16,310 research outputs found
Extraction of black hole coalescence waveforms from noisy data
We describe an independent analysis of LIGO data for black hole coalescence
events. Gravitational wave strain waveforms are extracted directly from the
data using a filtering method that exploits the observed or expected
time-dependent frequency content. Statistical analysis of residual noise, after
filtering out spectral peaks (and considering finite bandwidth), shows no
evidence of non-Gaussian behaviour. There is also no evidence of anomalous
causal correlation between noise signals at the Hanford and Livingston sites.
The extracted waveforms are consistent with black hole coalescence template
waveforms provided by LIGO. Simulated events, with known signals injected into
real noise, are used to determine uncertainties due to residual noise and
demonstrate that our results are unbiased. Conceptual and numerical differences
between our RMS signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and the published matched-filter
detection SNRs are discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Version accepted for publicatio
Engineering study for a mass memory system for advanced spacecrafts Final report, 1 Dec. 1969 - 1 Jul. 1970
Mass memory system for advanced spacecraf
Measurements of the Cosmological Evolution of Magnetic Fields with the Square Kilometre Array
We investigate the potential of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) for
measuring the magnetic fields in clusters of galaxies via Faraday rotation of
background polarised sources. [...] We find that about 10 per cent of the sky
is covered by a significant extragalactic Faraday screen. Most of it has
rotation measures between 10 and 100 rad/m/m. We argue that the cluster centres
should have up to about 5000 rad/m/m. We show that the proposed mid frequency
aperture array of the SKA as well as the lowest band of the SKA dish array are
well suited to make measurements for most of these rotation measure values,
typically requiring a signal-to-noise of ten. We calculate the spacing of
sources forming a grid for the purpose of measuring foreground rotation
measures: it reaches a spacing of 36 arcsec for a 100 hour SKA observation per
field. We also calculate the statistics for background RM measurements in
clusters of galaxies. We find that a first phase of the SKA would allow us to
take stacking experiments out to high redshifts (>1), and provide improved
magnetic field structure measurements for individual nearby clusters. The full
SKA aperture array would be able to make very detailed magnetic field structure
measurements of clusters with more than 100 background sources per cluster up
to a redshift of 0.5 and more than 1000 background sources per cluster for
nearby clusters, and could for reasonable assumptions about future measurements
of electron densities in high redshift clusters constrain the power law index
for the magnetic field evolution to better than dm=0.4, if the magnetic field
in clusters should follow B ~ (1+z)^m.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted by MNRAS, minor correction
to eq (5
Gravitational effects in ultrahigh-energy string scattering
Ultrahigh-energy string scattering is investigated to clarify the relative
role of string and gravitational effects, and their possible contributions to
nonlocal behavior. Different regimes can be characterized by varying the impact
parameter at fixed energy. In the regime where momentum transfers reach the
string scale, string effects appear subdominant to higher-loop gravitational
processes, approximated via the eikonal. At smaller impact parameters,
"diffractive" or "tidal" string excitation leads to processes dominated by
highly excited strings. However, new evidence is presented that these
excitation effects do not play a direct role in black hole formation, which
corresponds to breakdown of gravitational perturbation theory and appears to
dominate at sufficiently small impact parameters. The estimated amplitudes
violate expected bounds on high-energy behavior for local theories.Comment: 19 pages, harvmac. v2: fixed typos, added refs and discussion of
longitudinal spread. v3: minor changes to agree with published versio
The provision of education and training for healthcare professionals through the medium of the internet
This paper describes a new initiative to provide Internet based courses to student and professional occupational therapists in four centres in the UK, Belgium the Netherlands and Sweden. The basis of this collaborative Occupational Therapy Internet School (OTIS) is the concept of the “Virtual College”. This comprises the design and implementation of a sophisticated Internet-based system through which courses can be managed, prepared and delivered online in an effective fashion, and where students can communicate both with the staff and their peers. The aim is to support and facilitate the whole range of educational activities within a remote electronic environment. A major feature of the course organisation is the adoption of a problem-based approach in which students will collaborate internationally to propose effective intervention in given case study scenarios.
The paper outlines the rationale for OTIS, the content and structure of the courseware, the technical specification of the system and evaluation criteria. In addition to the more conventional web-based learning facilities generally offered, a number of agent-based approaches are being adopted to assist in the management of the course by ensuring the proper delivery of course materials and to assist the functioning of project groups. </p
Culturally and linguistically diverse palliative care patients\u27 journeys at the end-of-life
Objective: To understand the clinical and psychosocial journey of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) palliative care patients.
Method: This study was conducted at a subacute hospital with a specialist palliative care unit and a community palliative care service in a metropolitan region of New South Wales, Australia. Medical records of 100 deceased patients from CALD backgrounds over a 12-month period from 2014 to 2015 were recorded on a data mining tool. The cohort had transitioned to either community or inpatient palliative care services with a life-limiting illness. We used descriptive statistical analyses to identify the patients’ end-of-life journeys in the physical, psychological, spiritual, and social palliative care domains. Staff case notes were used to enrich the quantitative data.
Result: The most common symptoms burdening the patients were decreased mobility (82%), pain (76%), and poor appetite (60%). The majority of patients (87%) were diagnosed with cancer. Language was a major barrier to the assessment and management of symptoms. The vast majority of patients were born in Europe and Asia. Twenty-nine percent of the patients preferred to use English. However, among patients who required an interpreter on admission, only 9% used professional interpreters. Family distress around patients’ lack of food consumption was prominent, along with provider concern when this led to families “force feeding” patients. Only 5% of files documented patients’, and 21% of files documented families’, cultural wishes or needs. Care of the body after death was only documented in 20% of files.
Significance of results: The increasing cohort of older people from CALD backgrounds will have significant implications for the planning and delivery of palliative care services. There is an emerging need to address the physical, psychological, spiritual, and social palliative care domains in the end-of-life journeys of patients from CALD backgrounds to ensure the provision of quality care
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The biodiversity intactness index may underestimate losses.
The Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) is a high-profile metric of an area’s average abundance of wild species relative to that in pre-modern times1 or in primary vegetation under current climatic conditions2. It has been endorsed by the Group on Earth Observations of the Biodiversity Observation Network, adopted by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services as a "core" indicator of progress towards the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi targets 12 and 14, and accepted by the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership as an indicator for Aichi target 5. We strongly support development of spatially-explicit indicators such as the BII, which can be used to prioritise areas for conservation interventions. However, it is important that the metric is as robust as possible, and we have noticed several unusual features of the BII that concern us
Living with the user: Design drama for dementia care through responsive scripted experiences in the home
Participation in forms of drama and narrative can provoke empathy and creativity in user-centred design processes. In this paper, we expand upon existing methods to explore the potential for responsive scripted experiences that are delivered through the combination of sensors and output devices placed in a home. The approach is being developed in the context of Dementia care, where the capacity for rich user participation in design activities is limited. In this case, a system can act as a proxy for a person with Dementia, allowing designers to gain experiences and insight as to what it is like to provide care for, and live with, this person. We describe the rationale behind the approach, a prototype system architecture, and our current work to explore the creation of scripted experiences for design, played out though UbiComp technologies.This research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, (AH/K00266X/1) and Horizon Digital Economy Research (RCUK grant EP/G065802/1)
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