301 research outputs found

    Why did Donders, after describing pseudotorsion, deny the existence of ocular counterrolling together with Ruete, Volkmann, von Graefe and von Helmholtz, until Javal reconfirmed its existence?

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    After the rapid spread of strabismus surgery by total tenotomy, which had been proposed by the orthopedist Louis Stromeyer from Göttingen in 1838 and performed by the plastic surgeon Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach on October 26th and by the ophthalmologist Florent Cunier on October 29th, 1839, brilliant researchers studied the physiology of eye movements, resulting in the laws by Franciscus Cornelis Donders on pseudotorsion in tertiary positions of gaze and by Johann Benedict Listing that each eye position can be reached by rotation about an axis perpendicular to the primary and the new position of gaze. John Hunter had first described ocular counterrolling (OCR) with head tilt in 1786. The anatomist Alexander Friedrich von Hueck inferred from anatomical studies, however, that up to 28.6° OCR would be possible onhead-tilt to right or left shoulder in 1838, and estimated his own OCR seen in a mirror at approximately 25°. Donders, Christian Georg Theodor Ruete, Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann, Albrecht von Graefe and Hermann von Helmholtz subsequently denied the existence of OCR for many years and thought that only pseudotorsion existed. Louis Emile Javal had myopia and astigmatism, and he re-established the existence of OCR in 1867 when he noticed that, on head tilt to either shoulder, the axis of astigmatism of his eyes no longer coincided with the axis of astigmatism of his glasses

    On the construction of pseudo-hermitian quantum system with a pre-determined metric in the Hilbert space

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    A class of pseudo-hermitian quantum system with an explicit form of the positive-definite metric in the Hilbert space is presented. The general method involves a realization of the basic canonical commutation relations defining the quantum system in terms of operators those are hermitian with respect to a pre-determined positive definite metric in the Hilbert space. Appropriate combinations of these operators result in a large number of pseudo-hermitian quantum systems admitting entirely real spectra and unitary time evolution. The examples considered include simple harmonic oscillators with complex angular frequencies, Stark(Zeeman) effect with complex electric(magnetic) field, non-hermitian general quadratic form of N boson(fermion) operators, symmetric and asymmetric XXZ spin-chain in complex magnetic field, non-hermitian Haldane-Shastry spin-chain and Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model.Comment: 29 pages, revtex, minor changes, version to appear in Journal of Physics A(v3

    Metric operators for non-Hermitian quadratic su(2) Hamiltonians

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    A class of non-Hermitian quadratic su(2) Hamiltonians having an anti-linear symmetry is constructed. This is achieved by analysing the possible symmetries of such systems in terms of automorphisms of the algebra. In fact, different realisations for this type of symmetry are obtained, including the natural occurrence of charge conjugation together with parity and time reversal. Once specified the underlying anti-linear symmetry of the Hamiltonian, the former, if unbroken, leads to a purely real spectrum and the latter can be mapped to a Hermitian counterpart by, amongst other possibilities, a similarity transformation. Here, Lie-algebraic methods which were used to investigate the generalised Swanson Hamiltonian are employed to identify the class of quadratic Hamiltonians that allow for such a mapping to the Hermitian counterpart. Whereas for the linear su(2) system every Hamiltonian of this type can be mapped to a Hermitian counterpart by a transformation which is itself an exponential of a linear combination of su(2) generators, the situation is more complicated for quadratic Hamiltonians. Therefore, the possibility of more elaborate similarity transformations, including quadratic exponents, is also explored in detail. The existence of finite dimensional representations for the su(2) Hamiltonian, as opposed to the su(1,1) studied before, allows for comparison with explicit diagonalisation results for finite matrices. Finally, the similarity transformations constructed are compared with the analogue of Swanson's method for exact diagonalsation of the problem, establishing a simple relation between both approaches.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figure

    Search for CP Violation in the Decay Z -> b (b bar) g

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    About three million hadronic decays of the Z collected by ALEPH in the years 1991-1994 are used to search for anomalous CP violation beyond the Standard Model in the decay Z -> b \bar{b} g. The study is performed by analyzing angular correlations between the two quarks and the gluon in three-jet events and by measuring the differential two-jet rate. No signal of CP violation is found. For the combinations of anomalous CP violating couplings, h^b=h^AbgVbh^VbgAb{\hat{h}}_b = {\hat{h}}_{Ab}g_{Vb}-{\hat{h}}_{Vb}g_{Ab} and hb=h^Vb2+h^Ab2h^{\ast}_b = \sqrt{\hat{h}_{Vb}^{2}+\hat{h}_{Ab}^{2}}, limits of \hat{h}_b < 0.59and and h^{\ast}_{b} < 3.02$ are given at 95\% CL.Comment: 8 pages, 1 postscript figure, uses here.sty, epsfig.st

    Diverse University Students Across the United States Reveal Promising Pathways to Hunter Recruitment and Retention

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    Declining participation in hunting, especially among young adult hunters, affects the ability of state and federal agencies to achieve goals for wildlife management and decreases revenue for conservation. For wildlife agencies hoping to engage diverse audiences in hunter recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) efforts, university settings provide unique advantages: they contain millions of young adults who are developmentally primed to explore new activities, and they cultivate a social atmosphere where new identities can flourish. From 2018 to 2020, we surveyed 17,203 undergraduate students at public universities across 22 states in the United States to explore R3 potential on college campuses and assess key demographic, social, and cognitive correlates of past and intended future hunting behavior. After weighting to account for demographic differences between our sample and the larger student population, 29% of students across all states had hunted in the past. Students with previous hunting experience were likely to be white, male, from rural areas or hunting families, and pursuing degrees related to natural resources. When we grouped students into 1 of 4 categories with respect to hunting (i.e., non-hunters [50%], potential hunters [22%], active hunters [26%], and lapsed hunters [3%]), comparisons revealed differences based on demographic attributes, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Compared to active hunters, potential hunters were more likely to be females or racial and ethnic minorities, and less likely to experience social support for hunting. Potential hunters valued game meat and altruistic reasons for hunting, but they faced unique constraints due to lack of hunting knowledge and skills. Findings provide insights for marketing and programming designed to achieve R3 objectives with a focus on university students. © 2021 The Wildlife Society

    A Limited Role for Suppression in the Central Field of Individuals with Strabismic Amblyopia.

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    yesBackground: Although their eyes are pointing in different directions, people with long-standing strabismic amblyopia typically do not experience double-vision or indeed any visual symptoms arising from their condition. It is generally believed that the phenomenon of suppression plays a major role in dealing with the consequences of amblyopia and strabismus, by preventing images from the weaker/deviating eye from reaching conscious awareness. Suppression is thus a highly sophisticated coping mechanism. Although suppression has been studied for over 100 years the literature is equivocal in relation to the extent of the retina that is suppressed, though the method used to investigate suppression is crucial to the outcome. There is growing evidence that some measurement methods lead to artefactual claims that suppression exists when it does not. Methodology/Results: Here we present the results of an experiment conducted with a new method to examine the prevalence, depth and extent of suppression in ten individuals with strabismic amblyopia. Seven subjects (70%) showed no evidence whatsoever for suppression and in the three individuals who did (30%), the depth and extent of suppression was small. Conclusions: Suppression may play a much smaller role in dealing with the negative consequences of strabismic amblyopia than previously thought. Whereas recent claims of this nature have been made only in those with micro-strabismus our results show extremely limited evidence for suppression across the central visual field in strabismic amblyopes more generally. Instead of suppressing the image from the weaker/deviating eye, we suggest the visual system of individuals with strabismic amblyopia may act to maximise the possibilities for binocular co-operation. This is consistent with recent evidence from strabismic and amblyopic individuals that their binocular mechanisms are intact, and that, just as in visual normals, performance with two eyes is better than with the better eye alone in these individuals

    A study of single and multi-photon production in e+ee^+e^- collisions at centre-of mass energies of 130 and 136 GeV

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    Measurement of the W mass in e+ee^+e^- collisions at production threshold

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    In June 1996, the LEP centre-of-mass energy was raised to 161 GeV. Pair production of W bosons in e+e- collisions was observed for the first time by the LEP experiments. An integrated luminosity of 11 pb-1 was recorded in the ALEPH detector, in which WW candidate events were observed. In 6 events both Ws decay leptonically. In 16 events, one W decays leptonically, the other into hadrons. In the channel where both Ws decay into hadrons, a signal was separated from the large background by means of several multi-variate analyses. The W pair cross-section is measured to be sigma_WW = 4.23 +-0.73 (stat.) +- 0.19 (syst.) pb From this cross-section, the W mass is derived within the framework of the Standard Model: MW = 80.14 +- 0.34 (stat.) +- 0.09 (syst.) +- 0.03 (LEP~energy) GeV/c2

    Production of orbitally excited charm mesons in semileptonic B decays

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