887 research outputs found
Playing safe: Assessing the risk of sexual abuse to elite child athletes
Young athletes frequently suffer from being seen as athletes first and children second. This has consequences for their legal, civil and human rights as children (Kelly et al., 1995) and for the way in which sport organisations choose to intervene on their behalf to protect them from physical, psychological and sexual abuses (Brackenridge, 1994). Sport careers peak at different ages depending on the sport: in some, children as young as 12 or 13 may reach the highest levels of competitive performance; in others, full maturity as an athlete may come late into adulthood or even middle age. Recognition of this variation has given rise to the concept of ‘sport age’ (Kirby, 1986) referring to sport-specific athlete development. This concept is of significance in helping to identify the developmental process in terms of athletic, rather than chronological, maturity. The risk of sexual abuse in sport, formerly ignored or denied, has now been documented in a number of studies, using both quantitative and qualitative methods (Kirby & Greaves, 1996; Brackenridge, 1997; Volkwein, 1996). Drawing on data from these studies and from the previous work on sport age and athletic maturation, this paper proposes a possible means of identifying and assessing relative risk of sexual abuse to elite young athletes in selected sports. The concept of a ‘stage of imminent achievement’ (SIA) is proposed as the period of peak vulnerability of young athletes to sexual abuse
Irradiation of benzene molecules by ion-induced and light-induced intense fields
Benzene, with its sea of delocalized -electrons in the valence orbitals,
is identified as an example of a class of molecules that enable establishment
of the correspondence between intense ion-induced and laser-light-induced
fields in experiments that probe ionization dynamics in temporal regimes
spanning the attosecond and picosecond ranges.Comment: 4 ps figure
Asymptotic channels and gauge transformations of the time-dependent Dirac equation for extremely relativistic heavy-ion collisions
We discuss the two-center, time-dependent Dirac equation describing the
dynamics of an electron during a peripheral, relativistic heavy-ion collision
at extreme energies. We derive a factored form, which is exact in the
high-energy limit, for the asymptotic channel solutions of the Dirac equation,
and elucidate their close connection with gauge transformations which transform
the dynamics into a representation in which the interaction between the
electron and a distant ion is of short range. We describe the implications of
this relationship for solving the time-dependent Dirac equation for extremely
relativistic collisions.Comment: 12 pages, RevTeX, 2 figures, submitted to PR
Toeplitz Quantization of K\"ahler Manifolds and
For general compact K\"ahler manifolds it is shown that both Toeplitz
quantization and geometric quantization lead to a well-defined (by operator
norm estimates) classical limit. This generalizes earlier results of the
authors and Klimek and Lesniewski obtained for the torus and higher genus
Riemann surfaces, respectively. We thereby arrive at an approximation of the
Poisson algebra by a sequence of finite-dimensional matrix algebras ,
.Comment: 17 pages, AmsTeX 2.1, Sept. 93 (rev: only typos are corrected
Individual-Based Model Framework to Assess Population Consequences of Polychlorinated Biphenyl Exposure in Bottlenose Dolphins
Marine mammals are susceptible to the effects of anthropogenic contaminants. Here we examine the effect of different polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) accumulation scenarios on potential population growth rates using, as an example, data obtained for the population of bottlenose dolphins from Sarasota Bay, Florida. To achieve this goal, we developed an individual-based model framework that simulates the accumulation of PCBs in the population and modifies first-year calf survival based on maternal blubber PCB levels. In our example the current estimated annual PCB accumulation rate for the Sarasota Bay dolphin population might be depressing the potential population growth rate. However, our predictions are limited both by model naivety and parameter uncertainty. We emphasize the need for more data collection on the relationship between maternal blubber PCB levels and calf survivorship, the annual accumulation of PCBs in the blubber of females, and the transfer of PCBs to the calf through the placenta and during lactation. Such data require continued efforts directed toward long-term studies of known individuals in wild and semi-wild populations
Holes in the t-J_z model: a thorough study
The t-J_z model is the strongly anisotropic limit of the t-J model which
captures some general properties of the doped antiferromagnets (AF). The
absence of spin fluctuations simplifies the analytical treatment of hole motion
in an AF background and allows us to calculate the single- and two-hole spectra
with high accuracy using regular diagram technique combined with real-space
approach. At the same time, numerical studies of this model via exact
diagonalization (ED) on small clusters show negligible finite size effects for
a number of quantities, thus allowing a direct comparison between analytical
and numerical results. Both approaches demonstrate that the holes have tendency
to pair in the p- and d-wave channels at realistic values of t/J. The
interactions leading to pairing and effects selecting p and d waves are
thoroughly investigated. The role of transverse spin fluctuations is considered
using perturbation theory. Based on the results of the present study, we
discuss the pairing problem in the realistic t-J-like model. Possible
implications for preformed pairs formation and phase separation are drawn.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figure
The STAR Time Projection Chamber: A Unique Tool for Studying High Multiplicity Events at RHIC
The STAR Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is used to record collisions at the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The TPC is the central element in a
suite of detectors that surrounds the interaction vertex. The TPC provides
complete coverage around the beam-line, and provides complete tracking for
charged particles within +- 1.8 units of pseudo-rapidity of the center-of-mass
frame. Charged particles with momenta greater than 100 MeV/c are recorded.
Multiplicities in excess of 3,000 tracks per event are routinely reconstructed
in the software. The TPC measures 4 m in diameter by 4.2 m long, making it the
largest TPC in the world.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figure
Muon spin relaxation studies of incommensurate magnetism and superconductivity in stage-4 LaCuO and LaSrCuO
This paper reports muon spin relaxation (MuSR) measurements of two single
crystals of the title high-Tc cuprate systems where static incommensurate
magnetism and superconductivity coexist. By zero-field MuSR measurements and
subsequent analyses with simulations, we show that (1) the maximum ordered Cu
moment size (0.36 Bohr magneton) and local spin structure are identical to
those in prototypical stripe spin systems with the 1/8 hole concentration; (2)
the static magnetism is confined to less than a half of the volume of the
sample, and (3) regions with static magnetism form nano-scale islands with the
size comparable to the in-plane superconducting coherence length. By
transverse-field MuSR measurements, we show that Tc of these systems is related
to the superfluid density, in the same way as observed in cuprate systems
without static magnetism. We discuss a heuristic model involving percolation of
these nanoscale islands with static magnetism as a possible picture to
reconcile heterogeneity found by the present MuSR study and long-range spin
correlations found by neutron scattering.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B. E-mail:
[email protected]
Spectral and transport properties of doped Mott-Hubbard systems with incommensurate magnetic order
We present spectral and optical properties of the Hubbard model on a
two-dimensional square lattice using a generalization of dynamical mean-field
theory to magnetic states in finite dimension. The self-energy includes the
effect of spin fluctuations and screening of the Coulomb interaction due to
particle-particle scattering. At half-filling the quasiparticles reduce the
width of the Mott-Hubbard `gap' and have dispersions and spectral weights that
agree remarkably well with quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization
calculations. Away from half-filling we consider incommensurate magnetic order
with a varying local spin direction, and derive the photoemission and optical
spectra. The incommensurate magnetic order leads to a pseudogap which opens at
the Fermi energy and coexists with a large Mott-Hubbard gap. The quasiparticle
states survive in the doped systems, but their dispersion is modified with the
doping and a rigid band picture does not apply. Spectral weight in the optical
conductivity is transferred to lower energies and the Drude weight increases
linearly with increasing doping. We show that incommensurate magnetic order
leads also to mid-gap states in the optical spectra and to decreased scattering
rates in the transport processes, in qualitative agreement with the
experimental observations in doped systems. The gradual disappearence of the
spiral magnetic order and the vanishing pseudogap with increasing temperature
is found to be responsible for the linear resistivity. We discuss the possible
reasons why these results may only partially explain the features observed in
the optical spectra of high temperature superconductors.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figure
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