7,248 research outputs found
Contested modelling
We suggest that the role and function of expert computational modelling in real-world decision-making needs scrutiny and practices need to change. We discuss some empirical and theory-based improvements to the coupling of the modelling process and the real world, including social and behavioural processes, which we have expressed as a set of questions that we believe need to be answered by all projects engaged in such modelling. These are based on a systems analysis of four research initiatives, covering different scales and timeframes, and addressing the complexity of intervention in a sustainability context. Our proposed improvements require new approaches for analysing the relationship between a project’s models and its publics. They reflect what we believe is a necessary and beneficial dialogue between the realms of expert scientific modelling and systems thinking. This paper is an attempt to start that process, itself reflecting a robust dialogue between two practitioners sat within differing traditions, puzzling how to integrate perspectives and achieve wider participation in researching this problem space. 
Assessment of the risk due to release of carbon fiber in civil aircraft accidents, phase 2
The risk associated with the potential use of carbon fiber composite material in commercial jet aircraft is investigated. A simulation model developed to generate risk profiles for several airports is described. The risk profiles show the probability that the cost due to accidents in any year exceeds a given amount. The computer model simulates aircraft accidents with fire, release of fibers, their downwind transport and infiltration of buildings, equipment failures, and resulting ecomomic impact. The individual airport results were combined to yield the national risk profile
Critical Temperature of a Trapped Bose Gas: Mean-Field Theory and Fluctuations
We investigate the possibilities of distinguishing the mean-field and
fluctuation effects on the critical temperature of a trapped Bose gas with
repulsive interatomic interactions. Since in a direct measurement of the
critical temperature as a function of the number of trapped atoms these effects
are small compared to the ideal gas results, we propose to observe
Bose-Einstein condensation by adiabatically ramping down the trapping
frequency. Moreover, analyzing this adiabatic cooling scheme, we show that
fluctuation effects can lead to the formation of a Bose condensate at
frequencies which are much larger than those predicted by the mean-field
theory.Comment: 4 pages of ReVTeX and 3 figures. Submitted to Physical Review
Refined Simulations of the Reaction Front for Diffusion-Limited Two-Species Annihilation in One Dimension
Extensive simulations are performed of the diffusion-limited reaction
AB in one dimension, with initially separated reagents. The reaction
rate profile, and the probability distributions of the separation and midpoint
of the nearest-neighbour pair of A and B particles, are all shown to exhibit
dynamic scaling, independently of the presence of fluctuations in the initial
state and of an exclusion principle in the model. The data is consistent with
all lengthscales behaving as as . Evidence of
multiscaling, found by other authors, is discussed in the light of these
findings.Comment: Resubmitted as TeX rather than Postscript file. RevTeX version 3.0,
10 pages with 16 Encapsulated Postscript figures (need epsf). University of
Geneva preprint UGVA/DPT 1994/10-85
The Mystery of the Ramsey Fringe that Didn't Chirp
We use precision microwave spectroscopy of magnetically trapped, ultra-cold
87Rb to characterize intra- and inter-state density correlations. The cold
collision shifts for both normal and condensed clouds are measured. The results
verify the presence of the sometimes controversial "factors of two", in
normal-cloud mean-field energies, both within a particular state and between
two distinct spin species. One might expect that as two spin species decohere,
the inter-state factor of two would revert to unity, but the associated
frequency chirp one naively expects from such a trend is not observed in our
data.Comment: Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Atomic Physics
(ICAP 2002
The Reaction-Diffusion Front for in One Dimension
We study theoretically and numerically the steady state diffusion controlled
reaction , where currents of and particles
are applied at opposite boundaries. For a reaction rate , and equal
diffusion constants , we find that when the
reaction front is well described by mean field theory. However, for , the front acquires a Gaussian profile - a result of
noise induced wandering of the reaction front center. We make a theoretical
prediction for this profile which is in good agreement with simulation.
Finally, we investigate the intrinsic (non-wandering) front width and find
results consistent with scaling and field theoretic predictions.Comment: 11 pages, revtex, 4 separate PostScript figure
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