Double-resonant fast particle-wave interaction

In future fusion devices fast particles must be well confined in order to transfer their energy to the background plasma. Magnetohydrodynamic instabilities like Toroidal Alfv\'en Eigenmodes or core-localized modes such as Beta Induced Alfv\'en Eigenmodes and Reversed Shear Alfv\'en Eigenmodes, both driven by fast particles, can lead to significant losses. This is observed in many ASDEX Upgrade discharges. The present study applies the drift-kinetic HAGIS code with the aim of understanding the underlying resonance mechanisms, especially in the presence of multiple modes with different frequencies. Of particular interest is the resonant interaction of particles simultaneously with two different modes, referred to as 'double-resonance'. Various mode overlapping scenarios with different q profiles are considered. It is found that, depending on the radial mode distance, double-resonance is able to enhance growth rates as well as mode amplitudes significantly. Surprisingly, no radial mode overlap is necessary for this effect. Quite the contrary is found: small radial mode distances can lead to strong nonlinear mode stabilization of a linearly dominant mode.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures; Nuclear Fusion 52 (2012

Dissecting the Red Sequence--II. Star Formation Histories of Early-Type Galaxies Throughout the Fundamental Plane

This analysis uses spectra of ~16,000 nearby SDSS quiescent galaxies to track variations in galaxy star formation histories along and perpendicular to the Fundamental Plane (FP). We sort galaxies by their FP properties (sigma, R_e, and I_e) and construct high S/N mean galaxy spectra that span the breadth and thickness of the FP. From these spectra, we determine mean luminosity-weighted ages, [Fe/H], [Mg/H], and [Mg/Fe] based on single stellar population models using the method described in Graves & Schiavon (2008). In agreement with previous work, the star formation histories of early-type galaxies are found to form a two-parameter family. The major trend is that mean age, [Fe/H], [Mg/H], and [Mg/Fe] all increase with sigma. However, no stellar population property shows any dependence on R_e at fixed sigma, suggesting that sigma and not dynamical mass (M_dyn ~ sigma^2 R_e) is the better predictor of past star formation history. In addition to the main trend with sigma, galaxies also show a range of population properties at fixed sigma that are strongly correlated with surface brightness residuals from the FP, such that higher surface brightness galaxies have younger mean ages, higher [Fe/H], higher [Mg/H], and lower [Mg/Fe] than lower-surface brightness galaxies. These latter trends are a major new constraint on star-formation histories.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures. Accepted to Ap

Aménagement en courbes de niveau et conservation du carbone

Dans la région Mali-sud, au climat semi-aride, la culture sur billons suivant les courbes de niveau permet d'arrêter l'érosion et surtout d'augmenter l'infiltration de l'eau de pluie, ce qui permet l'augmentation de la croissance des plantes cultivées et des arbres associés aux cultures. Il en résulte des effets sur l'ensemble du cycle du carbone. Les teneurs en carbone du sol sableux ferrugineux tropicaux diminuent rapidement sous culture, jusqu'à environ 0,2 à 0,4% dans l'horizon superficiel (0-20 cm). Pendant le même temps, les rendements peuvent rester stables ou augmenter si les modestes apports d'engrais sont suffisants pour corriger les carences en phosphore et fournir un peu de N et K aux cultures. Les rendements moyens, par exemple 10 à 20 q/ha de maïs, sont comparables à ceux qui étaient obtenus en Europe au début du 20ème siècle, quand l'utilisation des engrais a commencé. L'érosion contribue à diminuer encore plus les teneurs en carbone, dans certaines parties de la toposéquence. L'arrêt de l'érosion permet d'éviter ces pertes. Par contre, la production de biomasse par les cultures est augmentée: environ 50% pour le mil, le sorgho et le maïs pendant les années peu pluvieuses. Le carbone est recyclé dans le milieu suivant les voies habituelles: l'alimentation humaine (grains), l'alimentation des animaux (résidus, pailles, adventices), les termites, le fumier, les usages domestiques, le feu. Le parc arboré (karité et autres espèces) profite de l'eau conservée grâce aux courbes de niveau et il s'accroît par la croissance des arbres en place et par la régénération de jeunes arbres. Il en résulte d'une part, un accroissement de la masse ligneuse et d'autre part une augmentation des teneurs en carbone du sol dans les parties du champ couvertes par ces arbres (apports organiques et ombrage). Les courbes de niveau sont marquées par des ados couverts d'une végétation permanente (#Andropogon gayanus#, etc.) qui couvrent 2 à 4% de la surface des champs, avec des teneurs en carbone du sol comparables à celles qu'on trouve sous végétation naturelle. L'effet de l'aménagement sur le stockage du carbone se manifeste donc dans différentes situations (les cultures, des ados enherbés, les arbres, le sol sous les arbres, etc.) et suivant des cycles variables (l'année pour les cultures et les feuilles des arbres, quelques années pour le carbone du sol, quelques dizaines d'années pour le bois). (Résumé d'auteur

A systematic review of public views on the reintegration of men convicted of a sexual offense into the community

\ua9 The Author(s) 2025. This systematic review explores public views on the reintegration of men convicted of sexual offenses into the community. A search of eight databases produced 8,621 potential sources, and after screening 12 studies were included in the review. Papers were included if they used qualitative methods about the public’s views, attitudes, opinions, and/or perceptions on the reintegration of adult male sexual offenders from prison or secure care. The papers were then critically appraised and thematically synthesized. The findings highlighted four key themes: supervision, discrimination, livelihood, and interventions. Public perspectives of men convicted of a sexual offense reintegrating into the community were generally negative, fueled by media portrayals and misconceptions about the risk of reoffending. These views lead to support for stringent monitoring and restrictions, often at the expense of rehabilitation efforts. While some members of the public advocated for supportive reintegration programs, others emphasized punitive measures and expressed distrust in the effectiveness of rehabilitation. The review also highlights the significant impact of public stigma on the daily lives of offenders, particularly in relation to housing and community acceptance. The implications for future research, policy, and practice, including public education campaigns, community involvement, and enhanced support systems for reintegration, are discussed

Network analysis of the Viking Age in Ireland as portrayed in Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh

Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh (‘The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill’) is a medieval Irish text, telling how an army under the leadership of Brian Boru challenged Viking invaders and their allies in Ireland, culminating with the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. Brian’s victory is widely remembered for breaking Viking power in Ireland, although much modern scholarship disputes traditional perceptions. Instead of an international conflict between Irish and Viking, interpretations based on revisionist scholarship consider it a domestic feud or civil war. Counterrevisionists challenge this view and a long-standing and lively debate continues. Here, we introduce quantitative measures to the discussions.We present statistical analyses of network data embedded in the text to position its sets of interactions on a spectrum from the domestic to the international. This delivers a picture that lies between antipodal traditional and revisionist extremes; hostilities recorded in the text are mostly between Irish and Viking—but internal conflict forms a significant proportion of the negative interactions too

Wnt3a Induces Myofibroblast Differentiation by Upregulating TGF-β Signaling Through SMAD2 in a β-Catenin-Dependent Manner

Growing evidence suggests the Wnt family of secreted glycoproteins and their associated signaling pathways, linked to development, are recapitulated during wound repair and regeneration events. However, the role of the Wnt pathway in such settings remains unclear. In the current study, we treated mouse fibroblasts with 250 ng/mL of recombinant Wnt3a for 72 hours and examined its affect on cell morphology and function. Wnt3a induced a spindle-like morphology in fibroblasts characterized by the increased formation of stress fibres. Wnt3a decreased the proliferation of fibroblasts, but significantly increased cell migration as well as fibroblast-mediated contraction of a collagen lattice. Wnt3a significantly increased the expression of TGF-β and its associated signaling through SMAD2. Consistent with this, we observed significantly increased smooth muscle α-actin expression and incorporation of this contractile protein into stress fibres following Wnt3a treatment. Knockdown of β-catenin using siRNA reversed the Wnt3a-induced smooth muscle α-actin expression, suggesting these changes were dependent on canonical Wnt signaling through β-catenin. Neutralization of TGF-β with a blocking antibody significantly inhibited the Wnt3a-induced smooth muscle α-actin expression, indicating these changes were dependent on the increased TGF-β signaling. Collectively, this data strongly suggests Wnt3a promotes the formation of a myofibroblast-like phenotype in cultured fibroblasts, in part, by upregulating TGF-β signaling through SMAD2 in a β-catenin-dependent mechanism. As myofibroblasts are critical regulators of wound healing responses, these findings may have important implications for our understanding of normal and aberrant injury and repair events

Engineering students\u27 preferred roles: Are they stable, are there gender differences?

Being able to situate oneself in an engineering role is a developmental process. Students may initially have idealized perceptions of a professional role and over time, they make this role more congruent with their own values and goals [1]. In light of this, Higher Education Institutions are being challenged to offer learning experiences and career exploration activities to enable students to clarify their interests, values and competencies in relation to a professional role [2]. This study compared the professional role preferences of more than 700 engineering students at TU Dublin (Ireland) and KU Leuven (Belgium). Professional role preference was measured with PREFER Explore, a personal preference test for engineers. The test aligns students to three professional roles for early career engineers: Product leadership (focus on radical innovation), Operational excellence (focus on process optimization) and Customer intimacy (focus on tailored solutions and customer satisfaction). A comparison was drawn between the role preference of first year students at TU Dublin and KU Leuven to establish if there were significant differences in preference across both universities. The results suggest that the role preference of engineering students does not shift from first to third year. There is also evidence that the PREFER Explore is sensitive to gender differences, with female students showing a greater preference for customer intimacy than males and males showing a greater preference for operational excellence than females at TU Dublin. The data have a number of implications for the labor market in Ireland and Belgium

Developmental differences in children’s interpersonal emotion regulation

Previous research on interpersonal emotion regulation (ER) in childhood has been rather unsystematic, focusing mainly on children’s prosocial behaviour, and has been conducted in the absence of an integrative emotion theoretical framework. The present research relied on the interpersonal affect classification proposed by Niven, Totterdell, and Holman (2009) to investigate children’s use of different interpersonal ER strategies. The study drew on two samples: 180 parents of children aged between 3 and 8 years reported about a situation where their child was able to change what another person was feeling in order to make them feel better. In addition, 126 children between 3- and 8-years old answered two questions about how they could improve others’ mood. Results from both samples showed age differences in children’s use of interpersonal ER strategies. As expected, ‘affective engagement’ (i.e., focusing on the person or the problem) and ‘cognitive engagement’ (i.e., appraising the situation from a different perspective) were mainly used by 7-8 years-old, whereas ‘attention’ (i.e., distracting and valuing) was most used by 3-4 and 5-6 years-old. ‘Humor’ (i.e., laughing with the target) remained stable across the different age groups. The present research provides more information about the developmental patterns for each specific interpersonal emotion regulation strategy

Boost Camp’, a universal school-based transdiagnostic prevention program targeting adolescent emotion regulation; evaluating the effectiveness by a clustered RCT : a protocol paper

Abstract Background The transition from childhood into adolescence can be considered as a critical developmental period. Moreover, adolescence is associated with a decreased use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies and an increased use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies increasing the risk of emotional problems. Targeting emotion regulation is therefore seen as an innovative prevention approach. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Boost camp, an innovative school-based prevention program targeting ER, on adolescents’ emotion regulation skills and emotional wellbeing. Also secondary outcomes and possible moderators will be included. Methods The aim is to reach 300 adolescents (16 class groups, 6 schools) in their first year of high school. A clustered Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) with two conditions, intervention (n = 150) and control (n = 150), will be set up. Adolescents in the intervention condition will receive 14 lessons over the course of 2 days, followed by Booster sessions, and will be compared with adolescents in a non-intervention control group. The outcomes will be measured by self-report questionnaires at baseline, immediately after Boost camp, and at three and 6 months follow-up. Discussion Data-collection is planned to be completed in May 2018. Data-analyses will be finished the end of 2018. The presented paper describes the Boost camp program and the clustered RCT design to evaluate its effectiveness. It is expected that Boost camp will have beneficial effects. If found effective, Boost camp will have the potential to increase adolescent’s ER and well-being, and reduce the risk to become adults in need. The trials is registered on the 13th of June 2017 in ISRCTN registry [ISRCTN68235634]