Severe storm identification with satellite microwave radiometry: An initial investigation with Nimbus-7 SMMR data

The severe weather characteristics of convective storms as observed by the Nimbus 7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) are investigated. Low 37 GHz brightness temperatures (due to scattering of upwelling radiation by precipitation size ice) are related to the occurrence of severe weather (large hail, strong winds or wind damage, tornadoes and funnel clouds) within one hour of the satellite observation time. During 1979 and 1980 over the United States there were 263 storms which had very cold 37 GHz signatures. Of these storms 15% were severe. The SMMR detected hail, wind, and tornadic storms equally well. Critical Success Indices (CSI's) of 0.32, 0.48, and 0.38 are achieved for the thresholding of severe vs. nonsevere low brightness temperature events during 1979, 1980, and the two years combined, respectively. Such scores are comparable to skill scores for early radar detection methods. These results suggest that a future geostationary passive microwave imaging capability at 37 GHz, with sufficient spatial and temporal resolution, would allow the detection of severe convective storms. This capability would provide a useful complement to radar, especially in areas not covered by radar

The Role of an Internal Audit in Credit Union Financial Decision Making

The purpose of this paper is to show how an internal audit can be used in credit union financial decision making. The paper analyzes in depth the kinds of data obtainable from an internal audit and the kinds of data required for credit union financial decision making. By utilizing a comparative analysis of the compatability of the two types of data, the paper shows how the data obtainable from an internal audit can be applied to credit union financial decision making

The Economics of Offshore Wind Energy

The global community is yearning for a solution to climate change. Research has shown one cause of climate change could be emissions from electricity production by fossil fuel sources. Deepwater offshore wind energy is being looked into as a potential solution, and with every new endeavor a cost analysis is necessary. To conduct this study I reviewed reports, articles, and papers by economists, potential developers, and by research institutions and universities. I took this information and applied it to my own calculations on the cost of hypothetical deepwater offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine. I found it important to consider two types of costs, both social and private. Learning curve effects play a major role in a decreasing cost over time. External costs can be added to private costs by applying a government tax on carbon, done through pricing carbon. I used three different pricing schemes. When compared to natural gas by a means of levelizing the costs of energy (LCOE), the most aggressive carbon tax caused the LCOE of offshore wind to be competitive by 2030. Offshore wind will not be viable in the coming years without a carbon tax and a potential government subsidy. If no developers invest in a farm, learning curve effects will be stunted and not be able to take the course of action predicted. The effect of learning-by-doing over time is crucial to decreasing costs. If an aggressive pricing scheme on carbon is adopted, it is possible deepwater offshore wind energy could become competitive in less than two decades

Perturbation of an Eigen-Value from a Dense Point Spectrum : An Example

We study a perturbed Floquet Hamiltonian $K+\beta V$ depending on a coupling constant $\beta$. The spectrum $\sigma(K)$ is assumed to be pure point and dense. We pick up an eigen-value, namely $0\in\sigma(K)$, and show the existence of a function $\lambda(\beta)$ defined on $I\subset\R$ such that $\lambda(\beta) \in \sigma(K+\beta V)$ for all $\beta\in I$, 0 is a point of density for the set $I$, and the Rayleigh-Schr\"odinger perturbation series represents an asymptotic series for the function $\lambda(\beta)$. All ideas are developed and demonstrated when treating an explicit example but some of them are expected to have an essentially wider range of application.Comment: Latex, 24 pages, 51

Cork Construction Kit

This article reports on the research and development of a radically simple new form of solid, dry-jointed construction made of expanded cork and engineered timber. It has outstanding whole life performance, and the potential to help sustain biodiverse landscapes, and create buildings with exceptionally low whole life carbon emissions. Building blocks made of cork forestry waste interlock for quick and easy assembly, creating buildings that are low-energy to inhabit and simple to disassemble at the end of the building’s life for reuse. The project investigates an architectural language of cork stereotomy as a progressive reimagining of historic dry-stone construction. The research is architect-led and multidisciplinary, undertaken in three steps from 2014 to 2019. Step one was curiosity-driven research, hypothesising and making the Cork Casket. Step two involved detailed design hypotheses, extensive prototyping, and lab testing addressing structure, fire and weathertightness. The Cork Cabin was created and monitored, and the system design established. Step three created Cork House. As the first building of its type, it is permanent, replicable, and designed to fully meet local building codes. Its corbelled profile knits into its site, with sheltering interiors offering a rich sensory living environment. The research confirms the potential for such simple new forms of off-site plant-based construction to help address construction industry challenges relating to whole life environmental sustainability performance, complexity, quality, and productivity

Cork: an historical overview of its use in building construction

This paper is an intimate portrait of cork used as a construction material, in a history that stretches back over millennia. Cork is the outer bark of Quercus suber, the cork oak tree, harvested around once a decade in a process of stripping that does not harm the tree. The unusual combination of physical and chemical properties of cork has led to its exploitation in a broad range of construction materials and components. This paper traces the changing status of cork as a construction material through time and reveals how its use in architecture has evolved. The paper is structured according to three identifiable chronological phases: early uses from Nuragic to pre-industrial times, the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of Modern Architecture, and the mid-twentieth century to the present day. These are illustrated through case studies which are critically appraised and provide a context for addressing the current status of cork as a bio-renewable construction material

Neurophysiology

Contains reports on two research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant GP-2495)Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.U. S. Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories under Contract AF19(628)-4147The Teagle Foundation, Inc.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496)U. S. Air Force (Aeronautical Systems Division) under Contract AF 33(615)-1747National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737-04

Narrative support for young game designers’ writing

Creating narrative-based computer games is a complex and challenging task. Narrative Threads is a suite of software tools designed to aid young people (aged 11-15) in creating their own narrative-based games as a writing development activity. A participatory design process highlighted the areas where additional support was required, and informed the iterative design of Narrative Threads. The tools are implemented as a plugin to a commercial game creation toolset, and constitute character and object design tools, a branching narrative diagramming tool and an augmented story map view. In this paper, we provide an overview of the design of the tools and describe an evaluation carried out with 14 children over a four-day workshop. The study examined tool usage patterns, and compared games created with Narrative Threads to those created using the standard toolset. The results suggest a number of ways in which dynamic external representations of story elements can support writing activities in narrative-based game creation. Young designers using Narrative Threads wrote more character dialogue, made stronger links between the conversations they wrote and wider game events, and designed more complex characters, compared to those using the standard toolset. In addition to showing how Narrative Threads can support young games designers, the results have broader implications for anyone looking to support storytelling and writing through game creation activities and tools

On the energy growth of some periodically driven quantum systems with shrinking gaps in the spectrum

We consider quantum Hamiltonians of the form H(t)=H+V(t) where the spectrum of H is semibounded and discrete, and the eigenvalues behave as E_n~n^\alpha, with 0<\alpha<1. In particular, the gaps between successive eigenvalues decay as n^{\alpha-1}. V(t) is supposed to be periodic, bounded, continuously differentiable in the strong sense and such that the matrix entries with respect to the spectral decomposition of H obey the estimate |V(t)_{m,n}|0, p>=1 and \gamma=(1-\alpha)/2. We show that the energy diffusion exponent can be arbitrarily small provided p is sufficiently large and \epsilon is small enough. More precisely, for any initial condition \Psi\in Dom(H^{1/2}), the diffusion of energy is bounded from above as _\Psi(t)=O(t^\sigma) where \sigma=\alpha/(2\ceil{p-1}\gamma-1/2). As an application we consider the Hamiltonian H(t)=|p|^\alpha+\epsilon*v(\theta,t) on L^2(S^1,d\theta) which was discussed earlier in the literature by Howland

Neurophysiology

Contains reports on four research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant B-1865-(C3), Grant MH-04737-02)United States Air Force, Aeronautical Systems Division (Contract AF33(616)-7783)Teagle Foundation, IncorporatedBell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporate