Asymptotic boundary forms for tight Gabor frames and lattice localization domains

We consider Gabor localization operators $G_{\phi,\Omega}$ defined by two parameters, the generating function $\phi$ of a tight Gabor frame $\{\phi_\lambda\}_{\lambda \in \Lambda}$, parametrized by the elements of a given lattice $\Lambda \subset \Bbb{R}^2$, i.e. a discrete cocompact subgroup of $\Bbb{R}^2$, and a lattice localization domain $\Omega \subset \Bbb{R}^2$ with its boundary consisting of line segments connecting points of $\Lambda$. We find an explicit formula for the boundary form $BF(\phi,\Omega)=\text{A}_\Lambda \lim_{R\rightarrow \infty}\frac{PF(G_{\phi,R\Omega})}{R}$, the normalized limit of the projection functional $PF(G_{\phi,\Omega})=\sum_{i=0}^{\infty}\lambda_i(G_{\phi,\Omega})(1-\lambda_i(G_{\phi,\Omega}))$, where $\lambda_i(G_{\phi,\Omega})$ are the eigenvalues of the localization operators $G_{\phi,\Omega}$ applied to dilated domains $R\Omega$, $R$ is an integer and $\text{A}_\Lambda$ is the area of the fundamental domain of the lattice $\Lambda$.Comment: 35 page

Comparison of ductile damage models during scratch tests - a numerical study

The ‘wear mode diagram’ has been commonly used to classify the deformation regime of the soft work-piece during scratching, into three modes: ploughing, wedge formation and cutting. The scratch test is usedto evaluate wear modes and material removal associated with wear. There are different damage models in the literature used for the description of material behaviour after damage initiation under different loadingconditions. However, there has been little analysis to compare damage models during scratch test conditions. The first aim of this work is first to use a finite element modelling package (Abaqus/Explicit) to build a 3Dmodel to capture deformation modes during scratching with indenters with different attack angles. Three different damage models are incorporated into the model and patterns of damage initiation and propagation arecompared with experimental results from the literature. This work highlights the role of the damage model in accurately capturing wear modes and material removal during two body sliding interactions

Suicide risk after bariatric surgery

Indexación: Web of Science; Scopus; Scielo.Bariatric surgery is considered the most effective treatment for severe obesity and its benefits include improvement in medical comorbidities. However, a higher rate of suicides after this type of surgery has been reported. We performed a literature review on the subject, and concluded that the mentioned increase in suicide rates, compared to the general population, is probably caused by conditions that the patient had before surgery, especially psychiatric disorders such as depression or eating disorders. These are risk factors for suicide, and are more common in the population with indication for bariatric surgery. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly evaluate these patients before surgery searching for suicide risk factors, deriving them to a mental health professional if necessary and follow their mental health after surgery. Considering that the literature on the topic is inconsistent, further research is needed.Bariatric surgery is considered the most effective treatment for severe obesity and its benefits include improvement in medical comorbidities. However, a higher rate of suicides after this type of surgery has been reported. We performed a literature review on the subject, and concluded that the mentioned increase in suicide rates, compared to the general population, is probably caused by conditions that the patient had before surgery, especially psychiatric disorders such as depression or eating disorders. These are risk factors for suicide, and are more common in the population with indication for bariatric surgery. Therefore, it is necessary to thoroughly evaluate these patients before surgery searching for suicide risk factors, deriving them to a mental health professional if necessary and follow their mental health after surgery. Considering that the literature on the topic is inconsistent, further research is needed.http://ref.scielo.org/58vmw

Characteristic Energy of the Coulomb Interactions and the Pileup of States

Tunneling data on $\mathrm{La_{1.28}Sr_{1.72}Mn_2O_7}$ crystals confirm Coulomb interaction effects through the $\sqrt{\mathrm{E}}$ dependence of the density of states. Importantly, the data and analysis at high energy, E, show a pileup of states: most of the states removed from near the Fermi level are found between ~40 and 130 meV, from which we infer the possibility of universal behavior. The agreement of our tunneling data with recent photoemission results further confirms our analysis.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Novel assay to measure the plasmid mobilizing potential of mixed microbial communities

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Mobilizable plasmids lack necessary genes for complete conjugation and are therefore non-self-transmissible. Instead, they rely on the conjugation system of conjugal plasmids to be horizontally transferred to new recipients. While community permissiveness, the fraction of a mixed microbial community that can receive self-transmissible conjugal plasmids, has been studied, the intrinsic ability of a community to mobilize plasmids that lack conjugation systems is unexplored. Here, we present a novel framework and experimental method to estimate the mobilization potential of mixed communities. We compare the transfer frequency of a mobilizable plasmid to that of a mobilizing and conjugal plasmid measured for a model strain and for the assayed community. With Pseudomonas putida carrying the gfp-tagged mobilizable IncQ plasmid RSF1010 as donor strain, we conducted solid surface mating experiments with either a P. putida strain carrying the mobilizing IncP-1α plasmid RP4 or a model bacterial community that was extracted from the inner walls of a domestic shower conduit. Additionally, we estimated the permissiveness of the same community for RP4 using P. putida as donor strain. The permissiveness of the model community for RP4 [at 1.16 × 10(-4) transconjugants per recipient (T/R)] was similar to that previously measured for soil microbial communities. RSF1010 was mobilized by the model community at a frequency of 1.16 × 10(-5) T/R, only one order of magnitude lower than its permissiveness to RP4. This mobilization frequency is unexpectedly high considering that (i) mobilization requires the presence of mobilizing conjugal plasmids within the permissive fraction of the recipients; (ii) in pure culture experiments with P. putida retromobilization of RSF1010 through RP4 only took place in approximately half of the donors receiving the conjugal plasmid in the first step. Further work is needed to establish how plasmid mobilization potential varies within and across microbial communities. This method has the potential to provide such insights; in addition it allows for the direct isolation of in situ mobilizing plasmids together with their endogenous hosts.We thank L. Riber and S. J. Sørensen for access to the tagged RSF1010 plasmid, L. K. Jensen for technical assistance in the laboratory and S. M. Milani for assistance in FACS sorting. This work was funded by the Villum Kann Rasmussen Foundation Center of Excellence CREAM (Center for Environmental and Agricultural Microbiology)

The Ontology of Intentional Agency in Light of Neurobiological Determinism: Philosophy Meets Folk Psychology

The moot point of the Western philosophical rhetoric about free will consists in examining whether the claim of authorship to intentional, deliberative actions fits into or is undermined by a one-way causal framework of determinism. Philosophers who think that reconciliation between the two is possible are known as metaphysical compatibilists. However, there are philosophers populating the other end of the spectrum, known as the metaphysical libertarians, who maintain that claim to intentional agency cannot be sustained unless it is assumed that indeterministic causal processes pervade the action-implementation apparatus employed by the agent. The metaphysical libertarians differ among themselves on the question of whether the indeterministic causal relation exists between the series of intentional states and processes, both conscious and unconscious, and the action, making claim for what has come to be known as the event-causal view, or between the agent and the action, arguing that a sort of agent causation is at work. In this paper, I have tried to propose that certain features of both event-causal and agent-causal libertarian views need to be combined in order to provide a more defendable compatibilist account accommodating deliberative actions with deterministic causation. The ‘‘agent-executed-eventcausal libertarianism’’, the account of agency I have tried to develop here, integrates certain plausible features of the two competing accounts of libertarianism turning them into a consistent whole. I hope to show in the process that the integration of these two variants of libertarianism does not challenge what some accounts of metaphysical compatibilism propose—that there exists a broader deterministic relation between the web of mental and extra-mental components constituting the agent’s dispositional system—the agent’s beliefs, desires, short-term and long-term goals based on them, the acquired social, cultural and religious beliefs, the general and immediate and situational environment in which the agent is placed, etc. on the one hand and the decisions she makes over her lifetime on the basis of these factors. While in the ‘‘Introduction’’ the philosophically assumed anomaly between deterministic causation and the intentional act of deciding has been briefly surveyed, the second section is devoted to the task of bridging the gap between compatibilism and libertarianism. The next section of the paper turns to an analysis of folk-psychological concepts and intuitions about the effects of neurochemical processes and prior mental events on the freedom of making choices. How philosophical insights can be beneficially informed by taking into consideration folk-psychological intuitions has also been discussed, thus setting up the background for such analysis. It has been suggested in the end that support for the proposed theory of intentional agency can be found in the folk-psychological intuitions, when they are taken in the right perspective

Broad host range plasmids can invade an unexpectedly diverse fraction of a soil bacterial community

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Nature via the DOI in this recordConjugal plasmids can provide microbes with full complements of new genes and constitute potent vehicles for horizontal gene transfer. Conjugal plasmid transfer is deemed responsible for the rapid spread of antibiotic resistance among microbes. While broad host range plasmids are known to transfer to diverse hosts in pure culture, the extent of their ability to transfer in the complex bacterial communities present in most habitats has not been comprehensively studied. Here, we isolated and characterized transconjugants with a degree of sensitivity not previously realized to investigate the transfer range of IncP- and IncPromA-type broad host range plasmids from three proteobacterial donors to a soil bacterial community. We identified transfer to many different recipients belonging to 11 different bacterial phyla. The prevalence of transconjugants belonging to diverse Gram-positive Firmicutes and Actinobacteria suggests that inter-Gram plasmid transfer of IncP-1 and IncPromA-type plasmids is a frequent phenomenon. While the plasmid receiving fractions of the community were both plasmid- and donor- dependent, we identified a core super-permissive fraction that could take up different plasmids from diverse donor strains. This fraction, comprising 80% of the identified transconjugants, thus has the potential to dominate IncP- and IncPromA-type plasmid transfer in soil. Our results demonstrate that these broad host range plasmids have a hitherto unrecognized potential to transfer readily to very diverse bacteria and can, therefore, directly connect large proportions of the soil bacterial gene pool. This finding reinforces the evolutionary and medical significances of these plasmids.This work was funded by the Villum Kann Rasmussen Foundation Center of Excellence CREAM (Center for Environmental and Agricultural Microbiology)

Performance evaluation of MAP algorithms with different penalties, object geometries and noise levels

A new algorithm (LBFGS-B-PC) which combines ideas of two existing convergent reconstruction algorithms, relaxed separable paraboloidal surrogate (SPS) and limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno with boundary constraints (LBFGS-B), is proposed. Its performance is evaluated in terms of log-posterior value and regional recovery ratio. The results demonstrate the superior convergence speed of the proposed algorithm to relaxed SPS and LBFGS-B, regardless of the noise level, activity distribution, object geometry, and penalties

Multispace and Multilevel BDDC

BDDC method is the most advanced method from the Balancing family of iterative substructuring methods for the solution of large systems of linear algebraic equations arising from discretization of elliptic boundary value problems. In the case of many substructures, solving the coarse problem exactly becomes a bottleneck. Since the coarse problem in BDDC has the same structure as the original problem, it is straightforward to apply the BDDC method recursively to solve the coarse problem only approximately. In this paper, we formulate a new family of abstract Multispace BDDC methods and give condition number bounds from the abstract additive Schwarz preconditioning theory. The Multilevel BDDC is then treated as a special case of the Multispace BDDC and abstract multilevel condition number bounds are given. The abstract bounds yield polylogarithmic condition number bounds for an arbitrary fixed number of levels and scalar elliptic problems discretized by finite elements in two and three spatial dimensions. Numerical experiments confirm the theory.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, 20 references. Formal changes onl

Monotonic Distributive Semilattices

In the study of algebras related to non-classical logics, (distributive) semilattices are always present in the background. For example, the algebraic semantic of the {→, ∧, ⊤}-fragment of intuitionistic logic is the variety of implicative meet-semilattices (Chellas 1980; Hansen 2003). In this paper we introduce and study the class of distributive meet-semilattices endowed with a monotonic modal operator m. We study the representation theory of these algebras using the theory of canonical extensions and we give a topological duality for them. Also, we show how our new duality extends to some particular subclasses.Fil: Celani, Sergio Arturo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Matemática; ArgentinaFil: Menchón, María Paula. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Departamento de Matemática; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin