The Presumption against Expensive Health Care Consumption

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Tailored codes for small quantum memories

We demonstrate that small quantum memories, realized via quantum error correction in multi-qubit devices, can benefit substantially by choosing a quantum code that is tailored to the relevant error model of the system. For a biased noise model, with independent bit and phase flips occurring at different rates, we show that a single code greatly outperforms the well-studied Steane code across the full range of parameters of the noise model, including for unbiased noise. In fact, this tailored code performs almost optimally when compared with 10,000 randomly selected stabilizer codes of comparable experimental complexity. Tailored codes can even outperform the Steane code with realistic experimental noise, and without any increase in the experimental complexity, as we demonstrate by comparison in the observed error model in a recent 7-qubit trapped ion experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, supplementary material; v2 published versio

William H. Sorrell, Attorney General of Vermont, et al. v. IMS Health Inc., et al. - Amicus Brief in Support of Petitioners

On April 26, 2011, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Vermont data mining case, Sorrell v. IMS Health Inc. Respondents claim this is the most important commercial speech case in a decade. Petitioner (the State of Vermont) argues this is the most important medical privacy case since Whalen v. Roe. The is an amicus brief supporting Vermont, written by law professors and submitted on behalf of the New England Journal of Medicin

What are talent scouts actually identifying? Investigating the physical and technical skill match activity profiles of drafted and non-drafted U18 Australian footballers

Objective: To compare the physical and technical skill match activity profiles of drafted and non-drafted under 18 (U18) Australian football (AF) players. Design: Cross-sectional observational. Methods: In-game physical and skill variables were assessed for U18 AF players participating within the 2013 and 2014 National U18 AFL Championships. Players originated from one State Academy (n = 55). Ten games were analysed; resulting in 183 observations. Players were sub-divided into two groups; drafted / non-drafted. Microtechnology and a commercial statistical provider allowed the quantification of total distance (m), relative distance (m.min-1), high speed running distance (\u3e 15km.hr-1), high speed running expressed as a percentage of total distance (% total), total disposals, marks, contested possessions, uncontested possessions, inside 50’s and rebound 50’s (n = 10). The effect size (d) of draft outcome on these criterion variables was calculated, with generalised estimating equations (GEE’s) used to model which of these criterion variables was associated with draft outcome. Results: Contested possessions and inside 50’s reflected large effect size differences between groups (d = 1.01, d = 0.92, respectively). The GEE models revealed contested possessions as the strongest predictor of draft outcome, with inside 50’s being the second. Comparatively, the remaining criterion variables were not predictive of draft outcome. Conclusions: Contested possessions and inside 50’s are the most influential in-game variables associated with draft outcome for West Australian players competing within the National U18 AFL Championships. Technically skilled players who win contested possessions and deliver the ball inside 50 may be advantageously positioned for draft success

Stroke penumbra defined by an MRI-based oxygen challenge technique: 2. Validation based on the consequences of reperfusion

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with oxygen challenge (T2* OC) uses oxygen as a metabolic biotracer to define penumbral tissue based on CMRO2 and oxygen extraction fraction. Penumbra displays a greater T2* signal change during OC than surrounding tissue. Since timely restoration of cerebral blood flow (CBF) should salvage penumbra, T2* OC was tested by examining the consequences of reperfusion on T2* OC-defined penumbra. Transient ischemia (109±20 minutes) was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=8). Penumbra was identified on T2*-weighted MRI during OC. Ischemia and ischemic injury were identified on CBF and apparent diffusion coefficient maps, respectively. Reperfusion was induced and scans repeated. T2 for final infarct and T2* OC were run on day 7. T2* signal increase to OC was 3.4% in contralateral cortex and caudate nucleus and was unaffected by reperfusion. In OC-defined penumbra, T2* signal increased by 8.4%±4.1% during ischemia and returned to 3.25%±0.8% following reperfusion. Ischemic core T2* signal increase was 0.39%±0.47% during ischemia and 0.84%±1.8% on reperfusion. Penumbral CBF increased from 41.94±13 to 116.5±25 mL per 100 g per minute on reperfusion. On day 7, OC-defined penumbra gave a normal OC response and was located outside the infarct. T2* OC-defined penumbra recovered when CBF was restored, providing further validation of the utility of T2* OC for acute stroke management

Stroke penumbra defined by an MRI-based oxygen challenge technique: 1. validation using [14C]2-deoxyglucose autoradiography

Accurate identification of ischemic penumbra will improve stroke patient selection for reperfusion therapies and clinical trials. Current magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have limitations and lack validation. Oxygen challenge T2* MRI (T2* OC) uses oxygen as a biotracer to detect tissue metabolism, with penumbra displaying the greatest T2* signal change during OC. [14C]2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) autoradiography was combined with T2* OC to determine metabolic status of T2*-defined penumbra. Permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion was induced in anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats (n=6). Ischemic injury and perfusion deficit were determined by diffusion- and perfusion-weighted imaging, respectively. At 147±32 minutes after stroke, T2* signal change was measured during a 5-minute 100% OC, immediately followed by 125 μCi/kg 2-DG, intravenously. Magnetic resonance images were coregistered with the corresponding autoradiograms. Regions of interest were located within ischemic core, T2*-defined penumbra, equivalent contralateral structures, and a region of hyperglycolysis. A T2* signal increase of 9.22%±3.9% (mean±s.d.) was recorded in presumed penumbra, which displayed local cerebral glucose utilization values equivalent to contralateral cortex. T2* signal change was negligible in ischemic core, 3.2%±0.78% in contralateral regions, and 1.41%±0.62% in hyperglycolytic tissue, located outside OC-defined penumbra and within the diffusion abnormality. The results support the utility of OC-MRI to detect viable penumbral tissue follow

Effective Feedback to Improve Primary Care Prescribing Safety (EFIPPS) a pragmatic three-arm cluster randomised trial:designing the intervention (ClinicalTrials.gov registration NCT01602705)

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Spiral-Induced Star Formation in the Outer Disks of Galaxies

The outer regions of galactic disks have received increased attention since ultraviolet observations with GALEX demonstrated that nearly 30% of galaxies have UV emission beyond their optical extents, indicating star formation activity. These galaxies have been termed extended UV (XUV) disks. Here, we address whether these observations contradict the gas surface density threshold for star formation inferred from Halpha radial profiles of galaxies. We run smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of isolated disk galaxies with fiducial star formation prescriptions and show that over-densities owing to the presence of spiral structure can induce star formation in extended gas disks. For direct comparison with observations, we use the 3-D radiative transfer code Sunrise to create simulated FUV and K_s band images. We find that galaxies classified as Type I XUV disks are a natural consequence of spiral patterns, but we are unable to reproduce Type II XUV disks. We also compare our results to studies of the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation in outer disks.Comment: Published in Ap

Physicochemical property distributions for accurate and rapid pairwise protein homology detection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The challenge of remote homology detection is that many evolutionarily related sequences have very little similarity at the amino acid level. Kernel-based discriminative methods, such as support vector machines (SVMs), that use vector representations of sequences derived from sequence properties have been shown to have superior accuracy when compared to traditional approaches for the task of remote homology detection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We introduce a new method for feature vector representation based on the physicochemical properties of the primary protein sequence. A distribution of physicochemical property scores are assembled from 4-mers of the sequence and normalized based on the null distribution of the property over all possible 4-mers. With this approach there is little computational cost associated with the transformation of the protein into feature space, and overall performance in terms of remote homology detection is comparable with current state-of-the-art methods. We demonstrate that the features can be used for the task of pairwise remote homology detection with improved accuracy versus sequence-based methods such as BLAST and other feature-based methods of similar computational cost.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A protein feature method based on physicochemical properties is a viable approach for extracting features in a computationally inexpensive manner while retaining the sensitivity of SVM protein homology detection. Furthermore, identifying features that can be used for generic pairwise homology detection in lieu of family-based homology detection is important for applications such as large database searches and comparative genomics.</p