63 research outputs found
A Food, a Bite, a Sip:How Much Allergen Is in That?
Detailed information about the amount of allergenic protein ingested by the patient prior to an allergic reaction yields valuable information for the diagnosis, guidance and management of food allergy. However, the exact amount of ingredients is often not declared on the label. In this study the feasibility was studied for estimating the amount of allergenic protein from milk, eggs, peanuts and hazelnuts in frequently consumed composite and non-composite foods and per bite or sip size in different age groups in the Netherlands. Foods containing milk, egg, peanut or hazelnut most frequently consumed were selected for the age groups 2-3, 4-6 and 19-30 years. If the label did not yield clear information, the amount of allergenic protein was estimated based on food labels. Bite or sip sizes were determined in these age groups in 30 different foods. The amount of allergenic protein could be estimated in 47/70 (67%) of composite foods, which was complex. Estimated protein content of milk, egg, peanut and hazelnut was 2-3 g for most foods but varied greatly from 3 to 8610 mg and may be below threshold levels of the patient. In contrast, a single bite or sip can contain a sufficient amount of allergenic protein to elicit an allergic reaction. Bite and sip sizes increased with age. In every day practice it is hard to obtain detailed and reliable information about the amount of allergenic protein incorporated in composite foods. We encourage companies to disclose the amount of common allergenic foods on their labels
A Comparative Study of Some Pseudorandom Number Generators
We present results of an extensive test program of a group of pseudorandom
number generators which are commonly used in the applications of physics, in
particular in Monte Carlo simulations. The generators include public domain
programs, manufacturer installed routines and a random number sequence produced
from physical noise. We start by traditional statistical tests, followed by
detailed bit level and visual tests. The computational speed of various
algorithms is also scrutinized. Our results allow direct comparisons between
the properties of different generators, as well as an assessment of the
efficiency of the various test methods. This information provides the best
available criterion to choose the best possible generator for a given problem.
However, in light of recent problems reported with some of these generators, we
also discuss the importance of developing more refined physical tests to find
possible correlations not revealed by the present test methods.Comment: University of Helsinki preprint HU-TFT-93-22 (minor changes in Tables
2 and 7, and in the text, correspondingly
Anomalous diffusion as a signature of collapsing phase in two dimensional self-gravitating systems
A two dimensional self-gravitating Hamiltonian model made by
fully-coupled classical particles exhibits a transition from a collapsing phase
(CP) at low energy to a homogeneous phase (HP) at high energy. From a dynamical
point of view, the two phases are characterized by two distinct single-particle
motions : namely, superdiffusive in the CP and ballistic in the HP. Anomalous
diffusion is observed up to a time that increases linearly with .
Therefore, the finite particle number acts like a white noise source for the
system, inhibiting anomalous transport at longer times.Comment: 10 pages, Revtex - 3 Figs - Submitted to Physical Review
First and second order clustering transitions for a system with infinite-range attractive interaction
We consider a Hamiltonian system made of classical particles moving in
two dimensions, coupled via an {\it infinite-range interaction} gauged by a
parameter . This system shows a low energy phase with most of the particles
trapped in a unique cluster. At higher energy it exhibits a transition towards
a homogenous phase. For sufficiently strong coupling an intermediate phase
characterized by two clusters appears. Depending on the value of the
observed transitions can be either second or first order in the canonical
ensemble. In the latter case microcanonical results differ dramatically from
canonical ones. However, a canonical analysis, extended to metastable and
unstable states, is able to describe the microcanonical equilibrium phase. In
particular, a microcanonical negative specific heat regime is observed in the
proximity of the transition whenever it is canonically discontinuous. In this
regime, {\it microcanonically stable} states are shown to correspond to {\it
saddles} of the Helmholtz free energy, located inside the spinodal region.Comment: 4 pages, Latex - 3 EPS Figs - Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Physical tests for Random Numbers in Simulations
We propose three physical tests to measure correlations in random numbers
used in Monte Carlo simulations. The first test uses autocorrelation times of
certain physical quantities when the Ising model is simulated with the Wolff
algorithm. The second test is based on random walks, and the third on blocks of
n successive numbers. We apply the tests to show that recent errors in high
precision simulations using generalized feedback shift register algorithms are
due to short range correlations in random number sequences. We also determine
the length of these correlations.Comment: 16 pages, Post Script file, HU-TFT-94-
A vortex description of the first-order phase transition in type-I superconductors
Using both analytical arguments and detailed numerical evidence we show that
the first order transition in the type-I 2D Abelian Higgs model can be
understood in terms of the statistical mechanics of vortices, which behave in
this regime as an ensemble of attractive particles. The well-known
instabilities of such ensembles are shown to be connected to the process of
phase nucleation. By characterizing the equation of state for the vortex
ensemble we show that the temperature for the onset of a clustering instability
is in qualitative agreement with the critical temperature. Below this point the
vortex ensemble collapses to a single cluster, which is a non-extensive phase,
and disappears in the absence of net topological charge. The vortex description
provides a detailed mechanism for the first order transition, which applies at
arbitrarily weak type-I and is gauge invariant unlike the usual field-theoretic
considerations, which rely on asymptotically large gauge coupling.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, uses RevTex. Additional references added, some
small corrections to the tex
Chaos and Statistical Mechanics in the Hamiltonian Mean Field Model
We study the dynamical and statistical behavior of the Hamiltonian Mean Field
(HMF) model in order to investigate the relation between microscopic chaos and
phase transitions. HMF is a simple toy model of fully-coupled rotators
which shows a second order phase transition. The canonical thermodynamical
solution is briefly recalled and its predictions are tested numerically at
finite . The Vlasov stationary solution is shown to give the same
consistency equation of the canonical solution and its predictions for rotator
angle and momenta distribution functions agree very well with numerical
simulations. A link is established between the behavior of the maximal Lyapunov
exponent and that of thermodynamical fluctuations, expressed by kinetic energy
fluctuations or specific heat. The extensivity of chaos in the
limit is tested through the scaling properties of Lyapunov spectra and of the
Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy. Chaotic dynamics provides the mixing property in
phase space necessary for obtaining equilibration; however, the relaxation time
to equilibrium grows with , at least near the critical point. Our results
constitute an interesting bridge between Hamiltonian chaos in many degrees of
freedom systems and equilibrium thermodynamics.Comment: 19 pages, 10 postscript figures included, Latex, Elsevier macros
included. Invited talk at the conference ``Classical Chaos and its quantum
manifestations'' in honour of Boris Chirikov, Sputnik conference of STATPHYS
20 - Toulouse, France - July 16-18, 1998. Revised version (added refs,
changed part of the text and some figures) accepted for publication in
Physica
Long Range Magnetic Order and the Darwin Lagrangian
We simulate a finite system of confined electrons with inclusion of the
Darwin magnetic interaction in two- and three-dimensions. The lowest energy
states are located using the steepest descent quenching adapted for velocity
dependent potentials. Below a critical density the ground state is a static
Wigner lattice. For supercritical density the ground state has a non-zero
kinetic energy. The critical density decreases with for exponential
confinement but not for harmonic confinement. The lowest energy state also
depends on the confinement and dimension: an antiferromagnetic cluster forms
for harmonic confinement in two dimensions.Comment: 5 figure
Equilibrium and dynamical properties of two dimensional self-gravitating systems
A system of N classical particles in a 2D periodic cell interacting via
long-range attractive potential is studied. For low energy density a
collapsed phase is identified, while in the high energy limit the particles are
homogeneously distributed. A phase transition from the collapsed to the
homogeneous state occurs at critical energy U_c. A theoretical analysis within
the canonical ensemble identifies such a transition as first order. But
microcanonical simulations reveal a negative specific heat regime near .
The dynamical behaviour of the system is affected by this transition : below
U_c anomalous diffusion is observed, while for U > U_c the motion of the
particles is almost ballistic. In the collapsed phase, finite -effects act
like a noise source of variance O(1/N), that restores normal diffusion on a
time scale diverging with N. As a consequence, the asymptotic diffusion
coefficient will also diverge algebraically with N and superdiffusion will be
observable at any time in the limit N \to \infty. A Lyapunov analysis reveals
that for U > U_c the maximal exponent \lambda decreases proportionally to
N^{-1/3} and vanishes in the mean-field limit. For sufficiently small energy,
in spite of a clear non ergodicity of the system, a common scaling law \lambda
\propto U^{1/2} is observed for any initial conditions.Comment: 17 pages, Revtex - 15 PS Figs - Subimitted to Physical Review E - Two
column version with included figures : less paper waste
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