Applications of TIMS data in agricultural areas and related atmospheric considerations

While much of traditional remote sensing in agricultural research was limited to the visible and reflective infrared, advances in thermal infrared remote sensing technology are adding a dimension to digital image analysis of agricultural areas. The Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) an airborne sensor having six bands over the nominal 8.2 to 12.2 m range, offers the ability to calculate land surface emissivities unlike most previous singular broadband sensors. Preliminary findings on the utility of the TIMS for several agricultural applications and related atmospheric considerations are discussed

Search For Oxygen in Cool DQ White Dwarf Atmospheres

We report new infrared spectroscopic observations of cool DQ white dwarfs by using Coolspec on the 2.7m Harlan-Smith Telescope. DQs have helium-rich atmospheres with traces of molecular carbon thought to be the result of convective dredge-up from their C/O interiors. Recent model calculations predict that oxygen should also be present in DQ atmospheres in detectable amounts. Our synthetic spectra calculations for He-rich white dwarfs with traces of C and O indicate that CO should be easily detected in the cool DQ atmospheres if present in the expected amounts. Determination of the oxygen abundance in the atmosphere will reveal the C/O ratio at the core/envelope boundary, constraining the important and uncertain ^{12}C(alpha,gamma)^{16}O reaction rate.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, to appear in proceedings of the 13th European Workshop on White Dwarf

Charming work: An ethnography of an indie game studio

Based on data generated from an ethnography in a video game studio, this article contributes to research on gender and game work by presenting an analysis of the studio’s ethos and aesthetics. The studio’s employees described the company and the games it made in terms of their charm, and related this explicitly to its ‘diverse’ hiring practices and the company’s identity as ‘indie’. I explore how the notion of charm was applied to a game, a game company, and game developer or employee, by tracing continuities and discontinuities across three types of data: field memos written whilst visiting the studio; conversations with employees; and a game diary based on a play through of one of the studio’s games under development during fieldwork. Drawing on Sontag’s notes on camp, Ngai’s work on cute aesthetics and Born’s research on the institutionalization of aesthetic discourse, I analyse ‘charming’ as a distinct sensibility within contemporary game culture which is symptomatic of the breakdown of straightforward gender binaries and the commercialization of ‘amateur’ or independent game-making. The article builds on existing research about the social significance of aesthetic genres in game culture, notably retrogrames and the appeal of nostalgia in indie games. It also locates games within debates about contemporary aesthetic experiences shaped and sustained by global digital media and their associated production cultures

Assessing the recreation values at risk from wildfire: an exploratory analysis

The levels of participation in various types of outdoor recreation in forested areas are substantial. Studies have shown that over 18.5 million days, representing approximately 80% of recreation user days, were spent by Canadians in recreational activities in forested lands. Furthermore, recreation has significant social and economic value that should be reflected in management decisions if sustainable forest management is to be achieved. The importance of recreation in forests has resulted in the selection of measures of recreation participation as one of the relevant indicators of sustainable forest management reporting in Canada. This suggests that recreation areas should be an important component of the values of forest at risk due to loss from wildfire. However, the presence of recreationists, who are considered to be the highest values at risk, dispersed on the fire prone landscape presents some issues for fire management agencies. These issues include the possibility of recreationists perishing in a wildfire and/or the possibility of fire starts as a result of recreation activities which are projected to increase into the future. For fire management agencies that strive to suppress all wildfires, the latter issue is particularly challenging when faced with resource constraints. Thus, a move away from suppression of all wildfires to suppression based on protecting highest values at risk is needed. An explicit incorporation of recreation values is advantageous in that these values are closely linked to the presence of recreationists. Therefore, during fire events, directing resources to high value recreation areas fulfill a fire management goal of protecting highest values at risk as well as identifying areas of the landscape where the suppression efforts are to be directed.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

3-d resistive MHD simulations of magnetic reconnection and the tearing mode instability in current sheets

Magnetic reconnection plays a critical role in many astrophysical processes where high energy emission is observed, e.g. particle acceleration, relativistic accretion powered outflows, pulsar winds and probably in dissipation of Poynting flux in GRBs. The magnetic field acts as a reservoir of energy and can dissipate its energy to thermal and kinetic energy via the tearing mode instability. We have performed 3d nonlinear MHD simulations of the tearing mode instability in a current sheet. Results from a temporal stability analysis in both the linear regime and weakly nonlinear (Rutherford) regime are compared to the numerical simulations. We observe magnetic island formation, island merging and oscillation once the instability has saturated. The growth in the linear regime is exponential in agreement with linear theory. In the second, Rutherford regime the island width grows linearly with time. We find that thermal energy produced in the current sheet strongly dominates the kinetic energy. Finally preliminary analysis indicates a P(k) 4.8 power law for the power spectral density which suggests that the tearing mode vortices play a role in setting up an energy cascade.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the International Journal of Modern Physics D, proceedings of HEPRO meeting, held in Dublin, in September 200

Construction et installation du LHC

L’installation du LHC a pris, en 2002, une nouvelle dimension avec le début des travaux de la machine en parallèle à ses futures expériences. La première phase des travaux pour le LHC a été la mise en place des services généraux électriques et des tuyauteries d’eau de refroidissement dans le secteur 7/8. Les premières lignes cryogéniques (QRL) seront acheminées au mois de juin. Pour les expériences ALICE et LHC B, après les dernières opérations de démontage, les premiers travaux d’installation des futurs détecteurs ont pu commencer. ATLAS a pu également débuter l’installation de son infrastructure au point 1 avec le début des travaux de charpente dans USA 15. Pour CMS au point 5, la réalisation d’une grande partie de son spectaculaire aimant, est l’objet de nombreuses visites. Le montage des autres parties de son détecteur représentant également une large part d’activité sur d’autres sites

Deconstructing the co-production ideal: Dilemmas of knowledge and representation in a co-design project with people with intellectual disabilities

Background: The co-production concept holds out the promise of forging new relationships between professionals and service users with intellectual disabilities. However, little empirical research explores the embodied practices of these projects occasion. We identify two key tensions intrinsic to such projects; the tension between expert/professional knowledge and lay/ experiential knowledge, and between co-producers as different from or typical of the public they are representing. Methods: We explored how these tensions were manifested and responded to in ongoing interactions by analysing video recordings of co-design groups where people with intellectual disabilities engaged in the production of Easy Read materials. Results: We noticed the instability of participants’ claims to expert/professional knowledge and the challenges of attending to and mobilising participants’ experiential knowledge within the constraints of the group task. Conclusions: Interactional dynamics were managed to preserve consensus and homogeneity within the groups, with the potential for reinforcing a limited identity associated with “intellectual disability.

Niveau de contamination par le mercure des sédiments de surface et des crevettes du fjord du Saguenay

De 1947 à 1976, plusieurs dizaines de tonnes de mercure d'origine industrielle ont été déversées dans les eaux de la rivière Saguenay et une grande partie de ce métal toxique se retrouve aujourd'hui dans les sédiments du Fjord. Les sédiments de surface (0-2 cm) de 17 stations réparties sur tout le bassin intérieur du fjord ont été prélevés et analysés pour le mercure total. De plus, environ 150 crevettes (Pandalus borealis) ont été capturées à Sainte-Rose-du-Nord pour fins d'analyse du mercure et pour une expérience de bioaccumulation à partir d'une diète contaminée. L'analyse des données disponibles pour les sédiments de surface montre que les teneurs moyennes (0,93 ± 0,11 µg.g-1 poids sec) en mercure n'ont pas varié de façon significative au cours des dix dernières années dans la région de Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, située dans la moitié amont du bassin intérieur. Les concentrations de mercure dans le muscle comestible des crevettes varient de 0,13 à 0,58 µg.g-1 (poids humide) selon la taille avec une valeur moyenne de 0,36 ± 0,11 µg.g-1. On trouve une concentration moyenne de 0,26 ± 0,09 µg.g-1 dans le céphalothorax et la cuticule. Un accroissement rapide et important du mercure dans, l'appareil digestif a été observé chez tes crevettes adultes soumises à une diète de chair de moules préalablement contaminée (6,0 ± 1,0 µg.g-1). Un taux de bioaccumulation de 0,09 µg.g-1 par jour dans le muscle comestible a été estimé pour les 14 premiers jours de diète contaminée.From 1947 to 1976, many tons of industrial mercury were tipped into the Saguenay River and a large amount of this toxic heavy metal is now in the sediments of the Saguenay Fjord. Surface sediments (0-2 cm) were collected at seventeen stations along the inner basin of the Saguenay Fjord and analysed for total mercury content. About 150 shrimps (Pandalus borealis) fished in the Sainte-Rose-du-Nord area were also used for mercury analyses and the determination of mercury uptake rate from contaminated food. The mercury concentrations in surface sediments ranged from 0.18 to 0.20 µg.g-1 (dry weight) with a mean value of 0.63 µg.g-1. This mean level is about one order of magnitude higher than the background level found in deep sediments. The examination of available data for surface sediments in the Sainte-Rose-du-Nord vicinity, located in the first half of the inner basin, shows the "steady state" of the mercury contamination over the last 10 years. Indeed, the mercury concentrations observed in surface sediments ranged from 0.75 to 1.20 µg.g-1, with a mean value of 0.93 µg.g-1 since 1976. The steady state of mercury contamination can be explained by two hypothesis : (1) an unexpected highly active bioturbation mechanism contributes to the mercury remobilisation from lower sediment layers (10-20 cm) and its vertical transportation up to the surface, or (2) the anthropogenic upstream discharge of mercury was not really stopped in 1976 and one or many unidentified sources are still active along the Saguenay River. The mercury concentrations in the edible part of shrimps (fished in November 1985) ranged from 0.13 to 0.58 µg.g-l (wet weight) with an average value of 0.36 ± 0.11 µg.g-1. A positive and significative linear relationship (r = 0.786) is observed between the Hg concentration in the edible part and the total wet weight of the shrimp. The mean Hg in the edible part found in 1985 is not significantly different from the mean value reported in 1932. The mean concentration found in the cephalothorax and the cuticle (taken together) of shrimps was 0.26 ± 0.09 µg.g-1. In order to estimate the mercury uptake rate by shrimps from contaminated food, a number of adult shrimps were fed with pre-contaminated mussel tissues (0.6 ± 1.0 µg.g-1) for three weeks. A high and rapid increase of mercury concentration was observed in the digestive organs after only 24 hours. The uptake rate in the edible part was estimated at 0.09 µg.g-1 per day during the first fourteen days of the bioassay. These findings clearly indicate the fragility of the balance between the biota and the physical environment and how fast major changes can occur when the level of contamination of the diet is modified