Geographical information retrieval with ontologies of place

Geographical context is required of many information retrieval tasks in which the target of the search may be documents, images or records which are referenced to geographical space only by means of place names. Often there may be an imprecise match between the query name and the names associated with candidate sources of information. There is a need therefore for geographical information retrieval facilities that can rank the relevance of candidate information with respect to geographical closeness of place as well as semantic closeness with respect to the information of interest. Here we present an ontology of place that combines limited coordinate data with semantic and qualitative spatial relationships between places. This parsimonious model of geographical place supports maintenance of knowledge of place names that relate to extensive regions of the Earth at multiple levels of granularity. The ontology has been implemented with a semantic modelling system linking non-spatial conceptual hierarchies with the place ontology. An hierarchical spatial distance measure is combined with Euclidean distance between place centroids to create a hybrid spatial distance measure. This is integrated with thematic distance, based on classification semantics, to create an integrated semantic closeness measure that can be used for a relevance ranking of retrieved objects

Experimental Induction of Odontoblast Differentiation and Stimulation During Preparative Processes

In vivo implantation experiments have shown that ethylenediaminetetraaceticacid(EDTA)-soluble frac tions of dentin stimulate reparative dentinogenesis . When isolated embryonic dental papillae were cultured in the presence of these dentin constituents, odontoblast cytological and functional differentiation could be initiated and maintained in the absence of an enamel organ. These effects were attributed to the presence of TGF-/1- related molecules [TGF-/11 or bone morphogenetic protein -2a (BMP-2a)] which had to be used in combination with an EDT A-soluble fraction of dentin in order to specifically affect competent preodontoblasts . These EDT A-soluble constituents present in dentin could be replaced by heparin or fibronectin which both have been reported to interact with TGF-/1. The association of such defined matrix components with a TGF-/1-related molecule represents a biologically active complex triggering odontoblast functional differentiation. In response to caries, odontoblasts modulate their secretory activity and are stimulated to elaborate reactionary dentin. This might be induced by active molecules such as IGF, TGF-6 or BMP which are liberated from dentin consecutively to the demineralization process. Reparative dentinogenesis is distinct from reactionary dentinogenesis and more complex since it implicates the differentiation of precursor cells present in the dental papilla. The developmental history of these cells is different from that of the physiological predontoblasts in developing teeth. The nature of these stem cells and the mechanism of their induction still remain open questions

Reynolds-number Dependence of Streamwise Velocity Fluctuations in Turbulent Pipe Flow

Statistics of the streamwise velocity component in fully-developed pipe flow are examined for Reynolds numbers in the range 5.5 x 10^4 < Re_D < 5.7 x 10^6. The second moment exhibits two maxima: one in the viscous sublayer is Reynolds-number dependent while the other, near the lower edge of the log region, is also Reynolds-number dependent and follows roughly the peak in Reynolds shear stress. The behaviour of both peaks is consistent with the concept of inactive motion which increases with increasing Reynolds number and decreasing distance from the wall. No simple scaling is apparent, and in particular, so-called "mixed" scaling is no better than wall scaling in the viscous sublayer and is actually worse than wall scaling in the outer region. The second moment is compared with empirical and theoretical scaling laws and some anomalies are apparent. The scaling of spectra using y, R and u_τ is examined. It appears that even at the highest Reynolds number, they exhibit incomplete similarity only: while spectra do collapse with either inner or outer scales for limited ranges of wave number, these ranges do not overlap. Thus similarity may not be described as complete and any apparent k_1^(-1) range does not attract any special significance and does not involve universal constants. It is suggested that this is because of the influence of inactive motion. Spectra also show the presence of very long structures close to the wall

Search for Point Sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays Above 40 EeV Using a Maximum Likelihood Ratio Test

We present the results of a search for cosmic ray point sources at energies above 40 EeV in the combined data sets recorded by the AGASA and HiRes stereo experiments. The analysis is based on a maximum likelihood ratio test using the probability density function for each event rather than requiring an a priori choice of a fixed angular bin size. No statistically significant clustering of events consistent with a point source is found.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

An upper limit on the electron-neutrino flux from the HiRes detector

Air-fluorescence detectors such as the High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) detector are very sensitive to upward-going, Earth-skimming ultrahigh energy electron-neutrino-induced showers. This is due to the relatively large interaction cross sections of these high-energy neutrinos and to the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect. The LPM effect causes a significant decrease in the cross sections for bremsstrahlung and pair production, allowing charged-current electron-neutrino-induced showers occurring deep in the Earth's crust to be detectable as they exit the Earth into the atmosphere. A search for upward-going neutrino-induced showers in the HiRes-II monocular dataset has yielded a null result. From an LPM calculation of the energy spectrum of charged particles as a function of primary energy and depth for electron-induced showers in rock, we calculate the shape of the resulting profile of these showers in air. We describe a full detector Monte Carlo simulation to determine the detector response to upward-going electron-neutrino-induced cascades and present an upper limit on the flux of electron-neutrinos.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. submitted to Astrophysical Journa

Search for Correlations between HiRes Stereo Events and Active Galactic Nuclei

We have searched for correlations between the pointing directions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays observed by the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) visible from its northern hemisphere location. No correlations, other than random correlations, have been found. We report our results using search parameters prescribed by the Pierre Auger collaboration. Using these parameters, the Auger collaboration concludes that a positive correlation exists for sources visible to their southern hemisphere location. We also describe results using two methods for determining the chance probability of correlations: one in which a hypothesis is formed from scanning one half of the data and tested on the second half, and another which involves a scan over the entire data set. The most significant correlation found occurred with a chance probability of 24%.Comment: 13 pages, 1 table, 5 figure

Observation of an Excited Bc+ State

Using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.5 fb-1 recorded by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of s=7, 8, and 13 TeV, the observation of an excited Bc+ state in the Bc+π+π- invariant-mass spectrum is reported. The observed peak has a mass of 6841.2±0.6(stat)±0.1(syst)±0.8(Bc+) MeV/c2, where the last uncertainty is due to the limited knowledge of the Bc+ mass. It is consistent with expectations of the Bc∗(2S31)+ state reconstructed without the low-energy photon from the Bc∗(1S31)+→Bc+γ decay following Bc∗(2S31)+→Bc∗(1S31)+π+π-. A second state is seen with a global (local) statistical significance of 2.2σ (3.2σ) and a mass of 6872.1±1.3(stat)±0.1(syst)±0.8(Bc+) MeV/c2, and is consistent with the Bc(2S10)+ state. These mass measurements are the most precise to date

Measurement of the Bs0→J/ψηB_{s}^{0} \rightarrow J/\psi \eta lifetime

Using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3 fb^{-1}$, collected by the LHCb experiment in $pp$ collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, the effective lifetime in the $B^0_s \rightarrow J/\psi \eta$ decay mode, $\tau_{\textrm{eff}}$, is measured to be $\tau_{\textrm{eff}} = 1.479 \pm 0.034~\textrm{(stat)} \pm 0.011 ~\textrm{(syst)}$ ps. Assuming $CP$ conservation, $\tau_{\textrm{eff}}$ corresponds to the lifetime of the light $B_s^0$ mass eigenstate. This is the first measurement of the effective lifetime in this decay mode.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2016-017.htm

Bose-Einstein correlations of same-sign charged pions in the forward region in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Bose-Einstein correlations of same-sign charged pions, produced in protonproton collisions at a 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy, are studied using a data sample collected by the LHCb experiment. The signature for Bose-Einstein correlations is observed in the form of an enhancement of pairs of like-sign charged pions with small four-momentum difference squared. The charged-particle multiplicity dependence of the Bose-Einstein correlation parameters describing the correlation strength and the size of the emitting source is investigated, determining both the correlation radius and the chaoticity parameter. The measured correlation radius is found to increase as a function of increasing charged-particle multiplicity, while the chaoticity parameter is seen to decreas