29,434 research outputs found
The impact of an emotionally expressive writing intervention on eating pathology in female students
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Introduction: Previous research demonstrating emotional influences on eating and weight suggest that emotionally expressive writing may have a significant impact on reducing risk of eating pathology. This study examined the effects of writing about Intensely Positive Experiences on weight and disordered eating during a naturalistic stressor. Method: Seventy-one female students completed an expressive or a control writing task before a period of exams. Both groups were compared on BMI (kg/m2) and the Eating Disorder Examination – Questionnaire (EDE-Q) before the writing task and at 8-week follow-up. A number of secondary analyses were also examined (to identify potential mediators) including measures of attachment, social rank, self-criticism and self-reassurance, stress and mood. Results: There was a significant effect of intervention on changes in the subscales of the EDE-Q (p = .03). Specifically, expressive writers significantly reduced their dietary restraint while those in the control group did not. There was no significant effect of the intervention on changes in BMI or the other subscales of the EDE-Q (Eating, Weight and Shape Concern). There was also no effect of writing on any of the potential mediators in the secondary analyses. Discussion: Emotionally expressive writing may reduce the risk of dietary restraint in women but these findings should be accepted with caution. It is a simple and light touch intervention that has the potential to be widely applied. However, it remains for future research to replicate these results and to identify the mechanisms of action.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
Theory and Simulation of the diffusion of kinks on dislocations in bcc metals
Isolated kinks on thermally fluctuating (1/2) screw, edge and
(1/2) edge dislocations in bcc iron are simulated under zero stress
conditions using molecular dynamics (MD). Kinks are seen to perform stochastic
motion in a potential landscape that depends on the dislocation character and
geometry, and their motion provides fresh insight into the coupling of
dislocations to a heat bath. The kink formation energy, migration barrier and
friction parameter are deduced from the simulations. A discrete
Frenkel-Kontorova-Langevin (FKL) model is able to reproduce the coarse grained
data from MD at a fraction of the computational cost, without assuming an a
priori temperature dependence beyond the fluctuation-dissipation theorem.
Analytic results reveal that discreteness effects play an essential r\^ole in
thermally activated dislocation glide, revealing the existence of a crucial
intermediate length scale between molecular and dislocation dynamics. The model
is used to investigate dislocation motion under the vanishingly small stress
levels found in the evolution of dislocation microstructures in irradiated
materials
Quantum Sensor Miniaturization
The classical bound on image resolution defined by the Rayleigh limit can be
beaten by exploiting the properties of quantum mechanical entanglement. If
entangled photons are used as signal states, the best possible resolution is
instead given by the Heisenberg limit, an improvement proportional to the
number of entangled photons in the signal. In this paper we present a novel
application of entanglement by showing that the resolution obtained by an
imaging system utilizing separable photons can be achieved by an imaging system
making use of entangled photons, but with the advantage of a smaller aperture,
thus resulting in a smaller and lighter system. This can be especially valuable
in satellite imaging where weight and size play a vital role.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in Photonics Technology
Letter
Specialization of the rostral prefrontal cortex for distinct analogy processes
Analogical reasoning is central to learning and abstract thinking. It involves using a more familiar situation (source) to make inferences about a less familiar situation (target). According to the predominant cognitive models, analogical reasoning includes 1) generation of structured mental representations and 2) mapping based on structural similarities between them. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to specify the role of rostral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in these distinct processes. An experimental paradigm was designed that enabled differentiation between these processes, by temporal separation of the presentation of the source and the target. Within rostral PFC, a lateral subregion was activated by analogy task both during study of the source (before the source could be compared with a target) and when the target appeared. This may suggest that this subregion supports fundamental analogy processes such as generating structured representations of stimuli but is not specific to one particular processing stage. By contrast, a dorsomedial subregion of rostral PFC showed an interaction between task (analogy vs. control) and period (more activated when the target appeared). We propose that this region is involved in comparison or mapping processes. These results add to the growing evidence for functional differentiation between rostral PFC subregions
Similitude requirements and scaling relationships as applied to model testing
The similitude requirements for the most general test conditions are presented. These similitude requirements are considered in relation to the scaling relationships, test technique, test conditions (including supersonic flow), and test objectives. Particular emphasis is placed on satisfying the various similitude requirements for incompressible and compressible flow conditions. For free flying models tests, the test velocities for incompressible flow are scaled from Froude number similitude requirements and those for compressible flow are scaled from Mach number similitude requirements. The limitations of various test techniques are indicated, with emphasis on the free flying model
Theoretical characterization of a model of aragonite crystal orientation in red abalone nacre
Nacre, commonly known as mother-of-pearl, is a remarkable biomineral that in
red abalone consists of layers of 400-nm thick aragonite crystalline tablets
confined by organic matrix sheets, with the crystal axes of the
aragonite tablets oriented to within 12 degrees from the normal to the
layer planes. Recent experiments demonstrate that this orientational order
develops over a distance of tens of layers from the prismatic boundary at which
nacre formation begins.
Our previous simulations of a model in which the order develops because of
differential tablet growth rates (oriented tablets growing faster than
misoriented ones) yield patterns of tablets that agree qualitatively and
quantitatively with the experimental measurements. This paper presents an
analytical treatment of this model, focusing on how the dynamical development
and eventual degree of order depend on model parameters. Dynamical equations
for the probability distributions governing tablet orientations are introduced
whose form can be determined from symmetry considerations and for which
substantial analytic progress can be made. Numerical simulations are performed
to relate the parameters used in the analytic theory to those in the
microscopic growth model. The analytic theory demonstrates that the dynamical
mechanism is able to achieve a much higher degree of order than naive estimates
would indicate.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figure
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Analysis of Droplet Train/Moving Substrate Interactions in Ink-Jetting Processes
Ink-jetting technology has been applied to several processes in solid free-form
fabrication (SFF) wherein droplets impinge onto a substrate to deposit the build material.
Droplet impact behaviour on a surface has been the interest of many researchers; however,
few studies have been undertaken to investigate the interaction of droplets with the moving
substrate. This paper reports the impact behaviour of the droplets jetted at different
frequencies onto a substrate moving over a range of velocities. The phenomena associated
with the interaction were classified into three main regimes.Mechanical Engineerin
CMB-Normalized Predictions for Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect fluctuations
We predict the level of small-scale anisotropy in the cosmic microwave
background (CMB) due to the Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (SZ) effect for the ensemble of
cosmological models that are consistent with current measurements of
large-scale CMB anisotropy. We argue that the recently reported detections of
the small-scale (arcminutes) CMB anisotropy are only marginally consistent with
being the SZ effect when cosmological models are calibrated to the existing
primary CMB data on large scales. The discrepancy is at more than 2-2.5 sigma,
and is mainly due to a lower sigma_8 <0.8 favored by the primary CMB and a
higher sigma_8 > 1 favored by the SZ effect. A degeneracy between the optical
depth to Thomson scattering and the CMB-derived value of sigma_8 suggests that
the discrepancy is reduced if the universe was reionized very early, at a
redshift of about 25.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to ApJ
Kinematic Masses of Super Star Clusters in M82 from High-Resolution Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
Using high-resolution (R~22,000) near-infrared (1.51 -- 1.75 microns) spectra
from Keck Observatory, we measure the kinematic masses of two super star
clusters in M82. Cross-correlation of the spectra with template spectra of cool
evolved stars gives stellar velocity dispersions of sigma_r=15.9 +/- 0.8 km/s
for MGG-9 and sigma_r=11.4 +/- 0.8 km/s for MGG-11. The cluster spectra are
dominated by the light of red supergiants, and correlate most closely with
template supergiants of spectral types M0 and M4.5. We fit King models to the
observed profiles of the clusters in archival HST/NICMOS images to measure the
half-light radii. Applying the virial theorem, we determine masses of 1.5 +/-
0.3 x 10^6 M_sun for MGG-9 and 3.5 +/- 0.7 x 10^5 M_sun for MGG-11. Population
synthesis modelling suggests that MGG-9 is consistent with a standard initial
mass function, whereas MGG-11 appears to be deficient in low-mass stars
relative to a standard IMF. There is, however, evidence of mass segregation in
the clusters, in which case the virial mass estimates would represent lower
limits.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures; ApJ, in pres
Eroding dipoles and vorticity growth for Euler flows in R 3 : Axisymmetric flow without swirl
A review of analyses based upon anti-parallel vortex structures suggests that structurally stable
dipoles with eroding circulation may offer a path to the study of vorticity growth in solutions of
Euler’s equations in R3
. We examine here the possible formation of such a structure in axisymmetric
flow without swirl, leading to maximal growth of vorticity as t
4/3
. Our study suggests that the
optimizing flow giving the t
4/3 growth mimics an exact solution of Euler’s equations representing
an eroding toroidal vortex dipole which locally conserves kinetic energy. The dipole cross-section
is a perturbation of the classical Sadovskii dipole having piecewise constant vorticity, which
breaks the symmetry of closed streamlines. The structure of this perturbed Sadovskii dipole is
analyzed asymptotically at large times, and its predicted properties are verified numerically. We
also show numerically that if mirror symmetry of the dipole is not imposed but axial symmetry
maintained, an instability leads to breakup into smaller vortical structures
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