Search results for " Background"

Impact of general reionization scenarios on extraction of inflationary parameters

2010

Determination of whether the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum for primordial scalar perturbations is consistent with observations is sensitive to assumptions about the reionization scenario. In light of this result, we revisit constraints on inflationary models using more general reionization scenarios. While the bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio are largely unmodified, when different reionization schemes are addressed, hybrid models are back into the inflationary game. In the general reionization picture, we reconstruct both the shape and amplitude of the inflaton potential. We discuss how relaxing the simple reionization restriction affects the reconstruction of the potential through the c…

Primordial power spectrum features in phenomenological descriptions of inflation

2016

We extend an alternative, phenomenological approach to inflation by means of an equation of state and a sound speed, both of them functions of the number of $e$-folds and four phenomenological parameters. This approach captures a number of possible inflationary models, including those with non-canonical kinetic terms or scale-dependent non-gaussianities. We perform Markov Chain Monte Carlo analyses using the latest cosmological publicly available measurements, which include Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data from the Planck satellite. Within this parametrization, we discard scale invariance with a significance of about $10\sigma$, and the running of the spectral index is constrained as …

Institutions and Deontic Powers: Some Comments on the Tuomela-Searle Debate

In this talk I will analyze Tuomela’s theory of institutions and the most recent debate with Searle over the issue of whether institutions conceptually involve the creation and distribution of deontic powers. By way of analyzing Tuomela and Searle’s reciprocal criticisms, I conclude that Tuomela does not give us sufficient reasons to give up Searle’s thesis that institutions always involve deontic powers, but I also argue that it is necessary to go beyond Searle’s recent speech act-centered explanation of human sociality. More specifically, moving along the lines of Di Lorenzo’s view of constitutive rules as built into the logical and pragmatic structure of human activities, and making use …

Prospects for detecting the diffuse supernova neutrino background with JUNO

2022

We present the detection potential for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), using the inverse-beta-decay (IBD) detection channel on free protons. We employ the latest information on the DSNB flux predictions, and investigate in detail the background and its reduction for the DSNB search at JUNO. The atmospheric neutrino induced neutral current (NC) background turns out to be the most critical background, whose uncertainty is carefully evaluated from both the spread of model predictions and an envisaged in situ measurement. We also make a careful study on the background suppression with the pulse shape discrimination (PSD) …

Australian TESOL Teachers’ Cultural Perceptions of Students

2017

ABSTRACTOver the last decade, research in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) has increasingly focused on the relationship between culture and learning. Researchers such as Kumaravadivelu (2003) have been vocal in their opposition to the practice of cultural stereotyping. In the current study, Holliday’s (2005) model of Culturism was used as a theoretical basis. Six Australian TESOL teachers were interviewed to determine the nature and extent of the cultural stereotypes that they held, particularly as they pertained to specific learning-related behaviours. A qualitative analysis of the data revealed that teachers most often grouped students in terms of natio…

Rare variants in the genetic background modulate cognitive and developmental phenotypes in individuals carrying disease-associated variants

2019

Purpose: To assess the contribution of rare variants in the genetic background toward variability of neurodevelopmental phenotypes in individuals with rare copy-number variants (CNVs) and gene-disruptive variants. Methods: We analyzed quantitative clinical information, exome sequencing, and microarray data from 757 probands and 233 parents and siblings who carry disease-associated variants. Results: The number of rare likely deleterious variants in functionally intolerant genes (“other hits”) correlated with expression of neurodevelopmental phenotypes in probands with 16p12.1 deletion (n=23, p=0.004) and in autism probands carrying gene-disruptive variants (n=184, p=0.03) compared with thei…

Detection of deuterium retention by LIBS at different background pressures

2017

ITER plans foresee the quantitative diagnostics of fuel retention in reactor walls at near-atmospheric pressures. Using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for this purpose assumes a reliable resolving of Balmer α-lines of hydrogen isotopes in spectra of plasma produced by focused laser radiation onto the target surface. To develop LIBS for quantitative diagnostics of fuel retention during the maintenance breaks of ITER, the effect of background gas pressure on the laser-induced plasma characteristics has been studied. The background pressure limits the expansion rate of plasma and as a result it leads to higher plasma concentrations. At the same time the limiting factor of the reso…

Managing group work in the classroom: An international study on perceived benefits and risks based on students’ cultural background and gender

2018

Working in groups has become an essential part of success of every organization operating in global economy. Therefore, the business sector has created an imperative for higher education institutions (HEIs) to modify study programs and prepare students to be effective team players. However, while group work has been highly encouraged among university students, their opinions on this practice remain rather neglected. In addition, the role of culture and gender in students’ perceptions of group work has received little attention. The purpose of this study is to examine how university students perceive group work in terms of its benefits and risks and whether their national culture and gender …

Mental health problems in adolescents with cochlear implants: Peer problems persist after controlling for additional handicaps

2015

The aims of the present multi-center study were to investigate the extent of mental health problems in adolescents with a hearing loss and cochlear implants (CIs) in comparison to normal hearing (NH) peers and to investigate possible relations between the extent of mental health problems of young CI users and hearing variables, such as age at implantation, or functional gain of CI. The survey included 140 adolescents with CI (mean age = 14.7, SD = 1.5 years) and 140 NH adolescents (mean age = 14.8, SD = 1.4 years), their parents and teachers. Participants were matched by age, gender and social background. Within the CI group, 35 adolescents were identified as “risk cases” due to possible an…

Prediction of the gene expression measure by means of a GLMM

2007

Microarrays permit to scientists the screening of thousands of genes simultaneously to determine, for example, whether those genes are active, hyperactive or silent in normal or cancerous tissues. A primary task in microarray analysis is to obtain a good measure of the gene expression that can be used for a so called higher level analysis. Different methods have been proposed for high density oligonucleotide arrays (see Cope et al. (2004) for a review). Aim of this paper is to obtain a new gene expression measure based on the background correction model proposed by Mineo et al. (2006). The proposed method is validated by means of a free available data-set called Spike-In133 experiment, wher…