Program Evaluation : the Clinical Programming of an Adolescent Psychiatric Residential Program and Adherence to Clinical Best Practice Guidelines

The structure and delivery of clinical services at an adolescent psychiatric community residential program (PCR), located in New Jersey, was evaluated and compared to national clinical guidelines in order to determine the effectiveness of the services being delivered. A multitude of demographic and clinical variables were examined through the review of 70 closed medical records over a 5-year period. An exploration of the history, rationale, and effectiveness of residential treatment services for adolescents is also presented, along with recommendations for the delivery of more effective clinical services

Rotating black hole orbit functionals in the frequency domain

In many astrophysical problems, it is important to understand the behavior of functions that come from rotating (Kerr) black hole orbits. It can be particularly useful to work with the frequency domain representation of those functions, in order to bring out their harmonic dependence upon the fundamental orbital frequencies of Kerr black holes. Although, as has recently been shown by W. Schmidt, such a frequency domain representation must exist, the coupled nature of a black hole orbit's $r$ and $\theta$ motions makes it difficult to construct such a representation in practice. Combining Schmidt's description with a clever choice of timelike coordinate suggested by Y. Mino, we have developed a simple procedure that sidesteps this difficulty. One first Fourier expands all quantities using Mino's time coordinate $\lambda$. In particular, the observer's time $t$ is decomposed with $\lambda$. The frequency domain description is then built from the $\lambda$-Fourier expansion and the expansion of $t$. We have found this procedure to be quite simple to implement, and to be applicable to a wide class of functionals. We test the procedure using a simple test function, and then apply it in a particularly interesting case, the Weyl curvature scalar $\psi_4$ used in black hole perturbation theory.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to Phys Rev D. New version gives a vastly improved algorithm due to Drasco for computing the Fourier transforms. Drasco has been added as an author. Also fixed some references and exterminated a small herd of typos; final published versio

Efficient Convex Algorithms for Universal Kernel Learning

The accuracy and complexity of machine learning algorithms based on kernel optimization are determined by the set of kernels over which they are able to optimize. An ideal set of kernels should: admit a linear parameterization (for tractability); be dense in the set of all kernels (for robustness); be universal (for accuracy). Recently, a framework was proposed for using positive matrices to parameterize a class of positive semi-separable kernels. Although this class can be shown to meet all three criteria, previous algorithms for optimization of such kernels were limited to classification and furthermore relied on computationally complex Semidefinite Programming (SDP) algorithms. In this paper, we pose the problem of learning semiseparable kernels as a minimax optimization problem and propose a SVD-QCQP primal-dual algorithm which dramatically reduces the computational complexity as compared with previous SDP-based approaches. Furthermore, we provide an efficient implementation of this algorithm for both classification and regression -- an implementation which enables us to solve problems with 100 features and up to 30,000 datums. Finally, when applied to benchmark data, the algorithm demonstrates the potential for significant improvement in accuracy over typical (but non-convex) approaches such as Neural Nets and Random Forest with similar or better computation time

Time-dependent wave-packet approach for fusion reactions of halo nuclei

The fusion reaction of a halo nucleus 11Be on 208Pb is described by a three-body direct reaction model. A time-dependent wave packet approach is applied to a three-body reaction problem. The wave packet approach enables us to obtain scattering solutions without considering the three-body scattering boundary conditions. The time evolution of the wave packet also helps us to obtain intuitive understanding of the reaction dynamics. The calculations indicate a decrease of the fusion probability by the presence of the halo neutron.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, use espcrc1.sty, Talk at the International Symposium on "Physics of Unstable Nuclei (ISPUN02)", Halong Bay, Vietnam, November 20-25, 200

Extranuclear X-ray Emission in the Edge-on Seyfert Galaxy NGC 2992

We found several extranuclear (r >~ 3") X-ray nebulae within 40" (6.3 kpc at 32.5 Mpc) of the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 2992. The net X-ray luminosity from the extranuclear sources is ~2-3 E39 erg/s (0.3-8.0 keV). The X-ray core itself (r <~ 1") is positioned at 9:45:41.95 -14:19:34.8 (J2000) and has a remarkably simple power-law spectrum with photon index Gamma=1.86 and Nh=7E21 /cm2. The near-nuclear (3" <~ r <~ 18") Chandra spectrum is best modelled by three components: (1) a direct AGN component with Gamma fixed at 1.86, (2) cold Compton reflection of the AGN component, and (3) a 0.5 keV low-abundance (Z < 0.03 Zsolar) "thermal plasma," with ~10% of the flux of either of the first two components. The X-ray luminosity of the 3rd component (the "soft excess") is ~1.4E40 erg/s, or ~5X that of all of the detected extranuclear X-ray sources. We suggest that most (~75-80%) of the soft excess emission originates from 1" < r < 3", which is not imaged in our observation due to severe CCD pile-up. We also require the cold reflector to be positioned at least 1" (158 pc) from the nucleus, since there is no reflection component in the X-ray core spectrum. Much of the extranuclear X-ray emission is coincident with radio structures (nuclear radio bubbles and large-scale radio features), and its soft X-ray luminosity is generally consistent with luminosities expected from a starburst-driven wind (with the starburst scaled from L_FIR). However, the AGN in NGC 2992 seems equally likely to power the galactic wind in that object. Furthermore, AGN photoionization and photoexcitation processes could dominate the soft excess, especially the \~75-80% which is not imaged by our observations.Comment: 34 pages AASTEX, 9 (low-res) PS figures, ApJ, in press. For full-resolution postscript file, visit http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~colbert/n2992_chandra.ps.g

Investigating a Potential Relationship Between Distinct Cancer-Associated Lactobacillus iners and Chemoradiotherapy Resistance in Cervical Cancer Patients

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp22/1138/thumbnail.jp

A new superwind galaxy: XMM-Newton observations of NGC 6810

We present the first imaging X-ray observation of the highly inclined (i = 78 deg) Sab Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 6810 using XMM-Newton, which reveals soft X-ray emission that extends out to a projected height of ~7 kpc away from the plane of the galaxy. The soft X-ray emission beyond the optical disk of the galaxy is most plausibly extra-planar, although it could instead come from large galactic radius. This extended X-ray emission is spatially associated with diffuse H-alpha emission, in particular with a prominent 5-kpc-long H-alpha filament on the north-west of the disk. A fraction <~35% of the total soft X-ray emission of the galaxy arises from projected heights |z| > 2 kpc. Within the optical disk of the galaxy the soft X-ray emission is associated with the star-forming regions visible in ground-based H-alpha and XMM-Newton Optical Monitor near-UV imaging. The temperature, super-Solar alpha-element-to-iron abundance ratio, soft X-ray/H-alpha correlation, and X-ray to far-IR flux ratio of NGC 6810 are all consistent with local starbursts with winds, although the large base radius of the outflow would make NGC 6810 one of the few ``disk-wide'' superwinds currently known. Hard X-ray emission from NGC 6810 is weak, and the total E=2-10 keV luminosity and spectral shape are consistent with the expected level of X-ray binary emission from the old and young stellar populations. The X-ray observations provide no evidence of any AGN activity. We find that the optical, IR and radio properties of NGC 6810 are all consistent with a starburst galaxy, and that the old classification of this galaxy as a Seyfert 2 galaxy is probably incorrect.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 12 pages including jpeg-encapsulated ps files, full resolution version available at http://proteus.pha.jhu.edu/~dks/dks_published.htm