6,861 research outputs found
Probing the optical conductivity of trapped charge-neutral quantum gases
We study a harmonically confined atomic gas which is subjected to an
additional external potential such as an optical lattice. Using a linear
response formulation, we determine the response of the gas to a small,
time-dependent displacement of the harmonic trap and derive a simple exact
relation showing that the centre-of-mass position of the atomic cloud is
directly related to the global optical conductivity of the system. We
demonstrate the usefulness of this approach by calculating the optical
conductivity of bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. In the Mott insulating
phase, there is clear evidence of an optical Mott gap, providing a
proof-of-principle demonstration that the global optical conductivity gives
high-quality information about the exci- tations of strongly-correlated quantum
gases.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Published versio
Optimal Design of Government Hierarchy for Ecosystem Service Provision
There is broad concern that humans are transforming our environment. This transformation has potential to impact humanity as we depend on the environment ecosystem services. According to the Millennium Assessment (2005), degradation and unsustainable exploitation presently threaten over 60% of ecosystem services with real implications for health and standards of living. Furthermore, both the exploitation of ecosystem services and the growth rate of that exploitation have been far higher in recent decades than ever before due to population growth and rising standards of living, i.e. consumption. Increasing pressure on ecosystem services has driven thinking on mitigation strategies. Payment for ecosystem services (PES) has emerged as a strategy to encourage provision of services or, often, to discourage activities that reduce provision. In economic terms, the inability of agents to capture the full rents of service provision results in divergent private and social values. By creating markets for these services, PES arrangements can correct this disincentive and bring provision closer to the socially optimal level. While private sector PES schemes have been envisioned and in some cases implemented, most large-scale PES programs to date have been implemented by governments. We consider optimal design of policy aimed at increasing the provision of services from private land. In particular, we examine on a theoretical level the possibility of optimal decision-making hierarchies among government agencies targeting ecosystem service provision. Should we have multiple agencies focusing on separate services or one agency coordinating efforts across services? Should policy be implemented nationally, regionally, or locally? Under what conditions and assumptions does one organizational structure stand out as optimal? To answer these questions, we adapt the model of hierarchy design developed by Hart and Moore (JPE, 2005). We develop a two period model of decision-making with n agencies and m assets. The assets are parcels available for targeting under PES schemes. Each agency is tasked with thinking about how to use a subset of the m assets to enhance service provision, according to its mission. Also associated with each agency is some probability of success in its task - i.e., the probability of thinking of a productive use for the assigned subset of assets - and a value generated for society if the task is completed. There is some rivality among assets; the use of an asset by one agency may preclude its use by another. Determination of seniority and assignment of tasks occur in period 0. In period 1, agencies with access to all assets they require carry out the tasks and generate value for society. Assets are unavailable if put to a conflicting use by a senior agency. Altering the hierarchy structure alters the set of completed tasks and thus the total value. We optimize across hierarchies by assigning tasks and seniority in period 0 to maximize total expected value in period 1. Following the development of the model, we explore implications and results. To demonstrate the driving intuition, we provide results in the two-agency, three-agency, and general case. Our results shed light on the optimal design of hierarchies, including the optimal relationship between coordinators (those considering how to use many assets simultaneously) and specialists (those considering a narrower subset of assets). The model relies on a number of assumptions - some of which are more restrictive than others - and we examine the implications for our results of relaxing assumptions. Two preliminary results stand out as generally applicable. First, in an optimal hierarchy an agency's seniority should be inversely related to its probability of success. So agencies with a low probability of having an idea about how to use the assets assigned to them should have high seniority. This seems counter-intuitive as the value of an idea is not considered, but it becomes clearer considering that tasks and seniority are assigned in period 0 to maximize period 1 total expected value. With this endogenized task selection, no agency would be assigned a task with low value and a low probability of success. Second, crisscross hierarchies are never optimal. This result, which states that agency a should never be senior to agency b on one asset and junior on another, is more intuitive. The central contribution of this paper is the adaptation of a theoretical model of hierarchy design to the context of programs targeting ecosystem services. The nature of interaction between various government entities involved in encouraging service provision necessitated an alternative representation of rivality between agencies. Assumptions were evaluated and revised based on their applicability to behavior in this context. Future research may involve further modification of the model to account for issues like threshold effects, joint production, and uncertainty.Environmental Economics and Policy,
Demonstration of a moving guide based atom interferometer for rotation sensing
We demonstrate area-enclosing atom interferometry based on a moving guide.
Light pulses along the free propagation direction of a magnetic guide are
applied to split and recombine the confined atomic matter-wave, while the atoms
are translated back and forth along a second direction in 50 ms. The
interferometer is estimated to resolve ten times the earth rotation rate per
interferometry cycle. We demonstrate a ``folded figure 8'' interfering
configuration for creating a compact, large-area atom gyroscope with
multiple-turn interfering paths.Comment: Minor revisio
A dynamic Bayesian nonlinear mixed-effects model of HIV response incorporating medication adherence, drug resistance and covariates
HIV dynamic studies have contributed significantly to the understanding of
HIV pathogenesis and antiviral treatment strategies for AIDS patients.
Establishing the relationship of virologic responses with clinical factors and
covariates during long-term antiretroviral (ARV) therapy is important to the
development of effective treatments. Medication adherence is an important
predictor of the effectiveness of ARV treatment, but an appropriate determinant
of adherence rate based on medication event monitoring system (MEMS) data is
critical to predict virologic outcomes. The primary objective of this paper is
to investigate the effects of a number of summary determinants of MEMS
adherence rates on virologic response measured repeatedly over time in
HIV-infected patients. We developed a mechanism-based differential equation
model with consideration of drug adherence, interacted by virus susceptibility
to drug and baseline characteristics, to characterize the long-term virologic
responses after initiation of therapy. This model fully integrates viral load,
MEMS adherence, drug resistance and baseline covariates into the data analysis.
In this study we employed the proposed model and associated Bayesian nonlinear
mixed-effects modeling approach to assess how to efficiently use the MEMS
adherence data for prediction of virologic response, and to evaluate the
predicting power of each summary metric of the MEMS adherence rates.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOAS376 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Application of Sentiment Analysis and Machine Learning Techniques to Predict Daily Cryptocurrency Price Returns
This paper examines the effects of social media sentiment relating to Bitcoin on the daily price returns of Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies by utilizing sentiment analysis and machine learning techniques to predict daily price returns. Many investors think that social media sentiment affects cryptocurrency prices. However, the results of this paper find that social media sentiment relating to Bitcoin does not add significant predictive value to forecasting daily price returns for each of the six cryptocurrencies used for analysis and that machine learning models that do not assume linearity between the current day price return and previous daily price returns combined with previous daily sentiment scores were more accurate than machine learning models that assume linearity
From mean-motion resonances to scattered planets: Producing the Solar System, eccentric exoplanets and Late Heavy Bombardments
We show that interaction with a gas disk may produce young planetary systems
with closely-spaced orbits, stabilized by mean-motion resonances between
neighbors. On longer timescales, after the gas is gone, interaction with a
remnant planetesimal disk tends to pull these configurations apart, eventually
inducing dynamical instability. We show that this can lead to a variety of
outcomes; some cases resemble the Solar System, while others end up with
high-eccentricity orbits reminiscent of the observed exoplanets. A similar
mechanism has been previously suggested as the cause of the lunar Late Heavy
Bombardment. Thus, it may be that a large-scale dynamical instability, with
more or less cataclysmic results, is an evolutionary step common to many
planetary systems, including our own.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Ap
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