S-wave scattering of strangeness -3 baryons

We explore the interactions of two strangeness -3 baryons in multiple spin channels with lattice QCD. This system provides an ideal laboratory for exploring the interactions of multi-baryon systems with minimal dependence on light quark masses. Model calculations of the two-$\Omega^-$ system in two previous works have obtained conflicting results, which can be resolved by lattice QCD. The lattice calculations are performed using two different volumes with $L\sim2.5$ and 3.9 fm on anisotropic clover lattices at $m_\pi \sim 390$ MeV with a lattice spacing of $a_s \sim 0.123$ fm in the spatial direction and $a_t\sim{a}_s/3.5$ in the temporal direction. Using multiple interpolating operators from a non-displaced source, we present scattering information for two ground state $\Omega^-$ baryons in both the S=0 and S=2 channels. For S=0, $k\cot\delta$ is extracted at two volumes, which lead to an extrapolated scattering length of $a^{\Omega\Omega}_{S=0}=0.16 \pm 0.22 \ \text{fm}$, indicating a weakly repulsive interaction. Additionally, for S=2, two separate highly repulsive states are observed. We also present results on the interactions of the excited strangeness -3, spin-1/2 states with the ground spin-3/2 states for the spin-1 and spin-2 channels. Results for these interactions are consistent with attractive behavior.Comment: 21 pages, 10 fig

Characterizing DNA Condensation and Conformational Changes in Organic Solvents

Organic solvents offer a new approach to formulate DNA into novel structures suitable for gene delivery. In this study, we examined the in situ behavior of DNA in N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF) at low concentration via laser light scattering (LLS), TEM, UV absorbance and Zeta potential analysis. Results revealed that, in DMF, a 21bp oligonucleotide remained intact, while calf thymus DNA and supercoiled plasmid DNA were condensed and denatured. During condensation and denaturation, the size was decreased by a factor of 8–10, with calf thymus DNA forming spherical globules while plasmid DNA exhibited a toroid-like conformation. In the condensed state, DNA molecules were still able to release the counterions to be negatively charged, indicating that the condensation was mainly driven by the excluded volume interactions. The condensation induced by DMF was reversible for plasmid DNA but not for calf thymus DNA. When plasmid DNA was removed from DMF and resuspended in an aqueous solution, the DNA was quickly regained a double stranded configuration. These findings provide further insight into the behavior and condensation mechanism of DNA in an organic solvent and may aid in developing more efficient non-viral gene delivery systems

Measuring 3D indoor air velocity via an inexpensive low-power ultrasonic anemometer

The ability to inexpensively monitor indoor air speed and direction on a continuous basis would transform the control of environmental quality and energy use in buildings. Air motion transports energy, ventilation air, and pollutants around building interiors and their occupants, and measured feedback about it could be used in numerous ways to improve building operation. However indoor air movement is rarely monitored because of the expense and fragility of sensors. This paper describes a unique anemometer developed by the authors, that measures 3-dimensional air velocity for indoor environmental applications, leveraging new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology for ultrasonic range-finding. The anemometer uses a tetrahedral arrangement of four transceivers, the smallest number able to capture a 3-dimensional flow, that provides greater measurement redundancy than in existing anemometry. We describe the theory, hardware, and software of the anemometer, including algorithms that detect and eliminate shielding errors caused by the wakes from anemometer support struts. The anemometer has a resolution and starting threshold of 0.01 m/s, an absolute air speed error of 0.05 m/s at a given orientation with minimal filtering, 3.1° angle- and 0.11 m/s velocity errors over 360° azimuthal rotation, and 3.5° angle- and 0.07 m/s velocity errors over 135° vertical declination. It includes radio connection to internet and is able to operate standalone for multiple years on a standard battery. The anemometer also measures temperature and has a compass and tilt sensor so that flow direction is globally referenced regardless of anemometer orientation. The retail cost of parts is $100 USD, and all parts snap together for ease of assembly

Loss of testosterone impairs anti-tumor neutrophil function.

In men, the incidence of melanoma rises rapidly after age 50, and nearly two thirds of melanoma deaths are male. The immune system is known to play a key role in controlling the growth and spread of malignancies, but whether age- and sex-dependent changes in immune cell function account for this effect remains unknown. Here, we show that in castrated male mice, neutrophil maturation and function are impaired, leading to elevated metastatic burden in two models of melanoma. Replacement of testosterone effectively normalized the tumor burden in castrated male mice. Further, the aberrant neutrophil phenotype was also observed in prostate cancer patients receiving androgen deprivation therapy, highlighting the evolutionary conservation and clinical relevance of the phenotype. Taken together, these results provide a better understanding of the role of androgen signaling in neutrophil function and the impact of this biology on immune control of malignancies

Universal Point Estimation, with Applications in Economics, Business and Decision Sciences

Estimation is used widely in numerous disciplines, including Mathematics, Statistics, Economics, Business, and Decision Sciences, among others. Estimation is a process for determining an approximation, which is a value that can be used for a number of purposes, even if input data are sufficient, incomplete, missing or unsecure. In practice, estimation relates to “using the value of a statistic inferred from a sample to estimate the value of a corresponding population parameterâ€. Estimation is usually separated into two categories, namely point estimation and interval estimation. The main purpose of this paper is to present a universal approach to the theory and practice of three methods in statistical inference to obtain point estimates, namely the moment, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods. The paper also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the three universal approaches in practical applications in Economics, Business and Decision Sciences

Learning to Rank Question Answer Pairs with Holographic Dual LSTM Architecture

We describe a new deep learning architecture for learning to rank question answer pairs. Our approach extends the long short-term memory (LSTM) network with holographic composition to model the relationship between question and answer representations. As opposed to the neural tensor layer that has been adopted recently, the holographic composition provides the benefits of scalable and rich representational learning approach without incurring huge parameter costs. Overall, we present Holographic Dual LSTM (HD-LSTM), a unified architecture for both deep sentence modeling and semantic matching. Essentially, our model is trained end-to-end whereby the parameters of the LSTM are optimized in a way that best explains the correlation between question and answer representations. In addition, our proposed deep learning architecture requires no extensive feature engineering. Via extensive experiments, we show that HD-LSTM outperforms many other neural architectures on two popular benchmark QA datasets. Empirical studies confirm the effectiveness of holographic composition over the neural tensor layer.Comment: SIGIR 2017 Full Pape

Motivasjon i ensformig arbeid - Et casestudie i posttjeneste-bransjen

I denne oppgaven ønsker vi å besvare problemstillingen: Hvordan kan produksjonslederne og medarbeiderne sammen bidra til økt motivasjon?. Vi har besvart denne ved bruk av et intensivt enkeltcasestudie hvor vi foretok kvalitative dybdeintervjuer med de ansatte - produksjonslederne og superbrukere. Vi tok også i bruk feltobservasjon, på avdeling Klargjøring Inn ved Posten Norge, Østlandsterminalen. For å kartlegge nå-situasjonen ved avdelingen stilte vi det første forskningsspørsmålet: Hva motiverer medarbeiderne og produksjonslederne med utgangspunkt i Self Determination Theory? (Heretter kalt SDT). Vi avdekker underveis at det er sterk tilhørighet blant avdelingsmedlemmene i sammenheng med et godt arbeidsmiljø og lavt sykefravær. På tross av dette hadde vi antakelser om at det fantes barrierer de kunne jobbe med å bygge ned, men var usikre på hvilke. Dette ledet til det andre forskningsspørsmålet: Hva er kritiske faktorer for å øke motivasjonen på avdeling KI? På bakgrunn av dette avdekker vi at det ikke er en sammenheng mellom rolleforventninger og virkeligheten på avdelingen, og at det er kommunikasjon som er barrieren for at de skal kunne jobbe bedre sammen. Vi konkluderte derfor denne studien med at superbrukerne i samråd med produksjonslederne måtte avklare forventninger til når tilbakemeldinger var nødvendige, mens produksjonslederne på bakgrunn av forventningene måtte ha avklarte og kjente retningslinjer for å korrigere avvikene som oppstår