The 2-Hilbert Space of a Prequantum Bundle Gerbe

We construct a prequantum 2-Hilbert space for any line bundle gerbe whose Dixmier-Douady class is torsion. Analogously to usual prequantisation, this 2-Hilbert space has the category of sections of the line bundle gerbe as its underlying 2-vector space. These sections are obtained as certain morphism categories in Waldorf's version of the 2-category of line bundle gerbes. We show that these morphism categories carry a monoidal structure under which they are semisimple and abelian. We introduce a dual functor on the sections, which yields a closed structure on the morphisms between bundle gerbes and turns the category of sections into a 2-Hilbert space. We discuss how these 2-Hilbert spaces fit various expectations from higher prequantisation. We then extend the transgression functor to the full 2-category of bundle gerbes and demonstrate its compatibility with the additional structures introduced. We discuss various aspects of Kostant-Souriau prequantisation in this setting, including its dimensional reduction to ordinary prequantisation.Comment: 97 pages; v2: minor changes; Final version to be published in Reviews in Mathematical Physic

The Half-lives of 132^{132}La and 135^{135}La

The half-lives of $^{135}$La and $^{132}$La were determined via gamma spectroscopy and high-precision ionization chamber measurements. The results are 18.930(6) h for $^{135}$La and 4.59(4) h for $^{132}$La compared to the previously compiled values of 19.5(2) h and 4.8(2) h, respectively. The new results represent an improvement in the precision and accuracy of both values. These lanthanum isotopes comprise a medically interesting system with positron emitter $^{132}$La and Auger electron emitter $^{135}$La forming a matched pair for internal diagnostics and therapeutics. The precise half-lives are necessary for proper evaluation of their value in medicine and for a more representative tabulation of nuclear data.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Overburdening of peer review: A multi-stakeholder perspective on causes and effects

Peer review of manuscripts is labour-intensive and time-consuming. Individual reviewers might feel themselves overburdened with the amount of reviewing they are requested to do. Aiming to explore how stakeholder groups perceive reviewing burden and what they believe to be the causes of a potential overburdening of reviewers, we conducted focus groups with early-, mid-, and senior career scholars, editors, and publishers. By means of a thematic analysis, we aimed to identify the causes of overburdening of reviewers. First, we show that, across disciplines and roles, stakeholders believed that the reviewing burden is distributed unequally across members of the academic community, resulting in the overburdening of small groups of reviewers. Second, stakeholders believed this to be caused by (i) an increase in manuscript submissions; (ii) inefficient manuscript handling; (iii) lack of institutionalization of peer review; (iv) lack of reviewing instructions and (v) inadequate reviewer recruiting strategies. These themes were assumed to relate to an inadequate incentive structure in academia that favours publications over peer review. In order to alleviate reviewing burden, a holistic approach is required that addresses both the increased demand for and the insufficient supply of reviewing resources

Trends in odor intensity for human and electronic noses: Relative roles of odorant vapor pressure vs. molecularly specific odorant binding

Response data were collected for a carbon black-polymer composite electronic nose array during exposure to homologous series of alkanes and alcohols. The mean response intensity of the electronic nose detectors and the response intensity of the most strongly driven set of electronic nose detectors were essentially constant for members of a chemically homologous odorant series when the concentration of each odorant in the gas phase was maintained at a constant fraction of the odorant’s vapor pressure. A similar trend is observed in human odor detection threshold values for these same homologous series of odorants. Because the thermodynamic activity of an odorant at equilibrium in a sorbent phase is equal to the partial pressure of the odorant in the gas phase divided by the vapor pressure of the odorant and because the activity coefficients are similar within these homologous series of odorants for sorption of the vapors into specific polymer films, the data imply that the trends in detector response can be understood based on the thermodynamic tendency to establish a relatively constant concentration of sorbed odorant into each of the polymeric films of the electronic nose at a constant fraction of the odorant’s vapor pressure. Similarly, the data are consistent with the hypothesis that the odor detection thresholds observed in human psychophysical experiments for the odorants studied herein are driven predominantly by the similarity in odorant concentrations sorbed into the olfactory epithelium at a constant fraction of the odorant’s vapor pressure

An Investigation of the Concentration Dependence and Response to Analyte Mixtures of Carbon Black/Insulating Organic Polymer Composite Vapor Detectors

The responses relative to an air background of carbon black/polymer composite vapor detectors have been determined as a function of the concentration of a homologous series of alcohols (n-C_nH_(2n+1)OH, 1 ≤ n ≤ 8), a homologous series of alkanes (n-C_nH_(2n+2), 5 ≤ n ≤ 10 and n = 12, 14), and a set of diverse solvent vapors. In all cases, the steady-state relative differential resistance responses, ΔR/R_b, of the carbon black/polymer composite vapor detectors were well-described by a linear relationship with respect to the analyte partial pressure, at least over the tested concentration range (P/P° = 0.005−0.03, where P° is the vapor pressure of the analyte). When two vapors in air were simultaneously presented to the detectors, the ΔR/R_b response, relative to an air background, was the sum of the ΔR/R_b values obtained when each analyte was exposed separately to the carbon black/polymer composite detectors under study. Similarly, when an analyte was exposed to the detectors on top of a background level of another analyte, the ΔR/R_b values of the array of detectors were very close to those obtained when the test analyte was exposed to the detectors only in the presence of background air. The initial training requirements from the array response output data of such detectors are minimized because the ΔR/R_b response pattern produced by the analyte of concern can be associated uniquely with that odor, under the conditions explored in this work

Trace level detection of analytes using artificial olfactometry

The present invention provides a device for detecting the presence of an analyte, wherein said analyte is a microorganism marker gas. The device comprises a sample chamber having a fluid inlet port for the influx of the microorganism marker gas; a fluid concentrator in flow communication with the sample chamber, wherein the fluid concentrator has an absorbent material capable of absorbing the microorganism marker gas and thereafter releasing a concentrated microorganism marker gas; and an array of sensors in fluid communication with the concentrated microorganism marker gas. The sensor array detects and identifies the marker gas upon its release from fluid concentrate

Resources-Events-Agents Design Theory: A Revolutionary Approach to Enterprise System Design

Enterprise systems typically include constructs such as ledgers and journals with debit and credit entries as central pillars of the systems’ architecture due in part to accountants and auditors who demand those constructs. At best, structuring systems with such constructs as base objects results in the storing the same data at multiple levels of aggregation, which creates inefficiencies in the database. At worst, basing systems on such constructs destroys details that are unnecessary for accounting but that may facilitate decision making by other enterprise functional areas. McCarthy (1982) proposed the resources-events-agents (REA) framework as an alternative structure for a shared data environment more than thirty years ago, and scholars have further developed it such that it is now a robust design theory. Despite this legacy, the broad IS community has not widely researched REA. In this paper, we discuss REA’s genesis and primary constructs, provide a history of REA research, discuss REA’s impact on practice, and speculate as to what the future may hold for REA-based enterprise systems. We invite IS researchers to consider integrating REA constructs with other theories and various emerging technologies to help advance the future of information systems and business research