701 research outputs found
A geographic information method for managing urban energy use
This paper presents a geographical information method to support urban-level energy policies. It proposes using a geographical information system to store, display, edit, share and analyse geographical information for territorial decision-making. The method was used to help develop a sustainable energy action plan for the municipality of Randazzo in Sicily, Italy, by providing an accurate representation of actual energy consumption. Based on this case study, the use of a geographical information system appears to be a suitable support tool for both developing and managing sustainable energy action plans, regardless of the geographical area or context. This method will help municipalities estimate and monitor the energy consumption of residential, commercial and industrial buildings and, by taking into account the approaches of different stakeholders, help develop more accurate models for reducing urban carbon dioxide emissions
Charge and spin excitations of insulating lamellar copper oxides
A consistent description of low-energy charge and spin responses of the
insulating Sr_2CuO_2Cl_2 lamellar system is found in the framework of a
one-band Hubbard model which besides includes hoppings up to 3^{rd}
nearest-neighbors. By combining mean-field calculations, exact diagonalization
(ED) results, and Quantum Monte Carlo simulations (QMC), we analyze both charge
and spin degrees of freedom responses as observed by optical conductivity,
ARPES, Raman and inelastic neutron scattering experiments. Within this
effective model, long-range hopping processes flatten the quasiparticle band
around . We calculate also the non-resonant A_{1g} and B_{1g} Raman
profiles and show that the latter is composed by two main features, which are
attributed to 2- and 4-magnon scattering.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, To be published in PRB (july
Ophthalmic evaluation of diagnosed cases of eye cystinosis: A tertiary care center’s experience
Background: We aimed to identify diagnosed cases of ocular cystinosis and describe clinical, epidemiological and therapeutic characteristics. Methods: This is a descriptive and retrospective case series. All patients underwent a full check-up examination every 4–6 months by ophthalmologists, nephrologists and other required specialists. Results: Of the seven cases, six (85.7%) were females and one (14.2%) was male. The infantile nephropathic form of cystinosis was observed in five patients and the juvenile nephropathic form in two patients. No patients with the ocular form of cystinosis were identified. Corneal cystine crystals (CCC) were found in all analyzed patients. Severe ocular and general complications of the disease that had been standing for years, connected to the infantile nephropathic form, delayed diagnosis or inappropriate treatment, were observed only in two patients. All patients received topical therapy. No adverse events related to the therapy were observed. Conclusions: Cystinosis is a rare, progressive disease. Early diagnosis and treatment prevent serious complications from numerous systemic organs. Patients require constant systematic monitoring by various specialists
Clinical characteristics, neuroimaging findings, and neuropsychological functioning in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: Sex differences
Recent clinical studies, in both children/adolescents and adults, have shown the extreme neuropsychological heterogeneity of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): specific neuropsychological deficits have been found only in a minority of individuals, with no direct correlation between discrete cognitive performances and the trajectory of clinical symptoms. Deficits in specific neuropsychological functions may be common in ADHD, but nevertheless no cognitive or neuropsychological profile may fully explain the disorder. Sex differences in the ADHD presentation, both at a neuropsychological and clinical level, also contribute to this clinical and neuropsychological heterogeneity. At a neuropsychological level, females with ADHD may show greater working memory problems, poorer vocabulary skills and worse visual spatial reasoning. Structural and functional imaging study also show discrete differences across sex; however, the great majority of clinical studies mainly or exclusively include male participants with insufficient data to draw firm conclusions on sex differences within the disorder. Here, we report the recent literature data, discussing still open research questions about the clinical presentation, neuroimaging findings, and neuropsychological functioning in ADHD with a focus on the impact of sex differences—a deeper insight in these unresolved issues may have relevant clinical and therapeutic implications for tailored, effective, and long-lasting interventions
Dynamic Spin Response for Heisenberg Ladders
We employ the recently proposed plaquette basis to investigate static and
dynamic properties of isotropic 2-leg Heisenberg spin ladders. Simple
non-interacting multi-plaquette states provide a remarkably accurate picture of
the energy/site and dynamic spin response of these systems. Insights afforded
by this simple picture suggest a very efficient truncation scheme for more
precise calculations. When the small truncation errors are accounted for using
recently developed Contractor Renormalization techniques, very accurate results
requiring a small fraction of the computational effort of exact calculations
are obtained. These methods allow us to determine the energy/site, gap, and
spin response of 2x16 ladders. The former two values are in good agreement with
density matrix renormalization group results. The spin response calculations
show that nearly all the strength is concentrated in the lowest triplet level
and that coherent many-body effects enhance the response/site by nearly a
factor of 1.6 over that found for 2x2 systems.Comment: 9 pages with two enclosed postscript figure
Direct Calculation of the Spin Stiffness in the -- Heisenberg Antiferromagnet
We calculate the spin stiffness for the frustrated
spin- Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice by exact
diagonalizations on finite clusters of up to sites followed by
extrapolations to the thermodynamic limit. For the non-frustrated case, we find
that , in excellent agreement with the best
results obtained by other means. Turning on frustration, the extrapolated
stiffness vanishes for . In this
intermediate region, the finite-size scaling works poorly -- an additional sign
that their is neither N\'eel nor collinear magnetic order. Using a hydrodynamic
relation, and previous results for the transverse susceptibility, we also
estimate the spin-wave velocity in the N\'eel-ordered region.Comment: 4 pages, uuencoded compressed ps-file (made with uufiles
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