Variables Associated with Thermal Emittance of Wall Mural Art in Richmond, Virginia

The objectives of this research are to determine the factors associated with the minimum, maximum, and average thermal emittance temperatures of wall murals in Richmond, Virginia, and make recommendations for color and location of wall murals. Data for 17 parameters were collected for 64 art murals in downtown Richmond, VA from 28 June 2018 – 19 July 2018. Date, time, solar exposure duration, solar elevation, latitude, longitude, air temperature (C), lux, color, solar cardinal minutes, cardinal direction, minimum, maximum, and average surface thermal emittance temperatures of mural face were recorded for each mural. We reject the hypothesis that minimum, maximum, and average thermal emittance temperatures of wall murals do not vary significantly with temporal, spatial, physical changes, and solar factors. Maximum, minimum, and average emittance temperatures of wall mural art varied significantly with the number of minutes that solar energy directly illuminating mural art for each cardinal direction, lux, solar elevation, total diurnal exposure, maximum mural color, and percent dark colors on murals. Minimum mural wall art temperatures (30.0-37.0 C) occurred on surfaces facing East, North, Northwest, and Northeast which also had the lowest lux values (8,867-14,231); highest temperatures (44.8-49.9 C) were recorded on walls facing South, Southeast, and West, which had the highest lux values (42,517-46,000). Based on results of this study and those investigating mitigation of the urban heat island effect with building materials and coatings on walls and roofs, we recommend a study that uses a systematic approach to locating wall mural art based on specific colors, paint composition, and wall materials to guide local building authorities owners, and artists to maximize albedo. Additionally, we recommend, where possible, mural art should be painted on vertical surfaces facing North, Northeast, and Northwest where lux values and thermal gain are the lowest of all possible cardinal directions. Such locations could accommodate the use of dark colors without significantly increasing the heat load in urban communities. And finally, where mural art is being considered for building walls facing South, Southeast, Southwest and West, we recommend that artists use a palette of primarily light colors with high reflective properties to maximize albedo, and minimize use of dark colors

Fundraisers in the 21st Century

Who are fundraisers today? How and why do individuals become fundraisers? And, what is the situation with fundraisers in the various nonprofit subsectors? Fundraisers in the 21st Century provides fresh insight into fundraisers’ career paths, challenges, successes, and the overall growth of the field. As a comparison to a 1996 study of fundraisers, this study reveals that the profession continues to mature – more people are choosing it as a first career and tenure is up, for example – but challenges remain. The white paper analyzes survey data from 1,826 fundraising professionals

Money Laundering and Lawyers

The federal government has recently enacted money laundering laws to track and discourage the use of money generated by crime. Because some of that money is used to pay legal fees, the laws have a direct impact on lawyers. The laws increase the risk of prosecution for lawyers, inhibit some methods of fee payment, and make some cases less attractive financially. Generally, the laws make law practice more complicated and risky. The laws have been criticized for their impact on criminal defense lawyers. Critics have raised three broad objections. The first objection is constitutional. Critics have also objected to the laws on ethical grounds, claiming that they force lawyers to act unethically. The third objection is based on the practical impact of the laws. Critics claim the laws chill the relationship between lawyers and clients, drive some lawyers out of criminal work, and give prosecutors too much power to disqualify defense lawyers. The constitutional questions have so far been resolved in favor of the government, but objections to the money laundering laws on the other two grounds need to be examined. Although the laws are constitutional as applied to criminal defense lawyers, the question remains whether that application is wise. Based on the laws’ ethical and practical impact, many claim that it is not. Nowhere in the literature have the laundering laws been analyzed in terms of their collective impact on criminal defense lawyers. This article does that analysis. It begins by examining how the federal money laundering laws apply to criminal defense lawyers when they receive fees for their work. The article then explores whether and how the laws cause criminal defense lawyers to act unethically. The article next analyzes the practical impact of the laws on these lawyers. This article concludes that while the ethical criticisms of the laws are largely unfounded, there is legitimate, though as yet undocumented, concern about their practical impact on our criminal justice system

Obliquity Constraints on an Extrasolar Planetary-Mass Companion

We place the first constraints on the obliquity of a planetary-mass companion outside of the solar system. Our target is the directly imaged system 2MASS J01225093–2439505 (2M0122), which consists of a 120 Myr 0.4 M⊙ star hosting a 12–27 M_J companion at 50 au. We constrain all three of the system's angular-momentum vectors: how the companion spin axis, the stellar spin axis, and the orbit normal are inclined relative to our line of sight. To accomplish this, we measure projected rotation rates (v sin i) for both the star and the companion using new near-infrared high-resolution spectra with NIRSPEC at Keck Observatory. We combine these with a new stellar photometric rotation period from TESS and a published companion rotation period from Hubble Space Telescope to obtain spin-axis inclinations for both objects. We also fitted multiple epochs of astrometry, including a new observation with NIRC2/Keck, to measure 2M0122b's orbital inclination. The three line-of-sight inclinations place limits on the true de-projected companion obliquity and stellar obliquity. We find that while the stellar obliquity marginally prefers alignment, the companion obliquity tentatively favors misalignment. We evaluate possible origin scenarios. While collisions, secular spin–orbit resonances, and Kozai–Lidov oscillations are unlikely, formation by gravitational instability in a gravito-turbulent disk—the scenario favored for brown dwarf companions to stars—appears promising

cis-regulatory circuits regulating NEK6 kinase overexpression in transformed B cells Are super-enhancer independent

Alterations in distal regulatory elements that control gene expression underlie many diseases, including cancer. Epigenomic analyses of normal and diseased cells have produced correlative predictions for connections between dysregulated enhancers and target genes involved in pathogenesis. However, with few exceptions, these predicted cis-regulatory circuits remain untested. Here, we dissect cis-regulatory circuits that lead to overexpression of NEK6, a mitosis-associated kinase, in human B cell lymphoma. We find that only a minor subset of predicted enhancers is required for NEK6 expression. Indeed, an annotated super-enhancer is dispensable for NEK6 overexpression and for maintaining the architecture of a B cell-specific regulatory hub. A CTCF cluster serves as a chromatin and architectural boundary to block communication of the NEK6 regulatory hub with neighboring genes. Our findings emphasize that validation of predicted cis-regulatory circuits and super-enhancers is needed to prioritize transcriptional control elements as therapeutic targets

Cyberterrorism: A Comparative Legal Perspective

The paper focuses on cyberterrorism and a comparative legal perspective with a view to examine the cyberterrorism as a concept as well as its definition. The revolution of development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed society to be a point where advances in programming computer and intelligence software operates in a higher processing capacity. The uses of desktop or laptops computers are leading the society to a time where or when cyber used to perpetrate various act of offences. The paper analyses legal perspective that introduced the Cybercrime Convention in Europe in relation to cyber terrorism and the opening to other Member States, while Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) issues a Directive to Member States to adopt enabling laws so as to combat the practices of cybercrime in relation to cyber terrorism. The paper argues that Nigerian Cybercrime Act 2013 is an established law that addresses the endemic practice of cybercrime and provides for cyber terrorism. Further, the paper examines the Nigerian financial regulators like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other Units mandated to curb the money laundering and combating the financing terrorism and other financial institutions related crimes. The paper relies on primary and secondary sources of data and the analysis is descriptive in nature. The paper will proffer recommendations and conclusions for effective measures for proper implementation and enforcement. Keywords: Cyberterrorism, definition of cyberterrorism, Relevance of cyberterrorism in cyberspace, Comparative Legal Perspectiv

Attribution of chemistry-climate model initiative (CCMI) ozone radiative flux bias from satellites

The top-of-atmosphere (TOA) outgoing longwave flux over the 9.6 µm ozone band is a fundamental quantity for understanding chemistry–climate coupling. However, observed TOA fluxes are hard to estimate as they exhibit considerable variability in space and time that depend on the distributions of clouds, ozone (O3), water vapor (H2O), air temperature (Ta), and surface temperature (Ts). Benchmarking present-day fluxes and quantifying the relative influence of their drivers is the first step for estimating climate feedbacks from ozone radiative forcing and predicting radiative forcing evolution. To that end, we constructed observational instantaneous radiative kernels (IRKs) under clear-sky conditions, representing the sensitivities of the TOA flux in the 9.6 µm ozone band to the vertical distribution of geophysical variables, including O3, H2O, Ta, and Ts based upon the Aura Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) measurements. Applying these kernels to present-day simulations from the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) project as compared to a 2006 reanalysis assimilating satellite observations, we show that the models have large differences in TOA flux, attributable to different geophysical variables. In particular, model simulations continue to diverge from observations in the tropics, as reported in previous studies of the Atmospheric Chemistry Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP) simulations. The principal culprits are tropical middle and upper tropospheric ozone followed by tropical lower tropospheric H2O. Five models out of the eight studied here have TOA flux biases exceeding 100 mW m−2 attributable to tropospheric ozone bias. Another set of five models have flux biases over 50 mW m−2 due to H2O. On the other hand, Ta radiative bias is negligible in all models (no more than 30 mW m−2). We found that the atmospheric component (AM3) of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) general circulation model and Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM) have the lowest TOA flux biases globally but are a result of cancellation of opposite biases due to different processes. Overall, the multi-model ensemble mean bias is −133±98  mW m−2, indicating that they are too atmospherically opaque due to trapping too much radiation in the atmosphere by overestimated tropical tropospheric O3 and H2O. Having too much O3 and H2O in the troposphere would have different impacts on the sensitivity of TOA flux to O3 and these competing effects add more uncertainties on the ozone radiative forcing. We find that the inter-model TOA outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) difference is well anti-correlated with their ozone band flux bias. This suggests that there is significant radiative compensation in the calculation of model outgoing longwave radiation

Physics of Acoustic Radiation from Jet Engine Inlets

Numerical simulations of acoustic radiation from a jet engine inlet are performed using advanced computational aeroacoustics (CAA) algorithms and high-quality numerical boundary treatments. As a model of modern commercial jet engine inlets, the inlet geometry of the NASA Source Diagnostic Test (SDT) is used. Fan noise consists of tones and broadband sound. This investigation considers the radiation of tones associated with upstream propagating duct modes. The primary objective is to identify the dominant physical processes that determine the directivity of the radiated sound. Two such processes have been identified. They are acoustic diffraction and refraction. Diffraction is the natural tendency for an acoustic wave to follow a curved solid surface as it propagates. Refraction is the turning of the direction of propagation of sound waves by mean flow gradients. Parametric studies on the changes in the directivity of radiated sound due to variations in forward flight Mach number and duct mode frequency, azimuthal mode number, and radial mode number are carried out. It is found there is a significant difference in directivity for the radiation of the same duct mode from an engine inlet when operating in static condition and in forward flight. It will be shown that the large change in directivity is the result of the combined effects of diffraction and refraction

Human cloning in film: horror, ambivalence, hope

Fictional filmic representations of human cloning have shifted in relation to the 1997 announcement of the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep, and since therapeutic human cloning became a scientific practice in the early twentieth century. The operation and detail of these shifts can be seen through an analysis of the films The Island (2005) and Aeon Flux (2005). These films provide a site for the examination of how these changes in human cloning from fiction to practice, and from horror to hope, have been represented and imagined, and how these distinctions have operated visually in fiction, and in relation to genre