125 research outputs found
Contributions to the radiogenic isotopic fingerprint of Tenerife wine from land, sea and air
We present preliminary results of a study to characterise the radiogenic isotopic fingerprint of wines across the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, focussing initially upon Sr. The isotopically juvenile nature of Tenerife rocks supports a hypothesis that all biological material grown on Tenerife should be distinct from most other regions on Earth in terms of Sr isotopes, and especially so from the radiogenic Iberian Peninsula. Pilot data largely support this view, yet we also observe clear evidence for an isotopically evolved component in Tenerife wines. In this contribution, we consider that the unique geography of the Canary Islands may help rationalise these observations. The Canaries are adjacent to the most important atmospheric dust source on Earth, the Saharan Desert, which is largely composed of radiogenic sources of Sr. Along with contributions to the Tenerife terroir from atmospheric dust, we also consider the role that sea spray during storm events may play. Should natural processes fail to explain the patterns we observe, anthropogenic mixing during wine-making using components sourced outside the archipelago is a possibility that must be considered, which has implications for consumer confidence and, by extension, the economy of Tenerife.publishe
Adiabatic Compression of Soliton Matter Waves
The evolution of atomic solitary waves in Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC)
under adiabatic changes of the atomic scattering length is investigated. The
variations of amplitude, width, and velocity of soliton are found for both
spatial and time adiabatic variations. The possibility to use these variations
to compress solitons up to very high local matter densities is shown both in
absence and in presence of a parabolic confining potential.Comment: to appear in J.Phys.
Movement representation strategies as a tool for educational innovation in physiotherapy students: a randomized single-blind controlled-pilot trial
Physiotherapy has a strictly theoretical body of knowledge, but for the most part, the physiotherapist’s learning is practical. The practical part is fundamental to acquire clinical skills that the physiotherapist will later use in professional practice. The main aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of movement representation strategies (MRS) in the improvement of manual skills of physiotherapy students as an educational innovation strategy. We randomly assigned 30 participants to an action observation practice (AOP), motor imagery practice (MIP), or sham observation (SO) group. A high velocity, low amplitude lumbar manipulation technique that is widely used in clinical physiotherapy practice was taught in one session. The primary outcomes were required time and test score. The secondary outcomes were perceived mental fatigue and perceived difficulty for learning. The outcomes were assessed preintervention and immediately after the intervention (postintervention). The main results showed that both AOP and MIP improved the total time required and the test score, as well as entailed less perceived difficulty for learning. However, both strategies showed a higher level of mental fatigue after the intervention, which was higher in the MIP group. Based on the results obtained, it seems that the application of MRS promotes greater learning of manual motor tasks in physiotherapy students and could be used as educational innovation strategies
Stochastic Resonance in a Dipole
We show that the dipole, a system usually proposed to model relaxation
phenomena, exhibits a maximum in the signal-to-noise ratio at a non-zero noise
level, thus indicating the appearance of stochastic resonance. The phenomenon
occurs in two different situations, i.e. when the minimum of the potential of
the dipole remains fixed in time and when it switches periodically between two
equilibrium points. We have also found that the signal-to-noise ratio has a
maximum for a certain value of the amplitude of the oscillating field.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 6 PostScript figures available upon request; to
appear in Phys. Rev.
The open future, bivalence and assertion
It is highly intuitive that the future is open and the past is closed—whereas it is unsettled whether there will be a fourth world war, it is settled that there was a first. Recently, it has become increasingly popular to claim that the intuitive openness of the future implies that contingent statements about the future, such as ‘there will be a sea battle tomorrow,’ are non-bivalent (neither true nor false). In this paper, we argue that the non-bivalence of future contingents is at odds with our pre-theoretic intuitions about the openness of the future. These are revealed by our pragmatic judgments concerning the correctness and incorrectness of assertions of future contingents. We argue that the pragmatic data together with a plausible account of assertion shows that in many cases we take future contingents to be true (or to be false), though we take the future to be open in relevant respects. It follows that appeals to intuition to support the non-bivalence of future contingents is untenable. Intuition favours bivalence
One-mode Bosonic Gaussian channels: a full weak-degradability classification
A complete degradability analysis of one-mode Gaussian Bosonic channels is
presented. We show that apart from the class of channels which are unitarily
equivalent to the channels with additive classical noise, these maps can be
characterized in terms of weak- and/or anti-degradability. Furthermore a new
set of channels which have null quantum capacity is identified. This is done by
exploiting the composition rules of one-mode Gaussian maps and the fact that
anti-degradable channels can not be used to transfer quantum information.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figure
Environmental Law, Disrupted by COVID-19
For over a year, the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about systemic racial injustice have highlighted the conflicts and opportunities currently faced by environmental law. Scientists uniformly predict that environmental degradation, notably climate change, will cause a rise in diseases, disproportionate suffering among communities already facing discrimination, and significant economic losses. In this Article, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative examine the legal system’s responses to these crises, with the goal of framing opportunities to reimagine environmental law. The Article is excerpted from their book Environmental Law, Disrupted, to be published by ELI Press later this year
PEP: first Herschel probe of dusty galaxy evolution up to z~3
We exploit the deepest existing far-infrared (FIR) data obtained so far by
Herschel at 100 and 160 um in the GOODS-N, as part of the PACS Evolutionary
Probe (PEP) survey, to derive for the first time the evolution of the
rest-frame 60-um, 90-um, and total IR luminosity functions (LFs) of galaxies
and AGNs from z=0 to unprecedented high redshifts (z~2-3). The PEP LFs were
computed using the 1/Vmax method. The FIR sources were classified by means of a
detailed broad- band SED-fitting analysis and spectral characterisation. Based
on the best-fit model results, k-correction and total IR (8-1000 um) luminosity
were obtained for each source. LFs (monochromatic and total) were then derived
for various IR populations separately in different redshift bins and compared
to backward evolution model predictions. We detect strong evolution in the LF
to at least z~2. Objects with SEDs similar to local spiral galaxies are the
major contributors to the star formation density (SFD) at z< 0.3, then, as
redshift increases, moderate SF galaxies - most likely containing a
low-luminosity AGN - start dominating up to z ~= 1.5. At >1.5 the SFD is
dominated by the contributions of starburst galaxies. In agreement with
previous findings, the comoving IR LD derived from our data evolves
approximately as (1 + z)^(3.8+/-0.3) up to z~1, there being some evidence of
flattening up to z~2.Comment: Accepted for publication in the A&A Herschel first results Special
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