Continuous laminar smoke generator

A smoke generator capable of emitting a very thin, laminar stream of smoke for use in high detail flow visualization was invented. The generator is capable of emitting a larger but less stable rope of smoke. The invention consists of a pressure supply and fluid supply which supply smoke generating fluid to feed. The feed tube is directly heated by electrical resistance from current supplied by power supply and regulated by a constant temperature controller. A smoke exit hole is drilled in the wall of feed tube. Because feed tube is heated both before and past exit hole, no condensation of smoke generating occurs at the smoke exit hole, enabling the production of a very stable smoke filament. The generator is small in size which avoids wind turbulence in front of the test model

The Non-Uniform Commercial Code: The Creeping, Problematic Application of Article 9 to Determine Outcomes in Foreclosure Cases

[Excerpt] “This article will discuss the operation of two portions of the Uniform Commercial Code (“U.C.C.”) on mortgage foreclosure law. Article 3 of the U.C.C. governs negotiable instruments, whereas Article 9 governs secured transactions. For decades, courts have utilized Article 3 to determine the rights of lenders and their assigns to enforce mortgage promissory notes and to foreclose mortgages thereon. However, certain jurisdictions do not utilize the U.C.C. in foreclosure cases, whereas other jurisdictions have recently begun to look to Article 9 instead. This article argues that the Uniform Commercial Code should receive more uniform application, with Article 3 as the enforcement tool of the land. . . . Parts I-III of this Article will discuss the negotiable nature of mortgage notes, and the significance of this character. Part I will briefly discuss the importance of a plaintiff’s standing to initiate and pursue foreclosure. Part II will analyze the history of both the negotiability of notes and the foreclosure of mortgages. This historical analysis is meant to provide an explication of the divergent paths notes and mortgages have taken, in terms of the predictability of enforcement outcomes and the relative harshness each produces. Part III will discuss the negotiable character of mortgage promissory notes. If a note is a negotiable instrument, then transfer of the note may be analyzed under Article 3. However, even if a note is negotiable, that does not mean that it is not also potentially subject to enforcement under Article 9. Part IV will provide an overview of enforcement mechanisms utilized in various jurisdictions. This Part will highlight the law in jurisdictions in which Article 3 is applied to determine the standing of foreclosure plaintiffs. Following that, Part IV will review application of common law and other enforcement mechanisms in jurisdictions that do not look to the U.C.C. in determining a plaintiff’s standing to enforce a negotiable instrument and foreclosure the security interest secured thereby. Finally, this Part will explore recent cases in which Article 9 has been applied in the foreclosure context. Part V will argue that uniform application of the U.C.C. will aid the recovering housing market and provide a predictable framework for foreclosure of mortgage, going forward. Specifically, Part V will argue that the U.C.C. should be applied to determine whether a plaintiff has standing to foreclose and will further argue that courts should utilize Article 3 of the Code in making such determinations.

New York City\u27s Locally Based Enterprise Set-Aside: Legitimate Exercise of Mayoral Power or Unconstitutional Quota in Disguise?

Within the realm of affirmative action, there is disagreement on the means selected to reach the ultimate goal. For example, some programs have involved preferential treatment for members of disadvantaged groups at the expense of those individuals who are not in the minority. Such programs have been challenged on equal protection grounds as reverse discrimination. In New York City, mayors have implemented executive orders prescribing minority hiring goals and other preferential treatment. Order No. 71, for example, conditioned the awarding of city construction contracts upon submission by the bidder of an affirmative action program. Executive Order No. 53 attempted to satisfy the court\u27s objections to the city\u27s earlier affirmative action efforts under Executive No. 71 by proposing a plan for preferential treatment that did not involve racial or ethnic classification, but rather relied on social and economic criteria. This Note argues that Order No. 53 should withstand judicial review because it is socially and economically based and, thus, does not trigger strict scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause. The LBE (set forth in Order No. 53) effectively increases the participation in city contracts of small businesses and residents from economically underdeveloped areas, while avoiding many of the adverse consequences of the set-aside programs. New York City mayors have the power to issue such orders to further policy goals and to aid locally based enterprises, provided they have independent authority to take such action

Improved photographic prints with a linear radial transmission filter

Linear Radial Transmission Filter (LRTF) is easy to use and yet results in prints which depict more information contained in negative than can be shown by direct printing. LRTF is optical-quality filter which has maximum transmission in center and linear drop in transmission radially out from center

Experimental Limits on Weak Annihilation Contributions to b → ulv Decays

We present the first experimental limits on high-q^2 contributions to charmless semileptonic B decays of the form expected from the weak annihilation (WA) decay mechanism. Such contributions could bias determinations of |V_(ub)| from inclusive measurements of B→X_ulν. Using a wide range of models based on available theoretical input we set a limit of Γ_(WA)/Γ_(b→u) <7.4% (90% confidence level) on the WA fraction, and assess the impact on previous inclusive determinations of |V_(ub)|

Honeycomb Lattice Potentials and Dirac Points

We prove that the two-dimensional Schroedinger operator with a potential having the symmetry of a honeycomb structure has dispersion surfaces with conical singularities (Dirac points) at the vertices of its Brillouin zone. No assumptions are made on the size of the potential. We then prove the robustness of such conical singularities to a restrictive class of perturbations, which break the honeycomb lattice symmetry. General small perturbations of potentials with Dirac points do not have Dirac points; their dispersion surfaces are smooth. The presence of Dirac points in honeycomb structures is associated with many novel electronic and optical properties of materials such as graphene.Comment: To appear in Journal of the American Mathematical Society; 54 pages, 2 figures [note: earlier replacement was original version

Homelessness as an Impediment to Urban Revitalization: the Case of Dallas, Texas

Homelessness has long been recognized as a serious problem in many American cities, and Dallas in no exception. What’s more, the homeless tend to congregate in the downtown districts (DD) since most service providers are also located in the urban core. Though homelessness is typically considered a social problem, it also has economic consequences. The latest homeless census for the city of Dallas totaled 6,000, and annual outlays by governmental, non-profit, charitable, and faith-based organizations to provide them with services probably exceed $50 million. This estimate doesn’t include thousands of volunteer hours. But the true economic cost of homelessness is much greater. A survey of downtown business owners found that the presence of homeless persons is having a negative affect on their operations and burdening many of them with additional costs for security and cleaning. A majority of retail respondents report that proximity to the homeless was scaring off customers and reducing their sales. An examination of downtown properties using Dallas County Appraisal District (DCAD) records reveals that average values in the southern sector, where most of the homeless are concentrated, are well below those in the northern half of downtown. Consequently, the City of Dallas, Dallas County, and the Dallas Independent School District are losing$2.4 million per year due to valuation disparities from a lack of development in the southern half of the DD. What’s more, we estimate the southern half of downtown can potentially support almost 2.2 million square feet of additional commercial, office and residential space. This development scenario would create more than 5,000 new jobs and generate about $6.6 million per year for local taxing entities. But the revitalization of Dallas’ DD, an avowed goal of the city’s political and business leaders, will not be fully realized until a comprehensive plan for improving homeless services is developed and implemented. Most importantly, the proposed central intake facility should be located away from—but close to—the downtown district. In this regard, the City of Miami can serve as a model. Miami has significantly reduced the visible homeless count and greatly improved the delivery of services. By creating an umbrella agency to oversee all homeless programs—whether provided by government, voluntary or faith-based institutions—the city has avoided duplication and overlap of services. Significantly, Miami has located both of its central intake facilities, known as Homeless Assistance Centers (HACs), away from their downtown district. Miami’s businesses community has recognized that reducing homelessness is a community and economic development issue as well as a social problem, and to that end they have contributed about$50 million over the past decade. The results are tangible, as evidenced by the construction boom currently underway in Miami’s downtown. As with Miami, an effective approach for dealing with Dallas’ homeless population must include greater participation and support by the region’s business leaders. Homelessness has significant economic as well as social consequences for the City of Dallas. While offering our compassion to the homeless, we should also acknowledge that the overwhelming presence of homeless persons on the streets of downtown has negative economic impacts on individual businesses, the prospects for redevelopment, and the city’s finances.

Wave packets in Honeycomb Structures and Two-Dimensional Dirac Equations

In a recent article [10], the authors proved that the non-relativistic Schr\"odinger operator with a generic honeycomb lattice potential has conical (Dirac) points in its dispersion surfaces. These conical points occur for quasi-momenta, which are located at the vertices of the Brillouin zone, a regular hexagon. In this paper, we study the time-evolution of wave-packets, which are spectrally concentrated near such conical points. We prove that the large, but finite, time dynamics is governed by the two-dimensional Dirac equations.Comment: 34 pages, 2 figure

Waves in Honeycomb Structures

We review recent work of the authors on the non-relativistic Schr\"odinger equation with a honeycomb lattice potential, $V$. In particular, we summarize results on (i) the existence of Dirac points, conical singularities in dispersion surfaces of $H_V=-\Delta+V$ and (ii) the two-dimensional Dirac equations, as a large, but finite time, effective description of $e^{-iH_Vt}\psi_0$, for data $\psi_0$, which is spectrally localized at a Dirac point. We conclude with a formal derivation and discussion of the effective large time evolution for the nonlinear Schr\"odinger - Gross Pitaevskii equation for small amplitude initial conditions, $\psi_0$. The effective dynamics are governed by a nonlinear Dirac system.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 39 \`emes Journ\'ees EDP - Biarretz. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1212.607