Sir John Adams: his legacy to the world of particle accelerators

John Adams acquired an unrivalled reputation for his leading part in designing and constructing the Proton Synchrotron (PS) in CERN's early days. In 1968, and after several years heading a fusion laboratory in the UK, he came back to Geneva to pilot the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) project to approval and then to direct its construction. By the time of his early death in 1984 he had built the two flagship proton accelerators at CERN and, during the second of his terms as Director-General, he laid the groundwork for the proton-antiproton collider which led to the discovery of the intermediate vector boson. How did someone without any formal academic qualification achieve this? What was the magic behind his leadership? The speaker, who worked many years alongside him, will discuss these questions and speculate on how Sir John Adams might have viewed today's CERN.Comment: 29 pages, John Adams Memorial Lecture 2009, published with high-resolution figures as CERN Yellow Report http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/133152

Navigating the Information Highway: A Multilayered Approach for First-Year Graduate Students

Taylor University’s Zondervan Library developed a multifaceted approach of engagement with graduate students of the Master of Higher Education and Student Development program, utilizing a variety of venues and courses relating to advanced research and writing. Regular assessments provided feedback for improvement within the embedded program structure. A second component of this model involved an archival project, which facilitated student research with primary documents in the university archives. Overall, graduate student understanding and ownership of the research process increased, and teaching faculty noticed improvement in the quality of research-based assignments as well as the program’s thesis project

Millimeter radiometer system technology

JPL has had a large amount of experience with spaceborne microwave/millimeter wave radiometers for remote sensing. All of the instruments use filled aperture antenna systems from 5 cm diameter for the microwave Sounder Units (MSU), 16 m for the microwave limb sounder (MLS) to 20 m for the large deployable reflector (LDR). The advantages of filled aperture antenna systems are presented. The requirements of the 10 m Geoplat antenna system, 10 m multified antenna, and the MLS are briefly discussed

Multispectral data restoration study

A digital resampling technique for LANDSAT data is reported that incorporates a deconvolution concept to minimize spatial and radiometric degradation of data during resampling for geometric correction. A quantitative comparison of cubic convolution and digital restoration methods establishes the latter as the superior technique

Granular discharge rate for submerged hoppers

The discharge of spherical grains from a hole in the bottom of a right circular cylinder is measured with the entire system underwater. We find that the discharge rate depends on filling height, in contrast to the well-known case of dry non-cohesive grains. It is further surprising that the rate increases up to about twenty five percent, as the hopper empties and the granular pressure head decreases. For deep filling, where the discharge rate is constant, we measure the behavior as a function of both grain and hole diameters. The discharge rate scale is set by the product of hole area and the terminal falling speed of isolated grains. But there is a small-hole cutoff of about two and half grain diameters, which is larger than the analogous cutoff in the Beverloo equation for dry grains

Predictions of the emergence of vaccine-resistant hepatitis B in The Gambia using a mathematical model

Vaccine escape variants of hepatitis B virus (HBV) have been identified world-wide. A mathematical model of HBV transmission is used to investigate the potential pattern of emergence of such variants. Attention is focused on The Gambia as a country with high quality epidemiological data, universal infant immunization and in which escape mutants after childhood infections have been observed. We predict that a variant cannot become dominant for at least 20 years from the start of vaccination, even when using a vaccine which affords no cross protection. The dominant factor responsible for this long time scale is the low rate of infectious contacts between infected and susceptible individuals (we estimate the basic reproduction number of hepatitis B in The Gambia to be 1·7). A variant strain that achieves high prevalence will also take many years to control, and it is questionable whether emergence will be identifiable by sero-surveillance until of high prevalence. The sensitivity of the model predictions to epidemiological and demographic factors is explored

Predictions of the emergence of vaccine-resistant hepatitis B in The Gambia using a mathematical model

Vaccine escape variants of hepatitis B virus (HBV) have been identified world-wide. A mathematical model of HBV transmission is used to investigate the potential pattern of emergence of such variants. Attention is focused on The Gambia as a country with high quality epidemiological data, universal infant immunization and in which escape mutants after childhood infections have been observed. We predict that a variant cannot become dominant for at least 20 years from the start of vaccination, even when using a vaccine which affords no cross protection. The dominant factor responsible for this long time scale is the low rate of infectious contacts between infected and susceptible individuals (we estimate the basic reproduction number of hepatitis B in The Gambia to be 1·7). A variant strain that achieves high prevalence will also take many years to control, and it is questionable whether emergence will be identifiable by sero-surveillance until of high prevalence. The sensitivity of the model predictions to epidemiological and demographic factors is explored

Analysing the Effects of Excise Taxes Using Microsoft Excel

This paper examines the effects of an excise tax imposed on a monopolist's product. Then simple but quite general polynomial demand and cost curves are introduced and discussed, as is the Microsoft Excel workbook that embeds the functions. Finally, exercises based on selected special cases illustrating the use of the workbook are sketched.

Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Treatment Preparedness in Thailand

Perspective and Practice in Antiretroviral Treatment: Case Stud

Patterns of Employee Particpation and Industrial Democracy in UK ESOPs

This paper examines the institutional characteristics of UK ESOPs and considers the extent to which ESOPs extend employee participation and industrial democracy. It is suggested that ESOPs in themselves do not extend industrial democracy. Instead patterns of employee participation are substantially determined by the goals of those primarily responsible for establishing the ESOP. Three constellations of ESOPs are discerned on the basis of their participative characteristics: `technical ESOPs' where there is little or no development of industrial democracy; `paternalist ESOPs' which tend to develop individualistic forms of employee participation; and `representative ESOPs' where new institutions are created to give some opportunity for involvement of employee representatives in top decisions.