2,995 research outputs found
A New Preference Reversal in Health Utility Measurement
A central assumption in health utility measurement is that preferences are invariant to
the elicitation method that is used. This assumption is challenged by preference
reversals. Previous studies have observed preference reversals between choice and
matching tasks and between choice and ranking tasks. We present a new preference
reversal that is entirely choice-based. Because choice is the basic primitive of
economics and utility theory, this preference reversal is more fundamental and
troubling. The preference reversal was observed in two studies regarding health states
after stroke. Both studies involved large representative samples from the Spanish
population, interviewed professionally and face-to-face. Possible explanations for the
preference reversal are the anticipation of disappointment and elation in risky choice
and the impact of ethical considerations about the value of life
The history of African village chickens: an archaeological and molecular perspective
The history of the introduction and dispersal of village chickens across the African continent is a subject of intense debate and speculation among scholars. Here, we synthesize and summarise the current scientific genetic and nongenetic knowledge in relation to the history of the species on the continent. Sociocultural, linguistic, archaeological and historic data all suggest a complex history for the species in Africa, characterized by multiple maritime and/or terrestrial introductions over time and several dispersal routes towards and within Africa. Molecular genetics information supports these observations and in addition suggests possible Asian centers of origin for African domestic chickens, including South Asia and Island Southeast Asia. However, both sets of data were until now too limited in their geographic scope, both within Africa and in comparison with chickens from Asia, to unravel the history of the species in detail. We anticipate that further continent-wide studies combining archaeological, ancient and/or modern genetic information may shed new insights on the history of the species. These will contribute to a deeper understanding of the history of trading networks and human interactions within Africa and between African and Asian societies, at the root of the development and expansion of African civilizations
H^+ -> W^+ l_i^- l_j^+$ decay in the two Higgs doublet model
We study the lepton flavor violating H^+ -> W^+ l_i^- l_j^+ and the lepton
flavor conserving $H^+ -> W^+ l_i^- l_i^+ (l_i=\tau, l_j=\mu) decays in the
general 2HDM, so called model III. We estimate the decay width \Gamma for LFV
(LFC) at the order of the magnitude of (10^{-11}-10^{-5}) GeV
((10^{-9}-10^{-4}) GeV), for 200 GeV\leq m_{H^\pm}\leq 400
GeV, and the intermediate values of the coupling
\bar{\xi}^{E}_{N,\tau \mu}\sim 5 GeV (\bar{\xi}^{E}_{N,\tau
\tau}\sim 30 GeV). We observe that the experimental result of the process
under consideration can give comprehensive information about the physics beyond
the standard model and the existing free parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 7 Figure
Staggered Currents in the Vortex Core
We study the electronic structure of the vortex core in the cuprates using
the U(1) slave-boson mean-field wavefunctions and their Gutzwiller projection.
We conclude that there exists local orbital antiferromagnetic order in the core
near optimal doping. We compare the results with that of BCS theory and analyze
the spatial dependence of the local tunneling density of states.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
The Extremely Long-period X-Ray Source in a Young Supernova Remnant: A Thorne-Żytkow Object Descendant?
Constraining models of the large scale Galactic magnetic field with WMAP5 polarization data and extragalactic Rotation Measure sources
We introduce a method to quantify the quality-of-fit between data and
observables depending on the large scale Galactic magnetic field. We combine
WMAP5 polarized synchrotron data and Rotation Measures of extragalactic sources
in a joint analysis to obtain best fit parameters and confidence levels for GMF
models common in the literature. None of the existing models provide a good fit
in both the disk and halo regions, and in many instances best-fit parameters
are quite different than the original values. We note that probing a very large
parameter space is necessary to avoid false likelihood maxima. The thermal and
relativistic electron densities are critical for determining the GMF from the
observables but they are not well constrained. We show that some
characteristics of the electron densities can already be constrained using our
method and with future data it may be possible to carry out a self-consistent
analysis in which models of the GMF and electron densities are simultaneously
optimized.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in JCAP; arXiv version
updated to include minor revision
Ultrahigh Energy Nuclei in the Galactic Magnetic Field
Observations are consistent with a significant fraction of heavy nuclei in
the cosmic ray flux above a few times 10^19 eV. Such nuclei can be deflected
considerably in the Galactic magnetic field, with important implications for
the search of their sources. We perform detailed simulations of heavy nuclei
propagation within recent Galactic magnetic field models. While such models are
not yet sufficiently constrained to predict deflection maps in detail, we find
general features of the distribution of (de-) magnified flux from sources.
Since in most theoretical models sources of heavy nuclei are located in the
local large scale structure of galaxies, we show examples of images of several
nearby galaxy clusters and of the supergalactic plane. Such general features
may be useful to develop efficient methods for source reconstruction from
observed ultrahigh energy cosmic ray arrival directions.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. Published in JCA
Probing the mechanism of EWSB with a rho parameter defined in terms of Higgs couplings
A definition of the rho parameter based on the Higgs couplings with the gauge
bosons, rho_h= g_{hWW}}/c^2_W g_{hZZ}, is proposed as a new probe into the
origin of the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. While
holds in the SM, deviations from one are predicted in models with extended
Higgs sector.
We derive a general expresion of rho_h for a model with arbitrary Higgs
multiplets, and discuss its size within the context of specific models with
Higgs triplets, including the ``Little Higgs'' models recently proposed. We
find the even for Higgs models that incorporate the custodial symmetry to make
rho=1, one could have rho_h\neq 1, which could be tested at the level of a few
percent, with the precision Higgs meassurements expected at the NLC.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
Reconstructing the origin and dispersal patterns of village chickens across East Africa: insights from autosomal markers
Unravelling the genetic history of any livestock species is central to understanding the origin, development and expansion of agricultural societies and economies. Domestic village chickens are widespread in Africa. Their close association with, and reliance on, humans for long-range dispersal makes the species an important biological marker in tracking cultural and trading contacts between human societies and civilizations across time. Archaezoological and linguistic evidence suggest a complex history of arrival and dispersion of the species on the continent, with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop analysis revealing the presence of five distinct haplogroups in East African village chickens. It supports the importance of the region in understanding the history of the species and indirectly of human interactions. Here, through a detailed analysis of 30 autosomal microsatellite markers genotyped in 657 village chickens from four East African countries (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan), we identify three distinct autosomal gene pools (I, II and III). Gene pool I is predominantly found in Ethiopia and Sudan, while II and III occur in both Kenya and Uganda. A gradient of admixture for gene pools II and III between the Kenyan coast and Uganda's hinterland (P = 0.001) is observed, while gene pool I is clearly separated from the other two. We propose that these three gene pools represent genetic signatures of separate events in the history of the continent that relate to the arrival and dispersal of village chickens and humans across the region. Our results provide new insights on the history of chicken husbandry which has been shaped by terrestrial and maritime contacts between ancient and modern civilizations in Asia and East Africa
Managing Linguistic Data Summaries in Advanced P2P Applications
chapitre... à corrigerAs the amount of stored data increases, data localization techniques become no longer sufficient in P2P systems. A practical approach is to rely on compact database summaries rather than raw database records, whose access is costly in large P2P systems. In this chapter, we describe a solution for managing linguistic data summaries in advanced P2P applications which are dealing with semantically rich data. The produced summaries are synthetic, multidimensional views over relational tables. The novelty of this proposal relies on the double summary exploitation in distributed P2P systems. First, as semantic indexes, they support locating relevant nodes based on their data descriptions. Second, due to their intelligibility, these summaries can be directly queried and thus approximately answer a query without the need for exploring original data. The proposed solution consists first in defining a summary model for hierarchical P2P systems. Second, appropriate algorithms for summary creation and maintenance are presented. A query processing mechanism, which relies on summary querying, is then proposed to demonstrate the benefits that might be obtained from summary exploitation
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