The Role of Traditional Knowledge in Coastal Adaptation Priorities: The Pamunkey Indian Reservation

Coastal reservations are increasingly vulnerable to hazards exacerbated by climate change. Resources for restoration projects are limited. Storm surge, storms, tidal flooding, and erosion endanger artifacts and limit livelihoods of tribes in coastal Virginia. GIS offers a platform to increase communication between scientists, planners, and indigenous groups. The Pamunkey Indian Tribe engaged in a participatory mapping exercise to assess the role of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in coastal management decision-making and its capacity to address flooding. Priorities and strategies were spatially referenced using maps of potential sea level rise for 2040, 2060, and 2080, input into a resilience matrix to identify benchmarks for each phase of disaster resilience building, and contextualized with oral histories. Results highlight increased immediacy to protect housing and heritage sites along the shoreline as well as maintain access to the Reservation. Preferences toward structural solutions guided by and facilitating TEK options were expressed. Additional community capacities, tribal council support, federal assistance, impact assessments, and coordination would facilitate risk reduction project implementation. The screening process integrates TEK with planning and is transferable to neighboring tribes

The Dimension Six Triple Gluon Operator in Higgs+Jet Observables

Recently a lot of progress has been made towards a full classification of new physics effects in Higgs observables by means of effective dimension six operators. Specifically, Higgs production in association with a high transverse momentum jet has been suggested as a way to discriminate between operators that modify the Higgs-top coupling and operators that induce an effective Higgs-gluon coupling---a distinction that is hard to achieve with signal strength measurements alone. With this article we would like to draw attention to another source of new physics in Higgs+jet observables: the triple gluon operator $O_{3g}$ (consisting of three factors of the gluon field strength tensor). We compute the distortions of kinematic distributions in Higgs+jet production at a 14 TeV LHC due to $O_{3g}$ and compare them with the distortions due to dimension six operators involving the Higgs doublet. We find that the transverse momentum, the jet rapidity and the difference between the Higgs and jet rapidity are well suited to distinguish between the contributions from $O_{3g}$ and those from other operators, and that the size of the distortions are similar if the Wilson coefficients are of the same order as the expected bounds from other observables. We conclude that a full analysis of new physics in Higgs+jet observables must take the contributions from $O_{3g}$ into account.Comment: To appear as a Rapid Communication in Physical Review

On the calibration of the relation between geometric albedo and polarimetric properties for the asteroids

We present a new extensive analysis of the old problem of finding a satisfactory calibration of the relation between the geometric albedo and some measurable polarization properties of the asteroids. To achieve our goals, we use all polarimetric data at our disposal. For the purposes of calibration, we use a limited sample of objects for which we can be confident to know the albedo with good accuracy, according to previous investigations of other authors. We find a new set of updated calibration coefficients for the classical slope - albedo relation, but we generalize our analysis and we consider also alternative possibilities, including the use of other polarimetric parameters, one being proposed here for the first time, and the possibility to exclude from best-fit analyzes the asteroids having low albedos. We also consider a possible parabolic fit of the whole set of data.Comment: Accepted by MNRA

Thorium Energy Futures

The potential for thorium as an alternative or supplement to uranium in fission power generation has long been recognised, and several reactors, of various types, have already operated using thorium-based fuels. Accelerator Driven Subcritical (ADS) systems have benefits and drawbacks when compared to conventional critical thorium reactors, for both solid and molten salt fuels. None of the four options – liquid or solid, with or without an accelerator – can yet be rated as better or worse than the other three, given today's knowledge. We outline the research that will be necessary to lead to an informed choice

Buckling mediated by mobile localized elastic excitations

Experiments reveal that structural transitions in thin sheets are mediated by the passage of transient and stable mobile localized elastic excitations. These ``crumples'' or ``d-cones'' nucleate, propagate, interact, annihilate, and escape. Much of the dynamics occurs on millisecond time scales. Nucleation sites correspond to regions where generators of the ideal unstretched surface converge. Additional stable intermediate states illustrate two forms of quasistatic inter-crumple interaction through ridges or valleys. These interactions create pairs from which extended patterns may be constructed in larger specimens. The onset of localized transient deformation with increasing sheet size is correlated with a characteristic stable crumple size, whose measured scaling with thickness is consistent with prior theory and experiment for localized elastic features in thin sheets. We offer a new theoretical justification of this scaling.Comment: contains link to video

Puzzling asteroid 21 Lutetia: our knowledge prior to the Rosetta fly-by

A wide observational campaign was carried out in 2004-2009 aimed to complete the ground-based investigation of Lutetia prior to the Rosetta fly-by in July 2010. We have obtained BVRI photometric and V-band polarimetric measurements over a wide range of phase angles, and visible and infrared spectra in the 0.4-2.4 micron range. We analyzed them together with previously published data to retrieve information on Lutetia's surface properties. Values of lightcurve amplitudes, absolute magnitude, opposition effect, phase coefficient and BVRI colors of Lutetia surface seen at near pole-on aspect have been determined. We defined more precisely parameters of polarization phase curve and showed their distinct deviation from any other moderate-albedo asteroid. An indication of possible variations both in polarization and spectral data across the asteroid surface was found. To explain features found by different techniques we propose that (i) Lutetia has a non-convex shape, probably due to the presence of a large crater, and heterogeneous surface properties probably related to surface morphology; (ii) at least part of the surface is covered by a fine-grained regolith with particle size less than 20 microns; (iii) the closest meteorite analogues of Lutetia's surface composition are particular types of carbonaceous chondrites or Lutetia has specific surface composition not representative among studied meteorites

Iterative PET Image Reconstruction using Adaptive Adjustment of Subset Size and Random Subset Sampling

Statistical PET image reconstruction methods are often accelerated by the use of a subset of available projections at each iteration. It is known that many subset algorithms, such as ordered subset expectation maximisation, will not converge to a single solution but to a limit cycle. Reconstruction methods exist to relax the update step sizes of subset algorithms to obtain convergence, however, this introduces additional parameters that may result in extended reconstruction times. Another approach is to gradually decrease the number of subsets to reduce the effect of the limit cycle at later iterations, but the optimal iteration numbers for these reductions may be data dependent. We propose an automatic method to increase subset sizes so a reconstruction can take advantage of the acceleration provided by small subset sizes during early iterations, while at later iterations reducing the effects of the limit cycle behaviour providing estimates closer to the maximum a posteriori solution. At each iteration, two image updates are computed from a common estimate using two disjoint subsets. The divergence of the two update vectors is measured and, if too great, subset sizes are increased in future iterations. We show results for both sinogram and list mode data using various subset selection methodologies

Development of a Superconducting Twin Axis Cavity

Superconducting cavities with two separate accelerating axes have been proposed in the past for energy recovery linac applications. While the study showed the advantages of such cavity, the designs present serious fabrication challenges. Hence the proposed cavities have never been built. The new design, elliptical twin cavity, proposed by Jefferson Lab and optimized by Center for Accelerator Science at Old Dominion University, allows similar level of engineering and fabrication techniques of a typical elliptical cavity. This paper describes preliminary LOM and HOM spectrum, engineering and fabrication processes of the twin axis cavity

Towards Accurate Partial Volume Correction - Perturbation for SPECT Resolution Estimation

The accuracy of quantitative SPECT imaging is limited by the Partial Volume Effect as a result of the relatively poor spatial resolution. There is currently no consensus on the optimal Partial Volume Correction (PVC) algorithm in the application of SPECT oncology imaging. Several promising candidates require information on the reconstructed resolution - usually in the form of the Point Spread Function (PSF). A particular challenge that SPECT poses for PVC is that the resolution is known to vary with position in the field-of-view, as well as with activity distribution and reconstruction method. In this work, we assessed the potential benefit of using perturbation to measure case-specific resolution for PVC. A small point source was used to measure the resolution in phantoms designed to replicate the issues encountered in oncology imaging, including anthropomorphic phantoms which had not previously been examined in perturbation applications. Results demonstrate that, provided that a sufficient number of iterations is used for image reconstruction, perturbation can be used to measure a case-specific PSF. When PVC is applied with this case-specific PSF, quantitative accuracy is improved compared with no correction or applying PVC with an inappropriate PSF

Ethical issues in implementation research: a discussion of the problems in achieving informed consent

Background: Improved quality of care is a policy objective of health care systems around the world. Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of clinical research findings into routine clinical practice, and hence to reduce inappropriate care. It includes the study of influences on healthcare professionals' behaviour and methods to enable them to use research findings more effectively. Cluster randomized trials represent the optimal design for evaluating the effectiveness of implementation strategies. Various codes of medical ethics, such as the Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki inform medical research, but their relevance to cluster randomised trials in implementation research is unclear. This paper discusses the applicability of various ethical codes to obtaining consent in cluster trials in implementation research. Discussion: The appropriate application of biomedical codes to implementation research is not obvious. Discussion of the nature and practice of informed consent in implementation research cluster trials must consider the levels at which consent can be sought, and for what purpose it can be sought. The level at which an intervention is delivered can render the idea of patient level consent meaningless. Careful consideration of the ownership of information, and rights of access to and exploitation of data is required. For health care professionals and organizations, there is a balance between clinical freedom and responsibility to participate in research. Summary: While ethical justification for clinical trials relies heavily on individual consent, for implementation research aspects of distributive justice, economics, and political philosophy underlie the debate. Societies may need to trade off decisions on the choice between individualized consent and valid implementation research. We suggest that social sciences codes could usefully inform the consideration of implementation research by members of Research Ethics Committees