Serendipitous Data Following a Severe Windstorm in an Old-Growth Pine Stand

Reliable dimensional data for old-growth pine-dominated forests in the Gulf Coastal Plain of Arkansas are hard to find, but sometimes unfortunate circumstances provide good opportunities to acquire this information. On July 11, 2013, a severe thunderstorm with high winds struck the Levi Wilcoxon Demonstration Forest (LWDF) near Hamburg, Arkansas. This storm uprooted or snapped dozens of large pines and hardwoods and provided an opportunity to more closely inspect these rare specimens. For instance, the largest tree killed in this event, a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), was 105 cm in diameter at breast height, 39.3 m tall, and if the tree had been sound would have yielded 3,803 board feet (Doyle log rule) of lumber. Gross board foot volume yield was also estimated from two other recently toppled large pines, an 85-cm-DBH loblolly and an 86-cm-DBH shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), which tallied 2,430 and 2,312 board feet Doyle, respectively. A number of the other wind thrown pines on the LWDF were sound enough to count their rings for a reasonable (± 2-5 years) estimate of their ages. The stump of the fallen national champion shortleaf pine had 168 rings, and counts from other pines toppled by this storm had from 68 to 198 rings. We also searched for a new champion shortleaf pine using a LiDAR canopy height model of the LWDF to narrow our search. This preliminary assessment produced a number of targets that exceeded 40 m in height; further field checking of the tallest of these trees found that these were loblolly pines up to about 44 m. We eventually found shortleaf pines between 37 and 41 m tall, with diameters of up to 85 cm, indicating that the LWDF could still contain the Arkansas state champion

Measurements of surface-pressure and wake-flow fluctuations in the flow field of a whitcomb supercritical airfoil

Measurements of surface pressure and wake flow fluctuations were made as part of a transonic wind tunnel investigation into the nature of a supercritical airfoil flow field. Emphasis was on a range of high subsonic Mach numbers and moderate lift coefficients corresponding to the development of drag divergence and buffeting. Fluctuation data were analyzed statistically for intensity, frequency content, and spatial coherence. Variations in these parameters were correlated with changes in the mean airfoil flow field

A Chinese Sky Trust? Distributional Impacts of Carbon charges and Revenue Recycling in China

The introduction of carbon charges on the use of fossil fuels in China would have a progressive impact on income distribution. This outcome, which contrasts to the regressive distributional impact found in most studies of carbon charges in industrialized countries, is driven primarily by differences between urban and rural expenditure patterns. If carbon revenues were recycled on an equal per capita basis via a ‘sky trust,’ the progressive impact would be further enhanced: low-income (mainly rural) households would receive more in sky-trust dividends than they pay in carbon charges, and high-income (mainly urban) households would pay more than they receive in dividends. Thus a Chinese sky trust would contribute to both lower fossil fuel consumption and greater income equality.carbon charges, fossil fuels, China, income distribution, carbon revenues, fuel consumption, income equality

The Puppeteer: An Analysis of the Implications of Gendered Spheres through Sadie Burke in All the King’s Men

In a novel written about All the King\u27s Men, this critical analysis serves as a closer look at the [wo]man behind the curtain. The Puppeteer scrutinizes Robert Penn Warren\u27s use of gender in relation to politics, power, and puppet strings through his female character Sadie Burke. All the King\u27s Men is praised for being the insightful chronicle of Willie Stark\u27s journey from rags to riches, who is rumored to serve as the fictional representation of Louisiana Governor Huey Long. It is also celebrated for the tantalizing coming-of-age narrative of Warren\u27s narrator Jack Burden, in which Burden grapples with his reconciliation of self and morality. However, the novel\u27s numerous accolades fail to recognize the brilliance of Warren\u27s attention to gender. This critical analysis takes a closer look at operative femininity within the masculine world of politics, and dares to declare that a female serves as the most important character of them all

Whole Earth Telescope observations of the subdwarf B star KPD1930+2752: a rich, short-period pulsator in a close binary

KPD 1930+2752 is a short-period pulsating subdwarf B (sdB) star. It is also an ellipsoidal variable with a known binary period of 2.3 h. The companion is most likely a white dwarf and the total mass of the system is close to the Chandresekhar limit. In this paper, we report the results of Whole Earth Telescope (WET) photometric observations during 2003 and a smaller multisite campaign of 2002. From 355 h of WET data, we detect 68 pulsation frequencies and suggest an additional 13 frequencies within a crowded and complex temporal spectrum between 3065 and 6343 μHz (periods between 326 and 157 s). We examine pulsation properties including phase and amplitude stability in an attempt to understand the nature of the pulsation mechanism. We examine a stochastic mechanism by comparing amplitude variations with simulated stochastic data. We also use the binary nature of KPD 1930+2752 for identifying pulsation modes via multiplet structure and a tidally induced pulsation geometry. Our results indicate a complicated pulsation structure that includes short-period (≈16 h) amplitude variability, rotationally split modes, tidally induced modes and some pulsations which are geometrically limited on the sdB star

Observations of Hierarchical Solar-Type Multiple Star Systems

Twenty multiple stellar systems with solar-type primaries were observed at high angular resolution using the PALM-3000 adaptive optics system at the 5 m Hale telescope. The goal was to complement the knowledge of hierarchical multiplicity in the solar neighborhood by confirming recent discoveries by the visible Robo-AO system with new near-infrared observations with PALM-3000. The physical status of most, but not all, of the new pairs is confirmed by photometry in the Ks band and new positional measurements. In addition, we resolved for the first time five close sub-systems: the known astrometric binary in HIP 17129AB, companions to the primaries of HIP 33555, and HIP 118213, and the companions to the secondaries in HIP 25300 and HIP 101430. We place the components on a color-magnitude diagram and discuss each multiple system individually.Comment: Accepted to Astronomical Journa

Depredation Patterns and Northern Bobwhite Nest Success in Field Borders

Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) populations have declined because of habitat loss and fragmentation. Field borders provide additional habitat for northern bobwhites and other wildlife that depend on early-succession habitat. However, their proximity to woods as well as other edge types may result in increased bobwhite nest depredation. We examined if northern bobwhite nest survival in field borders decreased with increasing proximity to edges such as woods, crop fields, ditches, and roads; effects of year, camera presence, and field border width also were considered. We examined if snakes are the primary nest predator with 24-hr video camera surveillance. We searched for and monitored northern bobwhite nests on ~ 77 ha of field borders in southeast North Carolina during summers 2010 and 2011. We found 26 nests and monitored them every 3–4 days. Fourteen nests were monitored with cameras. We built nest survival models using the covariates of distance to nearest woody edge, crop field, ditch, and road as well as year, camera effect, and field border width. The most explanatory model was constant northern bobwhite nest survival with an estimated daily nest survival 6 SE of 0.9512 6 0.0119 (AICc weight 1⁄4 0.23). Models with covariates suggested similar daily nest survival rates. Four snake and two mammalian predation events were recorded on camera. Distance to edge types and field border width did not appear to influence the outcome of nests in an agriculture-dominated landscape. Thus, landowners and managers in an agriculture-dominated landscape may have flexibility with field border placement and distance to edge type as they relate to nest success

Synoptic observations of Jupiter's radio emissions: Average Statistical properties observed by Voyager

Observations of Jupiter's low frequency radio emissions collected over one month intervals before and after each Voyager encounter were analyzed. Compilations of occurrence probability, average power flux density and average sense of circular polarization are presented as a function of central meridian longitude, phase of Io, and frequency. The results are compared with ground based observations. The necessary geometrical conditions are preferred polarization sense for Io-related decametric emission observed by Voyager from above both the dayside and nightside hemispheres are found to be essentially the same as are observed in Earth based studies. On the other hand, there is a clear local time dependence in the Io-independent decametric emission. Io appears to have an influence on average flux density of the emission down to below 2 MHz. The average power flux density spectrum of Jupiter's emission has a broad peak near 9MHz. Integration of the average spectrum over all frequencies gives a total radiated power for an isotropic source of 4 x 10 to the 11th power W

Tropospheric gravity waves observed by three closely spaced ST radars

Clear-air radar experiments were carried out on the southern coast of France during the (ALPEX) Alpine experiment program vertically directed stratosphere-troposphere-radars were set up with spacings of about 5 to 6 km. The temporal and spectral characteristics of the vertical velocity fluctuations were examined. The horizontal and vertical properties of gravity waves in the lower atmosphere were analyzed. The techniques used and the first results from this wave study are described