3,318,746 research outputs found
Quantum control, quantum information processing, and quantum-limited metrology with trapped ions
We briefly discuss recent experiments on quantum information processing using
trapped ions at NIST. A central theme of this work has been to increase our
capabilities in terms of quantum computing protocols, but we have also applied
the same concepts to improved metrology, particularly in the area of frequency
standards and atomic clocks. Such work may eventually shed light on more
fundamental issues, such as the quantum measurement problem.Comment: Proceedings of the International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy
(ICOLS), 10 pages, 5 figure
Educational and economic determinants of food intake in Portuguese adults: a cross-sectional survey
BACKGROUND: Understanding the influences of educational and economic variables on food consumption may be useful to explain food behaviour and nutrition policymaking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the importance of educational and economic factors in determining food pattern in Portuguese adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional study in a representative sample of Portuguese adults (20977 women and 18663 men). Participants were distributed in four categories according to years of education (≤4, 5–9, 10–12, and >12) and income (≤314 euros, 315–547 euros, 548–815 euros, and >815 euros). Logistic regression models were fitted to estimate the magnitude of the association between food groups and education/income, adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: In both genders, the odds favouring milk, vegetable soup, vegetables, fruit, and fish consumption, increased significantly with education, for those having >12 years of education compared to those with ≤4 years; the odds favouring wine, and spirits consumption decreased significantly with education, for those having >12 years of education compared to those with ≤4 years. In males, the odds favouring starchy foods and meat consumption decreased significantly with income, while for milk, the odds increased with higher income (those having >815 euros compared to those with ≤314 euros). CONCLUSIONS: The low and high income groups are or tend to be similar in regard to several food groups consumption, and access to education/information appears to be the key element to a better food pattern as indicated by higher frequency of milk, vegetable soup, vegetables, fruit, and fish consumption
The influence of toxicity constraints in models of chemotherapeutic protocol escalation
The prospect of exploiting mathematical and computational models to gain insight into the influence of scheduling on cancer chemotherapeutic effectiveness is increasingly being considered. However, the question of whether such models are robust to the inclusion of additional tumour biology is relatively unexplored. In this paper, we consider a common strategy for improving protocol scheduling that has foundations in mathematical modelling, namely the concept of dose densification, whereby rest phases between drug administrations are reduced. To maintain a manageable scope in our studies, we focus on a single cell cycle phase-specific agent with uncomplicated pharmacokinetics, as motivated by 5-Fluorouracil-based adjuvant treatments of liver micrometastases. In particular, we explore predictions of the effectiveness of dose densification and other escalations of the protocol scheduling when the influence of toxicity constraints, cell cycle phase specificity and the evolution of drug resistance are all represented within the modelling. For our specific focus, we observe that the cell cycle and toxicity should not simply be neglected in modelling studies. Our explorations also reveal the prediction that dose densification is often, but not universally, effective. Furthermore, adjustments in the duration of drug administrations are predicted to be important, especially when dose densification in isolation does not yield improvements in protocol outcomes
Explicit Representations for the T-Matrix on Unphysical Energy Sheets and Resonances in Two- and Three-Body Systems
We discuss the structure of the two- and three-body T-matrices, scattering
matrices, and resolvents continued to the unphysical energy sheets. Our
conclusions arise due to the representations that have been found for
analytically continued momentum-space kernels of the T-operators. These
representations are explicitly written only in terms of the physical-sheet
kernels of the T-matrix itself. One of advantages of the representations in the
three-body case is that they show which portions of the physical-sheet
three-body scattering matrix are ``responsible'' for the resonances associated
with a particular unphysical sheet. A resonance appears to be the energy where
the correspondingly truncated scattering matrix (taken on the physical sheet)
has eigenvalue zero. We also mention applications of this approach to some
specific three-body systems, based on the Faddeev differential equations.Comment: Based on a lecture given at the International Workshop ``Critical
Stability of Few-Body Quantum Systems'' (Dresden, October 17--22, 2005
Dynamics of distributed sources
The dynamics of distributed sources is described by nonlinear partial
differential equations. Lagrangian analytical solutions of these (and
associated) equations are obtained and discussed in the context of Lagrangian
modeling - from the Lagrangian invariants to dynamics. Possible applications of
distributed sources and sinks to geophysical fluid dynamics and to the
cosmology are indicated.Comment: 3 page
Low-noise flow valve for air ducts
Valve assembly controls air flow from feeder into main duct, with minimum of turbulence, friction, pressure differential, and noise. Valve consists of damper, deflector, and spring. Streamlining of damper and deflector merges flow smoothly, while spring keeps damper and deflector in contact and eliminates valve chatter and damping vibrations
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