14,310 research outputs found
Potential role for clinical calibration to increase engagement with and application of home telemonitoring: a report from the HeartCycle programme
Aims: There is a need for alternative strategies that might avoid recurrent admissions in patients with heart failure. Home Telemonitoring (HTM) to monitor patient’s symptoms from a distance may be useful. This study attempts to assess changes in HTM vital signs in response to daily life activities (variations in medication, salt intake, exercise and stress) and to stablish which variations affect weight, blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR). Methods and results: We assessed 76 patients with heart failure (mean age 76 ± 10.8 years, 75% male, mainly in NYHA class II/III and from ischaemic etiology cause). Patients were given a calendar of interventions scheduling activities approximately twice-a-week before measuring their vital signs. Eating salty food or a large meal were the activities that had a significant impact on weight gain (+0.3 kg; p<0.001 and p=0.006, respectively). Exercise and skipping a dose of medication other than diuretics increased heart rate (+3 bpm, p=0.001 and almost +2 bpm, p=0.016, respectively). Conclusions: Our HTM system was able to detect small changes in vital signs related to these activities. Further studies should assess if providing such a schedule of activities might be useful for patient education and could improve long-term adherence to recommended lifestyle changes
Quantum singular value transformation and beyond: exponential improvements for quantum matrix arithmetics
Quantum computing is powerful because unitary operators describing the
time-evolution of a quantum system have exponential size in terms of the number
of qubits present in the system. We develop a new "Singular value
transformation" algorithm capable of harnessing this exponential advantage,
that can apply polynomial transformations to the singular values of a block of
a unitary, generalizing the optimal Hamiltonian simulation results of Low and
Chuang. The proposed quantum circuits have a very simple structure, often give
rise to optimal algorithms and have appealing constant factors, while usually
only use a constant number of ancilla qubits. We show that singular value
transformation leads to novel algorithms. We give an efficient solution to a
certain "non-commutative" measurement problem and propose a new method for
singular value estimation. We also show how to exponentially improve the
complexity of implementing fractional queries to unitaries with a gapped
spectrum. Finally, as a quantum machine learning application we show how to
efficiently implement principal component regression. "Singular value
transformation" is conceptually simple and efficient, and leads to a unified
framework of quantum algorithms incorporating a variety of quantum speed-ups.
We illustrate this by showing how it generalizes a number of prominent quantum
algorithms, including: optimal Hamiltonian simulation, implementing the
Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse with exponential precision, fixed-point amplitude
amplification, robust oblivious amplitude amplification, fast QMA
amplification, fast quantum OR lemma, certain quantum walk results and several
quantum machine learning algorithms. In order to exploit the strengths of the
presented method it is useful to know its limitations too, therefore we also
prove a lower bound on the efficiency of singular value transformation, which
often gives optimal bounds.Comment: 67 pages, 1 figur
Spin Structures on Kleinian Manifolds
We derive the topological obstruction to spin-Klein cobordism. This result
has implications for signature change in general relativity, and for the
superstring.Comment: 8 page
One Step Non SUSY Unification
We show that it is possible to achieve one step gauge coupling unification in
a general class of non supersymmetric models which at low energies have only
the standard particle content and extra Higgs fields doublets. The constraints
are the experimental values of , and
at , and the lower bounds for FCNC and proton decay rates. Specific
example are pointed out.Comment: 10 pages, Latex file,, uses epsf style, Two Postscript figures
included. To appear in Europhysics Letter
CP and Lepton-Number Violation in GUT Neutrino Models with Abelian Flavour Symmetries
We study the possible magnitudes of CP and lepton-number-violating quantities
in specific GUT models of massive neutrinos with different Abelian flavour
groups, taking into account experimental constraints and requiring successful
leptogenesis. We discuss SU(5) and flipped SU(5) models that are consistent
with the present data on neutrino mixing and upper limits on the violations of
charged-lepton flavours and explore their predictions for the CP-violating
oscillation and Majorana phases. In particular, we discuss string-derived
flipped SU(5) models with selection rules that modify the GUT structure and
provide additional constraints on the operators, which are able to account for
the magnitudes of some of the coefficients that are often set as arbitrary
parameters in generic Abelian models.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figure
Quark mixing from softly broken symmetries
Quark flavor mixing may originate in the soft breaking of horizontal
symmetries. Those symmetries, which in the simplest case are three family U(1)
groups, are obeyed only by the dimension-4 Yukawa couplings and lead, when
unbroken, to the absence of mixing. Their breaking may arise from the
dimension-3 mass terms of SU(2)-singlet vector-like quarks. Those gauge-singlet
mass terms break the horizontal symmetries at a scale much higher than the
Fermi scale, yet softly, leading to quark mixing while the quark masses remain
unsuppressed.Comment: 9 pages, plain Latex, no figure
Decay of escherichia coli in soil following the application of biosolids to agricultural land
The decay of Escherichia coli in a sandy loam soil, amended with enhanced and conventionally treated biosolids, was investigated in a field experiment following spring and autumn applications of sewage sludge. Control soils, without the application of biosolids, were also examined to determine the background indigenous populations of E. coli which are present in the environment. The survival of indigenous E. coli and populations of E. coli applied to soil in biosolids, is assessed in relation to environmental factors influencing pathogen-decay processes in soil
Student civic participation in school: what makes a difference in Ireland?
Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the views of the child to be given due weight in accordance with the child’s age and maturity. Legislation in Ireland recognizes the rights of children to have a voice in educational matters. Based on a sample of 2838 14-year-olds in Ireland and using questionnaire data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, this paper uses a multilevel model to examine the student and school characteristics associated with civic participation at school. Results indicate that boys have lower levels of civic participation at school than girls, but among boys only, civic participation at school varies in accordance with levels of perceived influence on decision making. Findings are discussed in the context of the rights of children to participate in decisions that affect them and with reference to Bandura’s social cognitive theory
Contribution of Sediment and Associated Elements to the Great Lakes from Erosion of the Canadian Shoreline: PLUARG Technical Report, Task D, Activity 1
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