Environmental Exposure and Biophilic Influence on Prosocial Sentiments

Scientific consensus states human civilization has had a profoundly negative effect on the environment, especially in the last two centuries. In addition to this, there an increasing concern for the psychological well-being of many members of our society. There is a theory known as biophilia that states humans have a natural affinity for things that are alive and in nature. Exposure to the environment has numerous benefits, including psychological, physiological, spiritual, and ethical improvements. This paper is a theoretical approach studying a potential positive relationship between the triggering of biophilia and prosocial behaviors. It is hypothesized that the existence of biophilia does promote prosocial sentiments and this should be taken advantage of for the improved well-being of humans as well as the rest of the planet

Environmental Exposure and Biophilic Influence on Prosocial Sentiments

Scientific consensus states human civilization has had a profoundly negative effect on the environment, especially in the last two centuries. In addition to this, there an increasing concern for the psychological well-being of many members of our society. There is a theory known as biophilia that states humans have a natural affinity for things that are alive and in nature. Exposure to the environment has numerous benefits, including psychological, physiological, spiritual, and ethical improvements. This paper is a theoretical approach studying a potential positive relationship between the triggering of biophilia and prosocial behaviors. It is hypothesized that the existence of biophilia does promote prosocial sentiments and this should be taken advantage of for the improved well-being of humans as well as the rest of the planet

Interpreting Torsional Oscillator Measurements: Effect of Shear Modulus and Supersolidity

The torsional oscillator is the chief instrument for investigating supersolidity in solid 4He. These oscillators can be sensitive to the elastic properties of the solid helium, which show anomalies over the same range of temperature in which the supersolid phenomenon appears. In this report we present a detailed study of the influence of the elastic properties of the solid on the periods of torsional oscillators for the various designs that have been commonly employed in supersolid measurements. We show how to design an oscillator which measures supersolidity, and how to design one which predominantly measures elasticity. We describe the use of multiple frequency TOs for the separation of the elastic and supersolid phenomena.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, prepared for JLTP SS201

Many-body physics in the radio frequency spectrum of lattice bosons

We calculate the radio-frequency spectrum of a trapped cloud of cold bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. Using random phase and local density approximations we produce both trap averaged and spatially resolved spectra, identifying simple features in the spectra that reveal information about both superfluidity and correlations. Our approach is exact in the deep Mott limit and in the deep superfluid when the hopping rates for the two internal spin states are equal. It contains final state interactions, obeys the Ward identities (and the associated conservation laws), and satisfies the $f$-sum rule. Motivated by earlier work by Sun, Lannert, and Vishveshwara [Phys. Rev. A \textbf{79}, 043422 (2009)], we also discuss the features which arise in a spin-dependent optical lattice.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, 13 subfigure

Pseudomorphic growth of InAs on misoriented GaAs for extending quantum cascade laser wavelength

The authors have studied the impact of epilayer strain on the deposition of InAs/GaAs on (100) and (111)B with 2 degrees offset toward 2-1-1 surfaces. Consequences of a 7% lattice mismatch between these orientations in the form of three-dimensional growth are less apparent for (111)B with 2 degrees offset toward 2-1-1 surfaces compared to (100). By exploring a range of molecular beam epitaxy process parameters for InAs/GaAs growth and utilizing scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy to evaluate the quality of these strained layers, the authors develop empirical models that describe the influence of the process conditions in regards to surface roughness with \u3e92% accuracy. The smoothest InAs/GaAs samples demonstrated average surface roughness of 0.08 nm for 10 um-squre areas, albeit at very low deposition rates. The authors have found the most important process conditions to be substrate temperature and deposition rate, leading us to believe that controlling diffusion length may be the key to reducing defects in severely strained structures. InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum cascade laser structures were also produced on (111)B with 2 degrees offset toward 2-1-1 to take advantage of the piezoelectric effect, and the modified laser transitions due to these effects were observed

Valley Method Versus Instanton-Induced Effective Lagrangean Up to (E/Esphaleron)8/3(E/E_{\rm sphaleron})^{8/3}

We compare the two most popular approaches to the problem of instanton-antiinstanton interaction at high energies - the valley method and the effective-Lagrangian approach - and use them to calculate the next-to-next-to-leading term in the expansion of ``holy grail'' function determining the cross section with baryon number violation in the Standard Model.Comment: 46 pages, LaTeX, UFTP 323/1992, and PSU/TH/11

On the Relationship between Large Order Graphs and Instantons for the Double Well Oscillator

The double well oscillator is used as a QCD-like model for studying the relationship between large order graphs and the instanton-antiinstanton solution. We derive an equation for the perturbative coefficients of the ground state energy when the number of 3 and/or 4-vertices is fixed and large. These coefficients are determined in terms of an exact``bounce'' solution. When the number of 4-vertices is analytically continued to be near the negative of half the number of 3-vertices the bounce solution approaches the instanton-antiinstanton solution and detremines leading Borel singularity.Comment: 26 pages, Latex, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Health Worker Compliance with a 'Test And Treat' Malaria Case Management Protocol in Papua New Guinea

The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Department of Health introduced a 'test and treat' malaria case management protocol in 2011. This study assesses health worker compliance with the test and treat protocol on a wide range of measures, examines self-reported barriers to health worker compliance as well as health worker attitudes towards the test and treat protocol. Data were collected by cross-sectional survey conducted in randomly selected primary health care facilities in 2012 and repeated in 2014. The combined survey data included passive observation of current or recently febrile patients (N = 771) and interviewer administered questionnaires completed with health workers (N = 265). Across the two surveys, 77.6% of patients were tested for malaria infection by rapid diagnostic test (RDT) or microscopy, 65.6% of confirmed malaria cases were prescribed the correct antimalarials and 15.3% of febrile patients who tested negative for malaria infection were incorrectly prescribed an antimalarial. Overall compliance with a strictly defined test and treat protocol was 62.8%. A reluctance to test current/recently febrile patients for malaria infection by RDT or microscopy in the absence of acute malaria symptoms, reserving recommended antimalarials for confirmed malaria cases only and choosing to clinically diagnose a malaria infection, despite a negative RDT result were the most frequently reported barriers to protocol compliance. Attitudinal support for the test and treat protocol, as assessed by a nine-item measure, improved across time. In conclusion, health worker compliance with the full test and treat malaria protocol requires improvement in PNG and additional health worker support will likely be required to achieve this. The broader evidence base would suggest any such support should be delivered over a longer period of time, be multi-dimensional and multi-modal

Optimizing the search for resources by sharing information: Mongolian gazelles as a case study

We investigate the relationship between communication and search efficiency in a biological context by proposing a model of Brownian searchers with long-range pairwise interactions. After a general study of the properties of the model, we show an application to the particular case of acoustic communication among Mongolian gazelles, for which data are available, searching for good habitat areas. Using Monte Carlo simulations and density equations, our results point out that the search is optimal (i.e., the mean first hitting time among searchers is minimum) at intermediate scales of communication, showing that both an excess and a lack of information may worsen it. © 2013 American Physical Society.R. M.-G. is supported by the JAEPredoc program of CSIC. R. M.-G. and C. L. acknowledge support from MICINN (Spain) and FEDER (EU) through Grant No. FIS2007-60327 FISICOS. J. M. C. and T. M. were supported by a U.S. National Science Foundation grant (ABI 1062411).Peer Reviewe