A Guide to Critical Legal Studies

Review of: A Guide to Critical Legal Studies. By Mark Kelman. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 1987

Resonance Energy Transfer

Resonance energy transfer, also known as Förster- or fluorescence- resonance energy transfer, or electronic energy transfer, is a photonic process whose relevance in many major areas of science is reflected both by a wide prevalence of the effect and through numerous technical applications. The process, operating through an optical near-field mechanism, effects a transport of electronic excitation between physically distinct atomic or molecular components, based on transition dipole-dipole coupling. In this chapter a comprehensive survey of the process is presented, beginning with an outline of the history and highlighting the early contributions of Perrin and Förster. A review of the photophysics behind resonance energy transfer follows, and then a discussion of some prominent applications of resonance energy transfer. Particular emphasis is given to analysis and sensing techniques used in molecular biology, ranging from the ‘spectroscopic ruler’ measurements of functional group separation, to fluorescence lifetime microscopy. The chapter ends with a description of the role of energy transfer in photosynthetic light harvesting

Free Decay of Turbulence and Breakdown of Self-Similarity

It has been generally assumed, since the work of von Karman and Howarth in 1938, that free decay of fully-developed turbulence is self-similar. We present here a simple phenomenological model of the decay of 3D incompressible turbulence, which predicts breakdown of self-similarity for low-wavenumber spectral exponents $n$ in the range $n_c<n<4$, where $n_c$ is some threshold wavenumber. Calculations with the eddy-damped quasi-normal Markovian approximation give the value as $n_c\approx 3.45$. The energy spectrum for this range of exponents develops two length-scales, separating three distinct wavenumber ranges.Comment: 8 pages, no figure

The dynamics of domain walls and strings

The leading order finite-width corrections to the equation of motion describing the motion of a domain wall are derived. The regime in which this equation of motion is invalid is discussed. Spherically and cylindrically symmetric solutions to this equation of motion are found. A misconception that has arisen in recent years regarding the rigidity (or otherwise) of cosmic strings is also clarified

Results of a study to detect spawning marks in otoliths of Northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax

An attempt was made to detect spawning marks on the otoliths (sagittae) of the northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax, from waters of the Southern California Bight. While no spawning marks were detected, a modification of an existing technique for observing daily growth rings was developed. A discussion is presented on detecting spawning checks in the northern anchovy. (15pp.

Curiosity Based Exploration for Learning Terrain Models

We present a robotic exploration technique in which the goal is to learn to a visual model and be able to distinguish between different terrains and other visual components in an unknown environment. We use ROST, a realtime online spatiotemporal topic modeling framework to model these terrains using the observations made by the robot, and then use an information theoretic path planning technique to define the exploration path. We conduct experiments with aerial view and underwater datasets with millions of observations and varying path lengths, and find that paths that are biased towards locations with high topic perplexity produce better terrain models with high discriminative power, especially with paths of length close to the diameter of the world.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to ICRA 201

Br(e)king the Exploitation of Labor?: Tensions Regarding the Welfare Workforce

This Article examines the deep human rights concerns within the transmogrifying world of work, focusing on the integral part that work plays in the definition, construction, maintenance, and enhancement of the social contract in the context of the New York City welfare workforce. Part I reviews the employee /partner/independent contractor distinctions, focusing on recent case law, the regulatory tax regime, and related issues. Part II examines the complex pressures that workfare legislation will exert throughout most sectors of the workforce and the unemployed. Part III explores the role of Catholic social teachings on workers\u27 rights as well as the reemergence of the living wage initiative. This Article concludes that the situation is grim, perhaps inexorably Malthusian. As huge pools of surplus labor bid unsuccessfully for increasingly scarce jobs, all but the most educated and technologically adept face unrelenting downward pressures on wage compensation