12,360 research outputs found
Support for graphicacy: a review of textbooks available to accounting students
This Teaching Note reports on the support available in textbooks for graphicacy that will help students understand the complexities of graphical displays. Graphical displays play a significant role in financial reporting, and studies have found evidence of measurement distortion and selection bias. To understand the complexities of graphical displays, students need a sound understanding of graphicacy and support from the textbooks available to them to develop that understanding. The Teaching Note reports on a survey that examined the textbooks available to students attending two Scottish universities. The support of critical graphicacy skills was examined in conjunction with textbook characteristics. The survey, which was not restricted to textbooks designated as required reading, examined the textbooks for content on data measurement and graphical displays. The findings highlight a lack of support for graphicacy in the textbooks selected. The study concludes that accounting educators need to scrutinize more closely the selection of textbooks and calls for more extensive research into textbooks as a pedagogic tool
Primordial Black Hole Formation during First-Order Phase Transitions
Primordial black holes (PBHs) may form in the early universe when
pre-existing adiabatic density fluctuations enter into the cosmological horizon
and recollapse. It has been suggested that PBH formation may be facilitated
when fluctuations enter into the horizon during a strongly first-order phase
transition which proceeds in approximate equilibrium. We employ
general-relativistic hydrodynamics numerical simulations in order to follow the
collapse of density fluctuations during first-order phase transitions. We find
that during late stages of the collapse fluctuations separate into two regimes,
an inner part existing exclusively in the high-energy density phase with energy
density , surrounded by an outer part which exists
exclusively in the low-energy density phase with energy density , where is the latent heat of the transition. We confirm that the
fluctuation density threshold required for the
formation of PBHs during first-order transitions decreases with increasing
and falls below that for PBH formation during ordinary radiation dominated
epochs. Our results imply that, in case PBHs form at all in the early universe,
their mass spectrum is likely dominated by the approximate horizon masses
during epochs when the universe undergoes phase transitions.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, revtex style, submitted to PR
Chemical ordering and composition fluctuations at the (001) surface of the Fe-Ni Invar alloy
We report on a study of (001) oriented fcc Fe-Ni alloy surfaces which
combines first-principles calculations and low-temperature STM experiments.
Density functional theory calculations show that Fe-Ni alloy surfaces are
buckled with the Fe atoms slightly shifted outwards and the Ni atoms inwards.
This is consistent with the observation that the atoms in the surface layer can
be chemically distinguished in the STM image: brighter spots (corrugation
maxima with increased apparent height) indicate iron atoms, darker ones nickel
atoms. This chemical contrast reveals a c2x2 chemical order (50% Fe) with
frequent Fe-rich defects on Invar alloy surface. The calculations also indicate
that subsurface composition fluctuations may additionally modulate the apparent
height of the surface atoms. The STM images show that this effect is pronounced
compared to the surfaces of other disordered alloys, which suggests that some
chemical order and corresponding concentration fluctuations exist also in the
subsurface layers of Invar alloy. In addition, detailed electronic structure
calculations allow us to identify the nature of a distinct peak below the Fermi
level observed in the tunneling spectra. This peak corresponds to a surface
resonance band which is particularly pronounced in iron-rich surface regions
and provides a second type of chemical contrast with less spatial resolution
but one that is essentially independent of the subsurface composition.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Growth mechanisms of perturbations in boundary layers over a compliant wall
The temporal modal and nonmodal growth of three-dimensional perturbations in
the boundary-layer flow over an infinite compliant flat wall is considered.
Using a wall-normal velocity/wall-normal vorticity formalism, the dynamic
boundary condition at the compliant wall admits a linear dependence on the
eigenvalue parameter, as compared to a quadratic one in the canonical
formulation of the problem. This greatly simplifies the accurate calculation of
the continuous spectrum by means of a spectral method, thereby yielding a very
effective filtering of the pseudospectra as well as a clear identification of
instability regions. The regime of global instability is found to be matching
the regime of the favorable phase of the forcing by the flow on the compliant
wall so as to enhance the amplitude of the wall. An energy-budget analysis for
the least-decaying hydroelastic (static-divergence, traveling-wave-flutter and
near-stationary transitional) and Tollmien--Schlichting modes in the parameter
space reveals the primary routes of energy flow. Moreover, the flow exhibits a
slower transient growth for the maximum growth rate of a superposition of
streamwise-independent modes due to a complex dependence of the wall-boundary
condition with the Reynolds number. The initial and optimal perturbations are
compared with the boundary-layer flow over a solid wall; differences and
similarities are discussed. Unlike the solid-wall case, viscosity plays a
pivotal role in the transient growth. A slowdown of the maximum growth rate
with the Reynolds number is uncovered and found to originate in the transition
of the fluid-solid interaction from a two-way to a one-way coupling. Finally, a
term-by-term energy budget analysis is performed to identify the key
contributors to the transient growth mechanism
Striped Magnetic Ground State of the Kagome Lattice in Fe4Si2Sn7O16
We have experimentally identified a new magnetic ground state for the kagome
lattice, in the perfectly hexagonal Fe2+ (3d6, S = 2) compound Fe4Si2Sn7O16.
Representational symmetry analysis of neutron diffraction data shows that below
T_N = 3.5 K, the spins on 2/3 of the magnetic ions order into canted
antiferromagnetic chains, separated by the remaining 1/3 which are
geometrically frustrated and show no long-range order down to at least T = 0.1
K. Moessbauer spectroscopy confirms that there is no static order on the latter
1/3 of the magnetic ions - i.e., they are in a liquid-like rather than a frozen
state - down to at least 1.65 K. A heavily Mn-doped sample
Fe1.45Mn2.55Si2Sn7O16 has the same magnetic structure. Although the propagation
vector q = (0, 1/2 , 1/2 ) breaks hexagonal symmetry, we see no evidence for
magnetostriction in the form of a lattice distortion within the resolution of
our data. We discuss the relationship to partially frustrated magnetic order on
the pyrochlore lattice of Gd2Ti2O7, and to theoretical models that predict
symmetry breaking ground states for perfect kagome lattices.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Proton-neutron pairing in the deformed BCS approach
We examine isovector and isoscalar proton-neutron pairing correlations for
the ground state of even-even Ge isotopes with mass number A=64-76 within the
deformed BCS approach. For N=Z 64Ge the BCS solution with only T=0
proton-neutron pairs is found. For other nuclear systems (N>Z) a coexistence of
a T=0 and T=1 pairs in the BCS wave function is observed. A problem of fixing
of strengths of isoscalar and isovector pairing interactions is addressed. A
dependence of number of like and unlike pairs in the BCS ground state on the
difference between number of neutrons and protons is discussed. We found that
for nuclei with N much bigger than Z the effect of proton-neutron pairing is
small but not negligible.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figure
A construction of Frobenius manifolds with logarithmic poles and applications
A construction theorem for Frobenius manifolds with logarithmic poles is
established. This is a generalization of a theorem of Hertling and Manin. As an
application we prove a generalization of the reconstruction theorem of
Kontsevich and Manin for projective smooth varieties with convergent
Gromov-Witten potential. A second application is a construction of Frobenius
manifolds out of a variation of polarized Hodge structures which degenerates
along a normal crossing divisor when certain generation conditions are
fulfilled.Comment: 46 page
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