The Juridical Status of Privileged Combatants Under the Geneva Protocol of 1977 Concerning International Conflicts

Centralized control and coordination of the connections in a wireless network is not possible in practice. To keep the delay from measure-ment instants to actuating the decisions, distributed control is required. This paper focuses on the uplink (from mobiles to base stations) and dis-cusses distributing the decision of when and when not to transmit data (distributed scheduling) to the mobiles. The scheme, uplink transmission timing, utilizes mobile transmitter power control feedback from the base station receiver to determine whether the channel is favorable or not compared to the average channel condition. Thereby, the battery consumption and disturbing power to other connections are reduced. The algorithm can be described as a feedback control system. Some transient behaviors are analyzed using systems theory, and supported by wireless network simulations of a system with a WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) radio interface as in most 3G systems

Stabilizing cell phone video using inertial measurement sensors. In:

Abstract We present a system that rectifies and stabilizes video sequences on mobile devices with rolling-shutter cameras. The system corrects for rolling-shutter distortions using measurements from accelerometer and gyroscope sensors, and a 3D rotational distortion model. In order to obtain a stabilized video, and at the same time keep most content in view, we propose an adaptive low-pass filter algorithm to obtain the output camera trajectory. The accuracy of the orientation estimates has been evaluated experimentally using ground truth data from a motion capture system. We have conducted a user study, where the output from our system, implemented in iOS, has been compared to that of three other applications, as well as to the uncorrected video. The study shows that users prefer our sensor-based system

Productivity change in Nigerian seaports after reform: a Malmquist productivity index decomposition approach

During the 1990s, Nigerian seaports were considered inefficient, unsafe due to massive cargo theft (wharf rat phenomenon) and one of the most expensive port systems in the world. This resulted in long turnaround times for ships and increased container dwell times. As a result, port operations were transferred to the private sector through concession contracts. This paper employs a Malmquist productivity index (MPI) technique to benchmark pre-and post-reform total factor productivity growth of the six major Nigeria seaports (Apapa, Calabar, Onne, Port Harcourt, TinCan Island and Warri) for the period 2000–2011 which represents six years before (2000–2005) and six years after (2006–2011) the reform. The results indicate progress in technical efficiency of the ports after reform but deterioration in technological progress. Overall productivity growth was higher in the pre-concession period compared to the post-concession period. The source of pre-concession period productivity growth was technological progress while the change in productivity of the post-concession period is generated by an increase in scale efficiency. This suggests that concessionaires have not brought in the much anticipated investment in modern technology to drive port efficiency. The ports of Calabar and Apapa experienced the highest productivity growth while lowest result was Onne

Collision times in pi-pi and pi-K scattering and spectroscopy of meson resonances

Using the concept of collision time (time delay) introduced by Eisenbud and Wigner and its connection to on-shell intermediate unstable states, we study mesonic resonances in pi-pi and pi-K scattering. The time-delay method proves its usefulness by revealing the spectrum of the well-known rho- and K*-mesons and by supporting some speculations on rho-mesons in the 1200 MeV region. We use this method further to shed some light on more speculative meson resonances, among others the enigmatic scalars. We confirm the existence of chiralons below 1 GeV in the unflavoured and strange meson sector.Comment: 22 pages LaTex, 8 figure

Air pollution and the microvasculature: A cross-sectional assessment of in vivo retinal images in the population-based multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA)

10.1371/journal.pmed.1000372PLoS Medicine711

Relative sea-level change in northeastern Florida (USA) during the last ~8.0 ka

An existing database of relative sea-level (RSL) reconstructions from the U.S. Atlantic coast lacked valid sea-level index points from Georgia and Florida. This region lies on the edge of the collapsing forebulge of the former Laurentide Ice Sheet making it an important location for understanding glacio-isostatic adjustment and the history of ice-sheet melt. To address the paucity of data, we reconstruct RSL in northeastern Florida (St. Marys) over the last ∼8.0 ka from samples of basal salt-marsh sediment that minimize the influence of compaction. The analogy between modern salt-marsh foraminifera and their fossil counterparts preserved in the sedimentary record was used to estimate paleomarsh surface elevation. Sample ages were determined by radiocarbon dating of identifiable and in-situ plant macrofossils. This approach yielded 25 new sea-level index points that constrain a ∼5.7 m rise in RSL during the last ∼8.0 ka. The record shows that no highstand in sea level occurred in this region over the period of the reconstruction. We compared the new reconstruction to Earth-ice models ICE 6G-C VM5a and ICE 6G-C VM6. There is good fit in the later part of the Holocene with VM5a and for a brief time in the earlier Holocene with VM6. However, there are discrepancies in model-reconstruction fit in the early to mid Holocene in northeastern Florida and elsewhere along the Atlantic coast at locations with early Holocene RSL reconstructions. The most pronounced feature of the new reconstruction is a slow down in the rate of RSL rise from approximately 5.0 to 3.0 ka. This trend may reflect a significant contribution from local-scale processes such as tidal-range change and/or change in base flow of the St. Marys River in response to paleoclimate changes. However, the spatial expression (local vs. regional) of this slow down is undetermined and corroborative records are needed to establish its geographical extent

Coulomb dissociation of 16O into 4He and 12C

We measured the Coulomb dissociation of 16O into 4He and 12C at the R3B setup in a first campaign within FAIR Phase 0 at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt. The goal was to improve the accuracy of the experimental data for the 12C(a,?)16O fusion reaction and to reach lower center-ofmass energies than measured so far. The experiment required beam intensities of 109 16O ions per second at an energy of 500 MeV/nucleon. The rare case of Coulomb breakup into 12C and 4He posed another challenge: The magnetic rigidities of the particles are so close because of the same mass-To-charge-number ratio A/Z = 2 for 16O, 12C and 4He. Hence, radical changes of the R3B setup were necessary. All detectors had slits to allow the passage of the unreacted 16O ions, while 4He and 12C would hit the detectors' active areas depending on the scattering angle and their relative energies. We developed and built detectors based on organic scintillators to track and identify the reaction products with sufficient precision

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

Statistical Fault Detection with Applications to IMU Disturbances

This thesis deals with the problem of detecting faults in an environment where the measurements are affected by additive noise. To do this, a residual sensitive to faults is derived and statistical methods are used to distinguish faults from noise. Standard methods for fault detection compare a batch of data with a model of the system using the generalized likelihood ratio. Careful treatment of the initial state of the model is quite important, in particular for short batch sizes. One method to handle this is the parity-space method which solves the problem by removing the influence of the initial state using a projection. In this thesis, the case where prior knowledge about the initial state is available is treated. This can be obtained for example from a Kalman filter. Combining the prior estimate with a minimum variance estimate from the data batch results in a smoothed estimate. The influence of the estimated initial state is then removed. It is also shown that removing the influence of the initial state by an estimate from the data batch will result in the parity-space method. To model slowly changing faults, an efficient parameterization using Chebyshev polynomials is given. The methods described above have been applied to an Inertial Measurement Unit, IMU. The IMU usually consists of accelerometers and gyroscopes, but has in this work been extended with a magnetometer. Traditionally, the IMU has been used to estimate position and orientation of airplanes, missiles etc. Recently, the size and cost has decreased making it possible to use IMU:s for applications such as augmented reality and body motion analysis. Since a magnetometer is very sensitive to disturbances from metal, such disturbances have to be detected. Detection of the disturbances makes compensation possible. Another topic covered is the fundamental question of observability for fault inputs. Given a fixed or linearly growing fault, conditions for observability are given. The measurements from the IMU show that the noise distribution of the sensors can be well approximated with white Gaussian noise. This gives good correspondence between practical and theoretical results when the sensor is kept at rest. The disturbances for the IMU can be approximated using smooth functions with respect to time. Low rank parameterizations can therefore be used to describe the disturbances. The results show that the use of smoothing to obtain the initial state estimate and parameterization of the disturbances improves the detection performance drastically