Toward an optimal solver for the obstacle problem

Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018An optimal algorithm for solving a problem with m degrees of freedom is one that computes a solution in O (m) time. In this paper, we discuss a class of optimal algorithms for the numerical solution of PDEs called multigrid methods. We go on to examine numerical solvers for the obstacle problem, a constrained PDE, with the goal of demonstrating optimality. We discuss two known algorithms, the so-called reduced space method (RSP) [BM03] and the multigrid-based projected full-approximation scheme (PFAS) [BC83]. We compare the performance of PFAS and RSP on a few example problems, finding numerical evidence of optimality or near-optimality for PFAS

Review of \u3ci\u3eThe Leadership of George Bush: An Insider\u27s View of the Forty-First President. \u3c/i\u3eBy Roman Popadiuk

The Leadership of George Bush is infused with a sentimentality exemplified by the book\u27s opening statement describing the Bushes\u27 emotional response to Bush 43\u27s election to the presidency: George Bush sat straight up, his back rigid but his chest heaving slightly as he sought to hold back tears. Barbara Bush sat quietly, unmovable, a glint of satisfaction and pride sparkling in her eyes. Despite the author\u27s proximity and long-time affiliation, the book provides scant new information about Bush 41 \u27s presidency, mostly because the author fails to connect it with larger literatures on presidential leadership and executive management. Instead, it is a rosy peek at Bush 41 from a loyal subject still enamored with his former boss

Review of \u3ci\u3eThe Leadership of George Bush: An Insider\u27s View of the Forty-First President. \u3c/i\u3eBy Roman Popadiuk

The Leadership of George Bush is infused with a sentimentality exemplified by the book\u27s opening statement describing the Bushes\u27 emotional response to Bush 43\u27s election to the presidency: George Bush sat straight up, his back rigid but his chest heaving slightly as he sought to hold back tears. Barbara Bush sat quietly, unmovable, a glint of satisfaction and pride sparkling in her eyes. Despite the author\u27s proximity and long-time affiliation, the book provides scant new information about Bush 41 \u27s presidency, mostly because the author fails to connect it with larger literatures on presidential leadership and executive management. Instead, it is a rosy peek at Bush 41 from a loyal subject still enamored with his former boss

Fear-Avoidance Beliefs in Patients with Acute Low Back Pain

Low back pain affects over 80% of the population impacting their quality of life and causing both disability and loss of work productivity. Acute low back pain is seen as a “favorable” prognosis yet many patients continue to suffer from chronic low back pain. Psychological barriers such as fear-avoidance beliefs have been shown to be a contributing factor in low back pain rehabilitation and chronicity. This project was designed to evaluate if fear-avoidance was a health determinant that affects how primary care providers create treatment plans and to explore the relationship between fear-avoidance beliefs with physical therapy outcomes. Specifically, the purpose of this scholarly project was to determine if there was an association between fear-avoidance beliefs and the use of medication, duration of physical therapy treatment, initial functional ability, and overall functional change following physical therapy in patients with acute low back pain. In this cross-sectional study, a retrospective, convenience sample of 6,528 individuals with acute low back pain of less than three months were evaluated. The results show that high fear-avoidance beliefs were significantly associated with the use of prescription medication, decreased functional ability score, and decreased overall functional score change following physical therapy treatment. Prescription medication was also demonstrated to be a significant predictor of functional ability prior to physical therapy. This study’s results suggest that fear-avoidance beliefs were an important predictor of clinical outcomes. Clinical implications include considerations for fear-avoidance beliefs in patients with acute low back pain when assessing and creating treatment plans

The appropriate limits placed upon what people can expect from health care

In ‘Speaking Truth to Power’, the American political scientist Aaron Wildavsky argued that the ‘pathology’ of healthcare policy is that the past successes of medicine are likely to lead to future failures in healthcare policy. For, as life expectancy increases, only partly as the result of medicine, a nation’s healthcare system is faced with an older population whose ailments are more difficult to treat, sending the costs of treatment ever higher while each improvement in health and medicine becomes more expensive than the last. It is the ‘doing better – feeling worse’ syndrome which, in the end, Wildavsky argued, will also undermine solidarity, since: ‘the rich don’t like waiting, the poor don’t like high prices, and those in the middle tend to complain about both.

Infrared Free Space Communication - The Autonomous Testing of Free Space Infrared Communication

Fiber optics has been a winning player in the game of high-speed communication and data transfer in cable connections. Yet, in free space RF has been the repeated choice of communication medium of the space industry. Investigating the benefits of free space optical communication over radio frequency is worthwhile. An increase in science data rate return capabilities could occur if optical communication is implemented. Optical communication systems also provide efficiencies in power, mass, and volume over RF systems1. Optical communication systems have been demonstrated from a satellite in orbit with the moon to earth, and resulted in the highest data rates ever seen through space (622Mbps)2. Because of these benefits, optical communication is far superior to RF. The HiDRA (High Data Rate Architecture) project is researching Passive Misalignment Mitigation of Dynamic Free Apace Optical Communication Links. The goal of this effort is to enable gigabit per second transmission of data in short range dynamic links (less than 100 meters). In practice this would enhance data rates between sites on the International Space Station with minimal size, weight, and power requirements. This paper will focus on an autonomous code and a hardware setup that will be used to fulfill the next step in the research being conducted. The free space optical communications pointing downfalls will be investigated. This was achieved by creating 5 python programs and a top-level code to automate this test

Food preservation process design

AbstractPreservation processes for food products have evolved over time as more fundamental information about the factors influencing the processes have become available. Traditionally, thermal processes have been used for preservation of both shelf-stable and refrigerated foods. Recently, ultra-high pressure (UHP) and pulsed-electric-field (PEF) technologies have been considered as alternative processes. The objective of this paper is to discuss the integration of kinetic models for microbial inactivation and quality retention with appropriate models for transport phenomenon within the product structure, to predict the impacts of the processes on microbial populations and product quality attributes. As food safety concerns in refrigerated foods have increased, the amounts of kinetic data on microbial survivors during both traditional and alternative processes have increased. In addition, similar data for survival of pathogenic spores under UHP and PEF processes have been measured and published. During the same period of time, new physical properties data for foods have been published, along with predictive models for transport phenomenon within food products. Through the integration of appropriate kinetics models with models for transport phenomenon, the design of preservation processes has been improved and optimized

Court Delay and the Waiting Child

This Comment addresses the failure of our legal system when adopted children are forced to wait years before it is determined who will have legal custody of them. The author begins by exposing the problem and the devastating effects of these delays by providing evidence of delay in both private adoption and foster care placement cases. Then, the author explores the current legal framework within which courts make these life-altering child placement decisions. Next, the author confronts the question of why delay occurs, including several contributing factors, such as a lack of specific guidelines based on a child’s sense of time, the lack of judicial leadership, and the lack of accountability mechanisms. Finally, the author makes recommendations for reducing delay and ensuring that a greater number of children can be placed in safe, stable homes. One such recommendation is that courtrooms should be opened to the public so that the public may have the access it needs to keep the system accountable

Recent Developments

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Aliens\u27 Rights--The Refugee Act of 1980 as Response to the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees: The First Test Gali Hagel The Refugee Act of 1980, reflecting United States commitments under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, went into effect during a wave of immigration that created a state of emergency in strongly affected southern Florida. Under a severe test of its commitment to the terms of the 1967 Protocol and its implicit sense of moral obligation to grant asylum to individuals fleeing dictatorial rule, the United States responded positively in accepting the Cubans. Although the Administration undoubtedly did not intend by its treatment of the Cubans to lend credence to the theory that the individual has a right to asylum, its behavior, at least with respect to those Cubans who actually arrived in southern Florida, was consistent with that theory. The policy and actions of the United States, however, can be analyzed only in view of the emergency situation created by the influx. It is conceivable that the United States might have pursued other alternatives had the wave of immigration occurred more slowly. ======================================================== Jurisdiction--Foreign Defendants and Their Defective Products: An Application of World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson John Russell Heldman With the advent of these recent decisions involving foreign corporate defendants, it appears that World-Wide\u27s use of minimum contacts analysis to further interstate federalism will not provide as much of an impact in international products liability as will World-Wide\u27s foreseeability doctrine and its quantitative inquiry into defendant\u27s forum-related activities. These latter two components of World-Wide are the basis for the different results achieved by the Supreme Court in the World-Wide decision itself and in Justice White\u27s hypothetical. Likewise, these two components produced the different results in Oswalt and DeJames