Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Urban Speleology Applied To Groundwater And Geo-Engineering Studies: Underground Topographic Surveying Of The Ancient Arca D’Água Galleries Catchworks (Porto, Nw Portugal), H. I. Chaminé, M. J. Afonso, P. M. Robalo, P. Rodrigues, C. Cortez, F. A. Monteiro Santos, J. P. Plancha, P. E. Fonseca, A. Gomes, N. F. Devy-Vareta, J. M. Marques, M. E. Lopes, G. Fontes, A. Pires, F. Rocha

International Journal of Speleology

The Porto settlement (Northwest Portugal, Iberian Peninsula) was originally built in the twelfth century and has been developed on granitic hill slopes of the Douro riverside, being one of the oldest cities in Europe. In the urban area of Porto, the second most important city of the Portuguese mainland, there is a population of about 216,000 inhabitants. This study highlights the importance of urban speleological mapping applied to groundwater and geo-engineering studies. All the water that flows from the so-called Paranhos or Arca D’Água springs is captured by catchwork galleries and their utilization date back around 1120 AD. Paranhos spring …

Palaeomagnetic Research On Karst Sediments In Slovenia, Nadja Zupan Hajna, Andrej Mihevc, Petr Pruner, Pavel Bosàk

International Journal of Speleology

We have conducted palaeomagnetic and magnetostratigraphic research on karst sediments in Slovenia since 1997. More than 2,000 samples were taken and analysed in 36 different profiles at 21 locations in caves and on the surface. Standard palaeomagnetic analyses were used (thermal and alternating field demagnetisation, magnetic susceptibility measurements, etc.). There is no evidence of younger marine deposition than Eocene in the SW part of Slovenia. Younger sediments occur only in caves and very rarely on the karst surface (different soils and a few remains of terrigeneous sediments). Marine and terrestrial Tertiary to Plio–Quaternary deposition occurs in the SE and E …

Spatial Distribution Of Soda Straws Growth Rates Of The Coufin Cave (Vercors, France), Yves Perrette, Stéphane Jaillet

International Journal of Speleology

The Choranche Cave system (Vercors, France) is an excellent locality for measuring the growth rates of large numbers soda straws. This is especially the case for the Coufin Cave, as enlargement of the cave entrance in 1875 led to a change in stalactite color from brown to white, thus providing a reliable chronomarker. The date of this brown-to-white calcite transition has been confirmed by lamina counting. We measured and georeferenced the growth-lengths of 306 soda straws in a 1m² area of the roof of the Coufin Cave entrance chamber. Because of the very slow and sometimes inexistent water feeding …

Karst Geology And Cave Fauna Of Austria: A Concise Review, Erhard Christian, Christoph Spötl

International Journal of Speleology

The state of cave research in Austria is outlined from the geological and zoological perspective. Geologic sections include the setting of karst regions, tectonic and palaeoclimatic control on karst, modern cave environments, and karst hydrology. A chapter on the development of Austrian biospeleology in the 20th century is followed by a survey of terrestrial underground habitats, biogeographic remarks, and an annotated selection of subterranean invertebrates.

Age Frequency Distribution And Revised Stable Isotope Curves For New Zealand Speleothems: Palaeoclimatic Implications, Paul W. Williams, Helen L. Neil, Jian-Xin Zhao

International Journal of Speleology

The occurrence of speleothems in New Zealand with reversed magnetism indicates that secondary calcite deposition in caves has occurred for more than 780 thousand years (ka). 394 uranium-series dates on 148 speleothems show that such deposition has taken place somewhere in the country with little interruption for more than 500 ka. A relative probability distribution of speleothem ages indicates that most growth occurred in mild, moist interglacial and interstadial intervals, a conclusion reinforced by comparing peaks and troughs in the distribution with time series curves of speleothem δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C values. The stable isotope time series …

Do Karst Rivers “Deserve” Their Own Biotic Index? A Ten Years Study On Macrozoobenthos In Croatia, Biljana Rađa, Sanja Puljas

International Journal of Speleology

In this study we present the results of a ten year survey of the aquatic macroinvertebrate fauna along four karst rivers: Jadro, Žrnovnica, Grab and Ruda, all of them situated in the Middle Dalmatia region of Croatia, in an attempt to construct the Iliric Biotic Index, which will be more applicable for the water quality analysis than the most frequently applied biotic index in Croatia, the Italian Modification of Extended Biotic Index. The rivers geologically belong to the Dinaric karst, unique geological phenomena in Europe. Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected along each river at 15 sites by standard methods of sampling …

Teaching Resources In Speleology And Karst: A Valuable Educational Tool, Jo De Waele

International Journal of Speleology

There is a growing need in the speleological community of tools that make teaching of speleology and karst much easier. Despite the existence of a wide range of major academic textbooks, often the caver community has a difficult access to such material. Therefore, to fill this gap, the Italian Speleological Society, under the umbrella of the Union International de Spéléologie, has prepared a set of lectures, in a presentation format, on several topics including geology, physics, chemistry, hydrogeology, mineralogy, palaeontology, biology, microbiology, history, archaeology, artificial caves, documentation, etc. These lectures constitute the “Teaching Resources in Speleology and Karst”, available online. …

Modern C, O, And H Isotope Composition Of Speleothem And Dripwater From Modrič Cave, Eastern Adriatic Coast (Croatia), Maša Surić, Zvjezdana Roller-Lutz, Magda Mandić, Ines Krajcar Bronić, Mladen Juračić

International Journal of Speleology

Modrič Cave is a shallow horizontal cave situated in the middle of the eastern Adriatic coast (Croatia). The cave entrance is located 120 m from the coast at an altitude of 32 m above sea level, and due to its position on the SW slope of the Dinaridic mountain range, a Mediterranean climatic influence is dominant. Due to the stable environmental conditions [(15.6 ± 0.1) °C] Modrič Cave was recognized as a potential site for detailed palaeoclimatic studies. Isotope analyses of modern carbonate speleothems, rain and dripwater were conducted in order to evaluate the isotopic equilibrium conditions. The δ18O composition …

Gis Data: Fairfax County And The City Of Alexandria, Virginia Shoreline Inventory Report, Marcia Berman, Harry Berquist, Sharon Killeen, Carl Hershner, Karinna Nunez, Karen Reay, Tamia Rudnicky

Data

The data inventory developed for the Shoreline Inventory is based on a three‑tiered shoreline assessment approach. In most cases this assessment characterizes conditions that can be observed from a small boat navigating along the shoreline. The three tiered shoreline assessment approach divides the shorezone into three regions: 1) the immediate riparian zone, evaluated for land use; 2) the bank, evaluated for height, stability, cover and natural protection; and 3) the shoreline, describing the presence of shoreline structures for shore protection and recreational purposes. Hand-held GPS units are used to log features observed in the field.

Three GIS coverages are developed …

2010-2011 Nova Southeastern University Undergraduate Student Catalog, Nova Southeastern University

Undergraduate Programs Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Egal: Exploration Guided Active Learning For Tcbr, Rong Hu, Sarah Jane Delany, Brian Mac Namee

Conference papers

The task of building labelled case bases can be approached using active learning (AL), a process which facilitates the labelling of large collections of examples with minimal manual labelling effort. The main challenge in designing AL systems is the development of a selection strategy to choose the most informative examples to manually label. Typical selection strategies use exploitation techniques which attempt to refine uncertain areas of the decision space based on the output of a classifier. Other approaches tend to balance exploitation with exploration, selecting examples from dense and interesting regions of the domain space. In this paper we present …

Inside The Selection Box: Visualising Active Learning Selection Strategies, Brian Mac Namee, Rong Hu, Sarah Jane Delany

Conference papers

Visualisations can be used to provide developers with insights into the inner workings of interactive machine learning techniques. In active learning, an inherently interactive machine learning technique, the design of selection strategies is the key research question and this paper demonstrates how spring model based visualisations can be used to provide insight into the precise operation of various selection strategies. Using sample datasets, this paper provides detailed examples of the differences between a range of selection strategies.

Svm Based Active Learning With Exploration, Patrick Lindstrom, Rong Hu, Sarah Jane Delany, Brian Mac Namee

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Two-Way Diffusion Model For Short Exposure Holographic Grating Formation In Acrylamide-Based Photopolymer, Tzvetanka Babeva, Izabela Naydenova, Dana Mackey, Suzanne Martin, Vincent Toal

Articles

A theoretical model for formation of a short exposure holographic grating is presented. The model accounts for both monomer and polymer diffusion and distinguishes between short polymer chains capable of diffusing and long polymer chains that are immobile. It is shown that the experimentally observed decrease of diffraction efficiency at higher spatial frequency can be predicted by assuming diffusion of short-chain polymers away from the bright fringes. The time evolution of the refractive index modulation after short exposure is calculated and compared with experimental results. The effects of diffusion coefficients, polymerization rates, intensity and spatial frequency of recording on the …

Study Of The Photoinduced Surface Relief Modulation In Photopolymers Caused By Illumination With A Gaussian Beam Of Light, Tzvetanka Babeva, Dana Mackey, Suzanne Martin, Izabela Naydenova, Vincent Toal

Articles

The formation of surface relief profile in photopolymerisable systems when illuminated with a focused beam of light is simulated numerically using a two-way diffusion model that takes account both for monomer and short polymer chains diffusion. The concentration and spatial distribution dynamics of monomer and short and long polymer chains are calculated. The surface profile is obtained from calculated components concentrations considering different densities of monomer and polymer. The influence of the illumination time, intensity and spot diameter on the surface profiles dynamics is discussed. A good agreement between the calculated and the experimentally measured profiles is observed thus demonstrating …

A Diffusion Model For Spatially Dependent Photopolymerization, Dana Mackey, Tzvetanka Babeva, Izabela Naydenova, Vincent Toal

Articles

Photopolymers represent an attractive class of optical recording materials due to properties such as high refractive index modulation, dry film processing, long shelf life, etc. Applications include holographically based devices for optical storage disks, optical interconnections, optical memories and filters. This paper will address the dynamics of short-exposure holographic grating formation; a new mathematical model is proposed with the aim of understanding the experimental observations of low diffraction efficiency in high spatial frequency gratings.

Silver Nanoparticle Polymer Composite Based Humidity Sensor, Aoife Power, Tony Betts, John Cassidy

Articles

Silver nanoparticles were synthesised by a chemical reduction process in order to produce an aqueous colloidal dispersion. The resulting colloids were then characterised by a combination of UV-Vis spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy and the nanoparticles were found to have an average diameter of 20–22 nm. The Ag/polymer nanocomposites were then applied to platinum interdigital electrodes as sensor coatings and the capability of the resulting sensor as a humidity detector investigated. With the application of 1 V, a current developed which was found to be directly proportional to humidity levels. The sensor gives a reversible, …

Parton Energy Loss In Heavy-Ion Collisions Via Direct-Photon And Charged-Particle Azimuthal Correlations, B. I. Abelev, M. M. Aggarwal, Z. Ahammed, A. V. Alakhverdyants, B. D. Anderson, D. Arkhipkin, G. S. Averichev, S. Bueltmann, I. Koralt, Star Collaboration

Physics Faculty Publications

Charged-particle spectra associated with direct photon Ydir) and π⁰ are measured in p+p and Au+Au collisions at center-of-mass energy √sNN=200 GeV with the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. A shower-shape analysis is used to partially discriminate between Ydirand π⁰. Assuming no associated charged particles in the γdir direction (near side) and small contribution from fragmentation photons (Yfrag), the associated charged-particle yields opposite to Ydir(away side) are extracted. In central Au+Au collisions, the charged-particle yields at midrapidity (|η|<1) and high transverse momentum (3 < P_T^assoc < 16 GeV/c) associated with γdir and π⁰ (|η|<0.9, 8 < P_T^trig <16 GeV/c) are suppressed by a factor of 3–5 compared with p+p collisions. The observed suppression of the associated charged particles is similar for Ydir and π⁰ and …

Design Sensitivities Of The Superconducting Parallel-Bar Cavity, Subashini U. De Silva, Jean Delayen

Physics Faculty Publications

The superconducting parallel-bar cavity has properties that makes it attractive as a deflecting or crabbing rf structure. For example it is under consideration as an rf separator for the Jefferson Lab 12 GeV upgrade and as a crabbing structure for a possible LHC luminosity upgrade. In order to maintain the purity of the deflecting mode and avoid mixing with the near accelerating mode caused by geometrical imperfection, a minimum frequency separation is needed which depends on the expected deviations from perfect symmetry. We have done an extensive analysis of the impact of several geometrical imperfections on the properties of the …

Plasma Treatment Of Bulk Niobium Surface For Superconducting Rf Cavities: Optimization Of The Experimental Conditions On Flat Samples, M. Rašković, J. Upadhyay, L. Vuskovic, S. Popovic, A.-M. Valente-Feliciano, L. Phillips

Physics Faculty Publications

Accelerator performance, in particular the average accelerating field and the cavity quality factor, depends on the physical and chemical characteristics of the superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavity surface. Plasma based surface modification provides an excellent opportunity to eliminate nonsuperconductive pollutants in the penetration depth region and to remove the mechanically damaged surface layer, which improves the surface roughness. Here we show that the plasma treatment of bulk niobium (Nb) presents an alternative surface preparation method to the commonly used buffered chemical polishing and electropolishing methods. We have optimized the experimental conditions in the microwave glow discharge system and their influence on …