Ancient harbour infrastructure in the Levant: tracking the birth and rise of new forms of anthropogenic pressure

Beirut, Sidon and Tyre were major centres of maritime trade from the Bronze Age onwards. This economic prosperity generated increased pressures on the local environment, through urbanization and harbour development. Until now, however, the impact of expanding seaport infrastructure has largely been neglected and there is a paucity of data concerning the environmental stresses caused by these new forms of anthropogenic impacts. Sediment archives from Beirut, Sidon and Tyre are key to understanding human impacts in harbour areas because: (i) they lie at the heart of ancient trade networks; (ii) they encompass the emergence of early maritime infrastructure; and (iii) they enable human alterations of coastal areas to be characterized over long timescales. Here we report multivariate analyses of litho- and biostratigraphic data to probe human stressors in the context of their evolving seaport technologies. The statistical outcomes show a notable break between natural and artificial sedimentation that began during the Iron Age. Three anchorage phases can be distinguished: (i) Bronze Age proto-harbours that correspond to natural anchorages, with minor human impacts; (ii) semi-artificial Iron Age harbours, with stratigraphic evidence for artificial reinforcement of the natural endowments; and (iii) heavy human impacts leading to completely artificial Roman and Byzantine harbours

Perceived Post-Graduate Job Prospects of University of Montana Wildlife Biology Students

Perceived Post-Graduate Job Prospects of University of Montana Wildlife Biology Students. The wildlife biology job growth over the next decade is projected to be 1% (US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022). In courses and through personal experiences students are made aware of the challenges of pursuing a career in this field. I want to determine the perceived post-graduate job prospects current UM Wildlife Biology students hold. Do current students have a positive or negative perception of their job outlook? Further, I want to determine how well students think they have been prepared for a career in this field by our program? I will survey current juniors and seniors in the UM Wildlife Biology Program. They are a key demographic as they are aware of the challenges of their career path and less likely to change majors and are hypothetically committed to acquiring the wildlife degree, and therefore, are the group most focused on career prospects in the wildlife field. An optional survey will be provided in upper division wildlife biology courses and clubs so that we can reach our key demographic. We will ask their opinion regarding certain post-graduation milestones such as getting a job in the wildlife field or pursuing a masters or PhD in this field. The importance of this information is twofold. Firstly, the opinions of undergraduate students are a gauge as to their dedication to continuing into their field of study, particularly one as specialized and competitive as wildlife biology. Secondly, these students represent a large investment in the future of this field both by the university who input facilities and capital, and by the professors who are established influential researchers. The investment of time by these professors represents a reduction in the time they could otherwise be investing in something else either on a professional or personal front. Crucially this is a nonrefundable investment, as there is a fixed amount of time a professor can give towards the effort of training future technicians and biologists. If those trained graduates are not entering or staying in the field but going elsewhere because of their believed prospects, then that represents a failure to recoup the invested resources put into those individuals by the university, the program and their professors. Work Cite U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2022. Zoologists and wildlife biologists : Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved December 5, 2022, from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/life-physical-and-social-science/zoologists-and-wildlife-biologists.ht

A ground-based 21cm Baryon acoustic oscillation survey

Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) provide a robust standard ruler with which to measure the acceleration of the Universe. The BAO feature has so far been detected in optical galaxy surveys. Intensity mapping of neutral hydrogen emission with a ground-based radio telescope provides another promising window for measuring BAO at redshifts of order unity for relatively low cost. While the cylindrical radio telescope (CRT) proposed for these measurements will have excellent redshift resolution, it will suffer from poor angular resolution (a few arcminutes at best). We investigate the effect of angular resolution on the standard ruler test with BAO, using the Dark Energy Task Force Figure of Merit as a benchmark. We then extend the analysis to include variations in the parameters characterizing the telescope and the underlying physics. Finally, we optimize the survey parameters (holding total cost fixed) and present an example of a CRT BAO survey that is competitive with Stage III dark energy experiments. The tools developed here form the backbone of a publicly available code that can be used to obtain estimates of cost and Figure of Merit for any set of parameters.Comment: ApJ accepted version. Important changes in section 2 and 3 - uses a more realistic instrument response model and removed the discussion of aliasing effect. The conclusions remain the same. Typos fixed (including eq 5). 11 emulated apj pages with 7 figures and 1 tabl

Stochastic Cooling Overview

The status of stochastic cooling and developments over the years are reviewed with reference to much of the original work. Both theoretical and technological subjects are considered.Comment: 10 pages. Includes an extensive bibliograph

Ion Trapping in the Accumulator

The beam space charge (- for {bar p}'s) will attract positive ions. In the absence of additional fields (clearing electrodes, e.g.) these ions will be trapped in the beam potential well. The depth of this potential well has been calculated for some geometries relevant for the accumulator