146 research outputs found

    Effective Mass Dirac-Morse Problem with any kappa-value

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    The Dirac-Morse problem are investigated within the framework of an approximation to the term proportional to 1/r21/r^2 in the view of the position-dependent mass formalism. The energy eigenvalues and corresponding wave functions are obtained by using the parametric generalization of the Nikiforov-Uvarov method for any κ\kappa-value. It is also studied the approximate energy eigenvalues, and corresponding wave functions in the case of the constant-mass for pseudospin, and spin cases, respectively.Comment: 12 page

    State stigmatization in urban Turkey : Managing the 'insurgent' squatter dwellers in Dikmen Valley

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    This paper contributes to the accounts of territorial stigmatisation by examining the state role in it in the case of Turkey, a country that suffers from growing state power. The existing debates are mainly restricted to its function as an economic strategy paving the way for capital accumulation through devaluing working‐class people and places. Drawing on textual analysis of political speeches, local newsletters and mainstream national newspapers and fieldwork material that include interviews and observations in Dikmen Valley where some squatter communities mobilised against the state‐imposed urban transformation project, I demonstrate that state conceptualisation of “problem people” targets the “insurgent” rather than the “unprofitable” groups. Stigma in urban settings functions in inciting the desire to meet the patterns deemed appropriate by the state, rather than the market. Moving from that, I argue that stigma is used as a state‐led political strategy, which is integral to the growing authoritarianism in Turkey

    Solving large 0–1 multidimensional knapsack problems by a new simplified binary artificial fish swarm algorithm

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    The artificial fish swarm algorithm has recently been emerged in continuous global optimization. It uses points of a population in space to identify the position of fish in the school. Many real-world optimization problems are described by 0-1 multidimensional knapsack problems that are NP-hard. In the last decades several exact as well as heuristic methods have been proposed for solving these problems. In this paper, a new simpli ed binary version of the artificial fish swarm algorithm is presented, where a point/ fish is represented by a binary string of 0/1 bits. Trial points are created by using crossover and mutation in the different fi sh behavior that are randomly selected by using two user de ned probability values. In order to make the points feasible the presented algorithm uses a random heuristic drop item procedure followed by an add item procedure aiming to increase the profit throughout the adding of more items in the knapsack. A cyclic reinitialization of 50% of the population, and a simple local search that allows the progress of a small percentage of points towards optimality and after that refines the best point in the population greatly improve the quality of the solutions. The presented method is tested on a set of benchmark instances and a comparison with other methods available in literature is shown. The comparison shows that the proposed method can be an alternative method for solving these problems.The authors wish to thank three anonymous referees for their comments and valuable suggestions to improve the paper. The first author acknowledges Ciˆencia 2007 of FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) Portugal for the fellowship grant C2007-UMINHO-ALGORITMI-04. Financial support from FEDER COMPETE (Operational Programme Thematic Factors of Competitiveness) and FCT under project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022674 is also acknowledged

    Giant primary adrenal hydatid cyst presenting with arterial hypertension: a case report and review of the literature

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>A primary hydatid cyst of the adrenal gland is still an exceptional localization. The adrenal gland is an uncommon site even in Morocco, where echinococcal disease is endemic.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 64-year-old Moroccan man who presented with the unusual symptom of arterial hypertension associated with left flank pain. Computed tomography showed a cystic mass of his left adrenal gland with daughter cysts filing the lesion (Type III). Despite his negative serology tests, the diagnosis of a hydatid cyst was confirmed on surgical examination. Our patient underwent surgical excision of his left adrenal gland with normalization of blood pressure. No recurrence has occurred after 36 months of follow-up.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There are two remarkable characteristics of this case report; the first is the unusual location of the cyst, the second is the association of an adrenal hydatid cyst with arterial hypertension, which has rarely been reported in the literature.</p

    Context specificity of post-error and post-conflict cognitive control adjustments

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    There has been accumulating evidence that cognitive control can be adaptively regulated by monitoring for processing conflict as an index of online control demands. However, it is not yet known whether top-down control mechanisms respond to processing conflict in a manner specific to the operative task context or confer a more generalized benefit. While previous studies have examined the taskset-specificity of conflict adaptation effects, yielding inconsistent results, controlrelated performance adjustments following errors have been largely overlooked. This gap in the literature underscores recent debate as to whether post-error performance represents a strategic, control-mediated mechanism or a nonstrategic consequence of attentional orienting. In the present study, evidence of generalized control following both high conflict correct trials and errors was explored in a task-switching paradigm. Conflict adaptation effects were not found to generalize across tasksets, despite a shared response set. In contrast, post-error slowing effects were found to extend to the inactive taskset and were predictive of enhanced post-error accuracy. In addition, post-error performance adjustments were found to persist for several trials and across multiple task switches, a finding inconsistent with attentional orienting accounts of post-error slowing. These findings indicate that error-related control adjustments confer a generalized performance benefit and suggest dissociable mechanisms of post-conflict and post-error control. © 2014 Forster, Cho

    Extra-pair parentage and personality in a cooperatively breeding bird

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    Why so much variation in extra-pair parentage occurs within and among populations remains unclear. Often the fitness costs and benefits of extra-pair parentage are hypothesised to explain its occurrence; therefore, linking extra-pair parentage with traits such as personality (behavioural traits that can be heritable and affect reproductive behaviour) may help our understanding. Here, we investigate whether reproductive outcomes and success are associated with exploratory behaviour in a natural population of cooperatively breeding Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) on Cousin Island. Exploratory behaviour correlates positively with traits such as risk-taking behaviour and activity in other wild bird species and might promote extra-pair mating by increasing the rate at which potential extra-pair partners are encountered. We therefore predicted that fast-exploring individuals would have more extra-pair offspring. There is also a potential trade-off between pursuing extra-pair parentage and mate guarding in males. We therefore also predicted that fast-exploring males would be more likely to pursue extra-pair parentage and that this would increase the propensity of their mate to gain extra-pair parentage. We found that neither the total number of offspring nor the number of extra-pair offspring were associated with a male’s or female’s exploratory behaviour. However, there was a small but significant propensity for females to have extra-pair fertilisations in pairs that were behaviourally disassortative. Overall, we conclude that, due to the small effect size, the association between exploratory behaviour and extra-pair paternity is unlikely to be biologically relevant. Significance statement: True genetic monogamy is rare, even in socially monogamous systems, and multiple factors, such as behaviour, social structure, morphology and physiology, determined by the biological system can cause variation in extra-pair parentage (EPP). Therefore, investigating the inherent differences in these factors among individuals could be informative. We investigated whether reproductive outcomes/success are associated with differences in the propensity to explore novel environments/objects in a promiscuous, island-dwelling cooperatively breeding bird, the Seychelles warbler. Our results showed that exploratory behaviour was not associated with the number of offspring produced by an individual, and thus the long-term fitness consequences of different exploratory tendencies did not differ. We also found that the propensity to engage in EPP in females was higher in dissimilar behavioural pairs, but due to the small effect size, we hesitate to conclude that there are personality-dependent mating outcomes in the population

    Perceived corruption and individuals’ life satisfaction: The mediating role of Institutional Trust Marco

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    Corruption degrades the quality of institutions, increases economic inequality and limits growth. Recent studies indicate that corruption is also associated with lower satisfaction with life. This research examines a potential explanation for this association and investigates the role of institutional trust in mediating the linkage between perceived corruption and satisfaction with life. Specifically, in two studies, we tested the novel hypothesises that perceived corruption affects life satisfaction indirectly by undermining individuals’ confidence in institutions. Study 1 (N = 251) involved an opportunity sample from the US. Study 2 (N = 9508) analysed data from the World Value Survey and involved a larger, representative sample of individuals from the MENA region. Across studies, mediation analyses provided evidence for the hypothesized indirect effect of perceived corruption on life satisfaction through institutional trust. Implications of the findings, limitations of the studies and directions for future research are discussed

    The effect of heating and cooling temperatures on rapid cooling time and particle number in auto glass tempering process

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    In terms of tempering quality, controlling and applying of heating and rapid cooling processes are very important in the glass tempering process. In this study, auto glass tempering process was implemented in the prototype glass tempering unit which was designed specifically, exchange of cooling time and particle number was investigated according to heating and cooling temperatures. Without going out of standards, it was aimed to determine the tempering conditions which are needed to keep the energy consumption at minimum in glass tempering process. Glasses that were heated to three different average surface temperatures (Th=620, 650 and 680°C) were rapidly cooled to four different average surface temperatures (Tc=70, 250, 300 and 400°C). The distance between the nozzle and the glass surface is H, the distance between the nozzle axes is S. It was considered 2&lt;H/D&lt;8, S/D=4 and Reynolds number Re=20000. According to the study; while higher heating temperature of the glass resulted in higher particle number, higher cooling temperature resulted in lower particle number. Although there are quite high differences between the sudden cooling times for cooling temperatures Tc=70, 250 and 300°C, particle numbers are close to each other
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