708 research outputs found
Software for Planning Scientific Activities on Mars
Mixed-Initiative Activity Plan Generator (MAPGEN) is a ground-based computer program for planning and scheduling the scientific activities of instrumented exploratory robotic vehicles, within the limitations of available resources onboard the vehicle. MAPGEN is a combination of two prior software systems: (1) an activity-planning program, APGEN, developed at NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and (2) the Europa planner/scheduler from NASA Ames Research Center. MAPGEN performs all of the following functions: Automatic generation of plans and schedules for scientific and engineering activities; Testing of hypotheses (or what-if analyses of various scenarios); Editing of plans; Computation and analysis of resources; and Enforcement and maintenance of constraints, including resolution of temporal and resource conflicts among planned activities. MAPGEN can be used in either of two modes: one in which the planner/scheduler is turned off and only the basic APGEN functionality is utilized, or one in which both component programs are used to obtain the full planning, scheduling, and constraint-maintenance functionality
Controlling liver cancer internationally: A qualitative study of clinicians' perceptions of current public policy needs
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer in men and the seventh for women. Usually because of late diagnosis, the prognosis for liver cancer remains poor, resulting in liver cancer being the third most common cause of death from cancer. While some countries have treatment guidelines, little is known or understood about the strategies needed for liver cancer control internationally.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To explore leading liver cancer clinician's perceptions of the current public policy needs to control liver cancer internationally.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Key informant interviews were conducted with a range of liver cancer clinicians involved in policy in eleven countries. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, translated (where necessary), de-identified and analyzed by two researchers using a constant comparative method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted in: Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and the United States. Nine themes were identified and cluster into three groups: 1) Promoting prevention via early risk assessment, focusing on viral hepatitis and other lifestyle factors; 2) Increasing political, public and medical community awareness; and 3) Improving funding for screening, liver cancer surveillance and treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study is an important step towards developing an evidence-based approach to assessing preparedness for implementing comprehensive liver cancer control strategies. Evaluation mechanisms to assess countries' performance on the needs described are needed. Future research will concentrate of understanding how these needs vary across countries and the optimal strategies to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with liver cancer internationally.</p
Chromosomal-level assembly of the Asian Seabass genome using long sequence reads and multi-layered scaffolding
We report here the ~670 Mb genome assembly of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), a tropical marine teleost. We used long-read sequencing augmented by transcriptomics, optical and genetic mapping along with shared synteny from closely related fish species to derive a chromosome-level assembly with a contig N50 size over 1 Mb and scaffold N50 size over 25 Mb that span ~90% of the genome. The population structure of L. calcarifer species complex was analyzed by re-sequencing 61 individuals representing various regions across the species' native range. SNP analyses identified high levels of genetic diversity and confirmed earlier indications of a population stratification comprising three clades with signs of admixture apparent in the South-East Asian population. The quality of the Asian seabass genome assembly far exceeds that of any other fish species, and will serve as a new standard for fish genomics
Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries in inclusive charged dipion production in annihilations at = 3.65 GeV
We present a measurement of the azimuthal asymmetries of two charged pions in
the inclusive process based on a data set of 62
at the center-of-mass energy GeV collected with
the BESIII detector. These asymmetries can be attributed to the Collins
fragmentation function. We observe a nonzero asymmetry, which increases with
increasing pion momentum. As our energy scale is close to that of the existing
semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering experimental data, the measured
asymmetries are important inputs for the global analysis of extracting the
quark transversity distribution inside the nucleon and are valuable to explore
the energy evolution of the spin-dependent fragmentation function.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Study of
We present an analysis of the decay based
on data collected by the BESIII experiment at the resonance. Using
a nearly background-free sample of 18262 events, we measure the branching
fraction . For GeV/ the partial branching fraction is
. A partial wave analysis shows that the dominant
component is accompanied by an \emph{S}-wave contribution accounting for
of the total rate and that other components are
negligible. The parameters of the resonance and of the
form factors based on the spectroscopic pole dominance predictions are also
measured. We also present a measurement of the helicity
basis form factors in a model-independent way.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure
Study of and and
We study the decays of and to the final states
and based on a single
baryon tag method using data samples of
and events collected with
the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The decays to
are observed for the first time. The
measured branching fractions of and
are in good agreement with, and much
more precise, than the previously published results. The angular parameters for
these decays are also measured for the first time. The measured angular decay
parameter for , , is found to be negative, different to the other
decay processes in this measurement. In addition, the "12\% rule" and isospin
symmetry in the and and
systems are tested.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures. This version is consistent with paper published
in Phys.Lett. B770 (2017) 217-22
Measurement of the Cross Section between 600 and 900 MeV Using Initial State Radiation
We extract the cross section in the energy
range between 600 and 900 MeV, exploiting the method of initial state
radiation. A data set with an integrated luminosity of 2.93 fb taken at
a center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII
collider is used. The cross section is measured with a systematic uncertainty
of 0.9%. We extract the pion form factor as well as the
contribution of the measured cross section to the leading order hadronic vacuum
polarization contribution to . We find this value to be
.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, accepted by PL
Measurements of absolute hadronic branching fractions of baryon
Using of collisions recorded at
with the BESIII detector, we report first measurements
of absolute hadronic branching fractions of Cabibbo-favored decays of the
baryon with a double-tag technique. A global least-square
fitter is utilized to improve the measured precision. Among the measurements
for twelve decay modes, the branching fraction for
is determined to be
, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the
second is systematic. In addition, the measurements of the branching fractions
of the other eleven Cabbibo-favored hadronic decay modes are significantly
improved
Search for C-parity violation in and
Using events recorded in
collisions at 3.686 GeV with the BESIII at the BEPCII collider, we
present searches for C-parity violation in and decays via . No significant
signals are observed in either channel. Upper limits on the branching fractions
are set to be and
at the 90\%
confidence level. The former is one order of magnitude more stringent than the
previous upper limit, and the latter represents the first limit on this decay
channel.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
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