Lessons for future public policy and research

Public policy ; Welfare

A Mathematica interface to NNPDFs

We present a Mathematica interface for handling the parton distribution functions of the NNDPF Collaboration, available from the NNPDF hepforge website http://nnpdf.hepforge.org/. As a case study we briefly summarise the first PDF set which includes all relevant LHC data, NNPDF2.3, and demonstrate the use of our new Mathematica interface.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 16th International Conference in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD2012), Montpellier July 201

Leavitt RR-algebras over countable graphs embed into L2,RL_{2,R}

For a commutative ring $R$ with unit we show that the Leavitt path algebra $L_R(E)$ of a graph $E$ embeds into $L_{2,R}$ precisely when $E$ is countable. Before proving this result we prove a generalised Cuntz-Krieger Uniqueness Theorem for Leavitt path algebras over $R$.Comment: 17 pages. At the request of a referee the previous version of this paper has been split into two papers. This version is the first of these papers. The second will also be uploaded to the arXi

Stem cells conditioned medium: a new approach to skin wound healing management

Stem cell biology has gained remarkable interest in recent years, driven by the hope of finding cures for numerous diseases including skin wound healing through transplantation medicine. Initially upon transplantation, these cells home to and differentiate within the injured tissue into specialised cells. Contrariwise, it now appears that only a small percentage of transplanted cells integrate and survive in host tissues. Thus, the foremost mechanism by which stem cells participate in tissue repair seems to be related to their trophic factors. Indeed, stem cells provide the microenvironment with a wide range of growth factors, cytokines and chemokines, which can broadly defined as the stem cells secretome. In in vitro condition, these molecules can be traced from the conditioned medium or spent media harvested from cultured cells. Conditioned medium now serves as a new treatment modality in regenerative medicine and has shown a successful outcome in some diseases. With the emergence of this approach, we described the possibility of using stem cells conditioned medium as a novel and promising alternative to skin wound healing treatment. Numerous pre-clinical data have shown the possibility and efficacy of this treatment. Despite this, significant challenges need to be addressed before translating this technology to the bedside.Article Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cbin.10138/pd

APFELgrid: a high performance tool for parton density determinations

We present a new software package designed to reduce the computational burden of hadron collider measurements in Parton Distribution Function (PDF) fits. The APFELgrid package converts interpolated weight tables provided by APPLgrid files into a more efficient format for PDF fitting by the combination with PDF and $\alpha_s$ evolution factors provided by APFEL. This combination significantly reduces the number of operations required to perform the calculation of hadronic observables in PDF fits and simplifies the structure of the calculation into a readily optimised scalar product. We demonstrate that our technique can lead to a substantial speed improvement when compared to existing methods without any reduction in numerical accuracy.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures. Submitted to CPC. Code available from https://github.com/nhartland/APFELgri

Governance Issues for Health Insurance Exchanges

Outlines considerations for states in deciding how to structure a health insurance exchange, as well as issues of funding sources, operational flexibility, political independence and accountability, management structure, and sub-state dimensions