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Loneliness and life satisfaction amongst three cultural groups
Abstract
Studies into loneliness and life satisfaction have rarely assessed the role of culture in moderating the
relationship between these variables. The present study examined the relationship between loneliness and life
satisfaction using data from three nonstudent samples collected from Italian, Anglo-Canadian and
Chinese-Canadian populations. A total of 206 respondents completed the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale
(Russell, Peplau, & Cutrona, 1980) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin,
1985). Two contrasting hypotheses were compared: one, a “postmodern” hypothesis, predicting that the
relationship between life satisfaction and loneliness would be stronger in our individualist sample of
Anglo-Canadians, and a second, “relational” hypothesis predicting this association to be strongest in our
collectivist, Chinese-Canadian sample. Our findings demonstrated that culture has a small but significant
impact on the relationship between loneliness and life satisfaction, and, consistent with the relational
hypothesis, the relationship between the two concepts was strongest among our Chinese-Canadian
respondents and weakest among our Anglo-Canadian participants This finding is discussed in the context
of the strong expectations of social cohesion in collectivist societies
Aquatic Nitrate Retention at River Network Scales Across Flow Conditions Determined Using Nested In Situ Sensors
Nonpoint pollution sources are strongly influenced by hydrology and are therefore sensitive to climate variability. Some pollutants entering aquatic ecosystems, e.g., nitrate, can be mitigated by in‐stream processes during transport through river networks. Whole river network nitrate retention is difficult to quantify with observations. High frequency, in situ nitrate sensors, deployed in nested locations within a single watershed, can improve estimates of both nonpoint inputs and aquatic retention at river network scales. We deployed a nested sensor network and associated sampling in the urbanizing Oyster River watershed in coastal New Hampshire, USA, to quantify storm event‐scale loading and retention at network scales. An end member analysis used the relative behavior of reactive nitrate and conservative chloride to infer river network fate of nitrate. In the headwater catchments, nitrate and chloride concentrations are both increasingly diluted with increasing storm size. At the mouth of the watershed, chloride is also diluted, but nitrate tended to increase. The end member analysis suggests that this pattern is the result of high retention during small storms (51–78%) that declines to zero during large storms. Although high frequency nitrate sensors did not alter estimates of fluxes over seasonal time periods compared to less frequent grab sampling, they provide the ability to estimate nitrate flux versus storm size at event scales that is critical for such analyses. Nested sensor networks can improve understanding of the controls of both loading and network scale retention, and therefore also improve management of nonpoint source pollution
Quantifying fusion born ion populations in magnetically confined plasmas using ion cyclotron emission
Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) offers unique promise as a diagnostic of the
fusion born alpha-particle population in magnetically confined plasmas.
Pioneering observations from JET and TFTR found that ICE intensity
scales approximately linearly with the measured neutron flux from fusion
reactions, and with the inferred concentration, , of fusion-born
alpha-particles confined within the plasma. We present fully nonlinear
self-consistent kinetic simulations that reproduce this scaling for the first
time. This resolves a longstanding question in the physics of fusion
alpha-particle confinement and stability in MCF plasmas. It confirms the
magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability (MCI) as the likely emission mechanism
and greatly strengthens the basis for diagnostic exploitation of ICE in future
burning plasmas
Random billiards with wall temperature and associated Markov chains
By a random billiard we mean a billiard system in which the standard specular
reflection rule is replaced with a Markov transition probabilities operator P
that, at each collision of the billiard particle with the boundary of the
billiard domain, gives the probability distribution of the post-collision
velocity for a given pre-collision velocity. A random billiard with
microstructure (RBM) is a random billiard for which P is derived from a choice
of geometric/mechanical structure on the boundary of the billiard domain. RBMs
provide simple and explicit mechanical models of particle-surface interaction
that can incorporate thermal effects and permit a detailed study of
thermostatic action from the perspective of the standard theory of Markov
chains on general state spaces.
We focus on the operator P itself and how it relates to the
mechanical/geometric features of the microstructure, such as mass ratios,
curvatures, and potentials. The main results are as follows: (1) we
characterize the stationary probabilities (equilibrium states) of P and show
how standard equilibrium distributions studied in classical statistical
mechanics, such as the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and the Knudsen cosine
law, arise naturally as generalized invariant billiard measures; (2) we obtain
some basic functional theoretic properties of P. Under very general conditions,
we show that P is a self-adjoint operator of norm 1 on an appropriate Hilbert
space. In a simple but illustrative example, we show that P is a compact
(Hilbert-Schmidt) operator. This leads to the issue of relating the spectrum of
eigenvalues of P to the features of the microstructure;(3) we explore the
latter issue both analytically and numerically in a few representative
examples;(4) we present a general algorithm for simulating these Markov chains
based on a geometric description of the invariant volumes of classical
statistical mechanics
Power Spectra of a Constrained Totally Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process
To synthesize proteins in a cell, an mRNA has to work with a finite pool of
ribosomes. When this constraint is included in the modeling by a totally
asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP), non-trivial consequences emerge.
Here, we consider its effects on the power spectrum of the total occupancy,
through Monte Carlo simulations and analytical methods. New features, such as
dramatic suppressions at low frequencies, are discovered. We formulate a theory
based on a linearized Langevin equation with discrete space and time. The good
agreement between its predictions and simulation results provides some insight
into the effects of finite resoures on a TASEP.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures v2: formatting change
CaNaSTA - Crop Niche Selection for Tropical Agriculture, a Spatial Decision Support System
Farmers in the developing world frequently find themselves in uncertain and risky environments, often having to make decisions based on very little information. Risks for smallholder farmers are often critical because of their poverty. In addition, in the tropics and subtropics, the natural environment is spatially and temporally variable and often harsh, thereby increasing the uncertainty faced by these farmers. This research aims to improve forage adoption decisions in the developing world, thereby increasing sustainable intensification and ultimately contributing to increased sustainable world food production and the alleviation of under-nutrition
Study of Conformally Flat Initial Data for Highly Spinning Black Holes and their Early Evolutions
We study conformally-flat initial data for an arbitrary number of spinning
black holes with exact analytic solutions to the momentum constraints
constructed from a linear combination of the classical Bowen-York and conformal
Kerr extrinsic curvatures. The solution leading to the largest intrinsic spin,
relative to the ADM mass of the spacetime epsilon_S=S/M^2_{ADM}, is a
superposition with relative weights of Lambda=0.783 for conformal Kerr and
(1-Lambda)=0.217 for Bowen-York. In addition, we measure the spin relative to
the initial horizon mass M_{H_0}, and find that the quantity chi=S/M_{H_0}^2
reaches a maximum of \chi^{max}=0.9856 for Lambda=0.753. After equilibration,
the final black-hole spin should lie in the interval 0.9324<chi_{final}<0.9856.
We perform full numerical evolutions to compute the energy radiated and the
final horizon mass and spin. We find that the black hole settles to a final
spin of chi_{final}^{max}=0.935 when Lambda=0.783. We also study the evolution
of the apparent horizon structure of this "maximal" black hole in detail.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure
Quantum storage on subradiant states in an extended atomic ensemble
A scheme for coherent manipulation of collective atomic states is developed
such that total subradiant states, in which spontaneous emission is suppressed
into all directions due to destructive interference between neighbor atoms, can
be created in an extended atomic ensemble. The optimal conditions for creation
of such states and suitability of them for quantum storage are discussed. It is
shown that in order to achieve the maximum signal-to-noise ratio the shape of a
light pulse to be stored and reconstructed using a homogeneously broadened
absorbtion line of an atomic system should be a time-reversed regular part of
the response function of the system. In the limit of high optical density, such
pulses allow one to prepare collective subradiant atomic states with near flat
spatial distribution of the atomic excitation in the medium.Comment: V2: considerably revised (title, text). V3: minor changes - final
version as published in PR
Negative-weight percolation
We describe a percolation problem on lattices (graphs, networks), with edge
weights drawn from disorder distributions that allow for weights (or distances)
of either sign, i.e. including negative weights. We are interested whether
there are spanning paths or loops of total negative weight. This kind of
percolation problem is fundamentally different from conventional percolation
problems, e.g. it does not exhibit transitivity, hence no simple definition of
clusters, and several spanning paths/loops might coexist in the percolation
regime at the same time. Furthermore, to study this percolation problem
numerically, one has to perform a non-trivial transformation of the original
graph and apply sophisticated matching algorithms.
Using this approach, we study the corresponding percolation transitions on
large square, hexagonal and cubic lattices for two types of disorder
distributions and determine the critical exponents. The results show that
negative-weight percolation is in a different universality class compared to
conventional bond/site percolation. On the other hand, negative-weight
percolation seems to be related to the ferromagnet/spin-glass transition of
random-bond Ising systems, at least in two dimensions.Comment: v1: 4 pages, 4 figures; v2: 10 pages, 7 figures, added results, text
and reference
Statistical Mechanics of the Hyper Vertex Cover Problem
We introduce and study a new optimization problem called Hyper Vertex Cover.
This problem is a generalization of the standard vertex cover to hypergraphs:
one seeks a configuration of particles with minimal density such that every
hyperedge of the hypergraph contains at least one particle. It can also be used
in important practical tasks, such as the Group Testing procedures where one
wants to detect defective items in a large group by pool testing. Using a
Statistical Mechanics approach based on the cavity method, we study the phase
diagram of the HVC problem, in the case of random regualr hypergraphs.
Depending on the values of the variables and tests degrees different situations
can occur: The HVC problem can be either in a replica symmetric phase, or in a
one-step replica symmetry breaking one. In these two cases, we give explicit
results on the minimal density of particles, and the structure of the phase
space. These problems are thus in some sense simpler than the original vertex
cover problem, where the need for a full replica symmetry breaking has
prevented the derivation of exact results so far. Finally, we show that
decimation procedures based on the belief propagation and the survey
propagation algorithms provide very efficient strategies to solve large
individual instances of the hyper vertex cover problem.Comment: Submitted to PR
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