5,173 research outputs found
A study of the usefulness of Skylab EREP data for earth resources studies in Australia
The author has identified the following significant results. In subhumid, vegetated areas, S190B photography: (1) has a potentially operational role in detecting lineaments in 1:100,000 scale geological mapping and in major civil engineering surveys; (2) is of limited value for regional lithological mapping at 1:500,000 scale; and (3) provided much useful synoptic information and some detailed information of direct value to the mapping of nonmineral natural resources such as vegetation, land soil, and water. In arid, well exposed areas, S190B photography could be used: (1) with a limited amount of field traverses, to produce reliable 1:500,000 scale geological maps of sedimentary sequences; (2) to update superficial geology on 1:250,000 scale maps; and (3) together with the necessary field studies, to prepare landform, soil, and vegetation maps at 1:1,000,000 scale. Skylab photography was found to be more useful than LANDSAT images for small scale mapping of geology and land types, and for the revision of topographic maps at 1:100,000 scale, because of superior spatial resolution and stereoscopic coverage
Support for graphicacy: a review of textbooks available to accounting students
This Teaching Note reports on the support available in textbooks for graphicacy that will help students understand the complexities of graphical displays. Graphical displays play a significant role in financial reporting, and studies have found evidence of measurement distortion and selection bias. To understand the complexities of graphical displays, students need a sound understanding of graphicacy and support from the textbooks available to them to develop that understanding. The Teaching Note reports on a survey that examined the textbooks available to students attending two Scottish universities. The support of critical graphicacy skills was examined in conjunction with textbook characteristics. The survey, which was not restricted to textbooks designated as required reading, examined the textbooks for content on data measurement and graphical displays. The findings highlight a lack of support for graphicacy in the textbooks selected. The study concludes that accounting educators need to scrutinize more closely the selection of textbooks and calls for more extensive research into textbooks as a pedagogic tool
Violence against female sex workers in Karnataka state, south India: impact on health, and reductions in violence following an intervention program.
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Violence against female sex workers (FSWs) can impede HIV prevention efforts and contravenes their human rights. We developed a multi-layered violence intervention targeting policy makers, secondary stakeholders (police, lawyers, media), and primary stakeholders (FSWs), as part of wider HIV prevention programming involving >60,000 FSWs in Karnataka state. This study examined if violence against FSWs is associated with reduced condom use and increased STI/HIV risk, and if addressing violence against FSWs within a large-scale HIV prevention program can reduce levels of violence against them. METHODS: FSWs were randomly selected to participate in polling booth surveys (PBS 2006-2008; short behavioural questionnaires administered anonymously) and integrated behavioural-biological assessments (IBBAs 2005-2009; administered face-to-face). RESULTS: 3,852 FSWs participated in the IBBAs and 7,638 FSWs participated in the PBS. Overall, 11.0% of FSWs in the IBBAs and 26.4% of FSWs in the PBS reported being beaten or raped in the past year. FSWs who reported violence in the past year were significantly less likely to report condom use with clients (zero unprotected sex acts in previous month, 55.4% vs. 75.5%, adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 0.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.3 to 0.5, p < 0.001); to have accessed the HIV intervention program (ever contacted by peer educator, 84.9% vs. 89.6%, AOR 0.7, 95% CI 0.4 to 1.0, p = 0.04); or to have ever visited the project sexual health clinic (59.0% vs. 68.1%, AOR 0.7, 95% CI 0.6 to 1.0, p = 0.02); and were significantly more likely to be infected with gonorrhea (5.0% vs. 2.6%, AOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.3, p = 0.02). By the follow-up surveys, significant reductions were seen in the proportions of FSWs reporting violence compared with baseline (IBBA 13.0% vs. 9.0%, AOR 0.7, 95% CI 0.5 to 0.9 p = 0.01; PBS 27.3% vs. 18.9%, crude OR 0.5, 95% CI 0.4 to 0.5, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This program demonstrates that a structural approach to addressing violence can be effectively delivered at scale. Addressing violence against FSWs is important for the success of HIV prevention programs, and for protecting their basic human rights
Transverse Demagnetization Dynamics of a Unitary Fermi Gas
Understanding the quantum dynamics of strongly interacting fermions is a
problem relevant to diverse forms of matter, including high-temperature
superconductors, neutron stars, and quark-gluon plasma. An appealing benchmark
is offered by cold atomic gases in the unitary limit of strong interactions.
Here we study the dynamics of a transversely magnetized unitary Fermi gas in an
inhomogeneous magnetic field. We observe the demagnetization of the gas, caused
by diffusive spin transport. At low temperatures, the diffusion constant
saturates to the conjectured quantum-mechanical lower bound ,
where is the particle mass. The development of pair correlations,
indicating the transformation of the initially non-interacting gas towards a
unitary spin mixture, is observed by measuring Tan's contact parameter.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted versio
Excitation spectrum of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate in a ring potential
A mixture of two distinguishable Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a ring
potential has numerous interesting properties under rotational and
solitary-wave excitation. The lowest-energy states for a fixed angular momentum
coincide with a family of solitary-wave solutions. In the limit of weak
interactions, exact diagonalization of the many-body Hamiltonian is possible
and permits evaluation of the complete excitation spectrum of the system.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
The Aborigines : their present conditions as seen in northern South Australia, the Northern Territory, northwest Australia, and western Queensland
Interpolatory methods for model reduction of multi-input/multi-output systems
We develop here a computationally effective approach for producing
high-quality -approximations to large scale linear
dynamical systems having multiple inputs and multiple outputs (MIMO). We extend
an approach for model reduction introduced by Flagg,
Beattie, and Gugercin for the single-input/single-output (SISO) setting, which
combined ideas originating in interpolatory -optimal model
reduction with complex Chebyshev approximation. Retaining this framework, our
approach to the MIMO problem has its principal computational cost dominated by
(sparse) linear solves, and so it can remain an effective strategy in many
large-scale settings. We are able to avoid computationally demanding
norm calculations that are normally required to monitor
progress within each optimization cycle through the use of "data-driven"
rational approximations that are built upon previously computed function
samples. Numerical examples are included that illustrate our approach. We
produce high fidelity reduced models having consistently better
performance than models produced via balanced truncation;
these models often are as good as (and occasionally better than) models
produced using optimal Hankel norm approximation as well. In all cases
considered, the method described here produces reduced models at far lower cost
than is possible with either balanced truncation or optimal Hankel norm
approximation
Dedekind order completion of C(X) by Hausdorff continuous functions
The concept of Hausdorff continuous interval valued functions, developed
within the theory of Hausdorff approximations and originaly defined for
interval valued functions of one real variable is extended to interval valued
functions defined on a topological space X. The main result is that the set of
all finite Hausdorff continuous functions on any topological space X is
Dedekind order complete. Hence it contains the Dedekind order completion of the
set C(X) of all continuous real functions defined on X as well as the Dedekind
order completion of the set C_b(X) of all bounded continuous functions on X.
Under some general assumptions about the topological space X the Dedekind order
completions of both C(X) and C_b(X) are characterised as subsets of the set of
all Hausdorff continuous functions. This solves a long outstanding open problem
about the Dedekind order completion of C(X). In addition, it has major
applications to the regularity of solutions of large classes of nonlinear PDEs
Coherent Behavior and Nonmagnetic Impurity Effects of the Spin Disordered State in NiGaS
Nonmagnetic impurity effects of the spin disordered state in the triangular
antiferromagnet NiGaS was studied through magnetic and thermal
measurements for NiZnGaS (0.0\le x\le 0.3). Only 1 %
substitution is enough to strongly suppress the coherence observed in the spin
disordered state. However, the suppression is not complete and the robust
feature of the T^2 dependent specific heat and its scaling behavior with the
Weiss temperature indicate the existence of a coherent Nambu-Goldstone mode.
Absence of either conventional magnetic order or bulk spin freezing suggests a
novel symmetry breaking of the ground state.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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