Optical characteristics measuring apparatus Patent

Optical characteristics measuring apparatu

For Whom is the Rural Economy Resilient? Initial Effects of Drought in Western Sudan

This discussion piece addresses two recent debates: entitlement theory and the resilience of rural systems. The authors find that in western Sudan entitlement theory provides a specific and useful framework for understanding the nature of the crisis confronting the society. Arguments about the resilience of rural systems, however, need to be more closely examined and will depend on site-specific factors. The rural economy and society of western Sudan were not found to be resilient

Prominence and flare fine structure from cross-field thermal conduction

Thermal conduction across a magnetic field is strongly suppressed compared with conduction along the field. However, if a flare is heated by a highly filamented beam directed along the field, then the array of heated cells in a cross-section of the flare will result in both small spatial scales (with consequently large temperature gradients) and a large surface area for the heated volume, providing a geometrical enhancement of the total cross-field energy flux. To investigate the importance of this filamentary geometry, we present a simple model of a single heated filament surrounded by an optically thin radiating shell, obtain an analytical expression for the stable equilibrium temperature profile within the shell, and use this to impose limits on the size of filament for which this model is appropriate. We find that this mechanism by itself is capable of transporting a power of the same order as a large flare, with a moderate range of filament sizes. The length scales are substantially smaller than can be resolved at present, although they should be regarded as underestimates.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures. Source, figures and PS at http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/preprints/95-05.html . To appear in A&

Solar cell angular position transducer

An angular position transducer utilizing photocells and a light source is disclosed. The device uses a fully rotatable baffle which is connected via an actuator shaft to the body whose rotational displacement is to be measured. The baffle blocks the light path between the light source and the photocells so that a constant semicircular beam of light reaches the photocells. The current produced by the photocells is fed through a resistor, a differential amplifier measures the voltage drop across the resistor which indicates the angular position of the actuator shaft and hence of the object

Instant restore after a media failure

Media failures usually leave database systems unavailable for several hours until recovery is complete, especially in applications with large devices and high transaction volume. Previous work introduced a technique called single-pass restore, which increases restore bandwidth and thus substantially decreases time to repair. Instant restore goes further as it permits read/write access to any data on a device undergoing restore--even data not yet restored--by restoring individual data segments on demand. Thus, the restore process is guided primarily by the needs of applications, and the observed mean time to repair is effectively reduced from several hours to a few seconds. This paper presents an implementation and evaluation of instant restore. The technique is incrementally implemented on a system starting with the traditional ARIES design for logging and recovery. Experiments show that the transaction latency perceived after a media failure can be cut down to less than a second and that the overhead imposed by the technique on normal processing is minimal. The net effect is that a few "nines" of availability are added to the system using simple and low-overhead software techniques

Experience of compassion-based practice in individuals with persistent pain

Section A: conducted a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies that focus on the experience of mindfulness-based and compassion-based group interventions for people with persistent pain conditions. Clinical and research implications are discussed, considering gaps and limitations in the existing evidence base. This informs areas that will benefit further research, such as the experience of compassion-based practices in standardised MBIs for persistent pain populations. Section B: presents a study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the experience of participants with persistent pain engaging with compassion-based practices in a Mindfulness for Health programme. Eight participants from four groups participated with semi-structured interviews following the programme. Participants described perceived positive changes and difficult experiences during the compassion-based session, and they related these to their present and past experience of compassion. Implications for facilitating Mindfulness-based interventions, clinical practice and further research are discussed