A new homeostat

Homeostasis concepts, and design of simple adaptive controlle

The gender and access to health services study: final report

Men and women frequently think and behave differently. To observe this is not to suggest anything so absurdly simple as that there are only male and female ways of being; behaviours and thought processes vary according to numerous other factors besides gender. That this is very generally the case however, does mean that there are broad - and often broadly predictable - differences in the way men and women engage with the world. Most commercial organisations understand this very well and plan accordingly. Many public authorities recognise it too and take these differences into account when developing and providing services. For historical reasons however the NHS has rarely done so. It is widely known that there are differences between men and women in the incidence and prevalence of most health conditions. Sometimes there are clear biological reasons for these differences but often there are not. Where biology offers little or no enlightenment, other questions need to be asked: · Do men and women behave in ways that predispose them to particular health conditions to different degrees? · Do men and women use health services with different degrees of effectiveness? · Do men and women receive differerent kinds of service from the NHS? The answer is – yes, these things happen frequently. This is sometimes to the disadvantage of one sex and sometimes to the disadvantage of the other. Sometimes it is to the disadvantage of both. And when these things happen, health outcomes are often affected. This report looks at the reasons why gender is such an important and fundamental determinant of health status and considers the ways in which gender inequalities can be tackled within the present legislative and policy framework. It also brings together the knowledge and evidence in relation to six specific areas of health concerns

Free flight determination of boundary layer transition on small scale cones in the presence of surface ablation

To assess the possibility of achieving extensive laminar flow on conical vehicles during hyperbolic entry, the Ames Research Center has had an ongoing program to study boundary-layer transition on ablating cones. Boundary layer transition results are presented from ballistic range experiments with models that ablated at dimensionless mass transfer rates comparable to those expected for full scale flight at speeds up to 17 km/sec. It was found possible to measure the surface recession and hence more accurately identify regions of laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow along generators of the recovered cones. Some preliminary results using this technique are presented

Probing the geometry and motion of AGN coronae through accretion disc emissivity profiles

To gain a better understanding of the inner disc region that comprises active galactic nuclei it is necessary to understand the pattern in which the disc is illuminated (the emissivity profile) by X-rays emitted from the continuum source above the black hole (corona). The differences in the emissivity profiles produced by various corona geometries are explored via general relativistic ray tracing simulations. Through the analysis of various parameters of the geometries simulated it is found that emissivity profiles produced by point source and extended geometries such as cylindrical slabs and spheroidal coronae placed on the accretion disc are distinguishable. Profiles produced by point source and conical geometries are not significantly different, requiring an analysis of reflection fraction to differentiate the two geometries. Beamed point and beamed conical sources are also simulated in an effort to model jet-like coronae, though the differences here are most evident in the reflection fraction. For a point source we determine an approximation for the measured reflection fraction with the source height and velocity. Simulating spectra from the emissivity profiles produced by the various geometries produce distinguishable differences. Overall spectral differences between the geometries do not exceed 15 per cent in the most extreme cases. It is found that emissivity profiles can be useful in distinguishing point source and extended geometries given high quality spectral data of extreme, bright sources over long exposure times. In combination with reflection fraction, timing, and spectral analysis we may use emissivity profiles to discern the geometry of the X-ray source.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Developing a principled approach to the teaching of reading in the classroom

本論文は教室において最新の学問的リテラシー理論を使い長崎外国語大学でのリーディングクラスのための一連の指導原理を確立する試みとそれを筆者のクラスで実際に実践する試みについての考察である。論文の最初の部分はリテラシー分野における最新理論を参照しながら、このコンテクストにおける筆者が選ぶ指導理論の背後にある理論的根拠を詳述し吟味することを試みる。第二番目にはこれらの理論をリーディング指導の実践に応用し、選ばれたテキストに関わる異なった段階での作業に使われるリーディング活動の特定の例に焦点を当てる。これらの活動の内2つは学生にテキストに関心を向けさせるよう考案された「リーディング前」の活動であり、2つは学生がいっそう詳細にテキストの意味を理解しようとするのを助けるよう考案された「リーディング中」の活動となるであろう

Language in Context : Text-based Language Learning

本指導ユニットは、「話す」、「書く」ことに関わる二つのテキストをベースとしている。本ユニットは言語学習とわれわれが行う言語選択におけるコンテクストの影響への体系的機能文法的アプローチを探求できるように作成されている。両テキストの領域は基本的に言語学習と二カ国語使用をベースとしている。本論文では、第一に、このユニットのコンテクスト、つまり、学習者のタイプと彼らの必要とすること、この独特な一連の授業の脈絡、作業とその継続の目的について論ずる。第二に、筆者のテキスト選択の根拠、文法的側面を含むテキストの主要な特徴について説明する。最後に、ユニット全体の目的・目標を達成するための一連の教室での活動について述べる