109 research outputs found
Does perceived ecological integrity affect restorative health outcomes? An examination of visitor experiences in diverse environments in an Ontario Protected Area
The human health and well-being benefits associated with nature contact is well established. Parks and other forms of protected areas contribute significantly to these benefits by providing access to nature. However, limited research has been done on how different environments within protected areas (e.g., forests, coasts, areas being restored) and the perceived quality (i.e., ecological integrity) of these environments affect the health and well-being outcomes of visitors. This study builds on previous work to better understand how visitor experiences provided by diverse natural and built environments in Pinery Provincial Park affect perceived restorative outcomes as one aspect of health and well-being, using a self-reported in-situ survey. Tablet computers were used to capture visitor responses at intercept points in different ecosites, identified using Ecological Land Classification (ELC) data. The survey included a modified Restorative Outcome Scale (ROS) to measure participant’s well-being and mood as well as scale questions concerning perceived ecological integrity and species richness, socio-demographics, and overall health factors. Results revealed high overall restorative outcomes from contact with nature in the park. The type of environment and length of stay had little influence on visitor’s perceived restorative outcomes. However, restorative outcomes were perceived to be greater by women than men. Visitors reported high restorative outcomes irrespective of their self-reported state of mental and physical health. The perceived integrity of the environment had the greatest impact on reported outcomes. Visitors who perceived an environment to have higher ecological integrity, species richness, or naturalness also reported higher restorative outcomes. These results underscore the important links between human health and ecological integrity and point to a need to better understand the synergies between managing for ecological integrity and visitor experiences in protected areas.
Key Words: restorative outcomes; ecological integrity; environmental quality; parks and protected areas; park management; perception
Ab initio GW many-body effects in graphene
We present an {\it ab initio} many-body GW calculation of the self-energy,
the quasiparticle band plot and the spectral functions in free-standing undoped
graphene. With respect to other approaches, we numerically take into account
the full ionic and electronic structure of real graphene and we introduce
electron-electron interaction and correlation effects from first principles.
Both non-hermitian and also dynamical components of the self-energy are fully
taken into account. With respect to DFT-LDA, the Fermi velocity is
substantially renormalized and raised by a 17%, in better agreement with
magnetotransport experiments. Furthermore, close to the Dirac point the linear
dispersion is modified by the presence of a kink, as observed in ARPES
experiments. Our calculations show that the kink is due to low-energy single-particle excitations and to the plasmon. Finally, the GW
self-energy does not open the band gap.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Density-based mixing parameter for hybrid functionals
A very popular ab-initio scheme to calculate electronic properties in solids
is the use of hybrid functionals in density functional theory (DFT) that mixes
a portion of Fock exchange with DFT functionals. In spite of their success, a
major problem still remains, related to the use of one single mixing parameter
for all materials. Guided by physical arguments that connect the mixing
parameter to the dielectric properties of the solid, and ultimately to its band
gap, we propose a method to calculate this parameter from the electronic
density alone. This method is able to cut significantly the error of
traditional hybrid functionals for large and small gap materials, while
retaining a good description of structural properties. Moreover, its
implementation is simple and leads to a negligible increase of the
computational time.Comment: submitte
Tuboovarian Abscesses: Is Size Associated with Duration of Hospitalization & Complications?
Objective. To evaluate the association between abscess size and duration of hospitalization and need for surgical intervention.
Methods. We collected data from patients admitted with ICD-9 codes 614.9 (PID) and 614.2 (TOA) from January 1, 1999—December 31, 2005. We abstracted data regarding demographics, diagnostic testing/laboratory testing, imaging, treatment, and clinical course. Two abscess groups were created: ≤8 cm or >8 cm. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and duration of hospitalization and surgical intervention for women with large abscesses were compared to women with smaller collections. Results. Of the 373 charts reviewed, 135 had a TOA and 31% required management with drainage and/or surgery. The average abscess size for those treated successfully with conservative management was 6.3 cm versus those requiring drainage and/or surgery (7.7 cm, P = .02). Every 1 cm increase in abscess size as associated with an increase in hospitalization by 0.4 days (P = .001). Abscesses greater than 8 cm were associated with an increased risk of complications (P < .01). Conclusions. Larger tubo-ovarian abscesses are associated with an increased duration of hospitalization and more complications including an increased need for drainage or surgery. Additional research to determine the most efficacious antibiotic regimen management strategy is needed
Calculation of shear viscosity using Green-Kubo relations within a parton cascade
The shear viscosity of a gluon gas is calculated using the Green-Kubo
relation. Time correlations of the energy-momentum tensor in thermal
equilibrium are extracted from microscopic simulations using a parton cascade
solving various Boltzmann collision processes. We find that the pQCD based
gluon bremsstrahlung described by Gunion-Bertsch processes significantly lowers
the shear viscosity by a factor of 3-8 compared to elastic scatterings. The
shear viscosity scales with the coupling as 1/(alpha_s^2\log(1/alpha_s)). For a
constant coupling constant the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio has no
dependence on temperature. Replacing the pQCD-based collision angle
distribution of binary scatterings by an isotropic form decreases the shear
viscosity by a factor of 3.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
"Notjustgirls": Exploring Male-related Eating Disordered Content across Social Media Platforms
Eating disorders (EDs) are a worldwide public health concern that impact approximately 10% of the U.S. population. Our previous research characterized these behaviors across online spaces. These characterizations have used clinical terminology, and their lexical variants, to identify ED content online. However, previous HCI research on EDs (including our own) suffers from a lack of gender and cultural diversity. In this paper, we designed a follow-up study of online ED characterizations, extending our previous methodologies to focus specifically on male/masculine-related content. We highlight the similarities and differences found in the terminology utilized and media archetypes associated with the social media content. Finally, we discuss other considerations highlighted through our analysis of the male-related content that is missing from the previous research
Approximations for many-body Green's functions: insights from the fundamental equations
Several widely used methods for the calculation of band structures and photo
emission spectra, such as the GW approximation, rely on Many-Body Perturbation
Theory. They can be obtained by iterating a set of functional differential
equations relating the one-particle Green's function to its functional
derivative with respect to an external perturbing potential. In the present
work we apply a linear response expansion in order to obtain insights in
various approximations for Green's functions calculations. The expansion leads
to an effective screening, while keeping the effects of the interaction to all
orders. In order to study various aspects of the resulting equations we
discretize them, and retain only one point in space, spin, and time for all
variables. Within this one-point model we obtain an explicit solution for the
Green's function, which allows us to explore the structure of the general
family of solutions, and to determine the specific solution that corresponds to
the physical one. Moreover we analyze the performances of established
approaches like over the whole range of interaction strength, and we
explore alternative approximations. Finally we link certain approximations for
the exact solution to the corresponding manipulations for the differential
equation which produce them. This link is crucial in view of a generalization
of our findings to the real (multidimensional functional) case where only the
differential equation is known.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure
Linear plasmon dispersion in single-wall carbon nanotubes and the collective excitation spectrum of graphene
We have measured a strictly linear pi-plasmon dispersion along the axis of
individualized single wall carbon nanotubes, which is completely different from
plasmon dispersions of graphite or bundled single wall carbon nanotubes.
Comparative ab initio studies on graphene based systems allow us to reproduce
the different dispersions. This suggests that individualized nanotubes provide
viable experimental access to collective electronic excitations of graphene,
and it validates the use of graphene to understand electronic excitations of
carbon nanotubes. In particular, the calculations reveal that local field
effects (LFE) cause a mixing of electronic transitions, including the 'Dirac
cone', resulting in the observed linear dispersion
Excitonic effects in solids described by time-dependent density functional theory
Starting from the many-body Bethe-Salpeter equation we derive an
exchange-correlation kernel that reproduces excitonic effects in bulk
materials within time-dependent density functional theory. The resulting
accounts for both self-energy corrections and the electron-hole
interaction. It is {\em static}, {\em non-local} and has a long-range Coulomb
tail. Taking the example of bulk silicon, we show that the
divergency is crucial and can, in the case of continuum excitons, even be
sufficient for reproducing the excitonic effects and yielding excellent
agreement between the calculated and the experimental absorption spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
Mach Cones in Viscous Matter
Employing a microscopic transport model we investigate the evolution of high
energetic jets moving through a viscous medium. For the scenario of an
unstoppable jet we observe a clearly strong collective behavior for a low
dissipative system , leading to the observation of
cone-like structures. Increasing the dissipation of the system to the Mach Cone structure vanishes. Furthermore, we investigate
jet-associated particle correlations. A double-peak structure, as observed in
experimental data, is even for low-dissipative systems not supported, because
of the large influence of the head shock.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the conference proceedings of Hot
Quarks 201
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