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On the origins of theories of compounding and the question of Indian influence on modern linguistics
No full textThe ancient Indian linguistic tradition has been implicated in various ways in the development of modern linguistics. This paper starts from one superficially obvious point of influence: the use of Sanskrit terms for compound classes in modern approaches to compound classification. I show that the use of these terms does not reflect direct influence based on a proper understanding of the Indian tradition, and that in fact many interesting and important aspects of compound theorization in ancient India have been overlooked in modern linguistics
Paired parton trial states for the superfluid-fractional Chern insulator transition
Get PDFWe consider a model of hard-core bosons on a lattice, half-filling a Chern band such that the system has a continuous transition between a fractional Chern insulator (FCI) and a superfluid state (SF) depending on the bandwidth to bandspacing ratio. We construct a parton-inspired trial wavefunction ansatz for the ground states that has remarkably high overlap with exact diagonalization in both phases and throughout the phase transition. Our ansatz is stable to adding some bosonic interactions beyond the on-site hard core constraint. We confirm that the transition is well described by a projective translation symmetry-protected multiple parton band gap closure, as has been previously predicted. However, unlike prior work, we find that our wavefunctions require anomalous (BCS-like) parton correlations to describe the phase transition and SF phase accurately
The effect of Indigenous American genomic ancestry on type 2 diabetes in Mexico: an analysis of 134 548 individuals from the Mexico City Prospective Study
No full textBackground: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Mexico is among the highest in the world and a major public health problem. The aim of this study was to examine the association between the percentage of Indigenous American genomic ancestry (AMR) and the prevalence of both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in a large study of Mexican adults.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we analysed data from 134 548 individuals from the Mexico City Prospective Study (MCPS), including sociodemographic, clinical, and genetic data. Type 2 diabetes was defined as a self-reported previous diagnosis, glucose-lowering medication, or glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of at least 6·5%. Prediabetes was defined as HbA1c between 5·7% and less than 6·5%. Individuals with probable type 1 diabetes were excluded. Logistic regression models were used to estimate associations between higher AMR ancestry percentage and prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, after adjustment for age, sex, and other diabetes risk factors.
Findings: Between April 14, 1998, and Sept 28, 2004, 159 755 participants were recruited into MCPS. Among these, 134 548 participants were selected for subsequent analyses (mean age 52 years [SD 12·6]; 90 688 [67·4%] women and 43 860 [32·6%] men); mean AMR ancestry percentage was 66·2% (SD 17·9). Across AMR tenths (mean AMR ranging from 34·8% [SD 7·9] to 94·7% [SD 2·7]), the prevalence of prediabetes increased from 19·2% (2573 of 13 376) to 26·3% (3529 of 13 421) and of type 2 diabetes from 13·5% (1805 of 13 376) to 23·4% (3142 of 13 421). After adjustment for age and sex, each 20% absolute increase in AMR was associated with substantially increased odds of type 2 diabetes (odds ratio [OR] 1·45 [95% CI 1·43–1·48]) and of prediabetes (OR 1·28 [1·26–1·30]). Further adjustment for socioeconomic status, lifestyle factors, and adiposity reduced these ORs to 1·33 (1·31–1·36) for type 2 diabetes and 1·18 (1·16–1·20) for prediabetes. Consequently, at the population mean AMR ancestry percentage, these fully adjusted ORs were 2·59 (2·44–2·75) for type 2 diabetes and 1·75 (1·65–1·85) for prediabetes, whereas among Indigenous populations with 100% AMR ancestry, ORs were 4·23 (3·85–4·64) for type 2 diabetes and 2·33 (2·14–2·54) for prediabetes. ORs for type 2 diabetes and prediabetes associated with higher AMR were higher for women than for men, for younger than for older participants, and were further reduced in magnitude following additional adjustment for a type 2 diabetes polygenic risk score.
Interpretation: The percentage of inherited AMR ancestry is strongly associated with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes in this admixed Mexican population. These findings suggest that most of the Mexican population has a higher genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes than European-ancestry populations, underscoring the need for health systems to implement earlier, more intensive, and population-targeted preventive strategies
Exponential distillation of dominant eigenproperties
Get PDFEstimating observable expectation values in eigenstates of quantum systems has a broad range of applications and is an area where early fault-tolerant quantum computers may provide practical quantum advantage. We develop a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm that enables the estimation of an arbitrary observable expectation value in an eigenstate, given an initial state is supplied that has dominant overlap with the targeted eigenstate – but may overlap with any other eigenstates. Our approach builds on, and is conceptually similar to purification-based error mitigation techniques; however, it achieves exponential suppression of algorithmic errors using only a single copy of the quantum state. The key innovation is that random time evolution is applied in the quantum computer to create an average mixed quantum state, which is then virtually purified with exponential efficacy. We prove rigorous performance guarantees and conclude that the complexity of our approach depends directly on the energy gap in the problem Hamiltonian and remarkably, can be compared to phase estimation combined with amplitude estimation in terms of its scaling with respect to a target precision. We demonstrate in a broad range of numerical simulations the applicability of our framework in near-term and early fault-tolerant settings. Furthermore, we demonstrate in a 100-qubit example that direct classical simulation of our approach enables the prediction of ground and excited state properties of quantum systems using tensor network techniques, which we recognize as a quantum-inspired classical approach
Analysing student engagement with large language models in higher education: prompts as channels of communication with AI
Get PDFBackground: The aim of this study is to establish concrete insights into the ways in which students in higher education are engaging with large language models (LLM) through an analysis of the prompts they have written. Integrating frameworks from Human-Machine Communication (HMC) studies and student engagement literature, this research intends on elucidating prompts as a valuable source of analysis for the effect that LLMs have on students’ approaches to their academic work. These findings will inform scholarly perspectives on the precise strategies, participations and mannerisms students employ within their communications with LLMs.Method: This research utilises a questionnaire to collect samples of conversations and individual prompts from students' interaction with LLMs in academic contexts. It also asks for their academic background, such as what programme they enrolled in and previous areas of academic expertise. It analyses over 800 prompts from 23 students in higher education within the United Kingdom.Analysis of this data employed an integrative approach, relating Guzman and Lewis’s (2022) framework for human-AI communications with dimensions of student engagement. This approach enables the analysis of prompt data not only within its specific context as a unique mode of communication with a technological entity but also sheds light on the pedagogical implications of these interactions.Results: The results from this study presents four main types of engagement with large language models from students in higher education: linguistic manipulation, engagement with corpus data, controlling the LLM and ideation. These engagements reveal how students are mostly benefitting from the LLM’s ability to reword large bodies of text into different styles of language, as well as the ability to navigate the corpus data as a resource for information. Students also utilised LLMs to generate responses that would assist with the exploration of new ideas, as well as the evaluation of ideas. A large portion of prompts were also employed to control the LLM, directing the LLM to respond in certain ways or attempting to fix the LLM’s interpretation of previous prompts
Social prescribing within five European countries: a protocol of a cross-country qualitative analysis
Get PDFIntroductionSocial prescribing is an approach to addressing non-medical issues affecting people's health and well-being (eg, loneliness, housing or financial problems). It has gained international traction over recent years as complementary to medical care. A larger research project, comparing social prescribing across European countries, is considering how to tailor provision for the following groups: (a) LGBTIQ+persons, (b) refugees and first-generation immigrants and (c) older adults living alone. As part of this research, a qualitative study will address the question: What are the enabling and limiting factors associated with implementing social prescribing, across different European countries, from the perspective of key stakeholders? METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Five European countries (Austria, England, Germany, Poland, Portugal) will be involved. Researchers from each country will conduct approximately 20 semi-structured interviews (total number will be 100). Interviewees will be people receiving, delivering, managing and funding/commissioning social prescribing. Interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed. A cross-country analysis will be undertaken; framework analysis will support this process, with a chart developed in Excel in which data from across the five countries is summarised by the researchers involved. Summaries will be based on a thematic framework that researchers from the five countries develop together after initially analysing their own data.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval was initially secured through the University of Oxford's Medical Sciences Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee (IDREC 1806086) for data collection in England. This approved application was then used to secure ethics approval in Austria (through Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft), Germany (through Bergische Universität Wuppertal), Poland (through Wroclaw Medical University) and Portugal (through NOVA University of Lisbon). Dissemination will include an academic journal article and presentation at relevant conferences. It will also include short videos, written summaries/policy briefs and an infographic.This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 101155873. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them
The Illusion of Permissive Balancing
Get PDFThe standard view among philosophers of normativity is that practical reasons balance permissively (i.e., when reasons are tied between incompatible actions, either action is rational), while epistemic reasons balance prohibitively (i.e., when reasons are tied between incompatible doxastic attitudes, neither attitude may be rationally formed). Those who disagree, typically epistemic permissivists, think that epistemic reasons behave like reasons for action and that all reasons exhibit permissive balancing. One thing widely agreed on is that a third possibility, that all reasons exhibit prohibitive balancing, is off the table. This paper aims to get that option back on the table. I defend the view that all reasons balance prohibitively, and the apparent permissive balancing of practical reasons is an illusion. What we take to be cases of choosing on the basis of tied practical reasons, actually involve finding extra, tie‐breaking, reasons
Mobile genetic elements in shaping Klebsiella pneumoniae pathogenicity
Get PDFKlebsiella pneumoniae has evolved from an opportunistic pathogen into a formidable global threat, with hypervirulent strains now causing severe infections in healthy individuals and carbapenem-resistant variants achieving mortality rates exceeding 42%. This transformation can be driven by mobile genetic elements including plasmids, integrative conjugative elements (ICE), insertion sequences (ISs), transposons, and integrons. Recent discoveries reveal that these elements employ sophisticated mechanisms: conjugative virulence plasmids dissemination across bacterial populations; ICEs-mediated virulence traits transfer; and hybrid genetic elements simultaneously confer virulence and antimicrobial resistance. Understanding these molecular mechanisms is critical for developing targeted diagnostics and therapeutics that disrupt mobile element mobility, offering promising strategies to combat the convergence of hypervirulence and resistance in this WHO priority pathogen
Quality improvement in degenerative spinal surgery: A systematic review of quality indicators and guideline recommendations: Quality improvement in degenerative spinal surgery: A systematic review
Get PDFDegenerative spinal diseases are among the leading causes of disability worldwide, with a rising prevalence and corresponding increase in treatment demand. Despite this burden, there is a significant variability and uncertainty in surgical decision-making and outcome assessment. There is a growing and compelling need to ensure that care in degenerative spinal surgery is delivered in a patient-centred and value-based manner – and that reliable data is available to prove it. This dissertation constitutes the first systematic review of both existing quality indicators and guideline recommendations in degenerative spinal surgery. The methodology of this systematic review was developed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline and prospectively registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). Despite the comprehensive search strategy and inclusive eligibility criteria, no studies were identified that reported the development, evaluation or use of quality indicators in degenerative spinal surgery. Guidelines and guideline recommendations were systematically identified, catalogued and appraised using validated instruments. A total of 78 guidelines and 1,641 recommendations were extracted. The guidelines were appraised using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation Global Rating Scale (AGREE GRS) instrument, while the recommendations were categorised according to Donabedian’s framework and appraised using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation Recommendation Excellence (AGREE REX) instrument. The insights derived from this systematic review are intended to serve as a foundation for the translation of guideline recommendations into quality indicators. Ideally, this should be performed by a multidisciplinary expert panel to ensure methodological rigour and clinical relevance. Additionally, the findings of this review may inform spinal registries and help harmonise data collection, thereby strengthening their role as tools for monitoring practice, driving continuous improvements in care delivery and advancing patient outcomes
'Le siècle s'est éclairé': philosophes, phantoms and fanaticism
Get PDFThe quotation in my title and the three subsequent terms are taken from the most famous scene of Diderot's first play, Le Fils naturel, which has long been judged preachy and dramatically incompetent by critics. Judging by the evidence of the surviving eighteenth-century performance texts, much of it was simply cut. This essay acknowledges the issue but/and contextualizes the scene, reading it as an attempt on the part of the philosophe to manage the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Louis XV in early January, the significance of which was still up for grabs a month or so later when Le Fils naturel was published. Re-injecting some politics into Diderot's bourgeois domestic drama, whose œdipal dynamics have often been noted, the essay explores Diderot's concern with the national family drama of parricide and his mobilization of a discourse on fanaticism