Multilevel blocking approach to the fermion sign problem in path-integral Monte Carlo simulations

A general algorithm toward the solution of the fermion sign problem in finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo simulations has been formulated for discretized fermion path integrals with nearest-neighbor interactions in the Trotter direction. This multilevel approach systematically implements a simple blocking strategy in a recursive manner to synthesize the sign cancellations among different fermionic paths throughout the whole configuration space. The practical usefulness of the method is demonstrated for interacting electrons in a quantum dot.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, incl. two figure

Bacterial vaginosis

Bacterial vaginosis is the most prevalent cause of abnormal vaginal discharge in women of childbearing age. It can have a major impact on quality of life and psychological wellbeing if frequently recurrent and strongly symptomatic. The use of molecular techniques to study the vaginal microbiome is increasing our understanding of the dynamic changes in flora that occur in health and disease. It might soon be possible to separate Gardnerella into different pathogenic and non-pathogenic species. Many groups are studying compounds that can disrupt the biofilm which is dominated by Gardnerella and Atopobium vaginae. Several studies in the last decade support the concept of bacterial vaginosis as a sexually transmitted infection

Informing UK governance of resilience to climate risks: improving the local evidence-base

International assessments of evidence on climate change (e.g. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC) or national climate change risk assessments (e.g. UK Climate Change Risk Assessment, CCRA) do not offer a sufficiently granular perspective on climate impacts to adequately inform governance of resilience to climate risks at the local level. Using an analysis of UK decision-makers managing and responding to heatwaves and flood risks, this paper argues how more robust local evidence is needed to inform decision-making regarding adaptation options for enhancing local resilience. We identify evidence gaps and issues relating to local climate change impacts, including sources and quality of evidence used, adequacy and accessibility of evidence available, ill-communicated evidence and conflicting or misused evidence. A lack of appreciation regarding how scientific evidence and personal judgement can mutually enhance the quality of decision-making underpins all of these gaps. Additionally, we find that the majority of evidence currently used is reductively based upon socio-economic and physical characteristics of climate risks. We argue that a step change is needed in local climate resilience that moves beyond current physical and socio-economic risk characterisation to a more inclusive co-constitution of social and politically defined climate risks at the local scale that are better aligned with the local impacts felt and needs of stakeholders

Candidiasis, Bacterial Vaginosis, Trichomoniasis and Other Vaginal Conditions Affecting the Vulva

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Verteilte Administration von unternehmensweiten Netzen

In den letzten Jahren wurden Hard- und Software immer preiswerter. Der dadurch verstärkte der Einsatz von PCs sorgte dafür, daß immer mehr Anwender einen EDV-gestützen Arbeitsplatz bekommen baben. Die bedeutet für die Systemadministration in den DV-Abteilungen, daß sie immer mehr Rechner auf noch mehr Plattformen mit vielen unterschiedlichen Anwendungen pflegen muß. Gleichzeitig werden die DV-Abteilungen aber nicht mehr größer, sonder sollen schlanker werden, genau wie das restliche Unternehmen. Selbst wenn die Anwendungen heute einfacher mit "Klicken und Klacken" bedient werden können, ist die Administration insgesamt nicht einfacher, sondern komplexer geworden. Nur sehr langsam kommen leistungsfähige und professionelle Administrationswerkzeuge auf den Markt, mit denen größere Systemungebungen personalsparend verwaltet werden können. Ziel eines modernen Systemmanagements (dies umfaßt Netzwerk-, System- und Applikationsmanagement) muß es sein, große Systemumgebungen mit heterogenen Sys temen in einer verteilten Organisation mit selbständigen Einheiten effizient zu administrieren. Dies bedarf zum einen einer Organisationsform der Administration der DV, welche die verteilten Kompetenzen berücksichtigt, und zum anderen leistungsfähiger Werkzeuge und Managementplattformen, die einen hohen Automatisierungsgrad haben und unternehmensspezifische Anpassungen erlauben. Lösungsansätze für diese beiden Bereiche werden im folgenden näher beschrieben

Building an integrated and enterprise-specific configuration management solution

The ICOMA system is intended as a flexible and open platform for configuration management. ICOMA should be able to manage your own and outside applications, no matter what size your network is or how your organization is structured. It is adaptable to the administrators personal requirements. The volume of data to be given by the administrators should be minimized. ICOMA allows you to write your own managed objects (MO), which configure your applications, with the support of development tools. It is possible to combine existing managed objects to form new compound managed objects. ICOMA supports a repository which scheme models your enterprise and whose contents are used to speed up the ICOMA system and to make it more reliable. The communication between managed objects and the ICOMA tools is handled by the configuration bus which supports wide distributed environments. The MO-Editor of the ICOMA system is a generic management tool to configure most of the managed objects. It supports configurable user dialogs. That allows the strict division of the user interface from the functionality of the managed objects. The ICOMA system can integrate and can be integrated into existing and emerging standards like SNMPv2high2 using gateways

Reconciling collaborative action research with existing institutions: insights from Dutch and German climate knowledge programmes

Researchers and policymakers increasingly aim to set up collaborative research programmes to address the challenges of adaptation to climate change. This does not only apply for technical knowledge, but for governance knowledge also. Both the Netherlands and Germany have set up large-scale collaborative action research (CAR) programmes for the governance of adaptation to climate change. Despite the collaborative designs, the initial enthusiasm, the available resources and the many positive outcomes, both programmes encountered several stubborn difficulties. By comparing both programmes, this paper explores the difficulties researchers encounter, analyses the underlying mechanisms and presents some lessons. It found that many difficulties are related to the tensions that exist between the assumptions underlying the new collaborative trajectories and the logics of the existing policy and research institutions. These institutional misfits are decisive to explain ultimate difficulties and successes. Furthermore, the paper concludes that risk aversion, stereotyping and scale fixation strengthen institutional misfits; and that these misfits persist due to lacking bridging capabilities. We suggest some lessons that can help to resolve the difficulties and reconcile CAR into existing institutions: organize the knowledge arrangement as a collaborative process; construct boundary objects as focal point for collaboration; and invest in bridging capabilities