6,132 research outputs found
Transient excitation and data processing techniques employing the fast fourier transform for aeroelastic testing
The development of testing techniques useful in airplane ground resonance testing, wind tunnel aeroelastic model testing, and airplane flight flutter testing is presented. Included is the consideration of impulsive excitation, steady-state sinusoidal excitation, and random and pseudorandom excitation. Reasons for the selection of fast sine sweeps for transient excitation are given. The use of the fast fourier transform dynamic analyzer (HP-5451B) is presented, together with a curve fitting data process in the Laplace domain to experimentally evaluate values of generalized mass, model frequencies, dampings, and mode shapes. The effects of poor signal to noise ratios due to turbulence creating data variance are discussed. Data manipulation techniques used to overcome variance problems are also included. The experience is described that was gained by using these techniques since the early stages of the SST program. Data measured during 747 flight flutter tests, and SST, YC-14, and 727 empennage flutter model tests are included
New methods for producing low cost silicon for solar cells
Growth in the solar cell industry will soon exceed the available supply of electronic grade Si from semiconductor offcuts. This is expected to lead to a significant increase in the cost of the source material, and a subsequent rise in the price of solar cells. As a result of this a number of different ways are being investigated to manufacture an alternative low-cost silicon material for solar cells. This paper discusses an investigation of several potential new processes for producing lower-cost solar cells based on the production and purification of the "volatile" chloro-silane compounds SiCl4 and Si2Cl6 from naturally occurring SiO2. These purified compounds may then be decomposed to produce thin film Si solar cells directly, or converted to solar grade silicon for the subsequent production of conventional wafer based c-Si solar cells. The use of waste product grain husks as a new source of high grade SiO2 feedstock for this process is also discussed. These methods offer the possibility of both new, low cost methods of producing solar-grade Si for wafer based c-Si solar cell production, as well as the direct production of inexpensive thin film Si solar cells, such as a-Si:H
Semi-transparent brane-worlds
We study the evolution of a closed Friedmann brane perturbed by the Hawking
radiation escaping a bulk black hole. The semi-transparent brane absorbes some
of the infalling radiation, the rest being transmitted across the brane to the
other bulk region. We characterize the cosmological evolution in terms of the
transmission rate . For small values of a critical-like
behaviour could be observed, when the acceleration due to radiation pressure
and the deceleration induced by the increasing self-gravity of the brane
roughly compensate each other, and cosmological evolution is approximately the
same as without radiation. Lighter (heavier) branes than those with the
critical energy density will recollapse slower (faster). This feature is
obstructed at high values of , where the overall effect of the
radiation is to speed-up the recollapse. We determine the maximal value of the
transmission rate for which the critical-like behaviour is observed. We also
study the effect of transmission on the evolution of different source terms of
the Friedmann equation. We conclude that among all semi-transparent branes the
slowest recollapse occurs for light branes with total absorption.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure
The WAY theorem and the quantum resource theory of asymmetry
The WAY theorem establishes an important constraint that conservation laws
impose on quantum mechanical measurements. We formulate the WAY theorem in the
broader context of resource theories, where one is constrained to a subset of
quantum mechanical operations described by a symmetry group. Establishing
connections with the theory of quantum state discrimination we obtain optimal
unitaries describing the measurement of arbitrary observables, explain how
prior information can permit perfect measurements that circumvent the WAY
constraint, and provide a framework that establishes a natural ordering on
measurement apparatuses through a decomposition into asymmetry and charge
subsystems.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
Recommended from our members
The identification and psychological treatment of panic disorder in adolescents: a survey of CAMHS clinicians
Background
Panic disorder is experienced by around 1% of adolescents, and has a significant impact on social and academic functioning. Preliminary evidence supports the effectiveness of panic disorder specific treatment in adolescents with panic disorder, however panic disorder may be overlooked in adolescents due to overlapping symptoms with other anxiety disorders and other difficulties being more noticeable to others. The aim of this study was to establish what training National Health Service (NHS) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) clinicians have received in psychological therapies and panic disorder and how they identify and treat panic disorder in adolescents.
Method
CAMHS clinicians from a range of professions (n = 427), who were delivering psychological treatments to children and adolescents with anxiety disorders, participated. They completed a cross-sectional, online survey, including a vignette describing an adolescent with panic disorder, and were asked to identify the main diagnosis or presenting problem.
Results
Less than half the clinicians (48.6%) identified panic disorder or panic symptoms as the main presenting problem from the vignette. The majority of clinicians suggested CBT would be their treatment approach. However, few identified an evidence-based treatment protocol for working with young people with panic disorder. Almost half the sample had received no training in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and around a fifth had received no training in delivering psychological treatments.
Conclusions
Only half of CAMHS clinicians identified panic disorder from a vignette and although CBT treatments are widely offered, only a minority of adolescents with panic disorder are receiving treatments developed for, and evaluated with young people with panic disorder. There is a vital need for clinician training, the use of tools that aid identification and the implementation of evidence-based treatments within CAMHS
Fibroblast migration and collagen deposition during dermal wound healing: mathematical modelling and clinical implications,
The extent to which collagen alignment occurs during dermal wound healing determines the severity of scar tissue formation. We have modelled this using a multiscale approach, in which extracellular materials, for example collagen and fibrin, are modelled as continua, while fibroblasts are considered as discrete units. Within this model framework, we have explored the effects that different parameters have on the alignment process, and we have used the model to investigate how manipulation of transforming growth factor-β levels can reduce scar tissue formation. We briefly review this body of work, then extend the modelling framework to investigate the role played by leucocyte signalling in wound repair. To this end, fibroblast migration and collagen deposition within both the wound region and healthy peripheral tissue are considered. Trajectories of individual fibroblasts are determined as they migrate towards the wound region under the combined influence of collagen/fibrin alignment and gradients in a paracrine chemoattractant produced by leucocytes. The effects of a number of different physiological and cellular parameters upon the collagen alignment and repair integrity are assessed. These parameters include fibroblast concentration, cellular speed, fibroblast sensitivity to chemoattractant concentration and chemoattractant diffusion coefficient. Our results show that chemoattractant gradients lead to increased collagen alignment at the interface between the wound and the healthy tissue. Results show that there is a trade-off between wound integrity and the degree of scarring. The former is found to be optimized under conditions of a large chemoattractant diffusion coefficient, while the latter can be minimized when repair takes place in the presence of a competitive inhibitor to chemoattractants
Kynurenine pathway inhibition reduces central nervous system inflammation in a model of human African trypanosomiasis
Human African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, is caused by the protozoan parasites <i>Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense</i> or <i>Trypanosoma brucei gambiense</i>, and is a major cause of systemic and neurological disability throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Following early-stage disease, the trypanosomes cross the blood-brain barrier to invade the central nervous system leading to the encephalitic, or late stage, infection. Treatment of human African trypanosomiasis currently relies on a limited number of highly toxic drugs, but untreated, is invariably fatal. Melarsoprol, a trivalent arsenical, is the only drug that can be used to cure both forms of the infection once the central nervous system has become involved, but unfortunately, this drug induces an extremely severe post-treatment reactive encephalopathy (PTRE) in up to 10% of treated patients, half of whom die from this complication. Since it is unlikely that any new and less toxic drug will be developed for treatment of human African trypanosomiasis in the near future, increasing attention is now being focussed on the potential use of existing compounds, either alone or in combination chemotherapy, for improved efficacy and safety. The kynurenine pathway is the major pathway in the metabolism of tryptophan. A number of the catabolites produced along this pathway show neurotoxic or neuroprotective activities, and their role in the generation of central nervous system inflammation is well documented. In the current study, Ro-61-8048, a high affinity kynurenine-3-monooxygenase inhibitor, was used to determine the effect of manipulating the kynurenine pathway in a highly reproducible mouse model of human African trypanosomiasis. It was found that Ro-61-8048 treatment had no significant effect (P = 0.4445) on the severity of the neuroinflammatory pathology in mice during the early central nervous system stage of the disease when only a low level of inflammation was present. However, a significant (P = 0.0284) reduction in the severity of the neuroinflammatory response was detected when the inhibitor was administered in animals exhibiting the more severe, late central nervous system stage, of the infection. <i>In vitro</i> assays showed that Ro-61-8048 had no direct effect on trypanosome proliferation suggesting that the anti-inflammatory action is due to a direct effect of the inhibitor on the host cells and not a secondary response to parasite destruction. These findings demonstrate that kynurenine pathway catabolites are involved in the generation of the more severe inflammatory reaction associated with the late central nervous system stages of the disease and suggest that Ro-61-8048 or a similar drug may prove to be beneficial in preventing or ameliorating the PTRE when administered as an adjunct to conventional trypanocidal chemotherap
Mean-field description of ground-state properties of drip-line nuclei. (I) Shell-correction method
A shell-correction method is applied to nuclei far from the beta stability
line and its suitability to describe effects of the particle continuum is
discussed. The sensitivity of predicted locations of one- and two-particle drip
lines to details of the macroscopic-microscopic model is analyzed.Comment: 22 REVTeX pages, 13 uuencoded postscript figures available upon
reques
On the response of a particle detector in Anti-de Sitter spacetime
We consider the vacuum response of a particle detector in Anti-de Sitter
spacetime, and in particular analyze how spacetime features such as curvature
and dimensionality affect the response spectrum of an accelerated detector. We
calculate useful limits on Wightman functions, analyze the dynamics of the
detector in terms of vacuum fluctuations and radiation reactions, and discuss
the thermalization process for the detector. We also present a generalization
of the GEMS approach and obtain the Gibbons-Hawking temperature of de Sitter
spacetime as an embedded Unruh temperature in a curved Anti-de Sitter
spacetime.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, accepted for publication in Class. Quantum Gra
- …