27,788 research outputs found
Control in the technical societies: a brief history
By the time control engineering emerged as a coherent body of knowledge and practice (during and just after WW2) professional engineering societies had existed for many decades. Since control engineering is an interdisciplinary branch of the profession, new sections devoted to control were quickly established within the various existing technical societies. In addition, some new bodies devoted specifically or primarily to control were established. This article, a revised version of a paper presented at the IEEE 2009 Conference on the History of Technical Societies, describes how control engineering as a distinct branch of engineering became represented in technical societies in a number of countries
Severity of disease and risk of malignant change in hereditary multiple exostoses. A genotype-phenotype study
We performed a prospective genotype-phenotype study using molecular screening and clinical assessment to compare the severity of disease and the risk of sarcoma in 172 individuals (78 families) with hereditary multiple exostoses. We calculated the severity of disease including stature, number of exostoses, number of surgical procedures that were necessary, deformity and functional parameters and used molecular techniques to identify the genetic mutations in affected individuals. Each arm of the genotype-phenotype study was blind to the outcome of the other. Mutations EXT1 and EXT2 were almost equally common, and were identified in 83% of individuals. Non-parametric statistical tests were used. There was a wide variation in the severity of disease. Children under ten years of age had fewer exostoses, consistent with the known age-related penetrance of this condition. The severity of the disease did not differ significantly with gender and was very variable within any given family. The sites of mutation affected the severity of disease with patients with EXT1 mutations having a significantly worse condition than those with EXT2 mutations in three of five parameters of severity (stature, deformity and functional parameters). A single sarcoma developed in an EXT2 mutation carrier, compared with seven in EXT1 mutation carriers. There was no evidence that sarcomas arose more commonly in families in whom the disease was more severe. The sarcoma risk in EXT1 carriers is similar to the risk of breast cancer in an older population subjected to breast-screening, suggesting that a role for regular screening in patients with hereditary multiple exostoses is justifiable. ©2004 British Editorial Society of Bone and Joint Surgery
Searching for Massive Black Hole Binaries in the first Mock LISA Data Challenge
The Mock LISA Data Challenge is a worldwide effort to solve the LISA data
analysis problem. We present here our results for the Massive Black Hole Binary
(BBH) section of Round 1. Our results cover Challenge 1.2.1, where the
coalescence of the binary is seen, and Challenge 1.2.2, where the coalescence
occurs after the simulated observational period. The data stream is composed of
Gaussian instrumental noise plus an unknown BBH waveform. Our search algorithm
is based on a variant of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method that uses
Metropolis-Hastings sampling and thermostated frequency annealing. We present
results from the training data sets and the blind data sets. We demonstrate
that our algorithm is able to rapidly locate the sources, accurately recover
the source parameters, and provide error estimates for the recovered
parameters.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to CQG proceedings of GWDAW 11, AEI,
Germany, Dec 200
Finite-difference distributions for the Ginibre ensemble
The Ginibre ensemble of complex random matrices is studied. The complex
valued random variable of second difference of complex energy levels is
defined. For the N=3 dimensional ensemble are calculated distributions of
second difference, of real and imaginary parts of second difference, as well as
of its radius and of its argument (angle). For the generic N-dimensional
Ginibre ensemble an exact analytical formula for second difference's
distribution is derived. The comparison with real valued random variable of
second difference of adjacent real valued energy levels for Gaussian
orthogonal, unitary, and symplectic, ensemble of random matrices as well as for
Poisson ensemble is provided.Comment: 8 pages, a number of small changes in the tex
Universality in one-dimensional fermions at finite temperature: Density, pressure, compressibility, and contact
We present finite-temperature, lattice Monte Carlo calculations of the
particle number density, compressibility, pressure, and Tan's contact of an
unpolarized system of short-range, attractively interacting spin-1/2 fermions
in one spatial dimension, i.e., the Gaudin-Yang model. In addition, we compute
the second-order virial coefficients for the pressure and the contact, both of
which are in excellent agreement with the lattice results in the low-fugacity
regime. Our calculations yield universal predictions for ultracold atomic
systems with broad resonances in highly constrained traps. We cover a wide
range of couplings and temperatures and find results that support the existence
of a strong-coupling regime in which the thermodynamics of the system is
markedly different from the noninteracting case. We compare and contrast our
results with identical systems in higher dimensions.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures; improved, published versio
Noxious and other bad weeds of Iowa
Within the past 15 years weeds have come to be recognized as the cause of one of the most important losses suffered by American farmers. Experiment station and extension workers, farmers, weed commissioners, insurance companies and farm credit agencies, chambers of commerce and others either directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture have become aroused by the menace of an increased dissemination of noxious weeds.
In Iowa weeds cause a loss of many millions of dollars annually. They crowd out desirable crops, rob them of plant food and moisture, act as hosts for insects and disease-producing organisms of crops, poison or injure livestock, depreciate land values and cause extra labor in cultivation; thus they increase the cost of food production
Minimizing Strong Telluric Absorption in Near Infra-red Stellar Spectra
We have obtained high resolution spectra (R = 25000) of an A star over
varying airmass to determine the effectiveness of telluric removal in the limit
of high signal to noise. The near infra-red line HeI at 2.058 microns, which is
a sensitive indicator of physical conditions in massive stars, supergiants, HII
regions and YSOs, resides among pressure broadened telluric absorption from
carbon dioxide and water vapor that varies both in time and with observed
airmass.
Our study shows that in the limit of bright stars at high resolution,
accuracies of 5% are typical for high airmass observations (greater than 1.9),
improving to a photon-limited accuracy of 2% at smaller airmasses (less than
1.15). We find that by using the continuum between telluric absorption lines of
a ro-vibrational fan a photon-limited 1% accuracy is achievable.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in PAS
Bolometric light curves of supernovae and post-explosion magnetic fields
The various effects leading to diversity in the bolometric light curves of
supernovae are examined: nucleosynthesis, kinematic differences, ejected mass,
degree of mixing, and configuration and intensity of the magnetic field are
discussed. In Type Ia supernovae, a departure in the bolometric light curve
from the full-trapping decline of Co can occur within the two and a half
years after the explosion, depending on the evolutionary path followed by the
WD during the accretion phase. If convection has developed in the WD core
during the presupernova evolution, starting several thousand years before the
explosion, a tangled magnetic field close to the equipartition value should
have grown in the WD. Such an intense magnetic field would confine positrons
where they originate from the Co decays, and preclude a strong departure
from the full-trapping decline, as the supernova expands. This situation is
expected to occur in C+O Chandrasekhar WDs as opposed to edge-lit detonated
sub-Chandrasekhar WDs. If the pre-explosion magnetic field of the WD is less
intense than 10G, a lack of confinement of the positrons emitted in the
Co decay and a departure from full-trapping decline would occur. The
time at which it takes place can provide estimates of the original magnetic
field of the WD, its configuration, and also of the mass of the supernova
ejecta. In SN 1991bg, the bolometric light curve suggests absence of a
significant tangled magnetic field (intensity lower than G).
Chandrasekhar-mass models do not reproduce the bolometric light curve of this
supernova. For SN 1972E, on the contrary, there is evidence for a tangled
configuration of the magnetic field and its light curve is well reproduced by a
Chandrasekhar WD explosion.Comment: 54 pages, including 8 figures. To appear in Ap
Instabilities in complex mixtures with a large number of components
Inside living cells are complex mixtures of thousands of components. It is
hopeless to try to characterise all the individual interactions in these
mixtures. Thus, we develop a statistical approach to approximating them, and
examine the conditions under which the mixtures phase separate. The approach
approximates the matrix of second virial coefficients of the mixture by a
random matrix, and determines the stability of the mixture from the spectrum of
such random matrices.Comment: 4 pages, uses RevTeX 4.
Direct measurement of superdiffusive and subdiffusive energy transport in disordered granular chains
The study of energy transport properties in heterogeneous materials has
attracted scientific interest for more than a century, and it continues to
offer fundamental and rich questions. One of the unanswered challenges is to
extend Anderson theory for uncorrelated and fully disordered lattices in
condensed-matter systems to physical settings in which additional effects
compete with disorder. Specifically, the effect of strong nonlinearity has been
largely unexplored experimentally, partly due to the paucity of testbeds that
can combine the effect of disorder and nonlinearity in a controllable manner.
Here we present the first systematic experimental study of energy transport and
localization properties in simultaneously disordered and nonlinear granular
crystals. We demonstrate experimentally that disorder and nonlinearity ---
which are known from decades of studies to individually favor energy
localization --- can in some sense "cancel each other out", resulting in the
destruction of wave localization. We also report that the combined effect of
disorder and nonlinearity can enable the manipulation of energy transport speed
in granular crystals from subdiffusive to superdiffusive ranges.Comment: main text + supplementary informatio
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