“It felt like walking through a night sky”: Managing the Visitor Experience During Biologically-Based Nighttime Events

Nighttime activities and events specifically related to natural phenomena are becoming increasingly popular. As nighttime recreation in parks and protected areas increases, managers must implement policies and frameworks that maintain both the visitor experience and natural darkness and soundscapes. The Congaree National Park Fireflies Festival celebrates the annual fireflies mating season, and after national renown for this event the park has witnessed increased visitation. Over the past year, visitation rates have forced management to implement a designated trail to enhance the visitor experience while reducing crowding on the boardwalk and manage the natural phenomena more like a festival event than an outdoor recreation opportunity. Visitor perceptions of these actions are currently unknown. Therefore, this study examined visitor motivations for attending the event and their perceptions of crowding to distinguish whether festival attendees had higher tolerances of crowding at a nature-based event within a national park. This study implemented an online survey and phone interviews to distinguish what factors at the Fireflies Festival bolster or degrade visitor experiences and to gauge perceptions of current and future management actions. Moreover, this study sought to understand visitor motivations to attend BBNEs and employed the novelty-seeking and event (festival) motivations scales. This study expands on night recreation research and fills in some of the literature gap on nighttime event management in a national park setting

How do trainee doctors learn about research? Content analysis of Australian specialist colleges' intended research curricula

Objectives: Patients do better in research-intense environments. The importance of research is reflected in the accreditation requirements of Australian clinical specialist colleges. The nature of college-mandated research training has not been systematically explored. We examined the intended research curricula of Australian trainee doctors described by specialist colleges, their constructive alignment and the nature of scholarly project requirements. Design: We undertook content analysis of publicly available documents to characterise college research training curricula. Setting: We reviewed all publicly accessible information from the websites of Australian specialist colleges and their subspecialty divisions. We retrieved curricula, handbooks and assessment-related documents. Participants: Fifty-eight Australian specialist colleges and their subspecialty divisions. Primary and secondary outcome measures: Two reviewers extracted and coded research-related activities as learning outcomes, activities or assessments, by research stage (using, participating in or leading research) and competency based on Bloom’s taxonomy (remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, creating). We coded learning and assessment activities by type (eg, formal research training, publication) and whether it was linked to a scholarly project. Requirements related to project supervisors’ research experience were noted. Results: Fifty-five of 58 Australian college subspecialty divisions had a scholarly project requirement. Only 11 required formal research training; two required an experienced research supervisor. Colleges emphasised a role for trainees in leading research in their learning outcomes and assessments, but not learning activities. Less emphasis was placed on using research, and almost no emphasis on participation. Most learning activities and assessments mapped to the ‘creating’ domain of Bloom’s taxonomy, whereas most learning outcomes mapped to the ‘evaluating’ domain. Overall, most research learning and assessment activities were related to leading a scholarly project. Conclusions: Australian specialist college research curricula appear to emphasise a role for trainees in leading research and producing research deliverables, but do not mandate formal research training and supervision by experienced researchers

A systematic review of smoking cessation and relapse prevention interventions in parents of babies admitted to a neonatal unit (after delivery):Protocol

PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic review

An Analysis of Green Propulsion Applied to NASA Missions

The advantages of green propulsion for five mission classes are examined, including a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mission (GPM), a Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) mission (SDO), a High Earth Orbit (HEO) mission (MMS), a lunar mission (LRO), and a planetary mission (MAVEN). The propellant mass benefits are considered for all five missions, as well as the effects on the tanks, propellant loading, thruster throughput, thermal considerations, and range requirements for both the AF-M315E and LMP-103S propellants

Green Propellant Landing Demonstration at U.S. Range

The Green Propellant Loading Demonstration (GPLD) was conducted December 2015 at Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), leveraging work performed over recent years to bring lower toxicity hydrazine replacement green propellants to flight missions. The objective of this collaboration between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), WFF, the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB), and Ecological Advanced Propulsion Systems (ECAPS) was to successfully accept LMP-103S propellant at a U.S. Range, store the propellant, and perform a simulated flight vehicle propellant loading. NASA GSFC Propulsion (Code 597) managed all aspects of the operation, handling logistics, preparing the procedures, and implementing the demonstration. In addition to the partnership described above, Moog Inc. developed an LMP-103S propellant-compatible titanium rolling diaphragm flight development tank and loaned it to GSFC to act as the GPLD flight vessel. The flight development tank offered the GPLD an additional level of flight-like propellant handling process and procedures. Moog Inc. also provided a compatible latching isolation valve for remote propellant expulsion. The GPLD operation, in concert with Moog Inc. executed a flight development tank expulsion efficiency performance test using LMP-103S propellant. As part of the demonstration work, GSFC and WFF documented Range safety analyses and practices including all elements of shipping, storage, handling, operations, decontamination, and disposal. LMP-103S has not been previously handled at a U.S. Launch Range. Requisite for this activity was an LMP-103S Risk Analysis Report and Ground Safety Plan. GSFC and WFF safety offices jointly developed safety documentation for application into the GPLD operation. The GPLD along with the GSFC Propulsion historical hydrazine loading experiences offer direct comparison between handling green propellant versus safety intensive, highly toxic hydrazine propellant. These described motives initiated the GPLD operation in order to investigate the handling and process safety variances in project resources between LMP-103S and typical in-space propellants. The GPLD risk reduction operation proved successful for many reasons including handling the green propellant at a U.S. Range, loading and pressurizing a flight-like tank, expelling the propellant, measuring the tank expulsion efficiency, and most significantly, GSFC propulsion personnel's new insight into the LMP-103S propellant handling details

XO-2b: a hot Jupiter with a variable host star that potentially affects its measured transit depth

The transiting hot Jupiter XO-2b is an ideal target for multi-object photometry and spectroscopy as it has a relatively bright ($V$-mag = 11.25) K0V host star (XO-2N) and a large planet-to-star contrast ratio (R$_{p}$/R$_{s}\approx0.015$). It also has a nearby (31.21") binary stellar companion (XO-2S) of nearly the same brightness ($V$-mag = 11.20) and spectral type (G9V), allowing for the characterization and removal of shared systematic errors (e.g., airmass brightness variations). We have therefore conducted a multiyear (2012--2015) study of XO-2b with the University of Arizona's 61" (1.55~m) Kuiper Telescope and Mont4k CCD in the Bessel U and Harris B photometric passbands to measure its Rayleigh scattering slope to place upper limits on the pressure-dependent radius at, e.g., 10~bar. Such measurements are needed to constrain its derived molecular abundances from primary transit observations. We have also been monitoring XO-2N since the 2013--2014 winter season with Tennessee State University's Celestron-14 (0.36~m) automated imaging telescope to investigate stellar variability, which could affect XO-2b's transit depth. Our observations indicate that XO-2N is variable, potentially due to {cool star} spots, {with a peak-to-peak amplitude of $0.0049 \pm 0.0007$~R-mag and a period of $29.89 \pm 0.16$~days for the 2013--2014 observing season and a peak-to-peak amplitude of $0.0035 \pm 0.0007$~R-mag and $27.34 \pm 0.21$~day period for the 2014--2015 observing season. Because of} the likely influence of XO-2N's variability on the derivation of XO-2b's transit depth, we cannot bin multiple nights of data to decrease our uncertainties, preventing us from constraining its gas abundances. This study demonstrates that long-term monitoring programs of exoplanet host stars are crucial for understanding host star variability.Comment: published in ApJ, 9 pages, 11 figures, 3 tables; updated figures with more ground-based monitoring, added more citations to previous work

Identification and quantification of diffuse fresh submarine groundwater discharge via airborne thermal infrared remote sensing

Airborne thermal infrared (TIR) overflights were combined with shoreline radionuclide surveys to investigate submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) along the north shore of Long Island, NY between June 2013 and September 2014. Regression equations developed for three distinct geomorphological environments suggest a positive linear relationship between the rate of diffuse SGD and the spatial extent of the observed coastal TIR anomalies; such a relationship provides quantitative evidence of the ability to use TIR remote sensing as a tool to remotely identify and measure SGD. Landsat TIR scenes were unable to resolve any of the 18 TIR anomalies identified during the various airborne overflights. Two locations were studied in greater detail via 222Rn time series and manual seepage meters in order to understand why specific shoreline segments did not exhibit a TIR anomaly. SGD at the first site, located within a large, diffuse TIR anomaly, was composed of a mixture of fresh groundwater and circulated seawater with elevated levels of nitrate. In contrast, SGD at the second site, where no coastal TIR anomaly was observed, was composed of circulated seawater with negligible nitrate. Despite the compositional differences in seepage, both sites were similar in discharge magnitude, with average time series 222Rn derived SGD rates equal to 18 and 8 cm d−1 for the TIR site and non-TIR site, respectively. Results suggest that TIR remote sensing has the ability to identify locations of a mixture between diffuse fresh and circulated seawater SGD. If TIR anomalies can be demonstrated to represent a mixture between fresh and circulated seawater SGD, then the cumulative area of the TIR anomalies may be used to estimate the fresh fraction of SGD relative to the cumulative area of the seepage face, and thus allows for improved SGD derived nutrient flux calculations on a regional scale