3,263 research outputs found
A self-sustaining nonlinear dynamo process in Keplerian shear flows
A three-dimensional nonlinear dynamo process is identified in rotating plane
Couette flow in the Keplerian regime. It is analogous to the hydrodynamic
self-sustaining process in non-rotating shear flows and relies on the
magneto-rotational instability of a toroidal magnetic field. Steady nonlinear
solutions are computed numerically for a wide range of magnetic Reynolds
numbers but are restricted to low Reynolds numbers. This process may be
important to explain the sustenance of coherent fields and turbulent motions in
Keplerian accretion disks, where all its basic ingredients are present.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
Perceived characteristics of the environment associated with active travel: development and testing of a new scale
Background
Environmental characteristics may be associated with patterns of physical activity. However, the development of instruments to measure perceived characteristics of the local environment is still at a comparatively early stage, and published instruments are not necessarily suitable for application in all settings. We therefore developed and established the test-retest reliability of a new scale for use in a study of the correlates of active travel and overall physical activity in deprived urban neighbourhoods in Glasgow, Scotland.
Methods
We developed and piloted a 14-item scale based on seven constructs identified from the literature (aesthetics, green space, access to amenities, convenience of routes, traffic, road safety and personal safety). We administered the scale to all participants in a random postal survey (n = 1322) and readministered the scale to a subset of original respondents (n = 125) six months later. We used principal components analysis and Varimax rotation to identify three principal components (factors) and derived summary scores for subscales based on these factors. We examined the internal consistency of these subscales using Cronbach's alpha and examined the test-retest reliability of the individual items, the subscale summary scores and an overall summary neighbourhood score using a combination of correlation coefficients and Cohen's kappa with and without weighting.
Results
Public transport and proximity to shops were the items most likely to be rated positively, whereas traffic volume, traffic noise and road safety for cyclists were most likely to be rated negatively. Three principal components – 'safe and pleasant surroundings', 'low traffic' and 'convenience for walking' – together explained 45% of the total variance. The test-retest reliability of individual items was comparable with that of items in other published scales (intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) 0.34–0.70; weighted Cohen's kappa 0.24–0.59). The overall summary neighbourhood score had acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.72) and test-retest reliability (ICC 0.73).
Conclusion
This new scale contributes to the development of a growing set of tools for investigating the role of perceived environmental characteristics in explaining or mediating patterns of active travel and physical activity
Evaluating health effects of transport interventions: methodologic case study
Background: There is little evidence about the effects of environmental interventions on population levels of physical activity. Major transport projects may promote or discourage physical activity in the form of walking and cycling, but researching the health effects of such “natural experiments” in transport policy or infrastructure is challenging.
Methods: Case study of attempts in 2004–2005 to evaluate the effects of two major transport projects in Scotland: an urban congestion charging scheme in Edinburgh, and a new urban motorway (freeway) in Glasgow.
Results: These interventions are typical of many major transport projects. They are unique to their context. They cannot easily be separated from the other components of the wider policies within which they occur. When, where, and how they are implemented are political decisions over which researchers have no control. Baseline data collection required for longitudinal studies may need to be planned before the intervention is certain to take place. There is no simple way of defining a population or area exposed to the intervention or of defining control groups. Changes in quantitative measures of health-related behavior may be difficult to detect.
Conclusions: Major transport projects have clear potential to influence population health, but it is difficult to define the interventions, categorize exposure, or measure outcomes in ways that are likely to be seen as credible in the field of public health intervention research. A final study design is proposed in which multiple methods and spatial levels of analysis are combined in a longitudinal quasi-experimental study
Development of a scanning electron mirror microscope
Scanning electron mirrors microscope design and developmen
The effects of drugs on worm expulsion in the Nippostrongylus brasiliensis infected rat: a discussion of the interpretation of drug action
In rats treated with compound 48/80 or histamine, worm expulsion was inhibited. Treatment with a histidine decarboxylase inhibitor accelerated worm expulsion. Treatment with compound 48/80 elevates histamine and histidine decarboxylase levels and reduces circulating reagin titres. These results show that histamine is not responsible for worm expulsion. Compounds such as isoprenaline and theophylline which increase cellular levels of cyclic 3′,5-AMP, prevented worm expulsion. It is concluded that the evidence that amines are involved in worm expulsion needs reassessing and that cellular release mechanisms in general may be affected by drugs thought to act solely on amine release. In particular, the release of effector substances from sensitized lymphocytes on contact with antigen may be affected by these treatments. The skilful technical assistance of Miss R. Keist and Miss I. Beeger is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Mr H. Berchtold, Biostatistisches Zentrum der Universität Zürich, for the statistical evaluation of the dat
Global axisymmetric Magnetorotational Instability with density gradients
We examine global incompressible axisymmetric perturbations of a
differentially rotating MHD plasma with radial density gradients. It is shown
that the standard magnetorotational instability, (MRI) criterion drawn from the
local dispersion relation is often misleading. If the equilibrium magnetic
field is either purely axial or purely toroidal, the problem reduces to finding
the global radial eigenvalues of an effective potential. The standard Keplerian
profile including the origin is mathematically ill-posed, and thus any solution
will depend strongly on the inner boundary. We find a class of unstable modes
localized by the form of the rotation and density profiles, with reduced
dependence on boundary conditions.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure
Contributions to the Fourth Solar Wind Conference
Recent results in interplanetary physics are examined. These include observations of shock waves and post-shock magnetic fields made by Voyager 1, 2; observations of the electron temperature as a function of distance between 1.36 AU and 2.25 AU; and observations of the structure of sector boundaries observed by Helios 1. A theory of electron energy transport in the collisionless solar wind is presented, and compared with observations. Alfven waves and Alvenic fluctuations in the solar wind are also discussed
Fundamental length in quantum theories with PT-symmetric Hamiltonians II: The case of quantum graphs
Manifestly non-Hermitian quantum graphs with real spectra are introduced and
shown tractable as a new class of phenomenological models with several
appealing descriptive properties. For illustrative purposes, just equilateral
star-graphs are considered here in detail, with non-Hermiticities introduced by
interactions attached to the vertices. The facilitated feasibility of the
analysis of their spectra is achieved via their systematic approximative
Runge-Kutta-inspired reduction to star-shaped discrete lattices. The resulting
bound-state spectra are found real in a discretization-independent interval of
couplings. This conclusion is reinterpreted as the existence of a hidden
Hermiticity of our models, i.e., as the standard and manifest Hermiticity of
the underlying Hamiltonian in one of less usual, {\em ad hoc} representations
of the Hilbert space of states in which the inner product is local
(at ) or increasingly nonlocal (at ). Explicit examples of
these (of course, Hamiltonian-dependent) hermitizing inner products are offered
in closed form. In this way each initial quantum graph is assigned a menu of
optional, non-equivalent standard probabilistic interpretations exhibiting a
controlled, tunable nonlocality.Comment: 33 pp., 6 figure
Center-stabilized Yang-Mills theory: confinement and large volume independence
We examine a double trace deformation of SU(N) Yang-Mills theory which, for
large and large volume, is equivalent to unmodified Yang-Mills theory up to
corrections. In contrast to the unmodified theory, large volume
independence is valid in the deformed theory down to arbitrarily small volumes.
The double trace deformation prevents the spontaneous breaking of center
symmetry which would otherwise disrupt large volume independence in small
volumes. For small values of , if the theory is formulated on with a sufficiently small compactification size , then an analytic
treatment of the non-perturbative dynamics of the deformed theory is possible.
In this regime, we show that the deformed Yang-Mills theory has a mass gap and
exhibits linear confinement. Increasing the circumference or number of
colors decreases the separation of scales on which the analytic treatment
relies. However, there are no order parameters which distinguish the small and
large radius regimes. Consequently, for small the deformed theory provides
a novel example of a locally four-dimensional pure gauge theory in which one
has analytic control over confinement, while for large it provides a simple
fully reduced model for Yang-Mills theory. The construction is easily
generalized to QCD and other QCD-like theories.Comment: 29 pages, expanded discussion of multiple compactified dimension
- …