6,970 research outputs found
An Old Film in a New Light: Lighting as the Key to Johannine Identity in Ordet
In his essay on Carl Theodor Dreyerâs Ordet, P. Adams Sitney draws a parallel between the protagonist, Johannes, and John the Evangelist, author of the fourth gospel. He suggests that the delusional Johannesâs sanity returns upon the recovery of his own name, turning on the invocation of his biblical namesake, John the Evangelist. Compelling as Sitneyâs is, however, I argue that we arrive at a more helpful interpretation by attending to an aspect that has been largely overlooked in critical discussion of the film: lighting. Careful analysis of the lighting yields a perspective in which Johannes is understood to be modeled not on John the Evangelist, but rather on John the Baptist. It does so, in part, by alluding to John 1:6â8, in which John the Baptist is described not as the light itself, but rather as a witness to the light of Christ. This alternative account of Johannine identity uncovers new meanings in the film, all revolving around the prophetic. Perhaps most intriguing is the possibility that Johannes may be understood to be a kind of stand-in for Kaj Munk, the prophet-like playwright of the original play of which the film is an adaptation
Autonomous control procedures for shuttle rendezvous proximity operations
The results are presented of a study which uses fuzzy sets to model a Space Shuttle pilot's reasoning and actions while performing rendezvous proximity operation maneuvers. In this model fuzzy sets are used to simulate smooth and continuous actions as would be expected from an experienced pilot and to simulate common sense reasoning in the decision process. The present model assumes visual information available to the Shuttle pilot from the Shuttle Crew Optical Alignment Sighting (COAS) device and the overhead window and rendezvous radar sensor information available to him from an onboard display. This model will be used in a flight analysis simulator to perform studies requiring a large number of runs, each of which currently needs an engineer in the loop to supply the piloting decisions. This work has much broader implications in control of robots such as the Flight Telerobotic Servicer, in automated pilot control and attitude control, and in advisory and evaluation functions that could be used for flight data monitoring or for testing of various rule sets in flight preparation
Radar and satellite characterization of the ionosphere under strong electric field conditions
It is now well established that strong electric fields can distort high-latitude ion velocity distributions to the point that this affects Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) observations, and therefore the ion and electron temperatures inferred through those observations. Until now, studies of this topic have focused on first order, semi-empirical ion velocity distribution descriptions. However, a precise description has been lacking, notably along directions parallel or near-parallel to the magnetic field. To remedy these shortcomings and provide the best possible tools to analyze ISR observations, this thesis uses a state-of-the-art Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation to retrieve accurate ion velocity distributions for any electric field, ion-neutral particle interaction, and direction relative to the magnetic field. Through these improvements, a number of important points have been made, such as: 1) for the most part simulated NO+ ISR observations can be modeled using Maxwellian velocity distributions having the same line-of-sight ion temperature as the simulated MC distribution, 2) although simulated O+ ISR observations parallel to the magnetic field are similar to those produced from Maxwellian velocity distributions they reflect an erroneous increase in electron temperature due to a wide O+ velocity distribution, and 3) signatures of toroidal ion velocity distributions in IS spectra are possibly the easiest to identify near 20 degrees with respect to the magnetic field. Based on these results, accurate distorted ion velocity distributions are currently being incorporated into IS spectral fitting routines.
In the logical next step, this thesis turns to radar observations to characterize the ion temperature anisotropy, which is particularly important for Joule heating studies. Using ISR observations from a particularly strong heating event reported by Clauer et al. (2016), it is found that the O+-O collision cross-section from Knof et al. (1964) represents the anisotropy of the ionosphere fairly accurately, but still suggests the ionosphere to be slightly more anisotropic than expected. Knowing this allows for the preliminary determination of the effective electric field (the electric field in the neutral frame of reference). To obtain the electric field vector at a given latitude and longitude this thesis has explored a novel technique that employs multi-altitude measurements. This method combined with a knowledge of the effective electric field from the ion temperature studies opens up the possibility of a determination of the neutral wind in future work.
Finally, to study the impact electric field strength has on Swarm satellites observations and on the upper ionosphere in general, a time-dependent gyro-kinetic O+ model of the motion of ions above a discontinuous boundary between fully collisional and collisionless plasmas has been revisited. This upgraded model uses descriptions of the ion velocity distribution provided by the MC simulation for the boundary velocity distribution as a function of electric field. As well, it incorporates a variable boundary plasma density and can describe any temporal variation of the ion velocity distribution at the boundary without complications. The results agree with the observations of highly distorted ion velocity distributions at high altitudes, as well as explain heretofore unpredictable anisotropic ion temperatures, attributing them to changing boundary conditions propagating upwards along a given flux tube, away from strongly-collisional regions
"Mrs Smith has no rehab potentialâ: Does rehabilitation have a role in the management of people with dementia?
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from OUP via the DOI in this recordRehabilitation is a âprocess aiming to restore personal autonomy in those aspects of daily living considered most relevant by patients, service users and their family carersâ [1]. For older people experiencing illness, injury or disability the process of rehabilitation, which may include exercise, enables them to maximise their abilities and potential [2]. However, as demand for healthcare services grows alongside limited resources, clinicians often have to make decisions as to which patients may benefit from rehabilitation. The concept of âno rehabilitation potentialâ often rears its ugly head in relation to people with dementia but what is it that informs this label, what is the impact and is it justified
The normalization of sibling violence: Does gender and personal experience of violence influence perceptions of physical assault against siblings?
Despite its pervasive and detrimental nature, sibling violence (SV) remains marginalized as a harmless and inconsequential form of familial aggression. The present study investigates the extent to which perceptions of SV differ from those of other types of interpersonal violence. A total of 605 respondents (197 males, 408 females) read one of four hypothetical physical assault scenarios that varied according to perpetratorâvictim relationship type (i.e., sibling vs. dating partner vs. peer vs. stranger) before completing a series of 24 attribution items. Respondents also reported on their own experiences of interpersonal violence during childhood. Exploratory factor analysis reduced 23 attribution items to three internally reliable factors reflecting perceived assault severity, victim culpability, and victim resistance ratings. A 4 Ă 2 MANCOVAâcontrolling for respondent ageârevealed several significant effects. Overall, males deemed the assault less severe and the victim more culpable than did females. In addition, the sibling assault was deemed less severe compared to assault on either a dating partner or a stranger, with the victim of SV rated just as culpable as the victim of dating, peer, or stranger-perpetrated violence. Finally, respondents with more (frequent) experiences of childhood SV victimization perceived the hypothetical SV assault as being less severe, and victim more culpable, than respondents with no SV victimization. Results are discussed in the context of SV normalization. Methodological limitations and applications for current findings are also outlined
Half-life of the electron-capture decay of 97Ru: Precision measurement shows no temperature dependence
We have measured the half-life of the electron-capture (ec) decay of 97Ru in
a metallic environment, both at low temperature (19K), and also at room
temperature. We find the half-lives at both temperatures to be the same within
0.1%. This demonstrates that a recent claim that the ec decay half-life for 7Be
changes by $0.9% +/- 0.2% under similar circumstances certainly cannot be
generalized to other ec decays. Our results for the half-life of 97Ru,
2.8370(14)d at room temperature and 2.8382(14)d at 19K, are consistent with,
but much more precise than, previous room-temperature measurements. In
addition, we have also measured the half-lives of the beta-emitters 103Ru and
105Rh at both temperatures, and found them also to be unchanged.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Measurement of the half-life of 198Au in a non-metal: High-precision measurement shows no host-material dependence
We have measured the half-life of the beta decay of 198Au to be 2.6948(9) d,
with the nuclide sited in an insulating environment. Comparing this result with
the half-life we measured previously with a metallic environment, we find the
half-lives in both environments to be the same within 0.04%, thus contradicting
a prediction that screening from a "plasma" of quasi-free electrons in a metal
increases the half-life by as much as 7%
Real-Time Data Processing in the Muon System of the D0 Detector
This paper presents a real-time application of the 16-bit fixed point Digital
Signal Processors (DSPs), in the Muon System of the D0 detector located at the
Fermilab Tevatron, presently the world's highest-energy hadron collider. As
part of the Upgrade for a run beginning in the year 2000, the system is
required to process data at an input event rate of 10 KHz without incurring
significant deadtime in readout. The ADSP21csp01 processor has high I/O
bandwidth, single cycle instruction execution and fast task switching support
to provide efficient multisignal processing. The processor's internal memory
consists of 4K words of Program Memory and 4K words of Data Memory. In addition
there is an external memory of 32K words for general event buffering and 16K
words of Dual Port Memory for input data queuing. This DSP fulfills the
requirement of the Muon subdetector systems for data readout. All error
handling, buffering, formatting and transferring of the data to the various
trigger levels of the data acquisition system is done in software. The
algorithms developed for the system complete these tasks in about 20
microseconds per event.Comment: 4 pages, Presented and published at the 11th IEEE NPSS Real Time
Conference, held at Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, from June 14-18, 199
Impacts of âchange projectsâ in Cumbria partnership trustâs Learning Leaders programme: Evaluating qualitative participant end-point reflections.
This paper reports findings arising from a broader evaluation of the first tranche of Cumbria Partnership Foundation Trustâs Learning Leaders Programme (LLP). At the final âCelebration Dayâ of the LLP, all participants (N=15) were invited to fill a form in which they could self-assess the impacts of their projects, and results were analysed using Straussian Grounded Theory. Responses indicated that key concerns related to extant impacts, impact mechanisms (i.e. the manner through which impacts were effected) and obstacles to impact. The overwhelming consensus generated was that the projects had produced strong positive impacts at time of reporting, and had the potential to effect further affirmative change
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