Knowledge Rich Natural Language Queries over Structured Biological Databases

Increasingly, keyword, natural language and NoSQL queries are being used for information retrieval from traditional as well as non-traditional databases such as web, document, image, GIS, legal, and health databases. While their popularity are undeniable for obvious reasons, their engineering is far from simple. In most part, semantics and intent preserving mapping of a well understood natural language query expressed over a structured database schema to a structured query language is still a difficult task, and research to tame the complexity is intense. In this paper, we propose a multi-level knowledge-based middleware to facilitate such mappings that separate the conceptual level from the physical level. We augment these multi-level abstractions with a concept reasoner and a query strategy engine to dynamically link arbitrary natural language querying to well defined structured queries. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by presenting a Datalog based prototype system, called BioSmart, that can compute responses to arbitrary natural language queries over arbitrary databases once a syntactic classification of the natural language query is made

Macroscopic phase segregation in superconducting K0.73Fe1.67Se2 as seen by muon spin rotation and infrared spectroscopy

Using muon spin rotation (\muSR) and infrared spectroscopy we investigated the recently discovered superconductor K0.73Fe1.67Se2 with Tc = 32 K. We show that the combined data can be consistently described in terms of a macroscopically phase segregated state with a matrix of ~88% volume fraction that is insulating and strongly magnetic and inclusions with a ~12% volume fraction which are metallic, superconducting and non-magnetic. The electronic properties of the latter, in terms of the normal state plasma frequency and the superconducting condensate density, appear to be similar as in other iron selenide or arsenide superconductors.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures. (citation list correction.

Neutrino Spin Transitions and the Violation of the Equivalence Principle

The violation of the equivalence principle (VEP) causing neutrino oscillations is of current interest. We study here the possibility of not only flavor oscillation but spin flavor oscillation of ultra high energy ($\sim$ 1 PeV) neutrinos emanating from AGN due to VEP and due to the presence of a large magnetic field ($\sim$ 1 Tesla) in AGN. In particular we look at the resonance spin flavor conversion driven by the AGN potential. Interesting bounds on the transition magnetic moment of neutrinos may therefore be obtained.Comment: Latex, 12 pages, no figures. To appear in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics. Two references adde

Patterned Geometries and Hydrodynamics at the Vortex Bose Glass Transition

Patterned irradiation of cuprate superconductors with columnar defects allows a new generation of experiments which can probe the properties of vortex liquids by confining them to controlled geometries. Here we show that an analysis of such experiments that combines an inhomogeneous Bose glass scaling theory with the hydrodynamic description of viscous flow of vortex liquids can be used to infer the critical behavior near the Bose glass transition. The shear viscosity is predicted to diverge as $|T-T_{BG}|^{-z}$ at the Bose glass transition, with $z\simeq 6$ the dynamical critical exponent.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Sylvester-t' Hooft generators of sl(n) and sl(n|n), and relations between them

Among the simple finite dimensional Lie algebras, only sl(n) possesses two automorphisms of finite order which have no common nonzero eigenvector with eigenvalue one. It turns out that these automorphisms are inner and form a pair of generators that allow one to generate all of sl(n) under bracketing. It seems that Sylvester was the first to mention these generators, but he used them as generators of the associative algebra of all n times n matrices Mat(n). These generators appear in the description of elliptic solutions of the classical Yang-Baxter equation, orthogonal decompositions of Lie algebras, 't Hooft's work on confinement operators in QCD, and various other instances. Here I give an algorithm which both generates sl(n) and explicitly describes a set of defining relations. For simple (up to center) Lie superalgebras, analogs of Sylvester generators exist only for sl(n|n). The relations for this case are also computed.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

Hydrodynamics and Nonlocal Conductivities in Vortex States of Type II Superconductors

A hydrodynamical description for vortex states in type II superconductors is presented based on the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation (TDGL). In contrast to the familiar extension of a single vortex dynamics based on the force balance, our description is consistent with the known hydrodynamics of a rotating neutral superfluid and correctly includes informations on the Goldstone mode. Further it enables one to examine nonlocal conductivities perpendicular to the magnetic field in terms of Kubo formula. The nonlocal conductivities deviate from the usual vortex flow expressions typically when the nonlocality parallel to the field becomes weaker than the perpendicular one measuring a degree of positional correlations, and, for instance, the superconducting contribution of dc Hall conductivity nonlocal only in directions perpendicular to the field becomes vanishingly small in the situations with large shear viscosity, leading to an experimentally measurable relation $\rho_{xy} \sim {\rho_{xx}^2}$ among the total resistivity components. Other situations are also discussed on the basis of the resulting expressions.Comment: 12 pages, no figures, to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. in October, 199

A new species of planthopper in the genus Agoo Bahder & Bartlett (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Derbidae) from coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) in Jamaica

A new species of the genus Agoo Bahder & Bartlett, Agoo beani sp. n. was found associated with coconut (Cocos nucifera L., Arecaceae) in Jamaica. This species was discovered as part of a survey of the Caribbean basin to document planthopper diversity on palms. Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and 18S sequence data strongly support placement of the new species in Agoo. The morphological features of Omolicna cocoana Rodriguez-Leon & Hidalgo-Gato from Cuba are reviewed and this species transferred into the genus Agoo