111,516 research outputs found
On the null-controllability of the heat equation in unbounded domains
We make two remarks about the null-controllability of the heat equation with
Dirichlet condition in unbounded domains. Firstly, we give a geometric
necessary condition (for interior null-controllability in the Euclidean
setting)which implies that one can not go infinitely far away from the control
region without tending to the boundary (if any), but also applies when the
distance to the control region is bounded. The proof builds on heat kernel
estimates. Secondly, we describe a class of null-controllable heat equations on
unbounded product domains. Elementary examples include an infinite strip in the
plane controlled from one boundary and an infinite rod controlled from an
internal infinite rod. The proof combines earlier results on compact manifolds
with a new lemma saying that the null-controllability of an abstract control
system and its null-controllability cost are not changed by taking its tensor
product with a system generated by a non-positive self-adjoint operator.Comment: References [CdMZ01, dTZ00] added, abstract modifie
How preserved is emotion recognition in Alzheimer disease compared with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia?
Background: Emotion deficits are a recognised biomarker for behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), but recent studies have reported emotion deficits also in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: A hundred and twenty-three participants (33 AD, 60 bvFTD, 30 controls) were administered a facial emotion recognition test, to investigate the clinical factors influencing the diagnostic distinction on this measure. Binomial regression analysis revealed that facial emotion recognition in AD was influenced by disease duration and MMSE, whereas the same was not true for bvFTD. Based on this information, we median-split the AD group on disease duration (3 years) or MMSE (24) and compared the facial emotion recognition performance of mild-AD, moderate-AD, bvFTD patients and controls. Results: Results showed that very mild-AD performed consistently at control levels for all emotions. By contrast, mild/moderate-AD and bvFTD were impaired compared to controls on most emotions. Interestingly, mild/moderate-AD were significantly impaired compared to very mild-AD on total score, anger and sadness subscores. Logistic regression analyses corroborated these findings with ~94% of very mild-AD being successfully distinguished from bvFTD at presentation, while this distinction was reduced to ~78% for mild/moderate-AD. Conclusions: Facial emotion recognition in AD is influenced by disease progression, with very mild-AD being virtually intact for emotion performance. Mild/moderate-AD and bvFTD show consistent impairment in emotion recognition, with bvFTD being worse. A disease progression of over 3 years or a MMSE lower than 24 should warrant caution to put too much emphasis on emotion recognition performance in the diagnostic distinction of AD and bvFTD
Muon g-2: Review of Theory and Experiment
A review of the experimental and theoretical determinations of the anomalous
magnetic moment of the muon is given. The anomaly is defined by a=(g-2)/2,
where the Land\'e g-factor is the proportionality constant that relates the
spin to the magnetic moment. For the muon, as well as for the electron and
tauon, the anomaly a differs slightly from zero (of order 10^{-3}) because of
radiative corrections. In the Standard Model, contributions to the anomaly come
from virtual `loops' containing photons and the known massive particles. The
relative contribution from heavy particles scales as the square of the lepton
mass over the heavy mass, leading to small differences in the anomaly for e,
\mu, and \tau. If there are heavy new particles outside the Standard Model
which couple to photons and/or leptons, the relative effect on the muon anomaly
will be \sim (m_\mu/ m_e)^2 \approx 43\times 10^3 larger compared with the
electron anomaly. Because both the theoretical and experimental values of the
muon anomaly are determined to high precision, it is an excellent place to
search for the effects of new physics, or to constrain speculative extensions
to the Standard Model. Details of the current theoretical evaluation, and of
the series of experiments that culminates with E821 at the Brookhaven National
Laboratory are given. At present the theoretical and the experimental values
are known with a similar relative precision of 0.5 ppm. There is, however, a
3.4 standard deviation difference between the two, strongly suggesting the need
for continued experimental and theoretical studyComment: 103 pages, 57 figures, submitted to Reports on Progress in Physics
Final version as published, several minor clarifications to text and a number
of references were correcte
Finitely annihilated groups
We say a group is finitely annihilated if it is the set-theoretic union of
all its proper normal finite index subgroups. We investigate this new property,
and observe that it is independent of several other well known group
properties. For finitely generated groups, we show that in many cases it is
equivalent to having non-cyclic abelianisation, and at the same time construct
an explicit infinite family of counterexamples to this. We show for finitely
presented groups that this property is neither Markov nor co-Markov. In the
context of our work we show that the weight of a non-perfect finite group, or a
non-perfect finitely generated solvable group, is the same as the weight of its
abelianisation. We generalise a theorem of Brodie-Chamberlain-Kappe on finite
coverings of groups, and finish with some generalisations and variations of our
new definition.Comment: 13 pages. This is the version submitted for publicatio
Integrated stress response of Escherichia coli to methylglyoxal : transcriptional readthrough from the nemRA operon enhances protection through increased expression of glyoxalase I
© 2013 The Authors. Molecular Microbiology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Rapid deconvolution of low-resolution time-of-flight data using Bayesian inference
The deconvolution of low-resolution time-of-flight data has numerous advantages, including the ability to extract additional information from the experimental data. We augment the well-known Lucy-Richardson deconvolution algorithm using various Bayesian prior distributions and show that a prior of second-differences of the signal outperforms the standard Lucy-Richardson algorithm, accelerating the rate of convergence by more than a factor of four, while preserving the peak amplitude ratios of a similar fraction of the total peaks. A novel stopping criterion and boosting mechanism are implemented to ensure that these methods converge to a similar final entropy and local minima are avoided. Improvement by a factor of two in mass resolution allows more accurate quantification of the spectra. The general method is demonstrated in this paper through the deconvolution of fragmentation peaks of the 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid matrix and the benzyltriphenylphosphonium thermometer ion, following femtosecond ultraviolet laser desorption
The numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for laminar incompressible flow past a paraboloid of revolution
A numerical method is presented for the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for flow past a paraboloid of revolution. The flow field has been computed for a large range of Reynolds numbers. Results are presented for the skinfriction and the pressure together with their respective drag coefficients. The total drag has been checked by means of an application of the momentum theorem.
Does Time-Symmetry Imply Retrocausality? How the Quantum World Says "Maybe"
It has often been suggested that retrocausality offers a solution to some of
the puzzles of quantum mechanics: e.g., that it allows a Lorentz-invariant
explanation of Bell correlations, and other manifestations of quantum
nonlocality, without action-at-a-distance. Some writers have argued that
time-symmetry counts in favour of such a view, in the sense that retrocausality
would be a natural consequence of a truly time-symmetric theory of the quantum
world. Critics object that there is complete time-symmetry in classical
physics, and yet no apparent retrocausality. Why should the quantum world be
any different? This note throws some new light on these matters. I call
attention to a respect in which quantum mechanics is different, under some
assumptions about quantum ontology. Under these assumptions, the combination of
time-symmetry without retrocausality is unavailable in quantum mechanics, for
reasons intimately connected with the differences between classical and quantum
physics (especially the role of discreteness in the latter). Not all
interpretations of quantum mechanics share these assumptions, however, and in
those that do not, time-symmetry does not entail retrocausality.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; significant revision
Multiscale image analysis applied to gamma/hadron discrimination for VHE gamma-ray astronomy with ARGO-YBJ
Intrinsic differences in the processes involved in the development of
electromagnetic and hadronic showers in the atmosphere have been evidenced by
means of a careful analysis of the event image given by the ARGO-YBJ detector.
The images have been analyzed at different length scales and their multifractal
nature has been studied. The use of the multiscale approach together with a
properly designed and trained Artificial Neural Network, allowed us to obtain a
good gamma/hadron discrimination power. If confirmed by further studies on
different event cathegories, this result would allow to nearly double the
detector sensitivity to gamma ray sources.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, Presented at the "Incontro Nazionale di
Astrofisica delle Alte Energie", Rome 15-16 May 200
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