642 research outputs found
Bostonia. Volume 12
Founded in 1900, Bostonia magazine is Boston University's main alumni publication, which covers alumni and student life, as well as university activities, events, and programs
A Review of NASA's Radiation-Hardened Electronics for Space Environments Project
NASA's Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Exploration (RHESE) project develops the advanced technologies required to produce radiation hardened electronics, processors, and devices in support of the requirements of NASA's Constellation program. Over the past year, multiple advancements have been made within each of the RHESE technology development tasks that will facilitate the success of the Constellation program elements. This paper provides a brief review of these advancements, discusses their application to Constellation projects, and addresses the plans for the coming year
High-Performance, Radiation-Hardened Electronics for Space and Lunar Environments
The Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project develops advanced technologies needed for high performance electronic devices that will be capable of operating within the demanding radiation and thermal extremes of the space, lunar, and Martian environment. The technologies developed under this project enhance and enable avionics within multiple mission elements of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration. including the Constellation program's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. the Lunar Lander project, Lunar Outpost elements, and Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) elements. This paper provides an overview of the RHESE project and its multiple task tasks, their technical approaches, and their targeted benefits as applied to NASA missions
Repeat screening for syphilis in pregnancy as an alternative screening strategy in the UK:a cost-effectiveness analysis
OBJECTIVES: To assess the cost-effectiveness of universal repeat screening for syphilis in late pregnancy, compared with the current strategy of single screening in early pregnancy with repeat screening offered only to high-risk women. DESIGN: A decision tree model was developed to assess the incremental costs and health benefits of the two screening strategies. The base case analysis considered short-term costs during the pregnancy and the initial weeks after delivery. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses and scenario analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of the results. SETTING: UK antenatal screening programme. POPULATION: Hypothetical cohort of pregnant women who access antenatal care and receive a syphilis screen in 1 year. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the cost to avoid one case of congenital syphilis (CS). Secondary outcomes were the cost to avoid one case of intrauterine fetal demise (IUFD) or neonatal death and the number of women needing to be screened/treated to avoid one case of CS, IUFD or neonatal death. The cost per quality-adjusted life year gained was assessed in scenario analyses. RESULTS: Base case results indicated that for pregnant women in the UK (n=725 891), the repeat screening strategy would result in 5.5 fewer cases of CS (from 8.8 to 3.3), 0.1 fewer cases of neonatal death and 0.3 fewer cases of IUFD annually compared with the single screening strategy. This equates to an additional £1.8 million per case of CS prevented. When lifetime horizon was considered, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for the repeat screening strategy was £120 494. CONCLUSIONS: Universal repeat screening for syphilis in pregnancy is unlikely to be cost-effective in the current UK setting where syphilis prevalence is low. Repeat screening may be cost-effective in countries with a higher syphilis incidence in pregnancy, particularly if the cost per screen is low
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Young adults and the 5 a day campaign: perceived benefits and barriers of eating more fruits and vegetables
Although consuming adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of developing
chronic diseases, it is widely recognized that young adults’ intakes are currently well
below the Department of Health’s recommended five portions a day, with men consuming
even less than women. One approach in the UK has been to introduce health campaigns
such as the 5 A DAY programme; however, little is currently known about how well their
messages are understood amongst young adults. This study examined current knowledge of
the 5 A DAY message in young adults, as well as the perceived benefits and remaining
barriers towards consuming more fruits and vegetables. In total, four focus groups were
conducted using male (n = 22) and female (n = 18) students at the University of Reading.
Content analysis revealed that while participants were aware of the 5 A DAY recommendation,
there was widespread confusion regarding the detail. In addition, men were less
accepting of the message than women, reporting greater disbelief and a lack of motivation
to increase intake. Finally, a range of barriers was reported by participants of both genders,
despite the perceived beneficial effects for health and appearance. The results illustrate a
considerable gap between awareness and knowledge of the 5 A DAY message, and underscore
the challenge that changing behaviour in young adults represents. As well as stepping
up education- and skill-based health campaigns, more targeted gender specific interventions
will be needed to achieve sustained increases in fruit and vegetable intake
Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE)
Radiation Environmental Modeling is crucial to proper predictive modeling and electronic response to the radiation environment. When compared to on-orbit data, CREME96 has been shown to be inaccurate in predicting the radiation environment. The NEDD bases much of its radiation environment data on CREME96 output. Close coordination and partnership with DoD radiation-hardened efforts will result in leveraged - not duplicated or independently developed - technology capabilities of: a) Radiation-hardened, reconfigurable FPGA-based electronics; and b) High Performance Processors (NOT duplication or independent development)
WMAP 3-year primordial power spectrum
We constrain the form of the primordial power spectrum using Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 3-year cosmic microwave background (CMB) data
(+ other high resolution CMB experiments) in addition to complementary
large-scale structure (LSS) data: 2dF, SDSS, Ly-alpha forest and luminous red
galaxy (LRG) data from the SDSS catalogue. We compute the comparative Bayesian
evidence in addition to parameter estimates for a collection of seven models:
(i) a scale invariant Harrison-Zel'dovich (H-Z) spectrum; (ii) a power-law;
(iii) a running spectral index; (iv) a broken spectrum; (v) a power-law with an
abrupt cutoff on large-scales; (vi) a reconstruction of the spectrum in eight
bins in wavenumber; and (vii) a spectrum resulting from a cosmological model
proposed by Lasenby & Doran (L-D). Using a basic dataset of WMAP3 + other CMB +
2dF + SDSS our analysis confirms that a scale-invariant spectrum is disfavoured
by between 0.7 and 1.7 units of log evidence (depending on priors chosen) when
compared with a power-law tilt. Moreover a running spectrum is now
significantly preferred, but only when using the most constraining set of
priors. The addition of Ly-alpha and LRG data independently both suggest much
lower values of the running index than with basic dataset alone and
interestingly the inclusion of Ly-alpha significantly disfavours a running
parameterisation by more than a unit in log evidence. Overall the highest
evidences, over all datasets, were obtained with a power law spectrum
containing a cutoff with a significant log evidence difference of roughly 2
units. The natural tilt and exponential cutoff present in the L-D spectrum is
found to be favoured decisively by a log evidence difference of over 5 units,
but only for a limited study within the best-fit concordance cosmology.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, changes and new results to match version accepted
by MNRA
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