Antenna simulator permits preinstallation system checkout

Antenna simulator provides for evaluation checkout of corporate feeds, monopulse sum-and-difference networks, etc., in a shielded environment prior to system checkout on an antenna pattern range. This technique is useful wherever simulation of monopulse antenna element characteristics is desired for checkout of ancillary equipment in a controlled environment

Monopulse system with an electronic scanner

Electronic and mechanical scanning control system for monopulse tracking antenn

Using Self-Determination Theory to Examine the Difference in Motivation of African American College Students and Students with other Ethnic Backgrounds

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among academic self-concept, motivation and academic achievement among African American and other college students with different ethnicities. Self-Determination Theory is used as a framework to help understand college students’ academic motivation. Existing research in this area has not tended to focus much on ethnicity; yet preliminary information suggests that associations among academic self-concept, motivation, and achievement of African American college students take distinct forms from other ethnic groups. This study uses the Academic Motivational Scale (Vallerand, 1989) to measure intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for college students, the Academic Self-Concept Scale (Reynolds, 1988) to measure self-concept, and self-reported GPAs to measure academic achievement. Data were collected using Qualtrics online surveying system. This research is intended to be beneficial for educators such that colleges can be structured in a way that meets the motivational needs of all ethnic students

Task oriented nonlinear control laws for telerobotic assembly operations

The goal of this research is to achieve very intelligent telerobotic controllers which are capable of receiving high-level commands from the human operator and implementing them in an adaptive manner in the object/task/manipulator workspace. Initiatives by the authors at Integrated Systems, Inc. to identify and develop the key technologies necessary to create such a flexible, highly programmable, telerobotic controller are presented. The focus of the discussion is on the modeling of insertion tasks in three dimensions and nonlinear implicit force feedback control laws which incorporate tool/workspace constraints. Preliminary experiments with dual arm beam assembly in 2-D are presented

Complementarity of the constraints on New Physics from B_s -> mu+ mu- and from B -> K l+l- decays

We discuss the advantages of combining the experimental bound on Br(B_s -> mu+ mu-) and the measured Br(B -> K l+l-) to get the model independent constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model. Since the two decays give complementary information, one can study not only the absolute values of the Wilson coefficients that are zero in the Standard Model, but also their phases. To identify the sector in which the new physics might appear, information about the shapes of the transverse asymmetries in B -> K* l+l- at low q^2's can be particularly useful. We also emphasize the importance of measuring the forward-backward asymmetry in B -> K l+l- decay at large q^2's.Comment: 28 pp, 12 figures, 2 tables; v3: version as publishe

Polynomial evaluation over finite fields: new algorithms and complexity bounds

An efficient evaluation method is described for polynomials in finite fields. Its complexity is shown to be lower than that of standard techniques when the degree of the polynomial is large enough. Applications to the syndrome computation in the decoding of Reed-Solomon codes are highlighted.Comment: accepted for publication in Applicable Algebra in Engineering, Communication and Computing. The final publication will be available at springerlink.com. DOI: 10.1007/s00200-011-0160-

Barriers and enablers for cervical cancer screening in the Pacific: a systematic review of the literature

Background: Globally cervical cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer in women and in some low-income countries is the most common cancer in women. Papua New Guinea has a particularly concerning incidence of cervical cancer where it ranks first as the leading cause of cancer in females. Screening is a reliable strategy to detect cervical cancer but implementation of screening in Papua New Guinea is poor. The aim of this review is to identify the enablers and barriers for cervical cancer screening in Papua New Guinea. Methods: A systematic search of peer-reviewed literature was conducted using electronic databases; PubMed, Medline, Scopus, CINAHL and Google Scholar. Articles published between 2007 and 2017 that focused on the enablers and barriers to cervical cancer screening were included. Only one study from Papua New Guinea was identified so the search was extended to include other Pacific Island Countries and Low-Income Countries more broadly. Findings: Twenty articles met the inclusion criteria. The main barriers for cervical cancer screening included a lack of women’s knowledge about cervical cancer and screening, a lack of health facilities for screening, diagnosis and treatment, lack of health care worker knowledge and training, cultural beliefs and financial burdens. The main enablers included women having access to education programs, availability of cervical cancer screening services, female friendly environments and health care workers being trained to undertake screening. Conclusions: While the literature highlighted the importance of cervical cancer screening, a range of barriers limits the delivery of this service in low-income country settings. In particular, there is a gap in the knowledge of barriers and enablers within Papua New Guinea and further research in this country is required. Applying the knowledge learned from other low-income countries and gaining a clearer understanding of both the barriers and enablers for cervical cancer screening in the Papua New Guinea context may lead to clear recommendations to improve implementation and uptake of cervical cancer screening

The Hi-GAL compact source catalogue – I. The physical properties of the clumps in the inner Galaxy (−71∘.0 < ℓ < 67∘0)

Hi-GAL (Herschel InfraRed Galactic Plane Survey) is a large-scale survey of the Galactic plane, performed with Herschel in five infrared continuum bands between 70 and 500 μm. We present a band-merged catalogue of spatially matched sources and their properties derived from fits to the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and heliocentric distances, based on the photometric catalogues presented in Molinari et al., covering the portion of Galactic plane −71∘.0 < ℓ < 67∘.0. The band-merged catalogue contains 100 922 sources with a regular SED, 24 584 of which show a 70-μm counterpart and are thus considered protostellar, while the remainder are considered starless. Thanks to this huge number of sources, we are able to carry out a preliminary analysis of early stages of star formation, identifying the conditions that characterize different evolutionary phases on a statistically significant basis. We calculate surface densities to investigate the gravitational stability of clumps and their potential to form massive stars. We also explore evolutionary status metrics such as the dust temperature, luminosity and bolometric temperature, finding that these are higher in protostellar sources compared to pre-stellar ones. The surface density of sources follows an increasing trend as they evolve from pre-stellar to protostellar, but then it is found to decrease again in the majority of the most evolved clumps. Finally, we study the physical parameters of sources with respect to Galactic longitude and the association with spiral arms, finding only minor or no differences between the average evolutionary status of sources in the fourth and first Galactic quadrants, or between ‘on-arm’ and ‘interarm’ positions

Disintegration, modularity and entry mode choice: Mirroring technical and organizational architectures in business functions offshoring

We study the relationship between modularity and entry mode choice in the context of business functions offshoring. We define the degree of modularity of an activity as technical architecture (whether it can be detached from the rest of the value chain without loss of synergies). We refer to the entry mode chosen as organizational architecture (whether a captive solution, a partnership or outsourcing). We propose that the selection of entry mode should reflect the alignment of the technical and organizational architectures: that is, they need to be ‘mirrored’. Modular activities are more likely to be outsourced, as modularity decreases transaction costs and knowledge leakages risks, while not-modular activities reflect captive entry modes. Based on the analysis of 486 business function offshoring initiatives, we also argue that firms can “break” the mirror as the entry choice is contingent upon the level of disintegration of the value chain and the offshoring experience of the firms