2,989 research outputs found
Low-energy sector of 8-dimensional General Relativity: Electro-Weak model and neutrino mass
In a Kaluza-Klein space-time , we demonstrate that the
dimensional reduction of spinors provides a 4-field, whose associated SU(2)
gauge connections are geometrized. However, additional and gauge-violating
terms arise, but they are highly suppressed by a factor , which fixes
the amount of the spinor dependence on extra-coordinates. The application of
this framework to the Electro-Weak model is performed, thus giving a lower
bound for from the request of the electric charge conservation.
Moreover, we emphasize that also the Higgs sector can be reproduced, but
neutrino masses are predicted and the fine-tuning on the Higgs parameters can
be explained, too.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, to appear on Int. J. Mod. Phys.
The s-wave pion-nucleus optical potential
We calculate the s-wave part of the pion-nucleus optical potential using a
unitarized chiral approach that has been previously used to simultaneously
describe pionic hydrogen and deuterium data as well as low energy pi N
scattering in the vacuum. This energy dependent model allows for additional
isoscalar parts in the potential from multiple rescattering. We consider Pauli
blocking and pion polarization in an asymmetric nuclear matter environment.
Also, higher order corrections of the pi N amplitude are included. The model
can accommodate the repulsion required by phenomenological fits, though the
theoretical uncertainties are bigger than previously thought. At the same time,
we also find an enhancement of the isovector part compatible with empirical
determinations.Comment: 31 pages, 27 figure
An evaluation resource for geographic information retrieval
In this paper we present an evaluation resource for geographic information retrieval developed within the Cross Language Evaluation
Forum (CLEF). The GeoCLEF track is dedicated to the evaluation of geographic information retrieval systems. The resource
encompasses more than 600,000 documents, 75 topics so far, and more than 100,000 relevance judgments for these topics. Geographic
information retrieval requires an evaluation resource which represents realistic information needs and which is geographically
challenging. Some experimental results and analysis are reported
Entanglement in bosonic systems
We present a technique to resolve a Gaussian density matrix and its time
evolution through known expectation values in position and momentum. Further we
find the full spectrum of this density matrix and apply the technique to a
chain of harmonic oscillators to find agreement with conformal field theory in
this domain. We also observe that a non-conformal state has a divergent
entanglement entropy.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
GeoCLEF 2007: the CLEF 2007 cross-language geographic information retrieval track overview
GeoCLEF ran as a regular track for the second time within the Cross
Language Evaluation Forum (CLEF) 2007. The purpose of GeoCLEF is to test
and evaluate cross-language geographic information retrieval (GIR): retrieval
for topics with a geographic specification. GeoCLEF 2007 consisted of two sub
tasks. A search task ran for the third time and a query classification task was
organized for the first. For the GeoCLEF 2007 search task, twenty-five search
topics were defined by the organizing groups for searching English, German,
Portuguese and Spanish document collections. All topics were translated into
English, Indonesian, Portuguese, Spanish and German. Several topics in 2007
were geographically challenging. Thirteen groups submitted 108 runs. The
groups used a variety of approaches. For the classification task, a query log
from a search engine was provided and the groups needed to identify the
queries with a geographic scope and the geographic components within the
local queries
Premarket Safety and Efficacy Studies for ADHD Medications in Children
Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic condition and pharmacotherapy is the mainstay of treatment, with a variety of ADHD medications available to patients. However, it is unclear to what extent the long-term safety and efficacy of ADHD drugs have been evaluated prior to their market authorization. We aimed to quantify the number of participants studied and their length of exposure in ADHD drug trials prior to marketing. Methods: We identified all ADHD medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and extracted data on clinical trials performed by the sponsor and used by the FDA to evaluate the drug’s clinical efficacy and safety. For each ADHD medication, we measured the total number of participants studied and the length of participant exposure and identified any FDA requests for post-marketing trials. Results: A total of 32 clinical trials were conducted for the approval of 20 ADHD drugs. The median number of participants studied per drug was 75 (IQR 0, 419). Eleven drugs (55%) were approved after <100 participants were studied and 14 (70%) after <300 participants. The median trial length prior to approval was 4 weeks (IQR 2, 9), with 5 (38%) drugs approved after participants were studied <4 weeks and 10 (77%) after <6 months. Six drugs were approved with requests for specific additional post-marketing trials, of which 2 were performed. Conclusions: Clinical trials conducted for the approval of many ADHD drugs have not been designed to assess rare adverse events or long-term safety and efficacy. While post-marketing studies can fill in some of the gaps, better assurance is needed that the proper trials are conducted either before or after a new medication is approved
GeoCLEF 2006: the CLEF 2006 Ccross-language geographic information retrieval track overview
After being a pilot track in 2005, GeoCLEF advanced to be a regular track within CLEF 2006. The
purpose of GeoCLEF is to test and evaluate cross-language geographic information retrieval (GIR): retrieval for
topics with a geographic specification. For GeoCLEF 2006, twenty-five search topics were defined by the
organizing groups for searching English, German, Portuguese and Spanish document collections. Topics were
translated into English, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Japanese. Several topics in 2006 were significantly
more geographically challenging than in 2005. Seventeen groups submitted 149 runs (up from eleven groups and
117 runs in GeoCLEF 2005). The groups used a variety of approaches, including geographic bounding boxes,
named entity extraction and external knowledge bases (geographic thesauri and ontologies and gazetteers)
Challenges to evaluation of multilingual geographic information retrieval in GeoCLEF
This is the third year of the evaluation of
geographic information retrieval (GeoCLEF)
within the Cross-Language Evaluation Forum
(CLEF). GeoCLEF 2006 presented topics and
documents in four languages (English,
German, Portuguese and Spanish). After two
years of evaluation we are beginning to
understand the challenges to both Geographic
Information Retrieval from text and of
evaluation of the results of geographic
information retrieval. This poster enumerates
some of these challenges to evaluation and
comments on the limitations encountered in the
first two evaluations
Recommended from our members
The Effects of Industry Sponsorship on Comparator Selection in Trial Registrations for Neuropsychiatric Conditions in Children
Pediatric populations continue to be understudied in clinical drug trials despite the increasing use of pharmacotherapy in children, particularly with psychotropic drugs. Most pertinent to the clinical selection of drug interventions are trials directly comparing drugs against other drugs. The aim was to measure the prevalence of active drug comparators in neuropsychiatric drug trials in children and identify the effects of funding source on comparator selection. We analyzed the selection of drugs and drug comparisons in clinical trials registered between January 2006 and May 2012. Completed and ongoing interventional trials examining treatments for six neuropsychiatric conditions in children were included. Networks of drug comparisons for each condition were constructed using information about the trial study arms. Of 421 eligible trial registrations, 228 (63,699 participants) were drug trials addressing ADHD (106 trials), autism spectrum disorders (47), unipolar depression (16), seizure disorders (38), migraines and other headaches (15), or schizophrenia (11). Active drug comparators were used in only 11.0% of drug trials while 44.7% used a placebo control and 44.3% no drug or placebo comparator. Even among conditions with well-established pharmacotherapeutic options, almost all drug interventions were compared to a placebo. Active comparisons were more common among trials without industry funding (17% vs. 8%, p=0.04). Trials with industry funding differed from non-industry trials in terms of the drugs studied and the comparators selected. For 73% (61/84) of drugs and 90% (19/21) of unique comparisons, trials were funded exclusively by either industry or non-industry. We found that industry and non-industry differed when choosing comparators and active drug comparators were rare for both groups. This gap in pediatric research activity limits the evidence available to clinicians treating children and suggests a need to reassess the design and funding of pediatric trials in order to optimize the information derived from pediatric participation in clinical trials
Non-Markovian dynamics of a nanomechanical resonator measured by a quantum point contact
We study the dynamics of a nanomechanical resonator (NMR) subject to a
measurement by a low transparency quantum point contact (QPC) or tunnel
junction in the non-Markovian domain. We derive the non-Markovian
number-resolved (conditional) and unconditional master equations valid to
second order in the tunneling Hamiltonian without making the rotating-wave
approximation and the Markovian approximation, generally made for systems in
quantum optics. Our non-Markovian master equation reduces, in appropriate
limits, to various Markovian versions of master equations in the literature. We
find considerable difference in dynamics between the non-Markovian cases and
its Markovian counterparts. We also calculate the time-dependent transport
current through the QPC which contains information about the measured NMR
system. We find an extra transient current term proportional to the expectation
value of the symmetrized product of the position and momentum operators of the
NMR. This extra current term, with a coefficient coming from the combination of
the imaginary parts of the QPC reservoir correlation functions, has a
substantial contribution to the total transient current in the non-Markovian
case, but was generally ignored in the studies of the same problem in the
literature. Considering the contribution of this extra term, we show that a
significantly qualitative and quantitative difference in the total transient
current between the non-Markovian and the Markovian wide-band-limit cases can
be observed. Thus, it may serve as a witness or signature of the non-Markovian
features in the coupled NMR-QPC system.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review B (20 pages, 13 figures
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