Measuring Global Similarity between Texts

We propose a new similarity measure between texts which, contrary to the current state-of-the-art approaches, takes a global view of the texts to be compared. We have implemented a tool to compute our textual distance and conducted experiments on several corpuses of texts. The experiments show that our methods can reliably identify different global types of texts.Comment: Submitted to SLSP 201

Systematic Heuristic Evaluation of Computerized Consultation Order Templates: Clinicians’ and Human Factors Engineers’ Perspectives

We assessed the usability of consultation order templates and identified problems to prioritize in design efforts for improving referral communication. With a sample of 26 consultation order templates, three evaluators performed a usability heuristic evaluation. The evaluation used 14 domain-independent heuristics and the following three supplemental references: 1 new domain-specific heuristic, 6 usability goals, and coded clinicians’ statements regarding ease of use for 10 sampled templates. Evaluators found 201 violations, a mean of 7.7 violations per template. Minor violations outnumbered major violations almost twofold, 115 (57%) to 62 (31%). Approximately 68% of violations were linked to 5 heuristics: aesthetic and minimalist design (17%), error prevention (16%), consistency and standards (14%), recognition rather than recall (11%), and meet referrers’ information needs (10%). Severe violations were attributed mostly to meet referrers’ information needs and recognition rather than recall. Recorded violations yielded potential negative consequences for efficiency, effectiveness, safety, learnability, and utility. Evaluators and clinicians demonstrated 80% agreement in usability assessment. Based on frequency and severity of usability heuristic violations, the consultation order templates reviewed may impede clinical efficiency and risk patient safety. Results support the following design considerations: communicate consultants’ requirements, facilitate information seeking, and support communication. While the most frequent heuristic violations involved interaction design and presentation, the most severe violations lacked information desired by referring clinicians. Violations related to templates’ inability to support referring clinicians’ information needs had the greatest potential negative impact on efficiency and safety usability goals. Heuristics should be prioritized in future design efforts

Silicon Avalanche Pixel Sensor for High Precision Tracking

The development of an innovative position sensitive pixelated sensor to detect and measure with high precision the coordinates of the ionizing particles is proposed. The silicon avalanche pixel sensors (APiX) is based on the vertical integration of avalanche pixels connected in pairs and operated in coincidence in fully digital mode and with the processing electronics embedded on the chip. The APiX sensor addresses the need to minimize the material budget and related multiple scattering effects in tracking systems requiring a high spatial resolution in the presence of a large occupancy. The expected operation of the new sensor features: low noise, low power consumption and suitable radiation tolerance. The APiX device provides on-chip digital information on the position of the coordinate of the impinging charged particle and can be seen as the building block of a modular system of pixelated arrays, implementing a sparsified readout. The technological challenges are the 3D integration of the device under CMOS processes and integration of processing electronics.Comment: 13th Topical Seminar on Innovative Particle and Radiation Detectors IPRD1

Undulator A characteristics and specifications

The Advanced Photon Source (APS) Undulator A is a planar device optimized for the hard x-ray region. In the mature phase of operation, it satisfies the requirement of providing high brilliance x-rays continuously over the tuning range from 4.2 key to above 30 key, using the first and the third harmonic radiation from the undulator. This is achieved through the choice of the 3.3-cm long period, the hybrid undulator design, and the stringent requirements on the magnetic field quality. The undulator is 2.4 m long (including the end sections) with 72 periods. The magnetic structure consists of Nd-Fe-B magnets with vanadium permendur poles. The field errors are specified in this paper to ensure that the third harmonic radiation from the actual device will achieve at least 70% of its theoretical brilliance. The first harmonic is less sensitive to field errors and thus should attain brilliance even closer to the theoretical value. The predicted magnetic fields at various gap values based on a detail design of the magnetic structure of Undulator A are listed in this paper

Inflation, moduli (de)stabilization and supersymmetry breaking

We study the cosmological inflation from the viewpoint of the moduli stabilization. We study the scenario that the superpotential has a large value during the inflation era enough to stabilize moduli, but it is small in the true vacuum. This scenario is discussed by using a simple model, one type of hybrid models.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

A novel superfamily containing the β-grasp fold involved in binding diverse soluble ligands

BACKGROUND: Domains containing the β-grasp fold are utilized in a great diversity of physiological functions but their role, if any, in soluble or small molecule ligand recognition is poorly studied. RESULTS: Using sensitive sequence and structure similarity searches we identify a novel superfamily containing the β-grasp fold. They are found in a diverse set of proteins that include the animal vitamin B12 uptake proteins transcobalamin and intrinsic factor, the bacterial polysaccharide export proteins, the competence DNA receptor ComEA, the cob(I)alamin generating enzyme PduS and the Nqo1 subunit of the respiratory electron transport chain. We present evidence that members of this superfamily are likely to bind a range of soluble ligands, including B12. There are two major clades within this superfamily, namely the transcobalamin-like clade and the Nqo1-like clade. The former clade is typified by an insert of a β-hairpin after the helix of the β-grasp fold, whereas the latter clade is characterized by an insert between strands 4 and 5 of the core fold. CONCLUSION: Members of both clades within this superfamily are predicted to interact with ligands in a similar spatial location, with their specific inserts playing a role in the process. Both clades are widely represented in bacteria suggesting that this superfamily was derived early in bacterial evolution. The animal lineage appears to have acquired the transcobalamin-like proteins from low GC Gram-positive bacteria, and this might be correlated with the emergence of the ability to utilize B12 produced by gut bacteria. REVIEWERS: This article was reviewed by Andrei Osterman, Igor Zhulin, and Arcady Mushegian

SQCD Inflation & SUSY Breaking

A model of generalised hybrid inflation in a supersymmetric QCD theory is proposed whose parameters are the gauge coupling and quark masses. Its gravitational coupling to another SQCD sector induces a metastable supersymmetry breaking vacuum of the ISS type as ISS quarks become massive at the end of inflation. Using a known mechanism with a gravitational breaking of the baryon number and the gauging of flavour symmetries, we find that gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking is compatible with the dynamics of the inflation sector. Reheating proceeds via the thermalization of the ISS messengers into the standard model states. This setup contains a single dimensionful parameter in the form of a quark mass term in the inflationary sector, i.e. all other scales involved are either related to this single mass parameter or dynamically generated.Comment: 15 pages, typos corrected, references adde

Desigualdades sociales y salud en el nivel local: hacia la conformación del observatorio socio-sanitario para Concepción del Uruguay

El objetivo del presente proyecto fue analizar la relación entre las desigualdades sociales y las inequidades en salud en la ciudad de Concepción del Uruguay para el período 2001 - 2018. Para alcanzar este objetivo se llevó adelante un estudio descriptivo de diseño mixto de corte transversal y longitudinal retrospectivo, sustentado en datos de fuentes primarias y secundarias que combinó el análisis estadístico y la georreferenciación de datos a nivel local para el análisis de seis problemáticas de salud específicas. De esta forma, se analizó la distribución temporal y espacial de la mortalidad materna e infantil, los embarazos de riesgo, el cáncer, el VIH-SIDA y las muertes violentas y su relación con dimensiones socioeconómicas, ambientales y culturales, generando conocimiento sobre la relación entre las inequidades en salud y las desigualdades sociales en Concepción del Uruguay y sentando las bases de un sistema de información que oriente el diseño de políticas de salud en el nivel local. ARK: http://id.caicyt.gov.ar/ark:/s22504559/zzdzo1xk1

Minimal Scenarios for Leptogenesis and CP Violation

The relation between leptogenesis and CP violation at low energies is analyzed in detail in the framework of the minimal seesaw mechanism. Working, without loss of generality, in a weak basis where both the charged lepton and the right-handed Majorana mass matrices are diagonal and real, we consider a convenient generic parametrization of the Dirac neutrino Yukawa coupling matrix and identify the necessary condition which has to be satisfied in order to establish a direct link between leptogenesis and CP violation at low energies. In the context of the LMA solution of the solar neutrino problem, we present minimal scenarios which allow for the full determination of the cosmological baryon asymmetry and the strength of CP violation in neutrino oscillations. Some specific realizations of these minimal scenarios are considered. The question of the relative sign between the baryon asymmetry and CP violation at low energies is also discussed.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures; minor corrections and references updated. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.