The Iliad’s big swoon: a case of innovation within the epic tradition

In book 5 of the Iliad Sarpedon suffers so greatly from a wound that his ‘‘ψυχή leaves him’. Rather than dying, however, Sarpedon lives to fight another day. This paper investigates the phrase τὸν δὲ λίπε ψυχή in extant archaic Greek poetry to gain a sense of its traditional referentiality and better assess the meaning of Sarpedon’s swoon. Finding that all other instances of the ψυχή leaving the body signify death, it suggests that the Iliad exploits a traditional unit of utterance to flag up the importance of Sarpedon to this version of the Troy story

Roughness of Sandpile Surfaces

We study the surface roughness of prototype models displaying self-organized criticality (SOC) and their noncritical variants in one dimension. For SOC systems, we find that two seemingly equivalent definitions of surface roughness yields different asymptotic scaling exponents. Using approximate analytical arguments and extensive numerical studies we conclude that this ambiguity is due to the special scaling properties of the nonlinear steady state surface. We also find that there is no such ambiguity for non-SOC models, although there may be intermediate crossovers to different roughness values. Such crossovers need to be distinguished from the true asymptotic behaviour, as in the case of a noncritical disordered sandpile model studied in [10].Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

National Ignition Facility frequency converter development

A preliminary error budget for the third harmonic converter for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser driver has been developed using a root-sum-square-accumulation of error sources. Such a budget sets an upper bound on the allowable magnitude of the various effects that reduce conversion efficiency. Development efforts on crystal mounting technology and crystal quality studies are discussed

The influence of academic examinations on energy and nutrient intake in male university students.

BACKGROUND: Taking examinations is central to student experience at University and may cause psychological stress. Although stress is recognised to impact on food intake, the effects of undertaking examinations on students' dietary intake have not been well characterised. The purpose of this study was to assess how students' energy and nutrient intake may alter during examination periods. METHODS: The study design was a within-subject comparison of students' energy and nutrient intake during an examination period contrasted with that outside an examination period (baseline). A total of 20 male students from the University of Sheffield completed an automated photographic 4-d dietary record alongside four 24-h recalls in each time period. Daily energy and nutrient intake was estimated for each student by time period and change in energy and nutrient intake calculated. Intakes at baseline were compared to UK dietary recommendations. Cluster analysis categorised students according to their change in energy intake between baseline and the examination period. Non-parametric statistical tests identified differences by cluster. RESULTS: Baseline intakes did not meet recommendations for energy, non-milk extrinsic sugars, non-starch polysaccharide and sodium. Three defined clusters of students were identified: Cluster D who decreased daily energy intake by 12.06 MJ (n = 5), Cluster S who had similar energy intakes (n = 13) and Cluster I who substantially increased energy intake by 6.37 MJ (n = 2) between baseline and examination period. There were statistically significant differences (all p < 0.05) in change in intake of protein, carbohydrate, calcium and sodium between clusters. Cluster D recorded greater energy, carbohydrate and protein intakes than Cluster I at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of students were dietary resilient. Students who demonstrated hypophagia in the examination period had a high energy and nutrient intake at baseline, conversely those who showed hyperphagia had a low energy and nutrient intake. These patterns require confirmation in studies including women, but if confirmed, there is need to address some students' poor food choice especially during examinations

Thermodynamic Potential for Superfluid 3He in Aerogel

We present a free energy functional for superfluid 3He in the presence of homogeneously distributed impurity disorder which extends the Ginzburg-Landau free energy functional to all temperatures. We use the new free energy functional to calculate the thermodynamic potential, entropy, heat capacity and density of states for the B-phase of superfluid 3He in homogeneous, isotropic aerogel.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Spectral properties of zero temperature dynamics in a model of a compacting granular column

The compacting of a column of grains has been studied using a one-dimensional Ising model with long range directed interactions in which down and up spins represent orientations of the grain having or not having an associated void. When the column is not shaken (zero 'temperature') the motion becomes highly constrained and under most circumstances we find that the generator of the stochastic dynamics assumes an unusual form: many eigenvalues become degenerate, but the associated multi-dimensional invariant spaces have but a single eigenvector. There is no spectral expansion and a Jordan form must be used. Many properties of the dynamics are established here analytically; some are not. General issues associated with the Jordan form are also taken up.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, 3 table

Surface and capillary transitions in an associating binary mixture model

We investigate the phase diagram of a two-component associating fluid mixture in the presence of selectively adsorbing substrates. The mixture is characterized by a bulk phase diagram which displays peculiar features such as closed loops of immiscibility. The presence of the substrates may interfere the physical mechanism involved in the appearance of these phase diagrams, leading to an enhanced tendency to phase separate below the lower critical solution point. Three different cases are considered: a planar solid surface in contact with a bulk fluid, while the other two represent two models of porous systems, namely a slit and an array on infinitely long parallel cylinders. We confirm that surface transitions, as well as capillary transitions for a large area/volume ratio, are stabilized in the one-phase region. Applicability of our results to experiments reported in the literature is discussed.Comment: 12 two-column pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review E; corrected versio

Relationship between cortisol and physical performance in older persons

Objective: Hypercortisolism is associated with muscle weakness. This study examines the relationship between cortisol and physical performance in older persons. Design/patients: The study was conducted within the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), an ongoing cohort study in a population-based sample of healthy older persons in the Netherlands. Data from the second (1995/1996) and fourth (2001/2002) cycle were used pertaining to 1172 (65-88 years) and 884 (65-94 years) men and women, respectively. Measurements: Physical performance was measured by adding up scores on the chair stands, tandem stand and walk test (range 0-12). In the second cycle serum total and calculated free cortisol were assessed; in the fourth cycle evening salivary cortisol was assessed. Regression analysis (stratified for sex, adjusted for age, body mass index, alcohol use, physical activity and region) was performed to examine the cross-sectional relationship between cortisol and physical performance. Results: Women with higher calculated free cortisol scored less well on physical performance (b = -0.28 per SD higher cortisol, P = 0.016), which was mainly explained by poorer performance on the tandem stand (OR = 1.32 for a lower score per SD higher cortisol, P = 0.003). Men with higher salivary cortisol scored less well on physical performance (b = -0.90 in the highest vs. the lowest quartile, P = 0.008), which was mainly explained by poorer performance on the chair stands and walk test (OR = 1.88, P = 0.020 and OR = 1.81, P = 0.027, respectively, in the highest vs. the lowest quartile). Conclusion: Physical performance is negatively associated with high cortisol levels in older persons. © 2007 The Authors

Childhood IQ and cardiovascular disease in adulthood: prospective observational study linking the Scottish Mental Survey 1932 and the Midspan studies

This study investigated the influence of childhood IQ on the relationships between risk factors and cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke in adulthood. Participants were from the Midspan prospective cohort studies which were conducted on adults in Scotland in the 1970s. Data on risk factors were collected from a questionnaire and at a screening examination, and participants were followed up for 25 years for hospital admissions and mortality. 938 Midspan participants were successfully matched with their age 11 IQ from the Scottish Mental Survey 1932, in which 1921-born children attending schools in Scotland took a cognitive ability test. Childhood IQ was negatively correlated with diastolic and systolic blood pressure, and positively correlated with height and respiratory function in adulthood. For each of CVD, CHD and stroke, defined as either a hospital admission or death, there was an increased relative rate per standard deviation decrease (15 points) in childhood IQ of 1.11 (95% confidence interval 1.01-1.23), 1.16 (1.03-1.32) and 1.10 (0.88-1.36) respectively. With events divided into those first occurring before and those first occurring after the age of 65, the relationships between childhood IQ and CVD, CHD and stroke were only seen before age 65 and not after age 65. Blood pressure, height, respiratory function and smoking were associated with CVD events. Relationships were stronger in the early compared to the later period for smoking and FEV1, and stronger in the later compared to the earlier period for blood pressure. Adjustment for childhood IQ had small attenuating effects on the risk factor-CVD relationship before age 65 and no effects after age 65. Adjustment for risk factors attenuated the childhood IQ-CVD relationship by a small amount before age 65. Childhood IQ was associated with CVD risk factors and events and can be considered an important new risk factor