The effect of the relative nuclear size on the nucleus-nucleus interactions

The experimental data on the interactions of light nuclei (d, He(4), C(12)) at the momentum 4.2 GeV/cA with the carbon nuclei were taken in the 2-m propane bubble chamber. The distributions in the number of interacting nucleons, the spectra of protons, the mean energies of secondary pions and protons, the mean fractions of energy transferred to the pion and nucleon components are presented. The results of the investigation of the mechanism of nucleus-nucleus interactions can be used to calculate the nuclear cascades in the atmosphere

Why affiliation matters: A conversation analysis of complaints calls to the NHS

Callers making a complaint share their negative experience in complaint narratives that make relevant affiliation from an operator. We examined how call handlers' language choices affect both the progress of the call and the stance of the caller. We identified episodes where affiliation is displayed or noticeably absent in a dataset of 95 complaints calls to the NHS. Two single cases were closely examined using conversation analysis. Affiliation at sequentially relevant moments in conversation helps progress the call and de-escalate the complaint while the absence or misplacement of affiliation may lead to escalation. The latter recurringly involves blaming whilst de-escalation includes practices that diffuse blame. Early intervention in the form of affiliation to the 'hurt' component and the reasoning of the complaint is essential to de-escalation. Our analysis revealed three key functions of affiliation in complaints calls: 1) ratifying the reasonableness of the complaint; 2) progressing the institutional requirements of the call; 3) de-escalating the complaint. Call handlers should listen for callers' cues for legitimization of the complainability of their concerns and seek to provide responses that express affiliation. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Harnessing the power of language to enhance patient experience of the NHS complaint journey in Northern Ireland: a mixed-methods study

AbstractBackgroundGood communication is consistently recognised as essential for effective complaint handling, while failures in communication correlate with risk of escalation. Nonetheless, communication in National Health Service complaint handling remains underexamined.ObjectivesTo examine complainants’ lived experience of the complaints journey through (1) micro-analysis of their communication with National Health Service representatives; (2) their self-reported expectations and experiences throughout the complaints journey; to survey patient perceptions of the culture of the National Health Service; to develop ‘Real Complaints’ – an evidence-based communication training resource.DesignThe project triangulates microlevel conversation analysis and discourse analysis of spoken and written complaints encounters with complainants’ appraisals of those encounters in longitudinal case studies. This is underpinned by an audit of patient views of the cultural–institutional context of the National Health Service.Setting and participantsData were gathered in the complaints-handling services of two National Health Service trusts and a Patient Advocacy Service in Northern Ireland. Twenty-three complainants consented to longitudinal data collection and 58 to initial encounter recording; 115 members of the Patient Advocacy Service mailing list completed the cultural audit; 3 trust complaint handlers, 1 Patient Advocacy Service complaint handler and 2 trust complaints managers were interviewed.Data sourcesThis yielded 1155 minutes of recorded calls, 113 written encounters, 36 diaries, 6 meetings, 23 interviews and 115 cultural audit responses collected over a period of 24 months.ResultsOur analysis illuminates the dual nature of complaints: as personal expressions of dissatisfaction and as systemic critiques. The complaint experience is a dynamic journey with evolving narratives reflecting complainants’ shifting perceptions, expectations and experiences of the ‘system’, both moment-by-moment and encounter-by-encounter in the overall journey. Key interpersonal priorities for complainants significantly affected complaint outcomes, most important of which was the need to be respected as a ‘reasonable complainant’. Also key is the conversation analytic concept of affiliation, which involves taking a stance towards the event(s) being described that matches the complainant’s stance. Use of affiliation by call handlers supported effective and efficient person-centred complaints handling, while absence of affiliation typically led to escalation of the scope, scale and emotional intensity of the complaint, sometimes to the point of an expressed intention to litigate (particularly in the case of written responses). Viewed holistically, successful complaints communication requires person-centredness, and affiliative interactions framed by shared expectations. These findings were applied in the development of Real Complaints Training and Guidance for spoken and written complaints communication.LimitationsThe COVID pandemic significantly constrained trust participation, particularly the participation of front-line clinical staff, and one trust introduced ‘telephone resolution’ to which we were not given access. Additionally, calls viewed by staff as ‘challenging’ and ethnic minority communities are both under-represented in the final data set.ConclusionsAddressing the complainant’s desire to be perceived as reasonable was revealed as crucial for fostering a more person-centred approach to handling complaints and addressing the gap between expectations and experience. This finding holds particular significance for recommendations, guidance and training relating to both spoken and written communication.Future workDirect extensions of the project include the piloting and evaluation of Real Complaints Training and further primary research involving communication between complainants and front-line service/clinical staff and complaint handling by ombudsman complaints investigators. An emerging question relates to social exclusion and access to complaints procedures.Study registrationThis study is registered as Research Registry: researchregistry5049.FundingThis award was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme (NIHR award ref: NIHR127367) and is published in full in Health and Social Care Delivery Research Vol. 12, No. 33. See the NIHR Funding and Awards website for further award information.<br/

Quark Model and Neutral Strange Secondary Production by Neutrino and Antineutrino Beams

The experimental data on $K^0$ and $\Lambda$ production by $\nu$ and $\bar{\nu}$ beams are compared with the predictions of quark model assuming that the direct production of secondaries dominates. Disagreement of these predictions with the data allows one to suppose that there exists considerable resonance decay contribution to the multiplicities of produced secondaries.Comment: 6 pages, no figures, 2 table

Conceptual opposition "friend" -"enemy" in Russian medieval period

The study of the Russian mentality development origin is in the focus of many modern studies in linguistics, cognition science, cultural studies and sociology. The article considers one of the key oppositions of the Russian worldview "friend" - "enemy" and the specificity of its representation in the language picture of the world of a medieval man. In order to study it, various methods were used, including the method of conceptual analysis, a descriptive method, including the analysis of lexicographic sources, and the method of contextual analysis. It was determined that the schematism of a man's image in the linguistic picture of the medieval world determined the great sociological development of the concepts "friend" and "enemy" in the Old Russian consciousness. This opposition was primarily associated with the implementation of military or social relationships idea and much less often with interpersonal relations. The article describes the derivations from the foundations of the friend and the enemy, their synonymous parallels were revealed, and the semantic specialization of each lexical unit and the peculiarity of the syntagmatic relations were determined. The results of the study are important to develop the picture of the historical evolution concerning the notion of friendship in Russian linguistic consciousness, to understand the semantic shifts in the meaning of lexemes representing an opposition under study. The reinterpretation of friendly relations took place in the Russian worldview. They were understood as a state inherent to the masses of people, to the perception of friendship as a deep feeling related with the spiritual sphere of a man. The results of the study are significant in linguistic, cultural, psychological and cognitive relationships

Representation of a concept "good" in a language picture of the Middle Ages world (on chronicles data)

The attention of modern scientists to studying processes of cognitive activity reflection of the person in language becomes more and more permanent. Addressing the most ancient texts allows to observe the Russian culture behind evolution of key concepts. In article conceptual ideas of goodare investigated in outlook of the Russian Middle Ages. As material the texts of the chronicles which most fully reflect a condition of Russian of that time are used. The concept good is considered as the key ethical category developed in earlytimes. The analysis of the contextual representation use of a concept allows to observe good in articles of various contents behind evolution of good ideas in consciousness of the Russian people. Use of a semantic-cognitive analysis method has allowed to reveal features of reflection of a good concept in language consciousness of the Middle Ages person, and functional and semantic features of the lexemes connected with a good concept have been defined by descriptive and analytical method. As a result of research the conclusion has been drawn on gradual transition from perception of this concept as manifestations of will of the highest essence, God to understanding of human nature of good that is connected with changes in culture. Various aspects of understanding good in language consciousness of our ancestors, the most significant of which were ethical, aesthetic and social, are defined. The pragmatical orientation of ideas of the good understood as state of nature, favorable for the person or society is emphasized. The key language units serving for the nomination of the studied concept are revealed, their semantic, grammatical and syntactic features are characterized. Compound words with the first part good and benefit are revealed and analyzed

Impact of Tide-Topography Interactions on Basal Melting of Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Basal melting of ice shelves around Antarctica contributes to formation of Antarctic Bottom Water and can affect global sea level by altering the offshore flow of grounded ice streams and glaciers. Tides influence ice shelf basal melt rate (w(b)) by contributing to ocean mixing and mean circulation as well as thermohaline exchanges with the ice shelf. We use a three-dimensional ocean model, thermodynamically coupled to a nonevolving ice shelf, to investigate the relationship between topography, tides, and w(b) for Larsen C Ice Shelf (LCIS) in the northwestern Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Using our best estimates of ice shelf thickness and seabed topography, we find that the largest modeled LCIS melt rates occur in the northeast, where our model predicts strong diurnal tidal currents (similar to 0.4 m s(-1)). This distribution is significantly different from models with no tidal forcing, which predict largest melt rates along the deep grounding lines. We compare several model runs to explore melt rate sensitivity to geometry, initial ocean potential temperature (theta(0)), thermodynamic parameterizations of heat and freshwater ice-ocean exchange, and tidal forcing. The resulting range of LCIS-averaged w(b) is similar to 0.11-0.44 m a(-1). The spatial distribution of w(b) is very sensitive to model geometry and thermodynamic parameterization while the overall magnitude of w(b) is influenced by theta(0). These sensitivities in w(b) predictions reinforce a need for high-resolution maps of ice draft and sub-ice-shelf seabed topography together with ocean temperature measurements at the ice shelf front to improve representation of ice shelves in coupled climate system models

Assimilation of Ship-Mounted ADCP Data for Barotropic Tides: Application to the Ross Sea

The application of a generalized inverse approach for assimilating vessel-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (VM-ADCP) data into numerical solutions of barotropic tides is described. The derived estimates of tidal currents can be used to detide the VM-ADCP data and expose underlying mean circulation. The methodology is illustrated with data assimilation models of tidal currents in the Ross Sea. The prior solution, obtained by solving the nonlinear shallow-water equations by time stepping with a linear bottom friction parameterization and elevation of open boundary conditions obtained from a circum-Antarctic tide model, provides reasonably good fit to most available moored current meter data. Two inverse solutions were obtained: one assimilating moored current meter records and the other assimilating three cruises of VM-ADCP data. Fitting either the mooring time series or the VM-ADCP records leads to only small changes relative to the prior solution currents, except over the shelf break where short length scale, energetic diurnal topographic vorticity waves are present. It is shown that the dynamics embedded in the representer functions provides reasonable tidal corrections even with no prior information about forcing at open boundaries

Multi-wavelength observations of afterglow of GRB 080319B and the modeling constraints

We present observations of the afterglow of GRB 080319B at optical, mm and radio frequencies from a few hours to 67 days after the burst. Present observations along with other published multi-wavelength data have been used to study the light-curves and spectral energy distributions of the burst afterglow. The nature of this brightest cosmic explosion has been explored based on the observed properties and it's comparison with the afterglow models. Our results show that the observed features of the afterglow fits equally good with the Inter Stellar Matter and the Stellar Wind density profiles of the circum-burst medium. In case of both density profiles, location of the maximum synchrotron frequency $\nu_m$ is below optical and the value of cooling break frequency $\nu_c$ is below $X-$rays, $\sim 10^{4}$s after the burst. Also, the derived value of the Lorentz factor at the time of naked eye brightness is $\sim 300$ with the corresponding blast wave size of $\sim 10^{18}$ cm. The numerical fit to the multi-wavelength afterglow data constraints the values of physical parameters and the emission mechanism of the burst.Comment: 8 Pages, 3 Figures, Accepted for publication to Astronomy and Astrophysics on 02/04/200

Revised circulation scheme North of the Denmark Strait

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier Ltd. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 79 (2013): 20-39, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2013.05.007.The circulation and water mass transports north of the Denmark Strait are investigated using recently collected and historical in-situ data along with an idealized numerical model and atmospheric reanalysis fields. Emphasis is placed on the pathways of dense water feeding theDenmark StraitOverflowWater plume as well as the upper-layer circulation of freshwater. It is found that the East Greenland Current (EGC) bifurcates at the northern end of the Blosseville Basin, some 450 km upstream of the Denmark Strait, advecting overflow water and surface freshwater away from the boundary. This “separated EGC” flows southward adjacent to the previously identified North Icelandic Jet, indicating that approximately 70% of the Denmark Strait Overflow Water approaches the sill along the Iceland continental slope. Roughly a quarter of the freshwater transport of the EGC is diverted offshore via the bifurcation. Two hypotheses are examined to explain the existence of the separated EGC. The atmospheric fields demonstrate that flow distortion due to the orography of Greenland imparts significant vorticity into the ocean in this region. The negative wind stress curl, together with the closed bathymetric contours of the Blosseville Basin, is conducive for spinning up an anti-cyclonic gyre whose offshore branch could represent the separated EGC. An idealized numerical simulation suggests instead that the current is primarily eddy-forced. In particular, baroclinic instability of the model EGC spawns large anticyclones that migrate offshore and coalesce upon reaching the Iceland continental slope, resulting in the separated EGC. Regardless of the formation mechanism, the recently obtained shipboard data and historical hydrography both indicate that the separated EGC is a permanent feature of the circulation north of the Denmark Strait.Support for this work was provided by the Norwegian Research Council (KV), the European Union 7th Framework Programme (FP7 2007-2013) under grant agreement n.308299 NACLIM Project (KV), US National Science Foundation grants OCE-0959381 (RP, MS, DT) and OCE-0850416 (MS), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (KM)