104,569 research outputs found
The Experience of Traumatic Stress among Urban Firefighters
Findings provide evidence that it is possible for emergency responders to become ‘locked into’ a regular cycle of trauma exposure that includes rapid returns to operationally ready status (i.e. being made available for another turnout immediately, or soon after returning from a previous emergency situation). Without the opportunity to interrupt the emotional reaction of an earlier traumatic response, a downward spiral of inescapable stress response may be instigated and with ongoing exposure. This paper details evidence suggesting the existence of a relationship between the work tasks of the fire fighters and a propensity for certain physiological responses and stress reactions noted during on-the-job research. Sensitivity to such processes may be gradually built up among emergency responders as their career progresses. The work suggests that in addition to instances of critical incident stress, that could be expected among emergency workers, the turn-out mechanism used actually pre-disposes the fire fighters to ongoing traumatic responses
Remarks on the Cosmological Constant
The acceleration of the surface of last scatter (SLS) must somehow reflect
the energy content within it. A test particle at the SLS is assumed to
experience a linear combination of two forces: one Newtonian, the other
pseudo-Newtonian describable by a cosmological constant in general
relativity. In the description, which is surely too unimaginative,
the size of reflects only the comparable magnitudes of the
Newtonian and pseudo-Newtonian forces; any claim of fine tuning due to quantum
mechanics is probably illusory.Comment: 6 pages, no figures; improved versio
Modeling Autistic Features in Animals
A variety of features of autism can be simulated in
rodents, including the core behavioral hallmarks of stereotyped and
repetitive behaviors, and deficits in social interaction and communication.
Other behaviors frequently found in autism spectrum disorders
(ASDs) such as neophobia, enhanced anxiety, abnormal pain
sensitivity and eye blink conditioning, disturbed sleep patterns, seizures,
and deficits in sensorimotor gating are also present in some of
the animal models. Neuropathology and some characteristic neurochemical
changes that are frequently seen in autism, and alterations
in the immune status in the brain and periphery are also found in
some of the models. Several known environmental risk factors for
autism have been successfully established in rodents, including maternal
infection and maternal valproate administration. Also under
investigation are a number of mouse models based on genetic
variants associated with autism or on syndromic disorders with
autistic features. This review briefly summarizes recent developments
in this field, highlighting models with face and/or construct
validity, and noting the potential for investigation of pathogenesis,
and early progress toward clinical testing of potential therapeutics.
Wherever possible, reference is made to reviews rather than to
primary articles
Dark Energy from Strings
A long-standing problem of theoretical physics is the exceptionally small
value of the cosmological constant measured in natural
Planckian units. Here we derive this tiny number from a toroidal string
cosmology based on closed strings. In this picture the dark energy arises from
the correlation between momentum and winding modes that for short distances has
an exponential fall-off with increasing values of the momenta. The freeze-out
by the expansion of the background universe for these transplanckian modes may
be interpreted as a frozen condensate of the closed-string modes in the three
non-compactified spatial dimensions.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX. Talk at Coral Gables Conference, December 12-16, 200
String Theory and Unification
The use of the AdS/CFT correspondence to arrive at quiver gauge field
theories is discussed. An abelian orbifold with the finite group can
give rise to a nonsupersymmetric gauge theory with chiral fermions
and complex scalars in different bi-fundamental representations of . The
precision measurements at the resonance suggest the values and , and a unifications scale TeV. Dedicated to the 65th birthday
of Pran Nath.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, talk at PASCOS 2004 / Nath Fes
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