Application of Raman diagnostics to combustion

The use of laser Raman diagnostic techniques to measure the specie concentrations and their temperatures in combustion flow fields is discussed. The system designed to measure the specie concentrations, which included a ruby laser and a photodiode to trip the laser at the maximum light and heat output of the combustion process, is described and problems encountered in developing the system are reported. Photographs of the combustion process are presented and analyzed detailing the evolution of the combustion in terms of the photodiode and the lack of a noticeable Raman-Stokes signal. The absence of the Raman-Stokes signal is discussed

Coherent control of injection currents in high-quality films of Bi2Se3

Films of the topological insulator Bi2Se3 are grown by molecular beam epitaxy with in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction. The films are shown to be high-quality by X-ray reflectivity and diffraction and atomic-force microscopy. Quantum interference control of photocurrents is observed by excitation with harmonically related pulses and detected by terahertz radiation. The injection current obeys the expected excitation irradiance dependence, showing linear dependence on the fundamental pulse irradiance and square-root irradiance dependence of the frequency-doubled optical pulses. The injection current also follows a sinusoidal relative-phase dependence between the two excitation pulses. These results confirm the third-order nonlinear optical origins of the coherently controlled injection current. Experiments are compared to a tight-binding band structure to illustrate the possible optical transitions that occur in creating the injection current.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure, journal articl

INFORMING THE DESIGN OF A HEALTH VIRTUAL COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE: A KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION APPROACH

Access to knowledge forms an integral part of the continuous learning processes of medical and other health professionals throughout their career. Modern technologies have become instrumental in extending learning processes to the online realm, particularly through the use of social media technologies. Health Practitioners’ (HPs) exploitation of online social media technologies for online learning and knowledge sharing purposes has evolved into Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP). However, there is limited research on the types of knowledge being shared to fulfil the notion of ‘knowledge-into-action’ in the healthcare domain. In addition, little is known of the use of online social media technologies as a catalyst to achieve ‘knowledge-into-action’. This research in progress paper extends the conceptual model from our previous work and draws on current literature that identifies the types of knowledge being shared in a Health VCoP. We discuss some of our data using our conceptual lens as a preliminary analysis of our work. Expected outcomes are a new extended conceptual model that fulfils the notion of ‘knowledge-into-action’ that informs the design of an IT artefact based on types of knowledge being shared in a Health VCoP

Nonlocal mixing of supercurrents in Josephson ballistic point contact

We study coherent current states in the mesoscopic superconducting weak link simultaneously subjected to the order parameter phase difference on the contact and to the tangential to the junction interface superfluid velocity in the banks. The Josephson current-phase relation controlled by the external transport current is obtained. At phase difference close to pi the nonlocal nature of the Josephson phase-dependent current results in the appearance of two vortexlike states in the vicinity of the contact.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev. B; e-mail: [email protected]

Effectiveness of a brief lifestyle intervention targeting mental health staff: analysis of physical fitness and activity in the Keeping Our Staff in Mind study.

BackgroundPeople with mental illness die on average 15 years less than the general population, primarily to cardiometabolic disease. Lifestyle interventions are effective in reducing cardiometabolic risk but are not routinely provided to mental health consumers. Lifestyle interventions targeting mental health staff may be beneficial in changing culture surrounding physical health and subsequently improving consumer outcomes. This study examines exercise and fitness outcomes of a targeted lifestyle intervention directed at Australian mental health staff.MethodsA pragmatic single-arm intervention study was conducted within an Australian public mental health service. Mental health staff were provided a five-session individualised lifestyle intervention (incorporating exercise and nutritional counselling) over 5 weeks. Two waves of the programme were delivered between 2015 and 2016. This paper examines the exercise and fitness outcomes of the second wave of the study. Participants were assessed at baseline and at a 16-week follow-up. The primary exercise outcome was a measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness. Secondary outcomes included self-reported physical activity and a measurement of handgrip strength.ResultsA total of 106 staff participated in this component of the study. Cardiorespiratory fitness increased significantly from baseline to follow-up (pConclusionLifestyle interventions incorporating exercise counselling may improve the physical health of mental health staff. Such strategies may be effective in improving culture surrounding physical health and/or increasing the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions targeting mental health consumers

Reasons, Coherence, and Group Rationality

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, EarlyView

Finite-size scaling in thin Fe/Ir(100) layers

The critical temperature of thin Fe layers on Ir(100) is measured through M\"o{\ss}bauer spectroscopy as a function of the layer thickness. From a phenomenological finite-size scaling analysis, we find an effective shift exponent lambda = 3.15 +/- 0.15, which is twice as large as the value expected from the conventional finite-size scaling prediction lambda=1/nu, where nu is the correlation length critical exponent. Taking corrections to finite-size scaling into account, we derive the effective shift exponent lambda=(1+2\Delta_1)/nu, where Delta_1 describes the leading corrections to scaling. For the 3D Heisenberg universality class, this leads to lambda = 3.0 +/- 0.1, in agreement with the experimental data. Earlier data by Ambrose and Chien on the effective shift exponent in CoO films are also explained.Comment: Latex, 4 pages, with 2 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett