QUANTILE REGRESSION FOR CLIMATE DATA

Quantile regression is a developing statistical tool which is used to explain the relationship between response and predictor variables. This thesis describes two examples of climatology using quantile regression.Our main goal is to estimate derivatives of a conditional mean and/or conditional quantile function. We introduce a method to handle autocorrelation in the framework of quantile regression and used it with the temperature data. Also we explain some properties of the tornado data which is non-normally distributed. Even though quantile regression provides a more comprehensive view, when talking about residuals with the normality and the constant variance assumption, we would prefer least square regression for our temperature analysis. When dealing with the non-normality and non constant variance assumption, quantile regression is a better candidate for the estimation of the derivative

The Current Status of the See-Saw Mechanism

The see-saw mechanism is an elegant method of resolving some of the key issues in neutrino phenomenology. In order to motivate the see-saw mechanism, the history of neutrino discovery, research, and explanation will be discussed. The current viability of the see-saw mechanism with respect to the latest experimental developments will also be addressed

Quarkonium dissociation in quark-gluon plasma via ionization in magnetic field

We study the impact of magnetic fields generated in relativistic heavy ion collisions on the decay probability of quarkonium produced in the central rapidity region. The quark and anti-quark components are subject to mutually orthogonal electric and magnetic fields in the quarkonium comoving frame. In the presence of an electric field, quarkonium has finite dissociation probability. We use the WKB approximation to derive the dissociation probability. We found that quarkonium dissociation energy, i.e. the binding energy at which dissociation probability is of order unity, increases with the magnetic field strength. It also increases with quarkonium momentum in the laboratory frame due to Lorentz boost of electric field in the comoving frame. As a consequence, J/Psi in plasma dissociates at lower temperature then it would be in the absence of a magnetic field. We argue that J/Psi's produced in heavy-ion collisions at LHC with P_T>9GeV would dissociate even in vacuum. In plasma, J/Psi dissociation in magnetic field is much stronger due to decrease of its binding energy with temperature. We discuss the phenomenological implications of our results.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures; v2: discussion and references added, typos fixed; v3: discussion section expande

Performance of NOMA systems with HARQ-CC in finite blocklength

Abstract. With the advent of new use-cases requiring high reliability and low-latency, transmission with finite blocklength becomes inevitable to reduce latency. In contrast to classical information-theoretic principles, the use of finite blocklength results in a non-negligible decoder error probability. Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) procedures are used to improve the accuracy in decoding by exploiting time-diversity at the expense of increased latency. Thus, achieving high reliability and low-latency are Pareto-optimal, which calls for a trade-off between the two. Concurrently, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has gained widespread attention in research due to the ability to outperform its counterpart, orthogonal multiple access (OMA) in terms of spectral efficiency and user fairness. This thesis investigates the performance of a two-user downlink NOMA system using HARQ with chase combining (HARQ-CC) in finite blocklength unifying the three enablers. First, an analytical framework is developed by deriving closed-form approximations for the individual average block error rate (BLER) of the near and the far user. Based upon that, the performance of NOMA is discussed in comparison to OMA, which draws the conclusion that NOMA outperforms OMA in terms of user fairness. Further, asymptotic expressions for average BLER are derived, which are used to devise an algorithm to determine such minimum blocklength and power allocation coefficients for NOMA that satisfies reliability targets for the users. NOMA has a lower blocklength in high transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions, leading to lower latency than OMA when reliability requirements in terms of BLER for the two users are in the order of 10^(-5)

Os efeitos socioeconômicos da covid-19

A epidemia de covid-19 espalhou-se rapidamente por todo o mundo desde 8 de dezembro de 2019, a partir de China, o maior exportador mundial de comodities. O surto espalhou-se rapidamente pelos países, afetando o setor de saúde e resultando em desafios econômicos, ambientais e sociais. Dessa forma, o artigo discute os impactos da covid-19, para fornecer ao público e aos pesquisadores um melhor entendimento dos seus impactos na sociedade, na educação, na comunicação e na economia dos países infectados. O estudo seguiu uma abordagem de estudo de caso qualitativo, incluindo revisão de literatura e análise documental. A revisão foi realizada a partir de uma larga gama de fontes de dados incluindo artigos de revistas, livros, documentos governamentais, artigos de jornal e relatórios de políticas. A covid-19 está rigorosamente impactando a economia e quase todos os países estão tentando diminuir o avanço da doença aumentando a quantidade de testes, facilitando o tratamento de pessoas infectadas, quarentemando casos suspeitos pela rede de contatos, implementando distanciamento social ao restringir grandes aglomerações, mantendo lockdown total ou parcial e etc. Entretanto, esses aspectos causam grandes problemas para a manutenção da vida diária da sociedade e é necessário lidar com as dificuldades levantadas pelo público para implementar estratégias corretas para enfrentar situações de pandemia globalmente.The covid-19 epidemic has spread rapidly all around the world since December 8, 2019, from China, the world’s largest exporter of goods. The outbreak quickly spread throughout the countries, affecting the health sector, and causing economic, environmental, and social challenges. Therefore, the article discusses the impacts of covid-19, to provide a better understanding to the public and the researchers regarding its impact on the society, education, communication, and economy of infected countries. The study followed a qualitative case study approach, including literature review and document analysis. The review was done on a wide range of data sources including journal articles, books, government documents, newspaper articles, and policy reports. The covid-19 is rigorously disrupting the global economy and almost all countries are trying to slow down the spread of the disease by increasing the testing, facilitating treatments of infected patients, quarantining suspected cases via contact networks, implementing social distancing by restricting large gatherings, maintaining countrywide or partial lock down, and etc. However, these aspects are highly challenging to the maintenance of the society’s daily life and addressing difficulties raised by the public to implement correct strategies to face the pandemic situations globally is necessary

Evaluation of Patient Satisfaction and Patient-physician Relationship in an Out- Patient Department Re-engineered through a Health Information Management System: A Descriptive Study Done at a Major Women’s Hospital in Sri Lanka

Introduction: Health information management is one of the major pillars in a health system that improves the effectiveness and efficiency of health services. It is essential to assess the patient perception towards re-engineered services provide through Hospital Information Management Systems (HIMSs) and how this implementation affects the doctor-patient relationship. The objective of the study was to describe the extent of patient satisfaction towards Out-Patient Department (OPD) services, pharmacy service and patient physician relationship in the OPD, re-engineered through a HIMS, at the Castle Street Hospital for Women (CSHW), Sri Lanka. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 362 out-patients aged over 18 years attending the OPD of the CSHW during 2018-2019. Consecutive sampling method, and an interviewer-administrated questionnaire were used to collect data. The quantitative analysis was done using the SPSS software version 23. The sentiment analysis was performed to analyze comments given by patients using the Rapid Miner software. Results: All participants were females with a mean age of 41years (±13.58). Almost all participants were satisfied with overall services provided by the OPD (99.7%) and the pharmacy (98.4%). The majority (65.3%) agreed that implementation of the HIMS had improved the doctor-patient relationship. All reported comments regarding the re-engineered services of the OPD were ‘positive’. The study also suggests considering providing information in all common languages while announcing the patient’s OPD number at the waiting area in future implementations. Conclusions: The majority of patients were satisfied with the overall OPD services provided through implementation of the HIMS at the CSHW, Sri Lanka. Keywords: Health information systems, Hospital information management system, Outpatientdepartment, Patient-physician relationship