A new, large-scale map of interstellar reddening derived from HI emission

We present a new map of interstellar reddening, covering the 39\% of the sky with low {\rm HI} column densities ($N_{\rm HI} < 4\times10^{20}\,\rm cm^{-2}$ or $E(B-V)\approx 45\rm\, mmag$) at $16\overset{'}{.}1$ resolution, based on all-sky observations of Galactic HI emission by the HI4PI Survey. In this low column density regime, we derive a characteristic value of $N_{\rm HI}/E(B-V) = 8.8\times10^{21}\, \rm\, cm^{2}\, mag^{-1}$ for gas with $|v_{\rm LSR}| < 90\,\rm km\, s^{-1}$ and find no significant reddening associated with gas at higher velocities. We compare our HI-based reddening map with the Schlegel, Finkbeiner, and Davis (1998, SFD) reddening map and find them consistent to within a scatter of $\simeq 5\,\rm mmag$. Further, the differences between our map and the SFD map are in excellent agreement with the low resolution ($4\overset{\circ}{.}5$) corrections to the SFD map derived by Peek and Graves (2010) based on observed reddening toward passive galaxies. We therefore argue that our HI-based map provides the most accurate interstellar reddening estimates in the low column density regime to date. Our reddening map is made publicly available (http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AFJNWJ).Comment: Re-submitted to ApJ. The reddening map is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AFJNW

Capital Jurors in an Era of Death Penalty Decline

The state of public opinion regarding the death penalty has not experienced such flux since the late 1960s. Death sentences and executions have reached their lowest annual numbers since the early 1970s and today, the public appears fairly evenly split in its views on the death penalty. In this Essay, we explore, first, whether these changes in public opinion mean that fewer people will be qualified to serve on death penalty trials as jurors, and second, whether potential jurors are affected by changes in the practice of the death penalty. We conducted surveys of persons reporting for jury duty at the Superior Court of Orange County, California. What we found was surprising. Surveys of jurors in decades past suggested ten to twenty percent of jury-eligible individuals would be excludable due to their substantial doubts about the death penalty. Despite Orange County’s status as a redoubt of death sentencing, we find that 35% or more of jurors reporting for jury service were excludable as having such substantial doubts about the death penalty that it would “substantially impair” their ability to perform their role as jurors. Indeed, large numbers went further: roughly a quarter said they would be reluctant to find a person guilty of capital murder knowing the death penalty was a possibility. A final question asked whether the fact that executions have not been conducted in California for a decade impacts whether jurors would be favorable towards the death penalty. We found that, across all types of attitudes towards the death penalty, that fact made jurors less inclined to sentence a person to death. Rare punishments may seem more arbitrary, even to those who find them morally acceptable. We conclude by describing how this research can be useful for scholars, litigators, and judges concerned with selection of jurors in death penalty cases, and we discuss why, as social and legal practices change, more study of public attitudes towards punishment is needed

Capital Jurors in an Era of Death Penalty Decline

The state of public opinion regarding the death penalty has not experienced such flux since the late 1960s. Death sentences and executions have reached their lowest annual numbers since the early 1970s and today, the public appears fairly evenly split in its views on the death penalty. In this Essay, we explore, first, whether these changes in public opinion mean that fewer people will be qualified to serve on death penalty trials as jurors, and second, whether potential jurors are affected by changes in the practice of the death penalty. We conducted surveys of persons reporting for jury duty at the Superior Court of Orange County, California. What we found was surprising. Surveys of jurors in decades past suggested ten to twenty percent of jury-eligible individuals would be excludable due to their substantial doubts about the death penalty. Despite Orange County’s status as a redoubt of death sentencing, we find that 35% or more of jurors reporting for jury service were excludable as having such substantial doubts about the death penalty that it would “substantially impair” their ability to perform their role as jurors. Indeed, large numbers went further: roughly a quarter said they would be reluctant to find a person guilty of capital murder knowing the death penalty was a possibility. A final question asked whether the fact that executions have not been conducted in California for a decade impacts whether jurors would be favorable towards the death penalty. We found that, across all types of attitudes towards the death penalty, that fact made jurors less inclined to sentence a person to death. Rare punishments may seem more arbitrary, even to those who find them morally acceptable. We conclude by describing how this research can be useful for scholars, litigators, and judges concerned with selection of jurors in death penalty cases, and we discuss why, as social and legal practices change, more study of public attitudes towards punishment is needed

Autonomy, Automaticity, and Attention: Why Empirical Research on Consciousness Matters to Autonomous Agency

This dissertation addresses the question: what is personal autonomy? It begins by examining the main theoretical accounts of autonomous agency currently on offer. Although each of the available approaches faces significant criticism, I defend a revised internalist (and functionalist) account of autonomous agency which draws primarily upon the work of Frankfurt, Dworkin, and Bratman. Next, I show that recent work in scientific psychology (viz. research on automaticity) reveals new dangers for any account of autonomous agency (including my own newly revised internalist account). My response to the identified threat of automaticity draws upon research in the psychology of attention and, more extensively, on theorizing upon the unity of consciousness. I use a number of insights gleaned from these areas of research to then construct a more robust theoretical understanding of autonomous agency—one that addresses the worries generated by automaticity by proposing new and additional necessary and sufficient conditions for autonomy. What these new conditions entail is that individuals must possess a particular form of unified consciousness across time in order to have acted autonomously

Grain boundary network plasticity: reduced-order modeling of deformation-driven microstructure evolution

Microstructural evolution in structural materials is known to occur in response to mechanical loading and can often accommodate substantial plastic deformation through the coupled motion of grain boundaries (GBs). This can produce desirable behavior, such as increased ductility, or undesirable behavior such as mechanically-induced coarsening. In this work a novel, multiscale model is developed for capturing the combined effect of plasticity mediated by multiple GBs simultaneously. This model is referred to as "grain boundary network plasticity." The mathematical framework of graph theory is used to describe the microstructure connectedness, and the evolution of microstructure is represented as volume flow along the graph. By using the principle of minimum dissipation potential, which has previously been applied to grain boundary migration, a set of evolution equations are developed that transfer volume and eigendeformation along the graph edges in a physically consistent way. It is shown that higher-order geometric effects, such as the pinning effect of triple points, may be accounted for through the incorporation of a geometric hardening that causes geometry-induced GB stagnation. The result is a computationally efficient reduced order model that can be used to simulate the initial motion of grain boundaries in a polycrystal with parameters informed by atomistic simulations. The effectiveness of the model is demonstrated through comparison to multiple bicrystal atomistic simulations, as well as a select number of GB engineered and non-GB engineered data obtained from the literature. The effect of the network of shear-coupling grain boundaries is demonstrated through mechanical response tests and by examining the yield surfaces

Site Significance Testing Report of Site 41BP920 on the 140-Mile-Long Vista Ridge Water Pipeline in Bastrop County, Texas

On behalf of VRRSP Consultants, LLC, and Central Texas Regional Water Supply Corporation (CTRWSC), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted archaeological significance test excavations at multicomponent site 41BP920 within the proposed alignment of the Vista Ridge Regional Water Supply Project (Vista Ridge) in Bastrop County. The Vista Ridge project will involve construction of an approximately 140-mile-long, 60-inch-diameter water pipeline from north-central San Antonio, Bexar County, to Deanville, Burleson County, Texas. The project will also include three pump station locations in Guadalupe, Bastrop, and Burleson Counties. The majority of the alignment will follow existing utilities and traverse undeveloped, agricultural parcels in rural settings. The area of potential effects (APE) will consist of the proposed centerline alignment and an 85-foot-wide corridor for temporary and permanent construction easements; however, SWCA surveyed a 100-foot-wide corridor to allow for minor shifts in the alignment. Due to the presence of buried artifacts, including burned rock that suggested the presence of buried cultural features, and temporally diagnostic projectile points, site 41BP920 was recommended for significance testing to determine the site’s eligibility for State Antiquities Landmark (SAL) designation or listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Investigations were done in compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas and the National Historic Preservation Act. Brandon Young, M.A., RPA, served as Principal Investigator under Antiquities Permit No. 7295 Significance test excavations at the site occurred from August 1–6, 2016, with a methodology that integrated hand excavations with mechanical trenching to assess the archaeological potential of 41BP920. Site 41BP920 is a multi-component site with deposits from the Late Archaic to the present on an upland margin landform overlooking a confluence of drainages associated with Wilbarger Creek. The historic assemblage of the site contains highly fragmented glass and metal debris dating from the early twentieth century to the present. The prehistoric assemblage consisted of burned rock, lithic debitage, chipped stone tools, and two projectile point fragments predominantly recovered from the upper 26 centimeters of the profile, but cultural materials did extend up to 60 centimeters below surface. Only one of the projectile points was identified as to type, which was a Late Archaic Lange point. The prehistoric assemblage also includes a cluster of burned rock and thermally altered soil that was designated a feature. Based on multiple factors, including the shallow depth of the assemblage, the highly fragmented and mixed context of the historic and prehistoric cultural materials, prevalent disturbances, and the sparse quantity of the cultural materials recovered, the site provides insufficient data to substantively and explicitly address specific questions concerning local or regional prehistoric contexts. Based on the considerations of integrity and potential data yield, site 41BP920 is recommended as not eligible for the NRHP or as an SAL. This recommendation pertains only to the portions of the site within the APE; areas of the site that extend beyond the APE have not been evaluated. Artifacts recovered from testing will be returned to the landowners following analysis; however, all project documentation and photographs generated during investigations at 41BP920 will be curated at the Center for Archaeological Research at The University of Texas in San Antonio in accordance with their standards and protocols

Using synthetic aperture radar data-dome collections for building feature analysis

Low-frequency synthetic aperture radar (LF-SAR) is a remote sensing measurement technique that can aid in covert intelligence gathering capabilities for detecting concealed targets in building, and obscured phenomena in general. The Airbus Defence and Space Ltd LF-SAR data dome project has provided a coherently collected three-dimensional data set using airborne circular SAR (CSAR) trajectories, with the potential of providing volumetric SAR imagery of obscured regions inside buildings. Preliminary results of this collection are presented. Both the linear strip-map and CSAR datasets provided contain a great deal of information. Early results show promise, but have revealed the fundamental challenge with low-frequency remote sensing, that being the presence of radio-frequency interference, which reduces the quality of SAR image products