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Parallel mechanisms have been examined in more and more detail over the past two decades. Parallel mechanisms are essentially the same design layout, a base, multiple legs/limbs, and a moving platform with a single end-effector to allow the mechanism to complete its desired function. Recently, several research groups have begun looking into multiple-platform parallel mechanisms and/or multiple end-effectors for parallel mechanisms. The reason for the research in this new form of parallel mechanism stems from multiple sources, such as applications that would require multiple handling points being accessed simultaneously, a more controlled gripper motion by having the jaws of the gripper being attached at different platforms, or to increasing the workload of the mechanism. The aim of the thesis is to modify the design process of parallel mechanisms so that it will support the development of a new parallel mechanism with multiple platforms capable of moving relative to each other in at least 1-DOF and to analyse the improvements made on the traditional single platform mechanism through a comparison of the power requirements for each mechanism. Throughout the thesis, a modified approach to the type synthesis of a parallel mechanism with multiple moving platforms is proposed and used to create several case study mechanisms. Additionally, this thesis presents a new series of methods for determining the workspace, inverse kinematic and dynamic models, and the integration of these systems into the design of a control system. All methods are vetted through case studies where they are judged based on the results gained from existing published data. Lastly, the concepts in this thesis are combined to produce a physical multi-platform parallel mechanism case study with the process being developed at each stage. Finally, a series of proposed topics of future research are listed along with the limitations and contributions of this work.

This dissertation examines the Lavender Scare, the widespread McCarthy-era fear that large numbers of homosexuals had infiltrated the federal government and posed a threat to national security. Though lacking a single substantiated case of espionage to support it, the Lavender Scare resulted in the firing of thousands of gay and lesbian civil servants. Erupting as a public controversy during McCarthy's attack on the State Department in February 1950, the purges of gays and lesbians spread to the entire executive branch and became institutionalized within the apparatus of the national security state. The loyalty/security system established under the Truman administration and significantly expanded in the Eisenhower administration shifted its focus from political loyalty to issues of character, morality and suitability, with homosexuality as one of its principal targets. Exploring how notions of sexual deviance became associated with communism and bureaucracy in Cold War political culture, I argue that the demonization of politically and sexually deviant civil servants was part of a broader attack on New Deal government programs and the bureaucrats who administered them. Initiated as part of a partisan political attempt to demonize the Roosevelt-Truman administrations, the Lavender Scare resonated with a wider public anxious about the rising power of Washington bureaucrats and an increasingly visible gay subculture. The dissertation shows how the national security state served to stigmatize sexual as well as political deviancy and thereby bolster traditional gender norms and family structure as a bulwark against Communist aggression. It suggests how the Cold War was perceived as a moral crusade as much as a political one—a struggle against atheistic Communism, immorality, and sexual perversion at home and abroad. Examining how the purges affected and were affected by gay men and lesbians in the nation's capital, it shows how the purges encouraged the formation of an organized political opposition, which by the 1970s succeeded in ending the twenty-five year federal civil service exclusion of gay men and lesbians.

The abuse of data can take many forms, from misinformation to censorship, as the perverse presence of a triadic military-corporate-governmental order demands the invention of a kinder reality for popular consumption. The elite amended their fictional narrative with the suggestion that our activities in the Gulf were the mark of a \"high-tech,\" \"clean,\" maybe even \"just\" war. Yet the ratio of conventional \"dumb bombs\" to the much advertised \"smart bombs\" dropped by the U.S. and its allies was 93 to 7, 1 with an estimated 150,000 Iraqi troops dead. 2 One statistic sheds some light on why we hear so little about the others: During the first two weeks of hostilities, less than 2 percent of three major networks' news sources were U.S. anti-war protesters. 3 Since this is the first of a projected two-volume series geared toward the returning student or adult learner who, in the words of Frankenstein, has been \"made to feel a failure at math\" (iii), Relearning Mathematics rightly begins with a sympathetic treatment of the modern ailment of \"math anxiety.\" The first two chapters trace these fears back to misconceptions about the nature of mathematics and its relation to our modes of thinking. Numbered among those myths, we find the ever-popular \"there is only one correct solution to every math problem\" and \"I just don't have a mathematical mind.\" While unbridled concern for the answer threatens to eclipse the more critical task of constructing a viable procedure that might eventually produce that answer, talk about \"mathematical minds\" is simply a way of blaming the victim of inferior mathematics instruction or avoiding making up for poor performances in the past. Consider Frankenstein's example of (mis)identifying a randomly shaded portion of an object as representing the fraction #189; (97). It has been my experience that teachers typically react in one of three ways: 1) remain silent and wait for a \"better\" response; 2) express some variation on the word \"no\" and supply (what the teacher considers to be) the correct answer; or 3) accept the answer as legitimate and proceed. 1) is probably the most common choice, yet what could be \"better\" than this opportunity to gain some insight into whatever alternate conceptions underlie this particular response? 2) occurs frequently and may be the most damaging of all. To say no is to dismiss every aspect of an answer that may be, and usually is, partially accurate or \"right.\" Again, since the response does reflect the thought processes of this student, it is at least a priori \"right\" as a representation of those thoughts--on the modest assumption that no one could be entirely wrong about their own internal states. 3) alone recognizes the authenticity and pedagogical value of every honest attempt at an answer.

The past three decades have borne witness to many advances in the understanding of the molecular biology and treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), an Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-associated cancer endemic to southern China, southeast Asia and north Africa. In this Review, we provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of key research findings regarding NPC pathogenesis, treatment, screening and biomarker development. We describe how technological advances have led to the advent of proton therapy and other contemporary radiotherapy approaches, and emphasize the relentless efforts to identify the optimal sequencing of chemotherapy with radiotherapy through decades of clinical trials. Basic research into the pathogenic role of EBV and the genomic, epigenomic and immune landscape of NPC has laid the foundations of translational research. The latter, in turn, has led to the development of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets and of improved approaches for individualizing immunotherapy and targeted therapies for patients with NPC. We provide historical context to illustrate the effect of these advances on treatment outcomes at present. We describe current preclinical and clinical challenges and controversies in the hope of providing insights for future investigation.Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is an Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-associated malignancy endemic to southern China, southeast Asia and north Africa. The authors of this Review present a comprehensive overview of advances from the past three decades on the pathogenic role of EBV, and the genomic, epigenomic and immune landscape of NPC, which have led to the development of new biomarkers, therapeutic targets and improved treatment approaches for patients with NPC.

While SARS-CoV-2 continues to adapt for human infection and transmission, genetic variation outside of the spike gene remains largely unexplored. This study investigates a highly variable region at residues 203–205 in the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein. Recreating a mutation found in the alpha and omicron variants in an early pandemic (WA-1) background, we find that the R203K+G204R mutation is sufficient to enhance replication, fitness, and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. The R203K+G204R mutant corresponds with increased viral RNA and protein both in vitro and in vivo . Importantly, the R203K+G204R mutation increases nucleocapsid phosphorylation and confers resistance to inhibition of the GSK-3 kinase, providing a molecular basis for increased virus replication. Notably, analogous alanine substitutions at positions 203+204 also increase SARS-CoV-2 replication and augment phosphorylation, suggesting that infection is enhanced through ablation of the ancestral ‘RG’ motif. Overall, these results demonstrate that variant mutations outside spike are key components in SARS-CoV-2’s continued adaptation to human infection.

Nuclear spins were among the first physical platforms to be considered for quantum information processing 1 , 2 , because of their exceptional quantum coherence 3 and atomic-scale footprint. However, their full potential for quantum computing has not yet been realized, owing to the lack of methods with which to link nuclear qubits within a scalable device combined with multi-qubit operations with sufficient fidelity to sustain fault-tolerant quantum computation. Here we demonstrate universal quantum logic operations using a pair of ion-implanted 31 P donor nuclei in a silicon nanoelectronic device. A nuclear two-qubit controlled- Z gate is obtained by imparting a geometric phase to a shared electron spin 4 , and used to prepare entangled Bell states with fidelities up to 94.2(2.7)%. The quantum operations are precisely characterized using gate set tomography (GST) 5 , yielding one-qubit average gate fidelities up to 99.95(2)%, two-qubit average gate fidelity of 99.37(11)% and two-qubit preparation/measurement fidelities of 98.95(4)%. These three metrics indicate that nuclear spins in silicon are approaching the performance demanded in fault-tolerant quantum processors 6 . We then demonstrate entanglement between the two nuclei and the shared electron by producing a Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger three-qubit state with 92.5(1.0)% fidelity. Because electron spin qubits in semiconductors can be further coupled to other electrons 7 – 9 or physically shuttled across different locations 10 , 11 , these results establish a viable route for scalable quantum information processing using donor nuclear and electron spins. Universal quantum logic operations with fidelity exceeding 99%, approaching the threshold of fault tolerance, are realized in a scalable silicon device comprising an electron and two phosphorus nuclei, and a fidelity of 92.5% is obtained for a three-qubit entangled state.

Ecosystem Services (ES) are an established conceptual framework for attributing value to the benefits that nature provides to humans. As the promise of robust ES-driven management is put to the test, shortcomings in our ability to accurately measure, map, and value ES have surfaced. On the research side, mainstream methods for ES assessment still fall short of addressing the complex, multi-scale biophysical and socioeconomic dynamics inherent in ES provision, flow, and use. On the practitioner side, application of methods remains onerous due to data and model parameterization requirements. Further, it is increasingly clear that the dominant \"one model fits all\" paradigm is often ill-suited to address the diversity of real-world management situations that exist across the broad spectrum of coupled human-natural systems. This article introduces an integrated ES modeling methodology, named ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services), which aims to introduce improvements on these fronts. To improve conceptual detail and representation of ES dynamics, it adopts a uniform conceptualization of ES that gives equal emphasis to their production, flow and use by society, while keeping model complexity low enough to enable rapid and inexpensive assessment in many contexts and for multiple services. To improve fit to diverse application contexts, the methodology is assisted by model integration technologies that allow assembly of customized models from a growing model base. By using computer learning and reasoning, model structure may be specialized for each application context without requiring costly expertise. In this article we discuss the founding principles of ARIES--both its innovative aspects for ES science and as an example of a new strategy to support more accurate decision making in diverse application contexts.