1,845 research outputs found
Changes in the Welfare of an Injured Working Farm Dog Assessed Using the Five Domains Model
The present structured, systematic and comprehensive welfare evaluation of an injured working farm dog using the Five Domains Model is of interest in its own right. It is also an example for others wanting to apply the Model to welfare evaluations in different species and contexts. Six stages of a fictitious scenario involving the dog are considered: (1) its on-farm circumstances before one hind leg is injured; (2) its entanglement in barbed wire, cutting it free and transporting it to a veterinary clinic; (3) the initial veterinary examination and overnight stay; (4) amputation of the limb and immediate post-operative recovery; (5) its first four weeks after rehoming to a lifestyle block; and (6) its subsequent life as an amputee and pet. Not all features of the scenario represent average-to-good practice; indeed, some have been selected to indicate poor practice. It is shown how the Model can draw attention to areas of animal welfare concern and, importantly, to how welfare enhancement may be impeded or facilitated. Also illustrated is how the welfare implications of a sequence of events can be traced and evaluated, and, in relation to specific situations, how the degrees of welfare compromise and enhancement may be graded. In addition, the choice of a companion animal, contrasting its welfare status as a working dog and pet, and considering its treatment in a veterinary clinical setting, help to highlight various welfare impacts of some practices. By focusing attention on welfare problems, the Model can guide the implementation of remedies, including ways of promoting positive welfare states. Finally, wider applications of the Five Domains Model are noted: by enabling both negative and positive welfare-relevant experiences to be graded, the Model can be applied to quality of life assessments and end-of-life decisions and, with particular regard to negative experiences, the Model can also help to strengthen expert witness testimony during prosecutions for serious ill treatment of animals
Hopf algebras and characters of classical groups
Schur functions provide an integral basis of the ring of symmetric functions.
It is shown that this ring has a natural Hopf algebra structure by identifying
the appropriate product, coproduct, unit, counit and antipode, and their
properties. Characters of covariant tensor irreducible representations of the
classical groups GL(n), O(n) and Sp(n) are then expressed in terms of Schur
functions, and the Hopf algebra is exploited in the determination of
group-subgroup branching rules and the decomposition of tensor products. The
analysis is carried out in terms of n-independent universal characters. The
corresponding rings, CharGL, CharO and CharSp, of universal characters each
have their own natural Hopf algebra structure. The appropriate product,
coproduct, unit, counit and antipode are identified in each case.Comment: 9 pages. Uses jpconf.cls and jpconf11.clo. Presented by RCK at
SSPCM'07, Myczkowce, Poland, Sept 200
Dipolar superfluidity in electron-hole bilayer systems
Bilayer electron-hole systems, where the electrons and holes are created via
doping and confined to separate layers, undergo excitonic condensation when the
distance between the layers is smaller than typical distance between particles
within a layer. We argue that the excitonic condensate is a novel dipolar
superfluid in which the phase of the condensate couples to the {\it gradient}
of the vector potential. We predict the existence of dipolar supercurrent which
can be tuned by an in-plane magnetic field and detected by independent contacts
to the layers. Thus the dipolar superfluid offers an example of excitonic
condensate in which the {\it composite} nature of its constituent excitons is
manifest in the macroscopic superfluid state. We also discuss various
properties of this superfluid including the role of vortices.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, minor changes and added few references; final
published versio
Numerical time propagation of quantum systems in radiation fields
Atoms, molecules or excitonic quasiparticles, for which excitations are
induced by external radiation fields and energy is dissipated through radiative
decay, are examples of driven open quantum systems. We explain the use of
commutator-free exponential time-propagators for the numerical solution of the
associated Schr\"odinger or master equations with a time-dependent Hamilton
operator. These time-propagators are based on the Magnus series but avoid the
computation of commutators, which makes them suitable for the efficient
propagation of systems with a large number of degrees of freedom. We present an
optimized fourth order propagator and demonstrate its efficiency in comparison
to the direct Runge-Kutta computation. As an illustrative example we consider
the parametrically driven dissipative Dicke model, for which we calculate the
periodic steady state and the optical emission spectrum.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure
Thermodynamics and Excitations of Condensed Polaritons in Disordered Microcavities
We study the thermodynamic condensation of microcavity polaritons using a
realistic model of disorder in semiconductor quantum wells. This approach
correctly describes the polariton inhomogeneous broadening in the low density
limit, and treats scattering by disorder to all orders in the condensed regime.
While the weak disorder changes the thermodynamic properties of the transition
little, the effects of disorder in the condensed state are prominent in the
excitations and can be seen in resonant Rayleigh scattering.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps figures (published version
Angular distribution of photoluminescence as a probe of Bose Condensation of trapped excitons
Recent experiments on two-dimensional exciton systems have shown the excitons
collect in shallow in-plane traps. We find that Bose condensation in a trap
results in a dramatic change of the exciton photoluminescence (PL) angular
distribution. The long-range coherence of the condensed state gives rise to a
sharply focussed peak of radiation in the direction normal to the plane. By
comparing the PL profile with and without Bose Condensation we provide a simple
diagnostic for the existence of a Bose condensate. The PL peak has strong
temperature dependence due to the thermal order parameter phase fluctuations
across the system. The angular PL distribution can also be used for imaging
vortices in the trapped condensate. Vortex phase spatial variation leads to
destructive interference of PL radiation in certain directions, creating nodes
in the PL distribution that imprint the vortex configuration.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Energy evolution in time-dependent harmonic oscillator
The theory of adiabatic invariants has a long history, and very important
implications and applications in many different branches of physics,
classically and quantally, but is rarely founded on rigorous results. Here we
treat the general time-dependent one-dimensional harmonic oscillator, whose
Newton equation cannot be solved in general. We
follow the time-evolution of an initial ensemble of phase points with sharply
defined energy at time and calculate rigorously the distribution of
energy after time , which is fully (all moments, including the
variance ) determined by the first moment . For example,
, and all
higher even moments are powers of , whilst the odd ones vanish
identically. This distribution function does not depend on any further details
of the function and is in this sense universal. In ideal
adiabaticity , and the variance is
zero, whilst for finite we calculate , and for the
general case using exact WKB-theory to all orders. We prove that if is of class (all derivatives up to and including the order
are continuous) , whilst for class it is known to be exponential .Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure
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