3,153 research outputs found
The Effect of Mutators on Adaptability in Time-Varying Fitness Landscapes
This Letter studies the quasispecies dynamics of a population capable of
genetic repair evolving on a time-dependent fitness landscape. We develop a
model that considers an asexual population of single-stranded, conservatively
replicating genomes, whose only source of genetic variation is due to copying
errors during replication. We consider a time-dependent, single-fitness-peak
landscape where the master sequence changes by a single point mutation every
time . We are able to analytically solve for the evolutionary dynamics
of the population in the point-mutation limit. In particular, our model
provides an analytical expression for the fraction of mutators in the dynamic
fitness landscape that agrees well with results from stochastic simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Results from RHIC with Implications for LHC
Results from the PHENIX experiment at RHIC in p-p and Au+Au collisions are
reviewed from the perspective of measurements in p-p collisions at the CERN-ISR
which serve as a basis for many of the techniques used. Issues such as J/Psi
suppression and hydrodynamical flow in A+A collisions require data from
LHC-Ions for an improved understanding. Suppression of high pT particles in
Au+Au collisions, first observed at RHIC, also has unresolved mysteries such as
the equality of the suppression of inclusive pi0 (from light quarks and gluons)
and direct-single electrons (from the decay of heavy quarks) in the transverse
momentum range 4< pT < 9 GeV/c. This disfavors a radiative explanation of
suppression and leads to a fundamental question of whether the Higgs boson
gives mass to fermions. Observation of an exponential distribution of direct
photons in central Au+Au collisions for 1< pT <2 GeV/c where hard-processes are
negligible and with no similar exponential distribution in p-p collisions
indicates thermal photon emission from the medium at RHIC, making PHENIX at the
moment ``the hottest experiment in Physics''.Comment: Invited lectures at the International School of Subnuclear Physics,
47th Course, "The most unexpected at LHC and the status of High Energy
Frontier'', Erice, Sicily, Italy, August 29-September 7. 2009. 32 pages, 22
figure
Effectiveness of continence promotion for older women via community organisations: A cluster randomised trial
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/Objectives: The primary objective of this cluster randomised controlled trial was to compare the effectiveness of the three experimental continence promotion interventions against a control intervention on urinary symptom improvement in older women with untreated incontinence recruited from community organisations. A second objective was to determine whether changes in incontinence-related knowledge and new uptake of risk-modifying behaviours explain these improvements.
Setting: 71 community organisations across the UK.
Participants: 259 women aged 60â
years and older with untreated incontinence entered the trial; 88% completed the 3-month follow-up.
Interventions: The three active interventions consisted of a single 60â
min group workshop on (1) continence education (20 clusters, 64 women); (2) evidence-based self-management (17 clusters, 70 women); or (3) combined continence education and self-management (17 clusters, 61 women). The control intervention was a single 60â
min educational group workshop on memory loss, polypharmacy and osteoporosis (17 clusters, 64 women).
Primary and secondary outcome measures: The primary outcome was self-reported improvement in incontinence 3â
months postintervention at the level of the individual. The secondary outcome was change in the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire (ICIQ) from baseline to 3-month follow-up. Changes in incontinence-related knowledge and behaviours were also assessed.
Results: The highest rate of urinary symptom improvement occurred in the combined intervention group (66% vs 11% of the control group, prevalence difference 55%, 95% CI 43% to 67%, intracluster correlation 0). 30% versus 6% of participants reported significant improvement respectively (prevalence difference 23%, 95% CI 10% to 36%, intracluster correlation 0). The number-needed-to-treat was 2 to achieve any improvement in incontinence symptoms, and 5 to attain significant improvement. Compared to controls, participants in the combined intervention reported an adjusted mean 2.05 point (95% CI 0.87 to 3.24) greater improvement on the ICIQ from baseline to 3-month follow-up. Changes in knowledge and self-reported risk-reduction behaviours paralleled rates of improvement in all intervention arms.
Conclusions: Continence education combined with evidence-based self-management improves symptoms of incontinence among untreated older women. Community organisations represent an untapped vector for delivering effective continence promotion interventions.Canadian Institutes of Health Research â Institute on
Aging and the Economic and Social Research Council (UK
Direct Route to Phenol from Benzene
Phenol production, expected to exceed 13MM metric tons in 2017, is a significant global industry with many flaws in its current manufacturing method. The Hock process essentially converts high value propylene to low value acetone. The proposed process design, detailed in this report, provides an alternative reaction pathway that utilizes a direct synthesis from benzene, as developed at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in New Delhi, India. The endorsed proposal is in accordance with US Patent 8,772,552 B2, that describes the production of phenol via vapor phase oxidation of benzene over a copper chromium oxide catalyst. Environmental protection and worker safety are paramount concerns due to the hazardous nature of phenol and benzene. The inclusion of a ventilation system with flare hoods keeps the concentration of hazardous materials within OSHA guidelines. The design uses air to oxidize benzene within four separate packed-bed reactors with inter-stage coolers. Downstream separation removes non-condensable species, recycles up to 98% of the unreacted benzene, and purifies phenol to design specifications. The plantâs capacity is 500MM lb/operating-year of phenol and will be located on the U.S. Gulf Coast as part of an industrial complex. The final product is 99.83% phenol by mass, and contains an aldehyde byproduct as the principal impurity. The design requires an initial investment of 90M, and has an estimated investorâs rate of return (IRR) of 29.2%. The proposed project is forecasted to break-even in Q1 of 2025 immediately following the second year of maximum production capacity. The design is recommended based on project specifications and marketing team projections, though investors should exercise caution with regards to the effect of realistic market data on proposal sensitivities
Review of Engaging Education: Developing Emotional Literacy, Equity and Co-education. Brian Matthews. (Book Review)
The book is only about a fraction of its title Engaging Education. His section on âengaging the emotionsâ sums this up: whereas the book is largely about engaging the emotions positively, the definition of âEngagingâ is more far reaching: âthat pupils should be involved in their learning; be active and absorbed and not just passive recipients of a set curriculum. Additionally, they should feel engaged in the processes of education and have some input into creating their own agendas for learningâ (p.2). Exploring the full impact of this statement across the curriculum really needs a different book
Offenders' Crime Narratives across Different Types of Crimes
The current study explores the roles offenders see themselves playing during an offence and their relationship to different crime types. One hundred and twenty incarcerated offenders indicated the narrative roles they acted out whilst committing a specific crime they remembered well. The data were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) and four
themes were identified: Hero, Professional, Revenger and Victim in line with the recent theoretical framework posited for Narrative Offence Roles (Youngs & Canter, 2012). Further analysis showed that different subsets of crimes were more like to be associated with different narrative offence roles. Hero and Professional were found to be associated with property offences (theft, burglary and shoplifting), drug offences and robbery and Revenger
and Victim were found to be associated with violence, sexual offences and murder. The theoretical implications for understanding crime on the basis of offenders' narrative roles as well as practical implications are discussed
PHENIX Highlights
Recent highlights of measurements by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC are
presented.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Talk at Quark Matter 200
Nearly optimal solutions for the Chow Parameters Problem and low-weight approximation of halfspaces
The \emph{Chow parameters} of a Boolean function
are its degree-0 and degree-1 Fourier coefficients. It has been known
since 1961 (Chow, Tannenbaum) that the (exact values of the) Chow parameters of
any linear threshold function uniquely specify within the space of all
Boolean functions, but until recently (O'Donnell and Servedio) nothing was
known about efficient algorithms for \emph{reconstructing} (exactly or
approximately) from exact or approximate values of its Chow parameters. We
refer to this reconstruction problem as the \emph{Chow Parameters Problem.}
Our main result is a new algorithm for the Chow Parameters Problem which,
given (sufficiently accurate approximations to) the Chow parameters of any
linear threshold function , runs in time \tilde{O}(n^2)\cdot
(1/\eps)^{O(\log^2(1/\eps))} and with high probability outputs a
representation of an LTF that is \eps-close to . The only previous
algorithm (O'Donnell and Servedio) had running time \poly(n) \cdot
2^{2^{\tilde{O}(1/\eps^2)}}.
As a byproduct of our approach, we show that for any linear threshold
function over , there is a linear threshold function which
is \eps-close to and has all weights that are integers at most \sqrt{n}
\cdot (1/\eps)^{O(\log^2(1/\eps))}. This significantly improves the best
previous result of Diakonikolas and Servedio which gave a \poly(n) \cdot
2^{\tilde{O}(1/\eps^{2/3})} weight bound, and is close to the known lower
bound of (1/\eps)^{\Omega(\log \log (1/\eps))}\} (Goldberg,
Servedio). Our techniques also yield improved algorithms for related problems
in learning theory
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