Evaluating EGM2008 over East Antarctica

The release of EGM2008 and associated products such as grids of mean dynamic ocean topography offer the possibility of utilising the extensive historical record in Antarcticawith today's modern satellite sensing techniques. In this study, we use data acquired at the Mawson, Davis, Casey and Scott and McMurdo stations in East Antarctica to investigate the performance of EGM2008 over this region. EGM2008 over Antarctica is entirely dependent on the EGM2008-adopted global GRACE satellite-derived gravity field. This is in contrast to most other regions of the Earth, where there are also contributions from terrestrial gravity and/or altimeter satellites. We determine, over East Antarctica, and at our four test sites that EGM2008 should be used with caution when precisions better than one metre are required. The precisions at the test sites are better than this, but the evidence is that the four test sites are probably not representative of the large area of East Antarctica they are being forced to represent. Notwithstanding any of the above, EGM2008 represents a significant step forward in East Antarctica and that the use of test stations and regions where there is little or no complementary data is a valid method of investigating the performance of the model

Validation of the AUSGeoid98 model in Western Australia using historic astrogeodetically observed deviations of the vertical

AUSGeoid98 is the national standard quasigeoid model of Australia, which is accompanied by a grid of vertical deviations (angular differences between the Earth's gravity vector and the surface-normal to the reference ellipsoid). Conventionally, co-located Global Positioning System (GPS) and spirit-levelling data have been used to assess the precision of quasigeoid models. Here, we instead use a totally independent set of 435 vertical deviations, observed at astrogeodetic stations across Western Australia before 1966, to assess the AUSGeoid98 gravimetrically modelled vertical deviations. This point-wise comparison shows that (after three-sigma rejection of 15 outliers) AUSGeoid98 can deliver vertical deviations with a precision (standard deviation) of around one arc-second, which is generally adequate for the reduction of current terrestrial-geodetic survey data in this State

LifeGuard: Providing Safety in an Unsafe World

A poster presented by Lincoln Bent, Morgan Gafford and Will Ransdell for the class Business, Accounting and Entrepreneurship: Proposed Business Plans.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/gsp_projects_2019/1001/thumbnail.jp

"Taking your place at the table": an autoethnographic study of chaplains' participation on an interdisciplinary research team.

BackgroundThere are many potential benefits to chaplaincy in transforming into a "research-informed" profession. However little is known or has been documented about the roles of chaplains on research teams and as researchers or about the effects of research engagement on chaplains themselves. This report describes the experience and impact of three chaplains, as well as tensions and challenges that arose, on one particular interdisciplinary team researching a spiritual assessment model in palliative care. Transcripts of our research team meetings, which included the three active chaplain researchers, as well as reflections of all the members of the research team provide the data for this descriptive, qualitative, autoethnographic analysis.MethodsThis autoethnographic project evolved from the parent study, entitled "Spiritual Assessment Intervention Model (AIM) in Outpatient Palliative Care Patients with Advanced Cancer." This project focused on the use of a well-developed model of spiritual care, the Spiritual Assessment and Intervention Model (Spiritual AIM). Transcripts of nine weekly team meetings for the parent study were reviewed. These parent study team meetings were attended by various disciplines and included open dialogue and intensive questions from non-chaplain team members to chaplains about their practices and Spiritual AIM. Individual notes (from reflexive memoing) and other reflections of team members were also reviewed for this report. The primary methodological framework for this paper, autoethnography, was not only used to describe the work of chaplains as researchers, but also to reflect on the process of researcher identity formation and offer personal insights regarding the challenges accompanying this process.ResultsThree major themes emerged from the autoethnographic analytic process: 1) chaplains' unique contributions to the research team; 2) the interplay between the chaplains' active research role and their work identities; and 3) tensions and challenges in being part of an interdisciplinary research team.ConclusionsDescribing the contributions and challenges of one interdisciplinary research team that included chaplains may help inform chaplains about the experience of participating in research. As an autoethnographic study, this work is not meant to offer generalizable results about all chaplains' experiences on research teams. Research teams that are interdisciplinary may mirror the richness and efficacy of clinical interdisciplinary teams. Further work is needed to better characterize both the promise and pitfalls of chaplains' participation on research teams

Antimicrobial Effects of Compounds Used in Cleaning Wipes

The antimicrobial effectiveness and level of biofilm inhibition of three compounds from Rockline Industries were tested, along with five compounds made by the St. Norbert College Organic Chemistry Department. The Rockline compounds, ColaLipid (CL), Sodium Benzoate (NaB) and Benzoic Acid (BA), were solubilized in 10% DMSO and tested at concentrations of 0.15%, 0.10%, and 0.01%. To ensure that any growth effects were due to the compounds in question, DMSO was also tested for antimicrobial activity. The compounds were tested against safe relative of eight bacteria of clinical importance (Acinetobacter baylyi, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus raffinosus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas putida, Staphylococcus epidermidis) and one species of fungus (Candida albicans). The antimicrobial properties of these compounds were measured by reading absorbance at 600 nm of overnight cultures. Biofilm formation inhibition was measured using a crystal violet biofilm assay. ColaLipid and Benzoic Acid were found to inhibit growth of the bacterial and fungal strains, while Sodium Benzoate did not. Of the compounds synthesized by in St. Norbert organic chemists, two showed consistent inhibition of growth and three did not. ColaLipid, Benzoic Acid, and one organic compound showed consistent inhibition of biofilm formation.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/collaborative_presentations/1081/thumbnail.jp

Anthropogenic land subsidence in the Perth Basin: Challenges for its retrospective geodetic detection

Recent-past subsidence of parts of the Perth Basin has most probably been caused by increased groundwater extraction for domestic and agricultural use. However, no dedicated geodetic monitoring programs were established when the increased extraction began in around 2000, thus setting a challenge to retrospectively quantify and map the subsidence. Differential levelling is likely to be less effective as only a few repeat traverses cover the areas thought to be subsiding. Repeat gravimetry is totally ineffective because of microseismic vibrations propagating through the Perth Basin. Repeat episodic GPS (Global Positioning System) is also likely to be less effective because of the few station occupations over several days or weeks and the inherent weakness of GPS for height determination. However, from a continuously operating GPS receiver at Gnangara and nearby artesian monitoring boreholes, we show that the rate of land subsidence has slowed from about -6 mm/yr to about -2 mm/yr since the reduction of groundwater extraction from the Yarragadee Aquifer in around 2005. A promising technique is InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) because it can map large areas, but the lack of historical radar imagery over the period of increased subsidence is a hindrance

A New Facility to Enhance Australian GPS-geodetic Research

The Australian Research Council recently awarded a grant to a consortium of five Australian universities to purchase ten geodetic-quality GPS receivers and peripherals. This cooperative approach will enhance new and existing GPS-geodetic research opportunities for Australian academic geodesists. These research projects include the monitoring of deformation of man-made structures and natural features, global and regional plate tectonics, measurement of sea-level change, mapping of Antarctic ice sheets and their flow, sounding of the Earth's atmosphere, and experiments in kinematic and rapid-static GPS-geodesy

Supervoid Origin of the Cold Spot in the Cosmic Microwave Background

We use a WISE-2MASS-Pan-STARRS1 galaxy catalog to search for a supervoid in the direction of the Cosmic Microwave Background Cold Spot. We obtain photometric redshifts using our multicolor data set to create a tomographic map of the galaxy distribution. The radial density profile centred on the Cold Spot shows a large low density region, extending over 10's of degrees. Motivated by previous Cosmic Microwave Background results, we test for underdensities within two angular radii, $5^\circ$, and $15^\circ$. Our data, combined with an earlier measurement by Granett et al 2010, are consistent with a large $R_{\rm void}=(192 \pm 15)h^{-1} Mpc$ $(2\sigma)$ supervoid with $\delta \simeq -0.13 \pm 0.03$ centered at $z=0.22\pm0.01$. Such a supervoid, constituting a $\sim3.5 \sigma$ fluctuation in the $\Lambda CDM$ model, is a plausible cause for the Cold Spot.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of IAU 306 Symposium: Statistical Challenges in 21st Century Cosmolog