The impact of information and communication technology on family carers of older people and professionals in Sweden

Government policy in Sweden, as in other developed countries, pays increasing attention as to how best to support the family carers of older people. New and innovative means of support, such as information and communication technology, are emerging. This paper explores the perceived benefits of, and barriers to, information technology as a means of supporting family carers of older people. Following a brief overview of the care-giving literature, with particular reference to the Swedish context, interview and questionnaire data collected from 34 families who took part in the Swedish ACTION project are used to explore the role of user-friendly information and communication technology to inform and enable family carers of older people to exercise choice, to care more effectively and to work in partnership with professionals. Interview data from two groups of professionals that utilised ACTION are also examined to throw light on its potential benefits for both carers and professionals. Consideration is given to the barriers to using information technology, and to identifying those carers most likely to benefit. Areas for further development are the need for practitioners' education and a wider range of programmes to address carers' diverse needs. Clearly, lessons learned from the Swedish project have wider relevance, given that new forms of support are being developed in most technically advanced countries

Hyperfine-mediated gate-driven electron spin resonance

An all-electrical spin resonance effect in a GaAs few-electron double quantum dot is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The magnetic field dependence and absence of associated Rabi oscillations are consistent with a novel hyperfine mechanism. The resonant frequency is sensitive to the instantaneous hyperfine effective field, and the effect can be used to detect and create sizable nuclear polarizations. A device incorporating a micromagnet exhibits a magnetic field difference between dots, allowing electrons in either dot to be addressed selectively.Comment: related papers available at http://marcuslab.harvard.ed

Lie algebraic noncommuting structures from reparametrisation symmetry

We extend our earlier work of revealing both space-space and space-time noncommuting structures in various models in particle mechanics exhibiting reparametrisation symmetry. We show explicitly (in contrast to the earlier results in our paper \cite{sg}) that for some special choices of the reparametrisation parameter $\epsilon$, one can obtain space-space noncommuting structures which are Lie-algebraic in form even in the case of the relativistic free particle. The connection of these structures with the existing models in the literature is also briefly discussed. Further, there exists some values of $\epsilon$ for which the noncommutativity in the space-space sector can be made to vanish. As a matter of internal consistency of our approach, we also study the angular momentum algebra in details.Comment: 9 pages Latex, some references adde

Minimizing Strong Telluric Absorption in Near Infra-red Stellar Spectra

We have obtained high resolution spectra (R = 25000) of an A star over varying airmass to determine the effectiveness of telluric removal in the limit of high signal to noise. The near infra-red line HeI at 2.058 microns, which is a sensitive indicator of physical conditions in massive stars, supergiants, HII regions and YSOs, resides among pressure broadened telluric absorption from carbon dioxide and water vapor that varies both in time and with observed airmass. Our study shows that in the limit of bright stars at high resolution, accuracies of 5% are typical for high airmass observations (greater than 1.9), improving to a photon-limited accuracy of 2% at smaller airmasses (less than 1.15). We find that by using the continuum between telluric absorption lines of a ro-vibrational fan a photon-limited 1% accuracy is achievable.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in PAS

Coherent spin manipulation in an exchange-only qubit

Initialization, manipulation, and measurement of a three-spin qubit are demonstrated using a few-electron triple quantum dot, where all operations can be driven by tuning the nearest-neighbor exchange interaction. Multiplexed reflectometry, applied to two nearby charge sensors, allows for qubit readout. Decoherence is found to be consistent with predictions based on gate voltage noise with a uniform power spectrum. The theory of the exchange-only qubit is developed and it is shown that initialization of only two spins suffices for operation. Requirements for full multi-qubit control using only exchange and electrostatic interactions are outlined.Comment: related work at http://marcuslab.harvard.ed

Learning About Ares I from Monte Carlo Simulation

This paper addresses Monte Carlo simulation analyses that are being conducted to understand the behavior of the Ares I launch vehicle, and to assist with its design. After describing the simulation and modeling of Ares I, the paper addresses the process used to determine what simulations are necessary, and the parameters that are varied in order to understand how the Ares I vehicle will behave in flight. Outputs of these simulations furnish a significant group of design customers with data needed for the development of Ares I and of the Orion spacecraft that will ride atop Ares I. After listing the customers, examples of many of the outputs are described. Products discussed in this paper include those that support structural loads analysis, aerothermal analysis, flight control design, failure/abort analysis, determination of flight performance reserve, examination of orbit insertion accuracy, determination of the Upper Stage impact footprint, analysis of stage separation, analysis of launch probability, analysis of first stage recovery, thrust vector control and reaction control system design, liftoff drift analysis, communications analysis, umbilical release, acoustics, and design of jettison systems

Zero Temperature Phase Transition in Spin-ladders: Phase Diagram and Dynamical studies of Cu(Hp)Cl

In a magnetic field, spin-ladders undergo two zero-temperature phase transitions at the critical fields Hc1 and Hc2. An experimental review of static and dynamical properties of spin-ladders close to these critical points is presented. The scaling functions, universal to all quantum critical points in one-dimension, are extracted from (a) the thermodynamic quantities (magnetization) and (b) the dynamical functions (NMR relaxation). A simple mapping of strongly coupled spin ladders in a magnetic field on the exactly solvable XXZ model enables to make detailed fits and gives an overall understanding of a broad class of quantum magnets in their gapless phase (between Hc1 and Hc2). In this phase, the low temperature divergence of the NMR relaxation demonstrates its Luttinger liquid nature as well as the novel quantum critical regime at higher temperature. The general behaviour close these quantum critical points can be tied to known models of quantum magnetism.Comment: few corrections made, 15 pages, to be published in European Journal of Physics

THE PROFITABILITY OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE ON A REPRESENTATIVE GRAIN FARM IN THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION, 1981-89

A long-term whole-farm analysis compared conventional and low-input farming systems. Data from a nine-year agronomic study at the Rodale Research Farm, Kutztown, Pennsylvania, were used to analyze profitability, liquidity, solvency, and risk on a representative commercial grain farm. Conventional and low-input farms participating in government programs are the most profitable scenarios, followed by conventional and low-input farms not participating in government programs. All farms increased their net worth. The low-input approach is advantageous for risk-averse farmers using a safety-first criterion.Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Propagators and Matrix Basis on Noncommutative Minkowski Space

We describe an analytic continuation of the Euclidean Grosse-Wulkenhaar and LSZ models which defines a one-parameter family of duality covariant noncommutative field theories interpolating between Euclidean and Minkowski space versions of these models, and provides an alternative regularization to the usual Feynman prescription. This regularization allows for a matrix model representation of the field theories in terms of a complex generalization of the usual basis of Landau wavefunctions. The corresponding propagators are calculated and identified with the Feynman propagators of the field theories. The regulated quantum field theories are shown to be UV/IR-duality covariant. We study the asymptotics of the regularized propagators in position and matrix space representations, and confirm that they generically possess a comparably good decay behaviour as in the Euclidean case.Comment: 45 pages; v2: clarifying comments added; v3: further clarifying comments added; Final version published in Physical Review