Setting the tone: Considerations for educating the next generation of sound reproduction professionals

Despite the increase in prevalence of music technology and related programs industry bodies such as creative and cultural skills council, have continued to highlight the requirement for technically competent graduates to meet the growing demand from the wider audio and creative industries. Drawing upon academic literature, government and educational publications and empirical data gathered during student feedback and focus groups this paper explores the authors’ experiences of developing the curriculum in the sound reproduction subject area on an undergraduate Music Technology BSc (Hons) course. Commencing with an overview of the areas of the sound reproduction curriculum, the paper turns to some of the challenges faced by the authors in delivering this subject area in a formal educational setting. The paper then concludes by summarising some useful pedagogical approaches to deliver sound reproduction themes and points towards further ways in which the required skills and knowledge for industry could be addressed

Synchronous deposition of volcanic ash and sulfate aerosols over Greenland in 1783 from the Laki eruption (Iceland)

Sulfate aerosols from the 1783–1784 A.D. Laki eruption are widely used as a reference horizon for constraining Greenland ice core time scales, yet the timing of the arrival of the sulfate remains under discussion. Two ice cores from western Greenland, analyzed with high temporal resolution, confirm that sulfate aerosols arrived over Greenland late in 1783, concomitant with the tephra, elevated concentrations of Cd, Bi, and Tl, all indicators of volcanic emissions, and with a short‐lived Rare Earth Elements anomaly. Thereafter sulfate deposition declined rapidly. Very modest concentrations of sulfate in 1784 snowfall, evident in six Greenland cores, suggest a relatively short (less than 1 year) atmospheric residence time and an injection height limited to the lower stratosphere. An improved estimate of the associated stratospheric sulfate burden is calculated and provides an important input for models assessing climatic impacts of this volcanic eruption

Atmospheric circulation and cyclone frequency variations linked to the primary modes of Greenland snow accumulation

Data from 34 Greenland firn cores, extending from 1982 to 1996, are used to identify spatial accumulation variability patterns and their associated atmospheric circulation and cyclone frequencies. The first principal component, representing west-central Greenland accumulation, is correlated to NAO variability, having increased southwesterly (northeasterly) flow over that area during high (low) accumulation winters. The flow is linked to a relative increase in cyclone activity on the west central region of the ice sheet during high accumulation periods. The second principal component represents accumulation over southeastern Greenland where strong westerly flow leads to high accumulation and an increase in lee cyclones on the east and southeast coast. The study provides evidence that increased cyclone activity occurs over, or immediately adjacent to, areas experiencing anomalously high accumulation and it is important to distinguish lee cyclones from ‘‘Icelandic’’ cyclones, as they produce opposite precipitation effects over the ice sheet

Accumulation at South Pole: Comparison of two 900-year records

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999JD900501.Two 900-year records of annual accumulation at South Pole are compared to evaluate the origin and significance of observed variations. Despite difficulties establishing absolute timescales, due to problems identifying annual layer markers, the two records can be correlated with confidence after moderate smoothing. This correlation shows that over the time period considered (1050–1956 A.D.) no climatically significant changes in accumulation occurred. Instead, fluctuations preserved in the two cores reflect spatial variations in snow accumulation, associated with nonuniform deposition induced by surface relief on the scale of several kilometers

Annual net snow accumulation over southern Greenland from 1975 to 1998

As part of NASA's Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA), extensive ice core measurements of annual net water-equivalent accumulation have been made recently around the southern Greenland ice sheet. Analysis of these measurements demonstrates that annual and seasonal accumulation patterns are sometimes regional, with temporal variability in accumulation correlated over large areas. Using this unique, widely distributed set of contemporaneous accumulation measurements, as well as available previously published observations, we developed maps of annual net snow accumulation south of �73° N for each year from 1975 to 1998. Here net snow accumulation is defined as snow accumulation minus ablation. In order to achieve a more consistent spatial distibution of core measurements for each of the 24 years in the study period, some of the observed records were extrapolated up to 5 years using empirical relationships between monthly precipitation measured at coastal stations and the observed ice core net accumulation records. Initial comparisons between the maps of annual net snow accumulation and similar maps of net accumulation derived from meteorological model simulations show excellent agreement in the temporal variability of accumulation, although significant differences in the magnitude of accumulation remain. Both measurements and model simulations indicate that annual net accumulation, averaged over all higher-elevation regions (above 2000 m) of the southern ice sheet, varies significantly from one year to the next. The maximum year-to-year change during the 24-year study period occurred between calendar years 1995 and 1996, when the average annual net snow accumulation increased by 101 and 172 kg m-2 yr-1, or 37 and 57, for observations and model simulations, respectively. Taken alone, this 1-year change in average net snow accumulation corresponds to a drop in sea level of �0.16 and �0.28 mm yr-1. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union

Rapid remediation of sandy sulfuric subsoils using straw-derived dissolved organic matter

When acid sulfate soils dry, oxidation of pyrite can cause acidification and formation of iron (Fe) oxyhydroxy sulfate phases such as jarosite. Remediation via re-establishment of reducing conditions requires submergence and addition of biodegradable organic carbon (OC) to stimulate activity of reducing bacteria. Addition of fresh plant litter has been shown to activate reducing bacteria, likely due to the release of readily available soluble organic matter. However, the effectiveness of soluble organic matter from plant residues has not been tested yet. Here, we tested the potential of wheat straw-derived dissolved OC (DOC) for remediation of a sandy sulfuric (pH < 4) soil. In a second set of experiments, we used combinations of wheat straw-derived DOC with lactate, which is a preferred substrate of sulfate reducing bacteria. All incubation experiments were conducted in the dark at 20 °C. The results showed that addition of DOC from wheat straw induces reduction reactions and rapidly increases the pH by 2–3 units after 3 weeks of incubation under submerged conditions. Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction revealed that jarosite was lost after 200 days of anoxic incubation. Short range-ordered FeIII oxyhydroxides were formed, most likely by FeII-catalysed transformation of jarosite. A second addition of DOC, as well as the addition of lactate, resulted in the almost complete loss of jarosite with increased proportions of FeIII oxyhydroxides in the remaining solids, but not in the formation of FeII sulfides. The formation of FeIII oxyhydroxides reduces the risk of both Fe leaching and renewed acidification in the event of future oxidation. The results suggest that deep injection of wheat straw-derived DOC is a promising approach for rapid and sustainable remediation of sandy sulfuric subsoils. © 2022 The Author

Nonclassical 2-photon interference with separate intrinsically narrowband fibre sources

In this paper, we demonstrate a source of photon pairs based on four-wave-mixing in photonic crystal fibres. Careful engineering of the phase matching conditions in the fibres enables us to create photon pairs at 597 nm and 860 nm in an intrinsically factorable state showing no spectral correlations. This allows for heralding one photon in a pure state and hence renders narrow band filtering obsolete. The source is narrow band, bright and achieves an overall detection efficiency of up to 21% per photon. For the first time, a Hong-Ou-Mandel interference with unfiltered photons from separate fibre sources is presented.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

A detailed assessment of snow accumulation in katabatic wind areas on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

This is the published version, also available here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/97JD02337.An investigation of time dependent snow accumulation and erosion dynamics in a wind-swept environment was undertaken at two automatic weather stations sites on the Ross Ice Shelf between January 1994 and November 1995 using newly developed instrumentation employing a technique which automatically disperses inert, colored (high albedo) glass microspheres onto the snow surface at fixed intervals throughout the year. The microspheres act as a time marker and tracer to allow the accumulation rate and wind erosion processes to be quantified with a high temporal resolution. Snow core and snow pit sampling was conducted twice during the study period to identify microsphere horizons in the annual snow accumulation profile, allowing the snow accumulation/erosion events to be reconstructed. The two sites chosen for this investigation have characteristically different mean wind speeds and therefore allow a comparative examination on the role of wind on ice sheet growth. Mass accumulation rate at the two sites for the 14-day integration periods available ranged from 0.0 to >2.0 kg m−2 d−1. The mean mass accumulation rate during the study period was greater at the site with stronger winds (0.69 kg m−2 d−1) than the site with lower mean wind speeds (0.61 kg m−2 d−1); however, the difference between the two means is not statistically significant. Accumulation rates derived from an ultrasonic snow depth gauge operated at one of the sites are compared to the actual tracer-derived accumulation rates and show the limitations of only having a measure of snow surface height with no instantaneous measurements of the snow density profile. Snow depth gauge derived accumulation rates were found to be greatly overestimated during high-accumulation periods and were greatly underestimated during low-accumulation periods