31,172 research outputs found
Issues Related to the Emergence of the Information Superhighway and California Societal Changes, IISTPS Report 96-4
The Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies (IISTPS) at San José State University (SJSU) conducted this project to review the continuing development of the Internet and the Information Superhighway. Emphasis was placed on an examination of the impact on commuting and working patterns in California, and an analysis of how public transportation agencies, including Caltrans, might take advantage of the new communications technologies. The document reviews the technology underlying the current Internet “structure” and examines anticipated developments. It is important to note that much of the research for this limited-scope project was conducted during 1995, and the topic is so rapidly evolving that some information is almost automatically “dated.” The report also examines how transportation agencies are basically similar in structure and function to other business entities, and how they can continue to utilize the emerging technologies to improve internal and external communications. As part of a detailed discussion of specific transportation agency functions, it is noted that the concept of a “Roundtable Forum,” growing out of developments in Concurrent Engineering, can provide an opportunity for representatives from multiple jurisdictions to utilize the Internet for more coordinated decision-making. The report also included an extensive analysis of demographic trends in California in recent years, such as commute and recreational activities, and identifies how the emerging technologies may impact future changes
The pole-sitter mission concept : an overview of recent developments and possible future applications
The paper provides a survey of novel mission concepts for continuous, hemispheric polar observation and direct-link polar telecommunications. It is well known that these services cannot be provided by traditional platforms: geostationary satellites do not cover high-latitude regions, while low- and medium-orbit Sun-synchronous spacecraft only cover a narrow swath of the Earth at each passage. Concepts that are proposed in the literature are described, including the pole-sitter concept (in which a spacecraft is stationary above the pole), spacecraft in artificial equilibrium points in the Sun-Earth system and non-Keplerian polar Molniya orbits. Additionally, novel displaced eight-shaped orbits at Lagrangian points are presented. For many of these concepts, a continuous acceleration is required and propulsion systems include solar electric propulsion, solar sail and a hybridisation of the two. Advantages and drawbacks of each mission concept are assessed, and a comparison in terms of high-latitude coverage and distance, spacecraft mass, payload and lifetime is presented. Finally, the paper will describe a number of potential applications enabled by these concepts, focusing on polar Earth observation and telecommunications
Magneto-electrostatic trapping of ground state OH molecules
We report the magnetic confinement of neutral, ground state hydroxyl radicals
(OH) at a density of cm and temperature of 30
mK. An adjustable electric field of sufficient magnitude to polarize the OH is
superimposed on the trap in either a quadrupole or homogenous field geometry.
The OH is confined by an overall potential established via molecular state
mixing induced by the combined electric and magnetic fields acting on the
molecule's electric dipole and magnetic dipole moments, respectively. An
effective molecular Hamiltonian including Stark and Zeeman terms has been
constructed to describe single molecule dynamics inside the trap. Monte Carlo
simulation using this Hamiltonian accurately models the observed trap dynamics
in various trap configurations. Confinement of cold polar molecules in a
magnetic trap, leaving large, adjustable electric fields for control, is an
important step towards the study of low energy dipole-dipole collisions.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Comment on ``Scaling Laws for a System with Long-Range Interactions within Tsallis Statistics''
In their recent Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 4233 (1999)], Salazar and Toral
(ST) study numerically a finite Ising chain with non-integrable interactions
decaying like 1/r^(d+sigma) where -d <= sigma <= 0 (like ST, we discuss general
dimensionality d). In particular, they explore a presumed connection between
non-integrable interactions and Tsallis's non-extensive statistics. We point
out that (i) non-integrable interactions provide no more motivation for Tsallis
statistics than do integrable interactions, i.e., Gibbs statistics remain
meaningful for the non-integrable case, and in fact provide a {\em complete and
exact treatment}; and (ii) there are undesirable features of the method ST use
to regulate the non-integrable interactions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
A Search for Dark Matter Annihilation in Galaxy Groups
We use 413 weeks of publicly-available Pass 8 gamma-ray
data, combined with recently-developed galaxy group catalogs, to search for
evidence of dark matter annihilation in extragalactic halos. In our study, we
use luminosity-based mass estimates and mass-to-concentration relations to
infer the -factors and associated uncertainties for hundreds of galaxy
groups within a redshift range . We employ a conservative
substructure boost-factor model, which only enhances the sensitivity by an
factor. No significant evidence for dark matter annihilation
is found and we exclude thermal relic cross sections for dark matter masses
below 30 GeV to 95% confidence in the annihilation channel.
These bounds are comparable to those from Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite
galaxies. The results of our analysis increase the tension, but do not rule
out, the dark matter interpretation of the Galactic Center excess. We provide a
catalog of the galaxy groups used in this study and their inferred properties,
which can be broadly applied to searches for extragalactic dark matter.Comment: 5+18 pages, 1+14 figures, catalog available at:
https://github.com/bsafdi/DMCat; v2 updated to journal version with several
updates, results and conclusions unchange
Automated Identification of Unhealthy Drinking Using Routinely Collected Data: A Machine Learning Approach
Background: Unhealthy drinking is prevalent in the United States and can lead to serious health and social consequences, yet it is under-diagnosed and under-treated. Identifying unhealthy drinkers can be time-consuming for primary care providers. An automated tool for identification would allow attention to be focused on patients most likely to need care and therefore increase efficiency and effectiveness.
Objectives: To build a clinical prediction tool for unhealthy drinking based solely on routinely collected demographic and laboratory data.
Methods: We obtained demographic and laboratory data on 89,325 adults seen at the University of Vermont Medical Center from 2011-2017. Logistic regression, support vector machines (SVM), k-nearest neighbor, and random forests were each used to build clinical prediction models. The model with the largest area under the receiver operator curve (AUC) was selected.
Results: SVM with polynomials of degree 3 produced the largest AUC. The most influential predictors were alkaline phosphatase, gender, glucose, and serum bicarbonate. The optimum operating point had sensitivity 31.1%, specificity 91.2%, positive predictive value 50.4%, and negative predictive value 82.1%. Application of the tool increased the prevalence of unhealthy drinking from 18.3% to 32.4%, while reducing the target population by 22%.
Limitations: Universal screening was not used during the time data was collected. The prevalence of unhealthy drinking among those screened was 60% suggesting the AUDIT-C was administered to confirm rather than screen for unhealthy drinking.
Conclusion: An automated tool, using commonly available data, can identify a subset of patients who appear to warrant clinical attention for unhealthy drinking
A comparative study of some models of incoherence at the mesoscopic scale
The pre-existing literature on phenomena at the mesoscopic scale is concerned
among other things with phase coherent transport. Phase coherent transport
dominates at very low temperatures. With increase in temperature, as the system
size becomes comparable to the inelastic mean free path phase incoherence sets
in. This incoherence further leads to dephasing, and as a consequence purely
quantum effects in electron transport give way to classical macroscopic
behavior. In this work we consider two distinct phenomenological models of
incoherent transport, the Coherent Absorption and Wave Attenuation models. We
reveal some physical problems in the Coherent Absorption model as opposed to
the Wave Attenuation model. We also compare our proposed model with experiments
in case of the much studied peak to valley ratios in resonant tunneling diodes,
magneto-conductance oscillations and Fano resonances in case of Aharonov-Bohm
rings.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
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