High-efficiency crystalline silicon technology development

The rationale for pursuing high efficiency crystalline silicon technology research is discussed. Photovoltaic energy systems are reviewed as to their cost effectiveness and their competitiveness with other energy systems. The parameters of energy system life are listed and briefly reviewed

After CAN-SPAM, How States Can Stay Relevant in the Fight Against Unwanted Messages:How a Children\u27s Protection Registry Can be Effective and is Not Preempted, Under the New Federal Anti-Spam Law, 22 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 29 (2003)

The recipe for success to combat unsolicited and unwanted e-mail, otherwise known as spam, has not yet been formulated by the thirty-six states that have tried by enacting their own versions of anti-spam laws. Only two state prosecutions were ever successfully brought against spammers, and only one was able to enforce its law against an out-of-state spammer. Now, on the federal level, with the passing of the CAN-SPAM act, which essentially rehashes what states have attempted to do, the failure to provide any significant measure of national success against spam seems likely. However, a careful reading of the language of CAN-SPAM may provide some leeway for states to continue to experiment with different methods that may ultimately prove to allow for more successful prosecution against spammers. This article examines the laws\u27 various provisions in an attempt to clarify why the various anti-spam laws enacted by the states, and now the federal government, did not bring about the hoped-for results of successful prosecution against spammers. It suggests a new approach to anti-spam law, a Children’s Protection Registry. Instead of taking a general approach, the proposal targets the worst effects of spam. This proposal will circumvent the problems that first-generation spam laws faced and promises more regular and successful enforcement

Development of the scientific requirements of an Environmental Management System (EMS) for the pearling (Pinctada maxima) industry

This project has been a successful collaboration between pearl farmers, academic scientists and museum taxonomists and has given the scientific community greater access to remote regions of Australia, facilitating the description of new species to science. It has highlighted the inherent variability and abundant biodiversity of shallow water benthic communities in northern Australia. The study employed an exhaustively designed sampling regime incorporating three spatial scales (10’s of metres, 1-5 km, >100’s km) and random sampling through time. A multi-control sampling strategy was undertaken to give an estimate of the natural variability of the region and to test for benthic impacts at three pearl farms that have been in use for up to 40 years. Multiple lines of evidence all conclude that the variability in benthic conditions at the farms is within the bounds of the natural variability at the reference locations. The main mechanisms that influence the impact of shellfish aquaculture are considered to be; the farming method, the density of the cultivated shellfish (or stocking rate), the water depth of the farm area and the hydrographical conditions in the area (Danovaro et al 2004). All these factors favor the northern Australian cultured pearl industry and would contribute to the lack of a benthic footprint documented by this study. The conclusion drawn from these studies is that current pearl oyster culture techniques in northern Australia have no detectable effect on the sediments of the lease sites. As ongoing or frequent benthic monitoring is logistically challenging and expensive in context of northern Australian pearl farms and cannot be expected to observe anything but natural variability it would not be a wise use of scarce industry funding to include benthic monitoring protocols in the standard EMS for this industry. If major changes to farming practice creates uncertainty in the future on this issue, or political climate requires revalidation of these findings, a further study such as this, conducted as corporate industry research, such as this project, could again test the issue

Pulse Morphology of the Galactic Center Magnetar PSR J1745-2900

We present results from observations of the Galactic Center magnetar, PSR J1745-2900, at 2.3 and 8.4 GHz with the NASA Deep Space Network 70 m antenna, DSS-43. We study the magnetar's radio profile shape, flux density, radio spectrum, and single pulse behavior over a ~1 year period between MJDs 57233 and 57621. In particular, the magnetar exhibits a significantly negative average spectral index of $\langle\alpha\rangle$ = -1.86 $\pm$ 0.02 when the 8.4 GHz profile is single-peaked, which flattens considerably when the profile is double-peaked. We have carried out an analysis of single pulses at 8.4 GHz on MJD 57479 and find that giant pulses and pulses with multiple emission components are emitted during a significant number of rotations. The resulting single pulse flux density distribution is incompatible with a log-normal distribution. The typical pulse width of the components is ~1.8 ms, and the prevailing delay time between successive components is ~7.7 ms. Many of the single pulse emission components show significant frequency structure over bandwidths of ~100 MHz, which we believe is the first observation of such behavior from a radio magnetar. We report a characteristic single pulse broadening timescale of $\langle\tau_{d}\rangle$ = 6.9 $\pm$ 0.2 ms at 8.4 GHz. We find that the pulse broadening is highly variable between emission components and cannot be explained by a thin scattering screen at distances $\gtrsim$ 1 kpc. We discuss possible intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms for the magnetar's emission and compare our results to other magnetars, high magnetic field pulsars, and fast radio bursts.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ on 2018 August 30. v2: Updated to match published versio

Radio Pulse Properties of the Millisecond Pulsar PSR J0437-4715. I. Observations at 20cm

We present a total of 48 minutes of observations of the nearby, bright millisecond pulsar PSR J0437-4715 taken at the Parkes radio observatory in Australia. The data were obtained at a central radio frequency of 1380 MHz using a high-speed tape recorder that permitted coherent Nyquist sampling of 50 MHz of bandwidth in each of two polarizations. Using the high time resolution available from this voltage recording technique, we have studied a variety of single-pulse properties, most for the first time in a millisecond pulsar. We find no evidence for "diffractive" quantization effects in the individual pulse arrival times or amplitudes as have been reported for this pulsar at lower radio frequency using coarser time resolution (Ables et al. 1997). Overall, we find that the single pulse properties of PSR J0437-4715 are similar to those of the common slow-rotating pulsars, even though this pulsar's magnetosphere and surface magnetic field are several orders of magnitude smaller than those of the general population. The pulsar radio emission mechanism must therefore be insensitive to these fundamental neutron star properties.Comment: 24 Postscript pages, 11 eps figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Abbreviated abstract follow

Discovery of Pulsed X-ray Emission from the SMC Transient RX J0117.6-7330

We report on the detection of pulsed, broad-band, X-ray emission from the transient source RX J0117.6-7330. The pulse period of 22 seconds is detected by the ROSAT/PSPC instrument in a 1992 Sep 30 - Oct 2 observation and by the CGRO/BATSE instrument during the same epoch. Hard X-ray pulsations are detectable by BATSE for approximately 100 days surrounding the ROSAT observation (1992 Aug 28 - Dec 8). The total directly measured X-ray luminosity during the ROSAT observation is 1.0E38 (d/60 kpc)^2 ergs s-1. The pulse frequency increases rapidly during the outburst, with a peak spin-up rate of 1.2E-10 Hz s-1 and a total frequency change 1.8%. The pulsed percentage is 11.3% from 0.1-2.5 keV, increasing to at least 78% in the 20-70 keV band. These results establish RX J0117.6-7330 as a transient Be binary system.Comment: 17 pages, Latex, aasms, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Strategic Investments in Large Pelagic Research

The Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) of the US NOAA Fisheries provides much of the US science advice for the management of Highly Migratory Species (HMS) in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and US Caribbean Sea. These stocks include the tunas, sharks, billfishes and swordfish all of which are targeted either commercially or recreationally or both in US waters. These species are managed internationally through membership to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT); however, while the US is an ICCAT member, few Caribbean nations are members

Optimality Theory as a Framework for Lexical Acquisition

This paper re-investigates a lexical acquisition system initially developed for French.We show that, interestingly, the architecture of the system reproduces and implements the main components of Optimality Theory. However, we formulate the hypothesis that some of its limitations are mainly due to a poor representation of the constraints used. Finally, we show how a better representation of the constraints used would yield better results

Resident connection to nature and attitudes towards tourism : findings from three different rural nature tourism destinations in Poland

Despite the growing literature arguing for the consideration of community perspectives in tourism destination governance, little is understood about how residents' connection to nature affects their perceptions of and responses to tourism. This is especially relevant for rural areas rich in nature as many of them have become refugees for urban dwellers seeking recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study combines the Nature's Contributions to People framework and Weber's Theory of Formal and Substantive Rationality to shed light on how rural residents of three nature-based tourism destinations connect with nature and how this connection to nature affects perceptions of empowerment from tourism and ultimately support for tourism. Results provide credence to the importance of including measures of residents' connections to nature when examining attitudes towards tourism in nature areas with connections to nature having significant and positive influences on psychological empowerment and social empowerment at all three destinations and direct and positive effects on support for tourism across two of the three destinations. Furthermore, results suggest that understanding the role nature connection plays in how residents perceive changes within their community can help manage locally emerging conflicts within rural tourism-dependent communities