CAD and creativity: does the computer really help?

We are frequently told by its exponents that computeraided design (CAD) liberates designers and gives them new ways of envisioning their work, but is this really true? CAD in architecture is examined to see to what extent it has enhanced creativity in design. This is partly done by applying a test of creativity advanced by contemporary architect Herman Hertzberger. In this analysis, CAD is found somewhat wanting, and some suggestions are made as to why this might be so

A Checklist of Megaloptera and Neuroptera (Planipennia) of Indiana

Sixty-five species of the insect orders Megaloptera and Neuroptera have been confirmed as being distributed in the state of Indiana, with the majority representing new state records

Safety hazards associated with the charging of lithium/sulfur dioxide cells

A continuing research program to assess the responses of spirally wound, lithium/sulfur dioxide cells to charging as functions of charging current, temperature, and cell condition prior to charging is described. Partially discharged cells that are charged at currents greater than one ampere explode with the time to explosion inversely proportional to the charging current. Cells charged at currents of less than one ampere may fail in one of several modes. The data allows an empirical prediction of when certain cells will fail given a constant charging current

Chemical analysis of charged Li/SO(sub)2 cells

The initial focus of the program was to confirm that charging can indeed result in explosions and constitute a significant safety problem. Results of this initial effort clearly demonstrated that cells do indeed explode on charge and that charging does indeed constitute a real and severe safety problem. The results of the effort to identify the chemical reactions involved in and responsible for the observed behavior are described

Hyperk\"ahler Arnold Conjecture and its Generalizations

We generalize and refine the hyperk\"ahler Arnold conjecture, which was originally established, in the non-degenerate case, for three-dimensional time by Hohloch, Noetzel and Salamon by means of hyperk\"ahler Floer theory. In particular, we prove the conjecture in the case where the time manifold is a multidimensional torus and also establish the degenerate version of the conjecture. Our method relies on Morse theory for generating functions and a finite-dimensional reduction along the lines of the Conley-Zehnder proof of the Arnold conjecture for the torus.Comment: 13 page

Interactions between view changes and shape changes in picture-picture matching

Four studies presented pictures of different morphs of novel, complex, three-dimensional objects, similar to objects which we must identify in the real world. We investigated how viewpoint changes influence our ability to discriminate between morphs. View changes had a powerful effect on performance in picture-picture matching tasks when similarly shaped morphs had to be discriminated. Shape changes were detected faster and more accurately when morphs were depicted from the same rather than different views. In contrast, view change had no effect when dissimilarly shaped morphs had to be discriminated. This interaction between the effects of view change and shape change was found for both simultaneous stimulus presentation and for sequential presentation with interstimulus intervals of up to 3600ms. The interaction was found following repeated presentations of the stimuli prior to the matching task and following practice at the matching task as well as after no such pre-exposure to the stimuli or to the task. The results demonstrate the importance of view changes relative to other task manipulations in modulating the shape discrimination abilities of the human visual recognition system

Renal fibrosis in feline chronic kidney disease: known mediators and mechanisms of injury

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common medical condition of ageing cats. In most cases the underlying aetiology is unknown, but the most frequently reported pathological diagnosis is renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Renal fibrosis, characterised by extensive accumulation of extra-cellular matrix within the interstitium, is thought to be the final common pathway for all kidney diseases and is the pathological lesion best correlated with function in both humans and cats. As a convergent pathway, renal fibrosis provides an ideal target for the treatment of CKD and knowledge of the underlying fibrotic process is essential for the future development of novel therapies. There are many mediators and mechanisms of renal fibrosis reported in the literature, of which only a few have been investigated in the cat. This article reviews the process of renal fibrosis and discusses the most commonly cited mediators and mechanisms of progressive renal injury, with particular focus on the potential significance to feline CKD

The quadratic spinor Lagrangian, axial torsion current, and generalizations

We show that the Einstein-Hilbert, the Einstein-Palatini, and the Holst actions can be derived from the Quadratic Spinor Lagrangian (QSL), when the three classes of Dirac spinor fields, under Lounesto spinor field classification, are considered. To each one of these classes, there corresponds a unique kind of action for a covariant gravity theory. In other words, it is shown to exist a one-to-one correspondence between the three classes of non-equivalent solutions of the Dirac equation, and Einstein-Hilbert, Einstein-Palatini, and Holst actions. Furthermore, it arises naturally, from Lounesto spinor field classification, that any other class of spinor field (Weyl, Majorana, flagpole, or flag-dipole spinor fields) yields a trivial (zero) QSL, up to a boundary term. To investigate this boundary term we do not impose any constraint on the Dirac spinor field, and consequently we obtain new terms in the boundary component of the QSL. In the particular case of a teleparallel connection, an axial torsion 1-form current density is obtained. New terms are also obtained in the corresponding Hamiltonian formalism. We then discuss how these new terms could shed new light on more general investigations.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, to be published in Int.J.Mod.Phys.D (2007