Constraining the GENIE model of neutrino-induced single pion production using reanalyzed bubble chamber data

The longstanding discrepancy between bubble chamber measurements of $\nu_\mu$-induced single pion production channels has led to large uncertainties in pion production cross section parameters for many years. We extend the reanalysis of pion production data in deuterium bubble chambers where this discrepancy is solved (Wilkinson et al., PRD 90 (2014) 112017) to include the $\nu_{\mu}n\rightarrow \mu^{-}p\pi^{0}$ and $\nu_{\mu}n\rightarrow \mu^{-}n\pi^{+}$ channels, and use the resulting data to fit the parameters of the GENIE (Rein-Sehgal) pion production model. We find a set of parameters that can describe the bubble chamber data better than the GENIE default parameters, and provide updated central values and reduced uncertainties for use in neutrino oscillation and cross section analyses which use the GENIE model. We find that GENIE's non-resonant background prediction has to be significantly reduced to fit the data, which may help to explain the recent discrepancies between simulation and data observed by the MINERvA coherent pion and NOvA oscillation analyses.Comment: v3: Updated to match published versio

A sequential approach to testing seasonal unit roots in high frequency data

In this paper we introduce a sequential seasonal unit root testing approach which explicitly addresses its application to high frequency data. The main idea is to see which unit roots at higher frequency data can also be found in temporally aggregated data. We illustrate our procedure to the analysis of monthly data, and we find, upon analysing the aggregated quarterly data, that a

Primary sand-dune plant community and soil properties during the west-coast India monsoon

A seven-station interrupted belt transect was established that followed a previously observed plant zonation pattern across an aggrading primary coastal dune system in the dry tropical region of west-coast India. The dominant weather pattern is monsoon from June to November, followed by hot and dry winter months when rainfall is scarce. Physical and chemical soil characteristics in each of the stations were analysed on five separate occasions, the first before the onset of monsoon, three during and the last post-monsoon. The plant community pattern was confirmed by quadrat survey. A pH gradient decreased with distance from the shoreline. Nutrient concentrations were deficient, increasing only in small amounts until the furthest station inland. At that location, there was a distinct and abrupt pedological transition zone from psammite to humic soils. There was a significant increase over previous stations in mean organic matter, ammonium nitrate and soil-water retention, although the increase in real terms was small. ANOVA showed significant variation in electrical conductivity, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and sodium concentrations over time. There was no relationship between soil chemistry characteristics and plant community structure over the transect. Ipomoea pes-caprae and Spinifex littoreus were restricted to the foredunes, the leguminous forb Alysicarpus vaginalis and Perotis indica to the two stations furthest from the strand. Ischaemum indicum, a C4 perennial grass species adopting an ephemeral strategy was, in contrast, ubiquitous to all stations

Cultural Alignment in Large Language Models: An Explanatory Analysis Based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

The deployment of large language models (LLMs) raises concerns regarding their cultural misalignment and potential ramifications on individuals from various cultural norms. Existing work investigated political and social biases and public opinions rather than their cultural values. To address this limitation, the proposed Cultural Alignment Test (CAT) quantifies cultural alignment using Hofstede's cultural dimension framework, which offers an explanatory cross-cultural comparison through the latent variable analysis. We apply our approach to assess the cultural values embedded in state-of-the-art LLMs, such as: ChatGPT and Bard, across diverse cultures of countries: United States (US), Saudi Arabia, China, and Slovakia, using different prompting styles and hyperparameter settings. Our results not only quantify cultural alignment of LLMs with certain countries, but also reveal the difference between LLMs in explanatory cultural dimensions. While all LLMs did not provide satisfactory results in understanding cultural values, GPT-4 exhibited the highest CAT score for the cultural values of the US.Comment: 31 page

El dibujo como dispositivo pedagógico. Fundamentos del dibujo en la enseñanza contemporánea de las artes plásticas

La presente disertación incide sobre las prácticas pedagógicas del dibujo en el contexto de la educación artística y pretende comprender las condiciones que hoy las caracterizan. El trabajo intenta fijar estas condiciones en el ámbito de una problemática que no es solamente la de la enseñanza del dibujo, sino también, y sobre todo, la de su aprendizaje. Comprender el dibujo como dispositivo pedagógico y, en particular, la importancia de los ejercicios en el aprendizaje del dibujo, exige pensar el dibujo en la convergencia de diferentes circunstancias que concurren - simultáneamente - para tornarlo una experiencia contemporánea. Concebidos para fundar una pedagogía, los ejercicios de dibujo se revelan entonces determinantes para configurar un proceso cuya naturaleza es, sobre todo, práctica. Son estos ejercicios los que definen el espectro de lo que deberá ser trabajado en el contexto pedagógico, y lo que, hasta cierto punto, permitirá obtener una visión global y controlada sobre la estrategia de enseñanza que se derive de ahí - así como la fidelidad de las prácticas pedagógicas en función de los contenidos planeados. La enseñanza del dibujo apenas consta de contenidos identificados como relevantes para la formación del alumno. Esos contenidos, que cumplen designios al servicio de objetivos bien delimitados y que dependen de estrategias pedagógicas, apelan al mismo tiempo a mecanismos de instrucción y de experimentación, que tienen lugar en un medio pedagógico concreto. A pesar de ser aparentemente marginales y menores, tanto la naturaleza de estos dispositivos (los ejercicios de dibujo) como las especificidades que configuran el medio pedagógico (el aula) son indispensables para una práctica exitosa de aprendizaje del dibujo artístico contemporáneo.Rodrigues Esteves, PJ. (2011). El dibujo como dispositivo pedagógico. Fundamentos del dibujo en la enseñanza contemporánea de las artes plásticas [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/15176Palanci

ASSESSMENT OF OSTEOPOROSIS AND ANAEMIA RISK IN PATIENTS ON ANTICONVULSANT THERAPY

Objective: To assess the incidence of osteoporosis and anaemia in patients on anticonvulsant therapy and to educate those under risk.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted on 50 study participants. The Bone mineral density (BMD), vitamin D, hematological parameters and peripheral smear were noted. Data analyzed using different statistical methods. Patient information brochures for osteoporosis and anaemia were distributed to those on chronic anti-epileptic drug (AED) therapy.Results: The prevalence of osteoporosis was 16% and osteopenia 22%. The BMD of subjects showed an Insignificant reduction in BMD when compared with a standard reference value for south asian population (*P>0.05). The mean BMD in single therapy group was higher compared with multiple therapy groups. BMD of the enzyme-inducing class was less compared with non-enzyme inducing class but was not significant (P>0.05). Duration of therapy was compared with BMD of patients showed a negative correlation. The relationship between duration of therapy and hematological parameters showed a negative correlation (r =-0.128). The mean haematological parameters in single AED therapy were higher when compared with multiple AED therapy. The study demonstrated 40% microcytic hypochromic and 4% macrocytic hypochromic morphology.Conclusion: Chronic therapy with AEDs possesses a significant risk of developing osteoporosis and anaemia. The incidence rate varies according to the type, duration, and mode of therapy. Early detection and management through diet exercise or pharmacotherapy will decrease the incidence of unwanted effects due to AEDs and improve the quality of life.Keywords: Bone mineral density, Antiepileptic drug, Osteoporosi

Assessing the compressive and impact behavior of plastic safety toe caps through computational modelling

Toe caps are one of the most important components in safety footwear, but have a significant contribution to the weight of the shoe. Efforts have been made to replace steel toe caps by polymeric ones, since they are lighter, insulated and insensitive to magnetic fields. Nevertheless, polymeric solutions require larger volumes, which has a negative impact on the shoe’s aesthetics. Therefore, safety footwear manufacturers are pursuing the development of an easy, low-cost and reliable solution to optimize this component. In this work, a solid mechanics toolbox built in the open-source computational library, OpenFOAM®, was used to simulate two laboratory standard tests (15 kN compression and 200 J impact tests). To model the polymeric material behavior, a neo-Hookean hyper-elasto-plastic material law with J2 plastic criteria was employed. A commercially available plastic toe cap was characterized, and the collected data was used for assessment purposes. Close agreements, between experimental and simulated values, were achieved for both tests, with an approximate error of 5.4% and 6.8% for the displacement value in compression and impact test simulations, respectively. The results clearly demonstrate that the employed open-source finite volume computational models offer reliable results and can support the design of toe caps for the R&D footwear industry.This work was funded by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 Programme and National Funds through FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the projects UIDB/05256/2020; UIDP/05256/2020 and FAMEST-Footwear, Advanced Materials, Equipment’s and Software Technologies (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-024529)

Advances and drawbacks of the adaptation to serum-free culture of CHO-K1 cells for monoclonal antibody production

Currently, mammalian cell technology has become the focus of biopharmaceutical production, with strict regulatory scrutiny of the techniques employed. Major concerns about the presence of animal-derived components in the culture media led to the development of serum-free (SF) culture processes. However, cell adaptation to SF conditions is still a major challenge and limiting step of process development. Thus, this study aims to assess the impact of SF adaptation on monoclonal antibody production (mAb), identify the most critical steps of cell adaptation to the SF EX-CELL medium, and create basic process guidelines.. The success of SF adaptation was dependent on critical steps that included: accentuated cell sensitivity to common culture procedures (centrifugation, trypsinization); initial cell concentration; time given at each step of serum-reduction; and, most importantly, medium supplements used to support adaptation. Indeed, only one of the five supplement combinations assessed (rhinsulin, ammonium metavanadate, nickel chloride and stannous chloride) succeeded for the CHO-K1 cell line used. This work also revealed that the chemically-defined EX-CELL medium benefits mAb production in comparison with the general purpose Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium, but the complete removal of serum attenuates these positive effects.The authors acknowledge funding and support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), namely grant ref SFRH/BD/46661/2008 for Maria Elisa Rodrigues and SFRH/BD/46660/2008 for Ana Rita Costa

The impact of the building envelope on the energy efficiency of residential tall buildings in Saudi Arabia

In this paper, the authors explored the hypothesis that the most common approach to improve a building’s energy efficiency in the hot climate of Saudi Arabia, which focuses on engineering parameters, is not sufficient and architectural design parameters should be adopted to reduce cooling loads. In order to investigate this hypothesis, 27 sets of dynamic thermal simulations were compared. The best and worst combinations of glazing ratio, wall and glazing type were identified in order to understand the most influential parameter impacting the cooling energy loads in the building. The findings demonstrated that the reliance on a prescriptive approach for building envelope ‘engineering parameters’ specifications does not achieve the required levels of energy efficiency, and the thoughtful consideration of the ‘design parameters’, such as shading elements, could have a significant impact on cooling energy loads