The cost of systemic corticosteroid-induced morbidity in severe asthma : a health economic analysis

The study data-set was supported by the Respiratory Effectiveness Group through their academic partnership with Optimum Patient Care. Ciaran O'Neill was funded under a HRB Research Leader Award (RL/13/16).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Severe asthma-perspectives from adult and pediatric pulmonology

Both adults and children with severe asthma represent a small proportion of the asthma population; however, they consume disproportionate resources. For both groups it is important to confirm the diagnosis of severe asthma and ensure that modifiable factors such as adherence have, as far as possible, been addressed. Most children can be controlled on inhaled corticosteroids and long term oral corticosteroid use is rare, in contrast to adults where steroid related morbidity accounts for a large proportion of the costs of severe asthma. Atopic sensitization is very common in children with severe asthma as are other atopic conditions such as allergic rhinitis and hay fever which can impact on asthma control. In adults, the role of allergic driven disease, even in those with co-existent evidence of sensitization, is unclear. There is currently an exciting pipeline of novel biologicals, particularly directed at Type 2 inflammation, which afford the possibility of improved asthma control and reduced treatment side effects for people with asthma. However, not all drugs will work for all patients and accurate phenotyping is essential. In adults the terms T2 high and T2 low asthma have been coined to describe groups of patients based on the presence/absence of eosinophilic inflammation and T-helper 2 (TH2) cytokines. Bronchoscopic studies in children with severe asthma have demonstrated that these children are predominantly eosinophilic but the cytokine patterns do not fit the T2 high paradigm suggesting other steroid resistant pathways are driving the eosinophilic inflammation. It remains to be seen whether treatments developed for adult severe asthma will be effective in children and which biomarkers will predict response

Spatial Entanglement From Off-Diagonal Long Range Order in a BEC

We investigate spatial entanglement - particle-number entanglement between regions of space - in an ideal Bosonic gas. We quantify the amount spatial entanglement around the transition temperature for condensation by probing the gas with two localised two-level systems. We show that spatial entanglement in the gas is directly related to filling of the ground state energy level and therefore to the off-diagonal long-range order of the system and the onset of condensation.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Extended from 4 to 7 pages. More detailed derivations of key formula. Extended introduction and background. Results remain unchange

Is there a link between previous exposure to sport injury psychology education and UK sport injury rehabilitation professionals' attitudes and behaviour towards sport psychology?

Objectives: The use of sport psychology strategies during sport injury rehabilitation can lead to several positive outcomes such as improved adherence and self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to compare the sport psychology related attitudes and behaviours of UK sport injury rehabilitation professionals (SIRPs) who had studied the psychological aspects of sport injury to those who had not. Participants and design: Ninety-four SIRPs (54 physiotherapists and 40 sports therapists with a mean of 9.22 years' experience of working in sport) completed an online survey and were grouped according to their level of previous exposure to sport injury psychology education at an undergraduate/postgraduate level. Analyses were undertaken to establish whether there were any differences in sport psychology related attitude (MANOVA), usage (MANOVA), and referral behaviours (chi square) between the groups. Results: The MANOVA and chi square tests conducted revealed that those who had studied the psychological aspects of sport injury reported using significantly more sport psychology in their practice and making more referrals to sport psychologists. Conclusions: It was concluded that sport injury psychology education appears to be effective in increasing the sport psychology related behaviours (use of sport psychology and referral) of SIRPs and should be integrated into professional training

The impact of a sport psychology education intervention on physiotherapists

The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of an online sport psychology education module on the attitudes and behaviours of qualified sports physiotherapists in the UK. Ninety-five sport physiotherapists studied either a sport psychology module or a control module, and their attitudes and behaviours towards sport psychology were measured prior to studying the module and at three points over a six-month period following its completion. It was found that those who had studied the sport psychology module demonstrated an improvement in their attitudes towards sport psychology immediately following its completion that was significantly higher than those who had studied the control module. Use of sport psychology also increased following the sport psychology module, with significant differences seen between the intervention and control group on the sport psychology subscale, indicating that those who had studied the sport psychology module were integrating more sport psychology techniques into their practice than those who had studied the control module. It was concluded that the online sport psychology module was effective in improving the attitudes and behaviours of UK physiotherapists and that more sport psychology education opportunities should be made available

New spin squeezing and other entanglement tests for two mode systems of identical bosons

For any quantum state representing a physical system of identical particles, the density operator must satisfy the symmetrization principle (SP) and conform to super-selection rules (SSR) that prohibit coherences between differing total particle numbers. Here we consider bi-partitite states for massive bosons, where both the system and sub-systems are modes (or sets of modes) and particle numbers for quantum states are determined from the mode occupancies. Defining non-entangled or separable states as those prepared via local operations (on the sub-systems) and classical communication processes, the sub-system density operators are also required to satisfy the SP and conform to the SSR, in contrast to some other approaches. Whilst in the presence of this additional constraint the previously obtained sufficiency criteria for entanglement, such as the sum of the ˆSx and ˆSy variances for the Schwinger spin components being less than half the mean boson number, and the strong correlation test of |haˆm (bˆ†)ni|2 being greater than h(aˆ†)maˆm (bˆ†)nbˆni(m, n = 1, 2, . . .) are still valid, new tests are obtained in our work. We show that the presence of spin squeezing in at least one of the spin components ˆSx , ˆSy and ˆSz is a sufficient criterion for the presence of entanglement and a simple correlation test can be constructed of |haˆm (bˆ†)ni|2 merely being greater than zero.We show that for the case of relative phase eigenstates, the new spin squeezing test for entanglement is satisfied (for the principle spin operators), whilst the test involving the sum of the ˆSx and ˆSy variances is not. However, another spin squeezing entanglement test for Bose–Einstein condensates involving the variance in ˆSz being less than the sum of the squared mean values for ˆSx and ˆSy divided by the boson number was based on a concept of entanglement inconsistent with the SP, and here we present a revised treatment which again leads to spin squeezing as an entanglement test

Sugar additives for MALDI matrices improve signal allowing the smallest nucleotide change (A:T) in a DNA sequence to be resolved

Sample preparation for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) of DNA is critical for obtaining high quality mass spectra. Sample impurity, solvent content, substrate surface and environmental conditions (temperature and humidity) all affect the rate of matrix–analyte co-crystallization. As a result, laser fluence threshold for desorption/ionization varies from spot to spot. When using 3-hydroxypicolinic acid (3-HPA) as the matrix, laser fluence higher than the threshold value reduces mass resolution in time-of-flight (TOF) MS as the excess energy transferred to DNA causes metastable decay. This can be overcome by either searching for ‘hot’ spots or adjusting the laser fluence. However, both solutions may require a significant amount of operator manipulation and are not ideal for automatic measurements. We have added various sugars for crystallization with the matrix to minimize the transfer of excess laser energy to DNA molecules. Fructose and fucose were found to be the most effective matrix additives. Using these additives, mass resolution for DNA molecules does not show noticeable deterioration as laser energy increases. Improved sample preparation is important for the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) using primer extension with a single nucleotide. During automatic data acquisition it is difficult to routinely detect heterozygous A/T mutations, which requires resolving a mass difference of 9 Da, unless a sugar is added during crystallization

A new species of tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene) from Negros Island, Philippines (Mammalia: Pteropodidae)

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57144/1/OP708.pd

Teleportation of a quantum state of a spatial mode with a single massive particle

Mode entanglement exists naturally between regions of space in ultra-cold atomic gases. It has, however, been debated whether this type of entanglement is useful for quantum protocols. This is due to a particle number superselection rule that restricts the operations that can be performed on the modes. In this paper, we show how to exploit the mode entanglement of just a single particle for the teleportation of an unknown quantum state of a spatial mode. We detail how to overcome the superselection rule to create any initial quantum state and how to perform Bell state analysis on two of the modes. We show that two of the four Bell states can always be reliably distinguished, while the other two have to be grouped together due to an unsatisfied phase matching condition. The teleportation of an unknown state of a quantum mode thus only succeeds half of the time.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, this paper was presented at TQC 2010 and extends the work of Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 200502 (2009