An electrostatically driven dynamic capacitor

Electrostatically driven dynamic capacitor - principles of operation, dynamic capacitor, electrometer, and chronology of progres

Electronics for a Martian water vapor detection system

Electronic circuitry for aluminum oxide detector of water content in Martian atmosphere and surfac

Industrial laser welding: An evaluation

Report describes 10-kW laser welding system, designed to weld large structures made from 1/4-inch and 1/2-inch aluminum (2219) and D6AC steel

Mode-locking in advection-reaction-diffusion systems: an invariant manifold perspective

Fronts propagating in two-dimensional advection-reaction-diffusion (ARD) systems exhibit rich topological structure. When the underlying fluid flow is periodic in space and time, the reaction front can lock to the driving frequency. We explain this mode-locking phenomenon using so-called burning invariant manifolds (BIMs). In fact, the mode-locked profile is delineated by a BIM attached to a relative periodic orbit (RPO) of the front element dynamics. Changes in the type (and loss) of mode-locking can be understood in terms of local and global bifurcations of the RPOs and their BIMs. We illustrate these concepts numerically using a chain of alternating vortices in a channel geometry.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure

The SECs Attempted Use Of Money Market Mutual Fund Shadow Prices To Control Risk Taking By Money Market Mutual Funds

One of the major advantages of money market mutual funds as a short term cash investment vehicle is that they are always purchased and sold for $1 per share. That constant$1 share price is maintained, despite the obvious fact that the funds holdings are frequently changing value, through a permissive SEC regulation that entitles money funds to value their portfolio securities at amortized cost rather than market value. At the same time, funds have always monitored their true market value in what is referred to as the funds shadow price, disclosed on a semi-annual basis. Starting in December, 2010, the SEC ordered money funds to publish their shadow prices monthly in hopes that investors would take notice and provide market discipline to money funds that failed to keep the funds market value sufficiently close to $1 per share. The expressed intention of the SEC was that investors would restrain money market fund managers from taking undue risks. This study analyzes whether the SECs strategy is working. By assessing the relationship between money market funds shadow prices and subsequent changes in net assets, the authors can look for evidence of whether the market is performing the function the SEC intends. The authors have examined monthly disclosures of shadow prices and asset changes for over 100 money market funds since the funds commenced reporting. Through a series of linear regression analyses, the authors have found no relevant correlation between money funds shadow prices and investor activity. The ramifications of this lack of correlation are potentially significant, particularly now as financial regulators are concerned that money fund holdings of European banks might transmit the current credit deterioration in Greece to U.S. markets. The SEC and other financial regulators are counting on disclosure of shadow prices as a tool to avoid the kind of risk taking that ultimately contributed to the credit market freeze experienced in 2008. If that tool is, in fact, not working, the SEC may be obliged to attempt alternative strategies. The authors discuss the policy implications of their findings

New insights from cost accounting into British entrepreneurial performance circa 1914

This article takes issue with economic historians who have tried to rehabilitate the reputation of the late Victorian and Edwardian entrepreneur. It argues that the revisionist attempt to ground their case on cost, profit, and productivity calculations flounders because of an insufficient analysis of the factors involved in arriving at cost, profit, and productivity. The economic historian, preoccupied with recent European economic development could, therefore, improve his analysis by incorporating the science of management accounting into his methodology. A companion piece to this article will be published in the fall issue of the journal

Bourdieu, networks, and movements: Using the concepts of habitus, field and capital to understand a network analysis of gender differences in undergraduate physics

Current trends suggest that significant gender disparities exist within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education at university, with female students being underrepresented in physics, but more equally represented in life sciences (e.g., biology, medicine). To understand these trends, it is important to consider the context in which students make decisions about which university courses to enrol in. The current study seeks to investigate gender differences in STEM through a unique approach that combines network analysis of student enrolment data with an interpretive lens based on the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu. We generate a network of courses taken by around 9000 undergraduate physics students (from 2009 to 2014) to quantify Bourdieu's concept of field. We explore the properties of this network to investigate gender differences in transverse movements (between different academic fields) and vertical movements (changes in students' achievement rankings within a field). Our findings indicate that female students are more likely to make transverse movements into life science fields. We also find that university physics does a poor job in attracting high achieving students, and especially high achieving female students. Of the students who do choose to study physics, low achieving female students are less likely to continue than their male counterparts. The results and implications are discussed in the context of Bourdieu's theory, and previous research. We argue that in order to remove constraints on female student's study choices, the field of physics needs to provide a culture in which all students feel like they belong.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Cost accounting: An institutional yardstick for measuring British entrepreneural performance, circa 1914

This article, like that published in the spring issue, again finds fault with recent attempts by economic historians to rehabilitate the reputation of the late Victorian and Edwardian entrepreneur. It argues that, since after 1880 cost accounting became a necessary technology for good entrepreneurial performance, the revisionist economic historians\u27 failure to consider institutional factors, like cost accounting, has led them to overlook elements essential to an appraisal of comparative entrepreneurial performance. The growing inferiority of British costing methods, as opposed to American and German, moreover, meant a relative British entrepreneurial failure

CMOS Compatible 3-Axis Magnetic Field Sensor using Hall Effect Sensing

The purpose of this study is to design, fabricate and test a CMOS compatible 3-axis Hall effect sensor capable of detecting the earth’s magnetic field, with strength’s of ~50 μT. Preliminary testing of N-well Van Der Pauw structures using strong neodymium magnets showed proof of concept for hall voltage sensing, however, poor geometry of the structures led to a high offset voltage. A 1-axis Hall effect sensor was designed, fabricated and tested with a sensitivity of 1.12x10-3 mV/Gauss using the RIT metal gate PMOS process. Poor geometry and insufficient design produced an offset voltage of 0.1238 volts in the 1-axis design; prevented sensing of the earth’s magnetic field. The new design features improved geometry for sensing application, improved sensitivity and use the RIT sub-CMOS process. The completed 2-axis device showed an average sensitivity to large magnetic fields of 0.0258 μV/Gauss at 10 mA supply current

Summary Judgment

Washington procedure is noticeably defective in the lack of a device which will dispose quickly and easily of all those actions where no material issue of fact actually exists although issues are formally set up in the pleadings. The urgent need for some such device was shown recently in the case of Weyerhaeuser Sales Co. v. Holden. Plaintiff desired to end the case summarily, as he felt sure there was no defense to his action. However, his attempt to make existing procedure serve this purpose failed. All of defendant\u27s answer except a cross-complaint had been stricken, and plaintiff had filed a reply to this cross-complaint setting up certain affirmative defenses. After the pleadings were closed, plaintiff filed a request, under Rules of Practice and Procedure, 21, for an admission of all allegations in four paragraphs of the reply. This being unanswered by defendant, plaintiff\u27s motion for judgment on the pleadings was granted by the trial court. The Washington Supreme Court reversed the case, holding that plaintiff\u27s request for admission of facts was improper, as it is not the function of the admission to serve as a form of pleading by which the general averments of an adversary\u27s pleading are admitted or denied, and issues for trial thereby raised