Investigation into Life Enhancement and Positivity – Theoretical and Empirical Studies on Life Satisfaction

Life satisfaction is an important subject for academic and policy attention at individual, societal, and global levels. However, there are longstanding controversies in the research regarding life satisfaction. Confusing use of life satisfaction-related concepts have been identified. Repositioning the concept of life satisfaction and critically reviewing life-related satisfaction studies will clarify these confusions. This analytical commentary presents knowledge on a popular but contested subject, that of life-related satisfaction. This topic is the focus of my selected publications, in which I seek to reconceptualise and reframe the discussion to provide a more comprehensive and meaningful framework for life satisfaction. In addition, I seek to redirect future studies, applications, and policies, ultimately leading to more enabled and resilient societies. Specifically, this analytical commentary illustrates the current state of knowledge, providing an in-depth and systematic evaluation of the current terminologies related to life satisfaction and well-being; and highlights the urgency for change. In this analytical commentary, I seek to consider what authentic life satisfaction is. Based on my selected published works, together with the professional context in which the publications were written, this analytical commentary will focus on and: I. recognise the deficiencies and problems of contemporary understandings and use of relevant terms and concepts; II. make reference to philosophical and psychological thoughts; ix III. review literature within theoretically triangular axes as a frame of reference, namely, life-deep, life-wide, and life-long; and IV. propose a new theoretical framework entitled ‘Life Enhancement and Positivity’ (LEP). Shifting the paradigm, LEP is formulated to be more meaningful, comprehensive, precise, and parsimonious, considering both structures and dynamics of life. Two major structural domains are outlined. Among my published works, I have selected seven peer-reviewed papers that will serve as the body of work for this analytical commentary. Five of the papers were published in internationally recognised journals, and two are articles within two academic reference books published by the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University respectively. Under the common theme of life satisfaction, they address different research targets (for example, older and younger cohorts), variables (for example, health-related, psychosocial-related, and work-related) and methods (for example, quantitative and qualitative). These publications, as original contributions to the field, aid the construction of a new meta-level framework that aims to address the aforementioned controversies and ambiguities within the context of a complex and intricate situation as well as to serve as a guide towards a new direction

Generalized Flow and Determinism in Measurement-based Quantum Computation

We extend the notion of quantum information flow defined by Danos and Kashefi for the one-way model and present a necessary and sufficient condition for the deterministic computation in this model. The generalized flow also applied in the extended model with measurements in the X-Y, X-Z and Y-Z planes. We apply both measurement calculus and the stabiliser formalism to derive our main theorem which for the first time gives a full characterization of the deterministic computation in the one-way model. We present several examples to show how our result improves over the traditional notion of flow, such as geometries (entanglement graph with input and output) with no flow but having generalized flow and we discuss how they lead to an optimal implementation of the unitaries. More importantly one can also obtain a better quantum computation depth with the generalized flow rather than with flow. We believe our characterization result is particularly essential for the study of the algorithms and complexity in the one-way model.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

Brokered Graph State Quantum Computing

We describe a procedure for graph state quantum computing that is tailored to fully exploit the physics of optically active multi-level systems. Leveraging ideas from the literature on distributed computation together with the recent work on probabilistic cluster state synthesis, our model assigns to each physical system two logical qubits: the broker and the client. Groups of brokers negotiate new graph state fragments via a probabilistic optical protocol. Completed fragments are mapped from broker to clients via a simple state transition and measurement. The clients, whose role is to store the nascent graph state long term, remain entirely insulated from failures during the brokerage. We describe an implementation in terms of NV-centres in diamond, where brokers and clients are very naturally embodied as electron and nuclear spins.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Generalized Flow and Determinism in Measurement-based Quantum Computation

We extend the notion of quantum information flow defined by Danos and Kashefi for the one-way model and present a necessary and sufficient condition for the deterministic computation in this model. The generalized flow also applied in the extended model with measurements in the X-Y, X-Z and Y-Z planes. We apply both measurement calculus and the stabiliser formalism to derive our main theorem which for the first time gives a full characterization of the deterministic computation in the one-way model. We present several examples to show how our result improves over the traditional notion of flow, such as geometries (entanglement graph with input and output) with no flow but having generalized flow and we discuss how they lead to an optimal implementation of the unitaries. More importantly one can also obtain a better quantum computation depth with the generalized flow rather than with flow. We believe our characterization result is particularly essential for the study of the algorithms and complexity in the one-way model.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

Validation of a prognostic scoring system for locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated by stereotactic radiosurgery

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Selection of patients with local failure of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) for appropriate type of salvage treatment can be difficult due to the lack of data on comparative efficacy of different salvage treatments. The purpose of the present study was to validate a previously published prognostic scoring system for local failures of NPC treated by radiosurgery based on reported results in the literature.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A literature search yielded 3 published reports on the use of radiosurgery as salvage treatment of NPC that contained sufficient clinical information for validation of the scoring system. Prognostic scores of 18 patients from these reports were calculated and actuarial survival rates were estimated and compared to the original cohort used to design the prognostic scoring system. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was also determined and compared between the current and original patient groups.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The calculated prognostic scores ranged from 0.32 to 1.21, with 15 patients assigned to the poor prognostic group and 3 to the intermediate prognostic group. The actuarial 3-year survival rates in the intermediate and poor prognostic groups were 67% and 0%, respectively. These results were comparable to the observed 3-year survival rates of 74% and 23% in the intermediate and poor prognostic group in the original reports. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the current patient group was 0.846 which was similar to 0.841 in the original group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The previously published prognostic scoring system demonstrated good prediction of treatment outcome after radiosurgery in a small group of NPC patients with poor prognosis. Prospective study to validate the scoring system is currently being carried out in our institution.</p

Psychometric evaluation of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in a large community sample of adolescents in Hong Kong

Purpose: The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is widely used in adult populations; however, its usefulness with adolescents has been explored less. This study sought to evaluate the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Chinese version of HADS in a community sample of adolescents residing in Hong Kong. Methods: A prospective cohort of 5,857 students recruited from 17 secondary schools completed the HADS. Internal consistency and concurrent validity were examined. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test the relative fits of six factor structures of the HADS. The best fitting model was further cross-validated by male, female, splithalf samples, and age subgroups. Results: The HADS possessed adequate internal consistency, especially for the anxiety subscale. Significant concurrent intercorrelations with self-reported suicidal thoughts and the Youth Self Report Anxious/Depressed subscale were discovered and found to be stronger for females. The cross-validation supported a two-factor model, where anxiety item 7, "I can sit at ease and feel relaxed", was placed in the depression subscale. Conclusions: The HADS showed satisfactory psychometric properties as a screening instrument in assessing anxious and depressive states as two correlated but distinct factors in adolescents. Study implications and recommendations for future research were discussed.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Classifying supersymmetric solutions in 3D maximal supergravity

The work of MS was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) 24740159 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 10.13039/501100001691. This work is part of the research programme of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) 10.13039/ 501100003404, which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).The work of MS was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) 24740159 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 10.13039/501100001691. This work is part of the research programme of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) 10.13039/ 501100003404, which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).The work of MS was supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) 24740159 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 10.13039/501100001691. This work is part of the research programme of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) 10.13039/ 501100003404, which is part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO

Herschel observations of extra-ordinary sources: Detecting spiral arm clouds by CH absorption lines

We have observed CH absorption lines ($J=3/2, N=1 \leftarrow J=1/2, N=1$) against the continuum source Sgr~B2(M) using the \textit{Herschel}/HIFI instrument. With the high spectral resolution and wide velocity coverage provided by HIFI, 31 CH absorption features with different radial velocities and line widths are detected and identified. The narrower line width and lower column density clouds show `spiral arm' cloud characteristics, while the absorption component with the broadest line width and highest column density corresponds to the gas from the Sgr~B2 envelope. The observations show that each `spiral arm' harbors multiple velocity components, indicating that the clouds are not uniform and that they have internal structure. This line-of-sight through almost the entire Galaxy offers unique possibilities to study the basic chemistry of simple molecules in diffuse clouds, as a variety of different cloud classes are sampled simultaneously. We find that the linear relationship between CH and H$_2$ column densities found at lower $A_V$ by UV observations does not continue into the range of higher visual extinction. There, the curve flattens, which probably means that CH is depleted in the denser cores of these clouds.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, HIFI Special Issu