The Microbial State: Global Thriving and the Body Politic by Stefanie R. Fishel

Review of Stefanie R. Fishel\u27s The Microbial State: Global Thriving and the Body Politic

The PIX-2 experiment: An overview

The second Plasma Interactions Experiment (PIX-2) was launched in January 1983 as a piggyback on the second stage of the Delta launch vehicle that carried IRAS into orbit. Placed in a 870 km circular polar orbit, it returned 18 hrs of data on the plasma current collection and arcing behavior of solar arrays biased to +/-1000 V in steps. The four 500 sq cm solar array segments were biased singly and in combinations. In addition to the array segments PIX-2 carried a Sun sensor, a Langmuir probe to measure electron currents, and a hot-wire filament electron emitter to control vehicle potential during positive array bias sequences. The PIX-2 experiment is reviewed from program and operational perspectives

Paving the Way for U.S. Climate Leadership: The Case for Executive Agreements and Climate Protection Authority

The United States should classify new international agreements to protect the Earth’s climate system as executive agreements rather than as treaties. Unlike treaties, which require the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate, executive agreements are entered into either solely by the President based on previously delegated constitutional, treaty, or statutory authorities, or by the President and Congress together pursuant to a new statute. The President and Congress should handle the most significant climate change agreements as congressional–executive agreements, which require approval by a simple majority of both houses of Congress. Handling climate agreements as congressional–executive agreements would speed the development of a genuinely bipartisan U.S. climate change foreign policy, improve coordination between the executive and legislative branches, strengthen the hand of U.S. climate negotiators to bring home good agreements, increase the prospects for U.S. participation in those agreements, protect U.S. competitiveness, and spur international climate action. More specifically, Congress should enact “Climate Protection Authority,” which would define U.S. negotiating objectives in a statute and require the President to submit concluded congressional–executive agreements to Congress for final approval. This approach should apply both to the new global climate change agreement being negotiated in the United Nations by the United States and the rest of the international community and to other future arrangements with a smaller number of major emitting nations.Climate change, global warming, U.S. foreign policy, international affairs, executive agreements, treaties

Droplet impact on water layers: post-impact analysis and computations

An inviscid model of droplet impact into a water layer is examined analytically for small times just after impact and computationally for order-one distortion times. Various layer depths are considered, as are surface-tension effects. Good correspondence is found between analysis, computation and experiments

Obligation Norm Identification in Agent Societies

Most works on norms have investigated how norms are regulated using institutional mechanisms. Very few works have focused on how an agent may infer the norms of a society without the norm being explicitly given to the agent. This paper describes a mechanism for identifying one type of norm, an obligation norm. The Obligation Norm Inference (ONI) algorithm described in this paper makes use of an association rule mining approach to identify obligation norms. Using agent based simulation of a virtual restaurant we demonstrate how an agent can identify the tipping norm. The experiments that we have conducted demonstrate that an agent in the system is able to add, remove and modify norms dynamically. An agent can also flexibly modify the parameters of the system based on whether it is successful in identifying a norm.Norms, Social Norms, Obligations, Norm Identification, Agent-Based Simulation, Simulation of Norms, Artificial Societies, Normative Multi-Agent Systems (NorMAS)

Jupiter probe charging study

A model to predict spacecraft charging effects in the Jovian magnetosphere was developed for the preliminary design of a Jupiter probe. Charging calculations made with this model are presented and discussed. Differential potentials between interior and exterior surfaces and between sunlit and dark exterior surfaces are predicted to be in the kilovolt range

Overview of environmental factors

The orbital environment is complex, dynamic, and comprised of both natural and system-induced components. Several environment factors are important for materials. Materials selection/suitability determination requires consideration of each and all factors, including synergisms among them. Understanding and evaluating these effects will require ground testing, modeling, and focused flight experimentation