205 research outputs found
Monte Carlo simulations of fluid vesicles with in plane orientational ordering
We present a method for simulating fluid vesicles with in-plane orientational
ordering. The method involves computation of local curvature tensor and
parallel transport of the orientational field on a randomly triangulated
surface. It is shown that the model reproduces the known equilibrium
conformation of fluid membranes and work well for a large range of bending
rigidities. Introduction of nematic ordering leads to stiffening of the
membrane. Nematic ordering can also result in anisotropic rigidity on the
surface leading to formation of membrane tubes.Comment: 11 Pages, 12 Figures, To appear in Phys. Rev.
Effects of a Combined Aquatic Exercise and Walking in Sedentary Obese Females Undergoing a Behavioral Weight-Loss Intervention
Background: The effects of the non-weight bearing method of aquatic exercise as a modality for weight loss have not been established. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a combined aquatic exercise and walking program compared to walking alone on body weight and selected variables in obese females undergoing a 16-week Standard Behavioral Treatment (SBT) program. Methods: Forty-four obese (BMI 34.9 ± 3.8 kg·m2) sedentary women (age=40.3 years ± 6.8 yrs) were randomly assigned to either an aquatic exercise (AE) group or a traditional walking (W) exercise only group. Both groups were also required to complete 3 sessions of home based walking per week, and reduce energy intake to facilitate weight loss. Results: In the AE group, total body weight, cardiorespiratory fitness, flexibility, strength, and health-related quality of life outcomes significantly improved over time similar to the W group. Significantly greater enjoyment scores also occurred in the AE group. Conclusion: Aquatic exercise in combination with walking can serve as an alternative to walking exercise alone for overweight women during periods of weight loss, and this can improve functional health status
Climate Change Meets the Law of the Horse
The climate change policy debate has only recently turned its full attention to adaptation - how to address the impacts of climate change we have already begun to experience and that will likely increase over time. Legal scholars have in turn begun to explore how the many different fields of law will and should respond. During this nascent period, one overarching question has gone unexamined: how will the legal system as a whole organize around climate change adaptation? Will a new distinct field of climate change adaptation law and policy emerge, or will legal institutions simply work away at the problem through unrelated, duly self-contained fields, as in the famous Law of the Horse? This Article is the first to examine that question comprehensively, to move beyond thinking about the law and climate change adaptation to consider the law of climate change adaptation. Part I of the Article lays out our methodological premises and approach. Using a model we call Stationarity Assessment, Part I explores how legal fields are structured and sustained based on assumptions about the variability of natural, social, and economic conditions, and how disruptions to that regime of variability can lead to the emergence of new fields of law and policy. Case studies of environmental law and environmental justice demonstrate the model’s predictive power for the formation of new distinct legal regimes. Part II applies the Stationarity Assessment model to the topic of climate change adaptation, using a case study of a hypothetical coastal region and the potential for climate change impacts to disrupt relevant legal doctrines and institutions. We find that most fields of law appear capable of adapting effectively to climate change. In other words, without some active intervention, we expect the law and policy of climate change adaptation to follow the path of the Law of the Horse - a collection of fields independently adapting to climate change - rather than organically coalescing into a new distinct field. Part III explores why, notwithstanding this conclusion, it may still be desirable to seek a different trajectory. Focusing on the likelihood of systemic adaptation decisions with perverse, harmful results, we identify the potential benefits offered by intervening to shape a new and distinct field of climate change adaptation law and policy. Part IV then identifies the contours of such a field, exploring the distinct purposes of reducing vulnerability, ensuring resiliency, and safeguarding equity. These features provide the normative policy components for a law of climate change adaptation that would be more than just a Law of the Horse. This new field would not replace or supplant any existing field, however, as environmental law did with regard to nuisance law, and it would not be dominated by substantive doctrine. Rather, like the field of environmental justice, this new legal regime would serve as a holistic overlay across other fields to ensure more efficient, effective, and just climate change adaptation solutions
Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: Ultracold Quantum Gases, Quantum Chromodynamic Plasmas, and Holographic Duality
Strongly correlated quantum fluids are phases of matter that are
intrinsically quantum mechanical, and that do not have a simple description in
terms of weakly interacting quasi-particles. Two systems that have recently
attracted a great deal of interest are the quark-gluon plasma, a plasma of
strongly interacting quarks and gluons produced in relativistic heavy ion
collisions, and ultracold atomic Fermi gases, very dilute clouds of atomic
gases confined in optical or magnetic traps. These systems differ by more than
20 orders of magnitude in temperature, but they were shown to exhibit very
similar hydrodynamic flow. In particular, both fluids exhibit a robustly low
shear viscosity to entropy density ratio which is characteristic of quantum
fluids described by holographic duality, a mapping from strongly correlated
quantum field theories to weakly curved higher dimensional classical gravity.
This review explores the connection between these fields, and it also serves as
an introduction to the Focus Issue of New Journal of Physics on Strongly
Correlated Quantum Fluids: from Ultracold Quantum Gases to QCD Plasmas. The
presentation is made accessible to the general physics reader and includes
discussions of the latest research developments in all three areas.Comment: 138 pages, 25 figures, review associated with New Journal of Physics
special issue "Focus on Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: from Ultracold
Quantum Gases to QCD Plasmas"
(http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/focus/Focus%20on%20Strongly%20Correlated%20Quantum%20Fluids%20-%20from%20Ultracold%20Quantum%20Gases%20to%20QCD%20Plasmas
Double Spin Asymmetry of Electrons from Heavy Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV
We report on the first measurement of double-spin asymmetry, A_LL, of
electrons from the decays of hadrons containing heavy flavor in longitudinally
polarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV for p_T= 0.5 to 3.0 GeV/c. The
asymmetry was measured at mid-rapidity (|eta|<0.35) with the PHENIX detector at
the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The measured asymmetries are consistent
with zero within the statistical errors. We obtained a constraint for the
polarized gluon distribution in the proton of |Delta g/g(log{_10}x=
-1.6^+0.5_-0.4, {mu}=m_T^c)|^2 < 0.033 (1 sigma), based on a leading-order
perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics model, using the measured asymmetry.Comment: 385 authors, 17 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
D. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and
previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Upsilon (1S+2S+3S) production in d+Au and p+p collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV and cold-nuclear matter effects
The three Upsilon states, Upsilon(1S+2S+3S), are measured in d+Au and p+p
collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV and rapidities 1.2<|y|<2.2 by the PHENIX
experiment at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider. Cross sections for the
inclusive Upsilon(1S+2S+3S) production are obtained. The inclusive yields per
binary collision for d+Au collisions relative to those in p+p collisions
(R_dAu) are found to be 0.62 +/- 0.26 (stat) +/- 0.13 (syst) in the gold-going
direction and 0.91 +/- 0.33 (stat) +/- 0.16 (syst) in the deuteron-going
direction. The measured results are compared to a nuclear-shadowing model,
EPS09 [JHEP 04, 065 (2009)], combined with a final-state breakup cross section,
sigma_br, and compared to lower energy p+A results. We also compare the results
to the PHENIX J/psi results [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 142301 (2011)]. The rapidity
dependence of the observed Upsilon suppression is consistent with lower energy
p+A measurements.Comment: 495 authors, 11 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and
previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Measurements of elliptic and triangular flow in high-multiplicity HeAu collisions at GeV
We present the first measurement of elliptic () and triangular ()
flow in high-multiplicity HeAu collisions at
GeV. Two-particle correlations, where the particles have a large separation in
pseudorapidity, are compared in HeAu and in collisions and
indicate that collective effects dominate the second and third Fourier
components for the correlations observed in the HeAu system. The
collective behavior is quantified in terms of elliptic and triangular
anisotropy coefficients measured with respect to their corresponding
event planes. The values are comparable to those previously measured in
Au collisions at the same nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy.
Comparison with various theoretical predictions are made, including to models
where the hot spots created by the impact of the three He nucleons on the
Au nucleus expand hydrodynamically to generate the triangular flow. The
agreement of these models with data may indicate the formation of low-viscosity
quark-gluon plasma even in these small collision systems.Comment: 630 authors, 9 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. v2 is the version accepted
for publication by Physical Review Letters. Plain text data tables for the
points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or
will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
Measurement of long-range angular correlation and quadrupole anisotropy of pions and (anti)protons in central Au collisions at =200 GeV
We present azimuthal angular correlations between charged hadrons and energy
deposited in calorimeter towers in central Au and minimum bias
collisions at GeV. The charged hadron is measured at
midrapidity , and the energy is measured at large rapidity
(, Au-going direction). An enhanced near-side angular
correlation across 2.75 is observed in Au collisions.
Using the event plane method applied to the Au-going energy distribution, we
extract the anisotropy strength for inclusive charged hadrons at
midrapidity up to GeV/. We also present the measurement of
for identified and (anti)protons in central Au collisions,
and observe a mass-ordering pattern similar to that seen in heavy ion
collisions. These results are compared with viscous hydrodynamic calculations
and measurements from Pb at TeV. The magnitude of
the mass-ordering in Au is found to be smaller than that in Pb
collisions, which may indicate smaller radial flow in lower energy Au
collisions.Comment: 424 authors, 8 pages, and 4 figures. v2 is version accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. Published version will be at
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/phenix/WWW/info/pp1/161/ Plain text data tables
will be at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
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