Erosion and tourism infrastructure in the coastal zone: Problems, consequences and management

The importance of coastal zones to the tourism industry and the need to protect such resources is not only vital to the economy of nations but presents a growing dilemma for many localities and regions. Beaches have become synonymous with tourism and with current predictions of climate change and sea level rise; they are under significant threat of erosion worldwide. From an assessment of the effects of erosion, including evaluation of impacts on coastal destinations and tourism development, the consequences for global tourism business are projected. An analysis of hard and soft engineering responses showed that coastal protection measures should be linked to physical processes whilst management strategies included a case study proposal for beach nourishment, in response to the erosion of a tourist beach. Integrated Coastal Zone Management is justified as a tool for managing coastal resources and accommodating increasing pressures from tourism whilst strategies are recommended to ameliorate projected impacts

The spectral shift function and spectral flow

This paper extends Krein's spectral shift function theory to the setting of semifinite spectral triples. We define the spectral shift function under these hypotheses via Birman-Solomyak spectral averaging formula and show that it computes spectral flow.Comment: 47 page

Evidence for Cenozoic tectonic deformation in SE Ireland and near offshore

An integrated study of topography, bathymetry, high-resolution aeromagnetic data, and structural observations demonstrates significant Cenozoic fault activity in SE Ireland. Tectonically generated knickpoints and reddened fault breccias along topographic escarpments that are underlain by greywacke bedrock and trend oblique to the regional Caledonian strike provide evidence for fault displacement. Near-offshore faults with similar geometry produce present-day bathymetric scarps and localized tectonic topography in the inverted Kish Bank Basin. The integration of offshore high resolution aeromagnetic data and structural interpretation of the Kish Bank Basin provides evidence for dextral transtension on NNW trending faults and sinistral transpression on ENE trending faults bounding a lower Paleozoic to Carboniferous basement block. These faults correlate onshore with previously recognized Caledonian faults producing topographic offsets and surface uplift. To the north, offshore structures can be traced onshore and cut exposures of the Caledonian Leinster Granite. Structural analysis of these outcrops indicates post-Variscan deformation. A major fault on the NW margin of the batholith cuts a major erosion surface developed on Carboniferous carbonate rocks, and nonmarine Miocene deposits are preserved above this surface. Fault kinematics provide evidence of two paleostress systems: (1) NW-SE σ1, subvertical σ2 and NE-SW σ3 followed by (2) a clockwise swing of σ1 to NNW-SSE. Timing of deformation in both stress systems is probably post-Oligocene age. The mechanism driving this deformation is likely ridge-push. Much is already known about Cenozoic tectonics and exhumation from offshore basins. This study shows that onshore Ireland has also been affected by significant tectonic activity and exhumation during the Cenozoic

Putter Measurement System

This project is provided and funded by Callaway Golf Company for the Mechanical Engineering Department as a capstone project, also known as the Senior Project series: ME 428, 429, and 430. The title of the project proposal is Putter Measurement System in which our team must design, build, and test a system that meets the proposed objectives as stated by Callaway Golf. The need arises from the current systems’ inability to provide detailed and consistent measurements without tedious setup and calibration

On unbounded p-summable Fredholm modules

We prove that odd unbounded p-summable Fredholm modules are also bounded p-summable Fredholm modules (this is the odd counterpart of a result of A. Connes for the case of even Fredholm modules)

Operator algebra quantum homogeneous spaces of universal gauge groups

In this paper, we quantize universal gauge groups such as SU(\infty), as well as their homogeneous spaces, in the sigma-C*-algebra setting. More precisely, we propose concise definitions of sigma-C*-quantum groups and sigma-C*-quantum homogeneous spaces and explain these concepts here. At the same time, we put these definitions in the mathematical context of countably compactly generated spaces as well as C*-compact quantum groups and homogeneous spaces. We also study the representable K-theory of these spaces and compute it for the quantum homogeneous spaces associated to the universal gauge group SU(\infty).Comment: 14 pages. Merged with [arXiv:1011.1073

Effect of Nuclear Quadrupole Interaction on the Relaxation in Amorphous Solids

Recently it has been experimentally demonstrated that certain glasses display an unexpected magnetic field dependence of the dielectric constant. In particular, the echo technique experiments have shown that the echo amplitude depends on the magnetic field. The analysis of these experiments results in the conclusion that the effect seems to be related to the nuclear degrees of freedom of tunneling systems. The interactions of a nuclear quadrupole electrical moment with the crystal field and of a nuclear magnetic moment with magnetic field transform the two-level tunneling systems inherent in amorphous dielectrics into many-level tunneling systems. The fact that these features show up at temperatures $T<100mK$, where the properties of amorphous materials are governed by the long-range $R^{-3}$ interaction between tunneling systems, suggests that this interaction is responsible for the magnetic field dependent relaxation. We have developed a theory of many-body relaxation in an ensemble of interacting many-level tunneling systems and show that the relaxation rate is controlled by the magnetic field. The results obtained correlate with the available experimental data. Our approach strongly supports the idea that the nuclear quadrupole interaction is just the key for understanding the unusual behavior of glasses in a magnetic field.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure

Efficient plot-based floristic assessment of tropical forests

The tropical flora remains chronically understudied and the lack of floristic understanding hampers ecological research and its application for large-scale conservation planning. Given scarce resources and the scale of the challenge there is a need to maximize the efficiency of both sampling strategies and sampling units, yet there is little information on the relative efficiency of different approaches to floristic assessment in tropical forests. This paper is the first attempt to address this gap. We repeatedly sampled forests in two regions of Amazonia using the two most widely used plot-based protocols of floristic sampling, and compared their performance in terms of the quantity of floristic knowledge and ecological insight gained scaled to the field effort required. Specifically, the methods are assessed first in terms of the number of person-days required to complete each sample (‘effort’), secondly by the total gain in the quantity of floristic information that each unit of effort provides (‘crude inventory efficiency’), and thirdly in terms of the floristic information gained as a proportion of the target species pool (‘proportional inventory efficiency’). Finally, we compare the methods in terms of their efficiency in identifying different ecological patterns within the data (‘ecological efficiency’) while controlling for effort. There are large and consistent differences in the performance of the two methods. The disparity is maintained even after accounting for regional and site-level variation in forest species richness, tree density and the number of field assistants. We interpret our results in the context of selecting the appropriate method for particular research purposes

Do fragment size and edge effects predict carbon stocks in trees and lianas in tropical forests?

Summary Tropical forests are critical for protecting global biodiversity and carbon stores. While forest degradation and fragmentation cause negative impacts on trees, many woody lianas benefit, with associated negative effects on carbon storage. Here, we focus on the key question of how abiotic environmental changes resulting from tropical forest fragmentation mediate the allocation of carbon into trees and lianas. We focus on the globally threatened Brazilian Atlantic Forest, in forest fragments spanning 13–23 442 ha in area and at fragment edges and interiors. Within each fragment, we established two transects: one at the edge and one in the interior. Each transect consisted of ten 10 × 10 m plots spaced at 20 m intervals. Within each plot, we sampled living trees with diameter ≥4·8 cm at 1·3 m above ground, living lianas with diameter ≥1·6 cm at 10 cm above ground, and several microclimatic and soil variables. Fragmentation changed a broad suite of abiotic environmental conditions recognized as being associated with forest carbon stocks: edges and smaller fragments were hotter, windier, and less humid, with more fertile and less acid soils at edges. Tree carbon stocks were thus higher in forest interiors than at edges, and were positively related to fragment size in interiors, but were not impacted by fragment size at edges. Trees and lianas showed different responses to fragmentation: in interiors of small fragments, tree carbon stocks declined whereas liana carbon stocks increased; and at edges, tree carbon stocks were not affected by fragment size, whereas liana carbon stocks were highest in smaller fragments. These patterns were strongly related to changes in abiotic environmental conditions. We conclude that the abiotic changes across the fragmentation gradient, rather than liana proliferation, were more likely to reduce tree carbon stocks. Cutting of lianas is frequently promoted for restoring forest carbon in human-modified tropical forests. However, this approach may not be effective for restoring forest carbon stocks in fragmented forests