THE PRISONERS’ (PLEA BARGAIN) DILEMMA

How can a prosecutor, who has only limited resources, credibly threaten so many defendants with costly and risky trials and extract plea bargains involving harsh sentences? Had defendants refused to settle, many of them would not have been charged or would have escaped with lenient sanctions. But such collective stonewalling requires coordination among defendants, which is difficult if not impossible to attain. Moreover, the prosecutor, by strategically timing and targeting her plea offers, can create conflicts of interest among defendants, frustrating any attempt at coordination. The substantial bargaining power of the resource-constrained prosecutor is therefore the product of the collective action problem that plagues defendants. This conclusion suggests that, despite the common view to the contrary, the institution of plea bargains may not improve the well-being of defendants. Absent the plea bargain option, many defendants would not have been charged in the first place. Thus, we can no longer count on the fact that plea bargains are entered voluntarily to argue that they are desirable for all parties involved

A Summary of the Development of a Nominal Land Landing Airbag Impact Attenuation System for the Orion Crew Module

Airborne Systems North America (formally Irvin Aerospace Inc) has developed an Airbag Landing System for the Orion Crew Module of the Crew Exploration Vehicle. This work is in support of the NASA Langley Research Center Landing System Advanced Development Project. Orion is part of the Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon, and then onwards to Mars and other destinations in the Solar System. A component of the Vision for Space Exploration, Orion is being developed to also enable access to space following the retirement of the Space Shuttle in the next decade. This paper documents the development of a conceptual design, fabrication of prototype assemblies, component level testing and two generations of airbag landing system testing. The airbag system has been designed and analyzed using the transient dynamic finite element code LS-DYNA(RegisteredTradeMark). The landing system consists of six airbag assemblies; each assembly comprising a primary impact venting airbag and a non-venting anti-bottoming airbag. The anti-bottoming airbag provides ground clearance following the initial impact attenuation sequence. Incorporated into each primary impact airbag is an active vent that allows the entrapped gas to exit the control volume. The size of the vent is tailored to control the flow-rate of the exiting gas. An internal shaping structure is utilized to control the shape of the primary or main airbags prior to ground impact; this significantly improves stroke efficiency and performance

Modified Split Ring Resonators for Efficient and Homogeneous Microwave Control of Large Volume Spin Ensembles

Quantum sensing using local defects in solid-state systems has gained significant attention over the past several years, with impressive results demonstrated both in Academia and in Industry. Specifically, employing large volume and high density ensembles for beyond state-of-the-art sensitives is of clear interest. A major obstacle for achieving such record sensitivities is associated with the need to realize strong, homogeneous driving of the sensor defects. Here we focus on high-frequency microwave sensing using nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, and develop a modified split-ring resonator design to address this issue. We demonstrate enhanced drive strengths and homogeneities over large volumes compared to previous results, with prospects for enabling the desired sensitivities. We reach Rabi frequencies of up to 18 [MHz] with an efficiency ratio of 2 [$Gauss/\sqrt{Watt}$], along with an inhomogeneity of $<0.7\%$ in a volume of $0.1\:mm^3$

Inoue surfaces and the Chern-Ricci flow

We investigate the Chern-Ricci flow, an evolution equation of Hermitian metrics, on Inoue surfaces. These are non-Kahler compact complex surfaces of type Class VII. We show that, after an initial conformal change, the flow always collapses the Inoue surface to a circle at infinite time, in the sense of Gromov-Hausdorff.Comment: 23 page

Ideas and perspectives: Enhancing research and monitoring of carbon pools and land-to-atmosphere greenhouse gases exchange in developing countries

Carbon (C) and greenhouse gas (GHG) research has traditionally required data collection and analysis using advanced and often expensive instruments, complex and proprietary software, and highly specialized research technicians. Partly as a result, relatively little C and GHG research has been conducted in resource-constrained developing countries. At the same time, these are often the same countries and regions in which climate change impacts will likely be strongest and in which major science uncertainties are centered, given the importance of dryland and tropical systems to the global C cycle. Increasingly, scientific communities have adopted appropriate technology and approach (AT&A) for C and GHG research, which focuses on low-cost and low-technology instruments, open-source software and data, and participatory and networking-based research approaches. Adopting AT&A can mean acquiring data with fewer technical constraints and lower economic burden and is thus a strategy for enhancing C and GHG research in developing countries. However, AT&A can have higher uncertainties; these can often be mitigated by carefully designing experiments, providing clear protocols for data collection, and monitoring and validating the quality of obtained data. For implementing this approach in developing countries, it is first necessary to recognize the scientific and moral importance of AT&A. At the same time, new AT&A techniques should be identified and further developed. All these processes should be promoted in collaboration with local researchers and through training local staff and encouraged for wide use and further innovation in developing countries

Isolation and characterization of a double stranded DNA mgavirus infecting the toxin-producing haptophyte Prymnesium parvum

Prymnesium parvum is a toxin-producing haptophyte that causes harmful algal blooms globally, leading to large-scale fish kills that have severe ecological and economic implications. For the model haptophyte, Emiliania huxleyi, it has been shown that large dsDNA viruses play an important role in regulating blooms and therefore biogeochemical cycling, but much less work has been done looking at viruses that infect P. parvum, or the role that these viruses may play in regulating harmful algal blooms. In this study, we report the isolation and characterization of a lytic nucleo-cytoplasmic large DNA virus (NCLDV) collected from the site of a harmful P. parvum bloom. In subsequent experiments, this virus was shown to infect cultures of Prymnesium sp. and showed phylogenetic similarity to the extended Megaviridae family of algal viruse

Ready student one: Simulation-based education, virtual reality, and the perception of stress

Aim: To investigate differences in the physiological perception of physiotherapy student stress undergoing two types of simulated environments.Design: Quasi-experimentalMethods: Students enrolled in a Doctor of Physiotherapy program were subjected to two stressors: a neurological patient simulation (SIM) and a free-roaming virtual reality (VR) immersive gaming scenario. Physiological parameters including respiratory rate, heart rate, skin temperature, salivary cortisol, and α- amylase were collected prior to, immediately post, and 15, 30, and 60 minutes after each scenario. NASA- task load index (TXL) assessed participants’ perceptions of stress prior to, and at the end of, each scenario. Repeated measures linear mixed model analysed the impact of sampling time, stressor, and their interaction on the physiological parameters and NASA-TXL.Results: The VR experience elicited a marked increase in cortisol concentration (1.7nmol/L SE 0.8, p=0.045) from baseline, but not α-amylase, levels immediately after the task. The SIM experience did not influence the concentration of salivary stress markers, although α-amylase concentrations were higher in samples obtained pre-SIM compared to pre-VR samples. NASA-TXL results indicated that students perceived themselves as performing worst and being more stressed, frustrated, and insecure prior to, and after, the SIM compared to the VR task.Conclusion: The SIM scenario had a greater anticipatory perceived stress while the VR immersive gaming experience highlighted greater post-event physiological response to stress

Realization of robust quantum noise characterization in the presence of coherent errors

Complex quantum systems and their various applications are susceptible to noise of coherent and incoherent nature. Characterization of noise and its sources is an open, key challenge in quantum technology applications, especially in terms of distinguishing between inherent incoherent noise and systematic coherent errors. In this paper, we study a scheme of repeated sequential measurements that enables the characterization of incoherent errors by reducing the effects of coherent errors. We demonstrate this approach using a coherently controlled Nitrogen Vacancy in diamond, coupled to both a natural nuclear spin bath (non-Markovian) and to experimentally controlled relaxation through an optical pumping process (nearly Markovian). Our results show mitigation of coherent errors both for Markovian and Non-Markovian incoherent noise profiles. We apply this scheme to the estimation of the dephasing time ($T_2^*$) due to incoherent noise. We observe an improved robustness against coherent errors in the estimation of dephasing time ($T_2^*$) compared to the standard (Ramsey) measurement