Optimal purifications and fidelity for displaced thermal states

We evaluate the Uhlmann fidelity between two one-mode displaced thermal states as the maximal probability transition between appropriate purifications of the given states. The optimal purifications defining the fidelity are proved to be two-mode displaced Gaussian states.Comment: published versio

Optimization of an Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting Device

This paper presents the modeling and optimization of an electromagnetic-based generator for generating power from ambient vibrations. Basic equations describing such generators are presented and the conditions for maximum power generation are described. Two-centimeter scale prototype generators, which consist of magnets suspended on a beam vibrating relative to a coil, have been built and tested. The measured power and modeled results are compared. It is shown that the experimental results confirm the optimization theory

The Ins and Outs of TAPBPR.

Peptide presentation on MHC class I molecules (MHC-I) is central to mounting effective antiviral and antitumoral immune responses. The tapasin-related protein TAPBPR is an MHC-I peptide editor which shapes the final peptide repertoire displayed on the cell surface. Here, we review recent findings which further elucidate the mechanisms by which TAPBPR performs peptide editing on a molecular level, and how glycosylation on MHC-I influences the interaction with TAPBPR and the peptide loading complex. We also explore how the function of TAPBPR can be utilized to promote exogenous peptide loading directly onto plasma-membrane expressed MHC-I. This has led to the development of new assays to investigate TAPBPR-mediated peptide editing and uncovered translational opportunities of utilizing TAPBPR to treat human disease.Wellcom

Steps to Better Cardiovascular Health: How Many Steps Does It Take to Achieve Good Health and How Confident Are We in This Number?

Pedometers and other types of step-counting devices are growing in popularity with both researchers and practitioners. The focus of this article is on describing the most recent pedometer-related advances in terms of cardiovascular health. The emergent body of evidence suggests that pedometer-determined physical activity is related to a number of cardiovascular health outcomes and that intervention participants can realize modest changes in body mass index and blood pressure. Taking into consideration individual baseline values, tailored messages congruent with public health recommendations should promote incremental increases in steps/day on the order of an extra 3,000 to 4,000 (approximately 30 min) of at least moderate intensity and taken in at least 10-minute bouts. Additional health benefits accrue with greater increases. Of course, even more benefits are possible from engaging in vigorous physical activity, but this seems less appealing for most people. Pedometer-based guidelines are not intended to supplant existing public health recommendations, but rather supplement them

Semantic Rule Based Program Monitoring

Program monitoring aims at making sure the functionalities of the software are always correctly performed during runtime. Semantic Web provides a context enriched framework for data representation and manipulation. This paper proposed the use of ontological rules and reasoning engines to monitor the dynamic behaviours of computer systems in handling of exceptional circumstances, both positive and negative, that occur at runtime within the software processes. A prototype framework was proposed on how to integrate the rule based monitoring technique together with the targeted system. To validate the proposed solution, a light control system case study together with the Unity game engine were used to develop a simulation environment for the evaluation purpose. Compared to existing solutions, the approach outlined can provide an effective software behavioural monitoring outcome

Use of smartphones for detecting diabetic retinopathy: a protocol for a scoping review of diagnostic test accuracy studies

Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common microvascular complication of diabetes mellitus and the leading cause of impaired vision in adults worldwide. Early detection and treatment for DR could improve patient outcomes. Traditional methods of detecting DR include the gold standard Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) seven standard fields fundus photography, ophthalmoscopy and slit-lamp biomicroscopy. These modalities can be expensive, difficult to access and require involvement of specialised healthcare professionals. With the development of mobile phone technology, there is a growing interest in their use for DR identification as this approach is potentially more affordable, accessible and easier to use. Smartphones can be employed in a variety of ways for ophthalmoscopy including the use of smartphone camera, various attachments and artificial intelligence for obtaining and grading of retinal images. The aim of this scoping review is to determine the diagnostic test accuracy of various smartphone ophthalmoscopy approaches for detecting DR in diabetic patients. Methods and analysis: We will perform an electronic search of MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane Library for literature published from 2000 onwards. Two reviewers will independently analyse studies for eligibility and assess study quality using the QUADAS-2 tool. Data for a 2⨉2 contingency table will be extracted. If possible, we will pool sensitivity and specificity data using the random-effects model and construct a summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve. In case of high heterogeneity, we will present the findings narratively. Subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis will be performed where appropriate. Ethics and dissemination: This scoping review aims to provide an overview of smartphone ophthalmoscopy in DR identification. It will present findings on the accuracy of smartphone ophthalmoscopy in detecting DR, identify gaps in the literature and provide recommendations for future research. This review does not require ethical approval as we will not collect primary data

A utilitarian antagonist: the zombie in popular video games

This article takes as its starting point the prevalence of the zombie in video games. I argue that, although the zombie games often superficially resemble filmic texts in their use of aesthetic and narrative, they must be understood, less as a set of conventions and thematic metaphors in the way that the zombie text has been read in film and television scholarship, and more as a utilisation of the zombie as a utilitarian antagonist that facilitates and permits the pleasures of violence and fantasy in video game play. Beginning with the Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead series of games I examine the way that games necessarily update the notion zombie as mass antagonist via the need to vary gameplay activity through different styles of adversary for players. At the same time I will demonstrate that, far from simply being the province of the survival horror genre, the zombie appears across an array of game forms, game cultures and game productions. The zombie highlights the participatory nature of game culture in the array of zombie 'mods' that users create to transform existing games into zombie based games, in particular in relation to titles such as the Call of Duty series. At the other end of the production spectrum the zombie features heavily in the little studied area of online flash games where the zombie can be found in a variety of game genres and forms. The zombie here often operates as a pastiche of popular zombie narratives in survival games (The Last Stand), parodic engagements with zombie conventions (Jetpacks and Zombies) or play with the notion of zombie pandemics (the Infectionator games). Here I situate the zombie game as a aesthetic genre that works to provide an easily understandable context for such interactive genres as survival horror, text adventures, shooting games, physics games and driving games, with the popularity of these enough to drive numerous dedicated hosting and link sites such as zombiegames.net. The pastiche element of these games extends into gamers social engagement with games. Online debates over the the appropriate actions or preparation for a zombie holocaust are commonplace on the internet in such spaces as Zombieresearch.net. Whilst many of these sites feature decidedly tongue in cheek engagement with the notion of the zombie apocalypse, the users of fora for games like Left 4 Dead and Dead Island tend to debate this directly in the terms of the games themselves, discussing their relative merits or realism. Some of these games also highlight the specific pleasures of identifying the zombie as protagonist of sorts. In discussing this I will return to online gaming and the Left 4 Dead games in which players may compete online as part of the zombie horde. Such games raise major questions for the issues of identification and immersion that are said to be at the centre of the game experience. I will also explore the parodic pleasures of many flash games that situate the player in the role of spreading zombie infections. Throughout this article I aim to demonstrate that the zombie in game culture is less a cultural metaphor than a combination of utilitarian antagonist and a persistent aesthetic; a means of providing style or pleasure to many games that relies on the intertextual and flexible nature of the zombie as popular cultural phenomenon

Differences in Online Social Media Mavens: the Gender Gap

Consumer Behavior experts have acknowledged the significant impact market mavens play in the dissemination and acceptance of new products in the market place. The emergence of online social media mavens has only recently been recognized. Based on traditional patterns of behavior and Internet usage it could be assumed the predictable demographics of the social media maven would be male, young, educated and with an above average income. This study investigated these traditional assumptions and discovered unique differences in online social media mavens. In order to determine potential Social Media Mavens, this research looked beyond usage of social media and instead at who was communicating with others about social media both in the form of recommending and encouraging the usage of social media. Results indicate the gender dominance of males is leveling, signaling the potential of females to drive social media acceptance and usage to ultimately reign as Online Social Media Mavens

Weak Poisson structures on infinite dimensional manifolds and hamiltonian actions

We introduce a notion of a weak Poisson structure on a manifold $M$ modeled on a locally convex space. This is done by specifying a Poisson bracket on a subalgebra \cA \subeq C^\infty(M) which has to satisfy a non-degeneracy condition (the differentials of elements of \cA separate tangent vectors) and we postulate the existence of smooth Hamiltonian vector fields. Motivated by applications to Hamiltonian actions, we focus on affine Poisson spaces which include in particular the linear and affine Poisson structures on duals of locally convex Lie algebras. As an interesting byproduct of our approach, we can associate to an invariant symmetric bilinear form $\kappa$ on a Lie algebra \g and a $\kappa$-skew-symmetric derivation $D$ a weak affine Poisson structure on \g itself. This leads naturally to a concept of a Hamiltonian $G$-action on a weak Poisson manifold with a \g-valued momentum map and hence to a generalization of quasi-hamiltonian group actions