Borman Expressway Point-to-Point Wireless Modem

The Federal Highway Administration has a nationwide allocation of five frequency pairs in the 220-222 MHz Narrowband Radio Services band which are intended for application in Intelligent Transportation Systems. These frequencies are available for use by state DOTs (subject to FHWA approval) and provide an attractive solution for certain low to medium bit rate data communications applications. However, given the limited bandwidth available in these channels, very efficient modems will be required to make maximum beneficial use of this resource. The goal of this project was to design, field test, and deploy a digital radio which uses the 220-222 MHz spectral allocation and is suitable for stationary point-to-point data communications applications. The target application for this project was the control (pan, tilt, and zoom) of a video camera located at the interchange of I-65 and the Borman Expressway. The wireless link extends from the camera location to the traffic operations center (approximately 1.5 miles). There were three main tasks needed to produce a deployable modem: 1) interface circuitry was required between the 220 MHz modem and the camera control keypad and the camera pan/tilt/zoom receiver, 2) the fabrication of a compact and rugged transmitter was required, and 3) the fabrication of a compact and rugged receiver was required. The receiver size constraints were more exacting than those of the transmitter as the receiver is deployed in a roadside cabinet, while the transmitter is deployed in the traffic management center. The work plan was divided into a set of twelve tasks. The 220 MHz modem can serve INDOT as a general purpose link for low to medium rate data communications in a wide variety of applications. The most significant issue outstanding with regard to widespread implementation of the technology is the mass production cost and the availability of a reliable source of production versions of the device. Efforts are continuing at both Purdue and Ohio State toward further simplifications aimed at complexity reduction in the receiver. As topics for further study, the following should be considered: 1) a detailed cost/benefit analysis should be made comparing the 220 MHz technology to other alternative technologies, and 2) a preliminary design study of interoperability issues should be performed for the 220 MHz technology in transportation applications

Nucleosomal arrangement affects single-molecule transcription dynamics.

In eukaryotes, gene expression depends on chromatin organization. However, how chromatin affects the transcription dynamics of individual RNA polymerases has remained elusive. Here, we use dual trap optical tweezers to study single yeast RNA polymerase II (Pol II) molecules transcribing along a DNA template with two nucleosomes. The slowdown and the changes in pausing behavior within the nucleosomal region allow us to determine a drift coefficient, χ, which characterizes the ability of the enzyme to recover from a nucleosomal backtrack. Notably, χ can be used to predict the probability to pass the first nucleosome. Importantly, the presence of a second nucleosome changes χ in a manner that depends on the spacing between the two nucleosomes, as well as on their rotational arrangement on the helical DNA molecule. Our results indicate that the ability of Pol II to pass the first nucleosome is increased when the next nucleosome is turned away from the first one to face the opposite side of the DNA template. These findings help to rationalize how chromatin arrangement affects Pol II transcription dynamics

Unconventional magnetism in all-carbon nanofoam

We report production of nanostructured carbon foam by a high-repetition-rate, high-power laser ablation of glassy carbon in Ar atmosphere. A combination of characterization techniques revealed that the system contains both sp2 and sp3 bonded carbon atoms. The material is a novel form of carbon in which graphite-like sheets fill space at very low density due to strong hyperbolic curvature, as proposed for ?schwarzite?. The foam exhibits ferromagnetic-like behaviour up to 90 K, with a narrow hysteresis curve and a high saturation magnetization. Such magnetic properties are very unusual for a carbon allotrope. Detailed analysis excludes impurities as the origin of the magnetic signal. We postulate that localized unpaired spins occur because of topological and bonding defects associated with the sheet curvature, and that these spins are stabilized due to the steric protection offered by the convoluted sheets.Comment: 14 pages, including 2 tables and 7 figs. Submitted to Phys Rev B 10 September 200

A probabilistic model for gene content evolution with duplication, loss, and horizontal transfer

We introduce a Markov model for the evolution of a gene family along a phylogeny. The model includes parameters for the rates of horizontal gene transfer, gene duplication, and gene loss, in addition to branch lengths in the phylogeny. The likelihood for the changes in the size of a gene family across different organisms can be calculated in O(N+hM^2) time and O(N+M^2) space, where N is the number of organisms, $h$ is the height of the phylogeny, and M is the sum of family sizes. We apply the model to the evolution of gene content in Preoteobacteria using the gene families in the COG (Clusters of Orthologous Groups) database

How unique is the Asymptotic Normalisation Coefficient (ANC) method?

The asymptotic normalisation coefficients (ANC) for the vertex $^{10}$B $\to$ $^9$Be + p is deduced from a set of different proton transfer reactions at different energies. This set should ensure the peripheral character of the reaction and availability of data for the elastic channels. The problems associated with the characteristics of the data and the analysis are discussed. For a subgroup of the set of available data, the uniqueness property of the extracted ANC is fulfilled. However, more measurements are needed before a definite conclusion can be drawn.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, to be published in Phys Rev

Pregnancy attempts among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors

Objective: To examine whether demographic and cancer-related characteristics and factors such as fertility discussion with a medical provider and fertility preservation use are associated with attempting pregnancy after adolescent and young adult cancer. Design: Cross-sectional online survey. Setting: Not applicable. Patient(s): Women with lymphoma, breast cancer, thyroid cancer, or gynecologic cancer diagnosed at 15–39 years from 2004 to 2016 were identified from the North Carolina Cancer Registry and the Kaiser Permanente Northern and Southern California health care systems and responded to an online survey addressing survivorship concerns, including fertility and reproductive outcomes. Exposures: Demographic characteristics, cancer characteristics, fertility discussion with a medical provider or fertility specialist between cancer diagnosis and starting cancer treatment, use of fertility preservation strategies (freezing embryos or oocytes) after cancer diagnosis. Main Outcome Measure(s): Pregnancy attempt after cancer diagnosis, defined by either a pregnancy or 12 months of trying to become pregnant without pregnancy. Result(s): Among 801 participants who had not reached their desired family size at diagnosis, 77% had a fertility discussion with any medical provider between cancer diagnosis and treatment initiation, and 8% used fertility preservation after cancer diagnosis. At survey (median =7 years after diagnosis; interquartile range, 4–10), 32% had attempted pregnancy. Neither fertility discussion with any medical provider nor fertility counseling with a fertility specialist was significantly associated with pregnancy attempts. However, the use of fertility preservation was significantly associated with attempting pregnancy (prevalence ratios = 1.74; 95% confidence interval: 1.31–2.32). Other characteristics positively associated with pregnancy attempts included younger age at diagnosis, longer time since diagnosis, having a partner (at diagnosis or at survey), and having a history of infertility before cancer diagnosis. Conclusion(s): Use of fertility preservation strategies was uncommon in our cohort but was associated with attempting pregnancy after cancer. Ensuring access to fertility preservation methods may help adolescent and young adult cancer survivors to plan and initiate future fertility

Examining the quality and management of non-geometric building information modelling data at project hand-over

Through the exponential global increase of Building Information Modelling (BIM) adoption across the Construction industry, and the emergence of inter-connected, strategic and data-rich solutions; such as Big Data, the Internet of Things and Smart Cities, the importance associated with activities and decisions reliant on exact data input, transaction, analysis, and resulting actions becomes exponentially magnified. The supply of inaccurate BIM data may negatively impact on systems and processes that require fully assured data of appropriate quality/veracity, to support informed decision making, deliver functionality, facilitate services, or direct strategic actions within the built environment. This preliminary research intends to provide a catalyst for discussion, analysis and information retrieval relating to Building Information Modelling (BIM) processes where non-geometric data errors may; or are predicted to occur within a project environment. This may result in the delivery of data that cannot be described as representing truth or of good quality, and therefore of little value or use to the data user. The wider aspects of this research investigates specifically non-geometric data veracity & associated dimensions of data quality; in order to discover and explore future solutions to resolve current industry data quality assessment challenges. This paper provides feedback from the research focusing on the current state, presenting existing industry challenges and proposes further research areas based on initial findings

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far