15,566 research outputs found
Florida's West Coast inlets: shoreline effects and recommended action
This report responds to the 1986 Beaches Bill which, in recognition of the
potential deleterious impact on Florida's beaches of inlets modified for navigation,
mandated a study of those inlets with identification of recommended action to reduce
the impacts. This report addresses west Coast inlets; East Coast inlets are the
subject of a companion report.
There are 37 inlets along that portion of Florida's West Coast commencing from
Pensacola Bay Entrance to Caxambas Pass at the south end of Marco Island. Compared to
those on the East Coast, most West Coast inlets have not had the deleterious effects
on the adjacent beaches, yet all modified inlets without proper management have the
potential of impacting unfavorably on the adjacent shorelines. Moreover, at present
there is interest in opening three West Coast entrances which either have been open
in the past (Midnight Pass) or which have opened occasionally (Navarre Pass and
Entrance to Phillips Lake).
A review of inlets in their natural condition demonstrates the presence of a
shallow broad outer bar across which the longshore transport Occurs. These shallow
and shifting bar features were unsuitable for navigation which in many cases has led
to the deepening of the channels and fixing with one or two jetty structures. Inlets in this modified state along with inappropriate maintenance practices have the
potential of placing great ero$ional stress along the adjacent beaches. Moreover.
channel dredging can reduce wave sheltering of the shoreline by ebb tidal shoals and
alter the equilibrium of the affected shoreline segments. The ultimate in poor sand
management practice is the placement of good quality beach sand in water depths too
great for the sand to reenter the longshore system under natural forces; depths of 12
ft. or less are considered appropriate for Florida in order to maintain the sand in
the system.
With the interference of the nearshore sediment transport processes by inlets
modified for navigation, if the adjacent beaches are to be stabilized there must be
an active monitoring program with commitment to placement of dredged material of
beach quality on shoreline segments of documented need. Several East Coast inlets
have such transfer facilities; however. the quantities of sand transferred should be
increased. Although an evolution and improvement in the technical capability to
manage sand resources in the vicinity of inlets is expected, an adequate capability
exists today and a concerted program should be made to commence a scheduled
implementation of this capability at those entrances causing greatest erosional
stress on the adjacent shorelines.
A brief summary review for each of the 37 West Coast inlets is presented
including: a scaled aerial photograph, brief historical information, several items
related to sediment losses at each inlet and special characteristics relevant to
State responsibilities. For each inlet, where appropriate, the above infor~tion is
utilized to develop a recommenced action. (PDF has 101 pages.
Violation of the Leggett-Garg inequality with weak measurements of photons
By weakly measuring the polarization of a photon between two strong
polarization measurements, we experimentally investigate the correlation
between the appearance of anomalous values in quantum weak measurements, and
the violation of realism and non-intrusiveness of measurements. A quantitative
formulation of the latter concept is expressed in terms of a Leggett-Garg
inequality for the outcomes of subsequent measurements of an individual quantum
system. We experimentally violate the Leggett-Garg inequality for several
measurement strengths. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate that there is
a one-to-one correlation between achieving strange weak values and violating
the Leggett-Garg inequality.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
A periodically active pulsar giving insight into magnetospheric physics
PSR B1931+24 (J1933+2421) behaves as an ordinary isolated radio pulsar during
active phases that are 5-10 days long. However, the radio emission switches off
in less than 10 seconds and remains undetectable for the next 25-35 days, then
it switches on again. This pattern repeats quasi-periodically. The origin of
this behaviour is unclear. Even more remarkably, the pulsar rotation slows down
50% faster when it is on than when it is off. This indicates a massive increase
in magnetospheric currents when the pulsar switches on, proving that pulsar
wind plays a substantial role in pulsar spin-down. This allows us, for the
first time, to estimate the currents in a pulsar magnetospheric during the
occurrence of radio emission.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure
The Market for Teacher Quality
Much of education policy focuses on improving teacher quality, but most policies lack strong research support. We use student achievement gains to estimate teacher value-added, our measure of teacher quality. The analysis reveals substantial variation in the quality of instruction, most of which occurs within rather than between schools. Although teacher quality appears to be unrelated to advanced degrees or certification, experience does matter -- but only in the first year of teaching. We also find that good teachers tend to be effective with all student ability levels but that there is a positive value of matching students and teachers by race. In the second part of the analysis, we show that teachers staying in our sample of urban schools tend to be as good as or better than those who exit. Thus, the main cost of large turnover is the introduction of more first year teachers. Finally, there is little or no evidence that districts that offer higher salaries and have better working conditions attract the higher quality teachers among those who depart the central city district. The overall results have a variety of direct policy implications for the design of school accountability and the compensation of teachers.
Swift observations of the 2006 outburst of the recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi: II. 1D hydrodynamical models of wind driven shocks
Following the early Swift X-ray observations of the latest outburst of the
recurrent nova RS Ophiuchi in February 2006 (Paper I), we present new 1D
hydrodynamical models of the system which take into account all three phases of
the remnant evolution. The models suggest a novel way of modelling the system
by treating the outburst as a sudden increase then decrease in wind mass-loss
rate and velocity. The differences between this wind model and previous
Primakoff-type simulations are described. A more complex structure, even in 1D,
is revealed through the presence of both forward and reverse shocks, with a
separating contact discontinuity. The effects of radiative cooling are
investigated and key outburst parameters such as mass-loss rate, ejecta
velocity and mass are varied. The shock velocities as a function of time are
compared to the ones derived in Paper I. We show how the manner in which the
matter is ejected controls the evolution of the shock and that for a
well-cooled remnant, the shock deceleration rate depends on the amount of
energy that is radiated away.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Florida's East Coast Inlets: shoreline effects and recommended action
A brief summary review for each of the 19 inlets on Florida's East Coast is presented including:
a scaled aerial photograph, brief historical information, several items
related to sediment losses at each inlet and special characteristics relevant
to State responsibilities. For each inlet the above information is utilized to develop a recommended action, usually in the form of periodic sand transfer
quantities. (PDF contains 67 pages
A non-Abelian Higgs model with instantons and Sphaleron
We present a SU(2) X SU(2) X U(1) model in (3+1) dimensions, which has instanton solutions in R_4, and a sphaleron on R_3 in the static limit
Experimental feedback control of quantum systems using weak measurements
A goal of the emerging field of quantum control is to develop methods for
quantum technologies to function robustly in the presence of noise. Central
issues are the fundamental limitations on the available information about
quantum systems and the disturbance they suffer in the process of measurement.
In the context of a simple quantum control scenario--the stabilization of
non-orthogonal states of a qubit against dephasing--we experimentally explore
the use of weak measurements in feedback control. We find that, despite the
intrinsic difficultly of implementing them, weak measurements allow us to
control the qubit better in practice than is even theoretically possible
without them. Our work shows that these more general quantum measurements can
play an important role for feedback control of quantum systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. v2 Added extra citation, journal reference and
DOI. Minor typographic correction
Particle size segregation in granular flow in silos
Segregation and layering of alumina in storage silos are investigated, with a view to predicting output quality versus time, given known variations in input quality on emplacement. A variety of experiments were conducted, existing relevant publications were reviewed, and the basis for an algorithm for predicting the effect of withdrawing from a central flowing region, in combination with variations in quality due to geometric, layering and segregation effects, is described in this report
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