Search for variation of fundamental constants and violations of fundamental symmetries using isotope comparisons

Atomic microwave clocks based on hyperfine transitions, such as the caesium standard, tick with a frequency that is proportional to the magnetic moment of the nucleus. This magnetic moment varies strongly between isotopes of the same atom, while all atomic electron parameters remain the same. Therefore the comparison of two microwave clocks based on different isotopes of the same atom can be used to constrain variation of fundamental constants. In this paper we calculate the neutron and proton contributions to the nuclear magnetic moments, as well as their sensitivity to any potential quark mass variation, in a number of isotopes of experimental interest including 201,199Hg and 87,85Rb, where experiments are underway. We also include a brief treatment of the dependence of the hyperfine transitions to variation in nuclear radius, which in turn is proportional to any change in quark mass. Our calculations of expectation-values of proton and neutron spin in nuclei are also needed to interpret measurements of violations of fundamental symmetries.Comment: 7 page

Sphinx: A Secure Architecture Based on Binary Code Diversification and Execution Obfuscation

Sphinx, a hardware-software co-design architecture for binary code and runtime obfuscation. The Sphinx architecture uses binary code diversification and self-reconfigurable processing elements to maintain application functionality while obfuscating the binary code and architecture states to attackers. This approach dramatically reduces an attacker's ability to exploit information gained from one deployment to attack another deployment. Our results show that the Sphinx is able to decouple the program's execution time, power and memory and I/O activities from its functionality. It is also practical in the sense that the system (both software and hardware) overheads are minimal.Comment: Boston Area Architecture 2018 Workshop (BARC18

Sphinx: a secure architecture based on binary code diversification and execution obfuscation

Sphinx, a hardware-software co-design architecture for binary code and runtime obfuscation. The Sphinx architecture uses binary code diversification and self-reconfigurable processing elements to maintain application functionality while obfuscating the binary code and architecture states to attackers. This approach dramatically reduces an attacker’s ability to exploit information gained from one deployment to attack another deployment. Our results show that the Sphinx is able to decouple the program’s execution time, power and memory and I/O activities from its functionality. It is also practical in the sense that the system (both software and hardware) overheads are minimal.Published versio

Dynamics and Control of a Multi-Rotor Aircraft

Despite the fact that aerodynamic loads (forces and moments) induced by airflow relative to a quadrotor vertical take-off and landing aircraft consist of both deterministic and stochastic components, all existing works on controlling the aircraft either ignore these loads or treat them as deterministic. This simplification deteriorates the control performance in a practical implementation. This thesis presents a constructive design of controllers for a quadrotor aircraft to track a reference path in three-dimensional space under both deterministic and stochastic aerodynamic loads

HEART RATE MONITOR USING INFRARED

The heart rate is one of the significant physiological parameters of the human cardiovascular system. Heart rate is the number of times the heart beats per minute. Heart rate data reflects various physiological states such as biological workload,stress at work and concentration on tasks, drowsiness and the active state of the autonomic nervous system. Human cardiac dynamics are driven by the complex nonlinear interactions of two competing forces: sympathetic regulation increases and parasympathetic regulation decreases the heart rate. Thus,monitoring of heart rate plays a significant role in providing the status of cardiovascular system and clinically correlated information to medical professionals. Heart rate measurement is also regarded as an essential parameter in patient care monitoring system. Heart rate can be measured either by the ECG waveform or by sensing the pulse - the rhythmic expansion and contraction of an artery as blood is forced through it by the regular contractions of the heart. The pulse can be felt from those areas where the artery is close to the skin. This paper highlights on the design of a microcontroller (PIC series) based heart rate counter that is able to capture the pulse from finger tip by sensing the change in blood volume. The heart rates of fifteen healthy normal subjects (students of age 21-22 yrs.) both in relaxed and excited states were measured using the designed device and a standard heart rate measuring device. The outputs of the measured device were satisfactory. Also, the designed device,being noninvasive one, can easily find its place in health care monitoring system

Key Science Observations of AGNs with KaVA Array

KaVA (KVN and VERA Array) is a new combined VLBI array with KVN (Korean VLBI Network) and VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). First, we briefly review the imaging capabilities of KaVA array which actually achieves more than three times better dynamic range than that achieved by VERA alone. The KaVA images clearly show detailed structures of extended radio jets in AGNs. Next, we represent the key science program to be led by KaVA AGN sub working group. We will conduct the monitoring observations of Sgr A* and M87 because of the largeness of their central super-massive black hole angular sizes. The main science goals of the program are (i) testing magnetically-driven-jet paradigm by mapping velocity fields of the M87 jet, and (ii) obtaining tight constraints on physical properties of radio emitting region in Sgr A*.Comment: Proceedings of the 12th European VLBI Network Symposium and Users Meeting, 7-10 October 2014, Cagliari, Ital

Water Immersion Skin Wrinkling: The Influence of Age, Sex, and Adiposity

From the evolutionary perspective, water immersion skin wrinkling (WISW) is the perceived water drainage to enhance grip in wet conditions. In the modern medicine, it is a noninvasive test of limb sympathetic function and can be used to assess peripheral neuropathy. WISW occurs as sympathetically-mediated contraction of subcutaneous glomus bodies after perturbation of ion concentration in palmar sweat glands. This phenomenon has not been studied well. Currently, it is not clear if common demographic variations (e.g., age, sex, and adiposity) that impact overall cardio-autonomic health status also affect WISW. Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to determine if peak WISW is modulated by age, sex, and body adiposity. Additionally, we addressed if such phenomenon is associated with osmotic reactions or edema. Methods: So far 23 apparently healthy adults (11 females) aged 36.5±18.4 years were studied. Participants’ hands were submersed in 40°C water for 30 minutes with degree of wrinkling being assessed via 5-point scale (0 to 4) at 10-minute intervals. Final ratings for digits 2-5 were summed and used to determine peak WISW with a score of 16 being the highest and 0 being the lowest possible scores. Additionally, hand and forearm volume were measured via water displacement before and after submersion to quantify hand volume expansion. Results: Peak WISW ranged from 2 to 16 with the mean (±SEM) score of 13.2±0.9. Peak WISW was moderately correlated with age (r=-0.37) but was not correlated with BMI (r=-0.16) or body fat percentage (r=-0.09). Males demonstrated a greater degree of WISW with a mean rating of 15 compared with females with a mean rating of 11 (p\u3c0.05). Hand and forearm volume did not change significantly with water immersion (505±98 vs. 515±99 ml). Changes in hand and forearm volume were not associated with peak WISW (r=-0.03). Conclusion: The present findings indicate that water immersion skin wrinkling varies widely with age and sex, and is not associated with body adiposity, edema or osmotic reactions