113 research outputs found
Intermediate coherent-incoherent charge transport: DNA as a case study
We study an intermediate quantum coherent-incoherent charge transport
mechanism in metal-molecule-metal junctions using B\"uttiker's probe technique.
This tool allows us to include incoherent effects in a controlled manner, and
thus to study situations in which partial decoherence affects charge transfer
dynamics. Motivated by recent experiments on intermediate coherent-incoherent
charge conduction in DNA molecules [L. Xiang {\it et al.}, Nature Chem. 7,
221-226 (2015)], we focus on two representative structures: alternating
(GC) and stacked GC sequences; the latter structure is argued to
support charge delocalization within G segments, and thus an intermediate
coherent-incoherent conduction. We begin our analysis with a highly simplified
1-dimensional tight-binding model, while introducing environmental effects
through B\"uttiker's probes. This minimal model allows us to gain fundamental
understanding of transport mechanisms and derive analytic results for molecular
resistance in different limits. We then use a more detailed ladder-model
Hamiltonian to represent double-stranded DNA structures---with environmental
effects captured by B\"uttiker's probes. We find that hopping conduction
dominates in alternating sequences, while in stacked sequences charge
delocalization (visualized directly through the electronic density matrix)
supports significant resonant-ballistic charge dynamics reflected by an
even-odd effect and a weak distance dependence for resistance. Our analysis
illustrates that lessons learned from minimal models are helpful for
interpreting charge dynamics in DNA.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figure
Forming Stable Coalitions: The Process Matters
Players are assumed to rank each other as coalition partners. Two processes of coalition formation are defined and illustrated: i) Fallback (FB): Players seek coalition partners by descending lower and lower in their preference rankings until some majority coalition, all of whose members consider each other mutually acceptable, forms. ii) Build-up (BU):Same descent as FB, except only majorities whose members rank each other highest form coalitions. BU coalitions are stable in the sense that no member would prefer to be in another coalition, whereas FB coalitions, whose members need not rank each other highest, may not be stable. BU coalitions are bimodally distributed in a random society, with peaks around simple majority and unanimity the distributions of majorities in the US Supreme Count and in the US House of Representatives follow this pattern. The dynamics of real-life coalition-formation processes are illustrated by two Supreme Court cases.Coalition dynamics, Fallback bargaining, Manipulability, Legislatures, US Supreme Court
Geometric Deep Learning for Molecular Crystal Structure Prediction
We develop and test new machine learning strategies for accelerating molecular crystal structure ranking and crystal property prediction using tools from geometric deep learning on molecular graphs. Leveraging developments in graph-based learning and the availability of large molecular crystal data sets, we train models for density prediction and stability ranking which are accurate, fast to evaluate, and applicable to molecules of widely varying size and composition. Our density prediction model, MolXtalNet-D, achieves state-of-the-art performance, with lower than 2% mean absolute error on a large and diverse test data set. Our crystal ranking tool, MolXtalNet-S, correctly discriminates experimental samples from synthetically generated fakes and is further validated through analysis of the submissions to the Cambridge Structural Database Blind Tests 5 and 6. Our new tools are computationally cheap and flexible enough to be deployed within an existing crystal structure prediction pipeline both to reduce the search space and score/filter crystal structure candidates
Simulations of Disordered Matter in 3D with the Morphological Autoregressive Protocol (MAP) and Convolutional Neural Networks
Disordered molecular systems such as amorphous catalysts, organic thin films,
electrolyte solutions, and water are at the cutting edge of computational
exploration today. Traditional simulations of such systems at length-scales
relevant to experiments in practice require a compromise between model accuracy
and quality of sampling. To remedy the situation, we have developed an approach
based on generative machine learning called the Morphological Autoregressive
Protocol (MAP) which provides computational access to mesoscale disordered
molecular configurations at linear cost at generation for materials in which
structural correlations decay sufficiently rapidly. The algorithm is
implemented using an augmented PixelCNN deep learning architecture that we
previously demonstrated produces excellent results in 2 dimensions (2D) for
mono-elemental molecular systems. Here, we extend our implementation to
multielemental 3D and demonstrate performance using water as our test system in
two scenarios: 1. liquid water, and 2. a sample conditioned on the presence of
a rare motif. We trained the model on small-scale samples of liquid water
produced using path-integral molecular dynamics simulation including nuclear
quantum effects under ambient conditions. MAP-generated water configurations
are shown to accurately reproduce the properties of the training set and to
produce stable trajectories when used as initial conditions in classical and
quantum dynamical simulations. We expect our approach to perform equally well
on other disordered molecular systems while offering unique advantages in
situations when the disorder is quenched rather than equilibrated
The 2014 KIT IWSLT Speech-to-Text Systems for English, German and Italian
This paper describes our German, Italian and English Speech-to-Text (STT) systems for the 2014 IWSLT TED ASR track. Our setup uses ROVER and confusion network combination from various subsystems to achieve a good overall performance. The individual subsystems are built by using different front-ends, (e.g., MVDR-MFCC or lMel), acoustic models (GMM or modular DNN) and phone sets and by training on various subsets of the training data. Decoding is performed in two stages, where the GMM systems are adapted in an unsupervised manner on the combination of the first stage outputs using VTLN, MLLR, and cMLLR. The combination setup produces a final hypothesis that has a significantly lower WER than any of the individual subsystems
Parental perceptions and understanding of information provision, management options and factors influencing the decision-making process in the treatment of children with glue ear
Objectives
Otitis media with effusion (OME) is a common cause of hearing loss and possible developmental delay in children, and there are a range of ‘preference sensitive’ treatment options. We aimed to evaluate the attitudes and beliefs of parents of affected children to treatment options including watchful-waiting, hearing aids, grommets, and, oral steroids with the intention of developing our understanding of decision-making and the factors influencing it, sources of parental information, and satisfaction with information provision.
Design
We recruited a convenience sample of twelve parents of eleven children with OME at a single ENT department of a teaching hospital into a qualitative research study. The children of the parents interviewed had already been recruited into the Oral Steroids for the Resolution of Otitis Media with effusion In Children (OSTRICH) study. Semi structured interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and then coded using an inductive, thematic approach.
Results
Parents were satisfied with the verbal provision of information during the treatment consultation, although many were keen to receive supplementary printed information. Discussion with family and friends helped the decision-making process, whereas insufficient information and a paternalistic approach were viewed as obstacles. Parents were particularly influenced by the following: the immediacy of the treatment option effect, perceived efficacy, perceived risks and adverse effects, social implications (especially with hearing aids) and past personal and informant experience.
Conclusions
Parents appreciate clinicians tailoring information provision to parents' information needs and preferred format. Clinicians should also elicit parental attitudes towards the different management options for OME and the factors influencing their decisions, in order to optimise shared-decision making and ultimately provide a better standard of clinical care
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