2,965 research outputs found
A Group Intervention for Individuals With Obesity and Comorbid Binge Eating Disorder: Results From a Feasibility Study.
Purpose: A common challenge among a subgroup of individuals with obesity is binge eating, that exists on a continuum from mild binge eating episodes to severe binge eating disorder (BED). BED is common among bariatric patients and the prevalence of disordered eating and ED in bariatric surgery populations is well known. Conventional treatments and assessment of obesity seldom address the underlying psychological mechanisms of binge eating and subsequent obesity. This study, titled PnP (People need People) is a psychoeducational group pilot intervention for individuals with BED and obesity including patients with previous bariatric surgery. Design, feasibility, and a broad description of the study population is reported. Material and Methods: A total of 42 patients were from an obesity clinic referred to assessment and treatment with PnP in a psychoeducational group setting (3-hour weekly meetings for 10 weeks). Of these, 6 (14.3%) patients had a previous history of bariatric surgery. Feasibility was assessed by tracking attendance, potentially adverse effects and outcome measures including body mass index (BMI), eating disorder pathology, overvaluation of shape and weight, impairment, self-reported childhood difficulties, alexithymia, internalized shame as well as health related quality of life (HRQoL). Results: All 42 patients completed the intervention, with no adverse effects and a high attendance rate with a median attendance of 10 sessions, 95% CI (8.9,9.6) and 0% attrition. Extent of psychosocial impairment due to eating disorder pathology, body dissatisfaction and severity of ED symptoms were high among the patients at baseline. Additionally, self-reported childhood difficulties, alexithymia, and internalized shame were high among the patients and indicate a need to address underlying psychological mechanisms in individuals with BED and comorbid obesity. Improvement of HRQoL and reduction of binge eating between baseline and the end of the intervention was observed with a medium effect. Conclusion: This feasibility study supports PnP as a potential group psychoeducational intervention for patients living with BED and comorbid obesity. Assessments of BED and delivery of this intervention may optimize selection of candidates and bariatric outcomes. These preliminary results warrant further investigation via a randomized control trial (RCT) to examine the efficacy and effectiveness of PnP
Ear-clipping Based Algorithms of Generating High-quality Polygon Triangulation
A basic and an improved ear clipping based algorithm for triangulating simple
polygons and polygons with holes are presented. In the basic version, the ear
with smallest interior angle is always selected to be cut in order to create
fewer sliver triangles. To reduce sliver triangles in further, a bound of angle
is set to determine whether a newly formed triangle has sharp angles, and edge
swapping is accepted when the triangle is sharp. To apply the two algorithms on
polygons with holes, "Bridge" edges are created to transform a polygon with
holes to a degenerate polygon which can be triangulated by the two algorithms.
Applications show that the basic algorithm can avoid creating sliver triangles
and obtain better triangulations than the traditional ear clipping algorithm,
and the improved algorithm can in further reduce sliver triangles effectively.
Both of the algorithms run in O(n2) time and O(n) space.Comment: Proceedings of the 2012 International Conference on Information
Technology and Software Engineering Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering
Volume 212, 2013, pp 979-98
On colouring point visibility graphs
In this paper we show that it can be decided in polynomial time whether or
not the visibility graph of a given point set is 4-colourable, and such a
4-colouring, if it exists, can also be constructed in polynomial time. We show
that the problem of deciding whether the visibility graph of a point set is
5-colourable, is NP-complete. We give an example of a point visibility graph
that has chromatic number 6 while its clique number is only 4
Financial management 3B
Exam paper for second semester (Last Assessment Opportunity
Superpotential de-sequestering in string models
Non-perturbative superpotential cross-couplings between visible sector matter
and K\"ahler moduli can lead to significant flavour-changing neutral currents
in compactifications of type IIB string theory. Here, we compute corrections to
Yukawa couplings in orbifold models with chiral matter localised on D3-branes
and non-perturbative effects on distant D7-branes. By evaluating a threshold
correction to the D7-brane gauge coupling, we determine conditions under which
the non-perturbative corrections to the Yukawa couplings appear. The flavour
structure of the induced Yukawa coupling generically fails to be aligned with
the tree-flavour structure. We check our results by also evaluating a
correlation function of two D7-brane gauginos and a D3-brane Yukawa coupling.
Finally, by calculating a string amplitude between n hidden scalars and visible
matter we show how non-vanishing vacuum expectation values of distant D7-brane
scalars, if present, may correct visible Yukawa couplings with a flavour
structure that differs from the tree-level flavour structure.Comment: 37 pages + appendices, 8 figure
The Familial Clustering of Age at Menarche in Extended Twin Families
The timing of puberty is complex, possibly involving many genetic factors that may interact with environmental influences. Familial resemblance for age at menarche was studied in a sample of 4,995 female twins, 1,296 sisters, 2,946 mothers and 635 female spouses of male twins. They had indicated their age at menarche as part of a larger longitudinal survey. We assessed assortative mating for age at menarche, gene–environment interaction effects and estimated the heritability of individual differences in pubertal timing. There was significant evidence of gene–environment interaction, accounting for 1.5% of the variance. There was no indication of consistent mate assortment on age at menarche. Individual differences in age at menarche are highly heritable, with additive genetic factors explaining at least 70% of the true variation. An additional 1.5% of the variation can be explained by a genotype–environment interaction effect where environmental factors are more important in individuals genetically predisposed for late menarche
On Unbounded Composition Operators in -Spaces
Fundamental properties of unbounded composition operators in -spaces are
studied. Characterizations of normal and quasinormal composition operators are
provided. Formally normal composition operators are shown to be normal.
Composition operators generating Stieltjes moment sequences are completely
characterized. The unbounded counterparts of the celebrated Lambert's
characterizations of subnormality of bounded composition operators are shown to
be false. Various illustrative examples are supplied
Desensitizing Inflation from the Planck Scale
A new mechanism to control Planck-scale corrections to the inflationary eta
parameter is proposed. A common approach to the eta problem is to impose a
shift symmetry on the inflaton field. However, this symmetry has to remain
unbroken by Planck-scale effects, which is a rather strong requirement on
possible ultraviolet completions of the theory. In this paper, we show that the
breaking of the shift symmetry by Planck-scale corrections can be
systematically suppressed if the inflaton field interacts with a conformal
sector. The inflaton then receives an anomalous dimension in the conformal
field theory, which leads to sequestering of all dangerous high-energy
corrections. We analyze a number of models where the mechanism can be seen in
action. In our most detailed example we compute the exact anomalous dimensions
via a-maximization and show that the eta problem can be solved using only
weakly-coupled physics.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figures
Fluxes and Warping for Gauge Couplings in F-theory
We compute flux-dependent corrections in the four-dimensional F-theory
effective action using the M-theory dual description. In M-theory the 7-brane
fluxes are encoded by four-form flux and modify the background geometry and
Kaluza-Klein reduction ansatz. In particular, the flux sources a warp factor
which also depends on the torus directions of the compactification fourfold.
This dependence is crucial in the derivation of the four-dimensional action,
although the torus fiber is auxiliary in F-theory. In M-theory the 7-branes are
described by an infinite array of Taub-NUT spaces. We use the explicit metric
on this geometry to derive the locally corrected warp factor and M-theory
three-from as closed expressions. We focus on contributions to the 7-brane
gauge coupling function from this M-theory back-reaction and show that terms
quadratic in the internal seven-brane flux are induced. The real part of the
gauge coupling function is modified by the M-theory warp factor while the
imaginary part is corrected due to a modified M-theory three-form potential.
The obtained contributions match the known weak string coupling result, but
also yield additional terms suppressed at weak coupling. This shows that the
completion of the M-theory reduction opens the way to compute various
corrections in a genuine F-theory setting away from the weak string coupling
limit.Comment: 46 page
Ethics for civil indoor drones: a qualitative analysis
[EN] Drones face two main concerns: safety and security/privacy. Whilst safety has been broadly studied by literature, less research has been carried out into security/privacy. Moreover, current European regulations on drone flights apply to outdoor drones but not always to their indoor counterparts. However, several industrial sectors have started to use drones for indoor tasks such as surveillance, architecture, emergencies, and communication media. A qualitative study has been conducted in order to explore the concerns expressed by civil drone operators over the measures that manufacturers include in their products and information packages. Codes of conduct could also help these parties when there is no legal regulation that can be applied. We used content analysis as the method of analysis for three different sources: secondary data from a literature review and from public European documents, and primary data from focus groups. Results show that safety and security/privacy by design are seen as the best ethical measures, whilst codes of conduct could be used as complimentary information for professional users.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: The project leading to this application has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 732433. Project: AiRT, Technology transfer of RPAs for the creative industry, H2020-ICT-2016-2017.De-Miguel-Molina, M.; Santamarina-Campos, V.; Carabal-Montagud, M.; De-Miguel-Molina, B. (2018). Ethics for civil indoor drones: a qualitative analysis. International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles. 10(4):340-351. https://doi.org/10.1177/1756829318794004S34035110
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