A Comparative Performance Analysis of GPS L1 C/A, L5 Acquisition and Tracking Stages under Polar and Equatorial Scintillations

This paper provides a comparative performance analysis of different acquisition and tracking methods of GPS L1 C/A and GPS L5 signals testing their robustness to the presence of scintillations in the propagation environment. The paper compares the different acquisition methods in terms of probabilities of detection/false alarm, peak-to-noise floor ratios for the acquired signal and execution time, assessing the performance loss in the presence of scintillations. Moreover, robust tracking architectures that are optimized to operate in a harsh ionospheric environment have been employed. The performance of the carrier tracking methods, namely, traditional Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) and Kalman filter based-PLL, have been compared in terms of the standard deviation of Doppler estimation, phase error, phase lock indicator (PLI) and phase jitter. The study is based on real GNSS signals affected by significant phase and amplitude scintillation effects, collected at the South African Antarctic research base (SANAE IV) and Brazilian Centro de Radioastronomia e Astrofisica Mackenzie (CRAAM) monitoring stations. Performance is assessed exploiting a fully software GNSS receiver which implements the different architectures. The comparative analysis allows to choose the best setting of the acquisition and tracking parameters, in order to allow the operation of signal acquisition and tracking at a required performance level under scintillation conditions

Testing General Relativity with Atom Interferometry

The unprecedented precision of atom interferometry will soon lead to laboratory tests of general relativity to levels that will rival or exceed those reached by astrophysical observations. We propose such an experiment that will initially test the equivalence principle to 1 part in 10^15 (300 times better than the current limit), and 1 part in 10^17 in the future. It will also probe general relativistic effects--such as the non-linear three-graviton coupling, the gravity of an atom's kinetic energy, and the falling of light--to several decimals. Further, in contrast to astrophysical observations, laboratory tests can isolate these effects via their different functional dependence on experimental variables.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; v2: Minor changes made for publicatio

Dermatoglyphs in Patients with Beta-Thalassemia Major and Their Thalassemia Carrier Parents

Dermatoglyphs are cutaneous ridges on the fingers, palms, and soles, formed during early intrauterine life. During this period, and only then, genetic and environmental factors can influence their formation. Beta-thalassemia major is an genetic disease. The aim of the present work was to analyze dermatoglyphs traits in subjects with beta-thalassemia major and their thalassemia carrier parents. The sample included 59 patients with beta-thalassemia major (39 males, 20 females). We also analyzed a total of 61 thalassemia carrier parents. There were 38 mothers and 23 fathers in the study. The control group comprised 120 healthy subjects (64 men, 56 women). All ten fingers and right hand palm prints of all participants were taken and statistically analyzed. The results of analyses showed that the frequency of loops on the fifth finger of left hand was significantly higher in female patients than that of carriers and controls (p<0.05). It was also significantly higher in female patients than that male patients (p=0.03). The increase in mean c-d ridge count was noticed in female patients only (p=0.04) compared to carriers and controls. In addition to that there was also differences according to the mean c-d ridge count between female and male patients (p=0.01). Our study showed that dermatoglyphs were helpful for the diagnosis of beta-thalassemia major. However, it does not help to detect thalassemia carriers. This study is the comprehensive dermatoglyphic research on thalassemia, and its dermatoglyphic data will be useful for future research in genetics and medicine

Black Holes at the LHC

If the scale of quantum gravity is near a TeV, the LHC will be producing one black hole (BH) about every second. The BH decays into prompt, hard photons and charged leptons is a clean signature with low background. The absence of significant missing energy allows the reconstruction of the mass of the decaying BH. The correlation between the BH mass and its temperature, deduced from the energy spectrum of the decay products, can test experimentally the higher dimensional Hawking evaporation law. It can also determine the number of large new dimensions and the scale of quantum gravity.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PRL. Results presented at the Les Houches Workshop "Physics at the TeV Colliders" (May 30, 2001) and the "Avatars of M-Theory" conference, ITP at Santa Barbara (June 7, 2001), http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/mtheory_c01/dimopoulo

Ecological studies of the surface microlayer of small ponds at the UWM Field Station

The seasonal variation and enrichment of nutrients, pigments, bacteria, fungi and algae in the surface microlayer and subsurface waters were investigated in three ponds at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Field Station, Saukville, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. Samples were collected intermittently from June, 1978 through October, 1981. Microlayer samples were collected using a glass plate and a screen sampler. All ponds showed dramatic seasonal variations in nutrients, microorganisms and algae in both surface and subsurface waters. The data indicate that physical factors such as adsubble processes, antirain and atmospheric deposition, along with biological factors such as heterotrophic mineralization and autotrophic uptake, play significant roles in causing the enrichment or lack of enrichment of materials within the microlayer. Furthermore, this study suggests that surface microlayers, particularly in shallow environments where algal species are adapted to high light conditions. can be sites of high biological activity

Implementation costs of a multi-component program to increase human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in a network of pediatric clinics

Introduction: HPV vaccination is both a clinically and cost-effective way to prevent HPV-related cancers. Increased focus on preventing HPV infection and HPV-related cancers has motivated development of strategies to increase adolescent vaccination rates. This analysis estimates the average cost associated with implementing programs aimed at increasing HPV vaccination from the perspective of the clinic decision makers. As providers and healthcare organizations consider vaccination initiatives, it is important for them to understand the costs associated with implementing these programs. Methods: Healthcare provider assessment and feedback, reminders, and education; and parent education/reminder strategies were implemented in a large pediatric clinic network between October 2015 and February 2018 to improve HPV vaccination rates. A micro-costing method was used in 2018 to prospectively estimate program implementation costs with the clinic as the unit of analysis. A sensitivity analysis assessed the effects of variability in levels of participation. Results: Assessment and feedback reports and provider education were implemented among 51 clinics at average per clinic cost of $786 and$368 respectively. Electronic vaccination reminders were delivered to providers and parents at a per clinic cost of $824. The parent education implementation cost was$2,126 per clinic. Conclusion: The four complimentary HPV evidence-based strategies were delivered at a total cost of $157,534 or$4,749 per clinic, including staff training and participant recruitment, reaching 155,000 HPV vaccine eligible adolescents

IOME, A Toolkit for Distributed and Collaborative Computational Science and Engineering

The internet provides a media rich communications platform enabling communities to share content. Alongside the increased activity in collaborative work, recent developments on workflow tools are now enabling researchers from different disciplines to collaborate by feeding data and results between large multi-disciplinary, optimization problems. Researchers developing computational models require development kits and tools enabling them to provide simulations with a range of methods that facilitate collaboration. This paper presents a unique, multi-purpose tool-kit, enabling researchers to easily develop simulations which may be run as web services and accessed interactively. The development kit is based on a protocol that uses an XML markup called IOME ML, "the Interactive Object Management Environment Markup Language". The paper describes the IOME ML and it's development kit. We illustrate the capabilities of IOME with two case studies. Firstly, a medical image processing application which is wrapped as a web service and accessed through a web browser offering medical professionals image analysis tools. Secondly, a method of collaborative visualisation and computational steering of a tsunami simulation based on a shallow water wave model. The paper concludes with a review of further developments including refinements to the mark up language and the development of a service factory enabling dynamic invocation of published simulations as IOME web service applications

The Changing Shape of Government

Gillian E. Metzger, Alfred C. Aman Jr., Charles F. Sabel, Lester M. Salamon, E.S. Savas and Elliot D. Sclar participate in panel discussions focusing on the question of how to secure government accountability in the context of the expansion of privatization in government? This panel discusses some of the changes we are seeing in government institutions and in the ways government operates. The panelists describe ways in which the move toward privatization and the expansion of the gray area between public and private is occurring, but also will talk about changes we may see as being particularly useful in dealing with some of the challenges this expansion of privatization presents

Using Intervention Mapping to Develop an Efficacious Multicomponent Systems-Based Intervention to Increase Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination in a Large Urban Pediatric Clinic Network

Background: The CDC recommends HPV vaccine for all adolescents to prevent cervical, anal, oropharyngeal, vaginal, vulvar, and penile cancers, and genital warts. HPV vaccine rates currently fall short of national vaccination goals. Despite evidence-based strategies with demonstrated efficacy to increase HPV vaccination rates, adoption and implementation of these strategies within clinics is lacking. The Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP) is a multicomponent systems-based intervention designed to implement five evidence-based strategies within primary care pediatric practices. The AVP has demonstrated efficacy in increasing HPV vaccine initiation and completion among adolescents 10-17 years of age. The purpose of this paper is to describe the application of Intervention Mapping (IM) toward the development, implementation, and formative evaluation of the clinic-based AVP prototype. Methods: Intervention Mapping (IM) guided the development of the Adolescent Vaccination Program (AVP). Deliverables comprised: a logic model of the problem (IM Step 1); matrices of behavior change objectives (IM Step 2); a program planning document comprising scope, sequence, theory-based methods, and practical strategies (IM Step 3); functional AVP component prototypes (IM Step 4); and plans for implementation (IM Step 5) and evaluation (IM Step 6). Results: The AVP consists of six evidence-based strategies implemented in a successful sequenced roll-out that (1) established immunization champions in each clinic, (2) disseminated provider assessment and feedback reports with data-informed vaccination goals, (3) provided continued medical and nursing education (with ethics credit) on HPV, HPV vaccination, message bundling, and responding to parent hesitancy, (4) electronic health record cues to providers on patient eligibility, and (5) patient reminders for HPV vaccine initiation and completion. Conclusions: IM provided a logical and systematic approach to developing and evaluating a multicomponent systems-based intervention to increase HPV vaccination rates among adolescents in pediatric clinics

A Comparative Study of Different Phase Detrending Algorithms for Scintillation Monitoring

Rapid and sudden fluctuations of phase and amplitude in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals due to diffraction of the ionosphere phase components when signals passing through small-scale irregularities (less than hundreds meters) are commonly so-called ionospheric scintillation. The aim of the paper is to analyze the implementation and compare the performance of different phase detrending algorithms to improve scintillation monitoring. Three different phase detrending methods, namely, three cascaded second-order high pass filters, six order Butterworth filter conducted by cascading six first-order high pass Butterworth filters, and Fast Iterative Filter (FIF) are considered in this paper. The study exploits real GNSS signals (GPS L1, Galileo E1b) affected by significant phase scintillation effects, collected in early September 2017 at Brazilian Centro de Radioastronomia e Astrofisica Mackenzie (CRAAM) monitoring station and at Adventdalen (Svalbard, Norway) research station. In this study, a software defined radio (SDR) based GNSS receiver is used to process GNSS signals and to implement the aforementioned detrending algorithms