Volumetric visualization of 3D data

In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in the ability to obtain detailed data on large complex structures in three dimensions. This development occurred first in the medical field, with CAT (computer aided tomography) scans and now magnetic resonance imaging, and in seismological exploration. With the advances in supercomputing and computational fluid dynamics, and in experimental techniques in fluid dynamics, there is now the ability to produce similar large data fields representing 3D structures and phenomena in these disciplines. These developments have produced a situation in which currently there is access to data which is too complex to be understood using the tools available for data reduction and presentation. Researchers in these areas are becoming limited by their ability to visualize and comprehend the 3D systems they are measuring and simulating

Facing up to Constantine: Reassessing the Stonegate Monumental Head from York

A damaged and badly weathered stone head, discovered prior to 1823 in York, and interpreted as an early portrait of the emperor Constantine I, is here re-examined and identified as a modified image of an earlier, deified emperor, almost certainly Hadrian. A re-analysis of the image as it survives today further suggests that the recarving, into a likeness of Constantine, occurred after A.D. 312 and not, as widely believed, at the moment of Constantine’s proclamation as emperor in York in A.D. 30

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationImpairment in language and communication is a core deficit in autism and related autism spectrum disorders. Relatively recent research supports a co-occurrence of language impairment similar to that seen in children with structural language impairments and autism spectrum disorders. While it is not clear whether this impairment constitutes a subtype of children with autism or a convergence between two distinct disorders, language impairment is emerging as an important dimension in understanding autism spectrum disorders. In the current study, Profile Analysis via Multidimensional Scaling (PAMS) was used to create communication profiles, which were then validated in a sample of school aged children from a local school district receiving services through Special Education under the educational classification of Autism. Three profiles were supported: High Speech vs. Low Nonverbal Communication, High Syntax vs. Low Context, and High Scripted Language vs. Low Social Relations. These communication profiles were correlated with external variables including measures of adaptive functioning, cognitive ability, language ability, and autism symptoms. High Speech vs. Low Nonverbal Communication showed significant positive correlations on most external variables, while neither of the other two profiles showed significant correlations with any of the external measures. Characteristics of good fit to the profiles as well as profile differences in children identified as having structural language impairments are discussed

PowerModels.jl: An Open-Source Framework for Exploring Power Flow Formulations

In recent years, the power system research community has seen an explosion of novel methods for formulating and solving power network optimization problems. These emerging methods range from new power flow approximations, which go beyond the traditional DC power flow by capturing reactive power, to convex relaxations, which provide solution quality and runtime performance guarantees. Unfortunately, the sophistication of these emerging methods often presents a significant barrier to evaluating them on a wide variety of power system optimization applications. To address this issue, this work proposes PowerModels, an open-source platform for comparing power flow formulations. From its inception, PowerModels was designed to streamline the process of evaluating different power flow formulations on shared optimization problem specifications. This work provides a brief introduction to the design of PowerModels, validates its implementation, and demonstrates its effectiveness with a proof-of-concept study analyzing five different formulations of the Optimal Power Flow problem

Economic Competition and the Supreme Court: Decisions in the 1977 Term

Through the years, the Supreme Court has emphasized numerous times that [t]he heart of our national economic policy long has been faith in the value of competition. Indeed, this principle was reiterated last Term. Crucial to economic competition are the anti-trust laws, especially the Sherman Act