The Andrea Yates Case: Insanity on Trial

On June 20, 2001, Andrea Yates drowned each of her five children in her bathtub. The nation struggled to understand how a loving mother could systematically kill her children in apparent cold blood. No crime evokes more intense feelings than a mother killing her own children. There was extraordinary media coverage of her trial in Houston, Texas in 2002. Her defense attorneys, George Parnham and Wendell Odom entered a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) to multiple counts of first degree murder with death penalty specifications. The 2002 trial jury verdict of guilty was overturned on appeal. Her second trial in 2006 ended with an insanity verdict. This Article will relate the facts that led up to Andrea Yates\u27s homicides, summarize the testimony of prosecution and defense psychiatrists, contrast Mrs. Yates\u27s first and second trials, and comment on public perceptions of the insanity defense

Limit Laws for Random Vectors with an Extreme Component

Limit Laws for Random Vectors with an Extreme Componen

Path integrals and wavepacket evolution for damped mechanical systems

Damped mechanical systems with various forms of damping are quantized using the path integral formalism. In particular, we obtain the path integral kernel for the linearly damped harmonic oscillator and a particle in a uniform gravitational field with linearly or quadratically damped motion. In each case, we study the evolution of Gaussian wavepackets and discuss the characteristic features that help us distinguish between different types of damping. For quadratic damping, we show that the action and equation of motion of such a system has a connection with the zero dimensional version of a currently popular scalar field theory. Furthermore we demonstrate that the equation of motion (for quadratic damping) can be identified as a geodesic equation in a fictitious two-dimensional space.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Debris and micrometeorite impact measurements in the laboratory

A method was developed to simulate space debris in the laboratory. This method, which is an outgrowth of research in inertial confinement fusion (ICF), uses laser ablation to accelerate material. Using this method, single 60 micron aluminum spheres were accelerated to 15 km/sec and larger 500 micron aluminum spheres were accelerated to 2 km/sec. Also, many small (less than 10 micron diameter) irregularly shaped particles were accelerated to speeds of 100 km/sec

RAFCON: a Graphical Tool for Task Programming and Mission Control

There are many application fields for robotic systems including service robotics, search and rescue missions, industry and space robotics. As the scenarios in these areas grow more and more complex, there is a high demand for powerful tools to efficiently program heterogeneous robotic systems. Therefore, we created RAFCON, a graphical tool to develop robotic tasks and to be used for mission control by remotely monitoring the execution of the tasks. To define the tasks, we use state machines which support hierarchies and concurrency. Together with a library concept, even complex scenarios can be handled gracefully. RAFCON supports sophisticated debugging functionality and tightly integrates error handling and recovery mechanisms. A GUI with a powerful state machine editor makes intuitive, visual programming and fast prototyping possible. We demonstrated the capabilities of our tool in the SpaceBotCamp national robotic competition, in which our mobile robot solved all exploration and assembly challenges fully autonomously. It is therefore also a promising tool for various RoboCup leagues.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Plateau Tank Apparatus for The Study of Liquid Bridges

An apparatus has been constructed and used to study the equilibrium and dynamical behavior of liquid bridges under reduced effective gravity. Liquid bridges are created and manipulated using six independent computer controlled stepper motors which drive linear motion tables. The bridges are visualized with a high magnification coherent Fourier optical system and in an orthogonal view using incoherent white light. By calibrating a density hydrometer and measuring the interfacial energy between the bridge and bath, reliable Bond numbers as low as 10−4 can be created and held stable for extended periods of time. Dimensional control of the liquid bridges approaches one part in 10−4 for the aspect ratio and volume. The apparatus has been tested by measuring the static stability limits of axisymmetric bridges and comparing the results with previous theoretical predictions. Experimental error for the apparatus is δBo/Bo=0.03, δΛ/Λ=0.001 and δV/V =0.001, where Bo is the Bond number, Λ is the aspect ratio of the bridge, and V is the dimensionless (relative) volume of the bridge

Sam68 exerts separable effects on cell cycle progression and apoptosis

BACKGROUND: The RNA-binding protein Sam68 has been implicated in a number of cellular processes, including transcription, RNA splicing and export, translation, signal transduction, cell cycle progression and replication of the human immunodeficiency virus and poliovirus. However, the precise impact it has on essential cellular functions remains largely obscure. RESULTS: In this report we show that conditional overexpression of Sam68 in fibroblasts results in both cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Arrest in G1 phase of the cell cycle is associated with decreased levels of cyclins D1 and E RNA and protein, resulting in dramatically reduced Rb phosphorylation. Interestingly, cell cycle arrest does not require the specific RNA binding ability of Sam68. In marked contrast, induction of apoptosis by Sam68 absolutely requires a fully-functional RNA binding domain. Moreover, the anti-cancer agent trichostatin A potentiates Sam68-driven apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: For the first time we have shown that Sam68, an RNA binding protein with multiple apparent functions, exerts functionally separable effects on cell proliferation and survival, dependent on its ability to bind specifically to RNA. These findings shed new light on the ability of signal transducing RNA binding proteins to influence essential cell function. Moreover, the ability of a class of anti-cancer therapeutics to modulate its ability to promote apoptosis suggests that Sam68 status may impact some cancer treatments