On the Thermodynamic Limit of the Lipkin Model

The thermodynamic limit of the Lipkin model is investigated. While the limit turns out to be rather elusive, the analysis gives strong indications that the limit yields two analytically dissociated operators, one for the normal and one for the deformed phase. While the Lipkin Hamiltonian is hermitian and has a second order phase transition in finite dimensions (finite particle number), both properties seem to be destroyed in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures to appear in JPhys

Affinity Seeking in the Writing Center: An Analysis of One-on-One Tutoring Sessions

This study applied the instructional communication concept of affinity seeking to one-on-one peer tutoring sessions. Using content analysis of video recorded tutoring sessions, this study found that tutors most frequently use five affinity seeking strategies: Self Concept Confirmation, Nonverbal Immediacy, Assume Control, Personal Autonomy, and Listening. These strategies differ from those used by teachers and graduate teaching assistants. Differences in tutor affinity-seeking strategies were identified based on gender, especially in sessions with male tutees. Addressing these contextual and gender differences will provide opportunities for improved tutor training and practice

United States benefits of improved worldwide wheat crop information from a LANDSAT system

The value of worldwide information improvements on wheat crops, promised by LANDSAT, is measured in the context of world wheat markets. These benefits are based on current LANDSAT technical goals and assume that information is made available to all (United States and other countries) at the same time. A detailed empirical sample demonstration of the effect of improved information is given; the history of wheat commodity prices for 1971-72 is reconstructed and the price changes from improved vs. historical information are compared. The improved crop forecasting from a LANDSAT system assumed include wheat crop estimates of 90 percent accuracy for each major wheat producing region. Accurate, objective worldwide wheat crop information using space systems may have a very stabilizing influence on world commodity markets, in part making possible the establishment of long-term, stable trade relationships

Ontogenetic plasticity in cranial morphology is associated with a change in the food processing behavior in Alpine newts

Background The feeding apparatus of salamanders consists mainly of the cranium, mandible, teeth, hyobranchial apparatus and the muscles of the cranial region. The morphology of the feeding apparatus in turn determines the boundary conditions for possible food processing (i.e., intraoral mechanical reduction) mechanisms. However, the morphology of the feeding apparatus changes substantially during metamorphosis, prompting the hypothesis that larvae might use a different food processing mechanism than post-metamorphic adults. Salamandrid newts with facultative metamorphosis are suitable for testing this hypothesis as adults with divergent feeding apparatus morphologies often coexist in the same population, share similar body sizes, and feed on overlapping prey spectra. Methods We use high-speed videography to quantify the in vivo movements of key anatomical elements during food processing in paedomorphic and metamorphic Alpine newts (Ichthyosaura alpestris). Additionally, we use micro-computed tomography (μCT) to analyze morphological differences in the feeding apparatus of paedomorphic and metamorphic Alpine newts and sort them into late-larval, mid-metamorphic and post-metamorphic morphotypes. Results Late-larval, mid-metamorphic and post-metamorphic individuals exhibited clear morphological differences in their feeding apparatus. Regardless of the paedomorphic state being externally evident, paedomorphic specimens can conceal different morphotypes (i.e., late-larval and mid-metamorphic morphotypes). Though feeding on the same prey under the same (aquatic) condition, food processing kinematics differed between late-larval, mid-metamorphic and post-metamorphic morphotypes. Conclusions The food processing mechanism in the Alpine newt changes along with morphology of the feeding apparatus during ontogeny, from a mandible-based to a tongue-based processing mechanism as the changing morphology of the mandible prevents chewing and the tongue allows enhanced protraction. These results could indicate that early tetrapods, in analogy to salamanders, may have developed new feeding mechanisms in their aquatic environment and that these functional innovations may have later paved the way for terrestrial feeding mechanisms

QT-Symmetry and Weak Pseudo-Hermiticity

For an invertible (bounded) linear operator Q acting in a Hilbert space ${\cal H}$, we consider the consequences of the QT-symmetry of a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian $H:{\cal H}\to{\cal H}$ where T is the time-reversal operator. If H is symmetric in the sense that ${\cal T} H^\dagger {\cal T}=H$, then QT-symmetry is equivalent to Q^{-1}-weak-pseudo-Hermiticity. But in general this equivalence does not hold. We show this using some specific examples. Among these is a large class of non-PT-symmetric Hamiltonians that share the spectral properties of PT-symmetric Hamiltonians.Comment: Extended published version, includes a new section giving a new exactly solvable class of bosonic non-PT-symmetric and non-Hermitian Hamiltonians with a real spectrum, 10 page

Polarization control of metal-enhanced fluorescence in hybrid assemblies of photosynthetic complexes and gold nanorods

Fluorescence imaging of hybrid nanostructures composed of a bacterial light-harvesting complex LH2 and Au nanorods with controlled coupling strength is employed to study the spectral dependence of the plasmon-induced fluorescence enhancement. Perfect matching of the plasmon resonances in the nanorods with the absorption bands of the LH2 complexes facilitates a direct comparison of the enhancement factors for longitudinal and transverse plasmon frequencies of the nanorods. We find that the fluorescence enhancement due to excitation of longitudinal resonance can be up to five-fold stronger than for the transverse one. We attribute this result, which is important for designing plasmonic functional systems, to a very different distribution of the enhancement of the electric field due to the excitation of the two characteristic plasmon modes in nanorods

Time scales in nuclear giant resonances

We propose a general approach to characterise fluctuations of measured cross sections of nuclear giant resonances. Simulated cross sections are obtained from a particular, yet representative self-energy which contains all information about fragmentations. Using a wavelet analysis, we demonstrate the extraction of time scales of cascading decays into configurations of different complexity of the resonance. We argue that the spreading widths of collective excitations in nuclei are determined by the number of fragmentations as seen in the power spectrum. An analytic treatment of the wavelet analysis using a Fourier expansion of the cross section confirms this principle. A simple rule for the relative life times of states associated with hierarchies of different complexity is given.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Classical Analysis of Phenomenological Potentials for Metallic Clusters

The classical trajectories of single particle motion in a Wodds-Saxon and a modified Nilsson potential are studied for axial quadrupole deformation. Both cases give rise to chaotic behaviour when the deformation in the Woods-Saxon and the l**2 term in the modified Nilsson potential are turned on. Important similarities, in particular with regard to the shortest periodic orbits, have been found.Comment: 9 pages LaTex + 4 figures available via e-mail requests from the authors, to appear in Phys.Rev.Let

Responding to Climate Change: The Economy and Economics - Part of the Problem and Solution

The Climate Change Starter’s Guide provides an introduction and overview for education planners and practitioners on the wide range of issues relating to climate change and climate change education, including causes, impacts, mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as some broad political and economic principles. The aim of this guide is to serve as a starting point for mainstreaming climate change education into school curricula. It has been created to enable education planners and practitioners to understand the issues at hand, to review and analyse their relevance to particular national and local contexts, and to facilitate the development of education policies, curricula, programmes and lesson plans. The guide covers four major thematic areas: 1. the science of climate change, which explains the causes and observed changes; 2. the social and human aspects of climate change including gender, health, migration, poverty and ethics; 3. policy responses to climate change including measures for mitigation and adaptation; and 4. education approaches including education for sustainable development, disaster reduction and sustainable lifestyles. A selection of key resources in the form of publication titles or websites for further reading is provided after each of the thematic sections