3,616 research outputs found
One-dimensional lattice of oscillators coupled through power-law interactions: Continuum limit and dynamics of spatial Fourier modes
We study synchronization in a system of phase-only oscillators residing on
the sites of a one-dimensional periodic lattice. The oscillators interact with
a strength that decays as a power law of the separation along the lattice
length and is normalized by a size-dependent constant. The exponent of
the power law is taken in the range . The oscillator frequency
distribution is symmetric about its mean (taken to be zero), and is
non-increasing on . In the continuum limit, the local density of
oscillators evolves in time following the continuity equation that expresses
the conservation of the number of oscillators of each frequency under the
dynamics. This equation admits as a stationary solution the unsynchronized
state uniform both in phase and over the space of the lattice. We perform a
linear stability analysis of this state to show that when it is unstable,
different spatial Fourier modes of fluctuations have different stability
thresholds beyond which they grow exponentially in time with rates that depend
on the Fourier modes. However, numerical simulations show that at long times,
all the non-zero Fourier modes decay in time, while only the zero Fourier mode
(i.e., the "mean-field" mode) grows in time, thereby dominating the instability
process and driving the system to a synchronized state. Our theoretical
analysis is supported by extensive numerical simulations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. v2: new simulation results added, close to the
published versio
Chemical Raman Enhancement of Organic Adsorbates on Metal Surfaces
Using a combination of first-principles theory and experiments, we provide a
quantitative explanation for chemical contributions to surface-enhanced Raman
spectroscopy for a well-studied organic molecule, benzene thiol, chemisorbed on
planar Au(111) surfaces. With density functional theory calculations of the
static Raman tensor, we demonstrate and quantify a strong mode-dependent
modification of benzene thiol Raman spectra by Au substrates. Raman active
modes with the largest enhancements result from stronger contributions from Au
to their electron-vibron coupling, as quantified through a deformation
potential, a well-defined property of each vibrational mode. A straightforward
and general analysis is introduced that allows extraction of chemical
enhancement from experiments for specific vibrational modes; measured values
are in excellent agreement with our calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures and Supplementary material included as ancillary
fil
Best Practices among Certain Classes of Pennsylvania Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)
The researchers originally became aware of the existence of DMOs (previously known as tourism promotion agencies or TPAs) when reading materials in the Gettysburg Times. The two student-authors plan to work in local government following graduation, and they were curious about perspectives shared in the Gettysburg Times about the local DMO. Thereafter, a representative from the Gettysburg Borough Council approached the faculty-author about conducting research on DMOs’ policies, procedures, and practices, and, relatedly, the “pillow tax,” a hotel room occupancy tax that is administered by counties and disbursed to DMOs, among others. Specifically, the Borough Council representative was curious about best practices with respect to allocation of the pillow tax; how DMOs use pillow tax revenue; and how DMOs account for such use. The Borough representative also was curious about general business practices among DMOs. The faculty-author applied for and obtained approval from the Gettysburg College Institutional Review Board for research among Pennsylvania DMOs and their representatives on these issues. This white paper briefly summarizes the history of the relationship between Pennsylvania DMOs and the pillow tax then describes the researchers’ methodology. Next, the white paper describes what Study DMOs appear to believe are best practices, or most commonly accepted practices, in six categories: Boards of Directors; Revenue; Grant Making; Spending; Assessment; and Future Planning. All data are reported in aggregate to minimize the risk of revealing individually identifiable data. These findings may inform DMO, community, and county decision-making
The development of the spiral ganglion in the human foetus
The development of the spiral ganglion was studied in steps sections of
81 human temporal bones.
By the 8th week, the spiral ganglion has already separated from the vestibular
ganglion. At 13 weeks two distinct populations are observed that correspond to
neuron and Schwann cells. At 15 weeks the spiral ganglion has increased its
distance from the cochlear duct and is surrounded by mesenchyme near the
scala tympani. At 14 weeks a gradual decrease in the nucleus-to-cell area ratio
was observed in spiral ganglion neurons that may reflect a morphological adaptation
to function. By the 23rd week the modiolus begins to ossify and the spiral
ganglion is surrounded by bony trabeculae.
The time course of spiral ganglion development follows that of the stria vascularis
and organ of Corti, although maturation changes are still observed in the
neuronal population even beyond 20 weeks
Evaluation of the Relevance of a Web-Based Ask an Expert Feature: StratSoy and Soy and Human Health Queries
StratSoy, a state-of-the-art Web-based information system, has an Ask an Expert (AE) feature that allows Web site browsers to question experts in 13 areas including Soy and Human Health (SHH). The objectives of this research were to: a) assess the use of the SHH AE feature; b) examine respondent attitudes about soy-related topics to help guide development of a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section; and c) improve the information dissemination process on the Web site based on the results of this research. Study participants were 50 Web site users and 48 people who were unfamiliar with the site. The results of the study indicated topic areas of interest and additional Web site features desired by the respondents. The findings identified specific areas that may be targeted to improve the Web site
A high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity with a frequency-doubled green laser for precision Compton polarimetry at Jefferson Lab
A high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity with a frequency-doubled continuous wave
green laser (532~nm) has been built and installed in Hall A of Jefferson Lab
for high precision Compton polarimetry. The infrared (1064~nm) beam from a
ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier seeded by a Nd:YAG nonplanar ring oscillator
laser is frequency doubled in a single-pass periodically poled MgO:LiNbO
crystal. The maximum achieved green power at 5 W IR pump power is 1.74 W with a
total conversion efficiency of 34.8\%. The green beam is injected into the
optical resonant cavity and enhanced up to 3.7~kW with a corresponding
enhancement of 3800. The polarization transfer function has been measured in
order to determine the intra-cavity circular laser polarization within a
measurement uncertainty of 0.7\%. The PREx experiment at Jefferson Lab used
this system for the first time and achieved 1.0\% precision in polarization
measurements of an electron beam with energy and current of 1.0~GeV and
50~A.Comment: 20 pages, 22 figures, revised version of arXiv:1601.00251v1,
submitted to NIM
Slow fluctuations in enhanced Raman scattering and surface roughness relaxation
We propose an explanation for the recently measured slow fluctuations and
``blinking'' in the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectrum of single
molecules adsorbed on a silver colloidal particle. We suggest that these
fluctuations may be related to the dynamic relaxation of the surface roughness
on the nanometer scale and show that there are two classes of roughness with
qualitatively different dynamics. The predictions agree with measurements of
surface roughness relaxation. Using a theoretical model for the kinetics of
surface roughness relaxation in the presence of charges and optical electrical
fields, we predict that the high-frequency electromagnetic field increases both
the effective surface tension and the surface diffusion constant and thus
accelerates the surface smoothing kinetics and time scale of the Raman
fluctuations in manner that is linear with the laser power intensity, while the
addition of salt retards the surface relaxation kinetics and increases the time
scale of the fluctuations. These predictions are in qualitative agreement with
the Raman experiments
Volume–outcome relationships in open and endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm : administrative data 2006–2018
Background
The aim of this study was to use recent evidence to investigate and update volume–outcome relationships after open surgical repair (OSR) and endovascular repair (EVAR) of abdominal aortic aneurysm in England.
Methods
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data from April 2006 to March 2018 were obtained. The primary outcome was in‐hospital death. Other outcomes included duration of hospital stay, readmissions within 30 days, and critical care requirements. Case‐mix adjustment included age, sex, HES year, deprivation index, weekend admission, mode of admission, type of procedure and co‐morbidities.
Results
Annual volume of all repairs combined appeared to be an appropriate measure of volume. After case‐mix adjustment, a significant relationship between volume and in‐hospital mortality was seen for OSR (P < 0·001) but not for EVAR (P = 0·169 for emergency and P = 0·363 for elective). The effect appeared to extend beyond 60 repairs per year to volumes above 100 repairs per year. There was no significant relationship between volume and duration of hospital stay or 30‐day readmissions. In patients receiving emergency OSR, higher volume was associated with longer stay in critical care.
Conclusion
Higher annual all‐procedure volumes were associated with significantly lower in‐hospital mortality for OSR, but such a relationship was not significant for EVAR. There was not enough evidence for a volume effect on other outcomes
Phase shifts of synchronized oscillators and the systolic/diastolic blood pressure relation
We study the phase-synchronization properties of systolic and diastolic
arterial pressure in healthy subjects. We find that delays in the oscillatory
components of the time series depend on the frequency bands that are
considered, in particular we find a change of sign in the phase shift going
from the Very Low Frequency band to the High Frequency band. This behavior
should reflect a collective behavior of a system of nonlinear interacting
elementary oscillators. We prove that some models describing such systems, e.g.
the Winfree and the Kuramoto models offer a clue to this phenomenon. For these
theoretical models there is a linear relationship between phase shifts and the
difference of natural frequencies of oscillators and a change of sign in the
phase shift naturally emerges.Comment: 8 figures, 9 page
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