Regulating the Arctic Gold Rush: Recommended Regulatory Reforms to Protect Alaska’s Arctic Environment From Offshore Oil Drilling Pollution

Since 2008, major oil and gas operators have invested billions attempting to drill Arctic Alaska\u27s Outer Continental Shelf. However, offshore drilling in the extreme Arctic is fraught with infrastructural, technological and environmental challenges that could result in enormous damages if an accident ever occurred. While offshore drilling operations would significantly benefit both the state of Alaska and the United States, it is imperative that the United States\u27 offshore regulatory regime adequately protects the Arctic Alaskan environment and innocent third parties. This Note examines the shortcomings of the United States\u27 current offshore drilling regulatory regime and proposes a four-part scheme that properly incentivizes operators to drill safely and adequately compensates damaged parties. The United States should revise its regulatory regime by: (1) significantly increasing the liability cap; (2) increasing an operator\u27s financial responsibility requirement in the form of mandatory third-party insurance; (3) establishing a risk-based premium fund; and (4) creating a supplementary fund from firms that extract hydrocarbons in excess of a specific threshold level

Tip–sample interactions: Extraction of single molecular pair potentials from force curves

This article describes a method for extracting the true tip–sample potential from an experimental force curve in atomic force microscopy. This potential is not the negative integral of the force curve. Rather, the potential is a more complicated function of the force curve and cantilever spring constant. If information about the shape of the tip is known, a decorrelation may be performed to extract molecular pair potentials from the total tip–sample potential. Applications and limitations of this method are discussed

Resolved Spectroscopy of the Narrow-Line Region in NGC 1068: Kinematics of the Ionized Gas

We have determined the radial velocities of the [O III] emitting gas in the inner narrow-line region (NLR) of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068, along a slit at position angle of 202 degrees, from STIS observations at a spatial resolution of 0.1 arcsec and a spectral resolving power of approximately 1000. We use these data to investigate the kinematics of the NLR within 6 arcsec (430 pc) of the nucleus. The emission-line knots show evidence for radial acceleration, to a projected angular distance of 1.7 arcsec in most cases, followed by deceleration that approaches the systemic velocity at a projected distance of about 4 arcsec. We find that a simple kinematic model of biconical radial outflow can match the general trend of observed radial velocities. In this model, the emitting material is evacuated along the bicone axis, and the axis is inclined 5 degrees out of the plane of the sky. The acceleration of the emission-line clouds provides support for dynamical models that invoke radiation and/or wind pressure. We suggest that the deceleration of the clouds is due to their collision with a patchy and anistropically distributed ambient medium.Comment: 18 pages, Latex, includes 3 figures in postscript, to appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letter

SHORT TERM MICROBIAL COLONIZATION OF REPTILE ROADKILL

Little is known about how microbes such as bacteria and fungi in the environment tempo­rally colonize common roadkill reptile carcasses (turtles and snakes). We opportunistically collected and deployed a variety of reptile carcasses often found deceased near roads, including an Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis), an Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina), and a Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina). We sampled bacteria communities of these carcasses daily for five con­secutive days. We enumerated the number of colony-forming units (CFUs) and characterized microbial distinct colonies using morphology and identification of dominant colonies using 16S rRNA sequencing across carcasses. Several ecologically relevant bacterial phyla were successfully identified colonizing and dominating carcasses differentially, including members of Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Proteo­bacteria. We observed higher bacterial colonization (CFUs) for both terrestrial and aquatic turtles, T. carolina and C. serpentina, compared to P. alleghaniensis. This study provides baseline data on the temporal microbiology of deceased reptiles found on roads in the piedmont of North Carolina

Shear band formation in granular media as a variational problem

Strain in sheared dense granular material is often localized in a narrow region called shear band. Recent experiments in a modified Couette cell provided localized shear flow in the bulk away from the confining walls. The non-trivial shape of the shear band was measured as the function of the cell geometry. First we present a geometric argument for narrow shear bands which connects the function of their surface position with the shape in the bulk. Assuming a simple dissipation mechanism we show that the principle of minimum dissipation of energy provides a good description of the shape function. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility and behavior of shear bands which are detached from the free surface and are entirely covered in the bulk.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; minor changes, typos and journal-ref adde

The morphology of Sersic-Pastoriza galaxies

The authors present the preliminary results of their radio-continuum and neutral hydrogen observations of Sersic-Pastoriza (S-P) galaxies. They show that the central regions contain a population of compact features thought to be young supernova remnants (SNRs) and discuss the overall morphology of the nuclei

Models relating the radio emission and ionised gas in Seyfert nuclei

Possible models are discussed in which the radio emitting components in Seyfert II nuclei can compress and accelerate the ambient nuclear medium to produce the characteristics of the narrow line region. A first order model, which considers only the expansion of the radio components, is briefly described. However, in many Seyfert nuclei it appears that the linear motion of the radio components is also important. This can result in shock heating of the ambient medium, and if the cooling time is long enough, can lead to a displacement between the radio component and the associated emission lines. This effect may be present in NGC 1068 and NGC 5929 and by considering ram pressure balance and the cooling length it is possible to estimate lobe velocities and ambient densities

Planning Design Iterations

Companies developing new products have a wide variety of product development (PD) processes from which to choose. Each process offers a different method of iteration to manage risk. Companies must therefore consider the nature and level of risks they face in order to determine the most appropriate iteration and PD process. This paper identifies principles of risk and iteration inherent in product development and then explains how several different PD processes manage risk through iteration. It explains current research on PD decision criteria and concludes by proposing a framework to help companies better select PD processes.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA