Development and verification of a three-dimensional wind measurement sensor hosted on a meteorologically instrumented small multirotor UAS

Small multirotor unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have great potential to effectively investigate the urban boundary layer. Their ability to launch and recover vertically in tight urban spaces, along with their ability to be precisely controlled, including hover, makes them an especially attractive investigation tool for obstacle laden environments. These aircraft characteristics are also conducive to obtaining measurements with both high spatial and temporal resolution. With the motivation to obtain high-resolution measurements, a small multirotor UAS was meteorologically instrumented with both thermodynamic and kinematic sensors. This work details the development and subsequent verification of two orthogonally mounted acoustic resonance ultrasonic anemometers that provide a 3 dimensional solution suitable for measurement of the mean wind and its fluctuating component (i.e. turbulence). Comparison of the geo and time-stamped wind speed and direction measurement was made against a surface mounted anemometer during both indoor and field testing. The system will be deployed in upcoming urban field campaigns in the summer of 2020 and beyond

Inflation and Dark Energy from spectroscopy at z > 2

The expansion of the Universe is understood to have accelerated during two epochs: in its very first moments during a period of Inflation and much more recently, at z < 1, when Dark Energy is hypothesized to drive cosmic acceleration. The undiscovered mechanisms behind these two epochs represent some of the most important open problems in fundamental physics. The large cosmological volume at 2 < z < 5, together with the ability to efficiently target high-$z$ galaxies with known techniques, enables large gains in the study of Inflation and Dark Energy. A future spectroscopic survey can test the Gaussianity of the initial conditions up to a factor of ~50 better than our current bounds, crossing the crucial theoretical threshold of $\sigma(f_{NL}^{\rm local})$ of order unity that separates single field and multi-field models. Simultaneously, it can measure the fraction of Dark Energy at the percent level up to $z = 5$, thus serving as an unprecedented test of the standard model and opening up a tremendous discovery space

Freedom, Servitude and Voluntary Labor

We present an economic framework to revisit and reframe some important debates over the nature of free versus unfree labor and the economic consequences of emancipation. We use a simple general equilibrium model in which labor can be either free or coerced and where land and labor will be exchanged on markets that can be competitive or manipulated or via other non-market collusive arrangements. By working with variants of the same basic model under different assumptions about initial economy-wide factor endowments and asset ownership we can compare equilibrium distributional outcomes under different institutional and contractual arrangements including markets with free labor and free tenancy, slavery, and tenancy arrangements with tied labor-service obligations. Analysis of these different contractual and organizational forms yields insights that accord with common sense, but that are often overlooked or downplayed in academic debates, particularly amongst economists

Genome-wide Association Study Identifies Two Susceptibility Loci for Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone malignancy of adolescents and young adults. In order to better understand the genetic etiology of osteosarcoma, we performed a multi-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) consisting of 941 cases and 3,291 cancer-free adult controls of European ancestry. Two loci achieved genome-wide significance: rs1906953 at 6p21.3, in the glutamate receptor metabotropic 4 [GRM4] gene (P = 8.1 ×10-9), and rs7591996 and rs10208273 in a gene desert on 2p25.2 (P = 1.0 ×10-8 and 2.9 ×10-7). These two susceptibility loci warrant further exploration to uncover the biological mechanisms underlying susceptibility to osteosarcoma