Feasibility study of a swept frequency electromagnetic probe (SWEEP) using inductive coupling for the determination of subsurface conductivity of the earth and water prospecting in arid regions

Techniques developed for electromagnetic probing of the lunar interior, and techniques developed for the generation of high power audio frequencies were combined to make practical a magnetic inductive coupling system for the rapid measurement of ground conductivity profiles which are helpful when prospecting for the presence and quality of subsurface water. A system which involves the measurement of the direction, intensity, and time phase of the magnetic field observed near the surface of the earth at a distance from a horizontal coil energized so as to create a field that penetrates the earth was designed and studied to deduce the conductivity and stratification of the subsurface. Theoretical studies and a rudimentary experiment in an arid region showed that the approach is conceptually valid and that this geophysical prospecting technique can be developed for the economical exploration of subterranean water resources

Ensemble prediction for nowcasting with a convection-permitting model - II: forecast error statistics

A 24-member ensemble of 1-h high-resolution forecasts over the Southern United Kingdom is used to study short-range forecast error statistics. The initial conditions are found from perturbations from an ensemble transform Kalman filter. Forecasts from this system are assumed to lie within the bounds of forecast error of an operational forecast system. Although noisy, this system is capable of producing physically reasonable statistics which are analysed and compared to statistics implied from a variational assimilation system. The variances for temperature errors for instance show structures that reflect convective activity. Some variables, notably potential temperature and specific humidity perturbations, have autocorrelation functions that deviate from 3-D isotropy at the convective-scale (horizontal scales less than 10 km). Other variables, notably the velocity potential for horizontal divergence perturbations, maintain 3-D isotropy at all scales. Geostrophic and hydrostatic balances are studied by examining correlations between terms in the divergence and vertical momentum equations respectively. Both balances are found to decay as the horizontal scale decreases. It is estimated that geostrophic balance becomes less important at scales smaller than 75 km, and hydrostatic balance becomes less important at scales smaller than 35 km, although more work is required to validate these findings. The implications of these results for high-resolution data assimilation are discussed

The Detection of an Extremely Bright Fast Radio Burst in a Phased Array Feed Survey

We report the detection of an ultra-bright fast radio burst (FRB) from a modest, 3.4-day pilot survey with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder. The survey was conducted in a wide-field fly's-eye configuration using the phased-array-feed technology deployed on the array to instantaneously observe an effective area of 160 deg^2, and achieve an exposure totaling 13200 deg^2 hr. We constrain the position of FRB 170107 to a region 8^'x 8^' in size (90% containment) and its fluence to be 58 ± 6 Jy ms. The spectrum of the burst shows a sharp cutoff above 1400 MHz, which could be due to either scintillation or an intrinsic feature of the burst. This confirms the existence of an ultra-bright (> 20 Jy ms) population of FRBs

Effectiveness of intervention focused on vocational course vocabulary in post-16 students with (developmental) language disorder

BACKGROUND: People with language disorders (including developmental language disorder—DLD) often struggle to learn new words and, for young adults, this could affect their success in future work. Therefore, it is crucial to support their learning of career-specific vocabulary. However, little published evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of speech and language intervention for older adolescents and young adults with (developmental) language disorder (D)LD within a post-16 provision. AIMS: To investigate whether for students with (D)LD in a post-16 environment, the addition of direct individual intervention from a speech and language therapist (SLT) teaching course-specific vocabulary leads to more progress than just in-course teaching on bespoke vocabulary measures. METHODS & PROCEDURES: A total of 28 college-aged students (11 female and 17 male) with (D)LD (aged 16.0–19.9) participated in a within-participant study comparing progress with explicit vocabulary intervention plus in-course teaching versus in-course teaching alone. The participants were assessed at four time points (3 months pre-intervention, immediately pre- and post-intervention, 3.5 months after intervention) using bespoke vocabulary assessments with an equal number of nouns, verbs and adjectives. All participants received one-to-one vocabulary intervention from their usual SLT for 30 min per week for 9 weeks. The intervention had four main components: (1) to identify intervention focus, (2) to recap previously taught terms (using an online flashcard program), (3) to explicitly teach new words using word maps to help with: creating definition and pictorial representation, identification of word class and investigation of phonological and morphological properties, and (4) to add new words, with their definition and pictorial representation to online flashcard program. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The results showed a stable baseline, then during the intervention term significant progress on words targeted only in lessons and significantly greater progress on words targeted both in lessons and SLT sessions. Progress was maintained for 14 weeks. Individuals with initially lower scores showed smaller intervention effects. In general, performance was higher on verbs and on the definition recognition task and lower on the production tasks, but all tasks improved with intervention. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Direct one-to-one vocabulary intervention with an SLT can lead to significant gains in knowledge of course-specific terminology for college-aged students with (D)LD. The effectiveness of speech and language therapy services for this age group in a wider range of areas of language and social communication should also be investigated

Palliative care of children with brain tumors: A parental perspective

Objective: To explore the end-of-life experience of children with brain tumors and their families. Design: Qualitative analysis of focus group interviews. Setting: Children\u27s Hospital, London Health Sciences Center. Participants: Twenty-five parents of 17 children who had died of brain tumors. Intervention: Parents participated in 3 semistructured focus group interviews. Main Outcome Measures: Themes identified through thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Results: Qualitative analysis identified 3 primary themes. (1) Parents described the dying trajectory of their child as characterized by progressive neurologic deterioration, with the loss of the ability to communicate as a turning point. Parental coping mechanisms included striving to maintain normality and finding spiritual strength through maintaining hope and in the resilience of their child. (2) Parental struggles during this phase included balancing competing responsibilities and speaking with their child about death. (3) Barriers to achieving a home death included suboptimal symptom management, financial and practical hardships, and inadequate community support. A fourth, secondary theme concerned the therapeutic benefits of the interview. Conclusion: The neurologic deterioration that characterizes the dying trajectory of children with brain tumors may create significant challenges for health care professionals and the children\u27s parents, supporting the need for increased awareness of the distinct issues in the palliative care of children with brain tumors and for early anticipatory guidance provided for families. ©2010 American Medical Association. All rights reserved