223 research outputs found
Geophysical and Biological Reconnaissance of Rock Habitats in Western Camden Bay, Beaufort Sea, Alaska
This report presents the results of a 10-day geophysical and
biological survey in western Camden Bay, in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea.
The primary objective of this survey was to confirm the existence of
boulders and cobbles on the seafloor as reported by Barnes (1981, 1982).
The survey area extended from the eastern edge of the Canning River (mud
flat area) to Kangigivik Point and seaward to the 14m contour line
(Fig. 1). A solid boundary of pack ice prevented any survey work
seaward of the 14m contour. We had proposed to examine the seabed to
the 18m contour.This work was
supported by the Bureau of Land Management through an interagency
agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
under which a multiyear program responding to needs of petroleum
development of the Alaskan Continental Shelf is managed by the Outer
Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) office
Birefringence in nonlinear anisotropic dielectric media
Light propagation is investigated in the context of local anisotropic
nonlinear dielectric media at rest with the dielectric coefficients
and constant ,
in the limit of geometrical optics. Birefringence was examined and the general
conditions for its occurrence were presented. A toy model is exhibited, in
which uniaxial birefringent media with nonlinear dielectric properties could be
driven by external fields in such way that birefringence may be artificially
controlled. The effective geometry interpretation is also addressed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur
Magnetoelectric birefringence revisited
Electromagnetic wave propagation inside isotropic material media
characterized by dielectric coefficients and
is examined. The regime of the eikonal approximation is
considered. The Hadamard method of field disturbances is used and the
dispersion relations are obtained by solving the Fresnel equation. Some
applications of the formalism are presented. Particularly, birefringence
phenomena induced by applied external fields are derived and discussed. It is
shown that magnetoelectric birefringence effect can occur even without the
presence of Kerr and Cotton-Mouton effects, provided the physical system
satisfies certain conditions.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, LaTe
On Identifying the Appropriate Boundary Conditions'at a Moving Contact Line: An Experimental Investigation
and is slightly tapered as it merges with the adsorbed film. However, in employing this method, attention must be paid to the discontinuity in the interfacial curvature, which can be made negligible by properly selecting the matching point between an interline and thin film solutions
Correlates of self-reported offending in children with a first police contact from distinct socio-demographic and ethnic groups
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aims to identify risk factors for level of offending among childhood offenders from different socio-economic status (SES) neighborhoods and ethnic origins.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Three groups of childhood first time police arrestees were studied using standardized instruments for individual and parental characteristics: native Dutch offenders from moderate to high SES neighborhoods, native Dutch offenders from low SES neighborhoods, and offenders of non-Western origin from low SES neighborhoods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All subgroups showed high rates of externalizing disorders (27.2% to 41.8%) and familial difficulties (25.7% to 50.5%). Few differences between neighborhoods were found in the prevalence and impact of risk factors. However, the impact of some family risk factors on offending seemed stronger in the low SES groups. Regarding ethnical differences, family risk factors were more prevalent among non-Western childhood offenders. However, the association of these factors with level of offending seemed lower in the non-Western low SES group, while the association of some individual risk factors were stronger in the non-Western low SES group. Turning to the independent correlation of risk factors within each of the groups, in the Dutch moderate to high SES group, 23.1% of the variance in level of offending was explained by ADHD and behavioral problems; in the Dutch low SES group, 29.0% of the variance was explained by behavioral problems and proactive aggression; and in the non-Western low SES group, 41.2% of the variance was explained by substance use, sensation seeking, behavioral peer problems, and parental mental health problems.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Thereby, the study indicates few neighborhood differences in the impact of individual and parental risk factors on offending, while individual and parental risk factors may differ between ethnic groups.</p
Lattice Boltzmann simulations of soft matter systems
This article concerns numerical simulations of the dynamics of particles
immersed in a continuum solvent. As prototypical systems, we consider colloidal
dispersions of spherical particles and solutions of uncharged polymers. After a
brief explanation of the concept of hydrodynamic interactions, we give a
general overview over the various simulation methods that have been developed
to cope with the resulting computational problems. We then focus on the
approach we have developed, which couples a system of particles to a lattice
Boltzmann model representing the solvent degrees of freedom. The standard D3Q19
lattice Boltzmann model is derived and explained in depth, followed by a
detailed discussion of complementary methods for the coupling of solvent and
solute. Colloidal dispersions are best described in terms of extended particles
with appropriate boundary conditions at the surfaces, while particles with
internal degrees of freedom are easier to simulate as an arrangement of mass
points with frictional coupling to the solvent. In both cases, particular care
has been taken to simulate thermal fluctuations in a consistent way. The
usefulness of this methodology is illustrated by studies from our own research,
where the dynamics of colloidal and polymeric systems has been investigated in
both equilibrium and nonequilibrium situations.Comment: Review article, submitted to Advances in Polymer Science. 16 figures,
76 page
Complete Mitochondrial Genomes Reveal Neolithic Expansion into Europe
The Neolithic transition from hunting and gathering to farming and cattle breeding marks one of the most drastic cultural changes in European prehistory. Short stretches of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from skeletons of pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers as well as early Neolithic farmers support the demic diffusion model where a migration of early farmers from the Near East and a replacement of pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers are largely responsible for cultural innovation and changes in subsistence strategies during the Neolithic revolution in Europe. In order to test if a signal of population expansion is still present in modern European mitochondrial DNA, we analyzed a comprehensive dataset of 1,151 complete mtDNAs from present-day Europeans. Relying upon ancient DNA data from previous investigations, we identified mtDNA haplogroups that are typical for early farmers and hunter-gatherers, namely H and U respectively. Bayesian skyline coalescence estimates were then used on subsets of complete mtDNAs from modern populations to look for signals of past population expansions. Our analyses revealed a population expansion between 15,000 and 10,000 years before present (YBP) in mtDNAs typical for hunters and gatherers, with a decline between 10,000 and 5,000 YBP. These corresponded to an analogous population increase approximately 9,000 YBP for mtDNAs typical of early farmers. The observed changes over time suggest that the spread of agriculture in Europe involved the expansion of farming populations into Europe followed by the eventual assimilation of resident hunter-gatherers. Our data show that contemporary mtDNA datasets can be used to study ancient population history if only limited ancient genetic data is available
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