Wind profiler signal detection improvements

Research is described on potential improvements to the software used with the NASA 49.25 MHz wind profiler located at Kennedy Space Center. In particular, the analysis and results are provided of a study to (1) identify preferred mathematical techniques for the detection of atmospheric signals that provide wind velocities which are obscured by natural and man-made sources, and (2) to analyze one or more preferred techniques to demonstrate proof of the capability to improve the detection of wind velocities

Psychological distress, physical illness, and risk of coronary heart disease

Study objective: The aims of this study are to confirm the association between psychological distress and coronary heart disease (CHD) using an epidemiological community study with hospital admissions data and to examine if any association is explained by existing illness. Design: Prospective cohort study modelling the association between psychological distress, measured using the 30 item general health questionnaire (GHQ), and hospital admissions data for CHD (ICD 410–414), using proportional hazards modelling adjusted for sociodemographic, CHD risk factors, and angina, bronchitis, diabetes, ischaemia, and stroke. Setting: Two suburbs of Glasgow, Renfrew and Paisley, in Scotland. Participants: 6575 men and women aged 45–64 years from Paisley. Main: results: Five year CHD risk in distressed men compared with non-distressed men was 1.78 (95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.15 to 2.75) in age adjusted analysis, 1.78 (95% CI, 1.14 to 2.79) with sociodemographic and CHD risk factor adjustment, and 1.61 (95% CI 1.02 to 2.55) with additional adjustment for existing illness. Psychological distress was unrelated to five year CHD risk in women. In further analysis, compared with healthy, non-distressed men, distressed physically ill men had a greater risk of CHD than non-distressed physically ill men, a relative risk of 4.01 (95% CI 2.42 to 6.66) compared with 2.12 (95% CI 1.35 to 3.32). Conclusion: The association of psychological distress with an increased risk of five year CHD risk in men could be a function of baseline physical illness but an effect independent of physical illness cannot be ruled out. Its presence among physically ill men greatly increases CHD risk

Individual differences in human annoyance response to noise

Individual variations in annoyance and in susceptibility to noise were studied to establish a finer definition of the ingredients of the human annoyance response. The study involved interactions among a heterogeneous sample of human subjects, various noise stimuli, and different physical environments of exposure. Significant differences in annoyance ratings among the six noise stimuli, all equated for peak sound pressure level, were found

Psychological distress and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the Renfrew and Paisley (MIDSPAN) study

Background: This study examined whether psychological distress might be a predictor of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Method: The relation between psychological distress at baseline, measured by the general health questionnaire (GHQ), and chronic bronchitis three years later, as measured by the Medical Research Council (MRC) bronchitis questionnaire and forced expiratory flow in one second (FEV1), was examined in 1682 men and 2203 women from the Renfrew and Paisley (MIDSPAN) study. The analyses were run on men and women separately and adjustments were made for age, socioeconomic position, and lung function at baseline (FEV1). People with chronic diseases at baseline were then excluded to give a "healthy" baseline cohort. The effect of psychological distress on individual components of the MRC bronchitis questionnaire and FEV1 was also assessed. Results: In multivariate analyses of the whole cohort baseline psychological distress in women was associated with reduced FEV1 at follow up (OR 1.31 95% CI 1.0 to 1.73) after adjustment. In women, in the healthy cohort, psychological distress was associated with chronic bronchitis (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.16 to 3.46), symptoms of bronchial infection (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.44 to 3.19), symptoms of breathlessness (OR 3.02, 95% CI 1.99 to 4.59), and reduced FEV1 (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.13 to 2.32). In men psychological distress predicted symptoms of bronchial infection (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.28 to 3.42). Conclusion: This study supports research suggesting that psychological distress is associated with COPD and shows that psychological distress predicts COPD in women. The robustness of the association and the exact mechanism requires further investigation

Loss of redundant gene expression after polyploidization in plants

Based on chromosomal location data of genes encoding 28 biochemical systems in allohexaploid wheat,Triticum aestivum L. (genomes AABBDD), it is concluded that the proportions of systems controlled by triplicate, duplicate, and single loci are 57%, 25%, and 18% respectively

The effect of short ray trajectories on the scattering statistics of wave chaotic systems

In many situations, the statistical properties of wave systems with chaotic classical limits are well-described by random matrix theory. However, applications of random matrix theory to scattering problems require introduction of system specific information into the statistical model, such as the introduction of the average scattering matrix in the Poisson kernel. Here it is shown that the average impedance matrix, which also characterizes the system-specific properties, can be expressed in terms of classical trajectories that travel between ports and thus can be calculated semiclassically. Theoretical results are compared with numerical solutions for a model wave-chaotic system

Studies relating the individual characteristics of people with their responses to noise

Characteristic human responses to aviation and industrial noise stimul

A feasibility, randomised controlled trial of a complex breathlessness intervention in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (BREEZE-IPF): study protocol

Introduction Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive lung disease that causes breathlessness and cough that worsen over time, limiting daily activities and negatively impacting quality of life. Although treatments are now available that slow the rate of lung function decline, trials of these treatments have failed to show improvement in symptoms or quality of life. There is an immediate unmet need for evidenced-based interventions that improve patients' symptom burden and make a difference to everyday living. This study aims to assess the feasibility of conducting a definitive randomised controlled trial of a holistic, complex breathlessness intervention in people with IPF. Methods and analysis The trial is a two-centre, randomised controlled feasibility trial of a complex breathlessness intervention compared with usual care in patients with IPF. 50 participants will be recruited from secondary care IPF clinics and randomised 1:1 to either start the intervention within 1 week of randomisation (fast-track group) or to receive usual care for 8 weeks before receiving the intervention (wait-list group). Participants will remain in the study for a total of 16 weeks. Outcome measures will be feasibility outcomes, including recruitment, retention, acceptability and fidelity of the intervention. Clinical outcomes will be measured to inform outcome selection and sample size calculation for a definitive trial. Ethics and dissemination Yorkshire and The Humber – Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee approved the study protocol (REC 18/YH/0147). Results of the main trial and all secondary end-points will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal

Three-photon detachment of electrons from the fluorine negative ion

Absolute three-photon detachment cross sections are calculated for the fluorine negative ion within the lowest-order perturbation theory. The Dyson equation of the atomic many-body theory is used to obtain the ground-state 2p wavefunction with correct asymptotic behaviour, corresponding to the true (experimental) binding energy. We show that in accordance with the adiabatic theory (Gribakin and Kuchiev 1997 {Phys. Rev. A} {\bf 55} 3760) this is crucial for obtaining absolute values of the multiphoton cross sections. Comparisons with other calculations and experimental data are presented.Comment: 10 pages, two figures, Latex, IOP styl

On the glueball spectrum in O(a)-improved lattice QCD

We calculate the light `glueball' mass spectrum in N_f=2 lattice QCD using a fermion action that is non-perturbatively O(a) improved. We work at lattice spacings a ~0.1 fm and with quark masses that range down to about half the strange quark mass. We find the statistical errors to be moderate and under control on relatively small ensembles. We compare our mass spectrum to that of quenched QCD at the same value of a. Whilst the tensor mass is the same (within errors), the scalar mass is significantly smaller in the dynamical lattice theory, by a factor of ~(0.84 +/- 0.03). We discuss what the observed m_q dependence of this suppression tells us about the dynamics of glueballs in QCD. We also calculate the masses of flux tubes that wind around the spatial torus, and extract the string tension from these. As we decrease the quark mass we see a small but growing vacuum expectation value for the corresponding flux tube operators. This provides clear evidence for `string breaking' and for the (expected) breaking of the associated gauge centre symmetry by sea quarks.Comment: 33pp LaTeX. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.