Phase estimation by photon counting measurements in the output of a linear Mach Zehnder (MZI) interferometer

Photon counting measurements are analyzed for obtaining a classical phase parameter in linear Mach Zehnder interferometer (MZI), by the use of phase estimation theories. The detailed analysis is made for four cases: a) Coherent states inserted into the interferometer. b) Fock number state inserted in one input port of the interferometer and the vacuum into the other input port. c) Coherent state inserted into one input port of the interferometer and squeezed-vacuum state in the other input port. d) Exchanging the first beam-splitter (BS1) of a MZI by a non-linear system which inserts a NOON state into the interferometer and by using photon counting for parity measurements. The properties of photon counting for obtaining minimal phase uncertainties for the above special cases and for the general case are discussed.Comment: 27 page

Introduction to the themed issue - Corporate power : agency, communication, influence and social policy

This paper introduces this themed issue of Critical Social Policy on the question of corporate power. Corporate power is recognized as an important agent in social policy making and delivery. However, to date there has been comparatively little attention to the crucial role that lobbying and corporate 'spin' play in helping to shape policy making contexts. This special issue of Critical Social Policy is concerned to bring such issues to the mainstream of social policy analysis. It is argued here that the rise of spin and public relations is a key feature of neoliberalism in the past two decades. These have worked to reshape policy making, resulting in pronounced changes in the content and process of policy making and it is argued that these have tended to marginalize or undermine democratic processes

Random boundaries: quantifying segmentation uncertainty in solutions to boundary-value problems

Engineering simulations using boundary-value partial differential equations often implicitly assume that the uncertainty in the location of the boundary has a negligible impact on the output of the simulation. In this work, we develop a novel method for describing the geometric uncertainty in image-derived models and use a naive method for subsequently quantifying a simulation's sensitivity to that uncertainty. A Gaussian random field is constructed to represent the space of possible geometries, based on image-derived quantities such as pixel size, which can then be used to probe the simulation's output space. The algorithm is demonstrated with examples from biomechanics where patient-specific geometries are often segmented from low-resolution, three-dimensional images. These examples show the method's wide applicability with examples using linear elasticity and fluid dynamics. We show that important biomechanical outputs of these example simulations, namely maximum principal stress and wall shear stress, can be highly sensitive to realistic uncertainties in geometry

Heatwaves and mortality in Queensland 2010–2019: implications for a homogenous state-wide approach

Heatwaves are a significant cause of adverse health outcomes and mortality in Australia, worsening with climate change. In Queensland, the northeastern-most state, little is known about the impact of heatwaves outside of the capital city of Brisbane. This study aims to explore the impact of heatwaves on mortality across various demographic and environmental conditions within Queensland from 2010 to 2019. The Excess Heat Factor was used to indicate heatwave periods at the Statistical Area 2 (SA2) level. Registered deaths data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and heatwave data from the Bureau of Meteorology were matched using a case-crossover approach. Relative risk and 95% confidence intervals were calculated across years, regions, age, sex, rurality, socioeconomic status, and cause of death. Heatwaves were associated with a 5% increase in all-cause mortality compared to deaths on non-heatwave days, with variability across the state. The risk of death on a heatwave day versus a non-heatwave day varied by heatwave severity. Individuals living in urban centers, the elderly, and those living in regions of lower socioeconomic status were most impacted by heatwave mortality. The relative risk of dying from neoplasms, nervous system conditions, respiratory conditions, and mental and behavioral conditions increased during heatwaves. As heatwaves increase in Queensland due to climate change, understanding the impact of heatwaves on mortality across Queensland is important to tailor public health messages. There is considerable variability across communities, demographic groups, and medical conditions, and as such messages need to be tailored to risk

Monitoring, Characterization and Control of Chronic, Symptomatic Malaria Infections in Rural Zambia through Monthly Household Visits by Paid Community Health Workers.

Active, population-wide mass screening and treatment (MSAT) for chronic Plasmodium falciparum carriage to eliminate infectious reservoirs of malaria transmission have proven difficult to apply on large national scales through trained clinicians from central health authorities.Methodology: Fourteen population clusters of approximately 1,000 residents centred around health facilities (HF) in two rural Zambian districts were each provided with three modestly remunerated community health workers (CHWs) conducting active monthly household visits to screen and treat all consenting residents for malaria infection with rapid diagnostic tests (RDT). Both CHWs and HFs also conducted passive case detection among residents who self-reported for screening and treatment. Diagnostic positivity was higher among symptomatic patients self-reporting to CHWs (42.5%) and HFs (24%) than actively screened residents (20.3%), but spatial and temporal variations of diagnostic positivity were highly consistent across all three systems. However, most malaria infections (55.6%) were identified through active home visits by CHWs rather than self-reporting to CHWs or HFs. Most (62%) malaria infections detected actively by CHWs reported one or more symptoms of illness. Most reports of fever and vomiting, plus more than a quarter of history of fever, headache and diarrhoea, were attributable to malaria infection. The minority of residents who participated >12 times had lower rates of malaria infection and associated symptoms in later contacts but most residents were tested <4 times and high malaria diagnostic positivity (32%), as well as incidence (1.46 detected infections per person per year) persisted in the population. Per capita cost for active service delivery by CHWs was US$5.14 but this would rise to US$10.68 with full community compliance with monthly testing at current levels of transmission, and US$6.25 if pre-elimination transmission levels and negligible treatment costs were achieved. While monthly active home visits by CHWs equipped with RDTs were insufficient to eliminate the human infection reservoir in this typical African setting, despite reasonably high LLIN/IRS coverage. However, dramatic impact upon infection and morbidity burden might be attainable and cost-effective if community participation in regular testing can be improved and the substantial, but not necessarily prohibitive, costs are affordable to national programmes

An integrated model of care for neurological infections: the first six years of referrals to a specialist service at a university teaching hospital in Northwest England

Background A specialist neurological infectious disease service has been run jointly by the departments of infectious disease and neurology at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital since 2005. We sought to describe the referral case mix and outcomes of the first six years of referrals to the service. Methods Retrospective service review. Results Of 242 adults referred to the service, 231 (95 %) were inpatients. Neurological infections were confirmed in 155 (64 %), indicating a high degree of selection before referral. Viral meningitis (35 cases), bacterial meningitis (33) and encephalitis (22) accounted for 38 % of referrals and 61 % of confirmed neurological infections. Although an infrequent diagnosis (n = 19), neurological TB caused the longest admission (median 23, range 5 – 119 days). A proven or probable microbiological diagnosis was found in 100/155 cases (64.5 %). For the whole cohort, altered sensorium, older age and longer hospital stay were associated with poor outcome (death or neurological disability); viral meningitis was associated with good outcome. In multivariate analysis altered sensorium remained significantly associated with poor outcome, adjusted odds ratio 3.04 (95 % confidence interval 1.28 – 7.22, p = 0.01). Conclusions A service of this type provides important specialist care and a focus for training and clinical research on complex neurological infections

Effectively Including Human Factors in the Design of New Facilities

Human error is a major cause of incidents in the offshore industry. For example, in the Gulf of Mexico region in 1998, 38% of all incidents were attributed to human error with an additional 9% of incidents resulting from slips, trips, and falls (MMS 2000-021, OCS Report). Human Factors, when integrated during the design of a new offshore facility, can reduce the potential for human error and the occurrence of unfortunate incidents. Quite often the implementation of Human Factors (HF) during design is disregarded because of the notion that it will add unacceptable costs. Review of the cost/benefit data contained in this paper proves that notion to be untrue. Although cost/benefit is important, it was not the primary focus of this Working Group. This paper’s focus is to develop a means or a strategy to effectively integrate the application of HF design principles into all phases of a new capital design project. This Working Group’s objective during the Second International Workshop on Human Factors in Offshore Operations was to generate discussion concerning HF integration strategies and to focus on specific implementation issues that have been shown to be successful. These include but are not limited to: · The factors critical to the success of HF integration · What HF activities should be conducted · At what stage during the various design phases should HF activities take place · HF strategies, how to decide what level of human factors engineering is required · The qualifications and responsibilities of those executing HF activitie

Effectively Including Human Factors in the Design of New Facilities

Human error is a major cause of incidents in the offshore industry. For example, in the Gulf of Mexico region in 1998, 38% of all incidents were attributed to human error with an additional 9% of incidents resulting from slips, trips, and falls (MMS 2000-021, OCS Report). Human Factors, when integrated during the design of a new offshore facility, can reduce the potential for human error and the occurrence of unfortunate incidents. Quite often the implementation of Human Factors (HF) during design is disregarded because of the notion that it will add unacceptable costs. Review of the cost/benefit data contained in this paper proves that notion to be untrue. Although cost/benefit is important, it was not the primary focus of this Working Group. This paper’s focus is to develop a means or a strategy to effectively integrate the application of HF design principles into all phases of a new capital design project. This Working Group’s objective during the Second International Workshop on Human Factors in Offshore Operations was to generate discussion concerning HF integration strategies and to focus on specific implementation issues that have been shown to be successful. These include but are not limited to: · The factors critical to the success of HF integration · What HF activities should be conducted · At what stage during the various design phases should HF activities take place · HF strategies, how to decide what level of human factors engineering is required · The qualifications and responsibilities of those executing HF activitie

Pulmonary impairment after tuberculosis and its contribution to TB burden

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The health impacts of pulmonary impairment after tuberculosis (TB) treatment have not been included in assessments of TB burden. Therefore, previous global and national TB burden estimates do not reflect the full consequences of surviving TB. We assessed the burden of TB including pulmonary impairment after tuberculosis in Tarrant County, Texas using Disability-adjusted Life Years (DALYs).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>TB burden was calculated for all culture-confirmed TB patients treated at Tarrant County Public Health between January 2005 and December 2006 using identical methods and life tables as the Global Burden of Disease Study. Years of life-lost were calculated as the difference between life expectancy using standardized life tables and age-at-death from TB. Years lived-with-disability were calculated from age and gender-specific TB disease incidence using published disability weights. Non-fatal health impacts of TB were divided into years lived-with-disability-acute and years lived-with-disability-chronic. Years lived-with-disability-acute was defined as TB burden resulting from illness prior to completion of treatment including the burden from treatment-related side effects. Years lived-with-disability-chronic was defined as TB burden from disability resulting from pulmonary impairment after tuberculosis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 224 TB cases in the time period, of these 177 were culture confirmed. These 177 subjects lost a total of 1189 DALYs. Of these 1189 DALYs 23% were from years of life-lost, 2% were from years lived-with-disability-acute and 75% were from years lived-with-disability-chronic.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings demonstrate that the disease burden from TB is greater than previously estimated. Pulmonary impairment after tuberculosis was responsible for the majority of the burden. These data demonstrate that successful TB control efforts may reduce the health burden more than previously recognized.</p