Stability analysis and quasinormal modes of Reissner Nordstr{\o}m Space-time via Lyapunov exponent

We explicitly derive the proper time $(\tau)$ principal Lyapunov exponent ($\lambda_{p}$) and coordinate time ($t$) principal Lyapunov exponent ($\lambda_{c}$) for Reissner Nordstr{\o}m (RN) black hole (BH) . We also compute their ratio. For RN space-time, it is shown that the ratio is $\frac{\lambda_{p}}{\lambda_{c}}=\frac{r_{0}}{\sqrt{r_{0}^2-3Mr_{0}+2Q^2}}$ for time-like circular geodesics and for Schwarzschild BH it is $\frac{\lambda_{p}}{\lambda_{c}}=\frac{\sqrt{r_{0}}}{\sqrt{r_{0}-3M}}$. We further show that their ratio $\frac{\lambda_{p}}{\lambda_{c}}$ may vary from orbit to orbit. For instance, Schwarzschild BH at innermost stable circular orbit(ISCO), the ratio is $\frac{\lambda_{p}}{\lambda_{c}}\mid_{r_{ISCO}=6M}=\sqrt{2}$ and at marginally bound circular orbit (MBCO) the ratio is calculated to be $\frac{\lambda_{p}}{\lambda_{c}}\mid_{r_{mb}=4M}=2$. Similarly, for extremal RN BH the ratio at ISCO is $\frac{\lambda_{p}}{\lambda_{c}}\mid_{r_{ISCO}=4M}=\frac{2\sqrt{2}}{\sqrt{3}}$. We also further analyse the geodesic stability via this exponent. By evaluating the Lyapunov exponent, it is shown that in the eikonal limit , the real and imaginary parts of the quasi-normal modes of RN BH is given by the frequency and instability time scale of the unstable null circular geodesics.Comment: Accepted in Pramana, 07/09/201

Boundaries Around the 'Well-Informed' Patient: The Contribution of Schutz to Inform Nurses' Interactions

Aim. The aim of this paper is to explore the operation of two different types of knowledge in health care and the position of the nurse to assist in the confluence of knowledge to develop the well-informed patient. Background. If patients are to be active participants in their care they require useful information. Interactions in contemporary health care mostly involve 'medico-scientific' knowledge, that refers to the 'science' of patients' conditions, as opposed to 'everyday' knowledge, which refers to information that can assist patients in lifestyle matters relating to their condition. Theoretical perspective. This paper draws on the work of the 'well-informed citizen' as proposed by Schutz in the analysis of two patient case studies of practices in the acute care setting of the hospital. Method. Data collection was undertaken through fieldwork, incorporating participant observation and discussions with patients in general medical/surgical areas. Results. Two patient case studies representative of the findings are analysed. Analysis identifies the predominant use of 'medico-scientific' knowledge to the detriment of 'everyday' knowledge during interactions between patients and all health professionals. Conclusions. There is predisposition in the acute context to interact in 'medico-scientific' knowledge as opposed to 'everyday' knowledge that does not facilitate a comprehensive understanding by patients of how they can best manage their lifestyle. Relevance to clinical practice. Using the notion of Schutz's 'well-informed' citizen this study identifies strategies for nursing staff to capture and explore the development of 'everyday' knowledge that can assist patients to become more informed and improve their health management

Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology with Gravitational Waves

Gravitational wave detectors are already operating at interesting sensitivity levels, and they have an upgrade path that should result in secure detections by 2014. We review the physics of gravitational waves, how they interact with detectors (bars and interferometers), and how these detectors operate. We study the most likely sources of gravitational waves and review the data analysis methods that are used to extract their signals from detector noise. Then we consider the consequences of gravitational wave detections and observations for physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.Comment: 137 pages, 16 figures, Published version <http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2009-2

A systematic review and meta-synthesis of the impact of low back pain on people's lives

Copyright @ 2014 Froud et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Background - Low back pain (LBP) is a common and costly problem that many interpret within a biopsychosocial model. There is renewed concern that core-sets of outcome measures do not capture what is important. To inform debate about the coverage of back pain outcome measure core-sets, and to suggest areas worthy of exploration within healthcare consultations, we have synthesised the qualitative literature on the impact of low back pain on people’s lives. Methods - Two reviewers searched CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, PEDro, and Medline, identifying qualitative studies of people’s experiences of non-specific LBP. Abstracted data were thematic coded and synthesised using a meta-ethnographic, and a meta-narrative approach. Results - We included 49 papers describing 42 studies. Patients are concerned with engagement in meaningful activities; but they also want to be believed and have their experiences and identity, as someone ‘doing battle’ with pain, validated. Patients seek diagnosis, treatment, and cure, but also reassurance of the absence of pathology. Some struggle to meet social expectations and obligations. When these are achieved, the credibility of their pain/disability claims can be jeopardised. Others withdraw, fearful of disapproval, or unable or unwilling to accommodate social demands. Patients generally seek to regain their pre-pain levels of health, and physical and emotional stability. After time, this can be perceived to become unrealistic and some adjust their expectations accordingly. Conclusions - The social component of the biopsychosocial model is not well represented in current core-sets of outcome measures. Clinicians should appreciate that the broader impact of low back pain includes social factors; this may be crucial to improving patients’ experiences of health care. Researchers should consider social factors to help develop a portfolio of more relevant outcome measures.Arthritis Research U

Gravitational Waves from Gravitational Collapse

Gravitational wave emission from the gravitational collapse of massive stars has been studied for more than three decades. Current state of the art numerical investigations of collapse include those that use progenitors with realistic angular momentum profiles, properly treat microphysics issues, account for general relativity, and examine non--axisymmetric effects in three dimensions. Such simulations predict that gravitational waves from various phenomena associated with gravitational collapse could be detectable with advanced ground--based and future space--based interferometric observatories.Comment: 68 pages including 13 figures; revised version accepted for publication in Living Reviews in Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org

The study on the outsourcing of Taiwan's hospitals: a questionnaire survey research

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to assess the outsourcing situation in Taiwanese hospitals and compares the differences in hospital ownership and in accreditation levels.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This research combined two kinds of methods: a questionnaire survey and the in-depth interview to two CEOs of the sample hospitals. One hospital is not-for-profit, while the other is a public hospital and the research samples are from the hospital data from Taiwan's 2005 to 2007 Department of Health qualifying lists of hospital accreditation. The returned questionnaires were analyzed with STATISTICA^®7.1 version software.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results for non-medical items showed medical waste and common trash both have the highest rate (94.6 percent) of being outsourced. The gift store (75 percent) and linen (73 percent) follow close behind, while the lowest rate of outsourcing is in utility maintenance (13.5 percent). For medical items, the highest rate of outsourcing is in the ambulance units (51.4 percent), while the hemodialysis center follows close behind with a rate of 50 percent. For departments of nutrition, pharmacy, and nursing however, the outsourcing rate is lower than 3 percent. This shows that Taiwan's hospitals are still conservative in their willingness to outsource for medical items. The results of the satisfaction paired t-test show that the non-medical items have a higher score than the medical items. The factor analysis showed the three significant factors in of non medical items' outsourcing are "performance", "finance", and "human resource". For medical items, the two factors are "operation" and satisfaction". To further exam the factor validity and reliability of the satisfaction model, a confirmative factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using structure equation modeling (SEM) method and found the model fitting well.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Hospitals, especially for public hospitals, can get benefits from outsourcing to revive the full-time-equivalent and human resource limitation.</p

Binary and Millisecond Pulsars at the New Millennium

We review the properties and applications of binary and millisecond pulsars. Our knowledge of these exciting objects has greatly increased in recent years, mainly due to successful surveys which have brought the known pulsar population to over 1300. There are now 56 binary and millisecond pulsars in the Galactic disk and a further 47 in globular clusters. This review is concerned primarily with the results and spin-offs from these surveys which are of particular interest to the relativity community.Comment: 59 pages, 26 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Living Reviews in Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org

The Hubble Constant

I review the current state of determinations of the Hubble constant, which gives the length scale of the Universe by relating the expansion velocity of objects to their distance. There are two broad categories of measurements. The first uses individual astrophysical objects which have some property that allows their intrinsic luminosity or size to be determined, or allows the determination of their distance by geometric means. The second category comprises the use of all-sky cosmic microwave background, or correlations between large samples of galaxies, to determine information about the geometry of the Universe and hence the Hubble constant, typically in a combination with other cosmological parameters. Many, but not all, object-based measurements give $H_0$ values of around 72-74km/s/Mpc , with typical errors of 2-3km/s/Mpc. This is in mild discrepancy with CMB-based measurements, in particular those from the Planck satellite, which give values of 67-68km/s/Mpc and typical errors of 1-2km/s/Mpc. The size of the remaining systematics indicate that accuracy rather than precision is the remaining problem in a good determination of the Hubble constant. Whether a discrepancy exists, and whether new physics is needed to resolve it, depends on details of the systematics of the object-based methods, and also on the assumptions about other cosmological parameters and which datasets are combined in the case of the all-sky methods.Comment: Extensively revised and updated since the 2007 version: accepted by Living Reviews in Relativity as a major (2014) update of LRR 10, 4, 200

Production of phi mesons at mid-rapidity in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC

We present the first results of meson production in the K^+K^- decay channel from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV as measured at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX detector at RHIC. Precision resonance centroid and width values are extracted as a function of collision centrality. No significant variation from the PDG accepted values is observed. The transverse mass spectra are fitted with a linear exponential function for which the derived inverse slope parameter is seen to be constant as a function of centrality. These data are also fitted by a hydrodynamic model with the result that the freeze-out temperature and the expansion velocity values are consistent with the values previously derived from fitting single hadron inclusive data. As a function of transverse momentum the collisions scaled peripheral.to.central yield ratio RCP for the is comparable to that of pions rather than that of protons. This result lends support to theoretical models which distinguish between baryons and mesons instead of particle mass for explaining the anomalous proton yield.Comment: 326 authors, 24 pages text, 23 figures, 6 tables, RevTeX 4. To be submitted to Physical Review C as a regular article. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm