Anonymous

A dust-off pilot in Vietnam recalls the tragedy of the war seen through his eyes, his rescue missions. Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit

Predictions in multifield models of inflation

This paper presents a method for obtaining an analytic expression for the density function of observables in multifield models of inflation with sum-separable potentials. The most striking result is that the density function in general possesses a sharp peak and the location of this peak is only mildly sensitive to the distribution of initial conditions. A simple argument is given for why this result holds for a more general class of models than just those with sum-separable potentials and why for such models, it is possible to obtain robust predictions for observable quantities. As an example, the joint density function of the spectral index and running in double quadratic inflation is computed. For scales leaving the horizon 55 e-folds before the end of inflation, the density function peaks at n_{s}=0.967 and \alpha=0.0006 for the spectral index and running respectively.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, updated to match version published in JCAP. New plot adde

Strong thin membrane structure

A continuous process is described for producing strong lightweight structures for use as solar sails for spacecraft propulsion by radiation pressure. A thin reflective coating, such as aluminum, is applied to a rotating cylinder. A nylon mesh, applied over the aluminum coating, is then coated with a polymerizing material such as a para-xylylene monomer gas to polymerize as a film bound to the mesh and the aluminum. An emissivity increasing material such as chromium or silicon monoxide is applied to the polymer film to disperse such material colloidally into the growing polymer film, or to the final polymer film. The resulting membrane structure is then removed from the cylinder. Alternately, the membrane structure can be formed by etching a substrate in the form of an organic film such as a polymide, or a metal foil, to remove material from the substrate and reduce its thickness. A thin reflective coating (aluminum) is applied on one side of the substrate, and an emissivity increasing coating is applied on the reverse side of the substrate

The affective extension of ‘Family’ in the context of changing elite business networks

Drawing on 49 oral-history interviews with Scottish family business owner-managers, six key-informant interviews, and secondary sources, this interdisciplinary study analyses the decline of kinship-based connections and the emergence of new kinds of elite networks around the 1980s. As the socioeconomic context changed rapidly during this time, cooperation built primarily around literal family ties could not survive unaltered. Instead of finding unity through bio-legal family connections, elite networks now came to redefine their ‘family businesses’ in terms of affectively loaded ‘family values’ such as loyalty, care, commitment, and even ‘love’. Consciously nurturing ‘as-if-family’ emotional and ethical connections arose as a psychologically effective way to bring together network members who did not necessarily share pre-existing connections of bio-legal kinship. The social-psychological processes involved in this extension of the ‘family’ can be understood using theories of the moral sentiments first developed in the Scottish Enlightenment. These theories suggest that, when the context is amenable, family-like emotional bonds can be extended via sympathy to those to whom one is not literally related. As a result of this ‘progress of sentiments’, one now earns his/her place in a Scottish family business, not by inheriting or marrying into it, but by performing family-like behaviours motivated by shared ethics and affects

Abell 2255: Increased Star Formation and AGN Activity in a Cluster-Cluster Merger

Deep VLA 1.4 GHz radio continuum imaging of Abell 2255 is presented. This cluster is among the better nearby candidates for rich cluster-cluster merger systems, with evidence including an elongated X-ray morphology, the presence of a radio halo, and substructure present in its galaxy distribution. Our radio observations reach an rms sensitivity of ~40 uJy/beam, enabling us to detect (at 5 sigma) star formation rates as low as 1.4 M(sun)/year from the center of the cluster out to a radial distance of 3 Mpc. The radio data are complemented by optical imaging and a large spectroscopic database, allowing us to separate all galaxies with M_R < -20 into cluster members and foreground/background galaxies. The spectra are also used to associate the galaxies' radio emission with either star formation or AGN. We compare the resulting cluster radio galaxy population with those of nineteen other nearby Abell clusters, and find strong evidence for an increase in the frequency of radio galaxies in Abell 2255. This increase is seen in two separate types of galaxies: powerful radio AGN and optically-faint star forming galaxies. The optical spectra of the latter often indicate current or recent starbursts, and these galaxies appear to be distributed along an axis perpendicular to the probable merger axis. We assess these factors in light of models of galaxy evolution, and suggest that the cluster-cluster merger is responsible for triggering galaxy activity in Abell 2255.Comment: 21 pages, plus 13 JPEG figures; to appear in the Astronomical Journa

The Competition Bill in the House of Lords

The author outlines the background and gives details of the content of the Competition bill which awaited royal assent in 1998, showing that, although English law will become much closer to EC law as a result, significant differences will remain. Article by Tim Frazer (Associate, Dibb Lupton Alsop and Visiting Professor, Newcastle Law School) published in Amicus Curiae - Journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and its Society for Advanced Legal Studies. The Journal is produced by the Society for Advanced Legal Studies at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London

Merit Selection of Judges in Alaska: The Judicial Council, The Independence of the Judiciary, and the Popular Will

The judicial selection and retention provisions of the Alaska Constitution, found in Article IV, achieve a delicate and remarkably successful balance between competing interests. The purposes of this article are to describe this constitutional plan (called “merit selection” because it begins with nomination based on merit alone), explain why the founders adopted it, examine historical challenges to it, and assess its performance on the 60th anniversary of Alaska statehood