U.S. Surveillance of Citizens: The Prevention of Domestic Terrorism

The United States drastically increased the powers given to the federal government following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as the sheer number of casualties and shock that struck the nation called for an immediate response. The fear of another mass attack is still within the minds of the American people, and the U.S. government has taken measures to attempt to prevent such a tragedy. This thesis will analyze the topic of domestic surveillance, as well as ethical concerns for the criminal justice field, and will explore the future of homeland security and anti-terrorism for this country if this trend of surveillance continues

Range separation: The divide between local structures and field theories

This work presents parallel histories of the development of two modern theories of condensed matter: the theory of electron structure in quantum mechanics, and the theory of liquid structure in statistical mechanics. Comparison shows that key revelations in both are not only remarkably similar, but even follow along a common thread of controversy that marks progress from antiquity through to the present. This theme appears as a creative tension between two competing philosophies, that of short range structure (atomistic models) on the one hand, and long range structure (continuum or density functional models) on the other. The timeline and technical content are designed to build up a set of key relations as guideposts for using density functional theories together with atomistic simulation.Comment: Expanded version of a 30 minute talk delivered at the 2018 TSRC workshop on Ions in Solution, to appear in the March, 2019 issue of Substantia (https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/subs/index

The EPR Paradox Implies A Minimum Achievable Temperature

We carefully examine the thermodynamic consequences of the repeated partial projection model for coupling a quantum system to an arbitrary series of environments under feedback control. This paper provides observational definitions of heat and work that can be realized in current laboratory setups. In contrast to other definitions, it uses only properties of the environment and the measurement outcomes, avoiding references to the `measurement' of the central system's state in any basis. These definitions are consistent with the usual laws of thermodynamics at all temperatures, while never requiring complete projective measurement of the entire system. It is shown that the back-action of measurement must be counted as work rather than heat to satisfy the second law. Comparisons are made to stochastic Schr\"{o}dinger unravelling and transition-probability based methods, many of which appear as particular limits of the present model. These limits show that our total entropy production is a lower bound on traditional definitions of heat that trace out the measurement device. Examining the master equation approximation to the process at finite measurement rates, we show that most interactions with the environment make the system unable to reach absolute zero. We give an explicit formula for the minimum temperature achievable in repeatedly measured quantum systems. The phenomenon of minimum temperature offers a novel explanation of recent experiments aimed at testing fluctuation theorems in the quantum realm and places a fundamental purity limit on quantum computers.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures (submitted

G/SPLINES: A hybrid of Friedman's Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) algorithm with Holland's genetic algorithm

G/SPLINES are a hybrid of Friedman's Multivariable Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) algorithm with Holland's Genetic Algorithm. In this hybrid, the incremental search is replaced by a genetic search. The G/SPLINE algorithm exhibits performance comparable to that of the MARS algorithm, requires fewer least squares computations, and allows significantly larger problems to be considered

Statistical prediction with Kanerva's sparse distributed memory

A new viewpoint of the processing performed by Kanerva's sparse distributed memory (SDM) is presented. In conditions of near- or over-capacity, where the associative-memory behavior of the model breaks down, the processing performed by the model can be interpreted as that of a statistical predictor. Mathematical results are presented which serve as the framework for a new statistical viewpoint of sparse distributed memory and for which the standard formulation of SDM is a special case. This viewpoint suggests possible enhancements to the SDM model, including a procedure for improving the predictiveness of the system based on Holland's work with genetic algorithms, and a method for improving the capacity of SDM even when used as an associative memory

Observations on the NASA Propagation Program

Several personal observations are offered on the NASA Propagation Program. The Science Review of the NASA Propagation Program held in September 1986 resulted in 14 principal recommendations. Current activities of the program reveal that the recommendations have in the main been successfully implemented and the program has evolved beyond conditions prevailing at the time of the review. A personal assessment of the current program is offered here

Status of the Olympus experiment at CRC

The status of the Olympus Propagation Experiment of the Communications Research Centre in Ottawa, Canada, is briefly summarized. Path attenuation measurements at multiple frequencies correlated with concurrent dual polarized radar data provide a unique method to investigate propagation effects. An experiment of this type is being implemented by the Communications Research Centre (CRC) on the grounds of the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. Beacon receivers monitor signals from the Olympus satellite at 12.5, 19.77, and 29.66 GHz at a path elevation angle of 14.2 deg. Sky noise radiometers operating near the same frequencies and pointed along the same path provide additional propagation information. A colocated dual-polarized 9.6-GHz radar probes the precipitation state on the path, permitting identification of precipitation regimes that cause the observed impairments. The Olympus experiment configuration is displayed pictorially. Information on path propagation phenomena can be deduced by correlating the radar, beacon, and sky noise data. Melting layer effects and propagation losses for higher time percentages are prime interests. Data collected by Diversitel Communications during equipment verification tests are presented