Quality Assurance Review of ISOTOPE and ORIGEN Decay Masses for PWR Fuel (51 GWd/MTU)

This memorandum documents the comparison of ISOTOPE decay mass calculations for PWR 51GW fuel with analogous calculations in ORIGEN

A Risk Assessment Methodology for Divesting Military Capabilities to Allied Nations

The United States spent over $400 billion dollars on national defense in 2005. Even with support for the war on terrorism still strong, it is doubtful that the U.S. can sustain such a level of defense investment. One strategy to offset the increasing burden of defense spending is to divest the procurement and/or sustainment of individual defense capabilities to allied nations. The decision to divest any capability, however, introduces risk. This thesis presents a methodology to quantify the risk of the decision to divest a military capability to an allied nation, where risk is defined as the set of risk scenarios, likelihoods and consequences possible under each decision alternative. Risk scenarios are composed of combinations of contingencies that require the capability considered for divestiture. The likelihood of each risk scenario is calculated as the product of the likelihoods of its constituent contingency events. The consequence of each risk scenario is calculated as the sum of the consequences of its constituent contingency events. Once the risk of each decision alternative is quantified this information can be used to rank alternatives and identify the scenarios that contribute most to the risk of each alternative

A Critical Policy Analysis of the United States’ Bilingual Education: Challenges and Successes in a Multicultural Context

Within the United States, bilingual education has historically been both accepted and restricted. Throughout the context of social and political events, diversity has impacted the educational system of the nation as millions of immigrants have become a part of American society. This continually changing demographic has proven to have a divisive as well as controversial impact on the concurrent political climate. Politicians and policy makers have mirrored the changing dichotomy of the United States nation through legislation that has impacted language minority students who have continually struggled to achieve academic success. Within the research, the author examines the historical background of legislation impacting immigrants and English learners throughout the years. Specific timeframes ranging from an era of linguistic tolerance to an era of linguistic value discuss the response to subsequent diversity. The disparities are examined as well as the changing bilingual program models that have evolved. To examine California’s current educational state, ten pieces of enacted legislation have been evaluated in order to determine if bilingual education has been perceived as a problem, a right, or a resource. By framing the legislation and the impact that it has had, it served to negotiate an understanding of each situation, point to a cause, determine an alternative, and thereby promote change. The author has concluded that California has made strides towards creating an educational system where bilingualism and language diversity are perceived as resources that have led to implementation of increased numbers of dual immersion programs. Cautionary steps and guidelines are discussed, as well as programmatic recommendations for implementation of effective programs that will value and build on a child’s native language rather than rebuke it

Every Story Has a Beginning, But What About an End?: Disney’s Expiring Copyrights

The Walt Disney Company is one of the most powerful and influential media companies in the world that has revolutionized animated films. Steamboat Willie, the cartoon featuring the first version of Mickey Mouse, was released in 1928 and is set to enter the public domain on January 1, 2024. This iconic character has stayed out of the public domain for nearly a century because of Congress’s extension of copyright duration in response to lobbying efforts by Disney and other copyright holders. Although Disney has not made another effort to lobby Congress for an extension to its copyrights, Disney’s development of trademark rights over Steamboat Willie may effectively keep the earliest incarnation of Mickey Mouse out of the public domain. However, what are the implications of Mickey Mouse and other beloved characters entering the public domain? This Note argues that Disney should be able to keep copyrights—or some other type of exclusive rights—to Mickey Mouse and other beloved Disney characters because poorly made or inappropriate versions of the works will affect the public’s judgments about the works’ quality and meaning, and therefore their underlying value, diluting and tarnishing Disney’s image. This Note proposes that Disney should lobby Congress to pass legislation that resembles Mexico’s Article 173 of the Federal Copyright Law, which would provide typical real-life human, fictional, or symbolic characters copyright protection for indefinite, successive five-year periods, thus successfully keeping Mickey Mouse and other beloved Disney characters from entering the public domain

Financial modeling for operating mines: short-form evaluation techniques

For operating mines, the market or mining conditions can unexpectedly change requiring quick decision making and adjustments under time and environment pressure. Conducting a thorough complex DCF analysis is a very long process that can lead to inefficiencies and erroneous decisions during critical and pressuring conditions. An organized and well-structure financial model for operating mines can be streamed down with short-form evaluation techniques, VBA Macros, and quick reporting tools to quickly conduct DCF and sensitivities analyses of mine plans to speed up the assessment of how the operating mine can adjust to these unexpected changes

State-of-the-Art of Social Media Analytics Research

Overview of current state-of-the-art of social media for NTI Working Group III: Societal Verificatio

Estimating the Spatial Distribution of Groundwater Demand In the Texas High Plains

Developing groundwater management plans requires a good understanding of the interdependence of groundwater hydrology and producer water use behavior. While state-of-the-art groundwater models require water demand data at highly disaggregated levels, the lack of producer water use data has held up the progress to meet that need. This paper proposes an econometric framework that links county-level crop acreage data to well-level hydrologic data to produce heterogeneous patterns of crop choice and irrigation practices within a county. Together with agronomic data on irrigation water requirements of various crops and irrigation practices, this model permits estimation of the water demand distribution within a county. We apply this model to a panel of 16 counties in the Southern Texas High Plains from 1972 to 2000. The results obtained not only are consistent with those from the traditional multinomial logit land use model, but also indicate the presence of large intra- and inter-county heterogeneity in producer water use behavior.Discrete Choice Model, Random-coefficients Discrete Choice Model, Crop Choice, BLP, Groundwater, Texas High Plains, Ogallala Aquifer, Crop Production/Industries, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Control of T-2 toxin in Fusarium langsethiae and geotrichum candidum co-culture

Due to contamination of barley grains by Fusarium langsethiae, T-2 toxin can be present in the brewing process. It has been observed that the presence of the yeast Geotrichum candidum during malting can reduce the final concentration of this mycotoxin in beer. In this work, a co-culture method was carried out for both microorganisms in order to evaluate the effect on T-2 mycotoxin concentration in comparison with the pure culture of F. langsethiae in the same conditions. The microbial growth of both microorganisms was assessed using three different methods: dry weight, DOPE-FISH, and DNA quantification. In co-culture, both microorganisms globally developed less than in pure cultures but G. candidum showed a better growth than F. langsethiae. The concentration of T-2 was reduced by 93 % compared to the pure culture. Hence, the interaction between G. candidum and F. langsethiae led to a drastic mycotoxin reduction despite the only partial inhibition of fungal growth

¿Nos podemos deshacer de los modelos de las representaciones mentales en ciencia cognitiva?

In this article I pretend to give an account of the models that have been used to understand the term mental representation from different approaches that have shown in philosophy of mind, focussing and defending a stand in which we can get rid of the “classical” characteristics of representation and we can take some of them from an enactivista and situated perspective. For that I will briefly present a description of the classical postures to then concentrate in detail in the way to defend a kind of representation from an enactivista and situated account. With this I will characterize the kind of representation that is necessary for perceptual phenomena, and specially I will give examples or temporality perception along the workEn este artículo pretendo dar cuenta de los modelos que se han usado para entender el término de representación mental desde los diversos frentes que han aparecido en la filosofía de la mente, concentrándome y defendiendo sobre todo una postura en la que nos deshagamos de las nociones clásicas de representación y se tomen algunas de éstas desde una postura enactiva y situada. Para ello presentaré brevemente un recuento de dichas posturas para luego concentrarme a detalle en la manera de defender un tipo de representación desde las posturas enactivistas y situadas. Con ello caracterizaré el tipo de representación que es necesaria para dar cuenta de fenómenos perceptivos, en especial daré algunos ejemplos de la percepción de la temporalidad a lo largo del trabajo a modo de instancias donde es necesario este tipo de representación situada que se defender