1,713 research outputs found
Ferromagnetic models for cooperative behavior: Revisiting Universality in complex phenomena
Ferromagnetic models are harmonic oscillators in statistical mechanics.
Beyond their original scope in tackling phase transition and symmetry breaking
in theoretical physics, they are nowadays experiencing a renewal applicative
interest as they capture the main features of disparate complex phenomena,
whose quantitative investigation in the past were forbidden due to data
lacking. After a streamlined introduction to these models, suitably embedded on
random graphs, aim of the present paper is to show their importance in a
plethora of widespread research fields, so to highlight the unifying framework
reached by using statistical mechanics as a tool for their investigation.
Specifically we will deal with examples stemmed from sociology, chemistry,
cybernetics (electronics) and biology (immunology).Comment: Contributing to the proceedings of the Conference "Mathematical
models and methods for Planet Heart", INdAM, Rome 201
Physical profile of junior and senior amateur boxers
© JPES. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to profile the physiological characteristics of amateur boxers using a battery of tests designed to assess the physiological and physical demands required for performance. Fifteen junior amateur (age 14.9 ± 2.0 years; stature 164 ± 12 cm; body mass 50.9 ± 11.3 kg) and sixteen senior amateur boxers (n = 16; age 20.5 ± 4.0 years; stature 174 ± 9 cm; body mass 65.2 ± 10.7 kg) provided informed consent to participate in the study. Body composition, squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CMJ), 5-and 10 m sprint (5SP/10SP), press up (PU), right and left medicine-ball single-arm throws (MBR, MBL), repeated sprint test (RST) and Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test level 1 (YY) were performed. The likelihood (% chance) of between-group differences were assessed using a magnitude based approach, standardised-difference score (Cohen’s d) and 90% confidence intervals [CI]. Linear regression (r) was used to examine the association between variables. Results: Senior boxers outperformed (79 to 99% chance) junior counterparts in PU, YY, CMJ, SJ, 10SP, MBL and MBR tests (d ≥ 0.50 [-0.34 to 1.61]). There were very large (r 0.70) correlations between fat free mass, upper-and lower body lean mass and medicine ball throw distance. There were large correlations (r 0.50 to 0.69) between medicine ball throw distance and CMJ, SJ, PU, 5SP and 10SP. Conclusions: A simple and time-effective test battery was able to differentiate performance between junior and amateur boxers. These assessments could be useful when profiling junior and senior amateur boxers
NMR and NQR Fluctuation Effects in Layered Superconductors
We study the effect of thermal fluctuations of the s-wave order parameter of
a quasi two dimensional superconductor on the nuclear spin relaxation rate near
the transition temperature Tc. We consider both the effects of the amplitude
fluctuations and the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase fluctuations
in weakly coupled layered superconductors. In the treatment of the amplitude
fluctuations we employ the Gaussian approximation and evaluate the longitudinal
relaxation rate 1/T1 for a clean s-wave superconductor, with and without pair
breaking effects, using the static pair fluctuation propagator D. The increase
in 1/T1 due to pair breaking in D is overcompensated by the decrease arising
from the single particle Green's functions. The result is a strong effect on
1/T1 for even a small amount of pair breaking. The phase fluctuations are
described in terms of dynamical BKT excitations in the form of pancake
vortex-antivortex (VA) pairs. We calculate the effect of the magnetic field
fluctuations caused by the translational motion of VA excitations on 1/T1 and
on the transverse relaxation rate 1/T2 on both sides of the BKT transitation
temperature T(BKT)<Tc. The results for the NQR relaxation rates depend strongly
on the diffusion constant that governs the motion of free and bound vortices as
well as the annihilation of VA pairs. We discuss the relaxation rates for real
multilayer systems where the diffusion constant can be small and thus increase
the lifetime of a VA pair, leading to an enhancement of the rates. We also
discuss in some detail the experimental feasibility of observing the effects of
amplitude fluctuations in layered s-wave superconductors such as the
dichalcogenides and the effects of phase fluctuations in s- or d-wave
superconductors such as the layered cuprates.Comment: 38 pages, 12 figure
A tensor-based morphometry analysis of regional differences in brain volume in relation to prenatal alcohol exposure
Reductions in brain volumes represent a neurobiological signature of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Less clear is how regional brain tissue reductions differ after normalizing for brain size differences linked with FASD and whether these profiles can predict the degree of prenatal exposure to alcohol. To examine associations of regional brain tissue excesses/deficits with degree of prenatal alcohol exposure and diagnosis with and without correction for overall brain volume, tensor-based morphometry (TBM) methods were applied to structural imaging data from a well-characterized, demographically homogeneous sample of children diagnosed with FASD (n = 39, 9.6–11.0 years) and controls (n = 16, 9.5–11.0 years). Degree of prenatal alcohol exposure was significantly associated with regionally pervasive brain tissue reductions in: (1) the thalamus, midbrain, and ventromedial frontal lobe, (2) the superior cerebellum and inferior occipital lobe, (3) the dorsolateral frontal cortex, and (4) the precuneus and superior parietal lobule. When overall brain size was factored out of the analysis on a subject-by-subject basis, no regions showed significant associations with alcohol exposure. FASD diagnosis was associated with a similar deformation pattern, but few of the regions survived FDR correction. In data-driven independent component analyses (ICA) regional brain tissue deformations successfully distinguished individuals based on extent of prenatal alcohol exposure and to a lesser degree, diagnosis. The greater sensitivity of the continuous measure of alcohol exposure compared with the categorical diagnosis across diverse brain regions underscores the dose dependence of these effects. The ICA results illustrate that profiles of brain tissue alterations may be a useful indicator of prenatal alcohol exposure when reliable historical data are not available and facial features are not apparent
Doctors’ recognition and management of melanoma patients’ risk: an Australian population-based study
Background Guidelines recommend that health professionals identify and manage individuals at high risk of developing melanoma, but there is limited population-based evidence demonstrating real-world practices. Objective A population-based, observational study was conducted in the state of New South Wales, Australia to determine doctors’ knowledge of melanoma patients’ risk and to identify factors associated with better identification and clinical management. Methods Data were analysed for 1889 patients with invasive, localised melanoma in the Melanoma Patterns of Care study. This study collected data on all melanoma diagnoses notified to the state’s cancer registry during a 12-month period from 2006 to 2007, as well as questionnaire data from the doctors involved in their care. Results Three-quarters (74%) of patients had doctors who were aware of their risk factor status with respect to personal and family history of melanoma and the presence of many moles. Doctors working in general practice, skin cancer clinics and dermatology settings had better knowledge of patients’ risk factors than plastic surgeons. Doctors were 15% more likely to know the family history of younger melanoma patients (<40 years) than of those ≥80 years (95% confidence interval 4–26%). Early detection-related follow-up advice was more likely to be given to younger patients, by doctors aware of their patients’ risk status, by doctors practising in plastic surgery, dermatology and skin cancer clinic settings, and by female doctors. Conclusion Both patient-related and doctor-related factors were associated with doctors’ recognition and management of melanoma patients’ risk and could be the focus of strategies for improving care
Physics in the Real Universe: Time and Spacetime
The Block Universe idea, representing spacetime as a fixed whole, suggests
the flow of time is an illusion: the entire universe just is, with no special
meaning attached to the present time. This view is however based on
time-reversible microphysical laws and does not represent macro-physical
behaviour and the development of emergent complex systems, including life,
which do indeed exist in the real universe. When these are taken into account,
the unchanging block universe view of spacetime is best replaced by an evolving
block universe which extends as time evolves, with the potential of the future
continually becoming the certainty of the past. However this time evolution is
not related to any preferred surfaces in spacetime; rather it is associated
with the evolution of proper time along families of world linesComment: 28 pages, including 9 Figures. Major revision in response to referee
comment
Recent Developments of NEMO: Detection of Solar Eruptions Characteristics
The recent developments in space instrumentation for solar observations and
telemetry have caused the necessity of advanced pattern recognition tools for
the different classes of solar events. The Extreme ultraviolet Imaging
Telescope (EIT) of solar corona on-board SOHO spacecraft has uncovered a new
class of eruptive events which are often identified as signatures of Coronal
Mass Ejection (CME) initiations on solar disk. It is evident that a crucial
task is the development of an automatic detection tool of CMEs precursors. The
Novel EIT wave Machine Observing (NEMO) (http://sidc.be/nemo) code is an
operational tool that detects automatically solar eruptions using EIT image
sequences. NEMO applies techniques based on the general statistical properties
of the underlying physical mechanisms of eruptive events on the solar disc. In
this work, the most recent updates of NEMO code - that have resulted to the
increase of the recognition efficiency of solar eruptions linked to CMEs - are
presented. These updates provide calculations of the surface of the dimming
region, implement novel clustering technique for the dimmings and set new
criteria to flag the eruptive dimmings based on their complex characteristics.
The efficiency of NEMO has been increased significantly resulting to the
extraction of dimmings observed near the solar limb and to the detection of
small-scale events as well. As a consequence, the detection efficiency of CMEs
precursors and the forecasts of CMEs have been drastically improved.
Furthermore, the catalogues of solar eruptive events that can be constructed by
NEMO may include larger number of physical parameters associated to the dimming
regions.Comment: 12 Pages, 5 figures, submitted to Solar Physic
Core-Collapse Supernovae at the Threshold
Recent progress in modeling core-collapse supernovae is summarized and set in
perspective. Two-dimensional simulations with state-of-the-art treatment of
neutrino transport still fail to produce powerful explosions, but evidence is
presented that they are very close to success.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, high-quality available upon request; contribution
to Procs. IAU Coll. 192, "Supernovae", Eds. J.M. Marcaide ad K.W. Weiler,
Springe
Crucial Physical Dependencies of the Core-Collapse Supernova Mechanism
We explore with self-consistent 2D F{\sc{ornax}} simulations the dependence
of the outcome of collapse on many-body corrections to neutrino-nucleon cross
sections, the nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung rate, electron capture on heavy
nuclei, pre-collapse seed perturbations, and inelastic neutrino-electron and
neutrino-nucleon scattering. Importantly, proximity to criticality amplifies
the role of even small changes in the neutrino-matter couplings, and such
changes can together add to produce outsized effects. When close to the
critical condition the cumulative result of a few small effects (including
seeds) that individually have only modest consequence can convert an anemic
into a robust explosion, or even a dud into a blast. Such sensitivity is not
seen in one dimension and may explain the apparent heterogeneity in the
outcomes of detailed simulations performed internationally. A natural
conclusion is that the different groups collectively are closer to a realistic
understanding of the mechanism of core-collapse supernovae than might have
seemed apparent.Comment: 25 pages; 10 figure
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