5,827 research outputs found
How useful are the stages of change for targeting interventions? randomized test of a brief intervention to reduce smoking
Objectives. To see whether the stages of change are useful for targeting a brief intervention to reduce smoking based on implementation intentions. A second objective was to rule out demand characteristics as an alternative explanation for the findings of intervention studies based on the transtheoretical model and implementation intentions. Design. Participants (N = 350) were randomized to a passive control condition (questionnaire only), active control condition (questionnaire-plus-instruction to plan to quit) or experimental condition (questionnaire, plan to quit, form an implementation intention). Their behavior and psychosocial orientation to quit were measured at baseline and 2-month follow-up. Main Outcome Measures. Theory of planned behavior variables, nicotine dependence and quitting. Results. Significantly more people quit smoking in the experimental condition than in the control conditions, and the planning instructions changed intention to quit and perceived control over quitting, but not behavior. Stage of change moderated these effects such that implementation intentions worked best for individuals who were in the preparation stage at baseline. Conclusion. Harnessing both motivational and volitional processes seems to enhance the effectiveness of smoking cessation programs, although further work is required to clarify inconsistencies in the literature using the stages of change.</p
MHD simulations of the collapsar model for GRBs
We present results from axisymmetric, time-dependent magnetohydrodynamic
(MHD) simulations of the collapsar model for gamma-ray bursts. Our main
conclusion is that, within the collapsar model, MHD effects alone are able to
launch, accelerate and sustain a strong polar outflow. We also find that the
outflow is Poynting flux-dominated, and note that this provides favorable
initial conditions for the subsequent production of a baryon-poor fireball.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in proceedings of "2003 GRB Conference" (Santa Fe,
NM, September 8-12, 2003), needs aipprocs LaTeX class, movies are available
at http://rocinante.colorado.edu/~proga
Thermal Expansion and Magnetostriction Studies of a Kondo Lattice Compound: Ceagsb2
We have investigated a single crystal of CeAgSb2 using low field
ac-susceptibility, thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements in the
temperature range 1.5K to 90K. The ac-susceptibility exhibits a sharp peak at
9.7K for both B//c and B perp c due to the magnetic ordering of the Ce moment.
The thermal expansion coefficient alpha, exhibits highly anisotropic behaviour
between 3K and 80K : alpha is positive for dL/L perp c, but negative for dL/L
// c. Furthermore, alpha (for dL/L) perp c (i.e. in ab-plane) exhibits a sharp
peak at TN followed by a broad maximum at 20K, while a sharp negative peak at
TN followed by a minimum at 20K has been observed for (dL/L //) the c
direction. The observed maximum and minimum in alpha(T) at 20K have been
attributed to the crystalline field effect on the J=5/2 state of the Ce3+ ion.
The magnetostriction also exhibits anisotropic behaviour with a large
magnetostriction along the c-axis. The ab-plane magnetostriction exhibits a
peak at B=3.3T at 3K, which is consistent with the observed peak in the
magnetoresistance measurements.Comment: 4 Pages (B5), 3 figures, submitted to SCES200
Modelling bacterial behaviour close to a no-slip plane boundary: the influence of bacterial geometry
We describe a boundary-element method used to model the hydrodynamics of a bacterium propelled by a single helical flagellum. Using this model, we optimize the power efficiency of swimming with respect to cell body and flagellum geometrical parameters, and find that optima for swimming in unbounded fluid and near a no-slip plane boundary are nearly indistinguishable. We also consider the novel optimization objective of torque efficiency and find a very different optimal shape. Excluding effects such as Brownian motion and electrostatic interactions, it is demonstrated that hydrodynamic forces may trap the bacterium in a stable, circular orbit near the boundary, leading to the empirically observable surface accumulation of bacteria. Furthermore, the details and even the existence of this stable orbit depend on geometrical parameters of the bacterium, as described in this article. These results shed some light on the phenomenon of surface accumulation of micro-organisms and offer hydrodynamic explanations as to why some bacteria may accumulate more readily than others based on morphology
Possible manifestation of spin fluctuations in the temperature behavior of resistivity in Sm_{1.85}Ce_{0.15}CuO_4 thin films
A pronounced step-like (kink) behavior in the temperature dependence of
resistivity is observed in the optimally-doped
thin films around and attributed to
manifestation of strong spin fluctuations induced by moments with the
energy . In addition to fluctuation
induced contribution due to thermal broadening effects (of the
width ), the experimental data are found to be well fitted
accounting for residual (zero-temperature) , electron-phonon and electron-electron contributions. The
best fits produced , ,
, and for estimates of the plasmon frequency, the
impurity scattering rate, electron-phonon coupling constant, and the Fermi
energy, respectively.Comment: 6 pages (REVTEX4), 2 EPS figures; accepted for publication in JETP
Letter
A hierarchy of bound states in the 1D ferromagnetic Ising chain CoNbO investigated by high resolution time-domain terahertz spectroscopy
Kink bound states in the one dimensional ferromagnetic Ising chain compound
CoNbO have been studied using high resolution time-domain terahertz
spectroscopy in zero applied magnetic field. When magnetic order develops at
low temperature, nine bound states of kinks become visible. Their energies can
be modeled exceedingly well by the Airy function solutions to a 1D
Schr\"odinger equation with a linear confining potential. This sequence of
bound states terminates at a threshold energy near two times the energy of the
lowest bound state. Above this energy scale we observe a broad feature
consistent with the onset of the two particle continuum. At energies just below
this threshold we observe a prominent excitation that we interpret as a novel
bound state of bound states -- two pairs of kinks on neighboring chains
Accretion disc-stellar magnetosphere interaction: field line inflation and the effect on the spin-down torque
We calculate the structure of a force-free magnetosphere which is assumed to
corotate with a central star and which interacts with an embedded
differentially rotating accretion disc. The magnetic and rotation axes are
aligned and the stellar field is assumed to be a dipole. We concentrate on the
case when the amount of field line twisting through the disc-magnetosphere
interaction is large and consider different outer boundary conditions. In
general the field line twisting produces field line inflation (eg. Bardou &
Heyvaerts 1996) and in some cases with large twisting many field lines can
become open. We calculate the spin-down torque acting between the star and the
disc and we find that it decreases significantly for cases with large field
line twisting. This suggests that the oscillating torques observed for some
accreting neutron stars could be due to the magnetosphere varying between
states with low and high field line inflation. Calculations of the spin
evolution of T Tauri stars may also have to be revised in light of the
significant effect that field line twisting has on the magnetic torque
resulting from star-disc interactions.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. 21 pages, 15 figures. LaTeX2e in the MN style.
PostScript files are also available from http://www-star.qmw.ac.uk/~va/ or by
e-mail: [email protected]
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