9,752 research outputs found
Evaluating the impact of the Virtual Reality app ‘A Walk Through Dementia’ on Year One Health Care Students Clinical Practice
Workshop on Environmental Mapping of the Great Lakes: Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Windsor, Ontario, November 8-10, 1976
Irreversible and reversible modes of operation of deterministic ratchets
We discuss a problem of optimization of the energetic efficiency of a simple
rocked ratchet. We concentrate on a low-temperature case in which the
particle's motion in a ratchet potential is deterministic. We show that the
energetic efficiency of a ratchet working adiabatically is bounded from above
by a value depending on the form of ratchet potential. The ratchets with
strongly asymmetric potentials can achieve ideal efficiency of unity without
approaching reversibility. On the other hand we show that for any form of the
ratchet potential a set of time-protocols of the outer force exist under which
the operation is reversible and the ideal value of efficiency is also achieved.
The mode of operation of the ratchet is still quasistatic but not adiabatic.
The high values of efficiency can be preserved even under elevated
temperatures
Biophysical Measurements of Cells, Microtubules, and DNA with an Atomic Force Microscope
Atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are ubiquitous in research laboratories and
have recently been priced for use in teaching laboratories. Here we review
several AFM platforms (Dimension 3000 by Digital Instruments, EasyScan2 by
Nanosurf, ezAFM by Nanomagnetics, and TKAFM by Thorlabs) and describe various
biophysical experiments that could be done in the teaching laboratory using
these instruments. In particular, we focus on experiments that image biological
materials and quantify biophysical parameters: 1) imaging cells to determine
membrane tension, 2) imaging microtubules to determine their persistence
length, 3) imaging the random walk of DNA molecules to determine their contour
length, and 4) imaging stretched DNA molecules to measure the tensional force.Comment: 29 page preprint, 7 figures, 1 tabl
The psychological-type profile of clergywomen in ordained local ministry in the Church of England : pioneers or custodians?
This study employs psychological-type theory to compare the psychological profile of 144 clergywomen serving in ordained local ministry in the Church of England alongside the established profile of 237 professional mobile clergywomen serving in the Church of England published by Francis, Craig, Whinney, Tilley, and Slater. The data found no significant differences between these two groups of clergywomen in terms of orientations (introversion and extraversion) or in terms of the judging process (thinking and feeling). In terms of the perceiving process, there was a significantly higher proportion of sensing types among those serving in ordained local ministry (70% compared with 35%). In terms of the attitudes, there was a significantly higher proportion of judging types among those serving in ordained local ministry (83% compared with 65%). The combined sensing judging (SJ) temperament accounted for 65% of the clergywomen serving in ordained local ministry, compared with 29% of the clergywomen serving in professional mobile ministry in the earlier study. It is argued that the SJ temperament characterises a custodian style of ministry
Bridging Physics and Biology Teaching through Modeling
As the frontiers of biology become increasingly interdisciplinary, the
physics education community has engaged in ongoing efforts to make physics
classes more relevant to life sciences majors. These efforts are complicated by
the many apparent differences between these fields, including the types of
systems that each studies, the behavior of those systems, the kinds of
measurements that each makes, and the role of mathematics in each field.
Nonetheless, physics and biology are both sciences that rely on observations
and measurements to construct models of the natural world. In the present
theoretical article, we propose that efforts to bridge the teaching of these
two disciplines must emphasize shared scientific practices, particularly
scientific modeling. We define modeling using language common to both
disciplines and highlight how an understanding of the modeling process can help
reconcile apparent differences between the teaching of physics and biology. We
elaborate how models can be used for explanatory, predictive, and functional
purposes and present common models from each discipline demonstrating key
modeling principles. By framing interdisciplinary teaching in the context of
modeling, we aim to bridge physics and biology teaching and to equip students
with modeling competencies applicable across any scientific discipline.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 3 table
Traffic agents for improving QoS in mixed infrastructure and ad hoc modes wireless LAN
As an important complement to infrastructured wireless networks, mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) are more flexible in providing wireless access services, but more difficult in meeting different quality of service (QoS) requirements for mobile customers. Both infrastructure and ad hoc network structures are supported in wireless local area networks (WLAN), which can offer high data-rate wireless multimedia services to the mobile stations (MSs) in a limited geographical area. For those out-of-coverage MSs, how to effectively connect them to the access point (AP) and provide QoS support is a challenging issue. By mixing the infrastructure and the ad hoc modes in WLAN, we propose in this paper a new coverage improvement scheme that can identify suitable idle MSs in good service zones as traffic agents (TAs) to relay traffic from those out-of-coverage MSs to the AP. The service coverage area of WLAN is then expanded. The QoS requirements (e.g., bandwidth) of those MSs are considered in the selection process of corresponding TAs. Mathematical analysis, verified by computer simulations, shows that the proposed TA scheme can effectively reduce blocking probability when traffic load is light
Conservation planning in an uncertain climate: Identifying projects that remain valuable and feasible across future scenarios
Conservation actors face the challenge of allocating limited resources despite uncertainty about future climate conditions. In many cases, the potential value and feasibility of proposed projects vary across climate scenarios. A key goal is to identify areas where conservation outcomes can balance both environmental and human needs. We developed a conservation prioritization framework that jointly considers the value and feasibility of candidate projects across future climate scenarios. We then applied this framework to the challenge of meeting environmental flow targets across the Red River basin of the south‐central United States. To estimate the conservation feasibility of meeting environmental flow goals in a river reach in each climate scenario, we used a basin‐wide hydrologic planning tool to quantify the reduction in societal water usage needed to meet environmental flow targets. To estimate the biodiversity value of each river reach in each climate scenario, we used climate‐driven species distribution models and species’ conservation status. We found that river reaches in the east‐central portion of the basin may be good candidates for conservation investments, because they had high biodiversity value and high sociopolitical feasibility in all future climate scenarios. In contrast, sites in the arid western reaches of the basin had high biodiversity value, but low feasibility of achieving environmental flow goals. Our framework should have broad applicability given that the value and feasibility of conservation projects vary across climate scenarios in ecosystems around the world. It may serve as a coarse filter to identify sites for more detailed analyses and could be integrated with complementarity‐based approaches to conservation planning to balance species’ representation across projects.This research was supported by S.M.W.'s Science to Action Fellowship through the National Climate Adaptation Science Center at the US Geological Survey. U.S. Geological Survey. Grant Number: G17AP00120
Open Access fees paid for in whole or in part by the University of Oklahoma Libraries.Ye
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