Carbon-Monoxide Emission From Nebulosity Associated With Herbig Be And Ae Type Stars

NSF GP-36548Astronom

Soil Compaction and Visual Disturbance Following an Integrated Mechanical Forest Fuel Reduction Operation in Southwest Oregon

Most mechanical forest fuel reduction treatments prescribed to extract biomass are performed with existing or modified conventional logging equipment. Treatments that commonly harvest small, non-merchantable trees are often combined with or integrated into commercial thinning operations. Only a limited amount of literature has quantified harvesting system feasibility or environmental effects from such operations. The extra stand travel required to fell and extract small trees may lead to additional soil disturbance. The objective of this study was to assess soil disturbance from an integrated forest harvesting/mechanical forest fuel reduction operation in southwest Oregon, USA. The study was conducted in a fuel reduction thinning of a densely stocked 8.1-hectare (20-acre) mixed conifer stand on gentle terrain. A tracked, swing-boom feller-buncher and two rubber-tired, grapple skidders were used for felling and extracting both non-merchantable and merchantable trees. Visually classified soil disturbance, along with penetration resistance estimates were recorded pre- and post harvesting. Results indicate that the operation did not contribute to either statistically or biologically significant soil disturbance effects, based on an a priori biological reference threshold of 3,000 kPa. A history of multiple harvest entries, low soil moisture, and high initial soil strength conditions contributed to the lack of significant effects. This investigation will aid forest managers in decision making concerning expected soil disturbance effects when prescribing integrated harvesting systems for forest fuel reduction treatments

Installation instructions for GLiMR version 1.pdf

Here, we describe and demonstrate a geographic information systems-based lithic morphometric research (GLiMR) software approach. GLiMR accurately and rapidly handles a sequence of ArcGIS procedures to extract geometric morphometric data from 2D and 3D scan files of lithic artifacts. GLiMR generates three main types of geometric properties: shape data, topographic data and domain aggregate data. These data can be extracted in ways that support other analyses of artifact form, including Generalized Procrustes Analysis, Principal Components Analysis and Cluster Analyses. We illustrate the use of GLiMR by presenting a basic case study that compares the geometric morphometry of Western Stemmed Tradition projectile points found in two cache features at Idaho’s Cooper’s Ferry site and from other sites in the Columbia River Plateau region of the Pacific Northwest. This collection also includes the XYZ scan files for artifacts used for case study analysis

Process Improvement for Implementation of a Verified Substance Use Screening Tool for all Patients in a General Medicine Inpatient Unit

Introduction: As of 2017, an estimated 21 million US adults, equivalent to 1 in 13 people, had a substance use disorder. Of those with a substance use disorder it was estimated that only 2.2 million received treatment. In 2015, New Mexico had the 8th highest overdose death rate in the nation with the highest number of overall deaths attributed to Bernalillo County. The most common drugs used in overdose related deaths included heroin, benzodiazepines and prescription opioids. At the time of this study, it was found that the University of New Mexico Hospital did not have an identification tool for patients with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) as part of their intake protocols. The DAST-10 (Drug Abuse Screening Tool 10 question) is a verified screening tool that has been shown to be an accurate predictor with good specific identification of substance use. This screening tool is a short and efficient and has been easily integrated into clinical flow and is also highly sensitive in other studies. Similar studies conducted previously found that important factors to success and implementation included comprehensive education and training, intra and inter-organization communication and collaboration, host site and practitioner support, and champions to lead and direct management of the program. Methods: This pilot was conducted on 4 West, the largest inpatient adult medical-surgical unit at UNMH, over a 14 day period in 2019. All patients admitted to the unit over the course of the pilot were screened for eligibility. Exclusion criteria included non-English speaking, encephalopathic or if otherwise deemed inappropriate for screening by the surveyor (e.g. clinically inappropriate). Eligible patients were then consented for willingness to participate. For eligible and willing patients, the validated SUD screening tool, DAST-10, was performed. In the result of a positive screen, patients were assessed for interest in treatment and offered a compilation of local resources for support. Results: A total of 67 patients admitted to the unit were reviewed. Of the 67 patients, 33 patients (49.2%) were eligible for screening. Main identified reasons for ineligibility included inappropriate for screening based on surveyor judgment (27.3%), non-English speaking (21.2%), and patient were encephalopathic (15.2%). In total, 22 patients agreed to participate in the survey, while 11 patients declined. Of the 22 willing participants, there were 3 (13.6%) who screened positive on the DAST-10. Of the patients who screened positive for substance use, one patient was interested in receiving resources. Conclusions: The inpatient hospitalization can serve as a critical time to engage patients with SUD in treatment discussions. This pilot demonstrated that ability of a validated screening tool to identify a large portion of patients with SUD in an adult inpatient unit at UNMH. Additionally the screening process itself facilitated linkage to treatment resources. Barriers to screening included patient clinical status and language barriers, the latter of which may improve with translating the tool into other languages. Further efforts to improve tool utilization are being considered including inclusion of the tool within the electronic health record

A Uniform CO Survey of the Molecular Clouds in Orion and Monoceros

We report the results of a new large scale survey of the Orion-Monoceros complex of molecular clouds made in the J = 1->0 line of CO with the Harvard-Smithsonian 1.2m millimetre-wave telescope. The survey consists of 52,288 uniformly spaced spectra that cover an area of 432 square degrees on the sky and is the most sensitive large-scale survey of the region to date. Distances to the constituent molecular clouds of the complex, estimated from an analysis of foreground and background stars, have provided information on the three dimensional structure of the entire complex.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 19 pages with 17 colour figures - 39 if you count the sub-figures separately. The figures here have been bit-mapped with some loss of quality and beauty. The paper version in A&A will be in greyscale with the on-line version in colour. In the meantime the colour version can be obtained by following links at http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/mrwm . The 9MB PostScript is recommended if you have appropriate bandwidth or otherwise the 2.3MB PDF is usabl

Context, Provenance and Technology of a Western Stemmed Tradition Artifact Cache from the Cooper's Ferry Site, Idaho

Spanish Abstract: El descubrimiento de un depósito de artefactos conteniendo puntas de proyectil en la Tradición de Tallo Occidental (Western Stemmed Tradition) en una fosa claramente definida, en el sitio de Cooper’s Ferry, ofrece una perspectiva única sobre la tecnología lítica temprana y organización logística en el Occidente de América del Norte. La descripción y el análisis de este depósito revela nuevas manifestaciones, incluyendo: el uso de un cumulo rocoso que cubrió la superficie de la fosa; algunos de los artefactos fueron hechos de silicatos criptocristalinos que se encuentran a 16 km de distancia; análisis de los desechos de talla, incluyendo las medidas basadas en agregados y sus atributos, identificaron dos distintas etapas de reducción lítica presentes en el acopio. Nuevas fechas por radiocarbono indican que este depósito probablemente no corresponde al Holoceno temprano en antigüedad y bien puede datar a fechas por radiocarbono de entre 11,370-11,410 años AP. A diferencia de depósitos Clovis, el de la fosa A2 en Cooper’s Ferry, parece ser un conjunto de herramientas de uso general que probablemente fue colocado en el sitio para su uso a futuro. Si las fechas 11,370- 11,410 AP datan la creación del depósito en la fosa A2, entonces los autores probablemente no fueron pioneros en las bajas inmediaciones del cañón del río Salmón (Salmon River canyon), pero poseían un conocimiento particular acerca del paisaje y fuentes de materia primas locales; estos patrones sugieren una mayor antigüedad para los grupos recolectores de la Tradición de Tallo Occidental.The discovery of an artifact cache containing Western Stemmed Tradition projectile points in a clearly defined pit feature at the Cooper’s Ferry site offers a unique perspective on early lithic technology and logistical organization in western North America. A description and analysis of the cache feature reveals several new insights, including: a rocky cairn capped the surface of the pit feature; some of the artifacts were made from cryptocrystalline silicates found 16 km away; debitage analysis, including aggregate and attribute based measures, identified two distinct lithic reduction stages present in the cache; new radiocarbon assays suggest that the cache is probably not early Holocene in age and may date to associated radiocarbon age estimates of 11,370-11,410 B.P. Unlike Clovis caches, the Pit Feature A2 cache at Cooper’s Ferry appears to be a generalized toolkit that was probably placed at the site for future use. If the 11,370-11,410 B.P. assays date the creation of the Pit Feature A2 cache, then its creators were probably not pioneers in the lower Salmon River canyon but possessed local knowledge about the landscape and raw material sources; these patterns suggest greater time depth for Western Stemmed Tradition foragers

H2O line mapping at high spatial and spectral resolution - Herschel observations of the VLA1623 outflow

Apart from being an important coolant, H2O is known to be a tracer of high-velocity molecular gas. Recent models predict relatively high abundances behind interstellar shockwaves. The dynamical and physical conditions of the H2O emitting gas, however, are not fully understood yet. We aim to determine the abundance and distribution of H2O, its kinematics and the physical conditions of the gas responsible for the H2O emission. The observed line profile shapes help us understand the dynamics in molecular outflows. We mapped the VLA1623 outflow, in the ground-state transitions of o-H2O, with the HIFI and PACS instruments. We also present observations of higher energy transitions of o-H2O and p-H2O obtained with HIFI and PACS towards selected outflow positions. From comparison with non-LTE radiative transfer calculations, we estimate the physical parameters of the water emitting regions. The observed water emission line profiles vary over the mapped area. Spectral features and components, tracing gas in different excitation conditions, allow us to constrain the density and temperature of the gas. The H2O emission originates in a region where temperatures are comparable to that of the warm H2 gas (T\gtrsim200K). Thus, the H2O emission traces a gas component significantly warmer than the gas responsible for the low-J CO emission. The H2O column densities at the CO peak positions are low, i.e. N(H2O) \simeq (0.03-10)x10e14 cm-2. The H2O abundance with respect to H2 in the extended outflow is estimated at X(H2O)<1x10e-6, significantly lower than what would be expected from most recent shock models. The H2O emission traces a gas component moving at relatively high velocity compared to the low-J CO emitting gas. However, other dynamical quantities such as the momentum rate, energy and mechanical luminosity are estimated to be the same, independent of the molecular tracer used, CO or H2O.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 4 table