Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health of the Aldabra Group, Southern Seychelles: Scientific Report to the Government of Seychelles.

National Geographic's Pristine Seas project, in collaboration with the government of the Seychelles, the Island Conservation Society (ICS), the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF), and the Waitt Foundation, conducted an expedition to explore the poorly known marine environment around these islands. The goals were to assess the biodiversity of the nearshore marine environment and to survey the largely unknown deep sea realm. The data collected contribute to the marine spatial planning of the Seychelles, in particular the creation of large marine reserves

Generational differences and Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) employee turnover

Fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) mining has experienced significant growth in the past decade and is now a typical form of employment in the sector in Australia. Evidence suggests that there are relatively high turnover levels amongst these employees. Whilst there are many contributing causes to this, there may be variances between different generational cohorts at work as arguably their workplace expectation differs. This paper investigates whether turnover intentions vary between different generations of employees. Using a questionnaire, employees were asked about their turnover intentions and this was compared against the groups of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Findings show that Generation Y employees had a higher intention to quit than the Baby Boomers but were no different to Generation X employees

Could on-the-job embeddedness help bind FIFO workers to their jobs?

Fly-In Fly-Out (FIFO) employees in the mining industry in Western Australia have had high levels of turnover, resulting in high costs in recruitment, training and lost production. This research is seeking to understand the reasons for high turnover in this somewhat unusual group of employees. Whilst the research has utilised the more traditional approach to understanding labour turnover, that is that dissatisfaction with job or company and the availability of viable alternatives lead to intention to quit, preliminary results indicate that job embeddedness theory, may provide a better understanding of why FIFO workers choose to stay in their jobs. This outcome raises questions about embeddedness theory itself, namely whether on-the-job embeddedness is a stronger predictor of staying than is off-the-job embeddedness

Robust array configuration for a microwave interferometric radiometer: application to the geoSTAR project

The Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Array Radiometer represents a promising new approach to microwave atmospheric sounding from geostationary orbit based on passive interferometry. One of the major concerns about the feasibility of this new concept is related to the ability of the sensor to cope with the failure of one or several of its single receivers/antennas. This letter shows that the inclusion of a small percentage of additional antennas significantly reduces the degradation of radiometric resolution caused by such receiver failure. Impact of antenna failure is analyzed, taking into account two test images with very different spatial harmonic content. A tradeoff analysis of several array topologies is performed so as to minimize the number of additional antennas while keeping worst case radiometric error within a reasonable level.Peer Reviewe

On-the-fly doppler broadening of unresolved resonance region cross sections via probability band interpolation

In this work we present a scheme for computing temperature-dependent unresolved resonance region cross sections in Monte Carlo neutron transport simulations. This approach relies on the generation of equiprobable cross section magnitude bands on an energy-temperature mesh. The bands are then interpolated in energy and temperature to obtain a cross section value. This is in contrast to the typical procedure of pre-generating probability tables at all temperatures present in the simulation. As part of this work, a flexible probability table generation capability is integrated into the continuous-energy neutron transport code OpenMC [1]. Both single-level and multi-level Breit-Wigner formalisms are supported, as is modeling of the resonance structure of competitive reactions. A user-specified cross section band tolerance is enabled with batch statistics. Probability tables are generated for all 268 ENDF/B-VII.1 [2] isotopes that have an unresolved resonance region evaluation. Integral benchmark simulations of the Big Ten critical assembly show that, for a system that is sensitive to the unresolved resonance region, a temperature interval of ∼200 K around 293.6 K is sufficient to reproduce the keff value that is obtained with probability tables generated exactly at room temperature. A finer mesh of < 50 K is required to reproduce some cross section values at the common target relative difference of 0.1

The Phase-Contrast Imaging Instrument at the Matter in Extreme Conditions Endstation at LCLS

We describe the Phase-Contrast Imaging instrument at the Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) endstation of the Linac Coherent Light Source. The instrument can image phenomena with a spatial resolution of a few hundreds of nanometers and at the same time reveal the atomic structure through X-ray diffraction, with a temporal resolution better than 100 femtosecond. It was specifically designed for studies relevant to High-Energy-Density Science and can monitor, e.g., shock fronts, phase transitions, or void collapses. This versatile instrument was commissioned last year and is now available to the MEC user community

Synchronous facial action binds dynamic facial features

We asked how dynamic facial features are perceptually grouped. To address this question, we varied the timing of mouth movements relative to eyebrow movements, while measuring the detectability of a small temporal misalignment between a pair of oscillating eyebrows-an eyebrow wave. We found eyebrow wave detection performance was worse for synchronous movements of the eyebrows and mouth. Subsequently, we found this effect was specific to stimuli presented to the right visual field, implicating the involvement of left lateralised visual speech areas. Adaptation has been used as a tool in low-level vision to establish the presence of separable visual channels. Adaptation to moving eyebrows and mouths with various relative timings reduced eyebrow wave detection but only when the adapting mouth and eyebrows moved asynchronously. Inverting the face led to a greater reduction in detection after adaptation particularly for asynchronous facial motion at test. We conclude that synchronous motion binds dynamic facial features whereas asynchronous motion releases them, allowing adaptation to impair eyebrow wave detection

Spatial and Temporal Variability in Seepage between a Contaminated Aquifer and Tributaries to the Ohio River

Because interactions between ground water and tributaries may influence contaminant loading to rivers, we delineated seepage along Little Bayou and Bayou Creeks in McCracken County, Kentucky, during a two-year period. From the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, on the divide between the creeks, trichloroethene and technetium-99 plumes extend several km toward the Ohio River. Gaining conditions occur where the creeks are incised into coarse sediments in the river\u27s flood plain. Such conditions were marked by upward hydraulic gradients within the bed; maximum specific discharge (q) \u3e 0.24 m d-1; relatively narrow ranges of stream, piezometer, and bed temperatures; relatively cool bed and bank temperatures in summer and early autumn; detections of trace solutes in stream water; and observations of springs, boils, and seeps. Evidence of losing or no-net-discharge conditions included downward or lateral hydraulic gradients; minimal q values (indicative of stream-water flow through the bed); and relatively broad annual ranges of stream and piezometer temperatures. Mixing calculations using δ18O and Cl- support inferences about gaining and losing reaches. Seepage rates and directions changed during dry periods in summer and early autumn and following Ohio River flooding in spring. Discharge of uncontaminated ground water dilutes contaminants in Little Bayou Creek