Non-extensive radiobiology

The expression of survival factors for radiation damaged cells is based on probabilistic assumptions and experimentally fitted for each tumor, radiation and conditions. Here we show how the simplest of these radiobiological models can be derived from the maximum entropy principle of the classical Boltzmann-Gibbs expression. We extend this derivation using the Tsallis entropy and a cutoff hypothesis, motivated by clinical observations. A generalization of the exponential, the logarithm and the product to a non-extensive framework, provides a simple formula for the survival fraction corresponding to the application of several radiation doses on a living tissue. The obtained expression shows a remarkable agreement with the experimental data found in the literature, also providing a new interpretation of some of the parameters introduced anew. It is also shown how the presented formalism may has direct application in radiotherapy treatment optimization through the definition of the potential effect difference, simply calculated between the tumour and the surrounding tissue.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Sent to MaxEnt 2010. To be submitted for publicatio

THE IMPACT OF HEALTH, ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL ATTRIBUTES OF SALMON CHOICE IN THE UNITED STATES

In recent years, U.S. consumers have increasingly sought information about the health implications of their food purchases, as well as the environmental and social impact of the food production process. While this growing consumer demand has helped facilitate the development of several seafood certification programs, no accessible public or private data shows that U.S. shoppers are willing to pay a premium for certified seafood. To estimate whether a price premium exists for current and forthcoming certifications for wild and farmed salmon producers, and to better understand U.S. consumers’ preferences for salmon, we surveyed a representative sample of 955 shoppers from the United States. We then conducted a conjoint analysis on their willingness to pay for different methods of production (wild or farmed), countries or regions of origin, the Marine Stewardship Council’s wild seafood ‘ecolabel’, and hypothetical certifications assuring that the salmon product is associated with fewer health risks, environmental impacts, or negative social issues. Of the factors which affect consumers’ salmon purchasing decisions, the combination of fresh salmon’s method of production and its region of origin is generally a stronger determinant of U.S. salmon shopper’s purchasing decisions than the salmon’s certifications. Consumers strongly favor wild salmon to farmed salmon, prefer salmon from the United States to salmon from other countries, are willing to pay the largest premiums for environmental certifications, and state they are willing to pay the lowest premium for the health and safety certification. Results show that 1) fresh salmon producers and retailers have financial incentives to display social and environmental labels at seafood counters in markets, 2) a price premium for a health and safety certification of farmed salmon would be limited, since salmon consumers are more responsive to negative than positive information related to health issues associated with the salmon that they purchase, and 3) certifying agencies, and all retailers have financial incentives to inform consumers about the benefits and risks of salmon production and consumption, because informed consumers are willing to pay more for certified fresh salmon as well as most types of uncertified fresh salmon.Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy,

SZZ Unleashed: An Open Implementation of the SZZ Algorithm -- Featuring Example Usage in a Study of Just-in-Time Bug Prediction for the Jenkins Project

Numerous empirical software engineering studies rely on detailed information about bugs. While issue trackers often contain information about when bugs were fixed, details about when they were introduced to the system are often absent. As a remedy, researchers often rely on the SZZ algorithm as a heuristic approach to identify bug-introducing software changes. Unfortunately, as reported in a recent systematic literature review, few researchers have made their SZZ implementations publicly available. Consequently, there is a risk that research effort is wasted as new projects based on SZZ output need to initially reimplement the approach. Furthermore, there is a risk that newly developed (closed source) SZZ implementations have not been properly tested, thus conducting research based on their output might introduce threats to validity. We present SZZ Unleashed, an open implementation of the SZZ algorithm for git repositories. This paper describes our implementation along with a usage example for the Jenkins project, and conclude with an illustrative study on just-in-time bug prediction. We hope to continue evolving SZZ Unleashed on GitHub, and warmly invite the community to contribute

Synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of tetrakis-μ-carboxylato-bis(dodecylnicotinato)dicopper(II) complexes; crystal and molecular structure of the decyl carboxylate derivative

Dodecylnicotinate bis-adducts of binuclear copper carboxylates, of the general formula Cu2(O2CCn-1H2n-1)4(C 5H4NCOOC12H25)2, were synthesized for n = 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20, and their crystal structure, thermal behavior and magnetic properties studied. The molecular structure of the decyl derivative has been determined from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. The dimer is centrosymmetric with the CuII ions in a square-pyramidal coordination with four O-alkyl O atoms [average d(Cu - O) 1.960 (6) Å] in the basal plane and the nicotine N atom at apical positions [d(Cu - N) 2.183 (3) Å]. The copper ions, 2.615 (1) Å apart, are bridged by four O-alkyl carboxylate groups. Both the n = 20 and n = 18 homologues exhibit lamellar phases, which can be related to the supramolecular arrangement found in the n = 10 derivative. The magnetic behavior of the decyl and octadecyl dimers was studied in the 2-300 K temperature range. They exhibit a strong intramolecular antiferromagnetic interaction (Cu-Cu superexchange coupling constant J = -347 cm-1 for the decyl derivative), which can be attributed to a large overlap of the metal 3d orbitals and the oxygen lone pair orbitals of the linking carboxylate groups.Fil: Rusjan, Marcia. Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Chaia, Zulema. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; ArgentinaFil: Piro, Oscar Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Guillon, Daniel. Universite Paul Verlaine-Metz. Institut de Physique, Chimie et Materiaux; FranciaFil: Cukiernik, Fabio Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Química, Física de los Materiales, Medioambiente y Energía; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento; Argentin

Analysis of drawbacks and constraints of classification algorithms for three-phase voltage dips

Voltage events are one of the most common and harmful disturbances of power electric systems. Voltage dips, swells and interruptions are included under this heading. Given the economic cost that these disturbances represent for electrical power transmission and distribution companies and the industry, it becomes imperative to detect and classify them properly. Several classification criteria and algorithms have been proposed in the literature as analysis tools to differentiate voltage events by their characteristics and, if possible, to determine their causes and consequences. Even though some of these approaches make a correct classification of the voltage events, there are certain operation conditions that are common in real electrical grids, in which the classification criteria, and their corresponding algorithms, make a wrong classification. These particular conditions, together with the lack of a fair comparison in a common scenario, have not been addressed in the specific field literature. This work explores in detail all these aspects by evaluating the symmetrical components criterion and ABC classification criterion, and rigorously analyzes three specific algorithms: the Symmetrical Components Algorithm, the Six Phases Algorithm and the Space Vector Algorithm. Drawbacks arise from both classification criteria and algorithms. The causes of the classification errors are described and discussed in detail in order to better understand the problem, and evidence the constraints of these classification methods.Fil: Strack, Jorge Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica; ArgentinaFil: Carugati, Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica; ArgentinaFil: Orallo, Carlos Martin. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica; ArgentinaFil: Donato, Patricio Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica; ArgentinaFil: Maestri, Sebastian Oscar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica; ArgentinaFil: Carrica, Daniel Oscar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en Electrónica; Argentin