414 research outputs found
Critical Scale-invariance in Healthy Human Heart Rate
We demonstrate the robust scale-invariance in the probability density
function (PDF) of detrended healthy human heart rate increments, which is
preserved not only in a quiescent condition, but also in a dynamic state where
the mean level of heart rate is dramatically changing. This scale-independent
and fractal structure is markedly different from the scale-dependent PDF
evolution observed in a turbulent-like, cascade heart rate model. These results
strongly support the view that healthy human heart rate is controlled to
converge continually to a critical state.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Phys. Rev. Lett., to appear (2004
Review of Engaging Education: Developing Emotional Literacy, Equity and Co-education. Brian Matthews. (Book Review)
The book is only about a fraction of its title Engaging Education. His section on ‘engaging the emotions’ sums this up: whereas the book is largely about engaging the emotions positively, the definition of ‘Engaging’ is more far reaching: “that pupils should be involved in their learning; be active and absorbed and not just passive recipients of a set curriculum. Additionally, they should feel engaged in the processes of education and have some input into creating their own agendas for learning” (p.2). Exploring the full impact of this statement across the curriculum really needs a different book
Temperature effects on dislocation core energies in silicon and germanium
Temperature effects on the energetics of the 90-degree partial dislocation in
silicon and germanium are investigated, using non-equilibrium methods to
estimate free energies, coupled with Monte Carlo simulations. Atomic
interactions are described by Tersoff and EDIP interatomic potentials. Our
results indicate that the vibrational entropy has the effect of increasing the
difference in free energy between the two possible reconstructions of the
90-degree partial, namely, the single-period and the double-period geometries.
This effect further increases the energetic stability of the double-period
reconstruction at high temperatures. The results also indicate that anharmonic
effects may play an important role in determining the structural properties of
these defects in the high-temperature regime.Comment: 8 pages in two-column physical-review format with six figure
Ab Initio Study of Screw Dislocations in Mo and Ta: A new picture of plasticity in bcc transition metals
We report the first ab initio density-functional study of screw
dislocations cores in the bcc transition metals Mo and Ta. Our results suggest
a new picture of bcc plasticity with symmetric and compact dislocation cores,
contrary to the presently accepted picture based on continuum and interatomic
potentials. Core energy scales in this new picture are in much better agreement
with the Peierls energy barriers to dislocation motion suggested by
experiments.Comment: 3 figures, 3 table
Growing Environmental Activists: Developing Environmental Agency and Engagement Through Children’s Fiction.
We explore how story has the potential to encourage environmental engagement and a sense of agency provided that critical discussion takes place. We illuminate this with reference to the philosophies of John Macmurray on personal agency and social relations; of John Dewey on the primacy of experience for philosophy; and of Paul Ricoeur on hermeneutics, dialogue, dialectics and narrative. We view the use of fiction for environmental understanding as hermeneutic, a form of conceptualising place which interprets experience and perception. The four writers for young people discussed are Ernest Thompson Seton, Kenneth Grahame, Michelle Paver and Philip Pullman. We develop the concept of critical dialogue, and link this to Crick's demand for active democratic citizenship. We illustrate the educational potential for environmental discussions based on literature leading to deeper understanding of place and environment, encouraging the belief in young people that they can be and become agents for change. We develop from Zimbardo the key concept of heroic resister to encourage young people to overcome peer pressure. We conclude with a call to develop a greater awareness of the potential of fiction for learning, and for writers to produce more focused stories engaging with environmental responsibility and activism
Atomic structure of dislocation kinks in silicon
We investigate the physics of the core reconstruction and associated
structural excitations (reconstruction defects and kinks) of dislocations in
silicon, using a linear-scaling density-matrix technique. The two predominant
dislocations (the 90-degree and 30-degree partials) are examined, focusing for
the 90-degree case on the single-period core reconstruction. In both cases, we
observe strongly reconstructed bonds at the dislocation cores, as suggested in
previous studies. As a consequence, relatively low formation energies and high
migration barriers are generally associated with reconstructed
(dangling-bond-free) kinks. Complexes formed of a kink plus a reconstruction
defect are found to be strongly bound in the 30-degree partial, while the
opposite is true in the case of 90-degree partial, where such complexes are
found to be only marginally stable at zero temperature with very low
dissociation barriers. For the 30-degree partial, our calculated formation
energies and migration barriers of kinks are seen to compare favorably with
experiment. Our results for the kink energies on the 90-degree partial are
consistent with a recently proposed alternative double-period structure for the
core of this dislocation.Comment: 12 pages, two-column style with 8 postscript figures embedded. Uses
REVTEX and epsf macros. Also available at
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#rn_di
A stochastic model for heart rate fluctuations
Normal human heart rate shows complex fluctuations in time, which is natural,
since heart rate is controlled by a large number of different feedback control
loops. These unpredictable fluctuations have been shown to display fractal
dynamics, long-term correlations, and 1/f noise. These characterizations are
statistical and they have been widely studied and used, but much less is known
about the detailed time evolution (dynamics) of the heart rate control
mechanism. Here we show that a simple one-dimensional Langevin-type stochastic
difference equation can accurately model the heart rate fluctuations in a time
scale from minutes to hours. The model consists of a deterministic nonlinear
part and a stochastic part typical to Gaussian noise, and both parts can be
directly determined from the measured heart rate data. Studies of 27 healthy
subjects reveal that in most cases the deterministic part has a form typically
seen in bistable systems: there are two stable fixed points and one unstable
one.Comment: 8 pages in PDF, Revtex style. Added more dat
Live to cheat another day: bacterial dormancy facilitates the social exploitation of beta-lactamases
The breakdown of antibiotics by β-lactamases may be cooperative, since resistant cells can detoxify their environment and facilitate the growth of susceptible neighbours. However, previous studies of this phenomenon have used artificial bacterial vectors or engineered bacteria to increase the secretion of β-lactamases from cells. Here, we investigated whether a broad-spectrum β-lactamase gene carried by a naturally occurring plasmid (pCT) is cooperative under a range of conditions. In ordinary batch culture on solid media, there was little or no evidence that resistant bacteria could protect susceptible cells from ampicillin, although resistant colonies could locally detoxify this growth medium. However, when susceptible cells were inoculated at high densities, late-appearing phenotypically susceptible bacteria grew in the vicinity of resistant colonies. We infer that persisters, cells that have survived antibiotics by undergoing a period of dormancy, founded these satellite colonies. The number of persister colonies was positively correlated with the density of resistant colonies and increased as antibiotic concentrations decreased. We argue that detoxification can be cooperative under a limited range of conditions: if the toxins are bacteriostatic rather than bacteridical; or if susceptible cells invade communities after resistant bacteria; or if dormancy allows susceptible cells to avoid bactericides. Resistance and tolerance were previously thought to be independent solutions for surviving antibiotics. Here, we show that these are interacting strategies: the presence of bacteria adopting one solution can have substantial effects on the fitness of their neighbours
A period-doubled structure for the 90-degree partial dislocation in silicon
We suggest that the commonly-accepted core structure of the 90-degree partial
dislocation in Si may not be correct, and propose instead a period-doubled
structure. We present LDA, tight-binding, and classical Keating-model
calculations, all of which indicate that the period-doubled structure is lower
in energy. The new structure displays a broken mirror symmetry in addition to
the period doubling, leading to a wide variety of possible soliton-like defects
and kinks.Comment: 4 pages, two-column style with 3 postscript figures embedded. Uses
REVTEX and epsf macros. Also available at
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~dhv/preprints/index.html#jb_di
Structure, barriers and relaxation mechanisms of kinks in the 90-degree partial dislocation in silicon
Kink defects in the 90-degree partial dislocation in silicon are studied
using a linear-scaling density-matrix technique. The asymmetric core
reconstruction plays a crucial role, generating at least four distinct kink
species as well as soliton defects. The energies and migration barriers of
these entities are calculated and compared with experiment. As a result of
certain low-energy kinks, a peculiar alternation of the core reconstruction is
predicted. We find the solitons to be remarkably mobile even at very low
temperature, and propose that they mediate the kink relaxation dynamics.Comment: 4 pages in a two column gzipped postscript file (128 K), containing 3
figures and one table. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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