Microwave diode amplifiers with low intermodulation distortion

Distortions can be greatly reduced in narrow-band applications by using the second harmonic. The ac behavior of simplified diode amplifier has negative resistance depending on slope of equivalent I-V curve

The use of the LANDSAT data collection system and imagery in reservoir management and operation

The author has identified the following significant results. An increase in the data collection system's (DCS) ability to function in the flood control mission with no additional manpower was demonstrated during the storms which struck New England during April and May of 1975 and August 1976. It was found that for this watershed, creditable flood hydrographs could be generated from DCS data. It was concluded that an ideal DCS for reservoir regulation would draw features from LANDSAT and GOES. MSS grayscale computer printout and a USGS topographic map were compared, yielding an optimum computer classification map of the wetland areas of the Merrimack River estuary. A classification accuracy of 75% was obtained for the wetlands unit, taking into account the misclassified and the unclassified pixels. The MSS band 7 grayscale printouts of the Franklin Falls reservoir showed good agreement to USGS topographic maps in total area of water depicted at the low water reservoir stage and at the maximum inundation level. Preliminary analysis of the LANDSAT digital data using the GISS computer algorithms showed that the radiance of snow cover/vegetation varied from approximately 20 mW/sq cm sr in nonvegetated areas to less than 4 mW/sq cm sr for densely covered forested area

Resumming the large-N approximation for time evolving quantum systems

In this paper we discuss two methods of resumming the leading and next to leading order in 1/N diagrams for the quartic O(N) model. These two approaches have the property that they preserve both boundedness and positivity for expectation values of operators in our numerical simulations. These approximations can be understood either in terms of a truncation to the infinitely coupled Schwinger-Dyson hierarchy of equations, or by choosing a particular two-particle irreducible vacuum energy graph in the effective action of the Cornwall-Jackiw-Tomboulis formalism. We confine our discussion to the case of quantum mechanics where the Lagrangian is $L(x,\dot{x}) = (1/2) \sum_{i=1}^{N} \dot{x}_i^2 - (g/8N) [ \sum_{i=1}^{N} x_i^2 - r_0^2 ]^{2}$. The key to these approximations is to treat both the $x$ propagator and the $x^2$ propagator on similar footing which leads to a theory whose graphs have the same topology as QED with the $x^2$ propagator playing the role of the photon. The bare vertex approximation is obtained by replacing the exact vertex function by the bare one in the exact Schwinger-Dyson equations for the one and two point functions. The second approximation, which we call the dynamic Debye screening approximation, makes the further approximation of replacing the exact $x^2$ propagator by its value at leading order in the 1/N expansion. These two approximations are compared with exact numerical simulations for the quantum roll problem. The bare vertex approximation captures the physics at large and modest $N$ better than the dynamic Debye screening approximation.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures. The color version of a few figures are separately liste

Exact and approximate dynamics of the quantum mechanical O(N) model

We study a quantum dynamical system of N, O(N) symmetric, nonlinear oscillators as a toy model to investigate the systematics of a 1/N expansion. The closed time path (CTP) formalism melded with an expansion in 1/N is used to derive time evolution equations valid to order 1/N (next-to-leading order). The effective potential is also obtained to this order and its properties areelucidated. In order to compare theoretical predictions against numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation, we consider two initial conditions consistent with O(N) symmetry, one of them a quantum roll, the other a wave packet initially to one side of the potential minimum, whose center has all coordinates equal. For the case of the quantum roll we map out the domain of validity of the large-N expansion. We discuss unitarity violation in the 1/N expansion; a well-known problem faced by moment truncation techniques. The 1/N results, both static and dynamic, are also compared to those given by the Hartree variational ansatz at given values of N. We conclude that late-time behavior, where nonlinear effects are significant, is not well-described by either approximation.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figrures, revte

Entanglement enhanced atomic gyroscope

The advent of increasingly precise gyroscopes has played a key role in the technological development of navigation systems. Ring-laser and fibre-optic gyroscopes, for example, are widely used in modern inertial guidance systems and rely on the interference of unentangled photons to measure mechanical rotation. The sensitivity of these devices scales with the number of particles used as $1/ \sqrt{N}$. Here we demonstrate how, by using sources of entangled particles, it is possible to do better and even achieve the ultimate limit allowed by quantum mechanics where the precision scales as 1/N. We propose a gyroscope scheme that uses ultra-cold atoms trapped in an optical ring potential.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

Troubles with Bayesianism: An introduction to the psychological immune system

A Bayesian mind is, at its core, a rational mind. Bayesianism is thus well-suited to predict and explain mental processes that best exemplify our ability to be rational. However, evidence from belief acquisition and change appears to show that we do not acquire and update information in a Bayesian way. Instead, the principles of belief acquisition and updating seem grounded in maintaining a psychological immune system rather than in approximating a Bayesian processor

The Importance of DNA Repair in Tumor Suppression

The transition from a normal to cancerous cell requires a number of highly specific mutations that affect cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, differentiation, and many other cell functions. One hallmark of cancerous genomes is genomic instability, with mutation rates far greater than those of normal cells. In microsatellite instability (MIN tumors), these are often caused by damage to mismatch repair genes, allowing further mutation of the genome and tumor progression. These mutation rates may lie near the error catastrophe found in the quasispecies model of adaptive RNA genomes, suggesting that further increasing mutation rates will destroy cancerous genomes. However, recent results have demonstrated that DNA genomes exhibit an error threshold at mutation rates far lower than their conservative counterparts. Furthermore, while the maximum viable mutation rate in conservative systems increases indefinitely with increasing master sequence fitness, the semiconservative threshold plateaus at a relatively low value. This implies a paradox, wherein inaccessible mutation rates are found in viable tumor cells. In this paper, we address this paradox, demonstrating an isomorphism between the conservatively replicating (RNA) quasispecies model and the semiconservative (DNA) model with post-methylation DNA repair mechanisms impaired. Thus, as DNA repair becomes inactivated, the maximum viable mutation rate increases smoothly to that of a conservatively replicating system on a transformed landscape, with an upper bound that is dependent on replication rates. We postulate that inactivation of post-methylation repair mechanisms are fundamental to the progression of a tumor cell and hence these mechanisms act as a method for prevention and destruction of cancerous genomes.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures; Approximation replaced with exact calculation; Minor error corrected; Minor changes to model syste