Numerical calculations of a high brilliance synchrotron source and on issues with characterizing strong radiation damping effects in non-linear Thomson/Compton backscattering experiments

A number of theoretical calculations have studied the effect of radiation reaction forces on radiation distributions in strong field counter-propagating electron beam-laser interactions, but could these effects - including quantum corrections - be observed in interactions with realistic bunches and focusing fields, as is hoped in a number of soon to be proposed experiments? We present numerical calculations of the angularly resolved radiation spectrum from an electron bunch with parameters similar to those produced in laser wakefield acceleration experiments, interacting with an intense, ultrashort laser pulse. For our parameters, the effects of radiation damping on the angular distribution and energy distribution of \emph{photons} is not easily discernible for a "realistic" moderate emittance electron beam. However, experiments using such a counter-propagating beam-laser geometry should be able to measure such effects using current laser systems through measurement of the \emph{electron beam} properties. In addition, the brilliance of this source is very high, with peak spectral brilliance exceeding $10^{29}$ photons$\,$s$^{-1}$mm$^{-2}$mrad$^{-2}(0.1$% bandwidth$)^{-1}$ with approximately 2% efficiency and with a peak energy of 10 MeV.Comment: 11 figures, 11 page

SPS: A software simulator for the Herschel-SPIRE photometer

Instrument simulators are becoming ever more useful for planning and analysing large astronomy survey data. In this paper we present a simulator for the Herschel-SPIRE photometer. We describe the models it uses and the form of the input and output data. The SPIRE photometer simulator is a software package which uses theoretical models, along with flight model test data, to perform numerical simulations of the output time-lines from the instrument in operation on board the Herschel space observatory. A description of the types of uses of the simulator are given, along with information on its past uses. These include example simulations performed in preparation for a high redshift galaxy survey, and a debris disc survey. These are presented as a demonstration of the sort of outputs the simulator is capable of producing.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic

Single-particle and collective excitations in a charged Bose gas at finite temperature

The main focus of this work is on the predictions made by the dielectric formalism in regard to the relationship between single-particle and collective excitation spectra in a gas of point-like charged bosons at finite temperature $T$ below the critical region of Bose-Einstein condensation. Illustrative numerical results at weak coupling ($r_s = 1$) are presented within the Random Phase Approximation. We show that within this approach the single-particle spectrum forms a continuum extending from the transverse to the longitudinal plasma mode frequency and leading to a double-peak structure as $T$ increases, whereas the density fluctuation spectrum consists of a single broadening peak. We also discuss the momentum distribution and the superfluidity of the gas.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

The inter-rater reliability of the diagnosis of surgical site infection in the context of a clinical trial.

ObjectivesThe diagnosis of surgical site infection following endoprosthetic reconstruction for bone tumours is frequently a subjective diagnosis. Large clinical trials use blinded Central Adjudication Committees (CACs) to minimise the variability and bias associated with assessing a clinical outcome. The aim of this study was to determine the level of inter-rater and intra-rater agreement in the diagnosis of surgical site infection in the context of a clinical trial.Materials and methodsThe Prophylactic Antibiotic Regimens in Tumour Surgery (PARITY) trial CAC adjudicated 29 non-PARITY cases of lower extremity endoprosthetic reconstruction. The CAC members classified each case according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) criteria for surgical site infection (superficial, deep, or organ space). Combinatorial analysis was used to calculate the smallest CAC panel size required to maximise agreement. A final meeting was held to establish a consensus.ResultsFull or near consensus was reached in 20 of the 29 cases. The Fleiss kappa value was calculated as 0.44 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.35 to 0.53), or moderate agreement. The greatest statistical agreement was observed in the outcome of no infection, 0.61 (95% CI 0.49 to 0.72, substantial agreement). Panelists reached a full consensus in 12 of 29 cases and near consensus in five of 29 cases when CDC criteria were used (superficial, deep or organ space). A stable maximum Fleiss kappa of 0.46 (95% CI 0.50 to 0.35) at CAC sizes greater than three members was obtained.ConclusionsThere is substantial agreement among the members of the PARITY CAC regarding the presence or absence of surgical site infection. Agreement on the level of infection, however, is more challenging. Additional clinical information routinely collected by the prospective PARITY trial may improve the discriminatory capacity of the CAC in the parent study for the diagnosis of infection.Cite this article: J. Nuttall, N. Evaniew, P. Thornley, A. Griffin, B. Deheshi, T. O'Shea, J. Wunder, P. Ferguson, R. L. Randall, R. Turcotte, P. Schneider, P. McKay, M. Bhandari, M. Ghert. The inter-rater reliability of the diagnosis of surgical site infection in the context of a clinical trial. Bone Joint Res 2016;5:347-352. DOI: 10.1302/2046-3758.58.BJR-2016-0036.R1

A Planetary Companion to gamma Cephei A

We report on the detection of a planetary companion in orbit around the primary star of the binary system $\gamma$ Cephei. High precision radial velocity measurements using 4 independent data sets spanning the time interval 1981--2002 reveal long-lived residual radial velocity variations superimposed on the binary orbit that are coherent in phase and amplitude with a period or 2.48 years (906 days) and a semi-amplitude of 27.5 m s$^{-1}$. We performed a careful analysis of our Ca II H & K S-index measurements, spectral line bisectors, and {\it Hipparcos} photometry. We found no significant variations in these quantities with the 906-d period. We also re-analyzed the Ca II $\lambda$8662 {\AA} measurements of Walker et al. (1992) which showed possible periodic variations with the ``planet'' period when first published. This analysis shows that periodic Ca II equivalent width variations were only present during 1986.5 -- 1992 and absent during 1981--1986.5. Furthermore, a refined period for the Ca II $\lambda$8662 {\AA} variations is 2.14 yrs, significantly less than residual radial velocity period. The most likely explanation of the residual radial velocity variations is a planetary mass companion with $M$ sin $i$ = 1.7 $M_{Jupiter}$ and an orbital semi-major axis of $a_2$ $=$ 2.13 AU. This supports the planet hypothesis for the residual radial velocity variations for $\gamma$ Cep first suggested by Walker et al. (1992). With an estimated binary orbital period of 57 years $\gamma$ Cep is the shortest period binary system in which an extrasolar planet has been found. This system may provide insights into the relationship between planetary and binary star formation.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, accepted in Ap. J. Includes additional data and improved orbital solutio

B802: Base-Age Invariant Polymorphic Site Index Curves for Even-Aged Spruce-Fir Stands in Maine

The spruce-fir forest cover type, occupying nearly 8 million acres in Maine, accounts for approximately 50 percent of the growing stock volume in the State. A similar portion of Maine\u27s commercial forest land is owned and managed by forest industry, with spruce and fir being the mainstay of the industry. Analyses in recent years of Maine\u27s timber supply have shown softwood removals to exceed growth. The dramatic effects of the spruce budworm (Choristoneura.fumiferana (Clemens)) on the spruce-fir forest of Maine has heightened concern over the timber supply. A greater emphasis on management is necessary if timber growth is to keep pace with demand. With increasing demand for timber, and the increasing value of timber products, intensive management is becoming economically feasible. High labor costs have led to an increase in mechanized harvesting. Consequently, the stage has been set for a greater emphasis on even-aged management of the spruce-fir forest type in Maine~ As red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.), black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.), white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss), and balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) are the backbone of Maine\u27s forest industry, it is desirable to identify those sites best suited to the growth of these species. An easily attained and sufficiently accurate method of estimating the relative quality of a particular site is essential to sound forest management. Site index, defined as being the height attained by the dominant stand at an arbitrarily chosen age, commonly 50 years in the northeastern United States, has been the most widely used measure of site quality. In addition to being an easily measured indicator of relative site quality, site index provides a crucial parameter in the estimation of the ultimate capability of forest land to produce wood volume.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1100/thumbnail.jp

Fluctuating and dissipative dynamics of dark solitons in quasi-condensates

The fluctuating and dissipative dynamics of matter-wave dark solitons within harmonically trapped, partially condensed Bose gases is studied both numerically and analytically. A study of the stochastic Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which correctly accounts for density and phase fluctuations at finite temperatures, reveals dark soliton decay times to be lognormally distributed at each temperature, thereby characterizing the previously predicted long lived soliton trajectories within each ensemble of numerical realizations (S.P. Cockburn {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 174101 (2010)). Expectation values for the average soliton lifetimes extracted from these distributions are found to agree well with both numerical and analytic predictions based upon the dissipative Gross-Pitaevskii model (with the same {\it ab initio} damping). Probing the regime for which $0.8 k_{B}T < \mu < 1.6 k_{B}T$, we find average soliton lifetimes to scale with temperature as $\tau\sim T^{-4}$, in agreement with predictions previously made for the low-temperature regime $k_{B}T\ll\mu$. The model is also shown to capture the experimentally-relevant decrease in the visibility of an oscillating soliton due to the presence of background fluctuations.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figure

Contrasting Human- and Machine-Generated Word-Level Adversarial Examples for Text Classification

Research shows that natural language processing models are generally considered to be vulnerable to adversarial attacks; but recent work has drawn attention to the issue of validating these adversarial inputs against certain criteria (e.g., the preservation of semantics and grammaticality). Enforcing constraints to uphold such criteria may render attacks unsuccessful, raising the question of whether valid attacks are actually feasible. In this work, we investigate this through the lens of human language ability. We report on crowdsourcing studies in which we task humans with iteratively modifying words in an input text, while receiving immediate model feedback, with the aim of causing a sentiment classification model to misclassify the example. Our findings suggest that humans are capable of generating a substantial amount of adversarial examples using semantics-preserving word substitutions. We analyze how human-generated adversarial examples compare to the recently proposed TEXTFOOLER, GENETIC, BAE and SEMEMEPSO attack algorithms on the dimensions naturalness, preservation of sentiment, grammaticality and substitution rate. Our findings suggest that human-generated adversarial examples are not more able than the best algorithms to generate natural-reading, sentiment-preserving examples, though they do so by being much more computationally efficient