1,081 research outputs found
The role of L1 use for L1 attrition
While the factor âlanguage contactâ is often named among the most important for the development of individual language attrition, empirical validations of this claim are few and far between. This contribution argues that a bilingualâs use of the first language comprises very diverse situations which cannot be subsumed under one predictor variable. Grosjeanâs (2001) framework of language modes is invoked as a useful way of structuring the use of the L1 by immigrants. A statistical investigation of these different types of L1 use on the one hand and language proficiency data on the other demonstrates that the impact of both active and passive exposure to the first language on attrition is anything but straightforward
Assessing nursing staff's competences in mobility support in nursing-home care: development and psychometric testing of the Kinaesthetics Competence (KC) observation instrument
Background: Between 75 and 89% of residents living in long-term care facilities have limited mobility. Nurses as well as other licensed and unlicensed personnel directly involved in resident care are in a key position to promote and maintain the mobility of care-dependent persons. This requires a certain level of competence. Kinaesthetics is a training concept used to increase nursing staff's interaction and movement support skills for assisting care-dependent persons in their daily activities. This study aims to develop and test an observation instrument for assessing nursing staff's competences in kinaesthetics. Methods: The Kinaesthetics Competence (KC) observation instrument was developed between January and June 2015 based on a literature review, a concept analysis and expert meetings (18). The pilot instrument was evaluated with two expert panels (n = 5, n = 4) regarding content validity, usability and inter-rater agreement. Content validity was assessed by determining the content validity index (CVI). The final instrument was tested in a cross-sectional study in three nursing homes in the German-speaking part of Switzerland between July 2015 and February 2016. In this study nursing staff (n = 48) was filmed during mobilization situations. Based on this video data two observers independently assessed nursing staff's competences in kinaesthetics with the KC observation instrument. Inter-rater reliability and inter-rater agreement was evaluated using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) and percentage of agreement. Construct validity was assessed by a discriminating power analysis. Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item analysis. Results: The final version of the KC observation instrument comprised of four domains (interaction, movement support of the person, nurses' movement, environment) and 12 items. The final instrument showed an excellent content validity index of 1.0. Video sequences from 40 persons were analysed. Inter-rater reliability for the whole scale was good (ICC 0.73) and the percentage of inter-rater agreement was 53.6% on average. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole instrument was 0.97 and item-total correlations ranged from 0.76 to 0.90. The construct validity of the instrument was supported by a significant discrimination of the instrument between nursing staff with no or basic and with advanced kinaesthetics training for the total score and 3 of 4 subscales. Conclusions: The KC observation instrument showed good preliminary psychometric properties and can be used to assess nursing staff's competences in mobility care based on the principles of kinaesthetics.</p
Study of the , , and in the radiative decays
In this paper we present an approach to study the radiative decay modes of
the into a photon and one of the tensor mesons ,
, as well as the scalar ones and .
Especially we compare predictions that emerge from a scheme where the states
appear dynamically in the solution of vector meson--vector meson scattering
amplitudes to those from a (admittedly naive) quark model. We provide evidence
that it might be possible to distinguish amongst the two scenarios, once
improved data are available.Comment: The large Nc argument improved; version published in EPJA
Study of the reaction pbar p -> phi phi from 1.1 to 2.0 GeV/c
A study has been performed of the reaction pbar p -> 4K using in-flight
antiprotons from 1.1 to 2.0 GeV/c incident momentum interacting with a hydrogen
jet target. The reaction is dominated by the production of a pair of phi
mesons. The pbar p -> phi phi cross section rises sharply above threshold and
then falls continuously as a function of increasing antiproton momentum. The
overall magnitude of the cross section exceeds expectations from a simple
application of the OZI rule by two orders of magnitude. In a fine scan around
the xi/f_J(2230) resonance, no structure is observed. A limit is set for the
double branching ratio B(xi -> pbar p) * B(xi -> phi phi) < 6e-5 for a spin 2
resonance of M = 2.235 GeV and Width = 15 MeV.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables, Latex. To be published in Phys. Rev.
Search for Point Sources of High Energy Neutrinos with AMANDA
This paper describes the search for astronomical sources of high-energy
neutrinos using the AMANDA-B10 detector, an array of 302 photomultiplier tubes,
used for the detection of Cherenkov light from upward traveling
neutrino-induced muons, buried deep in ice at the South Pole. The absolute
pointing accuracy and angular resolution were studied by using coincident
events between the AMANDA detector and two independent telescopes on the
surface, the GASP air Cherenkov telescope and the SPASE extensive air shower
array. Using data collected from April to October of 1997 (130.1 days of
livetime), a general survey of the northern hemisphere revealed no
statistically significant excess of events from any direction. The sensitivity
for a flux of muon neutrinos is based on the effective detection area for
through-going muons. Averaged over the Northern sky, the effective detection
area exceeds 10,000 m^2 for E_{mu} ~ 10 TeV. Neutrinos generated in the
atmosphere by cosmic ray interactions were used to verify the predicted
performance of the detector. For a source with a differential energy spectrum
proportional to E_{nu}^{-2} and declination larger than +40 degrees, we obtain
E^2(dN_{nu}/dE) <= 10^{-6}GeVcm^{-2}s^{-1} for an energy threshold of 10 GeV.Comment: 46 pages, 22 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Ap.
A partial wave analysis of the centrally produced K+K- and K0K0 systems in pp interactions at 450 GeV/c and new information on the spin of the fJ(1710)
A partial wave analysis of the centrally produced K+K- and K0K0 channels has
been performed in pp collisions using an incident beam momentum of 450 GeV/c.
An unambiguous physical solution has been found in each channel. The striking
feature is the observation of peaks in the S-wave corresponding to the f0(1500)
and fJ(1710) with J = 0. The D-wave shows evidence for the f2(1270)/a2(1320),
the f2(1525) and the f2(2150) but there is no evidence for a statistically
significant contribution in the D-wave in the 1.7 GeV mass region.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, 5 Figure
Limits on diffuse fluxes of high energy extraterrestrial neutrinos with the AMANDA-B10 detector
Data from the AMANDA-B10 detector taken during the austral winter of 1997
have been searched for a diffuse flux of high energy extraterrestrial
muon-neutrinos, as predicted from, e.g., the sum of all active galaxies in the
universe. This search yielded no excess events above those expected from the
background atmospheric neutrinos, leading to upper limits on the
extraterrestrial neutrino flux. For an assumed E^-2 spectrum, a 90% classical
confidence level upper limit has been placed at a level E^2 Phi(E) = 8.4 x
10^-7 GeV cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 (for a predominant neutrino energy range 6-1000 TeV)
which is the most restrictive bound placed by any neutrino detector. When
specific predicted spectral forms are considered, it is found that some are
excluded.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter
Limits on the high-energy gamma and neutrino fluxes from the SGR 1806-20 giant flare of December 27th, 2004 with the AMANDA-II detector
On December 27th 2004, a giant gamma flare from the Soft Gamma-ray Repeater
1806-20 saturated many satellite gamma-ray detectors. This event was by more
than two orders of magnitude the brightest cosmic transient ever observed. If
the gamma emission extends up to TeV energies with a hard power law energy
spectrum, photo-produced muons could be observed in surface and underground
arrays. Moreover, high-energy neutrinos could have been produced during the SGR
giant flare if there were substantial baryonic outflow from the magnetar. These
high-energy neutrinos would have also produced muons in an underground array.
AMANDA-II was used to search for downgoing muons indicative of high-energy
gammas and/or neutrinos. The data revealed no significant signal. The upper
limit on the gamma flux at 90% CL is dN/dE < 0.05 (0.5) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for
gamma=-1.47 (-2). Similarly, we set limits on the normalization constant of the
high-energy neutrino emission of 0.4 (6.1) TeV^-1 m^-2 s^-1 for gamma=-1.47
(-2).Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure
Standalone vertex ďŹnding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer
A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at âs = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011
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