558 research outputs found
Challenges while MOOCifying a HE eLearning course on Universal Accessibility
There are some similarities in developing a traditional Higher Education (HE) eLearning course and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), due to the use of the basis of eLearning instructional design. But in MOOCs, students should be continually influenced by information, social interactions and experiences forcing the faculty to come up with new approaches and ideas to develop a really engaging course. In this paper, the process of MOOCifying an online course on Universal Accessibility is detailed. The needed quality model is based upon the one used for all online degree programs at our university and on a variable metric specially designed for UNED MOOC courses making possible to control how each course was structured, what kind of resources were used and how activities, interaction and assessment were included. The learning activities were completely adapted, along with the content itself and the on-line assessment. For this purpose, the Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Product Grid has been selected
Two Mode Photon Bunching Effect as Witness of Quantum Criticality in Circuit QED
We suggest a scheme to probe critical phenomena at a quantum phase transition
(QPT) using the quantum correlation of two photonic modes simultaneously
coupled to a critical system. As an experimentally accessible physical
implementation, a circuit QED system is formed by a capacitively coupled
Josephson junction qubit array interacting with one superconducting
transmission line resonator (TLR). It realizes an Ising chain in the transverse
field (ICTF) which interacts with the two magnetic modes propagating in the
TLR. We demonstrate that in the vicinity of criticality the originally
independent fields tend to display photon bunching effects due to their
interaction with the ICTF. Thus, the occurrence of the QPT is reflected by the
quantum characteristics of the photonic fields.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Holographic Josephson Junctions and Berry holonomy from D-branes
We construct a holographic model for Josephson junctions with a defect system
of a Dp brane intersecting a D(p+2) brane. In addition to providing a
geometrical picture for the holographic dual, this leads us very naturally to
suggest the possibility of non-Abelian Josephson junctions characterized in
terms of the topological properties of the branes. The difference between the
locations of the endpoints of the Dp brane on either side of the defect
translates into the phase difference of the condensate in the Josephson
junction. We also add a magnetic flux on the D(p+2) brane and allow it evolve
adiabatically along a closed curve in the space of the magnetic flux, while
generating a non-trivial Berry holonomy.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure
Parity-Violating Hydrodynamics in 2+1 Dimensions
We study relativistic hydrodynamics of normal fluids in two spatial
dimensions. When the microscopic theory breaks parity, extra transport
coefficients appear in the hydrodynamic regime, including the Hall viscosity,
and the anomalous Hall conductivity. In this work we classify all the transport
coefficients in first order hydrodynamics. We then use properties of response
functions and the positivity of entropy production to restrict the possible
coefficients in the constitutive relations. All the parity-breaking transport
coefficients are dissipationless, and some of them are related to the
thermodynamic response to an external magnetic field and to vorticity. In
addition, we give a holographic example of a strongly interacting relativistic
fluid where the parity-violating transport coefficients are computable.Comment: 39+1 page
Holographic Conductivity in Disordered Systems
The main purpose of this paper is to holographically study the behavior of
conductivity in 2+1 dimensional disordered systems. We analyze probe D-brane
systems in AdS/CFT with random closed string and open string background fields.
We give a prescription of calculating the DC conductivity holographically in
disordered systems. In particular, we find an analytical formula of the
conductivity in the presence of codimension one randomness. We also
systematically study the AC conductivity in various probe brane setups without
disorder and find analogues of Mott insulators.Comment: 43 pages, 28 figures, latex, references added, minor correction
Aspects of holography for theories with hyperscaling violation
We analyze various aspects of the recently proposed holographic theories with
general dynamical critical exponent z and hyperscaling violation exponent
. We first find the basic constraints on from the gravity
side, and compute the stress-energy tensor expectation values and scalar
two-point functions. Massive correlators exhibit a nontrivial exponential
behavior at long distances, controlled by . At short distance, the
two-point functions become power-law, with a universal form for .
Next, the calculation of the holographic entanglement entropy reveals the
existence of novel phases which violate the area law. The entropy in these
phases has a behavior that interpolates between that of a Fermi surface and
that exhibited by systems with extensive entanglement entropy. Finally, we
describe microscopic embeddings of some metrics into full
string theory models -- these metrics characterize large regions of the
parameter space of Dp-brane metrics for . For instance, the theory of
N D2-branes in IIA supergravity has z=1 and over a wide range
of scales, at large .Comment: 35 pages; v2: new references added; v3: proper reference [14] added;
v4: minor clarification
Holographic zero sound at finite temperature in the Sakai-Sugimoto model
In this paper, we study the fate of the holographic zero sound mode at finite
temperature and non-zero baryon density in the deconfined phase of the
Sakai-Sugimoto model of holographic QCD. We establish the existence of such a
mode for a wide range of temperatures and investigate the dispersion relation,
quasi-normal modes, and spectral functions of the collective excitations in
four different regimes, namely, the collisionless quantum, collisionless
thermal, and two distinct hydrodynamic regimes. For sufficiently high
temperatures, the zero sound completely disappears, and the low energy physics
is dominated by an emergent diffusive mode. We compare our findings to
Landau-Fermi liquid theory and to other holographic models.Comment: 1+24 pages, 19 figures, PDFTeX, v2: some comments and references
added, v3: some clarifications relating to the different regimes added,
matches version accepted for publication in JHEP, v4: corrected typo in eq.
(3.18
Quantum Griffiths effects and smeared phase transitions in metals: theory and experiment
In this paper, we review theoretical and experimental research on rare region
effects at quantum phase transitions in disordered itinerant electron systems.
After summarizing a few basic concepts about phase transitions in the presence
of quenched randomness, we introduce the idea of rare regions and discuss their
importance. We then analyze in detail the different phenomena that can arise at
magnetic quantum phase transitions in disordered metals, including quantum
Griffiths singularities, smeared phase transitions, and cluster-glass
formation. For each scenario, we discuss the resulting phase diagram and
summarize the behavior of various observables. We then review several recent
experiments that provide examples of these rare region phenomena. We conclude
by discussing limitations of current approaches and open questions.Comment: 31 pages, 7 eps figures included, v2: discussion of the dissipative
Ising chain fixed, references added, v3: final version as publishe
CD4 cell count and the risk of AIDS or death in HIV-Infected adults on combination antiretroviral therapy with a suppressed viral load: a longitudinal cohort study from COHERE.
BACKGROUND: Most adults infected with HIV achieve viral suppression within a year of starting combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). It is important to understand the risk of AIDS events or death for patients with a suppressed viral load.
METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using data from the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research Europe (2010 merger), we assessed the risk of a new AIDS-defining event or death in successfully treated patients. We accumulated episodes of viral suppression for each patient while on cART, each episode beginning with the second of two consecutive plasma viral load measurements 500 copies/µl, the first of two consecutive measurements between 50-500 copies/µl, cART interruption or administrative censoring. We used stratified multivariate Cox models to estimate the association between time updated CD4 cell count and a new AIDS event or death or death alone. 75,336 patients contributed 104,265 suppression episodes and were suppressed while on cART for a median 2.7 years. The mortality rate was 4.8 per 1,000 years of viral suppression. A higher CD4 cell count was always associated with a reduced risk of a new AIDS event or death; with a hazard ratio per 100 cells/µl (95% CI) of: 0.35 (0.30-0.40) for counts <200 cells/µl, 0.81 (0.71-0.92) for counts 200 to <350 cells/µl, 0.74 (0.66-0.83) for counts 350 to <500 cells/µl, and 0.96 (0.92-0.99) for counts ≥500 cells/µl. A higher CD4 cell count became even more beneficial over time for patients with CD4 cell counts <200 cells/µl.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite the low mortality rate, the risk of a new AIDS event or death follows a CD4 cell count gradient in patients with viral suppression. A higher CD4 cell count was associated with the greatest benefit for patients with a CD4 cell count <200 cells/µl but still some slight benefit for those with a CD4 cell count ≥500 cells/µl
Moduli Spaces of Cold Holographic Matter
We use holography to study (3+1)-dimensional N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills
theory with gauge group SU(Nc), in the large-Nc and large-coupling limits,
coupled to a single massless (n+1)-dimensional hypermultiplet in the
fundamental representation of SU(Nc), with n=3,2,1. In particular, we study
zero-temperature states with a nonzero baryon number charge density, which we
call holographic matter. We demonstrate that a moduli space of such states
exists in these theories, specifically a Higgs branch parameterized by the
expectation values of scalar operators bilinear in the hypermultiplet scalars.
At a generic point on the Higgs branch, the R-symmetry and gauge group are
spontaneously broken to subgroups. Our holographic calculation consists of
introducing a single probe Dp-brane into AdS5 times S^5, with p=2n+1=7,5,3,
introducing an electric flux of the Dp-brane worldvolume U(1) gauge field, and
then obtaining explicit solutions for the worldvolume fields dual to the scalar
operators that parameterize the Higgs branch. In all three cases, we can
express these solutions as non-singular self-dual U(1) instantons in a
four-dimensional space with a metric determined by the electric flux. We
speculate on the possibility that the existence of Higgs branches may point the
way to a counting of the microstates producing a nonzero entropy in holographic
matter. Additionally, we speculate on the possible classification of
zero-temperature, nonzero-density states described holographically by probe
D-branes with worldvolume electric flux.Comment: 56 pages, 8 PDF images, 4 figure
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