The early cartography of Renfrewshire to 1864

With their detail of past geographical distributions, early maps can be valuable documents in assisting many fields of local study. Much of Scotland's distinctive cartography was channelled into the brief period between the publication of the Blaeu atlas in 1654 and the Ordnance Survey six- and twenty-five inch sheets which first appeared in the 1840s and 1850s. Despite a scarcity of maps, particularly prior to the mid-eighteenth century, Scotland has a uniquely rich cartographic history and the work of early map-makers has contributed to placing "Scotland among the best mapped countries in the world". Unfortunately, this archive of Scotland's past remains largely untapped and study of the maps themselves has been noticeably limited, particularly in the field of cartobibliography (or listing what exists), where few areas have been investigated in detail. This work attempts to fill the gap for Renfrewshire and its burghs of Paisley, Greenock and Port Glasgow. The selected maps are mostly topographical, illustrating the county either as a separate unit or as a major part of a larger area. Maps which cover the whole of Scotland are not discussed, thereby excluding the one-inch Ordnance Survey sheets. Also omitted are large scale plans of estates or significant portions of the county. As the intention is to be as comprehensive as possible, both printed and manuscript maps are listed. Relatively few thematic maps were published before the middle of the nineteenth century but those relating solely to the county are again discussed

Quantitative assessment of the relative risk of ship strike to humpback whales in the Great Barrier Reef

There is global recognition that ship strike represents a significant risk to some populations of whales around the world. Analysis of ship strike records worldwide demonstrates that humpback whales are the second most frequently reported whale species to be struck by a ship. In Australia, both the east and west coast populations of humpback whales are strongly recovering from commercial whaling during the mid-20th century which resulted in populations nearing extinction. On the east coast of Australia the main breeding ground for humpback whales is within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). Both the east and west coast of Australia have also in the past decade experienced considerable coastal and port development associated with an increase in natural resource projects. It is due to substantial coastal development and port expansions related to the mining industry that UNESCO were considering listing the GBRWHA on the 'List of World Heritage in Danger' and are currently monitoring Australia's commitment to its sustainability. Along with considerable port expansion along the GBRWHA coastline to meet increasing global demands for coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG), there is projected to be substantial increases in shipping traffic. Conservative estimates are predicting a doubling of shipping traffic by 2025, albeit not for all Queensland ports. Considering the rapid rate of increase of the east Australian population of humpback whales (approximately 10.9% increase per annum), there is potential for increased interaction between humpback whales and shipping traffic and increased risk of ship strikes to the whales on their breeding ground. To understand the risk of ship strike to humpbacks in the GBRWHA, it is necessary to understand the distribution and densities for both whales and shipping. This report uses current knowledge on the distribution of humpback whales within the GBRWHA from aerial survey data from 2012 and 2014 and contemporary (2012-2014) shipping traffic data of ships travelling within the GBR to provide estimates of relative risk of ship strike to humpback whales within the GBR

Quantifying ship strike risk to breeding whales in a multiple-use marine park: The Great Barrier Reef

Spatial risk assessments are an effective management tool used in multiple-use marine parks to balance the needs for conservation of natural properties and to provide for varying socio-economic demands for development. The multiple-use Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) has recently experienced substantial increases in current and proposed port expansions and subsequent shipping. Globally, large whale populations are recovering from commercial whaling and ship strike is a significant threat to some populations and a potential welfare issue for others. Within the GBRMP, there is spatial conflict between the main breeding ground of the east Australian humpback whale population and the main inner shipping route that services several large natural resource export ports. The east coast humpback whale population is one of the largest humpback whale populations globally, exponentially increasing (11% per annum) close to the maximum potential rate and estimated to reach pre-exploitation population numbers in the next 4-5 years. We quantify the relative risk of ship strike to calving and mating humpback whales, with areas of highest relative risk coinciding with areas offshore of two major natural resource export ports. We found females with a dependent calf had a higher risk of ship strike compared to groups without a calf when standardized for group size and their inshore movement and coastal dependence later in the breeding season increases their overlap with shipping, although their lower relative abundance decreases risk. The formalization of a two-way shipping route has provided little change to risk and projected risk estimates indicate a three- to five-fold increase in risk to humpback whales from ship strike over the next 10 years. Currently, the whale Protection Area in the GBRMP does not cover the main mating and calving areas, whereas provisions within the legislation for establishment of a Special Management Area during the peak breeding season in high-risk areas could occur. A common mitigation strategy of re-routing shipping lanes to reduce risk is not a viable option for the GBRMP due to physical spatial limitations imposed by the reef, whereas speed restrictions could be the most feasible based on current ship speeds

Reduced order models for control of fluids using the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm

In feedback flow control, one of the challenges is to develop mathematical models that describe the fluid physics relevant to the task at hand, while neglecting irrelevant details of the flow in order to remain computationally tractable. A number of techniques are presently used to develop such reduced-order models, such as proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), and approximate snapshot-based balanced truncation, also known as balanced POD. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses: for instance, POD models can behave unpredictably and perform poorly, but they can be computed directly from experimental data; approximate balanced truncation often produces vastly superior models to POD, but requires data from adjoint simulations, and thus cannot be applied to experimental data. In this paper, we show that using the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) \citep{JuPa-85}, one can theoretically obtain exactly the same reduced order models as by balanced POD. Moreover, the models can be obtained directly from experimental data, without the use of adjoint information. The algorithm can also substantially improve computational efficiency when forming reduced-order models from simulation data. If adjoint information is available, then balanced POD has some advantages over ERA: for instance, it produces modes that are useful for multiple purposes, and the method has been generalized to unstable systems. We also present a modified ERA procedure that produces modes without adjoint information, but for this procedure, the resulting models are not balanced, and do not perform as well in examples. We present a detailed comparison of the methods, and illustrate them on an example of the flow past an inclined flat plate at a low Reynolds number.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

String Imprints from a Pre-inflationary Era

We derive the equations governing the dynamics of cosmic strings in a flat anisotropic universe of Bianchi type I and study the evolution of simple cosmic string loop solutions. We show that the anisotropy of the background can have a characteristic effect in the loop motion. We discuss some cosmological consequences of these findings and, by extrapolating our results to cosmic string networks, we comment on their ability to survive an inflationary epoch, and hence be a possible fossil remnant (still visible today) of an anisotropic phase in the very early universe.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Scaling in Numerical Simulations of Domain Walls

We study the evolution of domain wall networks appearing after phase transitions in the early Universe. They exhibit interesting dynamical scaling behaviour which is not yet well understood, and are also simple models for the more phenomenologically acceptable string networks. We have run numerical simulations in two- and three-dimensional lattices of sizes up to 4096^3. The theoretically predicted scaling solution for the wall area density A ~ 1/t is supported by the simulation results, while no evidence of a logarithmic correction reported in previous studies could be found. The energy loss mechanism appears to be direct radiation, rather than the formation and collapse of closed loops or spheres. We discuss the implications for the evolution of string networks.Comment: 7pp RevTeX, 9 eps files (including six 220kB ones

Survey of Sensor Technology for Aircraft Cabin Environment Sensing

The aircraft cabin environment is unique due to the proximity of the passengers, the need for cabin pressurization, and the low humidity. All of these aspects are complicated by the fact that the aircraft is a semi-enclosed structure. There is an increased desire to monitor the aircraft cabin environment with various sensors for comfort and safety. However, the aircraft cabin environment is composed of a large number of factors. Some of these factors can include air quality, temperature, level of pressurization, and motion of the aircraft. Therefore, many types of sensors must be used to monitor aircraft environments. A variety of technology options are often available for each sensor. Consequently, a fair number of tradeoffs need to be carefully considered when designing a sensor monitoring system for the aircraft cabin environment. For instance, a system designer may need to decide if the increased accuracy of a sensor using a particular technology is worth the increased power consumption over a similar sensor employing a more efficient, less accurate technology. In order to achieve a good solution, a designer needs to understand the tradeoffs and general operation for all of the different sensor technologies that could be used in the design. The purpose of this paper is to provide a survey of the current sensor technology. The primary focus of this paper is on sensors and technologies that cover the most common aspects of aircraft cabin environment monitoring. The first half of this paper details the basic operation of different sensor technologies. The second half covers the individual environmental conditions which need to be sensed. This will include the benefits, limitations, and applications of the different technologies available for each particular type of sensor

Moorean Absurdities and the Nature of Assertion

10.1080/00048409612347111Australasian Journal of Philosophy741135-14

Saturn's icy satellites and rings investigated by Cassini - VIMS. III. Radial compositional variability

In the last few years Cassini-VIMS, the Visible and Infared Mapping Spectrometer, returned to us a comprehensive view of the Saturn's icy satellites and rings. After having analyzed the satellites' spectral properties (Filacchione et al. (2007a)) and their distribution across the satellites' hemispheres (Filacchione et al. (2010)), we proceed in this paper to investigate the radial variability of icy satellites (principal and minor) and main rings average spectral properties. This analysis is done by using 2,264 disk-integrated observations of the satellites and a 12x700 pixels-wide rings radial mosaic acquired with a spatial resolution of about 125 km/pixel. The comparative analysis of these data allows us to retrieve the amount of both water ice and red contaminant materials distributed across Saturn's system and the typical surface regolith grain sizes. These measurements highlight very striking differences in the population here analyzed, which vary from the almost uncontaminated and water ice-rich surfaces of Enceladus and Calypso to the metal/organic-rich and red surfaces of Iapetus' leading hemisphere and Phoebe. Rings spectra appear more red than the icy satellites in the visible range but show more intense 1.5-2.0 micron band depths. The correlations among spectral slopes, band depths, visual albedo and phase permit us to cluster the saturnian population in different spectral classes which are detected not only among the principal satellites and rings but among co-orbital minor moons as well. Finally, we have applied Hapke's theory to retrieve the best spectral fits to Saturn's inner regular satellites using the same methodology applied previously for Rhea data discussed in Ciarniello et al. (2011).Comment: 44 pages, 27 figures, 7 tables. Submitted to Icaru

Solar Wakes of Dark Matter Flows

We analyze the effect of the Sun's gravitational field on a flow of cold dark matter (CDM) through the solar system in the limit where the velocity dispersion of the flow vanishes. The exact density and velocity distributions are derived in the case where the Sun is a point mass. The results are extended to the more realistic case where the Sun has a finite size spherically symmetric mass distribution. We find that regions of infinite density, called caustics, appear. One such region is a line caustic on the axis of symmetry, downstream from the Sun, where the flow trajectories cross. Another is a cone-shaped caustic surface near the trajectories of maximum scattering angle. The trajectories forming the conical caustic pass through the Sun's interior and probe the solar mass distribution, raising the possibility that the solar mass distribution may some day be measured by a dark matter detector on Earth. We generalize our results to the case of flows with continuous velocity distributions, such as that predicted by the isothermal model of the Milky Way halo.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figure