Dr. Patrick T. Conley on the Law and Order Constitution

In this interview, Dr. Patrick T. Conley, constitutional historian and Dorr scholar, discusses the deficiencies of the Law & Order Constitution of 1843, the provisions of the People\u27s Constitution of 1841, and his personal involvement in the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention of 1977. To view this video interview please visit the Dorr Rebellion Project web site’s video gallery: http://library.providence.edu/dps/projects/dorr/video.php

Verification of the proteus two-dimensional Navier-Stokes code for flat plate and pipe flows

The Proteus Navier-Stokes Code is evaluated for 2-D/axisymmetric, viscous, incompressible, internal, and external flows. The particular cases to be discussed are laminar and turbulent flows over a flat plate, laminar and turbulent developing pipe flows, and turbulent pipe flow with swirl. Results are compared with exact solutions, empirical correlations, and experimental data. A detailed description of the code set-up, including boundary conditions, initial conditions, grid size, and grid packing is given for each case

Vibration Alert Bracelet for Notification of the Visually and Hearing Impaired

This paper presents the prototype of an electronic vibration bracelet designed to help the visually and hearing impaired to receive and send emergency alerts. The bracelet has two basic functions. The first function is to receive a wireless signal and respond with a vibration to alert the user. The second function is implemented by pushing one button of the bracelet to send an emergency signal. We report testing on a prototype system formed by a mobile application and two bracelets. The bracelets and the application form a complete system intended to be used in retirement apartment communities. However, the system is flexible and could be expanded to add new features or to serve as a research platform for gait analysis and location services. The medical and professional potential of the proposed system is that it offers a simple, modular, and cost-effective alternative to all the existing medical devices with similar functionality currently on the market. The proposed system has an educational potential as well: it can be used as a starting point for capstone projects and demonstration purposes in schools to attract students to STEM disciplines

Hubble Residuals of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae Are Correlated with Host Galaxy Masses

From Sloan Digital Sky Survey u'g'r'i'z' imaging, we estimate the stellar masses of the host galaxies of 70 low redshift SN Ia (0.015 < z < 0.08) from the hosts' absolute luminosities and mass-to-light ratios. These nearby SN were discovered largely by searches targeting luminous galaxies, and we find that their host galaxies are substantially more massive than the hosts of SN discovered by the flux-limited Supernova Legacy Survey. Testing four separate light curve fitters, we detect ~2.5{\sigma} correlations of Hubble residuals with both host galaxy size and stellar mass, such that SN Ia occurring in physically larger, more massive hosts are ~10% brighter after light curve correction. The Hubble residual is the deviation of the inferred distance modulus to the SN, calculated from its apparent luminosity and light curve properties, away from the expected value at the SN redshift. Marginalizing over linear trends in Hubble residuals with light curve parameters shows that the correlations cannot be attributed to a light curve-dependent calibration error. Combining 180 higher-redshift ESSENCE, SNLS, and HigherZ SN with 30 nearby SN whose host masses are less than 10^10.8 solar masses in a cosmology fit yields 1+w=0.22 +0.152/-0.143, while a combination where the 30 nearby SN instead have host masses greater than 10^10.8 solar masses yields 1+w=-0.03 +0.217/-0.108. Progenitor metallicity, stellar population age, and dust extinction correlate with galaxy mass and may be responsible for these systematic effects. Host galaxy measurements will yield improved distances to SN Ia.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, published in ApJ, minor change

Testing Models of Intrinsic Brightness Variations in Type Ia Supernovae, and their Impact on Measuring Cosmological Parameters

For spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernovae we evaluate models of intrinsic brightness variations with detailed data/Monte Carlo comparisons of the dispersion in the following quantities: Hubble-diagram scatter, color difference (B-V-c) between the true B-V color and the fitted color (c) from the SALT-II light curve model, and photometric redshift residual. The data sample includes 251 ugriz light curves from the 3-season Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II, and 191 griz light curves from the Supernova Legacy Survey 3-year data release. We find that the simplest model of a wavelength-independent (coherent) scatter is not adequate, and that to describe the data the intrinsic scatter model must have wavelength-dependent variations. We use Monte Carlo simulations to examine the standard approach of adding a coherent scatter term in quadrature to the distance-modulus uncertainty in order to bring the reduced chi2 to unity when fitting a Hubble diagram. If the light curve fits include model uncertainties with the correct wavelength dependence of the scatter, we find that the bias on the dark energy equation of state parameter $w$ is negligible. However, incorrect model uncertainties can lead to a significant bias on the distance moduli, with up to ~0.05 mag redshift-dependent variation. For the recent SNLS3 cosmology results we estimate that this effect introduces an additional systematic uncertainty on $w$ of ~0.02, well below the total uncertainty. However, this uncertainty depends on the samples used, and thus this small $w$-uncertainty is not guaranteed in future cosmology results.Comment: accepted by Ap

Das mythische Denken bei Ernst Cassirer nach der "Philosophie der symbolischen Formen"

Die vorliegende Arbeit hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, den für das Verständnis der Philosophie Cassirers zentralen Begriff des Mythos im Hinblick auf sein 1923-1929 erschienenes Hauptwerk, der in drei Bänden vorliegenden "Philosophie der symbolischen Formen", zu untersuchen. Für Cassirer sind Mythen Denkformen. Die Frage ist nun, inwieweit diese Betrachtungsweise des Mythos zum damaligen Zeitpunkt neu war und inwieweit es einer, aus heutiger Sicht, neuen Bewertung von Cassirers Mythostheorie bedarf. Cassirer erhebt den Anspruch, den Mythos aus sich selbst heraus erklären zu wollen. Damit verbunden ist die Kritik an einem zu eng gefaßten Begriff von Rationalität. Schon in der Einleitung zum ersten Band der "Philosophie der symbolischen Formen" stellt Cassirer die These auf, daß das mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Sein in seiner idealistischen Fassung und Deutung nicht alle Wirklichkeit erschöpft, "weil in ihm bei weitem nicht alle Wirksamkeit des Geistes und seiner Spontaneität" erfaßt sei. Der Mensch begreift die Welt nicht nur in wissenschaftlichen Termini: Sprache, Wissenschaft, Kunst, aber auch mythische Denkformen bieten uns die Möglichkeit, ein eigenes Ich herauszubilden und unsere Umwelt zu strukturieren. Nach Cassirer erfaßt der Mensch die Welt in symbolischen Formen, von denen die Wissenschaft nur eine unter vielen ist. Aus der traditionell einseitigen Kritik der Vernunft sollte eine umfassende Kritik der Kultur werden

Features und Reportagen im Rundfunk der DDR : Tonträgerverzeichnis 1964-1991

Verzeichnis der von 1964 bis 1991 vom Rundfunk der DDR (ab 1990: Funkhaus Berlin) produzierten Radio-Features und Reportagen. Die Ur- und Sendebänder sind vollständig im Deutschen Rundfunkarchiv erhalten. Die Bibliographie bietet neben kurzen Inhaltsangaben zu den einzelnen Sendungen erstmals ein Register aller beteiligten Autoren und Regisseure.Bibliography of the radio documentaries produced by Rundfunk der DDR (Radio of the GDR) and Funkhaus Berlin

The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III

The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) is designed to measure the scale of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the clustering of matter over a larger volume than the combined efforts of all previous spectroscopic surveys of large scale structure. BOSS uses 1.5 million luminous galaxies as faint as i=19.9 over 10,000 square degrees to measure BAO to redshifts z<0.7. Observations of neutral hydrogen in the Lyman alpha forest in more than 150,000 quasar spectra (g<22) will constrain BAO over the redshift range 2.15<z<3.5. Early results from BOSS include the first detection of the large-scale three-dimensional clustering of the Lyman alpha forest and a strong detection from the Data Release 9 data set of the BAO in the clustering of massive galaxies at an effective redshift z = 0.57. We project that BOSS will yield measurements of the angular diameter distance D_A to an accuracy of 1.0% at redshifts z=0.3 and z=0.57 and measurements of H(z) to 1.8% and 1.7% at the same redshifts. Forecasts for Lyman alpha forest constraints predict a measurement of an overall dilation factor that scales the highly degenerate D_A(z) and H^{-1}(z) parameters to an accuracy of 1.9% at z~2.5 when the survey is complete. Here, we provide an overview of the selection of spectroscopic targets, planning of observations, and analysis of data and data quality of BOSS.Comment: 49 pages, 16 figures, accepted by A