29,949 research outputs found
Field support, data analysis and associated research for the acoustic grenade sounding program
Temperature and horizontal winds in the 30 to 90 km altitude range of the upper atmosphere, were determined by acoustic grenade soundings conducted at Wallops Island, Virginia and Kourou, French Guiana. Field support provided at these locations included deployment of the large area microphone system, supervision, maintenance and operation of sound ranging stations; and coordination of activities. Data analysis efforts included the analysis of field data to determine upper atmospheric meteorological parameters. Profiles for upper atmospheric temperature, wind and density are provided in plots and tables for each of the acoustic grenade soundings conducted during the contract period. Research efforts were directed toward a systematic comparison of temperature data from acoustic grenade with other meteorological sensor probes in the upper atmosphere
A review of utility issues for the integration of wind electric generators
A review of issues and concerns of the electric utility industry for the integration of wind electric generation is offered. The issues have been categorized in three major areas: planning, operations, and dynamic interaction. Representative studies have been chosen for each area to illustrate problems and to alleviate some concerns. The emphasis of this paper is on individual large wind turbines (WTs) and WT arrays for deployment at the bulk level in a utility system
Effective chiral-spin Hamiltonian for odd-numbered coupled Heisenberg chains
An system of odd number of coupled Heisenberg spin chains
is studied using a degenerate perturbation theory, where is the number of
coupled chains. An effective chain Hamiltonian is derived explicitly in terms
of two spin half degrees of freedom of a closed chain of sites, valid in
the regime the inter-chain coupling is stronger than the intra-chain coupling.
The spin gap has been calculated numerically using the effective Hamiltonian
for for a finite chain up to ten sites. It is suggested that the
ground state of the effective Hamiltonian is correlated, by examining
variational states for the effective chiral-spin chain Hamiltonian.Comment: 9 Pages, Latex, report ICTP-94-28
Decision Making Towards Maternal Health Services in Central Java, Indonesia
Background: Indonesia has always been struggling with maternal health issue even after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) programs were done. Prior research findings identified many factors which influenced maternal health status in developing countries such Indonesia and even though various efforts had been made, the impact of the transformation of maternal health behavior was minimal.Purpose: This study aimed to seek an understanding of the factors influencing decisions towards maternal health services.Methods: A case study with a single case embedded design was employed. Interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were held to collect data from 3 health workers and 40 maternal women in a sub-district in Central Java, Indonesia.Results: Interviews with the village midwives as the main health providers in the Getasan sub-district concluded that there were several factors influencing the women\u27s decisions towards maternal services. The factors were options to have services with other health workers outside the area, and shaman services as alternative care and family influencing maternal health behaviors. The analysis of the FGDs also supported the village midwives\u27 statements that in spite of their awareness towards the available maternal health services, the existence of shamans and traditional beliefs strongly affected their decision.Conclusion: The findings in this study showed that cultural issues prevented the maximum maternal health status in Getasan sub-district. This study recommends Puskesmas (Primary Health Care) as the first level of health institutions in Indonesia to support the village midwives\u27 roles within their target area
Effects of Extreme Obliquity Variations on the Habitability of Exoplanets
We explore the impact of obliquity variations on planetary habitability in
hypothetical systems with high mutual inclination. We show that large
amplitude, high frequency obliquity oscillations on Earth-like exoplanets can
suppress the ice-albedo feedback, increasing the outer edge of the habitable
zone. We restrict our exploration to hypothetical systems consisting of a
solar-mass star, an Earth-mass planet at 1 AU, and 1 or 2 larger planets. We
verify that these systems are stable for years with N-body simulations,
and calculate the obliquity variations induced by the orbital evolution of the
Earth-mass planet and a torque from the host star. We run a simplified energy
balance model on the terrestrial planet to assess surface temperature and ice
coverage on the planet's surface, and we calculate differences in the outer
edge of the habitable zone for planets with rapid obliquity variations. For
each hypothetical system, we calculate the outer edge of habitability for two
conditions: 1) the full evolution of the planetary spin and orbit, and 2) the
eccentricity and obliquity fixed at their average values. We recover previous
results that higher values of fixed obliquity and eccentricity expand the
habitable zone, but also find that obliquity oscillations further expand
habitable orbits in all cases. Terrestrial planets near the outer edge of the
habitable zone may be more likely to support life in systems that induce rapid
obliquity oscillations as opposed to fixed-spin planets. Such planets may be
the easiest to directly characterize with space-borne telescopes.Comment: 46 pages, 12 Figures, 5 Table
Distinguishing Among Strong Decay Models
Two competing models for strong hadronic decays, the and
models, are currently in use.
Attempts to rule out one or the other have been hindered by a poor
understanding of final state interactions and by ambiguities in the treatment
of relativistic effects.
In this article we study meson decays in both models, focussing on certain
amplitude ratios for which the relativistic uncertainties largely cancel out
(notably the ratios in and
), and using a Quark Born Formalism to estimate the
final state interactions.
We find that the model is strongly favoured.
In addition, we predict a amplitude ratio of for the decay
.
We also study the parameter-dependence of some individual amplitudes (as
opposed to amplitude ratios), in an attempt to identify a ``best'' version of
the model.Comment: 20 pages, uuencoded postscript file with 7 figures, MIT-CTP-2295;
CMU-HEP94-1
Dissociation cross sections of ground-state and excited charmonia with light mesons in the quark model
We present numerical results for the dissociation cross sections of
ground-state, orbitally- and radially-excited charmonia in collisions with
light mesons. Our results are derived using the nonrelativistic quark model, so
all parameters are determined by fits to the experimental meson spectrum.
Examples of dissociation into both exclusive and inclusive final states are
considered. The dissociation cross sections of several C=(+) charmonia may be
of considerable importance for the study of heavy ion collisions, since these
states are expected to be produced more copiously than the J/psi. The relative
importance of the productions of ground-state and orbitally-excited charmed
mesons in a pion-charmonium collision is demonstrated through the -dependent charmonium dissociation cross sections.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Executive function in first-episode schizophrenia
BACKGROUND: We tested the hypothesis that schizophrenia is primarily a frontostriatal disorder by examining executive function in first-episode patients. Previous studies have shown either equal decrements in many cognitive domains or specific deficits in memory. Such studies have grouped test results or have used few executive measures, thus, possibly losing information. We, therefore, measured a range of executive ability with tests known to be sensitive to frontal lobe function.
METHODS: Thirty first-episode schizophrenic patients and 30 normal volunteers, matched for age and NART IQ, were tested on computerized test of planning, spatial working memory and attentional set shifting from the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery. Computerized and traditional tests of memory were also administered for comparison. RESULTS: Patients were worse on all tests but the profile was non-uniform. A componential analysis indicated that the patients were characterized by a poor ability to think ahead and organize responses but an intact ability to switch attention and inhibit prepotent responses. Patients also demonstrated poor memory, especially for free recall of a story and associate learning of unrelated word pairs.
CONCLUSIONS: In contradistinction to previous studies, schizophrenic patients do have profound executive impairments at the beginning of the illness. However, these concern planning and strategy use rather than attentional set shifting, which is generally unimpaired. Previous findings in more chronic patients, of severe attentional set shifting impairment, suggest that executive cognitive deficits are progressive during the course of schizophrenia. The finding of severe mnemonic impairment at first episode suggests that cognitive deficits are not restricted to one cognitive domain
Systematic Inclusion of High-Order Multi-Spin Correlations for the Spin- Models
We apply the microscopic coupled-cluster method (CCM) to the spin-
models on both the one-dimensional chain and the two-dimensional square
lattice. Based on a systematic approximation scheme of the CCM developed by us
previously, we carry out high-order {\it ab initio} calculations using
computer-algebraic techniques. The ground-state properties of the models are
obtained with high accuracy as functions of the anisotropy parameter.
Furthermore, our CCM analysis enables us to study their quantum critical
behavior in a systematic and unbiased manner.Comment: (to appear in PRL). 4 pages, ReVTeX, two figures available upon
request. UMIST Preprint MA-000-000
Freely decaying turbulence in two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics
In magnetized plasmas, a turbulent cascade occurs in phase space at scales
smaller than the thermal Larmor radius ("sub-Larmor scales") [Phys. Rev. Lett.
103, 015003 (2009)]. When the turbulence is restricted to two spatial
dimensions perpendicular to the background magnetic field, two independent
cascades may take place simultaneously because of the presence of two
collisionless invariants. In the present work, freely decaying turbulence of
two-dimensional electrostatic gyrokinetics is investigated by means of
phenomenological theory and direct numerical simulations. A dual cascade
(forward and inverse cascades) is observed in velocity space as well as in
position space, which we diagnose by means of nonlinear transfer functions for
the collisionless invariants. We find that the turbulence tends to a
time-asymptotic state, dominated by a single scale that grows in time. A theory
of this asymptotic state is derived in the form of decay laws. Each case that
we study falls into one of three regimes (weakly collisional, marginal, and
strongly collisional), determined by a dimensionless number D*, a quantity
analogous to the Reynolds number. The marginal state is marked by a critical
number D* = D0 that is preserved in time. Turbulence initialized above this
value become increasingly inertial in time, evolving toward larger and larger
D*; turbulence initialized below D0 become more and more collisional, decaying
to progressively smaller D*.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures; replaced to match published versio
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