3,254 research outputs found
An analysis of bi-directional use of frequencies for satellite communications
The bi-directional use of frequencies allocated for space communications has the potential to double the orbit/spectrum capacity available. The technical feasibility of reverse band use (RBU) at C-band (4 GHz uplinks and 6 GHz downlinks) is studied. The analysis identifies the constraints under which both forward and reverse band use satellite systems can share the same frequencies with terrestrial, line of sight transmission systems. The results of the analysis show that RBU satellite systems can be similarly sized to forward band use (FBU) satellite systems. In addition, the orbital separation requirements between RBU and FBU satellite systems are examined. The analysis shows that a carrier to interference ratio of 45 dB can be maintianed between RBU and FBU satellites separated by less than 0.5 deg., and that a carrier to interference ratio of 42 dB can be maintained in the antipodal case. Rain scatter propagation analysis shows that RBU and FBU Earth stations require separation distances fo less than 10 km at a rain rate of 13.5 mm/hr escalating to less than 100 km at a rain rate of 178 mm/hr for Earth station antennas in the 3 to 10 m range
Neck Loads During Head-First Entries into Trampoline Dismount Foam Pits: Considerations for Trampoline Park Safety
Serious cervical spine injuries have been documented from falls into foam pits at trampoline parks. To address the lack of evidence on how foam pits should be designed for mitigating neck injury risk, this study aimed to quantify neck loads during head-first entry into varying foam pit designs. An instrumented Hybrid III anthropomorphic test device was dropped head-first from a height of up to 1.5 m into three differently constructed foam pits, each using a different mechanism to prevent direct contact between the falling person and the floor (foam slab, trampoline or net bed). Measured neck loads were compared to published injury reference values. In the simplest, foam-only pit design, increasing foam depth tended to reduce peak compressive force. At least one injury assessment reference metric was exceeded in all pit conditions tested for 1.5 m falls, most commonly the time-dependent neck compression criterion. The results highlight the importance of adequate foam depth in combination with appropriate pit design in minimizing injury risk. The risk of cervical spine injury may not be reduced sufficiently with current foam pit designs
Modelling the cost-effectiveness of public awareness campaigns for the early detection of non-small-cell lung cancer
Background: Survival rates in lung cancer in England are significantly lower than in many similar countries. A range of Be Clear on
Cancer (BCOC) campaigns have been conducted targeting lung cancer and found to improve the proportion of diagnoses at the
early stage of disease. This paper considers the cost-effectiveness of such campaigns, evaluating the effect of both the regional
and national BCOC campaigns on the stage distribution of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at diagnosis.
Methods: A natural history model of NSCLC was developed using incidence data, data elicited from clinical experts and model
calibration techniques. This structure is used to consider the lifetime cost and quality-adjusted survival implications of the early
awareness campaigns. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) in terms of additional costs per quality-adjusted life-years
(QALYs) gained are presented. Two scenario analyses were conducted to investigate the role of changes in the ‘worried-well’
population and the route of diagnosis that might occur as a result of the campaigns.
Results: The base-case theoretical model found the regional and national early awareness campaigns to be associated with QALY
gains of 289 and 178 QALYs and ICERs of d13 660 and d18 173 per QALY gained, respectively. The scenarios found that increases
in the ‘worried-well’ population may impact the cost-effectiveness conclusions.
Conclusions: Subject to the available evidence, the analysis suggests that early awareness campaigns in lung cancer have the
potential to be cost-effective. However, significant additional research is required to address many of the limitations of this study.
In addition, the estimated natural history model presents previously unavailable estimates of the prevalence and rate of disease
progression in the undiagnosed population
A canonical ensemble approach to graded-response perceptrons
Perceptrons with graded input-output relations and a limited output precision
are studied within the Gardner-Derrida canonical ensemble approach. Soft non-
negative error measures are introduced allowing for extended retrieval
properties. In particular, the performance of these systems for a linear and
quadratic error measure, corresponding to the perceptron respectively the
adaline learning algorithm, is compared with the performance for a rigid error
measure, simply counting the number of errors. Replica-symmetry-breaking
effects are evaluated.Comment: 26 pages, 10 ps figure
Baryon charge from embedding topology and a continuous meson spectrum in a new holographic gauge theory
We study a new holographic gauge theory based on probe D4-branes in the
background dual to D4-branes on a circle with antiperiodic boundary conditions
for fermions. Field theory configurations with baryons correspond to smooth
embeddings of the probe D4-branes with nontrivial winding around an S^4 in the
geometry. As a consequence, physics of baryons and nuclei can be studied
reliably in this model using the abelian Born-Infeld action. However,
surprisingly, we find that the meson spectrum is not discrete. This is related
to a curious result that the action governing small fluctuations of the gauge
field on the probe brane is the five-dimensional Maxwell action in Minkowski
space despite the non-trivial embedding of the probe brane in the curved
background geometry.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, 10 figures, v4: previously ignored effects of
coupling to RR-fields included, meson spectrum qualitatively changed, v5:
journal versio
Recommended from our members
The production and confinement of runaway electrons with impurity killer pellets in DIII-D
Prompt runaway electron bursts, generated by rapidly cooling DIII-D plasmas with argon killer pellets, are used to test a recent knock-on avalanche theory describing the growth of multi-MeV runaway electron currents during disruptions in tokamaks. Runaway current amplitudes, observed during some but not all DIII-D current quenches, are consistent with growth rates predicted by the theory assuming a pre-current quench runaway electron density of approximately 10{sup 15} m{sup {minus}3}. Argon killer pellet modeling yields runaway densities of between 10{sup 15}--10{sup 16} m{sup {minus}3} in these discharges. Although knock-on avalanching appears to agree rather well with the measurements, relatively small avalanche amplification factors combined with uncertainties in the spatial distribution of pellet mass and cooling rates make it difficult to unambiguously confirm the proposed theory with existing data
Parisi Phase in a Neuron
Pattern storage by a single neuron is revisited. Generalizing Parisi's
framework for spin glasses we obtain a variational free energy functional for
the neuron. The solution is demonstrated at high temperature and large relative
number of examples, where several phases are identified by thermodynamical
stability analysis, two of them exhibiting spontaneous full replica symmetry
breaking. We give analytically the curved segments of the order parameter
function and in representative cases compute the free energy, the storage
error, and the entropy.Comment: 4 pages in prl twocolumn format + 3 Postscript figures. Submitted to
Physical Review Letter
The effects of high HIV prevalence on orphanhood and living arrangements of children in Malawi, Tanzania, and South Africa
Using longitudinal data from three demographic surveillance systems (DSS) and a retrospective cohort study, we estimate levels and trends in the prevalence and incidence of orphanhood in South Africa, Tanzania, and Malawi in the period 1988–2004. The prevalence of maternal, paternal, and double orphans rose in all three populations. In South Africa—where the HIV epidemic started later, has been very severe, and has not yet stabilized—the incidence of orphanhood among children is double that of the other populations. The living arrangements of children vary considerably between the populations, particularly in relation to fathers. Patterns of marriage, migration, and adult mortality influence the living and care arrangements of orphans and non-orphans. DSS data provide new insights into the impact of adult mortality on children, challenging several widely held assumptions. For example, we find no evidence that the prevalence of child-headed households is significant or has increased in the three study areas
Comparison of bar strengths in optical and near-infrared for the OSUBSGS sample
We use a gravitational bar torque method to compare bar strengths (the
maximum tangential force normalized by radial force) in B and H-band images of
152 galaxies from the Ohio State University Bright Spiral Galaxy Survey. Our
main motivation is to check how much the difference in the rest-frame
wavelength could affect comparisons of bar strengths in low and high redshift
observations. Between these two bands we find an average bar strength ratio
Q_B/H= 1.25 which factor is nearly independent of the morphological type. We
show that Q_B/H > 1 is mostly due to reduced bulge dilution of radial forces in
the B-band. The bar torque method needs an estimate for the vertical scale
height of the galaxy, based on the radial scale length of the disk and the
galaxy's morphological type. Since these two might not always be possible to
determine at high redshifts in a reliable manner, we also checked that similar
results are obtained with vertical scale heights estimated from the radii
corresponding to the K-band surface brightness of 20 mag/arcsec^2. Also, we
made a simple test of the usability of the bar torque method at high redshifts
by checking the effects of image degradation (nearest neighbour sampling
without any adjustment of noise levels): we found that the estimated bar
strengths varied by +/- 10% at most as long as the total extent of the bar was
at least 10 pixels. Overall, we show that the gravitational bar torque method
should provide a proficient tool for quantifying bar strengths also at high
redshifts.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, 1 table, accepted to MNRA
- …