1,196 research outputs found
Predicting daily physical activity in a lifestyle intervention program
The growing number of people adopting a sedentary lifestyle these days creates a serious need for effective physical activity promotion programs. Often, these programs monitor activity, provide feedback about activity and offer coaching to increase activity. Some programs rely on a human coach who creates an activity goal that is tailored to the characteristics of a participant. Throughout the program, the coach motivates the participant to reach his personal goal or adapt the goal, if needed. Both the timing and the content of the coaching are important for the coaching. Insights on the near future state on, for instance, behaviour and motivation of a participant can be helpful to realize an effective proactive coaching style that is personalized in terms of timing and content. As a first step towards providing these insights to a coach, this chapter discusses results of a study on predicting daily physical activity level (PAL) data from past data of participants in a lifestyle intervention program. A mobile body-worn activity monitor with a built-in triaxial accelerometer was used to record PAL data of a participant for a period of 13 weeks. Predicting future PAL data for all days in a given period was done by employing autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models on the PAL data from days in the period before. By using a newly proposed categorized-ARIMA (CARIMA) prediction method, we achieved a large reduction in computation time without a significant loss in prediction accuracy in comparison with traditional ARIMA models. In CARIMA, PAL data are categorized as stationary, trend or seasonal data by assessing their autocorrelation functions. Then, an ARIMA model that is most appropriate to these three categories is automatically selected based on an objective penalty function criterion. The results show that our CARIMA method performs well in terms of PAL prediction accuracy (~9% mean absolute percentage error), model parsimony and robustness
Theoretical investigations of a highly mismatched interface: the case of SiC/Si(001)
Using first principles, classical potentials, and elasticity theory, we
investigated the structure of a semiconductor/semiconductor interface with a
high lattice mismatch, SiC/Si(001). Among several tested possible
configurations, a heterostructure with (i) a misfit dislocation network pinned
at the interface and (ii) reconstructed dislocation cores with a carbon
substoichiometry is found to be the most stable one. The importance of the slab
approximation in first-principles calculations is discussed and estimated by
combining classical potential techniques and elasticity theory. For the most
stable configuration, an estimate of the interface energy is given. Finally,
the electronic structure is investigated and discussed in relation with the
dislocation array structure. Interface states, localized in the heterostructure
gap and located on dislocation cores, are identified
Two-body decays in the minimal 331 model
The two-body decays of the extra neutral boson Z_2 predicted by the minimal
331 model are analyzed. At the three-level it can decay into standard model
particles as well as exotic quarks and the new gauge bosons predicted by the
model. The decays into a lepton pair are strongly suppressed, with and . In the bosonic
sector, Z_2 would decay mainly into a pair of bilepton gauge bosons, with a
branching ratio below the 0.1 level. The Z_2 boson has thus a leptophobic and
bileptophobic nature and it would decay dominantly into quark pairs. The
anomaly-induced decays and , which occurs
at the one-loop level are studied. It is found that and at most. As for the and decays, with H a relatively light Higgs boson, they
are induced via Z'-Z mixing. It is obtained that
and . We also examine the flavor changing neutral
current decays and , which may have branching
fractions as large as and , respectively, and thus may be of
phenomenological interest.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Phylogeny of Prokaryotes and Chloroplasts Revealed by a Simple Composition Approach on All Protein Sequences from Complete Genomes Without Sequence Alignment
The complete genomes of living organisms have provided much information on their phylogenetic relationships. Similarly, the complete genomes of chloroplasts have helped to resolve the evolution of this organelle in photosynthetic eukaryotes. In this paper we propose an alternative method of phylogenetic analysis using compositional statistics for all protein sequences from complete genomes. This new method is conceptually simpler than and computationally as fast as the one proposed by Qi et al. (2004b) and Chu et al. (2004). The same data sets used in Qi et al. (2004b) and Chu et al. (2004) are analyzed using the new method. Our distance-based phylogenic tree of the 109 prokaryotes and eukaryotes agrees with the biologists tree of life based on 16S rRNA comparison in a predominant majority of basic branching and most lower taxa. Our phylogenetic analysis also shows that the chloroplast genomes are separated to two major clades corresponding to chlorophytes s.l. and rhodophytes s.l. The interrelationships among the chloroplasts are largely in agreement with the current understanding on chloroplast evolution
Changes in Serological Immunology Measures in UK and Kenyan Adults Post-controlled Human Malaria Infection.
Background: The timing of infection is closely determined in controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) studies, and as such they provide a unique opportunity to dissect changes in immunological responses before and after a single infection. The first Kenyan Challenge Study (KCS) (Pan African Clinical Trial Registry: PACTR20121100033272) was performed in 2013 with the aim of establishing the CHMI model in Kenya. This study used aseptic, cryopreserved, attenuated Plasmodium falciparum sporozoites administered by needle and syringe (PfSPZ Challenge) and was the first to evaluate parasite dynamics post-CHMI in individuals with varying degrees of prior exposure to malaria. Methods: We describe detailed serological and functional immunological responses pre- and post-CHMI for participants in the KCS and compare these with those from malaria-naĂŻve UK volunteers who also underwent CHMI (VAC049) (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01465048) using PfSPZ Challenge. We assessed antibody responses to three key blood-stage merozoite antigens [merozoite surface protein 1 (MSP1), apical membrane protein 1 (AMA1), and reticulocyte-binding protein homolog 5 (RH5)] and functional activity using two candidate measures of anti-merozoite immunity; the growth inhibition activity (GIA) assay and the antibody-dependent respiratory burst activity (ADRB) assay. Results:Clear serological differences were observed pre- and post-CHMI by ELISA between malaria-naĂŻve UK volunteers in VAC049, and Kenyan volunteers who had prior malaria exposure. Antibodies to AMA1 and schizont extract correlated with parasite multiplication rate (PMR) post-CHMI in KCS. Serum from volunteer 110 in KCS, who demonstrated a dramatically reduced PMR in vivo, had no in vitro GIA prior to CHMI but the highest level of ADRB activity. A significant difference in ADRB activity was seen between KCS volunteers with minimal and definite prior exposure to malaria and significant increases were seen in ADRB activity post-CHMI in Kenyan volunteers. Quinine and atovaquone/proguanil, previously assumed to be removed by IgG purification, were identified as likely giving rise to aberrantly high in vitro GIA results. Conclusions: The ADRB activity assay is a promising functional assay that warrants further investigation as a measure of prior exposure to malaria and predictor of control of parasite growth. The CHMI model can be used to evaluate potential measures of naturally-acquired immunity to malaria
Optical Spectra of SNR Candidates in NGC 300
We present moderate-resolution (<5A) long-slit optical spectra of 51 nebular
objects in the nearby Sculptor Group galaxy NGC 300 obtained with the 2.3 meter
Advanced Technology Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. Adopting
the criterion of [SII]/Ha>=0.4 to confirm supernova remnants (SNRs) from
optical spectra, we find that of 28 objects previously proposed as SNRs from
optical observations, 22 meet this criterion with six showing [SII]/Ha of less
than 0.4. Of 27 objects suggested as SNRs from radio data, four are associated
with the 28 previously proposed SNRs. Of these four, three (included in the 22
above) meet the criterion. In all, 22 of the 51 nebular objects meet the
[SII]/Ha criterion as SNRs while the nature of the remaining 29 objects remains
undetermined by these observations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc
Large Extra Dimensions and Decaying KK Recurrences
We suggest the possibility that in ADD type brane-world scenarios, the higher
KK excitations of the graviton may decay to lower ones owing to a breakdown of
the conservation of extra dimensional ``momenta'' and study its implications
for astrophysics and cosmology. We give an explicit realization of this idea
with a bulk scalar field , whose nonzero KK modes acquire vacuum
expectation values. This scenario helps to avoid constraints on large extra
dimensions that come from gamma ray flux bounds in the direction of nearby
supernovae as well as those coming from diffuse cosmological gamma ray
background. It also relaxes the very stringent limits on reheat temperature of
the universe in ADD models.Comment: 16 pages, late
Search for Extra Dimensions in Boson and Fermion Pair Production in e+e- Interactions at LEP
Extra spatial dimensions are proposed by recent theories that postulate the
scale of gravity to be of the same order as the electroweak scale. A sizeable
interaction between gravitons and Standard Model particles is then predicted.
Effects of these new interactions in boson and fermion pair production are
searched for in the data sample collected at centre-of-mass energies above the
Z pole by the L3 detector at LEP. In addition, the direct production of a
graviton associated with a Z boson is investigated. No statistically
significant hints for the existence of these effects are found and lower limits
in excess of 1 TeV are derived on the scale of this new theory of gravity
SU(3)câSU(3)LâU(1)x as an SU(6)âU(1)x subgroup
ABSTRACT: An extension of the standard model to the local gauge group SU(3) c ^ SU(3)L ^ U(1)X as a family independent model is presented. The mass scales, the gauge boson masses, and the masses for the spin 1/2 particles in the model are studied. The mass differences between the up and down quark sectors, between the quarks and leptons, and between the charged and neutral leptons in one family are analyzed. The existence of two Dirac neutrinos for each family, one light and one very heavy, is predicted. By using experimental results from CERN LEP, SLC and atomic parity violation we constrain the mixing angle between the two neutral currents and the mass of the additional neutral gauge boson to be 20.00015<sin u<0 and 1.5 TeV<MZ2 at 95% C.L
Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV
We present the first measurement of directed flow () at RHIC. is
found to be consistent with zero at pseudorapidities from -1.2 to 1.2,
then rises to the level of a couple of percent over the range . The latter observation is similar to data from NA49 if the SPS rapidities
are shifted by the difference in beam rapidity between RHIC and SPS.
Back-to-back jets emitted out-of-plane are found to be suppressed more if
compared to those emitted in-plane, which is consistent with {\it jet
quenching}. Using the scalar product method, we systematically compared
azimuthal correlations from p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions. Flow and non-flow
from these three different collision systems are discussed.Comment: Quark Matter 2004 proceeding, 4 pages, 3 figure
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