36,312 research outputs found
Julia Roberts and "Erin Brockovich": the cultural and commercial paradoxes of Oscar-winning acting
From screen to shelf : perspectives on independent distribution
Of the three broadly defined sectors which make up the British film
industry, the academy has tended to focus its attention on production
and exhibition, giving comparatively short shrift to matters of
distribution. Certainly, the current role of the independent distributor
in the UK is, to say the least, under-examined. Academic interest in
the work of the distributor tends to stop at their marketing campaigns
and, as an extension, their attempts to connect with and sell a film to
the public. The relationship between the distributor and the exhibitor,
and the process of negotiation which takes place between them, have
been largely ignored.
Since around 1999, with the burgeoning of the DVD market,
UK distributors have gradually expanded their home entertainment
divisions, becoming as invested in the retail sector as is the music
industry and devoting as much energy (if not as much money) to
a film’s release on DVD as to its theatrical launch. Again, academic
material on the video and DVD industries is scant, with those studies
which do exist, such as Paul McDonald’s Video and DVD Industries
(2007), focusing primarily on the US and the major studios
Exact analytical helmholtz bright and dark solitons
In this paper, exact analytical Helmholtz bright and dark soliton solutions for a Kerr nonlinearity are presented. Numerical simulations verify that these solutions are both robust and act as attractors in nonlinear beam dynamics. Results dealing with the coherent interaction of Helmholtz bright solitons are also presented, for the first time. These considerations extend previous (paraxial) studies that are only valid for vanishingly small interaction angles
Bias, redshift space distortions and primordial nongaussianity of nonlinear transformations: application to Lyman alpha forest
On large scales a nonlinear transformation of matter density field can be
viewed as a biased tracer of the density field itself. A nonlinear
transformation also modifies the redshift space distortions in the same limit,
giving rise to a velocity bias. In models with primordial nongaussianity a
nonlinear transformation generates a scale dependent bias on large scales. We
derive analytic expressions for these for a general nonlinear transformation.
These biases can be expressed entirely in terms of the one point distribution
function (PDF) of the final field and the parameters of the transformation. Our
analysis allows one to devise nonlinear transformations with nearly arbitrary
bias properties, which can be used to increase the signal in the large scale
clustering limit. We apply the results to the ionizing equilibrium model of
Lyman-alpha forest, in which Lyman-alpha flux F is related to the density
perturbation delta via a nonlinear transformation. Velocity bias can be
expressed as an average over the Lyman-alpha flux PDF. At z=2.4 we predict the
velocity bias of -0.1, compared to the observed value of -0.13 +/- 0.03. Bias
and primordial nongaussianity bias depend on the parameters of the
transformation. Measurements of bias can thus be used to constrain these
parameters, and for reasonable values of the ionizing background intensity we
can match the predictions to observations. Matching to the observed values we
predict the ratio of primordial nongaussianity bias to bias to have the
opposite sign and lower magnitude than the corresponding values for the highly
biased galaxies, but this depends on the model parameters and can also vanish
or change the sign.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur
WaND Briefing Note 28 Revised Options for UK Domestic Water Reduction - A Review
Demand pressure on UK water supplies is expected to increase in the next 20 years driven by increasing population, new housing development and reducing household size. Regionally and at town level migration will also affect demand particularly in the South-East which is forecast to have a larger than average growth in population and house building.
The water demand moderating trends that are considered to have the greatest effect on UK consumption, in approximate order, are:
1. Metering
2. Low flush toilets
3. Normal showers
4. Efficient washing machines
5. Dishwashers
6. Cistern displacement devices (in existing homes with large cisterns)
7. Water efficient gardening measures can play an important role in reducing demand during critical drought period
The Options for UK Domestic Water Reduction: A Review
Demand pressure on UK water supplies is expected to increase in the next 20 years driven by increasing population, new housing development and reducing household size. Regionally and locally migration will also afect demand particularly in the South-East.
The water reduction trends that will have the greatest reduction effect on UK consumption are:
1. For new homes; metering and new efficiencies in design and construction (e.g. low flush toilets, heating and plumbing efficiences)
2. For established housing; metering and modern washing machines
Evaluation of the onset time and intubation conditions of rocuronium bromide in children
Publisher's copy made available with the permission of the publisher © 1997 Australian Society of AnaesthetistsWe have assessed, in children aged three to eight years, the intubating conditions after administration of rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg at 50 or 60 seconds, in groups of 15 patients. Intubating conditions were excellent in 11, good in 3 and fair in 1 patient at 50 seconds and excellent in 12 and good in 3 patients at 60 seconds. The mean onset time, for all patients, to when the first twitch of the train of four (T1), measured at the adductor pollicis, was depressed to less than 30% and 5% of control was 50 (SD 11.4) seconds and 94 (SD 31.7) seconds respectively. Depression of T1 to less than 30% of control, measured at the adductor pollicis in children, appears to indicate that intubating conditions will be clinically acceptable when using rocuronium.P.F. McDonald, D.A. Sainsbury, R.J. Lain
Concept level evaluation of the optical voltage and current sensors and an arrayed waveguide grating for aero-electrical system applications
In this paper we present, for the first time, the hybrid fiber-optic voltage and current sensors interrogated using an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) device. Due to the excellent dynamic capabilities of an AWG-based interrogator and its improved robustness, the proposed system would be suitable for voltage and current monitoring within an aircraft electrical system. The voltage sensor comprises a multilayer piezoelectric stack, acting as a voltage-to-strain transducer, and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) used to convert voltage induced strain changes within the stack into wavelength shifts. These wavelength shifts are then analysed by an AWG. To measure current, the same sensor type is used to monitor a specially designed ferrite-core current transformer. It is shown that the system is capable of measuring variable frequency of voltage and current waveforms, typical of those anticipated in the next generation aero-electric power systems. It is also demonstrated that the system can be used for voltage and current harmonic analysis and power quality measurement in such networks
FPGA-based enhanced probabilistic convergent weightless network for human iris recognition
This paper investigates how human identification and identity verification can be performed by the application of an FPGA based weightless neural network, entitled the Enhanced Probabilistic Convergent Neural Network (EPCN), to the iris biometric modality. The human iris is processed for feature vectors which will be employed for formation of connectivity, during learning and subsequent recognition. The pre-processing of the iris, prior to EPCN training, is very minimal. Structural modifications were also made to the Random Access Memory (RAM) based neural network which enhances its robustness when applied in real-time
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