View factor computer program (VIEW)

Existing view factor program, RAVFAC, was modified to accept NASTRAN and/or RAVFAC surface descriptions. Output formatting was altered to produce view factor matrices which could be directly input to NASTRAN

The new (liberal) eugenics

Despite the Nazi horrors, in 1953 the new eugenics was founded, when Watson and Crick postulated the double helix of DNA as the basis of chemical heredity. In 1961, scientists have deciphered the genetic code of DNA, laying the groundwork for code manipulation and the potential building of new life forms. After thirty years from the discovery of the DNA structure, the experimenters began to carry out the first clinical studies of human somatic cell therapy. The practice of prenatal genetic tests identifies genes or unwanted genetic markers. Parents can choose to continue pregnancy or give up the fetus. Once the preimplantation genetic diagnosis occurs, potential parents can choose to use in vitro fertilization and then test early embryonic cells to identify embryos with genes they prefer or avoid. Because of concerns about eugenics, genetic counseling is based on a "non-directive" policy to ensure respect for reproductive autonomy. The argument for this counseling service is that we should balance parental autonomy with child's autonomy in the future. Specialists have not yet given a clear answer to the question of whether these practices should be considered eugenic practices, or if they are moral practices. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28777.9584

The new (liberal) eugenics

Despite the Nazi horrors, in 1953 the new eugenics was founded, when Watson and Crick postulated the double helix of DNA as the basis of chemical heredity. In 1961, scientists have deciphered the genetic code of DNA, laying the groundwork for code manipulation and the potential building of new life forms. After thirty years from the discovery of the DNA structure, the experimenters began to carry out the first clinical studies of human somatic cell therapy. The practice of prenatal genetic tests identifies genes or unwanted genetic markers. Parents can choose to continue pregnancy or give up the fetus. Once the preimplantation genetic diagnosis occurs, potential parents can choose to use in vitro fertilization and then test early embryonic cells to identify embryos with genes they prefer or avoid. Because of concerns about eugenics, genetic counseling is based on a "non-directive" policy to ensure respect for reproductive autonomy. The argument for this counseling service is that we should balance parental autonomy with child's autonomy in the future. Specialists have not yet given a clear answer to the question of whether these practices should be considered eugenic practices, or if they are moral practices. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28777.9584

Spin Correlation in tt-bar Production from pp-bar Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV

The D0 collaboration has performed a study of spin correlation in tt-bar production for the process tt-bar to bb-bar W^+W^-, where the W bosons decay to e-nu or mu-nu. A sample of six events was collected during an exposure of the D0 detector to an integrated luminosity of approximately 125 pb^-1 of sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV pp-bar collisions. The standard model (SM) predicts that the short lifetime of the top quark ensures the transmission of any spin information at production to the tt-bar decay products. The degree of spin correlation is characterized by a correlation coefficient k. We find that k>-0.25 at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the SM prediction of k=0.88.Comment: Submitted to PRL, Added references, minor changes to tex

The Evolution and Jurisprudence of The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review

The past eight years have witnessed an explosion in the number of publicly-available opinions and orders issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. From only six opinions in the public domain 1978–2012, by early 2021, eighty-eight opinions had been released. The sharp departure is even more pronounced in relation to orders: from only one order declassified during 1978–2012, since 2013, 288 have been formally released. These documents highlight how the courts’s roles have evolved since 2004 and reveal four key areas that dominate the courts’ jurisprudence: its position as a specialized, Article III court; the effort to understand the existing statutory language in light of new and emerging technologies; the tension among constitutional rights, the need for information, and the implications of increasingly broad surveillance programs; and the courts’s growing role in conducting oversight and having to respond to Executive Branch errors, noncompliance, and misrepresentations. This Article details these tensions in light of the courts’ jurisprudence, noting the areas where we are likely to continue to see concerns in the implementation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act going forward

Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment (LACIE). Worst case sun elevations for LACIE countries

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

The evolution of GX 339-4 in the low-hard state as seen by NuSTAR and Swift

We analyze eleven NuSTAR and Swift observations of the black hole X-ray binary GX 339-4 in the hard state, six of which were taken during the end of the 2015 outburst, five during a failed outburst in 2013. These observations cover luminosities from 0.5%-5% of the Eddington luminosity. Implementing the most recent version of the reflection model relxillCp, we perform simultaneous spectral fits on both datasets to track the evolution of the properties in the accretion disk including the inner edge radius, the ionization, and temperature of the thermal emission. We also constrain the photon index and electron temperature of the primary source (the "corona"). We find the disk becomes more truncated when the luminosity decreases, and observe a maximum truncation radius of $37R_g$. We also explore a self-consistent model under the framework of coronal Comptonization, and find consistent results regarding the disk truncation in the 2015 data, providing a more physical preferred fit for the 2013 observations.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa