On the order of a non-abelian representation group of a slim dense near hexagon

We show that, if the representation group $R$ of a slim dense near hexagon $S$ is non-abelian, then $R$ is of exponent 4 and $|R|=2^{\beta}$, $1+NPdim(S)\leq \beta\leq 1+dimV(S)$, where $NPdim(S)$ is the near polygon embedding dimension of $S$ and $dimV(S)$ is the dimension of the universal representation module $V(S)$ of $S$. Further, if $\beta =1+NPdim(S)$, then $R$ is an extraspecial 2-group (Theorem 1.6)

Neurophysiological responses during cooking food associated with different emotions

Neurophysiological correlates of affective experience could potentially provide continuous information about a person’s experience when cooking and tasting food, without explicitly verbalizing this. Such measures would be helpful to understand people’s implicit food preferences and choices. This study examined for the first time the relation between neurophysiological variables and affective experiences under real cooking and tasting circumstances, using ingredients that were a priori expected to evoke different affective reactions. 41 participants cooked and tasted two stir-fry dishes in random order following an identical, strictly timed protocol. Once the main ingredient was chicken and the other time mealworms. EEG, ECG and skin potential were recorded continuously. Participants scored subjective valence and arousal after each cooking and tasting session. Frontal EEG alpha asymmetry showed the expected effect throughout the whole cooking and tasting session, consistent with ‘approach’ motivation for chicken and ‘avoidance’ for mealworms. Skin potential effects differed between cooking intervals but were in the expected direction. ECG variables showed an interaction with order of cooking the different dishes. Based on EEG alpha asymmetry, ECG and skin potential variables, we can estimate with 82% accuracy whether a single participant is preparing a dish with mealworms or with chicken. Our study provides evidence that it is possible to estimate experienced emotion during real-life cooking and tasting. We argue that it is important to consider that different neurophysiological and subjective measures reflect different underlying affective processes, to map them out more precisely, and to take advantage of these differences

Dual concepts of almost distance-regularity and the spectral excess theorem

Generally speaking, `almost distance-regular' graphs share some, but not necessarily all, of the regularity properties that characterize distance-regular graphs. In this paper we propose two new dual concepts of almost distance-regularity, thus giving a better understanding of the properties of distance-regular graphs. More precisely, we characterize $m$-partially distance-regular graphs and $j$-punctually eigenspace distance-regular graphs by using their spectra. Our results can also be seen as a generalization of the so-called spectral excess theorem for distance-regular graphs, and they lead to a dual version of it

Handbook of Health Economics

Editors and authors should be complimented for their impressive attempt to provide a fair account of the state-of-the-art in health economics. To review such an extensive work in a short time span, we decided to select certain chapters for more in depth study. This selection was based on our areas of expertise under the restriction that all major research areas distinguished in the handbook should be covered. Before turning to the review of the separate chapters, let us first make some general comments about the handbook. An important first question is whether all relevant research areas are covered and whether this has been done in a balanced way. Of course, exhaustive coverage in one book is unattainable for a large area like health economics. Rather the question is that regarding balance and possible lack of bias. In that respect, the book focuses on the US literature and health care system with 24 chapters written by US authors and only 11 by European and Canadian authors. The more traditional economic areas are generally covered by the US authors, emphasising a neo-classical rather than an institutional paradigm, and boundary topics like ‘equity’ and the ‘measurement of health’ are covered by the non-US authors. This structure both reflects the contributions in the health economics literature and the large variation in US health care institutions, and is on

Quantum central limit theorem for continuous-time quantum walks on odd graphs in quantum probability theory

The method of the quantum probability theory only requires simple structural data of graph and allows us to avoid a heavy combinational argument often necessary to obtain full description of spectrum of the adjacency matrix. In the present paper, by using the idea of calculation of the probability amplitudes for continuous-time quantum walk in terms of the quantum probability theory, we investigate quantum central limit theorem for continuous-time quantum walks on odd graphs.Comment: 19 page, 1 figure

Estimating Affective Taste Experience Using Combined Implicit Behavioral and Neurophysiological Measures

We trained a model to distinguish an extreme high arousal, unpleasant drink from regular drinks based on a range of implicit behavioral and physiological responses to naturalistic tasting. The trained model predicted arousal ratings of regular drinks, highlighting the possibility to estimate affective experience without having to rely on subjective ratings.</p

On almost distance-regular graphs

Distance-regular graphs are a key concept in Algebraic Combinatorics and have given rise to several generalizations, such as association schemes. Motivated by spectral and other algebraic characterizations of distance-regular graphs, we study `almost distance-regular graphs'. We use this name informally for graphs that share some regularity properties that are related to distance in the graph. For example, a known characterization of a distance-regular graph is the invariance of the number of walks of given length between vertices at a given distance, while a graph is called walk-regular if the number of closed walks of given length rooted at any given vertex is a constant. One of the concepts studied here is a generalization of both distance-regularity and walk-regularity called $m$-walk-regularity. Another studied concept is that of $m$-partial distance-regularity or, informally, distance-regularity up to distance $m$. Using eigenvalues of graphs and the predistance polynomials, we discuss and relate these and other concepts of almost distance-regularity, such as their common generalization of $(\ell,m)$-walk-regularity. We introduce the concepts of punctual distance-regularity and punctual walk-regularity as a fundament upon which almost distance-regular graphs are built. We provide examples that are mostly taken from the Foster census, a collection of symmetric cubic graphs. Two problems are posed that are related to the question of when almost distance-regular becomes whole distance-regular. We also give several characterizations of punctually distance-regular graphs that are generalizations of the spectral excess theorem