18,626 research outputs found
Isoscaling and the high Temperature limit
This study shows that isoscaling, usually studied in nuclear reactions, is a
phenomenon common to all cases of fair sampling. Exact expressions for the
yield ratio and approximate expressions for the isoscaling parameters
and are obtained and compared to experimental results. It is
concluded that nuclear isoscaling is bound to contain a component due to
sampling and, thus, a words of caution is issued to those interested in
extracting information about the nuclear equation of state from isoscaling.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur
Getting to know you: Accuracy and error in judgments of character
Character judgments play an important role in our everyday lives. However, decades of empirical research on trait attribution suggest that the cognitive processes that generate these judgments are prone to a number of biases and cognitive distortions. This gives rise to a skeptical worry about the epistemic foundations of everyday characterological beliefs that has deeply disturbing and alienating consequences. In this paper, I argue that this skeptical worry is misplaced: under the appropriate informational conditions, our everyday character-trait judgments are in fact quite trustworthy. I then propose a mindreading-based model of the socio-cognitive processes underlying trait attribution that explains both why these judgments are initially unreliable, and how they eventually become more accurate
Promoting Reflection During Practice Teaching in an Australian University : Clarifying the Rhetoric and the Reality
This paper focuses on the promotion of reflectivity during practice teaching amongst student teachers at a university in Australia. By way of background, current criticisms of what is termed the technocratic approach to teacher education are outlined and the emphasis which is placed on the development of the reflective teacher as a counterforce to this approach is considered. It is then argued that the technocratic position and the reflective teacher position need not necessarily be viewed as being in conflict. Rather, the contention is that they are both satisfactorily accommodated within Van Manen\u27s (1977) theory of reflectivity . For the study reported in the remainder of the paper, Van Manen\u27s levels of reflectivity provided a helpful framework for the concepts, language and practices of reflection. The study details an investigation of the reality and rhetoric of promoting reflectivity amongst student teachers engaged in one practice teaching period of their Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) pre-service programme at an Australian university. Firstly, the paper reports on the extent to which the process of reflection was mentioned and clarified in the university\u27s official practice teaching literature, and on the stated priority for its development as a practicum aim. The paper then goes on to outline the findings of the second phase of the research which explored the extent to which reflectivity was promoted in the practice of university lecturers supervising students on practice teaching
Large scale distribution of total mass versus luminous matter from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations: First search in the SDSS-III BOSS Data Release 10
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) in the early Universe are predicted to
leave an as yet undetected signature on the relative clustering of total mass
versus luminous matter. A detection of this effect would provide an important
confirmation of the standard cosmological paradigm and constrain alternatives
to dark matter as well as non-standard fluctuations such as Compensated
Isocurvature Perturbations (CIPs). We conduct the first observational search
for this effect, by comparing the number-weighted and luminosity-weighted
correlation functions, using the SDSS-III BOSS Data Release 10 CMASS sample.
When including CIPs in our model, we formally obtain evidence at of
the relative clustering signature and a limit that matches the existing upper
limits on the amplitude of CIPs. However, various tests suggest that these
results are not yet robust, perhaps due to systematic biases in the data. The
method developed in this Letter, used with more accurate future data such as
that from DESI, is likely to confirm or disprove our preliminary evidence.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PR
Magnetization pinning in conducting films demonstrated using broadband ferromagnetic resonance
The broadband microstrip ferromagnetic resonance technique has been applied
for detection and characterization of a magnetic inhomogeneity in a film
sample. In the case of a 100nm thick Permalloy film an additional magnetically
depleted top sub-layer, practically unidentifiable by the conventional
ferromagnetic resonance setup, has been detected and characterized. These
results have been confirmed by Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy
revealing the fact that the optical properties of the additional sub-layer do
not differ much from those of the bulk of the film. Subsequent characterization
of a large number of other presumably single-layer films with thicknesses in
the range 30-100nm using the same ferromagnetic resonance technique also
revealed the same effect
Global turbulence simulations of the tokamak edge region with GRILLIX
Turbulent dynamics in the scrape-off layer (SOL) of magnetic fusion devices
is intermittent with large fluctuations in density and pressure. Therefore, a
model is required that allows perturbations of similar or even larger magnitude
to the time-averaged background value. The fluid-turbulence code GRILLIX is
extended to such a global model, which consistently accounts for large
variation in plasma parameters. Derived from the drift reduced Braginskii
equations, the new GRILLIX model includes electromagnetic and electron-thermal
dynamics, retains global parametric dependencies and the Boussinesq
approximation is not applied. The penalisation technique is combined with the
flux-coordinate independent (FCI) approach [F. Hariri and M. Ottaviani,
Comput.Phys.Commun. 184:2419, (2013); A. Stegmeir et al., Comput.Phys.Commun.
198:139, (2016)], which allows to study realistic diverted geometries with
X-point(s) and general boundary contours. We characterise results from
turbulence simulations and investigate the effect of geometry by comparing
simulations in circular geometry with toroidal limiter against realistic
diverted geometry at otherwise comparable parameters. Turbulence is found to be
intermittent with relative fluctuation levels of up to 40% showing that a
global description is indeed important. At the same time via direct comparison,
we find that the Boussinesq approximation has only a small quantitative impact
in a turbulent environment. In comparison to circular geometry the fluctuations
are reduced in diverted geometry, which is related to a different zonal flow
structure. Moreover, the fluctuation level has a more complex spatial
distribution in diverted geometry. Due to local magnetic shear, which differs
fundamentally in circular and diverted geometry, turbulent structures become
strongly distorted in the perpendicular direction and are eventually damped
away towards the X-point
Transform of Riccati equation of constant coefficients through fractional procedure
We use a particular fractional generalization of the ordinary differential
equations that we apply to the Riccati equation of constant coefficients. By
this means the latter is transformed into a modified Riccati equation with the
free term expressed as a power of the independent variable which is of the same
order as the order of the applied fractional derivative. We provide the
solutions of the modified equation and employ the results for the case of the
cosmological Riccati equation of FRW barotropic cosmologies that has been
recently introduced by FaraoniComment: 7 pages, 2 figure
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