High resolution vertical profiles of wind, temperature and humidity obtained by computer processing and digital filtering of radiosonde and radar tracking data from the ITCZ experiment of 1977

Results are presented from computer processing and digital filtering of radiosonde and radar tracking data obtained during the ITCZ experiment when coordinated measurements were taken daily over a 16 day period across the Panama Canal Zone. The temperature relative humidity and wind velocity profiles are discussed

Protocol Requirements for Self-organizing Artifacts: Towards an Ambient Intelligence

We discuss which properties common-use artifacts should have to collaborate without human intervention. We conceive how devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs, and home appliances, could be seamlessly integrated to provide an "ambient intelligence" that responds to the user's desires without requiring explicit programming or commands. While the hardware and software technology to build such systems already exists, as yet there is no standard protocol that can learn new meanings. We propose the first steps in the development of such a protocol, which would need to be adaptive, extensible, and open to the community, while promoting self-organization. We argue that devices, interacting through "game-like" moves, can learn to agree about how to communicate, with whom to cooperate, and how to delegate and coordinate specialized tasks. Thus, they may evolve a distributed cognition or collective intelligence capable of tackling complex tasks.Comment: To be presented at 5th International Conference on Complex System

Stripes of Partially Fluorinated Alkyl Chains: Dipolar Langmuir Monolayers

Stripe-like domains of Langmuir monolayers formed by surfactants with partially fluorinated lipid anchors (F-alkyl lipids) are observed at the gas-liquid phase coexistence. The average periodicity of the stripes, measured by fluorescence microscopy, is in the micrometer range, varying between 2 and 8 microns. The observed stripe-like patterns are stabilized due to dipole-dipole interactions between terminal -CF3 groups. These interactions are particularly strong as compared with non-fluorinated lipids due to the low dielectric constant of the surrounding media (air). These long-range dipolar interactions tend to elongate the domains, in contrast to the line tension that tends to minimize the length of the domain boundary. This behavior should be compared with that of the lipid monolayer having alkyl chains, and which form spherical micro-domains (bubbles) at the gas-liquid coexistence. The measured stripe periodicity agrees quantitatively with a theoretical model. Moreover, the reduction in line tension by adding traces (0.1 mol fraction) of cholesterol results, as expected, in a decrease in the domain periodicity.Comment: 20 pages, 4 fig

Data analysis and archival

The purpose of this task is the acquisition, distribution, archival, and analysis of data collected during and in support of the Upper Atmospheric Research Program (UARP) field experiments. Meteorological and U2 data from the 1984 Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange Project (STEP) was analyzed to determine characteristics of internal atmospheric waves. CDROM's containing data from the 1987 STEP, 1987 Airborne Antarctic Ozone Expedition (AAOE), and the 1989 Airborne Arctic Stratospheric Expedition (AASE) were produced for archival and distribution of those data sets. The AASE CDROM contains preliminary data and a final release is planned for February 1990. Comparisons of data from the NASA ER-2 Meteorological Measurement System (MMS) with radar tracking and radiosonde data show good agreement. Planning for a Meteorological Support Facility continues. We are investigating existing and proposed hardware and software to receive, manipulate, and display satellite imagery and standard meteorological analyses, forecasts, and radiosonde data

Raccoon (Procyon lotor) Harvesting on and near the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site

Understanding the toxicodynamics of wildlife populations in contaminated ecosystems is one of the greatest challenges in ecotoxicology today. The goal is to manage these populations to minimize risk to ecosystem integrity as well as human health. Ecological risk assessments (ERAs) in the United States are designed to meet the regulatory mandates of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an ERA evaluates the potential adverse effects that human activities have on the \u27 ora and fauna that de( ne an ecosystem (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1997). When conducted for a particular geographic location, the ERA process can be used to identify vulnerable and valued resources, prioritize data collection, and link human activities with their potential effects. Risk assessment results provide a common framework for comparing different management options, thus enabling decision makers and the public to make better informed decisions about the management of ecological resources. The ERA uses available toxicological and ecological information to estimate the occurrence of a speci( ed undesired ecological event or end point. The types of end points targeted for investigation depend on the objectives and the constraints imposed upon the risk assessment process (Newman and Strojan 1998) based on all of the relevant stakeholders; therefore, multiple endpoints at different scales may be necessary but are not commonly used (Gaines et al. 2004). In this case, the stakeholders are the public who live near and hunt on and near the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Savannah River Site (SRS; ( gure 4.1). To date, there is a dearth of knowledge concerning how environmental risk can be managed at the population level when using wildlife as endpoint (receptor) species

The Savannah River Site: Site Description, Land Use and Management History

The 78,000-ha Savannah River Site, which is located in the upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina along the Savannah River, was established as a nuclear production facility in 1951 by the Atomic Energy Commission. The site’s physical and vegetative characteristics, land use history, and the impacts of management and operations are described. Aboriginal and early European settlement was primarily along streams, where much of the farming and timber cutting have occurred. Woodland grazing occurred in the uplands and lowlands. Land use intensity increased after the Civil War and peaked in the 1920s. Impacts from production of cotton and corn, naval stores, fuelwood, and timber left only scattered patches of relatively untouched land and, coupled with grazing and less-frequent fire, severely reduced the extent of longleaf pine (Pinus palustrus) ecosystems. After 1951, the USDA Forest Service, under the direction of the Atomic Energy Commission, initiated a large-scale reforestation effort and continued to manage the site’s forests. Over the last decade, forest management efforts have shifted to recovering the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) and restoring longleaf pine habitat. A research set-aside program was established in the 1950s and is now administered by the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Impacts from thermal effluents, fly-ash runoff, construction of radioactive waste facilities, and release of low-level radionuclides and certain metals have been assessed by the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and other researchers

The contrasting oceanography of the Rhodes Gyre and the Central Black Sea

The Rhodes Gyre, a prominent feature of the oceanography of the eastern Mediterranean, is modelled as a vertical, continuous flow, cylindrical reactor illuminated during the day at its upper end. If the Gyre is supposed to be in a steady state whilst the concentrations, C, of a chemical are being measured, the nett rate of formation or consumption of the chemical is given by -w d C/d z + u d C/d r, where w is the upward velocity of the water in the vertical, z , direction and u is the velocity of the water in the radial, r, direction. The behaviour of w and u is analysed to show that the Gyre may be used as a field laboratory in which rates of chemical change may be derived from depth profiles together with values of the surface velocities of the Gyre waters. In contrast, the central Black Sea is modelled as an ideal, strongly stratified sea in which the nett rates of formation or consumption of chemicals under steady state conditions are given by Ds d2C/ds 2, where s is the water density and Ds is an eddy diffusion coefficient. Computations reveal that, given better knowledge of its eddy diffusion coefficients, the Black Sea can also be treated as a field laboratory where rates of reaction mediated by bacteria may be derived from depth profiles

Review of world experience and properties of materials for encapsulation of terrestrial photovoltaic arrays

Published and unpublished information relating to encapsulation systems and materials properties was collected by searching the literature and appropriate data bases (over 1,300 documents were selected and reviewed) and by personal contacts including site and company visits. A data tabulation summarizing world experience with terrestrial photovoltaic arrays (50 installations) is presented in the report. Based on criteria of properties, processability, availability, and cost, candidate materials were identified which have potential for use in encapsulation systems for arrays with a lifetime of over 20 years high reliability, an efficiency greater than 10 percent, a total price less than $500/kW, and a production capacity of 500,000 kW/yr. The recommended materials (all commercially available) include, depending upon the device design, various borosilicate and soda-lime glasses and numerous polymerics suitable for specific encapsulation system functions