1,285 research outputs found
Heated nuclear matter, condensation phenomena and the hadronic equation of state
The thermodynamic properties of heated nuclear matter are explored using an
exactly solvable canonical ensemble model. This model reduces to the results of
an ideal Fermi gas at low temperatures. At higher temperatures, the
fragmentation of the nuclear matter into clusters of nucleons leads to features
that resemble a Bose gas. Some parallels of this model with the phenomena of
Bose condensation and with percolation phenomena are discussed. A simple
expression for the hadronic equation of state is obtained from the model.Comment: 12 pages, revtex, 1 ps file appended (figure 1
Vection in virtual reality modulates vestibularâevoked myogenic potentials
The popularity of virtual reality (VR) has increased rapidly in recent years. While significant technological advancements are apparent, a troublesome problem with VR is that between 20% and 80% of users will experience unpleasant side effects such as nausea, disorientation, blurred vision and headachesâa malady known as Cybersickness. Cybersickness may be caused by a conflict between sensory signals for self-motion: while vision signals that the user is moving in a certain direction with certain acceleration, the vestibular organs provide no corroborating information. To resolve the sensory conflict, vestibular cues may be down-weighted leading to an alteration of how the brain interprets actual vestibular information. This may account for the frequently reported after-effects of VR exposure. Here, we investigated whether exposure to vection in VR modulates vestibular processing. We measured vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) during brief immersion in a vection-inducing VR environment presented via head-mounted display. We found changes in VEMP asymmetry ratio, with a substantial increase in VEMP amplitude recorded on the left sternocleidomastoid muscle following just one minute of exposure to vection in VR. Our results suggest that exposure to vection in VR modulates vestibular processing, which may explain common after-effects of VR
Circumstantial Evidence for a Critical Behavior in Peripheral Au + Au Collisions at 35 MeV/nucleon
The fragmentation resulting from peripheral Au + Au collisions at an incident
energy of E = 35 MeV/nucleon is investigated. A power-law charge distribution,
with , and an intermittency signal are observed
for events selected in the region of the Campi scatter plot where "critical"
behavior is expected.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex file, 4 postscript figures available upon request
from [email protected]
Classification of the Nuclear Multifragmentation Phase Transition
Using a recently proposed classification scheme for phase transitions in
finite systems [Phys.Rev.Lett.{\bf 84},3511 (2000)] we show that within the
statistical standard model of nuclear multifragmentation the predicted phase
transition is of first order.Comment: 5 pages, 4 eps figures, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.C (in
press
Reanalysis and Simulation Suggest a Phylogenetic Microarray Does Not Accurately Profile Microbial Communities
The second generation (G2) PhyloChip is designed to detect over 8700 bacteria and archaeal and has been used over 50 publications and conference presentations. Many of those publications reveal that the PhyloChip measures of species richness greatly exceed statistical estimates of richness based on other methods. An examination of probes downloaded from Greengenes suggested that the system may have the potential to distort the observed community structure. This may be due to the sharing of probes by taxa; more than 21% of the taxa in that downloaded data have no unique probes. In-silico simulations using these data showed that a population of 64 taxa representing a typical anaerobic subterranean community returned 96 different taxa, including 15 families incorrectly called present and 19 families incorrectly called absent. A study of nasal and oropharyngeal microbial communities by Lemon et al (2010) found some 1325 taxa using the G2 PhyloChip, however, about 950 of these taxa have, in the downloaded data, no unique probes and cannot be definitively called present. Finally, data from Brodie et al (2007), when re-examined, indicate that the abundance of the majority of detected taxa, are highly correlated with one another, suggesting that many probe sets do not act independently. Based on our analyses of downloaded data, we conclude that outputs from the G2 PhyloChip should be treated with some caution, and that the presence of taxa represented solely by non-unique probes be independently verified
Equation-Free Multiscale Computations in Social Networks: from Agent-based Modelling to Coarse-grained Stability and Bifurcation Analysis
We focus at the interface between multiscale computations, bifurcation theory
and social networks. In particular we address how the Equation-Free approach, a
recently developed computational framework, can be exploited to systematically
extract coarse-grained, emergent dynamical information by bridging detailed,
agent-based models of social interactions on networks, with macroscopic,
systems-level, continuum numerical analysis tools. For our illustrations we use
a simple dynamic agent-based model describing the propagation of information
between individuals interacting under mimesis in a social network with private
and public information. We describe the rules governing the evolution of the
agents emotional state dynamics and discover, through simulation, multiple
stable stationary states as a function of the network topology. Using the
Equation-Free approach we track the dependence of these stationary solutions on
network parameters and quantify their stability in the form of coarse-grained
bifurcation diagrams
Searching for the Nuclear Liquid-Gas Phase Transition in Au + Au Collisions at 35 MeV/nucleon
Within the framework of Classical Molecular Dynamics, we study the collision
Au + Au at an incident energy of 35 MeV/nucleon. It is found that the system
shows a critical behaviour at peripheral impact parameters, revealed through
the analysis of conditional moments of charge distributions, Campi Scatter
Plot, and the occurrence of large fluctuations in the region of the Campi plot
where this critical behaviour is expected. When applying the experimental
filters of the MULTICS-MINIBALL apparatus, it is found that criticality signals
can be hidden due to the inefficiency of the experimental apparatus. The
signals are then recovered by identifying semi-peripheral and peripheral
collisions looking to the velocity distribution of the largest fragment, then
by selecting the most complete events.Comment: RevTex file, 21 pages + 19 figures available upon request from
[email protected]
The greatest air quality experiment ever: Policy suggestions from the COVID-19 lockdown in twelve European cities
COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) hit Europe in January 2020. By March, Europe was the active centre of the pandemic. As a result, widespread "lockdown" measures were enforced across the various European countries, even if to a different extent. Such actions caused a dramatic reduction, especially in road traffic. This event can be considered the most significant experiment ever conducted in Europe to assess the impact of a massive switch-off of atmospheric pollutant sources. In this study, we focus on in situ concentration data of the main atmospheric pollutants measured in twelve European cities, characterized by different climatology, emission sources, and strengths. We propose a methodology for the fair comparison of the impact of lockdown measures considering the non-stationarity of meteorological conditions and emissions, which are progressively declining due to the adoption of stricter air quality measures. The analysis of these unmatched circumstances allowed us to estimate the impact of a nearly zero-emission urban transport scenario on air quality in 12 European cities. The clearest result, common to all the cities, is that a dramatic traffic reduction effectively reduces NO2 concentrations. In contrast, each cityâs PM and ozone concentrations can respond differently to the same type of emission reduction measure. From the policy point of view, these findings suggest that measures targeting urban traffic alone may not be the only effective option for improving air quality in cities
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