LiDAR in New Zealand Archaeology: prospects and pitfalls

Airborne LiDAR has become a valuable tool for archaeologists and heritage professionals around the globe. The use of the technology has been relatively limited in New Zealand; however, the growing availability of data means this is beginning to change. In this paper we explore the prospects and limitations of LiDAR in two prosaic but core areas of archaeology: the detection of sites at the landscape scale and characterisation of features at the site-scale. In both cases we find LiDAR to be a generally effective tool. Larger sites (e.g. fortified pā sites) were nearly always located and could easily be mapped, whilst other like storage pits were identified at much lower rates depending on the intersection of factors like topography and land cover and were difficult to map. The general results of our analysis are intuitive, nevertheless they provide a useful case study for the capability of LiDAR for carrying out these key tasks and the situations in which greater confidence may be placed on LiDAR determinations. Ultimately, we suggest the integration of LiDAR with traditional field survey is a means to greatly enhance the understanding of archaeological sites in New Zealand

The isotopic composition of cosmic rays with 5 is less than or equal to z which is less than or equal to 26

Results obtained from a high altitude balloon flight from Thompson, Canada in August, 1973 are reported. The instrument consisted of a spark chamber, a Lucite Gerenkov counter and thirteen layers of scintillators. For heavy particles the Cerenkov-range method of analysis was used to determine the mass of particles energetic enough to produce a Cerenkov signal and then stop in the layered scintillators. The data appear to be consistent with current cosmic-ray propagation models. Using a simple exponential path length propagation model this data is extrapolated to the cosmic-ray source and some implications of the data are discussed as to the nature of the source

Defect-mediated turbulence in systems with local deterministic chaos

We show that defect-mediated turbulence can exist in media where the underlying local dynamics is deterministically chaotic. While many of the characteristics of defect-mediated turbulence, such as the exponential decay of correlations and a squared Poissonian distribution for the number of defects, are identical to those seen in oscillatory media, the fluctuations in the number of defects differ significantly. The power spectra suggest the existence of underlying correlations that lead to a different and non-universal scaling structure in chaotic media.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Experience of Intimate Partner Violence among Women in Sexual Unions: Is Supportive Attitude of Women towards Intimate Partner Violence a Correlate?

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is predominant in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with nearly 40 percent of women reporting IPV at some point in time. In this study, we investigated whether a supportive attitude towards IPV is associated with past-year experience of IPV among women in sexual unions in SSA. This study involved a cross-sectional analysis of data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 23 countries in SSA. Bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the association between attitude towards IPV and past-year experience of IPV. The regression results were presented in a tabular form using crude odds ratio (cOR) and adjusted odds ratio (aOR) at 95% confidence intervals (CIs). In the pooled countries, we found that women who had supportive attitude towards IPV were more likely to experience IPV compared to those who rejected IPV (cOR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.64, 1.79), and this persisted after controlling for maternal age, marital status, wealth, maternal education level, place of residence, and mass-media exposure (aOR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.64, 1.79). The same trend and direction of association between attitude towards IPV and experience of IPV was also found in all the 23 studied countries. This study has demonstrated that women who accept IPV are more likely to experience IPV. Hence, we recommend that efforts to end IPV must focus primarily on changing the attitudes of women. This goal can be achieved by augmenting women’s empowerment, education, and employment interventions, as well as sensitizing women in relation to the deleterious ramifications of accepting IPV. Furthermore, reducing IPV is critical towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal

Spatially Resolved Mapping of Local Polarization Dynamics in an Ergodic Phase of Ferroelectric Relaxor

Spatial variability of polarization relaxation kinetics in relaxor ferroelectric 0.9Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.1PbTiO3 is studied using time-resolved Piezoresponse Force Microscopy. Local relaxation attributed to the reorientation of polar nanoregions is shown to follow stretched exponential dependence, exp(-(t/tau)^beta), with beta~~0.4, much larger than the macroscopic value determined from dielectric spectra (beta~~0.09). The spatial inhomogeneity of relaxation time distributions with the presence of 100-200 nm "fast" and "slow" regions is observed. The results are analyzed to map the Vogel-Fulcher temperatures on the nanoscale.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, supplementary materials attached; to be submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

When are active Brownian particles and run-and-tumble particles equivalent? Consequences for motility-induced phase separation

Active Brownian particles (ABPs, such as self-phoretic colloids) swim at fixed speed $v$ along a body-axis ${\bf u}$ that rotates by slow angular diffusion. Run-and-tumble particles (RTPs, such as motile bacteria) swim with constant \u until a random tumble event suddenly decorrelates the orientation. We show that when the motility parameters depend on density $\rho$ but not on ${\bf u}$, the coarse-grained fluctuating hydrodynamics of interacting ABPs and RTPs can be mapped onto each other and are thus strictly equivalent. In both cases, a steeply enough decreasing $v(\rho)$ causes phase separation in dimensions $d=2,3$, even when no attractive forces act between the particles. This points to a generic role for motility-induced phase separation in active matter. However, we show that the ABP/RTP equivalence does not automatically extend to the more general case of \u-dependent motilities

Nonlinear optics: Feature issue introduction

This joint issue of Optics Express and Optical Materials Express features 18 state-of-the art articles that witness actual developments in nonlinear optics, including those by authors who participated in the international conference Nonlinear Optics held in Waikoloa, Hawaii from July 15 to 19, 2019. As an introduction, the editors provide a summary of these articles that cover all aspects of nonlinear optics, from basic nonlinear effects and novel frequency windows to innovative nonlinear materials and devices, thereby paving the way for new nonlinear optical concepts and forthcoming applications