7,840 research outputs found
Estimation of constant and time-varying dynamic parameters of HIV infection in a nonlinear differential equation model
Modeling viral dynamics in HIV/AIDS studies has resulted in a deep
understanding of pathogenesis of HIV infection from which novel antiviral
treatment guidance and strategies have been derived. Viral dynamics models
based on nonlinear differential equations have been proposed and well developed
over the past few decades. However, it is quite challenging to use experimental
or clinical data to estimate the unknown parameters (both constant and
time-varying parameters) in complex nonlinear differential equation models.
Therefore, investigators usually fix some parameter values, from the literature
or by experience, to obtain only parameter estimates of interest from clinical
or experimental data. However, when such prior information is not available, it
is desirable to determine all the parameter estimates from data. In this paper
we intend to combine the newly developed approaches, a multi-stage
smoothing-based (MSSB) method and the spline-enhanced nonlinear least squares
(SNLS) approach, to estimate all HIV viral dynamic parameters in a nonlinear
differential equation model. In particular, to the best of our knowledge, this
is the first attempt to propose a comparatively thorough procedure, accounting
for both efficiency and accuracy, to rigorously estimate all key kinetic
parameters in a nonlinear differential equation model of HIV dynamics from
clinical data. These parameters include the proliferation rate and death rate
of uninfected HIV-targeted cells, the average number of virions produced by an
infected cell, and the infection rate which is related to the antiviral
treatment effect and is time-varying. To validate the estimation methods, we
verified the identifiability of the HIV viral dynamic model and performed
simulation studies.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS290 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Hawking radiation-quasinormal modes correspondence for large AdS black holes
It is well-known that the non-strictly thermal character of the Hawking
radiation spectrum generates a natural correspondence between Hawking radiation
and black hole quasinormal modes. This main issue has been analyzed in the
framework of Schwarzschild black holes, Kerr black holes and nonextremal
Reissner-Nordstrom black holes. In this paper, by introducing the effective
temperature, we reanalysis the non-strictly thermal character of large AdS
black holes. The results show that the effective mass corresponding to the
effective temperature is approximatively the average one in any dimension. And
the other effective quantities can also be obtained. Based on the known forms
of frequency in quasinormal modes, we reanalysis the asymptotic frequencies of
the large AdS black hole in three and five dimensions. Then we get the formulas
of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and the horizon's area quantization with
functions of the quantum "overtone" number .Comment: 6 page
Emigration from China in Comparative Perspective
Comparative research on international migration has increasingly focused on immigrant integration rather than the process of emigration. By investigating the different streams of Chinese migration to the United States and Europe, as well as the different stages of Chinese migration to the United States, this study examines the way in which both receiving and sending contexts combine to shape the process of emigration. Using data from a 2002–2003 survey of emigration from China's Fujian Province, we demonstrate that under restrictive exit and entry policies and high barriers to migration (i.e., clandestine migration from Fuzhou to the United States), resources such as migrant social capital, political capital (cadre resources), and human capital all play a crucial role in the emigration process. However, the roles of these resources in the migration process are limited when migration barriers are sufficiently low and when local governments adopt proactive policies promoting emigration (i.e., legal migration from Mingxi to Europe). Comparisons over time suggest that the importance of migrant social capital, political capital, and human capital has strongly persisted for Fuzhou-US emigration, as a result of tightening exit and entry policies. Despite these marked differences between Fuzhou and Mingxi emigration, the results also point to two general processes that are highly consistent across settings and over time—the cumulative causation of migration and the advantage conferred by traditional positional power (cadre status)
Tunneling of Born-Infeld Strings to D2-Branes
A Born-Infeld theory describing a D2-brane coupled to a 4-form RR field
strength is considered, and the general solutions of the static and Euclidean
time equations are derived and discussed. The period of the bounce solutions is
shown to allow a consideration of tunneling and quantum-classical transitions
in the sphaleron region. The order of such transitions, depending on the
strength of the RR field strength, is determined. A criterion is then derived
to confirm these findings.Comment: 20 pages, 7 postscript figures, will appear in NP
Quantisation of 2D-gravity with Weyl and area-preserving diffeomorphism invariances
The constraint structure of 2D-gravity with the Weyl and area-preserving
diffeomorphism invariances is analysed in the ADM formulation. It is found that
when the area-preserving diffeomorphism constraints are kept, the usual
conformal gauge does not exist, whereas there is the possibility to choose the
so-called ``quasi-light-cone'' gauge, in which besides the area-preserving
diffeomorphism invariance, the reduced Lagrangian also possesses the SL(2,R)
residual symmetry. The string-like approach is applied to quantise this model,
but a fictitious non-zero central charge in the Virasoro algebra appears. When
a set of gauge-independent SL(2,R) current-like fields is introduced instead of
the string-like variables, a consistent quantum theory is obtained.Comment: 14 pages, Latex fil
The Effects of Flagging Propaganda Sources on News Sharing:Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Twitter
While research on flagging misinformation and disinformation has received much attention, we know very little about how the flagging of propaganda sources could affect news sharing on social media. Using a quasi-experimental design, we test the effect of source flagging on people’s actual sharing behaviors. By analyzing tweets (N = 49,126) posted by 30 China's media accounts before and after Twitter's practice of labeling state-affiliated media, we reveal the corrective role that flagging plays in preventing people's sharing of information from propaganda sources. The findings suggest that the corrective effect occurs immediately after these accounts are labeled as state-affiliated media and it leads to a long-term reduction in news sharing, particularly for political content. The results contribute to the understanding of how flagging efforts affect user engagement in real-world conversations and highlight that the effect of corrective measures takes place in a dynamic process
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