Three-dimensional finite element analysis of acoustic instability of solid propellant rocket motors

A three dimensional finite element solution of the acoustic vibration problem in a solid propellant rocket motor is presented. The solution yields the natural circular frequencies of vibration and the corresponding acoustic pressure mode shapes, considering the coupled response of the propellant grain to the acoustic oscillations occurring in the motor cavity. The near incompressibility of the solid propellant is taken into account in the formulation. A relatively simple example problem is solved in order to illustrate the applicability of the analysis and the developed computer code

Predicting preferential DNA vector insertion sites: implications for functional genomics and gene therapy

Viral and transposon vectors have been employed in gene therapy as well as functional genomics studies. However, the goals of gene therapy and functional genomics are entirely different; gene therapists hope to avoid altering endogenous gene expression (especially the activation of oncogenes), whereas geneticists do want to alter expression of chromosomal genes. The odds of either outcome depend on a vector's preference to integrate into genes or control regions, and these preferences vary between vectors. Here we discuss the relative strengths of DNA vectors over viral vectors, and review methods to overcome barriers to delivery inherent to DNA vectors. We also review the tendencies of several classes of retroviral and transposon vectors to target DNA sequences, genes, and genetic elements with respect to the balance between insertion preferences and oncogenic selection. Theoretically, knowing the variables that affect integration for various vectors will allow researchers to choose the vector with the most utility for their specific purposes. The three principle benefits from elucidating factors that affect preferences in integration are as follows: in gene therapy, it allows assessment of the overall risks for activating an oncogene or inactivating a tumor suppressor gene that could lead to severe adverse effects years after treatment; in genomic studies, it allows one to discern random from selected integration events; and in gene therapy as well as functional genomics, it facilitates design of vectors that are better targeted to specific sequences, which would be a significant advance in the art of transgenesis

Individual, Family and Abuse Characteristics of 700 British Child and Adolescent Sexual Abusers

The individual, family and abuse characteristics of 700 children and young people referred to nine UK services over a nine-year period between 1992 and 2000 as a result of their sexually abusive behaviours were examined. The most common age at referral was 15 years, though a third of all referrals related to children aged 13 or under. Thirty-eight per cent of the sample were identified as learning disabled. Surprisingly high rates of sexual and non-sexual victimisation were present in the backgrounds of the children and young people referred. A wide range of abusive behaviours was perpetrated with just over half of the sample having penetrated or having attempted to penetrate another individual. Victims were usually known to the abuser but in 75 per cent of cases were not related. Fifty-one per cent of the sample abused females only, though 49 per cent had at least one male victim. The implications for policy and practice with children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours are discussed

A model realisation of the Jaffe-Wilczek correlation for pentaquarks

We discuss a realisation of the pentaquark structure proposed by Jaffe and Wilczek within a simple quark model with colour-spin contact interactions and coloured harmonic confinement, which accurately describes the $\Delta-N$ splitting. In this model spatially compact diquarks are formed in the pentaquark but no such compact object exists in the nucleon. The colour-spin attraction brings the Jaffe-Wilczek-like state down to a low mass, compatible with the experimental observation and below that of the naive ground state with all $S$-waves. We find, however, that although these trends are maintained, the extreme effects observed do not survive the required ``smearing'' of the delta function contact interaction. We also demonstrate the weakness of the ``schematic'' approximation when applied to a system containing a $P$-wave. An estimate of the anti-charmed pentaquark mass is made which is in line with the Jaffe-Wilczek prediction and significantly less than the value reported by the H1 collaboration.Comment: 10 pages, uses psfra

Positive practices : solution-focused and narrative therapeutic techniques with children with sexually harmful behaviours

This article explores the use of solution-focused and Narrative Therapeutic approaches with a boy who had sexually harmful behaviours. The paper will highlight the practical challenges of working with someone who is 'problem-saturated' through institutionalisation and who is also subjected to powerful discourses claiming the 'truth' about him. The use of solution-focused and Narrative Therapeutic principles and approaches will be demonstrated in the work described, in a way that allows the reader to reflect on how these may differ from modernist understandings and responses to this behaviour

Chiral extrapolation of lattice moments of proton quark distributions

We present the resolution of a long-standing discrepancy between the moments of parton distributions calculated from lattice QCD and their experimental values. We propose a simple extrapolation formula for the moments of the nonsinglet quark distribution u-d, as a function of quark mass, which embodies the general constraints imposed by the chiral symmetry of QCD. The inclusion of the leading nonanalytic behavior leads to an excellent description of both the lattice data and the experimental values of the moments.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Physical Review Letter

Chiral Behaviour of the Rho Meson in Lattice QCD

In order to guide the extrapolation of the mass of the rho meson calculated in lattice QCD with dynamical fermions, we study the contributions to its self-energy which vary most rapidly as the quark mass approaches zero; from the processes $\rho \to \omega \pi$ and $\rho \to \pi \pi$. It turns out that in analysing the most recent data from CP-PACS it is crucial to estimate the self-energy from $\rho \to \pi \pi$ using the same grid of discrete momenta as included implicitly in the lattice simulation. The correction associated with the continuum, infinite volume limit can then be found by calculating the corresponding integrals exactly. Our error analysis suggests that a factor of 10 improvement in statistics at the lowest quark mass for which data currently exists would allow one to determine the physical rho mass to within 5%. Finally, our analysis throws new light on a long-standing problem with the J-parameter.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. Full analytic forms of the self-energies are included and a correction in the omega-pi self-energ

Sub-Nyquist Field Trial Using Time Frequency Packed DP-QPSK Super-Channel Within Fixed ITU-T Grid

Sub-Nyquist time frequency packing technique was demonstrated for the first time in a super channel field trial transmission over long-haul distances. The technique allows a limited spectral occupancy even with low order modulation formats. The transmission was successfully performed on a deployed Australian link between Sydney and Melbourne which included 995 km of uncompensated SMF with coexistent traffic. 40 and 100 Gb/s co-propagating channels were transmitted together with the super-channel in a 50 GHz ITU-T grid without additional penalty. The super-channel consisted of eight sub-channels with low-level modulation format, i.e. DP-QPSK, guaranteeing better OSNR robustness and reduced complexity with respect to higher order formats. At the receiver side, coherent detection was used together with iterative maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) detection and decoding. A 975 Gb/s DP-QPSK super-channel was successfully transmitted between Sydney and Melbourne within four 50GHz WSS channels (200 GHz). A maximum potential SE of 5.58 bit/s/Hz was achieved with an OSNR=15.8 dB, comparable to the OSNR of the installed 100 Gb/s channels. The system reliability was proven through long term measurements. In addition, by closing the link in a loop back configuration, a potential SE*d product of 9254 bit/s/Hz*km was achieved