907 research outputs found
Civil airports from a landscape perspective: A multi-scale approach with implications for reducing bird strikes
Collisions between birds and aircraft are a global problem that jeopardizes human safety and causes economic losses. Although landscape features have been suggested as one of a number of factors contributing to bird strikes, no evidence exists to support this suggestion. We investigated the effects of landscape structure on the adverse effect (AE) bird strike rate at 98 civil airports in the United States. The number of reported AE bird strikes was standardized by air carrier movements between 2009 and 2015. Land use structure and composition were quantified within 3, 8, and 13 km radii extents from airports. We predicted large amounts and close arrangements of aquatic habitat, open space, and high landscape diversity would positively influence the AE strike rate based on the habitat requirements of many species hazardous to aviation. The rate of AE bird strikes was positively influenced by large areas and close proximity of wetlands, water, and cultivated crops at the 8- and 13- km extents. Within 3 km of an airport, increasing landscape diversity and the amount of crop area increased the strike rate. We conclude that landscape structure and composition are predictors of the AE bird strike rate at multiple spatial scales. Our results can be used to promote collaborative management among wildlife professionals, airport planners, and landowners near airports to create an environment with a lower probability of an AE bird strike. Specific priorities are to minimize the area of crops, especially corn, and increase the distances between patches of open water
Multiple-charge transfer and trapping in DNA dimers
We investigate the charge transfer characteristics of one and two excess
charges in a DNA base-pair dimer using a model Hamiltonian approach. The
electron part comprises diagonal and off-diagonal Coulomb matrix elements such
a correlated hopping and the bond-bond interaction, which were recently
calculated by Starikov [E. B. Starikov, Phil. Mag. Lett. {\bf 83}, 699 (2003)]
for different DNA dimers. The electronic degrees of freedom are coupled to an
ohmic or a super-ohmic bath serving as dissipative environment. We employ the
numerical renormalization group method in the nuclear tunneling regime and
compare the results to Marcus theory for the thermal activation regime. For
realistic parameters, the rate that at least one charge is transferred from the
donor to the acceptor in the subspace of two excess electrons significantly
exceeds the rate in the single charge sector. Moreover, the dynamics is
strongly influenced by the Coulomb matrix elements. We find sequential and pair
transfer as well as a regime where both charges remain self-trapped. The
transfer rate reaches its maximum when the difference of the on-site and
inter-site Coulomb matrix element is equal to the reorganization energy which
is the case in a GC-GC dimer. Charge transfer is completely suppressed for two
excess electrons in AT-AT in an ohmic bath and replaced by damped coherent
electron-pair oscillations in a super-ohmic bath. A finite bond-bond
interaction alters the transfer rate: it increases as function of when
the effective Coulomb repulsion exceeds the reorganization energy (inverted
regime) and decreases for smaller Coulomb repulsion
Theory of sound attenuation in glasses: The role of thermal vibrations
Sound attenuation and internal friction coefficients are calculated for a
realistic model of amorphous silicon. It is found that, contrary to previous
views, thermal vibrations can induce sound attenuation at ultrasonic and
hypersonic frequencies that is of the same order or even larger than in
crystals. The reason is the internal-strain induced anomalously large
Gr\"uneisen parameters of the low-frequency resonant modes.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; to appear in PR
A Virtual Conversational Agent for Teens with Autism: Experimental Results and Design Lessons
We present the design of an online social skills development interface for
teenagers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The interface is intended to
enable private conversation practice anywhere, anytime using a web-browser.
Users converse informally with a virtual agent, receiving feedback on nonverbal
cues in real-time, and summary feedback. The prototype was developed in
consultation with an expert UX designer, two psychologists, and a pediatrician.
Using the data from 47 individuals, feedback and dialogue generation were
automated using a hidden Markov model and a schema-driven dialogue manager
capable of handling multi-topic conversations. We conducted a study with nine
high-functioning ASD teenagers. Through a thematic analysis of post-experiment
interviews, identified several key design considerations, notably: 1) Users
should be fully briefed at the outset about the purpose and limitations of the
system, to avoid unrealistic expectations. 2) An interface should incorporate
positive acknowledgment of behavior change. 3) Realistic appearance of a
virtual agent and responsiveness are important in engaging users. 4)
Conversation personalization, for instance in prompting laconic users for more
input and reciprocal questions, would help the teenagers engage for longer
terms and increase the system's utility
Two state scattering problem to Multi-channel scattering problem: Analytically solvable model
Starting from few simple examples we have proposed a general method for
finding an exact analytical solution for the two state scattering problem in
presence of a delta function coupling. We have also extended our model to deal
with general one dimensional multi-channel scattering problems
Mitigation of Double-crested Cormorant Impacts on Lake Ontario: From Planning and Practice to Product Delivery
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation initiated a Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) control program in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario to mitigate cormorant impacts in 1999. Key objectives included improving the quality of Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and other fisheries, restoring the structure and function of the warmwater fish community and reducing cormorant impacts to nesting habitats of other colonial waterbird species. In eight years of intensive control, cormorant numbers declined, with a corresponding reduction in estimated fish consumption. Diversity and numbers of co-occurring waterbirds either increased or have not been shown to be negatively impacted by management. Woody vegetation favorable to Black-crowned Night-Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) has been maintained. A ca. 2.5-fold increase in the abundance of Smallmouth Bass abundance in assessment nets over the last seven years is a sign of improved recruitment to the fishery. Since the target population level of 4,500 to 6,000 cormorants has essentially been achieved, the eastern Lake Ontario cormorant program is expected to shift in 2007 from a population reduction focus towards a less intensive program intended to prevent population resurgence
Mitigation of Double-crested Cormorant Impacts on Lake Ontario: From Planning and Practice to Product Delivery
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation initiated a Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) control program in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario to mitigate cormorant impacts in 1999. Key objectives included improving the quality of Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and other fisheries, restoring the structure and function of the warmwater fish community and reducing cormorant impacts to nesting habitats of other colonial waterbird species. In eight years of intensive control, cormorant numbers declined, with a corresponding reduction in estimated fish consumption. Diversity and numbers of co-occurring waterbirds either increased or have not been shown to be negatively impacted by management. Woody vegetation favorable to Black-crowned Night-Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) has been maintained. A ca. 2.5-fold increase in the abundance of Smallmouth Bass abundance in assessment nets over the last seven years is a sign of improved recruitment to the fishery. Since the target population level of 4,500 to 6,000 cormorants has essentially been achieved, the eastern Lake Ontario cormorant program is expected to shift in 2007 from a population reduction focus towards a less intensive program intended to prevent population resurgence
Recommended from our members
Coal Ash Corrosion Resistant Materials Testing
In April 1999, three identical superheater test sections were installed into the Niles Unit No.1 for the purpose of testing and ranking the coal ash corrosion resistance of candidate superheater alloys. The Niles boiler burns high sulfur coal (3% to 3.5%) that has a reasonably high alkali content, thus the constituents necessary for coal ash corrosion are present in the ash. The test sections were controlled to operate with an average surface metal temperature from approximately 1060 F to 1210 F which was well within the temperature range over which coal ash corrosion occurs. Thus, this combination of aggressive environment and high temperature was appropriate for testing the performance of candidate corrosion-resistant tube materials. Analyses of the deposit and scale confirmed that the aggressive alkali-iron-trisulfate constituent was present at the metal surface and active in tube metal wastage. The test sections were constructed so that the response of twelve different candidate tube and/or coating materials could be studied. The plan was to remove and evaluate one of the three test sections at time intervals of 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years. This would permit an assessment of performance of the candidate materials as a function of time. This report provides the results of the evaluation of Test Section C, including the samples that remained in the Test Section for the full exposure period as well as those that were removed early. The analysis of Test Section C followed much the same protocol that was employed in the assessment of Test Section A. Again, the focus was on determining and documenting the relative corrosion rates of the candidate materials. The detailed results of the investigation are included in this report as a series of twelve appendices. Each appendix is devoted to the performance of one of the candidate alloys. The table below summarizes metal loss rate for the worst case sample of each of the candidate materials for both Test Sections A and C. The body of this report compares these for all of the samples in the test section. The 'Coal Ash Corrosion Resistant Materials Testing Program' is being conducted by The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Ohio Coal Development Office (OCDO) at Reliant Energy's Niles plant in Niles, Ohio to provide full-scale, in-situ testing of recently developed boiler superheater materials. Fireside corrosion is a key issue for improving efficiency of new coal fired power plants and improving service life in existing plants. In November 1998, B&W began development of a system to permit testing of advanced tube materials at metal temperatures typical of advanced supercritical steam temperatures (1100 F and higher) in a boiler exhibiting coal ash corrosive conditions. Several materials producers including Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) contributed advanced materials to the project. In the spring of 1999 a system consisting of three identical sections, each containing multiple segments of twelve different materials, was installed. The sections are cooled by reheat steam, and are located just above the furnace entrance in Niles Unit No.1, a 110 MWe unit firing high sulfur Ohio coal. In November 2001 the first section was removed for thorough metallurgical evaluation after 29 months of operation. The second section was removed in August of 2003. Its evaluation has been completed and is the subject of this report. The final section remains in service and is expected to be removed in the spring of 2005. This paper describes the program; its importance, the design, fabrication, installation and operation of the test system, materials utilized, and experience to date. This report briefly reviews the results of the evaluation of the first section and then presents the results of the evaluation of the second section
Quantum Origins of Molecular Recognition and Olfaction in Drosophila
The standard model for molecular recognition of an odorant is that receptor
sites discriminate by molecular geometry as evidenced that two chiral molecules
may smell very differently. However, recent studies of isotopically labeled
olfactants indicate that there may be a molecular vibration-sensing component
to olfactory reception, specifically in the spectral region around 2300
cm. Here we present a donor-bridge-acceptor model for olfaction which
attempts to explain this effect. Our model, based upon accurate quantum
chemical calculations of the olfactant (bridge) in its neutral and ionized
states, posits that internal modes of the olfactant are excited impulsively
during hole transfer from a donor to acceptor site on the receptor,
specifically those modes that are resonant with the tunneling gap. By
projecting the impulsive force onto the internal modes, we can determine which
modes are excited at a given value of the donor-acceptor tunneling gap. Only
those modes resonant with the tunneling gap and are impulsively excited will
give a significant contribution to the inelastic transfer rate. Using
acetophenone as a test case, our model and experiments on D. melanogaster
suggest that isotopomers of a given olfactant give rise to different odorant
qualities. These results support the notion that inelastic scattering effects
play a role in discriminating between isotopomers, but that this is not a
general spectroscopic effectComment: 7 pages, 3 figure
- …