Pulsed energy power system Patent

Pulsed energy power system for application of combustible gases to turbine controlling ac voltage generato

Do elliptical galaxies have thick disks?

The authors discuss new evidence which supports the existence of thick disks in elliptical/SO galaxies. Numerical simulations of weak interactions with thick disk systems produce shell structures very similar in appearance to those observed in many shell galaxies. The authors think this model presents a more plausible explanation for the formation of shell structures in elliptical/SO galaxies than does the merger model and, if correct, supports the existence of thick disks in elliptical/SO galaxies

Continuing education: The 1998 survey of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons

The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Background: Continuing education (CE) is an essential professional activity. In the last decade, CE has been actively pursued by the medical profession in Australia and abroad. However, the uptake of CE in dentistry has been much slower and there is minimal Australian data on dental CE. Methods: To determine the level of CE activity, in 1998, postal questionnaires were sent to all fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. The responses were analysed. Results: There was a high reponse rate (90 per cent) but a moderate usable rate (54 per cent). The results show a biphasic distribution between high and low CE activity. The average amount of activity of those involved in CE was 116 hours per year, above the usually accepted minimum of 100 hours/year. Some groups, particularly members of the specialist divisions of oral and maxillofacial surgeons (215 hours) and periodontists (205 hours), have high levels of CE. However, approximately 25 per cent of college fellows reported little or no CE activity. The survey revealed that inactive fellows are more likely to be older and in general practice. Inactive fellows were also tardy in replying to the questionnaire. Conclusion: The high activity CE group needs to be recognised and encouraged to continue. Specific plans to help the low CE activity group should be developed. Although these findings relate directly to the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons, they are presented as they have implications for the dental profession at large.P Sambrook, D Thomson, R Bastiaan and A Gos

Giving urban policy its 'medical': assessing the place of health in area-based regeneration

How does regeneration affect health and how have successive urban policy evaluations sought to measure such impacts? This article draws on a systematic review of national-level evaluation documentation relating to government-funded, area-based regeneration initiatives in the UK since 1980. The review examined whether health impacts had been intended and, if so, how they had been measured. The process and difficulties of conducting the review raise significant questions about policy formulation and evaluation. Is evidence-based policy possible where evaluations are not stored centrally? In short, a model policy development as 'enlightened' or incremental is hard to sustain where a lack of systematic storage of data means that researchers, policy makers and practitioners may struggle to produce clear answers to important policy questions

Do urban regeneration programmes improve public health and reduce health inequalities? A synthesis of the evidence from UK policy and practice (1980–2004)

Objectives: To synthesise data on the impact on health and key socioeconomic determinants of health and health inequalities reported in evaluations of national UK regeneration programmes. Data Sources: Eight electronic databases were searched from 1980 to 2004 (IBSS, COPAC, HMIC, IDOX, INSIDE, Medline, Urbadisc/Accompline, Web of Knowledge). Bibliographies of located documents and relevant web sites were searched. Experts and government departmental libraries were also contacted. Review methods: Evaluations that reported achievements drawing on data from at least two target areas of a national urban regeneration programme in the UK were included. Process evaluations and evaluations reporting only business outcomes were excluded. All methods of evaluation were included. Impact data on direct health outcomes and direct measures of socioeconomic determinants of health were narratively synthesised. Results: 19 evaluations reported impacts on health or socioeconomic determinants of health; data from 10 evaluations were synthesised. Three evaluations reported health impacts; in one evaluation three of four measures of self reported health deteriorated, typically by around 4%. Two other evaluations reported overall reductions in mortality rates. Most socioeconomic outcomes assessed showed an overall improvement after regeneration investment; however, the effect size was often similar to national trends. In addition, some evaluations reported adverse impacts. Conclusion: There is little evidence of the impact of national urban regeneration investment on socioeconomic or health outcomes. Where impacts have been assessed, these are often small and positive but adverse impacts have also occurred. Impact data from future evaluations are required to inform healthy public policy; in the meantime work to exploit and synthesise "best available" data is required

Calculation of Elastic Green's Functions for Lattices with Cavities

In this Brief Report, we present an algorithm for calculating the elastic Lattice Greens Function of a regular lattice, in which defects are created by removing lattice points. The method is computationally efficient, since the required matrix operations are on matrices that scale with the size of the defect subspace, and not with the size of the full lattice. This method allows the treatment of force fields with multi-atom interactions.Comment: 3 pages. RevTeX, using epsfig.sty. One figur

Conceptual design of an airborne laser Doppler velocimeter system for studying wind fields associated with severe local storms

An airborne laser Doppler velocimeter was evaluated for diagnostics of the wind field associated with an isolated severe thunderstorm. Two scanning configurations were identified, one a long-range (out to 10-20 km) roughly horizontal plane mode intended to allow probing of the velocity field around the storm at the higher altitudes (4-10 km). The other is a shorter range (out to 1-3 km) mode in which a vertical or horizontal plane is scanned for velocity (and possibly turbulence), and is intended for diagnostics of the lower altitude region below the storm and in the out-flow region. It was concluded that aircraft flight velocities are high enough and severe storm lifetimes are long enough that a single airborne Doppler system, operating at a range of less than about 20 km, can view the storm area from two or more different aspects before the storm characteristics change appreciably

Development of design guidelines for postbuckling composite aerospace structures

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