On the well-posedness of a class of McKean Feynman-Kac equations

We analyze the well-posedness of a so called McKean Feynman-Kac Equation (MFKE), which is a McKean type equation with a Feynman-Kac perturbation. We provide in particular weak and strong existence conditions as well as pathwise uniqueness conditions without strong regularity assumptions on the coefficients. One major tool to establish this result is a representation theorem relating the solutions of MFKE to the solutions of a nonconservative semilinear parabolic Partial Differential Equation (PDE)

Thomas-forbidden particle capture

At high energies, in particle-capture processes between ions and atoms, classical kinematic requirements show that generally double collision Thomas processes dominate. However, for certain mass-ratios these processes are kinematically forbidden. This paper explores the possibility of capture for such processes by triple or higher order collision processes.Comment: 34 pages and three figure

Investigating the Correlation Between Nurses\u27 Spiritual Well-Being and Spiritual Care Perspectives

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between nurses\u27 spiritual well-being (using the JAREL Spiritual-Well Being Scale) and their perspectives of spiritual care (using the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale). Both instruments use Likert-scale ratings. An additional survey obtained general demographic information including an item regarding spirituality in nursing in-service participation. A total of 130 registered nurses (23%) participated in the study. The data was analyzed using SPSS in which a Pearson\u27s r correlation was performed on the JAREL and SSCRS scores. The results were statistically significant for a positive correlation between nurses\u27 spiritual well-being and perspectives of spiritual care (r = 0.43, p \u3c .01) demonstrating that a portion of the nurses\u27 spiritual care perspectives can be attributed to their spiritual well-being. The results underscore the need for academic and post-professional spirituality training for nurses as well as collaboration of the health care team and administrative support

Weak Emission Line Quasars in the Context of a Modified Baldwin Effect

We investigate the relationship between the rest-frame equivalent width (EW) of the C IV \lambda1549 broad-emission line, monochromatic luminosity at rest-frame 5100 A, and the Hbeta-based Eddington ratio in a sample of 99 ordinary quasars across the widest possible ranges of redshift (0 < z < 3.5) and bolometric luminosity (10^{44} <~ L <~ 10^{48} erg s^{-1}). We find that EW(C IV) is primarily anti-correlated with the Eddington ratio, a relation we refer to as a modified Baldwin effect (MBE), an extension of the result previously obtained for quasars at z < 0.5. Based on the MBE, weak emission line quasars (WLQs), typically showing EW(C IV) <~ 10 A, are expected to have extremely high Eddington ratios. By selecting all WLQs with archival Hbeta and C IV spectroscopic data, nine sources in total, we find that their Hbeta-based Eddington ratios are typical of ordinary quasars with similar redshifts and luminosities. Four of these WLQs can be accommodated by the MBE, but the other five deviate significantly from this relation, at the >~3 \sigma\ level, by exhibiting C IV lines much weaker than predicted from their Hbeta-based Eddington ratios. Assuming the supermassive black-hole masses in all quasars can be determined reliably using the single-epoch Hbeta-method, our results indicate that EW(C IV) cannot depend solely on the Eddington ratio. We briefly discuss a strategy for further investigation into the roles that basic physical properties play in controlling the relative strengths of broad-emission lines in quasars.Comment: 7 pages (emulateapj), 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Statistical inference of the generation probability of T-cell receptors from sequence repertoires

Stochastic rearrangement of germline DNA by VDJ recombination is at the origin of immune system diversity. This process is implemented via a series of stochastic molecular events involving gene choices and random nucleotide insertions between, and deletions from, genes. We use large sequence repertoires of the variable CDR3 region of human CD4+ T-cell receptor beta chains to infer the statistical properties of these basic biochemical events. Since any given CDR3 sequence can be produced in multiple ways, the probability distribution of hidden recombination events cannot be inferred directly from the observed sequences; we therefore develop a maximum likelihood inference method to achieve this end. To separate the properties of the molecular rearrangement mechanism from the effects of selection, we focus on non-productive CDR3 sequences in T-cell DNA. We infer the joint distribution of the various generative events that occur when a new T-cell receptor gene is created. We find a rich picture of correlation (and absence thereof), providing insight into the molecular mechanisms involved. The generative event statistics are consistent between individuals, suggesting a universal biochemical process. Our distribution predicts the generation probability of any specific CDR3 sequence by the primitive recombination process, allowing us to quantify the potential diversity of the T-cell repertoire and to understand why some sequences are shared between individuals. We argue that the use of formal statistical inference methods, of the kind presented in this paper, will be essential for quantitative understanding of the generation and evolution of diversity in the adaptive immune system.Comment: 20 pages, including Appendi

Pion production in high energy cosmic ray collisions

Calculations on pion energy and angle distribution in center of hydrodynamic inelastic model for nucleon-nucleon collisio

Automatic case acquisition from texts for process-oriented case-based reasoning

This paper introduces a method for the automatic acquisition of a rich case representation from free text for process-oriented case-based reasoning. Case engineering is among the most complicated and costly tasks in implementing a case-based reasoning system. This is especially so for process-oriented case-based reasoning, where more expressive case representations are generally used and, in our opinion, actually required for satisfactory case adaptation. In this context, the ability to acquire cases automatically from procedural texts is a major step forward in order to reason on processes. We therefore detail a methodology that makes case acquisition from processes described as free text possible, with special attention given to assembly instruction texts. This methodology extends the techniques we used to extract actions from cooking recipes. We argue that techniques taken from natural language processing are required for this task, and that they give satisfactory results. An evaluation based on our implemented prototype extracting workflows from recipe texts is provided.Comment: Sous presse, publication pr\'evue en 201