Generic changes in United States Issini (Hemiptera, Fulgoroidea, Issidae)

Three new genera of the family Issidae are described for species formerly included in the genus Hysteropterum sensu lato: Balduza Gnezdilov and O’Brien, gen. n. (type species: Hysteropterum unum Ball 1910), Stilbometopius Gnezdilov and O’Brien, gen. n. (type species: Issus auroreus Uhler 1876), Abolloptera Gnezdilov and O’Brien, gen. n. (type species: Hysteropterum bistriatum Caldwell 1945),. The genus Tylanira Ball 1936 is redescribed. The male genitalia of Tylanira bifurca Ball 1936 is described and illustrated. Tylana ustulata Uhler 1876 is transfered to Tylanira. Hysteropterum bufo Van Duzee 1923 is transfered to Balduza gen. n. and the male genitalia of the species is described and illustrated. The subgenus Paralixes Caldwell 1945 of the genus Ulixes Stål 1861 is raised to genus – Paralixes Caldwell 1945, stat. n. A key to the issid genera of the United States is given. New data on the distribution of 7 species are given

Sphaleron of a 4 dimensional SO(4) Higgs model

We construct the finite energy path between topologically distinct vacua of a 4 dimensional SO(4) Higgs model which is known to support an instanton, and show that there is a sphaleron with Chern-Simons number N_CS=1/2 at the top of the energy barrier. This is carried out using the original geometric loop construction of Manton.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, LaTex format, minor text corrections. To be published in Phys. Lett.

Magnetar powered GRBs: Explaining the extended emission and X-ray plateau of short GRB light curves

Extended emission (EE) is a high-energy, early time rebrightening sometimes seen in the light curves of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We present the first contiguous fits to the EE tail and the later X-ray plateau, unified within a single model. Our central engine is a magnetar surrounded by a fall-back accretion disc, formed by either the merger of two compact objects or the accretion-induced collapse of a white dwarf. During the EE phase, material is accelerated to super-Keplarian velocities and ejected from the system by the rapidly rotating ($P \approx 1 - 10$ ms) and very strong ($10^{15}$ G) magnetic field in a process known as magnetic propellering. The X-ray plateau is modelled as magnetic dipole spin-down emission. We first explore the range of GRB phenomena that the propeller could potentially reproduce, using a series of template light curves to devise a classification scheme based on phenomology. We then obtain fits to the light curves of 9 GRBs with EE, simultaneously fitting both the propeller and the magnetic dipole spin-down and finding typical disc masses of a few $10^{-3}$ $M_{\odot}$ to a few $10^{-2}$ $M_{\odot}$. This is done for ballistic, viscous disc and exponential accretion rates. We find that the conversion efficiency from kinetic energy to EM emission for propellered material needs to be $\gtrsim 10\%$ and that the best fitting results come from an exponential accretion profile.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted to MNRA

Uncovering anorexia nervosa in a biofeedback clinic for bowel dysfunction

Biofeedback is a conservative treatment based on behavioural techniques, which can be used in the management of bowel dysfunction. This article reports the results of a retrospective review of the clinical notes of 87 female patients attending a biofeedback service at St Mark's Hospital, Harrow. The initial review was conducted to examine the incidence of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in patients attending this service. Seven percent were found to have PCOS, which is within the normal range. However, a significant proportion of patients (11.5%) had a current history of anorexia nervosa, a higher rate than in the general population, which prompted further investigation. In this article, Sonya Chelvanayagam, Julie Duncan, Brigitte Collins and Lorraine O'Brien report on the results of this review and discuss the significance of its findings. © Copyright Terms & conditions

Autonomous Agents for Business Process Management

Traditional approaches to managing business processes are often inadequate for large-scale organisation-wide, dynamic settings. However, since Internet and Intranet technologies have become widespread, an increasing number of business processes exhibit these properties. Therefore, a new approach is needed. To this end, we describe the motivation, conceptualization, design, and implementation of a novel agent-based business process management system. The key advance of our system is that responsibility for enacting various components of the business process is delegated to a number of autonomous problem solving agents. To enact their role, these agents typically interact and negotiate with other agents in order to coordinate their actions and to buy in the services they require. This approach leads to a system that is significantly more agile and robust than its traditional counterparts. To help demonstrate these benefits, a companion paper describes the application of our system to a real-world problem faced by British Telecom

Spatial clusters of gonorrhoea in England with particular reference to the outcome of partner notification: 2012 and 2013

Background: This study explored spatial-temporal variation in diagnoses of gonorrhoea to identify and quantify endemic areas and clusters in relation to patient characteristics and outcomes of partner notification (PN) across England, UK. Methods: Endemic areas and clusters were identified using a two-stage analysis with Kulldorff’s scan statistics (SaTScan). Results Of 2,571,838 tests, 53,547 diagnoses were gonorrhoea positive (positivity = 2.08%). The proportion of diagnoses in heterosexual males was 1.5 times that in heterosexual females. Among index cases, men who have sex with men (MSM) were 8 times more likely to be diagnosed with gonorrhoea than heterosexual males (p<0.0001). After controlling for age, gender, ethnicity and deprivation rank, 4 endemic areas were identified including 11,047 diagnoses, 86% of which occurred in London. 33 clusters included 17,629 diagnoses (34% of total diagnoses in 2012 and 2013) and spanned 21 locations, some of which were dominated by heterosexually acquired infection, whilst others were MSM focused. Of the 53,547 diagnoses, 14.5% (7,775) were the result of PN. The proportion of patients who attended services as a result of PN varied from 0% to 61% within different age, gender and sexual orientation cohorts. A third of tests resulting from PN were positive for gonorrhoea. 25% of Local Authorities (n = 81, 95% CI: 20.2, 29.5) had a higher than expected proportion for female PN diagnoses as compared to 16% for males (n = 52, 95% CI: 12.0, 19.9). Conclusions: The English gonorrhoea epidemic is characterised by spatial-temporal variation. PN success varied between endemic areas and clusters. Greater emphasis should be placed on the role of PN in the control of gonorrhoea to reduce the risk of onward transmission, re-infection, and complications of infection

Density-matrix simulation of small surface codes under current and projected experimental noise

We present a full density-matrix simulation of the quantum memory and computing performance of the distance-3 logical qubit Surface-17, following a recently proposed quantum circuit and using experimental error parameters for transmon qubits in a planar circuit QED architecture. We use this simulation to optimize components of the QEC scheme (e.g., trading off stabilizer measurement infidelity for reduced cycle time) and to investigate the benefits of feedback harnessing the fundamental asymmetry of relaxation-dominated error in the constituent transmons. A lower-order approximate calculation extends these predictions to the distance-$5$ Surface-49. These results clearly indicate error rates below the fault-tolerance threshold of surface code, and the potential for Surface-17 to perform beyond the break-even point of quantum memory. At state-of-the-art qubit relaxation times and readout speeds, Surface-49 could surpass the break-even point of computation.Comment: 10 pages + 8 pages appendix, 12 figure

Hydrodynamic mean field solutions of 1D exclusion processes with spatially varying hopping rates

We analyze the open boundary partially asymmetric exclusion process with smoothly varying internal hopping rates in the infinite-size, mean field limit. The mean field equations for particle densities are written in terms of Ricatti equations with the steady-state current $J$ as a parameter. These equations are solved both analytically and numerically. Upon imposing the boundary conditions set by the injection and extraction rates, the currents $J$ are found self-consistently. We find a number of cases where analytic solutions can be found exactly or approximated. Results for $J$ from asymptotic analyses for slowly varying hopping rates agree extremely well with those from extensive Monte Carlo simulations, suggesting that mean field currents asymptotically approach the exact currents in the hydrodynamic limit, as the hopping rates vary slowly over the lattice. If the forward hopping rate is greater than or less than the backward hopping rate throughout the entire chain, the three standard steady-state phases are preserved. Our analysis reveals the sensitivity of the current to the relative phase between the forward and backward hopping rate functions.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure