Permanent Repository Research Articles

Notice of formal repository of the remaining teeth of an associated fossil specimen of the megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon (Lamniformes: Otodontidae), to the Saitama Museum of Natural History, Japan

ABSTRACT In 1989, the occurrence of 73 associated teeth of the megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon (Lamniformes: Otodontidae) was reported from the late Miocene Tsuchishio Formation in northern Saitama Prefecture, Japan. However, part of the tooth set remained uncatalogued. This short note is to document the permanent repository of the remaining teeth officially to the Saitama Museum of Natural History.

InsectDisease: programmatic access to the Ecological Database of the World's Insect Pathogens

Curated databases of species interactions are instrumental to exploring and understanding the spatial distribution of species and their biotic interactions. In the process of conducting such projects, data development and curation efforts may give rise to a data product with utility beyond the scope of the original work, but which becomes inaccessible over time. Data describing insect host–pathogen interactions are fairly rare, and should thus be preserved and curated with appropriate metadata. Here, we introduce the insectDisease R package, a mechanism for curating, updating and distributing data from the Ecological Database of the World's Insect Pathogens, a database of insect host–pathogen associations, including attempted inoculations and infection outcomes for insect hosts and pathogens (bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoans and viruses). This dataset has been utilized for several projects since its inception, but without a well‐defined, curated and permanent repository, its existence and access have been limited to word‐of‐mouth connections. The current effort presented here aims to provide a means to preserve, augment and disseminate the database in a documented and versioned format. This project is an example of the type of effort that will be necessary to maintain valuable databases after the original funding disappears.

On the documentation, independence, and stability of widely used seismological data products

Earthquake scientists have traditionally relied on relatively small data sets recorded on small numbers of instruments. With advances in both instrumentation and computational resources, the big-data era, including an established norm of open data-sharing, allows seismologists to explore important issues using data volumes that would have been unimaginable in earlier decades. Alongside with these developments, the community has moved towards routine production of interpreted data products such as seismic moment tensor catalogs that have provided an additional boon to earthquake science. As these products have become increasingly familiar and useful, it is important to bear in mind that they are not data, but rather interpreted data products. As such, they differ from data in ways that can be important, but not always appreciated. Important - and sometimes surprising - issues can arise if methodology is not fully described, data from multiple sources are included, or data products are not versioned (time-stamped). The line between data and data products is sometimes blurred, leading to an underappreciation of issues that affect data products. This note illustrates examples from two widely used data products: moment tensor catalogs and Did You Feel It? (DYFI) macroseismic intensity values. These examples show that increasing a data product’s documentation, independence, and stability can make it even more useful. To ensure the reproducibility of studies using data products, time-stamped products should be preserved, for example as electronic supplements to published papers, or, ideally, a more permanent repository.

Anniversary Time in a Rapidly Evolving and Complex Landscape

Every day physicians fight against diseases for the universal desire for a better, disease-free life. Potent weapons to achieve this include the constant attainment of knowledge and skills. A strategic plan and a prerequisite to reaching this goal is the existence of a community of dedicated medical scientists who can study, work, think, communicate and write. In this environment, the Journal of Diagnostics and Treatment of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology (which is also called DT Journal because of the domain name www.dtjournal.org) was born to provide a medium for this communication to catalyze new ideas and incidentally also to assure a permanent repository of scientific information. Today, DT Journal is proud to celebrate an important milestone: the Fifth Anniversary. A journal that was created to unify the world of oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) and share oral and maxillofacial surgical knowledge as broadly as possible, without any borders or barriers. A journal committed to advancing scientific knowledge about OMFS across the globe while also addressing the most pressing issues facing oral and maxillofacial surgeons in the 21st century.

RCR Report of “A Language for Agent-Based Discrete-Event Modeling and Simulation of Linked Lives”

The artifact evaluated in this report is relevant to the article. In fact, it allows us to run the experiments and reproduce figures, and the dependencies are documented. The process to regenerate data presented in the article completes correctly, and the results are reproducible. Additionally, the authors have uploaded their artifact on permanent repositories, which ensures a long-term retention. This article can thus receive the Artifacts Available , Artifacts Evaluated–Reusable , and Results Reproduced badges.

Generation to Generation Project: Pairing Students With Older Adult Mentors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

To meet the needs of older adults isolated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we began pairing Human Services and Gerontology students with community dwelling adults 55 years of age and older, recruited through senior centers and other organizations serving older adults.Students paired with isolated older adults were tasked with building supportive relationships, assuring that basic needs were being met and that all available community resources were in place, and then documenting their mentor’s life stories with an emphasis on the resilience, strength and wisdom of their older adult mentors (to focus and build on their strengths, the older adults we engage with are referred to as our “mentors”). Oral histories and supporting artifacts are archived in the university’s library permanent repository.The oral histories portray unique perspectives into life, strength, and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. The older adult mentors participating in the Generation to Generation project reported feeling strengthened and connected through their participation in the Generation to Generation project. To determine if social Isolation and loneliness can be ameliorated through participation in the Generation to Generation oral history project, researchers utilized the UCLA Loneliness Scale in pre- and post- participation interviews; findings will be shared.

Consolidated nuclear waste storage in Andrews, Texas: An integrated technical and policy risk analysis

Over the last 50 years, nuclear energy has reduced US energy-related CO2 emissions by over 30 gigatons compared to if the same electricity were produced by fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. However, many kilotons of spent nuclear fuel have accumulated at different sites across the country, and sociopolitical factors have frustrated efforts to address the challenge of nuclear waste disposal. Presently, a consolidated interim storage facility in Andrews, Texas, provides a promising temporary solution. In this paper, we compare the technical and policy risks of the project to continued storage at independent spent fuel storage installations. Our results indicate that the cost of the radiological risk is low (<$30,000) for both scenarios. However, policy and societal considerations will impact the viability of the proposed consolidated interim storage facility. The safety and suitability of this interim storage facility will be affected by when a permanent repository becomes available, whether insurance for offsite waste storage is available, and the impact of climate risks. Although a consolidated interim storage facility at Andrews can potentially serve as a safe and economically advantageous solution, we highlight why these concerns must be addressed for the successful implementation of this facility, and more broadly for the future of the US nuclear industry.

Internet of Things: A Review of Functionality, Applications, Architectures and Challenges

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm that embodies the vision of merging smart objects while utilizing the internet as the backbone of the communication system to establish a smart interaction among physical entities in pervasive environments. In IoT, data is generated in realtime and stored in permanent repositories. Additional data in the form of meta-data that describes things adds to the data volume and to manage this data, architecture is required. IoT finds its applicability in a plethora of applications such as transportation, smart city, smart health, smart environment, home entertainment, sports, etc. but there is no universal architecture for all IoT implementations. We have layered architectures and domain-specific architectures for different IoT applications. Besides a large number of architectures for IoT, it faces several potential challenges such as scalability, reliability, heterogeneity, etc. This paper presents an understanding of the Internet of Things in terms of its functionality, layered and domain-specific architectures, and its potential challenges.

Unveiling the elusive: X-rays bring scolecophidian snakes out of the dark.

Scolecophidian snakes have long posed challenges for scholars interested in elucidating their anatomy. The importance, and relative paucity, of high-quality anatomical data pertaining to scolecophidians was brought into sharp focus in the late 20th century as part of a controversy over the phylogeny and ecological origin of snakes. The basal position of scolecophidians in the phylogeny of snakes makes their anatomy, behavior, ecology, and evolution especially important for such considerations. The depauperate fossil record for the group meant that advances in understanding their evolutionary history were necessarily tied to biogeographic distributions and anatomical interpretations of extant taxa. Osteological data, especially data pertaining to the skull and mandible, assumed a dominant role in shaping historical and modern perspectives of the evolution of scolecophidians. Traditional approaches to the exploration of the anatomy of these snakes relied heavily upon serial-sectioned specimens and cleared-and-stained specimens. The application of X-ray computed tomography (CT) to the study of scolecophidians revolutionized our understanding of the osteology of the group, and now, via diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced computed tomography (diceCT), is yielding data sets on internal soft anatomical features as well. CT data sets replicate many aspects of traditional anatomical preparations, are readily shared with a global community of scholars, and now are available for unique holotype and other rare specimens. The increasing prevalence and relevance of CT data sets is a strong incentive for the establishment and maintenance of permanent repositories for digital data.

Vibrational metrics for the evaluation of internal conditions in a scaled nuclear dry storage cask

In many countries, permanent repositories for high burnup spent nuclear fuel assemblies have yet to be established. As a result, much of the spent fuel from nuclear reactors is contained within dry storage casks, with many being beyond their designed service life. The assessment of the internal structural integrity of these casks and the fuel assemblies contained therein is of critical importance for both extended storage and transport to permanent repositories. The large size, structural complexity, and inaccessibility of the interior of the casks make this task challenging. To address these difficulties, a 1:6 scaled model based closely on the design of a Transnuclear (TN-32) dry storage cask was fabricated to facilitate controlled studies of these structures in the laboratory. Vibrational spectroscopy was used to evaluate the state of the cargo and internal structures within the cask utilizing only measurements on the outer surface. Using modes identified through Finite Element modeling corresponding to those previously measured on a full-scale TN-32 cask, we report on the development of amplitude- and phase-based metrics that are sensitive to internal conditions in the lab cask. Steel rod bundles and steel shot were used as surrogates for intact and damaged fuel assemblies, and various internal configurations of these materials were investigated. The metrics were based on acquired spectra involving the (1, 2) global bending mode and the (2, 1) radial-with-shearing mode. The results show that the metrics are sensitive to the condition of a single assembly and have some ability to determine the locations of damaged and empty slots.

The Collected Dickens: A Bibliography of the Lifetime U.K. Editions of Charles Dickens's Works by Jeremy Parrott

Reviewed by: The Collected Dickens: A Bibliography of the Lifetime U.K. Editions of Charles Dickens's Works by Jeremy Parrott Joel J. Brattin (bio) Jeremy Parrott. The Collected Dickens: A Bibliography of the Lifetime U.K. Editions of Charles Dickens's Works. Szeged: Kakapo Press, 2020. Pp. 294. $50; £40; €45. ISBN 978-615-00-5916-7. Jeremy Parrott, independent scholar and the author of this essential new bibliography, is best known as the discoverer and owner of the markedup set of All the Year Round, which identifies hundreds of contributors to Dickens's periodical. Scholars around the world eagerly await publication of his research pertaining to that remarkable discovery. But in the meantime, they will be delighted with this informative, interesting, nicely illustrated and fully researched bibliographic work. The volume is an important one, offering both basic and esoteric information about a topic rarely discussed and often misunderstood: collected editions of Dickens's works published in the UK in his lifetime. All Dickens scholars, Victorianists, Dickens collectors, and book dealers will be grateful for the work, and many generalists and Dickens enthusiasts will appreciate Parrott's insights into Dickens's publishing career. In his succinct introduction, Parrott outlines the five relevant collected editions: the Cheap edition (1847–68, 18 volumes), the Library edition (1858–59, 22 volumes), the Illustrated Library edition (1861–74, 30 volumes), the People's edition (1865–67, 25 volumes), and the Charles Dickens edition (1867–75, 21 volumes). He identifies the scope and relevance of his bibliography, and summarizes some of the limitations of and errors in previously-published work on this topic, noting the scarcity of most of these volumes, identifying "ghosts" (books described in bibliographies that do not actually exist), and also a few recently discovered books, like the extraordinarily rare 1866 printing of the Illustrated Library edition of Our Mutual Friend – now identified as the second edition of Dickens's last complete novel. Parrott reveals Dickens's income from each of the books in these editions over time, presenting that information in a useful graph. Finally, Parrott clearly lays out the format and conventions for the descriptive bibliography of each of the 116 volumes to follow. In this review, I will consider Parrott's discussion of the five collected editions, move on to an examination of his bibliographic descriptions, and conclude with some comments about the illustrations. In his introduction to the Cheap edition, Parrott reproduces a little-known [End Page 432] address from the sixth monthly instalment of Dombey and Son advertising the edition, gives the history of earlier cheap editions of other authors, and notes that earlier bibliographers identified as few as 15 and as many as 22 volumes in the series. Prices varied between 2s/6d and five shillings per volume; even the longer novels appeared in a single volume. Parrott provides notes about extra illustrations and binding variants in the volumes, transcribes the new prefaces in full, and gives the dates of subsequent reprints and the size of print runs. Parrott explains why Dickens provided no new preface for the Cheap edition of David Copperfield – though new prefaces were an important feature in the edition. He also offers a plausible explanation for the publication of Great Expectations some three months before A Tale of Two Cities in this series. Though the Cheap edition was aimed for the domestic UK market, Parrott tells us it was later issued in 1866 by Lippincott in Philadelphia. Parrott notes that The Uncommercial Traveller appeared in book form for the first time in this edition, and that Our Mutual Friend, the final volume in the Cheap edition, is extremely rare, with at most 2,000 copies printed (less than half the number for other titles); perhaps only about 1,000 of those copies sold. He says the only copy he has found in any public collection is in the Charles Dickens Museum Library – the same copy I mentioned in my Everyman Dickens edition of the novel (London: Dent, 2000). In his consideration of the Library edition, Parrott identifies the motivation for the edition: "a more substantial and permanent repository of Dickens's collected works than the Cheap edition." He highlights its poor...

Vibrational modes for the internal characterization of a full-scale Transnuclear-32 dry storage cask for spent nuclear fuel assemblies

The assessment of the internal structural integrity of dry storage casks with high burnup nuclear fuel assemblies is of critical importance for their transport to permanent repositories and during their extended storage service lives. The large size, structural complexity, and inability to access the interiors of the casks make this task challenging. The aim of this work is to evaluate the ability of vibrational characterization to assess the state of the internal cargo (i.e., fuel assemblies) in a cask strictly using measurements on the outer surface. In this study, we report on the identification of five modes of an unloaded full-scale Transnuclear-32 (TN-32) cask and examine the potential of using these modes to assess the internal configuration in a loaded condition. Vibrational spectra were acquired using impulse and continuous-wave techniques on both storage and transportation configurations from which the modal frequencies and the associated quality factors were determined. A finite element model of the TN-32 was constructed and used to identify the observed modes. The model was extended to include loaded configurations to assess how the presence of assemblies impacts the modal structure of the cask and its surface vibrations.

Development of vibrational metrics for internal damage scenarios of a scaled Transnuclear-32 dry storage cask for spent nuclear fuel

The assessment of the internal structural integrity of dry storage casks for used high burnup nuclear fuel assemblies is of critical importance before transporting these to permanent repositories. The large size and structural complexity of the Transnuclear-32 (TN-32) cask as well as the inability to access its interior make this a challenging task. To address these difficulties, we use an active acoustics approach to develop metrics that are sensitive to the internal configuration of these casks. A 6:1 scaled model of the TN-32 cask was constructed in order to study the internal configuration of the fuel assemblies including various damage scenarios. Each mock-up fuel assembly consists of bundled steel rods, and their structural failure is mimicked by steel shot of equal weight. This talk will report the amplitude- and phase-based active acoustics metrics that we developed to characterize different levels of internal damage. Our studies indicate that vibrometric signatures of various internal conditions can be measured using sources and sensors mounted on the exterior shell. Our current methodology is sensitive enough to detect structural failures at the single fuel assembly level. [Work supported by DOE NEUP Award No. DENE0008400.]

SamplEase: a simple application for collection and organization of biological specimen data in the field.

Careful collection and organization of biological specimens and their associated data are at the core of field research (e.g., ecology, genetics). Fieldwork data are often collected by handwriting or unsystematically via an electronic device (e.g., laptop), a process that is time‐intensive, disorganized, and may lead to transcription errors, as data are copied to a more permanent repository. SamplEase is an iOS and Android application that is designed to ease the process of collecting biological specimen data in the field (data associated with biological samples, such as location, age, and sex). In addition to biological specimen data, SamplEase allows for the assignment of photographs to each collected sample, which provides visual records of each specimen in its environment. SamplEase outputs biological specimen data in a tabular format, facilitating subsequent analyses and dissemination. Despite the simplicity of SamplEase, no similar data management application is readily available for researchers.

Preprints in biomedicine: alternative or complement to the traditional model of publication?

The peer-review system has allowed the quality control of the manuscripts submitted for publication to scientific journals for over three centuries. However, due to its relative slowness and other drawbacks, some researchers, mainly in the areas of Physics and Mathematics, started some decades ago to propagate, by electronic means, manuscripts not yet submitted to a journal for formal publication. The dissemination of this practice led to the establishment of permanent repositories like ArXiv, to which preprints can be sent to be published whitou charge, allowing also the search and download of the works they contain with no payment required from the reader. In biomedical sciences, the adoption of the system has been slower than in the exact sciences and previous attempts like e-biomed, Netprints, and Nature Precedings did not prosper. A new generation of repositories like bioRXiv, inspired by ArXiv, seems to enjoy an increasing acceptance among biomedical researchers. Here, we discuss the potential role of this emerging system to establish discovery priority in biomedicine and to improve manuscripts before they are submitted to scientific journals besides other applications which could be implemented in the extent that the model becomes more popular.

The determination of mode shapes of a scaled model TN-32 spent nuclear fuel dry storage cask

The assessment of the internal structural integrity of dry storage casks for used high burnup nuclear fuel assemblies is of critical importance before these are transported to permanent repositories. The size of the casks (5.2 m in height and 2.4 m in diameter), structural complexity and the inability to access the interior make this a challenging task. This project addresses these difficulties through a multi-modal approach involving nuclear, charged particle and acoustic methods. In this work, we report on measurements of the vibrational spectra and mode shapes using a 6:1 scaled TN-32 model cask constructed in our lab. 2-D vibrometric scans were performed with a laser Doppler velocimeter to measure the vibrational mode shapes exhibited by the cask. Good agreement is observed between the experimentally measured mode shapes and those determined numerically using a detailed finite element model. Several modes are identified that will be important in assessing the internal characteristics from external measurements. [This work was supported by DOE NEUP Award: DENE0008400.]

Vibrometric characterization of a TN-32 dry storage cask for spent nuclear fuel

The assessment of the internal structural integrity of dry storage casks for used high burnup nuclear fuel assemblies is of critical importance before these are transported to permanent repositories. The size of the casks (5.2 m in height and 2.4 m in diameter), structural complexity, and the inability to access the interior make this a challenging task. This project addresses these difficulties through a multi-modal approach involving nuclear, charged particle, and acoustic methods. In this talk, we report on linear and nonlinear vibrational spectra of intact TN-32 casks. These studies use both impulsive and swept continuous-wave excitations with a variety of sensor placement configurations. From the resulting spectra, resonant frequencies, quality factors, and harmonic responses of various vibrational modes were determined. A detailed finite element model of the TN-32 was constructed and the experimental results are compared to the modal structure determined numerically. [This work was supported by DOE NEUP Award: DENE0008400.]

Analyzing public preference and willingness to pay for spent nuclear fuel facilities in South Korea: A latent class approach

Spent nuclear fuel tends to emit superheat and high levels of radiation, posing a serious threat to human beings and the natural environment, and, thus, warrants special treatments. However, most countries generating nuclear power are yet to achieve a public consensus on the construction and operation of spent nuclear fuel facilities. In this study, we quantitatively analyzed the heterogeneous preferences of the South Korean public regarding spent nuclear fuel facilities and estimated the public's marginal willingness to pay using a choice experiment survey and a latent class model. Then, using the estimation results, we simulated the rate of public acceptance with respect to the construction and operation of such facilities. The results revealed that public preference regarding spent nuclear fuel facilities is divided by two classes on the basis of two heterogeneous preference structures. In addition, we found that the majority of the public was expected to prefer a permanent repository, followed by temporary storages, and an interim storage. Finally, we also confirmed the validity of management options for spent nuclear fuel using a cost-benefit analysis and we concluded that the construction and operation of an interim storage or a permanent repository facility is not economically viable at this time.

Multi-hazard performance of reinforced concrete dry casks subjected to chloride attack and tip-over impact

Vertical concrete dry storage systems (or dry casks) are circular containers made of steel and/or reinforced concrete, specifically developed for storing spent nuclear fuel (SNF). In the United States, dry casks have an intended life of 40years; however, in the absence of a permanent repository for storage of SNF, it is expected that dry casks will remain in service for a significantly longer period of time. Tipping-over is considered as one of the hypothetical accident conditions. The consequence of such an incident may be more severe if the structural integrity of the dry cask is compromised during the extended service life due to steel corrosion and related material degradation. In this study, structural performance of a 1/3-scale vertical concrete cask is evaluated under combined corrosion-induced damage and tip-over impact. The results are compared with those from a control cask, which is only subjected to impact but no corrosion-induced damage. The impact response of both casks in terms of acceleration, velocity, and strain was measured and compared. The damage after testing is investigated in terms of cracking and deformation to identify the failure modes for each cask and the effects of aging on the structural performance.

Automating biostratigraphy in oil and gas exploration: Introducing GeoDAISY

Biostratigraphy is a key upstream activity. Drilling operations use biostratigraphic data derived from core samples extracted via boreholes (mud logging) in order to guide drilling processes and verify models of basin geology. Current manual data analysis relies on the existence of sufficient numbers of biostratigraphers to be available to fulfil industry needs. However, due to factors such as retirement, and that the number of people being trained in the requisite taxonomic skills has declined sharply over the last couple of decades; the available pool of expertise is dwindling. It is clear that if the high cost of drilling operations is taken into account, the current situation is untenable and in many ways represents a perfect storm.This pessimistic situation can be radically changed by augmenting human expertise using automated species identification tools based on artificial neural network technology. DAISY [Digital Automated Identification System], a proven system of this sort, could revolutionise commercial biostratigraphy operations by enabling microfossil identification to be undertaken by technicians. This would yield immediate benefits for the industry as it would permit routine work to be performed quickly and accurately by less skilful, cheaper and therefore more available staff; freeing biostratigraphers to concentrate on non-routine, more complex tasks. The feasibility study presented here indicates that DAISY can consistently identify microfossils to species, with repeatable, high levels of accuracy. Crucially, it can also act as a permanent repository for taxonomic knowledge, which is currently lost when experienced personnel retire. There might also be additional environmental and social benefits if this technology is widely adopted within the oil and gas sector: as DAISY technology is generic, it can easily be re-targeted to interpret seismic data or even to estimate the impact of upstream exploration activities on abutting ecosystems.