Numerical and Analytical Model of an Electrodynamic Dust Shield for Solar Panels on Mars

Masuda and collaborators at the University of Tokyo developed a method to confine and transport particles called the electric curtain in which a series of parallel electrodes connected to an AC source generates a traveling wave that acts as a contactless conveyor. The curtain electrodes can be excited by a single-phase or a multi-phase AC voltage. A multi-phase curtain produces a non-uniform traveling wave that provides controlled transport of those particles [1-6]. Multi-phase electric curtains from two to six phases have been developed and studied by several research groups [7-9]. We have developed an Electrodynamic Dust Shield prototype using threephase AC voltage electrodes to remove dust from surfaces. The purpose of the modeling work presented here is to research and to better understand the physics governing the electrodynamic shield, as well as to advance and to support the experimental dust shield research

Partnerorientierung zwischen Realität und Imagination: Anmerkungen zu einem zentralen Konzept der Dialogtheorie

This paper attempts a critique of the notion of 'dialogue' in dialogue theory as espoused by Linell, Markova, and others building on Bakhtin’s writings. According to them, human communication, culture, language, and even cognition are dialogical in nature. This implies that these domains work by principles of other-orientation and interaction. In our paper, we reject accepting other-orientation as an a priori condition of every semiotic action. Instead, we claim that in order to be an empirically useful concept for the social sciences, it must be shown if and how observable action is other-oriented. This leads us to the following questions: how can we methodically account for other-orientation of semiotic action? Does other-orientation always imply interaction? Is every human expression oriented towards others? How does the other, as s/he is represented in semiotic action, relate to the properties which the other can be seen to exhibit as indexed by their observable behavior? We study these questions by asking how the orientation towards others becomes evident in different forms of communication. For this concern, we introduce ‘recipient design’, ‘positioning’ and ‘intersubjectivity’ as concepts which allow us to inquire how semiotic action both takes the other into account and, reflexively, shapes him/her as an addressee having certain properties. We then specifically focus on actions and situations in which other-orientation is particularly problematic, such as interactions with children, animals, machines, or communication with unknown recipients via mass media. These borderline cases are scrutinized in order to delineate both limits and constitutive properties of other-orientation. We show that there are varieties of meaningful actions which do not exhibit an orientation towards the other, which do not rest on (the possibility of) interaction with the other or which even disregard what their producer can be taken to know about the other. Available knowledge about the other may be ignored in order to reach interactional goals, e. g. in strategical interactions or for concerns of socialization. If semiotic action is otherorientated, its design depends on how the other is available to and matters for their producer. Other-orientation may build on shared biographical experiences with the other, knowledge about the other as an individual and close attention to their situated conduct. However, other-orientation may also rest on (stereo-)typification with respect to institutional roles or group membership. In any case, others as they are represented in semiotic action can never be just others-as-such, but only othersas-perceived-by-the-actor. We conclude that the strong emphasis which dialogue theories put on otherorientation obscures that other-orientation is neither universal in semiotic action, that it must be distinguished from an interactive relationship, and that the ways in which the other figures in semiotic actions is not homogeneous in any of its most general properties. Instead, there is a huge variation in the ways in which the other can be taken into account. Therefore close scrutiny of how the other precisely figures in a certain kind of semiotic action is needed in order to lend the concept of ‘other-orientation’ empirical substance and a definite sense

Archaism, or Textual Literalism in the Historical Novel

This dissertation examines the technique of archaism as it has been practiced in the historical novel since that genre’s origins. By “archaism,” I refer to a variation of the strategy that Jerome McGann calls textual “literalism,” whereby literary texts use “thickly materialized” language and bibliographic forms to foreground their own “textuality as such” (Black Riders 74). Archaism is distinguished from Blake’s, Pound’s, or Robert Carlton Brown’s literalism by its imitation of older literary idioms, yet the specifically historical quality of its intertextuality also seems different from primarily formal imitations such as pastiche and parody. Although archaism appears to have originated as part of the special language of romance, this study focuses on the technique as a representational strategy within historical fiction. Thus I begin by interpreting Thomas Chatterton’s faux-medieval forgeries (ca. 1770) as a kind of poetic antiquarianism, after which I trace the legacy of Chattertonian archaism in nineteenth-century historical novels including Scott’s Ivanhoe (1819) and Thackeray’s Henry Esmond (1852). The last two chapters address the twentieth-century return to archaism in John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), William Golding’s To the Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy (1980-1989), and William T. Vollmann’s Argall (2001). Throughout, I rely extensively upon Georg Lukács’s The Historical Novel (1937), approaching the latter novels as historical fiction rather than as specimens of such post-1960s genres as Linda Hutcheon’s “historiographic metafiction” or Amy J. Elias’s “metahistorical romance.” Lukács is especially useful because of his sense that historical fictions are animated by the mimetic imperative to represent historical “reality.” Furthermore, the historical novel frame of these novels often serves to historicize literary form, disciplining both the simulation and the metafictionality that exemplify postmodern cultural praxis. Ultimately, I argue that archaism within the historical novel models a historical “real” that is always constructed in a manner analogous to the construction of literary texts, positing a historicity in which imaginative literature offers a key figuration of social experience. Unlike Hutcheon, who advances similar claims for historiographic metafiction, I contend that these novels often use archaism to represent their historical referents as reality—a practice that recalls the “classical” historical fiction of the nineteenth century. By drawing equally on historical novel theory and on Hutcheon, Elias, and Fredric Jameson’s analyses of post-1960s historical fiction as a representative form of aesthetic postmodernism, I synthesize two theoretical discussions which have typically been seen as incompatible. Similarly, this study emphasizes the continuity between old and new forms of historical fiction, expanding on Elias’s salient observation that “postmodern historical fiction stands in the refracted light of nineteenth-century historical novels” (Sublime Desire 6). Concepts of theoretical and aesthetic continuity, therefore, shape both the argument and the organization of this dissertation

Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems: Translating Geek Speak for Lawyers

This article provides an overview of robotics and autonomous systems so that attorneys can better understand the systems and design principles of lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) that may be used in an armed conflict. Using the lens of establishing a common language between engineers and attorneys, the article introduces the basics of robotics terminology, explores how autonomous systems work by explaining control systems and control architecture, and examines how autonomous systems learn and reason. It also suggests a number of questions attorneys should ask engineers during the design process in order to ensure autonomous systems are designed in a way that comply with the laws of armed conflict

Beating Again and Again and Again: Why Washington Needs a New Rule of Evidence Admitting Prior Acts of Domestic Violence

Batterers in Washington who use violence to control their intimate partners routinely avoid conviction and punishment due to the difficulties of prosecuting domestic violence cases. Prosecutors often face complex problems, such as recanting victims, lack of other witnesses, and juries inherently biased against battered women. Although some Washington prosecutors have found ways to introduce evidence of prior domestic violence in certain limited circumstances, Washington Rule of Evidence 404(b) generally precludes the use of evidence showing prior domestic violence. This Comment argues that this evidence rule prevents the admission of highly probative evidence of prior abuse against current or past victims that tends to show a defendant\u27s propensity to batter. This Comment proposes that the Supreme Court of Washington recognize the difficulty in proving domestic violence cases and adopt a new evidence rule that would admit prior acts of domestic violence for all relevant purposes—including propensity

District Elections, Redistricting and Recall: A Study of the Fifth District of the City of San Diego, 1988-1991

In 1988, voters in San Diego approved a switch from an at-large to a district-only election system. In 1989, Linda Bernhardt, a 30-year-old political neophyte, ran an anti-developer, grassroots campaign in San Diego\u27s Fifth Council District. She unseated well-financed, two-term, pro-development incumbent Ed Struiksma. Within 17 months, Bernhardt was recalled from office. It was the first successful recall election in the City of San Diego in the twentieth century. This study documented significant events that bore on Bernhardt\u27s recall to gain an understanding and appreciation of how events necessitated the recall. The researcher analyzed contributing factors, using an historical case-study approach. She interviewed more than 60 individuals and reviewed records from governmental and private sources. Linda Bernhardt was recalled from office because voters felt she had betrayed them by (1) breaking her pledge not to accept developer campaign contributions, and (2) through redistricting, abandoning a community known for activism. The recall also broke up the progressive Council alliance and restored the previous status quo. Bernhardt was ambitious and outspoken; she became the focus for those dissatisfied with the changes that had resulted from a powerful new majority voting bloc. At the time, the Council lacked mayoral leadership, shared vision, amity cohesiveness. When Bernhardt was removed from office, the Council majority lost its power and ability to move its agenda forward. A new, more conservative Council majority then revoked the previous redistricting map and approved one that restored many of the previous district boundaries. It also returned the Council to a traditional voting pattern. The researcher also found that district elections: (1) enormously increase the ability of communities to initiate a successful recall; (2) provide greater scrutiny on politicians; (3) render politicians who cut their base of constituent support without immediately replacing it with a new one extremely vulnerable to recall; and (4) cause Council members to be perceived as unresponsive to constituents unless they devote substantial time and attention to constituent concerns