Image processing and Quality Control for the first 10,000 brain imaging datasets from UK Biobank
F. Alfaro-Almagro, M. Jenkinson, N. Bangerter
et al.
UK Biobank is a large-scale prospective epidemiological study with all data accessible to researchers worldwide. It is currently in the process of bringing back 100,000 of the original participants for brain, heart and body MRI, carotid ultrasound and low-dose bone/fat x-ray. The brain imaging component covers 6 modalities (T1, T2 FLAIR, susceptibility weighted MRI, Resting fMRI, Task fMRI and Diffusion MRI). Raw and processed data from the first 10,000 imaged subjects has recently been released for general research access. To help convert this data into useful summary information we have developed an automated processing and QC (Quality Control) pipeline that is available for use by other researchers. In this paper we describe the pipeline in detail, following a brief overview of UK Biobank brain imaging and the acquisition protocol. We also describe several quantitative investigations carried out as part of the development of both the imaging protocol and the processing pipeline.
1401 sitasi
en
Computer Science, Medicine
hep-th
Yang-Hui He, Vishnu Jejjala, B. Nelson
We apply techniques in natural language processing, computational linguistics, and machine-learning to investigate papers in hep-th and four related sections of the arXiv: hep-ph, hep-lat, gr-qc, and math-ph. All of the titles of papers in each of these sections, from the inception of the arXiv until the end of 2017, are extracted and treated as a corpus which we use to train the neural network Word2Vec. A comparative study of common n-grams, linear syntactical identities, word cloud and word similarities is carried out. We find notable scientific and sociological differences between the fields. In conjunction with support vector machines, we also show that the syntactic structure of the titles in different sub-fields of high energy and mathematical physics are sufficiently different that a neural network can perform a binary classification of formal versus phenomenological sections with 87.1% accuracy, and can perform a finer five-fold classification across all sections with 65.1% accuracy.
382 sitasi
en
Computer Science, Physics
Pollen monitoring: minimum requirements and reproducibility of analysis
C. Galán, M. Smith, M. Thibaudon
et al.
Quantum cosmology as a hydrogen atom: discrete Λ and cyclic universes from Wheeler–DeWitt quantization
Dipayan Mukherjee, Harkirat Singh Sahota, S. Shankaranarayanan
Building upon our recently established correspondence between quantum cosmology and the hydrogen atom (Sahota et al 2025 arXiv:2505.16863 [gr-qc]), we investigate the specific sector of a negative cosmological constant ( Λ<0) in a flat FLRW Universe with dust. While the positive Λ sector (Sahota et al 2025 arXiv:2505.16863 [gr-qc]) yields a continuous spectrum and a single bounce, we show here that the negative Λ sector leads to a discrete spectrum of energy eigenvalues, effectively quantizing the cosmological constant. Within this dual description, the operator-ordering ambiguity parameter appears as the azimuthal quantum number of the hydrogen atom. A skewed Bohr correspondence emerges for the bound states, matching classical evolution at large volumes but deviating near the bounce. By constructing wave packets from these bound states, we demonstrate that the classical Big Bang and Big Crunch singularities are resolved, and the Universe oscillates between quantum bounces and classical turnaround points. The expectation values of the observables indicate a cyclic Universe—with vanishing Hubble parameter at turnarounds—undergoing quantum bounces. This exactly solvable model offers a tractable setting to explore quantum gravitational effects in cosmology. We analyze the properties of this cyclic Universe, contrasting its bound-state dynamics with the scattering states of the de Sitter case.
Quasinormal modes and greybody factors of black holes corrected by nonlinear electrodynamics
Jie Liang, Dong Liu, Z. Long
Non-minimal Einstein–Yang–Mills black holes: fundamental quasinormal mode and grey-body factors versus outburst of overtones
B. C. Lütfüoğlu
Recently, an exact black hole solution in non-minimal Einstein–Yang–Mills theory was obtained, and its quasinormal modes were subsequently analyzed using the JWKB approximation (Gogoi and Ponglertsakul in Eur. Phys. J. C 84:652, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-12946-9. arXiv:2402.06186 [gr-qc]). However, we demonstrate that this analysis lacks sufficient accuracy when studying modes with ℓ≤n\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\ell \le n$$\end{document}, where ℓ\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\ell $$\end{document} is the multipole number and n is the overtone number. To address this, we compute the quasinormal frequencies using the precise Leaver method. Our results show that while the fundamental mode deviates only slightly from the Schwarzschild value, the first few overtones exhibit significantly larger deviations, with the discrepancy growing rapidly with the overtone number. Moreover, beginning with the second overtone, we observe a striking phenomenon: the real part of the frequency tends to zero quickly as the non-minimal coupling constant increases. This combination of spectral stability in the fundamental mode and high sensitivity of the overtones suggests that the Yang–Mills contribution primarily deforms the metric in the near-horizon region, while the geometry quickly transitions back to a Schwarzschild-like form at larger radii. In addition, we compute the grey-body factors and confirm that they represent a more stable characteristic of the geometry, exhibiting a correspondence with quasinormal modes already at the first multipole. The Yang–Mills coupling enhances the grey-body factors, further increasing the transmission probability.
Long-lived quasinormal modes and gray-body factors of black holes and wormholes in dark matter inspired Weyl gravity
B. C. Lütfüoğlu
We calculate quasinormal modes and gray-body factors of a massive scalar field in the background of three compact objects in the Weyl gravity: Schwarzschild-like back holes, known as Mannheim–Kazanas solution, non-Schwrazschild-like black holes and traversable wormholes found recently in (Jizba and Mudruňka in Phys Rev D 110(12):124006, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.110.124006, arXiv:2409.08344 [gr-qc]). We show that the spectrum of the massive field is qualitatively different from massless o ne both in the frequency and time domains. While the mass term leads to much longer lifetime of the modes, the arbitrarily long-lived modes, known as quasi-resonances, are not achieved.
Long lived quasinormal modes in the effective quantum gravity
S. Bolokhov
Probing effective black hole deformations
S. Hohenegger
In recent works (M.D. Piano, S. Hohenegger, F. Sannino, Quantum black hole physics from the event horizon. Phys. Rev. D 109(2), 024045 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.024045. arXiv:2307.13489 [gr-qc], M.D. Piano, S. Hohenegger, F. Sannino, Effective metric descriptions of quantum black holes. Eur. Phys. J. C 84(12), 1273 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13609-5. arXiv:2403.12679 [gr-qc]), a framework has been developed to describe (quantum) deformed, spherically symmetric and static black holes in four dimensions. The key idea of this so-called Effective Metric Description (EMD) is to parametrise deformations of the classical Schwarzschild geometry by two functions that depend on a physical quantity and which are calculated in a self-consistent way as series expansions in the vicinity of the horizon. In this work we further strengthen this framework by first demonstrating that the corresponding series expansion coefficients can be completely and uniquely determined from measurements that are accessible for observers outside of the event horizon: we propose a Gedankenexperiment, consisting of probes following a free-falling trajectory that send signals to a stationary observer and show how an EMD can be constructed from suitable telemetric data. Furthermore, by linking the expansion coefficients of the EMD to the invariant eigenvalues of the energy momentum tensor, we determine a system of physical fields that provides an effective Einstein equation for the deformed black hole geometry. In the case of a simplified geometry and assuming that the metric deformations are small, we can write the leading order of the physical fields in a closed form in the metric functions. We illustrate our results at the example of the Hayward space-time.
Comment on “Quantum tunneling from Schwarzschild black hole in non-commutative gauge theory of gravity”
A. A. Araújo Filho, I. P. Lobo
The particle creation via quantum tunneling was recently calculated for the Schwarzschild non-commutative black hole solution in Ref. [Phys. Lett. B 848 (2024) 138335, e-Print: 2310.02445 [gr-qc]]. Nevertheless, it contains inconsistencies in the calculations that need to be properly corrected. In particular, the event horizon was incorrectly determined in that work, which affected all the subsequent calculations. Moreover, the same issue have been repeated elsewhere by the same authors in Refs. [1-4].
The European human biomonitoring platform - Design and implementation of a laboratory quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) programme for selected priority chemicals.
M. Esteban López, T. Göen, H. Mol
et al.
A fundamental objective of the human biomonitoring for Europe initiative (HBM4EU) is to progress toward comparable and robust exposure data for a wide variety of prioritized chemicals in human samples. A programme for Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) was designed in HBM4EU with the purpose of creating a network of European laboratories providing comparable analytical data of high quality. Two approaches were chosen for two sets of prioritized chemicals with different timelines: (i) Scheme 1, where interested candidate laboratories participated in multiple rounds of proficiency tests (ii) Scheme 2, where selected expert laboratories participated in three rounds of interlaboratory comparison investigations. In both cases, the results were used to identify laboratories capable of generating consistent and comparable results for sample analysis in the frame of HBM4EU. In total, 84 laboratories from 26 countries were invited to participate in Scheme 1 that covered up to 73 biomarkers from Hexamoll® DINCH, phthalates, bisphenols, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, halogenated flame retardants (HFRs), organophosporous flame retardants (OPFRs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), cadmium, chromium and aromatic amines. 74 of the participants were successful for at least one biomarker in Scheme 1. Scheme 2 involved 22 biomarkers and successful results were obtained by 2 expert laboratories for arsenic, 5 for acrylamide, 4 for mycotoxins, 2 for pesticides and 2 for UV-filters in skin care products. The QA/QC programme allowed the identification of major difficulties and needs in HBM analysis as well of gaining insight in the analytical capacities of European laboratories. Furthermore, it is the first step towards the establishment of a sustainable European network of HBM laboratories.
Dissemination and analysis of the quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) practices of LC–MS based untargeted metabolomics practitioners
Anne M. Evans, C. O’Donovan, M. Playdon
et al.
92 sitasi
en
Computer Science, Medicine
03 46 1 v 2 [ gr-q c ] 8 A pr 2 01 9 Covariant c-flation : a variational approach
R. Costa, R. R. Cuzinatto, Elisa G. M. Ferreira
et al.
Quantity is Nothing without Quality: Automated QA/QC for Streaming Environmental Sensor Data
John L. Campbell, L. Rustad, J. Porter
et al.
Induction of pPLT2-PLT2-GR in Quiescent Center (QC) cells
L. Santuari, R. Heidstra
La libre circulation des décodeurs est autorisée [CJUE, gr. ch., 4 oct. 2011, Football Association Premier League e.a. c/ QC Leisure et autres, C-403/08 et Karen Murphy c/ Media Protection Services, C-429/08]
Anne-Lise Sibony
Effect of analytical run length on quality-control (QC) performance and the QC planning process.
C. Parvin, A. Gronowski
45 sitasi
en
Computer Science, Medicine
Quality control for qualitative assays: quantitative QC procedure designed to assure analytical quality required for an ELISA of hepatitis B surface antigen.
G. A. Green, R. N. Carey, J. Westgard
et al.
Primordial magnetic seed field amplification by gravitational waves: comment on gr-qc/0503006
C. Tsagas
We consider the amplification of cosmological magnetic fields by gravitational waves as it was recently presented in [1]. That study confined to infinitely conductive environments, arguing that on spatially flat Friedmann backgrounds the gravito-magnetic interaction proceeds always as if the universe were a perfect conductor. We explain why this claim is not correct and then re-examine the Maxwell-Weyl coupling at the limit of ideal magnetohydrodynamics. We find that the scales of the main results of [1] were not properly assessed and that the incorrect scale assessment has compromised both the physical and the numerical results of the paper. This comment aims to clarify these issues on the one hand, while on the other it takes a closer look at the gauge-invariance and the nonlinearity of [1].
Ja n 20 02 CGPG-01 / 11-3 gr-qc / 0111067 Geometry of Generic Isolated Horizons
A. Ashtekar, C. Beetle, J. Lewandowski