2,304 research outputs found
Le marché des stupéfiants dans une société mondialisée
I trattati di cooperazione internazionale esistono da decenni, così come il traffico internazionale di droga. Tuttavia, essi non sono ancora riusciti a lottare efficacemente contro tale tipo di traffico. Questo articolo ripercorre la storia del traffico internazionale e rinvia particolarmente a certi esempi noti come quelli della Colombia e dell’Afganistan. Les traités de coopération internationale existent depuis des décennies, tout comme le trafic international de drogues. Toutefois, ils n’ont pas encore réussi à lutter efficacement contre le trafic international de drogues. Ce texte révise l’histoire du trafic international et renvoie plus particulièrement à certains exemples connus comme ceux de la Colombie et de l’Afghanistan. International co-operation treaties exist for decades, as well as the international drug traffic. However, they did not yet succeed in efficiently fighting international drug trafficking. This paper reviews the history of international traffic and illustrate the discussion with known examples like those of Colombia and Afghanistan
31 GEANT4 simulation of dose deposition in patients from TomoTherapy Hi-Art Megavoltage computed tomography (MVCT) imaging
High Performance Algorithms for Counting Collisions and Pairwise Interactions
The problem of counting collisions or interactions is common in areas as
computer graphics and scientific simulations. Since it is a major bottleneck in
applications of these areas, a lot of research has been carried out on such
subject, mainly focused on techniques that allow calculations to be performed
within pruned sets of objects. This paper focuses on how interaction
calculation (such as collisions) within these sets can be done more efficiently
than existing approaches. Two algorithms are proposed: a sequential algorithm
that has linear complexity at the cost of high memory usage; and a parallel
algorithm, mathematically proved to be correct, that manages to use GPU
resources more efficiently than existing approaches. The proposed and existing
algorithms were implemented, and experiments show a speedup of 21.7 for the
sequential algorithm (on small problem size), and 1.12 for the parallel
proposal (large problem size). By improving interaction calculation, this work
contributes to research areas that promote interconnection in the modern world,
such as computer graphics and robotics.Comment: Accepted in ICCS 2019 and published in Springer's LNCS series.
Supplementary content at https://mjsaldanha.com/articles/1-hpc-ssp
Curricular orientations to real-world contexts in mathematics
A common claim about mathematics education is that it should equip students to use mathematics in the ‘real world’. In this paper, we examine how relationships between mathematics education and the real world are materialised in the curriculum across a sample of eleven jurisdictions. In particular, we address the orientation of the curriculum towards application of mathematics, the ways that real-world contexts are positioned within the curriculum content, the ways in which different groups of students are expected to engage with real-world contexts, and the extent to which high-stakes assessments include real-world problem solving. The analysis reveals variation across jurisdictions and some lack of coherence between official orientations towards use of mathematics in the real world and the ways that this is materialised in the organisation of the content for students
Report of the GDR working group on the R-parity violation
This report summarizes the work of the "R-parity violation group" of the
French Research Network (GDR) in Supersymmetry, concerning the physics of
supersymmetric models without conservation of R-parity at HERA, LEP, Tevatron
and LHC and limits on R-parity violating couplings from various processes. The
report includes a discussion of the recent searches at the HERA experiment,
prospects for new experiments, a review of the existing limits, and also
theoretically motivated alternatives to R-parity and a brief discussion on the
implications of R-parity violation on the neutrino masses.Comment: 60 pages, LaTeX, 22 figures, 2 table
New type of microengine using internal combustion of hydrogen and oxygen
Microsystems become part of everyday life but their application is restricted
by lack of strong and fast motors (actuators) converting energy into motion.
For example, widespread internal combustion engines cannot be scaled down
because combustion reactions are quenched in a small space. Here we present an
actuator with the dimensions 100x100x5 um^3 that is using internal combustion
of hydrogen and oxygen as part of its working cycle. Water electrolysis driven
by short voltage pulses creates an extra pressure of 0.5-4 bar for a time of
100-400 us in a chamber closed by a flexible membrane. When the pulses are
switched off this pressure is released even faster allowing production of
mechanical work in short cycles. We provide arguments that this unexpectedly
fast pressure decrease is due to spontaneous combustion of the gases in the
chamber. This actuator is the first step to truly microscopic combustion
engines.Comment: Paper and Supplementary Information (to appear in Scientific Reports
ScotGrid: Providing an Effective Distributed Tier-2 in the LHC Era
ScotGrid is a distributed Tier-2 centre in the UK with sites in Durham,
Edinburgh and Glasgow. ScotGrid has undergone a huge expansion in hardware in
anticipation of the LHC and now provides more than 4MSI2K and 500TB to the LHC
VOs. Scaling up to this level of provision has brought many challenges to the
Tier-2 and we show in this paper how we have adopted new methods of organising
the centres, from fabric management and monitoring to remote management of
sites to management and operational procedures, to meet these challenges. We
describe how we have coped with different operational models at the sites,
where Glagsow and Durham sites are managed "in house" but resources at
Edinburgh are managed as a central university resource. This required the
adoption of a different fabric management model at Edinburgh and a special
engagement with the cluster managers. Challenges arose from the different job
models of local and grid submission that required special attention to resolve.
We show how ScotGrid has successfully provided an infrastructure for ATLAS and
LHCb Monte Carlo production. Special attention has been paid to ensuring that
user analysis functions efficiently, which has required optimisation of local
storage and networking to cope with the demands of user analysis. Finally,
although these Tier-2 resources are pledged to the whole VO, we have
established close links with our local physics user communities as being the
best way to ensure that the Tier-2 functions effectively as a part of the LHC
grid computing framework..Comment: Preprint for 17th International Conference on Computing in High
Energy and Nuclear Physics, 7 pages, 1 figur
Molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in natural Leishmania populations vary with genetic background
The evolution of drug-resistance in pathogens is a major global health threat. Elucidating the molecular basis of pathogen drug-resistance has been the focus of many studies but rarely is it known whether a drug-resistance mechanism identified is universal for the studied pathogen; it has seldom been clarified whether drug-resistance mechanisms vary with the pathogen's genotype. Nevertheless this is of critical importance in gaining an understanding of the complexity of this global threat and in underpinning epidemiological surveillance of pathogen drug resistance in the field. This study aimed to assess the molecular and phenotypic heterogeneity that emerges in natural parasite populations under drug treatment pressure. We studied lines of the protozoan parasite Leishmania (L.) donovani with differential susceptibility to antimonial drugs; the lines being derived from clinical isolates belonging to two distinct genetic populations that circulate in the leishmaniasis endemic region of Nepal. Parasite pathways known to be affected by antimonial drugs were characterised on five experimental levels in the lines of the two populations. Characterisation of DNA sequence, gene expression, protein expression and thiol levels revealed a number of molecular features that mark antimonial-resistant parasites in only one of the two populations studied. A final series of in vitro stress phenotyping experiments confirmed this heterogeneity amongst drug-resistant parasites from the two populations. These data provide evidence that the molecular changes associated with antimonial-resistance in natural Leishmania populations depend on the genetic background of the Leishmania population, which has resulted in a divergent set of resistance markers in the Leishmania populations. This heterogeneity of parasite adaptations provides severe challenges for the control of drug resistance in the field and the design of molecular surveillance tools for widespread applicability
ATLAS Data Transfer Functional Test (October 2006)
Data transfer function test was conducted in October 2006. DDM software components were used to transmit, control and monitor data movement. The main purpose of the test was to check system functionality during data transfer from CERN ATLAS centers. The issue of large files transfer is also have been tested
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