371 research outputs found
Degree distribution of shortest path trees and bias of network sampling algorithms
In this article, we explicitly derive the limiting distribution of the degree distribution of the shortest path tree from a single source on various random network models with edge weights. We determine the power-law exponent of the degree distribution of this tree and compare it to the degree distribution of the original graph. We perform this analysis for the complete graph with edge weights that are powers of exponential random variables (weak disorder in the stochastic mean-field model of distance) as well as on the configuration model with edge-weights drawn according to any continuous distribution. In the latter, the focus is on settings where the degrees obey a power law, and we show that the shortest path tree again obeys a power law with the same degree power-law exponent. We also consider random r-regular graphs for large r, and show that the degree distribution of the shortest path tree is closely related to the shortest path tree for the stochastic mean field model of distance. We use our results to explain an empirically observed bias in network sampling methods. This is part of a general program initiated in previous works by Bhamidi, van der Hofstad and Hooghiemstra [7, 8, 6] of analyzing the effect of attaching random edge lengths on the geometry of random network models
The structure of oppositionality: Response disposition and situational aspects
Background: The Amsterdam Scale of Oppositionality (ASO) is a recently developed self-report instrument to measure the full range of oppositionality. It was used to test the assumption that oppositionality can best be conceptualized as a combination of emotions and behaviors varying across contexts, i.e., with parents, peers and authority figures. Method: The sample consisted of 560 boys and 598 girls, aged 8 to 12 years. The thirty items of the ASO, grouped in item parcels, were analyzed using confirmatory factor analyses. Results: Results confirmed the main hypothesis. The best fitting models contained strongly related emotional and behavioral factors and three mutually related situational factors. Oppositionality appeared to be to a large extent situation-specific. Girls are more affected by the situation than boys and show less oppositionality only outside the family context. Conclusions: Results are discussed with respect to the concept of oppositionality, varying expectations for interpersonal consequences, and implications for clinical assessment and studies of inter-informant reliability
Information for decision making from imperfect national data: tracking major changes in health care use in Kenya using geostatistics
Background: most Ministries of Health across Africa invest substantial resources in some form of health management information system (HMIS) to coordinate the routine acquisition and compilation of monthly treatment and attendance records from health facilities nationwide. Despite the expense of these systems, poor data coverage means they are rarely, if ever, used to generate reliable evidence for decision makers. One critical weakness across Africa is the current lack of capacity to effectively monitor patterns of service use through time so that the impacts ofchanges in policy or service delivery can be evaluated. Here, we present a new approach that, for the first time, allows national changes in health service use during a time of major health policy change to be tracked reliably using imperfect data from a national HMIS.Methods: monthly attendance records were obtained from the Kenyan HMIS for 1 271 government-run and 402 faith-based outpatient facilities nationwide between 1996 and 2004. Aspace-time geostatistical model was used to compensate for the large proportion of missing records caused by non-reporting health facilities, allowing robust estimation of monthly and annualuse of services by outpatients during this period.Results: we were able to reconstruct robust time series of mean levels of outpatient utilisation of health facilities at the national level and for all six major provinces in Kenya. These plots revealed reliably for the first time a period of steady nationwide decline in the use of health facilities in Kenyabetween 1996 and 2002, followed by a dramatic increase from 2003. This pattern was consistent across different causes of attendance and was observed independently in each province.Conclusion: the methodological approach presented can compensate for missing records in health information systems to provide robust estimates of national patterns of outpatient service use. This represents the first such use of HMIS data and contributes to the resurrection of these hugely expensive but underused systems as national monitoring tools. Applying this approach to Kenya has yielded output with immediate potential to enhance the capacity of decision makers in monitoring nationwide patterns of service use and assessing the impact of changes in health policy and service deliver
Milagrito: a TeV air-shower array
Milagrito, a large, covered water-Cherenkov detector, was the world's first
air-shower-particle detector sensitive to cosmic gamma rays below 1 TeV. It
served as a prototype for the Milagro detector and operated from February 1997
to May 1998. This paper gives a description of Milagrito, a summary of the
operating experience, and early results that demonstrate the capabilities of
this technique.Comment: 38 pages including 24 figure
Atmospheric Heating and Wind Acceleration: Results for Cool Evolved Stars based on Proposed Processes
A chromosphere is a universal attribute of stars of spectral type later than
~F5. Evolved (K and M) giants and supergiants (including the zeta Aurigae
binaries) show extended and highly turbulent chromospheres, which develop into
slow massive winds. The associated continuous mass loss has a significant
impact on stellar evolution, and thence on the chemical evolution of galaxies.
Yet despite the fundamental importance of those winds in astrophysics, the
question of their origin(s) remains unsolved. What sources heat a chromosphere?
What is the role of the chromosphere in the formation of stellar winds? This
chapter provides a review of the observational requirements and theoretical
approaches for modeling chromospheric heating and the acceleration of winds in
single cool, evolved stars and in eclipsing binary stars, including physical
models that have recently been proposed. It describes the successes that have
been achieved so far by invoking acoustic and MHD waves to provide a physical
description of plasma heating and wind acceleration, and discusses the
challenges that still remain.Comment: 46 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; modified and unedited manuscript;
accepted version to appear in: Giants of Eclipse, eds. E. Griffin and T. Ake
(Berlin: Springer
Detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
The random superposition of many weak sources will produce a stochastic
background of gravitational waves that may dominate the response of the LISA
(Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) gravitational wave observatory. Unless
something can be done to distinguish between a stochastic background and
detector noise, the two will combine to form an effective noise floor for the
detector. Two methods have been proposed to solve this problem. The first is to
cross-correlate the output of two independent interferometers. The second is an
ingenious scheme for monitoring the instrument noise by operating LISA as a
Sagnac interferometer. Here we derive the optimal orbital alignment for
cross-correlating a pair of LISA detectors, and provide the first analytic
derivation of the Sagnac sensitivity curve.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures. Significant changes to the noise estimate
Measurement of a small atmospheric ratio
From an exposure of 25.5~kiloton-years of the Super-Kamiokande detector, 900
muon-like and 983 electron-like single-ring atmospheric neutrino interactions
were detected with momentum MeV/, MeV/, and
with visible energy less than 1.33 GeV. Using a detailed Monte Carlo
simulation, the ratio was measured to be , consistent with previous results from the
Kamiokande, IMB and Soudan-2 experiments, and smaller than expected from
theoretical models of atmospheric neutrino production.Comment: 14 pages with 5 figure
Calibration of Super-Kamiokande Using an Electron Linac
In order to calibrate the Super-Kamiokande experiment for solar neutrino
measurements, a linear accelerator (LINAC) for electrons was installed at the
detector. LINAC data were taken at various positions in the detector volume,
tracking the detector response in the variables relevant to solar neutrino
analysis. In particular, the absolute energy scale is now known with less than
1 percent uncertainty.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures, Submitted to NIM
Measurement of radon concentrations at Super-Kamiokande
Radioactivity from radon is a major background for observing solar neutrinos
at Super-Kamiokande. In this paper, we describe the measurement of radon
concentrations at Super-Kamiokande, the method of radon reduction, and the
radon monitoring system. The measurement shows that the current low-energy
event rate between 5.0 MeV and 6.5 MeV implies a radon concentration in the
Super-Kamiokande water of less than 1.4 mBq/m.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Sensitivity of the IceCube Detector to Astrophysical Sources of High Energy Muon Neutrinos
We present the results of a Monte-Carlo study of the sensitivity of the
planned IceCube detector to predicted fluxes of muon neutrinos at TeV to PeV
energies. A complete simulation of the detector and data analysis is used to
study the detector's capability to search for muon neutrinos from sources such
as active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. We study the effective area and the
angular resolution of the detector as a function of muon energy and angle of
incidence. We present detailed calculations of the sensitivity of the detector
to both diffuse and pointlike neutrino emissions, including an assessment of
the sensitivity to neutrinos detected in coincidence with gamma-ray burst
observations. After three years of datataking, IceCube will have been able to
detect a point source flux of E^2*dN/dE = 7*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV at a 5-sigma
significance, or, in the absence of a signal, place a 90% c.l. limit at a level
E^2*dN/dE = 2*10^-9 cm^-2s^-1GeV. A diffuse E-2 flux would be detectable at a
minimum strength of E^2*dN/dE = 1*10^-8 cm^-2s^-1sr^-1GeV. A gamma-ray burst
model following the formulation of Waxman and Bahcall would result in a 5-sigma
effect after the observation of 200 bursts in coincidence with satellite
observations of the gamma-rays.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, 6 table
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