5,372 research outputs found
Limb bone scaling in hopping diprotodonts and quadrupedal artiodactyls
Bone adaptation is modulated by the timing, direction, rate, and magnitude of mechanical loads. To investigate whether frequent slow, or infrequent fast, gaits could dominate bone adaptation to load, we compared scaling of the limb bones from two mammalian herbivore clades that use radically different high-speed gaits, bipedal hopping and quadrupedal galloping. Forelimb and hindlimb bones were collected from 20 artiodactyl and 15 diprotodont species (body mass M 1.05 - 1536 kg) and scanned in clinical computed tomography or X-ray microtomography. Second moment of area (Imax) and bone length (l) were measured. Scaling relations (y = axb) were calculated for l vs M for each bone and for Imax vs M and Imax vs l for every 5% of length. Imax vs M scaling relationships were broadly similar between clades despite the diprotodont forelimb being nearly unloaded, and the hindlimb highly loaded, during bipedal hopping. Imax vs l and l vs M scaling were related to locomotor and behavioural specialisations. Low-intensity loads may be sufficient to maintain bone mass across a wide range of species. Occasional high-intensity gaits might not break through the load sensitivity saturation engendered by frequent low-intensity gaits
Puzzles in physics
I discuss some puzzles observed in exclusive meson decays, concentrating
on the large difference between the direct CP asymmetries in the and modes, the large
branching ratio, and the large deviation of the mixing-induced CP asymmetries
in the penguins from those in the trees.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, talk presented at the 9th Workshop on High Energy
Physics Phenomenology, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, Jan. 3-14, 2006; reference
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Tele-operated high speed anthropomorphic dextrous hands with object shape and texture identification
This paper reports on the development of two number of robotic hands have been developed which focus on tele-operated high speed anthropomorphic dextrous robotic hands. The aim of developing these hands was to achieve a system that seamlessly interfaced between humans and robots. To provide sensory feedback, to a remote operator tactile sensors were developed to be mounted on the robotic hands. Two systems were developed, the first, being a skin sensor capable of shape reconstruction placed on the palm of the hand to feed back the shape of objects grasped and the second is a highly sensitive tactile array for surface texture identification
Elucidating social networking apps decisions: Performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of behavioural intention and use behaviour towards social networking apps. Exogenous latent constructs, namely, performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence are the key antecedents proposed based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to predict the usage intention and behaviour of social networking apps (i.e. endogenous latent constructs). Experience as a moderator is the extended construct to explain social networking apps user’s behavioural intention. Design/methodology/approach: To target young generation (Millennial), a cross-sectional data collection approach was conducted to collect data from the social networking apps users (i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and others) whereby a total of 384 valid questionnaires were obtained from six universities in Malaysia. Statistical analysis using partial least squares path modelling approach and a variance-based structural equation modelling (VB-SEM) techniques is performed to analyse the measurement and structural relationship. Findings: The findings indicate that performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence determine behavioural intention, and behavioural intention impacts social networking apps use behaviour. Moreover, the moderation analysis reveals that the relationship between effort expectancy and behavioural intention is moderated by experience, whereas the relationship between social influence and behavioural intention is not moderated by experience. Originality/value: While the surge of social networking apps has gained tremendous popularity among Millennial as an attractive market segment, previous studies mainly have focussed on intention and behaviour of online users in general. Despite apps and related technologies which have opened a new era of effective communications in marketing, social networking apps usage intention and behaviour focussing on Millennial is not well understood in the current literature. This study contributes and sheds lights on the current issue of social networking apps usage intention and behaviour and looks into a key rising market segment, the Millennial users. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited
Evidence for Factorization in Three-body B --> D(*) K- K0 Decays
Motivated by recent experimental results, we use a factorization approach to
study the three-body B --> D(*) K- K0 decay modes. Two mechanisms are proposed
for kaon pair production: current-produced (from vacuum) and transition (from B
meson). The Bbar0 --> D(*)+ K- K0 decay is governed solely by the
current-produced mechanism. As the kaon pair can be produced only by the vector
current, the matrix element can be extracted from e+ e- --> K Kbar processes
via isospin relations. The decay rates obtained this way are in good agreement
with experiment. Both current-produced and transition processes contribute to
B- --> D(*)0 K- K0 decays. By using QCD counting rules and the measured B- -->
D(*)0 K- K0 decay rates, the measured decay spectra can be understood.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure
The Neutrino Magnetic Moment Induced by Leptoquarks
Allowing leptoquarks to interact with both right-handed and left-handed
neutrinos (i.e., ``non-chiral'' leptoquarks), we show that a non-zero neutrino
magnetic moment can arise naturally. Although the mass of the non-chiral vector
leptoquark that couples to the first generation fermions is constrained
severely by universality of the leptonic decays and is found to be
greater than 50 TeV, the masses of the second and third generation non-chiral
vector leptoquarks may evade such constraint and may in general be in the range
of TeV. With reasonable input mass and coupling values, we find
that the neutrino magnetic moment due to the second generation leptoquarks is
of the order of while that caused by the
third generation leptoquarks, being enhanced significantly by the large top
quark mass, is in the range of .Comment: 11 pages, 3 eps figures, uses revte
Implications of Recent Measurements
The recent measurements of the color-suppressed modes imply non-vanishing relative final-state interaction (FSI)
phases among various decay amplitudes. Depending on whether or
not FSIs are implemented in the topological quark-diagram amplitudes, two
solutions for the parameters and are extracted from data using
various form-factor models. It is found that is not universal:
and with a relative phase
of order between and . If FSIs are not included in
quark-diagram amplitudes from the outset, and
will become smaller. The large value of compared to
or naive expectation implies the importance of
long-distance FSI contributions to color-suppressed internal -emission via
final-state rescatterings of the color-allowed tree amplitude.Comment: 17 pages. The Introduction is substantially revised and the order of
the presentation in Sec. 2 is rearranged. To appear in Phys. Re
in the Standard Model
In this paper we investigate the possibility of studying form
factor using the semi-inclusive decays . In general
semi-inclusive decays involve several hadronic parameters. But for
decays we find that in the factorization
approximation, the only unknown hadronic parameters are the form factors
. Therefore these form factors can be studied in decays. Using theoretical model calculations for the form
factors the branching ratios for and
, with the cut GeV, are
estimated to be in the ranges of and ,
respectively, depending on the value of . The combined branching ratio
for is about and is insensitive to . We also discuss CP
asymmetries in these decay modes.Comment: RevTex 8 pages and two figure
The Fourth Element: Characteristics, Modelling, and Electromagnetic Theory of the Memristor
In 2008, researchers at HP Labs published a paper in {\it Nature} reporting
the realisation of a new basic circuit element that completes the missing link
between charge and flux-linkage, which was postulated by Leon Chua in 1971. The
HP memristor is based on a nanometer scale TiO thin-film, containing a
doped region and an undoped region. Further to proposed applications of
memristors in artificial biological systems and nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM), they
also enable reconfigurable nanoelectronics. Moreover, memristors provide new
paradigms in application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field
programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). A significant reduction in area with an
unprecedented memory capacity and device density are the potential advantages
of memristors for Integrated Circuits (ICs). This work reviews the memristor
and provides mathematical and SPICE models for memristors. Insight into the
memristor device is given via recalling the quasi-static expansion of Maxwell's
equations. We also review Chua's arguments based on electromagnetic theory.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures, Accepted as a regular paper - the Proceedings
of Royal Society
Low-Mass Baryon-Antibaryon Enhancements in B Decays
The nature of low-mass baryon-antibaryon enhancements seen in B decays is
explored. Three possibilities include (i) states near threshold as found in a
model by Nambu and Jona-Lasinio, (ii) isoscalar states with coupled to a pair of gluons, and (iii) low-mass enhancements favored by the
fragmentation process. Ways of distinguishing these mechanisms using angular
distributions and flavor symmetry are proposed.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, no figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. D. One
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