Wide-bandwidth high-resolution search for extraterrestrial intelligence

Research accomplished in the following areas is discussed: the antenna configuration; HEMT low-noise amplifiers; the downconverter; the Fast Fourier Transform Array; the backend array; and the backend and workstation

Wide-bandwidth high-resolution search for extraterrestrial intelligence

This interim report summarizes the research accomplished during the initial 6-month period of the grant. Activities associated with antenna configurations, the channelizing downconverter, the fast Fourier transform array, the DSP (digital signal processing) array, and the backend and UNIX workstation are discussed. Publications submitted during the reporting period are listed

Wide-bandwidth high-resolution search for extraterrestrial intelligence

Research accomplished during the third 6-month period is summarized. Research covered the following: dual-horn antenna performance; high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) low-noise amplifiers; downconverters; fast Fourier transform (FFT) array; and backend 'feature recognizer' array

Uncovering Identity

This Review raises several questions about Yoshino\u27s treatment of identity, authenticity, and the true self\u27 in Covering. Part I summarizes Yoshino\u27s book and offers some practical criticisms. Section II.A argues that Yoshino\u27s treatment of authenticity and identity leaves much to be desired. Section II.B argues that Yoshino\u27s focus on covering as an act of coerced assimilation fails to fully capture the extent to which one\u27s identity, and one\u27s uses of identity, may be fluid and deliberate. Section II.C focuses on another identity trait that runs through Yoshino\u27s book, always present but never remarked upon: those aspects of identity and covering that involve wealth, privilege, and social status. These traits, which are so often central to our identities and our self-presentation, are constant undercurrents in Covering, but are rarely if ever openly acknowledged and examined. Notwithstanding these concerns, this is not an attack on Yoshino\u27s book. Covering offers a valuable typology of the stages of civil rights, and brightly and movingly illuminates the many formal and informal claims that our society makes upon our selves. Nevertheless, Yoshino does not do full justice to the fluidity, the complexity, and the irreducibly social nature of the self\u27 that lies at the heart of this literally self-centered project. Parts III and IV conclude by suggesting that this failure to fully account for the complexity of the self may have a number of important implications for the project Yoshino has undertaken

Uncovering Identity

This Review raises several questions about Yoshino\u27s treatment of identity, authenticity, and the true self\u27 in Covering. Part I summarizes Yoshino\u27s book and offers some practical criticisms. Section II.A argues that Yoshino\u27s treatment of authenticity and identity leaves much to be desired. Section II.B argues that Yoshino\u27s focus on covering as an act of coerced assimilation fails to fully capture the extent to which one\u27s identity, and one\u27s uses of identity, may be fluid and deliberate. Section II.C focuses on another identity trait that runs through Yoshino\u27s book, always present but never remarked upon: those aspects of identity and covering that involve wealth, privilege, and social status. These traits, which are so often central to our identities and our self-presentation, are constant undercurrents in Covering, but are rarely if ever openly acknowledged and examined. Notwithstanding these concerns, this is not an attack on Yoshino\u27s book. Covering offers a valuable typology of the stages of civil rights, and brightly and movingly illuminates the many formal and informal claims that our society makes upon our selves. Nevertheless, Yoshino does not do full justice to the fluidity, the complexity, and the irreducibly social nature of the self\u27 that lies at the heart of this literally self-centered project. Parts III and IV conclude by suggesting that this failure to fully account for the complexity of the self may have a number of important implications for the project Yoshino has undertaken

The Independent Counsel Statute: A Legal History

Priester et al provide a comprehensive legal history of the independent counsel statute from its inception in 1978 until its apparent last hurrah in 1999. They also explore the role of the independent counsel in the history and practice of the government\u27s evidentiary privileges

An All-Sky Optical SETI Survey

We present plans for an all-sky search for pulsed optical SETI beacons at Agassiz station in Harvard, Massachusetts. We will use a 1.8 meter f/2.5 spherical “light bucket” (2-3 arcmin resolution) focused onto a multi-pixel camera consisting of sixteen 64-pixel photomultiplier tubes (with pixels measuring 1.5 arcmin on a side) in two matched focal planes. It will observe a 1.°6×0.°2 patch of the sky in transit mode, thereby covering the Northern sky (−20° < δ < +60°) in 150 clear nights. Fast custom IC electronics will monitor corresponding pixels for coincident optical pulses of nanosecond timescale, triggering storage of a detailed digitized waveform of the light flash. Analysis will be similar to that from our ongoing targeted search

Unsaturated Ligands Seed an Order to Disorder Transition in Mixed Ligand Shells of CdSe/CdS Quantum Dots.

A phase transition within the ligand shell of core/shell quantum dots is studied in the prototypical system of colloidal CdSe/CdS quantum dots with a ligand shell composed of bound oleate (OA) and octadecylphosphonate (ODPA). The ligand shell composition is tuned using a ligand exchange procedure and quantified through proton NMR spectroscopy. Temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals a signature of a phase transition within the organic ligand shell. Surprisingly, the ligand order to disorder phase transition triggers an abrupt increase in the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) with increasing temperature. The temperature and width of the phase transition show a clear dependence on ligand shell composition, such that QDs with higher ODPA fractions have sharper phase transitions that occur at higher temperatures. In order to gain a molecular understanding of the changes in ligand ordering, Fourier transform infrared and vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopies are performed. These measurements confirm that an order/disorder transition in the ligand shell tracks with the photoluminescence changes that accompany the ligand phase transition. The phase transition is simulated through a lattice model that suggests that the ligand shell is well-mixed and does not have completely segregated domains of OA and ODPA. Furthermore, we show that the unsaturated chains of OA seed disorder within the ligand shell

Pulsenet - A Parallel Flash Sampler and Digital Processor IC for Optical SETI

PulseNet is a full-custom IC with parallel flash ADC and digital processing that enables an all-sky optical search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It integrates 448 sense amplifiers that digitize 32 analog signals at 1GS/s, and other circuits that filter samples, store candidate signals, and perform astronomical observations. Its ~250,000 CMOS transistors (TSMC 0.25μm) dissipate 1.1W at 400MHz and 2.5V