The Lish: a data model to support analysis by end user programmers

For end user programmers needing to carry out data analysis, the spreadsheet is an attractive choice, but has little safety net against user errors. Reducing these errors is an active research area, but one aspect rather little investigated is the role played by the underlying data model: the grid of cells. I am working on an alternative model, the “lish”, based on nested lists of cells. Its theoretical advantages include fewer and more concise formulae, and easier updates to the structure. A user study is in preparation to assess its practical utility

Wide, long, or nested data? Reconciling the machine and human viewpoints

Data expressed in tables may be re-arranged in various forms, while conveying the same information. This can create a tension when one form is easier to comprehend by a human reader, but another form is more convenient for processing by machine. This problem has received considerable attention for data scientists writing code, but rather less for end user analysts using spreadsheets. We propose a new data model, the “lish”, which supports a spreadsheet-like flexibility of layout, while capturing sufficient structure to facilitate processing. Using a typical example in a prototype editor, we demonstrate how it might help users resolve the tension between the two forms. A user study is in preparation

Artificial Light Increases Local Predator Abundance, Predation Rates, and Herbivory.

Human activity is rapidly increasing the radiance and geographic extent of artificial light at night (ALAN) leading to alterations in the development, behavior, and physiological state of many organisms. A limited number of community-scale studies investigating the effects of ALAN have allowed for spatial aggregation through positive phototaxis, the commonly observed phenomenon of arthropod movement toward light. We performed an open field study (without restricted arthropod access) to determine the effects of ALAN on local arthropod community composition, plant traits, and local herbivory and predation rates. We found strong positive phototaxis in 10 orders of arthropods, with increased (159% higher) overall arthropod abundance under ALAN compared to unlit controls. The arthropod community under ALAN was more diverse and contained a higher proportion of predaceous arthropods (15% vs 8%). Predation of immobilized flies occurred 3.6 times faster under ALAN; this effect was not observed during the day. Contrary to expectations, we also observed a 6% increase in herbivory under ALAN. Our results highlight the importance of open experimental field studies in determining community-level effects of ALAN

Threshold resummation for gaugino pair production at hadron colliders

We present a complete analysis of threshold resummation effects on direct light and heavy gaugino pair production at the Tevatron and the LHC. Based on a new perturbative calculation at next-to-leading order of SUSY-QCD, which includes also squark mixing effects, we resum soft gluon radiation in the threshold region at leading and next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, retaining at the same time the full SUSY-QCD corrections in the finite coefficient function. This allows us to correctly match the resummed to the perturbative cross section. Universal subleading logarithms are resummed in full matrix form. We find that threshold resummation slightly increases and considerably stabilizes the invariant mass spectra and total cross sections with respect to the next-to-leading order calculation. For future reference, we present total cross sections and their theoretical errors in tabular form for several commonly used SUSY benchmark points, gaugino pairs, and hadron collider energies.Comment: 28 pages, 5 tables, 17 figure

Joint Resummation for Gaugino Pair Production at Hadron Colliders

We calculate direct gaugino pair production at hadron colliders at next-to-leading order of perturbative QCD, resumming simultaneously large logarithms in the small transverse-momentum and threshold regions to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. Numerical predictions are presented for transverse momentum and invariant mass spectra as well as for total cross sections and compared to results obtained at fixed order and with pure transverse-momentum and threshold resummation. We find that our new results are in general in good agreement with the previous ones, but often even more precise.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Obstacles to shared decision-making in psychiatric practice: Findings from three observational studies

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis aims to make contributions at substantive, methodological and theoretical levels. First, the findings from three observational studies are combined to identify obstacles to the use of shared decision-making in modern psychiatric practice. Particular attention is paid to how patients' choices about their treatment are facilitated or constrained by the actions of mental health professionals. A typology of pressure is constructed, based on detailed analyses of how pressure is applied and resisted in routine encounters (outpatient consultations) and "crisis' situations (assessments for compulsory admission to hospital, and ward rounds in acute inpatient care). Findings from two ethnographies and one conversation analysis (CA) study are presented. 'Meaning' is central to the write-up of each set of findings, however while the analytic focus of the ethnographies is 'insider' knowledge and meanings, in the CA study it is gn the activities that make those meanings possible in the first place. The methodological contribution of the thesis stems from its demonstration of how to produce a coherent, unified research account from two very different versions of qualitative inquiry. Despite the potential for analytic inconsistency, the thesis arguably has far greater force and persuasiveness as a result of the attempt to combine, compare and contrast findings from three studies. It is contended that a sound theoretical base for sociological research may be created by combining Goffman's micro-sociology with Foucault's analyses of disciplinary power/knowledge in one of a number of ways. A Goffmanian 'home base' is adopted for this thesis, with Foucauldian thinking applied to add a historical, 'macro' dimension to the analysis that Goffman's work so conspicuously lacks. Foucault's work also provides the conceptual tools for examining the more subtle form of control through expertise that would be missed in a purely Goffmanian study.Department of Health, Eli Lilly, and Dr Jim Birle

Kinetic Approach to Fractional Exclusion Statistics

We show that the kinetic approach to statistical mechanics permits an elegant and efficient treatment of fractional exclusion statistics. By using the exclusion-inclusion principle recently proposed [Phys. Rev. E49, 5103 (1994)] as a generalization of the Pauli exclusion principle, which is based on a proper definition of the transition probability between two states, we derive a variety of different statistical distributions interpolating between bosons and fermions. The Haldane exclusion principle and the Haldane-Wu fractional exclusion statistics are obtained in a natural way as particular cases. The thermodynamic properties of the statistical systems obeying the generalized exclusion-inclusion principle are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, REVTE

Probing the unparticle signal in b→db \to d penguin processes

We investigate the effect of unparticles in the pure $b \to d$ penguin processes $B^0 \to K^0 \bar K^0$ and $B^{+,0} \to \phi \pi^{+,0}$. Since these processes receive dominant contributions due to the {\it top} quark in the loop, direct and mixing-induced CP asymmetry parameters in these processes are expected to be vanishingly small in the standard model. We find that due to the unparticle effect sizable nonzero CP violation could be possible in these channels.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, version to appear in Phys. Lett.