Nukes or no nukes: how does the community view the Salem & Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations

This study addresses resident and political opinion surrounding the Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations (SHCNGS) owned by Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) by analyzing survey responses of residents and politicians living within 0-10 miles, 11-30 miles and from 31-50 miles from the stations in New Jersey and Delaware. The study also investigates resident and political opinion since September 11, 2001, and how residents and politicians receive information about SHCNGS. In addition, resident and political opinion on four key issues facing the future existence of SHCNGS is also captured. Those four key issues are license renewal, environmental impact, safety/security, and radioactive waste storage. The major findings include: Nearly 38% of residents are neutral on how they feel about the use of nuclear energy from SHCNGS. Seventy-two percent of the politicians either strongly favor or somewhat favor the use of energy from SHCNGS. Nearly 75% of the residents somewhat or strongly agree when the original license of nuclear energy plants expire, plants should renew their license. Eighty-four percent of the politicians feel the same way. Forty-six percent of residents believe radioactive waste can\u27t be safely stored. Fifty-two percent of the politicians believe radioactive waste can be safely stored. Large don\u27t know populations (22% resident and 25% politicians) exist in both survey groups. Of the 39% of the residents whose perceptions have changed since September 11 concerning SHCNGS\u27 security, 19% feel their perceptions have changed in a positive way and 20% feel their perceptions have changed in a negative way. Of the 50% of the politicians whose perceptions have changed, 61% have changed in a positive way while 39% have changed in a negative way. Of the residents who recall seeing information about nuclear energy or nuclear generating stations, 13% got it from a news story, 3.5% from a brochure, 1% from a community letter and 9% from other sources. Of the politicians who do recall seeing information about nuclear energy, 46.7% came from a news story, 9.3% from a brochure, 10.7% from a community letter and 10.7% from other sources

Red, Black, and Blue

This body of work represents the struggle to find the truth of myself, my reality, and my understanding in the medium of paint

Rafael Torrubia, Black Power and the American People: Culture and Identity in the Twentieth Century, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016),336pp., £69/$110

Review of Black Power and the American People: Culture and Identity in the Twentieth Century by Rafael Torrubia

Comparison of pre-emptive and reactive strategies to control an incursion of bluetongue virus serotype 1 to Great Britain by vaccination.

Bluetongue (BT) is a disease of ruminants caused by bluetongue virus (BTV), which is spread between its hosts by Culicoides midges. Vaccination is the most effective way to protect susceptible animals against BTV and was used reactively to control the recent northern European outbreak. To assess the consequences of using vaccination pre-emptively we used a stochastic, spatially explicit model to compare reactive and pre-emptive vaccination strategies against an incursion of BTV serotype 1 (BTV-1) into Great Britain. Both pre-emptive and reactive vaccination significantly reduced the number of affected farms and limited host morbidity and mortality. In addition, vaccinating prior to the introduction of disease reduced the probability of an outbreak occurring. Of the strategies simulated, widespread reactive vaccination resulted in the lowest levels of morbidity. The predicted effects of vaccination were found to be sensitive to vaccine efficacy but not to the choice of transmission kernel

Topology in nonlinear extensions of hypernumbers

Modern theory of dynamical systems is mostly based on nonlinear differential equations and operations. At the same time, the theory of hypernumbers and extrafunctions, a novel approach in functional analysis, has been limited to linear systems. In this paper, nonlinear structures are introduced in spaces of real and complex hypernumbers by extending the concept of a hypernumber. In such a way, linear algebras of extended hypernumbers are built. A special topology of conical neighborhoods in these algebras is introduced and studied. It is proved that the space of all extended real hypernumbers is Hausdorff. This provides uniqueness for limits what is very important for analysis of dynamical systems. It is also proved that construction of extended real hypernumbers is defined by a definite invariance principle: the space of all extended real hypernumbers is the biggest Hausdorff factorization of the sequential extension of the space of all real numbers with the topology of conical neighborhoods. In addition, this topology turns the set of all bounded extended real hypernumbers into a topological algebra. Other topologies in spaces of extended hypernumbers are considered

Crocodiles and grey nomads: a deadly combination?

Increasing numbers of retirees seek individual, extended, unstructured activities in remote, non-commercial locations. Travel is predominantly by self-drive 4WD vehicle towing a caravan/campervan. These ‘grey nomads’ often prefer remote bush camping sites/caravan parks to commercial resorts. The tropics – a popular destination – are inhabited by Australia’s only large semi-terrestrial carnivore, the estuarine crocodile Crocodylus porosus. Conservation programmes of recent decades have resulted in a substantial increase in numbers. With naive grey nomads increasingly encroaching on crocodile territory, attacks are expected to increase. Review of conservation programmes to incorporate awareness education targeting grey nomads is therefore required

Iron clad wetlands: Soil iron-sulfur buffering determines coastal wetland response to salt water incursion

Coastal freshwater wetland chemistry is rapidly changing due to increased frequency of salt water incursion, a consequence of global change. Seasonal salt water incursion introduces sulfate, which microbially reduces to sulfide. Sulfide binds with reduced iron, producing iron sulfide (FeS), recognizable in wetland soils by its characteristic black color. The objective of this study is to document iron and sulfate reduction rates, as well as product formation (acid volatile sulfide (AVS) and chromium reducible sulfide (CRS)) in a coastal freshwater wetland undergoing seasonal salt water incursion. Understanding iron and sulfur cycling, as well as their reduction products, allows us to calculate the degree of sulfidization (DOS), from which we can estimate how long soil iron will buffer against chemical effects of sea level rise. We show that soil chloride, a direct indicator of the degree of incursion, best predicted iron and sulfate reduction rates. Correlations between soil chloride and iron or sulfur reduction rates were strongest in the surface layer (0–3 cm), indicative of surface water incursion, rather than groundwater intrusion at our site. The interaction between soil moisture and extractable chloride was significantly related to increased AVS, whereas increased soil chloride was a stronger predictor of CRS. The current DOS in this coastal plains wetland is very low, resulting from high soil iron content and relatively small degree of salt water incursion. However, with time and continuous salt water exposure, iron will bind with incoming sulfur, creating FeS complexes, and DOS will increase

Iron clad wetlands: Soil iron-sulfur buffering determines coastal wetland response to salt water incursion

Coastal freshwater wetland chemistry is rapidly changing due to increased frequency of salt water incursion, a consequence of global change. Seasonal salt water incursion introduces sulfate, which microbially reduces to sulfide. Sulfide binds with reduced iron, producing iron sulfide (FeS), recognizable in wetland soils by its characteristic black color. The objective of this study is to document iron and sulfate reduction rates, as well as product formation (acid volatile sulfide (AVS) and chromium reducible sulfide (CRS)) in a coastal freshwater wetland undergoing seasonal salt water incursion. Understanding iron and sulfur cycling, as well as their reduction products, allows us to calculate the degree of sulfidization (DOS), from which we can estimate how long soil iron will buffer against chemical effects of sea level rise. We show that soil chloride, a direct indicator of the degree of incursion, best predicted iron and sulfate reduction rates. Correlations between soil chloride and iron or sulfur reduction rates were strongest in the surface layer (0–3 cm), indicative of surface water incursion, rather than groundwater intrusion at our site. The interaction between soil moisture and extractable chloride was significantly related to increased AVS, whereas increased soil chloride was a stronger predictor of CRS. The current DOS in this coastal plains wetland is very low, resulting from high soil iron content and relatively small degree of salt water incursion. However, with time and continuous salt water exposure, iron will bind with incoming sulfur, creating FeS complexes, and DOS will increase