Spoke wavenumbers and mode transitions in the NASA Lewis bumpy torus

Waveforms of fluctuations of plasma potential, resulting from rotating electron and ion charge concentrations, were observed in a bumpy torus. Since these fluctuations were thought to be spoke rotations in the direction of the ExB drift, measuring the direction of spoke rotation should determine the direction of the electric fields over much of the plasma surface. A Langmuir probe was inserted into the plasma to measure the floating potential of the plasma, hence the direction of the electric field could be checked another way

Who Cares How Congress Really Works?

Legislative intent is a fiction. Courts and scholars accept this, by and large. As this Article shows, however, both are confused as to why legislative intent is a fiction and as to what this fiction entails. This Article first argues that the standard explanation—that Congress is a “they,” not an “it”—rests on an unduly simple conception of shared agency. Drawing from contemporary scholarship in the philosophy of action, it contends that Congress has no collective intention, not because of difficulties in aggregating the intentions of individual members, but rather because Congress lacks the sort of delegatory structure that one finds in, for example, a corporation. Second, this Article argues that—contrary to a recent, influential wave of scholarship—the fictional nature of legislative intent leaves interpreters of legislation with little reason to care about the fine details of legislative process. It is a platitude that legislative text must be interpreted in “context.” Context, however, consists of information salient to author and audience alike. This basic insight from the philosophy of language necessitates what this Article calls the “conversation” model of interpretation. Legislation is written by legislators for those tasked with administering the law—for example, courts and agencies—and those on whom the law operates—for example, citizens. Almost any interpreter thus occupies the position of conversational participant, reading legislative text in a context consisting of information salient both to members of Congress and to citizens (as well as agencies, courts, etc.). The conversation model displaces what this Article calls the “eavesdropping” model of interpretation—the prevailing paradigm among both courts and scholars. When asking what sources of information an interpreter should consider, courts and scholars have reliably privileged the epistemic position of members of Congress. The result is that legislation is erroneously treated as having been written by legislators exclusively for other legislators. This tendency is plainest in recent scholarship urging greater attention to legislative process—the nuances of which are of high salience to legislators but plainly not to citizens

Radio frequency studies in the NASA Lewis Bumay Torus

The fluctuations in potential of the plasma in the NASA Lewis Bumpy Torus were observed using capacitive probes over frequencies from 1 kHz to 25 MHz and a wide range of operating conditions. The spectra were found to differ greatly above and below a background gas pressure of 3.0.000034 torr deuterium. Above this pressure the spectrum was dominated by the ion spoke frequency and a spectral index was defined. Below this pressure the spectrum below 200 kHz was lower in lower in amplitude by a factor of ten and no spectral index could be defined. At these lower pressures, fluctuations that appeared to be ion spokes were observed, but had a dependence of frequency on operating conditions which was previously unreported

Preemption of State Wildlife Law in Alaska: Where, When, and Why

This report describes how parameter estimation can be performed in linear DAE systems. Both time domain and frequency domain identification are examined. The results are exemplified on a small system. A potential application for the algorithms is to make parameter estimation in models generated by a modeling language like Modelica

The Political Subdivision Exception of the National Labor Relations Act and the Board‘s Discretionary Authority

Modern modeling tools often give descriptor or DAE models, i.e., models consisting of a mixture of differential and algebraic relationships. The introduction of stochastic signals into such models in connection with filtering problems raises several questions of well-posedness. The main problem is that the system equations may contain hidden relationships affecting variables defined as white noise. The result might be that certain physical variables get infinite variance or contain formal differentiations of white noise. The paper gives conditions for well-posedness in terms of certain subspaces defined by the system matrices

Characteristics of the NASA Lewis bumpy torus plasma generated with high positive or negative applied potentials

The toroidal ring of plasma contained in the NASA Lewis bumpy-torus superconducting magnet facility may be biased to positive or negative potentials approaching 50 kilovolts by applying direct-current voltages of the respective polarity to 12 or fewer of the midplane electrode rings. The electric fields which are responsible for heating the ions by E/B drift then point radially outward or inward. The low-frequency fluctuations below the ion cyclotron frequency appeared to be dominated by rotating spokes

Theism and Psychological Science: A Call for Rapprochement

The authors offer two arguments for the inclusion of theism in natural science. First, an argument against excluding theism is offered. Though early roots of science promoted a view that it is a way to accumulate knowledge that is untainted by presuppositions and traditions, postmodern critiques call this into question. Scientists have sometimes rejected religion as a context-dependent, tradition-based way of knowing, yet science itself is also context-dependent and tradition-based. Second, an argument for including theism in psychological is offered. Theistic beliefs are relevant insofar as they are part of human experience for many, they represent a form of human diversity, and they have been associated with some positive health outcomes

How profitable is a lower calving age?

Syftet med den här litteraturstudien är att försöka förstå varför den genomsnittliga inkalvningsåldern i Sverige fortsatt är relativt hög samt att ta reda på om det finns tydliga kopplingar mellan inkalvningsålder och lönsamhet. För att säkerställa en hållbar lönsamhet i ett mjölkföretag bör dess mål vara att minimera kostnader för rekryteringskvigorna samtidigt som produktionskapaciteten bibehålls eller stärks. Sett till produktion verkar en inkalvningsålder mellan 22 och 25 månader ge den högsta mjölkavkastningen samtidigt som det ger fler produktiva dagar vilket resulterar i en högre livstidsavkastning. Rekryteringskvigor som kalvar in vid en lägre ålder verkar även ha en lägre uppfödningskostnad. Samtidigt som en lägre inkalvningsålder verkar leda till en högre proteinhalt men något lägre fetthalt. Hänsyn måste dock tas till de förutsättningar varje enskild gård har och som skulle kunna påverka lönsamheten bortom inkalvningsåldern.The purpose of this study is to try to understand why the average age of calving is still relatively high in Sweden and if there are any links between age of calving and profitability. To ensure sustainable profitability in a dairy company, the goal of the replacement heifers should be to minimize costs while maintaining or strengthening production capacity. In terms of production, an age between 22 and 25 months seems to give the highest milk yield at the same time as it will give more productive days, which results in a higher lifetime yield. Replacement heifers that calve at a lower age seem also to have a lower rearing cost. A lower calving age also seems to lead to a higher protein content in milk but slightly lower fat content. Nevertheless, specific conditions of each individual farm could affect profitability beyond calving age and needs to be taken into account

Initial results from the NASA Lewis Bumpy Torus experiment

Initial results were obtained from low power operation of the NASA Lewis Bumpy Torus experiment, in which a steady-state ion heating method based on the modified Penning discharge is applied in a bumpy torus confinement geometry. The magnet facility consists of 12 superconducting coils, each 19 cm i.d. and capable of 3.0 T, equally spaced in a toroidal array 1.52 m in major diameter. A 18 cm i.d. anode ring is located at each of the 12 midplanes and is maintained at high positive potentials by a dc power supply. Initial observations indicate electron temperatures from 10 to 150 eV, and ion kinetic temperatures from 200 eV to 1200 eV. Two modes of operation were observed, which depend on background pressure, and have different radial density profiles. Steady state neutron production was observed. The ion heating process in the bumpy torus appears to parallel closely the mechanism observed when the modified Penning discharge was operated in a simple magnetic mirror field

Characteristics of the NASA Lewis bumpy-torus plasma generated with positive applied potentials

Experimental observations were made during steady-state operation of a bumpy-torus plasma at input powers up to 150 kW in deuterium and helium gas and with positive potentials applied to the midplane electrodes. In this steady-state ion heating method a modified Penning discharge is operated such that the plasma is acted upon by a combination of strong electric and magnetic fields. Experimental investigation of a deuterium plasma revealed electron temperatures from 14 to 140 eV and ion kinetic temperatures from 160 to 1785 eV. At least two distinct modes of operation exist. Experimental data shows that the average ion residence time in the plasma is virtually independent of the magnetic field strength. Data was taken when all 12 anode rings were at high voltage, and in other symmetric configurations in which the toroidal plasma was generated by applying positive potentials to six anode rings, three anode rings, and a single anode ring