Unsatisfying Wars: Degrees of Risk and the \u3ci\u3eJus ex Bello\u3c/i\u3e

Self-defensive war uses violence to transfer risks from one’s own people to others. We argue that central questions in just war theory may fruitfully be analyzed as issues about the morality of risk transfer. That includes the jus ex bello question of when states are required to accept a ceasefire in an otherwise-just war. In particular, a “war on terror” that ups the risks to outsiders cannot continue until the risk of terrorism has been reduced to zero or near zero. Some degree of security risk is inevitable when coexisting with others in the international community, just as citizens within a state must accept some ineradicable degree of crime as a fact of community life. We define a conception of morally legitimate bearable risk by contrasting it with two alternatives, and argue that states must stop fighting when they have achieved that level. We call this requirement the Principle of Just Management of Military Risk. We also argue that states should avoid exaggerated emphasis on security risks over equivalent risks from other sources—the Principle of Minimum Consistency Toward Risks. This latter principle is not a moral requirement. Rather, it is a heuristic intended to correct against well-known fallacies of risk perception that may lead states to overemphasize security risks and wrongly export the costs of their security onto others. In conclusion, we suggest that states must invest in non-violent defensive means as a precondition for legitimately using force externally

The State of Illinois Manufacturing

The strength of the manufacturing sector is fundamental to the overall economic performance of Illinois and the U.S. as a whole. The manufacturing sector in Illinois create large numbers of jobs that pay high wages to workers, purchases more goods and services from within the state than any other sector, and constitutes a main component of the state export economy. For these and other reasons, manufacturing needs be at the center of all government discussions on economic policy.The Center for Labor and Community Research (CLCR) was commissioned by the Illinois Manufacturers' Association to analyze the condition of the Illinois manufacturing sector. We found that Illinois manufacturing is essential to Illinois' economy, and although it is among the top manufacturing states in the country, it faces a number of challenges. This report demonstrates why and how Illinois manufacturing matters, explains the current challenges it faces, and recommends actions to overcome some of these challenges. In addition to looking at manufacturing as a whole, this report looks at four key manufacturing sectors, or clusters, that together account for 64% of manufacturing employment in the state. These are the metals, electrical, printing, and food manufacturing sectors.A few key findings that CLCR uncovered in this study include the following: Manufacturing is vital to the state's economy and workers. Manufacturing exports create significant employment opportunities in Illinois, and the state's manufacturing workers are the most productive in the nation by far.Like other U.S. states, Illinois faces increasing competition from low-wage producers in the developing world as well as from highly skilled producers in developed countries. In order to remain competitive into the future, the sector requires increased investments in its infrastructure and workers and an improved workforce development system in order to increase the value-added component of their products.The Illinois manufacturing sector needs a "High Road" partnership with government and labor to increase investment in infrastructure and workforce development, to support the sector by creating specialized service centers that provide assistance to Illinois companies, and to effectively using public subsidies to reward and assist those companies that are pursuing High Road strategies of innovation and development

Integrated Dynamic Facade Control with an Agent-based Architecture for Commercial Buildings

Dynamic façades have significant technical potential to minimize heating, cooling, and lighting energy use and peak electric demand in the perimeter zone of commercial buildings, but the performance of these systems is reliant on being able to balance complex trade-offs between solar control, daylight admission, comfort, and view over the life of the installation. As the context for controllable energy-efficiency technologies grows more complex with the increased use of intermittent renewable energy resources on the grid, it has become increasingly important to look ahead towards more advanced approaches to integrated systems control in order to achieve optimum life-cycle performance at a lower cost. This study examines the feasibility of a model predictive control system for low-cost autonomous dynamic façades. A system architecture designed around lightweight, simple agents is proposed. The architecture accommodates whole building and grid level demands through its modular, hierarchical approach. Automatically-generated models for computing window heat gains, daylight illuminance, and discomfort glare are described. The open source Modelica and JModelica software tools were used to determine the optimum state of control given inputs of window heat gains and lighting loads for a 24-hour optimization horizon. Penalty functions for glare and view/ daylight quality were implemented as constraints. The control system was tested on a low-power controller (1.4 GHz single core with 2 GB of RAM) to evaluate feasibility. The target platform is a low-cost ($35/unit) embedded controller with 1.2 GHz dual-core cpu and 1 GB of RAM. Configuration and commissioning of the curtainwall unit was designed to be largely plug and play with minimal inputs required by the manufacturer through a web-based user interface. An example application was used to demonstrate optimal control of a three-zone electrochromic window for a south-facing zone. The overall approach was deemed to be promising. Further engineering is required to enable scalable, turnkey solutions

Structure and optical properties of high light output halide scintillators

Structural and optical properties of several high light output halide scintillators and closely related materials are presented based on first principles calculations. The optical properties are based on the Engel-Vosko generalized gradient approximation and the recently developed density functional of Tran and Blaha. The materials investigated are BaBr$_2$, BaIBr, BaCl$_2$, BaF$_2$, BaI$_2$, BiI$_3$, CaI$_2$, Cs$_2LiYCl$_6$, CsBa$_2$Br$_5$, CsBa$_2$I$_5$, K$_2$LaBr$_5$, K$_2$LaCl$_5$,K$_2$LaI$_5$, LaBr$_3$, LaCl$_3$, SrBr$_2$, and YI$_3$. For comparison results are presented for the oxide CdWO$_4$. We find that the Tran Blaha functional gives greatly improved band gaps and optical properties in this class of materials. Furthermore, we find that unlike CdWO$_4$, most of these halides are highly isotropic from an optical point of view even though in many cases the crystal structures and other properties are not. This general result is rationalized in terms of halide chemistry. Implications for the development of ceramic halide scintillators are discussed

Tunable Semiconductors: Control over Carrier States and Excitations in Layered Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskites

For a class of 2D hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite semiconductors based on $\pi$-conjugated organic cations, we predict quantitatively how varying the organic and inorganic component allows control over the nature, energy and localization of carrier states in a quantum-well-like fashion. Our first-principles predictions, based on large-scale hybrid density-functional theory with spin-orbit coupling, show that the interface between the organic and inorganic parts within a single hybrid can be modulated systematically, enabling us to select between different type-I and type-II energy level alignments. Energy levels, recombination properties and transport behavior of electrons and holes thus become tunable by choosing specific organic functionalizations and juxtaposing them with suitable inorganic components

The April 29, 1965, Puget Sound earthquake and the crustal and upper mantle structure of western Washington

Simultaneous modeling of source parameters and local layered earth structure for the April 29, 1965, Puget Sound earthquake was done using both ray and layer matrix formulations for point dislocations imbedded in layered media. The source parameters obtained are: dip 70° to the east, strike 344°, rake −75°, 63 km depth, average moment of 1.4 ± 0.6 × 10^(26) dyne-cm, and a triangular time function with a rise time of 0.5 sec and falloff of 2.5 sec. An upper mantle and crustal model for southern Puget Sound was determined from inferred reflections from interfaces above the source. The main features of the model include a distinct 15-km-thick low-velocity zone with a 2.5-km/sec P-wave-velocity contrast lower boundary situated at approximately 56-km depth. Ray calculations which allow for sources in dipping structure indicate that the inferred high contrast value can trade off significantly with interface dip provided the structure dips eastward. The effective crustal model is less than 15 km thick with a substantial sediment section near the surface. A stacking technique using the instantaneous amplitude of the analytic signal is developed for interpreting short-period teleseismic observations. The inferred reflection from the base of the low-velocity zone is recovered from short-period P and S waves. An apparent attenuation is also observed for pP from comparisons between the short- and long-period data sets. This correlates with the local surface structure of Puget Sound and yields an effective Q of approximately 65 for the crust and upper mantle

Time-Resolved Measurement of a Charge Qubit

We propose a scheme for monitoring coherent quantum dynamics with good time-resolution and low backaction, which relies on the response of the considered quantum system to high-frequency ac driving. An approximate analytical solution of the corresponding quantum master equation reveals that the phase of an outgoing signal, which can directly be measured in an experiment with lock-in technique, is proportional to the expectation value of a particular system observable. This result is corroborated by the numerical solution of the master equation for a charge qubit realized with a Cooper-pair box, where we focus on monitoring coherent oscillations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Assessing the Burden of Unnecessary Central Venous Catheters in Patients on Medical-Surgical Floors

Project goals: Our project goals are to: a) assess the burden of unnecessary PICCs and other non-tunneled central lines on med-surg units at TJUH and b) understand the underlying reasons behind the problem. In the first phase of our project we conducted an audit of med-surg unit PICCs and other non-tunneled central lines with the goal of obtaining a rough estimate of the number of line days that are unnecessary. SMART AIM By December 31, 2017, the TJUH medical-surgical floors will reduce the number of unnecessary PICC lines by 30%.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/patientsafetyposters/1024/thumbnail.jp

Dust Evolution in Protoplanetary Disks

(abridged) In the core accretion scenario for the formation of planetary rocky cores, the first step toward planet formation is the growth of dust grains into larger and larger aggregates and eventually planetesimals. Although dust grains are thought to grow from the submicron sizes typical of interstellar dust to micron size particles in the dense regions of molecular clouds and cores, the growth from micron size particles to pebbles and kilometre size bodies must occur in protoplanetary disks. This step in the formation of planetary systems is the last stage of solids evolution that can be observed directly in young extrasolar systems. In this chapter we review the constraints on the physics of grain-grain collisions as they have emerged from laboratory experiments and numerical computations. We then review the current theoretical understanding of the global processes governing the evolution of solids in protoplanetary disks, including dust settling, growth, and radial transport. The predicted observational signatures are summarized. We discuss recent developments in the study of grain growth in molecular cloud cores and in collapsing envelopes of protostars as these provide the initial conditions for the dust in disks. We discuss the observational evidence for the growth of grains in young disks from mm surveys, as well as the recent evidence of radial variations of the dust properties in disks. We include a brief discussion of the constraints on the small end of the grain size distribution and on dust settling as derived from optical and IR observations. The observations are discussed in the context of global dust evolution models, in particular we focus on the emerging evidence for a very efficient early growth of grains and the radial distribution of grain sizes in disks. We also highlight the limits of current models, including the need to slow the radial drift of grains.Comment: Accepted for publication as a chapter in Protostars and Planets VI, University of Arizona Press (2014), eds. H. Beuther, R. Klessen, C. Dullemond, Th. Hennin

Inferring gene networks using a sparse factor model approach, Statistical Learning and Data Science

The availability of genome-wide expression data to complement the measurements of a phenotypic trait opens new opportunities for identifying biologic processes and genes that are involved in trait expression. Usually differential analysis is a preliminary step to identify the key biological processes involved in the variability of the trait of interest. However, this variability shall be viewed as resulting from a complex combination of genes individual contributions. In other words, exploring the interactions between genes viewed in a network structure which vertices are genes and edges stand for inhibition or activation connections gives much more insight on the internal structure of expression profiles. Many currently available solutions for network analysis have been developed but an efficient estimation of the network from high-dimensional data is still a questioning issue. Extending the idea introduced for differential analysis by Friguet et al. (2009) [1] and Blum et al. (2010) [2], we propose to take advantage of a factor model structure to infer gene networks. This method shows good inferential properties and also allows an efficient testing strategy for the significance of partial correlations, which provides an interesting tool to explore the community structure of the networks. We illustrate the performance of our method comparing it with competitors through simulation experiments. Moreover, we apply our method in a lipid metabolism study that aims at identifying gene networks underlying the fatness variability in chickens