Liquid-Vapor Transition and Critical Behavior of The Ultrasoft Restricted Primitive Model of Polyelectrolytes : a Monte Carlo Study

We present a Monte-Carlo study of the liquid-vapor transition and the critical behavior of a model of polyelectrolytes with soft gaussian charge distributions introduced recently by Coslovich, Hansen, and Kahl [J. Chem. Phys. \textbf{134}, 244514 (2011)]. A finite size study involving four different volumes in the grand canonical ensemble yields a precise determination of the critical temperature, chemical potential, and density of the model. Attempts to determine the nature of the criticality and to obtain reliable values for the critical exponents are not conclusive.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

USC/AIAA student get away special project liquid droplet collector experiment

This experimental payload was developed in order to observe, in a micro-gravity vacuum environment, the characteristics and stability of a thin fluid film flowing across a slightly curved surface. The test apparatus was designed based upon various ground-based thin film investigations, combined with the constraints imposed by the rigors of launch and the space environment. Testing of the fluid test article at atmospheric pressure and in vacuum verified the design provisions employed concerning ultra-low inlet pressure pump construction, as well as confirming expected pressure losses in the system. During the course of hardware development and construction modifications were required; however, the overall payload configuration remained largely unchanged. This will allow for modification and reflight of the apparatus based upon the findings of the initial flight. The specific applications of this experiment include Liquid Droplet Radiator development and various forms of material transport in vacuum

Adding DL-Lite TBoxes to Proper Knowledge Bases

Levesque’s proper knowledge bases (proper KBs) correspond to infinite sets of ground positive and negative facts, with the notable property that for FOL formulas in a certain normal form, which includes conjunctive queries and positive queries possibly extended with a controlled form of negation, entailment reduces to formula evaluation. However proper KBs represent extensional knowledge only. In description logic terms, they correspond to ABoxes. In this paper, we augment them with DL-Lite TBoxes, expressing intensional knowledge (i.e., the ontology of the domain). DL-Lite has the notable property that conjunctive query answering over TBoxes and standard description logic ABoxes is re- ducible to formula evaluation over the ABox only. Here, we investigate whether such a property extends to ABoxes consisting of proper KBs. Specifically, we consider two DL-Lite variants: DL-Literdfs , roughly corresponding to RDFS, and DL-Lite_core , roughly corresponding to OWL 2 QL. We show that when a DL- Lite_rdfs TBox is coupled with a proper KB, the TBox can be compiled away, reducing query answering to evaluation on the proper KB alone. But this reduction is no longer possible when we associate proper KBs with DL-Lite_core TBoxes. Indeed, we show that in the latter case, query answering even for conjunctive queries becomes coNP-hard in data complexity

Vernal Pool Conservation: Enhancing Existing Regulation Through the Creation of the Maine Vernal Pool Special Area Management Plan

Conservation of natural resources is challenging given the competing economic and ecological goals humans have for landscapes. Vernal pools in the northeastern US are seasonal, small wetlands that provide critical breeding habitat for amphibians and invertebrates adapted to temporary waters, and are exceptionally hard to conserve as their function is dependent on connections to other wetlands and upland forests. A team of researchers in Maine joined forces with a diverse array of governmental and private stakeholders to develop an alternative to existing top-down vernal pool regulation. Through creative adoption and revision of various resource management tools, they produced a vernal pool conservation mechanism, the Maine Vernal Pool Special Management Area Plan that meets the needs of diverse stakeholders from developers to ecologists. This voluntary mitigation tool uses fees from impacts to vernal pools in locally identified growth areas to fund conservation of “poolscapes” (pools plus appropriate adjacent habitat) in areas locally designated for rural use. In this case study, we identify six key features of this mechanism that illustrate the use of existing tools to balance growth and pool conservation. This case study will provide readers with key concepts that can be applied to any conservation problem: namely, how to work with diverse interests toward a common goal, how to evaluate and use existing policy tools in new ways, and how to approach solutions to sticky problems through a willingness to accept uncertainty and risk

Actions speak louder than words: designing transdisciplinary approaches to enact solutions

Sustainability science uses a transdisciplinary research process in which academic and non-academic partners collaborate to identify a common problem and co-produce knowledge to develop more sustainable solutions. Sustainability scientists have advanced the theory and practice of facilitating collaborative efforts such that the knowledge created is usable. There has been less emphasis, however, on the last step of the transdisciplinary process: enacting solutions. We analyzed a case study of a transdisciplinary research effort in which co-produced policy simulation information shaped the creation of a new policy mechanism. More specifically, by studying the development of a mechanism for conserving vernal pool ecosystems, we found that four factors helped overcome common challenges to acting upon new information: creating a culture of learning, co-producing policy simulations that acted as boundary objects, integrating research into solution development, and employing an adaptive management approach. With an increased focus on these four factors that enable action, we can better develop the same level of nuanced theoretical concepts currently characterizing the earlier phases of transdisciplinary research, and the practical advice for deliberately designing these efforts

Alien Registration- Levesque, Ernest J. (Fairfield, Somerset County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/9427/thumbnail.jp