The airborne laser ranging system, its capabilities and applications

The airborne laser ranging system is a multibeam short pulse laser ranging system on board an aircraft. It simultaneously measures the distances between the aircraft and six laser retroreflectors (targets) deployed on the Earth's surface. The system can interrogate over 100 targets distributed over an area of 25,000 sq, kilometers in a matter of hours. Potentially, a total of 1.3 million individual range measurements can be made in a six hour flight. The precision of these range measurements is approximately + or - 1 cm. These measurements are used in procedure which is basically an extension of trilateration techniques to derive the intersite vector between the laser ground targets. By repeating the estimation of the intersite vector, strain and strain rate errors can be estimated. These quantities are essential for crustal dynamic studies which include determination and monitoring of regional strain in the vicinity of active fault zones, land subsidence, and edifice building preceding volcanic eruptions

Effects of specimen resonances on acoustic-ultrasonic testing

The effects of specimen resonances on acoustic ultrasonic (AU) nondestructive testing were investigated. Selected resonant frequencies and the corresponding normal mode nodal patterns of the aluminum block are measured up to 75.64 kHz. Prominent peaks in the pencil lead fracture and sphere impact spectra from the two transducer locations corresponded exactly to resonant frequencies of the block. It is established that the resonant frequencies of the block dominated the spectral content of the output signal. The spectral content of the output signals is further influenced by the transducer location relative to the resonant frequency nodal lines. Implications of the results are discussed in relation to AU parameters and measurements

Children's age influences their use of biological and mechanical questions towards a humanoid

Complex autonomous interactions, biomimetic appearances, and responsive behaviours are increasingly seen in social robots. These features, by design or otherwise, may substantially influence young children’s beliefs of a robot’s animacy. Young children are believed to hold naive theories of animacy, and can miscategorise objects as living agents with intentions; however, this develops with age to a biological understanding. Prior research indicates that children frequently categorise a responsive humanoid as being a hybrid of person and machine; although, with age, children tend towards classifying the humanoid as being more machine-like. Our current research explores this phenomenon, using an unobtrusive method: recording childrens conversational interaction with the humanoid and classifying indications of animacy beliefs in childrens questions asked. Our results indicate that established findings are not an artefact of prior research methods: young children tend to converse with the humanoid as if it is more animate than older children do

Possible monetary policy responses to the Iraqi oil shock

Power resources - Prices ; Iraq ; Monetary policy ; Petroleum industry and trade

Structured reporting: if, why, when, how—and at what expense? Results of a focus group meeting of radiology professionals from eight countries

Purpose: To determine why, despite growing evidence that radiologists and referring physicians prefer structured reporting (SR) to free text (FT) reporting, SR has not been widely adopted in most radiology departments. Methods: A focus group was formed consisting of 11 radiology professionals from eight countries. Eight topics were submitted for discussion. The meeting was videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed according to the principles of qualitative healthcare research. Results: Perceived advantages of SR were facilitation of research, easy comparison, discouragement of ambiguous reports, embedded links to images, highlighting important findings, not having to dictate text nobody will read, and automatic translation of teleradiology reports. Being compelled to report within a rigid frame was judged unacceptable. Personal convictions appeared to have high emotional value. It was felt that other healthcare stakeholders would impose SR without regard to what radiologists thought of it. If the industry were to provide ready-made templates for selected examinations, most radiologists would use them. Conclusion: If radiologists can be convinced of the advantages of SR and the risks associated with failing to participate actively in its implementation, they will take a positive stand. The industry should propose technology allowing SR without compromising accuracy, completeness, workflows, and cost-benefit balance

Assessing health and well-being among older people in rural South Africa

Background: The population in developing countries is ageing, which is likely to increase the burden of noncommunicable diseases and disability. Objective: To describe factors associated with self-reported health, disability and quality of life (QoL) of older people in the rural northeast of South Africa. Design: Cross-sectional survey of 6,206 individuals aged 50 and over. We used multivariate analysis to examine relationships between demographic variables and measures of self-reported health (Health Status), functional ability (WHODASi) and quality of life (WHOQoL). Results: About 4,085 of 6,206 people eligible (65.8%) completed the interview. Women (Odds Ratio (OR) 1.30, 95% CI 1.09, 1.55), older age (OR2.59, 95% CI 1.97, 3.40), lower education (OR1.62, 95% CI 1.31,2.00), single status (OR1.18, 95% CI 1.01, 1.37) and not working at present (OR1.29, 95% CI 1.06, 1.59) were associated with a low health status. Women were also more likely to report a higher level of disability (OR1.38, 95% CI 1.14, 1.66), as were older people (OR2.92, 95% CI 2.25, 3.78), those with no education (OR1.57, 95% CI 1.26, 1.97), with single status (OR1.25, 95% CI 1.06, 1.46) and not working at present (OR1.33, 95% CI 1.06, 1.66). Older age (OR1.35, 95% CI 1.06, 1.74), no education (OR1.39, 95% CI 1.11, 1.73), single status (OR1.28, 95% CI 1.10, 1.49), a low household asset score (OR1.52, 95% CI 1.19, 1.94) and not working at present (OR1.32; 95% CI 1.07, 1.64) were all associated with lower quality of life. Conclusions: This study presents the first population-based data from South Africa on health status, functional ability and quality of life among older people. Health and social services will need to be restructured to provide effective care for older people living in rural South Africa with impaired functionality and other health problems

The Plight of Mixed Race Adolescents

Over the past 40 years the fraction of mixed race black-white births has increased nearly nine-fold. There is little empirical evidence on how these children fare relative to their single-race counterparts. This paper describes basic facts about the plight of mixed race individuals during their adolescence and early adulthood. As one might expect, on a host of background and achievement characteristics, mixed race adolescents fall in between whites and blacks. When it comes to engaging in risky/anti-social adolescent behavior, however, mixed race adolescents are stark outliers compared to both blacks and whites. We argue that these behavioral patterns are most consistent with the "marginal man" hypothesis, which we formalize as a two-sector Roy model. Mixed race adolescents -- not having a natural peer group -- need to engage in more risky behaviors to be accepted. All other models we considered can explain neither why mixed race adolescents are outliers on risky behaviors nor why these behaviors are not strongly influenced by the racial composition at their school.

The Radial Structure of the Cygnus Loop Supernova Remnant --- Possible evidence of a cavity explosion ---

We observed the North-East (NE) Limb toward the center region of the Cygnus Loop with the ASCA Observatory. We found a radial variation of electron temperature (kTe) and ionization timescale (log(\tau)) whereas no variation could be found for the abundances of heavy elements. In this paper, we re-analyzed the same data set and new observations with the latest calibration files. Then we constructed the precise spatial variations of kTe, log(\tau), and abundances of O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe over the field of view (FOV). We found a spatial variation not only in kTe and in log(\tau) but also in most of heavy elements. As described in Miyata et al. (1994), values of kTe increase and those of log(\tau) decrease toward the inner region. We found that the abundance of heavy elements increases toward the inner region. The radial profiles of O, Ne, and Fe show clear jump structures at a radius of 0.9 Rs, where Rs is the shock radius. Outside of 0.9 Rs, abundances of all elements are constant. On the contrary, inside of 0.9 Rs, abundances of these elements are 20--30 % larger than those obtained outside of 0.9 Rs. The radial profile of kTe also shows the jump structure at 0.9 Rs. This means that the hot and metal rich plasma fills the volume inside of 0.9 Rs. We concluded that this jump structure was the possible evidence for the pre-existing cavity produced by the precursor. If the ejecta fills inside of 0.9 Rs, the total mass of the ejecta was roughly 4\Msun. We then estimated the main-sequence mass to be roughly 15\Msun, which supports the massive star in origin of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant and the existence of a pre-existing cavity.Comment: 37 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication of Ap