Seismic response to evolving injection at the Rotokawa geothermal field, New Zealand

Catalogs of microseismicity are routinely compiled at geothermal reservoirs and provide valuable insights into reservoir structure and fluid movement. Hypocentral locations are typically used to infer the orientations of structures and constrain the extent of the permeable reservoir. However, frequency-magnitude distributions may contain additional, and underused, information about the distribution of pressure. Here, we present a four-year catalog of seismicity for the Rotokawa geothermal field in the central Taupō Volcanic Zone, New Zealand starting two years after the commissioning of the 140 MWe Nga Awa Purua power station. Using waveform-correlation-based signal detection we double the size of the previous earthquake catalog, refine the location and orientation of two reservoir faults and identify a new structure. We find the rate of seismicity to be insensitive to major changes in injection strategy during the study period, including the injectivity decline and shift of injection away from the dominant injector, RK24. We also map the spatial distribution of the earthquake frequency-magnitude distribution, or b-value, and show that it increases from ∼1.0 to ∼1.5 with increasing depth below the reservoir. As has been proposed at other reservoirs, we infer that these spatial variations reflect the distribution of pressure in the reservoir, where areas of high b-value correspond to areas of high pore-fluid pressure and a broad distribution of activated fractures. This analysis is not routinely conducted by geothermal operators but shows promise for using earthquake b-value as an additional tool for reservoir monitoring and management

Vibration studies of a lightweight three-sided membrane suitable for space application

Vibration studies carried out in a vacuum chamber are reported for a three-sided membrane with inwardly curved edges. Uniform tension was transmitted by thin steel cables encased in the edges. Variation of ambient air pressure from atmospheric to near vacuum resulted in increased response frequencies and amplitudes. The first few vibration modes measured in a near vacuum are shown to be predictable by a finite element structural analysis over a range of applied tension loads. The complicated vibration mode behavior observed during tests at various air pressures is studied analytically with a nonstructural effective air-mass approximation. The membrane structure is a candidate for reflective surfaces in space antennas

Klee sets and Chebyshev centers for the right Bregman distance

We systematically investigate the farthest distance function, farthest points, Klee sets, and Chebyshev centers, with respect to Bregman distances induced by Legendre functions. These objects are of considerable interest in Information Geometry and Machine Learning; when the Legendre function is specialized to the energy, one obtains classical notions from Approximation Theory and Convex Analysis. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we provide an affirmative answer to a recently-posed question on whether or not every Klee set with respect to the right Bregman distance is a singleton. Second, we prove uniqueness of the Chebyshev center and we present a characterization that relates to previous works by Garkavi, by Klee, and by Nielsen and Nock.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures, 14 image

Considerations when implementing trauma-informed care into male domestic violence offenders' intervention programs

Master's Project (M.Ed.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2016This project addresses significant factors to consider when implementing trauma-informed care in Batterer’ Intervention Programs. Literature addressing trauma informed care and domestic violence interventions is discussed to demonstrate how trauma-informed care might be used with male perpetrators of domestic violence. There is a gap in the literature describing how trauma-informed care is integrated with domestic violence perpetrators, and this gap is surprising due to extensive literature supporting a clear link between trauma history and violent criminality. A checklist was created using the best practices in trauma-informed approaches and is intended to be used by agencies in a clinical setting, including Batterer’ Intervention Programs seeking to integrate trauma-informed approaches when working with male batterers

Lives and The Effects on Workplace Productivity

The phenomenon of personal lives conflict is multifaceted and impacts the workplace in multiple ways. The aims of this study were to examine the various aspects of personal lives conflicts and how it affects the workplace’s productivity. Understanding productivity in the workplace, employers would better be able to manage conflicts at work as well as maintain productivity and by extensions profits. In order to fully understand this issue, the researcher framed the study around these questions: Do personal lives conflict affect productivity in the workplace? Do intimate partner conflicts affect productivity in the workplace? To what extent does intimate partner conflict affect productivity in the workplace? The research focused on a finance organization that offers services to Jamaican immigrants living in South Florida. A total of 10 participants were interviewed to complete the study and to gain insight and answer the research questions. Given the nature of the study, a case study was chosen to gain in-depth understanding of a specific group of people who work in a very specific organization that is often plagued by conflicts and allows for productivity to be measured. The findings indicated that employees often face challenges that are not related to the workplace, but given the culture of the organization, management does not see fit to assist employees who are experiencing personal lives conflict, rather these employees are left to resolve their conflicts with little or no guidance, despite the impact of the conflicts on their performance at work

Building Community Among Staff and Fostering Teacher Buy-in

Our presentation would focus on building positive relationships among staff members within the school, establishing a positive school culture, improving teacher morale, and fostering teacher-buy in. We believe that the success of the PBIS program at our school hinges upon the fact that our teachers bought into the program and model respect for each other. We have a family-like culture within our building which has developed over time due to creative initiatives that we put into place. Although our presentation would not specifically address strategies that parents could use in the home, it would show how a positive culture at school positively impacts relationships with all stakeholders including students, their parents, and community partners

Building Community Among Staff and Fostering Teacher Buy-in

Our presentation would focus on building positive relationships among staff members within the school, establishing a positive school culture, improving teacher morale, and fostering teacher-buy in. We believe that the success of the PBIS program at our school hinges upon the fact that our teachers bought into the program and model respect for each other. We have a family-like culture within our building which has developed over time due to creative initiatives that we put into place. Although our presentation would not specifically address strategies that parents could use in the home, it would show how a positive culture at school positively impacts relationships with all stakeholders including students, their parents, and community partners

Manufacturing time operators: covariance, selection criteria, and examples

We provide the most general forms of covariant and normalized time operators and their probability densities, with applications to quantum clocks, the time of arrival, and Lyapunov quantum operators. Examples are discussed of the profusion of possible operators and their physical meaning. Criteria to define unique, optimal operators for specific cases are given

Applying Ensemble Neural Networks to an Inverse Problem Solution to Prosthetic Socket Pressure Measurement

Ensemble neural networks are commonly used as a method to boost performance of artificial intelligence applications. By collating the response of multiple networks with differences in composition or training and hence a range of estimation error, an overall improvement in the appraisal of new problem data can be made. In this work, artificial neural networks are used as an inverse-problem solver to calculate the internal distribution of pressures on a lower limb prosthetic socket using information on the deformation of the external surface of the device. Investigation into the impact of noise injection was studied by changing the maximum noise alteration parameter and the differences in network composition by altering the variance around this maximum noise value. Results indicate that use of ensembles of networks provides a meaningful improvement in overall performance. RMS error expressed as a percentage of the total applied load was 3.86% for the best performing ensemble, compared to 5.32% for the mean performance of the networks making up that ensemble. Although noise injection resulted in an improvement in typical network estimates of load distribution, ensembles performed better with low noise and low variance between network training patterns. These results mean that ensembles have been implemented in the research tool under developmen