Managing sacred sites for tourism: A case study of visitor facilities in Palmyra, New York

Sacred sites are qualitatively different than others developed for tourism purposes. However, sacred sites do have touristic appeal and can benefit from their popularity as both pilgrimage and secular tourist attractions. To protect the sacred resource and to make the touristic or culminating pilgrimage experience meaningful, many site managers develop well designed, well maintained and efficiently operated tourist facilities such as visitor centers, interpretive resources, and events. These facilities serve specifically to accommodate a wide range of site-based experiences from satisfaction of curiosity to life-changing hierophanies. Palmyra, New York is rich with cultural and religious sites that attract thousands of tourists each year. Most sites are meaningful to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) who travel to Palmyra to see the birthplace of their religion. Later-day Saint sacred sites are important to the many pilgrim-like visitors and to the community in which they are located. The world-class tourist facilities and events associated with LDS sacred sites provide positive opportunities for social and economic development in the region. Specifically, this case study examines the positive impacts, which include site preservation and protection, education and interpretation, social identification, hospitality, social buffering, employment, local spending, tourism product enhancement, marketing, and business networking

Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Power Producers in the United States

The 2015 Benchmarking report is the eleventh collaborative effort highlighting environmental performance and progress in the nation's electric power sector. The Benchmarking series uses publicly reported data to compare the emissions performance of the 100 largest power producers in the United States. The current report is based on 2013 generation and emissions data.The Benchmarking report facilitates the comparison of emissions performance by combining generation and fuel consumption data compiled by EIA with emissions data on sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2) and mercury compiled by EPA; error checking the data; and presenting emissions information for the nation's 100 largest power producers in a graphic format that aids in understanding and evaluating the data. The report is intended for a wide audience, including electric industry executives, environmental advocates, financial analysts, investors, journalists, power plant managers, and public policymakers

PDEs with Compressed Solutions

Sparsity plays a central role in recent developments in signal processing, linear algebra, statistics, optimization, and other fields. In these developments, sparsity is promoted through the addition of an $L^1$ norm (or related quantity) as a constraint or penalty in a variational principle. We apply this approach to partial differential equations that come from a variational quantity, either by minimization (to obtain an elliptic PDE) or by gradient flow (to obtain a parabolic PDE). Also, we show that some PDEs can be rewritten in an $L^1$ form, such as the divisible sandpile problem and signum-Gordon. Addition of an $L^1$ term in the variational principle leads to a modified PDE where a subgradient term appears. It is known that modified PDEs of this form will often have solutions with compact support, which corresponds to the discrete solution being sparse. We show that this is advantageous numerically through the use of efficient algorithms for solving $L^1$ based problems.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figure

Phase Stability and Segregation in Alloy 22 Base Metal and Weldments

The current design of the waste disposal containers relies heavily on encasement in a multi-layered container, featuring a corrosion barrier of Alloy 22, a Ni-Cr-Mo-W based alloy with excellent corrosion resistance over a wide range of conditions. The fundamental concern from the perspective of the Yucca Mountain Project, however, is the inherent uncertainty in the (very) long-term stability of the base metal and welds. Should the properties of the selected materials change over the long service life of the waste packages, it is conceivable that the desired performance characteristics (such as corrosion reistance) will become compromised, leading to premature failure of the system. To address this, we will study the phase stability and solute segregation characteristics of Alloy 22 base metal and welds. A better understanding of the underlying microstructural evolution tendencies, and their connections with corrosion behavior will (in turn) produce a higher confidence in the extrapolated behavior of the container materials over time periods that are not feasibly tested in a laboratory. Additionally, the knowledge gained here may potentially lead to cost savings through development of safe and realistic design constraints and model assumptions throughout the entire disposal system

Investigation of qq-dependent dynamical heterogeneity in a colloidal gel by x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy

We use time-resolved X-Photon Correlation Spectroscopy to investigate the slow dynamics of colloidal gels made of moderately attractive carbon black particles. We show that the slow dynamics is temporally heterogeneous and quantify its fluctuations by measuring the variance $\chi$ of the instantaneous intensity correlation function. The amplitude of dynamical fluctuations has a non-monotonic dependence on scattering vector $q$, in stark contrast with recent experiments on strongly attractive colloidal gels [Duri and Cipelletti, \textit{Europhys. Lett.} \textbf{76}, 972 (2006)]. We propose a simple scaling argument for the $q$-dependence of fluctuations in glassy systems that rationalizes these findings.Comment: Final version published in PR

Modal Test of the NASA Mobile Launcher at Kennedy Space Center

The NASA Mobile Launcher (ML), located at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), has recently been modified to support the launch of the new NASA Space Launch System (SLS). The ML is a massive structureconsisting of a 345-foot tall tower attached to a two-story base, weighing approximately 10.5 million poundsthat will secure the SLS vehicle as it rolls to the launch pad on a Crawler Transporter, as well as provide a launch platform at the pad. The ML will also provide the boundary condition for an upcoming SLS Integrated Modal Test (IMT). To help correlate the ML math models prior to this modal test, and allow focus to remain on updating SLS vehicle models during the IMT, a ML-only experimental modal test was performed in June 2019. Excitation of the tower and platform was provided by five uniquely-designed test fixtures, each enclosing a hydraulic shaker, capable of exerting thousands of pounds of force into the structure. For modes not that were not sufficiently excited by the test fixture shakers, a specially-designed mobile drop tower provided impact excitation at additional locations of interest. The response of the ML was measured with a total of 361 accelerometers. Following the random vibration, sine sweep vibration, and modal impact testing, frequency response functions were calculated and modes were extracted for three different configurations of the ML in 0 Hz to 12 Hz frequency range. This paper will provide a case study in performing modal tests on large structures by discussing the Mobile Launcher, the test strategy, an overview of the test results, and recommendations for meeting a tight test schedule for a large-scale modal test