Emerging treatments in the management of bipolar disorder – focus on risperidone long acting injection

Bipolar disorder is a life-long psychiatric illness characterized by a high frequency of relapses and substantial societal costs. Almost half of the patients are prescribed second generation antipsychotics for treatment of manic states, or as the maintenance therapy. Risperidone long acting injection (RLAI) as a monotherapy or as adjunctive therapy to lithium or valproate for the maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder was approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in United States in May 2009. In this review we will consider the aspects of pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, metabolism, safety and tolerability, and clinical trials focusing on the efficacy of RLAI in bipolar disorder. The patients’ perspective and attitudes to long-acting injections will also be discussed

Thermal conductivity of textile reinforcements for composites

Thermal conductivity data for dry carbon fibre fabrics are required for modelling heat transfer during composites manufacturing processes; however, very few published data are available. This article reports in-plane and through-thickness thermal conductivities measured as a function of fibre volume fraction ( Vf) for non-crimp and twill carbon reinforcement fabrics, three-dimensional weaves and reinforcement stacks assembled with one-sided carbon stitch. Composites made from these reinforcements and glass fibre fabrics are also measured. Clear trends are observed and the effects of Vf, de-bulking and vacuum are quantified along with orthotropy ratios. Limited differences between the conductivity of dry glass and carbon fibre fabrics in the through-thickness direction are reported. An unexpected trend in the relationship between that quantity and Vf is explained summarily through simple simulations

Observation of squeezed light with 10dB quantum noise reduction

Squeezing of light's quantum noise requires temporal rearranging of photons. This again corresponds to creation of quantum correlations between individual photons. Squeezed light is a non-classical manifestation of light with great potential in high-precision quantum measurements, for example in the detection of gravitational waves. Equally promising applications have been proposed in quantum communication. However, after 20 years of intensive research doubts arose whether strong squeezing can ever be realized as required for eminent applications. Here we show experimentally that strong squeezing of light's quantum noise is possible. We reached a benchmark squeezing factor of 10 in power (10dB). Thorough analysis reveals that even higher squeezing factors will be feasible in our setup.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Experimental characterization of frequency dependent squeezed light

We report on the demonstration of broadband squeezed laser beams that show a frequency dependent orientation of the squeezing ellipse. Carrier frequency as well as quadrature angle were stably locked to a reference laser beam at 1064nm. This frequency dependent squeezing was characterized in terms of noise power spectra and contour plots of Wigner functions. The later were measured by quantum state tomography. Our tomograph allowed a stable lock to a local oscillator beam for arbitrary quadrature angles with one degree precision. Frequency dependent orientations of the squeezing ellipse are necessary for squeezed states of light to provide a broadband sensitivity improvement in third generation gravitational wave interferometers. We consider the application of our system to long baseline interferometers such as a future squeezed light upgraded GEO600 detector.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Demonstrating various quantum effects with two entangled laser beams

We report on the preparation of entangled two mode squeezed states of yet unseen quality. Based on a measurement of the covariance matrix we found a violation of the Reid and Drummond EPR-criterion at a value of only 0.36\pm0.03 compared to the threshold of 1. Furthermore, quantum state tomography was used to extract a single photon Fock state solely based on homodyne detection, demonstrating the strong quantum features of this pair of laser-beams. The probability for a single photon in this ensemble measurement exceeded 2/3

Quantum characterization of bipartite Gaussian states

Gaussian bipartite states are basic tools for the realization of quantum information protocols with continuous variables. Their complete characterization is obtained by the reconstruction of the corresponding covariance matrix. Here we describe in details and experimentally demonstrate a robust and reliable method to fully characterize bipartite optical Gaussian states by means of a single homodyne detector. We have successfully applied our method to the bipartite states generated by a sub-threshold type-II optical parametric oscillator which produces a pair of thermal cross-polarized entangled CW frequency degenerate beams. The method provide a reliable reconstruction of the covariance matrix and allows to retrieve all the physical information about the state under investigation. These includes observable quantities, as energy and squeezing, as well as non observable ones as purity, entropy and entanglement. Our procedure also includes advanced tests for Gaussianity of the state and, overall, represents a powerful tool to study bipartite Gaussian state from the generation stage to the detection one

Displacement-enhanced entanglement distillation of single-mode-squeezed entangled states

It has been shown that entanglement distillation of Gaussian entangled states by means of local photon subtraction can be improved by local Gaussian transformations. Here we show that a similar effect can be expected for the distillation of an asymmetric Gaussian entangled state that is produced by a single squeezed beam. We show that for low initial entanglement, our largely simplified protocol generates more entanglement than previous proposed protocols. Furthermore, we show that the distillation scheme also works efficiently on decohered entangled states as well as with a practical photon subtraction setup.Comment: 11 pages; added material on quadrature variance and the influence of loss for v

The Possibilities of Tolerance: Intercultural Dialogue in a Multicultural Europe

Tolerance is everywhere. The Council of Europe endeavours to build it, schools are required to teach it, and neighbours are asked to extend it. It features in citizenship ceremonies, city-marketing campaigns, and religious texts and is attached to a variety of different objects, people, and behaviours. Yet despite its ubiquitous circulation as a moral good, critiques of tolerance as a way of relating have called for its rejection in favour of alternative projects such as respect and equality. In this paper I contextualise recent critiques and ask what possibilities remain for a politics of tolerance in multicultural Europe. In so doing, I argue that critiques are insufficiently attuned to the different contexts in which tolerance becomes productive and offer a starting point for further empirical research on its embodied practice. Using an example of dialogue, I argue that tolerance can be intrinsic to the development of alternative relations when positioned as part of an ongoing struggle to multiply ways of thinking and acting. I finish by reflecting on the relationship between tolerance, agonism, and dialogue, to outline a more pragmatic politics of difference, arguing that it is not enough to call for alternative projects without attending to the difficult and incremental learning that such projects demand