Testing foundations of quantum mechanics with photons

The foundational ideas of quantum mechanics continue to give rise to counterintuitive theories and physical effects that are in conflict with a classical description of Nature. Experiments with light at the single photon level have historically been at the forefront of tests of fundamental quantum theory and new developments in photonics engineering continue to enable new experiments. Here we review recent photonic experiments to test two foundational themes in quantum mechanics: wave-particle duality, central to recent complementarity and delayed-choice experiments; and Bell nonlocality where recent theoretical and technological advances have allowed all controversial loopholes to be separately addressed in different photonics experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, published as a Nature Physics Insight review articl

Brief Online Self-help Exercises for Postnatal Women to Improve Mood: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVES: Giving birth and adjusting to a new baby can be difficult and stressful for new mothers. Negative mood may occur during this time and can affect women, their parenting and the infant's development. This pilot study evaluated a brief online self-help intervention designed to promote positive mood in mothers of babies and toddlers. METHODS: Women in the UK who had given birth within the previous 18 months were randomly allocated to the online self-help intervention (n = 40) or active comparison group exercise (n = 40) which was matched for time and structure. Mood was measured before and after the intervention. Acceptability was examined at the end of the trial. RESULTS: The self-help intervention was acceptable to the majority of women and significantly increased positive mood compared to the comparison condition. This effect persisted after controlling for self-esteem, anxiety and depression. These results suggest that a simple self-help intervention focused on changing beliefs about oneself as a mother can have an immediate impact on women's mood. CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Further research is need to see whether these improvements continue long-term and what processes underlie these improvements

The role of secretory leukocyte proteinase inhibitor and elafin (elastase-specific inhibitor/skin-derived antileukoprotease) as alarm antiproteinases in inflammatory lung disease

Secretory leukocyte proteinase inhibitor and elafin are two low-molecular-mass elastase inhibitors that are mainly synthesized locally at mucosal sites. It is thought that their physicochemical properties allow them to efficiently inhibit target enzymes, such as neutrophil elastase, released into the interstitium. Historically, in the lung, these inhibitors were first purified from secretions of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis. This suggested that they might be important in controlling excessive neutrophil elastase release in these pathologies. They are upregulated by 'alarm signals' such as bacterial lipopolysaccharides, and cytokines such as interleukin-1 and tumor necrosis factor and have been shown to be active against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, so that they have joined the growing list of antimicrobial 'defensin-like' peptides produced by the lung. Their site of synthesis and presumed functions make them very attractive candidates as potential therapeutic agents under conditions in which the excessive release of elastase by neutrophils might be detrimental. Because of its natural tropism for the lung, the use of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer is extremely promising in such applications

Accessible quantification of multiparticle entanglement

Entanglement is a key ingredient for quantum technologies and a fundamental signature of quantumness in a broad range of phenomena encompassing many-body physics, thermodynamics, cosmology and life sciences. For arbitrary multiparticle systems, entanglement quantification typically involves nontrivial optimisation problems, and it may require demanding tomographical techniques. Here, we develop an experimentally feasible approach to the evaluation of geometric measures of multiparticle entanglement. Our framework provides analytical results for particular classes of mixed states of N qubits, and computable lower bounds to global, partial, or genuine multiparticle entanglement of any general state. For global and partial entanglement, useful bounds are obtained with minimum effort, requiring local measurements in just three settings for any N. For genuine entanglement, a number of measurements scaling linearly with N are required. We demonstrate the power of our approach to estimate and quantify different types of multiparticle entanglement in a variety of N-qubit states useful for uantum information processing and recently engineered in laboratories with quantum optics and trapped ion setups

Comparative analysis of novel and conventional Hsp90 inhibitors on HIF activity and angiogenic potential in clear cell renal cell carcinoma: implications for clinical evaluation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Perturbing Hsp90 chaperone function targets hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) function in a von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) independent manner, and represents an approach to combat the contribution of HIF to cell renal carcinoma (CCRCC) progression. However, clinical trials with the prototypic Hsp90 inhibitor 17-AAG have been unsuccessful in halting the progression of advanced CCRCC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Here we evaluated a novel next generation small molecule Hsp90 inhibitor, EC154, against HIF isoforms and HIF-driven molecular and functional endpoints. The effects of EC154 were compared to those of the prototypic Hsp90 inhibitor 17-AAG and the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor LBH589.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The findings indicate that EC154 is a potent inhibitor of HIF, effective at doses 10-fold lower than 17-AAG. While EC154, 17-AAG and the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor LBH589 impaired HIF transcriptional activity, CCRCC cell motility, and angiogenesis; these effects did not correlate with their ability to diminish HIF protein expression. Further, our results illustrate the complexity of HIF targeting, in that although these agents suppressed HIF transcripts with differential dynamics, these effects were not predictive of drug efficacy in other relevant assays.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We provide evidence for EC154 targeting of HIF in CCRCC and for LBH589 acting as a suppressor of both HIF-1 and HIF-2 activity. We also demonstrate that 17-AAG and EC154, but not LBH589, can restore endothelial barrier function, highlighting a potentially new clinical application for Hsp90 inhibitors. Finally, given the discordance between HIF activity and protein expression, we conclude that HIF expression is not a reliable surrogate for HIF activity. Taken together, our findings emphasize the need to incorporate an integrated approach in evaluating Hsp90 inhibitors within the context of HIF suppression.</p

Assessing the Effects of Responsible Leadership and Ethical Conflict on Behavioral Intention

[[abstract]]This study develops a research model that elaborates how responsible leadership and ethical conflict influence employees from the perspectives of role theory and attachment theory. Its empirical results reveal that turnover intention indirectly relates to ethical conflict and responsible leadership via the mediating mechanisms of organizational identification and organizational uncertainty. At the same time, helping intention indirectly relates to ethical conflict and responsible leadership only through organizational identification. Finally, the managerial implications for international business and research limitations based on the empirical results are discussed.[[notice]]補正完

Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference