Comparison of resident and tourist preferences for public beach access

As coastal destinations continue to grow, due to tourism and residential expansion, the demand for public beach access and related amenities will also increase. As a resultagencies that provide beach access and related amenities face challenges when considering both residents and visitors use beaches and likely possess different needs, as well as different preferences for management decisions. Being a resident of a coastal county provides more opportunity to use local beaches, but coastal tourism is an important and growing economic engine in coastal communities (Kriesel, Landry, & Keeler, 2005; Pogue & Lee, 1999). Therefore, providing agencies with a comprehensive assessment of the differences between these two groups will increase the likelihood of effective management programs and policies for the provision of public beach access and related amenities. The purpose of this paper was to use a stated preference choice method (SPCM) to identify the extent of both residents’ and visitors’ preferences for public beach management options. (PDF contains 4 pages

Tailoring Topological Edge States with Photonic Crystal Nanobeam Cavities

The realization of topological edge states (TESs) in photonic systems has provided unprecedented opportunities for manipulating light in novel manners. The Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model has recently gained significant attention and has been exploited in a wide range of photonic platforms to create TESs. We develop a photonic topological insulator strategy based on SSH photonic crystal nanobeam cavities. In contrast to the conventional photonic SSH schemes which are based on alternately tuned coupling strength in one-dimensional lattice, our proposal provides higher flexibility and allows tailoring TESs by manipulating mode coupling in a two-dimensional manner. We reveal that the proposed hole-array based nanobeams in a dielectric membrane can selectively tailor single or double TESs in the telecommunication region by controlling the coupling strength of the adjacent SSH nanobeams in both vertical and horizontal directions. Our finding provides an in-depth understanding of the SSH model, and allows an additional degree of freedom in exploiting the SSH model for integrated topological photonic devices with unique properties and functionalities

Air-Side Heat Transfer Performance of Louver Fin and Multi-Tube Heat Exchanger for Fuel-Cell Cooling Application

The present work is performed to evaluate the heat transfer performance of a heat exchanger used in a fuel cell. Because of material constraints and performance requirements, a louver fin heat exchanger is modified for use with conventional micro-channel tubes and with multiple small-diameter tubes (a so-called multi-tube). Prototype heat exchangers are tested, and the air-side heat transfer, pressure drop, and fan power are measured in a wind tunnel and simulated using a commercial code. The air-side pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient of the multi-tubes show similar trends to those of the flat-tube heat exchanger if the contact resistance is negligible. The tube spacing of the prototype multi-tube heat exchangers has a small effect on the pressure drop and heat transfer, but it has a profound effect on air-side heat transfer performance because of the contact resistance between the tubes and louver fins. The air-side pressure drop agrees well with an empirical correlation for flat tubes

ESTIMATING TOURISTS\u27 ECONOMIC VALUES OF PUBLIC BEACH ACCESS POINTS

As the population and per capita income of the United States continues to increase, opportunities for individuals to participate in travel and tourism related activities are likely to multiply as well. Coastal tourism destinations anticipate this increase in travel will result in the need to retain and provide additional public access to coastal resources. Pogue and Lee (1999) indicate that tourism and recreational needs assessments are essential to determining how to meet the growing demand for public beach access. Determining the amount of scarce public funds to be spent on maintaining and acquiring public access locations to coastal resources is dependent upon economic benefits measured by individuals’ willingness to pay (WTP) for these resources. To estimate beach visitors’ economic value (or consumer surplus) from consuming services of additional provision of beach access points, double-bounded (DB) CVM questions were used to discover the amount visitors were willing to pay per day in excess of their actual trip costs associated with their beach experience. When the values are understood as net benefits accrued from their beach experiences, in general, average visitors are willing to pay $8.3 more above the current cost. Total net WTP at the population level was$58.3 million from development and maintenance of additional beach access points with parking spaces and other preferred facilities. As the new acquisition of beach access points is high-priced, the precise estimation of visitors’ benefits accrued from provision of beach access points is indispensable to more effective management decisions and policies

Proteome biology of stem cells

AbstractThe notion that integration of cutting-edge technologies in stem cell research would be enhanced by proteomic analyses has emanated from rapid advances in proteome technology. These advances have increased the probability that basic properties of stem cells will be elucidated more effectively, leading to acceleration toward novel stem cell therapies. We have therefore sought to establish a world-wide alliance of proteomics and stem cell researchers, which has resulted in the foundation of an initiative supported by the Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) and the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) called the Proteome Biology of Stem Cells Initiative. Here we report on the rationale and goals of this initiative

Hedonic drinking engages a supra-spinal inhibition of thermal nociception in adult rats

The taste of sucrose is commonly used to provide pain relief in newborn humans and is innately analgesic to neonatal rodents. In adulthood, sucrose remains a strong motivator to feed, even in potentially hazardous circumstances (ie, threat of tissue damage). However, the neurobiological mechanisms of this endogenous reward–pain interaction are unclear. We have developed a simple model of sucrose drinking–induced analgesia in Sprague–Dawley rats (6-10 weeks old) and have undertaken a behavioral and pharmacological characterization using the Hargreaves' test of hind-paw thermal sensitivity. Our results reveal an acute, potent, and robust inhibitory effect of sucrose drinking on thermal nociceptive behaviour that unlike the phenomenon in neonates is independent of endogenous opioid signalling and does not seem to operate through classical descending inhibition of the spinal cord circuitry. Experience of sucrose drinking had a conditioning effect whereby the apparent expectancy of sucrose enabled water alone (in euvolemic animals) to elicit a short-lasting placebo-like analgesia. Sweet taste alone, however, was insufficient to elicit analgesia in adult rats intraorally perfused with sucrose. Instead, the sucrose analgesia phenomenon only appeared after conditioning by oral perfusion in chronically cannulated animals. This sucrose analgesia was completely prevented by systemic dosing of the endocannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist rimonabant. These results indicate the presence of an endogenous supraspinal analgesic circuit that is recruited by the context of rewarding drinking and is dependent on endocannabinoid signalling. We propose that this hedonic sucrose-drinking model may be useful for further investigation of the supraspinal control of pain by appetite and reward

Enhancing Robot Perception Using Human Teammates * (Extended Abstract)

ABSTRACT In robotics research, perception is one of the most challenging tasks. In contrast to existing approaches that rely only on computer vision, we propose an alternative method for improving perception by learning from human teammates. To evaluate, we apply this idea to a door detection problem. A set of preliminary experiments has been completed using software agents with real vision data. Our results demonstrate that information inferred from teammate observations significantly improves the perception precision. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.2.11 [Distributed Artificial Intelligence]: Intelligent agents General Terms Human Factors Keywords Robot perception, robot-human hybrid teams BACKGROUND Robot perception is generally formulated as a problem of analyzing and interpreting various sensory inputs, e.g., camera feeds. In this paper, we approach robot perception from a completely different direction. Our approach utilizes a team setting where a robot collaborates with human teammates. Motivated by the fact that humans possess superior perception skills relative to their robotic counterparts, we investigate how a robot can take advantage of its teammate's perfect vision. In general, an agent acquires new information through perception, and in turn, the agent chooses actions based on the information acquired. Let us suppose that a robot has a mental model of its human teammate such that a causal relationship is specified between information and actions. Then, by understanding the human mental model of such decision making (or planning), the robot can infer what the human teammate has seen based on the human's behavior. In other words, an observation of a human teammate can be * This work was conducted (in part) through collaborative participation in the Robotics Consortium sponsored by the U. used as evidence to infer the information perceived by the human. This, in turn, can be used to reduce uncertainty in robot perception. In this paper, we specifically focus on a motivating problem of door detection in the following scenario. Consider a team consisting of a robot and a human performing a military operation in a hostile environment. According to intelligence, armed insurgents are hiding in an urban street. The team is deployed to cover the buildings in the surrounding area, focusing on doors from which the insurgents may try to egress. This is a stealth operation. We make two specific assumptions that are reasonable in a team context. First, observing a teammate is generally more manageable than perceiving an unfamiliar environment. Second, team members share common objectives in reaching the team's goals. PERCEPTION USING VISION This section describes a purely camera-based approach. First, we find a likely semantic image segmentation using a computer vision technique called stacked hierarchical labeling It is not constrained by shape grammars and can model a more general class of objects, but its method of constructing a hierarchical segmentation does not convey semantic meaning at a finer detail, as would be necessary to detect doors on a building. It is, however, reliable in detecting buildings as a whole, significantly reducing the search space for detecting doors in the next step. Once buildings are identified, we can apply a broad feature detector to detect likely openings on the façade of the building. As i

An ATP-binding cassette-type cysteine transporter in Campylobacter jejuni inferred from the structure of an extracytoplasmic solute receptor protein

Campylobacter jejuni is a Gram-negative food-borne pathogen associated with gastroenteritis in humans as well as cases of the autoimmune disease Guillain Barre syndrome. C. jejuni is asaccharolytic because it lacks an active glycolytic pathway for the use of sugars as a carbon source. This suggests an increased reliance on amino acids as nutrients and indeed the genome sequence of this organism indicates the presence of a number of amino acid uptake systems. Cj0982, also known as CjaA, is a putative extracytoplasmic solute receptor for one such uptake system as well as a major surface antigen and vaccine candidate. The crystal structure of Cj0982 reveals a two-domain protein with density in the enclosed cavity between the domains that clearly defines the presence of a bound cysteine ligand. Fluorescence titration experiments were used to demonstrate that Cj0982 binds cysteine tightly and specifically with a K-d of similar to 10(-7) M consistent with a role as a receptor for a high- affinity transporter. These data imply that Cj0982 is the binding protein component of an ABC-type cysteine transporter system and that cysteine uptake is important in the physiology of C. jejuni

Solving the bicriteria traffic equilibrium problem with variable demand and nonlinear path costs

a b s t r a c t In this paper, we present an algorithm for solving the bicriteria traffic equilibrium problem with variable demand and nonlinear path costs. The path cost function considered is comprised of two attributes, travel time and toll, that are combined into a nonlinear generalized cost. Travel demand is determined endogenously according to a travel disutility function. Travelers choose routes with the minimum overall generalized costs. The algorithm involves two components: a bicriteria shortest path routine to implicitly generate the set of non-dominated paths and a projection and contraction method to solve the nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP) describing the traffic equilibrium problem. Numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the algorithm to this class of traffic equilibrium problems. Published by Elsevier Inc

The Student Movement Volume 107 Issue 12: Revisiting The Dream : Students Celebrate MLK Day

HUMANS Andrews Gaming Club, Interviewed by: Grace No Meet Gio Lee, Interviewed by: Nora Martin New Year, Happier Me, Gloria Oh ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Art @ AU: Harrigan\u27s Gallery, Ysabelle Fernando Currently: The Way of Water, Solana Campbell Ode to 2022, Amelia Stefanescu Where Do I Find God - Part I, Anonymous NEWS Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.\u27s Legacy, Brendan Oh Is America Safe?: First Grader Shoots Teacher, Julia Randall A House Divided: Current Issues Within the School of Architecture and Interior Design, Student Movement Editorial Staff IDEAS Harry & Meghan: Unpacking Royal Pains, Gabriela Francisco A New Space for Creativity and Reaching Across Disciplinary Boundaries: The Inspiration Center, Peter Lyons, Anthony Bosman, Martin Hanna, Ryan Hayes, and Karin Thompson PULSE Our Food: Can They Cook It?, Melissa Moore Should We Have Bible Classes in the Core Curriculum?, Wambui Karanja What Comes First is a Question, Part II, Desmond H. Murray LAST WORD College in the Rearview Mirror, Scott Moncrieffhttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/sm-107/1011/thumbnail.jp