58,913 research outputs found
The Orion constellation as an installation - An innovative three dimensional teaching and learning environment
Visualising the three dimensional distribution of stars within a
constellation is highly challenging for both students and educators, but when
carried out in an interactive collaborative way it can create an ideal
environment to explore common misconceptions about size and scale within
astronomy. We present how the common table top activities based upon the Orion
constellation miss out on this opportunity. Transformed into a walk-through
Orion installation that includes the position of our Solar system, it allows
the students to fully immerse themselves within the model and experience
parallax. It enables participants to explore within the installation many other
aspects of astronomy relating to sky culture, stellar evolution, and stellar
timescales establishing an innovative learning and teaching environment.Comment: 2 pages, submitted to The Physics Teacher - Colum
Putting an Edge to the Poisson Bracket
We consider a general formalism for treating a Hamiltonian (canonical) field
theory with a spatial boundary. In this formalism essentially all functionals
are differentiable from the very beginning and hence no improvement terms are
needed. We introduce a new Poisson bracket which differs from the usual
``bulk'' Poisson bracket with a boundary term and show that the Jacobi identity
is satisfied. The result is geometrized on an abstract world volume manifold.
The method is suitable for studying systems with a spatial edge like the ones
often considered in Chern-Simons theory and General Relativity. Finally, we
discuss how the boundary terms may be related to the time ordering when
quantizing.Comment: 36 pages, LaTeX. v2: A manifest formulation of the Poisson bracket
and some examples are added, corrected a claim in Appendix C, added an
Appendix F and a reference. v3: Some comments and references adde
Comprehensive Spectral Analysis of Human EEG GENERATORS in Posterior Cerebral Regions
Human electroencephalogram generator spectral analysis in posterior cerebral region
Circadian rhythm of leaf movement in Capsicum annuum observed during centrifugation
Plant circadian rhythms of leaf movement in seedlings of the pepper plant (Capsicum annuum L., var. Yolo Wonder) were observed at different g-levels by means of a centrifuge. Except for the chronically imposed g-force all environmental conditions to which the plants were exposed were held constant. The circadian period, rate of change of amplitude of successive oscillations, symmetry of the cycles, and phase of the rhythm all were found not to be significantly correlated with the magnitude of the sustained g-force
Limitation on the use of the horizontal clinostat as a gravity compensator
If the horizontal clinostat effectively compensates for the influence of the gravity vector on the rotating plant, it makes the plant unresponsive to whatever chronic acceleration may be applied transverse to the axis of clinostat rotation. This was tested by centrifuging plants while they were growing on clinostats. For a number of morphological endpoints of development, the results depended on the magnitude of the applied g-force. Gravity compensation by the clinostat was incomplete, and this conclusion is in agreement with results of satellite experiments which are reviewed
Effects of increased G-force on the nutations of sunflower seedlings
A centrifuge was used to provide chronic acceleration in order to study the nutation of six-day old sunflower hypocotyls at 1 to 20 times normal gravity (g). At the upper end of the g-range nutational movement was impeded and at times erratic evidently because the weight of the cotyledons exceeded the supportive abilities of the hypocotyls. Over the range from 1 to 9 g the period of nutation was independent of the resultant g-force. That finding is interpreted as evidence that the geotropic response time -- i.e., the time needed for growth hormone transport from the region of g-sensing to the region of bending response --was not influenced significantly by substantial increments of the g-level, since geotropic response time is related to the period of nutation
Effects of vertical rotation on Arabidopsis development
Various gross morphological end points of Arabidopsis development are examined in an attempt to separate the effects of growth on the horizontal clinostat into a component caused by rotation alone and another component caused by the altered position with respect to the direction of the g-vector. In a series of tests which involved comparisons between vertical stationary plants, vertical rotated plants, and plants rotated on clinostats, certain characters were consistently influenced by vertical rotation alone. The characters for which this effect was statistically significant were petiole length and leaf blade width
Using Wii technology to explore real spaces via virtual environments for people who are blind
Purpose - Virtual environments (VEs) that represent real spaces (RSs) give people who are blind the opportunity to build a cognitive map in advance that they will be able to use when arriving at the RS. Design - In this research study Nintendo Wii based technology was used for exploring VEs via the Wiici application. The Wiimote allows the user to interact with VEs by simulating walking and scanning the space. Finding - By getting haptic and auditory feedback the user learned to explore new spaces. We examined the participants' abilities to explore new simple and complex places, construct a cognitive map, and perform orientation tasks in the RS. Originality – To our knowledge, this finding presents the first virtual environment for people who are blind that allow the participants to scan the environment and by this to construct map model spatial representations
Competing With the NYSE
We study the stock exchange rivalry between the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Consolidated Stock Exchange (Consolidated) from 1885 to 1926 using a new database of bid-ask spreads and stock data collected from The New York Times and other primary sources. The magnitude of this important, but largely forgotten rivalry was substantial. From 1885 to 1895, the ratio of Consolidated to NYSE volume averaged 40 percent and reached as high as 60 percent. The market share of the Consolidated averaged 23 percent for approximately 40 years. The Consolidated focused on the relatively liquid securities on the NYSE as measured by bid-ask spreads and trading volume. Our results suggest that NYSE bid-ask spreads fell by more than 10 percent when the Consolidated began to trade NYSE stocks while bid-ask spreads for our quasicontrol group of stocks trading on the Boston Stock Exchange remain unchanged. The effect persisted over the entire history of the stock market rivalry until a series of scandals and investigations of the Consolidated by state regulators led to the demise of the exchange in the 1920s. The analysis suggests three conclusions: (1) the NYSE has faced significant long-run competition (2) the NYSE may be susceptible to a similar level of competition in the future and (3) that the Consolidated may have improved the efficiency of stock prices by contributing to the price discovery process.
The postulates of gravitational thermodynamics
The general principles and logical structure of a thermodynamic formalism
that incorporates strongly self-gravitating systems are presented. This
framework generalizes and simplifies the formulation of thermodynamics
developed by Callen. The definition of extensive variables, the homogeneity
properties of intensive parameters, and the fundamental problem of
gravitational thermodynamics are discussed in detail. In particular, extensive
parameters include quasilocal quantities and are naturally incorporated into a
set of basic general postulates for thermodynamics. These include additivity of
entropies (Massieu functions) and the generalized second law. Fundamental
equations are no longer homogeneous first-order functions of their extensive
variables. It is shown that the postulates lead to a formal resolution of the
fundamental problem despite non-additivity of extensive parameters and
thermodynamic potentials. Therefore, all the results of (gravitational)
thermodynamics are an outgrowth of these postulates. The origin and nature of
the differences with ordinary thermodynamics are analyzed. Consequences of the
formalism include the (spatially) inhomogeneous character of thermodynamic
equilibrium states, a reformulation of the Euler equation, and the absence of a
Gibbs-Duhem relation.Comment: 28 pages, Revtex, no figures. An important sentence and several minor
corrections included. To appear in Physical Review
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