“Sweet: I did it”! Measuring the sense of agency in gustatory interfaces

Novel gustatory interfaces offer the potential to use the sense of taste as a feedback modality during the interaction. They are being explored in a wide range of implementations, from chemical to electrical and thermal stimulation of taste. However, the fundamental aspect of gustatory interaction that has yet to be explored is the Sense of Agency (SoA). It is the subjective experience of voluntary control over actions in the external world. This work investigates the SoA in gustatory systems using the intentional binding paradigm to quantify how different taste outcome modalities influence users' SoA. We first investigate such gustatory systems using the intentional binding paradigm to quantify how different tastes influence users' SoA (Experiment 1). The gustatory stimuli were sweet (sucrose 75.31 mg/ml), bitter (caffeine powder 0.97 mg/ml), and neutral (mineral water) as the outcomes of specific keyboard presses. We then investigated how SoA was altered depending on users' sweet liking phenotype, given that sweet is one of the taste outcomes (Experiment 2), and in contrast with audio as a traditional outcome. In Experiment 2, stronger taste concentrations (sweet-sucrose 342.30 g/L, bitter-quinine 0.1 g/L, and neutral) were used, with only participants being moderate sweet likers. We further contrasted tastes with audio as the traditional outcome. Our findings show that all three taste outcomes exhibit similar intentional binding compared to auditory in medium sweet likers. We also show that longer action-outcome duration improved the SoA. We finally discuss our findings and identify design opportunities considering SoA for gustatory interfaces and multisensory interaction

Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration

Plasma wakefield acceleration, either laser driven or electron-bunch driven, has been demonstrated to hold great potential. However, it is not obvious how to scale these approaches to bring particles up to the TeV regime. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of proton-bunch driven plasma wakefield acceleration, and show that high energy electron beams could potentially be produced in a single accelerating stage.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Factors contributing to delay in parasite clearance in uncomplicated falciparum malaria in children

Background: Drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum is common in many endemic and other settings but there is no clear recommendation on when to change therapy when there is delay in parasite clearance after initiation of therapy in African children. Methods: The factors contributing to delay in parasite clearance, defined as a clearance time > 2 d, in falciparum malaria were characterized in 2,752 prospectively studied children treated with anti-malarial drugs between 1996 and 2008. Results: 1,237 of 2,752 children (45%) had delay in parasite clearance. Overall 211 children (17%) with delay in clearance subsequently failed therapy and they constituted 72% of those who had drug failure, i.e., 211 of 291 children. The following were independent risk factors for delay in parasite clearance at enrolment: age less than or equal to 2 years (Adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.13, 95% confidence interval [CI]1.44-3.15, P < 0.0001), presence of fever (AOR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.04-1.69, P = 0.019), parasitaemia >50,000/ul (AOR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.77-2.75, P < 0.0001), and enrolment before year 2000 (AOR= 1.55, 95% CI = 1.22-1.96, P < 0.0001). Following treatment, a body temperature ≥ 38°C and parasitaemia > 20000/μl a day after treatment began, were independent risk factors for delay in clearance. Non-artemisinin monotherapies were associated with delay in clearance and treatment failures, and in those treated with chloroquine or amodiaquine, with pfmdr 1/pfcrt mutants. Delay in clearance significantly increased gametocyte carriage (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Delay in parasite clearance is multifactorial, is related to drug resistance and treatment failure in uncomplicated malaria and has implications for malaria control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa

Researchers’ publication patterns and their use for author disambiguation

Over the recent years, we are witnessing an increase of the need for advanced bibliometric indicators on individual researchers and research groups, for which author disambiguation is needed. Using the complete population of university professors and researchers in the Canadian province of Québec (N=13,479), of their papers as well as the papers authored by their homonyms, this paper provides evidence of regularities in researchers’ publication patterns. It shows how these patterns can be used to automatically assign papers to individual and remove papers authored by their homonyms. Two types of patterns were found: 1) at the individual researchers’ level and 2) at the level of disciplines. On the whole, these patterns allow the construction of an algorithm that provides assignation information on at least one paper for 11,105 (82.4%) out of all 13,479 researchers—with a very low percentage of false positives (3.2%)

Effective-Range Expansion of the Neutron-Deuteron Scattering Studied by a Quark-Model Nonlocal Gaussian Potential

The S-wave effective range parameters of the neutron-deuteron (nd) scattering are derived in the Faddeev formalism, using a nonlocal Gaussian potential based on the quark-model baryon-baryon interaction fss2. The spin-doublet low-energy eigenphase shift is sufficiently attractive to reproduce predictions by the AV18 plus Urbana three-nucleon force, yielding the observed value of the doublet scattering length and the correct differential cross sections below the deuteron breakup threshold. This conclusion is consistent with the previous result for the triton binding energy, which is nearly reproduced by fss2 without reinforcing it with the three-nucleon force.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures and 6 tables, submitted to Prog. Theor. Phy

Emotional ratings and skin conductance response to visual, auditory and haptic stimuli

The human emotional reactions to stimuli delivered by different sensory modalities is a topic of interest for many disciplines, from Human-Computer-Interaction to cognitive sciences. Different databases of stimuli eliciting emotional reaction are available, tested on a high number of participants. Interestingly, stimuli within one database are always of the same type. In other words, to date, no data was obtained and compared from distinct types of emotion-eliciting stimuli from the same participant. This makes it difficult to use different databases within the same experiment, limiting the complexity of experiments investigating emotional reactions. Moreover, whereas the stimuli and the participants’ rating to the stimuli are available, physiological reactions of participants to the emotional stimuli are often recorded but not shared. Here, we test stimuli delivered either through a visual, auditory, or haptic modality in a within participant experimental design. We provide the results of our study in the form of a MATLAB structure including basic demographics on the participants, the participant’s self-assessment of his/her emotional state, and his/her physiological reactions (i.e., skin conductance)

Strong interface-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene on WS2

Interfacial interactions allow the electronic properties of graphene to be modified, as recently demonstrated by the appearance of satellite Dirac cones in the band structure of graphene on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) substrates. Ongoing research strives to explore interfacial interactions in a broader class of materials in order to engineer targeted electronic properties. Here we show that at an interface with a tungsten disulfide (WS2) substrate, the strength of the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in graphene is very strongly enhanced. The induced SOI leads to a pronounced low-temperature weak anti-localization (WAL) effect, from which we determine the spin-relaxation time. We find that spin-relaxation time in graphene is two-to-three orders of magnitude smaller on WS2 than on SiO2 or hBN, and that it is comparable to the intervalley scattering time. To interpret our findings we have performed first-principle electronic structure calculations, which both confirm that carriers in graphene-on-WS2 experience a strong SOI and allow us to extract a spin-dependent low-energy effective Hamiltonian. Our analysis further shows that the use of WS2 substrates opens a possible new route to access topological states of matter in graphene-based systems.Comment: Originally submitted version in compliance with editorial guidelines. Final version with expanded discussion of the relation between theory and experiments to be published in Nature Communication

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT