1,187 research outputs found
Social isolation predicts frequent attendance in primary care
Background. Frequent attenders in primary care have complex physical and mental healthcare needs as well as low satisfaction with their healthcare. Interventions targeting mental health or psychoeducation have not been effective in reducing attendance. Here, we test the proposition that both frequent attendance and poor health are partly explained by unmet social needs (i.e., limited social group support networks).
Methods. Study 1 (N=1752) was a large cross-sectional community sample of primary care attenders in Scotland. Study 2 (N = 79) was a longitudinal study of a group of young people undergoing a life transition (moving countries and commencing university) that increased their risk of frequent attendance. Study 3 (N=46) was a pre-post intervention study examining whether disadvantaged adults who joined a social group subsequently had reduced frequency of primary care attendance.
Results. All three studies found that low social group connectedness was associated with a higher frequency of primary care attendance. This was not attributable to poorer health among those who were socially isolated. In Study 3, joining a social group led to reduced primary care attendance to the extent that participants experienced a (subjective) increase in their social group connectedness.
Conclusions. Unmet social needs among frequent attenders warrant closer consideration. Interventions that target social group connectedness show promise for reducing overutilization of primary care services
Distributed Response Time Analysis of GSPN Models with MapReduce
widely used in the performance analysis of computer and communications systems. Response time densities and quantiles are often key outputs of such analysis. These can be extracted from a GSPN’s underlying semi-Markov process using a method based on numerical Laplace transform inversion. This method typically requires the solution of thousands of systems of complex linear equations, each of rank n, where n is the number of states in the model. For large models substantial processing power is needed and the computation must therefore be distributed. This paper describes the implementation of a Response Time Analysis module for the Platform Independent Petri net Editor (PIPE2) which interfaces with Hadoop, an open source implementation of Google’s MapReduce distributed programming environment, to provide distributed calculation of response time densities in GSPN models. The software is validated with analytically calculated results as well as simulated ones for larger models. Excellent scalability is shown. I
Combining high conductivity with complete optical transparency: A band-structure approach
A comparison of the structural, optical and electronic properties of the
recently discovered transparent conducting oxide (TCO), nanoporous Ca12Al14O33,
with those of the conventional TCO's (such as Sc-doped CdO) indicates that this
material belongs conceptually to a new class of transparent conductors. For
this class of materials, we formulate criteria for the successful combination
of high electrical conductivity with complete transparency in the visible
range. Our analysis suggests that this set of requirements can be met for a
group of novel materials called electrides.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, submitted for publicatio
Tuning the properties of complex transparent conducting oxides: role of crystal symmetry, chemical composition and carrier generation
The electronic properties of single- and multi-cation transparent conducting
oxides (TCOs) are investigated using first-principles density functional
approach. A detailed comparison of the electronic band structure of
stoichiometric and oxygen deficient InO, - and
-GaO, rock salt and wurtzite ZnO, and layered InGaZnO
reveals the role of the following factors which govern the transport and
optical properties of these TCO materials: (i) the crystal symmetry of the
oxides, including both the oxygen coordination and the long-range structural
anisotropy; (ii) the electronic configuration of the cation(s), specifically,
the type of orbital(s) -- , or -- which form the conduction band;
and (iii) the strength of the hybridization between the cation's states and the
p-states of the neighboring oxygen atoms. The results not only explain the
experimentally observed trends in the electrical conductivity in the
single-cation TCO, but also demonstrate that multicomponent oxides may offer a
way to overcome the electron localization bottleneck which limits the charge
transport in wide-bandgap main-group metal oxides. Further, the advantages of
aliovalent substitutional doping -- an alternative route to generate carriers
in a TCO host -- are outlined based on the electronic band structure
calculations of Sn, Ga, Ti and Zr-doped InGaZnO. We show that the
transition metal dopants offer a possibility to improve conductivity without
compromising the optical transmittance
The two-fluid model with superfluid entropy
The two-fluid model of liquid helium is generalized to the case that the
superfluid fraction has a small entropy content. We present theoretical
arguments in favour of such a small superfluid entropy. In the generalized
two-fluid model various sound modes of HeII are investigated. In a
superleak carrying a persistent current the superfluid entropy leads to a new
sound mode which we call sixth sound. The relation between the sixth sound and
the superfluid entropy is discussed in detail.Comment: 22 pages, latex, published in Nuovo Cimento 16 D (1994) 37
On the de Haas-van Alphen effect in inhomogeneous alloys
We show that Landau level broadening in alloys occurs naturally as a
consequence of random variations in the local quasiparticle density, without
the need to consider a relaxation time. This approach predicts
Lorentzian-broadened Landau levels similar to those derived by Dingle using the
relaxation-time approximation. However, rather than being determined by a
finite relaxation time , the Landau-level widths instead depend directly
on the rate at which the de Haas-van Alphen frequency changes with alloy
composition. The results are in good agreement with recent data from three very
different alloy systems.Comment: 5 pages, no figure
On the Aggregation of Inertial Particles in Random Flows
We describe a criterion for particles suspended in a randomly moving fluid to
aggregate. Aggregation occurs when the expectation value of a random variable
is negative. This random variable evolves under a stochastic differential
equation. We analyse this equation in detail in the limit where the correlation
time of the velocity field of the fluid is very short, such that the stochastic
differential equation is a Langevin equation.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure
Classical and Quantum Chaos in a quantum dot in time-periodic magnetic fields
We investigate the classical and quantum dynamics of an electron confined to
a circular quantum dot in the presence of homogeneous magnetic
fields. The classical motion shows a transition to chaotic behavior depending
on the ratio of field magnitudes and the cyclotron
frequency in units of the drive frequency. We determine a
phase boundary between regular and chaotic classical behavior in the
vs plane. In the quantum regime we evaluate the quasi-energy
spectrum of the time-evolution operator. We show that the nearest neighbor
quasi-energy eigenvalues show a transition from level clustering to level
repulsion as one moves from the regular to chaotic regime in the
plane. The statistic confirms this
transition. In the chaotic regime, the eigenfunction statistics coincides with
the Porter-Thomas prediction. Finally, we explicitly establish the phase space
correspondence between the classical and quantum solutions via the Husimi phase
space distributions of the model. Possible experimentally feasible conditions
to see these effects are discussed.Comment: 26 pages and 17 PstScript figures, two large ones can be obtained
from the Author
Surface effects on nanowire transport: numerical investigation using the Boltzmann equation
A direct numerical solution of the steady-state Boltzmann equation in a
cylindrical geometry is reported. Finite-size effects are investigated in large
semiconducting nanowires using the relaxation-time approximation. A nanowire is
modelled as a combination of an interior with local transport parameters
identical to those in the bulk, and a finite surface region across whose width
the carrier density decays radially to zero. The roughness of the surface is
incorporated by using lower relaxation-times there than in the interior.
An argument supported by our numerical results challenges a commonly used
zero-width parametrization of the surface layer. In the non-degenerate limit,
appropriate for moderately doped semiconductors, a finite surface width model
does produce a positive longitudinal magneto-conductance, in agreement with
existing theory. However, the effect is seen to be quite small (a few per cent)
for realistic values of the wire parameters even at the highest practical
magnetic fields. Physical insights emerging from the results are discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
- …