8,308 research outputs found
Best interests, dementia and the Mental Capacity Act (2005)
The Mental Capacity Act (2005) is an impressive piece of
legislation that deserves serious ethical attention, but
much of the commentary on the Act has focussed on its
legal and practical implications rather than the underlying
ethical concepts. This paper examines the approach that
the Act takes to best interests. The Act does not provide
an account of the underlying concept of best interests.
Instead it lists factors that must be considered in
determining best interests, and the Code of Practice to
the Act states that this list is incomplete. This paper
argues that this general approach is correct, contrary to
some accounts of best interests. The checklist includes
items that are unhelpful. Furthermore, neither the Act nor
its Code of Practice provides sufficient guidance to carers
faced with difficult decisions concerning best interests.
This paper suggests ways in which the checklist can be
developed and discusses cases that could be used in an
updated Code of Practice
Stabilising entanglement by quantum jump-based feedback
We show that direct feedback based on quantum jump detection can be used to
generate entangled steady states. We present a strategy that is insensitive to
detection inefficiencies and robust against errors in the control Hamiltonian.
This feedback procedure is also shown to overcome spontaneous emission effects
by stabilising states with high degree of entanglement.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Spatial mapping of hepatitis C prevalence in recent injecting drug users in contact with services.
In developed countries the majority of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections occur in injecting drug users (IDUs) with prevalence in IDUs often high, but with wide geographical differences within countries. Estimates of local prevalence are needed for planning services for IDUs, but it is not practical to conduct HCV seroprevalence surveys in all areas. In this study survey data from IDUs attending specialist services were collected in 52/149 sites in England between 2006 and 2008. Spatially correlated random-effects models were used to estimate HCV prevalence for all sites, using auxiliary data to aid prediction. Estimates ranged from 14% to 82%, with larger cities, London and the North West having the highest HCV prevalence. The methods used generated robust estimates for each area, with a well-identified spatial pattern that improved predictions. Such models may be of use in other areas of study where surveillance data are sparse
Evaluation of Modification of the Upper Batavia Dam on the Fox River, Illinois
Progress Report, Federal Aid Project F-136-R Segment 6Report issued on: August 2004Submitted to Office of Water Resources, Illinois Department of Natural Resource
Continuous measurement feedback control of a Bose-Einstein condensate using phase contrast imaging
We consider the theory of feedback control of a Bose-Einstein condensate
(BEC) confined in a harmonic trap under a continuous measurement constructed
via non-destructive imaging. A filtering theory approach is used to derive a
stochastic master equation (SME) for the system from a general Hamiltonian
based upon system-bath coupling. Numerical solutions for this SME in the limit
of a single atom show that the final steady state energy is dependent upon the
measurement strength, the ratio of photon kinetic energy to atomic kinetic
energy, and the feedback strength. Simulations indicate that for a weak
measurement strength, feedback can be used to overcome heating introduced by
the scattering of light, thereby allowing the atom to be driven towards the
ground state.Comment: 4 figures, 11 page
Staff Pay Levels for Selected Positions in Senators’ Offices, FY2009-FY2013
[Excerpt] This report provides pay data for 16 staff position titles that are typically deployed in Senators’ offices. The positions include the following: Administrative Director; Casework Supervisor; Caseworker; Chief of Staff; Communications Director; Counsel; Executive Assistant; Field Representative; Legislative Assistant; Legislative Correspondent; Legislative Director; Press Secretary; Scheduler; “Specials Director,” a combined category that includes the job titles Director of Projects, Director of Special Projects, Director of Federal Projects, Director of Grants, Projects Director, or Grants Director; Staff Assistant; and State Director. Senators’ staff pay data for the years FY2009-FY2013 were derived from a random sampling of Senators’ offices in which at least one staff member worked in a position in each year
Staff Pay Levels for Selected Positions in House Member Offices, 2009-2013
[Excerpt] This report provides pay data for 13 staff position titles that are typically deployed in the offices of Members of the House. The positions include the following: Caseworker; Chief of Staff; Counsel; District Director; Executive Assistant; Field Representative; Legislative Assistant; Legislative Correspondent; Legislative Director; Office Manager; Press Secretary; Scheduler; and Staff Assistant. House Member staff pay data for the years 2009-2013 were developed based on a random sampling of staff for each position in each year
XMDS2: Fast, scalable simulation of coupled stochastic partial differential equations
XMDS2 is a cross-platform, GPL-licensed, open source package for numerically
integrating initial value problems that range from a single ordinary
differential equation up to systems of coupled stochastic partial differential
equations. The equations are described in a high-level XML-based script, and
the package generates low-level optionally parallelised C++ code for the
efficient solution of those equations. It combines the advantages of high-level
simulations, namely fast and low-error development, with the speed, portability
and scalability of hand-written code. XMDS2 is a complete redesign of the XMDS
package, and features support for a much wider problem space while also
producing faster code.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
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