421 research outputs found
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Culture and the remembering of trauma
This research investigated the influence of culture and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on global autobiographical remembering (Study 1a) and on the phenomenological properties (Study 1b) and memory-content variables (Study 1c) of trauma-specific autobiographical remembering. Australian, British, and Iranian trauma survivors with and without PTSD completed the Autobiographical Memory Test, Self-Defining Memory Task, and Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire and provided trauma- and negative-memory narratives. We found that there were pan-cultural deficits and distortions in the global autobiographical remembering of participants with PTSD (Study 1a). In addition, the presence of PTSD moderated the usual effect of culture on the phenomenological properties of the trauma memory (Study 1b). Finally, participants with PTSD, regardless of cultural background, had significantly fewer expressions of autonomy and self-determination in their autobiographical remembering than did those without PTSD (Study 1c). The findings suggest that pan-culturally, individuals with PTSD have similar disruptions and distortions in their autobiographical remembering
Achievable rates for the Gaussian quantum channel
We study the properties of quantum stabilizer codes that embed a
finite-dimensional protected code space in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert
space. The stabilizer group of such a code is associated with a symplectically
integral lattice in the phase space of 2N canonical variables. From the
existence of symplectically integral lattices with suitable properties, we
infer a lower bound on the quantum capacity of the Gaussian quantum channel
that matches the one-shot coherent information optimized over Gaussian input
states.Comment: 12 pages, 4 eps figures, REVTe
Percolation and epidemics in a two-dimensional small world
Percolation on two-dimensional small-world networks has been proposed as a
model for the spread of plant diseases. In this paper we give an analytic
solution of this model using a combination of generating function methods and
high-order series expansion. Our solution gives accurate predictions for
quantities such as the position of the percolation threshold and the typical
size of disease outbreaks as a function of the density of "shortcuts" in the
small-world network. Our results agree with scaling hypotheses and numerical
simulations for the same model.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
Entropy of chains placed on the square lattice
We obtain the entropy of flexible linear chains composed of M monomers placed
on the square lattice using a transfer matrix approach. An excluded volume
interaction is included by considering the chains to be self-and mutually
avoiding, and a fraction rho of the sites are occupied by monomers. We solve
the problem exactly on stripes of increasing width m and then extrapolate our
results to the two-dimensional limit to infinity using finite-size scaling. The
extrapolated results for several finite values of M and in the polymer limit M
to infinity for the cases where all lattice sites are occupied (rho=1) and for
the partially filled case rho<1 are compared with earlier results. These
results are exact for dimers (M=2) and full occupation (\rho=1) and derived
from series expansions, mean-field like approximations, and transfer matrix
calculations for some other cases. For small values of M, as well as for the
polymer limit M to infinity, rather precise estimates of the entropy are
obtained.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
Probability distribution of the sizes of largest erased-loops in loop-erased random walks
We have studied the probability distribution of the perimeter and the area of
the k-th largest erased-loop in loop-erased random walks in two-dimensions for
k = 1 to 3. For a random walk of N steps, for large N, the average value of the
k-th largest perimeter and area scales as N^{5/8} and N respectively. The
behavior of the scaled distribution functions is determined for very large and
very small arguments. We have used exact enumeration for N <= 20 to determine
the probability that no loop of size greater than l (ell) is erased. We show
that correlations between loops have to be taken into account to describe the
average size of the k-th largest erased-loops. We propose a one-dimensional
Levy walk model which takes care of these correlations. The simulations of this
simpler model compare very well with the simulations of the original problem.Comment: 11 pages, 1 table, 10 included figures, revte
Time-frequency detection algorithm for gravitational wave bursts
An efficient algorithm is presented for the identification of short bursts of
gravitational radiation in the data from broad-band interferometric detectors.
The algorithm consists of three steps: pixels of the time-frequency
representation of the data that have power above a fixed threshold are first
identified. Clusters of such pixels that conform to a set of rules on their
size and their proximity to other clusters are formed, and a final threshold is
applied on the power integrated over all pixels in such clusters. Formal
arguments are given to support the conjecture that this algorithm is very
efficient for a wide class of signals. A precise model for the false alarm rate
of this algorithm is presented, and it is shown using a number of
representative numerical simulations to be accurate at the 1% level for most
values of the parameters, with maximal error around 10%.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, to appear in PR
Virus shapes and buckling transitions in spherical shells
We show that the icosahedral packings of protein capsomeres proposed by
Caspar and Klug for spherical viruses become unstable to faceting for
sufficiently large virus size, in analogy with the buckling instability of
disclinations in two-dimensional crystals. Our model, based on the nonlinear
physics of thin elastic shells, produces excellent one parameter fits in real
space to the full three-dimensional shape of large spherical viruses. The
faceted shape depends only on the dimensionless Foppl-von Karman number
\gamma=YR^2/\kappa, where Y is the two-dimensional Young's modulus of the
protein shell, \kappa is its bending rigidity and R is the mean virus radius.
The shape can be parameterized more quantitatively in terms of a spherical
harmonic expansion. We also investigate elastic shell theory for extremely
large \gamma, 10^3 < \gamma < 10^8, and find results applicable to icosahedral
shapes of large vesicles studied with freeze fracture and electron microscopy.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure
First LOFAR results on galaxy clusters
Deep radio observations of galaxy clusters have revealed the existence of
diffuse radio sources related to the presence of relativistic electrons and
weak magnetic fields in the intracluster volume. The role played by this
non-thermal intracluster component on the thermodynamical evolution of galaxy
clusters is debated, with important implications for cosmological and
astrophysical studies of the largest gravitationally bound structures of the
Universe. The low surface brightness and steep spectra of diffuse cluster radio
sources make them more easily detectable at low-frequencies. LOFAR is the first
instrument able to detect diffuse radio emission in hundreds of massive galaxy
clusters up to their formation epoch. We present the first observations of
clusters imaged by LOFAR and the huge perspectives opened by this instrument
for non-thermal cluster studies.Comment: Proceedings of the 2012 week of the French Society of Astronomy and
Astrophysics (SF2A) held in Nice, June 5th-8t
Supermassive Binaries and Extragalactic Jets
Some quasars show Doppler shifted broad emission line peaks. I give new
statistics of the occurrence of these peaks and show that, while the most
spectacular cases are in quasars with strong radio jets inclined to the line of
sight, they are also almost as common in radio-quiet quasars. Theories of the
origin of the peaks are reviewed and it is argued that the displaced peaks are
most likely produced by the supermassive binary model. The separations of the
peaks in the 3C 390.3-type objects are consistent with orientation-dependent
"unified models" of quasar activity. If the supermassive binary model is
correct, all members of "the jet set" (astrophysical objects showing jets)
could be binaries.Comment: 31 pages, PostScript, missing figure is in ApJ 464, L105 (see
http://www.aas.org/ApJ/v464n2/5736/5736.html
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