Key concepts and theoretical methods of describing noise and fluctuations in classical and quantum systems are introduced. Relation between measurement and decoherence is investigated. Main types of noise and their influence on quantum coherence are described. Theoretical and experimental results on sources and effects of low-frequency 1/f-noise are presented. Methods of suppressing decoherence are discussed.

A 61-year-old man with history of well-controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus presents to the emergency department with months of worsening pain and weakness of his left hip and thigh. He states that 3 months ago he first noticed a dull ache in his left hip and over the following month the pain became much more severe and developed a burning quality. More recently, he has noticed progressive weakness in the hip and thigh, now to the point which he is unable to stand unsupported. He visited his primary care doctor who sent him to the emergency department. Today, his biggest concern is that his left thigh looks smaller than the right. He has had two falls after trying to stand and feeling lightheaded, and his right hip is also beginning to feel weak. He denies back or neck pain, previous hip pain, or bowel or bladder symptoms.

Regression is a foundational concept in applied mathematics and statistics, with applications in data analysis, inverse problems, control theory, and machine learning. Linear least-squares regression solves for the unknown parameters of a model that is written as a linear system of equations. This is a convex problem, where the unknowns are chosen to minimize the sum-squared error of the fit over the data. It is also a rare problem that has an analytic solution in terms of the pseudo-inverse of the matrix system. In practice, we solve large problems using the singular value decomposition (SVD), which is an optimal, low-rank matrix approximation. We consider the overdetermined case, with more equations than unknowns, and the underdetermined case, with more unknowns than equations. Nonlinear least squares generalizes regression to optimize the parameters of a nonlinear function, such as a neural network, which requires iterative methods, such as stochastic gradient descent or Gauss-Newton methods. We also address ill-conditioned least-squares by adding regularization, such as Tikhonov for ridge regression or sparsity for LASSO regression. We also discuss constrained least squares.

Discrimination measures do not capture experiences specific to people who were transracially and transnationally adopted. Using a small measurement approach, a new seventeen-item measure of transracial, transnational adoption discrimination encompassing three dimensions – ethnic and racial discrimination, coethnic discrimination (i.e., cultural exclusion from being Korean), and adoption discrimination – was administered to 155 Korean American young adults. We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis, tested for demographic differences, and performed correlation and multiple linear regression analyses to establish validity. The three-factor model of discrimination demonstrated good fit, and the subscale scores had good internal reliability. All three discrimination subscales were significantly correlated with one another. Ethnic and racial discrimination correlated with ethnic and adoptive identity subscales except ethnic identity exploration; coethnic discrimination correlated with ethnic identity affirmation and adoptive identity; and adoption discrimination did not correlate with any identity subscales. Ethnic and racial discrimination was related to psychological distress.

This chapter uses the case of Standard Canadian English to argue for the versatility of linguistic pluricentricity in a globalising world. It argues that the traditional roles of standard languages and standard varieties ought to be augmented by translanguaging phenomena and not replaced by them. This is important in particular for speakers of non-dominant standard varieties, such as Canadian English, Quebec French or Brazilian Portuguese, whose linguistic identities may be expressed by non-dominant standard varieties and who have a right to ’pluricentric linguistic justice’. The historical development of Canadian English dictionaries, linked with present-day attitude data that confirms a strong but not universal linguistic autonomy, is used to reflect on ’endonormative stabilisation’, suggesting that claims to phase dating and claims of mono-directionality may be tenuous. It is argued that non-territorially bound varieties, from translanguaging to ELF, must be an addition to, not a replacement of, the familiar concepts of ’state nation’, and ’standard varieties’. Linguistic pluricentricity, enriched by a transnational perspective, is therefore presented as the model of choice.

This chapter employs Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) to examine how anti-immigration policies impact Latina well-being and resistance strategies. Focusing on Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 "show me your papers" law, the authors analyze the intersection of structural violence, racial profiling, and gender within immigrant communities along the dangerous Arizona-Sonoran border corridor. A study of 417 adult Latina immigrants in Arizona examines how acculturation affects personal and familial suffering from police interactions. Results indicate Latinas experienced less emotional trauma than Latinos, with higher acculturation levels acting as a protective factor for both groups. These findings challenge assumptions about immigrant vulnerability and highlight the intersection of gender, cultural adaptation, and state violence. The chapter contextualizes these findings within decades of border militarization policies that have weaponized the Sonoran Desert, practices that perpetuate colonial logics of territorial control and racialized exclusion rooted in centuries of dispossession. The authors argue that LatCrit provides essential tools for understanding how multiple forms of oppression, such as immigration status, language, race, and class, converge to shape Latina experiences. The analysis concludes with recommendations for social work practice, emphasizing cultural humility, policy advocacy, and the integration of bilingual, bicultural approaches to support immigrant communities facing ongoing criminalization and family separation.

Principles of operation of microscopic qubits and their arrays based on defects in solid state or trapped ions are described, along with the current experimental results.

In one view, scientific explanation depends on laws, and generalizations in psychiatry let us explain the symptoms of individual patients. These generalizations might themselves be explained by being subsumed under further generalizations. Insofar as individual, idiosyncratic aspects of the patient’s behavior cannot be subsumed under laws, they cannot be scientifically explained. In contrast, though, the psychiatric interview, one of the basic data points for psychiatry, may include the therapist using idiosyncratic details of the patient’s delusions and working through the way in which one stage in the patient’s psychological history generated another. This involves understanding how one thing caused another, but there seems to be no subsumption under laws. Campbell proposes we think of causal explanation in psychiatry as not solely law based but as giving weight to the idea of the patient’s illness over time as a single construct, unfolding in accordance with general patterns. The role of generalizations in psychiatry is to define those constructs that develop over time. Nonetheless, the idiosyncratic detailed causal development of those progressions can be understood at a subjective level by the therapist following the patient’s line of thought and feeling as the disorder develops.

Complementation of antagonistic verbs like protest and appeal has been studied from both a diachronic and a World Englishes perspective, making use of both corpus data and experimentation. The verb protest, in particular, is of interest from a perspective of variation across World Englishes and recent change as it is the only antagonistic verb exhibiting a clear trend of divergent development in American English from prepositional to bare NP complementation. Moreover, preliminary corpus evidence suggests that usage in British English newswriting has recently converged on the American model. While there is some indication that New Zealand English may have been ahead of British English in this convergence on the American model, evidence on Australian English was lacking. The present paper fills this gap in previous research on changing complementation patterns in World Englishes, using corpus evidence on recent change in Australian English and related varieties, applying state-of-the-art statistical modelling.

Chapter 6. Curll was responsible for up to forty self-standing biographies. His productions are compared with those of the major varieties of biography, ancient and modern. Typical subjects such as authors, physicians and politicians are identified, to illustrate the spread of his interests in the form. He produced works of collective biography, in the wake of writers such as the antiquarian John Le Neve (1679–1741). Eight frequent components are described, including official documents and wills. The second half of the chapter is devoted to a range of paratextual devices, as most notably described by Gérard Genette. Then come discussion of their aims, such as to convey an impression that this book is authoritative, up to date, objective, and full of novel content (it is rare for the books to achieve these goals to any great extent). Representative volumes are considered to demonstrate the limitations of Curll’s practice, in particular the more broken-backed items such as the life of the actor Robert Wilks (1732), memorably stripped apart in the Grub-street Journal.