31 research outputs found
Generating Polarization-Entangled Photon Pairs with Arbitrary Joint Spectrum
We present a scheme for generating polarization-entangled photons pairs with
arbitrary joint spectrum. Specifically, we describe a technique for spontaneous
parametric down-conversion in which both the center frequencies and the
bandwidths of the down-converted photons may be controlled by appropriate
manipulation of the pump pulse. The spectral control offered by this technique
permits one to choose the operating wavelengths for each photon of a pair based
on optimizations of other system parameters (loss in optical fiber, photon
counter performance, etc.). The combination of spectral control, polarization
control, and lack of group-velocity matching conditions makes this technique
particularly well-suited for a distributed quantum information processing
architecture in which integrated optical circuits are connected by spans of
optical fiber.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Symmetric Autocompensating Quantum Key Distribution
We present quantum key distribution schemes which are autocompensating
(require no alignment) and symmetric (Alice and Bob receive photons from a
central source) for both polarization and time-bin qubits. The primary benefit
of the symmetric configuration is that both Alice and Bob may have passive
setups (neither Alice nor Bob is required to make active changes for each run
of the protocol). We show that both the polarization and the time-bin schemes
may be implemented with existing technology. The new schemes are related to
previously described schemes by the concept of advanced waves.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figur
Survey of Pharmacist-Managed Primary Care Clinics Using Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (HFMEA)
Objectives: The primary objective was to expand upon results of a previously piloted patient perception survey with Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (HFMEA), to identify areas within pharmacist-managed clinics needing improvement.
Methods: The survey was adapted for use in pharmacist-managed clinics. Patients completed the survey following regularly scheduled pharmacist appointments. Data were analyzed with a method adapted from HFMEA. Product scores could range from five to 25. A product of five indicates that pharmacists are doing a good job on the items that patients place the most value on, while a product score of 25 indicates that pharmacists are doing a poor job. A score greater than or equal to ten was used to identify areas for improvement.
Results: Seventy-one patients completed surveys. Thirteen components were assessed and no item achieved a mean product greater than or equal to ten. The survey item with the highest mean product pertained to discussion of potential medication side effects (mean: 7.06; interquartile range: 5-10). Analysis of each survey item found that all survey items had multiple individual responses that provided a product score of greater than or equal to ten. The survey items most frequently listed in the overall population as being most valued were “Told you the name of each of your medicines and what they are used for”, “Answered your questions fully,” and “Explained what your medicines do”.
Conclusions: Educational components provided during pharmacist-managed clinic appointments are aligned with patients’ needs and are successfully incorporating the components that patients value highly in a patient-healthcare provider interaction. The HFMEA model can be an important teaching tool to identify specific processes in need of improvement and to help enhance pharmacists’ self-efficacy, which may further improve patient care
One-Way Entangled-Photon Autocompensating Quantum Cryptography
A new quantum cryptography implementation is presented that combines one-way
operation with an autocompensating feature that has hitherto only been
available in implementations that require the signal to make a round trip
between the users. Using the concept of advanced waves, it is shown that this
new implementation is related to the round-trip implementations in the same way
that Ekert's two-particle scheme is related to the original one-particle scheme
of Bennett and Brassard. The practical advantages and disadvantages of the
proposed implementation are discussed in the context of existing schemes.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; Minor edits--conclusions unchanged; accepted for
publication in Physical Review
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Measuring venous oxygenation using the photoplethysmograph waveform
OBJECTIVE: We investigate the hypothesis that the photoplethysmograph (PPG) waveform can be analyzed to infer regional venous oxygen saturation.
METHODS: Fundamental to the successful isolation of the venous saturation is the identification of PPG characteristics that are unique to the peripheral venous system. Two such characteristics have been identified. First, the peripheral venous waveform tends to reflect atrial contraction. Second, ventilation tends to move venous blood preferentially due to the low pressure and high compliance of the venous system. Red (660 nm) and IR (940 nm) PPG waveforms were collected from 10 cardiac surgery patients using an esophageal PPG probe. These waveforms were analyzed using algorithms written in Mathematica. Four time-domain saturation algorithms (ArtSat, VenSat, ArtInstSat, VenInstSat) and four frequency-domain saturation algorithms (RespDC, RespAC, Cardiac, and Harmonic) were applied to the data set.
RESULTS: Three of the algorithms for calculating venous saturation (VenSat, VenInstSat, and RespDC) demonstrate significant difference from ArtSat (the conventional time-domain algorithm for measuring arterial saturation) using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with Bonferroni correction (p < 0.0071).
CONCLUSIONS: This work introduces new algorithms for PPG analysis. Three algorithms (VenSat, VenInstSat, and RespDC) succeed in detecting lower saturation blood. The next step is to confirm the accuracy of the measurement by comparing them to a gold standard (i.e., venous blood gas)
Genome-wide structural variant analysis identifies risk loci for non-Alzheimer’s dementias
We characterized the role of structural variants, a largely unexplored type of genetic variation, in two non-Alzheimer’s dementias, namely Lewy body dementia (LBD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD)/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To do this, we applied an advanced structural variant calling pipeline (GATK-SV) to short-read whole-genome sequence data from 5,213 European-ancestry cases and 4,132 controls. We discovered, replicated, and validated a deletion in TPCN1 as a novel risk locus for LBD and detected the known structural variants at the C9orf72 and MAPT loci as associated with FTD/ALS. We also identified rare pathogenic structural variants in both LBD and FTD/ALS. Finally, we assembled a catalog of structural variants that can be mined for new insights into the pathogenesis of these understudied forms of dementia
Rhetoric in policy texts : the role of enthymeme in Darzi's review of the NHS
Political administrations try to present their policies in the best light to justify the ownership of power, and in doing so rely on rhetoric. The documents through which they communicate policy (policy texts) use rhetorical devices to do so. Through these, administrations need to create the impression that they have chosen the best possible course of action, and they also need to create the impression that they are doing something innovative. Both are aspects of entailment, and both are necessary to appeal to multiple constituencies. We illustrate this theoretical argument with analysis of a recent review of NHS policy
Survey of Pharmacist-Managed Primary Care Clinics Using Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (HFMEA)
Objectives: The primary objective was to expand upon results of a previously piloted patient perception survey with Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (HFMEA), to identify areas within pharmacist-managed clinics needing improvement.Methods: The survey was adapted for use in pharmacist-managed clinics. Patients completed the survey following regularly scheduled pharmacist appointments. Data were analyzed with a method adapted from HFMEA. Product scores could range from five to 25. A product of five indicates that pharmacists are doing a good job on the items that patients place the most value on, while a product score of 25 indicates that pharmacists are doing a poor job. A score greater than or equal to ten was used to identify areas for improvement. Results: Seventy-one patients completed surveys. Thirteen components were assessed and no item achieved a mean product greater than or equal to ten. The survey item with the highest mean product pertained to discussion of potential medication side effects (mean: 7.06; interquartile range: 5-10). Analysis of each survey item found that all survey items had multiple individual responses that provided a product score of greater than or equal to ten. The survey items most frequently listed in the overall population as being most valued were “Told you the name of each of your medicines and what they are used for”, “Answered your questions fully,” and “Explained what your medicines do”.Conclusions: Educational components provided during pharmacist-managed clinic appointments are aligned with patients’ needs and are successfully incorporating the components that patients value highly in a patient-healthcare provider interaction. The HFMEA model can be an important teaching tool to identify specific processes in need of improvement and to help enhance pharmacists’ self-efficacy, which may further improve patient care