18,839 research outputs found
High-Precision Entropy Values for Spanning Trees in Lattices
Shrock and Wu have given numerical values for the exponential growth rate of
the number of spanning trees in Euclidean lattices. We give a new technique for
numerical evaluation that gives much more precise values, together with
rigorous bounds on the accuracy. In particular, the new values resolve one of
their questions.Comment: 7 pages. Revision mentions alternative approach. Title changed
slightly. 2nd revision corrects first displayed equatio
Life interrupted and life regained? Coping with stroke at a young age
Stroke is a leading cause of disability across the developed world, affecting an increasing number of younger people. In this article, we seek to understand the experience of stroke as a disabling life situation among young people and the strategies that they use to recover and cope. Directed content analysis was conducted from interviews with 17 community-dwelling stroke survivors aged 55 years and younger across the United Kingdom. The sample was drawn from a larger maximum variation sample of stroke survivors. Using the sociological concepts of biographical disruption and biographical repair as a guide, excerpts from the interviews pertaining to aspects of the patients’ life that were interrupted, in addition to how they coped with the changes, were selected and analysed. All individuals described an ‘‘altered sense of self,’’ a theme that included loss of identity, family disruption, and/or loss of valued activities. Individuals sought to adapt their sense of self by seeking external support, by restoring normality, and/or through positive reflection. Despite the adapted self that emerged, most individuals continued to experience impairments. While young stroke survivors adapt to their illness over time, they continue to experience impairments and disruptions in their personal and work lives.Aholistic model of rehabilitation that helps individuals regain the capacity for everyday activities related to work, family life, and leisure can begin to address the emotional ramifications of diseases such as stroke, restore wellness, and work towards minimizing the burden felt by family caregivers and children
Life interrupted and life regained? Coping with stroke at a young age
Stroke is a leading cause of disability across the developed world, affecting an increasing number of younger people. In this article, we seek to understand the experience of stroke as a disabling life situation among young people and the strategies that they use to recover and cope. Directed content analysis was conducted from interviews with 17 community-dwelling stroke survivors aged 55 years and younger across the United Kingdom. The sample was drawn from a larger maximum variation sample of stroke survivors. Using the sociological concepts of biographical disruption and biographical repair as a guide, excerpts from the interviews pertaining to aspects of the patients’ life that were interrupted, in addition to how they coped with the changes, were selected and analysed. All individuals described an ‘‘altered sense of self,’’ a theme that included loss of identity, family disruption, and/or loss of valued activities. Individuals sought to adapt their sense of self by seeking external support, by restoring normality, and/or through positive reflection. Despite the adapted self that emerged, most individuals continued to experience impairments. While young stroke survivors adapt to their illness over time, they continue to experience impairments and disruptions in their personal and work lives.Aholistic model of rehabilitation that helps individuals regain the capacity for everyday activities related to work, family life, and leisure can begin to address the emotional ramifications of diseases such as stroke, restore wellness, and work towards minimizing the burden felt by family caregivers and children
Minimum orbit dimension for local unitary action on n-qubit pure states
The group of local unitary transformations partitions the space of n-qubit
quantum states into orbits, each of which is a differentiable manifold of some
dimension. We prove that all orbits of the n-qubit quantum state space have
dimension greater than or equal to 3n/2 for n even and greater than or equal to
(3n + 1)/2 for n odd. This lower bound on orbit dimension is sharp, since
n-qubit states composed of products of singlets achieve these lowest orbit
dimensions.Comment: 19 page
Scattering statistics of rock outcrops: Model-data comparisons and Bayesian inference using mixture distributions
The probability density function of the acoustic field amplitude scattered by
the seafloor was measured in a rocky environment off the coast of Norway using
a synthetic aperture sonar system, and is reported here in terms of the
probability of false alarm. Interpretation of the measurements focused on
finding appropriate class of statistical models (single versus two-component
mixture models), and on appropriate models within these two classes. It was
found that two-component mixture models performed better than single models.
The two mixture models that performed the best (and had a basis in the physics
of scattering) were a mixture between two K distributions, and a mixture
between a Rayleigh and generalized Pareto distribution. Bayes' theorem was used
to estimate the probability density function of the mixture model parameters.
It was found that the K-K mixture exhibits significant correlation between its
parameters. The mixture between the Rayleigh and generalized Pareto
distributions also had significant parameter correlation, but also contained
multiple modes. We conclude that the mixture between two K distributions is the
most applicable to this dataset.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, Accepted to the Journal of the Acoustical
Society of Americ
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DEveloping a Complex Intervention for DEteriorating Patients using Theoretical Modelling (DECIDE study): study protocol
AIM: To develop a theory-based complex intervention (targeting nursing staff), to enhance enablers and overcome barriers to enacting expected behaviour when monitoring patients and responding to abnormal vital signs that signal deterioration.
DESIGN: A mixed method design including structured observations on hospital wards, field notes, brief, un-recorded interviews and semi-structured interviews to inform the development of an intervention to enhance practice.
METHODS: Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with nursing staff using a topic guide informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework. Semi-structured interviews will be transcribed verbatim and coded deductively into the 14 Theoretical Domains Framework domains and then inductively into 'belief statements'. Priority domains will be identified and mapped to appropriate behaviour change techniques. Intervention content and mode of delivery (how behaviour change techniques are operationalised) will be developed using nominal groups, during which participants (clinicians) will rank behaviour change techniques /mode of delivery combinations according to acceptability and feasibility. Findings will be synthesised to develop an intervention manual.
DISCUSSION: Despite being a priority for clinicians, researchers and policymakers for two decades, 'sub-optimal care' of the deteriorating ward patient persists. Existing interventions have been largely educational (i.e., targeting assumed knowledge deficits) with limited evidence that they change staff behaviour. Staff behaviour when monitoring and responding to abnormal vital signs is likely influenced by a range of mediators that includes barriers and enablers.
IMPACT: Systematically applying theory and evidence-based methods, will result in the specification of an intervention which is more likely to result in behaviour change and can be tested empirically in future research. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
The approach to criticality in sandpiles
A popular theory of self-organized criticality relates the critical behavior
of driven dissipative systems to that of systems with conservation. In
particular, this theory predicts that the stationary density of the abelian
sandpile model should be equal to the threshold density of the corresponding
fixed-energy sandpile. This "density conjecture" has been proved for the
underlying graph Z. We show (by simulation or by proof) that the density
conjecture is false when the underlying graph is any of Z^2, the complete graph
K_n, the Cayley tree, the ladder graph, the bracelet graph, or the flower
graph. Driven dissipative sandpiles continue to evolve even after a constant
fraction of the sand has been lost at the sink. These results cast doubt on the
validity of using fixed-energy sandpiles to explore the critical behavior of
the abelian sandpile model at stationarity.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, long version of arXiv:0912.320
Microwave properties of DyBa_2Cu_3O_(7-x) monodomains and related compounds in magnetic fields
We present a microwave characterization of a DyBaCuO
single domain, grown by the top-seeded melt-textured technique. We report the
(a,b) plane field-induced surface resistance, , at 48.3 GHz,
measured by means of a cylindrical metal cavity in the end-wall-replacement
configuration. Changes in the cavity quality factor Q against the applied
magnetic field yield at fixed temperatures. The temperature
range [70 K ; T_c] was explored. The magnetic field 0.8 T was
applied along the c axis. The field dependence of does not
exhibit the steep, step-like increase at low fields typical of weak-links. This
result indicates the single-domain character of the sample under investigation.
exhibits a nearly square-root dependence on H, as expected for
fluxon motion. From the analysis of the data in terms of motion of Abrikosov
vortices we estimate the temperature dependences of the London penetration
depth and the vortex viscosity , and their zero-temperature
values 165 nm and 3 10 Nsm, which are
found in excellent agreement with reported data in YBaCuO
single crystals. Comparison of microwave properties with those of related
samples indicate the need for reporting data as a function of T/T_c in order to
obtain universal laws.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX, submitted to Journal of Applied Physic
Phase Transitions on Nonamenable Graphs
We survey known results about phase transitions in various models of
statistical physics when the underlying space is a nonamenable graph. Most
attention is devoted to transitive graphs and trees
ACCELEROMETRY BASED IPSATIVE BIOFEEDBACK TO IMPROVE KINEMATIC CONSISTENCY AND PERFORMANCE IN ROWING
The training and competition regimen of elite athletes demands rapid feedback regarding their performance. The aim of this study was to determine if real lime, visual feedback of instantaneous kinematic consistency can improve rowing performance and overall kinematic consistency. Prototypical accelerometry based kinematic patterns representing the upper and lower body were determined for thirteen rowers. Percentage time outside these kinematic patterns (kinematic consistency) and performance indicators were recorded for all rowers for three 2000m time trials with different visual feedback interventions. Significant improvements were found for kinematic consistency for visual feedback. No improvements were found for performance related parameters
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