Charity and Philanthropy in Russia, China, India, and Brazil

This report, authored by Joan Spero and published in collaboration with WINGS builds greater awareness and understanding of the diversity and challenges of civil society in the so-called BRIC countries. In the absence of comprehensive data on philanthropy in these emerging market economies, the report identifies the cultural, economic, social, and political forces shaping giving in the BRIC countries and describes the growth and nature of their philanthropic activities. This report is an important first step in a broader conversation about the development of better systems for documenting and sharing the story of philanthropy in all its forms around the world

The performance of arm locking in LISA

For the laser interferometer space antenna (LISA) to reach it's design sensitivity, the coupling of the free running laser frequency noise to the signal readout must be reduced by more than 14 orders of magnitude. One technique employed to reduce the laser frequency noise will be arm locking, where the laser frequency is locked to the LISA arm length. This paper details an implementation of arm locking, studies orbital effects, the impact of errors in the Doppler knowledge, and noise limits. The noise performance of arm locking is calculated with the inclusion of the dominant expected noise sources: ultra stable oscillator (clock) noise, spacecraft motion, and shot noise. Studying these issues reveals that although dual arm locking [A. Sutton & D. A Shaddock, Phys. Rev. D 78, 082001 (2008).] has advantages over single (or common) arm locking in terms of allowing high gain, it has disadvantages in both laser frequency pulling and noise performance. We address this by proposing a hybrid sensor, retaining the benefits of common and dual arm locking sensors. We present a detailed design of an arm locking controller and perform an analysis of the expected performance when used with and without laser pre-stabilization. We observe that the sensor phase changes beneficially near unity-gain frequencies of the arm-locking controller, allowing a factor of 10 more gain than previously believed, without degrading stability. We show that the LISA frequency noise goal can be realized with arm locking and Time-Delay Interferometry only, without any form of pre-stabilization.Comment: 28 pages, 36 figure

Inhomogeneous Cosmological Models Containing Homogeneous Inner Hypersurface Geometry. Changes of the Bianchi Type

There are investigated such cosmological models which instead of the usual spatial homogeneity property only fulfil the condition that in a certain synchronized system of reference all spacelike sections t = const. are homogeneous manifolds. This allows time-dependent changes of the BIANCHI type. Discussing differential geometrical theorems it is shown which of them are permitted. Besides the trivial case of changing into type I there exist some possible changes between other types. However, physical reasons like energy inequalities partially exclude them.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 1 figur

Temperature influence on the carbon isotopic composition of Orbulina universa and Globigerina bulloides (planktonic foraminifera)

Laboratory experiments with the planktonic foraminifera Orbulina universa (symbiotic) and Globigerina bulloides (nonsymbiotic) were used to examine the effects of temperature, irradiance (symbiont photosynthesis), [CO32-], [HPO42-], and ontogeny on shell d13C values. In ambient seawater ([CO32-] = 171 mmol kg-1), the d13C of O. universa shells grown under low light (LL) levels is insensitive to temperature and records the d13C value of seawater TCO2. In contrast, the d13C of high light (HL) shells increases ~0.4‰ across 15-25°C (+0.050‰/°C). This suggests that the d13C enrichment due to symbiont photosynthetic activity is temperature-dependent. A comparison of HL O. universa grown in elevated [CO32-] seawater with ambient specimens shows that temperature does not affect the slope of the d13C/[CO32-] relationship previously described [Spero et al., 1997]. The d13C of G. bulloides shells decreases across the 15-24°C temperature range and d13C:temperature slopes decrease with increasing shell size (-0.13, -0.10, and -0.09‰/°C in 11- 12-, and 13-chambered shells, respectively). The pattern of lower d13C values at higher temperatures likely results from the incorporation of more respired CO2 into the shell at higher metabolic rates. The d13C of HL O. universa increases with increased seawater [HPO42-]

Managing at the Speed of Light: Improving Mission-Support Performance

The House and Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittees requested this study to help DOE's three major mission-support organizations improve their operations to better meet the current and future needs of the department. The passage of the Recovery Act only increased the importance of having DOE's mission-support offices working in the most effective, efficient, and timely manner as possible. While following rules and regulations is essential, the foremost task of the mission-support offices is to support the department's mission, i.e., the programs that DOE is implementing, whether in Washington D.C. or in the field. As a result, the Panel offered specific recommendations to strengthen the mission-focus and improve the management of each of the following support functions based on five "management mandates":- Strategic Vision- Leadership- Mission and Customer Service Orientation- Tactical Implementation- Agility/AdaptabilityKey FindingsThe Panel made several recommendations in each of the functional areas examined and some overarching recommendations for the corporate management of the mission-support offices that they believed would result in significant improvements to DOE's mission-support operations. The Panel believed that adopting these recommendations will not only make DOE a better functioning organization, but that most of them are essential if DOE is to put its very large allocation of Recovery Act funding to its intended uses as quickly as possible

Experimental Demonstration of Time-Delay Interferometry for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

We report on the first demonstration of time-delay interferometry (TDI) for LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. TDI was implemented in a laboratory experiment designed to mimic the noise couplings that will occur in LISA. TDI suppressed laser frequency noise by approximately 10^9 and clock phase noise by 6x10^4, recovering the intrinsic displacement noise floor of our laboratory test bed. This removal of laser frequency noise and clock phase noise in post-processing marks the first experimental validation of the LISA measurement scheme.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Physical Review Letters end of May 201

Liver Transplantation in a Hemophiliac

To the Editor: A cure rather than a treatment has long been the goal of those caring for and those suffering from hemophilia. Encouraging results were obtained some years ago with the transplantation of normal livers into a dog with mild hemophilia1,2 and into four others with severe hemophilia.3 Two dogs given transplants survived more than 100 days and produced coagulation factor VIII in quantities sufficient to maintain normal levels. The first “cure” in a human being appears to have been achieved, at least temporarily, in a 15-year-old boy with hemophilia and severe chronic active hepatitis, who received a liver. © 1985, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved