Architecture and Systemics - in Praise of Roughness

Architecture is a complex idea in its own right. In architectural culture, systemic references are not new. Design theories, in Europe as well as in USA, have often referred to many concepts more or less strictly linked to Systemics and to scientific domains such as Information theories and Cybernetics. Quite often, such references have been a mere metaphorical suggestion or, as in the field of “rational” design and process engineering, they mostly have heavy functional overtones. Such is the idea of “performance”, whose original definition was meant as an industrial design tool pursuing optimization, linking together the users’ needs and the requirements an artifact must possess to satisfy those needs. But, as we know, “bottom up” emergence processes have nothing to do with “top down” design strategies for optimization. Nevertheless, the idea of performance conveys the meaning of a strong influence intercurring between two entities, one of them on the “giving” and the other one on the “taking” sides, both of them interacting through feedback. For this reason, I believe the idea of performance should not be discarded lightheartedly. Rather, a “softer” notion of performance, linked to the realm of social perception and attachment to places, should be brought to thorough definition. It might be useful to find a more productive, non-metaphorical use of systemic references to understand and (then) to design - or to redevelop - human settlements

EPR Steering Inequalities from Entropic Uncertainty Relations

We use entropic uncertainty relations to formulate inequalities that witness Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering correlations in diverse quantum systems. We then use these inequalities to formulate symmetric EPR-steering inequalities using the mutual information. We explore the differing natures of the correlations captured by one-way and symmetric steering inequalities, and examine the possibility of exclusive one-way steerability in two-qubit states. Furthermore, we show that steering inequalities can be extended to generalized positive operator valued measures (POVMs), and we also derive hybrid-steering inequalities between alternate degrees of freedom.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Quality of life in patients with intermittent claudication

© 2017, The Author(s). Background: Intermittent claudication (IC) is a common condition that causes pain in the lower limbs when walking and has been shown to severely impact the quality of life (QoL) of patients. The QoL is therefore often regarded as an important measure in clinical trials investigating intermittent claudication. To date, no consensus exits on the type of life questionnaire to be used. This review aims to examine the QoL questionnaires used in trials investigating peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Material and methods: A systematic review of randomised clinical trials including a primary analysis of QoL via questionnaire was performed. Trials involving patients with diagnosed PAD were included (either clinically or by questionnaire). Any trial which had QoL as the primary outcome data was included with no limit being placed on the type of questionnaire used. Results: The search yielded a total of 1845 articles of which 31 were deemed appropriate for inclusion in the review. In total, 14 different QoL questionnaires were used across 31 studies. Of the questionnaires 24.06% were missing at least one domain when reported in the results of the study. Mean standard deviation varied widely based on the domain reported, particularly within the SF36. Discussion: Despite previous recommendations for Europewide standardisation of quality of life assessment, to date no such tool exists. This review demonstrated that a number of different questionnaires remain in use, that their completion is often inadequate and that further evidence-based guidelines on QoL assessment are required to guide future research

Unforgeable Quantum Encryption

We study the problem of encrypting and authenticating quantum data in the presence of adversaries making adaptive chosen plaintext and chosen ciphertext queries. Classically, security games use string copying and comparison to detect adversarial cheating in such scenarios. Quantumly, this approach would violate no-cloning. We develop new techniques to overcome this problem: we use entanglement to detect cheating, and rely on recent results for characterizing quantum encryption schemes. We give definitions for (i.) ciphertext unforgeability , (ii.) indistinguishability under adaptive chosen-ciphertext attack, and (iii.) authenticated encryption. The restriction of each definition to the classical setting is at least as strong as the corresponding classical notion: (i) implies INT-CTXT, (ii) implies IND-CCA2, and (iii) implies AE. All of our new notions also imply QIND-CPA privacy. Combining one-time authentication and classical pseudorandomness, we construct schemes for each of these new quantum security notions, and provide several separation examples. Along the way, we also give a new definition of one-time quantum authentication which, unlike all previous approaches, authenticates ciphertexts rather than plaintexts.Comment: 22+2 pages, 1 figure. v3: error in the definition of QIND-CCA2 fixed, some proofs related to QIND-CCA2 clarifie

Improving the economic value of photographic screening for optical coherence tomography-detectable macular oedema : a prospective, multicentre, UK study

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Steering Inequalities from Entropic Uncertainty Relations

We use entropic uncertainty relations to formulate inequalities that witness Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)-steering correlations in diverse quantum systems. We then use these inequalities to formulate symmetric EPR-steering inequalities using the mutual information. We explore the differing natures of the correlations captured by one-way and symmetric steering inequalities and examine the possibility of exclusive one-way steerability in two-qubit states. Furthermore, we show that steering inequalities can be extended to generalized positive operator-valued measures, and we also derive hybrid steering inequalities between alternate degrees of freedom

The Ursinus Weekly, October 6, 1966

Cultural opportunities abound at U.C. during 1966: Art exhibit • Orientation brings return of the dink: Red and gold revived on the U.C. scene • U.C. hosts parents on October 8 • Politics main theme of Forums • Record enrollment • NSA tests open to upperclassmen • Academy of Music sponsors student concerts • Luxurious new dorms opened • Editorial • Frosh meet challenge of matriculation blues • Letters to the editor • Book review • What\u27s in a name? You\u27d be amazed! • New cars, big engines in news • Wilkinson\u27s inmates undismayed by unfinished state of dorm • Booters strive for coherence, consistency • Bears impress in scoreless opener • Youthful gridders much improved since 1965 • Gurzynski\u27s runners face Eastern Baptist Friday • Fall hockey preview: Loss of strong line players leaves gaps • Greek gleaningshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1191/thumbnail.jp

Genetic and clinical contributions to cerebral palsy: A multi-variable analysis

All authors are contributors to the Australian Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Research Group The definitive version is available at www.wileyonlinelibrary.comAimThis study aims to examine single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associations with cerebral palsy in a multi-variable analysis adjusting for potential clinical confounders and to assess SNP-SNP and SNP-maternal infection interactions as contributors to cerebral palsy.MethodsA case control study including 587 children with cerebral palsy and 1154 control children without cerebral palsy. Thirty-nine candidate SNPs were genotyped in both mother and child. Data linkage to perinatal notes and cerebral palsy registers was performed with a supplementary maternal pregnancy questionnaire. History of known maternal infection during pregnancy was extracted from perinatal databases.ResultsBoth maternal and fetal carriage of inducible nitric oxide synthase SNP rs1137933 were significantly negatively associated with cerebral palsy in infants born at less than 32 weeks gestation after adjustment for potential clinical confounders and correction for multiple testing (odds ratio 0.55, 95% confidence interval 0.38-0.79; odds ratio 0.57, 95% confidence interval 0.4-0.82, respectively). Analysis did not show any statistically significant SNP-SNP or SNP-maternal infection interactions after correction for multiple testing.ConclusionsMaternal and child inducible nitric oxide synthase SNPs are associated with reduced risk of cerebral palsy in infants born very preterm. There was no evidence for statistically significant SNP-SNP or SNP-maternal infection interactions as modulators of cerebral palsy risk.Michael E O’Callaghan, Alastair H MacLennan, Catherine S Gibson, Gai L McMichael, Eric A Haan, Jessica L Broadbent, Peter A Baghurst, Paul N Goldwater, Gustaaf A Dekker and for the Australian Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Research Grou