Approximate Solution of the effective mass Klein-Gordon Equation for the Hulthen Potential with any Angular Momentum

The radial part of the effective mass Klein-Gordon equation for the Hulthen potential is solved by making an approximation to the centrifugal potential. The Nikiforov-Uvarov method is used in the calculations. Energy spectra and the corresponding eigenfunctions are computed. Results are also given for the case of constant mass.Comment: 12 page

Local communication channel for subway riders

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.The goal of T Talk, is to utilize the tens of minutes of subway waiting time everyday as an opportunity for reading and appreciation of the complexity and diversity of the city, and developing an awareness of and social support from the subway riding community. T Talk is an open, asynchronous, and anonymous communication channel designed specifically for subway riders. T Talk consists of three major components for users participation: a kiosk installed on subway platforms for riders to post new messages and browse/reply to messages left by others; an in-house produced daily newspaper whose contents are the collection of messages and replies submitted during the previous day; an SMS server that enables riders to post and reply to messages without the constraint of time and space. This thesis details the iterations of design and implementation of T Talk, a complete description on the nine-session user study I conducted, and lessons learned during the process.by Chao-Ming Teng.S.M

Agent based weather warning system

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-73).People's daily lives are impacted by lots of dynamic environmental information, such as weather and traffic. Though most of this information is available on the Internet, there is no easy way for someone to access it while in a mobile state. More importantly, people do not have a constant need for this kind of information unless there is a significant change that may impact their current or future activities. This thesis creates a distributed multi-agent architecture that uses GPS-enabled cell phones to build a mobile service development framework. The goal of this framework is to build mobile services to deliver timely changes in environmental information that could impact a user's current or future activities. A weather warning system for bicycle riders is built based on this framework to demonstrate its utility. This weather warning system tracks bicycle riders as well as current weather patterns; it warns riders about the risk of getting caught in the rain if it estimates that riders are heading into areas where rain is predicted, or if they are moving too far from shelter to be able to reach it before the rain starts. With this system, bike riders can make more informed decisions about which routes to take to avoid encounters with nasty weather conditions. The objective of this research is: 1) to examine the feasibility of using agent techniques and GPS-enabled cell phones to create the mobile service development framework, and 2) to investigate the new generation of location-based services in which the movement and status changes of multiple targets are considered.by Chao-Chi Chang.S.M

Direct patterning of periodic semiconductor nanostructures using single-pulse nanosecond laser interference

We demonstrate an effective method for fabricating large area periodic two-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures by means of single-pulse laser interference. Utilizing a pulsed nanosecond laser with a wavelength of 355 nm, precisely ordered square arrays of nanoholes with a periodicity of 300 nm were successfully obtained on UV photoresist and also directly via a resist-free process onto semiconductor wafers. We show improved uniformity using a beam-shaping system consisting of cylindrical lenses with which we can demonstrate highly regular arrays over hundreds of square micrometers. We propose that our novel observation of direct pattern transfer to GaAs is due to local congruent evaporation and subsequent droplet etching of the surface. The results show that single-pulse interference can provide a rapid and highly efficient route for the realization of wide-area periodic nanostructures on semiconductors and potentially on other engineering materials

Modified f(R) gravity from scalar-tensor theory and inhomogeneous EoS dark energy

The reconstruction of f(R)-gravity is showed by using an auxiliary scalar field in the context of cosmological evolution, this development provide a way of reconstruct the form of the function f (R) for a given evolution of the Hubble parameter. In analogy, f(R)-gravity may be expressed by a perfect fluid with an inhomogeneous equation of state that depends on the Hubble parameter and its derivatives. This mathematical equivalence that may confuse about the origin of the mechanism that produces the current acceleration, and possibly the whole evolution of the Hubble parameter, is shown here.Comment: 8 page

Supersymmetric CP Violation in B→Xsl+l−B \to X_s l^+ l^- in Minimal Supergravity Model

Direct CP asymmetries and the CP violating normal polarization of lepton in inclusive decay B \to X_s l^+ l^- are investigated in minimal supergravity model with CP violating phases. The contributions coming from exchanging neutral Higgs bosons are included. It is shown that the direct CP violation in branching ratio, A_{CP}^1, is of {\cal{O}}(10^{-3}) for l=e, \mu, \tau. The CP violating normal polarization for l=\mu can reach 0.5 percent when tan\beta is large (say, 36). For l=\tau and in the case of large \tan\beta, the direct CP violation in backward-forward asymmetry, A_{CP}^2, can reach one percent, the normal polarization of \tau can be as large as a few percent, and both are sensitive to the two CP violating phases, \phi_\mu and \phi_{A_0}, and consequently it could be possible to observe them (in particular, the normal polarization of \tau) in the future B factories.Comment: 14 pages, latex, 5 figure

Identification of Novel, Evolutionarily Conserved Cdc42p-interacting Proteins and of Redundant Pathways Linking Cdc24p and Cdc42p to Actin Polarization in Yeast

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Cdc24p functions at least in part as a guanine-nucleotide-exchange factor for the Rho-family GTPase Cdc42p. A genetic screen designed to identify possible additional targets of Cdc24p instead identified two previously known genes, MSB1 and CLA4, and one novel gene, designated MSB3, all of which appear to function in the Cdc24p–Cdc42p pathway. Nonetheless, genetic evidence suggests that Cdc24p may have a function that is distinct from its Cdc42p guanine-nucleotide-exchange factor activity; in particular, overexpression of CDC42 in combination with MSB1 or a truncated CLA4 in cells depleted for Cdc24p allowed polarization of the actin cytoskeleton and polarized cell growth, but not successful cell proliferation. MSB3 has a close homologue (designated MSB4) and two more distant homologues (MDR1 and YPL249C) in S. cerevisiae and also has homologues in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Drosophila (pollux), and humans (the oncogene tre17). Deletion of either MSB3 or MSB4 alone did not produce any obvious phenotype, and the msb3 msb4 double mutant was viable. However, the double mutant grew slowly and had a partial disorganization of the actin cytoskeleton, but not of the septins, in a fraction of cells that were larger and rounder than normal. Like Cdc42p, both Msb3p and Msb4p localized to the presumptive bud site, the bud tip, and the mother-bud neck, and this localization was Cdc42p dependent. Taken together, the data suggest that Msb3p and Msb4p may function redundantly downstream of Cdc42p, specifically in a pathway leading to actin organization. From previous work, the BNI1, GIC1, and GIC2 gene products also appear to be involved in linking Cdc42p to the actin cytoskeleton. Synthetic lethality and multicopy suppression analyses among these genes, MSB, and MSB4, suggest that the linkage is accomplished by two parallel pathways, one involving Msb3p, Msb4p, and Bni1p, and the other involving Gic1p and Gic2p. The former pathway appears to be more important in diploids and at low temperatures, whereas the latter pathway appears to be more important in haploids and at high temperatures

Semileptonic decays of Bs1B_{s1}, Bs2∗B_{s2}^*, Bs0B_{s0} and Bs1′B_{s1}'

Stimulated by recent observations of the excited bottom-strange mesons $B_{s1}$ and $B_{s2}^*$, we calculate the semileptonic decays $B_{s0}, B_{s1}^{\prime}, B_{s1}, B_{s2}^*\to [D_s(1968), D_{s}^*(2112), D_{sJ}(2317), D_{sJ}(2460)]\ell\bar{\nu}$, which is relevant for the exploration of the potential of searching these semileptonic decays in experiment.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 9 tables. More discussion added, some descriptions changed. The version to appear in EPJ

An Outcome Evaluation of the Implementation of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program in Hong Kong

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) with a sample of Chinese parents of children with early onset conduct related problems in Hong Kong. The participants consisted of 91 parents whose children attended maternal and child health centers and child assessment centers for service, and were between three to seven years old. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (TP) and a waitlist control group (WL. There was no significant difference in pre-intervention measures between the two groups. However, at post intervention, participants in the TP group reported significantly lower levels of child behavior problems, lower dysfunctional parenting styles, and higher parent sense of competence, compared to the WL group. Implications of these findings for the use of Triple P with families of Chinese descent are discussed

Identifying predictors of response to oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and paracetamol in osteoarthritis: a hypothesis-driven protocol for an OA Trial Bank individual participant data meta-analysis

Introduction Symptomatic treatments for osteoarthritis (OA) provide only small-to-moderate efficacy over placebo in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Treatment guidelines therefore have emphasised the need to identify predictors of treatment response through subgroup and multiple regression analysis. Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis is recommended as an efficient approach for this purpose. To our knowledge, this has not been undertaken for oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including paracetamol, in OA. In this IPD meta-analysis, we aim to identify RCTs with specific mechanistic features related to OA pain, such as joint inflammation. We hypothesise that NSAIDs may work better for participants with joint inflammation, whereas paracetamol may not. Methods and analysis A comprehensive literature search will be conducted on the databases of Web of Science, Embase, Medline, CINAHL, AMED and the Cochrane Library from 1 January 1998 to 1 December 2020. All RCTs related to oral NSAIDs or paracetamol including placebo-controlled trials in people with OA that have evaluated pain-related peripheral risk factors (eg, clinically detected knee effusion, synovial hypertrophy or effusion on imaging, knee morning stiffness, elevated serum C-reactive protein (CRP) level) and/or central pain risk factors (eg, pain elsewhere, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance) will be retrieved. The outcome will be change in pain from baseline. Change in function and patient global assessment will also be included as outcomes if available. Investigators of all eligible trials will be contacted for IPD. Multilevel regression models will be used to identify predictors for the specific (active-placebo) and the overall treatment effect (change from baseline in active group). Ethics and dissemination No identifiable data will be included in this study and no formal ethics approval is required as no new data collection will be processed. Results of this hypothesis-driven IPD meta-analysis will be disseminated through conference presentations and publication in peer-reviewed journals. PROSPERO registration number CRD42020165098