A Cultural Resources Investigation of the W. L. Jenkins Park Phase 3 Improvements, Harris County, Texas

In November of 2016, Moore Archeological Consulting, Inc., conducted an intensive pedestrian cultural resources survey of a tract of land in eastern Harris County, Texas. The project involves a proposed expansion and improvements to an existing park facility in far east Harris County, Texas, which covers a total area of roughly 70 acres. The project area is bounded to the south by Highway 225, to the east by Cary Bayou, to the west by a railroad line and Cary Cedar Bayou Road. The project will involve improvements to the existing W. L. Jenkins Park including construction of trails, backstops, a restroom, a splash pad, picnic facilities, a playground, and some parking alterations. Some of the anticipated impacts within the project area may be deeper than one (1) meter, though design of the facility has not yet reached the stage where specifics of impacts could be known with certainty. However, most of the impacts will be less than one meter. The proposed project area can be found on the Mont Belvieu (299409) USGS topographical map. The objectives of the investigation were to locate and identify cultural materials, sites, or historic properties within the proposed impact area, and to prepare management recommendations regarding any identified resources. The investigation was conducted for The City of Baytown Parks and Recreation Department, under Texas Antiquities Permit Number 7829. The field investigations were conducted by project archeologist Randy Ferguson, and field technician Tom Nuckols, Catherine Jalbert, and Stephanie Orsini under the supervision of the project’s principal investigator, Douglas Mangum. An intensive pedestrian field survey of the project area was conducted, resulting in 97 shovel tests being excavated. Three new historic sites were recorded (two homestead remnants [41HR1191 and 41HR1192], and a dump [41HR1198]), and two other artifact bearing localities were examined. The historic homestead sites are likely associated with the occupation and use of the tract by the Jenkins family who lend their name to the park. Both sites appear to have been razed in the 1970s based on aerial imagery, the overall paucity of artifacts, and the disturbed nature of the soils in the positive and surrounding negative shovel tests. The dump site appears to have been used both as a trash dump during occupation and as a place to dump debris from the razing of the homesteads. None of the sites appear to possess integrity or potential for future study and as a result, no further archeological work is recommended. The other two localities proved, after additional examination, to be historic debris either resulting from normal park usage or possibly the dumping of debris from the demolition of the historic homesteads in the 1970s. Artifacts (a total of three were collected) and paper records will be curated at the Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Texas-San Antonio. In the event that archeological deposits or features should be encountered during construction, work should cease in the immediate vicinity and the Archeology Division of the Texas Historical Commission contacted for further consultation

Ternary Nitride Semiconductors in the Rocksalt Crystal Structure

Inorganic nitrides with wurtzite crystal structures are well-known semiconductors used in optoelectronic devices. In contrast, rocksalt-based nitrides are known for their metallic and refractory properties. Breaking this dichotomy, here we report on ternary nitride semiconductors with rocksalt crystal structures, remarkable optoelectronic properties, and the general chemical formula Mg$_{x}$TM$_{1-x}$N (TM=Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb). These compounds form over a broad metal composition range and our experiments show that Mg-rich compositions are nondegenerate semiconductors with visible-range optical absorption onsets (1.8-2.1 eV). Lattice parameters are compatible with growth on a variety of substrates, and epitaxially grown MgZrN$_{2}$ exhibits remarkable electron mobilities approaching 100 cm$^{2}$V$^{-1}$s$^{-1}$. Ab initio calculations reveal that these compounds have disorder-tunable optical properties, large dielectric constants and low carrier effective masses that are insensitive to disorder. Overall, these experimental and theoretical results highlight Mg$_{G-3}$TMN$_{G-2}$ rocksalts as a new class of semiconductor materials with promising properties for optoelectronic applications

Galactic H2CO Densitometry I: Pilot survey of Ultracompact HII regions and methodology

We present a pilot survey of 21 lines of sight towards UCHII regions in the H2CO 1-1 (6cm) and 2-2 (2cm) transitions, using the H2CO centimeter lines as a molecular gas densitometer. Using Arecibo and Green Bank beam-matched observations, we measure the density of 51 detected H2CO line pairs and present upper limits on density for an additional 24 detected 1-1 lines. We analyze the systematic uncertainties in the H2CO densitometer, achieving H2 density measurements with accuracies ~ 0.1-0.3 dex. The densities measured are not correlated with distance, implying that it is possible to make accurate density measurements throughout the galaxy without a distance bias. We confirm that ultracompact HII regions are associated with gas at densities n(H2)~10^5cm^-3. The densities measured in line-of-sight molecular clouds suggest that they consist of low volume filling factor (f~10^-2) gas at high (n(H2)>10^4cm^-3) density, which is inconsistent with purely supersonic turbulence and requires high-density clumping greater than typically observed in gravoturbulent simulations. We observe complex line morphologies that indicate density variations with velocity around UCHII regions, and we classify a subset of the UCHII molecular envelopes as collapsing or expanding. We compare these measurements to Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey 1.1mm observations, and note that most UCHII regions have 1.1mm emission consisting of significant (5-70%) free-free emission and are therefore not necessarily dominated by optically thin dust emission. A comparison of our data with the Mangum et al. starburst sample shows that the area filling factor of dense (n(H2)~10^5cm^-3) molecular gas in typical starburst galaxies is <~0.01, but in extreme starburst galaxies like Arp 220, is ~0.1, suggesting that Arp 220 is physically similar to an oversized UCHII region.Comment: 39 pages, 46 figures, 8 tables, EmulateApJ 2-column format. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full resolution version: http://casa.colorado.edu/~ginsbura/papers/h2co_pilot_draft0607.pdf, published at http://stacks.iop.org/0004-637X/736/14

Hydrographic observations from the US/PRC Cooperative Program in the Western Equatorial Pacific Ocean, cruises 5-8

In support of the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program, investigators from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) from both Qingdao (First Institute) and Guangzhou (South China Sea Branch) conducted hydrographic observations aboard the Chinese R/V Xiang Yang Hong 14 in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean. The objective of this component of the TOGA program was to document the water mass property distributions of the western equatorial Pacific and describe the oceanic velocity field. The four cruises summarized here were conducted during the period November 1988 to July 1990 and are the final half of an eight cruise repeated survey of the region begun in 1985. Conductivity-Temperature-Depth-Oxygen (CTD/O2) stations were collected to a minimum cast depth of 2500m or the bottom when shallower. The cruises reoccupied the same stations to provide temporal information. Summarized listings of CTD/02 data together with selected physical properties of sea water for these cruises are provided here, as well as a description of the hardware used and an explanation of the data reduction techniques employed.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Grant No. NA85AA-D-AC117

Hydrographic observations from the US/PRC Cooperative Program in the Western Equatorial Pacific Ocean, cruises 1-4

In support of the Tropical Oceans and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program, investigators from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), NOAA Pacific Marine Envionmental Laboratory and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) from both Qingdao (First Institute) and Guangzhou (South China Sea Branch) conducted hydrographic observations aboard the Chinese Research vessels Xiang Yang Hong 5 and Xiang Yang Hong 14 in the western equatorial Pacific. The objective of this component of the TOGA program was to document the water mass property distributions of the western equatorial Pacific Ocean and describe the oceanic velocity field. The four cruises summarized here were conducted during the period November 1985 to June 1988 and are the first half of an eight cruise repeated survey of the region scheduled to be completed in spring 1990. Conductivity-Temperatue-Depth-Oxygen (CTD/02) stations were collected to a minimum cast depth of 2,500 m or the bottom when shallower. The cruises reoccupied the same stations to provide temporal information. Summarized listings of CTD/O2 data together with selected physical properties of sea water for these cruises are provided here, as well as a description of the hardware used and an explanation of the data reduction tehniques employed.Funding was provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration