Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Spectral Distortion In A Radially Inhomogeneous Cosmology, R. R. Caldwell, N. A. Maksimova

Dartmouth Scholarship

The spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background blackbody spectrum in a radially inhomogeneous space-time, designed to exactly reproduce a ΛCDM expansion history along the past light cone, is shown to exceed the upper bound established by COBE-FIRAS by a factor of approximately 3700. This simple observational test helps uncover a slew of pathological features that lie hidden inside the past light cone, including a radially contracting phase at decoupling and, if followed to its logical extreme, a naked singularity at the radially inhomogeneous big bang.

Photographic And Sediment Monitoring Procedures And Initial Results For A Brazilian Iron Ore Cave, Vitor Moura, Augusto Auler, Marina Leão, Luciana Alt

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The definition, development and application of monitoring procedures for caves are currently in demand in Brazil. The need for environmental licensing processes and effective environmental control actions has been increasing since the beginning of this century due to the intensification of economic activities.

This work discusses the development of a method of photographic and sediment monitoring and the application of this method in an iron ore cave. This cave is located inside an industrial area currently under development by a mining company. This situation demands effective and specific environmental control measures.

The method’s simplicity, effectiveness and multidisciplinary approach indicate that …

Icaverns: Interpretation, There's An App For That!, Sandra Dianne Joop

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

A quarter of a century ago, cave and karst resources were declared irreplaceable with the passing of the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act. Yet, today, few understand the importance or fragility of these resources. Human interactions in karst areas make these resources highly susceptible to damage. Nonpersonal interpretation digital media products could serve as an important tool to bridge this informational gap.

Worldwide, there are hundreds of parks or parklike attractions focusing on cave, spring, or sinkhole resources. Their visitors have a built-in curiosity about these places. Engaging this audience in interpretive programming could greatly increase their speleological knowledge. Paradoxically, …

Wicked Tools: The Value Of Scientific Models For Solving Maine’S Wicked Problems, Tim Waring

Timothy M Waring

“Wicked problems” are urgent, high-stake socioeconomic-environmental challenges that often involve ideological conflict and have no “best solutions.” Using examples from Maine’s Sustainability Solutions Initiative projects, Tim Waring describes how scientific models can be used to address these kinds of problems. When well-constructed and tested models are used to address policy-relevant issues, include input from stakeholders, and integrate social, economic and environmental dynamics, they can become “wicked tools” to address some of society’s biggest challenges.

Comparison Of Hydrodynamic And Water Quality Models Of The Chesapeake Bay: Results Of The Ioos Coastal Ocean Modeling Testbed, I Irby, M. Friedrichs, C. Feng, R. Hood

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Controls On Particle Settling Velocity And Bed Erodibility In The Presence Of Muddy Flocs And Biologically Packaged Pellets: Modeling Study Utilizing The York 3-D Hydrodynamic Cohesive Bed Model, K. A. Fall, Courtney K. Harris, Carl T. Friedrichs, J. P. Rinehimer

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Hydrogeologic Controls On The Occurrence And Movement Of Groundwater Discharged At Magic Springs In The Spring Branch Creek Drainage Basin: Spring Branch, Texas, Mark T. Childre

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The hydrogeologic controls, flow velocities, flow direction, groundwater delineation, and physical characteristics in a joint controlled dendritic conduit-spring system have been characterized. The known conduit branches from Magic Springs past C My Shovel (CM) Cave with 4475 meters (m) of measurable passages and tributaries. Surface entrance to CM Cave is located 1360 m upstream from discharge at Magic Springs.

Four storm events were measured characterizing the dynamics. The rise time and half flow period time (t_0.5) occur in less than one day. The conduit volume exceeds one half million m³. The conduit-spring system drains within 3.7 …

Caver Quest 3d Virtual Cave Simulation Of Snowy River In Fort Stanton Cave, Ronald J. Lipinski, Pete Lindsley

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

Virtual worlds, or 3D simulations through which an avatar can travel, is becoming a common means to display products or provide training in new environments. This paper describes the steps in producing the 3D virtual simulation of Snowy River in Fort Stanton Cave, New Mexico. A traditional cave survey and map with cross sections was used to produce a 3D meshed surface of the cave walls using the Blender software package. Photographs were taken of the walls, ceiling, and floor and merged together. The merged montage was applied to the 3D mesh walls as a “texture”. Unity3D was used to …

The Western Kentucky University Crumps Cave Research And Education Preserve, Chris Groves, Jason Polk, Ben Miller, Pat Kambesis, Carl Bolster, Sean Vanderhoff, Beth Tyrie, Micah Ruth, Gilman Ouellette, Laura Osterhoudt, Dan Nedvidek, Kegan Mcclanahan, Nocholas Lawhon, Veronica Hall

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

Crumps Cave is located about one kilometer northeast of Smiths Grove, Kentucky (Figures 1, 2, and 3). The only known entrance was purchased by Western Kentucky University (WKU) in 2009 through a grant from the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund and the cave is managed as the focal point of a research and education preserve to study a wide range of environmental conditions and dynamics, and their interactions, using high-resolution electronic monitoring along with geochemical sampling, analysis and modeling. Crews from WKU’s Hoffman Environmental Research Institute visit the cave weekly for sampling, data downloading, and equipment maintenance, with a major …

The Fort Stanton Cave Study Project: A Model For Agency – Caver Partnership In Cave Management, Steve S. Peerman, Michael J. Bilbo

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The Fort Stanton Cave Study Project and the Roswell Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management have been working together to manage Fort Stanton Cave for over 40 years. This successful partnership is a shining example of resource managers and resource users collaborating to the mutual benefit of both. There are several specific aspects to this partnership which could be regarded as a model for other user groups and agencies who need or want to enter into a cooperative relationship.

Postglacial Faunal Records From Cave Deposits In Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, Christopher N. Jass, Greg Horne, Dave Critchley

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

In 2009, we initiated an on-going, long term research project that focuses on exploration of fossil-bearing cave deposits in Jasper National Park. Specifically, we were interested in understanding patterns of mammalian re-colonization of mountainous regions following late Pleistocene deglaciation. Our work has focused on the identification of fossil-bearing cave deposits, excavation and sampling of those deposits, and radiocarbon dating of recovered remains. Examined sites have at least an age of 9600 years BP. Research at four cave sites, located in relatively close proximity to one another, is contributing to an improved understanding of the late Quaternary record of Jasper National …

Understanding And Managing Karst Water Resources In Belize: Case Studies Of Both Past And Present In A Changing Climate, Jason S. Polk, Leslie A. North, Ben Miller, Jonathan Oglesby, Kegan Mcclanahan, Lowell Neeper, Aaron Holland, Bernie Strenecky

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

Belize is a developing country that faces water resource issues in the forms of both quality and quantity, stemming from a long history of environmental stress and population threats, from the ancient Maya to present. Belize’s karst landscape, which comprises a large part of the country from the coast to the Maya Mountains, is characterized by springs, caves, sinkholes, and aquifers systems formed from the dissolution of carbonate (limestone, dolomite) rock. This research presents several different case studies, spanning from the ancient Maya and issues with drought to modern communities that rely on groundwater resources quickly being depleted. Past drought …

Paleohydrology And The Origin Of Jewel Cave, Mike Wiles

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

With more than 267 m (166 miles) of mapped cave passages, Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world. The passages are beneath an area of 775 ha (3 mi²), located almost entirely within the Hell Canyon drainage basin. The canyon itself is situated in the bottom of a south-plunging syncline and most of the cave passages are located within the east limb. A down-dip cross section shows the cave passages assuming the shape of an elongate lens, located just below the Pahasapa/Minnelusa contact. The lower boundary is a maximum of 75 m (250 feet) below …

The Nps Cave Visitor Impact Vital Signs Monitoring Protocol, Rodney Horrocks

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The national Cave Visitor Impact Vital Signs Monitoring Protocol is an attempt to standardize visitor impact monitoring in all National Park Service managed caves. With standardized monitoring in place, it will be feasible for the first time to compare monitoring data from caves across the country. This cave monitoring protocol was initiated at the NPS Cave Vital Signs Workshop held in Lakewood, Colorado in 2008. That workshop identified the vital signs that were common to all caves, including cave visitor impact. A committee convened at that workshop decided that the cave visitor impact monitoring protocol would address four parameters of …

Molecular Fluorescence In The Vicinity Of A Charged Metallic Nanoparticle, H. Y. Chung, P. T. Leung, D. P. Tsai

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The modified fluorescence properties of a molecule in the vicinity of a metallic nanoparticle are further studied accounting for the possible existence of extraneous charges on the particle surface. This is achieved via a generalization of the previous theory of Bohren and Hunt for light scattering from a charged sphere, with the results applied to the calculation of the various decay rates and fluorescence yield of the admolecule. Numerical results show that while charge effects will in general blue-shift all the plasmonic resonances of the metal particle, both the quantum yield and the fluorescence yield can be increased at emission …

Understanding A Globally Unique Nexus Of Acid Mine Drainage, Karst And World Heritage Site, Philip J. Hobbs, P.J. (Peter) Mills

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site (COH WHS), South Africa, is the only UNESCO-protected karst landscape in the world that is under threat from acid mine drainage (AMD). This has generated wide and considerable concern for the preservation of the fossil sites and karst ecosystems of the WHS. A recent assessment of the water resources environment and continued water resources monitoring has better informed this situation, providing support for management efforts to protect the aquatic environment and outstanding universal value of the site. Allogenic recharge of AMD (salinity >300 mS/m, pH 7, PO4-P ~4 mg/l, E. coli ~240 000 …

Solution Mining And The Protection Of Karst Groundwater Supplies In Burton Flats, Southeast New Mexico, Usa, James R. Goodbar

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency of the United States of America Department of Interior and responsible for stewardship of public lands. It is committed to manage, protect and improve these lands in a manner to serve the needs of the American people. Management is based upon the principles of multiple use and sustained yield of our nation’s resources within a framework of environmental responsibility and scientific technology. These resources include recreation, rangelands, timber, minerals, watershed, fish and wildlife habitat, wilderness, air and scenic quality, as well as scientific and cultural values.

The BLM received a potash …

Improving The Efficiency Of Fall Applied N With Cover Crops, Corey Lacey

Theses and Dissertations

Nitrate loss studies in Midwestern tile-drained fields have found that fall applied nitrogen (N) resulted in elevated nitrate concentrations in tile water during both the corn and soybean year of a 2 year rotation. The effectiveness of cover crops to reduce nitrate leaching when N is spring applied has been well demonstrated, however there is a dearth of knowledge on the ability of cover crops to reduce nitrate leaching in a system where N is fall applied. Thus, the objectives of this research were to (i) investigate the efficacy of winter cover crops to reduce nitrate leaching from fall applied …

The Stochastic Background: Scaling Laws And Time To Detection For Pulsar Timing Arrays, X. Siemens, Justin A. Ellis, Fredrick A. Jenet, Joseph D. Romano

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We derive scaling laws for the signal-to-noise ratio of the optimal cross-correlation statistic, and show that the large power-law increase of the signal-to-noise ratio as a function of the observation time T that is usually assumed holds only at early times. After enough time has elapsed, pulsar timing arrays enter a new regime where the signal to noise only scales as . In addition, in this regime the quality of the pulsar timing data and the cadence become relatively unimportant. This occurs because the lowest frequencies of the pulsar timing residuals become gravitational-wave dominated. Pulsar timing arrays enter this regime …

Searching For Millisecond Pulsars: Surveys, Techniques And Prospects, Kevin Stovall, Duncan R. Lorimer, R. S. Lynch

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Searches for millisecond pulsars (which we here loosely define as those with periods < 20 ms) in the galactic field have undergone a renaissance in the past five years. New or recently refurbished radio telescopes utilizing cooled receivers and state-of-the art digital data acquisition systems are carrying out surveys of the entire sky at a variety of radio frequencies. Targeted searches for millisecond pulsars in point sources identified by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have proved phenomenally successful, with over 50 discoveries in the past five years. The current sample of millisecond pulsars now numbers almost 200 and, for the first time in 25 years, now outnumbers their counterparts in galactic globular clusters. While many of these searches are motivated to find pulsars which form part of pulsar timing arrays, a wide variety of interesting systems are now being found. Following a brief overview of the millisecond pulsar phenomenon, we describe these searches and present some of …

The Western Kentucky University Crumps Cave Research & Education Preserve, Chris Groves, Jason Polk, Ben Miller, Pat Kambesis, Carl Bolster, Sean Vanderhoff, Beth Tyrie

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Crumps Cave is located about one kilometer northeast of Smiths Grove, Kentucky (Figures 1, 2, and 3). The only known entrance was purchased by Western Kentucky University (WKU) in 2009 through a grant from the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund and the cave is managed as the focal point of a research and education preserve to study a wide range of environmental conditions and dynamics, and their interactions, using high-resolution electronic monitoring along with geochemical sampling, analysis and modeling. Crews from WKU’s Hoffman Environmental Research Institute visit the cave weekly for sampling, data downloading, and equipment maintenance, with a major …

Skill Assessment Of Multiple Models In The Chesapeake Bay, I. D. Irby, M. Friedrichs, C. Feng, R. Hood

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Controls On Particle Settling Velocity And Bed Erodibility In The Presence Of Muddy Flocs And Pellets As Inferred By Advs, York River Estuary, Virginia, Usa, K. A. Fall, C. T. Friedrichs, G. M. Cartwright

Presentations

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Reworking Of Flood Deposits On The Waipaoa Shelf, New Zealand: Buoyant And Gravity-Driven Fluxes, J. M. Moriarty, Courtney K. Harris, Carl T. Friedrichs, M. G. Hadfield

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Sediment Settling Velocity From Advs And Settling Tubes: Agreement Over A Range Of Particle Types And Hydrodynamic Conditions, G. M. Cartwright, C. T. Friedrichs, S. J. Smith

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Logging Of Data For Eog Signals In Ambient Assisted Living Controlled Via Mobile Devices, Wolfgang Wild, Andreas Oberleitner, Robert Lurf, Felix Breitenecker

UBT International Conference

The paper describes a portable device for recording eye movements through Electrooculography (EOG). The gained bio signal can be used for monitoring the vigilance or basic eye control commands. The measurement is done with sticky electrodes; therefore it is non-invasive and easy to use. A special dedicated hardware device was developed for the purpose of data acquisition. The device has been tailored to be used in real life environments. The device allows rechargeable battery powered data acquisition of 3 EOG channels with 24bit resolution and 250Hz sampling rate per channel, over a period of up to 10 hours. Time information …

Estimation And Improvements Of The Fundamental Qos In Networks With Random Topologies, Zhilbert Tafa

UBT International Conference

The computer communication paradigm is moving towards the ubiquitous computing and Internet of Things (IoT). Small autonomous wirelessly networked devices are becoming more and more present in monitoring and automation of every human interaction with the environment, as well as in collecting various other information from the physical world. Applications, such as remote health monitoring, intelligent homes, early fire, volcano, and earthquake detection, traffic congestion prevention etc., are already present and all share the similar networking philosophy. An additional challenging for the scientific and engineering world is the appropriateness of the alike networks which are to be deployed in the …

The Use Of Renewable Resources In Albania Economic Benefits, Luciana Toti, Alma Stana, Ajakida Eski

UBT International Conference

Today around the world are greatly increased needs to use the renewable energies. In this paper are mentioned primary energy, mainly solar energy. The use of solar energy brings economic and social development. Geographical and climate conditions in Albania are favorable for solar energy use. In our territory there is a considerable solar energy potential, especially in south west. In this paper are shown the use of solar systems to heat water in several countries and in Albania in the last decade. The data for different regions (according to the coordinates, the average number of hou rs of sunshine, solar …

Precise Radial Velocities Of Giant Stars. Ii. Pollux And Its Planetary Companion, Sabine Reffert, Andreas Quirrenbach, David Mitchell, Simon Albrecht, Saskia Hekker, Debra A. Fischer, Geoffrey W. Marcy, R. Paul Butler

Debra A Fischer

It has long been speculated that the observed periodic radial velocity pattern for the K giant Pollux might be explained in terms of an orbiting planetary companion. We have collected 80 high-resolution spectra for Pollux at Lick Observatory yielding precise radial velocities with a mean error of 3.8 m s-1, providing the most comprehensive and precise data set available for this star. Our data confirm the periodicity previously seen in the radial velocities. We derive a period of 589.7 ± 3.5 days and, assuming a primary mass of 1.86 M, a minimum companion mass of 2.9 ± 0.3MJup, consistent with …

Discovery Of A Substellar Companion To The K2 Iii Giant Ɩ Draconis, Sabine Frink, David Mitchell, Andreas Quirrenbach, Debra A. Fischer, Geoffrey W. Marcy, R. Paul Butler

Debra A Fischer

We report precise radial velocity measurements of the K giant ɩ Dra (HD 137759, HR 5744, HIP 75458), carried out at Lick Observatory, which reveal the presence of a substellar companion orbiting the primary star. A Keplerian fit to the data yields an orbital period of about 536 days and an eccentricity of 0.70. Assuming a mass of 1.05 M8 for ɩ Dra, the mass function implies a minimum companion mass m₂ sin i of 8.9 M_J, making it a planet candidate. The corresponding semimajor axis is 1.3 AU. The nondetection of the orbital motion by Hipparcos …