22,342 research outputs found
Economic evaluation of a nursing-led intermediate care unit
Objectives: The aim of this paper is to examine the costs of introducing a nursing-led ward program together with examining the impact this may have on patients' outcomes. Methods; The study had a sample size of 177 patients with a mean age of 77, and randomized to either a treatment group (care on a nursing-led ward, n = 97) or a control group (standard care usually on a consultant-led acute ward, n = 80). Resource use data including length of stay, tests and investigations performed, and multidisciplinary involvement in care were collected. Results: There were no significant differences in outcome between the two groups. The inpatient costs for the treatment group were significantly higher, due to the longer length of stay in this group. However, the postdischarge costs were significantly lower for the treatment group. Conclusions: The provision of nursing-led intermediate care units has been proposed as a solution to inappropriate use of acute medical wards by patients who require additional nursing rather than medical care. Whether the treatment group is ultimately cost-additive is dependent on how long reductions in postdischarge resource use are maintained
Retrodiction as a tool for micromaser field measurements
We use retrodictive quantum theory to describe cavity field measurements by
successive atomic detections in the micromaser. We calculate the state of the
micromaser cavity field prior to detection of sequences of atoms in either the
excited or ground state, for atoms that are initially prepared in the excited
state. This provides the POM elements, which describe such sequences of
measurements.Comment: 20 pages, 4(8) figure
Determining the dimensionality of bipartite orbital-angular-momentum entanglement using multi-sector phase masks
The Shannon dimensionality of orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) entanglement produced in spontaneous parametric down-conversion can be probed by using multi-sector phase analysers [1]. We demonstrate a spatial light modulator-based implementation of these analysers, and use it to measure a Schmidt number of about 50
Transition state theory and the dynamics of hard disks
The dynamics of two and five disk systems confined in a square has been
studied using molecular dynamics simulations and compared with the predictions
of transition state theory. We determine the partition functions Z and
Z^\ddagger of transition state theory using a procedure first used by Salsburg
and Wood for the pressure. Our simulations show this procedure and transition
state theory are in excellent agreement with the simulations. A generalization
of the transition state theory to the case of a large number of disks N is made
and shown to be in full agreement with simulations of disks moving in a narrow
channel. The same procedure for hard spheres in three dimensions leads to the
Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann formula for their alpha relaxation time.Comment: 1 new author, new simulations and figures, less speculation. Now 6
pages, 6 figures, 1 animation. Animation may be viewed at
http://www.theory.physics.manchester.ac.uk/~godfrey/supplement/activated_dynamics2.htm
Non-Markovian dynamics of a nanomechanical resonator measured by a quantum point contact
We study the dynamics of a nanomechanical resonator (NMR) subject to a
measurement by a low transparency quantum point contact (QPC) or tunnel
junction in the non-Markovian domain. We derive the non-Markovian
number-resolved (conditional) and unconditional master equations valid to
second order in the tunneling Hamiltonian without making the rotating-wave
approximation and the Markovian approximation, generally made for systems in
quantum optics. Our non-Markovian master equation reduces, in appropriate
limits, to various Markovian versions of master equations in the literature. We
find considerable difference in dynamics between the non-Markovian cases and
its Markovian counterparts. We also calculate the time-dependent transport
current through the QPC which contains information about the measured NMR
system. We find an extra transient current term proportional to the expectation
value of the symmetrized product of the position and momentum operators of the
NMR. This extra current term, with a coefficient coming from the combination of
the imaginary parts of the QPC reservoir correlation functions, has a
substantial contribution to the total transient current in the non-Markovian
case, but was generally ignored in the studies of the same problem in the
literature. Considering the contribution of this extra term, we show that a
significantly qualitative and quantitative difference in the total transient
current between the non-Markovian and the Markovian wide-band-limit cases can
be observed. Thus, it may serve as a witness or signature of the non-Markovian
features in the coupled NMR-QPC system.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review B (20 pages, 13 figures
The Importance of Animal Comfort for Animal Production in Intensive Grassland Systems
Animals utilise a wide range of regulatory systems to control the conditions within their bodies or homeostasis. These regulatory systems control for example, body temperature, nutritional state, water balance, social interactions and fear and these systems react to environmental and endogenous stimuli so as to correct or prevent displacements from the optimal range. The behavioural and physiological responses utilised by the animal are usually proportional to the challenge to homeostasis. The stress response commences with the central nervous system perceiving a potential challenge to homeostasis. Once the central nervous system perceives a threat, it develops a biological response or defence that consists of some combination of the four general biological defence responses: behavioural responses, responses of the autonomic nervous system, responses of the neuroendocrine system and responses of the immune system. Although biological regulation is occurring constantly, adaptation is not always possible and when homeostasis fails, there are biological costs for the animal, which may include growth and reproductive failure, injury, disease as a consequence of immunosuppression or even death. While animal comfort is not strictly defined in the scientific literature, an appropriate definition of comfort that is utilised in this review is a dictionary definition, “at ease in body and mind”.
With the likely trend to greater intensification of grassland production, there are a number of factors that will affect animal comfort. Both group size and space allowance are key features of the social environment that may affect animal comfort, while the nature of human contact is an important factor, which through fear, may also affect animal comfort. Thermal stressors can have significant impact on animal comfort with cold around parturition being a serious problem for the offspring and heat having adverse consequences for adult animal production and welfare. The concerns for animal comfort over husbandry procedures include practices ranging from simple interventions such as shearing that involve challenges including restraint, close human contact and isolation to more complex surgical interventions such as tail docking and castration that may include additional challenges such as acute and chronic pain, as well as short-term production depressions. Others issues include risks associated with animal biotechnologies, including simple manipulations such as twinning to more complex transgenic manipulations
On the Quantum Phase Operator for Coherent States
In papers by Lynch [Phys. Rev. A41, 2841 (1990)] and Gerry and Urbanski
[Phys. Rev. A42, 662 (1990)] it has been argued that the phase-fluctuation
laser experiments of Gerhardt, B\"uchler and Lifkin [Phys. Lett. 49A, 119
(1974)] are in good agreement with the variance of the Pegg-Barnett phase
operator for a coherent state, even for a small number of photons. We argue
that this is not conclusive. In fact, we show that the variance of the phase in
fact depends on the relative phase between the phase of the coherent state and
the off-set phase of the Pegg-Barnett phase operator. This off-set
phase is replaced with the phase of a reference beam in an actual experiment
and we show that several choices of such a relative phase can be fitted to the
experimental data. We also discuss the Noh, Foug\`{e}res and Mandel [Phys.Rev.
A46, 2840 (1992)] relative phase experiment in terms of the Pegg-Barnett phase
taking post-selection conditions into account.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. Typographical errors and misprints have been
corrected. The outline of the paper has also been changed. Physica Scripta
(in press
On the generation of ocean wind waves as inferred from airborne radar measurements of fetch-limited spectra
A section of sea surface that had been subjected to a constant offshore wind was profiled by using an airborne radar-wave profiler. The profiles extended seaward from the coast for a distance of 350 km . From these data, estimates of the spectrum of encounter of the sea surface were obtained for different fetch lengths...
Bipartite quantum channels using multipartite cluster-type entangled coherent states
We propose a particular encoding for bipartite entangled states derived from
multipartite cluster-type entangled coherent states (CTECSs). We investigate
the effects of amplitude damping on the entanglement content of this bipartite
state, as well as its usefulness as a quantum channel for teleportation. We
find interesting relationships among the amplitude of the coherent states
constituting the CTECSs, the number of subsystems forming the logical qubits
(redundancy), and the extent to which amplitude damping affects the
entanglement of the channel. For instance, in the sense of sudden death of
entanglement, given a fixed value of the initial coherent state amplitude, the
entanglement life span is shortened if redundancy is increased.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX 4.1, BibTe
Minimum-error discrimination between three mirror-symmetric states
We present the optimal measurement strategy for distinguishing between three
quantum states exhibiting a mirror symmetry. The three states live in a
two-dimensional Hilbert space, and are thus overcomplete. By mirror symmetry we
understand that the transformation {|+> -> |+>, |-> -> -|->} leaves the set of
states invariant. The obtained measurement strategy minimizes the error
probability. An experimental realization for polarized photons, realizable with
current technology, is suggested.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
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