Williams College

About: Williams College is a education organization based out in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Politics. The organization has 2257 authors who have published 5015 publications receiving 213160 citations. The organization is also known as: Williams.

Waves in pluto's upper atmosphere

Abstract: Observations of the 2007 March 18 occultation of the star P445.3 (2UCAC 25823784; R = 15.3) by Pluto were obtained at high time resolution at five sites across the western United States and reduced to produce light curves for each station using standard aperture photometry. Global models of Pluto’s upper atmosphere are fitted simultaneously to all resulting light curves. The results of these model fits indicate that the structure of Pluto’s upper atmosphere is essentially unchanged since the previous occultation observed in 2006, leading to a well-constrained measurement of the atmospheric half-light radius at 1291 ± 5 km. These results also confirm that the significant increase in atmospheric pressure detected between 1988 and 2002 has ceased. Inversion of the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory light curves with unprecedented signal-to-noise ratios reveals significant oscillations in the number density, pressure, and temperature profiles of Pluto’s atmosphere. Detailed analysis of this highest resolution light curve indicates that these variations in Pluto’s upper atmospheric structure exhibit a previously unseen oscillatory structure with strong correlations of features among locations separated by almost 1200 km in Pluto’s atmosphere. Thus, we conclude that these variations are caused by some form of large-scale atmospheric waves. Interpreting these oscillations as Rossby (planetary) waves allows us to establish an upper limit of less than 3ms −1 for horizontal wind speeds in the sampled region (radius 1340–1460 km) of Pluto’s upper atmosphere.

Health hackathons: theatre or substance? A survey assessment of outcomes from healthcare-focused hackathons in three countries

Abstract: Background Healthcare-focused hackathons are 48-hour platforms intended to accelerate novel medical technology. However, debate exists about how much they contribute to medical technology innovation. The Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies (CAMTech) has developed a three-pronged model to maximise their effectiveness. To gauge the success of this model, we examined follow-up outcomes. Methods Outcomes of 12 hackathons from 2012 to 2015 in India, Uganda and the USA were measured using emailed surveys. To minimise response bias, non-responding teams were coded as having made no progress. Results 331 individuals provided information on 196 of 356 projects (55.1% response rate), with no difference in responses from teams participating in different countries (Cramer9s V=0.09, p=0.17). 30.3% of projects had made progress after a mean of 12.2 months. 88 (24.7%) teams had initiated pilot testing, with 42 (11.8%) piloting with care providers and 24 (6.7%) with patients. Overall, 97 teams (8.1 per hackathon) drafted business plans, 22 (1.8 per hackathon) had filed patents on their innovations and 15 (1.3 per hackathon) had formed new companies. Teams raised US$64.08 million in funding (average US$5.34 million per hackathon; median award size of $1800). In addition, 108 teams (30.3%) reported at least one member working on additional technologies with people they met at a hackathon. Individual confidence to address medical technology challenges was significantly increased after attending (t(1282)=192.77, p 0.001). Conclusion CAMTech healthcare hackathons lead to consistent output with respect to medical technology innovation, including clinical trials, business plan development, securing investment capital/funding and new company formation.