Hydrologic Data for Urban Studies in The Austin Metropolitan Area, Texas, 1986

The report references Waller Creek and includes data from surrounding watersheds.Waller Creek Working Grou

Shape memory alloy actuators for active disassembly using ‘smart’ materials of consumer electronic products

This paper reports the preliminary to current development of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators within their application in ‘Active Disassembly using Smart Materials’ (ADSM). This non-destructive self-dismantling process is to aid recycling of consumer electronic products. Actuators were placed in single and multi-stage hierarchical temperature regimes after being embedded into macro and sub-assemblies of electronic product assemblies. Findings include active disassembly and a hierarchical dismantling regime for product dismantling using developed SMA actuators embedded into candidate products

Hydrologic Data for Urban Studies in the Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area, 1980

This report includes drainage basin maps and information from a specific storm (May 12, 1980) for the 23rd and 38th street Waller Creek locations.Waller Creek Working Grou

More on the Narrowing of Impact Broadened Radio Recombination Lines at High Principal Quantum Number

Recently Alexander and Gulyaev have suggested that the apparent decrease in impact broadening of radio recombination lines seen at high principal quantum number n may be a product of the data reduction process, possibly resulting from the presence of noise on the telescope spectra that is not present on the calculated comparison spectra. This is an interesting proposal. However, there are serious problems with their analysis that need to be pointed out. Perhaps the most important of these is the fact that for principal quantum numbers below n = 200, where the widths are not in question, their processed generated profile widths do not fit the widths of the processed lines obtained at the telescope. After processing, the halfwidths of the generated and telescope profiles must agree below n = 200 if we are to believe that the processed generated linewidths above n = 200 are meaningful. Theirs do not. Furthermore, we find that after applying the linewidth reduction factors found by Alexander and Gulyaev for their noise added profiles to our generated profiles to simulate their noise adding effect, the processed widths we obtain still do not come close to explaining the narrowing seen in the telescope lines for n values in the range 200 < n < 250. It is concluded that what is needed to solve this mystery is a completely new approach using a different observing technique instead of simply a further manipulation of the frequency-switched data.Comment: Six pages with 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

An Aerial Gamma Ray Survey of Torness Nuclear Power Station on 27-30 March 1994

&lt;p&gt;An aerial gamma-ray survey of the environment of Torness Nuclear Power Station was commissioned by Scottish Nuclear Limited, and conducted by the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre. The area surveyed encloses a 31km square, with Torness Nuclear Power Station at the centre, flown with a line spacing of 500m. A secondary area, in closer proximity to the nuclear site, was flown with 250m spacing.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Over 6000 gamma ray spectra were recorded with a high volume spectrometer operated from a helicopter over a three day period in March 1994. Spectral data were recorded together with satellite navigation (GPS) and radar altimetry data. The results provide a comprehensive record of the radiation environment around Torness and have been used to map the distribution of natural and man-made radionuclides, forming a baseline to enable future environmental changes may be assessed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The natural radionuclides 40K, 214Bi and 208Tl are highly correlated with each other and show a distribution which reflects both the underlying geological and geomorphological features of the area. The main structural boundaries of the Dunbar-Gifford and Lammermuir faults can be partly discerned in the maps, as can some igneous intrusions. Areas with peat or alluvium cover appear as negative features in the radiometric maps.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Radiocaesium 137Cs levels range from below 4 kBq m-2 to over 20 kBq m-2. Upland areas near Coldingham Common, Black Castle Hill and Dunbar Common show the highest values, similar in deposition pattern and level to Chernobyl activity observed in the West of Scotland and elsewhere. Published national maps derived from meteorological and ground sampling data predicted much lower levels for these locations. However core samples taken after the survey have confirmed the presence of the activity, and the attribution to Chernobyl. This finding demonstrates both the effectiveness of the method for rapid location of radioactive deposition, and the need for baseline studies to determine present levels. Count rates from a spectral window corresponding to 60Co were also mapped. The results are close to detection limits and show a slight correlation with natural sources. Therefore they are more probably due to residuals remaining after separation of spectral interferences than to low level 60Co contamination.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Gamma ray dose rates range from approximately 0.1 to 0.6 mGy a-1 with a mean value of 0.34 mGy a-1, and are derived mainly from natural sources. Ground level measurements were taken at nine district monitoring points within the area using a 3x3" NaI spectrometer and a survey meter (Series 6/80) used routinely by SNL. Both ground based data sets were in good agreement with each other and with the aerial survey after accounting for instrumental and cosmic ray background contributions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There is no evidence that Torness Power Station has affected the surrounding radiation environment, within the operational and sensitivity limits of the aerial survey.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The longer term impact of the site can be assessed by future surveys. Moreover under emergency conditions it would be possible to utilise this method for rapid mapping of the area on a timescale which cannot be matched using alternative approaches. &lt;/p&gt

Native socio-economic development in Canada : change, promise and innovation

iii, 60 p., digital fil

Bird Beak Adaptation Lab

Background Information: An adaptation is a characteristic that helps a plant or animal survive in its environment. Bird beaks have adapted for many things such as eating, defense, feeding young, gathering nesting materials, building nests, preening, scratching, courting and attacking. The size and shape a beak is specific for the type of food the bird gathers. For example, cardinals have heavy thick bills used to crack seeds, and humming-birds have thin bills to sip nectar.Environmental Science Institut

Conformal symmetry and deflationary gas universe

We describe the ``deflationary'' evolution from an initial de Sitter phase to a subsequent Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) period as a specific non-equilibrium configuration of a self-interacting gas. The transition dynamics corresponds to a conformal, timelike symmetry of an ``optical'' metric, characterized by a refraction index of the cosmic medium which continously decreases from a very large initial value to unity in the FLRW phase.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in "Exact Solutions and Scalar Fields in Gravity: Recent Developments", ed. by A. Macias, J. Cervantes-Cota, and C. L\"ammerzahl, Kluwer Academic Publishers 200

The relationships between bone mineral density in the spine, hip, distal femur and proximal tibia and medial minimum joint space width in the knees of healthy females

SummaryObjectiveTo investigate the relationships between bone mineral density (BMD) in the hip, spine, distal femur and proximal tibia and minimum joint space width (mJSW) in the knees of healthy women.MethodsWomen 22–68 years old without a history of knee pain, bone or joint disease or injury underwent a single, fixed-flexion knee X-ray. Radiographs were graded according to the Kellgren–Lawrence scale and analyzed for mJSW using a computer algorithm. Dual X-ray absorptiometry scans of the spine, hip, distal femur and proximal tibia were also acquired for each participant. Femur and tibia scans were acquired and analyzed using a modified version of the lumbar spine software.ResultsForty-five females, mean [standard deviation (SD)] age and body mass index (BMI) of 40.1 (13.9) years and 24.6 (4.5)kg/m2, respectively, participated. The mean (SD) mJSW was 4.64 (0.68)mm. Linear regression analyses controlling for age and BMI revealed that BMD in the femoral trochanter and the central two regions of the tibia (T2 and T3) was significantly related to mJSW in the knee. A backwards regression analysis performed to determine which region of interest is most significantly related to mJSW revealed that femoral trochanter BMD (β-value=0.416) is the most significant.ConclusionsIn contrast to the suggestion that BMD is negatively correlated with mJSW in the knees of osteoarthritic individuals, these results suggest that increasing BMD in the femoral trochanter and tibia is significantly associated with increasing mJSW in healthy females. Further investigation of this relationship is warranted