415 research outputs found
'Word from the street' : when non-electoral representative claims meet electoral representation in the United Kingdom
Taking the specific case of street protests in the UK â the âword from the streetââ this article examines recent (re)conceptualizations of political representation, most particularly Sawardâs notion of ârepresentative claimâ. The specific example of nonelectoral claims articulated by protestors and demonstrators in the UK is used to illustrate: the processes of making, constituting, evaluating and accepting claims for and by constituencies and audiences; and the continuing distinctiveness of claims based upon electoral representation. Two basic questions structure the analysis: first, why would the political representative claims of elected representatives trump the nonelectoral claims of mass demonstrators and, second, in what ways does the âperceived legitimacyâ of the former differ from the latter
First Experimental Evidence for Chaos-Assisted Tunneling in a Microwave Annular Billiard
We report on first experimental signatures for chaos-assisted tunneling in a
two-dimensional annular billiard. Measurements of microwave spectra from a
superconducting cavity with high frequency resolution are combined with
electromagnetic field distributions experimentally determined from a normal
conducting twin cavity with high spatial resolution to resolve eigenmodes with
properly identified quantum numbers. Distributions of so-called quasi-doublet
splittings serve as basic observables for the tunneling between whispering
gallery type modes localized to congruent, but distinct tori which are coupled
weakly to irregular eigenstates associated with the chaotic region in phase
space.Comment: 5 pages RevTex, 5 low-resolution figures (high-resolution figures:
http://linac.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de/heiko/chaospub.html, to be published
in Phys. Rev. Let
Estimation of sedimentary proxy records together with associated uncertainty
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Level statistics for nearly integrable systems
We assume that the level spectra of quantum systems in the initial phase of
transition from integrability to chaos are approximated by superpositions of
independent sequences. Each individual sequence is modeled by a random matrix
ensemble. We obtain analytical expressions for the level spacing distribution
and level number variance for such a system. These expressions are successfully
applied to the analysis of the resonance spectrum in a nearly integrable
microwave billiard.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Decay of Classical Chaotic Systems - the Case of the Bunimovich Stadium
The escape of an ensemble of particles from the Bunimovich stadium via a
small hole has been studied numerically. The decay probability starts out
exponentially but has an algebraic tail. The weight of the algebraic decay
tends to zero for vanishing hole size. This behaviour is explained by the slow
transport of the particles close to the marginally stable bouncing ball orbits.
It is contrasted with the decay function of the corresponding quantum system.Comment: 16 pages, RevTex, 3 figures are available upon request from
[email protected], to be published in Phys.Rev.
Past abrupt changes, tipping points and cascading impacts in the Earth system
The geological record shows that abrupt changes in the Earth system can occur on timescales short enough to challenge the capacity of human societies to adapt to environmental pressures. In many cases, abrupt changes arise from slow changes in one component of the Earth system that eventually pass a critical threshold, or tipping point, after which impacts cascade through coupled climateâecologicalâsocial systems. The chance of detecting abrupt changes and tipping points increases with the length of observations. The geological record provides the only long-term information we have on the conditions and processes that can drive physical, ecological and social systems into new states or organizational structures that may be irreversible within human time frames. Here, we use well-documented abrupt changes of the past 30âkyr to illustrate how their impacts cascade through the Earth system. We review useful indicators of upcoming abrupt changes, or early warning signals, and provide a perspective on the contributions of palaeoclimate science to the understanding of abrupt changes in the Earth system
The aromatic amino acid sensor GPR142 controls metabolism through balanced regulation of pancreatic and gut hormones
Can burglary prevention be low-carbon and effective? Investigating the environmental performance of burglary prevention measures
There has been limited study to date on the environmental impacts of crime prevention measures. We address this shortfall by estimating the carbon footprint associated with the most widely used burglary prevention measures: door locks, window locks, burglar alarms, lighting and CCTV cameras. We compare these footprints with a measure of their effectiveness, the security protection factor,
allowing us to identify those measures that are both low-carbon and effective in preventing burglary. Window locks are found to be the most effective and low-carbon
measure available individually. Combinations of window locks, door locks, external and indoor lightings are also shown to be effective and low-carbon. Burglar alarms and CCTV do not perform as strongly, with low security against burglary and higher carbon footprints. This information can be used to help inform more sustainable choices of burglary prevention within households as well as for crime prevention product design
Evaluating model outputs using integrated global speleothem records of climate change since the last glacial
Although quantitative isotope data from speleothems has been used to evaluate isotope-enabled model simulations, currently no consensus exists regarding the most appropriate methodology through which to achieve this. A number of modelling groups will be running isotope-enabled palaeoclimate simulations in the framework of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, so it is timely to evaluate different approaches to using the speleothem data for dataâmodel comparisons. Here, we illustrate this using 456 globally distributed speleothem δ18O records from an updated version of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and Analysis (SISAL) database and palaeoclimate simulations generated using the ECHAM5-wiso isotope-enabled atmospheric circulation model. We show that the SISAL records reproduce the first-order spatial patterns of isotopic variability in the modern day, strongly supporting the application of this dataset for evaluating model-derived isotope variability into the past. However, the discontinuous nature of many speleothem records complicates the process of procuring large numbers of records if dataâmodel comparisons are made using the traditional approach of comparing anomalies between a control period and a given palaeoclimate experiment. To circumvent this issue, we illustrate techniques through which the absolute isotope values during any time period could be used for model evaluation. Specifically, we show that speleothem isotope records allow an assessment of a model's ability to simulate spatial isotopic trends. Our analyses provide a protocol for using speleothem isotope data for model evaluation, including screening the observations to take into account the impact of speleothem mineralogy on δ18O values, the optimum period for the modern observational baseline and the selection of an appropriate time window for creating means of the isotope data for palaeo-time-slices
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