3D Projection Sideband Cooling

We demonstrate 3D microwave projection sideband cooling of trapped, neutral atoms. The technique employs state-dependent potentials that enable microwave photons to drive vibration-number reducing transitions. The particular cooling sequence we employ uses minimal spontaneous emission, and works even for relatively weakly bound atoms. We cool 76% of atoms to their 3D vibrational ground states in a site-resolvable 3D optical lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Supplemental Material included. To appear in Physical Review Letter

Does Human Capital Affect Rural Economic Growth? Evidence from the South

Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

Breaking a Chaotic Cryptographic Scheme Based on Composition Maps

Recently, a chaotic cryptographic scheme based on composition maps was proposed. This paper studies the security of the scheme and reports the following findings: 1) the scheme can be broken by a differential attack with $6+\lceil\log_L(MN)\rceil$ chosen-plaintext, where $MN$ is the size of plaintext and $L$ is the number of different elements in plain-text; 2) the scheme is not sensitive to the changes of plaintext; 3) the two composition maps do not work well as a secure and efficient random number source.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Patient Centered Care Approach to Adherence with Cardiovascular Medications: Self-Determination Theory Integration

Problem statement. Behavioral intervention is used to improve adherence with medication in patients with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), but the effect was not sustainable. Patient-centered care (PCC) as a consumer movement has gained acceptance, but it lacks a theoretical framework. Self-determination theory (SDT) may provide an alternative to improve patients\u27 adherence to chronic cardiovascular medication, as well as a theoretical framework for PCC. Both approaches to CVD management have not been evaluated. Methods. The study was a quasi-experimental pretest posttest comparison design with consecutive sampling of a hospitalized cardiac patient population. Sixty patients each for the usual care (UC) group and the PCC group were recruited. The patient sample consisted of 83% Caucasian, 39% female, 93% insured, an average age of 68 years old, 43% had a NYHF classification of three and above, and an average of 9.7 prescriptions at discharge. A medication teaching intervention was supported by an interactive system designed for PCC. The intervention addressed patients\u27 socioeconomic needs, health literacy adequacy, illness level, timing and amount of teaching, and psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomous motivation. Patients were surveyed once before discharged from the hospital and once three months post discharge. Results. The SDT motivation variables (perceived competence, perceived autonomous support and autonomous motivation) were significantly correlated with the adherence index. Stepwise multivariate regression analyses identified autonomous motivation as an independent predictor of adherence index, along with age, insurance coverage, adverse drug reaction, adequate health literacy, illness level and number of prescription doses taken per day. Patients in the PCC group had significantly higher scores on all three SDT motivation variables, adherence index and higher portion of adherence status than patients in the UC group. Sequential logistic regression analyses reported that PCC intervention, perceived competence and autonomous motivation were independent predictors of adherence status, as well as adverse drug reaction, illness level and number of doses taken per day. Conclusion. Self-determination theory helped to explicate patients\u27 adherence behavior. A patient-centered care environment designed with SDT improved patients autonomous motivation, which improved cardiac patients\u27 adherence to CVD medications

Reducing Penguin Pollution

The most common decay used for measuring 2beta_s, the phase of Bs-Bsbar mixing, is Bs -> J/psi phi. This decay is dominated by the colour-suppressed tree diagram, but there are other contributions due to gluonic and electroweak penguin diagrams. These are often referred to as "penguin pollution" (PP) because their inclusion in the amplitude leads to a theoretical error in the extraction of 2beta_s from the data. In the standard model (SM), it is estimated that the PP is negligible, but there is some uncertainty as to its exact size. Now, phi_s^{c\bar{c}s} (the measured value of 2beta_s) is small, in agreement with the SM, but still has significant experimental errors. When these are reduced, if one hopes to be able to see clear evidence of new physics (NP), it is crucial to have the theoretical error under control. In this paper, we show that, using a modification of the angular analysis currently used to measure phi_s^{c\bar{c}s} in Bs -> J/psi phi, one can reduce the theoretical error due to PP. Theoretical input is still required, but it is much more modest than entirely neglecting the PP. If phi_s^{c\bar{c}s} differs from the SM prediction, this points to NP in the mixing. There is also enough information to test for NP in the decay. This method can be applied to all Bs/Bsbar -> V1 V2 decays.Comment: 17 pages, latex, extensive discussion of theoretical error added, reference added. Further revision: even more detailed discussion of theoretical error added, as well as an explanation of why the NP strong phase is negligibl

Structures of fibrils formed by α-synuclein hereditary disease mutant H50Q reveal new polymorphs.

Deposits of amyloid fibrils of α-synuclein are the histological hallmarks of Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy, with hereditary mutations in α-synuclein linked to the first two of these conditions. Seeing the changes to the structures of amyloid fibrils bearing these mutations may help to understand these diseases. To this end, we determined the cryo-EM structures of α-synuclein fibrils containing the H50Q hereditary mutation. We find that the H50Q mutation results in two previously unobserved polymorphs of α-synuclein: narrow and wide fibrils, formed from either one or two protofilaments, respectively. These structures recapitulate conserved features of the wild-type fold but reveal new structural elements, including a previously unobserved hydrogen-bond network and surprising new protofilament arrangements. The structures of the H50Q polymorphs help to rationalize the faster aggregation kinetics, higher seeding capacity in biosensor cells and greater cytotoxicity that we observe for H50Q compared to wild-type α-synuclein