RV Knorr Cruise KN200-4, 13 Apr-03 May 2011. RAPID Mooring Cruise

This report describes the mooring operations conducted during RV Knorr cruise KN200-4 between 13 April and 3 May 2011. These mooring operations were completed as part of the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded RAPID-WATCH Programme to monitor the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) at 26.5°N. The primary purpose on this cruise for the UK team was to service the RAPID Western Boundary moorings while the US teams worked on the Western Boundary Time Series project and the RAPID-MOCHA Western Boundary moorings. Cruise KN200-4 was from Port Everglades, Florida to Port Everglades, Florida and covered the Western Boundary moorings deployed on RB0901 and OC459. This cruise was the ninth annual refurbishment of the Western Boundary section of an array of moorings deployed across the Atlantic in order to continuously observe the MOC. This array will be further refined and refurbished during subsequent years. The instruments deployed on the array consist of a variety of current meters, bottom pressure recorders, and CTD loggers, which, combined with time series measurements of the Florida Straits Current and wind stress estimates, will be used to determine the strength and structure of the MOC at 26.5°N. (http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/rapid

Some Food Reactions of Snails

The following work was done at the University of Chicago Zoological Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. W. J. Crozier to investigate primarily the method of innervation of the food reflex. For the studies, various forms of common snails were experimented with, but the domestic snail known as the Singapore was used for most of this work because of its ready availability and suitableness for the work due to its large size, activity and omniverousness. The main objection to them is that they do not swim on the surface of the water as do many forms. In order to obviate this difficulty they were studied by placing the snail to be observed in a Petri dish on the stand of a dissecting microscope and watching its movements along the bottom of the dish with the aid of the reflecting mirror. It was found that the snails varied considerably in physiological activity, so that during the experiments it was often necessary to discard an animal because of inactivity, necessitating work with a considerable number of individuals in order to get approximately accurate results

Eddy Impacts on the Florida Current

The Gulf Stream in the Atlantic carries warm water northwards and forms both the return closure of the subtropical gyre as well as the upper limb of the meridional overturning circulation. Recent time series recorded east of the Bahamas at 26°N indicate that from May 2009 to April 2011, in contrast with past observations, the northward flowing Antilles Current covaried with the Gulf Stream in the Florida Straits—the Florida Current—even though the Florida and Antilles Currents are separated by banks and islands spanning 150?km. The peak-to-trough amplitude of transport variations during this period was 15?×?106?m3?s?1 for the Florida Current and 12?×?106?m3?s?1 for the Antilles Current, at time scales of 50?days to a year. From satellite observations, we show that the fluctuations in both the Florida and Antilles Currents between May 2009 and April 2011 are driven by eddy activity east of the Bahamas. Since the Florida Current time series is a critical time series for the state of the oceans, and often compared to climate models, this newly identified source of variability needs careful consideration when attributing the variability of the Florida Current to changes in the larger-scale circulations (e.g., gyre and overturning) or wind forcing.<br/

Gulf Stream Meanders: Observations on the Deep Currents

During 1979–1980, an array of inverted echo sounders (IES) and three deep current meter moorings were deployed on the continental slope 100–200 km northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. This array continuously monitored the path of the Gulf Stream and the deep currents under it. The mean currents at two sites 1000 m off the bottom near the northern edge of the stream were veered to the right of the mean surface path, indicating a deep inflow to the stream. Mean currents 500 and 1000 m off the bottom 50 km farther offshore were northeastward, nearly colinear with the surface Gulf Stream path. The deep velocity fluctuations are characterized by a transition from transverse flow aligned with the local bathymetry for periods longer than about 12 days to fluctuations with a cross-stream orientation for shorter periods. For periods between 4 days and 1 month, cross-stream movements of the Gulf Stream temperature front are vertically coherent and nearly barotropic, based on correlations between the IES-measured stream path and deep temperature fluctuations. Temperature fluctuations at the current meter sites lead cross-stream (positive onshore) velocity fluctuations by approximately 90°. Consideration of the nondiffusive fluctuating heat equation for deep layers suggests a three-term balance between local rate of change, cross-stream horizontal advection, and vertical advection of temperature, with the first two being of like sign. Kinematically, this requires |wTz| \u3e |υTy|, so that parcel trajectories in the cross-stream plane are inclined at angles steeper than the mean cross-stream slope of the isotherms. Eddy energy conversion between the fluctuations and the mean field in deep layers is predominantly baroclinic, with e-folding growth time scales of approximately 10 days

Time scales and structure of topographic Rossby waves and meanders in the deep Gulf Stream

During July–November 1982, current and temperature records were collected from six current meters spanning the lower 2000 m of the water column on two moorings in the Gulf Stream northeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. Frequency domain EOF analysis of the velocity cross-spectra reveals that there are two kinematically distinct wave processes present in the subinertial range, identifiable as topographic Rossby wave and meander-associated motions, which are energetically dominant at periods longer than and shorter than 14 days, respectively. Simultaneous thermocline depth measurements obtained using inverted echo sounders show that the low-frequency topographic Rossby wave motions are uncoupled with near-surface displacements of the Gulf Stream path, but that cross-stream velocity fluctuations in the 14-day and 5-day period bands are associated with vertically coherent meanders of the Gulf Stream temperature front

Deciduous enamel 3D microwear texture analysis as an indicator of childhood diet in medieval Canterbury, England

This study conducted the first three dimensional microwear texture analysis of human deciduous teeth to reconstruct the physical properties of medieval childhood diet (age 1-8yrs) at St Gregory's Priory and Cemetery (11th to 16th century AD) in Canterbury, England. Occlusal texture complexity surfaces of maxillary molars from juvenile skeletons (n=44) were examined to assess dietary hardness. Anisotropy values were calculated to reconstruct dietary toughness, as well as jaw movements during chewing. Evidence of weaning was sought, and variation in the physical properties of food was assessed against age and socio-economic status. Results indicate that weaning had already commenced in the youngest children. Diet became tougher from four years of age, and harder from age six. Variation in microwear texture surfaces was related to historical textual evidence that refers to lifestyle developments for these age groups. Diet did not vary with socio-economic status, which differs to previously reported patterns for adults. We conclude, microwear texture analyses can provide a non-destructive tool for revealing subtle aspects of childhood diet in the past

Simultaneous Multi-Wavelength Observations of Magnetic Activity in Ultracool Dwarfs. I. The Complex Behavior of the M8.5 Dwarf TVLM513-46546

[Abridged] We present the first simultaneous radio, X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical spectroscopic observations of the M8.5 dwarf TVLM513-46546, with a duration of 9 hours. These observations are part of a program to study the origin of magnetic activity in ultracool dwarfs, and its impact on chromospheric and coronal emission. Here we detect steady quiescent radio emission superposed with multiple short-duration, highly polarized flares; there is no evidence for periodic bursts previously reported for this object, indicating their transient nature. We also detect soft X-ray emission, with L_X/L_bol~10^-4.9, the faintest to date for any object later than M5, and a possible weak X-ray flare. TVLM513-46546 continues the trend of severe violation of the radio/X-ray correlation in ultracool dwarfs, by nearly 4 orders of magnitude. From the optical spectroscopy we find that the Balmer line luminosity exceeds the X-ray luminosity by a factor of a few, suggesting that, unlike in early M dwarfs, chromospheric heating may not be due to coronal X-ray emission. More importantly, we detect a sinusoidal H-alpha light curve with a period of 2 hr, matching the rotation period of TVLM513-46546. This is the first known example of such Balmer line behavior, which points to a co-rotating chromospheric hot spot or an extended magnetic structure, with a covering fraction of about 50%. This feature may be transitory based on the apparent decline in light curve peak during the four observed maxima. From the radio data we infer a large scale steady magnetic field of ~100 G, in good agreement with the value required for confinement of the X-ray emitting plasma. The radio flares, on the other hand, are produced in a component of the field with a strength of ~3 kG and a likely multi-polar configuration.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

KH 15D: A Spectroscopic Binary

We present the results of a high-resolution spectroscopic monitoring program of the eclipsing pre-main-sequence star KH 15D that reveal it to be a single-line spectroscopic binary. We find that the best-fit Keplerian model has a period P = 48.38 days, which is nearly identical to the photometric period. Thus, we find the best explanation for the periodic dimming of KH 15D is that the binary motion carries the currently visible star alternately above and below the edge of an obscuring cloud. The data are consistent with the models involving an inclined circumstellar disk, as recently proposed by Winn et al. (2004) and Chiang & Murray-Clay (2004). We show that the mass ratio expected from models of PMS evolution, together with the mass constraints for the visible star, restrict the orbital eccentricity to 0.68 < e < 0.80 and the mass function to 0.125 < Fm < 0.5 Msun.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in September AJ. Discussion of rotational velocity deferred to Hamilton, et al. (2004, in prep). Previously reported vsini value in error; Replaced Table 3 with new Figure 3; Added new Table 2 showing individual radial velocities w.r.t. each reference star; Fixed typo in Figure

The declining representativeness of the British party system, and why it matters

In a recent article, Michael Laver has explained ‘Why Vote-Seeking Parties May Make Voters Miserable’. His model shows that, while ideological convergence may boost congruence between governments and the median voter, it can reduce congruence between the party system and the electorate as a whole. Specifically, convergence can increase the mean distance between voters and their nearest party. In this article we show that this captures the reality of today’s British party system. Policy scale placements in British Election Studies from 1987 to 2010 confirm that the pronounced convergence during the past decade has left the Conservatives and Labour closer together than would be optimal in terms of minimising the policy distance between the average voter and the nearest major party. We go on to demonstrate that this comes at a cost. Respondents who perceive themselves as further away from one of the major parties in the system tend to score lower on satisfaction with democracy. In short, vote-seeking parties have left the British party system less representative of the ideological diversity in the electorate, and thus made at least some British voters miserable