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Targeting molecular quantum memory with embedded error correction.
Get PDFFrom Europe PMC via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: epub 2021-06-02, ppub 2021-07-01Publication status: PublishedFunder: European Research Council; Grant(s): 786734, 862893The implementation of a quantum computer requires both to protect information from environmental noise and to implement quantum operations efficiently. Achieving this by a fully fault-tolerant platform, in which quantum gates are implemented within quantum-error corrected units, poses stringent requirements on the coherence and control of such hardware. A more feasible architecture could consist of connected memories, that support error-correction by enhancing coherence, and processing units, that ensure fast manipulations. We present here a supramolecular {Cr7Ni}-Cu system which could form the elementary unit of this platform, where the electronic spin 1/2 of {Cr7Ni} provides the processor and the naturally isolated nuclear spin 3/2 of the Cu ion is used to encode a logical unit with embedded quantum error-correction. We demonstrate by realistic simulations that microwave pulses allow us to rapidly implement gates on the processor and to swap information between the processor and the quantum memory. By combining the storage into the Cu nuclear spin with quantum error correction, information can be protected for times much longer than the processor coherence
Mission Team Life Transformative discipleship and leadership development in context
Get PDFMission team life - the lived experience of missioning together that is given shape and meaning through relationships, practices, processes and values - is a social reality and modus operandi whose transformational potential has been largely unrecognised. The way discipleship is currently being reimagined for churches is impoverished by this lack of recognition. This study investigates the shape of mission team life in lived experience and its impact on those who participate in it.
Using qualitative research methods including semi-structured interviewing, thematic analysis, theological reflection and poetic reframing I draw on the life-stories of thirteen mission leaders in a variety of local contexts to explore both the constituent elements and the overall character of mission team life. As a reflective practitioner and facilitator of mission teams I bring my own experience to the interpretation of their narratives.
I demonstrate that mission team life comprises six interweaving relational dynamics: synergia (co-working), koinonia (the sharing of lives), diakonia (serving), pneumatika (spiritual practices), mathemata (lessons learned) and euremata (attending to surprise discoveries). The character of the whole is relational, complex, chaordic, adventuresome and Spirit-filled. Such life together is a way of discipleship in which vocations are mutually discerned and leadership emerges in context.
An understanding of the dynamics and character of mission team life can equip the Church’s theological imagination in vital areas. This research addresses debilitating dichotomies highlighted or implied in recent official reports through a robust conceptualisation of discipleship and an account of practice based in lived experience. Reflective practitioners whose values in ministry are formed through mission team living demonstrate an understanding of collaboration, compassion, hospitality, spirituality, co-empowerment and prophetic imagination. When these qualities also become the hallmark of the mission teams they lead the result can be a way of discipleship that is both imaginative and transformative.
My conceptualisation of the relational dynamics of mission team life is thus a fresh paradigm, offering to churches, missions and the academy a way of seeing, understanding and living a transformative discipleship rich in spirituality, synergy, community, ministries and leadership potential
Exploring the involvement of Patients and Care Givers in Student Nurse Education in a Nursing College in India
Get PDFIndia is the largest democracy in the world, but in contrast to other democracies, notably the UK, the role of patients and care givers in the formal education of student nurses appears to be less clear. The findings of this research demonstrated that despite there being little, or no formal education planned in India, to be delivered by patients and care givers, there is a lot of very useful informal education. A qualitative, case study methodology, was adopted with data collection methods including those of World Café style focus groups, art-based methods, semi structured interviews, and observational questioning. These approaches enabled student nurses across years one to four, in one nursing college, in India, to share their thoughts and reflect on their experiences of direct patient and care giver contact. Data was analysed using an inductive content analysis approach. The resultant overarching meta theme of ‘involvement’ acknowledged during data analysis, signifies not only that there is
patient and care giver involvement in student nurse education in the nursing college, but that this is multi-faceted. This encompasses, a ‘tripartite identity’ with a mixed and interchanging role observed in the nurse, patient, and care giver. Education was enhanced by open access to care givers, constantly present in the clinical environment with the patient. The positive impact of this was multi fold, from the provision of assistance to nurses by care givers tending to the physical care of patients, and by enhancing and challenging nurses’ communication skills. This scaffolded the development of student’s emotional skill bases,
acquired after reflection on and in situations with care givers, in which students at times felt harassed by care givers and even patients. The outcome, reach, impact, and value of this involvement is apparent by the transformative effect observed on student nurses learning, cultural sensitivity, and social consciousness. The educational philosophy of Paulo Freire
underpinned this study, and findings concluded that by harnessing the naturalistic engagement with care givers in practice, student nurses can apply the Freirean pedagogy that states that education is a series of questioning. The findings indicate that it is important for students to recognise and acknowledge that their humanity and transformation is possible, if grounded in the reality of the social, economic, and political circumstances. The use of reflective activities associated with this, may in turn demonstrate how by the application of Freirean principles, students may transform themselves and others. Accordingly, it would be beneficial for student nurses to be tasked with listening to both patient and care givers experiences when they are in practice. This experience could be maximised in educational settings, by the student sharing their experiences with their peers,
and reflecting on these
Entropy-driven cell decision-making predicts "fluid-to-solid" transition in multicellular systems
Get PDFThis is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in the New Journal of Physics. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abcb2e.Cellular decision making allows cells to assume functionally different phenotypes in response to microenvironmental cues, with or without genetic change. It is an open question, how individual cell decisions influence the dynamics at the tissue level. Here, we study spatio-temporal pattern formation in a population of cells exhibiting phenotypic plasticity, which is a paradigm of cell decision making. We focus on the migration/resting and the migration/proliferation plasticity which underly the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and the go or grow dichotomy. We assume that cells change their phenotype in order to minimize their microenvironmental entropy following the LEUP (Least microEnvironmental Uncertainty Principle) hypothesis. In turn, we study the impact of the LEUP-driven migration/resting and migration/proliferation plasticity on the corresponding multicellular spatiotemporal dynamics with a stochastic cell-based mathematical model for the spatio-temporal dynamics of the cell phenotypes. In the case of the go or rest plasticity, a corresponding mean-field approximation allows to identify a bistable switching mechanism between a diffusive (fluid) and an epithelial (solid) tissue phase which depends on the sensitivity of the phenotypes to the environment. For the go or grow plasticity, we show the possibility of Turing pattern formation for the "solid" tissue phase and its relation with the parameters of the LEUP-driven cell decisions
Combined bezafibrate, medroxyprogesterone acetate and valproic acid treatment inhibits osteosarcoma cell growth without adversely affecting normal mesenchymal stem cells
Get PDFThis document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in Bioscience Reports. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BSR20202505Drug repurposing is a cost effective means of targeting new therapies for cancer. We have examined the effects of the repurposed drugs, bezafibrate, medroxyprogesterone acetate and valproic acid on human osteosarcoma cells, i.e., SAOS2 and MG63 compared with their normal cell counterparts, i.e. mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs). Cell growth, viability and migration were measured by biochemical assay and live cell imaging, whilst levels of lipid-synthesising enzymes were measured by immunoblotting cell extracts. These drug treatments inhibited the growth and survival of SAOS2 and MG63 cells most effectively when used in combination (termed V-BAP). In contrast, V-BAP treated MSCs remained viable with only moderately reduced cell proliferation. V-BAP treatment also inhibited migratory cell phenotypes. MG63 and SAOS2 cells expressed much greater levels of fatty acid synthase and stearoyl CoA desaturase 1 than MSCs, but these elevated enzyme levels significantly decreased in the V-BAP treated osteosarcoma cells prior to cell death. Hence, we have identified a repurposed drug combination that selectively inhibits the growth and survival of human osteosarcoma cells in association with altered lipid metabolism without adversely affecting their non-transformed cell counterparts
Universal credit, Lone mothers and poverty: Some context and challenges for social work with children and families
Get PDFThis is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an article published in Critical and Radical Social Work. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Carey, M., & Bell, S. (2020). Universal credit, Lone mothers and poverty: Some context and challenges for social work with children and families. Critical and Radical Social Work, 8(2), 189-203 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1332/204986020X15945756252756Universal Credit is a streamlined benefits delivery system initially introduced in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2008. Conditionality-based welfare policies are increasingly international in scale, and are now widely adopted by neoliberal governments on the basis that paid employment offers the most efficacious route out of poverty for citizen-subjects. Numerous studies suggest otherwise, and highlight their negative impact upon the social rights, lived experiences, and attempts to alleviate poverty for service users. This article analyses the reformed benefit system and wider workfare policies effect upon lone mothers, including as a consequence of engagement with an ever more stigmatizing benefit system, and associated risks posed by sanctions or precarious low-paid employment. It highlights some of the consequences for social work with children and families of Universal Credit: including ongoing tensions and challenges created for the profession by the punitive policies of the workfare-orientated centaur state
Charlotte Brontë: Legacies and Afterlives
No full textComplete Edited Book. The edited collection was reviewed in Victorian Studies and here is a quotation from Janet Gezari:
'The book begins with a scrupulous and detailed account of actual and conjectural pictures of Brontë . I cannot think of another artist whose appearance has received so much attention. What is the difference between the continuing life of works of art and the continuing life of an artist? What difference does it make to that continuing life when the artist is a woman? . Most of the essays in part 1 focus on the "afterlife" part of this collection, and are thoughtful, scholarly, and consistently attentive to what it now means to study a Victorian cult writer in relation to the history of her reception and to contemporary concerns.'
Janet Gezari, Connecticut College, Victorian Studies, Volume 61, Number 1, Autumn 2018This edited collection offers a timely reflection on Charlotte Brontë's life and work in the context of the bicentenary of her birth in 2016. Brontë's legacy continues to evolve and the new essays in this volume, covering the period from her first publication to the present day, explain why she has remained at the forefront of global literary cultures. Taking a fresh look at over 150 years of engagement with one of the best-loved novelists of the Victorian period, the volume examines areas such as genre, narrative style, national and regional identities, sexuality, literary tourism, adaptation theories, cultural studies, postcolonial and transnational readings. The contributors to this volume offer innovative interpretations of the rich variety of afterlives enjoyed by characters such as Jane Eyre and Rochester in neo-Victorian fiction, cinema and television, on the stage and on the web. Bringing the story of Charlotte's legacy up to date, the essays analyse obituaries, vlogs, stage and screen adaptations, fan fiction and erotic makeovers, showing that Charlotte Brontë's influence has been manifold and an enduring feature of the feminist movement
Across the threshold: a somaesthetic approach to the design of extended realities
Get PDFThe prospect that extended realities (XR) will become a seamless part of our everyday environment comes ever closer with the development of mixed reality headsets. These devices allow a blending of digital objects with the user’s actual spatial environment. The user interacts with the virtual objects and these objects can, in turn, interact with the ‘real-world’ environment. We argue that the design and interpretation of these extended realities requires design thinking that questions the dominant standard model of cognition, which is indebted to Cartesian perspectivism. We suggest that situated and enactive models of cognition furnish a better understanding of how the body, mind and environment are essentially integrated, enabling us to apply such understanding advantageously to the design of these devices and environments
Full fat cheese intake and cardiovascular health: a randomised control trial
Get PDFThis article has been accepted for publication and will appear in a revised form, subsequent to peer review and/or editorial input by Cambridge University Press, in Proceedings of the Nutrition Society published by Cambridge University Press. Copyright The Authors 2017.Milk and milk products contribute approximately 22 % of the nation's saturated fat (SFA) intake. Recently, the role of dairy and its SFA composition and link to cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been analysed( 1 ), suggesting a beneficial action of this food group on reducing cardiovascular risk in high-risk groups( 2 , 3 ). The aim of this study was to examine the effects of 4 weeks full-fat cheese on circulating lipoprotein fractions, blood pressure and arterial stiffness in healthy adults.
Participants were recruited in the city of Chester, UK. Those meeting entry criteria of: 18–65 years of age, not taking antihypercholesterolaemic or antihypertensive medication took part in the study. Participants were randomised to receive either 50 g of a full-fat Red Leicester (FFC) or placebo (virtually zero fat Cheddar cheese, ZFC) per day for 4 weeks. Anthropometry, blood pressure, brachial and aortic augmentation index (BAIX and AAIX, respectively), pulse-wave velocity (PWV) and a full lipid profile were determined at baseline and post-intervention. Participants were asked to keep a 3-day food diary prior to and for the last 3 days of the protocol. All procedures were approved by the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Life Sciences Research Ethics Committee at the University of Chester.
Eighty-six (86) individuals completed the study (43 per group). No significant changes were observed in any measured parameter (Table 1). Both ZFC and FFC groups showed a significant increase in calcium intake during the course of the study (1002·1 ± 639·1 mg to 1815·0 ± 1340·1 mg and 1219·6 ± 1169·1 mg 1845·8 ± 1463·2 mg, P < 0·001, respectively) showing good adherence to the protocol.
In conclusion, these results suggest that inclusion of 50 g full fat cheese into the diet of a healthy population does not impact negatively on traditional CVD risk markers. Future strategies to reduce SFA intake should focus on – and acknowledge the importance of the source – of SFA in the diet
Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of New Bioactive Oxadiazole Derivatives as Anticancer Agents Targeting Bcl-2
Get PDFA series of 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)-5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazoles, 4a–m, were designed, synthesized and tested in vitro as potential pro-apoptotic Bcl-2 inhibitory anticancer agents based on our previously reported hit compounds. Synthesis of the target 1,3,4-oxadiazoles was readily accomplished through a cyclization reaction of indole carboxylic acid hydrazide 2 with substituted carboxylic acid derivatives 3a–m in the presence of phosphorus oxychloride. New compounds 4a–m showed a range of IC50
values concentrated in the low micromolar range selectively in Bcl-2 positive human cancer cell lines. The most potent candidate 4-trifluoromethyl substituted analogue 4j showed selective IC50 values of 0.52–0.88 μM against Bcl-2 expressing cell lines with no inhibitory effects in the Bcl-2 negative cell line. Moreover, 4j showed binding that was two-fold more potent than the positive control gossypol in the Bcl-2 ELISA binding affinity assay. Molecular modeling studies helped to further rationalize anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 binding and identified compound 4j as a candidate with drug-like properties for further investigation as a selective Bcl-2 inhibitory anticancer agent
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