A New Way of Looking at Philadelphians

Pew has created a new way of looking at Philadelphians, one rooted in how they think about the city rather than where they show up in demographic categories. The analysis, based on a telephone survey of 1,603 randomly chosen Philadelphians in early 2015, sorts adult city residents into four groups. We have labeled those groups Dissatisfied Citizens, Die-Hard Loyalists, Uncommitted Skeptics, and Enthusiastic Urbanists. This effort was modeled on work done nationally by our colleagues at the Pew Research Center in Washington. Through this type of polling and analysis, the center has sorted Americans into groupings based on values and attitudes, going beyond the simple labels of liberal and conservative. For Philadelphia, we set out to do something similar -- although not on the left-right spectrum -- in hopes of increasing public understanding of the city and its residents

L'Université McGill et la société québécoise francophone, 1951-1969

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

Experimental evidence for a surface distribution of two-level systems in superconducting lithographed microwave resonators

We present measurements of the temperature-dependent frequency shift of five niobium superconducting coplanar waveguide microresonators with center strip widths ranging from 3 $\mu$m to 50 $\mu$m, taken at temperatures in the range 100-800 mK, far below the 9.2 K transition temperature of niobium. These data agree well with the two-level system (TLS) theory. Fits to this theory provide information on the number of TLS that interact with each resonator geometry. The geometrical scaling indicates a surface distribution of TLS, and the data are consistent with a TLS surface layer thickness of order a few nm, as might be expected for a native oxide layer.Comment: 3 figures, submitted to AP

A semi-empirical model for two-level system noise in superconducting microresonators

We present measurements of the low--temperature excess frequency noise of four niobium superconducting coplanar waveguide microresonators, with center strip widths $s_r$ ranging from 3 $\mu$m to 20 $\mu$m. For a fixed internal power, we find that the frequency noise decreases rapidly with increasing center strip width, scaling as $1/s_r^{1.6}$. We show that this geometrical scaling is readily explained by a simple semi-empirical model which assumes a surface distribution of independent two-level system fluctuators. These results allow the resonator geometry to be optimized for minimum noise.Comment: 3 fig

Experience of Health Leadership in Partnering With University-Based Researchers in Canada – A Call to “Re-imagine” Research

Background: Emerging evidence that meaningful relationships with knowledge users are a key predictor of research use has led to promotion of partnership approaches to health research. However, little is known about health system experiences of collaborations with university-based researchers, particularly with research partnerships in the area of health system design and health service organization. The purpose of the study was to explore the experience and perspectives of senior health managers in health service organizations, with health organization-university research partnerships. Methods: In-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 25) were conducted with senior health personnel across Canada to explore their perspectives on health system research; experiences with health organization-university research partnerships; challenges to partnership research; and suggested actions for improving engagement with knowledge users and promoting research utilization. Participants, recruited from organizations with regional responsibilities, were responsible for system-wide planning and support functions. Results: Research is often experienced as unhelpful or irrelevant to decision-making by many within the system. Research, quality improvement (QI) and evaluation are often viewed as separate activities and coordinated by different responsibility areas. Perspectives of senior managers on barriers to partnership differed from those identified in the literature: organizational stress and restructuring, and limitations in readiness of researchers to work in the fast-paced healthcare environment, were identified as major barriers. Although the need for strong executive leadership was emphasized, “multi-system action” is needed for effective partnerships. Conclusion: Common approaches to research and knowledge translation are often not appropriate for addressing issues of health service design and health services organization. Nor is the research community providing expertise to many important activities that the healthcare system is taking to improve health services. A radical rethinking of how we prepare health service researchers; position research within the health system; and fund research activities and infrastructure is needed if the potential benefits of research are to be achieved. Lack of response to health system needs may contribute to research and ‘evidence-informed’ practice being further marginalized from healthcare operations. Interventions to address barriers must respond to the perspectives and experience of health leadership