1,722 research outputs found
Simple Calculations to Reduce Litigation Costs in Personal Injury Cases: Additional Empirical Support for the Offset Rule
This article demonstrates that if the nominal rate of interest equals the growth rate of nominal earnings, then a strong case can be made for calculating lump-sum damage awards by using the offset rule, i.e., by simply multiplying the annual loss by the number of years the loss is expected to continue. An examination of the Canadian data not only supports the offset rule, but also suggests that plaintiffs are being systematically undercompensated by rules currently in use
Particle Motion and Scalar Field Propagation in Myers-Perry Black Hole Spacetimes in All Dimensions
We study separability of the Hamilton-Jacobi and massive Klein-Gordon
equations in the general Myers-Perry black hole background in all dimensions.
Complete separation of both equations is carried out in cases when there are
two sets of equal black hole rotation parameters, which significantly enlarges
the rotational symmetry group. We explicitly construct a nontrivial irreducible
Killing tensor associated with the enlarged symmetry group which permits
separation. We also derive first-order equations of motion for particles in
these backgrounds and examine some of their properties.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX2
Theoretical Transit Spectra for GJ 1214b and Other "Super-Earths"
We present new calculations of transit spectra of super-Earths that allow for
atmospheres with arbitrary proportions of common molecular species and haze. We
test this method with generic spectra, reproducing the expected systematics and
absorption features, then apply it to the nearby super-Earth GJ 1214b, which
has produced conflicting observational data, leaving the questions of a
hydrogen-rich versus hydrogen-poor atmosphere and the water content of the
atmosphere ambiguous. We present representative transit spectra for a range of
classes of atmosphere models for GJ 1214b. Our analysis supports a
hydrogen-rich atmosphere with a cloud or haze layer, although a hydrogen-poor
model with less than 10% water is not ruled out. Several classes of models are
ruled out, however, including hydrogen-rich atmospheres with no haze,
hydrogen-rich atmospheres with a haze of about 0.01-micron tholin particles,
and hydrogen-poor atmospheres with major sources of absorption other than
water. We propose an observational test to distinguish hydrogen-rich from
hydrogen-poor atmospheres. Finally, we provide a library of theoretical transit
spectra for super-Earths with a broad range of parameters to facilitate future
comparison with anticipated data.Comment: 33 pages, 21 figures, 3 table
The effect of missing data on linkage disequilibrium mapping and haplotype association analysis in the GAW14 simulated datasets
We used our newly developed linkage disequilibrium (LD) plotting software, JLIN, to plot linkage disequilibrium between pairs of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for three chromosomes of the Genetic Analysis Workshop 14 Aipotu simulated population to assess the effect of missing data on LD calculations. Our haplotype analysis program, SIMHAP, was used to assess the effect of missing data on haplotype-phenotype association. Genotype data was removed at random, at levels of 1%, 5%, and 10%, and the LD calculations and haplotype association results for these levels of missingness were compared to those for the complete dataset. It was concluded that ignoring individuals with missing data substantially affects the number of regions of LD detected which, in turn, could affect tagging SNPs chosen to generate haplotypes
Neutrino Propagation In Color Superconducting Quark Matter
We calculate the neutrino mean free path in color superconducting quark
matter, and employ it to study the cooling of matter via neutrino diffusion in
the superconducting phase as compared to a free quark phase. The cooling
process slows when quark matter undergoes a second order phase transition to a
superconducting phase at the critical temperature . Cooling subsequently
accelerates as the temperature decreases below . This will directly impact
the early evolution of a newly born neutron star should its core contain quark
matter. Consequently, there may be observable changes in the early neutrino
emission which would provide evidence for superconductivity in hot and dense
matter.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
No spin-glass transition in the "mobile-bond" model
The recently introduced ``mobile-bond'' model for two-dimensional spin
glasses is studied. The model is characterized by an annealing temperature T_q.
On the basis of Monte Carlo simulations of small systems it has been claimed
that this model exhibits a non-trivial spin-glass transition at finite
temperature for small values of T_q.
Here the model is studied by means of exact ground-state calculations of
large systems up to N=256^2. The scaling of domain-wall energies is
investigated as a function of the system size. For small values T_q<0.95 the
system behaves like a (gauge-transformed) ferromagnet having a small fraction
of frustrated plaquettes. For T_q>=0.95 the system behaves like the standard
two-dimensional +-J spin-glass, i.e. it does NOT exhibit a phase transition at
T>0.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, RevTe
Inspiratory muscle warm-up does not improve cycling time-trial performance
Purpose: This study examined the effects of an active cycling warm-up, with and without the addition of an inspiratory muscle warm-up (IMW), on 10-km cycling time-trial performance
Flash-lag chimeras: the role of perceived alignment in the composite face effect
Spatial alignment of different face halves results in a configuration that mars the recognition of the identity of either face half (). What would happen to the recognition performance for face halves that were aligned on the retina but were perceived as misaligned, or were misaligned on the retina but were perceived as aligned? We used the 'flash-lag' effect () to address these questions. We created chimeras consisting of a stationary top half-face initially aligned with a moving bottom half-face. Flash-lag chimeras were better recognized than their stationary counterparts. However when flashed face halves were presented physically ahead of moving halves thereby nulling the flash-lag effect, recognition was impaired. This counters the notion that relative movement between the two face halves per se is sufficient to explain better recognition of flash-lag chimeras. Thus, the perceived spatial alignment of face halves (despite retinal misalignment) impairs recognition, while perceived misalignment (despite retinal alignment) does not
GRB 081203A: Swift UVOT captures the earliest ultraviolet spectrum of a gamma-ray burst
We present the earliest ultraviolet (UV) spectrum of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) as observed with the Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT). The GRB 081203A spectrum was observed for 50 s with the UV-grism starting 251 s after the Swift-Burst-Alert-Telescope (BAT) trigger. During this time, the GRB was ≈13.4 mag (u filter) and was still rising to its peak optical brightness. In the UV-grism spectrum, we find a damped Lyα line, Lyβ and the Lyman continuum break at a redshift z= 2.05 ± 0.01. A model fit to the Lyman absorption implies a gas column density of log NH i= 22.0 ± 0.1 cm−2, which is typical of GRB host galaxies with damped Lyα absorbers. This observation of GRB 081203A demonstrates that for brighter GRBs (v≈ 14 mag) with moderate redshift (0.5 < z < 3.5) the UVOT is able to provide redshifts, and probe for damped Lyα absorbers within 4–6 min from the time of the Swift-BAT trigger
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