40,655 research outputs found
When and where do you want to hide? Recommendation of location privacy preferences with local differential privacy
In recent years, it has become easy to obtain location information quite
precisely. However, the acquisition of such information has risks such as
individual identification and leakage of sensitive information, so it is
necessary to protect the privacy of location information. For this purpose,
people should know their location privacy preferences, that is, whether or not
he/she can release location information at each place and time. However, it is
not easy for each user to make such decisions and it is troublesome to set the
privacy preference at each time. Therefore, we propose a method to recommend
location privacy preferences for decision making. Comparing to existing method,
our method can improve the accuracy of recommendation by using matrix
factorization and preserve privacy strictly by local differential privacy,
whereas the existing method does not achieve formal privacy guarantee. In
addition, we found the best granularity of a location privacy preference, that
is, how to express the information in location privacy protection. To evaluate
and verify the utility of our method, we have integrated two existing datasets
to create a rich information in term of user number. From the results of the
evaluation using this dataset, we confirmed that our method can predict
location privacy preferences accurately and that it provides a suitable method
to define the location privacy preference
Can computed crystal energy landscapes help understand pharmaceutical solids?
Computational crystal structure prediction (CSP) methods can now be applied to the smaller pharmaceutical molecules currently in drug development. We review the recent uses of computed crystal energy landscapes for pharmaceuticals, concentrating on examples where they have been used in collaboration with industrial-style experimental solid form screening. There is a strong complementarity in aiding experiment to find and characterise practically important solid forms and understanding the nature of the solid form landscape
Effectiveness of a home-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme in pulmonary function and health related quality of life for patients with pulmonary tuberculosis: a pilot study
Background: Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) often develop impairment in pulmonary function due to anatomical changes secondary to the illness. Physiotherapy in the form of pulmonary rehabilitation has been advocated.Objective: The aim of the study was to determine whether adherence to a six-week home-based pulmonary rehabilitation programme (PRP) improved the baseline measurements of lung function, exercise tolerance and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients receiving out-patient treatment for PTB.Method: A single blinded randomized control study design was used to assess the effects of a six-week home- based PRP in patients receiving treatment for PTB at a local clinic in Khayelitsha, Western Cape. We evaluated lung function by spirometry (MINATO AUTOSPIRO-model no. AZ-505), exercise tolerance using the 6-min-walk test (6MWT), the Borg exercise exertion scale and HRQoL using the EQ-5 D questionnaire in an intervention group (n=34) and a control group (n=33). The trend of the effects of the PRP on lung function was towards increases, but there was no statistical difference between the intervention and control groups at the end of the sixth week in the values of FVC (p=0.2; 95% CI -0.9 to 0.51) as well as FEV1 (p=0.1; 95% CI -0.07 to 0.51). Similar trend was observed for exercise tolerance, and there was no significant difference in HRQoL (p=0.789).Conclusion: The outcome of the study provides motivation for further consideration and implementation of a pulmonary rehabilitation programme for patients with PTB.Keywords: Pulmonary rehabilitation, pulmonary tuberculosi
The dynamics of apparent horizons in Robinson-Trautman spacetimes
We present an alternative scheme of finding apparent horizons based on
spectral methods applied to Robinson-Trautman spacetimes. We have considered
distinct initial data such as representing the spheroids of matter and the
head-on collision of two non-rotating black holes. The evolution of the
apparent horizon is presented. We have obtained in some cases a mass gap
between the final Bondi and apparent horizon masses, whose implications were
briefly commented in the light of the thermodynamics of black holes.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Non-Gaussian states for continuous variable quantum computation via Gaussian maps
We investigate non-Gaussian states of light as ancillary inputs for
generating nonlinear transformations required for quantum computing with
continuous variables. We consider a recent proposal for preparing a cubic phase
state, find the exact form of the prepared state and perform a detailed
comparison to the ideal cubic phase state. We thereby identify the main
challenges to preparing an ideal cubic phase state and describe the gates
implemented with the non-ideal prepared state. We also find the general form of
operations that can be implemented with ancilla Fock states, together with
Gaussian input states, linear optics and squeezing transformations, and
homodyne detection with feed forward, and discuss the feasibility of continuous
variable quantum computing using ancilla Fock states.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
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Multiple sclerosis susceptibility alleles in African Americans.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease characterized by complex genetics and multifaceted gene-environment interactions. Compared to whites, African Americans have a lower risk for developing MS, but African Americans with MS have a greater risk of disability. These differences between African Americans and whites may represent differences in genetic susceptibility and/or environmental factors. SNPs from 12 candidate genes have recently been identified and validated with MS risk in white populations. We performed a replication study using 918 cases and 656 unrelated controls to test whether these candidate genes are also associated with MS risk in African Americans. CD6, CLEC16a, EVI5, GPC5, and TYK2 contained SNPs that are associated with MS risk in the African American data set. EVI5 showed the strongest association outside the major histocompatibility complex (rs10735781, OR=1.233, 95% CI=1.06-1.43, P-value=0.006). In addition, RGS1 seems to affect age of onset whereas TNFRSF1A seems to be associated with disease progression. None of the tested variants showed results that were statistically inconsistent with the effects established in whites. The results are consistent with shared disease genetic mechanisms among individuals of European and African ancestry
On BPS bounds in D=4 N=2 gauged supergravity II: general matter couplings and black hole masses
We continue the analysis of BPS bounds started in arXiv:1110.2688, extending
it to the full class of N=2 gauged supergravity theories with arbitrary vector
and hypermultiplets. We derive the general form of the asymptotic charges for
asymptotically flat (M_4), anti-de Sitter (AdS_4), and magnetic anti-de Sitter
(mAdS_4) spacetimes. Some particular examples from black hole physics are given
to explicitly demonstrate how AdS and mAdS masses differ when solutions with
non-trivial scalar profiles are considered.Comment: 21 pages; v2 added reference, published version; v3 minor correction
On CSP and the Algebraic Theory of Effects
We consider CSP from the point of view of the algebraic theory of effects,
which classifies operations as effect constructors or effect deconstructors; it
also provides a link with functional programming, being a refinement of Moggi's
seminal monadic point of view. There is a natural algebraic theory of the
constructors whose free algebra functor is Moggi's monad; we illustrate this by
characterising free and initial algebras in terms of two versions of the stable
failures model of CSP, one more general than the other. Deconstructors are
dealt with as homomorphisms to (possibly non-free) algebras.
One can view CSP's action and choice operators as constructors and the rest,
such as concealment and concurrency, as deconstructors. Carrying this programme
out results in taking deterministic external choice as constructor rather than
general external choice. However, binary deconstructors, such as the CSP
concurrency operator, provide unresolved difficulties. We conclude by
presenting a combination of CSP with Moggi's computational {\lambda}-calculus,
in which the operators, including concurrency, are polymorphic. While the paper
mainly concerns CSP, it ought to be possible to carry over similar ideas to
other process calculi
Translating solid state organic synthesis from a mixer mill to a continuous twin screw extruder
A study on the translation of a solid-state synthetic reaction from a mechanochemical mixer-mill to a continuous twin-screw extruder is discussed herein. The study highlights some considerations to be made and parameters to be tested in the context of a model fluorination reaction, which is the first organic fluorination to be attempted using extrusion. Upon optimization, which features the first use of grinding auxiliary solids to enable effective synthetic extrusion, the difluorination reaction was successfully translated to the extruder, leading to a 100-fold improvement in Space Time Yield (STY); 29 kg mâ3 dayâ1 in a mixer mill to 3395 kg mâ3 dayâ1 in a twin screw extruder
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