872 research outputs found
After Regions: what next for local enterprise partnerships?
Standing out as an oddity in comparison to the convergence of policy across EU nations whereby the merits of regional apparatus – however defined – for administering development support appear to be accepted, the UK Government has abandoned England’s experiment with regionalism. Under the banner of localism, providing the thinnest of masks for swingeing public expenditure cuts, sub-national development activity (encompassing planning, regeneration, infrastructure development, enterprise support and spatial leadership) is in the throes of considerable economic shifts, policy flux and institutional upheaval (Ward & Hardy, 2012). This article attempts to address some of the questions posed in The regional lacuna: a preliminary map of the transition from Regional Development Agencies to Local Economic Partnerships (Pugalis, 2011) and helps to advance some of the points relating to the emerging sub-national development landscape published in recent issues of Regions (e.g. Bailey, 2011). The purpose is to take stock of policy developments underway by means of a post-regional sub-national review in order to outline the future development trajectory of Local Enterprise Partnerships
Estimating the reproductive number, total outbreak size, and reporting rates for Zika epidemics in South and Central America
As South and Central American countries prepare for increased birth defects
from Zika virus outbreaks and plan for mitigation strategies to minimize
ongoing and future outbreaks, understanding important characteristics of Zika
outbreaks and how they vary across regions is a challenging and important
problem. We developed a mathematical model for the 2015 Zika virus outbreak
dynamics in Colombia, El Salvador, and Suriname. We fit the model to publicly
available data provided by the Pan American Health Organization, using
Approximate Bayesian Computation to estimate parameter distributions and
provide uncertainty quantification. An important model input is the at-risk
susceptible population, which can vary with a number of factors including
climate, elevation, population density, and socio-economic status. We informed
this initial condition using the highest historically reported dengue incidence
modified by the probable dengue reporting rates in the chosen countries. The
model indicated that a country-level analysis was not appropriate for Colombia.
We then estimated the basic reproduction number, or the expected number of new
human infections arising from a single infected human, to range between 4 and 6
for El Salvador and Suriname with a median of 4.3 and 5.3, respectively. We
estimated the reporting rate to be around 16% in El Salvador and 18% in
Suriname with estimated total outbreak sizes of 73,395 and 21,647 people,
respectively. The uncertainty in parameter estimates highlights a need for
research and data collection that will better constrain parameter ranges.Comment: 35 pages, 16 figure
Performance and Fundamental Processes at Low Energy in a Two-Phase Liquid Xenon Dark Matter Detector
We extend the study of the performance of a prototype two-phase liquid xenon
WIMP dark matter detector to recoil energies below 20 keV. We demonstrate a new
method for obtaining the best estimate of the energies of events using a
calibrated sum of charge and light signals and introduce the corresponding
discrimination parameter, giving its mean value at 4 kV/cm for electron and
nuclear recoils up to 300 and 100 keV, respectively. We show that fluctuations
in recombination limit discrimination for most energies, and reveal an
improvement in discrimination below 20 keV due to a surprising increase in
ionization yield for low energy electron recoils. This improvement is crucial
for a high-sensitivity dark matter search.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to DM06 conference proceedings in Nucl
Phys
Scintillation Pulse Shape Discrimination in a Two-Phase Xenon Time Projection Chamber
The energy and electric field dependence of pulse shape discrimination in
liquid xenon have been measured in a 10 gm two-phase xenon time projection
chamber. We have demonstrated the use of the pulse shape and charge-to-light
ratio simultaneously to obtain a leakage below that achievable by either
discriminant alone. A Monte Carlo is used to show that the dominant fluctuation
in the pulse shape quantity is statistical in nature, and project the
performance of these techniques in larger detectors. Although the performance
is generally weak at low energies relevant to elastic WIMP recoil searches, the
pulse shape can be used in probing for higher energy inelastic WIMP recoils.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figure
Exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross-section from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) employs low-temperature Ge and Si
detectors to search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their
elastic-scattering interactions with nuclei while discriminating against
interactions of background particles. For recoil energies above 10 keV, events
due to background photons are rejected with >99.9% efficiency, and surface
events are rejected with >95% efficiency. The estimate of the background due to
neutrons is based primarily on the observation of multiple-scatter events that
should all be neutrons. Data selection is determined primarily by examining
calibration data and vetoed events. Resulting efficiencies should be accurate
to about 10%. Results of CDMS data from 1998 and 1999 with a relaxed
fiducial-volume cut (resulting in 15.8 kg-days exposure on Ge) are consistent
with an earlier analysis with a more restrictive fiducial-volume cut.
Twenty-three WIMP candidate events are observed, but these events are
consistent with a background from neutrons in all ways tested. Resulting limits
on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic-scattering cross-section exclude
unexplored parameter space for WIMPs with masses between 10-70 GeV c^{-2}.
These limits border, but do not exclude, parameter space allowed by
supersymmetry models and accelerator constraints. Results are compatible with
some regions reported as allowed at 3-sigma by the annual-modulation
measurement of the DAMA collaboration. However, under the assumptions of
standard WIMP interactions and a standard halo, the results are incompatible
with the DAMA most likely value at >99.9% CL, and are incompatible with the
model-independent annual-modulation signal of DAMA at 99.99% CL in the
asymptotic limit.Comment: 40 pages, 49 figures (4 in color), submitted to Phys. Rev. D;
v.2:clarified conclusions, added content and references based on referee's
and readers' comments; v.3: clarified introductory sections, added figure
based on referee's comment
Local variation in helminth burdens of Egyptian spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus dimidiatus) from ecologically similar sites: relationships with hormone concentrations and social behaviour
Populations of Egyptian spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus dimidiatus) in a fragmented montane wadi system in the Sinai showed significant differences in the abundance of gut helminths. Differences in parasite load between populations were positively associated with measures of androgen activity but showed no significant relationship with glucocorticoid activity. Social discrimination tests with adult males from different wadis showed that those from sites with greater helminth abundance were less likely to investigate odours from other males and were less aggressive when subsequently interacting with the odour donors. Subjects showed markedly more investigation towards the odours of males from distant wadis compared with those from their own or immediately neighbouring wadi, but were less aggressive when confronted with odour donors from distant wadis. Despite this, there was a positive relationship between the amount of investigation towards distant male odour and subsequent aggression towards the male. While aggressiveness was positively associated with measures of androgen and glucocorticoid activity, no significant relationship emerged with individual helminth infection. Thus aggressiveness appeared to relate to overall local population levels of infection rather than individual challenge
Low-Energy Electron-Track Imaging for a Liquid Argon Time-Projection-Chamber Telescope Concept using Probabilistic Deep Learning
The GammaTPC is an MeV-scale single-phase liquid argon
time-projection-chamber gamma-ray telescope concept with a novel dual-scale
pixel-based charge-readout system. It promises to enable a significant
improvement in sensitivity to MeV-scale gamma-rays over previous telescopes.
The novel pixel-based charge readout allows for imaging of the tracks of
electrons scattered by Compton interactions of incident gamma-rays. The two
primary contributors to the accuracy of a Compton telescope in reconstructing
an incident gamma-ray's original direction are its energy and position
resolution. In this work, we focus on using deep learning to optimize the
reconstruction of the initial position and direction of electrons scattered in
Compton interactions, including using probabilistic models to estimate
predictive uncertainty. We show that the deep learning models are able to
predict locations of Compton scatters of MeV-scale gamma-rays from simulated
pixel-based data to better than 0.6 mm RMS error, and are sensitive to the
initial direction of the scattered electron. We compare and contrast different
deep learning uncertainty estimation algorithms for reconstruction
applications. Additionally, we show that event-by-event estimates of the
uncertainty of the locations of the Compton scatters can be used to select
those events that were reconstructed most accurately, leading to improvement in
locating the origin of gamma-ray sources on the sky
Ponticulin plays a role in the positional stabilization of pseudopods
Ponticulin is a 17-kD glycoprotein that represents a major high affinity link between the plasma membrane and the cortical actin network of Dictyostelium. To assess the role of ponticulin in pseudopod extension and retraction, the motile behavior of two independently generated mutants lacking ponticulin was analyzed using computer-assisted two- and three-dimensional motion analysis systems. More than half of the lateral pseudopods formed off the substratum by ponticulin-minus cells slipped relative to the substratum during extension and retraction. In contrast, all pseudopods formed off the substratum by wild-type cells were positionally fixed in relation to the substratum. Ponticulin-minus cells also formed a greater proportion of both anterior and lateral pseudopods off the substratum and absorbed a greater proportion of lateral pseudopods into the uropod than wild-type cells. In a spatial gradient of cAMP, ponticulin-minus cells were less efficient in tracking the source of chemoattractant. Since ponticulin-minus cells extend and retract pseudopods with the same time course as wild-type cells, these behavioral defects in ponticulin-minus cells appear to be the consequence of pseudopod slippage. These results demonstrate that pseudopods formed off the substratum by wild-type cells are positionally fixed in relation to the substratum, that ponticulin is required for positional stabilization, and that the loss of ponticulin and the concomitant loss of positional stability of pseudopods correlate with a decrease in the efficiency of chemotaxis
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