Classical and quantum partition bound and detector inefficiency

We study randomized and quantum efficiency lower bounds in communication complexity. These arise from the study of zero-communication protocols in which players are allowed to abort. Our scenario is inspired by the physics setup of Bell experiments, where two players share a predefined entangled state but are not allowed to communicate. Each is given a measurement as input, which they perform on their share of the system. The outcomes of the measurements should follow a distribution predicted by quantum mechanics; however, in practice, the detectors may fail to produce an output in some of the runs. The efficiency of the experiment is the probability that the experiment succeeds (neither of the detectors fails). When the players share a quantum state, this gives rise to a new bound on quantum communication complexity (eff*) that subsumes the factorization norm. When players share randomness instead of a quantum state, the efficiency bound (eff), coincides with the partition bound of Jain and Klauck. This is one of the strongest lower bounds known for randomized communication complexity, which subsumes all the known combinatorial and algebraic methods including the rectangle (corruption) bound, the factorization norm, and discrepancy. The lower bound is formulated as a convex optimization problem. In practice, the dual form is more feasible to use, and we show that it amounts to constructing an explicit Bell inequality (for eff) or Tsirelson inequality (for eff*). We give an example of a quantum distribution where the violation can be exponentially bigger than the previously studied class of normalized Bell inequalities. For one-way communication, we show that the quantum one-way partition bound is tight for classical communication with shared entanglement up to arbitrarily small error.Comment: 21 pages, extended versio

Transmission of MRSA between Companion Animals and Infected Human Patients Presenting to Outpatient Medical Care Facilities

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a significant pathogen in both human and veterinary medicine. The importance of companion animals as reservoirs of human infections is currently unknown. The companion animals of 49 MRSA-infected outpatients (cases) were screened for MRSA carriage, and their bacterial isolates were compared with those of the infected patients using Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE). Rates of MRSA among the companion animals of MRSA-infected patients were compared to rates of MRSA among companion animals of pet guardians attending a “veterinary wellness clinic” (controls). MRSA was isolated from at least one companion animal in 4/49 (8.2%) households of MRSA-infected outpatients vs. none of the pets of the 50 uninfected human controls. Using PFGE, patient-pets MRSA isolates were identical for three pairs and discordant for one pair (suggested MRSA inter-specie transmission p-value = 0.1175). These results suggest that companion animals of MRSA-infected patients can be culture-positive for MRSA, representing a potential source of infection or re-infection for humans. Further studies are required to better understand the epidemiology of MRSA human-animal inter-specie transmission

An overview of harms associated with β-lactam antimicrobials: where do the carbapenems fit in?

The US Institute of Medicine's focus on patient safety has motivated hospital administrators to facilitate a culture of safety. As a result, subcommittees of the pharmacy and therapeutics committee have emerged in many hospitals to focus on adverse events and patient safety. Antimicrobial harms have gained the attention of practicing clinicians and hospital formulary committees, because they top the list of drugs that are associated with adverse events and because of certain serious harms that have ultimately led to the withdrawal of some antimicrobial agents. In the near future, several antimicrobials in the late phase of development will become available for clinical use (ceftobiprole, ceftaroline, and telavancin), and others (doripenem and dalbavancin) have recently joined the armamentarium. Because new antimicrobials will become part of the treatment armamentarium, it is important to discuss our current understanding of antimicrobial harms in general. Although not thought of as traditional adverse events, Clostridium difficile infection and development of resistance during therapy are adverse events that occur as a result of antimicrobial exposure and therefore are discussed. In addition, a distillation of our current understanding of β-lactam specific adverse events will be provided. Finally, new methods of administration are being evaluated that may influence peak concentration-related antimicrobial adverse events