734 research outputs found
Near-optimal mean value estimates for multidimensional Weyl sums
We obtain sharp estimates for multidimensional generalisations of
Vinogradov's mean value theorem for arbitrary translation-dilation invariant
systems, achieving constraints on the number of variables approaching those
conjectured to be the best possible. Several applications of our bounds are
discussed
Why decision support systems are important for medical education
During the last decades the inclusion of digital tools in health education has rapidly lead to a continuously enlarging digital era. All the online interactions between learners and tutors, the description, creation, reuse and sharing of educational digital resources and the interlinkage between them in conjunction with cheap storage technology has led to an enormous amount of educational data. Medical education is a unique type of education due to accuracy of information needed, continuous changing competences required and alternative methods of education used. Nowadays medical education standards provide the ground for organizing the educational data and the paradata. Analysis of such education data through education data mining techniques is in its infancy, but decision support systems for medical education need further research. To the best of our knowledge, there is a gap and a clear need for identifying the challenges for decision support systems in medical education in the era of medical education standards. Thus, in this paper the role and the attributes of such a decision support system for medical education are delineated and the challenges and vision for future actions are identified
Preparation of facilities for fundamental research with ultracold neutrons at PNPI
The WWR-M reactor of PNPI offers a unique opportunity to prepare a source for
ultracold neutrons (UCN) in an environment of high neutron flux (about 3*10^12
n/cm^2/s) at still acceptable radiation heat release (about 4*10^-3 W/g). It
can be realized within the reactor thermal column situated close to the reactor
core. With its large diameter of 1 m, this channel allows to install a 15 cm
thick bismuth shielding, a graphite premoderator (300 dm^3 at 20 K), and a
superfluid helium converter (35 dm^3). At a temperature of 1.2 K it is possible
to remove the heat release power of about 20 W. Using the 4pi flux of cold
neutrons within the reactor column can bring more than a factor 100 of cold
neutron flux incident on the superfluid helium with respect to the present cold
neutron beam conditions at the ILL reactor. The storage lifetime for UCN in
superfluid He at 1.2 K is about 30 s, which is sufficient when feeding
experiments requiring a similar filling time. The calculated density of UCN
with energy between 50 neV and 250 neV in an experimental volume of 40 liters
is about 10^4 n/cm^3. Technical solutions for realization of the project are
discussed.Comment: 10 pages, more detail
The UK risk assessment scheme for all non-native species
1. A pest risk assessment scheme, adapted from the EPPO (European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation) scheme, was developed to assess the risks posed to UK species, habitats and ecosystems by non-native taxa.
2. The scheme provides a structured framework for evaluating the potential for non-native organisms, whether intentional or unintentional introductions, to enter, establish, spread and cause significant impacts in all or part of the UK. Specialist modules permit the relative importance of entry pathways, the vulnerability of receptors and the consequences of policies to be assessed and appropriate risk management options to be selected. Spreadsheets for summarising the level of risk and uncertainty, invasive attributes and economic impact were created. In addition, new methods for quantifying economic impact and summarising risk and uncertainty were explored.
3. Although designed for the UK, the scheme can readily be applied elsewhere
Thermodynamic properties of ferromagnetic mixed-spin chain systems
Using a combination of high-temperature series expansion, exact
diagonalization and quantum Monte Carlo, we perform a complementary analysis of
the thermodynamic properties of quasi-one-dimensional mixed-spin systems with
alternating magnetic moments. In addition to explicit series expansions for
small spin quantum numbers, we present an expansion that allows a direct
evaluation of the series coefficients as a function of spin quantum numbers.
Due to the presence of excitations of both acoustic and optical nature, the
specific heat of a mixed-spin chain displays a double-peak-like structure,
which is more pronounced for ferromagnetic than for antiferromagnetic
intra-chain exchange. We link these results to an analytically solvable
half-classical limit. Finally, we extend our series expansion to incorporate
the single-ion anisotropies relevant for the molecular mixed-spin ferromagnetic
chain material MnNi(NO)(ethylenediamine), with alternating
spins of magnitude 5/2 and 1. Including a weak inter-chain coupling, we show
that the observed susceptibility allows for an excellent fit, and the
extraction of microscopic exchange parameters.Comment: 8 pages including 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B; series
extended to 29th. QMC adde
Pulse Shape Discrimination Techniques in Scintillating CsI(Tl) Crystals
There are recent interests with CsI(Tl) scintillating crystals for Dark
Matter experiments. The key merit is the capability to differentiate nuclear
recoil (nr) signatures from the background -events due to
ambient radioactivity on the basis of their different pulse shapes. One of the
major experimental challenges is to perform such pulse shape analysis in the
statistics-limited domain where the light output is close to the detection
threshold. Using data derived from measurements with low energy 's and
nuclear recoils due to neutron elastic scatterings, it was verified that the
pulse shapes between -events are different. Several methods of
pulse shape discrimination are studied, and their relative merits are compared.
Full digitization of the pulse shapes is crucial to achieve good
discrimination. Advanced software techniques with mean time, neural network and
likelihood ratios give rise to satisfactory performance, and are superior to
the conventional Double Charge method commonly applied at higher energies.
Pulse shape discrimination becomes effective starting at a light yield of about
20 photo-electrons. This corresponds to a detection threshold of about 5 keV
electron-equivalence energy, or 4050 keV recoil kinetic energy, in realistic
experiments.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure
Can inflationary models of cosmic perturbations evade the secondary oscillation test?
We consider the consequences of an observed Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
temperature anisotropy spectrum containing no secondary oscillations. While
such a spectrum is generally considered to be a robust signature of active
structure formation, we show that such a spectrum {\em can} be produced by
(very unusual) inflationary models or other passive evolution models. However,
we show that for all these passive models the characteristic oscillations would
show up in other observable spectra. Our work shows that when CMB polarization
and matter power spectra are taken into account secondary oscillations are
indeed a signature of even these very exotic passive models. We construct a
measure of the observability of secondary oscillations in a given experiment,
and show that even with foregrounds both the MAP and \pk satellites should be
able to distinguish between models with and without oscillations. Thus we
conclude that inflationary and other passive models can {\em not} evade the
secondary oscillation test.Comment: Final version accepted for publication in PRD. Minor improvements
have been made to the discussion and new data has been included. The
conclusions are unchagne
Insulin-Like Growth Factor Levels During Pregnancy in the Cow are Affected by Protein Supplementation in the Maternal Diet
To determine if dietary protein supplementation in early pregnancy alters total circulating insulinlike growth factor (IGF) levels, genetically similar heifers were fed diets containing different levels of protein in the first and second trimesters of gestation. The groups were: low/low (L/L), fed a diet containing 7% crude protein (CP) per kg/DM (low protein) in the first and second trimesters; high/high (H/H), fed a diet containing 14% CP per kg/DM (high protein) in the first and second trimesters; low/high (L/H), fed low protein in the first trimester and high in the second trimester and vice versa for the high/low (H/L) group. At day 62 of gestation, there was a significant difference (
Machine Learning in Automated Text Categorization
The automated categorization (or classification) of texts into predefined
categories has witnessed a booming interest in the last ten years, due to the
increased availability of documents in digital form and the ensuing need to
organize them. In the research community the dominant approach to this problem
is based on machine learning techniques: a general inductive process
automatically builds a classifier by learning, from a set of preclassified
documents, the characteristics of the categories. The advantages of this
approach over the knowledge engineering approach (consisting in the manual
definition of a classifier by domain experts) are a very good effectiveness,
considerable savings in terms of expert manpower, and straightforward
portability to different domains. This survey discusses the main approaches to
text categorization that fall within the machine learning paradigm. We will
discuss in detail issues pertaining to three different problems, namely
document representation, classifier construction, and classifier evaluation.Comment: Accepted for publication on ACM Computing Survey
Real-time detection of faecally contaminated drinking water with tryptophan-like fluorescence: defining threshold values
We assess the use of fluorescent dissolved organic matter at excitation-emission wavelengths of 280 nm and 360 nm, termed tryptophan-like fluorescence (TLF), as an indicator of faecally contaminated drinking water. A significant logistic regression model was developed using TLF as a predictor of thermotolerant coliforms (TTCs) using data from groundwater- and surface water-derived drinking water sources in India, Malawi, South Africa and Zambia. A TLF threshold of 1.3 ppb dissolved tryptophan was selected to classify TTC contamination. Validation of the TLF threshold indicated a false-negative error rate of 15% and a false-positive error rate of 18%. The threshold was unsuccessful at classifying contaminated sources containing 100 TTC cfu per 100 mL). Current commercially available fluorimeters are easy-to-use, suitable for use online and in remote environments, require neither reagents nor consumables, and crucially provide an instantaneous reading. TLF measurements are not appreciably impaired by common intereferents, such as pH, turbidity and temperature, within typical natural ranges. The technology is a viable option for the real-time screening of faecally contaminated drinking water globally
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