The preparation and evaluation of high-purity, fine-grained tungsten and tungsten alloy castings summary report

High purity, cylindrical castings of high melting point materials such as tungsten and tungsten alloy

Water resource records of the Econfina Creek Basin area, Florida

The Econfina Creek basin area in northwestern Florida, which includes Bay County, southeastern Washiigton County, and parts of Calhoun, Gulf, and Jackson counties is shown in figure 1. The basin has an abundant supply of ground water and surface water of good quality. This determination is based on a three-year investigation of the water resources of the basin by the U. S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Division of Geology, Florida Board of Conservation, during the period from October 1961 through June 1964. The purpose of this report is to assemble the basic data collected during this investigation for those persons interested in water development or management in this basin. (Document has 131 pages.

Correlations of record events as a test for heavy-tailed distributions

A record is an entry in a time series that is larger or smaller than all previous entries. If the time series consists of independent, identically distributed random variables with a superimposed linear trend, record events are positively (negatively) correlated when the tail of the distribution is heavier (lighter) than exponential. Here we use these correlations to detect heavy-tailed behavior in small sets of independent random variables. The method consists of converting random subsets of the data into time series with a tunable linear drift and computing the resulting record correlations.Comment: Revised version, to appear in Physical Review Letter

Rehabilitation following rotator cuff repair: A nested qualitative study exploring the perceptions and experiences of participants in a randomised controlled trial

Objective: To investigate acceptability, barriers to adherence with the interventions, and which outcome measures best reflect the participants’ rehabilitation goals in a pilot and feasibility randomised controlled trial evaluating early patient-directed rehabilitation and standard rehabilitation, including sling immobilisation for four weeks, following surgical repair of the rotator cuff of the shoulder. Design: Nested qualitative study. Setting: Five English National Health Service Hospitals. Subjects: Nineteen patient participants who had undergone surgical repair of the rotator cuff and 10 healthcare practitioners involved in the trial. Method: Individual semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed thematically. Results: Four themes: (1) Preconceptions of early mobilisation; many participants were motivated to enter the trial for the opportunity of removing their sling and getting moving early. (2) Sling use and movement restrictions; for some, sling use for four weeks was unacceptable and contributed to their pain, rather than relieving it. (3) Tensions associated with early mobilisation; clinical tensions regarding early mobilisation and the perceived risk to the surgical repair were apparent. (4) Processes of running the trial; participants found the trial processes to be largely appropriate and acceptable, but withholding the results of the post-operative research ultrasound scan was contentious. Conclusion: Trial processes were largely acceptable, except for withholding results of the ultrasound scan. For some participants, use of the shoulder sling for a prolonged period after surgery was a reported barrier to standard rehabilitation whereas the concept of early mobilisation contributed tension for some healthcare practitioners due to concern about the effect on the surgical repair

Can Self-Organizing Maps accurately predict photometric redshifts?

We present an unsupervised machine learning approach that can be employed for estimating photometric redshifts. The proposed method is based on a vector quantization approach called Self--Organizing Mapping (SOM). A variety of photometrically derived input values were utilized from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's Main Galaxy Sample, Luminous Red Galaxy, and Quasar samples along with the PHAT0 data set from the PHoto-z Accuracy Testing project. Regression results obtained with this new approach were evaluated in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) to estimate the accuracy of the photometric redshift estimates. The results demonstrate competitive RMSE and outlier percentages when compared with several other popular approaches such as Artificial Neural Networks and Gaussian Process Regression. SOM RMSE--results (using $\Delta$z=z$_{phot}$--z$_{spec}$) for the Main Galaxy Sample are 0.023, for the Luminous Red Galaxy sample 0.027, Quasars are 0.418, and PHAT0 synthetic data are 0.022. The results demonstrate that there are non--unique solutions for estimating SOM RMSEs. Further research is needed in order to find more robust estimation techniques using SOMs, but the results herein are a positive indication of their capabilities when compared with other well-known methods.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PAS

Development of aluminum alloy compounds for electroluminescent light sources

Aluminum alloy compounds as wide band gap semiconductors for electroluminescent light source