Search results for "Functions"
showing 10 items of 1066 documents
Non-crossing parametric quantile functions: an application to extreme temperatures
2019
Quantile regression can be used to obtain a non-parametric estimate of a conditional quantile function. The presence of quantile crossing, however, leads to an invalid distribution of the response and makes it difficult to use the fitted model for prediction. In this work, we show that crossing can be alleviated by modelling the quantile function parametrically. We then describe an algorithm for constrained optimisation that can be used to estimate parametric quantile functions with the noncrossing property. We investigate climate change by modelling the long-term trends of extreme temperatures in the Arctic Circle.
Paraphyly of the Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus) suggested from cytochrome b sequences
2002
The phylogenetic relationships of the Blue Tit-Azure Tit assemblage (genus Parus; Aves: Passeriformes) were studied using mitochondrial DNA sequences of 24 specimens representing seven subspecies from Eurasia and North Africa. Previous work based on comparative morphological and acoustic data suggested a division of the Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus) into two species. Our analyses clearly indicate that the Blue Tit represents a paraphyletic assemblage, including a European/Middle Asian clade that is the sister group to the Azure Tit (Parus cyanus) and a North African clade. The North African clade (teneriffae subspecies group) is a sister group to the European Blue Tit/Azure Tit clade. We sugge…
Molecular phylogeny of Old World swifts (Aves: Apodiformes, Apodidae, Apus and Tachymarptis) based on mitochondrial and nuclear markers.
2011
We provide a molecular phylogeny for Old World swifts of genera Apus and Tachymarptis (tribe Apodini) based on a taxon-complete sampling at the species level. Phylogenetic reconstructions were based on two mitochondrial (cytochrome b, 12S rRNA) and three nuclear markers (introns of fibrinogen and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase plus anonymous marker 12884) while the myoglobin intron 2 did not show any intergeneric variation or phylogenetic signal among the target taxa at all. In contrast to previous hypotheses, the two genera Apus and Tachymarptis were shown as reciprocally monophyletic in all reconstructions. Apus was consistently divided into three major clades: (1) East Asian cl…
A novel family of tRNA-derived SINEs in the colugo and two new retrotransposable markers separating dermopterans from primates.
2003
Abstract Short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) provide a near homoplasy free and copious source of molecular evolutionary markers with precisely defined character polarity. Used as molecular cladistic markers in presence/absence analyses, they represent a powerful complement to phylogenetic reconstructions that are based on sequence comparisons on the level of nucleotide substitutions. Recent sequence comparisons of large data sets incorporating a broad eutherian taxonomic sample have led to considerations of the different primate infraorders to constitute a paraphyletic group. Statistically significant support against the monophyly of primates has been obtained by clustering the flyi…
Mindfulness Training for Children with ADHD and Their Parents: A Randomized Control Trial
2021
Objective: The aim of this randomized control trial is to analyze the efficacy of a Mindfulness-based program (MYmind) in improving ADHD symptoms, associated problems, executive functions, and family functioning. Method: The sample was composed of 30 children (9–14 years old) with an ADHD diagnosis and their parents. Participants were randomized into two groups, the MYmind group ( n = 15) and a wait-list group ( n = 15). Participants were assessed in three time periods: pre-, post-intervention, and at 6-month follow-up. Results: After the program, parents reported a decrease in parenting stress and improvements in parenting styles. Six months after the intervention, parents reported signifi…
Boundary-layer effects in wedges of piezoelectric laminates
2005
An approach to investigate boundary-layer effects in wedges of piezoelectric laminated structures is presented with the aim of ascertaining the electromechanical response characteristics. The wedge layer behavior is described in terms of generalized stress functions, which lead to a model consisting of a set of three coupled partial differential equations. The strength of the solution singularity is determined by solving the eigenvalue problem associated with the resolving system. The solution of the model is obtained by an eigenfunction expansion method coupled with a boundary collocation technique. Correspondingly, the singularity amplitude is assessed by introducing and calculating the g…
Identification of Distributed Systems with Logical Interaction Structure
2012
This paper focuses on the structure identification problem for a class of networked systems, where the interaction among components or agents is described through logical maps. In particular, agents are heterogeneous cooperating systems, i.e. they may have different individual dynamics and different interaction rules depending on input events. While we assume that the individual agents' dynamics are known, each agent has partial knowledge of the logical map encoding the interaction of another agent with its neighbors. Based on the so-called algebraic normal form for binary functions, we present a technique by which the network structure described by a logical function can be dynamically est…
Ballistic protons in incoherent exclusive vector meson production as a measure of rare parton fluctuations at an Electron-Ion Collider
2014
We argue that the proton multiplicities measured in Roman pot detectors at an electron ion collider can be used to determine centrality classes in incoherent diffractive scattering. Incoherent diffraction probes the fluctuations in the interaction strengths of multi-parton Fock states in the nuclear wavefunctions. In particular, the saturation scale that characterizes this multi-parton dynamics is significantly larger in central events relative to minimum bias events. As an application, we study the centrality dependence of incoherent diffractive vector meson production. We identify an observable which is simultaneously very sensitive to centrality triggered parton fluctuations and insensit…
Fluid dynamics with saturated minijet initial conditions in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
2014
Using next-to-leading order perturbative QCD and a conjecture of saturation to suppress the production of low-energy partons, we calculate the initial energy densities and formation times for the dissipative fluid dynamical evolution of the quark-gluon plasma produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. We identify the framework uncertainties and demonstrate the predictive power of the approach by a good global agreement with the measured centrality dependence of charged particle multiplicities, transverse momentum spectra and elliptic flow simultaneously for the Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC and Au+Au at RHIC. In particular, the shear viscosity in the different phases of QCD matter is…
Probing the small- x nuclear gluon distributions with isolated photons at forward rapidities in p+Pb collisions at the LHC
2014
Inclusive direct photon production in p+Pb collisions at the LHC is studied within the NLO perturbative QCD. Our aim is to quantify the dominant $x$ regions probed at different rapidities and to identify the best conditions for testing the nuclear gluon parton distribution functions (nPDFs) at small $x$. A comparison to the inclusive pion production reveals that from these two processes the photons carry more sensitivity to the small-$x$ partons and that this sensitivity can be further increased by imposing an isolation cut for the photon events. The details of the isolation criteria, however, seem to make only a small difference to the studied $x$ sensitivity and have practically no effect…