3,317 research outputs found
Uncovering hidden geographies and socio-economic influences on fuel poverty using household fuel spend data: a meso-scale study in Scotland
Quantum enhanced positioning and clock synchronization
A wide variety of positioning and ranging procedures are based on repeatedly
sending electromagnetic pulses through space and measuring their time of
arrival. This paper shows that quantum entanglement and squeezing can be
employed to overcome the classical power/bandwidth limits on these procedures,
enhancing their accuracy. Frequency entangled pulses could be used to construct
quantum positioning systems (QPS), to perform clock synchronization, or to do
ranging (quantum radar): all of these techniques exhibit a similar enhancement
compared with analogous protocols that use classical light. Quantum
entanglement and squeezing have been exploited in the context of
interferometry, frequency measurements, lithography, and algorithms. Here, the
problem of positioning a party (say Alice) with respect to a fixed array of
reference points will be analyzed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication by Natur
Measuring organisational readiness for patient engagement (MORE) : an international online Delphi consensus study
Date of Acceptance: 28/01/2015. © 2015 Oostendorp et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise statedWidespread implementation of patient engagement by organisations and clinical teams is not a reality yet. The aim of this study is to develop a measure of organisational readiness for patient engagement designed to monitor and facilitate a healthcare organisation’s willingness and ability to effectively implement patient engagement in healthcarePeer reviewedFinal Published versio
Nonredundant role of CCRL2 in lung dendritic cell trafficking.
Chemokine CC motif receptor-like 2 (CCRL2) is a heptahelic transmembrane receptor that shows the highest degree of homology with CCR1, an inflammatory chemokine receptor. CCRL2 mRNA was rapidly (30 minutes) and transiently (2-4 hours) regulated during dendritic cell (DC) maturation. Protein expression paralleled RNA regulation. In vivo, CCRL2 was expressed by activated DC and macrophages, but not by eosinophils and T cells. CCRL2(-/-) mice showed normal recruitment of circulating DC into the lung, but a defective trafficking of antigen-loaded lung DC to mediastinal lymph nodes. This defect was associated to a reduction in lymph node cellularity and reduced priming of T helper cell 2 response. CCRL2(-/-) mice were protected in a model of ovalbumin-induced airway inflammation, with reduced leukocyte recruitment in the BAL (eosinophils and mononuclear cells) and reduced production of the T helper cell 2 cytokines, interleukin-4 and -5, and chemokines CCL11 and CCL17. The central role of CCRL2 deficiency in DC was supported by the fact that adoptive transfer of CCRL2(-/-) antigen-loaded DC in wild-type animals recapitulated the phenotype observed in knockout mice. These data show a nonredundant role of CCRL2 in lung DC trafficking and propose a role for this receptor in the control of excessive airway inflammatory responses. (Blood. 2010;116(16):2942-2949
Extended RDF: Computability and Complexity Issues
ERDF stable model semantics is a recently proposed semantics for
ERDF ontologies and a faithful extension of RDFS semantics on RDF graphs.
In this paper, we elaborate on the computability and complexity issues of the
ERDF stable model semantics. Based on the undecidability result of ERDF
stable model semantics, decidability under this semantics cannot be achieved,
unless ERDF ontologies of restricted syntax are considered. Therefore, we
propose a slightly modified semantics for ERDF ontologies, called ERDF #n-
stable model semantics. We show that entailment under this semantics is, in
general, decidable and also extends RDFS entailment. Equivalence statements
between the two semantics are provided. Additionally, we provide algorithms
that compute the ERDF #n-stable models of syntax-restricted and general
ERDF ontologies. Further, we provide complexity results for the ERDF #nstable
model semantics on syntax-restricted and general ERDF ontologies.
Finally, we provide complexity results for the ERDF stable model semantics
on syntax-restricted ERDF ontologies
Fungal iron availability during deep seated candidiasis is defined by a complex interplay involving systemic and local events
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Photonic quantum technologies
The first quantum technology, which harnesses uniquely quantum mechanical
effects for its core operation, has arrived in the form of commercially
available quantum key distribution systems that achieve enhanced security by
encoding information in photons such that information gained by an eavesdropper
can be detected. Anticipated future quantum technologies include large-scale
secure networks, enhanced measurement and lithography, and quantum information
processors, promising exponentially greater computation power for particular
tasks. Photonics is destined for a central role in such technologies owing to
the need for high-speed transmission and the outstanding low-noise properties
of photons. These technologies may use single photons or quantum states of
bright laser beams, or both, and will undoubtably apply and drive
state-of-the-art developments in photonics
A Measurement of Rb using a Double Tagging Method
The fraction of Z to bbbar events in hadronic Z decays has been measured by
the OPAL experiment using the data collected at LEP between 1992 and 1995. The
Z to bbbar decays were tagged using displaced secondary vertices, and high
momentum electrons and muons. Systematic uncertainties were reduced by
measuring the b-tagging efficiency using a double tagging technique. Efficiency
correlations between opposite hemispheres of an event are small, and are well
understood through comparisons between real and simulated data samples. A value
of Rb = 0.2178 +- 0.0011 +- 0.0013 was obtained, where the first error is
statistical and the second systematic. The uncertainty on Rc, the fraction of Z
to ccbar events in hadronic Z decays, is not included in the errors. The
dependence on Rc is Delta(Rb)/Rb = -0.056*Delta(Rc)/Rc where Delta(Rc) is the
deviation of Rc from the value 0.172 predicted by the Standard Model. The
result for Rb agrees with the value of 0.2155 +- 0.0003 predicted by the
Standard Model.Comment: 42 pages, LaTeX, 14 eps figures included, submitted to European
Physical Journal
道徳と幸福 : カント倫理思想の一考察
Asthma is a serious health problem and during the last decade various experimental models of asthma have been developed to study the pathogenesis of this disease. In this study we describe a new mouse model of asthma that uses the spores of Alternaria alternata and Cladosporium herbarum, two allergenic molds recognized as common inducers of rhinitis and asthma in humans. Here we demonstrate that A. alternata and C. herbarum spores are immunogenic when injected into BALB/c mice, and induce the production of specific IgM and IgG1 antibodies and strongly increase IgE serum levels. To induce the allergic response, mice were sensitized by two intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections and then intranasaly (i.n.) challenged with A. alternata and C. herbarum spores. Bronchoalveolar lavages (BALs) from these mice contained numerous macrophages, neutrophils, eosinophils and lymphocytes whereas neutrophils were the predominant BAL inflammatory cells in nonsensitized mice. Histological studies demonstrated an influx of eosinophils in peri-vascular and peri-bronchial areas and the presence of numerous epithelial goblet cells only in sensitized mice. Increased expression of mRNA specific for various chemokines (eotaxin, MIP-1α, MIP-2) and chemokine receptors (CCR-1, CCR-2 and CCR-5) was observed in the lungs of nonsensitized mice challenged with the spores. Expression of CCR-3 mRNA in the lungs and Th2 cytokine (IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13) secretion in the BAL was additionally observed in sensitized and challenged mice. Finally we demonstrate through whole-body plethysmography that mold spore sensitization and challenge induce the development of an airway hyperreactivity in response to nebulized methacholine
Measurement of the B+ and B-0 lifetimes and search for CP(T) violation using reconstructed secondary vertices
The lifetimes of the B+ and B-0 mesons, and their ratio, have been measured in the OPAL experiment using 2.4 million hadronic Z(0) decays recorded at LEP. Z(0) --> b (b) over bar decays were tagged using displaced secondary vertices and high momentum electrons and muons. The lifetimes were then measured using well-reconstructed charged and neutral secondary vertices selected in this tagged data sample. The results aretau(B+) = 1.643 +/- 0.037 +/- 0.025 pstau(Bo) = 1.523 +/- 0.057 +/- 0.053 pstau(B+)/tau(Bo) = 1.079 +/- 0.064 +/- 0.041,where in each case the first error is statistical and the second systematic.A larger data sample of 3.1 million hadronic Z(o) decays has been used to search for CP and CPT violating effects by comparison of inclusive b and (b) over bar hadron decays, No evidence fur such effects is seen. The CP violation parameter Re(epsilon(B)) is measured to be Re(epsilon(B)) = 0.001 +/- 0.014 +/- 0.003and the fractional difference between b and (b) over bar hadron lifetimes is measured to(Delta tau/tau)(b) = tau(b hadron) - tau((b) over bar hadron)/tau(average) = -0.001 +/- 0.012 +/- 0.008
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