8,083 research outputs found
The Sophistication of Ellis Island in Prenatal Diagnosis with Subsequent Selective Termination of Babies with Disabilities
A study of model deflection measurement techniques applicable within the national transonic facility
Moire contouring, scanning interferometry, and holographic contouring were examined to determine their practicality and potential to meet performance requirements for a model deflection sensor. The system envisioned is to be nonintrusive, and is to be capable of mapping or contouring the surface of a 1-meter by 1-meter model with a resolution of 50 to 100 points. The available literature was surveyed, and computations and analyses were performed to establish specific performance requirements, as well as the capabilities and limitations of such a sensor within the geometry of the NTF section test section. Of the three systems examined, holographic contouring offers the most promise. Unlike Moire, it is not hampered by limited contour spacing and extraneous fringes. Its transverse resolution can far exceed the limited point sampling resolution of scanning heterodyne interferometry. The availability of the ruby laser as a high power, pulsed, multiple wavelength source makes such a system feasible within the NTF
Polarimetry in the Visible and Infrared: Application to CMB Polarimetry
Interstellar polarization from aligned dust grains can be measured both in
transmission at visible and near-infrared wavelengths and in emission at
far-infrared and sub-mm wavelengths. These observations can help predict the
behavior of foreground contamination of CMB polarimetry by dust in the Milky
Way. Fractional polarization in emission from aligned dust grains will be at
the higher range of currently observed values of 4-10%. Away from the galactic
plane, fluctuations in Q and U will be dominated by fluctuations in intensity,
and less influenced by fluctuations in fractional polarization and position
angle.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of "The Cosmic Microwave
Background and its Polarization", New Astronomy Reviews, (eds. S. Hanany and
K.A. Olive
Is Explicit Congestion Notification usable with UDP?
We present initial measurements to determine if ECN is usable with
UDP traffic in the public Internet. This is interesting because ECN
is part of current IETF proposals for congestion control of UDPbased
interactive multimedia, and due to the increasing use of UDP
as a substrate on which new transport protocols can be deployed.
Using measurements from the author’s homes, their workplace,
and cloud servers in each of the nine EC2 regions worldwide, we
test reachability of 2500 servers from the public NTP server pool,
using ECT(0) and not-ECT marked UDP packets. We show that
an average of 98.97% of the NTP servers that are reachable using
not-ECT marked packets are also reachable using ECT(0) marked
UDP packets, and that ~98% of network hops pass ECT(0) marked
packets without clearing the ECT bits. We compare reachability of
the same hosts using ECN with TCP, finding that 82.0% of those
reachable with TCP can successfully negotiate and use ECN. Our
findings suggest that ECN is broadly usable with UDP traffic, and
that support for use of ECN with TCP has increased
Complexity of Leading Digit Sequences
Let denote the sequence of leading digits of in base . It
is well known that if is not a rational power of , then the sequence
satisfies Benford's Law; that is, digit occurs in with
frequency , for .
In this paper, we investigate the \emph{complexity} of such sequences. We
focus mainly on the \emph{block complexity}, , defined as the
number of distinct blocks of length appearing in . In our main
result we determine for all squarefree bases and all
rational numbers that are not integral powers of . In particular, we
show that, for all such pairs , the complexity function is
\emph{affine}, i.e., satisfies for all
, with coefficients and , given explicitly in
terms of and . We also show that the requirement that be squarefree
cannot be dropped: If is not squarefree, then there exist integers with
for which is not of the above form.
We use this result to obtain sharp upper and lower bounds for ,
and to determine the asymptotic behavior of this function as
through squarefree values. We also consider the question which linear functions
arise as the complexity function of some leading digit
sequence .
We conclude with a discussion of other complexity measures for the sequences
and some open problems
The Swiss National Bank's monetary policy concept - an example of a 'principles-based' policy framework
The practice of monetary policy has evolved a great deal since the early 1990s. This evolution was significantly influenced by rapid developments in the theory of monetary policy. A new consensus about 'principles-based' monetary policy appears to be emerging. It marries a firm long-term anchor for nominal stability, rooted in the original ideas behind inflation targeting, with short-term flexibility, based on a more discretionary and pragmatic approach to monetary policy. The SNB's monetary policy framework - with a firm nominal anchor but with an emphasis on the need for flexibility - reflects, to a considerable degree, the emerging academic consensus about best-practice monetary policy. With its successful seven-year track record, it may serve as an interesting case study for a policy aiming at an intermediate position between full discretion and rigidly defined short-term inflation targeting.Swiss National Bank, monetary policy, inflation targeting, rules, discretion
Spin currents in superconductors
It is argued that experiments on rotating superconductors provide evidence
for the existence of macroscopic spin currents in superconductors in the
absence of applied external fields. Furthermore it is shown that the model of
hole superconductivity predicts the existence of such currents in all
superconductors. In addition it is pointed out that spin currents are required
within a related macroscopic (London-like) electrodynamic description of
superconductors recently proposed. The spin current arises through an intrinsic
spin Hall effect when negative charge is expelled from the interior of the
metal upon the transition to the superconducting state
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