Estimating Aging Effects in Running Events

This paper uses world running records by age to estimate a biological frontier of decline rates. Two models are compared: a linear/quadratic (LQ) model and a non-parametric model. Two estimation methods are used: 1) minimizing the squared difference between the observed records and the modeled biological frontier and 2) using extreme value theory to estimate the biological frontier that maximizes the probability of observing the existing world records by age. The results support the LQ model and suggest there is linear percentage decline up to the late 70’s and quadratic decline after that. The extreme value estimates suggest that the true biological frontier is on average about 8 percent below the existing world records. The estimated age factors are also compared to the World Master Athletics (WMA) age factors. The two sets of age factors are close except at the old ages, where the WMA factors are noticeably smaller. Also, the WMA age factors do not meet an important biological constraint

Implications of Confirmation of the LSND anti-nu_mu -> anti-nu_e Oscillation Signal

Neutrino oscillations have been observed in solar and atmospheric neutrinos, and in the LSND accelerator experiment. The Standard Model cannot accommodate all three positive results. The solar and atmospheric results have been confirmed. An oscillation signal seen by MiniBooNE will validate the oscillation signal seen by LSND. The question then becomes one of refining the Standard Model to allow for these three results. Four theories which can accommodate all three oscillation observations are the existence of sterile neutrinos, CP violation, the existence of variable mass neutrinos, and small Lorentz violations. The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), located at Oak Ridge Laboratories, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will provide an ideal site to test these hypotheses. The SNS, due to turn on in 2008, will supply a high intensity neutrino source of known flux and energy spectrum. This source permits experiments to probe the high delta-m^2 region for measurements, where a positive signal from MiniBooNE would lie.Comment: 3 pages. Proceedings for talk presented at the 6th International Workshop of Neutrino Factories and Superbemans (NuFact04). Proceedings will be published as a supplement to Nuclear Physics

Anti-Gravitation

The possibility of a symmetry between gravitating and anti-gravitating particles is examined. The properties of the anti-gravitating fields are defined by their behavior under general diffeomorphisms. The equations of motion and the conserved canonical currents are derived, and it is shown that the kinetic energy remains positive whereas the new fields can make a negative contribution to the source term of Einstein's field equations. The interaction between the two types of fields is naturally suppressed by the Planck scale.Comment: replaced with published versio

Hysteresis effects and diagnostics of the shock formation in low angular momentum axisymmetric accretion in the Kerr metric

The secular evolution of the purely general relativistic low angular momentum accretion flow around a spinning black hole is shown to exhibit hysteresis effects. This confirms that a stationary shock is an integral part of such an accretion disc in the Kerr metric. The equations describing the space gradient of the dynamical flow velocity of the accreting matter have been shown to be equivalent to a first order autonomous dynamical systems. Fixed point analysis ensures that such flow must be multi-transonic for certain astrophysically relevant initial boundary conditions. Contrary to the existing consensus in the literature, the critical points and the sonic points are proved not to be isomorphic in general. Homoclinic orbits for the flow flow possessing multiple critical points select the critical point with the higher entropy accretion rate, confirming that the entropy accretion rate is the degeneracy removing agent in the system. However, heteroclinic orbits are also observed for some special situation, where both the saddle type critical points of the flow configuration possesses identical entropy accretion rate. Topologies with heteroclinic orbits are thus the only allowed non removable degenerate solutions for accretion flow with multiple critical points, and are shown to be structurally unstable. Depending on suitable initial boundary conditions, a homoclinic trajectory can be combined with a standard non homoclinic orbit through an energy preserving Rankine-Hugoniot type of stationary shock. An effective Lyapunov index has been proposed to analytically confirm why certain class of transonic flow can not accommodate shock solutions even if it produces multiple critical points. (Abridged)Comment: mn2e.cls format. 24 pages. 4 figure

MacWilliams Identities for mm-tuple Weight Enumerators

Since MacWilliams proved the original identity relating the Hamming weight enumerator of a linear code to the weight enumerator of its dual code there have been many different generalizations, leading to the development of $m$-tuple support enumerators. We prove a generalization of theorems of Britz and of Ray-Chaudhuri and Siap, which build on earlier work of Kl{\o}ve, Shiromoto, Wan, and others. We then give illustrations of these $m$-tuple weight enumerators.Comment: 17 pages. Accepted to SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematic

A Search for the Near-Infrared Counterpart to GCRT J1745-3009

We present an optical/near-infrared search for a counterpart to the perplexing radio transient GCRT J1745-3009, a source located ~1 degree from the Galactic Center. Motivated by some similarities to radio bursts from nearby ultracool dwarfs, and by a distance upper limit of 70 pc for the emission to not violate the 1e12 K brightness temperature limit for incoherent radiation, we searched for a nearby star at the position of GCRT J1745-3009. We found only a single marginal candidate, limiting the presence of any late-type star to >1 kpc (spectral types earlier than M9), >200 pc (spectral types L and T0-T4), and >100 pc (spectral types T4-T7), thus severely restricting the possible local counterparts to GCRT J1745-3009. We also exclude any white dwarf within 1 kpc or a supergiant star out to the distance of the Galactic Center as possible counterparts. This implies that GCRT J1745-3009 likely requires a coherent emission process, although whether or not it reflects a new class of sources is unclear.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Human emotional response to energy visualisations

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.Past research has found that frequent energy usage feedback is an important factor in reducing home energy consumption, and that the sensory appeal and cognitive relevance of the feedback are key components of user engagement with energy systems. The visual design of the information interface is important not just due to its role in communicating data of cognitive relevance, but also because the choice of information type and format is important towards achieving interactive Hebbian learning. The objective of the current research study was to investigate the possible effect of image format on the human emotional response to scenes of energy systems, and to evaluate whether any gender related differences in emotional response occurred. An automated PC-based test was developed which utilised five visual image formats (Optical Gray-Scale, Optical Coloured, Optical Augmented, Infrared Gray-Scale and Infrared Blue-Red) and nine home energy scenes (hot water boiler, radiator, water faucet, kitchen oven, tea kettle, toaster, electrical connector, laptop computer and tea mug). The emotional response of the participant was measured in the automated test by means of a Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) which provided symbolic graphical representations of the human body under various degrees of emotional response, and associated Likert format rating scales for the valence and activation level of the emotional response. Comparison of the results obtained for the different visual scenes suggests that the greatest level of human emotional activation was achieved by the Infrared Blue-Red (thermal image) format, and that, generally, coloured images provided higher levels of emotional activation than gray-scale images. The increased activation achieved by the infrared images suggests attention capturing potential due to novelty, or due to the direct link to heat and energy, or both. Significant differences in emotional response (both activation and valence) were found to occur as a function of gender. The current results provide first guidance which a designer can use when choosing image spectrum and colours to represent energy systems on the displays of thermostats, smart meters and the energy devices. Relevance to industry - The current results provide first guidance which a designer can use when choosing image spectrum and colours to represent energy systems on the displays of thermostats, smart meters and the energy devices. Such design guidance is currently lacking internationally but is of increasing importance due to the expansion of digital devices, internet services and the upcoming internet-of-things