775 research outputs found
Experimental identification of the lateral human–structure interaction mechanism and assessment of the inverted-pendulum biomechanical model
Within the context of crowd-induced lateral bridge vibration, human–structure interaction (HSI) is a widely studied phenomenon. Central to this study is the self-excited component of the ground reaction force (GRF). This force harmonic, induced by a walking pedestrian, resonates with lateral deck motion, irrespective of the pedestrian׳s pacing frequency. Its presence can lead to positive feedback between pedestrian GRFs and structural motion. Characterisation of the self-excited force as equivalent structural mass and damping has greatly improved the understanding of HSI and its role in developing lateral dynamic instability. However, despite this evolving understanding, a key question has remained unanswered; what are the features of a pedestrian׳s balance response to base motion that gives rise to the self-excited force? The majority of the literature has focussed on the effects of HSI with the underlying mechanism receiving comparatively little attention. This paper presents data from experimental testing in which 10 subjects walked individually on a laterally oscillating treadmill. Lateral deck motion as well as the GRFs imposed by the subject was recorded. Three-dimensional motion capture equipment was used to track the position of visual markers mounted on the subject. Thus whole body response to base motion was captured in addition to the GRFs generated. The data presented herein supports the authors’ previous findings that the self-excited force is a frequency sideband harmonic resulting from amplitude modulation of the lateral GRF. The gait behaviour responsible for this amplitude modulation is a periodic modulation of stride width in response to a sinusoidally varying inertia force induced by deck motion. In a separate analysis the validity of the passive inverted pendulum model, stabilised by active control of support placement was confirmed. This was established through comparison of simulated and observed frontal plane CoM motion. Despite the relative simplicity of this biomechanical model, remarkable agreement was observed
Nonmonotonic inelastic tunneling spectra due to surface spin excitations in ferromagnetic junctions
The paper addresses inelastic spin-flip tunneling accompanied by surface spin
excitations (magnons) in ferromagnetic junctions. The inelastic tunneling
current is proportional to the magnon density of states which is
energy-independent for the surface waves and, for this reason, cannot account
for the bias-voltage dependence of the observed inelastic tunneling spectra.
This paper shows that the bias-voltage dependence of the tunneling spectra can
arise from the tunneling matrix elements of the electron-magnon interaction.
These matrix elements are derived from the Coulomb exchange interaction using
the itinerant-electron model of magnon-assisted tunneling. The results for the
inelastic tunneling spectra, based on the nonequilibrium Green's function
calculations, are presented for both parallel and antiparallel magnetizations
in the ferromagnetic leads.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, version as publishe
A large data resource of genomic copy number variation across neurodevelopmental disorders
Copy number variations (CNVs) are implicated across many neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) and contribute to their shared genetic etiology. Multiple studies have attempted to identify shared etiology among NDDs, but this is the first genome-wide CNV analysis across autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia (SCZ), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) at once. Using microarray (Affymetrix CytoScan HD), we genotyped 2,691 subjects diagnosed with an NDD (204 SCZ, 1,838 ASD, 427 ADHD and 222 OCD) and 1,769 family members, mainly parents. We identified rare CNVs, defined as those found in \u3c0.1% of 10,851 population control samples. We found clinically relevant CNVs (broadly defined) in 284 (10.5%) of total subjects, including 22 (10.8%) among subjects with SCZ, 209 (11.4%) with ASD, 40 (9.4%) with ADHD, and 13 (5.6%) with OCD. Among all NDD subjects, we identified 17 (0.63%) with aneuploidies and 115 (4.3%) with known genomic disorder variants. We searched further for genes impacted by different CNVs in multiple disorders. Examples of NDD-associated genes linked across more than one disorder (listed in order of occurrence frequency) are NRXN1, SEH1L, LDLRAD4, GNAL, GNG13, MKRN1, DCTN2, KNDC1, PCMTD2, KIF5A, SYNM, and long non-coding RNAs: AK127244 and PTCHD1-AS. We demonstrated that CNVs impacting the same genes could potentially contribute to the etiology of multiple NDDs. The CNVs identified will serve as a useful resource for both research and diagnostic laboratories for prioritization of variants
Dead or alive? Comparing costs and benefits of lethal and non-lethal human-wildlife conflict mitigation on livestock farms
Livestock depredation has implications for conservation
and agronomy; it can be costly for farmers and
can prompt retaliatory killing of carnivores. Lethal control
measures are readily available and are reportedly perceived
to be cheaper, more practical and more effective than nonlethal
methods. However, the costs and efficacy of lethal vs
non-lethal approaches have rarely been compared formally.
We conducted a 3-year study on 11 South African livestock
farms, examining costs and benefits of lethal and non-lethal
conflict mitigation methods. Farmers used existing lethal
control in the first year and switched to guardian animals
(dogs Canis familiaris and alpacas Lama pacos) or livestock
protection collars for the following 2 years. During the first
year the mean cost of livestock protection was USD 3.30 per
head of stock and the mean cost of depredation was
USD 20.11 per head of stock. In the first year of non-lethal
control the combined implementation and running costs
were similar to those of lethal control (USD 3.08 per head).
However, the mean cost of depredation decreased by 69.3%,
to USD 6.52 per head. In the second year of non-lethal
control the running costs (USD 0.43 per head) were significantly
lower than in previous years and depredation
costs decreased further, to USD 5.49 per head. Our results
suggest that non-lethal methods of human–wildlife conflict
mitigation can reduce depredation and can be economically
advantageous compared to lethal methods of predator
control.ABAX Foundation (previously the Polaris Foundation), Pick'n Pay, Woolworths, the Henry and Iris Englund Foundation, the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund, Arne Hanson, the Mones Michaels Trust and Royal Canin. Wits–Carnegie fellowship and Kaplan Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Recanati–Kaplan Foundation,
the Peoples' Trust for Endangered Species and the Swift family.http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=ORXhb2016Mammal Research Institut
Giant magnetothermopower of magnon-assisted transport in ferromagnetic tunnel junctions
We present a theoretical description of the thermopower due to
magnon-assisted tunneling in a mesoscopic tunnel junction between two
ferromagnetic metals. The thermopower is generated in the course of thermal
equilibration between two baths of magnons, mediated by electrons. For a
junction between two ferromagnets with antiparallel polarizations, the ability
of magnon-assisted tunneling to create thermopower depends on the
difference between the size of the majority and
minority band Fermi surfaces and it is proportional to a temperature dependent
factor where is the magnon Debye
energy. The latter factor reflects the fractional change in the net
magnetization of the reservoirs due to thermal magnons at temperature
(Bloch's law). In contrast, the contribution of magnon-assisted
tunneling to the thermopower of a junction with parallel polarizations is
negligible. As the relative polarizations of ferromagnetic layers can be
manipulated by an external magnetic field, a large difference results in a magnetothermopower effect. This
magnetothermopower effect becomes giant in the extreme case of a junction
between two half-metallic ferromagnets, .Comment: 9 pages, 4 eps figure
Quantum railroads and directed localization at the juncture of quantum Hall systems
The integer quantum Hall effect (QHE) and one-dimensional Anderson
localization (AL) are limiting special cases of a more general phenomenon,
directed localization (DL), predicted to occur in disordered one-dimensional
wave guides called "quantum railroads" (QRR). Here we explain the surprising
results of recent measurements by Kang et al. [Nature 403, 59 (2000)] of
electron transfer between edges of two-dimensional electron systems and
identify experimental evidence of QRR's in the general, but until now entirely
theoretical, DL regime that unifies the QHE and AL. We propose direct
experimental tests of our theory.Comment: 11 pages revtex + 3 jpeg figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Search for the decay in the momentum region
We have searched for the decay in the kinematic
region with pion momentum below the peak. One event was
observed, consistent with the background estimate of . This
implies an upper limit on
(90% C.L.), consistent with the recently measured branching ratio of
, obtained using the standard model
spectrum and the kinematic region above the peak. The
same data were used to search for , where is a weakly
interacting neutral particle or system of particles with .Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Persistent Spin Currents in Helimagnets
We demonstrate that weak external magnetic fields generate dissipationless
spin currents in the ground state of systems with spiral magnetic order. Our
conclusions are based on phenomenological considerations and on microscopic
mean-field theory calculations for an illustrative toy model. We speculate on
possible applications of this effect in spintronic devices.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, updated version as published, Journal referenc
Extension of Earth-Moon libration point orbits with solar sail propulsion
This paper presents families of libration point orbits in the Earth-Moon system that originate from complementing the classical circular restricted three-body problem with a solar sail. Through the use of a differential correction scheme in combination with a continuation on the solar sail induced acceleration, families of Lyapunov, halo, vertical Lyapunov, Earth-centred, and distant retrograde orbits are created. As the solar sail circular restricted three-body problem is non-autonomous, a constraint defined within the differential correction scheme ensures that all orbits are periodic with the Sun’s motion around the Earth-Moon system. The continuation method then starts from a classical libration point orbit with a suitable period and increases the solar sail acceleration magnitude to obtain families of orbits that are parametrised by this acceleration. Furthermore, different solar sail steering laws are considered (both in-plane and out-of-plane, and either fixed in the synodic frame or fixed with respect to the direction of sunlight), adding to the wealth of families of solar sail enabled libration point orbits presented. Finally, the linear stability properties of the generated orbits are investigated to assess the need for active orbital control. It is shown that the solar sail induced acceleration can have a positive effect on the stability of some orbit families, especially those at the L2 point, but that it most often (further) destabilises the orbit. Active control will therefore be needed to ensure long-term survivability of these orbits
Connecting Numerical Relativity and Data Analysis of Gravitational Wave Detectors
Gravitational waves deliver information in exquisite detail about
astrophysical phenomena, among them the collision of two black holes, a system
completely invisible to the eyes of electromagnetic telescopes. Models that
predict gravitational wave signals from likely sources are crucial for the
success of this endeavor. Modeling binary black hole sources of gravitational
radiation requires solving the Eintein equations of General Relativity using
powerful computer hardware and sophisticated numerical algorithms. This
proceeding presents where we are in understanding ground-based gravitational
waves resulting from the merger of black holes and the implications of these
sources for the advent of gravitational-wave astronomy.Comment: Appeared in the Proceedings of 2014 Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics.
Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, ed. C.Sopuerta (Berlin:
Springer-Verlag
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