Empirical wind model for the middle and lower atmosphere. Part 1: Local time average

The HWM90 thermospheric wind model was revised in the lower thermosphere and extended into the mesosphere and lower atmosphere to provide a single analytic model for calculating zonal and meridional wind profiles representative of the climatological average for various geophysical conditions. Gradient winds from CIRA-86 plus rocket soundings, incoherent scatter radar, MF radar, and meteor radar provide the data base and are supplemented by previous data driven model summaries. Low-order spherical harmonics and Fourier series are used to describe the major variations throughout the atmosphere including latitude, annual, semiannual, and longitude (stationary wave 1). The model represents a smoothed compromise between the data sources. Although agreement between various data sources is generally good, some systematic differences are noted, particularly near the mesopause. Root mean square differences between data and model are on the order of 15 m/s in the mesosphere and 10 m/s in the stratosphere for zonal wind, and 10 m/s and 4 m/s, respectively, for meridional wind

High titers of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy infectivity associated with extremely low levels of PrP in vivo

Rona Barron - ORCID: 0000-0003-4512-9177 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4512-9177Diagnosis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) disease in humans and ruminants relies on the detection in post-mortem brain tissue of the protease-resistant form of the host glycoprotein PrP. The presence of this abnormal isoform (PrPSc) in tissues is taken as indicative of the presence of TSE infectivity. Here we demonstrate conclusively that high titers of TSE infectivity can be present in brain tissue of animals that show clinical and vacuolar signs of TSE disease but contain low or undetectable levels of PrPSc. This work questions the correlation between PrPSc level and the titer of infectivity and shows that tissues containing little or no proteinase K-resistant PrP can be infectious and harbor high titers of TSE infectivity. Reliance on protease-resistant PrPSc as a sole measure of infectivity may therefore in some instances significantly underestimate biological properties of diagnostic samples, thereby undermining efforts to contain and eradicate TSEs.https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M704329200282pubpub4

Magnetic properties of the quasi-two-dimensional S = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet [Cu(pyz)2(HF2)]PF6

We report on high-field magnetization, specific-heat and electron spin resonance (ESR) studies of the quasi-two-dimensional spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet [Cu(pyz)2(HF2)]PF6. The frequency-field diagram of ESR modes below TN = 4.38 K is described in the frame of the meanfield theory, confirming a collinear magnetic structure with an easy-plane anisotropy. The obtained results allowed us to determine the anisotropy/exchange interaction ratio, A/J = 0.003, and the upper limit for the inter/intra-plane exchange-interaction ratio, J'/J = 1/16. It is argued that despite the onset of 3D long-range magnetic ordering the magnetic properties of this material (including high-magnetic-field magnetization and non-monotonic field dependence of the Neel temperature) are strongly affected by two-dimensional spin correlations.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Evaluating a palliative care education programme for domiciliary care workers

Background: Many domiciliary care workers have reported low confidence and isolation when delivering end of life care in patients’ homes. Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) is an initiative that has demonstrated success in increasing confidence and knowledge of end of life care in UK nursing home and community hospice workers, but it has not been evaluated with domiciliary care workers. Aim: To test the acceptability of Project ECHO to domiciliary care workers as a means of increasing their knowledge of, and confidence in, delivering palliative care, and its effectiveness in reducing their isolation by developing a community of practice. Method: A service evaluation, involving one domiciliary care agency delivering care in the community, was conducted from May 2018 to April 2019. The participants were 25 home care workers who were employed by the agency. Participants were invited to attend an event at which gaps in their knowledge were identified, and a curriculum of learning on the Project ECHO programme was developed. The learning involved 12 educational sessions over 12 months, with each session teaching a different component of palliative care. Questionnaires were completed by the participants before and after the educational sessions to assess their effect. In addition, a focus group was conducted with four of the participants. Results: Comparison of the questionnaires completed before and after participating in the education sessions revealed an increase in self-reported knowledge across all 12 topics of the curriculum and an increase in confidence in seven of the 12 topics. However, attendance across the 12 sessions was variable, with no more than nine being attended by any one participant. Conclusion: Palliative care education for domiciliary care staff using ECHO methodology was well received, relevant and accessible, and may have the potential to improve self-assessed knowledge and confidence. However, finding an ideal time for as many staff to attend as possible may be challenging

Spacecraft rocket engine chamber insulation materials Interim report, 1 Jul. 1967 - 30 Jun. 1968

Spacecraft rocket engine chamber insulation materials - silica fabric/molybdenum foil layer, carbon fabric/tantalum foil, and fine tungsten powder in hollow zirconia microsphere matri

Method of extending hyperfine coherence times in Pr^3+:Y_2SiO_5

In this letter we present a method for increasing the coherence time of praseodymium hyperfine ground state transitions in Pr^3+:Y_2SiO_5 by the application of a specific external magnetic field. The magnitude and angle of the external field is applied such that the Zeeman splitting of a hyperfine transition is at a critical point in three dimensions, making the first order Zeeman shift vanishingly small for the transition. This reduces the influence of the magnetic interactions between the praseodymium ions and the spins in the host lattice on the transition frequency. Using this method a phase memory time of 82ms was observed, a value two orders of magnitude greater than previously reported. It is shown that the residual dephasing is amenable quantum error correction

Outlier ensembles: A robust method for damage detection and unsupervised feature extraction from high-dimensional data

Outlier ensembles are shown to provide a robust method for damage detection and dimension reduction via a wholly unsupervised framework. Most interestingly, when utilised for feature extraction, the proposed heuristic defines features that enable near-equivalent classification performance (95.85%) when compared to the features found (in previous work) through supervised techniques (97.39%) — specifically, a genetic algorithm. This is significant for practical applications of structural health monitoring, where labelled data are rarely available during data mining. Ensemble analysis is applied to practical examples of problematic engineering data; two case studies are presented in this work. Case study I illustrates how outlier ensembles can be used to expose outliers hidden within a dataset. Case study II demonstrates how ensembles can be utilised as a tool for robust outlier analysis and feature extraction in a noisy, high-dimensional feature-space