14,373 research outputs found
Asbestos Trust Transparency
Originally and for many years, the primary defendants in asbestos cases were companies that mined asbestos or manufactured amphibole-containing thermal insulation. Hundreds of thousands of claims were filed against the major asbestos producers, such as Johns-Manville Corp., Owens Corning Corp., and W.R. Grace & Co. By the late 1990s, asbestos litigation had reached such proportions that the U.S. Supreme Court noted the “elephantine mass” of cases and referred to the litigation as a “crisis.” Mass filings pressured “most of the lead defendants and scores of other companies” into bankruptcy, including virtually all manufacturers of asbestos-containing thermal insulation. Following a 2000–2002 wave of bankruptcies among asbestos manufacturers, plaintiffs’ lawyers began “a search for new recruits to fill the gap in the ranks of defendants.” Many of today’s asbestos defendants are formerly peripheral or new defendants associated with chrysotile-containing products “such as gaskets, pumps, automotive friction products, and residential construction products.” One plaintiffs’ attorney described the asbestos litigation as an “endless search for a solvent bystander.” This Article argues for legislation, such as that enacted in many states, that requires asbestos plaintiffs to pursue quick compensation from the trusts and allows trust-related exposures and compensation to be properly accounted for in asbestos-related personal injury cases. States with substantial asbestos litigation, such as California, Illinois, New York, and Missouri, need the legislation the most
Macroscopic fe-simulation of residual stresses in thermo-mechanically processed steels considering phase transformation effects
Residual stresses are an important issue as they affect both the manufacturing processes as well as the performance of the final parts. Taking into account the whole process chain of hot forming, the integrated heat treatment provided by a defined temperature profile for cooling of the parts offers a great potential for the targeted adjustment of the desired residual stress state. However, in addition to elastic, plastic and linear thermal strain components, the complex material phenomena arising from phase transformation effects of the polymorphic steels have to be considered in order to predict the residual stresses. These transformation strains account for the plastic deformation at the phase boundary between the emerging and the parent phase. In addition, they are strongly related to the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) phenomena which depend on the stress state. The aim of this study is the investigation of TRIP effects and their impact on residual stresses regarding the typical hot forming steels 1.7225 (DIN: 42CrMo4) and 1.3505 (DIN: 100Cr6) by means of an experimental-numerical approach. The TRIP behaviour of the materials under consideration is integrated into an FE simulation model in the commercial software Simufact.forming for the purpose of residual stress prediction. The experimental thermo-mechanical investigations are carried out using a quenching and forming dilatometer. These experiments are numerically modelled by means of FEM which allows TRIP coefficients to be determined phasespecifically by numerical identification. For validation of the improved FE-model, an experimental thermo-mechanical reference process is considered, in which cylindrical specimens with an eccentric hole are hot formed and subsequently cooled by different temperature routes. Finally, the numerical model is validated by means of a comparison between residual stress states determined with X-ray diffraction and predicted residual stresses from the simulation
Analysis of slow (theta) oscillations as a potential temporal reference frame for information coding in sensory cortices
While sensory neurons carry behaviorally relevant information in responses that often extend over hundreds of milliseconds, the key units of neural information likely consist of much shorter and temporally precise spike patterns. The mechanisms and temporal reference frames by which sensory networks partition responses into these shorter units of information remain unknown. One hypothesis holds that slow oscillations provide a network-intrinsic reference to temporally partitioned spike trains without exploiting the millisecond-precise alignment of spikes to sensory stimuli. We tested this hypothesis on neural responses recorded in visual and auditory cortices of macaque monkeys in response to natural stimuli. Comparing different schemes for response partitioning revealed that theta band oscillations provide a temporal reference that permits extracting significantly more information than can be obtained from spike counts, and sometimes almost as much information as obtained by partitioning spike trains using precisely stimulus-locked time bins. We further tested the robustness of these partitioning schemes to temporal uncertainty in the decoding process and to noise in the sensory input. This revealed that partitioning using an oscillatory reference provides greater robustness than partitioning using precisely stimulus-locked time bins. Overall, these results provide a computational proof of concept for the hypothesis that slow rhythmic network activity may serve as internal reference frame for information coding in sensory cortices and they foster the notion that slow oscillations serve as key elements for the computations underlying perception
"Gauging the Potential for Social Unrest"
It stands to reason that social unrest does not erupt out of the blue. Although there are a great many reasons why social dismay might descend into social disorder, only few yardsticks or indices can plausibly be used to gauge the potential for social unrest (PSU). If policy makers want to undertake public action to prevent social dismay escalating into social disruption, they obviously need to draw on practical sensors. This paper assesses critically the adequacy of two such measures, the polarization (P) index, and the total relative deprivation (TRD) index. The paper proposes a tentative guide to selecting between these two measures. A review of three stylized scenarios suggests that, where income redistributions reduce the number of distinct income groups, and when each group is characterized by a strong sense of within-group identity, the P index surpasses the TRD index as a basis for predicting PSU. When the within-group identification is weak, however, it is better to use the TRD index to predict PSU.Social dismay; Potential for social unrest; Polarization; Total relative deprivation; Policy choice
Job Selection in a Network of Autonomous UAVs for Delivery of Goods
This article analyzes two classes of job selection policies that control how
a network of autonomous aerial vehicles delivers goods from depots to
customers. Customer requests (jobs) occur according to a spatio-temporal
stochastic process not known by the system. If job selection uses a policy in
which the first job (FJ) is served first, the system may collapse to
instability by removing just one vehicle. Policies that serve the nearest job
(NJ) first show such threshold behavior only in some settings and can be
implemented in a distributed manner. The timing of job selection has
significant impact on delivery time and stability for NJ while it has no impact
for FJ. Based on these findings we introduce a methodological approach for
decision-making support to set up and operate such a system, taking into
account the trade-off between monetary cost and service quality. In particular,
we compute a lower bound for the infrastructure expenditure required to achieve
a certain expected delivery time. The approach includes three time horizons:
long-term decisions on the number of depots to deploy in the service area,
mid-term decisions on the number of vehicles to use, and short-term decisions
on the policy to operate the vehicles
CO line emission from galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
We study the CO line luminosity (), the shape of the CO Spectral
Line Energy Distribution (SLED), and the value of the CO-to-
conversion factor in galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). To this aim,
we construct a model that simultaneously takes into account the radiative
transfer and the clumpy structure of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) where the CO
lines are excited. We then use it to post-process state-of-the-art zoomed, high
resolution (), cosmological simulation of a main-sequence
(, ) galaxy, "Alth{\ae}a", at . We find that the CO emission
traces the inner molecular disk () of Alth{\ae}a with
the peak of the CO surface brightness co-located with that of the [CII] 158 emission. Its is comparable
to that observed in local galaxies with similar stellar mass. The high
() gas surface density in
Alth{\ae}a, its large Mach number (\mach), and the warm kinetic
temperature () of GMCs yield a CO SLED peaked at the
CO(7-6) transition, i.e. at relatively high-, and a CO-to-
conversion factor lower than that of the Milky Way. The ALMA observing time
required to detect (resolve) at 5 the CO(7-6) line from galaxies
similar to Alth{\ae}a is h ( h).Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Endoscopic Imaging of Esophageal Lichen Planus
AbstractLichen planus is an inflammatory mucocutaneous disease of unknown pathogenesis with a prevalence of 0.5–2%. Most patients are middle-aged or elderly women. Esophageal involvement seems to be high (50%), but the great majority of patients do not show any symptoms. Endoscopic findings include lacy white papules or submucosal plaques, peeling tissue paper-like pseudomembranes, hyperemic lesions, erosive changes, ulceration, and stenosis. Owing to missing data there are no evidence-based therapeutic recommendations. Probatory therapeutic regimes with use of acute flares of systemic corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, rituximab, and topical corticosteroids have shown positive effects. In case of esophageal stenosis, bougienage is required. Malignant transformation has been reported in rare cases. This article is part of an expert video encyclopedia
Kinematics of galaxies from [CII] line emission
We study the kinematical properties of galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
via the [CII] 158m line emission. The line profile provides information on
the kinematics as well as structural properties such as the presence of a disk
and satellites. To understand how these properties are encoded in the line
profile, first we develop analytical models from which we identify disk
inclination and gas turbulent motions as the key parameters affecting the line
profile. To gain further insights, we use "Althaea", a highly-resolved () simulated prototypical Lyman Break Galaxy, in the redshift range , when the galaxy is in a very active assembling phase. Based on
morphology, we select three main dynamical stages: I) Merger , II) Spiral Disk,
and III) Disturbed Disk. We identify spectral signatures of merger events,
spiral arms, and extra-planar flows in I), II), and III), respectively. We
derive a generalised dynamical mass vs. [CII]-line FWHM relation. If precise
information on the galaxy inclination is (not) available, the returned mass
estimate is accurate within a factor (). A Tully-Fisher relation is
found for the observed high- galaxies, i.e. for which we provide a simple, physically-based
interpretation. Finally, we perform mock ALMA simulations to check the
detectability of [CII]. When seen face-on, Althaea is always detected at ; in the edge-on case it remains undetected because the larger
intrinsic FWHM pushes the line peak flux below detection limit. This suggests
that some of the reported non-detections might be due to inclination effects.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Blinded by the Light: The Third Circuit Curtails the Independent Ricci Defense in NAACP v. North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue
Employment discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and ethnicity has long plagued America’s workforce. Congress passed Title VII to address this concern, which outlawed both intentional and pretextual discrimination—referred to as disparate treatment and disparate impact, respectively. But what happens when two different racial groups bring competing disparate treatment and disparate impact claims seeking to compel an employer to take mutually exclusive actions—one threatening to sue if an employer takes a given action and the other threatening to sue if the employer does not take that same action? Should one claim trump the other? The Supreme Court in Ricci v. DeStefano, carved out a limited defense against a disparate treatment claim where there was a “strong basis in evidence” to believe that not taking the intentionally discriminatory action would result in a disparate impact claim. In NAACP v. North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue the Third Circuit used a novel temporal distinction to restrict the Ricci defense to its facts. This Casebrief argues that the Third Circuit’s decision reinforced the court’s commitment to upholding Title VII’s purpose of eliminating discrimination by narrowly interpreting the available defenses to liability. After all, two wrongs don’t make a right
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