Digital Commons Network^™

William W. Cook And Detroit Street Railways, 1891-1894, Margaret A. Leary

Articles

In 1890, much of Detroit's street railway system used outmoded technology, had severe labor and public relations problems, and faced uncertainty over the remaining length of the 30-year franchise granted by the city in 1863, but extended in 1879, perhaps illegally. An apparent solution came in 1891, when William W. Cook-later to earn a fortune that he would give to the University of Michigan Law School-and other "Eastern capitalists" purchased Detroit's street rail system. They were unable to solve the existing problems, and the new outside ownership itself added difficulties. Cook's group sold out in 1894, and over the next …

A Simple Sol-Gel Processing For The Development Of High-Temperature Stable Photoactive Anatase Titania, Suresh Pillai, Declan Mccormack, John Colreavy

Articles

No abstract provided.

Investigation Of Macrobending Losses Of Standard Single Mode Fiber With Small Bend Radii, Pengfei Wang, Qian Wang, Gerald Farrell, Ginu Rajan, Thomas Freir, John Cassidy

Articles

An investigation of macrobending loss characteristics of a standard singlemode fiber (SMF28) for small bend radii is presented theoretically and experimentally, which includes the bend loss of the SMF28 with coating layers and the bare SMF28 after stripping the coating layers and chemical etching of partial cladding. The significant influence of reflection occurring at the interface between the cladding and coating layer or the cladding layer and air on the bend loss is investigated theoretically and experimentally.

Wideband Reconfigurable Rolled Planar Monopole Antenna, Giuseppe Ruvio, Max Ammann, Zhi Ning Chen

Articles

A novel technique to reconfigure the frequency range of a planar monopole antenna is presented. By adjusting the degree of spiral tightness, a shift of the well-matched operating frequency range is achieved. The proposed antenna is capable of covering the frequencies in the range from 2.9 to 15 GHz, depending on the degree of spiral tightness. The antenna yields a high-efficiency across the full operating bandwidth. Radiation patterns show good omni-directional features in all primary cuts and remain relatively stable with the change of antenna configuration, so that it is a remarkable candidate for indoor or mobile applications where a …

A Method To Measure Reference Strain In Fbg Strain Sensor Interrogation System Involving Actuators, Ginu Rajan, Yuliya Semenova, Qian Wang, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Articles

A method for reference strain measurement for FBG strain sensor in the testing stage while applying strain using actuators like piezo translators or micro screw is introduced. Unlike conventional methods of surface mounting, in our method the strain gauge is affixed directly to the optical fibre, which allows it to use with systems where the strain is applied directly using actuators while testing the FBG sensing system. Different bonding techniques were tested and a comparison with the results from calculated values are presented. Since the contact area between the fibre and strain gauge is very small a corrected gauge factor …

Hamiltonian Formulation, Nonintegrability And Local Bifurcations For The Ostrovsky Equation, S. Roy Choudhury, Rossen Ivanov, Yue Liu

Articles

The Ostrovsky equation is a model for gravity waves propagating down a channel under the influence of Coriolis force. This equation is a modification of the famous Korteweg-de Vries equation and is also Hamiltonian. However the Ostrovsky equation is not integrable and in this contribution we prove its nonintegrability. We also study local bifurcations of its solitary waves.

Can Lawyers Find Happiness Symposium: Perspectives On Lawyer Happiness, Richard Delgado, Jean Stefancic

Articles

No abstract provided.

A Cuban Connection: Edwin F. Atkins, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., And The Former Slaves Of Soledad Plantation, Rebecca J. Scott

Articles

Edwin F. Atkins and Charles Francis Adams, Jr., stand out on this stage not as major players but as a particularly intriguing Boston connection. Among the truly major players, planters like Juli?n Zulueta and the Count of Casa More owned hundreds of slaves and shaped Spanish policy. On the Cuban nationalist side, few could equal the impact of Antonio Maceo, the mulato insurgent general who insisted on full emancipation at the end of the 1868-1878 war, or the thousands of rebels who fought under the orders of rebel generals Maceo and Maximo Gomez. As the master of some ninety-five patrocinados …

Taxation In Developing Countries: Some Recent Support And Challenges To The Conventional View, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Yoram Margolioth

Articles

The general advice given by international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to developing countries over the past few decades has been to replace trade taxes with domestic consumption taxes, particularly value-added taxes (VAT), and to maintain relatively high corporate income tax rates. This article reviews recent literature that supports and challenges this conventional view.

Wireless Video Telephony Performance Enhancements: Towards Applied Network Engineering Approach, Justin Madigan, Fei Hu

Articles

The aim of this network engineering research is to improve video transmission performance (such as end-to-end delay) in video telephony applications in cellular network scenarios. There exists a definite need for quality-of-service (QoS) and guaranteed throughput when using streaming media. However, in wireless environments where resources are precious, this is often not possible, especially with a large user base that is communicating simultaneously. Not only does traffic load pose a problem, but also the inherent instability of the radio links makes the task considerably more difficult. This presents the need for a new method for undertaking the task of wireless …

Internet Protocol Television (Iptv): The Killer Application For The Next-Generation Internet, Yang Xiao, Xiaojiang Du, Jingyuan Zhang

Articles

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) will be the killer application for the next-generation Internet and will provide exciting new revenue opportunities for service providers. However, to deploy IPTV services with a full quality of service (QoS) guarantee, many underlying technologies must be further studied. This article serves as a survey of IPTV services and the underlying technologies. Technical challenges also are identified.

Application Of Soft Computing Techniques To Estimate The Effective Young's Modulus Of Thin Film Materials, Ajay Pasupuleti, Ferat Sahin

Articles

This research aims at characterizing and predicting the Young’s Modulus of thin film materials that are utilized in Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Recent studies indicate that the mechanical properties such as Young’s Modulus of thin films are significantly different from the bulk values. Due to the lack of proper understanding of the physics in the micro-scale domain the state-of-art estimation techniques are unreliable and often unfit for use for predicating the mechanical behavior of slight modifications of existing designs as well as new designs. This disadvantage limits the MEMS designers to physical prototyping which is cost ineffective and time consuming. As …

Decision Theoretic Agent Design For Personal Rapid Transit Systems, Iheanyi Umez-Eronini, Ferat Sahin

Articles

This paper details a learning decision-theoretic intelligent agent designed to solve the problem of guiding vehicles in the context of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). The intelligent agents are designed using Bayesian Decision Networks. The agents are designed to utilize the known methods of machine learning with Bayesian Networks (BN): parameter learning and structure learning. In addition, a new method of machine learning with BNs, termed utility learning in this paper, is introduced. BN software for Matlab is used to realize the proposed agent. Additional software is written to simulate the PRT problem using various intelligent agents that utilize one or …

Nuclear Spirals As Feeding Channels To The Supermassive Black Hole: The Case Of The Galaxy Ngc 6951, Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann, Oli L. Dors, Rogemar A. Riffel, Kambiz Fathi, David J. Axon, Andew Robinson, Alessandro Marconi, Göran Östlin

Articles

We report the discovery of gas streaming motions along nuclear spiral arms towards the LINER nucleus of the galaxy NGC6951. The observations, obtained using the GMOS integral field spectrograph on the Gemini North telescope, yielded maps of the flux distributions and gas kinematics in the H , [Nii] 6584 and [S ii] 6717,31 emission lines of the inner 7′′×15′′ of the galaxy. This region includes a circumnuclear star-forming ring with radius 500 pc, a nuclear spiral inside the ring and the LINER nucleus. The kinematics of the ionized gas is dominated by rotation, but subtraction of a kinematic model of …

Dominant Nuclear Outflow Driving Mechanisms In Powerful Radio Galaxies, Dan Batcheldor, Clive Tadhunter, Joanna Holt, Raffaella Morganti, Christopher P. O'Dea, David J. Axon, Anton Koekemoer

Articles

In order to identify the dominant nuclear outflow mechanisms in Active Galactic Nuclei, we have undertaken deep, high resolution observations of two compact radio sources (PKS 1549-79 and PKS 1345+12) with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. Not only are these targets known to have powerful emission line outflows, but they also contain all the potential drivers for the outflows: relativistic jets, quasar nuclei and starbursts. ACS allows the compact nature (< 0.′′15) of these radio sources to be optically resolved for the first time. Through comparison with existing radio maps we have seen consistency in the nuclear position angles of both the optical emission line and radio data. There is no evidence for bi-conical emission line features on the large-scale and there is a divergance in the relative position angles of the optical and radio structure. This enables us to exclude starburst driven outflows. However, we are unable to clearly distinguish between radiative AGN wind driven outflows and outflows powered by relativistic radio jets. The small scale bi-conical features, indicative of such mechanisms could be below the resolution limit of ACS, especially if aligned close to the line of sight. In addition, there may be offsets between the radio and optical nuclei induced by heavy dust obscuration, nebular continuum or scattered light from the AGN.

More Complex Photogrammetry Projects, Andrew Davidhazy

Articles

Photography can be used for more than simply recording subjects and this article describes how it might be used in a science classroom as the basis for making measurements "on a shoestring". Added here in April 2007 although probably written in the early 1980s.

Measuring Bullet Speed With A Dynafax Camera, Andrew Davidhazy

Articles

The Dynafax camera by Beckman and Whitley, and now manufactured by Cordin Corporation. is a marvel of photographic engineering. Capable of up to 35,000 pictures per second it has unique characteristics detailed in this article along with an application where it is used to determine the speed of a .22 caliber high velocity bullet. Added here in November 2007.

The Case For A More Rigorous Approach To Teaching Spreadsheet And Database Applications, M. Pamela Neely, Thoms Pray

Articles

Although most schools offer and/or require a course in spreadsheet and database applications, the amount of meaningful learning derived from the class varies widely, due in part to a lack of rigor in adjunct instructor led classes. The approach described in this paper involves a combination of demonstration and hands-on practice using two term-long cases to be used in an introductory course in spreadsheet and database applications. These cases, packaged together with slides emphasizing theory, hands-on quizzes and exams that foster critical thinking, can be used across the multiple sections that are taught to maintain consistency within the course and …

Basic Photogrammetry Techniques, Andrew Davidhazy

Articles

Before computers and photogrammetry related image processing programs much of the work of extracting information from aerial photographs was done by hand. Here are several very basic methods for finding out such things as the elevation above base of vertical objects, determining area of an irregular subject, determining area by graphical means and height of objects based on shadow. Added here in April 2007.

Water Waves And Integrability, Rossen Ivanov

Articles

The Euler’s equations describe the motion of inviscid fluid. In the case of shallow water, when a perturbative asymtotic expansion of the Euler’s equations is taken (to a certain order of smallness of the scale parameters), relations to certain integrable equations emerge. Some recent results concerning the use of integrable equation in modeling the motion of shallow water waves are reviewed in this contribution.

The Magnificence Of The Disaster: Reconstructing The Sony Bmg Rootkit Incident, Deirdre K. Mulligan, Aaron Perzanowski

Articles

Late in 2005, Sony BMG released millions of Compact Discs containing digital rights management technologies that threatened the security of its customers' computers and the integrity of the information infrastructure more broadly. This Article aims to identify the market, technological, and legal factors that appear to have led a presumably rational actor toward a strategy that in retrospect appears obviously and fundamentally misguided.

The Article first addresses the market-based rationales that likely influenced Sony BMG's deployment of these DRM systems and reveals that even the most charitable interpretation of Sony BMG's internal strategizing demonstrates a failure to adequately value security …

The Mystery Of The Individual In Modern Law, Jospeh Vining

Articles

To their murderers these wretched people were not individuals at all. They came in wholesale lots and were treated worse than animals. This was Telford Taylor, beginning the presentation of the "Medical Case" at the Nuremberg Trials. The "Medical Case" was not about genocide or war or the conduct of war. It was about experimentation on human beings, and it was this trial that produced the "Nuremberg Code," the first control of such treatment of human beings by one another, so surprisingly late in the history of modern scientific investigation, midtwentieth century, and so surprisingly absent everywhere before, despite the …

Slow Flow Between Concentric Cones, O. Hall, C. P. Hills, A. D. Gilbert

Articles

This paper considers the low-Reynolds-number flow of an incompressible fluid contained in the gap between two coaxial cones with coincident apices and bounded by a spherical lid. The two cones and the lid are allowed to rotate independently about their common axis, generating a swirling motion. The swirl induces a secondary, meridional circulation through inertial effects. For specific configurations complex eigenmodes representing an infinite sequence of eddies, analogous to those found in two-dimensional corner flows and some three-dimensional geometries, form a component of this secondary circulation. When the cones rotate these eigenmodes, arising from the geometry, compete with the forced …

Krylov Subspaces From Bilinear Representations Of Nonlinear Systems, Marissa Condon, Rossen Ivanov

Articles

For efficient simulation of state-of-the-art dynamical systems as arise in all aspects of engineering, the development of reduced-order models is of paramount importance. While linear reduction techniques have received considerable study, increasingly nonlinear model reduction is becoming a significant field of interest. From a circuits and systems viewpoint, systems involving micromachined devices or systems involving mixed technologies necessitate the development of reduced-order nonlinear models. From a control systems viewpoint, the design of controllers for nonlinear systems is greatly facilitated by nonlinear model reduction strategies. To this end, the paper proposes two novel model-reduction strategies for nonlinear systems. The first involves …

Spectroscopic Characterisation Of Novel Polycyclic Aromatic Polymers, Luke O'Neill, Patrick Lynch, Mary Mcnamara, Hugh Byrne

Articles

A series of novel polyphenylenevinylene (PPV) derivative polymers were studied by absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopies. The effect of the sequential introduction of polycyclic aromatic ring substituents into the delocalized backbone was examined with relation to hypsochromatic and bathochromatic shifting. While the replacement of the phenyl units by naphthyl units results in a substantial hypsochromic shift of both the absorption and emission spectra, their subsequent substitution by anthryl units results in a bathochromic shift. The system is modeled according to, and is found to be consistent with, a previous study of donor-acceptor polyenes of varying length. The electronic structure of the …

Learning To Write In Code: The Value Of Using Legal Writing Exercises To Teach Tax Law, Scott A. Schumacher

Articles

Traditionally, law school tax courses have been taught using a mix of problems, class discussion, the Socratic method, and one end-of-term exam. The goal of these courses is to introduce students to key concepts of tax law and to teach them the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations. This traditional method of instruction is an efficient and cost-effective way of transmitting a great deal of complex information to a large number of students. It is also a good vehicle to teach the essential skill of reading and interpreting the Code. However, the time …

Characteristics Of Cooked Chickpeas And Soybeans During Combined Microwave–Convective Hot Air Drying, Aoife Gowen, Nissreen Abu-Ghannam, Jesus Maria Frias, Jorge Oliveira

Articles

Moisture content, shrinkage, water activity (Aw), color and texture of cooked chickpeas and soybeans during convective, microwave and combined microwave–convective drying were studied. Combined drying was significantly (P < 0.05) faster than either convective or microwave drying, and resulted in less shrinkage of the dehydrated product. Rapid burning occurred when samples were dried below a Aw of 0.27 ± 0.07 for chickpeas (P < 0.05), and 0.13 ± 0.04 for soybeans (P < 0.05). Both chickpeas and soybeans displayed a transitional behavior in texture when dried to a Aw below 0.40 ± 0.10 (P < 0.05) for chickpeas, and below 0.63 ± 0.15 (P < 0.05) for soybeans, when samples became brittle. Shelf stable dehydrated chickpea and soybean products with low water activity (Aw = 0.35) and good visual quality could be obtained within 14 min of combination drying.

Efficacy Of Steamer Jet-Injection As Alternative To Chlorine In Fresh-Cut Lettuce, Ana Belen Martin-Diana, Daniel Rico, Catherine Barry-Ryan, Jesus Maria Frias, Gary Henehan, J. Barat

Articles

Short-time steam processing was used as an alternative to chlorine (100 mg L⁻¹) in sanitising fresh-cut lettuce. Quality (pH, water content, colour, potential browning, browning-related enzymes and texture), safety (mesophilic counts) and antioxidant markers (ascorbic and carotenoids) were monitored in lettuce stored for 10 days at 4 °C. The steam treatment produced a shocking effect on lettuce metabolism, showing a significant (p < 0.05) reduction in respiration (from day 3 to 7) and a partial inactivation of browning-related enzymes. Both effects were reflected in a significant reduction of browning. From a safety point of view, steam treatment kept the mesophilic load as low as chlorine treatment, and significantly lowers than the water control. However, antioxidant content, especially ascorbic acid but also carotenoids in a lower degree, showed a reduction compared with chlorine-treated samples. Despite the lower visual browning in steam-treated samples, the sensory panel scored similar values of acceptability and fresh appearance for both samples similarity.

Proteinparser:A Community Based Tool For The Generation Of A Detailed Protein Consensus And Fasta Output, Barry Ryan, Ronan Barrett

Articles

Comparison of bioinformatic data is a common application in the life sciences and beyond. In this communication, a novel Java based software tool, ProteinParser, is outlined. This soft- ware tool calculates a detailed consensus, or most common, amino acid at a given position in an aligned protein set, whilst also generating a full consensus protein FASTA output. A second application of this software tool, computing a consensus amino acid given a toler- ance threshold, is also demonstrated. The phytase and the common bacterial �-lactamase proteins are analysed as ‘proof of concept’ examples. Consensus proteins, as generated by ProteinParser, are regularly …

Effects Of Single Mutations On The Stability Of Horseradish Peroxidase To Hydrogen Peroxide., Barry Ryan, CiaráN Fagan

Articles

Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) is a commonly used enzyme in many biotechnological fields. Improvement of HRP stability would further increase its potential application range. In the present study, thirteen single- and three double- mutants of solvent exposed, proximal lysine and glutamic acid residues were analysed for enhanced H2O2 stability. Additionally, five single- and one pentuple-consensus mutants were investigated. Most mutants displayed little or no alteration in H2O2 stability; however, three (K232N, K241F and T110V) exhibit significantly increased H2O2 tolerances of 25- (T110V), 18- (K232N), and 12- fold (K241F). This improved stability may be due to an altered enzyme-H2O2 catalysis pathway or …