Insights into secondary reactions occurring during atmospheric ablation of micrometeoroids

Ablation of micrometeoroids during atmospheric entry yields volatile gases such as water, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide, capable of altering atmospheric chemistry and hence the climate and habitability of the planetary surface. While laboratory experiments have revealed the yields of these gases during laboratory simulations of ablation, the reactions responsible for the generation of these gases have remained unclear, with a typical assumption being that species simply undergo thermal decomposition without engaging in more complex chemistry. Here, pyrolysis–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy reveals that mixtures of meteorite-relevant materials undergo secondary reactions during simulated ablation, with organic matter capable of taking part in carbothermic reduction of iron oxides and sulfates, resulting in yields of volatile gases that differ from those predicted by simple thermal decomposition. Sulfates are most susceptible to carbothermic reduction, producing greater yields of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide at lower temperatures than would be expected from simple thermal decomposition, even when mixed with meteoritically relevant abundances of low-reactivity Type IV kerogen. Iron oxides were less susceptible, with elevated yields of water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide only occurring when mixed with high abundances of more reactive Type III kerogen. We use these insights to reinterpret previous ablation simulation experiments and to predict the reactions capable of occurring during ablation of carbonaceous micrometeoroids in atmospheres of different compositions

Supreme Court Institute Annual Report, 2013-2014

During the 2013-2014 academic year–corresponding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s October Term (OT) 2013–the Supreme Court Institute (SCI) provided moot courts for advocates in 96% of the cases heard by the Court this Term, offered a variety of programs related to the Supreme Court, and further integrated the moot court program into the education of Georgetown Law students. A list of all SCI moot courts held in OT 2013–arranged by argument sitting and date of moot and including the name and affiliation of each advocate and the number of student observers–follows the narrative portion of this report

The Tryal Between J.G. Biker, Plaintiff; and M. Morley, Doctor of Phyfic, Defendant; for Criminal Conversation with the Plaintiff’s Wife; on Tuefday the 30th of June at Guildhall, London

An account of a civil suit, including witness testimony, of charges of assault and criminal conversation against the defendant for having unlawful martial relations with the plaintiff’s wife. The evidence presented during the trial suggests witness tampering took place on the part of the plaintiff, which resulted in a verdict for the defendant. Printed for J. Huggonson in Sword and Buckler Court, Ludgate-Hill. 1741

Optimal Control for a Class of Infinite Dimensional Systems Involving an L∞L^\infty-term in the Cost Functional

An optimal control problem with a time-parameter is considered. The functional to be optimized includes the maximum over time-horizon reached by a function of the state variable, and so an $L^\infty$-term. In addition to the classical control function, the time at which this maximum is reached is considered as a free parameter. The problem couples the behavior of the state and the control, with this time-parameter. A change of variable is introduced to derive first and second-order optimality conditions. This allows the implementation of a Newton method. Numerical simulations are developed, for selected ordinary differential equations and a partial differential equation, which illustrate the influence of the additional parameter and the original motivation.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Class action law suit filed by international workers against Wal-Mart, Dismissed

Workers in China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Swaziland, and Nicaragua filed a suit against Wal-Mart for its failure to monitor factories. The court concluded that Wal-Mart had no legal duty under its ‘Standards for Suppliers’ or common law negligence principles to monitor its suppliers or protect plaintiffs from suppliers’ alleged substandard labor practices

Jimsphere wind and turbulence exceedance statistic

Exceedance statistics of winds and gusts observed over Cape Kennedy with Jimsphere balloon sensors are described. Gust profiles containing positive and negative departures, from smoothed profiles, in the wavelength ranges 100-2500, 100-1900, 100-860, and 100-460 meters were computed from 1578 profiles with four 41 weight digital high pass filters. Extreme values of the square root of gust speed are normally distributed. Monthly and annual exceedance probability distributions of normalized rms gust speeds in three altitude bands (2-7, 6-11, and 9-14 km) are log-normal. The rms gust speeds are largest in the 100-2500 wavelength band between 9 and 14 km in late winter and early spring. A study of monthly and annual exceedance probabilities and the number of occurrences per kilometer of level crossings with positive slope indicates significant variability with season, altitude, and filter configuration. A decile sampling scheme is tested and an optimum approach is suggested for drawing a relatively small random sample that represents the characteristic extreme wind speeds and shears of a large parent population of Jimsphere wind profiles