2,279 research outputs found
Consumers’ Desire for GM Labels: Is the Devil in the Details?
Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,
Bayesian analysis of 210Pb dating
In many studies of environmental change of the past few centuries, 210Pb
dating is used to obtain chronologies for sedimentary sequences. One of the
most commonly used approaches to estimate the ages of depths in a sequence is
to assume a constant rate of supply (CRS) or influx of `unsupported' 210Pb from
the atmosphere, together with a constant or varying amount of `supported'
210Pb. Current 210Pb dating models do not use a proper statistical framework
and thus provide poor estimates of errors. Here we develop a new model for
210Pb dating, where both ages and values of supported and unsupported 210Pb
form part of the parameters. We apply our model to a case study from Canada as
well as to some simulated examples. Our model can extend beyond the current CRS
approach, deal with asymmetric errors and mix 210Pb with other types of dating,
thus obtaining more robust, realistic and statistically better defined
estimates.Comment: 22 Pages, 4 Figure
Analysing Push and Pull Motives for Volcano Tourism at Mount Pinatubo, Philippines
This paper investigates the motivations of visitors undertaking a volcano tour at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. The study identifies push and pull motives for visiting a non-erupting active volcano; tests the influence of age, gender and prior experience of volcanic tourism on visitors; and examines differences in motivations for domestic versus international visitors. A total of 174 survey responses were collected and analysed. The results reveal four push motives, namely escape and relaxation, novelty-seeking, volcano knowledge-seeking and socialisation, and two pull motives, namely disaster and cultural heritage-induced and volcanic and geological attribute-driven. Novelty-seeking was found as the strongest motive for visiting volcanic sites. Domestic visitors display higher escape and relaxation and socialisation motives compared to international visitors. The findings provide implications for developing and marketing volcanobased geotourism and for diversifying the Philippines’ tourism products. This study makes a valuable contribution to the under-researched understanding of geotourism at volcanic sites
Beyond the Death of Linear Response: 1/f optimal information transport
Non-ergodic renewal processes have recently been shown by several authors to
be insensitive to periodic perturbations, thereby apparently sanctioning the
death of linear response, a building block of nonequilibrium statistical
physics. We show that it is possible to go beyond the ``death of linear
response" and establish a permanent correlation between an external stimulus
and the response of a complex network generating non-ergodic renewal processes,
by taking as stimulus a similar non-ergodic process. The ideal condition of
1/f-noise corresponds to a singularity that is expected to be relevant in
several experimental conditions.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, in press on Phys. Rev. Let
Simulating spin-3/2 particles at colliders
Support for interactions of spin-3/2 particles is implemented in the
FeynRules and ALOHA packages and tested with the MadGraph 5 and CalcHEP event
generators in the context of three phenomenological applications. In the first,
we implement a spin-3/2 Majorana gravitino field, as in local supersymmetric
models, and study gravitino and gluino pair-production. In the second, a
spin-3/2 Dirac top-quark excitation, inspired from compositness models, is
implemented. We then investigate both top-quark excitation and top-quark
pair-production. In the third, a general effective operator for a spin-3/2
Dirac quark excitation is implemented, followed by a calculation of the angular
distribution of the s-channel production mechanism.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure
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Women's views of continuity of information provided during and after pregnancy: A qualitative interview study
Straightforward transfer of care from pregnancy to the postpartum period is associated with health benefits and is desired by women worldwide. Underpinning this transfer of care is the sharing of information between healthcare professionals and the provision of consistent information to women. In this qualitative study, two aspects of continuity of information were examined; first the information passed on from midwife to health visitor regarding a woman and her baby before the health visitor meets the woman postnatally and second, the consistency of information received by women from these two healthcare professionals (the main healthcare providers during and after pregnancy in England). To be eligible for the study, women had to have had a baby in England within 12Â months prior to the interview. Participants also needed to be able to read and speak English and be over 18Â years old. Recruitment of participants was via word of mouth and social media. Twenty-nine mothers were interviewed of whom 19 were first time mothers. The interviews took place in the summer and autumn of 2016 and were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework Analysis. Two overarching themes were identified: not feeling listened to and information inconsistencies. Women reported little experience of midwives and health visitors sharing information about their care, forcing women to repeat information. This made women feel not listened to and participants recommended that healthcare professionals share information; prioritising information about labour, mental health, and chronic conditions. Women had mixed experiences regarding receiving information from midwives and health visitors, with examples of both consistent and inconsistent information received. To avoid inconsistent information, joint appointments were recommended. Findings from this study clearly suggest that better communication pathways need to be developed and effectively implemented for midwives and health visitors to improve the care that they provide to women
Increased accuracy of ligand sensing by receptor internalization
Many types of cells can sense external ligand concentrations with
cell-surface receptors at extremely high accuracy. Interestingly, ligand-bound
receptors are often internalized, a process also known as receptor-mediated
endocytosis. While internalization is involved in a vast number of important
functions for the life of a cell, it was recently also suggested to increase
the accuracy of sensing ligand as the overcounting of the same ligand molecules
is reduced. Here we show, by extending simple ligand-receptor models to
out-of-equilibrium thermodynamics, that internalization increases the accuracy
with which cells can measure ligand concentrations in the external environment.
Comparison with experimental rates of real receptors demonstrates that our
model has indeed biological significance.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
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