Quantifying the Direct Radiative Effect of Absorbing Aerosols for Numerical Weather Prediction: A Case Study

We conceptualize aerosol radiative transfer processes arising from the hypothetical coupling of a global aerosol transport model and a global numerical weather prediction model by applying the US Naval Research Laboratory Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) and the Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) meteorological and surface reflectance fields. A unique experimental design during the 2013 NASA Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) field mission allowed for collocated airborne sampling by the high spectral resolution Lidar (HSRL), the Airborne Multi-angle SpectroPolarimetric Imager (AirMSPI), up/down shortwave (SW) and infrared (IR) broadband radiometers, as well as NASA A-Train support from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), to attempt direct aerosol forcing closure. The results demonstrate the sensitivity of modeled fields to aerosol radiative fluxes and heating rates, specifically in the SW, as induced in this event from transported smoke and regional urban aerosols. Limitations are identified with respect to aerosol attribution, vertical distribution, and the choice of optical and surface polarimetric properties, which are discussed within the context of their influence on numerical weather prediction output that is particularly important as the community propels forward towards inline aerosol modeling within global forecast systems

Sociolinguistic Features for Author Gender Identification: From Qualitative Evidence to Quantitative Analysis

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Quantitative Linguistics on 7 October 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09296174.2016.1226430. The Accepted Manuscript is under embargo. Embargo end date: 7 April 2018.Theoretical and empirical studies prove the strong relationship between social factors and the individual linguistic attitudes. Different social categories, such as gender, age, education, profession and social status, are strongly related with the linguistic diversity of people’s everyday spoken and written interaction. In this paper, sociolinguistic studies addressed to gender differentiation are overviewed in order to identify how various linguistic characteristics differ between women and men. Thereafter, it is examined if and how these qualitative features can become quantitative metrics for the task of gender identification from texts on web blogs. The evaluation results showed that the “syntactic complexity”, the “tag questions”, the “period length”, the “adjectives” and the “vocabulary richness” characteristics seem to be significantly distinctive with respect to the author’s gender.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

A projection method for statics and dynamics of lattice spin systems

A method based on Monte Carlo sampling of the probability flows projected onto the subspace of one or more slow variables is proposed for investigation of dynamic and static properties of lattice spin systems. We illustrate the method by applying it, with projection onto the order-parameter subspace, to the three-dimensional 3-state Potts model in equilibrium and to metastable decay in a three-dimensional 3-state kinetic Potts model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTex, final version to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

The Conservation Reserve Program: Economic Implications for Rural America

This report estimates the impact that high levels of enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) have had on economic trends in rural counties since the program's inception in 1985 until today. The results of a growth model and quasi-experimental control group analysis indicate no discernible impact by the CRP on aggregate county population trends. Aggregate employment growth may have slowed in some high-CRP counties, but only temporarily. High levels of CRP enrollment appear to have affected farm-related businesses over the long run, but growth in the number of other nonfarm businesses moderated CRP's impact on total employment. If CRP contracts had ended in 2001, simulation models suggest that roughly 51 percent of CRP land would have returned to crop production, and that spending on outdoor recreation would decrease by as much as $300 million per year in rural areas. The resulting impacts on employment and income vary widely among regions having similar CRP enrollments, depending upon local economic conditions.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Land Economics/Use,

The excitation spectrum of mesoscopic proximity structures

We investigate one aspect of the proximity effect, viz., the local density of states of a superconductor-normal metal sandwich. In contrast to earlier work, we allow for the presence of an arbitrary concentration of impurities in the structure. The superconductor induces a gap in the normal metal spectrum that is proportional to the inverse of the elastic mean free path l_N for rather clean systems. For a mean free path much shorter than the thickness of the normal metal, we find a gap size proportional to l_N that approaches the behavior predicted by the Usadel equation (diffusive limit). We also discuss the influence of interface and surface roughness, the consequences of a non-ideal transmittivity of the interface, and the dependence of our results on the choice of the model of impurity scattering.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures (included), submitted to PR

Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326251This article is a methodological paper that describes the therapeutic and educational objectives that were identified during the design process of a robot aimed at robot assisted play. The work described in this paper is part of the IROMEC project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that recognizes the important role of play in child development and targets children who are prevented from or inhibited in playing. The project investigates the role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education for children with special needs. This paper specifically addresses the therapeutic and educational objectives related to children with autism. In recent years, robots have already been used to teach basic social interaction skills to children with autism. The added value of the IROMEC robot is that play scenarios have been developed taking children's specific strengths and needs into consideration and covering a wide range of objectives in children's development areas (sensory, communicational and interaction, motor, cognitive and social and emotional). The paper describes children's developmental areas and illustrates how different experiences and interactions with the IROMEC robot are designed to target objectives in these areas.Final Published versio

Vertically resolved aerosol optical properties over the ARM SGP site

We will present an overview of early airborne results obtained aboard the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRP AS) Twin Otter aircraft during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program aerosol intensive observation period in May 2003

The dayglow of the O2 atmospheric band system

The dayglow of the O2 atmospheric band system has been simulated by taking into account the three main production mechanisms of the O2(1[Sigma]) state: resonance fluorescence, a photochemical term due to quenching of O(1D), and a pure chemical process. Values of the g factor, which are involved in the resonant scattering of the O2 atmospheric bands (A, B and [gamma]), have been obtained as a function of altitude (0-120 km) and solar zenith angle using a line-by-line calculation. The values of the g factor, along with updated rate coefficients, have been used in the calculation of the production rate of O2(1[Sigma]) and the volume emission rate of the (O21[Sigma], [nu]' = 0)-(O23[Sigma], [nu]" = 0) transition. The results of these calculations are compared to observational measurements and are found to be in excellent agreement.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/26002/1/0000068.pd

Tidal influences on O 2 atmospheric band dayglow: HRDI observations vs. model simulations

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95496/1/grl13062.pd