Women's secure hospital services: national bed numbers and distribution.

A mapping exercise as part of a pathway study of women in secure psychiatric services in the England and Wales was conducted. It aimed to (i) establish the extent and range of secure service provision for women nationally and (ii) establish the present and future care needs and pathways of care of women mentally disordered offenders (MDO) currently in low, medium and enhanced medium secure care. The study identified 589 medium secure beds, 46 enhanced medium secure beds (WEMSS) and 990 low secure beds for women nationally. Of the 589 medium secure beds, the majority (309, 52%) are in the NHS and under half (280, 48%) are in the independent sector (IS). The distribution of low secure beds is in the opposite direction, the majority (745, 75%) being in the IS and 254 (25%) in the NHS. Medium secure provision for women has grown over the past decade, but comparative data for low secure provision are not available. Most women are now in single sex facilities although a small number of mixed sex units remain. The findings have implications for the future commissioning of secure services for women

Packaging of actin into Ebola virus VLPs

The actin cytoskeleton has been implicated in playing an important role assembly and budding of several RNA virus families including retroviruses and paramyxoviruses. In this report, we sought to determine whether actin is incorporated into Ebola VLPs, and thus may play a role in assembly and/or budding of Ebola virus. Our results indicated that actin and Ebola virus VP40 strongly co-localized in transfected cells as determined by confocal microscopy. In addition, actin was packaged into budding VP40 VLPs as determined by a functional budding assay and protease protection assay. Co-expression of a membrane-anchored form of Ebola virus GP enhanced the release of both VP40 and actin in VLPs. Lastly, disruption of the actin cytoskeleton with latrunculin-A suggests that actin may play a functional role in budding of VP40/GP VLPs. These data suggest that VP40 may interact with cellular actin, and that actin may play a role in assembly and/or budding of Ebola VLPs

High-fidelity quantum logic gates using trapped-ion hyperfine qubits

We demonstrate laser-driven two-qubit and single-qubit logic gates with fidelities 99.9(1)% and 99.9934(3)% respectively, significantly above the approximately 99% minimum threshold level required for fault-tolerant quantum computation, using qubits stored in hyperfine ground states of calcium-43 ions held in a room-temperature trap. We study the speed/fidelity trade-off for the two-qubit gate, for gate times between 3.8$\mu$s and 520$\mu$s, and develop a theoretical error model which is consistent with the data and which allows us to identify the principal technical sources of infidelity.Comment: 1 trap, 2 ions, 3 nines. Detailed write-up of arXiv:1406.5473 including single-qubit gate data als

Effect of Ebola virus proteins GP, NP and VP35 on VP40 VLP morphology

Recently we described a role for Ebola virus proteins, NP, GP, and VP35 in enhancement of VP40 VLP budding. To explore the possibility that VLP structure was altered by co-expression of EBOV proteins leading to the observed enhancement of VP40 VLP budding, we performed density gradient analysis as well as electron microscopy studies. Our data suggest that VP40 is the major determinant of VLP morphology, as co-expression of NP, GP and VP35 did not significantly change VLP density, length, and diameter. Ultra-structural changes were noted in the core of the VLPs when NP was co-expressed with VP40. Overall, these findings indicate that major changes in morphology of VP40 VLPs were likely not responsible for enhanced budding of VP40 VLPs in the presence of GP, NP and/or VP35

A microfabricated ion trap with integrated microwave circuitry

We describe the design, fabrication and testing of a surface-electrode ion trap, which incorporates microwave waveguides, resonators and coupling elements for the manipulation of trapped ion qubits using near-field microwaves. The trap is optimised to give a large microwave field gradient to allow state-dependent manipulation of the ions' motional degrees of freedom, the key to multiqubit entanglement. The microwave field near the centre of the trap is characterised by driving hyperfine transitions in a single laser-cooled 43Ca+ ion.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Functional characterization of Ebola virus L-domains using VSV recombinants

AbstractVSV recombinants containing the overlapping L-domain sequences from Ebola virus VP40 (PTAPPEY) were recovered by reverse-genetics. Replication kinetics of M40-WT, M40-P24L, and M40-Y30A were indistinguishable from VSV-WT in BHK-21 cells, whereas the double mutant (M40-P2728A) was defective in budding. Insertion of the Ebola L-domain region into VSV M protein was sufficient to alter the dependence on host proteins for efficient budding. Indeed, M40 recombinants containing a functional PTAP motif specifically incorporated endogenous tsg101 into budding virions and were dependent on tsg101 expression for efficient budding. Thus, VSV represents an excellent negative-sense RNA virus model for elucidating the functional aspects and diverse host interactions associated with the L-domains of Ebola virus

Antiviral Activity of Innate Immune Protein ISG15

The host innate immune response, including the production of type-I IFN, represents the primary line of defense against invading viral pathogens. Of the hundreds of IFN-stimulated genes (ISGs) discovered to date, ISG15 was one of the first identified and shown to encode a ubiquitin-like protein that functions, in part, as a modifier of protein function. Evidence implicating ISG15 as an innate immune protein with broad-spectrum antiviral activity continues to accumulate rapidly. This review will summarize recent findings on the innate antiviral activity of ISG15, with a focus on the interplay between ubiquitination and ISGylation pathways resulting in modulation of RNA virus assembly/budding. Indeed, ubiquitination is known to be proviral for some RNA viruses, whereas the parallel ISGylation pathway is known to be antiviral. A better understanding of the antiviral activities of ISG15 will enhance our fundamental knowledge of host innate responses to viral pathogens and may provide insight useful for the development of novel therapeutic approaches designed to enhance the immune response against such pathogens

High-fidelity preparation, gates, memory and readout of a trapped-ion quantum bit

We implement all single-qubit operations with fidelities significantly above the minimum threshold required for fault-tolerant quantum computing, using a trapped-ion qubit stored in hyperfine "atomic clock" states of $^{43}$Ca$^+$. We measure a combined qubit state preparation and single-shot readout fidelity of 99.93%, a memory coherence time of $T^*_2=50$ seconds, and an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9999%. These results are achieved in a room-temperature microfabricated surface trap, without the use of magnetic field shielding or dynamic decoupling techniques to overcome technical noise.Comment: Supplementary Information included. 6 nines, 7 figures, 8 page

Interweaving in hybrid methodologies

The paper will consider instances of the interweaving of theory and practice within drawing research, in order to suggest potential approaches to the development of hybrid methodologies in fine art practice-led research. The paper is written from the position of two current supervisors and creative research collaborators: Deborah Harty and Phil Sawdon (aka humhyphenhum from 2007), who historically were supervisee/supervisor. The paper will make reference to Harty's experience as a Ph.D. researcher undertaking practice-led research within a fine art context (completed 2010) and supervised by Sawdon. A discussion of Harty's hybrid methodology: action theoria, will provide an instance of the interweaving of theory and practice. Action theoria incorporates the cyclical and iterative process of action research – intention; action; review – with a process of theoria – the dialogue of both practice and theory's relationship to a given subject matter. Following this, the paper will discuss the interweaving of action theoria into humhyphenhum's collaborative research methodology: meaningful play. This interwoven methodology evolved during collaborative practice-led research projects from 2005 to the present. The paper will make reference to several of humhyphenhum's projects as a means to identify the interweaving of theory and practice within collaborative research. As current supervisors (2015), the paper will conclude with a discussion of how reflection on these experiences has informed our position as supervisors. We will consider, for example, how this has impacted on our ability, as individual supervisors, to offer insights into the interweaving of theory and practice, without defaulting to the position of compelling our supervisees to adopt our methodology