The flight model of the SPIRE instrument underwent several test campaigns in a test facility at t... more The flight model of the SPIRE instrument underwent several test campaigns in a test facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the UK. A final dark campaign, completed in March 2007, provided an environment virtually free from optical radiation. This allowed re-determining the fundamental model parameters of the NTD spider web bolometer detector arrays in the new environment. The tests reported in this paper produced a fairly homogeneous dataset to investigate white noise and 1/f noise at different bias voltages, bias frequencies, and bath temperatures. We find that the white noise performance is in excellent agreement with the model predictions, once we correct the low frequency signal variations that are due to temperature fluctuations of the thermal bath at about 300 mK. The temperature of the thermal bath (detector array base plate) is measured by thermistor pixels that are part of the bolometer arrays. A residual 1/f component beyond those variations is hardly detected. This unexpected stability is very welcome and will positively impact photometer scan maps, the most popular observing mode of SPIRE.
Submillimeter galaxies are dusty, high-redshift galaxies with extreme luminosities (>1012 L⊙ ) an... more Submillimeter galaxies are dusty, high-redshift galaxies with extreme luminosities (>1012 L⊙ ) and implied star formation rates (100-1000 M⊙ per year). Characterizing submillimeter galaxies is crucial to understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Cumulatively, surveys to date have detected hundreds of these galaxies. Bolocam is a millimeter-wavelength bolometer-array camera designed for mapping large fields. This survey uses Bolocam to detect submillimeter galaxies at the bright end of the luminosity function. Due to the strong negative K-correction at 1.1 mm, Bolocam's detection sensitivity is approximately uniform for galaxies of a given intrinsic luminosity for redshifts 1 < z < 10. We present preliminary results from our 1.1 mm galaxy survey made with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory during January and May 2003. We achieved a sensitivity of 24 mJy s1/2 and integrated down to an rms noise level of approximately 1 mJy over 400 arcmin2 in the Lockman Hole. The data have been processed using our IDL-based analysis pipeline, which removes atmospheric noise and provides diagnostic quantities. Monte Carlo simulations have been implemented to quantify uncertainties, systematic effects, completeness, and source confusion. This research is funded in part by grants from NASA (NGT5-50384) and NSF (AST-0206158, AST-0098737).
ABSTRACT 1. Rawana, J. S., Flett, G. L., McPhie, M. L., Nguyen, H.N.T., &amp; Norwood, S. J. ... more ABSTRACT 1. Rawana, J. S., Flett, G. L., McPhie, M. L., Nguyen, H.N.T., &amp; Norwood, S. J. (2014). Developmental trends in emotion regulation: A systematic review with implications for community mental health. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 33(1): 31-41. doi: 10.7870/cjcmh-2014-004
The upcoming Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments BICEP2/Keck and SPIDER will be using p... more The upcoming Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments BICEP2/Keck and SPIDER will be using planar arrays of polarization sensitive antenna-coupled TES bolometers, operating at frequencies between 96 GHz and 220 GHz. At 145 GHz each array consists of 64 polarimeters (128 TES sensors) and four of these arrays are assembled together to make a focal plane. The detector arrays are integrated with a time-domain SQUID multiplexer developed at NIST and read out using the Multi-Channel Electronics (MCE) developed at the University of British Columbia. We present our progress in characterizing focal plane arrays and SQUID multiplexed readout for BICEP2 and SPIDER, describing testing procedures and giving a summary of dark measurements results, as well as preliminary optical measurements.
Objectives. We implemented an intervention to reduce drug use in an urban commune in northern Vie... more Objectives. We implemented an intervention to reduce drug use in an urban commune in northern Vietnam. Methods. We encouraged the intervention commune to accept responsibility for developing their own intervention strategies based on a community mobilization model used in southern, rural China. We selected a comparison commune, which had demographic characteristics and a drug history similar to the intervention commune. The 2-year incidence of new drug users was estimated retrospectively in the intervention and comparison communes between baseline (2003) and follow-up (2009). Results. Increased incidence of new (noninjecting) drug users between 2003 and 2009 in the intervention commune was lower than that in the comparison commune, and these participants expressed more positive attitudes toward local authority and people with drug use and HIV/AIDS. Increased condom use during last intercourse with female sex workers and with female casual partners was observed in the intervention commune. HIV prevalence and positive opioid tests decreased more in the intervention commune. Conclusions. Our results suggested that the community mobilization had a positive influence in the intervention commune.
Illicit trade carries the potential to magnify existing tobacco-related health care costs through... more Illicit trade carries the potential to magnify existing tobacco-related health care costs through increased availability of untaxed and inexpensive cigarettes. What is known with respect to the magnitude of illicit trade for Vietnam is produced primarily by the industry, and methodologies are typically opaque. Independent assessment of the illicit cigarette trade in Vietnam is vital to tobacco control policy. This paper measures the magnitude of illicit cigarette trade for Vietnam between 1998 and 2010 using two methods, discrepancies between legitimate domestic cigarette sales and domestic tobacco consumption estimated from surveys, and trade discrepancies as recorded by Vietnam and trade partners. The results indicate that Vietnam likely experienced net smuggling in during the period studied. With the inclusion of adjustments for survey respondent under-reporting, inward illicit trade likely occurred in three of the four years for which surveys were available. Discrepancies in trade records indicate that the value of smuggled cigarettes into Vietnam ranges from $100 million to $300 million between 2000 and 2010 and that these cigarettes primarily originate in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, and Australia. Notable differences in trends over time exist between the two methods, but by comparison, the industry estimates consistently place the magnitude of illicit trade at the upper bounds of what this study shows. The unavailability of annual, survey-based estimates of consumption may obscure the true, annual trend over time. Second, as surveys changed over time, estimates relying on them may be inconsistent with one another. Finally, these two methods measure different components of illicit trade, specifically consumption of illicit cigarettes regardless of origin and smuggling of cigarettes into a particular market. However, absent a gold standard, comparisons of different approaches to illicit trade measurement serve efforts to refine and improve measurement approaches and estimates.
The Experimental Probe of Inflationary Cosmology - Intermediate Mission (EPIC-IM) is a concept fo... more The Experimental Probe of Inflationary Cosmology - Intermediate Mission (EPIC-IM) is a concept for the NASA Einstein Inflation Probe satellite. EPIC-IM is designed to characterize the polarization properties of the Cosmic Microwave Background to search for the B-mode polarization signal characteristic of gravitational waves generated during the epoch of Inflation in the early universe. EPIC-IM employs a large focal plane with 11,000 detectors operating in 9 wavelength bands to provide 30 times higher sensitivity than the currently operating Planck satellite. The optical design is based on a wide-field 1.4 m crossed-Dragone telescope, an aperture that allows not only comprehensive measurements of Inflationary B-mode polarization, but also measurements of the E-mode and lensing polarization signals to cosmological limits, as well as all-sky maps of Galactic polarization with unmatched sensitivity and angular resolution. The optics are critical to measuring these extremely faint polarization signals, and any design must meet demanding requirements on systematic error control. We describe the EPIC-IM crossed Dragone optical design, its polarization properties, and far-sidelobe response.
The (thermal) Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect is a decrement in the brightness of the cosmic micro... more The (thermal) Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect is a decrement in the brightness of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as seen through galaxy clusters at mm wavelengths and an increment at sub-mm wavelengths which passes though a null at 217 GHz when the scatttering plasma is cold. To correctly describe the SZ distortion when relativisitic electrons are present or the cluster is moving with respect to the CMB requires the addition of correction terms usually called the `non-thermal' and `kinetic' SZ effects. These corrections change both the shape and null frequency of the SZ spectral distortion and should be detectable using suitable instruments. We have measured the SZ effect in the bright galaxy cluster RXJ 1347-1145 using Z-Spec, a spectro-photometer which has uniquely high spectral resolution and continuous coverage between 180 and 300 GHz. This paper presents preliminary results of this measurement, cluster parameters derived from it, and the outlook for future measurements of the SZ effect using mm-wave spectro-photometers.
Objective. To determine whether investigations of heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE) in ran... more Objective. To determine whether investigations of heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE) in randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) are prespecified and whether authors' interpretations of their analyses are consistent with the objective evidence. Data Sources/Study Setting. We reviewed 87 RCTs that reported formal tests for statistical interaction or heterogeneity (HTE analyses), derived from a probability sample of 541 articles. Data Collection/Extraction. We recorded reasons for performing HTE analysis; an objective classification of evidence for HTE (termed ''clinicostatistical divergence'' [CSD]); and authors' interpretations of findings. Authors' interpretations, compared with CSD, were coded as understated, overstated, or adequately stated. Principle Findings. Fifty-three RCTs (61 percent) claimed prespecified covariates for HTE analyses. Trials showed strong (6), moderate (11), weak (25), or negligible (16) evidence for CSD (29 could not be classified due to inadequate information). Authors stated that evidence for HTE was sufficient to support differential treatment in subgroups (10); warranted more research (31); was absent (21); or provided no interpretation (25). HTE was overstated in 22 trials, adequately stated in 57 trials, and understated in 8 trials. Conclusions. Inconsistencies in performance and reporting may limit the potential of HTE analysis as a tool for identifying HTE and individualizing care in diverse populations. Recommendations for future studies on the reporting and interpretation of HTE analyses are provided.
Microautoradiography combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (MAR-FISH) was used to scre... more Microautoradiography combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (MAR-FISH) was used to screen for potential polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) in full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) plants. Clone library analyses and application of MAR-FISH using newly designed probes revealed that small rods related to uncultured Halomonas within the gammaproteobacterial family Halomonadaceae were actively involved in uptake of orthophosphate. Although deeply branched in the Gammaproteobacteria, they were not targeted by the gammaproteobacterial probe (GAM42a). A part of them were also not targeted with the general bacterial probes (EUBmix). They could take up short-chain fatty acids (e.g. acetate and propionate) and ethanol under both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. Polyhydroxyalkanoate storage was observed under anaerobic conditions. There was no indication of a denitrifying capability. A survey of the occurrence of these Halomonas-PAOs in 23 full-scale EBPR plants revealed that they made up 0.5-5.7% of all bacteria in the plants, and were often in higher abundance than the well-described PAOs &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;. This indicates a potentially important role for these uncultured Halomonas bacteria in the EBPR process in full-scale plants and we propose to name them…
The diversity of the putative polyphosphate-accumulating genus Tetrasphaera in wastewater treatme... more The diversity of the putative polyphosphate-accumulating genus Tetrasphaera in wastewater treatment systems with enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) was investigated using the full-cycle rRNA approach combined with microautoradiography and histochemical staining. 16S rRNA actinobacterial gene sequences were retrieved from different full-scale EBPR plants, and the sequences belonging to the genus Tetrasphaera (family Intrasporangiaceae) were found to form three clades. Quantitative FISH analyses of the communities in five full-scale EBPR plants using 10 new oligonucleotide probes were carried out. The results showed that the probe-defined Tetrasphaera displayed different morphologies and constituted up to 30% of the total biomass. It was shown that active uptake of orthophosphate and formation of polyphosphate took place in most of the probedefined Tetrasphaera populations. However, aerobic uptake of orthophosphate only took place after uptake of certain carbon sources under anaerobic conditions and these were more diverse than hitherto assumed: amino acids, glucose, and for some also acetate. Tetrasphaera seemed to occupy a slightly different ecological niche compared with 'Candidatus Accumulibacter' contributing to a functional redundancy and stability of the EBPR process.
Trust and reputation for web services emerges as an important research issue in web service selec... more Trust and reputation for web services emerges as an important research issue in web service selection. Current web service trust models either do not integrate different important sources of trust (subjective and objective for example), or do not focus on satisfying different user&amp;#39;s requirements about different quality of service (QoS) attributes such as performance, availability etc. In this paper, we
Precisely identifying entities is essential for semantic annotation. This paper addresses the pro... more Precisely identifying entities is essential for semantic annotation. This paper addresses the problem of named entity disambiguation that aims at mapping entity mentions in a text onto the right entities in Wikipedia. The aim of this paper is to explore and evaluate various combinations of features extracted from Wikipedia and texts for the disambiguation task, based on a statistical ranking model of candidate entities. Through experiments, we show which combinations of features are the best choices for disambiguation.
Named entity disambiguation has been one of the main challenges to research in Information Extrac... more Named entity disambiguation has been one of the main challenges to research in Information Extraction and development of Semantic Web. Therefore, it has attracted much research effort, with various methods introduced for different domains, scopes, and purposes. In this paper, we propose a new approach that is not limited to some entity classes and does not require wellstructured texts. The novelty is that it exploits relations between co-occurring entities in a text as defined in a knowledge base for disambiguation. Combined with class weighting and coreference resolution, our knowledge-based method outperforms KIM system in this problem. Implemented algorithms and conducted experiments for the method are presented and discussed.
... used as anaphora. If George W. Bush and Bush are found to be coreferent, then it is likel... more ... used as anaphora. If George W. Bush and Bush are found to be coreferent, then it is likely that Bush refers to the president of the United States instead of Barbara Bush, Laura Bush, or Samuel D. Bush, for instance. Our work ...
The rapidly increasing use of large-scale data on the Web makes named entity disambiguation becom... more The rapidly increasing use of large-scale data on the Web makes named entity disambiguation become one of the main challenges to research in Information Extraction and development of Semantic Web. This paper presents a novel method for detecting proper names in a text and linking them to the right entities in Wikipedia. The method is hybrid, containing two phases of which the first one utilizes some heuristics and patterns to narrow down the candidates, and the second one employs the vector space model to rank the ambiguous cases to choose the right candidate. The novelty is that the disambiguation process is incremental and includes several rounds that filter the candidates, by exploiting previously identified entities and extending the text by those entity attributes every time they are successfully resolved in a round. We test the performance of the proposed method in disambiguation of names of people, locations and organizations in texts of the news domain. The experiment results show that our approach achieves high accuracy and can be used to construct a robust named entity disambiguation system.
The flight model of the SPIRE instrument underwent several test campaigns in a test facility at t... more The flight model of the SPIRE instrument underwent several test campaigns in a test facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in the UK. A final dark campaign, completed in March 2007, provided an environment virtually free from optical radiation. This allowed re-determining the fundamental model parameters of the NTD spider web bolometer detector arrays in the new environment. The tests reported in this paper produced a fairly homogeneous dataset to investigate white noise and 1/f noise at different bias voltages, bias frequencies, and bath temperatures. We find that the white noise performance is in excellent agreement with the model predictions, once we correct the low frequency signal variations that are due to temperature fluctuations of the thermal bath at about 300 mK. The temperature of the thermal bath (detector array base plate) is measured by thermistor pixels that are part of the bolometer arrays. A residual 1/f component beyond those variations is hardly detected. This unexpected stability is very welcome and will positively impact photometer scan maps, the most popular observing mode of SPIRE.
Submillimeter galaxies are dusty, high-redshift galaxies with extreme luminosities (>1012 L⊙ ) an... more Submillimeter galaxies are dusty, high-redshift galaxies with extreme luminosities (>1012 L⊙ ) and implied star formation rates (100-1000 M⊙ per year). Characterizing submillimeter galaxies is crucial to understanding galaxy formation and evolution. Cumulatively, surveys to date have detected hundreds of these galaxies. Bolocam is a millimeter-wavelength bolometer-array camera designed for mapping large fields. This survey uses Bolocam to detect submillimeter galaxies at the bright end of the luminosity function. Due to the strong negative K-correction at 1.1 mm, Bolocam's detection sensitivity is approximately uniform for galaxies of a given intrinsic luminosity for redshifts 1 < z < 10. We present preliminary results from our 1.1 mm galaxy survey made with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory during January and May 2003. We achieved a sensitivity of 24 mJy s1/2 and integrated down to an rms noise level of approximately 1 mJy over 400 arcmin2 in the Lockman Hole. The data have been processed using our IDL-based analysis pipeline, which removes atmospheric noise and provides diagnostic quantities. Monte Carlo simulations have been implemented to quantify uncertainties, systematic effects, completeness, and source confusion. This research is funded in part by grants from NASA (NGT5-50384) and NSF (AST-0206158, AST-0098737).
ABSTRACT 1. Rawana, J. S., Flett, G. L., McPhie, M. L., Nguyen, H.N.T., &amp; Norwood, S. J. ... more ABSTRACT 1. Rawana, J. S., Flett, G. L., McPhie, M. L., Nguyen, H.N.T., &amp; Norwood, S. J. (2014). Developmental trends in emotion regulation: A systematic review with implications for community mental health. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 33(1): 31-41. doi: 10.7870/cjcmh-2014-004
The upcoming Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments BICEP2/Keck and SPIDER will be using p... more The upcoming Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments BICEP2/Keck and SPIDER will be using planar arrays of polarization sensitive antenna-coupled TES bolometers, operating at frequencies between 96 GHz and 220 GHz. At 145 GHz each array consists of 64 polarimeters (128 TES sensors) and four of these arrays are assembled together to make a focal plane. The detector arrays are integrated with a time-domain SQUID multiplexer developed at NIST and read out using the Multi-Channel Electronics (MCE) developed at the University of British Columbia. We present our progress in characterizing focal plane arrays and SQUID multiplexed readout for BICEP2 and SPIDER, describing testing procedures and giving a summary of dark measurements results, as well as preliminary optical measurements.
Objectives. We implemented an intervention to reduce drug use in an urban commune in northern Vie... more Objectives. We implemented an intervention to reduce drug use in an urban commune in northern Vietnam. Methods. We encouraged the intervention commune to accept responsibility for developing their own intervention strategies based on a community mobilization model used in southern, rural China. We selected a comparison commune, which had demographic characteristics and a drug history similar to the intervention commune. The 2-year incidence of new drug users was estimated retrospectively in the intervention and comparison communes between baseline (2003) and follow-up (2009). Results. Increased incidence of new (noninjecting) drug users between 2003 and 2009 in the intervention commune was lower than that in the comparison commune, and these participants expressed more positive attitudes toward local authority and people with drug use and HIV/AIDS. Increased condom use during last intercourse with female sex workers and with female casual partners was observed in the intervention commune. HIV prevalence and positive opioid tests decreased more in the intervention commune. Conclusions. Our results suggested that the community mobilization had a positive influence in the intervention commune.
Illicit trade carries the potential to magnify existing tobacco-related health care costs through... more Illicit trade carries the potential to magnify existing tobacco-related health care costs through increased availability of untaxed and inexpensive cigarettes. What is known with respect to the magnitude of illicit trade for Vietnam is produced primarily by the industry, and methodologies are typically opaque. Independent assessment of the illicit cigarette trade in Vietnam is vital to tobacco control policy. This paper measures the magnitude of illicit cigarette trade for Vietnam between 1998 and 2010 using two methods, discrepancies between legitimate domestic cigarette sales and domestic tobacco consumption estimated from surveys, and trade discrepancies as recorded by Vietnam and trade partners. The results indicate that Vietnam likely experienced net smuggling in during the period studied. With the inclusion of adjustments for survey respondent under-reporting, inward illicit trade likely occurred in three of the four years for which surveys were available. Discrepancies in trade records indicate that the value of smuggled cigarettes into Vietnam ranges from $100 million to $300 million between 2000 and 2010 and that these cigarettes primarily originate in Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Malaysia, and Australia. Notable differences in trends over time exist between the two methods, but by comparison, the industry estimates consistently place the magnitude of illicit trade at the upper bounds of what this study shows. The unavailability of annual, survey-based estimates of consumption may obscure the true, annual trend over time. Second, as surveys changed over time, estimates relying on them may be inconsistent with one another. Finally, these two methods measure different components of illicit trade, specifically consumption of illicit cigarettes regardless of origin and smuggling of cigarettes into a particular market. However, absent a gold standard, comparisons of different approaches to illicit trade measurement serve efforts to refine and improve measurement approaches and estimates.
The Experimental Probe of Inflationary Cosmology - Intermediate Mission (EPIC-IM) is a concept fo... more The Experimental Probe of Inflationary Cosmology - Intermediate Mission (EPIC-IM) is a concept for the NASA Einstein Inflation Probe satellite. EPIC-IM is designed to characterize the polarization properties of the Cosmic Microwave Background to search for the B-mode polarization signal characteristic of gravitational waves generated during the epoch of Inflation in the early universe. EPIC-IM employs a large focal plane with 11,000 detectors operating in 9 wavelength bands to provide 30 times higher sensitivity than the currently operating Planck satellite. The optical design is based on a wide-field 1.4 m crossed-Dragone telescope, an aperture that allows not only comprehensive measurements of Inflationary B-mode polarization, but also measurements of the E-mode and lensing polarization signals to cosmological limits, as well as all-sky maps of Galactic polarization with unmatched sensitivity and angular resolution. The optics are critical to measuring these extremely faint polarization signals, and any design must meet demanding requirements on systematic error control. We describe the EPIC-IM crossed Dragone optical design, its polarization properties, and far-sidelobe response.
The (thermal) Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect is a decrement in the brightness of the cosmic micro... more The (thermal) Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect is a decrement in the brightness of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as seen through galaxy clusters at mm wavelengths and an increment at sub-mm wavelengths which passes though a null at 217 GHz when the scatttering plasma is cold. To correctly describe the SZ distortion when relativisitic electrons are present or the cluster is moving with respect to the CMB requires the addition of correction terms usually called the `non-thermal' and `kinetic' SZ effects. These corrections change both the shape and null frequency of the SZ spectral distortion and should be detectable using suitable instruments. We have measured the SZ effect in the bright galaxy cluster RXJ 1347-1145 using Z-Spec, a spectro-photometer which has uniquely high spectral resolution and continuous coverage between 180 and 300 GHz. This paper presents preliminary results of this measurement, cluster parameters derived from it, and the outlook for future measurements of the SZ effect using mm-wave spectro-photometers.
Objective. To determine whether investigations of heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE) in ran... more Objective. To determine whether investigations of heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE) in randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) are prespecified and whether authors' interpretations of their analyses are consistent with the objective evidence. Data Sources/Study Setting. We reviewed 87 RCTs that reported formal tests for statistical interaction or heterogeneity (HTE analyses), derived from a probability sample of 541 articles. Data Collection/Extraction. We recorded reasons for performing HTE analysis; an objective classification of evidence for HTE (termed ''clinicostatistical divergence'' [CSD]); and authors' interpretations of findings. Authors' interpretations, compared with CSD, were coded as understated, overstated, or adequately stated. Principle Findings. Fifty-three RCTs (61 percent) claimed prespecified covariates for HTE analyses. Trials showed strong (6), moderate (11), weak (25), or negligible (16) evidence for CSD (29 could not be classified due to inadequate information). Authors stated that evidence for HTE was sufficient to support differential treatment in subgroups (10); warranted more research (31); was absent (21); or provided no interpretation (25). HTE was overstated in 22 trials, adequately stated in 57 trials, and understated in 8 trials. Conclusions. Inconsistencies in performance and reporting may limit the potential of HTE analysis as a tool for identifying HTE and individualizing care in diverse populations. Recommendations for future studies on the reporting and interpretation of HTE analyses are provided.
Microautoradiography combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (MAR-FISH) was used to scre... more Microautoradiography combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (MAR-FISH) was used to screen for potential polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) in full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) plants. Clone library analyses and application of MAR-FISH using newly designed probes revealed that small rods related to uncultured Halomonas within the gammaproteobacterial family Halomonadaceae were actively involved in uptake of orthophosphate. Although deeply branched in the Gammaproteobacteria, they were not targeted by the gammaproteobacterial probe (GAM42a). A part of them were also not targeted with the general bacterial probes (EUBmix). They could take up short-chain fatty acids (e.g. acetate and propionate) and ethanol under both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. Polyhydroxyalkanoate storage was observed under anaerobic conditions. There was no indication of a denitrifying capability. A survey of the occurrence of these Halomonas-PAOs in 23 full-scale EBPR plants revealed that they made up 0.5-5.7% of all bacteria in the plants, and were often in higher abundance than the well-described PAOs &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;. This indicates a potentially important role for these uncultured Halomonas bacteria in the EBPR process in full-scale plants and we propose to name them…
The diversity of the putative polyphosphate-accumulating genus Tetrasphaera in wastewater treatme... more The diversity of the putative polyphosphate-accumulating genus Tetrasphaera in wastewater treatment systems with enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) was investigated using the full-cycle rRNA approach combined with microautoradiography and histochemical staining. 16S rRNA actinobacterial gene sequences were retrieved from different full-scale EBPR plants, and the sequences belonging to the genus Tetrasphaera (family Intrasporangiaceae) were found to form three clades. Quantitative FISH analyses of the communities in five full-scale EBPR plants using 10 new oligonucleotide probes were carried out. The results showed that the probe-defined Tetrasphaera displayed different morphologies and constituted up to 30% of the total biomass. It was shown that active uptake of orthophosphate and formation of polyphosphate took place in most of the probedefined Tetrasphaera populations. However, aerobic uptake of orthophosphate only took place after uptake of certain carbon sources under anaerobic conditions and these were more diverse than hitherto assumed: amino acids, glucose, and for some also acetate. Tetrasphaera seemed to occupy a slightly different ecological niche compared with 'Candidatus Accumulibacter' contributing to a functional redundancy and stability of the EBPR process.
Trust and reputation for web services emerges as an important research issue in web service selec... more Trust and reputation for web services emerges as an important research issue in web service selection. Current web service trust models either do not integrate different important sources of trust (subjective and objective for example), or do not focus on satisfying different user&amp;#39;s requirements about different quality of service (QoS) attributes such as performance, availability etc. In this paper, we
Precisely identifying entities is essential for semantic annotation. This paper addresses the pro... more Precisely identifying entities is essential for semantic annotation. This paper addresses the problem of named entity disambiguation that aims at mapping entity mentions in a text onto the right entities in Wikipedia. The aim of this paper is to explore and evaluate various combinations of features extracted from Wikipedia and texts for the disambiguation task, based on a statistical ranking model of candidate entities. Through experiments, we show which combinations of features are the best choices for disambiguation.
Named entity disambiguation has been one of the main challenges to research in Information Extrac... more Named entity disambiguation has been one of the main challenges to research in Information Extraction and development of Semantic Web. Therefore, it has attracted much research effort, with various methods introduced for different domains, scopes, and purposes. In this paper, we propose a new approach that is not limited to some entity classes and does not require wellstructured texts. The novelty is that it exploits relations between co-occurring entities in a text as defined in a knowledge base for disambiguation. Combined with class weighting and coreference resolution, our knowledge-based method outperforms KIM system in this problem. Implemented algorithms and conducted experiments for the method are presented and discussed.
... used as anaphora. If George W. Bush and Bush are found to be coreferent, then it is likel... more ... used as anaphora. If George W. Bush and Bush are found to be coreferent, then it is likely that Bush refers to the president of the United States instead of Barbara Bush, Laura Bush, or Samuel D. Bush, for instance. Our work ...
The rapidly increasing use of large-scale data on the Web makes named entity disambiguation becom... more The rapidly increasing use of large-scale data on the Web makes named entity disambiguation become one of the main challenges to research in Information Extraction and development of Semantic Web. This paper presents a novel method for detecting proper names in a text and linking them to the right entities in Wikipedia. The method is hybrid, containing two phases of which the first one utilizes some heuristics and patterns to narrow down the candidates, and the second one employs the vector space model to rank the ambiguous cases to choose the right candidate. The novelty is that the disambiguation process is incremental and includes several rounds that filter the candidates, by exploiting previously identified entities and extending the text by those entity attributes every time they are successfully resolved in a round. We test the performance of the proposed method in disambiguation of names of people, locations and organizations in texts of the news domain. The experiment results show that our approach achieves high accuracy and can be used to construct a robust named entity disambiguation system.
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