| 1. |
- Abellán, C., et al.
(author)
-
Challenging Local Realism with Human Choices
- 2018
-
In: Nature. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 557, s. 212-216
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A Bell test is a randomized trial that compares experimental observations against the philosophical worldview of local realism , in which the properties of the physical world are independent of our observation of them and no signal travels faster than light. A Bell test requires spatially distributed entanglement, fast and high-efficiency detection and unpredictable measurement settings. Although technology can satisfy the first two of these requirements, the use of physical devices to choose settings in a Bell test involves making assumptions about the physics that one aims to test. Bell himself noted this weakness in using physical setting choices and argued that human 'free will' could be used rigorously to ensure unpredictability in Bell tests. Here we report a set of local-realism tests using human choices, which avoids assumptions about predictability in physics. We recruited about 100,000 human participants to play an online video game that incentivizes fast, sustained input of unpredictable selections and illustrates Bell-test methodology. The participants generated 97,347,490 binary choices, which were directed via a scalable web platform to 12 laboratories on five continents, where 13 experiments tested local realism using photons, single atoms, atomic ensembles and superconducting devices. Over a 12-hour period on 30 November 2016, participants worldwide provided a sustained data flow of over 1,000 bits per second to the experiments, which used different human-generated data to choose each measurement setting. The observed correlations strongly contradict local realism and other realistic positions in bi-partite and tri-partite 12 scenarios. Project outcomes include closing the 'freedom-of-choice loophole' (the possibility that the setting choices are influenced by 'hidden variables' to correlate with the particle properties), the utilization of video-game methods for rapid collection of human-generated randomness, and the use of networking techniques for global participation in experimental science.
|
|
| 2. |
- Hardon, A P, et al.
(author)
-
Hunger, waiting time and transport costs : time to confront challenges to ART adherence in Africa
- 2007
-
In: AIDS Care. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0954-0121 .- 1360-0451. ; 19:5, s. 658-665
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Adherence levels in Africa have been found to be better than those in the US. However around one out of four ART users fail to achieve optimal adherence, risking drug resistance and negative treatment outcomes. A high demand for 2nd line treatments (currently ten times more expensive than 1st line ART) undermines the sustainability of African ART programs. There is an urgent need to identify context-specific constraints to adherence and implement interventions to address them. We used rapid appraisals (involving mainly qualitative methods) to find out why and when people do not adhere to ART in Uganda, Tanzania and Botswana. Multidisciplinary teams of researchers and local health professionals conducted the studies, involving a total of 54 semi-structured interviews with health workers, 73 semi-structured interviews with ARTusers and other key informants, 34 focus group discussions, and 218 exit interviews with ART users. All the facilities studied in Botswana, Tanzania and Uganda provide ARVs free of charge, but ART users report other related costs (e.g. transport expenditures, registration and user fees at the private health facilities, and lost wages due to long waiting times) as main obstacles to optimal adherence. Side effects and hunger in the initial treatment phase are an added concern. We further found that ART users find it hard to take their drugs when they are among people to whom they have not disclosed their HIV status, such as co-workers and friends. The research teams recommend that (i) health care workers inform patients better about adverse effects; (ii) ART programmes provide transport and food support to patients who are too poor to pay; (iii) recurrent costs to users be reduced by providing three-months, rather than the one-month refills once optimal adherence levels have been achieved; and (iv) pharmacists play an important role in this follow-up care.
|
|
| 3. |
- Giustina, M., et al.
(author)
-
Significant-Loophole-Free Test of Local Realism with Entangled Photons
- 2016
-
In: 2016 CONFERENCE ON LASERS AND ELECTRO-OPTICS (CLEO). - : IEEE. - 9781943580118
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report an experimental violation of a Bell inequality with strong statistical significance. Our experiment employs polarization measurements on entangled single photons and closes the locality, freedom-of-choice, fair-sampling, coincidence-time, and memory loopholes simultaneously.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Gerrits, E, et al.
(author)
-
Distinct amyloid-β and tau-associated microglia profiles in Alzheimer's disease
- 2021
-
In: Acta neuropathologica. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1432-0533 .- 0001-6322. ; 141:5, s. 681-696
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of dementia and is characterized by abnormal extracellular aggregates of amyloid-β and intraneuronal hyperphosphorylated tau tangles and neuropil threads. Microglia, the tissue-resident macrophages of the central nervous system (CNS), are important for CNS homeostasis and implicated in AD pathology. In amyloid mouse models, a phagocytic/activated microglia phenotype has been identified. How increasing levels of amyloid-β and tau pathology affect human microglia transcriptional profiles is unknown. Here, we performed snRNAseq on 482,472 nuclei from non-demented control brains and AD brains containing only amyloid-β plaques or both amyloid-β plaques and tau pathology. Within the microglia population, distinct expression profiles were identified of which two were AD pathology-associated. The phagocytic/activated AD1-microglia population abundance strongly correlated with tissue amyloid-β load and localized to amyloid-β plaques. The AD2-microglia abundance strongly correlated with tissue phospho-tau load and these microglia were more abundant in samples with overt tau pathology. This full characterization of human disease-associated microglia phenotypes provides new insights in the pathophysiological role of microglia in AD and offers new targets for microglia-state-specific therapeutic strategies.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Walker, Logan C, et al.
(author)
-
Evidence for SMAD3 as a modifier of breast cancer risk in BRCA2 mutation carriers.
- 2010
-
In: Breast cancer research : BCR. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1465-542X .- 1465-5411. ; 12:6
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Current attempts to identify genetic modifiers of BRCA1 and BRCA2 associated risk have focused on a candidate gene approach, based on knowledge of gene functions, or the development of large genome-wide association studies. In this study, we evaluated 24 SNPs tagged to 14 candidate genes derived through a novel approach that analysed gene expression differences to prioritise candidate modifier genes for association studies.
|
|
