407 research outputs found
Weak Poisson structures on infinite dimensional manifolds and hamiltonian actions
We introduce a notion of a weak Poisson structure on a manifold modeled
on a locally convex space. This is done by specifying a Poisson bracket on a
subalgebra \cA \subeq C^\infty(M) which has to satisfy a non-degeneracy
condition (the differentials of elements of \cA separate tangent vectors) and
we postulate the existence of smooth Hamiltonian vector fields. Motivated by
applications to Hamiltonian actions, we focus on affine Poisson spaces which
include in particular the linear and affine Poisson structures on duals of
locally convex Lie algebras. As an interesting byproduct of our approach, we
can associate to an invariant symmetric bilinear form on a Lie algebra
\g and a -skew-symmetric derivation a weak affine Poisson
structure on \g itself. This leads naturally to a concept of a Hamiltonian
-action on a weak Poisson manifold with a \g-valued momentum map and hence
to a generalization of quasi-hamiltonian group actions
Unitary Representations of Unitary Groups
In this paper we review and streamline some results of Kirillov, Olshanski
and Pickrell on unitary representations of the unitary group \U(\cH) of a
real, complex or quaternionic separable Hilbert space and the subgroup
\U_\infty(\cH), consisting of those unitary operators for which g - \1
is compact. The Kirillov--Olshanski theorem on the continuous unitary
representations of the identity component \U_\infty(\cH)_0 asserts that they
are direct sums of irreducible ones which can be realized in finite tensor
products of a suitable complex Hilbert space. This is proved and generalized to
inseparable spaces. These results are carried over to the full unitary group by
Pickrell's Theorem, asserting that the separable unitary representations of
\U(\cH), for a separable Hilbert space \cH, are uniquely determined by
their restriction to \U_\infty(\cH)_0. For the classical infinite rank
symmetric pairs of non-unitary type, such as (\GL(\cH),\U(\cH)), we
also show that all separable unitary representations are trivial.Comment: 42 page
A generally applicable lightweight method for calculating a value structure for tools and services in bioinformatics infrastructure projects
Sustainable noncommercial bioinformatics infrastructures are a prerequisite to use and take advantage of the potential of big data analysis for research and economy. Consequently, funders, universities and institutes as well as users ask for a transparent value model for the tools and services offered. In this article, a generally applicable lightweight method is described by which bioinformatics infrastructure projects can estimate the value of tools and services offered without determining exactly the total costs of ownership. Five representative scenarios for value estimation from a rough estimation to a detailed breakdown of costs are presented. To account for the diversity in bioinformatics applications and services, the notion of service-specific ‘service provision units’ is introduced together with the factors influencing them and the main underlying assumptions for these ‘value influencing factors’. Special attention is given on how to handle personnel costs and indirect costs such as electricity. Four examples are presented for the calculation of the value of tools and services provided by the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI): one for tool usage, one for (Web-based) database analyses, one for consulting services and one for bioinformatics training events. Finally, from the discussed values, the costs of direct funding and the costs of payment of services by funded projects are calculated and compared
Sisyphus Cooling of Electrically Trapped Polyatomic Molecules
The rich internal structure and long-range dipole-dipole interactions
establish polar molecules as unique instruments for quantum-controlled
applications and fundamental investigations. Their potential fully unfolds at
ultracold temperatures, where a plethora of effects is predicted in many-body
physics, quantum information science, ultracold chemistry, and physics beyond
the standard model. These objectives have inspired the development of a wide
range of methods to produce cold molecular ensembles. However, cooling
polyatomic molecules to ultracold temperatures has until now seemed
intractable. Here we report on the experimental realization of opto-electrical
cooling, a paradigm-changing cooling and accumulation method for polar
molecules. Its key attribute is the removal of a large fraction of a molecule's
kinetic energy in each step of the cooling cycle via a Sisyphus effect,
allowing cooling with only few dissipative decay processes. We demonstrate its
potential by reducing the temperature of about 10^6 trapped CH_3F molecules by
a factor of 13.5, with the phase-space density increased by a factor of 29 or a
factor of 70 discounting trap losses. In contrast to other cooling mechanisms,
our scheme proceeds in a trap, cools in all three dimensions, and works for a
large variety of polar molecules. With no fundamental temperature limit
anticipated down to the photon-recoil temperature in the nanokelvin range, our
method eliminates the primary hurdle in producing ultracold polyatomic
molecules. The low temperatures, large molecule numbers and long trapping times
up to 27 s will allow an interaction-dominated regime to be attained, enabling
collision studies and investigation of evaporative cooling toward a BEC of
polyatomic molecules
User evaluation indicates high quality of the Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) after field deployment in Nigeria in 2015 and 2018
During the West African Ebola virus disease outbreak in 2014-15, health agencies had severe challenges with case notification and contact tracing. To overcome these, we developed the Surveillance, Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS). The objective of this study was to measure perceived quality of SORMAS and its change over time. We ran a 4-week-pilot and 8-week-implementation of SORMAS among hospital informants in Kano state, Nigeria in 2015 and 2018 respectively. We carried out surveys after the pilot and implementation asking about usefulness and acceptability. We calculated the proportions of users per answer together with their 95% confidence intervals (CI) and compared whether the 2015 response distributions differed from those from 2018. Total of 31 and 74 hospital informants participated in the survey in 2015 and 2018, respectively. In 2018, 94% (CI: 89-100%) of users indicated that the tool was useful, 92% (CI: 86-98%) would recommend SORMAS to colleagues and 18% (CI: 10-28%) had login difficulties. In 2015, the proportions were 74% (CI: 59-90%), 90% (CI: 80-100%), and 87% (CI: 75-99%) respectively. Results indicate high usefulness and acceptability of SORMAS. We recommend mHealth tools to be evaluated to allow repeated measurements and comparisons between different versions and users
Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism in the functional approach to classical field theory
We develop the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism for classical field theory on
generic globally hyperbolic spacetimes. A crucial aspect of our treatment is
the incorporation of the principle of local covariance which amounts to
formulate the theory without reference to a distinguished spacetime. In
particular, this allows a homological construction of the Poisson algebra of
observables in classical gravity. Our methods heavily rely on the differential
geometry of configuration spaces of classical fields.Comment: 42 pages, improved formulation, typos correcte
The role of information search and its influence on risk preferences
According to the ‘Description–Experience gap’ (DE gap), when people are provided with the descriptions of risky prospects they make choices as if they overweight the probability of rare events; but when making decisions from experience after exploring the prospects’ properties, they behave as if they underweight such probability. This study revisits this discrepancy while focusing on information-search in decisions from experience. We report findings from a lab-experiment with three treatments: a standard version of decisions from description and two versions of decisions from experience: with and without a ‘history table’ recording previously sampled events. We find that people sample more from lotteries with rarer events. The history table proved influential; in its absence search is more responsive to cues such as a lottery’s variance while in its presence the cue that stands out is the table’s maximum capacity. Our analysis of risky choices captures a significant DE gap which is mitigated by the presence of the history table. We elicit probability weighting functions at the individual level and report that subjects overweight rare events in experience but less so than in description. Finally, we report a measure that allows us to compare the type of DE gap found in studies using choice patterns with that inferred through valuation and find that the phenomenon is similar but not identical across the two methods
Properties of field functionals and characterization of local functionals
Functionals (i.e. functions of functions) are widely used in quantum field
theory and solid-state physics. In this paper, functionals are given a rigorous
mathematical framework and their main properties are described. The choice of
the proper space of test functions (smooth functions) and of the relevant
concept of differential (Bastiani differential) are discussed.
The relation between the multiple derivatives of a functional and the
corresponding distributions is described in detail. It is proved that, in a
neighborhood of every test function, the support of a smooth functional is
uniformly compactly supported and the order of the corresponding distribution
is uniformly bounded. Relying on a recent work by Yoann Dabrowski, several
spaces of functionals are furnished with a complete and nuclear topology. In
view of physical applications, it is shown that most formal manipulations can
be given a rigorous meaning.
A new concept of local functionals is proposed and two characterizations of
them are given: the first one uses the additivity (or Hammerstein) property,
the second one is a variant of Peetre's theorem. Finally, the first step of a
cohomological approach to quantum field theory is carried out by proving a
global Poincar\'e lemma and defining multi-vector fields and graded functionals
within our framework.Comment: 32 pages, no figur
Interventions for renal vasculitis in adults. A systematic review
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Renal vasculitis presents as rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis and comprises of a group of conditions characterised by acute kidney failure, haematuria and proteinuria. Treatment of these conditions involves the use of steroid and non-steroid agents with or without adjunctive plasma exchange. Although immunosuppression has been successful, many questions remain unanswered in terms of dose and duration of therapy, the use of plasma exchange and the role of new therapies. This systematic review was conducted to determine the benefits and harms of any intervention for the treatment of renal vasculitis in adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Renal Group Specialised Register, MEDLINE and EMBASE to June 2009. Randomised controlled trials investigating any intervention for the treatment of adults were included. Two authors independently assessed study quality and extracted data. Statistical analyses were performed using a random effects model and results expressed as risk ratio with 95% confidence intervals for dichotomous outcomes or mean difference for continuous outcomes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty two studies (1674 patients) were included. Plasma exchange as adjunctive therapy significantly reduces the risk of end-stage kidney disease at 12 months (five studies: RR 0.47, CI 0.30 to 0.75). Four studies compared the use of pulse and continuous administration of cyclophosphamide. Remission rates were equivalent but pulse treatment causes an increased risk of relapse (4 studies: RR 1.79, CI 1.11 to 2.87) compared with continuous cyclophosphamide. Azathioprine has equivalent efficacy as a maintenance agent to cyclophosphamide with fewer episodes of leukopenia. Mycophenolate mofetil may be equivalent to cyclophosphamide as an induction agent but resulted in a higher relapse rate when tested against Azathioprine in remission maintenance. Rituximab is an effective remission induction agent. Methotrexate or Leflunomide are potential choices in remission maintenance therapy. Oral co-trimoxazole did not reduce relapses significantly in Wegener's granulomatosis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Plasma exchange is effective in patients with severe ARF secondary to vasculitis. Pulse cyclophosphamide results in an increased risk of relapse when compared to continuous oral use but a reduced total dose. Whilst cyclophosphamide is standard induction treatment, rituximab and mycophenolate mofetil are also effective. Azathioprine, methotrexate and leflunomide are effective as maintenance therapy. Further studies are required to more clearly delineate the appropriate place of newer agents within an evidence-based therapeutic strategy.</p
The Compartmentalized Bacteria of the Planctomycetes-Verrucomicrobia-Chlamydiae Superphylum Have Membrane Coat-Like Proteins
Compartmentalized bacteria have proteins that are structurally related to eukaryotic membrane coats, and one of these proteins localizes at the membrane of vesicles formed inside bacterial cells
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