Multi-core anti-resonant hollow core optical fiber.

We report the fabrication and characterization of a multi-core anti-resonant hollow core fiber with low inter-core coupling. The optical losses were 0.03 and 0.

Developing the OpenFlexure Microscope towards medical use: technical and social challenges of developing globally accessible hardware for healthcare.

The OpenFlexure Microscope is an accessible, three-dimensional-printed robotic microscope, with sufficient image quality to resolve diagnostic features including parasites and cancerous cells. As access to lab-grade microscopes is a major challenge in global healthcare, the OpenFlexure Microscope has been developed to be manufactured, maintained and used in remote environments, supporting point-of-care diagnosis. The steps taken in transforming the hardware and software from an academic prototype towards an accepted medical device include addressing technical and social challenges, and are key for any innovation targeting improved effectiveness in low-resource healthcare.

Guidance of ultraviolet light down to 190 nm in a hollow-core optical fibre.

We report an anti-resonant hollow core fibre with ultraviolet transmission down to 190 nm, covering the entire UV-A, UV-B and much of the UV-C band. Guidance from 190 - 400 nm is achieved apart for a narrow high loss resonance band at 245 - 265 nm. The minimum attenuation is 0.

Measurement of resonant bend loss in anti-resonant hollow core optical fiber: erratum.

An error on the part of the authors in drafting resulted in Eq. (3) being incorrect in the published paper [Opt. Express25, 20612 (2017)10.

Controlling and scripting laboratory hardware with open-source, intuitive interfaces: OpenFlexure Voice Control and OpenFlexure Blockly.

Making user interaction with laboratory equipment more convenient and intuitive should promote experimental work and help researchers to complete their tasks efficiently. The most common form of interaction in current instrumentation is either direct tactile, with buttons and knobs, or interfaced through a computer, using a mouse and keyboard. Scripting is another function typical of smart and automated laboratory equipment, yet users are currently required to learn bespoke programming languages and libraries for individual pieces of equipment.

Fast, high-precision autofocus on a motorised microscope: Automating blood sample imaging on the OpenFlexure Microscope.

The OpenFlexure Microscope is a 3D-printed, low-cost microscope capable of automated image acquisition through the use of a motorised translation stage and a Raspberry Pi imaging system. This automation has applications in research and healthcare, including in supporting the diagnosis of malaria in low-resource settings. The plasmodium parasites that cause malaria require high magnification imaging, which has a shallow depth of field, necessitating the development of an accurate and precise autofocus procedure.

Neurodevelopment: UNC-40/DCC and the Patterning of Neural Circuits.

A new study in Caenorhabditis elegans suggests the ubiquitin-proteasome system promotes degradation of the netrin receptor UNC-40 in a particular neuron only in one sex, leading to sex-specific patterns of synaptic connections.

Two-group Poisson-Dirichlet mixtures for multiple testing.

The simultaneous testing of multiple hypotheses is common to the analysis of high-dimensional data sets. The two-group model, first proposed by Efron, identifies significant comparisons by allocating observations to a mixture of an empirical null and an alternative distribution. In the Bayesian nonparametrics literature, many approaches have suggested using mixtures of Dirichlet Processes in the two-group model framework.

Atomic dispensers for thermoplasmonic control of alkali vapor pressure in quantum optical applications.

Alkali metal vapors enable access to single electron systems, suitable for demonstrating fundamental light-matter interactions and promising for quantum logic operations, storage and sensing. However, progress is hampered by the need for robust and repeatable control over the atomic vapor density and over the associated optical depth. Until now, a moderate improvement of the optical depth was attainable through bulk heating or laser desorption - both time-consuming techniques.

A perspective on SOAL, a stochastic model of neuronal outgrowth.

A functional nervous system requires neuronal connections to be made in a highly detailed and stereotypic manner. During development, neurons extend processes that can branch, travel in different directions, and form elaborate patterns. These patterns are essential for forming proper connections.

Single-mode solarization-free hollow-core fiber for ultraviolet pulse delivery.

In this paper, we report anti-resonant silica hollow-core fibers (AR-HCFs) for solarization-free ultraviolet (UV) pulse transmission. The new fibers reported have lower attenuation than any previous HCFs for this spectral range. We report a single fiber that guides over a part of the UV-C and the whole of the UV-A spectral regions in adjacent transmission bands.

A Statistically-Oriented Asymmetric Localization (SOAL) Model for Neuronal Outgrowth Patterning by UNC-5 (UNC5) and UNC-40 (DCC) Netrin Receptors.

Neurons extend processes that vary in number, length, and direction of "outgrowth". Extracellular cues help determine outgrowth patterns. In , neurons respond to the extracellular UNC-6 (netrin) cue via UNC-40 (DCC) and UNC-5 (UNC5) receptors.

Measurement of resonant bend loss in anti-resonant hollow core optical fiber.

We present the results of measurements of resonant spectral bend loss using a novel apparatus in a series of hollow core anti-resonant optical fibers, important for their applications in the delivery of industrial power ultra-short laser pulses. The measured bend losses exhibit clear wavelength-bend diameter resonances. We demonstrate, in good agreement with theoretical analysis, that the sensitivity to bend diameter (in terms of minimum bend radii) is dependent on the ratio between cladding and core structure size.

Characterization of oral and gut microbiome temporal variability in hospitalized cancer patients.

Background: Understanding longitudinal variability of the microbiome in ill patients is critical to moving microbiome-based measurements and therapeutics into clinical practice. However, the vast majority of data regarding microbiome stability are derived from healthy subjects. Herein, we sought to determine intra-patient temporal microbiota variability, the factors driving such variability, and its clinical impact in an extensive longitudinal cohort of hospitalized cancer patients during chemotherapy.

An integrative Bayesian Dirichlet-multinomial regression model for the analysis of taxonomic abundances in microbiome data.

Background: The Human Microbiome has been variously associated with the immune-regulatory mechanisms involved in the prevention or development of many non-infectious human diseases such as autoimmunity, allergy and cancer. Integrative approaches which aim at associating the composition of the human microbiome with other available information, such as clinical covariates and environmental predictors, are paramount to develop a more complete understanding of the role of microbiome in disease development.

Results: In this manuscript, we propose a Bayesian Dirichlet-Multinomial regression model which uses spike-and-slab priors for the selection of significant associations between a set of available covariates and taxa from a microbiome abundance table.

The Genetics of Axon Guidance and Axon Regeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans.

The correct wiring of neuronal circuits depends on outgrowth and guidance of neuronal processes during development. In the past two decades, great progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of axon outgrowth and guidance. Genetic analysis in Caenorhabditis elegans has played a key role in elucidating conserved pathways regulating axon guidance, including Netrin signaling, the slit Slit/Robo pathway, Wnt signaling, and others.

The role of the gastrointestinal microbiome in infectious complications during induction chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: Despite increasing data on the impact of the microbiome on cancer, the dynamics and role of the microbiome in infection during therapy for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) are unknown. Therefore, the authors sought to determine correlations between microbiome composition and infectious outcomes in patients with AML who were receiving induction chemotherapy (IC).

Methods: Buccal and fecal specimens (478 samples) were collected twice weekly from 34 patients with AML who were undergoing IC.

Experimental realization of a one-way quantum computer algorithm solving Simon's problem.

We report an experimental demonstration of a one-way implementation of a quantum algorithm solving Simon's problem-a black-box period-finding problem that has an exponential gap between the classical and quantum runtime. Using an all-optical setup and modifying the bases of single-qubit measurements on a five-qubit cluster state, key representative functions of the logical two-qubit version's black box can be queried and solved. To the best of our knowledge, this work represents the first experimental realization of the quantum algorithm solving Simon's problem.

Experimental demonstration of graph-state quantum secret sharing.

Quantum communication and computing offer many new opportunities for information processing in a connected world. Networks using quantum resources with tailor-made entanglement structures have been proposed for a variety of tasks, including distributing, sharing and processing information. Recently, a class of states known as graph states has emerged, providing versatile quantum resources for such networking tasks.

SAX-3 (Robo) and UNC-40 (DCC) regulate a directional bias for axon guidance in response to multiple extracellular cues.

Axons in Caenorhabditis elegans are guided by multiple extracellular cues, including UNC-6 (netrin), EGL-20 (wnt), UNC-52 (perlecan), and SLT-1 (slit). How multiple extracellular cues determine the direction of axon guidance is not well understood. We have proposed that an axon's response to guidance cues can be modeled as a random walk, i.