Measurements of interactions between acoustic fields and nonuniform mean flow

Two problems crucial to the stability of longitudinal acoustic waves in solid rocket motors are examined experimentally. The first is the dissipation of energy associated with an average flow inward at the lateral boundary. Measurements reported here, though subject to considerable experimental error, show that the actual losses are much larger than predicted by the approximate one dimensional analysis. The second problem is the attenuation of waves accompanying reflection by the nonuniform flow in a choked exhaust nozzle. Empahsis in this work has been on technique, to provide data relatively easily and inexpensively. It appears that good results can be obtained in a routine manner using small supersonic wind tunnel operated as an open cycle. At least for Mach numbers up to 0.04 at the nozzle entrance, difficulties with signal/noise are satisfactorily overcome with a tracking filter

Using ChatGPT and other LLMs in Professional Environments

Large language models like ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft’s new Bing, to name a few, are developing rapidly in recent years, becoming very popular in different environments, and supporting a wide range of tasks. A deep look into their outcomes reveals several limitations and challenges that can be further improved. The main challenge of these models is the possibility of generating biased or inaccurate results, since these models rely on large amounts of data with no access to unpublic information. Moreover, these language models need to be properly monitored and trained to prevent generating inappropriate or offensive content and to ensure that they are used ethically and safely. This study investigates the use of ChatGPT and other large language models such as Blender, and BERT in professional environments. It has been found that none of the large language models, including ChatGPT, have been used in unstructured dialogues. Moreover, involving the models in professional environments requires extensive training and monitoring by domain professionals or fine-tuning through API

Color constancy for landmark detection in outdoor environments

European Workshop on Advanced Mobile Robots (EUROBOT), 2001, Lund (Suecia)This work presents an evaluation of three color constancy techniques applied to a landmark detection system designed for a walking robot, which has to operate in unknown and unstructured outdoor environments. The first technique is the well-known image conversion to a chromaticity space, and the second technique is based on successive lighting intensity and illuminant color normalizations. Based on a differential model of color constancy, we propose the third technique, based on color ratios, which unifies the processes of color constancy and landmark detection. The approach used to detect potential landmarks, which is common to all evaluated systems, is based on visual saliency concepts using multiscale color opponent features to identify salient regions in the images. These regions are selected as landmark candidates, and they are further characterized by their features for identification and recognition.This work was supported by the project 'Navegación autónoma de robots guiados por objetivos visuales' (070-720).Peer Reviewe

Carcinoma of the Tail of the Pancreas Presenting As Acute Abdomen

Context Large bowel obstruction with perforation is an anomalous presentation of pancreatic tail carcinoma. Pancreatic cancer is often difficult to diagnose clinically and is especially furtive when it is located in the tail of the pancreas. Case report We describe a patient who presented with large bowel obstruction due to splenic flexure mass which proved to be due to pancreatic mucinous adenocarcinoma. Conclusions Pancreatic adenocarcinoma can rarely have the same presentation as colon cancer, and should therefore be considered in the differential diagnosis of large bowel obstruction

Photodesorption of CO ice

At the high densities and low temperatures found in star forming regions, all molecules other than H2 should stick on dust grains on timescales shorter than the cloud lifetimes. Yet these clouds are detected in the millimeter lines of gaseous CO. At these temperatures, thermal desorption is negligible and hence a non-thermal desorption mechanism is necessary to maintain molecules in the gas phase. Here, the first laboratory study of the photodesorption of pure CO ice under ultra high vacuum is presented, which gives a desorption rate of 3E-3 CO molecules per UV (7-10.5 eV) photon at 15 K. This rate is factors of 1E2-1E5 larger than previously estimated and is comparable to estimates of other non-thermal desorption rates. The experiments constrains the mechanism to a single photon desorption process of ice surface molecules. The measured efficiency of this process shows that the role of CO photodesorption in preventing total removal of molecules in the gas has been underestimated.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted by ApJ