From Jeu DEsprit to Exact Science: Speculation, Science, and Literary Expression in the US, 1870-1895

From Jeu D’Esprit to Exact Science: Speculation, Science, and Literary Expression in the US, 1870-1895 argues that as the nineteenth century closes, speculative prerogatives become practically forbidden as a motive for scientific inquiry, yet more common in literary writing and other imaginative extrapolations. Linking this development to two metascientific concepts, gradualism and descriptionism, which come to fruition in the second half of the century, I explore how a variety of texts, including novels, short stories, editorials, and scientific reports of the 1870s, 80s, and 90s, advance and confront these concepts. The introduction establishes 1870-1895 as a period of diverse definitions, prerogatives, and print mediations of science. Each subsequent chapter examines an element of this cacophony. Chapter two, “Speculation, Extraction, and Polytechnical Education in The Gilded Age,” reads Twain and Warner’s The Gilded Age as a critique arising from the gold and silver rushes of the 1850s and 60s in which the authors recommend organized, professional, systemic science over haphazard prospecting activity. Chapter three, “Demarcation Problems: Speculation, Extrapolation, and Pseudo/science in the Works of Ignatius Donnelly,” argues Donnelly’s pseudoscientific writing on broadly geological topics urges his readers to reimagine humanity’s place in the universe. Moving from her earliest writing to her superlative treatment of the individual as document in A Country Doctor, chapter four, “The Value of an Individual: Sarah Orne Jewett as Statistician,” suggests that Jewett’s regionalist fiction responds to statistically-driven social science by doing another kind of statistical description, rather than rejecting statistics outright. Finally, in chapter five, “‘Speculation Has Exhausted Itself’: Iola Leroy, Social Con/science, and Racial Uplift,” I contrast the sentimentalism of Francis Ellen Watkins Harper’s historical romance, Iola Leroy, to ethnologies by Alexander Crummell, William Wells Brown, and George Washington Williams. I argue that Harper’s narrative envisions a Christian humanism that champions affective certitude over propositional scientific truth, making individual experience the arbiter of sociological description rather than the other way around

Airplane Piston Engine Dynamics as an Aeronca E-113 Case Study

Kinematic equations were developed to describe the dynamic motions of the aircraft piston engine components in terms of time dependent position, velocity, and acceleration relationships. Using the Aeronca E-113 engine as a case study, the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) rating was used to model the cylinder gas pressure profile. The moments of inertia of the dynamic components including connecting rod, crankshaft, and propeller were measured using a pendulum swing method. Representative values were obtained for inertial and gas pressure forces acting on crankshaft journals, connecting rods, and cylinder walls. The resulting model can help in the design of crankshafts and other dynamically loaded parts to resist failure due to fatigue

THE ECONOMICS OF ILLEGAL FISHING: A BEHAVIORAL MODEL

This paper analyzes the microeconomic behavior of fishers responding to imperfectly enforced regulations through illegal fishing and efforts to avoid detection. An intraseasonal optimization model is analyzed to determine optimal (profit-maximizing) harvesting strategies at the individual fisher level in response to input controls (such as gear or labor usage) or output controls (individual harvest quotas). For each regulatory option, the analysis explores: (a) the manner by which enforcement affects individual decisions concerning fishing and avoidance activity, (b) the level of enforcement necessary to achieve specified conservation goals, and (c) the role of various behavioral parameters in determining fisher decisions. It is shown, in particular, that the nature of avoidance behavior plays a crucial role in determining fisher response to regulations. Broad implications of illegal behavior on the sustainability of fishery systems are also discussed.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

COVID-19 preclinical models: human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 transgenic mice.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a declared pandemic that is spreading all over the world at a dreadfully fast rate. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the pathogen of COVID-19, infects the human body using angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a receptor identical to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic that occurred in 2002-2003. SARS-CoV-2 has a higher binding affinity to human ACE2 than to that of other species. Animal models that mimic the human disease are highly essential to develop therapeutics and vaccines against COVID-19. Here, we review transgenic mice that express human ACE2 in the airway and other epithelia and have shown to develop a rapidly lethal infection after intranasal inoculation with SARS-CoV, the pathogen of SARS. This literature review aims to present the importance of utilizing the human ACE2 transgenic mouse model to better understand the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and develop both therapeutics and vaccines

Intracanopy adjustment of leaf-level thermal tolerance is associated with microclimatic variation across the canopy of a desert tree (\u3ci\u3eAcacia papyrocarpa\u3c/i\u3e)

Tree crowns are spatially heterogeneous, sometimes resulting in significant variation in microclimate across the canopy, particularly with respect to temperature. Yet it is not known whether such localised temperature variation equates to intracanopy variation in leaf-level physiological thermal tolerance. Here, we studied whether microclimate variation across the canopy of a dominant desert tree equated to localised variation in leaf thermal thresholds (T50) among four canopy positions: upper south, upper north, lower south, lower north. Principal component analysis was used to generate a composite climatic stress variable (CSTRESS) from canopy temperature, vapour pressure deficit, and relative humidity. We also determined the average number of days that maximum temperatures exceeded the air temperature equating to this species’ critical threshold of 49 °C (AT49). To estimate how closely leaf temperatures track ambient temperature, we predicted the thermal time constant (τ) for leaves at each canopy position. We found that CSTRESS and AT49 were significantly greater in lower and north-facing positions in the canopy. Differences in wind speed with height resulted in significantly longer predicted τ for leaves positioned at lower, north-facing positions. Variation in these drivers was correlated with significantly higher T50 for leaves in these more environmentally stressful canopy positions. Our findings suggest that this species may optimise resources to protect against thermal damage at a whole-plant level. They also indicate that, particularly in desert environments with steep intracanopy microclimatic gradients, whole-plant carbon models could substantially under- or overestimate productivity under heat stress, depending on where in the canopy T50 is measured

Near-Infrared Proper Motion Surveys

I present the development of two near infrared proper motion pipelines for high resolution near infrared data from UKIDSS and the VISTA VVV survey. The UKIDSS pipeline is capable of accuracies of order 5 − 10 mas yr−1 for bright sources with the largest epoch baselines (∼ 8 years). The VVV pipeline reaches 1 − 2 mas yr−1 proper motion precision at the bright end and parallax measurements at ∼ 1 mas precision. It will be possible to improve upon the VVV astrometric precision due to increases in data volume and further pipeline development. I have used the proper motion pipelines to generate three near infrared proper motion catalogues of the UKIDSS LAS and GPS and the VVV survey. The LAS proper motion catalogue covers 1500 deg2 at high Galactic latitudes and contains approximately 15 million sources with two J band epochs. The GPS proper motion catalogue covers 1500 deg2 of the northern Galactic plane and contains approximately 400 million sources with two K band epochs. The VVV proper motion catalogue covers 560 deg2 of the Galactic bulge and disc and contains approximately 200 million sources with between 50 and 150 Ks band epochs. I have also produced a preliminary 5σ parallax catalogue containing 3403 VVV sources. The LAS and GPS proper motion catalogues have been used by myself and other authors to identify and study many new examples of high proper motion stars, brown dwarfs, ul-tracool dwarf benchmark candidates, cool white dwarfs, substellar subdwarfs and nearby sources within < 25 pc. These catalogues remain far from fully exploited and will be a useful resource for future research by the astronomical community. Exploitation of the VVV proper motion catalogue is still in its infancy, yet it has already generated large numbers of new high proper motion sources. These include new brown dwarf candi-dates, important benchmark objects, and nearby sources which have previously avoided detection. Parallax results from the VVV pipeline will be useful to improve low mass star/ultracool dwarf luminosity functions, significantly increasing the numbers of brown dwarfs with known parallaxes and illustrates how general purpose multi-epoch wide area surveys can generate parallaxes. Finally, I discuss the long term usefulness of such catalogues in the Gaia era and how they might be exploited in the future

The Raman Spectra of Deutero‐acetones and Methyl Alcohol‐d

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69360/2/JCPSA6-4-8-535-1.pd

The Raman Spectra of the Methyl Alcohols, CH3OH, CH3OD, and CH2DOD

Measurements of the Raman spectra of CH3OH, CH3OD, and CH2DOD, produced by the mercury lines at 2536 and 4358A units, are analyzed to yield a provisional assignment of the fundamental frequencies. The significance of the character of the OH and OD bands to the problem of internal rotation is discussed. A new approximation to a potential constant for the C☒O bond is presented.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70177/2/JCPSA6-5-12-927-1.pd

Investigations into the potential effects of pedoturbation on luminescence dating

Much effort has been focussed on understanding the luminescence properties of natural minerals to achieve a reliable, accurate and precise dating technique. However, some field related aspects, such as the influence or effect of post-depositional disturbance on luminescence dates, are as yet underexplored. In the case of pedoturbation, depending on its intensity, the rate of sedimentation and unit thicknesses, potentially the whole sedimentary record at a site can be affected. This may lead to distorted OSL chronologies and erroneous sediment burial ages. Pedoturbation can result in sediment mixing and/or exhumation that affect luminescence both at the bulk and single grain level. Effects of these two principle processes on luminescence ages are examined using standard multigrain and single grain protocols. High resolution sampling of surface gopher mounds was used to determine the efficiency of bio-exhumation in resetting luminescence signal. Results show this is an inefficient mechanism for onsite sediment bleaching. The effects on luminescence signal of bio-mixing were explored by comparing a sample collected from within a krotovina (infilled burrow) to an adjacent undisturbed sample. Results show the difficulties in identifying pedoturbated samples at the single aliquot level and the possible inaccuracies in using the lowest palaeodose values to calculate OSL ages. Where pedoturbation of samples is suspected, use of probability plots of palaeodoses data is recommended. From these plots it is proposed that only data falling within a normal distribution centred on the peak probability be used to calculated OSL ages and to mitigate problems arising from pedoturbation

System for energy harvesting and/or generation, storage, and delivery

A device and method for harvesting, generating, storing, and delivering energy to a load, particularly for remote or inaccessible applications. The device preferably comprises one or more energy sources, at least one supercapacitor, at least one rechargeable battery, and a controller. The charging of the energy storage devices and the delivery of power to the load is preferably dynamically varied to maximize efficiency. A low power consumption charge pump circuit is preferably employed to collect power from low power energy sources while also enabling the delivery of higher voltage power to the load. The charging voltage is preferably programmable, enabling one device to be used for a wide range of specific applications