20,513 research outputs found
The role of sign in students' modeling of scalar equations
We describe students revising the mathematical form of physics equations to
match the physical situation they are describing, even though their revision
violates physical laws. In an unfamiliar air resistance problem, a majority of
students in a sophomore level mechanics class at some point wrote Newton's
Second Law as F = -ma; they were using this form to ensure that the sign of the
force pointed in a direction consistent with the chosen coordinate system while
assuming that some variables have only positive value. We use one student's
detailed explanation to suggest that students' issues with variables are
context-dependent, and that much of their reasoning is useful for productive
instruction.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, to be published in The Physics Teache
Exploring harm in psychotherapy: Perspectives of clinicians working with children and young people
Aims: The potential for harm to occur from talking therapies has been acknowledged in academic literature. However, there is a paucity of research when it comes to exploring this phenomenon when working with young patients. This study explores clinicians’ perspectives on harm from talking therapies when working with children and young people. /
Method: Eleven clinicians were interviewed on the types of harm that could occur from talking therapies, as well as the potential mechanisms. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis. /
Results: Two themes were identified around types of harm: ‘clinical deterioration’ and ‘retraumatisation’. Additionally, four groups of mechanisms were identified: ‘Administrative factors’, ‘Relationship factors’, ‘Therapist factors’ and ‘Contextual factors’. /
Discussion: Clinicians are able to identify some specific types of harm when working with children and young people and understand how these could occur. The clinical implications of these findings are explored, along with limitations and directions for future research
Travelling Salesman Problem with a Center
We study a travelling salesman problem where the path is optimized with a
cost function that includes its length as well as a certain measure of
its distance from the geometrical center of the graph. Using simulated
annealing (SA) we show that such a problem has a transition point that
separates two phases differing in the scaling behaviour of and , in
efficiency of SA, and in the shape of minimal paths.Comment: 4 pages, minor changes, accepted in Phys.Rev.
Relativistic quantum plasma dispersion functions
Relativistic quantum plasma dispersion functions are defined and the
longitudinal and transverse response functions for an electron (plus positron)
gas are written in terms of them. The dispersion is separated into
Landau-damping, pair-creation and dissipationless regimes. Explicit forms are
given for the RQPDFs in the cases of a completely degenerate distribution and a
nondegenerate thermal (J\"uttner) distribution. Particular emphasis is placed
on the relation between dissipation and dispersion, with the dissipation
treated in terms of the imaginary parts of RQPDFs. Comparing the dissipation
calculated in this way with the existing treatments leads to the identification
of errors in the literature, which we correct. We also comment on a controversy
as to whether the dispersion curves in a superdense plasma pass through the
region where pair creation is allowed.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur
Fully three dimensional breather solitons can be created using Feshbach resonance
We investigate the stability properties of breather solitons in a
three-dimensional Bose-Einstein Condensate with Feshbach Resonance Management
of the scattering length and con ned only by a one dimensional optical lattice.
We compare regions of stability in parameter space obtained from a fully 3D
analysis with those from a quasi two-dimensional treatment. For moderate con
nement we discover a new island of stability in the 3D case, not present in the
quasi 2D treatment. Stable solutions from this region have nontrivial dynamics
in the lattice direction, hence they describe fully 3D breather solitons. We
demonstrate these solutions in direct numerical simulations and outline a
possible way of creating robust 3D solitons in experiments in a Bose Einstein
Condensate in a one-dimensional lattice. We point other possible applications.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; accepted to Physical Review Letter
Identifying influential spreaders and efficiently estimating infection numbers in epidemic models: a walk counting approach
We introduce a new method to efficiently approximate the number of infections
resulting from a given initially-infected node in a network of susceptible
individuals. Our approach is based on counting the number of possible infection
walks of various lengths to each other node in the network. We analytically
study the properties of our method, in particular demonstrating different forms
for SIS and SIR disease spreading (e.g. under the SIR model our method counts
self-avoiding walks). In comparison to existing methods to infer the spreading
efficiency of different nodes in the network (based on degree, k-shell
decomposition analysis and different centrality measures), our method directly
considers the spreading process and, as such, is unique in providing estimation
of actual numbers of infections. Crucially, in simulating infections on various
real-world networks with the SIR model, we show that our walks-based method
improves the inference of effectiveness of nodes over a wide range of infection
rates compared to existing methods. We also analyse the trade-off between
estimate accuracy and computational cost, showing that the better accuracy here
can still be obtained at a comparable computational cost to other methods.Comment: 6 page
Quantum Control of Qubits and Atomic Motion Using Ultrafast Laser Pulses
Pulsed lasers offer significant advantages over CW lasers in the coherent
control of qubits. Here we review the theoretical and experimental aspects of
controlling the internal and external states of individual trapped atoms with
pulse trains. Two distinct regimes of laser intensity are identified. When the
pulses are sufficiently weak that the Rabi frequency is much smaller
than the trap frequency \otrap, sideband transitions can be addressed and
atom-atom entanglement can be accomplished in much the same way as with CW
lasers. By contrast, if the pulses are very strong (\Omega \gg \otrap),
impulsive spin-dependent kicks can be combined to create entangling gates which
are much faster than a trap period. These fast entangling gates should work
outside of the Lamb-Dicke regime and be insensitive to thermal atomic motion.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figure
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