Experimental demonstration of continuous variable purification of squeezed states

We report on the first experimental demonstration of purification of nonclassical continuous variable states. The protocol uses two copies of phase-diffused states overlapped on a beam splitter and provides Gaussified, less mixed states with the degree of squeezing improved. The protocol uses only linear optical devices such as beam splitters and homodyne detection, thereby proving these optical elements can be used for successful purification of this type of state decoherence which occurs in optical transmission channels

Patient or Physician Centered Care?: Structural Implications for Clinical Interactions and the Overlooked Patient

Patient-centered care is widely supported by physicians, but this wide-spread support potentially obscures the social patterning of clinical interactions. We know that patients often want religious/spiritual conversations in the context of medical care but the provision is infrequent. As there is regional variance in religiosity, a gap in the literature exists regarding whether patient populations’ religiosity is connected to physicians’ self-reported religious/spiritual interactions. Using a national sample of U.S. physicians linked to county-level measures, the author test whether both physicians’ background and patient population characteristics are related to religious/spiritual interactions. Specifically, do physicians in more religious locations report more frequent religious interactions and is this dependent on whether the physician is also religious? Or does the religiosity of patient populations fail to explain variance in the frequency of inclusion? Logistic regressions with spatial lag terms highlight the importance of physicians’ background for inclusion of religiosity/spirituality. County-level variance of religious concentration is largely unrelated to the inclusion of religiosity/spirituality. The provision of patient-centered care is complicated. The inclusion of something patient-specific, such as religious/spiritual content, may not depend on the characteristics of the patient population, but those of the physician they see

A Longitudinal Study of Resident Emotional Stability, Self-Reported Health and Perceptions of Programmatic Support

Purpose: Certain characteristics such as acceptance, planning, and humility have correlated with less burnout among resident physicians. However, less is known about residency program culture, socialization, and support. The purpose of this study is to investigate social isolation, solidarity, stress, and frustration over time, their self-reported health, as well as the programmatic support. Methods: A longitudinal self-administered survey implemented within an academic pediatric residency program to track resident characteristics over time. Results: In Wave 1, among 101 residents, 78 (77%) responded. In Wave 2, among 98 residents, 73 (74%) responded. 45 residents were in both Wave 1 and 2. All measures of resident characteristics were stable over time. Worse overall health at Wave 2 is associated with feeling alone in residency at Wave 1 (r-.48). More stress (r.35), frustration (r.36) and feeling alone (r.53) (Wave 1) is associated with higher reports of bad mental health in Wave 2 while inversely associated with socializing frequently with other residents outside of work (r-.36) (Wave 1). Thinking the program helps residents cope with stress (r-.49) and that they communicate resources (r-.35) (Wave 1) correlate with improved mental health (Wave 2). Conclusion: Both negative characteristics such as stress and frustration as well as positive ones such as trust and socialization are stable over time. Some Wave 1 characteristics are healthful for residents while others deleterious at Wave 2. Perceptions of programmatic involvement may be helpful for resident mental health

Broadband radio polarimetry and Faraday rotation of 563 extragalactic radio sources

We present a broadband spectropolarimetric survey of 563 discrete, mostly unresolved radio sources between 1.3 and 2.0 GHz using data taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We have used rotation-measure synthesis to identify Faraday-complex polarized sources, those objects whose frequency-dependent polarization behavior indicates the presence of material possessing complicated magnetoionic structure along the line of sight (LOS). For sources classified as Faraday-complex, we have analyzed a number of their radio and multiwavelength properties to determine whether they differ from Faraday-simple polarized sources (sources for which LOS magnetoionic structures are comparatively simple) in these properties. We use this information to constrain the physical nature of the magnetoionic structures responsible for generating the observed complexity. We detect Faraday complexity in 12% of polarized sources at ~1' resolution, but we demonstrate that underlying signal-to-noise limitations mean the true percentage is likely to be significantly higher in the polarized radio source population. We find that the properties of Faraday-complex objects are diverse, but that complexity is most often associated with depolarization of extended radio sources possessing a relatively steep total intensity spectrum. We find an association between Faraday complexity and LOS structure in the Galactic interstellar medium (ISM) and claim that a significant proportion of the Faraday complexity we observe may be generated at interfaces of the ISM associated with ionization fronts near neutral hydrogen structures. Galaxy cluster environments and internally generated Faraday complexity provide possible alternative explanations in some cases

Stress Buffer or Identity Threat?: Negative Media Portrayal, Public and Private Religious Involvement, and Mental Health in a National Sample of US Adults

Guided by the stress process tradition, complex links between religion and mental health have received growing attention from researchers. This study gauges individuals’ public and private religiosity, uses a novel measure of environmental stress—negative media portrayal of religion—and presents two divergent hypotheses: (1) religiosity as stress-exacerbating attachment to valued identities producing mental health vulnerability to threat and (2) religiosity as stress-buffering social psychological resource. To assess these hypotheses, we analyze three mental health outcomes (generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and general mental health problems) in national U.S. data from 2010 (N = 1,714). Our findings align with the stress-buffering perspective. Results show that individuals low in public and private religiosity tend to have worse mental health with greater negative media portrayal. High public or private religiosity tends to nullify the relationship between negative media portrayal and mental health

Squeezed-field injection for gravitational wave interferometers

In a recent table-top experiment, we demonstrated the compatibility of three advanced interferometer techniques for gravitational wave detection, namely power-recycling, detuned signal recycling and squeezed-field injection. The interferometer's signal-to-noise ratio was improved by up to 2.8 dB beyond the coherent state's shot-noise. This value was mainly limited by optical losses on the squeezed field. We present a detailed analysis of the optical losses in our experiment and provide an estimation of the possible nonclassical performance of a future squeezed-field enhanced GEO 600 detector