ALBERT

Description: This paper proposes a new method to introduce coherent risk measures for risks with infinite expectation, such as those characterized by some Pareto distributions. Extensions of the conditional value at risk, the weighted conditional value at risk and other examples are given. Actuarial applications are analyzed, such as extensions of the expected value premium principle when expected losses are unbounded.

Description: Land cover change impacts ecosystem function across the globe. The use of land cover data is vital in the detection of these changes over time; however, most available land cover products, such as the National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD), are produced relatively infrequently. The most recent NLCD at the time of this research was produced in 2006 and does not adequately reflect the impact of land cover changes that have occurred since, including the occurrence of two large wildfires in 2008 in our study area. Therefore, there is a need for the classification of historical remotely sensed data, such as Landsat scenes, through replicable methods. While it is possible to collect field data coinciding with current or future Landsat acquisitions, it is impossible to retrospectively collect data for previous years; thus, fewer studies have focused on the classification of historical scenes. Using a single year of field reference and multi-year aerial photography data, we applied a simple decision tree classifier to accurately classify historic satellite data and produced maps of land cover to incorporate the effects of 2008 wildfires occurring between NLCD production dates. Overall accuracy ranged from 76 to 90 percent and was assessed using conventional error matrices.

Description: A team of astronomers has recently reported an anomalous retrograde precession of the perihelion of Saturn amounting  to ∆ω˙ SATURN =  −0.006(2)  arcsec  per century (arcsec cy−1).   This unexplained  precession was obtained  after taking into account all classical and relativistic  effects in the context of the highly refined EPM2008 ephemerides. More recent analyzes  have  not confirmed this effect,   but they have  found similar discrepancies in other planets. Our objective in this paper is to discuss a non-standard model involving transversal gravitomagnetism  generated by the Sun as a possible  source of these anomalies.   In order to compute the Lense–Thirring  perturbations induced by the suggested interaction,  we should consider the orientation of the Sun’s rotational axis in Carrington elements and the inclination  of the planetary orbits with respect to the ecliptic plane. We find that an extra component of the gravitomagnetic field not predicted by General Relativity could explain the reported anomalies without conflicting with the Gravity  Probe B experiment and the orbits of the geodynamics satellites.

Description: Assessment of crop nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is important in agricultural research. Various approaches exist to analyze NUE. A recently proposed NUE concept is further developed and a calculation tool for practical use presented. A critical component in the NUE concept is the plants’ mean nitrogen (N) content during the main growth period (N’). The N’ is delimited by the critical crop phenology stages initiating and terminating accelerated crop N uptake. Especially when experimental treatments and/or crop cultivars cause great variation in phenology, it is often not feasible to perform destructive plant harvests at the critical phenology stages for all treatments and cultivars, which may result in inaccurate estimates of N’ and, ultimately, the NUE components N uptake efficiency and yield-specific N efficiency. A method is proposed to accurately calculate the crop N contents at the relevant critical phenology stages even when sampling is made at other time points. The only requirements are two separate destructive plant harvests performed within the main growth period, together with the time points for the critical phenology events. The method was exemplified using data from wheat and the perennial energy crop Salix, and an electronic calculation tool for the various NUE components is provided.

Description: The accuracy of reservoir flow forecasting has the most significant influence on the assurance of stability and annual operations of hydro-constructions. For instance, accurate forecasting on the ebb and flow of Vietnam’s Hoabinh Reservoir can aid in the preparation and prevention of lowland flooding and drought, as well as regulating electric energy. This raises the need to propose a model that accurately forecasts the incoming flow of the Hoabinh Reservoir. In this study, a solution to this problem based on neural network with the Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithm is presented. In particular, we used hydrographic data and predicted total incoming flows of the Hoabinh Reservoir over a period of 10 days. The Cuckoo Search algorithm was utilized to train the feedforward neural network (FNN) for prediction. The algorithm optimized the weights between layers and biases of the neuron network. Different forecasting models for the three scenarios were developed. The constructed models have shown high forecasting performance based on the performance indices calculated. These results were also compared with those obtained from the neural networks trained by the particle swarm optimization (PSO) and back-propagation (BP), indicating that the proposed approach performed more effectively. Based on the experimental results, the scenario using the rainfall and the flow as input yielded the highest forecasting accuracy when compared with other scenarios. The performance criteria RMSE, MAPE, and R obtained by the CS-FNN in this scenario were calculated as 48.7161, 0.067268 and 0.8965, respectively. These results were highly correlated to actual values. It is expected that this work may be useful for hydrographic forecasting.

Description: This philosophical paper explores the aesthetic argument for landscape conservation. The main claim is that the experience of beautiful landscapes is an essential part of the good human life. Beautiful landscapes make us feel at home in the world. Their great and irreplaceable value lies therein. To establish this claim, the concepts of landscape and “Stimmung” are clarified. It is shown how “Stimmung” (in the sense of mood) is infused into landscape (as atmosphere) and how we respond to it aesthetically. We respond by resonating or feeling at home. The paper ends by indicating how art can help us to better appreciate landscape beauty. This is done by way of an example from contemporary nature poetry, Michael Donhauser’s Variationen in Prosa, which begins with “Und was da war, es nahm uns an” (“And what was there accepted us”).

Description: Although community-level seed-saving initiatives have existed in many countries around the world for about 30 years, they have rarely been the subject of systematic scientific enquiry. Based on a combination of a literature review and field research, we present a novel comprehensive conceptual framework that focuses on the multiple functions and services provided by community-based seed-saving efforts, in particular community seed banks. This framework is output oriented and complements an input oriented typology of community seed banks presented in 1997. The framework identifies three core functions: conserving genetic resources; enhancing access to and availability of diverse local crops; and ensuring seed and food sovereignty. The framework can be used for analysis of existing seed-saving initiatives and serve as a guide for the establishment of new community seed banks. In addition, it can inform the development or revision of national policies or strategies to support community seed banks. The framework’s utility is illustrated by three case studies of community seed banks in Bangladesh, Guatemala and Nepal.

Description: The change of nonpoint source and freshwater discharge as a result of land use change might affect the water quality in a river. In the current study, a coupled three-dimensional hydrodynamic and water quality model was created and applied to the Danshuei River estuarine system and its adjacent coastal ocean. The hydrodynamic and water quality models were validated using observations of water surface elevation, salinity distribution and water quality state variables. The predictions of hydrodynamics, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrients from the model simulation quantitatively agreed with the observational data. The validated model was then used to investigate the possible effects of the nonpoint source and freshwater discharge changes at the upstream reaches on water quality conditions in the Danshuei River estuarine system. Three scenarios were investigated to predict the dissolved oxygen using model simulations. The simulated results indicated that increasing nonpoint sources at the upstream reaches degraded the dissolved oxygen under low flow conditions. However, increasing freshwater discharges at the upstream reaches would overcome the loadings of the nonpoint source, which would result in increasing the dissolved oxygen in the tidal river estuary. The model can provide a useful tool for developing management practices for nonpoint sources to protect the water quality in the estuarine system.

Description: We investigate a portfolio optimization problem under the threat of a market crash, where the interest rate of the bond is modeled as a Vasicek process, which is correlated with the stock price process. We adopt a non-probabilistic worst-case approach for the height and time of the market crash. On a given time horizon [0; T], we then maximize the investor’s expected utility of terminal wealth in the worst-case crash scenario. Our main result is an explicit characterization of the worst-case optimal portfolio strategy for the class of HARA (hyperbolic absolute risk aversion) utility functions.

Description: Vegetable crop residues take a particular position relative to arable crops due to often large amounts of biomass with a N content up to 200 kg N ha−1 left behind on the field. An important amount of vegetable crops are harvested during late autumn and despite decreasing soil temperatures during autumn, high rates of N mineralization and nitrification still occur. Vegetable crop residues may lead to considerable N losses through leaching during winter and pose a threat to meeting water quality objectives. However, at the same time vegetable crop residues are a vital link in closing the nutrient and organic matter cycle of soils. Appropriate and sustainable management is needed to harness the full potential of vegetable crop residues. Two fundamentally different crop residue management strategies to reduce N losses during winter in intensive vegetable rotations are reviewed, namely (i) on-field management options and modifications to crop rotations and (ii) removal of crop residues, followed by a useful and profitable application.

Description: Crown diameter and tree density were measured in 52 communities in the Sudan-Sahel using satellite imagery to determine the relationships between rainfall and distance from community center to crown size diameter and tree density. As distance from the community center increased, tree density and crown diameter decreased. As rainfall increased, tree density decreased while crown diameter increased. Distance from the community center is a proxy for age since urbanization and our results indicate that older parts of communities show longer and more consistent tree management. The trends in patterns of tree distribution and size in communities are different from those in natural woodlands.

Description: Starting from the weak field limit, we discuss astrophysical applications of Extended Theories of Gravity where higher order curvature invariants and scalar fields are considered by generalizing the Hilbert-Einstein action linear in the Ricci curvature scalar R. Results are compared to General Relativity in the hypothesis that Dark Matter contributions to the dynamics can be neglected thanks to modified gravity. In particular, we consider stellar hydrostatic equilibrium, galactic rotation curves, and gravitational lensing. Finally, we discuss the weak field limit in the Jordan and Einstein frames pointing out how effective quantities, as gravitational potentials, transform from one frame to the other and the interpretation of results can completely change accordingly.

Description: Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding programs strive to increase grain yield; however, the progress is hampered due to its quantitative inheritance, low heritability, and confounding environmental effects. In the present study, a winter wheat population of 159 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) was evaluated in six trials under rainfed, terminal drought, and fully-irrigated conditions, over four years. Quantitative trait locus/loci (QTL) mapping was conducted for grain yield main effect (GY) and the genotype × environment interaction (GEI) effect. A total of 17 QTL were associated with GY and 13 QTL associated with GEI, and nine QTL were mapped in the flanking chromosomal regions for both GY and GEI. One major QTL Q.Gy.ui-1B.2, explaining up to 22% of grain yield, was identified in all six trials. Besides the additive effect of QTL associated with GY, interactions among QTL (QTL × QTL interaction), QTL × environment, and QTL × QTL × environment were also observed. When combining the interaction effects, QTL Q.Gy.ui-1B.2 along with other QTL explained up to 52% of the variation in grain yield over the six trials. This study suggests that QTL mapping of complex traits such as grain yield should include interaction effects of QTL and environments in marker-assisted selection.

Description: The Sahel has been the focus of scientific interest in environmental-human dynamics and interactions. The objective of the present study is to contribute to the recent debate on the re-greening of Sahel. The paper examines the dynamics of barren land in the Sahel of Burkina Faso through analysis of remotely-sensed and rainfall data from 1975–2011. Discussions with farmers and land management staff have helped to understand the anthropogenic efforts toward soil restoration to enable the subsistence farming agriculture. Results showed that area of barren land has been fluctuating during the study period with approximately 10-year cyclicity. Similarly, rainfall, both at national and local levels has followed the same trends. The trends of the area of barren land and rainfall variability suggest that when rainfall increases, the area of barren land decreases and barren land increases when rainfall decreases. This implies that rainfall is one of the main factors driving the change in area of barren land. In addition, humans have contributed positively and negatively to the change by restoring barren lands for agriculture using locally known techniques and by accelerating land degradation through intensive and inappropriate land use practices.

Description: A large number of theoretical and experimental studies have shown that the performance of kerosene combustion increases significantly if combustion is being assisted by the addition of hydrogen to the fuel/air mixture during the combustion process. It reduces the amount of CO, CO2 and NOx emissions, while increasing the flame stability limits. It also helps in bruning fuel/air mixtures at much leaner equivalence ratios. The same principle could be applied to gain benefits in gas turbine combustors. Hydrogen for this purpose could be produced by the reforming of hydrocarbon fuels using a reformer module. This paper presents key hydrogen reforming technologies which, by implementation in gas turbine combustors, hold potential for improving both their performance and service life.

Description: In this paper, we look into knowledge leakages and ways to address them. It is conducted from the point of view of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as their specific attributes create unique challenges. Based on a discussion of the relevant fields, ways are presented in order to reduce the danger of knowledge leakages. In view of practitioners, the paper’s findings may enable an increased awareness towards the areas where existing knowledge is at the mercy of “leakage”. This can assist managers of SMEs to better cope with risks related to knowledge leakage and, therefore, better exploit the (limited) knowledge base available.

Description: This study examines the agronomic response, efficiency and profitability of fertilizer microdosing in maize. An experiment with the following treatments was conducted: control without fertilizer, microdosing treatments, with the rate of 27 + 27, 53 + 53 and 80 + 80 kg ha−1, and banding of fertilizer with 100 + 100 kg ha−1 of di ammonium phosphate (DAP) + urea, applied at planting and jointing, respectively. The treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The experiment was conducted during the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 cropping seasons at Ziway, Melkassa and Hawassa in the semiarid central rift valley region of Ethiopia. Compared to the control, the fertilizer treatments had higher yield and fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) profitably. The 27 + 27 kg ha−1 fertilizer rate increased the grain yield by 19, 45 and 46% at Hawassa, Ziway and Melkassa, respectively, and it was equivalent to the higher rates. The value cost ratio (VCR) was highest with the lowest fertilizer rate, varying between seven and 11 in the treatment with 27 + 27 kg ha−1, but two and three in the banding treatment. Similarly, FUE was highest with the lowest fertilizer rate, varying between 23 and 34 kg kg−1 but 7 and 8 kg kg−1 in the banding treatment. The improved yield, FUE, VCR and gross margin in maize with microdosing at the 27 + 27 kg ha−1 of DAP + urea rate makes it low cost, low risk, high yielding and profitable. Therefore, application of this particular rate in maize may be an option for the marginal farmers in the region with similar socioeconomic and agroecological conditions.

Description: We propose a simple model with two infective classes in order to model the cholera epidemic in Haiti. We include the impact of environmental events (rainfall, temperature and tidal range) on the epidemic in the Artibonite and Ouest regions by introducing terms in the transmission rate that vary with environmental conditions. We fit the model on weekly data from the beginning of the epidemic until December 2013, including the vaccination programs that were recently undertaken in the Ouest and Artibonite regions. We then modified these projections excluding vaccination to assess the programs’ effectiveness. Using real-time daily rainfall, we found lag times between precipitation events and new cases that range from 3:4 to 8:4 weeks in Artibonite and 5:1 to 7:4 in Ouest. In addition, it appears that, in the Ouest region, tidal influences play a significant role in the dynamics of the disease. Intervention efforts of all types have reduced case numbers in both regions; however, persistent outbreaks continue. In Ouest, where the population at risk seems particularly besieged and the overall population is larger, vaccination efforts seem to be taking hold more slowly than in Artibonite, where a smaller core population was vaccinated. The models including the vaccination programs predicted that a year and six months later, the mean number of cases in Artibonite would be reduced by about two thousand cases, and in Ouest by twenty four hundred cases below that predicted by the models without vaccination. We also found that vaccination is best when done in the early spring, and as early as possible in the epidemic. Comparing vaccination between the first spring and the second, there is a drop of about 40% in the case reduction due to the vaccine and about 10% per year after that.

Description: The Adelaide-Mt Lofty Region of South Australia is an exemplar, in microcosm, of the issues confronting biodiversity conservation in a world of increasing population and a drying, fire-prone environment. At just 0.1% of Australia’s terrestrial land mass, this area is largely peninsular and oriented along a spine of ranges to 730-m elevation. Annual average rainfall varies from over 1100 mm in the hills to less than 500 mm on the plains in the north. The original vegetation varied from grasslands to shrublands to grassy and shrubby woodlands to forests, but now includes a major capital city and a mixed farming hinterland. Biodiversity in the region is in decline, and many species’ extinctions have been recorded. With increasing population and a drying climate, fire antecedents, like ignition and fire danger, are predicted to increase the area burned in the wetter regions, but such predictions may be offset by increasing the fire protection of the expanding population and their economic and social assets. While the existing system of many small reserves will remain the backbone of biodiversity conservation in the region, wider recognition of the all-tenure, whole-of-landscape, whole-of-community approach to biodiversity conservation and fire management is needed if the probability of further extinctions is to be reduced.

Description: This paper aims to introduce a developed reading of Roederer’s interpretation of pragmatic information as a good candidate for a Unifying Information Concept required for an as-yet-unavailable Science of Information. According to pragmatic information, information and information processing are exclusive attributes of biological systems related to the very definition of life. I will apply the notion to give new accounts in the following areas: (1) quantum interpretation: based on a modified version of David Bohm’s interpretation of quantum mechanics, I propose an ontological, information-based interpretation of quantum mechanics which, unlike Roederer’s interpretation, satisfies all conditions of pragmatic information; (2) artificial intelligence: the notion successfully distinguishes natural living systems from artifacts and natural non-living systems, providing a context to pose an information-based argument against the thesis of Strong Artificial Intelligence; (3) phenomenal consciousness: I will use pragmatic information to modify and update Chalmers’s Double-aspect Theory of Information to be explanatorily more powerful regarding the physical aspect of his theory; (4) causation: based on pragmatic information, I pose a new account of causation which differentiates causation in biology from causation in natural abiotic world.

Description: The long-term availability of mineral resources is crucial in underpinning human society, technology, and economic activity, and in managing anthropogenic environmental impacts. This is increasingly true for metals that do not generally form the primary product of mines (“host” metals), such as copper or iron, but are recovered as by-products (or sometimes co-products during the processing of primary ores). For these “companion” metals, it is therefore useful to develop methodologies to estimate the recoverable resource, i.e., the amount that could, if desired, be extracted and put into use over the next several decades. We describe here a methodological approach to estimating the recoverable resources of companion metals in metal ores, using preliminary data for some particular host/companion pairs in Australia as examples.

Description: To surface the Deep Web, one crucial task is to predict whether a given web page has a search interface (searchable HyperText Markup Language (HTML) form) or not. Previous studies have focused on supervised classification with labeled examples. However, labeled data are scarce, hard to get and requires tediousmanual work, while unlabeled HTML forms are abundant and easy to obtain. In this research, we consider the plausibility of using both labeled and unlabeled data to train better models to identify search interfaces more effectively. We present a semi-supervised co-training ensemble learning approach using both neural networks and decision trees to deal with the search interface identification problem. We show that the proposed model outperforms previous methods using only labeled data. We also show that adding unlabeled data improves the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Description: Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) systems utilize digital technologies, satellite systems, and various levels of automation to facilitate seamless global air traffic management. Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), the core component of CNS/ATM, broadcasts important monitoring information, such as the location, altitude, and direction of aircraft, to the ground. However, ADS-B data are transmitted in an unencrypted (or unprotected) communication channel between ADS-B sensors and Air Traffic Control (ATC). Consequently, these data are vulnerable to security threats, such as spoofing, eavesdropping, and data modification. In this paper, we propose a method that protects the ADS-B data transmitted between ADS-B sensors and ATC using Simple Public Key Infrastructure (SPKI) certificates and symmetric cryptography. The SPKI certificates are used to grant transmission authorization to the ADS-B sensors, while symmetric cryptography is used to encrypt/decrypt the ADS-B data transmitted between the ADS-B sensors and ATC. The proposed security framework comprises an ADS-B sensor authentication module, an encrypted data processing module, and an ADS-B sensor information management module. We believe that application of the proposed security framework to CNS/ATM will enable it to effectively obviate security threats, such as ground station flood denial, ground station target ghost injection, and ADS-B data modification.

Description: If resilience theory is to be of practical value for policy makers and resource managers, the theory must be translated into sensible decision-support tools. We present herein a set of resilience attributes, developed to characterize human-managed systems, that helps system stakeholders to make practical use of resilience concepts in tangible applications. In order to build and maintain resilience, these stakeholders must be able to understand what qualities or attributes enhance—or detract from—a system’s resilience. We describe standardized resilience terms that can be incorporated into resource management plans and decision-support tools to derive metrics that help managers assess the current resilience status of their systems, make rational resource allocation decisions, and track progress toward meeting goals. Our intention is to provide an approachable set of terms for both specialists and non-specialists alike to apply to programs that would benefit from a resilience perspective. These resilience terms can facilitate the modeling of resilience behavior within systems, as well as support those lacking access to sophisticated models. Our goal is to enable policy makers and resource managers to put resilience theory to work in the real world.

Description: Municipalities often face increasing demand for limited water supplies with few available alternative sources. Under some circumstances, bulk water transport may offer a viable alternative. This case study documents a hypothetical transfer between a water utility district in northern California and urban communities located on the coast of central and southern California. We compare bulk water transport costs to those of constructing a new desalination facility, which is the current plan of many communities for increasing supplies. We find that using water bags to transport fresh water between northern and southern California is in some instances a low-cost alternative to desalination. The choice is constrained, however, by concerns about reliability and, thus, risk. Case-study results demonstrate the challenges of water supply augmentation in water-constrained regions.

Description: Historical aerial images are important to retain past ground surface information. The land-use land-cover change in the past can be identified using historical aerial images. Automatic historical image registration and stitching is essential because the historical image pose information was usually lost. In this study, the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm was used for feature extraction. Subsequently, the present study used the automatic affine transformation algorithm for historical image registration, based on SIFT features and control points. This study automatically determined image affine parameters and simultaneously transformed from an image coordinate system to a ground coordinate system. After historical aerial image registration, the land-use land-cover change was analyzed between two different years (1947 and 1975) at the Tseng Wen River estuary. Results show that sandbars and water zones were transformed into a large number of fish ponds between 1947 and 1975.

Description: Hydrodistilled essential oils and dichloromethane (DCM) extracted volatiles were taken from cultivated specimens of Prostanthera centralis, endemic to central Australia. All volatiles were chemically characterised by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) with the use of authentic standards, followed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oils was measured against a range of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial species using a micro-titre plate broth dilution assay. Twenty-two compounds were identified as components of the sweet smelling aromatic essential oil and DCM extracts, both showing a relatively high abundance of prostantherol. The volatiles extracted using DCM, differed only in the relative abundance of the major components and the lack of ledol and squamulosone. This study constitutes the first time ledol and squamulosone have been identified in a Prostanthera species. Antimicrobial assays showed moderate to high inhibitory activity against some Gram-positive bacteria and the yeast Candida albicans.

Description: I review the connection between dynamics and the baryonic mass distribution in rotationally-supported galaxies. The enclosed dynamical mass-to-light ratio increases with decreasing galaxy luminosity and surface brightness. The correlation with surface brightness appears to be the more fundamental, with the dependence on luminosity following simply from the weaker correlation between luminosity and surface brightness. In addition to this global relation, there is also a local relation between the amplitude of the mass discrepancy and the acceleration predicted by the observed distribution of baryons. I provide an empirical calibration of this mass discrepancy-acceleration relation. The data are consistent with the operation of a singe effective force law in disk galaxies, making this relation tantamount to a natural law. I further provide formulae by which the radial dark matter distribution can be estimated from surface photometry. The form of the dark matter halo depends uniquely on the distribution of baryons in each galaxy and, in general, is neither a cusp nor a core. It remains difficult to see how galaxy formation models can reproduce the observed behavior, which is uniquely predicted by MOND.

Description: This paper reports a contingent valuation study on household kitchen waste separation (HKWS) services via willingness to pay (WTP) conducted in the Haidian and Dongcheng districts of Beijing city in 2013. This study focuses on a real program to understand households’ attitudes toward HKWS and to estimate the value of HKWS services. The results of this study revealed that 41.4% agreed to accept the proposed price of HKWS services, while 42.2% refused to pay, but with a positive attitude toward the HKWS program. In addition, respondents’ WTP for proposed HKWS services is significantly related to the level of bid price and their gender, age and education experience. Attitudinal factors that affect resident WTP were also found. For example, respondents who perceive themselves as having a higher ability to conduct HKWS at the source are more willing to pay for their HKWS services, while respondents who complain of the inconvenience of conducting HKWS show negative WTP. The results also showed that on average each household is willing to pay about US$1.44 per month for HKWS services, which is based on 327 respondents after excluding 64 (16.4% of all sample) who indicated complete opposition to the HKWS program.

Description: Evaluating groundwater levels and recharge patterns is part of sustainably managing the water supply and predicting the possibility of water shortages, especially in light of climate change, extreme events (floods/droughts), increasing population and development. In the northern region of Ghana, groundwater is increasingly relied upon as a source of potable water for rural populations, but seasonal and inter-annual fluctuations of groundwater levels and recharge patterns are not always known. The fluctuation of groundwater levels on a seasonal basis shows that groundwater levels at all sites increase in response to seasonal precipitation. On an annual basis, all sites show an overall net decline of groundwater levels over the study period, which may be associated with below-average departures of precipitation during five of the seven study years. The variability of recharge patterns among five sites is attributed to the spatio-temporal variability of precipitation and hydrogeologic site uniqueness. The overarching potential benefit of this study is to facilitate closing knowledge gaps and contribute to a foundation for a more robust evaluation of groundwater resources in the area, especially as more data become available.

Description: Fruit leathers (FLs) production produces some not-to-specification material, which contains valuable ingredients like fruit pulp, sugars and acidulates. Recovery of FL for product recycling requires decolorization. In earlier research, we proved the efficiency of an ozone-based decolorization process; however, it produces carbonyls as major byproducts, which could be of concern. A headspace solid-phase microextraction with on-fiber derivatization followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was developed for 10 carbonyls analysis in ozonated FL solution/suspension. Effects of dopant concentration, derivatization temperature and time were studied. The adapted method was used to analyze ozonated FL solution/suspension samples. Dopant concentration and derivatization temperature were optimized to 17 mg/mL and 60 °C, respectively. Competitive extraction was studied, and 5 s extraction time was used to avoid non-linear derivatization of 2-furfural. The detection limits (LODs) for target carbonyls ranged from 0.016 and 0.030 µg/L. A much lower LOD (0.016 ppb) for 2-furfural was achieved compared with 6 and 35 ppb in previous studies. Analysis results confirmed the robustness of the adapted method for quantification of carbonyls in recycled process water treated with ozone-based decolorization. Ethanal, hexanal, 2-furfural, and benzaldehyde were identified as byproducts of known toxicity but all found below levels for concern.

Description: Boron (B) is an essential micronutrient needed for normal plant growth and development. To evaluate the response of corn to foliar B applications at V4–V6 (4–6 leaves with visible collars) and VT (tasseling) growth stages on fine textured soils, a field experiment was conducted at four sites from 2008 to 2010 in Northeast Missouri. The treatments included a non-treated control; V4–V6 applied B at 0.56, 1.12 and 2.24 kg·ha−1; and VT applied B at 0.28, 0.56 and 1.12 kg·ha−1. Foliar B, applied at V4–V6 at 2.24 kg·ha−1, resulted in higher yields than VT applications. No significant differences in yield were found for B applications at different timings for concentrations of 0.56 and 1.12 kg·ha−1. Boron applied at V4–V6 and 2.24 kg·ha−1 increased yield 0.29 Mg·ha−1 compared to the non-treated control. The B applications at VT increased ear leaf tissue B concentration compared to V4–V6 applications and non-treated control, but it had no significant effect on corn yields. No significant difference between B treatments was observed for grain oil, protein, starch or extractable starch concentration; severity of anthracnose stalk rot or common rust; and ear tip fill. The B application of 2.24 kg·ha−1 at V4–V6 decreased the severity of gray leaf spot, but increased the severity of northern leaf blight compared to the non-treated control. Boron applied at V4–V6 at 2.24 kg·ha−1 was the most beneficial timing and concentration evaluated in these fine textured soils.

Description: A common strategy for ameliorating soil acidity is the application of agricultural lime. However, this measure is hampered by the lack of high resolution soil maps that can enable lime application according to the spatial variability of soil pH in an area. Therefore, this study was carried out to map soil acidity in South Eastern Zambia. The objective of the study was to apply geostatistical procedures to mapping soil acidity in the country. Ordinary kriging was performed on a set of 119 soil samples collected from the 0–20 cm soil layer whose pH was determined by the electrometric method. The kriging model that was developed was found to be satisfactory with low prediction errors (root mean square error 0.36). Thus, the map produced could be used to draw up strategies for management of soil acidity in the area.

Description: Limfjorden is a major Danish water system that connects the North Sea via Thyborøn Kanal in the west and to the Kattegat in the east. Limfjorden is heavily eutrophicated and certain areas suffer from oxygen depletion each summer. Bottom-dwelling fish have disappeared as the number of jellyfish and ctenophores has increased. The abundance and predation impact of jellyfish and ctenophores in Limfjorden have been described in a number of studies conducted during the last decade, and a mini-review of this literature is given here in Section 2. The common jellyfish Aurelia aurita may, in a few years, be very abundant and exert a considerable predatory impact on zooplankton and fish larvae. Abundance, species composition, and population dynamics of A. aurita may, at irregular time intervals, be strongly influenced not only by the water brought into Limfjorden from the North Sea, but also by competition with the invasive ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi that occurred for the first time in extremely high numbers in 2007, brought into the fjord system with North Sea water. It has been suggested that Limfjorden may function as an incubator for M. leidyi with the potential to further seed M. leidyi into the Kattegat and adjacent Danish waters, and recent observations seem to support this hypothesis. In Section 3, we report on two bloom events of ctenophores, Pleurobrachia pileus and M. leidyi, along with their predators (Beroe spp.) in Limfjorden in the autumns of 2012 and 2013, when the usually dominating A. aurita was absent. However, the present observation of B. ovata being M. leidyi’s native predator and a new species in Limfjorden may in the future reduce the abundance of M. leidyi.

Description: In this study, the influence of the East Atlantic/Western Russia teleconnection pattern on the hydroclimatology of Europe, from mid-winter to late spring, is investigated. The influence of EAWR on the variability of precipitation (PP), temperature (TT) and standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI) is investigated on the base of correlation and stability maps. It is shown that EAWR has a strong impact on the coupling between the sub-tropical Atlantic Jet and the African Jet, which in turn affects the climate variability over Europe from mid-winter to late spring. The strongest impact of the mid-winter EAWR over the European precipitation is found to be in mid-winter and early spring over the northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and the central and eastern part of Europe; while the influence of the mid-winter EAWR on European temperature persists from mid-winter to late spring, giving the possibility of a potential predictability for spring temperature over extended European regions.

Description: Teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of bioenergy, and their motivation to teach such a topic, can largely determine the success of implementing bioenergy related education in schools. The study aimed to explore science teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of bioenergy in India. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 28 science teachers from four urban schools in India. Results indicated that the science teachers were fairly knowledgeable regarding bioenergy and they also demonstrated positive perceptions of bioenergy. In addition, they were positive towards the prospect of receiving more information to increase their own knowledge of bioenergy. However, the science teachers appeared to have some misconceptions regarding the issue of CO2 emission from using bioenergy. It also emerged that although the existing Science syllabus for Grade X in Indian schools includes a topic on bioenergy, the majority of the science teachers were not aware of it. Policy makers and educators are recommended to provide science teachers more support to improve their capacity for teaching energy and environmental topics in schools in India. In addition, an improvement of the current learning and teaching environment in Indian schools could help teachers to deliver energy and environmental education more effectively to their students.

Description: We consider a weighted family of \(n\) generic parallelly translated hyperplanes in \(\mathbb{C}^k\) and describe the characteristic variety of the Gauss–Manin differential equations for associated hypergeometric integrals. The characteristic variety is given as the zero set of Laurent polynomials, whose coefficients are determined by weights and the Plücker coordinates of the associated point in the Grassmannian Gr\((k,n)\). The Laurent polynomials are in involution.

Description: Recently, intelligent transport systems have been applied to vehicle cloud environments. Such technology is especially useful for the systematic management of road traffic. Moreover, automobiles are increasingly equipped with a black box for accident prevention and preservation of evidence. Vehicle black boxes have become mandatory because black box images and voice data have served as forensic evidence in courts. However, the data from black boxes can be forged or modified by man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks and message hijacking. In this paper, we propose a vehicle cloud computing-based black box service model that can provide integrity for black box data through digital signatures in vehicle cloud computing (VCC) environments. Our proposed model protects against MITM attacks and message hijacking using only a hash value and digital signature. Moreover, a mirroring technique (RAID 1) provides backup and recovery to protect the data from a traffic accident.

Description: The Solanum aethiopicum Gilo group, described as homogeneous, shows a high diversity, at least at the morphological level. In Côte d’Ivoire, farmers distinguish three subgroups, named “N’Drowa”, “Klogbo” and “Gnangnan”, within this group. Data were obtained from 10 quantitative and 14 qualitative morpho-agronomic traits measured in 326 accessions of Gilo eggplants, at flowering and fruiting stages. Univariate and multivariate analyses allowed clearly clustering the studied accessions into the three subgroups. Fruit taste, leaf blade width, fruit diameter, leaf blade length, fruit weight, fruit color at commercial ripeness, petiole length, germination time, plant breadth, fruit position on the plant, fruit length and flowering time were, in decreasing order, the twelve most discriminating traits. Compared to the “Gnangnan” subgroup, the “N’Drowa” subgroup has smaller plant breadth and larger leaves. The fruits of this subgroup were mainly white at commercial ripeness, larger and sweeter. Most of the traits of the “Klogbo” subgroup were intermediate between those of the “N’Drowa” and “Gnangnan” subgroups. Our results could contribute to a better understanding of S. aethiopicum diversity and to the development of a core collection for African eggplant breeding.

Description: We show that the recent results on the Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing and the super-hedging theorem in the context of model uncertainty can be extended to the case in which the options available for static hedging (hedging options) are quoted with bid-ask spreads. In this set-up, we need to work with the notion of robust no-arbitrage which turns out to be equivalent to no-arbitrage under the additional assumption that hedging options with non-zero spread are non-redundant. A key result is the closedness of the set of attainable claims, which requires a new proof in our setting.

Description: We analytically calculate some orbital effects induced by the Lorentz-invariance/ momentum-conservation   parameterized   post-Newtonian (PPN)  parameter α3 in   a gravitationally bound binary system made of a primary orbited by a test particle.  We neither restrict ourselves to any particular orbital configuration nor to specific orientations of the primary’s spin axis ψˆ.  We use our results to put preliminary  upper bounds on α3 in the weak-field regime by using the latest data from Solar System’s planetary dynamics. By linearly combining the supplementary perihelion  precessions ∆w˙ of the Earth, Mars and Saturn, determined by astronomers with the Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon (EPM) 2011 ephemerides for the general relativistic  values of the PPN parameters β = γ = 1, we infer |α3| ;5 6 × 10−10.   Our result is about three orders of magnitude better than the previous weak-field  constraints existing  in the literature and of the same  order of magnitude of the constraint expected from the future BepiColombo mission to Mercury. It is, by construction, independent of the other preferred-frame PPN parameters α1, α2, both preliminarily constrained down to a ≈ 10−6 level. Future analyses should be performed by explicitly including α3 and a selection  of other PPN parameters in the models fitted by the astronomers to the observations and estimating them in dedicated covariance analyses.

Description: Controlled-release N fertilizer, such as polymer-coated urea (PCU), may be a fall N management option for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown in poorly-drained claypan soils. Field research evaluated (1) urea release from fall-applied PCU in 2006 and 2007; (2) broadcast fall-spring split (25%:75%) of N sources; and (3) a single fall (100%) application of PCU, urea, urea plus NBPT (N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric triamide] (U + NBPT), ammonium nitrate (AN), or urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) at 0, 56, 84, and 112 kg·N·ha−1 on wheat yield, wheat biomass, N uptake by wheat, and frost-seeded red clover (FSC) (Trifolium pratense L.) forage yield (2004–2007). PCU applied in fall released less than 30% urea by February. Urea released from PCU by harvest was 60% and 85% in 2006 and 2007, respectively. In poorly-drained soils, wheat yields ranked PCU > AN > U + NBPT > urea ≥ UAN over the rates evaluated for fall-only application. PCU was a viable fall-applied N source, with yields similar to or greater than urea or U + NBPT split-applied. Split-N applications of AN, urea, UAN, and U + NBPT generally resulted in greater wheat yields than a fall application. Enhanced efficiency fertilizers provide farmers with flexible options for maintaining high yielding production systems.

Description: The objectives of this study are to: (1) evaluate accuracy of tree height measurements of manual stereo viewing on a computer display using digital aerial photographs compared with airborne LiDAR height measurements; and (2) develop an empirical model to estimate stand-level aboveground biomass with variables derived from manual stereo viewing on the computer display in a Cambodian tropical seasonal forest. We evaluate observation error of tree height measured from the manual stereo viewing, based on field measurements. RMSEs of tree height measurement with manual stereo viewing and LiDAR were 1.96 m and 1.72 m, respectively. Then, stand-level aboveground biomass is regressed against tree height indices derived from the manual stereo viewing. We determined the best model to estimate aboveground biomass in terms of the Akaike’s information criterion. This was a model of mean tree height of the tallest five trees in each plot (R2 = 0.78; RMSE = 58.18 Mg/ha). In conclusion, manual stereo viewing on the computer display can measure tree height accurately and is useful to estimate aboveground stand biomass.

Description: In recent years, a large portion of smartphone applications (Apps) has targeted context-aware services. They aim to perceive users’ real-time context like his/her location, actions, or even emotion, and to provide various customized services based on the inferred context. However, context-awareness in mobile environments has some challenging issues due to limitations of devices themselves. Limited power is regarded as the most critical problem in context-awareness on smartphones. Many studies have tried to develop low-power methods, but most of them have focused on the power consumption of H/W modules of smartphones such as CPU and LCD. Only a few research papers have recently started to present some S/W-based approaches to improve the power consumption. That is, previous works did not consider energy consumed by context-awareness of Apps. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on the power consumption of context-aware Apps. We analyze the characteristics of context-aware Apps in a perspective of the power consumption, and then define two main factors which significantly influence the power consumption: a sort of context that context-aware Apps require for their services and a type of ways that a user uses them. The experimental result shows the reasonability and the possibility to develop low-power methods based on our analysis. That is, our analysis presented in this paper will be a foundation for energy-efficient context-aware services in mobile environments.

Description: The publication of several special issues was part of the initiatives taken in 2013 to launch Risks as a new online journal. It seemed natural to devote one to this important, concrete and complex problem of managing catastrophic and heavy tailed risks. We received an enthusiastic response last spring to the call for invited and contributed research papers and are proud of the special issue now being published. The emphasis was put on quality rather than quantity; this special issue contains three invited and two contributed research papers.

Description: In the United States, corn (Zea mays L.) stover has been targeted for second generation fuel production and other bio-products. Our objective was to characterize sugar and structural composition as a function of vertical distribution of corn stover (leaves and stalk) that was sampled at physiological maturity and about three weeks later from multiple USA locations. A small subset of samples was assessed for thermochemical composition. Concentrations of lignin, glucan, and xylan were about 10% greater at grain harvest than at physiological maturity, but harvestable biomass was about 25% less due to stalk breakage. Gross heating density above the ear averaged 16.3 ± 0.40 MJ kg−1, but with an alkalinity measure of 0.83 g MJ−1, slagging is likely to occur during gasification. Assuming a stover harvest height of 10 cm, the estimated ethanol yield would be >2500 L ha−1, but it would be only 1000 L ha−1 if stover harvest was restricted to the material from above the primary ear. Vertical composition of corn stover is relatively uniform; thus, decision on cutting height may be driven by agronomic, economic and environmental considerations.

Description: Lack of attention to spatial and temporal cross-scale dynamics and effects could be understood as one of the lacunas in scholarship on river basin management. Within the water-climate-food-energy nexus, an integrated and inclusive approach that recognizes traditional knowledge about and experiences of climate change and water resource management can provide crucial assistance in confronting problems in megaprojects and multipurpose river basin management projects. The Mahaweli Development Program (MDP), a megaproject and multipurpose river basin management project, is demonstrating substantial failures with regards to the spatial and temporal impacts of climate change and socioeconomic demands for water allocation and distribution for paddy cultivation in the dry zone area, which was one of the driving goals of the project at the initial stage. This interdisciplinary study explores how spatial and temporal climatic changes and uncertainty in weather conditions impact paddy cultivation in dry zonal areas with competing stakeholders’ interest in the Mahaweli River Basin. In the framework of embedded design in the mixed methods research approach, qualitative data is the primary source while quantitative analyses are used as supportive data. The key findings from the research analysis are as follows: close and in-depth consideration of spatial and temporal changes in climate systems and paddy farmers’ socioeconomic demands altered by seasonal changes are important factors. These factors should be considered in the future modification of water allocation, application of distribution technologies, and decision-making with regards to water resource management in the dry zonal paddy cultivation of Sri Lanka.

Description: In order to evaluate the environmental effect on plant development and mini-tuber production of a diverse group of potato genotypes grown under an aeroponic system, a G × E interaction experiment was carried out in greenhouses located at CIP’s experimental stations in La Molina (Lima) and Huancayo (Junín). Five contrasting environments were set-up and evaluated. A combined Analysis of Variance was performed for the variables “days to tuber set”, “days to senescence” and “plant height”. An Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) Analysis was performed for yield variables: mini-tuber “weight” and “number of mini-tubers” per plant. There was a high variation in all the responses to the treatments. “Days to tuber set” was influenced by genetic responses, temperature and greenhouse Photosynthetically Active Radiation intensity. Considerable increases in the length of the vegetative cycle and plant height were recorded for all genotypes, and these were particularly notable in the warmer coastal environments. AMMI analysis showed that yield variables were primarily influenced by the genotypic effect followed by the genotype by environment interaction effect. The Venturana variety (T2) was the best performing genotype with a total average mini-tuber “weight” of 644 g per plant while the Chucmarina variety (T1) performed best for the variable “number of mini-tubers” with an overall average of 60.2 mini-tubers per plant. Both showed stability across different environments for these variables. The advanced clones T3 (395434.1), T5 (397077.16) and T6 (397073.16) showed stability for yield variables, but their performance was below the overall average of the trial. It is recommended that the environment and management should ideally be tailored to the genotype as this will result in significant yield gains.

Description: In this paper, firstly, a new intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) entropy has been put forward, which considered both the uncertainty and the hesitancy degree of IF sets. Through comparing with other entropy measures, the advantage of the new entropy measure is obvious. Secondly, based on the new entropy measure, a new decision making method of a multi-attribute decision making problem was subsequently put forward, in which attribute values are expressed with IF values. In the cases of attribute weights, completely unknown and attribute weights are partially known. Two methods were constructed to determine them. One method is an extension of the ordinary entropy weight method, and the other method is a construction the optimal model according to the minimum entropy principle. Finally, two practical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed method.

Description: This paper describes the design of a high-efficiency vehicular roof-mounted antenna for wireless access for vehicular environment (WAVE) communication systems used for ubiquitous intelligent systems. The main objective of the ubiquitous intelligent system’s automotive IT technology is to enhance the connectivity among vehicles to ensure seamless communication and to reduce the initial access time using high-performance antenna systems. The efficiency of WAVE communication systems used for ubiquitous intelligent systems depends on the antenna efficiency. The proposed vehicular antenna for WAVE communication systems shows an improvement of approximately 4.77 dB in the return loss, as compared with a conventional antenna system.

Description: Welcome to Aerospace, an open journal covering aerospace science, engineering and technology. We seek to publish theoretical, fundamental, and applied results linked to potential applications related to research, design, manufacture, operations, control and maintenance of aircraft and spacecraft. A full description of the journal scope can be found on the journal website [1].[...]

Description: Climate change is considered to be a significant influence for infectious disease risk in Western Europe. Climatic and non-climatic developments act together resulting in current and future infectious disease risk. This study uses a survey to explore Dutch expert perspectives on climate change induced infectious disease risk. The results show that the experts consider temperature change, precipitation change, humidity change, and climate change induced habitat change to be relatively important for water-related infectious disease risk, vector-borne disease risk excluding zoonoses, and the risk of zoonoses. The climatic drivers are seen as relatively less important for food-related infectious disease risk. The experts rate many non-climatic drivers to be highly important for infectious disease risk. Comparatively, the majority of the non-climatic drivers assessed are seen as more important than climate change drivers. The degree of uncertainty in the future development of climatic drivers is viewed as moderate to high, and for non-climatic drivers mostly as moderate. An analysis of subsamples based on professional backgrounds reveals differences in experts’ opinions for e.g., socio-cultural drivers, and similarities. Diversity and consensus amongst expert perspectives on climate change and infectious diseases can have implications for policy. Further research to uncover and compare prevailing perspectives is necessary.

Description: A stormwater runoff model based on the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) method and a finite-volume based water quality model have been developed to investigate the use of Simulink for use in teaching and research. Simulink, a MATLAB extension, is a graphically based model development environment for system modeling and simulation. Widely used for mechanical and electrical systems, Simulink has had less use for modeling of hydrologic systems. The watershed model is being considered for use in teaching graduate-level courses in hydrology and/or stormwater modeling. Simulink’s block (data process) and arrow (data transfer) object model, the copy and paste user interface, the large number of existing blocks, and the absence of computer code allows students to become model developers almost immediately. The visual depiction of systems, their component subsystems, and the flow of data through the systems are ideal attributes for hands-on teaching of hydrologic and mass balance processes to today’s computer-savvy visual learners. Model development with Simulink for research purposes is also investigated. A finite volume, multi-layer pond model using the water quality kinetics present in CE-QUAL-W2 has been developed using Simulink. The model is one of the first uses of Simulink for modeling eutrophication dynamics in stratified natural systems. The model structure and a test case are presented. One use of the model for teaching a graduate-level water quality modeling class is also described.

Description: The effect of the modifier concentration and flow rate on the chromatographic performance of a second generation Chromolith® RP-18e column, under isocratic and gradient elution with acetonitrile-water mixtures, was examined using four sulphonamides as probe compounds. The acetonitrile concentration was varied between 5 and 55% (v/v), and the flow rate between 0.1 and 5.0 mL/min, keeping the other factors constant. The changes in both retention and peak profile were modelled, and used to build simple plots, where the logarithm of the retention factor was represented against the modifier concentration (in gradient elution, against the initial modifier concentration), and the half-widths or widths against the retention time (in gradient elution, against the time at the column outlet). A particular plot was needed for describing the retention of each sulphonamide, but due to the similar interaction kinetics, a unique plot described the changes in the half-widths for all four sulphonamides. The changes in retention with the flow showed that allegedly in the second generation Chromolith, the column deformation observed for the first generation Chromolith, with the applied pressure at increasing flow, is decreased.

Description: In his study of Nekrasov–Okounkov type formulas on “partition theoretic” expressions for families of infinite products, Han discovered seemingly unrelated q-series that are supported on precisely the same terms as these infinite products. In collaboration with Ono, Han proved one instance of this occurrence that exhibited a relation between the numbers a(n) that are given in terms of hook lengths of partitions, with the numbers b(n) that equal the number of 3-core partitions of n. Recently Han revisited the q-series with coefficients a(n) and b(n), and numerically found a third q-series whose coefficients appear to be supported on the same terms. Here we prove Han’s conjecture about this third series by proving a general theorem about this phenomenon.

Description: Water is essential to all forms of life and is regarded as the most important and exploited natural resource in the world. Water moves through and is stored in different compartments of the Earth environment (atmosphere, glaciers, vegetation, soil, shallow and deep subsurface, rivers, lakes and oceans) at different velocities and quantities respectively, strongly controlled by current and past hydrometeorological and geological conditions. Understanding and quantification of the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the typical physical processes like precipitation, evaporation, transpiration, interception, infiltration, runoff, recharge, surface water and groundwater discharge form the fundamental components of the hydrological sciences. Hence, one of the definitions of hydrology is the scientific study of the occurrence, distribution, movement and properties of the waters and their interaction with the environment within each phase of the hydrologic cycle [1]. [...]

Description: The National Geomatics Center of China (NGCC) produced Global Land Cover (GlobalLand30) maps with 30 m spatial resolution for the years 2000 and 2009–2010, responding to the need for harmonized, accurate, and high-resolution global land cover data. This study aims to assess the mapping accuracy of the land surface water layer of GlobalLand30 for 2009–2010. A representative Mediterranean region, situated in Greece, is considered as the case study area, with 2009 as the reference year. The assessment is realized through an object-based comparison of the GlobalLand30 water layer with the ground truth and visually interpreted data from the Hellenic Cadastre fine spatial resolution (0.5 m) orthophoto map layer. GlobCover 2009, GlobCorine 2009, and GLCNMO 2008 corresponding thematic layers are utilized to show and quantify the progress brought along with the increment of the spatial resolution, from 500 m to 300 m and finally to 30 m with the newly produced GlobalLand30 maps. GlobalLand30 detected land surface water areas show a 91.9% overlap with the reference data, while the coarser resolution products are restricted to lower accuracies. Validation is extended to the drainage network elements, i.e., rivers and streams, where GlobalLand30 outperforms the other global map products, as well.

Description: This paper provides a holistic literature review of climate change and variability in Ghana by examining the impact and projections of climate change and variability in various sectors (agricultural, health and energy) and its implication on ecology, land use, poverty and welfare. The findings suggest that there is a projected high temperature and low rainfall in the years 2020, 2050 and 2080, and desertification is estimated to be proceeding at a rate of 20,000 hectares per annum. Sea-surface temperatures will increase in Ghana’s waters and this will have drastic effects on fishery. There will be a reduction in the suitability of weather within the current cocoa-growing areas in Ghana by 2050 and an increase evapotranspiration of the cocoa trees. Furthermore, rice and rooted crops (especially cassava) production are expected to be low. Hydropower generation is also at risk and there will be an increase in the incidence rate of measles, diarrheal cases, guinea worm infestation, malaria, cholera, cerebro-spinal meningitis and other water related diseases due to the current climate projections and variability. These negative impacts of climate change and variability worsens the plight of the poor, who are mostly women and children.

Description: The influence of future climate change on the occurrence of heat waves and its implications for heat wave-related mortality due to ischemic heart diseases (IHD) in Germany is studied. Simulations of 19 regional climate models with a spatial resolution of 0.25° × 0.25° forced by the moderate climate change scenario A1B are analyzed. Three model time periods of 30 years are evaluated, representing present climate (1971–2000), near future climate (2021–2050), and remote future climate (2069–2098). Heat waves are defined as periods of at least three consecutive days with daily mean air temperature above the 97.5th percentile of the all-season temperature distribution. Based on the model simulations, future heat waves in Germany will be significantly more frequent, longer lasting and more intense. By the end of the 21st century, the number of heat waves will be tripled compared to present climate. Additionally, the average duration of heat waves will increase by 25%, accompanied by an increase of the average temperature during heat waves by about 1 K. Regional analyses show that stronger than average climate change effects are observed particularly in the southern regions of Germany. Furthermore, we investigated climate change impacts on IHD mortality in Germany applying temperature projections from 19 regional climate models to heat wave mortality relationships identified in a previous study. Future IHD excess deaths were calculated both in the absence and presence of some acclimatization (i.e., that people are able to physiologically acclimatize to enhanced temperature levels in the future time periods by 0% and 50%, respectively). In addition to changes in heat wave frequency, we incorporated also changes in heat wave intensity and duration into the future mortality evaluations. The results indicate that by the end of the 21st century the annual number of IHD excess deaths in Germany attributable to heat waves is expected to rise by factor 2.4 and 5.1 in the acclimatization and non-acclimatization approach, respectively. Even though there is substantial variability across the individual model simulations, it is most likely that the future burden of heat will increase considerably. The obtained results point to public health interventions to reduce the vulnerability of the population to heat waves.

Description: A brief account of the present status of the recent nonlocal generalization of Einstein’s theory of gravitation is presented. The main physical assumptions that underlie this theory are described. We clarify the physical meaning and significance of Weitzenböck’s torsion and emphasize its intimate relationship with the gravitational field, characterized by the Riemannian curvature of spacetime. In this theory, nonlocality can simulate dark matter; in fact, in the Newtonian regime, we recover the phenomenological Tohline–Kuhn approach to modified gravity. To account for the observational data regarding dark matter,  nonlocality is associated with a characteristic length scale of order 1 kpc. The confrontation of nonlocal gravity with observation is briefly discussed.

Description: In this paper, we comprehensively review the five-dimensional (5D) fully-covariant theory of gravitation developed by Zhang two decades ago and its recent applications in astrophysics and cosmology. This 5D gravity describes not only the fields, but also the matter and its motion in a 5D spacetime. The greatest advantage of this theory is that there does not exist any unknown parameter, so that we can apply it to explain astrophysical and cosmological issues by quantitatively comparing the results obtained from it with observations and to predict new effects that could not be derived from any other gravitational theories. First, the 5D covariant description of matter and its motion enabled Zhang to analytically derive the fifteenth component of the 5D energy-momentum tensor of matter ( T - 44 ), which significantly distinguishes this 5D gravity from other 5D gravitational theories that usually assumed a T - 44 with an unknown parameter, called the scalar charge s, and, thus, to split the 5D covariant field equation into (4 + 1) splitting form as the gravitational, electromagnetic, and scalar field equations. The gravitational field equation turns into the 4D Einstein’s field equation of general relativity if the scalar field is equal to unity. Then, Zhang solved the field equations and obtained an exact static spherically-symmetric external solution of the gravitational, electromagnetic and scalar fields, in which all integral constants were completely determined with a perfect set of simple numbers and parameters that only depend on the mass and electric charge of the matter, by comparing with the obtained weak internal solution of the fields at a large radial distance. In the Einstein frame, the exact field solution obtained from the 5D fully-covariant theory of gravitation reduces to the Schwarzschild solution when the matter is electrically neutral and the fields are weak in strength. This guarantees that the four fundamental tests (light deflection, gravitational redshift, perihelion advance and radar echo delay) of the 4D Einstein’s general relativity in the case of weak fields are also the tests of the 5D fully-covariant theory of gravitation. In the case of strong fields, especially when the matter is highly charged, however, the results from the 5D fully-covariant theory of gravitation are significantly different from the 4D Einstein’s general relativity. Applying this 5D gravity and its exact field solution, Zhang has recently developed a new redshift mechanism, called electric redshift, a new supernova explosion mechanism with gravitational field shielding, a new gravitationless black hole model, a modified neutron star mass-radius relation, a modified Friedmann equation for the accelerating universe, and so on. This paper provides an overview of this 5D fully-covariant theory of gravitation, including also its solution properties and astrophysical applications.

Description: Remote sensing shows potential for assessing biodiversity of coral reefs. Important steps in achieving this objective are better understanding the spectral variability of various reef components and correlating these spectral characteristics with field-based ecological assessments. Here we analyze >9400 coral reef field spectra from southwestern Puerto Rico to evaluate how spectral variability and, more specifically, spectral similarity between species influences estimates of biodiversity. Traditional field methods for estimating reef biodiversity using photoquadrats are also included to add ecological context to the spectral analysis. Results show that while many species can be distinguished using in situ field spectra, the addition of the overlying water column significantly reduces the ability to differentiate species, and even groups of species. This indicates that the ability to evaluate biodiversity with remote sensing decreases with increasing water depth. Due to the inherent spectral similarity amongst many species, including taxonomically dissimilar species, remote sensing underestimates biodiversity and represents the lower limit of actual species diversity. The overall implication is that coral reef ecologists using remote sensing need to consider the spatial and spectral context of the imagery, and remote sensing scientists analyzing biodiversity need to define confidence limits as a function of both water depth and the scale of information derived, e.g., species, groups of species, or community level.

Description: Tree-like structures are ubiquitous in nature. In particular, neuronal axons and dendrites have tree-like geometries that mediate electrical signaling within and between cells. Electrical activity in neuronal trees is typically modeled using coupled cable equations on multi-compartment representations, where each compartment represents a small segment of the neuronal membrane. The geometry of each compartment is usually defined as a cylinder or, at best, a surface of revolution based on a linear approximation of the radial change in the neurite. The resulting geometry of the model neuron is coarse, with non-smooth or even discontinuous jumps at the boundaries between compartments. We propose a hyperbolic approximation to model the geometry of neurite compartments, a branched, multi-compartment extension, and a simple graphical approach to calculate steady-state solutions of an associated system of coupled cable equations. A simple case of transient solutions is also briefly discussed.

Description: In their breakthrough paper in 2006, Goldston, Graham, Pintz and Yıldırım proved several results about bounded gaps between products of two distinct primes. Frank Thorne expanded on this result, proving bounded gaps in the set of square-free numbers with r prime factors for any r ≥ 2, all of which are in a given set of primes. His results yield applications to the divisibility of class numbers and the triviality of ranks of elliptic curves. In this paper, we relax the condition on the number of prime factors and prove an analogous result using a modified approach. We then revisit Thorne’s applications and give a better bound in each case.

Description: In spaces Rn, n ≥ 2, it has been proved that a solenoidal vector field and its rotor satisfy the series of new integral identities which have covariant form. The interest in them is explained by hydrodynamics problems for an ideal fluid.

Description: The characteristic function of the folded normal distribution and its moment function are derived. The entropy of the folded normal distribution and the Kullback–Leibler from the normal and half normal distributions are approximated using Taylor series. The accuracy of the results are also assessed using different criteria. The maximum likelihood estimates and confidence intervals for the parameters are obtained using the asymptotic theory and bootstrap method. The coverage of the confidence intervals is also examined.

Description: We consider two one-phase nonlinear one-dimensional Stefan problems for a semi-infinite material x > 0; with phase change temperature Tf : We assume that the heat capacity and the thermal conductivity satisfy a Storm’s condition. In the first case, we assume a heat flux boundary condition of the type q(t) = q 0 t , and in the second case, we assume a temperature boundary condition T = Ts 〈 Tf at the fixed face. Solutions of similarity type are obtained in both cases, and the equivalence of the two problems is demonstrated. We also give procedures in order to compute the explicit solution.

Description: Let C1 and C2 be algebraic plane curves in ℂ 2 such that the curves intersect in d1 · d2 points where d1, d2 are the degrees of the curves respectively. Oka and Sakamoto proved that π1( ℂ 2 \ C1 U C2)) ≅ π1 ( ℂ 2 \  C1) × π1 ( ℂ 2 \  C2) [1]. In this paper we prove the converse of Oka and Sakamoto’s result for line arrangements. Let A1 and A2 be non-empty arrangements of lines in ℂ 2 such that π1 (M(A1 U  A2)) ≅  π1 (M(A1)) ×  π1 (M(A2)) Then, the intersection of A1 and A2 consists of /A1/ ·  /A2/ points of multiplicity two.

Description: Following Ramanujan's work on modular equations and approximations of π, there are formulas for 1/π of the form Following Ramanujan's work on modular equations and approximations of π, there are formulas for 1/π of the form ∑ k = 0 ∞ ( 1 2 ) k ( 1 d ) k ( d - 1 d ) k k ! 3 ( a k + 1 ) ( λ d ) k = δ π for d=2,3,4,6, where łd are singular values that correspond to elliptic curves with complex multiplication, and a,δ are explicit algebraic numbers. In this paper we prove a p-adic version of this formula in terms of the so-called Ramanujan type congruence. In addition, we obtain a new supercongruence result for elliptic curves with complex multiplication.

Description: As is widely known, mathematics plays a unique role in all natural sciences as a refined scientific language and powerful research tool. Indeed, most of the fundamental laws of nature are written in mathematical terms and we study their consequences by numerous mathematical methods (and vice versa, any essential progress in a natural science has been accompanied by fruitful developments in mathematics). In addition, the mathematical modeling in various interdisciplinary problems and logical development of mathematics on its own should be taken into account. [...]

Description: In this paper we provide proofs of two new theorems that provide a broad class of partition inequalities and that illustrate a na¨ıve version of Andrews’ anti-telescoping technique quite well. These new theorems also put to rest any notion that including parts of size 1 is somehow necessary in order to have a valid irreducible partition inequality. In addition, we prove (as a lemma to one of the theorems) a rather nontrivial class of rational functions of three variables has entirely nonnegative power series coefficients.

Description: In his 1984 Ph.D. thesis, J. Greene defined an analogue of the Euler integral transform for finite field hypergeometric series. Here we consider a special family of matrices which arise naturally in the study of this transform and prove a conjecture of Ono about the decomposition of certain finite field hypergeometric functions into functions of lower dimension.

Description: Electromagnetic wave scattering by many parallel to the z−axis, thin, impedance, parallel, infinite cylinders is studied asymptotically as a → 0. Let Dm be the cross-section of the m−th cylinder, a be its radius and x ^ m = (x m1 , x m2 ) be its center, 1 ≤ m ≤ M , M = M (a). It is assumed that the points, x ^ m , are distributed, so that N(Δ)= 1 2πa ∫ Δ N ( x ^ )d x ^ [1+o(1)] where N (∆) is the number of points, x ^ m , in an arbitrary open subset, ∆, of the plane, xoy. The function, N( x ^ ) ≥0 , is a continuous function, which an experimentalist can choose. An equation for the self-consistent (effective) field is derived as a → 0. A formula is derived for the refraction coefficient in the medium in which many thin impedance cylinders are distributed. These cylinders may model nano-wires embedded in the medium. One can produce a desired refraction coefficient of the new medium by choosing a suitable boundary impedance of the thin cylinders and their distribution law.

Description: Evapotranspiration (ET) and sensible heat (H) flux play a critical role in climate change; micrometeorology; atmospheric investigations; and related studies. They are two of the driving variables in climate impact(s) and hydrologic balance dynamics. Therefore, their accurate estimate is important for more robust modeling of the aforementioned relationships. The Bowen ratio energy balance method of estimating ET and H diffusions depends on the assumption that the diffusivities of latent heat (KV) and sensible heat (KH) are always equal. This assumption is re-visited and analyzed for a subsurface drip-irrigated field in south central Nebraska. The inequality dynamics for subsurface drip-irrigated conditions have not been studied. Potential causes that lead KV to differ from KH and a rectification procedure for the errors introduced by the inequalities were investigated. Actual ET; H; and other surface energy flux parameters using an eddy covariance system and a Bowen Ratio Energy Balance System (located side by side) on an hourly basis were measured continuously for two consecutive years for a non-stressed and subsurface drip-irrigated maize canopy. Most of the differences between KV and KH appeared towards the higher values of KV and KH. Although it was observed that KV was predominantly higher than KH; there were considerable data points showing the opposite. In general; daily KV ranges from about 0.1 m2∙s−1 to 1.6 m2∙s−1; and KH ranges from about 0.05 m2∙s−1 to 1.1 m2∙s−1. The higher values for KV and KH appear around March and April; and around September and October. The lower values appear around mid to late December and around late June to early July. Hourly estimates of KV range between approximately 0 m2∙s−1 to 1.8 m2∙s−1 and that of KH ranges approximately between 0 m2∙s−1 to 1.7 m2∙s−1. The inequalities between KV and KH varied diurnally as well as seasonally. The inequalities were greater during the non-growing (dormant) seasons than those during the growing seasons. During the study period, KV was, in general, lesser than KH during morning hours and was greater during afternoon hours. The differences between KV and KH mainly occurred in the afternoon due to the greater values of sensible heat acting as a secondary source of energy to vaporize water. As a result; during the afternoon; the latent heat diffusion rate (KV) becomes greater than the sensible heat diffusion rate (KH). The adjustments (rectification) for the inequalities between eddy diffusivities is quite essential at least for sensible heat estimation, and can have important implications for application of the Bowen ratio method for estimation of diffusion fluxes of other gasses.

Description: The rapid economic growth in Lao PDR over the last two decades has been driven by the natural resource sectors and commercialization in the agriculture sector. Rural landscapes are being transformed over the past decade from land use mosaics of subsistence and smallholder farms to large-scale plantations dominated by a few commercial crops. The capacity of these commercial agriculture plantations to alleviate rural poverty, part of the Government of Lao PDR’s national development policy, is increasingly weighed against its long-term impacts on ecosystem services and sustainability of land and forest resources. We used an extended cost-benefit approach (CBA) to integrate certain environmental elements to traditional financial analysis for a comparative look at four land use systems in the northern part of the country. The CBA results demonstrate that commercial agriculture (maize and rubber plantations) does have the potential to support poverty alleviation in the short-run. It, however, exposes the land to serious environmental risks. By comparison, the traditional land uses studied (upland rice farming and non-timber forest products collecting) are largely subsistence activities that are still considered as sustainable, though this is increasingly affected by changing market and population dynamics. The results suggest that longer-term environmental costs can potentially cancel out short-term gains from the commercialization to mono-crop agriculture. Incentives for conserving ecosystem services (such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism) may have a potential role in supporting diversification of traditional livelihoods and increasing the competitiveness of maintaining forests.

Description: We build upon much of the accumulated knowledge of the widely used SLEUTH urban land change model and offer advances. First, we use SLEUTH’s exclusion/attraction layer to identify and test different urban land cover change drivers; second, we leverage SLEUTH’s self-modification capability to incorporate a demographic model; and third, we develop a validation procedure to quantify the influence of land cover change drivers and assess uncertainty. We found that, contrary to our a priori expectations, new development is not attracted to areas serviced by existing or planned water and sewer infrastructure. However, information about where population and employment growth is likely to occur did improve model performance. These findings point to the dominant role of centrifugal forces in post-industrial cities like Baltimore, MD. We successfully developed a demographic model that allowed us to constrain the SLEUTH model forecasts and address uncertainty related to the dynamic relationship between changes in population and employment and urban land use. Finally, we emphasize the importance of model validation. In this work the validation procedure played a key role in rigorously assessing the impacts of different exclusion/attraction layers and in assessing uncertainty related to population and employment forecasts.

Description: This paper uses an approach drawn from the ideas of computer systems modelling to produce a model for information itself. The model integrates evolutionary, static and dynamic views of information and highlights the relationship between symbolic content and the physical world. The model includes what information technology practitioners call “non-functional” attributes, which, for information, include information quality and information friction. The concepts developed in the model enable a richer understanding of Floridi’s questions “what is information?” and “the informational circle: how can information be assessed?” (which he numbers P1 and P12).

Description: We consider a one-period portfolio optimization problem under model uncertainty. For this purpose, we introduce a measure of model risk. We derive analytical results for this measure of model risk in the mean-variance problem assuming we have observations drawn from a normal variance mixture model. This model allows for heavy tails, tail dependence and leptokurtosis of marginals. The results show that mean-variance optimization is seriously compromised by model uncertainty, in particular, for non-Gaussian data and small sample sizes. To mitigate these shortcomings, we propose a method to adjust the sample covariance matrix in order to reduce model risk.

Description: The impact of increasing amendments of two particle sizes of biochar (≤2 mm and 3–7 mm), applied at 0%, 0.01%, 0.1% and 1% concentrations, on the development of indigenous phenanthrene catabolism was investigated in two soils with different soil organic matter contents. Mineralisation of 14C-phenanthrene was measured after 1, 20, 60 and 100 d soil-phenanthrene-biochar aging period. The presence of biochar in the pasture soil (low OM) resulted in a decrease in the lag phase of 14C-phenanthrene mineralisation, with higher maximum rates of mineralisation following 20 d aging. Higher extents of 14C-phenanthrene mineralisation were observed in the Kettering loam soil (high OM), which was more prominent with 0.01% biochar amendments (p 〈 0.05) at 61.2% and 64.9% in ≤2 mm and 3–7 mm biochar amended soils, respectively. This study illustrates the potential role for biochar to enhance microbial catabolic activity to degrade common petroleum contaminants. It however depends on contaminant concentration, aging period, and soil properties.

Description: A linear regression model of particle pollution and an ordered logistic regression model of the relevant index were selected for observations in the US city of Los Angeles, California. Models were used to forecast Air Quality Index (AQI) from a sample, and were compared and contrasted. Methods are comparable overall but markedly different in their powers to predict certain categories. Linear regression models of AQI through particle pollution are more favored to predict moderate air quality; ordered logistic regression models of AQI directly are more favored to predict good air quality.

Description: We present the detection of the signatures of land use/land cover (LULC) changes on the regional climate of the US High Plains. We used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a proxy of LULC changes and atmospheric CO2 concentrations as a proxy of greenhouse gases. An enhanced signal processing procedure was developed to detect the signatures of LULC changes by integrating autoregression and moving average (ARMA) modeling and optimal fingerprinting technique. The results, which are representative of the average spatial signatures of climate response to LULC change forcing on the regional climate of the High Plains during the 26 years of the study period (1981–2006), show a significant cooling effect on the regional temperatures during the summer season. The cooling effect was attributed to probable evaporative cooling originating from the increasing extensive irrigation in the region. The external forcing of atmospheric CO2 was included in the study to suppress the radiative warming effect of greenhouse gases, thus, enhancing the LULC change signal. The results show that the greenhouse gas radiative warming effect in the region is significant, but weak, compared to the LULC change signal. The study demonstrates the regional climatic impact of anthropogenic induced atmospheric-biosphere interaction attributed to LULC change, which is an additional and important climate forcing in addition to greenhouse gas radiative forcing in High Plains region.

Description: Root architecture was determined together with shoot parameters under well watered and drought conditions in the field in three soybean cultivars (A5409RG, Jackson and Prima 2000). Morphology parameters were used to classify the cultivars into different root phenotypes that could be important in conferring drought tolerance traits. A5409RG is a drought-sensitive cultivar with a shallow root phenotype and a root angle of 〈40°. In contrast, Jackson is a drought-escaping cultivar. It has a deep rooting phenotype with a root angle of >60°. Prima 2000 is an intermediate drought-tolerant cultivar with a root angle of 40°–60°. It has an intermediate root phenotype. Prima 2000 was the best performing cultivar under drought stress, having the greatest shoot biomass and grain yield under limited water availability. It had abundant root nodules even under drought conditions. A positive correlation was observed between nodule size, above-ground biomass and seed yield under well-watered and drought conditions. These findings demonstrate that root system phenotyping using markers that are easy-to-apply under field conditions can be used to determine genotypic differences in drought tolerance in soybean. The strong association between root and nodule parameters and whole plant productivity demonstrates the potential application of simple root phenotypic markers in screening for drought tolerance in soybean.

Description: Identifying patterns and drivers of regional land use changes is crucial for supporting land management and planning. Doing so for mountain ecosystems in East Asia, such as the So-yang River Basin in South Korea, has until now been a challenge because of extreme social and ecological complexities. Applying the techniques of geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical modeling via multinomial logistic regression (MNL), we attempted to examine various hypothesized drivers of land use changes, over the period 1980 to 2000. The hypothesized drivers included variables of topography, accessibility, spatial zoning policies and neighboring land use. Before the inferential statistic analyses, we identified the optimal neighborhood extents for each land use type. The two archetypical sub-periods, i.e., 1980–1990 with agricultural expansions and 1990–2000 with reforestation, have similar causal drivers, such as topographic factors, which are related to characteristics of mountainous areas, neighborhood land use, and spatial zoning policies, of land use changes. Since the statistical models robustly capture the mutual effects of biophysical heterogeneity, neighborhood characteristics and spatial zoning regulation on long-term land use changes, they are valuable for developing coupled models of social-ecological systems to simulate land use and dependent ecosystem services, and to support sustainable land management.

Description: Agricultural census data and fieldwork observations are used to analyze changes in land cover/use intensity across Rondônia and Mato Grosso states along the agricultural frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. Results show that the development of land use is strongly related to land distribution structure. While large farms have increased their share of annual and perennial crops, small and medium size farms have strongly contributed to the development of beef and milk market chains in both Rondônia and Mato Grosso. Land use intensification has occurred in the form of increased use of machinery, labor in agriculture and stocking rates of cattle herds. Regional and national demands have improved infrastructure and productivity. The data presented show that the distinct pathways of land use development are related to accessibility to markets and processing industry as well as to the agricultural colonization history of the region. The data analyzed do not provide any indication of frontier stagnation, i.e., the slowdown of agricultural expansion, in the Brazilian Amazon. Instead of frontier stagnation, the data analyzed indicate that intensification processes in consolidated areas as well as recent agricultural expansion into forest areas are able to explain the cycle of expansion and retraction of the agricultural frontier into the Amazon region. The evolution of land use is useful for scenario analysis of both land cover change and land use intensification and provides insights into the role of market development and policies on land use.

Description: The increasing availability of digital databases (e.g., of climatology, topography, soils and land use) has enabled research into the generalisation of hydrological model parameter values from physical properties and the development of grid-based models. A hydrological modelling framework (HMF) is being developed to exploit this generalisation and provide a flexible gridded infrastructure, operational over regional, national or larger scales at a range of spatial and temporal resolutions. The capability of the framework is demonstrated through adaptation of an existing semi-distributed catchment-based rainfall-runoff model, CLASSIC, for which a generalised methodology exists to determine parameter values. The main change required was to ensure consistency of parameter values between the runoff procedure in CLASSIC and flow routing in the HMF. Assessment is by comparison of modelled and observed flow at grid points in Britain corresponding to gauging stations, both for catchments previously modelled and for new locations, for a range of catchment areas and physical properties and for four spatial resolutions (10, 5, 2.5 and 1 km). Good model performance is achieved for 90% of catchments tested, with a 5 km resolution proving adequate for catchments larger than 500 km2. Applications are outlined for which the framework could be used to test alternative modelling approaches or undertake consistent studies across the range of resolutions.

Description: Agricultural intensification in America has replaced native warm-season grasses (NWSG) with introduced forages causing wildlife habitat loss and population declines for the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and similar ground-nesting birds. Reintroducing NWSGs onto managed grasslands to reverse grassland bird population declines lacks information about appropriate multi-purpose management. Post-season nesting habitat quality of mixed NWSGs (indiangrass (IG, Sorghastrum nutans), big bluestem (BB, Andropogon gerardii) and little bluestem (LB, Schizachyrium scoparium)) responding to previous-year(s) harvest intervals (treatments, 30-, 40-, 60-, 90 or 120-d) and duration (years in production), were assessed on late-spring-early-summer re-growths. Yearly phased harvestings were initiated in May on sets of randomized plots, ≥90-cm apart, in five replications (blocks) to produce one-, two-, and three-year old stands by the third year. Sward heights and canopy closure were recorded a day before harvest, followed a week after by visual estimates of ground cover of plant species and litter. Harvesting increased post-season grass cover and reduced forbs following a high rainfall year. Harvested plot swards showed no treatment differences, but were shorter and intercepted more sunlight. Similarly, harvest duration increased grass cover with no year effect but reduced forbs following a high rainfall year. One- or two-year full-season harvesting of similar stands may not compromise subsequent bobwhite nesting-cover provided post-season harvesting starts after the breeding cycle is completed.

Description: Widespread outbreaks of avian influenza occurred in 2004–2005. The outbreaks resulted in extensive losses for the poultry sector in East and South East Asia. Thailand suffered a tremendous impact from the disease. Later, in 2006, there was another outbreak of the aforementioned disease in poultry production clusters (PPCs) in Nakhon Phanom province in the northeastern region of Thailand. In this study, we conducted an intervention by working together with the Department of Livestock Development officials to improve the biosecurity level of PPCs in this province. The methods employed in the intervention included meetings to build understanding and hear about various ideas and problems among stakeholders; instructions; having the farmers perform self-evaluations of the level of biosecurity on the farms; and measures for motivating farmers, e.g., farm contests and handing out awards. The results revealed the following information: After intervention, attraction to wild bird of poultry farms in PPCs decreased (p 〈 0.05), because the farmers cut down trees around farm and poultry housing. Moreover, biosecurity system planning inside farms in PPCs increased (p 〈 0.05). The scores for biosecurity system planning inside farms that increased following the intervention are a positive sign that farmers will continue to develop better biosecurity systems on their farms.

Description: Results from a series of field experiments, conducted to investigate the influence of infragravity waves (from wave groups), ripple type and location relative to the breaker line on cross-shore suspended sediment flux close to the sea bed in nearshore environments, are presented. The field data were collected from Cable Beach (Broome) and Mullaloo Beach in Western Australia and Chilaw in Sri Lanka. These beaches experience different incident wave, tidal and morphological conditions, with Cable Beach having a 10-m spring tidal range, whilst the other two beaches have tidal ranges 〈1.0 m. Measurements included simultaneous records of surface elevation, two-dimensional horizontal current velocities and suspended sediment concentrations, together with half-hourly observations of the seabed topography. Although most of the data sets were obtained just outside of the surf zone, a few results from inside of the surf zone were also included. A significant correlation between wave groups and suspended sediment concentration was found at all of the measurement sites, either with or without bed ripples. The direction and magnitude of cross-shore suspended sediment flux varied with location with respect to the breaker line; however, other parameters, such as bed ripples and velocity skewness, could have influenced this result. In Broome, where the measurement location with respect to the breaker line varied with the tidal cycle, the cross-shore sediment flux due to swell waves was shoreward inside and just outside of the surf zone and seaward farther offshore of the breaker line. Further, sediment flux due to swell waves was onshore when the seabed was flat and offshore over post-vortex ripples. Sediment flux due to swell waves was onshore when the normalised velocity skewness towards the shore was high (positive); the flux was offshore when the skewness was lower, but positive, suggesting the influence of other parameters, such as ripples and grain size. The net cross-shore sediment flux was onshore when the Dean number was less than 1.67 and offshore when the Dean number was greater than 1.67. Nevertheless, the Dean number did not account for the influence of ripples or velocity skewness. The cross-shore sediment flux at the infragravity frequency was mainly offshore outside of the surf zone, whereas it varied between onshore and offshore inside of the surf zone.

Description: Within the context of the Water Framework Directive, the need to identify new monitoring tools in support of the traditional chemical monitoring process is emerging. Chemical characterization by itself does not provide specific biological information about potential hazards to organisms, in particular when facing cocktails of contaminants. Therefore, ecotoxicity tests can represent a useful tool supporting the chemical information. In the present work, the value of ecotoxicity tests as an effect-based tool for monitoring freshwater and sediment quality of the south-western basin of Lake Como (Northern Italy) was evaluated, assessing the potential risk of pollutants. Results obtained from D. magna toxicity tests showed a temporal variation of toxic response in relation to the variability of organic micropollutant load characteristics of urban rivers. Sediment ecotoxicity test data showed the spatial variability of the sediments’ contamination within the lake, confirmed by chemical analysis of two classes of pollutants (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and polychlorobiphenyls (PCB)). The observed effects on organisms in laboratory tests caused by a mixture of almost unknown chemicals underline the importance of integrating effect-based tools into monitoring efforts.

Description: We discuss a method of constructing solutions of the initial value problem for diffusion-type equations in terms of solutions of certain Riccati and Ermakov-type systems. A nonautonomous Burgers-type equation is also considered. Examples include, but are not limited to the Fokker-Planck equation in physics, the Black-Scholes equation and the Hull-White model in finance.

Description: Zagier proved that the generating functions of traces of singular values of Jm(z) are weight 3 2 weakly holomorphic modular forms. In this paper we prove that there is the sign-periodicity of traces of singular values of Jm(z).

Description: Assume that claims in a portfolio of insurance contracts are described by independent and identically distributed random variables with regularly varying tails and occur according to a near mixed Poisson process. We provide a collection of results pertaining to the joint asymptotic Laplace transforms of the normalised sums of the smallest and largest claims, when the length of the considered time interval tends to infinity. The results crucially depend on the value of the tail index of the claim distribution, as well as on the number of largest claims under consideration.

Description: A particular challenge for undertaking urbanization mapping of Beirut is the absence of a unified understanding of the city. Migration, informal settlements, a lack of urban planning, political corruption, as well as internal conflict have made this task even harder. The population in Lebanon is unevenly distributed among regions, where one third of the population resides in the Greater Beirut Area (GBA), whereas it occupies only 233 km2 (2% of Lebanon’s total area). The Greater Beirut Area is subject to pressures arising from population growth and economic expansion. This study aims to follow the evolution of urbanization from 1963 till 2005 by processing and interpreting topographical maps and satellite images acquired by different space platforms. Satellite imagery change analysis shows that average annual urban growth surpassed 1.8 km2∙yr−1. Actually, a variety of factors triggers urban growth in the GBA (i.e., transportation, public policies, economic activities and environmental variables). The logistic regression method has been applied to model future urban growth in the region of Greater Beirut. Consequently, an urban growth scenario map has been generated. To validate our results, we compared an urban map derived from RapidEye satellite acquired in 2010 to our model’s outcome of the same year. The output shows a satisfactory rate of success (~61%). This research aims to provide policy makers and urban planners in Lebanon an essential decision tool to support upcoming urban planning in this study area or in others major cities in Lebanon.

Description: The effect of the modifier concentration and flow rate on the chromatographic performance of a second generation Chromolith® RP-18e column, under isocratic and gradient elution with acetonitrile-water mixtures, was examined using four sulphonamides as probe compounds. The acetonitrile concentration was varied between 5 and 55% (v/v), and the flow rate between 0.1 and 5.0 mL/min, keeping the other factors constant. The changes in both retention and peak profile were modelled, and used to build simple plots, where the logarithm of the retention factor was represented against the modifier concentration (in gradient elution, against the initial modifier concentration), and the half-widths or widths against the retention time (in gradient elution, against the time at the column outlet). A particular plot was needed for describing the retention of each sulphonamide, but due to the similar interaction kinetics, a unique plot described the changes in the half-widths for all four sulphonamides. The changes in retention with the flow showed that allegedly in the second generation Chromolith, the column deformation observed for the first generation Chromolith, with the applied pressure at increasing flow, is decreased.

Description: Proteins are the largest defined molecular component of marine organic nitrogen, and hydrolysable amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, are important components of particulate nitrogen in marine sediments. In oceanic systems, the largest contributors are phytoplankton proteins, which have been tracked from newly produced bloom material through the water column to surface sediments in the Bering Sea, but it is not known if proteins buried deeper in sediment systems can be identified with confidence. Electrophoretic gel protein extraction methods followed by proteomic mass spectrometry and database searching were used as the methodology to identify buried phytoplankton proteins in sediments from the 8–10 cm section of a Bering Sea sediment core. More peptides and proteins were identified using an SDS-PAGE tube gel than a standard 1D flat gel or digesting the sediment directly with trypsin. The majority of proteins identified correlated to the marine diatom, Thalassiosira pseudonana, rather than bacterial protein sequences, indicating an algal source not only dominates the input, but also the preserved protein fraction. Abundant RuBisCO and fucoxanthin chlorophyll a/c binding proteins were identified, supporting algal sources of these proteins and reinforcing the proposed mechanisms that might protect proteins for long time periods. Some preserved peptides were identified in unexpected gel molecular weight ranges, indicating that some structural changes or charge alteration influenced the mobility of these products during electrophoresis isolation. Identifying buried photosystem proteins suggests that algal particulate matter is a significant fraction of the preserved organic carbon and nitrogen pools in marine sediments.

Description: Mass spectrometry (MS) remains under-utilized for the analysis of expressed proteins because it is inaccessible to the non-specialist, and sample-turnaround from service labs is slow. Here, we describe 3.5 min Liquid-Chromatography (LC)-MS and 16 min LC-MSMS methods which are tailored to validation and characterization of recombinant proteins in a high throughput structural biology pipeline. We illustrate the type and scope of MS data typically obtained from a 96-well expression and purification test for both soluble and integral membrane proteins (IMPs), and describe their utility in the selection of constructs for scale-up structural work, leading to cost and efficiency savings. We propose that value of MS data lies in how quickly it becomes available and that this can fundamentally change the way in which it is used.

Description: Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) has been established as a potential source of respiratory biomarkers. Compared to the numerous small molecules identified, the protein content of EBC has remained relatively unstudied due to the methodological and technical difficulties surrounding EBC analysis. In this review, we discuss the proteins identified in EBC, by mass spectrometry, focusing on the significance of those proteins identified. We will also review the limitations surrounding mass spectral EBC protein analysis emphasizing recommendations to enhance EBC protein identifications by mass spectrometry. Finally, we will provide insight into the future directions of the EBC proteomics field.

Description: A new simple and quick method has been established for separation of Cu from solutions using an extraction chromatographic resin utilizing Aliquat® 336 (commercially available as TEVA™ resin) and Cu(I). This method involves the use of a one milliliter column containing 0.33 mL TEVA™ resin on 0.67 mL Amberchrom® CG-71C acrylic resin. Copper was adsorbed on the column by forming Cu(I) with 0.15% ascorbic acid in 0.05 mol·L−1 HBr, while other major elements except Zn showed no adsorption. After removal of the major elements (Na, Mg, Al, P, K, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni), Cu was recovered using 2 mol·L−1 HNO3. The recovery yield and total blank were 102% ± 2% and 0.25 ng, respectively. To evaluate the separation method, Cu isotope ratios were determined by a standard-sample-standard bracketing method using multicollector inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), with a repeatability of 0.04‰ and 0.25‰ (SD), for the standard solution and the solutions from low S (〈0.1% S) silicate standards, respectively.

Description: Olaparib (AZD2281) is an orally active PARP-1 inhibitor, primarily effective against cancers with BRCA1/2 mutations. It is currently in Phase III development and has previously been investigated in numerous clinical trials, both as a single agent and in combination with chemotherapy. Despite this widespread testing, there is only one published method that provides assay details and stability studies for olaparib alone. A more sensitive uHPLC-MS/MS method for the quantification of olaparib in human plasma was developed, increasing the range of quantification at both ends (0.5–50,000 ng/mL) compared to previously published methods (10–5,000 ng/mL). The wider range encompasses CMAX levels produced by typical olaparib doses and permits better pharmacokinetic modeling of olaparib elimination. This assay also utilizes a shorter analytical runtime, allowing for more rapid quantification and reduced use of reagents. A liquid-liquid extraction was followed by chromatographic separation on a Waters UPLC® BEH C18 column (2.1 × 50 mm, 1.7 µm) and mass spectrometric detection. The mass transitions m/z 435.4→281.1 and m/z 443.2→281.1 were used for olaparib and the internal standard [2H8]-olaparib, respectively. The assay proved to be accurate (〈9% deviation) and precise (CV 〈 11%). Stability studies showed that olaparib is stable at room temperature for 24 h. in whole blood, at 4 °C for 24 h post-extraction, at −80 °C in plasma for at least 19 months, and through three freeze-thaw cycles. This method proved to be robust for measuring olaparib levels in clinical samples from a Phase I trial.

Description: Capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) or tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is reported as an alternative and potentially useful method for the simultaneous analysis of various classes of phytohormones with diversified structures, including indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellic acid (GA), zeatin (Z), N6-benzyladenine (BA), α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The key to the CE-MS/MS analysis was based on electroosmotic flow reversal using a cationic polymer-coated capillary. Under optimum conditions, a baseline separation of eight phytohormones was accomplished within 30 min using 60 mM ammonium formate/formic acid buffer of pH 3.8 with −20 kV as the separation voltage. The accessibility of MS/MS together with the characterization by migration properties obtained by CE allows for the development of CE-MS/MS as an emerging potential method for the analysis of different classes of phytohormones in a single run. The utility of the CE-MS/MS method was demonstrated by the comprehensive screening of phytohormones in coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) water after pre-concentration and purification through solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge. IAA, ABA, GA and Z were detected and quantified in the purified coconut water extract sample.