13,075 research outputs found
Acceptance and commitment therapy delivered in a dyad after a severe traumatic brain injury: a feasibility study
Objective:
There is a high prevalence of complex psychological distress after a traumatic brain injury but limited evidence of effective interventions. We examined the feasibility of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy after a severe traumatic brain injury using the criteria, investigating a therapeutic effect, and reviewing the acceptability of measures, treatment protocol, and delivery method (in a dyad of two clients and a therapist).
Method:
Two male outpatients with severe traumatic brain injury and associated psychological distress jointly engaged in a seven session treatment program based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy principles. Pre- and post-treatment measures of mood, psychological flexibility, and participation were taken in addition to weekly measures.
Results:
The intervention showed a therapeutic effect with one participant, and appeared to be acceptable for both participants with regard to program content, measures, and delivery mode by in a dyad. One participant showed both significant clinical and reliable change across several outcome measures including measures of mood and psychological flexibility. The second participant did not show a reduction in psychological inflexibility, but did show a significant drop in negative affect. Significant changes pre- to post-treatment for measures of participation were not indicated. Qualitatively, both participants engaged in committed action set in accordance with their values.
Conclusions:
This study suggests that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy may be feasible to be delivered in a dyad with individuals who have a severe traumatic brain injury. A further test of its potential efficacy in a phase II clinical trial is recommended
Estimating the masses of extra-solar planets
All extra-solar planet masses that have been derived spectroscopically are
lower limits since the inclination of the orbit to our line-of-sight is unknown
except for transiting systems. It is, however, possible to determine the
inclination angle, i, between the rotation axis of a star and an observer's
line-of-sight from measurements of the projected equatorial velocity (v sin i),
the stellar rotation period (P_rot) and the stellar radius (R_star). This
allows the removal of the sin i dependency of spectroscopically derived
extra-solar planet masses under the assumption that the planetary orbits lie
perpendicular to the stellar rotation axis. We have carried out an extensive
literature search and present a catalogue of v sin i, P_rot, and R_star
estimates for exoplanet host stars. In addition, we have used Hipparcos
parallaxes and the Barnes-Evans relationship to further supplement the R_star
estimates obtained from the literature. Using this catalogue, we have obtained
sin i estimates using a Markov-chain Monte Carlo analysis. This allows proper
1-sigma two-tailed confidence limits to be placed on the derived sin i's along
with the transit probability for each planet to be determined. While a small
proportion of systems yield sin i's significantly greater than 1, most likely
due to poor P_rot estimations, the large majority are acceptable. We are
further encouraged by the cases where we have data on transiting systems, as
the technique indicates inclinations of ~90 degrees and high transit
probabilities. In total, we estimate the true masses of 133 extra-solar
planets. Of these, only 6 have revised masses that place them above the 13
Jupiter mass deuterium burning limit. Our work reveals a population of
high-mass planets with low eccentricities and we speculate that these may
represent the signature of different planetary formation mechanisms at work.Comment: 40 pages, 6 tables, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in the
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society after editing of Tables 1 &
6 for electronic publication. Html abstract shortened for astro-ph submissio
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays from Quark Novae
We explore acceleration of ions in the Quark Nova (QN) scenario, where a
neutron star experiences an explosive phase transition into a quark star (born
in the propeller regime). In this picture, two cosmic ray components are
isolated: one related to the randomized pulsar wind and the other to the
propelled wind, both boosted by the ultra-relativistic Quark Nova shock. The
latter component acquires energies while
the former, boosted pulsar wind, achieves ultra-high energies
eV. The composition is dominated by ions present in the pulsar wind in the
energy range above eV, while at energies below eV the
propelled ejecta, consisting of the fall-back neutron star crust material from
the explosion, is the dominant one. Added to these two components, the
propeller injects relativistic particles with Lorentz factors , later to be accelerated by galactic supernova shocks. The
QN model appears to be able to account for the extragalactic cosmic rays above
the ankle and to contribute a few percent of the galactic cosmic rays below the
ankle. We predict few hundred ultra-high energy cosmic ray events above
eV for the Pierre Auger detector per distant QN, while some thousands
are predicted for the proposed EUSO and OWL detectors.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure. Major revisions in the text. Accepted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journa
One-dimensional transport of bosons between weakly linked reservoirs
We study a flow of ultracold bosonic atoms through a one-dimensional channel that connects two macroscopic three-dimensional reservoirs of Bose-condensed atoms via weak links implemented as potential barriers between each of the reservoirs and the channel. We consider reservoirs at equal chemical potentials so that a superflow of the quasicondensate through the channel is driven purely by a phase difference 2Φ imprinted between the reservoirs. We find that the superflow never has the standard Josephson form ∼ sin 2Φ. Instead, the superflow discontinuously flips direction at 2Φ ¼ _π and has metastable branches.We show that these features are robust and not smeared by fluctuations or phase slips. We describe a possible experimental setup for observing these phenomen
Ill-posedness of degenerate dispersive equations
In this article we provide numerical and analytical evidence that some
degenerate dispersive partial differential equations are ill-posed.
Specifically we study the K(2,2) equation and
the "degenerate Airy" equation . For K(2,2) our results are
computational in nature: we conduct a series of numerical simulations which
demonstrate that data which is very small in can be of unit size at a
fixed time which is independent of the data's size. For the degenerate Airy
equation, our results are fully rigorous: we prove the existence of a compactly
supported self-similar solution which, when combined with certain scaling
invariances, implies ill-posedness (also in )
Composition of dissolved organic matter within a lacustrine environment
Freshwater dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a complex mixture of chemical components that are central to many environmental processes, including carbon and nitrogen cycling. However, questions remain as to its chemical characteristics, sources and transformation mechanisms. Here, we employ 1- and 2-D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to investigate the structural components of lacustrine DOM from Ireland, and how it varies within a lake system, as well as to assess potential sources. Major components found, such as carboxyl-rich alicyclic molecules (CRAM) are consistent with those recently identified in marine and freshwater DOM. Lignin-type markers and protein/peptides were identified and vary spatially. Phenylalanine was detected in lake areas influenced by agriculture, whereas it is not detectable where zebra mussels are prominent. The presence of peptidoglycan, lipoproteins, large polymeric carbo- hydrates and proteinaceous material supports the substantial contribution of material derived from microorganisms. Evidence is provided that peptidoglycan and silicate species may in part originate from soil microbes
Experimental and numerical investigations of flow structure and momentum transport in a turbulent buoyancy-driven flow inside a tilted tube.
Buoyancy-driven turbulent mixing of fluids of slightly different densities [At = Δρ/(2〈ρ〉) = 1.15×10−2] in a long circular tube tilted at an angle θ = 15° from the vertical is studied at the local scale, both experimentally from particle image velocimetry and laser induced fluorescence measurements in the vertical diametrical plane and numerically throughout the tube using direct numerical simulation. In a given cross section of the tube, the axial mean velocity and the mean concentration both vary linearly with the crosswise distance z from the tube axis in the central 70% of the diameter. A small crosswise velocity component is detected in the measurement plane and is found to result from a four-cell mean secondary flow associated with a nonzero streamwise component of the vorticity. In the central region of the tube cross section, the intensities of the three turbulent velocity fluctuations are found to be strongly different, that of the streamwise fluctuation being more than twice larger than that of the spanwise fluctuation which itself is about 50% larger than that of the crosswise fluctuation. This marked anisotropy indicates that the turbulent structure is close to that observed in homogeneous turbulent shear flows. Still in the central region, the turbulent shear stress dominates over the viscous stress and reaches a maximum on the tube axis. Its crosswise variation is approximately accounted for by a mixing length whose value is about one-tenth of the tube diameter. The momentum exchange in the core of the cross section takes place between its lower and higher density parts and there is no net momentum exchange between the core and the near-wall regions. A sizable part of this transfer is due both to the mean secondary flow and to the spanwise turbulent shear stress. Near-wall regions located beyond the location of the extrema of the axial velocity (|z|≳0.36 d) are dominated by viscous stresses which transfer momentum toward (from) the wall near the top (bottom) of the tube
Quantized Rotation of Atoms From Photons with Orbital Angular Momentum
We demonstrate the coherent transfer of the orbital angular momentum of a
photon to an atom in quantized units of hbar, using a 2-photon stimulated Raman
process with Laguerre-Gaussian beams to generate an atomic vortex state in a
Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium atoms. We show that the process is coherent
by creating superpositions of different vortex states, where the relative phase
between the states is determined by the relative phases of the optical fields.
Furthermore, we create vortices of charge 2 by transferring to each atom the
orbital angular momentum of two photons.Comment: New version, 4 pages and 3 figures, accepted for publication in
Physical Review Letter
Spectral Analysis for Matrix Hamiltonian Operators
In this work, we study the spectral properties of matrix Hamiltonians
generated by linearizing the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation about soliton
solutions. By a numerically assisted proof, we show that there are no embedded
eigenvalues for the three dimensional cubic equation. Though we focus on a
proof of the 3d cubic problem, this work presents a new algorithm for verifying
certain spectral properties needed to study soliton stability. Source code for
verification of our comptuations, and for further experimentation, are
available at http://www.math.toronto.edu/simpson/files/spec_prop_code.tgz.Comment: 57 pages, 22 figures, typos fixe
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