11,596 research outputs found
Can lay-led walking programmes increase physical activity in middle aged adults? : a randomised controlled trial
Study objective: To compare health walks, a community based lay-led walking scheme versus advice
only on physical activity and cardiovascular health status in middle aged adults.
Design: Randomised controlled trial with one year follow up. Physical activity was measured by questionnaire.
Other measures included attitudes to exercise, body mass index, cholesterol, aerobic capacity,
and blood pressure.
Setting: Primary care and community.
Participants: 260 men and women aged 40–70 years, taking less than 120 minutes of moderate
intensity activity per week.
Main results: Seventy three per cent of people completed the trial. Of these, the proportion increasing
their activity above 120 minutes of moderate intensity activity per week was 22.6% in the advice only
and 35.7% in the health walks group at 12 months (between group difference =13% (95% CI 0.003%
to 25.9%) p=0.05). Intention to treat analysis, using the last known value for missing cases,
demonstrated smaller differences between the groups (between group difference =6% (95% CI -5% to
16.4%)) with the trend in favour of health walks. There were improvements in the total time spent and
number of occasions of moderate intensity activity, and aerobic capacity, but no statistically significant
differences between the groups. Other cardiovascular risk factors remained unchanged.
Conclusions: There were no significant between group differences in self reported physical activity at
12 month follow up when the analysis was by intention to treat. In people who completed the trial,
health walks was more effective than giving advice only in increasing moderate intensity activity above
120 minutes per week
The High Energy Emission of the Crab Nebula from 20 keV to 6 MeV with INTEGRAL
The SPI spectrometer aboard the INTEGRAL mission observes regularly the Crab
Nebula since 2003. We report on observations distributed over 5.5 years and
investigate the variability of the intensity and spectral shape of this
remarkable source in the hard X-rays domain up to a few MeV. While single power
law models give a good description in the X-ray domain (mean photon index ~
2.05) and MeV domain (photon index ~ 2.23), crucial information are contained
in the evolution of the slope with energy between these two values. This study
has been carried out trough individual observations and long duration (~ 400
ks) averaged spectra. The stability of the emission is remarkable and excludes
a single power law model. The slopes measured below and above 100 keV agree
perfectly with the last values reported in the X-ray and MeV regions
respectively, but without indication of a localized break point. This suggests
a gradual softening in the emission around 100 keV and thus a continuous
evolution rather than an actual change in the mechanism parameters. In the MeV
region, no significant deviation from the proposed power law model is visible
up to 5-6 MeV. Finally, we take advantage of the spectroscopic capability of
the instrument to seek for previously reported spectral features in the covered
energy range with negative results for any significant cyclotron or
annihilation emission on 400 ks timescales. Beyond the scientific results, the
performance and reliability of the SPI instrument is explicitly demonstrated,
with some details about the most appropriate analysis method.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ; 4 figures, 2 table
Further studies of the coupled chemically reacting boundary layer and charring ablator. Part 1 - Summary Final report
Computer program development for charring ablative materials, chemically reacting laminar boundary layers, and turbulent boundary layer initiatio
Nonnegative subtheories and quasiprobability representations of qubits
Negativity in a quasiprobability representation is typically interpreted as
an indication of nonclassical behavior. However, this does not preclude states
that are non-negative from exhibiting phenomena typically associated with
quantum mechanics - the single qubit stabilizer states have non-negative Wigner
functions and yet play a fundamental role in many quantum information tasks. We
seek to determine what other sets of quantum states and measurements for a
qubit can be non-negative in a quasiprobability representation, and to identify
nontrivial unitary groups that permute the states in such a set. These sets of
states and measurements are analogous to the single qubit stabilizer states. We
show that no quasiprobability representation of a qubit can be non-negative for
more than four bases and that the non-negative bases in any quasiprobability
representation must satisfy certain symmetry constraints. We provide an
exhaustive list of the sets of single qubit bases that are non-negative in some
quasiprobability representation and are also permuted by a nontrivial unitary
group. This list includes two families of three bases that both include the
single qubit stabilizer states as a special case and a family of four bases
whose symmetry group is the Pauli group. For higher dimensions, we prove that
there can be no more than 2^{d^2} states in non-negative bases of a
d-dimensional Hilbert space in any quasiprobability representation.
Furthermore, these bases must satisfy certain symmetry constraints,
corresponding to requiring the bases to be sufficiently complementary to each
other.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, comments very welcome; v2 published version.
Note that the statement and proof of Theorem III.2 in the published version
are incorrect (an erratum has been submitted), and this arXiv version (v2)
presents the corrected theorem and proof. The conclusions of the paper are
unaffected by this correctio
Fractionation effects in phase equilibria of polydisperse hard sphere colloids
The equilibrium phase behaviour of hard spheres with size polydispersity is
studied theoretically. We solve numerically the exact phase equilibrium
equations that result from accurate free energy expressions for the fluid and
solid phases, while accounting fully for size fractionation between coexisting
phases. Fluids up to the largest polydispersities that we can study (around
14%) can phase separate by splitting off a solid with a much narrower size
distribution. This shows that experimentally observed terminal polydispersities
above which phase separation no longer occurs must be due to non-equilibrium
effects. We find no evidence of re-entrant melting; instead, sufficiently
compressed solids phase separate into two or more solid phases. Under
appropriate conditions, coexistence of multiple solids with a fluid phase is
also predicted. The solids have smaller polydispersities than the parent phase
as expected, while the reverse is true for the fluid phase, which contains
predominantly smaller particles but also residual amounts of the larger ones.
The properties of the coexisting phases are studied in detail; mean diameter,
polydispersity and volume fraction of the phases all reveal marked
fractionation. We also propose a method for constructing quantities that
optimally distinguish between the coexisting phases, using Principal Component
Analysis in the space of density distributions. We conclude by comparing our
predictions to perturbative theories for near-monodisperse systems and to Monte
Carlo simulations at imposed chemical potential distribution, and find
excellent agreement.Comment: 21 pages, 23 figures, 2 table
^{63}Cu, ^{35}Cl, and ^{1}H NMR in the S=1/2 Kagom\'e Lattice ZnCu_{3}(OH)_{6}Cl_{2}
ZnCu(OH)Cl () is a promising new candidate for an
ideal Kagom\'e Heisenberg antiferromagnet, because there is no magnetic phase
transition down to 50 mK. We investigated its local magnetic and lattice
environments with NMR techniques. We demonstrate that the intrinsic local spin
susceptibility {\it decreases} toward T=0, but that slow freezing of the
lattice near 50 K, presumably associated with OH bonds, contributes to a
large increase of local spin susceptibility and its distribution. Spin dynamics
near T=0 obey a power-law behavior in high magnetic fields.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press
ANOPP programmer's reference manual for the executive System
Documentation for the Aircraft Noise Prediction Program as of release level 01/00/00 is presented in a manual designed for programmers having a need for understanding the internal design and logical concepts of the executive system software. Emphasis is placed on providing sufficient information to modify the system for enhancements or error correction. The ANOPP executive system includes software related to operating system interface, executive control, and data base management for the Aircraft Noise Prediction Program. It is written in Fortran IV for use on CDC Cyber series of computers
Dynamics of a Quantum Reference Frame
We analyze a quantum mechanical gyroscope which is modeled as a large spin
and used as a reference against which to measure the angular momenta of
spin-1/2 particles. These measurements induce a back-action on the reference
which is the central focus of our study. We begin by deriving explicit
expressions for the quantum channel representing the back-action. Then, we
analyze the dynamics incurred by the reference when it is used to sequentially
measure particles drawn from a fixed ensemble. We prove that the reference
thermalizes with the measured particles and find that generically, the thermal
state is reached in time which scales linearly with the size of the reference.
This contrasts a recent conclusion of Bartlett et al. that this takes a
quadratic amount of time when the particles are completely unpolarized. We now
understand their result in terms of a simple physical principle based on
symmetries and conservation laws. Finally, we initiate the study of the
non-equilibrium dynamics of the reference. Here we find that a reference in a
coherent state will essentially remain in one when measuring polarized
particles, while rotating itself to ultimately align with the polarization of
the particles
Particle-particle and quasiparticle random phase approximations: Connections to coupled cluster theory
We establish a formal connection between the particle-particle (pp) random
phase approximation (RPA) and the ladder channel of the coupled cluster doubles
(CCD) equations. The relationship between RPA and CCD is best understood within
a Bogoliubov quasiparticle (qp) RPA formalism. This work is a follow-up to our
previous formal proof on the connection between particle-hole (ph) RPA and
ring-CCD. Whereas RPA is a quasibosonic approximation, CC theory is a correct
bosonization in the sense that the wavefunction and Hilbert space are exactly
fermionic. Coupled cluster theory achieves this goal by interacting the ph
(ring) and pp (ladder) diagrams via a third channel that we here call
"crossed-ring" whose presence allows for full fermionic antisymmetry.
Additionally, coupled cluster incorporates what we call "mosaic" terms which
can be absorbed into defining a new effective one-body Hamiltonian. The
inclusion of these mosaic terms seems to be quite important. The pp-RPA an d
qp-RPA equations are textbook material in nuclear structure physics but are
largely unknown in quantum chemistry, where particle number fluctuations and
Bogoliubov determinants are rarely used. We believe that the ideas and
connections discussed in this paper may help design improved ways of
incorporating RPA correlation into density functionals based on a CC
perspective
The WAY theorem and the quantum resource theory of asymmetry
The WAY theorem establishes an important constraint that conservation laws
impose on quantum mechanical measurements. We formulate the WAY theorem in the
broader context of resource theories, where one is constrained to a subset of
quantum mechanical operations described by a symmetry group. Establishing
connections with the theory of quantum state discrimination we obtain optimal
unitaries describing the measurement of arbitrary observables, explain how
prior information can permit perfect measurements that circumvent the WAY
constraint, and provide a framework that establishes a natural ordering on
measurement apparatuses through a decomposition into asymmetry and charge
subsystems.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
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