Conceptual study of an advanced supersonic technology transport (AST-107) for transpacific range using low-bypass-ratio turbofan engines

An advanced supersonic technology configuration concept designated the AST-107, using a low bypass ratio turbofan engine, is described and analyzed. The aircraft had provisions for 273 passengers arranged five abreast. The cruise Mach number was 2.62. The mission range for the AST-107 was 8.48 Mm (4576 n.mi.) and an average lift drag ratio of 9.15 during cruise was achieved. The available lateral control was not sufficient for the required 15.4 m/s (30 kt) crosswind landing condition, and a crosswind landing gear or a significant reduction in dihedral effect would be necessary to meet this requirement. The lowest computed noise levels, including a mechanical suppressor noise reduction of 3 EPNdB at the flyover and sideline monitoring stations, were 110.3 EPNdB (sideline noise), 113.1 EPNdB (centerline noise) and 110.5 EPNdB (approach noise)

Can a Home-based Cardiac Physical Activity Program Improve the Physical Function Quality of Life in Children with Fontan Circulation?

Objective Patients after Fontan operation for complex congenital heart disease (CHD) have decreased exercise capacity and report reduced health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Studies suggest hospital-based cardiac physical activity programs can improve HRQOL and exercise capacity in patients with CHD; however, these programs have variable adherence rates. The impact of a home-based cardiac physical activity program in Fontan survivors is unclear. This pilot study evaluated the safety, feasibility, and benefits of an innovative home-based physical activity program on HRQOL in Fontan patients. Methods A total of 14 children, 8–12 years, with Fontan circulation enrolled in a 12-week moderate/high intensity home-based cardiac physical activity program, which included a home exercise routine and 3 formalized in-person exercise sessions at 0, 6, and 12 weeks. Subjects and parents completed validated questionnaires to assess HRQOL. The Shuttle Test Run was used to measure exercise capacity. A Fitbit Flex Activity Monitor was used to assess adherence to the home activity program. Results Of the 14 patients, 57% were male and 36% had a dominant left ventricle. Overall, 93% completed the program. There were no adverse events. Parents reported significant improvement in their child\u27s overall HRQOL (P \u3c .01), physical function (P \u3c .01), school function (P = .01), and psychosocial function (P  \u3c .01). Patients reported no improvement in HRQOL. Exercise capacity, measured by total shuttles and exercise time in the Shuttle Test Run and calculated VO2max, improved progressively from baseline to the 6 and 12 week follow up sessions. Monthly Fitbit data suggested adherence to the program. Conclusion This 12-week home-based cardiac physical activity program is safe and feasible in preteen Fontan patients. Parent proxy-reported HRQOL and objective measures of exercise capacity significantly improved. A 6-month follow up session is scheduled to assess sustainability. A larger study is needed to determine the applicability and reproducibility of these findings in other age groups and forms of complex CHD

Temperature anisotropy and differential streaming of solar wind ions -- Correlations with transverse fluctuations

We study correlations of the temperature ratio (which is an indicator for perpendicular ion heating) and the differential flow of the alpha particles with the power of transverse fluctuations that have wave numbers between 0.01 and 0.1 (normalized to $k_p=1/l_p$, where $l_p$ is the proton inertial length). We found that both the normalized differential ion speed, $V_{\alpha p}/V_\mathrm{A}$ (where $V_\mathrm{A}$ is the Alfv\'en speed) and the proton temperature anisotropy, $T_{\perp p}/T_{\parallel p}$, increase when the relative wave power is growing. Furthermore, if the normalized differential ion speed stays below 0.5, the alpha-particle temperature anisotropy, $T_{\perp \alpha}/T_{\parallel \alpha}$, correlates positively with the relative power of the transverse fluctuations. However, if $V_{\alpha p}/V_\mathrm{A}$ is higher than 0.6, then the alpha-particle temperature anisotropy tends to become lower and attain even values below unity despite the presence of transverse fluctuations of relatively high amplitudes. Our findings appear to be consistent with the expectations from kinetic theory for the resonant interaction of the ions with Alfv\'en/ion-cyclotron waves and the resulting wave dissipation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics journa

Microtubules: Montroll's kink and Morse vibrations

Using a version of Witten's supersymmetric quantum mechanics proposed by Caticha, we relate Montroll's kink to a traveling, asymmetric Morse double-well potential suggesting in this way a connection between kink modes and vibrational degrees of freedom along microtubulesComment: 2pp, twocolum

Production and Operating Strategies with Focus on the Efficiency of the Public Service

This study focuses on the strategy for efficiency in production and operation in the services of a people management sector in a public judicial organization. Identified the need to innovate practices to achieve excellence, the U and Contingency Theories were used to reach proposed objectives. The general objective was to study the strategy for efficiency in production and operation in the Department of Personnel Management, and as specific objectives characterize the strategy of efficiency in production and operation, perform the SWOT analysis on the practices of the process operation and suggest innovation for efficiency of the productive process. The question asked was: What is the strategy for efficiency in the results of the production and operation of the services provided? To achieve the objectives and answer the question asked was qualitative research. Data collection was obtained through exploratory research in loco, followed by a descriptive phase through field research, using open interviews and application of query forms. Consequently, SWOT analysis and the DMAIC model were applied to finally suggest innovation. The proposed objectives were reached, where the contingency approach with a behavioral focus and guided leadership was envisaged. The question was answered and the motivation for suggestion of innovations was firmly established in the process of presencing and knowledge management of Theory U. It was concluded that the strategy for efficiency in results should focus on the dynamic organizational complexity, acting in an integrated way, developing abilities of employees until then unincorporated, allowing the evolution of the flow of knowledge management, empowering skills

Cohort study on the effects of everyday life radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure on non-specific symptoms and tinnitus

BACKGROUND: There is public concern regarding potential health effects of radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) exposure, as produced by mobile phones or broadcast transmitters. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between RF-EMF exposure and non-specific symptoms and tinnitus in a prospective cohort study. METHODS: In 2008, 1375 randomly selected participants from Basel, Switzerland, were enrolled in a questionnaire survey with follow-up after one year (participation rate 82%). A score for somatic complaints (von Zerssen list) and headache (HIT-6) was assessed. Far-field environmental RF-EMF exposure was predicted using a validated prediction model. Regarding near-field exposure, self-reported mobile and cordless phone use as well as mobile phone operator data were collected. In multivariate regression models, we investigated whether exposure at baseline (cohort analysis) or changes in exposure between baseline and follow-up (change analysis) were related to changes in health scores. RESULTS: For participants in the top decile of environmental far-field RF-EMF exposure at baseline, in comparison to participants exposed below the median value, the change in the von Zerssen- and HIT-6-scores between baseline and follow-up was -0.12 (95%-CI: -1.79 to 1.56) and -0.37 (95%-CI: -1.80 to 1.07) units, respectively. Exposure to near-field sources and a change in exposure between baseline and follow-up were not related to non-specific symptoms. Similarly, no association between RF-EMF exposure and tinnitus was observed. CONCLUSIONS: In this first cohort study using objective and well-validated RF-EMF exposure measures, we did not observe an association between RF-EMF exposure and non-specific symptoms or tinnitu

Classification of personal exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) for epidemiological research : evaluation of different exposure assessment methods

The use of personal exposure meters (exposimeters) has been recommended for measuring personal exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) from environmental far-field sources in everyday life. However, it is unclear to what extent exposimeter readings are affected by measurements taken when personal mobile and cordless phones are used. In addition, the use of exposimeters in large epidemiological studies is limited due to high costs and large effort for study participants. In the current analysis we aimed to investigate the impact of personal phone use on exposimeter readings and to evaluate different exposure assessment methods potentially useful in epidemiological studies. We collected personal exposimeter measurements during one week and diary data from 166 study participants. Moreover, we collected spot measurements in the participants' bedrooms and data on self-estimated exposure, assessed residential exposure to fixed site transmitters by calculating the geo-coded distance and mean RF-EMF from a geospatial propagation model, and developed an exposure prediction model based on the propagation model and exposure relevant behavior. The mean personal exposure was 0.13mW/m(2), when measurements during personal phone calls were excluded and 0.15mW/m(2), when such measurements were included. The Spearman correlation with personal exposure (without personal phone calls) was 0.42 (95%-CI: 0.29 to 0.55) for the spot measurements, -0.03 (95%-CI: -0.18 to 0.12) for the geo-coded distance, 0.28 (95%-CI: 0.14 to 0.42) for the geospatial propagation model, 0.50 (95%-CI: 0.37 to 0.61) for the full exposure prediction model and 0.06 (95%-CI: -0.10 to 0.21) for self-estimated exposure. In conclusion, personal exposure measured with exposimeters correlated best with the full exposure prediction model and spot measurements. Self-estimated exposure and geo-coded distance turned out to be poor surrogates for personal exposure

Development of FTK architecture: a fast hardware track trigger for the ATLAS detector

The Fast Tracker (FTK) is a proposed upgrade to the ATLAS trigger system that will operate at full Level-1 output rates and provide high quality tracks reconstructed over the entire detector by the start of processing in Level-2. FTK solves the combinatorial challenge inherent to tracking by exploiting the massive parallelism of Associative Memories (AM) that can compare inner detector hits to millions of pre-calculated patterns simultaneously. The tracking problem within matched patterns is further simplified by using pre-computed linearized fitting constants and leveraging fast DSP's in modern commercial FPGA's. Overall, FTK is able to compute the helix parameters for all tracks in an event and apply quality cuts in approximately one millisecond. By employing a pipelined architecture, FTK is able to continuously operate at Level-1 rates without deadtime. The system design is defined and studied using ATLAS full simulation. Reconstruction quality is evaluated for single muon events with zero pileup, as well as WH events at the LHC design luminosity. FTK results are compared with the tracking capability of an offline algorithm.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of DPF-2009, Detroit, MI, July 2009, eConf C09072

HST/STIS Ultraviolet Imaging of Polar Aurora on Ganymede

We report new observations of the spectrum of Ganymede in the spectral range 1160 - 1720 A made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on HST on 1998 October 30. The observations were undertaken to locate the regions of the atomic oxygen emissions at 1304 and 1356 A, previously observed with the GHRS on HST, that Hall et al. (1998) claimed indicated the presence of polar aurorae on Ganymede. The use of the 2" wide STIS slit, slightly wider than the disk diameter of Ganymede, produced objective spectra with images of the two oxygen emissions clearly separated. The OI emissions appear in both hemispheres, at latitudes above 40 degrees, in accordance with recent Galileo magnetometer data that indicate the presence of an intrinsic magnetic field such that Jovian magnetic field lines are linked to the surface of Ganymede only at high latitudes. Both the brightness and relative north-south intensity of the emissions varied considerably over the four contiguous orbits (5.5 hours) of observation, presumably due to the changing Jovian plasma environment at Ganymede. However, the observed longitudinal non-uniformity in the emission brightness at high latitudes, particularly in the southern hemisphere, and the lack of pronounced limb brightening near the poles are difficult to understand with current models. In addition to observed solar HI Lyman-alpha reflected from the disk, extended Lyman-alpha emission resonantly scattered from a hydrogen exosphere is detected out to beyond two Ganymede radii from the limb, and its brightness is consistent with the Galileo UVS measurements of Barth et al. (1997).Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, June 1, 200