8,992 research outputs found
Contested modelling
We suggest that the role and function of expert computational modelling in real-world decision-making needs scrutiny and practices need to change. We discuss some empirical and theory-based improvements to the coupling of the modelling process and the real world, including social and behavioural processes, which we have expressed as a set of questions that we believe need to be answered by all projects engaged in such modelling. These are based on a systems analysis of four research initiatives, covering different scales and timeframes, and addressing the complexity of intervention in a sustainability context. Our proposed improvements require new approaches for analysing the relationship between a project’s models and its publics. They reflect what we believe is a necessary and beneficial dialogue between the realms of expert scientific modelling and systems thinking. This paper is an attempt to start that process, itself reflecting a robust dialogue between two practitioners sat within differing traditions, puzzling how to integrate perspectives and achieve wider participation in researching this problem space. 
Assessment of the risk due to release of carbon fiber in civil aircraft accidents, phase 2
The risk associated with the potential use of carbon fiber composite material in commercial jet aircraft is investigated. A simulation model developed to generate risk profiles for several airports is described. The risk profiles show the probability that the cost due to accidents in any year exceeds a given amount. The computer model simulates aircraft accidents with fire, release of fibers, their downwind transport and infiltration of buildings, equipment failures, and resulting ecomomic impact. The individual airport results were combined to yield the national risk profile
Refined Simulations of the Reaction Front for Diffusion-Limited Two-Species Annihilation in One Dimension
Extensive simulations are performed of the diffusion-limited reaction
AB in one dimension, with initially separated reagents. The reaction
rate profile, and the probability distributions of the separation and midpoint
of the nearest-neighbour pair of A and B particles, are all shown to exhibit
dynamic scaling, independently of the presence of fluctuations in the initial
state and of an exclusion principle in the model. The data is consistent with
all lengthscales behaving as as . Evidence of
multiscaling, found by other authors, is discussed in the light of these
findings.Comment: Resubmitted as TeX rather than Postscript file. RevTeX version 3.0,
10 pages with 16 Encapsulated Postscript figures (need epsf). University of
Geneva preprint UGVA/DPT 1994/10-85
A Martian Quarantine Risk Model
Structured model using loss functions to assess risk of using given decontamination procedure on all Martian unmanned landing craf
Bulgeless Giant Galaxies Challenge our Picture of Galaxy Formation by Hierarchical Clustering
We dissect giant Sc-Scd galaxies with Hubble Space Telescope photometry and
Hobby-Eberly Telescope spectroscopy. We use HET's High Resolution Spectrograph
(resolution = 15,000) to measure stellar velocity dispersions in the nuclear
star clusters and pseudobulges of the pure-disk galaxies M33, M101, NGC 3338,
NGC 3810, NGC 6503, and NGC 6946. We conclude: (1) Upper limits on the masses
of any supermassive black holes are MBH <= (2.6+-0.5) * 10**6 M_Sun in M101 and
MBH <= (2.0+-0.6) * 10**6 M_Sun in NGC 6503. (2) HST photometry shows that the
above galaxies contain tiny pseudobulges that make up <~ 3 % of the stellar
mass but no classical bulges. We inventory a sphere of radius 8 Mpc centered on
our Galaxy to see whether giant, pure-disk galaxies are common or rare. In this
volume, 11 of 19 galaxies with rotation velocity > 150 km/s show no evidence
for a classical bulge. Four may contain small classical bulges that contribute
5-12% of the galaxy light. Only 4 of the 19 giant galaxies are ellipticals or
have classical bulges that contribute 1/3 of the galaxy light. So pure-disk
galaxies are far from rare. It is hard to understand how they could form as the
quiescent tail of a distribution of merger histories. Recognition of
pseudobulges makes the biggest problem with cold dark matter galaxy formation
more acute: How can hierarchical clustering make so many giant, pure-disk
galaxies with no evidence for merger-built bulges? This problem depends
strongly on environment: the Virgo cluster is not a puzzle, because >2/3 of its
stellar mass is in merger remnants.Comment: 28 pages, 16 Postscript figures, 2 tables; requires emulateapj.sty
and apjfonts.sty; accepted for publication in ApJ; for a version with full
resolution figures, see http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy/kdbc.pd
Critical Temperature of a Trapped Bose Gas: Mean-Field Theory and Fluctuations
We investigate the possibilities of distinguishing the mean-field and
fluctuation effects on the critical temperature of a trapped Bose gas with
repulsive interatomic interactions. Since in a direct measurement of the
critical temperature as a function of the number of trapped atoms these effects
are small compared to the ideal gas results, we propose to observe
Bose-Einstein condensation by adiabatically ramping down the trapping
frequency. Moreover, analyzing this adiabatic cooling scheme, we show that
fluctuation effects can lead to the formation of a Bose condensate at
frequencies which are much larger than those predicted by the mean-field
theory.Comment: 4 pages of ReVTeX and 3 figures. Submitted to Physical Review
Measuring Electric Fields From Surface Contaminants with Neutral Atoms
In this paper we demonstrate a technique of utilizing magnetically trapped
neutral Rb-87 atoms to measure the magnitude and direction of stray electric
fields emanating from surface contaminants. We apply an alternating external
electric field that adds to (or subtracts from) the stray field in such a way
as to resonantly drive the trapped atoms into a mechanical dipole oscillation.
The growth rate of the oscillation's amplitude provides information about the
magnitude and sign of the stray field gradient. Using this measurement
technique, we are able to reconstruct the vector electric field produced by
surface contaminants. In addition, we can accurately measure the electric
fields generated from adsorbed atoms purposely placed onto the surface and
account for their systematic effects, which can plague a precision
surface-force measurement. We show that baking the substrate can reduce the
electric fields emanating from adsorbate, and that the mechanism for reduction
is likely surface diffusion, not desorption.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, published in Physical Review
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