Methods for deriving temperature profiles of Mars from OH Meinel airglow observations

Observations of the OH Meinel Band airglow emission from vibrationally excited ground electronic state OH radicals have long been used to gain valuable information about the dynamics and state of the upper atmosphere of Earth. In this work, we attempt to develop methods for use in the Martian atmosphere. The middle Martian atmosphere is a layer of rich dynamics, such as planetary and gravity waves, however it is not well understood. It is important to develop methodologies to aid in achieving a better understanding of this part of the Martian atmosphere. In this work, methods for the retrieval of temperatures and OH Meinel Band volume emission rates from possible future limb observations of the Martian atmosphere are developed and compared with the goal of determining general instrument requirements for the observation and analysis of yet to be detected emissions of the Martian nighttime OH Meinel Band airglow. To this end, a non-linear fitting algorithm is developed to fit modelled wavelength bin radiance spectra to observations to recover temperatures and total vibrational level volume emission rates. Three different approaches for retrieval are developed: an Onion Peeling approach, a Global Optimization approach and an approach using Derived Absolute Wavelength Bin Radiance Spectra. The Global Optimization method is found to be the most robust and is used to estimate the order of magnitude of instrument optical properties necessary for the detection of the emission and the retrieval of temperatures and emission rates. The results of this investigation will advance the application of remote sensing techniques to planetary atmospheres. The developed retrieval methods are flexible and, as such, are not limited in application to the Martian OH Meinel Band airglow. They can be used on any planet where emissions of OH Meinel Band airglow have been observed, such as Venus

SAGA Vol. 82 / 2018-2019

https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/saga/1004/thumbnail.jp

Improved sphere packing lower bounds from Hurwitz lattices

In this paper we prove an asymptotic lower bound for the sphere packing density in dimensions divisible by four. This asymptotic lower bound improves on previous asymptotic bounds by a constant factor and improves not just lower bounds for the sphere packing density, but also for the lattice sphere packing density and, in fact, the Hurwitz lattice sphere packing density.Comment: 12 page

The Effects of Poetry in Elderly Populations with Memory Impairment

Introduction. A small body of research on therapeutic use of poetry in individuals with memory impairment demonstrates benefits similar to that of more widely studied music interventions. This project aims to assess the effects of participation in a poetry group on the residents of a memory care floor within the Converse Home, an assisted living facility in Burlington, Vermont. Methods.. We evaluated the effects of twelve group poetry sessions on residents\u27 well-being in several domains. Each session included a reading and writing portion, which were evaluated separately to assess differences in measures of communication, interest, and enjoyment. These measures, along with negative responses, were recorded on Likert scales. T-tests, ANOVA, and post-hoc comparisons were used to compare behavioral and affective observations in the reading versus writing sessions. Results.. Positive responses were significantly higher in reading sessions (p Conclusion.. Although the limitations of this project preclude us from drawing individual conclusions regarding the therapeutic efficacy of poetry in individuals with memory impairment, we demonstrate that poetry sessions have a positive impact on global quality of life outcomes and introduction of poetry sessions in this population has a beneficial effect.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1242/thumbnail.jp

PhenDisco: phenotype discovery system for the database of genotypes and phenotypes.

The database of genotypes and phenotypes (dbGaP) developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is a resource that contains information on various genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and is currently available via NCBI's dbGaP Entrez interface. The database is an important resource, providing GWAS data that can be used for new exploratory research or cross-study validation by authorized users. However, finding studies relevant to a particular phenotype of interest is challenging, as phenotype information is presented in a non-standardized way. To address this issue, we developed PhenDisco (phenotype discoverer), a new information retrieval system for dbGaP. PhenDisco consists of two main components: (1) text processing tools that standardize phenotype variables and study metadata, and (2) information retrieval tools that support queries from users and return ranked results. In a preliminary comparison involving 18 search scenarios, PhenDisco showed promising performance for both unranked and ranked search comparisons with dbGaP's search engine Entrez. The system can be accessed at http://pfindr.net

Assessing sexual harassment policy communication and impact at sea

A white paper form of J. Winter’s Oregon State University Master of Science Project.Field research is a particularly precarious work setting in which gendered harassment is perpe-trated (Clancy et al., 2014). Ocean scientists rely on research vessels to access the field, and the marine sector has its own risks associated with it. Research has found that women experience sexual harassment while working at sea on cargo ships (Thomas, 2006; Pike et al., 2021), as cadets at the U.S. Merchant Mariner Academy (United States Merchant Marine Academy, 2015), and in other positions while working at sea (Women in Ocean Science C.I.C., 2021; Österman and Boström, 2022). Research vessels– a field site at sea– merge the associated risks of the marine sector and field research. Multiple institutions own or operate research vessels, including state and federal agencies, universities and research institutes, and private foundations. In addition, any vessel, such as a commercial fishing vessel, may become a research vessel temporarily by being contracted for this purpose. This white paper is intended to better understand communication, training, implementation, and the experience of policies within the U.S. Academic Research Fleet (U.S. ARF), including Title IX and institution-specific harassment policies. The results presented here stem from a mixed methods study conducted in 2019-2021 that combined a survey of scientists and ship personnel who work onboard U.S. ARF vessels with semi-structured interviews of sexual harassment policymakers and those responsible for implementation of sexual harassment policy in the ocean sciences. We identify themes that have implications for the design and implementation of harassment policies at sea and provide the results of this study for the community within this white paper. The U.S. ARF is comprised of federally-owned vessels that are operated by academic insti-tutions and consortiums. Formed in 1972, the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) is an organization of academic institutions and national laboratories, which includes U.S. ARF operating institutions, that seeks 1) to coordinate access to oceanographic research facilities including scheduling of ships within the U.S. ARF, 2) to review the current match of facilities to the needs of academic oceanographic programs, and 3) to foster support for academic oceanography (UNOLS Charter, adopted in December 2021). UNOLS does not have a mandate to create or enforce policies; however, UNOLS can influence an institution’s policy by providing an organizing structure to address community concerns. For example, the Maintaining an Environment of Respect Aboard Ships (MERAS) Committee aims to foster an environment of respect and cultivate an inclusive culture within the U.S. ARF by providing recommendations to the UNOLS community of vessel operators and users. MERAS was established in 2017 as a transition of the Pregnancy, Privacy, and Harassment Committee that first formed in 2015

Happiness unpacked: Positive emotions increase life satisfaction by building resilience.

Happiness – a composite of life satisfaction, coping resources, and positive emotions – predicts desirable life outcomes in many domains. The broaden-and-build theory suggests that this is because positive emotions help people build lasting resources. To test this hypothesis we measured emotions daily for one month in a sample of students (N=86) and assessed life satisfaction and trait resilience at the beginning and end of the month. Positive emotions predicted increases in both resilience and life satisfaction. Negative emotions had weak or null effects, and did not interfere with the benefits of positive emotions. Positive emotions also mediated the relation between baseline and final resilience, but life satisfaction did not. This suggests that it is in-the-moment positive emotions, and not more general positive evaluations of one’s life, that form the link between happiness and desirable life outcomes. Change in resilience mediated the relation between positive emotions and increased life satisfaction, suggesting that happy people become more satisfied not simply because they feel better, but because they develop resources for living well

Apraxia of Speech: Change in Error Consistency Following a Multimodal intensive Treatment (MMiT)

Historically, error inconsistency has been considered a defining feature of AOS. While recent studies have demonstrated consistency of certain errors over time, changes following intervention have not been reported. Therefore, we examined error consistency across successive repetitions of the same utterance following 120 hours of Multimodal intensive Treatment (MMiT). Three males with AOS and aphasia produced three repetitions of 10 target words before and after treatment. SLP evaluations of transcribed responses revealed increased consistency of error location across all participants and increased consistency in error number across successive responses. Further investigation of MMiT in relation to these findings is warranted