Interaction of laser generated ultrasonic waves with wedge-shaped samples

Wedge-shaped samples can be used as a model of acoustic interactions with samples ranging from ocean wedges, to angled defects such as rolling contact fatigue, to thickness measurements of samples with non-parallel faces. We present work on laser generated ultrasonic waves on metal samples; one can measure the dominant Rayleigh-wave mode, but longitudinal and shear waves are also generated. We present calculations, models, and measurements giving the dependence of the arrival times and amplitudes of these modes on the wedge apex angle and the separation of generation and detection points, and hence give a measure of the wedge characteristics

Evaluating the Chinese Revised Controlling Behaviors Scale (C-CBS-R)

The present study evaluated the utility of the Chinese version of the Revised Controlling Behaviors Scale (C-CBS-R) as a measure of controlling behaviors in violent Chinese intimate relationships. Using a mixed-methods approach, in-depth, individual interviews were conducted with 200 Chinese women survivors to elicit qualitative data about their personal experiences of control in intimate relationships. The use of controlling behaviors was also assessed using the C-CBS-R. Interview accounts suggested that the experiences of 91 of the women were consistent with the description of coercive control according to Dutton and Goodman’s (2005) conceptualization of coercion. Using the split-half validation procedure, a receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis was conducted with the first half of the sample. The area under the curve (AUC) for using the C-CBS-R to identify high control was .99, and the cutoff score of 1.145 maximized both sensitivity and specificity. Applying the cutoff score to the second half gave a sensitivity of 96% and a specificity of 95%. Overall, the C-CBS-R has demonstrated utility as a measure of controlling behaviors with a cutoff score for distinguishing high from low levels of control in violent Chinese intimate relationships

A systematic review of pedagogical interventions on the learning of historical literacy in schools

Over the past thirty years, there has been a growing body of research investigating the efficacy of pedagogical interventions to enhance the historical literacy skills of primary and secondary school students. However, there exists no systematic review or meta-analysis summarising the impact of such research or the efficacy of interventions trialled. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify pedagogies that have a demonstrable effect on students’ historical literacy skills, with a particular interest in those pedagogies that have a measurable positive effect on historical epistemological knowledge and skills. Findings of this review indicate that when a discrete historical epistemological knowledge or skill is targeted by a pedagogical intervention that utilises a discipline-specific scaffolded heuristic, there is greater likelihood of positive outcomes for student learning. However, the significant heterogeneity between studies, and the diversity in the comparisons being made by the included studies, make it difficult to identify the most effective intervention. This systematic review establishes the characteristic features of pedagogical historical literacy interventions from the available research reporting credible findings

Electromagnetically induced transparency in superconducting quantum circuits : Effects of decoherence, tunneling and multi-level cross-talk

We explore theoretically electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) in a superconducting quantum circuit (SQC). The system is a persistent-current flux qubit biased in a $\Lambda$ configuration. Previously [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 087003 (2004)], we showed that an ideally-prepared EIT system provides a sensitive means to probe decoherence. Here, we extend this work by exploring the effects of imperfect dark-state preparation and specific decoherence mechanisms (population loss via tunneling, pure dephasing, and incoherent population exchange). We find an initial, rapid population loss from the $\Lambda$ system for an imperfectly prepared dark state. This is followed by a slower population loss due to both the detuning of the microwave fields from the EIT resonance and the existing decoherence mechanisms. We find analytic expressions for the slow loss rate, with coefficients that depend on the particular decoherence mechanisms, thereby providing a means to probe, identify, and quantify various sources of decoherence with EIT. We go beyond the rotating wave approximation to consider how strong microwave fields can induce additional off-resonant transitions in the SQC, and we show how these effects can be mitigated by compensation of the resulting AC Stark shifts

Problems persist in reporting of methods and results for the WOMAC measure in hip and knee osteoarthritis trials

Purpose The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) is a commonly used outcome measure for osteoarthritis. There are different versions of the WOMAC (Likert, visual analogue or numeric scales). A previous review of trials published before 2010 found poor reporting and inconsistency in how the WOMAC was used. This review explores whether these problems persist. Methods This systematic review included randomised trials of hip and/or knee osteoarthritis published in 2016 that used the WOMAC. Data were extracted on the version used, score range, analysis and results of the WOMAC, and whether these details were clearly reported. Results This review included 62 trials and 41 reported the WOMAC total score. The version used and item range for the WOMAC total score were unclear in 44% (n = 18/41) and 24% (n = 10/41) of trials, respectively. The smallest total score range was 0–10 (calculated by averaging 24 items scored 0–10); the largest was 0–2400 (calculated by summing 24 items scored 0–100). All trials reported the statistical analysis methods but only 29% reported the between-group mean difference and 95% confidence interval. Conclusion Details on the use and scoring of the WOMAC were often not reported. We recommend that trials report the version of the WOMAC and the score range used. The between-group treatment effect and corresponding confidence interval should be reported. If all the items of the WOMAC are collected, the total score and individual subscale scores should be presented. Better reporting would facilitate the interpretation, comparison and synthesis of the WOMAC score in trials

Displaced but not replaced: the impact of e-learning on academic identities in higher education.

Challenges facing universities are leading many to implement institutional strategies to incorporate e-learning rather than leaving its adoption up to enthusiastic individuals. Although there is growing understanding about the impact of e-learning on the student experience, there is less understanding of academics’ perceptions of e-learning and its impact on their identities. This paper explores the changing nature of academic identities revealed through case study research into the implementation of e-learning at one UK university. By providing insight into the lived experiences of academics in a university in which technology is not only transforming access to knowledge but also influencing the balance of power between academic and student in knowledge production and use, it is suggested that academics may experience a jolt to their ‘trajectory of self’ when engaging with e-learning. The potential for e-learning to prompt loss of teacher presence and displacement as knowledge expert may appear to undermine the ontological security of their academic identity

Information needs after stroke: What to include and how to structure it on a website. A qualitative study using focus groups and card sorting

Background: Use of the Internet to obtain health and other information is increasing. Previous studies have identified the specific information needs of people with stroke but not in relation to the Internet. People with aphasia (PwA) may face barriers in accessing the Internet: Navigating websites requires an ability to categorise information and this ability is often impaired in PwA. The website categorisation preferences of people with stroke and with aphasia have not yet been reported. Aims: This study aimed: (a) to determine what information people who have had a stroke would like to see on a website about living with stroke; (b) to determine the most effective means of structuring information on the website so that it is accessible to people with stroke; and c) to identify any differences between people with and without aphasia in terms of preferences for structuring information on the website. Methods & Procedures: Participants were recruited from a hospital's Stroke Database. Focus groups were used to elicit what information participants wanted on a website about living with stroke. The themes raised were depicted on 133 cards. To determine the most effective way of structuring information on the website, and whether there were any differences in preferences between PwA and PwoA, participants used a modified closed card-sorting technique to sort the cards under website categories. Outcomes & Results: A total of 48 people were invited, and 12 (25%) agreed to take part. We ran three focus groups: one with PwA (n = 5) and two with people without aphasia (PwoA) (n = 3, n = 4). Participants wanted more information about stroke causes and effects (particularly emotional issues), roles of local agencies, and returning to previous activities (driving, going out). All participants completed the card-sorting exercise. Few cards (6%) were categorised identically by everyone. Cards relating to local agencies and groups were not consistently categorised together. Cards relating to emotions were segregated. The categorisation preferences for PwA were more fragmented than those for PwoA: 60% of PwA agreed on the categorisation of 51% of the cards, whereas 60% of PwoA agreed on the categorisation of 76% of the cards. Conclusions: Information needs covered all stages of the stroke journey. The card sorting was accessible to everyone, and provided evidence of structuring preferences and of some of the categorisation difficulties faced by PwA. More research is needed on what an accessible website looks like for PwA

Global and regional emissions estimates for N2O

We present a comprehensive estimate of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions using observations and models from 1995 to 2008. High-frequency records of tropospheric N2O are available from measurements at Cape Grim, Tasmania; Cape Matatula, American Samoa; Ragged Point, Barbados; Mace Head, Ireland; and at Trinidad Head, California using the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) instrumentation and calibrations. The Global Monitoring Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA/ESRL) has also collected discrete air samples in flasks and in situ measurements from remote sites across the globe and analyzed them for a suite of species including N2O. In addition to these major networks, we include in situ and aircraft measurements from the National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES) and flask measurements from the Tohoku University and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) networks. All measurements show increasing atmospheric mole fractions of N2O, with a varying growth rate of 0.1-0.7% per year, resulting in a 7.4% increase in the background atmospheric mole fraction between 1979 and 2011. Using existing emission inventories as well as bottom-up process modeling results, we first create globally gridded a priori N2O emissions over the 37 years since 1975. We then use the three-dimensional chemical transport model, Model for Ozone and Related Chemical Tracers version 4 (MOZART v4), and a Bayesian inverse method to estimate global as well as regional annual emissions for five source sectors from 13 regions in the world. This is the first time that all of these measurements from multiple networks have been combined to determine emissions. Our inversion indicates that global and regional N2O emissions have an increasing trend between 1995 and 2008. Despite large uncertainties, a significant increase is seen from the Asian agricultural sector in recent years, most likely due to an increase in the use of nitrogenous fertilizers, as has been suggested by previous studies.</p

Geometrical tests of cosmological models. II. Calibration of rotational widths and disc scaling relations

This series of papers is dedicated to a new technique to select galaxies that can act as standard rods and standard candles in order to perform geometrical tests on large samples of high redshift galaxies to constrain different cosmological parameters. The goals of this paper are (1) to compare different rotation indicators in order to understand the relation between rotation velocities extracted from observations of the Halpha line and the [OII]3727 line, and (2) determine the scaling relations between physical size, surface brightness and magnitude of galaxies and their rotation velocity using the SFI++, a large catalog of nearby galaxies observed at I-band. A good correlation is observed between the rotation curve-derived velocities of the Halpha and [OII] observations, as well as between those calculated from velocity histograms, justifying the direct comparison of velocities measured from Halpha rotation curves in nearby galaxies and from [OII] line widths at higher redshifts. To provide calibration for the geometrical tests, we give expressions for the different scaling relations between properties of galaxies (size, surface brightness, magnitude) and their rotation speeds. Apart from the Tully-Fisher relation, we derive the size-rotation velocity and surface brightness-rotation velocity relations with unprecedentedly small scatters. We show how the best size-rotation velocity relation is derived when size is estimated not from disc scale lengths but from the isophotal diameter r23.5, once these have been corrected for inclination and extinction effects.Comment: 14 pages and 10 figures. A&A submitte