An electric analogue of the longitudinal Stern-Gerlach matter-wave interferometer has been realized for atoms in Rydberg states with high principal quantum number n. The experiments were performed ...with He atoms prepared in coherent superpositions of the n=55 and n=56 circular Rydberg states in a zero electric field by a π/2 pulse of resonant microwave radiation. These atoms were subjected to a pulsed inhomogeneous electric field to generate a superposition of momentum states before a π pulse was applied to invert the internal states. The same pulsed inhomogeneous electric field was then reapplied for a second time to transform the motional states to have equal momenta before a further π/2 pulse was employed to interrogate the final Rydberg state populations. This Hahn-echo microwave pulse sequence, interspersed with a pair of equivalent inhomogeneous electric field pulses, yielded two spatially separated matter waves. Interferences between these matter waves were observed as oscillations in the final Rydberg state populations as the amplitude of the pulsed electric field gradients was adjusted.
Face pareidolia is the phenomenon of seeing facelike structures in everyday objects. Here, we tested the hypothesis that face pareidolia, rather than being limited to a cognitive or mnemonic ...association, reflects the activation of visual mechanisms that typically process human faces. We focused on sensory cues to social attention, which engage cell populations in temporal cortex that are susceptible to habituation effects. Repeated exposure to “pareidolia faces” that appear to have a specific direction of attention causes a systematic bias in the perception of where human faces are looking, indicating that overlapping sensory mechanisms are recruited when we view human faces and when we experience face pareidolia. These cross-adaptation effects are significantly reduced when pareidolia is abolished by removing facelike features from the objects. These results indicate that face pareidolia is essentially a perceptual phenomenon, occurring when sensory input is processed by visual mechanisms that have evolved to extract specific social content from human faces.
Studies have shown that natural environments can enhance health and here we build upon that work by examining the associations between comprehensive greenspace metrics and health. We focused on a ...large urban population center (Toronto, Canada) and related the two domains by combining high-resolution satellite imagery and individual tree data from Toronto with questionnaire-based self-reports of general health perception, cardio-metabolic conditions and mental illnesses from the Ontario Health Study. Results from multiple regressions and multivariate canonical correlation analyses suggest that people who live in neighborhoods with a higher density of trees on their streets report significantly higher health perception and significantly less cardio-metabolic conditions (controlling for socio-economic and demographic factors). We find that having 10 more trees in a city block, on average, improves health perception in ways comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $10,000 and moving to a neighborhood with $10,000 higher median income or being 7 years younger. We also find that having 11 more trees in a city block, on average, decreases cardio-metabolic conditions in ways comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $20,000 and moving to a neighborhood with $20,000 higher median income or being 1.4 years younger.
Artificial intelligence technology has advanced rapidly in recent years and has the potential to improve healthcare outcomes. However, technology uptake will be largely driven by clinicians, and ...there is a paucity of data regarding the attitude that clinicians have to this new technology. In June-August 2019 we conducted an online survey of fellows and trainees of three specialty colleges (ophthalmology, radiology/radiation oncology, dermatology) in Australia and New Zealand on artificial intelligence. There were 632 complete responses (n = 305, 230, and 97, respectively), equating to a response rate of 20.4%, 5.1%, and 13.2% for the above colleges, respectively. The majority (n = 449, 71.0%) believed artificial intelligence would improve their field of medicine, and that medical workforce needs would be impacted by the technology within the next decade (n = 542, 85.8%). Improved disease screening and streamlining of monotonous tasks were identified as key benefits of artificial intelligence. The divestment of healthcare to technology companies and medical liability implications were the greatest concerns. Education was identified as a priority to prepare clinicians for the implementation of artificial intelligence in healthcare. This survey highlights parallels between the perceptions of different clinician groups in Australia and New Zealand about artificial intelligence in medicine. Artificial intelligence was recognized as valuable technology that will have wide-ranging impacts on healthcare.
This article is a response to Oliver et al.'s Commentary 'The dark side of coproduction: do the costs outweigh the benefits for health research?' recently published in Health Research Policy and ...Systems (2019, 17:33). The original commentary raises some important questions about how and when to co-produce health research, including highlighting various professional costs to those involved. However, we identify four related limitations in their inquiry, as follows: (1) the adoption of a problematically expansive definition of co-production that fails to acknowledge key features that distinguish co-production from broader collaboration; (2) a strong focus on technocratic rationales for co-producing research and a relative neglect of democratic rationales; (3) the transposition of legitimate concerns relating to collaboration between researchers and practitioners onto work with patients, service users and marginalised citizens; and (4) the presentation of bad practice as an inherent flaw, or indeed 'dark side', of co-production without attending to the corrupting influence of contextual factors within academic research that facilitate and even promote such malpractice. The Commentary's limitations can be seen to reflect the contemporary use of the term 'co-production' more broadly. We describe this phenomenon as 'cobiquity' - an apparent appetite for participatory research practice and increased emphasis on partnership working, in combination with the related emergence of a plethora of 'co' words, promoting a conflation of meanings and practices from different collaborative traditions. This phenomenon commonly leads to a misappropriation of the term 'co-production'. Our main motivation is to address this imprecision and the detrimental impact it has on efforts to enable co-production with marginalised and disadvantaged groups. We conclude that Oliver et al. stray too close to 'the problem' of 'co-production' seeing only the dark side rather than what is casting the shadows. We warn against such a restricted view and argue for greater scrutiny of the structural factors that largely explain academia's failure to accommodate and promote the egalitarian and utilitarian potential of co-produced research.
Communication among Oral Bacteria KOLENBRANDER, Paul E; ANDERSEN, Roxanna N; BLEHERT, David S ...
Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews,
09/2002, Letnik:
66, Številka:
3
Journal Article
We propose an agent-based model to simulate how changes to the Italian support scheme will affect the diffusion of PV systems among single- or two-family homes. The adoption decision is assumed to be ...influenced by (1) the payback period of the investment, (2) its environmental benefit, (3) the household's income, and (4) communication with other agents. The estimation of the payback period considers investment costs, local irradiation levels, governmental support, earnings from using self-produced electricity vs. buying electricity from the grid, administrative fees, and maintenance costs. The environmental benefit is estimated by a proxy for the CO2 emissions saved. The household income accounts for the specific economic conditions across different regions and the agent's age group, level of education, and household type. Finally, the influence of communication is measured by the number of links with other households that have already adopted a PV system. In each simulation step, the program dynamically updates the social system and the communication network, while the PV system's investment costs are revised according to a one-factor experience curve. The model's structure is applied for a case study based on the evolution of residential PV systems in Italy over the 2012–2026 period. The model's initial state is calibrated on the basis of the actual diffusion of residential PV in Italy over the 2006–2011 period. Our results show that, following Italy's new feed-in tariff scheme, domestic PV installations are already beyond an initial stage of rapid growth and, though likely to spread further, they will do so at a significantly slower rate of diffusion.
•We simulate the diffusion of PV systems among single- or two-1 family homes in Italy.•The simulation is performed via an agent-based model (ABM).•The adoption decision accounts for socio-economic and environmental considerations.•Communication among agents is also assumed to influence technology investments.•Attitudes toward technology adoption vary across different socio-economic groups.
We use a sample of 9397 low-redshift (z ≤ 0.1) galaxies with a close companion to investigate the connection between mergers and luminous infrared (IR) galaxies (LIRGs). The pairs are selected from ...the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and have projected separations r
p ≤ 80 h
kpc, relative velocities ΔV ≤ 300 km s−1 and stellar mass ratios within a factor of 1:10. A control sample consisting of four galaxies per pair galaxy is constructed by simultaneously matching in stellar mass, redshift and environment to galaxies with no close companion. The IR luminosities (L
IR) of galaxies in the pair and control samples are determined from the SDSS - Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) matched catalogue of Hwang et al. Over the redshift range of our pairs sample, the IRAS matches are complete to LIRG luminosities (L
IR ≥ 1011 L), allowing us to investigate the connection between mergers and luminous IR galaxies. We find a trend for increasing LIRG fraction towards smaller pair separations, peaking at a factor of ∼5-10 above the median control fraction at the smallest separations (r
p
< 20 h
kpc), but remaining elevated by a factor ∼2-3 even out to 80 h
kpc (the widest separations in our sample). LIRG pairs predominantly have high star formation rates (SFRs), high extinction and are found in relatively low-density environments, relative to the full pairs sample. We also find that LIRGs are most likely to be found in high-mass galaxies which have an approximately equal-mass companion. We confirm the results of previous studies that both the active galactic nucleus (AGN) fraction and merger fraction increase strongly as a function of IR luminosity. About 7 per cent of LIRGs are associated with major mergers, as defined within the criteria and mass completion of our sample. Finally, we quantify an SFR offset (ΔSFR) as the enhancement (or decrement) relative to star-forming galaxies of the same mass and redshift. We demonstrate that there is a clear connection between the ΔSFR and the classification of a galaxy as a LIRG that is mass dependent. Most of the LIRGs in our merger sample are relatively high-mass galaxies (log (M
/M) > 10.5), likely because the SFR enhancement required to produce LIRG luminosities is more modest than at low masses. The ΔSFR offers a redshift-independent metric for the identification of the galaxies with the most enhanced star-forming rates that does not rely on fixed L
IR boundaries.
An age-dependent association between variation at the FTO locus and BMI in children has been suggested. We meta-analyzed associations between the FTO locus (rs9939609) and BMI in samples, aged from ...early infancy to 13 years, from 8 cohorts of European ancestry. We found a positive association between additional minor (A) alleles and BMI from 5.5 years onwards, but an inverse association below age 2.5 years. Modelling median BMI curves for each genotype using the LMS method, we found that carriers of minor alleles showed lower BMI in infancy, earlier adiposity rebound (AR), and higher BMI later in childhood. Differences by allele were consistent with two independent processes: earlier AR equivalent to accelerating developmental age by 2.37% (95% CI 1.87, 2.87, p = 10(-20)) per A allele and a positive age by genotype interaction such that BMI increased faster with age (p = 10(-23)). We also fitted a linear mixed effects model to relate genotype to the BMI curve inflection points adiposity peak (AP) in infancy and AR. Carriage of two minor alleles at rs9939609 was associated with lower BMI at AP (-0.40% (95% CI: -0.74, -0.06), p = 0.02), higher BMI at AR (0.93% (95% CI: 0.22, 1.64), p = 0.01), and earlier AR (-4.72% (-5.81, -3.63), p = 10(-17)), supporting cross-sectional results. Overall, we confirm the expected association between variation at rs9939609 and BMI in childhood, but only after an inverse association between the same variant and BMI in infancy. Patterns are consistent with a shift on the developmental scale, which is reflected in association with the timing of AR rather than just a global increase in BMI. Results provide important information about longitudinal gene effects and about the role of FTO in adiposity. The associated shifts in developmental timing have clinical importance with respect to known relationships between AR and both later-life BMI and metabolic disease risk.
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