ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS HERE, GET READY!

No one is certain whether Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) will make the future a better place or make it look like an apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster. An opinion that is emerging among experts and nation-state leaders is that the nation-states that lead in AI advancements and implementation will likely have a greater influence on and power over the world economic and national security stages. The goal of this book review is to encourage the reader to enter the conversation about the role AI will play in global society and American life because AI will influence the job market in the near future. Two recent books by experts in the AI field are compared and analyzed through the lens of a recent executive order issued by President Trump regarding AI development and implementation. AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee is written to inform the reader of the progress made in the AI field by China and Silicon Valley over the last two decades and what Dr. Lee predicts will happen with AI implementation. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark explores AI implementation and its potential future impacts. Finally, this book review draws conclusions and makes recommendations with respect to the legal and societal implications that the two books and the executive order highlight. This review seeks to encourage the reader to become part of the solution as AI becomes a part of humans’ lives

Observations of Extremely Cool Stars

As one part of a program of infrared astronomy carried on at the California Institute of Technology, a survey of the sky in two infrared spectral ranges, 0.68-0.92 μand 2.01- 2.41 μ, is being carried out. The motivation for such a survey is to obtain an unbiased census of objects that emit in the 2.0-2.5-μ atmospheric window; this will, of course, include many ordinary stars, but it might also reveal many potentially interesting objects that would not be included in an a priori selection of objects to be measured. In fact, a number of strikingly red stars have already been found. Since most of these "superred" stars occur in the Milky Way, interstellar reddening may be of some consequence; but in at least a few cases the stars seem to be intrinsically extremely red. These preliminary results seem of sufficient interest to merit brief description at this time

Oxygen Saturation of Retinal Vessels in All Stages of Diabetic Retinopathy and Correlation to Ultra-Wide Field Fluorescein Angiography

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine retinal hemoglobin oxygen saturation (SO2) in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR) using retinal oximetry (RO) and to correlate the degree of retinal ischemia using intravenous fluorescein angiography (IVFA). Methods: This is a single-center cross-sectional cohort study. Twenty-seven controls and 60 adult patients with diabetes mellitus (16 without DR and 44 with DR) were enrolled. Patients were stratified according to DR severity. Using RO, SO2 was measured in major retinal arterioles (SaO2) and venules (SvO2). Using IVFA, the percentage of retinal ischemia in 31 patients with DR was calculated and correlated with RO. Results: Pairwise one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant increase in SaO2 and SvO2 in patients with proliferative DR (PDR) compared with controls (SaO2: PDR, 100 ± 7% vs. controls, 91 ± 4% [P = 0.003]; SvO2: PDR, 66 ± 11% vs. controls, 53 ± 6% [P < 0.00001]). The percentage of retinal ischemia also increased with DR severity: ANOVA showed a significant difference in retinal ischemia between all categories of nonproliferative DR vs. PDR: 2.31 ± 2% vs. 7.92 ± 9% (P = 0.017), respectively. Pearson two-tailed correlation showed significant correlation between SaO2 and ischemia (R = 0.467, P = 0.011). Conclusions: Hemoglobin oxygen saturation of retinal arterioles and venules increases with DR severity; SaO2 correlates with increasing ischemia measured by IVFA. Retinal oximetry may complement current imaging strategies to noninvasively augment the diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with diabetes

Flight Performance of a Spin-Stabilized 20-Inch-Diameter Solid-Propellant Spherical Rocket Motor

A successful flight test of a spin-stabilized 20-inch-diameter solid-propellant rocket motor having a propellant mass fraction of 0.92 has been made. The motor was fired at altitude after being boosted by a three-stage test vehicle. Analysis of the data indicates that a total impulse of 44,243 pound-second with a propellant specific impulse of approximately 185 was achieved over a total action time of about 12 seconds. These results are shown to be in excellent agreement with data from ground static firing tests of these motors. The spherical rocket motor with an 11-pound payload attained a velocity of 15,620 feet per second (m = 16.7) with an incremental velocity increase for the spherical motor stage of 12,120 feet per second

A Fully Bayesian Approach for Combining Multilevel Failure Information in Fault Tree Quantification and Corresponding Optimal Resource Allocation

This paper presents a fully Bayesian approach that simultaneously combines basic event and statistically independent higher event-level failure data in fault tree quantification. Such higher-level data could correspond to train, sub-system or system failure events. The full Bayesian approach also allows the highest-level data that are usually available for existing facilities to be automatically propagated to lower levels. A simple example illustrates the proposed approach. The optimal allocation of resources for collecting additional data from a choice of different level events is also presented. The optimization is achieved using a genetic algorithm

Influence of Chlorinating Agents on the Formation of Stable Biomarkers in Hair for the Retrospective Verification of Exposure

Chlorine, as a dual-use chemical, is an essential industrial chemical which has been used as a chemical weapon in the past due to its toxicity and availability. The retrospective verification of chlorine intoxication is often especially challenging, and unambiguous markers are still missing. In this study, the effects of different chlorinating and oxidizing agents on human hair were investigated. Samples were exposed to a variety of chlorinating chemicals for a short time and then completely hydrolyzed by a HBr solution to break down their keratin proteins into individual amino acids. After derivatization and targeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, 3-chlorotyrosine and 3,5-dichlorotyrosine were unambiguously identified from human hair exposed to chlorine, hypochlorite, and sulfuryl chloride. Our results show long-term stability of these markers in the biological matrix, as the chlorotyrosines can still be found 10 months post-exposure at the same levels. Finally, an untargeted analysis was able to discriminate between some of the different intoxicants

Motivational Interviewing for Smoking Cessation Among College Students

Motivational interviewing has shown some success as an intervention for college student cigarette smokers. We tested the efficacy and process of a two session motivational-interviewing-based smoking intervention compared to an assessment/information session. College student participants assigned to the motivational interviewing condition did not differ significantly from participants in the assessment/information condition on smoking out-come variables one month later. However, both groups reported significant decreases in self-reported smoking over time, suggesting that brief interventions for college student smoking can be efficacious. Consistent with theory, the motivational interviewing group reported a significant increase in self-efficacy over time and reported stronger perceptions of the therapeutic alliance after the first session compared to assessment/information participants

Active and passive computed tomography algorithm with a constrained conjugate gradient solution

An active and passive computed tomographic technique (A&PCT) has been developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The technique uses an external radioactive source and active tomography to map the attenuation within a waste drum as a function of mono-energetic gamma-ray energy. Passive tomography is used to localize and identify specific radioactive waste within the same container. The passive data is corrected for attenuation using the active data and this yields a quantitative assay of drum activity. A&PCT involves the development of a detailed system model that combines the data from the active scans with the geometry of the imaging system. Using the system model, iterative optimization techniques are used to reconstruct the image from the passive data. Requirements for high throughput yield measured emission levels in waste barrels that are too low to apply optimization techniques involving the usual Gaussian statistics. In this situation a Poisson distribution, typically used for cases with low counting statistics, is used to create an effective maximum likelihood estimation function. An optimization algorithm, Constrained Conjugate Gradient (CCG), is used to determine a solution for A&PCT quantitative assay. CCG, which was developed at LLNL, has proven to be an efficient and effective optimization method to solve limited-data problems. A detailed explanation of the algorithms used in developing the model and optimization codes is given

Nondestructive assay of TRU waste using gamma-ray active and passive computed tomography

The authors have developed an active and passive computed tomography (A and PCT) scanner for assaying radioactive waste drums. Here they describe the hardware components of their system and the software used for data acquisition, gamma-ray spectroscopy analysis, and image reconstruction. They have measured the performance of the system using ``mock`` waste drums and calibrated radioactive sources. They also describe the results of measurements using this system to assay a real TRU waste drum with relatively low Pu content. The results are compared with X-ray NDE studies of the same TRU waste drum as well as assay results from segmented gamma scanner (SGS) measurements