Reframing Systems Disasters With Three Perspectives of organizational Culture

This paper presents the major literature on systems disasters and how organizational culture is portrayed in this literature. The paper then outlines the three cultural perspectives used by Martin 2002 to describe organizational cultures: integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. The paper explores show these perspectives influence interpretations about the disasters described. The paper concludes that the effect of an organization’s culture on safety, reliability, and disasters can be fully understood only when all three perspectives are applied

Dedication of the Palomar Observatory and the Hale Telescope

The dedication of the Palomar Observatory, if it were being held in England, would be accompanied by brilliant pageantry both of the state, with its knights, heralds, pursuivants, kings at arms, admirals and captains, and of the church with its bishops, priests and deacons, crucifiers and choirs; and I am sure that we feel the quality of religion in this ceremony. We would hear the choirs chanting in antiphony that great canticle which so delights the choir boys: Benedicite, omnia opera Domini

Design, Construction, and Monitoring of the Ground-Water Resources of a Large Mine-Spoil Area: Star Fire Tract, Eastern Kentucky

By the year 2010, the Star Fire mining operation in Knott, Breathitt, and Perry Counties in eastern Kentucky, which uses mountaintop-removal and hollow-fill mining techniques, will have created approximately 5,000 acres of gently rolling terrain that could support alternative land uses. The present research is centered on approximately 1,000 acres of spoil created since mining began in 1981. An aquifer fed by both ground and surface water will be created within the spoil. Spoil-handling techniques such as cast blasting, dragline placement, end dumping by trucks, and surface grading have created porous coarse-rock zones within the spoil through which ground water can move. A vertical rubble chimney in the spoil has been constructed of durable rock to enhance infiltration to the ground-water reservoir through a surface infiltration basin. Fourteen monitoring wells have been installed along with flumes to gage surface-water discharge and monitor water quantity and quality at the site. Dye-tracing studies have identified ground-water flow paths and flow velocities. A preliminary assessment of the water resources at the site indicates that a stable water table has been created at the mined site. Based on an average saturated thickness of 21 feet for the entire site and an estimated porosity of 20 percent, the spoil stores approximately 4,200 acre-feet (1.37 billion gallons) of water. Dye-tracing data, hydraulic gradients, and water-quality data indicate that ground water moves more slowly in the spoil\u27s interior; from there it flows down into the hollow fills before discharging as springs along the bottom of the spoil. The springs discharge approximately 1 million gallons per day under normal flow conditions, and discharges of approximately 5 million gallons per day have been measured a week after rainfall events

Stratigraphy and Structure of the Fall Mountain and Skitchewaug Nappes, Southwestern New Hampshire

Guidebook for field trips in southwestern New Hampshire, southeastern Vermont, and north-central Massachusetts: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 80th annual meeting, October 14, 15 and 16, 1988, Keene, New Hampshire: Trip A-

Rapid Cooling of the Neutron Star in Cassiopeia A Triggered by Neutron Superfluidity in Dense Matter

We propose that the observed cooling of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A is due to enhanced neutrino emission from the recent onset of the breaking and formation of neutron Cooper pairs in the 3P2 channel. We find that the critical temperature for this superfluid transition is ~0.5x10^9 K. The observed rapidity of the cooling implies that protons were already in a superconducting state with a larger critical temperature. Our prediction that this cooling will continue for several decades at the present rate can be tested by continuous monitoring of this neutron star.Comment: Revised version, to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Using a comparative approach to investigate the relationship between landscape and genetic connectivity among woodland salamander population

For many amphibian species, reduced landscape connectivity results in reduced genetic connectivity among populations. However, large efective population sizes (Ne) slow the rate of genetic drift, causing subdivided populations to remain genetically similar despite little gene fow among them. Therefore, it is important to address the combined efects of Ne and matrix permeability to quantify the relative importance of gene fow and genetic drift on isolated amphibian populations. We applied a landscape genetic approach to investigate how patterns of gene fow (m), Ne (inferred via θ) and genetic difer- entiation difer among Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) populations in a fragmented landscape (n=4) compared to a continuous forest (n=4). We assayed a panel of 10 microsatellite markers for population genetic analyses. Additionally, we constructed and validated a distribution model to generate resistance surfaces for examining the relation- ship between landscape connectivity, m, θ, and genetic diferentiation (FST) using maximum-likelihood population-efects models (MLPE). Populations in continuous habitat were undiferentiated, whereas fragmented populations exhibited genetic structure driven by a single population. Results of the MLPE models in the fragmented landscape revealed spatial variation in θ as the best predictor of pairwise FST, followed by estimates of m, suggesting migration-drift interactions have a stronger infuence on genetic diferentiation than matrix permeability. Moreover, model coefcients for landscape resistance were comparable between landscapes. Overall, our results provide insight as to how the interaction of gene fow and genetic drift shapes population structure for a dispersal-limited species within a predominately anthropogenic landscape

Hydrogeology, Hydrogeochemistry, and Spoil Settlement at a Large Mine-Spoil Area in Eastern Kentucky: Star Fire Tract

An applied research program at the Star Fire surface mine in eastern Kentucky, owned and operated by Cypress-AMAX Coal Co., defined spoil characteristics to develop and monitor water resources, which will help identify a reliable water supply for future property development. Water stored in the mine spoil may provide a usable ground-water supply, and the spoil could also be engineered to provide base flow to surfacewater reservoirs. Ground-water recharge enters the spoil by way of sinking streams, ground-water flow from bedrock in contact with the mine spoil, and a specially designed infiltration basin. Ground water discharges predominantly from springs and seeps along the northwestern outslope of the spoil. A conceptual model of ground-water flow, based on data from monitoring wells, discharge from springs and ponds, dye tracing, hydraulic gradients, and field reconnaissance, indicates that ground water moves slowly in the spoil interior, where it must flow down into the valley fills before discharging out of the spoil. Two saturated zones have been established: the first in the spoil interior, and the second in the valley fills that surround the main spoil body at lower elevations. The saturated zone in the valley fills contains fresher water than the zone in the spoil interior and exhibits more water-level fluctuation because of efficient recharge pathways along the spoil’s periphery at the spoil-highwall contact. The average saturated thickness of the valley fill areas (30.1 ft) is approximately twice the average saturated thickness found in the spoil’s interior (15.4 ft). Spatial water-quality variations are consistent with those predicted in the proposed flow system. Based on an estimated average saturated thickness of 21 ft for the entire site, the saturated spoil stores 4,200 acre-ft (1.4 billion gallons) of water. Hydraulic-conductivity (K) values derived from slug tests range from 2.0 × 10-6 to more than 2.9 × 10-5 ft/sec, and are consistent with hydraulic-conductivity data for other spoil areas where similar mining methods are used. Water samples taken from wells and springs indicate that the ground water is a calcium-magnesium-sulfate type, differing mainly in the total concentration of these constituents at various locations. Mineral saturation indices calculated using the geochemical model PHREEQE indicate that most of the ground water is near equilibrium with gypsum. Nearly all the water samples had pH measurements in a favorable range between 6.0 and 7.0, indicating that the spoil does not produce highly acidic water. Measurements of vertical displacement around the monitoring-well surface casings indicate that differential settlement is occurring within the mine spoil. The most rapid settlement occurs in the most recently placed spoil near the active mining pit

Prospects of Detecting Baryon and Quark Superfluidity from Cooling Neutron Stars

Baryon and quark superfluidity in the cooling of neutron stars are investigated. Observations could constrain combinations of the neutron or Lambda-hyperon pairing gaps and the star's mass. However, in a hybrid star with a mixed phase of hadrons and quarks, quark gaps larger than a few tenths of an MeV render quark matter virtually invisible for cooling. If the quark gap is smaller, quark superfluidity could be important, but its effects will be nearly impossible to distinguish from those of other baryonic constituents.Comment: 4 pages, 3 ps figures, uses RevTex(aps,prl). Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Susskind's Challenge to the Hartle-Hawking No-Boundary Proposal and Possible Resolutions

Given the observed cosmic acceleration, Leonard Susskind has presented the following argument against the Hartle-Hawking no-boundary proposal for the quantum state of the universe: It should most likely lead to a nearly empty large de Sitter universe, rather than to early rapid inflation. Even if one adds the condition of observers, they are most likely to form by quantum fluctuations in de Sitter and therefore not see the structure that we observe. Here I present my own amplified version of this argument and consider possible resolutions, one of which seems to imply that inflation expands the universe to be larger than 10^{10^{10^{122}}} Mpc.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, 8 references added and a distinction between Linde's and Vilenkin's tunneling proposal