86,691 research outputs found
The Muscle-Mechanical Compromise Framework: Implications for the Scaling of Gait and Posture
Many aspects of animal and human gait and posture cannot be predicted from purely mechanical work minimization or entirely based on optimizing muscle efficiency. Here, the Muscle-Mechanical Compromise Framework is introduced as a conceptual paradigm for considering the interactions and compromises between these two objectives. Current assumptions in implementing the Framework are presented. Implications of the compromise are discussed and related to the scaling of running mechanics and animal posture
Improving the Performance of the Education Sector: The Valuable, Challenging, and Limited Role of Random Assignment Evaluations
In an attempt to improve the quality of educational research, the U.S. Department of Education%u2019s Institute of Education Sciences has provided funding for 65 randomized controlled trials of educational interventions. We argue that this research methodology is more effective in providing guidance to extremely troubled schools about how to make some progress than guidance to schools trying to move from making some progress to becoming high performance organizations. We also argue that the conventional view of medical research -- discoveries made in specialized laboratories that are then tested using randomized control trials -- is an inaccurate description of the sources of advances in medical practice. Moreover, this conventional view of the sources of advances in medical practice leads to incorrect inferences about how to improve educational research. We illustrate this argument using evidence from the history of medical research on the treatment of cystic fibrosis.
SU(3)/SU(2): the simplest Wess-Zumino-Witten term
The observation that SU(3)/SU(2) ~ S^5 implies the existence of a
particularly simple quantized topological action, or Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW)
term. This action plays an important role in anomaly cancellation in extensions
of the Standard Model electroweak sector. A closed form is presented for the
action coupled to arbitrary gauge fields. The action is shown to be equivalent
to a limit of the WZW term for SU(3) x SU(3) / SU(3). By reduction of SU(3) x
U(1) / SU(2) x U(1) to SU(2) x U(1) / U(1), the construction gives a
topological derivation of the WZW term for the Standard Model Higgs field.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; references adde
Full Open Population Capture-Recapture Models with Individual Covariates
Traditional analyses of capture-recapture data are based on likelihood
functions that explicitly integrate out all missing data. We use a complete
data likelihood (CDL) to show how a wide range of capture-recapture models can
be easily fitted using readily available software JAGS/BUGS even when there are
individual-specific time-varying covariates. The models we describe extend
those that condition on first capture to include abundance parameters, or
parameters related to abundance, such as population size, birth rates or
lifetime. The use of a CDL means that any missing data, including uncertain
individual covariates, can be included in models without the need for
customized likelihood functions. This approach also facilitates modeling
processes of demographic interest rather than the complexities caused by
non-ignorable missing data. We illustrate using two examples, (i) open
population modeling in the presence of a censored time-varying individual
covariate in a full robust-design, and (ii) full open population multi-state
modeling in the presence of a partially observed categorical variable
Ionization, Kinematics, and Extent of the Diffuse Ionized Gas Halo of NGC 5775
We present key results from deep spectra of the Diffuse Ionized Gas (DIG)
halo of the edge-on galaxy NGC 5775. [NII]6583 has been detected up to about
z=13 kpc above the plane in one of two vertically oriented long slits -- making
this the spiral galaxy with the greatest spectroscopically detected halo extent
in emission. Key diagnostic line ratios have been measured up to about z=8 kpc,
allowing the source of ionization and physical state to be probed. Ionization
by a dilute radiation field from massive stars in the disk can explain some of
the line ratio behavior, but departures from this picture are clearly
indicated, most strongly by the rise of [OIII]/Halpha with z. Velocities of the
gas in both slits approach the systemic velocity of the galaxy at several kpc
above the plane. We interpret this trend as a decrease in rotation velocity
with z, with essentially no rotation at heights of several kpc. Such a trend
was observed in the edge-on galaxy NGC 891, but here much more dramatically.
This falloff is presumably due to the gravitational potential changing with z,
but will also depend on the hydrodynamic nature of the disk-halo cycling of gas
and projection effects. More detailed modeling of the ionization and kinematics
of this and other edge-ons will be presented in future papers.Comment: figures 1, 2a-d and 3 included. ApJ Letters, in pres
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