Thin KAPTON polyimide films vacuum formed at high temperature retain their shape at temperatures to 450 K

Purpose of investigation was to identify candidate materials for self-evacuating multilayer insulation systems to be used on liquid hydrogen tanks on space shuttle, which would survive re-entry temperatures and mechanical and thermal cycling of one hundred flights

A Racial Impact Analysis of HB 32: Minimum Wage Increase

The racial equity impact of HB 32 is important because minorities in Virginia disproportionately work in minimum wage positions. The purpose of this report is to provide a racial impact analysis of House Bill (HB) 32, legislation proposed in the 2014 Virginia General Assembly to increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to$8.50 an hour. According to 2013 data, 1.8 million workers in Virginia are paid hourly rates and 6.8 percent of these workers earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Examining fiscal years 2015 to 2020 for the Commonwealth, such an increase would cost$2,712,696. This impact includes the costs to cover additional staff for enforcement of the bill. Moreover, based on data provided by the Department of Human Resource Management, such an increase would also affect 264 salaried employees, costing an additional $296,252. In sum, this report examines the various and differing components surrounding HB 32 and minimum wage from a comprehensive perspective. This report examines why HB 32 failed, analyzes minimum wage versus living wage, and discusses what steps can be taken to promote racial income equality. In addition, this report charts a path forward toward policy that can be implemented legislatively with a positive effect on Virginia’s communities

Use of Whatman-41 filters in air quality sampling networks (with applications to elemental analysis)

The operation of a 16-site parallel high volume air sampling network with glass fiber filters on one unit and Whatman-41 filters on the other is reported. The network data and data from several other experiments indicate that (1) Sampler-to-sampler and filter-to-filter variabilities are small; (2) hygroscopic affinity of Whatman-41 filters need not introduce errors; and (3) suspended particulate samples from glass fiber filters averaged slightly, but not statistically significantly, higher than from Whatman-41-filters. The results obtained demonstrate the practicability of Whatman-41 filters for air quality monitoring and elemental analysis

Visual motion distorts visual and motor space

Much evidence suggests that visual motion can cause severe distortions in the perception of spatial position. In this study, we show that visual motion also distorts saccadic eye movements. Landing positions of saccades performed to objects presented in the vicinity of visual motion were biased in the direction of motion. The targeting errors for both saccades and perceptual reports were maximum during motion onset and were of very similar magnitude under the two conditions. These results suggest that visual motion affects a representation of spatial position, or spatial map, in a similar fashion for visuomotor action as for perception

No rapid audiovisual recalibration in adults on the autism spectrum

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by difficulties in social cognition, but are also associated with atypicalities in sensory and perceptual processing. Several groups have reported that autistic individuals show reduced integration of socially relevant audiovisual signals, which may contribute to the higher-order social and cognitive difficulties observed in autism. Here we use a newly devised technique to study instantaneous adaptation to audiovisual asynchrony in autism. Autistic and typical participants were presented with sequences of brief visual and auditory stimuli, varying in asynchrony over a wide range, from 512 ms auditory-lead to 512 ms auditory-lag, and judged whether they seemed to be synchronous. Typical adults showed strong adaptation effects, with trials proceeded by an auditory-lead needing more auditory-lead to seem simultaneous, and vice versa. However, autistic observers showed little or no adaptation, although their simultaneity curves were as narrow as the typical adults. This result supports recent Bayesian models that predict reduced adaptation effects in autism. As rapid audiovisual recalibration may be fundamental for the optimisation of speech comprehension, recalibration problems could render language processing more difficult in autistic individuals, hindering social communication

Fast saccadic eye-movements in humans suggest that numerosity perception is automatic and direct

Fast saccades are rapid automatic oculomotor responses to salient and ecologically important visual stimuli such as animals and faces. Discriminating the number of friends, foe, or prey may also have an evolutionary advantage. In this study, participants were asked to saccade rapidly towards the more numerous of two arrays. Participants could discriminate numerosities with high accuracy and great speed, as fast as 190 ms. Intermediate numerosities were more likely to elicit fast saccades than very low or very high numerosities. Reaction-times for vocal responses (collected in a separate experiment) were slower, did not depend on numerical range, and correlated only with the slow not the fast saccades, pointing to different systems. The short saccadic reaction-times we observe are surprising given that discrimination using numerosity estimation is thought to require a relatively complex neural circuit, with several relays of information through the parietal and prefrontal cortex. Our results suggest that fast numerosity-driven saccades may be generated on a single feed-forward pass of information recruiting a primitive system that cuts through the cortical hierarchy and rapidly transforms the numerosity information into a saccade command

Wideband outdoor MIMO channel model derived from directional channel measurements at 2 GHz

This paper describes the use of directional channel measurements to derive a MIMO channel model. The measurements were obtained using a wideband channel sounder and eight element circular array in a metropolitan area in central Bristol, U.K. The raw measurements were processed using SAGE to extract the parameters of multipath components. The analysis of these parameters revealed several interesting features, notably that their amplitude distribution was well modelled as log-normal, and that there was little evidence of clustering in the angles of arrival. Hence a MIMO channel based on the assumption of finite scattering was derived, using the distributions obtained. The model allows the channel matrix H to be derived in the narrow-band case, and a tapped delay line model is also obtained for wideband systems. While the model derived is based on only a small set of measurements, it provides a case study for MIMO modelling based on measurements

Statistical summary of air quality data for metropolitian Cleveland, Ohio, 1967 - 1972: Total suspended particulates, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide

Air-quality data for metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio, from 1967 through 1972 were collated and statistically analyzed. Total suspended particulates (TSP) departed from lognormal distribution in 1972. Nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, departed significantly from lognormal distributions in 1972. In Cleveland the Ohio standards were not met. However, the data indicate a general improvement in air quality. Unusually high precipitation (43% above the average in 1972) may be responsible in lowering these values from the 1971 levels. The mean values of TSP, NO2, and SO2 are 104, 191, and 83 microgram/cu m respectively