8,446 research outputs found
Blood Pressure Measurement Validation Off the Cuff? Comment on A New Cuffless Device for Measuring Blood Pressure: A Real-Life Validation Study .
Contains fulltext :
199952.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access
The LCO/Palomar 10,000 km/sec Cluster Survey. I. Properties of the Tully-Fisher Relation
The first results from a Tully-Fisher (TF) survey of cluster galaxies are
presented. The galaxies are drawn from fifteen Abell clusters that lie in the
redshift range 9000-12,000 km/sec and are distributed uniformly around the
celestial sky. The data set consists of R-band CCD photometry and long- slit
H-alpha spectroscopy. The rotation curves (RCs) are characterized by a turnover
radius (r_t) and an asymptotic velocity v_a, while the surface brightness
profiles are characterized in terms of an effective exponential surface
brightness I_e and a scale length r_e. The TF scatter is minimized when the
rotation velocity is measured at 2.0 +/- 0.2 r_e; a significantly larger
scatter results when the rotation velocity is measured at > 3 or < 1.5 scale
lengths. This effect demonstrates that RCs do not have a universal form, as has
been suggested by Persic, Salucci, and Stel. In contrast to previous studies, a
modest but statistically significant surface-brightness dependence of the TF
relation is found, log v = const + 0.28*log L + 0.14*log I_e. This indicates a
stronger parallel between the TF relation and the FP relations of elliptical
galaxies than has previously been recognized. Future papers in this series will
consider the implications of this cluster sample for deviations from Hubble
flow on 100-200 Mpc scales.Comment: 35 pages, 8 figures, uses aaspp4.sty. Submitted to ApJ. Also
available at http://astro.stanford.edu/jeff
Planar Rayleigh scattering results in helium-air mixing experiments in a Mach-6 wind tunnel
Planar Rayleigh scattering measurements with an argon—fluoride excimer laser are performed to investigate helium mixing into air at supersonic speeds. The capability of the Rayleigh scattering technique for flow visualization of a turbulent environment is demonstrated in a large-scale, Mach-6 facility. The detection limit obtained with the present setup indicates that planar, quantitative measurements of density can be made over a large cross-sectional area (5 cm × 10 cm) of the flow field in the absence of clusters
Band Gap and Edge Engineering via Ferroic Distortion and Anisotropic Strain: The Case of SrTiO
The effects of ferroic distortion and biaxial strain on the band gap and band
edges of SrTiO (STO) are calculated using density functional theory and
many-body perturbation theory. Anisotropic strains are shown to reduce the gap
by breaking degeneracies at the band edges. Ferroic distortions are shown to
widen the gap by allowing new band edge orbital mixings. Compressive biaxial
strains raise band edge energies, while tensile strains lower them. To reduce
the STO gap, one must lower the symmetry from cubic while suppressing ferroic
distortions. Our calculations indicate that for engineered orientation of the
growth direction along [111], the STO gap can be controllably and considerably
reduced at room temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. To be published in Phys. Rev. Let
Signal-to-noise ratio of Gaussian-state ghost imaging
The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of three Gaussian-state ghost imaging
configurations--distinguished by the nature of their light sources--are
derived. Two use classical-state light, specifically a joint signal-reference
field state that has either the maximum phase-insensitive or the maximum
phase-sensitive cross correlation consistent with having a proper
representation. The third uses nonclassical light, in particular an entangled
signal-reference field state with the maximum phase-sensitive cross correlation
permitted by quantum mechanics. Analytic SNR expressions are developed for the
near-field and far-field regimes, within which simple asymptotic approximations
are presented for low-brightness and high-brightness sources. A high-brightness
thermal-state (classical phase-insensitive state) source will typically achieve
a higher SNR than a biphoton-state (low-brightness, low-flux limit of the
entangled-state) source, when all other system parameters are equal for the two
systems. With high efficiency photon-number resolving detectors, a
low-brightness, high-flux entangled-state source may achieve a higher SNR than
that obtained with a high-brightness thermal-state source.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. This version incorporates additional references
and a new analysis of the nonclassical case that, for the first time,
includes the complete transition to the classical signal-to-noise ratio
asymptote at high source brightnes
Students Who Aren\u27t Prepared For College Find Less Value In Books And Lecture Than Students Who Are Prepared
Students in three sections of introductory psychology, N = 1051, were asked about the utility of traditional, e.g. instructor, lectures and textbook, and nontraditional, e.g., clickers, podcasts and online lecture slides, teaching tools. Students who felt unprepared for college (25.9%) differed from their peers in their perceived utility of these tools. Both groups of students reported that novel teaching tools were less helpful than traditional teaching tools and while there was no group difference in the perceived usefulness of the novel tools, underprepared students found traditional teaching tools to be less helpful than did prepared students. When the individual tools were used to predict the amount of self-reported learning gains in these students, it was the traditional teaching tools that accounted for the greater proportion of variability in overall learning. These results suggest that, rather than adding new approaches to their teaching, instructors could best assist their underprepared students by helping them learn to make better use of traditional teaching tools
Viscous Torque and Dissipation in the Inner Region of a Thin Accretion Disk: Implications for Measuring Black Hole Spin
We consider a simple Newtonian model of a steady accretion disk around a
black hole. The model is based on height-integrated hydrodynamic equations,
alpha-viscosity, and a pseudo-Newtonian potential that results in an innermost
stable circular orbit (ISCO) that closely approximates the one predicted by GR.
We find that the hydrodynamic models exhibit increasing deviations from the
standard disk model of Shakura & Sunyaev as disk thickness H/R or the value of
alpha increases. The latter is an analytical model in which the viscous torque
is assumed to vanish at the ISCO. We consider the implications of the results
for attempts to estimate black hole spin by using the standard disk model to
fit continuum spectra of black hole accretion disks. We find that the error in
the spin estimate is quite modest so long as H/R < 0.1 and alpha < 0.2. At
worst the error in the estimated value of the spin parameter is 0.1 for a
non-spinning black hole; the error is much less for a rapidly spinning hole. We
also consider the density and disk thickness contrast between the gas in the
disk and that inside the ISCO. The contrast needs to be large if black hole
spin is to be successfully estimated by fitting the relativistically-broadened
X-ray line profile of fluorescent iron emission from reflection off an
accretion disk. In our hydrodynamic models, the contrast in density and
thickness is low when H/R>0.1, sugesting that the iron line technique may be
most reliable in extemely thin disks. We caution that these results have been
obtained with a viscous hydrodynamic model and need to be confirmed with MHD
simulations of radiatively cooled thin disks.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures; accepted by Ap
Bayesian Conditioning, the Reflection Principle, and Quantum Decoherence
The probabilities a Bayesian agent assigns to a set of events typically
change with time, for instance when the agent updates them in the light of new
data. In this paper we address the question of how an agent's probabilities at
different times are constrained by Dutch-book coherence. We review and attempt
to clarify the argument that, although an agent is not forced by coherence to
use the usual Bayesian conditioning rule to update his probabilities, coherence
does require the agent's probabilities to satisfy van Fraassen's [1984]
reflection principle (which entails a related constraint pointed out by
Goldstein [1983]). We then exhibit the specialized assumption needed to recover
Bayesian conditioning from an analogous reflection-style consideration.
Bringing the argument to the context of quantum measurement theory, we show
that "quantum decoherence" can be understood in purely personalist
terms---quantum decoherence (as supposed in a von Neumann chain) is not a
physical process at all, but an application of the reflection principle. From
this point of view, the decoherence theory of Zeh, Zurek, and others as a story
of quantum measurement has the plot turned exactly backward.Comment: 14 pages, written in memory of Itamar Pitowsk
Nod1 signaling overcomes resistance of S. pneumoniae to opsonophagocytic killing
Airway infection by the Gram-positive pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (Sp) leads to recruitment of neutrophils but
limited bacterial killing by these cells. Co-colonization by Sp and a Gram-negative species, Haemophilus influenzae (Hi),
provides sufficient stimulus to induce neutrophil and complement-mediated clearance of Sp from the mucosal surface
in a murine model. Products from Hi, but not Sp, also promote killing of Sp by ex vivo neutrophil-enriched peritoneal
exudate cells. Here we identify the stimulus from Hi as its peptidoglycan. Enhancement of opsonophagocytic killing
was facilitated by signaling through nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-1 (Nod1), which is involved in
recognition of γ-D-glutamyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid (meso-DAP) contained in cell walls of Hi but not Sp. Neutrophils
from mice treated with Hi or compounds containing meso-DAP, including synthetic peptidoglycan fragments, showed
increased Sp killing in a Nod1-dependent manner. Moreover, Nod1-/- mice showed reduced Hi-induced clearance of Sp
during co-colonization. These observations offer insight into mechanisms of microbial competition and demonstrate
the importance of Nod1 in neutrophil-mediated clearance of bacteria in vivo
A multiscale view on inverse statistics and gain/loss asymmetry in financial time series
Researchers have studied the first passage time of financial time series and
observed that the smallest time interval needed for a stock index to move a
given distance is typically shorter for negative than for positive price
movements. The same is not observed for the index constituents, the individual
stocks. We use the discrete wavelet transform to illustrate that this is a long
rather than short time scale phenomenon -- if enough low frequency content of
the price process is removed, the asymmetry disappears. We also propose a new
model, which explain the asymmetry by prolonged, correlated down movements of
individual stocks
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