31,928 research outputs found
Struggling to a monumental triumph : Re-assessing the final stages of the smallpox eradication program in India, 1960-1980
The global smallpox program is generally presented as the brainchild of a handful of actors from the WHO headquarters in Geneva and at the agency's regional offices. This article attempts to present a more complex description of the drive to eradicate smallpox. Based on the example of India, a major focus of the campaign, it is argued that historians and public health officials should recognize the varying roles played by a much wider range of participants. Highlighting the significance of both Indian and international field officials, the author shows how bureaucrats and politicians at different levels of administration and society managed to strengthen—yet sometimes weaken—important program components. Centrally dictated strategies developed at WHO offices in Geneva and New Delhi, often in association with Indian federal authorities, were reinterpreted by many actors and sometimes changed beyond recognition
Experimental Study of the Role of Atomic Interactions on Quantum Transport
We report an experimental study of quantum transport for atoms confined in a
periodic potential and compare between thermal and BEC initial conditions. We
observe ballistic transport for all values of well depth and initial
conditions, and the measured expansion velocity for thermal atoms is in
excellent agreement with a single-particle model. For weak wells, the expansion
of the BEC is also in excellent agreement with single-particle theory, using an
effective temperature. We observe a crossover to a new regime for the BEC case
as the well depth is increased, indicating the importance of interactions on
quantum transport.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
A Spatio-Temporal Point Process Model for Ambulance Demand
Ambulance demand estimation at fine time and location scales is critical for
fleet management and dynamic deployment. We are motivated by the problem of
estimating the spatial distribution of ambulance demand in Toronto, Canada, as
it changes over discrete 2-hour intervals. This large-scale dataset is sparse
at the desired temporal resolutions and exhibits location-specific serial
dependence, daily and weekly seasonality. We address these challenges by
introducing a novel characterization of time-varying Gaussian mixture models.
We fix the mixture component distributions across all time periods to overcome
data sparsity and accurately describe Toronto's spatial structure, while
representing the complex spatio-temporal dynamics through time-varying mixture
weights. We constrain the mixture weights to capture weekly seasonality, and
apply a conditionally autoregressive prior on the mixture weights of each
component to represent location-specific short-term serial dependence and daily
seasonality. While estimation may be performed using a fixed number of mixture
components, we also extend to estimate the number of components using
birth-and-death Markov chain Monte Carlo. The proposed model is shown to give
higher statistical predictive accuracy and to reduce the error in predicting
EMS operational performance by as much as two-thirds compared to a typical
industry practice
The rationale of powertype-based metamodelling to underpin software development methodologies
Metamodelling provides a way of modelling the rules underpinning not only modelling languages such as UML but also processes. In the context of object-oriented development, we evaluate the conceptual framework used to reason about metamodelling from the different perspectives of methodologist, method engineer and software developer. We propose the use of clabjets and powertype patterns as a solution to avoid the present inconsistencies in the use of a strict metamodelling multi-level hierarchy and demonstrate their efficacy in providing a solid and improved framework for OO-based process (and product) metamodelling. Copyright © 2005, Australian Computer Society, Inc
A foundation for multi-level modelling
Multi-level modelling allows types and instances to be mixed in the same model, however there are several proposals for how meta- models can support this. This paper proposes a meta-circular basis for meta-modelling and shows how it supports two leading approaches to multi-level modelling
Rietveld refinement of the crystal structures of Rb2X Si5O12 (X = Ni, Mn)
The synthetic leucite silicate framework mineral analogues Rb2XSi5O12 {X = Ni
[dirubidium nickel(II) pentasilicate] and Mn [dirubidium manganese(II)
pentasilicate]} have been prepared by high-temperature solid-state synthesis.
The results of Rietveld refinements, using X-ray powder diffraction data
collected using Cu K[alpha] X-rays, show that the title compounds crystallize in the
space group Pbca and adopt the cation-ordered structure of Cs2CdSi5O12 and
other leucites. The structures consist of tetrahedral SiO4 and XO4 units sharing
corners to form a partially substituted silicate framework. Extraframework Rb+
cations sit in channels in the framework. All atoms occupy the 8c general
position for this space group. In these refined structures, silicon and X atoms are
ordered onto separate tetrahedrally coordinated sites (T-sites). However, the Ni
displacement parameter and the Ni—O bond lengths suggest that for the X = Ni
sample, there may actually be some T-site cation disorder
Towards an interoperable metamodel suite: size assessment as one input
In recent years, many metamodels have been introduced in the software engi- neering literature and standards. These metamodels vary in their focus across, for example, process, product, organizational and measurement aspects of software development and have typically been developed independently of each other with shared concepts being only accidental. There is thus an increasing concern in the standards communities that possible conicts of structure and semantics between these various metamodels will hinder their widespread adoption. The complexity of these metamodels has also increased significantly and is another barrier in their appreciation. This complexity is compounded when more than one metamodel is used in the lifecycle of a software project. Therefore there is a need to have interoperable metamodels. As a first step towards engendering interoperability and/or possible mergers between metamodels, we examine the size and complexity of various meta- models. To do this, we have used the Rossi and Brinkkemper metrics-based approach to evaluate the size and complexity of several standard metamodels including UML 2.3, BPMN 2.0, ODM, SMM and OSM. The size and complexity of these metamodels is also compared with the previous version of UML, BPMN and Activity diagrams. The comparatively large sizes of BPMN 2.0 and UML 2.3 suggest that future integration with these metamodels might be more difficult than with the other metamodels under study (especially ODM, SSM and OSM)
Spitzer Microlensing Parallax for OGLE-2016-BLG-1067: A Sub-Jupiter Orbiting an M Dwarf in the Disk
We report the discovery of a sub-Jupiter-mass planet orbiting beyond the snow line of an M dwarf most likely in the Galactic disk as part of the joint Spitzer and ground-based monitoring of planetary microlensing anomalies toward the Galactic bulge. Most of the microlensing parameters are strongly constrained by the light-curve modeling, and in particular there is a Spitzer-based measurement of the microlens parallax, π E. However, there are no caustic crossings, so the angular Einstein radius has only an upper limit based on the light-curve modeling alone. Additionally, the analysis leads us to identify eight degenerate configurations: the fourfold microlensing parallax degeneracy being doubled by a degeneracy in the caustic structure present at the level of the ground-based solutions. To calculate the physical parameters, and at the same time to break the parallax degeneracy, we make use of a series of arguments: the χ 2 hierarchy, the Rich argument (stating that the small-parallax solution is more likely), and a prior Galactic model. The preferred configuration, favored by a likelihood ratio of at least 4000, is for a host at D_L = 3.73^(+0.66)_(-0.67) kpc with mass M_L = 0.30^(+0.15)_(-0.12) M⊙, orbited by a Saturn-like planet with M_(planet) = 0.43^(+0.21)_(-0.17) M_(Jup) at projected separation a = 1.70^(+0.38)_(-0.39) au, about 2.1 times beyond the system snow line. Therefore, it adds to the growing population of sub-Jupiter planets orbiting beyond the snow line of M dwarfs discovered by microlensing. Based on the rules of the real-time protocol for the selection of events to be followed up with Spitzer, this planet will not enter the sample for measuring the Galactic distribution of planets
Fusion-Fission of 16O+197Au at Sub-Barrier Energies
The recent discovery of heavy-ion fusion hindrance at far sub-barrier
energies has focused much attention on both experimental and theoretical
studies of this phenomenon. Most of the experimental evidence comes from
medium-heavy systems such as Ni+Ni to Zr+Zr, for which the compound system
decays primarily by charged-particle evaporation. In order to study heavier
systems, it is, however, necessary to measure also the fraction of the decay
that goes into fission fragments. In the present work we have, therefore,
measured the fission cross section of 16O+197Au down to unprecedented far
sub-barrier energies using a large position sensitive PPAC placed at backward
angles. The preliminary cross sections will be discussed and compared to
earlier studies at near-barrier energies. No conclusive evidence for
sub-barrier hindrance was found, probably because the measurements were not
extended to sufficiently low energies.Comment: Fusion06 - Intl. Conf. on Reaction Mechanisms and Nuclear Structure
at the Coulomb Barrier, San Servolo, Venezia, Italy, March 19-223, 2006 5
pages, 4 figure
Geometric picture of quantum discord for two-qubit quantum states
Among various definitions of quantum correlations, quantum discord has
attracted considerable attention. To find analytical expression of quantum
discord is an intractable task. Exact results are known only for very special
states, namely, two-qubit X-shaped states. We present in this paper a geometric
viewpoint, from which two-qubit quantum discord can be described clearly. The
known results about X state discord are restated in the directly perceivable
geometric language. As a consequence, the dynamics of classical correlations
and quantum discord for an X state in the presence of decoherence is endowed
with geometric interpretation. More importantly, we extend the geometric method
to the case of more general states, for which numerical as well as analytica
results about quantum discord have not been found yet. Based on the support of
numerical computations, some conjectures are proposed to help us establish
geometric picture. We find that the geometric picture for these states has
intimate relationship with that for X states. Thereby in some cases analytical
expressions of classical correlations and quantum discord can be obtained.Comment: 9 figure
- …