Experimental high-dimensional two-photon entanglement and violations of generalised Bell inequalities

Quantum entanglement plays a vital role in many quantum information and communication tasks. Entangled states of higher dimensional systems are of great interest due to the extended possibilities they provide. For example, they allow the realisation of new types of quantum information schemes that can offer higher information-density coding and greater resilience to errors than can be achieved with entangled two-dimensional systems. Closing the detection loophole in Bell test experiments is also more experimentally feasible when higher dimensional entangled systems are used. We have measured previously untested correlations between two photons to experimentally demonstrate high-dimensional entangled states. We obtain violations of Bell-type inequalities generalised to d-dimensional systems with up to d = 12. Furthermore, the violations are strong enough to indicate genuine 11-dimensional entanglement. Our experiments use photons entangled in orbital angular momentum (OAM), generated through spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC), and manipulated using computer controlled holograms

Understanding Governance: pathways to sustainability

The challenges of understanding the governance of dynamic social, technological and environmental systems, and their implications for sustainability and social justice, are addressed by this paper. Defined broadly as political and institutional relationships and processes, governance is central to the interactions between people, technology and environment; to how policy problems are defined and addressed, to how contested values and priorities are dealt with, and to who gains or loses. The paper suggests some key elements of a ‘pathways’ approach to understand the current governance of social-technological-ecological dynamics, and to inform new governance arrangements that might better meet sustainability goals and poorer people’s priorities. Drawing on a selective review of a vast literature on political systems, the paper identifies a number of key challenges and responses. These include recognising interactions and networks between multiple institutions, public, private and in civil society, across local and global scales; acknowledging poor people’s agency amidst power relations, and addressing the politics of knowledge, risk and uncertainty. Moreover, dealing with highly dynamic systems that different people ‘frame’ in different ways requires further moves to embrace the more recent insights of adaptive, deliberative and reflexive governance. Only by combining elements across these approaches in particular political-historical contexts, we suggest, can we make progress in understanding how governance might shape pathways to sustainability.ESR

Health in a Dynamic World

The world has faced a number of major health challenges over the past few decades. These include the resurgence of a number of infectious diseases, the HIV epidemic, periodic pollution disasters, the rising burden of chronic illness and the SARS outbreak. There is a growing realisation that the world’s population is interconnected and an associated concern about the possibility of global pandemics. Health has been rising up the political agenda in rich and poor countries. Governments and charitable foundations are increasingly willing to support initiatives for addressing health-related needs. The political concern about global health is creating major opportunities for improving the lives of poor people. It is also creating risks that poorly designed interventions will fail to achieve their objective or even have damaging consequences. This paper argues that we are approaching a major turning point in the organisation of national and global health systems. Its aim is to stimulate debate about how to support systems that take into account the complex interactions between ecology, technology and social organisation within which health problems arise and are addressed. Its primary concern is how best to ensure that the health systems that emerge from this period of change address the needs of the poor.ESR

3D Target Detection and Spectral Classification for Single-photon LiDAR Data

3D single-photon LiDAR imaging has an important role in many applications. However, full deployment of this modality will require the analysis of low signal to noise ratio target returns and a very high volume of data. This is particularly evident when imaging through obscurants or in high ambient background light conditions. This paper proposes a multiscale approach for 3D surface detection from the photon timing histogram to permit a significant reduction in data volume. The resulting surfaces are background-free and can be used to infer depth and reflectivity information about the target. We demonstrate this by proposing a hierarchical Bayesian model for 3D reconstruction and spectral classification of multispectral single-photon LiDAR data. The reconstruction method promotes spatial correlation between point-cloud estimates and uses a coordinate gradient descent algorithm for parameter estimation. Results on simulated and real data show the benefits of the proposed target detection and reconstruction approaches when compared to state-of-the-art processing algorithm

Long-range depth imaging using a single-photon detector array and non-local data fusion

The ability to measure and record high-resolution depth images at long stand-off distances is important for a wide range of applications, including connected and automotive vehicles, defense and security, and agriculture and mining. In LIDAR (light detection and ranging) applications, single-photon sensitive detection is an emerging approach, offering high sensitivity to light and picosecond temporal resolution, and consequently excellent surface-to-surface resolution. The use of large format CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) single-photon detector arrays provides high spatial resolution and allows the timing information to be acquired simultaneously across many pixels. In this work, we combine state-of-the-art single-photon detector array technology with non-local data fusion to generate high resolution three-dimensional depth information of long-range targets. The system is based on a visible pulsed illumination system at a wavelength of 670 nm and a 240 × 320 array sensor, achieving sub-centimeter precision in all three spatial dimensions at a distance of 150 meters. The non-local data fusion combines information from an optical image with sparse sampling of the single-photon array data, providing accurate depth information at low signature regions of the target

Synergistic anti-inflammatory activity of ginger and turmeric extracts in inhibiting lipopolysaccharide and interferon-γ-induced proinflammatory mediators

This study aims to investigate the combined anti-inflammatory activity of ginger and turmeric extracts. By comparing the activities of individual and combined extracts in lipopolysaccharide and interferon-gamma-induced murine RAW 264.7 cells, we demonstrated that ginger-turmeric combination was optimal at a specific ratio (5:2, w/w) in inhibiting nitric oxide, tumour necrosis factor and interleukin 6 with synergistic interaction (combination index < 1). The synergistic inhibitory effect on TNF was confirmed in human monocyte THP-1 cells. Ginger-turmeric combination (5:2, w/w) also upregulated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 activity and heme oxygenase-1 protein expression. Additionally, 6-shogaol, 8-shogaol, 10-shogaol and curcumin were the leading compounds in reducing major proinflammatory mediators and cytokines, and a simplified compound combination of 6-s, 10-s and curcumin showed the greatest potency in reducing LPS-induced NO production. Our study provides scientific evidence in support of the combined use of ginger and turmeric to alleviate inflammatory processes

Synergistic inhibition of pro-inflammatory pathways by ginger and turmeric extracts in RAW 264.7 cells

Synergy plays a prominent role in herbal medicines to increase potency and widen the therapeutic windows. The mechanism of synergy in herbal medicines is often associated with multi-targeted behavior and complex signaling pathways which are challenging to elucidate. This study aims to investigate the synergistic mechanism of a combination (GT) of ginger (G) and turmeric (T) extracts by exploring the modulatory activity in lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced inflammatory pathways and key molecular targets. A Bioplex ProTM mouse cytokine 23-plex assay was utilized to assess the broad anti-cytokine activity of GT in LPS and interferon (IFN)-gamma (both at 50 ng/mL)-activated RAW 264.7 cells. The inhibitory effects of individual and combined G and T on major proinflammatory mediators including nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin (IL)-6 were tested using Griess reagents and ELISA assays, respectively. Immunofluorescent staining and Western blot were used to investigate the modulatory effect of GT on key proteins in the LPS/TLR4 signaling transduction. The regulation of murine microRNA miR-155-5p was tested using real-time PCR. The IC50 value and combination index (CI) values were used to demonstrate potency and synergistic interaction, respectively. GT synergistically attenuated a range of pro-inflammatory mediators including inducible NO, major cytokines (TNF and IL-6) and secondary inflammatory cytokines (GM-CSF and MCP-1). GT significantly inhibited LPS-induced NF-kB p65 translocation, the activation of TLR4, TRAF6, and phosphorylation of JNK and c-JUN. Moreover, the suppressive effect of GT on each of the protein targets in this axis was stronger than that of the individual components. Real-time PCR analysis showed that GT suppressed miR-155-5p to a greater extent than G or T alone in LPS-stimulated cells. Our study demonstrates the synergistic mechanism of GT in downregulating LPS-induced proinflammatory pathways at the miRNA and protein levels. Our results establish a scientific basis for the combined application of G and T as an advanced therapeutic candidate in inflammatory diseases with broad and synergistic anti-inflammatory activity and multi-targeted mechanisms

Building institutions for an effective health system: lessons from China's experience with rural health reform

This paper is concerned with the management of health system changes aimed at substantially increasing the access to safe and effective health services. It argues that an effective health sector relies on trust-based relationships between users, providers and funders of health services, and that one of the major challenges governments face is to construct institutional arrangements within which these relationships can be embedded. It presents the case of China, which is implementing an ambitious health reform, drawing on a series of visits to rural counties by the author over a 10-year period. It illustrates how the development of reform strategies has been a response both to the challenges arising from the transition to a market economy and the result of actions by different actors, which have led to the gradual creation of increasingly complex institutions. The overall direction of change has been strongly influenced by the efforts made by the political leadership to manage a transition to a modern economy which provides at least some basic benefits to all. The paper concludes that the key lessons for other countries from China’s experience with health system reform are less about the detailed design of specific interventions than about its approach to the management of institution-building in a context of complexity and rapid change.ESR

Building institutions for health and health systems in contexts of rapid change

Many Asian countries are in the midst of multiple interconnected social, economic, demographic, technological, institutional and environmental transitions. These changes are having important impacts on health and well-being and on the capacity of health systems to respond to health-related problems. This paper focuses on the creation of institutions to overcome information asymmetry and encourage the provision of safe, effective and affordable health services in this context of complexity and rapid change. It presents a review of literature on different approaches to the analysis of the management of system development and institution-building. There is a general agreement that the outcome of an intervention depends a great deal on the way that a large number of agents respond. Their response is influenced by the institutional arrangements that mediate relationships between health sector actors and also by their understandings and expectations of how other actors will respond. The impact of a policy or specific intervention is difficult to predict and there is a substantial risk of unintended outcomes. This creates the need for an iterative learning approach in which widespread experimentation is encouraged, good and bad experiences are evaluated and policies are formulated on the basis of the lessons learned. This enables actors to learn their roles and responsibilities and the appropriate responses to new incentive structures. The paper concludes with an outline of the information needs of managers of health system change in societies in the midst of rapid development.ESR