Seeded excitation avalanches in off-resonantly driven Rydberg gases

We report an experimental investigation of the facilitated excitation dynamics in off-resonantly driven Rydberg gases by separating the initial off-resonant excitation phase from the facilitation phase, in which successive facilitation events lead to excitation avalanches. We achieve this by creating a controlled number of initial seed excitations. Greater insight into the avalanche mechanism is obtained from an analysis of the full counting distributions. We also present simple mathematical models and numerical simulations of the excitation avalanches that agree well with our experimental results.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Perspectives on the changing healthcare system: teaching systems-based practice to medical residents

Purpose: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education restructured its accreditation system to be based on educational outcomes in six core competencies. Systems-based practice is one of the six core competencies. The purpose of this report is to describe Weill Cornell Medical College's Internal Medicine Residency program curriculum for systems-based practice (SBP) and its evaluation process. Methods: To examine potential outcomes of the POCHS curriculum, an evaluation was conducted, examining participants': (1) knowledge gain; (2) course ratings; and (3) qualitative feedback. Results: On average, there was a 19 percentage point increase in knowledge test scores for all three cohorts. The course was rated overall highly, receiving an average of 4.6 on a 1–5 scale. Lastly, the qualitative comments supported that the material is needed and valued. Conclusion: The course, entitled Perspectives on the Changing Healthcare System (POCHS) and its evaluation process support that systems-based practice is crucial to residency education. The course is designed not only to educate residents about the current health care system but also to enable them to think critically about the risk and benefits of the changes. POCHS provides a framework for teaching and assessing this competency and can serve as a template for other residency programs looking to create or restructure their SBP curriculum

Una nueva especie de Liolaemus del grupo alticolor (Iguania: Liolaemidae) de la puna salteña, Argentina.

En este trabajo se describe una nueva especie de Liolaemus del grupo alticolor. Liolaemus yanalcu n. sp. se encuentra distribuido en los alrededores del Nevado del Acay en un área aproximada de 400 km2, entre los 3730 y los 4305 m de elevación. Se estudiaron 82 caracteres de lepidosis, patrones de coloración, pliegues, poros precloacales, coloración en vida y modo reproductivo, información que fue utilizada para compararlo con los demás miembros del grupo. La nueva especie presenta coloración general del cuerpo castaño oscura a negra, el campo lateral oscuro y manchas en el mismo casi imperceptibles, carece de manchas paravertebrales, a menudo en los machos la línea vertebral está presente muchas veces fragmentada, patrón de punteado fino intenso en la región ventral de la cola, entre otros. Esta especie cuenta con 10% de hembras con poros precloacales carácter sólo observado en otras dos especies del grupo (L. ramirezae: 94% y L. bitaeniatus: 41%). Fenéticamente la especie más cercana a la nueva especie sería L. ramirezae, habitando un estrato altitudinal inferior a la misma (entre 2820 y 3200 m). Liolaemus yanalcu n. sp. es una forma ovípara, sería la especie de Liolaemus que deposita huevos a mayor altura hasta ahora conocida (3800-4300 m). Este lagarto vive en sintopía con L. albiceps y L. poecilochromus (grupos darwinii y andinus respectivamente) en el área circundante al Acay y con L. irregularis en cercanía de San Antonio de los Cobres.This paper describes a new Liolaemus species of the alticolor group. Populations of Lioalemus yanalcu n. sp. are distributed around the Nevado del Acay over an estimated area of 400 km2, from 3730 to 4305 m above sea level. Eighty two characters including squamation, coloration patterns, skin foldings, precloacal pores, in-life coloration and reproductive mode were studied. This information was used for making comparions with other members of the group. The new species is characterized by having body coloration from dark brown to black, dark lateral field with almost inconspicuous markings, absence of paravertebral markings, vertebral line often presenet (in males) sometimes broken, fine and dense spotted pattern on ventral surface of tail, among other characters. In this species10% of females exhibit precloacal pores (character observed only in L. bitaeniatus, 41% and L. ramirezae, 94%). Phenetically, the closest specuies to the new one is L ramirezae which inhabits a lower altitudinal range (2820-3200 m). Lioalemus yanalcu n. sp is oviparous, and the only oviparous species of Liolaemus living at such high elevation (3800-4300m). This lizard lives sintopically with L. albiceps and L. poecilochromus (darwinii and andinus groups respectively) in surrounding areas of the Nevado del Acay and with L. irregularis near San Antonio de los Cobres.Fil: Martinez Oliver, Inés. Universidad Nacional de Salta; ArgentinaFil: Lobo Gaviola, Fernando Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales. Museo de Ciencias Naturales. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del NOA; Argentin

Efecto de la aplicación del abono tipo bocashi sobre el rendimiento productivo en el cultivo del tomate (Lycopersicum esculentum mill), bajo riego, San Isidro, I semestre, 2012

El estudio “Efecto de la aplicación del abono tipo bocashi sobre el rendimiento productivo en el cultivo del tomate (Lycopersicum esculentum mill), bajo riego, San Isidro, I semestre, 2012”; se estableció en el Centro de Desarrollo Tecnológico (CDT) del Valle de Sébaco. Se evaluaron 5 formulaciones de abono orgánico tipo bocashi a dos niveles de aplicación 4 y 8 Ton/Ha y su efecto en los rendimientos de producción. Se realizaron análisis químicos de laboratorio a las formulaciones de bocashi para conocer los niveles de macro y micro elementos en laboratorio Laquisa, León, los resultados en Macro y micro elementos fueron altos, sobresaliendo los T4 (Bocashi 2 a 8 Ton /Ha) y T5 (Bocashi 3 a 4 Ton /Ha). El diseño experimental fue un Bloque Completamente al Azar con cuatro repeticiones. Se utilizó la variedad de Tomate INTA-Valle de Sébaco. Con relación a la variable de crecimiento y desarrollo productivo del tomate el T9 y T10 obtuvieron los mejores resultados. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el tratamiento con los mejores rendimientos de producción en Kg/Ha fueron obtenidos por los tratamientos 10 (bocashi 5 a 8 Ton/Ha) con rendimientos de 9,387 Kg/Ha y el tratamiento 8 (bocashi 4 a 8 Ton/Ha) con un rendimiento de 8,130 Kg/Ha. El tratamiento con el mejor beneficio neto fue el tratamiento 10 (Bocashi 5 a 8 Ton/Ha) con 62,618 C$/ha, tomando en cuenta los egresos e ingresos a los precios actuales de cada materia prima utilizada en cada tratamient

POMDP planning for the creation of service packages

The generation of complex systems where the user requires decisions based on several criteria involves building a relationship of global preference for a set of alternatives evaluated. Between these systems there are the Tourist Systems, that was impulse by internet like a facilitator in the access of different sources of information for travel planning. Currently, tourists should not only visit multiple independent Web sites (airlines, hotels, etc.) and await a considerable time receiving confirmation responses. All these actions required generating a stochastic system that can meet the services and generate plans. Are being studied POMDP algorithms, in order to obtain a method for packages tailored to user requirements. Under the hypothetical-deductive methodology, this includes the study of service pakage´s composition, application, comparison and validation by a computer prototype with real users for a Web Recommender System. This thesis is framed within a PICT project called "E-OASIS Integrated Travel Services to facilitate easy access to Local Cultural Heritage" whose technical objective is to develop a Customized Recommender System for Tourist Services in the Province of San Juan. The automatic planning in real world problems has become a subject of interest to the scientific community because it allows computationally establish courses of action in cases where a human cannot addressed adequately for the complexity. The motivation for this work focuses on two aspects of the automatic planning, the scientific contributions and its practice application. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen)Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

POMDP planning for the creation of service packages

The generation of complex systems where the user requires decisions based on several criteria involves building a relationship of global preference for a set of alternatives evaluated. Between these systems there are the Tourist Systems, that was impulse by internet like a facilitator in the access of different sources of information for travel planning. Currently, tourists should not only visit multiple independent Web sites (airlines, hotels, etc.) and await a considerable time receiving confirmation responses. All these actions required generating a stochastic system that can meet the services and generate plans. Are being studied POMDP algorithms, in order to obtain a method for packages tailored to user requirements. Under the hypothetical-deductive methodology, this includes the study of service pakage´s composition, application, comparison and validation by a computer prototype with real users for a Web Recommender System. This thesis is framed within a PICT project called "E-OASIS Integrated Travel Services to facilitate easy access to Local Cultural Heritage" whose technical objective is to develop a Customized Recommender System for Tourist Services in the Province of San Juan. The automatic planning in real world problems has become a subject of interest to the scientific community because it allows computationally establish courses of action in cases where a human cannot addressed adequately for the complexity. The motivation for this work focuses on two aspects of the automatic planning, the scientific contributions and its practice application. (Párrafo extraído del texto a modo de resumen)Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa (SADIO

Flooding through the lens of mobile phone activity

Natural disasters affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide every year. Emergency response efforts depend upon the availability of timely information, such as information concerning the movements of affected populations. The analysis of aggregated and anonymized Call Detail Records (CDR) captured from the mobile phone infrastructure provides new possibilities to characterize human behavior during critical events. In this work, we investigate the viability of using CDR data combined with other sources of information to characterize the floods that occurred in Tabasco, Mexico in 2009. An impact map has been reconstructed using Landsat-7 images to identify the floods. Within this frame, the underlying communication activity signals in the CDR data have been analyzed and compared against rainfall levels extracted from data of the NASA-TRMM project. The variations in the number of active phones connected to each cell tower reveal abnormal activity patterns in the most affected locations during and after the floods that could be used as signatures of the floods - both in terms of infrastructure impact assessment and population information awareness. The representativeness of the analysis has been assessed using census data and civil protection records. While a more extensive validation is required, these early results suggest high potential in using cell tower activity information to improve early warning and emergency management mechanisms.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Global Humanitarian Technologies Conference (GHTC) 201

〈Article〉Cool Japan, Warm Mexico : Bounded Others and National Identity

The present paper is an approach to othering as a potential factor of coolness. Through the analysis of two case studies−the established cultural phenomenon of Cool Japan, and the rising buildup of what we call Warm Mexico−the aim is to understand the particular conditions of othering that can lead to a "cool" national identity. Japan is taken as a departure point to assess the usage of exoticism as a resource for building a cool national identity, and then the analysis turns to Mexico\u27s current national image to examine the possibility for that same strategy to be applied. The concepts of complicit exoticism, and bounded autonomy are used as theoretical axes to find out the factors involved in the cooling of an othered culture. The paper combines theoretical analysis and a content analysis of two case studies to strengthen the understanding of the links between concepts. The first part focuses on the historical and theoretical background that hint at the variables involved in process of building a "cool" other. The second part is an interpretation analysis of an exploratory content analysis done on conversations with fan communities that have received and replicated othering discourses of two foreign cultures, i.e. Mexico and Japan