5,111 research outputs found
Scaling Analysis and Evolution Equation of the North Atlantic Oscillation Index Fluctuations
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) monthly index is studied from 1825 till
2002 in order to identify the scaling ranges of its fluctuations upon different
delay times and to find out whether or not it can be regarded as a Markov
process. A Hurst rescaled range analysis and a detrended fluctuation analysis
both indicate the existence of weakly persistent long range time correlations
for the whole scaling range and time span hereby studied. Such correlations are
similar to Brownian fluctuations. The Fokker-Planck equation is derived and
Kramers-Moyal coefficients estimated from the data. They are interpreted in
terms of a drift and a diffusion coefficient as in fluid mechanics. All partial
distribution functions of the NAO monthly index fluctuations have a form close
to a Gaussian, for all time lags, in agreement with the findings of the scaling
analyses. This indicates the lack of predictive power of the present NAO
monthly index. Yet there are some deviations for large (and thus rare) events.
Whence suggestions for other measurements are made if some improved
predictability of the weather/climate in the North Atlantic is of interest. The
subsequent Langevin equation of the NAO signal fluctuations is explicitly
written in terms of the diffusion and drift parameters, and a characteristic
time scale for these is given in appendix.Comment: 6 figures, 54 refs., 16 pages; submitted to Int. J. Mod. Phys. C:
Comput. Phy
Late-Time Optical and UV Spectra of SN 1979C and SN 1980K
A low-dispersion Keck I spectrum of SN 1980K taken in August 1995 (t = 14.8
yr after explosion) and a November 1997 MDM spectrum (t = 17.0 yr) show broad
5500 km s^{-1} emission lines of H\alpha, [O I] 6300,6364 A, and [O II]
7319,7330 A. Weaker but similarly broad lines detected include [Fe II] 7155 A,
[S II] 4068,4072 A, and a blend of [Fe II] lines at 5050--5400 A. The presence
of strong [S II] 4068,4072 A emission but a lack of [S II] 6716,6731 A emission
suggests electron densities of 10^{5-6} cm^{-3}. From the 1997 spectra, we
estimate an H\alpha flux of 1.3 \pm 0.2 \times 10^{-15} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}
indicating a 25% decline from 1987--1992 levels during the period 1994 to 1997,
possibly related to a reported decrease in its nonthermal radio emission.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, submitted to the Astronomical Journa
Cellular automaton rules conserving the number of active sites
This paper shows how to determine all the unidimensional two-state cellular
automaton rules of a given number of inputs which conserve the number of active
sites. These rules have to satisfy a necessary and sufficient condition. If the
active sites are viewed as cells occupied by identical particles, these
cellular automaton rules represent evolution operators of systems of identical
interacting particles whose total number is conserved. Some of these rules,
which allow motion in both directions, mimic ensembles of one-dimensional
pseudo-random walkers. Numerical evidence indicates that the corresponding
stochastic processes might be non-Gaussian.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
The 6-vertex model of hydrogen-bonded crystals with bond defects
It is shown that the percolation model of hydrogen-bonded crystals, which is
a 6-vertex model with bond defects, is completely equivalent with an 8-vertex
model in an external electric field. Using this equivalence we solve exactly a
particular 6-vertex model with bond defects. The general solution for the
Bethe-like lattice is also analyzed.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures; added references for section
Effect of significant data loss on identifying electric signals that precede rupture by detrended fluctuation analysis in natural time
Electric field variations that appear before rupture have been recently
studied by employing the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) as a scaling
method to quantify long-range temporal correlations. These studies revealed
that seismic electric signals (SES) activities exhibit a scale invariant
feature with an exponent over all scales investigated
(around five orders of magnitude). Here, we study what happens upon significant
data loss, which is a question of primary practical importance, and show that
the DFA applied to the natural time representation of the remaining data still
reveals for SES activities an exponent close to 1.0, which markedly exceeds the
exponent found in artificial (man-made) noises. This, in combination with
natural time analysis, enables the identification of a SES activity with
probability 75% even after a significant (70%) data loss. The probability
increases to 90% or larger for 50% data loss.Comment: 12 Pages, 11 Figure
A structural evaluation of the tungsten isotopes via thermal neutron capture
Total radiative thermal neutron-capture -ray cross sections for the
W isotopes were measured using guided neutron beams from
the Budapest Research Reactor to induce prompt and delayed rays from
elemental and isotopically-enriched tungsten targets. These cross sections were
determined from the sum of measured -ray cross sections feeding the
ground state from low-lying levels below a cutoff energy, E, where
the level scheme is completely known, and continuum rays from levels
above E, calculated using the Monte Carlo statistical-decay code
DICEBOX. The new cross sections determined in this work for the tungsten
nuclides are: b and
b;
b and b; b and
b; and,
b and b. These results are consistent with
earlier measurements in the literature. The W cross section was also
independently confirmed from an activation measurement, following the decay of
W, yielding values for that are consistent
with our prompt -ray measurement. The cross-section measurements were
found to be insensitive to choice of level density or photon strength model,
and only weakly dependent on E. Total radiative-capture widths
calculated with DICEBOX showed much greater model dependence, however, the
recommended values could be reproduced with selected model choices. The decay
schemes for all tungsten isotopes were improved in these analyses.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, 15 table
Ethnic/racial diversity, maternal stress, lactation and very low birthweight infants.
OBJECTIVE: (1) To compare maternal characteristics and psychological stress profile among African-American, Caucasian and Hispanic mothers who delivered very low birthweight infants. (2) To investigate associations between psychosocial factors, frequency of milk expression, skin-to-skin holding (STS), and lactation performance, defined as maternal drive to express milk and milk volume. STUDY DESIGN: Self-reported psychological questionnaires were given every 2 weeks after delivery over 10 weeks. Milk expression frequency, STS, and socioeconomic variables were collected. RESULT: Infant birthweight, education, and milk expression frequency differed between groups. Trait anxiety, depression and parental stress in a neonatal intensive care unit (PSS:NICU) were similar. African-American and Caucasian mothers reported the lowest scores in state anxiety and social desirability, respectively. Maternal drive to express milk, measured by maintenance of milk expression, correlated negatively with parental role alteration (subset of PSS:NICU) and positively with infant birthweight and STS. Milk volume correlated negatively with depression and positively with milk expression frequency and STS. CONCLUSION: Differences between groups were observed for certain psychosocial factors. The response bias to self-reported questionnaires between groups may not provide an accurate profile of maternal psychosocial profile. With different factors correlating with maintenance of milk expression and milk volume, lactation performance can be best enhanced with a multi-faceted intervention program, incorporating parental involvement in infant care, close awareness and management of maternal mental health, and encouragement for frequent milk expression and STS
First passage behaviour of fractional Brownian motion in two-dimensional wedge domains
We study the survival probability and the corresponding first passage time
density of fractional Brownian motion confined to a two-dimensional open wedge
domain with absorbing boundaries. By analytical arguments and numerical
simulation we show that in the long time limit the first passage time density
scales as t**{-1+pi*(2H-2)/(2*Theta)} in terms of the Hurst exponent H and the
wedge angle Theta. We discuss this scaling behaviour in connection with the
reaction kinetics of FBM particles in a one-dimensional domain.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
A Spin - 3/2 Ising Model on a Square Lattice
The spin - 3/2 Ising model on a square lattice is investigated. It is shown
that this model is reducible to an eight - vertex model on a surface in the
parameter space spanned by coupling constants J, K, L and M. It is shown that
this model is equivalent to an exactly solvable free fermion model along two
lines in the parameter space.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, 1 figure upon request; JETP Letters, in pres
Quantifying signals with power-law correlations: A comparative study of detrended fluctuation analysis and detrended moving average techniques
Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and detrended moving average (DMA) are
two scaling analysis methods designed to quantify correlations in noisy
non-stationary signals. We systematically study the performance of different
variants of the DMA method when applied to artificially generated long-range
power-law correlated signals with an {\it a-priori} known scaling exponent
and compare them with the DFA method. We find that the scaling
results obtained from different variants of the DMA method strongly depend on
the type of the moving average filter. Further, we investigate the optimal
scaling regime where the DFA and DMA methods accurately quantify the scaling
exponent , and how this regime depends on the correlations in the
signal. Finally, we develop a three-dimensional representation to determine how
the stability of the scaling curves obtained from the DFA and DMA methods
depends on the scale of analysis, the order of detrending, and the order of the
moving average we use, as well as on the type of correlations in the signal.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figure
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