21,454 research outputs found
Predicting outcome following colorectal cancer surgery using Colorectal Biochemical and Haematological Outcome Model (Colorectal BHOM)
Analytical and experimental studies of an optimum multisegment phased liner noise suppression concept
Results are presented from detailed analytical studies made to define methods for obtaining improved multisegment lining performance by taking advantage of relative placement of each lining segment. Properly phased liner segments reflect and spatially redistribute the incident acoustic energy and thus provide additional attenuation. A mathematical model was developed for rectangular ducts with uniform mean flow. Segmented acoustic fields were represented by duct eigenfunction expansions, and mode-matching was used to ensure continuity of the total field. Parametric studies were performed to identify attenuation mechanisms and define preliminary liner configurations. An optimization procedure was used to determine optimum liner impedance values for a given total lining length, Mach number, and incident modal distribution. Optimal segmented liners are presented and it is shown that, provided the sound source is well-defined and flow environment is known, conventional infinite duct optimum attenuation rates can be improved. To confirm these results, an experimental program was conducted in a laboratory test facility. The measured data are presented in the form of analytical-experimental correlations. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment verifies and substantiates the analytical prediction techniques. The results indicate that phased liners may be of immediate benefit in the development of improved aircraft exhaust duct noise suppressors
Double-sided coaxial circuit QED with out-of-plane wiring
Superconducting circuits are well established as a strong candidate platform
for the development of quantum computing. In order to advance to a practically
useful level, architectures are needed which combine arrays of many qubits with
selective qubit control and readout, without compromising on coherence. Here we
present a coaxial circuit QED architecture in which qubit and resonator are
fabricated on opposing sides of a single chip, and control and readout wiring
are provided by coaxial wiring running perpendicular to the chip plane. We
present characterisation measurements of a fabricated device in good agreement
with simulated parameters and demonstrating energy relaxation and dephasing
times of s and s respectively. The architecture
allows for scaling to large arrays of selectively controlled and measured
qubits with the advantage of all wiring being out of the plane.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Circuit quantum acoustodynamics with surface acoustic waves
The experimental investigation of quantum devices incorporating mechanical
resonators has opened up new frontiers in the study of quantum mechanics at a
macroscopic level. Superconducting microwave circuits have proven to be
a powerful platform for the realisation of such quantum devices, both in cavity
optomechanics, and circuit quantum electro-dynamics (QED).
While most experiments to date have involved localised nanomechanical
resonators, it has recently been shown that propagating surface acoustic waves
(SAWs) can be piezoelectrically coupled to superconducting qubits, and
confined in high-quality Fabry-Perot cavities up to microwave frequencies in
the quantum regime, indicating the possibility of realising coherent
exchange of quantum information between the two systems. Here we present
measurements of a device in which a superconducting qubit is embedded in, and
interacts with, the acoustic field of a Fabry-Perot SAW cavity on quartz,
realising a surface acoustic version of cavity quantum electrodynamics. This
quantum acoustodynamics (QAD) architecture may be used to develop new quantum
acoustic devices in which quantum information is stored in trapped on-chip
surface acoustic wavepackets, and manipulated in ways that are impossible with
purely electromagnetic signals, due to the times slower speed of
travel of the mechanical waves.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl
Influences on recruitment to randomised controlled trials in mental health settings in England: a national cross-sectional survey of researchers working for the Mental Health Research Network
Background: Recruitment to trials is complex and often protracted; selection bias may compromise generalisability. In the mental health field (as elsewhere), diverse factors have been described as hindering researcher access to potential participants and various strategies have been proposed to overcome barriers. However, the extent to which various influences identified in the literature are operational across mental health settings in England has not been systematically examined.
Methods: A cross-sectional, online survey of clinical studies officers employed by the Mental Health Research Network in England to recruit to trials from National Health Service mental health services. The bespoke questionnaire invited participants to report exposure to specified influences on recruitment, the perceived impact of these on access to potential participants, and to describe additional positive or negative influences on recruitment. Analysis employed descriptive statistics, the framework approach and triangulation of data.
Results: Questionnaires were returned by 98 (58%) of 170 clinical studies officers who reported diverse experience. Data demonstrated a disjunction between policy and practice. While the particulars of trial design and various marketing and dommunication strategies could influence recruitment, consensus was that the culture of NHS mental health services is not donducive to research. Since financial rewards for recruitment paid to Trusts and feedback about studies seldom reaching frontline services, clinicians were described as distanced from research. Facing continual service change and demanding clinical workloads, clinicians generally did not prioritise recruitment activities. Incentives to trial participants had variable impact on access but recruitment could be enhanced by engagement of senior investigators and integrating referral with routine practice. Comprehensive, robust feasibility studies and reciprocity
between researchers and clinicians were considered crucial to successful recruitment.
Conclusions: In the mental health context, researcher access to potential trial participants is multiply influenced. Gatekeeping clinicians are faced with competing priorities and resources constrain research activity. It seems that environmental adjustment predicated on equitable resource allocation is needed if clinicians in NHS mental health services are to fully support the conduct of randomised controlled trials. Whilst cultural transformation, requiring changes in assumptions and values, is complex, our findings suggest that attention to practical matters can support this and highlight issues requiring careful consideration
Measuring Fundamental Galactic Parameters with Stellar Tidal Streams and SIM PlanetQuest
Extended halo tidal streams from disrupting Milky Way satellites offer new
opportunities for gauging fundamental Galactic parameters without challenging
observations of the Galactic center. In the roughly spherical Galactic
potential tidal debris from a satellite system is largely confined to a single
plane containing the Galactic center, so accurate distances to stars in the
tidal stream can be used to gauge the Galactic center distance, R_0, given
reasonable projection of the stream orbital pole on the X_GC axis.
Alternatively, a tidal stream with orbital pole near the Y_GC axis, like the
Sagittarius stream, can be used to derive the speed of the Local Standard of
Rest (\Theta_LSR). Modest improvements in current astrometric catalogues might
allow this measurement to be made, but NASA's Space Interferometry Mission (SIM
PlanetQuest) can definitively obtain both R_0 and \Theta_LSR using tidal
streams.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters (minor
text revisions). Version with high resolution figures available at
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~drlaw/Papers/GalaxyParameters.pd
Detection of Gamma Rays of Up to 50 TeV From the Crab Nebula
Gamma rays with energies greater than 7 TeV from the Crab pulsar/nebula have
been observed at large zenith angles, using the Imaging Atmospheric Technique
from Woomera, South Australia. CANGAROO data taken in 1992, 1993 and 1995
indicate that the energy spectrum extends up to at least 50 TeV, without a
change of the index of the power law spectrum. The observed differential
spectrum is \noindent between 7 TeV and 50 TeV. There is no apparent
cut-off. The spectrum for photon energies above 10 TeV allows the maximum
particle acceleration energy to be inferred, and implies that this unpulsed
emission does not originate near the light cylinder of the pulsar, but in the
nebula where the magnetic field is not strong enough to allow pair creation
from the TeV photons. The hard gamma-ray energy spectrum above 10 TeV also
provides information about the varying role of seed photons for the inverse
Compton process at these high energies, as well as a possible contribution of
-gamma rays from proton collisions.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX2.09 with AASTeX 4.0 maros, to appear in
Astrophys. J. Let
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