Low-Intrusion Techniques and Sensitive Information Management for Warhead Counting and Verification: FY2012 Annual Report

Progress in the second year of this project is described by the series of technical reports and manuscripts that make up the content of this report. These documents summarize successes in our goals to develop our robust image-hash templating and material-discrimination techniques and apply them to test image data

Police Criminal Charging Decisions: An Examination of Post-Arrest Decision-Making

Scholars have encouraged studies of police decision-making to move beyond the arrest decision into research that broadens the understanding of police behavior. The criminal charge placed by officers against offenders is largely an untouched area of study. Examining criminal charging decisions goes beyond simple dichotomous decisions, such as arrest, but instead explores the area of police leniency or punitiveness. Randomly constructed vignettes describing a domestic violence incident were given to officers from four agencies. Officers indicated the criminal charges they would likely list against an offender if they were to make an arrest. Serious criminal charges were often supported by additional, but less serious, charges. Victim injury and an uncooperative offender were related to the decision to charge a misdemeanor offense. There was a significant negative relationship between the number of charges listed and more experienced officers and officers working in smaller agencies. The implications of this study and directions for future research are discussed

The Distribution and Origin of Smooth Plains on Mercury

Orbital images from the MESSENGER spacecraft show that ~27% of Mercury's surface is covered by smooth plains, the majority (greater than 65%) of which are interpreted to be volcanic in origin. Most smooth plains share the spectral characteristics of Mercury's northern smooth plains, suggesting they also share their magnesian alkali-basalt-like composition. A smaller fraction of smooth plains interpreted to be volcanic in nature have a lower reflectance and shallower spectral slope, suggesting more ultramafic compositions, an inference that implies high temperatures and high degrees of partial melting in magma source regions persisted through most of the duration of smooth plains formation. The knobby and hummocky plains surrounding the Caloris basin, known as Odin-type plains, occupy an additional 2% of Mercury’s surface. The morphology of these plains and their color and stratigraphic relationships suggest that they formed as Caloris ejecta, although such an origin is in conflict with a straightforward interpretation of crater size-frequency distributions. If some fraction is volcanic, this added area would substantially increase the abundance of relatively young effusive deposits inferred to have more mafic compositions. Smooth plains are widespread on Mercury, but they are more heavily concentrated in the north and in the hemisphere surrounding Caloris. No simple relationship between plains distribution and crustal thickness or radioactive element distribution is observed. A likely volcanic origin for some older terrain on Mercury suggests that the uneven distribution of smooth plains may indicate differences in the emplacement age of large-scale volcanic deposits rather than differences in crustal formational process

Importance of Driving and Potential Impact of Driving Cessation for Rural and Urban Older Adults

PurposeAnalyses compared older drivers from urban, suburban, and rural areas on perceived importance of continuing to drive and potential impact that driving cessation would have on what they want and need to do.MethodsThe AAA LongROAD Study is a prospective study of driving behaviors, patterns, and outcomes of older adults. A cohort of 2,990 women and men 65‐79 years of age was recruited during 2015‐2017 from health systems or primary care practices near 5 study sites in different parts of the United States. Participants were classified as living in urban, surburban, or rural areas and were asked to rate the importance of driving and potential impact of driving cessation. Logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic and driving‐related characteristics.FindingsThe percentages of older drivers rating driving as “completely important” were 76.9%, 79.0%, and 83.8% for urban, suburban, and rural drivers, respectively (P = .009). The rural drivers were also most likely to indicate driving cessation would have a high impact on what they want or need to do (P < .001). After adjustment for sociodemographic and driving‐related characteristics, there was a 2‐fold difference for rural versus urban older drivers in odds that driving cessation would have a high impact on what they need to do (OR = 2.03; 95% CI: 1.60‐2.58).ConclusionsOlder drivers from rural areas were more likely to rate driving as highly important and the prospect of driving cessation as very impactful. Strategies to enhance both the ability to drive safely and the accessibility of alternative sources of transportation may be especially important for older rural adults.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153160/1/jrh12369_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153160/2/jrh12369.pd

Emerging Infectious Disease leads to Rapid Population Decline of Common British Birds

Emerging infectious diseases are increasingly cited as threats to wildlife, livestock and humans alike. They can threaten geographically isolated or critically endangered wildlife populations; however, relatively few studies have clearly demonstrated the extent to which emerging diseases can impact populations of common wildlife species. Here, we report the impact of an emerging protozoal disease on British populations of greenfinch Carduelis chloris and chaffinch Fringilla coelebs, two of the most common birds in Britain. Morphological and molecular analyses showed this to be due to Trichomonas gallinae. Trichomonosis emerged as a novel fatal disease of finches in Britain in 2005 and rapidly became epidemic within greenfinch, and to a lesser extent chaffinch, populations in 2006. By 2007, breeding populations of greenfinches and chaffinches in the geographic region of highest disease incidence had decreased by 35% and 21% respectively, representing mortality in excess of half a million birds. In contrast, declines were less pronounced or absent in these species in regions where the disease was found in intermediate or low incidence. Also, populations of dunnock Prunella modularis, which similarly feeds in gardens, but in which T. gallinae was rarely recorded, did not decline. This is the first trichomonosis epidemic reported in the scientific literature to negatively impact populations of free-ranging non-columbiform species, and such levels of mortality and decline due to an emerging infectious disease are unprecedented in British wild bird populations. This disease emergence event demonstrates the potential for a protozoan parasite to jump avian host taxonomic groups with dramatic effect over a short time period

Imaging for dismantlement verification: information management and analysis algorithms

The level of detail discernible in imaging techniques has generally excluded them from consideration as verification tools in inspection regimes. An image will almost certainly contain highly sensitive information, and storing a comparison image will almost certainly violate a cardinal principle of information barriers: that no sensitive information be stored in the system. To overcome this problem, some features of the image might be reduced to a few parameters suitable for definition as an attribute. However, this process must be performed with care. Computing the perimeter, area, and intensity of an object, for example, might reveal sensitive information relating to shape, size, and material composition. This paper presents three analysis algorithms that reduce full image information to non-sensitive feature information. Ultimately, the algorithms are intended to provide only a yes/no response verifying the presence of features in the image. We evaluate the algorithms on both their technical performance in image analysis, and their application with and without an explicitly constructed information barrier. The underlying images can be highly detailed, since they are dynamically generated behind the information barrier. We consider the use of active (conventional) radiography alone and in tandem with passive (auto) radiography

Effect of biochar on micronutrient availability and uptake into leafy greens in two urban tropical soils with contrasting soil pH

Biochars have been proposed as a novel biotechnology to increase crop yields in acidic soils due to a liming effect. However, the application of biochar to soils with a neutral soil pH is less likely to improve yield. A rise in pH typically increases the availability of macronutrients (e.g. PO43-, NO3-) but biochar is known to immobilize some elements due to a pH increase and adsorption on the biochar surface. Therefore, biochar application may reduce the uptake of important micronutrients (e.g. Cu, Fe, and Zn) into the edible portions of food crops. Before recommending indiscriminate biochar application to tropical soils, an understanding of the potentially negative impacts of biochar application to contrasting soil types should be fully appreciated to prevent unintended consequences. Our aim was to determine the impact of biochar amendment to an acidic soil and a neutral soil on micronutrient availability and uptake into leafy greens. We produced biochars from 3 different organic feedstock materials (corn cobs, rice husk and teak sawdust) and applied these in pot experiments to an acidic tropical soil (pH 4.5) and a neutral tropical soil (pH 6.9) collected from urban farms in Tamale and Kumasi, respectively, in Ghana. We grew leafy greens (Amaranthus, Corchorus, and Lettuce) and measured their growth and the uptake of Cu, Fe, and Zn , alongside supporting measurements of soil pH and micronutrient availability in the soil. We also measured water soluble Cu, Fe, and Zn in the soils amended with biochars pyrolyzed at different temperatures. The corn cobs biochar increased soil pH and considerably increased plant growth in the acidic soil from Tamale. In the neutral soil from Kumasi we found that, while corn cob biochar increased soil pH, rice husk biochar decreased soil pH. Furthermore, corn cob biochar considerably reduced plant growth in the neutral soil. The concentration of micronutrients in the edible portions of leafy greens was not greatly affected by biochar application, but the total uptake (i.e. concentration multiplied by biomass) of micronutrients into leaves was generally increased by biochar application in the acidic (Tamale) soil and application of the corn cob biochar generally decreased total uptake of micronutrients in the neutral (Kumasi) soil. Our results highlight the need for site-specific information on biochar feedstock and soil pH prior to recommending biochar application to tropical urban soils so that the benefits can be optimized and unintended consequences can be prevented

Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: Results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project

The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave data analysis communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the sensitivity of existing gravitational-wave search algorithms using numerically generated waveforms and to foster closer collaboration between the numerical relativity and data analysis communities. We describe the results of the first NINJA analysis which focused on gravitational waveforms from binary black hole coalescence. Ten numerical relativity groups contributed numerical data which were used to generate a set of gravitational-wave signals. These signals were injected into a simulated data set, designed to mimic the response of the Initial LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Nine groups analysed this data using search and parameter-estimation pipelines. Matched filter algorithms, un-modelled-burst searches and Bayesian parameter-estimation and model-selection algorithms were applied to the data. We report the efficiency of these search methods in detecting the numerical waveforms and measuring their parameters. We describe preliminary comparisons between the different search methods and suggest improvements for future NINJA analyses.Comment: 56 pages, 25 figures; various clarifications; accepted to CQ