Experimental evaluation of atmospheric effects on radiometric measurements using the EREP of Skylab

The author has identified the following significant results. Test sites were located near the Great Salt Lake and the Salton Sea. Calculations were performed for a set of atmospheric models corresponding to the test sites, in addition to standard models for summer and winter midlatitude atmospheres with respective integrated water vapor amount of 2.4 g/sq cm and 0.9 g/sq cm. Each atmosphere was found to contain an average amount of continental aerosol. Computations were valid for high solar elevation angles. Atmospheric attenuation quantities were computed in addition to simulated EREP S192 radiances

Between informal and formal politics : neopatrimonialism and party development in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

This study is concerned with exploring the relationship between informal forms of political behaviour and relations and the development of formal institutions in post Soviet Central Asian states as a way to explain the development of authoritarianism in the region. It moves the debate on from current scholarship which places primacy on either formal or informal politics in explaining modem political development in Central Asia, by examining the relationship between the two. It utilises Kazakhstan as a case study by assessing how the neopatrimonial system evident in the country has influenced and shaped the development of political parties. It investigates how personalism of political office, patronage and patron-client networks and factional elite conflict have influenced and shaped the institutional constraints affecting party development (institutional choice, electoral design and party law), the type of parties emerging (organisation, ideology and membership) and parties' relationship with society

Differential Diagnosis of Progressive Generalized or Symmetrical Flaccid Paralysis

Progressive flaccid paralysis occurring over a period of hours or days is usually associated with the Landry-Guillain-Barré-Strohl syndrome. This symptom complex is often accompanied by a history of previous flu-like illness, antecedent myalgias, and subjective sensory complaints of tingling or simply a “tight” sensation in hands and feet. The paralysis that ensues either ascends from the feet and legs or descends from the facial muscles to involve all or most of the voluntary skeletal musculature. Along with paralysis of the intercostal and diaphragmatic musculature, severe cases may also involve other cranial nerves as well as the autonomic nervous system. In all cases the deep tendon reflexes are markedly diminished or absent early in the course of the disease. Sensory abnormalities are usually mild or absent. Confirmatory diagnostic studies include examination of the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) which shows no or few mononuclear cells and an elevated protein. Nerve conduction studies may show prolonged distal latencies, slowing of nerve conduction velocities, and prolonged F responses which measure the radicular segments of the nerve. Overall prognosis is difficult to predict, with recovery taking weeks to months. Fatalities can occur despite optimal care in an intensive care unit

New Horizons in Muscle Disease

Sophisticated physiological and histochemical information is accumulating at a rate which at present is faster than the clinician can assimilate. The contributions made by electron microscopy further burden an overwhelming stockpile of data. In a true sense, many pieces to the puzzle have been found, and as these are cautiously put in place, a more complete understanding of muscle disease is foreseeable. One hopes that with better insight into the pathophysiology of muscle diseases, these new horizons will permit eventual treatment or cure for those suffering from these disorders

Advanced Moisture and Temperature Sounder (AMTS) study

Retrieval of tropospheric humidity profiles from satellite-based upwelling radiances are shown to be improved by using physical methods for obtaining first-guess profiles as well as for inverting the radiative transfer equation by relaxation. The first guess is based on an empirically verified hypothesis, from theoretical considerations, that the brightness temperature corresponding to the radiance should be approximately equal to the actual temperatue at a channel-invariant optical depth provided that the surface and stratospheric contributions to the radiance are small. Even greater improvement of retrieved humidity profiles can be accomplished by increasing the number of channels used and by selecting their spectral location and bandpass to obtain sharper independent weighting functions. For example, the AMTS system, with high resolution water channels at 1650, 1700, 1839, 1850 and 1930 cm, is shown to be capable of reducing the retrieved water vapor errors in 200 mb thick layers by a factor of two or three relative to the HIRS-2 system errors. Expected AMTS errors in tropical layer water content are particularly low, less than 20% at all levels, and of the order of 10% or less in the middle troposphere

Qualitative Criterion for Interception in a Pursuit/Evasion Game

A qualitative account is given of a differential pursuit/evasion game. A criterion for the existence of an intercept solution is obtained using future cones that contain all attainable trajectories of target or interceptor originating from an initial position. A sufficient and necessary conditon that an opportunity to intercept always exist is that, after some initial time, the future cone of the target be contained within the future cone of the interceptor. The sufficient condition may be regarded as a kind of Nash equillibrium.Comment: 8 pages; revsions and corrigend

Hybrid Atom--Photon Quantum Gate in a Superconducting Microwave Resonator

We propose a novel hybrid quantum gate between an atom and a microwave photon in a superconducting coplanar waveguide cavity by exploiting the strong resonant microwave coupling between adjacent Rydberg states. Using experimentally achievable parameters gate fidelities $> 0.99$ are possible on sub-$\mu$s timescales for waveguide temperatures below 40 mK. This provides a mechanism for generating entanglement between two disparate quantum systems and represents an important step in the creation of a hybrid quantum interface applicable for both quantum simulation and quantum information processing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Estimation of the geophysical properties of the ocean surface using aircraft microwave measurements

An improved model of the effects of sea state on microwave signature has been developed which incorporates the different effects of whitecaps and streaks to define the response of microwave channels to wind speed. This model has been demonstrated to agree with recent measurements. An approximation model has also been incorporated to describe the effects of precipitation on microwave radiation through a computationally rapid routine. The use of these models and a new technique to allow the selection of the most climatologically appropriate D-matrix is demonstrated in the inversion of data collected over the bering Sea. Surface wind speed agrees very well with observations while good results are obtained for integrated water vapor, and liquid water