Engineering properties and slope stability settlement analysis related to phosphate mine spoil dumps in southeastern Idaho

The engineering properties of waste spoil from phosphate mines in Southeastern Idaho were determined through field and laboratory testing. Based on these properties, the slope stability and settlement characteristics of phosphate spoil dumps were determined. Hypothetical examples illustrate possible modes of foundation failures. Such failures might occur when weak foundation soils exist of when there is a lack of embankment-foundation preparation prior to the disposal of waste material. Adequate protection against slope failure occurring through the embankment material can be accomplished by grading embankment finish slopes to 2 ½ horizontal to 1 vertical or flatter and taking proper caution to prevent the build-up of a phreatic surface near the embankment surface. Post construction settlement in spoil dumps is caused principally by increases in the moisture content in layers of middle waste shales and soft cherts. A rational method for predicting magnitudes of post construction settlement in spoil dumps is also presented

How political parties adjust to fixed voter opinions

We propose a new version of the spatial model of voting. Platforms of five parties are evolving in a two-dimensional landscape of political issues so as to get maximal numbers of voters. For a Gaussian landscape the evolution leads to a spatially symmetric state, where the platform centers form a pentagon around the Gaussian peak. For a bimodal landscape the platforms located at different peaks get different numbers of voters.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted in Int. J. Modern Phys.

Multiple shutters for a stereoscopic camera

Focal plane shutter assembly composed of three mechanically separate rotary shutters permits exposure of three separated photographic films simultaneously with exposure time of 0.08 second. Exposure time is repeatable within 2 percent, uniformity of exposure over all three films is within 5 percent

Beobachtungsstudien im Rahmen eines naturheilkundlichen Klinikverbunds :Teil I: Methoden und Übersicht der Ergebnisse in den beteiligten Kliniken

Background: In Germany a considerable number of in-patient facilities offer complementary medicine in addition to conventional care. In this study we aimed to describe patient characteristics, diagnostics, therapy and outcomes of four such in-patient facilities. Methods: 2835 consecutive in-patients admitted to two private hospitals with an emphasis on complementary medical cart, one private hospital for traditional Chinese medicine, and the Department of Complementary Medicine of a public district hospital participated in a prospective observational (cohort) study with 12 months follow-up. Sociodemographic characteristics, diagnoses, duration of disease, type and frequency of therapeutic interventions, intensity of complaints, assessment of therapeutic success, and quality of life were documented. Results: Patients of the observed hospitals were mostly female (66%-80% in the four hospitals) and a high proportion was chronically ill (31%-62% with a disease history longer than 5 years). The frequency of single diagnoses varied strongly between the four hospitals, however, chronic pain syndromes were very frequent in all. Complementary care always included a large number of different therapeutic methods whose combination varied with different diagnoses and between the hospitals. At discharge, 57%-73% of patients rated the therapeutic success as good or very good, Follow-up rates were satisfactory only in two of the four hospitals. After 12 months 51%-64% of the responding patients still rated the success as good or very good. Conclusions: In the observed hospitals mainly chronically ill patients are treated with highly complex combinations of a large variety of complementary therapies. A majority of patients seems to be satisfied by the treatment. A major methodological problem in the interpretations of patient outcomes are the partly low followup rates

Atmospheric Turbulence Compensation of Point Source Images Using Asynchronous Stochastic Parallel Gradient Descent Technique on AMOS 3.6 m Telescope

The Stochastic Parallel Gradient Descent Technique-based Adaptive Optics (SPGD-AO) system described in this presentation does not use a conventional wavefront sensor. It uses a metric signal collected by a single pixel detector placed behind a pinhole in the image plane to drive three deformable mirrors (DMs). The system is designed to compensate the image for turbulence effects. The theory behind this method is described in detail in [1]. However this technique, while widely simulated and tested in the laboratory, was not yet verified in astronomical field site experiments. During the month of May 2007, a series of experiments with SPGD-AO compensation on stars at several elevation angles and turbulence levels were conducted successfully at the US Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site (AMOS) using the 3.6 m telescope. Some of the results of these experiments are described in this paper. This is the first time SPGD-AO systems have been tested and verified in astronomical field site experiments

Characterization of Atmospheric Turbulence Effects Over 149 km Propagation Path Using Multi-Wavelength Laser Beacons

We describe preliminary results of a set of laser beam propagation experiments performed over a long (149 km) near-horizontal propagation path between Mauna Loa (Hawaii Island) and Haleakala (Island of Maui) mountains in February 2010. The distinctive feature of the experimental campaign referred to here as the Coherent Multi-Beam Atmospheric Transceiver (COMBAT) experiments is that the measurements of the atmospheric-turbulence induced laser beam intensity scintillations at the receiver telescope aperture were obtained simultaneously using three laser sources (laser beacons) with different wavelengths (λ1 = 0.53 μm, λ2 = 1.06 μm, and λ3 = 1.55 μm). The presented experimental results on intensity scintillation characteristics reveal complexity of the observed phenomena that cannot be fully explained based on the existing atmospheric turbulence models

Budget Processes: Theory and Experimental Evidence

This paper studies budget processes, both theoretically and experimentally. We compare the outcomes of bottom-up and top-down budget processes. It is often presumed that a top-down budget process leads to a smaller overall budget than a bottom-up budget process. Ferejohn and Krehbiel (1987) showed theoretically that this need not be the case. We test experimentally the theoretical predictions of their work. The evidence from these experiments lends strong support to their theory, both at the aggregate and the individual subject level