Coupling a single atomic quantum bit to a high finesse optical cavity

The quadrupole S$_{1/2}$ -- D$_{5/2}$ optical transition of a single trapped Ca$^+$ ion, well suited for encoding a quantum bit of information, is coherently coupled to the standing wave field of a high finesse cavity. The coupling is verified by observing the ion's response to both spatial and temporal variations of the intracavity field. We also achieve deterministic coupling of the cavity mode to the ion's vibrational state by selectively exciting vibrational state-changing transitions and by controlling the position of the ion in the standing wave field with nanometer-precision

Differing severities of acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF): Insights from the INPULSIS\uae trials

Background: Given the broad definition of an acute exacerbation of IPF, it is likely that acute exacerbations are heterogeneous in their aetiology, severity and clinical course. We used pooled data from the INPULSIS\uae trials of nintedanib versus placebo to investigate whether acute exacerbations reported as serious adverse events were associated with higher mortality than those reported as non-serious adverse events and to assess the effect of nintedanib on these types of events. Methods: Adverse events considered by an investigator to be an acute exacerbation were adjudicated as a confirmed acute exacerbation, suspected acute exacerbation, or not an acute exacerbation. Time to first investigator-reported acute exacerbation or confirmed/suspected acute exacerbation reported as a serious adverse event or non-serious adverse event over the 52-week treatment period was assessed post-hoc. Deaths were assessed based on data collected over the 52-week treatment period. Results: Of 63 patients who had 651 investigator-reported acute exacerbation, 48 (76.2%) had a first acute exacerbation reported as a serious adverse event. Thirty-six (3.4%) patients had 651 confirmed/suspected acute exacerbation, of whom 31 had a first event reported as a serious adverse event. Investigator-reported acute exacerbations reported as serious adverse events occurred in 23 patients in the nintedanib group and 26 in the placebo group. Confirmed/suspected acute exacerbations reported as serious adverse events occurred in 10 and 21 patients in these groups, respectively. Nintedanib significantly reduced the risk of a first acute exacerbation reported as a serious adverse event (HR 0.57 [95% CI: 0.32, 0.99]; p = 0.0476) and the risk of a first confirmed/suspected acute exacerbation reported as a serious adverse event (HR 0.30 [95% CI: 0.14, 0.64]; p = 0.0019) versus placebo. A higher proportion of patients with investigator-reported acute exacerbations reported as serious adverse events died than patients with acute exacerbations reported as non-serious adverse events (61.2% versus 7.1%). Conclusion: Different severities of acute exacerbation of IPF may exist. Acute exacerbations reported as serious adverse events in the INPULSIS\uae trials were associated with high mortality. Nintedanib significantly reduced the risk of acute exacerbations reported as serious adverse events. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01335464 and NCT01335477

Raman spectroscopy of a single ion coupled to a high-finesse cavity

We describe an ion-based cavity-QED system in which the internal dynamics of an atom is coupled to the modes of an optical cavity by vacuum-stimulated Raman transitions. We observe Raman spectra for different excitation polarizations and find quantitative agreement with theoretical simulations. Residual motion of the ion introduces motional sidebands in the Raman spectrum and leads to ion delocalization. The system offers prospects for cavity-assisted resolved-sideband ground-state cooling and coherent manipulation of ions and photons.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Coherence of qubits based on single Ca+^+ ions

Two-level ionic systems, where quantum information is encoded in long lived states (qubits), are discussed extensively for quantum information processing. We present a collection of measurements which characterize the stability of a qubit based on the $S_{1/2}$--$D_{5/2}$ transition of single $^{40}$Ca$^+$ ions in a linear Paul trap. We find coherence times of $\simeq$1 ms, discuss the main technical limitations and outline possible improvements.Comment: Proceedings of "Trapped charged particles and fundamental interactions" submitted to Journal of Physics B (IoP

A Minimal Intervention to Promote Smoke-Free Homes among 2-1-1 Callers: North Carolina Randomized Effectiveness Trial

This study examined the extent to which delivery of the minimal Smoke-Free Homes intervention by trained 2-1-1 information and referral specialists had an effect on the adoption of home smoking bans in low-income households. A randomized controlled trial was conducted among 2-1-1 callers (n = 500) assigned to control or intervention conditions. 2-1-1 information and referral specialists collected baseline data and delivered the intervention consisting of 3 mailings and 1 coaching call; university-based data collectors conducted follow-up interviews at 3 and 6 months post-baseline. Data were collected from June 2013 through July 2014. Participants were mostly female (87.2%), African American (61.4%), and smokers (76.6%). Participants assigned to the intervention condition were more likely than controls to report a full ban on smoking in the home at both 3- (38.1% vs 19.3%, p = < .001) and 6-month follow-up (43.2% vs 33.2%, p = .02). The longitudinal intent-to-treat analysis showed a significant intervention effect over time (OR = 1.31, p = .001), i.e. OR = 1.72 at 6 months. This study replicates prior findings showing the effectiveness of the minimal intervention to promote smoke-free homes in low-income households, and extends those findings by demonstrating they can be achieved when 2-1-1 information and referral specialists deliver the intervention. Findings offer support for this intervention as a generalizable and scalable model for reducing secondhand smoke exposure in homes

Controlled Functional Encryption

3École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne Motivated by privacy and usability requirements in various sce-narios where existing cryptographic tools (like secure multi-party computation and functional encryption) are not adequate, we in-troduce a new cryptographic tool called Controlled Functional En-cryption (C-FE). As in functional encryption, C-FE allows a user (client) to learn only certain functions of encrypted data, using keys obtained from an authority. However, we allow (and require) the client to send a fresh key request to the authority every time it wants to evaluate a function on a ciphertext. We obtain efficient solu-tions by carefully combining CCA2 secure public-key encryption (or rerandomizable RCCA secure public-key encryption, depend-ing on the nature of security desired) with Yao’s garbled circuit. Our main contributions in this work include developing and for-mally defining the notion of C-FE; designing theoretical and prac-tical constructions of C-FE schemes achieving these definitions for specific and general classes of functions; and evaluating the perfor-mance of our constructions on various application scenarios

Trapped ions in optical lattices for probing oscillator chain models

We show that a chain of trapped ions embedded in microtraps generated by an optical lattice can be used to study oscillator models related to dry friction and energy transport. Numerical calculations with realistic experimental parameters demonstrate that both static and dynamic properties of the ion chain change significantly as the optical lattice power is varied. Finally, we lay out an experimental scheme to use the spin degree of freedom to probe the phase space structure and quantum critical behavior of the ion chain

Impact of lung function and baseline clinical characteristics on patient-reported outcome measures in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease.

OBJECTIVE: The SENSCIS® trial demonstrated a significant reduction of lung function decline in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) treated with nintedanib, but no significant effect on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). To assess whether SSc/SSc-ILD severity and large changes in lung function correlate with HRQoL, a post-hoc analysis of SENSCIS®, aggregating treatment arms, was undertaken. METHODS: Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures (St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire [SGRQ], Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy [FACIT]-Dyspnoea, and Health Assessment Questionnaire-Disability Index [HAQ-DI], incorporating the Scleroderma Health Assessment Questionnaire visual analogue scale [SHAQ VAS]) at baseline and week 52 were assessed for associations to SSc-ILD severity. RESULTS: At baseline and at week 52, forced vital capacity (FVC) 30% fibrosis on high-resolution computed tomography at baseline demonstrated worse PRO measure scores at week 52. After 1 year, patients with a major (>10%) improvement/worsening in FVC demonstrated corresponding improvement/worsening in SGRQ and other PRO measures, significant for the SGRQ symptom domain (p< 0.001). CONCLUSION: Severe SSc-ILD and major deteriorations in lung function have important impacts on HRQoL. Treatments that slow lung function decline and prevent severe SSc-ILD are important to preserve HRQoL. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov, www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02597933

PU.1 controls fibroblast polarization and tissue fibrosis

Fibroblasts are polymorphic cells with pleiotropic roles in organ morphogenesis, tissue homeostasis and immune responses. In fibrotic diseases, fibroblasts synthesize abundant amounts of extracellular matrix, which induces scarring and organ failure. By contrast, a hallmark feature of fibroblasts in arthritis is degradation of the extracellular matrix because of the release of metalloproteinases and degrading enzymes, and subsequent tissue destruction. The mechanisms that drive these functionally opposing pro-fibrotic and pro-inflammatory phenotypes of fibroblasts remain unknown. Here we identify the transcription factor PU.1 as an essential regulator of the pro-fibrotic gene expression program. The interplay between transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms that normally control the expression of PU.1 expression is perturbed in various fibrotic diseases, resulting in the upregulation of PU.1, induction of fibrosis-associated gene sets and a phenotypic switch in extracellular matrix-producing pro-fibrotic fibroblasts. By contrast, pharmacological and genetic inactivation of PU.1 disrupts the fibrotic network and enables reprogramming of fibrotic fibroblasts into resting fibroblasts, leading to regression of fibrosis in several organs