98 research outputs found
Patient-oriented Evidence-based Treatment Decision Support System (TreatQuest®) for Lung Cancer
Involving patients in healthcare decisions makes a significant and enduring difference to healthcare outcomes. One challenge for patients is the lack of evidence-based information and tools to support their decision making. Although patients have access to significant information through internet and other sources, it is not personalized for their specific situation. This dissertation attempts to help patients acquire evidence-based information relevant to their own situation, so they can make a more informed decision in co-operation with their physicians. Lung cancer has been selected as a focus for this study because lung cancer presents very complex decision making situation and is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and woman in every ethnic group worldwide. The prototype decision support system for lung cancer is called TreatQuest®. This system allows users to create their own profile, access cases similar to their case, and learn about treatment options. The evidences for the treatment were extracted from public data and knowledge gained from guideline. The effectiveness of patient-oriented evidence-based approach was validated by having a group of patient use the system. TreatQuest® is one of the first system developed to support patient\u27s treatment decision process, which represent the most recent trend in delivery of healthcare services. Results from this study show that such a patient-oriented decision support system provides an effective way to help patient receive more personalized information and make informed treatments. In summary, patient-oriented evidence-based decision support systems such as TreatQuest®, can improve the decision quality for patients. Also, such systems can improve health care decisions that are made with the active participation of fully informed patients. Therefore, patient-oriented evidence-based decision support systems can have significant impact on the healthcare industry
Crossover from Non-Fermi-Liquid to Pseudogap Behavior in the Spectral of Local Impurity in Power-Law Diverging Multichannel Kondo Model
Motivated by the emergence of higher-order van Hove singularities (VHS) with
power-law divergent density of states (DOS)
(, ) in materials, we investigate a
multichannel Kondo model involving conduction electrons near the higher-order
van Hove filling. This model considers channel and spin degrees of
freedom. Employing a renormalization group analysis and dynamical large-
approach, our results reveal a crossover from a non-Fermi liquid to pseudogap
behavior in the spectral properties of the local impurity at the overscreened
fixed point. At this critical fixed point, we precisely determine the
conditions under which the crossover occurs, either by tuning the exponent
or the ratio to a critical value. The results of this study
provide novel insights into the non-Fermi liquid and pseudogap behaviors
observed in strongly correlated systems, shedding light on the intriguing
interplay between higher-order van Hove singularities and multichannel Kondo
physics.Comment: 5 pages, 5 fugure
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Ultra-low-threshold InGaN/GaN quantum dot micro-ring lasers.
In this work, we demonstrate ultra-low-threshold, optically pumped, room-temperature lasing in GaN microdisk and micro-ring cavities containing InGaN quantum dots and fragmented quantum wells, with the lowest measured threshold at a record low of 6.2 μJ/cm2. When pump volume decreases, we observe a systematic decrease in the lasing threshold of micro-rings. The photon loss rate, γ, increases with increasing inner ring diameter, leading to a systematic decrease in the post-threshold slope efficiency, while the quality factor of the lasing mode remains largely unchanged. A careful analysis using finite-difference time-domain simulations attributes the increased γ to the loss of photons from lower-quality higher-order modes during amplified spontaneous emission
Distinctive signature of indium gallium nitride quantum dot lasing in microdisk cavities.
Low-threshold lasers realized within compact, high-quality optical cavities enable a variety of nanophotonics applications. Gallium nitride materials containing indium gallium nitride (InGaN) quantum dots and quantum wells offer an outstanding platform to study light-matter interactions and realize practical devices such as efficient light-emitting diodes and nanolasers. Despite progress in the growth and characterization of InGaN quantum dots, their advantages as the gain medium in low-threshold lasers have not been clearly demonstrated. This work seeks to better understand the reasons for these limitations by focusing on the simpler, limited-mode microdisk cavities, and by carrying out comparisons of lasing dynamics in those cavities using varying gain media including InGaN quantum wells, fragmented quantum wells, and a combination of fragmented quantum wells with quantum dots. For each gain medium, we use the distinctive, high-quality (Q ∼ 5,500) modes of the cavities, and the change in the highest-intensity mode as a function of pump power to better understand the dominant radiative processes. The variations of threshold power and lasing wavelength as a function of gain medium help us identify the possible limitations to lower-threshold lasing with quantum dot active medium. In addition, we have identified a distinctive lasing signature for quantum dot materials, which consistently lase at wavelengths shorter than the peak of the room temperature gain emission. These findings not only provide better understanding of lasing in nitride-based quantum dot cavity systems but also shed insight into the more fundamental issues of light-matter coupling in such systems.This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final version is available from PNAS at http://www.pnas.org/content/111/39/14042.abstract
A Survey for Graphic Design Intelligence
Graphic design is an effective language for visual communication. Using
complex composition of visual elements (e.g., shape, color, font) guided by
design principles and aesthetics, design helps produce more visually-appealing
content. The creation of a harmonious design requires carefully selecting and
combining different visual elements, which can be challenging and
time-consuming. To expedite the design process, emerging AI techniques have
been proposed to automatize tedious tasks and facilitate human creativity.
However, most current works only focus on specific tasks targeting at different
scenarios without a high-level abstraction. This paper aims to provide a
systematic overview of graphic design intelligence and summarize literature in
the taxonomy of representation, understanding and generation. Specifically we
consider related works for individual visual elements as well as the overall
design composition. Furthermore, we highlight some of the potential directions
for future explorations.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Ultra-low threshold gallium nitride photonic crystal nanobeam laser
We report exceptionally low thresholds (9.1 μJ/cm2) for room temperature lasing at ∼450 nm in optically pumped Gallium Nitride (GaN) nanobeam cavity structures. The nanobeam cavity geometry provides high theoretical Q (>100 000) with small modal volume, leading to a high spontaneous emission factor, β = 0.94. The active layer materials are Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) fragmented quantum wells (fQWs), a critical factor in achieving the low thresholds, which are an order-of-magnitude lower than obtainable with continuous QW active layers. We suggest that the extra confinement of photo-generated carriers for fQWs (compared to QWs) is responsible for the excellent performance.This work was
enabled by facilities available at the Center for Nanoscale
Systems (CNS), a member of the National Nanotechnology
Infrastructure Network (NNIN), which was supported by the
National Science Foundation under NSF Award No. ECS-
0335765. This work was also supported in part by the NSF
Materials World Network (Award No. 1008480), the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
(Award No. EP/H047816/1), and the Royal Academy of
Engineering.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AIP at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/106/23/10.1063/1.4922211
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