Culture Shock

Take one week living in our culture: Monday: A student quotes other students on Overheard at Gettysburg. “In the commons at 8:50am. Two girls. Completely serious. Girl 1: Have you been outside? Girl 2: Yea! It’s rape weather. Girl 1: I know. A girl could totally get raped out there.” [excerpt

9P Wielkopolanie o nowotworach

Od roku 1993 Pracownia a następnie Zakład Prewerencji i Epidemiologii Nowotworów gromadzi opinie mieszkańców Poznania i woj. poznańskiego na temat chorób nowotworowych. Celem prowadzonych badań jest aktualizowanie przekonań respondentów m. in. na temat czynników ryzyka chorób nowotworowych, źródeł wiedzy o nowotworach, czy akceptacji dla prowadzenia badań genetycznych.Opinie respondentów uzyskiwane są przy pomocy ankiety pocztowej, która przy zachowaniu podstawowej konstrukcji jest ulepszana kolejną edycją badań.Z analizy wynika, że*przekonania na temat wyleczalności nowotworów złośliwych utrzymują się na niezmienionym poziomie (większość oszacowań 11–30%),*za najbardziej skuteczną metodę leczenia nowotworów uważany jest zabieg chirurgiczny (42–53%),*wiedza respondentów o nowotworach pochodzi z artykułów prasowych, audycji TV, od rodziny i znajomych,*rośnie odsetek kobiet deklarujących znajomość samokontroli piersi (z 75% do 88%) oraz stosujących metodę systematycznie (wzrost 21% w ciągu trzech lat). Obserwowane tendencje stanowią element świadomości społecznej Wielkopolan, a dalsze badania powinny ujawnić ich trwałość oraz wpływ na kształtowanie stylu życia

An efficiency upper bound for inverse covariance estimation

We derive an upper bound for the efficiency of estimating entries in the inverse covariance matrix of a high dimensional distribution. We show that in order to approximate an off-diagonal entry of the density matrix of a $d$-dimensional Gaussian random vector, one needs at least a number of samples proportional to $d$. Furthermore, we show that with $n \ll d$ samples, the hypothesis that two given coordinates are fully correlated, when all other coordinates are conditioned to be zero, cannot be told apart from the hypothesis that the two are uncorrelated.Comment: 7 Page

Ingredients of popular fruit teas in Poland

Fruit teas are very popular on the market of food products in many countries, due to their attractive taste and aroma as well as pro-health and medicinal properties. They are also characterized by the great wealth and diversity of composition. The purpose of this study was to analyze selected products based on the information contained on their packaging. The research included the most popular fruit teas widely available on the Polish food market, i.e. raspberry, cranberry and rosehip teas, 82 products in total. It was found that plant raw materials appearing in the tea names often constitute a small percentage of their composition, while hibiscus and apple occur very often and in the large quantities. The analysis of the content of the basic ingredient of raspberry and cranberry teas showed that they are characterized by a large diversity of quality. In addition to products with a relatively high amount of raspberry or cranberry (mean: 43.8 and 27.2%, respectively), there were teas with a very low level of these ingredients (mean: 7.5 and 1.6%). Against this background, rosehip tea has stood out positively. In this category of products, Rosa spp. hips, as a widely available plant raw material, most often obtained content above 30-40%. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.117558

Contribution to the bryoflora of the Chochołowska Valley in the Polish Tatra Mountains

The paper presents a list of 64 moss species recorded in the Chochołowska Valley (including Wyżnia Chochołowska Valley, Jarząbcza Valley and the surrounding peaks). Detected taxa belong to 25 families. Among them, the most commonly represented are Polytrichaceae (9 species), Dicranaceae (6), Pottiaceae (6), Hylocomiaceae (5), Hypnaceae (5), Grimmiaceae (4), and Bryaceae (4). Mosses were collected from different substrates, but they usually grew on humus (37 taxa), which sometimes covered with a thin layer of granite or limestone gravel. 15 species were found on epilithic habitats, especially on limestone rocks (10), while 8 species occurred on wood or tree trunks. Some mosses occupied synanthropic habitats (6 species). For example, apophytes widely distributed in the lowlands: Tortula muralis, Dryptodon pulvinatus, and Schistidium crassipilum were recorded on the wall near the PTTK shelter on the Chochołowska Glade, whereas an oreoapophyte – Pogonatum urnigerum grew on the path in Wyżnia Chochołowska Valley. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.254697

Psychological coping with cancer

The process of psychological changes experienced by the cancer patient is equivalent to a life crisis. Subsequent stages of coping with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer can lead to psychological disturbance or offer a chance for development through cognitive and emotional readaptation to new life conditions

Asymptotic entropic uncertainty relations

We analyze entropic uncertainty relations for two orthogonal measurements on a $N$-dimensional Hilbert space, performed in two generic bases. It is assumed that the unitary matrix $U$ relating both bases is distributed according to the Haar measure on the unitary group. We provide lower bounds on the average Shannon entropy of probability distributions related to both measurements. The bounds are stronger than these obtained with use of the entropic uncertainty relation by Maassen and Uffink, and they are optimal up to additive constants. We also analyze the case of a large number of measurements and obtain strong entropic uncertainty relations which hold with high probability with respect to the random choice of bases. The lower bounds we obtain are optimal up to additive constants and allow us to establish the conjecture by Wehner and Winter on the asymptotic behavior of constants in entropic uncertainty relations as the dimension tends to infinity. As a tool we develop estimates on the maximum operator norm of a submatrix of a fixed size of a random unitary matrix distributed according to the Haar measure, which are of an independent interest.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur

The LIL for UU-statistics in Hilbert spaces

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the (bounded) law of the iterated logarithm for $U$-statistics in Hilbert spaces. As a tool we also develop moment and tail estimates for canonical Hilbert-space valued $U$-statistics of arbitrary order, which are of independent interest

Fearless: The Next Wave of Insurgents

As we close out on another school year, the Surge staff is looking back on an awesome semester and preparing for a new year with new leadership. Katie Patterson ’15, Rashida Aluko-Roberts ’15,Steph Adamczak ’15, and Kathryn Bucolo ’14 are fearlessly taking the reigns and will continue bringing thought-provoking, challenging, and creative articles each week to Surge, and we can’t wait to see what they will do! [excerpt