5,888 research outputs found
Improving tuberculosis diagnosis: Better tests or better healthcare?
In a Perspective accompanying Sylvia and colleagues, Carlton Evans and colleagues discuss the challenge of squaring policies around tuberculosis diagnosis with the realities of clinical practice in small villages and low-resource settings
A survey of smart grid architectures, applications, benefits and standardization
The successful transformation of conventional power grids into Smart Grids (SG) will require robust and scalable communication network infrastructure. The SGs will facilitate bidirectional electricity flow, advanced load management, a self-healing protection mechanism and advanced monitoring capabilities to make the power system more energy efficient and reliable. In this paper SG communication network architectures, standardization efforts and details of potential SG applications are identified. The future deployment of real-time or near-real-time SG applications is dependent on the introduction of a SG compatible communication system that includes a communication protocol for cross-domain traffic flows within the SG. This paper identifies the challenges within the cross-functional domains of the power and communication systems that current research aims to overcome. The status of SG related machine to machine communication system design is described and recommendations are provided for diverse new and innovative traffic features
Software defined neighborhood area network for smart grid applications
Information gathered from the Smart Grid (SG) devices located in end user premises provides a valuable resource that can be used to modify the behavior of SG applications. Decentralized and distributed deployment of neighborhood area network (NAN) devices makes it a challenge to manage SG efficiently. The NAN communication network architecture should be designed to aggregate and disseminate information among different SG domains. In this paper, we present a communication framework for NAN based on wireless sensor networks using the software defined networking paradigm. The data plane devices, such as smart meters, intelligent electronic devices, sensors, and switches are controlled via an optimized controller hierarchy deployed using a separate control plane. An analytical model is developed to determine the number of switches and controllers required for the NAN and the results of several test scenarios are presented. A Castalia based simulation model was used to analyze the performance of modified NAN performance
Spin transfer torques in nonlocal lateral spin valve
We report a theoretical study on the spin and electron transport in the
nonlocal lateral spin valve with non-collinear magnetic configuration. The
nonlocal magnetoresistance, defined as the voltage difference on the detection
lead over the injected current, is derived analytically. The spin transfer
torques on the detection lead are calculated. It is found that spin transfer
torques are symmetrical for parallel and antiparallel magnetic configurations,
which is different from that in conventional sandwiched spin valve.Comment: 7 papges, 5 figure
Clinical evaluation of tuberculosis viability microscopy for assessing treatment response
Background. It is difficult to determine whether early tuberculosis treatment is effective in reducing the infectiousness of patients' sputum, because culture takes weeks and conventional acid-fast sputum microscopy and molecular tests cannot differentiate live from dead tuberculosis. Methods. To assess treatment response, sputum samples (n = 124) from unselected patients (n = 35) with sputum microscopy–positive tuberculosis were tested pretreatment and after 3, 6, and 9 days of empiric first-line therapy. Tuberculosis quantitative viability microscopy with fluorescein diacetate, quantitative culture, and acid-fast auramine microscopy were all performed in triplicate. Results. Tuberculosis quantitative viability microscopy predicted quantitative culture results such that 76% of results agreed within ±1 logarithm (r(S) = 0.85; P < .0001). In 31 patients with non-multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, viability and quantitative culture results approximately halved (both 0.27 log reduction, P < .001) daily. For patients with non-MDR tuberculosis and available data, by treatment day 9 there was a >10-fold reduction in viability in 100% (24/24) of cases and quantitative culture in 95% (19/20) of cases. Four other patients subsequently found to have MDR tuberculosis had no significant changes in viability (P = .4) or quantitative culture (P = .6) results during early treatment. The change in viability and quantitative culture results during early treatment differed significantly between patients with non-MDR tuberculosis and those with MDR tuberculosis (both P < .001). Acid-fast microscopy results changed little during early treatment, and this change was similar for non-MDR tuberculosis vs MDR tuberculosis (P = .6). Conclusions. Tuberculosis quantitative viability microscopy is a simple test that within 1 hour predicted quantitative culture results that became available weeks later, rapidly indicating whether patients were responding to tuberculosis therapy
Heavy Majorana Neutrinos in the Effective Lagrangian Description: Application to Hadron Colliders
We consider the effects of heavy Majorana neutrinos N with sub-TeV masses. We
argue that the mere presence of these particles would be a signal of physics
beyond the minimal seesaw mechanism and their interactions are, therefore, best
described using an effective Lagrangian. We then consider the complete set of
leading effective operators (up to dimension 6) involving the N and Standard
Model fields and show that these interactions can be relatively easy to track
at high-energy colliders. For example, we find that an exchange of a TeV-scale
heavy vector field can yield thousands of characteristic same-sign lepton
number violating l^+ l^+ j j events (j=light jet) at the LHC if m_N < 600 GeV,
which can also have a distinctive forward-backward asymmetry signal; even the
Tevatron has good prospects for this signature if m_N < 300 GeV.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Effects of Magnetic Field on Josephson Current in SNS System
The effect of a magnetic field on Josephson current has been studied for a
superconductor/normal-metal/superconductor (SNS) system, where N is a
two-dimensional electron gas in a confining potential. It is found that the
dependence of Josephson currents on the magnetic field are sensitive to the
width of the normal metal. If the normal metal is wide and contains many
channels (subbands), the current on a weak magnetic field shows a dependence
similar to a Fraunhofer-pattern in SIS system and, as the field gets strong, it
shows another type of oscillatory dependence on the field resulting from the
Aharonov-Bohm interference between the edge states. As the number of channels
decreases (i.e. normal metal gets narrower), however, the dependence in the
region of the weak field deviates from a clear Fraunhofer pattern and the
amplitude of the oscillatory dependence in the region of the strong field is
reduced.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure
Parity and Time Reversal in J/Psi Decay
With the prospect of large numbers of decay events becoming
available in the near future, it is interesting to search for symmetry
violating effects as probes of new physics and tests of the standard model.
decay events could provide the first observation of weak effects in
otherwise strongly decaying particles. We calculate a T odd asymmetry in the
decay into photon plus lepton pair due to Z boson exchange. Extensions
to hadronic final states are also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 3 eps figures revised to include additional relevant
reference
Imaging and controlling electron transport inside a quantum ring
Traditionally, the understanding of quantum transport, coherent and
ballistic1, relies on the measurement of macroscopic properties such as the
conductance. While powerful when coupled to statistical theories, this approach
cannot provide a detailed image of "how electrons behave down there". Ideally,
understanding transport at the nanoscale would require tracking each electron
inside the nano-device. Significant progress towards this goal was obtained by
combining Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) with transport measurements2-7. Some
studies even showed signatures of quantum transport in the surrounding of
nanostructures4-6. Here, SPM is used to probe electron propagation inside an
open quantum ring exhibiting the archetype of electron wave interference
phenomena: the Aharonov-Bohm effect8. Conductance maps recorded while scanning
the biased tip of a cryogenic atomic force microscope above the quantum ring
show that the propagation of electrons, both coherent and ballistic, can be
investigated in situ, and even be controlled by tuning the tip potential.Comment: 11 text pages + 3 figure
Debajyoti Choudhury
Gluon fusion into a very heavy neutrino pair by Higgs exchange is shown to
lead to substantial production cross sections at supercolliders even
without any extra generation of quarks. Rates are calculated for scalar as well
as pseudoscalar Higgs. The angular correlation between dileptons emerging from
the decays of the neutrinos shows distinctive features for Dirac and Majorana
neutrinos as well as for scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs
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