1,564 research outputs found

    EdShare: towards sharing resources for learning and teaching at the University of Southampton

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    At the University of Southampton, in the UK, we have been developing the Research Repository (e-Prints Soton) since 2005, to showcase the research output and make it more accessible. As a significant next step, the University has taken the strategic decision to develop a repository for educational materials. In developing EdShare at Southampton, we are promoting a cultural shift to a more open and collaborative approach to scholarship as well as research.Successful implementation in such a context requires a lightweight and very simple approach to sharing content facilitated by web 2.0 functionality.<br/

    Viscoelastic Phase Separation in Shear Flow

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    We numerically investigate viscoelastic phase separation in polymer solutions under shear using a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model. The gross variables in our model are the polymer volume fraction and a conformation tensor. The latter represents chain deformations and relaxes slowly on the rheological time giving rise to a large viscoelastic stress. The polymer and the solvent obey two-fluid dynamics in which the viscoelastic stress acts asymmetrically on the polymer and, as a result, the stress and the diffusion are dynamically coupled. Below the coexistence curve, interfaces appear with increasing the quench depth and the solvent regions act as a lubricant. In these cases the composition heterogeneity causes more enhanced viscoelastic heterogeneity and the macroscopic stress is decreased at fixed applied shear rate. We find steady two-phase states composed of the polymer-rich and solvent-rich regions, where the characteristic domain size is inversely proportional to the average shear stress for various shear rates. The deviatoric stress components exhibit large temporal fluctuations. The normal stress difference can take negative values transiently at weak shear.Comment: 16pages, 16figures, to be published in Phys.Rev.

    A class of ansatz wave functions for 1D spin systems and their relation to DMRG

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    We investigate the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) discovered by White and show that in the case where the renormalization eventually converges to a fixed point the DMRG ground state can be simply written as a ``matrix product'' form. This ground state can also be rederived through a simple variational ansatz making no reference to the DMRG construction. We also show how to construct the ``matrix product'' states and how to calculate their properties, including the excitation spectrum. This paper provides details of many results announced in an earlier letter.Comment: RevTeX, 49 pages including 4 figures (macro included). Uuencoded with uufiles. A complete postscript file is available at http://fy.chalmers.se/~tfksr/prb.dmrg.p

    Large-scale structural organization of social networks

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    The characterization of large-scale structural organization of social networks is an important interdisciplinary problem. We show, by using scaling analysis and numerical computation, that the following factors are relevant for models of social networks: the correlation between friendship ties among people and the position of their social groups, as well as the correlation between the positions of different social groups to which a person belongs.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Revte

    Breast cancer and exposure to tobacco smoke during potential windows of susceptibility

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    Purpose: An association between smoking and breast cancer is unresolved, although a higher risk from exposure during windows of susceptibility has been proposed. The objective of this prospective study was to evaluate the association between tobacco smoke and breast cancer with a focus on timing of exposure, especially during early life. Methods: Sister study participants (n = 50,884) aged 35–74 were enrolled from 2003 to 2009. Women in the United States and Puerto Rico were eligible if they were breast cancer-free but had a sister with breast cancer. Participants completed questionnaires on smoking and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure. Cox regression was used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for breast cancer risk. Results: During follow-up (mean = 6.4 years), 1,843 invasive breast cancers were diagnosed. Neither active smoking nor adult ETS was associated with breast cancer risk. However, never smoking women exposed to ETS throughout their childhood had a 17% higher risk of breast cancer (95% CI 1.00–1.36) relative to those with no exposure. In utero ETS exposure was also associated with breast cancer (HR = 1.16, 95% CI 1.01–1.32) and the HR was most elevated for women born in earlier birth cohorts (<1940, HR = 1.44, 95% CI 1.02–2.02; 1940–1949, HR = 1.28, 95% CI 1.01–1.62). Conclusion: In utero ETS and ETS exposure during childhood and adolescence were associated with increased risk of breast cancer and associations varied by birth cohort

    Phase Diagram of a Spin Ladder with Cyclic Four Spin Exchange

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    We present the phase diagram of the S=1/2S=1/2 Heisenberg model on the two leg ladder with cyclic four spin exchange, determined by a combination of Exact Diagonalization and Density Matrix Renormalization Group techniques. We find six different phases and regimes: the rung singlet phase, a ferromagnetic phase, two symmetry broken phases with staggered dimers and staggered scalar chiralities, and a gapped region with dominant vector chirality or collinear spin correlations. We localize the phase transitions and investigate their nature.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, REVTeX 4, published versio

    Women, men and coronary heart disease: a review of the qualitative literature

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    Aim. This paper presents a review of the qualitative literature which examines the experiences of patients with coronary heart disease. The paper also assesses whether the experiences of both female and male patients are reflected in the literature and summarizes key themes. Background. Understanding patients' experiences of their illness is important for coronary heart disease prevention and education. Qualitative methods are particularly suited to eliciting patients' detailed understandings and perceptions of illness. As much previous research has been 'gender neutral', this review pays particular attention to gender. Methods. Published papers from 60 qualitative studies were identified for the review through searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PREMEDLINE, PsychINFO, Social Sciences Citation Index and Web of Science using keywords related to coronary heart disease. Findings. Early qualitative studies of patients with coronary heart disease were conducted almost exclusively with men, and tended to generalize from 'male' experience to 'human' experience. By the late 1990s this pattern had changed, with the majority of studies including women and many being conducted with solely female samples. However, many studies that include both male and female coronary heart disease patients still do not have a specific gender focus. Key themes in the literature include interpreting symptoms and seeking help, belief about coronary 'candidates' and relationships with health professionals. The influence of social roles is important: many female patients have difficulties reconciling family responsibilities and medical advice, while male patients worry about being absent from work. Conclusions. There is a need for studies that compare the experiences of men and women. There is also an urgent need for work that takes masculinity and gender roles into account when exploring the experiences of men with coronary heart disease

    The Sachs-Wolfe Effect: Gauge Independence and a General Expression

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    In this paper we address two points concerning the Sachs-Wolfe effect: (i) the gauge independence of the observable temperature anisotropy, and (ii) a gauge-invariant expression of the effect considering the most general situation of hydrodynamic perturbations. The first result follows because the gauge transformation of the temperature fluctuation at the observation event only contributes to the isotropic temperature change which, in practice, is absorbed into the definition of the background temperature. Thus, we proceed without fixing the gauge condition, and express the Sachs-Wolfe effect using the gauge-invariant variables.Comment: 5 pages, closer to published versio
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