European Philanthropic Support to Address HIV/AIDS in 2010

Analyzes data from a survey of thirty-one European foundations' HIV/AIDS-related funding in 2010 compared with past years, projected funding for 2011, and trends by country of origin, recipient country, types of projects supported, and population served

Channel-type shell construction for rocket engines and the like Patent

Channel-type shell construction for rocket engines and related configuration

New method used to fabricate light-weight heat exchanger for rocket motor

A grooved capstrip, to straddle the metal edges of regenerative cooling channels, increases the strength and heat transfer characteristics of lightweight motor cases. This capstrip is so designed as to form a firm joint between the channels that form the rocket casing wall

Introduction

Over the course of 2 days, in the spring of 2012, a group of scholars met in Hong Kong to discuss one of the most penetrating thinkers of twentieth century social enquiry. Participants offered the only kind of tribute that Robert Nisbet (1913–1996)—American sociologist, historian of ideas, political writer—would have deemed serious. Engaging critically with his ideas, speakers plumbed their sources, assessed their plausibility, enquired into their relevance, and weighed alternative models and hypotheses. This special issue of The American Sociologistis the fruit of those endeavors. Encompassing both his social and his political ideas it is also the first collection of essays ever published on Nisbet’s work. Why might that be? The briefest answer is that while Nisbet’s books are still individually cited and respected, their author does not command the stature, the attention, of such thinkers as Talcott Parsons, C. Wright Mills, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu and Jürgen Habermas. Explaining these writers’ prestige, and Nisbet’s marginality, compels us to recall some of the deepest currents of the social sciences

Intra-ocular pressure normalization technique and equipment

A method and apparatus is described for safely reducing abnormally high intraocular pressure in an eye during a predetermined time interval. This allows maintenance of normal intraocular pressure during glaucoma surgery. A pressure regulator of the spring-biassed diaphragm type is provided with additional bias by a column of liquid. The hypodermic needle can be safely inserted into the anterior chamber of the eye. Liquid is then bled out of the column to reduce the bias on the diaphragm of the pressure regulator and, consequently, the output pressure of the regulator. This lowering pressure of the regulator also occurs in the eye by means of a small second bleed path provided between the pressure regulator and the hypodermic needle

The Role of the Cooling Prescription for Disk Fragmentation: Numerical Convergence & Critical Cooling Parameter in Self-Gravitating Disks

Protoplanetary disks fragment due to gravitational instability when there is enough mass for self-gravitation, described by the Toomre parameter, and when heat can be lost at a rate comparable to the local dynamical timescale, described by t_c=beta Omega^-1. Simulations of self-gravitating disks show that the cooling parameter has a rough critical value at beta_crit=3. When below beta_crit, gas overdensities will contract under their own gravity and fragment into bound objects while otherwise maintaining a steady state of gravitoturbulence. However, previous studies of the critical cooling parameter have found dependence on simulation resolution, indicating that the simulation of self-gravitating protoplanetary disks is not so straightforward. In particular, the simplicity of the cooling timescale t_c prevents fragments from being disrupted by pressure support as temperatures rise. We alter the cooling law so that the cooling timescale is dependent on local surface density fluctuations, a means of incorporating optical depth effects into the local cooling of an object. For lower resolution simulations, this results in a lower critical cooling parameter and a disk more stable to gravitational stresses suggesting the formation of large gas giants planets in large, cool disks is generally suppressed by more realistic cooling. At our highest resolution however, the model becomes unstable to fragmentation for cooling timescales up to beta = 10.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Hybrid superprism with low insertion losses and suppressed cross-talk

We demonstrate with the two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method that an adiabatic transition in a superprism with an interface along the [1 [overline 2]] direction enhances the transmission through the superprism to more than 90% (–0.5 dB) over the wavelength range 1.47–1.68 µm, including the telecommunication C and L bands. We also show that diffraction governed by a quasinegative index of refraction inside the superprism can be used to obtain nearly transform-limited beam widths at the output of the superprism. The reduction of the beam width at the output suppresses cross-talk and greatly enhances the achievable frequency resolution of the superprism

Flow compensating pressure regulator

An apparatus for regulating pressure of treatment fluid during ophthalmic procedures is described. Flow sensing and pressure regulating diaphragms are used to modulate a flow control valve. The pressure regulating diaphragm is connected to the flow control valve to urge the valve to an open position due to pressure being applied to the diaphragm by bias means such as a spring. The flow sensing diaphragm is mechanically connected to the flow control valve and urges it to an opened position because of the differential pressure on the diaphragm generated by a flow of incoming treatment fluid through an orifice in the diaphragm. A bypass connection with a variable restriction is connected in parallel relationship to the orifice to provide for adjusting the sensitivity of the flow sensing diaphragm. A multiple lever linkage system is utilized between the center of the second diaphragm and the flow control valve to multiply the force applied to the valve by the other diaphragm and reverse the direction of the force