1,705 research outputs found
Can Young Drivers Learn to Anticipate Hidden Hazards: A Driving Simulator Study
Modern technology makes possible improvements in training programs designed to develop young drivers’ abilities to anticipate hazardous situations. These improvements which come from increases in the range of scenarios to which young drivers are exposed and the number of times young drivers can practice the skills they are learning. In this study, a new Flash-based, PC training program that runs on the web, Road Aware® (RA), is evaluated using a driving simulator. The program was developed by State Farm. Twenty-four young trained drivers and twenty four young untrained drivers were asked to drive various simulated hazardous scenarios while their gaze was monitored by an eye tracking system. The results show that trained drivers were more likely to anticipate hazards than their untrained peers, a difference which was present for both near transfer (scenarios that appeared in training) and far transfer scenarios. The effectiveness of RA is compared with other hazard anticipation training programs that were evaluated on a driving simulator and in the field. It appears every bit as effective in general and more effective for some scenarios. Additionally, there is evidence suggesting that, for the first time, young drivers can be trained to anticipate hazards as well as drivers who are older and more experienced
Classical dimers on the triangular lattice
We study the classical hard-core dimer model on the triangular lattice.
Following Kasteleyn's fundamental theorem on planar graphs, this problem is
soluble by Pfaffians. This model is particularly interesting for, unlike the
dimer problems on the bipartite square and hexagonal lattices, its correlations
are short ranged with a correlation length of less than one lattice constant.
We compute the dimer-dimer and monomer-monomer correlators, and find that the
model is deconfining: the monomer-monomer correlator falls off exponentially to
a constant value sin(pi/12)/sqrt(3) = .1494..., only slightly below the
nearest-neighbor value of 1/6. We also consider the anisotropic triangular
lattice model in which the square lattice is perturbed by diagonal bonds of one
orientation and small fugacity. We show that the model becomes non-critical
immediately and that this perturbation is equivalent to adding a mass term to
each of two Majorana fermions that are present in the long wavelength limit of
the square-lattice problem.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. v2: includes analytic value of monomer-monomer
correlator, changes titl
Associations of Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Oxidation with Body Fat in Premenopausal Women
Higher in vivo fatty acid (FA) oxidation rates have been reported in obese individuals compared to lean counterparts; however whether this reflects a shift in substrate-specific oxidative capacity at the level of the skeletal muscle mitochondria has not been examined. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that in situ measures of skeletal muscle mitochondria FA oxidation would be positively associated with total body fat. Participants were 38 premenopausal women (BMI=26.5±4.3 kg/m2). Total and regional fat were assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Mitochondrial FA oxidation was assessed in permeabilized myofibers using high-resolution respirometry and a palmitoyl carnitine substrate. We found positive associations of total fat mass with State 3 (ADP-stimulated respiration) (r=0.379, p<0.05) and the respiratory control ratio (RCR, measure of mitochondrial coupling) (r=0.348, p<0.05). When participants were dichotomized by high or low body fat percent, participants with high total body fat displayed a higher RCR compared to those with low body fat (p<0.05). There were no associations between any measure of regional fat and mitochondrial FA oxidation independent of total fat mass. In conclusion, greater FA oxidation in obesity may reflect molecular processes that enhance FA oxidation capacity at the mitochondrial level
The effects of age on associations between markers of HIV progression and markers of metabolic function including albumin, haemoglobin and lipid concentrations.
OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether age modified associations between markers of HIV progression, CD4 T lymphocyte count and HIV RNA viral load (VL), and the following markers of metabolic function: albumin, haemoglobin, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and total cholesterol (TC).
METHODS: A retrospective analysis of data from the United Kingdom Collaborative HIV Cohort was carried out. Analyses were limited to antiretroviral-naïve subjects to focus on the impact of HIV disease itself. A total of 16670 subjects were included in the analysis. Multilevel linear regression models assessed associations between CD4 count/VL and each of the outcomes. Statistical tests for interactions assessed whether associations differed among age groups.
RESULTS: After adjustment for gender and ethnicity, there was evidence that lower CD4 count and higher VL were associated with lower TC, LDL-C, haemoglobin and albumin concentrations but higher triglyceride concentrations. Age modified associations between CD4 count and albumin (P 50 years, a 50 cells/μL lower CD4 count correlated with a 2.4 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7-3.0], 3.6 (95% CI 3.2-4.0) and 5.1 (95% CI 4.0-6.1) g/L lower haemoglobin concentration and a 0.09 (95% CI 0.07-0.11), 0.12 (95% CI 0.11-0.13) and 0.16 (95% CI 0.13-0.19) g/L lower albumin concentration, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: We present evidence that age modifies associations between CD4 count and plasma albumin and haemoglobin levels. A given reduction in CD4 count was associated with a greater reduction in haemoglobin and albumin concentrations among older people living with HIV. These findings increase our understanding of how the metabolic impact of HIV is influenced by age
Ground-state properties of the Rokhsar-Kivelson dimer model on the triangular lattice
We explicitly show that the Rokhsar-Kivelson dimer model on the triangular
lattice is a liquid with topological order. Using the Pfaffian technique, we
prove that the difference in local properties between the two topologically
degenerate ground states on the cylinders and on the tori decreases
exponentially with the system size. We compute the relevant correlation length
and show that it equals the correlation length of the vison operator.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure
Why do models overestimate surface ozone in the Southeast United States
Ozone pollution in the Southeast US involves complex chemistry driven by emissions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide radicals (NOx  ≡  NO + NO2) and biogenic isoprene. Model estimates of surface ozone concentrations tend to be biased high in the region and this is of concern for designing effective emission control strategies to meet air quality standards. We use detailed chemical observations from the SEAC4RS aircraft campaign in August and September 2013, interpreted with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model at 0.25°  ×  0.3125° horizontal resolution, to better understand the factors controlling surface ozone in the Southeast US. We find that the National Emission Inventory (NEI) for NOx from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is too high. This finding is based on SEAC4RS observations of NOx and its oxidation products, surface network observations of nitrate wet deposition fluxes, and OMI satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns. Our results indicate that NEI NOx emissions from mobile and industrial sources must be reduced by 30–60 %, dependent on the assumption of the contribution by soil NOx emissions. Upper-tropospheric NO2 from lightning makes a large contribution to satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 that must be accounted for when using these data to estimate surface NOx emissions. We find that only half of isoprene oxidation proceeds by the high-NOx pathway to produce ozone; this fraction is only moderately sensitive to changes in NOx emissions because isoprene and NOx emissions are spatially segregated. GEOS-Chem with reduced NOx emissions provides an unbiased simulation of ozone observations from the aircraft and reproduces the observed ozone production efficiency in the boundary layer as derived from a regression of ozone and NOx oxidation products. However, the model is still biased high by 6 ± 14 ppb relative to observed surface ozone in the Southeast US. Ozonesondes launched during midday hours show a 7 ppb ozone decrease from 1.5 km to the surface that GEOS-Chem does not capture. This bias may reflect a combination of excessive vertical mixing and net ozone production in the model boundary layer
An RVB phase in the triangular lattice quantum dimer model
We study the quantum dimer model on the triangular lattice, which is expected
to describe the singlet dynamics of frustrated Heisenberg models in phases
where valence bond configurations dominate their physics. We find, in contrast
to the square lattice, that there is a truly short ranged resonating valence
bond (RVB) phase with no gapless collective excitations and with deconfined,
gapped, spinons for a {\it finite} range of parameters. We also establish the
presence of three crystalline phases in this system.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Revtex 3.
Charge Fluctuations and Counterion Condensation
We predict a condensation phenomenon in an overall neutral system, consisting
of a single charged plate and its oppositely charged counterions. Based on the
``two-fluid'' model, in which the counterions are divided into a ``free'' and a
``condensed'' fraction, we argue that for high surface charge, fluctuations can
lead to a phase transition in which a large fraction of counterions is
condensed. Furthermore, we show that depending on the valence, the condensation
is either a first-order or a smooth transition.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, accepted to be published in PR
Low-energy sector of the S=1/2 Kagome antiferromagnet
Starting from a modified version of the the S=1/2 Kagome antiferromagnet to
emphasize the role of elementary triangles, an effective Hamiltonian involving
spin and chirality variables is derived. A mean-field decoupling that retains
the quantum nature of these variables is shown to yield a Hamiltonian that can
be solved exactly, leading to the following predictions: i) The number of low
lying singlet states increase with the number of sites N like 1.15 to the power
N; ii) A singlet-triplet gap remains in the thermodynamic limit; iii) Spinons
form boundstates with a small binding energy. By comparing these properties
with those of the regular Kagome lattice as revealed by numerical experiments,
we argue that this description captures the essential low energy physics of
that model.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figure
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