The Demise of Officer Involvement in Soldiers Sport During the American Civil War

During the American Civil War a few officers in the Army of the Potomac became involved in organizing sport for soldiers. They had ulterior motives. In each instance officers intended to use sport to improve soldier morale, assuage despondency and doubt, and to overcome homesickness. Officers chose sport because they believed that sport entertainment had the capacity to create excitement, excitement that drew men\u27s minds off immediate problems and left a generalized good feeling among the men. Once officers had assigned a use value to sport, they began to consider ways to maximize sport\u27s usefulness as a morale booster. To this end officers attempted to organize sport to produce the greatest entertainment for the greatest number. Their experiment, begun in the fall of 1861, continued periodically during 1862, and reached major proportions during the winter camp at Falmouth, Virginia in 1863. Between January 1, 1863 and April 18, 1863 officers produced six major sport festivals. Each festival drew between ten and twenty thousand soldiers. After Falmouth the experiment ended abruptly

Evaluation of ITER divertor shunts as a synthetic diagnostic for detachment control

Reliable diagnostics that measure the detached state of the ITER divertor plasma will be necessary to control heat flux to the divertor targets during steady state, burning plasma operation. This paper conducts an initial exploration into the feasibility of the divertor shunt diagnostic as a lightweight, robust, and real-time detachment sensor. This diagnostic is a set of shunt lead pairs that measure the voltage drop along the divertor cassette body, from which the plasma scrape-off layer (SOL) current is calculated. Using SOLPS-ITER simulations for control-relevant ITER plasma scenarios, the thermoelectric current magnitude along the SOL is shown to decrease significantly with the onset of partial detachment at the outer divertor target. Electromagnetic modelling of a simplified divertor cassette is used to develop a control-oriented inductance-resistance circuit model, from which SOL currents can be calculated from shunt pair voltage measurements. The sensitivity and frequency-response of the resulting system indicates that the diagnostic will accurately measure SOL thermoelectric currents during ITER operation. These currents will be a good measure of the detached state of the divertor plasma, making the divertor shunt diagnostic a potentially extremely valuable and physically robust sensor for real-time detachment control

Magnetic confinement of the solar tachocline

We study the physics of the solar tachocline and related MHD instabilities. We have performed 3-D MHD simulations of the solar radiative interior to check whether a fossil magnetic field is able to prevent the spread of the tachocline. Starting with a purely poloidal magnetic field and a latitudinal shear meant to be imposed by the convection zone at the top of the radiation zone, we have investigated the interactions between magnetic fields, rotation and shear, using the spectral code ASH on massive parallel supercomputers. In all cases we have explored, the fossil field diffuses outward and ends up connecting with the convection zone, whose differential rotation is then imprinted at latitudes above 40 deg throughout the radiative interior, according to Ferraro's law of isorotation. Rotation remains uniform in the lower latitude region which is contained within closed field lines. We find that the meridional flow cannot stop the inward progression of the differential rotation. Further, we observe the development of non-axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic instabilities, first due to the initial poloidal configuration of the fossil field, and later to the toroidal field produced by shearing the poloidal field through the differential rotation. We do not find dynamo action as such in the radiative interior, since the mean poloidal field is not regenerated. But the instability persists during the whole evolution, while slowly decaying with the mean poloidal field. According to our numerical simulations, a fossil magnetic field cannot prevent the radiative spread of the tachocline, and thus it is unable to enforce uniform rotation in the radiation zone. Neither can the observed thinness of that layer be invoked as a proof for such an internal fossil magnetic field.Comment: 12 pages, 8 color figures (low res), published in A&A, october 200

Evaluation of ITER divertor shunts as a synthetic diagnostic for detachment control

Reliable diagnostics that measure the detached state of the ITER divertor plasma will be necessary to control heat flux to the divertor targets during steady state, burning plasma operation. This paper conducts an initial exploration into the feasibility of the divertor shunt diagnostic as a lightweight, robust, and real-time detachment sensor. This diagnostic is a set of shunt lead pairs that measure the voltage drop along the divertor cassette body, from which the plasma scrape-off layer (SOL) current is calculated. Using SOLPS-ITER simulations for control-relevant ITER plasma scenarios, the thermoelectric current magnitude along the SOL is shown to decrease significantly with the onset of partial detachment at the outer divertor target. Electromagnetic modelling of a simplified divertor cassette is used to develop a control-oriented inductance-resistance circuit model, from which SOL currents can be calculated from shunt pair voltage measurements. The sensitivity and frequency-response of the resulting system indicates that the diagnostic will accurately measure SOL thermoelectric currents during ITER operation. These currents will be a good measure of the detached state of the divertor plasma, making the divertor shunt diagnostic a potentially extremely valuable and physically robust sensor for real-time detachment control

An updated analysis of NN elastic scattering data to 1.6 GeV

An energy-dependent and set of single-energy partial-wave analyses of $NN$ elastic scattering data have been completed. The fit to 1.6~GeV has been supplemented with a low-energy analysis to 400 MeV. Using the low-energy fit, we study the sensitivity of our analysis to the choice of $\pi NN$ coupling constant. We also comment on the possibility of fitting $np$ data alone. These results are compared with those found in the recent Nijmegen analyses. (Figures may be obtained from the authors upon request.)Comment: 17 pages of text, VPI-CAPS-7/

DVD Based Integrated Electronic Pulser

The DVD based integrated pulser combines the storage capacity and simplicity of DVD technology with commonly available electronic components to build a relatively inexpensive yet highly capable testing instrument. DVD technology has matured to the mass consumer level and has found widespread acceptance in many scientific, industrial, and consumers sectors. Coupling the removable media and relatively large data capacity with a simple electronic readout allows this device to be easy to build, export and authenticate. Since there are few parts and the heart of the device is a mass consumer item the duplication cost is very low

A qualitative analysis of the effectiveness of telehealthcare devices (i) are they meeting the needs of end-users?

Background: There are many telehealthcare devices currently available ranging from personal alarms, automated pill dispensers and fall detectors through to monitoring devices for blood sugar, blood pressure and heart rate. Many devices remain unused once acquired or shortly after a period of initial use. Methods: The study used a qualitative design involving focus groups and interviews. End users’ opinions of telehealthcare devices were examined through focus groups along with the views of market experts and key supply chain players through telephone interviews to ascertain their views on the devices. The data were recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically. Results: Amongst the wide range of user issues associated with telehealthcare devices two themes merited particular attention: design characteristics and the lack of focus on end-user needs. Our findings suggested that few telehealthcare devices appear to be developed based on the principles of user-centred design. Consequently, many were non-intuitive to use, with the majority of the focus group participants not recognising the purpose of the devices from their appearance alone. Conclusions: Greater input from real end-users rather than “proxy” users such as carers, professional users or technologists is required when developing telehealthcare devices or systems. Design should be focussed on intuitive use to enable the user to successfully achieve what is required from the devices. This may require the existing supplier—driven market focus to be challenged, but could improve the contribution of technology to improving healthcare

Environmental context and contaminant biotransport by Pacific salmon interact to mediate the bioaccumulation of contaminants by stream-resident fish

1. The extent to which environmental context mediates the uptake of biotransported contaminants by stream-resident organisms is not understood. For example, there is no clear understanding of the extent to which contaminant type, instream characteristics, or resident fish identity interact to influence the uptake of contaminants deposited by Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) during their spawning runs. 2. To address this uncertainty, we sampled four stream-resident fish species from 13 watersheds of the Laurentian Great Lakes in locations with and without salmon across a gradient of instream and watershed characteristics. We determined the polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and mercury (Hg) concentration along with the stable isotope ratio of C and N for each stream-resident fish. 3. We found that stream-resident fish PCB concentrations were 24-fold higher in reaches with salmon and were positively related to δ15N. In contrast, stream-resident fish Hg concentrations were similar or lower in reaches with salmon and either exhibited a negative or no relationship with δ15N. 4. Based upon AICc, stream-resident fish exhibited species-specific PCB concentrations that were positively related to salmon PCB flux. Hg burdens exhibited an interaction between fish length and salmon Hg flux – as salmon Hg inputs increased, Hg levels decreased with increasing resident fish length. We found no support for models that included the mediating influence of instream or watershed factors. Salmon eggs are enriched in PCBs but have very low Hg concentrations, so our results may be driven by the consumption of salmon eggs by stream-resident fish. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results highlight that contaminants bioaccumulate differently depending on contaminant type, species identity, and the trophic pathway to contamination. Consequently, consideration of the recipient food web and route of exposure is critical to understanding the fate of biotransported contaminants in ecosystems. The transfer of contaminants by migratory organisms represents an understudied stressor in ecology. Effective management of biotransported contaminants will require the delineation of “hot-spots” of biotransport and implementation of best management practices in those watersheds that receive contaminants from spawning salmon