13,506 research outputs found
Vibration
Physiological and biomechanical responses of humans to vibrations during manned space flight and threshold data on tolerances to various vibrational modes and condition
Sound and noise
Sound and noise problems in space environment and human tolerance criteria at varying frequencies and intensitie
Life history strategy and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic
Life history theory (LHT) describes how animals evolve to maximize reproductive fitness in relation to their environmental conditions. Species fall along a continuum based on whether they tend towards a slow life strategy or a fast life strategy. A key factor that underlies the strategy adopted is the uncertainty of the environment (stable and predictable or uncertain and hostile). The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented event producing very high levels of uncertainty on a global scale and consequently, varying levels of anxiety in individuals. The goal of this study was to determine whether life history strategy can be used to predict individualsâ experiences of anxiety during the pandemic. It was hypothesized that slow life strategists would experience more anxiety due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic compared to fast life strategists who are more used to uncertain environments. Participants were first assessed on their life history strategy. An experimental manipulation was used to prime half of the participants to engage in thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic while the other half experienced a calming stimulus. State and trait levels of anxiety were measured subsequently. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze the relationship between the variables. It showed that while everyone who experienced the COVID-19 prime had higher scores on the state anxiety scale, slow life strategists were less stressed in this condition compared to fast life strategists. No interaction effects were observed. While the results did not appear to support the research hypothesis, there was an overall relationship between LHT and anxiety. These findings contribute to the life history theory framework being developed as a model to explain human behavior in the context of evolutionary psychology
Superburst oscillations: ocean and crustal modes excited by Carbon-triggered Type I X-ray bursts
Accreting neutron stars (NS) can exhibit high frequency modulations in their
lightcurves during thermonuclear X-ray bursts, known as burst oscillations. The
frequencies can be offset from the spin frequency of the NS by several Hz, and
can drift by 1-3 Hz. One possible explanation is a mode in the bursting ocean,
the frequency of which would decrease (in the rotating frame) as the burst
cools, hence explaining the drifts. Most burst oscillations have been observed
during H/He triggered bursts, however there has been one observation of
oscillations during a superburst; hours' long Type I X-ray bursts caused by
unstable carbon burning deeper in the ocean. This paper calculates the
frequency evolution of an oceanic r-mode during a superburst. The rotating
frame frequency varies during the burst from 4-14 Hz, and is sensitive to the
background parameters, in particular the temperature of the ocean and ignition
depth. This calculation is compared to the superburst oscillations observed on
4U-1636-536. The predicted mode frequencies ( 10 Hz) would require a spin
frequency of 592 Hz to match observations; 6 Hz higher than the spin
inferred from an oceanic r-mode model for the H/He triggered burst
oscillations. This model also over-predicts the frequency drift during the
superburst by 90 %.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA
Active colloidal particles in emulsion droplets: A model system for the cytoplasm
In living cells, molecular motors create activity that enhances the diffusion
of particles throughout the cytoplasm, and not just ones attached to the
motors. We demonstrate initial steps toward creating artificial cells that
mimic this phenomenon. Our system consists of active, Pt-coated Janus particles
and passive tracers confined to emulsion droplets. We track the motion of both
the active particles and passive tracers in a hydrogen peroxide solution, which
serves as the fuel to drive the motion. We first show that correcting for bulk
translational and rotational motion of the droplets induced by bubble formation
is necessary to accurately track the particles. After drift correction, we find
that the active particles show enhanced diffusion in the interior of the
droplets and are not captured by the droplet interface. At the particle and
hydrogen peroxide concentrations we use, we observe little coupling between the
active and passive particles. We discuss the possible reasons for lack of
coupling and describe ways to improve the system to more effectively mimic
cytoplasmic activity
An integrated study of earth resources in the State of California based on Skylab and supporting aircraft data
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
Evaporation of a Kerr black hole by emission of scalar and higher spin particles
We study the evolution of an evaporating rotating black hole, described by
the Kerr metric, which is emitting either solely massless scalar particles or a
mixture of massless scalar and nonzero spin particles. Allowing the hole to
radiate scalar particles increases the mass loss rate and decreases the angular
momentum loss rate relative to a black hole which is radiating nonzero spin
particles. The presence of scalar radiation can cause the evaporating hole to
asymptotically approach a state which is described by a nonzero value of . This is contrary to the conventional view of black hole
evaporation, wherein all black holes spin down more rapidly than they lose
mass. A hole emitting solely scalar radiation will approach a final asymptotic
state described by . A black hole that is emitting scalar
particles and a canonical set of nonzero spin particles (3 species of
neutrinos, a single photon species, and a single graviton species) will
asymptotically approach a nonzero value of only if there are at least 32
massless scalar fields. We also calculate the lifetime of a primordial black
hole that formed with a value of the rotation parameter , the minimum
initial mass of a primordial black hole that is seen today with a rotation
parameter , and the entropy of a black hole that is emitting scalar or
higher spin particles.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, RevTeX format; added clearer descriptions for
variables, added journal referenc
A decreased probability of habitable planet formation around low-mass stars
Smaller terrestrial planets (< 0.3 Earth masses) are less likely to retain
the substantial atmospheres and ongoing tectonic activity probably required to
support life. A key element in determining if sufficiently massive "sustainably
habitable" planets can form is the availability of solid planet-forming
material. We use dynamical simulations of terrestrial planet formation from
planetary embryos and simple scaling arguments to explore the implications of
correlations between terrestrial planet mass, disk mass, and the mass of the
parent star. We assume that the protoplanetary disk mass scales with stellar
mass as Mdisk ~ f Mstar^h, where f measures the relative disk mass, and 1/2 < h
< 2, so that disk mass decreases with decreasing stellar mass. We consider
systems without Jovian planets, based on current models and observations for M
stars. We assume the mass of a planet formed in some annulus of a disk with
given parameters is proportional to the disk mass in that annulus, and show
with a suite of simulations of late-stage accretion that the adopted
prescription is surprisingly accurate. Our results suggest that the fraction of
systems with sufficient disk mass to form > 0.3 Earth mass habitable planets
decreases for low-mass stars for every realistic combination of parameters.
This "habitable fraction" is small for stellar masses below a mass in the
interval 0.5 to 0.8 Solar masses, depending on disk parameters, an interval
that excludes most M stars. Radial mixing and therefore water delivery are
inefficient in lower-mass disks commonly found around low-mass stars, such that
terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of most low-mass stars are likely to
be small and dry.Comment: Accepted to ApJ. 11 pages, 6 figure
Optimal Moments for the Analysis of Peculiar Velocity Surveys
We present a new method for the analysis of peculiar velocity surveys which
removes contributions to velocities from small scale, nonlinear velocity modes
while retaining information about large scale motions. Our method utilizes
Karhunen--Lo\`eve methods of data compression to construct a set of moments out
of the velocities which are minimally sensitive to small scale power. The set
of moments are then used in a likelihood analysis. We develop criteria for the
selection of moments, as well as a statistic to quantify the overall
sensitivity of a set of moments to small scale power. Although we discuss our
method in the context of peculiar velocity surveys, it may also prove useful in
other situations where data filtering is required.Comment: 25 Pages, 3 figures. Submitted to Ap
The (In)Stability of Planetary Systems
We present results of numerical simulations which examine the dynamical
stability of known planetary systems, a star with two or more planets. First we
vary the initial conditions of each system based on observational data. We then
determine regions of phase space which produce stable planetary configurations.
For each system we perform 1000 ~1 million year integrations. We examine
upsilon And, HD83443, GJ876, HD82943, 47UMa, HD168443, and the solar system
(SS). We find that the resonant systems, 2 planets in a first order mean motion
resonance, (HD82943 and GJ876) have very narrow zones of stability. The
interacting systems, not in first order resonance, but able to perturb each
other (upsilon And, 47UMa, and SS) have broad regions of stability. The
separated systems, 2 planets beyond 10:1 resonance, (we only examine HD83443
and HD168443) are fully stable. Furthermore we find that the best fits to the
interacting and resonant systems place them very close to unstable regions. The
boundary in phase space between stability and instability depends strongly on
the eccentricities, and (if applicable) the proximity of the system to perfect
resonance. In addition to million year integrations, we also examined stability
on ~100 million year timescales. For each system we ran ~10 long term
simulations, and find that the Keplerian fits to these systems all contain
configurations which may be regular on this timescale.Comment: 37 pages, 49 figures, 13 tables, submitted to Ap
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