Determining the quality of mathematical software using reference data sets

This paper describes a methodology for evaluating the numerical accuracy of software that performs mathematical calculations. The authors explain how this methodology extends the concept of metrological traceability, which is fundamental to measurement, to include software quality. Overviews of two European Union-funded projects are also presented. The first project developed an infrastructure to allow software to be verified by testing, via the internet, using reference data sets. The primary focus of the project was software used within systems that make physical measurements. The second project, currently underway, explores using this infrastructure to verify mathematical software used within general scientific and engineering disciplines. Publications on using reference data sets for the verification of mathematical software are usually intended for a readership specialising in measurement science or mathematics. This paper is aimed at a more general readership, in particular software quality specialists and computer scientists. Further engagement with experts in these disciplines will be helpful to the continued development of this application of software quality

Circuit design tool. User's manual, revision 2

The CAM chip design was produced in a UNIX software environment using a design tool that supports definition of digital electronic modules, composition of these modules into higher level circuits, and event-driven simulation of these circuits. Our design tool provides an interface whose goals include straightforward but flexible primitive module definition and circuit composition, efficient simulation, and a debugging environment that facilitates design verification and alteration. The tool provides a set of primitive modules which can be composed into higher level circuits. Each module is a C-language subroutine that uses a set of interface protocols understood by the design tool. Primitives can be altered simply by recoding their C-code image; in addition new primitives can be added allowing higher level circuits to be described in C-code rather than as a composition of primitive modules--this feature can greatly enhance the speed of simulation

Collective Interview on the History of Town Meetings

As illustrated in the introduction, the special issue ends with a ‘collective interview’ to some distinguished scholars that have given an important contribution to the study of New England Town Meetings. The collective interview has been realized by submitting three questions to our interviewees, who responded individually in written. The text of the answers has not been edited, if not minimally. However, the editors have broken up longer individual answers in shorter parts. These have been subsequently rearranged in an effort to provide, as much as possible, a fluid structure and a degree of interaction among the different perspectives provided by our interviewees on similar issues. The final version of this interview has been edited and approved by all interviewees

Battling on the Home Front: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Conflict Behavior Among Military Couples

This study evaluated interpersonal behavior differences among male military service members with and without PTSD and their female partners. Couples (N = 64) completed a 17-minute videotaped conflict discussion, and their interaction behavior was coded using the circumplex-based Structural Analysis of Social Behavior model (SASB; Benjamin, 1979, 1987, 2000). Within couples, the behavior of partners was very similar. Compared to military couples without PTSD, couples with PTSD displayed more interpersonal hostility and control. Couples with PTSD also exhibited more sulking, blaming, and controlling behavior, and less affirming and connecting behavior, than couples without PTSD. Results advance our understanding of the relational impacts of PTSD on military service members and their partners, and underscore the value of couple-based interventions for PTSD in the context of relationship distress

Content addressable memory project

A parameterized version of the tree processor was designed and tested (by simulation). The leaf processor design is 90 percent complete. We expect to complete and test a combination of tree and leaf cell designs in the next period. Work is proceeding on algorithms for the computer aided manufacturing (CAM), and once the design is complete we will begin simulating algorithms for large problems. The following topics are covered: (1) the practical implementation of content addressable memory; (2) design of a LEAF cell for the Rutgers CAM architecture; (3) a circuit design tool user's manual; and (4) design and analysis of efficient hierarchical interconnection networks

The objective evaluation of image quality produced with physical development

This experiment was an analysis of the difference in objective measures of image quality between chemical and physical development methods, including prefixation and postfixation processes. Of particular interest was the process outlined by Matejec1 for postfixation physical development. An investigation of resolving power and MTF for two fine grain films was carried out for four different development processes all possessing approximately the same speed capability. Both the effect of combined chemical and optical spread functions and the chemical spread alone were investigated through edge analysis using Fourier methods. A significant increase in image quality was found with the finest grain film (Eastman 5302) for prefixation while a significant decrease was found with the highly active Matejec\u27s physical developer on the same film. A dye inhibition reaction on the dye sensitized emulsion, Panatomic-x, prevented analysis of image quality for postfixation processes for that film

Framing the Environment: The Cornwall Alliance, Laissez-faire Environmentalism, and the Green Dragon

Religious discourse plays an important role in U.S. public debates on environmental policy. In this paper, we examine an aspect of this discourse, focusing on the discursive frame adopted by conservative evangelical elites as they promote religious interpretations of the environment distinct from more proenvironmental factions. Using qualitative document analysis of the Resisting the Green Dragon lectura series, sponsored by the Cornwall Alliance, we identify four key themes to this frame: (1) environmentalism is not science, (2) but a religion, (3) which threatens Christianity, and (4) personal and political freedom. These interrelated themes focus on denying or neutralizing scientific claims of environmental degradation, but also, and perhaps more importantly, counter moral claims advanced by more pro-environmental factions by linking a religious form of laissez-faire environmentalism to ethical considerations salient among evangelicals

Algorithms for FFT Beamforming Radio Interferometers

Radio interferometers consisting of identical antennas arranged on a regular lattice permit fast Fourier transform beamforming, which reduces the correlation cost from $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$ in the number of antennas to $\mathcal{O}(n\log n)$. We develop a formalism for describing this process and apply this formalism to derive a number of algorithms with a range of observational applications. These include algorithms for forming arbitrarily pointed tied-array beams from the regularly spaced Fourier-transform formed beams, sculpting the beams to suppress sidelobes while only losing percent-level sensitivity, and optimally estimating the position of a detected source from its observed brightness in the set of beams. We also discuss the effect that correlations in the visibility-space noise, due to cross-talk and sky contributions, have on the optimality of Fourier transform beamforming, showing that it does not strictly preserve the sky information of the $n^2$ correlation, even for an idealized array. Our results have applications to a number of upcoming interferometers, in particular the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment--Fast Radio Burst (CHIME/FRB) project.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Ap

Activism Among College Students with Disabilities and the Move Beyond Compliance to Full Inclusion

This article discusses two case studies of activism by college students with disabilities that have successfully moved disability issues beyond regulatory compliance to a conversation of equity. The two case studies are compared to identify strategies that promoted the success of the campaigns. The article concludes with a discussion of the usage of student activism to ensure equality of opportunity