54,849 research outputs found
Evolution of transport properties of BaFe2-xRuxAs2 in a wide range of isovalent Ru substitution
The effects of isovalent Ru substitution at the Fe sites of BaFe2-xRuxAs2 are
investigated by measuring resistivity and Hall coefficient on high-quality
single crystals in a wide range of doping (0 < x < 1.4). Ru substitution
weakens the antiferromagnetic (AFM) order, inducing superconductivity for
relatively high doping level of 0.4 < x < 0.9. Near the AFM phase boundary, the
transport properties show non-Fermi-liquid-like behaviors with a
linear-temperature dependence of resistivity and a strong temperature
dependence of Hall coefficient with a sign change. Upon higher doping, however,
both of them recover conventional Fermi-liquid behaviors. Strong doping
dependence of Hall coefficient together with a small magnetoresistance suggest
that the anomalous transport properties can be explained in terms of
anisotropic charge carrier scattering due to interband AFM fluctuations rather
than a conventional multi-band scenario.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Semileptonic Decay Scalar Form Factor and from Lattice QCD
We present a new study of D semileptonic decays on the lattice which employs
the Highly Improved Staggered Quark (HISQ) action for both the charm and the
light valence quarks. We work with MILC unquenched lattices and
determine the scalar form factor for
semileptonic decays. The form factor is obtained from a scalar current matrix
element that does not require any operator matching. We develop a new approach
to carrying out chiral/continuum extrapolations of . The method uses
the kinematic "" variable instead of or the kaon energy and is
applicable over the entire physical range. We find in the chiral plus
continuum limit and hereby improve the theory error on this quantity by a
factor of 4 compared to previous lattice determinations. Combining the
new theory result with recent experimental measurements of the product from BaBar and CLEO-c leads to the most
precise direct determination of the CKM matrix element to date,
, where the first error comes from experiment and the
second is the lattice QCD theory error. We calculate the ratio and find GeV and show
that this agrees with experiment.Comment: 23 pages, 31 figures, 11 tables. Added a paragraph in sction VII, and
updated with PDG 2010 instead of PDG 200
The rodent uterotrophic assay: Critical protocol features, studies with nonyl phenols, and comparison with a yeast estrogenicity assay
The major protocol features of the immature rat uterotrophic assay have been evaluated using a range of reference chemicals. The protocol variables considered include the selection of the test species and route of chemical administration, the age of the test animals, the maintenance diet used, and the specificity of the assay for estrogens. It is concluded that three daily oral administrations of test chemicals to 21- to 22-day-old rats, followed by determination of absolute uterus weights on the fourth day, provide a sensitive and toxicologically relevant in vivo estrogenicity assay. Rats are favored over mice for reasons of toxicological practice, but the choice of test species is probably not a critical protocol variable, as evidenced by the similar sensitivity of rats and mice to the uterotrophic activity of methoxychlor. Vaginal opening is shown to be a useful, but nondefinitive, adjunct to the uterotrophic assay. The ability of test chemicals to reduce or abolish the uterotrophic response of estradiol is suggested to provide a useful extension of the uterotrophic assay for the purpose of detecting antiestrogens. The results of a series of studies on the environmental estrogen nonyl phenol (NP), and its linear isomer n -nonyl phenol, confirm that branching of the aliphatic side chain is important for activity. 17beta-Desoxyestradiol is shown to be of similar activity to estradiol in the uterotrophic assay and is suggested to represent the "parent" estrogen of NP. Benzoylation of NP and 17-desoxyestradiol did not affect their uterotrophic activity, in contrast to the enhancing effect of benzoylation on estradiol. Selected chemicals shown to be active in the immature rat uterotrophic assay were also evaluated in an in vitro yeast human estrogen receptor transactivation assay. Most of the chemicals gave similar qualitative responses to those seen in the uterotrophic assay, and the detection of the estrogen methoxychlor by the yeast assay evidenced a degree of intrinsic metabolic competence. However, the assay had a reduced ability (compared to rodents) to hydrolyze the benzoate ester of estradiol, and the estrogenic benzoate derivative of NP was not active in the yeast assay. These last results indicate that current metabolic deficiencies of in vitro estrogenicity assays will limit the value of negative data for the immediate future. The results described illustrate the intrinsic complexity of evaluating chemicals for estrogenic activities and confirm the need for rigorous attention to experimental design and criteria for assessing estrogenic activity
Hurst parameter analysis of radio pulsar timing noise
We present an analysis of timing residual (noise) of 54 pulsars obtained from
25-m radio telescope at Urumqi Observatory with a time span of 5~8 years,
dealing with statistics of the Hurst parameter. The majority of these pulsars
were selected to have timing noise that look like white noise rather than
smooth curves. The results are compared with artificial series of different
constant pairwise covariances. Despite the noise like appearance, many timing
residual series showed Hurst parameters significantly deviated from that of
independent series. We concluded that Hurst parameter may be capable of
detecting dependence in timing residual and of distinguishing chaotic behavior
from random processes.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, Submitted to MNRA
A Twin Study of Early-Childhood Asthma in Puerto Ricans
Background:The relative contributions of genetics and environment to asthma in Hispanics or to asthma in children younger than 3 years are not well understood.Objective:To examine the relative contributions of genetics and environment to early-childhood asthma by performing a longitudinal twin study of asthma in Puerto Rican children ≤3 years old.Methods:678 twin infants from the Puerto Rico Neo-Natal Twin Registry were assessed for asthma at age 1 year, with follow-up data obtained for 624 twins at age 3 years. Zygosity was determined by DNA microsatellite profiling. Structural equation modeling was performed for three phenotypes at ages 1 and 3 years: physician-diagnosed asthma, asthma medication use in the past year, and ≥1 hospitalization for asthma in the past year. Models were additionally adjusted for early-life environmental tobacco smoke exposure, sex, and age.Results:The prevalences of physician-diagnosed asthma, asthma medication use, and hospitalization for asthma were 11.6%, 10.8%, 4.9% at age 1 year, and 34.1%, 40.1%, and 8.5% at 3 years, respectively. Shared environmental effects contributed to the majority of variance in susceptibility to physician-diagnosed asthma and asthma medication use in the first year of life (84%-86%), while genetic effects drove variance in all phenotypes (45%-65%) at age 3 years. Early-life environmental tobacco smoke, sex, and age contributed to variance in susceptibility.Conclusion:Our longitudinal study in Puerto Rican twins demonstrates a changing contribution of shared environmental effects to liability for physician-diagnosed asthma and asthma medication use between ages 1 and 3 years. Early-life environmental tobacco smoke reduction could markedly reduce asthma morbidity in young Puerto Rican children. © 2013 Bunyavanich et al
Exploring multipartite quantum correlations with the square of quantum discord
We explore the quantum correlation distribution in multipartite quantum
states based on the square of quantum discord (SQD). For tripartite quantum
systems, we derive the necessary and sufficient condition for the SQD to
satisfy the monogamy relation. Particularly, we prove that the SQD is
monogamous for three-qubit pure states, based on which a genuine tripartite
quantum correlation measure is introduced. In addition, we also address the
quantum correlation distributions in four-qubit pure states. As an example, we
investigate multipartite quantum correlations in the dynamical evolution of
multipartite cavity-reservoir systems.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure
Focus group methodology in a life course approach – individual accounts within a peer cohort group
This paper explores the use of focus group methodology as part of a life course approach building on Julia Brannen’s pioneering work in these two areas. Much life course research uses individual interviews, including biographical interview techniques. It is less usual to find focus groups used within the life course perspective. This paper draws on a PhD study of young British and Asian adults’ experiences of the transition from university to full-time employment, using focus groups as part of a multi-method approach, within a life course perspective. The study drew explicitly on Julia Brannen’s approach to life course transitions. Three focus group excerpts are presented and discussed to illustrate how focus group data can further the understanding of the ways in which a group of peers discuss the transition to work and especially future work–life balance. We show how focus group discussions about individual choice for future work and ‘life’ or ‘lifestyle’ can highlight shared assumptions of this birth cohort group as well as areas of disagreement and contention, rooted in both individual experiences and societal and socio-cultural expectations. We relate this to Julia Brannen’s conceptualisation of the three different modalities which young people draw on to talk about the future
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Predicting pilot error on the flight deck: Validation of a new methodology and a multiple methods and analysts approach to enhancing error prediction sensitivity
The Human Error Template (HET) is a recently developed methodology for predicting designed induced pilot error. This article describes a validation study undertaken to compare the performance of HET against three contemporary Human Error Identification (HEI) approaches when used to predict pilot errors for an approach and landing task and also to compare individual analyst error predictions to an approach to enhancing error prediction sensitivity: the multiple analysts and methods approach, whereby multiple analyst predictions using a range of HEI technique are pooled. The findings indicate that, of the four methodologies used in isolation, analysts using the HET methodology offered the most accurate error predictions, and also that the multiple analysts and methods approach was more successful overall in terms of error prediction sensitivity than the three other methods but not the HET approach. The results suggest that when predicting design induced error, it is appropriate to use domain specific approaches and also a toolkit of different HEI approaches and multiple analysts in order to heighten error prediction sensitivity
Improved Semileptonic Form Factor Calculations in Lattice QCD
We investigate the computational efficiency of two stochastic based
alternatives to the Sequential Propagator Method used in Lattice QCD
calculations of heavy-light semileptonic form factors. In the first method, we
replace the sequential propagator, which couples the calculation of two of the
three propagators required for the calculation, with a stochastic propagator so
that the calculations of all three propagators are independent. This method is
more flexible than the Sequential Propagator Method but introduces stochastic
noise. We study the noise to determine when this method becomes competitive
with the Sequential Propagator Method, and find that for any practical
calculation it is competitive with or superior to the Sequential Propagator
Method. We also examine a second stochastic method, the so-called ``one-end
trick", concluding it is relatively inefficient in this context. The
investigation is carried out on two gauge field ensembles, using the
non-perturbatively improved Wilson-Sheikholeslami-Wohlert action with N_f=2
mass-degenerate sea quarks. The two ensembles have similar lattice spacings but
different sea quark masses. We use the first stochastic method to extract
-improved, matched lattice results for the semileptonic form
factors on the ensemble with lighter sea quarks, extracting f_+(0)
Seiberg-Witten prepotential for E-string theory and random partitions
We find a Nekrasov-type expression for the Seiberg-Witten prepotential for
the six-dimensional non-critical E_8 string theory toroidally compactified down
to four dimensions. The prepotential represents the BPS partition function of
the E_8 strings wound around one of the circles of the toroidal
compactification with general winding numbers and momenta. We show that our
expression exhibits expected modular properties. In particular, we prove that
it obeys the modular anomaly equation known to be satisfied by the
prepotential.Comment: 14 page
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