Assessing the potential of social media for estimating recreational use of urban and peri-urban forests

Acknowledgements The research for this paper was financially supported through the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the policies or official positions of the FOEN or the institutions they work for. We thank Rahul Deb Das for his assistance in data collection and processing. We gratefully acknowledge the comments and feedback of two anonymous reviewers.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Quantum critical point in the spin glass-antiferromagnetism competition for fermionic Ising Models

The competition between spin glass ($SG$) and antiferromagnetic order ($AF$) is analyzed in two sublattice fermionic Ising models in the presence of a transverse $\Gamma$ and a parallel $H$ magnetic fields. The exchange interaction follows a Gaussian probability distribution with mean $-4J_0/N$ and standard deviation $J\sqrt{32/N}$, but only spins in different sublattices can interact. The problem is formulated in a path integral formalism, where the spin operators have been expressed as bilinear combinations of Grassmann fields. The results of two fermionic models are compared. In the first one, the diagonal $S^z$ operator has four states, where two eigenvalues vanish (4S model), which are suppressed by a restriction in the two states 2S model. The replica symmetry ansatz and the static approximation have been used to obtain the free energy. The results are showing in phase diagrams $T/J$ ($T$ is the temperature) {\it versus} $J_{0}/J$, $\Gamma/J$, and $H/J$. When $\Gamma$ is increased, $T_{f}$ (transition temperature to a nonergodic phase) reduces and the Neel temperature decreases towards a quantum critical point. The field $H$ always destroys $AF$; however, within a certain range, it favors the frustration. Therefore, the presence of both fields, $\Gamma$ and $H$, produces effects that are in competition. The critical temperatures are lower for the 4S model and it is less sensitive to the magnetic couplings than the 2S model.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted in Physica

Computation of protein geometry and its applications: Packing and function prediction

This chapter discusses geometric models of biomolecules and geometric constructs, including the union of ball model, the weigthed Voronoi diagram, the weighted Delaunay triangulation, and the alpha shapes. These geometric constructs enable fast and analytical computaton of shapes of biomoleculres (including features such as voids and pockets) and metric properties (such as area and volume). The algorithms of Delaunay triangulation, computation of voids and pockets, as well volume/area computation are also described. In addition, applications in packing analysis of protein structures and protein function prediction are also discussed.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figure

Risico-, versterkende en beschermende factoren voor crimineel gedrag

This research report, commissioned by the municipality of Rotterdam, summarizes the current scientific knowledge about the most important factors that increase or decrease the probability to become involved in criminal behaviour. Based on information from existing meta-analyses, systematic reviews and overview studies, we identify which risk-, promotive and protective factors have been found in robust empirical studies, and how strong they are associated with four different types of criminal behaviour: general offending, juvenile delinquency crime, cybercrime and involvement in organized crime. We distinguish factors connected to five domains: personal characteristics, the family, peers and groups, school/work and contextual/neighborhood factors

Stability conditions for fermionic Ising spin-glass models in the presence of a transverse field

The stability of spin-glass (SG) phase is analyzed in detail for a fermionic Ising SG (FISG) model in the presence of a magnetic transverse field $\Gamma$. The fermionic path integral formalism, replica method and static approach have been used to obtain the thermodynamic potential within one step replica symmetry breaking ansatz. The replica symmetry (RS) results show that the SG phase is always unstable against the replicon. Moreover, the two other eigenvalues $\lambda_{\pm}$ of the Hessian matrix (related to the diagonal elements of the replica matrix) can indicate an additional instability to the SG phase, which enhances when $\Gamma$ is increased. Therefore, this result suggests that the study of the replicon can not be enough to guarantee the RS stability in the present quantum FISG model, especially near the quantum critical point. In particular, the FISG model allows changing the occupation number of sites, so one can get a first order transition when the chemical potential exceeds a certain value. In this region, the replicon and the $\lambda_{\pm}$ indicate instability problems for the SG solution close to all range of first order boundary.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Physica

The Longitudinal Polarimeter at HERA

The design, construction and operation of a Compton back-scattering laser polarimeter at the HERA storage ring at DESY are described. The device measures the longitudinal polarization of the electron beam between the spin rotators at the HERMES experiment with a fractional systematic uncertainty of 1.6%. A measurement of the beam polarization to an absolute statistical precision of 0.01 requires typically one minute when the device is operated in the multi-photon mode. The polarimeter also measures the polarization of each individual electron bunch to an absolute statistical precision of 0.06 in approximately five minutes. It was found that colliding and non-colliding bunches can have substantially different polarizations. This information is important to the collider experiments H1 and ZEUS for their future longitudinally polarized electron program because those experiments use the colliding bunches only.Comment: 21 pages (Latex), 14 figures (EPS

Multidimensional rasch models for partial credit scoring

Rasch models for partial-credit scoring are discussed and a multidimensional version of the model is formulated. A model may be specified in which consecutive item responses depend on an underlying latent trait. In the multidimensional partial-credit model, different responses may be explained by different latent traits. Data from van Kuyk’s (1988) size concept test and the Raven Progressive Matrices test were analyzed. Maximum likelihood estimation and goodness-of-fit testing are discussed and applied to these datasets. Goodness-of-fit statistics show that for both tests, multidimensional partial-credit models were more appropriate than the unidimensional partial-credit model. Index terms: X2 testing, exponential family model, multidimensional item response theory, multidimensional Rasch model, partial-credit models, Progressive Matrices test, Rasch model

A 750 mW, continuous-wave, solid-state laser source at 313 nm for cooling and manipulating trapped 9Be+ ions

We present a solid-state laser system that generates 750 mW of continuous-wave single-frequency output at 313 nm. Sum-frequency generation with fiber lasers at 1550 nm and 1051 nm produces up to 2 W at 626 nm. This visible light is then converted to UV by cavity-enhanced second-harmonic generation. The laser output can be tuned over a 495 GHz range, which includes the 9Be+ laser cooling and repumping transitions. This is the first report of a narrow-linewidth laser system with sufficient power to perform fault-tolerant quantum-gate operations with trapped 9Be+ ions by use of stimulated Raman transitions.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Combined CI+MBPT calculations of energy levels and transition amplitudes in Be, Mg, Ca, and Sr

Configuration interaction (CI) calculations in atoms with two valence electrons, carried out in the V(N-2) Hartree-Fock potential of the core, are corrected for core-valence interactions using many-body perturbation theory (MBPT). Two variants of the mixed CI+MBPT theory are described and applied to obtain energy levels and transition amplitudes for Be, Mg, Ca, and Sr