Fluctuating pressures measured beneath a high-temperature, turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate at Mach number of 5

Fluctuating pressures were measured beneath a Mach 5, turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate with an array of piezoresistive sensors. The data were obtained with a digital signal acquisition system during a test run of 4 seconds. Data sampling rate was such that frequency analysis up to 62.5 kHz could be performed. To assess in situ frequency response of the sensors, a specially designed waveguide calibration system was employed to measure transfer functions of all sensors and related instrumentation. Pressure time histories were approximated well by a Gaussian prohibiting distribution. Pressure spectra were very repeatable over the array span of 76 mm. Total rms pressures ranged from 0.0017 to 0.0046 of the freestream dynamic pressure. Streamwise, space-time correlations exhibited expected decaying behavior of a turbulence generated pressure field. Average convection speed was 0.87 of freestream velocity. The trendless behavior with sensor separation indicated possible systematic errors

Content-Based Video Retrieval in Historical Collections of the German Broadcasting Archive

The German Broadcasting Archive (DRA) maintains the cultural heritage of radio and television broadcasts of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The uniqueness and importance of the video material stimulates a large scientific interest in the video content. In this paper, we present an automatic video analysis and retrieval system for searching in historical collections of GDR television recordings. It consists of video analysis algorithms for shot boundary detection, concept classification, person recognition, text recognition and similarity search. The performance of the system is evaluated from a technical and an archival perspective on 2,500 hours of GDR television recordings.Comment: TPDL 2016, Hannover, Germany. Final version is available at Springer via DO

An objective method for determining principal time scales of coherent eddy structures using orthonormal wavelets

A new, parameter-free method, based on orthonormal wavelet expansions is proposed for calculating the principal time scale of coherent structures in atmospheric surface layer measurements. These organized events play an important role in the exchange of heat, mass, and momentum between the land and the atmosphere. This global technique decomposes the energy contribution at each scale into organized and random eddy motion. The method is demonstrated on vertical wind velocity measurements above bare and vegetated surfaces. It is found to give nearly identical results to a local thresholding approach developed for signal de-noising that assigns the wavelet coecients to organized and random motion. The eect of applying anti-and/or near-symmetrical wavelet basis functions is also investigated.

Worldwide phylogeography and local population structure of the rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis)

Several dolphin species have global distributions. The extent of their radiation and limits to gene flow are presumably a product of oceanographic features both recent and historical, behavioral specializations and social organization. Rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) are globally distributed in tropical and subtropical waters and are generally found in depths greater than 1,500 meters making them challenging to comprehensively sample. Although it has been assumed that pelagic dolphins range widely due to the lack of apparent barriers and unpredictable prey distribution, recent evidence suggests rough-toothed dolphins exhibit fidelity to some oceanic islands. A small number of photo-identification and genetic studies conducted to date on rough-toothed dolphins show regional population structure and stable associations in groups, with some individuals observed repeatedly in the same groups over several years. The aim of this dissertation is to describe patterns of phylogeography over evolutionary time on a global scale and expand studies of population and social structure on a regional level. The dataset contains 351 rough-toothed dolphin biopsies, tissue and teeth samples collected from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and limited samples from the Indian Ocean. To evaluate the phylogeography and test for possible species or subspecies level delineation between oceans, I used mitochondrial DNA sequences from the control region (350 bp) and 12 concatenated protein-coding genes from the whole mitogenome, as well as six nuclear introns. Although I found support for two Pacific clades and a private North Atlantic clade in the whole mitogenome, there were no genealogical patterns consistent across multiple loci, allowing me to reject species level delineation. To further evaluate the amount of gene flow and test for divisions below the species level, I used population level indices and found significant genetic differentiation for rough-toothed dolphins between the Atlantic Ocean with both the Indian/Western Pacific and Central/Eastern Pacific for both the mitochondrial datasets and the intron dataset. Significant differentiation between the Indian/Western Pacific Ocean and Eastern Pacific Ocean was found for the mitochondrial but not nuclear datasets. From these results I recommended the Atlantic Ocean basin be considered a separate evolutionary significant unit. This reflects that these populations are on independent evolutionary trajectories, but are not diagnosable species or subspecies. To further evaluate population structure on a regional scale, I used a subset of these samples from three archipelagos in the Central Pacific Ocean including the Hawaiian Islands, the Society Island of French Polynesia and the Samoan Islands. Using a 450bp portion of the mtDNA control region and 15 microsatellite loci, an overall AMOVA indicated strong genetic differentiation among islands within the main Hawaiian Islands (mtDNA F[subscript ST]=0.165; p<0.001; microsatellite F[subscript ST]=0.043 p<0.001) and the Society Islands of French Polynesia (F[subscript ST]=0.499; p<0.001; microsatellite F[subscript ST]=0.079 p<0.001) as well as among the three archipelagos (mtDNA F[subscript ST]=0.299; p<0.001; microsatellite F[subscript ST]=0.055 p<0.001). My results corroborate the photo-identification and the genetic studies for three archipelagos, confirming population structure on the regional level. Lastly, to test the hypothesis that social structure observed in rough-toothed dolphins is kinship based, as in other delphinid species such as killer whales, I used a subset of the main dataset from groups of living and mass stranded dolphins. I found multiple matrilines in more than half the groups, allowing me to reject a strictly matrilineal group structure, such as that observed in some killer whales. Instead I found rough-toothed dolphin groups showed weak matrilineality, where some groups are more matrilineal than expected by chance. Although group structure is stable, is not determined primarily by kin-based relationships. These analyses provide new insights into a little studied species. The use of worldwide datasets allowed me to evaluate population structure on different temporal, spatial and regional scales and delineate populations for future conservation and management.Keywords: microsatellites, dolphin, genomics, phylogeography, genetics, population structur

Payment by results and social impact bonds: Outcome-based payment systems in the UK and US

All right reserved. As public services budgets are cut, the 'Payment by Results' (or Pay for Success) model has become a popular choice in public sector commissioning. Social Impact Bonds are a variant of Payment by Results also promoted by proponents of social (or impact) investing. But how effective are these approaches? This short book asks whether the Payment by Results model is an efficient way to unlock new capital investment, help new providers to enter the 'market' and foster innovation, or whether the extension of 'neoliberal' thinking, complexity and the effects of managerialism undermine the effective delivery of social outcomes. Synthesising lessons from the UK and US for the first time, the book draws on published work in both countries together with insights from the authors' own research and consultancy experience to offer a balanced and bipartisan overview of a field where the evidence has been weak and there are strong ideological agendas in play

The Amateur Sky Survey Mark III Project

The Amateur Sky Survey (TASS) is a loose confederation of amateur and professional astronomers. We describe the design and construction of our Mark III system, a set of wide-field drift-scan CCD cameras which monitor the celestial equator down to thirteenth magnitude in several passbands. We explain the methods by which images are gathered, processed, and reduced into lists of stellar positions and magnitudes. Over the period October, 1996, to November, 1998, we compiled a large database of photometric measurements. One of our results is the "tenxcat" catalog, which contains measurements on the standard Johnson-Cousins system for 367,241 stars; it contains links to the light curves of these stars as well.Comment: 20 pages, including 4 figures; additional JPEG files for Figures 1, 2. Submitted to PAS

A Metastasis or a Second Independent Cancer? Evaluating the Clonal Origin of Tumors Using Array-CGH Data

When a cancer patient develops a new tumor it is necessary to determine if this is a recurrence (metastasis) of the original cancer, or an entirely new occurrence of the disease. This is accomplished by assessing the histo-pathology of the lesions, and it is frequently relatively straightforward. However, there are many clinical scenarios in which this pathological diagnosis is difficult. Since each tumor is characterized by a genetic fingerprint of somatic mutations, a more definitive diagnosis is possible in principle in these difficult clinical scenarios by comparing the fingerprints. In this article we develop and evaluate a statistical strategy for this comparison when the data are derived from array comparative genomic hybridization, a technique designed to identify all of the somatic allelic gains and losses across the genome. Our method involves several stages. First a segmentation algorithm is used to estimate the regions of allelic gain and loss. Then the broad correlation in these patterns between the two tumors is assessed, leading to an initial likelihood ratio for the two diagnoses. This is then further refined by comparing in detail each plausibly clonal mutation within individual chromosome arms, and the results are aggregated to determine a final likelihood ratio. The method is employed to diagnose patients from several clinical scenarios, and the results show that in many cases a strong clonal signal emerges, occasionally contradicting the clinical diagnosis. The “quality” of the arrays can be summarized by a parameter that characterizes the clarity with which allelic changes are detected. Sensitivity analyses show that most of the diagnoses are robust when the data are of high quality

The impact of weather and climate on tourist demand: the case of Chester Zoo

Warmer, drier summer weather brought by global climate change should encourage use of outdoor leisure facilities. Yet few studies assess the effect of current weather and climate conditions upon visits to leisure attractions. Statistical time series models are used to analyse the short-run impact of weather and the long-run impact of climate upon visits to Chester Zoo, England. Temperature has a non-linear effect on visit levels. Daily visits rise with temperature up to a threshold around 21 °C. Thereafter visitor numbers drop on hot days. Visits are redistributed over time in accordance with the weather. Visitors discouraged by rainy weather one day turn up later when the weather improves. Otherwise, visitor behaviour is mainly influenced by the annual rhythm of the year and the pattern of public and school holidays. Out-of-sample tests suggest almost 70 % of the variation in visit levels can be explained by the combination of weather and time of year. Climate change is likely to redistribute visitors across the year. But it does not follow that “summer” visitor behaviour will transfer to spring and autumn. Day length, existing patterns of human activity and availability of leisure time constrain visit levels regardless of better weather. The main implication of potential climate change is the need for physical adaptation of the tourist environment as temperatures rise and rainfall diminishes in summer

Multiple Organ Transplantation after Suicide by Acetaminophen and Gunshot Wound

Emergency physicians (EP) and medical toxicologists are integral in identifying and treating patients with overdoses. Transplant centers are expanding acceptance criteria to consider those with poison-related deaths. We present a case of a simultaneous gunshot wound to the head and an acetaminophen overdose. This case highlights the importance of EPs and medical toxicologists in recognizing the medical complexity of suicides, optimizing treatment, and timing of organ procurement. Early antidote administration and aggressive supportive care allowed the patient to be evaluated as a potential donor. EPs and medical toxicologists have integral roles in overdose patients as organ donors