A very brief introduction to quantum computing and quantum information theory for mathematicians

This is a very brief introduction to quantum computing and quantum information theory, primarily aimed at geometers. Beyond basic definitions and examples, I emphasize aspects of interest to geometers, especially connections with asymptotic representation theory. Proofs of most statements can be found in standard references

Associations between indoor temperature, self-rated health and socioeconomic position in a cross-sectional study of adults in England

Objective: Excess winter deaths are a major public health concern in England and Wales, with an average of 20 000 deaths per year since 2010. Feeling cold at home during winter is associated with reporting poor general health; cold and damp homes have greater prevalence in lower socioeconomic groups. Overheating in the summer also has adverse health consequences. This study evaluates the association between indoor temperature and general health and the extent to which this is affected by socioeconomic and household factors. / Design: Cross-sectional study. / Setting: England. / Participants: Secondary data of 74 736 individuals living in England that took part in the Health Survey for England (HSE) between 2003 and 2014. The HSE is an annual household survey which uses multilevel stratification to select a new, nationally representative sample each year. The study sample comprised adults who had a nurse visit; the analytical sample was adults who had observations for indoor temperature and self-rated health. / Results: Using both logistic and linear regression models to examine indoor temperature and health status, adjusting for socioeconomic and housing factors, the study found an association between poor health and higher indoor temperatures. Each one degree increase in indoor temperature was associated with a 1.4% (95% CI 0.5% to 2.3%) increase in the odds of poor health. After adjusting for income, education, employment type, household size and home ownership, the OR of poor health for each degree temperature rise increased by 19%, to a 1.7% (95% CI 0.7% to 2.6%) increase in odds of poor health with each degree temperature rise. / Conclusion: People with worse self-reported health had higher indoor temperatures after adjusting for household factors. People with worse health may have chosen to maintain warmer environments or been advised to. However, other latent factors, such as housing type and energy performance could have an effect

Associations between indoor temperature, self-rated health and socioeconomic position in a cross-sectional study of adults in England

Objective: Excess winter deaths are a major public health concern in England and Wales, with an average of 20 000 deaths per year since 2010. Feeling cold at home during winter is associated with reporting poor general health; cold and damp homes have greater prevalence in lower socioeconomic groups. Overheating in the summer also has adverse health consequences. This study evaluates the association between indoor temperature and general health and the extent to which this is affected by socioeconomic and household factors. / Design: Cross-sectional study. / Setting: England. / Participants: Secondary data of 74 736 individuals living in England that took part in the Health Survey for England (HSE) between 2003 and 2014. The HSE is an annual household survey which uses multilevel stratification to select a new, nationally representative sample each year. The study sample comprised adults who had a nurse visit; the analytical sample was adults who had observations for indoor temperature and self-rated health. / Results: Using both logistic and linear regression models to examine indoor temperature and health status, adjusting for socioeconomic and housing factors, the study found an association between poor health and higher indoor temperatures. Each one degree increase in indoor temperature was associated with a 1.4% (95% CI 0.5% to 2.3%) increase in the odds of poor health. After adjusting for income, education, employment type, household size and home ownership, the OR of poor health for each degree temperature rise increased by 19%, to a 1.7% (95% CI 0.7% to 2.6%) increase in odds of poor health with each degree temperature rise. / Conclusion: People with worse self-reported health had higher indoor temperatures after adjusting for household factors. People with worse health may have chosen to maintain warmer environments or been advised to. However, other latent factors, such as housing type and energy performance could have an effect

Decreased dopamine activity predicts relapse in methamphetamine abusers.

Studies in methamphetamine (METH) abusers showed that the decreases in brain dopamine (DA) function might recover with protracted detoxification. However, the extent to which striatal DA function in METH predicts recovery has not been evaluated. Here we assessed whether striatal DA activity in METH abusers is associated with clinical outcomes. Brain DA D2 receptor (D2R) availability was measured with positron emission tomography and [(11)C]raclopride in 16 METH abusers, both after placebo and after challenge with 60 mg oral methylphenidate (MPH) (to measure DA release) to assess whether it predicted clinical outcomes. For this purpose, METH abusers were tested within 6 months of last METH use and then followed up for 9 months of abstinence. In parallel, 15 healthy controls were tested. METH abusers had lower D2R availability in caudate than in controls. Both METH abusers and controls showed decreased striatal D2R availability after MPH and these decreases were smaller in METH than in controls in left putamen. The six METH abusers who relapsed during the follow-up period had lower D2R availability in dorsal striatum than in controls, and had no D2R changes after MPH challenge. The 10 METH abusers who completed detoxification did not differ from controls neither in striatal D2R availability nor in MPH-induced striatal DA changes. These results provide preliminary evidence that low striatal DA function in METH abusers is associated with a greater likelihood of relapse during treatment. Detection of the extent of DA dysfunction may be helpful in predicting therapeutic outcomes

Adaptive memory: Stereotype activation is not enough

Studies have shown that survival processing leads to superior memorability. The aim of the present study was to examine whether this survival recall advantage might result from stereotype activation. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a pilot study and two experiments in which participants were primed with stereotypes (Experiment 1, professor and elderly person; Experiment 2, survival-stereotype). In Experiment 1, 120 undergraduates were randomly assigned to a survival, professor stereotype, elderly person stereotype, or moving scenario and rated words for their relevance to the imagined scenario. In Experiment 2, 75 undergraduates were given a survival, survival-stereotype (based on our pilot study), or moving scenario. Both experiments showed that survival processing leads to a greater recall advantage over the stereotype groups and control group. These data indicate that the mere activation of stereotypes cannot explain the survival recall advantage

Evaluation of mucosal adjuvants and immunization routes for the induction of systemic and mucosal humoral immune responses in macaques

Delivering vaccine antigens to mucosal surfaces is potentially very attractive, especially as protection from mucosal infections may be mediated by local immune responses. However, to date mucosal immunization has had limited successes, with issues of both safety and poor immunogenicity. One approach to improve immunogenicity is to develop adjuvants that are effective and safe at mucosal surfaces. Differences in immune responses between mice and men have overstated the value of some experimental adjuvants which have subsequently performed poorly in the clinic. Due to their closer similarity, non-human primates can provide a more accurate picture of adjuvant performance. In this study we immunised rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) using a unique matrix experimental design that maximised the number of adjuvants screened while reducing the animal usage. Macaques were immunised by the intranasal, sublingual and intrarectal routes with the model protein antigens keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH), β-galactosidase (β-Gal) and ovalbumin (OVA) in combination with the experimental adjuvants Poly(I:C), Pam3CSK4, chitosan, Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin (TSLP), MPLA and R848 (Resiquimod). Of the routes used, only intranasal immunization with KLH and R848 induced a detectable antibody response. When compared to intramuscular immunization, intranasal administration gave slightly lower levels of antigen specific antibody in the plasma, but enhanced local responses. Following intranasal delivery of R848, we observed a mildly inflammatory response, but no difference to the control. From this we conclude that R848 is able to boost antibody responses to mucosally delivered antigen, without causing excess local inflammation

Delivering reform in English healthcare: an ideational perspective

A variety of perspectives has been put forward to understand reform across healthcare systems. Recently, some have called for these perspectives to give greater recognition to the role of ideational processes. The purpose of this article is to present an ideational approach to understanding the delivery of healthcare reform. It draws on a case of English healthcare reform – the Next Stage Review led by Lord Darzi – to show how the delivery of its reform proposals was associated with four ideational frames. These frames built on the idea of “progress” in responding to existing problems; the idea of “prevailing policy” in forming part of a bricolage of ideas within institutional contexts; the idea of “prescription” as top-down structural change at odds with local contexts; and the idea of “professional disputes” in challenging the notion of clinical engagement across professional groups. The article discusses the implications of these ideas in furthering our understanding of policy change, conflict and continuity across healthcare settings

Introduction to the Workshop

Public health administrators are forced to consider efficiency as a criterion in their choice of preventive programs because of the numerous programs to choose from, restricted budgets, and declining caries experience in children. Interest in cost effectiveness in dental prevention has risen considerably since the initial conference on this issue at the University of Michigan in 1978. This article introduces the goals of the workshop, the nature of the work groups, and the data they will use.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66042/1/j.1752-7325.1989.tb02083.x.pd

CoSMed: a confidentiality-verified social media platform

This paper describes progress with our agenda of formal verification of information-flow security for realistic systems. We present CoSMed, a social media platform with verified document confidentiality. The system’s kernel is implemented and verified in the proof assistant Isabelle/HOL. For verification, we employ the framework of Bounded-Deducibility (BD) Security, previously introduced for the conference system CoCon. CoSMed is a second major case study in this framework. For CoSMed, the static topology of declassification bounds and triggers that characterized previous instances of BD security has to give way to a dynamic integration of the triggers as part of the bound

A Self-Reference False Memory Effect in the DRM Paradigm: Evidence from Eastern and Western Samples

It is well established that processing information in relation to oneself (i.e., selfreferencing) leads to better memory for that information than processing that same information in relation to others (i.e., other-referencing). However, it is unknown whether self-referencing also leads to more false memories than other-referencing. In the current two experiments with European and East Asian samples, we presented participants the Deese-Roediger/McDermott (DRM) lists together with their own name or other people’s name (i.e., “Trump” in Experiment 1 and “Li Ming” in Experiment 2). We found consistent results across the two experiments; that is, in the self-reference condition, participants had higher true and false memory rates compared to those in the other-reference condition. Moreover, we found that selfreferencing did not exhibit superior mnemonic advantage in terms of net accuracy compared to other-referencing and neutral conditions. These findings are discussed in terms of theoretical frameworks such as spreading activation theories and the fuzzytrace theory. We propose that our results reflect the adaptive nature of memory in the sense that cognitive processes that increase mnemonic efficiency may also increase susceptibility to associative false memories