Universally Robust Quantum Control.

We study the robustness of the evolution of a quantum system against small uncontrolled variations in parameters in the Hamiltonian. We show that the fidelity susceptibility, which quantifies the perturbative error to leading order, can be expressed in superoperator form and use this to derive control pulses that are robust to any class of systematic unknown errors. The proposed optimal control protocol is equivalent to searching for a sequence of unitaries that mimics the first-order moments of the Haar distribution, i.e., it constitutes a 1-design. We highlight the power of our results for error-resistant single- and two-qubit gates.

Residues of an anthelmintic veterinary drug (closantel) detected in red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Scotland.

The contamination of the environment by some veterinary medicines and their impact on wild animals is of increasing concern. However, there is a lack of information about their residues in wildlife. The sentinel animals most commonly used for monitoring the level of environmental contamination are birds of prey, and information on other carnivores and scavengers scarce. This study examined the livers from 118 foxes for residues of a range of 18 veterinary medicines (16 anthelmintic agents and 2 metabolites) used on farm livestock. The samples were collected from foxes, primarily in Scotland, shot during legal pest control activities conducted between 2014 and 2019. Closantel residues were detected in 18 samples, and the concentrations found ranged from 6.5 µgkg-1 to 1383 µgkg-1. No other compounds were found in significant quantities. The results show a surprising frequency and level of closantel contamination, raising concerns about both the route of contamination and the potential impacts on wild animals and the environment, such as the potential for significant wildlife contamination to contribute to the development of closantel-resistant parasites. The results also suggest that red fox (Vulpes vulpes) could be a useful sentinel species for detecting and monitoring some veterinary medicine residues in the environment.

Correlations, Information Backflow, and Objectivity in a Class of Pure Dephasing Models.

We critically examine the role that correlations established between a system and fragments of its environment play in characterising the ensuing dynamics. We employ a dephasing model with different initial conditions, where the state of the initial environment represents a tunable degree of freedom that qualitatively and quantitatively affects the correlation profiles, but nevertheless results in the same reduced dynamics for the system. We apply recently developed tools for the characterisation of non-Markovianity to carefully assess the role that correlations, as quantified by the (quantum) Jensen-Shannon divergence and relative entropy, as well as changes in the environmental state, play in whether the conditions for classical objectivity within the quantum Darwinism paradigm are met. We demonstrate that for precisely the same non-Markovian reduced dynamics of the system arising from different microscopic models, some exhibit quantum Darwinistic features, while others show that no meaningful notion of classical objectivity is present. Furthermore, our results highlight that the non-Markovian nature of an environment does not a priori prevent a system from redundantly proliferating relevant information, but rather it is the system's ability to establish the requisite correlations that is the crucial factor in the manifestation of classical objectivity.

Annual abundance of common Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) is negatively associated with second generation anticoagulant rodenticides.

Rats and mice can damage food and agricultural products as well as transmit diseases, thereby requiring control of their numbers. Application of Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) often reduces rodent numbers locally. However, predators eating rodents, including non-target species, that have consumed SGARs may be secondarily exposed and potentially lethally poisoned. Here we study whether SGARs may have contributed to the widespread population declines of a rodent-eating raptor, the Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) in the UK. We show that 161 (66.8%) of the 241 Kestrels submitted for ecotoxicology tests between 1997 and 2012 had detectable levels of at least one SGAR in their livers. Adult Kestrels had significantly higher prevalence of SGARs than juveniles, suggesting accumulation of SGARs through time. The prevalence and concentrations of individual SGARs in Kestrels were significantly higher in England than in Scotland. SGAR prevalence in Kestrels were positively associated with some land cover types, primarily arable cereals and broad-leaved woodland, and negatively associated with mainly mean elevation, probably reflecting variation in SGAR usage across land cover types. By using volunteer-collected data on national Kestrel abundance 1997-2012, we show that there is a negative correlation between the Kestrel population index in a specific year and the concentration of bromadialone as well as the total SGAR concentration in the same year. Although correlative, this is the first study to provide evidence for a potential population-limiting effect of SGARs on a raptor.

Stochastic Collisional Quantum Thermometry.

We extend collisional quantum thermometry schemes to allow for stochasticity in the waiting time between successive collisions. We establish that introducing randomness through a suitable waiting time distribution, the Weibull distribution, allows us to significantly extend the parameter range for which an advantage over the thermal Fisher information is attained. These results are explicitly demonstrated for dephasing interactions and also hold for partial swap interactions. Furthermore, we show that the optimal measurements can be performed locally, thus implying that genuine quantum correlations do not play a role in achieving this advantage. We explicitly confirm this by examining the correlation properties for the deterministic collisional model.

Quantum Darwinism in a Composite System: Objectivity versus Classicality.

We investigate the implications of quantum Darwinism in a composite quantum system with interacting constituents exhibiting a decoherence-free subspace. We consider a two-qubit system coupled to an N-qubit environment via a dephasing interaction. For excitation preserving interactions between the system qubits, an analytical expression for the dynamics is obtained. It demonstrates that part of the system Hilbert space redundantly proliferates its information to the environment, while the remaining subspace is decoupled and preserves clear non-classical signatures. For measurements performed on the system, we establish that a non-zero quantum discord is shared between the composite system and the environment, thus violating the conditions of strong Darwinism. However, due to the asymmetry of quantum discord, the information shared with the environment is completely classical for measurements performed on the environment. Our results imply a dichotomy between objectivity and classicality that emerges when considering composite systems.

Orthogonality Catastrophe as a Consequence of the Quantum Speed Limit.

A remarkable feature of quantum many-body systems is the orthogonality catastrophe that describes their extensively growing sensitivity to local perturbations and plays an important role in condensed matter physics. Here we show that the dynamics of the orthogonality catastrophe can be fully characterized by the quantum speed limit and, more specifically, that any quenched quantum many-body system, whose variance in ground state energy scales with the system size, exhibits the orthogonality catastrophe. Our rigorous findings are demonstrated by two paradigmatic classes of many-body systems-the trapped Fermi gas and the long-range interacting Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick spin model.

In Situ Thermometry of a Cold Fermi Gas via Dephasing Impurities.

The precise measurement of low temperatures is a challenging, important, and fundamental task for quantum science. In particular, in situ thermometry is highly desirable for cold atomic systems due to their potential for quantum simulation. Here, we demonstrate that the temperature of a noninteracting Fermi gas can be accurately inferred from the nonequilibrium dynamics of impurities immersed within it, using an interferometric protocol and established experimental methods. Adopting tools from the theory of quantum parameter estimation, we show that our proposed scheme achieves optimal precision in the relevant temperature regime for degenerate Fermi gases in current experiments. We also discover an intriguing trade-off between measurement time and thermometric precision that is controlled by the impurity-gas coupling, with weak coupling leading to the greatest sensitivities. This is explained as a consequence of the slow decoherence associated with the onset of the Anderson orthogonality catastrophe, which dominates the gas dynamics following its local interaction with the immersed impurity.

Trade-Off Between Speed and Cost in Shortcuts to Adiabaticity.

Achieving effectively adiabatic dynamics is a ubiquitous goal in almost all areas of quantum physics. Here, we study the speed with which a quantum system can be driven when employing transitionless quantum driving. As a main result, we establish a rigorous link between this speed, the quantum speed limit, and the (energetic) cost of implementing such a shortcut to adiabaticity. Interestingly, this link elucidates a trade-off between speed and cost, namely, that instantaneous manipulation is impossible as it requires an infinite cost. These findings are illustrated for two experimentally relevant systems-the parametric oscillator and the Landau-Zener model-which reveal that the spectral gap governs the quantum speed limit as well as the cost for realizing the shortcut.

Shortcut to adiabaticity in the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model.

We study transitionless quantum driving in an infinite-range many-body system described by the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model. Despite the correlation length being always infinite the closing of the gap at the critical point makes the driving Hamiltonian of increasing complexity also in this case. To this aim we develop a hybrid strategy combining a shortcut to adiabaticity and optimal control that allows us to achieve remarkably good performance in suppressing the defect production across the phase transition.

Nursing identity and patient-centredness in scholarly health services research: a computational text analysis of PubMed abstracts 1986-2013.

BACKGROUND: The most important and contested element of nursing identity may be the patient-centredness of nursing, though this concept is not well-treated in the nursing identity literature. More conceptually-based mapping of nursing identity constructs are needed to help nurses shape their identity. The field of computational text analytics offers new opportunities to scrutinise how growing disciplines such as health services research construct nursing identity. This paper maps the conceptual content of scholarly health services research in PubMed as it relates to the patient-centeredness of nursing. METHODS: Computational text analytics software was used to analyse all health services abstracts in the database PubMed since 1986. Abstracts were treated as indicative of the content of health services research. The database PubMed was searched for all research papers using the term "service" or "services" in the abstract or keywords for the period 01/01/1986 to 30/06/2013. A total of 234,926 abstracts were obtained. Leximancer software was used in 1) mapping of 4,144,458 instances of 107 concepts; 2) analysis of 106 paired concept co-occurrences for the nursing concept; and 3) sentiment analysis of the nursing concept versus patient, family and community concepts, and clinical concepts. RESULTS: Nursing is constructed within quality assurance or service implementation or workforce development concepts. It is relatively disconnected from patient, family or community care concepts. CONCLUSIONS: For those who agree that patient-centredness should be a part of nursing identity in practice, this study suggests that there is a need for development of health services research into both the nature of the caring construct in nursing identity and its expression in practice. More fundamentally, the study raises questions about whether health services research cultures even value the politically popular idea of nurses as patient-centred caregivers and whether they should.

How best practices are copied, transferred, or translated between health care facilities: A conceptual framework.

INTRODUCTION: In spite of significant investment in quality programs and activities, there is a persistent struggle to achieve quality outcomes and performance improvements within the constraints and support of sociopolitical parsimonies. Equally, such constraints have intensified the need to better understand the best practice methods for achieving quality improvements in health care organizations over time.This study proposes a conceptual framework to assist with strategies for the copying, transferring, and/or translation of best practice between different health care facilities. PURPOSE: Applying a deductive logic, the conceptual framework was developed by blending selected theoretical lenses drawn from the knowledge management and organizational learning literatures. FINDINGS: The proposed framework highlighted that (a) major constraints need to be addressed to turn best practices into everyday practices and (b) double-loop learning is an adequate learning mode to copy and to transfer best practices and deuteron learning mode is a more suitable learning mode for translating best practice. We also found that, in complex organizations, copying, transferring, and translating new knowledge is more difficult than in smaller, less complex organizations. We also posit that knowledge translation cannot happen without transfer and copy, and transfer cannot happen without copy of best practices. Hence, an integration of all three learning processes is required for knowledge translation (copy best practice-transfer knowledge about best practice-translation of best practice into new context). In addition, the higher the level of complexity of the organization, the more best practice is tacit oriented and, in this case, the higher the level of K&L capabilities are required to successfully copy, transfer, and/or translate best practices between organizations. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The approach provides a framework for assessing organizational context and capabilities to guide copy/transfer/translation of best practices. A roadmap is provided to assist managers and practitioners to select appropriate learning modes for building success and positive systemic change.

A framework to integrate habitat monitoring and restoration with endangered insect recovery.

Monitoring is essential to track the long-term recovery of endangered species. Greater emphasis on habitat monitoring is especially important for taxa whose populations may be difficult to quantify (e.g., insects) or when true recovery (delisting) requires continuous species-specific habitat management. In this paper, we outline and implement a standardized framework to facilitate the integration of habitat monitoring with species recovery efforts. The framework has five parts: (1) identify appropriate sample units, (2) select measurable indicators of habitat requirements, (3) determine rating categories for these indicators, (4) design and implement appropriate data collection protocols, and (5) synthesize the ratings into an overall measure of habitat potential. Following these steps, we developed a set of recovery criteria to estimate habitat potential and initially assess restoration activities in the context of recovering an endangered insect, the Karner blue butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis). We recommend basing the habitat potential grading scheme on recovery plan criteria, the latest information on species biology, and working hypotheses as needed. The habitat-based assessment framework helps to identify which recovery areas and habitat patches are worth investing in and what type of site-specific restoration work is needed. We propose that the transparency and decision-making process in endangered insect recovery efforts could be improved through adaptive management that explicitly identifies and tracks progress toward habitat objectives and ultimate population recovery.

A conversation about practice development and knowledge translation as mechanisms to align the academic and clinical contexts for the advancement of nursing practice.

Practice development (PD) and knowledge translation (KT) have emerged recently as methodologies which assist advancement in gathering and using evidence in practice. For nursing to benefit from these methodologies there is a need to advance the dialogue between academia and the service sector concerning the use and further development of these methodologies as well as how we create the most effective partnerships between academia and practice. To advance this dialogue and to gain insights into the similarities and differences between KT and PD and between the academic and the service sectors, four conversations from different leaders in these sectors have been gathered and are presented here. These four discrete narratives are presented to showcase the diversity of sector contexts in relation to PD and KT methodologies. Narrative One focuses on some of the theoretical and policy issues related to creating partnerships between traditional "knowledge creation systems" (universities) and "knowledge utilization systems" Narrative Two discusses how a large school of nursing responded to the challenge of creating partnerships for practice development in an attempt to bridge the academic/service divide and produce benefits to both organisations. Narratives Three and Four describe the view of practice development from the service side. The final section of the paper presents an agenda for discussion and action based on the emerging set of principles.

A scoping review exploring reablement models of training and client assessment for older people in primary health care.

AIM: The aim of this scoping review is to explore the evidence by which community service providers have integrated reablement models of staff training and client assessment into practice. BACKGROUND: The concept of reablement, which has emerged during the last two decades globally, has recently been defined by health experts from 11 countries through a Delphi study. Reablement is seen as a way to support integrated frameworks that achieve person-centred, long-term care and assistance across community settings. International research indicates there is some evidence of developing models of reablement that include staff training and individual components of client assessment. However, evidence of integrating reablement into interdisciplinary practice continues to be sparse. METHODS: The review adopted the preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) approach. Inclusion criteria for the review related to community care, primary care, long-term care, and residential care. Populations of interest included service providers, interdisciplinary staff, trainers, and assessors. RESULTS: A total of 11 papers were reviewed. The studies varied in their approach to reablement training and client assessment frameworks. Three studies included assessment of staff well-being. All included evidence-based, person-centred components that can be integrated across health care settings. Single disciplinary approaches were used in all studies and some included training evaluation. CONCLUSION: This review has identified that currently reablement models are not yet embedded as frameworks for practice by community service providers in primary health care settings. Different programmes of training and assessment are being designed based on single disciplinary approaches and the context in which they are delivered. Further developmental work is required to integrate the components of discipline-specific training programmes within interdisciplinary frameworks. This will achieve not only an integrated framework for delivery across settings but also further the success of 'ageing in place' policy.

Development and psychometric testing of the gender misconceptions of men in nursing (GEMINI) scale among nursing students.

BACKGROUND: Misconceptions about men in nursing may influence recruitment and retention, further perpetuating the gender diversity imbalance in the nursing workforce. Identifying misconceptions and implementing early intervention strategies to address these deep-rooted stereotypes remain challenging but is considered critical to support students who are commencing a nursing career. OBJECTIVE: To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the 'Gender Misconceptions of meN in nursIng (GEMINI) Scale. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. METHODS: Pre-registration nursing students enrolled in undergraduate nursing programmes across 16 nursing institutions in Australia were surveyed from July to September 2021. The 17-item self-report GEMINI Scale measured the gender misconceptions of men in nursing. RESULTS: Of the 1410 completed surveys, data from 683 (45%) women were used for exploratory factor analysis showing a one factor structure, while data from 727 men (47%) were used for confirmatory factor analysis of the 17-item GEMINI Scale, which showed a good model fit. The scale demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.892). Men were found to have higher gender misconceptions (p < 0.001) while respondents who: (a) identified nursing as their first career choice (p = 0.002); (b) were in their final year of programme enrolment (p = 0.016); and (c) engaged in health-related paid work (p = 0.002) had lower gender misconceptions. CONCLUSION: The GEMINI Scale is a robust, valid, reliable, and easy to administer tool to assess misconceptions about men in nursing, which may potentially influence academic performance and retention. Identifying and addressing specific elements of misconceptions could inform targeted strategies to support retention and decrease attrition among these students. IMPACT STATEMENT: Genderism harms nursing, as well as the men and women working in the profession. Recruitment and retention of men into nursing is needed to cultivate male role models and diversify the workforce, however this is impeded by negative portrayals in popular culture and misconceptions entrenched in society.

Renal mass sampling: an enlightened perspective.

Renal mass sampling (RMS) can be carried out by core biopsy or fine needle aspiration with each presenting potential advantages and limitations. The literature about RMS is confounded by a lack of standardized techniques, ambiguous terminology, imprecise definitions of accuracy, substantial rates of non-informative biopsies, and recurrent diagnostic challenges with respect to eosinophilic neoplasms. Despite these concerns, RMS has an expanding role in the evaluation and treatment of renal masses, in order to stratify biological aggressiveness and guide management that can range from surgery to active surveillance. Non-informative biopsies can be managed with surgical excision or repeat biopsy, with the latter showing encouraging results in recent studies. We propose a new classification in which all biopsies are categorized as non-informative versus informative, with the latter being subclassified as confirmed accurate, presumed accurate or confirmed inaccurate. This terminology will facilitate the comparison of results from various studies and stimulate progress. Incorporation of novel biomarkers and molecular fingerprinting into RMS protocols will likely allow for more rational management of patients with renal masses in the near future.

Work statistics and symmetry breaking in an excited-state quantum phase transition.

We examine how the presence of an excited-state quantum phase transition manifests in the dynamics of a many-body system subject to a sudden quench. Focusing on the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model initialized in the ground state of the ferromagnetic phase, we demonstrate that the work probability distribution displays non-Gaussian behavior for quenches in the vicinity of the excited-state critical point. Furthermore, we show that the entropy of the diagonal ensemble is highly susceptible to critical regions, making it a robust and practical indicator of the associated spectral characteristics. We assess the role that symmetry breaking has on the ensuing dynamics, highlighting that its effect is only present for quenches beyond the critical point. Finally, we show that similar features persist when the system is initialized in an excited state and briefly explore the behavior for initial states in the paramagnetic phase.

Staff experiences of a reablement approach to care for older people in a regional Australian community: A qualitative study.

Reablement is described as a person-centred, goal-directed intervention with a view to regain, maintain or improve the independence of older clients. Although evidence to support the use of reablement as a multidisciplinary, home-based intervention for community-dwelling older adults is increasing, there is limited knowledge about what it means for care staff who provide client-based services. This study, which was nested in a larger program evaluation, used a descriptive qualitative approach to explore direct care staff and care coordinator experiences of translating a reablement training program into practice for older people in a regional Australian community. Two months after the training program four focus groups were conducted with 13 care coordinators to assimilate staff experiences with development of care plans, systems, processes and practices of reablement. In addition, four direct care staff took part in individual interviews, which centred on eliciting their experience using the reablement approach with clients. Results from the care coordinator focus groups and the direct care staff interviews highlight the importance of reablement staff training and the involvement of staff in the development and delivery of a reablement approach to client-centred care. A number of organisational and client-centred challenges such as communication, functional partnerships, staff education and resourcing are also uncovered in this research into the development of a reablement-focused care service in a regional setting. Overall there is support for the dominating discourse around healthy ageing and the policy approach of ageing in place to support wellness.

Controllable gaussian-qubit interface for extremal quantum state engineering.

We study state engineering through bilinear interactions between two remote qubits and two-mode gaussian light fields. The attainable two-qubit states span the entire physically allowed region in the entanglement-versus-global-purity plane. Two-mode gaussian states with maximal entanglement at fixed global and marginal entropies produce maximally entangled two-qubit states in the corresponding entropic diagram. We show that a small set of parameters characterizing extremally entangled two-mode gaussian states is sufficient to control the engineering of extremally entangled two-qubit states, which can be realized in realistic matter-light scenarios.