• Publicationsclose
• Other research productsclose
• English close

A.I. gratefully acknowledges the financial support of The Faculty of Science and Technology at Aarhus University through a Sabbatical scholarship and the hospitality of the Quantum Technology group, the Centre for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics and the School of Mathematics and Physics, during his stay at Queen’s University Belfast. A.B. acknowledges the hospitality of the Institute for Theoretical Physics and the “Nonequilibrium quantum dynamics” group at Universität Stuttgart, where part of this work was carried out. R.P. and M.P. acknowledge the support by the SFI-DfE Investigator Programme (Grant No. 15/IA/2864) the Eropean Union’s Horizon 2020 FET-Open project SuperQuLAN (899354) and TEQ (766900). M.P. acknowledges support by the Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant UltraQuTe (Grant No. RGP-2018-266), the Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship (RSWF/R3/183013), the UK EPSRC (Grant No. EP/T028424/1) and the Department for the Economy Northern Ireland under the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme. A.B. also acknowledges support from H2020 through the MSCA IF pERFEcTO (Grant Agreement No. nr. 795782) and from the DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Project No. BR5221/4-1. We consider a finite one-dimensional chain of quantum rotors interacting with a set of thermal baths at different temperatures. When the interaction between the rotors is made chiral, such a system behaves as an autonomous thermal motor, converting heat currents into non-vanishing rotational ones. Such a dynamical response is strongly pronounced in the range of the Hamiltonian parameters for which the ground state of the system in the thermodynamic limit exhibits a quantum phase transition. Such working points are associated with large quantum coherence and multipartite quantum correlations within the state of the system. This suggests that the optimal operating regime of such quantum autonomous motor is one of maximal quantumness. 9 pages, 9 figures Peer reviewed

Since the Pan-European Bologna Declaration of 1999, which introduced a qualitative improving programme for higher education in Europe, governments in many countries have initiated significant university reforms. In Norway the reforms were introduced fully in the academic year 2003-2004. This paper identifies the reforms and tries to relate them to the ideologies of new public management, globalization and efficiency.

The concept of citizenship, originally coined by Marshall, and synonymous with social rights and equality, is pivotal in understanding and overcoming the social injustices that many migrants experience. Marshall's notion of social rights, however, does not elaborate on economic rights. Feminist authors argue that women's equal access to sources of income outside family relations is key to their citizenship. Access to spaces of paid work is a significant aspect of migrant women's citizenship because their residence status and naturalization is often contingent on their employment. The author thus argues that economic rights should be central to debates on migration and citizenship. The proposed term ‘economic citizenship’ is used to examine experiences and strategies of fifty-seven skilled migrant women from Latin America, the Middle East, and South East Europe when trying to access positions in the Swiss labour market corresponding to their professional qualifications. The feminist and postcolonial perspectives of ‘intersectionality’ and participatory research are used to understand how and why inequalities in the labour market occur. It is found that traditional ideas about gender roles, discourses about ethnic difference, and discriminatory migration policies intersect to create boundaries for skilled migrant women in accessing upper segments of the Swiss labour market. Migration, therefore, does not always imply empowerment and emancipation, but also generates new forms of social inequality.

Ischemic preconditioning is a useful manipulation to reduce the undesirable effects of ischemia. The beneficial results of this phenomenon against ischemia-reperfusion have been seen in different flap models; however, all these studies have focused on primary ischemia. In this study, we investigated the effects of ischemic preconditioning on secondary ischemia in a skin flap model.We used the 6- × 3-cm-sized epigastric skin flap in 40 Wistar rats. In all animals, primary global ischemia of 2 hours was followed by 4 hours of either arterial or venous secondary ischemia 24 hours after the primary ischemia and ischemic preconditioning (IP) was tested in this protocol. Ischemic preconditioning was performed by 2 cycles of 15 minutes of repeated ischemia/reperfusion periods. The animals were allocated into 4 groups: group 1 (n = 10 animals): primary ischemia (2 hours) + secondary arterial ischemia (4 hours); group 2 (n = 10 animals): IP + primary ischemia (2 hours) + secondary arterial ischemia (4 hours); group 3 (n = 10 animals): primary ischemia (2 hours) + secondary venous ischemia (4 hours); group 4 (n = 10 animals): IP + primary ischemia (2 hours) + secondary venous ischemia (4 hours). Flap viability was assessed 1 week after the surgical procedure, and surviving flap area was recorded as a percentage of the whole flap area.Group 1 was compared with group 2, and group 3 was compared with group 4 to evaluate the effects of ischemic preconditioning against secondary arterial and venous ischemia. t test and Mann-Whitney rank sum tests were used for statistical analysis. There were statistical differences both between groups 1 and 2 and groups 3 and 4. The results revealed that ischemic preconditioning was an effective procedure to reduce the flap necrosis as a cause of secondary ischemia in skin flaps. Copyright © 2006 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Nanoparticles and nanostructured materials represent an active area of research for their impact in many application fields [...]

A temporal model describes processes as a sequence of observable events characterised by distinguishable actions in time. Conformance checking allows these models to determine whether any sequence of temporally ordered and fully-observable events complies with their prescriptions. The latter aspect leads to Explainable and Trustworthy AI, as we can immediately assess the flaws in the recorded behaviours while suggesting any possible way to amend the wrongdoings. Recent findings on conformance checking and temporal learning lead to an interest in temporal models beyond the usual business process management community, thus including other domain areas such as Cyber Security, Industry 4.0, and e-Health. As current technologies for accessing this are purely formal and not ready for the real world returning large data volumes, the need to improve existing conformance checking and temporal model mining algorithms to make Explainable and Trustworthy AI more efficient and competitive is increasingly pressing. To effectively meet such demands, this paper offers KnoBAB, a novel business process management system for efficient Conformance Checking computations performed on top of a customised relational model. This architecture was implemented from scratch after following common practices in the design of relational database management systems. After defining our proposed temporal algebra for temporal queries (xtLTLf), we show that this can express existing temporal languages over finite and non-empty traces such as LTLf. This paper also proposes a parallelisation strategy for such queries, thus reducing conformance checking into an embarrassingly parallel problem leading to super-linear speed up. This paper also presents how a single xtLTLf operator (or even entire sub-expressions) might be efficiently implemented via different algorithms, thus paving the way to future algorithmic improvements. Finally, our benchmarks highlight that our proposed implementation of xtLTLf (KnoBAB) outperforms state-of-the-art conformance checking software running on LTLf logic.

AbstractThe Jahn–Teller (JT) effect, through geometric deformation of molecules or local ionic lattices, lowers the overall energy of the system by removing electron degeneracy from partially occupied orbitals. Crystal symmetry lowered by JT distortion inevitably creates multiple variants of elastic and orbital-anisotropic states. Visualization and control of the domain/wall textures create a cornerstone to understand various correlated phenomena and explore wall properties. Here, we report the real-space observation of JT phonon and orbiton-related domains in a LaMnO3 thin film using confocal Raman spectromicroscopy. The characteristic symmetries of the JT-originated Raman modes allow us to detect and visualize the local population and orientation of the JT planes. Combined with a crystal structural analysis, we find that the formation of ferroelastic domains with W or W’ walls provides the basic framework for understanding JT domain textures. Furthermore, we demonstrate the JT domains can be manipulated by applying local external stress. Our findings provide a useful pathway for mechanically-tunable orbitronic applications.

Introduction and aims: The complement system may play a part in the pathogenesis of amyloid disorders. The primary aim of the study was to analyse the relationship between transthyretin renal amyloidosis (ATTR) and the complement system. The secondary aim was to find potential clinical and morphologic features in ATTR amyloidosis associated with complement activation. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort observational study in patients with renal amyloidosis submitted to kidney biopsy and complement measurements from January 2005 to June 2016. We compared clinical and laboratory results in different types of amyloidosis using the Kruskal-Wallis or Fisher's exact test. We performed a subgroup analysis in ATTR amyloidosis patients, comparing patients with normal and low complement serum levels in terms of clinical, laboratory, and morphologic characteristics, using the Mann-Whitney test or Fisher's exact test. Results: We included 42 patients in the analysis: 15 patients had ATTR amyloid deposits, 16 AA amyloid deposits and 11 AL amyloid deposits (all AL λ). A total of ten patients presented low C3 (6 ATTR; 3 AL; 1 AA). None of the patients had low C4 serum levels. Of the 15 Caucasian patients with renal ATTR amyloidosis, 6 (40%) presented low C3. Those patients had a higher sclerotic glomeruli number and 5 out of 6 had C3 deposits in immunofluorescence. Discussion: In our study, 40% of patients with renal ATTR amyloidosis showed complement consumption or activation, which led us to suspect that ATTR deposits can lead to systemic activation of the alternative complement pathway. It remains to be elucidated if this activation injures peripheral nerves and the kidney. Conclusions: C3 determinations can prove to be a useful tool for predicting renal involvement and glomerulosclerosis in TTR amyloidosis patients.

Multimerization of single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) is instrumental for construction of antibody molecules with high avidity, extended in vivo half-life, and tailor-made biological activity. Two-component superglues, based on bacterium-derived peptides (Tags) and small protein domains (Catchers) that form isopeptide bonds when in close proximity, enable the creation of multimers by simply mixing of the individual components. Here, we provide detailed methods for the construction of sdAbs and scaffolds bearing genetically fused superglue components and their assembly into multimeric complexes.

Why are the epidemic patterns of COVID-19 so different among different cities or countries which are similar in their populations, medical infrastructures, and people's behavior? Why are forecasts or predictions made by so-called experts often grossly wrong, concerning the numbers of people who get infected or die? The purpose of this study is to better understand the stochastic nature of an epidemic disease, and answer the above questions. Much of the work on infectious diseases has been based on "SIR deterministic models," (Kermack and McKendrick:1927.) We will explore stochastic models that can capture the essence of the seemingly erratic behavior of an infectious disease. A stochastic model, in its formulation, takes into account the random nature of an infectious disease. The stochastic model we study here is based on the "birth-and-death process with immigration" (BDI for short), which was proposed in the study of population growth or extinction of some biological species. The BDI process model ,however, has not been investigated by the epidemiology community. The BDI process is one of a few birth-and-death processes, which we can solve analytically. Its time-dependent probability distribution function is a "negative binomial distribution" with its parameter $r$ less than $1$. The "coefficient of variation" of the process is larger than $\sqrt{1/r} > 1$. Furthermore, it has a long tail like the zeta distribution. These properties explain why infection patterns exhibit enormously large variations. The number of infected predicted by a deterministic model is much greater than the median of the distribution. This explains why any forecast based on a deterministic model will fail more often than not. 28 pages, 14 figures