4,858 research outputs found
LAWS simulation: Sampling strategies and wind computation algorithms
In general, work has continued on developing and evaluating algorithms designed to manage the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) lidar pulses and to compute the horizontal wind vectors from the line-of-sight (LOS) measurements. These efforts fall into three categories: Improvements to the shot management and multi-pair algorithms (SMA/MPA); observing system simulation experiments; and ground-based simulations of LAWS
Gravity gradient preliminary investigations on exhibit ''A'' Final report
Quartz microbalance gravity gradiometer performance test
Improved laboratory gradiometer can be a field survey instrument
Improvements made to quartz gradiometer minimize or eliminate disturbing effects from known error sources and permit sensitivity of + or - 1 times 10 to the minus 9th power/sec sq or better and measuring accuracy of + or - 5 times 10 to the minus 9th power/sec sq
Selecting children for head CT following head injury
OBJECTIVE: Indicators for head CT scan defined by the 2007 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines were analysed to identify CT uptake, influential variables and yield. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Hospital inpatient units: England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. PATIENTS: Children (3 years were much more likely to have CT than those <3 years (OR 2.35 (95% CI 2.08 to 2.65)). CONCLUSION: Compliance with guidelines and diagnostic yield was variable across age groups, the type of hospital and region where children were admitted. With this pattern of clinical practice the risks of both missing intracranial injury and overuse of CT are considerable
Monitoring global vegetation
An attempt is made to identify the need for, and the current capability of, a technology which could aid in monitoring the Earth's vegetation resource on a global scale. Vegetation is one of our most critical natural resources, and accurate timely information on its current status and temporal dynamics is essential to understand many basic and applied environmental interrelationships which exist on the small but complex planet Earth
Stable Differences in Intrinsic Mitochondrial Membrane Potential of Tumor Cell Subpopulations Reflect Phenotypic Heterogeneity
Heterogeneity among cells that constitute a solid tumor is important in determining disease progression. Our previous work established that, within a population of metastatic colonic tumor cells, there are minor subpopulations of cells with stable differences in their intrinsic mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), and that these differences in ΔΨm are linked to tumorigenic phenotype. Here we expanded this work to investigate primary mammary, as well as colonic, tumor cell lines. We show that within a primary mammary tumor cell population, and in both primary and metastatic colonic tumor cell populations, there are subpopulations of cells with significant stable variations in intrinsic ΔΨm. In each of these 3 tumor cell populations, cells with relatively higher intrinsic ΔΨm exhibit phenotypic properties consistent with promotion of tumor cell survival and expansion. However, additional properties associated with invasive potential appear in cells with higher intrinsic ΔΨm only from the metastatic colonic tumor cell line. Thus, it is likely that differences in the intrinsic ΔΨm among cells that constitute primary mammary tumor populations, as well as primary and metastatic colonic tumor populations, are markers of an acquired tumor phenotype which, within the context of the tumor, influence the probability that particular cells will contribute to disease progression
Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda
This article introduces a special issue of Policy Studies entitled “Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda”. Growing from a shared concern over the need to expand the evidence base around the processes that led to large numbers of people claiming disability benefits in the UK, it brings together contributions from leading labour market and social policy researchers providing evidence and commentary on major reforms to Incapacity Benefit (IB) in the UK. This special issue address three key questions: what are the main causes of the long-term rise in the number of people claiming IBs; what will reduce the number of claimants; and what is likely to deliver policy effectively and efficiently? This introduction first explains and examines the challenges to reforms to IB in the UK, and then, in conclusion, highlights the answers to the previous three questions – first, labour market restructuring and marginalisation have driven the rise in numbers claiming IBs. Second, economic regeneration in the Britain’s less prosperous areas coupled with intensive and sustained supply-side support measures will bring numbers down. Third, delivery need to be flexible and tailored to individual needs and needs to be able to access local and expert knowledge in a range of organisations, including Job Centre Plus, the NHS as well as the private and voluntary sectors
EGRET Observations of the Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission in Orion: Analysis Through Cycle 6
We present a study of the high-energy diffuse emission observed toward Orion
by the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on the Compton
Gamma-Ray Observatory. The total exposure by EGRET in this region has increased
by more than a factor of two since a previous study. A simple model for the
diffuse emission adequately fits the data; no significant point sources are
detected in the region studied ( to and ) in either the composite dataset or in two separate
groups of EGRET viewing periods considered. The gamma-ray emissivity in Orion
is found to be for E > 100 MeV,
and the differential emissivity is well-described as a combination of
contributions from cosmic-ray electrons and protons with approximately the
local density. The molecular mass calibrating ratio is .Comment: 16 pages, including 5 figures. 3 Tables as three separate files.
Latex document, needs AASTEX style files. Accepted for publication in Ap
Signature of effective mass in crackling noise asymmetry
Crackling noise is a common feature in many dynamic systems [1-9], the most
familiar instance of which is the sound made by a sheet of paper when crumpled
into a ball. Although seemingly random, this noise contains fundamental
information about the properties of the system in which it occurs. One
potential source of such information lies in the asymmetric shape of noise
pulses emitted by a diverse range of noisy systems [8-12], but the cause of
this asymmetry has lacked explanation [1]. Here we show that the leftward
asymmetry observed in the Barkhausen effect [2] - the noise generated by the
jerky motion of domain walls as they interact with impurities in a soft magnet
- is a direct consequence of a magnetic domain wall's negative effective mass.
As well as providing a means of determining domain wall effective mass from a
magnet's Barkhausen noise our work suggests an inertial explanation for the
origin of avalanche asymmetries in crackling noise phenomena more generally.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Nature Physic
Control of threshold voltage in E-mode and D-mode GaN-on-Si metal-insulator-semiconductor heterostructure field effect transistors by in-situ fluorine doping of atomic layer deposition Al2O3 gate dielectrics
We report the modification and control of threshold voltage in enhancement and depletion mode AlGaN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor heterostructure field effect transistors through the use of in-situ fluorine doping of atomic layer deposition Al2O3. Uniform distribution of F ions throughout the oxide thickness are achievable, with a doping level of up to 5.5 × 1019 cm−3 as quantified by secondary ion mass spectrometry. This fluorine doping level reduces capacitive hysteretic effects when exploited in GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors. The fluorine doping and forming gas anneal also induces an average positive threshold voltage shift of between 0.75 and 1.36 V in both enhancement mode and depletion mode GaN-based transistors compared with the undoped gate oxide via a reduction of positive fixed charge in the gate oxide from +4.67 × 1012 cm−2 to −6.60 × 1012 cm−2. The application of this process in GaN based power transistors advances the realisation of normally off, high power, high speed devices
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