565 research outputs found
Observing Brownian motion in vibration-fluidized granular matter
At the beginning of last century, Gerlach and Lehrer observed the rotational
Brownian motion of a very fine wire immersed in an equilibrium environment, a
gas. This simple experiment eventually permitted the full development of one of
the most important ideas of equilibrium statistical mechanics: the very
complicated many-particle problem of a large number of molecules colliding with
the wire, can be represented by two macroscopic parameters only, namely
viscosity and the temperature. Can this idea, mathematically developed in the
so-called Langevin model and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem be used to
describe systems that are far from equilibrium? Here we address the question
and reproduce the Gerlach and Lehrer experiment in an archetype non-equilibrium
system, by immersing a sensitive torsion oscillator in a granular system of
millimetre-size grains, fluidized by strong external vibrations. The
vibro-fluidized granular medium is a driven environment, with continuous
injection and dissipation of energy, and the immersed oscillator can be seen as
analogous to an elastically bound Brownian particle. We show, by measuring the
noise and the susceptibility, that the experiment can be treated, in first
approximation, with the same formalism as in the equilibrium case, giving
experimental access to a ''granular viscosity'' and an ''effective
temperature'', however anisotropic and inhomogeneous, and yielding the
surprising result that the vibro-fluidized granular matter behaves as a
''thermal'' bath satisfying a fluctuation-dissipation relation
Direct observation of molecular cooperativity near the glass transition
We describe direct observations of molecular cooperativity near the glass
transition in poly-vinyl-acetate (PVAc), through nanometer-scale probing of
dielectric fluctuations. Molecular clusters switched spontaneously between two
to four distinct configurations, producing complex random-telegraph-signals
(RTS). Analysis of the RTS and their power spectra shows that individual
clusters exhibit both transient dynamical heterogeneity and non-exponential
kinetics.Comment: 14 pages pdf, need Acrobat Reade
A Land System representation for global assessments and land-use modeling
Current global scale land-change models used for integrated assessments and climate modeling are based on classifications of land cover. However, land-use management intensity and livestock keeping are also important aspects of land use, and are an integrated part of land systems. This article aims to classify, map, and to characterize Land Systems (LS) at a global scale and analyze the spatial determinants of these systems. Besides proposing such a classification, the article tests if global assessments can be based on globally uniform allocation rules. Land cover, livestock, and agricultural intensity data are used to map LS using a hierarchical classification method. Logistic regressions are used to analyze variation in spatial determinants of LS. The analysis of the spatial determinants of LS indicates strong associations between LS and a range of socioeconomic and biophysical indicators of human-environment interactions. The set of identified spatial determinants of a LS differs among regions and scales, especially for (mosaic) cropland systems, grassland systems with livestock, and settlements. (Semi-)Natural LS have more similar spatial determinants across regions and scales. Using LS in global models is expected to result in a more accurate representation of land use capturing important aspects of land systems and land architecture: the variation in land cover and the link between land-use intensity and landscape composition. Because the set of most important spatial determinants of LS varies among regions and scales, land-change models that include the human drivers of land change are best parameterized at sub-global level, where similar biophysical, socioeconomic and cultural conditions prevail in the specific regions. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Exploring differential item functioning in the SF-36 by demographic, clinical, psychological and social factors in an osteoarthritis population
The SF-36 is a very commonly used generic measure of health outcome in osteoarthritis (OA). An important, but frequently overlooked, aspect of validating health outcome measures is to establish if items work in the same way across subgroup of a population. That is, if respondents have the same 'true' level of outcome, does the item give the same score in different subgroups or is it biased towards one subgroup or another. Differential item functioning (DIF) can identify items that may be biased for one group or another and has been applied to measuring patient reported outcomes. Items may show DIF for different conditions and between cultures, however the SF-36 has not been specifically examined in an osteoarthritis population nor in a UK population. Hence, the aim of the study was to apply the DIF method to the SF-36 for a UK OA population. The sample comprised a community sample of 763 people with OA who participated in the Somerset and Avon Survey of Health. The SF-36 was explored for DIF with respect to demographic, social, clinical and psychological factors. Well developed ordinal regression models were used to identify DIF items. Results: DIF items were found by age (6 items), employment status (6 items), social class (2 items), mood (2 items), hip v knee (2 items), social deprivation (1 item) and body mass index (1 item). Although the impact of the DIF items rarely had a significant effect on the conclusions of group comparisons, in most cases there was a significant change in effect size. Overall, the SF-36 performed well with only a small number of DIF items identified, a reassuring finding in view of the frequent use of the SF-36 in OA. Nevertheless, where DIF items were identified it would be advisable to analyse data taking account of DIF items, especially when age effects are the focus of interest
On The Stability Of Non-Supersymmetric AdS Vacua
We consider two infinite families of Non-Supersymmetric vacua, called
Type 2) and Type 3) vacua, that arise in massive IIA supergravity with flux. We
show that both families are perturbatively stable. We then examine
non-perturbative decays of these vacua to other supersymmetric and
non-supersymmetric vacua mediated by instantons in the thin wall
approximation. We find that many decays are ruled out since the tension of the
interpolating domain wall is too big compared to the energy difference in AdS
units. In fact, within our approximations no decays of Type 2) vacua are
allowed, although some decays are only marginally forbidden. This can be
understood in terms of a "pairing symmetry" in the landscape which relate Type
2) vacua with supersymmetric ones of the same energy.Comment: 50 pages, Minor changes in section 2.2.
Does the impact of osteoarthritis vary by age, gender and social deprivation? A community study using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
The aim of the study was to explore if the impact of osteoarthritis varies with respect to age, gender and social deprivation. Impact was defined as impairment, activity limitations and participation restriction (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)). Investigating the functioning of the ICF model for subgroups is important both practically and theoretically. The sample comprised a community sample of 763 people diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Uncontaminated measures of the ICF constructs were developed using discriminant content validity from a pool of 134 items, including the WOMAC and SF-36. Multigroup Structural Equation Modelling was used to explore if the same pathways exist for subgroups of gender, age and social deprivation. Results: Different significant paths were found for gender and social deprivation: impairment did not predict participation restriction for women and those most deprived, whereas these paths were significant for men and those less deprived. No difference in the paths was found for age. The impact of osteoarthritis appears to vary with respect to gender and social deprivation but not age. This suggests both that osteoarthritis per se does not adequately explain the health outcomes observed and that different clinical approaches may be appropriate for people of different gender and levels of deprivation. Implications of Rehabilitation • The ICF model appears to vary with respect to gender and social deprivation for people with osteoarthritis. • The ICF model did not appear to vary with respect to age for people with osteoarthritis. • Different treatments and interventions for osteoarthritis may need to be targeted for specific gender and social deprivation groups
Dielectric and thermal relaxation in the energy landscape
We derive an energy landscape interpretation of dielectric relaxation times
in undercooled liquids, comparing it to the traditional Debye and
Gemant-DiMarzio-Bishop pictures. The interaction between different local
structural rearrangements in the energy landscape explains qualitatively the
recently observed splitting of the flow process into an initial and a final
stage. The initial mechanical relaxation stage is attributed to hopping
processes, the final thermal or structural relaxation stage to the decay of the
local double-well potentials. The energy landscape concept provides an
explanation for the equality of thermal and dielectric relaxation times. The
equality itself is once more demonstrated on the basis of literature data for
salol.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 41 references, Workshop Disordered Systems,
Molveno 2006, submitted to Philosophical Magazin
Dimension reduction for systems with slow relaxation
We develop reduced, stochastic models for high dimensional, dissipative
dynamical systems that relax very slowly to equilibrium and can encode long
term memory. We present a variety of empirical and first principles approaches
for model reduction, and build a mathematical framework for analyzing the
reduced models. We introduce the notions of universal and asymptotic filters to
characterize `optimal' model reductions for sloppy linear models. We illustrate
our methods by applying them to the practically important problem of modeling
evaporation in oil spills.Comment: 48 Pages, 13 figures. Paper dedicated to the memory of Leo Kadanof
Exploring differential item functioning in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index (WOMAC)
Background: The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) is a widely used patient reported outcome in osteoarthritis. An important, but frequently overlooked, aspect of validating health outcome measures is to establish if items exhibit differential item functioning (DIF). That is, if respondents have the same underlying level of an attribute, does the item give the same score in different subgroups or is it biased towards one subgroup or another. The aim of the study was to explore DIF in the Likert format WOMAC for the first time in a UK osteoarthritis population with respect to demographic, social, clinical and psychological factors. Methods: The sample comprised a community sample of 763 people with osteoarthritis who participated in the Somerset and Avon Survey of Health. The WOMAC was explored for DIF by gender, age, social deprivation, social class, employment status, distress, body mass index and clinical factors. Ordinal regression models were used to identify DIF items. Results: After adjusting for age, two items were identified for the physical functioning subscale as having DIF with age identified as the DIF factor for 2 items, gender for 1 item and body mass index for 1 item. For the WOMAC pain subscale, for people with hip osteoarthritis one item was identified with age-related DIF. The impact of the DIF items rarely had a significant effect on the conclusions of group comparisons. Conclusions: Overall, the WOMAC performed well with only a small number of DIF items identified. However, as DIF items were identified in for the WOMAC physical functioning subscale it would be advisable to analyse data taking into account the possible impact of the DIF items when weight, gender or especially age effects, are the focus of interest in UK-based osteoarthritis studies. Similarly for the WOMAC pain subscale in people with hip osteoarthritis it would be worthwhile to analyse data taking into account the possible impact of the DIF item when age comparisons are of primary interest
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