7,670 research outputs found
Flaw Selection Strategies for Partial-Order Planning
Several recent studies have compared the relative efficiency of alternative
flaw selection strategies for partial-order causal link (POCL) planning. We
review this literature, and present new experimental results that generalize
the earlier work and explain some of the discrepancies in it. In particular, we
describe the Least-Cost Flaw Repair (LCFR) strategy developed and analyzed by
Joslin and Pollack (1994), and compare it with other strategies, including
Gerevini and Schubert's (1996) ZLIFO strategy. LCFR and ZLIFO make very
different, and apparently conflicting claims about the most effective way to
reduce search-space size in POCL planning. We resolve this conflict, arguing
that much of the benefit that Gerevini and Schubert ascribe to the LIFO
component of their ZLIFO strategy is better attributed to other causes. We show
that for many problems, a strategy that combines least-cost flaw selection with
the delay of separable threats will be effective in reducing search-space size,
and will do so without excessive computational overhead. Although such a
strategy thus provides a good default, we also show that certain domain
characteristics may reduce its effectiveness.Comment: See http://www.jair.org/ for an online appendix and other files
accompanying this articl
Extending Foster Care to Age 21: Weighing the Costs to Government against the Benefits to Youth
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 allows states to claim federal reimbursement for the costs of caring for and supervising Title IV-E eligible foster youth until their 21st birthday. This issue brief provides preliminary estimates of what the potential costs to government and the benefits to young people would be if states extend foster care to age 21. The analysis focuses on the increase in postsecondary educational attainment associated with allowing foster youth to remain in care until they are 21 years old and the resulting increase in lifetime earnings associated with postsecondary education. Researchers estimate that lifetime earnings would increase an average of two dollars for every dollar spent on keeping foster youth in care beyond age 18
Demonstration of the Zero-Crossing Phasemeter with a LISA Test-bed Interferometer
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is being designed to detect and
study in detail gravitational waves from sources throughout the Universe such
as massive black hole binaries. The conceptual formulation of the LISA
space-borne gravitational wave detector is now well developed. The
interferometric measurements between the sciencecraft remain one of the most
important technological and scientific design areas for the mission.
Our work has concentrated on developing the interferometric technologies to
create a LISA-like optical signal and to measure the phase of that signal using
commercially available instruments. One of the most important goals of this
research is to demonstrate the LISA phase timing and phase reconstruction for a
LISA-like fringe signal, in the case of a high fringe rate and a low signal
level. We present current results of a test-bed interferometer designed to
produce an optical LISA-like fringe signal previously discussed in the
literature.Comment: find minor corrections in the CQG versio
A Demonstration of LISA Laser Communication
Over the past few years questions have been raised concerning the use of
laser communications links between sciencecraft to transmit phase information
crucial to the reduction of laser frequency noise in the LISA science
measurement. The concern is that applying medium frequency phase modulations to
the laser carrier could compromise the phase stability of the LISA fringe
signal. We have modified the table-top interferometer presented in a previous
article by applying phase modulations to the laser beams in order to evaluate
the effects of such modulations on the LISA science fringe signal. We have
demonstrated that the phase resolution of the science signal is not degraded by
the presence of medium frequency phase modulations.Comment: minor corrections found in the CQG versio
Charge Management for Gravitational Wave Observatories using UV LEDs
Accumulation of electrical charge on the end mirrors of gravitational wave
observatories, such as the space-based LISA mission and ground-based LIGO
detectors, can become a source of noise limiting the sensitivity of such
detectors through electronic couplings to nearby surfaces. Torsion balances
provide an ideal means for testing gravitational wave technologies due to their
high sensitivity to small forces. Our torsion pendulum apparatus consists of a
movable Au-coated Cu plate brought near a Au-coated Si plate pendulum suspended
from a non-conducting quartz fiber. A UV LED located near the pendulum
photoejects electrons from the surface, and a UV LED driven electron gun
directs photoelectrons towards the pendulum surface. We have demonstrated both
charging and discharging of the pendulum with equivalent charging rates of
, as well as spectral measurements of the pendulum
charge resulting in a white noise level equivalent to .Comment: 5 pages, submitted to PR
High Sensitivity Torsion Balance Tests for LISA Proof Mass Modeling
We have built a highly sensitive torsion balance to investigate small forces
between closely spaced gold coated surfaces. Such forces will occur between the
LISA proof mass and its housing. These forces are not well understood and
experimental investigations are imperative. We describe our torsion balance and
present the noise of the system. A significant contribution to the LISA noise
budget at low frequencies is the fluctuation in the surface potential
difference between the proof mass and its housing. We present first results of
these measurements with our apparatus.Comment: 6th International LISA Symposiu
Extreme tunability of interactions in a Li Bose-Einstein condensate
We use a Feshbach resonance to tune the scattering length a of a
Bose-Einstein condensate of 7Li in the |F = 1, m_F = 1> state. Using the
spatial extent of the trapped condensate we extract a over a range spanning 7
decades from small attractive interactions to extremely strong repulsive
interactions. The shallow zero-crossing in the wing of the Feshbach resonance
enables the determination of a as small as 0.01 Bohr radii. In this regime,
evidence of the weak anisotropic magnetic dipole interaction is obtained by
comparison with different trap geometries
Temporal Extent of Surface Potentials between Closely Spaced Metals
Variations in the electrostatic surface potential between the proof mass and
electrode housing in the space-based gravitational wave mission LISA is one of
the largest contributors of noise at frequencies below a few mHz. Torsion
balances provide an ideal testbed for investigating these effects in conditions
emulative of LISA. Our apparatus consists of a Au coated Cu plate brought near
a Au coated Si plate pendulum suspended from a thin W wire. We have measured a
white noise level of 30, \uVhz above approximately 0.1, mHz, rising at lower
frequencies, for the surface potential variations between these two closely
spaced metals
Collective excitation of a Bose-Einstein condensate by modulation of the atomic scattering length
We excite the lowest-lying quadrupole mode of a Bose-Einstein condensate by
modulating the atomic scattering length via a Feshbach resonance. Excitation
occurs at various modulation frequencies, and resonances located at the natural
quadrupole frequency of the condensate and at the first harmonic are observed.
We also investigate the amplitude of the excited mode as a function of
modulation depth. Numerical simulations based on a variational calculation
agree with our experimental results and provide insight into the observed
behavior.Comment: Submitted to PR
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Detection of human influence on a new, validated 1500-Year temperature reconstruction
Climate records over the last millennium place the twentieth-century warming in a longer historical context. Reconstructions of millennial temperatures show a wide range of variability, raising questions about the reliability of currently available reconstruction techniques and the uniqueness of late-twentieth-century warming. A calibration method is suggested that avoids the loss of low-frequency variance. A new reconstruction using this method shows substantial variability over the last 1500 yr. This record is consistent with independent temperature change estimates from borehole geothermal records, compared over the same spatial and temporal domain. The record is also broadly consistent with other recent reconstructions that attempt to fully recover low-frequency climate variability in their central estimate. High variability in reconstructions does not hamper the detection of greenhouse gas-induced climate change, since a substantial fraction of the variance in these reconstructions from the beginning of the analysis in the late thirteenth century to the end of the records can be attributed to external forcing. Results from a detection and attribution analysis show that greenhouse warming is detectable in all analyzed high-variance reconstructions (with the possible exception of one ending in 1925), and that about a third of the warming in the first half of the twentieth century can be attributed to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The estimated magnitude of the anthropogenic signal is consistent with most of the warming in the second half of the twentieth century being anthropogenic
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