415 research outputs found
Standardization and the democratic design of information and communication technology
The way information and communication technology (ICT) develops can promote or hinder the democratic potential of this critical societal infrastructure. Concerns about the role standards development organizations (SDOs) play in this context predate the "digital age" but are reemerging amid substantial changes in the institutional landscape of standardization. This article explores the increasingly critical link between the institutional design of SDOs and the democratic design of ICT. We review some principles of democracy in terms of the design of technology, apply these to standardization, and discuss the role public policy may play here, while distinguishing between input and output legitimacy
Terahertz frequency standard based on three-photon coherent population trapping
A scheme for a THz frequency standard based on three-photon coherent
population trapping in stored ions is proposed. Assuming the propagation
directions of the three lasers obey the phase matching condition, we show that
stability of few 10 at one second can be reached with a precision
limited by power broadening to in the less favorable case. The
referenced THz signal can be propagated over long distances, the useful
information being carried by the relative frequency of the three optical
photons.Comment: article soumis a PRL le 21 mars 2007, accepte le 10 mai, version 2
(24/05/2007
Cosmological SPH simulations with four million particles: statistical properties of X-ray clusters in a low-density universe
We present results from a series of cosmological SPH (smoothed particle
hydrodynamics) simulations coupled with the P3M
(Particle-Particle-Particle-Mesh) solver for the gravitational force. The
simulations are designed to predict the statistical properties of X-ray
clusters of galaxies as well as to study the formation of galaxies. We have
seven simulation runs with different assumptions on the thermal state of the
intracluster gas. Following the recent work by Pearce et al., we modify our SPH
algorithm so as to phenomenologically incorporate the galaxy formation by
decoupling the cooled gas particles from the hot gas particles. All the
simulations employ 128^3 particles both for dark matter and for gas components,
and thus constitute the largest systematic catalogues of simulated clusters in
the SPH method performed so far. These enable us to compare the analytical
predictions on statistical properties of X-ray clusters against our direct
simulation results in an unbiased manner. We find that the luminosities of the
simulated clusters are quite sensitive to the thermal history and also to the
numerical resolution of the simulations, and thus are not reliable. On the
other hand, the mass-temperature relation for the simulated clusters is fairly
insensitive to the assumptions of the thermal state of the intracluster gas,
robust against the numerical resolution, and in fact agrees well with the
analytic prediction. Therefore the prediction for the X-ray temperature
function of clusters on the basis of the Press-Schechter mass function and the
virial equilibrium is fairly reliable.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 18 pages with
7 embedded figure
MCG+00-32-16: An Irregular Galaxy Close to the Lowest Redshift Absorber on the 3C 273 Line of Sight
MCG+00-32-16 is the galaxy closest in position-velocity space to the lowest
redshift Ly absorber along the line-of-sight to the quasar 3C 273. Its
projected separation is 204 (d/19 Mpc) kpc, where d is the distance from the
Milky Way to the galaxy, and the redshift difference is only 94 km/s; HI
1225+01 is slightly closer in projected separation to the absorber, but has a
greater redshift difference. We present HI synthesis array mapping and CCD
photometry in B and R for MCG+00-32-16. The HI disk is rotating in such a way
that the side of the galaxy closer to the sight-line to the quasar has the
larger velocity difference from the absorber. The absorber may be a ``failed
dwarf'' member of a poor galaxy group of which MCG+00-32-16 and HI 1225+01 are
the only members to have formed stars.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted by Astrophysical Journa
Evaluating case studies of community-oriented integrated care.
This paper summarises a ten-year conversation within London Journal of Primary Care about the nature of community-oriented integrated care (COIC) and how to develop and evaluate it. COIC means integration of efforts for combined disease-treatment and health-enhancement at local, community level. COIC is similar to the World Health Organisation concept of a Community-Based Coordinating Hub - both require a local geographic area where different organisations align their activities for whole system integration and develop local communities for health. COIC is a necessary part of an integrated system for health and care because it enables multiple insights into 'wicked problems', and multiple services to integrate their activities for people with complex conditions, at the same time helping everyone to collaborate for the health of the local population. The conversation concludes seven aspects of COIC that warrant further attention
Formation of Sub-galactic Clouds under UV Background Radiation
The effects of the UV background radiation on the formation of sub-galactic
clouds are studied by means of one-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations. The
radiative transfer of the ionizing photons due to the absorption by HI, HeI and
HeII, neglecting the emission, is explicitly taken into account. We find that
the complete suppression of collapse occurs for the clouds with circular
velocities typically in the range V_c \sim 15-40 km/s and the 50% reduction in
the cooled gas mass with V_c \sim 20-55 km/s. These values depend most
sensitively on the collapse epoch of the cloud, the shape of the UV spectrum,
and the evolution of the UV intensity. Compared to the optically thin case,
previously investigated by Thoul & Weinberg (1996), the absorption of the
external UV photon by the intervening medium systematically lowers the above
threshold values by \Delta V_c \sim 5 km/s. Whether the gas can contract or
keeps expanding is roughly determined by the balance between the gravitational
force and the thermal pressure gradient when it is maximally exposed to the
external UV flux. Based on our simulation results, we discuss a number of
implications on galaxy formation, cosmic star formation history, and the
observations of quasar absorption lines. In Appendix, we derive analytical
formulae for the photoionization coefficients and heating rates, which
incorporate the frequency/direction-dependent transfer of external photons.Comment: 38 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
The Effects of a Photoionizing UV Background on the Formation of Disk Galaxies
We use high resolution N-body/gasdynamical simulations to investigate the
effects of a photoionizing UV background on the assembly of disk galaxies in
hierarchically clustering universes. We focus on the mass and rotational
properties of gas that can cool to form centrifugally supported disks in dark
matter halos of different mass. Photoheating can significantly reduce the
amount of gas that can cool in galactic halos. Depending on the strength of the
UV background field, the amount of cooled gas can be reduced by up to in
systems with circular speeds in the range - \kms. The magnitude of the
effect, however, is not enough to solve the ``overcooling'' problem that
plagues hierarchical models of galaxy formation if the UV background is chosen
to be consistent with estimates based on recent observations of QSO absorption
systems. Photoionization has little effect on the collapse of gas at high
redshift and affects preferentially gas that is accreted at late times. Since
disks form inside-out, accreting higher angular momentum gas at later times,
disks formed in the presence of a UV background have spins that are even
smaller than those formed in simulations that do not include the effects of
photoionization. This exacerbates the angular momentum problem that afflicts
hierarchical models of disk formation. We conclude that photoionization cannot
provide the heating mechanism required to reconcile hierarchically clustering
models with observations. Energy feedback and enrichment processes from the
formation and evolution of stars must therefore be indispensable ingredients
for any successful model of the formation of disk galaxies.Comment: 36 pages, w/ embedded figures, submitted to ApJ. Also available at
http://penedes.as.arizona.edu/~jfn/preprints/dskform.ps.g
Photoionisation loading of large Sr+ ion clouds with ultrafast pulses
This paper reports on photoionisation loading based on ultrafast pulses of
singly-ionised strontium ions in a linear Paul trap. We take advantage of an
autoionising resonance of Sr neutral atoms to form Sr+ by two-photon absorption
of femtosecond pulses at a wavelength of 431nm. We compare this technique to
electron-bombardment ionisation and observe several advantages of
photoionisation. It actually allows the loading of a pure Sr+ ion cloud in a
low radio-frequency voltage amplitude regime. In these conditions up to 4x10^4
laser-cooled Sr+ ions were trapped
Magnetic Field and Pressure Phase Diagrams of Uranium Heavy-Fermion Compound UZn
We have performed magnetization measurements at high magnetic fields of up to
53 T on single crystals of a uranium heavy-fermion compound UZn
grown by the Bridgman method. In the antiferromagnetic state below the N\'{e}el
temperature = 9.7 K, a metamagnetic transition is found at
32 T for the field along the [110] direction (-axis). The
magnetic phase diagram for the field along the [110] direction is
given. The magnetization curve shows a nonlinear increase at 35
T in the paramagnetic state above up to a characteristic
temperature where the magnetic susceptibility or
electrical resistivity shows a maximum value. This metamagnetic behavior of the
magnetization at is discussed in comparison with the metamagnetic
magnetism of the heavy-fermion superconductors UPt, URuSi, and
UPdAl. We have also carried out high-pressure resistivity measurement
on UZn using a diamond anvil cell up to 8.7 GPa. Noble gas argon was
used as a pressure-transmitting medium to ensure a good hydrostatic
environment. The N\'{e}el temperature is almost
pressure-independent up to 4.7 GPa and starts to increase in the
higher-pressure region. The pressure dependences of the coefficient of the
term in the electrical resistivity , the antiferromagnetic gap
, and the characteristic temperature are
discussed. It is found that the effect of pressure on the electronic states in
UZn is weak compared with those in the other heavy fermion
compounds
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