The Soviet Viewpoint on Nuclear Weapons in International Law

A flexible, model based fault detection and isolation (FDI) system for an arbitrary configuration of a water tank world has been designed and implemented in MATLAB, SIMULINK and dSPACE. The fault detection is performed with local change detection algorithms, and the fault isolation is performed with residual patterns automatically generated from the total configuration

Less Is More Intense

A few months ago, I stood in front of one of the world’s most augmented buildings, or, at least, one of the buildings that has housed the most augmentation throughout its life. The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, is a hobbyist’s back-garden shed transposed to the science fiction-tinged, hyper-professional mega-scale at which NASA operates

Taboo, the Game: Patent Office Edition—The New Preissuance Submissions Under the America Invents Act

Thorough patent examination ensures that issued patents confer constitutionally granted incentives to innovate but do not create inappropriately broad monopolies. Examiners at the United States Patent and Trademark Office are alone tasked with striking this proper balance, in part by searching the universe of existing published knowledge to determine the originality of the applied-for invention. In 2011, Congress enacted the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which included a provision allowing the public to present examiners with relevant publications that the examiners’ own searches might not otherwise uncover. However, this “preissuance submissions” provision and its related administrative rule are tempered by 35 U.S.C. § 122(c) (2006), which prohibits any third-party, pre-grant “protest or other form of [preissuance] opposition” to an application. Thus, although a party may describe to an examiner how its submission is relevant to an application, that party is prohibited from arguing how the submission renders that application unpatentable. This Note argues that Congress should amend § 122(c) to permit preissuance third-party argumentation for two reasons. First, the current scheme arguably violates that law already. Second, a rule allowing submitter argumentation would better incentivize participation by competitive parties who fear that examiners might not recognize their submitted publications\u27 full invalidating potential

Skokie, the ACLU and the Endurance of Democratic Theory

ZnO nanorods (NRs) with high surface area to volume ratio and biocompatibility is used as an efficient photosensitizer carrier system and at the same time providing intrinsic white light needed to achieve cancer cell necrosis. In this letter, ZnO nanorods used for the treatment of breast cancer cell (T47D) are presented. To adjust the sample for intracellular experiments, we have grown the ZnO nanorods on the tip of borosilicate glass capillaries (0.5 mu m diameter) by aqueous chemical growth technique. The grown ZnO nanorods were conjugated using protoporphyrin dimethyl ester (PPDME), which absorbs the light emitted by the ZnO nanorods. Mechanism of cytotoxicity appears to involve the generation of singlet oxygen inside the cell. The novel findings of cell-localized toxicity indicate a potential application of PPDME-conjugated ZnO NRs in the necrosis of breast cancer cell within few minutes

Beyond Gr\"obner Bases: Basis Selection for Minimal Solvers

Many computer vision applications require robust estimation of the underlying geometry, in terms of camera motion and 3D structure of the scene. These robust methods often rely on running minimal solvers in a RANSAC framework. In this paper we show how we can make polynomial solvers based on the action matrix method faster, by careful selection of the monomial bases. These monomial bases have traditionally been based on a Gr\"obner basis for the polynomial ideal. Here we describe how we can enumerate all such bases in an efficient way. We also show that going beyond Gr\"obner bases leads to more efficient solvers in many cases. We present a novel basis sampling scheme that we evaluate on a number of problems

Elastic-viscoplastic self-consistent modeling for finite deformation of polycrystalline materials

Anisotropic 1-site and 2-site self-consistent models are developed to describe the elastic-viscoplastic behavior of polycrystalline materials deformed to finite strains on the basis of rate-dependent crystallographic slip and a generalized Hill-Hutchinson self-consistent approach. The choice of rate-dependent constitutive law at single crystal level implemented in the models is discussed through fitting experimental data and calibrating viscous parameters. It is found that drag-stress type Norton law works well for the 1-site elastic-viscoplastic self-consistent (EVPSC) model while threshold stress type Norton law is suitable for the 2-site EVPSC model to assure that the viscoplastic inter-granular interaction is realistic. Both models have been verified by thoroughly fitting experimental data in literatures. For the 1-site EVPSC model, selected experimental data covers both macroscopic and microscopic mechanical responses of steels during deformation with a large range of strain rate from the quasi-static (10−4s−1) to the dynamic (~104s−1). For the 2-site EVPSC model, in situ neutron diffraction data of nickel-based superalloys with various microstructures was fitted. Both models generally fit the experimental data well. A comparison between the EVPSC and elastic-plastic self-consistent (EPSC) models on the prediction of lattice strains has also been made for both the 1-site and 2-site cases, which verifies the predictability on lattice strains of the newly developed EVPSC models. A validation of the homogenization approach for the EVPSC modeling has been performed, which confirms that the proposed EVPSC models are applicable for cubic structure materials with finite deformations. Our formulation of EVPSC modeling developed in this work shines a spotlight on the way of developing a multi-functional self-consistent model to predict both macroscopic and microscopic deformation behaviors of various polycrystalline materials under different loading rates of 10−4s−1~104s−1

Elektronisk media och dess inverkan på kreativitet

The purpose of this study was to examine how students' creativity is affected by the use of Instant Messenger and electronic media. The hypotheses were that students who use Instant Messenger will underperform on creativity tests, and that there is a negative relationship between high media usage and performance on creativity tests. The study was conducted as an experiment on a total of 50 students aged 19-30. Participants in the experimental condition, and the control condition carried out a Guilford's Alternative Uses Task. This is followed by a form consisting of Media & Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale and the Creative Behavior Inventory. The results showed that students who use Instant Messenger during the experiment, get significantly lower creativity scores. The number of hours the media does not seem to have any significant relationship to creative activities.Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur studenters kreativitet påverkas av användandet av Instant messenger och elektronisk media. Hypoteserna var att studenter som använder instant messenger kommer prestera sämre på kreativitetstest och att det finns en negativa relation mellan hög medieanvändning och prestation på kreativitetstest. Studien utfördes som ett experiment på totalt 50 studenter i åldrarna 19-30. Deltagarna har under experimentförhållande, respektive kontroll utfört en Guilford's Alternative Uses Task uppgift. Detta följt av ett formulär bestående av Media & Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale och Creative Behavior Inventory. Resultatet visade på att studenter som använder Instant messenger under experimentet får en signifikant lägre kreativitetspoäng. Antalet timmar spenderat på media verkar dock inte ha något signifikant samband till kreativa aktiviteter

Organiserande av stöd och service till barn med funktionshinder : Om projektnät, språkliga förpackningar och institutionella paradoxer

This study explores the organising of services for disabled children and their families in Sweden. It is based on 83 interviews with parents and involved staff surrounding four disabled children, with both physical and intellectual disabilities, and between two and nine years old. Further, 15 meetings between parents and staff were observed, primarily serving as background material. The service providing organisations include child habilitation centres, technical aid centres, special schools for intellectually disabled children, regular pre-school, and personal assistance organisations. In the study, organising is understood as accomplished through sensemaking. Reality is conceived as intrinsically complex and ambiguous, and organised action as formed through establishment of common understandings. Sensemaking was investigated through a discursively oriented analysis, using "discursive packaging" as a concept denoting common resources for making sense of actual service practice and thus stabilising interaction. The service for the four children and their families emerged through the interviews as projects, within which activities are related and dependent. The service for each child consists of 3-6 loosely connected and relatively independent projects. Analysis revealed four central aspects of the organising of these projects. Firstly, actors label their activities in specific ways, and secondly, they contextualise these labels in ways that supplies meaning and consequences. Thirdly, discursive constructions of the child are used for describing and explaining the activities. Fourthly, the actors position themselves through labelling, contextualising and using constructions of the child. The four aspects function as mutual and intertwined resources in the ongoing organising of the service. Further, the foundations of organising were explored. Six institutionalised elements were identified, functioning as taken-for-granted patterns and values for the service: family centring, child focus, development orientation, expert rationality, use of professional discourses, and standardisation of service forms as "training once a week". This institutional order also comprises paradoxes and contradictions, as well as discursive devices for de-paradoxification. Four paradoxes are discussed, that influence the way service is shaped: fragmentation through professional discourses, the paradoxical practice of child focusing, the tension between expert rationality and family centring, and the tension between institutional projects and local reality. To describe the service, including the institutional patterning of projects and positions, the concept "project net" was formulated. The results are finally discussed in relation to literature, and implications for development of practice are discussed

Managing the tension between reality and employee surveys

This paper aims at an exploration of leadership in the context of pervasive organizational control, in the form of standardized measurement systems. Measurement practices are proliferating in contemporary organizations, with ever more aspects of both organizational and private life being monitored and measured (Clegg & Courpasson, 2006). These systems are generally seen as an important part of organizational control regulating and shaping both actions of organizational members, and their own self-understanding or identity (Alvesson & Willmott, 2002). The image of the iron cage of bureaucracy, where action is tightly regulated, has in part been exchanged for the image of soft controls, regulating values and identities rather than behaviors and actions. Kärreman and Alvesson (2004), however, point out how these two types of control might work in tandem, constituting a strong regulating force. In contrast to this literature that emphasize the constraints on individual agency, the leadership literature emphasize the powers of leaders to influence and shape organizations and organizational processes (Yukl,2002). Leadership is commonly associated with driving and facilitating change and development. Theories of leadership emphasize (among other things) vision, personal engagement, interpersonal relationships, and ability to empower subordinates. How, then, can leaders exercise their agency and enable change when faced with systems generally seen as regulating rather than facilitating agency? It is this paradox that we wish to explore in this paper. We take the case of employee surveys, being a common practice in western organizations, that paradoxically constitute a standardized system aiming at change and development, and explore how these are experienced and managed by leaders in various organizations. We wish to analyze in terms of leadership how these standardized systems migh on the one hand constrain leadership action, and on the other hand be utilized in change related initiatives, thereby preserving leadership agency