Universal trapping scaling on the unstable manifold for a collisionless electrostatic mode

An amplitude equation for an unstable mode in a collisionless plasma is derived from the dynamics on the two-dimensional unstable manifold of the equilibrium. The mode amplitude $\rho(t)$ decouples from the phase due to the spatial homogeneity of the equilibrium, and the resulting one-dimensional dynamics is analyzed using an expansion in $\rho$. As the linear growth rate $\gamma$ vanishes, the expansion coefficients diverge; a rescaling $\rho(t)\equiv\gamma^2\,r(\gamma t)$ of the mode amplitude absorbs these singularities and reveals that the mode electric field exhibits trapping scaling $|E_1|\sim\gamma^2$ as $\gamma\rightarrow0$. The dynamics for $r(\tau)$ depends only on the phase $e^{i\xi}$ where $d\epsilon_{{k}} /dz=|{\epsilon_{{k}}}|e^{-i\xi/2}$ is the derivative of the dielectric as $\gamma\rightarrow0$.Comment: 11 pages (Latex/RevTex), 2 figures available in hard copy from the Author ([email protected]); paper accepted by Physical Review Letter

2017 update of the European Federation for Colposcopy (EFC) performance standards for the practice of colposcopy

A refinement of quality indicators (Qls) is described whereby the quality of care can be measured across colposcopy services in different countries and healthcare settings. A five-round Delphi process was conducted at successive satellite meetings from 2011 to 2015 of leading European colposcopists to refine the most high-scoring Qls relevant to colposcopic practice. A review and refinement of the wording of the standards and their criteria was undertaken by national society representatives. Six quality indicators were identified and refined. "Documentation of whether the squamocolumnar junction (SCJ) has been visible or not" was changed into "for cervical colposcopy transformation zone (TZ) type (1, 2 or 3) should be documented". The standard "percentage of cases having a colposcopic examination prior to treatment for abnormal cytology" was changed to "percentage of cases having a colposcopic examination prior to treatment for abnormal cervical screening test". The standard "percentage of all excisional treatments/conizations containing CIN2+ (cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia grade two or worse)" was changed into "percentage of excisional treatments/conizations having a definitive histology of CIN2+. Definitive histology is highest grade from any diagnostic or therapeutic biopsies". The standard "percentage of excised lesions/conizations with clear margins" was unchanged. The remaining two Qls define the minimum caseloads required for colposcopists. However, "cytology" was replaced by "screening results"to acknowledge the introduction of human papillomavirus testing to European screening programmes. Six Qls were identified to define good practice in colposcopy. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

The new a-theory of time

The New A-theory of Time (TNAT) is the view, to be elaborated and defended in this article, that many times exist, and that time is real in virtue of every moment in time bearing each of the so-called A-properties: past, present and future. I argue that TNAT is at least as theoretically virtuous as mainstream views in the philosophy of time and may have some claim to being our best theory of time. I show that the properties ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’ can be understood as compatible intrinsic properties. Having demonstrated that this account of the A-properties is coherent, I go on to demonstrate how TNAT can give us an account of passage, change and the truth-conditions for temporal sentences. In the final section of the article, I develop a tentative argument in favour of TNAT, though concede that we have to settle for the result that TNAT is on a par with our other theories of time. In the remainder of this opening section, my aim is to situate the current proposal as a direct response to McTaggart’s infamous argument against the reality of time

Where art meets technology:Integrating tangible and intelligent tools in creative processes

Art and design are essential aspects of our culture and how we interact with the world. Artists and designers use a wide selection of tools, whose impact is rapidly growing with the progression of digital technologies. This change has opened up new opportunities for the CHI community to build creative supportive tools. The digital switch has come with many benefits such as lowering barriers, mobile work environments and mass production for distribution of work. Along with these benefits we also see challenges for art and design work and its future perception in society. As technology takes a more significant role in supporting art and design what will this mean for the individual artist or designer? The focus of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners to explore what the future of digital art and design will hold. The exploration will centre around synthesizing key challenges and questions, along with ideas for future interaction technologies that consider mobile and tangible aspects of digital art

Species richness declines and biotic homogenization have slowed down for NW-European pollinators and plants

Concern about biodiversity loss has led to increased public investment in conservation. Whereas there is a widespread perception that such initiatives have been unsuccessful, there are few quantitative tests of this perception. Here, we evaluate whether rates of biodiversity change have altered in recent decades in three European countries (Great Britain, Netherlands and Belgium) for plants and flower visiting insects. We compared four 20-year periods, comparing periods of rapid land-use intensification and natural habitat loss (1930–1990) with a period of increased conservation investment (post-1990). We found that extensive species richness loss and biotic homogenisation occurred before 1990, whereas these negative trends became substantially less accentuated during recent decades, being partially reversed for certain taxa (e.g. bees in Great Britain and Netherlands). These results highlight the potential to maintain or even restore current species assemblages (which despite past extinctions are still of great conservation value), at least in regions where large-scale land-use intensification and natural habitat loss has ceased

A design theory for e-service environments: The interoperability challenge

The delivery of e-services across organizational boundaries poses a number of issues in terms of design of inter-organizational systems that support service delivery effectively. In this context interoperability emerges as a mandatory requirement for the design of Information Technology (IT) platforms supporting collaborative e-service environments. In this paper we address this issue by presenting a design theory for IT platforms supporting e-services based on both a deep understanding of the interoperability concept and a design research approach. Through the analysis of a cooperation framework developed in the context of an EU funded project, we instantiate the theory by providing the concrete example of a solution addressing this design problem. © 2012 Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg.The delivery of e-services across organizational boundaries poses a number of issues in terms of design of inter-organizational systems that support service delivery effectively. In this context interoperability emerges as a mandatory requirement for the design of Information Technology (IT) platforms supporting collaborative e-service environments. In this paper we address this issue by presenting a design theory for IT platforms supporting e-services based on both a deep understanding of the interoperability concept and a design research approach. Through the analysis of a cooperation framework developed in the context of an EU funded project, we instantiate the theory by providing the concrete example of a solution addressing this design problem. © 2012 Springer-Verlag GmbH Berlin Heidelberg.Monograph's chapter

'Education, education, education' : legal, moral and clinical

This article brings together Professor Donald Nicolson's intellectual interest in professional legal ethics and his long-standing involvement with law clinics both as an advisor at the University of Cape Town and Director of the University of Bristol Law Clinic and the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic. In this article he looks at how legal education may help start this process of character development, arguing that the best means is through student involvement in voluntary law clinics. And here he builds upon his recent article which argues for voluntary, community service oriented law clinics over those which emphasise the education of students

Phenotype and Clinical Outcomes of Titin Cardiomyopathy

BACKGROUND: Improved understanding of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) due to titin truncation (TTNtv) may help guide patient stratification. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to establish relationships among TTNtv genotype, cardiac phenotype, and outcomes in DCM. METHODS: In this prospective, observational cohort study, DCM patients underwent clinical evaluation, late gadolinium enhancement cardiovascular magnetic resonance, TTN sequencing, and adjudicated follow-up blinded to genotype for the primary composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, and major arrhythmic and major heart failure events. RESULTS: Of 716 subjects recruited (mean age 53.5 ± 14.3 years; 469 men [65.5%]; 577 [80.6%] New York Heart Association function class I/II), 83 (11.6%) had TTNtv. Patients with TTNtv were younger at enrollment (49.0 years vs. 54.1 years; p = 0.002) and had lower indexed left ventricular mass (5.1 g/m2 reduction; padjusted = 0.03) compared with patients without TTNtv. There was no difference in biventricular ejection fraction between TTNtv+/- groups. Overall, 78 of 604 patients (12.9%) met the primary endpoint (median follow-up 3.9 years; interquartile range: 2.0 to 5.8 years), including 9 of 71 patients with TTNtv (12.7%) and 69 of 533 (12.9%) without. There was no difference in the composite primary outcome of cardiovascular death, heart failure, or arrhythmic events, for patients with or without TTNtv (hazard ratio adjusted for primary endpoint: 0.92 [95% confidence interval: 0.45 to 1.87]; p = 0.82). CONCLUSIONS: In this large, prospective, genotype-phenotype study of ambulatory DCM patients, we show that prognostic factors for all-cause DCM also predict outcome in TTNtv DCM, and that TTNtv DCM does not appear to be associated with worse medium-term prognosis

Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX collaboration

Extensive experimental data from high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions were recorded using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The comprehensive set of measurements from the first three years of RHIC operation includes charged particle multiplicities, transverse energy, yield ratios and spectra of identified hadrons in a wide range of transverse momenta (p_T), elliptic flow, two-particle correlations, non-statistical fluctuations, and suppression of particle production at high p_T. The results are examined with an emphasis on implications for the formation of a new state of dense matter. We find that the state of matter created at RHIC cannot be described in terms of ordinary color neutral hadrons.Comment: 510 authors, 127 pages text, 56 figures, 1 tables, LaTeX. Submitted to Nuclear Physics A as a regular article; v3 has minor changes in response to referee comments. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types