1,565 research outputs found
Portrayal: Leveraging NLP and Visualization for Analyzing Fictional Characters
Many creative writing tasks (e.g., fiction writing) require authors to write
complex narrative components (e.g., characterization, events, dialogue) over
the course of a long story. Similarly, literary scholars need to manually
annotate and interpret texts to understand such abstract components. In this
paper, we explore how Natural Language Processing (NLP) and interactive
visualization can help writers and scholars in such scenarios. To this end, we
present Portrayal, an interactive visualization system for analyzing characters
in a story. Portrayal extracts natural language indicators from a text to
capture the characterization process and then visualizes the indicators in an
interactive interface. We evaluated the system with 12 creative writers and
scholars in a one-week-long qualitative study. Our findings suggest Portrayal
helped writers revise their drafts and create dynamic characters and scenes. It
helped scholars analyze characters without the need for any manual annotation,
and design literary arguments with concrete evidence
Degree of Complementarity Determines the Nonlocality in Quantum Mechanics
Complementarity principle is one of the central concepts in quantum mechanics
which restricts joint measurement for certain observables. Of course, later
development shows that joint measurement could be possible for such observables
with the introduction of a certain degree of unsharpness or fuzziness in the
measurement. In this paper, we show that the optimal degree of unsharpness,
which guarantees the joint measurement of all possible pairs of dichotomic
observables, determines the degree of nonlocality in quantum mechanics as well
as in more general no-signaling theories.Comment: Close to published versio
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The development of the Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Scale (CSBD-19): an ICD-11 based screening measure across three languages
Background: Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder (CSBD) is included in the eleventh edition of The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an impulse-control disorder.
Aims: The aim of the present work was to develop a scale (Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Scale-CSBD-19) that can reliably and validly assess CSBD based on ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines.
Method: Four independent samples of 9,325 individuals completed self-reported measures from three countries (the United States, Hungary, and Germany). The psychometric properties of the CSBD-19 were examined in terms of factor structure, reliability, measurement invariance, and theoretically relevant correlates. A potential threshold was determined to identify individuals with an elevated risk of CSBD.
Results: The five-factor model of the CSBD-19 (i.e., control, salience, relapse, dissatisfaction, and negative consequences) had an excellent fit to the data and demonstrated appropriate associations with the correlates. Measurement invariance suggested that the CSBD-19 functions similarly across languages. Men had higher means than women. A score of 50 points was found as an optimal threshold to identify individuals at high-risk of CSBD.
Conclusions: The CSBD-19 is a short, valid, and reliable measure of potential CSBD based on ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines. Its use in large-scale, cross-cultural studies may promote the identification and understanding of individuals with a high risk of CSBD
Palliative Medicine Competency Education in Emergency Medicine Residency Training: A Preliminary Report
Gender Differences in Perceptions and Self-Reported Driving Behaviors Among Teenagers. (Poster)
Racial Disparities in Head and Neck Cancers in an Urban Hospital
Introduction: Head and neck cancer incidence rates are higher for white residents in Philadelphia, while related mortality rates are highest for black residents. It is unclear how risk factors like HPV and smoking contribute to these disparities. The goal of this study is to determine which factors are associated with head and neck cancers in a diverse patient population from a Philadelphia hospital.
Methods: Cancer registry data from Thomas Jefferson University was used to obtain records from 922 head and neck cancer patients. One patient of other race was excluded. Twenty in-situ cancer cases were excluded. Chi-square tests were used to examine categorical variables. Logistic and Cox regression models were designed to examine associations with advanced disease and time to mortality.
Results: Our sample included 901 patients (769 white, 96 black, 36 Asian). Positive HPV status was most prevalent for white patients (p\u3c 0.0001). Oral cancers were most common among Asians (p\u3c.0001). In univariate analysis, black patients were most likely to die from their cancer. In multivariate analysis, time to death was shorter for current smokers (HR=1.95, CI=1.311-2.901) and former smokers (HR=2.94, CI=1.949-4.387). Positive HPV status was protective (HR=0.34, CI=.244-.481). No significant race effects were observed in multivariate analysis.
Conclusions: Results suggest that race is not independently associated with head and neck cancer associated mortality. These results also suggest that some risk factors for head and neck cancer and outcomes may be modified by educational and behavioral interventions
Combined Dietary Nitrate and Exercise Intervention in Peripheral Artery Disease: Protocol Rationale and Design
Background:
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is caused by atherosclerotic occlusions in the legs. It affects approximately 8-12 million people in the United States alone, one-third of whom suffer from intermittent claudication (IC), defined as ischemic leg pain that occurs with walking and improves with rest. Patients with IC suffer a markedly impaired quality of life and a high perception of disability. Improving pain-free walking time is a primary goal of rehabilitation in this population.
Objective:
The nitric oxide (NO)-PAD trial is designed to compare the effects that 12 weeks of supervised exercise training, in combination with a high inorganic nitrate-content (beetroot [BR] juice) beverage or placebo (PL) beverage, has on clinical outcomes of exercise and functional capacity in two groups of PAD+IC patients: exercise training plus beetroot (EX+BR) and exercise training plus placebo (EX+PL). The primary aims of this randomized controlled, double-blind pilot study are to determine group differences following 12 weeks of EX+BR versus EX+PL in the changes for (1) exercise capacity: pain-free walking time (claudication onset time, COT), peak walk time (PWT), and maximal exercise capacity (peak oxygen uptake, VO2peak) during a maximal-graded cardiopulmonary exercise test (max CPX) and (2) functional capacity: 6-minute walk (6MW) distance. The secondary aims will provide mechanistic insights into the exercise outcome measures and will include (1) gastrocnemius muscle oxygenation during exercise via near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS); (2) gastrocnemius muscle angiogenesis: capillaries per unit area and per muscle fiber, and relative fraction of type I, IIa, IIb, and IId/x fibers; and (3) vascular health/function via brachial artery flow-mediated dilation, lower-limb blood flow via plethysmography, and pulse wave velocity and reflection.
Methods:
A total of 30 subjects between 40 and 80 years of age with PAD who are limited by IC will undergo exercise training 3 days per week for 12 weeks (ie, 36 sessions). They will be randomized to either the EX+BR or EX+PL group where participants will consume a beverage high in inorganic nitrate (4.2 mmol) or a low-nitrate placebo, respectively, 3 hours prior to each training session.
Results:
Data collection from this study has been completed and is in the process of analysis and write-up. While the study is too underpowered—EX+BR, n=11; EX+PL, n=13—to determine between-group differences in the primary outcomes of COT, PWT, and 6MW, preliminary observations are promising with Cohen d effect sizes of medium to large.
Conclusions:
Exercise training is currently the most effective therapy to increase functional capacity in PAD+IC. If the addition of inorganic nitrate to an exercise regimen elicits greater benefits, it may redefine the current standard of care for PAD+IC
A solid state light-matter interface at the single photon level
Coherent and reversible mapping of quantum information between light and
matter is an important experimental challenge in quantum information science.
In particular, it is a decisive milestone for the implementation of quantum
networks and quantum repeaters. So far, quantum interfaces between light and
atoms have been demonstrated with atomic gases, and with single trapped atoms
in cavities. Here we demonstrate the coherent and reversible mapping of a light
field with less than one photon per pulse onto an ensemble of 10 millions atoms
naturally trapped in a solid. This is achieved by coherently absorbing the
light field in a suitably prepared solid state atomic medium. The state of the
light is mapped onto collective atomic excitations on an optical transition and
stored for a pre-programmed time up of to 1 mu s before being released in a
well defined spatio-temporal mode as a result of a collective interference. The
coherence of the process is verified by performing an interference experiment
with two stored weak pulses with a variable phase relation. Visibilities of
more than 95% are obtained, which demonstrates the high coherence of the
mapping process at the single photon level. In addition, we show experimentally
that our interface allows one to store and retrieve light fields in multiple
temporal modes. Our results represent the first observation of collective
enhancement at the single photon level in a solid and open the way to multimode
solid state quantum memories as a promising alternative to atomic gases.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, version submitted on June 27 200
Towards high-speed optical quantum memories
Quantum memories, capable of controllably storing and releasing a photon, are
a crucial component for quantum computers and quantum communications. So far,
quantum memories have operated with bandwidths that limit data rates to MHz.
Here we report the coherent storage and retrieval of sub-nanosecond low
intensity light pulses with spectral bandwidths exceeding 1 GHz in cesium
vapor. The novel memory interaction takes place via a far off-resonant
two-photon transition in which the memory bandwidth is dynamically generated by
a strong control field. This allows for an increase in data rates by a factor
of almost 1000 compared to existing quantum memories. The memory works with a
total efficiency of 15% and its coherence is demonstrated by directly
interfering the stored and retrieved pulses. Coherence times in hot atomic
vapors are on the order of microsecond - the expected storage time limit for
this memory.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Quantum Communication
Quantum communication, and indeed quantum information in general, has changed
the way we think about quantum physics. In 1984 and 1991, the first protocol
for quantum cryptography and the first application of quantum non-locality,
respectively, attracted a diverse field of researchers in theoretical and
experimental physics, mathematics and computer science. Since then we have seen
a fundamental shift in how we understand information when it is encoded in
quantum systems. We review the current state of research and future directions
in this new field of science with special emphasis on quantum key distribution
and quantum networks.Comment: Submitted version, 8 pg (2 cols) 5 fig
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