(M-theory-)Killing spinors on symmetric spaces

We show how the theory of invariant principal bundle connections for reductive homogeneous spaces can be applied to determine the holonomy of generalised Killing spinor covariant derivatives of the form $D= \nabla + \Omega$ in a purely algebraic and algorithmic way, where $\Omega : TM \rightarrow \Lambda^*(TM)$ is a left-invariant homomorphism. Specialising this to the case of symmetric M-theory backgrounds (i.e. $(M,g,F)$ with $(M,g)$ a symmetric space and $F$ an invariant closed 4-form), we derive several criteria for such a background to preserve some supersymmetry and consequently find all supersymmetric symmetric M-theory backgrounds.Comment: Updated abstract for clarity. Added missing geometries to section 6. Main result stand

CHARTS FOR EQUILIBRIUM FLOW PROPERTIES OF AIR IN HYPERVELOCITY NOZZLES

Charts for equilibrium flow properties of air in hypervelocity nozzle

Development of a high-frequency hearing loss questionnaire for children

The Pediatric Assessment of Hearing questionnaire was developed to evaluate how children with high-frequency hearing loss perform in various listening conditions

Virtual image out-the-window display system study. Volume 2 - Appendix

Virtual image out-the-window display system imaging techniques and simulation devices - appendices containing background materia

What is suicide?

Whether a person committed suicide is often difficult to determine, and intent particularly so. If it’s difficult for humans, how much more so for nonhuman animals? A nonhuman observer would remark that humans usually avoid self-harm, but sometimes engage in self-injurious behavior. If instead of speculating about suicide we focus on self-injurious behavior that is sometimes lethal, we recognize continuity of species and can also understand and possibly remedy self-injurious behavior. To be kind and compassionate toward them, there is no need to impute doubtful capacities to animals. Kindness and compassion toward humans and other animals benefit the one who practices them

Improving predictive power of physically based rainfall-induced shallow landslide models: a probabilistic approach

Distributed models to forecast the spatial and temporal occurrence of rainfall-induced shallow landslides are based on deterministic laws. These models extend spatially the static stability models adopted in geotechnical engineering, and adopt an infinite-slope geometry to balance the resisting and the driving forces acting on the sliding mass. An infiltration model is used to determine how rainfall changes pore-water conditions, modulating the local stability/instability conditions. A problem with the operation of the existing models lays in the difficulty in obtaining accurate values for the several variables that describe the material properties of the slopes. The problem is particularly severe when the models are applied over large areas, for which sufficient information on the geotechnical and hydrological conditions of the slopes is not generally available. To help solve the problem, we propose a probabilistic Monte Carlo approach to the distributed modeling of rainfall-induced shallow landslides. For the purpose, we have modified the Transient Rainfall Infiltration and Grid-Based Regional Slope-Stability Analysis (TRIGRS) code. The new code (TRIGRS-P) adopts a probabilistic approach to compute, on a cell-by-cell basis, transient pore-pressure changes and related changes in the factor of safety due to rainfall infiltration. Infiltration is modeled using analytical solutions of partial differential equations describing one-dimensional vertical flow in isotropic, homogeneous materials. Both saturated and unsaturated soil conditions can be considered. TRIGRS-P copes with the natural variability inherent to the mechanical and hydrological properties of the slope materials by allowing values of the TRIGRS model input parameters to be sampled randomly from a given probability distribution. [..]Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures, 9 tables. Revised version; accepted for publication in Geoscientific Model Development on 13 February 201