention services that are accessible to the populations most in need

A frontline service? Nursery Schools as local community hubs in an era of austerity

Nursery Schools in the UK have been described as the ‘jewel in the crown’ of early years provision because of the quality of education and a wide range of other support services that they provide, particularly for children from socio-economically disadvantaged families and those with complex special educational needs (SEN). In this paper, we explore the role of Nursery Schools in the local community, arguing that they have been re/constructed as a frontline service in the context of austerity policies enacted in England over the past decade. The data presented in support of this argument arise from detailed interviews with 17 staff based in four Nursery Schools. Our data lead us to argue that, in the current context of austerity and cuts to a range of local services, Nursery Schools are filling welfare gaps for families by providing clothing, trips and food voucher advice to families. They are also supporting increasing numbers of SEN children and are described as a first point of contact with state-run services by many, especially minority ethnic and working-class families. We conclude by arguing that Nursery Schools’ funding must be protected so that they can continue to provide support to some of the most vulnerable children and their families in England

Remote capacitive sensing in two-dimension quantum-dot arrays

We investigate gate-defined quantum dots in silicon on insulator nanowire field-effect transistors fabricated using a foundry-compatible fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) process. A series of split gates wrapped over the silicon nanowire naturally produces a $2\times n$ bilinear array of quantum dots along a single nanowire. We begin by studying the capacitive coupling of quantum dots within such a 2$\times$2 array, and then show how such couplings can be extended across two parallel silicon nanowires coupled together by shared, electrically isolated, 'floating' electrodes. With one quantum dot operating as a single-electron-box sensor, the floating gate serves to enhance the charge sensitivity range, enabling it to detect charge state transitions in a separate silicon nanowire. By comparing measurements from multiple devices we illustrate the impact of the floating gate by quantifying both the charge sensitivity decay as a function of dot-sensor separation and configuration within the dual-nanowire structure.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 35 cites and supplementar

Graded-index optical fiber emulator of an interacting three-atom system: illumination control of particle statistics and classical non-separability

We show that a system of three trapped ultracold and strongly interacting atoms in one-dimension can be emulated using an optical fiber with a graded-index profile and thin metallic slabs. While the wave-nature of single quantum particles leads to direct and well known analogies with classical optics, for interacting many-particle systems with unrestricted statistics such analoga are not straightforward. Here we study the symmetries present in the fiber eigenstates by using discrete group theory and show that, by spatially modulating the incident field, one can select the atomic statistics, i.e., emulate a system of three bosons, fermions or two bosons or fermions plus an additional distinguishable particle. We also show that the optical system is able to produce classical non-separability resembling that found in the analogous atomic system.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

A Silicon Surface Code Architecture Resilient Against Leakage Errors

Spin qubits in silicon quantum dots are one of the most promising building blocks for large scale quantum computers thanks to their high qubit density and compatibility with the existing semiconductor technologies. High fidelity single-qubit gates exceeding the threshold of error correction codes like the surface code have been demonstrated, while two-qubit gates have reached 98\% fidelity and are improving rapidly. However, there are other types of error --- such as charge leakage and propagation --- that may occur in quantum dot arrays and which cannot be corrected by quantum error correction codes, making them potentially damaging even when their probability is small. We propose a surface code architecture for silicon quantum dot spin qubits that is robust against leakage errors by incorporating multi-electron mediator dots. Charge leakage in the qubit dots is transferred to the mediator dots via charge relaxation processes and then removed using charge reservoirs attached to the mediators. A stabiliser-check cycle, optimised for our hardware, then removes the correlations between the residual physical errors. Through simulations we obtain the surface code threshold for the charge leakage errors and show that in our architecture the damage due to charge leakage errors is reduced to a similar level to that of the usual depolarising gate noise. Spin leakage errors in our architecture are constrained to only ancilla qubits and can be removed during quantum error correction via reinitialisations of ancillae, which ensure the robustness of our architecture against spin leakage as well. Our use of an elongated mediator dots creates spaces throughout the quantum dot array for charge reservoirs, measuring devices and control gates, providing the scalability in the design

Ten simple rules for principled simulation modelling

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Topological properties of punctual Hilbert schemes of almost-complex fourfolds (I)

In this article, we study topological properties of Voisin's punctual Hilbert schemes of an almost-complex fourfold $X$. In this setting, we compute their Betti numbers and construct Nakajima operators. We also define tautological bundles associated with any complex bundle on $X$, which are shown to be canonical in $K$-theory

The re/constructed role of nursery schools as local community hubs in the current context of austerity

This Occasional Paper examines the re/constructed role of nursery schools’ in their local communities over the past decade. Our research explored the unique, social justice contribution that Nursery Schools make to the early years sector, in terms of educating children and supporting families from disadvantaged backgrounds. We define socio-economically disadvantaged families in our work as those whose parents are in receipt of state-provided benefits, and referred to hereafter as disadvantaged. The project focuses on Nursery Schools’ roles in reducing the disadvantage gap, through an examination of how staff in these schools see their own practice as improving disadvantaged children’s outcomes. Th research highlights some of the policy related context for this work, which may hinder practitioners in this aim. Our research confirmed that the role of the nursery school in supporting all children, but particularly those from socio-economically disadvantaged families has expanded considerably in the past decade as a direct consequence of austerity policies

Policy actors in a hostile environment: the views of staff in maintained nursery schools in England

© 2021 The Author(s). The nearly 400 maintained nursery schools in England are schools for children aged 2–4 years. They hold a unique position in offering state-funded provision for this age group, outside of a primary school environment, and are disproportionately located in areas of disadvantage [EE. 2020. Briefing Note: The Comprehensive Spending Review and Funding for Maintained Nursery Schools. Accessed 13 October 2020. https://early-education.org.uk/sites/default/files/Briefing%20note%20-%20CSR%20and%20maintained%20nursery%20schools%27%20funding.pdf]. While there have been policy-based attempts to reduce the impact of social deprivation on educational outcomes, we argue that education policy has created a hostile environment for nursery schools. This arises from the national strategies on funding, ‘free hours’ for parents, and staff qualifications, alongside social policy. Based on interview data with staff and leaders in four nursery schools, the paper explores the views of these teachers and discusses them as policy actors within a precarious environment, faced with possible closure. We explore their agency as they navigate this hostile terrain and their ways of maintaining their sense of professional pride and commitment to social justice.Brunel University London