6,441 research outputs found
Aircraft wing trailing-edge noise
The mechanism and sound pressure level of the trailing-edge noise for two-dimensional turbulent boundary layer flow was examined. Experiment is compared with current theory. A NACA 0012 airfoil of 0.61 m chord and 0.46 m span was immersed in the laminar flow of a low turbulence open jet. A 2.54 cm width roughness strip was placed at 15 percent chord from the leading edge on both sides of the airfoil as a boundary layer trip so that two separate but statistically equivalent turbulent boundary layers were formed. Tests were performed with several trailing-edge geometries with the upstream velocity U sub infinity ranging from a value of 30.9 m/s up to 73.4 m/s. Properties of the boundary layer for the airfoil and pressure fluctuations in the vicinity of the trailing-edge were examined. A scattered pressure field due to the presence of the trailing-edge was observed and is suggested as a possible sound producing mechanism for the trailing-edge noise
A comparative study of herbage intake, ingestive behaviour and diet selection, and effects of condensed tannins upon body and wool growth in lambs grazing Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus) and annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) dominant swards
An experiment was carried out from August to early November 1994 to examine differences in diet selection, herbage intake, grazing behaviour and animal performance between weaned lambs rotationally grazing swards of annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum)/white clover (Trifolium repens) and Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus)/T. repens with or without Lotus corniculatus. There were four replicate groups of six lambs per treatment. The effects of condensed tannins (CT) on lamb production were assessed by twice-daily oral administration of 10g polyethylene glycol (PEG; molecular weight 4000) to half the lambs on each sward. The Lotus content of all swards was very low, and results are presented here for main sward comparisons meaned over lotus treatments. Overall mean estimates of pre-grazing herbage mass and sward surface height for the annual ryegrass and Yorkshire fog swards respectively, were 5820 v. 4360 +/- 190 kg DM/ha (P , P < 0.01) and liveweight gain (141 v. 120 +/- 4.3 g per lamb per day, P < 0.01), although differences in carcass weight (17.9 v. 18.2 +/- 0.3 kg) and FEC transformed values (9.6 v. 11.0 +/- 06 eggs/g fresh faeces) were not significant. The effects of CT on animal performance were greater in Yorkshire fog swards. CT had no significant effects on diet selection, herbage intake and grazing behaviour patterns
The Effect of the Hall Term on the Nonlinear Evolution of the Magnetorotational Instability: I. Local Axisymmetric Simulations
The effect of the Hall term on the evolution of the magnetorotational
instability (MRI) in weakly ionized accretion disks is investigated using local
axisymmetric simulations. First, we show that the Hall term has important
effects on the MRI when the temperature and density in the disk is below a few
thousand K and between 10^13 and 10^18 cm^{-3} respectively. Such conditions
can occur in the quiescent phase of dwarf nova disks, or in the inner part
(inside 10 - 100 AU) of protoplanetary disks. When the Hall term is important,
the properties of the MRI are dependent on the direction of the magnetic field
with respect to the angular velocity vector \Omega. If the disk is threaded by
a uniform vertical field oriented in the same sense as \Omega, the axisymmetric
evolution of the MRI is an exponentially growing two-channel flow without
saturation. When the field is oppositely directed to \Omega, however, small
scale fluctuations prevent the nonlinear growth of the channel flow and the MRI
evolves into MHD turbulence. These results are anticipated from the
characteristics of the linear dispersion relation. In axisymmetry on a field
with zero-net flux, the evolution of the MRI is independent of the size of the
Hall term relative to the inductive term. The evolution in this case is
determined mostly by the effect of ohmic dissipation.Comment: 31 pages, 3 tables, 12 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ,
postscript version also available from
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~sano/publications
Predictive learning, prediction errors, and attention: evidence from event-related potentials and eye tracking
Prediction error (‘‘surprise’’) affects the rate of learning: We learn more rapidly about cues for which we initially make incorrect predictions than cues for which our initial predictions are correct. The current studies employ electrophysiological measures to reveal early attentional differentiation of events that differ in their previous involvement in errors of predictive judgment.
Error-related events attract more attention, as evidenced by features of event-related scalp potentials previously implicated in selective visual attention (selection negativity, augmented anterior N1). The earliest differences detected occurred around 120 msec after stimulus onset, and distributed source localization (LORETA)
indicated that the inferior temporal regions were one source of the earliest differences. In addition, stimuli associated with the production of prediction errors show higher dwell times in an eyetracking procedure. Our data support the view that early attentional processes play a role in human associative learning
Abnormal negative feedback processing in first episode schizophrenia: evidence from an oculomotor rule switching task
Background. Previous studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia are impaired on executive tasks,
where positive and negative feedbacks are used to update task rules or switch attention. However, research to date
using saccadic tasks has not revealed clear deficits in task switching in these patients. The present study used an
oculomotor ‘ rule switching ’ task to investigate the use of negative feedback when switching between task rules in
people with schizophrenia.
Method. A total of 50 patients with first episode schizophrenia and 25 healthy controls performed a task in which the association between a centrally presented visual cue and the direction of a saccade could change from trial to trial. Rule changes were heralded by an unexpected negative feedback, indicating that the cue-response mapping
had reversed.
Results. Schizophrenia patients were found to make increased errors following a rule switch, but these were almost entirely the result of executing saccades away from the location at which the negative feedback had been presented on the preceding trial. This impairment in negative feedback processing was independent of IQ.
Conclusions. The results not only confirm the existence of a basic deficit in stimulus–response rule switching in
schizophrenia, but also suggest that this arises from aberrant processing of response outcomes, resulting in a failure to appropriately update rules. The findings are discussed in the context of neurological and pharmacological
abnormalities in the conditions that may disrupt prediction error signalling in schizophrenia
Learning From Early Attempts to Generalize Darwinian Principles to Social Evolution
Copyright University of Hertfordshire & author.Evolutionary psychology places the human psyche in the context of evolution, and addresses the Darwinian processes involved, particularly at the level of genetic evolution. A logically separate and potentially complementary argument is to consider the application of Darwinian principles not only to genes but also to social entities and processes. This idea of extending Darwinian principles was suggested by Darwin himself. Attempts to do this appeared as early as the 1870s and proliferated until the early twentieth century. But such ideas remained dormant in the social sciences from the 1920s until after the Second World War. Some lessons can be learned from this earlier period, particularly concerning the problem of specifying the social units of selection or replication
Connection between inner jet kinematics and broadband flux variability in the BL Lac object S5 0716+714
We present a high-frequency very long baseline interferometry (VLBI)
kinematical study of the BL Lac object S5 0716+714 over the time period of
September 2008 to October 2010. The aim of the study is to investigate the
relation of the jet kinematics to the observed broadband flux variability. We
find significant non-radial motions in the jet outflow of the source. In the
radial direction, the highest measured apparent speed is \sim37 c, which is
exceptionally high, especially for a BL Lac object. Patterns in the jet flow
reveal a roughly stationary feature \sim0.15 mas downstream of the core. The
long-term fits to the component trajectories reveal acceleration in the sub-mas
region of the jet. The measured brightness temperature, T_{B}, follows a
continuous trend of decline with distance, T_B \propto
r_{jet}^{-(2.36\pm0.41)}, which suggests a gradient in Doppler factor along the
jet axis. Our analysis suggest that a moving disturbance (or a shock wave) from
the base of the jet produces the high-energy (optical to \gamma-ray) variations
upstream of the 7 mm core, and then later causes an outburst in the core.
Repetitive optical/\gamma-ray flares and the curved trajectories of the
associated components suggest that the shock front propagates along a bent
trajectory or helical path. Sharper \gamma-ray flares could be related to the
passage of moving disturbances through the stationary feature. Our analysis
suggests that the \gamma-ray and radio emission regions have different Doppler
factors.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&
A Systematic Review of Dental Disease in Patients Undergoing Cancer Therapy
Introduction: The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the literature and update our current understanding of the impact of present cancer therapies on the dental apparatus (teeth and periodontium) since the 1989 NIH Development Consensus Conference on the Oral Complications of Cancer Therapies.
Review Method: A systematic literature search was conducted with assistance from a research librarian in the databases MEDLINE/PubMed and EMBASE for articles published between 1 January 1990 and 31 December 2008. Each study was independently assessed by two reviewers. Taking into account predetermined quality measures, a weighted prevalence was calculated for the prevalence of dental caries, severe gingival disease, and dental infection. Data on DMFT/dmft, DMFS/dmfs, plaque, and gingival indexes were also gathered. The level of evidence, recommendation, and guideline (if possible) were given for published preventive and management strategies.
Results: Sixty-four published papers between 1990 and 2008 were reviewed. The weighted overall prevalence of dental caries was 28.1%. The overall DMFT for patients who were post-antineoplastic therapy was 9.19 (SD, 7.98; n=457). The overall plaque index for patients who were postantineoplastic therapy was 1.38 (SD, 0.25; n=189). The GI for patients who were post-chemotherapy was 1.02 (SD, 0.15; n=162). The weighted prevalence of dental infections/ abscess during chemotherapy was reported in three studies and was 5.8%.
Conclusions: Patients who were post-radiotherapy had the highest DMFT. The use of fluoride products and chlorhexidine rinses are beneficial in patients who are post-radiotherapy. There continues to be lack of clinical studies on the extent and severity of dental disease that are associated with infectious complications during cancer therapy
Collisions of particles in locally AdS spacetimes II Moduli of globally hyperbolic spaces
We investigate 3-dimensional globally hyperbolic AdS manifolds containing
"particles", i.e., cone singularities of angles less than along a
time-like graph . To each such space we associate a graph and a finite
family of pairs of hyperbolic surfaces with cone singularities. We show that
this data is sufficient to recover the space locally (i.e., in the neighborhood
of a fixed metric). This is a partial extension of a result of Mess for
non-singular globally hyperbolic AdS manifolds.Comment: 29 pages, 3 figures. v2: 41 pages, improved exposition. To appear,
Comm. Math. Phys. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0905.182
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