Upper Atmosphere Data Program (UADP)

Rapid, effective access to the increasing volume of information on stratospheric trace gases, both from measurements and model calculations, is important in advancing our knowledge of the Earth's atmosphere. The data have their origins in a variety of sources, ranging from satellite experiments and 2-D model predictions to individual balloon measurements, and are found in a variety of locations and formats. This task focuses on development and operation of an electronic data base for such trace gas data. The objectives are to provide effective access to these diverse data sets; to foster electronic data access, manipulation, and display; and to support periodic assessment and intercomparison activities

Introduction of Structural Health Monitoring to Civil Engineering Education

This paper describes the development of a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) Education Unit; its initial implementation and assessment at Louisiana State University (LSU) and the University of Louisiana- Lafayette (UL-Lafayette) during the 2016-17 Academic Year; and its subsequent re- implementation and assessment during the 2017-18 Academic Year at these institutions plus its initial implementation at four partner institutions Case Western Reserve University, Tuskegee University, University of North Florida and Virginia Tech. The SHM Education Unit encompasses the Fundamentals Education Subunit and the Applications Education Subunit. The Fundamentals Education Subunit consists of an introductory and four content online modules whereas the Applications Education Subunit consists of two content online modules, a SHM system design/evaluation module and a SHM instrumentation model demonstration. Using a pedagogical model developed during the project, the former Subunit is implemented in two classes of a structural analysis course whereas the latter Subunit is implemented in two classes of a reinforced concrete design course. The results of readiness tests and student assessments demonstrate the effectiveness of the content and the pedagogical model to engage students and teach SHM fundamentals and practices.Cockrell School of Engineerin

The Effect of Joint-Child-Custody Legislation on the Child-Support Receipt of Single Mothers

Due to the preponderance of single mothers on public assistance, delinquent child support has been a contentious political issue in the U.S. for over 30 years. We examine whether joint-child-custody reform affects the child- support receipt of single mothers. We use variation in the timing of joint-custody reforms across states to identify the effect of joint custody on the child-support receipt of single mothers. Joint-custody enactment raises the probability of receiving child support for all single mothers by six percent. However, the effect on all single mothers is driven by the effect on divorced mothers since separated and never-married mothers are unaffected by joint-custody reform. We conclude joint-custody reform confers the most benefit on divorced mothers and their children, particularly those who do not receive public assistance.child support, joint custody, child-custody laws, child-support enforcement

Applications of tunable high energy/pressure pulsed lasers to atmospheric transmission and remote sensing

Atmospheric transmission of high energy C12 O2(16) lasers were improved by pulsed high pressure operation which, due to pressure broadening of laser lines, permits tuning the laser 'off' atmospheric C12 O2(16) absorption lines. Pronounced improvement is shown for horizontal transmission at altitudes above several kilometers, and for vertical transmission through the entire atmosphere. The atmospheric transmission of tuned C12 O2(16) lasers compares favorably with C12 O2(18) isotope lasers and CO lasers. The advantages of tunable, high energy, high pressure pulsed lasers over tunable diode lasers and waveguide lasers, in combining high energies with a large tuning range, are evaluated for certain applications to remote sensing of atmospheric constituents and pollutants. Pulsed operation considerably increases the signal to noise ratio without seriously affecting the high spectral resolution of signal detection obtained with laser heterodyning

The Effectiveness of Medicinal and Non-medicinal Treatments of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

The purpose of this paper is to review the effectiveness of medicinal and non-medicinal treatments of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This was accomplished through a comprehensive review of the literature related to this topic. ADHD affects a large amount of the population with prevalence rates reported to be between 2% and 7% (Bruchmuller, Margraf, & Schneider, 2012). Unfortunately, of the children who have been diagnosed with ADHD, 60% - 85% of them continue to exhibit these symptoms in adolescence and 60% of those diagnosed with pediatric ADHD will see their symptoms persist into their adult lives (Madaan, Daughton, Lubberstedt, Mattai, Vaughan, & Kratochvil, 2008). Moreover, contrary to popular belief, ADHD impairments extend far beyond the classroom to other additional facets of one’s life including peer interactions as well as in extracurricular activities that take place after school. This paper will examine the effectiveness of multiple treatment methods commonly used for this disorder as well as issues concerning the effects and over-prescription of stimulant medications has become more prominent in recent years and should be further discussed

Optical

In this paper the structure of a community art installation is described, based around an array of tri-colour LEDs, designed to inspire and excite Learners from a number of local schools

On the Robustness of Object Detection Based Deep Learning Models

Object detection is one of the most popular areas in the field of computer vision and deep learning. Several advances have been reported in the literature showing promising object detection results. However, most of these results use databases of images that have been collected under almost ideal conditions and tested with input images mostly not representative of real life imagery. When tested with challenging data, most of these object detection models break down.The objective of this work is to quantify the performance of the most recent object detection models in the presence of realistic degradation in the form of differing levels of brightness, saturation, contrast, Gaussian blur, image size, sharpness, Gaussian noise, speckle noise, and salt and pepper noise. We have selected Faster RCNN as a typical model that is representative of the state of the art. We have used a binary class dataset from our laboratory for testing: Aphylla. We have also selected a popular multi-class dataset widely used by the community for our work: VOC2007.We have conducted the following experiments (1) ran the model on the original pristine dataset and recorded the mAP score result, (2) ran the model on nine methods of degradation with 12 levels in each and recorded the mAP score results, and (3) compared the degradation results to one another to determine the model robustness. These experiments led to the clustering of the degradation models into three categories: high, medium, and low impact. These categories are based on the fluctuations within the results. The first class containing brightness and contrast resembles a Gaussian-like bell shaped curve with a plateau at the top. The second cluster contains Gaussian blur, image size, and all three types of noise resembles an exponential decay. The third category contains saturation and sharpness and has shown a small reduction in performance, which stays mostly uniform throughout the range.The value of this research comes from studying the results and providing consistent guidance to the user as to which level of image degradation needs to be dealt with at a pre-processing stage to alleviate the drop in performance

Leeb talks tall buildings at London conference

CATEGORY:STORIESNaval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security master’s degree alumnus Frank Leeb has discovered his thesis research on high-rise buildings and cardiac arrest survival has unintended relevance beyond..