A quantum search for zeros of polynomials

A quantum mechanical search procedure to determine the real zeros of a polynomial is introduced. It is based on the construction of a spin observable whose eigenvalues coincide with the zeros of the polynomial. Subsequent quantum mechanical measurements of the observable output directly the numerical values of the zeros. Performing the measurements is the only computational resource involved

The positive and negative impact of an intergenerational digital technology education programme on younger people’s perceptions of older adults

In order to meet the technological needs of older adults, and ensure digital inclusion, it is important for digital technology designers to accurately assess and understand older adults’ needs and requirements, free from the influence of societal assumptions of their capabilities. This study evaluated the impact of an intergenerational digital technology education programme on younger adults’ stereotypes of older people. Using an experimental design, results show that compared to a control group, students taking part in the programme subsequently rated older adults as more friendly but less competent. Practical implications for developing intergenerational education programmes are discussed

Calculating unreported confidence intervals for paired data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Confidence intervals (or associated standard errors) facilitate assessment of the practical importance of the findings of a health study, and their incorporation into a meta-analysis. For paired design studies, these items are often not reported. Since the descriptive statistics for such studies are usually presented in the same way as for unpaired designs, direct computation of the standard error is not possible without additional information.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Elementary, well-known relationships between standard errors and <it>p</it>-values were used to develop computation schemes for paired mean difference, risk difference, risk ratio and odds ratio.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Unreported confidence intervals for large sample paired binary and numeric data can be computed fairly accurately using simple methods provided the <it>p</it>-value is given. In the case of paired binary data, the design based 2 × 2 table can be reconstructed as well.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results will facilitate appropriate interpretation of paired design studies, and their incorporation into meta-analyses.</p

The effectiveness of anti-TNF-α therapies when used sequentially in rheumatoid arthritis patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives. To systematically review and meta-analyse evidence on the effectiveness of the TNF-α inhibitors when used sequentially

Exile

Byron rehearsed going into exile in 1809, when he was twenty-one years old. Before setting sail for Lisbon, he wrote, “I leave England without regret, I shall return to it without pleasure. – I am like Adam the first convict sentenced to transportation, but I have no Eve, and have eaten no apple but what was sour as a crab and thus ends my first Chapter” (BLJ 1: 211). Byron’s sardonic perception of himself as a biblical exile foreshadowed the allusive character of his second longer-term exile at the age of twenty-eight, when his carefully staged exit required an audience (some of the same friends and servants), expensive props (a replica of Napoleon’s carriage) and a literary precursor. On his last evening in England, Byron visited the burial place of the satirist Charles Churchill, and lay down on his grave. It was a performance of immense weariness with life and solidarity with an embittered outcast.Postprin

The Lake Poets

“If Southey had not been comparatively good,” writes Herbert F. Tucker, “he would never have drawn out Byron’s best in those satirical volleys that were undertaken, at bottom, in order to reprehend not the want of talent but its wastage.” And if Wordsworth and Coleridge had not been dangerously talented, Byron might have spared them some of his stinging sallies. In Table Talk Coleridge proclaimed the conclusion of the “intellectual war” Byron threatened in Don Juan (XI. 62: 496), declaring Wordsworth the poet who “will wear the crown,” triumphing over Byron and his ilk for the poetic laurels of the Romantic period. But Byron was not simply an opponent of his contemporaries. His responses to the Lake poets, particularly to Wordsworth, ran the gamut from “reverence” (HVSV, 129) then “nausea” (Medwin, 237) to Don Juan’s comical though cutting disdain, in under a decade. Focusing on Byron’s relationship with Wordsworth and Coleridge, I will show how Byron’s poetry and drama reveal the range and complexity of his dialogue with his older peers, where, even at their most apparently divergent, the conversation between the poets reveals the depth of the engagement across their works

A nationwide survey to measure practice variation of catheterisation management in patients undergoing vaginal prolapse surgery

Urinary catheterisation following vaginal prolapse surgery causes inconvenience for patients, risk of urinary tract infections and potentially longer hospitalisation. Possibly, practice variation exists concerning diagnosis and management of abnormal postvoid residual (PVR) volume implying suboptimal treatment for certain subgroups. Nationwide questionnaire-based survey. Post-operatively, 77% performed transurethral indwelling catheterisation, 12% suprapubic catheterisation and 11% intermittent catheterisation. Catheterisation was applied 3 days (1-7 days) following anterior repair and 1 day (1-3 days) following all other procedures. The median cut-off point for abnormal PVR was 150 mL (range 50-250 mL). Treatment of abnormal PVR consisted mostly of prolonging transurethral indwelling catheterisation for 2 days (range 1-5 days; 57%), 29% by intermittent and 12% by suprapubic catheterisation. Antibiotics were administered by 21% either routinely or based on symptoms only. Due to insufficient evidence and suboptimal implementation of available evidence, practice variation in catheterisation regimens is hig