County College of Morris

Identifying signs of life in extraterrestrial environments is one of the growing challenges in planetary science. Conventional approaches to detecting habitability rely heavily on direct contact with biosignatures or geological analyses, but limited data and mission costs hold back such methods. This work introduces a computer vision-based pipeline that analyzes planetary surface images to determine a livability index that estimates the photographed terrain’s likelihood to support life. The data is from the Mars Surface Image Dataset (collected by NASA’s Curiosity Rover) and the Mars Handlens Analog Database, archived at the Planetary Data System (PDS) Geosciences Node of Washington University in St. Louis. Unlike existing binary classifiers that only distinguish between planetary sources, our method utilizes feature extraction to evaluate environments in terms of their habitability. By combining convolutional features with descriptors of texture, hue, and structure, we demonstrate that our model can move beyond simple classification and instead generate interpretable, probabilistic estimates of habitability. With a livability index, we can focus on key habitability features and use them to guide targeted exploration to better search for life beyond Earth.

This article prints five new letters from Thomas Mitchell (1783–1845), classical scholar and translator of Aristophanes, to reforming journalist Leigh Hunt. Written between 1810 and 1816, these letters illuminate a creatively significant period for both authors, whose intimacy dates to their student days at Christ's Hospital. While Mitchell's early friendship with Hunt has long been recognised by Hunt scholars, his wider place within Hunt's circle of friends and the extent of his literary collaboration with the editor of The Examiner are still largely unknown. As such, this newly published selection of Mitchell's correspondence allows us to revisit his relationship with Hunt in a fresh light, in the years beyond Christ's Hospital, while providing an opportunity to recover details about the development of Mitchell's career as a Romantic author and translator.

The relationship between a stable multivariable polynomial p(z) and the Fourier coefficients of its spectral density function $$1/|p(z)|^2$$ , is further investigated. In this paper we focus on the radial asymptotics of the Fourier coefficients for a specific choice of a two variable polynomial. Hypergeometric functions appear in the analysis, and new results are derived for these as well.

No abstract available.

Stochastic events can have catastrophic effects on island populations through a series of genetic stressors from reduced population size. We investigated five populations of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) from St. John, USVI, an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, which were impacted by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Our goal was to determine diversity and to ascertain potential population bottlenecks two decades after the event. With the lowest observed heterozygosity, highest inbreeding coefficient, and evidence of a major bottleneck, our results demonstrated that the Great Lameshur mangroves, devastated by Hurricane Hugo, were the least diverse stand of trees. The other four populations from St. John manifested diversity reflecting the vegetation patterns of “fringing” mangrove or “developed forest” characteristics. The two fringing mangrove populations (Hurricane Hole and New Found Bay) evinced low observed heterozygosity and high inbreeding coefficients, while the fully forested sites showed higher heterozygosity and lower inbreeding frequencies. As such, fringing mangroves may be at greater risk to disturbance events and especially susceptible to sea level rise since they do not have room landward to expand. Our pair-wise population analysis indicated genetic similarity between the hurricane-damaged Great Lameshur and Coral Bay population, whose propagules were used in previous restoration attempts and is the geographically closest population. While the effective population size for Great Lameshur Bay places it in risk of genetic dysfunction, future rehabilitation of the site may be possible by the introduction of propagules from other regions of the island. However, recovery will ultimately be contingent upon hydrological connectivity and environmental improvements.

This chapter describes that public policy with respect to the elderly has not been gender-neutral —either in the past or, more crucially, the present. It begins with a few demographic observations and describes what may be called the "gerontological gender gap". Most gerontologists were slow to realize that this young-old distinction was in most respects a gender difference, and that gender differences often cut across age lines. Perhaps most distressing of all, the very successes of the aging establishment in having lifted so many elderly out of poverty and into self-sufficiency might have blunted further efforts to improve the conditions of the several million old people—primarily women—who remain ill-fed, ill-housed, ill-clothed, and just plain ill. The chapter discusses the differential impact by gender of public policy—past and present—in the areas of income maintenance, health care, and housing. It concludes with an analysis of the ideological foundations of recent federal policy formulations and their consequences for the elderly.

New registered nurses are expected to utilize critical thinking when providing care to their patients, especially in critical situations. Using mini-scenarios on the human patient simulator, faculty members can foster critical thinking and expose students to critical situations in a nonthreatening environment. An example of one such scenario, using an oncology patient with hypercalcemia and ventricular tachycardia, is outlined in the article.

Taking on travel nurses from another country may seem “foreign” to you, but it can present an ideal solution if you’re prepared.

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As the numbers of identified viruses increase, it is expected that one of the classifications of medications receiving a great deal of attention is the antivirals. To understand the difficulty in developing these medications, the nurse must understand some of the basic principles underlying the way viruses develop, multiply, and cause disease. This article discusses some of those principles and presents the medications now available to treat viral diseases.