1,781 research outputs found
Ductile and brittle structures within the Rye Formation, of coastal Maine and New Hampshire
Geology of the coastal lowlands, Boston to Kennebunk, Maine: The 76th annual meeting New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, Danvers, Massachusetts, October 12-14, 1984: Trip B-
Annual Report on changes in Veterinary Academic Libraries 2017
This research chronicles the current state of academic veterinary libraries and documents recent changes across the international academic veterinary library community. Specifically, on an annual basis, it gathers evidence from veterinary colleague libraries to document any closing and merging of academic veterinary libraries, to compile all evidence and descriptive information concerning changes in space, collections, reporting relationships and librarian assignments. Beginning in 2016, a survey is sent to each academic veterinary library accredited, approved or conditionally approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council or the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education. Aggregated survey results will be published and made available through the Texas A&M institutional repository. The intent is to make longitudinal data available for use in benchmarking and trend analysis.This research annually surveys the state of academic veterinary libraries, documenting changes across international academic veterinary libraries. It gathers evidence and descriptive information concerning changes in space, collections, services, reporting relationships and staffing
Possible observation of phase separation near a quantum phase transition in doubly connected ultrathin superconducting cylinders of aluminum
The kinetic energy of superconducting electrons in an ultrathin, doubly
connected superconducting cylinder, determined by the applied flux, increases
as the cylinder diameter decreases, leading to a destructive regime around
half-flux quanta and a superconductor to normal metal quantum phase transition
(QPT). Regular step-like features in resistance vs. temperature curves taken at
fixed flux values were observed near the QPT in ultrathin Al cylinders. It is
proposed that these features are most likely resulted from a phase separation
near the QPT in which normal regions nucleate in a homogeneous superconducting
cylinder.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Geometrical destruction of the global phase coherence in ultrathin superconducting cylinders
The global phase coherence in doubly-connected superconductors leads to
fluxoid quantization, allowing the superfluid velocity vs to be controlled by
an applied magnetic flux. In ultrasmall samples this quantization requirement
leads, surprisingly, to the destruction of the phase coherence itself around
half-integer flux quanta, because of the sample-size-induced growth in vs, as
predicted by de Gennes. We report observations of the predicted phenomenon in
ultrathin Al and Au0.7In0.3 cylinders, and the corresponding phase diagram for
ultrathin superconducting cylinders. The new phase diagram features
disconnected superconducting regions, as opposed to the single one seen in the
conventional Little-Parks experiment.Comment: pdf file, 9 pages plus 5 figure
Compiling the evidence to chronicle the state of the international veterinary library landscape
Objective:
This research, in progress at the time of this abstract, surveys the current state of academic veterinary libraries and documents recent changes across the international academic veterinary library community. Specifically, it will gather evidence from veterinary colleague libraries that are listed in the international veterinary libraries directory, maintained by the Veterinary Medical Libraries Section of the Medical Library Association, to document any closing and merging of academic veterinary libraries, to compile all evidence and descriptive information concerning changes in space, collections, reporting relationships and librarian assignments.
Methods:
Principal investigators developed an online survey, administered using Qualtrics, to gather data from current and recently retired veterinary librarians. Additionally, Qualtrics provides standard reporting and analysis tools. The survey is scheduled for distribution in January 2015. Responses will be compiled and analyzed during the spring. Results will be shared with participants and other colleagues. The survey will be repeated triennially using the 2015 survey as a benchmark. Results from the separate surveys and trends analyses across multiple survey iterations will be provided as longitudinal data increases
Exoplanets and SETI
The discovery of exoplanets has both focused and expanded the search for
extraterrestrial intelligence. The consideration of Earth as an exoplanet, the
knowledge of the orbital parameters of individual exoplanets, and our new
understanding of the prevalence of exoplanets throughout the galaxy have all
altered the search strategies of communication SETI efforts, by inspiring new
"Schelling points" (i.e. optimal search strategies for beacons). Future efforts
to characterize individual planets photometrically and spectroscopically, with
imaging and via transit, will also allow for searches for a variety of
technosignatures on their surfaces, in their atmospheres, and in orbit around
them. In the near-term, searches for new planetary systems might even turn up
free-floating megastructures.Comment: 9 page invited review. v2 adds some references and v3 has other minor
additions and modification
A Framework to Manage the Complex Organisation of Collaborating: Its Application to Autonomous Systems
In this paper we present an analysis of the complexities of large group
collaboration and its application to develop detailed requirements for
collaboration schema for Autonomous Systems (AS). These requirements flow from
our development of a framework for collaboration that provides a basis for
designing, supporting and managing complex collaborative systems that can be
applied and tested in various real world settings. We present the concepts of
"collaborative flow" and "working as one" as descriptive expressions of what
good collaborative teamwork can be in such scenarios. The paper considers the
application of the framework within different scenarios and discuses the
utility of the framework in modelling and supporting collaboration in complex
organisational structures
SQG-Differential Evolution for difficult optimization problems under a tight function evaluation budget
In the context of industrial engineering, it is important to integrate
efficient computational optimization methods in the product development
process. Some of the most challenging simulation-based engineering design
optimization problems are characterized by: a large number of design variables,
the absence of analytical gradients, highly non-linear objectives and a limited
function evaluation budget. Although a huge variety of different optimization
algorithms is available, the development and selection of efficient algorithms
for problems with these industrial relevant characteristics, remains a
challenge. In this communication, a hybrid variant of Differential Evolution
(DE) is introduced which combines aspects of Stochastic Quasi-Gradient (SQG)
methods within the framework of DE, in order to improve optimization efficiency
on problems with the previously mentioned characteristics. The performance of
the resulting derivative-free algorithm is compared with other state-of-the-art
DE variants on 25 commonly used benchmark functions, under tight function
evaluation budget constraints of 1000 evaluations. The experimental results
indicate that the new algorithm performs excellent on the 'difficult' (high
dimensional, multi-modal, inseparable) test functions. The operations used in
the proposed mutation scheme, are computationally inexpensive, and can be
easily implemented in existing differential evolution variants or other
population-based optimization algorithms by a few lines of program code as an
non-invasive optional setting. Besides the applicability of the presented
algorithm by itself, the described concepts can serve as a useful and
interesting addition to the algorithmic operators in the frameworks of
heuristics and evolutionary optimization and computing
Neuroimmune mechanisms of opioid-mediated conditioned immunomodulation
Morphine administration elicits pronounced effects on the immune system, including decreases in natural killer (NK) cell activity and lymphocyte mitogenic responsiveness. These immune alterations can become conditioned to environmental stimuli that predict morphine as a result of Pavlovian conditioning processes. Prior work in our laboratory has shown that acute morphine exposure produces dopamine-dependent reductions of NK cell activity that are mediated peripherally by neuropeptide Y Y1 receptors. The present study examined the involvement of dopamine D1 and neuropeptide Y Y1 receptors in the conditioned immunomodulatory effects of morphine. Rats received two conditioning sessions during which an injection of morphine was paired with a distinctive environment which served as the conditioned stimulus (CS). The results show that systemic administration of the D1 antagonist SCH-23390 prior to CS re-exposure prevented the conditioned suppression of splenic NK activity but did not alter conditioned decreases in mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferation. Furthermore, bilateral microinjections of SCH-23390 directly into the nucleus accumbens shell fully blocked conditioned changes in NK activity. In a subsequent manipulation, subcutaneous injection of the Y1 receptor antagonist BIBP3226 prior to CS re-exposure was also shown to prevent conditioned effects on NK activity. Collectively, these findings provide evidence that the nucleus accumbens shell plays an important role in conditioned immunomodulation and further suggest that the conditioned and unconditioned immunomodulatory effects of opioids involve similar receptor mechanisms
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