New Releases by Ryan W

Welcome to the world of Dominic Eden, a laidback, ruthless PSIA agent also known as Agent Pinstrike. In the first ever Eden adventure, Agent Pinstrike goes up against a powerful, corrupt, real-estate magnate called Zack Justinsin. When Ben Nelson, a friend and colleague of Eden who''s investigating Justinsin''s company, is framed for the attempted murder of Eden''s boss, General Snell, Dominic goes after Justinsin. He uncovers a plot that could destroy a large portion of New Hampshire and make Justinsin the richest and most powerful businessman in the region.

This thesis presents the development of and the findings from the design and evaluation of a hidden semi- Markov model (HSMM)-based operator state monitoring display. This operator state monitoring display is designed to function as a decision support tool (DST) for the supervisor of a small team of operators (between 2 and 4 team members) that are each monitoring and controlling multiple highly autonomous heterogeneous unmanned vehicles (UVs). Such displays are important in real-time, mission-critical complex systems because both operator and vehicle state monitoring are difficult, and failure to appropriately handle emerging situations could have life or mission-critical consequences. Recent research has shown that HSMM-based models can be used to model the time-sensitive behavior of operators controlling multiple heterogeneous UVs. Because this method requires substantial knowledge in probability theory to understand, the difficulty lies in the accurate, useful display of the HSMM information to a team commander in the field. It must be assumed that the team commander generally does not have the required background in stochastic processes to understand the method and may be biased in interpreting probabilistic functions. This further increases the difficulty of the proposed method. In this thesis, a cognitive task analysis (CTA) was performed to determine the functional and information requirements of the DST, and a human systems engineering design process was used to develop a prototype display. A human subject experiment was then conducted to test the effectiveness of the DST. The DST was shown to improve team supervisor performance in terms of increased decision accuracy, decreased incorrect interventions, and decreased response times in single alert scenarios. The DST was also shown to decrease the number of incorrect interventions, while having no affect on decision accuracy and total response time scenarios when the supervisor faced multiple simultaneous alerts. Additionally, the DST was not shown to increase operator mental workload, as measured by a secondary task, for any of the scenarios. Overall, the results suggest that HSMM-based operator state modeling can be effectively utilized in a real-time DST for team supervisors. While this research was focused on a team supervisor of multiple operators each independently controlling multiple heterogeneous UVs, the results are generalizable, and any research in time-critical team HSC domains may benefit from this work.

Considering the effort and funding devoted to a company''s success, understanding Intellectual Property rights patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and licensing is essential. Establishing appropriate internal policies from the outset can prevent companies from learning a costly and painful lesson in the courtroom. With Intellectual Property in the Food Technology Industry, currently the only book of its kind focusing specifically on the food industry, one will learn what to consider throughout the various creative phases of a product''s lifespan from initial research and development initiatives through post-production. Readers will have an understanding of the intellectual property protections afforded to U.S. corporations, methods to pro-actively reduce potential problems, and guidelines for future considerations to reduce legal spending, prevent IP theft, and allow for greater profitability from corporate innovation and inventiveness.

To educate older generations and engage younger generations in the authentic worship of God, this paper will develop an intentional strategy to create a culture of worship at Grace Baptist Church that is conducive to people at all ages and stages of life. The purpose of this three-part paper is to detail a strategy for introducing a biblically sensitive worship culture into the ministry of Grace Baptist. The goal is to unite those with enduring spiritual heritages and new worshippers who approach God through postmodern senses into a worship community that values diversity. One way to facilitate this is through a worship culture that reflects God''s glory and creatively retells his story. The first part of this discussion investigates the ministry context at Grace Baptist and traces its spiritual identity. Located in Fort Worth, Texas and steeped in Independent Baptist fundamentalism, the church has enjoyed a stable ministry during its over fifty-year existence. As it approaches midlife, however, Grace Baptist must adapt to reach emerging worshippers who have been influenced by changes in the broader culture. Part One will explore these cultural changes and relevant demographic data. The second part will detail the biblical and theological foundation of a worship culture that is sensitive to unbelievers and Christians alike. A brief overview of pertinent Scripture will highlight the creativity of God, his pursuit of those who worship him in spirit and truth, the example of Paul and his preferring others for the sake of the gospel, and the consummation of human relationship with God. A theology of ministry as it pertains to leading change will be included. Stemming from these underpinnings, the final part of the paper will offer a core strategy for creating a culture of worship and implementing worship renewal. Short-term and long-term ministry initiatives for enhancing the worship culture also will be presented. Finally, a tool to provide routine appraisal of the worship environment will be provided.

In the last decade processes known as living/controlled radical polymerizations (L/CRP) have been developed which permit the synthesis of high-value specialty polymers. Currently, the three processes that have demonstrated the most potential are: reverse addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT), atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and stable free radical polymerization (SFRP). While each process has their strengths and weaknesses with regard to specific polymers and architecture, the viability of these systems to industrial scale production all lie in the ability to perform the polymerization in a water based system because of process, environmental and economic advantages. The most effective method of controlling the polymerization of vinyl acetate in bulk has been RAFT. We have developed a miniemulsion RAFT polymerization using the xanthate methyl (ethoxycarbonothioyl)sulfanyl acetate. The miniemulsion is stabilized with 3 wt% sodium lauryl sulfate, initiated with the azo-based water-soluble VA-060. The main focus of this research was adapting ATRP to a miniemulsion system. It was determined that ionic surfactants can be successfully employed in emulsion-based ATRP. The cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide provides excellent stability of the latex over a range of surfactant loadings (allowing the particle size to be easily manipulated), at temperatures up to 90 C, for a wide variety of ATRP formulations. A new method of initiation was developed for reverse ATRP, using the redox pair hydrogen peroxide/ascorbic acid. This nearly eliminated the induction period at the start of the polymerization, increased the polymerization rate 5 fold and, surprisingly, enabled the formation of well-controlled polymers with a number-average molecular (Mn) weight approaching 1 million (typically ATRP is limited to ~200 000). The ability to control the particle size and the number of polymer chains (through the target Mn) over a wide range of values allowed us to determine that ATRP is influenced by compartmentalization effects. The knowledge gained from our work in L/CRP was used to develop the surfactant-free SFRP of styrene. A multi-stage approach was adopted starting from dilute styrene/water solutions to favor the formation of the alkoxyamine and short chain SG1-oligomers (stage one) before the addition of the majority of the styrene (stage two).

The size-weight illusion (SWI) occurs when the smaller of equally weighted objects is judged to feel heavier than the larger object. Experiment 1 compared the SWI generated in a natural versus augmented-reality environment while grasping and lifting three differently sized cubes of equal weight. Both environments induced the SWI for all twenty participants. Lift kinematics covaried with cube size in both environments. Experiment 2 investigated the influence of incongruent visual size information on the SWI in an augmented environment. Physical cubes were paired with three graphical representations: a smaller, an equal-sized, and a larger cube. The SWI was influenced by both haptic and visual size information. Kinematics covaried with physical size throughout the experiment. Results suggest that vision significantly impacts the bimodal SWI when haptic and visual size information is not redundant. Results have implications for theories of heaviness perception, multimodal interaction, and perception and action in augmented environments.

The Second Edition of Blueprints Radiology covers the essentials that students need to know on rotations and while preparing for the USMLE. The thoroughly updated and greatly expanded Second Edition features coverage of the most common conditions encountered on the wards. This edition includes new chapters on interventional radiology and nuclear medicine and places greater emphasis on classic radiological findings and pearls. The high-quality images include an increased number of CTs, MRIs, and x-rays. Seventy-five brand new board-format questions, with detailed answer explanations, are included. This edition now includes evidence-based resources.

"This paper will review the literature and outline a curriculum model that emphasizes two key areas of best practices for teaching gifted and talented social studies students: multiple intelligences and critical thinking."--Leaf 13.

Culled from over three years of writing poetry, this collection intrigues its readers with varying styles and themes. From classical mythology and the stars, to patriotism and the universe these are poems meant to awaken you to the world.