\u3ci\u3ePolistes Dominulus\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Found in Michigan

(excerpt) On 25 May 1995, a single foundress colony of Polistes dominulus (Christ) was discovered on a study site at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan (Oakland County). This is the first record of Polistes dominulus in the state of Michigan

A pilot level decision analysis of thermionic reactor development strategy for nuclear electric propulsion

The development policy for thermionic reactors to provide electric propulsion and power for space exploration was analyzed to develop a logical procedure for selecting development alternatives that reflect the technical feasibility, JPL/NASA project objectives, and the economic environment of the project. The partial evolution of a decision model from the underlying philosophy of decision analysis to a deterministic pilot phase is presented, and the general manner in which this decision model can be employed to examine propulsion development alternatives is illustrated

Occlusion-Robust MVO: Multimotion Estimation Through Occlusion Via Motion Closure

Visual motion estimation is an integral and well-studied challenge in autonomous navigation. Recent work has focused on addressing multimotion estimation, which is especially challenging in highly dynamic environments. Such environments not only comprise multiple, complex motions but also tend to exhibit significant occlusion. Previous work in object tracking focuses on maintaining the integrity of object tracks but usually relies on specific appearance-based descriptors or constrained motion models. These approaches are very effective in specific applications but do not generalize to the full multimotion estimation problem. This paper presents a pipeline for estimating multiple motions, including the camera egomotion, in the presence of occlusions. This approach uses an expressive motion prior to estimate the SE (3) trajectory of every motion in the scene, even during temporary occlusions, and identify the reappearance of motions through motion closure. The performance of this occlusion-robust multimotion visual odometry (MVO) pipeline is evaluated on real-world data and the Oxford Multimotion Dataset.Comment: To appear at the 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). An earlier version of this work first appeared at the Long-term Human Motion Planning Workshop (ICRA 2019). 8 pages, 5 figures. Video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_N71AA6FR

Exploiting soliton decay and phase fluctuations in atom chip interferometry of Bose-Einstein condensates

We show that the decay of a soliton into vortices provides a mechanism for measuring the initial phase difference between two merging Bose-Einstein condensates. At very low temperatures, the mechanism is resonant, operating only when the clouds start in anti-phase. But at higher temperatures, phase fluctuations trigger vortex production over a wide range of initial relative phase, as observed in recent experiments at MIT. Choosing the merge time to maximize the number of vortices created makes the interferometer highly sensitive to spatially varying phase patterns and hence atomic movement.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Alien Registration- Judd, Jeanetta M. (Baldwin, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/32988/thumbnail.jp

Identifying prognostic indicators for electrical treeing in solid insulation through pulse sequence analysis

Predictive maintenance attempts to evaluate the condition of equipment and predict the future trend of the equipment's aging, in order to reduce costs when compared to the two traditional approaches: corrective and preventive maintenance. This prediction requires an accurate prognostic model of aging. In solid insulation, the ultimate goal of prognostics is to predict the advent of failure, i.e., insulation breakdown, in terms of remaining useful life (RUL). One fault is electrical treeing, which is progressive thus leading to potentially catastrophic failure. Research has shown that diagnosis of faults can be achieved based on partial discharge (PD) monitoring [1], i.e., phase-resolved and pulse sequence analysis (PSA). This work will explore the extension of this concept towards predicting evolution of the defect: moving beyond diagnostics towards prognostics. To do this, there is a need for further investigation of prognostic features within PD characteristics leading up to breakdown. In this work, a needle-plane test arrangement was set up using a hypodermic needle and pre-formed silicone rubber as test samples. The visual observations and tree growth measurements were made using a digital microscope. PD data was captured using a radio frequency (RF) sensor and analysed using PSA. The main idea of the PSA approach is the strong relationship between two consecutive pulses caused by PD activities, which can give an understanding of the local degradation processes [1]. As for electrical treeing, a breakdown indicator in PSA is the appearance of heavily clustered data points that lie diagonally in scatter plots of the differential ratio of voltage and time of consecutive charges (Un = Δun/Δtn) [2,3]. Figure 1 shows an example of a plot that changed to a diagonal line after 14 hours of aging time. This paper investigates the formation of the diagonal line based on the distribution of the plot from the start of electrical treeing until breakdown occurs. Finally, statistical features of the PSA plot are given and will be used for lifetime prediction of insulation samples in future work

The Search for Consensus

PROFESSIONAL political scientists develop a particular way of looking at the world and interpreting its events. Because of the forces which act upon us all, the view may be excessively narrow, its importance may be exaggerated, and it may be inaccurate as an interpretive device. Yet it is a key to understanding for the person who employs it. He inclines to view all public problems in its light and tends to assume that the solution of social problems is contingent upon an adequate understanding and appreciation of it. My own view, and I make no claim to originality in expressing it, is that the political process in a democratic community involves essentially the search for a consensus. This necessitates the development of methods of arriving at conclusions on public policies which are in the public interest and are acceptable to majorities. In authoritarian communities where the principle of consent is of no substantial importance, this is not a major problem. In these polities, decisions are made and imposed by leaders who may or may not take the public interest into account but who, at any rate, are not required to consult the public before making decisions. In democratic communities the matter is more complex. Since democratic government requires the consent of the governed, it must be discovered what that consent involves and whether or not it is really given. Consensus means a general agreement. Not everyone need consent to a particular proposition but a majority must, and the position of a dissenting minority must be noted and respected. Finally, that minority ought not to be outraged; at least to the extent that it is, consensus is minimized

CBD, Vocal Impairment, and Healing

Healing is holistic, elusive as it is ever-present. It is a cycle, like that of life. There are seasons in which we feel full and seasons in which our wings don’t lift to take us where our mind already rests. In my college path, I have found that my healing and my restoration comes from combining science, which my mentor refers to as the “art of ideas,� and art. In these series I based conceptual art on healing around the research that I am conducting that centers around vocal impairment and zebra finches, along with the ability of Cannabidiol to mitigate this damage. By doing so, I am recreating my healing space in the cycle created by these five pieces themselves. Healing comes at times in the physical form via pharmacological advances, as we are dealing with in our lab; it also can come from the things that allow us to be our most true inner selves, like art and being able to paint are for me. In that multidisciplinary framework, I created these pieces to speak to what it means to bring healing in its cycle, illustrated by the white line increasingly outlining the zebra finch bird, raising wings as in flight, until the fifth piece of the series is completely outlined in its wholeness. What brings art and science together, in my experience, is not their actual practice, but the ability they have to touch people’s lives, to increase quality of life, and to heal minds and bodies in their very nature