Mechanized fluid connector and assembly tool system with ball detents

A fluid connector system is disclosed which includes a modified plumbing union having a rotatable member for drawing said union into a fluid tight condition. A drive tool is electric motor actuated and includes a reduction gear train providing an output gear engaging an integral peripheral spur gear on the rotatable member. Coaxial alignment means are attached to both the connector assembly and the drive tool. A hand lever actuated latching system includes a plurality of circumferentially spaced latching balls selectively wedged against the alignment means attached to the connector assembly or to secure the drive tool with its output gear in mesh with the integral peripheral spur gear. The drive motor is torque, speed, and direction controllable

IR spectral characteristics of cirrus clouds

The recent focus of parameterization of the radiative properties of clouds has been to include the microphysical properties of the cloud. A variety of parameterization have been developed for both the shortwave and the longwave. In parameterizing the longwave properties of clouds, it is useful to consider the two stream solution of the radiative transfer equation appropriate for a thermal source. These radiative transfer equations are considered

Analysis of cirrus optical properties with data from NASA ER2 High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS)

The 8 to 13 micron spectral region is an important atmospheric window for radiometric studies of the Earth's surface and clouds. Most of the Earth-atmosphere longwave radiative loss to space occurs in this spectral region. Selective gaseous absorption in this window occurs in the 9.6 micron ozone band with the remaining absorption dominated by the water vapor continuum. Cirrus clouds have a large impact on the transmittance of this atmospheric window region; it is therefore important to understand the interaction of cirrus cloud with the radiation field for climate studies and in the interpretation of satellite radiometric measurements. The focus was to employ observations of the High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS) made during First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) to improve the understanding of the radiative properties of cirrus clouds within this window region. Studies were undertaken to investigate the coupling between the microphysical properties of cirrus clouds and their spectral variation within this window region. Extensions of the HIS studies to satellite measurements, with regards to remote sensing and interpretation, were also investigated

The internal structure, mechanics, and fluid flow properties of low-angle normal faults a case study from the island of Elba, Italy

Low-angle normal faults have been extensively documented in areas of regional extension, in both continental and oceanic lithosphere, but their existence as seismically active structures remains controversial. Low-angle normal faults do not conform to 'traditional’ frictional fault theory, and large earthquakes on low-angle normal faults appear to be rare. Their enigmatic nature suggests that they may hold important clues regarding the rheology of fault zones in general, controls on frictional behaviour, and the deformation histories of the mid- to upper-crust. In this study, I investigate the internal structure, mechanical properties, and fluid flow conditions along a large-displacement low-angle normal fault exposed on the Island of Elba, Italy. Using field relationships, microstructural analysis, stable isotope geochemistry, and rock deformation experiments, I document the most important characteristics of the fault zone, and test hypotheses concerning the mechanical behaviour and evolution of low-angle normal faults. The Zuccale low-angle normal fault crosscuts and displaces a lithologically heterogeneous sequence of wall rocks. Field relationships suggest that it was active in the upper crust during the emplacement of large plutonic complexes. On a regional-scale, the Zuccale fault appears to have a long-wavelength domal morphology, which may have resulted from the intrusion of an upper-crust igneous pluton in to the shallow footwall of the fault. Pluton intrusion strongly influenced the fluid flow regimes and fault rock evolution along the Zuccale fault. Geometric and kinematic relationships between the Zuccale fault and a network of minor footwall faults suggest that the Zuccale fault slipped at a low-angle throughout most of its history. The footwall faults were active broadly contemporaneously with movement along the Zuccale fault, and controlled the distribution and connectivity of different fault rock components. This imparted a distinct mechanical structure to the fault core, potentially influencing fault zone rheology. The central core of the Zuccale fault contains a sequence of fault rocks that deformed by a variety of deformation mechanisms, and formed during progressive exhumation of the fault zone. Triaxial deformation experiments indicate that the frictional strength of many of the fault rocks is too high to explain slip along the Zuccale fault. However, several potential mechanisms of fault zone weakening have been identified, including fluid-assisted dissolution-precipitation creep, grain-size sensitive creep in calcite mylonites, frictional sliding within phyllosilicate-rich areas of the fault core, high fluid pressures, and particulate flow accommodated by fine-grained clay minerals. Fluids associated with the Zuccale fault were derived from two main sources. During the relatively early stages of movement, and particularly during the intrusion of plutonic complexes, fluids were of meteoric-hydrothermal origin. During the late stages of exhumation, fluids were derived from a seawater source that infiltrated downwards through faulted and fractured wall rocks. Sub-horizontal tensile veins carrying both fluid signatures are found adjacent to and within the fault core, suggesting that supra-lithostatic fluid pressures were able to develop throughout the exhumation history. One of the consequences of high fluid pressures was the development of a suite of fluidized fault breccias, a newly recognized type of fault rock that may be indicative of the interseismic stage of the earthquake cycle

Remote sounding through semi-transparent cirrus cloud

A large portion of the earth is covered by thin semi-transparent cirrus cloud. The cirrus results from the natural injection of moisture into the upper troposphere by deep convection (i.e., anvils) and from man-made moisture injected into the upper troposphere by jet aircraft. Although most cirrus clouds are semi-transparent to infrared wavelengths, their heights, thicknesses, and spectral absorption properties must be known in order to retrieve atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles from the data. An algorithm is developed for accounting for the radiative properties of semi-transparent cloud in the retrieval of vertical temperature and moisture profiles. The algorithm is to be applied to the NASA ER2 HIS data collected during the FIRE cirrus field program

Full-wave simulations of electromagnetic cloaking structures

Based on a coordinate transformation approach, Pendry {\it et al.} have reported electromagnetically anisotropic and inhomogeneous shells that, in theory, completely shield an interior structure of arbitrary size from electromagnetic fields without perturbing the external fields. We report full-wave simulations of the cylindrical version of this cloaking structure using ideal and nonideal (but physically realizable) electromagnetic parameters in an effort to understand the challenges of realizing such a structure in practice. The simulations indicate that the performance of the electromagnetic cloaking structure is not especially sensitive to modest permittivity and permeability variations. This is in contrast to other applications of engineered electromagnetic materials, such as subwavelength focusing using negative refractive index materials. The cloaking performance degrades smoothly with increasing loss, and effective low-reflection shielding can be achieved with a cylindrical shell composed of an eight (homogeneous) layer approximation of the ideal continuous medium

Measurement Invariance, Entropy, and Probability

We show that the natural scaling of measurement for a particular problem defines the most likely probability distribution of observations taken from that measurement scale. Our approach extends the method of maximum entropy to use measurement scale as a type of information constraint. We argue that a very common measurement scale is linear at small magnitudes grading into logarithmic at large magnitudes, leading to observations that often follow Student's probability distribution which has a Gaussian shape for small fluctuations from the mean and a power law shape for large fluctuations from the mean. An inverse scaling often arises in which measures naturally grade from logarithmic to linear as one moves from small to large magnitudes, leading to observations that often follow a gamma probability distribution. A gamma distribution has a power law shape for small magnitudes and an exponential shape for large magnitudes. The two measurement scales are natural inverses connected by the Laplace integral transform. This inversion connects the two major scaling patterns commonly found in nature. We also show that superstatistics is a special case of an integral transform, and thus can be understood as a particular way in which to change the scale of measurement. Incorporating information about measurement scale into maximum entropy provides a general approach to the relations between measurement, information and probability

Long Term Comparison of Alternative Range Livestock Management Strategies Across Extended Droughts and Cyclical Prices

Variable precipitation, more importantly drought, impacts profitability for livestock management. Financial outcomes from management decisions related to forage shortages can be exacerbated by price variability. This research examines alternative management strategies to determine the potential profitability and riskiness over a long-term horizon and across various drought event scenarios. Results indicate that late calving can be a promising strategy, but it also can result in higher variability in profits as compared to some of the other strategies analyzed. Retaining ownership of steer calves over the winter, with the option to sell if forage supplies become scarce, outperforms both partial liquidation and summer feeding, and it results in less profit variability than late calving or early weaning.Production Economics, Productivity Analysis,

Characteristics of broadband lightning emissions associated with terrestrial gamma ray flashes

To characterize lightning processes that produce terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs), we have analyzed broadband (<1 Hz to 30 kHz) lightning magnetic fields for TGFs detected by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite in 2004-2009. The majority (96%) of 56 TGF-associated lightning signals contain single or multiple VLF impulses superposed on a slow pulse that reflects a process raising considerable negative charge within 2-6 ms. Some TGF lightning emissions also contain VLF signals that precede any appreciable slow pulse and that we term precursor sferics. The analyses of 9 TGFs related to lightning discharges with location uncertainty <100 km consistently indicate that TGFs are temporally linked to the early portion of the slow process and associated VLF impulses, and not to precursor sferics. The nearly universal presence of a slow pulse suggests that the slow process plays an important role in gamma ray production. In all cases the slow process raises negative charge with a typical mean current moment of +30 kA km. The resulting charge moment change ranges from small values below +10 C km to a maximum of +200 C km, with an average of +64 C km. The current moment waveform extracted from TGF sferics with single or multiple VLF impulses also shows that the slow process initiates shortly before the major TGF-associated fast discharge. These features are generally consistent with the TGF-lightning sequence reported by Lu et al. (2010), suggesting that the majority of RHESSI TGFs are produced during the upward negative leader progression prevalent in normal polarity intracloud flashes

Does Gender and Race Have an Impact on Earnings in the Library and Information Science Labor Market in the United States of America?

Using data from the 2003 US National Survey of College Graduates, a longitudinal survey administered by the US Bureau of Census for the National Science Foundation, this study examines earnings in the library and information science labor market and assesses the impact of gender and race on the earnings attainment process. This cross-sectional dataset is used to determine if there are significant differences in income among library and information science professionals with respect to gender and race. The approach taken in this study is to build a theoretical model of earnings attainment for librarians and information scientists. This is followed by a discussion of the methodology used to analyze the data and test the model, and the results, discussion including recommendations for further research, and conclusions