Strongly-interacting fermions from a higher-dimensional unified gauge theory

The method of coset-space dimensional reduction is employed in order to proceed from a gauged E_8 * E_8' unified theory defined in 10 dimensions to 4 dimensions. The resulting theory comprises the Standard Model along with a strongly-interacting fermion sector which breaks the electroweak symmetry dynamically at the right scale.Comment: 12 LaTeX pages, version to be published in Physics Letters

Individual differences in the neuropsychopathology of addiction.

Drug addiction or substance-use disorder is a chronically relapsing disorder that progresses through binge/intoxication, withdrawal/negative affect and preoccupation/anticipation stages. These stages represent diverse neurobiological mechanisms that are differentially involved in the transition from recreational to compulsive drug use and from positive to negative reinforcement. The progression from recreational to compulsive substance use is associated with downregulation of the brain reward systems and upregulation of the brain stress systems. Individual differences in the neurobiological systems that underlie the processing of reward, incentive salience, habits, stress, pain, and executive function may explain (i) the vulnerability to substance-use disorder; (ii) the diversity of emotional, motivational, and cognitive profiles of individuals with substance-use disorders; and (iii) heterogeneous responses to cognitive and pharmacological treatments. Characterization of the neuropsychological mechanisms that underlie individual differences in addiction-like behaviors is the key to understanding the mechanisms of addiction and development of personalized pharmacotherapy

Gossip in a Smartphone Peer-to-Peer Network

In this paper, we study the fundamental problem of gossip in the mobile telephone model: a recently introduced variation of the classical telephone model modified to better describe the local peer-to-peer communication services implemented in many popular smartphone operating systems. In more detail, the mobile telephone model differs from the classical telephone model in three ways: (1) each device can participate in at most one connection per round; (2) the network topology can undergo a parameterized rate of change; and (3) devices can advertise a parameterized number of bits about their state to their neighbors in each round before connection attempts are initiated. We begin by describing and analyzing new randomized gossip algorithms in this model under the harsh assumption of a network topology that can change completely in every round. We prove a significant time complexity gap between the case where nodes can advertise $0$ bits to their neighbors in each round, and the case where nodes can advertise $1$ bit. For the latter assumption, we present two solutions: the first depends on a shared randomness source, while the second eliminates this assumption using a pseudorandomness generator we prove to exist with a novel generalization of a classical result from the study of two-party communication complexity. We then turn our attention to the easier case where the topology graph is stable, and describe and analyze a new gossip algorithm that provides a substantial performance improvement for many parameters. We conclude by studying a relaxed version of gossip in which it is only necessary for nodes to each learn a specified fraction of the messages in the system.Comment: Extended Abstract to Appear in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on the Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC 2017

Set-Based Pre-Processing for Points-To Analysis

We present set-based pre-analysis: a virtually universal op- timization technique for flow-insensitive points-to analysis. Points-to analysis computes a static abstraction of how ob- ject values flow through a program’s variables. Set-based pre-analysis relies on the observation that much of this rea- soning can take place at the set level rather than the value level. Computing constraints at the set level results in sig- nificant optimization opportunities: we can rewrite the in- put program into a simplified form with the same essential points-to properties. This rewrite results in removing both local variables and instructions, thus simplifying the sub- sequent value-based points-to computation. E ectively, set- based pre-analysis puts the program in a normal form opti- mized for points-to analysis. Compared to other techniques for o -line optimization of points-to analyses in the literature, the new elements of our approach are the ability to eliminate statements, and not just variables, as well as its modularity: set-based pre-analysis can be performed on the input just once, e.g., allowing the pre-optimization of libraries that are subsequently reused many times and for di erent analyses. In experiments with Java programs, set-based pre-analysis eliminates 30% of the program’s local variables and 30% or more of computed context-sensitive points-to facts, over a wide set of bench- marks and analyses, resulting in a 20% average speedup (max: 110%, median: 18%)

Diversifying academic and professional identities in higher education: some management challenges

This paper draws on an international study of the management challenges arising from diversifying academic and professional identities in higher education. These challenges include, for instance, the introduction of practice-based disciplines with different traditions such as health and social care, the changing aspirations and expectations of younger generations of staff, a diffusion of management responsibilities and structures, and imperatives for a more holistic approach to the "employment package", including new forms of recognition and reward. It is suggested that while academic and professional identities have become increasingly dynamic and multi-faceted, change is occurring at different rates in different contexts. A model is offered, therefore, that relates approaches to "people management" to different organisational environments, against the general background of increasing resource constraint arising from the global economic downturn

Content enrichment through dynamic annotation

This paper describes a technique for interceding between users and the information that they browse. This facility, that we term 'dynamic annotation', affords a means of editing Web page content 'on-the-fly' between the source Web server and the requesting client. Thereby, we have a generic way of modifying the content displayed to local users by addition, removal or reorganising any information sourced from the World-Wide Web, whether this derives from local or remote pages. For some time, we have been exploring the scope for this device and we believe that it affords many potential worthwhile applications. Here, we describe two varieties of use. The first variety focuses on support for individual users in two contexts (second-language support and second language learning). The second variety of use focuses on support for groups of users. These differing applications have a common goal which is content enrichment of the materials placed before the user. Dynamic annotation provides a potent and flexible means to this end

Radio frequency signal detection by ballistic transport in Y-shaped graphene nanoribbons

We report on the fabrication and room temperature measurements of a high frequency electrical signal detector. The device is based on the ballistic transport in graphene to detect a high frequency signal. The observed response is linear in the considered power range (-40dBm - 0dBm) and exhibits a sensitivity as high as 10 Volts/Watt. Finally the device detected signals up to 50GHz with a maximum response at 10GHz. This device outperforms any previously reported carbon based detectors in frequency response and compares to current state of the art Schottky based detectors in dynamic range