Thermoelectric temperature control system for the pushbroom microwave radiometer (PBMR)

A closed loop thermoelectric temperature control system is developed for stabilizing sensitive RF integrated circuits within a microwave radiometer to an accuracy of + or - 0.1 C over a range of ambient conditions from -20 C to +45 C. The dual mode (heating and cooling) control concept utilizes partial thermal isolation of the RF units from an instrument deck which is thermally controlled by thermoelectric coolers and thin film heaters. The temperature control concept is simulated with a thermal analyzer program (MITAS) which consists of 37 nodes and 61 conductors. A full scale thermal mockup is tested in the laboratory at temperatures of 0 C, 21 C, and 45 C to confirm the validity of the control concept. A flight radiometer and temperature control system is successfully flight tested on the NASA Skyvan aircraft

Monte Carlo Simulation of Ising Models with Dipole Interaction

Recently, a new memory effect was found in the metamagnetic domain structure of the diluted Ising antiferromagnet $Fe_x Mg_{1-x} Cl_2$ by domain imaging with Faraday contrast. Essential for this effect is the dipole interaction. We simulate the low temperature behavior of diluted Ising-antiferromagnets by a Monte Carlo simulation considering long range interaction. The metamagnetic domain structure occurring due to the dipole interaction is investigated by graphical representation. In the model considered the antiferromagnetic state is stable for an external magnetic field smaller than a lower boundary $B_{c1}$ while for fields larger than an upper boundary $B_{c2}$ the system is in the saturated paramagnetic phase, where the spins are ferromagnetically polarized. For magnetic fields in between these two boundaries a mixed phase occurs consisting of ferromagnetic domains in an antiferromagnetic background. The position of these ferromagnetic domains is stored in the system: after a cycle in which the field is first removed and afterwards applied again the domains reappear at their original positions. The reason for this effect can be found in the frozen antiferromagnetic domain state which occurs after removing the field.Comment: Latex, 10 pages; 3 postsript-figures, compressed tar-file, uuencoded, report 10109

Tablet PCs in schools: Case study report: A report for Becta by the Open University

The publication provides an analysis of twelve case studies involving schools in England that were using Tablet PCs. The analysis is complemented by brief individual reports describing aspects of how each of these schools was using Tablet PCs

Energetic and Environmental Constraints on the Community Structure of Benthic Microbial Mats in Lake Fryxell, Antarctica.

Ecological communities are regulated by the flow of energy through environments. Energy flow is typically limited by access to photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and oxygen concentration (O2). The microbial mats growing on the bottom of Lake Fryxell, Antarctica, have well-defined environmental gradients in PAR and (O2). We analyzed the metagenomes of layers from these microbial mats to test the extent to which access to oxygen and light controls community structure. We found variation in the diversity and relative abundances of Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryotes across three (O2) and PAR conditions: high (O2) and maximum PAR, variable (O2) with lower maximum PAR, and low (O2) and maximum PAR. We found distinct communities structured by the optimization of energy use on a millimeter-scale across these conditions. In mat layers where (O2) was saturated, PAR structured the community. In contrast, (O2) positively correlated with diversity and affected the distribution of dominant populations across the three habitats, suggesting that meter-scale diversity is structured by energy availability. Microbial communities changed across covarying gradients of PAR and (O2). The comprehensive metagenomic analysis suggests that the benthic microbial communities in Lake Fryxell are structured by energy flow across both meter- and millimeter-scales

Effects of cochlear implantation on binaural hearing in adults with unilateral hearing loss

A FDA clinical trial was carried out to evaluate the potential benefit of cochlear implant (CI) use for adults with unilateral moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss. Subjects were 20 adults with moderate-to-profound unilateral sensorineural hearing loss and normal or near-normal hearing on the other side. A MED-EL standard electrode was implanted in the impaired ear. Outcome measures included: (a) sound localization on the horizontal plane (11 positions, −90° to 90°), (b) word recognition in quiet with the CI alone, and (c) masked sentence recognition with the target at 0° and the masker at −90°, 0°, or 90°. This battery was completed preoperatively and at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after CI activation. Normative data were also collected for 20 age-matched control subjects with normal or near-normal hearing bilaterally. The CI improved localization accuracy and reduced side bias. Word recognition with the CI alone was similar to performance of traditional CI recipients. The CI improved masked sentence recognition when the masker was presented from the front or from the side of normal or near-normal hearing. The binaural benefits observed with the CI increased between the 1- and 3-month intervals but appeared stable thereafter. In contrast to previous reports on localization and speech perception in patients with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss, CI benefits were consistently observed across individual subjects, and performance was at asymptote by the 3-month test interval. Cochlear implant settings, consistent CI use, and short duration of deafness could play a role in this result

Temperature-(208-318 K) and pressure-(18-696Torr) dependent rate coefficients for the reaction between OH and HNO3

Abstract. Rate coefficients (k5) for the title reaction were ob- tained using pulsed laser photolytic generation of OH cou- pled to its detection by laser-induced fluorescence (PLP– LIF). More than 80 determinations of k5 were carried out in nitrogen or air bath gas at various temperatures and pres- sures. The accuracy of the rate coefficients obtained was en- hanced by in situ measurement of the concentrations of both HNO3 reactant and NO2 impurity. The rate coefficients show both temperature and pressure dependence with a rapid in- crease in k5 at low temperatures. The pressure dependence was weak at room temperature but increased significantly at low temperatures. The entire data set was combined with se- lected literature values of k5 and parameterised using a com- bination of pressure-dependent and -independent terms to give an expression that covers the relevant pressure and tem- perature range for the atmosphere. A global model, using the new parameterisation for k 5 rather than those presently ac- cepted, indicated small but significant latitude- and altitude- dependent changes in the HNO 3 / NO x ratio of between − 6 and + 6 %. Effective HNO 3 absorption cross sections (184.95 and 213.86 nm, units of cm 2 molecule − 1 ) were ob- tained as part of this work: σ 213 . 86 = 4.52 + 0 . 23 − 0 . 12 × 10 − 19 and σ 184 . 95 = 1.61 + 0 . 08 − 0 . 04 × 10 − 17

Learning the latent structure of collider events

We describe a technique to learn the underlying structure of collider events directly from the data, without having a particular theoretical model in mind. It allows to infer aspects of the theoretical model that may have given rise to this structure, and can be used to cluster or classify the events for analysis purposes. The unsupervised machine-learning technique is based on the probabilistic (Bayesian) generative model of Latent Dirichlet Allocation. We pair the model with an approximate inference algorithm called Variational Inference, which we then use to extract the latent probability distributions describing the learned underlying structure of collider events. We provide a detailed systematic study of the technique using two example scenarios to learn the latent structure of di-jet event samples made up of QCD background events and either tt¯.Fil: Dillon, B. M.. Institute Jo?ef Stefan; EsloveniaFil: Faroughy, D. A.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Kamenik, J. F.. Institute Jo?ef Stefan; Eslovenia. University of Ljubljana; EsloveniaFil: Szewc, Manuel. Universidad Nacional de San Martín; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Domain-wall profile in the presence of anisotropic exchange interactions: Effective on-site anisotropy

Starting from a D-dimensional XXZ ferromagnetic Heisenberg model in an hypercubic lattice, it is demonstrated that the anisotropy in the exchange coupling constant leads to a D-dependent effective on-site anisotropy interaction often ignored for D>1. As a result the effective width of the wall depends on the dimensionality of the system. It is shown that the effective one-dimensional Hamiltonian is not the one-dimensional XXZ version as assumed in previous theoretical work. We derive a new expression for the wall profile that generalizes the standard Landau-Lifshitz form. Our results are found to be in very good agreement with earlier numerical work using the Monte Carlo method. Preceding theories concerning the domain wall contribution to magnetoresistance have considered the role of D only through the modification of the density of states in the electronic band structure. This Brief Report reveals that the wall profile itself contains an additional D dependence for the case of anisotropic exchange interactions.Comment: 4 pages; new title and abstract; 1 figure comparing our results with earlier numerical work; a more general model containing the usual on-site anisotropy; new remarks and references on the following two topics: (a) experimental evidence for the existence of spin exchange anisotropy, and (b) preceding theories concerning the domain wall contribution to magnetoresistance; to appear in Phys. Rev.