7,467 research outputs found
A Model Officer: An Agent-based Model of Policing
Crime is a complex phenomenon, emerging from the interactions of offenders, victims, and their environment, and in particular from the presence or absence of capable guardians. Researchers have historically struggled to understand how police officers create guardianship. This presents a challenge because, in order to understand how to advise the police, researchers must have an understanding of how the current system works. The work presents an agent-based model that simulates the movement of police vehicles, using a record of real calls for service and real levels of police staffing in spatially explicit environments to emulate the demands on the police force. The GPS traces of the simulated officers are compared with real officer movement GPS data in order to assess the quality of the generated movement patterns. The model represents an improvement on existing standards of police simulation, and points the way toward more nuanced understandings of how police officers influence the criminological environment
Statistical Properties of Interacting Bose Gases in Quasi-2D Harmonic Traps
The analytical probability distribution of the quasi-2D (and purely 2D) ideal
and interacting Bose gas are investigated by using a canonical ensemble
approach. Using the analytical probability distribution of the condensate, the
statistical properties such as the mean occupation number and particle number
fluctuations of the condensate are calculated. Researches show that there is a
continuous crossover of the statistical properties from a quasi-2D to a purely
2D ideal or interacting gases. Different from the case of a 3D Bose gas, the
interaction between atoms changes in a deep way the nature of the particle
number fluctuations.Comment: RevTex, 10pages, 4 figures, E-mail: [email protected]
Trispectrum versus Bispectrum in Single-Field Inflation
In the standard slow-roll inflationary cosmology, quantum fluctuations in a
single field, the inflaton, generate approximately Gaussian primordial density
perturbations. At present, the bispectrum and trispectrum of the density
perturbations have not been observed and the probability distribution for these
perturbations is consistent with Gaussianity. However, Planck satellite data
will bring a new level of precision to bear on this issue, and it is possible
that evidence for non-Gaussian effects in the primordial distribution will be
discovered. One possibility is that a trispectrum will be observed without
evidence for a non-zero bispectrum. It is not difficult for this to occur in
inflationary models where quantum fluctuations in a field other than the
inflaton contribute to the density perturbations. A natural question to ask is
whether such an observation would rule out the standard scenarios. We explore
this issue and find that it is possible to construct single-field models in
which inflaton-generated primordial density perturbations have an observable
trispectrum, but a bispectrum that is too small to be observed by the Planck
satellite. However, an awkward fine tuning seems to be unavoidable.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; journal versio
Higgs Properties and Fourth Generation Leptons
It is possible that there are additional vector-like generations where the
quarks have mass terms that do not originate from weak symmetry breaking, but
the leptons only get mass through weak symmetry breaking. We discuss the impact
that the new leptons have on Higgs boson decay branching ratios and on the
range of allowed Higgs masses in such a model (with a single new vector-like
generation). We find that if the fourth generation leptons are too heavy to be
produced in Higgs decay, then the new leptons reduce the branching ratio for h
-> gamma gamma to about 30% of its standard-model value. The dependence of this
branching ratio on the new charged lepton masses is weak. Furthermore the
expected Higgs production rate at the LHC is very near its standard-model value
if the new quarks are much heavier than the weak scale. If the new quarks have
masses near the cutoff for the theory then for cutoffs greater than 10^15 GeV,
the new lepton masses cannot be much heavier than about 100 GeV and the Higgs
mass must have a value around 175 GeV.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, published versio
Gravity from a fermionic condensate of a gauge theory
The most prominent realization of gravity as a gauge theory similar to the
gauge theories of the standard model comes from enlarging the gauge group from
the Lorentz group to the de Sitter group. To regain ordinary Einstein-Cartan
gravity the symmetry must be broken, which can be accomplished by known
quasi-dynamic mechanisms. Motivated by symmetry breaking models in particle
physics and condensed matter systems, we propose that the symmetry can
naturally be broken by a homogenous and isotropic fermionic condensate of
ordinary spinors. We demonstrate that the condensate is compatible with the
Einstein-Cartan equations and can be imposed in a fully de Sitter invariant
manner. This lends support, and provides a physically realistic mechanism for
understanding gravity as a gauge theory with a spontaneously broken local de
Sitter symmetry.Comment: 16 page
Understanding the ‘lived experience’ of sport event volunteers: Using the hermeneutic circle as a guiding conceptual framework
This conceptual paper presents an understanding of the term experience and lived experience by detailing the hermeneutic circle as a guiding framework to capture the volunteer journey of sport event volunteers. Sport event volunteering research has seen increased interest in the past decade, and this paper acknowledges that there is a need to reconsider foundation understandings of the notion of experience. Because previous research has encouraged academics to focus less on the structure of experiences, it is therefore necessary to concentrate on meanings that further consider lived experiences as they are produced by individuals. Volunteering at a sport event represents a journey that can be captured at different stages, and this is can be done by putting emphasis on research participants’ meanings and memories, as outlined in the conceptual model presented in this paper
First study of semileptonic decay form factors using NRQCD
We present a quenched calculation of the form factors of the semileptonic
weak decay with NRQCD heavy quark and Wilson
light quark on a lattice at . The form factors are
evaluated at six heavy quark masses, in the range of GeV.
dependence of matrix elements are investigated and compared with HQET
predictions. We observe clear signal for the form factors near ,
even at the -quark mass range. is compared with
based on the soft pion theorem and significant difference is
observed.Comment: 3 pages, 5 ps figures, uses espcrc2.sty and epsf.sty, Talk presented
at Lattice'9
Opioids depress cortical centers responsible for the volitional control of respiration
Respiratory depression limits provision of safe opioid analgesia and is the main cause of death in drug addicts. Although opioids are known to inhibit brainstem respiratory activity, their effects on cortical areas that mediate respiration are less well understood. Here, functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine how brainstem and cortical activity related to a short breath hold is modulated by the opioid remifentanil. We hypothesized that remifentanil would differentially depress brain areas that mediate sensory-affective components of respiration over those that mediate volitional motor control. Quantitative measures of cerebral blood flow were used to control for hypercapnia-induced changes in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal. Awareness of respiration, reflected by an urge-to-breathe score, was profoundly reduced with remifentanil. Urge to breathe was associated with activity in the bilateral insula, frontal operculum, and secondary somatosensory cortex. Localized remifentanil-induced decreases in breath hold-related activity were observed in the left anterior insula and operculum. We also observed remifentanil-induced decreases in the BOLD response to breath holding in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, the cerebellum, and periaqueductal gray, brain areas that mediate task performance. Activity in areas mediating motor control (putamen, motor cortex) and sensory-motor integration (supramarginal gyrus) were unaffected by remifentanil. Breath hold-related activity was observed in the medulla. These findings highlight the importance of higher cortical centers in providing contextual awareness of respiration that leads to appropriate modulation of respiratory control. Opioids have profound effects on the cortical centers that control breathing, which potentiates their actions in the brainstem
- …