Method of extending hyperfine coherence times in Pr^3+:Y_2SiO_5

In this letter we present a method for increasing the coherence time of praseodymium hyperfine ground state transitions in Pr^3+:Y_2SiO_5 by the application of a specific external magnetic field. The magnitude and angle of the external field is applied such that the Zeeman splitting of a hyperfine transition is at a critical point in three dimensions, making the first order Zeeman shift vanishingly small for the transition. This reduces the influence of the magnetic interactions between the praseodymium ions and the spins in the host lattice on the transition frequency. Using this method a phase memory time of 82ms was observed, a value two orders of magnitude greater than previously reported. It is shown that the residual dephasing is amenable quantum error correction

Pain, Physical and Social Functioning, and Quality of Life in Individuals with Multiple Hereditary Exostoses in the Netherlands

Background: This study aimed to assess pain and quality of life in a large cohort of patients with multiple hereditary exostoses. Methods: All 322 known patients with multiple hereditary exostoses in the Netherlands were asked to participate. An age-specific questionnaire was sent to children (less than eighteen years old) and adults. The questionnaire focused on pain, daily activities, and school and/or professional situation. Adults also filled out the RAND-36 questionnaire.Results were statistically analyzed with use of the SPSS 15.0 software and with the chi-square test and multiple logistic regression. A p value of <0.05 was regarded as significant. Results: Two hundred and eighty-three patients (88%), including 184 adults (65%) and ninety-nine children (35%), completed the questionnaire. Multiple hereditary exostoses resulted in various physical and social consequences. The majority of adults (119) were employed; however, thirty-three (28%) had changed jobs because of the symptoms of multiple hereditary exostoses and twenty-five (21%) required adjustments in their working environment. Of the sixty-five adults who were not employed, thirteen were medically unfit to work. Of eighty-five children attending school, forty-five (53%) experienced problems at school. The symptoms of multiple hereditary exostoses caused twenty-seven children (27%) and eighty-five adults (46%) to stop participating in sporting activities. Pain was the greatest problem, with sixty-two children (63%) and 152 adults (83%) who reported recent pain. On multivariate analysis, pain in adults was correlated most significantly with age and problems at work, and pain in children was correlated with the perception of the disease and problems at school. Adult patients with multiple hereditary exostoses had a lower quality of life than the Dutch reference groups, with lower scores on six of eight RAND-36 subscales. Conclusions: Our study confirms that multiple hereditary exostoses is a chronic disease causing a profound impact on quality of life. The results suggest that pain is not the only problem associated with multiple hereditary exostoses, as it has an extensive influence on daily activities, as well as on social and psychological well-being, causing significant disability

Intact, Commercial Lithium-Polymer Batteries: Spatially Resolved Grating-Based Interferometry Imaging, Bragg Edge Imaging, And Neutron Diffraction

We survey several neutron imaging and diffraction methods for non-destructive testing and evaluation of intact, commercial lithium-ion batteries. Specifically, far-field interferometry was explored as an option to probe a wide range of autocorrelation lengths within the batteries via neutron imaging. The dark-field interferometry images change remarkably from fresh to worn batteries, and from charged to discharged batteries. When attempting to search for visual evidence of battery degradation, neutron Talbot-Lau grating interferometry exposed battery layering and particle scattering through dark-field imaging. Bragg edge imaging also reveals battery wear and state of charge. Neutron diffraction observed chemical changes between fresh and worn, charged and discharged batteries. However, the utility of these methods, for commercial batteries, is dependent upon battery size and shape, with 19 to 43 mAh prismatic batteries proving most convenient for these experimental methods. This study reports some of the first spatially resolved, small angle scattering (dark-field) images showing battery degradation

Does Migration Make You Happy?:A Longitudinal Study of Internal Migration and Subjective Well-Being

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (RES-625-28-0001). This project is part of the ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC). Financial support from the Marie Curie programme under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / Career Integration Grant n. PCIG10-GA-2011-303728 (CIG Grant NBHCHOICE, Neighbourhood choice, neighbourhood sorting, and neighbourhood effects).The majority of quantitative studies on the consequences of internal migration focus almost exclusively on the labour-market outcomes and the material well-being of migrants. We investigate whether individuals who migrate within the UK become happier after the move than they were before, and whether the effect is permanent or transient. Using life-satisfaction responses from twelve waves of the British Household Panel Survey and employing a fixed-effects model, we derive a temporal pattern of migrants’ subjective well-being around the time of the migration event. Our findings make an original contribution by revealing that, on average, migration is preceded by a period when individuals experience a significant decline in happiness for a variety of reasons, including changes in personal living arrangements. Migration itself causes a boost in happiness, and brings people back to their initial levels. The research contributes, therefore, to advancing an understanding of migration in relation to set-point theory. Perhaps surprisingly, long-distance migrants are at least as happy as short-distance migrants despite the higher social and psychological costs involved. The findings of this paper add to the pressure to retheorize migration within a conceptual framework that accounts for social well-being from a life-course perspective.PostprintPeer reviewe

Two-Dimensional Spectroscopy of Extended Molecular Systems: Applications to Energy Transport and Relaxation in an α-Helix

A simulation study of the coupled dynamics of amide I and amide II vibrations in an α-helix dissolved in water shows that two-dimensional (2D) infrared spectroscopy may be used to disentangle the energy transport along the helix through each of these modes from the energy relaxation between them. Time scales for both types of processes are obtained. Using polarization-dependent 2D spectroscopy is an important ingredient in the method we propose. The method may also be applied to other two-band systems, both in the infrared (collective vibrations) and the visible (excitons) parts of the spectrum.

Are routinely collected NHS administrative records suitable for endpoint identification in clinical trials? Evidence from the West of Scotland coronary prevention study

Background: Routinely collected electronic patient records are already widely used in epidemiological research. In this work we investigated the potential for using them to identify endpoints in clinical trials.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods: The events recorded in the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS), a large clinical trial of pravastatin in middle-aged hypercholesterolaemic men in the 1990s, were compared with those in the record-linked deaths and hospitalisations records routinely collected in Scotland.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Results: We matched 99% of fatal study events by date. We showed excellent matching (97%) of the causes of fatal endpoint events and good matching (.80% for first events) of the causes of nonfatal endpoint events with a slightly lower rate of mismatching of record linkage than study events (19% of first study myocardial infarctions (MI) and 4% of first record linkage MIs not matched as MI). We also investigated the matching of non-endpoint events and showed a good level of matching, with .78% of first stroke/TIA events being matched as stroke/TIA. The primary reasons for mismatches were record linkage data recording readmissions for procedures or previous events, differences between the diagnoses in the routinely collected data and the conclusions of the clinical trial expert adjudication committee, events occurring outside Scotland and therefore being missed by record linkage data, miscoding of cardiac events in hospitalisations data as ‘unspecified chest pain’, some general miscoding in the record linkage data and some record linkage errors.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusions: We conclude that routinely collected data could be used for recording cardiovascular endpoints in clinical trials and would give very similar results to rigorously collected clinical trial data, in countries with unified health systems such as Scotland. The endpoint types would need to be carefully thought through and an expert endpoint adjudication committee should be involved.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

The Baryon asymmetry in the Standard Model with a low cut-off

We study the generation of the baryon asymmetry in a variant of the standard model, where the Higgs field is stabilized by a dimension-six interaction. Analyzing the one-loop potential, we find a strong first order electroweak phase transition for Higgs masses up to at least 170 GeV. Dimension-six operators induce also new sources of CP violation. We compute the baryon asymmetry in the WKB approximation. Novel source terms in the transport equations enhance the generated baryon asymmetry. For a wide range of parameters the model predicts a baryon asymmetry close to the observed value.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 6 figure

Coupled cavities for enhancing the cross-phase modulation in electromagnetically induced transparency

We propose an optical double-cavity resonator whose response to a signal is similar to that of an Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) medium. A combination of such a device with a four-level EIT medium can serve for achieving large cross-Kerr modulation of a probe field by a signal field. This would offer the possibility of building a quantum logic gate based on photonic qubits. We discuss the technical requirements that are necessary for realizing a probe-photon phase shift of Pi caused by a single-photon signal. The main difficulty is the requirement of an ultra-low reflectivity beamsplitter and to operate a sufficiently dense cool EIT medium in a cavity.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, REVTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. A (v2 - minor changes in discussion of experimental conditions