Periodic boundary conditions and the error-controlled fast multipole method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kabadshow, Ivo

2012-08-22

The simulation of pairwise interactions in huge particle ensembles is a vital issue in scientific research. Especially the calculation of long-range interactions poses limitations to the system size, since these interactions scale quadratically with the number of particles. Fast summation techniques like the Fast Multipole Method (FMM) can help to reduce the complexity to O(N). This work extends the possible range of applications of the FMM to periodic systems in one, two and three dimensions with one unique approach. Together with a tight error control, this contribution enables the simulation of periodic particle systems for different applications without the need to know and tune the FMM specific parameters. The implemented error control scheme automatically optimizes the parameters to obtain an approximation for the minimal runtime for a given energy error bound.

Fluctuations induced extinction and stochastic resonance effect in a model of tumor growth with periodic treatment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li Dongxi, E-mail: lidongxi@mail.nwpu.edu.c [Department of Applied Mathematics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi' an 710072 (China); Xu Wei; Guo, Yongfeng; Xu Yong [Department of Applied Mathematics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi' an 710072 (China)

2011-01-31

We investigate a stochastic model of tumor growth derived from the catalytic Michaelis-Menten reaction with positional and environmental fluctuations under subthreshold periodic treatment. Firstly, the influences of environmental fluctuations on the treatable stage are analyzed numerically. Applying the standard theory of stochastic resonance derived from the two-state approach, we derive the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analytically, which is used to measure the stochastic resonance phenomenon. It is found that the weak environmental fluctuations could induce the extinction of tumor cells in the subthreshold periodic treatment. The positional stability is better in favor of the treatment of the tumor cells. Besides, the appropriate and feasible treatment intensity and the treatment cycle should be highlighted considered in the treatment of tumor cells.

Fluctuations induced extinction and stochastic resonance effect in a model of tumor growth with periodic treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Dongxi; Xu Wei; Guo, Yongfeng; Xu Yong

2011-01-01

We investigate a stochastic model of tumor growth derived from the catalytic Michaelis-Menten reaction with positional and environmental fluctuations under subthreshold periodic treatment. Firstly, the influences of environmental fluctuations on the treatable stage are analyzed numerically. Applying the standard theory of stochastic resonance derived from the two-state approach, we derive the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analytically, which is used to measure the stochastic resonance phenomenon. It is found that the weak environmental fluctuations could induce the extinction of tumor cells in the subthreshold periodic treatment. The positional stability is better in favor of the treatment of the tumor cells. Besides, the appropriate and feasible treatment intensity and the treatment cycle should be highlighted considered in the treatment of tumor cells.

QUASI-PERIODIC FLUCTUATIONS AND CHROMOSPHERIC EVAPORATION IN A SOLAR FLARE RIBBON OBSERVED BY HINODE /EIS, IRIS , AND RHESSI

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brosius, Jeffrey W.; Inglis, Andrew R. [Catholic University of America at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics Laboratory, Code 671, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States); Daw, Adrian N., E-mail: Jeffrey.W.Brosius@nasa.gov [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics Laboratory, Code 671, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)

2016-10-20

The Hinode /Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) obtained rapid cadence (11.2 s) EUV stare spectra of an M7.3 flare ribbon in AR 12036 on 2014 April 18. Quasi-periodic ( P ≈ 75.6 ± 9.2 s) intensity fluctuations occurred in emission lines of O iv, Mg vi, Mg vii, Si vii, Fe xiv, and Fe xvi during the flare's impulsive rise, and ended when the maximum intensity in Fe xxiii was reached. The profiles of the O iv–Fe xvi lines reveal that they were all redshifted during most of the interval of quasi-periodic intensity fluctuations, while the Fe xxiii profile revealed multiple components including one or two highly blueshifted ones. This indicates that the flare underwent explosive chromospheric evaporation during its impulsive rise. Fluctuations in the relative Doppler velocities were seen, but their amplitudes were too subtle to extract significant quasi-periodicities. RHESSI detected 25–100 keV hard-X-ray sources in the ribbon near the EIS slit's pointing position during the peaks in the EIS intensity fluctuations. The observations are consistent with a series of energy injections into the chromosphere by nonthermal particle beams. Electron densities derived with Fe xiv (4.6 × 10{sup 10} cm{sup −3}) and Mg vii (7.8 × 10{sup 9} cm{sup −3}) average line intensity ratios during the interval of quasi-periodic intensity fluctuations, combined with the radiative loss function of an optically thin plasma, yield radiative cooling times of 32 s at 2.0 × 10{sup 6} K, and 46 s at 6.3 × 10{sup 5} K (about half the quasi-period); assuming Fe xiv's density for Fe xxiii yields a radiative cooling time of 10{sup 3} s (13 times the quasi-period) at 1.4 × 10{sup 7} K.

CORRECTING ACCOUNTING ERRORS AND ACKNOWLEDGING THEM IN THE EARNINGS TO THE PERIOD

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

BUSUIOCEANU STELIANA

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The accounting information is reliable when it does not contain significant errors, is not biasedand accurately represents the transactions and events. In the light of the regulations complying with Europeandirectives, the information is significant if its omission or wrong presentation may influence the decisions users makebased on annual financial statements. Given that the professional practice sees errors in registering or interpretinginformation, as well as omissions and wrong calculations, the Romanian accounting regulations stipulate treatmentsfor correcting errors in compliance with international references. Thus, the correction of the errors corresponding tothe current period is accomplished based on the retained earnings in the case of significant errors or on the currentearnings when the errors are insignificant. The different situations in the professional practice triggered by errorsrequire both knowledge of regulations and professional rationale to be addressed.

Periodic fluctuations in correlation-based connectivity density time series: Application to wind speed-monitoring network in Switzerland

Science.gov (United States)

Laib, Mohamed; Telesca, Luciano; Kanevski, Mikhail

2018-02-01

In this paper, we study the periodic fluctuations of connectivity density time series of a wind speed-monitoring network in Switzerland. By using the correlogram-based robust periodogram annual periodic oscillations were found in the correlation-based network. The intensity of such annual periodic oscillations is larger for lower correlation thresholds and smaller for higher. The annual periodicity in the connectivity density seems reasonably consistent with the seasonal meteo-climatic cycle.

Structural features that predict real-value fluctuations of globular proteins.

Science.gov (United States)

Jamroz, Michal; Kolinski, Andrzej; Kihara, Daisuke

2012-05-01

It is crucial to consider dynamics for understanding the biological function of proteins. We used a large number of molecular dynamics (MD) trajectories of nonhomologous proteins as references and examined static structural features of proteins that are most relevant to fluctuations. We examined correlation of individual structural features with fluctuations and further investigated effective combinations of features for predicting the real value of residue fluctuations using the support vector regression (SVR). It was found that some structural features have higher correlation than crystallographic B-factors with fluctuations observed in MD trajectories. Moreover, SVR that uses combinations of static structural features showed accurate prediction of fluctuations with an average Pearson's correlation coefficient of 0.669 and a root mean square error of 1.04 Å. This correlation coefficient is higher than the one observed in predictions by the Gaussian network model (GNM). An advantage of the developed method over the GNMs is that the former predicts the real value of fluctuation. The results help improve our understanding of relationships between protein structure and fluctuation. Furthermore, the developed method provides a convienient practial way to predict fluctuations of proteins using easily computed static structural features of proteins. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Quantum mechanical analysis of fractal conductance fluctuations: a picture using self-similar periodic orbits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogura, Tatsuo; Miyamoto, Masanori; Budiyono, Agung; Nakamura, Katsuhiro

2007-01-01

Fractal magnetoconductance fluctuations are often observed in experiments on ballistic quantum dots. Although the analysis of the exact self-affine fractal has been given by the semiclassical theory using self-similar periodic orbits in systems with a soft-walled potential with a saddle, there has been no corresponding quantum mechanical investigation. We numerically calculate the quantum conductance with use of the recursive Green's function method applied to open cavities characterized by a Henon-Heiles type potential. The conductance fluctuations show exact self-affinity just as in some of the experimental observations. The enlargement factor for the horizontal axis can be explained by the scaling factor of the area of self-similar periodic orbits, and therefore be attributed to the curvature of the saddle in the cavity potential. The fractal dimension obtained through the box counting method agrees with those evaluated with use of the Hurst exponent, and coincides with the semiclassical prediction. We further investigate the variation of the fractal dimension by changing the control parameters between the classical and quantum domains. (fast track communication)

Temperature and precipitation fluctuations in the Czech Republic during the period of instrumental measurements

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Brázdil, Rudolf; Zahradníček, Pavel; Pisoft, P.; Štěpánek, Petr; Bělinová, M.; Dobrovolný, Petr

2012-01-01

Roč. 110, 1-2 (2012), s. 17-34 ISSN 0177-798X R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) ED1.1.00/02.0073 Institutional support: RVO:67179843 Keywords : secular station * instrumental period * homogenization * air temperature * precipitation * fluctuation * cyclicity * wavelet analysis * Czech Republic Subject RIV: DG - Athmosphere Sciences, Meteorology Impact factor: 1.759, year: 2012

Detailed semantic analyses of human error incidents occurring at nuclear power plants. Extraction of periodical transition of error occurrence patterns by applying multivariate analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirotsu, Yuko; Suzuki, Kunihiko; Takano, Kenichi; Kojima, Mitsuhiro

2000-01-01

It is essential for preventing the recurrence of human error incidents to analyze and evaluate them with the emphasis on human factor. Detailed and structured analyses of all incidents at domestic nuclear power plants (NPPs) reported during last 31 years have been conducted based on J-HPES, in which total 193 human error cases are identified. Results obtained by the analyses have been stored into the J-HPES database. In the previous study, by applying multivariate analysis to above case studies, it was suggested that there were several occurrence patterns identified of how errors occur at NPPs. It was also clarified that the causes related to each human error are different depending on age of their occurrence. This paper described the obtained results in respects of periodical transition of human error occurrence patterns. By applying multivariate analysis to the above data, it was suggested there were two types of error occurrence patterns as to each human error type. First type is common occurrence patterns, not depending on the age, and second type is the one influenced by periodical characteristics. (author)

Analysis of the impact of crude oil price fluctuations on China's stock market in different periods-Based on time series network model

Science.gov (United States)

An, Yang; Sun, Mei; Gao, Cuixia; Han, Dun; Li, Xiuming

2018-02-01

This paper studies the influence of Brent oil price fluctuations on the stock prices of China's two distinct blocks, namely, the petrochemical block and the electric equipment and new energy block, applying the Shannon entropy of information theory. The co-movement trend of crude oil price and stock prices is divided into different fluctuation patterns with the coarse-graining method. Then, the bivariate time series network model is established for the two blocks stock in five different periods. By joint analysis of the network-oriented metrics, the key modes and underlying evolutionary mechanisms were identified. The results show that the both networks have different fluctuation characteristics in different periods. Their co-movement patterns are clustered in some key modes and conversion intermediaries. The study not only reveals the lag effect of crude oil price fluctuations on the stock in Chinese industry blocks but also verifies the necessity of research on special periods, and suggests that the government should use different energy policies to stabilize market volatility in different periods. A new way is provided to study the unidirectional influence between multiple variables or complex time series.

Analysis of Periodic Errors for Synthesized-Reference-Wave Holography

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Schejbal

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Synthesized-reference-wave holographic techniques offer relatively simple and cost-effective measurement of antenna radiation characteristics and reconstruction of complex aperture fields using near-field intensity-pattern measurement. These methods allow utilization of advantages of methods for probe compensations for amplitude and phasing near-field measurements for the planar and cylindrical scanning including accuracy analyses. The paper analyzes periodic errors, which can be created during scanning, using both theoretical results and numerical simulations.

Effects of periodical salinity fluctuation on the growth, molting, energy homeostasis and molting-related gene expression of Litopenaeus vannamei

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Dan; Guo, Xiantao; Wang, Fang; Dong, Shuanglin

2016-10-01

To determine the response of Litopenaeus vannamei to periodical salinity fluctuation, a 30-day experiment was conducted in laboratory. In this experiment, two salinity fluctuation amplitudes of 4 (group S4) and 10 (group S10) were designed. The constant salinity of 30 (group S0) was used as the control. Levels of shrimp growth, molting frequency (MF), cellular energy status (ATP, ADP and AMP), as well as the expression of genes encoding molt-inhibiting hormone (MIH), crustacean hyperglycemic hormone (CHH), ecdysteroid-regulated protein (ERP), and energy-related AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) were determined. The results showed that periodical salinity fluctuation significantly influenced all indicators except MF which ranged from 13.3% in group S10 to15.4% in group S4. In comparison with shrimps cultured at the constant salinity of 30, those in group S4 showed a significant elevation in growth rate, food conversion efficiency, cellular energy status, ERP and MIH gene transcript abundance, and a significant reduction in CHH and AMPK transcript abundance ( P MIH and CHH gene expression when compared to the control ( P < 0.05). According to our findings, L. vannamei may be highly capable of tolerating salinity fluctuation. When ambient salinity fluctuated at approx. 4, the increased MF and energy stores in organisms may aid to promoting shrimp growth.

Patterns and singular features of extreme fluctuational paths of a periodically driven system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Zhen; Liu, Xianbin

2016-01-01

Large fluctuations of an overdamped periodically driven oscillating system are investigated theoretically and numerically in the limit of weak noise. Optimal paths fluctuating to certain point are given by statistical analysis using the concept of prehistory probability distribution. The validity of statistical results is verified by solutions of boundary value problem. Optimal paths are found to change topologically when terminating points lie at opposite side of a switching line. Patterns of extreme paths are plotted through a proper parameterization of Lagrangian manifold having complicated structures. Several extreme paths to the same point are obtained by multiple solutions of boundary value solutions. Actions along various extreme paths are calculated and associated analysis is performed in relation to the singular features of the patterns. - Highlights: • Both extreme and optimal paths are obtained by various methods. • Boundary value problems are solved to ensure the validity of statistical results. • Topological structure of Lagrangian manifold is considered. • Singularities of the pattern of extreme paths are studied.

Structure and dating errors in the geologic time scale and periodicity in mass extinctions

Science.gov (United States)

Stothers, Richard B.

1989-01-01

Structure in the geologic time scale reflects a partly paleontological origin. As a result, ages of Cenozoic and Mesozoic stage boundaries exhibit a weak 28-Myr periodicity that is similar to the strong 26-Myr periodicity detected in mass extinctions of marine life by Raup and Sepkoski. Radiometric dating errors in the geologic time scale, to which the mass extinctions are stratigraphically tied, do not necessarily lessen the likelihood of a significant periodicity in mass extinctions, but do spread the acceptable values of the period over the range 25-27 Myr for the Harland et al. time scale or 25-30 Myr for the DNAG time scale. If the Odin time scale is adopted, acceptable periods fall between 24 and 33 Myr, but are not robust against dating errors. Some indirect evidence from independently-dated flood-basalt volcanic horizons tends to favor the Odin time scale.

Holocene climatic fluctuations and periodic changes in the Asian southwest monsoon region

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wenxiang; Niu, Jie; Ming, Qingzhong; Shi, Zhengtao; Lei, Guoliang; Huang, Linpei; Long, Xian'e.; Chang, Fengqin

2018-05-01

Climatic changes in the Asian southwest monsoon (ASWM) during the Holocene have become a topic of recent studies. It is important to understand the patterns and causes of Holocene climatic changes and their relationship with global changes. Based on the climate proxies and wavelet analysis of Lugu Lake in the ASWM region, the climatic fluctuations and periodic changes in the ASWM region during the Holocene have been reconstructed with a high-precision chronology. The results indicate the intensification of ASWM began to increase with Northern Hemisphere low-latitude solar insolation (LSI) and solar activity during the early Holocene, and gradually decreased during the late Holocene, exhibiting an apparent synchrony with numerous records of ASWM region. Meanwhile, an apparent 1000-a quasi-periodic signal is present in the environment proxies, and it demonstrates that the environmental change in the ASWM region has been driven mainly by LSI and solar activity.

Turning the tide: comparison of tidal flow by periodic sea level fluctuation and by periodic bed tilting in scaled landscape experiments of estuaries

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinhans, Maarten G.; van der Vegt, Maarten; Leuven, Jasper; Braat, Lisanne; Markies, Henk; Simmelink, Arjan; Roosendaal, Chris; van Eijk, Arjan; Vrijbergen, Paul; van Maarseveen, Marcel

2017-11-01

Analogue models or scale experiments of estuaries and short tidal basins are notoriously difficult to create in the laboratory because of the difficulty to obtain currents strong enough to transport sand. Our recently discovered method to drive tidal currents by periodically tilting the entire flume leads to intense sediment transport in both the ebb and flood phase, causing dynamic channel and shoal patterns. However, it remains unclear whether tilting produces periodic flows with characteristic tidal properties that are sufficiently similar to those in nature for the purpose of landscape experiments. Moreover, it is not well understood why the flows driven by periodic sea level fluctuation, as in nature, are not sufficient for morphodynamic experiments. Here we compare for the first time the tidal currents driven by sea level fluctuations and by tilting. Experiments were run in a 20 × 3 m straight flume, the Metronome, for a range of tilting periods and with one or two boundaries open at constant head with free inflow and outflow. Also, experiments were run with flow driven by periodic sea level fluctuations. We recorded surface flow velocity along the flume with particle imaging velocimetry and measured water levels along the flume. We compared the results to a one-dimensional model with shallow flow equations for a rough bed, which was tested on the experiments and applied to a range of length scales bridging small experiments and large estuaries. We found that the Reynolds method results in negligible flows along the flume except for the first few metres, whereas flume tilting results in nearly uniform reversing flow velocities along the entire flume that are strong enough to move sand. Furthermore, tidal excursion length relative to basin length and the dominance of friction over inertia is similar in tidal experiments and reality. The sediment mobility converges between the Reynolds method and tilting for flumes hundreds of metres long, which is impractical

Turning the tide: comparison of tidal flow by periodic sea level fluctuation and by periodic bed tilting in scaled landscape experiments of estuaries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. G. Kleinhans

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Analogue models or scale experiments of estuaries and short tidal basins are notoriously difficult to create in the laboratory because of the difficulty to obtain currents strong enough to transport sand. Our recently discovered method to drive tidal currents by periodically tilting the entire flume leads to intense sediment transport in both the ebb and flood phase, causing dynamic channel and shoal patterns. However, it remains unclear whether tilting produces periodic flows with characteristic tidal properties that are sufficiently similar to those in nature for the purpose of landscape experiments. Moreover, it is not well understood why the flows driven by periodic sea level fluctuation, as in nature, are not sufficient for morphodynamic experiments. Here we compare for the first time the tidal currents driven by sea level fluctuations and by tilting. Experiments were run in a 20  ×  3 m straight flume, the Metronome, for a range of tilting periods and with one or two boundaries open at constant head with free inflow and outflow. Also, experiments were run with flow driven by periodic sea level fluctuations. We recorded surface flow velocity along the flume with particle imaging velocimetry and measured water levels along the flume. We compared the results to a one-dimensional model with shallow flow equations for a rough bed, which was tested on the experiments and applied to a range of length scales bridging small experiments and large estuaries. We found that the Reynolds method results in negligible flows along the flume except for the first few metres, whereas flume tilting results in nearly uniform reversing flow velocities along the entire flume that are strong enough to move sand. Furthermore, tidal excursion length relative to basin length and the dominance of friction over inertia is similar in tidal experiments and reality. The sediment mobility converges between the Reynolds method and tilting for flumes hundreds of

Links between Patagonian Ice Sheet fluctuations and Antarctic dust variability during the last glacial period (MIS 4-2)

Science.gov (United States)

Kaiser, Jérôme; Lamy, Frank

2010-06-01

Antarctic and Greenland ice-core records reveal large fluctuations of dust input on both orbital and millennial time-scales with potential global climate implications. At least during glacial periods, the Antarctic dust fluctuations appear to be largely controlled by environmental changes in southern South America. We compare dust flux records from two Antarctic ice-cores to variations in the composition of the terrigenous supply at ODP Site 1233 located off southern Chile and known to record fluctuations in the extent of the northern part of the Patagonian ice-sheet (NPIS) during the last glacial period (Marine Isotope Stage, MIS, 4 to 2). Within age uncertainties, millennial-scale glacial advances (retreats) of the NPIS correlate to Antarctic dust maxima (minima). In turn, NPIS fluctuations were closely related to offshore sea surface temperature (SST) changes. This pattern suggests a causal link involving changes in temperature, in rock flour availability, in latitudinal extensions of the westerly winds and in foehn winds in the southern Pampas and Patagonia. We further suggest that the long-term trend of dust accumulation is partly linked to the sea-level related changes in the size if the Patagonian source area due to the particular morphology of the Argentine shelf. We suggest that sea-level drops at the beginning of MIS 4 and MIS 2 were important for long-term dust increases, while changes in the Patagonian dust source regions primarily control the early dust decrease during the MIS 4/3 transition and Termination 1.

Hungary: Secular fertility decline with distinct period fluctuations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ferenc Kamarás

2008-07-01

Full Text Available In this study, we demonstrate from different angles that Hungarian fertility basically decreased between 1965 and 2005, but also clearly fluctuated, and showed different patterns in the different periods within this epoch. As a result, the clear communist-era family pattern of "early marriage and childbearing with two children" was replaced, but new family model(s have not yet fully emerged. We could show that profound changes in partnership behaviour -divorce and cohabitation- started before the change of the political regime, but also that changes in partnership relations accelerated after 1990, and that partnerships have become more fragile. In addition, Western-style values of "empty individualism" and consumerism were clearly present under socialism, but their motivating force was tamed by the communist system, in which population policy played a significant role. Of these institutional changes, we ascribe the greatest importance to the expansion in the educational system and the changes in the labour market. We show that, following the changes in the economic system, the conflict between family and work intensified. The synchronic consideration of values, labour market relations, economic development, and population policy; and the relationship of these factors to fertility and nuptiality trends, enabled us to formulate a developmental scheme of four phases concerning the evolution of fertility since 1965.

To what extent can global warming events influence scaling properties of climatic fluctuations in glacial periods?

Science.gov (United States)

Alberti, Tommaso; Lepreti, Fabio; Vecchio, Antonio; Carbone, Vincenzo

2017-04-01

The Earth's climate is an extremely unstable complex system consisting of nonlinear and still rather unknown interactions among atmosphere, land surface, ice and oceans. The system is mainly driven by solar irradiance, even if internal components as volcanic eruptions and human activities affect the atmospheric composition thus acting as a driver for climate changes. Since the extreme climate variability is the result of a set of phenomena operating from daily to multi-millennial timescales, with different correlation times, a study of the scaling properties of the system can evidence non-trivial persistent structures, internal or external physical processes. Recently, the scaling properties of the paleoclimate changes have been analyzed by distinguish between interglacial and glacial climates [Shao and Ditlevsen, 2016]. The results show that the last glacial record (20-120 kyr BP) presents some elements of multifractality, while the last interglacial period (0-10 kyr BP), say the Holocene period, seems to be characterized by a mono-fractal structure. This is associated to the absence of Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events in the interglacial climate that could be the cause for the absence of multifractality. This hypothesis is supported by the analysis of the period between 18 and 27 kyr BP, i.e. during the Last Glacial Period, in which a single DO event have been registred. Through the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) we were able to detect a timescale separation within the Last Glacial Period (20-120 kyr BP) in two main components: a high-frequency component, related to the occurrence of DO events, and a low-frequency one, associated to the cooling/warming phase switch [Alberti et al., 2014]. Here, we investigate the scaling properties of the climate fluctuations within the Last Glacial Period, where abrupt climate changes, characterized by fast increase of temperature usually called Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, have been particularly pronounced. By using the

Seasonal and daily fluctuation of diatoms during spring tide periods in Kerkennah Islands

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mounir Ben brahim

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Objective: To study seasonal and the daily distribution of diatoms in the three tidal periods (flood, slack and ebb period during the spring tide. Methods: Water samples were taken and environmental variables were measured three times in each tidal period during 10 days of spring tide. Sampling was done in 2007 in Cercina station located in the western coast of Kerkennah (34°41'27'' N; 11°07'45'' E (Southern Tunisia. Results: Nutrients showed significant variation between seasons, increasing in spring and decreasing noticeably in autumn and winter. About 36 diatom species were found. Results revealed a remarkable abundance increase in spring and summer. Irregular differences in diatom abundances were revealed over the tidal periods, with the highest rates being detected during the flood and the ebb period, while the abundance rate was lowest during the slack period. This could presumably be attributed to the increase of nutrient supply of suspended particulate matter during water motion. The results revealed a correlation between diatom abundance and temperature, NO2 - , NO3 - , Si(OH4 and PO4 3 . Temperature seemed to be the most important factors which may influence the distribution and diatom abundance. Conclusions: Tide has various effects on the nutrients status and diatoms community (in terms of species composition, succession and abundance between different tidal periods. Fluctuation of diatoms was correlated with changes in the circulation of water bodies and changes in nutrient regime.

The intrinsic periodic fluctuation of forest: a theoretical model based on diffusion equation

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, J.; Lin, G., Sr.

2015-12-01

Most forest dynamic models predict the stable state of size structure as well as the total basal area and biomass in mature forest, the variation of forest stands are mainly driven by environmental factors after the equilibrium has been reached. However, although the predicted power-law size-frequency distribution does exist in analysis of many forest inventory data sets, the estimated distribution exponents are always shifting between -2 and -4, and has a positive correlation with the mean value of DBH. This regular pattern can not be explained by the effects of stochastic disturbances on forest stands. Here, we adopted the partial differential equation (PDE) approach to deduce the systematic behavior of an ideal forest, by solving the diffusion equation under the restricted condition of invariable resource occupation, a periodic solution was gotten to meet the variable performance of forest size structure while the former models with stable performance were just a special case of the periodic solution when the fluctuation frequency equals zero. In our results, the number of individuals in each size class was the function of individual growth rate(G), mortality(M), size(D) and time(T), by borrowing the conclusion of allometric theory on these parameters, the results perfectly reflected the observed "exponent-mean DBH" relationship and also gave a logically complete description to the time varying form of forest size-frequency distribution. Our model implies that the total biomass of a forest can never reach a stable equilibrium state even in the absence of disturbances and climate regime shift, we propose the idea of intrinsic fluctuation property of forest and hope to provide a new perspective on forest dynamics and carbon cycle research.

Cellular disturbance in the rats retina after irradiation and metabolic errors during the postnatal period

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lierse, W.; Franke, H.D.

1982-01-01

During the first five days of the postnatal period the retina has been vulnerable following administration of DNA blocking drugs and irradiation with conventional X-rays and fast neutrons. During this period the disturbance of lamination accompanied with pycnosis of neurons and neuroblasts has been the important morphologic reaction. During the same phase metabolic errors, like experimental phenylketonuria, have produced a swelling of photoreceptor cells and pigmentepithelium cells. The other neurons of the retina were pycnotic. Structural alterations like rosettes persisted during the rest of life. The relative minor error during the first phase of rats life may result in a persistent disease. (orig.)

Wind fluctuations over the North Sea

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vincent, Claire Louise; Pinson, Pierre; Giebel, Gregor

2011-01-01

Climatological patterns in wind speed fluctuations with periods of 1 min to 10 h are analysed using data from a meteorological mast in the Danish North Sea. Fluctuations on these time scales are of particular relevance to the effective management of the power supply from large wind farms. The Hil......Climatological patterns in wind speed fluctuations with periods of 1 min to 10 h are analysed using data from a meteorological mast in the Danish North Sea. Fluctuations on these time scales are of particular relevance to the effective management of the power supply from large wind farms...

Dual-component model of respiratory motion based on the periodic autoregressive moving average (periodic ARMA) method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCall, K C; Jeraj, R

2007-01-01

A new approach to the problem of modelling and predicting respiration motion has been implemented. This is a dual-component model, which describes the respiration motion as a non-periodic time series superimposed onto a periodic waveform. A periodic autoregressive moving average algorithm has been used to define a mathematical model of the periodic and non-periodic components of the respiration motion. The periodic components of the motion were found by projecting multiple inhale-exhale cycles onto a common subspace. The component of the respiration signal that is left after removing this periodicity is a partially autocorrelated time series and was modelled as an autoregressive moving average (ARMA) process. The accuracy of the periodic ARMA model with respect to fluctuation in amplitude and variation in length of cycles has been assessed. A respiration phantom was developed to simulate the inter-cycle variations seen in free-breathing and coached respiration patterns. At ±14% variability in cycle length and maximum amplitude of motion, the prediction errors were 4.8% of the total motion extent for a 0.5 s ahead prediction, and 9.4% at 1.0 s lag. The prediction errors increased to 11.6% at 0.5 s and 21.6% at 1.0 s when the respiration pattern had ±34% variations in both these parameters. Our results have shown that the accuracy of the periodic ARMA model is more strongly dependent on the variations in cycle length than the amplitude of the respiration cycles

Determination of circulation and short period fluctuation in Ilha Grande Bay (RJ, Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoshimine Ikeda

1980-06-01

Full Text Available A mesosoale study was made of the Ilha Grande area. The local circulation described through -progressive vector diagrams showed a clochwise bottom circulation determined in June 1976, while in the upper 10 m the direction of the flow entering the Ilha Grande Bay was towards the center in the west and towards the Marambaia sandbank in the east side of the Bay. Short periods and amplitude fluctuations were evaluted using power spectral analysis, Fourier and Maximum Entropy Method, which showed that in the upper 10 m predominant periods decrease from 1.1h (A = 6.3cm sec-1 (position = 3C to 1.0h (A = 7.4 cm sec-1 (position = 2D and increase to 5.8h (A = 6.8 cm., sec-1 (position = ID, while at the bottom layer the predominant period increases from 0.4 h (A = 5.0 cm sec-1 (position = 3G to 6.4h (A = 7.0 cm sec-1 (position = 2G and to 4.4h (A = 7.9 cm sec-1 (position = 1G . From the original data it has been possible to determine an "intense pulsation" between 30-70 cm sec-1 in the upper 10 m with about 1.0h period and 10-20 min duration in all the stations.

Phase shift extraction and wavefront retrieval from interferograms with background and contrast fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Qian; Wang, Yang; He, Jianguo; Ji, Fang

2015-01-01

The fluctuations of background and contrast cause measurement errors in the phase-shifting technique. To extract the phase shifts from interferograms with background and contrast fluctuations, an iterative algorithm is represented. The phase shifts and wavefront phase are calculated in two individual steps with the least-squares method. The fluctuation factors are determined when the phase shifts are calculated, and the fluctuations are compensated when the wavefront phase is calculated. The advantage of the algorithm lies in its ability to extract phase shifts from interferograms with background and contrast fluctuations converging stably and rapidly. Simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed algorithm. The convergence accuracy and speed are demonstrated by the simulation results. The experiment results show its ability for suppressing phase retrieval errors. (paper)

Fluctuations and stability in the Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF) torsatron

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harris, J.H.; Charlton, L.A.; Bell, J.D.; Bigelow, T.S.; Carreras, B.A.; Colchin, R.J.; Crume, E.C.; Dominguez, N.; Dunlap, J.L.; Dyer, G.R.; England, A.C.; Glowienka, J.C.; Hillis, D.L.; Hiroe, S.; Horton, L.D.; Howe, H.C.; Isler, R.C.; Jernigan, T.C.; Leboeuf, J.N.; Lee, D.K.; Lynch, V.E.; Lyon, J.F.; Menon, M.M.; Murakami, M.; Rasmussen, D.A.; Uckan, T.; Wilgen, J.B.; Wing, W.R.; Bell, G.L.; Crocker, N.A.; Hanson, G.R.; Thomas, C.E.; Wade, M.R.; Ritz, C.P.

1990-01-01

We present the results of experimental and theoretical studies of fluctuations and instabilities in the ATF torsatron, a type of stellarator. Measurements of globally coherent magnetic fluctuations in high-β plasmas with narrow pressure profiles produced by a field error show evidence of self-stabilization ('second stability'); the trends are compatible with theoretical analysis of self-stabilization of resistive curvature-driven instabilities, but there are discrepancies between the absolute experimental and theoretical fluctuation amplitudes. Fluctuation measurements in plasma with broad pressure profiles reveal new phenomena--specifically, toroidally localized magnetic fluctuations, whose amplitudes increase with plasma pressure, and coherent density fluctuations with significant radial width

Origin of short-period (30-300 s) Doppler frequency fluctuations of lower F region reflections in the equatorial electrojet region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sastri, J.H.; Ramesh, K.B.; Rao, J.V.S.V.; Somayajulu, V.V.

1991-01-01

Measurements of phase path P of lower F-region reflections at normal incidence at Kodaikanal revealed the ubiquitous presence of 30-300-s quasi-sinusoidal variations in the time rate of change of phase path, P (Doppler frequency shift) during day time. A study is made of the influence of the irregularities in the equatorial electrojet on the P fluctuations using simultaneous observations of F-region phase path at Kodaikanal and of equatorial electrojet with the VHF-backscatter radar at Thumba. It is shown that the spectral content of the Doppler fluctuations (quantified in terms of variance, sigma squared computed from P time series synthesized through FFT exp -1 (FFT) in the chosen period bands, 30-300 s/30-120 s of the FFT of original P times series) bears a significant positive linear relationship to the horizontal phase velocity of electrojet irregularities (3-m scale size) on a hourly basis. This result is in consonance with earlier findings (Sastri et al., 1990) of a significant linear relationship of sigma squared to the electrojet strength (estimated from H-field data) and a practical cessation of the P fluctuations at times of disappearance of Esq on ionograms (partial/complete counterelectrojet). The present work substantiates the interpretation that the short-period Doppler-frequency fluctuations are due to phase-path changes imposed on lower F region reflections by the refractive-index variations associated with the convective motions of plasma density irregularities (type I and II) in the daytime equatorial electrojet. 49 refs

Modeling the Lag Period and Exponential Growth of Listeria monocytogenes under Conditions of Fluctuating Temperature and Water Activity Values▿

Science.gov (United States)

Muñoz-Cuevas, Marina; Fernández, Pablo S.; George, Susan; Pin, Carmen

2010-01-01

The dynamic model for the growth of a bacterial population described by Baranyi and Roberts (J. Baranyi and T. A. Roberts, Int. J. Food Microbiol. 23:277-294, 1994) was applied to model the lag period and exponential growth of Listeria monocytogenes under conditions of fluctuating temperature and water activity (aw) values. To model the duration of the lag phase, the dependence of the parameter h0, which quantifies the amount of work done during the lag period, on the previous and current environmental conditions was determined experimentally. This parameter depended not only on the magnitude of the change between the previous and current environmental conditions but also on the current growth conditions. In an exponentially growing population, any change in the environment requiring a certain amount of work to adapt to the new conditions initiated a lag period that lasted until that work was finished. Observations for several scenarios in which exponential growth was halted by a sudden change in the temperature and/or aw were in good agreement with predictions. When a population already in a lag period was subjected to environmental fluctuations, the system was reset with a new lag phase. The work to be done during the new lag phase was estimated to be the workload due to the environmental change plus the unfinished workload from the uncompleted previous lag phase. PMID:20208022

Modeling the lag period and exponential growth of Listeria monocytogenes under conditions of fluctuating temperature and water activity values.

Science.gov (United States)

Muñoz-Cuevas, Marina; Fernández, Pablo S; George, Susan; Pin, Carmen

2010-05-01

The dynamic model for the growth of a bacterial population described by Baranyi and Roberts (J. Baranyi and T. A. Roberts, Int. J. Food Microbiol. 23:277-294, 1994) was applied to model the lag period and exponential growth of Listeria monocytogenes under conditions of fluctuating temperature and water activity (a(w)) values. To model the duration of the lag phase, the dependence of the parameter h(0), which quantifies the amount of work done during the lag period, on the previous and current environmental conditions was determined experimentally. This parameter depended not only on the magnitude of the change between the previous and current environmental conditions but also on the current growth conditions. In an exponentially growing population, any change in the environment requiring a certain amount of work to adapt to the new conditions initiated a lag period that lasted until that work was finished. Observations for several scenarios in which exponential growth was halted by a sudden change in the temperature and/or a(w) were in good agreement with predictions. When a population already in a lag period was subjected to environmental fluctuations, the system was reset with a new lag phase. The work to be done during the new lag phase was estimated to be the workload due to the environmental change plus the unfinished workload from the uncompleted previous lag phase.

Bamboo-like 3C-SiC nanowires with periodical fluctuating diameter: Homogeneous synthesis, synergistic growth mechanism, and their luminescence properties

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Meng; Zhao, Jian [School of Electromechanical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong Province 266061 (China); Li, Zhenjiang, E-mail: zhenjiangli@qust.edu.cn [School of Sino-German Science and Technology, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266061, China (China); Yu, Hongyuan [School of Electromechanical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong Province 266061 (China); Wang, Yaqi [School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong Province 266042 (China); Meng, Alan, E-mail: alanmengqust@163.com [School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong Province 266042 (China); Li, Qingdang [School of Sino-German Science and Technology, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266061, China (China)

2016-11-15

Herein, bamboo-like 3C-SiC nanowires have been successfully fabricated on homogeneous 6H-SiC substrate by a simple chemical vapor reaction (CVR) approach. The obtained 3C-SiC nanostructure with periodical fluctuating diameter, is composed of two alternating structure units, the typical normal-sized stem segment with perfect crystallinity and obvious projecting nodes segment having high-density stacking faults. The formation of the interesting morphology is significantly subjected to the peculiar growth condition provided by the homogeneous substrate as well as the varying growth elastic energy. Furthermore, the photoluminescence (PL) performance measured on the bamboo-like SiC nanowire shows an intensive emission peaks centered at 451 nm and 467 nm, which has been expected to make a positive progress toward the optical application of the SiC-based one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures, such as light emission diode (LED). - Graphical abstract: Based on the synergistic growth mechanism from homogeneous substrate and elastic energy, bamboo-like 3C-SiC nanowires with periodically fluctuating diameter have been synthesized on 6H-SiC. The blue-violet light emission properties of the bamboo-like nanowires have also been investigated for exploring their peculiar optical application. - Highlights: • Bamboo-like 3C-SiC nanowires with periodically fluctuating diameter have been synthesized on 6H-SiC. • A synergistic growth mechanism from homogeneous substrate and elastic energy has been proposed firstly. • The blue-violet light emission properties of the products displayed peculiar optical application.

Bamboo-like 3C-SiC nanowires with periodical fluctuating diameter: Homogeneous synthesis, synergistic growth mechanism, and their luminescence properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Meng; Zhao, Jian; Li, Zhenjiang; Yu, Hongyuan; Wang, Yaqi; Meng, Alan; Li, Qingdang

2016-01-01

Herein, bamboo-like 3C-SiC nanowires have been successfully fabricated on homogeneous 6H-SiC substrate by a simple chemical vapor reaction (CVR) approach. The obtained 3C-SiC nanostructure with periodical fluctuating diameter, is composed of two alternating structure units, the typical normal-sized stem segment with perfect crystallinity and obvious projecting nodes segment having high-density stacking faults. The formation of the interesting morphology is significantly subjected to the peculiar growth condition provided by the homogeneous substrate as well as the varying growth elastic energy. Furthermore, the photoluminescence (PL) performance measured on the bamboo-like SiC nanowire shows an intensive emission peaks centered at 451 nm and 467 nm, which has been expected to make a positive progress toward the optical application of the SiC-based one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures, such as light emission diode (LED). - Graphical abstract: Based on the synergistic growth mechanism from homogeneous substrate and elastic energy, bamboo-like 3C-SiC nanowires with periodically fluctuating diameter have been synthesized on 6H-SiC. The blue-violet light emission properties of the bamboo-like nanowires have also been investigated for exploring their peculiar optical application. - Highlights: • Bamboo-like 3C-SiC nanowires with periodically fluctuating diameter have been synthesized on 6H-SiC. • A synergistic growth mechanism from homogeneous substrate and elastic energy has been proposed firstly. • The blue-violet light emission properties of the products displayed peculiar optical application.

Hyper-Ramsey spectroscopy with probe-laser-intensity fluctuations

Science.gov (United States)

Beloy, K.

2018-03-01

We examine the influence of probe-laser-intensity fluctuations on hyper-Ramsey spectroscopy. We assume, as is appropriate for relevant cases of interest, that the probe-laser intensity I determines both the Rabi frequency (∝√{I } ) and the frequency shift to the atomic transition (∝I ) during probe-laser interactions with the atom. The spectroscopic signal depends on these two quantities that covary with fluctuations in the probe-laser intensity. Introducing a simple model for the fluctuations, we find that the signature robustness of the hyper-Ramsey method can be compromised. Taking the Yb+ electric octupole clock transition as an example, we quantify the clock error under different levels of probe-laser-intensity fluctuations.

Typical Periods for Two-Stage Synthesis by Time-Series Aggregation with Bounded Error in Objective Function

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bahl, Björn; Söhler, Theo; Hennen, Maike; Bardow, André, E-mail: andre.bardow@ltt.rwth-aachen.de [Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen (Germany)

2018-01-08

Two-stage synthesis problems simultaneously consider here-and-now decisions (e.g., optimal investment) and wait-and-see decisions (e.g., optimal operation). The optimal synthesis of energy systems reveals such a two-stage character. The synthesis of energy systems involves multiple large time series such as energy demands and energy prices. Since problem size increases with the size of the time series, synthesis of energy systems leads to complex optimization problems. To reduce the problem size without loosing solution quality, we propose a method for time-series aggregation to identify typical periods. Typical periods retain the chronology of time steps, which enables modeling of energy systems, e.g., with storage units or start-up cost. The aim of the proposed method is to obtain few typical periods with few time steps per period, while accurately representing the objective function of the full time series, e.g., cost. Thus, we determine the error of time-series aggregation as the cost difference between operating the optimal design for the aggregated time series and for the full time series. Thereby, we rigorously bound the maximum performance loss of the optimal energy system design. In an initial step, the proposed method identifies the best length of typical periods by autocorrelation analysis. Subsequently, an adaptive procedure determines aggregated typical periods employing the clustering algorithm k-medoids, which groups similar periods into clusters and selects one representative period per cluster. Moreover, the number of time steps per period is aggregated by a novel clustering algorithm maintaining chronology of the time steps in the periods. The method is iteratively repeated until the error falls below a threshold value. A case study based on a real-world synthesis problem of an energy system shows that time-series aggregation from 8,760 time steps to 2 typical periods with each 2 time steps results in an error smaller than the optimality gap of

Human error considerations and annunciator effects in determining optimal test intervals for periodically inspected standby systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McWilliams, T.P.; Martz, H.F.

1981-01-01

This paper incorporates the effects of four types of human error in a model for determining the optimal time between periodic inspections which maximizes the steady state availability for standby safety systems. Such safety systems are characteristic of nuclear power plant operations. The system is modeled by means of an infinite state-space Markov chain. Purpose of the paper is to demonstrate techniques for computing steady-state availability A and the optimal periodic inspection interval tau* for the system. The model can be used to investigate the effects of human error probabilities on optimal availability, study the benefits of annunciating the standby-system, and to determine optimal inspection intervals. Several examples which are representative of nuclear power plant applications are presented

Synchronizing movements with the metronome: nonlinear error correction and unstable periodic orbits.

Science.gov (United States)

Engbert, Ralf; Krampe, Ralf Th; Kurths, Jürgen; Kliegl, Reinhold

2002-02-01

The control of human hand movements is investigated in a simple synchronization task. We propose and analyze a stochastic model based on nonlinear error correction; a mechanism which implies the existence of unstable periodic orbits. This prediction is tested in an experiment with human subjects. We find that our experimental data are in good agreement with numerical simulations of our theoretical model. These results suggest that feedback control of the human motor systems shows nonlinear behavior. Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science (USA).

Contralateral Delay Activity Tracks Fluctuations in Working Memory Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Adam, Kirsten C S; Robison, Matthew K; Vogel, Edward K

2018-01-08

Neural measures of working memory storage, such as the contralateral delay activity (CDA), are powerful tools in working memory research. CDA amplitude is sensitive to working memory load, reaches an asymptote at known behavioral limits, and predicts individual differences in capacity. An open question, however, is whether neural measures of load also track trial-by-trial fluctuations in performance. Here, we used a whole-report working memory task to test the relationship between CDA amplitude and working memory performance. If working memory failures are due to decision-based errors and retrieval failures, CDA amplitude would not differentiate good and poor performance trials when load is held constant. If failures arise during storage, then CDA amplitude should track both working memory load and trial-by-trial performance. As expected, CDA amplitude tracked load (Experiment 1), reaching an asymptote at three items. In Experiment 2, we tracked fluctuations in trial-by-trial performance. CDA amplitude was larger (more negative) for high-performance trials compared with low-performance trials, suggesting that fluctuations in performance were related to the successful storage of items. During working memory failures, participants oriented their attention to the correct side of the screen (lateralized P1) and maintained covert attention to the correct side during the delay period (lateralized alpha power suppression). Despite the preservation of attentional orienting, we found impairments consistent with an executive attention theory of individual differences in working memory capacity; fluctuations in executive control (indexed by pretrial frontal theta power) may be to blame for storage failures.

Detailed semantic analyses of human error incidents occurring at nuclear power plant in USA (interim report). Characteristics of human error incidents occurring in the period from 1992 to 1996

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirotsu, Yuko; Tsuge, Tadashi; Sano, Toshiaki; Takano, Kenichi; Gouda, Hidenori

2001-01-01

CRIEPI has been conducting detailed analyses of all human error incidents at domestic nuclear power plants (NPPs) collected from Japanese Licensee Event Reports (LERs) using J-HPES (Japanese version of HPES) as an analysis method. Results obtained by the analyses have been stored in J-HPES database. Since 1999, human error incidents have been selected from U.S. LERs, and they are analyzed using J-HPES. In this report, the results, which classified error action, cause, and preventive measure, are summarized for U.S. human error cases occurring in the period from 1992 to 1996. It was suggested as a result of classification that the categories of error action were almost the same as those of Japanese human error cases. Therefore, problems in the process of error action and checkpoints for preventing errors will be extracted by analyzing both U.S. and domestic human error cases. It was also suggested that the interrelations between error actions, causes, and organizational factors could be identified. While taking these suggestions into consideration, we will continue to analyze U.S. human error cases. (author)

Stochastic modelling of intermittent fluctuations in the scrape-off layer: Correlations, distributions, level crossings, and moment estimation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Garcia, O. E., E-mail: odd.erik.garcia@uit.no; Kube, R.; Theodorsen, A. [Department of Physics and Technology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, N-9037 Tromsø (Norway); Pécseli, H. L. [Physics Department, University of Oslo, PO Box 1048 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo (Norway)

2016-05-15

A stochastic model is presented for intermittent fluctuations in the scrape-off layer of magnetically confined plasmas. The fluctuations in the plasma density are modeled by a super-position of uncorrelated pulses with fixed shape and duration, describing radial motion of blob-like structures. In the case of an exponential pulse shape and exponentially distributed pulse amplitudes, predictions are given for the lowest order moments, probability density function, auto-correlation function, level crossings, and average times for periods spent above and below a given threshold level. Also, the mean squared errors on estimators of sample mean and variance for realizations of the process by finite time series are obtained. These results are discussed in the context of single-point measurements of fluctuations in the scrape-off layer, broad density profiles, and implications for plasma–wall interactions due to the transient transport events in fusion grade plasmas. The results may also have wide applications for modelling fluctuations in other magnetized plasmas such as basic laboratory experiments and ionospheric irregularities.

Fluctuating Asymmetry of Human Populations: A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John H. Graham

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Fluctuating asymmetry, the random deviation from perfect symmetry, is a widely used population-level index of developmental instability, developmental noise, and robustness. It reflects a population’s state of adaptation and genomic coadaptation. Here, we review the literature on fluctuating asymmetry of human populations. The most widely used bilateral traits include skeletal, dental, and facial dimensions; dermatoglyphic patterns and ridge counts; and facial shape. Each trait has its advantages and disadvantages, but results are most robust when multiple traits are combined into a composite index of fluctuating asymmetry (CFA. Both environmental (diet, climate, toxins and genetic (aneuploidy, heterozygosity, inbreeding stressors have been linked to population-level variation in fluctuating asymmetry. In general, these stressors increase average fluctuating asymmetry. Nevertheless, there have been many conflicting results, in part because (1 fluctuating asymmetry is a weak signal in a sea of noise; and (2 studies of human fluctuating asymmetry have not always followed best practices. The most serious concerns are insensitive asymmetry indices (correlation coefficient and coefficient of indetermination, inappropriate size scaling, unrecognized mixture distributions, inappropriate corrections for directional asymmetry, failure to use composite indices, and inattention to measurement error. Consequently, it is often difficult (or impossible to compare results across traits, and across studies.

THE EFFECTS OF ERROR TREATMENT ON INTERLANGUAGE OF INDONESIAN LEARNERS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Endang Fauziati

2009-06-01

months afterwards. They were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The result indicates that the ET changed the state of the learners’ ungrammatical items. They became so dynamic. At a certain period, some appeared; then due to the ET, some were destabilized, some were fluctuating, and others were still stabilized. New errors appeared as they started learning to use new grammatical items. The conclusion drawn from this study is that ET can change the state of the learners’ IL errors; ET contributes to the destabilization process. Errors may persist momentarily but they can be destabilized. The ET still works on the learners who are at their post puberty. Thus, there is a great possibility for the learners to acquire complete TL grammar since their ungrammatical items are dynamic. Keywords: error treatment, interlanguage, fossilization, stabilization, destabilization.

Impact of pitch angle fluctuations on airborne lidar forward sensing along the flight direction

Science.gov (United States)

Sergeevich Gurvich, Alexander; Alexeevich Kulikov, Victor

2017-10-01

Airborne lidar forward sensing along the flight direction can serve for notification of clear air turbulence (CAT) and help to prevent injuries or fatal air accidents. The validation of this concept was presented in the framework of the DELICAT (DEmonstration of LIdar-based CAT detection) project. However, the strong variations in signal level, which were observed during the DELICAT measurements but not explained, sometimes indicated the need of a better understanding the observational errors due to geometrical factors. In this paper, we discuss possible error sources pertinent to this technique, related to fluctuations of the flight parameters, which may lead to strong signal variations caused by the random deviations of the sensing beam from the forward flight trajectory. We analyze the variations in backscattered lidar signal caused by fluctuations of the most important forward-sensing flight parameter, the pitch angle. The fluctuation values considered in the paper correspond to the error limits of the compensational gyro platform used in civil aviation. The part of the pitch angle fluctuations not compensated for by the beam-steering device in the presence of aerosol concentration variations can lead to noticeable signal variations that can be mistakenly attributed to wind shear, turbulence, or fast evolution of the aerosol layer. We formulate the criteria that allow the recognition of signal variations caused by pitch angle fluctuations. Influence of these fluctuations is shown to be stronger for aerosol variations on smaller vertical scales. An example of DELICAT observations indicating a noticeable pitch angle fluctuation impact is presented.

Impact of pitch angle fluctuations on airborne lidar forward sensing along the flight direction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. S. Gurvich

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Airborne lidar forward sensing along the flight direction can serve for notification of clear air turbulence (CAT and help to prevent injuries or fatal air accidents. The validation of this concept was presented in the framework of the DELICAT (DEmonstration of LIdar-based CAT detection project. However, the strong variations in signal level, which were observed during the DELICAT measurements but not explained, sometimes indicated the need of a better understanding the observational errors due to geometrical factors. In this paper, we discuss possible error sources pertinent to this technique, related to fluctuations of the flight parameters, which may lead to strong signal variations caused by the random deviations of the sensing beam from the forward flight trajectory. We analyze the variations in backscattered lidar signal caused by fluctuations of the most important forward-sensing flight parameter, the pitch angle. The fluctuation values considered in the paper correspond to the error limits of the compensational gyro platform used in civil aviation. The part of the pitch angle fluctuations not compensated for by the beam-steering device in the presence of aerosol concentration variations can lead to noticeable signal variations that can be mistakenly attributed to wind shear, turbulence, or fast evolution of the aerosol layer. We formulate the criteria that allow the recognition of signal variations caused by pitch angle fluctuations. Influence of these fluctuations is shown to be stronger for aerosol variations on smaller vertical scales. An example of DELICAT observations indicating a noticeable pitch angle fluctuation impact is presented.

Investigation of the impact of dose fluctuations on tumour control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zavgorodni, S.F.; Royal Adelaide Hospital,; Booth, J.; Adelaide University,; Rosenfeld, A.

2001-01-01

Full text: The importance of spatial uniformity of the dose across the Planning Target Volume (PTV) has been investigated previously with the conclusion stated in 'uniform dose theorem' concluding that the uniform dose results in the highest Tumour Control Probability (TCP). The dose fluctuations, which appear in fractionated treatments as a result of setup errors, organ motion, treatment machine calibration and other reasons can be seen as temporal dose non-uniformity. The intuitive expectation, that the temporal dose non-uniformity would also reduce TCP, has been tested. The impact of temporal dose non-uniformity has been investigated considering intra and inter-treatment dose fluctuations. The dose was considered to be spatially uniform. The convolution technique was used and analytical expression of TCP accounting for the dose fluctuation has also been derived. Both techniques used Probability Density Function (PDF) to account for the dose fluctuations. The dose fluctuations with PDF symmetrical around its mean value (Gaussian) as well as non-symmetrical PDFs were both investigated. The symmetrical PDFs represented the fluctuations, which appear in the whole PTV as a result of day to day variation in treatment machine output. Non-symmetrical PDFs represented the dose fluctuations at the edges of PTV as a result of setup errors and organ motion. The effect of the dose fluctuations has been expressed in terms of an extra dose δ (positive or negative) which should be added to the value of temporally uniform dose in order to provide the same TCP as the one resulting from temporally non-uniform (fluctuating) dose. Intra-treatment dose fluctuations resulted in an increased TCP, though the effect is relatively small (δ<1 Gy for the treatment dose of 60 Gy). However, inter-treatment fluctuations of the dose reduced TCP for a patient population. The size of effect increases with the standard deviation of the PDF. Random ultra-treatment dose fluctuations resulted in

Effect of periodic fluctuation of soil particle rotation resistance on interface shear behaviour

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ebrahimian, Babak; Noorzad, Asadollah

2010-01-01

The interface behaviour between infinite extended narrow granular layer and bounding structure is numerically investigated using finite element method. The micro-polar (Cosserat) continuum approach within the framework of elasto-plasticity is employed to remove the numerical difficulties caused by strain-softening of materials in classical continuum mechanics. Mechanical properties of cohesionless granular soil are described with Lade's model enhanced with polar terms including Cosserat rotations, curvatures and couple stresses via mean grain diameter as the internal length. The main attention of paper is laid on the influence of spatial periodic fluctuation of rotation resistance of soil particles interlocked with the surface of bounding structure on evolution and location of shear band developed inside granular body. The finite element results demonstrate that the location and evolution of shear localization in granular body is strongly affected by prescribed non-uniform micro-polar kinematic boundary conditions along the interface.

Joint probability distributions and fluctuation theorems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

García-García, Reinaldo; Kolton, Alejandro B; Domínguez, Daniel; Lecomte, Vivien

2012-01-01

We derive various exact results for Markovian systems that spontaneously relax to a non-equilibrium steady state by using joint probability distribution symmetries of different entropy production decompositions. The analytical approach is applied to diverse problems such as the description of the fluctuations induced by experimental errors, for unveiling symmetries of correlation functions appearing in fluctuation–dissipation relations recently generalized to non-equilibrium steady states, and also for mapping averages between different trajectory-based dynamical ensembles. Many known fluctuation theorems arise as special instances of our approach for particular twofold decompositions of the total entropy production. As a complement, we also briefly review and synthesize the variety of fluctuation theorems applying to stochastic dynamics of both continuous systems described by a Langevin dynamics and discrete systems obeying a Markov dynamics, emphasizing how these results emerge from distinct symmetries of the dynamical entropy of the trajectory followed by the system. For Langevin dynamics, we embed the 'dual dynamics' with a physical meaning, and for Markov systems we show how the fluctuation theorems translate into symmetries of modified evolution operators

Derivation and precision of mean field electrodynamics with mesoscale fluctuations

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Hongzhe; Blackman, Eric G.

2018-06-01

Mean field electrodynamics (MFE) facilitates practical modelling of secular, large scale properties of astrophysical or laboratory systems with fluctuations. Practitioners commonly assume wide scale separation between mean and fluctuating quantities, to justify equality of ensemble and spatial or temporal averages. Often however, real systems do not exhibit such scale separation. This raises two questions: (I) What are the appropriate generalized equations of MFE in the presence of mesoscale fluctuations? (II) How precise are theoretical predictions from MFE? We address both by first deriving the equations of MFE for different types of averaging, along with mesoscale correction terms that depend on the ratio of averaging scale to variation scale of the mean. We then show that even if these terms are small, predictions of MFE can still have a significant precision error. This error has an intrinsic contribution from the dynamo input parameters and a filtering contribution from differences in the way observations and theory are projected through the measurement kernel. Minimizing the sum of these contributions can produce an optimal scale of averaging that makes the theory maximally precise. The precision error is important to quantify when comparing to observations because it quantifies the resolution of predictive power. We exemplify these principles for galactic dynamos, comment on broader implications, and identify possibilities for further work.

Study of droplet flow in a T-shape microchannel with bottom wall fluctuation

Science.gov (United States)

Pang, Yan; Wang, Xiang; Liu, Zhaomiao

2018-03-01

Droplet generation in a T-shape microchannel, with a main channel width of 50 μm , side channel width of 25 μm, and height of 50 μm, is simulated to study the effects of the forced fluctuation of the bottom wall. The periodic fluctuations of the bottom wall are applied on the near junction part of the main channel in the T-shape microchannel. Effects of bottom wall's shape, fluctuation periods, and amplitudes on the droplet generation are covered in the research of this protocol. In the simulation, the average size is affected a little by the fluctuations, but significantly by the fixed shape of the deformed bottom wall, while the droplet size range is expanded by the fluctuations under most of the conditions. Droplet sizes are distributed in a periodic pattern with small amplitude along the relative time when the fluctuation is forced on the bottom wall near the T-junction, while the droplet emerging frequency is not varied by the fluctuation. The droplet velocity is varied by the bottom wall motion, especially under the shorter period and the larger amplitude. When the fluctuation period is similar to the droplet emerging period, the droplet size is as stable as the non-fluctuation case after a development stage at the beginning of flow, while the droplet velocity is varied by the moving wall with the scope up to 80% of the average velocity under the conditions of this investigation.

Fluctuations of offshore wind generation: Statistical modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pinson, Pierre; Christensen, Lasse E.A.; Madsen, Henrik

2007-01-01

The magnitude of power fluctuations at large offshore wind farms has a significant impact on the control and management strategies of their power output. If focusing on the minute scale, one observes successive periods with smaller and larger power fluctuations. It seems that different regimes yi...

Fluctuation traits of Litchi wholesale price in China

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, F. F.; Qi, W. E.; Ouyang, X.

2017-07-01

This paper chose the wholesale price of litchi as research object based on the daily data of 11 main sales markets in China -- Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hefei, Jiaxing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Changsha, Zhengzhou and Chongqing from April 1, 2012 to September 30, 2016. After analyzing the fluctuation characteristics with BP filter method and H-P filter method, and the fluctuation trends of litchi wholesale price in China obtained by BP filter are roughly consistent with the trends obtained by H-P filter. The main conclusions are as follows: there is strong cyclicality in the fluctuation of litchi wholesale price; the period of fluctuations of litchi wholesale prices are not repeatable; litchi wholesale price fluctuates asymmetrically in one fluctuation cycle.

Temperature fluctuations superimposed on background temperature change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Otto, James; Roberts, J.A.

2016-01-01

Proxy data allows the temperature of the Earth to be mapped over long periods of time. In this work the temperature fluctuations for over 200 proxy data sets were examined and from this set 50 sets were analyzed to test for periodic and quasi-periodic fluctuations in the data sets. Temperature reconstructions over 4 different time scales were analyzed to see if patterns emerged. Data were put into four time intervals; 4,000 years, 14,000 years, 1,000,000 years, and 3,000,000 years and analyzed with a goal to understanding periodic and quasi-periodic patterns in global temperature change superimposed on a “background” average temperature change. Quasi-periodic signatures were identified that predate the Industrial Revolution, during much of which direct data on temperature are not available. These data indicate that Earth temperatures have undergone a number of periodic and quasi-periodic intervals that contain both global warming and global cooling cycles. The fluctuations are superimposed on a background of temperature change that has a declining slope during the two periods, pre-ice age and post ice age with a transition about 12,000 BCE. The data are divided into “events” that span the time periods 3,000,000 BCE to “0” CE, 1,000,000 BCE to “0” CE, 12,000 BCE to 2,000 CE and 2,000 BCE to 2,000 CE. An equation using a quasi-periodic (frequency modulated sine waves) patterns was developed to analyze the date sets for quasi-periodic patterns. “Periodicities” which show reasonable agreement with the predictions of Milankovitch and other investigators were found in the data sets.

The error analysis of coke moisture measured by neutron moisture gauge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian Huixing

1995-01-01

The error of coke moisture measured by neutron method in the iron and steel industry is analyzed. The errors are caused by inaccurate sampling location in the calibration procedure on site. By comparison, the instrument error and the statistical fluctuation error are smaller. So the sampling proportion should be increased as large as possible in the calibration procedure on site, and a satisfied calibration effect can be obtained on a suitable size hopper

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution with correlated source-light-intensity errors

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Cong; Yu, Zong-Wen; Wang, Xiang-Bin

2018-04-01

We present an analysis for measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution with correlated source-light-intensity errors. Numerical results show that the results here can greatly improve the key rate especially with large intensity fluctuations and channel attenuation compared with prior results if the intensity fluctuations of different sources are correlated.

Stochastic goal-oriented error estimation with memory

Science.gov (United States)

Ackmann, Jan; Marotzke, Jochem; Korn, Peter

2017-11-01

We propose a stochastic dual-weighted error estimator for the viscous shallow-water equation with boundaries. For this purpose, previous work on memory-less stochastic dual-weighted error estimation is extended by incorporating memory effects. The memory is introduced by describing the local truncation error as a sum of time-correlated random variables. The random variables itself represent the temporal fluctuations in local truncation errors and are estimated from high-resolution information at near-initial times. The resulting error estimator is evaluated experimentally in two classical ocean-type experiments, the Munk gyre and the flow around an island. In these experiments, the stochastic process is adapted locally to the respective dynamical flow regime. Our stochastic dual-weighted error estimator is shown to provide meaningful error bounds for a range of physically relevant goals. We prove, as well as show numerically, that our approach can be interpreted as a linearized stochastic-physics ensemble.

High-frequency fluctuations of surface temperatures in an urban environment

Science.gov (United States)

Christen, Andreas; Meier, Fred; Scherer, Dieter

2012-04-01

This study presents an attempt to resolve fluctuations in surface temperatures at scales of a few seconds to several minutes using time-sequential thermography (TST) from a ground-based platform. A scheme is presented to decompose a TST dataset into fluctuating, high-frequency, and long-term mean parts. To demonstrate the scheme's application, a set of four TST runs (day/night, leaves-on/leaves-off) recorded from a 125-m-high platform above a complex urban environment in Berlin, Germany is used. Fluctuations in surface temperatures of different urban facets are measured and related to surface properties (material and form) and possible error sources. A number of relationships were found: (1) Surfaces with surface temperatures that were significantly different from air temperature experienced the highest fluctuations. (2) With increasing surface temperature above (below) air temperature, surface temperature fluctuations experienced a stronger negative (positive) skewness. (3) Surface materials with lower thermal admittance (lawns, leaves) showed higher fluctuations than surfaces with high thermal admittance (walls, roads). (4) Surface temperatures of emerged leaves fluctuate more compared to trees in a leaves-off situation. (5) In many cases, observed fluctuations were coherent across several neighboring pixels. The evidence from (1) to (5) suggests that atmospheric turbulence is a significant contributor to fluctuations. The study underlines the potential of using high-frequency thermal remote sensing in energy balance and turbulence studies at complex land-atmosphere interfaces.

About Error in Measuring Oxygen Concentration by Solid-Electrolyte Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. I. Nazarov

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The paper evaluates additional errors while measuring oxygen concentration in a gas mixture by a solid-electrolyte cell. Experimental dependences of additional errors caused by changes in temperature in a sensor zone, discharge of gas mixture supplied to a sensor zone, partial pressure in the gas mixture and fluctuations in oxygen concentrations in the air.

Seahorse (Hippocampinae) population fluctuations in the Ria Formosa Lagoon, south Portugal.

Science.gov (United States)

Correia, M; Caldwell, I R; Koldewey, H J; Andrade, J P; Palma, J

2015-09-01

Comparisons of three sets of surveys in the Ria Formosa Lagoon, Portugal, over a 13 year period (2001-2002, 2008-2009 and 2010-2013) revealed significant population fluctuations in at least one of the two seahorse (Hippocampinae) species living there, and that those fluctuations were potentially associated with habitat changes in the lagoon. After a significant decline between the first two survey periods (2001-2002 v. 2008-2009), long-snouted seahorse Hippocampus guttulatus populations increased significantly between 2008-2009 surveys and new 2010-2013 surveys. There were no significant differences in H. guttulatus populations between the 2001-2002 and 2010-2013 surveys. In contrast, there were no significant differences in short-snouted seahorse Hippocampus hippocampus densities among the 16 sites surveyed throughout the three sampling periods, although the ability to detect any change was hampered by the low densities of this species in all time periods. Fluctuations in H. guttulatus densities were positively correlated with the percentage of holdfast coverage, but with none of the other environmental variables tested. These results highlight the importance of holdfast availability in maintaining stable seahorse populations. While population fluctuations are certainly more promising than a consistent downward decline, such extreme fluctuations observed for seahorses in the Ria Formosa Lagoon could still leave these two species vulnerable to any additional stressors, particularly during low density periods. © 2015 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.

Alterations in Neural Control of Constant Isometric Contraction with the Size of Error Feedback.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ing-Shiou Hwang

Full Text Available Discharge patterns from a population of motor units (MUs were estimated with multi-channel surface electromyogram and signal processing techniques to investigate parametric differences in low-frequency force fluctuations, MU discharges, and force-discharge relation during static force-tracking with varying sizes of execution error presented via visual feedback. Fourteen healthy adults produced isometric force at 10% of maximal voluntary contraction through index abduction under three visual conditions that scaled execution errors with different amplification factors. Error-augmentation feedback that used a high amplification factor (HAF to potentiate visualized error size resulted in higher sample entropy, mean frequency, ratio of high-frequency components, and spectral dispersion of force fluctuations than those of error-reducing feedback using a low amplification factor (LAF. In the HAF condition, MUs with relatively high recruitment thresholds in the dorsal interosseous muscle exhibited a larger coefficient of variation for inter-spike intervals and a greater spectral peak of the pooled MU coherence at 13-35 Hz than did those in the LAF condition. Manipulation of the size of error feedback altered the force-discharge relation, which was characterized with non-linear approaches such as mutual information and cross sample entropy. The association of force fluctuations and global discharge trace decreased with increasing error amplification factor. Our findings provide direct neurophysiological evidence that favors motor training using error-augmentation feedback. Amplification of the visualized error size of visual feedback could enrich force gradation strategies during static force-tracking, pertaining to selective increases in the discharge variability of higher-threshold MUs that receive greater common oscillatory inputs in the β-band.

Error threshold ghosts in a simple hypercycle with error prone self-replication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sardanyes, Josep

2008-01-01

A delayed transition because of mutation processes is shown to happen in a simple hypercycle composed by two indistinguishable molecular species with error prone self-replication. The appearance of a ghost near the hypercycle error threshold causes a delay in the extinction and thus in the loss of information of the mutually catalytic replicators, in a kind of information memory. The extinction time, τ, scales near bifurcation threshold according to the universal square-root scaling law i.e. τ ∼ (Q hc - Q) -1/2 , typical of dynamical systems close to a saddle-node bifurcation. Here, Q hc represents the bifurcation point named hypercycle error threshold, involved in the change among the asymptotic stability phase and the so-called Random Replication State (RRS) of the hypercycle; and the parameter Q is the replication quality factor. The ghost involves a longer transient towards extinction once the saddle-node bifurcation has occurred, being extremely long near the bifurcation threshold. The role of this dynamical effect is expected to be relevant in fluctuating environments. Such a phenomenon should also be found in larger hypercycles when considering the hypercycle species in competition with their error tail. The implications of the ghost in the survival and evolution of error prone self-replicating molecules with hypercyclic organization are discussed

The business fluctuations and the lobbying evolution in European Union, Canada and USA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oanta Ilie Stefan

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Business fluctuations are associated with business cycles but are not implying the regularity. We consider that the lobbying activities can influence the periods of economic recession and expansion from business fluctuations. The role of lobbying is to affect the decisions made by officials in the government or international corporations and agencies or organizations. In this paper we describe the structure of lobbying practice in European Union, Canada and United States of America and the characteristics of business fluctuations. Specifically, this paper looks at the lobbying activities evolution in European Union, Canada and United States of America and also at a potential relationship between lobbying and business fluctuations, from periods of boom to periods of recession.

Periodic fluctuations in deep water formation due to sea ice

Science.gov (United States)

Saha, R.

2012-12-01

During the last ice age, several abrupt warming events took place, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events. Their effects were felt globally, although the North Atlantic experienced the largest temperature increase. The leading hypothesis to explain their occurrence postulates that the warming was caused by abrupt disruptions of the North Atlantic Current due to meltwater discharge from destabilized ice sheets (Heinrich events). However, the number of warming events outnumber the those of ice-sheet collapse. Thus, the majority of D-O events are not attributed to surface freshwater anomalies, and the underlying mechanism behind their occurrence remain unexplained. Using a simple dynamical model of sea ice and an overturning circulation, I show the existence of self-sustained relaxation oscillations in the overturning circulation. The insulating effect of sea ice is shown to paradoxically lead to a net loss of heat from the top layer of the polar ocean when sea ice retreats. Repeated heat loss results in a denser top layer and a destabilized water column, which triggers convection. The convective state pulls the system out of its preferred mode of circulation, setting up relaxation oscillations. The period of oscillations in this case is linked to the geometry of the ocean basin, if solar forcing is assumed to remain constant. If appropriate glacial freshwater forcing is applied to the model, a pattern of oscillation is produced that bears remarkable similarity to the observed fluctuations in North Atlantic climate between 50,000 and 30,000 years before present.; Comparison of NGRIP δ 18-O (proxy for near surface air temperature) between 50,000 and 30,000 years before present, showing Bond cycles (left) with the model output when forced with appropriate glacial freshwater forcing (right).

Bayesian ensemble approach to error estimation of interatomic potentials

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Frederiksen, Søren Lund; Jacobsen, Karsten Wedel; Brown, K.S.

2004-01-01

Using a Bayesian approach a general method is developed to assess error bars on predictions made by models fitted to data. The error bars are estimated from fluctuations in ensembles of models sampling the model-parameter space with a probability density set by the minimum cost. The method...... is applied to the development of interatomic potentials for molybdenum using various potential forms and databases based on atomic forces. The calculated error bars on elastic constants, gamma-surface energies, structural energies, and dislocation properties are shown to provide realistic estimates...

Investigation of the climate-driven periodicity of shallow groundwater level fluctuations in a Central-Eastern European agricultural region

Science.gov (United States)

Garamhegyi, Tamás; Kovács, József; Pongrácz, Rita; Tanos, Péter; Hatvani, István Gábor

2018-05-01

The distribution and amount of groundwater, a crucial source of Earth's drinking and irrigation water, is changing due to climate-change effects. Therefore, it is important to understand groundwater behavior in extreme scenarios, e.g. drought. Shallow groundwater (SGW) level fluctuation under natural conditions displays periodic behavior, i.e. seasonal variation. Thus, the study aims to investigate (1) the periodic behavior of the SGW level time series of an agriculturally important and drought-sensitive region in Central-Eastern Europe - the Carpathian Basin, in the north-eastern part of the Great Hungarian Plain, and (2) its relationship to the European atmospheric pressure action centers. Data from 216 SGW wells were studied using wavelet spectrum analysis and wavelet coherence analyses for 1961-2010. Locally, a clear relationship exists between the absence of annual periodic behavior in the SGW level and the periodicity of droughts, as indicated by the self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index and the Aridity Index. During the non-periodic intervals, significant drops in groundwater levels (average 0.5 m) were recorded in 89% of the wells. This result links the meteorological variables to the periodic behavior of SGW, and consequently, drought. On a regional scale, Mediterranean cyclones from the Gulf of Genoa (northwest Italy) were found to be a driving factor in the 8-yr periodic behavior of the SGW wells. The research documents an important link between SGW levels and local/regional climate variables or indices, thereby facilitating the necessary adaptation strategies on national and/or regional scales, as these must take into account the predictions of drought-related climatic conditions.

Thermodynamics of Error Correction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pablo Sartori

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Information processing at the molecular scale is limited by thermal fluctuations. This can cause undesired consequences in copying information since thermal noise can lead to errors that can compromise the functionality of the copy. For example, a high error rate during DNA duplication can lead to cell death. Given the importance of accurate copying at the molecular scale, it is fundamental to understand its thermodynamic features. In this paper, we derive a universal expression for the copy error as a function of entropy production and work dissipated by the system during wrong incorporations. Its derivation is based on the second law of thermodynamics; hence, its validity is independent of the details of the molecular machinery, be it any polymerase or artificial copying device. Using this expression, we find that information can be copied in three different regimes. In two of them, work is dissipated to either increase or decrease the error. In the third regime, the protocol extracts work while correcting errors, reminiscent of a Maxwell demon. As a case study, we apply our framework to study a copy protocol assisted by kinetic proofreading, and show that it can operate in any of these three regimes. We finally show that, for any effective proofreading scheme, error reduction is limited by the chemical driving of the proofreading reaction.

Role of turbulence fluctuations on uncertainties of acoutic Doppler current profiler discharge measurements

Science.gov (United States)

Tarrab, Leticia; Garcia, Carlos M.; Cantero, Mariano I.; Oberg, Kevin

2012-01-01

This work presents a systematic analysis quantifying the role of the presence of turbulence fluctuations on uncertainties (random errors) of acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) discharge measurements from moving platforms. Data sets of three-dimensional flow velocities with high temporal and spatial resolution were generated from direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulent open channel flow. Dimensionless functions relating parameters quantifying the uncertainty in discharge measurements due to flow turbulence (relative variance and relative maximum random error) to sampling configuration were developed from the DNS simulations and then validated with field-scale discharge measurements. The validated functions were used to evaluate the role of the presence of flow turbulence fluctuations on uncertainties in ADCP discharge measurements. The results of this work indicate that random errors due to the flow turbulence are significant when: (a) a low number of transects is used for a discharge measurement, and (b) measurements are made in shallow rivers using high boat velocity (short time for the boat to cross a flow turbulence structure).

Firm default and aggregate fluctuations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacobson, Tor; Linde, Jesper; Roszbach, Kasper

This paper studies the relationship between macroeconomic fluctuations and corporate defaults while conditioning on industry affiliation and an extensive set of firm-specific factors. By using a panel data set for virtually all incorporated Swedish businesses over 1990-2009, a period which includes

Mercury exposure may influence fluctuating asymmetry in waterbirds.

Science.gov (United States)

Herring, Garth; Eagles-Smith, Collin A; Ackerman, Joshua T

2017-06-01

Variation in avian bilateral symmetry can be an indicator of developmental instability in response to a variety of stressors, including environmental contaminants. The authors used composite measures of fluctuating asymmetry to examine the influence of mercury concentrations in 2 tissues on fluctuating asymmetry within 4 waterbird species. Fluctuating asymmetry increased with mercury concentrations in whole blood and breast feathers of Forster's terns (Sterna forsteri), a species with elevated mercury concentrations. Specifically, fluctuating asymmetry in rectrix feather 1 was the most strongly correlated structural variable of those tested (wing chord, tarsus, primary feather 10, rectrix feather 6) with mercury concentrations in Forster's terns. However, for American avocets (Recurvirostra americana), black-necked stilts (Himantopus mexicanus), and Caspian terns (Hydroprogne caspia), the authors found no relationship between fluctuating asymmetry and either whole-blood or breast feather mercury concentrations, even though these species had moderate to elevated mercury exposure. The results indicate that mercury contamination may act as an environmental stressor during development and feather growth and contribute to fluctuating asymmetry of some species of highly contaminated waterbirds. Environ Toxicol Chem 2017;36:1599-1605. Published 2016 Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America. Published 2016 Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.

Modified diffusion with memory for cyclone track fluctuations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bernido, Christopher C., E-mail: cbernido@mozcom.com [Research Center for Theoretical Physics, Central Visayan Institute Foundation, Jagna, Bohol 6308 (Philippines); Carpio-Bernido, M. Victoria [Research Center for Theoretical Physics, Central Visayan Institute Foundation, Jagna, Bohol 6308 (Philippines); Escobido, Matthew G.O. [W. Sycip Graduate School of Business, Asian Institute of Management, 123 Paseo de Roxas Ave., Makati City 1260 (Philippines)

2014-06-13

Fluctuations in a time series for tropical cyclone tracks are investigated based on an exponentially modified Brownian motion. The mean square displacement (MSD) is evaluated and compared to a recent work on cyclone tracks based on fractional Brownian motion (fBm). Unlike the work based on fBm, the present approach is found to capture the behavior of MSD versus time graphs for cyclones even for large values of time. - Highlights: • Cyclone track fluctuations are modeled as stochastic processes with memory. • Stochastic memory functions beyond fractional Brownian motion are introduced. • The model captures the behavior of cyclone track fluctuations for longer periods of time. • The approach can model time series for other fluctuating phenomena.

Long term persistence in the sea surface temperature fluctuations

OpenAIRE

Monetti, Roberto A.; Havlin, Shlomo; Bunde, Armin

2002-01-01

We study the temporal correlations in the sea surface temperature (SST) fluctuations around the seasonal mean values in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. We apply a method that systematically overcome possible trends in the data. We find that the SST persistence, characterized by the correlation $C(s)$ of temperature fluctuations separated by a time period $s$, displays two different regimes. In the short-time regime which extends up to roughly 10 months, the temperature fluctuations display a...

Impact of Precipitation Fluctuation on Desert-Grassland ANPP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liangxu Liu

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Precipitation change has significantly influenced annual net primary productivity (ANPP at either annual or seasonal scales in desert steppes in arid and semi-arid regions. In order to reveal the process of precipitation driving ANPP at different time scales, responses of different ANPP levels to the inter-annual and intra-annual precipitation fluctuations were analyzed. ANPP was reversed by building a ground reflectance spectrum model, from 2000 to 2015, using the normalized differential vegetation index of the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS-NDVI data at 250 m × 250 m spatial resolution. Since the description of the differently expressing forms of precipitation are not sufficient in former studies in order to overcome the deficiency of former studies, in this study, intra-annual precipitation fluctuations were analyzed not only with precipitation of May–August, June–August, July–August, and August, respectively, which have direct influence on vegetation productivity within the year, but quantitative description, vector precipitation (R, concentration ratio (Cd, and concentration period (D, were also used to describe the overall characteristics of intra-annual precipitation fluctuations. The concentration ratio and the maximum precipitation period of the intra-annual precipitation were represented by using monthly precipitation. The results showed that: (1 in the period from 1971 to 2015, the maximum annual precipitation is 3.76 times that of the minimum in the Urat desert steppe; (2 vector precipitation is more significantly related to ANPP (r = 0.7724, p = 0.000 compared to meteorological annual precipitation and real annual precipitation influence; and (3 annual precipitation is almost concentrated in 5–8 months and monthly precipitation accumulation has significantly effected ANPP, especially in the period of June–August, since the vegetation composition in the study area was mainly sub-shrubs and perennial

Testing periodically integrated autoregressive models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ph.H.B.F. Franses (Philip Hans); M.J. McAleer (Michael)

1997-01-01

textabstractPeriodically integrated time series require a periodic differencing filter to remove the stochastic trend. A non-periodic integrated time series needs the first-difference filter for similar reasons. When the changing seasonal fluctuations for the non-periodic integrated series can be

Intermittent character of interplanetary magnetic field fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bruno, Roberto; Carbone, Vincenzo; Chapman, Sandra; Hnat, Bogdan; Noullez, Alain; Sorriso-Valvo, Luca

2007-01-01

Interplanetary magnetic field magnitude fluctuations are notoriously more intermittent than velocity fluctuations in both fast and slow wind. This behavior has been interpreted in terms of the anomalous scaling observed in passive scalars in fully developed hydrodynamic turbulence. In this paper, the strong intermittent nature of the interplanetary magnetic field is briefly discussed comparing results performed during different phases of the solar cycle. The scaling properties of the interplanetary magnetic field magnitude show solar cycle variation that can be distinguished in the scaling exponents revealed by structure functions. The scaling exponents observed around the solar maximum coincide, within the errors, to those measured for passive scalars in hydrodynamic turbulence. However, it is also found that the values are not universal in the sense that the solar cycle variation may be reflected in dependence on the structure of the velocity field

Characteristics of the co-fluctuation matrix transmission network based on financial multi-time series

OpenAIRE

Huajiao Li; Haizhong An; Xiangyun Gao; Wei Fang

2015-01-01

The co-fluctuation of two time series has often been studied by analysing the correlation coefficient over a selected period. However, in both domestic and global financial markets, there are more than two active time series that fluctuate constantly as a result of various factors, including geographic locations, information communications and so on. In addition to correlation relationships over longer periods, daily co-fluctuation relationships and their transmission features are also import...

Fluctuation microscopy: a probe of medium range order

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Treacy, M M J; Gibson, J M; Fan, L; Paterson, D J; McNulty, I

2005-01-01

Fluctuation microscopy is a hybrid diffraction-imaging technique that detects medium range order in amorphous materials by examining spatial fluctuations in coherent scattering. These fluctuations appear as speckle in images and diffraction patterns. The volume of material contributing to the speckle is determined by the point-spread function (the resolution) of the imaging optics and the sample thickness. The spatial periodicities being probed are related to the diffraction vector. Statistical analysis of the speckle allows the random and non-random (ordered) contributions to be discriminated. The image resolution that gives the maximum speckle contrast, as determined by the normalized variance of the image intensity, is determined by the characteristic length scale of the ordering. Because medium range ordering length scales can extend out to about the tenth coordination shell, fluctuation microscopy tends to be a low image resolution technique. This review presents the kinematical scattering theory underpinning fluctuation microscopy and a description of fluctuation electron microscopy as it has been employed in the transmission electron microscope for studying amorphous materials. Recent results using soft x-rays for studying nanoscale materials are also presented. We summarize outstanding issues and point to possible future directions for fluctuation microscopy as a technique

Medication errors: prescribing faults and prescription errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Velo, Giampaolo P; Minuz, Pietro

2009-06-01

1. Medication errors are common in general practice and in hospitals. Both errors in the act of writing (prescription errors) and prescribing faults due to erroneous medical decisions can result in harm to patients. 2. Any step in the prescribing process can generate errors. Slips, lapses, or mistakes are sources of errors, as in unintended omissions in the transcription of drugs. Faults in dose selection, omitted transcription, and poor handwriting are common. 3. Inadequate knowledge or competence and incomplete information about clinical characteristics and previous treatment of individual patients can result in prescribing faults, including the use of potentially inappropriate medications. 4. An unsafe working environment, complex or undefined procedures, and inadequate communication among health-care personnel, particularly between doctors and nurses, have been identified as important underlying factors that contribute to prescription errors and prescribing faults. 5. Active interventions aimed at reducing prescription errors and prescribing faults are strongly recommended. These should be focused on the education and training of prescribers and the use of on-line aids. The complexity of the prescribing procedure should be reduced by introducing automated systems or uniform prescribing charts, in order to avoid transcription and omission errors. Feedback control systems and immediate review of prescriptions, which can be performed with the assistance of a hospital pharmacist, are also helpful. Audits should be performed periodically.

Biological rhythm in 1/f fluctuations of heart rate in asthmatic children

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Norio Kazuma

2004-01-01

Conclusion: During an asthma attack, the rhythm of 1/f fluctuations is ultradian (cycle length under 20 h, compared with various rhythms during a non-attack period. In future, we will clarify the relevance of the ultradian rhythm of 1/f fluctuations over a 24 h period and the biological life-support system at a point of time of an asthma attack.

RSA fluctuation in major depressive disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Rottenberg, Jonathan; Clift, April; Bolden, Sarah; Salomon, Kristen

2007-05-01

Cardiac vagal control, as measured by indices of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), has been investigated as a marker of impaired self-regulation in mental disorders, including depression. Past work in depressed samples has focused on deficits in resting RSA levels, with mixed results. This study tested the hypothesis that depression involves abnormal RSA fluctuation. RSA was measured in depressed and healthy control participants during rest and during two reactivity tasks, each followed by a recovery period. Relative to controls, depressed persons exhibited lower resting RSA levels as well as less RSA fluctuation, primarily evidenced by a lack of task-related vagal suppression. Group differences in RSA fluctuation were not accounted for by differences in physical health or respiration, whereas group differences in resting RSA level did not survive covariate analyses. Depression may involve multiple deficits in cardiac vagal control.

Current carrying properties of double layers and low frequency auroral fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, N.; Schunk, R.W.

1982-01-01

Numerical simulations showed recurring interruption and recovery of electron and ion currents through double layers. The time period tau of the recurring phenomena is governed by the ion dynamics; for ions with a drift V/sub i/ entering the simulation plasma such that V/sub i/ V/sub ti/ ion-acoustic modes also appear in the electron- and ion-current fluctuations. The electron current fluctuations are governed by the ion current through the Langmuir criterion. It is suggested that some low frequency auroral fluctuations could possibly be explained by current fluctuations through double layers

On the calculation of errors and choice of the parameters of radioisotope following level meters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalinin, O.V.; Matveev, V.S.; Khatskevich, M.V.

1979-01-01

A method for calculating errors of radioisotope following level meters is considered with account of nonlinearity of the system control units. The statistical method of analysis of linear control systems and the approximated method of statistical linearization of nonlinear systems are used during calculating error of a following level meter. Calculation of a nonlinear system by the method of statistical linearization comprises approximation of a nonlinear characteristic by linearized dependence on the base of a certain criterion. Dispersion calculations of output coordinate of a measuring converter are given for different cases of the system input signal. Dependences of fluctuation error on system parameters for level meters with proportional and relay control have been plotted on the base of the given methods. It is stated, that fluctuation error in both cases depend on time constant of a counting rate meter. Minimal error of the level meter decreases with the growth of operating counting rate and with the increase of nonsensitivity zone width. It is also noted, that parameters of the following level meter should be chosen according to requirements for measuring error, device reliability and time of reading fixing

Trend Estimation of Blood Glucose Level Fluctuations Based on Data Mining

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masaki Yamaguchi

2003-06-01

Full Text Available We have fabricated calorie-calculating software that calculates and records the total calorific food intake by choosing a meal menu selected using a computer mouse. The purpose of this software was to simplify data collection throughout a person's normal life, even if they were inexperienced computer operators. Three portable commercial devices have also been prepared a blood glucose monitor, a metabolic rate monitor and a mobile-computer, and linked into the calorie-calculating software. Time-course changes of the blood glucose level, metabolic rate and food intake were measured using these devices during a 3 month period. Based on the data collected in this study we could predict blood glucose levels of the next morning (FBG by modeling using data mining. Although a large error rate was found for predicting the absolute value, conditions could be found that improved the accuracy of the predicting trends in blood glucose level fluctuations by up to 90 %. However, in order to further improve the accuracy of estimation it was necessary to obtain further details about the patients' life style or to optimise the input variables that were dependent on each patient rather than collecting data over longer periods.

Rapid Fluctuations of Water Maser Emission in VY Canis Majoris

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Xing Wu; Scalise, Eugenio, Jr.; Han, Fu

1998-11-01

We report the observational results of short timescale monitoring of the 22 GHz water maser emission in VY CMa. A quasi-sinusoidal fluctuation has been detected with the relative flux intensity change of 20%-25% and a period of 10.3 day for two dominant features. This detected variability appears to be superimposed on the normal maser lines. We cannot easily explain the rapid fluctuation with the variation of the radiative input or the strong interstellar scintillation along the line of sight. The variation may be caused by the periodic shock.

Turbulent temperature fluctuations in liquid metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lawn, C.J.

1977-01-01

Examination of experimental data for the spectral distribution of velocity (u and v) and temperature (theta) fluctuations in the fully turbulent region of heated pipe-flow has suggested a schematic representation which incorporates the essential features. Evidence is cited to suggest that the -vtheta correlation coefficient maintains higher values that the uv coefficient at wave-numbers in the inertial subrange. The theory of Batchelor, Howells and Townsend, and limited evidence from experiments in mercury, then suggests the form of the theta 2 spectra and -vtheta cross-spectra in liquid metals. From this information, a limiting Peclet number is deduced, above which the correlation coefficient of v and theta should be a fairly weak function of Pe alone. An attempt to check this inference from published data for the RMS level of temperature fluctuations, and for the turbulent Prandtl number, proves inconclusive, because many of the correlation coefficients so estimated have values greater than unity. It is concluded that all these results for theta tilde must therefore be in error. However, since there is no evidence of very low correlation coefficients, they almost certainly lie in the range 0.5 multiply/divide 2 over a large proportion of the radius. Thus theta tilde can be estimated for any fluid in which the fluctuations are induced by uniform heating, at least to within a factor of 2, using the analysis presented. (author)

Fluctuations of wormlike micelle fluids in capillary flow

Science.gov (United States)

Salipante, Paul; Meek, Stephen; Hudson, Steven; Polymers; Complex Fluids Group Team

2017-11-01

We investigate the effect of entrance geometry on the flow stability of wormlike micelles solutions in capillary flow. These solutions exhibit strong shear thinning behavior resulting from micelle breakage and have been observed to undergo large flow rate fluctuations. We investigate these fluctuations using simultaneous measurements of flow rate and pressure drop across a capillary, and we adjust entrance geometry. With a tapered constriction, we observe large persistent fluctuations above a critical flow rate, characterized by rapid decreases in the pressure drop with corresponding increase in flow rate followed by a period of recovery where pressure increases and flow rate decreases. Flow field observations in the tapered entrance show large flow circulations. An abrupt contraction produces smaller transient fluidized jets forming upstream of the constriction and the magnitude of the fluctuations are significantly diminished. The effect of fluid properties is studied by comparing the magnitude and timescales of the fluctuations for surfactant systems with different relaxation times. The onset of fluctuations is compared to a criterion for the onset of elastic instabilities and the magnitude is compared to estimates for changes in channel resistance. NIST on a Chip.

Investigation of the cavitation fluctuation characteristics in a Venturi injector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Yuncheng; Chen, Yan; Wang, Zijun; Zhou, Lingjiu; Yan, Haijun

2015-01-01

The suction flow rate in a Venturi injector increases to a maximum and appears to be unstable when critical cavitation occurs. This study analyzes changes in the cavitation length in high-speed videos of a Venturi injector with critical cavitation to find periodic fluctuations in the cavitation cloud. Pressure fluctuation measurements show a dominant low frequency fluctuation that is almost as large as the oscillation frequency seen visually for the same conditions. The variation of the cavitation numbers and the measured transient outlet pressure show that critical cavitation occurs in the Venturi injector when the peak-to-peak pressure difference is greater than a critical value. Moreover, when the cavitation numbers become very small in the cavitation areas, the peak-to-peak pressures begin to decrease. The relationship between the suction performance and the outlet pressure fluctuations has a significant inflection point which can be used to determine proper working conditions. These experimental statistics provide a pressure range based on the inlet and outlet pressures for which the improvement of suction performance will not substantially change the outlet pressure fluctuations. Both the high-speed photography and the pressure measurement show the periodic oscillations of the cavitation cloud in a Venturi injector and can be used to detect the occurrence of critical cavitation. (paper)

Investigation of the cavitation fluctuation characteristics in a Venturi injector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu, Yuncheng; Chen, Yan; Wang, Zijun; Zhou, Lingjiu; Yan, Haijun, E-mail: yanhj@cau.edu.cn [College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083 (China)

2015-04-15

The suction flow rate in a Venturi injector increases to a maximum and appears to be unstable when critical cavitation occurs. This study analyzes changes in the cavitation length in high-speed videos of a Venturi injector with critical cavitation to find periodic fluctuations in the cavitation cloud. Pressure fluctuation measurements show a dominant low frequency fluctuation that is almost as large as the oscillation frequency seen visually for the same conditions. The variation of the cavitation numbers and the measured transient outlet pressure show that critical cavitation occurs in the Venturi injector when the peak-to-peak pressure difference is greater than a critical value. Moreover, when the cavitation numbers become very small in the cavitation areas, the peak-to-peak pressures begin to decrease. The relationship between the suction performance and the outlet pressure fluctuations has a significant inflection point which can be used to determine proper working conditions. These experimental statistics provide a pressure range based on the inlet and outlet pressures for which the improvement of suction performance will not substantially change the outlet pressure fluctuations. Both the high-speed photography and the pressure measurement show the periodic oscillations of the cavitation cloud in a Venturi injector and can be used to detect the occurrence of critical cavitation. (paper)

Mitigation of Power System Oscillation Caused by Wind Power Fluctuation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Su, Chi; Hu, Weihao; Chen, Zhe

2013-01-01

oscillation mitigation controllers are proposed and compared. A model of direct-drive-full-convertor-based wind farm connected to the IEEE 10-machine 39-bus system is adopted as the test system. The calculations and simulations are conducted in DIgSILENT PowerFactory 14.0. Results are presented to show......Wind power is increasingly integrated in modern power grids, which brings new challenges to the power system operation. Wind power is fluctuating because of the uncertain nature of wind, whereas wind shear and tower shadow effects also cause periodic fluctuations. These may lead to serious forced...... oscillation when the frequencies of the periodic fluctuations are close to the natural oscillation frequencies of the connected power system. By using modal analysis and time-domain simulations, this study studies the forced oscillation caused by the wind shear and tower shadow effects. Three forced...

Errores comunes en el lenguaje periodístico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Manuel Rodríguez

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Deja en evidencia los por qués para que se produzca el alejamiento de los lectores que jamás cultivaron los diarios, esto en torno a los desaguiñados que contiene la convocatoria a la campaña de lectura, convocada por la AEDEP, mal llamada campaña de LECTORÍA, término que se crítica igual que el resto del texto por la redundancia, frases confusas, llenas de errores, ambigüedades.

Periodic orbits and recurrences: An introduction and review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Delos, J.B.

1993-01-01

A pedagogical introduction to and review of essential ideas in modern classical mechanics will be presented, and relationships between classical trajectories and quantum wave functions will be discussed. Much current work is focused on the effects of classical periodic orbits on quantum density of states, absorption spectra, and wave functions. The theory was first developed by Gutzwiller, who showed that each classical periodic orbit produces a sinusoidal fluctuation in the density of states as a function of energy. Short orbits produce large-scale fluctuations, while longer orbits produce small-scale fluctuations. Actually these fluctuations reside in the Green's function of the system, so they manifest themselves in all quantum properties. Two new questions will be addressed. (1) How do we understand periodic orbits from a classical perspective? How are they created and how do they proliferate as order changes to chaos? (2) Is the theory practically limited to calculation of large-scale structures in spectra, or can it be extended to calculate individual eigenfunctions?

Modeling 100,000-year climate fluctuations in pre-Pleistocene time series

Science.gov (United States)

Crowley, Thomas J.; Kim, Kwang-Yul; Mengel, John G.; Short, David A.

1992-01-01

A number of pre-Pleistocene climate records exhibit significant fluctuations at the 100,000-year (100-ky) eccentricity period, before the time of such fluctuations in global ice volume. The origin of these fluctuations has been obscure. Results reported here from a modeling study suggest that such a response can occur over low-altitude land areas involved in monsoon fluctuations. The twice yearly passage of the sun across the equator and the seasonal timing of perihelion interact to increase both 100-ky and 400-ky power in the modeled temperature field. The magnitude of the temperature response is sufficiently large to leave an imprint on the geologic record, and simulated fluctuations resemble those found in records of Triassic lake levels.

Measurement Error Estimation for Capacitive Voltage Transformer by Insulation Parameters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bin Chen

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Measurement errors of a capacitive voltage transformer (CVT are relevant to its equivalent parameters for which its capacitive divider contributes the most. In daily operation, dielectric aging, moisture, dielectric breakdown, etc., it will exert mixing effects on a capacitive divider’s insulation characteristics, leading to fluctuation in equivalent parameters which result in the measurement error. This paper proposes an equivalent circuit model to represent a CVT which incorporates insulation characteristics of a capacitive divider. After software simulation and laboratory experiments, the relationship between measurement errors and insulation parameters is obtained. It indicates that variation of insulation parameters in a CVT will cause a reasonable measurement error. From field tests and calculation, equivalent capacitance mainly affects magnitude error, while dielectric loss mainly affects phase error. As capacitance changes 0.2%, magnitude error can reach −0.2%. As dielectric loss factor changes 0.2%, phase error can reach 5′. An increase of equivalent capacitance and dielectric loss factor in the high-voltage capacitor will cause a positive real power measurement error. An increase of equivalent capacitance and dielectric loss factor in the low-voltage capacitor will cause a negative real power measurement error.

Advantages of storage in a fluctuating environment.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kooi, B.W.; Troost, T.A.

2006-01-01

We will elaborate the evolutionary course of an ecosystem consisting of a population in a chemostat environment with periodically fluctuating nutrient supply. The organisms that make up the population consist of structural biomass and energy storage compartments. In a constant chemostat environment

Observations of the magnetic fluctuation enhancement in the earth's foreshock region

Science.gov (United States)

Le, G.; Russell, C. T.

1990-01-01

Upstream waves have been postulated to be a major source of energy for the dayside magnetic pulsations within the magnetosphere. Thus, it is of interest to determine over what frequency range in the ion foreshock the power of fluctuations in the solar wind is enhanced. The magnetic field data from pairs of spacecraft, when they stay on either side of the ion foreshock boundary, were examined. It was found that the power of magnetic fluctuations is enhanced only at periods less than about two minutes, not at longer periods. Thus the upstream waves may contribute to Pc 3 and Pc 4 pulsations in the dayside magnetosphere, but they cannot be directly responsible for the longer-period waves.

Experimental investigations of turbulent temperature fluctuations and phase angles in ASDEX Upgrade

Science.gov (United States)

Freethy, Simon

2017-10-01

A complete experimental understanding of the turbulent fluctuations in tokamak plasmas is essential for providing confidence in the extrapolation of heat transport models to future experimental devices and reactors. Guided by ``predict first'' nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations with the GENE code, two new turbulence diagnostics were designed and have been installed on ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) to probe the fundamentals of ion-scale turbulent electron heat transport. The first, a 30-channel correlation ECE (CECE) radiometer, measures radial profiles (0.5 a levels are in the range 0.3 - 0.8%. The second is formed by the addition of a reflectometer on the same line of sight to enable measurements of the phase angle between turbulent density and temperature fluctuations. Design predictions are followed by a more traditional ``post-diction'' validation study with GENE. Using a cutting edge synthetic diagnostic GENE shows a factor 1.6 - 2 over-prediction of the fluctuation amplitude, while matching both ion and electron heat fluxes within experimental error. Detailed sensitivity scans are underway to understand the robustness of this disagreement and a detailed assessment of the experimental errors has been carried out. The discrepancy opens questions about the role of multi-scale turbulence physics, but also indicates the need for the comparison of more experimental turbulence properties to have a more complete validation hierarchy. In an effort to understand the discrepancy, predictions of the nT-phase and the radial correlation length have been made along with an assessment of their sensitivity to experimental errors. Comparison to experimental measurements will be discussed. This work is supported in part by the US DOE under Grants DE-SC0006419 and DE-SC0017381. This work has also received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant agreement number 633053.

The period-luminosity relation for Cepheids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brodie, J.P.

1980-01-01

Numerical simulations of the empirical determination of the period-luminosity-colour relation for classical Cepheids are presented. In this study the quantitative effects of random errors, reddening, sample size and the presence of both colour and period cut-offs (imposed by the finite extent of the instability strip) on the observational redetermination of the original relation are evaluated. Both random errors in the photometry and correlated errors in the reddening corrections are shown to have systematic effects. Especially sensitive to these errors is the colour coefficient in the period-luminosity-colour relation, where the ratio of the error to the width of the instability strip is the determining factor. With present observations only broad confidence limits can be placed on present knowledge of the intrinsic period-luminosity-colour relation and/or its variations from galaxy to galaxy. (author)

Fluctuations of Lake Orta water levels: preliminary analyses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helmi Saidi

2016-04-01

Full Text Available While the effects of past industrial pollution on the chemistry and biology of Lake Orta have been well documented, annual and seasonal fluctuations of lake levels have not yet been studied. Considering their potential impacts on both the ecosystem and on human safety, fluctuations in lake levels are an important aspect of limnological research. In the enormous catchment of Lake Maggiore, there are many rivers and lakes, and the amount of annual precipitation is both high and concentrated in spring and autumn. This has produced major flood events, most recently in November 2014. Flood events are also frequent on Lake Orta, occurring roughly triennially since 1917. The 1926, 1951, 1976 and 2014 floods were severe, with lake levels raised from 2.30 m to 3.46 m above the hydrometric zero. The most important event occurred in 1976, with a maximum level equal to 292.31 m asl and a return period of 147 years. In 2014 the lake level reached 291.89 m asl and its return period was 54 years. In this study, we defined trends and temporal fluctuations in Lake Orta water levels from 1917 to 2014, focusing on extremes. We report both annual maximum and seasonal variations of the lake water levels over this period. Both Mann-Kendall trend tests and simple linear regression were utilized to detect monotonic trends in annual and seasonal extremes, and logistic regression was used to detect trends in the number of flood events. Lake level decreased during winter and summer seasons, and a small but statistically non-significant positive trend was found in the number of flood events over the period. We provide estimations of return period for lake levels, a metric which could be used in planning lake flood protection measures.

Near resonant absorption by atoms in intense, fluctuating fields: [Progress report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1989-01-01

During the present grant period preparations for photon echo studies of the role of phase fluctuations of an optical driving field resonant with the 1 S 0 - 3 P 1 transition in 174 Yb are moving forward. This experimental study emphasizes the role of fluctuations as a decorrelating mechanism on a phased array of excited atoms. Improvements in laser stabilization and in the quality of the fluctuation spectrum have been carried out and the first spectroscopic measurements will be carried out during this grant year. In response to an important recent theoretical study we have also applied the phase fluctuation synthesizing capability to the study of the atomic sodium resonance fluorescence line profile, driven by a phase fluctuating laser. The measured fluctuations in the fluorescence, characterized in terms of the standard deviation of the fluorescence intensity, have an unexpected and strong dependence on detuning of the driving laser

Lake level fluctuations boost toxic cyanobacterial "oligotrophic blooms".

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristiana Callieri

Full Text Available Global warming has been shown to strongly influence inland water systems, producing noticeable increases in water temperatures. Rising temperatures, especially when combined with widespread nutrient pollution, directly favour the growth of toxic cyanobacteria. Climate changes have also altered natural water level fluctuations increasing the probability of extreme events as dry periods followed by heavy rains. The massive appearance of Dolichospermum lemmermannii ( = planktonic Anabaena, a toxic species absent from the pelagic zone of the subalpine oligotrophic Lake Maggiore before 2005, could be a consequence of the unusual fluctuations of lake level in recent years. We hypothesized that these fluctuations may favour the cyanobacterium as result of nutrient pulses from the biofilms formed in the littoral zone when the lake level is high. To help verify this, we exposed artificial substrates in the lake, and evaluated their nutrient enrichment and release after desiccation, together with measurements of fluctuations in lake level, precipitation and D. lemmermannii population. The highest percentage of P release and the lowest C:P molar ratio of released nutrients coincided with the summer appearance of the D. lemmermannii bloom. The P pulse indicates that fluctuations in level counteract nutrient limitation in this lake and it is suggested that this may apply more widely to other oligotrophic lakes. In view of the predicted increase in water level fluctuations due to climate change, it is important to try to minimize such fluctuations in order to mitigate the occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms.

TradeWind Deliverable 2.2: Forecast error of aggregated wind power

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Giebel, Gregor; Sørensen, Poul Ejnar; Holttinen, Hannele

2007-01-01

Estimates of forecast error of aggregated production for time horizons of intraday and dayahead markets in future will be produced. This will be done by reference to published studies of forecasting for wind generation, and from internal knowledge of WP2 participants. Modelling of wind power fluctuations...

Physical insight into the thermodynamic uncertainty relation using Brownian motion in tilted periodic potentials

Science.gov (United States)

Hyeon, Changbong; Hwang, Wonseok

2017-07-01

Using Brownian motion in periodic potentials V (x ) tilted by a force f , we provide physical insight into the thermodynamic uncertainty relation, a recently conjectured principle for statistical errors and irreversible heat dissipation in nonequilibrium steady states. According to the relation, nonequilibrium output generated from dissipative processes necessarily incurs an energetic cost or heat dissipation q , and in order to limit the output fluctuation within a relative uncertainty ɛ , at least 2 kBT /ɛ2 of heat must be dissipated. Our model shows that this bound is attained not only at near-equilibrium [f ≪V'(x ) ] but also at far-from-equilibrium [f ≫V'(x ) ] , more generally when the dissipated heat is normally distributed. Furthermore, the energetic cost is maximized near the critical force when the barrier separating the potential wells is about to vanish and the fluctuation of Brownian particles is maximized. These findings indicate that the deviation of heat distribution from Gaussianity gives rise to the inequality of the uncertainty relation, further clarifying the meaning of the uncertainty relation. Our derivation of the uncertainty relation also recognizes a bound of nonequilibrium fluctuations that the variance of dissipated heat (σq2) increases with its mean (μq), and it cannot be smaller than 2 kBT μq .

Observations of the magnetic fluctuation enhancement in the Earth's foreshock region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le, G.; Russell, C.T.

1990-01-01

Upstream waves have been postulated to be a major source of energy for the dayside magnetic pulsations within the magnetosphere. Thus it is of interest to determine over what frequency range in the ion foreshock the power of fluctuations in the solar wind is enhanced. The authors have examined the magnetic field data from pairs of spacecraft when they are on either side of the ion fore-shock boundary. They find that the power of magnetic fluctuations is enhanced only at periods less than about two minutes, not at longer periods. Thus the upstream waves may contribute to Pc 3 and Pc 4 pulsations in the dayside magnetosphere, but they can not be directly responsible for the longer period waves

Hierarchical structure of stock price fluctuations in financial markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao, Ya-Chun; Cai, Shi-Min; Wang, Bing-Hong

2012-01-01

The financial market and turbulence have been broadly compared on account of the same quantitative methods and several common stylized facts they share. In this paper, the She–Leveque (SL) hierarchy, proposed to explain the anomalous scaling exponents deviating from Kolmogorov monofractal scaling of the velocity fluctuation in fluid turbulence, is applied to study and quantify the hierarchical structure of stock price fluctuations in financial markets. We therefore observed certain interesting results: (i) the hierarchical structure related to multifractal scaling generally presents in all the stock price fluctuations we investigated. (ii) The quantitatively statistical parameters that describe SL hierarchy are different between developed financial markets and emerging ones, distinctively. (iii) For the high-frequency stock price fluctuation, the hierarchical structure varies with different time periods. All these results provide a novel analogy in turbulence and financial market dynamics and an insight to deeply understand multifractality in financial markets. (paper)

Short-term stability in refractive status despite large fluctuations in glucose levels in diabetes mellitus type 1 and 2.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Byki Huntjens

Full Text Available PURPOSE: This work investigates how short-term changes in blood glucose concentration affect the refractive components of the diabetic eye in patients with long-term Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. METHODS: Blood glucose concentration, refractive error components (mean spherical equivalent MSE, J0, J45, central corneal thickness (CCT, anterior chamber depth (ACD, crystalline lens thickness (LT, axial length (AL and ocular aberrations were monitored at two-hourly intervals over a 12-hour period in: 20 T1DM patients (mean age ± SD 38±14 years, baseline HbA1c 8.6±1.9%; 21 T2DM patients (mean age ± SD 56±11 years, HbA1c 7.5±1.8%; and in 20 control subjects (mean age ± SD 49±23 years, HbA1c 5.5±0.5%. The refractive and biometric results were compared with the corresponding changes in blood glucose concentration. RESULTS: Blood glucose concentration at different times was found to vary significantly within (p0.05. Minor changes of marginal statistical or optical significance were observed in some biometric parameters. Similarly there were some marginally significant differences between the baseline biometric parameters of well-controlled and poorly-controlled diabetic subjects. CONCLUSION: This work suggests that normal, short-term fluctuations (of up to about 6 mM/l on a timescale of a few hours in the blood glucose levels of diabetics are not usually associated with acute changes in refractive error or ocular wavefront aberrations. It is therefore possible that factors other than refractive error fluctuations are sometimes responsible for the transient visual problems often reported by diabetic patients.

Controlling qubit drift by recycling error correction syndromes

Science.gov (United States)

Blume-Kohout, Robin

2015-03-01

Physical qubits are susceptible to systematic drift, above and beyond the stochastic Markovian noise that motivates quantum error correction. This parameter drift must be compensated - if it is ignored, error rates will rise to intolerable levels - but compensation requires knowing the parameters' current value, which appears to require halting experimental work to recalibrate (e.g. via quantum tomography). Fortunately, this is untrue. I show how to perform on-the-fly recalibration on the physical qubits in an error correcting code, using only information from the error correction syndromes. The algorithm for detecting and compensating drift is very simple - yet, remarkably, when used to compensate Brownian drift in the qubit Hamiltonian, it achieves a stabilized error rate very close to the theoretical lower bound. Against 1/f noise, it is less effective only because 1/f noise is (like white noise) dominated by high-frequency fluctuations that are uncompensatable. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE

Oil price fluctuations and their impact on the macroeconomic variables of Kuwait: a case study using a VAR model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eltony, M. Nagy; Al-Awadi, Mohammad

2001-01-01

In this study, a vector autoregression model (VAR) and a vector error correction model (VECM) were estimated to examine the impact of oil price fluctuations on seven key macroeconomic variables for the Kuwaiti economy. Quarterly data for the period 1984-1998 were utilised. Theoretically and empirically speaking, VECM is superior to the VAR approach. Also, the results corresponding to the VECM model are closer to common sense. However, the estimated models indicate a high degree of interrelation between major macroeconomic variables. The empirical results highlight the causality running from the oil prices and oil revenues, to government development and current expenditure and then towards other variables. For the most part, the empirical evidence indicates that oil price shocks and hence oil revenues have a notable impact on government expenditure, both development and current. However, government development expenditure has been influenced relatively more. The results also point out the significant of the CPI in explaining a notable part of the variations of both types of government expenditure. On the other hand, the variations in value of imports are mostly accounted for by oil revenue fluctuations. On the other hand, the variations in value of imports are mostly accounted for by oil revenue fluctuations and then by the fluctuation in government development expenditures. Also, the results from the VECM approach indicate that a significant part of LM2 variance is explained by the variance in oil revenue. It reaches about 46 per cent in the 10th quarter, even more than its own variations. (Author)

Analysis of the Dynamic Evolutionary Behavior of American Heating Oil Spot and Futures Price Fluctuation Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huan Chen

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Heating oil is an extremely important heating fuel to consumers in northeastern United States. This paper studies the fluctuations law and dynamic behavior of heating oil spot and futures prices by setting up their complex network models based on the data of America in recent 30 years. Firstly, modes are defined by the method of coarse graining, the spot price fluctuation network of heating oil (HSPFN and its futures price fluctuation network (HFPFN in different periods are established to analyze the transformation characteristics between the modes. Secondly, several indicators are investigated: average path length, node strength and strength distribution, betweeness, etc. In addition, a function is established to measure and analyze the network similarity. The results show the cumulative time of new nodes appearing in either spot or futures price network is not random but exhibits a growth trend of straight line. Meanwhile, the power law distributions of spot and futures price fluctuations in different periods present regularity and complexity. Moreover, these prices are strongly correlated in stable fluctuation period but weak in the phase of sharp fluctuation. Finally, the time distribution characteristics of important modes in the networks and the evolution results of the topological properties mentioned above are obtained.

The underreporting of medication errors: A retrospective and comparative root cause analysis in an acute mental health unit over a 3-year period.

Science.gov (United States)

Morrison, Maeve; Cope, Vicki; Murray, Melanie

2018-05-15

Medication errors remain a commonly reported clinical incident in health care as highlighted by the World Health Organization's focus to reduce medication-related harm. This retrospective quantitative analysis examined medication errors reported by staff using an electronic Clinical Incident Management System (CIMS) during a 3-year period from April 2014 to April 2017 at a metropolitan mental health ward in Western Australia. The aim of the project was to identify types of medication errors and the context in which they occur and to consider recourse so that medication errors can be reduced. Data were retrieved from the Clinical Incident Management System database and concerned medication incidents from categorized tiers within the system. Areas requiring improvement were identified, and the quality of the documented data captured in the database was reviewed for themes pertaining to medication errors. Content analysis provided insight into the following issues: (i) frequency of problem, (ii) when the problem was detected, and (iii) characteristics of the error (classification of drug/s, where the error occurred, what time the error occurred, what day of the week it occurred, and patient outcome). Data were compared to the state-wide results published in the Your Safety in Our Hands (2016) report. Results indicated several areas upon which quality improvement activities could be focused. These include the following: structural changes; changes to policy and practice; changes to individual responsibilities; improving workplace culture to counteract underreporting of medication errors; and improvement in safety and quality administration of medications within a mental health setting. © 2018 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Annual Precipitation Fluctuation and Spatial Differentiation Characteristics of the Horqin Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liangxu Liu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Precipitation is the main water source for vegetation survival in arid and semi-arid areas. However, previous studies always focus on the effects of precipitation in different time scales, but ignore the effects of precipitation in different spatial scales. To further study the effects of precipitation fluctuation in different spatial scales, we used the wavelet analysis method to analyze its temporal and spatial change based on data from eighteen meteorological stations during 1961–2015 in Horqin region. Results showed that: (1 from the overall tendency of precipitation changes, the precipitation inter-annual variations in Horqin region had the tendency of gradually decreasing from the southeast (District IV to the northwest; (2 the precipitation anomalies of District I–IV between 1960 and 1980 were small and approximate to the normal value; (3 in the time scale of 23–32 years, the cyclical fluctuations were very significant and the annual precipitation underwent two cyclical fluctuations from a period of low precipitation to a period of high precipitation; and (4 as results of analyzing the spatial wavelet variance of sub-region, the main cycle of precipitation in District I, District II and District III was between 10 and 11 years, while the main cycle of precipitation in District IV was 25 years. The main conclusions include the following. (1 This region tended to be arid, and the precipitation gradually decreased from the southeast (District IV to northwest (District I. (2 The influence of spatial differentiation characteristics on precipitation fluctuation in this region was cyclical fluctuation, which gradually decreased from the southeast to the northwest. The length of the cyclical change period gradually shortened. In the first main cycle, whose annual precipitation changes were most significant, the changing characteristic was District IV and District I decreased from 25 years to 10 years. (3 Predicated from the cyclical

Mesoscopic fluctuations in the critical current in InAs-coupled Josephson junctions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takayanagi, Hideaki; Hansen, J.B.; Nitta, Junsaku

1994-01-01

Mesoscopic fluctuations were confirmed for the critical current in a p-type InAs-coupled Josephson junction. The critical current was measured as a function of the gate voltage corresponding to the change in the Fermi energy. The critical current showed a mesoscopic fluctuation and its behavior was the same as that of the conductance measured at the same time in both the weak and strong localization regimes. The magnitude and the typical period of the fluctuation are discussed and compared to theoretical predictions. ((orig.))

Fluctuations and Photons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, Sourendu

2007-01-01

In this talk I discuss measures of fluctuations, especially those leading to the proof that the quark gluon plasma indeed contains quarks. I discuss the quark mass dependence of the critical end point of QCD. Then I discuss probes of the QCD critical point. Non-gaussian behaviour of event-to-event fluctuations of conserved quantum numbers is one such probe. Another is due to the coupling of fluctuations in baryon number and electrical charge, giving rise to long range random fluctuations of local charge density which relax slowly. These fluctuations can scatter photons, giving rise to critical opalescence

Fluctuations and Photons

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Sourendu

2007-02-01

In this talk I discuss measures of fluctuations, especially those leading to the proof that the quark gluon plasma indeed contains quarks. I discuss the quark mass dependence of the critical end point of QCD. Then I discuss probes of the QCD critical point. Non-gaussian behaviour of event-to-event fluctuations of conserved quantum numbers is one such probe. Another is due to the coupling of fluctuations in baryon number and electrical charge, giving rise to long range random fluctuations of local charge density which relax slowly. These fluctuations can scatter photons, giving rise to critical opalescence.

Fluctuations and Photons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gupta, Sourendu [Department of Theoretical Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005 (India)

2007-02-15

In this talk I discuss measures of fluctuations, especially those leading to the proof that the quark gluon plasma indeed contains quarks. I discuss the quark mass dependence of the critical end point of QCD. Then I discuss probes of the QCD critical point. Non-gaussian behaviour of event-to-event fluctuations of conserved quantum numbers is one such probe. Another is due to the coupling of fluctuations in baryon number and electrical charge, giving rise to long range random fluctuations of local charge density which relax slowly. These fluctuations can scatter photons, giving rise to critical opalescence.

Fluctuation characteristics of solar radiation in crop cultivation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hayashi, S.; Suzuki, H.

1996-01-01

The objective of this study was to clarify the fluctuation of solar radiation for long and short periods, which is very crucial for plant growth. Data obtained from a meteorological observatory were used to investigate solar radiation and sunshine duration for a long period. For a short period, observation of global solar radiation and sky solar radiation were conducted in a glass house and at an open field. (1) Yearly average percentage of solar radiation at Kagawa from 1973 to 1994 was 44.3%, and its coefficient of variation was 3.9%. The percentage of possible sunshine and the coefficient were larger than those of solar radiation, 47.3% and 56% respectively. (2) Percentage of possible solar radiation and percentage of possible sunshine showed seasonal variation. Those coefficients of variation both increased exponentially with cloud amount. (3) Variations of global solar radiation and direct solar radiation were more remarkable in the glass house than those in the open field, while variations of sky solar radiation were small in the house and at the open field. (4) The fluctuation of solar radiation observed every 5 minutes was presented as the difference of radiation, present value minus the preceding value. The difference was positive in the morning, negative in the afternoon at the open field. In the house both positive and negative values were obtained the whole day. (5) Diurnal variation of ratio of direct solar radiation to sky solar radiation showed a parabolic effect, whereas it had irregular and large fluctuations at the open field

Medication errors with the use of allopurinol and colchicine : A retrospective study of a national, anonymous Internet-accessible error reporting system

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mikuls, TR; Curtis, [No Value; Allison, JJ; Hicks, RW; Saag, KG

Objectives. To more closely assess medication errors in gout care, we examined data from a national, Internet-accessible error reporting program over a 5-year reporting period. Methods. We examined data from the MEDMARX (TM) database, covering the period from January 1, 1999 through December 31,

Periodic and stochastic thermal modulation of protein folding kinetics.

Science.gov (United States)

Platkov, Max; Gruebele, Martin

2014-07-21

Chemical reactions are usually observed either by relaxation of a bulk sample after applying a sudden external perturbation, or by intrinsic fluctuations of a few molecules. Here we show that the two ideas can be combined to measure protein folding kinetics, either by periodic thermal modulation, or by creating artificial thermal noise that greatly exceeds natural thermal fluctuations. We study the folding reaction of the enzyme phosphoglycerate kinase driven by periodic temperature waveforms. As the temperature waveform unfolds and refolds the protein, its fluorescence color changes due to FRET (Förster resonant Energy Transfer) of two donor/acceptor fluorophores labeling the protein. We adapt a simple model of periodically driven kinetics that nicely fits the data at all temperatures and driving frequencies: The phase shifts of the periodic donor and acceptor fluorescence signals as a function of driving frequency reveal reaction rates. We also drive the reaction with stochastic temperature waveforms that produce thermal fluctuations much greater than natural fluctuations in the bulk. Such artificial thermal noise allows the recovery of weak underlying signals due to protein folding kinetics. This opens up the possibility for future detection of a stochastic resonance for protein folding subject to noise with controllable amplitude.

Magnetic fluctuations associated with density fluctuations in the tokamak edge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Y.J.; Gentle, K.W.; Ritz, C.P.; Rhodes, T.L.; Bengtson, R.D.

1989-01-01

Electrostatic density and potential fluctuations occurring with high amplitude near the edge of a tokamak are correlated with components of the fluctuating magnetic field measured outside the limiter radius. It has been established that this turbulence is associated with fluctuations in current as well as density and potential. The correlation extends for substantial toroidal distances, but only if the probes are displaced approximately along field lines, consistent with the short coherence lengths poloidally but long coherence lengths parallel to the field which are characteristic for this turbulence. Furthermore, the correlation can be found only with density fluctuations measured inside the limiter radius; density fluctuations behind the limiter have no detectable magnetic concomitant for the toroidally spaced probes used here. (author). Letter-to-the-editor. 12 refs, 3 figs

Quantifying fluctuations in reversible enzymatic cycles and clocks

Science.gov (United States)

Wierenga, Harmen; ten Wolde, Pieter Rein; Becker, Nils B.

2018-04-01

Biochemical reactions are fundamentally noisy at a molecular scale. This limits the precision of reaction networks, but it also allows fluctuation measurements that may reveal the structure and dynamics of the underlying biochemical network. Here, we study nonequilibrium reaction cycles, such as the mechanochemical cycle of molecular motors, the phosphorylation cycle of circadian clock proteins, or the transition state cycle of enzymes. Fluctuations in such cycles may be measured using either of two classical definitions of the randomness parameter, which we show to be equivalent in general microscopically reversible cycles. We define a stochastic period for reversible cycles and present analytical solutions for its moments. Furthermore, we associate the two forms of the randomness parameter with the thermodynamic uncertainty relation, which sets limits on the timing precision of the cycle in terms of thermodynamic quantities. Our results should prove useful also for the study of temporal fluctuations in more general networks.

Population fluctuations of Pyrodinium bahamense and Ceratium furca (Dinophyceae in Laguna Grande, Puerto Rico, and environmental variables associated during a three-year period

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel P. Sastre

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Bioluminescent bays and lagoons are unique natural environments and popular tourist attractions. However, the bioluminescence in many of these water bodies has declined, principally due to anthropogenic activities. In the Caribbean, the bioluminescence in these bays and lagoons is mostly produced by the dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense var. bahamense. Laguna Grande is one of the three year-round bioluminescent water bodies in Puerto Rico that are known to remain but P. bahamense var. bahamense density fluctuations have not been studied. In this study we describe water quality parameters and density fluctuations of the most common dinoflagellates in Laguna Grande, P. bahamense var. bahamense and Ceratium furca, over a three-year period. For this, three sampling stations were established in Laguna Grande from which water samples were collected in triplicate and analyzed for temperature, phosphates, nitrates, salinity, water transparency, fluorescence, and dinoflagellate densities, at the water surface and at 2m depth, from May 2003 to May 2006. The results showed a density fluctuation pattern for P. bahamense var. bahamense, where higher densities were observed mainly from April to September, and lower densities from October to February. Density fluctuations of C. furca were more erratic and a repetitive pattern was not observed. Densities of P. bahamense var. bahamense ranged from 0.48 to 90 978 cells/L and densities of C. furca ranged from 0 to 11 200 cells/L. The mean population density throughout the sampling period was significantly higher in P. bahamense var. bahamense (mean=18 958.5 cells/L than in C. furca (mean=2 601.9 cells/L. Population densities of P. bahamense var. bahamense were negatively correlated with C. furca densities during the first year of sampling; however, they were positively correlated during the third year. Non-significant differences between surface and 2m depth samples were observed for temperature

Range walk error correction and modeling on Pseudo-random photon counting system

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Shanshan; Chen, Qian; He, Weiji

2017-08-01

Signal to noise ratio and depth accuracy are modeled for the pseudo-random ranging system with two random processes. The theoretical results, developed herein, capture the effects of code length and signal energy fluctuation are shown to agree with Monte Carlo simulation measurements. First, the SNR is developed as a function of the code length. Using Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (GMAPDs), longer code length is proven to reduce the noise effect and improve SNR. Second, the Cramer-Rao lower bound on range accuracy is derived to justify that longer code length can bring better range accuracy. Combined with the SNR model and CRLB model, it is manifested that the range accuracy can be improved by increasing the code length to reduce the noise-induced error. Third, the Cramer-Rao lower bound on range accuracy is shown to converge to the previously published theories and introduce the Gauss range walk model to range accuracy. Experimental tests also converge to the presented boundary model in this paper. It has been proven that depth error caused by the fluctuation of the number of detected photon counts in the laser echo pulse leads to the depth drift of Time Point Spread Function (TPSF). Finally, numerical fitting function is used to determine the relationship between the depth error and the photon counting ratio. Depth error due to different echo energy is calibrated so that the corrected depth accuracy is improved to 1cm.

Quantum fluctuations from thermal fluctuations in Jacobson formalism

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Faizal, Mir [University of British Columbia-Okanagan, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, Kelowna, BC (Canada); University of Lethbridge, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Lethbridge, AB (Canada); Ashour, Amani; Alcheikh, Mohammad [Damascus University, Mathematics Department, Faculty of Science, Damascus (Syrian Arab Republic); Alasfar, Lina [Universite Clermont Auvergne, Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire de Clermont-Ferrand, Aubiere (France); Alsaleh, Salwa; Mahroussah, Ahmed [King Saud University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)

2017-09-15

In the Jacobson formalism general relativity is obtained from thermodynamics. This is done by using the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy-area relation. However, as a black hole gets smaller, its temperature will increase. This will cause the thermal fluctuations to also increase, and these will in turn correct the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy-area relation. Furthermore, with the reduction in the size of the black hole, quantum effects will also start to dominate. Just as the general relativity can be obtained from thermodynamics in the Jacobson formalism, we propose that the quantum fluctuations to the geometry can be obtained from thermal fluctuations. (orig.)

NLO error propagation exercise: statistical results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pack, D.J.; Downing, D.J.

1985-09-01

Error propagation is the extrapolation and cumulation of uncertainty (variance) above total amounts of special nuclear material, for example, uranium or 235 U, that are present in a defined location at a given time. The uncertainty results from the inevitable inexactness of individual measurements of weight, uranium concentration, 235 U enrichment, etc. The extrapolated and cumulated uncertainty leads directly to quantified limits of error on inventory differences (LEIDs) for such material. The NLO error propagation exercise was planned as a field demonstration of the utilization of statistical error propagation methodology at the Feed Materials Production Center in Fernald, Ohio from April 1 to July 1, 1983 in a single material balance area formed specially for the exercise. Major elements of the error propagation methodology were: variance approximation by Taylor Series expansion; variance cumulation by uncorrelated primary error sources as suggested by Jaech; random effects ANOVA model estimation of variance effects (systematic error); provision for inclusion of process variance in addition to measurement variance; and exclusion of static material. The methodology was applied to material balance area transactions from the indicated time period through a FORTRAN computer code developed specifically for this purpose on the NLO HP-3000 computer. This paper contains a complete description of the error propagation methodology and a full summary of the numerical results of applying the methodlogy in the field demonstration. The error propagation LEIDs did encompass the actual uranium and 235 U inventory differences. Further, one can see that error propagation actually provides guidance for reducing inventory differences and LEIDs in future time periods

Fluctuations and confinement in ATF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isler, R.C.; Harris, J.H.; Murakami, M.

1993-01-01

In the period immediately prior to the suspension of ATF operation in November, 1991, a great deal of emphasis was palced on investigations of the fundamental mechanisms controlling confinement in this device. At that time, measurements of the density fluctuations throughout the plasma volume indicated the existence of theoretically predicted dissipative trapped electron and resistive interchange instabilities. These identifications were supported by results of dynamic configuration scans of the magnetic fields during which the extent of the magnetic well, shear, and fraction of confined trapped particles were changed continuously. Interpretation of the data from these experiments has been an ongoing exercise. Most recently, analysis of discharges employing strong gas puffing to change density gradients and fluctuation levels have strengthened the view that dissipative trapped electron modes may be present but do not play a significant direct role in energy transport. The present paper summarizes the current understanding concerning the identification of instabilities and their relationship to confinement in ATF

Re-Normalization Method of Doppler Lidar Signal for Error Reduction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Nakgyu; Baik, Sunghoon; Park, Seungkyu; Kim, Donglyul [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Dukhyeon [Hanbat National Univ., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2014-05-15

In this paper, we presented a re-normalization method for the fluctuations of Doppler signals from the various noises mainly due to the frequency locking error for a Doppler lidar system. For the Doppler lidar system, we used an injection-seeded pulsed Nd:YAG laser as the transmitter and an iodine filter as the Doppler frequency discriminator. For the Doppler frequency shift measurement, the transmission ratio using the injection-seeded laser is locked to stabilize the frequency. If the frequency locking system is not perfect, the Doppler signal has some error due to the frequency locking error. The re-normalization process of the Doppler signals was performed to reduce this error using an additional laser beam to an Iodine cell. We confirmed that the renormalized Doppler signal shows the stable experimental data much more than that of the averaged Doppler signal using our calibration method, the reduced standard deviation was 4.838 Χ 10{sup -3}.

Study of Periodic Fabrication Error of Optical Splitter Device Performance

OpenAIRE

Ab-Rahman, Mohammad Syuhaimi; Ater, Foze Saleh; Jumari, Kasmiran; Mohammad, Rahmah

2012-01-01

In this paper, the effect of fabrication errors (FEs) on the performance of 1×4 optical power splitter is investigated in details. The FE, which is assumed to take regular shape, is considered in each section of the device. Simulation result show that FE has a significant effect on the output power especially when it occurs in coupling regions.

Propagation of resist heating mask error to wafer level

Science.gov (United States)

Babin, S. V.; Karklin, Linard

2006-10-01

As technology is approaching 45 nm and below the IC industry is experiencing a severe product yield hit due to rapidly shrinking process windows and unavoidable manufacturing process variations. Current EDA tools are unable by their nature to deliver optimized and process-centered designs that call for 'post design' localized layout optimization DFM tools. To evaluate the impact of different manufacturing process variations on final product it is important to trace and evaluate all errors through design to manufacturing flow. Photo mask is one of the critical parts of this flow, and special attention should be paid to photo mask manufacturing process and especially to mask tight CD control. Electron beam lithography (EBL) is a major technique which is used for fabrication of high-end photo masks. During the writing process, resist heating is one of the sources for mask CD variations. Electron energy is released in the mask body mainly as heat, leading to significant temperature fluctuations in local areas. The temperature fluctuations cause changes in resist sensitivity, which in turn leads to CD variations. These CD variations depend on mask writing speed, order of exposure, pattern density and its distribution. Recent measurements revealed up to 45 nm CD variation on the mask when using ZEP resist. The resist heating problem with CAR resists is significantly smaller compared to other types of resists. This is partially due to higher resist sensitivity and the lower exposure dose required. However, there is no data yet showing CD errors on the wafer induced by CAR resist heating on the mask. This effect can be amplified by high MEEF values and should be carefully evaluated at 45nm and below technology nodes where tight CD control is required. In this paper, we simulated CD variation on the mask due to resist heating; then a mask pattern with the heating error was transferred onto the wafer. So, a CD error on the wafer was evaluated subject to only one term of the

Detection of small-amplitude periodic surface pressure fluctuation by pressure-sensitive paint measurements using frequency-domain methods

Science.gov (United States)

Noda, Takahiro; Nakakita, Kazuyki; Wakahara, Masaki; Kameda, Masaharu

2018-06-01

Image measurement using pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) is an effective tool for analyzing the unsteady pressure field on the surface of a body in a low-speed air flow, which is associated with wind noise. In this study, the surface pressure fluctuation due to the tonal trailing edge (TE) noise for a two-dimensional NACA 0012 airfoil was quantitatively detected using a porous anodized aluminum PSP (AA-PSP). The emission from the PSP upon illumination by a blue laser diode was captured using a 12-bit high-speed complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) camera. The intensities of the captured images were converted to pressures using a standard intensity-based method. Three image-processing methods based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT) were tested to determine their efficiency in improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the unsteady PSP data. In addition to two fundamental FFT techniques (the full data and ensemble averaging FFTs), a technique using the coherent output power (COP), which involves the cross correlation between the PSP data and the signal measured using a pointwise sound-level meter, was tested. Preliminary tests indicated that random photon shot noise dominates the intensity fluctuations in the captured PSP emissions above 200 Hz. Pressure fluctuations associated with the TE noise, whose dominant frequency is approximately 940 Hz, were successfully measured by analyzing 40,960 sequential PSP images recorded at 10 kfps. Quantitative validation using the power spectrum indicates that the COP technique is the most effective method of identification of the pressure fluctuation directly related to TE noise. It is possible to distinguish power differences with a resolution of 10 Pa^2 (4 Pa in amplitude) when the COP was employed without use of another wind-off data. This resolution cannot be achieved by the ensemble averaging FFT because of an insufficient elimination of the background noise.

FLUCTUATING SELECTION AND THE MAINTENANCE OF INDIVIDUAL AND SEX-SPECIFIC DIET SPECIALIZATION IN FREE-LIVING OYSTERCATCHERS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van de Pol, Martijn; Brouwer, Lyanne; Ens, B; Oosterbeek, Kees; Tinbergen, Joost M.; Candolin, U.

Fluctuating and disruptive selection are important mechanisms for maintaining intrapopulation trait variation. Nonetheless, few field studies quantify selection pressures over long periods and identify what causes them to fluctuate. Diet specialists in oystercatchers differ in short-term payoffs

Scale-invariant curvature fluctuations from an extended semiclassical gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pinamonti, Nicola, E-mail: pinamont@dima.unige.it, E-mail: siemssen@dima.unige.it [Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 35, 16146 Genova (Italy); INFN Sezione di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 33, 16146 Genova (Italy); Siemssen, Daniel, E-mail: pinamont@dima.unige.it, E-mail: siemssen@dima.unige.it [Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Genova, Via Dodecaneso 35, 16146 Genova (Italy)

2015-02-15

We present an extension of the semiclassical Einstein equations which couple n-point correlation functions of a stochastic Einstein tensor to the n-point functions of the quantum stress-energy tensor. We apply this extension to calculate the quantum fluctuations during an inflationary period, where we take as a model a massive conformally coupled scalar field on a perturbed de Sitter space and describe how a renormalization independent, almost-scale-invariant power spectrum of the scalar metric perturbation is produced. Furthermore, we discuss how this model yields a natural basis for the calculation of non-Gaussianities of the considered metric fluctuations.

Error sensitivity analysis in 10-30-day extended range forecasting by using a nonlinear cross-prediction error model

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Zhiye; Xu, Lisheng; Chen, Hongbin; Wang, Yongqian; Liu, Jinbao; Feng, Wenlan

2017-06-01

Extended range forecasting of 10-30 days, which lies between medium-term and climate prediction in terms of timescale, plays a significant role in decision-making processes for the prevention and mitigation of disastrous meteorological events. The sensitivity of initial error, model parameter error, and random error in a nonlinear crossprediction error (NCPE) model, and their stability in the prediction validity period in 10-30-day extended range forecasting, are analyzed quantitatively. The associated sensitivity of precipitable water, temperature, and geopotential height during cases of heavy rain and hurricane is also discussed. The results are summarized as follows. First, the initial error and random error interact. When the ratio of random error to initial error is small (10-6-10-2), minor variation in random error cannot significantly change the dynamic features of a chaotic system, and therefore random error has minimal effect on the prediction. When the ratio is in the range of 10-1-2 (i.e., random error dominates), attention should be paid to the random error instead of only the initial error. When the ratio is around 10-2-10-1, both influences must be considered. Their mutual effects may bring considerable uncertainty to extended range forecasting, and de-noising is therefore necessary. Second, in terms of model parameter error, the embedding dimension m should be determined by the factual nonlinear time series. The dynamic features of a chaotic system cannot be depicted because of the incomplete structure of the attractor when m is small. When m is large, prediction indicators can vanish because of the scarcity of phase points in phase space. A method for overcoming the cut-off effect ( m > 4) is proposed. Third, for heavy rains, precipitable water is more sensitive to the prediction validity period than temperature or geopotential height; however, for hurricanes, geopotential height is most sensitive, followed by precipitable water.

Resonant behavior of a fractional oscillator with fluctuating frequency

Science.gov (United States)

Soika, Erkki; Mankin, Romi; Ainsaar, Ain

2010-01-01

The long-time behavior of the first moment for the output signal of a fractional oscillator with fluctuating frequency subjected to an external periodic force is considered. Colored fluctuations of the oscillator eigenfrequency are modeled as a dichotomous noise. The viscoelastic type friction kernel with memory is assumed as a power-law function of time. Using the Shapiro-Loginov formula, exact expressions for the response to an external periodic field and for the complex susceptibility are presented. On the basis of the exact formulas it is demonstrated that interplay of colored noise and memory can generate a variety of cooperation effects, such as multiresonances versus the driving frequency and the friction coefficient as well as stochastic resonance versus noise parameters. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the cooperation effects are also discussed. Particularly, two different critical memory exponents have been found, which mark dynamical transitions in the behavior of the system.

Medication errors with the use of allopurinol and colchicine: a retrospective study of a national, anonymous Internet-accessible error reporting system.

Science.gov (United States)

Mikuls, Ted R; Curtis, Jeffrey R; Allison, Jeroan J; Hicks, Rodney W; Saag, Kenneth G

2006-03-01

To more closely assess medication errors in gout care, we examined data from a national, Internet-accessible error reporting program over a 5-year reporting period. We examined data from the MEDMARX database, covering the period from January 1, 1999 through December 31, 2003. For allopurinol and colchicine, we examined error severity, source, type, contributing factors, and healthcare personnel involved in errors, and we detailed errors resulting in patient harm. Causes of error and the frequency of other error characteristics were compared for gout medications versus other musculoskeletal treatments using the chi-square statistic. Gout medication errors occurred in 39% (n = 273) of facilities participating in the MEDMARX program. Reported errors were predominantly from the inpatient hospital setting and related to the use of allopurinol (n = 524), followed by colchicine (n = 315), probenecid (n = 50), and sulfinpyrazone (n = 2). Compared to errors involving other musculoskeletal treatments, allopurinol and colchicine errors were more often ascribed to problems with physician prescribing (7% for other therapies versus 23-39% for allopurinol and colchicine, p < 0.0001) and less often due to problems with drug administration or nursing error (50% vs 23-27%, p < 0.0001). Our results suggest that inappropriate prescribing practices are characteristic of errors occurring with the use of allopurinol and colchicine. Physician prescribing practices are a potential target for quality improvement interventions in gout care.

Experimental scaling of fluctuations and confinement with Lundquist number in the RFP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stoneking, M.R.; Chapman, J.T.; Prager, S.C.; Sarff, J.S.

1997-09-01

The scaling of the magnetic and velocity fluctuations with Lundquist number (S) is examined experimentally over a range of values from 7 x 10 4 to 10 6 in a reversed field pinch (RFP) plasma. Magnetic fluctuations do not scale uniquely with the Lundquist number. At high (relative) density, fluctuations scale as b∝S -0.18 , and fluctuations are almost independent of S at low relative density, b∝S -0.07 ; however both exponents fall in the range of theoretical and numerical predictions. At high relative density, the scaling of the energy confinement time follows expectations for transport in a stochastic magnetic field. A confinement scaling law (nτ E ∝β 4/5 T -7/10 A -3/5 I φ 2 ) is derived assuming the persistent dominance of stochastic magnetic diffusion in the RFP and on the measured scaling of magnetic fluctuations. The peak velocity fluctuations during a sawtooth cycle scale marginally stronger than magnetic fluctuations but weaker than a simple Ohm's law prediction. The sawtooth period is determined by a resistive-Alfvenic hybrid time (T saw ∝√(τ R τ Alf )) rather than a purely resistive time

Dose error analysis for a scanned proton beam delivery system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coutrakon, G; Wang, N; Miller, D W; Yang, Y

2010-01-01

All particle beam scanning systems are subject to dose delivery errors due to errors in position, energy and intensity of the delivered beam. In addition, finite scan speeds, beam spill non-uniformities, and delays in detector, detector electronics and magnet responses will all contribute errors in delivery. In this paper, we present dose errors for an 8 x 10 x 8 cm 3 target of uniform water equivalent density with 8 cm spread out Bragg peak and a prescribed dose of 2 Gy. Lower doses are also analyzed and presented later in the paper. Beam energy errors and errors due to limitations of scanning system hardware have been included in the analysis. By using Gaussian shaped pencil beams derived from measurements in the research room of the James M Slater Proton Treatment and Research Center at Loma Linda, CA and executing treatment simulations multiple times, statistical dose errors have been calculated in each 2.5 mm cubic voxel in the target. These errors were calculated by delivering multiple treatments to the same volume and calculating the rms variation in delivered dose at each voxel in the target. The variations in dose were the result of random beam delivery errors such as proton energy, spot position and intensity fluctuations. The results show that with reasonable assumptions of random beam delivery errors, the spot scanning technique yielded an rms dose error in each voxel less than 2% or 3% of the 2 Gy prescribed dose. These calculated errors are within acceptable clinical limits for radiation therapy.

Diagnostic errors in pediatric radiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, George A.; Voss, Stephan D.; Melvin, Patrice R.; Graham, Dionne A.

2011-01-01

Little information is known about the frequency, types and causes of diagnostic errors in imaging children. Our goals were to describe the patterns and potential etiologies of diagnostic error in our subspecialty. We reviewed 265 cases with clinically significant diagnostic errors identified during a 10-year period. Errors were defined as a diagnosis that was delayed, wrong or missed; they were classified as perceptual, cognitive, system-related or unavoidable; and they were evaluated by imaging modality and level of training of the physician involved. We identified 484 specific errors in the 265 cases reviewed (mean:1.8 errors/case). Most discrepancies involved staff (45.5%). Two hundred fifty-eight individual cognitive errors were identified in 151 cases (mean = 1.7 errors/case). Of these, 83 cases (55%) had additional perceptual or system-related errors. One hundred sixty-five perceptual errors were identified in 165 cases. Of these, 68 cases (41%) also had cognitive or system-related errors. Fifty-four system-related errors were identified in 46 cases (mean = 1.2 errors/case) of which all were multi-factorial. Seven cases were unavoidable. Our study defines a taxonomy of diagnostic errors in a large academic pediatric radiology practice and suggests that most are multi-factorial in etiology. Further study is needed to define effective strategies for improvement. (orig.)

Respondence Between Electrochemical Fluctuations and Phenomenon for Localized Corrosion of Less-Noble Metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Itoi, Yasuhiko; Take, Seisho; Tsuru, Tooru

2008-01-01

We have been studying application of electrochemical noise (Fluctuation) analysis for localized corrosion. Foils of Zinc, Aluminum and Magnesium were used as specimens for electrochemical cell simulating localized corrosion. These specimens were dipped in sodium chloride solutions adjusted to each exponent of hydrogen ion concentration (pH) condition of 5.5, 10, 12 respectively. Time variations of potential and current were measured in those solutions, and simultaneously the surfaces of specimens were observed using microscope with television monitor. Two types of electrochemical cells were arranged for experiments simulated localized corrosion. The fluctuations on trendy component of short-circuited potential and short-circuited current were appeared in synchronization. It was seemed that these fluctuations result from hydrogen evolution on the aluminum active site in the crevice from the microscopic observation. In the case of zinc and magnesium, fluctuations appeared on the trendy component of the corrosion potential. Two types fluctuation were detected. First one is the fluctuation varied periodically. The second one is the random fluctuation. It was seemed that these fluctuations result from generation of corrosion products and hydrogen evolution on the active site in the crevice of zinc and magnesium from the microscopic observation

A Human Error Analysis Procedure for Identifying Potential Error Modes and Influencing Factors for Test and Maintenance Activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Jae Whan; Park, Jin Kyun

2010-01-01

Periodic or non-periodic test and maintenance (T and M) activities in large, complex systems such as nuclear power plants (NPPs) are essential for sustaining stable and safe operation of the systems. On the other hand, it also has been raised that human erroneous actions that might occur during T and M activities has the possibility of incurring unplanned reactor trips (RTs) or power derate, making safety-related systems unavailable, or making the reliability of components degraded. Contribution of human errors during normal and abnormal activities of NPPs to the unplanned RTs is known to be about 20% of the total events. This paper introduces a procedure for predictively analyzing human error potentials when maintenance personnel perform T and M tasks based on a work procedure or their work plan. This procedure helps plant maintenance team prepare for plausible human errors. The procedure to be introduced is focusing on the recurrent error forms (or modes) in execution-based errors such as wrong object, omission, too little, and wrong action

Error of quantum-logic simulation via vector-soliton collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Janutka, Andrzej

2007-01-01

In a concept of simulating the quantum logic with vector solitons by the author (Janutka 2006 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 39 12505), the soliton polarization is thought of as a state vector of a system of cebits (classical counterparts of qubits) switched via collisions with other solitons. The advantage of this method of information processing compared to schemes using linear optics is the possibility of the determination of the information-register state in a single measurement. Minimization of the information-processing error for different optical realizations of the logical systems is studied in the framework of a quantum analysis of soliton fluctuations. The problem is considered with relevance to general difficulties of the quantum error-correction schemes for the classical analogies of the quantum-information processing

The Effect of Quantum Fluctuations in Compact Star Observables

Science.gov (United States)

Pósfay, P.; Barnaföldi, G. G.; Jakovác, A.

2018-05-01

Astrophysical measurements regarding compact stars are just ahead of a big evolution jump, since the NICER experiment deployed on ISS on 2017 June 14. This will provide soon data that would enable the determination of compact star radius with less than 10% error. This can be further constrained by the new observation of gravitational waves originated from merging neutron stars, GW170817. This poses new challenges to nuclear models aiming to explain the structure of super dense nuclear matter found in neutron stars. Detailed studies of the QCD phase diagram show the importance of bosonic quantum fluctuations in the cold dense matter equation of state. Here we used a demonstrative model with one bosonic and one fermionic degree of freedom coupled by Yukawa coupling, we show the effect of bosonic quantum fluctuations on compact star observables such as mass, radius, and compactness. We have also calculated the difference in the value of compressibility which is caused by quantum fluctuations. The above-mentioned quantities are calculated in the mean field, one-loop, and in high order many loop approximation. The results show that the magnitude of these effects is in the range of 4-5%, which place it into the region where modern measurements may detect it. This forms a base for further investigations that how these results carry over to more complicated models.

Reduction of fluctuations in reactivity using symmetric matrix

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suescun D, D.; Segovia Ch, F. A.; Bonilla L, H. F.

2016-09-01

A new filtering method is presented in this work known as Savitzky-Golay (SG); allows reducing the fluctuations in the calculation of the reactivity. The filter softens and does not attenuate the nuclear power regardless of its shape, guaranteeing to decrease different degrees of noise with different steps of calculation time. This formulation employs a polynomial approximation of a certain degree to calculate the convolution coefficients. Its implementation is computational and avoids problems of bad conditioning, caused by the inversion of a linear system. The results show values in the maximum difference and in the averages absolute errors of the reactivity in comparison with that reported in the literature. (Author)

Impact of economic fluctuations on suicide mortality in Canada (1926-2008): Testing the Durkheim, Ginsberg, and Henry and Short theories.

Science.gov (United States)

Thibodeau, Lise; Lachaud, James

2016-01-01

Three theories have been proposed to explain the relationship between suicide and economic fluctuations, including the Durkheim (nonlinear), Ginsberg (procyclical), and Henry and Short (countercyclical) theories. This study tested the effect of economic fluctuations, measured by unemployment rate, on suicide rates in Canada from 1926 to 2008. Autoregressive integrated moving average time-series models were used. The results showed a significant relationship between suicide and economic fluctuation; this association was positive during the contraction period (1926-1950) and negative in the period of economic expansion (1951-1973). Males and females showed differential effects in the period of moderate unemployment (1974-2008). In addition, the suicide rate of mid-adults (45-64) was most impacted by economic fluctuations. Our study tends to support Durkheim's theory and suggests the need for public health responses in times of economic contraction and expansion.

Error evaluation method for material accountancy measurement. Evaluation of random and systematic errors based on material accountancy data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nidaira, Kazuo

2008-01-01

International Target Values (ITV) shows random and systematic measurement uncertainty components as a reference for routinely achievable measurement quality in the accountancy measurement. The measurement uncertainty, called error henceforth, needs to be periodically evaluated and checked against ITV for consistency as the error varies according to measurement methods, instruments, operators, certified reference samples, frequency of calibration, and so on. In the paper an error evaluation method was developed with focuses on (1) Specifying clearly error calculation model, (2) Getting always positive random and systematic error variances, (3) Obtaining probability density distribution of an error variance and (4) Confirming the evaluation method by simulation. In addition the method was demonstrated by applying real data. (author)

Statistical fluctuations in reactors (1960); Fluctuations statistiques dans les piles (1960)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Raievski, V [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Saclay (France).Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

1960-07-01

The theory of space dependent fluctuations is developed, taking into account the effect of delayed neutrons. The 'diffusion equation' or Fokker-Planck equation is worked out in the case of age and two group theory, but the first one because of in physical significance is used in this report. The theory is applied to the study of the spectral density of fluctuations and fluctuations of counting rate and current flowing through the charge resistor of an ionisation chamber, the effect of the entrance capacity is discussed. The space dependent theory shows that the fluctuations in the core and reflector of a near critical pile obey to the same law. The spectral densities in the core and reflector are similar, there is no sensible attenuation of high frequency fluctuations in the reflector. Compared to the space independent theory, this theory give better agreement with experience, one can use the simple space independent theory but in checking with experiment it is necessary to introduce numerical factors given by the space dependent theory. (author) [French] La theorie des fluctuations statistiques est developpee dans le cas spatial en tenant compte des neutrons retardes, et dans le cadre de la theorie de l'age vitesse. L'equation d'evolution de la probabilite est egalement etablie dans le cadre de la theorie a deux groupes. Ces considerations sont appliquees a l'etude de la densite spectrale des fluctuations et aux fluctuations des taux de comptage et du courant circulant dans la resistance de charge du detecteur. On etudie en particulier l'effet de la constante de temps introduite par la capacite d'entree. Cette theorie etablit que les fluctuations dans le coeur et le reflecteur suivent la meme loi pour une pile critique, il en est de meme pour la densite spectrale meme a frequence elevee. Par rapport a la theorie d'ensemble, la theorie spatiale donne des coefficients numeriques ou facteurs de forme, qui permettent d'obtenir un bon accord entre la theorie et l

Thallium isotopes track fluctuations in global manganese oxide burial during the Ediacaran Period

Science.gov (United States)

Ostrander, C. M.; Nielsen, S.; Owens, J. D.; Jiang, G.; Planavsky, N.; Sahoo, S. K.; Zhang, F.; Lyons, T. W.; Anbar, A. D.

2017-12-01

Complex marine ecosystems appear in the geologic record for the first time during the Ediacaran (635 - 541 Ma), after the Marinoan Glaciation but before the Cambrian Explosion. Much debate surrounds the redox-state of global oceans during this diversification, with some arguing for pervasive anoxic conditions and others for increased oxygenation, including the possibility of episodic oxygen increases. Here, we use thallium (Tl) isotopes preserved in organic-rich shales from a deep-water section at Wuhe, South China, to track large-scale perturbations in Mn oxide burial during the Ediacaran. Changes to the Tl isotope composition of seawater over geologic timescales are driven dominantly by fluctuations in global Mn oxide burial, which require persistent O2 at the sediment-water interface. Importantly, the suite of sedimentary rocks analyzed is thought to have been deposited beneath persistent localized euxinia, which is an environment shown to effectively capture the Tl isotope composition of seawater. Within samples previously suggested to host oceanic oxygenation episodes (OOEs) because of high redox-sensitive element (RSE) enrichments (Sahoo et al. 2016, Geobiology), we find Tl isotope values as light as -5 epsilon units, which are indicative of removal of heavy Tl by Mn oxides elsewhere in the Ediacaran ocean and in-line with the presence of deep-marine O2. Intriguingly, between these events, during periods previously viewed as dominantly anoxic, we find Tl isotope excursions to values that are even lighter than during the OOEs (less than -10 epsilon units). To first order, these results imply that an even larger Mn oxide sink was present between the OOEs, which would require pervasive oceanic oxygenation. This interpretation is in direct conflict with interpretations of low RSE enrichments in these same samples, which invoke reservoir drawdown due to widespread anoxia—as well as many other data that suggest dominantly anoxic deep marine conditions through the

Electrochemical sensors applied to pollution monitoring: Measurement error and gas ratio bias - A volcano plume case study

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, T. J.; Saffell, J. R.; Oppenheimer, C.; Lurton, T.

2014-06-01

There is an increasing scientific interest in the use of miniature electrochemical sensors to detect and quantify atmospheric trace gases. This has led to the development of ‘Multi-Gas' systems applied to measurements of both volcanic gas emissions, and urban air pollution. However, such measurements are subject to uncertainties introduced by sensor response time, a critical issue that has received limited attention to date. Here, a detailed analysis of output from an electrochemical SO2 sensor and two H2S sensors (contrasting in their time responses and cross-sensitivities) demonstrates how instrument errors arise under the conditions of rapidly fluctuating (by dilution) gas abundances, leading to scatter and importantly bias in the reported gas ratios. In a case study at Miyakejima volcano (Japan), electrochemical sensors were deployed at both the crater-rim and downwind locations, thereby exposed to rapidly fluctuating and smoothly varying plume gas concentrations, respectively. Discrepancies in the H2S/SO2 gas mixing ratios derived from these measurements are attributed to the sensors' differing time responses to SO2 and H2S under fluctuating plume conditions, with errors magnified by the need to correct for SO2 interference in the H2S readings. Development of a sensor response model that reproduces sensor t90 behaviour (the time required to reach 90% of the final signal following a step change in gas abundance) during calibration enabled this measurement error to be simulated numerically. The sensor response times were characterised as SO2 sensor (t90 ~ 13 s), H2S sensor without interference (t90 ~ 11 s), and H2S sensor with interference (t90 ~ 20 s to H2S and ~ 32 s to SO2). We show that a method involving data integration between periods of episodic plume exposure identifiable in the sensor output yields a less biased H2S/SO2 ratio estimate than that derived from standard analysis approaches. For the Miyakejima crater-rim dataset this method yields highly

Two-mode bosonic quantum metrology with number fluctuations

Science.gov (United States)

De Pasquale, Antonella; Facchi, Paolo; Florio, Giuseppe; Giovannetti, Vittorio; Matsuoka, Koji; Yuasa, Kazuya

2015-10-01

We search for the optimal quantum pure states of identical bosonic particles for applications in quantum metrology, in particular, in the estimation of a single parameter for the generic two-mode interferometric setup. We consider the general case in which the total number of particles is fluctuating around an average N with variance Δ N2 . By recasting the problem in the framework of classical probability, we clarify the maximal accuracy attainable and show that it is always larger than the one reachable with a fixed number of particles (i.e., Δ N =0 ). In particular, for larger fluctuations, the error in the estimation diminishes proportionally to 1 /Δ N , below the Heisenberg-like scaling 1 /N . We also clarify the best input state, which is a quasi-NOON state for a generic setup and, for some special cases, a two-mode Schrödinger-cat state with a vacuum component. In addition, we search for the best state within the class of pure Gaussian states with a given average N , which is revealed to be a product state (with no entanglement) with a squeezed vacuum in one mode and the vacuum in the other.

Complexity of low-frequency blood oxygen level-dependent fluctuations covaries with local connectivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Jeffrey S; Zielinski, Brandon A; Nielsen, Jared A; Ferguson, Michael A

2014-04-01

Very low-frequency blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) fluctuations have emerged as a valuable tool for describing brain anatomy, neuropathology, and development. Such fluctuations exhibit power law frequency dynamics, with largest amplitude at lowest frequencies. The biophysical mechanisms generating such fluctuations are poorly understood. Using publicly available data from 1,019 subjects of age 7-30, we show that BOLD fluctuations exhibit temporal complexity that is linearly related to local connectivity (regional homogeneity), consistently and significantly covarying across subjects and across gray matter regions. This relationship persisted independently of covariance with gray matter density or standard deviation of BOLD signal. During late neurodevelopment, BOLD fluctuations were unchanged with age in association cortex while becoming more random throughout the rest of the brain. These data suggest that local interconnectivity may play a key role in establishing the complexity of low-frequency BOLD fluctuations underlying functional magnetic resonance imaging connectivity. Stable low-frequency power dynamics may emerge through segmentation and integration of connectivity during development of distributed large-scale brain networks. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

BRIGHTNESS AND FLUCTUATION OF THE MID-INFRARED SKY FROM AKARI OBSERVATIONS TOWARD THE NORTH ECLIPTIC POLE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pyo, Jeonghyun; Jeong, Woong-Seob; Matsumoto, Toshio; Matsuura, Shuji

2012-01-01

We present the smoothness of the mid-infrared sky from observations by the Japanese infrared astronomical satellite AKARI. AKARI monitored the north ecliptic pole (NEP) during its cold phase with nine wave bands covering from 2.4 to 24 μm, out of which six mid-infrared bands were used in this study. We applied power-spectrum analysis to the images in order to search for the fluctuation of the sky brightness. Observed fluctuation is explained by fluctuation of photon noise, shot noise of faint sources, and Galactic cirrus. The fluctuations at a few arcminutes scales at short mid-infrared wavelengths (7, 9, and 11 μm) are largely caused by the diffuse Galactic light of the interstellar dust cirrus. At long mid-infrared wavelengths (15, 18, and 24 μm), photon noise is the dominant source of fluctuation over the scale from arcseconds to a few arcminutes. The residual fluctuation amplitude at 200'' after removing these contributions is at most 1.04 ± 0.23 nW m –2 sr –1 or 0.05% of the brightness at 24 μm and at least 0.47 ± 0.14 nW m –2 sr –1 or 0.02% at 18 μm. We conclude that the upper limit of the fluctuation in the zodiacal light toward the NEP is 0.03% of the sky brightness, taking 2σ error into account.

Operating personnel error analysis during operation failures in the Kozloduj NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jonkova, A.

1990-01-01

The failures due to personnel errors are analyzed for 10 years period (1977-1986). Most of the results are presented in absolute values and are considered in dynamics. The indices for relative shares are compared by alternative analysis. One of the most important causes is the fluctuation of manpower. The failures distribution by months within the year and by hours of the day is given. The biggest number of failures occurred in the period April-October (without August - the month of the leaves), when the refueling and repair were taken place, and in January-February, due to heavy meteorological conditions and some fatigue and disconcentration because of multiple holidays. The failures during the day shifts had the greatest relative share - 42%, during the afternoon shifts - 26% and during the night shifts - 32% The most 'dangerous' time periods happened to be 11-12 h and 13-14 h (deteriorated attention after lunch), 20-22 h (physiological drop of the psychological activity), 0-3 h (the lowest level of physiological and psychological activity) and in the first and last hours of every shift. Three groups of causes are pointed out as the most frequent: improper actions connected with orders; improper independent actions; uncoordinated teamwork. The following measures are proposed for reducing the effect of the human factor: setting up the training centre; preliminary evaluation of the professional qualification of the operators; current dynamic control of their neuro-psychological fitness and occupational reliability. 1 fig, 2 tabs, 5 refs

[Errors in Peruvian medical journals references].

Science.gov (United States)

Huamaní, Charles; Pacheco-Romero, José

2009-01-01

References are fundamental in our studies; an adequate selection is asimportant as an adequate description. To determine the number of errors in a sample of references found in Peruvian medical journals. We reviewed 515 scientific papers references selected by systematic randomized sampling and corroborated reference information with the original document or its citation in Pubmed, LILACS or SciELO-Peru. We found errors in 47,6% (245) of the references, identifying 372 types of errors; the most frequent were errors in presentation style (120), authorship (100) and title (100), mainly due to spelling mistakes (91). References error percentage was high, varied and multiple. We suggest systematic revision of references in the editorial process as well as to extend the discussion on this theme. references, periodicals, research, bibliometrics.

A model for the statistical description of analytical errors occurring in clinical chemical laboratories with time.

Science.gov (United States)

Hyvärinen, A

1985-01-01

The main purpose of the present study was to describe the statistical behaviour of daily analytical errors in the dimensions of place and time, providing a statistical basis for realistic estimates of the analytical error, and hence allowing the importance of the error and the relative contributions of its different sources to be re-evaluated. The observation material consists of creatinine and glucose results for control sera measured in daily routine quality control in five laboratories for a period of one year. The observation data were processed and computed by means of an automated data processing system. Graphic representations of time series of daily observations, as well as their means and dispersion limits when grouped over various time intervals, were investigated. For partition of the total variation several two-way analyses of variance were done with laboratory and various time classifications as factors. Pooled sets of observations were tested for normality of distribution and for consistency of variances, and the distribution characteristics of error variation in different categories of place and time were compared. Errors were found from the time series to vary typically between days. Due to irregular fluctuations in general and particular seasonal effects in creatinine, stable estimates of means or of dispersions for errors in individual laboratories could not be easily obtained over short periods of time but only from data sets pooled over long intervals (preferably at least one year). Pooled estimates of proportions of intralaboratory variation were relatively low (less than 33%) when the variation was pooled within days. However, when the variation was pooled over longer intervals this proportion increased considerably, even to a maximum of 89-98% (95-98% in each method category) when an outlying laboratory in glucose was omitted, with a concomitant decrease in the interaction component (representing laboratory-dependent variation with time

Daily fluctuation of hepatic P450 monooxygenase activities in male rats is controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus but remains unaffected by adrenal hormones.

Science.gov (United States)

Furukawa, T; Manabe, S; Watanabe, T; Sehata, S; Sharyo, S; Okada, T; Mori, Y

1999-09-01

Hepatic P450 monooxygenase activities, which strongly influence the efficacy and/or toxicity of drugs, are known to fluctuate daily. We also know that the P450 activities assessed by measurement of 7-alkoxycoumarin O-dealkylase (ACD) activities fluctuate daily, with apparently high values during the dark period in male rats. However, there is little knowledge about the factors that regulate daily fluctuation of P450 monooxygenase activities. In the present study using rats, we induced lesions in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the brain, the known site of the body's internal clock, and examined the effects on the daily fluctuation of the ACD activities to clarify the relationship between the SCN and the daily fluctuation of P450 monooxygenase activities. In addition, adrenalectomy was performed to re-evaluate the influence of adrenal hormones on the P450 activities. Our results indicated that daily fluctuations of the hepatic ACD activities were completely eliminated in the SCN-lesioned rats. However, the ACD activities in the adrenalectomized rats showed apparent daily fluctuations with high values during the dark period and low values during the light period. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the daily fluctuation of the hepatic P450 monooxygenase activities in male rats is controlled by the SCN but remains unaffected by the adrenal hormones.

Error tracking in a clinical biochemistry laboratory

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Szecsi, Pal Bela; Ødum, Lars

2009-01-01

BACKGROUND: We report our results for the systematic recording of all errors in a standard clinical laboratory over a 1-year period. METHODS: Recording was performed using a commercial database program. All individuals in the laboratory were allowed to report errors. The testing processes were cl...

Redox Fluctuations Increase the Contribution of Lignin to Soil Respiration

Science.gov (United States)

Hall, S. J.; Silver, W. L.; Timokhin, V.; Hammel, K.

2014-12-01

Lignin mineralization represents a critical flux in the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle, yet little is known about mechanisms and environmental factors controlling lignin breakdown in mineral soils. Hypoxia has long been thought to suppress lignin decomposition, yet variation in oxygen (O2) availability in surface soils accompanying moisture fluctuations could potentially stimulate this process by generating reactive oxygen species via coupled biotic and abiotic iron (Fe) redox cycling. Here, we tested the impact of redox fluctuations on lignin breakdown in humid tropical forest soils during ten-week laboratory incubations. We used synthetic lignins labeled with 13C in either of two positions (aromatic methoxyl and propyl Cβ) to provide highly sensitive and specific measures of lignin mineralization not previously employed in soils. Four-day redox fluctuations increased the percent contribution of methoxyl C to soil respiration, and cumulative methoxyl C mineralization was equivalent under static aerobic and fluctuating redox conditions despite lower total C mineralization in the latter treatment. Contributions of the highly stable Cβ to mineralization were also equivalent in static aerobic and fluctuating redox treatments during periods of O2 exposure, and nearly doubled in the fluctuating treatment after normalizing to cumulative O2 exposure. Oxygen fluctuations drove substantial net Fe reduction and oxidation, implying that reactive oxygen species generated during abiotic Fe oxidation likely contributed to the elevated contribution of lignin to C mineralization. Iron redox cycling provides a mechanism for lignin breakdown in soils that experience conditions unfavorable for canonical lignin-degrading organisms, and provides a potential mechanism for lignin depletion in soil organic matter during late-stage decomposition. Thus, close couplings between soil moisture, redox fluctuations, and lignin breakdown provide potential a link between climate variability and

Square-Wave Voltage Injection Algorithm for PMSM Position Sensorless Control With High Robustness to Voltage Errors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ni, Ronggang; Xu, Dianguo; Blaabjerg, Frede

2017-01-01

relationship with the magnetic field distortion. Position estimation errors caused by higher order harmonic inductances and voltage harmonics generated by the SVPWM are also discussed. Both simulations and experiments are carried out based on a commercial PMSM to verify the superiority of the proposed method......Rotor position estimated with high-frequency (HF) voltage injection methods can be distorted by voltage errors due to inverter nonlinearities, motor resistance, and rotational voltage drops, etc. This paper proposes an improved HF square-wave voltage injection algorithm, which is robust to voltage...... errors without any compensations meanwhile has less fluctuation in the position estimation error. The average position estimation error is investigated based on the analysis of phase harmonic inductances, and deduced in the form of the phase shift of the second-order harmonic inductances to derive its...

C-type period-doubling transition in nephron autoregulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Laugesen, Jakob Lund; Mosekilde, Erik; Holstein-Rathlou, Niels-Henrik

2011-01-01

The functional units of the kidney, called nephrons, utilize mechanisms that allow the individual nephron to regulate the incoming blood flow in response to fluctuations in the arterial pressure. This regulation tends to be unstable and to generate self-sustained oscillations, period-doubling bif......The functional units of the kidney, called nephrons, utilize mechanisms that allow the individual nephron to regulate the incoming blood flow in response to fluctuations in the arterial pressure. This regulation tends to be unstable and to generate self-sustained oscillations, period......-doubling bifurcations, mode-locking and other nonlinear dynamic phenomena in the tubular pressures and flows. Using a simplified nephron model, the paper examines how the regulatory mechanisms react to an external periodic variation in arterial pressure near a region of resonance with one of the internally generated...

Control of density fluctuations in atomistic-continuum simulations of dense liquids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kotsalis, E.M.; Walther, Jens Honore; Koumoutsakos, P.

2007-01-01

with a continuum solver for the simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The lack of periodic boundary conditions in the molecular dynamics simulations hinders the proper accounting for the virial pressure leading to spurious density fluctuations at the continuum-atomistic interface. An ad hoc boundary force...... is usually employed to remedy this situation.We propose the calculation of this boundary force using a control algorithm that explicitly cancels the density fluctuations. The results demonstrate that the present approach outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms. The conceptual and algorithmic simplicity...

Medication Errors: New EU Good Practice Guide on Risk Minimisation and Error Prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Goedecke, Thomas; Ord, Kathryn; Newbould, Victoria; Brosch, Sabine; Arlett, Peter

2016-06-01

A medication error is an unintended failure in the drug treatment process that leads to, or has the potential to lead to, harm to the patient. Reducing the risk of medication errors is a shared responsibility between patients, healthcare professionals, regulators and the pharmaceutical industry at all levels of healthcare delivery. In 2015, the EU regulatory network released a two-part good practice guide on medication errors to support both the pharmaceutical industry and regulators in the implementation of the changes introduced with the EU pharmacovigilance legislation. These changes included a modification of the 'adverse reaction' definition to include events associated with medication errors, and the requirement for national competent authorities responsible for pharmacovigilance in EU Member States to collaborate and exchange information on medication errors resulting in harm with national patient safety organisations. To facilitate reporting and learning from medication errors, a clear distinction has been made in the guidance between medication errors resulting in adverse reactions, medication errors without harm, intercepted medication errors and potential errors. This distinction is supported by an enhanced MedDRA(®) terminology that allows for coding all stages of the medication use process where the error occurred in addition to any clinical consequences. To better understand the causes and contributing factors, individual case safety reports involving an error should be followed-up with the primary reporter to gather information relevant for the conduct of root cause analysis where this may be appropriate. Such reports should also be summarised in periodic safety update reports and addressed in risk management plans. Any risk minimisation and prevention strategy for medication errors should consider all stages of a medicinal product's life-cycle, particularly the main sources and types of medication errors during product development. This article

Analysis of Risks Generated by Suppliers During the Period of Economic Fluctuations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karla Jurásková

2013-02-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to examine one group of supply chain risks, namely the current risks generated by the suppliers and their relations to the position of companies in the supply chain and the current economic fluctuations, as well as to gain the knowledge on how to mitigate these risks, including the cooperation between the partners. The research was conducted in two stages by means of a questionnaire analysis and follow-up of multiple case studies. The surveys used have registered certain signals showing increasing dependence on the suppliers, deepening imbalances in the supply chains and decreasing opportunities of reducing the presence of risks. The surveys have also detected tendencies leading to structural measures strengthening resilience of the supply chain. The areas for further research of supply chains risks and risks management are formulated based on the acquired findings.

Fluctuations and structure of amphiphilic films; Fluctuations et structure de films d`amphiphiles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gourier, CH

1996-07-01

This thesis is divided in three parts.The first part exposes in a theoretical point of view, how the fluctuations spectrum of an amphiphilic film is governed by its properties and its bidimensional characteristics.The measurements of fluctuations spectra of an interface are accessible with the measurement of intensity that interface diffuses out of the specular angle, we present in the second chapter the principles of the X rays diffusion by a real interface and see how the diffuse diffusion experiments allow to determine the fluctuations spectrum of an amphiphilic film. The second part is devoted to the different experimental techniques that have allowed to realize the study of fluctuation as well as the structural study.The third part is devoted to experimental results concerning the measurements of fluctuations spectra and to the study of the structure of amphiphilic films. We show that it is possible by using an intense source of X rays (ESRF: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) to measure the water and amphiphilic films fluctuations spectra until molecular scales. The last chapter is devoted to the structural study and film fluctuations made of di-acetylenic molecules. (N.C.)

Formulation of uncertainty relation of error and disturbance in quantum measurement by using quantum estimation theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu Watanabe; Masahito Ueda

2012-01-01

quantum measurement [2]. We prove that the product of the errors of two observables and the product of the error and disturbance are both bounded by the commutation relation of the observables. However, the bounds cannot be attained in general. Therefore, it is expected that there exist tighter bounds. We obtain the attainable bounds of the product of the errors of two observables and the product of the error and disturbance. The bounds are both determined by quantum fluctuations and correlation function of the observables. The quantum fluctuation and correlation function characterize the non-classical fluctuations and correlation of the observables. Third, we introduce an information geometrical aspect of the uncertainty relations. Quantum measurement induces an classical statistical model of measurement outcomes from quantum statistical model of initial quantum states. The difference between the Fisher metrics on those statistical models gives the error incurred in the measurement process. Quantum measurement causes unavoidable state change, therefore, the Fisher metric on the statistical model of the post-measurement states decreases from the original one. (author), References: [1] Y. Watanabe, T. Sagawa, and M. Ueda, Phys. Rev. A 84, 042121 (2011). [2] Y. Watanabe, M. Ueda, arXiv:1106.2526 (2011).

Influence of thermal fluctuations on ligament break-up: a fluctuating lattice Boltzmann study

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Xiao; Biferale, Luca; Sbragaglia, Mauro; Toschi, Federico

2017-11-01

Thermal fluctuations are essential ingredients in a nanoscale system, driving Brownian motion of particles and capillary waves at non-ideal interfaces. Here we study the influence of thermal fluctuations on the breakup of liquid ligaments at the nanoscale. We offer quantitative characterization of the effects of thermal fluctuations on the Plateau-Rayleigh mechanism that drives the breakup process of ligaments. Due to thermal fluctuations, the droplet sizes after break-up need to be analyzed in terms of their distribution over an ensemble made of repeated experiments. To this aim, we make use of numerical simulations based on the fluctuating lattice Boltzmann method (FLBM) for multicomponent mixtures. The method allows an accurate and efficient simulation of the fluctuating hydrodynamics equations of a binary mixture, where both stochastic viscous stresses and diffusion fluxes are introduced. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 642069.

Adapted Method for Separating Kinetic SZ Signal from Primary CMB Fluctuations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Forni Olivier

2005-01-01

Full Text Available In this first attempt to extract a map of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (KSZ temperature fluctuations from the cosmic microwave background (CMB anisotropies, we use a method which is based on simple and minimal assumptions. We first focus on the intrinsic limitations of the method due to the cosmological signal itself. We demonstrate using simulated maps that the KSZ reconstructed maps are in quite good agreement with the original input signal with a correlation coefficient between original and reconstructed maps of on average, and an error on the standard deviation of the reconstructed KSZ map of only % on average. To achieve these results, our method is based on the fact that some first-step component separation provides us with (i a map of Compton parameters for the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (TSZ effect of galaxy clusters, and (ii a map of temperature fluctuations which is the sum of primary CMB and KSZ signals. Our method takes benefit from the spatial correlation between KSZ and TSZ effects which are both due to the same galaxy clusters. This correlation allows us to use the TSZ map as a spatial template in order to mask, in the map, the pixels where the clusters must have imprinted an SZ fluctuation. In practice, a series of TSZ thresholds is defined and for each threshold, we estimate the corresponding KSZ signal by interpolating the CMB fluctuations on the masked pixels. The series of estimated KSZ maps is finally used to reconstruct the KSZ map through the minimisation of a criterion taking into account two statistical properties of the KSZ signal (KSZ dominates over primary anisotropies at small scales, KSZ fluctuations are non-Gaussian distributed. We show that the results are quite sensitive to the effect of beam convolution, especially for large beams, and to the corruption by instrumental noise.

The effect of climate fluctuation on chimpanzee birth sex ratio.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hjalmar S Kühl

Full Text Available Climate and weather conditions, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation, precipitation and temperature influence the birth sex ratio (BSR of various higher latitude species, including deer, elephant seals or northern human populations. Although, tropical regions show only little variation in temperature, climate and weather conditions can fluctuate with consequences for phenology and food resource availability. Here, we evaluate, whether the BSR of chimpanzees, inhabiting African tropical forests, is affected by climate fluctuations as well. Additionally, we evaluate, if variation in consumption of a key food resource with high nutritional value, Coula edulis nuts, is linked to both climate fluctuations and variation in BSR. We use long-term data from two study groups located in Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire to assess the influence of local weather conditions and the global climate driver El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO on offspring sex. Côte d'Ivoire has experienced considerable climate variation over the last decades, with increasing temperature and declining precipitation. For both groups we find very similar time windows around the month of conception, in which offspring sex is well predicted by ENSO, with more males following low ENSO values, corresponding to periods of high rainfall. Furthermore, we find that the time spent cracking and feeding on Coula nuts is strongly influenced by climate conditions. Although, some of our analysis suggest that a higher proportion of males is born after periods with higher nut consumption frequency, we cannot conclude decisively at this point that nut consumption may influence shifts in BSR. All results combined suggest that also chimpanzees may experience climate related shifts in offspring sex ratios as response to climate fluctuation.

Equation-Method for correcting clipping errors in OFDM signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Bibi, Nargis; Kleerekoper, Anthony; Muhammad, Nazeer; Cheetham, Barry

2016-01-01

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is the digital modulation technique used by 4G and many other wireless communication systems. OFDM signals have significant amplitude fluctuations resulting in high peak to average power ratios which can make an OFDM transmitter susceptible to non-linear distortion produced by its high power amplifiers (HPA). A simple and popular solution to this problem is to clip the peaks before an OFDM signal is applied to the HPA but this causes in-band distortion and introduces bit-errors at the receiver. In this paper we discuss a novel technique, which we call the Equation-Method, for correcting these errors. The Equation-Method uses the Fast Fourier Transform to create a set of simultaneous equations which, when solved, return the amplitudes of the peaks before they were clipped. We show analytically and through simulations that this method can, correct all clipping errors over a wide range of clipping thresholds. We show that numerical instability can be avoided and new techniques are needed to enable the receiver to differentiate between correctly and incorrectly received frequency-domain constellation symbols.

Patient safety incident reports related to traditional Japanese Kampo medicines: medication errors and adverse drug events in a university hospital for a ten-year period.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimada, Yutaka; Fujimoto, Makoto; Nogami, Tatsuya; Watari, Hidetoshi; Kitahara, Hideyuki; Misawa, Hiroki; Kimbara, Yoshiyuki

2017-12-21

Kampo medicine is traditional Japanese medicine, which originated in ancient traditional Chinese medicine, but was introduced and developed uniquely in Japan. Today, Kampo medicines are integrated into the Japanese national health care system. Incident reporting systems are currently being widely used to collect information about patient safety incidents that occur in hospitals. However, no investigations have been conducted regarding patient safety incident reports related to Kampo medicines. The aim of this study was to survey and analyse incident reports related to Kampo medicines in a Japanese university hospital to improve future patient safety. We selected incident reports related to Kampo medicines filed in Toyama University Hospital from May 2007 to April 2017, and investigated them in terms of medication errors and adverse drug events. Out of 21,324 total incident reports filed in the 10-year survey period, we discovered 108 Kampo medicine-related incident reports. However, five cases were redundantly reported; thus, the number of actual incidents was 103. Of those, 99 incidents were classified as medication errors (77 administration errors, 15 dispensing errors, and 7 prescribing errors), and four were adverse drug events, namely Kampo medicine-induced interstitial pneumonia. The Kampo medicine (crude drug) that was thought to induce interstitial pneumonia in all four cases was Scutellariae Radix, which is consistent with past reports. According to the incident severity classification system recommended by the National University Hospital Council of Japan, of the 99 medication errors, 10 incidents were classified as level 0 (an error occurred, but the patient was not affected) and 89 incidents were level 1 (an error occurred that affected the patient, but did not cause harm). Of the four adverse drug events, two incidents were classified as level 2 (patient was transiently harmed, but required no treatment), and two incidents were level 3b (patient was

Orbital Noise of the Earth Causes Intensity Fluctuation in the Geomagnetic Field

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Han-Shou; Kolenkiewicz, R.; Wade, C., Jr.

2003-01-01

Orbital noise of Earth's obliquity can provide an insight into the core of the Earth that causes intensity fluctuations in the geomagnetic field. Here we show that noise spectrum of the obliquity frequency have revealed a series of frequency periods centered at 250-, 1OO-, 50-, 41-, 30-, and 26-kyr which are almost identical with the observed spectral peaks from the composite curve of 33 records of relative paleointensity spanning the past 800 kyr (Sint-800 data). A continuous record for the past two million years also reveals the presence of the major 100 kyr periodicity in obliquity noise and geomagnetic intensity fluctuations. These results of correlation suggest that obliquity noise may power the dynamo, located in the liquid outer core of the Earth, which generates the geomagnetic field.

Correlations of stock price fluctuations under multi-scale and multi-threshold scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Sui, Guo; Li, Huajiao; Feng, Sida; Liu, Xueyong; Jiang, Meihui

2018-01-01

The multi-scale method is widely used in analyzing time series of financial markets and it can provide market information for different economic entities who focus on different periods. Through constructing multi-scale networks of price fluctuation correlation in the stock market, we can detect the topological relationship between each time series. Previous research has not addressed the problem that the original fluctuation correlation networks are fully connected networks and more information exists within these networks that is currently being utilized. Here we use listed coal companies as a case study. First, we decompose the original stock price fluctuation series into different time scales. Second, we construct the stock price fluctuation correlation networks at different time scales. Third, we delete the edges of the network based on thresholds and analyze the network indicators. Through combining the multi-scale method with the multi-threshold method, we bring to light the implicit information of fully connected networks.

Estimation of the measurement error of eccentrically installed orifice plates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barton, Neil; Hodgkinson, Edwin; Reader-Harris, Michael

2005-07-01

The presentation discusses methods for simulation and estimation of flow measurement errors. The main conclusions are: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation methods and published test measurements have been used to estimate the error of a metering system over a period when its orifice plates were eccentric and when leaking O-rings allowed some gas to bypass the meter. It was found that plate eccentricity effects would result in errors of between -2% and -3% for individual meters. Validation against test data suggests that these estimates of error should be within 1% of the actual error, but it is unclear whether the simulations over-estimate or under-estimate the error. Simulations were also run to assess how leakage at the periphery affects the metering error. Various alternative leakage scenarios were modelled and it was found that the leakage rate has an effect on the error, but that the leakage distribution does not. Correction factors, based on the CFD results, were then used to predict the system's mis-measurement over a three-year period (tk)

Vibrating wire apparatus for periodic magnetic structure measurement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Temnykh, A.B.

2003-01-01

Devices with periodic magnetic structures such as wigglers and undulators are often key elements in synchrotron radiation sources. In applications where the coherence of the emitted radiation is important, magnetic field errors distorting the periodicity of the field can significantly reduce the performance of the devices. Thus, the measurement, localization, and correction of the field errors can be a critical issue. This article presents a new method for magnetic field measurements in periodic magnetic structures. The method uses a vibrating taut wire passing through the magnetic structure, and it involves measurements of the amplitudes and phases of the standing waves excited on the wire by the Lorentz force between an AC current in the wire and the surrounding magnetic field. For certain arrangements of the wire, vibrations in the wire will be excited by only non-periodic magnetic field component, i.e., by the error field. By measuring the phase and amplitude of these waves, one can reconstruct the error field distribution and then correct it. The method was tested on a permanent magnet wiggler with 19.8 cm period and a peak field of ∼7000G. It demonstrated ∼0.6G RMS sensitivity, δB rms /B rms ∼1.2x10 -4 and spatial resolution sufficient to identify poles generating the field error. Good agreement was found between field error measurements obtained with the vibrating wire method and with traditional Hall probe field mapping

Analysis of gross error rates in operation of commercial nuclear power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joos, D.W.; Sabri, Z.A.; Husseiny, A.A.

1979-01-01

Experience in operation of US commercial nuclear power plants is reviewed over a 25-month period. The reports accumulated in that period on events of human error and component failure are examined to evaluate gross operator error rates. The impact of such errors on plant operation and safety is examined through the use of proper taxonomies of error, tasks and failures. Four categories of human errors are considered; namely, operator, maintenance, installation and administrative. The computed error rates are used to examine appropriate operator models for evaluation of operator reliability. Human error rates are found to be significant to a varying degree in both BWR and PWR. This emphasizes the import of considering human factors in safety and reliability analysis of nuclear systems. The results also indicate that human errors, and especially operator errors, do indeed follow the exponential reliability model. (Auth.)

Interferometric investigation of turbulently fluctuating temperature in an LMFBR outlet plenum geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bennett, R.G.; Golay, M.W.

1975-01-01

A novel optical technique is described for the measurement of turbulently fluctuating temperature in a transparent fluid flow. The technique employs a Mach-Zehnder interferometer of extremely short field and a simple photoconductive diode detector. The system produces a nearly linear D.C. electrical analog of the turbulent temperature fluctuations in a small, 1 mm 3 volume. The frequency response extends well above 2500 Hz, and can be improved by the choice of a more sophisticated photodetector. The turbulent sodium mixing in the ANL 1 1 / 15 -scale FFTF outlet plenum is investigated with a scale model outlet mixing plenum, using flows of air. The scale design represents a cross section of the ANL outlet plenum, so that the average recirculating flow inside the test cell is two dimensional. The range of the instrument is 120 0 F above the ambient air temperature. The accuracy is generally +-5 0 F, with most of the error due to noise originating from building vibrations and room noise. The power spectral density of the fluctuating temperature has been observed experimentally at six different stations in the flow. A strong 300 Hz component is generated in the inlet region, which decays as the flow progresses along streamlines. The effect of the inlet Reynolds number and the temperature difference between the inlet flows on the power spectral density has also been investigated. Traces of the actual fluctuating temperature are included for the six stations

Dancing with the Tides: Fluctuations of Coastal Phytoplankton Orchestrated by Different Oscillatory Modes of the Tidal Cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Blauw, Anouk N.; Benincà, Elisa; Laane, Remi W. P. M.; Greenwood, Naomi; Huisman, Jef

2012-01-01

Population fluctuations are often driven by an interplay between intrinsic population processes and extrinsic environmental forcing. To investigate this interplay, we analyzed fluctuations in coastal phytoplankton concentration in relation to the tidal cycle. Time series of chlorophyll fluorescence, suspended particulate matter (SPM), salinity and temperature were obtained from an automated measuring platform in the southern North Sea, covering 9 years of data at a resolution of 12 to 30 minutes. Wavelet analysis showed that chlorophyll fluctuations were dominated by periodicities of 6 hours 12 min, 12 hours 25 min, 24 hours and 15 days, which correspond to the typical periodicities of tidal current speeds, the semidiurnal tidal cycle, the day-night cycle, and the spring-neap tidal cycle, respectively. During most of the year, chlorophyll and SPM fluctuated in phase with tidal current speed, indicative of alternating periods of sinking and vertical mixing of algal cells and SPM driven by the tidal cycle. Spring blooms slowly built up over several spring-neap tidal cycles, and subsequently expanded in late spring when a strong decline of the SPM concentration during neap tide enabled a temporary “escape” of the chlorophyll concentration from the tidal mixing regime. Our results demonstrate that the tidal cycle is a major determinant of phytoplankton fluctuations at several different time scales. These findings imply that high-resolution monitoring programs are essential to capture the natural variability of phytoplankton in coastal waters. PMID:23166639

Fluctuating Thermodynamics for Biological Processes

Science.gov (United States)

Ham, Sihyun

Because biomolecular processes are largely under thermodynamic control, dynamic extension of thermodynamics is necessary to uncover the mechanisms and driving factors of fluctuating processes. The fluctuating thermodynamics technology presented in this talk offers a practical means for the thermodynamic characterization of conformational dynamics in biomolecules. The use of fluctuating thermodynamics has the potential to provide a comprehensive picture of fluctuating phenomena in diverse biological processes. Through the application of fluctuating thermodynamics, we provide a thermodynamic perspective on the misfolding and aggregation of the various proteins associated with human diseases. In this talk, I will present the detailed concepts and applications of the fluctuating thermodynamics technology for elucidating biological processes. This work was supported by Samsung Science and Technology Foundation under Project Number SSTF-BA1401-13.

An investigation of characteristics of thermal stress caused by fluid temperature fluctuation at a T-junction pipe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miyoshi, Koji; Nakamura, Akira; Utanohara, Yoichi

2014-01-01

Thermal fatigue cracking may initiate at a T-junction pipe where high and low temperature fluids flow in from different directions and mix. Thermal stress is caused by a temperature gradient in a structure and by its variation. It is possible to obtain stress distributions if the temperature distributions at the pipe inner surface are obtained by experiments. The wall temperature distributions at a T-junction pipe were measured by experiments. The thermal stress distributions were calculated using the experimental data. The circumferential and axial stress fluctuations were larger than the radial stress fluctuation range. The stress fluctuation at the position of the maximum stress fluctuation had 10sec period. The distribution of the stress fluctuation was similar to that of the temperature fluctuation. The large stress fluctuations were caused by the time variation of the heating region by the hot jet flow. (author)

Characterizing multi-scale self-similar behavior and non-statistical properties of fluctuations in financial time series

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, Sayantan; Manimaran, P.; Panigrahi, Prasanta K.

2011-11-01

We make use of wavelet transform to study the multi-scale, self-similar behavior and deviations thereof, in the stock prices of large companies, belonging to different economic sectors. The stock market returns exhibit multi-fractal characteristics, with some of the companies showing deviations at small and large scales. The fact that, the wavelets belonging to the Daubechies’ (Db) basis enables one to isolate local polynomial trends of different degrees, plays the key role in isolating fluctuations at different scales. One of the primary motivations of this work is to study the emergence of the k-3 behavior [X. Gabaix, P. Gopikrishnan, V. Plerou, H. Stanley, A theory of power law distributions in financial market fluctuations, Nature 423 (2003) 267-270] of the fluctuations starting with high frequency fluctuations. We make use of Db4 and Db6 basis sets to respectively isolate local linear and quadratic trends at different scales in order to study the statistical characteristics of these financial time series. The fluctuations reveal fat tail non-Gaussian behavior, unstable periodic modulations, at finer scales, from which the characteristic k-3 power law behavior emerges at sufficiently large scales. We further identify stable periodic behavior through the continuous Morlet wavelet.

Phase fluctuations model for EM wave propagation through solar scintillation at superior solar conjunction

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Guanjun; Song, Zhaohui

2017-04-01

Traveling solar wind disturbances have a significant influence on radio wave characteristics during the superior solar conjunction communication. This paper considers the impact of solar scintillation on phase fluctuations of electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation during the superior solar conjunction. Based on the Geometric Optics approximation, the close-form approximation model for phase fluctuations is developed. Both effects of anisotropic temporal variations function of plasma irregularities and their power spectrum are presented and analyzed numerically. It is found that phase fluctuations rapidly decrease with increasing Sun-Earth-Probe angle and decrease with increasing frequency at the rate of 1/f2. Moreover, the role of various features of the solar wind irregularities and their influence on the EM wave characteristic parameters is studied and discussed. Finally, we study the phase fluctuations of typical cases in order to better understand the impact of phase fluctuations in future deep space communication scenarios during solar conjunction periods.

Convergence acceleration of quasi-periodic and quasi-periodic-rational interpolations by polynomial corrections

OpenAIRE

Lusine Poghosyan

2014-01-01

The paper considers convergence acceleration of the quasi-periodic and the quasi-periodic-rational interpolations by application of polynomial corrections. We investigate convergence of the resultant quasi-periodic-polynomial and quasi-periodic-rational-polynomial interpolations and derive exact constants of the main terms of asymptotic errors in the regions away from the endpoints. Results of numerical experiments clarify behavior of the corresponding interpolations for moderate number of in...

China; Sources of Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations

OpenAIRE

Tao Wang

2004-01-01

This paper reviews the evolution of China's real effective exchange rate between 1980 and 2002, and uses a structural vector autoregression model to study the relative importance of different types of macroeconomic shocks for fluctuations in the real exchange rate. The structural decomposition shows that relative real demand and supply shocks account for most of the variations in real exchange rate changes during the estimation period. The paper also finds that supply shocks are as important ...

Thermodynamic theory of equilibrium fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mishin, Y.

2015-01-01

The postulational basis of classical thermodynamics has been expanded to incorporate equilibrium fluctuations. The main additional elements of the proposed thermodynamic theory are the concept of quasi-equilibrium states, a definition of non-equilibrium entropy, a fundamental equation of state in the entropy representation, and a fluctuation postulate describing the probability distribution of macroscopic parameters of an isolated system. Although these elements introduce a statistical component that does not exist in classical thermodynamics, the logical structure of the theory is different from that of statistical mechanics and represents an expanded version of thermodynamics. Based on this theory, we present a regular procedure for calculations of equilibrium fluctuations of extensive parameters, intensive parameters and densities in systems with any number of fluctuating parameters. The proposed fluctuation formalism is demonstrated by four applications: (1) derivation of the complete set of fluctuation relations for a simple fluid in three different ensembles; (2) fluctuations in finite-reservoir systems interpolating between the canonical and micro-canonical ensembles; (3) derivation of fluctuation relations for excess properties of grain boundaries in binary solid solutions, and (4) derivation of the grain boundary width distribution for pre-melted grain boundaries in alloys. The last two applications offer an efficient fluctuation-based approach to calculations of interface excess properties and extraction of the disjoining potential in pre-melted grain boundaries. Possible future extensions of the theory are outlined.

Superconductivity and spin fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scalapino, D.J.

1999-01-01

The organizers of the Memorial Session for Herman Rietschel asked that the author review some of the history of the interplay of superconductivity and spin fluctuations. Initially, Berk and Schrieffer showed how paramagnon spin fluctuations could suppress superconductivity in nearly-ferromagnetic materials. Following this, Rietschel and various co-workers wrote a number of papers in which they investigated the role of spin fluctuations in reducing the Tc of various electron-phonon superconductors. Paramagnon spin fluctuations are also believed to provide the p-wave pairing mechanism responsible for the superfluid phases of 3 He. More recently, antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations have been proposed as the mechanism for d-wave pairing in the heavy-fermion superconductors and in some organic materials as well as possibly the high-Tc cuprates. Here the author will review some of this early history and discuss some of the things he has learned more recently from numerical simulations

Preliminary assessment of the impact of fluctuating water levels on northern pike in Reindeer Lake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, M.

1993-03-01

Reindeer Lake in north eastern Saskatchewan regulates water levels for the Island Falls hydroelectric power plant. Since inception of the Whitesand Dam on the lake, there have been concerns that fluctuating water levels could be adversely impacting the habitat and population of northern pike in the lake. The extent of water level fluctuations during the pike spawning period of Reindeer Lake and its effect on spawning success was investigated. Since construction of the Whitesand Dam in 1942 Reindeer Lake water levels have averaged ca 1.71 m higher than had the dam not existed, creating ca 430 km 2 of new surface area. Much of this area is shallow water and prone to growth of aquatic vegetation, which is suitable spawning and nursery habitat for northern pike. Annual and periodic water level fluctuations of Reindeer Lake have been higher than under natural conditions. During northern pike spawning and nursing periods, water levels in the lake have generally increased, in 60 out of 64 y. It is concluded that operation of the dam has not caused any direct negative impacts on the northern pike habitat in the lake. 2 refs., 4 figs., 4 tabs

Pharmacologically Induced Sex Hormone Fluctuation Effects on Resting-State Functional Connectivity in a Risk Model for Depression

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fisher, Patrick MacDonald; Larsen, Camilla Borgsted; Beliveau, Vincent

2017-01-01

Women are at relatively greater lifetime risk for depression than men. This elevated risk in women is partly due to heightened risk during time periods characterized by marked fluctuations in sex hormones, including postpartum and perimenopausal periods. How sex hormone fluctuations contribute...... to heightened risk is not fully understood but may involve intrinsic functional connectivity. We induced a biphasic ovarian sex hormone fluctuation using the gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) goserelin to determine, with a randomized placebo-controlled design, intervention effects on or Gn....... Considering the GnRHa group only, the emergence of depressive symptoms following intervention was positively associated with amygdala-right temporal cortex and negatively associated with hippocampus-cingulate rs-FC. A test for mediation suggested that rs-FC changes in these networks marginally mediated...

Periodic Application of Concurrent Error Detection in Processor Array Architectures. PhD. Thesis -

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Paul Peichuan

1993-01-01

Processor arrays can provide an attractive architecture for some applications. Featuring modularity, regular interconnection and high parallelism, such arrays are well-suited for VLSI/WSI implementations, and applications with high computational requirements, such as real-time signal processing. Preserving the integrity of results can be of paramount importance for certain applications. In these cases, fault tolerance should be used to ensure reliable delivery of a system's service. One aspect of fault tolerance is the detection of errors caused by faults. Concurrent error detection (CED) techniques offer the advantage that transient and intermittent faults may be detected with greater probability than with off-line diagnostic tests. Applying time-redundant CED techniques can reduce hardware redundancy costs. However, most time-redundant CED techniques degrade a system's performance.

Experimental research on pressure fluctuation and vibration in a mixed flow pump

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Kai; Liu, Houlin; Wang, Wenbo [National Research Center of Pumps and Pumping System Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang (China); Zhou, Xiaohua [Gree Electric Appliance Inc. of Zhuhai, Zhuhai (China)

2016-01-15

To study the pressure fluctuation and vibration in mixed flow pumps, we chose a mixed flow pump with specific speed of 436.1 to measure. The time domains and frequency domain at each monitoring point on diffuser and outlet elbow were analyzed, as well as the vibration frequency domain characteristics at the impeller outlet and near the motor. The results show that the peak value of pressure fluctuation peak decreased gradually with the increase of flow rate. The pressure fluctuation of each monitoring point had periodicity, and the frequency domain dominated by blade passing frequency and multiple shaft frequency. The vibration frequency of each monitoring point occurred at shaft frequency and its multiple shaft frequency. The dominant frequency and the second frequency were distributed in shaft frequency and double shaft frequency.

Non-Gaussian conductivity fluctuations in semiconductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melkonyan, S.V.

2010-01-01

A theoretical study is presented on the statistical properties of conductivity fluctuations caused by concentration and mobility fluctuations of the current carriers. It is established that mobility fluctuations result from random deviations in the thermal equilibrium distribution of the carriers. It is shown that mobility fluctuations have generation-recombination and shot components which do not satisfy the requirements of the central limit theorem, in contrast to the current carrier's concentration fluctuation and intraband component of the mobility fluctuation. It is shown that in general the mobility fluctuation consist of thermal (or intraband) Gaussian and non-thermal (or generation-recombination, shot, etc.) non-Gaussian components. The analyses of theoretical results and experimental data from literature show that the statistical properties of mobility fluctuation and of 1/f-noise fully coincide. The deviation from Gaussian statistics of the mobility or 1/f fluctuations goes hand in hand with the magnitude of non-thermal noise (generation-recombination, shot, burst, pulse noises, etc.).

Fluctuations in quantum chaos

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casati, G.; Chirikov, B.V.

1996-01-01

Various fluctuations in quantum systems with discrete spectrum are discussed, including recent unpublished results. Open questions and unexplained peculiarities of quantum fluctuations are formulated [ru

Monitoring the Fluctuation of Lake Qinghai Using Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenbin Zhu

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The knowledge of water storage variations in ungauged lakes is of fundamental importance to understanding the water balance on the Tibetan Plateau. In this paper, a simple framework was presented to monitor the fluctuation of inland water bodies by the combination of satellite altimetry measurements and optical satellite imagery without any in situ measurements. The fluctuation of water level, surface area, and water storage variations in Lake Qinghai were estimated to demonstrate this framework. Water levels retrieved from ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and and Elevation Satellite elevation data and lake surface area derived from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer product were fitted by linear regression during the period from 2003 to 2009 when the overpass time for both of them was coincident. Based on this relationship, the time series of water levels from 1999 to 2002 were extended by using the water surface area extracted from Landsat TM/ETM+ images as inputs, and finally the variations of water volume in Lake Qinghai were estimated from 1999 to 2009. The overall errors of water levels retrieved by the simple method in our work were comparable with other globally available test results with r = 0.93, MAE = 0.07 m, and RMSE = 0.09 m. The annual average rate of increase was 0.11 m/yr, which was very close to the results obtained from in situ measurements. High accuracy was obtained in the estimation of surface areas. The MAE and RMSE were only 6 km2, and 8 km2, respectively, which were even lower than the MAE and RMAE of surface area extracted from Landsat TM images. The estimated water volume variations effectively captured the trend of annual variation of Lake Qinghai. Good agreement was achieved between the estimated and measured water volume variations with MAE = 0.4 billion m3, and RMSE = 0.5 billion m3, which only account for 0.7% of the total water volume of Lake Qinghai. This study demonstrates that it is feasible to monitor

A periodic review integrated inventory model with controllable setup cost, imperfect items, and inspection errors under service level constraint

Science.gov (United States)

Saga, R. S.; Jauhari, W. A.; Laksono, P. W.

2017-11-01

This paper presents an integrated inventory model which consists of single vendor and buyer. The buyer managed its inventory periodically and orders products from the vendor to satisfy the end customer’s demand, where the annual demand and the ordering cost were in the fuzzy environment. The buyer used a service level constraint instead of the stock-out cost term, so that the stock-out level per cycle was bounded. Then, the vendor produced and delivered products to the buyer. The vendor had a choice to commit an investment to reduce the setup cost. However, the vendor’s production process was imperfect, thus the lot delivered contained some defective products. Moreover, the buyer’s inspection process was not error-free since the inspector could be mistaken in categorizing the product’s quality. The objective was to find the optimum value for the review period, the setup cost, and the number of deliveries in one production cycle which might minimize the joint total cost. Furthermore, the algorithm and numerical example were provided to illustrate the application of the model.

Fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy (FFS)

CERN Document Server

Tetin, Sergey

2012-01-01

This new volume of Methods in Enzymology continues the legacy of this premier serial with quality chapters authored by leaders in the field. This volume covers fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy and includes chapters on such topics as Förster resonance energy transfer (fret) with fluctuation algorithms, protein corona on nanoparticles by FCS, and FFS approaches to the study of receptors in live cells. Continues the legacy of this premier serial with quality chapters authored by leaders in the field Covers fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy Contains chapters on such topics as Förster resonance energy transfer (fret) with fluctuation algorithms, protein corona on nanoparticles by FCS, and FFS approaches to the study of receptors in live cells.

Evidence for nonuniversal behavior of paraconductivity caused by predominant short-wavelength Gaussian fluctuations in YBa2Cu3O6.9

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gauzzi, A.; Pavuna, D.

1995-01-01

We report on in-plane paraconductivity measurements in thin YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6.9 films. Our analysis of the data shows that the temperature dependence of paraconductivity is affected by lattice disorder and deviates at all temperatures from the universal power laws predicted by both scaling and mean-field theories. This gives evidence for the absence of critical fluctuations and for the failure of the Aslamazov-Larkin universal relation between critical exponent and dimensionality of the spectrum of Gaussian fluctuations. We account quantitatively for the data within the experimental error by introducing a short-wavelength cutoff into this spectrum. This implies that three-dimensional short-wavelength Gaussian fluctuations dominate in YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6.9 and suggests a rapid attenuation of these fluctuations with decreasing wavelength in short-coherence-length systems as compared to the case of the conventional Ginzburg-Landau theory

Sovereign risk and macroeconomic fluctuations in an emerging market economy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kirchner, M.; Rieth, M.

2010-01-01

This paper assesses the role of sovereign risk in explaining macroeconomic fluctuations in Turkey. We estimate two versions of a simple New Keynesian small open economy model on quarterly data for the period 1994Q3-2008Q2: a basic version and a version augmented by a default premium on government

Quantitative comparison of electron temperature fluctuations to nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations in C-Mod Ohmic L-mode discharges

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sung, C., E-mail: csung@physics.ucla.edu [University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095 (United States); White, A. E.; Greenwald, M.; Howard, N. T. [Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 (United States); Mikkelsen, D. R.; Churchill, R. [Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States); Holland, C. [University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States); Theiler, C. [Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, SPC, Lausanne 1015 (Switzerland)

2016-04-15

Long wavelength turbulent electron temperature fluctuations (k{sub y}ρ{sub s} < 0.3) are measured in the outer core region (r/a > 0.8) of Ohmic L-mode plasmas at Alcator C-Mod [E. S. Marmar et al., Nucl. Fusion 49, 104014 (2009)] with a correlation electron cyclotron emission diagnostic. The relative amplitude and frequency spectrum of the fluctuations are compared quantitatively with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations using the GYRO code [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, J. Comput. Phys. 186, 545 (2003)] in two different confinement regimes: linear Ohmic confinement (LOC) regime and saturated Ohmic confinement (SOC) regime. When comparing experiment with nonlinear simulations, it is found that local, electrostatic ion-scale simulations (k{sub y}ρ{sub s} ≲ 1.7) performed at r/a ∼ 0.85 reproduce the experimental ion heat flux levels, electron temperature fluctuation levels, and frequency spectra within experimental error bars. In contrast, the electron heat flux is robustly under-predicted and cannot be recovered by using scans of the simulation inputs within error bars or by using global simulations. If both the ion heat flux and the measured temperature fluctuations are attributed predominantly to long-wavelength turbulence, then under-prediction of electron heat flux strongly suggests that electron scale turbulence is important for transport in C-Mod Ohmic L-mode discharges. In addition, no evidence is found from linear or nonlinear simulations for a clear transition from trapped electron mode to ion temperature gradient turbulence across the LOC/SOC transition, and also there is no evidence in these Ohmic L-mode plasmas of the “Transport Shortfall” [C. Holland et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 052301 (2009)].

Random and systematic beam modulator errors in dynamic intensity modulated radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parsai, Homayon; Cho, Paul S; Phillips, Mark H; Giansiracusa, Robert S; Axen, David

2003-01-01

This paper reports on the dosimetric effects of random and systematic modulator errors in delivery of dynamic intensity modulated beams. A sliding-widow type delivery that utilizes a combination of multileaf collimators (MLCs) and backup diaphragms was examined. Gaussian functions with standard deviations ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 mm were used to simulate random positioning errors. A clinical example involving a clival meningioma was chosen with optic chiasm and brain stem as limiting critical structures in the vicinity of the tumour. Dose calculations for different modulator fluctuations were performed, and a quantitative analysis was carried out based on cumulative and differential dose volume histograms for the gross target volume and surrounding critical structures. The study indicated that random modulator errors have a strong tendency to reduce minimum target dose and homogeneity. Furthermore, it was shown that random perturbation of both MLCs and backup diaphragms in the order of σ = 1 mm can lead to 5% errors in prescribed dose. In comparison, when MLCs or backup diaphragms alone was perturbed, the system was more robust and modulator errors of at least σ = 1.5 mm were required to cause dose discrepancies greater than 5%. For systematic perturbation, even errors in the order of ±0.5 mm were shown to result in significant dosimetric deviations

Interval sampling methods and measurement error: a computer simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wirth, Oliver; Slaven, James; Taylor, Matthew A

2014-01-01

A simulation study was conducted to provide a more thorough account of measurement error associated with interval sampling methods. A computer program simulated the application of momentary time sampling, partial-interval recording, and whole-interval recording methods on target events randomly distributed across an observation period. The simulation yielded measures of error for multiple combinations of observation period, interval duration, event duration, and cumulative event duration. The simulations were conducted up to 100 times to yield measures of error variability. Although the present simulation confirmed some previously reported characteristics of interval sampling methods, it also revealed many new findings that pertain to each method's inherent strengths and weaknesses. The analysis and resulting error tables can help guide the selection of the most appropriate sampling method for observation-based behavioral assessments. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Random-matrix physics: spectrum and strength fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brody, T.A.; Flores, J.; French, J.B.; Mello, P.A.; Pandey, A.; Wong, S.S.M.

1981-01-01

It now appears that the general nature of the deviations from uniformity in the spectrum of a complicated nucleus is essentially the same in all regions of the spectrum and over the entire Periodic Table. This behavior, moreover, is describable in terms of standard Hamiltonian ensembles which could be generated on the basis of simple information-theory concepts, and which give also a good account of fluctuation phenomena of other kinds and, apparently, in other many-body systems besides nuclei. The main departures from simple behavior are ascribable to the moderation of the level repulsion by effects due to symmetries and collectivities, for the description of which more complicated ensembles are called for. One purpose of this review is to give a self-contained account of the theory, using methods: sometimes approximate: which are consonant with the usual theory of stochastic processes. Another purpose is to give a proper foundation for the use of ensemble theory, to make clear the origin of the simplicities in the observable fluctuations, and to derive other general fluctuation results. In comparing theory and experiment, the authors give an analysis of much of the nuclear-energy-level data, as well as an extended discussion of observable effects in nuclear transitions and reactions and in the low-temperature thermodynamics of aggregates of small metallic particles

Medication administration errors in Eastern Saudi Arabia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mir Sadat-Ali

2010-01-01

To assess the prevalence and characteristics of medication errors (ME) in patients admitted to King Fahd University Hospital, Alkhobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Medication errors are documented by the nurses and physicians standard reporting forms (Hospital Based Incident Report). The study was carried out in King Fahd University Hospital, Alkhobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and all the incident reports were collected during the period from January 2008 to December 2009. The incident reports were analyzed for age, gender, nationality, nursing unit, and time where ME was reported. The data were analyzed and the statistical significance differences between groups were determined by Student's t-test, and p-values of <0.05 using confidence interval of 95% were considered significant. There were 38 ME reported for the study period. The youngest patient was 5 days and the oldest 70 years. There were 31 Saudis, and 7 non-Saudi patients involved. The most common error was missed medication, which was seen in 15 (39.5%) patients. Over 15 (39.5%) of errors occurred in 2 units (pediatric medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology). Nineteen (50%) of the errors occurred during the 3-11 pm shift. Our study shows that the prevalence of ME in our institution is low, in comparison with the world literature. This could be due to under reporting of the errors, and we believe that ME reporting should be made less punitive so that ME can be studied and preventive measures implemented (Author).

Fluctuation dynamics in geoelectrical data: an investigation by using multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Telesca, Luciano; Colangelo, Gerardo; Lapenna, Vincenzo; Macchiato, Maria

2004-01-01

We analyzed fluctuations in the time dynamics of nonstationary geoelectrical data, recorded in a seismic area of southern Italy, by means of the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA). The multifractal character of the signal depends mostly on the different long-range properties for small and large fluctuations. The time variation of indices, denoting the departure from monofractal behaviour, reveals an enhancement of the multifractality of the signal prior seismic occurrences

Mesoscopic fluctuations of the population of a qubit in a strong alternating field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Denisenko, M. V., E-mail: mar.denisenko@gmail.com; Satanin, A. M. [Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod (Russian Federation)

2016-12-15

Fluctuations of the population of a Josephson qubit in an alternating field, which is a superposition of electromagnetic pulses with large amplitudes, are studied. It is shown that the relative phase of pulses is responsible for the rate of Landau–Zener transitions and, correspondingly, for the frequency of transitions between adiabatic states. The durations of pulses incident on the qubit are controlled with an accuracy of the field period, which results in strong mesoscopic fluctuations of the population of the qubit. Similar to the magnetic field in mesoscopic physics, the relative phase of pulses can destroy the interference pattern of the population of the qubit. The influence of the duration of the pulse and noise on the revealed fluctuation effects is studied.

Strain fluctuations and elastic constants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parrinello, M.; Rahman, A.

1982-03-01

It is shown that the elastic strain fluctuations are a direct measure of elastic compliances in a general anisotropic medium; depending on the ensemble in which the fluctuation is measured either the isothermal or the adiabatic compliances are obtained. These fluctuations can now be calculated in a constant enthalpy and pressure, and hence, constant entropy, ensemble due to recent develpments in the molecular dynamics techniques. A calculation for a Ni single crystal under uniform uniaxial 100 tensile or compressive load is presented as an illustration of the relationships derived between various strain fluctuations and the elastic modulii. The Born stability criteria and the behavior of strain fluctuations are shown to be related.

Detection of stably bright squeezed light with the quantum noise reduction of 12.6  dB by mutually compensating the phase fluctuations.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Wenhai; Shi, Shaoping; Wang, Yajun; Ma, Weiguang; Zheng, Yaohui; Peng, Kunchi

2017-11-01

We present a mutual compensation scheme of three phase fluctuations, originating from the residual amplitude modulation (RAM) in the phase modulation process, in the bright squeezed light generation system. The influence of the RAM on each locking loop is harmonized by using one electro-optic modulator (EOM), and the direction of the phase fluctuation is manipulated by positioning the photodetector (PD) that extracts the error signal before or after the optical parametric amplifier (OPA). Therefore a bright squeezed light with non-classical noise reduction of π is obtained. By fitting the squeezing and antisqueezing measurement results, we confirm that the total phase fluctuation of the system is around 3.1 mrad. The fluctuation of the noise suppression is 0.2 dB for 3 h.

North error estimation based on solar elevation errors in the third step of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation.

Science.gov (United States)

Száz, Dénes; Farkas, Alexandra; Barta, András; Kretzer, Balázs; Egri, Ádám; Horváth, Gábor

2016-07-01

The theory of sky-polarimetric Viking navigation has been widely accepted for decades without any information about the accuracy of this method. Previously, we have measured the accuracy of the first and second steps of this navigation method in psychophysical laboratory and planetarium experiments. Now, we have tested the accuracy of the third step in a planetarium experiment, assuming that the first and second steps are errorless. Using the fists of their outstretched arms, 10 test persons had to estimate the elevation angles (measured in numbers of fists and fingers) of black dots (representing the position of the occluded Sun) projected onto the planetarium dome. The test persons performed 2400 elevation estimations, 48% of which were more accurate than ±1°. We selected three test persons with the (i) largest and (ii) smallest elevation errors and (iii) highest standard deviation of the elevation error. From the errors of these three persons, we calculated their error function, from which the North errors (the angles with which they deviated from the geographical North) were determined for summer solstice and spring equinox, two specific dates of the Viking sailing period. The range of possible North errors Δ ω N was the lowest and highest at low and high solar elevations, respectively. At high elevations, the maximal Δ ω N was 35.6° and 73.7° at summer solstice and 23.8° and 43.9° at spring equinox for the best and worst test person (navigator), respectively. Thus, the best navigator was twice as good as the worst one. At solstice and equinox, high elevations occur the most frequently during the day, thus high North errors could occur more frequently than expected before. According to our findings, the ideal periods for sky-polarimetric Viking navigation are immediately after sunrise and before sunset, because the North errors are the lowest at low solar elevations.

Letter to the editor: Electric field fluctuations (25-35 min in the midnight dip equatorial ionosphere

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Hanumath Sastri

2000-02-01

Full Text Available Measurements with a HF Doppler sounder at Kodaikanal (10.2°N, 77.5°E, geomagnetic latitude 0.8°N showed conspicuous quasi-periodic fluctuations (period 25-35 min in F region vertical plasma drift, Vz in the interval 0047-0210 IST on the night of 23/24 December, 1991 (Ap = 14, Kp < 4-. The fluctuations in F region vertical drift are found to be coherent with variations in Bz (north-south component of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF, in geomagnetic H/X components at high-mid latitude locations both in the sunlit and dark hemispheres and near the dayside dip equator, suggestive of DP2 origin. But the polarity of the electric field fluctuations at the midnight dip equator (eastward is the same as the dayside equator inferred from magnetic variations, contrary to what is expected of equatorial DP2. The origin of the coherent occurrence of equatorial electric field fluctuations in the DP2 range of the same sign in the day and night hemispheres is unclear and merits further investigations.Key words: Ionosphere (electric fields and currents; equatorial ionosphere; ionosphere-magnetosphere interactions

Analysis of error patterns in clinical radiotherapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Macklis, Roger; Meier, Tim; Barrett, Patricia; Weinhous, Martin

1996-01-01

Purpose: Until very recently, prescription errors and adverse treatment events have rarely been studied or reported systematically in oncology. We wished to understand the spectrum and severity of radiotherapy errors that take place on a day-to-day basis in a high-volume academic practice and to understand the resource needs and quality assurance challenges placed on a department by rapid upswings in contract-based clinical volumes requiring additional operating hours, procedures, and personnel. The goal was to define clinical benchmarks for operating safety and to detect error-prone treatment processes that might function as 'early warning' signs. Methods: A multi-tiered prospective and retrospective system for clinical error detection and classification was developed, with formal analysis of the antecedents and consequences of all deviations from prescribed treatment delivery, no matter how trivial. A department-wide record-and-verify system was operational during this period and was used as one method of treatment verification and error detection. Brachytherapy discrepancies were analyzed separately. Results: During the analysis year, over 2000 patients were treated with over 93,000 individual fields. A total of 59 errors affecting a total of 170 individual treated fields were reported or detected during this period. After review, all of these errors were classified as Level 1 (minor discrepancy with essentially no potential for negative clinical implications). This total treatment delivery error rate (170/93, 332 or 0.18%) is significantly better than corresponding error rates reported for other hospital and oncology treatment services, perhaps reflecting the relatively sophisticated error avoidance and detection procedures used in modern clinical radiation oncology. Error rates were independent of linac model and manufacturer, time of day (normal operating hours versus late evening or early morning) or clinical machine volumes. There was some relationship to

Introduction to multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis in matlab.

Science.gov (United States)

Ihlen, Espen A F

2012-01-01

Fractal structures are found in biomedical time series from a wide range of physiological phenomena. The multifractal spectrum identifies the deviations in fractal structure within time periods with large and small fluctuations. The present tutorial is an introduction to multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA) that estimates the multifractal spectrum of biomedical time series. The tutorial presents MFDFA step-by-step in an interactive Matlab session. All Matlab tools needed are available in Introduction to MFDFA folder at the website www.ntnu.edu/inm/geri/software. MFDFA are introduced in Matlab code boxes where the reader can employ pieces of, or the entire MFDFA to example time series. After introducing MFDFA, the tutorial discusses the best practice of MFDFA in biomedical signal processing. The main aim of the tutorial is to give the reader a simple self-sustained guide to the implementation of MFDFA and interpretation of the resulting multifractal spectra.

Diffraction analysis of sidelobe characteristics of optical elements with ripple error

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Lei; Luo, Yupeng; Bai, Jian; Zhou, Xiangdong; Du, Juan; Liu, Qun; Luo, Yujie

2018-03-01

The ripple errors of the lens lead to optical damage in high energy laser system. The analysis of sidelobe on the focal plane, caused by ripple error, provides a reference to evaluate the error and the imaging quality. In this paper, we analyze the diffraction characteristics of sidelobe of optical elements with ripple errors. First, we analyze the characteristics of ripple error and build relationship between ripple error and sidelobe. The sidelobe results from the diffraction of ripple errors. The ripple error tends to be periodic due to fabrication method on the optical surface. The simulated experiments are carried out based on angular spectrum method by characterizing ripple error as rotationally symmetric periodic structures. The influence of two major parameter of ripple including spatial frequency and peak-to-valley value to sidelobe is discussed. The results indicate that spatial frequency and peak-to-valley value both impact sidelobe at the image plane. The peak-tovalley value is the major factor to affect the energy proportion of the sidelobe. The spatial frequency is the major factor to affect the distribution of the sidelobe at the image plane.

Nonequilibrium fluctuations in a resistor.

Science.gov (United States)

Garnier, N; Ciliberto, S

2005-06-01

In small systems where relevant energies are comparable to thermal agitation, fluctuations are of the order of average values. In systems in thermodynamical equilibrium, the variance of these fluctuations can be related to the dissipation constant in the system, exploiting the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. In nonequilibrium steady systems, fluctuations theorems (FT) additionally describe symmetry properties of the probability density functions (PDFs) of the fluctuations of injected and dissipated energies. We experimentally probe a model system: an electrical dipole driven out of equilibrium by a small constant current I, and show that FT are experimentally accessible and valid. Furthermore, we stress that FT can be used to measure the dissipated power P = R I2 in the system by just studying the PDFs' symmetries.

Numerical Investigation of Periodically Unsteady Pressure Field in a High Power Centrifugal Diffuser Pump

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ji Pei

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Pressure fluctuations are the main factors that can give rise to reliability problems in centrifugal pumps. The periodically unsteady pressure characteristics caused by rotor-stator interaction have been investigated by CFD calculation in a residual heat removal pump. Side chamber flow effect is also considered for the simulation to accurately predict the flow in whole flow passage. The pressure fluctuation results in time and frequency domains were considered for several typical monitoring points in impeller and diffuser channels. In addition, the pressure fluctuation intensity coefficient (PFIC based on standard deviation was defined on each grid node for entire space and impeller revolution period. The results show that strong pressure fluctuation intensity can be found in the gap between impeller and diffuser. As a source, the fluctuation can spread to the upstream and downstream flow channels as well as the side chamber channels. Meanwhile, strong pressure fluctuation intensity can be found in the discharge tube of the circular casing. In addition, the obvious influence of operational flow rate on the PFIC distribution can be found. The analysis indicates that the pressure fluctuations in the aspects of both frequency and intensity can be used to comprehensively evaluate the unsteady pressure characteristics in centrifugal pumps.

Error-related brain activity and error awareness in an error classification paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Di Gregorio, Francesco; Steinhauser, Marco; Maier, Martin E

2016-10-01

Error-related brain activity has been linked to error detection enabling adaptive behavioral adjustments. However, it is still unclear which role error awareness plays in this process. Here, we show that the error-related negativity (Ne/ERN), an event-related potential reflecting early error monitoring, is dissociable from the degree of error awareness. Participants responded to a target while ignoring two different incongruent distractors. After responding, they indicated whether they had committed an error, and if so, whether they had responded to one or to the other distractor. This error classification paradigm allowed distinguishing partially aware errors, (i.e., errors that were noticed but misclassified) and fully aware errors (i.e., errors that were correctly classified). The Ne/ERN was larger for partially aware errors than for fully aware errors. Whereas this speaks against the idea that the Ne/ERN foreshadows the degree of error awareness, it confirms the prediction of a computational model, which relates the Ne/ERN to post-response conflict. This model predicts that stronger distractor processing - a prerequisite of error classification in our paradigm - leads to lower post-response conflict and thus a smaller Ne/ERN. This implies that the relationship between Ne/ERN and error awareness depends on how error awareness is related to response conflict in a specific task. Our results further indicate that the Ne/ERN but not the degree of error awareness determines adaptive performance adjustments. Taken together, we conclude that the Ne/ERN is dissociable from error awareness and foreshadows adaptive performance adjustments. Our results suggest that the relationship between the Ne/ERN and error awareness is correlative and mediated by response conflict. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Study of the Switching Errors in an RSFQ Switch by Using a Computerized Test Setup

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Se Hoon; Baek, Seung Hun; Yang, Jung Kuk; Kim, Jun Ho; Kang, Joon Hee

2005-01-01

The problem of fluctuation-induced digital errors in a rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) circuit has been a very important issue. In this work, we calculated the bit error rate of an RSFQ switch used in superconductive arithmetic logic unit (ALU). RSFQ switch should have a very low error rate in the optimal bias. Theoretical estimates of the RSFQ error rate are on the order of 10 -50 per bit operation. In this experiment, we prepared two identical circuits placed in parallel. Each circuit was composed of 10 Josephson transmission lines (JTLs) connected in series with an RSFQ switch placed in the middle of the 10 JTLs. We used a splitter to feed the same input signal to both circuits. The outputs of the two circuits were compared with an RSFQ exclusive OR (XOR) to measure the bit error rate of the RSFQ switch. By using a computerized bit-error-rate test setup, we measured the bit error rate of 2.18 x 10 -12 when the bias to the RSFQ switch was 0.398 mA that was quite off from the optimum bias of 0.6 mA.

Short-term predictability of crude oil markets: A detrended fluctuation analysis approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez-Ramirez, Jose; Alvarez, Jesus; Rodriguez, Eduardo

2008-01-01

This paper analyzes the auto-correlations of international crude oil prices on the basis of the estimation of the Hurst exponent dynamics for returns over the period from 1987 to 2007. In doing so, a model-free statistical approach - detrended fluctuation analysis - that reduces the effects of non-stationary market trends and focuses on the intrinsic auto-correlation structure of market fluctuations over different time horizons, is used. Tests for time variations of the Hurst exponent indicate that over long horizons the crude oil market is consistent with the efficient market hypothesis. However, meaningful auto-correlations cannot be excluded for time horizons smaller than one month where the Hurst exponent manifests cyclic, non-periodic dynamics. This means that the market exhibits a time-varying short-term inefficient behavior that becomes efficient in the long term. The proposed methodology and its findings are put in perspective with previous studies and results. (author)

[Fluctuations in unemployment and disability in Iceland 1992-2006].

Science.gov (United States)

Thorlacius, Sigurdur; Olafsson, Stefán

2008-03-01

To examine and explain the effect of unemployment on the number of disability pensioners in Iceland by examining changes in this relationship from 1992 to 2006. Information on gender and place of residence of new recipients of disability pension in Iceland and corresponding information on unemployment for each year in the period 1992 to 2006. The variables were correlated and disaggregated by gender and regions within Iceland. Two big fluctuations occurred in the rate of new disability pension receivers during the study period, with significant increases in disability from 1993 to 1995 and again from 2003 onwards. Both of these fluctuations are associated with considerable increases in the unemployment rate. The extent of new disability pensioners declined again when the level of unemployment went down, even though not to the same relative extent. In the upswing from 2003 a delay of about a year in the increase of disability pensioners' numbers, following the rise in unemployment rate, became more prominent and the overall rate of new disability pensioners reached new highs. The relationship applies equally to the capital area as well as the provincial areas as a whole. There is though a small deviation in three of the seven provincial areas, with less decline of the disability rate on the downswing. Health and capability condition determine the overall disability rate, but fluctuations over time are related to environmental conditions in the labour market, especially the unemployment rate. The features of the welfare system, especially the benefit and rehabilitation system, as well as the extent and character of activation measures in the labour market also influence the number of disability pensioners. A new method of disability assessment from late 1999 may have had some influence on the relationship during the latter part of the period and increasing applications from people with mental and psychiatric deficiencies seems to have had a significant influence on

Electromagnetic wave propagation in a medium with a progressive sinusoidal fluctuation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Hiroshi; Ito, Akinari

1984-01-01

Study was made on the rigorous solutions for electromagnetic waves transmitted and reflected by a medium of finite length with time-space periodic fluctuation, loaded in a rectangular waveguide. When an electromagnetic wave is incident upon the medium modulated in a travelling wave fashion by a pump wave, the reflected and transmitted waves are shifted in frequency by +nω 1 (where n is an integer, ω 1 is the angular frequency of fluctuation). The harmonic level of the reflected waves is much increased as the frequency of the incident wave approaches the cutoff-frequency of TE 10 mode of the rectangular waveguide. Measurement of the spectrum of the reflected waves can be utilized as a diagnosis of even a very slightly fluctuating medium. The theoretical results have been verified on examining experimentally the harmonic level of the microwave reflected by a plasma, weakly modulated (about 10 -4 ) by RF signal and loaded in the WRJ-10 waveguide. (author)

Critical fluctuations and the rates of interstate switching near the excitation threshold of a quantum parametric oscillator.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Z R; Nakamura, Y; Dykman, M I

2015-08-01

We study the dynamics of a nonlinear oscillator near the critical point where period-two vibrations are first excited with the increasing amplitude of parametric driving. Above the threshold, quantum fluctuations induce transitions between the period-two states over the quasienergy barrier. We find the effective quantum activation energies for such transitions and their scaling with the difference of the driving amplitude from its critical value. We also find the scaling of the fluctuation correlation time with the quantum noise parameters in the critical region near the threshold. The results are extended to oscillators with nonlinear friction.

Hydrodynamical fluctuations in smooth shear flows

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chagelishvili, G.D.; Khujadze, G.R.; Lominadze, J.G.

1999-11-01

Background of hydrodynamical fluctuations in a intrinsically/stochastically forced, laminar, uniform shear flow is studied. The employment of so-called nonmodal mathematical analysis makes it possible to represent the background of fluctuations in a new light and to get more insight into the physics of its formation. The basic physical processes responsible for the formation of vortex and acoustic wave fluctuation backgrounds are analyzed. Interplay of the processes at low and moderate shear rates is described. Three-dimensional vortex fluctuations around a given macroscopic state are numerically calculated. The correlation functions of the fluctuations of physical quantities are analyzed. It is shown that there exists subspace D k in the wave-number space (k-space) that is limited externally by spherical surface with radius k ν ≡ A/ν (where A is the velocity shear parameter, ν - the kinematic viscosity) in the nonequilibrium open system under study. The spatial Fourier harmonics of vortex as well as acoustic wave fluctuations are strongly subjected by flow shear (by the open character of the system) at wave-numbers satisfying the condition k ν . Specifically it is shown that in D k : The fluctuations are non-Markovian; the spatial spectral density of energy of the vortex fluctuations by far exceeds the white-noise; the term of a new type associated to the hydrodynamical fluctuation of velocity appears in the correlation function of pressure; the fluctuation background of the acoustic waves is completely different at low and moderate shear rates (at low shear rates it is reduced in D k in comparison to the uniform (non-shear) flow; at moderate shear rates it it comparable to the background of the vortex fluctuations). The fluctuation background of both the vortex and the acoustic wave modes is anisotropic. The possible significance of the fluctuation background of vortices for the subcritical transition to turbulence and Brownian motion of small macroscopic

Multi-annual fluctuations in reconstructed historical time-series of a European lobster (Homarus gammarus population disappear at increased exploitation levels.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas Sundelöf

Full Text Available Through the history of ecology, fluctuations of populations have been a dominating topic, and endogenous causes of fluctuations and oscillations have been recognized and studied for more than 80 years. Here we analyzed an historical dataset, covering more than 130 years, of European lobster (Homarus gammarus catches. The data shows periodic fluctuations, which are first dampened and then disappear over time. The disappearance of the periodicity coincided with a substantial increase in fishing effort and the oscillations have not reappeared in the time series. The shifting baseline syndrome has changed our perception of not only the status of the stock, but also the regulating pressures. We describe the transition of a naturally regulated lobster population into a heavily exploited fisheries controlled stock. This is shown by the incorporation of environmental and endogenous processes in generalized additive models, autocorrelation functions and periodicity analyses of time-series.

Numerical simulation of pressure fluctuation of a pump-turbine with MGV at no-load condition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, J T; Wang, L Q; Liu, S H; Sun, Y K; Wu, Y L

2012-01-01

In order to analyse the pressure fluctuation caused by misaligned guide vanes (MGV) during starting period at no-load condition, 3-D (three dimensional), unsteady flows in a pump-turbine were numerically studied. Pressure fluctuations of different points at no-load condition are obtained. Fast Fourier Transform(FFT) was used to analyse the frequency spectrum of pressure fluctuations. The amplitude and dominant frequency of pressure fluctuation at vaneless space between the runner and guide vane, as well as the inlet of draft tube, was investigated. The amplitude of pressure fluctuation of the pump-turbine with MGV device is twice that of synchronous vanes. This might be caused by the non-uniform flow in the pump-turbine due to the pre-opened guide vanes. The pump-turbine with synchronous vanes has a low frequency which is 0.33f n , while the low frequency changes into 0.63f n when the MGV device is used. The vortex rope in the draft tube is large than that of synchronize vanes. Resultsof pressure fluctuations with synchronous vanes agree with each other between computational and testing results. The numerical study of pressure fluctuations with MGV can provide a basic understanding for the improvement of the instability of a pump-turbine.

Predicting the Water Level Fluctuation in an Alpine Lake Using Physically Based, Artificial Neural Network, and Time Series Forecasting Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chih-Chieh Young

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Accurate prediction of water level fluctuation is important in lake management due to its significant impacts in various aspects. This study utilizes four model approaches to predict water levels in the Yuan-Yang Lake (YYL in Taiwan: a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, an artificial neural network (ANN model (back propagation neural network, BPNN, a time series forecasting (autoregressive moving average with exogenous inputs, ARMAX model, and a combined hydrodynamic and ANN model. Particularly, the black-box ANN model and physically based hydrodynamic model are coupled to more accurately predict water level fluctuation. Hourly water level data (a total of 7296 observations was collected for model calibration (training and validation. Three statistical indicators (mean absolute error, root mean square error, and coefficient of correlation were adopted to evaluate model performances. Overall, the results demonstrate that the hydrodynamic model can satisfactorily predict hourly water level changes during the calibration stage but not for the validation stage. The ANN and ARMAX models better predict the water level than the hydrodynamic model does. Meanwhile, the results from an ANN model are superior to those by the ARMAX model in both training and validation phases. The novel proposed concept using a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model in conjunction with an ANN model has clearly shown the improved prediction accuracy for the water level fluctuation.

Hadronic Correlations and Fluctuations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koch, Volker

2008-10-09

We will provide a review of some of the physics which can be addressed by studying fluctuations and correlations in heavy ion collisions. We will discuss Lattice QCD results on fluctuations and correlations and will put them into context with observables which have been measured in heavy-ion collisions. Special attention will be given to the QCD critical point and the first order co-existence region, and we will discuss how the measurement of fluctuations and correlations can help in an experimental search for non-trivial structures in the QCD phase diagram.

The public health impact of economic fluctuations in a Latin American country: mortality and the business cycle in Colombia in the period 1980-2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Arroyave, Ivan; Hessel, Philipp; Burdorf, Alex; Rodriguez-Garcia, Jesus; Cardona, Doris; Avendaño, Mauricio

2015-05-27

Studies in high-income countries suggest that mortality is related to economic cycles, but few studies have examined how fluctuations in the economy influence mortality in low- and middle-income countries. We exploit regional variations in gross domestic product per capita (GDPpc) over the period 1980-2010 in Colombia to examine how changes in economic output relate to adult mortality. Data on the number of annual deaths at ages 20 years and older (n = 3,506,600) from mortality registries, disaggregated by age groups, sex and region, were linked to population counts for the period 1980-2010. We used region fixed effect models to examine whether changes in regional GDPpc were associated with changes in mortality. We carried out separate analyses for the periods 1980-1995 and 2000-2010 as well as by sex, distinguishing three age groups: 20-44 (predominantly young working adults), 45-64 (middle aged working adults), and 65+ (senior, predominantly retired individuals). The association between regional economic conditions and mortality varied by period and age groups. From 1980 to 1995, increases in GDPpc were unrelated to mortality at ages 20 to 64, but they were associated with reductions in mortality for senior men. In contrast, from 2000 to 2010, changes in GDPpc were not associated with old age mortality, while an increase in GDPpc was associated with a decline in mortality at ages 20-44 years. Analyses restricted to regions with high registration coverage yielded similar albeit less precise estimates for most sub-groups. The relationship between business cycles and mortality varied by period and age in Colombia. Most notably, mortality shifted from being acyclical to being countercyclical for males aged 20-44, while it shifted from being countercyclical to being acyclical for males aged 65+.

Structural damage detection robust against time synchronization errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yan, Guirong; Dyke, Shirley J

2010-01-01

Structural damage detection based on wireless sensor networks can be affected significantly by time synchronization errors among sensors. Precise time synchronization of sensor nodes has been viewed as crucial for addressing this issue. However, precise time synchronization over a long period of time is often impractical in large wireless sensor networks due to two inherent challenges. First, time synchronization needs to be performed periodically, requiring frequent wireless communication among sensors at significant energy cost. Second, significant time synchronization errors may result from node failures which are likely to occur during long-term deployment over civil infrastructures. In this paper, a damage detection approach is proposed that is robust against time synchronization errors in wireless sensor networks. The paper first examines the ways in which time synchronization errors distort identified mode shapes, and then proposes a strategy for reducing distortion in the identified mode shapes. Modified values for these identified mode shapes are then used in conjunction with flexibility-based damage detection methods to localize damage. This alternative approach relaxes the need for frequent sensor synchronization and can tolerate significant time synchronization errors caused by node failures. The proposed approach is successfully demonstrated through numerical simulations and experimental tests in a lab

Nursing Errors in Intensive Care Unit by Human Error Identification in Systems Tool: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nezamodini

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Background Although health services are designed and implemented to improve human health, the errors in health services are a very common phenomenon and even sometimes fatal in this field. Medical errors and their cost are global issues with serious consequences for the patients’ community that are preventable and require serious attention. Objectives The current study aimed to identify possible nursing errors applying human error identification in systems tool (HEIST in the intensive care units (ICUs of hospitals. Patients and Methods This descriptive research was conducted in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Khuzestan province in 2013. Data were collected through observation and interview by nine nurses in this section in a period of four months. Human error classification was based on Rose and Rose and Swain and Guttmann models. According to HEIST work sheets the guide questions were answered and error causes were identified after the determination of the type of errors. Results In total 527 errors were detected. The performing operation on the wrong path had the highest frequency which was 150, and the second rate with a frequency of 136 was doing the tasks later than the deadline. Management causes with a frequency of 451 were the first rank among identified errors. Errors mostly occurred in the system observation stage and among the performance shaping factors (PSFs, time was the most influencing factor in occurrence of human errors. Conclusions Finally, in order to prevent the occurrence and reduce the consequences of identified errors the following suggestions were proposed : appropriate training courses, applying work guidelines and monitoring their implementation, increasing the number of work shifts, hiring professional workforce, equipping work space with appropriate facilities and equipment.

Electronic structure and quantum spin fluctuations at the magnetic phase transition in MnSi

Science.gov (United States)

Povzner, A. A.; Volkov, A. G.; Nogovitsyna, T. A.

2018-05-01

The effect of spin fluctuations on the heat capacity and homogeneous magnetic susceptibility of the chiral magnetic MnSi in the vicinity of magnetic transition has been investigated by using the free energy functional of the coupled electron and spin subsystems and taking into account the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction. For helical ferromagnetic ordering, we found that zero-point fluctuations of the spin density are large and comparable with fluctuations of the non-uniform magnetization. The amplitude of zero-point spin fluctuations shows a sharp decrease in the region of the magnetic phase transition. It is shown that sharp decrease of the amplitude of the quantum spin fluctuations results in the lambda-like maxima of the heat capacity and the homogeneous magnetic susceptibility. Above the temperature of the lambda anomaly, the spin correlation radius becomes less than the period of the helical structure and chiral fluctuations of the local magnetization appear. It is shown that formation of a "shoulder" on the temperature dependence of the heat capacity is due to disappearance of the local magnetization. Our finding allows to explain the experimentally observed features of the magnetic phase transition of MnSi as a result of the crossover of quantum and thermodynamic phase transitions.

Effects of periods of nonuse and fluctuating ammonia concentration on biofilter performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Ying-Xu; Yin, Jun; Wang, Kai-Xiong; Fang, Shi

2004-01-01

A systematic study on the transient behavior of odor treatment using biofilters is described. The biofilters were exposed to variations in contaminant loading and periods of nonuse. Two bench-scale biofilters with different filter media were used. Mixtures of compost/perlite (5:1) and dry sludge/granular active carbon (5:1) were used as filter media. Ammonia (NH3), one of the main malodorous gases, was used as the target compound. The response of each biofilter to variations in contaminant mass loading, periodic nonuse, water content, and inlet concentration pulse was studied. The nonuse period comprised of two stages: the "idle phase" when no air was passing through the biofilters, and the "no-contaminant-loading phase" when only humidified air was passing through the biofilters. Concentration spike was applied to study the effects of shock loading on the biofilter performance. Biofilters responded effectively to NH3 concentration variations and shock loading by rapidly recovering to the original removal rates within 6-12h. The results indicated re-acclimation times ranged from several hours to longer than a day. Longer idle phase produced longer re-acclimation periods than periods of no contaminant loading. When the media was dried during the biofiltration process, elimination capacity dropped accordingly for both biofilters. After 24 h of drying, the biofilter experiment could be restarted and run for a few days for recovering.

Fluctuating ideal-gas lattice Boltzmann method with fluctuation dissipation theorem for nonvanishing velocities.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaehler, G; Wagner, A J

2013-06-01

Current implementations of fluctuating ideal-gas descriptions with the lattice Boltzmann methods are based on a fluctuation dissipation theorem, which, while greatly simplifying the implementation, strictly holds only for zero mean velocity and small fluctuations. We show how to derive the fluctuation dissipation theorem for all k, which was done only for k=0 in previous derivations. The consistent derivation requires, in principle, locally velocity-dependent multirelaxation time transforms. Such an implementation is computationally prohibitively expensive but, with a small computational trick, it is feasible to reproduce the correct FDT without overhead in computation time. It is then shown that the previous standard implementations perform poorly for non vanishing mean velocity as indicated by violations of Galilean invariance of measured structure factors. Results obtained with the method introduced here show a significant reduction of the Galilean invariance violations.

Fluctuations in Schottky barrier heights

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahan, G.D.

1984-01-01

A double Schottky barrier is often formed at the grain boundary in polycrystalline semiconductors. The barrier height is shown to fluctuate in value due to the random nature of the impurity positions. The magnitude of the fluctuations is 0.1 eV, and the fluctuations cause the barrier height measured by capacitance to differ from the one measured by electrical conductivity

Productivity and species composition of algal mat communities exposed to a fluctuating thermal regime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tison, D.L.; Wilde, E.W.; Pope, D.H.; Fliermans, C.B.

1981-01-01

Algal mat communities growing in thermal effluents of production nuclear reactors at the Savannah River Plant, near Aiken, SC, are exposed to large temperature fluctuations resulting from reactor operations. Rates of primary production and species composition were monitored at 4 sites along a thermal gradient in a trough microcosm to determine how these large temperature fluctuations affected productivity and algal community structure. Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) were the only phototrophic primary producers growing in water above 45 0 C. These thermophiles were able to survive and apparently adapt to ambient temperatures when the reactor was shut down. The algal mat communities exposed to 14 C-labeled dissolved organic compounds and a decrease in primary production were observed during periods of thermal fluctuation. The results show that the dominant phototrophs in this artificially heated aquatic habitat have been selected for their abiity to survive large temperature fluctuations and are similar to those of natural hot springs

Fully Quantum Fluctuation Theorems

Science.gov (United States)

Åberg, Johan

2018-02-01

Systems that are driven out of thermal equilibrium typically dissipate random quantities of energy on microscopic scales. Crooks fluctuation theorem relates the distribution of these random work costs to the corresponding distribution for the reverse process. By an analysis that explicitly incorporates the energy reservoir that donates the energy and the control system that implements the dynamic, we obtain a quantum generalization of Crooks theorem that not only includes the energy changes in the reservoir but also the full description of its evolution, including coherences. Moreover, this approach opens up the possibility for generalizations of the concept of fluctuation relations. Here, we introduce "conditional" fluctuation relations that are applicable to nonequilibrium systems, as well as approximate fluctuation relations that allow for the analysis of autonomous evolution generated by global time-independent Hamiltonians. We furthermore extend these notions to Markovian master equations, implicitly modeling the influence of the heat bath.

Curvature of fluctuation geometry and its implications on Riemannian fluctuation theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velazquez, L

2013-01-01

Fluctuation geometry was recently proposed as a counterpart approach of the Riemannian geometry of inference theory (widely known as information geometry). This theory describes the geometric features of the statistical manifold M of random events that are described by a family of continuous distributions dp(x|θ). A main goal of this work is to clarify the statistical relevance of the Levi-Civita curvature tensor R ijkl (x|θ) of the statistical manifold M. For this purpose, the notion of irreducible statistical correlations is introduced. Specifically, a distribution dp(x|θ) exhibits irreducible statistical correlations if every distribution dp(x-check|θ) obtained from dp(x|θ) by considering a coordinate change x-check = φ(x) cannot be factorized into independent distributions as dp(x-check|θ) = prod i dp (i) (x-check i |θ). It is shown that the curvature tensor R ijkl (x|θ) arises as a direct indicator about the existence of irreducible statistical correlations. Moreover, the curvature scalar R(x|θ) allows us to introduce a criterium for the applicability of the Gaussian approximation of a given distribution function. This type of asymptotic result is obtained in the framework of the second-order geometric expansion of the distribution family dp(x|θ), which appears as a counterpart development of the high-order asymptotic theory of statistical estimation. In physics, fluctuation geometry represents the mathematical apparatus of a Riemannian extension for Einstein’s fluctuation theory of statistical mechanics. Some exact results of fluctuation geometry are now employed to derive the invariant fluctuation theorems. Moreover, the curvature scalar allows us to express some asymptotic formulae that account for the system fluctuating behavior beyond the Gaussian approximation, e.g.: it appears as a second-order correction of the Legendre transformation between thermodynamic potentials, P(θ)=θ i x-bar i -s( x-bar |θ)+k 2 R(x|θ)/6. (paper)

Net charge fluctuations and local charge compensation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fu Jinghua

2006-01-01

We propose net charge fluctuation as a measure of local charge correlation length. It is demonstrated that, in terms of a schematic multiperipheral model, net charge fluctuation satisfies the same Quigg-Thomas relation as satisfied by charge transfer fluctuation. Net charge fluctuations measured in finite rapidity windows depend on both the local charge correlation length and the size of the observation window. When the observation window is larger than the local charge correlation length, the net charge fluctuation only depends on the local charge correlation length, while forward-backward charge fluctuations always have strong dependence on the observation window size. Net charge fluctuations and forward-backward charge fluctuations measured in the present heavy ion experiments show characteristic features similar to those from multiperipheral models. But the data cannot all be understood within this simple model

Statistical properties of fluctuations of time series representing appearances of words in nationwide blog data and their applications: An example of modeling fluctuation scalings of nonstationary time series.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Hayafumi; Sano, Yukie; Takayasu, Hideki; Takayasu, Misako

2016-11-01

To elucidate the nontrivial empirical statistical properties of fluctuations of a typical nonsteady time series representing the appearance of words in blogs, we investigated approximately 3×10^{9} Japanese blog articles over a period of six years and analyze some corresponding mathematical models. First, we introduce a solvable nonsteady extension of the random diffusion model, which can be deduced by modeling the behavior of heterogeneous random bloggers. Next, we deduce theoretical expressions for both the temporal and ensemble fluctuation scalings of this model, and demonstrate that these expressions can reproduce all empirical scalings over eight orders of magnitude. Furthermore, we show that the model can reproduce other statistical properties of time series representing the appearance of words in blogs, such as functional forms of the probability density and correlations in the total number of blogs. As an application, we quantify the abnormality of special nationwide events by measuring the fluctuation scalings of 1771 basic adjectives.

Quantum fluctuations and inflation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bardeen, J.M.; Bublik, G.J.

1986-05-01

We study the effect of quantum fluctuations on the roll-down rate of the inflation field in a semiclassical approximation; this is done by treating the inflation field as a classical random field. The quantum fluctuations are simulated by a noise term in the equation of motion. We consider two different inflationary scenarios (new and chaotic inflation) and find that the roll-down rate of the median value of the inflation field is increased by the quantum fluctuations. Non-linear effects may become important in the later stages of the inflationary regime. 8 refs., 2 figs

Quantum fluctuations and inflation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bardeen, J.M.; Bublik, G.J.

1987-01-01

The authors study the effect of quantum fluctuations on the roll-down rate of the inflation field in a semiclassical approximation; this is done by treating the inflation field as a classical random field. The quantum fluctuations are simulated by a noise term in the equation of motion. Two different inflationary scenarios (new and chaotic inflation) are considered and it is found that the roll-down rate of the median value of the inflation field is increased by the quantum fluctuations. Non-linear effects may become important in the later stages of the inflationary regime. (author)

Changes in medical errors after implementation of a handoff program.

Science.gov (United States)

Starmer, Amy J; Spector, Nancy D; Srivastava, Rajendu; West, Daniel C; Rosenbluth, Glenn; Allen, April D; Noble, Elizabeth L; Tse, Lisa L; Dalal, Anuj K; Keohane, Carol A; Lipsitz, Stuart R; Rothschild, Jeffrey M; Wien, Matthew F; Yoon, Catherine S; Zigmont, Katherine R; Wilson, Karen M; O'Toole, Jennifer K; Solan, Lauren G; Aylor, Megan; Bismilla, Zia; Coffey, Maitreya; Mahant, Sanjay; Blankenburg, Rebecca L; Destino, Lauren A; Everhart, Jennifer L; Patel, Shilpa J; Bale, James F; Spackman, Jaime B; Stevenson, Adam T; Calaman, Sharon; Cole, F Sessions; Balmer, Dorene F; Hepps, Jennifer H; Lopreiato, Joseph O; Yu, Clifton E; Sectish, Theodore C; Landrigan, Christopher P

2014-11-06

Miscommunications are a leading cause of serious medical errors. Data from multicenter studies assessing programs designed to improve handoff of information about patient care are lacking. We conducted a prospective intervention study of a resident handoff-improvement program in nine hospitals, measuring rates of medical errors, preventable adverse events, and miscommunications, as well as resident workflow. The intervention included a mnemonic to standardize oral and written handoffs, handoff and communication training, a faculty development and observation program, and a sustainability campaign. Error rates were measured through active surveillance. Handoffs were assessed by means of evaluation of printed handoff documents and audio recordings. Workflow was assessed through time-motion observations. The primary outcome had two components: medical errors and preventable adverse events. In 10,740 patient admissions, the medical-error rate decreased by 23% from the preintervention period to the postintervention period (24.5 vs. 18.8 per 100 admissions, P<0.001), and the rate of preventable adverse events decreased by 30% (4.7 vs. 3.3 events per 100 admissions, P<0.001). The rate of nonpreventable adverse events did not change significantly (3.0 and 2.8 events per 100 admissions, P=0.79). Site-level analyses showed significant error reductions at six of nine sites. Across sites, significant increases were observed in the inclusion of all prespecified key elements in written documents and oral communication during handoff (nine written and five oral elements; P<0.001 for all 14 comparisons). There were no significant changes from the preintervention period to the postintervention period in the duration of oral handoffs (2.4 and 2.5 minutes per patient, respectively; P=0.55) or in resident workflow, including patient-family contact and computer time. Implementation of the handoff program was associated with reductions in medical errors and in preventable adverse events

Current density fluctuations and ambipolarity of transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen, W.; Dexter, R.N.; Prager, S.C.

1991-10-01

The fluctuation in the plasma current density is measured in the MIST reversed field pinch experiment. Such fluctuations, and the measured radial profile of the k spectrum of magnetic fluctuations, supports the view and that low frequency fluctuations (f r >) demonstrates that radial particle transport from particle motion parallel to a fluctuating magnetic field is ambipolar over the full frequency range

Fully developed turbulence via Feigenbaum's period-doubling bifurcations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Duong-van, M.

1987-08-01

Since its publication in 1978, Feigenbaum's predictions of the onset of turbulence via period-doubling bifurcations have been thoroughly borne out experimentally. In this paper, Feigenbaum's theory is extended into the regime in which we expect to see fully developed turbulence. We develop a method of averaging that imposes correlations in the fluctuating system generated by this map. With this averaging method, the field variable is obtained by coarse-graining, while microscopic fluctuations are preserved in all averaging scales. Fully developed turbulence will be shown to be a result of microscopic fluctuations with proper averaging. Furthermore, this model preserves Feigenbaum's results on the physics of bifurcations at the onset of turbulence while yielding additional physics both at the onset of turbulence and in the fully developed turbulence regime

On the temporal fluctuations of pulsating auroral luminosity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Tatsundo

1988-01-01

From a study of all-sky TV records, it is shown that the luminosity fluctuations of pulsating auroras can be understood in terms of a series of pulses with rapid on-off switchings in burstlike fashion and that the widths of successive pulses (pulsation on times) are fairly constant. This is common even when luminosity fluctuations consist of complex-irregular variations, in contrast to the pulsation off time that is significantly variable. Complex-irregular variations are ground to be due to simultaneous appearance of more pulsating patches that exhibit movements eastward and westward over the site, and each of the patches shows primarily isolated luminosity pulses. Several examples are presented and described in detail. A natural consequence of these observations is that the classical concept of period does not mean much and the luminosity fluctuations should be treated as a series of individual isolated pulses where the pulsation on time is the most essential quantity. These characteristics are briefly discussed in relation to VLF/ELF wave-particle interactions in the magnetosphere. Then a new interpretation of the nonlinear relaxation oscillation model is proposed, where the propagation effect of VLF/ELF waves in low energy plasm irregularities near the magnetospheric equatorial plane plays an essential role to produce rapid on-off switchings of precipitating energetic electron fluxes. Both electromagnetic and electrostatic waves are possibly related to the precipitation pulsations

The Spectrum of Wind Power Fluctuations

Science.gov (United States)

Bandi, Mahesh

2016-11-01

Wind is a variable energy source whose fluctuations threaten electrical grid stability and complicate dynamical load balancing. The power generated by a wind turbine fluctuates due to the variable wind speed that blows past the turbine. Indeed, the spectrum of wind power fluctuations is widely believed to reflect the Kolmogorov spectrum; both vary with frequency f as f - 5 / 3. This variability decreases when aggregate power fluctuations from geographically distributed wind farms are averaged at the grid via a mechanism known as geographic smoothing. Neither the f - 5 / 3 wind power fluctuation spectrum nor the mechanism of geographic smoothing are understood. In this work, we explain the wind power fluctuation spectrum from the turbine through grid scales. The f - 5 / 3 wind power fluctuation spectrum results from the largest length scales of atmospheric turbulence of order 200 km influencing the small scales where individual turbines operate. This long-range influence spatially couples geographically distributed wind farms and synchronizes farm outputs over a range of frequencies and decreases with increasing inter-farm distance. Consequently, aggregate grid-scale power fluctuations remain correlated, and are smoothed until they reach a limiting f - 7 / 3 spectrum. This work was funded by the Collective Interactions Unit, OIST Graduate University, Japan.

Interplanetary Alfvenic fluctuations: A stochastic model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnes, A.

1981-01-01

The strong alignment of the average directions of minimum magnetic variance and mean magnetic field in interplanetary Alfvenic fluctuations is inconsistent with the usual wave-propagation models. We investigate the concept of minimum variance for nonplanar Alfvenic fluctuations in which the field direction varies stochastically. It is found that the tendency of the minimum variance and mean field directions to be aligned may be purely a consequence of the randomness of the field direction. In particular, a well-defined direction of minimum variance does not imply that the fluctuations are necessarily planar. The fluctuation power spectrum is a power law for frequencies much higher than the inverse of the correlation time. The probability distribution of directions a randomly fluctuating field of constant magnitude is calculated. A new approach for observational studies of interplanetary fluctuations is suggested

Nonlinear periodic waves in dusty plasma with variable dust charge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yadav, Lakhan Lal; Bharuthram, R.

2002-01-01

Using the reductive perturbation method, we present a theory of nonlinear periodic waves, viz. the cnoidal waves, in a dusty plasma consisting of electrons, ions, and cold dust grains with charge fluctuations, which in the limiting case reduce to dust acoustic solitons. It is found that the frequency of the dust acoustic cnoidal wave increases with its amplitude. The dust charge fluctuations are found to affect the characteristics of the cnoidal waves

Systematic sampling with errors in sample locations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ziegel, Johanna; Baddeley, Adrian; Dorph-Petersen, Karl-Anton

2010-01-01

analysis using point process methods. We then analyze three different models for the error process, calculate exact expressions for the variances, and derive asymptotic variances. Errors in the placement of sample points can lead to substantial inflation of the variance, dampening of zitterbewegung......Systematic sampling of points in continuous space is widely used in microscopy and spatial surveys. Classical theory provides asymptotic expressions for the variance of estimators based on systematic sampling as the grid spacing decreases. However, the classical theory assumes that the sample grid...... is exactly periodic; real physical sampling procedures may introduce errors in the placement of the sample points. This paper studies the effect of errors in sample positioning on the variance of estimators in the case of one-dimensional systematic sampling. First we sketch a general approach to variance...

Statistical Laws Governing Fluctuations in Word Use from Word Birth to Word Death

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Alexander M.; Tenenbaum, Joel; Havlin, Shlomo; Stanley, H. Eugene

2012-03-01

We analyze the dynamic properties of 107 words recorded in English, Spanish and Hebrew over the period 1800-2008 in order to gain insight into the coevolution of language and culture. We report language independent patterns useful as benchmarks for theoretical models of language evolution. A significantly decreasing (increasing) trend in the birth (death) rate of words indicates a recent shift in the selection laws governing word use. For new words, we observe a peak in the growth-rate fluctuations around 40 years after introduction, consistent with the typical entry time into standard dictionaries and the human generational timescale. Pronounced changes in the dynamics of language during periods of war shows that word correlations, occurring across time and between words, are largely influenced by coevolutionary social, technological, and political factors. We quantify cultural memory by analyzing the long-term correlations in the use of individual words using detrended fluctuation analysis.

Topics in fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Milner, S.T.

1986-01-01

Models of fluctuating nonlinear hydrodynamics have enjoyed much success in explaining the effect of long-wavelength fluctuations in diverse hydrodynamic systems. This thesis explores two such problems; in both, the body of hydrodynamic assumptions powerfully constrains the predictions of a well-posed theory. The effects of layer fluctuations in smectic-A liquid crystals are first examined. The static theory (introduced by Grinstein and Pelcovits) is reviewed. Ward identities, resulting from the arbitrariness of the layering direction, are derived and exploited. The static results motivate an examination of dynamic fluctuation effects. A new sound-damping experiment is proposed that would probe singular dependence of viscosities on applied stress. A theory of Procaccia and Gitterman that reaction rates of chemically reacting binary mixtures are drastically reduced near their thermodynamic critical points is analyzed. Hydrodynamic arguments and Van Hove theory are applied, concluding that the PG idea is drastically slowed, and spatially varying composition fluctuations are at best slowed down over a narrow range of wavenumbers

Principle of minimal work fluctuations.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Gaoyang; Gong, Jiangbin

2015-08-01

Understanding and manipulating work fluctuations in microscale and nanoscale systems are of both fundamental and practical interest. For example, in considering the Jarzynski equality 〈e-βW〉=e-βΔF, a change in the fluctuations of e-βW may impact how rapidly the statistical average of e-βW converges towards the theoretical value e-βΔF, where W is the work, β is the inverse temperature, and ΔF is the free energy difference between two equilibrium states. Motivated by our previous study aiming at the suppression of work fluctuations, here we obtain a principle of minimal work fluctuations. In brief, adiabatic processes as treated in quantum and classical adiabatic theorems yield the minimal fluctuations in e-βW. In the quantum domain, if a system initially prepared at thermal equilibrium is subjected to a work protocol but isolated from a bath during the time evolution, then a quantum adiabatic process without energy level crossing (or an assisted adiabatic process reaching the same final states as in a conventional adiabatic process) yields the minimal fluctuations in e-βW, where W is the quantum work defined by two energy measurements at the beginning and at the end of the process. In the classical domain where the classical work protocol is realizable by an adiabatic process, then the classical adiabatic process also yields the minimal fluctuations in e-βW. Numerical experiments based on a Landau-Zener process confirm our theory in the quantum domain, and our theory in the classical domain explains our previous numerical findings regarding the suppression of classical work fluctuations [G. Y. Xiao and J. B. Gong, Phys. Rev. E 90, 052132 (2014)].

Experimental investigation of pressure fluctuations caused by a vortex rope in a draft tube

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirschner, O; Ruprecht, A; Göde, E; Riedelbauch, S

2012-01-01

In the last years hydro power plants have taken the task of power-frequency control for the electrical grid. Therefore turbines in storage hydro power plants often operate outside their optimum. If Francis-turbines and pump-turbines operate at off-design conditions, a vortex rope in the draft tube can develop. The vortex rope can cause pressure oscillations. In addition to low frequencies caused by the rotation of the vortex rope and the harmonics of these frequencies, pressure fluctuations with higher frequencies can be observed in some operating points too. In this experimental investigation the flow structure and behavior of the vortex rope movement in the draft tube of a model pump-turbine are analyzed. The investigation focuses on the correlation of the pressure fluctuation frequency measured at the draft tube wall with the movement of the vortex rope. The movement of the vortex rope is analyzed by the velocity field in the draft tube which was measured with particle image velocimetry. Additionally, the vortex rope movement has been analyzed with the captures of high-speed-movies from the cavitating vortex rope. Besides the rotation of the vortex rope due to pressure fluctuation with low frequencies the results of the measurement also show a correlation between the rotation of the elliptical or deformed rope cross-section and the higher frequency pressure pulsation. An approximation shows that the frequencies of the pressure fluctuation and the movement of the vortex rope are also connected with the velocity of the flow. Taking into account the size and position of the cavitating vortex core as well as the velocity at the position of the surface of the cavitating vortex core the time-period of the rotation of the vortex core can be approximated. The results show that both, the low frequency pressure fluctuation and the higher frequency pressure fluctuation are correlating with the vortex rope movement. With this estimation, the period of the higher frequency

Control of stochastic resonance in bistable systems by using periodic signals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Min, Lin; Li-Min, Fang; Yong-Jun, Zheng

2009-01-01

According to the characteristic structure of double wells in bistable systems, this paper analyses stochastic fluctuations in the single potential well and probability transitions between the two potential wells and proposes a method of controlling stochastic resonance by using a periodic signal. Results of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation show that the phenomenon of stochastic resonance happens when the time scales of the periodic signal and the noise-induced probability transitions between the two potential wells achieve stochastic synchronization. By adding a bistable system with a controllable periodic signal, fluctuations in the single potential well can be effectively controlled, thus affecting the probability transitions between the two potential wells. In this way, an effective control can be achieved which allows one to either enhance or realize stochastic resonance

Glacial greenhouse-gas fluctuations controlled by ocean circulation changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmittner, Andreas; Galbraith, Eric D

2008-11-20

Earth's climate and the concentrations of the atmospheric greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO(2)) and nitrous oxide (N(2)O) varied strongly on millennial timescales during past glacial periods. Large and rapid warming events in Greenland and the North Atlantic were followed by more gradual cooling, and are highly correlated with fluctuations of N(2)O as recorded in ice cores. Antarctic temperature variations, on the other hand, were smaller and more gradual, showed warming during the Greenland cold phase and cooling while the North Atlantic was warm, and were highly correlated with fluctuations in CO(2). Abrupt changes in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) have often been invoked to explain the physical characteristics of these Dansgaard-Oeschger climate oscillations, but the mechanisms for the greenhouse-gas variations and their linkage to the AMOC have remained unclear. Here we present simulations with a coupled model of glacial climate and biogeochemical cycles, forced only with changes in the AMOC. The model simultaneously reproduces characteristic features of the Dansgaard-Oeschger temperature, as well as CO(2) and N(2)O fluctuations. Despite significant changes in the land carbon inventory, CO(2) variations on millennial timescales are dominated by slow changes in the deep ocean inventory of biologically sequestered carbon and are correlated with Antarctic temperature and Southern Ocean stratification. In contrast, N(2)O co-varies more rapidly with Greenland temperatures owing to fast adjustments of the thermocline oxygen budget. These results suggest that ocean circulation changes were the primary mechanism that drove glacial CO(2) and N(2)O fluctuations on millennial timescales.

Dynamic noise from action errors enhances network reciprocity in the prisoner's dilemma game

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tanimoto, Jun; Ogasawara, Takashi

2015-01-01

Inspired by the fact that people make mistakes in a transient, fluctuating or chaotic environment, we establish a spatial prisoner's dilemma model where an agent commits action errors proportionally varying with the increasing/decreasing rate of the global cooperation fraction. A series of numerical simulations reveal that the cooperation level is enhanced in games in which the stag hunt (SH)-type dilemma is dominant; however, it is slightly diminished in games in which the chicken-type dilemma is dominant, compared with the standard network reciprocity model. Intensive analysis reveals that the noise created by the action error contribute to the spatial expansion of a cooperators' cluster, because a dilemma that is less chicken-type and more SH-type makes it disadvantageous for defectors to neighbor cooperators. Our finding, that errors in behavior in a chaotic environment contribute to the evolution of cooperation, might aim to explain the problem of how network reciprocity works. (paper)

The effects of the vegetable prices insurance on the fluctuation of price: Based on Shanghai evidences

Science.gov (United States)

Qu, Chunhong; Li, Huishang; Hao, Shuai; Zhang, Xuebiao; Yang, Wei

2017-10-01

Taking Shanghai as an example, the influence of the vegetable price insurance on the fluctuation of prices was analyzed in the article. It was found that the sequence of seasonal fluctuations characteristics of leafy vegetable prices was changed by the vegetable cost-price insurance, the period of price fluctuation was elongated from 12-to-18 months to 37 months, and the influence of random factors on the price fluctuations was reduced in some degree. There was still great space for innovation of the vegetable prices insurance system in Shanghai. Some countermeasures would be suggested to develop the insurance system to better to play the role of insurance and promote the market running more smoothly in Shanghai such as prolonging the insurance cycle, improving the price information monitoring mechanism and innovating income insurance products and so on.

Estimation and analysis of the sensitivity of monoenergetic electron radiography of composite materials with fluctuating composition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rudenko, V.N.; Yunda, N.T.

1978-01-01

A sensitivity analysis of the electron defectoscopy method for composite materials with fluctuating composition has been carried out. Quantitative evaluations of the testing sensitivity depending on inspection conditions have been obtained, and calculations of the instrumental error are shown. Based on numerical calculations, a comparison of error has been carried out between high-energy electron and X-ray testings. It is shown that when testing composite materials with a surface density of up to 7-10 g/cm 2 , the advantage of the electron defectoscopy method as compared to the X-ray one is the higher sensitivity and lower instrumental error. The advantage of the electron defectoscopy method over the X-ray one as regards the sensitivity is greater when a light-atom component is predomenant in the composition. A monoenergetic electron beam from a betatron with an energy of up to 30 MeV should be used for testing materials with a surface density of up to 15 g/cm 2

RF current drive and plasma fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peysson, Yves; Decker, Joan; Morini, L; Coda, S

2011-01-01

The role played by electron density fluctuations near the plasma edge on rf current drive in tokamaks is assessed quantitatively. For this purpose, a general framework for incorporating density fluctuations in existing modelling tools has been developed. It is valid when rf power absorption takes place far from the fluctuating region of the plasma. The ray-tracing formalism is modified in order to take into account time-dependent perturbations of the density, while the Fokker–Planck solver remains unchanged. The evolution of the electron distribution function in time and space under the competing effects of collisions and quasilinear diffusion by rf waves is determined consistently with the time scale of fluctuations described as a statistical process. Using the ray-tracing code C3PO and the 3D linearized relativistic bounce-averaged Fokker–Planck solver LUKE, the effect of electron density fluctuations on the current driven by the lower hybrid (LH) and the electron cyclotron (EC) waves is estimated quantitatively. A thin fluctuating layer characterized by electron drift wave turbulence at the plasma edge is considered. The effect of fluctuations on the LH wave propagation is equivalent to a random scattering process with a broadening of the poloidal mode spectrum proportional to the level of the perturbation. However, in the multipass regime, the LH current density profile remains sensitive to the ray chaotic behaviour, which is not averaged by fluctuations. The effect of large amplitude fluctuations on the EC driven current is found to be similar to an anomalous radial transport of the fast electrons. The resulting lower current drive efficiency and broader current profile are in better agreement with experimental observations. Finally, applied to the ITER ELMy H-mode regime, the model predicts a significant broadening of the EC driven current density profile with the fluctuation level, which can make the stabilization of neoclassical tearing mode potentially

Action errors, error management, and learning in organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Frese, Michael; Keith, Nina

2015-01-03

Every organization is confronted with errors. Most errors are corrected easily, but some may lead to negative consequences. Organizations often focus on error prevention as a single strategy for dealing with errors. Our review suggests that error prevention needs to be supplemented by error management--an approach directed at effectively dealing with errors after they have occurred, with the goal of minimizing negative and maximizing positive error consequences (examples of the latter are learning and innovations). After defining errors and related concepts, we review research on error-related processes affected by error management (error detection, damage control). Empirical evidence on positive effects of error management in individuals and organizations is then discussed, along with emotional, motivational, cognitive, and behavioral pathways of these effects. Learning from errors is central, but like other positive consequences, learning occurs under certain circumstances--one being the development of a mind-set of acceptance of human error.

Neutrino propagation in a fluctuating sun

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burgess, C.P.; Michaud, D.

1997-01-01

We adapt to neutrino physics a general formulation for particle propagation in fluctuating media, initially developed for applications to electromagnetism and neutron optics. In leading approximation this formalism leads to the usual MSW effective Hamiltonian governing neutrino propagation through a medium. Next-to-leading contributions describe deviations from this description, which arise due to neutrino interactions with fluctuations in the medium. We compute these corrections for two types of fluctuations: (i) microscopic thermal fluctuations and (ii) macroscopic fluctuations in the medium s density. While the first of these reproduces standard estimates, which are negligible for applications to solar neutrinos, we find that the second can be quite large, since it grows in size with the correlation length of the fluctuation. We consider two models in some detail. For fluctuations whose correlations extend only over a local region in space of length l, appreciable effects for MSW oscillations arise if (δn/n) 2 l approx-gt 100m or so. Alternatively, a crude model of helioseismic p-waves gives appreciable effects only when (δn/n)approx-gt 1%. In general the dominant effect is to diminish the quality of the resonance, making the suppression of the 7 Be neutrinos a good experimental probe of fluctuations deep within the sun. Fluctuations can also provide a new mechanism for reducing the solar neutrino flux, giving an energy-independent suppression factor of 1/2 away from the resonant region, even for small vacuum mixing angles. copyright 1997 Academic Press, Inc

Modeling coherent errors in quantum error correction

Science.gov (United States)

Greenbaum, Daniel; Dutton, Zachary

2018-01-01

Analysis of quantum error correcting codes is typically done using a stochastic, Pauli channel error model for describing the noise on physical qubits. However, it was recently found that coherent errors (systematic rotations) on physical data qubits result in both physical and logical error rates that differ significantly from those predicted by a Pauli model. Here we examine the accuracy of the Pauli approximation for noise containing coherent errors (characterized by a rotation angle ɛ) under the repetition code. We derive an analytic expression for the logical error channel as a function of arbitrary code distance d and concatenation level n, in the small error limit. We find that coherent physical errors result in logical errors that are partially coherent and therefore non-Pauli. However, the coherent part of the logical error is negligible at fewer than {ε }-({dn-1)} error correction cycles when the decoder is optimized for independent Pauli errors, thus providing a regime of validity for the Pauli approximation. Above this number of correction cycles, the persistent coherent logical error will cause logical failure more quickly than the Pauli model would predict, and this may need to be combated with coherent suppression methods at the physical level or larger codes.

Advanced error diagnostics of the CMAQ and Chimere modelling systems within the AQMEII3 model evaluation framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Solazzo

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The work here complements the overview analysis of the modelling systems participating in the third phase of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII3 by focusing on the performance for hourly surface ozone by two modelling systems, Chimere for Europe and CMAQ for North America. The evaluation strategy outlined in the course of the three phases of the AQMEII activity, aimed to build up a diagnostic methodology for model evaluation, is pursued here and novel diagnostic methods are proposed. In addition to evaluating the base case simulation in which all model components are configured in their standard mode, the analysis also makes use of sensitivity simulations in which the models have been applied by altering and/or zeroing lateral boundary conditions, emissions of anthropogenic precursors, and ozone dry deposition. To help understand of the causes of model deficiencies, the error components (bias, variance, and covariance of the base case and of the sensitivity runs are analysed in conjunction with timescale considerations and error modelling using the available error fields of temperature, wind speed, and NOx concentration. The results reveal the effectiveness and diagnostic power of the methods devised (which remains the main scope of this study, allowing the detection of the timescale and the fields that the two models are most sensitive to. The representation of planetary boundary layer (PBL dynamics is pivotal to both models. In particular, (i the fluctuations slower than ∼ 1.5 days account for 70–85 % of the mean square error of the full (undecomposed ozone time series; (ii a recursive, systematic error with daily periodicity is detected, responsible for 10–20 % of the quadratic total error; (iii errors in representing the timing of the daily transition between stability regimes in the PBL are responsible for a covariance error as large as 9 ppb (as much as the standard deviation of the network

Advanced error diagnostics of the CMAQ and Chimere modelling systems within the AQMEII3 model evaluation framework

Science.gov (United States)

Solazzo, Efisio; Hogrefe, Christian; Colette, Augustin; Garcia-Vivanco, Marta; Galmarini, Stefano

2017-09-01

The work here complements the overview analysis of the modelling systems participating in the third phase of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII3) by focusing on the performance for hourly surface ozone by two modelling systems, Chimere for Europe and CMAQ for North America. The evaluation strategy outlined in the course of the three phases of the AQMEII activity, aimed to build up a diagnostic methodology for model evaluation, is pursued here and novel diagnostic methods are proposed. In addition to evaluating the base case simulation in which all model components are configured in their standard mode, the analysis also makes use of sensitivity simulations in which the models have been applied by altering and/or zeroing lateral boundary conditions, emissions of anthropogenic precursors, and ozone dry deposition. To help understand of the causes of model deficiencies, the error components (bias, variance, and covariance) of the base case and of the sensitivity runs are analysed in conjunction with timescale considerations and error modelling using the available error fields of temperature, wind speed, and NOx concentration. The results reveal the effectiveness and diagnostic power of the methods devised (which remains the main scope of this study), allowing the detection of the timescale and the fields that the two models are most sensitive to. The representation of planetary boundary layer (PBL) dynamics is pivotal to both models. In particular, (i) the fluctuations slower than ˜ 1.5 days account for 70-85 % of the mean square error of the full (undecomposed) ozone time series; (ii) a recursive, systematic error with daily periodicity is detected, responsible for 10-20 % of the quadratic total error; (iii) errors in representing the timing of the daily transition between stability regimes in the PBL are responsible for a covariance error as large as 9 ppb (as much as the standard deviation of the network-average ozone observations in

Electrostatic fluctuation and fluctuation-induced particle flux during formation of the edge transport barrier in the JFT-2M tokamak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ido, T.; Hamada, Y.; Nagashima, Y.; Nishizawa, A.; Kawasumi, Y.; Miura, Y.; Hoshino, K.; Ogawa, H.; Shinohara, K.; Kamiya, K.; Kusama, Y.

2005-01-01

The electrostatic fluctuation with Geodesic-Acoustic-Mode (GAM) frequency is observed in L-mode plasmas. The fluctuation has the poloidal wave number (k θ ) of (-2 ± 24) x 10 -3 (cm -1 ), that corresponds to the poloidal mode number of 1.5 or less, and the radial wave number (k r ) of 0.94 ± 0.05 (cm -1 ), that is corresponds to k r ρ i = 0.26 < 1. The amplitude of the fluctuation changes in the radial direction; it is small near the separatrix and it has maximum at 3 cm inside the separatrix. The relation between the amplitude of potential fluctuation and that of density fluctuation is the same as that of the predicted GAM. The fluctuation is probably GAM. The envelope of ambient density fluctuation and the potential fluctuation have a significant coherence at the GAM frequency. Thus, it is clearly verified that the fluctuation with the GAM frequency correlates with the ambient density fluctuation. The fluctuation with the GAM frequency affects the particle transport through the modulation of the ambient fluctuation. But the effect is not large, and it is not a sufficient condition to form the edge transport barrier and to drive the intermittent particle flux. (author)

Electrostatic fluctuation and fluctuation-induced particle flux during formation of the edge transport barrier in the JFT-2M tokamak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ido, T.; Miura, K.; Hoshino, K.

2005-01-01

The electrostatic fluctuation with Geodesic-Acoustic-Mode (GAM) frequency is observed in L-mode plasmas. The fluctuation has the poloidal wave number (k θ ) of (-2 ± 24) x 10 -3 (cm -1 ), that corresponds to the poloidal mode number of 1.5 or less, and the radial wave number (k γ ) of 0.94±0.05 (cm -1 ), that is corresponds to k γ ρ i =0.26 < 1. The amplitude of the fluctuation changes in the radial direction; it is small near the separatrix and it has maximum at 3 cm inside the separatrix. The relation between the amplitude of potential fluctuation and that of density fluctuation is the same as that of the predicted GAM. The fluctuation is probably GAM. The envelope of ambient density fluctuation and the potential fluctuation have a significant coherence at the GAM frequency. Thus, it is clearly verified that the fluctuation with the GAM frequency correlates with the ambient density fluctuation. The fluctuation with the GAM frequency affects the particle transport through the modulation of the ambient fluctuation. But the effect is not large, and it is not a sufficient condition to form the edge transport barrier and to drive the intermittent particle flux. (author)

Measuring shape fluctuations in biological membranes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Monzel, C; Sengupta, K

2016-01-01

Shape fluctuations of lipid membranes have intrigued cell biologists and physicists alike. In the cellular context, their origin—thermal or active—and their physiological significance are open questions. These small incessant displacements, also called membrane undulations, have mostly been studied in model membranes and membranes of simple cells like erythrocytes. Thermal fluctuations of such membranes have been very well described both theoretically and experimentally; active fluctuations are a topic of current interest. Experimentally, membrane fluctuations are not easy to measure, the main challenge being to develop techniques which are capable of measuring very small displacements at very high speed, and preferably over a large area and long time. Scattering techniques have given access to fluctuations in membrane stacks and a variety of optical microscopy based techniques have been devised to study membrane fluctuations of unilamellar vesicles, erythrocytes and other cells. Among them are flicker spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, diffraction phase microscopy and reflection interference contrast microscopy. Each of these techniques has its advantages and limitations. Here we review the basic principles of the major experimental techniques used to measure bending or shape fluctuations of biomembranes. We report seminal results obtained with each technique and highlight how these studies furthered our understanding of physical properties of membranes and their interactions. We also discuss suggested role of membrane fluctuations in different biological processes. (topical review)

Fluctuation analysis of rotational spectra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doessing, T.; Bracco, A.; Broglia, R.A.; Matsuo, M.

1996-01-01

The compound state rotational degree of freedom is ''damped'' in the sense that the electric quadrupole decay of a single quantum state with angular momentum I exhibits a spectrum of final states all having spin I-2. In actual experiments, the cascade of γ-rays associated with each of the members of the ensemble of compound nuclei uses each of the ''discrete'' transitions many more times than the ''continuum'' transitions. Relatively large and small fluctuations in the recorded coincidence spectrum ensue, respectively. The analysis of the fluctuations will be shown to be instrumental to gain insight into the phenomenon of rotational damping. For this purpose, two- and higher-fold coincidence spectra emitted from rotating nuclei are analyzed with respect to the count fluctuations. The coincidences from consecutive γ-rays emitted from discrete rotational bands generate ridges in the E γ1 .E γ2 spectrum, and the fluctuation analysis of the ridges is based upon the ansatz of a random selection of transition energies from band to band. This ansatz is supported by a cranked mean-field calculation for the nucleus 168 Yb, as well as by analyzing resolved bands in 168 Yb and its neighbors. The fluctuation analysis of the central valley (E γ1 =E γ2 ) is based upon the ansatz of fluctuations in the intensity of the transitions of Porter-Thomas type superposed on a smooth spectrum of transition energies. This ansatz is again supported by a mixed-band calculation. The mathematical treatment of count fluctuations is formulated in general (orig.)

Impact of motor fluctuations on real-life gait in Parkinson's patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Silva de Lima, Ana Lígia; Evers, Luc J W; Hahn, Tim; de Vries, Nienke M; Daeschler, Margaret; Boroojerdi, Babak; Terricabras, Dolors; Little, Max A; Bloem, Bastiaan R; Faber, Marjan J

2018-05-01

People with PD (PWP) have an increased risk of becoming inactive. Wearable sensors can provide insights into daily physical activity and walking patterns. (1) Is the severity of motor fluctuations associated with sensor-derived average daily walking quantity? (2) Is the severity of motor fluctuations associated with the amount of change in sensor-derived walking quantity after levodopa intake? 304 Dutch PWP from the Parkinson@Home study were included. At baseline, all participants received a clinical examination. During the follow-up period (median: 97 days; 25-Interquartile range-IQR: 91 days, 75-IQR: 188 days), participants used the Fox Wearable Companion app and streamed smartwatch accelerometer data to a cloud platform. The first research question was assessed by linear regression on the sensor-derived mean time spent walking/day with the severity of fluctuations (MDS-UPDRS item 4.4) as independent variable, controlled for age and MDS-UPDRS part-III score. The second research question was assessed by linear regression on the sensor-derived mean post-levodopa walking quantity, with the sensor-derived mean pre-levodopa walking quantity and severity of fluctuations as independent variables, controlled for mean time spent walking per day, age and MDS-UPDRS part-III score. PWP spent most time walking between 8am and 1pm, summing up to 72 ± 39 (mean ± standard deviation) minutes of walking/day. The severity of motor fluctuations did not influence the mean time spent walking (B = 2.4 ± 1.9, p = 0.20), but higher age (B = -1.3 ± 0.3, p = motor symptoms (B = -0.6 ± 0.2, p motor fluctuations is not associated with changes in real-life walking patterns in mildly to moderate affected PWP. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Errors in causal inference: an organizational schema for systematic error and random error.

Science.gov (United States)

Suzuki, Etsuji; Tsuda, Toshihide; Mitsuhashi, Toshiharu; Mansournia, Mohammad Ali; Yamamoto, Eiji

2016-11-01

To provide an organizational schema for systematic error and random error in estimating causal measures, aimed at clarifying the concept of errors from the perspective of causal inference. We propose to divide systematic error into structural error and analytic error. With regard to random error, our schema shows its four major sources: nondeterministic counterfactuals, sampling variability, a mechanism that generates exposure events and measurement variability. Structural error is defined from the perspective of counterfactual reasoning and divided into nonexchangeability bias (which comprises confounding bias and selection bias) and measurement bias. Directed acyclic graphs are useful to illustrate this kind of error. Nonexchangeability bias implies a lack of "exchangeability" between the selected exposed and unexposed groups. A lack of exchangeability is not a primary concern of measurement bias, justifying its separation from confounding bias and selection bias. Many forms of analytic errors result from the small-sample properties of the estimator used and vanish asymptotically. Analytic error also results from wrong (misspecified) statistical models and inappropriate statistical methods. Our organizational schema is helpful for understanding the relationship between systematic error and random error from a previously less investigated aspect, enabling us to better understand the relationship between accuracy, validity, and precision. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fluctuations and structure of amphiphilic films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gourier, CH.

1996-01-01

This thesis is divided in three parts.The first part exposes in a theoretical point of view, how the fluctuations spectrum of an amphiphilic film is governed by its properties and its bidimensional characteristics.The measurements of fluctuations spectra of an interface are accessible with the measurement of intensity that interface diffuses out of the specular angle, we present in the second chapter the principles of the X rays diffusion by a real interface and see how the diffuse diffusion experiments allow to determine the fluctuations spectrum of an amphiphilic film. The second part is devoted to the different experimental techniques that have allowed to realize the study of fluctuation as well as the structural study.The third part is devoted to experimental results concerning the measurements of fluctuations spectra and to the study of the structure of amphiphilic films. We show that it is possible by using an intense source of X rays (ESRF: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) to measure the water and amphiphilic films fluctuations spectra until molecular scales. The last chapter is devoted to the structural study and film fluctuations made of di-acetylenic molecules. (N.C.)

Management of surplus electricity-production from a fluctuating renewable-energy source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lund, H.

2003-01-01

Renewable-energy sources and energy efficiency are important elements in Danish Energy Policy. The implementation of wind power and combined heat- and power-production (CHP) have already led to substantial fuel savings, and both technologies are intended for further expansion in the coming decade. Today, approximately 50% of both Danish electricity and heat demand are produced via CHP, and more than 15% of the electricity demands are produced by wind turbines. However, the electricity production from these technologies is linked to fluctuations either in wind or in heat demands rather than fluctuations in demand for electricity. Consequently, the electricity production exceeds the demand during certain periods and creates a problem of ''surplus production''. This paper discusses and analyses different national strategies for solving this problem. (author)

Assessment of impacts from water level fluctuations on fish in the Hanford Reach, Columbia River

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Becker, C.D.; Fickeisen, D.H.; Montgomery, J.C.

1981-05-01

Observations on the effects of water level fluctuations in the Hanford Reach of the Columbia River, Washington, were made in 1976 and 1977. The two years provided contrasting flow regimes: high water and fluctuations of greater magnitude prevailed in 1976; low water and higher temperatures prevailed in 1977. Situations where fish and other aquatic organisms were destroyed by changing water levels were observed and evaluated each year in three study areas: Hanford, F-Area, and White Bluffs sloughs. Losses primarily were due to stranding, entrapment (with or without complete dewatering), and predation. Juvenile fish were more susceptible to entrapment and stranding than were adult fish. Estimates of actual losses were biased and conservative because relatively few fish could be found after each decline of water level and dewatering. The most valued species of fish affected by water level fluctuations at Hanford were the anadromus fall chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and the resident smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui). Crucial periods for chinook salmon occurred during winter when incubating eggs were in the gravel of the main channel, and before and during seaward migration in the spring when fry were abundant in shoreline zones. The crucial period for smallmouth bass was during spring and early summer when adults were spawning in warmed sloughs and shoreline zones. Chinook salmon and smallmouth bass fry were vulnerable to stranding and entrapment, and smallmouth bass nests were susceptible to exposure and temperature changes resulting from repeated water level fluctuations. Thus, flow manipulation may be crucial to their survival. The extent to which other species of riverine fish were affected by water level fluctuations depended upon their use of shoreline zones for spawning and rearing young.

The Fluctuation Niche in Plants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaume Terradas

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Classical approaches to niche in coexisting plants have undervalued temporal fluctuations. We propose that fluctuation niche is an important dimension of the total niche and interacts with habitat and life-history niches to provide a better understanding of the multidimensional niche space where ecological interactions occur. To scale a fluctuation niche, it is necessary to relate environmental constrictions or species performance not only to the absolute values of the usual environmental and ecophysiological variables but also to their variances or other measures of variability. We use Mediterranean plant communities as examples, because they present characteristic large seasonal and interannual fluctuations in water and nutrient availabilities, along an episodic-constant gradient, and because the plant responses include a number of syndromes coupled to this gradient.

The Fluctuation Niche in Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terradas, J.; Penuelas, J.; Lloret, F.; Penuelas, J.

2009-01-01

Classical approaches to niche in coexisting plants have undervalued temporal fluctuations. We propose that fluctuation niche is an important dimension of the total niche and interacts with habitat and life-history niches to provide a better understanding of the multidimensional niche space where ecological interactions occur. To scale a fluctuation niche, it is necessary to relate environmental constrictions or species performance not only to the absolute values of the usual environmental and eco physiological variables but also to their variances or other measures of variability. We use Mediterranean plant communities as examples, because they present characteristic large seasonal and inter annual fluctuations in water and nutrient availabilities, along an episodic-constant gradient, and because the plant responses include a number of syndromes coupled to this gradient.

Fluctuations at electrode-YSZ interfaces

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Torben; Hansen, Karin Vels; Skou, Eivind

2005-01-01

Current fluctuations at potentiostatically controlled point electrodes of Pt, La$_{0.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$MnO$_3$ and Ni on YSZ surfaces are determined at 1000$^\\circ$C. For the oxygen reduction process on Pt electrodes characteristic sawtooth shaped low frequency fluctuations are observed. At temperat......Current fluctuations at potentiostatically controlled point electrodes of Pt, La$_{0.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$MnO$_3$ and Ni on YSZ surfaces are determined at 1000$^\\circ$C. For the oxygen reduction process on Pt electrodes characteristic sawtooth shaped low frequency fluctuations are observed....../water atmosphere are presented for discussion. The origin of the observations is not known at present but it appears likely that they are related to the activation/deactivation mechanism of SOFCs....

Big Bang or vacuum fluctuation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zel'dovich, Ya.B.

1980-01-01

Some general properties of vacuum fluctuations in quantum field theory are described. The connection between the ''energy dominance'' of the energy density of vacuum fluctuations in curved space-time and the presence of singularity is discussed. It is pointed out that a de-Sitter space-time (with the energy density of the vacuum fluctuations in the Einstein equations) that matches the expanding Friedman solution may describe the history of the Universe before the Big Bang. (P.L.)

Research on calibration error of carrier phase against antenna arraying

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Ke; Hou, Xiaomin

2016-11-01

It is the technical difficulty of uplink antenna arraying that signals from various quarters can not be automatically aligned at the target in deep space. The size of the far-field power combining gain is directly determined by the accuracy of carrier phase calibration. It is necessary to analyze the entire arraying system in order to improve the accuracy of the phase calibration. This paper analyzes the factors affecting the calibration error of carrier phase of uplink antenna arraying system including the error of phase measurement and equipment, the error of the uplink channel phase shift, the position error of ground antenna, calibration receiver and target spacecraft, the error of the atmospheric turbulence disturbance. Discuss the spatial and temporal autocorrelation model of atmospheric disturbances. Each antenna of the uplink antenna arraying is no common reference signal for continuous calibration. So it must be a system of the periodic calibration. Calibration is refered to communication of one or more spacecrafts in a certain period. Because the deep space targets are not automatically aligned to multiplexing received signal. Therefore the aligned signal should be done in advance on the ground. Data is shown that the error can be controlled within the range of demand by the use of existing technology to meet the accuracy of carrier phase calibration. The total error can be controlled within a reasonable range.

The influence of death-certificate errors on cancer mortality trends

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ron, E.; Hoel, D.G.; Carter, R.L.; Mabuchi, Kiyohiko.

1993-06-01

Over the past few years, several reports have suggested a recent increase in cancer mortality based on death-certificate diagnoses. To explore the effect of death-certificate errors on temporal trends in cancer mortality rates, we analyzed the data from the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission/Radiation Effects Research Foundation's autopsy program in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This series includes 5886 autopsies conducted between 1961 and 1987. Our analyses were focused on lymphoma, cancer of the breast, neoplasms of the brain, multiple myeloma, and melanoma (172 cases, total) because of concern over reports of their increased mortality. These 172 autopsy cases were referred to as Cancers of Interest. A significant increase in detection rates was observed for these Cancers of Interest primarily due to a large rise in mortality between 1976 and 1987. For the remaining cancers excluding stomach and lung (defined as Other), the pattern was similar to that seen for Cancers of Interest, but the fluctuation over time was not statistically significant. Confirmation rates generally increased with time except for Cancers of Interest. As a measure of bias in mortality rates due to death-certification errors and as a method to quantify under- or overestimation of death-certificate-based mortality rates,an adjustment factor (confirmation rate divided by detection rate) was calculated. The higher the adjustment factor, the greater the need to compensate for underreporting. For Cancers of Interest the adjustment factor decreased dramatically over time, but it did not change significantly for Other cancers. When the adjustment factors for Cancers of Interest and Other were compared, a statistically significant difference was found. For Cancers of Interest, a significant interaction between type of cancer and period was seen. Our findings indicate that considerable care must be shown when interpreting temporal trends in cancer vital statistics. (author)

Spin fluctuations and the

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V.M. Loktev

2008-09-01

Full Text Available We analyze the spectral properties of a phenomenological model for a weakly doped two-dimensional antiferromagnet, in which the carriers move within one of the two sublattices where they were introduced. Such a constraint results in the free carrier spectra with the maxima at k=(± π/2 , ± π/2 observed in some cuprates. We consider the spectral properties of the model by taking into account fluctuations of the spins in the antiferromagnetic background. We show that such fluctuations lead to a non-pole-like structure of the single-hole Green's function and these fluctuations can be responsible for some anomalous "strange metal" properties of underdoped cuprates in the nonsuperconducting regime.

An Objective Fluctuation Score for Parkinson's Disease

Science.gov (United States)

Horne, Malcolm K.; McGregor, Sarah; Bergquist, Filip

2015-01-01

Introduction Establishing the presence and severity of fluctuations is important in managing Parkinson’s Disease yet there is no reliable, objective means of doing this. In this study we have evaluated a Fluctuation Score derived from variations in dyskinesia and bradykinesia scores produced by an accelerometry based system. Methods The Fluctuation Score was produced by summing the interquartile range of bradykinesia scores and dyskinesia scores produced every 2 minutes between 0900-1800 for at least 6 days by the accelerometry based system and expressing it as an algorithm. Results This Score could distinguish between fluctuating and non-fluctuating patients with high sensitivity and selectivity and was significant lower following activation of deep brain stimulators. The scores following deep brain stimulation lay in a band just above the score separating fluctuators from non-fluctuators, suggesting a range representing adequate motor control. When compared with control subjects the score of newly diagnosed patients show a loss of fluctuation with onset of PD. The score was calculated in subjects whose duration of disease was known and this showed that newly diagnosed patients soon develop higher scores which either fall under or within the range representing adequate motor control or instead go on to develop more severe fluctuations. Conclusion The Fluctuation Score described here promises to be a useful tool for identifying patients whose fluctuations are progressing and may require therapeutic changes. It also shows promise as a useful research tool. Further studies are required to more accurately identify therapeutic targets and ranges. PMID:25928634

Applying modern error theory to the problem of missed injuries in trauma.

Science.gov (United States)

Clarke, D L; Gouveia, J; Thomson, S R; Muckart, D J J

2008-06-01

Modern theory of human error has helped reduce the incidence of adverse events in commercial aviation. It remains unclear whether these lessons are applicable to adverse events in trauma surgery. Missed injuries in a large metropolitan surgical service were prospectively audited and analyzed using a modern error taxonomy to define its applicability to trauma. A prospective database of all patients who experienced a missed injury during a 6-month period in a busy surgical service was maintained from July 2006. A missed injury was defined as one that escaped detection from primary assessment to operative exploration. Each missed injury was recorded and categorized. The clinical significance of the error and the level of physician responsible was documented. Errors were divided into planning or execution errors, acts of omission or commission, or violations, slips, and lapses. A total of 1,024 trauma patients were treated by the surgical services over the 6-month period from July to December 2006 in Pietermaritzburg. Thirty-four patients (2.5%) with missed injuries were identified during this period. There were 29 men and 5 women with an average age of 29 years (range: 21-67 years). In 14 patients, errors were related to inadequate clinical assessment. In 11 patients errors involved the misinterpretation of, or failure to respond to radiological imaging. There were 9 cases in which an injury was missed during surgical exploration. Overall mortality was 27% (9 patients). In 5 cases death was directly attributable to the missed injury. The level of the physicians making the error was consultant surgeon (4 cases), resident in training (15 cases), career medical officer (2 cases), referring doctor (6 cases). Missed injuries are uncommon and are made by all grades of staff. They are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Understanding the pattern of these errors may help develop error-reduction strategies. Current taxonomies help in understanding the error

Less Truth Than Error: Massachusetts Teacher Tests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Walt Haney

1999-02-01

Full Text Available Scores on the Massachusetts Teacher Tests of reading and writing are highly unreliable. The tests' margin of error is close to double to triple the range found on well-developed tests. A person retaking the MTT several times could have huge fluctuations in their scores even if their skill level did not change significantly. In fact, the 9 to 17 point margin of error calculated for the tests represents more than 10 percent of the grading scale (assumed to be 0 to 100. The large margin of error means there is both a high false-pass rate and a high false-failure rate. For example, a person who received a score of 72 on the writing test could have scored an 89 or a 55 simply because of the unreliability of the test. Since adults' reading and writing skills do not change a great deal over several months, this range of scores on the same test should not be possible. While this test is being touted as an accurate assessment of a person's fitness to be a teacher, one would expect the scores to accurately reflect a test-taker's verbal ability level. In addition to the large margin of error, the MTT contain questionable content that make them poor tools for measuring test-takers' reading and writing skills. The content and lack of correlation between the reading and writing scores reduces the meaningfulness, or validity, of the tests. The validity is affected not just by the content, but by a host of factors, such as the conditions under which tests were administered and how they were scored. Interviews with a small sample of test-takers confirmed published reports concerning problems with the content and administration.

Medication errors in pediatric inpatients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rishoej, Rikke Mie; Almarsdóttir, Anna Birna; Christesen, Henrik Thybo

2017-01-01

The aim was to describe medication errors (MEs) in hospitalized children reported to the national mandatory reporting and learning system, the Danish Patient Safety Database (DPSD). MEs were extracted from DPSD from the 5-year period of 2010–2014. We included reports from public hospitals on pati...... safety in pediatric inpatients.(Table presented.)...

Relationship between Brazilian airline pilot errors and time of day

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.T. de Mello

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Flight safety is one of the most important and frequently discussed issues in aviation. Recent accident inquiries have raised questions as to how the work of flight crews is organized and the extent to which these conditions may have been contributing factors to accidents. Fatigue is based on physiologic limitations, which are reflected in performance deficits. The purpose of the present study was to provide an analysis of the periods of the day in which pilots working for a commercial airline presented major errors. Errors made by 515 captains and 472 copilots were analyzed using data from flight operation quality assurance systems. To analyze the times of day (shifts during which incidents occurred, we divided the light-dark cycle (24:00 in four periods: morning, afternoon, night, and early morning. The differences of risk during the day were reported as the ratio of morning to afternoon, morning to night and morning to early morning error rates. For the purposes of this research, level 3 events alone were taken into account, since these were the most serious in which company operational limits were exceeded or when established procedures were not followed. According to airline flight schedules, 35% of flights take place in the morning period, 32% in the afternoon, 26% at night, and 7% in the early morning. Data showed that the risk of errors increased by almost 50% in the early morning relative to the morning period (ratio of 1:1.46. For the period of the afternoon, the ratio was 1:1.04 and for the night a ratio of 1:1.05 was found. These results showed that the period of the early morning represented a greater risk of attention problems and fatigue.

Relationship between Brazilian airline pilot errors and time of day.

Science.gov (United States)

de Mello, M T; Esteves, A M; Pires, M L N; Santos, D C; Bittencourt, L R A; Silva, R S; Tufik, S

2008-12-01

Flight safety is one of the most important and frequently discussed issues in aviation. Recent accident inquiries have raised questions as to how the work of flight crews is organized and the extent to which these conditions may have been contributing factors to accidents. Fatigue is based on physiologic limitations, which are reflected in performance deficits. The purpose of the present study was to provide an analysis of the periods of the day in which pilots working for a commercial airline presented major errors. Errors made by 515 captains and 472 co-pilots were analyzed using data from flight operation quality assurance systems. To analyze the times of day (shifts) during which incidents occurred, we divided the light-dark cycle (24:00) in four periods: morning, afternoon, night, and early morning. The differences of risk during the day were reported as the ratio of morning to afternoon, morning to night and morning to early morning error rates. For the purposes of this research, level 3 events alone were taken into account, since these were the most serious in which company operational limits were exceeded or when established procedures were not followed. According to airline flight schedules, 35% of flights take place in the morning period, 32% in the afternoon, 26% at night, and 7% in the early morning. Data showed that the risk of errors increased by almost 50% in the early morning relative to the morning period (ratio of 1:1.46). For the period of the afternoon, the ratio was 1:1.04 and for the night a ratio of 1:1.05 was found. These results showed that the period of the early morning represented a greater risk of attention problems and fatigue.

Growth and survival of Apache Trout under static and fluctuating temperature regimes

Science.gov (United States)

Recsetar, Matthew S.; Bonar, Scott A.; Feuerbacher, Olin

2014-01-01

Increasing stream temperatures have important implications for arid-region fishes. Little is known about effects of high water temperatures that fluctuate over extended periods on Apache Trout Oncorhynchus gilae apache, a federally threatened species of southwestern USA streams. We compared survival and growth of juvenile Apache Trout held for 30 d in static temperatures (16, 19, 22, 25, and 28°C) and fluctuating diel temperatures (±3°C from 16, 19, 22 and 25°C midpoints and ±6°C from 19°C and 22°C midpoints). Lethal temperature for 50% (LT50) of the Apache Trout under static temperatures (mean [SD] = 22.8 [0.6]°C) was similar to that of ±3°C diel temperature fluctuations (23.1 [0.1]°C). Mean LT50 for the midpoint of the ±6°C fluctuations could not be calculated because survival in the two treatments (19 ± 6°C and 22 ± 6°C) was not below 50%; however, it probably was also between 22°C and 25°C because the upper limb of a ±6°C fluctuation on a 25°C midpoint is above critical thermal maximum for Apache Trout (28.5–30.4°C). Growth decreased as temperatures approached the LT50. Apache Trout can survive short-term exposure to water temperatures with daily maxima that remain below 25°C and midpoint diel temperatures below 22°C. However, median summer stream temperatures must remain below 19°C for best growth and even lower if daily fluctuations are high (≥12°C).

Rapid fluctuations in ionospheric Faraday rotation angle and 4GHz amplitude scintillation observed at Suva, Fiji

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buonsanto, M.J.; Northcott, R.L.; Wright, R.W.H.

1987-01-01

Observations are reported of rapid fluctuations in Faraday rotation angle (FRA) recorded at 137MHz and amplitude scintillation at 4 GHz. The observations were made at Suva, Fiji Islands (average ionospheric coordinates 17 0 S, 178 0 E) and cover the period September, 1978 through March, 1983. Monthly occurrence of both the FRA fluctuations and the amplitude scintillation are positively correlated with sunspot number and negatively correlated with Ap and hmF2 at Tahiti. No events were seen in the summer months (November, December, and January) and it is suggested that the south to north neutral wind may be responsible for this. Maximum occurrence of both the 137 MHz FRA fluctuations and the 4 GHz scintillation is in April-May and August-September. The more rapid FRA fluctuations, termed here V-type, occur more often in months when the ambient electron density is larger. Most events occur in the pre-midnight sector, as observed elsewhere. Fewer 4 GHz events are observed at later times in the evening, as compared to the 137 MHz FRA fluctuations

Fluctuations and Instability in Sedimentation

KAUST Repository

Guazzelli, É lisabeth; Hinch, John

2011-01-01

This review concentrates on the fluctuations of the velocities of sedimenting spheres, and on the structural instability of a suspension of settling fibers. For many years, theoretical estimates and numerical simulations predicted the fluctuations

Localized description of valence fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alascio, B.; Allub, R.; Aligia, A.

1979-07-01

The authors set up a model for intermediate valence equivalent to the ''atomic'' limit of the Anderson Hamiltonian. Detailed analysis of this model shows that most of the essential characteristics of valence fluctuators are already present in this crudely simplified Hamiltonian. The spin-spin and the 4f charge-charge correlation functions are studied and it is shown that it is possible to define a spin fluctuation frequency ωsub(s.f.) and a charge fluctuation frequency ωsub(ch.f.).ωsub(s.f.) and ωsub(ch.f.) can differ considerably for some values of the parameters of the model. The magnetic susceptibility and the specific heat are calculated as functions of temperature and it is shown how the results simulate the behaviour found in valence fluctuators. (author)

Quantum fluctuations in insulating ferroelectrics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riseborough, Peter S.

2010-01-01

Graphical abstract: It has been proposed that in a ferroelectric insulator, an applied magnetic field may couple the transverse phonon modes and produce left and right circularly polarized phonon modes which are no longer degenerate. We quantize the theory and examine the effects of quantal fluctuations. In particular, we show that the zero point fluctuations result in a large diamagnetic contribution to the magnetic susceptibility. - Abstract: It has been proposed that in a ferroelectric insulator, an applied magnetic field may couple the transverse phonon modes and produce left and right circularly polarized phonon modes which are no longer degenerate. We quantize the theory and examine the effects of quantal fluctuations. In particular, we show that the zero-point fluctuations result in a large diamagnetic contribution to the magnetic susceptibility.

Recent fertility trends in industrialized countries: toward a fluctuating or a stable pattern?

Science.gov (United States)

Day, L H

1995-09-01

The conclusion of this analysis of fertility trends in industrialized countries is that future trends will be evident from accurate data and the inclusion of causal factors such as religion, ethnicity, migration status, marital status, employment status, neighborhood residence, or housing type. Period fertility measures are considered to be unreliable but useful as indicators of potential future changes in fertility. The expectation is that developed countries with low birth rates will have greater fluctuations than trends. Current patterns of fertility in developed countries are thought to have occurred due to substantial control over both the number and the timing of fertility. Patterns in the recent past have reflected further decline, an end to decline and a continued increase, or fluctuation. The most widespread pattern is continued increase following a period of low fertility. This pattern is in evidence in almost every country of northern and western Europe, Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. Countries with continued declines include Japan and eastern and southern European countries, which were the last to experience declines to replacement levels. Countries with fluctuating patterns include Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. Countries with greater fluctuations include Belgium, Iceland, the former West Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland. The argument is made to not count these patterns as fluctuations due to 1) the similarity in magnitude, timing, and direction; 2) the small changes after the low was reached; and 3) their appearance everywhere at the same time. Stability of rates in the future appears to be a reasonable prospect due to the greater openness about human sexuality and the wider roles for women. Changes have occurred in attitudes about family size in the direction of smaller families, and the range in family size has narrowed considerably. Potential increases may occur due to a new emphasis on family and parenthood, the diminished

The fluctuating gap model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cao, Xiaobin

2011-01-15

The quasi-one-dimensional systems exhibit some unusual phenomenon, such as the Peierls instability, the pseudogap phenomena and the absence of a Fermi-Dirac distribution function line shape in the photoemission spectroscopy. Ever since the discovery of materials with highly anisotropic properties, it has been recognized that fluctuations play an important role above the three-dimensional phase transition. This regime where the precursor fluctuations are presented can be described by the so called fluctuating gap model (FGM) which was derived from the Froehlich Hamiltonian to study the low energy physics of the one-dimensional electron-phonon system. Not only is the FGM of great interest in the context of quasi-one-dimensional materials, liquid metal and spin waves above T{sub c} in ferromagnets, but also in the semiclassical approximation of superconductivity, it is possible to replace the original three-dimensional problem by a directional average over effectively one-dimensional problem which in the weak coupling limit is described by the FGM. In this work, we investigate the FGM in a wide temperature range with different statistics of the order parameter fluctuations. We derive a formally exact solution to this problem and calculate the density of states, the spectral function and the optical conductivity. In our calculation, we show that a Dyson singularity appears in the low energy density of states for Gaussian fluctuations in the commensurate case. In the incommensurate case, there is no such kind of singularity, and the zero frequency density of states varies differently as a function of the correlation lengths for different statistics of the order parameter fluctuations. Using the density of states we calculated with non-Gaussian order parameter fluctuations, we are able to calculate the static spin susceptibility which agrees with the experimental data very well. In the calculation of the spectral functions, we show that as the correlation increases, the

The fluctuating gap model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cao, Xiaobin

2011-01-01

The quasi-one-dimensional systems exhibit some unusual phenomenon, such as the Peierls instability, the pseudogap phenomena and the absence of a Fermi-Dirac distribution function line shape in the photoemission spectroscopy. Ever since the discovery of materials with highly anisotropic properties, it has been recognized that fluctuations play an important role above the three-dimensional phase transition. This regime where the precursor fluctuations are presented can be described by the so called fluctuating gap model (FGM) which was derived from the Froehlich Hamiltonian to study the low energy physics of the one-dimensional electron-phonon system. Not only is the FGM of great interest in the context of quasi-one-dimensional materials, liquid metal and spin waves above T c in ferromagnets, but also in the semiclassical approximation of superconductivity, it is possible to replace the original three-dimensional problem by a directional average over effectively one-dimensional problem which in the weak coupling limit is described by the FGM. In this work, we investigate the FGM in a wide temperature range with different statistics of the order parameter fluctuations. We derive a formally exact solution to this problem and calculate the density of states, the spectral function and the optical conductivity. In our calculation, we show that a Dyson singularity appears in the low energy density of states for Gaussian fluctuations in the commensurate case. In the incommensurate case, there is no such kind of singularity, and the zero frequency density of states varies differently as a function of the correlation lengths for different statistics of the order parameter fluctuations. Using the density of states we calculated with non-Gaussian order parameter fluctuations, we are able to calculate the static spin susceptibility which agrees with the experimental data very well. In the calculation of the spectral functions, we show that as the correlation increases, the quasi

A method of reducing background fluctuation in tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Rendi; Dong, Xiaozhou; Bi, Yunfeng; Lv, Tieliang

2018-03-01

Optical interference fringe is the main factor that leads to background fluctuation in gas concentration detection based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy. The interference fringes are generated by multiple reflections or scatterings upon optical surfaces in optical path and make the background signal present an approximated sinusoidal oscillation. To reduce the fluctuation of the background, a method that combines dual tone modulation (DTM) with vibration reflector (VR) is proposed in this paper. The combination of DTM and VR can make the unwanted periodic interference fringes to be averaged out and the effectiveness of the method in reducing background fluctuation has been verified by simulation and real experiments in this paper. In the detection system based on the proposed method, the standard deviation (STD) value of the background signal is decreased to 0.0924 parts per million (ppm), which is reduced by a factor of 16 compared with that of wavelength modulation spectroscopy. The STD value of 0.0924 ppm corresponds to the absorption of 4 . 328 × 10-6Hz - 1 / 2 (with effective optical path length of 4 m and integral time of 0.1 s). Moreover, the proposed method presents a better stable performance in reducing background fluctuation in long time experiments.

Spectral Analysis of Forecast Error Investigated with an Observing System Simulation Experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Prive, N. C.; Errico, Ronald M.

2015-01-01

The spectra of analysis and forecast error are examined using the observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) framework developed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (NASAGMAO). A global numerical weather prediction model, the Global Earth Observing System version 5 (GEOS-5) with Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) data assimilation, is cycled for two months with once-daily forecasts to 336 hours to generate a control case. Verification of forecast errors using the Nature Run as truth is compared with verification of forecast errors using self-analysis; significant underestimation of forecast errors is seen using self-analysis verification for up to 48 hours. Likewise, self analysis verification significantly overestimates the error growth rates of the early forecast, as well as mischaracterizing the spatial scales at which the strongest growth occurs. The Nature Run-verified error variances exhibit a complicated progression of growth, particularly for low wave number errors. In a second experiment, cycling of the model and data assimilation over the same period is repeated, but using synthetic observations with different explicitly added observation errors having the same error variances as the control experiment, thus creating a different realization of the control. The forecast errors of the two experiments become more correlated during the early forecast period, with correlations increasing for up to 72 hours before beginning to decrease.

Modeling the response of a standard accretion disc to stochastic viscous fluctuations

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Naveel; Misra, Ranjeev; Iqbal, Naseer; Maqbool, Bari; Hamid, Mubashir

2018-01-01

The observed variability of X-ray binaries over a wide range of time-scales can be understood in the framework of a stochastic propagation model, where viscous fluctuations at different radii induce accretion rate variability that propagate inwards to the X-ray producing region. The scenario successfully explains the power spectra, the linear rms-flux relation as well as the time-lag between different energy photons. The predictions of this model have been obtained using approximate analytical solutions or empirically motivated models which take into account the effect of these propagating variability on the radiative process of complex accretion flows. Here, we study the variation of the accretion rate due to such viscous fluctuations using a hydro-dynamical code for the standard geometrically thin, gas pressure dominated α-disc with a zero torque boundary condition. Our results confirm earlier findings that the time-lag between a perturbation and the resultant inner accretion rate variation depends on the frequency (or time-period) of the perturbation. Here we have quantified that the time-lag tlag ∝f-0.54 , for time-periods less than the viscous time-scale of the perturbation radius and is nearly constant otherwise. This, coupled with radiative process would produce the observed frequency dependent time-lag between different energy bands. We also confirm that if there are random Gaussian fluctuations of the α-parameter at different radii, the resultant inner accretion rate has a power spectrum which is a power-law.

Non-periodic molecular dynamics simulations of coarse grained lipid bilayer in water

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kotsalis, E. M.; Hanasaki, I.; Walther, Jens Honore

2010-01-01

We present a multiscale algorithm that couples coarse grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) with continuum solver. The coupling requires the imposition of non-periodic boundary conditions on the coarse grained Molecular Dynamics which, when not properly enforced, may result in spurious fluctuations o...... in simulating more complex systems by performing a non-periodic Molecular Dynamics simulation of a DPPC lipid in liquid coarse grained water.......We present a multiscale algorithm that couples coarse grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) with continuum solver. The coupling requires the imposition of non-periodic boundary conditions on the coarse grained Molecular Dynamics which, when not properly enforced, may result in spurious fluctuations...... of the material properties of the system represented by CGMD. In this paper we extend a control algorithm originally developed for atomistic simulations [3], to conduct simulations involving coarse grained water molecules without periodic boundary conditions. We demonstrate the applicability of our method...

Analysis of fluctuations in semiconductor devices

Science.gov (United States)

Andrei, Petru

The random nature of ion implantation and diffusion processes as well as inevitable tolerances in fabrication result in random fluctuations of doping concentrations and oxide thickness in semiconductor devices. These fluctuations are especially pronounced in ultrasmall (nanoscale) semiconductor devices when the spatial scale of doping and oxide thickness variations become comparable with the geometric dimensions of devices. In the dissertation, the effects of these fluctuations on device characteristics are analyzed by using a new technique for the analysis of random doping and oxide thickness induced fluctuations. This technique is universal in nature in the sense that it is applicable to any transport model (drift-diffusion, semiclassical transport, quantum transport etc.) and it can be naturally extended to take into account random fluctuations of the oxide (trapped) charges and channel length. The technique is based on linearization of the transport equations with respect to the fluctuating quantities. It is computationally much (a few orders of magnitude) more efficient than the traditional Monte-Carlo approach and it yields information on the sensitivity of fluctuations of parameters of interest (e.g. threshold voltage, small-signal parameters, cut-off frequencies, etc.) to the locations of doping and oxide thickness fluctuations. For this reason, it can be very instrumental in the design of fluctuation-resistant structures of semiconductor devices. Quantum mechanical effects are taken into account by using the density-gradient model as well as through self-consistent Poisson-Schrodinger computations. Special attention is paid to the presenting of the technique in a form that is suitable for implementation on commercial device simulators. The numerical implementation of the technique is discussed in detail and numerous computational results are presented and compared with those previously published in literature.

Analysis of dynamic multiplicity fluctuations at PHOBOS

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Zhengwei; PHOBOS Collaboration; Back, B. B.; Baker, M. D.; Ballintijn, M.; Barton, D. S.; Betts, R. R.; Bickley, A. A.; Bindel, R.; Budzanowski, A.; Busza, W.; Carroll, A.; Chai, Z.; Decowski, M. P.; García, E.; George, N.; Gulbrandsen, K.; Gushue, S.; Halliwell, C.; Hamblen, J.; Heintzelman, G. A.; Henderson, C.; Hofman, D. J.; Hollis, R. S.; Holynski, R.; Holzman, B.; Iordanova, A.; Johnson, E.; Kane, J. L.; Katzy, J.; Khan, N.; Kucewicz, W.; Kulinich, P.; Kuo, C. M.; Lin, W. T.; Manly, S.; McLeod, D.; Mignerey, A. C.; Nouicer, R.; Olszewski, A.; Pak, R.; Park, I. C.; Pernegger, H.; Reed, C.; Remsberg, L. P.; Reuter, M.; Roland, C.; Roland, G.; Rosenberg, L.; Sagerer, J.; Sarin, P.; Sawicki, P.; Skulski, W.; Steinberg, P.; Stephans, G. S. F.; Sukhanov, A.; Tang, J. L.; Trzupek, A.; Vale, C.; van Nieuwenhuizen, G. J.; Verdier, R.; Wolfs, F. L. H.; Wosiek, B.; Wozniak, K.; Wuosmaa, A. H.; Wyslouch, B.

2005-01-01

This paper presents the analysis of the dynamic fluctuations in the inclusive charged particle multiplicity measured by PHOBOS for Au+Au collisions at surdsNN = 200GeV within the pseudo-rapidity range of -3 < η < 3. First the definition of the fluctuations observables used in this analysis is presented, together with the discussion of their physics meaning. Then the procedure for the extraction of dynamic fluctuations is described. Some preliminary results are included to illustrate the correlation features of the fluctuation observable. New dynamic fluctuations results will be available in a later publication.

Using travel times to simulate multi-dimensional bioreactive transport in time-periodic flows.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanz-Prat, Alicia; Lu, Chuanhe; Finkel, Michael; Cirpka, Olaf A

2016-04-01

In travel-time models, the spatially explicit description of reactive transport is replaced by associating reactive-species concentrations with the travel time or groundwater age at all locations. These models have been shown adequate for reactive transport in river-bank filtration under steady-state flow conditions. Dynamic hydrological conditions, however, can lead to fluctuations of infiltration velocities, putting the validity of travel-time models into question. In transient flow, the local travel-time distributions change with time. We show that a modified version of travel-time based reactive transport models is valid if only the magnitude of the velocity fluctuates, whereas its spatial orientation remains constant. We simulate nonlinear, one-dimensional, bioreactive transport involving oxygen, nitrate, dissolved organic carbon, aerobic and denitrifying bacteria, considering periodic fluctuations of velocity. These fluctuations make the bioreactive system pulsate: The aerobic zone decreases at times of low velocity and increases at those of high velocity. For the case of diurnal fluctuations, the biomass concentrations cannot follow the hydrological fluctuations and a transition zone containing both aerobic and obligatory denitrifying bacteria is established, whereas a clear separation of the two types of bacteria prevails in the case of seasonal velocity fluctuations. We map the 1-D results to a heterogeneous, two-dimensional domain by means of the mean groundwater age for steady-state flow in both domains. The mapped results are compared to simulation results of spatially explicit, two-dimensional, advective-dispersive-bioreactive transport subject to the same relative fluctuations of velocity as in the one-dimensional model. The agreement between the mapped 1-D and the explicit 2-D results is excellent. We conclude that travel-time models of nonlinear bioreactive transport are adequate in systems of time-periodic flow if the flow direction does not change

Syntactic and semantic errors in radiology reports associated with speech recognition software.

Science.gov (United States)

Ringler, Michael D; Goss, Brian C; Bartholmai, Brian J

2017-03-01

Speech recognition software can increase the frequency of errors in radiology reports, which may affect patient care. We retrieved 213,977 speech recognition software-generated reports from 147 different radiologists and proofread them for errors. Errors were classified as "material" if they were believed to alter interpretation of the report. "Immaterial" errors were subclassified as intrusion/omission or spelling errors. The proportion of errors and error type were compared among individual radiologists, imaging subspecialty, and time periods. In all, 20,759 reports (9.7%) contained errors, of which 3992 (1.9%) were material errors. Among immaterial errors, spelling errors were more common than intrusion/omission errors ( p reports, reports reinterpreting results of outside examinations, and procedural studies (all p < .001). Error rate decreased over time ( p < .001), which suggests that a quality control program with regular feedback may reduce errors.

Water table fluctuations and soil biogeochemistry: An experimental approach using an automated soil column system

Science.gov (United States)

Rezanezhad, F.; Couture, R.-M.; Kovac, R.; O'Connell, D.; Van Cappellen, P.

2014-02-01

Water table fluctuations significantly affect the biological and geochemical functioning of soils. Here, we introduce an automated soil column system in which the water table regime is imposed using a computer-controlled, multi-channel pump connected to a hydrostatic equilibrium reservoir and a water storage reservoir. The potential of this new system is illustrated by comparing results from two columns filled with 45 cm of the same homogenized riparian soil. In one soil column the water table remained constant at -20 cm below the soil surface, while in the other the water table oscillated between the soil surface and the bottom of the column, at a rate of 4.8 cm d-1. The experiment ran for 75 days at room temperature (25 ± 2 °C). Micro-sensors installed at -10 and -30 cm below the soil surface in the stable water table column recorded constant redox potentials on the order of 600 and -200 mV, respectively. In the fluctuating water table column, redox potentials at the same depths oscillated between oxidizing (∼700 mV) and reducing (∼-100 mV) conditions. Pore waters collected periodically and solid-phase analyses on core material obtained at the end of the experiment highlighted striking geochemical differences between the two columns, especially in the time series and depth distributions of Fe, Mn, K, P and S. Soil CO2 emissions derived from headspace gas analysis exhibited periodic variations in the fluctuating water table column, with peak values during water table drawdown. Transient redox conditions caused by the water table fluctuations enhanced microbial oxidation of soil organic matter, resulting in a pronounced depletion of particulate organic carbon in the midsection of the fluctuating water table column. Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) revealed the onset of differentiation of the bacterial communities in the upper (oxidizing) and lower (reducing) soil sections, although no systematic differences in microbial community structure

Observation of MHD fluctuation by ECE on W7-X first experimental campaign

Science.gov (United States)

Tsuchiya, Hayato; Hirsch, Matthias; Weir, Gavin; Hofel, Udo; Beurskens, Marc; Masuzaki, Suguru; W7-X Team

2016-10-01

Wendelstein 7-X is an optimized stellarator for ECRH high density steady-state discharges at reactor relevant collisionality regimes. The first experiment (OP1.1) was successfully conducted from Dec.2015. ECE (Electron Cyclotron Emission diagnostic) is one of the main diagnostic during the first experimental campaign. The 2nd harmonic x-mode emission is obtained by outside-antenna and detected by 32-channel heterodyne radiometer. The frequency band is from 126GHz to 162GHz. Radiometers are calibrated by LN2 temperature and room temperature. The absolute calibration error was estimated to be 10%. The electron temperature radial profile obtained by ECE agrees the Thomson scattering and imaging X-ray spectroscopy result. The asymmetric profile is still indicated due to mix of O2-mode. Fluctuations derived from MHD instability are often observed by electron temperature and magnetic fluctuations. The radial mode structure is clearly identified by ECE. It indicates the existence of magnetic island and from its appearance on both sides of the X2 emission spectrum the knowledge on the localization of the ECE channels can be improved by symmetrization.

Universal mesoscopic conductance fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evangelou, S.N.

1992-01-01

The theory of conductance fluctuations in disordered metallic systems with size large compared to the mean free path of the electron but small compared to localization length is considered. It is demonstrates that fluctuations have an universal character and are due to repulsion between levels and spectral rigidity. The basic fluctuation measures for the energy spectrum in the mesoscopic regime of disordered systems are consistent with the Gaussian random matrix ensemble predictions. Although our disordered electron random matrix ensemble does not belong to the Gaussian ensemble the two ensembles turn out to be essentially similar. The level repulsion and the spectral rigidity found in nuclear spectra should also be observed in the metallic regime of Anderson localization. 7 refs. (orig.)

Electric Field Fluctuations in Water

Science.gov (United States)

Thorpe, Dayton; Limmer, David; Chandler, David

2013-03-01

Charge transfer in solution, such as autoionization and ion pair dissociation in water, is governed by rare electric field fluctuations of the solvent. Knowing the statistics of such fluctuations can help explain the dynamics of these rare events. Trajectories short enough to be tractable by computer simulation are virtually certain not to sample the large fluctuations that promote rare events. Here, we employ importance sampling techniques with classical molecular dynamics simulations of liquid water to study statistics of electric field fluctuations far from their means. We find that the distributions of electric fields located on individual water molecules are not in general gaussian. Near the mean this non-gaussianity is due to the internal charge distribution of the water molecule. Further from the mean, however, there is a previously unreported Bjerrum-like defect that stabilizes certain large fluctuations out of equilibrium. As expected, differences in electric fields acting between molecules are gaussian to a remarkable degree. By studying these differences, though, we are able to determine what configurations result not only in large electric fields, but also in electric fields with long spatial correlations that may be needed to promote charge separation.

Insects in fluctuating thermal environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Colinet, Hervé; Sinclair, Brent J; Vernon, Philippe; Renault, David

2015-01-07

All climate change scenarios predict an increase in both global temperature means and the magnitude of seasonal and diel temperature variation. The nonlinear relationship between temperature and biological processes means that fluctuating temperatures lead to physiological, life history, and ecological consequences for ectothermic insects that diverge from those predicted from constant temperatures. Fluctuating temperatures that remain within permissive temperature ranges generally improve performance. By contrast, those which extend to stressful temperatures may have either positive impacts, allowing repair of damage accrued during exposure to thermal extremes, or negative impacts from cumulative damage during successive exposures. We discuss the mechanisms underlying these differing effects. Fluctuating temperatures could be used to enhance or weaken insects in applied rearing programs, and any prediction of insect performance in the field-including models of climate change or population performance-must account for the effect of fluctuating temperatures.

Nonequilibrium quantum fluctuations of work.

Science.gov (United States)

Allahverdyan, A E

2014-09-01

The concept of work is basic for statistical thermodynamics. To gain a fuller understanding of work and its (quantum) features, it needs to be represented as an average of a fluctuating quantity. Here I focus on the work done between two moments of time for a thermally isolated quantum system driven by a time-dependent Hamiltonian. I formulate two natural conditions needed for the fluctuating work to be physically meaningful for a system that starts its evolution from a nonequilibrium state. The existing definitions do not satisfy these conditions due to issues that are traced back to noncommutativity. I propose a definition of fluctuating work that is free of previous drawbacks and that applies for a wide class of nonequilibrium initial states. It allows the deduction of a generalized work-fluctuation theorem that applies for an arbitrary (out-of-equilibrium) initial state.

Coupled Quantum Fluctuations and Quantum Annealing

Science.gov (United States)

Hormozi, Layla; Kerman, Jamie

We study the relative effectiveness of coupled quantum fluctuations, compared to single spin fluctuations, in the performance of quantum annealing. We focus on problem Hamiltonians resembling the the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model of Ising spin glass and compare the effectiveness of different types of fluctuations by numerically calculating the relative success probabilities and residual energies in fully-connected spin systems. We find that for a small class of instances coupled fluctuations can provide improvement over single spin fluctuations and analyze the properties of the corresponding class. Disclaimer: This research was funded by ODNI, IARPA via MIT Lincoln Laboratory under Air Force Contract No. FA8721-05-C-0002. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of ODNI, IARPA, or the US Government.

Stability and fluctuations in black hole thermodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruppeiner, George

2007-01-01

I examine thermodynamic fluctuations for a Kerr-Newman black hole in an extensive, infinite environment. This problem is not strictly solvable because full equilibrium with such an environment cannot be achieved by any black hole with mass M, angular momentum J, and charge Q. However, if we consider one (or two) of M, J, or Q to vary so slowly compared with the others that we can regard it as fixed, instances of stability occur, and thermodynamic fluctuation theory could plausibly apply. I examine seven cases with one, two, or three independent fluctuating variables. No knowledge about the thermodynamic behavior of the environment is needed. The thermodynamics of the black hole is sufficient. Let the fluctuation moment for a thermodynamic quantity X be √( 2 >). Fluctuations at fixed M are stable for all thermodynamic states, including that of a nonrotating and uncharged environment, corresponding to average values J=Q=0. Here, the fluctuation moments for J and Q take on maximum values. That for J is proportional to M. For the Planck mass it is 0.3990(ℎ/2π). That for Q is 3.301e, independent of M. In all cases, fluctuation moments for M, J, and Q go to zero at the limit of the physical regime, where the temperature goes to zero. With M fluctuating there are no stable cases for average J=Q=0. But, there are transitions to stability marked by infinite fluctuations. For purely M fluctuations, this coincides with a curve which Davies identified as a phase transition

Charge-imbalance fluctuations in superconductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lemberger, T.R.

1981-01-01

We calculate that the mean-square amplitude of the fluctuations of the condensate chemical potential μ/sub s/ due to charge-imbalance fluctuations in the limit Δ/k/sub B/T 2 > = 2(k/sub B/T) 2 /πdeltaΩN(0) in a volume Ω of superconductor. We relate these fluctuations via Nyquist's theorem to measured values of the contribution of self-injected charge imbalance to the dc resistance of SIN tunnel junctions. In this relation the dynamic charge-imbalance relaxation rate is 1/tau/sub E/, the electron-phonon scattering rate

The Influence of Guided Error-Based Learning on Motor Skills Self-Efficacy and Achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Chien, Kuei-Pin; Chen, Sufen

2018-01-01

The authors investigated the role of errors in motor skills teaching, specifically the influence of errors on skills self-efficacy and achievement. The participants were 75 undergraduate students enrolled in pétanque courses. The experimental group (guided error-based learning, n = 37) received a 6-week period of instruction based on the students' errors, whereas the control group (correct motion instruction, n = 38) received a 6-week period of instruction emphasizing correct motor skills. The experimental group had significantly higher scores in motor skills self-efficacy and outcomes than did the control group. Novices' errors reflect their schema in motor skills learning, which provides a basis for instructors to implement student-centered instruction and to facilitate the learning process. Guided error-based learning can effectively enhance beginners' skills self-efficacy and achievement in precision sports such as pétanque.

A fluctuation relation for the probability of energy backscatter

Science.gov (United States)

Vela-Martin, Alberto; Jimenez, Javier

2017-11-01

We simulate the large scales of an inviscid turbulent flow in a triply periodic box using a dynamic Smagorinsky model for the sub-grid stresses. The flow, which is forced to constant kinetic energy, is fully reversible and can develop a sustained inverse energy cascade. However, due to the large number of degrees freedom, the probability of spontaneous mean inverse energy flux is negligible. In order to quantify the probability of inverse energy cascades, we test a local fluctuation relation of the form log P(A) = - c(V , t) A , where P(A) = p(| Cs|V,t = A) / p(| Cs|V , t = - A) , p is probability, and | Cs|V,t is the average of the least-squared dynamic model coefficient over volume V and time t. This is confirmed when Cs is averaged over sufficiently large domains and long times, and c is found to depend linearly on V and t. In the limit in which V 1 / 3 is of the order of the integral scale and t is of the order of the eddy-turnover time, we recover a global fluctuation relation that predicts a negligible probability of a sustained inverse energy cascade. For smaller V and t, the local fluctuation relation provides useful predictions on the occurrence of local energy backscatter. Funded by the ERC COTURB project.

Error begat error: design error analysis and prevention in social infrastructure projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Love, Peter E D; Lopez, Robert; Edwards, David J; Goh, Yang M

2012-09-01

Design errors contribute significantly to cost and schedule growth in social infrastructure projects and to engineering failures, which can result in accidents and loss of life. Despite considerable research that has addressed their error causation in construction projects they still remain prevalent. This paper identifies the underlying conditions that contribute to design errors in social infrastructure projects (e.g. hospitals, education, law and order type buildings). A systemic model of error causation is propagated and subsequently used to develop a learning framework for design error prevention. The research suggests that a multitude of strategies should be adopted in congruence to prevent design errors from occurring and so ensure that safety and project performance are ameliorated. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Modern Palliative Radiation Treatment: Do Complexity and Workload Contribute to Medical Errors?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

D' Souza, Neil, E-mail: neil.dsouza@sunnybrook.ca [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (Canada); Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario (Canada); Holden, Lori [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (Canada); Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario (Canada); Robson, Sheila [Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario (Canada); Mah, Kathy; Di Prospero, Lisa; Wong, C. Shun; Chow, Edward; Spayne, Jacqueline [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario (Canada); Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario (Canada)

2012-09-01

Purpose: To examine whether treatment workload and complexity associated with palliative radiation therapy contribute to medical errors. Methods and Materials: In the setting of a large academic health sciences center, patient scheduling and record and verification systems were used to identify patients starting radiation therapy. All records of radiation treatment courses delivered during a 3-month period were retrieved and divided into radical and palliative intent. 'Same day consultation, planning and treatment' was used as a proxy for workload and 'previous treatment' and 'multiple sites' as surrogates for complexity. In addition, all planning and treatment discrepancies (errors and 'near-misses') recorded during the same time frame were reviewed and analyzed. Results: There were 365 new patients treated with 485 courses of palliative radiation therapy. Of those patients, 128 (35%) were same-day consultation, simulation, and treatment patients; 166 (45%) patients had previous treatment; and 94 (26%) patients had treatment to multiple sites. Four near-misses and 4 errors occurred during the audit period, giving an error per course rate of 0.82%. In comparison, there were 10 near-misses and 5 errors associated with 1100 courses of radical treatment during the audit period. This translated into an error rate of 0.45% per course. An association was found between workload and complexity and increased palliative therapy error rates. Conclusions: Increased complexity and workload may have an impact on palliative radiation treatment discrepancies. This information may help guide the necessary recommendations for process improvement for patients who require palliative radiation therapy.

Periodic and recurrent variations of cosmic rays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Somogyi, A.J.

1981-12-01

The new results achieved in the field of periodic and recurrent variations of the intensity of 10 9 to 10 13 eV cosmic rays are reviewed. Particular emphasis is given to developments in understanding the fluctuations of corotation-type anisotropies as well as to the structure of the heliosphere and its temporal changes. (author)

Polarization of a periodic solar microwave burst

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kaufmann, P [Universidade Mackenzie, Sao Paulo (Brazil). Centro de Radio-Astronomia e Astrofisica

1976-09-01

No fluctuations in polarization have been found during a 7 GHz solar burst showing 17s periodic pulses in intensity. Polarization effects can be produced by the propagation media in the active centre, which are not affected directly by the burst source, but situated more deeply than the observed heights at that microwave frequency.

Charge Fluctuations in Nanoscale Capacitors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Limmer, D.T.; Merlet, C.; Salanne, M.; Chandler, D.; Madden, P.A.; van Roij, R.H.H.G.; Rotenberg, B.

2013-01-01

The fluctuations of the charge on an electrode contain information on the microscopic correlations within the adjacent fluid and their effect on the electronic properties of the interface. We investigate these fluctuations using molecular dynamics simulations in a constant-potential ensemble with

Fluctuating attention in Parkinson's disease

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Starrfelt, Randi; Aarsland, Dag; Janvin, Carmen

2001-01-01

Lewy body dementia (DLB), which share many clinical and pathological features with Parkinson’s disease (PD), is charac- terised by marked fluctuations in cognition and consciousness. Fluctuating cognition has not been formally studied in PD, although some studies indicate that PD patients show...

Fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banday, A.J.; Wolfendale, A.W.

1990-01-01

In view of the importance to contemporary cosmology, and to our understanding of the Universe, of the precise nature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) spectrum, we consider the effects on this spectrum of contamination by other radiation fields of both galactic and extragalactic origin. Particular attention is given to the significance of measurements of the fluctuations in the 'background' radiation detected at 10.46 GHz and we conclude that these fluctuations are of the same magnitude as those expected from galactic cosmic-ray effects. A more detailed study of the cosmic-ray induced fluctuations and measurements at higher frequencies will be needed before genuine CMB fluctuations can be claimed. (author)

Fluctuations and Instability in Sedimentation

KAUST Repository

Guazzelli, Élisabeth

2011-01-21

This review concentrates on the fluctuations of the velocities of sedimenting spheres, and on the structural instability of a suspension of settling fibers. For many years, theoretical estimates and numerical simulations predicted the fluctuations of the velocities of spheres to increase with the size of the container, whereas experiments found no such variation. Two ideas have increased our understanding. First, the correlation length of the velocity fluctuations was found experimentally to be 20 interparticle separations. Second, in dilute suspensions, a vertical variation in the concentration due to the spreading of the front with the clear fluid can inhibit the velocity fluctuations. In a very dilute regime, a homogeneous suspension of fibers suffers a spontaneous instability in which fast descending fiber-rich columns are separated by rising fiber-sparse columns. In a semidilute regime, the settling is hindered, more so than for spheres. © 2011 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved.

Fluctuation-enhanced electric conductivity in electrolyte solutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Péraud, Jean-Philippe; Nonaka, Andrew J; Bell, John B; Donev, Aleksandar; Garcia, Alejandro L

2017-10-10

We analyze the effects of an externally applied electric field on thermal fluctuations for a binary electrolyte fluid. We show that the fluctuating Poisson-Nernst-Planck (PNP) equations for charged multispecies diffusion coupled with the fluctuating fluid momentum equation result in enhanced charge transport via a mechanism distinct from the well-known enhancement of mass transport that accompanies giant fluctuations. Although the mass and charge transport occurs by advection by thermal velocity fluctuations, it can macroscopically be represented as electrodiffusion with renormalized electric conductivity and a nonzero cation-anion diffusion coefficient. Specifically, we predict a nonzero cation-anion Maxwell-Stefan coefficient proportional to the square root of the salt concentration, a prediction that agrees quantitatively with experimental measurements. The renormalized or effective macroscopic equations are different from the starting PNP equations, which contain no cross-diffusion terms, even for rather dilute binary electrolytes. At the same time, for infinitely dilute solutions the renormalized electric conductivity and renormalized diffusion coefficients are consistent and the classical PNP equations with renormalized coefficients are recovered, demonstrating the self-consistency of the fluctuating hydrodynamics equations. Our calculations show that the fluctuating hydrodynamics approach recovers the electrophoretic and relaxation corrections obtained by Debye-Huckel-Onsager theory, while elucidating the physical origins of these corrections and generalizing straightforwardly to more complex multispecies electrolytes. Finally, we show that strong applied electric fields result in anisotropically enhanced "giant" velocity fluctuations and reduced fluctuations of salt concentration.

Variations in Static Force Control and Motor Unit Behavior with Error Amplification Feedback in the Elderly

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi-Ching Chen

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Error amplification (EA feedback is a promising approach to advance visuomotor skill. As error detection and visuomotor processing at short time scales decline with age, this study examined whether older adults could benefit from EA feedback that included higher-frequency information to guide a force-tracking task. Fourteen young and 14 older adults performed low-level static isometric force-tracking with visual guidance of typical visual feedback and EA feedback containing augmented high-frequency errors. Stabilogram diffusion analysis was used to characterize force fluctuation dynamics. Also, the discharge behaviors of motor units and pooled motor unit coherence were assessed following the decomposition of multi-channel surface electromyography (EMG. EA produced different behavioral and neurophysiological impacts on young and older adults. Older adults exhibited inferior task accuracy with EA feedback than with typical visual feedback, but not young adults. Although stabilogram diffusion analysis revealed that EA led to a significant decrease in critical time points for both groups, EA potentiated the critical point of force fluctuations <ΔFc2>, short-term effective diffusion coefficients (Ds, and short-term exponent scaling only for the older adults. Moreover, in older adults, EA added to the size of discharge variability of motor units and discharge regularity of cumulative discharge rate, but suppressed the pooled motor unit coherence in the 13–35 Hz band. Virtual EA alters the strategic balance between open-loop and closed-loop controls for force-tracking. Contrary to expectations, the prevailing use of closed-loop control with EA that contained high-frequency error information enhanced the motor unit discharge variability and undermined the force steadiness in the older group, concerning declines in physiological complexity in the neurobehavioral system and the common drive to the motoneuronal pool against force destabilization.

Evaluation of analytical errors in a clinical chemistry laboratory: a 3 year experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakyi, As; Laing, Ef; Ephraim, Rk; Asibey, Of; Sadique, Ok

2015-01-01

Proficient laboratory service is the cornerstone of modern healthcare systems and has an impact on over 70% of medical decisions on admission, discharge, and medications. In recent years, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of errors in laboratory practice and their possible negative impact on patient outcomes. We retrospectively analyzed data spanning a period of 3 years on analytical errors observed in our laboratory. The data covered errors over the whole testing cycle including pre-, intra-, and post-analytical phases and discussed strategies pertinent to our settings to minimize their occurrence. We described the occurrence of pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical errors observed at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital clinical biochemistry laboratory during a 3-year period from January, 2010 to December, 2012. Data were analyzed with Graph Pad Prism 5(GraphPad Software Inc. CA USA). A total of 589,510 tests was performed on 188,503 outpatients and hospitalized patients. The overall error rate for the 3 years was 4.7% (27,520/58,950). Pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical errors contributed 3.7% (2210/58,950), 0.1% (108/58,950), and 0.9% (512/58,950), respectively. The number of tests reduced significantly over the 3-year period, but this did not correspond with a reduction in the overall error rate (P = 0.90) along with the years. Analytical errors are embedded within our total process setup especially pre-analytical and post-analytical phases. Strategic measures including quality assessment programs for staff involved in pre-analytical processes should be intensified.

Detrended fluctuation analysis made flexible to detect range of cross-correlated fluctuations

Science.gov (United States)

Kwapień, Jarosław; Oświecimka, Paweł; DroŻdŻ, Stanisław

2015-11-01

The detrended cross-correlation coefficient ρDCCA has recently been proposed to quantify the strength of cross-correlations on different temporal scales in bivariate, nonstationary time series. It is based on the detrended cross-correlation and detrended fluctuation analyses (DCCA and DFA, respectively) and can be viewed as an analog of the Pearson coefficient in the case of the fluctuation analysis. The coefficient ρDCCA works well in many practical situations but by construction its applicability is limited to detection of whether two signals are generally cross-correlated, without the possibility to obtain information on the amplitude of fluctuations that are responsible for those cross-correlations. In order to introduce some related flexibility, here we propose an extension of ρDCCA that exploits the multifractal versions of DFA and DCCA: multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis and multifractal detrended cross-correlation analysis, respectively. The resulting new coefficient ρq not only is able to quantify the strength of correlations but also allows one to identify the range of detrended fluctuation amplitudes that are correlated in two signals under study. We show how the coefficient ρq works in practical situations by applying it to stochastic time series representing processes with long memory: autoregressive and multiplicative ones. Such processes are often used to model signals recorded from complex systems and complex physical phenomena like turbulence, so we are convinced that this new measure can successfully be applied in time-series analysis. In particular, we present an example of such application to highly complex empirical data from financial markets. The present formulation can straightforwardly be extended to multivariate data in terms of the q -dependent counterpart of the correlation matrices and then to the network representation.

Radiologic errors, past, present and future.

Science.gov (United States)

Berlin, Leonard

2014-01-01

During the 10-year period beginning in 1949 with publication of five articles in two radiology journals and UKs The Lancet, a California radiologist named L.H. Garland almost single-handedly shocked the entire medical and especially the radiologic community. He focused their attention on the fact now known and accepted by all, but at that time not previously recognized and acknowledged only with great reluctance, that a substantial degree of observer error was prevalent in radiologic interpretation. In the more than half-century that followed, Garland's pioneering work has been affirmed and reaffirmed by numerous researchers. Retrospective studies disclosed then and still disclose today that diagnostic errors in radiologic interpretations of plain radiographic (as well as CT, MR, ultrasound, and radionuclide) images hover in the 30% range, not too dissimilar to the error rates in clinical medicine. Seventy percent of these errors are perceptual in nature, i.e., the radiologist does not "see" the abnormality on the imaging exam, perhaps due to poor conspicuity, satisfaction of search, or simply the "inexplicable psycho-visual phenomena of human perception." The remainder are cognitive errors: the radiologist sees an abnormality but fails to render a correct diagnoses by attaching the wrong significance to what is seen, perhaps due to inadequate knowledge, or an alliterative or judgmental error. Computer-assisted detection (CAD), a technology that for the past two decades has been utilized primarily in mammographic interpretation, increases sensitivity but at the same time decreases specificity; whether it reduces errors is debatable. Efforts to reduce diagnostic radiological errors continue, but the degree to which they will be successful remains to be determined.

REFRACTIVE ERROR STATUS IN BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA

African Journals Online (AJOL)

LIVINGSTON

deepening poverty because of their inability to see well” . In 2002, the .... all the refractions) and other health workers. During the period .... To the best of our knowledge, there is no ... 2020 and eliminate uncorrected refractive error within the ...

Mesoscale wind fluctuations over Danish waters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vincent, C.L.

2010-12-15

Mesoscale wind fluctuations affect the large scale integration of wind power because they undermine the day-ahead predictability of wind speed and power production, and because they can result in large fluctuations in power generation that must be balanced using reserve power. Large fluctuations in generated power are a particular problem for offshore wind farms because the typically high concentration of turbines within a limited geographical area means that fluctuations can be correlated across large numbers of turbines. Furthermore, organised mesoscale structures that often form over water, such as convective rolls and cellular convection, have length scales of tens of kilometers, and can cause large wind fluctuations on a time scale of around an hour. This thesis is an exploration of the predictability of mesoscale wind fluctuations using observations from the world's first two large offshore wind farms - Horns Rev I in the North Sea, and Nysted in the Baltic Sea. The thesis begins with a climatological analysis of wind fluctuations on time scales of 1-10 hours at the two sites. A novel method for calculating conditional climatologies of spectral information is proposed, based on binning and averaging the time axis of the Hilbert spectrum. Results reveal clear patterns between wind fluctuations and locally observed meteorological conditions. The analysis is expanded by classifying wind fluctuations on time scales of 1-3 hours according to synoptic patterns, satellite pictures and wind classes. Results indicate that cold air outbreaks and open cellular convection are a significant contributor to mesoscale wind variability at Horns Rev. The predictability of mesoscale wind fluctuations is tested by implementing standard statistical models that relate local wind variability to parameters based on a large scale weather analysis. The models show some skill, but only achieve a 15% improvement on a persistence forecast. The possibility of explicitly modelling

Fast Outage Probability Simulation for FSO Links with a Generalized Pointing Error Model

KAUST Repository

Ben Issaid, Chaouki

2017-02-07

Over the past few years, free-space optical (FSO) communication has gained significant attention. In fact, FSO can provide cost-effective and unlicensed links, with high-bandwidth capacity and low error rate, making it an exciting alternative to traditional wireless radio-frequency communication systems. However, the system performance is affected not only by the presence of atmospheric turbulences, which occur due to random fluctuations in the air refractive index but also by the existence of pointing errors. Metrics, such as the outage probability which quantifies the probability that the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio is smaller than a given threshold, can be used to analyze the performance of this system. In this work, we consider weak and strong turbulence regimes, and we study the outage probability of an FSO communication system under a generalized pointing error model with both a nonzero boresight component and different horizontal and vertical jitter effects. More specifically, we use an importance sampling approach which is based on the exponential twisting technique to offer fast and accurate results.

Influence of precision of emission characteristic parameters on model prediction error of VOCs/formaldehyde from dry building material.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenjuan Wei

Full Text Available Mass transfer models are useful in predicting the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs and formaldehyde from building materials in indoor environments. They are also useful for human exposure evaluation and in sustainable building design. The measurement errors in the emission characteristic parameters in these mass transfer models, i.e., the initial emittable concentration (C 0, the diffusion coefficient (D, and the partition coefficient (K, can result in errors in predicting indoor VOC and formaldehyde concentrations. These errors have not yet been quantitatively well analyzed in the literature. This paper addresses this by using modelling to assess these errors for some typical building conditions. The error in C 0, as measured in environmental chambers and applied to a reference living room in Beijing, has the largest influence on the model prediction error in indoor VOC and formaldehyde concentration, while the error in K has the least effect. A correlation between the errors in D, K, and C 0 and the error in the indoor VOC and formaldehyde concentration prediction is then derived for engineering applications. In addition, the influence of temperature on the model prediction of emissions is investigated. It shows the impact of temperature fluctuations on the prediction errors in indoor VOC and formaldehyde concentrations to be less than 7% at 23±0.5°C and less than 30% at 23±2°C.

Resonant Quasi-Optical Systems with Multi-Row Periodic Structures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Oleksandr, Rybalko; Rybalko, Yu A.; Buriak, I. A.

2017-01-01

Selective properties of resonant quasi-optical systems with periodical multi-row structures in millimeter wavelength range are described. The possibility of selection fluctuations in the volume of open resonator using double-row periodic elements was shown in the experiment at 70-80 GHz. Advantages...... and possibility of control the energy characteristics of such structures are also described. The obtained experimental data is used to confirm the results of computational analysis previously described in the literature. Implementation of resonant quasi-optical systems with multi-row periodic structures...

Weight Fluctuation and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marina Komaroff

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. The aim of this study is to investigate if weight fluctuation is an independent risk factor for postmenopausal breast cancer (PBC among women who gained weight in adult years. Methods. NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study (NHEFS database was used in the study. Women that were cancers-free at enrollment and diagnosed for the first time with breast cancer at age 50 or greater were considered cases. Controls were chosen from the subset of cancers-free women and matched to cases by years of follow-up and status of body mass index (BMI at 25 years of age. Weight fluctuation was measured by the root-mean-square-error (RMSE from a simple linear regression model for each woman with their body mass index (BMI regressed on age (started at 25 years while women with the positive slope from this regression were defined as weight gainers. Data were analyzed using conditional logistic regression models. Results. A total of 158 women were included into the study. The conditional logistic regression adjusted for weight gain demonstrated positive association between weight fluctuation in adult years and postmenopausal breast cancers (odds ratio/OR = 1.67; 95% confidence interval/CI: 1.06–2.66. Conclusions. The data suggested that long-term weight fluctuation was significant risk factor for PBC among women who gained weight in adult years. This finding underscores the importance of maintaining lost weight and avoiding weight fluctuation.

Measurement of magnetic fluctuation induced energy transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fiksel, G.; Prager, S.C.; Shen, W.; Stoneking, M.

1993-11-01

The local electron energy flux produced by magnetic fluctuations has been measured directly in the MST reversed field pinch (over the radial range r/a > 0.75). The flux, produced by electrons traveling parallel to a fluctuating magnetic field, is obtained from correlation between the fluctuations in the parallel heat flux and the radial magnetic field. The fluctuation induced flux is large (100 kW/cm 2 ) in the ''core'' (r/a 2 ) in the edge

Local Use-Dependent Sleep in Wakefulness Links Performance Errors to Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Quercia, Angelica; Zappasodi, Filippo; Committeri, Giorgia; Ferrara, Michele

2018-01-01

Sleep and wakefulness are no longer to be considered as discrete states. During wakefulness brain regions can enter a sleep-like state (off-periods) in response to a prolonged period of activity (local use-dependent sleep). Similarly, during nonREM sleep the slow-wave activity, the hallmark of sleep plasticity, increases locally in brain regions previously involved in a learning task. Recent studies have demonstrated that behavioral performance may be impaired by off-periods in wake in task-related regions. However, the relation between off-periods in wake, related performance errors and learning is still untested in humans. Here, by employing high density electroencephalographic (hd-EEG) recordings, we investigated local use-dependent sleep in wake, asking participants to repeat continuously two intensive spatial navigation tasks. Critically, one task relied on previous map learning (Wayfinding) while the other did not (Control). Behaviorally awake participants, who were not sleep deprived, showed progressive increments of delta activity only during the learning-based spatial navigation task. As shown by source localization, delta activity was mainly localized in the left parietal and bilateral frontal cortices, all regions known to be engaged in spatial navigation tasks. Moreover, during the Wayfinding task, these increments of delta power were specifically associated with errors, whose probability of occurrence was significantly higher compared to the Control task. Unlike the Wayfinding task, during the Control task neither delta activity nor the number of errors increased progressively. Furthermore, during the Wayfinding task, both the number and the amplitude of individual delta waves, as indexes of neuronal silence in wake (off-periods), were significantly higher during errors than hits. Finally, a path analysis linked the use of the spatial navigation circuits undergone to learning plasticity to off periods in wake. In conclusion, local sleep regulation in

Fluctuación de la fuerza laboral en la Unidad Siboney de Camagüey en el período de 2004-2014/Fluctuation of the labor force in Camaguey Siboney Unit for the period 2004-2014

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maylín Hernández Casado

2015-01-01

Full Text Available RESUMEN Se valoró el comportamiento de la fluctuación de la fuerza laboral en la Unidad Básica de Producción Cooperativa (UBPC cañera “Siboney”.Se determinó las causas que motivaron la fluctuación laboral y los cargos ocupacionales de los fluctuantes. Se realizó una encuesta a una muestra de 60 trabajadores para determinar fundamentalmente el nivel de satisfacción de estos hacia la entidad.Se emplearon los métodos de Análisis y Síntesis, Monográfico, Observación y el Horizontal y Vertical. Sus principales resultados muestran que la causa con mayor incidencia en la fluctuación laboral fue la mejora salarial en un 58 % y la categoría ocupacional más afectada fue la de obreros, representando un 96 % del total. Resultó ser el poco incentivo motivacional y financiero lo que originó que la fuerza laboral que trabaja fundamentalmente vinculada a las actividades agrícolas fluctuara en el período analizado. ABSTRACT The behavior of the fluctuation of the labor force in sugarcane "Siboney" Basic Unit of Cooperative Production (UBPC was assessed. The reasons for labor and occupational fluctuation fluctuating positions are determined. A survey of a sample of 60 employees was used to fundamentally determine the level of satisfaction of these to the entity. Methods of Analysis and Synthesis, Monograph, Observation and Horizontal and Vertical are used. The main results show that the cause with the greatest impact on wage labor fluctuation was improved by 58% and the most affected was the occupational category of workers, representing 96% of the total. It turned out to be little financial incentive motivational and which meant that the labor force working fluctuate mainly linked to agricultural activities in the period.

Correlated and uncorrelated heart rate fluctuations during relaxing visualization

Science.gov (United States)

Papasimakis, N.; Pallikari, F.

2010-05-01

The heart rate variability (HRV) of healthy subjects practicing relaxing visualization is studied by use of three multiscale analysis techniques: the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), the entropy in natural time (ENT) and the average wavelet (AWC) coefficient. The scaling exponent of normal interbeat interval increments exhibits characteristics of the presence of long-range correlations. During relaxing visualization the HRV dynamics change in the sense that two new features emerge independent of each other: a respiration-induced periodicity that often dominates the HRV at short scales (sleep.

Possible Significance of Early Paleozoic Fluctuations in Bottom Current Intensity, Northwest Iapetus Ocean

Science.gov (United States)

Lash, Gary G.

1986-06-01

Sedimentologic and geochemical characteristics of red and green deep water mudstone exposed in the central Appalachian orogen define climatically-induced fluctuations in bottom current intensity along the northwest flank of the Iapetus Ocean in Early and Middle Ordovician time. Red mudstone accumulated under the influence of moderate to vigorous bottom current velocities in oxygenated bottom water produced during climatically cool periods. Interbedded green mudstone accumulated at greater sedimentation rates, probably from turbidity currents, under the influence of reduced thermohaline circulation during global warming periods. The close association of green mudstone and carbonate turbidites of Early Ordovician (late Tremadocian to early Arenigian) age suggests that a major warming phase occurred at this time. Increasing temperatures reduced bottom current velocities and resulted in increased production of carbonate sediment and organic carbon on the carbonate platform of eastern North America. Much of the excess carbonate sediment and organic carbon was transported into deep water by turbidity currents. Although conclusive evidence is lacking, this eustatic event may reflect a climatic warming phase that followed the postulated glacio-eustatic Black Mountain event. Subsequent Middle Ordovician fluctuations in bottom current intensity recorded by thin red-green mudstone couplets probably reflect periodic growth and shrinkage of an ice cap rather than major glacial episodes.

Errors, error detection, error correction and hippocampal-region damage: data and theories.

Science.gov (United States)

MacKay, Donald G; Johnson, Laura W

2013-11-01

This review and perspective article outlines 15 observational constraints on theories of errors, error detection, and error correction, and their relation to hippocampal-region (HR) damage. The core observations come from 10 studies with H.M., an amnesic with cerebellar and HR damage but virtually no neocortical damage. Three studies examined the detection of errors planted in visual scenes (e.g., a bird flying in a fish bowl in a school classroom) and sentences (e.g., I helped themselves to the birthday cake). In all three experiments, H.M. detected reliably fewer errors than carefully matched memory-normal controls. Other studies examined the detection and correction of self-produced errors, with controls for comprehension of the instructions, impaired visual acuity, temporal factors, motoric slowing, forgetting, excessive memory load, lack of motivation, and deficits in visual scanning or attention. In these studies, H.M. corrected reliably fewer errors than memory-normal and cerebellar controls, and his uncorrected errors in speech, object naming, and reading aloud exhibited two consistent features: omission and anomaly. For example, in sentence production tasks, H.M. omitted one or more words in uncorrected encoding errors that rendered his sentences anomalous (incoherent, incomplete, or ungrammatical) reliably more often than controls. Besides explaining these core findings, the theoretical principles discussed here explain H.M.'s retrograde amnesia for once familiar episodic and semantic information; his anterograde amnesia for novel information; his deficits in visual cognition, sentence comprehension, sentence production, sentence reading, and object naming; and effects of aging on his ability to read isolated low frequency words aloud. These theoretical principles also explain a wide range of other data on error detection and correction and generate new predictions for future test. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effects of observational correlated noises on multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Gulich, Damián; Zunino, Luciano

2012-08-01

We have numerically investigated the effects that observational correlated noises have on the generalized Hurst exponents, h(q), estimated by using the multifractal generalization of detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA). More precisely, artificially generated stochastic binomial multifractals with increased amount of colored noises were analyzed via MF-DFA. It has been recently shown that for moderate additions of white noise, the generalized Hurst exponents are significantly underestimated for qeffects of additive noise, short- term memory and periodic trends, Physica A 390 (2011) 2480-2490]. In this paper, we have found that h(q) with q≥2 are also affected when correlated noises are considered. This is due to the fact that the spurious correlations influence the scaling behaviors associated to large fluctuations. The results obtained are significant for practical situations, where noises with different correlations are inherently present.

Influence of Ephemeris Error on GPS Single Point Positioning Accuracy

Science.gov (United States)

Lihua, Ma; Wang, Meng

2013-09-01

The Global Positioning System (GPS) user makes use of the navigation message transmitted from GPS satellites to achieve its location. Because the receiver uses the satellite's location in position calculations, an ephemeris error, a difference between the expected and actual orbital position of a GPS satellite, reduces user accuracy. The influence extent is decided by the precision of broadcast ephemeris from the control station upload. Simulation analysis with the Yuma almanac show that maximum positioning error exists in the case where the ephemeris error is along the line-of-sight (LOS) direction. Meanwhile, the error is dependent on the relationship between the observer and spatial constellation at some time period.

Scattering quantum random-walk search with errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gabris, A.; Kiss, T.; Jex, I.

2007-01-01

We analyze the realization of a quantum-walk search algorithm in a passive, linear optical network. The specific model enables us to consider the effect of realistic sources of noise and losses on the search efficiency. Photon loss uniform in all directions is shown to lead to the rescaling of search time. Deviation from directional uniformity leads to the enhancement of the search efficiency compared to uniform loss with the same average. In certain cases even increasing loss in some of the directions can improve search efficiency. We show that while we approach the classical limit of the general search algorithm by introducing random phase fluctuations, its utility for searching is lost. Using numerical methods, we found that for static phase errors the averaged search efficiency displays a damped oscillatory behavior that asymptotically tends to a nonzero value

Magnetic fluctuation measurements in the Tokapole II tokamak

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

LaPointe, M.A.

1990-09-01

Magnetic fluctuation measurements have been made in the Tokapole II tokamak in the frequency range 10 kHz ≤ f ≤ 5 MHz. The fluctuations above 500 kHz varied greatly as the effective edge safety factor, q a , was varied over the range 0.8 ≤ q a ≤ 3.8. As q a was varied from 3.8 to 0.8 the high frequency magnetic fluctuation amplitude increased by over three orders of magnitude. The fluctuation amplitude for 0.5 to 2.0 MHz was a factor of 10 lower than the fluctuation amplitude in the range 100 to 400 kHz for q a of 0.8. When q a was increased to 3.8 the difference between the differing frequency ranges increased to a factor of 10 3 . Comparison of the measured broadband fluctuation amplitudes with those predicted from thermally driven Alfven and magnetosonic waves shows that the amplitudes are at least 1000 times larger than the theoretical predictions. This indicates that there is some other mechanism driving the higher frequency magnetic fluctuations. Estimates show that the contribution by the magnetic fluctuations above 500 kHz to the estimated electron energy loss from stochastic fields is negligible. The profiles of the various components of the magnetic fluctuations indicate the possibility that the shear in the magnetic field may stabilize whatever instabilities drive the magnetic fluctuations

Natural convection in square enclosure induced by inner circular cylinder with time-periodic pulsating temperature

KAUST Repository

Huang, Zhu; Zhang, Wei; Xi, Guang

2015-01-01

The periodic unsteady natural convection flow and heat transfer in a square enclosure containing a concentric circular cylinder is numerically studied. The temperature of the inner circular cylinder fluctuates periodically with time at higher

Diurnal fluctuations in cotton leaf carbon export, carbohydrate content, and sucrose synthesizing enzymes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendrix, D L; Huber, S C

1986-06-01

In fully expanded leaves of greenhouse-grown cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L., cv Coker 100) plants, carbon export, starch accumulation rate, and carbon exchange rate exhibited different behavior during the light period. Starch accumulation rates were relatively constant during the light period, whereas carbon export rate was greater in the afternoon than in the morning even though the carbon exchange rate peaked about noon. Sucrose levels increased throughout the light period and dropped sharply with the onset of darkness; hexose levels were relatively constant except for a slight peak in the early morning. Sucrose synthase, usually thought to be a degradative enzyme, was found in unusually high activities in cotton leaf. Both sucrose synthase and sucrose phosphate synthetase activities were found to fluctuate diurnally in cotton leaves but with different rhythms. Diurnal fluctuations in the rate of sucrose export were generally aligned with sucrose phosphate synthase activity during the light period but not with sucrose synthase activity; neither enzyme activity correlated with carbon export during the dark. Cotton leaf sucrose phosphate synthase activity was sufficient to account for the observed carbon export rates; there is no need to invoke sucrose synthase as a synthetic enzyme in mature cotton leaves. During the dark a significant correlation was found between starch degradation rate and leaf carbon export. These results indicate that carbon partitioning in cotton leaf is somewhat independent of the carbon exchange rate and that leaf carbon export rate may be linked to sucrose formation and content during the light period and to starch breakdown in the dark.

Human error as a source of disturbances in Swedish nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sokolowski, E.

1985-01-01

Events involving human errors at the Swedish nuclear power plants are registered and periodically analyzed. The philosophy behind the scheme for data collection and analysis is discussed. Human errors cause about 10% of the disturbances registered. Only a small part of these errors are committed by operators in the control room. These and other findings differ from those in other countries. Possible reasons are put forward

An observational study of the interaction between the synoptic-scale eddies and the intra-seasonal fluctuations in the atmosphere

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Derome, J.; Sheng, J.; Lin, H.; Klasa, M.

1994-01-01

It is clear from the kinetic energy spectrum published by Vinnichenko in 1970 that the atmospheric fluctuations with periods between about 10 and 100 days form a very important part of the atmospheric flow. These oscillations, often called low-frequency or intra-seasonal fluctuations, could result from an instability of the time-mean flow, from an interaction with the oceans, or from a nonlinear transfer of energy from the faster synoptic-scale eddies. In the present study we concentrate on this last possibility and examine, with the help of atmospheric data and general circulation model (GCM) output, the extent to which the synoptic-scale eddies affect the low-frequency fluctuations

A Survey of Wireless Fair Queuing Algorithms with Location-Dependent Channel Errors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anca VARGATU

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The rapid development of wireless networks has brought more and more attention to topics related to fair allocation of resources, creation of suitable algorithms, taking into account the special characteristics of wireless environment and insurance fair access to the transmission channel, with delay bound and throughput guaranteed. Fair allocation of resources in wireless networks requires significant challenges, because of errors that occur only in these networks, such as location-dependent and bursty channel errors. In wireless networks, frequently happens, because interference of radio waves, that a user experiencing bad radio conditions during a period of time, not to receive resources in that period. This paper analyzes some resource allocation algorithms for wireless networks with location dependent errors, specifying the base idea for each algorithm and the way how it works. The analyzed fair queuing algorithms differ by the way they treat the following aspects: how to select the flows which should receive additional services, how to allocate these resources, which is the proportion received by error free flows and how the flows affected by errors are compensated.

Fluctuation characteristics in detached recombining plasmas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohno, Noriyasu; Tanaka, Naoyuki; Takamura, Shuichi; Budaev, Viatcheslav

2002-01-01

Fluctuation in detached recombining plasmas has been investigated experimentally in the linear divertor plasma simulator, NAGDIS-II. As increasing neutral gas pressure, floating potential fluctuation of the target plate installed at the end of the NADIS-II device becomes larger and bursty negative spikes are observed in the signal associated with a transition from attached to detached a plasmas. The fluctuation property has been analyzed by using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), probability distribution function (PDF) and wavelet transform. The PDF of the floating potential fluctuation in the attached plasma condition obeys the Gaussian distribution function, on the other hand, the PDF in detached plasma shows a strong deviation from the Gaussian distribution function, which can be characterized by flatness and skewness. Comparison of the fluctuation properties between the floating potential and the optical emission from the detached plasma has been done based on the wavelet transform to show that a strong correlation between them, which could indicate bursty transport of energetic electrons from upstream to downstream region along the magnetic field. (author)

Effect of mesoscopic fluctuations on equation of state in cluster-forming systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Ciach

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Equation of state for systems with particles self-assembling into aggregates is derived within a mesoscopic theory combining density functional and field-theoretic approaches. We focus on the effect of mesoscopic fluctuations in the disordered phase. The pressure - volume fraction isotherms are calculated explicitly for two forms of the short-range attraction long-range repulsion potential. Mesoscopic fluctuations lead to an increased pressure in each case, except for very small volume fractions. When large clusters are formed, the mechanical instability of the system is present at much higher temperature than found in mean-field approximation. In this case phase separation competes with the formation of periodic phases (colloidal crystals. In the case of small clusters, no mechanical instability associated with separation into dilute and dense phases appears.

Time-resolved Evolution of Low Frequency Electrostatic Fluctuations during Slow L-H Transition at the Boundary Plasma of HL-2A Tokamak

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cheng, J.; Zhao, K. J.; Li, Y. G.; Song, X. M.; Yang, Q. W.; Ding, X. T.; Duan, X. R.; Liu, Y., E-mail: chengj@swip.ac.cn [Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu (China); Huang, Z. H.; Yan, L. W.; Dong, J. Q.; Hong, W. Y.; Kong, D. F.; Lan, T.; Liu, A. D. [Southwestern Institute of Physics, Hefei (China); Xu, M. [CMTFO and CER and MAE Department, UCSD, La Jolla (United States)

2012-09-15

Full text: A quasi-period electrostatic oscillation with 2 - 3 kHz is observed using Langmuir probe array during slow L-H transition in edge plasma of HL-2A Tokomak. This low frequency oscillation radially propagates inwards with 0.3 - 0.6 km/s inside the separatrix about 3 - 8 mm, and it appears on potential, density, electron pressure and Reynolds stress gradients. The dP{sub e}/dr fluctuation amplitude can reach 30 - 40%. The dR{sub s}/dr is prior to E{sub r} fluctuation about {pi}/2, indicating the existence of nonlinear interaction between them. In near SOL, this low frequency oscillation also appears in potentials, E{sub r} and density fluctuation, suggesting a significant correlation among them at edge and near SOL plasma. This quasi-period oscillation might be correlated with mean flow or low frequency zonal flow, and the latter might set a condition for the former developing, implying a competitive process between them. The competition characterized by a quasi-period oscillation seems to determine the L-H transition. (author)

Fluctuations of pol I and fibrillarin contents of the nucleoli.

Science.gov (United States)

Hornáček, M; Kováčik, L; Mazel, T; Cmarko, D; Bártová, E; Raška, I; Smirnov, E

2017-07-04

Nucleoli are formed on the basis of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) clusters called Nucleolus Organizer Regions (NORs). Each NOR contains multiple genes coding for RNAs of the ribosomal particles. The prominent components of the nucleolar ultrastructure, fibrillar centers (FC) and dense fibrillar components (DFC), together compose FC/DFC units. These units are centers of rDNA transcription by RNA polymerase I (pol I), as well as the early processing events, in which an essential role belongs to fibrillarin. Each FC/DFC unit probably corresponds to a single transcriptionally active gene. In this work, we transfected human-derived cells with GFP-RPA43 (subunit of pol I) and RFP-fibrillarin. Following changes of the fluorescent signals in individual FC/DFC units, we found two kinds of kinetics: 1) the rapid fluctuations with periods of 2-3 min, when the pol I and fibrillarin signals oscillated in anti-phase manner, and the intensities of pol I in the neighboring FC/DFC units did not correlate. 2) fluctuations with periods of 10 to 60 min, in which pol I and fibrillarin signals measured in the same unit did not correlate, but pol I signals in the units belonging to different nucleoli were synchronized. Our data indicate that a complex pulsing activity of transcription as well as early processing is common for ribosomal genes.

Thermal fluctuations in a hyperscaling-violation background

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pourhassan, Behnam [Damghan University, School of Physics, Damghan (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Faizal, Mir [University of British Columbia-Okanagan, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, Kelowna, BC (Canada); University of Lethbridge, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Lethbridge, AB (Canada); Upadhyay, Sudhaker [Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Centre for Theoretical Studies, Kharagpur (India); Al Asfar, Lina [Universite Blaise Pascal, Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire de Clermont-Ferrand, Aubiere (France)

2017-08-15

In this paper, we study the effect of thermal fluctuations on the thermodynamics of a black geometry with hyperscaling violation. These thermal fluctuations in the thermodynamics of this system are produced from quantum corrections of geometry describing this system. We discuss the stability of this system using specific heat and the entire Hessian matrix of the free energy. We will analyze the effects of thermal fluctuations on the stability of this system. We also analyze the effects of thermal fluctuations on the criticality of the hyperscaling-violation background. (orig.)

Learning time-dependent noise to reduce logical errors: real time error rate estimation in quantum error correction

Science.gov (United States)

Huo, Ming-Xia; Li, Ying

2017-12-01

Quantum error correction is important to quantum information processing, which allows us to reliably process information encoded in quantum error correction codes. Efficient quantum error correction benefits from the knowledge of error rates. We propose a protocol for monitoring error rates in real time without interrupting the quantum error correction. Any adaptation of the quantum error correction code or its implementation circuit is not required. The protocol can be directly applied to the most advanced quantum error correction techniques, e.g. surface code. A Gaussian processes algorithm is used to estimate and predict error rates based on error correction data in the past. We find that using these estimated error rates, the probability of error correction failures can be significantly reduced by a factor increasing with the code distance.

Correction for dynamic bias error in transmission measurements of void fraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersson, P.; Sundén, E. Andersson; Svärd, S. Jacobsson; Sjöstrand, H.

2012-01-01

Dynamic bias errors occur in transmission measurements, such as X-ray, gamma, or neutron radiography or tomography. This is observed when the properties of the object are not stationary in time and its average properties are assessed. The nonlinear measurement response to changes in transmission within the time scale of the measurement implies a bias, which can be difficult to correct for. A typical example is the tomographic or radiographic mapping of void content in dynamic two-phase flow systems. In this work, the dynamic bias error is described and a method to make a first-order correction is derived. A prerequisite for this method is variance estimates of the system dynamics, which can be obtained using high-speed, time-resolved data acquisition. However, in the absence of such acquisition, a priori knowledge might be used to substitute the time resolved data. Using synthetic data, a void fraction measurement case study has been simulated to demonstrate the performance of the suggested method. The transmission length of the radiation in the object under study and the type of fluctuation of the void fraction have been varied. Significant decreases in the dynamic bias error were achieved to the expense of marginal decreases in precision.

Fluctuations in the multiparticle dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bozek, P.; Ploszajczak, M.

1993-01-01

The appearance and properties of intermittent fluctuations in physical systems, in particular the formation of rare structures in transport phenomena are discussed. The distribution of fluctuations approaches a limiting log-normal statistical distribution. The log-normal distribution is introduced as a simple parametrization of the energy fluctuations leading to the subthreshold production of particles in nuclear collisions, and it is shown that it fits all available data both for total π 0 production cross section as well as the π 0 kinetic energy spectra for E/A < 90 MeV. It is suggested that the same universal distribution should also describe the subthreshold production of other hadrons like η and K. (author) 36 refs., 11 figs

Fluctuations, dynamical instabilities and clusterization processes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burgio, G.F.; Chomaz, Ph.; Randrup, J.

1992-01-01

Recent progress with regard to the numerical simulation of fluctuations in nuclear dynamics is reported. Cluster formation in unstable nuclear matter is studied within the framework of a Boltzmann-Langevin equation developed to describe large amplitude fluctuations. Through the Fourier analysis of the fluctuating nuclear density in coordinate space, the onset of the clusterization is related to the dispersion relation of harmonic density oscillations. This detailed study on the simple two-dimensional case demonstrates the validity of the general approach. It is also shown, how the inclusion of fluctuations implies a description in terms of ensemble of trajectories and it is discussed why the presence of a stochastic term may cure the intrinsic unpredictability of deterministic theories (such as mean-field approximation) in presence of instabilities and/or chaos. (author) 8 refs., 3 figs

Origin of density fluctuations in extended inflation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kolb, E.W.; Salopek, D.S.; Turner, M.S.

1990-01-01

We calculate both the curvature and isocurvature density fluctuations that arise due to quantum fluctuations in a simple model of extended inflation based upon the Jordan-Brans-Dicke theory. The curvature fluctuations that arise due to quantum fluctuations in the Brans-Dicke field in general have a non-scale-invariant spectrum and an amplitude that is cosmologically acceptable and interesting without having to tune any coupling constant to a very small value. The curvature perturbations that arise due to the Higgs field are subdominant. If there are other massless fields in the theory, e.g., an axion or an ilion, then isocurvature fluctuations arise in these fields too. Production of gravitational waves and the massless particles associated with excitations of the Brans-Dicke field are also discussed. Several attempts at more realistic models of extended inflation are also analyzed. The importance of the Einstein conformal frame in calculating curvature fluctuations is emphasized. When viewed in this frame, extended inflation closely resembles slow-rollover inflation with an exponential potential, and the usual formula for the amplitude of curvature perturbations applies directly

Origin of density fluctuations in extended inflation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kolb, E.W.; Salopek, D.S.; Turner, M.S.

1990-05-01

The density fluctuations (both curvature and isocurvature) that arise due to quantum fluctuations in a simple model of extended inflation based upon the Jordan-Brans-Dicke theory are calculated. Curvature fluctuations arise due to quantum fluctuations in the Brans-Dicke field, in general have a nonscale-invariant spectrum, and can have an amplitude that is cosmologically acceptable and interesting without having to tune any coupling constant to a very small value. The density perturbations that arise due to the inflation field are subdominant. If there are other massless fields in the theory, e.g., an axion or an ilion, then isocurvature fluctuations arise in these fields too. Production of gravitational waves and the massless particles associated with excitations of the Brans-Dicke field are also discussed. Several attempts at more realistic models of extended inflation are also analyzed. The importance of the Einstein conformal frame in calculating curvature fluctuations is emphasized. When viewed in this frame, extended inflation closely resembles slow-rollover inflation with an exponential potential and the usual formula for the amplitude of curvature perturbations applies

Conductance fluctuations and distribution in disordered chains in presence of an electric field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Senouci, K.

1995-07-01

A simple Kronig-Penney model for 1D mesoscopic systems with disordered δ-peak and finite width potentials under an electric field is used to study the conductance fluctuations and distributions in different phase states. The electric field allows us to obtain the insulating, transition and metallic regimes. In the superlocalized electron states found previously near the Brillouin zone edges of the corresponding periodic system the conductance fluctuations are smaller than those of the insulating regime corresponding to the vanishing field, but the conductance probability distribution has a similar behaviour. Extensive results are compared to the previous works on higher dimensions and quasi-1D mesoscopic systems in each regime and found to be in good agreement. Further discussions are also included. (author). 33 refs, 11 figs

The Role of Media Coverage in Explaining Stock Market Fluctuations: Insights for Strategic Financial Communication

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Strycharz, J.; Strauss, N.; Trilling, D.

2018-01-01

This study investigates the reciprocal relationships between the fluctuation of the closing prices of three companies listed on the Amsterdam exchange index, namely ING, Philips and Shell and online media coverage related to these firms for a period of two years (2014–2015). Automated content

Zero-point oscillations, zero-point fluctuations, and fluctuations of zero-point oscillations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khalili, Farit Ya

2003-01-01

Several physical effects and methodological issues relating to the ground state of an oscillator are considered. Even in the simplest case of an ideal lossless harmonic oscillator, its ground state exhibits properties that are unusual from the classical point of view. In particular, the mean value of the product of two non-negative observables, kinetic and potential energies, is negative in the ground state. It is shown that semiclassical and rigorous quantum approaches yield substantially different results for the ground state energy fluctuations of an oscillator with finite losses. The dependence of zero-point fluctuations on the boundary conditions is considered. Using this dependence, it is possible to transmit information without emitting electromagnetic quanta. Fluctuations of electromagnetic pressure of zero-point oscillations are analyzed, and the corresponding mechanical friction is considered. This friction can be viewed as the most fundamental mechanism limiting the quality factor of mechanical oscillators. Observation of these effects exceeds the possibilities of contemporary experimental physics but almost undoubtedly will be possible in the near future. (methodological notes)

Quantum Fluctuations for Gravitational Impulsive Waves

OpenAIRE

Enginer, Y.; Hortacsu, M.; Ozdemir, N.

1998-01-01

Quantum fluctuations for a massless scalar field in the background metric of spherical impulsive gravitational waves through Minkowski and de Sitter spaces are investigated. It is shown that there exist finite fluctuations for de Sitter space.

[Medication errors in Spanish intensive care units].

Science.gov (United States)

Merino, P; Martín, M C; Alonso, A; Gutiérrez, I; Alvarez, J; Becerril, F

2013-01-01

To estimate the incidence of medication errors in Spanish intensive care units. Post hoc study of the SYREC trial. A longitudinal observational study carried out during 24 hours in patients admitted to the ICU. Spanish intensive care units. Patients admitted to the intensive care unit participating in the SYREC during the period of study. Risk, individual risk, and rate of medication errors. The final study sample consisted of 1017 patients from 79 intensive care units; 591 (58%) were affected by one or more incidents. Of these, 253 (43%) had at least one medication-related incident. The total number of incidents reported was 1424, of which 350 (25%) were medication errors. The risk of suffering at least one incident was 22% (IQR: 8-50%) while the individual risk was 21% (IQR: 8-42%). The medication error rate was 1.13 medication errors per 100 patient-days of stay. Most incidents occurred in the prescription (34%) and administration (28%) phases, 16% resulted in patient harm, and 82% were considered "totally avoidable". Medication errors are among the most frequent types of incidents in critically ill patients, and are more common in the prescription and administration stages. Although most such incidents have no clinical consequences, a significant percentage prove harmful for the patient, and a large proportion are avoidable. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier España, S.L. and SEMICYUC. All rights reserved.

Spectral decomposition of regulatory thresholds for climate-driven fluctuations in hydro- and wind power availability

Science.gov (United States)

Wörman, A.; Bottacin-Busolin, A.; Zmijewski, N.; Riml, J.

2017-08-01

Climate-driven fluctuations in the runoff and potential energy of surface water are generally large in comparison to the capacity of hydropower regulation, particularly when hydropower is used to balance the electricity production from covarying renewable energy sources such as wind power. To define the bounds of reservoir storage capacity, we introduce a dedicated reservoir volume that aggregates the storage capacity of several reservoirs to handle runoff from specific watersheds. We show how the storage bounds can be related to a spectrum of the climate-driven modes of variability in water availability and to the covariation between water and wind availability. A regional case study of the entire hydropower system in Sweden indicates that the longest regulation period possible to consider spans from a few days of individual subwatersheds up to several years, with an average limit of a couple of months. Watershed damping of the runoff substantially increases the longest considered regulation period and capacity. The high covariance found between the potential energy of the surface water and wind energy significantly reduces the longest considered regulation period when hydropower is used to balance the fluctuating wind power.

Fluctuations in Unimanual Hand Preference in Infants Following the Onset of Duplicated Syllable Babbling.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramsay, Douglas S.

1985-01-01

Infants were tested for unimanual handedness at weekly intervals for a 14-week period beginning with the week of onset of duplicated syllable babbling. Group analyses indicating effects of sex and/or birth order on fluctuations and date review for individual infants suggested considerable variability across infants in occurrence and/or timing of…

Pollutant forecasting error based on persistence of wind direction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cooper, R.E.

1978-01-01

The purpose of this report is to provide a means of estimating the reliability of forecasts of downwind pollutant concentrations from atmospheric puff releases. These forecasts are based on assuming the persistence of wind direction as determined at the time of release. This initial forecast will be used to deploy survey teams, to predict population centers that may be affected, and to estimate the amount of time available for emergency response. Reliability of forecasting is evaluated by developing a cumulative probability distribution of error as a function of lapsed time following an assumed release. The cumulative error is determined by comparing the forecast pollutant concentration with the concentration measured by sampling along the real-time meteorological trajectory. It may be concluded that the assumption of meteorological persistence for emergency response is not very good for periods longer than 3 hours. Even within this period, the possibiity for large error exists due to wind direction shifts. These shifts could affect population areas totally different from those areas first indicated

Characterization of traffic-related PM concentration distribution and fluctuation patterns in near-highway urban residential street canyons.

Science.gov (United States)

Hahn, Intaek; Brixey, Laurie A; Wiener, Russell W; Henkle, Stacy W; Baldauf, Richard

2009-12-01

Analyses of outdoor traffic-related particulate matter (PM) concentration distribution and fluctuation patterns in urban street canyons within a microscale distance of less than 500 m from a highway source are presented as part of the results from the Brooklyn Traffic Real-Time Ambient Pollutant Penetration and Environmental Dispersion (B-TRAPPED) study. Various patterns of spatial and temporal changes in the street canyon PM concentrations were investigated using time-series data of real-time PM concentrations measured during multiple monitoring periods. Concurrent time-series data of local street canyon wind conditions and wind data from the John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport National Weather Service (NWS) were used to characterize the effects of various wind conditions on the behavior of street canyon PM concentrations.Our results suggest that wind direction may strongly influence time-averaged mean PM concentration distribution patterns in near-highway urban street canyons. The rooftop-level wind speeds were found to be strongly correlated with the PM concentration fluctuation intensities in the middle sections of the street blocks. The ambient turbulence generated by shifting local wind directions (angles) showed a good correlation with the PM concentration fluctuation intensities along the entire distance of the first and second street blocks only when the wind angle standard deviations were larger than 30 degrees. Within-canyon turbulent shearing, caused by fluctuating local street canyon wind speeds, showed no correlation with PM concentration fluctuation intensities. The time-averaged mean PM concentration distribution along the longitudinal distances of the street blocks when wind direction was mostly constantly parallel to the street was found to be similar to the distribution pattern for the entire monitoring period when wind direction fluctuated wildly. Finally, we showed that two different PM concentration metrics-time-averaged mean

Assessing energy forecasting inaccuracy by simultaneously considering temporal and absolute errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frías-Paredes, Laura; Mallor, Fermín; Gastón-Romeo, Martín; León, Teresa

2017-01-01

Highlights: • A new method to match time series is defined to assess energy forecasting accuracy. • This method relies in a new family of step patterns that optimizes the MAE. • A new definition of the Temporal Distortion Index between two series is provided. • A parametric extension controls both the temporal distortion index and the MAE. • Pareto optimal transformations of the forecast series are obtained for both indexes. - Abstract: Recent years have seen a growing trend in wind and solar energy generation globally and it is expected that an important percentage of total energy production comes from these energy sources. However, they present inherent variability that implies fluctuations in energy generation that are difficult to forecast. Thus, forecasting errors have a considerable role in the impacts and costs of renewable energy integration, management, and commercialization. This study presents an important advance in the task of analyzing prediction models, in particular, in the timing component of prediction error, which improves previous pioneering results. A new method to match time series is defined in order to assess energy forecasting accuracy. This method relies on a new family of step patterns, an essential component of the algorithm to evaluate the temporal distortion index (TDI). This family minimizes the mean absolute error (MAE) of the transformation with respect to the reference series (the real energy series) and also allows detailed control of the temporal distortion entailed in the prediction series. The simultaneous consideration of temporal and absolute errors allows the use of Pareto frontiers as characteristic error curves. Real examples of wind energy forecasts are used to illustrate the results.

Quantum horizon fluctuations of an evaporating black hole

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roura, Albert

2007-01-01

The quantum fluctuations of a black hole spacetime are studied within a low-energy effective field theory approach to quantum gravity. Our approach accounts for both intrinsic metric fluctuations and those induced by matter fields interacting with the gravitational field. Here we will concentrate on spherically symmetric fluctuations of the black hole horizon. Our results suggest that for a sufficiently massive evaporating black hole, fluctuations can accumulate over time and become significant well before reaching Planckian scales. In addition, we provide the sketch of a proof that the symmetrized two-point function of the stress-tensor operator smeared over a null hypersurface is actually divergent and discuss the implications for the analysis of horizon fluctuations. Finally, a natural way to probe quantum metric fluctuations near the horizon is briefly described

A system engineer's Perspective on Human Errors For a more Effective Management of Human Factors in Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Yong-Hee; Jang, Tong-Il; Lee, Soo-Kil

2007-01-01

The management of human factors in nuclear power plants (NPPs) has become one of the burden factors during their operating period after the design and construction period. Almost every study on the major accidents emphasizes the prominent importance of the human errors. Regardless of the regulatory requirements such as Periodic Safety Review, the management of human factors would be a main issue to reduce the human errors and to enhance the performance of plants. However, it is not easy to find out a more effective perspective on human errors to establish the engineering implementation plan for preventing them. This paper describes a system engineer's perspectives on human errors and discusses its application to the recent study on the human error events in Korean NPPs

Research on the trend of Yen exchange rate and international crude oil price fluctuation affected by Japan’s earthquake

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoguang Li

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Whether this earthquake would become a turning point of the high oil price and whether it would have big impact on yen exchange rate are two issues to be discussed in this paper.Design/methodology/approach: To analyze deeply the internal relations between changes in yen exchange rate caused by Japan’s earthquake and price fluctuation of international crude oil, this research chooses middle rate of yen exchange rate during the 45 days around Japan’s earthquake and price data of international crude oil to do an empirical study, uses VAR model and HP trend decomposition to estimate the mutual effect of yen exchange rate change and price fluctuation of international crude oil in this period.Findings: It has been found in the empirical study with VAR model and HP filter decomposition model on the yen exchange rate and the international crude oil price fluctuation during 45 days around Japan’s earthquake that: the fluctuation of yen exchange rate around the earthquake is one of the main reasons for the drastic fluctuation of international crude oil price in that period. The fluctuation of international crude oil price directly triggered by yen exchange rate occupies 13.54% of its total variance. There is a long-term interactive relationship between yen exchange rate and international crude oil price. The upward trend of international crude oil price after the earthquake was obvious, while yen exchange rate remained relatively stable after the earthquake.Originality/value: As economic globalization goes deeper, the influence of natural disasters on international financial market and world economy will become more and more obvious. It has a great revelatory meaning to studying further each kind of natural disaster’s impacts on international financial market and world economics.

Denitrifying Bioreactors Resist Disturbance from Fluctuating Water Levels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah K. Hathaway

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Nitrate can be removed from wastewater streams, including subsurface agricultural drainage systems, using woodchip bioreactors to promote microbial denitrification. However, the variations in water flow in these systems could make reliable performance from this microbially-mediated process a challenge. In the current work, the effects of fluctuating water levels on nitrate removal, denitrifying activity, and microbial community composition in laboratory-scale bioreactors were investigated. The performance was sensitive to changing water level. An average of 31% nitrate was removed at high water level and 59% at low water level, despite flow adjustments to maintain a constant theoretical hydraulic retention time. The potential activity, as assessed through denitrifying enzyme assays, averaged 0.0008 mg N2O-N/h/dry g woodchip and did not show statistically significant differences between reactors, sampling depths, or operational conditions. In the denitrifying enzyme assays, nitrate removal consistently exceeded nitrous oxide production. The denitrifying bacterial communities were not significantly different from each other, regardless of water level, meaning that the denitrifying bacterial community did not change in response to disturbance. The overall bacterial communities, however, became more distinct between the two reactors when one reactor was operated with periodic disturbances of changing water height, and showed a stronger effect at the most severely disturbed location. The communities were not distinguishable, though, when comparing the same location under high and low water levels, indicating that the communities in the disturbed reactor were adapted to fluctuating conditions rather than to high or low water level. Overall, these results describe a biological treatment process and microbial community that is resistant to disturbance via water level fluctuations.

Preliminary results on σZ and τint fluctuations as a function of incident energy in dissipative heavy ion collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berceanu, I.; Andronic, A.; Duma, M.

1998-01-01

Non-statistical fluctuations in the excitation functions (EF) of dissipative heavy ion collisions (DHIC) was rather unexpected due to the fact that cross sections are always obtained on a 'coarse cell' of TKEL and θ cm . The contribution of a large number of microchannels, N, is expected to attenuate the amplitude of such fluctuations as σ(E) has a χ 2 distribution with 2N degrees of freedom. In the framework of the Partially Overlapping Molecular Levels the observation of the fluctuations of the cross section as a function of the incident energy is explained by the fact that the levels of the dinuclear system formed in the first stage of a dissipative process are excited in a region of low density situated in the vicinity of the yrast line. The time evolution of dinuclear (DNS) system with different mass asymmetries with the total mass of the nuclear system 19 F + 27 Al system configuration and its time evolution, the excitation function for this system has been measured between 111.4 MeV and 136.9 MeV with a 250 keV energy step. Fluctuations with amplitude larger than the statistical errors were observed. Large Z and angular cross correlation coefficients show their nonstatistical nature. An average energy correlation width of 170±65 keV, to which corresponds a DNS lifetime τ int (3.9 ± 1.1)·10 -21 s, was obtained by the energy autocorrelation function (EAF). The experimental EAF secondary structure period agrees with that predicted by Kun model when the deformation of the outgoing fragments is taken into account. To get more insight in the reaction mechanism, the dependence of the charge distribution variance for two total kinetic energy loss windows, W1 = 20 ± 2.5 and W2 = 30 ± 2.5 MeV, was obtained as a function of E lab . The second moments of the experimental charge distributions have been calculated and the obtained values were represented for W1 and W2. Fluctuations with quite large amplitude are present. In a transport approach of deep inelastic

Fluctuation relations for anomalous dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chechkin, A V; Klages, R

2009-01-01

We consider work fluctuation relations (FRs) for generic types of dynamics generating anomalous diffusion: Lévy flights, long-correlated Gaussian processes and time-fractional kinetics. By combining Langevin and kinetic approaches we calculate the probability distributions of mechanical and thermodynamical work in two paradigmatic nonequilibrium situations, respectively: a particle subject to a constant force and a particle in a harmonic potential dragged by a constant force. We check the transient FR for two models exhibiting superdiffusion, where a fluctuation-dissipation relation does not exist, and for two other models displaying subdiffusion, where there is a fluctuation-dissipation relation. In the two former cases the conventional transient FR is not recovered, whereas in the latter two it holds either exactly or in the long-time limit. (letter)

Multiscale fluctuations in nuclear response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lacroix, D.; Chomaz, Ph.

1999-01-01

The nuclear collective response is investigated in the framework of a doorway picture in which the spreading width of the collective emotion is described as a coupling to more and more complex configurations. It is shown that this coupling induces fluctuations of the observed strength. In the case of a hierarchy of overlapping decay channels, Ericson fluctuations are observed at different scales. Methods for extracting these scales and the related lifetimes are discussed. Finally, it is shown that the coupling of different states at one level of complexity to some common decay channels at the next level, may produce interference-like patterns in the nuclear response. This quantum effect leads to anew type of fluctuations with a typical width related to the level spacing. (author)

Multiscale fluctuations in nuclear response

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lacroix, D.; Chomaz, Ph

1999-01-01

The nuclear collective response is investigated in the framework of a doorway picture in which the spreading width of the collective emotion is described as a coupling to more and more complex configurations. It is shown that this coupling induces fluctuations of the observed strength. In the case of a hierarchy of overlapping decay channels, Ericson fluctuations are observed at different scales. Methods for extracting these scales and the related lifetimes are discussed. Finally, it is shown that the coupling of different states at one level of complexity to some common decay channels at the next level, may produce interference-like patterns in the nuclear response. This quantum effect leads to anew type of fluctuations with a typical width related to the level spacing. (author) 25 refs.

Pairing fluctuations in trapped Fermi gases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Viverit, Luciano; Bruun, Georg M.; Minguzzi, Anna; Fazio, Rosario

2004-01-01

We examine the contribution of pairing fluctuations to the superfluid order parameter for harmonically trapped atomic Fermi gases in the BCS regime. In the limit of small systems we consider, both analytically and numerically, their space and temperature dependence. We predict a parity effect, i.e., that pairing fluctuations show a maximum or a minimum at the center of the trap, depending on the value of the last occupied shell being even or odd. We propose to detect pairing fluctuations by measuring the density-density correlation function after a ballistic expansion of the gas

A digital method for period measurements in a nuclear reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mundim, Sergio Gorretta

1971-02-01

The present paper begins by giving a theoretical treatment for the nuclear reactor period. The conventional method of measuring the period is analysed and some previously developed digital methods are described. The paper criticises the latter, pointing out some deficiencies which the proposed process is able to eliminate. All errors connected with this process are also analysed. The paper presents suitable solutions to reduce them to a minimum. The total error is found to he less than the error presented by the other methods described. A digital period meter is designed with memory resources and an automatic scaler changer. Integrated circuits specifications are used in it. Real time experiments with nuclear reactors were made in order to check te validity of the method. The data acquired were applied to a simulated digital period meter implemented in a general purpose computer. The nuclear part of the work was developed at the 'Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear' and the simulation work was dane at the 'Departamento de Calculo Cientifico' of COPPE, which also advised the author in the completion of this thesis. (author)

On the relationship between atmospheric circulation and the fluctuations in the sea ice extents of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas

Science.gov (United States)

Cavalieri, D. J.; Parkinson, C. L.

1987-01-01

The influence of the hemispheric atmospheric circulation on the sea ice covers of the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk is examined using data obtained with the Nimbus 5 electrically scanning microwave radiometer for the four winters of the 1973-1976 period. The 3-day averaged sea ice extent data were used to establish periods for which there is an out-of-phase relationship between fluctuations of the two ice covers. A comparison of the sea-level atmospheric pressure field with the seasonal, interannual, and short-term sea ice fluctuations reveal an association between changes in the phase and the amplitude of the long waves in the atmosphere and advance and retreat of Arctic ice covers.

Density Fluctuations in a Polar Coronal Hole

Science.gov (United States)

Hahn, Michael; D’Huys, Elke; Savin, Daniel Wolf

2018-06-01

We have measured the root-mean-square (rms) amplitude of intensity fluctuations, ΔI, in plume and interplume regions of a polar coronal hole. These intensity fluctuations correspond to density fluctuations. Using data from the Sun Watcher using the Active Pixel System detector and Image Processing on the Project for Onboard Autonomy (Proba2), our results extend up to a height of about 1.35 R ⊙. One advantage of the rms analysis is that it does not rely on a detailed evaluation of the power spectrum, which is limited by noise levels to low heights in the corona. The rms approach can be performed up to larger heights where the noise level is greater, provided that the noise itself can be quantified. At low heights, both the absolute ΔI, and the amplitude relative to the mean intensity, ΔI/I, decrease with height. However, starting at about 1.2 R ⊙, ΔI/I increases, reaching 20%–40% by 1.35 R ⊙. This corresponds to density fluctuations of Δn e/n e ≈ 10%–20%. The increasing relative amplitude implies that the density fluctuations are generated in the corona itself. One possibility is that the density fluctuations are generated by an instability of Alfvén waves. This generation mechanism is consistent with some theoretical models and with observations of Alfvén wave amplitudes in coronal holes. Although we find that the energy of the observed density fluctuations is small, these fluctuations are likely to play an important indirect role in coronal heating by promoting the reflection of Alfvén waves and driving turbulence.

Statistical fluctuations of the number of neutrons in a pile; Fluctuations statistiques du nombre de neutrons dans une pile

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Raievski, V [Commissariat a l' Energie Atomique, Saclay (France). Centre d' Etudes Nucleaires

1958-07-01

The theory of the statistical fluctuations in a pile is extended to the space dependent case, and gives the fluctuations of the number of neutrons in a cell of the core or reflector of the pile. This number changes through elementary processes occurring at random, which are, capture, source, fission and scattering. Of all these processes, fission is the only one which changes more than one neutron at a time and so is responsible of the deviation of the fluctuations from a Poisson law. The importance of this deviation depends on the dimensions of the cell compared to the slowing down length. When the dimensions are small, the fluctuations close to a Poisson law. (author) [French] La theorie des fluctuations statistiques est etendue au cas local et donne les fluctuations du nombre de neutrons dans une cellule situee dans le coeur ou le reflecteur de la pile. Ce nombre evolue au cours du temps sous l'influence de phenomenes aleatoires qui sont la capture, la diffusion, les sources et les neutrons secondaires de fission. L'emission simultanee de plusieurs neutrons distingue ce phenomene des precedents qui n'affectent qu'un neutron individuellement. L'importance de ce phenomene sur la loi de fluctuation depend des dimensions de la cellule par rapport a la longueur de ralentissement. Quand ces dimensions sont petites, le caractere particulier de ce phenomene disparait. (auteur)

Fluctuating hydrodynamics for ionic liquids

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lazaridis, Konstantinos [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Washington State University, Pullman, 99163 (United States); Wickham, Logan [Department of Computer Science, Washington State University, Richland, 99354 (United States); Voulgarakis, Nikolaos, E-mail: n.voulgarakis@wsu.edu [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Washington State University, Pullman, 99163 (United States)

2017-04-25

We present a mean-field fluctuating hydrodynamics (FHD) method for studying the structural and transport properties of ionic liquids in bulk and near electrified surfaces. The free energy of the system consists of two competing terms: (1) a Landau–Lifshitz functional that models the spontaneous separation of the ionic groups, and (2) the standard mean-field electrostatic interaction between the ions in the liquid. The numerical approach used to solve the resulting FHD-Poisson equations is very efficient and models thermal fluctuations with remarkable accuracy. Such density fluctuations are sufficiently strong to excite the experimentally observed spontaneous formation of liquid nano-domains. Statistical analysis of our simulations provides quantitative information about the properties of ionic liquids, such as the mixing quality, stability, and the size of the nano-domains. Our model, thus, can be adequately parameterized by directly comparing our prediction with experimental measurements and all-atom simulations. Conclusively, this work can serve as a practical mathematical tool for testing various theories and designing more efficient mixtures of ionic liquids. - Highlights: • A new fluctuating hydrodynamics method for ionic liquids. • Description of ionic liquid morphology in bulk and near electrified surfaces. • Direct comparison with experimental measurements.

Extreme concentration fluctuations due to local reversibility of mixing in turbulent flows

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Hua; Francois, Nicolas; Punzmann, Horst; Szewc, Kamil; Shats, Michael

2018-05-01

Mixing of a passive scalar in a fluid (e.g. a radioactive spill in the ocean) is the irreversible process towards homogeneous distribution of a substance. In a moving fluid, due to the chaotic advection [H. Aref, J. Fluid Mech. 143 (1984) 1; J. M. Ottino, The Kinematics of Mixing: Stretching,Chaos and Transport (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989)] mixing is much faster than if driven by molecular diffusion only. Turbulence is known as the most efficient mixing flow [B. I. Shraiman and E. D. Siggia, Nature 405 (2000) 639]. We show that in contrast to spatially periodic flows, two-dimensional turbulence exhibits local reversibility in mixing, which leads to the generation of unpredictable strong fluctuations in the scalar concentration. These fluctuations can also be detected from the analysis of the fluid particle trajectories of the underlying flow.

Neural prediction errors reveal a risk-sensitive reinforcement-learning process in the human brain.

Science.gov (United States)

Niv, Yael; Edlund, Jeffrey A; Dayan, Peter; O'Doherty, John P

2012-01-11

Humans and animals are exquisitely, though idiosyncratically, sensitive to risk or variance in the outcomes of their actions. Economic, psychological, and neural aspects of this are well studied when information about risk is provided explicitly. However, we must normally learn about outcomes from experience, through trial and error. Traditional models of such reinforcement learning focus on learning about the mean reward value of cues and ignore higher order moments such as variance. We used fMRI to test whether the neural correlates of human reinforcement learning are sensitive to experienced risk. Our analysis focused on anatomically delineated regions of a priori interest in the nucleus accumbens, where blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals have been suggested as correlating with quantities derived from reinforcement learning. We first provide unbiased evidence that the raw BOLD signal in these regions corresponds closely to a reward prediction error. We then derive from this signal the learned values of cues that predict rewards of equal mean but different variance and show that these values are indeed modulated by experienced risk. Moreover, a close neurometric-psychometric coupling exists between the fluctuations of the experience-based evaluations of risky options that we measured neurally and the fluctuations in behavioral risk aversion. This suggests that risk sensitivity is integral to human learning, illuminating economic models of choice, neuroscientific models of affective learning, and the workings of the underlying neural mechanisms.

Does water-level fluctuation affect mercury methylation in wetland soils?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Branfireun, B.A.; Mitchell, C.P.J.; Iraci, J.M. [Toronto Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Geography; Krabbenhoft, D.P. [United States Geological Survey, Middleton, WI (United States); Fowle, D.A. [Kansas Univ., Lawrence, KS (United States). Dept. of Geology; Neudahl, L. [Minnesota Power, Duluth, MN (United States)

2006-07-01

Mercury (Hg) concentrations in fish vary considerably in freshwater lakes and reservoirs. However, the variations are not generally consistent with physical factors such as basin characteristics, wetland cover or lake chemistry. Pronounced differences in Hg concentrations in fish have been noted in the reservoirs of the St. Louis River system near Duluth Minnesota. The differences were observed between headwater reservoir systems with seasonal flooding and drawdown, and a peaking reservoir with approximately daily water level fluctuations during seasonal lower flow periods. It was suggested that these differences could be attributed to water level fluctuations in the reservoir which influenced the actual production of methylmercury (MeHg) in the surrounding wetland soils. In response to this hypothesis, the authors investigated the role of water level fluctuation in the production and mobilization of MeHg in sediments from wetlands that lie adjacent to a headwater reservoir, a peaking reservoir, and a nearby natural flowage lake used as a control. Preliminary field surveys of the wetland soils revealed that although the average MeHg concentrations in the headwater and peaking reservoir wetlands were not considerably different, both were much higher than the natural lake. Each site demonstrated high variability, but maximum MeHg concentrations ranged from 29.2 ng/g for the peaking reservoir to 4.44 ng/g at the natural lake. A laboratory experiment was therefore performed in which sediments from each wetland were subjected to different water level regimes. The purpose was to assess Hg methylation potential. Stable Hg isotopes were used at the beginning and end of the experiment. In order to determine if water level fluctuation can significantly change the methylation potential of wetland soils on its own, the microbial consortia will also be assessed during the laboratory experiment.

Fluctuations in high-energy particle collisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gronqvist, Hanna

2016-01-01

We study fluctuations that are omnipresent in high-energy particle collisions. These fluctuations can be either of either classical or quantum origin and we will study both. Firstly, we consider the type of quantum fluctuations that arise in proton-proton collisions. These are computable perturbatively in quantum field theory and we will focus on a specific class of diagrams in this set-up. Secondly, we will consider the fluctuations that are present in collisions between nuclei that can be heavier than protons. These are the quantum laws of nature that describe the positions of nucleons within a nucleus, but also the hydrodynamic fluctuations of classical, thermal origin that affect the evolution of the medium produced in heavy-ion collisions. The fluctuations arising in proton-proton collisions can be computed analytically up to a certain order in perturbative quantum field theory. We will focus on one-loop diagrams of a fixed topology. Loop diagrams give rise to integrals that typically are hard to evaluate. We show how modern mathematical methods can be used to ease their computation. We will study the relations among unitarity cuts of a diagram, the discontinuity across the corresponding branch cut and the coproduct. We show how the original integral corresponding to a given diagram can be reconstructed from the information contained in the coproduct. We expect that these methods can be applied to solve more complicated topologies and help in the computation of new amplitudes in the future. Finally, we study the two types of fluctuations arising in heavy-ion collisions. These are related either to the initial state or the intermediate state of matter produced in such collisions. The initial state fluctuations are experimentally observed to give rise to non-Gaussianities in the final-state spectra. We show how these non-Gaussianities can be explained by the random position and interaction energy of 'sources' in the colliding nuclei. Furthermore, we

The temporal spectrum of adult mosquito population fluctuations: conceptual and modeling implications.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yun Jian

Full Text Available An improved understanding of mosquito population dynamics under natural environmental forcing requires adequate field observations spanning the full range of temporal scales over which mosquito abundance fluctuates in natural conditions. Here we analyze a 9-year daily time series of uninterrupted observations of adult mosquito abundance for multiple mosquito species in North Carolina to identify characteristic scales of temporal variability, the processes generating them, and the representativeness of observations at different sampling resolutions. We focus in particular on Aedes vexans and Culiseta melanura and, using a combination of spectral analysis and modeling, we find significant population fluctuations with characteristic periodicity between 2 days and several years. Population dynamical modelling suggests that the observed fast fluctuations scales (2 days-weeks are importantly affected by a varying mosquito activity in response to rapid changes in meteorological conditions, a process neglected in most representations of mosquito population dynamics. We further suggest that the range of time scales over which adult mosquito population variability takes place can be divided into three main parts. At small time scales (indicatively 2 days-1 month observed population fluctuations are mainly driven by behavioral responses to rapid changes in weather conditions. At intermediate scales (1 to several month environmentally-forced fluctuations in generation times, mortality rates, and density dependence determine the population characteristic response times. At longer scales (annual to multi-annual mosquito populations follow seasonal and inter-annual environmental changes. We conclude that observations of adult mosquito populations should be based on a sub-weekly sampling frequency and that predictive models of mosquito abundance must include behavioral dynamics to separate the effects of a varying mosquito activity from actual changes in the

Real Exchange Rate Fluctuations and the Business Cycle: Evidence from Japan

OpenAIRE

Bankim Chadha; Eswar Prasad

1997-01-01

This paper analyzes the relationship between the real exchange rate and the business cycle in Japan during the floating rate period. A structural vector autoregression is used to identify different types of macroeconomic shocks that determine fluctuations in aggregate output and the real exchange rate. Relative nominal and real demand shocks are found to be the main determinants of variation in real exchange rate changes, whereas relative output growth is driven primarily by supply shocks. Hi...

Wrong decisions in radiology. Analysis of causes and strategies for error prevention

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lackner, Klaus-Juergen; Krug, Kathrin Barbara

2009-01-01

The book covers observations on errors concerning radiological decisions within a ten-year period. The compiled information is supposed to prevent similar errors in the future. The case studies cover the following issues: cranium, thorax, mamma, abdomen (liver, pancreas, colon), (gastrointestinal tract, urogenital tract), spinal cord, skeleton and blood vessels.

Decreasing patient identification band errors by standardizing processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Walley, Susan Chu; Berger, Stephanie; Harris, Yolanda; Gallizzi, Gina; Hayes, Leslie

2013-04-01

Patient identification (ID) bands are an essential component in patient ID. Quality improvement methodology has been applied as a model to reduce ID band errors although previous studies have not addressed standardization of ID bands. Our specific aim was to decrease ID band errors by 50% in a 12-month period. The Six Sigma DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) quality improvement model was the framework for this study. ID bands at a tertiary care pediatric hospital were audited from January 2011 to January 2012 with continued audits to June 2012 to confirm the new process was in control. After analysis, the major improvement strategy implemented was standardization of styles of ID bands and labels. Additional interventions included educational initiatives regarding the new ID band processes and disseminating institutional and nursing unit data. A total of 4556 ID bands were audited with a preimprovement ID band error average rate of 9.2%. Significant variation in the ID band process was observed, including styles of ID bands. Interventions were focused on standardization of the ID band and labels. The ID band error rate improved to 5.2% in 9 months (95% confidence interval: 2.5-5.5; P error rates. This decrease in ID band error rates was maintained over the subsequent 8 months.

Fluctuating and Directional Asymmetry of the Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis: Improving Methods of Morphological Analysis to Explore Species Performance at the Northern Border of Its Range

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dmitry Lajus

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In this work we examined morphological variation at different levels to study performance and population structuring of the blue mussel Mytilus edulis. Our objectives were: (i to develop an integrated technique for analyzing morphological variation in blue mussels and, based on this technique; (ii to perform a morphometric description of mussels from the northern part of their range; and (iii to verify the hypothesis that populations at the outer range of their distribution have reduced performance due to harsh climatic conditions. Means, directional asymmetry (i.e., systematic differences between left and right structures, fluctuating asymmetry (random deviations from perfect symmetry, a measure of developmental instability, factorial variation (difference between total variance and variance of fluctuating asymmetry, an indirect index of genotypic variation, and measurement error were examined for 14 bilateral characters of muscle scars on mussel shells. Also, we analyzed one non-bilateral character. For the first time directional asymmetry—approaching 13% of the right:left ratio—was described in blue mussels. Measurement error, often ignored in morphometric studies, contributed 26% of total variance. Accurately addressing these methodical challenges is key to further and improved ecological interpretations. Morphological differences were found between (i samples from estuarine areas in the White and Pechora Seas and (ii samples from Barents Sea areas with oceanic salinity. Samples from the first group exhibited lower fluctuating asymmetry, indicating higher developmental stability likely due to better feeding conditions and lower factorial variation, which may result from lower genotypic variation. Absence of correlation between fluctuating asymmetry and temperature suggests that low temperatures in the northern border of their range do not degrade the performance of adult blue mussels in this region.

ANALISIS FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI KONSUMSI DI INDONESIA MENGGUNAKAN ERROR CORRECTION MODEL (ECM PERIODE TAHUN 1994.1–2005.4

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Firdayetti SE, MSi

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The aim of the implementation of this research was to know whether the national income, the interest rate of the fixed deposit, and the interest rate of credit had the influence that was significant or not towards consumption in Indonesia, and whether being gotten by long-term and short relations towards consumption. The methodology that was utilised in this research was the Error Correction Model method (ECM that from the OLS method, with before carried out steps as follows, that is the test, the integration test and the test of the co-integration approach of the unit root. And the data that was used in this research was the secondary data in a kwartalan manner in the period 1994:1 up to 2005:4. Was based on results of the research that was carried out, then could be concluded that results of the test of the unit root, showed all variable was not yet stationary and just was stationary in the level test of the integration. While results of the co-integration test showed the stationary consumption model so as to be able to be carried out by the test of ECM. And the results of the Error Correction Model test (ECM showed that in the long term the national income variable had the influence that was significant towards consumption. The interest rate of the Fixed Deposit in the long term and short-term did not have the influence on consumption. The interest rate of Credit in the long term and short-term also did not have the influence that was significant towards consumption. Keywords :Real Consumption, Real GDP, Deposit Interest Rate, Credit Interest

Objective and intentional errors on modern geographical maps of Serbia and surroundings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vemić Mirčeta

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The paper analyses the occurrence and the major causes of objective, as well as intentional errors that can be perceived in maps of Serbia and its surroundings over a period of more than one hundred years, when this branch of cartography has manifested visible growth and results. In this respect, the scope and the character of objective, unintentional errors, mostly due to a lack of proper technique and technology for gathering data, gradually decreased over time. These errors were the object of constant professional scrutiny and scientific research, and were not often repeated as a result. On the other hand, intentional errors, which were registered as being of mass proportions at the beginning of the above-mentioned period, mainly occurred as a result of a speculative approach to map making. Such errors, however, did not decrease, but constantly multiplied in terms of their scope and type. Parallel with the above-mentioned errors, in many maps one can perceive intentional errors committed with a view to clouding or distorting the real picture of the mapped phenomena, for the purpose of propaganda, manipulation and various misrepresentations in connection with the turbulent geopolitical events in Serbia and its surroundings over the past thirty years. These errors have rarely been discussed and written about within the scientific community, even though there have been frequent reactions in the press and in other media. This paper lays special emphasis on such intentional errors, which cause a lot of damage to the modern cartography of Serbia, in scientific, social, educational and cultural terms, as well as practical and economic terms, and in terms of use.

Theory of electromagnetic fluctuations for magnetized multi-species plasmas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Navarro, Roberto E., E-mail: roberto.navarro@ug.uchile.cl; Muñoz, Víctor [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago (Chile); Araneda, Jaime [Departamento de Física, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción 4070386 (Chile); Moya, Pablo S. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Heliophysics Science Division, Geospace Physics Laboratory, Mail Code 673, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States); Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C. 20064 (United States); Viñas, Adolfo F. [NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Heliophysics Science Division, Geospace Physics Laboratory, Mail Code 673, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States); Valdivia, Juan A. [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago (Chile); Centro de Estudios Interdisciplinarios Básicos y Aplicados en Complejidad, CEIBA complejidad, Bogotá (Colombia)

2014-09-15

Analysis of electromagnetic fluctuations in plasma provides relevant information about the plasma state and its macroscopic properties. In particular, the solar wind persistently sustains a small but detectable level of magnetic fluctuation power even near thermal equilibrium. These fluctuations may be related to spontaneous electromagnetic fluctuations arising from the discreteness of charged particles. Here, we derive general expressions for the plasma fluctuations in a multi-species plasma following arbitrary distribution functions. This formalism, which generalizes and includes previous works on the subject, is then applied to the generation of electromagnetic fluctuations propagating along a background magnetic field in a plasma of two proton populations described by drifting bi-Maxwellians.

Evaluation of medication errors with implementation of electronic health record technology in the medical intensive care unit

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liao TV

2017-05-01

Full Text Available T Vivian Liao,1 Marina Rabinovich,2 Prasad Abraham,2 Sebastian Perez,3 Christiana DiPlotti,4 Jenny E Han,5 Greg S Martin,5 Eric Honig5 1Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Mercer Health Sciences Center, 2Department of Pharmacy and Clinical Nutrition, Grady Health System, 3Department of Surgery, Emory University, 4Pharmacy, Ingles Markets, 5Department of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA Purpose: Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU are at an increased risk for medication errors (MEs and adverse drug events from multifactorial causes. ME rate ranges from 1.2 to 947 per 1,000 patient days in the medical ICU (MICU. Studies with the implementation of electronic health records (EHR have concluded that it significantly reduced overall prescribing errors and the number of errors that caused patient harm decreased. However, other types of errors, such as wrong dose and omission of required medications increased after EHR implementation. We sought to compare the number of MEs before and after EHR implementation in the MICU, with additional evaluation of error severity.Patients and methods: Prospective, observational, quality improvement study of all patients admitted to a single MICU service at an academic medical center. Patients were evaluated during four periods over 2 years: August–September 2010 (preimplementation; period I, January–February 2011 (2 months postimplementation; period II, August–September 2012 (21 months postimplementation; period III, and January–February 2013 (25 months postimplementation; period IV. All medication orders and administration records were reviewed by an ICU clinical pharmacist and ME was defined as a deviation from established standards for prescribing, dispensing, administering, or documenting medication. The frequency and classification of MEs were compared between groups by chi square; p<0.05 was considered significant.Results: There was a statistically significant increase

Wearing-off in Parkinson’s disease: neuropsychological differences between on and off periods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caillava-Santos F

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Fabiane Caillava-Santos,1,2 Regina Margis,2 Carlos Roberto de Mello Rieder2–4 1Psychology Department, Universidade da Região da Campanha, Bagé, RS, Brazil; 2Curso de Pós-Graduação em Medicina, Ciências Médicas da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; 3Movement Disorders Center, Division of Neurology, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil; 4Movement Disorder Clinic, Division of Neurology, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilBackground: Levodopa-associated motor fluctuations are common complications observed in Parkinson’s disease (PD patients. Although nonmotor fluctuations are a significant cause of morbidity, they frequently are not properly identified. Few studies have characterized the nonmotor emotional fluctuations and their relation to motor fluctuations.Aims: The objective of the present study is to analyze the occurrence of fluctuations in anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as in cognitive function (memory, language, executive function, and attention, and their relation to motor fluctuations in PD patients presenting wearing-off phenomenon.Methods: Twenty-four patients were assessed during the wearing on-off periods. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-State and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI were used to assess anxiety and depression, respectively, and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST, Stroop Test, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT, Weschler Memory Scale - digits (WMS and Controlled Oral Word Association (COWA for assessing executive functions, verbal memory, attention and work memory and verbal fluency, respectively.Results: Patients presented higher depression and anxiety scores in the wearing-off period (P<0.05. Differences were also found in the semantic verbal fluency (P=0.017 and executive function (P=0.008 tests performance.Conclusions: Nonmotor

Human errors related to maintenance and modifications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laakso, K.; Pyy, P.; Reiman, L.

1998-01-01

about weakness in audits made by the operating organisation and in tests relating to plant operation. The number of plant-specific maintenance records used as input material was high and the findings were discussed thoroughly with the plant maintenance personnel. The results indicated that instrumentation is more prone to human error than the rest of maintenance. Most errors stem from refuelling outage periods and about a half of them were identified during the same outage they were committed. Plant modifications are a significant source of common cause failures. The number of dependent errors could be reduced by improved co-ordination and auditing, post-installation checking, training and start-up testing programmes. (orig.)

On the Source of the Systematic Errors in the Quatum Mechanical Calculation of the Superheavy Elements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khazan A.

2010-10-01

Full Text Available It is shown that only the hyperbolic law of the Periodic Table of Elements allows the exact calculation for the atomic masses. The reference data of Periods 8 and 9 manifest a systematic error in the computer software applied to such a calculation (this systematic error increases with the number of the elements in the Table.

On the Source of the Systematic Errors in the Quantum Mechanical Calculation of the Superheavy Elements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khazan A.

2010-10-01

Full Text Available It is shown that only the hyperbolic law of the Periodic Table of Elements allows the exact calculation for the atomic masses. The reference data of Periods 8 and 9 manifest a systematic error in the computer software applied to such a calculation (this systematic error increases with the number of the elements in the Table.

Plasma diffusion due to magnetic field fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okuda, H.; Lee, W.W.; Lin, A.T.

1979-01-01

Plasma diffusion due to magnetic field fluctuations has been studied in two dimensions for a plasma near thermal equilibrium and when the fluctuations are suprathermal. It is found that near thermal equilibrium electron diffusion varies as B -2 when the collisionless skin depth is greater than the thermal electron gyroradius and is generally smaller than the diffusion due to collisions or electrostatic fluctuations for a low-β plasma. When the suprathermal magnetic fluctuation exists because of macroscopic plasma currents, electron diffusion is enhanced due to the coalescence of current filaments and magnetic islands. Magnetic field energy is found to condense to the longest wavelength available in the system and stays there longer than the electron diffusion time scale

Attentiveness cycles: synchronized behavior and aggregate fluctuations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Orlando Gomes

2012-09-01

Full Text Available A sticky-information macroeconomic model is developed in order to analyze the behavior of the time trajectories of the inflation rate and of the output gap, when disturbed by eventual monetary policy shocks. In opposition to what is typical in the literature on this subject, different paces on information updating explicitly lead to a setting with interaction among heterogeneous agents. Specifically, we consider firms with different information updating frequencies whose behavior implies the emergence of attentiveness cycles of possibly large lengths; within these cycles we deduct a differently shaped Phillips curve for each time period. Systematic changes on the form of the aggregate supply relation will be the engine that triggers a sluggish response to shocks and the eventual persistence of business fluctuations.

The impact of a sustainability constraint on the mean-tracking error efficient frontier

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boudt, K.M.R.; Cornelissen, J.; Croux, C.

2013-01-01

Most socially responsible investment funds combine a sustainability objective with a tracking error constraint. We characterize the impact of a sustainability constraint on the mean-tracking error efficient frontier and illustrate this on a universe of US stocks for the period 2003-2010. © 2013

Challenge and Error: Critical Events and Attention-Related Errors

Science.gov (United States)

Cheyne, James Allan; Carriere, Jonathan S. A.; Solman, Grayden J. F.; Smilek, Daniel

2011-01-01

Attention lapses resulting from reactivity to task challenges and their consequences constitute a pervasive factor affecting everyday performance errors and accidents. A bidirectional model of attention lapses (error [image omitted] attention-lapse: Cheyne, Solman, Carriere, & Smilek, 2009) argues that errors beget errors by generating attention…

Study of run time errors of the ATLAS Pixel Detector in the 2012 data taking period

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(INSPIRE)INSPIRE-00339072

2013-05-16

The high resolution silicon Pixel detector is critical in event vertex reconstruction and in particle track reconstruction in the ATLAS detector. During the pixel data taking operation, some modules (Silicon Pixel sensor +Front End Chip+ Module Control Chip (MCC)) go to an auto-disable state, where the Modules don’t send the data for storage. Modules become operational again after reconfiguration. The source of the problem is not fully understood. One possible source of the problem is traced to the occurrence of single event upset (SEU) in the MCC. Such a module goes to either a Timeout or Busy state. This report is the study of different types and rates of errors occurring in the Pixel data taking operation. Also, the study includes the error rate dependency on Pixel detector geometry.

Non-equilibrium fluctuation-induced interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dean, David S

2012-01-01

We discuss non-equilibrium aspects of fluctuation-induced interactions. While the equilibrium behavior of such interactions has been extensively studied and is relatively well understood, the study of these interactions out of equilibrium is relatively new. We discuss recent results on the non-equilibrium behavior of systems whose dynamics is of the dissipative stochastic type and identify a number of outstanding problems concerning non-equilibrium fluctuation-induced interactions.

Error forecasting schemes of error correction at receiver

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhunia, C.T.

2007-08-01

To combat error in computer communication networks, ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) techniques are used. Recently Chakraborty has proposed a simple technique called the packet combining scheme in which error is corrected at the receiver from the erroneous copies. Packet Combining (PC) scheme fails: (i) when bit error locations in erroneous copies are the same and (ii) when multiple bit errors occur. Both these have been addressed recently by two schemes known as Packet Reversed Packet Combining (PRPC) Scheme, and Modified Packet Combining (MPC) Scheme respectively. In the letter, two error forecasting correction schemes are reported, which in combination with PRPC offer higher throughput. (author)

Longitudinal fluctuations and decorrelation of anisotropic flow

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pang, Long-Gang [Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Ruth-Moufang-Strasse 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Petersen, Hannah [Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Ruth-Moufang-Strasse 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Institute for Theoretical Physics, Goethe University, Max-von-Laue-Strasse 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany); GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Planckstr. 1, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Qin, Guang-You [Key Laboratory of Quark & Lepton Physics (MOE) and Institute of Particle Physics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079 (China); Roy, Victor [Institute for Theoretical Physics, Goethe University, Max-von-Laue-Strasse 1, 60438 Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Wang, Xin-Nian [Key Laboratory of Quark & Lepton Physics (MOE) and Institute of Particle Physics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079 (China); Nuclear Science Division MS70R0319, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

2016-12-15

We investigate the decorrelation of 2nd and 3rd order anisotropic flow for charged particles in two different pseudo rapidity (η) windows by varying the pseudo rapidity gap, in an event-by-event (3+1)D ideal hydrodynamic model, with fluctuating initial conditions from A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model. We visualize the parton distribution at initial state for Pb+Pb collisions at LHC and Au+Au collisions at RHIC, and demonstrate the longitudinal fluctuations originating from the asymmetry between forward and backward going participants, the fluctuations of the string length and the fluctuations due to finite number of partons at different beam energies. The decorrelation of anisotropic flow of final hadrons with large η gaps is found to originate from the spatial decorrelation along the longitudinal direction in the AMPT initial conditions through hydrodynamic evolution. The agreement between our results and recent CMS data in most centralities suggests that the string-like mechanism of initial parton production in AMPT model captures the initial longitudinal fluctuation that is responsible for the measured decorrelation of anisotropic flow in Pb+Pb collisions at LHC. Our predictions for Au+Au collisions at the highest RHIC energy show stronger longitudinal decorrelation than at LHC, indicating larger longitudinal fluctuations at lower beam energies.

Edge fluctuation studies in Heliotron J

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mizuuchi, T.; Chechkin, V.V.; Ohashi, K.; Sorokovoy, E.L.; Chechkin, A.V.; Gonchar, V.Yu.; Takahashi, K.; Kobayashi, S.; Nagasaki, K.; Okada, H.; Yamamoto, S.; Sano, F.; Kondo, K.; Nishino, N.; Kawazome, H.; Shidara, H.; Kaneko, S.; Fukagawa, Y.; Morita, Y.; Nakazawa, S.; Nishio, S.; Tsuboi, S.; Yamada, M.

2005-01-01

Low frequency and small-scale fluctuations of density and potential near the last closed flux surface are investigated by using Langmuir probes for the second harmonic ECH plasmas in a helical-axis heliotron device, Heliotron J. The existence of a plasma layer with a radial electric field shear was indicated near the last closed flux surface. Near this layer, the reversal of phase velocity and de-correlation of the fluctuations were observed. On the other hand, it is suggested that a considerable fraction of the fluctuation induced particle flux is carried off through the intermittent events. Preliminary analyses to classify the PDFs of the ion-saturation current fluctuation as stable Levy distributions demonstrate that the Levy index decreases from the inner to the outer region of edge plasma, suggesting that the PDFs near the boundary region of Heliotron J are nearly Gaussian, whereas at the outer regions of plasma they become strongly non-Gaussian

Effects of limited spatial resolution on fluctuation measurements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bravenec, R.V.; Wootton, A.J.

1994-01-01

The finite sample volumes of fluctuation diagnostics distort the measurements not only by averaging the gross fluctuation parameters over the sample volumes, but more importantly (except for collective scattering), by attenuating the shorter wavelength components. In this work the response of various sample volume sizes and orientations to a model fluctuation power spectrum S(k,ω) are examined. The model spectrum is fashioned after observations by far-infrared scattering on TEXT. The sample-volume extent in the direction of propagation of the turbulence is shown to be the most critical - not only does it reduce the measured fluctuation amplitude and correlation length (as does an extent perpendicular to the propagation direction), but also reduces the measured mean frequency and increases the apparent average phase velocity of the fluctuations. The differing sizes, shapes, and orientations of the sample volumes among fluctuation diagnostics, as well as deliberate variations within a single diagnostic, provide information on the form of the underlying turbulence and can be exploited to refine the model

Analysis of irradiation processes for laser-induced periodic surface structures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Eichstädt, J.; Huis In 't Veld, A.J.

2013-01-01

The influence of errors on the irradiation process for laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) was studied theoretically with energy density simulations. Therefore an irradiation model has been extended by a selection of technical variations. The influence of errors has been found in a

Studies of Fluctuation Processes in Nuclear Collisions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ayik, Sakir [Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States). Dept. of Physics

2016-04-14

The standard one-body transport approaches have been extensively applied to investigate heavy-ion collision dynamics at low and intermediate energies. At low energies the approach is the mean-field description of the time-dependent Hartree-Fock (TDHF) theory. At intermediate energies the approach is extended by including a collision term, and its application has been carried out mostly in the semi-classical framework of the Boltzmann-Uhling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) model. The standard transport models provide a good understanding of the average properties of the collision dynamics in terms of the effective interactions in both low and intermediate energies. However, the standard models are inadequate for describing the fluctuation dynamics of collective motion at low energies and disassembling of the nuclear system into fragments at intermediate energies resulting from the growth of density fluctuations in the spinodal region. Our tasks have been to improve the standard transport approaches by incorporating fluctuation mechanisms into the description. There are mainly two different mechanisms for fluctuations: (i) Collisional fluctuations generated by binary nucleon collisions, which provide the dominant mechanism at intermediate energies, and (ii) One-body mechanism or mean-field fluctuations, which is the dominant mechanism at low energies. In the first part of our project, the PI extended the standard transport model at intermediate energies by incorporating collisional mechanism according to the “Generalized Langevin Description” of Mori formalism. The PI and his collaborators carried out a number of applications for describing dynamical mechanism of nuclear multi fragmentations, and nuclear collective response in the semi-classical framework of the approach, which is known as the Boltzmann-Langevin model. In the second part of the project, we considered dynamical description at low energies. Because of the effective Pauli blocking, the collisional dissipation and

Analysis on the dynamic error for optoelectronic scanning coordinate measurement network

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Shendong; Yang, Linghui; Lin, Jiarui; Guo, Siyang; Ren, Yongjie

2018-01-01

Large-scale dynamic three-dimension coordinate measurement technique is eagerly demanded in equipment manufacturing. Noted for advantages of high accuracy, scale expandability and multitask parallel measurement, optoelectronic scanning measurement network has got close attention. It is widely used in large components jointing, spacecraft rendezvous and docking simulation, digital shipbuilding and automated guided vehicle navigation. At present, most research about optoelectronic scanning measurement network is focused on static measurement capacity and research about dynamic accuracy is insufficient. Limited by the measurement principle, the dynamic error is non-negligible and restricts the application. The workshop measurement and positioning system is a representative which can realize dynamic measurement function in theory. In this paper we conduct deep research on dynamic error resources and divide them two parts: phase error and synchronization error. Dynamic error model is constructed. Based on the theory above, simulation about dynamic error is carried out. Dynamic error is quantized and the rule of volatility and periodicity has been found. Dynamic error characteristics are shown in detail. The research result lays foundation for further accuracy improvement.

Modeling Periodic Impulsive Effects on Online TV Series Diffusion.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Peihua; Zhu, Anding; Fang, Qiwen; Wang, Xi

Online broadcasting substantially affects the production, distribution, and profit of TV series. In addition, online word-of-mouth significantly affects the diffusion of TV series. Because on-demand streaming rates are the most important factor that influences the earnings of online video suppliers, streaming statistics and forecasting trends are valuable. In this paper, we investigate the effects of periodic impulsive stimulation and pre-launch promotion on on-demand streaming dynamics. We consider imbalanced audience feverish distribution using an impulsive susceptible-infected-removed(SIR)-like model. In addition, we perform a correlation analysis of online buzz volume based on Baidu Index data. We propose a PI-SIR model to evolve audience dynamics and translate them into on-demand streaming fluctuations, which can be observed and comprehended by online video suppliers. Six South Korean TV series datasets are used to test the model. We develop a coarse-to-fine two-step fitting scheme to estimate the model parameters, first by fitting inter-period accumulation and then by fitting inner-period feverish distribution. We find that audience members display similar viewing habits. That is, they seek new episodes every update day but fade away. This outcome means that impulsive intensity plays a crucial role in on-demand streaming diffusion. In addition, the initial audience size and online buzz are significant factors. On-demand streaming fluctuation is highly correlated with online buzz fluctuation. To stimulate audience attention and interpersonal diffusion, it is worthwhile to invest in promotion near update days. Strong pre-launch promotion is also a good marketing tool to improve overall performance. It is not advisable for online video providers to promote several popular TV series on the same update day. Inter-period accumulation is a feasible forecasting tool to predict the future trend of the on-demand streaming amount. The buzz in public social communities

Modeling Periodic Impulsive Effects on Online TV Series Diffusion.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peihua Fu

Full Text Available Online broadcasting substantially affects the production, distribution, and profit of TV series. In addition, online word-of-mouth significantly affects the diffusion of TV series. Because on-demand streaming rates are the most important factor that influences the earnings of online video suppliers, streaming statistics and forecasting trends are valuable. In this paper, we investigate the effects of periodic impulsive stimulation and pre-launch promotion on on-demand streaming dynamics. We consider imbalanced audience feverish distribution using an impulsive susceptible-infected-removed(SIR-like model. In addition, we perform a correlation analysis of online buzz volume based on Baidu Index data.We propose a PI-SIR model to evolve audience dynamics and translate them into on-demand streaming fluctuations, which can be observed and comprehended by online video suppliers. Six South Korean TV series datasets are used to test the model. We develop a coarse-to-fine two-step fitting scheme to estimate the model parameters, first by fitting inter-period accumulation and then by fitting inner-period feverish distribution.We find that audience members display similar viewing habits. That is, they seek new episodes every update day but fade away. This outcome means that impulsive intensity plays a crucial role in on-demand streaming diffusion. In addition, the initial audience size and online buzz are significant factors. On-demand streaming fluctuation is highly correlated with online buzz fluctuation.To stimulate audience attention and interpersonal diffusion, it is worthwhile to invest in promotion near update days. Strong pre-launch promotion is also a good marketing tool to improve overall performance. It is not advisable for online video providers to promote several popular TV series on the same update day. Inter-period accumulation is a feasible forecasting tool to predict the future trend of the on-demand streaming amount. The buzz in public

Modeling Periodic Impulsive Effects on Online TV Series Diffusion

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Qiwen; Wang, Xi

2016-01-01

Background Online broadcasting substantially affects the production, distribution, and profit of TV series. In addition, online word-of-mouth significantly affects the diffusion of TV series. Because on-demand streaming rates are the most important factor that influences the earnings of online video suppliers, streaming statistics and forecasting trends are valuable. In this paper, we investigate the effects of periodic impulsive stimulation and pre-launch promotion on on-demand streaming dynamics. We consider imbalanced audience feverish distribution using an impulsive susceptible-infected-removed(SIR)-like model. In addition, we perform a correlation analysis of online buzz volume based on Baidu Index data. Methods We propose a PI-SIR model to evolve audience dynamics and translate them into on-demand streaming fluctuations, which can be observed and comprehended by online video suppliers. Six South Korean TV series datasets are used to test the model. We develop a coarse-to-fine two-step fitting scheme to estimate the model parameters, first by fitting inter-period accumulation and then by fitting inner-period feverish distribution. Results We find that audience members display similar viewing habits. That is, they seek new episodes every update day but fade away. This outcome means that impulsive intensity plays a crucial role in on-demand streaming diffusion. In addition, the initial audience size and online buzz are significant factors. On-demand streaming fluctuation is highly correlated with online buzz fluctuation. Conclusion To stimulate audience attention and interpersonal diffusion, it is worthwhile to invest in promotion near update days. Strong pre-launch promotion is also a good marketing tool to improve overall performance. It is not advisable for online video providers to promote several popular TV series on the same update day. Inter-period accumulation is a feasible forecasting tool to predict the future trend of the on-demand streaming amount

Short-term fluctuations in bivalve larvae compared with some environmental factors in a coastal lagoon (South Portugal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis M.Z. Chícaro

2000-12-01

Full Text Available In this study, short-term fluctuations in bivalve larvae were compared with some triggering factors for a period of sixteen months. Data on the abundance of planktonic larvae, collected two to three times a week were related to water temperature, salinity, wind velocity, tidal amplitude and chlorophyll a. Higher densities of planktonic bivalve larvae were caught between May and August, but intense fluctuations in abundance were observed. Planktonic bivalve larvae of eighteen taxa were identified. Larvae of Mytilus galloprovincialis, Cerastoderma edule, Ruditapes decussates and Venerupis spp. were the most abundant. The seasonal fluctuations of bivalve abundance seem to be controlled by temperature, the major factor in the timing of the reproduction of bivalves. Nevertheless, advection may be also a key factor during the planktonic life of bivalve species in coastal systems, such as the Ria Formosa.

Charge Fluctuations of an Uncharged Black Hole

OpenAIRE

Schiffer, Marcelo

2016-01-01

In this paper we calculate charge fluctuations of a Schwarzschild black-hole of mass $M$ confined within a perfectly reflecting cavity of radius R in thermal equilibrium with various species of radiation and fermions . Charge conservation is constrained by a Lagrange multiplier (the chemical potential). Black hole charge fluctuations are expected owing to continuous absorption and emission of particles by the black hole. For black holes much more massive than $10^{16} g$ , these fluctuations ...

Coherent charge fluctuations in Josephson junctions and the oscillations of the effective capacitance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krive, I.V.; Rozhavsky, A.S.

1990-07-01

We predict novel voltage oscillations of the effective capacitance of small Josephson junctions. This macroscopic effect involves coherent charge fluctuations with charge 2e, leading to a period of oscillations, V c = 2e/C, where C is the junction capacitance. The amplitude of the effect decreases with temperature as exp(-π 2 T/ε c ), where ε c = (2e) 2 /C. (author). 6 refs

Operator errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Knuefer; Lindauer

1980-01-01

Besides that at spectacular events a combination of component failure and human error is often found. Especially the Rasmussen-Report and the German Risk Assessment Study show for pressurised water reactors that human error must not be underestimated. Although operator errors as a form of human error can never be eliminated entirely, they can be minimized and their effects kept within acceptable limits if a thorough training of personnel is combined with an adequate design of the plant against accidents. Contrary to the investigation of engineering errors, the investigation of human errors has so far been carried out with relatively small budgets. Intensified investigations in this field appear to be a worthwhile effort. (orig.)

Quantum fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reynaud, S.; Giacobino, S.; Zinn-Justin, J.

1997-01-01

This course is dedicated to present in a pedagogical manner the recent developments in peculiar fields concerned by quantum fluctuations: quantum noise in optics, light propagation through dielectric media, sub-Poissonian light generated by lasers and masers, quantum non-demolition measurements, quantum electrodynamics applied to cavities and electrical circuits involving superconducting tunnel junctions. (A.C.)

Inclusive bit error rate analysis for coherent optical code-division multiple-access system

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, Gilad; Sadot, Dan

2002-06-01

Inclusive noise and bit error rate (BER) analysis for optical code-division multiplexing (OCDM) using coherence techniques is presented. The analysis contains crosstalk calculation of the mutual field variance for different number of users. It is shown that the crosstalk noise depends deeply on the receiver integration time, the laser coherence time, and the number of users. In addition, analytical results of the power fluctuation at the received channel due to the data modulation at the rejected channels are presented. The analysis also includes amplified spontaneous emission (ASE)-related noise effects of in-line amplifiers in a long-distance communication link.

Multi moment cancellation of participant fluctuations

OpenAIRE

Begun, Viktor; Mackowiak-Pawlowska, Maja

2017-01-01

We summarize the new method for the correction of participant fluctuations in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. It allows to estimate a fluctuation baseline in comparison to a useful signal. In particular cases of a weak signal compared to baseline, it allows to cancel the baseline contribution from participants.

Phase space fluctuations and dynamics of fluctuations of collective variables

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benhassine, B.; Farine, M.; Idier, D.; Remaud, B.; Sebille, F. (Lab. de Physique Nucleaire, IN2P3/CNRS, 44 - Nantes (France) Nantes Univ., 44 (France)); Hernandez, E.S. (Dept. de Fisica, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires (Argentina))

1992-08-03

Within the framework of theoretical approaches based on stochastic transport equation of one-body distribution function, a numerical treatment of the fluctuations of collective observables is studied and checked in comparison with analytical results either at equilibrium or close to it. (orig.).

Phase space fluctuations and dynamics of fluctuations of collective variables

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benhassine, B.; Farine, M.; Idier, D.; Remaud, B.; Sebille, F.; Hernandez, E.S.

1992-01-01

Within the framework of theoretical approaches based on stochastic transport equation of one-body distribution function, a numerical treatment of the fluctuations of collective observables is studied and checked in comparison with analytical results either at equilibrium or close to it. (orig.)

Uncertainty on PIV mean and fluctuating velocity due to bias and random errors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)