21,089 research outputs found
Adiabatic and Non-Adiabatic Contributions to the Free Energy from the Electron-Phonon Interaction for Na, K, Al, and Pb
We calculate the adiabatic contributions to the free energy due to the
electron--phonon interaction at intermediate temperatures, for the elemental metals Na, K, Al, and Pb. Using our
previously published results for the nonadiabatic contributions we show that
the adiabatic contribution, which is proportional to at low
temperatures and goes as at high temperatures, dominates the
nonadiabatic contribution for temperatures above a cross--over temperature,
, which is between 0.5 and 0.8 , where is the melting
temperature of the metal. The nonadiabatic contribution falls as for
temperatures roughly above the average phonon frequency.Comment: Updated versio
Reflections on the evolution of a masters programme in instrumentation and control delivered by distance learning.
What is the excess risk of infertility in women after genital chlamydia infection? A systematic review of the evidence
Methods: Twelve databases were searched, limited to peer-reviewed literature published from January 1970 to September 2007. Conference abstracts and reference lists from reviews published since 2000 and from key articles were hand-searched. Studies were selected for review if they met the following criteria: (1) the study population comprised women of child-bearing age (defined as 15–45 years) and incorporated a comparison group of women documented as "chlamydia negative"; (2) the study outcomes included either infertility or successful pregnancy; and (3) the study design was one of the following: cohort, randomised controlled trial, "before and after" study, screening trial and systematic review. Studies were excluded if they described genital infections that either did not include Chlamydia trachomatis or described genital chlamydial co-infection, in which no data were available for C trachomatis infection alone.
Results: 3349 studies were identified by the search. One study satisfied the inclusion criteria, a longitudinal investigation measuring pregnancy rates in adolescent women with and without current chlamydial infection at baseline. That study reported no significant difference in subsequent pregnancy rates; however, it had serious methodological limitations, which restricted its conclusions.
Conclusions: This systematic review demonstrates the absence of valid evidence on the attributable risk of post-infective tubal factor infertility after genital chlamydial infection. The findings contribute empirical data to the growing debate surrounding previous assumptions about the natural history of chlamydial infection in women
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Independence at Risk: Older Californians With Disabilities Struggle to Remain at Home as Public Supports Shrink
Presents findings about aging Californians with disabilities who depend on paid public programs and unpaid help to live at home. Makes policy recommendations, including consolidating long-term care programs and enhancing support for caregivers
On the accuracy of the melting curves drawn from modelling a solid as an elastic medium
An ongoing problem in the study of a classical many-body system is the
characterization of its equilibrium behaviour by theory or numerical
simulation. For purely repulsive particles, locating the melting line in the
pressure-temperature plane can be especially hard if the interparticle
potential has a softened core or contains some adjustable parameters. A method
is hereby presented that yields reliable melting-curve topologies with
negligible computational effort. It is obtained by combining the Lindemann
melting criterion with a description of the solid phase as an elastic
continuum. A number of examples are given in order to illustrate the scope of
the method and possible shortcomings. For a two-body repulsion of Gaussian
shape, the outcome of the present approach compares favourably with the more
accurate but also more computationally demanding self-consistent harmonic
approximation.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure
Rare-gas solids under pressure: A path-integral Monte Carlo simulation
Rare-gas solids (Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) under hydrostatic pressure up to 30 kbar
have been studied by path-integral Monte Carlo simulations in the
isothermal-isobaric ensemble. Results of these simulations have been compared
with available experimental data and with those obtained from a quasiharmonic
approximation (QHA). This comparison allows us to quantify the overall
anharmonicity of the lattice vibrations and its influence on several structural
and thermodynamic properties of rare-gas solids. The vibrational energy
increases with pressure, but this increase is slower than that of the elastic
energy, which dominates at high pressures. In the PIMC simulations, the
vibrational kinetic energy is found to be larger than the corresponding
potential energy, and the relative difference between both energies decreases
as the applied pressure is raised. The accuracy of the QHA increases for rising
pressure.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Coarse-graining microscopic strains in a harmonic, two-dimensional solid and its implications for elasticity: non-local susceptibilities and non-affine noise
In soft matter systems the local displacement field can be accessed directly
by video microscopy enabling one to compute local strain fields and hence the
elastic moduli using a coarse-graining procedure. We study this process for a
simple triangular lattice of particles connected by harmonic springs in
two-dimensions. Coarse-graining local strains obtained from particle
configurations in a Monte Carlo simulation generates non-trivial, non-local
strain correlations (susceptibilities), which may be understood within a
generalized, Landau type elastic Hamiltonian containing up to quartic terms in
strain gradients (K. Franzrahe et al., Phys. Rev. E 78, 026106 (2008)). In
order to demonstrate the versatility of the analysis of these correlations and
to make our calculations directly relevant for experiments on colloidal solids,
we systematically study various parameters such as the choice of statistical
ensemble, presence of external pressure and boundary conditions. We show that
special care needs to be taken for an accurate application of our results to
actual experiments, where the analyzed area is embedded within a larger system,
to which it is mechanically coupled. Apart from the smooth, affine strain
fields, the coarse-graining procedure also gives rise to a noise field made up
of non-affine displacements. Several properties of this noise field may be
rationalized for the harmonic solid using a simple "cell model" calculation.
Furthermore the scaling behavior of the probability distribution of the noise
field is studied and a master curve is obtained.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figure
The Evolution of Optical Depth in the Ly-alpha Forest: Evidence Against Reionization at z~6
We examine the evolution of the IGM Ly-alpha optical depth distribution using
the transmitted flux probability distribution function (PDF) in a sample of 63
QSOs spanning absorption redshifts 1.7 < z < 5.8. The data are compared to two
theoretical optical depth distributions: a model distribution based on the
density distribution of Miralda-Escude et al. (2000) (MHR00), and a lognormal
distribution. We assume a uniform UV background and an isothermal IGM for the
MHR00 model, as has been done in previous works. Under these assumptions, the
MHR00 model produces poor fits to the observed flux PDFs at redshifts where the
optical depth distribution is well sampled, unless large continuum corrections
are applied. However, the lognormal optical depth distribution fits the data at
all redshifts with only minor continuum adjustments. We use a simple
parametrization for the evolution of the lognormal parameters to calculate the
expected mean transmitted flux at z > 5.4. The lognormal optical depth
distribution predicts the observed Ly-alpha and Ly-beta effective optical
depths at z > 5.7 while simultaneously fitting the mean transmitted flux down
to z = 1.6. If the evolution of the lognormal distribution at z < 5 reflects a
slowly-evolving density field, temperature, and UV background, then no sudden
change in the IGM at z ~ 6 due to late reionization appears necessary. We have
used the lognormal optical depth distribution without any assumption about the
underlying density field. If the MHR00 density distribution is correct, then a
non-uniform UV background and/or IGM temperature may be required to produce the
correct flux PDF. We find that an inverse temperature-density relation greatly
improves the PDF fits, but with a large scatter in the equation of state index.
[Abridged]Comment: 45 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ap
Globalization, the ambivalence of European integration and the possibilities for a post-disciplinary EU studies
Using the work of Manuel Castells as a starting point, this article explores the ambivalent relationship between globalization and European integration and the variety of ways in which the mainstream political science of the EU has attempted to deal with this issue. The analysis here suggests that various 'mainstreaming' disciplinary norms induce types of work that fail to address fully the somewhat paradoxical and counter-intuitive range of possible relationships between globalization and European integration. The article explores critically four possible analytical ways out of this paradox—abandonment of the concept of globalization, the development of definition precision in globalization studies, the reorientation of work to focus on globalization as discourse, and inter- and post-disciplinarity. The argument suggests that orthodox discussions of the relationship require a notion of social geography that sits at odds with much of the literature on globalization and while greater dialogue between disciplines is to be welcomed, a series of profound epistemological questions need to be confronted if studies of the interplay between global and social process are to be liberated from their disciplinary chains
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