High resolution observations of low contrast phenomena from an Advanced Geosynchronous Platform (AGP)

Present technology allows radiometric monitoring of the Earth, ocean and atmosphere from a geosynchronous platform with good spatial, spectral and temporal resolution. The proposed system could provide a capability for multispectral remote sensing with a 50 m nadir spatial resolution in the visible bands, 250 m in the 4 micron band and 1 km in the 11 micron thermal infrared band. The diffraction limited telescope has a 1 m aperture, a 10 m focal length (with a shorter focal length in the infrared) and linear and area arrays of detectors. The diffraction limited resolution applies to scenes of any brightness but for a dark low contrast scenes, the good signal to noise ratio of the system contribute to the observation capability. The capabilities of the AGP system are assessed for quantitative observations of ocean scenes. Instrument and ground system configuration are presented and projected sensor capabilities are analyzed

Spacecraft attitude detection system by stellar reference Patent

Attitude detection system using stellar references for three-axis control and spin stabilized spacecraf

Information erasure without an energy cost

Landauer argued that the process of erasing the information stored in a memory device incurs an energy cost in the form of a minimum amount of mechanical work. We find, however, that this energy cost can be reduced to zero by paying a cost in angular momentum or any other conserved quantity. Erasing the memory of Maxwell's demon in this way implies that work can be extracted from a single thermal reservoir at a cost of angular momentum and an increase in total entropy. The implications of this for the second law of thermodynamics are assessed.Comment: 8 pages with 1 figure. Final published versio

Transport and Helfand moments in the Lennard-Jones fluid. I. Shear viscosity

We propose a new method, the Helfand-moment method, to compute the shear viscosity by equilibrium molecular dynamics in periodic systems. In this method, the shear viscosity is written as an Einstein-like relation in terms of the variance of the so-called Helfand moment. This quantity, is modified in order to satisfy systems with periodic boundary conditions usually considered in molecular dynamics. We calculate the shear viscosity in the Lennard-Jones fluid near the triple point thanks to this new technique. We show that the results of the Helfand-moment method are in excellent agreement with the results of the standard Green-Kubo method.Comment: Submitted to the Journal of Chemical Physic

Programmable telemetry system Patent

Time division multiplexed telemetry transmitting system controlled by programmed memor

Neutrino Bremsstrahlung Process in highly degenerate magnetized electron gas

In this article the neutrino bremsstrahlung process is considered in presence of strong magnetic field, though the calculations for this process in absence of magnetic field are also carried out simultaneously. The electrons involved in this process are supposed to be highly degenerate and relativistic. The scattering cross sections and energy loss rates for both cases, in presence and absence of magnetic field, are calculated in the extreme-relativistic limit. Two results are compared in the range of temperature $5.9\times 10^{9}$ K $< T\leq 10^{11}$ K and magnetic field $10^{14} - 10^{16}$ G at a fixed density $\sim 10^{15}$ $gm/cc$, a typical environment during the cooling of magnetized neutron star. The interpretation of our result is briefly discussed and the importance of this process during the stellar evolution is speculated.Comment: 12 pages including 2 figures and 1 tabl

Health and the natural environment: A review of evidence, policy, practice and opportunities for the future

This is the final version. Available from defra via the link in this record.This report details the outcomes of the Natural Environment and Health Fellowship, a partnership between Defra and the University of Exeter Medical School’s (UEMS) European Centre for Environment and Human Health (ECEHH). The work focused on the interconnections between the natural environment and good health (it does not consider environmental risks or stressors), and the ways in which these are, or could be harnessed in policy and practice. The majority of the work was undertaken in 2015-2016, prior to a number of significant developments such as the EU referendum and the publication of the 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment. The research informed development of the 25 Year Plan and can inform the delivery of both the health themes of the 25 Year Plan and the development of environmental policy after leaving the European Union.Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA

The prevalence of medical reasons for non-participation in the Scottish breast and bowel cancer screening programmes

Objective: Increasing uptake of cancer screening is a priority for health systems internationally, however, some patients may not attend because they are undergoing active treatment for the cancer of interest or have other medical reasons that mean participation would be inappropriate. This study aims to quantify the proportion of non-participants who have a medical reason for not attending cancer screening.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods: Medical reasons for not participating in breast and bowel screening were defined a priori on the basis of a literature review and expert opinion. The notes of 700 patients at two GP practices in Scotland were reviewed, to ascertain the prevalence of medical reasons amongst non-participants. Simple proportions and confidence intervals were calculated.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Results: 17.4% of breast and 2.3% of bowel screening non-participants had a medical reason to not participate. The two most common reasons were previous breast cancer follow up (8.86%) and recent mammogram (6.57%).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusion: These patients may not benefit from screening while also being distressed by receiving an invitation. This issue also makes accurate monitoring and target-setting for improving uptake difficult. Further work is needed to estimate robustly the extent to which medical reasons account for screening non-participation in a larger population.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

Lorentz-violating contributions of the Carroll-Field-Jackiw model to the CMB anisotropy

We study the finite temperature properties of the Maxwell-Carroll-Field-Jackiw (MCFJ) electrodynamics for a purely spacelike background. Starting from the associated finite temperature partition function, a modified black body spectral distribution is obtained. We thus show that, if the CMB radiation is described by this model, the spectrum presents an anisotropic angular energy density distribution. We show, at leading order, that the Lorentz-breaking contributions for the Planck's radiation law and for the Stefan-Boltzmann's law are nonlinear in frequency and quadratic in temperature, respectively. Using our results, we set up bounds for the Lorentz-breaking parameter, and show that Lorentz violation in the context of the MCFJ model is unable to yield the known CMB anisotropy (of 1 part in $10^{5})$