1,712 research outputs found
Professionals, Terminal Degrees and Terminal Illness
Dialogue: Professionals, Terminal Degrees and Terminal Illnes
Blades of Grass: The Land-Grant Philosophy of Higher Education
Gulliver, in his travels to Brabdingnag, made the following observation with the help of Jonathan Swift
The Farmer Has the Wheat—but Where is the Bread?
Speaking before the Dairy Industry Association at Burlington, Vermont, last September, Under Secretary of Agriculture J. Phil Campbell said, No other major American industry has ever operated with such little concern for the market as has been the case with American agriculture
Probing Quantized Einstein-Rosen Waves with Massless Scalar Matter
The purpose of this paper is to discuss in detail the use of scalar matter
coupled to linearly polarized Einstein-Rosen waves as a probe to study quantum
gravity in the restricted setting provided by this symmetry reduction of
general relativity. We will obtain the relevant Hamiltonian and quantize it
with the techniques already used for the purely gravitational case. Finally we
will discuss the use of particle-like modes of the quantized fields to
operationally explore some of the features of quantum gravity within this
framework. Specifically we will study two-point functions, the Newton-Wigner
propagator, and radial wave functions for one-particle states.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Space-based geoengineering: challenges and requirements
The prospect of engineering the Earth's climate (geoengineering) raises a multitude of issues associated with climatology, engineering on macroscopic scales, and indeed the ethics of such ventures. Depending on personal views, such large-scale engineering is either an obvious necessity for the deep future, or yet another example of human conceit. In this article a simple climate model will be used to estimate requirements for engineering the Earth's climate, principally using space-based geoengineering. Active cooling of the climate to mitigate anthropogenic climate change due to a doubling of the carbon dioxide concentration in the Earth's atmosphere is considered. This representative scenario will allow the scale of the engineering challenge to be determined. It will be argued that simple occulting discs at the interior Lagrange point may represent a less complex solution than concepts for highly engineered refracting discs proposed recently. While engineering on macroscopic scales can appear formidable, emerging capabilities may allow such ventures to be seriously considered in the long term. This article is not an exhaustive review of geoengineering, but aims to provide a foretaste of the future opportunities, challenges, and requirements for space-based geoengineering ventures
Electric Current Perturbation Calculations for Half-Penny Cracks
The electric current perturbation (ECP) method1–4 consists of inducing or injecting an electric current flow in the material to be examined and then detecting localized perturbations of the magnetic flux associated with current flow around material defects such as cracks or inclusions. Empirically, ECP data has shown strong correlations among certain signal features and crack size characteristics, and thus promises to be a useful method for quantitative NDE. To aid in the further development of the method, the objectives of the work reported in this paper are (1) to develop a mathematical model of the ECP flux distribution for a half-penny crack, (2) to determine the degree of validity of the model through comparisons with experimental data, and (3) to develop a detailed theory of sizing relationships for half-penny cracks
Site Conditions Determine a Key Native Plant’s Contribution to Invasion Resistance in Grasslands
Many plant invasion studies in grasslands suggest that resident plants that share functional traits with invaders can reduce invasion by competing for limiting resources. However, since invasion studies often occur in highly controlled plots or microcosms, it is unclear how heterogeneous site conditions alter competitive interactions under realistic scenarios. To explore how landscape heterogeneity affects biotic resistance provided by competitive resident plants, we conducted a field‐based experiment across four sites in California grasslands. Plots contained naturally occurring populations of native Hemizonia congesta, but differed in other characteristics, including litter cover, annual grass cover, soil moisture, and species richness. We invaded plots with the functionally similar nonnative Centaurea solstitalis (yellow starthistle) and, at one site, supplemented one‐half of the established plots with water to test the effects of increasing a limiting resource. As in simplified plots and microcosms, increasing H. congesta abundance reduced starthistle biomass by competing for limited soil moisture, but only in plots with high starthistle germination. We conclude that higher abundances of native H. congesta can reduce starthistle invasion in heterogeneous grasslands, but competition is also affected by both abiotic (soil moisture) and biotic (starthistle germination number) conditions that vary across sites
Functional strengthening through synaptic scaling upon connectivity disruption in neuronal cultures
An elusive phenomenon in network neuroscience is the extent of neuronal activity remodeling upon damage. Here, we investigate the action of gradual synaptic blockade on the effective connectivity in cortical networks in vitro. We use two neuronal cultures configurations—one formed by about 130 neuronal aggregates and another one formed by about 600 individual neurons—and monitor their spontaneous activity upon progressive weakening of excitatory connectivity. We report that the effective connectivity in all cultures exhibits a first phase of transient strengthening followed by a second phase of steady deterioration. We quantify these phases by measuring GEFF, the global efficiency in processing network information. We term hyperefficiency the sudden strengthening of GEFF upon network deterioration, which increases by 20–50% depending on culture type. Relying on numerical simulations we reveal the role of synaptic scaling, an activity–dependent mechanism for synaptic plasticity, in counteracting the perturbative action, neatly reproducing the observed hyperefficiency. Our results demonstrate the importance of synaptic scaling as resilience mechanism.
Author Summary
Neuronal circuits exhibit homeostatic plasticity mechanisms to cope with perturbations or damage. A central mechanism is ‘synaptic scaling,’ a self-organized response in which the strength of neurons’ excitatory synapses is adjusted to compensate for activity variations. Here we present experiments in which the excitatory connectivity of in vitro cortical networks is progressively weakened through chemical action. The spontaneous activity and effective connectivity of the whole network is monitored as degradation progresses, and the capacity of the network for broad information communication is quantified through the global efficiency. We observed that the network responded to the perturbation by strengthening the effective connectivity, reaching a hyperefficient state for moderate perturbations. The study proves the importance of ‘synaptic scaling’ as a driver for functional reorganization and network-wide resilience
High yield fusion in a Staged Z-pinch
We simulate fusion in a Z-pinch; where the load is a xenon-plasma liner
imploding onto a deuterium-tritium plasma target and the driver is a 2 MJ, 17
MA, 95 ns risetime pulser. The implosion system is modeled using the dynamic,
2-1/2 D, radiation-MHD code, MACH2. During implosion a shock forms in the Xe
liner, transporting current and energy radially inward. After collision with
the DT, a secondary shock forms pre-heating the DT to several hundred eV.
Adiabatic compression leads subsequently to a fusion burn, as the target is
surrounded by a flux-compressed, intense, azimuthal-magnetic field. The
intense-magnetic field confines fusion -particles, providing an
additional source of ion heating that leads to target ignition. The target
remains stable up to the time of ignition. Predictions are for a neutron yield
of and a thermonuclear energy of 84 MJ, that is, 42 times
greater than the initial, capacitor-stored energy
- …