11,240 research outputs found

    Gravitational collapse of magnetized clouds II. The role of Ohmic dissipation

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    We formulate the problem of magnetic field dissipation during the accretion phase of low-mass star formation, and we carry out the first step of an iterative solution procedure by assuming that the gas is in free-fall along radial field lines. This so-called ``kinematic approximation'' ignores the back reaction of the Lorentz force on the accretion flow. In quasi steady-state, and assuming the resistivity coefficient to be spatially uniform, the problem is analytically soluble in terms of Legendre's polynomials and confluent hypergeometric functions. The dissipation of the magnetic field occurs inside a region of radius inversely proportional to the mass of the central star (the ``Ohm radius''), where the magnetic field becomes asymptotically straight and uniform. In our solution, the magnetic flux problem of star formation is avoided because the magnetic flux dragged in the accreting protostar is always zero. Our results imply that the effective resistivity of the infalling gas must be higher by several orders of magnitude than the microscopic electric resistivity, to avoid conflict with measurements of paleomagnetism in meteorites and with the observed luminosity of regions of low-mass star formation.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, The Astrophysical Journal, in pres

    Does parents' socio-economic status matter in intentions of vaccinating against human papillomavirus for adolescent daughters?

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    Background: The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination provides substantial protection, and it is best to be taken before the age of twelve. Taiwan approved HPV vaccines since 2006. However, very few female adolescent have been vaccinated until now.Objectives: To examine whether the parents’ socio-economic status matters in deciding to purchase HPV vaccination for their daughters based on the theory of planned behavior.Method: A structured questionnaire to collect 394 responses from parents of adolescent girls in Taiwan. Data was coded to categorize relevant socio-economic classes, and was analyzed with SPSS.Results: The behavior intentions of parents with low (mean= 5.28) and high (5.01) socio-economic status are significantly stronger than the moderate (4.56) in deciding to purchase the HPV vaccination. Socio-economic factor has a slightly negative impact (B= -0.08), and attitude (0.68), subjective norms (0.16), and behavior control (0.32) have positive impacts on the parents’ intention.Conclusion: Major impacts on the decision to purchase an HPV vaccination for their adolescent was not due to the parents’ socio-economic status but the parent’s attitude. As the major predictor of a less complicated decision, attitudes toward the HPV vaccination should be reinforced through continuous communications between service providers and patient-advocate groups.Keywords: Human Papillomavirus, cervical cancer, theory of planned behavior, vaccination, adolescen

    The Effect of the Random Magnetic Field Component on the Parker Instability

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    The Parker instability is considered to play important roles in the evolution of the interstellar medium. Most studies on the development of the instability so far have been based on an initial equilibrium system with a uniform magnetic field. However, the Galactic magnetic field possesses a random component in addition to the mean uniform component, with comparable strength of the two components. Parker and Jokipii have recently suggested that the random component can suppress the growth of small wavelength perturbations. Here, we extend their analysis by including gas pressure which was ignored in their work, and study the stabilizing effect of the random component in the interstellar gas with finite pressure. Following Parker and Jokipii, the magnetic field is modeled as a mean azimuthal component, B(z)B(z), plus a random radial component, ϵ(z)B(z)\epsilon(z) B(z), where ϵ(z)\epsilon(z) is a random function of height from the equatorial plane. We show that for the observationally suggested values of 1/2^{1/2}, the tension due to the random component becomes important, so that the growth of the instability is either significantly reduced or completely suppressed. When the instability still works, the radial wavenumber of the most unstable mode is found to be zero. That is, the instability is reduced to be effectively two-dimensional. We discuss briefly the implications of our finding.Comment: 10 pages including 2 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

    Quantum Information Approach to Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Tilted Double-Well System

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    We study the ground state properties of bosons in a tilted double-well system. We use fidelity susceptibility to identify the possible ground state transitions under different tilt values. For a very small tilt (for example 101010^{-10}), two transitions are found. For a moderate tilt (for example 10310^{-3}), only one transition is found. For a large tilt (for example 10110^{-1}), no transition is found. We explain this by analyzing the spectrum of the ground state. The quantum discord and total correlation of the ground state under different tilts are also calculated to indicate those transitions. In the transition region, both quantities have peaks decaying exponentially with particle number NN. This means for a finite-size system the transition region cannot be explained by the mean-field theory, but in the large-NN limit it can be.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, slightly different from the published versio

    The implementation of a lossless data compression module in an advanced orbiting system: Analysis and development

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    Data compression has been proposed for several flight missions as a means of either reducing on board mass data storage, increasing science data return through a bandwidth constrained channel, reducing TDRSS access time, or easing ground archival mass storage requirement. Several issues arise with the implementation of this technology. These include the requirement of a clean channel, onboard smoothing buffer, onboard processing hardware and on the algorithm itself, the adaptability to scene changes and maybe even versatility to the various mission types. This paper gives an overview of an ongoing effort being performed at Goddard Space Flight Center for implementing a lossless data compression scheme for space flight. We will provide analysis results on several data systems issues, the performance of the selected lossless compression scheme, the status of the hardware processor and current development plan

    Branch, Spur, and Feather Formation in Spiral Galaxies

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    We use hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the response of geometrically thin, self-gravitating, singular isothermal disks of gas to imposed rigidly rotating spiral potentials. By minimizing reflection-induced feedback from boundaries, and by restricting our attention to models where the swing parameter X10X \sim 10, we minimize the swing amplification of global normal modes even in models where Toomre's Qg12Q_g \sim 1-2 in the gas disk. We perform two classes of simulations: short-term ones over a few galactic revolutions where the background spiral forcing is large, and long-term ones over many galactic revolutions where the spiral forcing is considerably smaller. In both classes of simulations, the initial response of the gas disk is smooth and mimics the driving spiral field. At late times, many of the models evince substructure akin to the so-called branches, spurs, and feathers observed in real spiral galaxies. We comment on the parts played respectively by ultraharmonic resonances, reflection off internal features produced by nonlinear dredging, and local, transient, gravitational instabilites within spiral arms in the generation of such features. Our simulations reinforce the idea that spiral structure in the gaseous component becomes increasingly flocculent and disordered with the passage of time, even when the background population of old disk stars is a grand-design spiral. We speculate that truly chaotic behavior arises when many overlapping ultraharmonic resonances develop in reaction to an imposed spiral forcing that has itself a nonlinear, yet smooth, wave profile.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal (tentatively October 10, 2003). Version with higher resolution embedded postscript figures at http://astron.berkeley.edu/~sukanya/ms.p
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