The High Consistency Refining of Reclaimed Paper Stock

By subjecting reclaimed paper stock to high consistency refining (HCR) the strength of the paper was developed, without having an adverse effect on the drainage. HCR was performed on the stock at (29% ± 1%) consistency in a Bauer single disc refiner. The HCR stock was compared to conventional refining at 4.5% consistency, which was also refined in the disc refiner. It was shown that the conventional refining of the paper stock has an adverse effect on drainage because it developed a large percentage of fines and shives. It is believed that these were developed because the reclaimed paper stock fiber is less flexible and that the conventional refining is a more severe process than HCR. When refining the paper stock under high consistency conditions the mullen and tensile were developed without producing the fines and shives, and therefore the drainage was not effected

Attempted DNA extraction from a Rancho La Brea Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi): prospects for ancient DNA from asphalt deposits.

Fossil-bearing asphalt deposits are an understudied and potentially significant source of ancient DNA. Previous attempts to extract DNA from skeletons preserved at the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, have proven unsuccessful, but it is unclear whether this is due to a lack of endogenous DNA, or if the problem is caused by asphalt-mediated inhibition. In an attempt to test these hypotheses, a recently recovered Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) skeleton with an unusual pattern of asphalt impregnation was studied. Ultimately, none of the bone samples tested successfully amplified M. columbi DNA. Our work suggests that reagents typically used to remove asphalt from ancient samples also inhibit DNA extraction. Ultimately, we conclude that the probability of recovering ancient DNA from fossils in asphalt deposits is strongly (perhaps fatally) hindered by the organic compounds that permeate the bones and that at the Rancho La Brea tar pits, environmental conditions might not have been ideal for the general preservation of genetic material

Assessing the impact of deliberation and information on opinion change: a quasi-experiment in public deliberation

Deliberative democracy has become fashionable for many and it has been used in some places to solve real-world policy problems. However measuring the ‘success’ of deliberative democracy is not clearly achievable. For most ‘success’ is measured in terms of opinion change, but these are only rarely measured against control groups, and in particular there is no way of knowing if the opinion change took place because of the deliberation or because of information they received through the deliberation process. Exercises in deliberation seem to represent one big treatment. But we would want to separate out the component parts of the treatment. This paper outlines the results of an experiment in which deliberation took place in a pilot Citizens’ Assembly in Ireland. As part of this we measured the impact using pre and post-test controls, including a control group given the information the CA participants received, but without the deliberation. The results of the experiment reveal that there is a deliberation effect separate to the information effect

Mode coupling of Schwarzschild perturbations: Ringdown frequencies

Within linearized perturbation theory, black holes decay to their final stationary state through the well-known spectrum of quasinormal modes. Here we numerically study whether nonlinearities change this picture. For that purpose we study the ringdown frequencies of gauge-invariant second-order gravitational perturbations induced by self-coupling of linearized perturbations of Schwarzschild black holes. We do so through high-accuracy simulations in the time domain of first and second-order Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli type equations, for a variety of initial data sets. We consider first-order even-parity $(\ell=2,m=\pm 2)$ perturbations and odd-parity $(\ell=2,m=0)$ ones, and all the multipoles that they generate through self-coupling. For all of them and all the initial data sets considered we find that ---in contrast to previous predictions in the literature--- the numerical decay frequencies of second-order perturbations are the same ones of linearized theory, and we explain the observed behavior. This would indicate, in particular, that when modeling or searching for ringdown gravitational waves, appropriately including the standard quasinormal modes already takes into account nonlinear effects

‘Systematizing’ constitutional deliberation: the 2016–18 citizens’ assembly in Ireland

Ireland has become something of a trail-blazer in the use of deliberative methods in the process of constitutional review. It is the first case in which the process has been employed a second time: the Irish Citizens’ Assembly (2016–18) followed upon the Convention on the Constitution (2012–14). The creation of two mini-publics in quick succession and their significant role in supporting key referendums for constitutional change that followed (marriage equality in 2015 and abortion in 2018) suggests a degree of ‘systemization’ of deliberation in the Irish process of constitutional review. This report sets out the basic details of the most recent Citizens’ Assembly – how it was set up, its agenda, its manner of operation, and its outcomes. We conclude with a brief discussion of the recent Irish experience of constitutional mini-publics and the degree to which they speak to a process of systematizing deliberation in the Irish policy process

Characterization of frequency drift of sampled-grating DBR laser module under direct modulation

The authors demonstrate the drift in frequency of a static sampled-grating distributed Bragg reflector (SG DBR) laser module when it is subjected to direct modulation. The magnitude of drift and its settling time is characterized as a function of the index of modulation. Results show that when the directly modulated SG DBR is optically filtered, as in a dense wavelength- division- multiplexed system, a power penalty of 6.7 dB is incurred in comparison to the unfiltered case

Evaluation Report of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly on Gender Equality

This report presents some of the core findings from a project designed to track the process of the Irish Citizens’ Assembly, with particular focus on the quality of the deliberative process and the attitudes of the members towards the process. The evaluation team observed all public sessions of the assembly, surveyed members each weekend and interviewed members as well as the organisation team. Overall we found a very well run process, with high deliberative quality and good levels of knowledge gain and understanding by members. The transition to online was well thought through and carried out efficiently. Throughout this report we examine the emerging Irish practice for deliberation, widely recognised as a global leader, and make a number of suggestions that may be worth considering as the Irish practice continues to develop and evolve