Search results for " Stan"
showing 10 items of 1695 documents
The intentional stance as structure learning: a computational perspective on mindreading
2015
Recent theories of mindreading explain the recognition of action, intention, and belief of other agents in terms of generative architectures that model the causal relations between observables (e.g., observed movements) and their hidden causes (e.g., action goals and beliefs). Two kinds of probabilistic generative schemes have been proposed in cognitive science and robotics that link to a "theory theory" and "simulation theory" of mindreading, respectively. The former compares perceived actions to optimal plans derived from rationality principles and conceptual theories of others' minds. The latter reuses one's own internal (inverse and forward) models for action execution to perform a look…
Spacetime curvature and Higgs stability after inflation
2015
We investigate the dynamics of the Higgs field at the end of inflation in the minimal scenario consisting of an inflaton field coupled to the Standard Model only through the non-minimal gravitational coupling $\xi$ of the Higgs field. Such a coupling is required by renormalisation of the Standard Model in curved space, and in the current scenario also by vacuum stability during high-scale inflation. We find that for $\xi\gtrsim 1$, rapidly changing spacetime curvature at the end of inflation leads to significant production of Higgs particles, potentially triggering a transition to a negative-energy Planck scale vacuum state and causing an immediate collapse of the Universe.
First experimental study of photon polarization in radiative B0s decays.
2017
The polarization of photons produced in radiative $B^{0}_{s}$ decays is studied for the first time. The data are recorded by the LHCb experiment in $pp$ collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3fb$^{-1}$ at center-of-mass energies of $7$ and $8$TeV. A time-dependent analysis of the $B^{0}_{s} \to \phi \gamma$ decay rate is conducted to determine the parameter ${\mathcal{A}}^\Delta$, which is related to the ratio of right- over left-handed photon polarization amplitudes in $b \to s \gamma$ transitions. A value of ${\mathcal{A}}^\Delta=-0.98^{\,+0.46\,+0.23}_{\,-0.52\,-0.20}$ is measured. This result is consistent with the Standard Model prediction within two standard deviatio…
Magnetic Monopole Search with the Full MoEDAL Trapping Detector in 13 TeV pp Collisions Interpreted in Photon-Fusion and Drell-Yan Production
2019
MoEDAL is designed to identify new physics in the form of stable or pseudostable highly ionizing particles produced in high-energy Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collisions. Here we update our previous search for magnetic monopoles in Run 2 using the full trapping detector with almost four times more material and almost twice more integrated luminosity. For the first time at the LHC, the data were interpreted in terms of photon-fusion monopole direct production in addition to the Drell-Yan-like mechanism. The MoEDAL trapping detector, consisting of 794 kg of aluminum samples installed in the forward and lateral regions, was exposed to 4.0 fb$^{-1}$ of 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC…
Variations in Substitution Rate in Human and Mouse Genomes
2003
We present a method to quantify spatial fluctuations of the substitution rate on different length scales throughout genomes of eukaryotes. The fluctuations on large length scales are found to be predominantly a consequence of a coarse-graining effect of fluctuations on shorter length scales. This is verified for both the mouse and the human genome. We also found that both species show similar standard deviation of fluctuations even though their mean substitution rate differs by a factor of two. Our method furthermore allows to determine time-resolved substitution rate maps from which we can compute auto-correlation functions in order to quantify how fast the spatial fluctuations in substitu…
Direct and fast determination of polychlorinated biphenyls in contaminated soils and sediments by thermal desorption-gas chromatography-tandem mass s…
2019
Abstract A direct procedure based on thermal desorption-gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (TD–GC–MS–MS) was developed for the fast extraction of seven polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from sediments and soils. PCBs were directly extracted, from 20 to 75 mg of sample, without any chemical pre-treatment or use of organic solvents, after the addition of 10 µL internal standard (PCB 195) in acetone. Sample treatment was totally automated. PCBs were extracted at 250 °C for 20 min, using a helium flow and the PCBs were trapped in a cryogenic Tenax trap at −10 °C. After that, analytes were directly desorbed at 270 °C and introduced to the GC–MS–MS system. Recoveries were established usin…
The determination of certain major and minor elements in geological samples by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. Some interfer…
2000
Direct ICP-AES measurements of the digested geological standard reference material samples yielded the wrong information about their composition. The differences between certified and measured concentrations of the samples were due to the complicated sample matrix. The measured concentrations can be successfully corrected by using a multiple linear regression technique. The correction is based on the multiple regression line calculated from the analytical results at synthetic mixtures of matrix elements, where concentrations varied on five levels. There were no significant (P = 0.05) differences between certified and measured concentrations in standard reference materials after the correcti…
Poor Physical Performance Predicts Future Onset of Depression in Elderly People: Progetto Veneto Anziani Longitudinal Study.
2016
Abstract Background. Reduced physical performance is predictive of deleterious outcomes in older adults. Data considering objective physical performance and incident depression are sparse. Objective. The objective of this study was to investigate during a 4-year study whether objective physical performance can predict incident depression among older adults who do not have depression at the baseline. Design. This was a longitudinal study. Methods. From 3,099 older people initially enrolled in the Progetto Veneto Anziani study, 970 participants without depression at the baseline were included (mean age = 72.5 years; 54.6% women). Physical performance measures included the Short Physical Perfo…
Observable flavor violation from spontaneous lepton number breaking
2022
We propose a simple model of spontaneous lepton number violation with potentially large flavor violating decays, including the possibility that majoron emitting decays, such as $\mu \to e \, J$, saturate the experimental bounds. In this model the majoron is a singlet-doublet admixture. It generates a type-I seesaw for neutrino masses and contains also a vector-like lepton. As a by-product, the model can explain the anomalous $(g-2)_{\mu}$ in parts of its parameter space, where one expects that the branching ratio of the Higgs to muons is changed with respect to Standard Model expectations. However, the explanation of the muon $g-2$ anomaly would lead to tension with recent astrophysical bou…
The Inverse Seesaw Family: Dirac And Majorana
2021
After developing a general criterion for deciding which neutrino mass models belong to the category of inverse seesaw models, we apply it to obtain the Dirac analogue of the canonical Majorana inverse seesaw model. We then generalize the inverse seesaw model and obtain a class of inverse seesaw mechanisms both for Majorana and Dirac neutrinos. We further show that many of the models have double or multiple suppressions coming from tiny symmetry breaking "$\mu$-terms". These models can be tested both in colliders and with the observation of lepton flavour violating processes.