Transient volcanic ash plumes: Morpho-dynamical evolution and source properties

Transient volcanic plumes, typically generated by Strombolian and Vulcanian eruptions, are time-dependent features characterized by rise and development time scales similar to the eruption duration. Their morphological and dynamical properties are thus strongly related to the source conditions and evolution over time, i.e. (ejection duration, spatial spreading, ejection angle, time interval between pulses). In this study, the shape evolution and dynamics of initial transient volcanic plumes development, as well as their relation with discharge history, have been investigated using high-speed and high-resolution visible-light and thermal infrared videos. Physical parameterization of the plumes has been performed by defining their front velocity, volume and apparent surface temperature. Optical flow computer vision tool and fractal dimension analysis were applied for the first time in order to extract plume velocity field and shape complexity evolution over time, respectively. The source conditions were characterized both qualitatively, in terms of number, location, duration, and frequency of individual ejection pulses, and quantitatively, in terms of time-resolved ash eruption rate and a newly-defined instability factor. The newly proposed, image-based method I developed to retrieve discharge rate provides results that are comparable with previous methods but with more than one order of magnitude increase in time resolution. Results show that the connection between source properties and the dynamical and morphological features of transient plumes holds true for every one of our study cases, which encompass a variety of eruption styles and plume heights and shapes. In particular, plume front velocity, temperature decay, and plume complexity, as measured by fractal dimension, all follow complex evolutions which are intimately linked with the discharge history at the vent. Of the different factors that characterize vent discharge, lateral shifts in the ejection (from, e.g., vent shifts or changes in vent geometry or angle of the ejection) and temporal fluctuations, including the tempo and intensity of ejection pulses and other changes in the discharge rate, exert the strongest controls on plume evolution. These lateral and temporal changes at the vent can be combined in a general source instability factor that, by controlling the formation of the vortexes at the base of the plume, eventually determines the modes of air entrainment and the overall evolution of the plume. The connection between source instability and plume dynamics that I quantified in this study brings new understandings on the formation and initial development of unsteady volcanic plumes. Settings of new characterization tools such as fractal analysis and time-dependent discharge rate show promising results and potential for new monitoring resources

Patent Law, Copyright Law, and the Girl Germs Effect

[Excerpt] Inventors pursue patents and authors receive copyrights. No special education is required for either endeavor, and nothing precludes a person from being both an author and an inventor. Inventors working on patentable industrial projects geared toward commercial exploitation tend to be scientists or engineers. Authors, with the exception of those writing computer code, tend to be educated or trained in the creative arts, such as visual art, performance art, music, dance, acting, creative writing, film making, and architectural drawing. There is a well-warranted societal supposition that most of the inventors of patentable inventions are male. Assumptions about the genders of the authors of remunerative commercially exploited copyrights may be less rigid. Women authors are more broadly visible than women inventors across most of the typical categories of copyrightable works. Yet, whether one considers patentable inventions or copyrightable works, the vast majority of the very profitable ones are both originated and controlled by men. This causes a host of negative consequences for women. They start and run businesses at much lower rates than men and rarely reach elite leadership levels in the corporate world or within high-profile artistic or cultural communities. They are perceived as less competent, less dedicated, and less hard working, and suffer from a lack of female mentors and female colleagues. Women are lied to during financial negotiations more than men and earn less than men in equivalent positions. Women control only a tiny portion of the world’s wealth. Though female students outperform male students in almost every context and at almost every level of education, and even seek postdegree job-related training in greater numbers than men, this has not helped women to produce and control patentable inventions or to author and own valuable copyrighted works in numbers comparable to men

Quarterly literature review of the remote sensing of natural resources

The Technology Application Center reviewed abstracted literature sources, and selected document data and data gathering techniques which were performed or obtained remotely from space, aircraft or groundbased stations. All of the documentation was related to remote sensing sensors or the remote sensing of the natural resources. Sensors were primarily those operating within the 10 to the minus 8 power to 1 meter wavelength band. Included are NASA Tech Briefs, ARAC Industrial Applications Reports, U.S. Navy Technical Reports, U.S. Patent reports, and other technical articles and reports

Proposal of a deterministic model to explain swimming performance.

Swimming is one of the most challenging sports to investigate. Since long, swimming practitioners base their decisions in scientific evidences. It is known that several scientific domains have a significant role in the swimming performance, such as the “Biomechanics”, “Physiology”, “Anthropometrics”, “Motor Control” and “Muscle strength and conditioning”. The nowadays trend in swimming research is the “Interdisciplinary assessment”, which is related to the “holistic approach”. In Sport Sciences, and especially in Biomechanics, a re-new interest also emerged in the last few years for the design and development of deterministic models. Merging both concepts (i.e., “holistic thinking” and “deterministic models”) there is a chance to expand a deterministic model for competitive swimming, including several other scientific domains besides the Biomechanics. With this it is possible to have a deeper understanding of the variables that determine swimming and how they interplay to enhance performance. The aim of this paper was two-folds: (i) to make a revision and an update of the state of the art about the relationships between swimming biomechanics with performance, energetics, anthropometrics, motor control, muscle strength and conditioning; (ii) to design the deterministic model of such relationships

Spartan Daily, November 4, 1983

Volume 81, Issue 48https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/7097/thumbnail.jp