761 research outputs found
An early medieval lead-smelting bole from Banc Tynddol, Cwmystwyth, Ceredigion
Excavations in 2002 at Cwmystwyth, in Central Wales, found an ancient
lead smelting site. There are remains of the medieval and the Roman periods. This paper
describes in brief the excavation of the medieval lead bole (Timberlake 2002a) but also
provides an archaeological reconstruction of this and details of an experimental lead
smelt carried out at the site in 2003 (by ST). The analytical study (by LA) is of the medieval
metallurgical debris excavated in 2002, mostly slag, but also ore and lead. The aim
was to understand the raw material, the metal produced and the smelting process. The
ore smelted was predominantly galena but with no detectable silver, showing it was probably
exploited to produce lead. The extremely high sulphur content of the slag indicates
that the ore was not roasted before smelting. It is argued that the medieval activity was
small-scale, smelting a very rich ore. The furnaces apparently did not require much
capital investment, enabling a short-lived and/or exploratory smelting operation
Interaction and Localization of One-electron Orbitals in an Organic Molecule: Fictitious Parameter Analysis for Multi-physics Simulations
We present a new methodology to analyze complicated multi-physics simulations
by introducing a fictitious parameter. Using the method, we study quantum
mechanical aspects of an organic molecule in water. The simulation is
variationally constructed from the ab initio molecular orbital method and the
classical statistical mechanics with the fictitious parameter representing the
coupling strength between solute and solvent. We obtain a number of
one-electron orbital energies of the solute molecule derived from the
Hartree-Fock approximation, and eigenvalue-statistical analysis developed in
the study of nonintegrable systems is applied to them. Based on the results, we
analyze localization properties of the electronic wavefunctions under the
influence of the solvent.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, the revised version will appear in J. Phys. Soc.
Jpn. Vol.76 (No.1
Computation in Classical Mechanics
There is a growing consensus that physics majors need to learn computational
skills, but many departments are still devoid of computation in their physics
curriculum. Some departments may lack the resources or commitment to create a
dedicated course or program in computational physics. One way around this
difficulty is to include computation in a standard upper-level physics course.
An intermediate classical mechanics course is particularly well suited for
including computation. We discuss the ways we have used computation in our
classical mechanics courses, focusing on how computational work can improve
students' understanding of physics as well as their computational skills. We
present examples of computational problems that serve these two purposes. In
addition, we provide information about resources for instructors who would like
to include computation in their courses.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to American Journal of Physic
Classical Scattering for a driven inverted Gaussian potential in terms of the chaotic invariant set
We study the classical electron scattering from a driven inverted Gaussian
potential, an open system, in terms of its chaotic invariant set. This chaotic
invariant set is described by a ternary horseshoe construction on an
appropriate Poincare surface of section. We find the development parameters
that describe the hyperbolic component of the chaotic invariant set. In
addition, we show that the hierarchical structure of the fractal set of
singularities of the scattering functions is the same as the structure of the
chaotic invariant set. Finally, we construct a symbolic encoding of the
hierarchical structure of the set of singularities of the scattering functions
and use concepts from the thermodynamical formalism to obtain one of the
measures of chaos of the fractal set of singularities, the topological entropy.Comment: accepted in Phy. Rev.
Haploinsufficiency of SF3B2 causes craniofacial microsomia
Craniofacial microsomia (CFM) is the second most common congenital facial anomaly, yet its genetic etiology remains unknown. We perform whole-exome or genome sequencing of 146 kindreds with sporadic (n = 138) or familial (n = 8) CFM, identifying a highly significant burden of loss of function variants in SF3B2 (P = 3.8 × 10−10), a component of the U2 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein complex, in probands. We describe twenty individuals from seven kindreds harboring de novo or transmitted haploinsufficient variants in SF3B2. Probands display mandibular hypoplasia, microtia, facial and preauricular tags, epibulbar dermoids, lateral oral clefts in addition to skeletal and cardiac abnormalities. Targeted morpholino knockdown of SF3B2 in Xenopus results in disruption of cranial neural crest precursor formation and subsequent craniofacial cartilage defects, supporting a link between spliceosome mutations and impaired neural crest development in congenital craniofacial disease. The results establish haploinsufficient variants in SF3B2 as the most prevalent genetic cause of CFM, explaining ~3% of sporadic and ~25% of familial cases
Scattering properties of a cut-circle billiard waveguide with two conical leads
We examine a two-dimensional electron waveguide with a cut-circle cavity and
conical leads. By considering Wigner delay times and the Landauer-B\"{u}ttiker
conductance for this system, we probe the effects of the closed billiard energy
spectrum on scattering properties in the limit of weakly coupled leads. We
investigate how lead placement and cavity shape affect these conductance and
time delay spectra of the waveguide.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E (Jan.
2001
Performance projections for the lithium tokamak experiment (LTX)
Use of a large-area liquid lithium limiter in the CDX-U tokamak produced the largest relative increase (an enhancement factor of 5-10) in Ohmic tokamak confinement ever observed. The confinement results from CDX-U do not agree with existing scaling laws, and cannot easily be projected to the new lithium tokamak experiment (LTX). Numerical simulations of CDX-U low recycling discharges have now been performed with the ASTRA-ESC code with a special reference transport model suitable for a diffusion-based confinement regime, incorporating boundary conditions for nonrecycling walls, with fuelling via edge gas puffing. This model has been successful at reproducing the experimental values of the energy confinement (4-6 ms), loop voltage (<0.5 V), and density for a typical CDX-U lithium discharge. The same transport model has also been used to project the performance of the LTX, in Ohmic operation, or with modest neutral beam injection (NBI). NBI in LTX, with a low recycling wall of liquid lithium, is predicted to result in core electron and ion temperatures of 1-2 keV, and energy confinement times in excess of 50 ms. Finally, the unique design features of LTX are summarized
A network approach for managing ecosystem services and improving food and nutrition security on smallholder farms
Smallholder farmers are some of the poorest and most food insecure people on Earth. Their high nutritional and economic reliance on home-grown produce makes them particularly vulnerable to environmental stressors such as pollinator loss or climate change which threaten agricultural productivity. Improving smallholder agriculture in a way that is environmentally sustainable and resilient to climate change is a key challenge of the 21st century. Ecological intensification, whereby ecosystem services are managed to increase agricultural productivity, is a promising solution for smallholders. However, smallholder farms are complex socio-ecological systems with a range of social, ecological and environmental factors interacting to influence ecosystem service provisioning. To truly understand the functioning of a smallholder farm and identify the most effective management options to support household food and nutrition security, a holistic, systems-based understanding is required. In this paper, we propose a network approach to understand, visualise and model the complex interactions occurring among wild species, crops and people on smallholder farms. Specifically, we demonstrate how networks may be used to (a) identify wild species with a key role in supporting, delivering or increasing the resilience of an ecosystem service; (b) quantify the value of an ecosystem service in a way that is relevant to the food and nutrition security of smallholders; and (c) understand the social interactions that influence the management of shared ecosystem services. Using a case study based on data from rural Nepal, we demonstrate how this framework can be used to connect wild plants, pollinators and crops to key nutrients consumed by humans. This allows us to quantify the nutritional value of an ecosystem service and identify the wild plants and pollinators involved in its provision, as well as providing a framework to predict the effects of environmental change on human nutrition. Our framework identifies mechanistic links between ecosystem services and the nutrients consumed by smallholder farmers and highlights social factors that may influence the management of these services. Applying this framework to smallholder farms in a range of socio-ecological contexts may provide new, sustainable and equitable solutions to smallholder food and nutrition security. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article
Dynamics of quantum systems
A relation between the eigenvalues of an effective Hamilton operator and the
poles of the matrix is derived which holds for isolated as well as for
overlapping resonance states. The system may be a many-particle quantum system
with two-body forces between the constituents or it may be a quantum billiard
without any two-body forces. Avoided crossings of discrete states as well as of
resonance states are traced back to the existence of branch points in the
complex plane. Under certain conditions, these branch points appear as double
poles of the matrix. They influence the dynamics of open as well as of
closed quantum systems. The dynamics of the two-level system is studied in
detail analytically as well as numerically.Comment: 21 pages 7 figure
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