Ceiling and visibility instrumentation within government agencies

The key systems requirements for ceilometer systems are described. The following items are included: range must be 10,000 ft.; laser emission must conform to the bureau of radiological health class I performance; system must detect two lowest cloud layers; display must be in either English or metric units; and system must be capable of self monitoring and testing performance. Based upon the requirements competitive prototype cloud height indicator systems are to be built

Effects of nacelle shape on drag and weight of a supersonic cruising aircraft

The quantitive relationship of cruise drag and nacelle shape was investigated for a representative advanced supersonic transport configuration. Nacelle shape parameters were systematically varied, and the effects of these variations on wave and friction drag were determined. The effects of changes in vehicle drag, propulsion weight, and specific fuel consumption on vehicle takeoff gross weight were computed. Generally, it was found that nacelle shapes such that the maximum cross-sectional area occurred at or near the nozzle exit resulted in the lowest wave drag. In fact, nacelle shapes were found that produce favorable interference effects (drag reduction) of such magnitude as to nearly offset the friction drag of the nacelle

Total Chiral Symmetry Breaking during Crystallization: Who needs a "Mother Crystal"?

Processes that can produce states of broken chiral symmetry are of particular interest to physics, chemistry and biology. Chiral symmetry breaking during crystallization of sodium chlorate occurs via the production of secondary crystals of the same handedness from a single "mother crystal" that seeds the solution. Here we report that a large and "symmetric" population of D- and L-crystals moves into complete chiral purity disappearing one of the enantiomers. This result shows: (i) a new symmetry breaking process incompatible with the hypothesis of a single "mother crystal"; (ii) that complete symmetry breaking and chiral purity can be achieved from an initial system with both enantiomers. These findings demand a new explanation to the process of total symmetry breaking in crystallization without the intervention of a "mother crystal" and open the debate on this fascinating phenomenon. We present arguments to show that our experimental data can been explained with a new model of "complete chiral purity induced by nonlinear autocatalysis and recycling".Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Added reference

Understanding Access to Preventive Health Screening for Working Women Through the Lens of the Socioecological Model

Many U.S. working women lack access to routine preventive health screenings due to their 40-hr workweek, problems with transportation, and lack of workplace flexibility as clinic hours often coincide with their work schedules. Research is currently limited on how mobile health clinics (MHC) may enhance access to preventive health screenings for working women. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how working women experienced access to preventive health screenings through MHCs. The socioecological model served as the conceptual framework. The study population was working women over 21 years of age who were not homemakers, who worked 30 or more hr outside the home, and who had used MHCs within the last 36 months for preventive health screenings. The data analysis process consisted of using five a priori codes and 30 open codes to assess the interview transcripts. The a priori and open codes were categorized and subcategorized; these facilitated the identification of five themes: (a) MHCs offer informative, fast, and accessible access to care for working women; (b) work hours conflict with access to health care for working women; (c) childcare and transportation reduce barriers to access to care for working women; (d) working women obtain access to preventive health screenings through word of mouth; and (e) MHCs provide working women with access to preventive health screenings. A key conclusion is that MHCs can help to close the health equity gap for working women by providing access to preventive health screenings. This study may effect positive social change by developing policies to improve working women’s access to preventive screenings to increase early detection of breast and cervical cancer

Extending the Latent Multinomial Model with Complex Error Processes and Dynamic Markov Bases

The latent multinomial model (LMM) model of Link et al. (2010) provided a general framework for modelling mark-recapture data with potential errors in identification. Key to this approach was a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) scheme for sampling possible configurations of the counts true capture histories that could have generated the observed data. This MCMC algorithm used vectors from a basis for the kernel of the linear map between the true and observed counts to move between the possible configurations of the true data. Schofield and Bonner (2015) showed that a strict basis was sufficient for some models of the errors, including the model presented by Link et al. (2010), but a larger set called a Markov basis may be required for more complex models. We address two further challenges with this approach: 1) that models with more complex error mechanisms do not fit easily within the LMM and 2) that the Markov basis can be difficult or impossible to compute for even moderate sized studies. We address these issues by extending the LMM to separately model the capture/demographic process and the error process and by developing a new MCMC sampling scheme using dynamic Markov bases. Our work is motivated by a study of Queen snakes (Regina septemvittata) in Kentucky, USA, and we use simulation to compare the use of PIT tags, with perfect identification, and brands, which are prone to error, when estimating survival rates

Advancing prescribed fire science through numerical simulation and improved reporting practices

Includes bibliographical references.2022 Fall.Planning a prescribed burn that is safe and effective relies on land managers understanding how a complex suite of interactions between the burning environment (e.g., fuels, fire weather, and topography) and ignition factors influence fire behavior and effects. As the field of prescribed fire science has grown, more questions have arisen regarding how the spatial structure of forests and the ignition pattern affect the ecological outcomes of these burns. Advancing our understanding of these factors is crucial to provide managers with quality, evidence-based science that can inform prescribed fire planning. In this two-part thesis, my objectives were: i) to evaluate reporting quality in recent prescribed fire literature and suggest minimum reporting standards for future prescribed fire experiments, and ii) to explore the potential effects of complex forest fuel structures and ignition patterns on fire behavior and the resultant ecological effects during prescribed burns. In Chapter 1, I present results from a literature review of reporting standards from over 200 prescribed fire experiments conducted from 2016 to 2020. My results suggest substantial shortcomings in the reporting of critical data that limit the utility of prescribed fire research. Specifically, I found that specific information on burning conditions such as fuel moisture (22%), quantitative fuel loads (36%), fire weather (53%), and fire behavior (30%) were often not reported by the authors. Further, I found that only 54% of the studies provided descriptions of the ignition characteristics. Given these common deficiencies, suggested minimum reporting standards are proposed for future prescribed fire experiments which can be used to increase the quality, applicability, and reproducibility of prescribed fire science, facilitate future research syntheses, and foster actionable science. In Chapter 2, I evaluate how forest structural complexity and ignition pattern impact crown damage during simulated prescribed fires in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) dominated forests of the southeastern United States. My results show that - regardless of forest structure – using a strip-head ignition pattern consistently produced more crown damage than spot-head or alternative spot-head ignition patterns. In terms of forest structure, I found forests with greater structural complexity resulted in more crown damage than less complex forests. More specifically, I observed forests with more aggregated horizontal spatial patterns, greater vertical complexity, and moderate to high amounts of canopy cover to produce more severe fire behavior than regularly spaced, single-story forests with sparse canopy cover. These findings suggest that managers need to consider a forest's structure and their choice of ignition pattern when planning prescribed burns to ensure they meet ecological objectives

The impact of space and space-related activities on a local economy. a case study of boulder, colorado. part ii- the income-product accounts

Total impact of space and space related activities on local economy of Boulder, Colorado - income-product account

Application of the Panzar-Rosse Model: An Analysis of the Brewery Industry in the U.S.

Waves of mergers and acquisitions has left the brewery industry in the United States considerably concentrated. The top two firms, Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors control more than 60% of the market share. It has become very important to assess the level of competition within the industry. The Panzar-Rosse model is an assessment of competitive conduct that has been widely used to study the competitiveness of the banking industry. The associated measure of competition, called the H-statistic, is obtained as the sum of elasticities of gross revenue with respect to input prices. For this study, the Panzar-Rosse model will be applied to the United States brewery industry and finds that the H-statistic has a negative value, meaning the industry operates under a neoclassical monopolist style or a collusive oligopoly

Building an Education Infrastructure for Allied Health

This article discusses the emerging Education Information Infrastructure. It uses a five part framework (aggregating, organizing, using, tool building, and policy making) to describe this infrastructure and then uses the same framework to argue for a tightly coupled education information infrastructure specifically for allied health. This tightly coupled education resource would allow educators, allied health professionals and the general public to gain improved access to education resources on the Internet through metadata and digital reference services. Specific benefits of the building effort are discussed.Informatio