16,420 research outputs found
Type 2 Innate Lymphoid Cells in Allergic Disease.
Type II innate lymphoid cells (ILC2) are a novel population of lineage-negative cells that produce high levels of Th2 cytokines IL-5 and IL-13. ILC2 are found in human respiratory and gastrointestinal tissue as well as in skin. Studies from mouse models of asthma and atopic dermatitis suggest a role for ILC2 in promoting allergic inflammation. The epithelial cytokines IL-25, IL-33, and TSLP, as well as the lipid mediator leukotriene D4, have been shown to potently activate ILC2 under specific conditions and supporting the notion that many separate pathways in allergic disease may result in stimulation of ILC2. Ongoing investigations are required to better characterize the relative contribution of ILC2 in allergic inflammation as well as mechanisms by which other cell types including conventional T cells regulate ILC2 survival, proliferation, and cytokine production. Importantly, therapeutic strategies to target ILC2 may reduce allergic inflammation in afflicted individuals. This review summarizes the development, surface marker profile, cytokine production, and upstream regulation of ILC2, and focuses on the role of ILC2 in common allergic diseases
Adaptive Phase Measurements in Linear Optical Quantum Computation
Photon counting induces an effective nonlinear optical phase shift on certain
states derived by linear optics from single photons. Although this no
nlinearity is nondeterministic, it is sufficient in principle to allow scalable
linear optics quantum computation (LOQC). The most obvious way to encode a
qubit optically is as a superposition of the vacuum and a single photon in one
mode -- so-called "single-rail" logic. Until now this approach was thought to
be prohibitively expensive (in resources) compared to "dual-rail" logic where a
qubit is stored by a photon across two modes. Here we attack this problem with
real-time feedback control, which can realize a quantum-limited phase
measurement on a single mode, as has been recently demonstrated experimentally.
We show that with this added measurement resource, the resource requirements
for single-rail LOQC are not substantially different from those of dual-rail
LOQC. In particular, with adaptive phase measurements an arbitrary qubit state
can be prepared deterministically
Fault-tolerant linear optical quantum computing with small-amplitude coherent states
Quantum computing using two optical coherent states as qubit basis states has
been suggested as an interesting alternative to single photon optical quantum
computing with lower physical resource overheads. These proposals have been
questioned as a practical way of performing quantum computing in the short term
due to the requirement of generating fragile diagonal states with large
coherent amplitudes. Here we show that by using a fault-tolerant error
correction scheme, one need only use relatively small coherent state amplitudes
() to achieve universal quantum computing. We study the effects
of small coherent state amplitude and photon loss on fault tolerance within the
error correction scheme using a Monte Carlo simulation and show the quantity of
resources used for the first level of encoding is orders of magnitude lower
than the best known single photon scheme. %We study this reigem using a Monte
Carlo simulation and incorporate %the effects of photon loss in this
simulation
Conditional Production of Superpositions of Coherent States with Inefficient Photon Detection
It is shown that a linear superposition of two macroscopically
distinguishable optical coherent states can be generated using a single photon
source and simple all-optical operations. Weak squeezing on a single photon,
beam mixing with an auxiliary coherent state, and photon detecting with
imperfect threshold detectors are enough to generate a coherent state
superposition in a free propagating optical field with a large coherent
amplitude () and high fidelity (). In contrast to all
previous schemes to generate such a state, our scheme does not need photon
number resolving measurements nor Kerr-type nonlinear interactions.
Furthermore, it is robust to detection inefficiency and exhibits some
resilience to photon production inefficiency.Comment: Some important new results added, to appear in Phys.Rev.A (Rapid
Communication
Modelling large motion events in fMRI studies of patients with epilepsy
EEG-correlated fMRI can provide localisation information on the generators of epileptiform discharges in patients with focal epilepsy. To increase the technique's clinical potential, it is important to consider ways of optimising the yield of each experiment while minimizing the risk of false-positive activation. Head motion can lead to severe image degradation and result in false-positive activation and is usually worse in patients than in healthy subjects. We performed general linear model fMRI data analysis on simultaneous EEG–fMRI data acquired in 34 cases with focal epilepsy. Signal changes associated with large inter-scan motion events (head jerks) were modelled using modified design matrices that include ‘scan nulling’ regressors. We evaluated the efficacy of this approach by mapping the proportion of the brain for which F-tests across the additional regressors were significant. In 95% of cases, there was a significant effect of motion in 50% of the brain or greater; for the scan nulling effect, the proportion was 36%; this effect was predominantly in the neocortex. We conclude that careful consideration of the motion-related effects in fMRI studies of patients with epilepsy is essential and that the proposed approach can be effective
Magnetic activity, differential rotation and dynamo action in the pulsating F9IV star KIC 5955122
We present photometric spot modeling of the nearly four-year long light-curve
of the Kepler target KIC 5955122 in terms of persisting dark circular surface
features. With a Bayesian technique, we produced a plausible surface map that
shows dozens of small spots. After some artifacts are removed, the residuals
are at \,mmag. The shortest rotational period found is days. The equator-to-pole extrapolated differential rotation is rad/d. The spots are roughly half as bright as the unperturbed stellar
photosphere. Spot latitudes are restricted to the zone latitude.
There is no indication for any near-pole spots. In addition, the p-mode
pulsations enabled us to determine the evolutionary status of the star, the
extension of the convective zone, and its radius and mass. We discuss the
possibility that the clear signature of active regions in the light curve of
the F9IV star KIC 5955122 is produced by a flux-transport dynamo action at the
base of the convection zone. In particular, we argue that this star has evolved
from an active to a quiet status during the Q0--Q16 period of observation, and
we predict, according to our dynamo model, that the characteristic activity
cycle is of the order of the solar one.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, to be published on A&
A systematic review of the applications of Expert Systems (ES) and machine learning (ML) in clinical urology.
BackgroundTesting a hypothesis for 'factors-outcome effect' is a common quest, but standard statistical regression analysis tools are rendered ineffective by data contaminated with too many noisy variables. Expert Systems (ES) can provide an alternative methodology in analysing data to identify variables with the highest correlation to the outcome. By applying their effective machine learning (ML) abilities, significant research time and costs can be saved. The study aims to systematically review the applications of ES in urological research and their methodological models for effective multi-variate analysis. Their domains, development and validity will be identified.MethodsThe PRISMA methodology was applied to formulate an effective method for data gathering and analysis. This study search included seven most relevant information sources: WEB OF SCIENCE, EMBASE, BIOSIS CITATION INDEX, SCOPUS, PUBMED, Google Scholar and MEDLINE. Eligible articles were included if they applied one of the known ML models for a clear urological research question involving multivariate analysis. Only articles with pertinent research methods in ES models were included. The analysed data included the system model, applications, input/output variables, target user, validation, and outcomes. Both ML models and the variable analysis were comparatively reported for each system.ResultsThe search identified n = 1087 articles from all databases and n = 712 were eligible for examination against inclusion criteria. A total of 168 systems were finally included and systematically analysed demonstrating a recent increase in uptake of ES in academic urology in particular artificial neural networks with 31 systems. Most of the systems were applied in urological oncology (prostate cancer = 15, bladder cancer = 13) where diagnostic, prognostic and survival predictor markers were investigated. Due to the heterogeneity of models and their statistical tests, a meta-analysis was not feasible.ConclusionES utility offers an effective ML potential and their applications in research have demonstrated a valid model for multi-variate analysis. The complexity of their development can challenge their uptake in urological clinics whilst the limitation of the statistical tools in this domain has created a gap for further research studies. Integration of computer scientists in academic units has promoted the use of ES in clinical urological research
Measuring measurement--disturbance relationships with weak values
Using formal definitions for measurement precision {\epsilon} and disturbance
(measurement backaction) {\eta}, Ozawa [Phys. Rev. A 67, 042105 (2003)] has
shown that Heisenberg's claimed relation between these quantities is false in
general. Here we show that the quantities introduced by Ozawa can be determined
experimentally, using no prior knowledge of the measurement under investigation
--- both quantities correspond to the root-mean-squared difference given by a
weak-valued probability distribution. We propose a simple three-qubit
experiment which would illustrate the failure of Heisenberg's
measurement--disturbance relation, and the validity of an alternative relation
proposed by Ozawa
Production of superpositions of coherent states in traveling optical fields with inefficient photon detection
We develop an all-optical scheme to generate superpositions of
macroscopically distinguishable coherent states in traveling optical fields. It
non-deterministically distills coherent state superpositions (CSSs) with large
amplitudes out of CSSs with small amplitudes using inefficient photon
detection. The small CSSs required to produce CSSs with larger amplitudes are
extremely well approximated by squeezed single photons. We discuss some
remarkable features of this scheme: it effectively purifies mixed initial
states emitted from inefficient single photon sources and boosts negativity of
Wigner functions of quantum states.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
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