New two-sided bound on the isotropic Lorentz-violating parameter of modified Maxwell theory

There is a unique Lorentz-violating modification of the Maxwell theory of photons, which maintains gauge invariance, CPT, and renormalizability. Restricting the modified-Maxwell theory to the isotropic sector and adding a standard spin-one-half Dirac particle p^\pm with minimal coupling to the nonstandard photon \widetilde{\gamma}, the resulting modified-quantum-electrodynamics model involves a single dimensionless "deformation parameter," \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr}. The exact tree-level decay rates for two processes have been calculated: vacuum Cherenkov radiation p^\pm \to p^\pm \widetilde{\gamma} for the case of positive \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr} and photon decay \widetilde{\gamma} \to p^+ p^- for the case of negative \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr}. From the inferred absence of these decays for a particular high-quality ultrahigh-energy-cosmic-ray event detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory and an excess of TeV gamma-ray events observed by the High Energy Stereoscopic System telescopes, a two-sided bound on \widetilde{\kappa}_{tr} is obtained, which improves by eight orders of magnitude upon the best direct laboratory bound. The implications of this result are briefly discussed.Comment: 18 pages, v5: published version in preprint styl

Oscillons: an encounter with dynamical chaos in 1953?

We present evidences that Ben F. Laposky (1914-2000) might have been the first person who created a family of nonlinear analog circuits that allowed him to observe chaotic attractors and other trademarks of nonlinear science as early as 1953.Comment: accepted to Chao

Coding accuracy for Parkinson's disease hospital admissions:implications for healthcare planning in the UK

ObjectivesHospital Episode Statistics data are used for healthcare planning and hospital reimbursements. Reliability of these data is dependent on the accuracy of individual hospitals reporting Secondary Uses Service (SUS) which includes hospitalisation. The number and coding accuracy for Parkinson's disease hospital admissions at a tertiary centre in Birmingham was assessed.Study designRetrospective, routine-data–based study.MethodsA retrospective electronic database search for all Parkinson's disease patients admitted to the tertiary hospital over a 4-year period (2009–2013) was performed on the SUS database using International Classification of Disease codes, and on the local inpatient electronic prescription database, Prescription and Information Communications System, using medication prescriptions. Capture-recapture methods were used to estimate the number of patients and admissions missed by both databases.ResultsFrom the two databases, between July 2009 and June 2013, 1068 patients with Parkinson's disease accounted for 1999 admissions. During these admissions, the Parkinson's disease was coded as a primary or secondary diagnosis. Ninety-one percent of these admissions were recorded on the SUS database. Capture-recapture methods estimated that the number of Parkinson's disease patients admitted during this period was 1127 patients (95% confidence interval: 1107–1146). A supplementary search of both SUS and Prescription and Information Communications System was undertaken using the hospital numbers of these 1068 patients. This identified another 479 admissions. SUS database under-estimated Parkinson's disease admissions by 27% during the study period.ConclusionThe accuracy of disease coding is critical for healthcare policy planning and must be improved. If the under-reporting of Parkinson's disease admissions on the SUS database is repeated nationally, expenditure on Parkinson's disease admissions in England is under-estimated by approximately £61 million per year

Random replicators with high-order interactions

We use tools of the equilibrium statistical mechanics of disordered systems to study analytically the statistical properties of an ecosystem composed of N species interacting via random, Gaussian interactions of order p >= 2, and deterministic self-interactions u <= 0. We show that for nonzero u the effect of increasing the order of the interactions is to make the system more cooperative, in the sense that the fraction of extinct species is greatly reduced. Furthermore, we find that for p > 2 there is a threshold value which gives a lower bound to the concentration of the surviving species, preventing then the existence of rare species and, consequently, increasing the robustness of the ecosystem to external perturbations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 Postscript figure

Correcting for optical aberrations using multilayer displays

Optical aberrations of the human eye are currently corrected using eyeglasses, contact lenses, or surgery. We describe a fourth option: modifying the composition of displayed content such that the perceived image appears in focus, after passing through an eye with known optical defects. Prior approaches synthesize pre-filtered images by deconvolving the content by the point spread function of the aberrated eye. Such methods have not led to practical applications, due to severely reduced contrast and ringing artifacts. We address these limitations by introducing multilayer pre-filtering, implemented using stacks of semi-transparent, light-emitting layers. By optimizing the layer positions and the partition of spatial frequencies between layers, contrast is improved and ringing artifacts are eliminated. We assess design constraints for multilayer displays; autostereoscopic light field displays are identified as a preferred, thin form factor architecture, allowing synthetic layers to be displaced in response to viewer movement and refractive errors. We assess the benefits of multilayer pre-filtering versus prior light field pre-distortion methods, showing pre-filtering works within the constraints of current display resolutions. We conclude by analyzing benefits and limitations using a prototype multilayer LCD.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant IIS-1116452)Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Research Fellowship)United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Young Faculty Award)Vodafone (Firm) (Wireless Innovation Award

Northeast Folklore volume 2 numbers 1-4

Description The second issue of Northeast Folklore was published in the spring of 1959 under the editorship of Edward D. Ives (known as Sandy) and Bacil F. Kirtley through the Department of English at the University of Maine. The four editions that year were later bound into a single volume. Table of Contents Number 1 (Spring): Two Songs from Martha\u27s Vineyard by E.G. Huntington The Deer Isle Hoax by James J. Flynn and Charles A. Huguenin Folklore from Aroostook County, Maine, and Neighboring Canada edited by Bacil F. Kirtley Notes and Queries Number 2 (Summer): Bibliography of New England-Maritimes Folklore Crooked Brook : A Song of the Maine Woods by Edward D. Ives Folklore from Aroostook County, Maine, and Neighboring Canada by Bacil F. Kirtley Record Reviews: Songs of a New York Lumberjack (Steckert) by Norman Cazden Timber-r-r! (Clayton) by Frank A. Hoffmann Folksongs of Martha\u27s Vineyard (Huntington) by Evelyn K. Wells Number 3 (Fall): Folklore in Rhode Island by Horace P. Beck Larry Gorman and Old Henry by Edward D. Ives Folklore from Aroostook County, Maine, and Neighboring Canada edited by Bacil F. Kirtley Number 4 (Winter): A New England Folklore Weekend at Old Sturbridge Village More Notes on the Burning Ship of Northumberland Strait Folklore from Aroostook County, Maine, and Neighboring Canada edited by Bacil F. Kirtley The Lumberman in Town by Edward D. Ives Notes and Queries Book Reviews: The Abelard Folk Song Book (Cazden) by Helen Creighton.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/nf/1002/thumbnail.jp

Creating the cultures of the future: cultural strategy, policy and institutions in Gramsci. Part three: Is there a theory of cultural policy in Gramsci’s prison notebooks?

In this article, I argue that Gramsci’s prison notes on questions of cultural strategy, policy and institutions, which have so far been largely overlooked by scholars, provide further analytical insights to those offered by his more general concepts. Together they enrich the theoretical underpinnings for critical frameworks of analysis as well as for radical practices of cultural strategy, cultural policy-making and cultural organisation. On the basis of a detailed analysis of these notes, I then answer the question of whether they amount to a theory of cultural policy

Concept and optical design of the cross-disperser module for CRIRES

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Oliva, Ernesto, A. Tozzi, D. Ferruzzi, L. Origlia, A. Hatzes, R. Follert, T. Loewinger et al. "Concept and optical design of the cross-disperser module for CRIRES+." In SPIE Astronomical Telescopes+ Instrumentation, pp. 91477R-91477R. International Society for Optics and Photonics, 2014, which has been published in final form at 10.1117/12.2054381

Size and emotion or depth and emotion? Evidence, using Matryoshka (Russian) dolls, of children using physical depth as a proxy for emotional charge

Background: The size and emotion effect is the tendency for children to draw people and other objects with a positive emotional charge larger than those with a negative or neutral charge. Here we explored the novel idea that drawing size might be acting as a proxy for depth (proximity).Methods: Forty-two children (aged 3-11 years) chose, from 2 sets of Matryoshka (Russian) dolls, a doll to represent a person with positive, negative or neutral charge, which they placed in front of themselves on a sheet of A3 paper. Results: We found that the children used proximity and doll size, to indicate emotional charge. Conclusions: These findings are consistent with the notion that in drawings, children are using size as a proxy for physical closeness (proximity), as they attempt with varying success to put positive charged items closer to, or negative and neutral charge items further away from, themselves