Planned improvements to the Owens Valley frequency-agile interferometer

Three small antennas will be added to the OVRO interferometer to form a five-element solar-dedicated array. This would provide up to 7 or 10 baselines (compared to the present 1 or 3). This would be sufficient to apply microwave diagnostics to most active region and burst sources. By using frequency-synthesis it would also provide an imaging capability comparable to that of an approximately 100 baseline interferometer. Expansion of the array is discussed

Arthur M. Okun, 1928-1980

tribute, rememberance

A New Technique for System-to-system Transfer of Surface Data

The purpose is to describe a recently developed technique aimed at providing a universal interface between surface types. In brief, a software package was developed which functions a common denominator of CAD/CAM surface types. This software enable one to convert from any given surface representation to any other target representation. The tiles maintain the same slope continuity as the target surface gram, bicubic patches are used since they allow one to match point, slope, and twist vectors to the target surface. Thus, slopes can be continuous or discontinuous as they are on the target surface. The patches can be of lower order if desired. For example, if only point information is available, the patches produced will be bilinear; however, the number of patches required is likely to increase correspondingly. The patches can be of higher order although many systems will not accept patches of more than order four. The final result of the program is a rectangular grid of bicubic patches. The patches fit the target surface exactly at their corners. Also, the patch corners have the same tangent and twist vectors. Adjacent patches will have slope continuity, unless a discontinuity was indicated by the target surface

Catastrophe Design - Or How To Behave Like a Worm

The number of accidents which are caused by the existence of defects in engineering structures can be reduced in two ways, By diminishing the number and size of the defects, either by making the structure more carefully in the first place or by using better inspection methods in service - or by some combination of the two. By designing structures which are inherently safer - that is to say less susceptible to the presence of defects. An \u27ideal\u27 structure could be shot full of holes and still not break. In fact there will always be some defects in every structure for no manufacturing process and no inspection procedure can be perfect. Furthermore defects will accumulate in a structure between inspections due to fatigue, corrosion, accidental impacts, bad servicing, enemy action and so on. This paper is therefore about the philosophy of the imperfect structure. Since Nature has to deal with similar problems - because no plant or animal is perfect - I am making no apology for using analogiffi and examples from the new and expanding and exr.iting discipline of biomechanics. That is to say from the science of the mechanical strength of living structures

Visual complexity, player experience, performance and physical exertion in motion-based games for older adults

Motion-based video games can have a variety of benefits for the players and are increasingly applied in physical therapy, rehabilitation and prevention for older adults. However, little is known about how this audience experiences playing such games, how the player experience affects the way older adults interact with motion-based games, and how this can relate to therapy goals. In our work, we decompose the player experience of older adults engaging with motion-based games, focusing on the effects of manipulations of the game representation through the visual channel (visual complexity), since it is the primary interaction modality of most games and since vision impairments are common amongst older adults. We examine the effects of different levels of visual complexity on player experience, performance, and exertion in a study with fifteen participants. Our results show that visual complexity affects the way games are perceived in two ways: First, while older adults do have preferences in terms of visual complexity of video games, notable effects were only measurable following drastic variations. Second, perceived exertion shifts depending on the degree of visual complexity. These findings can help inform the design of motion-based games for therapy and rehabilitation for older adults