39,651 research outputs found
The status of traditional Scottish animal breeds and plant varieties and the implications for biodiversity
The aim of this scoping study was to evaluate the effects on Scottish biodiversity of
changes in the use of traditional breeds and varieties. The overall objectives were:
a) The evaluation of the importance of genetic loss from the reduction in use of these
breeds and varieties, for example, the loss of unusual characteristics that might have
been of particular local use.
b) An assessment of the impacts of reduction in the ability to conduct further breeding or
research on rare and traditional varieties and breeds.
c) Identification of the loss of certain farming techniques associated with particular
varieties and breeds.
d) An assessment of possible losses of biodiversity associated with reduction in the use of
these breeds and varieties and the farming systems associated with them
Condensate splitting in an asymmetric double well for atom chip based sensors
We report on the adiabatic splitting of a BEC of Rb atoms by an
asymmetric double-well potential located above the edge of a perpendicularly
magnetized TbGdFeCo film atom chip. By controlling the barrier height and
double-well asymmetry the sensitivity of the axial splitting process is
investigated through observation of the fractional atom distribution between
the left and right wells. This process constitutes a novel sensor for which we
infer a single shot sensitivity to gravity fields of . From a simple analytic model we propose improvements
to chip-based gravity detectors using this demonstrated methodology.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Threshold Corrections in the Exceptional Supersymmetric Standard Model
We calculate threshold corrections to the running gauge and Yukawa couplings
in the Exceptional Supersymmetric Standard Model (E6SSM) and analyse the more
precise and reliable mass spectra in a constrained model (CE6SSM). Full
expressions for the corrections are provided and the implementation into a
spectrum generator is described. We find a dramatic reduction in the matching
scale dependency of the masses of many states and observe a significant
adjustment of the correlation of low-scale physical masses and high-scale
parameters. Still, in substantial regions of parameter space the mass of the
lightest Higgs is compatible with the new boson discovered at the LHC and the
model satisfies limits from collider searches for squark, gluinos and Z'
bosons. We study the implications for gauge coupling unification from a new
dependency of the spectrum on so-called survival Higgs fields which cannot be
addressed without the inclusion of the threshold corrections.Comment: 59 pages, 25 figures, v2 fixed typo and rephrased parts of section
5.3.1, v2 accepted for publication in Physical Review
Effect of Magnetization Inhomogeneity on Magnetic Microtraps for Atoms
We report on the origin of fragmentation of ultracold atoms observed on a
permanent magnetic film atom chip. A novel technique is used to characterize
small spatial variations of the magnetic field near the film surface using
radio frequency spectroscopy of the trapped atoms. Direct observations indicate
the fragmentation is due to a corrugation of the magnetic potential caused by
long range inhomogeneity in the film magnetization. A model which takes into
account two-dimensional variations of the film magnetization is consistent with
the observations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Precision measurements of s-wave scattering lengths in a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate
We use collective oscillations of a two-component Bose-Einstein condensate
(2CBEC) of \Rb atoms prepared in the internal states and for the precision measurement of
the interspecies scattering length with a relative uncertainty of
. We show that in a cigar-shaped trap the three-dimensional
(3D) dynamics of a component with a small relative population can be
conveniently described by a one-dimensional (1D) Schr\"{o}dinger equation for
an effective harmonic oscillator. The frequency of the collective oscillations
is defined by the axial trap frequency and the ratio , where
is the intra-species scattering length of a highly populated component
1, and is largely decoupled from the scattering length , the total atom
number and loss terms. By fitting numerical simulations of the coupled
Gross-Pitaevskii equations to the recorded temporal evolution of the axial
width we obtain the value , where is the Bohr
radius. Our reported value is in a reasonable agreement with the theoretical
prediction but deviates significantly from the
previously measured value \cite{Mertes07} which is commonly
used in the characterisation of spin dynamics in degenerate \Rb atoms. Using
Ramsey interferometry of the 2CBEC we measure the scattering length
which also deviates from the previously reported value
\cite{Mertes07}. We characterise two-body losses for the
component 2 and obtain the loss coefficients
and
.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figure
Aircraft control via variable cant-angle winglets
Copyright @ 2008 American Institute of Aeronautics and AstronauticsThis paper investigates a novel method for the control of "morphing" aircraft. The concept consists of a pair of winglets; with adjustable cant angle, independently actuated and mounted at the tips of a baseline flying wing. The general philosophy behind the concept was that for specific flight conditions such as a coordinated turn, the use of two control devices would be sufficient for adequate control. Computations with a vortex lattice model and subsequent wind-tunnel tests demonstrate the viability of the concept, with individual and/or dual winglet deflection producing multi-axis coupled control moments. Comparisons between the experimental and computational results showed reasonable to good agreement, with the major discrepancies thought to be due to wind-tunnel model aeroelastic effects.This work has been supported by a Marie Curie excellence research grant funded by the European Commission
Cluster-assisted accretion for massive stars
Gravitational interactions in very young high-density stellar clusters can to
some degree change the angular momentum in the circumstellar discs surrounding
initially the majority of stars. However, for most stars the cluster
environment alters the angular momentum only slightly. For example, in
simulations of the Orion Nebula cluster (ONC) encounters reduce the angular
momentum of the discs on average at most by 3-5% and in the higher density
region of the Trapezium %where encounters are more likely, the disc angular
momentum is on average lowered by 15-20% - still a minor loss process. However,
in this paper it is demonstrated that the situation is very different if one
considers high-mass stars (M* > 10 M(solar) only. Assuming an age of 2 Myr for
the ONC, their discs have on average a 50-90% lower angular momentum than
primordially. This enormous loss in angular momentum in the disc should result
in an equivalent increase in accretion, implying that the cluster environment
boosts accretion for high-mass stars, thus %in the cluster center, making them
even more massive.Comment: 10 pages including 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ
Renormalization--Group Solutions for Yukawa Potential
The self--similar renormalization group is used to obtain expressions for the
spectrum of the Hamiltonian with the Yukawa potential. The critical screening
parameter above which there are no bound states is also obtained by this
method. The approach presented illustrates that one can achieve good accuracy
without involving extensive numerical calculations, but invoking instead the
renormalization--group techniques.Comment: 1 file, 12 pages, RevTe
An audit of the quality of inpatient care for adults with learning disability in the UK
OBJECTIVES: To audit patient hospital records to evaluate the performance of acute general and mental health services in delivering inpatient care to people with learning disability and explore the influence of organisational factors on the quality of care they deliver. SETTING: Nine acute general hospital Trusts and six mental health services. PARTICIPANTS: Adults with learning disability who received inpatient hospital care between May 2013 and April 2014. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Data on seven key indicators of high-quality care were collected from 176 patients. These covered physical health/monitoring, communication and meeting needs, capacity and decision-making, discharge planning and carer involvement. The impact of services having an electronic system for flagging patients with learning disability and employing a learning disability liaison nurse was assessed. RESULTS: Indicators of physical healthcare (body mass index, swallowing assessment, epilepsy risk assessment) were poorly recorded in acute general and mental health inpatient settings. Overall, only 34 (19.3%) patients received any assessment of swallowing and 12 of the 57 with epilepsy (21.1%) had an epilepsy risk assessment. For most quality indicators, there was a non-statistically significant trend for improved performance in services with a learning disability liaison nurse. The presence of an electronic flagging system showed less evidence of benefit. CONCLUSIONS: Inpatient care for people with learning disability needs to be improved. The work gives tentative support to the role of a learning disability liaison nurse in acute general and mental health services, but further work is needed to confirm these benefits and to trial other interventions that might improve the quality and safety of care for this high-need group
Unravelling quantum carpets: a travelling wave approach
Quantum carpets are generic spacetime patterns formed in the probability
distributions P(x,t) of one-dimensional quantum particles, first discovered in
1995. For the case of an infinite square well potential, these patterns are
shown to have a detailed quantitative explanation in terms of a travelling-wave
decomposition of P(x,t). Each wave directly yields the time-averaged structure
of P(x,t) along the (quantised)spacetime direction in which the wave
propagates. The decomposition leads to new predictions of locations, widths
depths and shapes of carpet structures, and results are also applicable to
light diffracted by a periodic grating and to the quantum rotator. A simple
connection between the waves and the Wigner function of the initial state of
the particle is demonstrated, and some results for more general potentials are
given.Comment: Latex, 26 pages + 6 figures, submitted to J. Phys. A (connections
with prior literature clarified
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