Electroweak phase transition in the presence of hypermagnetic field and the generation of gravitational waves

We investigate the effects of a large-scale background hypermagnetic field on the electroweak phase transition. We propose an effective weak angle which varies during the electroweak phase transition and upon its use, show that for a strong enough hypermagnetic field the phase transition occurs in two steps and becomes first-order. We obtain all of the important quantities characterizing the details of the phase transition, including the latent heat, transition temperature and duration. We then explore one of the consequences of this model which is the generation of gravitational waves. We calculate the gravitational wave energy spectrum generated during the first-order electroweak phase transition and find that, for strong enough background hypermagnetic fields, these signals can be detected by the Ultimate-DECIGO interferometer.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures; v3: more discussions adde

Electroweak baryogenesis via chiral gravitational waves

We propose a new mechanism for electroweak baryogenesis based on gravitational waves generated by helical magnetic fields that are present during a first order electroweak phase transition. We generate a net lepton number through the gravitational chiral anomaly which appears due to the chiral gravitational waves produced by these magnetic fields. The observed value of baryon asymmetry can be obtained in our mechanism within parameter space of scenarios with an inverse cascade evolution for magnetic fields which can also be candidates for large-scale magnetic fields.Comment: 10 pages, Published versio

Effect of melatonin in reducing second-generation antipsychotic metabolic effects: A double blind controlled clinical trial

Introduction The use of second-generation atypical antipsychotics has an increasing role in the development of metabolic syndrome. However, these medications due to metabolic disorders can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and subsequently mortality as well as reduced adherence to treatment. The main objective of current study was to determine the ability of melatonin to reduce the metabolic effects of second-generation antipsychotics. Methods This double blind controlled clinical trial was conducted on 100 patients aged 18–64 years old were treated with the second-generation antipsychotics for the first time. The patients were divided randomly into two groups of 50. The case group received slow-release melatonin at a dose of 3 mg and the control group was given oral placebo at 8 p.m. Results The findings in melatonin group indicated significantly increase of HDL and decreased fasting blood sugar and systolic blood pressure, as well as had statistically significant increase in waist circumference, weight and BMI compared with placebo group. Conclusion According to the findings, it can be claimed that the addition of melatonin to atypical antipsychotics has led to a reduction in some of the metabolic effects of these drugs. In this study, HDL level was increased, and the mean systolic blood pressure and FBS were decreased in the melatonin group. Considering that these factors are contributing to cardiovascular disease as a leading cause of mortality in psychiatric patients, so the use of melatonin can reduce some of the medical effects of long-term treatment of atypical antipsychotics. © 2017 Diabetes Indi

Psychological Violence in the Health Care Settings in Iran: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Psychological violence is the most common form of workplace violence that can affect professional performance and job satisfaction of health care workers. Although several studies have been conducted in Iran, but there is no consensus regarding current status of such violence. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychological violence among healthcare workers employed at teaching hospitals in Iran. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 5874 health professionals were selected using multistage random sampling. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire developed by the International Labor Organization, International Council of Nurses, World Health Organization, and Public Services International. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: It was found that 74.7% of the participants were subjected to psychological violence during the past 12 months. Totally, 64.5% of psychological violence was committed by patients’ families, but 50.9% of participants had not reported the violence, and 69.9% of them believed that reporting was useless. Conclusions: The results are indicative of high prevalence of psychological violence against healthcare workers. Considering non-reporting of violence in more than half of participants, use of an appropriate reporting system and providing training programs for health professionals in order to prevent and manage workplace violence are essential

Integration of blockchain with connected and autonomous vehicles : vision and challenge

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are introduced to improve individuals’ quality of life by offering a wide range of services. They collect a huge amount of data and exchange them with each other and the infrastructure. The collected data usually includes sensitive information about the users and the surrounding environment. Therefore, data security and privacy are among the main challenges in this industry. Blockchain, an emerging distributed ledger, has been considered by the research community as a potential solution for enhancing data security, integrity and transparency in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). However, despite the emphasis of governments on the transparency of personal data protection practices, CAV stakeholders have not been successful in communicating appropriate information with the end-users regarding the procedure of collecting, storing and processing their personal data, as well as the data ownership. This paper provides a vision of the opportunities and challenges of adopting blockchain in ITS from the “data transparency" and “privacy" perspective. The main aim is to answer the following questions: (1) Considering the amount of personal data collected by the CAVs, such as location, how the integration of blockchain technology would affect transparency, fairness and lawfulness of personal data processing concerning the data subjects (as this is one of the main principles in the existing data protection regulations)? (2) How the trade-off between transparency and privacy can be addressed in blockchain-based ITS use cases

Internet of Things; a system for improving the higher education system

Background and Objective:Nowadays, information technology, has affected the production, distribution, and use of knowledge-based processes. Among other things, the Internet of Things as a network of objects connected to each other can bring new capacities in all fields. The aim of the present research is to examine the opportunities and challenges that the Internet of Things can have in relation to the higher education system. The concept of connecting devices and objects to each other is a new development on the Internet; anything anywhere can connect to the Internet and be "smart". Connected devices can communicate with each other and share information, then this information can be processed and lead to making decisions. This concept is called the "Internet of Things (IOT)." The wide range of applications of IOT has enabled educational environments at all levels to benefit from it. In terms of the role of IoT in higher education, this domain includes energy storage, monitoring the health and safety of students, optimizing the physical envriornment of the campus and classrooms, as well as enabling students to attend remotely. The main point that seems to differentiate IOT from other past technologies is that older methods cover a limited range of areas of higher education. With the use of various IOT tools, all these tools and facilities can be made intelligent and use for educational, research and service providing purposes. The aim of this study is to investigate the role and function of the IOT in the processes of knowledge production, transmission and application in higher education system. Methods: For this purpose, the systematic approach and the Chelkland SSM method were used. By refer to several internal and external scientific information databases, 25 related articles were identified. Then, without any sampling, all of these articles were studied by the researchers and their contents are divided into four categories: the introduction of the internet of things, the role of the internet of things in educational functions, the opportunities of the internet of things for higher education and the challenges of the internet of things in higher education, and they were organized in the dimensions of the input, process and output of the higher education system. Findings: The findings of the research indicate that the internet of things, by providing advanced information services, provides a flexible and measurable system for academic community that can be used to personalize training and reinforcement of learning, better management of educational processes, and more effective logistic management etc. The use of the internet of things will also challenge higher education, which violation of privacy, security issues, and rising costs are some of these challenges. Conclusion: In the present study, an attempt was made to introduce IOT and its opportunities and challenges for higher education system by reviewing the related literature. IOT is a technology that covers a wide range of applications in the university, from classrooms to laboratories, colleges and parking lots, and more. Within the system, IOT can be used to support the higher education chain and facilitate communication between input, output, and the process, and facilitate monitoring, control, and management of the university's system. In other words, the IOT operates communication center for the university system. In the dimension of higher education and university process, the IOT can be effective in student interaction and participation, evaluation, mental and physical health, classroom management, satisfaction, attendance, time saving as well as faculty management, energy saving, information searching, improving security in the university environment, providing real learning, personal growth and development for both the university instructors and the students, and so on. Of course, as mentioned, the use of this technology has cetain challenges. These challenges include security and privacy risks, high costs, connection to the Internet, scalability, self-organization and acceptance, etce. But despite this, experts generally see the future of this technology as more practical and important than it is now.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2020 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  ====================================================================================

Specific heat and magnetocaloric effect in Pr1-xAgxMnO3 manganites

The magnetocaloric effect in alternating magnetic fields has been investigated in Pr1-xAgxMnO3 manganites with x=0.05-0.25. The stepwise reversal of the sign of the magnetocaloric effect has been revealed in a weakly doped sample (x=0.05) at low temperatures (~80 K). This reversal is attributed to the coexistence of the ferromagnetic and canted antiferromagnetic phases with different critical temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Quantifying the Effects of Prosody Modulation on User Engagement and Satisfaction in Conversational Systems

As voice-based assistants such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant become ubiquitous, users increasingly expect to maintain natural and informative conversations with such systems. However, for an open-domain conversational system to be coherent and engaging, it must be able to maintain the user's interest for extended periods, without sounding boring or annoying. In this paper, we investigate one natural approach to this problem, of modulating response prosody, i.e., changing the pitch and cadence of the response to indicate delight, sadness or other common emotions, as well as using pre-recorded interjections. Intuitively, this approach should improve the naturalness of the conversation, but attempts to quantify the effects of prosodic modulation on user satisfaction and engagement remain challenging. To accomplish this, we report results obtained from a large-scale empirical study that measures the effects of prosodic modulation on user behavior and engagement across multiple conversation domains, both immediately after each turn, and at the overall conversation level. Our results indicate that the prosody modulation significantly increases both immediate and overall user satisfaction. However, since the effects vary across different domains, we verify that prosody modulations do not substitute for coherent, informative content of the responses. Together, our results provide useful tools and insights for improving the naturalness of responses in conversational systems.Comment: Published in CHIIR 2020, 4 page