Assessment of alternative strategies for sludge disposal into deep ocean basins off Southern California

The general framework of engineering alternatives for regional ocean sludge disposal is well described in a report by Raksit, and will not be repeated here. The various ocean disposal alternatives are less costly than all land-disposal and incineration/pyrolysis systems studied. Even though ocean sludge disposal is currently contrary to both state and federal regulations, it is hoped that this study will advance our scientific and engineering knowledge of the behavior and effects of sludge discharge in deep water, in case the regulatory policy is reexamined in the future. With this report we hope we have demonstrated the potential and difficulties of some new modeling techniques for predicting the effects of sludge discharge in the ocean. In the future. we believe it will be possible to formulate policy of ocean sludge discharges with much better case-by-case predictions of impacts for comparison with other alternatives (such as land disposal). not only for the Los Angeles/Orange County areas, but for all coastal urban areas

Retroperitoneal extramedullary hematopoietic pseudotumor in ataxia-telangiectasia.

Ataxia-telangiectasia confers a significant increase in the development of several cancer types, most commonly leukemia and lymphoma. However, as the natural history for these patients is evolving and their lifespan is increasing, there is the potential for the development of additional uncommon tumors in an already rare patient population. We report the first case, to our knowledge, of an incidental retroperitoneal tumor in a 26-year-old woman undergoing evaluation for hepatic dysfunction. The mass was suspicious for retroperitoneal sarcoma, but proved to be an extramedullary hematopoietic pseudotumor after extensive pathologic evaluation. The changing landscape of neoplasms associated with ataxia-telangiectasia is discussed with emphasis on previously underreported benign and malignant tumors

Evolution and Usage of the Portal Data Archive: 10-Year Retrospective

The Portal transportation data archive (http://portal.its.pdx.edu/) was begun in June 2004 in collaboration with the Oregon Department of Transportation, with a single data source: freeway loop detector data. In 10 years, Portal has grown to contain approximately 3 TB of transportation-related data from a wide variety of systems and sources, including freeway data, arterial signal data, travel times from Bluetooth detection systems, transit data, and bicycle count data. Over its 10-year existence, Portal has expanded both in the type of data that it receives and in the geographic regions from which it gets data. This paper discusses the evolution of Portal. The paper describes the new data, new regions, and new systems that have been added and how those changes have affected the archive. The paper concludes with a section on the uses of Portal that provides several examples of how Portal data have been used by regional partners, with a focus on measuring the performance of the multimodal transportation system, but also including educational elements and research

On the evolution of the inner disk radius with flux in the neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Serpens X-1

We analyze the latest \emph{Suzaku} observation of the bright neutron star low-mass X-ray binary Serpens X-1 taken in 2013 October and 2014 April. The observation was taken using the burst mode and only suffered mild pile-up effects. A broad iron line is clearly detected in the X-ray spectrum. We test different models and find that the iron line is asymmetric and best interpreted by relativistic reflection. The relativistically broadened iron line is generally believed to originate from the innermost regions of the accretion disk, where strong gravity causes a series of special and general relativistic effects. The iron line profile indicates an inner radius of $\sim8$ $R_{\rm G}$, which gives an upper limit on the size of the neutron star. The asymmetric iron line has been observed in a number of previous observations, which gives several inner radius measurements at different flux states. We find that the inner radius of Serpens X-1 does not evolve significantly over the range of $L/L_{\rm Edd}\sim0.4-0.6$, and the lack of flux dependence of the inner radius implies that the accretion disk may be truncated outside the innermost stable circular orbit by the boundary layer rather than the stellar magnetic field.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Effects of shear on eggs and larvae of striped bass, morone saxatilis, and white perch, M. americana

Shear stress, generated by water movement, can kill fish eggs and larvae by causing rotation or deformation. Through the use of an experimental apparatus, a series of shear (as dynes/cm2)-mortality equations for fixed time exposures were generated for striped bass and white perch eggs and larvae. Exposure of striped bass eggs to a shear level of 350 dynes/cm2 kills 36% of the eggs in 1 min; 69% in 2 min, and 88% in 4 min; exposure of larvae to 350 dynes/cm2 kills 9.3% in 1 min, 30.0% in 2 min, and 68.1% in 4 min. A shear level of 350 dynes/cm2 kills 38% of the white perch eggs in 1 min, 41% in 2 min, 89% in 5 min, 96% in 10 min, and 98% in 20 min. A shear level of 350 dynes/cm2 applied to white perch larvae destroys 38% of the larvae in 1 min, 52% in 2 min, and 75% in 4 min. Results are experimentally used in conjunction with the determination of shear levels in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and ship movement for the estimation of fish egg and larval mortalities in the field