Magnetogravitational instability of anisotropic plasma with Hall effect

Magnetogravitational instability of anisotropic plasma with Hall effec

‘So people know I'm a Sikh’: Narratives of Sikh masculinities in contemporary Britain

This article examines British-born Sikh men's identification to Sikhism. In particular, it focuses on the appropriation and use of Sikh symbols amongst men who define themselves as Sikh. This article suggests that whilst there are multiple ways of ‘being’ a Sikh man in contemporary post-colonial Britain, and marking belonging to the Sikh faith, there is also a collectively understood idea of what an ‘ideal’ Sikh man should be. Drawing upon Connell and Messerschmidt's discussion of locally specific hegemonic masculinities (2005. “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept.” Gender and Society 19 (6): 829–859), it is suggested that an ideal Sikh masculine identity is partly informed by a Khalsa discourse, which informs a particular performance of Sikh male identity, whilst also encouraging the surveillance of young men's activities both by themselves and by others. These Sikh masculinities are complex and multiple, rotating to reaffirm, challenge and redefine contextualised notions of hegemonic masculinity within the Sikh diaspora in post-colonial Britain. Such localised Sikh masculinities may both assert male privilege and reap patriarchal dividends (Connell, W. 1995. Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press), resulting in particular British Sikh hegemonic masculinities which seek to shape the performance of masculinity, yet in another context these very same performances of masculinity may also signify a more marginalised masculinity vis-à-vis other dominant hegemonic forms

Skin Lesion Segmentation: U-Nets versus Clustering

Many automatic skin lesion diagnosis systems use segmentation as a preprocessing step to diagnose skin conditions because skin lesion shape, border irregularity, and size can influence the likelihood of malignancy. This paper presents, examines and compares two different approaches to skin lesion segmentation. The first approach uses U-Nets and introduces a histogram equalization based preprocessing step. The second approach is a C-Means clustering based approach that is much simpler to implement and faster to execute. The Jaccard Index between the algorithm output and hand segmented images by dermatologists is used to evaluate the proposed algorithms. While many recently proposed deep neural networks to segment skin lesions require a significant amount of computational power for training (i.e., computer with GPUs), the main objective of this paper is to present methods that can be used with only a CPU. This severely limits, for example, the number of training instances that can be presented to the U-Net. Comparing the two proposed algorithms, U-Nets achieved a significantly higher Jaccard Index compared to the clustering approach. Moreover, using the histogram equalization for preprocessing step significantly improved the U-Net segmentation results.Comment: To appear in proceedings of The IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence (IEEE SSCI 2017), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, Nov. 27 -- Dec 1, 201

Effects of a Conducting Sphere Moving Through a Gradient Magnetic Field

We examine several conducting spheres moving through a magnetic field gradient. An analytical approximation is derived and an experiment is conducted to verify the analytical solution. The experiment is simulated as well to produce a numerical result. Both the low and high magnetic Reynolds number regimes are studied. Deformation of the sphere is noted in the high Reynolds number case. It is suggested that this deformation effect could be useful for designing or enhancing present protection systems against space debris.Comment: Presented at the AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Orlando, Florida, Jan 4-7, 201

Bell's inequality violation with spins in silicon

Bell's theorem sets a boundary between the classical and quantum realms, by providing a strict proof of the existence of entangled quantum states with no classical counterpart. An experimental violation of Bell's inequality demands simultaneously high fidelities in the preparation, manipulation and measurement of multipartite quantum entangled states. For this reason the Bell signal has been tagged as a single-number benchmark for the performance of quantum computing devices. Here we demonstrate deterministic, on-demand generation of two-qubit entangled states of the electron and the nuclear spin of a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon nanoelectronic device. By sequentially reading the electron and the nucleus, we show that these entangled states violate the Bell/CHSH inequality with a Bell signal of 2.50(10). An even higher value of 2.70(9) is obtained by mapping the parity of the two-qubit state onto the nuclear spin, which allows for high-fidelity quantum non-demolition measurement (QND) of the parity. Furthermore, we complement the Bell inequality entanglement witness with full two-qubit state tomography exploiting QND measurement, which reveals that our prepared states match the target maximally entangled Bell states with $>$96\% fidelity. These experiments demonstrate complete control of the two-qubit Hilbert space of a phosphorus atom, and show that this system is able to maintain its simultaneously high initialization, manipulation and measurement fidelities past the single-qubit regime.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, 4 extended data figure

A Dressed Spin Qubit in Silicon

Coherent dressing of a quantum two-level system provides access to a new quantum system with improved properties - a different and easily tuneable level splitting, faster control, and longer coherence times. In our work we investigate the properties of the dressed, donor-bound electron spin in silicon, and probe its potential for the use as quantum bit in scalable architectures. The two dressed spin-polariton levels constitute a quantum bit that can be coherently driven with an oscillating magnetic field, an oscillating electric field, by frequency modulating the driving field, or by a simple detuning pulse. We measure coherence times of $T_{2\rho}^*=2.4$ ms and $T_{2\rho}^{\rm Hahn}=9$ ms, one order of magnitude longer than those of the undressed qubit. Furthermore, the use of the dressed states enables coherent coupling of the solid-state spins to electric fields and mechanical oscillations

One-Particle Measurement of the Antiproton Magnetic Moment

\DeclareRobustCommand{\pbar}{\HepAntiParticle{p}{}{}\xspace} \DeclareRobustCommand{\p}{\HepParticle{p}{}{}\xspace} \DeclareRobustCommand{\mup}{$\mu_{p}${}{}\xspace} \DeclareRobustCommand{\mupbar}{\mu_{\pbar}{}{}\xspace} \DeclareRobustCommand{\muN}{$\mu_N${}{}\xspace For the first time a single trapped \pbar is used to measure the \pbar magnetic moment {\bm\mu}_{\pbar}. The moment {\bm\mu}_{\pbar} = \mu_{\pbar} {\bm S}/(\hbar/2) is given in terms of its spin ${\bm S}$ and the nuclear magneton (\muN) by \mu_{\pbar}/\mu_N = -2.792\,845 \pm 0.000\,012. The 4.4 parts per million (ppm) uncertainty is 680 times smaller than previously realized. Comparing to the proton moment measured using the same method and trap electrodes gives \mu_{\pbar}/\mu_p = -1.000\,000 \pm 0.000\,005 to 5 ppm, for a proton moment ${\bm{\mu}}_{p} = \mu_{p} {\bm S}/(\hbar/2)$, consistent with the prediction of the CPT theorem.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1201.303

Development of a coupled wave-flow-vegetation interaction model

© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Computers & Geosciences 100 (2017): 76–86, doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2016.12.010.Emergent and submerged vegetation can significantly affect coastal hydrodynamics. However, most deterministic numerical models do not take into account their influence on currents, waves, and turbulence. In this paper, we describe the implementation of a wave-flow-vegetation module into a Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling system that includes a flow model (ROMS) and a wave model (SWAN), and illustrate various interacting processes using an idealized shallow basin application. The flow model has been modified to include plant posture-dependent three-dimensional drag, in-canopy wave-induced streaming, and production of turbulent kinetic energy and enstrophy to parameterize vertical mixing. The coupling framework has been updated to exchange vegetation-related variables between the flow model and the wave model to account for wave energy dissipation due to vegetation. This study i) demonstrates the validity of the plant posture-dependent drag parameterization against field measurements, ii) shows that the model is capable of reproducing the mean and turbulent flow field in the presence of vegetation as compared to various laboratory experiments, iii) provides insight into the flow-vegetation interaction through an analysis of the terms in the momentum balance, iv) describes the influence of a submerged vegetation patch on tidal currents and waves separately and combined, and v) proposes future directions for research and development.This study was part of the Estuarine Physical Response to Storms project (GS2-2D), supported by the Department of Interior Hurricane Sandy Recovery program

A pilot study of respiratory muscle training to improve cough effectiveness and reduce the incidence of pneumonia in acute stroke: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: After stroke, pneumonia is a relevant medical complication that can be precipitated by aspiration of saliva, liquids, or solid food. Swallowing difficulty and aspiration occur in a significant proportion of stroke survivors. Cough, an important mechanism protecting the lungs from inhaled materials, can be impaired in stroke survivors, and the likely cause for this impairment is central weakness of the respiratory musculature. Thus, respiratory muscle training in acute stroke may be useful in the recovery of respiratory muscle and cough function, and may thereby reduce the risk of pneumonia. The present study is a pilot study, aimed at investigating the validity and feasibility of this approach by exploring effect size, safety, and patient acceptability of the intervention. METHODS/DESIGN: Adults with moderate to severe stroke impairment (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score 5 to 25 at the time of admission) are recruited within 2 weeks of stroke onset. Participants must be able to perform voluntary respiratory maneuvers. Excluded are patients with increased intracranial pressure, uncontrolled hypertension, neuromuscular conditions other than stroke, medical history of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and recent cardiac events. Participants are randomized to receive inspiratory, expiratory, or sham respiratory training over a 4-week period, by using commercially available threshold resistance devices. Participants and caregivers, but not study investigators, are blind to treatment allocation. All participants receive medical care and stroke rehabilitation according to the usual standard of care. The following assessments are conducted at baseline, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks: Voluntary and reflex cough flow measurements, forced spirometry, respiratory muscle strength tests, incidence of pneumonia, assessments of safety parameters, and self-reported activity of daily living. The primary outcome is peak expiratory cough flow of voluntary cough, a parameter indicating the effectiveness of cough. Secondary outcomes are incidence of pneumonia, peak expiratory cough flow of reflex cough, and maximum inspiratory and expiratory mouth pressures. DISCUSSION: Various novel pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic approaches for preventing stroke-associated pneumonia are currently being researched. This study investigates a novel strategy based on an exercise intervention for cough rehabilitation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN40298220