50,424 research outputs found
Myocardium wall thickness transducer and measuring method
A miniature transducer for measuring changes of thickness of the myocardium is described. The device is easily implantable without traumatizing the subject, without affecting the normal muscle behavior, and is removable and implantable at a different muscle location. Operating features of the device are described
Catheter tip force transducer for cardiovascular research
A force transducer for measuring dynamic force activity within the heart of a subject essentially consists of a U-shaped beam of low elastic compliance material. Two lines extend from the beams's legs and a long coil spring is attached to the beam. A strain gauge is coupled to one of the beam's legs to sense deflections thereof. The beam with the tines and most of the spring are surrounded by a flexible tube, defining a catheter, which is insertable into a subject's heart through an appropriate artery. The tines are extractable from the catheter for implantation into the myocardium by pushing on the end of the spring which extends beyond the external end of the catheter
High-efficiency AlGaAs-GaAs Cassegrainian concentrator cells
AlGaAs-GaAs heteroface space concentrator solar cells have been fabricated by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. AMO efficiencies as high as 21.1% have been observed both for p-n and np structures under concentration (90 to 100X) at 25 C. Both cell structures are characterized by high quantum efficiencies and their performances are close to those predicted by a realistic computer model. In agreement with the computer model, the n-p cell exhibits a higher short-circuit current density
Performance of inlet stage of transonic compressor
The overall and blade-element performances are presented over the stable flow operating range of the stage at the design tip speed of 426 m/sec. Stage peak efficiency of 0.83 was obtained at a weight flow of 28.8 kg/sec and a pressure ratio of 1.52. The stall margin for the stage was 8 percent based on weight flow and pressure ratio at peak efficiency and stall. The rotor appears to be stalling prematurely as evidenced by high rotor tip losses
Effect of casing treatment on performance of an inlet stage for a transonic multistage compressor
An inlet stage of a transonic compressor was tested with three rotor tip casing treatment configurations: blade angle slots, circumferential grooves, and axial skewed slots. Significant increases in both rotor and stage total pressure ratio, total temperature ratio, efficiency, flow range, and very large improvements in stall margin were obtained with all three casing treatment configurations. The greatest improvement in performance was achieved with axial skewed slots
The population of propellers in Saturn's A Ring
We present an extensive data set of ~150 localized features from Cassini
images of Saturn's Ring A, a third of which are demonstrated to be persistent
by their appearance in multiple images, and half of which are resolved well
enough to reveal a characteristic "propeller" shape. We interpret these
features as the signatures of small moonlets embedded within the ring, with
diameters between 40 and 500 meters. The lack of significant brightening at
high phase angle indicates that they are likely composed primarily of
macroscopic particles, rather than dust. With the exception of two features
found exterior to the Encke Gap, these objects are concentrated entirely within
three narrow (~1000 km) bands in the mid-A Ring that happen to be free from
local disturbances from strong density waves. However, other nearby regions are
similarly free of major disturbances but contain no propellers. It is unclear
whether these bands are due to specific events in which a parent body or bodies
broke up into the current moonlets, or whether a larger initial moonlet
population has been sculpted into bands by other ring processes.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures; Accepted at A
Microlensing of Broad Absorption Line Quasars: Polarization Variability
Roughly 10% of all quasars exhibit Broad Absorption Line (BAL) features which
appear to arise in material outflowing at high velocity from the active
galactic nucleus (AGN). The details of this outflow are, however, very poorly
constrained and the particular nature of the BAL material is essentially
unknown. Recently, new clues have become available through polarimetric studies
which have found that BAL troughs are more polarized than the quasar continuum
radiation. To explain these observations, models where the BAL material
outflows equatorially across the surface of the dusty torus have been
developed. In these models, however, several sources of the BAL polarization
are possible. Here, we demonstrate how polarimetric monitoring of
gravitationally lensed quasars, such as H 1413+117, during microlensing events
can not only distinguish between two currently popular models, but can also
provide further insight into the structure at the cores of BAL quasars.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, accepted to PAS
Quasar Microlensing at High Magnification and the Role of Dark Matter: Enhanced Fluctuations and Suppressed Saddlepoints
Contrary to naive expectation, diluting the stellar component of the lensing
galaxy in a highly magnified system with smoothly distributed ``dark'' matter
increases rather than decreases the microlensing fluctuations caused by the
remaining stars. For a bright pair of images straddling a critical curve, the
saddlepoint (of the arrival time surface) is much more strongly affected than
the associated minimum. With a mass ratio of smooth matter to microlensing
matter of 4:1, a saddlepoint with a macro-magnification of mu = 9.5 will spend
half of its time more than a magnitude fainter than predicted. The anomalous
flux ratio observed for the close pair of images in MG0414+0534 is a factor of
five more likely than computed by Witt, Mao and Schechter if the smooth matter
fraction is as high as 93%. The magnification probability histograms for
macro-images exhibit distinctly different structure that varies with the smooth
matter content, providing a handle on the smooth matter fraction. Enhanced
fluctuations can manifest themselves either in the temporal variations of a
lightcurve or as flux ratio anomalies in a single epoch snapshot of a multiply
imaged system. While the millilensing simulations of Metcalf and Madau also
give larger anomalies for saddlepoints than for minima, the effect appears to
be less dramatic for extended subhalos than for point masses. Morever,
microlensing is distinguishable from millilensing because it will produce
noticeable changes in the magnification on a time scale of a decade or less.Comment: As accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 pages. Substantial revisions
include a discussion of constant M/L models and the calculation of a
"photometric" dark matter fraction for MG0414+053
Gravitational Collapse of a Shell of Quantized Matter
The semi-classical collapse, including lowest order back-reaction, of a thin
shell of self-gravitating quantized matter is illustrated. The conditions for
which self-gravitating matter forms a thin shell are first discussed and an
effective Lagrangian for such matter is obtained. The matter-gravity system is
then quantized, the semi-classical limit for gravitation is taken and the
method of adiabatic invariants is applied to the resulting time dependent
matter Hamiltonian. The governing equations are integrated numerically, for
suitable initial conditions, in order to illustrate the effect of
back-reaction, due to the creation of matter, in slowing down the collapse near
the horizon.Comment: 20 pages, 1 eps figure. Problem with figure fixe
Further multiwavelength observations of the SSA22 Ly_alpha emitting `blob'
We present new follow-up observations of the sub-mm luminous
Ly_alpha-emitting object in the SSA22 z=3.09 galaxy overdensity, referred to as
`Blob 1' by Steidel et al.(2000). In particular we discuss high resolution
Hubble Space Telescope optical imaging, Owens Valley Radio Observatory spectral
imaging, Keck spectroscopy, VLA 20cm radio continuum imaging, and Chandra X-ray
observations. We also present a more complete analysis of the existing James
Clerk Maxwell Telescope sub-mm data. We detect several optical continuum
components which may be associated with the core of the submillimeter emitting
region. A radio source at the position of one of the HST components
(22:17:25.94, +00:12:38.9) identifies it as the likely counterpart to the
submillimeter source. We also tentatively detect the CO(4-3) molecular line,
centered on the radio position. We use the CO(4-3) intensity to estimate a
limit on the gas mass for the system. The optical morphology of sources within
the Ly_alpha cloud appears to be filamentary, while the optical source
identified with the radio source has a dense knot which may be an AGN or
compact starburst. We obtain a Keck-LRIS spectrum of this object, despite its
faintness (R=26.8). The spectrum reveals weak Ly_alpha emission, but no other
obvious features, suggesting that the source is not an energetic AGN (or that
it is extremely obscured). We use non-detections in deep Chandra X-ray images
to constrain the nature of the `Blob'. Although conclusive evidence regarding
the nature of the object remains hard to obtain at this redshift, the evidence
presented here is at least consistent with a dust-obscured AGN surrounded by a
starburst situated at the heart of this giant Ly_alpha cloud.Comment: 8 pages, 9figs (low res), to appear in ApJ, for higher res figures,
http://www.submm.caltech.edu/~schapman/sa22_sept4.ps.g
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