I have a Dream Act

With election season just behind us and Obama re-elected for a second term, change is in the air. One change has the potential to affect more than 1.4 million people living in the United States. This group of individuals is the US population of undocumented persons, often incorrectly referred to as “illegal immigrants.” Laws, acts, bills, and amendments to change the situation of these persons have been discussed for decades, but there is one that might actually stick. Pitched to Congress in 2001, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) act gave immigrants hope for a better life

The Process of Creation: A Novel Methodology for Analyzing Multimodal Data

In the 21st century, meaning making is a multimodal act; we communicate what we know and how we know it using much more than printed text on a blank page. As a result, qualitative researchers need new methodologies, methods, and tools for working with the complex artifacts that our research subjects produce. In this article we describe the co-development of an analytic methodology and a tool for working with youth produced films as multimodal artifacts of youth engagement with identity. Specifically, we describe how to employ this multimodal framework in data analysis, with an emphasis on how different modes interact with one another, and how new meanings are made possible through multimodal interactions

Shared Neuroanatomical Substrates of Impaired Phonological Working Memory Across Reading Disability and Autism

Background Individuals with reading disability and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized, respectively, by their difficulties in reading and social communication, but both groups often have impaired phonological working memory (PWM). It is not known whether the impaired PWM reflects distinct or shared neuroanatomical abnormalities in these two diagnostic groups. Methods White-matter structural connectivity via diffusion weighted imaging was examined in 64 children, age 5 to 17 years, with reading disability, ASD, or typical development, who were matched on age, gender, intelligence, and diffusion data quality. Results Children with reading disability and children with ASD exhibited reduced PWM compared with children with typical development. The two diagnostic groups showed altered white matter microstructure in the temporoparietal portion of the left arcuate fasciculus and in the occipitotemporal portion of the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), as indexed by reduced fractional anisotropy and increased radial diffusivity. Moreover, the structural integrity of the right ILF was positively correlated with PWM ability in the two diagnostic groups but not in the typically developing group. Conclusions These findings suggest that impaired PWM is transdiagnostically associated with shared neuroanatomical abnormalities in ASD and reading disability. Microstructural characteristics in left arcuate fasciculus and right ILF may play important roles in the development of PWM. The right ILF may support a compensatory mechanism for children with impaired PWM

Design and characterization of the SPT-3G receiver

The SPT-3G receiver was commissioned in early 2017 on the 10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) to map anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). New optics, detector, and readout technologies have yielded a multichroic, high-resolution, low-noise camera with impressive throughput and sensitivity, offering the potential to improve our understanding of inflationary physics, astroparticle physics, and growth of structure. We highlight several key features and design principles of the new receiver, and summarize its performance to date

Impact of electrical contacts design and materials on the stability of Ti superconducting transition shape

The South Pole Telescope SPT-3G camera utilizes Ti/Au transition edge sensors (TESs). A key requirement for these sensors is reproducibility and long-term stability of the superconducting (SC) transitions. Here, we discuss the impact of electrical contacts design and materials on the shape of the SC transitions. Using scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope, and optical differential interference contrast microscopy, we observed the presence of unexpected defects of morphological nature on the titanium surface and their evolution in time in proximity to Nb contacts. We found direct correlation between the variations of the morphology and the SC transition shape. Experiments with different diffusion barriers between TES and Nb leads were performed to clarify the origin of this problem. We have demonstrated that the reproducibility of superconducting transitions can be significantly improved by preventing diffusion processes in the TES–leads contact areas

Performance and characterization of the SPT-3G digital frequency-domain multiplexed readout system using an improved noise and crosstalk model

The third-generation South Pole Telescope camera (SPT-3G) improves upon its predecessor (SPTpol) by an order of magnitude increase in detectors on the focal plane. The technology used to read out and control these detectors, digital frequency-domain multiplexing (DfMUX), is conceptually the same as used for SPTpol, but extended to accommodate more detectors. A nearly 5× expansion in the readout operating bandwidth has enabled the use of this large focal plane, and SPT-3G performance meets the forecasting targets relevant to its science objectives. However, the electrical dynamics of the higher-bandwidth readout differ from predictions based on models of the SPTpol system due to the higher frequencies used and parasitic impedances associated with new cryogenic electronic architecture. To address this, we present an updated derivation for electrical crosstalk in higher-bandwidth DfMUX systems and identify two previously uncharacterized contributions to readout noise, which become dominant at high bias frequency. The updated crosstalk and noise models successfully describe the measured crosstalk and readout noise performance of SPT-3G. These results also suggest specific changes to warm electronics component values, wire-harness properties, and SQUID parameters, to improve the readout system for future experiments using DfMUX, such as the LiteBIRD space telescope

I have a Dream Act

With election season just behind us and Obama re-elected for a second term, change is in the air. One change has the potential to affect more than 1.4 million people living in the United States. This group of individuals is the US population of undocumented persons, often incorrectly referred to as “illegal immigrants.” Laws, acts, bills, and amendments to change the situation of these persons have been discussed for decades, but there is one that might actually stick. Pitched to Congress in 2001, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) act gave immigrants hope for a better life.</p

Quality Engineering in the Development of an Intelligent Agent

Our laboratory is involved in the development of an intelligent agent that operates a remotely piloted aircraft with twohuman teammates that communicate using text chat. The task is well-defined, but there are potentially numerous andunpredictable inputs during varied 40 minute missions. To assure reliability of agent behavior, we must run a largenumber of missions and analyze the behavior of the agent at milliseconds resolution. To support this requirement, we havedeveloped 1) a scripting language and control system that drives a mission with simulated teammates and environmentalevents, 2) scripted missions using actual chat input from a previous study, 3) output files for each mission that trace agentactions, situation state, and program events, and 4) scripts that analyze the output files based on performance heuristicsand differences from known-good output. This framework allows us to verify complex agent behavior as developmentprogresses