Getting Ready for a Nuclear-Ready Iran

As Iran edges closer to acquiring a nuclear bomb and its missiles extend an ever darker diplomatic shadow over the Middle East and Europe, Iran is likely to pose three threats. First, Iran could dramatically up the price of oil by interfering with the free passage of vessels in and through the Persian Gulf as it did during the l980s or by threatening to use terrorist proxies to target other states\u27 oil facilities. Second, it could diminish American influence in the Gulf and Middle East by increasing the pace and scope of terrorist activities against Iraq, Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states, Israel, and other perceived supporters of the United States. Finally, it could become a nuclear proliferation model for the world and its neighbors (including many states that otherwise would be more dependent on the United States for their security) by continuing to insist that it has a right to make nuclear fuel under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and then withdrawing once it decides to get a bomb. To contain and deter Iran from posing such threats, the United States and its friends could take a number of steps: increasing military cooperation (particularly in the naval sphere) to deter Iranian naval interference; reducing the vulnerability of oil facilities in the Gulf outside of Iran to terrorist attacks, building and completing pipelines in the lower Gulf region that would allow most of the non-Iranian oil and gas in the Gulf to be exported without having to transit the Straits of Hormuz; diplomatically isolating Iran by calling for the demilitarization of the Straits and adjacent islands, creating country-neutral rules against Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty state members who are suspected of violating the treaty from getting nuclear assistance from other state members and making withdrawal from the treaty more difficult; encouraging Israel to set the pace of nuclear restraint in the region by freezing its large reactor at Dimona and calling on all other states that have large nuclear reactors to follow suit; and getting the Europeans to back targeted economic sanctions against Iran if it fails to shut down its most sensitive nuclear activities.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1726/thumbnail.jp

Predicting spawning habitat for coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), and steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) using geospatially constructed stream morphology from high-resolution lidar-derived digital elevation model and field survey data in the Indian Creek watershed, Mendocino County, California

Restoration of anadromous salmonid habitat is of primary importance to the economic, historical, and cultural geography of the Pacific Northwest. Derivation and use of geospatial habitat models as guides to pinpoint key areas where limited restoration funding can be cost-effectively employed is of great importance. To this purpose, 1 meter resolution lidar-derived Digital Elevation Model data was acquired for the Indian Creek and neighboring watersheds in Mendocino County, California, and used together with field-acquired geomorphic stream data to geospatially model stream widths, depths, and streambank morphology. These geospatial covariates were field-verified in selected locations and then used in conjunction with field surveyed habitat presence data and substrate data to model potential anadromous salmonid species spawning habitat. Probability surfaces, each comprising the areal extent of the Indian Creek stream system and representing the probability for spawning habitat occurrence, were developed for each of the species of interest. The mean area under the curve (AUC) for 100 model replications for Chinook, Coho, and Steelhead were 0.954, 0.951, and 0.958, with standard deviations of 0.036, 0.034, and 0.036, respectively. In contrast to other models that solely use linear lengths of stream, the models developed in this work incorporate modeled stream bankfull widths and modeled stream corridor morphology, thus allowing additional interpretation and prediction involving the amount of species’ use of specific streams and watersheds. Models were field-verified by California Department of Fish and Wildlife fisheries biologist staff and Pacific Watershed Associates engineering geologists and field scientist staff as being representative of actual field conditions, thus assuring the value of modeling results and methodology in future projects and research

Fish Assemblage Dynamics and Red Drum Habitat Selection in Bayou St. John and Associated Urban Waterways located within the City of New Orleans, Louisiana

Bayou St. John (BSJ) and City Park Lakes and Lagoons (CPLL) are urban waterways in New Orleans, Louisiana. I studied habitat selection of red drum in BSJ, and fish assemblage change in BSJ and CPLL over 40 years. Temperature was found to be the best predictor of red drum habitat selection in Bayou St. John, while salinity and change in depth also were found to be good predictors for certain sites. Potential prey item abundance did not appear to influence habitat selection. Using data from 1971 – 2010, nearshore habitats in CPLL were affected by Hurricane Katrina, but have sense recovered and nearshore habitats in BSJ were found to have decreased diversity. Pelagic habitats in both areas were found stable across 40 years. Since 2006, nearshore assemblages were similar for CPLL and BSJ with a decrease in fishes from Order: Cyprinodontiformes and an increase in other fishes seen across years

Mr. and Mrs. Patrick J. Dawling to Mr. Meredith (11 October 1962)

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mercorr_pro/1032/thumbnail.jp

Mr. Jonathan P. Berger: Gentle Conflations

Sentimentality is a critical aspect of human existence because it is human-natural, agendered, and provides ground for gentle conflation of the domestic sphere and the roles within it. As an artist, I am able to utilize sentimentality to open possibilities and welcome, instead of molest, viewers into contemplation with the assumed norms of domesticity. With its origins founded in the Age of Enlightenment, sentimentality was a praiseworthy endeavor, one based on intelligence and contemplation. I define sentimentality as the emotional intellect’s way of encoding or decoding the soft emotions surrounding and within objects, people, times or ideas. Soft emotions are those emotions that when positive warm us and when negative nibble away at us. Because of its foundation in our innate emotional intelligence, sentimentality is a human-natural and agendered phenomenon. I posit that sentimentality can be strategically used to induce gentle conflation between world-representations, especially those located within the domestic. Essentially, world- representations are bundles of facts that are true in some world, be it fictional or non-fictional. Because of their quietness, soft emotions are able to linger mysteriously around and between their source world-representations, blurring their distinctions. Within my artistic practice I contemplate concepts of labor, love and the fine line between loneliness and solitude found within the domestic sphere by utilizing sentimentality as a tool of gentle conflation

The Effect of Coping Verses Mastery Models on the Level of Self-Efficacy for Self-Regulated Music Learning, Self-Efficacy for Classical Guitar Playing and Guitar Achievement for Undergraduate Non-Music Majors

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of learning via mastery versus coping models on self-efficacy for self-regulated music learning, self-efficacy for classical guitar performance, and achievement in classical guitar performance. A secondary purpose of this study addressed the extent to which these three variables were correlated. The sample consisted of 86 undergraduate non-music majors recruited from two beginning guitar courses at a large Canadian university who reported limited previous experience with playing the guitar. Achievement in classical guitar performance was measured using the researcher-constructed Classical Guitar Performance Rating Scale. Data regarding participants’ self-efficacy for self-regulated music learning and self-efficacy for classical guitar performance were collected using two researcher-constructed scales. Internal reliability coefficients for the two efficacy measures were high (\u3e .90). Internal reliability coefficients for the performance achievement measures ranged from poor (.59) to fair (.72). Interjudge reliability coefficients for the achievement measure were very high (\u3e .95). Participants were randomly assigned to a coping or mastery model instructional condition and received eight instructional video model treatments, once per week over an eight-week time span. Participants performed a 16-measure classical guitar piece after a two-week orientation period and at the conclusion of the eight-week intervention period. Participants completed the Self-Efficacy for Self-Regulated Musical Learning Scale and the Self-Efficacy for Classical Guitar Performance Rating Scale at the outset of the study. These measures were administered again following the eight-week intervention. Results showed that self-efficacy for self-regulated learning significantly increased following exposure to the video model intervention. A significant interaction effect was found for the pre-and postinstruction self-regulated learning sub-dimension of self-instruction with the coping condition demonstrating significantly greater pre-to posttest gains than the mastery condition. Significant main effects for time and condition were found on the self-efficacy for classical guitar performance scale, however no significant interaction effect was obtained. No significant interaction effect was found for the performance achievement variable. Many significant correlations were found between participant experience variables and pre- and posttest scale results. The strongest correlation (r=.75) was between efficacy for self-regulated learning and efficacy for performance at posttes

Integrated Flight and Propulsion Control for Novel Rotorcraft

Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) has increased the design space for aerospace vehicles, especially those categorized as eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing). This new class of vehicles not only looks different from the typical airplane or helicopter, but functions differently as well. A robust understanding of how the vehicle is controlled in both nominal and off-nominal modes will frame the approach to certification for private and commercial VTOL aircraft. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Eagle Flight Research Center (EFRC) is researching how the various methods of DEP thrust control apply to larger eVTOL vehicle operation. Researchers will utilize a mixture of flight dynamic simulation and physical testing in collaboration with FAA experts in rotorcraft handling qualities certification. Outcomes of the research include the characterization of various DEP thrust and moment control methods and how this maps to certifiable vehicle-level attributes like handling qualities in nominal and degraded flight modes. A prototype will be built and tested showing the ability of a quad-rotor vehicle to continue flight after the loss of thrust by failure of one rotor. It is anticipated that a better understanding of the DEP units will help inform the process of certification for the emerging market of urban air mobility vehicles. The data obtained from testing will be utilized to define the possible performance parameters, which will aid in developing appropriate means of compliance for advanced fly-by-wire N-rotor eVTOL vehicles

Scalable Model Viewing

In this paper we describe a novel approach to displaying complex 3D scenes on architecture that does not have support for 3D graphical display. Our system makes use of distributed graphics, employing a standard workstation as a server. This server communicates with a client via UDP sockets over a LAN link. To minimize network traffic, a compression engine is employed to compress and decompress data on either side of the network transfer phase. By dividing the display into blocks, we effectively reduce the amount of data needing to be transported from client to server and provide an interactive user friendly client. We chose a PDA as a client, but our approach is extensible and easy to implement on any architecture with at least some 2D graphics drawing capabilities

A System for Real-Time Deformable Terrain

Terrain constitutes an important part of many virtual environments. In computer games or simulations it is often useful to allow the user to modify the terrain since this can help to foster immersion. Unfortunately, real-time deformation schemes can be expensive and most game engines simply substitute proxy geometry or use texturing to create the illusion of deformation. We present a new terrain deformation framework which is able to produce persistent, real-time deformation by utilising the capabilities of current generation GPUs. Our method utilises texture storage, a terrain level-of-detail scheme and a tile-based terrain representation to achieve high frame rates. To accommodate a range of hardware, we provide deformation schemes for hardware with and without geometry tessellation units. Deformation using the fragment shader (no tessellation) is significantly faster than the geometry shader (tessellation) approach, although this does come at the cost of some high resolution detail. Our tests show that both deformation schemes consume a comparatively small proportion of the GPU per frame budget and can thus be integrated into more complex virtual environments

Large-Scale Structure in the Universe

Cosmologists are currently researching the theory of large-scale structures, which are in essence groups of neighbouring galaxies. Recent “galaxy-hunts” have resulted in data for hundreds of thousands of galaxies being made publicly available, and it has become infeasible to isolate large-scale structures by hand from this data. Furthermore, it is difficult for cosmologists to visualise such structures by simply observing the galaxies that comprise the structure; they need a graphically rendered system in which they can change their viewpoint and observe the structure from any position desired. We present a system that identifies large-scale structures from datasets of galaxy information, and then displays the data using OpenGL in such a way that the user can “fly” through space in realtime, observing not only a single structure but the entire dataset and how structures are positioned relative to each other