Optimization study of high power static inverters and converters Final report

Optimization study and basic performance characteristics for conceptual designs for high power static inverter

Research on the design of adaptive control systems, volume 1 Final report

Adaptive control systems - combined optimization and adaptive control, analysis-synthesis and passive adaptive systems, learning systems, and measurement adaptive system

Flows, Fragmentation, and Star Formation. I. Low-mass Stars in Taurus

The remarkably filamentary spatial distribution of young stars in the Taurus molecular cloud has significant implications for understanding low-mass star formation in relatively quiescent conditions. The large scale and regular spacing of the filaments suggests that small-scale turbulence is of limited importance, which could be consistent with driving on large scales by flows which produced the cloud. The small spatial dispersion of stars from gaseous filaments indicates that the low-mass stars are generally born with small velocity dispersions relative to their natal gas, of order the sound speed or less. The spatial distribution of the stars exhibits a mean separation of about 0.25 pc, comparable to the estimated Jeans length in the densest gaseous filaments, and is consistent with roughly uniform density along the filaments. The efficiency of star formation in filaments is much higher than elsewhere, with an associated higher frequency of protostars and accreting T Tauri stars. The protostellar cores generally are aligned with the filaments, suggesting that they are produced by gravitational fragmentation, resulting in initially quasi-prolate cores. Given the absence of massive stars which could strongly dominate cloud dynamics, Taurus provides important tests of theories of dispersed low-mass star formation and numerical simulations of molecular cloud structure and evolution.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures: to appear in Ap

Preliminary catalog of pictures taken on the lunar surface during the Apollo 15 mission

Catalog of all pictures taken from lunar module or lunar surface during Apollo 15 missio

Wave packet methods in cavity QED

The Jaynes-Cummings model, with and without the rotating wave approximation, is expressed in the conjugate variable representation and solved numerically by wave packet propagation. Both cases are then cast into systems of two coupled harmonic oscillators, reminiscent of coupled bound electronic potential curves of diatomic molecules. Using the knowledge of such models, this approach of the problem gives new insight of the dynamics. The effect of the rotating wave approximation is discussed. The collapse-revival phenomenon is especially analyzed in a non-standard manner. Extensions of the method is briefly mentioned in terms of a three-level atom and the Dicke model.Comment: Proceedings for "Time dependent phenomena in quantum mechanics" (Blaubeuren, 2007). 14 pages, 6 figures, uses jpconf.cl

Contribution of brown dwarfs and white dwarfs to recent microlensing observations and to the halo mass budget

We examine the recent results of the MACHO collaboration towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (Alcock et al. 1996) in terms of a halo brown dwarf or white dwarf population. The possibility for most of the microlensing events to be due to brown dwarfs is totally excluded by large-scale kinematic properties. The white dwarf scenario is examined in details in the context of the most recent white dwarf cooling theory (Segretain et al. 1994) which includes explicitely the extra source of energy due to carbon-oxygen differentiation at crystallization, and the subsequent Debye cooling. We show that the observational constraints arising from the luminosity function of high-velocity white dwarfs in the solar neighborhood and from the recent HST deep field counts are consistent with a white dwarf contribution to the halo missing mass as large as 50 %, provided i) an IMF strongly peaked around 1.7 Msol and ii) a halo age older than 18 Gyr.Comment: 14 pages, 2 Postscript figures, to be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, minor revision in tex

The Catalina Real-time Transient Survey

The Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) currently covers 33,000 deg^2 of the sky in search of transient astrophysical events, with time baselines ranging from 10 minutes to ~7 years. Data provided by the Catalina Sky Survey provides an unequaled baseline against which >4,000 unique optical transient events have been discovered and openly published in real-time. Here we highlight some of the discoveries of CRTS.Comment: To appear in proc. IAU Symp. 285, "New Horizons in Time Domain Astronomy", eds. E. Griffin et al., Cambridge Univ. Press (2012), 3 page

Comparison of classification algorithms to predict outcomes of feedlot cattle identified and treated for Bovine Respiratory Disease

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to be the primary cause of morbidity and mortality in feedyard cattle. Accurate identification of those animals that will not finish the production cycle normally following initial treatment for BRD would provide feedyard managers with opportunities to more effectively manage those animals. Our objectives were to assess the ability of different classification algorithms to accurately predict an individual calf’s outcome based on data available at first identification of and treatment for BRD and also to identify characteristics of calves where predictive models performed well as gauged by accuracy. Data from 23 feedyards in multiple geographic locations within the U.S. from 2000 to 2009 representing over one million animals were analyzed to identify animals clinically diagnosed with BRD and treated with an antimicrobial. These data were analyzed both as a single dataset and as multiple datasets based on individual feedyards and partitioned into training, testing, and validation datasets. Classifiers were trained and optimized to identify calves that did not finish the production cycle with their cohort. Following classifier training, accuracy was evaluated using validation data. Analysis was also done to identify sub-groups of calves within populations where classifiers performed better compared to other sub-groups. Accuracy of individual classifiers varied by dataset. The accuracy of the best performing classifier by dataset ranged from a low of 63% in one dataset up to 95% in a different dataset. Sub-groups of calves were identified within some datasets where accuracy of a classifiers were greater than 98%; however these accuracies must be interpreted in relation to the prevalence of the class of interest within those populations. We found that by pairing the correct classifier with the data available, accurate predictions could be made that would provide feedlot managers with valuable information

Information requirements for guidance and control systems

Control or guidance system performance dependency on information handling by subsystem

Interpreting statistics from published research to answer clinical and management questions

Citation: White, B. J., Larson, R. L., & Theurer, M. E. (2016). Interpreting statistics from published research to answer clinical and management questions. Journal of Animal Science, 94(11), 4959-4971. doi:10.2527/jas2016-0706Appropriate statistical analysis is critical in interpreting results from published literature to answer clinical and management questions. Internal validity is an assessment of whether the study design and statistical analysis are appropriate for the hypotheses and study variables while controlling for bias and confounding. External validity is an assessment of the appropriateness of extrapolation of the study results to other populations. Knowledge about whether treatment or observation groups are truly different is unknown, but studies can be broadly categorized as exploratory or discovery, based on knowledge about previous research, biology, and study design, and this categorization affects interpretation. Confidence intervals, P-values, prediction intervals, credible intervals, and other decision aids are used singly or in combination to provide evidence for the likelihood of a given model but can be interpreted only if the study is internally valid. These decision aids do not test for bias, study design, or the appropriateness of applying study results to other populations dissimilar to the population tested. The biologic and economic importance of the magnitude of difference between treatment groups or observation groups as estimated by the study data and statistical interpretation is important to consider in clinical and management decisions. Statistical results should be interpreted in light of the specific question and production system addressed, the study design, and knowledge about pertinent aspects of biology to appropriately aid decisions