23,817 research outputs found
Observations and a model of gravity-wave variability in the middle atmosphere
A major goal was to determine what portion of the gravity-wave frequency spectrum accounted for the majority of the momentum flux and divergence, as this has important implications for the middle atmosphere response. It was found that approx. 70% of the total flux and divergence was due to wave motions with observed periods less than 1 hour, consistent with expectations based on the shape of the observed gravity-wave spectrum (FrItts, 1984). This dominance of the momentum flux and divergence by high-frequency motions implies a potential for the modulation of those quantities by large-amplitude motions at lower frequencies. A second, striking aspect of the velocity and momentum flux data is its dramatic diurnal variability, particularly at certain levels. This variability is illustrated with the momentum flux, computed in 8-hr blocks. The dominant contributions here are due to waves with periods less than 1 hr. The variability with height and size of the mean square velocity in the west beam and the momentum flux, energed over the 3-day period. A detailed analysis of the various tidal motions present during this data interval was performed, and it was determined that variations in the zontal wind profile imposed by the diurnal tidal motion are probably responsible for the modulation of the gravity-wave amplitudes and momentum fluxes
The Richtmyer–Meshkov instability in magnetohydrodynamics
In ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability can be suppressed by the presence of a magnetic field. The interface still undergoes some growth, but this is bounded for a finite magnetic field. A model for this flow has been developed by considering the stability of an impulsively accelerated, sinusoidally perturbed density interface in the presence of a magnetic field that is parallel to the acceleration. This was accomplished by analytically solving the linearized initial value problem in the framework of ideal incompressible MHD. To assess the performance of the model, its predictions are compared to results obtained from numerical simulation of impulse driven linearized, shock driven linearized, and nonlinear compressible MHD for a variety of cases. It is shown that the analytical linear model collapses the data from the simulations well. The predicted interface behavior well approximates that seen in compressible linearized simulations when the shock strength, magnetic field strength, and perturbation amplitude are small. For such cases, the agreement with interface behavior that occurs in nonlinear simulations is also reasonable. The effects of increasing shock strength, magnetic field strength, and perturbation amplitude on both the flow and the performance of the model are investigated. This results in a detailed exposition of the features and behavior of the MHD Richtmyer–Meshkov flow. For strong shocks, large initial perturbation amplitudes, and strong magnetic fields, the linear model may give a rough estimate of the interface behavior, but it is not quantitatively accurate. In all cases examined the accuracy of the model is quantified and the flow physics underlying any discrepancies is examine
Magnitude estimation of perceived distance over various distance ranges
Magnitude estimation judgments of perceived distance for stationary space vehicle under conditions simulating outer spac
Verbal estimation of distance in a simulated space environment
Human performance in estimating distances in simulated space environmen
The social geography of childcare: 'making up' the middle class child
Childcare is a condensate of disparate social forces and social processes. It is gendered and classed. It is subject to an excess of policy and political discourse. It is increasingly a focus for commercial exploitation. This is a paper reporting on work in progress in an ESRC funded research project (R000239232) on the choice and provision of pre-school childcare by middle class (service class) families in two contrasting London locations. Drawing on recent work in class analysis the paper examines the relationships between childcare choice, middle class fractions and locality. It suggests that on the evidence of the findings to date, there is some evidence of systematic differences between fractions in terms of values, perspectives and preferences for childcare, but a more powerful case for intra-class similarities, particularly when it comes to putting preferences into practice in the 'making up of a middle class child' through care and education
Direct Interactions in Relativistic Statistical Mechanics
Directly interacting particles are considered in the multitime formalism of
predictive relativistic mechanics. When the equations of motion leave a
phase-space volume invariant, it turns out that the phase average of any first
integral, covariantly defined as a flux across a -dimensional surface, is
conserved. The Hamiltonian case is discussed, a class of simple models is
exhibited, and a tentative definition of equilibrium is proposed.Comment: Plain Tex file, 26 page
Spin glass behavior in an interacting gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticle system
In this paper we investigate the superspin glass behavior of a concentrated
assembly of interacting maghemite nanoparticles and compare it to that of
canonical atomic spin glass systems. ac versus temperature and frequency
measurements show evidence of a superspin glass transition taking place at low
temperature. In order to fully characterize the superspin glass phase, the
aging behavior of both the thermo-remanent magnetization (TRM) and ac
susceptibility has been investigated. It is shown that the scaling laws obeyed
by superspin glasses and atomic spin glasses are essentially the same, after
subtraction of a superparamagnetic contribution from the superspin glass
response functions. Finally, we discuss a possible origin of this
superparamagnetic contribution in terms of dilute spin glass models
Anomalous diffusion in correlated continuous time random walks
We demonstrate that continuous time random walks in which successive waiting
times are correlated by Gaussian statistics lead to anomalous diffusion with
mean squared displacement ~t^{2/3}. Long-ranged correlations of the
waiting times with power-law exponent alpha (0<alpha<=2) give rise to
subdiffusion of the form ~t^{alpha/(1+alpha)}. In contrast correlations
in the jump lengths are shown to produce superdiffusion. We show that in both
cases weak ergodicity breaking occurs. Our results are in excellent agreement
with simulations.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Slightly revised version, accepted to J Phys A as
a Fast Track Communicatio
Tweets as impact indicators: Examining the implications of automated bot accounts on Twitter
This brief communication presents preliminary findings on automated Twitter
accounts distributing links to scientific papers deposited on the preprint
repository arXiv. It discusses the implication of the presence of such bots
from the perspective of social media metrics (altmetrics), where mentions of
scholarly documents on Twitter have been suggested as a means of measuring
impact that is both broader and timelier than citations. We present preliminary
findings that automated Twitter accounts create a considerable amount of tweets
to scientific papers and that they behave differently than common social bots,
which has critical implications for the use of raw tweet counts in research
evaluation and assessment. We discuss some definitions of Twitter cyborgs and
bots in scholarly communication and propose differentiating between different
levels of engagement from tweeting only bibliographic information to discussing
or commenting on the content of a paper.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
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