The 3D structure of the Lagrangian acceleration in turbulent flows

We report experimental results on the three dimensional Lagrangian acceleration in highly turbulent flows. Tracer particles are tracked optically using four silicon strip detectors from high energy physics that provide high temporal and spatial resolution. The components of the acceleration are shown to be statistically dependent. The probability density function (PDF) of the acceleration magnitude is comparable to a log-normal distribution. Assuming isotropy, a log-normal distribution of the magnitude can account for the observed dependency of the components. The time dynamics of the acceleration components is found to be typical of the dissipation scales whereas the magnitude evolves over longer times, possibly close to the integral time scale.Comment: accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Retail event: A comparative study between local residents and tourists in spontaneous purchase

Research on festivals and cultural events draw considerable attention among academics and practitioners. The relationships between marketing influence and spontaneous purchase have been studied in general retail setting; however, there is dearth knowledge of purchase patterns in a festive setting. This study aims to identify what factors motivate attendees to spontaneous purchase and to investigate how local residents and tourists respond in their spontaneous purchase when exposed to stimuli at a special event held infrequently for a short period of time. The flower market at the Chinese New Year Festival was chosen as the study context as it is one of the most popular events in Macau, in which spontaneous purchases are made. A quota sample of 150 local residents and 100 tourists was recruited in November, 2007. The results indicate that product quality, price, and variety are the top three priorities among both local residents and tourists when making purchasing decision at the flower market. Significant differences of free sample tasting and cultural tradition were found between the two segments in purchase intention. The findings allow marketing activities to be highly targeted according to the difference response of local residents and tourists. Future research is also recommended

Tracing the Evolution of Physics on the Backbone of Citation Networks

Many innovations are inspired by past ideas in a non-trivial way. Tracing these origins and identifying scientific branches is crucial for research inspirations. In this paper, we use citation relations to identify the descendant chart, i.e. the family tree of research papers. Unlike other spanning trees which focus on cost or distance minimization, we make use of the nature of citations and identify the most important parent for each publication, leading to a tree-like backbone of the citation network. Measures are introduced to validate the backbone as the descendant chart. We show that citation backbones can well characterize the hierarchical and fractal structure of scientific development, and lead to accurate classification of fields and sub-fields.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Analytical Blowup Solutions to the Pressureless Navier-Stokes-Poisson Equations with Density-dependent Viscosity in R^N

We study the N-dimensional pressureless Navier--Stokes-Poisson equations with density-dependent viscosity. With the extension of the blowup solutions for the Euler-Poisson equations, the analytical blowup solutions,in radial symmetry, in R^N are constructed.Comment: 12 Pages, more detail in the introduction to explain the validity of the mode

Coarsening Dynamics of a One-Dimensional Driven Cahn-Hilliard System

We study the one-dimensional Cahn-Hilliard equation with an additional driving term representing, say, the effect of gravity. We find that the driving field $E$ has an asymmetric effect on the solution for a single stationary domain wall (or `kink'), the direction of the field determining whether the analytic solutions found by Leung [J.Stat.Phys.{\bf 61}, 345 (1990)] are unique. The dynamics of a kink-antikink pair (`bubble') is then studied. The behaviour of a bubble is dependent on the relative sizes of a characteristic length scale $E^{-1}$, where $E$ is the driving field, and the separation, $L$, of the interfaces. For $EL \gg 1$ the velocities of the interfaces are negligible, while in the opposite limit a travelling-wave solution is found with a velocity $v \propto E/L$. For this latter case ($EL \ll 1$) a set of reduced equations, describing the evolution of the domain lengths, is obtained for a system with a large number of interfaces, and implies a characteristic length scale growing as $(Et)^{1/2}$. Numerical results for the domain-size distribution and structure factor confirm this behavior, and show that the system exhibits dynamical scaling from very early times.Comment: 20 pages, revtex, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Cosmic Microwave Background constraints of decaying dark matter particle properties

If a component of cosmological dark matter is made up of massive particles - such as sterile neutrinos - that decay with cosmological lifetime to emit photons, the reionization history of the universe would be affected, and cosmic microwave background anisotropies can be used to constrain such a decaying particle model of dark matter. The optical depth depends rather sensitively on the decaying dark matter particle mass m_{dm}, lifetime tau_{dm}, and the mass fraction of cold dark matter f that they account for in this model. Assuming that there are no other sources of reionization and using the WMAP 7-year data, we find that 250 eV < m_{dm} < 1 MeV, whereas 2.23*10^3 yr < tau_{dm} < 1.23*10^18 yr. The best fit values for m_{dm} and tau_{dm}/f are 17.3 keV and 2.03*10^16 yr respectively.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Macrorealism from entropic Leggett-Garg inequalities

We formulate entropic Leggett-Garg inequalities, which place constraints on the statistical outcomes of temporal correlations of observables. The information theoretic inequalities are satisfied if macrorealism holds. We show that the quantum statistics underlying correlations between time-separated spin component of a quantum rotor mimics that of spin correlations in two spatially separated spin-$s$ particles sharing a state of zero total spin. This brings forth the violation of the entropic Leggett-Garg inequality by a rotating quantum spin-$s$ system in similar manner as does the entropic Bell inequality (Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 662 (1988)) by a pair of spin-$s$ particles forming a composite spin singlet state.Comment: 5 pages, RevTeX, 2 eps figures, Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Effects of cold water immersion on muscle oxygenation during repeated bouts of fatiguing exercise : a randomized controlled study

2015-2016 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Sarco/Endoplasmic Reticulum Ca-ATPase (SERCA) pump is a more effective Calcium-handling mediator than the Sodium-Calcium Exchanger (NCX) in hESC-derived ventricular cardiomyocytes

Poster Session - Heart Regeneration: no. 29DMM 2011 entitled: Re-engineering Regenerative MedicineVentricular (V) cardiomyocytes (CMs) are non-regenerative. Self-renewable pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can differentiate into CMs for cellbased therapies. We have previously shown that hESC-derived CMs display immature Ca-handling properties, with smaller transient amplitudes and slower upstroke and decay kinetics. These functional immaturities can be attributed to their proteomic differences in crucial Ca-handling proteins such as the complete absence of triadin, junctin, CSQ, phospholamban. Indeed, forced CSQ expression partially …postprin

Autonomous frequency domain identification: Theory and experiment

The analysis, design, and on-orbit tuning of robust controllers require more information about the plant than simply a nominal estimate of the plant transfer function. Information is also required concerning the uncertainty in the nominal estimate, or more generally, the identification of a model set within which the true plant is known to lie. The identification methodology that was developed and experimentally demonstrated makes use of a simple but useful characterization of the model uncertainty based on the output error. This is a characterization of the additive uncertainty in the plant model, which has found considerable use in many robust control analysis and synthesis techniques. The identification process is initiated by a stochastic input u which is applied to the plant p giving rise to the output. Spectral estimation (h = P sub uy/P sub uu) is used as an estimate of p and the model order is estimated using the produce moment matrix (PMM) method. A parametric model unit direction vector p is then determined by curve fitting the spectral estimate to a rational transfer function. The additive uncertainty delta sub m = p - unit direction vector p is then estimated by the cross spectral estimate delta = P sub ue/P sub uu where e = y - unit direction vectory y is the output error, and unit direction vector y = unit direction vector pu is the computed output of the parametric model subjected to the actual input u. The experimental results demonstrate the curve fitting algorithm produces the reduced-order plant model which minimizes the additive uncertainty. The nominal transfer function estimate unit direction vector p and the estimate delta of the additive uncertainty delta sub m are subsequently available to be used for optimization of robust controller performance and stability