SB 301 - Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates

The Act creates the “Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act,” extends fiduciaries’ powers to include managing tangible property and digital assets, and provides conforming cross-references for a conservator

Synthesis and NMR Strcuture Determination of Bis-Amino-Acid Oligomers

in chapters 2 and 3, I present the synthesis of three bis-amino acid monomers. The pro3 class of monomers were designed to create a sharp turn in a bis-amino acid oligomeric sequences. The pro3(2S4S) monomer was synthesised, but had an unexpected tendency to epimerize when incorporated into an oligomer. The syntheses of two pip5 class monomers were completed in 13% overall yield and 21% overall yield.In the fourth chapter, I present the first use of residual dipolar coupling (RDC)measurement in the solution structure determination of a bis-amino-aicd oligomer. This technique allows the determination of bond orientations within a molecule with respect to the magnetic field of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)spectrometer. I determined that the information gained from the measurement of RDCs can be used to filter a library of conformational models to select the best fit model to the RDC data. The best fit model was found to ve the lowest energy conformation of the bis-amino acid oligomer

In Situ, Nonlinear Soil Response Applying an Active Source

Soil sites have a profound effect on ground motion during earthquakes due to their low wave speeds, layered structure, and nonlinear constitutive relationship. Measurements of nonlinear soil response under natural conditions are critical to understanding soil behavior during earthquakes. Currently, quantitative measurements of nonlinear soil response are derived from laboratory experiments on small samples. In this paper, we extend laboratory methods for measuring nonlinear soil response to field-scale. We observe the in situ, nonlinear response of a natural soil formation using measurements obtained immediately adjacent to a large vibrator truck. The source generates a steady-state wavefield in the soil formation at a range of discrete source frequencies and amplitudes. Accelerometers within the source provide an estimate of the source output to the soil, and an array of 4 accelerometers adjacent to the source record the wavefield at 1.5 m spacing. We develop a homodyne analysis to extract the steady-state amplitude at each discrete source frequency and amplitude without contamination from source harmonics. Steadystate amplitude ratios are computed between the receivers and the source, and between adjacent receiver pairs within the array. Both sets of amplitude ratios show dramatic decreases in peak frequency as the source amplitude is increased. These peak frequency shifts are qualitatively similar to the nonlinear soil response observed for laboratory samples under resonance conditions. Amplitude ratios between adjacent receiver pairs suggest the nonlinear soil response persists across the receiver array and is not limited to the source-soil contact region. The magnitudes of the observed peak shifts appear to depend on their frequency, a proxy for depth, which is consistent with the confining pressure dependence of soil nonlinearity observed in laboratory experiments. Future work will include measurements of steady-state phase velocities across the array to better understand the nature of nonlinear wave propagation within natural soil formations.United States. Dept. of Energy (through Los Alamos National Laboratory)Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earth Resources Laborator

CTQ 414: A New Gravitational Lens

We report the discovery and ground based observations of the new gravitational lens CTQ 414. The source quasar lies at a redshift of z = 1.29 with a B magnitude of 17.6. Ground based optical imaging reveals two point sources separated by 1.2 arcsec with a magnitude difference of roughly 1 mag. Subtraction of two stellar point spread functions from images obtained in subarcsecond seeing consistently leaves behind a faint, residual object. Fits for two point sources plus an extended object places the fainter object collinear with the two brighter components. Subsequent HST/NICMOS observations have confirmed the identification of the fainter object as the lensing galaxy. VLA observations at 8.46 GHz reveal that all components of the lensing system are radio quiet down to the 0.2 mJy flux level.Comment: Latex, 18 pages including 2 ps figures; accepted for publication in A

Premonitory urges are associated with decreased grey matter thickness within the insula and sensorimotor cortex in young people with Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder characterized by vocal and motor tics and is associated with cortical–striatal–thalamic–cortical circuit (CSTC) dysfunction and hyperexcitability of cortical limbic and motor regions, which are thought to lead to the occurrence of tics. Importantly, individuals with TS often report that their tics are preceded by ‘premonitory sensory phenomena’ (PSP) that are described as uncomfortable cognitive or bodily sensations that precede the execution of a tic, and are experienced as a strong urge for motor discharge. While the precise role played by PSP in the occurrence of tics is controversial, PSP are nonetheless of considerable theoretical and clinical importance in TS, not least because they form the core component in many of the behavioural therapies that are currently used in the treatment of tic disorders. In this study, we investigated the brain structure correlates of PSP. Specifically, we conducted a whole-brain analysis of cortical (grey matter) thickness in 29 children and young adults with TS and investigated the association between grey matter thickness and PSP. We demonstrate for the first time that PSP are inversely associated with grey matter thickness measurements within the insula and sensori-motor cortex. We also demonstrate that grey matter thickness is significantly reduced in these areas in individuals with TS relative to a closely age- and gender-matched group of typically developing individuals and that PSP ratings are significantly correlated with tic severity

A face recognition system for assistive robots

Assistive robots collaborating with people demand strong Human-Robot interaction capabilities. In this way, recognizing the person the robot has to interact with is paramount to provide a personalized service and reach a satisfactory end-user experience. To this end, face recognition: a non-intrusive, automatic mechanism of identification using biometric identifiers from an user's face, has gained relevance in the recent years, as the advances in machine learning and the creation of huge public datasets have considerably improved the state-of-the-art performance. In this work we study different open-source implementations of the typical components of state-of-the-art face recognition pipelines, including face detection, feature extraction and classification, and propose a recognition system integrating the most suitable methods for their utilization in assistant robots. Concretely, for face detection we have considered MTCNN, OpenCV's DNN, and OpenPose, while for feature extraction we have analyzed InsightFace and Facenet. We have made public an implementation of the proposed recognition framework, ready to be used by any robot running the Robot Operating System (ROS). The methods in the spotlight have been compared in terms of accuracy and performance in common benchmark datasets, namely FDDB and LFW, to aid the choice of the final system implementation, which has been tested in a real robotic platform.This work is supported by the Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech, the research projects WISER ([DPI2017-84827-R]),funded by the Spanish Government, and financed by European RegionalDevelopment’s funds (FEDER), and MoveCare ([ICT-26-2016b-GA-732158]), funded by the European H2020 program, and by a postdoc contract from the I-PPIT-UMA program financed by the University of Málaga

The long-term evolution of the spin, pulse shape, and orbit of the accretion-powered millisecond pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658

We present a 7 yr timing study of the 2.5 ms X-ray pulsar SAX J1808.4-3658, an X-ray transient with a recurrence time of ~2 yr, using data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer covering 4 transient outbursts (1998-2005). We verify that the 401 Hz pulsation traces the spin frequency fundamental and not a harmonic. Substantial pulse shape variability, both stochastic and systematic, was observed during each outburst. Analysis of the systematic pulse shape changes suggests that, as an outburst dims, the X-ray "hot spot" on the pulsar surface drifts longitudinally and a second hot spot may appear. The overall pulse shape variability limits the ability to measure spin frequency evolution within a given X-ray outburst (and calls previous nudot measurements of this source into question), with typical upper limits of |nudot| < 2.5x10^{-14} Hz/s (2 sigma). However, combining data from all the outbursts shows with high (6 sigma) significance that the pulsar is undergoing long-term spin down at a rate nudot = (-5.6+/-2.0)x10^{-16} Hz/s, with most of the spin evolution occurring during X-ray quiescence. We discuss the possible contributions of magnetic propeller torques, magnetic dipole radiation, and gravitational radiation to the measured spin down, setting an upper limit of B < 1.5x10^8 G for the pulsar's surface dipole magnetic field and and Q/I < 5x10^{-9} for the fractional mass quadrupole moment. We also measured an orbital period derivative of Pdot = (3.5+/-0.2)x10^{-12} s/s. This surprising large Pdot is reminiscent of the large and quasi-cyclic orbital period variation observed in the so-called "black widow" millisecond radio pulsars, supporting speculation that SAX J1808.4-3658 may turn on as a radio pulsar during quiescence. In an appendix we derive an improved (0.15 arcsec) source position from optical data.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

Trace metal content in sediment cores and seagrass biomass from a tropical southwest Pacific Island

A unique feature of seagrass among other ecosystem services is to have high phytoremediation potential that is a cost-effective plant-based approach and environmentally friendly solution for metal contamination in coastal areas. The goal of this study was to assess the phytoremediation prospective of seagrass for Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn in Fiji Islands. Heavy metal content was measured in sediments and tissues of the seagrasses Halophila ovalis, Halodule pinifolia and Halodule uninervis to test for local-scale differences. The local study shows that metal concentration in sediment and seagrass tissue was significantly variable, regardless of species and sediment type. Sedimentary concentration of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn obtained in the present study seemed to be lower than that of previous studies. The results support that H. ovalis is a good bioindicator species since it accumulated up to 5-fold more of these metals compared to the Halodule species

Electrocardiographic changes during haemodialysis and the potential impact on subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator eligibility

Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the kindness and support that they received from all of the patients and staff at the Chandler's Ford Dialysis Unit. Funding This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Peer reviewedPublisher PD