Devoted Heroes: Muslim Superheroes, Comics, and Fundamentalism

When Superman leapt onto newsstands, he brought religiosity with him, specifically Christian and Jewish religiosity. From his creators’ Jewish backgrounds, to the Christian imagery read into him, Superman is a symbol of how religion can intersect with the comic book medium. Debates still erupt over the question: is Superman Jewish? This is reductionist, at best. It begs the question, what does it mean to say that a character is religious? What is the question referencing? The diegetic religion of the character? The religious affiliation of who the character is based on? The writers and artists of the comic? How closely the character’s traits and story mimic religious traits and stories? Through these follow up questions it becomes clear that our initial question is far more complicated than it may first have appeared

Deployment operation procedures for the WHOI Ice-Tethered Profiler

Deployed and fixed to a suitable multi-year ice floe, the Ice-Tethered Profiler (ITP) can sustain near-real time measurements of upper ocean temperature and salinity for up to three years. Incorporating a specifically designed winch system and deployment apparatus that is both light weight and easily assembled or disassembled on a ship or at a deployment site, the ITP can be deployed in less than four hours by either transporting the gear and field personnel to the deployment site via aircraft, or by lowering the gear over the side of a ship and hauling on the ice. Using daily satellite imagery (if available), visual reconnaissance flights, and ice surveying, the choice of an appropriate ice floe is a necessity to select a site that will sustain the system for a prolonged period of time (depending upon the instrument sampling rate). If available, the helicopter is the preferable method for surveying different sites and for deployment operations. Working from a ship typically limits the distance and selection of ice floes. Pre-deployment procedures include powering and configuring the ITP instruments and preparing the apparatus for transport to the deployment site. Specific deployment methods include the assembly and disassembly of the ITP winch, proper placement of the total ITP deployment apparatus, ‘Yale Grip’ braiding and slipping techniques, and testing the Iridium and Inductive communication links. The operations described here provide a safe and efficient manner to easily deploy the WHOI ITP.Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. OCE-0324233 and by the Office of Polar Programs under award numbers ARC-0519899 and ARC-0631951

Three-dimensional sound propagation models using the parabolic-equation approximation and the split-step Fourier method

Author Posting. © IMACS, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of World Scientific Publishing for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Computational Acoustics 21 (2013): 1250018, doi:10.1142/S0218396X1250018X.The split-step Fourier method is used in three-dimensional parabolic-equation (PE) models to compute underwater sound propagation in one direction (i.e. forward). The method is implemented in both Cartesian (x, y, z) and cylindrical (r, θ, z) coordinate systems, with forward defined as along x and radial coordinate r, respectively. The Cartesian model has uniform resolution throughout the domain, and has errors that increase with azimuthal angle from the x axis. The cylindrical model has consistent validity in each azimuthal direction, but a fixed cylindrical grid of radials cannot produce uniform resolution. Two different methods to achieve more uniform resolution in the cylindrical PE model are presented. One of the methods is to increase the grid points in azimuth, as a function of r, according to nonaliased sampling theory. The other is to make use of a fixed arc-length grid. In addition, a point-source starter is derived for the three-dimensional Cartesian PE model. Results from idealized seamount and slope calculations are shown to compare and verify the performance of the three methods.This work was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research under the grants N00014-10-1-0040 and N00014-11-1-0701

European climate response to tropical volcanic eruptions over the last half millennium

We analyse the winter and summer climatic signal following 15 major tropical volcanic eruptions over the last half millennium based on multi-proxy reconstructions for Europe. During the first and second post-eruption years we find significant continental scale summer cooling and somewhat drier conditions over Central Europe. In the Northern Hemispheric winter the volcanic forcing induces an atmospheric circulation response that significantly follows a positive NAO state connected with a significant overall warm anomaly and wetter conditions over Northern Europe. Our findings compare well with GCM studies as well as observational studies, which mainly cover the substantially shorter instrumental period and thus include a limited set of major eruptions

The Relativistic Factor in the Orbital Dynamics of Point Masses

There is a growing population of relativistically relevant minor bodies in the Solar System and a growing population of massive extrasolar planets with orbits very close to the central star where relativistic effects should have some signature. Our purpose is to review how general relativity affects the orbital dynamics of the planetary systems and to define a suitable relativistic correction for Solar System orbital studies when only point masses are considered. Using relativistic formulae for the N body problem suited for a planetary system given in the literature we present a series of numerical orbital integrations designed to test the relevance of the effects due to the general theory of relativity in the case of our Solar System. Comparison between different algorithms for accounting for the relativistic corrections are performed. Relativistic effects generated by the Sun or by the central star are the most relevant ones and produce evident modifications in the secular dynamics of the inner Solar System. The Kozai mechanism, for example, is modified due to the relativistic effects on the argument of the perihelion. Relativistic effects generated by planets instead are of very low relevance but detectable in numerical simulations

Long distance passive localization of vocalizing sei whales using an acoustic normal mode approach

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 131 (2012): 1814-1825, doi:10.1121/1.3666015.During a 2 day period in mid-September 2006, more than 200, unconfirmed but identifiable, sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) calls were collected as incidental data during a multidisciplinary oceanography and acoustics experiment on the shelf off New Jersey. Using a combined vertical and horizontal acoustic receiving array, sei whale movements were tracked over long distances (up to tens of kilometers) using a normal mode back propagation technique. This approach uses low-frequency, broadband passive sei whale call receptions from a single-station, two-dimensional hydrophone array to perform long distance localization and tracking by exploiting the dispersive nature of propagating normal modes in a shallow water environment. The back propagation approach is examined for accuracy and application to tracking the sei whale vocalizations identified in the vertical and horizontal array signals. This passive whale tracking, combined with the intensive oceanography measurements performed during the experiment, was also used to examine sei whale movements in relation to oceanographic features observed in this region.Office of Naval Researc

Radioscience simulations in General Relativity and in alternative theories of gravity

In this communication, we focus on the possibility to test GR with radioscience experiments. We present a new software that in a first step simulates the Range/Doppler signals directly from the space time metric (thus in GR and in alternative theories of gravity). In a second step, a least-squares fit of the involved parameters is performed in GR. This software allows one to get the order of magnitude and the signature of the modifications induced by an alternative theory of gravity on radioscience signals. As examples, we present some simulations for the Cassini mission in Post-Einsteinian gravity and with the MOND External Field Effect.Comment: 4 pages; Proceedings of "Les Rencontres de Moriond 2011 - Gravitation session