Community-level Correlates of Crime Rates in Rhode Island

The built environment has been associated with community health through numerous studies (Wilcox 2003). Past research into built environments effect on community crime has identified increased green spaces as having a protective effect on property and violent crime rates (Kuo 2001). Kuo and others examine how crime rates are either positively or negatively associated with specified built environment features. The goal of this study is to identify which business types and institutions demonstrate an increased risk or protective effect on community crime rates. It is hypothesized that business types and institutions associated with low social capital crime rates will have a positive correlation with crime rates and outdoor recreation centers/facilities have a protective effect on crime. The data collected includes 2016-2017 Rhode Island average crime rates for general crime, assault, sexual assault, robbery and burglary and 19 built environment characteristics within the 39 Rhode Island county police precincts. Partial least squares regression analysis was performed to model the effects of business types on general crime rates, assault rates, robbery rates, burglary rates, and sex crime rates. The analysis identified a greatest increasing effect on burglary rates with pawn shops and strip clubs, while outdoor recreation centers and fire stations demonstrated the greatest protective effects. An increasing effect on robbery rates was associated with worship centers and pawn shops, while outdoor recreation centers again demonstrated the largest protective effect. The largest increasing effect on sex crime rates was libraries and gun dealers. The predictors that were most positively and negatively associated with violent assault were pawn shop rates and pain treatment center rates, respectively. The study found that outdoor recreation facilities was the only predictor to consistently demonstrated significant protective effects against all 4 specific crime rate types observed. Further research investigating latent factors within Rhode Island communities is necessary

Iterative refinement and smoothing of cyclone tracks from mean sea level pressure data

Local nonlinear regression fits are applied to mean sea level pressure data from $24$ member ensemble forecasts of three recent tropical cyclones in the Australian region. Cyclone track estimates derived from the fits are subjected to verification calculations in the form of error-spread diagrams, demonstrating consistency with a recent global ensemble study, with attention also given to cross and along track error components. References R. E. Benestad and D. Chen, The use of a calculus-based cyclone identification method for generating storm statistics, Tellus A 58(4):473–486 (2006). doi:10.1111/j.1600-0870.2006.00191.x R. Fletcher, Practical Methods of Optimization, Wiley (1987). T. M. Hamill, J. S. Whitaker, M. Fiorino and S. G. Benjamin, Global Ensemble Predictions of 2009's Tropical Cyclones Initialized with an Ensemble Kalman Filter, Mon. Wea. Rev. 139:668–688 (2011). doi:10.1175/2010MWR3456.1 G. J. Holland, An Analytic Model of the Wind and Pressure Profiles in Hurricanes, Mon. Wea. Rev. 108:1212–1218 (1980). doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1980)108<1212:AAMOTW>2.0.CO;2 J. D. Kepert, Objective Analysis of Tropical Cyclone Location and Motion from High-Density Observations, Mon. Wea. Rev. 133:2406–2421 (2005). doi:10.1175/MWR2980.1 R. J. Murray and I. Simmonds, A numerical scheme for tracking cyclone centres from digital data Part I: development and operation of the scheme, Australian Meteorological Magazine 39:155–166 (1991). http://www.bom.gov.au/amoj/docs/1991/murray1.pdf D. H. Smith, M. Naughton and A. Sulaiman, Multiscale verification calculations for regional ensemble forecasts, ANZIAM J. 52:C882–C898 (2011). http://journal.austms.org.au/ojs/index.php/ANZIAMJ/article/view/3936 M. R. Sinclair, Objective Identification of Cyclones and Their Circulation Intensity, and Climatology, Weather and Forecasting 12:595–612 (1997). doi:10.1175/1520-0434(1997)012<0595:OIOCAT>2.0.CO;2 J. Heming, Tropical cyclone forecast verification method, UK Met Office, (2012). http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/tropicalcyclone/method See also doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1998)126<1323:TPOTUK>2.0.CO;

A Revised Historical Light Curve of Eta Carinae and the Timing of Close Periastron Encounters

The historical light curve of the 19th century "Great Eruption" of etaCar provides a striking record of violent instabilies encountered by the most massive stars. We report and analyze newly uncovered historical estimates of the visual brightness of etaCar during its eruption, and we correct some mistakes in the original record. The revised light curve looks substantially different from previous accounts: it shows two brief eruptions in 1838 and 1843 that resemble modern supernova impostors, while the final brightening in December 1844 marks the time when etaCar reached its peak brightness. We consider the timing of brightening events as they pertain to the putative binary system in etaCar: (1) The brief 1838 and 1843 events peaked within weeks of periastron if the pre-1845 orbital period is shorter than at present due to the mass loss of the eruption. Each event lasted only 100 days. (2) The main brightening at the end of 1844 has no conceivable association with periastron, beginning more than 1.5yr afterward. It lasted 10yr, with no obvious influence of periastron encounters during that time. (3) The 1890 eruption began to brighten at periastron, but took over 1yr to reach maximum and remained there for almost 10yr. A second periastron passage midway through the 1890 eruption had no effect. While evidence for a link between periastron encounters and the two brief precursor events is compelling, the differences between the three cases above make it difficult to explain all three phenomena with the same mechanism.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. submitted to MNRAS on october 12. updated reference

Discovery of Precursor LBV Outbursts in Two Recent Optical Transients: The Fitfully Variable Missing Links UGC 2773-OT and SN 2009ip

We present progenitor-star detections, light curves, and optical spectra of SN2009ip and the 2009 optical transient in UGC2773 (U2773-OT), which were not genuine SNe. Precursor variability in the decade before outburst indicates that both of the progenitor stars were LBVs. Their pre-outburst light curves resemble the S Doradus phases that preceded giant eruptions of eta Carinae and SN1954J (V12 in NGC2403), with intermediate progenitor luminosities. HST detections a decade before discovery indicate that the SN2009ip and U2773-OT progenitors were supergiants with likely initial masses of 50-80 Msun and \ga20 Msun, respectively. Both outbursts had spectra befitting known LBVs, although in different physical states. SN 2009ip exhibited a hot LBV spectrum with characteristic speeds of 550 km/s, plus faster material up to 5000 km/s, resembling the slow Homunculus and fast blast wave of eta Carinae. U2773-OT shows a forest of narrow absorption and emission lines comparable to that of S Dor in its cool state, plus [CaII] emission and an IR excess indicative of dust, similar to SN2008S and N300-OT. [CaII] emission is probably tied to a dusty pre-outburst environment, and not the outburst mechanism. SN2009ip and U2773-OT may provide a critical link between historical LBV eruptions, while U2773-OT may provide a link between LBVs and SN2008S and N300-OT. Future searches will uncover more examples of precursor LBV variability of this kind, providing key clues that may help unravel the instability driving LBVs.Comment: 18 pages, 13 Figures, accepted AJ. added significant material while revising after referee repor

Rheology of magmas with bimodal crystal size and shape distributions: insights from analog experiments

Magmas in volcanic conduits commonly contain microlites in association with preexisting phenocrysts, as often indicated by volcanic rock textures. In this study, we present two different experiments that inves- tigate the flow behavior of these bidisperse systems. In the first experiments, rotational rheometric methods are used to determine the rheology of monodisperse and polydisperse suspensions consisting of smaller, prolate particles (microlites) and larger, equant particles (phenocrysts) in a bubble‐free Newtonian liquid (silicate melt). Our data show that increasing the relative proportion of prolate microlites to equant pheno- crysts in a magma at constant total particle content can increase the relative viscosity by up to three orders of magnitude. Consequently, the rheological effect of particles in magmas cannot be modeled by assuming a monodisperse population of particles. We propose a new model that uses interpolated parameters based on the relative proportions of small and large particles and produces a considerably improved fit to the data than earlier models. In a second series of experiments we investigate the textures produced by shearing bimodal suspensions in gradually solidifying epoxy resin in a concentric cylinder setup. The resulting textures show the prolate particles are aligned with the flow lines and spherical particles are found in well‐organized strings, with sphere‐depleted shear bands in high‐shear regions. These observations may explain the measured variation in the shear thinning and yield stress behavior with increasing solid fraction and particle aspect ratio. The implications for magma flow are discussed, and rheological results and tex- tural observations are compared with observations on natural samples

Reaching the boundary between stellar kinematic groups and very wide binaries. II. alpha Lib + KU Lib: a common proper motion system in Castor separated by 1.0 pc

Aims: I investigate the gravitational binding of a nearby common proper motion system in the young Castor moving group (tau ~ 200 Ma), formed by the bright quadruple star alpha Lib (Zubenelgenubi) and the young solar analog KU Lib. The system has an exceptionally wide angular separation, of about 2.6 deg, which corresponds to a projected physical separation of about 1.0 pc. Methods: I compile basic information of the system and compare its binding energy with those of other weakly bound systems in the field, and study the physical separations of resolved multiple systems in Castor. Results: KU Lib has roughly the same proper motion, parallactic distance, radial velocity, and metallicity than the young hierarchical quadruple system alpha Lib. Besides, KU Lib also displays youth features. The resemblance between these basic parameters and the relatively large estimated binding energy point out that the five stars are gravitationally bound. KU Lib and alpha Lib constitute the widest known multiple system at all mass domains, and likely represent the most extreme example of young wide binaries on the point of being disrupted. Besides, I make a comprehensive compilation of star candidates in Castor, including new ones.Comment: A&A, in press (v2: language edited

Fluorescent nanoparticles for sensing

Nanoparticle-based fluorescent sensors have emerged as a competitive alternative to small molecule sensors, due to their excellent fluorescence-based sensing capabilities. The tailorability of design, architecture, and photophysical properties has attracted the attention of many research groups, resulting in numerous reports related to novel nanosensors applied in sensing a vast variety of biological analytes. Although semiconducting quantum dots have been the best-known representative of fluorescent nanoparticles for a long time, the increasing popularity of new classes of organic nanoparticle-based sensors, such as carbon dots and polymeric nanoparticles, is due to their biocompatibility, ease of synthesis, and biofunctionalization capabilities. For instance, fluorescent gold and silver nanoclusters have emerged as a less cytotoxic replacement for semiconducting quantum dot sensors. This chapter provides an overview of recent developments in nanoparticle-based sensors for chemical and biological sensing and includes a discussion on unique properties of nanoparticles of different composition, along with their basic mechanism of fluorescence, route of synthesis, and their advantages and limitations

Investigations of dust heating in M81, M83, and NGC 2403 with the Herschel Space Observatory

We use Spitzer Space Telescope and Herschel Space Observatory far-infrared data along with ground-based optical and near-infrared data to understand how dust heating in the nearby face-on spiral galaxies M81, M83, and NGC 2403 is affected by the starlight from all stars and by the radiation from star forming regions. We find that 70/160 micron surface brightness ratios tend to be more strongly influenced by star forming regions. However, the 250/350 micron and 350/500 micron surface brightness ratios are more strongly affected by the light from the total stellar populations, suggesting that the dust emission at >250 microns originates predominantly from a component that is colder than the dust seen at <160 microns and that is relatively unaffected by star formation activity. We conclude by discussing the implications of this for modelling the spectral energy distributions of both nearby and more distant galaxies and for using far-infrared dust emission to trace star formation.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

1957: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

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