657 research outputs found
Sample size determination for at test given at value from a previous study: A FORTRAN 77 program
Global e-Readiness - For What? Readiness for e-Banking (JITD)
With the rapid diffusion of the Internet worldwide, there has been considerable interest in the e-potentials of
developing countries giving rise to a 1st generation of e-Readiness studies. Moreover, e-Readiness means different
things to different people, in different contexts, and for different purposes. Despite strong merits, this first generation
of e-Readiness studies assumed a fixed, one-size-fits-all set of requirements, regardless of the characteristics of
individual countries, the investment context, or the demands of specific applications. This feature obscures critical
information for investors or policy analysts seeking to reduce uncertainties and/or make more educated decisions.
But there is very little known about e-Readiness for e-Banking. In particular, based on lessons learnt to date and
their implications for emerging realities of the 21st century, we designed and executed a research project with
theoretical as well as practical dimensions to answer the question of e-Readiness for What, focusing specifically on
e-Banking, based on the very assumption that one size can seldom, if ever, fit all. We propose and develop a
conceptual framework for the "next generation" ereadiness - focusing on different e-Business applications in
different economic contexts with potentially different pathways - as well as a data model - to explore e-Readiness
for e-Banking in ten countries
A hiatus in the stratosphere?
Rapid CommunicationCopyright © 2015 Nature Publishing GroupTo the Editor —
Since the turn of the twenty-first century there has been a hiatus in the cooling of the lower stratosphere (Fig. 1a). This 'stratospheric hiatus' is happening at the same time as the well-documented hiatus in global surface warming1, during a time of increasing CO2 concentrations ('Surface' line in Fig. 1a). Although CO2 acts to warm the surface and troposphere by decreasing outgoing radiative flux at the tropopause, it cools the stratosphere by increasing net infrared emission, so we might expect the continued increase in CO2 concentrations to have produced lower-stratospheric cooling, as observed through much of the depth of the stratosphere2. Why, then, do we observe a hiatus in the lower stratosphere?NER
UBVJHKLM photometry and modeling of R Coronae Borealis
We present the results of UBVJHKLM photometry of R CrB spanning the period
from 1976 to 2001. Studies of the optical light curve have shown no evidence of
any stable harmonics in the variations of the stellar emission. In the L band
we found semi-regular oscillations with the two main periods of ~3.3 yr and
11.9 yr and the full amplitude of ~0.8 mag and ~0.6 mag, respectively. The
colors of the warm dust shell (resolved by Ohnaka et al. 2001) are found to be
remarkably stable in contrast to its brightness. This indicates that the inner
radius is a constant, time-independent characteristic of the dust shell. The
observed behavior of the IR light curve is mainly caused by the variation of
the optical thickness of the dust shell within the interval \tau(V)= 0.2-0.4.
Anticorrelated changes of the optical brightness (in particular with P ~ 3.3
yr) have not been found. Their absence suggests that the stellar wind of R CrB
deviates from spherical symmetry. The light curves suggest that the stellar
wind is variable. The variability of the stellar wind and the creation of dust
clouds may be caused by some kind of activity on the stellar surface. With some
time lag, periods of increased mass-loss cause an increase in the dust
formation rate at the inner boundary of the extended dust shell and an increase
in its IR brightness. We have derived the following parameters of the dust
shell (at mean brightness) by radiative transfer modeling: inner dust shell
radius r_in ~ 110 R_*, temperature T_dust(r_in) ~ 860 K, dust density
\rho_dust(r_in) ~ 1.1x10^{-20} g cm^-3, optical depth \tau(V) ~ 0.32 at 0.55
micron, mean dust formation rate [dM/dt]_dust ~ 3.1x10^-9 M_sun / yr, mass-loss
rate [dM/dt]_gas ~ 2.1x10^-7 M_sun / yr, size of the amorphous carbon grains
<(~) 0.01 micron, and B-V ~ -0.28.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Systematic review with meta-analysis: the accuracy of serological tests to support the diagnosis of coeliac disease
BACKGROUND: There is growing support for a biopsy avoidant approach to diagnose coeliac disease in both children and adults, using a serological diagnosis instead. AIMS: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of serological tests for coeliac disease in adults and children. METHODS: Seven electronic databases were searched between January 1990 and August 2020. Eligible diagnostic studies evaluated the accuracy of serological tests for coeliac disease against duodenal biopsy. Risk of bias assessment was performed using QUADAS-2. Bivariate random-effects meta-analyses were used to estimate serology sensitivity and specificity at the most commonly reported thresholds. RESULTS: 113 studies (n = 28,338) were included, all in secondary care populations. A subset of studies were included in meta-analyses due to variations in diagnostic thresholds. Summary sensitivity and specificity of immunoglobulin A (IgA) anti-tissue transglutaminase were 90.7% (95% confidence interval: 87.3%, 93.2%) and 87.4% (84.4%, 90.0%) in adults (5 studies) and 97.7% (91.0%, 99.4%) and 70.2% (39.3%, 89.6%) in children (6 studies); and of IgA endomysial antibodies were 88.0% (75.2%, 94.7%) and 99.6% (92.3%, 100%) in adults (5 studies) and 94.5% (88.9%, 97.3%) and 93.8% (85.2%, 97.5%) in children (5 studies). CONCLUSIONS: Anti-tissue transglutaminase sensitivity appears to be sufficient to rule out coeliac disease in children. The high specificity of endomysial antibody in adults supports its use to rule in coeliac disease. This evidence underpins the current development of clinical guidelines for a serological diagnosis of coeliac disease. Studies in primary care are needed to evaluate serological testing strategies in this setting
Recent Southern Ocean warming and freshening driven by greenhouse gas emissions and ozone depletion
IMAPS Observations of Interstellar Neutral Argon and the Implications for Partially Ionized Gas
We use the absorption features from neutral argon at 1048 and 1066 A to
determine interstellar abundances or their lower limits toward nine early-type
stars. These features were observed with the Interstellar Medium Absorption
Profile Spectrograph (IMAPS) along sight lines with low reddening and low
fractional abundances of molecular hydrogen. We find that the interstellar Ar I
is below its solar and B-star abundance with respect to hydrogen toward zeta
Pup, gamma2 Vel and beta Cen A with (logarithmic) reduction factors
-0.37+/-0.09, -0.18+/-0.10, and -0.61+/-0.12 dex, respectively.
While Ar can condense onto the surfaces of dust grains in the interiors of
dense clouds, it is unlikely that argon atoms are depleted by this process in
the low-density lines of sight considered in this study. Instead, we propose
that the relatively large photoionization cross section of Ar makes it much
easier to hide in its ionized form than H. In regions that are about half
ionized, this effect can lower Ar I/H I by -0.11 to -0.96 dex, depending on the
energy of the photoionizing radiation and its intensity divided by the local
electron density. We apply this interpretation for the condition of the gas in
front of beta Cen A, which shows the largest deficiency of Ar. Also, we
determine the expected magnitudes of the differential ionizations for He, N, O,
Ne and Ar in the partly ionized, warm gas in the local cloud around our solar
system. For the local cloud and others that can be probed by UV studies, the
observed Ar I to H I ratio may be a good discriminant between two possible
alternatives, collisional ionization or photoionization, for explaining the
existence of partly ionized regions.Comment: 36 pages, 3 figure
Manipulating a qubit through the backaction of sequential partial measurements and real-time feedback
Quantum measurements not only extract information from a system but also
alter its state. Although the outcome of the measurement is probabilistic, the
backaction imparted on the measured system is accurately described by quantum
theory. Therefore, quantum measurements can be exploited for manipulating
quantum systems without the need for control fields. We demonstrate
measurement-only state manipulation on a nuclear spin qubit in diamond by
adaptive partial measurements. We implement the partial measurement via tunable
correlation with an electron ancilla qubit and subsequent ancilla readout. We
vary the measurement strength to observe controlled wavefunction collapse and
find post-selected quantum weak values. By combining a novel quantum
non-demolition readout on the ancilla with real-time adaption of the
measurement strength we realize steering of the nuclear spin to a target state
by measurements alone. Besides being of fundamental interest, adaptive
measurements can improve metrology applications and are key to
measurement-based quantum computing.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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