Computational Procedures for the Calculation of the Inverse Matrix

With the invention of matrices came, of course, the solution of a system of the equations by the method of matrix inversion. Many important problems in applied mathematics involve finding the inverse of a square, nonsingular matrix. It is usually the inversion of this matrix which consumes the major portion of the time spent in solving the problem. Several methods have been devised to accomplish this. All of these methods entail considerable work if the matrix is of order higher than the third. The object of this thesis is to study and investigate some of the more common methods of finding the inverse of a matrix and endeavor to illustrate by examples the best method when given a particular matrix

Computer program to predict noise of general aviation aircraft: User's guide

Program NOISE predicts General Aviation Aircraft far-field noise levels at FAA FAR Part 36 certification conditions. It will also predict near-field and cabin noise levels for turboprop aircraft and static engine component far-field noise levels

Reduced incidence of atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery by continuous wireless monitoring of oxygen saturation on the normal ward and resultant oxygen therapy for hypoxia

Objective: Monitoring of cardiac surgical patients after transfer from the intensive care unit to the normal ward is incomplete. Undetected hypoxia, however, is known to be a risk factor for occurrence of atrial fibrillation. We have utilized Auricall® for continuous wireless monitoring of oxygen saturation and heart rate until discharge. The object of the study was to analyze if oxygen therapy as a result of Auricall® alerts of hypoxia can decrease the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation. Methods: Auricall® is a wireless portable pulse oximeter. An alert is generated depending on preset threshold values (heart rate, oxygen saturation). Over a period of 6 months, 119 patients were monitored with the Auricall® following coronary artery bypass graft and/or valve surgery. Oxygen therapy was started subsequent to an oxygen saturation below 90%. These patients were compared with a cohort of 238 patients from the time period before availability of Auricall®. The patient characteristics were comparable in both groups. In a retrospective study, the incidence of atrial fibrillation was measured in both groups. Results: The postoperative AF was observed in 22/119 patients (18%) in group I and in 66/238 patients (28%) in group II. This difference between the two groups approached significance (p=0.056). In the subgroup of patients with coronary artery bypass graft with our without simultaneous valve surgery (n=312), Auricall® monitoring resulted in a significantly reduced incidence of atrial fibrillation (14% vs 26%, p=0.016). Conclusions: Continuous monitoring of oxygen saturation on the normal ward and subsequent oxygen therapy for hypoxia can reduce the incidence of atrial fibrillation in a subgroup of patients after cardiac surgery. Prospective randomized trials are warranted to confirm these dat

Movement primitives with multiple phase parameters

Movement primitives are concise movement representations that can be learned from human demonstrations, support generalization to novel situations and modulate the speed of execution of movements. The speed modulation mechanisms proposed so far are limited though, allowing only for uniform speed modulation or coupling changes in speed to local measurements of forces, torques or other quantities. Those approaches are not enough when dealing with general velocity constraints. We present a movement primitive formulation that can be used to non-uniformly adapt the speed of execution of a movement in order to satisfy a given constraint, while maintaining similarity in shape to the original trajectory. We present results using a 4-DoF robot arm in a minigolf setup

Embedded Sensors and Controls to Improve Component Performance and Reliability Conceptual Design Report

The objective of this project is to demonstrate improved reliability and increased performance made possible by deeply embedding instrumentation and controls (I&C) in nuclear power plant (NPP) components and systems. The project is employing a highly instrumented canned rotor, magnetic bearing, fluoride salt pump as its I&C technology demonstration platform. I&C is intimately part of the basic millisecond-by-millisecond functioning of the system; treating I&C as an integral part of the system design is innovative and will allow significant improvement in capabilities and performance. As systems become more complex and greater performance is required, traditional I&C design techniques become inadequate and more advanced I&C needs to be applied. New I&C techniques enable optimal and reliable performance and tolerance of noise and uncertainties in the system rather than merely monitoring quasistable performance. Traditionally, I&C has been incorporated in NPP components after the design is nearly complete; adequate performance was obtained through over-design. By incorporating I&C at the beginning of the design phase, the control system can provide superior performance and reliability and enable designs that are otherwise impossible. This report describes the progress and status of the project and provides a conceptual design overview for the platform to demonstrate the performance and reliability improvements enabled by advanced embedded I&C

Instrumental and Analytic Methods for Bolometric Polarimetry

We discuss instrumental and analytic methods that have been developed for the first generation of bolometric cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarimeters. The design, characterization, and analysis of data obtained using Polarization Sensitive Bolometers (PSBs) are described in detail. This is followed by a brief study of the effect of various polarization modulation techniques on the recovery of sky polarization from scanning polarimeter data. Having been successfully implemented on the sub-orbital Boomerang experiment, PSBs are currently operational in two terrestrial CMB polarization experiments (QUaD and the Robinson Telescope). We investigate two approaches to the analysis of data from these experiments, using realistic simulations of time ordered data to illustrate the impact of instrumental effects on the fidelity of the recovered polarization signal. We find that the analysis of difference time streams takes full advantage of the high degree of common mode rejection afforded by the PSB design. In addition to the observational efforts currently underway, this discussion is directly applicable to the PSBs that constitute the polarized capability of the Planck HFI instrument.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures. for submission to A&

Cosmological Parameters from the 2003 flight of BOOMERANG

We present the cosmological parameters from the CMB intensity and polarization power spectra of the 2003 Antarctic flight of the BOOMERANG telescope. The BOOMERANG data alone constrains the parameters of the $\Lambda$CDM model remarkably well and is consistent with constraints from a multi-experiment combined CMB data set. We add LSS data from the 2dF and SDSS redshift surveys to the combined CMB data set and test several extensions to the standard model including: running of the spectral index, curvature, tensor modes, the effect of massive neutrinos, and an effective equation of state for dark energy. We also include an analysis of constraints to a model which allows a CDM isocurvature admixture.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Ap

A Measurement of the Angular Power Spectrum of the CMB Temperature Anisotropy from the 2003 Flight of Boomerang

We report on observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) obtained during the January 2003 flight of Boomerang . These results are derived from 195 hours of observation with four 145 GHz Polarization Sensitive Bolometer (PSB) pairs, identical in design to the four 143 GHz Planck HFI polarized pixels. The data include 75 hours of observations distributed over 1.84% of the sky with an additional 120 hours concentrated on the central portion of the field, itself representing 0.22% of the full sky. From these data we derive an estimate of the angular power spectrum of temperature fluctuations of the CMB in 24 bands over the multipole range (50 < l < 1500). A series of features, consistent with those expected from acoustic oscillations in the primordial photon-baryon fluid, are clearly evident in the power spectrum, as is the exponential damping of power on scales smaller than the photon mean free path at the epoch of last scattering (l > 900). As a consistency check, the collaboration has performed two fully independent analyses of the time ordered data, which are found to be in excellent agreement.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. High resolution figures and data are available at http://cmb.phys.cwru.edu/boomerang/ and http://oberon.roma1.infn.it/boomerang/b2

Searching for non Gaussian signals in the BOOMERanG 2003 CMB maps

We analyze the BOOMERanG 2003 (B03) 145 GHz temperature map to constrain the amplitude of a non Gaussian, primordial contribution to CMB fluctuations. We perform a pixel space analysis restricted to a portion of the map chosen in view of high sensitivity, very low foreground contamination and tight control of systematic effects. We set up an estimator based on the three Minkowski functionals which relies on high quality simulated data, including non Gaussian CMB maps. We find good agreement with the Gaussian hypothesis and derive the first limits based on BOOMERanG data for the non linear coupling parameter f_NL as -300<f_NL<650 at 68% CL and -800<f_NL<1050 at 95% CL.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ. Letter