Most Popular Books by George Ford

Governments as they exist are the greatest enemies of human freedom, yet it is freedom that self-responsible people need most of all. So they vote, along with all the others, many of whom are looking for welfare in one form or another. For those seeking freedom from government it''s a losing fight. Is there a better way?Some people become revolutionaries, others champion secession, still others leave the country or go off the grid. And a few go into politics pledging to change things. But what if those wanting freedom from government as it exists simply announced their wish? What if they wanted all their needs, including security, provided by market agencies? What if the tally of people expressing this wish reached a critical mass? Could the powers that be ignore them?Let''s find out.

What would you do if you won the ultimate lottery? Would you travel, buy stuff. give it away?Or would you use it to change the world? If so, how would you go about it if you were a military vet whose soul has been seared, who doesn''t buy the idea that he''s a hero for having served his country killing foreigners who didn''t attack us? Who thinks, rather, that he''s another in a long line of patsies?Think about it. What would you do?Brandon Douglas decides to attack the problem at its root, challenging the monopoly institution that creates the patsies and the horrors that follow.

Proteins propagate information within a cell by interacting with other proteins, DNA, RNA, and small molecules, enabling a cell to adapt to its environment and to maintain normal cellular functionality. Direct manipulation of a cell''s protein interaction network can be achieved by using synthetically designed proteins to replace existing interactions or to create new interactions with other cellular components. A major challenge to engineering new synthetic proteins is the inability to search over the massive space of possible protein variants to identify candidates that bind the biological target of interest. In this thesis, I evaluate existing search strategies and propose a new search strategy for the computational design of proteins, which restricts the search space to one that is enriched for protein variants that tightly bind a protein target. I first evaluated current computational protein design strategies on two biological systems. Using the Fyn SH3 domain bound to different peptide targets, I assessed the design strategies'' ability to recover the amino acid variability of the domain core as experimentally determined by phage display. Next, I evaluated the design methods by their ability to engineer the ubiquitin interface for tightly bind towards the USP21 protein. For this assessment, a new parallel validation strategy is introduced. In both biological systems, I found that ensemble protein design strategies outperformed other protein design methods. A limiting factor in current protein design strategies was found to be the accurate creation of alternative protein backbones when a single protein structure was used as a template. I present a flexible backbone design strategy, GP backbone design, that incorporates information from multiple protein structures. I show that using multiple structures to learn a space of possible protein movements increases the number of protein variants that tightly bind a protein target.

Each moment in life carries a question: What are you going to do?Most moments you''ve seen before, so you have ready solutions.Then there are those special moments, the ones that determine the course of your life. The problem is they don''t always look special. Perhaps you go to a deli to buy a sandwich for lunch. Or you undertake a small project for your boss at work. Or maybe you discover the reason you''re afraid to get on an airplane. Treat them as ordinary and your life stays ordinary. What you do with them defines who you are. Defining Moments portrays people who saw -- or missed -- something special in the events of their lives and what became of them.

This thesis presents a methodology for a body force description of a compressor with particular application to compressor stability calculations. The methodology is based on extracting blade forces from an axisymmetric flow description and reinterpreting the blade force as a body force acting throughout the fluid. A "blade force average," which translates a three dimensional flow into the axisymmetric description used in this methodology, is described. The methodology is demonstrated using flow fields from three dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to form body force distributions over the range of flow coefficients in which converged solutions can be obtained and using two dimensional CFD to extend the description to lower flows. The connection between specific flow features and the body force is described for a sample compressor, along with the effect of using averages other than the body force average when reducing the three dimensional flow to an axisymmetric description. To assess the body force modeling procedure, flow fields produced by using the body force as input to a compressor flow computation are presented and compared to the flow fields originally used to produce the body forces. While not conclusive, the comparison provides a positive indication that the body force modeling can be useful as part of a stall prediction procedure.

The primary objective of this investigation is to determine the effect of different iron catalysts on the production of NO{sub x} during fuel-rich and fuel-lean combustion of coal. Iron in various forms and quantities will be introduced with the pulverized coal and tested in a laboratory-scale combustion furnace. The testing protocol is based on simulation of the near burner region in a full-scale boiler. This semi-annual report describes the selection of the iron catalysts used in the program as well as catalyst preparation. A detailed description of the combustion reactor and ancillary equipment is provided combined with a discussion of the test procedures. The first preliminary data have been collected and are presented followed by the plans to complete the project over the next six months.

When we find ourselves reading something we enjoy, it absorbs us completely. We can''t put it down. We keep turning the pages. Yet, we probably don''t know the author personally. How is it that two strangers -- writer and reader -- can hit it off so well?No matter your background, no matter how exciting your life may be, to keep your experiences vivid, to share them, you need to find ways to bring them to life with words.For that, you need to acquire certain skills I discuss in this little book. Over time these skills will become second nature, so they''re part of you when you start writing.