Managing for Results to Enhance Government Accountability and Achieve Environmental Justice

The authors explain how government accountability studies conducted by the National Academy of Public Administration may address environmental justice and enhance environmental protection for all United States citizens, regardless of race or income

Globally integrated measurements of the Earth's visible spectral albedo

We report spectroscopic observations of the earthshine reflected from the Moon. By applying our photometry methodology to spectroscopy, we were able to precisely determine the Earth's reflectance, and its variation as a function of wavelength through a single night as the Earth rotates. These data imply that planned regular monitoring of earthshine spectra will yield valuable, new inputs for climate models, which would be complementary to those from the more standard broadband measurements of satellite platforms. The mean spectroscopic albedo over the visible is consistent with simultaneous broadband photometric measurements. We found no evidence for an appreciable "red" or "vegetation edge" in the Earth's spectral albedo, and no evidence for changes in this spectral region (700 -740 nm) over the 40 degrees of Earth's rotation covered by our observations.Comment: 20 pages, 7 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

A Phase Space Approach to Gravitational Enropy

We examine the definition S = ln Omega as a candidate "gravitational entropy" function. We calculate its behavior for gravitationl and density perturbations in closed, open and flat cosmologies and find that in all cases it increases monotonically. Using the formalism to calculate the gravitational entropy produced during inflation gives the canonical answer. We compare the behavior of S with the behavior of the square of the Weyl tensor. Applying the formalism to black holes has proven more problematical.Comment: Talk delivered at South African Relativistic Cosmology Symposium, Feb 1999. Some new results over Rothman and Anninos 97. To appear in GRG, 17 page

General properties of cosmological models with an Isotropic Singularity

Much of the published work regarding the Isotropic Singularity is performed under the assumption that the matter source for the cosmological model is a barotropic perfect fluid, or even a perfect fluid with a $\gamma$-law equation of state. There are, however, some general properties of cosmological models which admit an Isotropic Singularity, irrespective of the matter source. In particular, we show that the Isotropic Singularity is a point-like singularity and that vacuum space-times cannot admit an Isotropic Singularity. The relationships between the Isotropic Singularity, and the energy conditions, and the Hubble parameter is explored. A review of work by the authors, regarding the Isotropic Singularity, is presented.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Methods of fitting multivariant functional models in the area of large computer exploita- tion final report, 23 may 1963 - 23 jul. 1965

Methods of fitting multivariant functional models in area of large computer exploitatio

Textiles as Material Gestalt: Cloth as a Catalyst in the Co-designing Process

Textiles is the common language within Emotional Fit, a collaborative research project investigating a person-centred, sustainable approach to fashion for an ageing female demographic (55+). Through the co-designing of a collection of research tools, textiles have acted as a material gestalt for exploring our research participants' identities by tracing their embodied knowledge of fashionable dress. The methodology merges Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, co-design and a simultaneous approach to textile and garment design. Based on an enhanced understanding of our participants textile preferences, particular fabric qualities have catalysed silhouettes, through live draping and geometric pattern cutting to accommodate multiple body shapes and customisation. Printedtextiles have also been digitally crafted in response to the contours of the garment and body and personal narratives of wear. Sensorial and tactile interactions have informed the engineering and scaling of patterns within zero-waste volumes. The article considers the functional and aesthetic role of textiles

Earth's albedo variations 1998-2014 as measured from ground-based earthshine observations

The Earth's albedo is a fundamental climate parameter for understanding the radiation budget of the atmosphere. It has been traditionally measured from space platforms, but also from the ground for sixteen years from Big Bear Solar Observatory by observing the Moon. The photometric ratio of the dark (earthshine) to the bright (moonshine) sides of the Moon is used to determine nightly anomalies in the terrestrial albedo, with the aim is of quantifying sustained monthly, annual and/or decadal changes. We find two modest decadal scale cycles in the albedo, but with no significant net change over the sixteen years of accumulated data. Within the evolution of the two cycles, we find periods of sustained annual increases, followed by comparable sustained decreases in albedo. The evolution of the earthshine albedo is in remarkable agreement with that from the CERES instruments, although each method measures different slices of the Earth's Bond albedo.Comment: Accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letter

Characterization of extrasolar terrestrial planets from diurnal photometric variability

The detection of massive planets orbiting nearby stars has become almost routine, but current techniques are as yet unable to detect terrestrial planets with masses comparable to the Earth's. Future space-based observatories to detect Earth-like planets are being planned. Terrestrial planets orbiting in the habitable zones of stars-where planetary surface conditions are compatible with the presence of liquid water-are of enormous interest because they might have global environments similar to Earth's and even harbor life. The light scattered by such a planet will vary in intensity and colour as the planet rotates; the resulting light curve will contain information about the planet's properties. Here we report a model that predicts features that should be discernible in light curves obtained by low-precision photometry. For extrasolar planets similar to Earth we expect daily flux variations up to hundreds of percent, depending sensitively on ice and cloud cover. Qualitative changes in surface or climate generate significant changes in the predicted light curves. This work suggests that the meteorological variability and the rotation period of an Earth-like planet could be derived from photometric observations. Other properties such as the composition of the surface (e.g., ocean versus land fraction), climate indicators (for example ice and cloud cover), and perhaps even signatures of Earth-like plant life could be constrained or possibly, with further study, even uniquely determined.Comment: Published in Nature. 9 pages including 3 figure

Opening the Rome-Southampton window for operator mixing matrices

We show that the running of operators which mix under renormalization can be computed fully non-perturbatively as a product of continuum step scaling matrices. These step scaling matrices are obtained by taking the "ratio" of Z matrices computed at different energies in an RI-MOM type scheme for which twisted boundary conditions are an essential ingredient. Our method allows us to relax the bounds of the Rome-Southampton window. We also explain why such a method is important in view of the light quark physics program of the RBC-UKQCD collaborations. To illustrate our method, using n_f=2+1 domain-wall fermions, we compute the non-perturbative running matrix of four-quark operators needed in K->pipi decay and neutral kaon mixing. Our results are then compared to perturbation theory.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. v2: PRD version, minor changes and few references adde