Cavity-Enhanced 2D Material Quantum Emitters Deterministically Integrated with Silicon Nitride Microresonators.

Optically active defects in 2D materials, such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), are an attractive class of single-photon emitters with high brightness, operation up to room temperature, site-specific engineering of emitter arrays with strain and irradiation techniques, and tunability with external electric fields. In this work, we demonstrate a novel approach to precisely align and embed hBN and TMDs within background-free silicon nitride microring resonators. Through the Purcell effect, high-purity hBN emitters exhibit a cavity-enhanced spectral coupling efficiency of up to 46% at room temperature, exceeding the theoretical limit (up to 40%) for cavity-free waveguide-emitter coupling and demonstrating nearly a 1 order of magnitude improvement over previous work. The devices are fabricated with a CMOS-compatible process and exhibit no degradation of the 2D material optical properties, robustness to thermal annealing, and 100 nm positioning accuracy of quantum emitters within single-mode waveguides, opening a path for scalable quantum photonic chips with on-demand single-photon sources.

Self-assembly and surface behaviour of pure and mixed zwitterionic amphiphiles in a deep eutectic solvent.

Recent investigations have shown that deep eutectic solvents provide a suitable environment for self-organisation of biomolecules, in particular phospholipids and proteins. However, the solvation of complex lyophilic moieties by deep eutectic solvents still remains unclear. Here we explore the behaviour of zwitterionic surfactants in choline chloride:glycerol eutectic mixture. Dodecyl-2-(trimethylammonio)ethylphosphate and N-alkyl-N,N-dimethyl-3-ammonio-1-propanesulfonate (alkyl = dodecyl, tetradecyl) surfactants were investigated by means of surface tension, X-ray reflectivity and small-angle neutron scattering. These surfactants were found to remain surface active and form globular micelles in deep eutectic solvents. Still, the surface behaviour of these species was found to differ depending on the headgroup and tail structure. The morphology of the micelles also slightly varies between surfactants, demonstrating differences in the packing of individual monomers. The characteristics of mixtures of the dodecyl surfactants is also reported, showing a deviation from ideal mixing associated with attractive interactions between sulfobetaine and phosphocholine headgroups. Such non-ideality results in variation of the surface behaviour and self-assembly of these surfactant mixtures. The results presented here will potentially lead to the development of new alternatives for drug-delivery, protein solubilisation and biosensing through a better fundamental understanding of the behaviour of zwitterionic surfactants in deep eutectic solvents.

Who's challenging who training for staff empathy towards adults with challenging behaviour: cluster randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: One in five adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) known to services display challenging behaviours (CBs), and these individuals are at risk for restrictive practices and poor care. Staff attitudes may contribute to the development and/or maintenance of CBs. We investigated the effectiveness of co-produced Who's Challenging Who? training delivered by people with ID to staff. METHOD: This study involved a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) of Who's Challenging Who? training with follow-up at six and 20 weeks post-randomisation. PARTICIPANTS: two staff from each of 118 residential care settings for adults with ID at least one of whom displayed aggressive CB. PRIMARY OUTCOME: Self-reported Staff Empathy for people with Challenging Behaviour Questionnaire. ANALYSIS: intention to treat of all randomised settings. ISCRTN registration: ISRCTN53763600. RESULTS: 118 residential settings (including 236 staff) were randomised to either receive training (59 settings) or to receive training after a delay (59 settings). The primary analysis included data from 121 staff in 76 settings (51% of staff, 64% of settings). The adjusted mean difference on the transformed (cubed) Staff Empathy for people with Challenging Behaviour Questionnaire score at the primary end point was 1073.2 (95% CI: -938.1 to 3084.5, P = 0.296) in favour of the intervention group (effect size Cohen's d = .19). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first large-scale RCT of a co-produced training course delivered by people with ID. Findings indicated a small positive (but statistically non-significant) effect on increased staff empathy at 20 weeks, and small to moderate effects for staff reported secondary outcomes in favour of the intervention group.

Electronic Enhancement of the Exciton Coherence Time in Charged Quantum Dots.

Minimizing decoherence due to coupling of a quantum system to its fluctuating environment is at the forefront of quantum information and photonics research. Nature sets the ultimate limit, however, given by the strength of the system's coupling to the electromagnetic field. Here, we establish the ability to electronically control this coupling and enhance the optical coherence time of the charged exciton transition in quantum dots embedded in a photonic waveguide. By manipulating the electronic wave functions through an applied lateral electric field, we increase the coherence time from ∼1.4 to ∼2.7 ns. Numerical calculations reveal that longer coherence arises from the separation of charge carriers by up to ∼6 nm, which leads to a 30% weaker transition dipole moment. The ability to electronically control the coherence time opens new avenues for quantum communication and novel coupling schemes between distant qubits.

Biexciton formation and exciton coherent coupling in layered GaSe.

Nonlinear two-dimensional Fourier transform (2DFT) and linear absorption spectroscopy are used to study the electronic structure and optical properties of excitons in the layered semiconductor GaSe. At the 1s exciton resonance, two peaks are identified in the absorption spectra, which are assigned to splitting of the exciton ground state into the triplet and singlet states. 2DFT spectra acquired for co-linear polarization of the excitation pulses feature an additional peak originating from coherent energy transfer between the singlet and triplet. At cross-linear polarization of the excitation pulses, the 2DFT spectra expose a new peak likely originating from bound biexcitons. The polarization dependent 2DFT spectra are well reproduced by simulations using the optical Bloch equations for a four level system, where many-body effects are included phenomenologically. Although biexciton effects are thought to be strong in this material, only moderate contributions from bound biexciton creation can be observed. The biexciton binding energy of ∼2 meV was estimated from the separation of the peaks in the 2DFT spectra. Temperature dependent absorption and 2DFT measurements, combined with "ab initio" theoretical calculations of the phonon spectra, indicate strong interaction with the A1 (') phonon mode. Excitation density dependent 2DFT measurements reveal excitation induced dephasing and provide a lower limit for the homogeneous linewidth of the excitons in the present GaSe crystal.

Coherent coupling of excitons and trions in a photoexcited CdTe/CdMgTe quantum well.

We present zero-, one-, and two-quantum two-dimensional coherent spectra of excitons and trions in a CdTe/(Cd,Mg)Te quantum well. The set of spectra provides a unique and comprehensive picture of the coherent nonlinear optical response. Distinct peaks in the spectra are manifestations of exciton-exciton and exciton-trion coherent coupling. Excellent agreement using density matrix calculations highlights the essential role of many-body effects on the coupling. Strong exciton-trion coherent interactions open up the possibility for novel conditional control schemes in coherent optoelectronics.

PhysioBank, PhysioToolkit, and PhysioNet: components of a new research resource for complex physiologic signals.

The newly inaugurated Research Resource for Complex Physiologic Signals, which was created under the auspices of the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health, is intended to stimulate current research and new investigations in the study of cardiovascular and other complex biomedical signals. The resource has 3 interdependent components. PhysioBank is a large and growing archive of well-characterized digital recordings of physiological signals and related data for use by the biomedical research community. It currently includes databases of multiparameter cardiopulmonary, neural, and other biomedical signals from healthy subjects and from patients with a variety of conditions with major public health implications, including life-threatening arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, sleep apnea, neurological disorders, and aging. PhysioToolkit is a library of open-source software for physiological signal processing and analysis, the detection of physiologically significant events using both classic techniques and novel methods based on statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics, the interactive display and characterization of signals, the creation of new databases, the simulation of physiological and other signals, the quantitative evaluation and comparison of analysis methods, and the analysis of nonstationary processes. PhysioNet is an on-line forum for the dissemination and exchange of recorded biomedical signals and open-source software for analyzing them. It provides facilities for the cooperative analysis of data and the evaluation of proposed new algorithms. In addition to providing free electronic access to PhysioBank data and PhysioToolkit software via the World Wide Web (http://www.physionet. org), PhysioNet offers services and training via on-line tutorials to assist users with varying levels of expertise.

Sweat testing for cystic fibrosis: errors associated with the in-situ sweat test using chloride ion selective electrodes.

The in-situ sweat test is prone to errors from various sources. This paper examines errors due to evaporation, absorption of water into the skin, and pressure of the electrode on the skin. Only evaporation caused serious errors. The accuracy and precision when measuring small chloride/sweat samples on the skin are not significantly worse than when measuring bulk solutions.

Sweat testing for cystic fibrosis: characteristics of a combination chloride ion-selective electrode.

Filling solution leakage, reproducibility, stability, interferences and temperature effects have been studied in relation to the use of the Orion 96-17-01 combination chloride ion-selective electrode in sweat testing for cystic fibrosis. While stability and reproducibility is good, certain antiseptic systems and especially Hibitaine (chlorhexidine gluconate) interfere with the electrode and therefore need to be absent during sweat testing. Temperature conditions during calibration and sweat testing need to be controlled in view of the extent of response variations for even modest temperature differences between sensor-skin interface and electrode stem.

Long-term therapy with sulphasalazine protects against colorectal cancer in ulcerative colitis: a retrospective study of colorectal cancer risk and compliance with treatment in Leicestershire.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to (i) estimate the prognosis of a 10-year cohort as expressed by risk of colectomy and risk of development of colorectal cancer, and (ii) assess the impact of long-term sulphasalazine on the natural course of ulcerative colitis. PATIENTS: One hundred and seventy-five patients diagnosed between 1972 and 1981 with either total colitis (n = 143) or with limited ulcerative colitis but deceased (n = 32) were identified. Overall there was 98% case ascertainment and verification. RESULTS: A total of 49 patients underwent a colectomy, 6 as emergency laparotomies, 36 for failed medical management and 7 for known colorectal cancer, giving a crude colectomy rate of 23.2%. The colectomy rate was 7.2% in the year of diagnosis, decreasing in frequency over the next 4 years, then reaching a steady state of approximately 1.7% per year. In the total cohort, colorectal cancer occurred in 10 patients within the study period. The cumulative incidence of colorectal cancer 10 years after diagnosis was 2.1% and at 20 years 7.4% for the total group of patients excluding those with a colectomy. The mean duration of ulcerative colitis before diagnosis was 7.9 years (range 5-12). The crude proportions developing cancer were 5/152 (3%) in the group who took long-term sulphasalazine but 5/16 (31%) in the those who had had their treatment stopped or who did not comply with therapy. This is highly significant using a simple chi 2 test (chi 2 = 20.2, df = 1, P < 0.001). Two methods were used for survival analyses, the log-rank and the generalized Wilcoxon methods. Both give highly significant values for the crude effect of compliance (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Patients with ulcerative colitis who were not on long-term sulphasalazine or 5-aminosalicylic acid therapy (either because a doctor stopped it or they did not comply with treatment) were significantly more likely to develop colorectal cancer than their compliant counterparts.

The attitude of employers to people with inflammatory bowel disease.

Many patients with inflammatory bowel disease are anxious about their future prospects of employment. Personnel managers at 61 major national and 136 principal local employers in Leicester and Cardiff were asked to provide details about their attitude to people with inflammatory bowel disease and the type of health care they offer to employees. Over one million people were employed by these companies. A poor response rate of 27% suggested at best disinterest in the subject on the part of employers. In those who did reply the attitude to people with inflammatory bowel disease was often positive, although up to a quarter (25%) would not continue to employ people if they developed these conditions and many (30%) would not provide time off work to attend hospital clinics. Only 60% of respondents would consider providing lighter duties to affected employees. In general there is a surprisingly negative attitude to promotion of people with chronic diseases such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis or liver disease. This seems less so in inflammatory bowel disease.

Power spectral density of unevenly sampled data by least-square analysis: performance and application to heart rate signals.

This work studies the frequency behavior of a least-square method to estimate the power spectral density of unevenly sampled signals. When the uneven sampling can be modeled as uniform sampling plus a stationary random deviation, this spectrum results in a periodic repetition of the original continuous time spectrum at the mean Nyquist frequency, with a low-pass effect affecting upper frequency bands that depends on the sampling dispersion. If the dispersion is small compared with the mean sampling period, the estimation at the base band is unbiased with practically no dispersion. When uneven sampling is modeled by a deterministic sinusoidal variation respect to the uniform sampling the obtained results are in agreement with those obtained for small random deviation. This approximation is usually well satisfied in signals like heart rate (HR) series. The theoretically predicted performance has been tested and corroborated with simulated and real HR signals. The Lomb method has been compared with the classical power spectral density (PSD) estimators that include resampling to get uniform sampling. We have found that the Lomb method avoids the major problem of classical methods: the low-pass effect of the resampling. Also only frequencies up to the mean Nyquist frequency should be considered (lower than 0.5 Hz if the HR is lower than 60 bpm). We conclude that for PSD estimation of unevenly sampled signals the Lomb method is more suitable than fast Fourier transform or autoregressive estimate with linear or cubic interpolation. In extreme situations (low-HR or high-frequency components) the Lomb estimate still introduces high-frequency contamination that suggest further studies of superior performance interpolators. In the case of HR signals we have also marked the convenience of selecting a stationary heart rate period to carry out a heart rate variability analysis.

The source of plasminogen activator in human saliva.

Human mixed stimulated saliva (MSS) has fibrinolytic activity (plasminogen activator activity) but no such activity could be demonstrated in the supernatants of mixed stimulated, parotid or submandibular salivas. Resuspended pellets from MSS showed a fibrinolytic activity only in association with epithelial cells and cell fragments. It is concluded that the fibrinolytic activity of MSS is related to its epithelial cell component.

Development and publication of work with selective ion-sensitive electrodes.

Features concerning development, response, selectivity and applications of selective ion-sensitive electrodes are reviewed. Recommendations are made concerning investigations involving the development and applications of electrodes and attention given to the manner of presenting data for publication.

A chlorate ion-selective electrode based on a poly(vinyl chloride)-matrix membrane.

An electrode has been prepared, consisting of a PVC membrane containing Corning 477316 nitrate liquid ion-exchanger in the chlorate form, which responds to chlorate ions. It has a faster response (1-2 sec) and lower limit of detection (3 x 10(-5)M) than the nitrate electrode for chlorate determination. Selectivity coefficients for the electrode towards several other ions have been measured.

Radiotracer studies on ion-selective electrode membranes containing metal complexes of a nonylphenoxypoly(ethyleneoxy)ethanol in poly(vinyl chloride) matrices.

Radiotracer studies with (133)Ba, (45)Ca and (36)Cl are reported for PVC matrix membranes containing 2-nitrophenyl phenyl ether and the tetraphenylborate of a barium (or calcium) complex with a nonylphenoxypoly(ethyleneoxy)ethanol (NP), Antarox CO880. The results show that there is very limited permeation of radioactive barium and calcium ions through the membrane systems. However, the continued uptake (with time) of radioactive barium ions by the membranes (the uptake of calcium ion is less) suggests that in relation to selective electrode response the stabilization of ions by the NP ligand within the membrane is important in addition to the simple availability of membrane pathways for primary-ion transport through the membrane. Permselectivity to counter-ions is indicated by the non-permeation of radioactive chloride ions.

Applied potential and radiotracer studies on poly(vinyl chloride) matrix ion-selective electrode membranes.

This paper reports the effect of applied potentials on PVC matrix membranes containing (i) the barium ion-sensitive barium-Antarox C0880 complex and 2-nitrophenyl phenyl ether solvent mediator, and (ii) the calcium ion-sensitive Orion 92-20-02 phosphate-based calcium liquid ion-exchanger. Platinum electrodes were placed in solutions on each side of the membranes. The barium ion-sensitive membranes are unable to maintain stable current flows but the calcium ion-sensitive membranes are characterized by stable current flows over prolonged periods even after successive polarity reversals. Results are presented, from radiotracer experiments for permeation of ions through the membranes with and without an applied potential. No evidence was found for significant permeation of barium-133 ions through the barium ion-sensing membranes into an initially inactive solution, but it was found that barium-133 ions were incorporated into the membranes after removal of the applied potential. Permeation of sodium-22 ions through the calcium ion-sensing membranes occurred only to a limited extent in the presence of an applied potential and not at all in its absence, confirming electrode selectivity trends for calcium and sodium. Calcium-45 ions did not permeate the calcium ion-sensing membranes into an inactive counter-solution against the potential gradient, but on reversal of the polarity, permeation occurred to a far greater extent than in the absence of an applied potential. These differences in behaviour are compatible with the more complicated membrane pathways of the barium ion-sensing membranes, imposed by the complexing of barium ions by the ethyleneoxy units of Antarox C0880 in a tight helical conformation. The calcium ion-sensing membranes are much less constrained, thus permitting more facile replacement of the calcium ions in the membrane by ions from solution.

Radiotracer studies on calcium ion-selective electrode membranes based on poly(vinyl chloride) matrices.

Radiotracer studies with (45)Ca and (36)Cl demonstrate that PVC matrix membranes containing Orion 92-20-02 liquid calcium ion-exchanger are permselective to counter-cations. Diffusion coefficients are quoted for the migration of (45)Ca between pairs of calcium solutions and are discussed in terms of solution concentration, membrane thickness and concentration level of sensor in the membrane. Migration of calcium ions from calcium chloride solution to a Group (II) metal chloride solution through a PVC membrane containing calcium liquid ion-exchanger is discussed in terms of solvent extraction and electrode selectivity coefficient parameters. Thus, magnesium, strontium and barium ions appear to inhibit migration through the membrane by their low affinity for the membrane liquid ion-exchanger sites, while the inhibition by beryllium ions is attributed to site blockage by the strong affinity of dialkylphosphate sites for beryllium.

An evaluation of solvent mediators for ion-selective electrode membranes based on calcium bis(dialkylphosphate) sensors trapped in poly(vinyl chloride) matrices.

This study on several alkan-1-ols, di-n-octylphenyl phosphorate and di-n-nonyl phthalate as solvent materials in ion-selective electrode membranes based on calcium bis(dialkylphosphate) sensors trapped in a PVC matrix indicates that the best electrodes are made with di-n-octylphenyl phosphonate. These are selective for calcium. The liquid alcohols readily exude from the PVC matrix, and solid alcohols are completely unsuitable for membrane fabrication. However, despite a tendency to be exuded, decan-1-ol gives acceptable electrodes responsive to bivalent cations if calcium bis (di-2-ethylhexylphosphate) is used as sensor. Several selectivity coefficients, k(caj), greater than unity were found, but though such values for j = Na or K do not involve complete loss of selectivity towards calcium, a value of K(CaCu) = 13 for a membrane with di-n-nonyl phthalate as mediator and calcium bis(di-n-decylphosphate) as sensor indicates greater selectivity for copper than for calcium.