Happiness as stable extraversion : internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire among undergraduate students

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) was developed by Hills and Argyle (2002) to provide a more accessible equivalent measure of the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI). The aim of the present study was to examine the internal consistency reliability, and construct validity of this new instrument alongside the Eysenckian dimensional model of personality. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was completed by a sample of 131 undergraduate students together with the abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The data demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (alpha = .92) and good construct validity in terms of positive association with extraversion (r = .38 p < .001) and negative association with neuroticism (r = −.57 p < .001). The kind of happiness measured by the OHQ is clearly associated with stable extraversion

Phase separation in the crust of accreting neutron stars

Nucleosynthesis, on the surface of accreting neutron stars, produces a range of chemical elements. We perform molecular dynamics simulations of crystallization to see how this complex composition forms new neutron star crust. We find chemical separation, with the liquid ocean phase greatly enriched in low atomic number elements compared to the solid crust. This phase separation should change many crust properties such as the thermal conductivity and shear modulus. The concentration of carbon, if present, is enriched in the ocean. This may allow unstable thermonuclear burning of the carbon and help explain the ignition of the very energetic explosions known as superbursts.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, minor changes, Physical Review E in pres

Spectral Statistics and Dynamical Localization: sharp transition in a generalized Sinai billiard

We consider a Sinai billiard where the usual hard disk scatterer is replaced by a repulsive potential with $V(r)\sim\lambda r^{-\alpha}$ close to the origin. Using periodic orbit theory and numerical evidence we show that its spectral statistics tends to Poisson statistics for large energies when $\alpha2$, while for $\alpha=2$ it is independent of energy, but depends on $\lambda$. We apply the approach of Altshuler and Levitov [Phys. Rep. {\bf 288}, 487 (1997)] to show that the transition in the spectral statistics is accompanied by a dynamical localization-delocalization transition. This behaviour is reminiscent of a metal-insulator transition in disordered electronic systems.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Redesigning pictographs for patients with low health literacy and establishing preliminary steps for delivery via smart phones.

BackgroundPictographs (or pictograms) have been widely utilized to convey medication related messages and to address nonadherence among patients with low health literacy. Yet, patients do not always interpret the intended messages on commonly used pictographs correctly and there are questions how they may be delivered on mobile devices.ObjectiveOur objectives are to refine a set of pictographs to use as medication reminders and to establish preliminary steps for delivery via smart phones.MethodsCard sorting was used to identify existing pictographs that focus group members found "not easy" to understand. Participants then explored improvements to these pictographs while iterations were sketched in real-time by a graphic artist. Feedback was also solicited on how selected pictographs might be delivered via smart phones in a sequential reminder message. The study was conducted at a community learning center that provides literacy services to underserved populations in Seattle, WA. Participants aged 18 years and older who met the criteria for low health literacy using S-TOFHLA were recruited.ResultsAmong the 45 participants screened for health literacy, 29 were eligible and consented to participate. Across four focus group sessions, participants examined 91 commonly used pictographs, 20 of these were ultimately refined to improve comprehensibility using participatory design approaches. All participants in the fifth focus group owned and used cell phones and provided feedback on preferred sequencing of pictographs to represent medication messages.ConclusionLow literacy adults found a substantial number of common medication label pictographs difficult to understand. Participative design processes helped generate new pictographs, as well as feedback on the sequencing of messages on cell phones, that may be evaluated in future research

Classical and quantum chaos in a circular billiard with a straight cut

We study classical and quantum dynamics of a particle in a circular billiard with a straight cut. This system can be integrable, nonintegrable with soft chaos, or nonintegrable with hard chaos, as we vary the size of the cut. We use a quantum web to show differences in the quantum manifestations of classical chaos for these three different regimes.Comment: LaTeX2e, 8 pages including 3 Postscript figures and 4 GIF figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Continuous area spectrum in regular black hole

We investigate highly damped quasinormal modes of regular black hole coupled to nonlinear electrodynamics. Using the WKB approximation combined with complex-integration technique, we show that the real part of the frequency disappears in the highly damped limit. If we use the Bohr's correspondence principle, the area spectrum of this black hole is continuous. We discuss its implication in the loop quantum gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure

Quasiclassical Random Matrix Theory

We directly combine ideas of the quasiclassical approximation with random matrix theory and apply them to the study of the spectrum, in particular to the two-level correlator. Bogomolny's transfer operator T, quasiclassically an NxN unitary matrix, is considered to be a random matrix. Rather than rejecting all knowledge of the system, except for its symmetry, [as with Dyson's circular unitary ensemble], we choose an ensemble which incorporates the knowledge of the shortest periodic orbits, the prime quasiclassical information bearing on the spectrum. The results largely agree with expectations but contain novel features differing from other recent theories.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., permanent e-mail [email protected]

Geometric Phases for Mixed States during Cyclic Evolutions

The geometric phases of cyclic evolutions for mixed states are discussed in the framework of unitary evolution. A canonical one-form is defined whose line integral gives the geometric phase which is gauge invariant. It reduces to the Aharonov and Anandan phase in the pure state case. Our definition is consistent with the phase shift in the proposed experiment [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{85}, 2845 (2000)] for a cyclic evolution if the unitary transformation satisfies the parallel transport condition. A comprehensive geometric interpretation is also given. It shows that the geometric phases for mixed states share the same geometric sense with the pure states.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Vortex lines of the electromagnetic field

Relativistic definition of the phase of the electromagnetic field, involving two Lorentz invariants, based on the Riemann-Silberstein vector is adopted to extend our previous study [I. Bialynicki-Birula, Z. Bialynicka-Birula and C. Sliwa, Phys. Rev. A 61, 032110 (2000)] of the motion of vortex lines embedded in the solutions of wave equations from Schroedinger wave mechanics to Maxwell theory. It is shown that time evolution of vortex lines has universal features; in Maxwell theory it is very similar to that in Schroedinger wave mechanics. Connection with some early work on geometrodynamics is established. Simple examples of solutions of Maxwell equations with embedded vortex lines are given. Vortex lines in Laguerre-Gaussian beams are treated in some detail.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.