97 research outputs found
Max Hastings: Bombázók. A brit RAF légioffenzÃvája Németország ellen. 1939-1945. Budapest, 1999, Aquila Könyvkiadó
Single-Shot Spectrometry for X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers
An experimental scheme to realize single-shot spectrometry for the diagnostics of x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) is presented. The combination of an ultraprecisely figured mirror and a perfect crystal form a simple, high-precision spectrometer that can cover an energy range from a few eV to a hundred eV with high resolution. The application of the spectrometer to determine XFEL pulse widths was investigated theoretically and experimentally. It has been shown that the present system can determine pulse widths from sub-fs to ps in a single shot even for spontaneous radiation. The system can be easily extended to even shorter pulses.Makina Yabashi, Jerome B. Hastings, Max S. Zolotorev, Hidekazu Mimura, Hirokatsu Yumoto, Satoshi Matsuyama, Kazuto Yamauchi, and Tetsuya Ishikawa. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97(8), 084802 (2006)
Sustainable clothing: challenges, barriers and interventions for encouraging more sustainable consumer behaviour
Research with consumers has revealed limited awareness of the sustainability impact of clothing (Goworek et al., 2012). Semi-structured interviews conducted with a range of experts in sustainable clothing to increase understanding of the challenges for sustainable clothing revealed that a focus on sustainability alone will not drive the necessary changes in consumers’ clothing purchase, care and disposal behaviour for three reasons: (i) clothing sustainability is too complex; (ii) consumers are too diverse in their ethical concerns; and (iii) clothing is not an altruistic purchase. The findings identify the challenges that need to be addressed and the associated barriers for sustainable clothing. Interventions targeting consumers, suppliers, buyers and retailers are proposed that encourage more sustainable clothing production, purchase, care and disposal behaviour. These interventions range from normalising the design of sustainable clothing and increasing the ease of purchase, to shifting clothes washing norms and increasing upcycling, recycling and repair
CMBfit: Rapid WMAP likelihood calculations with normal parameters
We present a method for ultra-fast confrontation of the WMAP cosmic microwave
background observations with theoretical models, implemented as a publicly
available software package called CMBfit, useful for anyone wishing to measure
cosmological parameters by combining WMAP with other observations. The method
takes advantage of the underlying physics by transforming into a set of
parameters where the WMAP likelihood surface is accurately fit by the
exponential of a quartic or sextic polynomial. Building on previous physics
based approximations by Hu et.al., Kosowsky et.al. and Chu et.al., it combines
their speed with precision cosmology grade accuracy. A Fortran code for
computing the WMAP likelihood for a given set of parameters is provided,
pre-calibrated against CMBfast, accurate to Delta lnL ~ 0.05 over the entire
2sigma region of the parameter space for 6 parameter ``vanilla'' Lambda CDM
models. We also provide 7-parameter fits including spatial curvature,
gravitational waves and a running spectral index.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, References added, accepted for publication in
Phys.Rev.D., a Fortran code can be downloaded from
http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/cmbfit
BMQ
BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals
Reassessing the Fighting Performance of Conscript Soldiers During the Malvinas/Falklands War (1982)
Increasing generality in machine learning through procedural content generation
Procedural Content Generation (PCG) refers to the practice, in videogames and
other games, of generating content such as levels, quests, or characters
algorithmically. Motivated by the need to make games replayable, as well as to
reduce authoring burden, limit storage space requirements, and enable
particular aesthetics, a large number of PCG methods have been devised by game
developers. Additionally, researchers have explored adapting methods from
machine learning, optimization, and constraint solving to PCG problems. Games
have been widely used in AI research since the inception of the field, and in
recent years have been used to develop and benchmark new machine learning
algorithms. Through this practice, it has become more apparent that these
algorithms are susceptible to overfitting. Often, an algorithm will not learn a
general policy, but instead a policy that will only work for a particular
version of a particular task with particular initial parameters. In response,
researchers have begun exploring randomization of problem parameters to
counteract such overfitting and to allow trained policies to more easily
transfer from one environment to another, such as from a simulated robot to a
robot in the real world. Here we review the large amount of existing work on
PCG, which we believe has an important role to play in increasing the
generality of machine learning methods. The main goal here is to present RL/AI
with new tools from the PCG toolbox, and its secondary goal is to explain to
game developers and researchers a way in which their work is relevant to AI
research
Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP
We measure cosmological parameters using the three-dimensional power spectrum
P(k) from over 200,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in
combination with WMAP and other data. Our results are consistent with a
``vanilla'' flat adiabatic Lambda-CDM model without tilt (n=1), running tilt,
tensor modes or massive neutrinos. Adding SDSS information more than halves the
WMAP-only error bars on some parameters, tightening 1 sigma constraints on the
Hubble parameter from h~0.74+0.18-0.07 to h~0.70+0.04-0.03, on the matter
density from Omega_m~0.25+/-0.10 to Omega_m~0.30+/-0.04 (1 sigma) and on
neutrino masses from <11 eV to <0.6 eV (95%). SDSS helps even more when
dropping prior assumptions about curvature, neutrinos, tensor modes and the
equation of state. Our results are in substantial agreement with the joint
analysis of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is an impressive
consistency check with independent redshift survey data and analysis
techniques. In this paper, we place particular emphasis on clarifying the
physical origin of the constraints, i.e., what we do and do not know when using
different data sets and prior assumptions. For instance, dropping the
assumption that space is perfectly flat, the WMAP-only constraint on the
measured age of the Universe tightens from t0~16.3+2.3-1.8 Gyr to
t0~14.1+1.0-0.9 Gyr by adding SDSS and SN Ia data. Including tensors, running
tilt, neutrino mass and equation of state in the list of free parameters, many
constraints are still quite weak, but future cosmological measurements from
SDSS and other sources should allow these to be substantially tightened.Comment: Minor revisions to match accepted PRD version. SDSS data and ppt
figures available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspars.htm
Novel Polymorphisms in Plasmodium falciparum ABC Transporter Genes Are Associated with Major ACT Antimalarial Drug Resistance
Chemotherapy is a critical component of malaria control. However, the most deadly malaria pathogen, Plasmodium falciparum, has repeatedly mounted resistance against a series of antimalarial drugs used in the last decades. Southeast Asia is an epicenter of emerging antimalarial drug resistance, including recent resistance to the artemisinins, the core component of all recommended antimalarial combination therapies. Alterations in the parasitic membrane proteins Pgh-1, PfCRT and PfMRP1 are believed to be major contributors to resistance through decreasing intracellular drug accumulation. The pfcrt, pfmdr1 and pfmrp1 genes were sequenced from a set of P.falciparum field isolates from the Thai-Myanmar border. In vitro drug susceptibility to artemisinin, dihydroartemisinin, mefloquine and lumefantrine were assessed. Positive correlations were seen between the in vitro susceptibility responses to artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin and the responses to the arylamino-alcohol quinolines lumefantrine and mefloquine. The previously unstudied pfmdr1 F1226Y and pfmrp1 F1390I SNPs were associated significantly with artemisinin, mefloquine and lumefantrine in vitro susceptibility. A variation in pfmdr1 gene copy number was also associated with parasite drug susceptibility of artemisinin, mefloquine and lumefantrine. Our work unveils new candidate markers of P. falciparum multidrug resistance in vitro, while contributing to the understanding of subjacent genetic complexity, essential for future evidence-based drug policy decisions
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