Failure Rate Computations Based on Mariner Mars 1964 Spacecraft Data

Mariner Mars 1964 failure rates computed for use in reliability predictions and cost allocation

Universal attraction force-inspired freeform surface modeling for 3D sketching

This paper presents a novel freeform surface modeling method to construct a freeform surface from 3D sketch. The approach is inspired by Newton’s universal attraction force law to construct a surface model from rough boundary curves and unorganized interior characteristic curves which may cross the boundary curves or not. Based on these unorganized curves, an initial surface can be obtained for conceptual design and it can be improved later in a commercial package. The approach has been tested with examples and it is capable of dealing with unorganized design curves for surface modeling

Can Effects of Dark Matter be Explained by the Turbulent Flow of Spacetime?

For the past forty years the search for dark matter has been one of the primary foci of astrophysics, although there has yet to be any direct evidence for its existence (Porter et al. 2011). Indirect evidence for the existence of dark matter is largely rooted in the rotational speeds of stars within their host galaxies, where, instead of having a ~ r^1/2 radial dependence, stars appear to have orbital speeds independent of their distance from the galactic center, which led to proposed existence of dark matter (Porter et al. 2011; Peebles 1993). We propose an alternate explanation for the observed stellar motions within galaxies, combining the standard treatment of a fluid-like spacetime with the possibility of a "bulk flow" of mass through the Universe. The differential "flow" of spacetime could generate vorticies capable of providing the "perceived" rotational speeds in excess of those predicted by Newtonian mechanics. Although a more detailed analysis of our theory is forthcoming, we find a crude "order of magnitude" calculation can explain this phenomena. We also find that this can be used to explain the graviational lensing observed around globular clusters like "Bullet Cluster".Comment: 5 pages, Accepted for publication in Journal of Modern Physics: Gravitation and Cosmology (Sept. 2012

Listening to Emerson's "England" at Clinton Hall, 22 January 1850

Ralph Waldo Emerson's delivery of his essay “England” at Manhattan’s Clinton Hall on 22 January 1850 was one of the highest-profile of his performance career. He had recently returned from his triumphant British speaking tour with a radically revised view of transatlantic relations. In a New York still in shock from the Anglophobic urban riots of the previous winter, media observers were prepared to find a great deal of symbolism in both Emerson's new message and his idiosyncratic style of performance. This essay provides a detailed account of the context, delivery and conflicting newspaper readings of this Emerson appearance. Considering the lecture circuit as part of broader performance culture and debates over Anglo-American physicality and manners, it reveals how the press seized on both the “England” talk itself and aspects of Emerson's lecturing style as a means of shoring up civic order and Anglo-American kinship. I argue for a reexamination of the textual interchanges of nineteenth-century oratorical culture, and demonstrate how lecture reports reconnect us to forgotten means of listening through texts and discursive contests over the meaning of public speech

Sketching-out virtual humans: From 2d storyboarding to immediate 3d character animation

Virtual beings are playing a remarkable role in today’s public entertainment, while ordinary users are still treated as audiences due to the lack of appropriate expertise, equipment, and computer skills. In this paper, we present a fast and intuitive storyboarding interface, which enables users to sketch-out 3D virtual humans, 2D/3D animations, and character intercommunication. We devised an intuitive “stick figurefleshing-outskin mapping” graphical animation pipeline, which realises the whole process of key framing, 3D pose reconstruction, virtual human modelling, motion path/timing control, and the final animation synthesis by almost pure 2D sketching. A “creative model-based method” is developed, which emulates a human perception process, to generate the 3D human bodies of variational sizes, shapes, and fat distributions. Meanwhile, our current system also supports the sketch-based crowd animation and the storyboarding of the 3D multiple character intercommunication. This system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes

Sketch-based virtual human modelling and animation

Animated virtual humans created by skilled artists play a remarkable role in today’s public entertainment. However, ordinary users are still treated as audiences due to the lack of appropriate expertise, equipment, and computer skills. We developed a new method and a novel sketching interface, which enable anyone who can draw to “sketch-out” 3D virtual humans and animation. We devised a “Stick FigureFleshing-outSkin Mapping” graphical pipeline, which decomposes the complexity of figure drawing and considerably boosts the modelling and animation efficiency. We developed a gesture-based method for 3D pose reconstruction from 2D stick figure drawings. We investigated a “Creative Model-based Method”, which performs a human perception process to transfer users’ 2D freehand sketches into 3D human bodies of various body sizes, shapes and fat distributions. Our current system supports character animation in various forms including articulated figure animation, 3D mesh model animation, and 2D contour/NPR animation with personalised drawing styles. Moreover, this interface also supports sketch-based crowd animation and 2D storyboarding of 3D multiple character interactions. A preliminary user study was conducted to support the overall system design. Our system has been formally tested by various users on Tablet PC. After minimal training, even a beginner can create vivid virtual humans and animate them within minutes

The Results of Locomotion: Bayard Taylor and the Travel Lecture in Nineteenth-Century America

During the mid-nineteenth century, appearances by returning travellers were a ubiquitous feature of the American popular lecture circuit. Attending such talks was one of the few means by which the majority of citizens acquired an insight into distant cultures. These ‘travel lectures’ became an idiom of an emerging mass entertainment culture, one of the period’s more under-appreciated and idiosyn- cratic cultural practices. Drawing upon a range of archival materials, this essay explores the scope of the phenomenon during the period 1840–70, and argues that these oratorical events represented interpretive performances or ‘dramas of appraisal’ through which performers brought reformist themes to the platform. Focusing on the career of the poet, writer and diplomat Bayard Taylor – the archetypal ‘travel lecturer’ of the period – it reveals the ways in which he used the form to advance a moral vision of mid-century American cosmopolitanism