461 research outputs found
Effect of moisture on cadmium sulfide solar cells
Moisture effect on thin-film cadmium-sulfide solar cell
Yukawa sector in non-supersymmetric renormalizable SO(10)
We discuss the ordinary, non-supersymmetric SO(10) as a theory of fermion
masses and mixings. We construct two minimal versions of the Yukawa sector
based on and either or . The latter case is of
particular interest since it connects the absolute neutrino mass scale with the
size of the atmospheric mixing angle . It also relates the smallness
of with the largeness of . These results are based on the
analytic study of the second and third generations. Furthermore, we discuss the
structure of the light Higgs and the role of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry for dark
matter and the predictivity of the theory.Comment: 8 pages. Reference added, one formula correcte
One-loop effective potential for SO(10) GUT theories in de Sitter space
Zeta-function regularization is applied to evaluate the one-loop effective
potential for SO(10) grand-unified theories in de Sitter cosmologies. When the
Higgs scalar field belongs to the 210-dimensional irreducible representation of
SO(10), attention is focused on the mass matrix relevant for the
SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) symmetry-breaking direction, to agree with low-energy
phenomenology of the particle-physics standard model. The analysis is
restricted to those values of the tree-level-potential parameters for which the
absolute minima of the classical potential have been evaluated. As shown in the
recent literature, such minima turn out to be SO(6)xSO(4)- or
SU(3)xSU(2)xSU(2)xU(1)-invariant. Electroweak phenomenology is more naturally
derived, however, from the former minima. Hence the values of the parameters
leading to the alternative set of minima have been discarded. Within this
framework, flat-space limit and general form of the one-loop effective
potential are studied in detail by using analytic and numerical methods. It
turns out that, as far as the absolute-minimum direction is concerned, the
flat-space limit of the one-loop calculation about a de Sitter background does
not change the results previously obtained in the literature, where the
tree-level potential in flat space-time was studied. Moreover, when curvature
effects are no longer negligible in the one-loop potential, it is found that
the early universe remains bound to reach only the SO(6)xSO(4) absolute
minimum.Comment: 25 pages, plain Tex, plus Latex file of the tables appended at the
end. Published in Classical and Quantum Gravity, Vol. 11, pp. 2031-2044,
August 199
A Real-Time intelligent system for tracking patient condition
Hospitals have multiple data sources, such as embedded systems, monitors and sensors. The number of data available is increasing and the information are used not only to care the patient but also to assist the decision processes. The introduction of intelligent environments in health care institutions has been adopted due their ability to provide useful information for health professionals, either in helping to identify prognosis or also to understand patient condition. Behind of this concept arises this Intelligent System to track patient
condition (e.g. critic events) in health care. This system has the great advantage of being adaptable to the environment and user needs. The system is focused in identifying critic events from data streaming (e.g. vital signs and ventilation) which is particularly valuable for understanding the patient’s condition. This work aims to demonstrate the process of creating an intelligent system capable of operating in a real environment using streaming data provided by ventilators and vital signs monitors. Its development is important to the physician because becomes possible crossing multiple variables in real-time by analyzing if a value is critic or not and if their variation has or not clinical importance
Spontaneous parity violation and minimal Higgs models
In this paper we present a model for the spontaneous breaking of parity with
two Higgs doublets and two neutral Higgs singlets which are even and odd under
D-parity. The condition can be satisfied without introducing
bidoublets and it is induced by the breaking of D-parity through the vacuum
expectation value of the odd Higgs singlet. Examples of left-right symmetric
and mirror fermions models in grand unified theories are presented.Comment: Revised version. Accepted in Eur. Phys. Journal
Increasing HPV vaccination uptake among adolescents: A systematic review
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is a well-known fundamental strategy in the prevention of cervical cancer, as it is always caused by HPV infection. In fact, primary prevention of the infection corresponds to primary prevention of HPV-related cancers and other diseases. Since an effective prevention at the population level is the final goal, it is mandatory for healthcare systems to achieve a high HPV vaccination coverage among the adolescents to reduce the circulation of the virus and the burden of HPV-related diseases. This research identified, through a systematic literature review, 38 papers on strategies adopted to increase HPV vaccination coverage among adolescents. The evaluated strategies targeted adolescents/parents and/or healthcare providers and could be grouped in three main types: (1) reminder-based, (2) education, information, and communication activities, and (3) multicomponent strategies. Several types of strategy, such as those relied only on reminders and integrating different interventions, showed a positive impact on vaccination coverage. Nonetheless, the heterogeneity of the interventions suggests the importance to adapt such strategies to the specific national/local contexts to maximize vaccination coverage
Unified Gauge Models and One-Loop Quantum Cosmology
This paper studies the normalizability criterion for the one-loop wave
function of the universe in a de Sitter background, when various unified gauge
models are considered. It turns out that, in the absence of interaction between
inflaton field and other matter fields, the supersymmetric version of such
unified models is preferred. By contrast, the interaction of inflaton and
matter fields, jointly with the request of normalizability at one-loop order,
picks out non-supersymmetric versions of unified gauge models.Comment: 10 pages, Late
Prevalence of depressive symptoms among Italian medical students: The multicentre cross-sectional “PRIMES” study
Background
Four percent of the world’s population suffers from depression, which is a major public health issue. Medical students are at risk, as their depressive symptoms (DS) prevalence is reported to be approximately 27% worldwide. Since few data on Italian medical students exist, this study aimed to estimate their DS prevalence and assess risk and protective factors.
Methods
The PRIMES was a multicentre cross-sectional study performed in 12 Italian medical schools. Questionnaires were self-reported and included 30 sociodemographic items and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). The primary outcome was the presence of DS (BDI-II score�14). The main analyses were chi-squared tests and multivariable logistic regressions with a p-value<0.05 considered significant.
Results
The number of collected questionnaires was 2,513 (117 BDI-II incomplete). Females accounted for 61.3% of the respondents, and the median age was 22 years (IQR = 4). The prevalence of DS was 29.5%. Specifically, 14.0% had mild depression, 11.1% had moder- ate depression, and 4.5% had severe depression. The main risk factors for DS were age, being female, bisexual/asexual orientation, living with partner/housemates, poor economic status (worsened by living far from home), less than 90 min of weekly exercise, relatives with psychiatric disorders, personal chronic disease, judging medical school choice nega- tively, unsatisfying friendships with classmates, competitive and hostile climate among classmates, thinking that medical school hinders specific activities and being worried about not measuring up to the profession. Protective factors included family cohesion, hobbies, intellectual curiosity as a career motivation and no worries about the future.
Conclusion
Italian medical students are at high risk of reporting DS, similar to the global population of medical students’. Medical schools must make efforts to implement preventive and treat- ment interventions by offering counselling and working on modifiable factors, such as life- style and learning climate
jFuzzyLogic: a Java Library to Design Fuzzy Logic Controllers According to the Standard for Fuzzy Control Programming
Fuzzy Logic Controllers are a specific model of Fuzzy Rule Based Systems suitable for engineering
applications for which classic control strategies do not achieve good results or for when it is too difficult
to obtain a mathematical model. Recently, the International Electrotechnical Commission has published
a standard for fuzzy control programming in part 7 of the IEC 61131 norm in order to offer a well defined
common understanding of the basic means with which to integrate fuzzy control applications in control
systems. In this paper, we introduce an open source Java library called jFuzzyLogic which offers a fully
functional and complete implementation of a fuzzy inference system according to this standard, providing
a programming interface and Eclipse plugin to easily write and test code for fuzzy control applications.
A case study is given to illustrate the use of jFuzzyLogic.McGill Uninversity, Genome QuebecSpanish Government
TIN2011-28488Andalusian Government
P10-TIC-685
Relationship between cardiovascular health metrics and physical performance in community-living people: Results from the Longevity check-up (Lookup) 7+ project
Cardiovascular health metrics (CHMs) may predict disability independent of vascular events. Though, the link between CHMs and physical performance is unclear. This relationship was explored using data from the Longevity check-up (Lookup) 7+ project. Lookup 7+ is an ongoing cross-sectional survey conducted in unconventional settings across Italy. People who are at least 18-year-old and provide written informed consent are eligible. CHMs [i.e., smoking status, healthy diet, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and diabetes status] are assessed through closed questions and objective measurements. Physical performance is measured via the 5-repetition chair-stand test. Analyses included 7446 participants (55.5 \ub1 14.9 years; 56% women). Physical performance positively correlated with CHMs scores, such that participants who scored higher (6\u20137 points) completed the chair-stand test about 2 s faster than those scoring lower (1\u20132 points). In fully adjusted analysis, better physical performance was more frequently observed in younger, non-smoking, physically active men, with ideal BMI, and no diabetes. Our findings indicate a gradient of better physical function with increasing CHMs scores. Future investigations should establish the longitudinal effect of unhealthy behaviours and cardiovascular risk factors on physical performance and verify whether implementation of large-scale primordial cardiovascular prevention may positively impact physical fitness
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