A high resolution, adjustable, lockable laser mirror mount

A prototype high resolution, adjustable, lockable mirror mount is described, suitable for use as a resonator end mirror mount in fieldable lasers. The prototype was vibrated to 15g levels, 10-2000 Hz, and was shown to be stable to within 1 arc second and settable to an accuracy of 10 arc seconds. Improvements to be made to the prototype are outlined which will significantly improve the accuracy without sacrificing the other attributes of the prototype

Selecting and Planting Shade Trees

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Ornamental Evergreens

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From search engine optimisation to search engine marketing management: development of a new area for information systems research

Search Engine Optimisation was a term used by web developers in the late 90s to highlight the importance of increasing a website’s position in search engines’ results. Further development of the Internet in terms of the diversity of its users and uses such as e-commerce, blogging and wikis have highlighted the need for technical staff to work more closely with marketing professionals resulting in a new area of work – Search Engine Marketing Management. The paper highlights the emerging role of Search Engine Marketing Management as a new and increasingly important area for future information systems researchers and research. Reaching beyond the 'simple' undifferentiated goal of increasing visitors to a website, a mature perspective of marketing is developing - that of realising strategic marketing objectives. The practical contribution of this paper is found in the development of awareness among management roles of the importance and nuances of search engines and the tactics required to harness the benefits of multiple online communication channels within organisational marketing strategy

Bayesian model comparison and model averaging for small-area estimation

This paper considers small-area estimation with lung cancer mortality data, and discusses the choice of upper-level model for the variation over areas. Inference about the random effects for the areas may depend strongly on the choice of this model, but this choice is not a straightforward matter. We give a general methodology for both evaluating the data evidence for different models and averaging over plausible models to give robust area effect distributions. We reanalyze the data of Tsutakawa [Biometrics 41 (1985) 69--79] on lung cancer mortality rates in Missouri cities, and show the differences in conclusions about the city rates from this methodology.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/08-AOAS205 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Timescales of carbon turnover in soils with mixed crystalline mineralogies

Organic matter–mineral associations stabilize much of the carbon (C) stored globally in soils. Metastable short-range-order (SRO) minerals such as allophane and ferrihydrite provide one mechanism for long-term stabilization of organic matter in young soil. However, in soils with few SRO minerals and a predominance of crystalline aluminosilicate or Fe (and Al) oxyhydroxide, C turnover should be governed by chemisorption with those minerals. Here, we correlate mineral composition from soils containing small amounts of SRO minerals with mean turnover time (TT) of C estimated from radiocarbon (¹⁴C) in bulk soil, free light fraction and mineral-associated organic matter. We varied the mineral amount and composition by sampling ancient soils formed on different lithologies in arid to subhumid climates in Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. Mineral contents in bulk soils were assessed using chemical extractions to quantify Fe oxyhydroxides and SRO minerals. Because of our interest in the role of silicate clay mineralogy, particularly smectite (2 : 1) and kaolinite (1 : 1), we separately quantified the mineralogy of the clay-sized fraction using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and measured ¹⁴C on the same fraction. <br><br> Density separation demonstrated that mineral associated C accounted for 40–70 % of bulk soil organic C in A and B1 horizons for granite, nephelinite and arid-zone gabbro soils, and &gt; 80 % in other soils. Organic matter strongly associated with the isolated clay-sized fraction represented only 9–47 % of the bulk soil C. The mean TT of C strongly associated with the clay-sized fraction increased with the amount of smectite (2 : 1 clays); in samples with &gt; 40 % smectite it averaged 1020 ± 460 years. The C not strongly associated with clay-sized minerals, including a combination of low-density C, the C associated with minerals of sizes between 2 µm and 2 cm (including Fe oxyhydroxides as coatings), and C removed from clay-sized material by 2 % hydrogen peroxide had TTs averaging 190 ± 190 years in surface horizons. Summed over the bulk soil profile, we found that smectite content correlated with the mean TT of bulk soil C across varied lithologies. The SRO mineral content in KNP soils was generally very low, except for the soils developed on gabbros under more humid climate that also had very high Fe and C contents with a surprisingly short, mean C TTs. In younger landscapes, SRO minerals are metastable and sequester C for long timescales. We hypothesize that in the KNP, SRO minerals represent a transient stage of mineral evolution and therefore lock up C for a shorter time. <br><br> Overall, we found crystalline Fe-oxyhydroxides (determined as the difference between Fe in dithionate citrate and oxalate extractions) to be the strongest predictor for soil C content, while the mean TT of soil C was best predicted from the amount of smectite, which was also related to more easily measured bulk properties such as cation exchange capacity or pH. Combined with previous research on C turnover times in 2 : 1 vs. 1 : 1 clays, our results hold promise for predicting C inventory and persistence based on intrinsic timescales of specific carbon–mineral interactions

Tax Increment Financing: A Tool for Growth in Grapevine, Texas

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) has become an increasingly popular tool for economic development used by state and local governments. The legislation enabling TIF and its consequences vary greatly between states, causing some controversy. Through a case study based in the City of Grapevine, Texas, this research analyzes factors influencing TIF districts and their effectiveness in achieving their respective goals

Automation of Process Data Management

The project goal is to create an automated system for managing data that describes a chemical process. The data is both graphical, such as piping and instrumentation diagrams, and numerical, such as pipe schedule and diameter. AutoLisp and C++ programs were developed and tested to simplify the creation of the automated system

A Majestic Vacation: The Third Circuit Takes a Break from the Modern Trend of Including Subchapter S Elections in the Property of a Bankruptcy Estate

Subchapter S elections provide small businesses and their owners with substantial tax benefits. These elections allow the businesses to avoid taxation at the corporate level and cause the tax liability of the company to pass through to the shareholders. When a Subchapter S entity enters bankruptcy, the company expects tax liability to continue to pass through to the shareholders, but the shareholders often want to shift the tax liability back onto the company because they do not have access to the company’s income while it is in bankruptcy. Whether Subchapter S elections are property of the company’s bankruptcy estate is a significant factor in the ability of shareholders of these entities to revoke these elections to avoid the tax liability. Until recently, courts had found that a Subchapter S election is property of the bankruptcy estate, but never addressed a situation involving qualified subsidiaries of Subchapter S Corporations. In In re Majestic Star, the Third Circuit held that these elections are not property rights and vacated the lower bankruptcy court’s order to restore the tax statuses of a subsidiary in bankruptcy and its parent corporation. Comparing the broad application of property rights in bankruptcy used in In re Dittmar, this Note demonstrates that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals improperly limited its analysis concerning the property nature of these elections. Subchapter S elections should be property of the estate because they provide an economic benefit to the company that can satisfy claims of creditors. The inequities and negative implications that resulted from the lower bankruptcy court’s order are also not as significant as the Third Circuit would make them seem. Some of these negative consequences could have been remedied by fixing an error in the order