5,434 research outputs found
Quality of life and building design in residential and nursing homes for older people
Older people living in residential and nursing care homes spend a large proportion of their time within the boundaries of the home, and may depend on the environment to compensate for their physical or cognitive frailties. Regulations and guidelines on the design of care buildings have accumulated over time with little knowledge of their impact on the quality of life of building users. The Design in Caring Environments Study (DICE) collected cross-sectional data on building design and quality of life in 38 care homes in and near Sheffield, Yorkshire. Quality of life was assessed using methods which included all residents regardless of their frailty, and staff morale was also assessed. The physical environment was measured on 11 user-related domains using a new tool, the Sheffield Care Environment Assessment Matrix (SCEAM). Significant positive associations were found between several aspects of the built environment and the residents' quality of life. There was evidence that a focus on safety and health requirements could be creating risk-averse environments which act against quality of life, particularly for the least frail residents. Staff morale was associated with attributes of a non-institutional environment for residents rather than with the facilities provided for the staff. The new tool for assessing building design has potential applications in further research and for care providers
Far-infrared rotational emission by carbon monoxide
Accurate theoretical collisional excitation rates are used to determine the emissivities of CO rotational lines 10 to the 4th power/cu cm n(H2), 100 K T 2000 K, and J 50. An approximate analytic expression for the emissitivities which is valid over most of this region is obtained. Population inversions in the lower rotational levels occur for densities n(H2) approximately 10 (to the 3rd to 5th power)/cu cm and temperatures T approximately 50 K. Interstellar shocks observed edge on are a potential source of millimeter wave CO maser emission. The CO rotational cooling function suggested by Hollenbach and McKee (1979) is verified, and accurate numerical values given. Application of these results to other linear molecules should be straightforward
The Direct Sensing of Damage to Ion Implanted Materials
Material damage caused by the implantation of a high concentration of hydrogenic ions requires regular remote monitoring in order to study the atomic and nuclear reaction processes taking place within each sample. Real time continuous measurements of acoustic emission, X-ray production and emitted particle flux enable processes such as bubble or crack formation, changes in crystalline order, and nuclear fusion reactions can be studied in detail through examination of secondary or associated emission products. Fracturing of a material may generate a unique signature which, when taken in conjunction with time-averaged quantities such as changes in resistivity, surface strain, and induced radioactivity, enable an overall picture of the onset and nature of crack formation to be acquired. The overall usefulness of the remote sensing of damage processes and nuclear reactions is discussed. Surface studies involving inelastic Raman scattering and atomic force spectroscopy can contribute substantially to the overall picture, and identify clustering and cluster processes
Effect of Diet on Metabolism of Laboratory Rats
In previous studies when rats were fed a processed, semipurified, extruded rodent food bar (RFB) developed for space science research, we noted a difference in the appearance of gastrointestinal tissue (GI); therefore the following study evaluated GI characteristics and growth and metabolic rates of rats fed chow (C) or RFB. Two hundred and twenty-four rats (78 g mean body weight) were randomly assigned to 28 cages and provided C or RFB. Each cage was considered the experimental unit and a 95 percent level of significance, indicated by ANOVA, was used for inference. After each 30-, 60-, and 90-day period, eight cages were shifted from the C to RFB diet and housing density was reduced by two rats per cage. The two rats removed from each cage were sacrificed and used for GI evaluation. Metabolic rates of the rats in each cage were determined by indirect calorimetry. No differences in body weight were detected at 0, 30, 60 or 90 days between C and RFB. Heat production (kcal/hr/kg), CO2 production (L/hr/kg) and O2 consumption (L/hr/kg) were different by light:dark and age with no effect of diet. Respiratory quotient was different by age with no effect of light:dark or diet. Rats on the C diet ate less food and drank more water than those on RFB. C rats produced more fecal and waste materials than the RFB. GI lengths increased with age but were less in RFB than C. GI full and empty weights increased with age but weighed less in RFB than C. Gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) numbers increased with age with no effect of diet. No differences in ileum-associated GALT area were detected between C and RFB. Switching C to RFB decreased GI length, GI full and empty weights, with no changes in GALT number or area. We concluded RFB decreased GI mass without affecting metabolic rate or general body growth
Measurement of electron screening in muonic lead
Energies of the transitions between high-lying (n≥6) states of muonic lead were accurately determined. The results are interpreted as a ∼2% test of the electron screening. The agreement between experiment and theory is good if it is assumed that the refilling of the electron K shell is fast. The present results furthermore severely restrict possible ionization of the electron L shell
Development Of Core Ion Temperature Gradients And Edge Sheared Flows In A Helicon Plasma Device Investigated By Laser Induced Fluorescence Measurements
New Measurement of the Cosmic-Ray Positron Fraction from 5 to 15 GeV
We present a new measurement of the cosmic-ray positron fraction at energies
between 5 and 15 GeV with the balloon-borne HEAT-pbar instrument in the spring
of 2000. The data presented here are compatible with our previous measurements,
obtained with a different instrument. The combined data from the three HEAT
flights indicate a small positron flux of non-standard origin above 5 GeV. We
compare the new measurement with earlier data obtained with the HEAT-e+-
instrument, during the opposite epoch of the solar cycle, and conclude that our
measurements do not support predictions of charge sign dependent solar
modulation of the positron abundance at 5 GeV.Comment: accepted for publication in PR
Scattering variability detected from the circumsource medium of FRB 20190520B
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-timescale radio transients, the
origins of which are predominantly extragalactic and likely involve highly
magnetized compact objects. FRBs undergo multipath propagation, or scattering,
from electron density fluctuations on sub-parsec scales in ionized gas along
the line-of-sight. Scattering observations have located plasma structures
within FRB host galaxies, probed Galactic and extragalactic turbulence, and
constrained FRB redshifts. Scattering also inhibits FRB detection and biases
the observed FRB population. We report the detection of scattering times from
the repeating FRB 20190520B that vary by up to a factor of two or more on
minutes to days-long timescales. In one notable case, the scattering time
varied from ms to less than 3.1 ms ( confidence) over 2.9
minutes at 1.45 GHz. The scattering times appear to be uncorrelated between
bursts or with dispersion and rotation measure variations. Scattering
variations are attributable to dynamic, inhomogeneous plasma in the
circumsource medium, and analogous variations have been observed from the Crab
pulsar. Under such circumstances, the frequency dependence of scattering can
deviate from the typical power-law used to measure scattering. Similar
variations may therefore be detectable from other FRBs, even those with
inconspicuous scattering, providing a unique probe of small-scale processes
within FRB environments.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted to MNRA
The beamformer and correlator for the Large European Array for Pulsars
The Large European Array for Pulsars combines Europe's largest radio
telescopes to form a tied-array telescope that provides high signal-to-noise
observations of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) with the objective to increase the
sensitivity of detecting low-frequency gravitational waves. As part of this
endeavor we have developed a software correlator and beamformer which enables
the formation of a tied-array beam from the raw voltages from each of
telescopes. We explain the concepts and techniques involved in the process of
adding the raw voltages coherently. We further present the software processing
pipeline that is specifically designed to deal with data from widely spaced,
inhomogeneous radio telescopes and describe the steps involved in preparing,
correlating and creating the tied-array beam. This includes polarization
calibration, bandpass correction, frequency dependent phase correction,
interference mitigation and pulsar gating. A link is provided where the
software can be obtained.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Computin
Jeans analysis of self-gravitating systems in f(R)-gravity
Dynamics and collapse of collisionless self-gravitating systems is described
by the coupled collisionless Boltzmann and Poisson equations derived from
-gravity in the weak field approximation. Specifically, we describe a
system at equilibrium by a time-independent distribution function
and two potentials and solutions of the modified
Poisson and collisionless Boltzmann equations. Considering a small perturbation
from the equilibrium and linearizing the field equations, it can be obtained a
dispersion relation. A dispersion equation is achieved for neutral
dust-particle systems where a generalized Jeans wave-number is obtained. This
analysis gives rise to unstable modes not present in the standard Jeans
analysis (derived assuming Newtonian gravity as weak filed limit of ).
In this perspective, we discuss several self-gravitating astrophysical systems
whose dynamics could be fully addressed in the framework of -gravity.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in PR
- …