Passing crisis and emergency risk communications: the effects of communication channel, information type, and repetition.

Three experiments explore several factors which influence information transmission when warning messages are passed from person to person. In Experiment 1, messages were passed down chains of participants using five different modes of communication. Written communication channels resulted in more accurate message transmission than verbal. In addition, some elements of the message endured further down the chain than others. Experiment 2 largely replicated these effects and also demonstrated that simple repetition of a message eliminated differences between written and spoken communication. In a final field experiment, chains of participants passed information however they wanted to, with the proviso that half of the chains could not use telephones. Here, the lack of ability to use a telephone did not affect accuracy, but did slow down the speed of transmission from the recipient of the message to the last person in the chain. Implications of the findings for crisis and emergency risk communication are discussed

Evaluating the application of research-based guidance to the design of an emergency preparedness leaflet

UNLABELLED: Guidelines for the design of emergency communications were derived from primary research and interrogation of the literature. The guidelines were used to re-design a nuclear emergency preparedness leaflet routinely distributed to households in the local area. Pre-test measures of memory for, and self-reported understanding of, nuclear safety information were collected. The findings revealed high levels of non-receipt of the leaflet, and among those who did receive it, memory for safety advice was poor. Subjective evaluations of the trial leaflet suggested that it was preferred and judged easier to understand than the original. Objective measures of memory for the two leaflets were also recorded, once after the study period, and again one week or four weeks later. Memory for the advice was better, at all time periods, when participants studied the trial leaflet. The findings showcase evaluation of emergency preparedness literature and suggest that extant research findings can be applied to the design of communications to improve memory and understandability. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Studies are described that showcase the use of research-based guidelines to design emergency communications and provide both subjective and objective data to support designing emergency communications in this way. In addition, the research evaluates the effectiveness of emergency preparedness leaflets that are routinely distributed to households. This work is of relevance to academics interested in risk communication and to practitioners involved in civil protection and emergency preparedness

IMAC capture of recombinant protein from unclarified mammalian cell feed streams

Fusion-tag affinity chromatography is a key technique in recombinant protein purification. Current methods for protein recovery from mammalian cells are hampered by the need for feed stream clarification. We have developed a method for direct capture using immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC) of hexahistidine (His6) tagged proteins from unclarified mammalian cell feed streams. The process employs radial flow chromatography with 300-500 μm diameter agarose resin beads that allow free passage of cells but capture His-tagged proteins from the feed stream; circumventing expensive and cumbersome centrifugation and/or filtration steps. The method is exemplified by Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell expression and subsequent recovery of recombinant His-tagged carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA); a heavily glycosylated and clinically relevant protein. Despite operating at a high NaCl concentration necessary for IMAC binding, cells remained over 96% viable after passage through the column with host cell proteases and DNA detected at ∼8 U/mL and 2 ng/μL in column flow-through, respectively. Recovery of His-tagged CEA from unclarified feed yielded 71% product recovery. This work provides a basis for direct primary capture of fully glycosylated recombinant proteins from unclarified mammalian cell feed streams. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2015;9999: 1-11. © 2015 The Authors. Biotechnology and Bioengineering Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Multi-dimensional synthetic space and state measurement with spectral photonic lattices

© OSA 2018. We propose and experimentally realize spectral photonic lattices with pumpinduced frequency couplings, which can emulate multi-dimensional dynamics with synthetic gauge fields and enable single-shot measurement of the signal phase and coherence

Scalable multi-dimensional synthetic space and full state reconstruction in spectral lattices

© 2018 The Author(s). We propose and experimentally realize spectral photonic lattices with pumpinduced frequency couplings, which can emulate multi-dimensional dynamics with synthetic gauge fields and enable single-shot measurement of the signal phase and coherence

A scale-down mimic for mapping the process performance of centrifugation, depth and sterile filtration

In the production of biopharmaceuticals disk-stack centrifugation is widely used as a harvest step for the removal of cells and cellular debris. Depth filters followed by sterile filters are often then employed to remove residual solids remaining in the centrate. Process development of centrifugation is usually conducted at pilot-scale so as to mimic the commercial scale equipment but this method requires large quantities of cell culture and significant levels of effort for successful characterization. A scale-down approach based upon the use of a shear device and a bench-top centrifuge has been extended in this work towards a preparative methodology that successfully predicts the performance of the continuous centrifuge and polishing filters. The use of this methodology allows the effects of cell culture conditions and large-scale centrifugal process parameters on subsequent filtration performance to be assessed at an early stage of process development where material availability is limited

Quantum metasurface for multiphoton interference and state reconstruction

©The Authors. Metasurfaces based on resonant nanophotonic structures have enabled innovative types of flat-optics devices that often outperform the capabilities of bulk components,yet these advances remain largely unexplored for quantum applications.We show that nonclassical multiphoton interferences can be achieved at the subwavelength scale in all-dielectric metasurfaces.We simultaneously image multiple projections of quantum states with a single metasurface,enabling a robust reconstruction of amplitude,phase,coherence, and entanglement of multiphoton polarization-encoded states.One-and two-photon states are reconstructed through nonlocal photon correlation measurements with polarizationinsensitive click detectors positioned after the metasurface, and the scalability to higher photon numbers is established theoretically.Our work illustrates the feasibility of ultrathin quantum metadevices for the manipulation and measurement of multiphoton quantum states,with applications in free-space quantum imaging and communications

Quantum imaging with dielectric metasurfaces for multi-photon polarization tomography

© 2017 IEEE. We suggest and realize experimentally dielectric metasurfaces with high transmission efficiency for quantum multi-photon tomography, allowing for full reconstruction of pure or mixed quantum polarization states across a broad bandwidth

Tomography of quantum dots in a non-hermitian photonic chip

© 2019 IEEE. Quantum optical information systems offer the potential for secure communication and fast quantum computation. To fully characterise a quantum optical system one has to use quantum tomography [1]. Integration of quantum optics onto photonic chips provides advantages such as miniaturisation and stability, and also significantly improves quantum tomography using both re-configurable [2], and more recently, simpler static designs [3,4]. These on-chip designs have, so far, only used probabilistic single photon sources. Here we are working towards quantum tomography using a true deterministic source - a quantum dot. The scheme of the proposed experiment is shown in Fig. 1A. So far we have fabricated and characterised the performance of an InGaAs quantum dot monolithically integrated into a microlens [5], and completed the design, fabrication and classical characterisation of a photonic chip for quantum tomography