Combining dark matter detectors and electron-capture sources to hunt for new physics in the neutrino sector

In this letter we point out the possibility to study new physics in the neutrino sector using dark matter detectors based on liquid xenon. These are characterized by very good spatial resolution and extremely low thresholds for electron recoil energies. When combined with a radioactive $\nu_e$ source, both features in combination allow for a very competitive sensitivity to neutrino magnetic moments and sterile neutrino oscillations. We find that, for realistic values of detector size and source strength, the bound on the neutrino magnetic moment can be improved by an order of magnitude with respect to the present value. Regarding sterile neutrino searches, we find that most of the gallium anomaly could be explored at the 95% confidence level just using shape information.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Minor modifications, references added. Version accepted for publication in JHE

The Legitimacy of the Modern Militia

On May 16, 2001, barring any last minute court appeals, Timothy c Veigh will be executed for his role in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He along with thousands of other Americans who have joined private armies, known as militia, to fight the American government share a common belief that the American government is corrupt at its core and actions such as this one are at the very least patriotic. To most Americans, however, acts such as the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building are not only terroristic, but demonstrate the need for the American government to crack down on these type of organizations to prevent similar atrocities. Is there any justification for the existence of militia groups in the United States, even though most Americans deplore their actions and ideals? This paper will examine the historical use of the militia in the United States and its modem adaptation of militia heritage as well as several different types of militias and recent events that have helped this topic to emerge to the forefront of current discourse

The Development and Verification of Three Matlab Analysis Applications Programmed Specifically for Engage Team Projects.

This thesis outlines the development of three analysis applications for use in the freshmen Engineering Fundamentals Program (engage) at the University of Tennessee. Engage teaches freshmen engineering mechanics concepts through a set of integrated components including Lecture, Analysis and Skills, Problem Session, Physical Homework, and Team Projects. Presently, the students have limited access to any software analysis tools to aid the design process. The students have little experience writing the types of complex programs needed to analyze a particular project. Even more, they do not have the time. The applications provide a means for the students to perform an accurate analysis on their designs within the timeframe of the project deadlines. The contents of this thesis outline the statics and dynamics team projects, a comparison of existing applications that model similar problems, an explanation of why Matlab was chosen as the programming language, a description of each application’s features, verification problems, and application walkthrough tutorials

Dynamic Mutual Capacitive Sensor for Human Interactions.

This dissertation introduces the novel concept of removing the ground conductive plate by utilizing body capacitance as the ground in the capacitive sensor, whereby circuit pressure sensing can occur with only one plate and one dielectric. Additionally, body capacitance sensing was limited to a binary touch-no-touch output, whereas the method presented here can sense various applied pressures. The resulting circuit acts as an antenna that receives local capacitance signals from a human interaction. The advantage of this design is that it allows for both proximity sensing and pressure sensing (once the body part is touching the dielectric material). This setup is ideal for a z-axis dimensional interface for touchscreen devices, as well as pressure sensing palpation or planter region interaction

Retributivism for Progressives: A Response to Professor Flanders

In his engaging article Retributivism and Reform, published in the Maryland Law Review, Chad Flanders engages two claims he ascribes to James Q. Whitman: 1) that American criminal justice is too harsh, and 2) that Americans’ reliance on retributivist theories of criminal punishment is implicated in that harshness. In this invited response, to which Flanders subsequently replied, we first ask what harsh might mean in the context of a critique of criminal justice and punishment. We conclude that the most likely candidate is something along the lines of disproportionate or otherwise unjustified. With this working definition in hand, we measure some current American criminal justice practices using a roughly hewn retributivist yardstick. We conclude that American criminal justice may well be too harsh as measured by retributivist standards. If this is right, then Whitman and others may be wrong to condemn retributivism as a theory of criminal punishment. To the contrary, the resources needed to justify many progressive reforms may lie in embracing retributivism rather than rejecting it. While further work will be necessary to reach any final conclusions, we suggest that retributivism might be particularly useful in addressing overcriminalization, long prison sentences, and brutal prison conditions, each of which a retributivist might well regard as disproportionate or otherwise unjustified and therefore harsh

A HIERARCHICAL BAYES APPROACH TO MODELING CHOICE DATA: A STUDY OF WETLAND RESTORATION PROGRAMS

This study examines the factors the influence the values and importance that landowners place on the attributes of voluntary wetland restoration programs. Choice-based conjoint analysis, a stated preference method, was used to estimate the marginal utilities and values for restoration program attributes for North Carolina landowners. Landowner preferences were estimated at individual and aggregate levels to examine the importance of modeling heterogeneous preferences. Choice modeling performed at both aggregate and individual levels demonstrated the information gains from a disaggregated approach.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,