Academic literature on the topic 'Black pointed seed'

AbstractIn Fabienne Kanor’s Humus and Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro’s las Negras, the slave ship constitutes a landmark that combines space and time: a chronotope, as Paul Gilroy articulates in The Black Atlantic. A liminal site both catalyst and witness to the collision between distinct worlds, the slave ship represents in the Afrodiasporic imaginary a new point of origin marked by colonial attempts of ontological and epistemic annihilation. Nevertheless, this motif holds the promise of renewal through a reconfiguration of spacetime that forges unforeseen alliances and fuels sociopolitical struggle. Furthermore, Arroyo Pizarro’s and Kanor’s accounts excavate the acts of resistance by Africans and Caribbean people, especially women, systematically expunged from official records. Turning instead to immaterial elements stored in the explicitly sexed body, a dynamic corporeal archive that unsettles the authority of the annals upholding dominant chronicles, these narratives amount to epistemic marronnage. The Martiniquan and Puerto Rican authors fulfil their devoir de mémoire (or obligation to remember) by elaborating a tangible (though fictional) alternative archive that withstands erasure.

Abstract The aryloxyphenoxypropionate (APP) herbicides are graminicides with excellent control of many grass weed species, including weedy rice (Oryza sativa L.). These herbicides block fatty acid biosynthesis by inhibition of the enzyme acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) and cause death of the plant. Through induced mutation of rice seeds with gamma-rays, rice lines resistant to APP have been developed. Plant dose-response assays confirmed resistance to the APP herbicides quizalofop-p-ethyl and haloxyfop-p-methyl. The carboxyl-transferase (CT) domain fragments of ACCase from the resistant line and the susceptible control were sequenced and compared. A point mutation was detected in the amino acid position 2027. Results indicated that resistance to APP herbicides is a consequence of an altered ACCase enzyme that confers resistance. APP-resistant rice provides an option to improve the efficiency of weed management in rice crops.

AbstractVision Zero has a central role in traffic safety in Germany. Finally, it was even a relevant point in the coalition treaty from the Federal Governing Parties in the year 2018.It is a unifying theme for safety measures taken on the federal, state, and local levels and in private, nonprofit traffic safety organizations. In later years, cooperation between these different agents has been intensified. Evaluation and measurability are essential in the German approach to Vision Zero. One example of this is the statistical work performed every year to identify “zero cities,” i.e., cities that had zero road fatalities the previous year. A yearly award puts focus on cities that have a particularly long string of zero years, in relation to their size. This is performed on an international level, and cities around the world are incentivized by these recognitions. Munich is used as an example of a city that has recently stepped up its traffic safety work. The city has adopted Vision Zero and followed up this with intensified traffic safety work, including improved data collection, the identification of accident black spots, targeted measures to improve safety in these black spots, safety audits of new infrastructure plans, etc. Before the introduction of new traffic technologies which may have an impact on safety, in-depth technology assessment has to be performed. This is illustrated by an example in which sufficient prior technology assessment did not take place, namely the introduction of e-scooters in Germany. After their introduction, they have turned out to be significantly more dangerous than bicycles, as can be seen from the statistics of fatalities and severe injuries. Proposals are made for measures are needed to reverse this trend, including obligatory use of helmets. The dialogue with neighbor states is also essential. Here the Traffic Expert Society of Medical and Technical Biomechanics, gmttb (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland= D A CH), has initiated to discuss and bundle basic principles of the Vision Zero in three neighbor countries. To promote Vision Zero, gmttb also organizes interdisciplinary yearly conferences with experts from Austria (Vision Zero is a state philosophy) and Switzerland (here named Via Sicura) to bundle strength and adopt ideas together with Swedish and multinational experts. As well as a yearly gmttb Vision Zero Safety Award is granted to motivate people, organizations, and manufacturers to promote good ideas for better traffic safety.

AbstractVision Zero has a central role in traffic safety in Germany. Finally, it was even a relevant point in the coalition treaty from the Federal Governing Parties in the year 2018.It is a unifying theme for safety measures taken on the federal, state, and local levels and in private, nonprofit traffic safety organizations. In later years, cooperation between these different agents has been intensified. Evaluation and measurability are essential in the German approach to Vision Zero. One example of this is the statistical work performed every year to identify “zero cities,” i.e., cities that had zero road fatalities the previous year. A yearly award puts focus on cities that have a particularly long string of zero years, in relation to their size. This is performed on an international level, and cities around the world are incentivized by these recognitions. Munich is used as an example of a city that has recently stepped up its traffic safety work. The city has adopted Vision Zero and followed up this with intensified traffic safety work, including improved data collection, the identification of accident black spots, targeted measures to improve safety in these black spots, safety audits of new infrastructure plans, etc. Before the introduction of new traffic technologies which may have an impact on safety, in-depth technology assessment has to be performed. This is illustrated by an example in which sufficient prior technology assessment did not take place, namely the introduction of e-scooters in Germany. After their introduction, they have turned out to be significantly more dangerous than bicycles, as can be seen from the statistics of fatalities and severe injuries. Proposals are made for measures are needed to reverse this trend, including obligatory use of helmets. The dialogue with neighbor states is also essential. Here the Traffic Expert Society of Medical and Technical Biomechanics, gmttb (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland= D A CH), has initiated to discuss and bundle basic principles of the Vision Zero in three neighbor countries. To promote Vision Zero, gmttb also organizes interdisciplinary yearly conferences with experts from Austria (Vision Zero is a state philosophy) and Switzerland (here named Via Sicura) to bundle strength and adopt ideas together with Swedish and multinational experts. As well as a yearly gmttb Vision Zero Safety Award is granted to motivate people, organizations, and manufacturers to promote good ideas for better traffic safety.

This chapter addresses the whitebarks and the nutcrackers. The whitebark pine is the only tree that grows in the highest elevations of the northern and central Sierra. The nutcracker's bill, long and slightly decurved, is as black as obsidian and as pointed and purposive as a sailor's fid. With this singular tool, the bird hammers the whitebark's pitch-bound cone until it shatters, revealing the nutritious, caloric seeds within. The nutcracker is also the whitebark's wings, its ever faithful seed-bearer; the tree thrives because a bird cares for it, and the bird thrives for the care of a tree. In their uncanny collaboration, the whitebark and nutcracker nurture more than just each other. Ultimately, the whitebark pine teaches us that our project is to ready a life worth giving away, in hope to provoke a kindling and a flourishing of further life.

Abstract Early December 1968, a few weeks before SNCC’s flamboyant Stokely Carmichael left for a fourteen-month sojourn in Africa, he spoke to an enthusiastic and overflow audience of mostly Black college students at the historically Black A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. Carmichael argued forcefully that a crucial element of the accelerating Black Power phase of the Black liberation struggle was the need for Blacks to define themselves more accurately as a people. He contended that they had to see themselves more geopolitically. This call for a diasporic and Pan-African sense of group awareness was pointed and clear. “We are Africans,” he intoned.

The conclusion summarizes the rhetorics of black unity and disunity discussed earlier. It then discusses how both types of rhetoric ultimately point to the divided state of blacks in the post-civil rights era. If for Du Bois in the twentieth century the color line that separated whites from blacks was the focus of his discourse, then for blacks in the twenty-first century, issues of class that separate one black from another are now a subject of concern. In the course of a century there’s been a change in the subject of black discourse, as disunity is both acknowledged and for some is seen as potentially desirable. Integration is both a sign of success in terms of the civil rights movement and is also the catalyst for disunity among blacks in the post-civil rights era.

This chapter discusses the competing structures of madness and competence that mark the early struggles for Black subjectivity. It takes as its starting point the disjuncture between the logics of competing legal and literary texts of the late eighteenth century: slave petitions on the one hand, and Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative on the other. The petitions, as well as much of the protest literature that borrows the petition's form by articulating grievance and demanding redress, are the first textual statements of Black competence for citizenship, pursuing legal acknowledgments of their formal humanity. Yet read alongside the petitions, the early texts in the Black literary tradition produce striking scenes of the madness inspired by the realities of slavery: of “crazed” slaves who come to see suicide or rebellion as the only sane alternative to servitude. The seemingly counterproductive representations of madness and incompetence in African American literary texts are in fact of a piece with the claims for citizenship posited by the petitions, critiquing their inevitable failure and deploying figures of madness in response to the failures of law.

Chapter 7 charts the African Orthodox Church's growth from its headquarters in South Africa to Kenya between 1928 and 1944. Kikuyu Christians hoped that the church would support their anticolonial agenda to reclaim their ancestral land while advocating for educational sites that would position them as elites. This chapter relies on church documents, personal correspondence, and newspaper clippings to point to the ways church expansion conformed to the theological and political needs of the Kikuyus. South African leaders equipped Kikuyu Christians by sharing church documents, visiting, and even setting up seminaries. This chapter analyzes the shared colonial struggles of African Christians connected to the church and also shows the connective projects of African-initiated churches and Black nationalism as Kikuyu-based congregations intensified into the Mau Mau Revolution.

This chapter considers the “rediscovery” of James Van Der Zee's photographs in the late 1960s and the implications of their display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 1969 Harlem on My Mind exhibition, a highly criticized show. It centers the recollections of two young Black individuals who visited the show separately as a starting point for reimagining how to interpret Van Der Zee's work within the context of the show. By returning the arbiter-of-value role to the everyday visitor—and, by extension, to what these viewers may have seen in the photographic image—this chapter begins to consider the possibilities of experiencing and contextualizing the Harlem on My Mind photographs in ways rarely validated by the mainstream art world or its reformers.

The oil and gas industry can be considered one of the main industrial fields in corrosion inhibitor usage. In this aggressive environment, dissolved CO2poses as an intensifying component. The study and synthesis of new materials that can mitigate corrosion rates in such an aggressive environment is a constant scientific effort. Nanomaterials research can be considered a fast-growing field with many applications [1]. Specifically for corrosion inhibitor studies, materials that present a 2D or 0D structure, such as graphene oxide and carbon dots, respectively, may offer excellent inhibition capabilities given their increased surface area in comparison to other molecules [2,3,4]. Carbon dots (CD) are a new class of carbon-based nanomaterials that presents as promising in different applications such as imaging, sensing, and catalytic processes [5]. Having a characteristic size of less than 10 nm and properties such as biocompatibility and low toxicity, this class of nanomaterial has been studied extensively in different scientific fields in the past few years. Due to their properties mentioned above, coupled with a relatively easy synthesis route and versatility in possible doping materials, they can be a potential candidate for corrosion inhibitors [6]. Thus, the present work aims to evaluate the corrosion inhibition efficiency (η%) of sulfur/nitrogen-doped carbon dots in a CO2-saturated 3.5% NaCl solution. The inhibition effect was evaluated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), linear potentiodynamic polarization, and weight loss measurements. Nano molecules were synthesized via thermal processing using citric acid (C₆H₈O₇) and thiourea (CH4N2S) as precursors, which resulted in Nitrogen/Sulfur co-doped carbon dots (NS-CD). All electrochemical procedures were performed in a 100 ml electrolyte cell and followed by 15 minutes of deaeration with N2, 15 minutes of CO2saturation, and 1 h of Open Circuit Potential monitoring. Analyses were carried out using a potentiostat/galvanostat model PGSTAT30 (Autolab, Metrohm-Eco Chemie) and a standard three-electrode cell: 1) work electrode: Mild Steel AISI 1018. 2) platinum counter electrode. 3) Ag/AgCl sat—KCl reference electrode. The metallic samples were cut and mounted in epoxy resin to allow a 1 cm2exposed surface area and then prepared for the electrochemical tests, which consisted of sanding from 220 grit up to 600, rinsed in distilled water, reagent grade ethanol and dried with hot air. Weight loss measurements were carried out with metallic rods with approximately 10 cm2of surface area. After 1 hour of CO2saturation, samples remained exposed for 48 hours, and through the weight difference, the corrosion rate was estimated, and the effect of inhibition addition was evaluated. Figure 1shows the polarization curves obtained for AISI 1018 alloy with and without inhibitor addition. Results show that both anodic and cathodic branches were influenced by the presence of the nano molecules, which suggests a mixed-type inhibition effect with adsorption of NS-CD molecules in the metallic surface acting as a physical barrier and mitigating degradation reactions [7]. The increase of carbon dot concentration resulted in a downward shift of the curves towards lower current densities. At approximately 200 mV of overpotential, a rapid rise of current density can be seen for all concentrations studied, which was not present for the blank samples and can be attributed to desorption processes. Corrosion Potential (Ecorr) shifted to more anodic values after inhibitor addition, and the shift was proportional to the inhibitor concentration added, up to a maximum of 70 mV at 90 ppm. Tafel analysis was performed to estimate corrosion current density (icorr) and inhibition efficiency (η%). Table 1shows the data obtained for Ecorr, icorr, and η%. As expected, the inhibition efficiency increases with NS-CD addition, reaching 93% at 90 ppm, which is an excellent inhibition effect. Figure 2shows the Nyquist plots obtained from EIS analyses. A distinct capacitive response can be observed for all conditions studied as highly deformed semi-circles. The diameter of said semi-circles can be related to the sample's Polarization resistance (Rp), where higher Rp values translate to lower corrosion rates [8]. At the low-frequency region, a small inductive loop was observed. This inductive behavior can be attributed to adsorption processes at the sample surface [9,10]. Results demonstrate that as the concentration rises from 35 to 90 ppm, the diameter of the semicircle increases; therefore, Rp values are higher than the blank results. Table 2shows the EIS parameters obtained, Rp and η%. At a maximum concentration of 90 ppm, the Rp reached 1kΩ.cm2with an efficiency value of 81%. The effect of immersion time in the EIS analyses was also investigated. Figure 3shows the calculated RP values after addition of 90 ppm of NS-CD with increasing immersion time, up to 7 hours. It can be seen that, initially the polarization resistance rose with longer immersion periods, up until 4 hours of exposure, where it stabilized at approximately 5 kΩ.cm2which gives an estimated η% of 97%. Weight loss results are shown in Table 2. Corrosion Rate and η% were estimated for AISI 1018 alloy with and without inhibitor addition. All concentrations studied led to a decrease in corrosion rate. Furthermore, the inhibition efficiency increases with NS-CD concentration up to 86% at 90 ppm. Optical microscopy was used to visually inspect the samples surface after exposure with and without NS-CD addition. Figure 4shows the optical micrographs obtained. In the blank sample, after 24 hours of exposure, a severely degraded surface can be observed with a heavy indication of general corrosion. On the other hand, after 90 ppm NS-CD addition, the sample surface remained protected to a degree, with a much less severe degradation aspect to be observed, which once more points to the inhibition effect of the nanoparticles synthesized. In summary, sulfur/nitrogen-doped carbon dots displayed an efficient corrosion inhibition behavior for a very aggressive medium, pointing to its potential usage in the oil and gas industry.

The topic is important, difficult, tedious, burdensome ... Nothing changes here, ever. Dying, fear, pain, suffering, anxiety, apathy ... No one is exempt from that "story". Death is necessary. Life always ends in death. It is a journey into the unknown which, from the point of view of a long and happy life, produces great disorder and fierce frustrations. A series of big attitudes is simply imposed. Opinions are exaggerated in one direction or another. Black and white!? In fact, the stupid extremes, even the "ways" used in doing so, were for many worthy of a "merciful" end to life. Life itself, the author points out, directs us to reject all theoretical extremes. However, it seems to us that we would not have done better in this field, even under more moderate, much more favorable conditions. In that too much confusion, it's just important to keep a little more rational !? The "right solution", or if we want "satisfactory" will already come up !? In that context, with the risk of repeating some of what was said, our attention was specifically drawn to the punishment of the perpetrator of the relevant act in Italian law. It should be noted that the picture provided by the study of this complex and provocative issue is in fact a mirror of the specific relationship between legislative solutions, especially in the area of responsibility and punishment of the main actors of "euthanasia" and "suicide assistance", and complicated life situations. which they will, we shall see, differ considerably. Finally, as the author points out, the views discussed here seem to provide an opportunity to open up some new vistas, it may shed light on the problem from a different perspective and offer a different way of resolving the aforementioned, very complex and difficult issues that arise in connection with it.

Reliability analysis involving high-dimensional, computationally expensive, highly nonlinear performance functions is a notoriously challenging problem. In this paper, we tackle this problem by proposing a new method, high-dimensional reliability analysis (HDRA), in which a surrogate model is built to approximate a performance function that is high dimensional, computationally expensive, implicit and unknown to the user. HDRA first employs the adaptive univariate dimension reduction (AUDR) method to build a global surrogate model by adaptively tracking the important dimensions or regions. Then, the sequential exploration-exploitation with dynamic trade-off (SEEDT) method is utilized to locally refine the surrogate model by identifying additional sample points that are close to the critical region (i.e., the limit-state function) with high prediction uncertainty. The HDRA method has three advantages: (i) alleviating the curse of dimensionality and adaptively detecting important dimensions; (ii) capturing the interactive effects among variables on the performance function; and (iii) flexibility in choosing the locations of sample points. The performance of the proposed method is tested through two mathematical examples, the results of which suggest that the method can achieve accurate and computationally efficient estimation of reliability even when the performance function exhibits high dimensionality, high nonlinearity, and strong interactions among variables.

This paper presents a modeling and design methodology to reduce and even to eliminate flexible ribbon cable seek-settling induced vibrations in modern high capacity computer disk drives. Optimization is first conducted in obtaining proper cable profiles when the rotary actuator swings across the disk using classical elastica theory with consideration of compliant boundary at its J-block conjunction point with rotary actuator and fixed boundary conditions at bracket. In addition to modal kinetic coupling factor, the cable’s vibration modes are projected onto actuator voice coil’s excitations to form as a weighted response factor to serve as the cost function in optimization process. It was found through the proposed process that the seek-settling flexible cable vibration can be minimized and even reduced to zero. Additional servo adaptive control format will be also discussed in this paper to totally eliminate the flexible ribbon vibrations in disk drive’s seek-settling operations.

What would urban research look like if we paid more attention to women – their lives, thoughts, challenges against racial practices, gender and socio-spatial segregation? The article aims to design a plot that highlights the role of black women in the disputes for place in the region of Izidora, where the occupations Rosa Leão, Esperança and Vitória are located, in the northern vector of Belo Horizonte (MG). Starting from the understanding of the complex land conflict, we seek to start with its historical context, and then analyze the encounter between the struggles around the permanence of subjects in the physical-territorial dimension. Black feminist thought is taken to elaborate a conceptual narrative that, when problematizing investigations of the production of space with neoliberal values, attributes the look to the diverse dynamics that intersect in time and space. The article was made with bibliographic research and having previously developed an extension project of technical assistance on site. The results of the analyses, pointed to the challenges of the occupations of Izidora, didn't occur without the activism of these women, who strongly resisted in their territories, although made invisible by the intersections of gender, race, class and immeasurable fabrics in the arrangements of domination. Keywords: Izidora occupations, protagonism of black women, intersectionality, urban conflicts. Como seria nossa pesquisa urbana se prestássemos mais atenção às mulheres – suas vidas, pensamentos, desafios contra práticas raciais, gênero e segregação sócio-espacial? Pensando nisso, o trabalho tem como objetivo conceber uma trama que destaque o protagonismo das mulheres negras nas disputas de lugar na região da Izidora, onde localizam as ocupações Rosa Leão, Esperança e Vitória, no vetor norte de Belo Horizonte (MG). Partindo do entendimento do complexo conflito fundiário desta região, busca-se iniciar com seu contexto histórico, para depois analisar o encontro entre as lutas em derredor da permanência dos sujeitos na dimensão físico-territorial. O pensamento feminista negro é tomado, enquanto epistemologia, para elaborar uma narrativa conceitual que, ao problematizar investigaçoes da produção do espaço com valores neoliberais, atribui o olhar às diversificadas dinâmicas que se entrecruzam no tempo e espaço. Em adição, o trabalho foi construído de pesquisa bibliográfica e estudo de campo por ter, previamente, desenvolvido um projeto de extensão de assessoria técnica no local. Os resultados das análises, apontados para os desafios das ocupações da Izidora não se deram sem os ativismos dessas mulheres, que resistiram fortemente nos seus territórios, ainda que invisibilizadas pelas intersecções de gênero, raça, classe e imensuráveis tessituras nos arranjos de dominação. Palavras-chave: ocupações Izidora, protagonismo de mulheres negras, interseccionalidade, conflitos urbanos.

In 1974, Hawking showed1,2 that black holes evaporate by the emission of low-temperature thermal radiation, now named Hawking radiation. Shortly thereafter a closely related effect called Unruh radiation became apparent. According to Unruh3 and Davies,4 observers of the electromagnetic field in an accelerating reference frame should see thermal radiation at a temperature T: where a is the acceleration relative to an inertial frame, c is the speed of light, and ħ and k are Planck's and Boltzmann’s constant, respectively. With an acceleration equivalent to that at the earth’s surface, g = 980 cm/s2, this thermal radiation is at a temperature of only 4 × 10−20 K. Bell has suggested5 that the spin depolarization of electrons accelerating around a storage ring may be interpreted as being caused by such radiation. Boyer6 introduced a physically helpful semiclassical interpretation of Unruh radiation. In his phe­nomenological picture, external zero point electro-magnetic field fluctuations are accelerated up to a nonzero temperature. The observer need not experience the acceleration directly. Davies and Fulling7 argued that the observation of reflected zero point field fluctuations from an accelerating mirror was sufficient to establish the relative accelerating motion.

Abstract PVT properties are needed as input data in all reservoir, production, and surface facilities engineering calculations. In absence of PVT reports on valid reservoir fluid samples, engineers rely on PVT correlations to generate the required PVT data. Accuracy of PVT correlations vary and no correlation group has been found to provide accurate results for all oil types. The effect of inaccurate PVT data can be significant in engineering calculations and is well documented in the literature. Bubble point pressure can be sometimes obtained from external sources. In this paper, we show how to utilize the known bubble point pressure to improve the accuracy of calculated PVT properties from correlations. A systematic study using around 250 reservoir oil samples was conducted to quantify the effect of pre-knowledge of bubble point pressure. The samples spanned a wide range of oils from very volatile oils to black oils and all the way to low-GOR oils. A method for shifting both undersaturated and saturated sections of the PVT properties curves to the correct bubble point is explained. Seven PVT correlation families were used in this study. All PVT properties (e.g. solution gas-oil ratio, formation volume factor, density, viscosity, and compressibility) were calculated using the correct bubble point pressure and the correlation estimated bubble point pressure. Comparisons between the calculated PVT properties, and actual laboratory measured values were made. It was found that pre-knowledge of bubble point pressure and using the shifting technique presented in the paper, improved the correlation-estimated values up to more than 30%. The most improvement was seen in solution gas-oil ratio and oil formation volume factor. A technique to improve the accuracy of PVT properties derived from correlations was introduced. It improves the accuracy of all derived PVT properties for oil with variable degrees.

Targeted drug delivery has a great importance in cancer treatment and is in interest of many scientists worldwide. Targeted drug delivery renders local treatment of cancerous cells possible without affecting healthy cells. Hydrogels are promising materials to be used in targeted drug delivery systems due to their biocompatible nature and injectable behaviors where they can be used to load drugs. However, considering that not all the drugs are water soluble, entrapment of some drugs into hydrogels is not practical in terms of poor drug solubility and burst drug release because of this. At this point, an oil phase can be considered as a drug carrying agent, and entrapment of this oil phase into hydrogel would make it possible for in-situ injection of dissolved drug in oil phase. Oil in water (O/W)-type nanoemulsions were prepared using black seed oil, which is known to cause apoptosis via p-53 dependent mechanism, water and Triton X-100, Span-80 surfactant combinations. Three different oil percentage and three different surfactant percentage were tested, and stability behaviors of nanoemulsions were investigated and compared. Dynamic light scattering analysis and zeta potential measurements were conducted for determination of particles sizes and surface charges of the nanoemulsions. The most stable nanoemulsion along with having smallest diameter and lowest polydispersity index (PDI) was used for further studies. Results indicated that using both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfactants together increased the stability of nanoemulsions compared to those using either of them.

The importance of close visual inspection of leaking sections of pipelines prior to repair activities cannot be over-emphasized. Underwater optical cameras are important gadgets for most underwater inspection vehicles and submarines. However, the optical camera ordinarily immersed in a gaseous or liquid plume in muddy water condition will see no reliable trace but nearly blank or the scatter of diffused light of illuminating lamps. The implication is that underwater water tools that could be used in clear water to inspect and identify point of leaks on pressure containment structures would not be useful when such structure is installed in muddy or poor underwater visibility conditions. Recent developments have demonstrated a diver assisted technique of close visual inspection of leaking containments structures installed in muddy water using clean water injection. This present paper demonstrates a technique of tracking and identifying leaking points on pipelines installed in unclear/muddy water conditions using optical cameras installed in a novel manner. The method leads a remotely operated or hyperbaric system to the point of leak in muddy water conditions for close visual inspection and subsequent repair. The tool performance is validated in a muddy water of Secchi measure of less than 1 cm and in a number of trials, the tool is found sitting at the leak point. Secchi measure is the visual depth into the water column. Forces that could be found in the plume and the consequences of buoyancy loss to floating or submarine equipment are also examined. Some techniques using remotely operated vehicles and manned hyperbaric bells for leak identification, close visual inspection and repair of pipelines installed in muddy water using the benefit of this presented methodology are proposed and discussed.

Channel Islands National Park includes the five northern islands off the coast of southern California (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, and Santa Barbara Islands) and the surrounding waters out one nautical mile. There are approximately 176 miles of coastline around the islands, about 80% of which is composed of rock. The diversity and undisturbed nature of the tidepools of this rocky coastline were recognized as special features of the islands in the enabling legislation. To conserve these communities unimpaired for future generations, the National Park Service has been monitoring the rocky intertidal communities at the islands since 1982. Sites were established between 1982 and 1998. Site selection considered visitation, accessibility, presence of representative organisms, wildlife disturbance, and safety. This report summarizes the 2018–2019 sampling year efforts (from November 2018 to April 2019) and findings of the Channel Islands National Park Rocky Intertidal Community Monitoring Program. Specific monitoring objectives are 1) to determine the long-term trends in percent cover of key sessile organisms in the rocky intertidal ecosystem, and 2) to determine population dynamics of black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii), owl limpets (Lottia gigantea), and ochre sea stars (Pisaster ochraceus). Objectives were met by monitoring percent cover of core species in target intertidal zones using photoplots and transects, and by measuring size frequency and abundance of black abalone, owl limpets, and sea stars using fixed plots or timed searches. Twelve key species or assemblages, as well as the substrate, tar, have been monitored twice per year at 21 sites on the five park islands as part of the rocky intertidal community monitoring program. Fixed photoplots were used to monitor the percent cover of thatched and acorn barnacles (Tetraclita rubescens, Balanus glandula/Chthamalus spp., respectively), mussels (Mytilus californianus), rockweeds (Silvetia compressa, and Pelvetiopsis californica (formerly Hesperophycus californicus), turfweed (Endocladia muricata), goose barnacles (Pollicipes polymerus) and tar. Point-intercept transects were used to determine the percent cover of surfgrass (Phyllospadix spp.). Information about size distribution (i.e., “size frequency” data) was collected for owl limpets in circular plots. Size distribution and relative abundance of black abalone and ochre sea stars were determined using timed searches. The maximum number of shorebirds and pinnipeds seen at one time were counted at each site. The number of concession boat visitors to the Anacapa tidepools was collected and reported. All sites were monitored in 2018–2019. This was the third year that we officially reduced our sampling interval from twice per year (spring and fall) to once in order to streamline the program and allow for the implementation of additional protocols. Weather conditions during the site visits were satisfactory, but high wind coupled with strong swell and surge limited or prevented the completion of some of the abalone and sea star searches. The percent cover for most key species or assemblages targeted in the photoplots was highly variable among sites. Mussel (Mytilus californianus) cover remained below average at Anacapa and Santa Barbara Islands. Record or near record low abundances for Mytilus were measured at Middle West Anacapa (Anacapa Island), Harris Point (San Miguel Island), Prisoner’s Harbor (Santa Cruz Island), and Sea Lion Rookery (Santa Barbara Island) sites. The only site that appeared to have above average Mytilus cover was Scorpion Rock on Santa Cruz Island. All other sites had mussel cover near or below the long-term mean. Qualitatively, Mytilus recruitment appeared low at most sites. Both rockweed species, Silvetia compressa and Pelvetiopsis californica (formerly Hesperophycus californicus), continued to decrease markedly in abundance this year at the majority of sites compared to combined averages for previous years. Fossil Reef and Northwest-Talcott on Santa Rosa Island, Sea Lion Rookery on Santa Barbara Island, and South Frenchy’s Cove on Anacapa Island were the only sites that supported Silvetia cover that was near the long-term mean. No sites exhibited above average cover of rockweed. Extremely high levels of recruitment for Silvetia and Pelvetiopsis were documented at many sites. Most sites exhibited marked declines in S. compressa abundances beginning in the early 2000s, with little recovery observed for the rockweed through this year. Barnacle (Chthamalus/Balanus spp.) cover fell below the long-term means at all islands except Anacapa, where barnacle cover was slightly above average. Endocladia muricata abundances remained comparable to the grand mean calculated for previous years at Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa Islands, while cover of the alga decreased slightly below the long-term means at Anacapa and San Miguel Islands. Black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii) abundances at the islands remain less than one percent of 1985 population levels. Zero abalone were found throughout the entire site at Landing Cove on Santa Barbara Island and South Frenchy’s Cove on Anacapa Island. Above average abundances relative to the long-term mean generated from post-1995 data were observed at all but five sites. Juvenile black abalone were seen at all islands except Santa Barbara. Ochre sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) populations crashed in 2014 at all monitoring sites due to Sea Star Wasting Syndrome, an illness characterized by a suite of symptoms that generally result in death. The mortality event was widely considered to be the largest mortality event for marine diseases ever seen. Beginning in June 2013, the disease swiftly and significantly impacted P. ochraceus (among other species of sea stars) populations along the North American Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California, Mexico. By the beginning of 2014, P. ochraceus abundances had declined by >95% at nearly all Channel Islands long-term intertidal monitoring sites, in addition to numerous other locations along the West Coast. At various times during the past decade, extremely high abundances (~ 500 P. ochraceus) have been observed at multiple sites, and most locations have supported >100 sea stars counted during 30-minute site-wide searches. This year, abundances ranged 0–13 individuals per site with all but one site having fewer than 10 P. ochraceus seen during routine searches. Insufficient numbers of sea stars were seen to accurately estimate the size structure of P. ochraceus populations. Only two juveniles (i.e., <50 mm) were observed at all sites combined. Giant owl limpet densities in 2018–2019 were comparable or slightly above the long-term mean at seven sites. Exceptionally high densities were measured at Northwest-Talcott on Santa Rosa Island, Otter Harbor on San Miguel Island, and Willows Anchorage on Santa Cruz Island. The sizes of L. gigantea this year varied among sites and islands. The smallest L. gigantea were observed at Otter Harbor followed closely by Willows Anchorage and Anacapa Middle West, and the largest were seen at Northwest-Talcott. Temporally, the mean sizes of L. gigantea in 2018–2019 decreased below the long-term mean at each island except Anacapa. Surfgrasses (Phyllospadix spp.) are typically monitored biannually at two sites each on Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands. Beginning in 2015, all transects at each of the monitoring sites were only sampled once per year. At East Point on Santa Rosa Island, the conditions were not conducive to sampling the surfgrass transects, but qualitatively, percent cover of surfgrass appeared to be near 100% on all three transects. Relative to past years, cover of surfgrass increased above the long-term mean at Fraser Cove on Santa Cruz Island, fell slightly below the mean at Trailer on Santa Cruz Island, and remained approximately equivalent to the mean at the two Santa Rosa Island sites. Overall, the abundance and diversity of shorebirds in 2018–2019 at all sites appeared similar to observations made in recent years, with the exception of elevated numbers of brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) observed at East Point on Santa Rosa Island. Black oystercatchers (Haematopus bachmani) were the most ubiquitous shorebird seen at all sites. Black turnstones (Arenaria melanocephala) were not common relative to past years. Pinniped abundances remained comparable in 2018–2019 to historical counts for all three species that are commonly seen at the islands. Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) were seen in the vicinity of eight sites this year. As in past years, harbor seals were most abundant at Otter Harbor and Harris Point on San Miguel Island. Elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) were seen at six sites during the year, where abundances ranged 1–5 individuals per location. California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) were common at Santa Barbara Island; 117 individuals were observed at Sea Lion Rookery. Sea lion abundances were higher than usual at Harris Point (N = 160) and Otter Harbor (N = 82) on San Miguel Island. Relative to past years, abundances this year were considered average at other locations.

Seeds of the root parasitic plants of the genus Orobanchegerminate specifically in response to host-derived germination signals, which enables parasites to detect and attack preferred hosts. The best characterized class of germination stimulants is the strigolactones (SL), although some species respond to sesquiterpene lactones such as dehydrocostuslactone (DCL). Despite great progress in characterizing the SL signaling system in plants, the mechanism(s) by which parasite species detect specific compounds remains poorly understood. The goal of our project was to identify and characterize the genes responsible for stimulant specificity in O. cernuaand O. cumana. These two species are closely related, but differ in host range, with O. cernuaparasitizingSolanaceous crops such as tomato (and responding to SLs), and O. cumanaspecifically parasitizing sunflower (and responding to DCL). We used a genetic approach based on O. cernuax O. cumanahybrids to associate germination response with genes. We found that these parasite species each have multiple copies of KAI2d genes, which function in SL perception. In O. cernua, the OrceKAI2d2 responds to SL stimulants and is most consistently associated with hybrid lines that respond to SLs. For O. cumana, an apparently linked block of KAI2d genes was associated with response to DCL in hybrid lines, but we found no strong evidence that any of the OrcuKAI2d genes specifically recognize the DCL stimulant. Remarkably, one O. cumanagene, OrcuKAI2d5, responds to certain SLs in a genetic complementation assay, even though hybrid lines containing this gene show fidelity to DCL. In summary, we have identified the SL receptor in O. cernua, but the DCL receptor in O. cumanaremains unknown. Our data point to involvement of additional genes and yet greater levels of complexity regulating germination specificity in Orobanche. BARD Report - Project 4616 Page 2 of 8

Background: Public behaviour and the new hostile threats • Civil contingencies planning and preparedness for hostile threats requires accurate and up to date knowledge about how the public might behave in relation to such incidents. Inaccurate understandings of public behaviour can lead to dangerous and counterproductive practices and policies. • There is consistent evidence across both hostile threats and other kinds of emergencies and disasters that significant numbers of those affected give each other support, cooperate, and otherwise interact socially within the incident itself. • In emergency incidents, competition among those affected occurs in only limited situations, and loss of behavioural control is rare. • Spontaneous cooperation among the public in emergency incidents, based on either social capital or emergent social identity, is a crucial part of civil contingencies planning. • There has been relatively little research on public behaviour in response to the new hostile threats of the past ten years, however. • The programme of work summarized in this briefing document came about in response to a wave of false alarm flight incidents in the 2010s, linked to the new hostile threats (i.e., marauding terrorist attacks). • By using a combination of archive data for incidents in Great Britain 2010-2019, interviews, video data analysis, and controlled experiments using virtual reality technology, we were able to examine experiences, measure behaviour, and test hypotheses about underlying psychological mechanisms in both false alarms and public interventions against a hostile threat. Re-visiting the relationship between false alarms and crowd disasters • The Bethnal Green tube disaster of 1943, in which 173 people died, has historically been used to suggest that (mis)perceived hostile threats can lead to uncontrolled ‘stampedes’. • Re-analysis of witness statements suggests that public fears of Germany bombs were realistic rather than unreasonable, and that flight behaviour was socially structured rather than uncontrolled. • Evidence for a causal link between the flight of the crowd and the fatal crowd collapse is weak at best. • Altogether, the analysis suggests the importance of examining people’s beliefs about context to understand when they might interpret ambiguous signals as a hostile threat, and that. Tthe concepts of norms and relationships offer better ways to explain such incidents than ‘mass panic’. Why false alarms occur • The wider context of terrorist threat provides a framing for the public’s perception of signals as evidence of hostile threats. In particular, the magnitude of recent psychologically relevant terrorist attacks predicts likelihood of false alarm flight incidents. • False alarms in Great Britain are more likely to occur in those towns and cities that have seen genuine terrorist incidents. • False alarms in Great Britain are more likely to occur in the types of location where terrorist attacks happen, such as shopping areass, transport hubs, and other crowded places. • The urgent or flight behaviour of other people (including the emergency services) influences public perceptions that there is a hostile threat, particularly in situations of greater ambiguity, and particularly when these other people are ingroup. • High profile tweets suggesting a hostile threat, including from the police, have been associated with the size and scale of false alarm responses. • In most cases, it is a combination of factors – context, others’ behaviour, communications – that leads people to flee. A false alarm tends not to be sudden or impulsive, and often follows an initial phase of discounting threat – as with many genuine emergencies. 2.4 How the public behave in false alarm flight incidents • Even in those false alarm incidents where there is urgent flight, there are also other behaviours than running, including ignoring the ‘threat’, and walking away. • Injuries occur but recorded injuries are relatively uncommon. • Hiding is a common behaviour. In our evidence, this was facilitated by orders from police and offers from people staff in shops and other premises. • Supportive behaviours are common, including informational and emotional support. • Members of the public often cooperate with the emergency services and comply with their orders but also question instructions when the rationale is unclear. • Pushing, trampling and other competitive behaviour can occur,s but only in restricted situations and briefly. • At the Oxford Street Black Friday 2017 false alarm, rather than an overall sense of unity across the crowd, camaraderie existed only in pockets. This was likely due to the lack of a sense of common fate or reference point across the incident; the fragmented experience would have hindered the development of a shared social identity across the crowd. • Large and high profile false alarm incidents may be associated with significant levels of distress and even humiliation among those members of the public affected, both at the time and in the aftermath, as the rest of society reflects and comments on the incident. Public behaviour in response to visible marauding attackers • Spontaneous, coordinated public responses to marauding bladed attacks have been observed on a number of occasions. • Close examination of marauding bladed attacks suggests that members of the public engage in a wide variety of behaviours, not just flight. • Members of the public responding to marauding bladed attacks adopt a variety of complementary roles. These, that may include defending, communicating, first aid, recruiting others, marshalling, negotiating, risk assessment, and evidence gathering. Recommendations for practitioners and policymakers • Embed the psychology of public behaviour in emergencies in your training and guidance. • Continue to inform the public and promote public awareness where there is an increased threat. • Build long-term relations with the public to achieve trust and influence in emergency preparedness. • Use a unifying language and supportive forms of communication to enhance unity both within the crowd and between the crowd and the authorities. • Authorities and responders should take a reflexive approach to their responses to possible hostile threats, by reflecting upon how their actions might be perceived by the public and impact (positively and negatively) upon public behaviour. • To give emotional support, prioritize informative and actionable risk and crisis communication over emotional reassurances. • Provide first aid kits in transport infrastructures to enable some members of the public more effectively to act as zero responders.