Probing the gluon plasma with charm balance functions

Recent theoretical explanations for how hydrodynamic-like flow can build up quickly in small collision systems (hydrodynamization) has led to a microscopic picture of flow building up in a gluon-dominated phase before chemical equilibrium between quarks and gluons has been attained. The goal of this contribution to Offshell-2021 is to explore consequence of assuming a long-lived gluon-dominated phase, which we shall denote a gluon plasma (GP). As these consequences are naturally enhanced in a large systems, we assume and explore the extreme scenario in which a GP would be created in AA collisions and exist for significant time before the formation of a chemically-equilibrated quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The GP and its formation would be impossible to probe with light-quark hadrons, which are first produced later in this scenario. As charm quarks are produced early in the collision, they can circumvent the limitations of light quarks and we propose charm balance functions as an effective tool to test this idea and constrain the dynamics of the GP.

Real-time object detection technology in railway operations

Development of new technology to enhance train operability, in particular during manual driving by real-time object detection on track, is one of the rising trends in the railway industry. The function of object detection can provide train operators with reminder alerts whenever there is an object detected close to a train, e.g. a defined distance from the train. In this paper, a two-stage vision-based method is proposed to achieve this goal. At first, the Targets Generation Stage focuses on extracting all potential targets by identifying the centre points of targets. Meanwhile, the Targets Reconfirmation Stage is further adopted to re-analyse the potential targets from the previous stage to filter out incorrect potential targets in the output. The experiment and evaluation result shows that the proposed method achieved an Average Precision (AP) of 0.876 and 0.526 respectively under typical scenario sub-groups and extreme scenario sub-groups of the data set collected from a real railway environment at the methodological level. Furthermore, at the application level, high performance with the False Alarm Rate (FAR) of 0.01% and Missed Detection Rate (MDR) of 0.94%, which is capable of practical application, was achieved during the operation in the Tsuen Wan Line (TWL) in Hong Kong.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of domiciliary topical sevoflurane for painful leg ulcers

Objectives The general anesthetic sevoflurane is being repurposed as a topical analgesic for painful chronic wounds. We conducted a Bayesian cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) comparing the addition of domiciliary topical sevoflurane to conventional analgesics (SEVOFLURANE, n = 38) versus conventional analgesics alone (CONVENTIONAL, n = 26) for the treatment of nonrevascularizable painful leg ulcers in an outpatient Pain Clinic of a Spanish tertiary hospital. Methods We used real-world data collected from charts to conduct this CEA from a public healthcare perspective and with a one-year time horizon. Costs of analgesics, visits and admissions were considered, expressed in €2016. Analgesic effectiveness was measured with SPID (Sum of Pain Intensity Difference). A Bayesian regression model was constructed, including “treatment” and baseline characteristics for patients (“arterial hypertension”) and ulcers (“duration”, “number”, “depth”, “pain”) as covariates. The findings were summarized as a cost-effectiveness plane and a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve. One-way sensitivity analyses, a re-analysis excluding those patients who died or suffered from leg amputation, and an extreme scenario analysis were conducted to reduce uncertainty. Results Compared to CONVENTIONAL, SEVOFLURANE was associated with a 46% reduction in costs, and the mean incremental effectiveness (28.15±3.70 effectiveness units) was favorable to SEVOFLURANE. The estimated probability for SEVOFLURANE being dominant was 99%. The regression model showed that costs were barely influenced by any covariate, whereas effectiveness was noticeably influenced by “treatment”. All sensitivity analyses showed the robustness of the model, even in the extreme scenario analysis against SEVOFLURANE. Conclusions SEVOFLURANE was dominant over CONVENTIONAL as it was less expensive and much more effective.

Maxmaladaptation, occupant behaviour and energy performance gap

Occupant behaviour is a key factor in the energy consumption and performance of a building. However, it is difficult to model and simulate hence there is often a mismatch between the predicted and actual performance of a new or refurbished buildings and surprising variations in the consumptions of similar and identical buildings. Although environmental conditions affect people significantly, there are also non-environmental factors including how well employers manage people and how well dwelling occupants understand their controls. Rarely are these factors considered in building performance, especially commercial buildings. Poor management can lead to varying degrees of occupant maladaptation. Maladaptation taken here to mean behaviour patterns that are detrimental to the optimal functioning of the building. This paper proposes a novel concept for designers that examines the worst possible energy performance gap (“extreme” scenario testing) where the theoretical occupants do their best to make the building consume as much energy as possible. The novel concept is called “maxmaladaptation”. By considering maxmaladaptation, designers can attempt to reduce it, so reducing the energy gap. This paper briefly reviews the energy gap and social psychology and its contribution to understanding energy consumption with some examples, underlying the concept of maxmaladaptation. Practical application: Building energy performance gaps often exist because predicted design consumptions are often less than actual consumptions due to the occupants not behaving as designers expect. Using the concept of maxmaladaptation, an extreme scenario of maximum energy use by occupants, designers can design buildings to avoid unexpected energy consumption. Often the influences of occupant behaviour are not considered in detail. Social psychology gives an insight into non-environmental factors that can cause maladaptation, a constituent of maxmaladaptation.

TEMPO Allegro: Liquid Catholyte Redoxmers for Nonaqueous Redox Flow Batteries

Redoxmers are organic active molecules storing energy in redox flow batteries (RFBs). Liquid redoxmers represent an extreme scenario where maximum concentration may be achieved by minimizing supporting solvents, thus maximizing...

Ewolucja polityki Federacji Rosyjskiej wobec Białorusi w kontekście wysiłków integracyjnych w ramach Państwa Związkowego

Despite expectations, 2019 did not bring a significant breakthrough in the existing model of Russian-Belarusian relations. The extreme scenario – Russia’s seizure of Belarus in the course of the process of ‘deeper integration’ is highly improbable. This is primarily because the Kremlin is not significantly determined to change the existing legal and international status of Belarus. Moreover, Belarus is determined to defend the bilateral relations with Russia formed in the mid-1990s and does not accept the Kremlin’s proposals regarding ‘deeper integration’, which mean limiting its sovereignty. Belarus is determined to defend itself against Russia’s demands, which paradoxically increases the level of social legitimacy of Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule. Russia has a wide set of negative tools to influence Minsk (energy blackmail, destabilisation of the political and socio-economic situation), but it has no positive tools. There is also a noticeable lack of internal coherence in the Russian power camp with respect to the future of Belarus. Russia is interested in changing the current model of the bilateral relations in terms of limiting financial losses resulting from the generous subsidy of the Belarusian economy and Minsk’s disregard for existing obligations in the area of customs and taxation. However, Moscow intends to achieve this goal neither by seizing Belarus nor by destabilising the Belarusian political regime. The issue of ‘deeper integration’ of both countries was, from the very beginning, clearly related to other problems that cast a shadow on Russian-Belarusian relations. Therefore, it should be assumed that Russia’s intention was to use a ‘tax maneuver’ to force Belarus to negotiate in the sphere of finance, economy and compliance with Russian customs and tax standards. The most likely scenario for the development of Russian-Belarusian relations assumes maintaining the existing model of relations but, from now on, Belarus will be deprived of a significant part of the ‘integration rent’.

Accurate Driver Detection Exploiting Invariant Characteristics of Smartphone Sensors

Distracted driving jeopardizes the safety of the driver and others. Numerous solutions have been proposed to prevent distracted driving, but the number of related accidents has not decreased. Such a deficiency comes from fragile system designs where drivers are detected exploiting sensory features from strictly controlled vehicle-riding actions and unreliable driving events. We propose a system called ADDICT (Accurate Driver Detection exploiting Invariant Characteristics of smarTphone sensors), which identifies the driver utilizing the inconsistency between gyroscope and magnetometer dynamics and the interplay between electromagnetic field emissions and engine startup vibrations. These features are invariantly observable regardless of smartphone positions and vehicle-riding actions. To evaluate the feasibility of ADDICT, we conducted extensive experiments with four participants and three different vehicles by varying vehicle-riding scenarios. Our evaluation results demonstrated that ADDICT identifies the driver’s smartphone with 89.1% average accuracy for all scenarios and >85% under the extreme scenario, at a marginal cost of battery consumption.