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Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United Kingdom: A personality-based perspective on concerns and intention to self-isolate
Objectives
Public behaviour change is necessary to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVIDâ19). Based on the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) framework, this study presents an examination of individual differences in some relevant psychological factors.
Design
Crossâsectional psychometric.
Methods
UK respondents (N = 202) completed a personality questionnaire (RSTâPQ), measures of illness attitudes, concerns about the impact of coronavirus on health services and socioâeconomic infrastructures, personal safety, and likelihood of voluntary selfâisolation.
Results
Respondents most concerned were older, had negative illness attitudes, and scored higher on reward reactivity (RR), indicating the motivation to take positive approach action despite prevailing worry/anxiety. Personal safety concerns were highest in those with negative illness attitudes and higher fightâflightâfreeze system (FFFS, reflecting fear/avoidance) scores. Results suggest people are experiencing psychological conflict: between the urge to stay safe (FFFFârelated) and the desire to maintain a normal, pleasurable (RRârelated) life. Ways of ameliorating conflict may include maladaptive behaviours (panic buying), reflecting rewardârelated displacement activity. Intended selfâisolation related to FFFS, but also low behavioural inhibition system (related to anxiety) scores. Older people reported themselves less likely to selfâisolate.
Conclusions
Interventions need to consider individual differences in psychological factors in behaviour change, and we discuss relevant literature to inform policy makers and communicators
Coherence-Preserving Quantum Bits
Real quantum systems couple to their environment and lose their intrinsic
quantum nature through the process known as decoherence. Here we present a
method for minimizing decoherence by making it energetically unfavorable. We
present a Hamiltonian made up solely of two-body interactions between four
two-level systems (qubits) which has a two-fold degenerate ground state. This
degenerate ground state has the property that any decoherence process acting on
an individual physical qubit must supply energy from the bath to the system.
Quantum information can be encoded into the degeneracy of the ground state and
such coherence-preserving qubits will then be robust to local decoherence at
low bath temperatures. We show how this quantum information can be universally
manipulated and indicate how this approach may be applied to a quantum dot
quantum computer.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
Weak Gravitational Flexion
Flexion is the significant third-order weak gravitational lensing effect
responsible for the weakly skewed and arc-like appearance of lensed galaxies.
Here we demonstrate how flexion measurements can be used to measure galaxy halo
density profiles and large-scale structure on non-linear scales, via
galaxy-galaxy lensing, dark matter mapping and cosmic flexion correlation
functions. We describe the origin of gravitational flexion, and discuss its
four components, two of which are first described here. We also introduce an
efficient complex formalism for all orders of lensing distortion. We proceed to
examine the flexion predictions for galaxy-galaxy lensing, examining isothermal
sphere and Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) profiles and both circularly symmetric
and elliptical cases. We show that in combination with shear we can precisely
measure galaxy masses and NFW halo concentrations. We also show how flexion
measurements can be used to reconstruct mass maps in 2-D projection on the sky,
and in 3-D in combination with redshift data. Finally, we examine the
predictions for cosmic flexion, including convergence-flexion
cross-correlations, and find that the signal is an effective probe of structure
on non-linear scales.Comment: 17 pages, including 12 figures, submitted to MNRA
Sectoral Changes in the Labour Force over the Period 1961-1980 with Particular Reference to Public Sector and Services Employment. Special Article in Quarterly Economic Commentary, Winter 2015
A knowledge of the significant changes which have been taking place in the
sectoral composition of employment is fundamental to a proper understanding
of the recent evolution of the labour force. This paper traces the changes in the
numbers at work in broad sectors of the Irish economy over the period
1961-80. The basic information is given in Appendix I, Table A which
contains an annual sectoral subdivision under four broad headings (Agriculture,
Manufacturing, Building and Services); Tables 1 and lA following show
these data for selected years* in this period with a somewhat more detailed
sectoral subdivision, the second table giving absolute and relative employment
changes by sector for the 1961/1971 and 1971/1979 periods
A Tunable Echelle Imager
We describe and evaluate a new instrument design called a Tunable Echelle
Imager (TEI). In this instrument, the output from an imaging Fabry-Perot
interferometer is cross-dispersed by a grism in one direction and dispersed by
an echelle grating in the perpendicular direction. This forms a mosaic of
different narrow-band images of the same field on a detector. It offers a
distinct wavelength multiplex advantage over a traditional imaging Fabry-Perot
device.
Potential applications of the TEI include spectrophotometric imaging and
OH-suppressed imaging by rejection.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, accepted by PAS
Competitiveness Indices for Irish Manufactured Exports. Quarterly Economic Commentary Special Article, July 1981
This paper is devoted primarily to the construction of competitiveness
indices for Irish manufactured exports. Our principal motivation in
conducting such an exercise is the fact that no satisf a,ctory measures of
competitiveness have as yet been developed for Ireland despite which the
concept of competitiveness, and the problems assoicated with declining
competitiveness in particular, frequently figure in public discussions of
Ireland's economic performance. This concern is exemplified, for instance, by
the fact that it is a recurring theme in the Quarterly Bulletins and Annual
Reports of the Central Bank
Density mapping with weak lensing and phase information
The available probes of the large scale structure in the Universe have
distinct properties: galaxies are a high resolution but biased tracer of mass,
while weak lensing avoids such biases but, due to low signal-to-noise ratio,
has poor resolution. We investigate reconstructing the projected density field
using the complementarity of weak lensing and galaxy positions. We propose a
maximum-probability reconstruction of the 2D lensing convergence with a
likelihood term for shear data and a prior on the Fourier phases constructed
from the galaxy positions. By considering only the phases of the galaxy field,
we evade the unknown value of the bias and allow it to be calibrated by lensing
on a mode-by-mode basis. By applying this method to a realistic simulated
galaxy shear catalogue, we find that a weak prior on phases provides a good
quality reconstruction down to scales beyond l=1000, far into the noise domain
of the lensing signal alone.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, published in MNRA
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