A continuous discharge improves the performance of the Cu/CuCl double pulse laser

A continuous glow discharge was applied to a Cu/CuCl double pulse laser. Maximum laser pulse energy was observed to increase as much as 35 percent at low buffer gas pressure and 3.5 percent at optimum buffer gas pressure. Minimum and optimum time delays decreased with increasing glow discharge current. The greater pulse energy may be due to increased rate of current rise of the pumping discharge pulse, and decreased contribution to the population of metastable copper from ion recombination

Electron collision quenching of CO(v) chemiluminescence in CS2/O2 and CS2/O2/N2O flames

Chemiluminescence from vibrationally excited carbon monoxide formed by the reaction CS+O-->CO(v)+S was observed in CS2/O2 and CS2/O2/N2O flames to which an electric discharge was applied. Although the total amount of chemiluminescence increased with increasing discharge current probably due to enhanced reaction rates as a result of radical formation, the vibrational distribution was quenched, becoming thermal in character. The thermalization is attributed to superelastic electron collisions [e+CO(v)-->e+CO(v−1)]. The technique demonstrates a sensitive method for detecting collisional transfers between excited states by separating the perturbation (electron collisions) from the initial excitation mechanism (chemical reactions)

Buffalo Forge Co. v. United Steelworkers: The Supreme Court Sanctions Sympathy Strikes

The Norris-LaGuardia Act was enacted in 1932 to curb the unbridled use of the federal injunction as a remedy in labor-management disputes. After enactment of the Norris-LaGuardia Act, labor unions grew and gained substantial collective bargaining power. Congressional policy then shifted to encouraging the effective enforcement of collective bargaining agreements between employers and unions. Subsequent to enactment of the LMRA, the no-strike obligation and arbitration procedures became standard bargained-for provisions. However, Judges soon refused to enjoin strikes in alleged violation of no-strike clauses, basing their decisions on the force of section 4. Employers contended that the more recent section 301 of the LMRA qualified section 4\u27s prohibition against injunctions. The sympathy strike in alleged violation of a no-strike clause provided an arena for the Court\u27s accommodation between the broad and competing provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act and the LMRA. In Buffalo Forge Co. v. United Steelworkers, the Supreme Court held that a sympathy strike in alleged violation of a no-strike clause could not be enjoined pending an arbitrator\u27s decision on the legality of the strike. Furthermore, the Court held that the sympathy strike situation did not compel an accommodation between the NLA and the LMRA which would result in issuance of an injunction pending the arbitrator\u27s determinations. The purpose of this Note is to examine this Supreme Court decision in light of the concurrent federal policies that not only encourage the enforcement of collective bargaining agreements through the grievance-arbitration procedures, but also seek to protect a worker\u27s statutory right to engage in sympathy strikes unless that right has been bargained away by the contractual no-strike clause

A model for the dissociation pulse, afterglow, and laser pulse in the Cu/CuCl double pulse laser

A model which completely describes the Cu/CuCl double pulse laser is presented. The dissociation discharge pulse and afterglow are simulated and the results are used as initial conditions for an analysis of the pumping discharge pulse and laser pulse. Experimental behavior including the minimum, optimum, and maximum delays between pulses, and the dependence of laser pulse energy on dissociation energy are satisfactorily reproduced. An optimum tube temperature is calculated, and the dependence of laser pulse energy on tube temperature (i.e., CuCl vapor pressure) is explained for the first time

Dynamic Control of Explore/Exploit Trade-Off In Bayesian Optimization

Bayesian optimization offers the possibility of optimizing black-box operations not accessible through traditional techniques. The success of Bayesian optimization methods such as Expected Improvement (EI) are significantly affected by the degree of trade-off between exploration and exploitation. Too much exploration can lead to inefficient optimization protocols, whilst too much exploitation leaves the protocol open to strong initial biases, and a high chance of getting stuck in a local minimum. Typically, a constant margin is used to control this trade-off, which results in yet another hyper-parameter to be optimized. We propose contextual improvement as a simple, yet effective heuristic to counter this - achieving a one-shot optimization strategy. Our proposed heuristic can be swiftly calculated and improves both the speed and robustness of discovery of optimal solutions. We demonstrate its effectiveness on both synthetic and real world problems and explore the unaccounted for uncertainty in the pre-determination of search hyperparameters controlling explore-exploit trade-off.Comment: Accepted for publication in the proceedings of 2018 Computing Conferenc

Adjunct Therapy in Type 1 Diabetes: A Survey to Uncover Unmet Needs and Patient Preferences Beyond HbA1c Measures.

Background: Adjunct therapy can help patients with type 1 diabetes achieve glycemic goals while potentially mitigating some of the side effects of insulin. In this study, we used a patient survey to identify the unmet needs in type 1 diabetes therapy, patient views of treatment benefit-risk trade-offs, and patient preferences for the use of an adjunct therapy. Methods: A quantitative survey was sent to 2084 adults with type 1 diabetes in November 2017. "Jobs-to-be-done" and conjoint analyses were performed on survey responses to identify unmet needs and the importance of treatment-associated benefits and risks to patients. A 5-point Likert scale measured the importance and satisfaction with patients' current therapy, and with gaps relating to unmet needs. In the conjoint analysis, patients were asked to choose between "packages" of attributes of two doses of adjunct therapy (200 and 400 mg) and placebo, based on established benefits and side effects. Results: A total of 1313 patients (63%) responded. The greatest unmet needs identified were simplifying treatment, lowering/maintaining glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), reducing mental effort, and increasing time in range (TIR). Conjoint analysis showed that reductions in body weight and TIR had the highest attribute importance (25% and 18%, respectively). The majority (93%) of patients had a preference for the adjunct therapy (either dose) over placebo. Conclusions: This survey highlights the importance of measures beyond HbA1c, such as treatment simplification and TIR, and patient preference for adjunct therapies that help address unmet needs in type 1 diabetes treatment