Dispersion Tailoring of the Quarter-Wave Bragg Reflection Waveguide

We present analytical formulae for the polarization dependent first- and second-order dispersion of a quarter-wave Bragg reflection waveguide (QtW-BRW). Using these formulae, we develop several qualitative properties of the QtW-BRW. In particular, we show that the birefringence of these waveguides changes sign at the QtW wavelength. Regimes of total dispersion corresponding to predominantly materialdominated and waveguide-dominated dispersion are identified. Using this concept, it is shown that the QtW-BRW can be designed so as to provide anomalous group velocity dispersion of large magnitude, or very small GVD of either sign, simply by an appropriate chose of layer thicknesses. Implications on nonlinear optical devices in compound semiconductors are discussed

Properties of the Quarter-Wave Bragg Reflection Waveguide: Theory

The Bragg reflection waveguide (BRW), or one-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide, has recently been proposed for a wide spectrum of applications ranging from particle acceleration to nonlinear frequency conversion. Here, we conduct a thorough analytical investigation of the quarter-wave BRW, in which the layers of the resonant cladding have a thickness corresponding to one quarter of the transverse wavelength of a desired guided mode. An analytical solution to the mode dispersion equation is derived, and it is shown that the quarter-wave BRW is polarization degenerate, although the TE and TM mode profiles differ significantly as the external Brewster’s angle condition in the cladding is approached. Analytical expressions for waveguide properties such as the modal normalization constants, propagation loss, and overlap factors between the mode and each waveguide layer are derived, as are dispersion and tuning curves

Policy Recognition in the Abstract Hidden Markov Model

In this paper, we present a method for recognising an agent's behaviour in dynamic, noisy, uncertain domains, and across multiple levels of abstraction. We term this problem on-line plan recognition under uncertainty and view it generally as probabilistic inference on the stochastic process representing the execution of the agent's plan. Our contributions in this paper are twofold. In terms of probabilistic inference, we introduce the Abstract Hidden Markov Model (AHMM), a novel type of stochastic processes, provide its dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) structure and analyse the properties of this network. We then describe an application of the Rao-Blackwellised Particle Filter to the AHMM which allows us to construct an efficient, hybrid inference method for this model. In terms of plan recognition, we propose a novel plan recognition framework based on the AHMM as the plan execution model. The Rao-Blackwellised hybrid inference for AHMM can take advantage of the independence properties inherent in a model of plan execution, leading to an algorithm for online probabilistic plan recognition that scales well with the number of levels in the plan hierarchy. This illustrates that while stochastic models for plan execution can be complex, they exhibit special structures which, if exploited, can lead to efficient plan recognition algorithms. We demonstrate the usefulness of the AHMM framework via a behaviour recognition system in a complex spatial environment using distributed video surveillance data

SO(5,5) duality in M-theory and generalized geometry

We attempt to reformulate eleven dimensional supergravity in terms of an object that unifies the three-form and the metric and makes the M-theory duality group manifest. This short note deals with the case of where the U-duality group SO(5,5) acts in five spatial dimensions.Comment: 7 pages, LaTex, v2: typos corrected and reference adde

Mining Missing Hyperlinks from Human Navigation Traces: A Case Study of Wikipedia

Hyperlinks are an essential feature of the World Wide Web. They are especially important for online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia: an article can often only be understood in the context of related articles, and hyperlinks make it easy to explore this context. But important links are often missing, and several methods have been proposed to alleviate this problem by learning a linking model based on the structure of the existing links. Here we propose a novel approach to identifying missing links in Wikipedia. We build on the fact that the ultimate purpose of Wikipedia links is to aid navigation. Rather than merely suggesting new links that are in tune with the structure of existing links, our method finds missing links that would immediately enhance Wikipedia's navigability. We leverage data sets of navigation paths collected through a Wikipedia-based human-computation game in which users must find a short path from a start to a target article by only clicking links encountered along the way. We harness human navigational traces to identify a set of candidates for missing links and then rank these candidates. Experiments show that our procedure identifies missing links of high quality

A scientific operations plan for the NASA space telescope

A ground system is described which is compatible with the operational requirements of the space telescope. The goal of the ground system is to minimize the cost of post launch operations without seriously compromising the quality and total throughput of space telescope science, or jeopardizing the safety of the space telescope in orbit. The resulting system is able to accomplish this goal through optimum use of existing and planned resources and institutional facilities. Cost is also reduced and efficiency in operation increased by drawing on existing experience in interfacing guest astronomers with spacecraft as well as mission control experience obtained in the operation of present astronomical spacecraft

Spartan Release Engagement Mechanism (REM) stress and fracture analysis

The revised stress and fracture analysis of the Spartan REM hardware for current load conditions and mass properties is presented. The stress analysis was performed using a NASTRAN math model of the Spartan REM adapter, base, and payload. Appendix A contains the material properties, loads, and stress analysis of the hardware. The computer output and model description are in Appendix B. Factors of safety used in the stress analysis were 1.4 on tested items and 2.0 on all other items. Fracture analysis of the items considered fracture critical was accomplished using the MSFC Crack Growth Analysis code. Loads and stresses were obtaind from the stress analysis. The fracture analysis notes are located in Appendix A and the computer output in Appendix B. All items analyzed met design and fracture criteria

Natural environment design requirements for the Spacelab

The natural environment design requirements for the Spacelab, carried to orbital altitudes as cargo in the space shuttle bay, were presented. This includes consideration of the following: neutral atmosphere, charged particles, radiation (galactic cosmic, trapped, and solar particle events), meteoroids, and astrodynamic constants