Thermal quantum gravity condensates in group field theory cosmology

The condensate cosmology programme of group field theory quantum gravity has produced several interesting results. The key idea is in the suggestion that a macroscopic homogeneous spacetime can be approximated by a dynamical condensate phase of the underlying microscopic system of an arbitrarily large number of candidate quanta of geometry. In this work, we extend the standard treatments in two ways: by using a class of thermal condensates, the coherent thermal states, which encode statistical fluctuations in quantum geometry; and, by introducing a suitable class of smearing functions as non-singular, well-behaved generalisations for relational clock frames in group field theory. In particular, we investigate an effective relational cosmological dynamics for homogeneous and isotropic spacetimes, extracted from a class of free group field theory models, and subsequently investigate aspects of its late and early times evolution. We find the correct classical limit of Friedmann equations at late times, with a bounce and accelerated inflationary expansion at early times. Specifically, we find additional correction terms in the evolution equations corresponding to the statistical contribution of the new thermal condensates in general; and, a higher upper bound on the number of e-folds, even without including any interactions

Why Does a Kronecker Model Result in Misleading Capacity Estimates?

Many recent works that study the performance of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems in practice assume a Kronecker model where the variances of the channel entries, upon decomposition on to the transmit and the receive eigen-bases, admit a separable form. Measurement campaigns, however, show that the Kronecker model results in poor estimates for capacity. Motivated by these observations, a channel model that does not impose a separable structure has been recently proposed and shown to fit the capacity of measured channels better. In this work, we show that this recently proposed modeling framework can be viewed as a natural consequence of channel decomposition on to its canonical coordinates, the transmit and/or the receive eigen-bases. Using tools from random matrix theory, we then establish the theoretical basis behind the Kronecker mismatch at the low- and the high-SNR extremes: 1) Sparsity of the dominant statistical degrees of freedom (DoF) in the true channel at the low-SNR extreme, and 2) Non-regularity of the sparsity structure (disparities in the distribution of the DoF across the rows and the columns) at the high-SNR extreme.Comment: 39 pages, 5 figures, under review with IEEE Trans. Inform. Theor

Thermal representations in group field theory: squeezed vacua and quantum gravity condensates

We apply the formalism of thermofield dynamics to group field theory quantum gravity and construct thermal representations associated with generalised equilibrium Gibbs states using Bogoliubov transformations. The newly constructed class of thermal vacua are entangled, two-mode squeezed, thermofield double states. The corresponding finite temperature representations are inequivalent to the standard zero temperature one based on a degenerate vacuum. An interesting class of states, coherent thermal states, are defined and understood as thermal quantum gravity condensates

Patient confidence and quality of life in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and sarcoidosis

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and sarcoidosis impact significantly on health-related quality of life (HRQOL). There are few studies on the impact of patient confidence on HRQOL in these conditions. Objectives: 1. To investigate whether patient confidence is associated with HRQOL, anxiety, depression, dyspnoea or fatigue. 2. To assess if patient confidence is associated with inpatient admissions, access to community healthcare and, for IPF patients, mortality and disease severity. Methods: Study participants self-completed seven questionnaires: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, EuroQol 5D (EQ5D), King’s Brief Interstitial Lung Disease questionnaire, St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire, MRC dyspnoea scale, Fatigue Assessment Scale and a non-validated questionnaire assessing patient confidence, symptom duration and access to community healthcare. Lung function and follow-up data were collected from hospital electronic databases. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated to assess for correlation between patient confidence, questionnaire variables and inpatient admissions. Chi-square tests were performed to assess for association between patient confidence, mortality and disease severity. Results: 75 IPF patients and 69 sarcoidosis patients were recruited to the study. Patient confidence in IPF was significantly negatively correlated with depression and fatigue, and significantly positively correlated with EQ5D scores, but not healthcare outcomes. No associations were found between confidence and any of the variables assessed in sarcoidosis. Conclusions: Lower levels of confidence in IPF patients are associated with higher levels of depression and fatigue and worse HRQOL. Efforts should be made to improve patient confidence to assess the impact on HRQOL

Quantum Frame Relativity of Subsystems, Correlations and Thermodynamics

It was recently noted that different internal quantum reference frames (QRFs) partition a system in different ways into subsystems, much like different inertial observers in special relativity decompose spacetime in different ways into space and time. Here we expand on this QRF relativity of subsystems and elucidate that it is the source of all novel QRF dependent effects, just like the relativity of simultaneity is the origin of all characteristic special relativistic phenomena. We show that subsystem relativity, in fact, also arises in special relativity with internal frames and, by implying the relativity of simultaneity, constitutes a generalisation of it. Physical consequences of the QRF relativity of subsystems, which we explore here systematically, and the relativity of simultaneity may thus be seen in similar light. We focus on investigating when and how subsystem correlations and entropies, interactions and types of dynamics (open vs. closed), as well as quantum thermodynamical processes change under QRF transformations. We show that thermal equilibrium is generically QRF relative and find that, remarkably, $\textit{QRF transformations not only can change a subsystem temperature, but even map positive into negative temperature states}$. We further examine how non-equilibrium notions of heat and work exchange, as well as entropy production and flow depend on the QRF. Along the way, we develop the first study of how reduced subsystem states transform under QRF changes. Focusing on physical insights, we restrict to ideal QRFs associated with finite abelian groups. Besides being conducive to rigour, the ensuing finite-dimensional setting is where quantum information-theoretic quantities and quantum thermodynamics are best developed. We anticipate, however, that our results extend qualitatively to more general groups and frames, and even to subsystems in gauge theory and gravity.Comment: 49 pages + appendices, 12 figures. Comments welcom

Collecting multiple data linkage consents in a mixed mode survey: evidence and lessons learnt from next steps

Linking survey responses with administrative data is a promising practice to increase the range of research questions to be explored, at a limited interview burden, both for respondents and interviewers. This paper describes the protocol for asking consent to data linkage on nine different sources in a large-scale nationally representative survey of young adults in England: the Next Steps Age 25 Survey. Evidence from preparatory qualitative research, piloting and from the main stage of the study is presented. This research constitutes a novel contribution to the literature, discussing the practicalities of implementing a data linkage protocol asking consent both retrospectively and prospectively, on multiple domains, and in the context of a mixed-mode survey

Standing Balance Stability and the Effects of Light Touch in Adults With Profound Loss of Vision-An Exploratory Study

Purpose: We evaluated the postural stability of adults with inherited profound vision loss and examined the effects of touch on their balance control. Methods: A total of 11 severely-sight impaired patients (mean [SD] age, 51.6 [5.3] years) and 11 control subjects (mean age, 49.7 [5.3] years) participated. Postural stability was measured using a force-balance platform eyes open/closed on a firm/foam surface under 3 test conditions: no touch, light touch, and unrestricted touch (UT), where "touch" involved placing their index finger on a rigid table. Average magnitude of center of foot pressure displacement was calculated. A somatosensory ratio (SR) was used to evaluate the somatosensory contribution to balance. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to investigate the effects of touch on standing balance. Results: Patients had a significantly increased SR compared to control subjects (mean [SD] SR controls = 1.2 [0.2], patients = 1.9 [0.5]; P < 0.01). There was a significant effect of touch, vision, and surface on balance control ("touch" F = 68.1, P < 0.01; "vision" F = 20.1, P < 0.01; "surface" F = 200.8, P < 0.01). Light touch attenuated sway in patients and controls. The effects were greater in controls when their vision was removed, and greater in patients when their somatosensory system was disrupted. Light touch was as effective as UT in attenuating sway. Conclusions: The results of this exploratory study suggest that patients with severe sight impairment show an increased somatosensory contribution to balance control compared to their normally sighted counterparts. Light touch significantly reduces sway amplitude in severely sight impaired adults when standing on the foam surface, that is, when the somatosensory system is perturbed

Example of monitoring measurements in a virtual eye clinic using 'big data'

Aim: To assess the equivalence of measurement outcomes between patients attending a standard glaucoma care service, where patients see an ophthalmologist in a face-to-face setting, and a glaucoma monitoring service (GMS). Methods: The average mean deviation (MD) measurement on the visual field (VF) test for 250 patients attending a GMS were compared with a ‘big data’ repository of patients attending a standard glaucoma care service (reference database). In addition, the speed of VF progression between GMS patients and reference database patients was compared. Reference database patients were used to create expected outcomes that GMS patients could be compared with. For GMS patients falling outside of the expected limits, further analysis was carried out on the clinical management decisions for these patients. Results: The average MD of patients in the GMS ranged from +1.6dB to −18.9dB between two consecutive appointments at the clinic. In the first analysis, 12 (4.8%; 95% CI 2.5% to 8.2%) GMS patients scored outside the 90% expected values based on the reference database. In the second analysis, 1.9% (95% CI 0.4% to 5.4%) GMS patients had VF changes outside of the expected 90% limits. Conclusions: Using ‘big data’ collected in the standard glaucoma care service, we found that patients attending a GMS have equivalent outcomes on the VF test. Our findings provide support for the implementation of virtual healthcare delivery in the hospital eye service