Continuous monitoring of the lunar or Martian subsurface using on-board pattern recognition and neural processing of Rover geophysical data

The ultimate goal is to create an extraterrestrial unmanned system for subsurface mapping and exploration. Neural networks are to be used to recognize anomalies in the profiles that correspond to potentially exploitable subsurface features. The ground penetrating radar (GPR) techniques are likewise identical. Hence, the preliminary research focus on GPR systems will be directly applicable to seismic systems once such systems can be designed for continuous operation. The original GPR profile may be very complex due to electrical behavior of the background, targets, and antennas, much as the seismic record is made complex by multiple reflections, ghosting, and ringing. Because the format of the GPR data is similar to the format of seismic data, seismic processing software may be applied to GPR data to help enhance the data. A neural network may then be trained to more accurately identify anomalies from the processed record than from the original record

Science-to-management pathways in US Atlantic herring management: using governance network structure and function to track information flow and potential influence

Hartley, T. W., and Glass, C. 2010. Science-to-management pathways in US Atlantic herring management: using governance network structure and function to track information flow and potential influence. - ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 1154-1163. Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) are crucial members of the ecosystem and economy of the Northwest Atlantic, and a challenging species for management, which in the United States is a multistakeholder process, involving commercial and recreational fishing interests, conservation organizations, state and federal governments, and other interested parties. Given the large number of stakeholders, fisheries management has been conceptualized as a governance network, through which multiple parties access the decision-making process and seek to influence the process or outcome. Network analysis is employed to assess the access pathways for scientific information, i.e. collaborative acoustic-survey data, into stock-assessment decisions and the development process for the fisheries management plan. The governance network map was constructed for US Atlantic herring management in 2006 and 2007. The pathways of information flow in the network showed that participants in the collaborative acoustic survey were well connected to the stock-assessment and fisheries-management processes and decision-makers, particularly through key individuals bridging between the industry, science, and management communities. Heavy reliance on those individuals serving a bridging role made the network connectivity vulnerable, however. The network structure also demonstrated significant influence potential for acoustic-survey information. Ramifications for science-to-management pathways in fisheries are discussed

The Nature of the Nuclear H2O Masers of NGC 1068: Reverberation and Evidence for a Rotating Disk Geometry

We report new (1995) Very Large Array observations and (1984 - 1999) Effelsberg 100m monitoring observations of the 22 GHz H2O maser spectrum of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068. The sensitive VLA observations provide a registration of the 22 GHz continuum emission and the location of the maser spots with an accuracy of ~ 5 mas. Within the monitoring data, we find evidence that the nuclear masers vary coherently on time-scales of months to years, much more rapidly than the dynamical time-scale. We argue that the nuclear masers are responding in reverberation to a central power source, presumably the central engine. Between October and November 1997, we detected a simultaneous flare of the blue-shifted and red-shifted satellite maser lines. Reverberation in a rotating disk naturally explains the simultaneous flaring. There is also evidence that near-infrared emission from dust grains associated with the maser disk also responds to the central engine. We present a model in which an X-ray flare results in both the loss of maser signal in 1990 and the peak of the near-infrared light curve in 1994. In support of a rotating disk geometry for the nuclear masers, we find no evidence for centripetal accelerations of the redshifted nuclear masers; the limits are +/- 0.006 km/s/year, implying that the masers are located within 2 degrees of the kinematic line-of-nodes. We also searched for high velocity maser emission like that observed in NGC 4258. In both VLA and Effelsberg spectra, we detect no high velocity lines between +/- 350 km/s to +/- 850 km/s relative to systemic, arguing that masers only lie outside a radius of ~ 0.6 pc (1.9 light years) from the central engine (assuming a distance of 14.4 Mpc).Comment: 62 pages, 19 figure

Tuning the oriented deposition of gold nanorods on patterned substrates

The controlled patterning of anisotropic gold nanoparticles is of crucial importance for many applications related to their optical properties. In this paper, we report that gold nanorods prepared by a seed-mediated synthesis protocol (without any further functionalization) can be selectively deposited on hydrophilic parts of hydrophobic–hydrophilic contrast patterned substrates. We have seen that, when nanorods with lengths much smaller than the width of the hydrophilic stripe are used, they disperse on these stripes with random orientation and tunable uniform particle separation. However, for nanorods having lengths comparable to the width of the hydrophilic stripes, confinement-induced alignment occurs. We observe that different interactions governing the assembly forces can be modulated by controlling the concentration of assembling nanorods and the width of the hydrophilic stripes, leading to markedly different degrees of alignment. Our strategy can be replicated for other anisotropic nanoparticles to produce well-controlled patterning of these nanoentities on surfaces

Acceleration and Classical Electromagnetic Radiation

Classical radiation from an accelerated charge is reviewed along with the reciprocal topic of accelerated observers detecting radiation from a static charge. This review commemerates Bahram Mashhoon's 60th birthday.Comment: To appear in Gen. Rel. Gra

Molecular immunophenotyping of lungs and spleens in naive and vaccinated chickens early after pulmonary avian influenza A (H9N2) virus infection

In a respiratory-infection-model with the avian influenza A H9N2 virus we studied lung and splenic immune reactions in chickens using a recently developed 5K chicken immuno-microarray. Groups of chickens were either mock-immunized (referred to as non-immune), vaccinated with inactivated viral antigen only (immune) or with viral antigen in a water-in-oil (W/O) immunopotentiator (immune potentiated). Three weeks after vaccination all animals were given a respiratory infection. Immune potentiated birds developed inhibitory antiviral antibodies, showed minimal lung histopathology and no detectable viral sequences, while non-immune animals showed microscopic immunopathology and detectable virus. Immune birds, receiving antigen in saline only, showed minimal microscopic histopathology, and intermediate levels of virus detection. These classical features in the different groups were mirrored by overlapping or specific mRNA gene expression profiles in lungs and spleen using microarray analysis. To our knowledge this is the first study demonstrating pneumonia-associated lung pathology of the low pathogenic avian influenza H9N2 virus. Our data provide insights into the molecular interaction of this virus with its natural host when naive or primed by vaccination

A Conserved Bach Current

The Bach tensor and a vector which generates conformal symmetries allow a conserved four-current to be defined. The Bach four-current gives rise to a quasilocal two-surface expression for power per luminosity distance in the Vaidya exterior of collapsing fluid interiors. This is interpreted in terms of entropy generation.Comment: to appear in Class. Quantum Gra

Research on nonlinear optical materials: an assessment. IV. Photorefractive and liquid crystal materials

This panel considered two separate subject areas: photorefractive materials used for nonlinear optics and liquid crystal materials used in light valves. Two related subjects were not considered due to lack of expertise on the panel: photorefractive materials used in light valves and liquid crystal materials used in nonlinear optics. Although the inclusion of a discussion of light valves by a panel on nonlinear optical materials at first seems odd, it is logical because light valves and photorefractive materials perform common functions

Radiation and String Atmosphere for Relativistic Stars

We extend the Vaidya radiating metric to include both a radiation field and a string fluid. Assuming diffusive transport for the string fluid, we find new analytic solutions of Einstein's field equations. Our new solutions represent an extention of Xanthopoulos superposition.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. D, Rapid Communicatio