Design of a "Digital Atlas Vme Electronics" (DAVE) Module

ATLAS-SCT has developed a new ATLAS trigger card, 'Digital Atlas Vme Electronics' ("DAVE"). The unit is designed to provide a versatile array of interface and logic resources, including a large FPGA. It interfaces to both VME bus and USB hosts. DAVE aims to provide exact ATLAS CTP (ATLAS Central Trigger Processor) functionality, with random trigger, simple and complex deadtime, ECR (Event Counter Reset), BCR (Bunch Counter Reset) etc. being generated to give exactly the same conditions in standalone running as experienced in combined runs. DAVE provides additional hardware and a large amount of free firmware resource to allow users to add or change functionality. The combination of the large number of individually programmable inputs and outputs in various formats, with very large external RAM and other components all connected to the FPGA, also makes DAVE a powerful and versatile FPGA utility cardComment: 8 pages, 4 figures, TWEPP-2011; E-mail: [email protected]

"Talk" about male suicide? Learning from community programmes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of public awareness campaigning in developing community capacity toward preventing male suicide and explores emerging considerations for suicide prevention programme development. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on campaign evaluation data, specifically qualitative discussion groups with the general public, to report results concerning campaign processes, and “interim” effectiveness in changing public awareness and attitudes, and then discusses how progress is to be lasting and transformational. Findings – The campaign raised the awareness of a substantial proportion of those targeted, and affected attitudes and behaviour of those who were highly aware. The community settings approach was effective in reaching younger men, but there were challenges targeting the public more selectively, and engaging communities in a sustained way. Practical implications – The paper discusses emerging considerations for suicide prevention, focusing on gender and approaches and materials for engaging with the public as “influencers”. There are challenges to target audiences more specifically, provide a clear call to action, and engage the public in a sustained way. Social implications – The paper discusses emerging considerations for suicide prevention, focusing on gender and approaches and materials for engaging with the public as “influencers”. There are challenges to target audiences more specifically, provide a clear call to action, and engage the public in a sustained way. Originality/value – The paper adds fresh evidence of gendered communication processes, including their effects on public awareness, attitudes and engagement. Application of a theory of change model leads to systems level findings for sustaining programme gains

Calculations of laser cavity dumping for optical communications

For deep-space pulse-position modulation (PPM) optical communication links using Nd:YAG lasers, two types of laser transmitter modulation techniques are available for efficiently producing laser pulses over a broad range of repetition rates: Q-switching and cavity dumping. The desired modulation scheme is dependent on the required pulse repetition frequency and link parameters. These two techniques are discussed, theoretical and numerical calculations of the internal energy of the laser cavity in cavity dumping are described, and an example of cavity dumping is applied to a link for a proposed experiment package on Cassini

Evaluation of the Choose Life North Lanarkshire Awareness Programme: Final Report

The Centre for Men’s Health at Leeds Metropolitan University, with consultants from MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, and Men’s Health Forum, Scotland (MHFS), were appointed to conduct the Choose Life (North Lanarkshire) evaluation, beginning in March 2011. The key evaluation questions are: 1. How has the social marketing approach to increase awareness of crisis service numbers and de-stigmatise understandings and attitudes about suicide worked? 2. Has the programme as implemented been effective? Which aspects of the programme have been particularly effective? 3. Has this programme been of benefit to the community, in particular young men aged 16-35? 4. What contribution has the community made to the effectiveness of the programme

Influencing public awareness to prevent male suicide

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report findings from a formative evaluation of a suicide prevention public awareness campaign – Choose Life, North Lanarkshire. The focus is on preventing male suicide. The paper explores how the public campaign supports a co-ordinated and community-based direction for suicide prevention work, and examines how good practice can be identified, spread, and sustained. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on data collected from March to November 2011, using mixed primary research methods, including a quota survey, discussion groups with the general public, and stakeholder interviews. Findings – The campaign effectively raised the suicide awareness of a substantial proportion of those targeted, but with regional variations. It also affected the attitudes and behaviour of those who were highly aware. However, men and women engaged somewhat differently with the campaign. The sports and leisure settings approach was effective in reaching younger men. Practical implications – The paper discusses emerging considerations for suicide prevention, focusing on gender and approaches and materials for engaging with the public as “influencers”. There are challenges to target audiences more specifically, provide a clear call to action, and engage the public in a sustained way. Originality/value – This paper reflects on insights from a complex programme, exceptional in its focus on targeted sections of the public, especially young males. The paper indicates the importance for research and practice of intersecting dimensions of male identity, stigma and mental health, and other risk and protective factors which can inform campaigns highlighting talk about suicide among men

Narrow-Band Analysis of Nonstationary Processes

The behaviour of averaged periodograms and cross-periodograms of a broad class of nonstationary processes is studied. The processes include nonstationary ones that are fractional of any order, as well as asymptotically stationary fractional ones. The cross-periodogram can involve two nonstationary processes of possibly different orders, or a nonstationary and an asymptotically stationary one. The averaging takes place either over the whole frequency band, or over one that degenerates slowly to zero frequency as sample size increases. In some cases it is found to make no asymptotic difference, and in particular we indicate how the behaviour of the mean and variance changes across the two-dimensional space of integration orders. The results employ only local-to-zero assumptions on the spectra of the underlying weakly stationary sequences. It is shown how the results can be applied in fractional cointegration with unknown integration orders.Nonstationary processes, long-range dependence, least squares estimation, narrow-band estimation, cointegration analysis.

Weak Convergence of Multivariate Fractional Processes - (Now published in Stochastic Processes and their Applications, 80 (1999), pp.103-120.)

Weak convergence to a form of fractional Brownian motion is established for a wide class of nonstationary fractionally integrated multivariate processes. Instrumental for the main argument is a result of some independent interest on approximations for partial sums of stationary linear vector sequences. A functional central limit theorem for smoothed processes is analyzed under more general assumptions.Nonstationary fractional integration, functional central limit theorem

Semiparametric Fractional Cointegration Analysis

Fractional cointegration is viewed from a semiparametric viewpoint as a narrow-band phenomenon at frequency zero. We study a narrow-band frequency domain least squares estimate of the cointegrating vector, and related semiparametric methods of inference for testing the memory of observables and the presence of fractional cointegration. These procedures are employed in analysing empirical macroeconomic series; their usefulness and feasibility in finite samples is supported by results of a Monte Carlo experiment.Semiparametric analysis, fractional cointegration.

Finite Sample Improvement in Statistical Inference with I(1) Processes

Robinson and Marinucci (1998) investigated the asymptotic behaviour of a narrow-band semiparametric procedure termed Frequency Domain Least Squares (FDLS) in the broad context of fractional cointegration analysis. Here we restrict to the standard case when the data are I(1) and the cointegrating errors are I(0), proving that modifications of the Fully-Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FM-OLS) procedure of Phillips and Hansen (1990) which use the FDLS idea have the same asymptotically desirable properties as FM-OLS, and, on the basis of a Monte Carlo study, find evidence that they have superior finite-sample properties; the new procedures are also shown to compare satisfactorily with parametric estimates.Fully-modified ordinary least squares, finite sample improvements, statistical inference with I(1) processes, Monte Carlo study, parametric estimates.