Reciprocal Disarmament: A Game Proposal

The events of the late 1980s brought high hopes that arms control could play a major role in reducing both the danger of war and the considerable economic burden which the maintenance of large military forces represents. At the same time, many critics have pointed out that arms control, at least as traditionally conceived, has inherent limitations. For no treaty, however well-drafted, can ever encompass and quantify every significant aspect of the military strength that potential adversaries may have

Threshold Effect In Mg-doped Lithium Niobate

Optical absorption spectra were obtained after reducing (i.e., vacuum annealing) a series of LiNbO3 crystals grown from melts having various Mg concentrations and Li/Nb ratios. A band peaking at 500 nm, and assigned to oxygen vacancies containing two electrons, was the only absorption present in one set of crystals following reduction. In contrast, two overlapping bands peaking near 1200 and 760 nm were present in the other set of crystals immediately after the reduction. The 1200-nm band is assigned to a previously unreported electron trap and the 760-nm band to oxygen vacancies containing only one electron. These data are interpreted in terms of a threshold level for Mg doping; however, the threshold Mg doping level is not a constant but depends on the ratio of Mg ions to Li vacancies

Fugitive emissions from the Bakken shale illustrate role of shale production in global ethane shift

Ethane is the second most abundant atmospheric hydrocarbon, exerts a strong influence on tropospheric ozone, and reduces the atmosphere’s oxidative capacity. Global observations showed declining ethane abundances from 1984 to 2010, while a regional measurement indicated increasing levels since 2009, with the reason for this subject to speculation. The Bakken shale is an oil and gas‐producing formation centered in North Dakota that experienced a rapid increase in production beginning in 2010. We use airborne data collected over the North Dakota portion of the Bakken shale in 2014 to calculate ethane emissions of 0.23 ± 0.07 (2σ) Tg/yr, equivalent to 1–3% of total global sources. Emissions of this magnitude impact air quality via concurrent increases in tropospheric ozone. This recently developed large ethane source from one location illustrates the key role of shale oil and gas production in rising global ethane levels.Key PointsThe Bakken shale in North Dakota accounted for 1–3% total global ethane emissions in 2014These findings highlight the importance of shale production in global atmospheric ethane shiftThese emissions impact air quality and influence interpretations of recent global methane changesPeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142509/1/grl54333.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142509/2/grl54333-sup-0001-2016GL068703-SI.pd

Theory and design of Inx_{x}Ga1−x_{1-x}As1−y_{1-y}Biy_{y} mid-infrared semiconductor lasers: type-I quantum wells for emission beyond 3 μ\mum on InP substrates

We present a theoretical analysis and optimisation of the properties and performance of mid-infrared semiconductor lasers based on the dilute bismide alloy In$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As$_{1-y}$Bi$_{y}$, grown on conventional (001) InP substrates. The ability to independently vary the epitaxial strain and emission wavelength in this quaternary alloy provides significant scope for band structure engineering. Our calculations demonstrate that structures based on compressively strained In$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As$_{1-y}$Bi$_{y}$ quantum wells (QWs) can readily achieve emission wavelengths in the 3 -- 5 $\mu$m range, and that these QWs have large type-I band offsets. As such, these structures have the potential to overcome a number of limitations commonly associated with this application-rich but technologically challenging wavelength range. By considering structures having (i) fixed QW thickness and variable strain, and (ii) fixed strain and variable QW thickness, we quantify key trends in the properties and performance as functions of the alloy composition, structural properties, and emission wavelength, and on this basis identify routes towards the realisation of optimised devices for practical applications. Our analysis suggests that simple laser structures -- incorporating In$_{x}$Ga$_{1-x}$As$_{1-y}$Bi$_{y}$ QWs and unstrained ternary In$_{0.53}$Ga$_{0.47}$As barriers -- which are compatible with established epitaxial growth, provide a route to realising InP-based mid-infrared diode lasers.Comment: Submitted versio

A–C Estrogens as Potent and Selective Estrogen Receptor-Beta Agonists (SERBAs) to Enhance Memory Consolidation under Low-Estrogen Conditions

Estrogen receptor-beta (ERβ) is a drug target for memory consolidation in postmenopausal women. Herein is reported a series of potent and selective ERβ agonists (SERBAs) with in vivo efficacy that are A–C estrogens, lacking the B and D estrogen rings. The most potent and selective A–C estrogen is selective for activating ER relative to seven other nuclear hormone receptors, with a surprising 750-fold selectivity for the β over α isoform and with EC50s of 20–30 nM in cell-based and direct binding assays. Comparison of potency in different assays suggests that the ER isoform selectivity is related to the compound’s ability to drive the productive conformational change needed to activate transcription. The compound also shows in vivo efficacy after microinfusion into the dorsal hippocampus and after intraperitoneal injection (0.5 mg/kg) or oral gavage (0.5 mg/kg). This simple yet novel A–C estrogen is selective, brain penetrant, and facilitates memory consolidation

Proposed Metering and Instrumentation Monitoring and Analysis Plan and Budget: Alamo Community College District

The purpose of this overview is to outline the metering points that will be monitored by the Energy Systems Laboratory (ESL). At three of the campuses, Alamo Community College District (ACCD) has a central energy management system (EMS) installed that has the capability to record energy data. It is ESL's intent to utilize this system to collect data for energy monitoring and commissioning purposes. Since ACCD does not monitor gas consumption, ESL would like to incorporate gas metering into the current EMS. ESL may recommend upgrading some or all of the existing Energy Management System's software and client PC workstations (these hardware/software upgrades are not included in this budget), hi order for ESL to link into the existing EMS, it will be necessary to install additional software (PCAnywhere) or equipment (mainly another PC workstation) near the existing EMS computer terminals. ESL would also like Ethernet lines connected to the PC workstation so the system could be accessed via Internet. Software development will be needed to extract and format the existing EMS data sequence, push the data to ESL's network and load it into ESL's databases

Application of activated barrier hopping theory to viscoplastic modeling of glassy polymers

YesAn established statistical mechanical theory of amorphous polymer deformation has been incorporated as a plastic mechanism into a constitutive model and applied to a range of polymer mechanical deformations. The temperature and rate dependence of the tensile yield of PVC, as reported in early studies, has been modeled to high levels of accuracy. Tensile experiments on PET reported here are analyzed similarly and good accuracy is also achieved. The frequently observed increase in the gradient of the plot of yield stress against logarithm of strain rate is an inherent feature of the constitutive model. The form of temperature dependence of the yield that is predicted by the model is found to give an accurate representation. The constitutive model is developed in two-dimensional form and implemented as a user-defined subroutine in the finite element package ABAQUS. This analysis is applied to the tensile experiments on PET, in some of which strain is localized in the form of shear bands and necks. These deformations are modeled with partial success, though adiabatic heating of the instability causes inaccuracies for this isothermal implementation of the model. The plastic mechanism has advantages over the Eyring process, is equally tractable,and presents no particular difficulties in implementation with finite elements.F. Boutenel acknowledges an Erasmus Programme Scholarshi

Testimony at court: a randomised controlled trial investigating the art and science of persuading witnesses and victims to attend trial

The presence of civilian witnesses and victims in court is central to the effective operation of the criminal justice system. However, there is evidence of significant non-attendance which can result in ineffective and cracked trials. To address this, West Midlands Police Witness Care Unit and the Behavioural Insights Team designed an intervention using behavioural insight principles consisting of (1) a new conversation guide for Witness Care Officers (WCOs); (2) a redesigned ‘Warning Letter’ confirming details of the proceedings; and (3) a new reminder call and SMS. The impact of the new approach was evaluated through a randomised controlled trial in which 36 WCOs were randomly assigned to either “business as usual” (control) or treatment. The evaluation used an intention-to-treat design with implementation guided and encouraged at several points. Subgroup analysis was undertaken to explore whether differential effects were seen for domestic violence cases or between those that were victims and witnesses. Results indicated that the treatment approach was directionally positive in all cases, but that the increase in attendance was not statistically significant. This is in line with findings of other similar research in this area

Information driven evaluation of data hiding algorithms

Abstract. Privacy is one of the most important properties an information system must satisfy. A relatively new trend shows that classical access control techniques are not sufficient to guarantee privacy when datamining techniques are used. Privacy Preserving Data Mining (PPDM) algorithms have been recently introduced with the aim of modifying the database in such a way to prevent the discovery of sensible information. Due to the large amount of possible techniques that can be used to achieve this goal, it is necessary to provide some standard evaluation metrics to determine the best algorithms for a specific application or context. Currently, however, there is no common set of parameters that can be used for this purpose. This paper explores the problem of PPDM algorithm evaluation, starting from the key goal of preserving of data quality. To achieve such goal, we propose a formal definition of data quality specifically tailored for use in the context of PPDM algorithms, a set of evaluation parameters and an evaluation algorithm. The resulting evaluation core process is then presented as a part of a more general three step evaluation framework, taking also into account other aspects of the algorithm evaluation such as efficiency, scalability and level of privacy.