Maxwell's Demon, Rectifiers, and the Second Law: Computer Simulation of Smoluchowski's Trapdoor

We have simulated numerically an automated Maxwell's demon inspired by Smoluchowski's ideas of 1912. Two gas chambers of equal area are connected via an opening that is covered by a trapdoor. The trapdoor can open to the left but not to the right, and is intended to rectify naturally occurring variations in density between the two chambers. Our results confirm that though the trapdoor behaves as a rectifier when large density differences are imposed by external means, it can not extract useful work from the thermal motion of the molecules when left on its own.

Proceedings of the Second PHANToM User's Group Workshop

On October 19-22, 1997 the Second PHANToM Users Group Workshop was held at the MIT Endicott House in Dedham, Massachusetts. Designed as a forum for sharing results and insights, the workshop was attended by more than 60 participants from 7 countries. These proceedings report on workshop presentations in diverse areas including rigid and compliant rendering, tool kits, development environments, techniques for scientific data visualization, multi-modal issues and a programming tutorial.

Three-Dimensional Recognition of Solid Objects from a Two-Dimensional Image

This thesis addresses the problem of recognizing solid objects in the three-dimensional world, using two-dimensional shape information extracted from a single image. Objects can be partly occluded and can occur in cluttered scenes. A model based approach is taken, where stored models are matched to an image. The matching problem is separated into two stages, which employ different representations of objects. The first stage uses the smallest possible number of local features to find transformations from a model to an image. This minimizes the amount of search required in recognition. The second stage uses the entire edge contour of an object to verify each transformation. This reduces the chance of finding false matches.

Justified Generalization: Acquiring Procedures from Examples

This thesis describes an implemented system called NODDY for acquiring procedures from examples presented by a teacher. Acquiring procedures form examples involves several different generalization tasks. Generalization is an underconstrained task, and the main issue of machine learning is how to deal with this underconstraint. The thesis presents two principles for constraining generalization on which NODDY is based. The first principle is to exploit domain based constraints. NODDY demonstrated how such constraints can be used both to reduce the space of possible generalizations to manageable size, and how to generate negative examples out of positive examples to further constrain the generalization. The second principle is to avoid spurious generalizations by requiring justification before adopting a generalization. NODDY demonstrates several different ways of justifying a generalization and proposes a way of ordering and searching a space of candidate generalizations based on how much evidence would be required to justify each generalization. Acquiring procedures also involves three types of constructive generalizations: inferring loops (a kind of group), inferring complex relations and state variables, and inferring predicates. NODDY demonstrates three constructive generalization methods for these kinds of generalization.

Mixed methods feasibility study for a trial of blood pressure telemonitoring for people who have had stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA).

Background Good blood pressure (BP) control reduces the risk of recurrence of stroke/transient ischaemic attack (TIA). Although there is strong evidence that BP telemonitoring helps achieve good control, none of the major trials have considered the effectiveness in stroke/TIA survivors. We therefore conducted a feasibility study for a trial of BP telemonitoring for stroke/ TIA survivors with uncontrolled BP in primary care. Method Phase 1 was a pilot trial involving 55 patients stratified by stroke/TIA randomised 3:1 to BP telemonitoring for 6 months or usual care. Phase 2 was a qualitative evaluation and comprised semi-structured interviews with 16 trial participants who received telemonitoring and 3 focus groups with 23 members of stroke support groups and 7 carers. Results Overall, 125 patients (60 stroke patients, 65 TIA patients) were approached and 55 (44%) patients were randomised including 27 stroke patients and 28 TIA patients. Fifty-two participants (95%) attended the 6-month follow-up appointment, but one declined the second daytime ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) measurement resulting in a 93% completion rate for ABPM − the proposed primary outcome measure for a full trial. Adherence to telemonitoring was good; of the 40 participants who were telemonitoring, 38 continued to provide readings throughout the 6 months. There was a mean reduction of 10.1 mmHg in systolic ABPM in the telemonitoring group compared with 3.8 mmHg in the control group, which suggested the potential for a substantial effect from telemonitoring. Our qualitative analysis found that many stroke patients were concerned about their BP and telemonitoring increased their engagement, was easy, convenient and reassuring Conclusions A full-scale trial is feasible, likely to recruit well and have good rates of compliance and follow-up.

Historical Reflections on the Uses and Limits of Intelligence

Jackson, Peter; Siegel, Jennifer., 'Historical Reflections on the Uses and Limits of Intelligence', In: Intelligence and Statecraft: The Use and Limits of Intelligence in International Society (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005), pp.11-51 RAE2008

Strat?gie et id?ologie: le haut commandement fran?ais et la guerre civile espagnole?

Jackson, Peter, 'Strat?gie et id?ologie: le haut commandement fran?ais et la guerre civile espagnole ', Guerres Mondiales et Conflits Contemporains - Revue Trimestrielle d'Histoire (2001) 199 pp.111-133 RAE2008

The French Second Empire: an anatomy of political power

Price, Roger, The French Second Empire: an anatomy of political power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp.x+507 RAE2008

Girls as minorities

Tese apresentada à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Doutor em Ciências Sociais, especialidade em Estudos de Minorias

A Second Easter: A Celebration of Presence

sermon text; MS Word document

The Churchman's prayer manual : for use at prayer meetings, mission services, conventions, Bible classes, study circles and other occasions of united prayer, as well as for private use compiled by G. R. Bullock-Webster.

http://www.archive.org/details/churchmansprayer00bulluoft

Historical sketch of the Flathead Indian nation from the year 1813 to 1890 : embracing the history of the establishment of St. Mary's Indian Mission in the Bitter Root Valley, Mont. : with sketches of the missionary life of Father Ravalli and other early missionaries : wars of the Blackfeet and Flatheads and sketches of history, trapping and trading in the early days / by Peter Ronan.

http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=16974 View document online