Narrative, identity, and recovery from serious mental illness: A life history of a runner

In recent years, researchers have investigated the psychological effects of exercise for people with mental health problems, often by focusing on how exercise may alleviate symptoms of mental illness. In this article I take a different tack to explore the ways in which exercise contributed a sense of meaning, purpose, and identity to the life of one individual named Ben, a runner diagnosed with schizophrenia. Drawing on life history data, I conducted an analysis of narrative to explore the narrative types that underlie Ben's stories of mental illness and exercise. For Ben, serious mental illness profoundly disrupted a pre-existing athletic identity removing agency, continuity, and coherence from his life story. By returning to exercise several years later, Ben reclaimed his athletic identity and reinstated some degree of narrative agency, continuity, and coherence. While the relationships between narrative, identity, and mental health are undoubtedly complex, Ben's story suggests that exercise can contribute to recovery by being a personally meaningful activity which reinforces identity and sense of self

Virtual-crystal approximation that works: Locating a composition phase boundary in Pb(Zr_{1-x}Ti_3)O_3

We present a new method for modeling disordered solid solutions, based on the virtual crystal approximation (VCA). The VCA is a tractable way of studying configurationally disordered systems; traditionally, the potentials which represent atoms of two or more elements are averaged into a composite atomic potential. We have overcome significant shortcomings of the standard VCA by developing a potential which yields averaged atomic properties. We perform the VCA on a ferroelectric oxide, determining the energy differences between the high-temperature rhombohedral, low-temperature rhombohedral and tetragonal phases of Pb(Zr_{1-x}Ti_x)O_3 at x=0.5 and comparing these results to superlattice calculations and experiment. We then use our new method to determine the preferred structural phase at x=0.4. We find that the low-temperature rhombohedral phase becomes the ground state at x=0.4, in agreement with experimental findings.Comment: 5 pages, no figure

Effect of an acute dose of omega-3 fish oil following exercise-induced muscle damage

Purpose The purpose of this double-blind, placebo-controlled study was to examine the effect of two fish oil supplements, one high in EPA (750 mg EPA, 50 mg DHA) and one low in EPA (150 mg EPA, 100 mg DHA), taken acutely as a recovery strategy following EIMD. Methods Twenty-seven physically active males (26 ± 4 year, 1.77 ± 0.07 m, 80 ± 10 kg) completed 100 plyometric drop jumps to induce muscle damage. Perceptual (perceived soreness) and functional (isokinetic muscle strength at 60° and 180° s−1, squat jump performance and countermovement jump performance) indices of EIMD were recorded before, and 1, 24, 48, 72, and 96h after the damaging protocol. Immediately after the damaging protocol, volunteers ingested either a placebo (Con), a low-EPA fish oil (Low EPA) or a high-EPA fish oil (High EPA) at a dose of 1 g per 10 kg body mass. Results A significant group main effect was observed for squat jump, with the High EPA group performing better than Con and Low EPA groups (average performance decrement, 2.1, 8.3 and 9.8%, respectively), and similar findings were observed for countermovement jump performance, (average performance decrement, 1.7, 6.8 and 6.8%, respectively, p = 0.07). Significant time, but no interaction main effects were observed for all functional and perceptual indices measured, although large effect sizes demonstrate a possible ameliorating effect of high dose of EPA fish supplementation (effect sizes ≥0.14). Conclusion This study indicates that an acute dose of high-EPA fish oil may ameliorate the functional changes following EIMD

Pulsar Searches And Timing With The Square Kilometre Array

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned multi purpose radio telescope with a collecting area approaching 1 million square metres. One of the key science objectives of the SKA is to provide exquisite strong-field tests of gravitational physics by finding and timing pulsars in extreme binary systems such as a pulsar-black hole binary. To find out how three preliminary SKA configurations will affect a pulsar survey, we have simulated SKA pulsar surveys for each configuration. We estimate that the total number of normal pulsars the SKA will detect, using only the 1-km core and 30 minutes integration time, is around 14000 normal pulsar and 6000 millisecond pulsars. We describe a simple strategy for follow-up timing observations and find that, depending on the configuration, it would take 1-6 days to obtain a single timing point for 14000 pulsars. Obtaining a single timing point for the high-precision timing projects of the SKA, will take less than 14 hours, 2 days, or 3 days, depending on the configuration. The presence of aperture arrays will be of great benefit here. We also study the computational requirements for beam forming and data analysis for a pulsar survey. Beam forming of the full field of view of the single-pixel feed 15-m dishes using the 1-km core of the SKA requires about 2.2*10^15 operations per second. The corresponding data rate from such a pulsar survey is about 4.7*10^11 bytes per second. The required computational power for a deep real time analysis is estimated to be 1.2*10^16 operations per second. For an aperture array or dishes equipped with phased array feeds, the survey can be performed faster, but the computational requirements and data rates will go up.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Local Charge Excesses in Metallic Alloys: a Local Field Coherent Potential Approximation Theory

Electronic structure calculations performed on very large supercells have shown that the local charge excesses in metallic alloys are related through simple linear relations to the local electrostatic field resulting from distribution of charges in the whole crystal. By including local external fields in the single site Coherent Potential Approximation theory, we develop a novel theoretical scheme in which the local charge excesses for random alloys can be obtained as the responses to local external fields. Our model maintains all the computational advantages of a single site theory but allows for full charge relaxation at the impurity sites. Through applications to CuPd and CuZn alloys, we find that, as a general rule, non linear charge rearrangements occur at the impurity site as a consequence of the complex phenomena related with the electronic screening of the external potential. This nothwithstanding, we observe that linear relations hold between charge excesses and external potentials, in quantitative agreement with the mentioned supercell calculations, and well beyond the limits of linearity for any other site property.Comment: 11 pages, 1 table, 7 figure

Critical Control Points for Profitability in the Cow-Calf Enterprise

Financial, economic, and biological data collected from cow-calf producers who participated in the Illinois and Iowa Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) programs were used in this study. Data used were collected for the 1996 through 1999 calendar years, with each herd within year representing one observation. This resulted in a final database of 225 observations (117 from Iowa and 108 from Illinois) from commercial herds with a range in size from 20 to 373 cows. Two analyses were conducted, one utilizing financial cost of production data, the other economic cost of production data. Each observation was analyzed as the difference from the mean for that given year. The independent variable utilized in both the financial and economic models as an indicator of profit was return to unpaid labor and management per cow (RLM). Used as dependent variables were the five factors that make up total annual cow cost: feed cost, operating cost, depreciation cost, capital charge, and hired labor, all on an annual cost per cow basis. In the economic analysis, family labor was also included. Production factors evaluated as dependent variables in both models were calf weight, calf price, cull weight, cull price, weaning percentage, and calving distribution. Herd size and investment were also analyzed. All financial factors analyzed were significantly correlated to RLM (P \u3c .10) except cull weight, and cull price. All economic factors analyzed were significantly correlated to RLM (P \u3c .10) except calf weight, cull weight and cull price. Results of the financial prediction equation indicate that there are eight measurements capable of explaining over 82 percent of the farm-to-farm variation in RLM. Feed cost is the overriding factor driving RLM in both the financial and economic stepwise regression analyses. In both analyses over 50 percent of the herd-to-herd variation in RLM could be explained by feed cost. Financial feed cost is correlated (P \u3c .001) to operating cost, depreciation cost, and investment. Economic feed cost is correlated (P \u3c .001) with investment and operating cost, as well as capital charge. Operating cost, depreciation, and capital charge were all negatively correlated (P \u3c .10) to herd size, and positively correlated (P \u3c .01) to feed cost in both analyses. Operating costs were positively correlated with capital charge and investment (P \u3c .01) in both analyses. In the financial regression model, depreciation cost was the second critical factor explaining almost 9 percent of the herd-to-herd variation in RLM followed by operating cost (5 percent). Calf weight had a greater impact than calf price on RLM in both the financial and economic regression models. Calf weight was the fourth indicator of RLM in the financial model and was similar in magnitude to operating cost. Investment was not a significant variable in either regression model; however, it was highly correlated to a number of the significant cost variables including feed cost, depreciation cost, and operating cost (P \u3c .001, financial; P \u3c .10, economic). Cost factors were far more influential in driving RLM than production, reproduction, or producer controlled marketing factors. Of these cost factors, feed cost had by far the largest impact. As producers focus attention on factors that affect the profitability of the operation, feed cost is the most critical control point because it was responsible for over 50 percent of the herd-to-herd variation in profit

A 610-MHz Galactic Plane Pulsar Search with the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope

We report on the discovery of three new pulsars in the first blind survey of the north Galactic plane (45 < l < 135 ; |b| < 1) with the Giant Meterwave Radio telescope (GMRT) at an intermediate frequency of 610 MHz. The timing parameters, obtained in follow up observations with the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory and the GMRT, are presented.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to be published in conference proceedings of "40 years of pulsars ..", replaced figure

A New Giant Branch Clump Structure In the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present Washington C, T1 CCD photometry of 21 fields located in the northern part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and spread over a region of more than 2.52 degrees approximately 6 degrees from the bar. The surveyed areas were chosen on the basis of their proximity to SL 388 and SL 509, whose fields showed the presence of a secondary giant clump, observationally detected by Bica et al. (1998, AJ, 116, 723). From the collected data we found that most of the observed field CMDs do not show a separate secondary clump, but rather a continuous vertical structure (VS), which is clearly seen for the first time. Its position and size are nearly the same throughout the surveyed regions: it lies below the Red Giant Clump (RGC) and extends from the bottom of the RGC to approximately 0.45 mag fainter, spanning the bluest color range of the RGC. The more numerous the VS stars in a field, the larger the number of LMC giants in the same zone. Our analysis demonstrate that VS stars belong to the LMC and are most likely the consequence of some kind of evolutionary process in the LMC, particularly in those LMC regions with a noticeable large giant population. Our results suggest that in order to trigger the formation of VS stars, there should be other conditions besides the appropriate age, metallicity, and the necessary red giant star density. Indeed, stars satisfying the requisites mentioned above are commonly found throughout the LMC, but the VS phenomenon is only clearly seen in some isolated regions. Finally, the fact that clump stars have an intrinsic luminosity dispersion further constrains the use of the clump magnitude as a reliable distance indicator.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables; to be published in AJ, Dec. issu

Using binary stars to bound the mass of the graviton

Interacting white dwarf binary star systems, including helium cataclysmic variable (HeCV) systems, are expected to be strong sources of gravitational radiation, and should be detectable by proposed space-based laser interferometer gravitational wave observatories such as LISA. Several HeCV star systems are presently known and can be studied optically, which will allow electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations to be correlated. Comparisons of the phases of a gravitational wave signal and the orbital light curve from an interacting binary white dwarf star system can be used to bound the mass of the graviton. Observations of typical HeCV systems by LISA could potentially yield an upper bound on the inverse mass of the graviton as strong as $h/m_{g} = \lambda_{g} > 1 \times 10^{15}$ km ($m_{g} < 1 \times 10^{-24}$ eV), more than two orders of magnitude better than present solar system derived bounds.Comment: 21 pages plus 4 figures; ReVTe

Unraveling the Complexity of Tourist Experience with NFC Technology and Mobile Wallets

By considering the tourist experience as a complex dynamic system, in this paper we depict the traveler as a kybernetes (\u3ba\u3c5\u3b2\u3b5\u3c1\u3bd\u3ae\u3c4\u3b7\u3c2 is the ancient Greek word for \u2018sea captain\u2019, \u2018steersman\u2019, or \u2018governor\u2019) in search of powerful tools to help him or her to obtain directions in the mare magnum of complexity, overcoming the fear of action and taking decisions. We focus our attention on the key role of Near Field Communication technology and mobile wallet as \u2018attenuators of complexity\u2019 in the travel and tourism industr