How do anticipated worry and regret predict seasonal influenza vaccination uptake among Chinese adults?

Objectives: To test two hypothesized models of how anticipated affect, cognitive risk estimate and vaccination intention might influence vaccination uptake against seasonal influenza. Methods: The study collected baseline and follow-up data during the main influenza seasons (January-March) of 2009 and 2010, respectively, among 507 university students and staff of a university in Hong Kong. Following logistic regression to determine eligible variables, two mediation models of cognitive risk estimate, anticipated affect, vaccination intention and vaccination uptake against seasonal influenza were tested using structural equation modeling. Results: Mediation analyses found that anticipated worry if not vaccinated influenced seasonal influenza vaccination uptake through its effects on either perceived probability of influenza infection (β= 0.45) or intention (.β= 0.45) while anticipated regret if not vaccinated influenced vaccination uptake through its effect on intention (β= 0.45) only; anticipated regret if vaccinated impeded vaccination uptake indirectly through its effect on vaccination intention (β= -0.26) or directly (β= -0.20); perceived probability of influenza infection influenced vaccination uptake through its effect on intention (β= 0.20) or directly (β= 0.22); and finally, intention influenced vaccination uptake directly (β= 0.58). Conclusion: The results suggest that anticipated affect seems to drive risk estimates related to seasonal influenza vaccination rather than vice versa and intention remains an important mediator of the associations of anticipated affect and cognitive risk estimate with vaccination uptake against seasonal influenza. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.postprin

Research Program towards Observation of Neutrino-Nucleus Coherent Scattering

The article describes the research program pursued by the TEXONO Collaboration towards an experiment to observe coherent scattering between neutrinos and the nucleus at the power reactor. The motivations of studying this process are surveyed. In particular, a threshold of 100-200 eV has been achieved with an ultra-low-energy germanium detector prototype. This detection capability at low energy can also be adapted to conduct searches of Cold Dark Matter in the low-mass region as well as to enhance the sensitivities in the study of neutrino magnetic moments.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures ; Proceedings of TAUP-2005 Workshop, Spain, 2005. Updated on 2006/9/15 for Proceedings of Neutrino-2006 Conference, Santa Fe, 200

FM mode-locked fiber optical parametric oscillator

An FM mode-locked fiber optical parametric oscillator is demonstrated. By introducing periodic phase perturbation in the cavity, 10-GHz pulse train can be obtained. The output signal has a side-mode suppression ratio of 55 dB. © 2011 OSA.published_or_final_versio

l2Match: Optimization Techniques on Subgraph Matching Algorithm using Label Pair, Neighboring Label Index, and Jump-Redo method

Graph database is designed to store bidirectional relationships between objects and facilitate the traversal process to extract a subgraph. However, the subgraph matching process is an NP-Complete problem. Existing solutions to this problem usually employ a filter-and-verification framework and a divide-and-conquer method. The filter-and-verification framework minimizes the number of inputs to the verification stage by filtering and pruning invalid candidates as much as possible. Meanwhile, subgraph matching is performed on the substructure decomposed from the larger graph to yield partial embedding. Subsequently, the recursive traversal or set intersection technique combines the partial embedding into a complete subgraph. In this paper, we first present a comprehensive literature review of the state-of-the-art solutions. l2Match, a subgraph isomorphism algorithm for small queries utilizing a Label-Pair Index and filtering method, is then proposed and presented as a proof of concept. Empirical experimentation shows that l2Match outperforms related state-of-the-art solutions, and the proposed methods optimize the existing algorithms.Comment: This short version of this article (6 pages) is accepted by ICEIC 202

Discovering pan-correlation patterns from time course data sets by efficient mining algorithms

© 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature. Time-course correlation patterns can be positive or negative, and time-lagged with gaps. Mining all these correlation patterns help to gain broad insights on variable dependencies. Here, we prove that diverse types of correlation patterns can be represented by a generalized form of positive correlation patterns. We prove a correspondence between positive correlation patterns and sequential patterns, and present an efficient single-scan algorithm for mining the correlations. Evaluations on synthetic time course data sets, and yeast cell cycle gene expression data sets indicate that: (1) the algorithm has linear time increment in terms of increasing number of variables; (2) negative correlation patterns are abundant in real-world data sets; and (3) correlation patterns with time lags and gaps are abundant. Existing methods have only discovered incomplete forms of many of these patterns, and have missed some important patterns completely

Coherency in Neutrino-Nucleus Elastic Scattering

Neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering provides a unique laboratory to study the quantum mechanical coherency effects in electroweak interactions, towards which several experimental programs are being actively pursued. We report results of our quantitative studies on the transitions towards decoherency. A parameter ($\alpha$) is identified to describe the degree of coherency, and its variations with incoming neutrino energy, detector threshold and target nucleus are studied. The ranges of $\alpha$ which can be probed with realistic neutrino experiments are derived, indicating complementarity between projects with different sources and targets. Uncertainties in nuclear physics and in $\alpha$ would constrain sensitivities in probing physics beyond the standard model. The maximum neutrino energies corresponding to $\alpha$>0.95 are derived.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. V2 -- Published Versio

Prospects of cold dark matter searches with an ultra-low-energy germanium detector

The report describes the research program on the development of ultra-low-energy germanium detectors, with emphasis on WIMP dark matter searches. A threshold of 100 eV is achieved with a 20 g detector array, providing a unique probe to the low-mas WIMP. Present data at a surface laboratory is expected to give rise to comparable sensitivities with the existing limits at the $\rm{5 - 10 GeV}$ WIMP-mass range. The projected parameter space to be probed with a full-scale, kilogram mass-range experiment is presented. Such a detector would also allow the studies of neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering and neutrino magnetic moments.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of TAUP-2007 Conferenc

Tunable repetition rate multiplier based on fiber optical parametric oscillator

We demonstrate a tunable repetition rate multiplier based on fiber optical parametric oscillator. 2-6 times repetition rate multiplication of a 10-GHz pulse source is achieved with a tuning range of 20 nm in the L-band. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe IEEE Photonics Society Summer Topical Meetings, Playa del Carmen, Mexico, 19-21 July 2010. In Proceedings of PHOSST, 2010, p. 133-13