University of Massachusetts Amherst

About: University of Massachusetts Amherst is a education organization based out in Amherst Center, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 37274 authors who have published 83965 publications receiving 3834996 citations. The organization is also known as: UMass Amherst & Massachusetts State College.

A reciprocity method of analysis for printed slot and slot-coupled microstrip antennas

Abstract: A method is presented for the analysis of slot-type discontinuities in microstripline. The approach is based on the reciprocity theorem and uses the exact Green's functions for the grounded dielectric slab in a moment method solution for the unknown antenna currents. The method is applied to two specific geometries: a radiating slot in the ground plane of a microstripline, and an aperture coupled microstrip patch antenna. Results for antenna impedance are compared with measurements, and far-zone patterns are calculated. The method is shown to be quite versatile, and should find application to related problems.

Schooling in capitalist America revisited

Abstract: Recent research has entirely vindicated the authors' once-controversial estimates of high levels of intergenerational persistence of economic status, the unimportance of the heritability of IQ in this process, and the fact that the contribution of schooling to cognitive development plays little part in explaining why those with more schooling have higher earnings. Additional research has supported the authors' hypotheses concerning the role of personality traits, rather than skills, per se, as determinants of labor market success. Recent contributions to the study of cultural evolution allow the authors to be considerably more specific about how behaviors are learned in school

Coastal flooding by tropical cyclones and sea-level rise

Abstract: The future impacts of climate change on landfalling tropical cyclones are unclear. Regardless of this uncertainty, flooding by tropical cyclones will increase as a result of accelerated sea-level rise. Under similar rates of rapid sea-level rise during the early Holocene epoch most low-lying sedimentary coastlines were generally much less resilient to storm impacts. Society must learn to live with a rapidly evolving shoreline that is increasingly prone to flooding from tropical cyclones. These impacts can be mitigated partly with adaptive strategies, which include careful stewardship of sediments and reductions in human-induced land subsidence.

Human-started wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States

Abstract: The economic and ecological costs of wildfire in the United States have risen substantially in recent decades. Although climate change has likely enabled a portion of the increase in wildfire activity, the direct role of people in increasing wildfire activity has been largely overlooked. We evaluate over 1.5 million government records of wildfires that had to be extinguished or managed by state or federal agencies from 1992 to 2012, and examined geographic and seasonal extents of human-ignited wildfires relative to lightning-ignited wildfires. Humans have vastly expanded the spatial and seasonal "fire niche" in the coterminous United States, accounting for 84% of all wildfires and 44% of total area burned. During the 21-y time period, the human-caused fire season was three times longer than the lightning-caused fire season and added an average of 40,000 wildfires per year across the United States. Human-started wildfires disproportionally occurred where fuel moisture was higher than lightning-started fires, thereby helping expand the geographic and seasonal niche of wildfire. Human-started wildfires were dominant (>80% of ignitions) in over 5.1 million km2, the vast majority of the United States, whereas lightning-started fires were dominant in only 0.7 million km2, primarily in sparsely populated areas of the mountainous western United States. Ignitions caused by human activities are a substantial driver of overall fire risk to ecosystems and economies. Actions to raise awareness and increase management in regions prone to human-started wildfires should be a focus of United States policy to reduce fire risk and associated hazards.