Low-speed wind tunnel tests of 1/9-scale model of a variable-sweep supersonic cruise aircraft

Tests were conducted in the Langley full-scale tunnel to determine the aerodynamic characteristics at low subsonic speeds of a 1/9-scale model of a variable-sweep supersonic cruise aircraft. The model configurations investigated were the basic unflapped arrangement, a take-off flap arrangement, and a landing flap arrangement with several strake leading-edge flow control devices. The tests were conducted at angles of attack from about -5 to 36 deg, sideslip angles from -5 to 10 deg

Low speed wind tunnel tests of a 1/9-scale model of a variable-sweep advanced supersonic transport

Tests have been conducted in the Langley full-scale tunnel to determine the aerodynamic characteristics of a 1/9-scale variable-sweep advanced supersonic transport configuration. The model configurations investigated were the basic unflapped arrangement, and a takeoff and landing flap arrangement with several strake leading edge flow control devices. The tests were conducted for an angle-of-attack range from about minus 5 deg to 36 deg and a sideslip range from minus 5 deg to 10 deg. The tests were conducted for a range of Reynolds number from 3.92 million to 5.95 million corresponding to test velocities of about 54.5 knots and 81.7 knots, respectively

Climate model boundary conditions for four Cretaceous time slices

International audienceGeneral circulation models (GCMs) are useful tools for investigating the characteristics and dynamics of past climates. Understanding of past climates contributes significantly to our overall understanding of Earth's climate system. One of the most time consuming, and often daunting, tasks facing the paleoclimate modeler, particularly those without a geological background, is the production of surface boundary conditions for past time periods. These boundary conditions consist of, at a minimum, continental configurations derived from plate tectonic modeling, topography, bathymetry, and a vegetation distribution. Typically, each researcher develops a unique set of boundary conditions for use in their simulations. Thus, unlike simulations of modern climate, basic assumptions in paleo surface boundary conditions can vary from researcher to researcher. This makes comparisons between results from multiple researchers difficult and, thus, hinders the integration of studies across the broader community. Unless special changes to surface conditions are warranted, researcher dependent boundary conditions are not the most efficient way to proceed in paleoclimate investigations. Here we present surface boundary conditions (land-sea distribution, paleotopography, paleobathymetry, and paleovegetation distribution) for four Cretaceous time slices (120 Ma, 110 Ma, 90 Ma, and 70 Ma). These boundary conditions are modified from base datasets to be appropriate for incorporation into numerical studies of Earth's climate and are available in NetCDF format upon request from the lead author. The land-sea distribution, bathymetry, and topography are based on the 1°×1° (latitude × longitude) paleo Digital Elevation Models (paleoDEMs) of Christopher Scotese. Those paleoDEMs were adjusted using the paleogeographical reconstructions of Ronald Blakey (Northern Arizona University) and published literature and were then modified for use in GCMs. The paleovegetation distribution is based on published data and reconstructions and consultation with members of the paleobotanical community and is represented as generalized biomes that should be easily translatable to many vegetation-modeling schemes

Song environment affects singing effort and vasotocin immunoreactivity in the forebrain of male Lincoln's sparrows

Male songbirds often establish territories and attract mates by singing, and some song features can reflect the singer’s condition or quality. The quality of the song environment can change, so male songbirds should benefit from assessing the competitiveness of the song environment and appropriately adjusting their own singing behavior and the neural substrates by which song is controlled. In a wide range of taxa social modulation of behavior is partly mediated by the arginine vasopressin or vasotocin (AVP/AVT) systems. To examine the modulation of singing behavior in response to the quality of the song environment we compared the song output of laboratory-housed male Lincoln’s sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii) exposed to one week of chronic playback of songs categorized as either high or low quality, based on song length, complexity and trill performance. To explore the neural basis of any facultative shifts in behavior, we also quantified the subjects’ AVT immunoreactivity (AVT-IR) in three forebrain regions that regulate socio-sexual behavior: the medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTm), the lateral septum (LS) and the preoptic area. We found that high quality songs increased singing effort and reduced AVT-IR in the BSTm and LS, relative to low quality songs. The effect of the quality of the song environment on both singing effort and forebrain AVT-IR raises the hypothesis that AVT within these brain regions plays a role in the modulation of behavior in response to competition that individual males may assess from the prevailing song environment

Superconductors with Magnetic Impurities: Instantons and Sub-gap States

When subject to a weak magnetic impurity potential, the order parameter and quasi-particle energy gap of a bulk singlet superconductor are suppressed. According to the conventional mean-field theory of Abrikosov and Gor'kov, the integrity of the energy gap is maintained up to a critical concentration of magnetic impurities. In this paper, a field theoretic approach is developed to critically analyze the validity of the mean field theory. Using the supersymmetry technique we find a spatially homogeneous saddle-point that reproduces the Abrikosov-Gor'kov theory, and identify instanton contributions to the density of states that render the quasi-particle energy gap soft at any non-zero magnetic impurity concentration. The sub-gap states are associated with supersymmetry broken field configurations of the action. An analysis of fluctuations around these configurations shows how the underlying supersymmetry of the action is restored by zero modes. An estimate of the density of states is given for all dimensionalities. To illustrate the universality of the present scheme we apply the same method to study `gap fluctuations' in a normal quantum dot coupled to a superconducting terminal. Using the same instanton approach, we recover the universal result recently proposed by Vavilov et al. Finally, we emphasize the universality of the present scheme for the description of gap fluctuations in d-dimensional superconducting/normal structures.Comment: 18 pages, 9 eps figure

Sixty Years of Modern Human Origins in the American Anthropological Association

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65197/1/aa.2003.105.1.89.pd

The Muslim problematic: Muslims, state schools and security

Muslims are folk-devils that mark the ubiquitous moral panic. For some, the idea of the Muslim problematic signifies a long and worrying trend of creeping ‘Islamification’ of state schools. For others, the discourse of the Muslim problematic reflects the ongoing racial patholigisation of Britain’s minoritised communities. One thing is for certain, the current debate marks a significant moment in the nature and function of the neoliberal state as it reframes race relation policy in Britain in the light of the security agenda. The Trojan Horse affair, surrounding claims of infiltration of radical Islam in state-run schools, marks a significant moment in the embedding of the security agenda in Britain’s inner city schools through the medium of the Prevent agenda. It argues that one of the best ways of understanding the security agenda is by locating it within a broader sociological and historical context of the functioning of the racial state

Doctors under the microscope: the birth of medical audit

In 1989 a UK government White Paper introduced medical audit as a comprehensive and statutory system of assessment and improvement in quality of care in hospitals. A considerable body of research has described the evolution of medical audit in terms of a struggle between doctors and National Health Service managers over control of quality assurance. In this paper we examine the emergence of medical audit from 1910 to the early 1950s, with a particular focus on the pioneering work of the American surgeons Codman, MacEachern and Ponton. It is contended that medical professionals initially created medical audit in order to articulate a suitable methodology for assessing individual and organisational performance. Rather than a means of protecting the medical profession from public scrutiny, medical auditing was conceived and operationalised as a managerial tool for fostering the active engagement of senior hospital managers and discharging public accountability. These early debates reveal how accounting was implicated in the development of a system for monitoring and improving the work of medical professionals, advancing the quality of hospital care, and was advocated in ways, which included rather than excluded managers