4,885 research outputs found
Computer simulation of the microstructure and rheology of semi-solid alloys under shear
The rheological behavior of metallic alloys containing both solid and liquid
phases is investigated in the low solid fraction range (<50%). This behavior
depends on both the solid fraction and the shear rate. The concept of Effective
Volume Fraction (EVF) is used to decorrelate the influence of these two
parameters. At high shear rate the slurry behaves like a suspension of hard
spheres, whereas at lower shear rate, particles tend to aggregate in clusters,
entrapping liquid and thus, increasing the EVF and the viscosity. A lattice
model is introduced to simulate the aggregation / break-up processes within a
slurry under shear. When the steady state is reached, the entrapped liquid
fraction is calculated, leading to a viscosity estimation. Simulation results
for the viscosity and 3D cluster structure are in good agreement with
experimental results.Comment: 30 pages, 17 figures, to be published in Acta Mate
Effects of atomic diffraction on the Collective Atomic Recoil Laser
We formulate a wave atom optics theory of the Collective Atomic Recoil Laser,
where the atomic center-of-mass motion is treated quantum mechanically. By
comparing the predictions of this theory with those of the ray atom optics
theory, which treats the center-of-mass motion classically, we show that for
the case of a far off-resonant pump laser the ray optics model fails to predict
the linear response of the CARL when the temperature is of the order of the
recoil temperature or less. This is due to the fact that in theis temperature
regime one can no longer ignore the effects of matter-wave diffraction on the
atomic center-of-mass motion.Comment: plain tex, 10 pages, 10 figure
Detection of a light echo from SN1998bu
About 500d after explosion the light curve of the Type Ia SN1998bu suddenly
flattened and at the same time the spectrum changed from the typical nebular
emission to a blue continuum with broad absorption and emission features
reminiscent of the SN spectrum at early phases. We show that in analogy to
SN1991Tbu (Schmidt et al. 1994), this can be explained by the emergence of a
light echo from a foreground dust cloud. Based on a simple model we argue that
the amount of dust required can consistently explain the extinction which has
been estimated by completely independent methods. Because of the similar echo
luminosity but much higher optical depth of the dust in SN1998bu compared with
SN1991T, we expect that the echo ring size of SN1998bu grows faster than in
SN1991T. HST observations have indeed confirmed this prediction.Comment: 5 pages (including 3 figures) - Accepted for pubblication in ApJ
Letter
Temporal and spatial change of exergy and ascendency in different benthic marine ecosystems
Holistic indicators such as exergy and ascendency have been widely employed to assess the health of ecosystems given by their structure, function and organization. In this study we calculate the exergy, specific exergy and ascendency for the microbenthic loop that represents a major sub-system within the marine food chain. The analysis of the microbenthic loop investigated in terms of organic matter, bacteria, microphytobenthos and meiofauna reflected changes occurring in the trophic state of benthic ecosystems and provided a tool for comparison between different environments. Temporal and spatial variability of the holistic indicators were evaluated using benthic measures collected at different times for different environments in the Mediterranean Sea. Exergy was strongly correlated with the organic contents of the sediments, and did not provide a useful description of the investigated system. In contrast, specific exergy resulted related to the microbenthic loop structure and complexity while Ascendency mostly reflected its activity and organization. Temporal analysis showed that in natural ecosystems specific exergy and ascendency showed convergence and follow similar seasonal trends. On the contrary in strongly eutrophicated systems an uncoupling between the two indicators occurred indicating a malfunctioning of the microbenthic loop that become strongly dissipative.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V2S-4CC7RP3-D/1/49cf1c6b40bddddc9a3bb98c5072e51
SAX J1808.4-3658, an accreting millisecond pulsar shining in gamma rays?
We report the detection of a possible gamma-ray counterpart of the accreting
millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658. The analysis of ~6 years of data from the
Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi-LAT)
within a region of 15deg radius around the position of the pulsar reveals a
point gamma-ray source detected at a significance of ~6 sigma (Test Statistic
TS = 32), with position compatible with that of SAX J1808.4-3658 within 95%
Confidence Level. The energy flux in the energy range between 0.6 GeV and 10
GeV amounts to (2.1 +- 0.5) x 10-12 erg cm-2 s-1 and the spectrum is
well-represented by a power-law function with photon index 2.1 +- 0.1. We
searched for significant variation of the flux at the spin frequency of the
pulsar and for orbital modulation, taking into account the trials due to the
uncertainties in the position, the orbital motion of the pulsar and the
intrinsic evolution of the pulsar spin. No significant deviation from a
constant flux at any time scale was found, preventing a firm identification via
time variability. Nonetheless, the association of the LAT source as the
gamma-ray counterpart of SAX J1808.4-3658 would match the emission expected
from the millisecond pulsar, if it switches on as a rotation-powered source
during X-ray quiescence.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRA
Detection of a Hard Tail in the X-ray Spectrum of the Z Source GX 349+2
We present the results of a BeppoSAX observation of the Z source GX 349+2
covering the energy range 0.1-200 keV. The presence of flares in the light
curve indicates that the source was in the flaring branch during the BeppoSAX
observation. We accumulated energy spectra separately for the non-flaring
intervals and the flares. In both cases the continuum is well described by a
soft blackbody ( keV) and a Comptonized spectrum
corresponding to an electron temperature of keV, optical depth
(for a spherical geometry), and seed photon temperature of keV. All temperatures tend to increase during the flares. In the
non-flaring emission a hard tail dominates the spectrum above 30 keV. This can
be fit by a power law with photon index , contributing of the
total source luminosity over the BeppoSAX energy range. A comparison with hard
tails detected in some soft states of black hole binaries suggests that a
similar mechanism could originate these components in black hole and neutron
star systems.Comment: 15 pages, including 8 figures, to appear in Ap
Resolving the Hard X-ray Emission of GX 5-1 with INTEGRAL
We present the study of one year of INTEGRAL data on the neutron star low
mass X-ray binary GX 5-1. Thanks to the excellent angular resolution and
sensitivity of INTEGRAL, we are able to obtain a high quality spectrum of GX
5-1 from ~5 keV to ~100 keV, for the first time without contamination from the
nearby black hole candidate GRS 1758-258 above 20 keV. During our observations,
GX 5-1 is mostly found in the horizontal and normal branch of its hardness
intensity diagram. A clear hard X-ray emission is observed above ~30 keV which
exceeds the exponential cut-off spectrum expected from lower energies. This
spectral flattening may have the same origin of the hard components observed in
other Z sources as it shares the property of being characteristic to the
horizontal branch. The hard excess is explained by introducing Compton
up-scattering of soft photons from the neutron star surface due to a thin hot
plasma expected in the boundary layer. The spectral changes of GX 5-1 downward
along the "Z" pattern in the hardness intensity diagram can be well described
in terms of monotonical decrease of the neutron star surface temperature. This
may be a consequence of the gradual expansion of the boundary layer as the mass
accretion rate increases.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The Impact of Depression on Patient Outcomes in Hip Arthroscopic Surgery.
Background: Mental health impairments have been shown to negatively affect preoperative self-reported function in patients with various musculoskeletal disorders, including those with femoroacetabular impingement.
Hypothesis: Those with symptoms of depression will have lower self-reported function, more pain, and less satisfaction on initial assessment and at 2-year follow-up than those without symptoms of depression.
Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.
Methods: Patients who were enrolled in a multicenter hip arthroscopic surgery registry and had 2-year outcome data available were included in the study. Patients completed the 12-item International Hip Outcome Tool (iHOT-12), visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, and 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) when consenting for surgery. At 2-year follow-up, patients were emailed the iHOT, the VAS, and a rating scale of surgical satisfaction. Initial SF-12 mental component summary (MCS) scores
Results: A total of 781 patients achieved the approximate 2-year milestone (mean follow-up, 735 ± 68 days), with 651 (83%) having 2-year outcome data available. There were 434 (67%) female and 217 (33%) male patients, with a mean age of 35.8 ± 13.0 years and a mean body mass index of 25.4 ± 8.8 kg/m
Conclusion: A large number of patients who underwent hip arthroscopic surgery presented with symptoms of depression, which negatively affected self-reported function, pain levels, and satisfaction on initial assessment and at 2-year follow-up. Surgeons who perform hip arthroscopic surgery may need to identify the symptoms of depression and be aware of the impact that depression can have on surgical outcomes
A Learner-Centered Diabetes Management Curriculum
OBJECTIVE Diabetes errors, particularly insulin administration errors, can lead to complications and death in the pediatric inpatient setting. Despite a lecture-format curriculum on diabetes management at our children’s hospital, resident diabetes-related errors persisted. We hypothesized that a multifaceted, learner-centered diabetes curriculum would help reduce pathway errors. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The 8-week curricular intervention consisted of 1) an online tutorial addressing residents’ baseline diabetes management knowledge, 2) an interactive diabetes pathway discussion, 3) a learner-initiated diabetes question and answer session, and 4) a case presentation featuring embedded pathway errors for residents to recognize, resolve, and prevent. Errors in the 9 months before the intervention, as identified through an incident reporting system, were compared with those in the 10 months afterward, with errors classified as relating to insulin, communication, intravenous fluids, nutrition, and discharge delay. RESULTS Before the curricular intervention, resident errors occurred in 28 patients (19.4% of 144 diabetes admissions) over 9 months. After the intervention, resident errors occurred in 11 patients (6.6% of 166 diabetes admissions) over 10 months, representing a statistically significant (P = 0.0007) decrease in patients with errors from before intervention to after intervention. Throughout the study, the errors were distributed into the categories as follows: insulin, 43.8%; communication, 39.6%; intravenous fluids, 14.6%; nutrition, 0%; and discharge delay, 2.1%. CONCLUSIONS An interactive learner-centered diabetes curriculum for pediatric residents can be effective in reducing inpatient diabetes errors in a tertiary children’s hospital. This educational model promoting proactive learning has implications for decreasing errors across other medical disciplines
On the nature of the first transient Z-source XTE J1701-462: its accretion disk structure, neutron star magnetic field strength, and hard tail
Using the data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer satellite, we investigate
the spectral evolution along a "Z" track and a "v" track on the
hardness-intensity diagrams of the first transient Z source XTE J1701-462. The
spectral analyses suggest that the inner disk radius depends on the mass
accretion rate, in agreement with the model prediction, R_in \propto
((dM/dt)_disk)^{2/7}, for a radiation pressure dominated accretion disk
interacting with the magnetosphere of a neutron star (NS). The changes in the
disk mass accretion rate (dM/dt)_disk are responsible for the evolution of the
"Z" or "v" track. The radiation pressure thickens the disk considerably, and
also produces significant outflows. The NS surface magnetic field strength,
derived from the interaction between the magnetosphere and the radiation
pressure dominated accretion disk, is ~(1--3)X10^9 G, which is possibly between
normal atoll and Z sources. A significant hard tail is detected in the
horizontal branches and we discuss several possible origins of the hard tail
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