Re-Scaling of Energy in the Stringy Charged Black Hole Solutions using Approximate Symmetries

This paper is devoted to study the energy problem in general relativity using approximate Lie symmetry methods for differential equations. We evaluate second-order approximate symmetries of the geodesic equations for the stringy charged black hole solutions. It is concluded that energy must be re-scaled by some factor in the second-order approximation.Comment: 18 pages, accepted for publication in Canadian J. Physic

How the presentation of patient information and decision-support advisories influences opioid prescribing behavior: A simulation study

ObjectiveThe United States faces an opioid crisis. Integrating prescription drug monitoring programs into electronic health records offers promise to improve opioid prescribing practices. This study aimed to evaluate 2 different user interface designs for prescription drug monitoring program and electronic health record integration.Materials and MethodsTwenty-four resident physicians participated in a randomized controlled experiment using 4 simulated patient cases. In the conventional condition, prescription opioid histories were presented in tabular format, and computerized clinical decision support (CDS) was provided via interruptive modal dialogs (ie, pop-ups). The alternative condition featured a graphical opioid history, a cue to visit that history, and noninterruptive CDS. Two attending pain specialists judged prescription appropriateness.ResultsParticipants in the alternative condition wrote more appropriate prescriptions. When asked after the experiment, most participants stated that they preferred the alternative design to the conventional design.ConclusionsHow patient information and CDS are presented appears to have a significant influence on opioid prescribing behavior

Privacy-preserving smart nudging system: resistant to traffic analysis and data breach

A solution like Green Transportation Choices with IoT and Smart Nudging (SN) is aiming to resolve urban challenges (e.g., increased traffic, congestion, air pollution, and noise pollution) by influencing people towards environment-friendly decisions in their daily life. The essential aspect of this system is to construct personalized suggestion and positive reinforcement for people to achieve environmentally preferable outcomes. However, the process of tailoring a nudge for a specific person requires a significant amount of personal data (e.g., user's location data, health data, activity and more) analysis. People are willingly giving up their private data for the greater good of society and making SN system a target for adversaries to get people's data and misuse them. Yet, preserving user privacy is subtly discussed and often overlooked in the SN system. Meanwhile, the European union's General data protection regulation (GDPR) tightens European Unions's (EU) already stricter privacy policy. Thus, preserving user privacy is inevitable for a system like SN. Privacy-preserving smart nudging (PPSN) is a new middleware that gives privacy guarantee for both the users and the SN system and additionally offers GDPR compliance. In the PPSN system, users have the full autonomy of their data, and users data is well protected and inaccessible without the participation of the data owner. In addition to that, PPSN system gives protection against adversaries that control all the server but one, observe network traffics and control malicious users. PPSN system's primary insight is to encrypt as much as observable variables if not all and hide the remainder by adding noise. A prototype implementation of the PPSN system achieves a throughput of 105 messages per second with 24 seconds end-to-end latency for 125k users on a quadcore machine and scales linearly with the number of users

Synthesis and characterization of silver nanoarticles from extract of Eucalyptus citriodora

The primary motivation for the study to develop simple eco-friendly green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using leaf extract of Eucalyptus citriodora as reducing and capping agent. The green synthesis process was quite fast and silver nanoparticles were formed within 0.5 h. The synthesis of the particles was observed by UV-visible spectroscopy by noting increase in absorbance. Characterization of the particles was carried out by X-ray diffraction, FTIR and electron microscopy. The developed nanoparticles demonstrated that E. citriodora is good source of reducing agents. UV-visible absorption spectra of the reaction medium containing silver nanoparticles showed maximum absorbance at 460 nm. FTIR analysis confirmed reduction of Ag+ to Ag0 atom in silver nanoparticles. The XRD pattern revealed the crystalline structure of silver nanoparticles. The SEM analysis showed the size and shape of the nanoparticles. The method being green, fast, easy and cost effective can be recommended for large scale production of AgNPs for their use in food, medicine and materials

The Timing of Reward-Seeking Action Tracks Visually-Cued Theta Oscillations in Primary Visual Cortex

An emerging body of work challenges the view that primary visual cortex (V1) represents the visual world faithfully. Theta oscillations in the local field potential (LFP) of V1 have been found to convey temporal expectations and, specifically, to express the delay between a visual stimulus and the reward that it portends. We extend this work by showing how these oscillatory states in male, wild-type rats can even relate to the timing of a visually cued reward-seeking behavior. In particular, we show that, with training, high precision and accuracy in behavioral timing tracks the power of these oscillations and the time of action execution covaries with their duration. These LFP oscillations are also intimately related to spiking responses at the single-unit level, which themselves carry predictive timing information. Together, these observations extend our understanding of the role of cortical oscillations in timing generally and the role of V1 in the timing of visually cued behaviors specifically.Fil: Levy, Joshua M.. University Johns Hopkins; Estados UnidosFil: Zold, Camila Lidia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Namboodiri, Vijay Mohan K.. University of North Carolina; Estados UnidosFil: Hussain Shuler, Marshall G. University Johns Hopkins; Estados Unido

Complex magnetic topology and strong differential rotation on the low-mass T Tauri star V2247 Oph

From observations collected with the ESPaDOnS spectropolarimeter at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we report the detection of Zeeman signatures on the low-mass classical TTauri star (cTTS) V2247Oph. Profile distortions and circular polarisation signatures detected in photospheric lines can be interpreted as caused by cool spots and magnetic regions at the surface of the star. The large-scale field is of moderate strength and highly complex; moreover, both the spot distribution and the magnetic field show significant variability on a timescale of only one week, as a likely result of strong differential rotation. Both properties make V2247Oph very different from the (more massive) prototypical cTTS BPTau; we speculate that this difference reflects the lower mass of V2247Oph. During our observations, V2247Oph was in a low-accretion state, with emission lines showing only weak levels of circular polarisation; we nevertheless find that excess emission apparently concentrates in a mid-latitude region of strong radial field, suggesting that it is the footpoint of an accretion funnel. The weaker and more complex field that we report on V2247Oph may share similarities with those of very-low-mass late-M dwarfs and potentially explain why low-mass cTTSs rotate on average faster than intermediate mass ones. These surprising results need confirmation from new independent data sets on V2247Oph and other similar low-mass cTTSs.Comment: MNRAS (in press) - 12 pages, 9 figure

A feasibility, randomised controlled trial of a complex breathlessness intervention in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (BREEZE-IPF): study protocol

Introduction Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive lung disease that causes breathlessness and cough that worsen over time, limiting daily activities and negatively impacting quality of life. Although treatments are now available that slow the rate of lung function decline, trials of these treatments have failed to show improvement in symptoms or quality of life. There is an immediate unmet need for evidenced-based interventions that improve patients' symptom burden and make a difference to everyday living. This study aims to assess the feasibility of conducting a definitive randomised controlled trial of a holistic, complex breathlessness intervention in people with IPF. Methods and analysis The trial is a two-centre, randomised controlled feasibility trial of a complex breathlessness intervention compared with usual care in patients with IPF. 50 participants will be recruited from secondary care IPF clinics and randomised 1:1 to either start the intervention within 1 week of randomisation (fast-track group) or to receive usual care for 8 weeks before receiving the intervention (wait-list group). Participants will remain in the study for a total of 16 weeks. Outcome measures will be feasibility outcomes, including recruitment, retention, acceptability and fidelity of the intervention. Clinical outcomes will be measured to inform outcome selection and sample size calculation for a definitive trial. Ethics and dissemination Yorkshire and The Humber – Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee approved the study protocol (REC 18/YH/0147). Results of the main trial and all secondary end-points will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal