7,405 research outputs found
The Green Movement: Implications for Animals
The Green movement, a newly emerging political movement that is both global in scope and firmly anchored to each local region at the grassroots level, is destined to be of great import to those concerned with the status of nonhuman animals in our society. Closely allied with deep ecology and bioregionalism, Green thinking embodies an alteration in our perception of the human organism: no longer seen as separate from and superior to all the other components of the ecosystem, our species is placed in context as one among many interdependent forms of life, with the attainment of a sustainable balance among all life forms being the desired goal in designing our human activities. Translation of this viewpoint into political action is the challenge of Green organizations on several continents today
Chaotic eigenfunctions in momentum space
We study eigenstates of chaotic billiards in the momentum representation and
propose the radially integrated momentum distribution as useful measure to
detect localization effects. For the momentum distribution, the radially
integrated momentum distribution, and the angular integrated momentum
distribution explicit formulae in terms of the normal derivative along the
billiard boundary are derived. We present a detailed numerical study for the
stadium and the cardioid billiard, which shows in several cases that the
radially integrated momentum distribution is a good indicator of localized
eigenstates, such as scars, or bouncing ball modes. We also find examples,
where the localization is more strongly pronounced in position space than in
momentum space, which we discuss in detail. Finally applications and
generalizations are discussed.Comment: 30 pages. The figures are included in low resolution only. For a
version with figures in high resolution see
http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ulm-tp/tp99-2.htm
Pre-service teachers linking their metalinguistic knowledge to their practice: A functional approach
Existing work in Anglophone countries has raised concerns regarding teachersâ knowledge about language (KAL); this may well be an issue in other countries also, with notable exceptions such as Finland. In Australia, with the introduction of the new Australian Curriculum, the question of teacher KAL has become crucial. Teachers, both practising and pre-service, generally have some knowledge about language as an object, usually including the text structures of particular school genres and information about sentence structure and word classes. This knowledge may be based on traditional grammar and may not be well applied above the sentence level. Teachers may also have an intuitive knowledge of discourse structures and are beginning to reflect on their own discourse using understandings of dialogic teaching. This paper provides an example of how first-year pre-service teachers (PSTs) were introduced to KAL at both the grammatical and the discourse levels, as part of an introductory unit on spoken language. A range of approaches was used, including a functional view of discourse. The PSTs then applied their KAL by putting it into a context that was meaningful for them: discussing their own practice. The paper gives an illustration of some of the work they produced that demonstrates their emerging understandings
Tunneling transverse to a magnetic field, and how it occurs in correlated 2D electron systems
We investigate tunneling decay in a magnetic field. Because of broken
time-reversal symmetry, the standard WKB technique does not apply. The decay
rate and the outcoming wave packet are found from the analysis of the set of
the particle Hamiltonian trajectories and its singularities in complex space.
The results are applied to tunneling from a strongly correlated 2D electron
system in a magnetic field parallel to the layer. We show in a simple model
that electron correlations exponentially strongly affect the tunneling rate.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
BMQ
BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals
On the rate of quantum ergodicity in Euclidean billiards
For a large class of quantized ergodic flows the quantum ergodicity theorem
due to Shnirelman, Zelditch, Colin de Verdi\`ere and others states that almost
all eigenfunctions become equidistributed in the semiclassical limit. In this
work we first give a short introduction to the formulation of the quantum
ergodicity theorem for general observables in terms of pseudodifferential
operators and show that it is equivalent to the semiclassical eigenfunction
hypothesis for the Wigner function in the case of ergodic systems. Of great
importance is the rate by which the quantum mechanical expectation values of an
observable tend to their mean value. This is studied numerically for three
Euclidean billiards (stadium, cosine and cardioid billiard) using up to 6000
eigenfunctions. We find that in configuration space the rate of quantum
ergodicity is strongly influenced by localized eigenfunctions like bouncing
ball modes or scarred eigenfunctions. We give a detailed discussion and
explanation of these effects using a simple but powerful model. For the rate of
quantum ergodicity in momentum space we observe a slower decay. We also study
the suitably normalized fluctuations of the expectation values around their
mean, and find good agreement with a Gaussian distribution.Comment: 40 pages, LaTeX2e. This version does not contain any figures. A
version with all figures can be obtained from
http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ (File:
http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ulm-tp/tp97-8.ps.gz) In case of any
problems contact Arnd B\"acker (e-mail: [email protected]) or Roman
Schubert (e-mail: [email protected]
Algebraic approach in the study of time-dependent nonlinear integrable systems: Case of the singular oscillator
The classical and the quantal problem of a particle interacting in
one-dimension with an external time-dependent quadratic potential and a
constant inverse square potential is studied from the Lie-algebraic point of
view. The integrability of this system is established by evaluating the exact
invariant closely related to the Lewis and Riesenfeld invariant for the
time-dependent harmonic oscillator. We study extensively the special and
interesting case of a kicked quadratic potential from which we derive a new
integrable, nonlinear, area preserving, two-dimensional map which may, for
instance, be used in numerical algorithms that integrate the
Calogero-Sutherland-Moser Hamiltonian. The dynamics, both classical and
quantal, is studied via the time-evolution operator which we evaluate using a
recent method of integrating the quantum Liouville-Bloch equations \cite{rau}.
The results show the exact one-to-one correspondence between the classical and
the quantal dynamics. Our analysis also sheds light on the connection between
properties of the SU(1,1) algebra and that of simple dynamical systems.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, Accepted in PR
Autocorrelation function of eigenstates in chaotic and mixed systems
We study the autocorrelation function of different types of eigenfunctions in
quantum mechanical systems with either chaotic or mixed classical limits. We
obtain an expansion of the autocorrelation function in terms of the correlation
length. For localized states, like bouncing ball modes or states living on
tori, a simple model using only classical input gives good agreement with the
exact result. In particular, a prediction for irregular eigenfunctions in mixed
systems is derived and tested. For chaotic systems, the expansion of the
autocorrelation function can be used to test quantum ergodicity on different
length scales.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures. Some of the pictures are included in low
resolution only. For a version with pictures in high resolution see
http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ or http://www.maths.bris.ac.uk/~maab
Aspects of classical and quantum motion on a flux cone
Motion of a non-relativistic particle on a cone with a magnetic flux running
through the cone axis (a ``flux cone'') is studied. It is expressed as the
motion of a particle moving on the Euclidean plane under the action of a
velocity-dependent force. Probability fluid (``quantum flow'') associated with
a particular stationary state is studied close to the singularity,
demonstrating non trivial Aharonov-Bohm effects. For example, it is shown that
near the singularity quantum flow departs from classical flow. In the context
of the hydrodynamical approach to quantum mechanics, quantum potential due to
the conical singularity is determined and the way it affects quantum flow is
analysed. It is shown that the winding number of classical orbits plays a role
in the description of the quantum flow. Connectivity of the configuration space
is also discussed.Comment: LaTeX file, 21 pages, 8 figure
Genetic associations between feed efficiency measured in a performance test station and performance of growing cattle in commercial beef herds
ABSTRACT: Interest in selection for improved feed efficiency is increasing, but before any steps are taken toward selecting for feed efficiency, correlations with other economically important traits must first be quantified. The objective of this study was to quantify the genetic associations between feed efficiency measured during performance testing and linear type traits, BW, live animal value, and carcass traits recorded in commercial herds. Feed efficiency data were available on 2,605 bulls from 1 performance test station. There were between 10,384 and 93,442 performance records on type traits, BW, animal value, or carcass traits from 17,225 commercial herds. (Co)variance components were estimated using linear mixed animal models. Genetic correlations between the muscular type traits in commercial animals and feed conversion ratio (â0.33 to â0.25), residual feed intake (RFI; â0.33 to â0.22), and residual BW gain (RG; 0.24 to 0.27) suggest that selection for improved feed efficiency should increase muscling. This is further evidenced by the genetic correlations between carcass conformation of commercial animals and feed conversion ratio (â0.46), RFI (â0.37), and residual BW gain (0.35) measured in performance-tested animals. Furthermore, the genetic correlations between RFI and both ultrasonic fat depth and carcass fat score (0.39 and 0.33, respectively) indicated that selection for improved RFI will result in leaner animals. It can be concluded from the genetic correlations estimated in this study that selection for feed efficiency will have no unfavorable effects on the performance traits measured in this study and will actually lead to an improvement in performance for some traits, such as muscularity, animal price, and carcass conformation. Conversely, this suggests that genetic selection for traits such as carcass quality, muscling traits, and animal value might also be indirectly selecting for more efficient animals
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