958 research outputs found
Quantum and Classical Glass Transitions in
When performed in the proper low field, low frequency limits, measurements of
the dynamics and the nonlinear susceptibility in the model Ising magnet in
transverse field, , prove the existence
of a spin glass transition for = 0.167 and 0.198. The classical behavior
tracks for the two concentrations, but the behavior in the quantum regime at
large transverse fields differs because of the competing effects of quantum
entanglement and random fields.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. Updated figure 3 with corrected calibration
information for thermometr
Static Single Information Form for Abstract Compilation
In previous work we have shown that more precise type analysis can be achieved by exploiting union types and static single assignment (SSA) intermediate representation (IR) of code. In this paper we exploit static single information (SSI), an extension of SSA proposed in literature and adopted by some compilers, to allow assignments of more precise types to variables in conditional branches. In particular, SSI can be exploited rather easily and effectively to infer more precise types in dynamic object-oriented languages, where explicit runtime typechecking is frequently used. We show how the use of SSI form can be smoothly integrated with abstract compilation, our approach to static type analysis. In particular, we define abstract compilation based on union and nominal types for a simple dynamic object-oriented language in SSI form with a runtime typechecking operator, to show how precise type inference can be
Role of surgical setting and patients-related factors in predicting the occurrence of postoperative pulmonary complications after abdominal surgery
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the role of surgical setting (urgent vs. elective) and approach (open vs. laparoscopic) in affecting postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) prevalence in patients undergoing abdominal surgery.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: After local Ethical Committee approval, 409 patients who had undergone abdominal surgery between January and December 2014 were included in the final analysis. PPCs were defined as the development of one of the following new findings: respiratory failure, pulmonary infection, aspiration pneumonia, pleural effusion, pneumothorax, atelectasis on chest X-ray, bronchospasm or un-planned urgent re-intubation.
RESULTS: PPCs prevalence was greater in urgent (33%) vs. elective setting (7%) (chi(2) with Yates correction: 44; p=0.0001) and in open (6%) vs. laparoscopic approach (1.9%) (chi(2) with Yates correction: 12; p=0.0006). PPCs occurrence was positively correlated with in-hospital mortality (Biserial Correlation r=0.37; p=0.0001). Logistic regression showed that urgent setting (p=0.000), Ariscat (Assess Respiratory Risk in Surgical Patients in Catalonia) score (p=0.004), and age (p=0.01) were predictors of PPCs. A cutoff of 23 for Ariscat score was also identified as determining factor for PPCs occurrence with 94% sensitivity and 29% specificity.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing abdominal surgery in an urgent setting were exposed to a higher risk of PPCs compared to patients scheduled for elective procedures. Ariscat score fitted with PPCs prevalence and older patients were exposed to a higher risk of PPCs. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these result
Evaluation of a Conversation Management Toolkit for Multi Agent Programming
The Agent Conversation Reasoning Engine (ACRE) is intended to aid agent
developers to improve the management and reliability of agent communication. To
evaluate its effectiveness, a problem scenario was created that could be used
to compare code written with and without the use of ACRE by groups of test
subjects.
This paper describes the requirements that the evaluation scenario was
intended to meet and how these motivated the design of the problem. Two
experiments were conducted with two separate sets of students and their
solutions were analysed using a combination of simple objective metrics and
subjective analysis. The analysis suggested that ACRE by default prevents some
common problems arising that would limit the reliability and extensibility of
conversation-handling code.
As ACRE has to date been integrated only with the Agent Factory multi agent
framework, it was necessary to verify that the problems identified are not
unique to that platform. Thus a comparison was made with best practice
communication code written for the Jason platform, in order to demonstrate the
wider applicability of a system such as ACRE.Comment: appears as Programming Multi-Agent Systems - 10th International
Workshop, ProMAS 2012, Valencia, Spain, June 5, 2012, Revised Selected Paper
First record of Ozognathus cornutus (LeConte, 1859) (Coleoptera Ptinidae) from Sardinia, Italy.
Ozognathus cornutus (LeConte, 1859) is recorded on the invasive alien tree Robinia pseudocacia L. (Fabaceae) in an urban area in Italy. The species has already been reported in two other Italian regions, but this is the first record for the Sardinian fauna. Due to the great adaptability of this alien species and the increasingly cosmopolitan trend, we suggest monitoring it with caution for early detection and to plan an appropriate rapid management response
RV4JaCa - Runtime Verification for Multi-Agent Systems
This paper presents a Runtime Verification (RV) approach for Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) using the JaCaMo framework. Our objective is to bring a layer of security to the MAS. This layer is capable of controlling events during the execution of the system without needing a specific implementation in the behaviour of each agent to recognise the events. MAS have been used in the context of hybrid intelligence. This use requires communication between software agents and human beings. In some cases, communication takes place via natural language dialogues. However, this kind of communication brings us to a concern related to controlling the flow of dialogue so that agents can prevent any change in the topic of discussion that could impair their reasoning. We demonstrate the implementation of a monitor that aims to control this dialogue flow in a MAS that communicates with the user through natural language to aid decision-making in hospital bed allocation
RV4JaCa—Towards Runtime Verification of Multi-Agent Systems and Robotic Applications
This paper presents a Runtime Verification (RV) approach for Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) using the JaCaMo framework. Our objective is to bring a layer of security to the MAS. This is achieved keeping in mind possible safety-critical uses of the MAS, such as robotic applications. This layer is capable of controlling events during the execution of the system without needing a specific implementation in the behaviour of each agent to recognise the events. In this paper, we mainly focus on MAS when used in the context of hybrid intelligence. This use requires communication between software agents and human beings. In some cases, communication takes place via natural language dialogues. However, this kind of communication brings us to a concern related to controlling the flow of dialogue so that agents can prevent any change in the topic of discussion that could impair their reasoning. The latter may be a problem and undermine the development of the software agents. In this paper, we tackle this problem by proposing and demonstrating the implementation of a framework that aims to control the dialogue flow in a MAS; especially when the MAS communicates with the user through natural language to aid decision-making in a hospital bed allocation scenario
Quantum and classical relaxation in the proton glass
The hydrogen-bond network formed from a crystalline solution of ferroelectric RbH_2PO_4 and antiferroelectric NH_4H_2PO_4 demonstrates glassy behavior, with proton tunneling the dominant mechanism for relaxation at low temperature. We characterize the dielectric response over seven decades of frequency and quantitatively fit the long-time relaxation by directly measuring the local potential energy landscape via neutron Compton scattering. The collective motion of protons rearranges the hydrogen bonds in the network. By analogy with vortex tunneling in superconductors, we relate the logarithmic decay of the polarization to the quantum-mechanical action
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