The Urgent Need for an Academic Revolution: From Knowledge to Wisdom,

At present the basic intellectual aim of academic inquiry is to improve knowledge. Much of the structure, the whole character, of academic inquiry, in universities all over the world, is shaped by the adoption of this as the basic intellectual aim. But, judged from the standpoint of making a contribution to human welfare, academic inquiry of this type is damagingly irrational. Three of four of the most elementary rules of rational problem-solving are violated. A revolution in the aims and methods of academic inquiry is needed so that the basic aim becomes to promote wisdom, conceived of as the capacity to realize what is of value, for oneself and others, thus including knowledge and technological know-how, but much else besides. This urgently needed revolution would affect every branch and aspect of the academic enterprise

Od Wiedzy do Mądrości: Czas na akademicką rewolucję

At present the basie intellectual aim of academic inquiry is to improve knowledge. Much of the structure, the whole character, of academic inquiry, in universities all over the world, is shaped by the adoption of this as the basie intellectual aim. But, judged from the standpoint of making a contribution to human welfare, academic inquiry of this type is damagingly irrational. Three of four of the most elementary rules of rational problem solving are violated. A revolution in the aims and methods of academic inquiry is needed so that the basie aim becomes to promote wisdom, conceived of as the capacity to realize what is of value, for oneself and others, thus including knowledge and technological know-how, but much else besides. This urgently needed revolution would affect every branch and aspect of the academic enterprise.Podstawowym, intelektualnym celem badań akademickich jest obecnie udoskonalanie wiedzy. Znaczna część struktury, jak i cały charakter badania akademickiego na uniwersytetach na całym świecie są kształtowane przez przyjęcie niniejszego jako podstawowego celu intelektualnego. Jednak z punktu widzenia wkładu do życia człowieka tego typu badanie akademickie jest niebezpiecznie irracjonalne. Naruszone zostają trzy z czterech najbardziej podstawowych zasad racjonalnego rozwiązywania problemów. Potrzebna jest rewolucja celów i metod badania akademickiego, aby celem podstawowym było wspieranie mądrości jako zdolności do realizacji tego, co stanowi wartość dla siebie i innych, w tym wiedzy i technologicznego know-how, ale i wiele poza tym. Ta pilnie potrzebna rewolucja miałaby wpływ na każdy dział i aspekt przedsięwzięcia akademickiego

Pond Eutrophication

Citation: Burden, M., Guo, Q., Krueger, L., & Young, N. (2018) Pond Eutrophication. Unpublished manuscript, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.Kirmser Undergraduate Research Award - Group Category, grand prizeDr. Lisa WilkenLandowners Bruce and Theresa Meyer of Palmer, KS, requested a design to address eutrophication issues causing blue-green algae blooms within their pond. The blooms impact recreational activities such as swimming, fishing, and canoeing. Currently, their solution is temporary and requires the use of chemicals to harden the water and remove the algae. The Meyer’s have requested a more permanent and cost-effective solution. After completing the engineering design process, two design options are proposed for reducing the effects of eutrophication: vegetative buffer strips and a floating garden. Vegetative buffer strips are used to filter nutrients and sediment from runoff, which will reduce the growth of the blue-green algae. A floating garden has the potential to provide an in-pond solution to reduce excess nutrients, but requires more maintenance and recurring costs. Well-planned buffer strips have a higher chance of providing a long-term solution compared to the floating garden, which would have to be maintained and reinstalled yearly. The final proposed design uses both designs in tandem to synergistically reduce the effects of eutrophication. Water inflow will be rerouted through the vegetative filter through present vegetation, which will reduce the amount of incoming nonpoint source pollutants that enter the pond. The floating garden will be utilized to reduce excess nutrients that are within the pond

A parallel butterfly algorithm

The butterfly algorithm is a fast algorithm which approximately evaluates a discrete analogue of the integral transform \int K(x,y) g(y) dy at large numbers of target points when the kernel, K(x,y), is approximately low-rank when restricted to subdomains satisfying a certain simple geometric condition. In d dimensions with O(N^d) quasi-uniformly distributed source and target points, when each appropriate submatrix of K is approximately rank-r, the running time of the algorithm is at most O(r^2 N^d log N). A parallelization of the butterfly algorithm is introduced which, assuming a message latency of \alpha and per-process inverse bandwidth of \beta, executes in at most O(r^2 N^d/p log N + \beta r N^d/p + \alpha)log p) time using p processes. This parallel algorithm was then instantiated in the form of the open-source DistButterfly library for the special case where K(x,y)=exp(i \Phi(x,y)), where \Phi(x,y) is a black-box, sufficiently smooth, real-valued phase function. Experiments on Blue Gene/Q demonstrate impressive strong-scaling results for important classes of phase functions. Using quasi-uniform sources, hyperbolic Radon transforms and an analogue of a 3D generalized Radon transform were respectively observed to strong-scale from 1-node/16-cores up to 1024-nodes/16,384-cores with greater than 90% and 82% efficiency, respectively.Comment: To appear in SIAM Journal on Scientific Computin

Instead of Particles and Fields: A Micro Realistic Quantum "Smearon" Theory

A fully micro realistic, propensity version of quantum theory is proposed, according to which fundamental physical entities - neither particles nor fields - have physical characteristics which determine probabilistically how they interact with one another . The version of quantum "smearon" theory proposed here does not modify the equations of orthodox quantum theory: rather, it gives a radically new interpretation to these equations. It is argued that there are strong general reasons for preferring quantum "smearon" theory to orthodox quantum theory; the proposed change in physical interpretation leads quantum "smearon" theory to make experimental predictions subtly different from those of orthodox quantum theory. Some possible crucial experiments are considere

Environmental Loss Characterization of an Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC-E2) Insulation Package Using a Mock Heater Head

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) have been developing the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) for use as a power system for space science missions. This generator would use two highefficiency Advanced Stirling Convertors (ASCs), developed by Sunpower Inc. and NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). As part of ground testing of these ASCs, different operating conditions are used to simulate expected mission conditions. These conditions require achieving a specified electrical power output for a given net heat input. While electrical power output can be precisely quantified, thermal power input to the Stirling cycle cannot be directly measured. In an effort to improve net heat input predictions, the Mock Heater Head was developed with the same relative thermal paths as a convertor using a conducting rod to represent the Stirling cycle and tested to provide a direct comparison to numerical and empirical models used to predict convertor net heat input. The Mock Heater Head also served as the pathfinder for a higher fidelity version of validation test hardware, known as the Thermal Standard. This paper describes how the Mock Heater Head was tested and utilized to validate a process for the Thermal Standard

Evaluation of Advanced Stirling Convertor Net Heat Input Correlation Methods Using a Thermal Standard

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) have been developing the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) for use as a power system for space science missions. This generator would use two high-efficiency Advanced Stirling Convertors (ASCs), developed by Sunpower Inc. and NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). The ASCs convert thermal energy from a radioisotope heat source into electricity. As part of ground testing of these ASCs, different operating conditions are used to simulate expected mission conditions. These conditions require achieving a particular operating frequency, hot end and cold end temperatures, and specified electrical power output for a given net heat input. In an effort to improve net heat input predictions, numerous tasks have been performed which provided a more accurate value for net heat input into the ASCs, including testing validation hardware, known as the Thermal Standard, to provide a direct comparison to numerical and empirical models used to predict convertor net heat input. This validation hardware provided a comparison for scrutinizing and improving empirical correlations and numerical models of ASC-E2 net heat input. This hardware simulated the characteristics of an ASC-E2 convertor in both an operating and non-operating mode. This paper describes the Thermal Standard testing and the conclusions of the validation effort applied to the empirical correlation methods used by the Radioisotope Power System (RPS) team at NASA Glenn

A Generalized Law of Corresponding States for the Physisorption of Classical Gases with Cooperative Adsorbate-Adsorbate Interactions

The Law of Corresponding States for classical gases is well established. Recent attempts at developing an analogous Law of Corresponding States for gas physisorption, however, have had limited success, in part due to the omission of relevant adsorption considerations such as the adsorbate volume and cooperative adsorbate-adsorbate interactions. In this work, we modify a prior Law of Corresponding States for gas physisorption to account for adsorbate volume, and test it with experimental data and a generalized theoretical approach. Furthermore, we account for the recently-reported cooperative adsorbate-adsorbate interactions on the surface of zeolite-templated carbon (ZTC) with an Ising-type model, and in doing so, show that the Law of Corresponding States for gas physisorption remains valid even in the presence of atypically enhanced adsorbate-adsorbate interactions