Towards Carrollian quantization: renormalization of Carrollian electrodynamics

Field-theoretic description of Carrollian theories has largely remained classical so far. In this paper, we attempt to study the renormalization of Carrollian gauge field theories via path integral techniques. The case of Carrollian electrodynamics minimally coupled to a massive Carrollian scalar is considered. We report potential problems such as IR divergences and mass shell singularity cropping up at the first order in the perturbation. Perhaps, the most important result that we report is how conventional arguments for gauge independence for mass and coupling are invalidated for a gauge theory in a Carrollian setting. As of now, the renormalization of Carrollian gauge field theories seems to suffer from unphysical ramifications. Possible cures to resolve these issues are suggested.Comment: References updated, results and presentation unchange

Cost-effectiveness of Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B Vaccination for Jail Inmates

Despite evidence that viral hepatitis poses a significant risk to public health, universal vaccination has not yet been implemented. The risk for viral hepatitis infection is particularly high among injection drug users and other individuals who do not attend regular health care visits. Jails provide a structural opportunity to vaccinate these high risk individuals. HAV and HBV vaccines administered on an accelerated three week schedule could dramatically decrease the lifetime risk for contracting viral hepatitis among jail detainees. Assuming that 75% of detainees would accept vaccination, 33% have previous exposure to HAV, 25% have previous exposure to HBV, and independent future healthcare costs were US $317,000, the US health care system would save$12 per individual with a vaccinate upon entry program in comparison to no intervention. This savings translates into an economic benefit amounting to about US$ 5,000,000 saved if all new jail inmates in a given year were immunized. A vaccination upon entry program for HAV/HBV in jails should be widely implemented with coordination between the corrections system and public health agencies to reduce the growing cost of viral hepatitis infection

Overfitting in Synthesis: Theory and Practice (Extended Version)

In syntax-guided synthesis (SyGuS), a synthesizer's goal is to automatically generate a program belonging to a grammar of possible implementations that meets a logical specification. We investigate a common limitation across state-of-the-art SyGuS tools that perform counterexample-guided inductive synthesis (CEGIS). We empirically observe that as the expressiveness of the provided grammar increases, the performance of these tools degrades significantly. We claim that this degradation is not only due to a larger search space, but also due to overfitting. We formally define this phenomenon and prove no-free-lunch theorems for SyGuS, which reveal a fundamental tradeoff between synthesizer performance and grammar expressiveness. A standard approach to mitigate overfitting in machine learning is to run multiple learners with varying expressiveness in parallel. We demonstrate that this insight can immediately benefit existing SyGuS tools. We also propose a novel single-threaded technique called hybrid enumeration that interleaves different grammars and outperforms the winner of the 2018 SyGuS competition (Inv track), solving more problems and achieving a $5\times$ mean speedup.Comment: 24 pages (5 pages of appendices), 7 figures, includes proofs of theorem

Neurocognition and emotional processing in bipolar offspring

PhD ThesisBackground/aims: Recent evidence suggests that the psychosocial function for patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) may not always be as favorable as originally proposed by Emil Kraeplin. This dysfunction has been statistically associated with neurocognitive measures (on tasks assessing working memory, learning and executive function) and emotional processing (on tasks assessing facial emotion labeling). Studies of Offspring of Bipolar Parents (OBP) in comparison with Offspring of Healthy Controls (OHC) demonstrate elevated risk for development of BD and limited evidence of impairment in neurocognitive function and emotional processing. The identification of an endophenotype for BD could help in early identification of BD, institution of early appropriate intervention and thereby perhaps limit this psychosocial dysfunction. The aims included the recruitment of a matched sample of OBP and OHC and investigation of neurocognitive function and facial emotion labelling in these two groups. The hypotheses were: OBP will show impairment in the domains of memory, learning and executive function, OBP will demonstrate more errors on facial emotion labeling tasks and the deficits in facial emotion labelling will not be related to impairments demonstrated on the domains of memory, learning and executive function. Results: OBP showed deficits in IQ, spatial working memory, visual and auditory working memory as compared to OHC. OBP also made more errors on tasks of facial emotion labeling; particularly on ‘fearful faces’ in comparison to OHC. The novel finding from this project was the lack of significant association between the reported neurocognitive deficits and facial emotion labeling deficits in OBP. Conclusion: The study identified deficits in neurocognitive function and facial emotion labeling in OBP which appear to be independent. These deficits met some criteria for being considered an endophenotype for BD. The study was limited by a small sample size, lack of blinding and low specificity of these deficits for BD. Further longitudinal research to study the evolution of these deficits would be the next step in confirmation of these deficits as a potential candidate endophenotype for BD. In addition research should focus on factors that might contribute to these deficits such as severity of parental BD (‘nature’) and family environment (‘nurture’).Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (Dr Ali Zaatar, Dr Suresh Joseph, Mr James Duncan and Dr Carole Kaplan) and the Mental Health Foundation North East Branch

DRIVERS AND RATIONALES IN RFID ADOPTION AND POST ADOPTION INTEGRATION: AN INTEGRATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON IOS ADOPTION

This study addresses a gap in IOS (interorganizational system) adoption literature by proposing an integrative model of RFID (radio frequency identification) adoption and early integration, that combines multiple theoretical perspectives suggesting different rationales for adoption. The study suggests possible roles for technological, interorganizational pressure, organizational readiness and external environmental factors in the adoption of RFID and proposes the perceived radicalness of technology as a moderator of relationships in the model. Using multiple lenses of strategic choice theories (diffusion of innovation, organizational innovativeness) and institutional theory as the basis and reflecting data from semi- tructured interviews and news reports, the study develops an integrative conceptual RFID adoption model and presents testable hypotheses at the construct and rationale levels. The model incorporates different rationales for adoption and integration of interorganizational systems(IOS) namely the strategic choice perspective where adoption is voluntary with a view to improve organizational efficiency and performance and the institutional perspective where adoption is more a result of conforming to pressures from organizations within an organization’s field of operation. Two technological factors (perceived benefit and perceived costs), three organizational readiness factors (top management support, financial readiness, IS infrastructure and capabilities) and three external environmental factors (perceived standards convergence, perceived consumer privacy and perceived stakeholder privacy) have been suggested as adoption and integration drivers from a strategic choice perspective while the three Inter-organizational pressure factors (coercive, mimetic and normative pressures) have been proposed as predictors of adoption intent and expected integration from the institutional perspective. The study allows for a comparison of the relative influence of each rationale on the adoption and post adoption integration decisions by a firm. Perceived radicalness of the technology has been operationalized as a continuous construct and suggested as a moderator of relationships between the drivers and adoption/integration of RFID. Analysis of data collected from the interviews and news reports lends support to the model and provides insight into relative importance of the constructs

Radio Frquency Identification (RFID) Adoption Drivers: A Radical Innovation Adoption Perspective

This study addresses an IOS (interorganizational system) adoption literature gap by proposing an integrative model of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) adoption and incorporating the effect of perceived radicalness of technology in IOS adoption decisions. Three technological factors (perceived benefit, perceived costs and compatibility), four interorganizational pressure factors (competitive pressure, industry/regulatory pressure, net supply-chain exercised power and favorable transactional climate), three organizational readiness factors (top management support, financial readiness, IS infrastructure/capabilities) and three external environmental factors (standards stability, perceived consumer readiness and perceived stakeholder privacy) have been proposed as predictors of RFID adoption intent while perceived technology radicalness has been suggested as a potential moderator of the proposed relationships. The model was developed using existing IOS theories and constructs consistently found significant in IOS adoption studies. The model is supported using semi-structured interview data and news-report data. Testable hypotheses, methodology outline, and findings-implications discussion are presented

Development of conducting paper-based electrochemical biosensor for procalcitonin detection

In the present research, an advanced cellulose fiber paper (CFP) based biosensor is developed. This sensor is modified with nanocomposites containing poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) as the main matrix and functionalized gold nanoparticles (PEDOT:PSS-AuNP@CFP) for the selective and sensitive detection of bacterial infection (BI)-specific biomarker procalcitonin (PCT). Scanning electronic microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction are used to characterize the PEDOT:PSS-AuNP nanocomposite. This biosensor exhibits a high sensitivity of 1.34 μA (pg mL-1)-1 in the linear detection ranges of 1-20×104 pg mL-1, and a 24-day life span for PCT antigen detection. Anti-PCT antigenic protein is used for immobilization for PCT quantification. The results of electrochemical response studies showed that this conductive paper bioelectrode had good reproducibility, stability, and sensitivity in physiological ranges (1-20×104 pg mL-1). Further, the proposed bioelectrode is an alternative choice for point-of-care PCT detection