Development of an 8000 bps voice codec for AvSat

Air-mobile speech communication applications share robustness and noise immunity requirements with other mobile applications. The quality requirements are stringent, especially in the cockpit where air safety is involved. Based on these considerations, a decision was made to test an intermediate data rate such as 8.0 and 9.6 kb/s as proven technologies. A number of vocoders and codec technologies were investigated at rates ranging from 2.4 kb/s up to and including 9.6 kb/s. The proven vocoders operating at 2.4 and 4.8 kb/s lacked the noise immunity or the robustness to operate reliably in a cabin noise environment. One very attractive alternative approach was Spectrally Encoded Residual Excited LPC (SE-RELP) which is used in a multi-rate voice processor (MRP) developed at the Naval Research Lab (NRL). The MRP uses SE-RELP at rates of 9.6 and 16 kb/s. The 9.6 kb/s rate can be lowered to 8.0 kb/s without loss of information by modifying the frame. An 8.0 kb/s vocoder was developed using SE-RELP as a demonstrator and testbed. This demonstrator is implemented in real time using two Compaq 2 portable computers, each equipped with an ARIEL DSP016 Data Acquisition Processor

Flying in the 1920s

Ninety years ago, America was a very different place, but still similar to the America of today in many ways. Immediately following World War I, a large number of veterans returned from overseas unable to find suitable work. A popular song of the time by Tin Pan Alley asked the question, How Ya Gonna Keep \u27Em Down on the Farm, After They\u27ve Seen Paree? Indeed, many of the veterans did not return to their family farms, choosing instead to move to nearby smaller towns and cities. As President Woodrow Wilson\u27s administration was winding down, many questioned the state of the economy and future of the nation. Shortly after the war, the country remained in a recession until 1921. As time passed, there was a move to entrepreneurism throughout many financial sectors. When Warren G. Harding assumed the office of the presidency on March 4, 1921, many in government advised him to raise taxes to help move the country out of the financial doldrums. Going against this advice, Harding lowered taxes. This allowed the new entrepreneurs to start new businesses, including many by the returning veterans. This took the country into one of the greatest chapters of prosperity in modern history. We now refer to this time as the Roaring Twenties. One group of entrepreneurs born of this time included the returning aviators. These were the first military pilots ever to return from a war. They recently learned how to fly, spent months flying in aerial combat, and they wanted to continue flying. Consequently, this group of men would go on to develop aviation in America. At the start of the third decade in the last century, pilots and airplanes were unlicensed and there was no requirement for maintaining a record of aircraft maintenance. When an airplane broke, the pilot fixed it with whatever resources were readily available, usually from the local hardware store. Pilots typically kept their airplanes tied down outside in fields, as airports and hangars were a long way in the future. These early aviators were not businessmen, never planned a day beyond tomorrow, and were happy to hop enough passengers to fill their tanks with fuel and to buy themselves a hamburger or two. In a phrase - if you were a pilot, this period of 1920 to 1929 was perhaps the very best time to fly in American history

A new species of Calligrapha (Coleoptera: chrysomelidae) from eastern North America

Calligrapha androwi is newly described from specimens collected in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Alabama. It is placed in the subgenus BidensomelaMonros. Acalligrapha Monros and Coreopsomela Monros are reduced to subjective junior synonyms of Bidensomela Monros. A key to the striped species of Calligrapha occurring north of Mexico is adapted from Wilcox (1972) to include the new species

A Hybrid Lagrangian Variation Method for Bose-Einstein Condensates in Optical Lattices

Solving the Gross--Pitaevskii (GP) equation describing a Bose--Einstein condensate (BEC) immersed in an optical lattice potential can be a numerically demanding task. We present a variational technique for providing fast, accurate solutions of the GP equation for systems where the external potential exhibits rapid varation along one spatial direction. Examples of such systems include a BEC subjected to a one--dimensional optical lattice or a Bragg pulse. This variational method is a hybrid form of the Lagrangian Variational Method for the GP equation in which a hybrid trial wavefunction assumes a gaussian form in two coordinates while being totally unspecified in the third coordinate. The resulting equations of motion consist of a quasi--one--dimensional GP equation coupled to ordinary differential equations for the widths of the transverse gaussians. We use this method to investigate how an optical lattice can be used to move a condensate non--adiabatically.Comment: 16 pages and 1 figur

Spitzer, Near-Infrared, and Submillimeter Imaging of the Relatively Sparse Young Cluster, Lynds 988e

We present {\it Spitzer} images of the relatively sparse, low luminosity young cluster L988e, as well as complementary near-infrared (NIR) and submillimeter images of the region. The cluster is asymmetric, with the western region of the cluster embedded within the molecular cloud, and the slightly less dense eastern region to the east of, and on the edge of, the molecular cloud. With these data, as well as with extant H$\alpha$ data of stars primarily found in the eastern region of the cluster, and a molecular $^{13}$CO gas emission map of the entire region, we investigate the distribution of forming young stars with respect to the cloud material, concentrating particularly on the differences and similarities between the exposed and embedded regions of the cluster. We also compare star formation in this region to that in denser, more luminous and more massive clusters already investigated in our comprehensive multi-wavelength study of young clusters within 1 kpc of the Sun.Comment: 21 pages, 6 tables, 13 figures. Full resolution figures at: http://astro.pas.rochester.edu/~tom/Preprints/L988e.pd

Racial differences in parenting style typologies and heavy episodic drinking trajectories.

This study examines racial differences between Caucasians and African Americans in the association of parenting style typologies with changes in heavy episodic drinking from adolescence to young adulthood

Survey of Prevention and Intervention Strategies Reducing Return to Play Post-Concussion in Division 1 Football

Abstract. Introduction Sports related concussion, also considered mTBI, has remained in the public eye due to heightened fear concerning playing football and other collision based sports. Concussion prevention, as well as rehabilitating the brain after a concussion, is a high priority for many sports medical practitioners as well as for athletes. For these reasons, researchers associated with the American Athletic Conference (AAC) have surveyed concussion incidence in football. One of the AAC teams engaged in regular neurovisual training (NVT) and concluded this training program is associated with faster return to play post-injury in this observational cohort study. Methods The 12 schools of the AAC were surveyed from 2014 - 2018 concerning football induced concussions. Results We found that the AAC’s average seasonal concussion rate was m= 12.1, sd=1.02 concussions per year and the average return to play time was m=13.8, sd= 6.3 days. In the team where there was consistent NVT and NVT oriented rehabilitation post-concussion, we found that the concussion rate was m= 3.5, sd= 1.3 concussions per year and the return to play time was m= 8.6, sd= 1.5 days. Both numbers are significantly lower than in the other AAC teams. Discussion The current paper reports that there may be mitigation strategies that can be employed to aid in faster return to play times, as well as decrease the incidence of concussions. Such attempts to make football safer are needed as brain injury has been associated with long term consequences. Improving safety and brain health through mitigation strategies along with rehabilitation methods may aid in keeping athletes safer during play and throughout their lifespan

Maternal, pregnancy and fetal outcomes in de novo anti-glomerular basement membrane antibody disease in pregnancy: A systematic review

Background Outside of pregnancy, anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibody disease is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. However, there is limited knowledge regarding de novo anti-GBM disease in pregnancy. Methods A systematic review was performed to identify maternal, pregnancy and fetal outcomes in de novo anti-GBM disease in pregnancy. Studies were selected from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library databases and conference proceedings, without language restriction. Results Data from eight patients were derived from seven case reports and one unpublished case. Most (6/8) patients presented after the first trimester. During pregnancy, acute kidney injury (5/8), anemia (5/8), hematuria (8/8) and proteinuria (8/8) were common. When hemodialysis was required antepartum (5/8), renal function recovery to independence of renal replacement was unlikely (2/5). While pulmonary involvement was common (5/8), no permanent damage was reported (0/8). The majority of cases ended in live births (6/8) although prematurity (6/6), intrauterine growth restriction (2/6), small for gestational age (4/6) and complications of prematurity (1/6) were common. When anti-GBM levels were tested in the living newborn, they were detectable (2/5), but no newborn renal or lung disease was reported (0/6). Complications in pregnancy included gestational diabetes (3/8), hyperemesis gravidarum (2/8) and preeclampsia (2/8). Conclusions Live births can be achieved in de novo anti-GBM disease in pregnancy, but are commonly associated with adverse maternal, pregnancy and fetal outcomes. Only with awareness of common presentations, and management strategies can outcomes be optimized