581 research outputs found
Global warming and discourses of uncertainty: buying time, buying business and engendering risk
Pro-anorexia websites portray an extreme form of thin-ideal. This between-subjects experiment examined the effects of viewing such a website on body satisfaction, affect, and appearance self-efficacy compared to viewing control websites (fashion, home decoration, automutilation). The sample consisted of 124 normal weight, young adult, Dutch women (mean age 21.2, mean body mass index 21.4). Participants did not differ on affect and appearance self-efficacy. One body satisfaction measure showed that pro-anorexia viewers were more satisfied with their bodies than home decoration viewers. Our findings suggest that viewing a pro-anorexia website might not have detrimental effects on body satisfaction and affect among normal weight young women
The integral monodromy of hyperelliptic and trielliptic curves
We compute the \integ/\ell and \integ_\ell monodromy of every irreducible
component of the moduli spaces of hyperelliptic and trielliptic curves. In
particular, we provide a proof that the \integ/\ell monodromy of the moduli
space of hyperelliptic curves of genus is the symplectic group
\sp_{2g}(\integ/\ell). We prove that the \integ/\ell monodromy of the
moduli space of trielliptic curves with signature is the special
unitary group \su_{(r,s)}(\integ/\ell\tensor\integ[\zeta_3])
A Map-Reduce Parallel Approach to Automatic Synthesis of Control Software
Many Control Systems are indeed Software Based Control Systems, i.e. control
systems whose controller consists of control software running on a
microcontroller device. This motivates investigation on Formal Model Based
Design approaches for automatic synthesis of control software.
Available algorithms and tools (e.g., QKS) may require weeks or even months
of computation to synthesize control software for large-size systems. This
motivates search for parallel algorithms for control software synthesis.
In this paper, we present a Map-Reduce style parallel algorithm for control
software synthesis when the controlled system (plant) is modeled as discrete
time linear hybrid system. Furthermore we present an MPI-based implementation
PQKS of our algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first parallel
approach for control software synthesis.
We experimentally show effectiveness of PQKS on two classical control
synthesis problems: the inverted pendulum and the multi-input buck DC/DC
converter. Experiments show that PQKS efficiency is above 65%. As an example,
PQKS requires about 16 hours to complete the synthesis of control software for
the pendulum on a cluster with 60 processors, instead of the 25 days needed by
the sequential algorithm in QKS.Comment: To be submitted to TACAS 2013. arXiv admin note: substantial text
overlap with arXiv:1207.4474, arXiv:1207.409
Detecting metal-rich intermediate-age globular clusters in NGC4570 using K-band photometry
“The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com”. Copyright Springer. DOI: 10.1007/s10509-009-0093-8Globular cluster systems (GCSs) of most early-type galaxies feature two peaks in their optical colour distributions. Blue-peak globular clusters (GCs) are believed to be old and metal-poor, whereas the ages, metallicities, and the origin of the red-peak GCs are still being debated. We obtained deep K-band photometry and combined it with Hubble Space Telescope observations in g and z to yield a full spectral energy distribution from the optical to the near-infrared. This now allows us to break the age–metallicity degeneracy. We used our evolutionary synthesis models galev for star clusters to compute a large grid of models with different metallicities and a wide range of ages. Comparing these models to our observations revealed a large population of intermediate-age (1–3 Gyr) and metal-rich (≈solar-metallicity) GCs, that will give us further insights into the formation history of this galaxy.Peer reviewe
Phonon Dispersion Relations in PrBa2Cu3O6+x (x ~ 0.2)
We report measurements of the phonon dispersion relations in
non-superconducting, oxygen-deficient PrBa2Cu3O6+x (x ~ 0.2) by inelastic
neutron scattering. The data are compared with a model of the lattice dynamics
based on a common interaction potential. Good agreement is achieved for all but
two phonon branches, which are significantly softer than predicted. These modes
are found to arise predominantly from motion of the oxygen ions in the CuO2
planes. Analogous modes in YBa2Cu3O6 are well described by the common
interaction potential model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Minor changes following referees' comment
Replication, Pathogenesis and Transmission of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Virus in Non-Immune Pigs
The declaration of the human influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 (H1N1/09) raised important questions, including origin and host range [1,2]. Two of the three pandemics in the last century resulted in the spread of virus to pigs (H1N1, 1918; H3N2, 1968) with subsequent independent establishment and evolution within swine worldwide [3]. A key public and veterinary health consideration in the context of the evolving pandemic is whether the H1N1/09 virus could become established in pig populations [4]. We performed an infection and transmission study in pigs with A/California/07/09. In combination, clinical, pathological, modified influenza A matrix gene real time RT-PCR and viral genomic analyses have shown that infection results in the induction of clinical signs, viral pathogenesis restricted to the respiratory tract, infection dynamics consistent with endemic strains of influenza A in pigs, virus transmissibility between pigs and virus-host adaptation events. Our results demonstrate that extant H1N1/09 is fully capable of becoming established in global pig populations. We also show the roles of viral receptor specificity in both transmission and tissue tropism. Remarkably, following direct inoculation of pigs with virus quasispecies differing by amino acid substitutions in the haemagglutinin receptor-binding site, only virus with aspartic acid at position 225 (225D) was detected in nasal secretions of contact infected pigs. In contrast, in lower respiratory tract samples from directly inoculated pigs, with clearly demonstrable pulmonary pathology, there was apparent selection of a virus variant with glycine (225G). These findings provide potential clues to the existence and biological significance of viral receptor-binding variants with 225D and 225G during the 1918 pandemic [5]
Holographic multiverse and the measure problem
We discuss the duality, conjectured in earlier work, between the wave
function of the multiverse and a 3D Euclidean theory on the future boundary of
spacetime. In particular, we discuss the choice of the boundary metric and the
relation between the UV cutoff scale xi on the boundary and the hypersurfaces
Sigma on which the wave function is defined in the bulk. We propose that in the
limit of xi going to 0 these hypersurfaces should be used as cutoff surfaces in
the multiverse measure. Furthermore, we argue that in the inflating regions of
spacetime with a slowly varying Hubble rate H the hypersurfaces Sigma are
surfaces of constant comoving apparent horizon (CAH). Finally, we introduce a
measure prescription (called CAH+) which appears to have no pathological
features and coincides with the constant CAH cutoff in regions of slowly
varying H.Comment: A minor change: the discussion of unitarity on p.9 is clarifie
The membrane at the end of the (de Sitter) universe
The original {\it membrane at the end of the universe} corresponds to a probe
-brane of signature occupying the boundary of
the spacetime , and is described by an
SCFT. However, it was subsequently generalized to other worldvolume
signatures and other spacetime signatures . An interesting
special case is provided by the brane at the end of the de Sitter
universe which has recently featured in the correspondence.
The resulting CFT contains the one recently proposed as the holographic dual of
a four-dimensional de Sitter cosmology.
Supersymmetry restricts by requiring that the corresponding bosonic
symmetry be a subgroup of a superconformal
group. The case of is `doubly holographic' and may be
regarded as the near horizon geometry of -branes or equivalently,
under interchange of conformal and R symmetry, of -branes, provided
. The same correspondence holds in the pp-wave limit of
conventional -theory.Comment: Minor corrections. 20 pages Late
The Black Branes of M-theory
We present a class of black -brane solutions of M-theory which were
hitherto known only in the extremal supersymmetric limit, and calculate their
macroscopic entropy and temperature.Comment: Latex, 13 pages, minor corrections and reference adde
Counter-stereotypical messaging and partisan cues: Moving the needle on vaccines in a polarized United States
This paper reports results from a large-scale randomized controlled trial assessing whether counter-stereotypical messaging and partisan cues can induce people to get COVID-19 vaccines. The study used a 27-s video compilation of Donald Trump's comments about the vaccine from Fox News interviews and presented the video to millions of U.S. YouTube users through a $100,000 advertising campaign in October 2021. Results indicate that the number of vaccines increased in the average treated county by 103 (with a one-tailed P value of 0.097). Based on this average treatment effect and totaling across our 1014 treated counties, the total estimated effect was 104,036 vaccines
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