Finite Symmetry of Leptonic Mass Matrices

We search for possible symmetries present in the leptonic mixing data from SU(3) subgroups of order up to 511. Theoretical results based on symmetry are compared with global fits of experimental data in a chi-squared analysis, yielding the following results. There is no longer a group that can produce all the mixing data without a free parameter, but a number of them can accommodate the first or the second column of the mixing matrix. The only group that fits the third column is $\Delta(150)$. It predicts $\sin^22\theta_{13}=0.11$ and $\sin^22\theta_{23}=0.94$, in good agreement with experimental results.Comment: Version to appear in Physical Review

Implementing Unitarity in Perturbation Theory

Unitarity cannot be perserved order by order in ordinary perturbation theory because the constraint UU^\dagger=\1 is nonlinear. However, the corresponding constraint for $K=\ln U$, being $K=-K^\dagger$, is linear so it can be maintained in every order in a perturbative expansion of $K$. The perturbative expansion of $K$ may be considered as a non-abelian generalization of the linked-cluster expansion in probability theory and in statistical mechanics, and possesses similar advantages resulting from separating the short-range correlations from long-range effects. This point is illustrated in two QCD examples, in which delicate cancellations encountered in summing Feynman diagrams of are avoided when they are calculated via the perturbative expansion of $K$. Applications to other problems are briefly discussed.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev.

Magneto-Seebeck effect in spin-valve with in-plane thermal gradient

We present measurements of magneto-Seebeck effect on a spin valve with in-plane thermal gradient. We measured open circuit voltage and short circuit current by applying a temperature gradient across a spin valve stack, where one of the ferromagnetic layers is pinned. We found a clear hysteresis in these two quantities as a function of magnetic field. From these measurements, the magneto-Seebeck effect was found to be 0.82%.Comment: 10 Pages, 7 figure

Small-Recoil Approximation

In this review we discuss a technique to compute and to sum a class of Feynman diagrams, and some of its applications. These are diagrams containing one or more energetic particles that suffer very little recoil in their interactions. When recoil is completely neglected, a decomposition formula can be proven. This formula is a generalization of the well-known eikonal formula, to non-abelian interactions. It expresses the amplitude as a sum of products of irreducible amplitudes, with each irreducible amplitude being the amplitude to emit one, or several mutually interacting, quasi-particles. For abelian interaction a quasi-particle is nothing but the original boson, so this decomposition formula reduces to the eikonal formula. In non-abelian situations each quasi-particle can be made up of many bosons, though always with a total quantum number identical to that of a single boson. This decomposition enables certain amplitudes of all orders to be summed up into an exponential form, and it allows subleading contributions of a certain kind, which is difficult to reach in the usual way, to be computed. For bosonic emissions from a heavy source with many constituents, a quasi-particle amplitude turns out to be an amplitude in which all bosons are emitted from the same constituent. For high-energy parton-parton scattering in the near-forward direction, the quasi-particle turns out to be the Reggeon, and this formalism shows clearly why gluons reggeize but photons do not. The ablility to compute subleading terms in this formalism allows the BFKL-Pomeron amplitude to be extrapolated to asymptotic energies, in a unitary way preserving the Froissart bound. We also consider recoil corrections for abelian interactions in order to accommodate the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect.Comment: 21 pages with 4 figure

VennDiagramWeb: a web application for the generation of highly customizable Venn and Euler diagrams.

BackgroundVisualization of data generated by high-throughput, high-dimensionality experiments is rapidly becoming a rate-limiting step in computational biology. There is an ongoing need to quickly develop high-quality visualizations that can be easily customized or incorporated into automated pipelines. This often requires an interface for manual plot modification, rapid cycles of tweaking visualization parameters, and the generation of graphics code. To facilitate this process for the generation of highly-customizable, high-resolution Venn and Euler diagrams, we introduce VennDiagramWeb: a web application for the widely used VennDiagram R package. VennDiagramWeb is hosted at http://venndiagram.res.oicr.on.ca/ .ResultsVennDiagramWeb allows real-time modification of Venn and Euler diagrams, with parameter setting through a web interface and immediate visualization of results. It allows customization of essentially all aspects of figures, but also supports integration into computational pipelines via download of R code. Users can upload data and download figures in a range of formats, and there is exhaustive support documentation.ConclusionsVennDiagramWeb allows the easy creation of Venn and Euler diagrams for computational biologists, and indeed many other fields. Its ability to support real-time graphics changes that are linked to downloadable code that can be integrated into automated pipelines will greatly facilitate the improved visualization of complex datasets. For application support please contact [email protected]

A study on health-related quality of life of patients with Colorectal Neoplasm and cost-effectiveness analysis of Colorectal Cancer Screening in Hong Kong

Conference Theme: Translating Health Research into Policy and Practice for Health of the PopulationPoster Presentation - Delivery of Health Services: abstract no. P41-Ab0005BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common cancer in Hong Kong. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important health outcome of CRC survivors. Screening for CRC has the potential of preventing CRC death but there was uncertainty on its impact on HRQOL and the cost-effectiveness of different screening strategies ...postprin

Resolving the Large-N Nuclear Potential Puzzle

The large $N_c$ nuclear potential puzzle arose because three- and higher-meson exchange contributions to the nucleon-nucleon potential did not automatically yield cancellations that make these contributions consistent with the general large $N_c$ scaling rules for the potential. Here it is proposed that the resolution to this puzzle is that the scaling rules only apply for energy-independent potentials while all of the cases with apparent inconsistencies were for energy-dependent potentials. It is shown explicitly how energy-dependent potentials can have radically different large N behavior than an equivalent energy-independent one. One class of three-meson graphs is computed in which the contribution to the energy-independent potential is consistent with the general large N rules even though the energy-dependent potential is not.Comment: Corrections to the toy mode

Stability of Filters for the Navier-Stokes Equation

Data assimilation methodologies are designed to incorporate noisy observations of a physical system into an underlying model in order to infer the properties of the state of the system. Filters refer to a class of data assimilation algorithms designed to update the estimation of the state in a on-line fashion, as data is acquired sequentially. For linear problems subject to Gaussian noise filtering can be performed exactly using the Kalman filter. For nonlinear systems it can be approximated in a systematic way by particle filters. However in high dimensions these particle filtering methods can break down. Hence, for the large nonlinear systems arising in applications such as weather forecasting, various ad hoc filters are used, mostly based on making Gaussian approximations. The purpose of this work is to study the properties of these ad hoc filters, working in the context of the 2D incompressible Navier-Stokes equation. By working in this infinite dimensional setting we provide an analysis which is useful for understanding high dimensional filtering, and is robust to mesh-refinement. We describe theoretical results showing that, in the small observational noise limit, the filters can be tuned to accurately track the signal itself (filter stability), provided the system is observed in a sufficiently large low dimensional space; roughly speaking this space should be large enough to contain the unstable modes of the linearized dynamics. Numerical results are given which illustrate the theory. In a simplified scenario we also derive, and study numerically, a stochastic PDE which determines filter stability in the limit of frequent observations, subject to large observational noise. The positive results herein concerning filter stability complement recent numerical studies which demonstrate that the ad hoc filters perform poorly in reproducing statistical variation about the true signal