5,741 research outputs found
Likelihood inference for exponential-trawl processes
Integer-valued trawl processes are a class of serially correlated, stationary
and infinitely divisible processes that Ole E. Barndorff-Nielsen has been
working on in recent years. In this Chapter, we provide the first analysis of
likelihood inference for trawl processes by focusing on the so-called
exponential-trawl process, which is also a continuous time hidden Markov
process with countable state space. The core ideas include prediction
decomposition, filtering and smoothing, complete-data analysis and EM
algorithm. These can be easily scaled up to adapt to more general trawl
processes but with increasing computation efforts.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures, forthcoming in: "A Fascinating Journey through
Probability, Statistics and Applications: In Honour of Ole E.
Barndorff-Nielsen's 80th Birthday", Springer, New Yor
Keeping Safe: Field Public Health Nurses\u27 Perceptions
By the year 2005, there will be an estimated 1.25 million workers involved in providing nursing care to individuals in their homes (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1997). There is limited empirical data available on the issue of safety of nurses within the context of home visiting or in the public health venue. Recent research on safety in home visiting has focused on home health rather than public health nursing. The purpose of this study was to explore and explain the perception of safety among field public health nurses. A purposive sample of 19 public health nurses employed in an official public health department in Southern California participated in semi-structured interviews. Participants in this study had an average age of 45.2 years and an average length of public health nursing practice of 10.5 years. This study used grounded theory research methodology. Findings of this study have provided a substantive explanation on the process of keeping safe for field public health nurses. This process had three stages, (a) risk awareness, (b) risk estimation, and (c) risk limitation. Public health nurses maintained risk awareness through vigilance. Universally, the nurses in this study were vigilant regarding idle young men, dogs, suspicious and threatening behavior, substance abuse, angry family members, and communicable diseases. Risk estimation involved the nurses\u27 estimation of their own vulnerability and safety decision-making. The final stage of the emerging theory constituted the actions taken by the nurse while keeping safe. Risk limitation were actions that either prevented or avoided actual or perceived risks. The process of keeping safe continued to evolve for public health nurses with the influence of peer and supervisory support, family, feelings, and vicarious knowledge. The findings of this study have implications for nursing education, practice, and research. The need to educate students and novice public health nurses on the process of keeping safe is of particular importance
Eigenlogic: a Quantum View for Multiple-Valued and Fuzzy Systems
We propose a matrix model for two- and many-valued logic using families of
observables in Hilbert space, the eigenvalues give the truth values of logical
propositions where the atomic input proposition cases are represented by the
respective eigenvectors. For binary logic using the truth values {0,1} logical
observables are pairwise commuting projectors. For the truth values {+1,-1} the
operator system is formally equivalent to that of a composite spin 1/2 system,
the logical observables being isometries belonging to the Pauli group. Also in
this approach fuzzy logic arises naturally when considering non-eigenvectors.
The fuzzy membership function is obtained by the quantum mean value of the
logical projector observable and turns out to be a probability measure in
agreement with recent quantum cognition models. The analogy of many-valued
logic with quantum angular momentum is then established. Logical observables
for three-value logic are formulated as functions of the Lz observable of the
orbital angular momentum l=1. The representative 3-valued 2-argument logical
observables for the Min and Max connectives are explicitly obtained.Comment: 11 pages, 2 table
Decoherence Rates in Large Scale Quantum Computers and Macroscopic Systems
Markovian regime decoherence effects in quantum computers are studied in
terms of the fidelity for the situation where the number of qubits N becomes
large. A general expression giving the decoherence time scale in terms of
Markovian relaxation elements and expectation values of products of system
fluctuation operators is obtained, which could also be applied to study
decoherence in other macroscopic systems such as Bose condensates and
superconductors. A standard circuit model quantum computer involving
three-state lambda system ionic qubits is considered, with qubits localised
around well-separated positions via trapping potentials. The centre of mass
vibrations of the qubits act as a reservoir. Coherent one and two qubit gating
processes are controlled by time dependent localised classical electromagnetic
fields that address specific qubits, the two qubit gating processes being
facilitated by a cavity mode ancilla, which permits state interchange between
qubits. With a suitable choice of parameters, it is found that the decoherence
time can be made essentially independent of N.Comment: Minor revisions. To be published in J Mod Opt. One figur
On the infrared behaviour of 3d Chern-Simons theories in N=2 superspace
We discuss the problem of infrared divergences in the N=2 superspace approach
to classically marginal three-dimensional Chern-Simons-matter theories.
Considering the specific case of ABJM theory, we describe the origin of such
divergences and offer a prescription to eliminate them by introducing
non-trivial gauge-fixing terms in the action. We also comment on the extension
of our procedure to higher loop order and to general three-dimensional
Chern-Simons-matter models.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, JHEP3; v2: minor corrections and references
added; v3: introduction expanded, presentation of section 3.3.1 improved,
references added, version to appear in JHE
Health literacy, health status, and healthcare utilization of Taiwanese adults: results from a national survey
Abstract Background Low health literacy is considered a worldwide health threat. The purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence and socio-demographic covariates of low health literacy in Taiwanese adults and to investigate the relationships between health literacy and health status and health care utilization. Methods A national survey of 1493 adults was conducted in 2008. Health literacy was measured using the Mandarin Health Literacy Scale. Health status was measured based on self-rated physical and mental health. Health care utilization was measured based on self-reported outpatient clinic visits, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations. Results Approximately thirty percent of adults were found to have low (inadequate or marginal) health literacy. They tended to be older, have fewer years of schooling, lower household income, and reside in less populated areas. Inadequate health literacy was associated with poorer mental health (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.35-0.91). No association was found between health literacy and health care utilization even after adjusting for other covariates. Conclusions Low (inadequate and marginal) health literacy is prevalent in Taiwan. High prevalence of low health literacy is not necessarily indicative of the need for interventions. Systematic efforts to evaluate the impact of low health literacy on health outcomes in other countries would help to illuminate features of health care delivery and financing systems that may mitigate the adverse health effects of low health literacy.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78252/1/1471-2458-10-614.xmlhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78252/2/1471-2458-10-614.pdfPeer Reviewe
Bayesian Conditioning, the Reflection Principle, and Quantum Decoherence
The probabilities a Bayesian agent assigns to a set of events typically
change with time, for instance when the agent updates them in the light of new
data. In this paper we address the question of how an agent's probabilities at
different times are constrained by Dutch-book coherence. We review and attempt
to clarify the argument that, although an agent is not forced by coherence to
use the usual Bayesian conditioning rule to update his probabilities, coherence
does require the agent's probabilities to satisfy van Fraassen's [1984]
reflection principle (which entails a related constraint pointed out by
Goldstein [1983]). We then exhibit the specialized assumption needed to recover
Bayesian conditioning from an analogous reflection-style consideration.
Bringing the argument to the context of quantum measurement theory, we show
that "quantum decoherence" can be understood in purely personalist
terms---quantum decoherence (as supposed in a von Neumann chain) is not a
physical process at all, but an application of the reflection principle. From
this point of view, the decoherence theory of Zeh, Zurek, and others as a story
of quantum measurement has the plot turned exactly backward.Comment: 14 pages, written in memory of Itamar Pitowsk
Electronic stress tensor analysis of hydrogenated palladium clusters
We study the chemical bonds of small palladium clusters Pd_n (n=2-9)
saturated by hydrogen atoms using electronic stress tensor. Our calculation
includes bond orders which are recently proposed based on the stress tensor. It
is shown that our bond orders can classify the different types of chemical
bonds in those clusters. In particular, we discuss Pd-H bonds associated with
the H atoms with high coordination numbers and the difference of H-H bonds in
the different Pd clusters from viewpoint of the electronic stress tensor. The
notion of "pseudo-spindle structure" is proposed as the region between two
atoms where the largest eigenvalue of the electronic stress tensor is negative
and corresponding eigenvectors forming a pattern which connects them.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, published online, Theoretical Chemistry
Account
Heralded generation of entangled photon pairs
Entangled photons are a crucial resource for quantum communication and linear
optical quantum computation. Unfortunately, the applicability of many
photon-based schemes is limited due to the stochastic character of the photon
sources. Therefore, a worldwide effort has focused in overcoming the limitation
of probabilistic emission by generating two-photon entangled states conditioned
on the detection of auxiliary photons. Here we present the first heralded
generation of photon states that are maximally entangled in polarization with
linear optics and standard photon detection from spontaneous parametric
down-conversion. We utilize the down-conversion state corresponding to the
generation of three photon pairs, where the coincident detection of four
auxiliary photons unambiguously heralds the successful preparation of the
entangled state. This controlled generation of entangled photon states is a
significant step towards the applicability of a linear optics quantum network,
in particular for entanglement swapping, quantum teleportation, quantum
cryptography and scalable approaches towards photonics-based quantum computing
Association between antibodies to Coxiella burnetii in bulk tank milk and perinatal mortality of Danish dairy calves
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Coxiella burnetii </it>is a well-known cause of placentitis and subsequent abortion in ruminants, but there are no reports on the relationship with perinatal mortality. The study was performed to determine the influence of level and change of bulk tank milk (BTM) antibodies to <it>C. burnetii </it>on two outcomes associated with parturition in cattle: a) stillbirth; and b) stillbirth and neonatal mortality combined (perinatal death).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty-four Danish dairy herds were tested repeatedly for antibodies to <it>C. burnetii </it>in BTM using a commercial ELISA. Samples were collected monthly from July 2008 to July 2009. Information on the 2,362 calvings occurring in the study period was obtained from the Danish Cattle Database. Two multilevel logistic regression models were created for the two outcomes stillbirth and perinatal mortality. One model included the level of BTM antibodies in a specified period before or after the outcome had occurred. The other model included the change in antibodies over time. These predictors were included both at herd and animal level. Furthermore, all models included parity and breed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The individual monthly BTM antibody levels were highly correlated within herds. Consequently, changes in BTM antibody levels were not found to be associated with neither risk of stillbirth nor the risk of perinatal mortality. However, the risk of stillborn calves and perinatal death was higher with high level of BTM antibodies 8 to 9 months after the incident, but not outside this period.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that the level of antibodies to <it>C. burnetii </it>in BTM may be associated with perinatal mortality, but the association was not persistent and should be investigated further.</p
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