Design parameters for the Very Large Hadron Collider

The goal of the Very Large Hadron Collider (VLHC) is to extend the energy frontier beyond LHC. The proposed design center-of-mass energy for the VLHC pp collider is 100 TeV, with a luminosity of le34 cm/sup -2/ sec/sup -1/. At present accelerator designs and calculations are being carried out for two different magnet technologies, one using superferric magnets at 2 Tesla (T), the other using high-field design with B>10 T. This paper summarizes the accelerator parameters for these two designs. We discuss the design parameters that have the largest effects on the performance of the accelerator and therefore need careful optimization. (11 refs)

COBE Observations of the Microwave Counterparts of Gamma Ray Bursts

We have used the data from the COBE satellite to search for delayed microwave emission (31 - 90 GHz) from Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). The large $7^\circ$ beam of COBE is well matched to the large positional uncertainties in the GRB locations, although it also means that fluxes from (point source) GRB objects will be diluted. In view of this we are doing a statistical search of the GRBs which occurred during the currently released COBE DMR data (years 1990 and 1991), which overlap $\sim 200$ GRBs recorded by GRO. Here we concentrate on just the top 10 GRBs (in peak counts/second). We obtain the limits on the emission by comparing the COBE fluxes before and after the GRB at the GRB location. Since it is thought that the microwave emission should lag the GRB event, we have searched the GRB position for emission in the few months following the GRB occurrence.Comment: 5 pages, LaTE

Instructors, Students, Managers, and the Basic Organizational Communication Course: Are We All Working Together or Working Apart?

Three studies were conducted to determine the extent of overlap between basic organizational communication textbook content (1990-2002), student perceptions of basic organizational communication knowledge and skills important for the workplace, and managerial expectations of communication knowledge and skills for graduates. Overall, findings indicate overlap on assigning importance to group/team communication, leadership, verbal communication, and conflict management; however, there were differences on a range of topics addressed in the basic organizational communication course deemed essential for job success. Implications of the studies’ findings indicate that organizational communication textbooks could emphasize more “soft skills” such as interpersonal relationships, listening, dealing with conflict, and so on, because of the premium today’s employers place on employees possessing those skills. Additionally, basic organizational communication instructors play a vital role in organizational communication education because they functions as a “translation specialist” for the students and employers

Screening Latino Farmworkers for Depression in Primary Care

Latino farmworkers experience depression at significantly higher rates than non-Latino Whites and usually they seek help for their mental health needs at primary care settings. Despite the high prevalence of depression in this population, primary care providers fail to detect the disorder in approximately 60% of the clinically depressed Latino farmworkers. Several depression-screening instruments have been translated into Spanish to address the mental health needs of monolingual Spanish speaking Latinos in the US, however the adequacy of these instruments is still unclear. The objective of this dissertation was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Latino Farmworker Affective Scale (LFAS-15) as compared to the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Centers for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CESD-10), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the DSM-IV Structured Clinical Interview for Depression (SCID) in accurately detecting depressive symptoms in Latino farmworkers. The LFAS-15 demonstrated good internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha of .925 (n=15), good convergent validity with the Structured Clinical Interview for Depression (r=.669, p<.001), and good sensitivity and specificity (AUC) of .939, SE=.024, p,.001)

Economic MPC for the management of drinking water networks

Trabajo presentado a la European Control Conference (ECC) celebrada en Estrasburgo (Francia) del 24 al 27 de junio de 2014.This paper addresses the management of drinking water networks (DWNs) regarding a multi-objective cost function by means of economically-oriented model predictive control (EMPC) strategies. Specifically, assuming the water demand and the energy price as periodically time-varying signals, this paper shows that the EMPC framework is flexible to enhance the control of DWNs without relying on hierarchical control schemes that require the use of real-time optimisers (RTO) or steady-state target optimisers (SSTO) in an upper layer. Four different MPC strategies are discussed in this paper: a hierarchical two-layer approach, a standard EMPC where the multi-objective cost function is optimised directly, and two different modifications of the latter, which are meant to overcome possible feasibility losses in the presence of changing operating patterns. The discussed schemes are tested andcompared by means of a case study taken from a part of the Barcelona DWN.This work has been partially funded by the EU Project EFFINET (FP7-ICT-2011-8-31855) and the DGR of Generalitat de Catalunya (SAC group Ref. 2009/SGR/1491).Peer Reviewe