North Alabama Ecological Forecasting: Spatial Modeling of the Fragmentation of Local Species Habitat from Increasing Urbanization in North Alabama

Alabama is one of the most biodiverse states in the United States and has the greatest diversity of aquatic species. As urbanization continues to increase in Alabama, this biodiversity is at risk. This project partnered with the Land Trust of North Alabama to identify sensitive habitats that are at risk for urbanization within Madison and Limestone counties. The Land Trust of North Alabama works to preserve land, primarily in Madison and Limestone counties of North Alabama, and encourages stewardship through environmental education. The team conducted a supervised classification of land class types utilizing data from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Version 4 (SRTM) to identify land cover changes and areas most vulnerable to future urbanization. Through incorporating land classification analysis and additional parameters indicative of urbanization, the team produced an urbanization prediction tool and a landscape fragmentation map. The urban prediction tool identified land highly suitable for development and found that, by 2045, 25% of highly suitable land will be urbanized using the measured 1% growth rate. Ecological impact was established using observation data of species of interest to the project partners. These tools will enable the Land Trust to target high risk areas of land for preservation

Cone Spacing Correlates With Retinal Thickness and Microperimetry in Patients With Inherited Retinal Degenerations.

PurposeTo determine whether high-resolution retinal imaging measures of macular structure correlate with visual function over 36 months in retinal degeneration (RD) patients and normal subjects.MethodsTwenty-six eyes of 16 RD patients and 16 eyes of 8 normal subjects were studied at baseline; 15 eyes (14 RD) and 11 eyes (6 normal) were studied 36 months later. Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO) was used to identify regions of interest (ROIs) with unambiguous cones at baseline to measure cone spacing. AOSLO images were aligned with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and fundus-guided microperimetry results to correlate structure and function at the ROIs. SD-OCT images were segmented to measure inner segment (IS) and outer segment (OS) thickness. Correlations between cone spacing, IS and OS thickness and sensitivity were assessed using Spearman correlation coefficient ρ with bootstrap analyses clustered by person.ResultsCone spacing (ρ = 0.57, P < 0.001) and macular sensitivity (ρ = 0.19, P = 0.14) were significantly correlated with eccentricity in patients. Controlling for eccentricity, cone spacing Z-scores were inversely correlated with IS (ρ = -0.29, P = 0.002) and OS thickness (ρ = -0.39, P < 0.001) in RD patients only, and with sensitivity in normal subjects (ρ = -0.22, P < 0.001) and RD patients (ρ = -0.38, P < 0.001). After 36 months, cone spacing increased (P < 0.001) and macular sensitivity decreased (P = 0.007) compared to baseline in RD patients.ConclusionsCone spacing increased and macular sensitivity declined significantly in RD patients over 36 months. High resolution images of cone structure correlated with retinal sensitivity, and may be appropriate outcome measures for clinical trials in RD

Automated Mapping of Flood Events in the Mississippi River Basin Utilizing NASA Earth Observations

The Mississippi River Basin is the fourth largest drainage basin in the world, and is susceptible to multi-level flood events caused by heavy precipitation, snow melt, and changes in water table levels. Conducting flood analysis during periods of disaster is a challenging endeavor for NASA's Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (SPoRT), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the U.S. Geological Survey's Hazards Data Distribution Systems (USGS HDDS) due to heavily-involved research and lack of manpower. During this project, an automated script was generated that performs high-level flood analysis to relieve the workload for end-users. The script incorporated Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) tiles and utilized computer-learning techniques to generate accurate water extent maps. The script referenced the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land-water mask to isolate areas of flood induced waters. These areas were overlaid onto the National Land Cover Database's (NLCD) land cover data, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's LandScan data, and Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD) to determine the classification of areas impacted and the population density affected by flooding. The automated algorithm was initially tested on the September 2016 flood event that occurred in Upper Mississippi River Basin, and was then further tested on multiple flood events within the Mississippi River Basin. This script allows end users to create their own flood probability and impact maps for disaster mitigation and recovery efforts

Summer School

I question conventional boundaries through a series of action and reaction, a safari between permanence and transience, interrogating whether paper is shaped forever. Pulp painting promises a negotiation of form while carrying abstraction. My intention is to evoke that magic certitude borne of a dedicated approach. Having caught some idea, I broaden it with weird fibers, give the thing depth, complete a cycle of reasoning by returning to the starting point in a way a sculptor might imagine the pose of a figure hidden in a lump of stone. By marrying feeling and intellect, I find a facility of control. This is what artist’s work and child’s play have in common: at their fullest they’re experiences of being lost in the present. When the pieces are dried and removed from the blotter, I’m amazed. Courting, as it were, the paper. Did I really assist in some small way this object d’art come to be? Floating on the cushioning bosom of tradition, the whimsy of tangential improvisation, how is it I have been present for such creation? How? Papermaking is a goopy chaos of an alchemical process. It is a mess. I know what I said; I don’t know what you heard

Dominoes

I question conventional boundaries through a series of action and reaction, a safari between permanence and transience, interrogating whether paper is shaped forever. Pulp painting promises a negotiation of form while carrying abstraction. My intention is to evoke that magic certitude borne of a dedicated approach. Having caught some idea, I broaden it with weird fibers, give the thing depth, complete a cycle of reasoning by returning to the starting point in a way a sculptor might imagine the pose of a figure hidden in a lump of stone. By marrying feeling and intellect, I find a facility of control. This is what artist’s work and child’s play have in common: at their fullest they’re experiences of being lost in the present. When the pieces are dried and removed from the blotter, I’m amazed. Courting, as it were, the paper. Did I really assist in some small way this object d’art come to be? Floating on the cushioning bosom of tradition, the whimsy of tangential improvisation, how is it I have been present for such creation? How? Papermaking is a goopy chaos of an alchemical process. It is a mess. I know what I said; I don’t know what you heard

Imitating

I question conventional boundaries through a series of action and reaction, a safari between permanence and transience, interrogating whether paper is shaped forever. Pulp painting promises a negotiation of form while carrying abstraction. My intention is to evoke that magic certitude borne of a dedicated approach. Having caught some idea, I broaden it with weird fibers, give the thing depth, complete a cycle of reasoning by returning to the starting point in a way a sculptor might imagine the pose of a figure hidden in a lump of stone. By marrying feeling and intellect, I find a facility of control. This is what artist’s work and child’s play have in common: at their fullest they’re experiences of being lost in the present. When the pieces are dried and removed from the blotter, I’m amazed. Courting, as it were, the paper. Did I really assist in some small way this object d’art come to be? Floating on the cushioning bosom of tradition, the whimsy of tangential improvisation, how is it I have been present for such creation? How? Papermaking is a goopy chaos of an alchemical process. It is a mess. I know what I said; I don’t know what you heard

Marbled Frog Wood Cut

I question conventional boundaries through a series of action and reaction, a safari between permanence and transience, interrogating whether paper is shaped forever. Pulp painting promises a negotiation of form while carrying abstraction. My intention is to evoke that magic certitude borne of a dedicated approach. Having caught some idea, I broaden it with weird fibers, give the thing depth, complete a cycle of reasoning by returning to the starting point in a way a sculptor might imagine the pose of a figure hidden in a lump of stone. By marrying feeling and intellect, I find a facility of control. This is what artist’s work and child’s play have in common: at their fullest they’re experiences of being lost in the present. When the pieces are dried and removed from the blotter, I’m amazed. Courting, as it were, the paper. Did I really assist in some small way this object d’art come to be? Floating on the cushioning bosom of tradition, the whimsy of tangential improvisation, how is it I have been present for such creation? How? Papermaking is a goopy chaos of an alchemical process. It is a mess. I know what I said; I don’t know what you heard

The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: Reverberation Mapping of Optical Hydrogen and Helium Recombination Lines

We have recently completed a 64-night spectroscopic monitoring campaign at the Lick Observatory 3-m Shane telescope with the aim of measuring the masses of the black holes in 12 nearby (z < 0.05) Seyfert 1 galaxies with expected masses in the range ~10^6-10^7M_sun and also the well-studied nearby active galactic nucleus (AGN) NGC 5548. Nine of the objects in the sample (including NGC 5548) showed optical variability of sufficient strength during the monitoring campaign to allow for a time lag to be measured between the continuum fluctuations and the response to these fluctuations in the broad Hbeta emission, which we have previously reported. We present here the light curves for the Halpha, Hgamma, HeII 4686, and HeI 5876 emission lines and the time lags for the emission-line responses relative to changes in the continuum flux. Combining each emission-line time lag with the measured width of the line in the variable part of the spectrum, we determine a virial mass of the central supermassive black hole from several independent emission lines. We find that the masses are generally consistent within the uncertainties. The time-lag response as a function of velocity across the Balmer line profiles is examined for six of the AGNs. Finally we compare several trends seen in the dataset against the predictions from photoionization calculations as presented by Korista & Goad. We confirm several of their predictions, including an increase in responsivity and a decrease in the mean time lag as the excitation and ionization level for the species increases. Further confirmation of photoionization predictions for broad-line gas behavior will require additional monitoring programs for these AGNs while they are in different luminosity states. [abridged]Comment: 37 pages, 18 figures and 15 tables, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

North Alabama Ecological Forecasting: Spatial Modeling of the Fragmentation of Local Species Habitat from Increasing Urbanization in North Alabama

Alabama is one of the most biodiverse states in the United States, including the greatest diversity of aquatic species. As urbanization continues to increase in Alabama, this biodiversity is at risk. NASA DEVELOP partnered with the Land Trust of North Alabama to identify sensitive habitats that are at risk from urbanization within Madison and Limestone counties. The Land Trust of North Alabama works to preserve land, primarily in Madison and Limestone counties, and encourages stewardship through environmental education. The team conducted a supervised classification of land class type, utilizing data from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Version 4 (SRTM) to identify land cover changes and areas most vulnerable to future urbanization. By incorporating land classification analysis and additional parameters indicative of urbanization, the team produced an urbanization prediction tool and a landscape fragmentation map. The urban prediction tool identified land highly suitable for development and found that 25% of highly suitable land will be urbanized by 2045 using the measured 0.87% growth rate. Ecological impact was established using observation data for species of interest to the project partners. These tools will enable the Land Trust to target high risk areas of land for preservation

BVRI Light Curves for 29 Type Ia Supernovae

BVRI light curves are presented for 27 Type Ia supernovae discovered during the course of the Calan/Tololo Survey and for two other SNe Ia observed during the same period. Estimates of the maximum light magnitudes in the B, V, and I bands and the initial decline rate parameter m15(B) are also given.Comment: 17 pages, figures and tables are not included (contact first author if needed), to appear in the Astronomical Journa