Computer program for Video Data Processing System /VDPS/

Video data from spacecraft photographic mission telemetry is scanned to generate digital tape computer program which prints out intensity points, cleans noise and telemetry drop-out, enhances contrast, modifies the picture, and calculates contour lines. The output is converted into new photographic film

Forms of Attachment: Additions to Postwar Icons

In the ongoing project of adding to the recently built, or more specifically the problem of additions to postwar icons, the issues have proven more slippery. (In this context, I use “project” to mean a larger theoretical endeavor or task of investigation rather than an architectural proposal.) First, what, in this context, is postwar? To focus this thesis, I define it as the period in American architecture from the end of World War II to the dissolution of the modern movement into the splintered ‘isms’ of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s that were bubbling up in the decades before. And why icons? Rather than the “low road” buildings of recent heritage – the dysfunctions of which are most often happily mitigated by additions – postwar icons would seem to pose a distinct set of challenges. This premise is born out even anecdotally by the evidence: numerous additions by high profile design talents with sincere intentions that amount to ambiguous results. The particular provocations of the task, in most cases, remain unacknowledged and unmet. In this thesis I mean to investigate the challenges and parameters posed through these types of projects, and the degree to which the circumstances are unique to ‘their’ (modern) movement and ‘our’ contemporary moment. (While Modernism is an admittedly loaded and imprecise term, I will use it as shorthand for the various ideologies in mainstream architectural practice in the midtwentieth century.) First, how does the consideration of the “recent past” as short temporal distance play a role, and second, how might this be complicated further by modernism’s own ambivalent relationship with history? And then what of our own ambivalent relationship with modernism as history? What are the specific theoretical questions at hand as regards changing conceptions of time, author, and artifact? The working thesis of this paper is that, indeed, in the broader spectrum of additions to significant historic buildings, the project of adding to a postwar icon is unique on two levels. The first is that these icons necessitate a sophisticated approach, distinct from the broader addition paradigm as it is now understood in conservation and preservation design. By virtue of the moderns’ era, our era, and the relationship therein, postwar icons stipulate an ‘ethic’ that may prove to have some surprising tolerances but nonetheless demands a unique approach and demonstrable design rationale. The second argument is that a requisite ethic largely remains out of sight, discourse, and widespread use. The paradigms of current practice, through their failures and ambiguities, make the case for a critical reconsideration of this project within our complementary and combined fields of architecture and preservation design

VICAR-DIGITAL image processing system

Computer program corrects various photometic, geometric and frequency response distortions in pictures. The program converts pictures to a number of elements, with each elements optical density quantized to a numerical value. The translated picture is recorded on magnetic tape in digital form for subsequent processing and enhancement by computer

V-like formations in flocks of artificial birds

We consider flocks of artificial birds and study the emergence of V-like formations during flight. We introduce a small set of fully distributed positioning rules to guide the birds' movements and demonstrate, by means of simulations, that they tend to lead to stabilization into several of the well-known V-like formations that have been observed in nature. We also provide quantitative indicators that we believe are closely related to achieving V-like formations, and study their behavior over a large set of independent simulations

Understanding Firewalld in Multi-Zone Configurations

Stories of compromised servers and data theft fill today\u27s news. It isn\u27t difficult for someone who has read an informative blog post to access a system via a misconfigured service, take advantage of a recently exposed vulnerability, or gain control using a stolen password. Any of the many internet services found on a typical Linux server could harbor a vulnerability that grants unauthorized access to the system. Since it\u27s an impossible task to harden a system at the application level against every possible threat, firewalls provide security by limiting access to a system. Firewalls filter incoming packets based on their IP of origin, their destination port, and their protocol. This way, only a few IP/port/protocol combinations interact with the system, and the rest do not. Linux firewalls are handled by netfilter, which is a kernel level framework. For over a decade, iptables has provided the userland abstraction layer for netfilter. Iptables subjects packets to a gauntlet of rules where, if the IP/port/protocol combination of the rule matches the packet, the rule is applied causing the packet to be accepted, rejected, or dropped. Firewalld is a newer userland abstraction layer for netfilter. Unfortunately, its power and flexibility are underappreciated due to a lack of documentation describing multi-zoned configurations. This article provides examples to remedy this situation

Limited Activity Of Miltefosine In Murine Models Of Cryptococcal Meningoencephalitis And Disseminated Cryptococcosis

Miltefosine is an alkyl phosphocholine with good oral bioavailability and in vitro activity against Cryptococcus species that has gained interest as an additional agent for cryptococcal infections. Our objective was to further evaluate the in vivo efficacy of miltefosine in experimental in vivo models of cryptococcal meningoencephalitis and disseminated cryptococcosis. Mice were infected intracranially or intravenously with either C. neoformans USC1597 or H99. Miltefosine treatment (1.8 to 45 mg/kg of body weight orally once daily) began at either 1 h or 1 day postinoculation. Fluconazole (10 mg/kg orally twice daily) or amphotericin B deoxycholate (3 mg/kg intraperitoneally once daily) served as positive controls. In our standard models, miltefosine did not result in significant improvements in survival or reductions in fungal burden against either C. neoformans isolate. There was a trend toward improved survival with miltefosine at 7.2 mg/kg against disseminated cryptococcosis with the H99 strain but only at a low infecting inoculum. In contrast, both fluconazole and amphotericin B significantly improved survival in mice with cryptococcal meningoencephalitis and disseminated cryptococcosis due to USC1597. Amphotericin B also improved survival against both cryptococcal infections caused by H99. Combination therapy with miltefosine demonstrated neither synergy nor antagonism in both models. These results demonstrate limited efficacy of miltefosine and suggest caution with the potential use of this agent for the treatment of C. neoformans infections.Pharmac

Embedded Vortices

We present a discussion of embedded vortices in general Yang-Mills theories. The origin of a family structure of solutions is shown to be group theoretic in nature and a procedure for its determination is developed. Vortex stability can be quantified into three types: Abelian topological stability, non-Abelian topological stability, and dynamical stability; we relate these to the family structure of vortices, in particular discussing how Abelian topological and dynamical stability are related. The formalism generally encompasses embedded domain walls and embedded monopoles also.Comment: final corrections. latex fil

The Origin and Universality of the Stellar Initial Mass Function

We review current theories for the origin of the Stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) with particular focus on the extent to which the IMF can be considered universal across various environments. To place the issue in an observational context, we summarize the techniques used to determine the IMF for different stellar populations, the uncertainties affecting the results, and the evidence for systematic departures from universality under extreme circumstances. We next consider theories for the formation of prestellar cores by turbulent fragmentation and the possible impact of various thermal, hydrodynamic and magneto-hydrodynamic instabilities. We address the conversion of prestellar cores into stars and evaluate the roles played by different processes: competitive accretion, dynamical fragmentation, ejection and starvation, filament fragmentation and filamentary accretion flows, disk formation and fragmentation, critical scales imposed by thermodynamics, and magnetic braking. We present explanations for the characteristic shapes of the Present-Day Prestellar Core Mass Function and the IMF and consider what significance can be attached to their apparent similarity. Substantial computational advances have occurred in recent years, and we review the numerical simulations that have been performed to predict the IMF directly and discuss the influence of dynamics, time-dependent phenomena, and initial conditions.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication as a chapter in Protostars and Planets VI, University of Arizona Press (2014), eds. H. Beuther, R. S. Klessen, C. P. Dullemond, Th. Hennin