2,409 research outputs found
COVID-19 and the difficulty of inferring epidemiological parameters from clinical data
Knowing the infection fatality ratio (IFR) is of crucial importance for
evidence-based epidemic management: for immediate planning; for balancing the
life years saved against the life years lost due to the consequences of
management; and for evaluating the ethical issues associated with the tacit
willingness to pay substantially more for life years lost to the epidemic, than
for those to other diseases. Against this background Verity et al. (2020,
Lancet Infections Diseases) have rapidly assembled case data and used
statistical modelling to infer the IFR for COVID-19. We have attempted an
in-depth statistical review of their approach, to identify to what extent the
data are sufficiently informative about the IFR to play a greater role than the
modelling assumptions, and have tried to identify those assumptions that appear
to play a key role. Given the difficulties with other data sources, we provide
a crude alternative analysis based on the Diamond Princess Cruise ship data and
case data from China, and argue that, given the data problems, modelling of
clinical data to obtain the IFR can only be a stop-gap measure. What is needed
is near direct measurement of epidemic size by PCR and/or antibody testing of
random samples of the at risk population.Comment: Version accepted by the Lancet Infectious Diseases. See previous
version for less terse presentatio
Constraints on Automorphic Forms of Higher Derivative Terms from Compactification
By dimensionally reducing the higher derivative corrections of
ten-dimensional IIB theory on a torus we deduce constraints on the E_{n+1}
automorphic forms that occur in d=10-n dimensions. In particular we argue that
these automorphic forms involve the representation of E_{n+1} with fundamental
weight \lambda^{n+1}, which is also the representation to which the string
charges in d dimensions belong. We also consider a similar calculation for the
reduction of higher derivative terms in eleven-dimensional M-theory.Comment: Minor corrections, to appear in JHE
Some Issues in the Art Image Database Systems
In this paper we illustrate several aspects of art databases, such as: the spread of the multimedia art images; the main characteristics of art images; main art images search models; unique characteristics for art image retrieval; the importance of the sensory and semantic gaps. In addition, we present several interesting features of an art image database, such as: image indexing; feature extraction; analysis on various levels of precision; style classification. We stress color features and their base, painting analysis and painting styles. We study also which MPEG-7 descriptors are best for fine painting images retrieval. An experimental system is developed to see how these descriptors work on 900 art images from several remarkable art periods. On the base of our experiments some suggestions for improving the process of searching and analysis of fine art images are given
Higher derivative type II string effective actions, automorphic forms and E11
By dimensionally reducing the ten-dimensional higher derivative type IIA
string theory effective action we place constraints on the automorphic forms
that appear in the effective action in lower dimensions. We propose a number of
properties of such automorphic forms and consider the prospects that E11 can
play a role in the formulation of the higher derivative string theory effective
action.Comment: 34 page
Covariant Quantization of Superstrings Without Pure Spinor Constraints
We construct a covariant quantum superstring, extending Berkovits' approach
by introducing new ghosts to relax the pure spinor constraints. The central
charge of the underlying Kac-Moody algebra, which would lead to an anomaly in
the BRST charge, is treated as a new generator with a new b-c system. We
construct a nilpotent BRST current, an anomalous ghost current and an
anomaly-free energy-momentum tensor. For open superstrings, we find the correct
massless spectrum. In addition, we construct a Lorentz invariant B-field to be
used for the computation of the integrated vertex operators and amplitudes.Comment: 30 page
Lithium in strong magnetic fields
The electronic structure of the lithium atom in a strong magnetic field 0 <=
gamma <= 10 is investigated. Our computational approach is a full configuration
interaction method based on a set of anisotropic Gaussian orbitals that is
nonlinearly optimized for each field strength. Accurate results for the total
energies and one-electron ionization energies for the ground and several
excited states for each of the symmetries ^20^+, ^2(-1)^+, ^4(-1)^+, ^4(-1)^-,
^2(-2)^+, ^4(-2)^+, are presented. The behaviour of these energies
as a function of the field strength is discussed and classified. Transition
wave lengths for linear and circular polarized transitions are presented as
well.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
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A platform for the discovery of new macrolide antibiotics.
The chemical modification of structurally complex fermentation products, a process known as semisynthesis, has been an important tool in the discovery and manufacture of antibiotics for the treatment of various infectious diseases. However, many of the therapeutics obtained in this way are no longer effective, because bacterial resistance to these compounds has developed. Here we present a practical, fully synthetic route to macrolide antibiotics by the convergent assembly of simple chemical building blocks, enabling the synthesis of diverse structures not accessible by traditional semisynthetic approaches. More than 300 new macrolide antibiotic candidates, as well as the clinical candidate solithromycin, have been synthesized using our convergent approach. Evaluation of these compounds against a panel of pathogenic bacteria revealed that the majority of these structures had antibiotic activity, some efficacious against strains resistant to macrolides in current use. The chemistry we describe here provides a platform for the discovery of new macrolide antibiotics and may also serve as the basis for their manufacture
World-line Quantisation of a Reciprocally Invariant System
We present the world-line quantisation of a system invariant under the
symmetries of reciprocal relativity (pseudo-unitary transformations on ``phase
space coordinates" which preserve the Minkowski
metric and the symplectic form, and global shifts in these coordinates,
together with coordinate dependent transformations of an additional compact
phase coordinate, ). The action is that of free motion over the
corresponding Weyl-Heisenberg group. Imposition of the first class constraint,
the generator of local time reparametrisations, on physical states enforces
identification of the world-line cosmological constant with a fixed value of
the quadratic Casimir of the quaplectic symmetry group , the semi-direct product of the pseudo-unitary group with
the Weyl-Heisenberg group (the central extension of the global translation
group, with central extension associated to the phase variable ).
The spacetime spectrum of physical states is identified. Even though for an
appropriate range of values the restriction enforced by the cosmological
constant projects out negative norm states from the physical spectrum, leaving
over spin zero states only, the mass-squared spectrum is continuous over the
entire real line and thus includes a tachyonic branch as well
Free energy for parameterized Polyakov loops in SU(2) and SU(3) lattice gauge theory
We present a study of the free energy of parameterized Polyakov loops P in
SU(2) and SU(3) lattice gauge theory as a function of the parameters that
characterize P. We explore temperatures below and above the deconfinement
transition, and for our highest temperatures T > 5 T_c we compare the free
energy to perturbative results.Comment: Minor changes. Final version to appear in JHE
An Automated Method for the Detection and Extraction of HI Self-Absorption in High-Resolution 21cm Line Surveys
We describe algorithms that detect 21cm line HI self-absorption (HISA) in
large data sets and extract it for analysis. Our search method identifies HISA
as spatially and spectrally confined dark HI features that appear as negative
residuals after removing larger-scale emission components with a modified CLEAN
algorithm. Adjacent HISA volume-pixels (voxels) are grouped into features in
(l,b,v) space, and the HI brightness of voxels outside the 3-D feature
boundaries is smoothly interpolated to estimate the absorption amplitude and
the unabsorbed HI emission brightness. The reliability and completeness of our
HISA detection scheme have been tested extensively with model data. We detect
most features over a wide range of sizes, linewidths, amplitudes, and
background levels, with poor detection only where the absorption brightness
temperature amplitude is weak, the absorption scale approaches that of the
correlated noise, or the background level is too faint for HISA to be
distinguished reliably from emission gaps. False detection rates are very low
in all parts of the parameter space except at sizes and amplitudes approaching
those of noise fluctuations. Absorption measurement biases introduced by the
method are generally small and appear to arise from cases of incomplete HISA
detection. This paper is the third in a series examining HISA at high angular
resolution. A companion paper (Paper II) uses our HISA search and extraction
method to investigate the cold atomic gas distribution in the Canadian Galactic
Plane Survey.Comment: 39 pages, including 14 figure pages; to appear in June 10 ApJ, volume
626; figure quality significantly reduced for astro-ph; for full resolution,
please see http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/hisa/cgps1_survey
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