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Two-Stage Cryogenic HEMT-Based Amplifier for Low-Temperature Detectors
No full textTo search for dark matter candidates with masses below (MeV), the SPLENDOR (Search for Particles of Light dark mattEr with Narrow-gap semiconDuctORs) experiment is developing novel narrow-bandgap semiconductors with electronic bandgaps on the order of 1–100 meV. In order to detect the charge signal produced by scattering or absorption events, SPLENDOR has designed a two-stage cryogenic HEMT-based amplifier with an estimated charge resolution approaching the single-electron level. A low-capacitance (1.6 pF) HEMT is used as a buffer stage at T = 10 mK to mitigate effects of stray capacitance at the input. The buffered signal is then amplified by a higher-capacitance (200 pF) HEMT amplifier stage at T = 4 K. Importantly, the design of this amplifier makes it usable with any insulating material—allowing for rapid prototyping of a variety of novel detector materials. We present the two-stage cryogenic amplifier design, preliminary voltage noise performance, and estimated charge resolution of 7.2 electrons
Empowering Artisans: The Economic and Social Impact of All Across Africa on Women’s Livelihoods in East Africa
Get PDFThis study evaluates the impact of All Across Africa (AAA), a social enterprise dedicated to reducing poverty and creating employment opportunities for women artisans in East Africa by producing handcrafted baskets. We gathered data from 68 artisan women in Rwanda, focusing on three core areas: earnings, extended impacts on family and community, and the broader implications of economic empowerment. The analysis reveals a significant increase in the monthly income of artisans since they joined AAA. These earnings have enabled women to improve their quality of life, support their families through better access to food, education, and healthcare, and contribute economically to their communities. Furthermore, the data highlights how AAA has helped artisans challenge traditional gender norms, empowering them to become leaders within their households and communities. This research provides insights into the social and economic impacts of AAA\u27s work and offers recommendations for enhancing its future efforts
Ectogenesis and the value of gestational ties
No full textEctogenesis technology would make it possible to support the complete gestational development of a human being outside the female body. Proponents argue that this technology offers a welcome opportunity to expand reproductive options for those unable or unwilling to gestate. However, by completely bypassing pregnancy, the use of ectogenesis prevents the formation of gestational family ties. Consequently, it has faced criticism for perpetuating a patriarchal view of the family that undermines the moral significance of gestation. The concern is that the introduction of this technology might result in the loss of reproductive autonomy for those who desire to experience pregnancy, as they face pressures to opt for ectogenesis instead. Existing accounts of family values define parents\u27 rights to rear a child, but they fail to establish a right to gestate that can protect an individual\u27s interest in bearing a child. To provide a more comprehensive account of family values, I argue that pregnancy involves a unique quality of intimacy and can make distinct contributions to one\u27s flourishing. Based on this premise, I defend a fundamental moral right to gestate that can help safeguard the option of pregnancy for those who desire it. In conclusion, I consider how a prospective gestator need not provide optimal conditions for fetal development in the way that ectogenesis promises in order for their choice of pregnancy to be justified
You’re red, I’m blue, so I don’t like you: the political dissimilarity-disliking effect
No full textDecades of research suggest that people like politically similar others more than dissimilar others, yet few studies use a control group in their design, making it unclear whether similarity drives liking or, consistent with negative partisanship and affective polarization, dissimilarity drives disliking. Two studies tested a political similarity-liking effect in the current polarized political climate by examining whether sharing real news articles suggesting endorsement of political parties or politicians (Study 1; N = 452) or sharing events supporting partisan issues or parties (Study 2; N = 713) on Facebook would influence people’s initial impressions of a Facebook profile-owner. Participants did not report liking political ingroup members more than a neutral control. Instead, participants disliked political outgroup members more; this pattern was mediated by both positive and negative emotional responses to the profiles shared. These results suggest not a partisan similarity-liking effect, but rather a dissimilarity-disliking effect consistent with negative partisanship that may stem from the emotional reactions associated with the current political landscape
Nietzsche’s Critique of Power: Mimicry and the Advantage of the Weak
No full textWhile most scholars understand Nietzsche as a full-throated proponent of power, I argue that his attitude toward power is far more ambivalent. Nietzsche’s critical attitude toward power is most apparent in his analysis of mimicry—the process whereby one organism (the mimic) gains an evolutionary advantage through superficially resembling another (the model). Nietzsche’s analysis of mimicry shows how power makes the strong not only indifferent but also actively hostile to adaptation and novelty. In contrast, the weak, precisely because of their weakness, are incentivized to understand, adapt to, and exploit the psychology of the strong. Nietzsche reveals that mimicry is the means by which the weak were able to achieve a revolution in values through persuasion rather than force. Ultimately, I argue that Nietzsche’s analysis of mimicry provides a compelling account of social change, and reveals how power is maladaptive, in that it blinds and ossifies the powerful
An efficient approximation to the Cauchy radius
No full textThe Cauchy radius of a scalar polynomial is an upper bound on the magnitude of its zeros, and it is optimal among all bounds depending only on the moduli of the coefficients. It has the disadvantage of being implicit because it requires the solution of a nonlinear equation. In this note, simple and explicit upper bounds are derived that are useful approximations to the Cauchy radius. The general approach to obtain the aforementioned bounds is to embed scalar polynomials into the larger framework of their generalization to matrix polynomials and then use bounds on the eigenvalues of the latter
A Hard-Boiled Hero in an Atomized World: Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s El hombre de mi vida and Milenio Carvalho Lament Neoliberal Alienation
No full textManuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Pepe Carvalho detective novels comprise a seminal series, spanning eighteen novels from 1972 to 2004, that consolidated the novela negra as a popular, denunciatory genre in Spain. While much has been written about the early entries in the series, the latter novels, namely El hombre de mi vida (2000), Milenio I: Rumbo a Kabul, and Milenio II: En las antípodas (2004), have not received similar attention. Critics like Colmeiro, Balibrea, and Nichols have accurately read these novels as a denunciation of the most evident negative consequences of globalization at the turn of the new millennium, principally gentrification, displacement, and the exploitation of both labor and natural resources. Here, I expand this analysis to consider another of the deleterious effects of free-market rationality: The increasing personal alienation that has come to characterize modern neoliberal societies, a phenomenon recently analyzed by political philosophers like Brown (2015) and May (2012), and psychologists such as Verhaeghe (2014). I argue that, as the Carvalho character evolves throughout the series and neoliberalism achieves cultural hegemony, the depiction of the solitary protagonist in the final three novels denounces the growing isolation of the individual in a transnational society. This is reflected in the trope of the voyage, Carvalho’s nostalgic melancholia, and the progressively alienated condition of the marginalized detective as his relationships with others, tenuous in the best circumstances, begin to fully disintegrate
Reactive In-Row LiDAR-Based Vineyard Navigation
Get PDFAgricultural robotics plays a critical role in addressing contemporary societal challenges, including food security, sustainable agricultural practices, and labor shortages. Effective navigation is essential for agricultural robots to traverse intricate environments and execute tasks with precision. This thesis introduces two innovative methods for in-row vineyard navigation: one leveraging branch features and the other harnessing trunk features of the vine. Through a comprehensive analysis of the two methods of in-row vineyard navigation, the study demonstrates the superior performance of the trunk detection method over the branch detection algorithm, notably surpassing current research standards in terms of crosstrack error performance. By emphasizing algorithmic innovation, this research contributes to advancing precision agriculture practices and addressing the evolving complexities of modern agriculture. The findings emphasize the importance of robust navigation systems in enhancing the sustainability and productivity of agricultural systems, thus highlighting the potential of agricultural robotics to drive positive societal change
Who Authors Social Science? Demographics and the Production of Knowledge
Get PDFAuthor demographics are of key epistemic importance in science—shaping the approaches to and contents of research—especially in social scientific knowledge production, yet we know very little about who produces social scientific publications. We fielded an original demographic survey of nearly 20,000 sociology, economics, and communication authors in the Web of Science from 2016–2020. Our results include not only details about gender and race/ethnicity but also the first descriptive statistics on social science authors’ sexuality, disability, parental education, and employment characteristics. We find authorship in the social sciences looks very different from other measures of disciplinary membership like who holds PhDs or faculty positions. For example, half of the authors in each discipline’s journals say that they are not a member of the discipline in which they published. Moreover, social science authors are considerably less diverse than other measures of disciplinary membership. In sociology, women constitute a majority of PhDs, faculty, and American Sociological Association members; by contrast, men make up a majority of sociology’s authors. Additionally, we include a wide array of descriptive statistics across a range of demographic characteristics, which will be of interest to inequality scholars, science scholars, and social scientists engaged in diversifying their disciplines