It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Scaring Away All the Critics, but Still Adding to ‘Our National Conversation’

The Douglas A. Feldman LGBT Paper Award was created to award undergraduate students who write an academic research paper, either original research or a review of literature, focusing on the social and cultural experiences of LBGT individuals

Psycho-Physical Analysis of the Betts Visual Acuity Test

Although visual acuity is of chief concern to the optometrist from the professional standpoint, the physicist should be no less concerned from the standpoint of its applications to work in optics and illumination. Visual acuity is indeed difficult to measure and many types of acuity tests have been devised. The Clason acuity meter and the Snellen chart are the accepted standards used by optometrists. Another test for measuring acuity, which is administered on the stereoscope, is one of many visual tests that has been developed by Betts, Director of Teacher Education, State Normal School, Oswego, N. Y., who worked jointly with the Keystone View Company of Meadville, Penna

Visual Acuity Measurements with the Betts Test Cards

Three commonly accepted notations for visual acuity are: (1) the Snellen System, which follows an arithmetic progression, (2) the Clason Decimal System, which bears a constant relationship to the Snellen System, and (3) the Snell and Sterling System, which follows a geometrical progression and is commonly referred to as the system of the American Medical Association. Visual acuity is indeed difficult to measure and many types of acuity tests have been devised. One such test, which is administered on the stereoscope, has been devised by Betts, Director of Teacher Education, State Normal School, Oswego, N. Y., who worked jointly with the Keystone View Company of Meadville, Penn. The principle of the Betts tests is the ability to resolve a black clot set within a target when placed in the stereoscope. In tests that were made the Betts acuity test was given simultaneously with the standard Clason acuity tests and curves were plotted showing the relationship between the two. Measurements were made on 5000 persons in connection with automobile drivers\u27 tests given in several states

Solutions globales d'optimisation robuste pour la gestion dynamique de terminaux à conteneurs

This thesis deals with the case of a maritime port in which container terminals are cooperating to provide better global service. In order to coordinate operations between the terminals, a model and several solving methods are proposed. The objective is to minimize turnaround times of mother and feeder vessels, barges and trains. A solution to the model provides an assignment of container-transport vehicles to the terminals, including trucks, as well as an allocation of resources and time intervals to handle them and their containers. To obtain solutions to the model, a mixed-integer programming formulation is provided, as well as several mathematical programming based heuristics. A rolling horizon framework is introduced for dynamic management under uncertainty. Numerical experiments are conducted on thousands of various realistic instances. Results indicate the viability of our approach and demonstrate that allowing cooperation between terminals significantly increases the performance of the system.Cette thèse s’intéresse au cas d’un port maritime dans lequel des terminaux à conteneurs coopèrent afin de fournir un meilleur service global. Pour coordonner les opérations entre les terminaux, un modèle et plusieurs méthodes de résolution sont proposés. L’objectif est de minimiser les temps de rotation des navires aux longs cours, des navires caboteurs, des barges fluviales et des trains. Une solution au modèle fournit une affectation des véhicules de transport de conteneurs aux terminaux, ce qui inclue les camions, ainsi qu’une allocation de ressources et des intervalles temporels pour leurs prises en charge et pour celles de leurs conteneurs. Pour obtenir des solutions au modèle, une formulation du problème comme un programme linéaire en variables mixtes est proposée, ainsi que plusieurs heuristiques basées sur la programmation mathématique. Une méthode de planification en horizon glissant est introduite pour la gestion dynamique avec prise en compte des incertitudes. Des expériences numériques sont conduites avec des milliers d’instances réalistes variées, dont les résultats indiquent la viabilité de notre approche. Des résultats démontrent qu’autoriser la coopération entre terminaux augmente significativement la performance du système

Theory of space-time supermodes in planar multimode waveguides

When an optical pulse is focused into a multimode waveguide or fiber, the energy is divided among the available guided modes. Consequently, the initially localized intensity spreads transversely, the spatial profile undergoes rapid variations with axial propagation, and the pulse disperses temporally. Space-time (ST) supermodes are pulsed guided field configurations that propagate invariantly in multimode waveguides by assigning each mode to a prescribed wavelength. ST supermodes can be thus viewed as spectrally discrete, guided-wave counterpart of the recently demonstrated propagation-invariant ST wave packets in free space. The group velocity of an ST supermode is tunable independently -- in principle -- of the waveguide structure, group-velocity dispersion is eliminated or dramatically curtailed, and the time-averaged intensity profile is axially invariant along the waveguide in absence of mode-coupling. We establish here a theoretical framework for studying ST supermodes in planar waveguides. Modal engineering allows sculpting this axially invariant transverse intensity profile from an on-axis peak or dip (dark beam), to a multi-peak or flat distribution. Moreover, ST supermodes can be synthesized using spectrally incoherent light, thus paving the way to potential applications in optical beam delivery for lighting applications

Measurement and Modeling of Infrared Nonlinear Absorption Coefficients and Laser-induced Damage Thresholds in Ge and GaSb

Using a simultaneous fitting technique to extract nonlinear absorption coefficients from data at two pulse widths, we measure two-photon and free-carrier absorption coefficients for Ge and GaSb at 2.05 and 2.5 μm for the first time, to our knowledge. Results agreed well with published theory. Single-shot damage thresholds were also measured at 2.5 μm and agreed well with modeled thresholds using experimentally determined parameters including nonlinear absorption coefficients and temperature dependent linear absorption. The damage threshold for a single-layer Al2O3 anti-reflective coating on Ge was 55% or 35% lower than the uncoated threshold for picosecond or nanosecond pulses, respectively