Consistent spectroscopy for a extended gauge model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliveira Neto, G. de.

1990-11-01

The consistent spectroscopy was obtained with a Lagrangian constructed with vector fields with a U(1) group extended symmetry. As consistent spectroscopy is understood the determination of quantum physical properties described by the model in an manner independent from the possible parametrizations adopted in their description. (L.C.J.A.)

The EU as a global 'Rule of Law Promoter': the consistency and effectiveness challenges

OpenAIRE

Pech, Laurent

2016-01-01

This paper aims to examine the consistency and effectiveness of the EU as a global promoter of values by focusing on the rule of law, one of the key values on which the EU is based and which is also supposed to guide the EU’s external action. The paper first offers the diagnosis that the EU has failed to properly address a number of key issues: (i) what the EU seeks to promote under the heading ‘rule of law’; (ii) how it measures and monitors a country’s adherence to this principle and (iii) ...

Dynamic phonon exchange requires consistent dressing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hahne, F.J.W.; Engelbrecht, C.A.; Heiss, W.D.

1976-01-01

It is shown that states with undersirable properties (such as ghosts, states with complex eigenenergies and states with unrestricted normalization) emerge from two-body calculations using dynamic effective interactions if one is not careful in introducing single-particle self-energy insertions in a consistent manner

Do children with obesity have worse table manners? Associations between child table manners, weight status and weight gain.

Science.gov (United States)

Briones, Naomi F; Cesaro, Robert J; Appugliese, Danielle P; Miller, Alison L; Rosenblum, Katherine L; Pesch, Megan H

2018-06-01

Children with obesity experience stigma stemming from stereotypes, one such stereotype is that people with obesity are "sloppy" or have poor manners. Teaching children "proper table manners" has been proposed as an obesity prevention strategy. Little is known about the association between children's weight status and table manners. To examine correlates of child table manners and to examine the association of child table manners with child obese weight status and prospective change in child body mass index z-score (BMIz). Mother-child dyads (N = 228) participated in a videotaped laboratory eating task with cupcakes. Coding schemes to capture child table manners (making crumbs, chewing with mouth open, getting food on face, shoving food in mouth, slouching, and getting out of seat), and maternal attentiveness to child table manners, were reliably applied. Anthropometrics were measured at baseline and at follow-up two years later. Regression analyses examined the association of participant characteristics with child table manners, as well as the associations of child table manners with child obese weight status, and prospective change in BMIz/year. Predictors of poorer child table manners were younger child age, greater cupcake consumption, and greater maternal attentiveness to child table manners. Poorer child table manners were not associated with child obese (vs. not) weight status, but were associated with a prospective decrease in BMIz/year in children with overweight/obesity. Obesity interventions to improve table manners may be perpetuating unfavorable stereotypes and stigma. Future work investigating these associations is warranted to inform childhood obesity guidelines around table manners. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Constructing Consistent Multiscale Scenarios by Transdisciplinary Processes: the Case of Mountain Regions Facing Global Change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fridolin Simon. Brand

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Alpine regions in Europe, in particular, face demanding local challenges, e.g., the decline in the agriculture and timber industries, and are also prone to global changes, such as in climate, with potentially severe impacts on tourism. We focus on the Visp region in the Upper Valais, Switzerland, and ask how the process of stakeholder involvement in research practice can contribute to a better understanding of the specific challenges and future development of mountainous regions under global change. Based on a coupled human-environment system (HES perspective, we carried out a formative scenario analysis to develop a set of scenarios for the future directions of the Visp region. In addition, we linked these regional scenarios to context scenarios developed at the global and Swiss levels via an external consistency analysis. This method allows the coupling of both the scenario building process and the scenarios as such. We used a functional-dynamic approach to theory-practice cooperation, i.e., the involvement of key stakeholders from, for example, tourism, forestry, and administration, differed in type and intensity during the steps of the research process. In our study, we experienced strong problem awareness among the stakeholders concerning the impacts of global change and local challenges. The guiding research question was commonly defined and problem ownership was more or less balanced. We arrived at six multiscale scenarios that open up future trajectories for the Visp region, and present generic strategies to cope with global and local challenges. The results show that local identity, spatial planning, community budget, and demographic development are important steering elements in the region's future development. We suggest that method-guided transdisciplinary processes result in a richer picture and a more systemic understanding, which enable a discussion of critical and surprising issues.

How consistent are global long-term satellite LAI products in terms of interannual variability and trend?

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, C.; Ryu, Y.; Fang, H.

2016-12-01

Proper usage of global satellite LAI products requires comprehensive evaluation. To address this issue, the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Land Product Validation (LPV) subgroup proposed a four-stage validation hierarchy. During the past decade, great efforts have been made following this validation framework, mainly focused on absolute magnitude, seasonal trajectory, and spatial pattern of those global satellite LAI products. However, interannual variability and trends of global satellite LAI products have been investigated marginally. Targeting on this gap, we made an intercomparison between seven global satellite LAI datasets, including four short-term ones: MODIS C5, MODIS C6, GEOV1, MERIS, and three long-term products ones: LAI3g, GLASS, and GLOBMAP. We calculated global annual LAI time series for each dataset, among which we found substantial differences. During the overlapped period (2003 - 2011), MODIS C5, GLASS and GLOBMAP have positive correlation (r > 0.6) between each other, while MODIS C6, GEOV1, MERIS, and LAI3g are highly consistent (r > 0.7) in interannual variations. However, the previous three datasets show negative trends, all of which use MODIS C5 reflectance data, whereas the latter four show positive trends, using MODIS C6, SPOT/VGT, ENVISAT/MERIS, and NOAA/AVHRR, respectively. During the pre-MODIS era (1982 - 1999), the three AVHRR-based datasets (LAI3g, GLASS and GLOBMAP) agree well (r > 0.7), yet all of them show oscillation related with NOAA platform changes. In addition, both GLASS and GLOBMAP show clear cut-points around 2000 when they move from AVHRR to MODIS. Such inconsistency is also visible for GEOV1, which uses SPOT-4 and SPOT-5 before and after 2002. We further investigate the map-to-map deviations among these products. This study highlights that continuous sensor calibration and cross calibration are essential to obtain reliable global LAI time series.

Cumulative carbon emissions budgets consistent with 1.5 °C global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Tokarska, Katarzyna B.; Gillett, Nathan P.

2018-04-01

The Paris Agreement1 commits ratifying parties to pursue efforts to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C relative to pre-industrial levels. Carbon budgets2-5 consistent with remaining below 1.5 °C warming, reported in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)2,6,8, are directly based on Earth system model (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5)7 responses, which, on average, warm more than observations in response to historical CO2 emissions and other forcings8,9. These models indicate a median remaining budget of 55 PgC (ref. 10, base period: year 1870) left to emit from January 2016, the equivalent to approximately five years of emissions at the 2015 rate11,12. Here we calculate warming and carbon budgets relative to the decade 2006-2015, which eliminates model-observation differences in the climate-carbon response over the historical period9, and increases the median remaining carbon budget to 208 PgC (33-66% range of 130-255 PgC) from January 2016 (with mean warming of 0.89 °C for 2006-2015 relative to 1861-188013-18). There is little sensitivity to the observational data set used to infer warming that has occurred, and no significant dependence on the choice of emissions scenario. Thus, although limiting median projected global warming to below 1.5 °C is undoubtedly challenging19-21, our results indicate it is not impossible, as might be inferred from the IPCC AR5 carbon budgets2,8.

Global regulator SATB1 recruits beta-catenin and regulates T(H2 differentiation in Wnt-dependent manner.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dimple Notani

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In vertebrates, the conserved Wnt signalling cascade promotes the stabilization and nuclear accumulation of beta-catenin, which then associates with the lymphoid enhancer factor/T cell factor proteins (LEF/TCFs to activate target genes. Wnt/beta -catenin signalling is essential for T cell development and differentiation. Here we show that special AT-rich binding protein 1 (SATB1, the T lineage-enriched chromatin organizer and global regulator, interacts with beta-catenin and recruits it to SATB1's genomic binding sites. Gene expression profiling revealed that the genes repressed by SATB1 are upregulated upon Wnt signalling. Competition between SATB1 and TCF affects the transcription of TCF-regulated genes upon beta-catenin signalling. GATA-3 is a T helper type 2 (T(H2 specific transcription factor that regulates production of T(H2 cytokines and functions as T(H2 lineage determinant. SATB1 positively regulated GATA-3 and siRNA-mediated knockdown of SATB1 downregulated GATA-3 expression in differentiating human CD4(+ T cells, suggesting that SATB1 influences T(H2 lineage commitment by reprogramming gene expression. In the presence of Dickkopf 1 (Dkk1, an inhibitor of Wnt signalling, GATA-3 is downregulated and the expression of signature T(H2 cytokines such as IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13 is reduced, indicating that Wnt signalling is essential for T(H2 differentiation. Knockdown of beta-catenin also produced similar results, confirming the role of Wnt/beta-catenin signalling in T(H2 differentiation. Furthermore, chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that SATB1 recruits beta-catenin and p300 acetyltransferase on GATA-3 promoter in differentiating T(H2 cells in a Wnt-dependent manner. SATB1 coordinates T(H2 lineage commitment by reprogramming gene expression. The SATB1:beta-catenin complex activates a number of SATB1 regulated genes, and hence this study has potential to find novel Wnt responsive genes. These results demonstrate that SATB1

Speech Mannerisms: Games Clients Play

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Lewis B.

1978-01-01

This article focuses on speech mannerisms often employed by clients in a helping relationship. Eight mannerisms are presented and discussed, as well as possible interpretations. Suggestions are given to help counselors respond to them. (Author)

Buried Messages, Hidden Meanings: Speech Mannerisms Revisited.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Lewis B.

1988-01-01

Introduces counselors to 10 commonly used mannerisms of speech and the part that each mannerism plays in the communication process, especially in the counseling context. Offers suggestions on how to respond to these speech mannerisms in a straightforward and effective manner. (Author)

Consistency of climate change projections from multiple global and regional model intercomparison projects

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández, J.; Frías, M. D.; Cabos, W. D.; Cofiño, A. S.; Domínguez, M.; Fita, L.; Gaertner, M. A.; García-Díez, M.; Gutiérrez, J. M.; Jiménez-Guerrero, P.; Liguori, G.; Montávez, J. P.; Romera, R.; Sánchez, E.

2018-03-01

We present an unprecedented ensemble of 196 future climate projections arising from different global and regional model intercomparison projects (MIPs): CMIP3, CMIP5, ENSEMBLES, ESCENA, EURO- and Med-CORDEX. This multi-MIP ensemble includes all regional climate model (RCM) projections publicly available to date, along with their driving global climate models (GCMs). We illustrate consistent and conflicting messages using continental Spain and the Balearic Islands as target region. The study considers near future (2021-2050) changes and their dependence on several uncertainty sources sampled in the multi-MIP ensemble: GCM, future scenario, internal variability, RCM, and spatial resolution. This initial work focuses on mean seasonal precipitation and temperature changes. The results show that the potential GCM-RCM combinations have been explored very unevenly, with favoured GCMs and large ensembles of a few RCMs that do not respond to any ensemble design. Therefore, the grand-ensemble is weighted towards a few models. The selection of a balanced, credible sub-ensemble is challenged in this study by illustrating several conflicting responses between the RCM and its driving GCM and among different RCMs. Sub-ensembles from different initiatives are dominated by different uncertainty sources, being the driving GCM the main contributor to uncertainty in the grand-ensemble. For this analysis of the near future changes, the emission scenario does not lead to a strong uncertainty. Despite the extra computational effort, for mean seasonal changes, the increase in resolution does not lead to important changes.

An eigenvalue approach to quantum plasmonics based on a self-consistent hydrodynamics method.

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Kun; Chan, C T

2018-02-28

Plasmonics has attracted much attention not only because it has useful properties such as strong field enhancement, but also because it reveals the quantum nature of matter. To handle quantum plasmonics effects, ab initio packages or empirical Feibelman d-parameters have been used to explore the quantum correction of plasmonic resonances. However, most of these methods are formulated within the quasi-static framework. The self-consistent hydrodynamics model offers a reliable approach to study quantum plasmonics because it can incorporate the quantum effect of the electron gas into classical electrodynamics in a consistent manner. Instead of the standard scattering method, we formulate the self-consistent hydrodynamics method as an eigenvalue problem to study quantum plasmonics with electrons and photons treated on the same footing. We find that the eigenvalue approach must involve a global operator, which originates from the energy functional of the electron gas. This manifests the intrinsic nonlocality of the response of quantum plasmonic resonances. Our model gives the analytical forms of quantum corrections to plasmonic modes, incorporating quantum electron spill-out effects and electrodynamical retardation. We apply our method to study the quantum surface plasmon polariton for a single flat interface.

Benford's Law for Quality Assurance of Manner of Death Counts in Small and Large Databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Daniels, Jeremy; Caetano, Samantha-Jo; Huyer, Dirk; Stephen, Andrew; Fernandes, John; Lytwyn, Alice; Hoppe, Fred M

2017-09-01

To assess if Benford's law, a mathematical law used for quality assurance in accounting, can be applied as a quality assurance measure for the manner of death determination. We examined a regional forensic pathology service's monthly manner of death counts (N = 2352) from 2011 to 2013, and provincial monthly and weekly death counts from 2009 to 2013 (N = 81,831). We tested whether each dataset's leading digit followed Benford's law via the chi-square test. For each database, we assessed whether number 1 was the most common leading digit. The manner of death counts first digit followed Benford's law in all the three datasets. Two of the three datasets had 1 as the most frequent leading digit. The manner of death data in this study showed qualities consistent with Benford's law. The law has potential as a quality assurance metric in the manner of death determination for both small and large databases. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Consistency of seven different GNSS global ionospheric mapping techniques during one solar cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Roma-Dollase, David; Hernández-Pajares, Manuel; Krankowski, Andrzej; Kotulak, Kacper; Ghoddousi-Fard, Reza; Yuan, Yunbin; Li, Zishen; Zhang, Hongping; Shi, Chuang; Wang, Cheng; Feltens, Joachim; Vergados, Panagiotis; Komjathy, Attila; Schaer, Stefan; García-Rigo, Alberto; Gómez-Cama, José M.

2018-06-01

In the context of the International GNSS Service (IGS), several IGS Ionosphere Associated Analysis Centers have developed different techniques to provide global ionospheric maps (GIMs) of vertical total electron content (VTEC) since 1998. In this paper we present a comparison of the performances of all the GIMs created in the frame of IGS. Indeed we compare the classical ones (for the ionospheric analysis centers CODE, ESA/ESOC, JPL and UPC) with the new ones (NRCAN, CAS, WHU). To assess the quality of them in fair and completely independent ways, two assessment methods are used: a direct comparison to altimeter data (VTEC-altimeter) and to the difference of slant total electron content (STEC) observed in independent ground reference stations (dSTEC-GPS). The main conclusion of this study, performed during one solar cycle, is the consistency of the results between so many different GIM techniques and implementations.

Institutional traditions in teachers' manners of teaching

Science.gov (United States)

Lundqvist, Eva; Almqvist, Jonas; Östman, Leif

2012-03-01

The aim of this article is to make a close case study of one teacher's teaching in relation to established traditions within science education in Sweden. The teacher's manner of teaching is analysed with the help of an epistemological move analysis. The moves made by the teacher are then compared in a context of educational philosophy and selective tradition. In the analyses the focus is to study the process of teaching and learning in action in institutionalised and socially shared practices. The empirical material consists of video recordings of four lessons with the same group of students and the same teacher. The students are all in Year 7 in a Swedish 9-year compulsory school. During these lessons the students work with a subject area called "Properties of materials". The results show that the teacher makes a number of different moves with regard to how to proceed and come to a conclusion about what the substances are. Many of these moves are special in that they indicate that the students need to be able to handle the procedural level of school science. These moves do not deal directly with the knowledge production process, but with methodological aspects. The function of the moves turns the students' attention from one source of knowledge to another. The moves are aimed at helping the students to help themselves, since it is through their own activity and their own thinking that learning takes place. This is characteristic in the teacher's manner of teaching. When compared in a context of educational philosophy, this manner of teaching has similarities with progressentialism; a mixture of essentialism and progressivism. This educational philosophy is a central aspect of what is called the academic tradition—a selective tradition common in science education in Sweden between 1960 and 1990.

Global information sampling in the honey bee

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Brian R.

2008-06-01

Central to the question of task allocation in social insects is how workers acquire information. Patrolling is a curious behavior in which bees meander over the face of the comb inspecting cells. Several authors have suggested it allows bees to collect global information, but this has never been formally evaluated. This study explores this hypothesis by answering three questions. First, do bees gather information in a consistent manner as they patrol? Second, do they move far enough to get a sense of task demand in distant areas of the nest? And third, is patrolling a commonly performed task? Focal animal observations were used to address the first two predictions, while a scan sampling study was used to address the third. The results were affirmative for each question. While patrolling, workers collected information by performing periodic clusters of cell inspections. Patrolling bees not only traveled far enough to frequently change work zone; they often visited every part of the nest. Finally, the majority of the bees in the middle-age caste were shown to move throughout the nest over the course of a few hours in a manner suggestive of patrolling. Global information collection is contrary to much current theory, which assumes that workers respond to local information only. This study thus highlights the nonmutually exclusive nature of various information collection regimes in social insects.

Kant, Xunzi and the Artificiality of Manners

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anja BERNINGER

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Both Chinese and Western philosophers have argued for the ethical importance of manners. Their approaches are sometimes criticized on the grounds that manners are artificial. I compare Xunzi’s and Kant’s responses to this claim, and discuss the relevance of both positions for the development of a theory of manners. I show that there is no single artificiality claim, but rather four different claims: the claim that polite behavior lacks spontaneity, the claim that it is insincere, the claim that it goes against human nature, and the claim that it is arbitrary. While Kant is mainly concerned with the insincerity claim, Xunzi focusses on the claim that manners are arbitrary rules. Because of their different understandings of the function of manners both authors only provide a partial answer to the artificiality claim. To arrive at a full account of manners both perspectives must be combined.

Mind Your Manners

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wiley, H. S.

2010-01-01

There has been a lot of talk in the media about the loss of courtesy in modern society. By many criteria, it seems that people in general have lost a degree of politeness. Reading some of the online comments after several recent articles in The Scientist would seem to indicate that biologists have also lost their manners. This lack of basic manners alarms me not only because of the obvious danger to our sense of community, but also because this type of behavior could damage society’s positive perception of scientists. Every time scientists (or anonymous bloggers posing as scientists) rant about the idiocy of someone who disagrees with them, our collective credibility erodes. Yes, there are a number of issues that we as scientists should be passionate about, but our objectives are best served by retaining an objective demeanor and respecting those to whom we happen to disagree.

Globally Consistent Indoor Mapping via a Decoupling Rotation and Translation Algorithm Applied to RGB-D Camera Output

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuan Liu

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a novel RGB-D 3D reconstruction algorithm for the indoor environment. The method can produce globally-consistent 3D maps for potential GIS applications. As the consumer RGB-D camera provides a noisy depth image, the proposed algorithm decouples the rotation and translation for a more robust camera pose estimation, which makes full use of the information, but also prevents inaccuracies caused by noisy depth measurements. The uncertainty in the image depth is not only related to the camera device, but also the environment; hence, a novel uncertainty model for depth measurements was developed using Gaussian mixture applied to multi-windows. The plane features in the indoor environment contain valuable information about the global structure, which can guide the convergence of camera pose solutions, and plane and feature point constraints are incorporated in the proposed optimization framework. The proposed method was validated using publicly-available RGB-D benchmarks and obtained good quality trajectory and 3D models, which are difficult for traditional 3D reconstruction algorithms.

Hierarchical fault diagnosis for discrete-event systems under local consistency

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Su, Rong; Wonham, W.M.

2006-01-01

In previous work the authors proposed a distributed diagnosis approach consisting of two phases—preliminary diagnosis in each local diagnoser and inter-diagnoser communication. The objective of communication is to achieve either global or local consistency among local diagnoses, where global

Global tree network for computing structures enabling global processing operations

Science.gov (United States)

Blumrich; Matthias A.; Chen, Dong; Coteus, Paul W.; Gara, Alan G.; Giampapa, Mark E.; Heidelberger, Philip; Hoenicke, Dirk; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard D.; Takken, Todd E.; Vranas, Pavlos M.

2010-01-19

A system and method for enabling high-speed, low-latency global tree network communications among processing nodes interconnected according to a tree network structure. The global tree network enables collective reduction operations to be performed during parallel algorithm operations executing in a computer structure having a plurality of the interconnected processing nodes. Router devices are included that interconnect the nodes of the tree via links to facilitate performance of low-latency global processing operations at nodes of the virtual tree and sub-tree structures. The global operations performed include one or more of: broadcast operations downstream from a root node to leaf nodes of a virtual tree, reduction operations upstream from leaf nodes to the root node in the virtual tree, and point-to-point message passing from any node to the root node. The global tree network is configurable to provide global barrier and interrupt functionality in asynchronous or synchronized manner, and, is physically and logically partitionable.

Consistency of two global MODIS aerosol products over ocean on Terra and Aqua CERES SSF datasets

Science.gov (United States)

Ignatov, Alexander; Minnis, Patrick; Wielicki, Bruce; Loeb, Norman G.; Remer, Lorraine A.; Kaufman, Yoram J.; Miller, Walter F.; Sun-Mack, Sunny; Laszlo, Istvan; Geier, Erika B.

2004-12-01

MODIS aerosol retrievals over ocean from Terra and Aqua platforms are available from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) datasets generated at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). Two aerosol products are reported side by side. The primary M product is generated by subsetting and remapping the multi-spectral (0.44 - 2.1 μm) MOD04 aerosols onto CERES footprints. MOD04 processing uses cloud screening and aerosol algorithms developed by the MODIS science team. The secondary (AVHRR-like) A product is generated in only two MODIS bands: 1 and 6 on Terra, and ` and 7 on Aqua. The A processing uses NASA/LaRC cloud-screening and NOAA/NESDIS single channel aerosol algorthm. The M and A products have been documented elsewhere and preliminarily compared using two weeks of global Terra CERES SSF (Edition 1A) data in December 2000 and June 2001. In this study, the M and A aerosol optical depths (AOD) in MODIS band 1 and (0.64 μm), τ1M and τ1A, are further checked for cross-platform consistency using 9 days of global Terra CERES SSF (Edition 2A) and Aqua CERES SSF (Edition 1A) data from 13 - 21 October 2002.

Aplikasi Pembelajaran Table Manners Berbasis Multimedia

OpenAIRE

Yosanny, Agustinna; Pradipta, Albert; Viles, Dody; Pensen, Pensen

2011-01-01

Table manners adalah aturan-aturan pokok yang berlaku di meja makan. Aturan ini biasanya diterapkan padajamuan makan resmi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk merancang dan mengembangkan suatu aplikasipembelajaran tentang table manners untuk memudahkan dalam mempelajari aturan-aturan yang perlu diketahuidalam jamuan makan resmi, meliputi etika sebelum dan saat proses menyantap makanan, serta penggunaanalat-alat makan. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode Interactive Multimedia System De...

Global media and violence in Africa : The case of Somalia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gewald, J.B.

2004-01-01

It has been argued that Africa has been sidelined in the global ICT revolution and that African societies appear to be cut off from global flows of information. Nevertheless, the manner in which war was waged in Somalia between 1991 and 1994 indicates that this global revolution has affected the

29 CFR 1905.21 - Manner of service.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

...-STEIGER OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT OF 1970 Hearings § 1905.21 Manner of service. Service of any... 29 Labor 5 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Manner of service. 1905.21 Section 1905.21 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR...

Framing global health: the governance challenge.

Science.gov (United States)

McInnes, Colin; Kamradt-Scott, Adam; Lee, Kelley; Reubi, David; Roemer-Mahler, Anne; Rushton, Simon; Williams, Owain David; Woodling, Marie

2012-01-01

With the emergence of global health comes governance challenges which are equally global in nature. This article identifies some of the initial limitations in analyses of global health governance (GHG) before discussing the focus of this special supplement: the framing of global health issues and the manner in which this impacts upon GHG. Whilst not denying the importance of material factors (such as resources and institutional competencies), the article identifies how issues can be framed in different ways, thereby creating particular pathways of response which in turn affect the potential for and nature of GHG. It also identifies and discusses the key frames operating in global health: evidence-based medicine, human rights, security, economics and development.

Maternal obesity programs increased leptin gene expression in rat male offspring via epigenetic modifications in a depot-specific manner

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon Lecoutre

2017-08-01

Conclusions: Consistent with the DOHaD hypothesis, persistent epigenetic remodeling occurs at regulatory regions especially within intergenic sequences, linked to higher leptin gene expression in adult HF offspring in a depot-specific manner.

Parton Distributions based on a Maximally Consistent Dataset

Science.gov (United States)

Rojo, Juan

2016-04-01

The choice of data that enters a global QCD analysis can have a substantial impact on the resulting parton distributions and their predictions for collider observables. One of the main reasons for this has to do with the possible presence of inconsistencies, either internal within an experiment or external between different experiments. In order to assess the robustness of the global fit, different definitions of a conservative PDF set, that is, a PDF set based on a maximally consistent dataset, have been introduced. However, these approaches are typically affected by theory biases in the selection of the dataset. In this contribution, after a brief overview of recent NNPDF developments, we propose a new, fully objective, definition of a conservative PDF set, based on the Bayesian reweighting approach. Using the new NNPDF3.0 framework, we produce various conservative sets, which turn out to be mutually in agreement within the respective PDF uncertainties, as well as with the global fit. We explore some of their implications for LHC phenomenology, finding also good consistency with the global fit result. These results provide a non-trivial validation test of the new NNPDF3.0 fitting methodology, and indicate that possible inconsistencies in the fitted dataset do not affect substantially the global fit PDFs.

Mannerisms of the Elderly and Approaches to Rapport.

Science.gov (United States)

French, Warren A.; And Others

1980-01-01

Many older adults react to old age with empirically identified distinguishable mannerisms. Using these mannerisms, or behavior patterns, as a basis for rapport, gerontologists can: (1) uncover causes of adjustment problems; (2) assess seriousness of problems; and (3) implement counseling suggestions. (Author/JAC)

L2-stability of the Vlasov-Maxwell-Boltzmann system near global Maxwellians

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ha, Seung-Yeal; Xiao, Qinghua; Xiong, Linjie; Zhao, Huijiang

2013-01-01

We present a L 2 -stability theory of the Vlasov-Maxwell-Boltzmann system for the two-species collisional plasma. We show that in a perturbative regime of a global Maxwellian, the L 2 -distance between two strong solutions can be controlled by that between initial data in a Lipschitz manner. Our stability result extends earlier results [Ha, S.-Y. and Xiao, Q.-H., “A revisiting to the L 2 -stability theory of the Boltzmann equation near global Maxwellians,” (submitted) and Ha, S.-Y., Yang, X.-F., and Yun, S.-B., “L 2 stability theory of the Boltzmann equation near a global Maxwellian,” Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 197, 657–688 (2010)] on the L 2 -stability of the Boltzmann equation to the Boltzmann equation coupled with self-consistent external forces. As a direct application of our stability result, we show that classical solutions in Duan et al. [“Optimal large-time behavior of the Vlasov-Maxwell-Boltzmann system in the whole space,” Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 24, 1497–1546 (2011)] and Guo [“The Vlasov-Maxwell-Boltzmann system near Maxwellians,” Invent. Math. 153(3), 593–630 (2003)] satisfy a uniform L 2 -stability estimate. This is the first result on the L 2 -stability of the Boltzmann equation coupled with self-consistent field equations in three dimensions

NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE MEDIATED BY MANNER OF MOTION VERBS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olesea BODEAN-VOZIAN

2016-12-01

Full Text Available There is typological variation in the way languages encode manner as an element of a motion event. Languages like English view it as relevant, and the lexicalization of the variety of ways to move results in a rich class of motion verbs, contrary to other types of languages, like Romanian, which leave the manner element to be encoded by verbids or adverbs (for these reasons some linguists refer to the first type as manner-rich and second type as manner-poor languages. Still, several studies contrasting typologically different languages showed that languages of the latter type are not so poor in manner-of-motion verbs. The question then might rather be: which manner components are more likely to be lexicalized?For research purposes, we distinguish manner in terms of objective elements (medium, speed or intensity and subjective elements (attitude, intention. The aim of the study is to focus on the manner-of-motion verbs that embed an evaluative or qualitative dimension of motion and to examine the way these verbs encode somebody’s perspective in a narrative. The first question in such a case is whose evaluation or point of view is being represented. The second one is how the subjective point of view (narrative perspective mediated through manner-of-motion verbs in an English narrative (The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien is translated into Romanian, supposedly a manner-poor or low-manner language.PERSPECTIVA NARATIVĂ MEDIATĂ DE VERBELE DE MIŞCARE DE MODExistă o variaţie tipologică în felul în care limbile codifică modul ca element al unui eveniment de mişcare. Limbile precum engleza îl percep drept unul relevant, iar lexicalizarea gamei de mijloace de redare a mişcării a dat naştere unei clase bogate de verbe de mişcare, contrar altor tipuri de limbi, aşa ca româna, în care elementul ce redă modul este codificat de gerunziu sau adverbe. Din aceasta cauză, unii lingvişti numesc primul tip limbi bogate în verbe de mod (�

A global change data base using thematic mapper data: Earth monitoring educational system (EMES)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

D'Antoni, H.L.; Peterson, D.L.

1992-01-01

The creation of an Earth Monitoring Educational System integrated with the research interests of NASA Ames Research Center and one or more university schools is proposed. This would be a first step in a new educational system at an international scale. Based on the integration of a global network of cooperators to build a global data base for assessments of global change, the EMES will promote AS, BS, MS and PhDs in global ecology at associated universities and colleges, and extra-curricular courses for multilevel audiences. These would range as appropriate from ministers to resource managers to students. Both programs will be conducted under a systemic approach, through active learning, coordination and correlation practices. They will be aimed to: (1) train specialists, (2) establish a tradition of solving regional problems concerning global change in a systemic manner, using remote sensing technology as the monitoring tool, and (3) transfer knowledge on global change to the national and world communities. The main goal of the extra-curricular courses would be to provide readily usable knowledge to the decision-making levels of all the participant countries and institutions. South America is proposed as the pilot continent for the project. This work is consistent with the educational goals of the International Space year in 1992

48 CFR 1371.101 - Inspection and manner of doing work.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Inspection and manner of... DEPARTMENT SUPPLEMENTAL REGULATIONS ACQUISITIONS INVOLVING SHIP CONSTRUCTION AND SHIP REPAIR Provisions and Clauses 1371.101 Inspection and manner of doing work. Insert clause 1352.271-70, Inspection and Manner of...

Consistent Valuation across Curves Using Pricing Kernels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrea Macrina

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The general problem of asset pricing when the discount rate differs from the rate at which an asset’s cash flows accrue is considered. A pricing kernel framework is used to model an economy that is segmented into distinct markets, each identified by a yield curve having its own market, credit and liquidity risk characteristics. The proposed framework precludes arbitrage within each market, while the definition of a curve-conversion factor process links all markets in a consistent arbitrage-free manner. A pricing formula is then derived, referred to as the across-curve pricing formula, which enables consistent valuation and hedging of financial instruments across curves (and markets. As a natural application, a consistent multi-curve framework is formulated for emerging and developed inter-bank swap markets, which highlights an important dual feature of the curve-conversion factor process. Given this multi-curve framework, existing multi-curve approaches based on HJM and rational pricing kernel models are recovered, reviewed and generalised and single-curve models extended. In another application, inflation-linked, currency-based and fixed-income hybrid securities are shown to be consistently valued using the across-curve valuation method.

Global Acceptance of Biosimilars: Importance of Regulatory Consistency, Education, and Trust.

Science.gov (United States)

Cazap, Eduardo; Jacobs, Ira; McBride, Ali; Popovian, Robert; Sikora, Karol

2018-05-16

Globally, biosimilars are expected to have a key role in improving patient access to biological therapies and addressing concerns regarding the escalating cost of health care. Indeed, in Europe, increased use of biologics and reduced drug prices have been observed after the introduction of biosimilars. Recently, several monoclonal antibody biosimilars of anticancer therapies have been approved, and numerous others are in various stages of clinical development. Biosimilars are authorized via a regulatory pathway separate from that used for generic drugs; they are also regulated separately from novel biologics. Biosimilar approval pathways in many major regulatory regions worldwide are, to a broad degree, scientifically aligned. However, owing to regional differences in health care priorities, policies, and resources, some important regulatory inconsistencies are evident. Acceptance of biosimilars by health care systems, health care professionals, and patients will be a key factor in the uptake of these therapies, and such regulatory variations could contribute to confusion and diminished confidence regarding the quality, efficacy, and reliability of these agents. Furthermore, the need for manufacturers to account for regulatory inconsistencies introduces inefficiencies and delays into biosimilar development programs. These issues should be addressed if biosimilars are to attain their maximal global potential. This review summarizes the evolution of the global biosimilar landscape and provides examples of inconsistencies between regulatory requirements in different regions. In addition, we review ongoing efforts to improve regulatory alignment and highlight the importance of education as a crucial factor in generating trust in, and acceptance of, biosimilars on a worldwide scale. Biosimilars of monoclonal antibody anticancer therapies are beginning to emerge, and more are likely to become available for clinical use in the near future. The extent to which biosimilars

Development of the Global Earthquake Model’s neotectonic fault database

Science.gov (United States)

Christophersen, Annemarie; Litchfield, Nicola; Berryman, Kelvin; Thomas, Richard; Basili, Roberto; Wallace, Laura; Ries, William; Hayes, Gavin P.; Haller, Kathleen M.; Yoshioka, Toshikazu; Koehler, Richard D.; Clark, Dan; Wolfson-Schwehr, Monica; Boettcher, Margaret S.; Villamor, Pilar; Horspool, Nick; Ornthammarath, Teraphan; Zuñiga, Ramon; Langridge, Robert M.; Stirling, Mark W.; Goded, Tatiana; Costa, Carlos; Yeats, Robert

2015-01-01

The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) aims to develop uniform, openly available, standards, datasets and tools for worldwide seismic risk assessment through global collaboration, transparent communication and adapting state-of-the-art science. GEM Faulted Earth (GFE) is one of GEM’s global hazard module projects. This paper describes GFE’s development of a modern neotectonic fault database and a unique graphical interface for the compilation of new fault data. A key design principle is that of an electronic field notebook for capturing observations a geologist would make about a fault. The database is designed to accommodate abundant as well as sparse fault observations. It features two layers, one for capturing neotectonic faults and fold observations, and the other to calculate potential earthquake fault sources from the observations. In order to test the flexibility of the database structure and to start a global compilation, five preexisting databases have been uploaded to the first layer and two to the second. In addition, the GFE project has characterised the world’s approximately 55,000 km of subduction interfaces in a globally consistent manner as a basis for generating earthquake event sets for inclusion in earthquake hazard and risk modelling. Following the subduction interface fault schema and including the trace attributes of the GFE database schema, the 2500-km-long frontal thrust fault system of the Himalaya has also been characterised. We propose the database structure to be used widely, so that neotectonic fault data can make a more complete and beneficial contribution to seismic hazard and risk characterisation globally.

Guided color consistency optimization for image mosaicking

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Renping; Xia, Menghan; Yao, Jian; Li, Li

2018-01-01

This paper studies the problem of color consistency correction for sequential images with diverse color characteristics. Existing algorithms try to adjust all images to minimize color differences among images under a unified energy framework, however, the results are prone to presenting a consistent but unnatural appearance when the color difference between images is large and diverse. In our approach, this problem is addressed effectively by providing a guided initial solution for the global consistency optimization, which avoids converging to a meaningless integrated solution. First of all, to obtain the reliable intensity correspondences in overlapping regions between image pairs, we creatively propose the histogram extreme point matching algorithm which is robust to image geometrical misalignment to some extents. In the absence of the extra reference information, the guided initial solution is learned from the major tone of the original images by searching some image subset as the reference, whose color characteristics will be transferred to the others via the paths of graph analysis. Thus, the final results via global adjustment will take on a consistent color similar to the appearance of the reference image subset. Several groups of convincing experiments on both the synthetic dataset and the challenging real ones sufficiently demonstrate that the proposed approach can achieve as good or even better results compared with the state-of-the-art approaches.

A Preliminary Study toward Consistent Soil Moisture from AMSR2

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Parinussa, R.M.; Holmes, T.R.H.; Wanders, N.; Dorigo, W.A.; de Jeu, R.A.M.

2015-01-01

A preliminary study toward consistent soil moisture products from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) is presented. Its predecessor, the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), has providedEarth scientists with a consistent and continuous global

The Generating Mechanism of the Perlocutionary Effects of Train Manner Posters

OpenAIRE

水田, 洋子

2013-01-01

Manner posters, which are used for the purpose of improving people’s manners in public spaces, attempt to be effective without being impositional. How do they meet the challenge? Manner posters can be considered to perform speech acts with written words and visual devices. The current work investigates the generating mechanism of their perlocutionary effects such as persuasion. It provides a case study of Japanese train manner posters by Tokyo Metro in 2008-2010. The analysis is conducted wit...

26 CFR 1.9005-4 - Manner of exercising election.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of exercising election. 1.9005-4 Section 1.9005-4 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES General Actuarial Valuations § 1.9005-4 Manner of exercising election. (a...

26 CFR 1.9004-4 - Manner of exercising election.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of exercising election. 1.9004-4 Section 1.9004-4 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES General Actuarial Valuations § 1.9004-4 Manner of exercising election. (a...

26 CFR 1.9002-8 - Manner of exercising elections.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of exercising elections. 1.9002-8 Section 1.9002-8 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES General Actuarial Valuations § 1.9002-8 Manner of exercising elections...

26 CFR 1.9003-4 - Manner of exercising election.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 13 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of exercising election. 1.9003-4 Section 1.9003-4 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES General Actuarial Valuations § 1.9003-4 Manner of exercising election. (a...

Challenges of Teaching Science to Address Global Sustainability

OpenAIRE

Halim, Lilia

2015-01-01

For a liveable condition in this post- industrial era, it would depend on our ability to understand and use the science and technology advancement in a responsible manner. Water pollution and global warming phenomena are outcomes of scientific and technological advancement that has been mismanaged. One way to achieve global sustainability is through science education and the development of a scientific literate citizen. This paper, based on the literature and research work in science educatio...

Evaluating the hydrological consistency of evaporation products

KAUST Repository

Lopez Valencia, Oliver Miguel; Houborg, Rasmus; McCabe, Matthew

2017-01-01

Advances in space-based observations have provided the capacity to develop regional- to global-scale estimates of evaporation, offering insights into this key component of the hydrological cycle. However, the evaluation of large-scale evaporation retrievals is not a straightforward task. While a number of studies have intercompared a range of these evaporation products by examining the variance amongst them, or by comparison of pixel-scale retrievals against ground-based observations, there is a need to explore more appropriate techniques to comprehensively evaluate remote-sensing-based estimates. One possible approach is to establish the level of product agreement between related hydrological components: for instance, how well do evaporation patterns and response match with precipitation or water storage changes? To assess the suitability of this "consistency"-based approach for evaluating evaporation products, we focused our investigation on four globally distributed basins in arid and semi-arid environments, comprising the Colorado River basin, Niger River basin, Aral Sea basin, and Lake Eyre basin. In an effort to assess retrieval quality, three satellite-based global evaporation products based on different methodologies and input data, including CSIRO-PML, the MODIS Global Evapotranspiration product (MOD16), and Global Land Evaporation: the Amsterdam Methodology (GLEAM), were evaluated against rainfall data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) along with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) water storage anomalies. To ensure a fair comparison, we evaluated consistency using a degree correlation approach after transforming both evaporation and precipitation data into spherical harmonics. Overall we found no persistent hydrological consistency in these dryland environments. Indeed, the degree correlation showed oscillating values between periods of low and high water storage changes, with a phase difference of about 2–3 months

Evaluating the hydrological consistency of evaporation products

KAUST Repository

Lopez Valencia, Oliver Miguel

2017-01-18

Advances in space-based observations have provided the capacity to develop regional- to global-scale estimates of evaporation, offering insights into this key component of the hydrological cycle. However, the evaluation of large-scale evaporation retrievals is not a straightforward task. While a number of studies have intercompared a range of these evaporation products by examining the variance amongst them, or by comparison of pixel-scale retrievals against ground-based observations, there is a need to explore more appropriate techniques to comprehensively evaluate remote-sensing-based estimates. One possible approach is to establish the level of product agreement between related hydrological components: for instance, how well do evaporation patterns and response match with precipitation or water storage changes? To assess the suitability of this "consistency"-based approach for evaluating evaporation products, we focused our investigation on four globally distributed basins in arid and semi-arid environments, comprising the Colorado River basin, Niger River basin, Aral Sea basin, and Lake Eyre basin. In an effort to assess retrieval quality, three satellite-based global evaporation products based on different methodologies and input data, including CSIRO-PML, the MODIS Global Evapotranspiration product (MOD16), and Global Land Evaporation: the Amsterdam Methodology (GLEAM), were evaluated against rainfall data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) along with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) water storage anomalies. To ensure a fair comparison, we evaluated consistency using a degree correlation approach after transforming both evaporation and precipitation data into spherical harmonics. Overall we found no persistent hydrological consistency in these dryland environments. Indeed, the degree correlation showed oscillating values between periods of low and high water storage changes, with a phase difference of about 2–3 months

26 CFR 1.853-4 - Manner of making election.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 9 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of making election. 1.853-4 Section 1.853-4 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES Regulated Investment Companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts § 1.853-4 Manner of...

Coping with the Collapse: A Stock-Flow Consistent Monetary Macro-dynamics of Global Warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giraud, Gael; Mc Isaac, Florent; Bovari, Emmanuel; Zatsepina, Ekaterina

2016-08-01

This paper presents a macro-economic model of endogenous growth that enables to take into consideration both the economic impact of climate change and the pivotal role of private debt. Using a Goodwin-Keen approach, based on the Lotka-Volterra logic, we couple its nonlinear dynamics of underemployment and income distribution with abatement costs. Moreover, various damage functions a la Nordhaus and Dietz-Stern reflect the loss in final production due to the temperature increase caused by the rising levels of CO_2 emissions. An empirical estimation of the model at the world-scale enables us to simulate plausible trajectories for the planetary business-as-usual scenario. Our main finding is that, even though the short-run impact of climate change on economic fundamentals may seem prima facie rather minor, its long-run dynamic consequences may lead to an extreme downside. Under plausible circumstances, global warming forces the private sector to leverage in order to compensate for output losses; the private debt overhang may eventually induce a global financial collapse, even before climate change could cause serious damage to the production sector. Under more severe conditions, the interplay between global warming and debt may lead to a secular stagnation followed by a collapse in the second half of this century. We analyze the extent to which slower demographic growth or higher carbon pricing allow a global breakdown to be avoided. The paper concludes by examining the conditions under which the +1.5 C target, adopted by the Paris Agreement (2015), could be reached. (authors)

VERIFYING ASTEROSEISMICALLY DETERMINED PARAMETERS OF KEPLER STARS USING HIPPARCOS PARALLAXES: SELF-CONSISTENT STELLAR PROPERTIES AND DISTANCES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silva Aguirre, V.; Chaplin, W. J.; Bedding, T. R.; Christensen-Dalsgaard, J.; Kjeldsen, H. [Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C (Denmark); Casagrande, L. [Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mount Stromlo Observatory, The Australian National University, ACT 2611 (Australia); Basu, S. [Department of Astronomy, Yale University, P.O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 06520-8101 (United States); Campante, T. L.; Monteiro, M. J. P. F. G. [Centro de Astrofisica and Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal); Huber, D. [NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035 (United States); Miglio, A.; Elsworth, Y.; Hekker, S. [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT (United Kingdom); Serenelli, A. M.; Garcia, R. A.; Mathur, S. [Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States); Ballot, J. [CNRS, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse (France); Creevey, O. L. [Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR 7293, Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Cote dAzur, F-06304 Nice Cedex 4 (France); Gilliland, R. L. [Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (United States); Metcalfe, T. S. [Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO 80301 (United States); and others

2012-09-20

Accurately determining the properties of stars is of prime importance for characterizing stellar populations in our Galaxy. The field of asteroseismology has been thought to be particularly successful in such an endeavor for stars in different evolutionary stages. However, to fully exploit its potential, robust methods for estimating stellar parameters are required and independent verification of the results is mandatory. With this purpose, we present a new technique to obtain stellar properties by coupling asteroseismic analysis with the InfraRed Flux Method. By using two global seismic observables and multi-band photometry, the technique allows us to obtain masses, radii, effective temperatures, bolometric fluxes, and hence distances for field stars in a self-consistent manner. We apply our method to 22 solar-like oscillators in the Kepler short-cadence sample, that have accurate Hipparcos parallaxes. Our distance determinations agree to better than 5%, while measurements of spectroscopic effective temperatures and interferometric radii also validate our results. We briefly discuss the potential of our technique for stellar population analysis and models of Galactic Chemical Evolution.

Infrared and visible images registration with adaptable local-global feature integration for rail inspection

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Chaoqing; Tian, Gui Yun; Chen, Xiaotian; Wu, Jianbo; Li, Kongjing; Meng, Hongying

2017-12-01

Active thermography provides infrared images that contain sub-surface defect information, while visible images only reveal surface information. Mapping infrared information to visible images offers more comprehensive visualization for decision-making in rail inspection. However, the common information for registration is limited due to different modalities in both local and global level. For example, rail track which has low temperature contrast reveals rich details in visible images, but turns blurry in the infrared counterparts. This paper proposes a registration algorithm called Edge-Guided Speeded-Up-Robust-Features (EG-SURF) to address this issue. Rather than sequentially integrating local and global information in matching stage which suffered from buckets effect, this algorithm adaptively integrates local and global information into a descriptor to gather more common information before matching. This adaptability consists of two facets, an adaptable weighting factor between local and global information, and an adaptable main direction accuracy. The local information is extracted using SURF while the global information is represented by shape context from edges. Meanwhile, in shape context generation process, edges are weighted according to local scale and decomposed into bins using a vector decomposition manner to provide more accurate descriptor. The proposed algorithm is qualitatively and quantitatively validated using eddy current pulsed thermography scene in the experiments. In comparison with other algorithms, better performance has been achieved.

29 CFR 1614.703 - Manner and format of data.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... § 1614.704(a) through (m). (3) When posting data pursuant to § 1614.704(d) and (j), bases of... 29 Labor 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Manner and format of data. 1614.703 Section 1614.703 Labor... Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act) § 1614.703 Manner and format of data. (a) Agencies shall post their...

Constructing Consistent Multiscale Scenarios by Transdisciplinary Processes: the Case of Mountain Regions Facing Global Change

OpenAIRE

Fridolin Simon. Brand; Roman Seidl; Quang Bao. Le; Julia Maria. Brändle; Roland Werner. Scholz

2013-01-01

Alpine regions in Europe, in particular, face demanding local challenges, e.g., the decline in the agriculture and timber industries, and are also prone to global changes, such as in climate, with potentially severe impacts on tourism. We focus on the Visp region in the Upper Valais, Switzerland, and ask how the process of stakeholder involvement in research practice can contribute to a better understanding of the specific challenges and future development of mountainous regions under global ...

Self-consistent gravitational self-force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pound, Adam

2010-01-01

I review the problem of motion for small bodies in general relativity, with an emphasis on developing a self-consistent treatment of the gravitational self-force. An analysis of the various derivations extant in the literature leads me to formulate an asymptotic expansion in which the metric is expanded while a representative worldline is held fixed. I discuss the utility of this expansion for both exact point particles and asymptotically small bodies, contrasting it with a regular expansion in which both the metric and the worldline are expanded. Based on these preliminary analyses, I present a general method of deriving self-consistent equations of motion for arbitrarily structured (sufficiently compact) small bodies. My method utilizes two expansions: an inner expansion that keeps the size of the body fixed, and an outer expansion that lets the body shrink while holding its worldline fixed. By imposing the Lorenz gauge, I express the global solution to the Einstein equation in the outer expansion in terms of an integral over a worldtube of small radius surrounding the body. Appropriate boundary data on the tube are determined from a local-in-space expansion in a buffer region where both the inner and outer expansions are valid. This buffer-region expansion also results in an expression for the self-force in terms of irreducible pieces of the metric perturbation on the worldline. Based on the global solution, these pieces of the perturbation can be written in terms of a tail integral over the body's past history. This approach can be applied at any order to obtain a self-consistent approximation that is valid on long time scales, both near and far from the small body. I conclude by discussing possible extensions of my method and comparing it to alternative approaches.

Global VDET pattern recognition for ALEPH

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bazarko, Andrew; Pusztaszeri, Jean-Francois; Rensing, Paul E.; Brown, David; Gay, Pascal

1996-01-01

With the current reliance on high-precision vertex detectors to provide very accurate information about the primary and secondary vertices in an event, the accuracy and efficiency of the assignment of vertex detectors hits to tracks has become crucial. This paper discusses new software written for ALEPH which attempts to make this assignment in a global manner using interger programming techniques. (author)

A global assessment of market accessibility and market influence for global environmental change studies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verburg, P.H.; Ellis, E.C.; Letourneau, A.

2011-01-01

Markets influence the global patterns of urbanization, deforestation, agriculture and other land use systems. Yet market influence is rarely incorporated into spatially explicit global studies of environmental change, largely because consistent global data are lacking below the national level. Here

Managing global responsibility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saur, K. [Five Winds International, Donzdorf (Germany)

2004-07-01

The electronics industry in particular is a global industry. Local and regional solutions require a globally applicable product design and use global value chains. Operating in increasingly integrated material and product loops offers a unique solution to not only providing markets with compatible solutions, but also offer a chance to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of the industry. Product lifespan extension in emerging economies, utilization of local market needs, utilize available and affordable labour forces and creating wealth and capacity in developing countries may serve as a way to make industry more sustainable and successful. Both the supply side and the product end of life management need to be considered in this global industry. Intelligent solution support the dematerialization and material throughput and help creating markets and build wealth. Critical success factors include knowledge management, capacity building, developing infrastructure. This paper presents a discussion on a solutions oriented approach towards product life cycle management and stewardship combined with sustainable production and consumption considerations, support the industries aspirations and the UNEP Life Cycle Initiative's mission in a perfect manner. The aim of this paper is to offer approaches and develop ideas how economic viable and sustainable solutions can be developed. (orig.)

Pragmatic awareness of Suggestions: From (ImPolite Mannerism to Attitudinal Appropriateness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamid Allami

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The present research seeks to determine: (a Iranian EFL learners’ application of suggestion semantic formulae ;(b their attitude of appropriateness in terms of confidence in the employment of appropriate supportive moves; (c, their (impolite mannerism with respect to the selected strategies; and (d the relationship between attitude of appropriateness and mannerism of (impoliteness. An Oxford Quick placement Test (OQPT was administered among 60 Iranian EFL learners to check their language proficiency level and to satisfy the assumption of homogeneity among the learners. These participants along with 10 American native speakers then underwent a suggestion DCT. The questionnaire included questions addressing interlocutors’ with higher, lower or equal power status and intimate or strange social distance. The DCT also involved attitudinal appropriateness scale and (impoliteness mannerism likert scale to examine the learners’ degree of confidence and mannerism. Besides similarities and differences in the application of suggestion semantic formulae between the Iranian learners and American speakers, the results revealed variations in the two groups’ performances for appropriateness and (impoliteness. The results also indicated a positive relationship between the attitude and mannerism scales.

From conceptual pluralism to practical agreement on policy: global responsibility for global health.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruger, Jennifer Prah; Hammonds, Rachel; Ooms, Gorik; Barry, Donna; Chapman, Audrey; Van Damme, Wim

2015-10-28

conceptual level into policies and practice that advance global health. The issues of shared responsibility and mutual accountability feature widely in the post-2015 discussions and need to be addressed in a coherent manner. Our article argues why and how a Global Fund for Health effectuates this, thus advancing global responsibility for global health.

26 CFR 1.669(b)-2 - Manner of exercising election.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of exercising election. 1.669(b)-2 Section 1.669(b)-2 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED... Years Beginning Before January 1, 1969 § 1.669(b)-2 Manner of exercising election. (a) By whom election...

Reflections on the Process of Bilingual Education in Latin America: A Perspective from Globalization

Science.gov (United States)

Joya, Magdalena; Cerón, Alejandra

2013-01-01

This paper intends to explain how education can be understood as a process that involves the transmission of culture, knowledge, manners and values; meanwhile, globalization implies an evolving process of constructing a global system of languages. In this way, the relationship between the educational and economic systems can become stronger…

A review of 20 Ne structure in a full microscopic self-consistent shell ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A set of single-particle energies together with a set of two-body matrix- elements derived in a self –consistent manner from the Reid soft–core potential are used to calculate the energy levels of 20Ne. We used a harmonic oscillator wave function folded with two-body correlation functions in our calculation. It is found that the ...

Nonbinding Legal Instruments in Governance for Global Health: Lessons from the Global AIDS Reporting Mechanism.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Allyn; Alfvén, Tobias; Hougendobler, Daniel; Buse, Kent

2014-01-01

Recent debate over World Health Organization reform has included unprecedented attention to international lawmaking as a future priority function of the Organization. However, the debate is largely focused on the codification of new binding legal instruments. Drawing upon lessons from the success of the Global AIDS Reporting Mechanism, established pursuant to the United Nations' Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, we argue that effective global health governance requires consideration of a broad range of instruments, both binding and nonbinding. A detailed examination of the Global AIDS Reporting Mechanism reveals that the choice of the nonbinding format makes an important contribution to its effectiveness. For instance, the flexibility and adaptability of the nonbinding format have allowed the global community to: (1) undertake commitments in a timely manner; (2) adapt and experiment in the face of a dynamic pandemic; and (3) grant civil society an unparalleled role in monitoring and reporting on state implementation of global commitments. UNAIDS' institutional support has also played a vital role in ensuring the continuing effectiveness of the Global AIDS Reporting Mechanism. Overall, the experience of the Global AIDS Reporting Mechanism evidences that, at times, nimbler nonbinding instruments can offer benefits over slower, more rigid binding legal approaches to governance, but depend critically, like all instruments, on the perceived legitimacy thereof. © 2014 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS OF GLOBALIZATION IN RURAL AREAS. CASE STUDY: BOTOSANI COUNTY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria-Simona Cuciureanu

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The global economy plays an important role in the development of a region or a county/district as it promotes the exploitation of resources and space in a logical and rational manner. The trend of global economic uniformity allows opportunities and risks to Botoșani County since globalization involves economic development and rising living standards, but loss of cultural values, traditions and customs. The area of study currently confronts with socio-economic and demographic changes that may be addressed by globalization, but at the same time spatial development according to global standards will cause the loss of Botoșani County’s authenticity.

Poland and Global Threats

Science.gov (United States)

Kleer, Jerzy

2016-01-01

This essay seeks to present the specifics of global threats, as well as the reasons for them being universal in nature, and for their persistence. A certain classification of the threats is also engaged in. At the same time, an attempt is made to show the specific threats present - irrespective of their global counterparts - in different regions, and even in different states. The genesis and nature of the latter are demonstrated in a somewhat ad hoc manner by reference to the threats considered to face Poland. If the global threats are truly universal, and arise out of the changes taking place around the world in the last half-century (primarily around the twin phenomena of globalisation and the information revolution), a specific reverse kind of situation applies to decolonisation, plus the collapse of the communist system and the transformation into market economies that apply to formerly communist countries. Equally, some at least of the threats facing Poland may have even a longer history, given that they are very much influenced by past economic and political development, as well as the dominant cultural system.

DISRUPTING SHOCKS IN POSTWAR GLOBAL ECONOMIC EXPANSION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dumitru FILIPEANU

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The coherence of the global economic system, created by its upswing in the first postwar decades, started to crumble in the ’70s. The destabilizing shocks affected the entire world, but in an uneven manner, in different geographical areas and at different times, being felt most acutely, with devastating economic and social effects, in Third World countries. Although the developed countries were affected as well, they always had means to combat or to diminish the adverse effects of the crises, leading to "gentler" consequences. This paper focuses on four main aspects in postwar global economic expansion, namely: the ’70s – the international monetary crisis and the oil shocks; the foreign debt crisis; the Latin American debt crisis, the Asian financial crises and the current global crisis.

Evaluating temporal consistency of long-term global NDVI datasets for trend analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tian, Feng; Fensholt, Rasmus; Verbesselt, Jan

2015-01-01

-sensor NDVI time series by analyzing the co-occurrence between breaks in the NDVI time series and sensor shifts from GIMMS3g (Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies 3rd generation), VIP3 (Vegetation Index and Phenology version 3), LTDR4 (Long Term Data Record version 4) and SPOT-VGT (Système Pour l......, potentially introducing uncertainties in NDVI trend analysis. Platform/sensor change from VGT-1 to VGT-2 is found to cause a significant positive break in the SPOT-VGT NDVI time series. Potential artifacts exist in humid, dry-subhumid, semi-arid and hyper-arid regions of GIMMS3g NDVI, whereas no signs...

A mathematical correlation between variations in solar radiation parameters - I: Daily sums of global radiation and midday global radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Njau, E.C.

1987-11-01

An equation that simply relates variations in the daily sums of global radiation and the corresponding midday global radiation data over an arbitrarily chosen location on the Earth is derived from first principles. Although this equation is specifically tailored for periods incorporating only cloudless days, it is modified slightly in order also to suit any period that incorporates either cloudless days or consistently cloudy days or days characterised by consistently distributed cloud patches or any combination of these. Global radiation data for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, calculated on the basis of the slightly modified version of the equation mentioned above agree with actual measurements to at least 89% if each of the days involved is either fairly cloudless or consistently cloudy or is characterised by fairly consistent cloud patches from sunrise to sunset. This clearly demonstrates that it is quite possible to work out reasonable estimates of the overall global radiation incident on a given area using only the corresponding midday global radiation data for that particular area. (author). 6 refs, 1 fig, 3 tabs

US demilitarization and global warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heyes, A.G.; Liston-Heyes, C.; Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, London

1993-01-01

In the paper input-output methods are used to generate ballpark empirical estimates of the implications for global warming of the projected demilitarization of the US federal budget. The impact is found to be qualitatively ambiguous, and highly sensitive to the manner in which the funds saved are distributed. The effect is adverse where the budgetary savings are used to fund economy-wide cuts in personal taxation and/or deficit reduction. In other cases the effect may be neutral or beneficial. (author)

Approximate self-consistent potentials for density-functional-theory exchange-correlation functionals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cafiero, Mauricio; Gonzalez, Carlos

2005-01-01

We show that potentials for exchange-correlation functionals within the Kohn-Sham density-functional-theory framework may be written as potentials for simpler functionals multiplied by a factor close to unity, and in a self-consistent field calculation, these effective potentials find the correct self-consistent solutions. This simple theory is demonstrated with self-consistent exchange-only calculations of the atomization energies of some small molecules using the Perdew-Kurth-Zupan-Blaha (PKZB) meta-generalized-gradient-approximation (meta-GGA) exchange functional. The atomization energies obtained with our method agree with or surpass previous meta-GGA calculations performed in a non-self-consistent manner. The results of this work suggest the utility of this simple theory to approximate exchange-correlation potentials corresponding to energy functionals too complicated to generate closed forms for their potentials. We hope that this method will encourage the development of complex functionals which have correct boundary conditions and are free of self-interaction errors without the worry that the functionals are too complex to differentiate to obtain potentials

The Manners of Liberalism: A Question of Limits.

Science.gov (United States)

Allen, William B.

1982-01-01

The argument that liberal education leads people to substitute intellectual tolerance or ambiguity for righteous indignation is criticized, with reference to Harriet Beecher Stowe's portrayal of Thomas Jefferson, his liberalism, and democratic manners. (MSE)

Global warming without global mean precipitation increase?

Science.gov (United States)

Salzmann, Marc

2016-06-01

Global climate models simulate a robust increase of global mean precipitation of about 1.5 to 2% per kelvin surface warming in response to greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing. Here, it is shown that the sensitivity to aerosol cooling is robust as well, albeit roughly twice as large. This larger sensitivity is consistent with energy budget arguments. At the same time, it is still considerably lower than the 6.5 to 7% K(-1) decrease of the water vapor concentration with cooling from anthropogenic aerosol because the water vapor radiative feedback lowers the hydrological sensitivity to anthropogenic forcings. When GHG and aerosol forcings are combined, the climate models with a realistic 20th century warming indicate that the global mean precipitation increase due to GHG warming has, until recently, been completely masked by aerosol drying. This explains the apparent lack of sensitivity of the global mean precipitation to the net global warming recently found in observations. As the importance of GHG warming increases in the future, a clear signal will emerge.

Global Water Governance in the Context of Global and Multilevel Governance: Its Need, Form, and Challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joyeeta Gupta

2013-12-01

Full Text Available To complement this Special Feature on global water governance, we focused on a generic challenge at the global level, namely, the degree to which water issues need to be dealt with in a centralized, concentrated, and hierarchical manner. We examined water ecosystem services and their impact on human well-being, the role of policies, indirect and direct drivers in influencing these services, and the administrative level(s at which the provision of services and potential trade-offs can be dealt with. We applied a politics of scale perspective to understand motivations for defining a problem at the global or local level and show that the multilevel approach to water governance is evolving and inevitable. We argue that a centralized overarching governance system for water is unlikely and possibly undesirable; however, there is a need for a high-level think tank and leadership to develop a cosmopolitan perspective to promote sustainable water development.

The self-consistent energy system with an enhanced non-proliferated core concept for global nuclear energy utilization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawashima, Masatoshi; Arie, Kazuo; Araki, Yoshio; Sato, Mitsuyoshi; Mori, Kenji; Nakayama, Yoshiyuki; Nakazono, Ryuichi; Kuroda, Yuji; Ishiguma, Kazuo; Fujii-e, Yoichi

2008-01-01

A sustainable nuclear energy system was developed based on the concept of Self-Consistent Nuclear Energy System (SCNES). Our study that trans-uranium (TRU) metallic fuel fast reactor cycle coupled with recycling of five long-lived fission products (LLFP) as well as actinides is the most promising system for the sustainable nuclear utilization. Efficient utilization of uranium-238 through the SCNES concept opens the doors to prolong the lifetime of nuclear energy systems towards several tens of thousand years. Recent evolution of the concept revealed compatibility of fuel sustainability, minor actinide (MA) minimization and non-proliferation aspects for peaceful use of nuclear energy systems through the discussion. As for those TRU compositions stabilized under fast neutron spectra, plutonium isotope fractions are remained in the range of reactor grade classification with high fraction of Pu240 isotope. Recent evolution of the SCNES concept has revealed that TRU recycling can cope with enhancing non-proliferation efforts in peaceful use with the 'no-blanket and multi-zoning core' concept. Therefore, the realization of SCNES is most important. In addition, along the process to the goals, a three-step approach is proposed to solve concurrent problems raised in the LWR systems. We discussed possible roles and contribution to the near future demand along worldwide expansion of LWR capacities by applying the 1st generation SCNES. MA fractions in TRU are more than 10% from LWR discharged fuels and even higher up to 20% in fuels from long interim storages. TRU recycling in the 1st generation SCNES system can reduce the MA fractions down to 4-5% in a few decades. This capability significantly releases 'MA' pressures in down-stream of LWR systems. Current efforts for enhancing capabilities for energy generation by LWR systems are efficient against the global warming crisis. In parallel to those movements, early realization of the SCNES concept can be the most viable decision

The Multipoint Global Shape Optimization of Flying Configuration with Movable Leading Edges Flaps

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adriana NASTASE

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The aerodynamical global optimized (GO shape of flying configuration (FC, at two cruising Mach numbers, can be realized by morphing. Movable leading edge flaps are used for this purpose. The equations of the surfaces of the wing, of the fuselage and of the flaps in stretched position are approximated in form of superpositions of homogeneous polynomes in two variables with free coefficients. These coefficients together with the similarity parameters of the planform of the FC are the free parameters of the global optimization. Two enlarged variational problems with free boundaries occur. The first one consists in the determination of the GO shape of the wing-fuselageFC, with the flaps in retracted position, which must be of minimum drag, at higher cruising Mach number. The second enlarged variational problem consists in the determination of the GO shape of the flaps in stretched position in such a manner that the entire FC shall be of minimum drag at the second lower Mach number. The iterative optimum-optimorum (OO theory of the author is used for the solving of these both enlarged variational problems. The inviscid GO shape of the FC is used only in the first step of iteration and the own developed hybrid solutions for the compressible Navier-Stokes partial-differential equations (PDEs are used for the determination of the friction drag coefficient and up the second step of iteration of OO theory.

Observability of global rivers with future SWOT observations

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Colby; Pan, Ming; Wood, Eric

2017-04-01

availability of SWOT observations in this manner, hydrologic data assimilation approaches like ISR can be optimized to provide useful discharge estimates in sparsely gauged regions where spatially and temporally consistent discharge records are most valuable. Pan, M; Wood, E F 2013 Inverse streamflow routing, HESS 17(11):4577-4588

PFS/Mars Express first results: water vapour and carbon monoxide global distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Ignatiev, N. I.; Titov, D. V.; Formisano, V.; Moroz, V. I.; Lellouch, E.; Encrenaz, Th.; Fouchet, T.; Grassi, D.; Giuranna, M.; Atreya, S.; Pfs Team

Planetary Fourier Spectrometer onboard Mars Express, with its wide spectral range (1.2--45 um) and high spectral resolution (1.4 cm-1), makes it possible to study in a self-consistent manner the Martian atmosphere by means of simultaneous analysis of spectral features in several spectral regions. As concerned small species, we observe 30--50, 6.3, 2.56, 1.87 and 1.38 μ m H2O bands, and 4.7 and 2.35 μ m CO bands. The most favourable, with respect to the instrument performance, 2.56 μ m H2O and 4.7 μ m CO bands, are used to study the variations of column abundance of water vapour and carbon monoxide on a global scale from pole to pole. All necessary atmospheric parameters, namely temperature profiles, surface pressure, and dust density are obtained from the same spectra, whenever possible.

Globalization as Continuing Colonialism: Critical Global Citizenship Education in an Unequal World

Science.gov (United States)

Mikander, Pia

2016-01-01

In an unequal world, education about global inequality can be seen as a controversial but necessary topic for social science to deal with. Even though the world no longer consists of colonies and colonial powers, many aspects of the global economy follow the same patterns as during colonial times, with widening gaps between the world's richest and…

Calculating beta decay in the deformed self-consistent quasiparticle random phase approximation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Engel, Jonathan, E-mail: engelj@physics.unc.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255 (United States); Mustonen, M. T., E-mail: mika.mustonen@yale.edu [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255 (United States); Center for Theoretical Physics, Sloane Physics Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06052 (United States)

2016-06-21

We discuss a recent global calculation of beta-decay rates in the self-consistent Skyrme quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA), with axially symmetric nuclear deformation treated explicitly. The calculation makes makes use of the finite-amplitude method, first proposed by Nakatsukasa and collaborators, to reduce computation time. The results are comparable in quality to those of several other global QRPA calculations. The QRPA may have reached the limit of its accuracy.

Determining global parameters of the oscillations of solar-like stars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mathur, S.; García, R. A.; Régulo, C.

2010-01-01

Context. Helioseismology has enabled us to better understand the solar interior, while also allowing us to better constrain solar models. But now is a tremendous epoch for asteroseismology as space missions dedicated to studying stellar oscillations have been launched within the last years (MOST....... Aims. The goal of this research work is to estimate the global parameters of any solar-like oscillating target in an automatic manner. We want to determine the global parameters of the acoustic modes (large separation, range of excited pressure modes, maximum amplitude, and its corresponding frequency...

Localizing the Global and Globalizing the Local: Opportunities and Challenges in Bali Island Tourism Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I Nyoman Darma Putra

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract In September and October 2013, only one week apart,Bali hosted two global events in the upper class markettourism resort Nusa Dua. The first event was the MissWorld beauty pageant, and the other one was the APECSummit. Thousands of journalists from all over the worldcovered these events. From a tourism marketing point ofview, these two prestigious events helped Bali boost itspopularity through global mass media. Historically, sincethe early phase of its development, Bali’s tourism industryhas received many benefits from global forces initiallychanneled out through the Dutch colonial power in the firstdecade of the twentieth century and later through nationaland multinational corporations. The recent enlisting byUNESCO of Bali’s cultural landscape as a world heritagesite (2012 provides yet another great example of how Balicontinues to receive global endorsement by world institutions as a unique tourism destination. This paper discusesopportunities and challenges caused by globalizationand localization phenomena in the management of Bali’stourism island destination. Bali’s experiences provide aninteresting example of how global and local stakeholdersdevelop the island tourism in a sustainable manner whileat the same time continuing to preserve its local arts andculture as one of its main attractions. While there aremany examples how both forces contribute to numerousopportunities toward the development of Bali’s tourism,it is also true to state that impacts of globalization causesvarious forms of distraction for the island’s ability to takefull control of its vast move of development.

Structural Consistency, Consistency, and Sequential Rationality.

OpenAIRE

Kreps, David M; Ramey, Garey

1987-01-01

Sequential equilibria comprise consistent beliefs and a sequentially ra tional strategy profile. Consistent beliefs are limits of Bayes ratio nal beliefs for sequences of strategies that approach the equilibrium strategy. Beliefs are structurally consistent if they are rationaliz ed by some single conjecture concerning opponents' strategies. Consis tent beliefs are not necessarily structurally consistent, notwithstan ding a claim by Kreps and Robert Wilson (1982). Moreover, the spirit of stru...

Bilingualism increases neural response consistency and attentional control: evidence for sensory and cognitive coupling.

Science.gov (United States)

Krizman, Jennifer; Skoe, Erika; Marian, Viorica; Kraus, Nina

2014-01-01

Auditory processing is presumed to be influenced by cognitive processes - including attentional control - in a top-down manner. In bilinguals, activation of both languages during daily communication hones inhibitory skills, which subsequently bolster attentional control. We hypothesize that the heightened attentional demands of bilingual communication strengthens connections between cognitive (i.e., attentional control) and auditory processing, leading to greater across-trial consistency in the auditory evoked response (i.e., neural consistency) in bilinguals. To assess this, we collected passively-elicited auditory evoked responses to the syllable [da] in adolescent Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals and separately obtained measures of attentional control and language ability. Bilinguals demonstrated enhanced attentional control and more consistent brainstem and cortical responses. In bilinguals, but not monolinguals, brainstem consistency tracked with language proficiency and attentional control. We interpret these enhancements in neural consistency as the outcome of strengthened attentional control that emerged from experience communicating in two languages. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stereotypes: A Preliminary Report on Mannerisms and Blindisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Leonhardt, M.

1990-01-01

The article describes current research on stereotypes in a group of blind children in Barcelona, Spain. Mannerisms and blindisms covering a range of verbal and motor behavior are defined and discussed, as are the variables of behavior related to them. (Author/DB)

Global Citizenship Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Roesgaard, Marie Højlund

2016-01-01

published after 2000 was written by researchers based in the US and if you add other English-speaking countries such as Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand, the proportion is even higher. English in the field of education research often serves as the international lingua franca. Since there is also......Global citizenship as an idea has become an increasingly important issue on the educational agenda since the late 1970’s. The importance allotted to this issue is clear in the attention given to it by for example UNESCO where global citizenship education (GCED) is an area of strategic focus....... Increasingly schools all over the world are attempting to or expected to educate the global citizen, but how exactly do you educate the global citizen? What does this global citizenship consist of? While surely the type of training and education needed to train a global citizen will vary greatly depending...

45 CFR 1621.4 - Complaints by clients about manner or quality of legal assistance.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Complaints by clients about manner or quality of...) LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION CLIENT GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES § 1621.4 Complaints by clients about manner or... clients about the manner or quality of legal assistance that has been rendered by the recipient to the...

Consistency of extreme flood estimation approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Felder, Guido; Paquet, Emmanuel; Penot, David; Zischg, Andreas; Weingartner, Rolf

2017-04-01

Estimations of low-probability flood events are frequently used for the planning of infrastructure as well as for determining the dimensions of flood protection measures. There are several well-established methodical procedures to estimate low-probability floods. However, a global assessment of the consistency of these methods is difficult to achieve, the "true value" of an extreme flood being not observable. Anyway, a detailed comparison performed on a given case study brings useful information about the statistical and hydrological processes involved in different methods. In this study, the following three different approaches for estimating low-probability floods are compared: a purely statistical approach (ordinary extreme value statistics), a statistical approach based on stochastic rainfall-runoff simulation (SCHADEX method), and a deterministic approach (physically based PMF estimation). These methods are tested for two different Swiss catchments. The results and some intermediate variables are used for assessing potential strengths and weaknesses of each method, as well as for evaluating the consistency of these methods.

26 CFR 1.871-1 - Classification and manner of taxing alien individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 9 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Classification and manner of taxing alien... (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Corporations § 1.871-1 Classification and manner of taxing alien individuals. (a) Classes of aliens. For purposes of the income tax...

Towards a global antibiotic resistance surveillance system : a primer for a roadmap

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grundmann, Hajo

The need for global data about the scale of antibiotic resistance (ABR) in a geographical explicit and timely manner has been identified by many stakeholders, including the World Health Organization. This primer should help defining the objectives, scale, scope, and structure of possible future

Biodiversity Meets the Atmosphere: A Global View of Forest Canopies

Science.gov (United States)

C. M. P. Ozanne; D. Anhuf; S. L. Boulter; M. Keller; R. L. Kitching; C. Korner; F. C. Meinzer; A. W. Mitchell; T. Nakashizuka; P. L. Silva Dias; N. E. Stork; S. J. Wright; M Yoshimura

2003-01-01

The forest canopy is the functional interface between 90% of Earth’s terrestrial biomass and the atmosphere. Multidisciplinary research in the canopy has expanded concepts of global species richness, physiological processes, and the provision of ecosystem services. Trees respond in a species-specific manner to elevated carbon dioxide levels, while climate change...

Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mathis Wackernagel

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”, and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wackernagel, Mathis; Hanscom, Laurel; Lin, David

2017-01-01

The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wackernagel, Mathis, E-mail: mathis.wackernagel@footprintnetwork.org; Hanscom, Laurel; Lin, David [Global Footprint Network, Oakland, CA (United States)

2017-07-11

The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

The use of PROBA-V data for Global Agricultural Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Bydekerke, Lieven; Gilliams, Sven; Kempeneers, Pieter; Piccard, Isabelle; Deronde, Bart; Eerens, Herman; Gobin, Anne

2015-04-01

Land conversion, forest cutting, urban growth, agricultural expansion, take place at an unprecedented rate and scale such that they have a strong economic and environmental impact. Understanding and measuring dynamics becomes a prerequisite for companies, governments, agencies, NGO's, research institutes and society in general. In many cases the temporal frequency of the information is a requirement to detect phenomena that can occur within a few days and at a certain geographic scale. For example frequent updates on crop condition and projected production are needed to stabilise agricultural markets. Large initiatives such as the GEOGLAM AMIS (Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring - Agricultural Market Information System) respond to this increased need. Observations over large areas are available through satellites, however, the following challenges remain: • obtaining frequent and consistent observations at sufficient level of detail to identify spatial phenomena. At present, no single mission is capable of providing near daily information of any place in the world at scales appropriate to detect land cover/use changes in a consistent manner. • the need for a historical reference. For agricultural monitoring and early warning purposes the comparison of the actual data with a historical reference is of the utmost importance. The PROBA-V mission is an important attempt to overcome these challenges. From its design and within the GIO-Global Land component a lot of work has been done to ensure the consistency between the PROBA-V data and the 15 years historical archive of SPOT-VEGETATION. In this respect PROBA-V observations are comparable with the SPOT-VEGETATION historical baseline and will therefore ensure the continuation of the standard agricultural monitoring products. Next to this integration with the historical archive, PROBA -V also provides an increase in spatial resolution from 1km to 300m and even 100m. The latter ensures a global

Global Health Diplomacy, "San Francisco Values," and HIV/AIDS: From the Local to the Global.

Science.gov (United States)

Kevany, Sebastian

2015-01-01

San Francisco has a distinguished history as a cosmopolitan, progressive, and international city, including extensive associations with global health. These circumstances have contributed to new, interdisciplinary scholarship in the field of global health diplomacy (GHD). In the present review, we describe the evolution and history of GHD at the practical and theoretical levels within the San Francisco medical community, trace related associations between the local and the global, and propose a range of potential opportunities for further development of this dynamic field. We provide a historical overview of the development of the "San Francisco Model" of collaborative, community-owned HIV/AIDS treatment and care programs as pioneered under the "Ward 86" paradigm of the 1980s. We traced the expansion and evolution of this model to the national level under the Ryan White Care Act, and internationally via the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. In parallel, we describe the evolution of global health diplomacy practices, from the local to the global, including the integration of GHD principles into intervention design to ensure social, political, and cultural acceptability and sensitivity. Global health programs, as informed by lessons learned from the San Francisco Model, are increasingly aligned with diplomatic principles and practices. This awareness has aided implementation, allowed policymakers to pursue related and progressive social and humanitarian issues in conjunction with medical responses, and elevated global health to the realm of "high politics." In the 21st century, the integration between diplomatic, medical, and global health practices will continue under "smart global health" and GHD paradigms. These approaches will enhance intervention cost-effectiveness by addressing and optimizing, in tandem with each other, a wide range of (health and non-health) foreign policy, diplomatic, security, and economic priorities in a synergistic manner

Overspecification of colour, pattern, and size: Salience, absoluteness, and consistency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sammie eTarenskeen

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The rates of overspecification of colour, pattern, and size are compared, to investigate how salience and absoluteness contribute to the production of overspecification. Colour and pattern are absolute attributes, whereas size is relative and less salient. Additionally, a tendency towards consistent responses is assessed. Using a within-participants design, we find similar rates of colour and pattern overspecification, which are both higher than the rate of size overspecification. Using a between-participants design, however, we find similar rates of pattern and size overspecification, which are both lower than the rate of colour overspecification. This indicates that although many speakers are more likely to include colour than pattern (probably because colour is more salient, they may also treat pattern like colour due to a tendency towards consistency. We find no increase in size overspecification when the salience of size is increased, suggesting that speakers are more likely to include absolute than relative attributes. However, we do find an increase in size overspecification when mentioning the attributes is triggered, which again shows that speakers tend refer in a consistent manner, and that there are circumstances in which even size overspecification is frequently produced.

The Eu as a strategic global policy actor

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chatzopoulou, Sevasti; Ansell, Christopher

that shapes and is being shaped by the EU strategic choices. This process is facilitated by the existing EU institutions and structures, the administrative and technical expertise capacity when it responds to the internal and external challenges (environment, sustainable development climate and circular......This article aims to complement the existing literature on the EU as a global actor and demonstrates that the EU’s entrepreneurship on policy, ideas and knowledge production contributes to the evolution of the EU as a strategic global policy actor. While the number of significant studies on the EU...... as a global actor proliferated the last decades, these studies concentrate on the EU’s role in a fragmented manner, focusing either on specific normative or more economic and trade issues, and thus often competing between themselves. This article acknowledges these contributions and aims to take them further...

18 CFR 344.2 - Manner of submitting quotations.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... quotations. 344.2 Section 344.2 Conservation of Power and Water Resources FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY REGULATIONS UNDER THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE ACT FILING QUOTATIONS FOR U.S. GOVERNMENT SHIPMENTS AT REDUCED RATES § 344.2 Manner of submitting quotations. (a) The quotation or tender...

Pragmatic awareness of Suggestions: From (Im)Polite Mannerism to Attitudinal Appropriateness

OpenAIRE

Hamid Allami; Nasim Boustani

2017-01-01

The present research seeks to determine: (a) Iranian EFL learners’ application of suggestion semantic formulae ;(b) their attitude of appropriateness in terms of confidence in the employment of appropriate supportive moves; (c), their (im)polite mannerism with respect to the selected strategies; and (d) the relationship between attitude of appropriateness and mannerism of (im)politeness. An Oxford Quick placement Test (OQPT) was administered among 60 Iranian EFL learners to check their langua...

Atlas of the global distribution of atmospheric heating during the global weather experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Schaack, Todd K.; Johnson, Donald R.

1991-01-01

Global distributions of atmospheric heating for the annual cycle of the Global Weather Experiment are estimated from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Level 3b data set. Distributions of monthly, seasonally, and annually averaged heating are presented for isentropic and isobaric layers within the troposphere and for the troposphere as a whole. The distributions depict a large-scale structure of atmospheric heating that appears spatially and temporally consistent with known features of the global circulation and the seasonal evolution.

Consistent two-dimensional visualization of protein-ligand complex series

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stierand Katrin

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The comparative two-dimensional graphical representation of protein-ligand complex series featuring different ligands bound to the same active site offers a quick insight in their binding mode differences. In comparison to arbitrary orientations of the residue molecules in the individual complex depictions a consistent placement improves the legibility and comparability within the series. The automatic generation of such consistent layouts offers the possibility to apply it to large data sets originating from computer-aided drug design methods. Results We developed a new approach, which automatically generates a consistent layout of interacting residues for a given series of complexes. Based on the structural three-dimensional input information, a global two-dimensional layout for all residues of the complex ensemble is computed. The algorithm incorporates the three-dimensional adjacencies of the active site residues in order to find an universally valid circular arrangement of the residues around the ligand. Subsequent to a two-dimensional ligand superimposition step, a global placement for each residue is derived from the set of already placed ligands. The method generates high-quality layouts, showing mostly overlap-free solutions with molecules which are displayed as structure diagrams providing interaction information in atomic detail. Application examples document an improved legibility compared to series of diagrams whose layouts are calculated independently from each other. Conclusions The presented method extends the field of complex series visualizations. A series of molecules binding to the same protein active site is drawn in a graphically consistent way. Compared to existing approaches these drawings substantially simplify the visual analysis of large compound series.

26 CFR 301.6316-5 - Manner of paying tax by foreign currency.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... currency to be deposited shall be that amount which, when converted at the rate of exchange used on the... 26 Internal Revenue 18 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of paying tax by foreign currency. 301....6316-5 Manner of paying tax by foreign currency. (a) Time and place to pay. The unpaid tax required to...

Coupling Detonation Shock Dynamics in a Consistent Manner to Equations of State

Science.gov (United States)

Belfield, William

2017-06-01

In hydrocode simulations, detonating high explosives (HE) are often modelled using programmed burn. Each HE cell is assigned a ``burn time'' at which it should begin to behave as HE products in the subsequent simulation. Traditionally, these burn times were calculated using a Huygens construction to propagate the detonation wave at a constant speed corresponding to the planar Chapman-Jouguet (CJ) velocity. The Detonation Shock Dynamics (DSD) model improves upon this approach by treating the local detonation velocity as a function of wave curvature, reflecting that the detonation speed is not constant in reality. However, without alterations being made, this variable detonation velocity is inconsistent with the CJ velocity associated with the HE products equation of state (EOS). Previous work has shown that the inconsistency can be resolved by modifying the HE product EOS, but this treatment is empirical in nature and has only been applied to the JWL EOS. This work investigates different methods to resolve the inconsistency that are applicable both to JWL and to tabular HE product EOS, and their impact on hydrocode simulations.

Point of View: Manner of Realising The Matter in Adichie's Half of A ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

manner' to create meaning or matter. The best form of art is the blending of form and content; means and end; manner and matter. Therefore, the uniqueness of any novelist's product is contingent upon how well or otherwise their peculiar ...

Global gravitational anomalies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Witten, E.

1985-01-01

A general formula for global gauge and gravitational anomalies is derived. It is used to show that the anomaly free supergravity and superstring theories in ten dimensions are all free of global anomalies that might have ruined their consistency. However, it is shown that global anomalies lead to some restrictions on allowed compactifications of these theories. For example, in the case of O(32) superstring theory, it is shown that a global anomaly related to π 7 (O(32)) leads to a Dirac-like quantization condition for the field strength of the antisymmetric tensor field. Related to global anomalies is the question of the number of fermion zero modes in an instanton field. It is argued that the relevant gravitational instantons are exotic spheres. It is shown that the number of fermion zero modes in an instanton field is always even in ten dimensional supergravity. (orig.)

Bayesian detection of causal rare variants under posterior consistency.

KAUST Repository

Liang, Faming

2013-07-26

Identification of causal rare variants that are associated with complex traits poses a central challenge on genome-wide association studies. However, most current research focuses only on testing the global association whether the rare variants in a given genomic region are collectively associated with the trait. Although some recent work, e.g., the Bayesian risk index method, have tried to address this problem, it is unclear whether the causal rare variants can be consistently identified by them in the small-n-large-P situation. We develop a new Bayesian method, the so-called Bayesian Rare Variant Detector (BRVD), to tackle this problem. The new method simultaneously addresses two issues: (i) (Global association test) Are there any of the variants associated with the disease, and (ii) (Causal variant detection) Which variants, if any, are driving the association. The BRVD ensures the causal rare variants to be consistently identified in the small-n-large-P situation by imposing some appropriate prior distributions on the model and model specific parameters. The numerical results indicate that the BRVD is more powerful for testing the global association than the existing methods, such as the combined multivariate and collapsing test, weighted sum statistic test, RARECOVER, sequence kernel association test, and Bayesian risk index, and also more powerful for identification of causal rare variants than the Bayesian risk index method. The BRVD has also been successfully applied to the Early-Onset Myocardial Infarction (EOMI) Exome Sequence Data. It identified a few causal rare variants that have been verified in the literature.

Bayesian detection of causal rare variants under posterior consistency.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Faming Liang

Full Text Available Identification of causal rare variants that are associated with complex traits poses a central challenge on genome-wide association studies. However, most current research focuses only on testing the global association whether the rare variants in a given genomic region are collectively associated with the trait. Although some recent work, e.g., the Bayesian risk index method, have tried to address this problem, it is unclear whether the causal rare variants can be consistently identified by them in the small-n-large-P situation. We develop a new Bayesian method, the so-called Bayesian Rare Variant Detector (BRVD, to tackle this problem. The new method simultaneously addresses two issues: (i (Global association test Are there any of the variants associated with the disease, and (ii (Causal variant detection Which variants, if any, are driving the association. The BRVD ensures the causal rare variants to be consistently identified in the small-n-large-P situation by imposing some appropriate prior distributions on the model and model specific parameters. The numerical results indicate that the BRVD is more powerful for testing the global association than the existing methods, such as the combined multivariate and collapsing test, weighted sum statistic test, RARECOVER, sequence kernel association test, and Bayesian risk index, and also more powerful for identification of causal rare variants than the Bayesian risk index method. The BRVD has also been successfully applied to the Early-Onset Myocardial Infarction (EOMI Exome Sequence Data. It identified a few causal rare variants that have been verified in the literature.

Bayesian detection of causal rare variants under posterior consistency.

KAUST Repository

Liang, Faming; Xiong, Momiao

2013-01-01

Identification of causal rare variants that are associated with complex traits poses a central challenge on genome-wide association studies. However, most current research focuses only on testing the global association whether the rare variants in a given genomic region are collectively associated with the trait. Although some recent work, e.g., the Bayesian risk index method, have tried to address this problem, it is unclear whether the causal rare variants can be consistently identified by them in the small-n-large-P situation. We develop a new Bayesian method, the so-called Bayesian Rare Variant Detector (BRVD), to tackle this problem. The new method simultaneously addresses two issues: (i) (Global association test) Are there any of the variants associated with the disease, and (ii) (Causal variant detection) Which variants, if any, are driving the association. The BRVD ensures the causal rare variants to be consistently identified in the small-n-large-P situation by imposing some appropriate prior distributions on the model and model specific parameters. The numerical results indicate that the BRVD is more powerful for testing the global association than the existing methods, such as the combined multivariate and collapsing test, weighted sum statistic test, RARECOVER, sequence kernel association test, and Bayesian risk index, and also more powerful for identification of causal rare variants than the Bayesian risk index method. The BRVD has also been successfully applied to the Early-Onset Myocardial Infarction (EOMI) Exome Sequence Data. It identified a few causal rare variants that have been verified in the literature.

SOEKARNO: HIS MANNERISM AND METHOD OF COMMUNICATION

OpenAIRE

Justin Wejak

2000-01-01

The main purpose of this article is to discuss Soekarno's mannerism and method of communication. Certain aspects such as Soekarno's use of language in his speeches are highlighted here in order to provide some basic understanding of Soekarno - both as a person and a political leader of the nation. The article aims at stimulating further discussions concerning this very well known leader. This article also examines Soeharto's style of speech for a comparison.

Global Man-made Impervious Surface (GMIS) Dataset From Landsat

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Global Man-made Impervious Surface (GMIS) Dataset From Landsat consists of global estimates of fractional impervious cover derived from the Global Land Survey...

International cooperation for the development of consistent and stable transportation regulations to promote and enhance safety and security

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strosnider, J.

2004-01-01

International commerce of radioactive materials crosses national boundaries, linking separate regulatory institutions with a common purpose and making it necessary for these institutions to work together in order to achieve common safety goals in a manner that does not place an undue burden on industry and commerce. Widespread and increasing use of radioactive materials across the world has led to increases in the transport of radioactive materials. The demand for consistency in the oversight of international transport has also increased to prevent unnecessary delays and costs associated with incongruent or redundant regulatory requirements by the various countries through which radioactive material is transported. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the authority for international regulation of transportation of radioactive materials responsible for promulgation of regulations and guidance for the establishment of acceptable methods of transportation for the international community. As such, the IAEA is seen as the focal point for consensus building between its Member States to develop consistency in transportation regulations and reviews and to ensure the safe and secure transport of radioactive material. International cooperation is also needed to ensure stability in our regulatory processes. Changes to transportation regulations should be based on an anticipated safety benefit supported by risk information and insights gained from continuing experience, evaluation, and research studies. If we keep safety as the principle basis for regulatory changes, regulatory stability will be enhanced. Finally, as we endeavour to maintain consistency and stability in our international regulations, we must be mindful of the new security challenges that lay before the international community as a result of a changing terrorist environment. Terrorism is a problem of global concern that also requires international cooperation and support, as we look for ways to

A global assessment of market accessibility and market influence for global environmental change studies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Verburg, Peter H [Institute for Environmental Studies, Amsterdam Global Change Institute, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam (Netherlands); Ellis, Erle C [Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250 (United States); Letourneau, Aurelien, E-mail: Peter.Verburg@ivm.vu.nl [UMR 5175 Centre d' Ecologie Fonctionnelle and Evolutive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier cedex 5 (France)

2011-07-15

Markets influence the global patterns of urbanization, deforestation, agriculture and other land use systems. Yet market influence is rarely incorporated into spatially explicit global studies of environmental change, largely because consistent global data are lacking below the national level. Here we present the first high spatial resolution gridded data depicting market influence globally. The data jointly represent variations in both market strength and accessibility based on three market influence indices derived from an index of accessibility to market locations and national level gross domestic product (purchasing power parity). These indices show strong correspondence with human population density while also revealing several distinct and useful relationships with other global environmental patterns. As market influence grows, the need for high resolution global data on market influence and its dynamics will become increasingly important to understanding and forecasting global environmental change.

A global assessment of market accessibility and market influence for global environmental change studies

Science.gov (United States)

Verburg, Peter H.; Ellis, Erle C.; Letourneau, Aurelien

2011-07-01

Markets influence the global patterns of urbanization, deforestation, agriculture and other land use systems. Yet market influence is rarely incorporated into spatially explicit global studies of environmental change, largely because consistent global data are lacking below the national level. Here we present the first high spatial resolution gridded data depicting market influence globally. The data jointly represent variations in both market strength and accessibility based on three market influence indices derived from an index of accessibility to market locations and national level gross domestic product (purchasing power parity). These indices show strong correspondence with human population density while also revealing several distinct and useful relationships with other global environmental patterns. As market influence grows, the need for high resolution global data on market influence and its dynamics will become increasingly important to understanding and forecasting global environmental change.

A global assessment of market accessibility and market influence for global environmental change studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verburg, Peter H; Ellis, Erle C; Letourneau, Aurelien

2011-01-01

Markets influence the global patterns of urbanization, deforestation, agriculture and other land use systems. Yet market influence is rarely incorporated into spatially explicit global studies of environmental change, largely because consistent global data are lacking below the national level. Here we present the first high spatial resolution gridded data depicting market influence globally. The data jointly represent variations in both market strength and accessibility based on three market influence indices derived from an index of accessibility to market locations and national level gross domestic product (purchasing power parity). These indices show strong correspondence with human population density while also revealing several distinct and useful relationships with other global environmental patterns. As market influence grows, the need for high resolution global data on market influence and its dynamics will become increasingly important to understanding and forecasting global environmental change.

SOEKARNO: HIS MANNERISM AND METHOD OF COMMUNICATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Justin Wejak

2000-01-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of this article is to discuss Soekarno's mannerism and method of communication. Certain aspects such as Soekarno's use of language in his speeches are highlighted here in order to provide some basic understanding of Soekarno - both as a person and a political leader of the nation. The article aims at stimulating further discussions concerning this very well known leader. This article also examines Soeharto's style of speech for a comparison.

26 CFR 1.1071-4 - Manner of election.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... corporation, the statement shall be signed with the corporate name, followed by the signature and title of an officer of the corporation empowered to sign for the corporation, and the corporate seal must be affixed...) INCOME TAXES Changes to Effectuate F.c.c. Policy § 1.1071-4 Manner of election. (a) An election under the...

National, Regional and Global Certification Bodies for Polio Eradication: A Framework for Verifying Measles Elimination.

Science.gov (United States)

Deblina Datta, S; Tangermann, Rudolf H; Reef, Susan; William Schluter, W; Adams, Anthony

2017-07-01

The Global Certification Commission (GCC), Regional Certification Commissions (RCCs), and National Certification Committees (NCCs) provide a framework of independent bodies to assist the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in certifying and maintaining polio eradication in a standardized, ongoing, and credible manner. Their members meet regularly to comprehensively review population immunity, surveillance, laboratory, and other data to assess polio status in the country (NCC), World Health Organization (WHO) region (RCC), or globally (GCC). These highly visible bodies provide a framework to be replicated to independently verify measles and rubella elimination in the regions and globally. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Modeling Global Water Use for the 21st Century: Water Futures and Solutions (WFaS) Initiative and Its Approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Wada, Y.; Florke, M.; Hanasaki, N.; Eisner, S.; Fischer, G.; Tramberend, S.; Satoh, Y.; van Vliet, M. T. H.; Yillia, P.; Ringler, C.;

The Open Global Glacier Model

Science.gov (United States)

Marzeion, B.; Maussion, F.

2017-12-01

Mountain glaciers are one of the few remaining sub-systems of the global climate system for which no globally applicable, open source, community-driven model exists. Notable examples from the ice sheet community include the Parallel Ice Sheet Model or Elmer/Ice. While the atmospheric modeling community has a long tradition of sharing models (e.g. the Weather Research and Forecasting model) or comparing them (e.g. the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project or CMIP), recent initiatives originating from the glaciological community show a new willingness to better coordinate global research efforts following the CMIP example (e.g. the Glacier Model Intercomparison Project or the Glacier Ice Thickness Estimation Working Group). In the recent past, great advances have been made in the global availability of data and methods relevant for glacier modeling, spanning glacier outlines, automatized glacier centerline identification, bed rock inversion methods, and global topographic data sets. Taken together, these advances now allow the ice dynamics of glaciers to be modeled on a global scale, provided that adequate modeling platforms are available. Here, we present the Open Global Glacier Model (OGGM), developed to provide a global scale, modular, and open source numerical model framework for consistently simulating past and future global scale glacier change. Global not only in the sense of leading to meaningful results for all glaciers combined, but also for any small ensemble of glaciers, e.g. at the headwater catchment scale. Modular to allow combinations of different approaches to the representation of ice flow and surface mass balance, enabling a new kind of model intercomparison. Open source so that the code can be read and used by anyone and so that new modules can be added and discussed by the community, following the principles of open governance. Consistent in order to provide uncertainty measures at all realizable scales.

Why Globally GDP, Trade, Profits, Wages, Employment Decrease and Why Poverty Increases?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Štrukelj

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the paper is to propose a scientific explanation ofwhy GDP, trade, profits, wages and employment have been globallydecreasing and why poverty has been globally increasing betweenthe 2nd quarter of 2008 and the 3rd quarter of 2009. I explainthese facts in a scientific manner, that is, by deriving thepresent state of the global economy (crisis from the principles ofthe present global economy (predominately organized in a capitalisticmanner. I therefore prove that the crisis necessarily followsfrom the way the present global economy functions. I arguethat the reason for the crisis is the fundamental contradiction betweenthe purpose of companies (increasing profits and necessaryways in which companies try to increase profits, and that theconsequences of this fundamental contradiction are triggered bya general lack of credits.

The availability and consistency of dengue surveillance data provided online by the World Health Organization.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruberto, Irene; Marques, Ernesto; Burke, Donald S; Van Panhuis, Willem G

2015-04-01

The use of high quality disease surveillance data has become increasingly important for public health action against new threats. In response, countries have developed a wide range of disease surveillance systems enabled by technological advancements. The heterogeneity and complexity of country data systems have caused a growing need for international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) to coordinate the standardization, integration, and dissemination of country disease data at the global level for research and policy. The availability and consistency of currently available disease surveillance data at the global level are unclear. We investigated this for dengue surveillance data provided online by the WHO. We extracted all dengue surveillance data provided online by WHO Headquarters and Regional Offices (RO's). We assessed the availability and consistency of these data by comparing indicators within and between sources. We also assessed the consistency of dengue data provided online by two example countries (Brazil and Indonesia). Data were available from WHO for 100 countries since 1955 representing a total of 23 million dengue cases and 82 thousand deaths ever reported to WHO. The availability of data on DengueNet and some RO's declined dramatically after 2005. Consistency was lacking between sources (84% across all indicators representing a discrepancy of almost half a million cases). Within sources, data at high spatial resolution were often incomplete. The decline of publicly available, integrated dengue surveillance data at the global level will limit opportunities for research, policy, and advocacy. A new financial and operational framework will be necessary for innovation and for the continued availability of integrated country disease data at the global level.

Fairness through regulation? Reflections on a cosmopolitan approach to global finance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marta Božina Beroš

2013-11-01

Full Text Available In the aftermath of the last financial crisis a strong message prevails that ‘something’ has to be changed in the manner global finance is governed. What exactly this ‘something’ entails and what could constitute the ‘common ground’ of anticipated change is more difficult to determine. Many envisage future improvements of global financial governance by evoking deliberative democracy, political equality and cosmopolitanism. As financial regulation is the main instrument through which global finance is shaped and governed nowadays, these principles should then be transmitted to regulatory arrangements. This paper focuses on a new conceptual approach to regulatory and governance issues in global finance, by employing the philosophical idea of cosmopolitanism. It argues that although as a concept, cosmopolitanism cannot mitigate all the flaws attributed to contemporary finance, its development and extension to international financial regulation that is promulgated by institutions of the global financial system, would represent a worthwhile endeavour in making global finance more accountable and just in the eyes of many.

The Global Challenge for Accounting Education

Science.gov (United States)

Helliar, Christine

2013-01-01

Accounting and education are both global phenomena, and there is thus an argument that accounting education should be consistent and comparable across the globe. However, accounting, and accounting education are all socially constructed and globally they have been influenced by their historical, social, economic, political and cultural contexts.…

Assessment of Ethical Ideals and Ethical Manners in Care of Older People

OpenAIRE

Frilund, Marianne; Fagerström, Lisbeth; Eriksson, Katie; Eklund, Patrik

2013-01-01

The aim of this study is to establish structured clusters and well-defined ontological entities (nodes) describing ethical values as both ideal and opportunity for ethical manner as perceived by the caregiver. In this study, we use Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) to analyse ethical values (ethos) and ethical manners in daily work with older people. Material is based on questionnaire data collected by the instrument for the self-assessment of individual ethos in the care of older people (ISAEC...

Non-natural manners of death among users of illicit drugs: Substance findings.

Science.gov (United States)

Delaveris, Gerd Jorunn M; Teige, Brita; Rogde, Sidsel

2014-05-01

The aim of the study was to explore differences and similarities between the various non-natural manners of death (accident, suicide, homicide) regarding toxicological findings in illicit drug users. Medicolegal autopsy reports from the Institute of Forensic Medicine University of Oslo concerning deaths from 2000 to 2009 were investigated. Those aged 20-59 whose manner of death was non-natural and who tested positive for any narcotic drug (morphine/heroin, amphetamines, ecstasy, cannabis, LSD, PCP, and high levels of GHB in addition to methadone and buprenorphine) were selected. All substance findings were registered and categorized (narcotics, ethanol, and medicinal products). Of the 1603 autopsies that met the selection criteria, 1204 were accidental intoxications, 122 accidents other than intoxication, 114 suicides by intoxication, 119 non-intoxication suicides, and 44 victims of homicide. Poly drug use was found in all manners of death. The drug profile as well as the mean number of substances (illicit drugs and medicinal products) varied from 2.9 to 4.6 substances per case, depending on the manner of death. Intoxication suicides had the highest number of substances and a total drug profile similar to accidental intoxications. Non-intoxication suicides had a total drug profile similar to homicide and accidents other than intoxication. The number of substances found per case increased during the decade, mainly due to increased findings of methadone, cannabis, amphetamines, and benzodiazepines. Methadone findings increased much more than buprenorphine. Methadone was found 20 times more often than buprenorphine in accidental intoxication cases. In summary, poly drug findings are common in adults who suffer a non-natural death while using illicit drugs. The different manners of death have some specific characteristics and significant differences regarding drug profile. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improving the livelihoods of wool producers in a sustainable manner ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Improving the livelihoods of wool producers in a sustainable manner by optimizing the woolled sheep production systems within the communal farming area of the Eastern Cape. “A vision that is future directed”

20 CFR 335.2 - Manner of claiming sickness benefits.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

..., or in the case of a female employee, pregnancy, miscarriage, or childbirth, an employee must file the... 20 Employees' Benefits 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of claiming sickness benefits. 335.2 Section 335.2 Employees' Benefits RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD REGULATIONS UNDER THE RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT...

Democratização da governança global: perspectivas históricas mundiais Democratizing global governance: world historical perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher Chase-Dunn

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Este artigo examina a controversa noção de democracia global. O texto apresenta uma perspectiva histórica mundial da evolução da governança global - como a estrutura política do sistema-mundo evoluiu ao longo dos últimos séculos - e analisa movimentos sociais contemporâneos que buscam democratizar as instituições de governança global. Argumenta-se que os que desejam democratizar a governança global devem assumir o repto de ajudar a promover a construção de um estado mundial globalmente multilateral para fazer frente aos desafios que se colocarão à humanidade no século 21. Movimentos sociais transnacionais e estados nacionais semiperiféricos progressistas são vistos como os agentes que irão desafiar os poderes constituídos e conduzir a humanidade rumo a uma comunidade global democrática e coletivamente racional nas próximas décadas.This article examines the contested idea of global democracy. It presents a world historical view of the evolution of global governance - how the political structure of the world-system has evolved of over the past several centuries - and it examines contemporary social movements that are seeking to democratize global governance institutions. It is argued that those who want to democratize global governance must take up the problem of helping to further construct a global multilateral world state in order that the challenges that humanity has created for itself may be met in a collectively rational, sustainable and humane manner in the 21st century. Transnational social movements and progressive semiperipheral national-states are seen as the agents that will challenge the powers that be and move humanity closer to a democratic and collectively rational global commonwealth in the next several decades.

A global change data base using Thematic Mapper data - Earth Monitoring Educational System (EMES)

Science.gov (United States)

D'Antoni, Hector L.; Peterson, David L.

1992-01-01

Some of the main directions in creating an education program in earth system science aimed at combining top science and technology with high academic performance are presented. The creation of an Earth Monitoring Educational System (EMES) integrated with the research interests of the NASA Ames Research Center and one or more universities is proposed. Based on the integration of a global network of cooperators to build a global data base for assessments of global change, EMES would promote degrees at all levels in global ecology at associated universities and colleges, and extracurricular courses for multilevel audiences. EMES objectives are to: train specialists; establish a tradition of solving regional problems concerning global change in a systemic manner, using remote sensing technology as the monitoring tool; and transfer knowledge on global change to the national and world communities. South America is proposed as the pilot continent for the project.

21 CFR 1306.05 - Manner of issuance of prescriptions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 9 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Manner of issuance of prescriptions. 1306.05 Section 1306.05 Food and Drugs DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE PRESCRIPTIONS... revised, effective June 1, 2010. For the convenience of the user, therevised text is set forth as follows...

Mind your "smoking manners": the tobacco industry tactics to normalize smoking in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Kashiwabara, Mina; Armada, Francisco

2013-11-09

The tobacco industry has adapted its promotional strategies as tobacco-control measures have increased. This paper describes the tobacco industry's strategies on smoking manners and illustrates how these interfere with tobacco-control policy in Japan where tobacco control remains weak. Information on the tobacco industry's promotional strategies in Japan was collected through direct observation, a review of tobacco industry documents and a literature review. The limitation of the study would be a lack of industry documents from Japan as we relied on a database of a U.S. institution to collect internal documents from the tobacco industry. Japan Tobacco began using the manners strategies in the early 1960s. Collaborating with wide range of actors -including local governments and companies- the tobacco industry has promoted smoking manners to wider audiences through its advertising and corporate social responsibility activities. The tobacco industry in Japan has taken advantage of the cultural value placed on manners in Japan to increase the social acceptability of smoking, eventually aiming to diminish public support for smoke-free policies that threatens the industry's business. A stronger enforcement of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is critical to counteracting such strategies.

Global ecology. A new arena of political conflict

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sachs, W.

1994-01-01

The problem of global ecology has become a matter of public discussion since the UN Conference on Environment and Development, which was held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Now that it has become a topical issue, it is time to take a closer look. Behind the appeals for global responsibility, there are political and cultural conflicts which need to be detected and resolved. Wolfgang Sachs and his authors attempt to throw light on these conflicts. They show in what manner the well-known economic conflicts between the North and the South are reflected also in their environmental policy. The authors are from Germany, India, Pakistan, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the USA, and Uganda; each author discusses the problem of ecology and development from the view of his own country. (orig.) [de

Strategic Global Climate Command?

Science.gov (United States)

Long, J. C. S.

2016-12-01

Researchers have been exploring geoengineering because Anthropogenic GHG emissions could drive the globe towards unihabitability for people, wildlife and vegetation. Potential global deployment of these technologies is inherently strategic. For example, solar radiation management to reflect more sunlight might be strategically useful during a period of time where the population completes an effort to cease emissions and carbon removal technologies might then be strategically deployed to move the atmospheric concentrations back to a safer level. Consequently, deployment of these global technologies requires the ability to think and act strategically on the part of the planet's governments. Such capacity most definitely does not exist today but it behooves scientists and engineers to be involved in thinking through how global command might develop because the way they do the research could support the development of a capacity to deploy intervention rationally -- or irrationally. Internationalizing research would get countries used to working together. Organizing the research in a step-wise manner where at each step scientists become skilled at explaining what they have learned, the quality of the information they have, what they don't know and what more they can do to reduce or handle uncertainty, etc. Such a process can increase societal confidence in being able to make wise decisions about deployment. Global capacity will also be enhanced if the sceintific establishment reinvents misssion driven research so that the programs will identify the systemic issues invovled in any proposed technology and systematically address them with research while still encouraging individual creativity. Geoengineering will diverge from climate science in that geoengineering research needs to design interventions for some publically desirable goal and investigates whether a proposed intervention will acheive desired outcomes. The effort must be a systems-engineering design problem

The accuracy of the time-dependent self-consistent-field approximation for inelastic collisions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henriksen, Niels Engholm; Billing, Gert D.; Hansen, Flemming Yssing

1992-01-01

We study the accuracy of the time-dependent self-consistent-field approximation for collinear inelastic collisions between an atom and a diatomic molecule. Individual state-to-state transition probabilities, total energy transfer. and the global description of the wavefunction is considered...

Global Warming: Evidence from Satellite Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Prabhakara, C.; Iacovazzi, R., Jr.; Yoo, J.-M.

2001-01-01

Observations made in Channel 2 (53.74 GHz) of the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) radiometer, flown on-board sequential, sun-synchronous, polar orbiting NOAA operational satellites, indicate that the mean temperature of the atmosphere over the globe increased during the period 1980 to 1999. In this study we have minimized systematic errors in the time series introduced by the satellite orbital drift in an objective manner. This is done with the help the onboard warm black body temperature, which is used in the calibration of the MSU radiometer. The corrected MSU Channel 2 observations of the NOAA satellite series reveal that the vertically weighted global mean temperature of the atmosphere, with a peak weight near the mid-troposphere, warmed at the rate of 0.13 K per decade (with an uncertainty of 0.05 K per decade) during 1980 to 1999. The global warming deduced from conventional meteorological data that have been corrected for urbanization effects agrees reasonably with this satellite deuced result.

Grand Manner Aesthetics in Landscape: From Canvas to Celluloid

Science.gov (United States)

Auger, Emily E.

2009-01-01

The methods by which environmental issues are aestheticized in late-twentieth-century film is directly and historically related to those established for grand manner painters by Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) and taught at the French academy from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. That these fundamentals were part of the training of…

Global Operations Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

In the current context of global economic liberalisation and technological advancements, industrial companies are less likely to generate value in the traditional vertically integrated chain. Instead, they are doing so by means of elaborate cross-border and cross-organisational networks. As a rule......, these networks are configured on a global basis and consist of diverse and interdependent affiliates (linked both through ownership and non-equity relationships), which are engaged in an exchange of goods, services and information. The Scandinavian context is no exception to this trend. Nevertheless......, international comparative studies providing comprehensive insights from it are still rare. With the objective of bridging this gap, Global Operations Networks (GONE) project (sponsored by the Danish Research Council) brought together numerous academic and industrial partners from Denmark, Sweden and Finland...

MANNER OF STOCKS SORTING USING CLUSTER ANALYSIS METHODS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jana Halčinová

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of the present article is to show the possibility of using the methods of cluster analysis in classification of stocks of finished products. Cluster analysis creates groups (clusters of finished products according to similarity in demand i.e. customer requirements for each product. Manner stocks sorting of finished products by clusters is described a practical example. The resultants clusters are incorporated into the draft layout of the distribution warehouse.

A Look at Global Climate Change Through Papal Encyclicals

Science.gov (United States)

Gutry-Korycka, Małgorzata

2017-12-01

The aim of this article is a comprehensive review of Papal Encyclicals in the context of global environmental and climatic change, against the backdrop of the activity of multinational institutions. The Encyclicals look to the future in teaching the faithful, in a manner which indicates that they are part of a goal-oriented policy, both in terms of scientific research, and concrete economic, social, and geopolitical activity. Attention has also been paid to the relationship between the activity of humankind, and global environmental change, particularly of the biotic and climatic variety. If this aggressive anthropogenic activity cannot be deemed responsible for initiating global warming, it may certainly be seen to have "encouraged" it. The impulses behind sustainable development, as well as the instruments of its implementation, and the inspiration behind the idea, have also been discussed. The achievement of this goal, necessitating the balancing of anthropological aspirations and the long-term security of the environment are also referenced in the Encyclicals.

Self-consistent treatment of spin and magnetization dynamic effect in spin transfer switching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo Jie; Tan, Seng Ghee; Jalil, Mansoor Bin Abdul; Koh, Dax Enshan; Han, Guchang; Meng, Hao

2011-01-01

The effect of itinerant spin moment (m) dynamic in spin transfer switching has been ignored in most previous theoretical studies of the magnetization (M) dynamics. Thus in this paper, we proposed a more refined micromagnetic model of spin transfer switching that takes into account in a self-consistent manner of the coupled m and M dynamics. The numerical results obtained from this model further shed insight on the switching profiles of m and M, both of which show particular sensitivity to parameters such as the anisotropy field, the spin torque field, and the initial deviation between m and M.

European strategy/global strategy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Testore, R. [FIAT Auto S.p.A., Turin (Italy)

1998-08-01

In order to be `global`, a carmaker has to satisfy three main criteria: a global customer service, a global market presence, a global respect for the environment. Just in a word, the automotive industry needs to develop - and has indeed already launched - a process of global re-engineering of its: product, processes, and market. The product is not simply a `car`, but a global mobility service. This is what an increasingly diversified clientele is demanding in order to meet its particular mobility needs in terms of comfort and safety, in a way that does not damage the environment and at welldefined, competitive costs. The process is not just a matter of the way we design, manufacture and distribute our product. We have to re-design our entire corporate profile, redefine the parameters of our specific strategic mission, identifying the levels of control and our core business in a way that is consistent with our particular history, market positioning and growth targets. The market is no longer hard set, but is globally diversified, ready to expand into important niches and to meet the personalized needs of specific users: from VIPs to the elderly or the disables, and so on. (orig.)

A Mission to Reform Manners: Religion, Secularization, and Empire in Early Modern England

OpenAIRE

Taback, Naomi Johanna

2013-01-01

This dissertation looks at three voluntary societies formed in London shortly after the revolution of 1688. These societies, with overlapping membership, shared a broad vision for the improvement of manners and morals throughout the burgeoning British Empire. The Society for Reformation of Manners, founded in 1691, called for the enforcement of the civil laws against prostitution, swearing, drunkenness, gambling, and other moral crimes. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founde...

Simulations of tokamak disruptions including self-consistent temperature evolution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bondeson, A.

1986-01-01

Three-dimensional simulations of tokamaks have been carried out, including self-consistent temperature evolution with a highly anisotropic thermal conductivity. The simulations extend over the transport time-scale and address the question of how disruptive current profiles arise at low-q or high-density operation. Sharply defined disruptive events are triggered by the m/n=2/1 resistive tearing mode, which is mainly affected by local current gradients near the q=2 surface. If the global current gradient between q=2 and q=1 is sufficiently steep, the m=2 mode starts a shock which accelerates towards the q=1 surface, leaving stochastic fields, a flattened temperature profile and turbulent plasma behind it. For slightly weaker global current gradients, a shock may form, but it will dissipate before reaching q=1 and may lead to repetitive minidisruptions which flatten the temperature profile in a region inside the q=2 surface. (author)

Globalization and Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huma Imran Khan

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The concept of globalization has been introduced due to technical advancements that has made the world a global village. The world as is now has never been before; it is now a world where multicultural societies have developed, trade and transactions are made between countries, technology reaches every part of the world, and internet has connected every possible idea, opinion, person, and commodity with the rest of the world. In this world of globalization, education has taken a central role, as without education globalization cannot be germinated. Education is a national issue and as such, each country has its own educational policies that are emblems of that country's cultural values, belief system and historical realities. Nevertheless, the globalized world demands for multiculturalism, and commonalities amongst communities to be promoted so as to bring the world closer to accepting cultural diversities and celebrating commonalities. For these aims, educational institutions become institutions for promoting globalization by introducing various cultural and traditional beliefs to the new generation. Recently, globalization has become a popular subject of debate in national and international circiles. Globalization links individuals and institutions across the world through economic forces, digital technologies, and communication. It is moreover subjected to higher living standards, international affiliations, and multiple types of freedom. However, a major part of the world consists of under developed countries where technological advancements, communication, trade and commerce along with other economic activities are not enough to support them to be a part of the global society.

Local, Regional or Global?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Geisler Asmussen, Christian

to be consistent with models of internationalization that incorporate different assumptions about strategic choice and global competition. Preliminary results show that large multinationals follow home region oriented internationalization paths, although much of the regional effect reported by previous studies...

Practicing leadership-as-practice in content and manner

OpenAIRE

Raelin, Joe; Kempster, Stephen John; Youngs, Howard; Caroll, Brigid; Jackson, Brad

2018-01-01

A collective and collaborative response to an article appearing in Leadership’s “Leading Questions” department is prepared by a team subscribing to the leadership-as-practice approach. The focus is to represent the manner in which leadership-as-practice operates as a leadership theory and in its communal practice orientation. Among the themes addressed are leadership-as-practice’s theory development, its contribution in comparison to critical leadership theory, its approach to power, and its ...

The consistent histories interpretation of quantum fields in curved spacetime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blencowe, M.

1991-01-01

As an initial attempt to address some of the foundation problems of quantum mechanics, the author formulates the consistent histories interpretation of quantum field theory on a globally hyperbolic curved space time. He then constructs quasiclassical histories for a free, massive scalar field. In the final part, he points out the shortcomings of the theory and conjecture that one must take into account the fact that gravity is quantized in order to overcome them

New geometric design consistency model based on operating speed profiles for road safety evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Camacho-Torregrosa, Francisco J; Pérez-Zuriaga, Ana M; Campoy-Ungría, J Manuel; García-García, Alfredo

2013-12-01

To assist in the on-going effort to reduce road fatalities as much as possible, this paper presents a new methodology to evaluate road safety in both the design and redesign stages of two-lane rural highways. This methodology is based on the analysis of road geometric design consistency, a value which will be a surrogate measure of the safety level of the two-lane rural road segment. The consistency model presented in this paper is based on the consideration of continuous operating speed profiles. The models used for their construction were obtained by using an innovative GPS-data collection method that is based on continuous operating speed profiles recorded from individual drivers. This new methodology allowed the researchers to observe the actual behavior of drivers and to develop more accurate operating speed models than was previously possible with spot-speed data collection, thereby enabling a more accurate approximation to the real phenomenon and thus a better consistency measurement. Operating speed profiles were built for 33 Spanish two-lane rural road segments, and several consistency measurements based on the global and local operating speed were checked. The final consistency model takes into account not only the global dispersion of the operating speed, but also some indexes that consider both local speed decelerations and speeds over posted speeds as well. For the development of the consistency model, the crash frequency for each study site was considered, which allowed estimating the number of crashes on a road segment by means of the calculation of its geometric design consistency. Consequently, the presented consistency evaluation method is a promising innovative tool that can be used as a surrogate measure to estimate the safety of a road segment. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Reflection of Javanese Life Manner on the Dongkrek Art and Ritual Performance in Madiun Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sharfina Nur Amalina

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This article focuses in the analysis of Javanese life manner within Dongkrek art and ritual performance in Mejayan, Madiun, Indonesia. The purpose of research is to reflect a life manner of Javanese society within a Dongkrek show. The qualitative-descriptive was used as research approach. Data were collected by interview, literature review, and other relevant resources. The results of research show a five points of Javanese manner of life in Dongkrek, represent in the phrase Ambrasta Dur Hangkara, Memayu Hayuning Bawana, Sura Dira Jayaning Lebur Dening Pangastuti, Sadulur Papat Kalima Pancer, and Manunggaling Kawula Gusti. Those phrases contain many moral values that generally can be accepted by society. The phrase represents a human relationship, the manner of life, ways of life, world-view, willingness, and the transcendental relationship between humans and God. It means the purpose of the Javanese manner of life is to reach the perfection of life. The perfection of life is resting on the faith towards to the God through the maturity of spirituality.

Multifractality and quantum diffusion from self-consistent theory of localization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Suslov, I. M., E-mail: suslov@kapitza.ras.ru [Kapitza Institute for Physical Problems (Russian Federation)

2015-11-15

Multifractal properties of wave functions in a disordered system can be derived from self-consistent theory of localization by Vollhardt and Wölfle. A diagrammatic interpretation of results allows to obtain all scaling relations used in numerical experiments. The arguments are given that the one-loop Wegner result for a space dimension d = 2 + ϵ is exact, so the multifractal spectrum is strictly parabolical. The σ-models are shown to be deficient at the four-loop level and the possible reasons of that are discussed. The extremely slow convergence to the thermodynamic limit is demonstrated. The open question on the relation between multifractality and a spatial dispersion of the diffusion coefficient D(ω, q) is resolved in the compromise manner due to ambiguity of the D(ω, q) definition. Comparison is made with the extensive numerical material.

The global cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: consistent over decades and around the world.

Science.gov (United States)

Schaefer, Jonathan; Giangrande, Evan; Weinberger, Daniel R; Dickinson, Dwight

2013-10-01

Schizophrenia results in cognitive impairments as well as positive, negative, and disorganized symptomatology. The present study examines the extent to which these cognitive deficits are generalized across domains, potential moderator variables, and whether the pattern of cognitive findings reported in schizophrenia has remained consistent over time and across cultural and geographic variation. Relevant publications from 2006 to 2011 were identified through keyword searches in PubMed and an examination of reference lists. Studies were included if they (1) compared the cognitive performance of adult schizophrenia patients and healthy controls, (2) based schizophrenia diagnoses on contemporary diagnostic criteria, (3) reported information sufficient to permit effect size calculation, (4) were reported in English, and (5) reported data for neuropsychological tests falling into at least 3 distinct cognitive domains. A set of 100 non-overlapping studies was identified, and effect sizes (Hedge's g) were calculated for each cognitive variable. Consistent with earlier analyses, patients with schizophrenia scored significantly lower than controls across all cognitive tests and domains (grand mean effect size, g=-1.03). Patients showed somewhat larger impairments in the domains of processing speed (g=-1.25) and episodic memory (g=-1.23). Our results also showed few inconsistencies when grouped by geographic region. The present study extends findings from 1980 to 2006 of a substantial, generalized cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, demonstrating that this finding has remained robust over time despite changes in assessment instruments and alterations in diagnostic criteria, and that it manifests similarly in different regions of the world despite linguistic and cultural differences. © 2013.

26 CFR 1.881-1 - Manner of taxing foreign corporations.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... tax avoidance purposes, whether or not such corporation is engaged in trade or business in the United... TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES Foreign Corporations § 1.881-1 Manner of taxing foreign corporations. (a) Classes of foreign corporations. For purposes of the income tax, foreign corporations are divided into two...

Global OpenSearch

Science.gov (United States)

Newman, D. J.; Mitchell, A. E.

2015-12-01

At AGU 2014, NASA EOSDIS demonstrated a case-study of an OpenSearch framework for Earth science data discovery. That framework leverages the IDN and CWIC OpenSearch API implementations to provide seamless discovery of data through the 'two-step' discovery process as outlined by the Federation for Earth Sciences (ESIP) OpenSearch Best Practices. But how would an Earth Scientist leverage this framework and what are the benefits? Using a client that understands the OpenSearch specification and, for further clarity, the various best practices and extensions, a scientist can discovery a plethora of data not normally accessible either by traditional methods (NASA Earth Data Search, Reverb, etc) or direct methods (going to the source of the data) We will demonstrate, via the CWICSmart web client, how an earth scientist can access regional data on a regional phenomena in a uniform and aggregated manner. We will demonstrate how an earth scientist can 'globalize' their discovery. You want to find local data on 'sea surface temperature of the Indian Ocean'? We can help you with that. 'European meteorological data'? Yes. 'Brazilian rainforest satellite imagery'? That too. CWIC allows you to get earth science data in a uniform fashion from a large number of disparate, world-wide agencies. This is what we mean by Global OpenSearch.

Optimal consistency in microRNA expression analysis using reference-gene-based normalization.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xi; Gardiner, Erin J; Cairns, Murray J

2015-05-01

Normalization of high-throughput molecular expression profiles secures differential expression analysis between samples of different phenotypes or biological conditions, and facilitates comparison between experimental batches. While the same general principles apply to microRNA (miRNA) normalization, there is mounting evidence that global shifts in their expression patterns occur in specific circumstances, which pose a challenge for normalizing miRNA expression data. As an alternative to global normalization, which has the propensity to flatten large trends, normalization against constitutively expressed reference genes presents an advantage through their relative independence. Here we investigated the performance of reference-gene-based (RGB) normalization for differential miRNA expression analysis of microarray expression data, and compared the results with other normalization methods, including: quantile, variance stabilization, robust spline, simple scaling, rank invariant, and Loess regression. The comparative analyses were executed using miRNA expression in tissue samples derived from subjects with schizophrenia and non-psychiatric controls. We proposed a consistency criterion for evaluating methods by examining the overlapping of differentially expressed miRNAs detected using different partitions of the whole data. Based on this criterion, we found that RGB normalization generally outperformed global normalization methods. Thus we recommend the application of RGB normalization for miRNA expression data sets, and believe that this will yield a more consistent and useful readout of differentially expressed miRNAs, particularly in biological conditions characterized by large shifts in miRNA expression.

Self consistent and covariant propagation of pions, nucleon and isobar resonances in cold nuclear matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Korpa, C.L.; Lutz, M.F.M.; Technische Univ. Darmstadt

2003-06-01

We evaluate the in-medium spectral functions for pions, nucleon and isobar resonances in a self consistent and covariant manner. The calculations are based on a recently developed formulation which leads to predictions in terms of the pion-nucleon scattering phase shifts and a set of Migdal parameters describing important short range correlation effects. We do not observe any significant softening of pion modes if we insist on reasonable isobar resonance properties but predict a considerable broadening of the N(1440) and N(1520) resonances in nuclear matter. (orig.)

Kulturne Determinante Globalizacije i Održivi Razvoj / Sustainable Development and Cultural Determinants of Globalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đukić Petar

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Culture and globalization are intertwined and mutually conditioned not only due to the common culture interaction, but also primarily because of technological transfers shaping the global economy. The entire social development is thus adapted to various cultures and to culture in general. Perceived from one perspective, the market and globalization affect the culture in a negative manner. As a set of permanent material and immaterial values and human creations, culture, as such, is exposed to a multitude of problem, countercultural and degrading processes stemming from conflicts of interest and, sometimes, from very rapid changes and uncritically accepted innovations, forms and standards. In that sense, degradation of culture can cause deterioration of the quality of economic activity.

Consistent treatment of ground deposition together with species growth and decay during atmospheric transport

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murphy, B.D.; Nelson, C.B.; Ohr, S.Y.

1981-01-01

We discuss the adaptation of a trajectory model to an initial pollutant species and a series of successor species at mesoscale distances. The effect of source height is discussed since it is important in determining close-in ground level concentration, which influences plume depletion due to dry deposition. A scheme is outlined which handles deposition and species decay in a consistent manner and which does so for an arbitrary number of successor pollutant species. This scheme is discussed in terms of a Lagrangian trajectory model which accounts for initial source height and which calculates ground-level concentrations out to mesoscale distances

26 CFR 1.522-2 - Manner of taxation of cooperative associations subject to section 522.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 26 Internal Revenue 7 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Manner of taxation of cooperative associations subject to section 522. 1.522-2 Section 1.522-2 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF...-2 Manner of taxation of cooperative associations subject to section 522. (a) In general. Farmers...

TOWARDS CONSISTENT MAPPING OF URBAN STRUCTURES – GLOBAL HUMAN SETTLEMENT LAYER AND LOCAL CLIMATE ZONES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Bechtel

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Although more than half of the Earth’s population live in urban areas, we know remarkably little about most cities and what we do know is incomplete (lack of coverage and inconsistent (varying definitions and scale. While there have been considerable advances in the derivation of a global urban mask using satellite information, the complexity of urban structures, the heterogeneity of materials, and the multiplicity of spectral properties have impeded the derivation of universal urban structural types (UST. Further, the variety of UST typologies severely limits the comparability of such studies and although a common and generic description of urban structures is an essential requirement for the universal mapping of urban structures, such a standard scheme is still lacking. More recently, there have been two developments in urban mapping that have the potential for providing a standard approach: the Local Climate Zone (LCZ scheme (used by the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools project and the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL methodology by JRC. In this paper the LCZ scheme and the GHSL LABEL product were compared for selected cities. The comparison between both datasets revealed a good agreement at city and coarse scale, while the contingency at pixel scale was limited due to the mismatch in grid resolution and typology. At a 1 km scale, built-up as well as open and compact classes showed very good agreement in terms of correlation coefficient and mean absolute distance, spatial pattern, and radial distribution as a function of distance from town, which indicates that a decomposition relevant for modelling applications could be derived from both. On the other hand, specific problems were found for both datasets, which are discussed along with their general advantages and disadvantages as a standard for UST classification in urban remote sensing.

Doubly self-consistent field theory of grafted polymers under simple shear in steady state

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suo, Tongchuan; Whitmore, Mark D.

2014-01-01

We present a generalization of the numerical self-consistent mean-field theory of polymers to the case of grafted polymers under simple shear. The general theoretical framework is presented, and then applied to three different chain models: rods, Gaussian chains, and finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) chains. The approach is self-consistent at two levels. First, for any flow field, the polymer density profile and effective potential are calculated self-consistently in a manner similar to the usual self-consistent field theory of polymers, except that the calculation is inherently two-dimensional even for a laterally homogeneous system. Second, through the use of a modified Brinkman equation, the flow field and the polymer profile are made self-consistent with respect to each other. For all chain models, we find that reasonable levels of shear cause the chains to tilt, but it has very little effect on the overall thickness of the polymer layer, causing a small decrease for rods, and an increase of no more than a few percent for the Gaussian and FENE chains. Using the FENE model, we also probe the individual bond lengths, bond correlations, and bond angles along the chains, the effects of the shear on them, and the solvent and bonded stress profiles. We find that the approximations needed within the theory for the Brinkman equation affect the bonded stress, but none of the other quantities

A Timoshenko Piezoelectric Beam Finite Element with Consistent Performance Irrespective of Geometric and Material Configurations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Litesh N. Sulbhewar

Full Text Available Abstract The conventional Timoshenko piezoelectric beam finite elements based on First-order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT do not maintain the accuracy and convergence consistently over the applicable range of material and geometric properties. In these elements, the inaccuracy arises due to the induced potential effects in the transverse direction and inefficiency arises due to the use of independently assumed linear polynomial interpolation of the field variables in the longitudinal direction. In this work, a novel FSDT-based piezoelectric beam finite element is proposed which is devoid of these deficiencies. A variational formulation with consistent through-thickness potential is developed. The governing equilibrium equations are used to derive the coupled field relations. These relations are used to develop a polynomial interpolation scheme which properly accommodates the bending-extension, bending-shear and induced potential couplings to produce accurate results in an efficient manner. It is noteworthy that this consistently accurate and efficient beam finite element uses the same nodal variables as of conventional FSDT formulations available in the literature. Comparison of numerical results proves the consistent accuracy and efficiency of the proposed formulation irrespective of geometric and material configurations, unlike the conventional formulations.

Facet Theory and the Mapping Sentence As Hermeneutically Consistent Structured Meta-Ontology and Structured Meta-Mereology

Science.gov (United States)

Hackett, Paul M. W.

2016-01-01

When behavior is interpreted in a reliable manner (i.e., robustly across different situations and times) its explained meaning may be seen to possess hermeneutic consistency. In this essay I present an evaluation of the hermeneutic consistency that I propose may be present when the research tool known as the mapping sentence is used to create generic structural ontologies. I also claim that theoretical and empirical validity is a likely result of employing the mapping sentence in research design and interpretation. These claims are non-contentious within the realm of quantitative psychological and behavioral research. However, I extend the scope of both facet theory based research and claims for its structural utility, reliability and validity to philosophical and qualitative investigations. I assert that the hermeneutic consistency of a structural ontology is a product of a structural representation's ontological components and the mereological relationships between these ontological sub-units: the mapping sentence seminally allows for the depiction of such structure. PMID:27065932

Global Electricity Trade Network: Structures and Implications

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Ling; Jia, Xiaoping; Chiu, Anthony S. F.; Xu, Ming

2016-01-01

Nations increasingly trade electricity, and understanding the structure of the global power grid can help identify nations that are critical for its reliability. This study examines the global grid as a network with nations as nodes and international electricity trade as links. We analyze the structure of the global electricity trade network and find that the network consists of four sub-networks, and provide a detailed analysis of the largest network, Eurasia. Russia, China, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan have high betweenness measures in the Eurasian sub-network, indicating the degrees of centrality of the positions they hold. The analysis reveals that the Eurasian sub-network consists of seven communities based on the network structure. We find that the communities do not fully align with geographical proximity, and that the present international electricity trade in the Eurasian sub-network causes an approximately 11 million additional tons of CO2 emissions. PMID:27504825

Century long observation constrained global dynamic downscaling and hydrologic implication

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, H.; Yoshimura, K.; Chang, E.; Famiglietti, J. S.; Oki, T.

2012-12-01

It has been suggested that greenhouse gas induced warming climate causes the acceleration of large scale hydrologic cycles, and, indeed, many regions on the Earth have been suffered by hydrologic extremes getting more frequent. However, historical observations are not able to provide enough information in comprehensive manner to understand their long-term variability and/or global distributions. In this study, a century long high resolution global climate data is developed in order to break through existing limitations. 20th Century Reanalysis (20CR) which has relatively low spatial resolution (~2.0°) and longer term availability (140 years) is dynamically downscaled into global T248 (~0.5°) resolution using Experimental Climate Prediction Center (ECPC) Global Spectral Model (GSM) by spectral nudging data assimilation technique. Also, Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) and Climate Research Unit (CRU) observational data are adopted to reduce model dependent uncertainty. Downscaled product successfully represents realistic geographical detail keeping low frequency signal in mean state and spatiotemporal variability, while previous bias correction method fails to reproduce high frequency variability. Newly developed data is used to investigate how long-term large scale terrestrial hydrologic cycles have been changed globally and how they have been interacted with various climate modes, such as El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). As a further application, it will be used to provide atmospheric boundary condition of multiple land surface models in the Global Soil Wetness Project Phase 3 (GSWP3).

Human, recombinant interleukin-2 induces in vitro histamine release in a dose-dependent manner

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Hans Jørgen; Petersen, L J; Skov, P S

1995-01-01

significantly in the supernatant from cells stimulated by rIL-2 in a dose-dependent manner both in patients and volunteers. Total cell-bound histamine was 49.3 +/- 4.1 ng/ml in patients compared to 78.5 +/- 7.7 ng/ml in volunteers (p ... was significantly enhanced in cancer patients compared to volunteers (*p manner in both cancer patients and volunteers. This may in part explain the severe toxicity observed during high...

A coupled chemotaxis-fluid model: Global existence

KAUST Repository

Liu, Jian-Guo; Lorz, Alexander

2011-01-01

We consider a model arising from biology, consisting of chemotaxis equations coupled to viscous incompressible fluid equations through transport and external forcing. Global existence of solutions to the Cauchy problem is investigated under certain conditions. Precisely, for the chemotaxis-Navier- Stokes system in two space dimensions, we obtain global existence for large data. In three space dimensions, we prove global existence of weak solutions for the chemotaxis-Stokes system with nonlinear diffusion for the cell density.© 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

A coupled chemotaxis-fluid model: Global existence

KAUST Repository

Liu, Jian-Guo

2011-09-01

We consider a model arising from biology, consisting of chemotaxis equations coupled to viscous incompressible fluid equations through transport and external forcing. Global existence of solutions to the Cauchy problem is investigated under certain conditions. Precisely, for the chemotaxis-Navier- Stokes system in two space dimensions, we obtain global existence for large data. In three space dimensions, we prove global existence of weak solutions for the chemotaxis-Stokes system with nonlinear diffusion for the cell density.© 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Evaluating the hydrological consistency of evaporation products using satellite-based gravity and rainfall data

Science.gov (United States)

López, Oliver; Houborg, Rasmus; McCabe, Matthew Francis

2017-01-01

Advances in space-based observations have provided the capacity to develop regional- to global-scale estimates of evaporation, offering insights into this key component of the hydrological cycle. However, the evaluation of large-scale evaporation retrievals is not a straightforward task. While a number of studies have intercompared a range of these evaporation products by examining the variance amongst them, or by comparison of pixel-scale retrievals against ground-based observations, there is a need to explore more appropriate techniques to comprehensively evaluate remote-sensing-based estimates. One possible approach is to establish the level of product agreement between related hydrological components: for instance, how well do evaporation patterns and response match with precipitation or water storage changes? To assess the suitability of this consistency-based approach for evaluating evaporation products, we focused our investigation on four globally distributed basins in arid and semi-arid environments, comprising the Colorado River basin, Niger River basin, Aral Sea basin, and Lake Eyre basin. In an effort to assess retrieval quality, three satellite-based global evaporation products based on different methodologies and input data, including CSIRO-PML, the MODIS Global Evapotranspiration product (MOD16), and Global Land Evaporation: the Amsterdam Methodology (GLEAM), were evaluated against rainfall data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) along with Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) water storage anomalies. To ensure a fair comparison, we evaluated consistency using a degree correlation approach after transforming both evaporation and precipitation data into spherical harmonics. Overall we found no persistent hydrological consistency in these dryland environments. Indeed, the degree correlation showed oscillating values between periods of low and high water storage changes, with a phase difference of about 2-3 months

Metals in mangrove ecosystems and associated biota: A global perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Kulkarni, Rasika; Deobagkar, Deepti; Zinjarde, Smita

2018-05-30

Mangrove forests prevalent along the intertidal regions of tropical and sub-tropical coastlines are inimitable and dynamic ecosystems. They protect and stabilize coastal areas from deleterious consequences of natural disasters such as hurricanes and tsunamis. Although there are reviews on ecological aspects, industrial uses of mangrove-associated microorganisms and occurrence of pollutants in a region-specific manner, there is no exclusive review detailing the incidence of metals in mangrove sediments and associated biota in these ecosystems on a global level. In this review, mangrove forests have been classified in a continent-wise manner. Most of the investigations detail the distribution of metals such as zinc, chromium, arsenic, copper, cobalt, manganese, nickel, lead and mercury although in some cases levels of vanadium, strontium, zirconium and uranium have also been studied. Seasonal, tidal, marine, riverine, and terrestrial components are seen to influence occurrence, speciation, bioavailability and fate of metals in these ecosystems. In most of the cases, associated plants and animals also accumulate metals to different extents and are of ecotoxicological relevance. Levels of metals vary in a region specific manner and there is disparity in the pollution status of different mangrove areas. Protecting these vulnerable ecosystems from metal pollutants is important from environmental safety point of view. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Profile consistency, anomalous electron thermal conduction, and confinement analysis of tokamak devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qu Wenxiao

1992-01-01

Assuming that there exists a position in the tokamak plasma where the energy transport is dominated by local anomalous electron thermal conduction and taking advantage of the basic experimental result usually referred to as profile consistency, the authors obtain a more convincing approach to the description of the confinement property of tokamak devices without touching upon the physical mechanism of global plasma energy transport. 8 refs

A paradigm shift toward a consistent modeling framework to assess climate impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Monier, E.; Paltsev, S.; Sokolov, A. P.; Fant, C.; Chen, H.; Gao, X.; Schlosser, C. A.; Scott, J. R.; Dutkiewicz, S.; Ejaz, Q.; Couzo, E. A.; Prinn, R. G.; Haigh, M.

2017-12-01

Estimates of physical and economic impacts of future climate change are subject to substantial challenges. To enrich the currently popular approaches of assessing climate impacts by evaluating a damage function or by multi-model comparisons based on the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs), we focus here on integrating impacts into a self-consistent coupled human and Earth system modeling framework that includes modules that represent multiple physical impacts. In a sample application we show that this framework is capable of investigating the physical impacts of climate change and socio-economic stressors. The projected climate impacts vary dramatically across the globe in a set of scenarios with global mean warming ranging between 2.4°C and 3.6°C above pre-industrial by 2100. Unabated emissions lead to substantial sea level rise, acidification that impacts the base of the oceanic food chain, air pollution that exceeds health standards by tenfold, water stress that impacts an additional 1 to 2 billion people globally and agricultural productivity that decreases substantially in many parts of the world. We compare the outcomes from these forward-looking scenarios against the common goal described by the target-driven scenario of 2°C, which results in much smaller impacts. It is challenging for large internationally coordinated exercises to respond quickly to new policy targets. We propose that a paradigm shift toward a self-consistent modeling framework to assess climate impacts is needed to produce information relevant to evolving global climate policy and mitigation strategies in a timely way.

The advanced fuel cycle facility (AFCF) role in the global nuclear energy partnership

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffith, Andrew

2007-01-01

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), launched in February, 2006, proposes to introduce used nuclear fuel recycling in the United States with improved proliferation-resistance and a more effective waste management approach. This program is evaluating ways to close the fuel cycle in a manner that builds on recent laboratory breakthroughs in U.S. national laboratories and draws on international and industry partnerships. Central to moving this advanced fuel recycling technology from the laboratory to commercial implementation is a flexible research, development and demonstration facility, called the Advanced Fuel Cycle Facility (AFCF). The AFCF was introduced as one of three projects under GNEP and will provide the U.S. with the capabilities to evaluate technologies that separate used fuel into reusable material and waste in a proliferation-resistant manner. The separations technology demonstration capability is coupled with a remote transmutation fuel fabrication demonstration capability in an integrated manner that demonstrates advanced safeguard technologies. This paper will discuss the key features of AFCF and its support of the GNEP objectives. (author)

Message Passing Framework for Globally Interconnected Clusters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hafeez, M; Riaz, N; Asghar, S; Malik, U A; Rehman, A

2011-01-01

In prevailing technology trends it is apparent that the network requirements and technologies will advance in future. Therefore the need of High Performance Computing (HPC) based implementation for interconnecting clusters is comprehensible for scalability of clusters. Grid computing provides global infrastructure of interconnecting clusters consisting of dispersed computing resources over Internet. On the other hand the leading model for HPC programming is Message Passing Interface (MPI). As compared to Grid computing, MPI is better suited for solving most of the complex computational problems. MPI itself is restricted to a single cluster. It does not support message passing over the internet to use the computing resources of different clusters in an optimal way. We propose a model that provides message passing capabilities between parallel applications over the internet. The proposed model is based on Architecture for Java Universal Message Passing (A-JUMP) framework and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) named as High Performance Computing Bus. The HPC Bus is built using ActiveMQ. HPC Bus is responsible for communication and message passing in an asynchronous manner. Asynchronous mode of communication offers an assurance for message delivery as well as a fault tolerance mechanism for message passing. The idea presented in this paper effectively utilizes wide-area intercluster networks. It also provides scheduling, dynamic resource discovery and allocation, and sub-clustering of resources for different jobs. Performance analysis and comparison study of the proposed framework with P2P-MPI are also presented in this paper.

The Use of Assessment Criteria to Ensure Consistency of Marking: Some Implications for Good Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Saunders, Mark N. K.; Davis, Susan M.

1998-01-01

Lecturers at a British university participated in two workshops to examine the consistency of assessments of undergraduates' work. Use of both analytical and global quality measures, when clearly understood by the raters, improved assessment practices. Ongoing discussion of evaluation criteria was recommended. (SK)

Global Liquidity and Drivers of Cross-Border Bank Flows

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cerutti, E.; Claessens, S.; Ratnovski, L.

2014-01-01

This paper provides a definition of global liquidity consistent with its meaning as the "ease of financing" in international financial markets. Using a longer time series and broader sample of countries than in previous studies, it identifies global factors driving cross-border bank flows, alongside

The lure of global branding.

Science.gov (United States)

Aaker, D A; Joachimsthaler, E

1999-01-01

As more and more companies begin to see the world as their market, brand builders look with envy upon those businesses that appear to have created global brands--brands whose positioning, advertising strategy, personality, look, and feel are in most respects the same from one country to another. Attracted by such high-profile examples of success, these companies want to globalize their own brands. But that's a risky path to follow, according to David Aaker and Erich Joachimsthaler. Why? Because creating strong global brands takes global brand leadership. It can't be done simply by edict from on high. Specifically, companies must use organizational structures, processes, and cultures to allocate brand-building resources globally, to create global synergies, and to develop a global brand strategy that coordinates and leverages country brand strategies. Aaker and Joachimsthaler offer four prescriptions for companies seeking to achieve global brand leadership. First, companies must stimulate the sharing of insights and best practices across countries--a system in which "it won't work here" attitudes can be overcome. Second, companies should support a common global brand-planning process, one that is consistent across markets and products. Third, they should assign global managerial responsibility for brands in order to create cross-country synergies and to fight local bias. And fourth, they need to execute brilliant brand-building strategies. Before stampeding blindly toward global branding, companies need to think through the systems they have in place. Otherwise, any success they achieve is likely to be random--and that's a fail-safe recipe for mediocrity.

A novel consistent and well-balanced algorithm for simulations of multiphase flows on unstructured grids

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Jitendra Kumar; Natarajan, Ganesh

2017-12-01

We discuss the development and assessment of a robust numerical algorithm for simulating multiphase flows with complex interfaces and high density ratios on arbitrary polygonal meshes. The algorithm combines the volume-of-fluid method with an incremental projection approach for incompressible multiphase flows in a novel hybrid staggered/non-staggered framework. The key principles that characterise the algorithm are the consistent treatment of discrete mass and momentum transport and the similar discretisation of force terms appearing in the momentum equation. The former is achieved by invoking identical schemes for convective transport of volume fraction and momentum in the respective discrete equations while the latter is realised by representing the gravity and surface tension terms as gradients of suitable scalars which are then discretised in identical fashion resulting in a balanced formulation. The hybrid staggered/non-staggered framework employed herein solves for the scalar normal momentum at the cell faces, while the volume fraction is computed at the cell centroids. This is shown to naturally lead to similar terms for pressure and its correction in the momentum and pressure correction equations respectively, which are again treated discretely in a similar manner. We show that spurious currents that corrupt the solution may arise both from an unbalanced formulation where forces (gravity and surface tension) are discretised in dissimilar manner and from an inconsistent approach where different schemes are used to convect the mass and momentum, with the latter prominent in flows which are convection-dominant with high density ratios. Interestingly, the inconsistent approach is shown to perform as well as the consistent approach even for high density ratio flows in some cases while it exhibits anomalous behaviour for other scenarios, even at low density ratios. Using a plethora of test problems of increasing complexity, we conclusively demonstrate that the

Investigation of organic matter migrating from polymeric pipes into drinking water under different flow manners.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ling; Liu, Shuming; Liu, Wenjun

2014-02-01

Polymeric pipes, such as unplasticized polyvinyl chloride (uPVC) pipes, polypropylene random (PPR) pipes and polyethylene (PE) pipes are increasingly used for drinking water distribution lines. Plastic pipes may include some additives like metallic stabilizers and other antioxidants for the protection of the material during its production and use. Thus, some compounds can be released from those plastic pipes and cast a shadow on drinking water quality. This work develops a new procedure to investigate three types of polymer pipes (uPVC, PE and PPR) with respect to the migration of total organic carbon (TOC) into drinking water. The migration test was carried out in stagnant conditions with two types of migration processes, a continuous migration process and a successive migration process. These two types of migration processes are specially designed to mimic the conditions of different flow manners in drinking water pipelines, i.e., the situation of continuous stagnation with long hydraulic retention times and normal flow status with regular water renewing in drinking water networks. The experimental results showed that TOC release differed significantly with different plastic materials and under different flow manners. The order of materials with respect to the total amount of TOC migrating into drinking water was observed as PE > PPR > uPVC under both successive and continuous migration conditions. A higher amount of organic migration from PE and PPR pipes was likely to occur due to more organic antioxidants being used in pipe production. The results from the successive migration tests indicated the trend of the migration intensity of different pipe materials over time, while the results obtained from the continuous migration tests implied that under long stagnant conditions, the drinking water quality could deteriorate quickly with the consistent migration of organic compounds and the dramatic consumption of chlorine to a very low level. Higher amounts of TOC

Global anomalies in chiral lattice gauge theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baer, O.

2000-07-01

We study global anomalies in a new approach to chiral gauge theories on the lattice, which is based on the Ginsparg-Wilson relation. In this approach, global anomalies make it impossible to define consistently a fermionic measure for the functional integral. We show that a global anomaly occurs in an SU(2) theory if the fundamental representation is used for the fermion fields. The generalization to higher representations is also discussed. In addition we establish a close relation between global anomalies and the spectral flow of the Dirac operator and employ it in a numerical computation to prove the existence of the global SU(2) anomaly in a different way. This method is inspired by an earlier work of Witten who first discovered this type of anomalies in continuum field theory. (orig.)

Polio endgame: the global introduction of inactivated polio vaccine.

Science.gov (United States)

Patel, Manish; Zipursky, Simona; Orenstein, Walt; Garon, Julie; Zaffran, Michel

2015-05-01

In 2013, the World Health Assembly endorsed a plan that calls for the ultimate withdrawal of oral polio vaccines (OPV) from all immunization programs globally. The withdrawal would begin in a phased manner with removal of the type 2 component of OPV in 2016 through a global switch from trivalent OPV to bivalent OPV (containing only types 1 and 3). To mitigate risks associated with immunity gaps after OPV type 2 withdrawal, the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts has recommended that all 126 OPV-only using countries introduce at least one dose of inactivated polio vaccine into routine immunization programs by end-2015, before the trivalent OPV-bivalent OPV switch. The introduction of inactivated polio vaccine would reduce risks of reintroduction of type 2 poliovirus by providing some level of seroprotection, facilitating interruption of transmission if outbreaks occur, and accelerating eradication by boosting immunity to types 1 and 3 polioviruses.

Politics, Power, Poverty and Global Health: Systems and Frames

Science.gov (United States)

Benatar, Solomon

2016-01-01

Striking disparities in access to healthcare and in health outcomes are major characteristics of health across the globe. This inequitable state of global health and how it could be improved has become a highly popularized field of academic study. In a series of articles in this journal the roles of power and politics in global health have been addressed in considerable detail. Three points are added here to this debate. The first is consideration of how the use of definitions and common terms, for example ‘poverty eradication,’ can mask full exposure of the extent of rectification required, with consequent failure to understand what poverty eradication should mean, how this could be achieved and that a new definition is called for. Secondly, a criticism is offered of how the term ‘global health’ is used in a restricted manner to describe activities that focus on an anthropocentric and biomedical conception of health across the world. It is proposed that the discourse on ‘global health’ should be extended beyond conventional boundaries towards an ecocentric conception of global/planetary health in an increasingly interdependent planet characterised by a multitude of interlinked crises. Finally, it is noted that the paucity of workable strategies towards achieving greater equity in sustainable global health is not so much due to lack of understanding of, or insight into, the invisible dimensions of power, but is rather the outcome of seeking solutions from within belief systems and cognitive biases that cannot offer solutions. Hence the need for a new framing perspective for global health that could reshape our thinking and actions. PMID:27694651

Politics, Power, Poverty and Global Health: Systems and Frames.

Science.gov (United States)

Benatar, Solomon

2016-08-06

Striking disparities in access to healthcare and in health outcomes are major characteristics of health across the globe. This inequitable state of global health and how it could be improved has become a highly popularized field of academic study. In a series of articles in this journal the roles of power and politics in global health have been addressed in considerable detail. Three points are added here to this debate. The first is consideration of how the use of definitions and common terms, for example 'poverty eradication,' can mask full exposure of the extent of rectification required, with consequent failure to understand what poverty eradication should mean, how this could be achieved and that a new definition is called for. Secondly, a criticism is offered of how the term 'global health' is used in a restricted manner to describe activities that focus on an anthropocentric and biomedical conception of health across the world. It is proposed that the discourse on 'global health' should be extended beyond conventional boundaries towards an ecocentric conception of global/planetary health in an increasingly interdependent planet characterised by a multitude of interlinked crises. Finally, it is noted that the paucity of workable strategies towards achieving greater equity in sustainable global health is not so much due to lack of understanding of, or insight into, the invisible dimensions of power, but is rather the outcome of seeking solutions from within belief systems and cognitive biases that cannot offer solutions. Hence the need for a new framing perspective for global health that could reshape our thinking and actions. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Considering World History as a Space for Developing Global Citizenship Competencies

Science.gov (United States)

Girard, Brian; Harris, Lauren McArthur

2013-01-01

This article addresses how we might teach for global citizenship in world history classrooms. Despite the name, secondary world history courses in the United States have not consistently focused on global interconnections, multiple perspectives, and inquiry into global issues. We explore why this might be, as well as suggest specific learning…

A dynamical mechanism for large volumes with consistent couplings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abel, Steven [IPPP, Durham University,Durham, DH1 3LE (United Kingdom)

2016-11-14

A mechanism for addressing the “decompactification problem” is proposed, which consists of balancing the vacuum energy in Scherk-Schwarzed theories against contributions coming from non-perturbative physics. Universality of threshold corrections ensures that, in such situations, the stable minimum will have consistent gauge couplings for any gauge group that shares the same N=2 beta function for the bulk excitations as the gauge group that takes part in the minimisation. Scherk-Schwarz compactification from 6D to 4D in heterotic strings is discussed explicitly, together with two alternative possibilities for the non-perturbative physics, namely metastable SQCD vacua and a single gaugino condensate. In the former case, it is shown that modular symmetries gives various consistency checks, and allow one to follow soft-terms, playing a similar role to R-symmetry in global SQCD. The latter case is particularly attractive when there is nett Bose-Fermi degeneracy in the massless sector. In such cases, because the original Casimir energy is generated entirely by excited and/or non-physical string modes, it is completely immune to the non-perturbative IR physics. Such a separation between UV and IR contributions to the potential greatly simplifies the analysis of stabilisation, and is a general possibility that has not been considered before.

Efficient self-consistency for magnetic tight binding

Science.gov (United States)

Soin, Preetma; Horsfield, A. P.; Nguyen-Manh, D.

2011-06-01

Tight binding can be extended to magnetic systems by including an exchange interaction on an atomic site that favours net spin polarisation. We have used a published model, extended to include long-ranged Coulomb interactions, to study defects in iron. We have found that achieving self-consistency using conventional techniques was either unstable or very slow. By formulating the problem of achieving charge and spin self-consistency as a search for stationary points of a Harris-Foulkes functional, extended to include spin, we have derived a much more efficient scheme based on a Newton-Raphson procedure. We demonstrate the capabilities of our method by looking at vacancies and self-interstitials in iron. Self-consistency can indeed be achieved in a more efficient and stable manner, but care needs to be taken to manage this. The algorithm is implemented in the code PLATO. Program summaryProgram title:PLATO Catalogue identifier: AEFC_v2_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEFC_v2_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 228 747 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 1 880 369 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: C and PERL Computer: Apple Macintosh, PC, Unix machines Operating system: Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows XP Has the code been vectorised or parallelised?: Yes. Up to 256 processors tested RAM: Up to 2 Gbytes per processor Classification: 7.3 External routines: LAPACK, BLAS and optionally ScaLAPACK, BLACS, PBLAS, FFTW Catalogue identifier of previous version: AEFC_v1_0 Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Comm. 180 (2009) 2616 Does the new version supersede the previous version?: Yes Nature of problem: Achieving charge and spin self-consistency in magnetic tight binding can be very

Molecular Stress-inducing Compounds Increase Osteoclast Formation in a Heat Shock Factor 1 Protein-dependent Manner*

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Ryan C.; Kouspou, Michelle M.; Lang, Benjamin J.; Nguyen, Chau H.; van der Kraan, A. Gabrielle J.; Vieusseux, Jessica L.; Lim, Reece C.; Gillespie, Matthew T.; Benjamin, Ivor J.; Quinn, Julian M. W.; Price, John T.

2014-01-01

Many anticancer therapeutic agents cause bone loss, which increases the risk of fractures that severely reduce quality of life. Thus, in drug development, it is critical to identify and understand such effects. Anticancer therapeutic and HSP90 inhibitor 17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG) causes bone loss by increasing osteoclast formation, but the mechanism underlying this is not understood. 17-AAG activates heat shock factor 1 (Hsf1), the master transcriptional regulator of heat shock/cell stress responses, which may be involved in this negative action of 17-AAG upon bone. Using mouse bone marrow and RAW264.7 osteoclast differentiation models we found that HSP90 inhibitors that induced a heat shock response also enhanced osteoclast formation, whereas HSP90 inhibitors that did not (including coumermycin A1 and novobiocin) did not affect osteoclast formation. Pharmacological inhibition or shRNAmir knockdown of Hsf1 in RAW264.7 cells as well as the use of Hsf1 null mouse bone marrow cells demonstrated that 17-AAG-enhanced osteoclast formation was Hsf1-dependent. Moreover, ectopic overexpression of Hsf1 enhanced 17-AAG effects upon osteoclast formation. Consistent with these findings, protein levels of the essential osteoclast transcription factor microphthalmia-associated transcription factor were increased by 17-AAG in an Hsf1-dependent manner. In addition to HSP90 inhibitors, we also identified that other agents that induced cellular stress, such as ethanol, doxorubicin, and methotrexate, also directly increased osteoclast formation, potentially in an Hsf1-dependent manner. These results, therefore, indicate that cellular stress can enhance osteoclast differentiation via Hsf1-dependent mechanisms and may significantly contribute to pathological and therapeutic related bone loss. PMID:24692538

Molecular stress-inducing compounds increase osteoclast formation in a heat shock factor 1 protein-dependent manner.

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Ryan C; Kouspou, Michelle M; Lang, Benjamin J; Nguyen, Chau H; van der Kraan, A Gabrielle J; Vieusseux, Jessica L; Lim, Reece C; Gillespie, Matthew T; Benjamin, Ivor J; Quinn, Julian M W; Price, John T

2014-05-09

Many anticancer therapeutic agents cause bone loss, which increases the risk of fractures that severely reduce quality of life. Thus, in drug development, it is critical to identify and understand such effects. Anticancer therapeutic and HSP90 inhibitor 17-(allylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG) causes bone loss by increasing osteoclast formation, but the mechanism underlying this is not understood. 17-AAG activates heat shock factor 1 (Hsf1), the master transcriptional regulator of heat shock/cell stress responses, which may be involved in this negative action of 17-AAG upon bone. Using mouse bone marrow and RAW264.7 osteoclast differentiation models we found that HSP90 inhibitors that induced a heat shock response also enhanced osteoclast formation, whereas HSP90 inhibitors that did not (including coumermycin A1 and novobiocin) did not affect osteoclast formation. Pharmacological inhibition or shRNAmir knockdown of Hsf1 in RAW264.7 cells as well as the use of Hsf1 null mouse bone marrow cells demonstrated that 17-AAG-enhanced osteoclast formation was Hsf1-dependent. Moreover, ectopic overexpression of Hsf1 enhanced 17-AAG effects upon osteoclast formation. Consistent with these findings, protein levels of the essential osteoclast transcription factor microphthalmia-associated transcription factor were increased by 17-AAG in an Hsf1-dependent manner. In addition to HSP90 inhibitors, we also identified that other agents that induced cellular stress, such as ethanol, doxorubicin, and methotrexate, also directly increased osteoclast formation, potentially in an Hsf1-dependent manner. These results, therefore, indicate that cellular stress can enhance osteoclast differentiation via Hsf1-dependent mechanisms and may significantly contribute to pathological and therapeutic related bone loss.

Needed: Global Collaboration for Comparative Research on Cities and Health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael K. Gusmano

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Over half of the world’s population lives in cities and United Nations (UN demographers project an increase of 2.5 billion more urban dwellers by 2050. Yet there is too little systematic comparative research on the practice of urban health policy and management (HPAM, particularly in the megacities of middle-income and developing nations. We make a case for creating a global database on cities, population health and healthcare systems. The expenses involved in data collection would be difficult to justify without some review of previous work, some agreement on indicators worth measuring, conceptual and methodological considerations to guide the construction of the global database, and a set of research questions and hypotheses to test. We, therefore, address these issues in a manner that we hope will stimulate further discussion and collaboration.

Needed: Global Collaboration for Comparative Research on Cities and Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Gusmano, Michael K; Rodwin, Victor G

2016-04-16

Over half of the world's population lives in cities and United Nations (UN) demographers project an increase of 2.5 billion more urban dwellers by 2050. Yet there is too little systematic comparative research on the practice of urban health policy and management (HPAM), particularly in the megacities of middle-income and developing nations. We make a case for creating a global database on cities, population health and healthcare systems. The expenses involved in data collection would be difficult to justify without some review of previous work, some agreement on indicators worth measuring, conceptual and methodological considerations to guide the construction of the global database, and a set of research questions and hypotheses to test. We, therefore, address these issues in a manner that we hope will stimulate further discussion and collaboration. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Rheological properties of a nematic cell oriented in a planar manner

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barbero, G.; Meyer, C.; Lelidis, I.

2010-01-01

We propose a simple model to investigate the rheological properties of a nematic cell oriented in a planar manner. The storage and loss modulus are evaluated in the case of strong and weak anchoring conditions. The contribution of the surface viscosity to the rheological parameters is also considered.

17 CFR 17.02 - Form, manner and time of filing reports.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Form, manner and time of filing reports. 17.02 Section 17.02 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING... markets located in that time zone, and central time for information concerning all other markets. (b...

Community Involvement in Enhancing the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Controlled Vocabularies (Keywords)

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, T.; Ritz, S.; Aleman, A.; Genazzio, M.; Morahan, M.; Wharton, S.

2016-01-01

NASA's Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) develops and expands a hierarchical set of controlled vocabularies (keywords) covering the Earth sciences and associated information (data centers, projects, platforms, instruments, etc.). The purpose of the keywords is to describe Earth science data and services in a consistent and comprehensive manner, allowing for the precise searching of metadata and subsequent retrieval of data and services. The keywords are accessible in a standardized SKOSRDFOWL representation and are used as an authoritative taxonomy, as a source for developing ontologies, and to search and access Earth Science data within online metadata catalogues. The keyword development approach involves: (1) receiving community suggestions, (2) triaging community suggestions, (3) evaluating the keywords against a set of criteria coordinated by the NASA ESDIS Standards Office, and (4) publication/notification of the keyword changes. This approach emphasizes community input, which helps ensure a high quality, normalized, and relevant keyword structure that will evolve with users changing needs. The Keyword Community Forum, which promotes a responsive, open, and transparent processes, is an area where users can discuss keyword topics and make suggestions for new keywords. The formalized approach could potentially be used as a model for keyword development.

On Thomas Pogge’s Theory of Global Justice. Why We Are Not Collectively Responsible for the Global Distribution of Benefits and Burdens between Individuals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Midtgaard, Søren Flinch

2012-01-01

Thomas Pogge’s ingenious and influential Rawlsian theory of global justice asserts that principles of justice such as the difference principle or, alternatively, a universal criterion of human rights consisting of a subset of the principles of social justice apply to the global basic structure...

Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) Version 2

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) Version 2 consists of quality-controlled radiosonde observations of temperature, humidity, and wind at stations across...

Impact of Video Feedback on Teachers' Eye-Contact Mannerisms in Microteaching.

Science.gov (United States)

Karasar, Niyazi

To test the impact of video feedback on teachers' eye-contact mannerisms in microteaching in inservice vocational teacher education, the study utilized video recordings from the data bank generated by previous studies conducted at the Ohio State University's Center for Vocational and Technical Education. The tapes were assigned through a…

A Hierarchical Approach for Measuring the Consistency of Water Areas between Multiple Representations of Tile Maps with Different Scales

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yilang Shen

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In geographic information systems, the reliability of querying, analysing, or reasoning results depends on the data quality. One central criterion of data quality is consistency, and identifying inconsistencies is crucial for maintaining the integrity of spatial data from multiple sources or at multiple resolutions. In traditional methods of consistency assessment, vector data are used as the primary experimental data. In this manuscript, we describe the use of a new type of raster data, tile maps, to access the consistency of information from multiscale representations of the water bodies that make up drainage systems. We describe a hierarchical methodology to determine the spatial consistency of tile-map datasets that display water areas in a raster format. Three characteristic indices, the degree of global feature consistency, the degree of local feature consistency, and the degree of overlap, are proposed to measure the consistency of multiscale representations of water areas. The perceptual hash algorithm and the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT descriptor are applied to extract and measure the global and local features of water areas. By performing combined calculations using these three characteristic indices, the degrees of consistency of multiscale representations of water areas can be divided into five grades: exactly consistent, highly consistent, moderately consistent, less consistent, and inconsistent. For evaluation purposes, the proposed method is applied to several test areas from the Tiandi map of China. In addition, we identify key technologies that are related to the process of extracting water areas from a tile map. The accuracy of the consistency assessment method is evaluated, and our experimental results confirm that the proposed methodology is efficient and accurate.

Time-consistent and market-consistent evaluations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pelsser, A.; Stadje, M.A.

2014-01-01

We consider evaluation methods for payoffs with an inherent financial risk as encountered for instance for portfolios held by pension funds and insurance companies. Pricing such payoffs in a way consistent to market prices typically involves combining actuarial techniques with methods from

Heterogeneous world model and collaborative scenarios of transition to globally sustainable nuclear energy systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kuznetsov Vladimir

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The International Atomic Energy Agency's International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO is to help ensure that nuclear energy is available to contribute to meeting global energy needs of the 21st century in a sustainable manner. The INPRO task titled “Global scenarios” is to develop global and regional nuclear energy scenarios that lead to a global vision of sustainable nuclear energy in the 21st century. Results of multiple studies show that the criteria for developing sustainable nuclear energy cannot be met without innovations in reactor and nuclear fuel cycle technologies. Combining different reactor types and associated fuel chains creates a multiplicity of nuclear energy system arrangements potentially contributing to global sustainability of nuclear energy. In this, cooperation among countries having different policy regarding fuel cycle back end would be essential to bring sustainability benefits from innovations in technology to all interested users. INPRO has developed heterogeneous global model to capture countries’ different policies regarding the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle in regional and global scenarios of nuclear energy evolution and applied in a number of studies performed by participants of the project. This paper will highlight the model and major conclusions obtained in the studies.

Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

NARCIS (Netherlands)

C.J.L. Murray (Christopher); K.F. Ortblad (Katrina F); C. Guinovart (Caterina); S.S. Lim (Stephen); T.M. Wolock (Timothy M); D.A. Roberts (D Allen); E.A. Dansereau (Emily A); N. Graetz (Nicholas); R.M. Barber (Ryan); J.C. Brown (Jonathan C); H. Wang (Haidong); H.C. Duber (Herbert C); M. Naghavi (Morteza); D. Dicker (Daniel); L. Dandona (Lalit); J.A. Salomon (Joshua); K.R. Heuton (Kyle R); K. Foreman (Kyle); D.E. Phillips (David E); T.D. Fleming (Thomas D); A.D. Flaxman (Abraham D); B.K. Phillips (Bryan K); E.M. Johnson (Elizabeth); M.S. Coggeshall (Megan S); F. Abd-Allah (Foad); S.F. Abera (Semaw Ferede); J.P. Abraham (Jerry); I. Abubakar (Ibrahim); L.J. Abu-Raddad (Laith J); N.M. Abu-Rmeileh (Niveen Me); T. Achoki (Tom); A. Adeyemo (Adebowale); A.K. Adou (Arsène Kouablan); J.C. Adsuar (José C); E.E. Agardh (Emilie Elisabet); D. Akena (Dickens); M.J. Al Kahbouri (Mazin J); D. Alasfoor (Deena); M.I. Albittar (Mohammed I); G. Alcalá-Cerra (Gabriel); M.A. Alegretti (Miguel Angel); G. Alemu (Getnet ); R. Alfonso-Cristancho (Rafael); S. Alhabib (Samia); R. Ali (Raghib); F. Alla (Francois); P.J. Allen (Peter); U. Alsharif (Ubai); E. Alvarez (Elena); N. Alvis-Guzman (Nelson); A.A. Amankwaa (Adansi A); A.T. Amare (Azmeraw T); H. Amini (Hassan); K.A. Ammar; B.O. Anderson (Benjamin); C.A.T. Antonio (Carl Abelardo T); P. Anwari (Palwasha); J. Ärnlöv (Johan); V.S.A. Arsenijevic (Valentina S Arsic); A. Artaman (Ali); R.J. Asghar (Rana J); R. Assadi (Reza); L.S. Atkins (Lydia S); A.F. Badawi (Alaa); A. Banerjee (Amitava); S. Basu (Saonli); J. Beardsley (Justin); T. Bekele (Tolesa); M.L. Bell (Michelle Lee); E. Bernabe (Eduardo); T.J. Beyene (Tariku Jibat); N. Bhala (Neeraj); P.L. Bhalla (Pankaj); Z.A. Bhutta (Zulfiqar A); A.B. Abdulhak (Aref Bin); A. Binagwaho (Agnes); J.D. Blore (Jed D); D. Bose (Dipan); M. Brainin (Michael); N. Breitborde (Nicholas); C.A. Castañeda-Orjuela (Carlos A); F. Catalá-López (Ferrán); D. Chadha; J.-C. Chang (Jung-Chen); Y.T. Chiang; T.-W. Chuang (Ting-Wu); M. Colomar (Mercedes); L.T. Cooper Jr. (Leslie Trumbull); C. Cooper (Charles); K.J. Courville (Karen J); M.R. Cowie (Martin R.); M. Criqui (Michael); R. Dandona (Rakhi); A. Dayama (Anand); D. de Leo (Diego); F. Degenhardt; B. Del Pozo-Cruz (Borja); K. Deribe (Kebede); D.C. Des Jarlais (Don C); M. Dessalegn (Muluken); S.D. Dharmaratne (Samath D); U. Dilmen (Uǧur); E.L. Ding (Eric); J.M. Driscoll; Z. Durrani; R.G. Ellenbogen (Richard G); S. Ermakov (Sergey); A. Esteghamati (Alireza); E.J.A. Faraon (Emerito Jose A); F. Farzadfar (Farshad); S.-M. Fereshtehnejad (Seyed-Mohammad); D.O. Fijabi (Daniel Obadare); M.H. Forouzanfar (Mohammad H); U. Fra.Paleo (Urbano); L. Gaffikin (Lynne); A. Gamkrelidze (Amiran); F.G. Gankpé (Fortuné Gbètoho); J.M. Geleijnse (Marianne); B.D. Gessner (Bradford D); K.B. Gibney (Katherine B); I.A.M. Ginawi (Ibrahim Abdelmageem Mohamed); E.L. Glaser (Elizabeth L); P. Gona (Philimon); A. Goto (Akimoto); H.N. Gouda (Hebe N); H.C. Gugnani (Harish Chander); R. Gupta (Rajeev); R. Gupta (Rajeev); N. Hafezi-Nejad (Nima); R.R. Hamadeh (Randah Ribhi); M. Hammami (Mouhanad); G.J. Hankey (Graeme); H.L. Harb (Hilda L); J.M. Haro (Josep Maria); R. Havmoeller (Rasmus); S.I. Hay (Simon I); M.T. Hedayati (Mohammad T); I.B.H. Pi (Ileana B Heredia); H.W. Hoek (Hans); J.C. Hornberger (John C); H.D. Hosgood (H Dean); P.J. Hotez (Peter); D.G. Hoy (Damian G); J. Huang (Jian); K.M. Iburg (Kim M); B.T. Idrisov (Bulat T); K. Innos (Kaire); K.H. Jacobsen (Kathryn H); P. Jeemon (Panniyammakal); P.N. Jensen (Paul N); V. Jha (Vivekanand); G. Jiang (Guohong); J.B. Jonas; K. Juel (Knud); H. Kan (Haidong); I. Kankindi (Ida); V. Karam (Vincent); F. Karch (Francois); C.K. Karema (Corine Kakizi); A. Kaul (Anil); N. Kawakami (Norito); D.S. Kazi (Dhruv S); A.H. Kemp (Andrew H); A.P. Kengne (Andre Pascal); A. Keren (Andre); M. Kereselidze (Maia); Y.S. Khader (Yousef Saleh); S.E.A.H. Khalifa (Shams Eldin Ali Hassan); E.A. Khan (Ejaz Ahmed); Y.-H. Khang (Young-Ho); I. Khonelidze (Irma); Y. Kinfu (Yohannes); J.M. Kinge (Jonas M); L. Knibbs (Luke); Y. Kokubo (Yoshihiro); S. Kosen (Soewarta); B.K. Defo (Barthelemy Kuate); V.S. Kulkarni (Veena S); C. Kulkarni (Chanda); K. Kumar (Kuldeep); R.B. Kumar (Ravi B); G.A. Kumar (G Anil); G.F. Kwan (Gene F); T. Lai (Taavi); A.L. Balaji (Arjun Lakshmana); H. Lam (Hilton); Q. Lan (Qing); V.C. Lansingh (Van C); H.J. Larson (Heidi J); A. Larsson (Anders); J.-T. Lee (Jong-Tae); P.N. Leigh (Nigel); M. Leinsalu (Mall); R. Leung (Ricky); Y. Li (Yichong); Y. Li (Yongmei); G.M.F. de Lima (Graça Maria Ferreira); H.-H. Lin (Hsien-Ho); S.E. Lipshultz (Steven); S. Liu (Simin); Y. Liu (Yang); B.K. Lloyd (Belinda K); P.A. Lotufo (Paulo A); V.M.P. Machado (Vasco Manuel Pedro); J.H. Maclachlan (Jennifer H); C. Magis-Rodriguez (Carlos); M. Majdan (Marek); C.C. Mapoma (Christopher Chabila); W. Marcenes (Wagner); M.B. Marzan (Melvin Barrientos); J.R. Masci (Joseph R); R. Mashal; A.J. Mason-Jones (Amanda J); B.M. Mayosi (Bongani); T.T. Mazorodze (Tasara T); M.J. Mckay (Michael); M.J. Meaney; M.M. Mehndiratta (Man Mohan); F. Mejia-Rodriguez (Fabiola); Y.A. Melaku (Yohannes Adama); Z.A. Memish (Ziad); W. Mendoza (Walter); T.R. Miller (Ted R); E.J. Mills (Edward J); K.A. Mohammad (Karzan Abdulmuhsin); A.H. Mokdad (Ali H); G.L. Mola (Glen Liddell); L. Monasta (Lorenzo); M. Montico (Marcella); A.R. Moore (Ami R); R. Mori (Riccardo); W.N. Moturi (Wilkister Nyaora); M. Mukaigawara (Mitsuru); A.C. Murthy (Adeline C.); A. Naheed (Aliya); K.S. Naidoo (Kovin S); L. Naldi; M. Nangia (Monika); K.M.V. Narayan (Venkat); J.H.E. Nash (John); C. Nejjari (Chakib); R.D. Nelson (Robert); S.P. Neupane (Sudan Prasad); C. Newton (Cameron); M. Ng (Marie); M.I. Nisar (Muhammad Imran); S. Nolte (Sandra); O.F. Norheim (Ole F); V. Nowaseb (Vincent); L. Nyakarahuka (Luke); I.-H. Oh (In-Hwan); T. Ohkubo (Takayoshi); B.O. Olusanya (Bolajoko O); S.B. Omer (Saad B); J.N. Opio (John Nelson); O.E. Orisakwe (Orish Ebere); N.G. Pandian (Natesa); C. Papachristou; M.S. Caicedo (Marco); J. Patten; V.K. Paul (Vinod K); B.I. Pavlin (Boris Igor); N. Pearce (Neil); D.M. Pereira (David M); Z. Pervaiz (Zahid); K. Pesudovs (Konrad); M. Petzold (Max); F. Pourmalek (Farshad); D. Qato (Dima); A.D. Quezada (Amado D); D.A. Quistberg (D Alex); A. Rafay (Anwar); K. Rahimi (Kazem); V. Rahimi-Movaghar (Vafa); S.U. Rahman (Sajjad Ur); M. Raju (Murugesan); S.M. Rana (Saleem M); H. Razavi (Homie); R.Q. Reilly (Robert Quentin); G. Remuzzi (Giuseppe); J.H. Richardus (Jan Hendrik); L. Ronfani (Luca); N. van Roy (Nadine); M.L. Sabin (Miriam Lewis); M.Y. Saeedi (Mohammad Yahya); M.A. Sahraian (Mohammad Ali); G.M.J. Samonte (Genesis May J); M.S. Sawhney (Monika); I.J.C. Schneider (Ione J C); D.C. Schwebel (David C); S. Seedat (Soraya); S.G. Sepanlou (Sadaf G); E.E. Servan-Mori (Edson E); S. Sheikhbahaei (Sara); K. Shibuya (Kenji); H.H. Shin (Hwashin Hyun); I. Shiue (Ivy); R. Shivakoti (Rupak); I.D. Sigfusdottir (Inga Dora); D.H. Silberberg (Donald H); A.P. Silva (Andrea P); J. Simard (Jacques); J.A. Singh (Jasvinder); V. Skirbekk (Vegard); K. Sliwa (Karen); S. Soneji (Samir); S.S. Soshnikov (Sergey S); C.T. Sreeramareddy (Chandrashekhar T); V.K. Stathopoulou (Vasiliki Kalliopi); K. Stroumpoulis (Konstantinos); S. Swaminathan; B.C. Sykes (Bryan); K.M. Tabb (Karen M); R.T. Talongwa (Roberto Tchio); E.Y. Tenkorang (Eric Yeboah); A.S. Terkawi (Abdullah Sulieman); A.J. Thomson (Alan J); A.L. Thorne-Lyman (Andrew L); J.A. Towbin (Jeffrey A); J. Traebert (Jefferson); B.X. Tran (Bach X); Z.T. Dimbuene (Zacharie Tsala); M. Tsilimbaris (Miltiadis); U.S. Uchendu (Uche S); K.N. Ukwaja (Kingsley N); S.R. Vallely (Stephen); T.J. Vasankari (Tommi J); N. Venketasubramanian (Narayanaswamy); F.S. Violante (Francesco S); V.V. Vlassov (Vasiliy Victorovich); P. Waller (Patrick); M.T. Wallin (Mitchell T); L. Wang (Linhong); S.X. Wang; Y. Wang (Yanping); S. Weichenthal (Scott); E. Weiderpass (Elisabete); R.G. Weintraub (Robert G); R. Westerman (Ronny); R.G. White (Richard); J.D. Wilkinson (James D); T.N. Williams (Thomas Neil); S.M. Woldeyohannes (Solomon Meseret); J.B. Wong (John); G. Xu (Gelin); Y.C. Yang (Yang C); K.-I. Yano; P. Yip (Paul); N. Yonemoto (Naohiro); S.-J. Yoon (Seok-Jun); M. Younis (Mustafa); C. Yu (Chuanhua); K.Y. Jin (Kim Yun); M. El Sayed Zaki (Maysaa); Y. Zhao (Yong); Y. Zheng (Yuhui); K. Balakrishnan (Kalpana); M. Zhou (Ming); J. Zhu (Jun); X.N. Zou (Xiao Nong); A.D. Lopez (Alan D); T. Vos (Theo)

2014-01-01

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Background: The Millennium Declaration in 2000 brought special global attention to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria through the formulation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study provides a consistent and comprehensive approach

Woody-plant ecosystems under climate change and air pollution-response consistencies across zonobiomes?

Science.gov (United States)

Matyssek, R; Kozovits, A R; Wieser, G; King, J; Rennenberg, H

2017-06-01

Forests store the largest terrestrial pools of carbon (C), helping to stabilize the global climate system, yet are threatened by climate change (CC) and associated air pollution (AP, highlighting ozone (O3) and nitrogen oxides (NOx)). We adopt the perspective that CC-AP drivers and physiological impacts are universal, resulting in consistent stress responses of forest ecosystems across zonobiomes. Evidence supporting this viewpoint is presented from the literature on ecosystem gross/net primary productivity and water cycling. Responses to CC-AP are compared across evergreen/deciduous foliage types, discussing implications of nutrition and resource turnover at tree and ecosystem scales. The availability of data is extremely uneven across zonobiomes, yet unifying patterns of ecosystem response are discernable. Ecosystem warming results in trade-offs between respiration and biomass production, affecting high elevation forests more than in the lowland tropics and low-elevation temperate zone. Resilience to drought is modulated by tree size and species richness. Elevated O3 tends to counteract stimulation by elevated carbon dioxide (CO2). Biotic stress and genomic structure ultimately determine ecosystem responsiveness. Aggrading early- rather than mature late-successional communities respond to CO2 enhancement, whereas O3 affects North American and Eurasian tree species consistently under free-air fumigation. Insect herbivory is exacerbated by CC-AP in biome-specific ways. Rhizosphere responses reflect similar stand-level nutritional dynamics across zonobiomes, but are modulated by differences in tree-soil nutrient cycling between deciduous and evergreen systems, and natural versus anthropogenic nitrogen (N) oversupply. The hypothesis of consistency of forest responses to interacting CC-AP is supported by currently available data, establishing the precedent for a global network of long-term coordinated research sites across zonobiomes to simultaneously advance both

Ground-Based Global Navigation Satellite System GLONASS (GLObal NAvigation Satellite System) Combined Broadcast Ephemeris Data (daily files) from NASA CDDIS

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This dataset consists of ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) GLONASS Combined Broadcast Ephemeris Data (daily files of all distinct navigation...

Silence and table manners: when environments activate norms.

Science.gov (United States)

Joly, Janneke F; Stapel, Diederik A; Lindenberg, Siegwart M

2008-08-01

Two studies tested the conditions under which an environment (e.g., library, restaurant) raises the relevance of environment-specific social norms (e.g., being quiet, using table manners). As hypothesized, the relevance of such norms is raised when environments are goal relevant ("I am going there later") and when they are humanized with people or the remnants of their presence (e.g., a glass of wine on a table). Two studies show that goal-relevant environments and humanized environments raise the perceived importance of norms (Study 1) and the intention to conform to norms (Study 2). Interestingly, in both studies, these effects reach beyond norms related to the environments used in the studies.

Elder abuse in Chinese populations: a global review.

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, XinQi

2015-01-01

This review focuses on the epidemiology of elder abuse in the global Chinese population with respect to its prevalence, risk factors, and consequences, as well as the perceptions of elder abuse. Evidence revealed that elder abuse and its subtypes are common among the global Chinese population with prevalence ranging from 0.2% to 64%. Younger age, lower income levels, depression, cognitive impairment, and lack of social support were consistently associated with self-reported elder abuse. Caregiver burden was a constant risk factor for the proclivity to elder abuse by caregivers. The adverse health outcomes of elder abuse included suicidal ideation and psychological stress. Some primary research gaps exist: such as, lack of consistency in measurements and recall periods, insufficient studies on the causal relationships between potential risk factors and elder abuse, consequences of elder abuse, and possible interventions. In order to reduce the risk of elder abuse in the global Chinese population, collaboration is encouraged among researchers, health care professionals, social service providers, and policy makers.

A top-down manner-based DCNN architecture for semantic image segmentation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai Qiao

Full Text Available Given their powerful feature representation for recognition, deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs have been driving rapid advances in high-level computer vision tasks. However, their performance in semantic image segmentation is still not satisfactory. Based on the analysis of visual mechanism, we conclude that DCNNs in a bottom-up manner are not enough, because semantic image segmentation task requires not only recognition but also visual attention capability. In the study, superpixels containing visual attention information are introduced in a top-down manner, and an extensible architecture is proposed to improve the segmentation results of current DCNN-based methods. We employ the current state-of-the-art fully convolutional network (FCN and FCN with conditional random field (DeepLab-CRF as baselines to validate our architecture. Experimental results of the PASCAL VOC segmentation task qualitatively show that coarse edges and error segmentation results are well improved. We also quantitatively obtain about 2%-3% intersection over union (IOU accuracy improvement on the PASCAL VOC 2011 and 2012 test sets.

e-Human Ecology - A New Direction of Cyberspace and Virtual Global Societies

OpenAIRE

Knoch, Tobias

2008-01-01

textabstractToday advances in information technology are the basis of modern societies and internalised into live as fundamentally as basic commodities. Beyond, the creation of global cyber or virtual societies has led to entire new aspects of what should now be called e-life. The path to a virtualised world is accelerating in an enormous manner and classical society is rapidly shifting into an e-society. This has implications for all aspects of life and its holistic understanding and its per...

Application of the water footprinting method and water accounting ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... water usage, as well as report its usage using global tools and frameworks. ... Using information from the survey, monthly and yearly water balances were ... The WAF models assisted in reporting data in a universally consistent manner. Blue ...

Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during 1990-2013 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Murray, Christopher J. L.; Ortblad, Katrina F.; Guinovart, Caterina; Lim, Stephen S.; Wolock, Timothy M.; Roberts, D. Allen; Dansereau, Emily A.; Graetz, Nicholas; Barber, Ryan M.; Brown, Jonathan C.; Wang, Haidong; Duber, Herbert C.; Naghavi, Mohsen; Dicker, Daniel; Dandona, Lalit; Salomon, Joshua A.; Heuton, Kyle R.; Foreman, Kyle; Phillips, David E.; Fleming, Thomas D.; Flaxman, Abraham D.; Phillips, Bryan K.; Johnson, Elizabeth K.; Coggeshall, Megan S.; Abd-Allah, Foad; Abera, Semaw Ferede; Abraham, Jerry P.; Abubakar, Ibrahim; Abu-Raddad, Laith J.; Abu-Rmeileh, Niveen Me; Achoki, Tom; Adeyemo, Austine Olufemi; Adou, Arsene Kouablan; Adsuar, Jose C.; Agardh, Emilie Elisabet; Akena, Dickens; Al Kahbouri, Mazin J.; Alasfoor, Deena; Albittar, Mohammed I.; Alcala-Cerra, Gabriel; Angel Alegretti, Miguel; Alemu, Zewdie Aderaw; Alfonso-Cristancho, Rafael; Alhabib, Samia; Ali, Raghib; Alla, Francois; Allen, Peter J.; Alsharif, Ubai; Alvarez, Elena; Alvis-Guzman, Nelson; Amankwaa, Adansi A.; Amare, Azmeraw T.; Amini, Hassan; Ammar, Walid; Anderson, Benjamin O.; Antonio, Carl Abelardo T.; Anwari, Palwasha; Arnlov, Johan; Arsenijevic, Valentina S. Arsic; Artaman, Ali; Asghar, Rana J.; Assadi, Reza; Atkins, Lydia S.; Badawi, Alaa; Balakrishnan, Kalpana; Banerjee, Amitava; Basu, Sanjay; Beardsley, Justin; Bekele, Tolesa; Bell, Michelle L.; Bernabe, Eduardo; Beyene, Tariku Jibat; Bhala, Neeraj; Bhalla, Ashish; Bhutta, Zulfiqar A.; Bin Abdulhak, Aref; Binagwaho, Agnes; Blore, Jed D.; Basara, Berrak Bora; Bose, Dipan; Brainin, Michael; Breitborde, Nicholas; Castaneda-Orjuela, Carlos A.; Catala-Lopez, Ferran; Chadha, Vineet K.; Chang, Jung-Chen; Chiang, Peggy Pei-Chia; Chuang, Ting-Wu; Colomar, Mercedes; Cooper, Leslie Trumbull; Cooper, Cyrus; Courville, Karen J.; Cowie, Benjamin C.; Criqui, Michael H.; Dandona, Rakhi; Dayama, Anand; De Leo, Diego; Degenhardt, Louisa; Del Pozo-Cruz, Borja; Deribe, Kebede; Des Jarlais, Don C.; Dessalegn, Muluken; Dharmaratne, Samath D.; Dilmen, Ugur; Ding, Eric L.; Driscoll, Tim R.; Durrani, Adnan M.; Ellenbogen, Richard G.; Ermakov, Sergey Petrovich; Esteghamati, Alireza; Faraon, Emerito Jose A.; Farzadfar, Farshad; Fereshtehnejad, Seyed-Mohammad; Fijabi, Daniel Obadare; Forouzanfar, Mohammad H.; Paleo, Urbano Fra; Gaffikin, Lynne; Gamkrelidze, Amiran; Gankpe, Fortune Gbetoho; Geleijnse, Johanna M.; Gessner, Bradford D.; Gibney, Katherine B.; Ginawi, Ibrahim Abdelmageem Mohamed; Glaser, Elizabeth L.; Gona, Philimon; Goto, Atsushi; Gouda, Hebe N.; Gugnani, Harish Chander; Gupta, Rajeev; Gupta, Rahul; Hafezi-Nejad, Nima; Hamadeh, Randah Ribhi; Hammami, Mouhanad; Hankey, Graeme J.; Harb, Hilda L.; Maria Haro, Josep; Havmoeller, Rasmus; Hay, Simon I.; Hedayati, Mohammad T.; Heredia Pi, Ileana B.; Hoek, Hans W.; Hornberger, John C.; Hosgood, H. Dean; Hotez, Peter J.; Hoy, Damian G.; Huang, John J.; Iburg, Kim M.; Idrisov, Bulat T.; Innos, Kaire; Jacobsen, Kathryn H.; Jeemon, Panniyammakal; Jensen, Paul N.; Jha, Vivekanand; Jiang, Guohong; Jonas, Jost B.; Juel, Knud; Kan, Haidong; Kankindi, Ida; Karam, Nadim E.; Karch, Andre; Karema, Corine Kakizi; Kaul, Anil; Kawakami, Norito; Kazi, Dhruv S.; Kemp, Andrew H.; Kengne, Andre Pascal; Keren, Andre; Kereselidze, Maia; Khader, Yousef Saleh; Khalifa, Shams Eldin Ali Hassan; Khan, Ejaz Ahmed; Khang, Young-Ho; Khonelidze, Irma; Kinfu, Yohannes; Kinge, Jonas M.; Knibbs, Luke; Kokubo, Yoshihiro; Kosen, S.; Defo, Barthelemy Kuate; Kulkarni, Veena S.; Kulkarni, Chanda; Kumar, Kaushalendra; Kumar, Ravi B.; Kumar, G. Anil; Kwan, Gene F.; Lai, Taavi; Balaji, Arjun Lakshmana; Lam, Hilton; Lan, Qing; Lansingh, Van C.; Larson, Heidi J.; Larsson, Anders; Lee, Jong-Tae; Leigh, James; Leinsalu, Mall; Leung, Ricky; Li, Yichong; Li, Yongmei; Ferreira De Lima, Graca Maria; Lin, Hsien-Ho; Lipshultz, Steven E.; Liu, Shiwei; Liu, Yang; Lloyd, Belinda K.; Lotufo, Paulo A.; Pedro Machado, Vasco Manuel; Maclachlan, Jennifer H.; Magis-Rodriguez, Carlos; Majdan, Marek; Mapoma, Christopher Chabila; Marcenes, Wagner; Barrieotos Marzan, Melvin; Masci, Joseph R.; Mashal, Mohammad Taufiq; Mason-Jones, Amanda J.; Mayosi, Bongani M.; Mazorodze, Tasara T.; Mckay, Abigail Cecilia; Meaney, Peter A.; Mehndiratta, Man Mohan; Mejia-Rodriguez, Fabiola; Melaku, Yohannes Adama; Memish, Ziad A.; Mendoza, Walter; Miller, Ted R.; Mills, Edward J.; Mohammad, Karzan Abdulmuhsin; Mokdad, Ali H.; Mola, Glen Liddell; Monasta, Lorenzo; Montico, Marcella; Moore, Ami R.; Mori, Rintaro; Moturi, Wilkister Nyaora; Mukaigawara, Mitsuru; Murthy, Kinnari S.; Naheed, Aliya; Naidoo, Kovin S.; Naldi, Luigi; Nangia, Vinay; Narayan, K. M. Venkat; Nash, Denis; Nejjari, Chakib; Nelson, Robert G.; Neupane, Sudan Prasad; Newton, Charles R.; Ng, Marie; Nisar, Muhammad Imran; Nolte, Sandra; Norheim, Ole F.; Nowaseb, Vincent; Nyakarahuka, Luke; Oh, In-Hwan; Ohkubo, Takayoshi; Olusanya, Bolajoko O.; Omer, Saad B.; Opio, John Nelson; Orisakwe, Orish Ebere; Pandian, Jeyaraj D.; Papachristou, Christina; Paternina Caicedo, Angel J.; Patten, Scott B.; Paul, Vinod K.; Pavlin, Boris Igor; Pearce, Neil; Pereira, David M.; Pervaiz, Aslam; Pesudovs, Konrad; Petzold, Max; Pourmalek, Farshad; Qato, Dima; Quezada, Amado D.; Quistberg, D. Alex; Rafay, Anwar; Rahimi, Kazem; Rahimi-Movaghar, Vafa; Rahman, Sajjad Ur; Raju, Murugesan; Rana, Saleem M.; Razavi, Homie; Reilly, Robert Quentin; Remuzzi, Giuseppe; Richardus, Jan Hendrik; Ronfani, Luca; Roy, Nobhojit; Sabin, Nsanzimana; Saeedi, Mohammad Yahya; Sahraian, Mohammad Ali; Samonte, Genesis May J.; Sawhney, Monika; Schneider, Ione J. C.; Schwebel, David C.; Seedat, Soraya; Sepanlou, Sadaf G.; Servan-Mori, Edson E.; Sheikhbahaei, Sara; Shibuya, Kenji; Shin, Hwashin Hyun; Shiue, Ivy; Shivakoti, Rupak; Sigfusdottir, Inga Dora; Silberberg, Donald H.; Silva, Andrea P.; Simard, Edgar P.; Singh, Jasvinder A.; Skirbekk, Vegard; Sliwa, Karen; Soneji, Samir; Soshnikov, Sergey S.; Sreeramareddy, Chandrashekhar T.; Stathopoulou, Vasiliki Kalliopi; Stroumpoulis, Konstantinos; Swaminathan, Soumya; Sykes, Bryan L.; Tabb, Karen M.; Talongwa, Roberto Tchio; Tenkorang, Eric Yeboah; Terkawi, Abdullah Sulieman; Thomson, Alan J.; Thorne-Lyman, Andrew L.; Towbin, Jeffrey A.; Traebert, Jefferson; Tran, Bach X.; Dimbuene, Zacharie Tsala; Tsilimbaris, Miltiadis; Uchendu, Uche S.; Ukwaja, Kingsley N.; Uzun, Selen Begum; Vallely, Andrew J.; Vasankari, Tommi J.; Venketasubramanian, N.; Violante, Francesco S.; Vlassov, Vasiliy Victorovich; Vollset, Stein Emil; Waller, Stephen; Wallin, Mitchell T.; Wang, Linhong; Wang, XiaoRong; Wang, Yanping; Weichenthal, Scott; Weiderpass, Elisabete; Weintraub, Robert G.; Westerman, Ronny; White, Richard A.; Wilkinson, James D.; Williams, Thomas Neil; Woldeyohannes, Solomon Meseret; Wong, John Q.; Xu, Gelin; Yang, Yong C.; Yano, Yuichiro; Yentur, Gokalp Kadri; Yip, Paul; Yonemoto, Naohiro; Yoon, Seok-Jun; Younis, Mustafa; Yu, Chuanhua; Jin, Kim Yun; Zaki, Maysaa El Sayed; Zhao, Yong; Zheng, Yingfeng; Zhou, Maigeng; Zhu, Jun; Zou, Xiao Nong; Lopez, Alan D.; Vos, Theo

2014-01-01

Background The Millennium Declaration in 2000 brought special global attention to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria through the formulation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study provides a consistent and comprehensive approach to disease estimation for between

Object-Oriented Hierarchy Radiation Consistency for Different Temporal and Different Sensor Images

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nan Su

2018-02-01

Full Text Available In the paper, we propose a novel object-oriented hierarchy radiation consistency method for dense matching of different temporal and different sensor data in the 3D reconstruction. For different temporal images, our illumination consistency method is proposed to solve both the illumination uniformity for a single image and the relative illumination normalization for image pairs. Especially in the relative illumination normalization step, singular value equalization and linear relationship of the invariant pixels is combined used for the initial global illumination normalization and the object-oriented refined illumination normalization in detail, respectively. For different sensor images, we propose the union group sparse method, which is based on improving the original group sparse model. The different sensor images are set to a similar smoothness level by the same threshold of singular value from the union group matrix. Our method comprehensively considered the influence factors on the dense matching of the different temporal and different sensor stereoscopic image pairs to simultaneously improve the illumination consistency and the smoothness consistency. The radiation consistency experimental results verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method by comparing two other methods. Moreover, in the dense matching experiment of the mixed stereoscopic image pairs, our method has more advantages for objects in the urban area.

The death of great ships : photography, politics, and waste in the global imaginary.

OpenAIRE

Crang, M.

2010-01-01

The iconic images heralding an age of connectivity are the plane and the trace of digital flows bearing information. However, not far behind has been the cumbrous yet essential 'big box' of containerisation, shipping all manner of goods across the planet on great vessels remorselessly circling the globe. Critiques of global trade have latched upon the counter image of these mighty ships' ruinous carcasses beached and being broken in South Asia. Here then is the antipode of globalisation - shi...

Global Innovation in Emerging Economies | IDRC - International ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2010-12-21

Dec 21, 2010 ... Book cover Global Innovation in Emerging Economies ... These trends are occurring in a dynamic business environment that consists of ... They have both managerial and policy implications for the companies and the ...

Using Trait-State Models to Evaluate the Longitudinal Consistency of Global Self-Esteem From Adolescence to Adulthood

Science.gov (United States)

Donnellan, M. Brent; Kenny, David A.; Trzesniewski, Kali H.; Lucas, Richard E.; Conger, Rand D.

2012-01-01

The present research used a latent variable trait-state model to evaluate the longitudinal consistency of self-esteem during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Analyses were based on ten administrations of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965) spanning the ages of approximately 13 to 32 for a sample of 451 participants. Results indicated that a completely stable trait factor and an autoregressive trait factor accounted for the majority of the variance in latent self-esteem assessments, whereas state factors accounted for about 16% of the variance in repeated assessments of latent self-esteem. The stability of individual differences in self-esteem increased with age consistent with the cumulative continuity principle of personality development. PMID:23180899

Using Trait-State Models to Evaluate the Longitudinal Consistency of Global Self-Esteem From Adolescence to Adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Donnellan, M Brent; Kenny, David A; Trzesniewski, Kali H; Lucas, Richard E; Conger, Rand D

2012-12-01

The present research used a latent variable trait-state model to evaluate the longitudinal consistency of self-esteem during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Analyses were based on ten administrations of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965) spanning the ages of approximately 13 to 32 for a sample of 451 participants. Results indicated that a completely stable trait factor and an autoregressive trait factor accounted for the majority of the variance in latent self-esteem assessments, whereas state factors accounted for about 16% of the variance in repeated assessments of latent self-esteem. The stability of individual differences in self-esteem increased with age consistent with the cumulative continuity principle of personality development.

Heterogeneous world model and collaborative scenarios of transition to globally sustainable nuclear energy systems - 15483

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuznetsov, V.; Fesenko, G.

2015-01-01

The International Atomic Energy Agency's International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles (INPRO) is to help ensure that nuclear energy is available to contribute to meeting global energy needs of the 21. century in a sustainable manner. The INPRO task titled 'Global scenarios' is to develop global and regional nuclear energy scenarios that lead to a global vision of sustainable nuclear energy in the 21. century. Results of multiple studies show that the criteria for developing sustainable nuclear energy cannot be met without innovations in reactor and nuclear fuel cycle technologies. Combining different reactor types and associated fuel chains creates a multiplicity of nuclear energy system arrangements potentially contributing to global sustainability of nuclear energy. In this, cooperation among countries having different policy regarding fuel cycle back end would be essential to bring sustainability benefits from innovations in technology to all interested users. INPRO has developed heterogeneous global model to capture countries' different policies regarding the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle in regional and global scenarios of nuclear energy evolution and applied in a number of studies performed by participants of the project. This paper will highlight the model and major conclusions obtained in the studies. (authors)

A spot check for assessing static orientation consistency of inertial and magnetic sensing units.

Science.gov (United States)

Picerno, Pietro; Cereatti, Andrea; Cappozzo, Aurelio

2011-03-01

Despite the widespread use of Magnetic and Inertial Measurement Units (MIMUs) for movement reconstruction, only a few studies have tackled issues related to their accuracy. It has been proved that their performance decreases over a period of use since calibration parameters become no longer effective. Good practice rules recommend to assess, prior to any experimental session, the instrumental errors associated to the relevant measures. Aim of this study was to provide a practical and reproducible spot check for assessing the performance of MIMUs in terms of consistency in determining their orientation with respect to a common (inter-MIMUs consistency, IC) and invariant (self-MIMU consistency, SC) global frame. IC was assessed by verifying the hypothesis that the orientation of 9 MIMUs aligned to each other on a rigid Plexiglas plank coincided at any orientation of the plank. SC was assessed separately by verifying differences between measured and imposed known rotations imparted to each MIMU. The orientation of MIMUs relative to the global frame was expressed in terms of quaternion. IC test showed that MIMUs defined their orientation differently. This difference was not constant but varied according to the plank's orientation. The least consistent MIMU showed discrepancy up to 5.7°. SC test confirmed the same MIMU as that affected by the highest inaccuracy (8.4°), whereas it revealed errors within limits (1°) in correspondence to other MIMUs. A tool has been proposed that allows the users to be aware of the errors that may be expected when using MIMUs for the estimate of absolute and relative segments kinematics. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Advances in Understanding Global Water Cycle with Advent of Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Eric A.; Starr, David (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Within this decade the internationally organized Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission will take an important step in creating a global precipitation observing system from space. One perspective for understanding the nature of GPM is that it will be a hierarchical system of datastreams beginning with very high caliber combined dual frequency radar/passive microwave (PMW) rain-radiometer retrievals, to high caliber PMW rain-radiometer only retrievals, and then on to blends of the former datastreams with additional lower-caliber PMW-based and IR-based rain retrievals. Within the context of the now emerging global water & energy cycle (GWEC) programs of a number of research agencies throughout the world, GPM serves as a centerpiece space mission for improving our understanding of the global water cycle from a global measurement perspective. One of the salient problems within our current understanding of the global water and energy cycle is determining whether a change in the rate of the water cycle is accompanying changes in climate, e.g., climate warming. As there are a number of ways in which to define a rate-change of the global water cycle, it is not entirely clear as to what constitutes such a determination. This paper presents an overview of the GPM Mission and how its observations can be used within the framework of the oceanic and continental water budget equations to determine whether a given perturbation in precipitation is indicative of an actual rate change in the global water cycle, consistent with required responses in water storage and/or water flux transport processes, or whether it is the natural variability of a fixed rate cycle.

GLOBAL TRENDS OF ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivan LUCHIAN

2016-08-01

Full Text Available An alternative investment is an investment product other than the traditional investments of stocks, bonds, cash, or property. The term is a relatively loose one and includes tangible assets such as art, wine, antiques, coins, or stamps and some financial assets such as commodities, hedge funds, venture capital,and others. At the moment it was created a global industry opportunities for making investments in nontraditional form. The aim of this paper consists in demonstrating the possibilities of these investments. For this have been studied related main international markets, a fter then deducted world dominant trends. This article is concerned to present some details of alternative investments global market.

Commensurate comparisons of models with energy budget observations reveal consistent climate sensitivities

Science.gov (United States)

Armour, K.

2017-12-01

Global energy budget observations have been widely used to constrain the effective, or instantaneous climate sensitivity (ICS), producing median estimates around 2°C (Otto et al. 2013; Lewis & Curry 2015). A key question is whether the comprehensive climate models used to project future warming are consistent with these energy budget estimates of ICS. Yet, performing such comparisons has proven challenging. Within models, values of ICS robustly vary over time, as surface temperature patterns evolve with transient warming, and are generally smaller than the values of equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). Naively comparing values of ECS in CMIP5 models (median of about 3.4°C) to observation-based values of ICS has led to the suggestion that models are overly sensitive. This apparent discrepancy can partially be resolved by (i) comparing observation-based values of ICS to model values of ICS relevant for historical warming (Armour 2017; Proistosescu & Huybers 2017); (ii) taking into account the "efficacies" of non-CO2 radiative forcing agents (Marvel et al. 2015); and (iii) accounting for the sparseness of historical temperature observations and differences in sea-surface temperature and near-surface air temperature over the oceans (Richardson et al. 2016). Another potential source of discrepancy is a mismatch between observed and simulated surface temperature patterns over recent decades, due to either natural variability or model deficiencies in simulating historical warming patterns. The nature of the mismatch is such that simulated patterns can lead to more positive radiative feedbacks (higher ICS) relative to those engendered by observed patterns. The magnitude of this effect has not yet been addressed. Here we outline an approach to perform fully commensurate comparisons of climate models with global energy budget observations that take all of the above effects into account. We find that when apples-to-apples comparisons are made, values of ICS in models are

Cortical thinning in the anterior cingulate cortex predicts multiple sclerosis patients' fluency performance in a lateralised manner

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olivia Geisseler

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Cognitive impairment is as an important feature of Multiple Sclerosis (MS, and might be even more relevant to patients than mobility restrictions. Compared to the multitude of studies investigating memory deficits or basic cognitive slowing, executive dysfunction is a rarely studied cognitive domain in MS, and its neural correlates remain largely unexplored. Even rarer are topological studies on specific cognitive functions in MS. Here we used several structural MRI parameters – including cortical thinning and T2 lesion load – to investigate neural correlates of executive dysfunction, both on a global and a regional level by means of voxel- and vertex-wise analyses. Forty-eight patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 48 healthy controls participated in the study. Five executive functions were assessed, i.e. verbal and figural fluency, working memory, interference control and set shifting. Patients scored lower than controls in verbal and figural fluency only, and displayed widespread cortical thinning. On a global level, cortical thickness independently predicted verbal fluency performance, when controlling for lesion volume and central brain atrophy estimates. On a regional level, cortical thinning in the anterior cingulate region correlated with deficits in verbal and figural fluency and did so in a lateralised manner: Left-sided thinning was related to reduced verbal – but not figural – fluency, whereas the opposite pattern was observed for right-sided thinning. We conclude that executive dysfunction in MS patients can specifically affect verbal and figural fluency. The observed lateralised clinico-anatomical correlation has previously been described in brain-damaged patients with large focal lesions only, for example after stroke. Based on focal grey matter atrophy, we here show for the first time comparable lateralised findings in a white matter disease with widespread pathology.

Cryptocurrencies & the Challenge of Global Governance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Garry Jacbs

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The recent explosive development of new forms of digital currency opens up unprecedented opportunities and poses significant regulatory challenges. This new form of digital currency lowers the costs and other barriers to the global movement of money, international trade, foreign investment and speculation, while simultaneously enhancing the anonymity on which tax evasion, money-laundering and other illegal activities thrive. It also liberates the creation of money and regulation of economic activities from the political control of national governments and central banks. Since the value of a currency is related to the size of the population, strength of the economy and value of transactions that utilize it, a basket of cryptocurrencies could emerge as the first prototype of a world currency whose value is backed by the total productive capacity of the entire human community. Moreover, the triad of Internet, distributed ledger technologies and cryptocurrencies could serve as the basis for the development of new global economic potentials in a manner similar and a degree far exceeding the economic impact of the World Wide Web over the past two decades. At the same time, the rapid deployment of cryptocurrencies could have profound impact on the capacity of governments to tax transactions, income and wealth, one of the main pillars of the modern nation state. The development of autonomous global cryptocurrencies could dramatically reduce the control and effectiveness of existing regulatory mechanisms at the national level and generate considerable pressure for the evolution of more effective institutions for global governance. They could provide compelling incentives for national governments to enhance international cooperation and strengthen the functioning of international institutions to fill the regulatory void. International organizations will play an important role in harnessing the potentials and minimizing the risks arising from the growing

GLOBAL SOURCING: A THEORETICAL STUDY ON TURKEY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aytac GOKMEN

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Global sourcing is to source from the global market for goods and services across national boundaries in order to take advantage of the global efficiencies in the delivery of a product or service. Such efficiencies are consists of low cost skilled labor, low cost raw materials and other economic factors like tax breaks and deductions as well as low trade tariffs. When we assess the case regarding to Turkey, global sourcing is an effective device for some firms. The domestic firms in Turkey at various industries are inclined to global source finished or intermediate goods from the world markets, finish the production process in Turkey and export. Eventually, on the one hand the export volume of Turkey increases, but on the other hand the import of a considerable volume of finished or intermediate goods bring about a negative trade balance and loss of jobs in Turkey. Therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the concept of global sourcing transactions on Turkey resting on comprehensive publications.

Global multiplicity of dietary standards for trace elements.

Science.gov (United States)

Freeland-Graves, Jeanne H; Lee, Jane J

2012-06-01

Consistent guidelines across the world for dietary standards of trace elements remain elusive. Harmonization of dietary standards has been suggested by international agencies to facilitate consistency in food and nutrition policies and international trade. Yet significant barriers exist to standardize recommendations on a global basis, such as vast differences in geography, food availability and transport; cultural, social and economic constraints, and biological diversity. Simple commonality is precluded further by the variety of terminologies among countries and regions related to diet. Certain unions have created numerous nutritional descriptive categories for standards, while other large countries are limited to only a few. This paper will explore the global multiplicity of dietary standards and efforts for harmonization. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Definition of global dispersion coefficients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naff, R.L.

1983-10-01

For estimation of a global longitudinal dispersivity at the Gorleben site, data available primarily consist of suites of geophysical logs from wells penetrating the Quaternary aquifer. A length scale for the principle aquifer at Gorleben is to be found. Samples are to be taken separately to estimate the variance in hydraulic conductivity (Taylor Analysis, Fickian dispersion process). (DG)

fMRI orientation decoding in V1 does not require global maps or globally coherent orientation stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Alink, Arjen; Krugliak, Alexandra; Walther, Alexander; Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus

2013-01-01

The orientation of a large grating can be decoded from V1 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, even at low resolution (3-mm isotropic voxels). This finding has suggested that columnar-level neuronal information might be accessible to fMRI at 3T. However, orientation decodability might alternatively arise from global orientation-preference maps. Such global maps across V1 could result from bottom-up processing, if the preferences of V1 neurons were biased toward particular orientations (e.g., radial from fixation, or cardinal, i.e., vertical or horizontal). Global maps could also arise from local recurrent or top-down processing, reflecting pre-attentive perceptual grouping, attention spreading, or predictive coding of global form. Here we investigate whether fMRI orientation decoding with 2-mm voxels requires (a) globally coherent orientation stimuli and/or (b) global-scale patterns of V1 activity. We used opposite-orientation gratings (balanced about the cardinal orientations) and spirals (balanced about the radial orientation), along with novel patch-swapped variants of these stimuli. The two stimuli of a patch-swapped pair have opposite orientations everywhere (like their globally coherent parent stimuli). However, the two stimuli appear globally similar, a patchwork of opposite orientations. We find that all stimulus pairs are robustly decodable, demonstrating that fMRI orientation decoding does not require globally coherent orientation stimuli. Furthermore, decoding remained robust after spatial high-pass filtering for all stimuli, showing that fine-grained components of the fMRI patterns reflect visual orientations. Consistent with previous studies, we found evidence for global radial and vertical preference maps in V1. However, these were weak or absent for patch-swapped stimuli, suggesting that global preference maps depend on globally coherent orientations and might arise through recurrent or top-down processes related to the perception of

Global Change Effects on Plant-Soil Interactions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dam, Marie

of this dissertation has been to determine how soil food web structure and function is affected when the quantity and quality of plant input is altered under global change. By studying the abundance and composition of soil organisms, particularly those in the rhizosphere, closely associated with living plants, we...... (Paper III). Furthermore, by way of meta-analysis, the role of organisms in global change effects on ecosystem function is modelled (Paper IV). Among CO2, warming and summer drought, CO2 is the factor most consistently impacting soil organisms. CO2 increases abundance of microorganisms and nematodes...... suggest that not only the global change effects on established ecosystems, but also the global change effects on plant community composition as well as land use management may determine the composition and function of soil food webs in the future....

Landscape of Global Health Relevant Investment With a Focus on East Africa and India

Data.gov (United States)

US Agency for International Development — The Global Health Investment Landsacping project database consists of information about impact-oriented and global health-supporting investment funds or capital...

Regional or global WEEE recycling. Where to go?

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jinhui; Lopez, Brenda N; Liu, Lili; Zhao, Nana; Yu, Keli; Zheng, Lixia

2013-04-01

If we consider Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management, we can see the development of different positions in developed and developing countries. This development started with the movement of WEEE from developed countries to the developing countries. However, when the consequences for health and the environment were observed, some developing countries introduced a ban on the import of this kind of waste under the umbrella of the Basel Convention, while some developed countries have been considering a regional or global WEEE recycling approach. This paper explores the current movements between Source and Destination countries, or the importers and exporters, and examines whether it is legal and why illegal traffic is still rife; how global initiatives could support a global WEEE management scheme; the recycling characteristics of the source an destination countries and also to ascertain whether the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has been established between the different stakeholders involved in WEEE management. Ultimately, the Full Extended Producer Responsibility is presented as a possible solution because the compensation of the environmental capacity for WEEE recycling or treatment could be made by the contribution of extra responsibility; and also generating an uniform standard for processing WEEE in an environmentally sound manner could support the regional or international solution of WEEE and also improve the performance of the informal sector. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Global gridded anthropogenic emissions inventory of carbonyl sulfide

Science.gov (United States)

Zumkehr, Andrew; Hilton, Tim W.; Whelan, Mary; Smith, Steve; Kuai, Le; Worden, John; Campbell, J. Elliott

2018-06-01

Atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (COS or OCS) is the most abundant sulfur containing gas in the troposphere and is an atmospheric tracer for the carbon cycle. Gridded inventories of global anthropogenic COS are used for interpreting global COS measurements. However, previous gridded anthropogenic data are a climatological estimate based on input data that is over three decades old and are not representative of current conditions. Here we develop a new gridded data set of global anthropogenic COS sources that includes more source sectors than previously available and uses the most current emissions factors and industry activity data as input. Additionally, the inventory is provided as annually varying estimates from years 1980-2012 and employs a source specific spatial scaling procedure. We estimate a global source in year 2012 of 406 Gg S y-1 (range of 223-586 Gg S y-1), which is highly concentrated in China and is twice as large as the previous gridded inventory. Our large upward revision in the bottom-up estimate of the source is consistent with a recent top-down estimate based on air-monitoring and Antarctic firn data. Furthermore, our inventory time trends, including a decline in the 1990's and growth after the year 2000, are qualitatively consistent with trends in atmospheric data. Finally, similarities between the spatial distribution in this inventory and remote sensing data suggest that the anthropogenic source could potentially play a role in explaining a missing source in the global COS budget.

Globalization and local response to epidemiological overlap in 21st century Ecuador

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Waters William F

2006-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Third World countries are confronted by a complex overlay of two sets of health problems. Traditional maladies, including communicable diseases, malnutrition, and environmental health hazards coexist with emerging health challenges, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and increasing levels of obesity. Using Ecuador as an example, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for linking epidemiologic overlap to emerging social structures and processes at the national and global levels. Discussion Epidemiologic trends can be seen as part of broader processes related to globalization, but this does not imply that globalization is a monolithic force that inevitably and uniformly affects nations, communities, and households in the same manner. Rather, characteristics and forms of social organization at the subnational level can shape the way that globalization takes place. Thus, globalization has affected Ecuador in specific ways and is, at the same time, intimately related to the form in which the epidemiologic transition has transpired in that country. Summary Ecuador is among neither the poorest nor the wealthiest countries and its situation may illuminate trends in other parts of the world. As in other countries, insertion into the global economy has not taken place in a vacuum; rather, Ecuador has experienced unprecedented social and demographic change in the past several decades, producing profound transformation in its social structure. Examples of local represent alternatives to centralized health systems that do not effectively address the complex overlay of traditional and emerging health problems.

Global neural dynamic surface tracking control of strict-feedback systems with application to hypersonic flight vehicle.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Bin; Yang, Chenguang; Pan, Yongping

2015-10-01

This paper studies both indirect and direct global neural control of strict-feedback systems in the presence of unknown dynamics, using the dynamic surface control (DSC) technique in a novel manner. A new switching mechanism is designed to combine an adaptive neural controller in the neural approximation domain, together with the robust controller that pulls the transient states back into the neural approximation domain from the outside. In comparison with the conventional control techniques, which could only achieve semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded stability, the proposed control scheme guarantees all the signals in the closed-loop system are globally uniformly ultimately bounded, such that the conventional constraints on initial conditions of the neural control system can be relaxed. The simulation studies of hypersonic flight vehicle (HFV) are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed global neural DSC design.

Global Ocean Phytoplankton

Science.gov (United States)

Franz, B. A.; Behrenfeld, M. J.; Siegel, D. A.; Werdell, P. J.

2014-01-01

Marine phytoplankton are responsible for roughly half the net primary production (NPP) on Earth, fixing atmospheric CO2 into food that fuels global ocean ecosystems and drives the ocean's biogeochemical cycles. Phytoplankton growth is highly sensitive to variations in ocean physical properties, such as upper ocean stratification and light availability within this mixed layer. Satellite ocean color sensors, such as the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS; McClain 2009) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS; Esaias 1998), provide observations of sufficient frequency and geographic coverage to globally monitor physically-driven changes in phytoplankton distributions. In practice, ocean color sensors retrieve the spectral distribution of visible solar radiation reflected upward from beneath the ocean surface, which can then be related to changes in the photosynthetic phytoplankton pigment, chlorophyll- a (Chla; measured in mg m-3). Here, global Chla data for 2013 are evaluated within the context of the 16-year continuous record provided through the combined observations of SeaWiFS (1997-2010) and MODIS on Aqua (MODISA; 2002-present). Ocean color measurements from the recently launched Visible and Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS; 2011-present) are also considered, but results suggest that the temporal calibration of the VIIRS sensor is not yet sufficiently stable for quantitative global change studies. All MODISA (version 2013.1), SeaWiFS (version 2010.0), and VIIRS (version 2013.1) data presented here were produced by NASA using consistent Chla algorithms.

Implementing a Systematic Process for Consistent Nursing Care in a NICU: A Quality Improvement Project.

Science.gov (United States)

McCarley, Renay Marie; Dowling, Donna A; Dolansky, Mary A; Bieda, Amy

2018-03-01

The global aim of this quality improvement project was to develop and implement a systematic process to assign and maintain consistent bedside nurses for infants and families. A systematic process based on a primary care nursing model was implemented to assign consistent care for a 48-bed, single-family room NICU. Four PDSA cycles were necessary to obtain agreement from the nursing staff as to the best process for assigning primary nurses. Post-intervention data revealed a 9.5 percent decrease of consistent caregivers for infants in the NICU ≤ 28 days and a 2.3 percent increase of consistent caregivers for infants in the NICU ≥ 29 days. Although these findings did not meet the goal of the specific aim, a systematic process was created to assign bedside nurses to infants. Further PDSAs will be needed to refine the process to reach the aim.

Poverty Mapping Project: Global Subnational Infant Mortality Rates

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Global Subnational Infant Mortality Rates consists of estimates of infant mortality rates for the year 2000. The infant mortality rate for a region or country is...

Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP), Alpha Version

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP), Alpha Version consists of estimates of human population for the years 1990, 1995, and 2000 by 30 arc-second (1km)...

Global gravitational anomalies and transport

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chowdhury, Subham Dutta; David, Justin R. [Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science,C. V. Raman Avenue, Bangalore 560012 (India)

2016-12-21

We investigate the constraints imposed by global gravitational anomalies on parity odd induced transport coefficients in even dimensions for theories with chiral fermions, gravitinos and self dual tensors. The η-invariant for the large diffeomorphism corresponding to the T transformation on a torus constraints the coefficients in the thermal effective action up to mod 2. We show that the result obtained for the parity odd transport for gravitinos using global anomaly matching is consistent with the direct perturbative calculation. In d=6 we see that the second Pontryagin class in the anomaly polynomial does not contribute to the η-invariant which provides a topological explanation of this observation in the ‘replacement rule’. We then perform a direct perturbative calculation for the contribution of the self dual tensor in d=6 to the parity odd transport coefficient using the Feynman rules proposed by Gaumé and Witten. The result for the transport coefficient agrees with that obtained using matching of global anomalies.

A non-parametric consistency test of the ΛCDM model with Planck CMB data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aghamousa, Amir; Shafieloo, Arman [Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daejeon 305-348 (Korea, Republic of); Hamann, Jan, E-mail: amir@aghamousa.com, E-mail: jan.hamann@unsw.edu.au, E-mail: shafieloo@kasi.re.kr [School of Physics, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 (Australia)

2017-09-01

Non-parametric reconstruction methods, such as Gaussian process (GP) regression, provide a model-independent way of estimating an underlying function and its uncertainty from noisy data. We demonstrate how GP-reconstruction can be used as a consistency test between a given data set and a specific model by looking for structures in the residuals of the data with respect to the model's best-fit. Applying this formalism to the Planck temperature and polarisation power spectrum measurements, we test their global consistency with the predictions of the base ΛCDM model. Our results do not show any serious inconsistencies, lending further support to the interpretation of the base ΛCDM model as cosmology's gold standard.

Compiling and Mapping Global Permeability of the Unconsolidated and Consolidated Earth: GLobal HYdrogeology MaPS 2.0 (GLHYMPS 2.0)

Science.gov (United States)

Huscroft, Jordan; Gleeson, Tom; Hartmann, Jens; Börker, Janine

2018-02-01

The spatial distribution of subsurface parameters such as permeability are increasingly relevant for regional to global climate, land surface, and hydrologic models that are integrating groundwater dynamics and interactions. Despite the large fraction of unconsolidated sediments on Earth's surface with a wide range of permeability values, current global, high-resolution permeability maps distinguish solely fine-grained and coarse-grained unconsolidated sediments. Representative permeability values are derived for a wide variety of unconsolidated sediments and applied to a new global map of unconsolidated sediments to produce the first geologically constrained, two-layer global map of shallower and deeper permeability. The new mean logarithmic permeability of the Earth's surface is -12.7 ± 1.7 m2 being 1 order of magnitude higher than that derived from previous maps, which is consistent with the dominance of the coarser sediments. The new data set will benefit a variety of scientific applications including the next generation of climate, land surface, and hydrology models at regional to global scales.

Developing and Deploying Knowledge on a Global Scale

OpenAIRE

Borron, James; Morales, David; Klahr, Philip

1996-01-01

Reuters is a worldwide company focused on supplying financial and news information to its more than 40,000 subscribers around the world. To enhance the quality and consistency of its customer- support organization, Reuters embarked on a global knowledge development and reuse project. The resulting system is in operational use in North America, Europe, and Asia. The system supports 38 Reuter products worldwide. This article presents a case study of Reuter experience in putting a global knowled...

Impact of the Internet on Globalization : Industrial Internet

OpenAIRE

Jukics, Márk

2016-01-01

The thesis consists of two main parts. The first part is the theoretical framework, the second part is about assisting in a project of Centria University of Applied Sciences. The theoretical part of the thesis expounds the evolution and the benefits of the industrial internet. It explains the roots of globalization, internet, and industries. Lean manufacturing and management is also involved in the theory, as this way of management is successfully spreading by the help of globalization. I...

The Not-So-Global Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent Signal.

Science.gov (United States)

Billings, Jacob; Keilholz, Shella

2018-04-01

Global signal regression is a controversial processing step for resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, partly because the source of the global blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal remains unclear. On the one hand, nuisance factors such as motion can readily introduce coherent BOLD changes across the whole brain. On the other hand, the global signal has been linked to neural activity and vigilance levels, suggesting that it contains important neurophysiological information and should not be discarded. Any widespread pattern of coordinated activity is likely to contribute appreciably to the global signal. Such patterns may include large-scale quasiperiodic spatiotemporal patterns, known also to be tied to performance on vigilance tasks. This uncertainty surrounding the separability of the global BOLD signal from concurrent neurological processes motivated an examination of the global BOLD signal's spatial distribution. The results clarify that although the global signal collects information from all tissue classes, a diverse subset of the BOLD signal's independent components contribute the most to the global signal. Further, the timing of each network's contribution to the global signal is not consistent across volunteers, confirming the independence of a constituent process that comprises the global signal.

Self-consistent nuclear energy systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimizu, A.; Fujiie, Y.

1995-01-01

A concept of self-consistent energy systems (SCNES) has been proposed as an ultimate goal of the nuclear energy system in the coming centuries. SCNES should realize a stable and unlimited energy supply without endangering the human race and the global environment. It is defined as a system that realizes at least the following four objectives simultaneously: (a) energy generation -attain high efficiency in the utilization of fission energy; (b) fuel production - secure inexhaustible energy source: breeding of fissile material with the breeding ratio greater than one and complete burning of transuranium through recycling; (c) burning of radionuclides - zero release of radionuclides from the system: complete burning of transuranium and elimination of radioactive fission products by neutron capture reactions through recycling; (d) system safety - achieve system safety both for the public and experts: eliminate criticality-related safety issues by using natural laws and simple logic. This paper describes the concept of SCNES and discusses the feasibility of the system. Both ''neutron balance'' and ''energbalance'' of the system are introduced as the necessary conditions to be satisfied at least by SCNES. Evaluations made so far indicate that both the neutron balance and the energy balance can be realized by fast reactors but not by thermal reactors. Concerning the system safety, two safety concepts: ''self controllability'' and ''self-terminability'' are introduced to eliminate the criticality-related safety issues in fast reactors. (author)

The challenge of the global management of plant design modifications. example of the new EJ system at Vandellos NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ortega, Fernando; Valdivia, Carlos; Fernandez Illobre, Luis; Trueba, Pedro

2010-01-01

One of the most challenging areas in the operation of nuclear power plants (NPP) is related to the management of plant design modifications. Plant modifications can be made to improve reliability, facilitate operation, improve safety or get better results. In any of these situations, plant modifications imply many different activities that have to be done in a coordinated manner. NUREG-0711 (Human Factors Engineering Program Review Model) shows a global approach to manage most of these activities. Although this approach is mainly focused on the design and construction of new plants, it can also be applied to plant modification management. Successful global management will require performing every activity in a specific order, taking advantage of the output coming from some tasks as input for others and finalizing every task when necessary. This will provide the best results in terms of quality, time required for implementation, safe and reliable operation and maintenance, and cost. Tecnatom is involved in most of the activities related to the operational areas and has applied a global approach to get advantages in terms of quality and cost, which is outlined in this paper. As an example of this approach, the Vandellos NPP experience is shown in this presentation. Vandellos NPP carried out an important design modification that consists of replacing an old essential service water system with a new one. This was a three-year project that implied the construction of new reservoirs, new buildings, the implementation of new equipment, and new panels in the main control room. This paper shows the way in which all of these activities were performed. (authors)

Globalization and Shanghai Model: A Retrospective and Prospective Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linsun Cheng

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Intended to shed light on the debate on the results of globalization and providebetter understanding of the influences of globalization upon China as well as theworld, this article traces the history of Shanghai’s economic globalization over thepast 170 years since 1843 and demonstrates the benefits and problems Shanghaireceived from (or connected to its economic globalization. Divided into threesections (Globalization, de-globalization and re-globalization of Shanghai’s economy;Manufacturing-Oriented vs. Tertiary-oriented—Shanghai’s Double PriorityStrategy of Economic Growth; Free market, state enterprises, and Shanghai’s mixedeconomy the article summarizes and analyzes several characteristics that madeShanghai a unique model in the history of globalization: In adapting and adoptinginevitable economic globalization, Shanghai created its unique model of economicdevelopment—widely embracing economic globalization; placing Shanghai’seconomy on a solid foundation of both strong modern manufacturing and strongtertiary industry (consisting of finance and insurance, real estate, transportations,post and telecommunication, wholesale and retailing; and creating a mixedeconomic structure with hybrid of private and state owned enterprises. TheShanghai model proves that globalization has been an unavoidable trend as scienceand technology have made the world “smaller” and “smaller.” Actively engaging intoeconomic globalization is the only way for Shanghai, as well as many developingcountries, to accelerate its economic growth.

An optimization approach for extracting and encoding consistent maps in a shape collection

KAUST Repository

Huang, Qi-Xing

2012-11-01

We introduce a novel approach for computing high quality point-topoint maps among a collection of related shapes. The proposed approach takes as input a sparse set of imperfect initial maps between pairs of shapes and builds a compact data structure which implicitly encodes an improved set of maps between all pairs of shapes. These maps align well with point correspondences selected from initial maps; they map neighboring points to neighboring points; and they provide cycle-consistency, so that map compositions along cycles approximate the identity map. The proposed approach is motivated by the fact that a complete set of maps between all pairs of shapes that admits nearly perfect cycleconsistency are highly redundant and can be represented by compositions of maps through a single base shape. In general, multiple base shapes are needed to adequately cover a diverse collection. Our algorithm sequentially extracts such a small collection of base shapes and creates correspondences from each of these base shapes to all other shapes. These correspondences are found by global optimization on candidate correspondences obtained by diffusing initial maps. These are then used to create a compact graphical data structure from which globally optimal cycle-consistent maps can be extracted using simple graph algorithms. Experimental results on benchmark datasets show that the proposed approach yields significantly better results than state-of-theart data-driven shape matching methods. © 2012 ACM.

Combining Boosted Global

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Szidónia Lefkovits

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The domain of object detection presents a wide range of interest due to its numerous application possibilities especially real time applications. All of them require high detection rate correlated with short processing time. One of the most efficient systems, working with visual information, were presented in the publication of Viola et al. [1], [2].This detection system uses classifiers based on Haar-like separating features combined with the AdaBoost learning algorithm. The most important bottleneck of the system is the big number of false detections at high hit rate. In this paper we propose to overcome this disadvantage by using specialized parts classifiers. This aim comes from the observation that the target object does not resemble the false detections at all.The reason of this fact is the coding manner of Haar-like features which attend to handle image patches and neglect the edges and contours. In order to obtain a more robust classifier, a global aspect method is combined with a part-based method, having the goal to improve the performance of the detector without significant increase of the detection time.

Gpn3 is polyubiquitinated on lysine 216 and degraded by the proteasome in the cell nucleus in a Gpn1-inhibitable manner.

Science.gov (United States)

Méndez-Hernández, Lucía E; Robledo-Rivera, Angelica Y; Macías-Silva, Marina; Calera, Mónica R; Sánchez-Olea, Roberto

2017-11-01

Gpn1 associates with Gpn3, and both are required for RNA polymerase II nuclear targeting. Global studies have identified by mass spectrometry that human Gpn3 is ubiquitinated on lysines 189 and 216. Our goals here were to determine the type, physiological importance, and regulation of Gpn3 ubiquitination. After inhibiting the proteasome with MG132, Gpn3-Flag was polyubiquitinated on K216, but not K189, in HEK293T cells. Gpn3-Flag exhibited nucleo-cytoplasmic shuttling, but polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of Gpn3-Flag occurred only in the cell nucleus. Polyubiquitination-deficient Gpn3-Flag K216R displayed a longer half-life than Gpn3-Flag in two cell lines. Interestingly, Gpn1-EYFP inhibited Gpn3-Flag polyubiquitination in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, Gpn1-inhibitable, nuclear polyubiquitination on lysine 216 regulates the half-life of Gpn3 by tagging it for proteasomal degradation. © 2017 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Tolbutamide affects food ingestion in a manner consistent with its glycemic effects in the rat.

Science.gov (United States)

Vanderweele, D A; Haraczkiewicz, E; Vasselli, J R

1988-01-01

The sulphonylurea tolbutamide possesses the ability to stimulate insulin release, produce hypoglycemia and increase food intake; however, no study has investigated the effects of moderate doses which do not produce frank hypoglycemia. Forty male rats received injections of tolbutamide at 0, 5, 15, 25 or 50 mg/kg body weight. The injections terminated a 2-hr fast and occurred at light offset, insuring a meal. Food intakes were then recorded for two hr following injection. Tolbutamide at 5 and 15 mg doses decreased food intake during the first half-hour or hour, respectively. In parallel experiments, 10 rats were sampled for blood prior to injection of tolbutamide or saline at doses cited above, and again at 10 and 40 min following injection in the absence of food. Plasma was then analyzed for insulin and glucose. Both 5 and 15 mg tolbutamide produced a mild, reliable increase in insulin accompanied by a decrease of 5 to 15 mg/dl in plasma glucose. On the other hand, the 50 mg dose produced a marked increase in insulin and a decrease of approximately 25% in plasma glucose. Thus, the present studies suggest that when endogenous insulin levels are modestly raised by tolbutamide, such that only moderate reductions of circulating glucose were observed, decreases in food intake occur.

Targeted social mobilization in a global manhunt.

Science.gov (United States)

Rutherford, Alex; Cebrian, Manuel; Rahwan, Iyad; Dsouza, Sohan; McInerney, James; Naroditskiy, Victor; Venanzi, Matteo; Jennings, Nicholas R; deLara, J R; Wahlstedt, Eero; Miller, Steven U

2013-01-01

Social mobilization, the ability to mobilize large numbers of people via social networks to achieve highly distributed tasks, has received significant attention in recent times. This growing capability, facilitated by modern communication technology, is highly relevant to endeavors which require the search for individuals that possess rare information or skills, such as finding medical doctors during disasters, or searching for missing people. An open question remains, as to whether in time-critical situations, people are able to recruit in a targeted manner, or whether they resort to so-called blind search, recruiting as many acquaintances as possible via broadcast communication. To explore this question, we examine data from our recent success in the U.S. State Department's Tag Challenge, which required locating and photographing 5 target persons in 5 different cities in the United States and Europe - in under 12 hours - based only on a single mug-shot. We find that people are able to consistently route information in a targeted fashion even under increasing time pressure. We derive an analytical model for social-media fueled global mobilization and use it to quantify the extent to which people were targeting their peers during recruitment. Our model estimates that approximately 1 in 3 messages were of targeted fashion during the most time-sensitive period of the challenge. This is a novel observation at such short temporal scales, and calls for opportunities for devising viral incentive schemes that provide distance or time-sensitive rewards to approach the target geography more rapidly. This observation of '12 hours of separation' between individuals has applications in multiple areas from emergency preparedness, to political mobilization.

Proposal of Evolutionary Simplex Method for Global Optimization Problem

Science.gov (United States)

Shimizu, Yoshiaki

To make an agile decision in a rational manner, role of optimization engineering has been notified increasingly under diversified customer demand. With this point of view, in this paper, we have proposed a new evolutionary method serving as an optimization technique in the paradigm of optimization engineering. The developed method has prospects to solve globally various complicated problem appearing in real world applications. It is evolved from the conventional method known as Nelder and Mead’s Simplex method by virtue of idea borrowed from recent meta-heuristic method such as PSO. Mentioning an algorithm to handle linear inequality constraints effectively, we have validated effectiveness of the proposed method through comparison with other methods using several benchmark problems.

GestuRe and ACtion Exemplar (GRACE) video database: stimuli for research on manners of human locomotion and iconic gestures.

Science.gov (United States)

Aussems, Suzanne; Kwok, Natasha; Kita, Sotaro

2018-06-01

Human locomotion is a fundamental class of events, and manners of locomotion (e.g., how the limbs are used to achieve a change of location) are commonly encoded in language and gesture. To our knowledge, there is no openly accessible database containing normed human locomotion stimuli. Therefore, we introduce the GestuRe and ACtion Exemplar (GRACE) video database, which contains 676 videos of actors performing novel manners of human locomotion (i.e., moving from one location to another in an unusual manner) and videos of a female actor producing iconic gestures that represent these actions. The usefulness of the database was demonstrated across four norming experiments. First, our database contains clear matches and mismatches between iconic gesture videos and action videos. Second, the male actors and female actors whose action videos matched the gestures in the best possible way, perform the same actions in very similar manners and different actions in highly distinct manners. Third, all the actions in the database are distinct from each other. Fourth, adult native English speakers were unable to describe the 26 different actions concisely, indicating that the actions are unusual. This normed stimuli set is useful for experimental psychologists working in the language, gesture, visual perception, categorization, memory, and other related domains.

Internal consistency & validity of Indian Disability Evaluation and Assessment Scale (IDEAS in patients with schizophrenia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandeep Grover

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background & objectives: The Indian Disability Evaluation and Assessment Scale (IDEAS has been recommended for assessment and certification of disability by the Government of India (GOI. However, the psychometric properties of IDEAS as adopted by GOI remain understudied. Our aim, thus, was to study the internal consistency and validity of IDEAS in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: A total of 103 consenting patients with residual schizophrenia were assessed for disability, quality of life (QOL and psychopathology using the IDEAS, WHO QOL-100 and Positive and Negative symptom scale (PANSS respectively. Internal consistency was calculated using Cronbach′s alpha. For construct validity, relations between IDEAS, and psychopathology and QOL were studied. Results: The inter-item correlations for IDEAS were significant with a Cronbach′s alpha of 0.721. All item scores other than score on communication and understanding; total and global IDEAS scores correlated significantly with the positive, negative and general sub-scales, and total PANSS scores. Communication and understanding was significantly related to negative sub-scale score only. Total and global disability scores correlated negatively with all the domains of WHOQOL-100 (ρ<0.01. The individual IDEAS item scores correlated negatively with various WHOQOL-100 domains (ρ0< 0.01. Interpretation & conclusions: This study findings showed that the GOI-modified IDEAS had good internal consistency and construct validity as tested in patients with residual schizophrenia. Similar studies need to be done with other groups of patients.

The Role of Perception in the Typology of Geminate Consonants: Effects of Manner of Articulation, Segmental Environment, Position, and Stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Dmitrieva, Olga

2018-03-01

The present study seeks to answer the question of whether consonant duration is perceived differently across consonants of different manners of articulation and in different contextual environments and whether such differences may be related to the typology of geminates. The results of the cross-linguistic identification experiment suggest higher perceptual acuity in labeling short and long consonants in sonorants than in obstruents. Duration categories were also more consistently and clearly labeled in the intervocalic than in the preconsonantal environment, in the word-initial than in the word-final position, and after stressed vowels than between unstressed vowels. These perceptual asymmetries are in line with some typological tendencies, such as the cross-linguistic preference for intervocalic and post-stress geminates, but contradict other proposed cross-linguistic patterns, such as the preference for obstruent geminates and the abundance of word-final geminates.

Real-time Global Illumination by Simulating Photon Mapping

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Bent Dalgaard

2004-01-01

This thesis introduces a new method for simulating photon mapping in realtime. The method uses a variety of both CPU and GPU based algorithms for speeding up the different elements in global illumination. The idea behind the method is to calculate each illumination element individually in a progr......This thesis introduces a new method for simulating photon mapping in realtime. The method uses a variety of both CPU and GPU based algorithms for speeding up the different elements in global illumination. The idea behind the method is to calculate each illumination element individually...... in a progressive and efficient manner. This has been done by analyzing the photon mapping method and by selecting efficient methods, either CPU based or GPU based, which replaces the original photon mapping algorithms. We have chosen to focus on the indirect illumination and the caustics. In our method we first...... divide the photon map into several photon maps in order to make local updates possible. Then indirect illumination is added using light maps that are selectively updated by using selective photon tracing on the CPU. The final gathering step is calculated by using fragment programs and GPU based...

Assessing historical rate changes in global tsunami occurrence

Science.gov (United States)

Geist, E.L.; Parsons, T.

2011-01-01

The global catalogue of tsunami events is examined to determine if transient variations in tsunami rates are consistent with a Poisson process commonly assumed for tsunami hazard assessments. The primary data analyzed are tsunamis with maximum sizes >1m. The record of these tsunamis appears to be complete since approximately 1890. A secondary data set of tsunamis >0.1m is also analyzed that appears to be complete since approximately 1960. Various kernel density estimates used to determine the rate distribution with time indicate a prominent rate change in global tsunamis during the mid-1990s. Less prominent rate changes occur in the early- and mid-20th century. To determine whether these rate fluctuations are anomalous, the distribution of annual event numbers for the tsunami catalogue is compared to Poisson and negative binomial distributions, the latter of which includes the effects of temporal clustering. Compared to a Poisson distribution, the negative binomial distribution model provides a consistent fit to tsunami event numbers for the >1m data set, but the Poisson null hypothesis cannot be falsified for the shorter duration >0.1m data set. Temporal clustering of tsunami sources is also indicated by the distribution of interevent times for both data sets. Tsunami event clusters consist only of two to four events, in contrast to protracted sequences of earthquakes that make up foreshock-main shock-aftershock sequences. From past studies of seismicity, it is likely that there is a physical triggering mechanism responsible for events within the tsunami source 'mini-clusters'. In conclusion, prominent transient rate increases in the occurrence of global tsunamis appear to be caused by temporal grouping of geographically distinct mini-clusters, in addition to the random preferential location of global M >7 earthquakes along offshore fault zones.

Invisible Light: a global infotainment community based on augmented reality technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Israel, Kai; Wozniak, Peter; Vauderwange, Oliver; Curticapean, Dan

2015-10-01

Theoretical details about optics and photonics are not common knowledge nowadays. Physicists are keen to scientifically explain `light,' which has a huge impact on our lives. It is necessary to examine it from multiple perspectives and to make the knowledge accessible to the public in an interdisciplinary, scientifically well-grounded and appealing medial way. To allow an information exchange on a global scale, our project "Invisible Light" establishes a worldwide accessible platform. Its contents will not be created by a single instance, but user-generated, with the help of the global community. The article describes the infotainment portal "Invisible Light," which stores scientific articles about light and photonics and makes them accessible worldwide. All articles are tagged with geo-coordinates, so they can be clearly identified and localized. A smartphone application is used for visualization, transmitting the information to users in real time by means of an augmented reality application. Scientific information is made accessible for a broad audience and in an attractive manner.

Hunger enhances consistent economic choices in non-human primates.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamada, Hiroshi

2017-05-24

Hunger and thirst are fundamental biological processes that drive consumption behavior in humans and non-human animals. While the existing literature in neuroscience suggests that these satiety states change how consumable rewards are represented in the brain, it remains unclear as to how they change animal choice behavior and the underlying economic preferences. Here, I used combined techniques from experimental economics, psychology, and neuroscience to measure food preferences of marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus), a recently developed primate model for neuroscience. Hunger states of animals were manipulated by scheduling feeding intervals, resulting in three different conditions: sated, non-sated, and hungry. During these hunger states, animals performed pairwise choices of food items, which included all possible pairwise combinations of five different food items except for same-food pairs. Results showed that hunger enhanced economic rationality, evident as a decrease of transitivity violations (item A was preferred to item B, and B to C, but C was preferred to A). Further analysis demonstrated that hungry monkeys chose more-preferred items over less-preferred items in a more deterministic manner, while the individual food preferences appeared to remain stable across hunger states. These results suggest that hunger enhances consistent choice behavior and shifts animals towards efficient outcome maximization.

Astrocytic connexin hemichannels are regulated by PKC phosphorylation in an isoform-specific manner

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

MacAulay, N.; Alstrom, J. S.; Hansen, D. B.

2017-01-01

/activation of PKC and by mutational disruption of the proposed PKC-phosphorylation sites. Cx30 hemichannel activity, in contrast, was down-regulated by PKC activation, in a manner suggesting PKC-mediated channel closure. No single PKC consensus site could be assigned to this regulatory property by mutational...

Communicating global climate change using simple indices: an update

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Drost, Frank; Karoly, David [University of Melbourne, School of Earth Sciences, Melbourne, VIC (Australia); Braganza, Karl [National Climate Centre, Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, VIC (Australia)

2012-08-15

Previous studies have shown that there are several indices of global-scale temperature variations, in addition to global-mean surface air temperature, that are useful for distinguishing natural internal climate variations from anthropogenic climate change. Appropriately defined, such indices have the ability to capture spatio-temporal information in a similar manner to optimal fingerprints of climate change. These indices include the contrast between the average temperatures over land and over oceans, the Northern Hemisphere meridional temperature gradient, the temperature contrast between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and the magnitude of the annual cycle of average temperatures over land. They contain information independent of the global-mean temperature for internal climate variations at decadal time scales and represent different aspects of the climate system, yet they show common responses to anthropogenic climate change. In addition, the ratio of average temperature changes over land to those over the oceans should be nearly constant for transient climate change. Hence, supplementing analysis of global-mean surface temperature with analyses of these indices can strengthen results of attribution studies of causes of observed climate variations. In this study, we extend the previous work by including the last 10 years of observational data and the CMIP3 climate model simulations analysed for the IPCC AR4. We show that observed changes in these indices over the last 10 years provide increased evidence of an anthropogenic influence on climate. We also show the usefulness of these indices for evaluating the performance of climate models in simulating large-scale variability of surface temperature. (orig.)

Consistent model driven architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Niepostyn, Stanisław J.

2015-09-01

The goal of the MDA is to produce software systems from abstract models in a way where human interaction is restricted to a minimum. These abstract models are based on the UML language. However, the semantics of UML models is defined in a natural language. Subsequently the verification of consistency of these diagrams is needed in order to identify errors in requirements at the early stage of the development process. The verification of consistency is difficult due to a semi-formal nature of UML diagrams. We propose automatic verification of consistency of the series of UML diagrams originating from abstract models implemented with our consistency rules. This Consistent Model Driven Architecture approach enables us to generate automatically complete workflow applications from consistent and complete models developed from abstract models (e.g. Business Context Diagram). Therefore, our method can be used to check practicability (feasibility) of software architecture models.

Poverty Mapping Project: Global Subnational Prevalence of Child Malnutrition

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Global Subnational Prevalence of Child Malnutrition dataset consists of estimates of the percentage of children with weight-for-age z-scores that are more than...

The 2008 Global Financial Crisis: The Case of a Market with Consistent Losses Ever Since

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hadeel Yaseen

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Following the 2008 global financial crisis, and in common with many stock markets around the world, the Amman Securities Exchange (ASE experienced some heavy losses. However, what makes the Jordanian market probably different is its inability to recover. The weighted price index fell from 7519.3 points in 2007 to 5520.1 points in 2009, to 4593.9 points in 2012, and to 4336.7 points by the end of 2013 respectively. With a statutory minimum tick which is equal to one pence, this observation has some serious implications to the liquidity cost that prevails in the Jordanian capital market, and the cost of financing listed firms. The primary aim of this research paper is to examine the impact of the stock market crash in Jordan on liquidity cost. Based on a total number of 108 listed stocks and daily data during the years 2007 and 2009, the empirical results indicate that liquidity cost on the Jordanian capital market is high. In addition, the results show that the 2009 stock market crash has led to a substantial increase in liquidity cost. In other words, the market must consider a number of remedial measures to improve its’ operational efficiency.

Herp regulates Hrd1-mediated ubiquitylation in a ubiquitin-like domain-dependent manner

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kny, Melanie; Standera, Sybille; Hartmann-Petersen, Rasmus

2011-01-01

in ER-associated protein degradation (ERAD) and interacts directly with the ubiquitin ligase Hrd1, which is found in high molecular mass complexes of the ER membrane. Here we present the first evidence that Herp regulates Hrd1-mediated ubiquitylation in a ubiquitin-like (UBL) domain-dependent manner. We...

Design and globalization can graphic design in mass communication inspire a global culture?

OpenAIRE

Nguyen, V. (V.); Prebys, C. (C.)

2010-01-01

In this paper I deliver four points which support my assertion that graphic design in mass communication can inspire a global culture informed by Christianity. First, I argue that the environment in which people consistently find themselves will over time influence and affect the interior dispositions of the person, and when occurring in great numbers, the culture. I argue for the importance of graphic design as a vital component in the development of culture and how as visual ...

Nuclear size is sensitive to NTF2 protein levels in a manner dependent on Ran binding

Science.gov (United States)

Vuković, Lidija D.; Jevtić, Predrag; Zhang, Zhaojie; Stohr, Bradley A.; Levy, Daniel L.

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Altered nuclear size is associated with many cancers, and determining whether cancer-associated changes in nuclear size contribute to carcinogenesis necessitates an understanding of mechanisms of nuclear size regulation. Although nuclear import rates generally positively correlate with nuclear size, NTF2 levels negatively affect nuclear size, despite the role of NTF2 (also known as NUTF2) in nuclear recycling of the import factor Ran. We show that binding of Ran to NTF2 is required for NTF2 to inhibit nuclear expansion and import of large cargo molecules in Xenopus laevis egg and embryo extracts, consistent with our observation that NTF2 reduces the diameter of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) in a Ran-binding-dependent manner. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ectopic NTF2 expression in Xenopus embryos and mammalian tissue culture cells alters nuclear size. Finally, we show that increases in nuclear size during melanoma progression correlate with reduced NTF2 expression, and increasing NTF2 levels in melanoma cells is sufficient to reduce nuclear size. These results show a conserved capacity for NTF2 to impact on nuclear size, and we propose that NTF2 might be a new cancer biomarker. PMID:26823604

Book reviews: Marsh David, The EURO – The Politics of the New Global Currency

OpenAIRE

Lazar, Isadora

2011-01-01

The EURO – The Politics of the New Global Currency, written by David Marsh and published in both English and German, is a very thorough chronicle of the birth of the European common currency, from its early days, almost half a century before, and of its development until nowadays and even beyond, as it includes considerations on short term dynamics. David Marsh describes the story of the euro in a very complex manner, through a detailed, comprehensive and up to date analysis of the gathered d...

Consistent constraints on the Standard Model Effective Field Theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berthier, Laure; Trott, Michael

2016-01-01

We develop the global constraint picture in the (linear) effective field theory generalisation of the Standard Model, incorporating data from detectors that operated at PEP, PETRA, TRISTAN, SpS, Tevatron, SLAC, LEPI and LEP II, as well as low energy precision data. We fit one hundred and three observables. We develop a theory error metric for this effective field theory, which is required when constraints on parameters at leading order in the power counting are to be pushed to the percent level, or beyond, unless the cut off scale is assumed to be large, Λ≳ 3 TeV. We more consistently incorporate theoretical errors in this work, avoiding this assumption, and as a direct consequence bounds on some leading parameters are relaxed. We show how an S,T analysis is modified by the theory errors we include as an illustrative example.

Ground-Based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) GLONASS Broadcast Ephemeris Data (hourly files) from NASA CDDIS

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This dataset consists of ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS) Broadcast Ephemeris Data (hourly files)...

The Global Tsunami Model (GTM)

Science.gov (United States)

Lorito, S.; Basili, R.; Harbitz, C. B.; Løvholt, F.; Polet, J.; Thio, H. K.

2017-12-01

The tsunamis occurred worldwide in the last two decades have highlighted the need for a thorough understanding of the risk posed by relatively infrequent but often disastrous tsunamis and the importance of a comprehensive and consistent methodology for quantifying the hazard. In the last few years, several methods for probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis have been developed and applied to different parts of the world. In an effort to coordinate and streamline these activities and make progress towards implementing the Sendai Framework of Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) we have initiated a Global Tsunami Model (GTM) working group with the aim of i) enhancing our understanding of tsunami hazard and risk on a global scale and developing standards and guidelines for it, ii) providing a portfolio of validated tools for probabilistic tsunami hazard and risk assessment at a range of scales, and iii) developing a global tsunami hazard reference model. This GTM initiative has grown out of the tsunami component of the Global Assessment of Risk (GAR15), which has resulted in an initial global model of probabilistic tsunami hazard and risk. Started as an informal gathering of scientists interested in advancing tsunami hazard analysis, the GTM is currently in the process of being formalized through letters of interest from participating institutions. The initiative has now been endorsed by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the World Bank's Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). We will provide an update on the state of the project and the overall technical framework, and discuss the technical issues that are currently being addressed, including earthquake source recurrence models, the use of aleatory variability and epistemic uncertainty, and preliminary results for a probabilistic global hazard assessment, which is an update of the model included in UNISDR GAR15.

The Idea of a Socially Responsible Global Citizen and its Ethical and Philosophical Basis

OpenAIRE

Isao, Takagi

2012-01-01

An idea of a socially responsible global citizen is required to the emerging global community in order to make it with diversity, sustainability, prosperity, equity and justice. The ethical basis and qualities of a socially responsible global citizen could be provided through introducing some ideas and philosophy consisting of responsible well-being by R. Chambers and philosophy of value creation, global citizenship and creative coexistence by D. Ikeda. Ultimately a comprehensive framework fo...

Knowledge capabilities for sustainable development in global classrooms - local challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elise Anderberg

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The Young Masters Programme provides young people around the worldwith a net–based global–local learning environment for sustainable development. The present study investigates certain aspects of the implementation of this programme in the secondary schools of a Swedish municipality, in the context of the Lund Calling project. The research focuses on critical abilities to act globally, referred to as “knowledge capabilities”, and how they relate to the implementation process of initiating global learning for sustainabledevelopment (GLSD. A phenomenographic approach and semi–structuredinterviews were used in the investigation of the experiences of secondary school pupils, teachers and headmasters who participated in the project. Participants’ experiences of the changes carried out are described in relation to examples of knowledge capabilities needed for GLSD. Critical knowledge capabilities found to have been developed through the implementation were: to take command, and to collaborate. Critical knowledge capabilities perceived asnecessary, but not developed through the programme were: to be prepared, to act in a transdisciplinary manner, and to lead for a holistic understanding.

Extended global symmetries of the bosonic string. Their current algebra and anomalies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piguet, O.; Schwarz, D.; Schweda, M.

1990-01-01

The quantization of the bosonic string is discussed in a class of general homogeneous gauges. The corresponding bosonic string model may be characterized effectively by three global symmetries: the linearized BRS symmetry, the ghost-number symmetry, and the Lagrange-multiplier-field symmetry. In order to discuss the possible gauge (in)dependence of Noether currents and anomalies consistently, we enlarge these rigid symmetries to extended ones. In addition we construct the local version of the above global symmetries in a systematic way, by introducing appropriate external gauge fields. The possible anomalies are analysed with the help of Wess-Zumino consistency relations. (orig.)

Health promotion in globalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Álvaro Franco-Giraldo

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Objective: to unravel some theoretical and factual elements required to implement more effective health promotion strategies and practices in the field of health services whilst following the great challenges that globalization has imposed on the health systems, which are inevitably expressed in the local context (glocalization. Methodology: a narrative review taking into account the concepts of globalization and health promotion in relation to health determinants. The authors approach some courses of action and strategies for health promotion based on the social principles and universal values that guide health promotion, health service reorientation and primary healthcare, empowerment, social participation, and inter-sectoral and social mobilization. Discussion: the discussion focuses on the redirection of health promotion services in relation to the wave of health reforms that has spread throughout the world under the neoliberal rule. The author also discusses health promotion, its ineffectiveness, and the quest for renewal. Likewise, the author sets priorities for health promotion in relation to social determinants. Conclusion: the current global order, in terms of international relations, is not consistent with the ethical principles of health promotion. In this paper, the author advocates for the implementation of actions to change the social and physical life conditions of people based on changes in the use of power in society and the appropriate practice of politics in the context of globalization in order to achieve the effectiveness of the actions of health promotion.

Nuclear energy - a green energy solution to global warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malhotra, S.K.

2013-01-01

The manner in which the world has conducted itself in exploiting energy resources so far particularly in the post industrial revolution period, is now looming as one of the greatest challenges to the sustainability of development or even sustainability of life. Global climate change is no more a perceived threat, it is now a reality and we are not in a position to engage ourselves to debate on the issue. It is in fact a little late in taking the right corrective action if we have any concern for our future generations. The efforts of the scientists and engineers are to gradually replace the energy from burning of carbonaceous material to clean and intense source of energy i.e. nuclear fission and fusion

Navigating Between Stealth Advocacy and Unconscious Dogmatism: The Challenge of Researching the Norms, Politics and Power of Global Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Ooms, Gorik

2015-06-16

Global health research is essentially a normative undertaking: we use it to propose policies that ought to be implemented. To arrive at a normative conclusion in a logical way requires at least one normative premise, one that cannot be derived from empirical evidence alone. But there is no widely accepted normative premise for global health, and the actors with the power to set policies may use a different normative premise than the scholars that propose policies - which may explain the 'implementation gap' in global health. If global health scholars shy away from the normative debate - because it requires normative premises that cannot be derived from empirical evidence alone - they not only mislead each other, they also prevent and stymie debate on the role of the powerhouses of global health, their normative premises, and the rights and wrongs of these premises. The humanities and social sciences are better equipped - and less reluctant - to approach the normative debate in a scientifically valid manner, and ought to be better integrated in the interdisciplinary research that global health research is, or should be. © 2015 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

POSTMODERNITY AND GLOBALIZATION IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD - BRIEF THEOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON HUMANS AND RELIGION -

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stelian MANOLACHE

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Nowadays-world is under the sign of the triadic concept of globality, globalization and postmodernity. While the first concept refers to an entire system of socio-political and ethical-theoretical relations, which, in their dynamism, lead to the appearance of new knowledge, globalization is the practical phenomenon of manifestation of the relations inside the globaliy, aiming for the economic and utilitarian domain. The domain of the practical globalization is moved by the mechanism of the new informatics technological revolutions, stimulating the production and the consumption, by cohabitating in its civilizational demarche, questioning al the former historical stages, through the encouragement of the perfidious triad of Profit, Consumption and Entertainment a show. In this context, the world tends to shape as a global universal village (Marshall McLuhan, continuously celebrating, in a climate of moral and metaphysical incertitude, with a flatten and flattening consciousness, not interested, even abandoning, in the spiritual values, proposing and launching in the first rows only the utilitarian-values (Dumitru Popescu, 2005. We discuss in the present study this real utopia of horrors (Joseph Ratzinger, 2005, with continuously moving ideas, where the most radical and profound mutation is on the ontological level, the man and the religion being reduced in a nihilist manner to the stage of object merchandise value.

Global Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Mercury's Magnetosphere

Science.gov (United States)

Schriver, D.; Travnicek, P. M.; Lapenta, G.; Amaya, J.; Gonzalez, D.; Richard, R. L.; Berchem, J.; Hellinger, P.

2017-12-01

Spacecraft observations of Mercury's magnetosphere have shown that kinetic ion and electron particle effects play a major role in the transport, acceleration, and loss of plasma within the magnetospheric system. Kinetic processes include reconnection, the breakdown of particle adiabaticity and wave-particle interactions. Because of the vast range in spatial scales involved in magnetospheric dynamics, from local electron Debye length scales ( meters) to solar wind/planetary magnetic scale lengths (tens to hundreds of planetary radii), fully self-consistent kinetic simulations of a global planetary magnetosphere remain challenging. Most global simulations of Earth's and other planet's magnetosphere are carried out using MHD, enhanced MHD (e.g., Hall MHD), hybrid, or a combination of MHD and particle in cell (PIC) simulations. Here, 3D kinetic self-consistent hybrid (ion particle, electron fluid) and full PIC (ion and electron particle) simulations of the solar wind interaction with Mercury's magnetosphere are carried out. Using the implicit PIC and hybrid simulations, Mercury's relatively small, but highly kinetic magnetosphere will be examined to determine how the self-consistent inclusion of electrons affects magnetic reconnection, particle transport and acceleration of plasma at Mercury. Also the spatial and energy profiles of precipitating magnetospheric ions and electrons onto Mercury's surface, which can strongly affect the regolith in terms of space weathering and particle outflow, will be examined with the PIC and hybrid codes. MESSENGER spacecraft observations are used both to initiate and validate the global kinetic simulations to achieve a deeper understanding of the role kinetic physics play in magnetospheric dynamics.

Global Health after Pentecost: Toward Theological Reflection as a Religious Health Asset

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matthew T Bersagel Braley

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This article examines the recent turn on the part of global health leaders to Christian communities as allies in the response to the HIV pandemic. A cursory survey of this turn highlights how global health leaders have used the language of religious health assets to revalue the activities of faith-based organizations, including Christian churches. In this way, religious health assets — tangible and intangible — become valuable if they can be rendered intelligible and appreciated using the existing lexicon and logic of global health. As a result, the primary activity of religious entities in partnerships with global health institutions is limited to conforming their practices to the best practices of HIV programs. But a closer examination of this revaluation reveals how it obscures a distinctive dimension of Christian participation, namely, critical theological reflection. The current turn to religion as a global health ally presents an opportunity to reimagine the spaces in which complex social phenomena are described, interpreted, and responded to. Christians live into the role of co-participants in these spaces when they seek to develop a greater competence for engaging the complex arena of global health policy and programming. This competence emerges from demonstrating understanding of the empirical context in which global health is carried out as well as showing in an imaginative and compelling manner how the theological resources from their own tradition illumine the patterns and processes of human suffering. We have a unique presence and reach within communities. We have unique structures and programmes that are already in place. We are available. We are reliable. And we are sustainable. We were there long before AIDS came and we will still be there when AIDS goes away. Rev. Canon Gideon Byamugisha1

Global Optimization Employing Gaussian Process-Based Bayesian Surrogates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roland Preuss

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The simulation of complex physics models may lead to enormous computer running times. Since the simulations are expensive it is necessary to exploit the computational budget in the best possible manner. If for a few input parameter settings an output data set has been acquired, one could be interested in taking these data as a basis for finding an extremum and possibly an input parameter set for further computer simulations to determine it—a task which belongs to the realm of global optimization. Within the Bayesian framework we utilize Gaussian processes for the creation of a surrogate model function adjusted self-consistently via hyperparameters to represent the data. Although the probability distribution of the hyperparameters may be widely spread over phase space, we make the assumption that only the use of their expectation values is sufficient. While this shortcut facilitates a quickly accessible surrogate, it is somewhat justified by the fact that we are not interested in a full representation of the model by the surrogate but to reveal its maximum. To accomplish this the surrogate is fed to a utility function whose extremum determines the new parameter set for the next data point to obtain. Moreover, we propose to alternate between two utility functions—expected improvement and maximum variance—in order to avoid the drawbacks of each. Subsequent data points are drawn from the model function until the procedure either remains in the points found or the surrogate model does not change with the iteration. The procedure is applied to mock data in one and two dimensions in order to demonstrate proof of principle of the proposed approach.

Regional or global WEEE recycling. Where to go?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Jinhui; Lopez N, Brenda N.; Liu, Lili; Zhao, Nana; Yu, Keli; Zheng, Lixia

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Source and Destination countries involved in the movement of WEEE have been studied. ► Legislation, facilities and EPR are presented in Source and Destination countries. ► Mostly Destination countries do not have EPR established and have informal facilities. ► Source countries: good technology, EPR established and mostly WEEE regulation enacted. ► Regional WEEE recycling should be under global standards for Sources and Destinations. - Abstract: If we consider Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management, we can see the development of different positions in developed and developing countries. This development started with the movement of WEEE from developed countries to the developing countries. However, when the consequences for health and the environment were observed, some developing countries introduced a ban on the import of this kind of waste under the umbrella of the Basel Convention, while some developed countries have been considering a regional or global WEEE recycling approach. This paper explores the current movements between Source and Destination countries, or the importers and exporters, and examines whether it is legal and why illegal traffic is still rife; how global initiatives could support a global WEEE management scheme; the recycling characteristics of the source an destination countries and also to ascertain whether the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has been established between the different stakeholders involved in WEEE management. Ultimately, the Full Extended Producer Responsibility is presented as a possible solution because the compensation of the environmental capacity for WEEE recycling or treatment could be made by the contribution of extra responsibility; and also generating an uniform standard for processing WEEE in an environmentally sound manner could support the regional or international solution of WEEE and also improve the performance of the informal sector

Management of Global Nuclear Materials for International Security

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isaacs, T; Choi, J-S

2003-01-01

Nuclear materials were first used to end the World War II. They were produced and maintained during the cold war for global security reasons. In the succeeding 50 years since the Atoms for Peace Initiative, nuclear materials were produced and used in global civilian reactors and fuel cycles intended for peaceful purposes. The Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970 established a framework for appropriate applications of both defense and civilian nuclear activities by nuclear weapons states and non-nuclear weapons states. As global inventories of nuclear materials continue to grow, in a diverse and dynamically changing manner, it is time to evaluate current and future trends and needed actions: what are the current circumstances, what has been done to date, what has worked and what hasn't? The aim is to identify mutually reinforcing programmatic directions, leading to global partnerships that measurably enhance international security. Essential elements are material protection, control and accountability (MPC and A) of separated nuclear materials, interim storage, and geologic repositories for all nuclear materials destined for final disposal. Cooperation among key partners, such as the MPC and A program between the U.S. and Russia for nuclear materials from dismantled weapons, is necessary for interim storage and final disposal of nuclear materials. Such cooperative partnerships can lead to a new nuclear regime where a complete fuel cycle service with fuel leasing and spent fuel take-back can be offered to reactor users. The service can effectively minimize or even eliminate the incentive or rationale for the user-countries to develop their indigenous enrichment and reprocessing technologies. International cooperation, supported by governments of key countries can be best to facilitate the forum for formation of such cooperative partnerships

The analysis of space-time structure in QCD vacuum, I: localization vs global behavior in local observables and Dirac eigenmodes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horvath, Ivan

2005-01-01

The structure of QCD vacuum can be studied from first principles using lattice-regularized theory. This line of research entered a qualitatively new phase recently, wherein the space-time structure (at least for some quantities) can be directly observed in configurations dominating the QCD path integral, i.e., without any subjective processing of typical configurations. This approach to QCD vacuum structure does not rely on any proposed picture of QCD vacuum but rather attempts to characterize this structure in a model-independent manner, so that a coherent physical picture of the vacuum can emerge when such unbiased numerical information accumulates to a sufficient degree. An important part of this program is to develop a set of suitable quantitative characteristics describing the space-time structure in a meaningful and physically relevant manner. One of the basic pertinent issues here is whether QCD vacuum dynamics can be understood in terms of localized vacuum objects, or whether such objects behave as inherently global entities. The first direct studies of vacuum structure strongly support the latter. In this paper, we develop a formal framework which allows to answer this question in a quantitative manner. We discuss in detail how to apply this approach to Dirac eigenmodes and to basic scalar and pseudoscalar composites of gauge fields (action density and topological charge density). The approach is illustrated numerically on overlap Dirac zero modes and near-zero modes. This illustrative data provides direct quantitative evidence supporting our earlier arguments for the global nature of QCD Dirac eigenmodes

Justifying quasiparticle self-consistent schemes via gradient optimization in Baym-Kadanoff theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Ismail-Beigi, Sohrab

2017-09-27

The question of which non-interacting Green's function 'best' describes an interacting many-body electronic system is both of fundamental interest as well as of practical importance in describing electronic properties of materials in a realistic manner. Here, we study this question within the framework of Baym-Kadanoff theory, an approach where one locates the stationary point of a total energy functional of the one-particle Green's function in order to find the total ground-state energy as well as all one-particle properties such as the density matrix, chemical potential, or the quasiparticle energy spectrum and quasiparticle wave functions. For the case of the Klein functional, our basic finding is that minimizing the length of the gradient of the total energy functional over non-interacting Green's functions yields a set of self-consistent equations for quasiparticles that is identical to those of the quasiparticle self-consistent GW (QSGW) (van Schilfgaarde et al 2006 Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 226402-4) approach, thereby providing an a priori justification for such an approach to electronic structure calculations. In fact, this result is general, applies to any self-energy operator, and is not restricted to any particular approximation, e.g., the GW approximation for the self-energy. The approach also shows that, when working in the basis of quasiparticle states, solving the diagonal part of the self-consistent Dyson equation is of primary importance while the off-diagonals are of secondary importance, a common observation in the electronic structure literature of self-energy calculations. Finally, numerical tests and analytical arguments show that when the Dyson equation produces multiple quasiparticle solutions corresponding to a single non-interacting state, minimizing the length of the gradient translates into choosing the solution with largest quasiparticle weight.

Global anomalies in chiral gauge theories on the lattice

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baer, O.; Campos, I.

2000-01-01

We discuss the issue of global anomalies in chiral gauge theories on the lattice. In Luescher's approach, these obstructions make it impossible to define consistently a fermionic measure for the path integral. We show that an SU(2) theory has such a global anomaly if the Weyl fermion is in the fundamental representation. The anomaly in higher representations is also discussed. We finally show that this obstruction is the lattice analogue of the SU(2) anomaly first discovered by Witten. (orig.)

Global assessment of urban and peri-urban agriculture: irrigated and rainfed croplands

Science.gov (United States)

Thebo, A. L.; Drechsel, P.; Lambin, E. F.

2014-11-01

The role of urban agriculture in global food security is a topic of increasing discussion. Existing research on urban and peri-urban agriculture consists largely of case studies that frequently use disparate definitions of urban and peri-urban agriculture depending on the local context and study objectives. This lack of consistency makes quantification of the extent of this practice at the global scale difficult. This study instead integrates global data on croplands and urban extents using spatial overlay analysis to estimate the global area of urban and peri-urban irrigated and rainfed croplands. The global area of urban irrigated croplands was estimated at about 24 Mha (11.0 percent of all irrigated croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.48. The global area of urban rainfed croplands found was approximately 44 Mha (4.7 percent of all rainfed croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.03. These values were derived from the MIRCA2000 Maximum Monthly Cropped Area Grids for irrigated and rainfed crops and therefore their sum does not necessarily represent the total urban cropland area when the maximum extent of irrigated and rainfed croplands occurs in different months. Further analysis of croplands within 20 km of urban extents show that 60 and 35 percent of, respectively, all irrigated and rainfed croplands fall within this distance range.

Global assessment of urban and peri-urban agriculture: irrigated and rainfed croplands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Thebo, A L; Drechsel, P; Lambin, E F

2014-01-01

The role of urban agriculture in global food security is a topic of increasing discussion. Existing research on urban and peri-urban agriculture consists largely of case studies that frequently use disparate definitions of urban and peri-urban agriculture depending on the local context and study objectives. This lack of consistency makes quantification of the extent of this practice at the global scale difficult. This study instead integrates global data on croplands and urban extents using spatial overlay analysis to estimate the global area of urban and peri-urban irrigated and rainfed croplands. The global area of urban irrigated croplands was estimated at about 24 Mha (11.0 percent of all irrigated croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.48. The global area of urban rainfed croplands found was approximately 44 Mha (4.7 percent of all rainfed croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.03. These values were derived from the MIRCA2000 Maximum Monthly Cropped Area Grids for irrigated and rainfed crops and therefore their sum does not necessarily represent the total urban cropland area when the maximum extent of irrigated and rainfed croplands occurs in different months. Further analysis of croplands within 20 km of urban extents show that 60 and 35 percent of, respectively, all irrigated and rainfed croplands fall within this distance range. (letter)

Nucleoside analogues are activated by bacterial deoxyribonucleoside kinases in a species-specific manner

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sandrini, Michael; Clausen, Anders; On, Stephen L. W.

2007-01-01

To investigate the bactericidal activity of antiviral and anticancer nucleoside analogues against a variety of pathogenic bacteria and characterize the activating enzymes, deoxyribonucleoside kinases (dNKs). Several FDA-approved nucleoside analogue drugs were screened for their potential bacteric......-specific manner. Therefore, nucleoside analogues have a potential to be employed as antibiotics in the fight against emerging multiresistant bacteria....

40 CFR 141.203 - Tier 2 Public Notice-Form, manner, and frequency of notice.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Tier 2 Public Notice-Form, manner, and frequency of notice. 141.203 Section 141.203 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY...., house renters, apartment dwellers, university students, nursing home patients, prison inmates, etc...

40 CFR 141.204 - Tier 3 Public Notice-Form, manner, and frequency of notice.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Tier 3 Public Notice-Form, manner, and frequency of notice. 141.204 Section 141.204 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY...., house renters, apartment dwellers, university students, nursing home patients, prison inmates, etc...

The credibility challenge for global fluvial flood risk analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trigg, M.A.; Birch, C.E.; Neal, J.C.; Bates, P.D.; Smith, A.; Sampson, C.C.; Yamazaki, D.; Hirabayashi, Y.; Pappenberger, F.; Dutra, E.; Ward, P.J.; Winsemius, H.C.; Salamon, P.; Dottori, F.; Rudari, R.; Kappes, M.S.; Simpson, A.L.; Hadzilacos, G.; Fewtrell, T.J.

2016-01-01

Quantifying flood hazard is an essential component of resilience planning, emergency response, and mitigation, including insurance. Traditionally undertaken at catchment and national scales, recently, efforts have intensified to estimate flood risk globally to better allow consistent and equitable

Global sensitivity analysis by polynomial dimensional decomposition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rahman, Sharif, E-mail: rahman@engineering.uiowa.ed [College of Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242 (United States)

2011-07-15

This paper presents a polynomial dimensional decomposition (PDD) method for global sensitivity analysis of stochastic systems subject to independent random input following arbitrary probability distributions. The method involves Fourier-polynomial expansions of lower-variate component functions of a stochastic response by measure-consistent orthonormal polynomial bases, analytical formulae for calculating the global sensitivity indices in terms of the expansion coefficients, and dimension-reduction integration for estimating the expansion coefficients. Due to identical dimensional structures of PDD and analysis-of-variance decomposition, the proposed method facilitates simple and direct calculation of the global sensitivity indices. Numerical results of the global sensitivity indices computed for smooth systems reveal significantly higher convergence rates of the PDD approximation than those from existing methods, including polynomial chaos expansion, random balance design, state-dependent parameter, improved Sobol's method, and sampling-based methods. However, for non-smooth functions, the convergence properties of the PDD solution deteriorate to a great extent, warranting further improvements. The computational complexity of the PDD method is polynomial, as opposed to exponential, thereby alleviating the curse of dimensionality to some extent.

Economy of education: National and global aspects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oksana Ishchenko-Padukova

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Our paper focuses on the national economy of education. We assume that under the current conditions of the globalized world, the economy of education reveals its two-fold nature: on the one hand, it represents an element of the national economic system, and on the other, it is also a structural component of the global education system. Therefore, national economy of education is shaped up by both internal and external factors represented by national and international influences. We analyze here the functional composition and the methods of legal regulation of the economy of education under the conditions and provisions of the global geopolitical transformations. In addition, we use the empirical model of returns to education for showing the factors that impact the employability of young graduates at the labor market. Our results confirm the importance of education for achieving higher levels of income, both nationally and internationally. Finally, we come to the conclusion that its target function consists of the global promotion of national education and consolidation of national competitive position within the world education space.

An innovative nuclear reactor as a solution to global warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, Robson Silva da; Sefidvash, Farhang

2007-01-01

The problem of global warming is no longer a philosophical discussion, but it is a fact seriously threatening the future of humanity. In this paper a practical solution to the problem of global warming resulting from the fossil fuelled energy suppliers is presented. The energy conservation and alternative forms of energy such as solar, wind, and bio even though having important roles, do not satisfy the energy demand generated by an increasing world population that desires to increase its standard of living. The fission process in the nuclear reactors does not produce greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The new paradigm in nuclear energy is the future innovative reactors that meet the new standards set by the INPRO Program of the IAEA. One such a reactor is presented in this paper, namely the Fixed Bed Nuclear Reactor (FBNR) that is supported by the International Atomic Energy (IAEA) in its program of Small Reactors Without On-Site Refuelling (SRWOSR), being one of the four water cooled reactors in this program. The other three reactor concepts are PFPWR50 of Japan, BWRPB of Russia and AFPR-100 of USA. It is shown that the nuclear energy of the future is totally different than what is today in respect to safety, economics, environmental impact and proliferation. In this manner, the public perception of nuclear energy will change and its acceptability is promoted. (author)

The use of ‘macro’ legal analysis in the understanding and development of global environmental governance

OpenAIRE

Turner, Stephen J.

2017-01-01

This article examines the manner in which ‘macro’ legal analysis can potentially assist in overcoming some of the issues that are faced in the understanding and development of global environmental governance (GEG). It argues that the analysis of law through separate and distinct disciplines such as environmental law, trade law, corporate law, and human rights law, results in what this article refers to as ‘micro’ legal analysis. As such, it contends that this can have the effect of creating o...

TECHNOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

А. Кozlova

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The article highlights the factors influencing agricultural production towards global market. The study consists basic fundamental imperatives of globalization on the agricultural sector in international economic relations. The article analyzes the strategic priorities of the international agricultural sector, which includes financial and credit support, legal aspects, processes and integration of organizational structures. Technological imperatives require a large structural and institutional turn in the Ukrainian economy on the basis of current trends in the global economy, scientific and technical potential. There is a growing importance of organizing and conducting international level in the field of technological forecasting. This type of prediction is considered as backbone component in strategic forecasting and economic development programming.

Evidence of a global magma ocean in Io's interior.

Science.gov (United States)

Khurana, Krishan K; Jia, Xianzhe; Kivelson, Margaret G; Nimmo, Francis; Schubert, Gerald; Russell, Christopher T

2011-06-03

Extensive volcanism and high-temperature lavas hint at a global magma reservoir in Io, but no direct evidence has been available. We exploited Jupiter's rotating magnetic field as a sounding signal and show that the magnetometer data collected by the Galileo spacecraft near Io provide evidence of electromagnetic induction from a global conducting layer. We demonstrate that a completely solid mantle provides insufficient response to explain the magnetometer observations, but a global subsurface magma layer with a thickness of over 50 kilometers and a rock melt fraction of 20% or more is fully consistent with the observations. We also place a stronger upper limit of about 110 nanoteslas (surface equatorial field) on the dynamo dipolar field generated inside Io.

Orthogonal stack of global tide gauge sea level data

Science.gov (United States)

Trupin, A.; Wahr, J.

1990-01-01

Yearly and monthly tide gauge sea level data from around the globe are fitted to numerically generated equilibrium tidal data to search for the 18.6 year lunar tide and 14 month pole tide. Both tides are clearly evident in the results, and their amplitudes and phases are found to be consistent with a global equilibrium response. Global, monthly sea level data from outside the Baltic sea and Gulf of Bothnia are fitted to global atmospheric pressure data to study the response of the ocean to pressure fluctuations. The response is found to be inverted barometer at periods greater than two months. Global averages of tide gauge data, after correcting for the effects of post glacial rebound on individual station records, reveal an increase in sea level over the last 80 years of between 1.1 mm/yr and 1.9 mm/yr.

Global F-theory GUTs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blumenhagen, Ralph; /Munich, Max Planck Inst.; Grimm, Thomas W.; /Bonn U.; Jurke, Benjamin; /Munich, Max Planck Inst.; Weigand, Timo; /SLAC

2010-08-26

We construct global F-theory GUT models on del Pezzo surfaces in compact Calabi-Yau fourfolds realized as complete intersections of two hypersurface constraints. The intersections of the GUT brane and the flavour branes as well as the gauge flux are described by the spectral cover construction. We consider a split S[U(4) x U(1){sub X}] spectral cover, which allows for the phenomenologically relevant Yukawa couplings and GUT breaking to the MSSM via hypercharge flux while preventing dimension-4 proton decay. General expressions for the massless spectrum, consistency conditions and a new method for the computation of curvature-induced tadpoles are presented. We also provide a geometric toolkit for further model searches in the framework of toric geometry. Finally, an explicit global model with three chiral generations and all required Yukawa couplings is defined on a Calabi-Yau fourfold which is fibered over the del Pezzo transition of the Fano threefold P{sup 4}.

Global F-theory GUTs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blumenhagen, Ralph; Grimm, Thomas W.; Jurke, Benjamin; Weigand, Timo

2010-01-01

We construct global F-theory GUT models on del Pezzo surfaces in compact Calabi-Yau fourfolds realized as complete intersections of two hypersurface constraints. The intersections of the GUT brane and the flavour branes as well as the gauge flux are described by the spectral cover construction. We consider a split S[U(4)xU(1) X ] spectral cover, which allows for the phenomenologically relevant Yukawa couplings and GUT breaking to the MSSM via hypercharge flux while preventing dimension-4 proton decay. General expressions for the massless spectrum, consistency conditions and a new method for the computation of curvature-induced tadpoles are presented. We also provide a geometric toolkit for further model searches in the framework of toric geometry. Finally, an explicit global model with three chiral generations and all required Yukawa couplings is defined on a Calabi-Yau fourfold which is fibered over the del Pezzo transition of the Fano threefold P 4 [4].

Measuring process and knowledge consistency

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Edwards, Kasper; Jensen, Klaes Ladeby; Haug, Anders

2007-01-01

When implementing configuration systems, knowledge about products and processes are documented and replicated in the configuration system. This practice assumes that products are specified consistently i.e. on the same rule base and likewise for processes. However, consistency cannot be taken...... for granted; rather the contrary, and attempting to implement a configuration system may easily ignite a political battle. This is because stakes are high in the sense that the rules and processes chosen may only reflect one part of the practice, ignoring a majority of the employees. To avoid this situation......, this paper presents a methodology for measuring product and process consistency prior to implementing a configuration system. The methodology consists of two parts: 1) measuring knowledge consistency and 2) measuring process consistency. Knowledge consistency is measured by developing a questionnaire...

Bitcoin Meets Strong Consistency

OpenAIRE

Decker, Christian; Seidel, Jochen; Wattenhofer, Roger

2014-01-01

The Bitcoin system only provides eventual consistency. For everyday life, the time to confirm a Bitcoin transaction is prohibitively slow. In this paper we propose a new system, built on the Bitcoin blockchain, which enables strong consistency. Our system, PeerCensus, acts as a certification authority, manages peer identities in a peer-to-peer network, and ultimately enhances Bitcoin and similar systems with strong consistency. Our extensive analysis shows that PeerCensus is in a secure state...

Protective Effects of Sodium (±-5-Bromo-2-(α-Hydroxypentyl Benzoate in a Rodent Model of Global Cerebral Ischemia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuan Gao

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of the current study was to explore the protective effects of sodium (±-5-bromo-2-(α-hydroxypentyl benzoate (brand name: brozopine, BZP in a rat model of global cerebral ischemia. The rat model was established using a modified Winocur’s method; close postoperative observation was conducted at all times. Neurological function was detected through prehensile traction and beam-walking test. BZP reduced mortality and prolonged the survival time of rats with global cerebral ischemia, within 24 h. There was a decreased survival rate (60% in the Model group, while the survival rate of the BZP (3 and 12 mg/kg remarkably increased the survival rate (to 80 and 90%, respectively, in a dose-dependent manner. Compared with the Model group (survival time: 18.50 h, the administration of BZP (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg prolonged the survival time (to 20.38, 21.85, and 23.90 h, respectively, particularly in BZP 12 mg/kg group (P < 0.05. Additionally, the BZP (12 mg/kg group exhibited an improvement in their motor function (P < 0.05. The BZP groups (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg displayed significantly reduced necrosis and the percentage of apoptotic cells (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01, respectively. Compared with Model group, BZP (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg increased the NeuN optical density values (P < 0.01. Rats with global ischemia had a high expression of Cyt-c, caspase-3, and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio compared with sham group (P < 0.01. BZP (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg, however, reduced the expression of Cyt-c, caspase-3, and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.01. There was low expression of p-Akt and PI3K in Model group, compared with the sham group (P < 0.01. Meanwhile, BZP (0.75, 3, and 12 mg/kg increased the expression of p-Akt and PI3K in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.01. We also found the expression of Cyt-c, caspase-3, Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, PI3K, p-Akt, and comprehensive score were directly related. In conclusion, BZP had therapeutic potential and prevented

GlobalSoilMap and Global Carbon Predictions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hempel, Jonathan; McBratney, Alex B.; Arrouays, Dominique

consistently produced soil property information at 100 m resolution across the world. This information will aid in solving some of the key environment and societal issues of the day, including food security, global climate change land degradation and carbon sequestration. Data would be produced using mostly...... the storehouse of existing legacy soils data along with geographic information and a range of covariates. A range of modeling techniques is used dependant on the complexity of the background soil survey information. The key soil properties that would be most useful to the modeling community and other users are...... of soil property values throughout the depth of each profile. Maps have been produced at the country level in the Australia, Canada, Denmark, Nigeria, South Korea and the US and work is on-going in many other parts of the world....

Winning the War of Ideas in the Global War on Terrorism

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Freeman, Thomas

2004-01-01

.... The 4-D strategic concept consists of: defeating terrorist organizations of global reach denying them sponsorship/support/sanctuary diminishing the underlying conditions for terrorism and defending U.S...

Global and local aspects of causality in quantum mechanics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stoica Cristinel

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Quantum mechanics forces us to reconsider certain aspects of classical causality. The ‘central mystery’ of quantum mechanics manifests in different ways, depending on the interpretation. This mystery can be formulated as the possibility of selecting part of the initial conditions of the Universe ‘retroactively’. This talk aims to show that there is a global, timeless, ‘bird’s view’ of the spacetime, which makes this mystery more reasonable. We will review some well-known quantum effects from the perspective of global consistency.

The Consistent Kinetics Porosity (CKP) Model: A Theory for the Mechanical Behavior of Moderately Porous Solids

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

BRANNON,REBECCA M.

2000-11-01

A theory is developed for the response of moderately porous solids (no more than {approximately}20% void space) to high-strain-rate deformations. The model is consistent because each feature is incorporated in a manner that is mathematically compatible with the other features. Unlike simple p-{alpha} models, the onset of pore collapse depends on the amount of shear present. The user-specifiable yield function depends on pressure, effective shear stress, and porosity. The elastic part of the strain rate is linearly related to the stress rate, with nonlinear corrections from changes in the elastic moduli due to pore collapse. Plastically incompressible flow of the matrix material allows pore collapse and an associated macroscopic plastic volume change. The plastic strain rate due to pore collapse/growth is taken normal to the yield surface. If phase transformation and/or pore nucleation are simultaneously occurring, the inelastic strain rate will be non-normal to the yield surface. To permit hardening, the yield stress of matrix material is treated as an internal state variable. Changes in porosity and matrix yield stress naturally cause the yield surface to evolve. The stress, porosity, and all other state variables vary in a consistent manner so that the stress remains on the yield surface throughout any quasistatic interval of plastic deformation. Dynamic loading allows the stress to exceed the yield surface via an overstress ordinary differential equation that is solved in closed form for better numerical accuracy. The part of the stress rate that causes no plastic work (i.e-, the part that has a zero inner product with the stress deviator and the identity tensor) is given by the projection of the elastic stressrate orthogonal to the span of the stress deviator and the identity tensor.The model, which has been numerically implemented in MIG format, has been exercised under a wide array of extremal loading and unloading paths. As will be discussed in a companion

Global characterization of surface soil moisture drydowns

Science.gov (United States)

McColl, Kaighin A.; Wang, Wei; Peng, Bin; Akbar, Ruzbeh; Short Gianotti, Daniel J.; Lu, Hui; Pan, Ming; Entekhabi, Dara

2017-04-01

Loss terms in the land water budget (including drainage, runoff, and evapotranspiration) are encoded in the shape of soil moisture "drydowns": the soil moisture time series directly following a precipitation event, during which the infiltration input is zero. The rate at which drydowns occur—here characterized by the exponential decay time scale τ—is directly related to the shape of the loss function and is a key characteristic of global weather and climate models. In this study, we use 1 year of surface soil moisture observations from NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive mission to characterize τ globally. Consistent with physical reasoning, the observations show that τ is lower in regions with sandier soils, and in regions that are more arid. To our knowledge, these are the first global estimates of τ—based on observations alone—at scales relevant to weather and climate models.

A consistency assessment of coupled cohesive zone models for mixed-mode debonding problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. Dimitri

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Due to their simplicity, cohesive zone models (CZMs are very attractive to describe mixed-mode failure and debonding processes of materials and interfaces. Although a large number of coupled CZMs have been proposed, and despite the extensive related literature, little attention has been devoted to ensuring the consistency of these models for mixed-mode conditions, primarily in a thermodynamical sense. A lack of consistency may affect the local or global response of a mechanical system. This contribution deals with the consistency check for some widely used exponential and bilinear mixed-mode CZMs. The coupling effect on stresses and energy dissipation is first investigated and the path-dependance of the mixed-mode debonding work of separation is analitically evaluated. Analytical predictions are also compared with results from numerical implementations, where the interface is described with zero-thickness contact elements. A node-to-segment strategy is here adopted, which incorporates decohesion and contact within a unified framework. A new thermodynamically consistent mixed-mode CZ model based on a reformulation of the Xu-Needleman model as modified by van den Bosch et al. is finally proposed and derived by applying the Coleman and Noll procedure in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics. The model holds monolithically for loading and unloading processes, as well as for decohesion and contact, and its performance is demonstrated through suitable examples.

Timing of carbon emissions from global forest clearance

Science.gov (United States)

J. Mason Earles; Sonia Yeh; Kenneth E. Skog

2012-01-01

Land-use change, primarily from conventional agricultural expansion and deforestation, contributes to approximately 17% of global greenhouse-gas emissions1. The fate of cleared wood and subsequent carbon storage as wood products, however, has not been consistently estimated, and is largely ignored or oversimplified by most models estimating...

Phase synchronization in inhomogeneous globally coupled map lattices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ho Mingchung; Hung Yaochen; Jiang, I-M.

2004-01-01

The study of inhomogeneous-coupled chaotic systems has attracted a lot of attention recently. With simple definition of phase, we present the phase-locking behavior in ensembles of globally coupled non-identical maps. The inhomogeneous globally coupled maps consist of logistic map and tent map simultaneously. Average phase synchronization ratios, which are used to characterize the phase coherent phenomena, depend on different coupling coefficients and chaotic parameters. By using interdependence, the relationship between a single unit and the mean field is illustrated. Moreover, we take the effect of external noise and parameter mismatch into consideration and present the results by numerical simulation

The global context for public health nutrition taxation.

Science.gov (United States)

Thow, Anne Marie; Heywood, Peter; Leeder, Stephen; Burns, Lee

2011-01-01

To assess critically the scope for public health nutrition taxation within the framework of the global tax reform agenda. Review of the tax policy literature for global policy priorities relevant to public health nutrition taxation; critical analysis of proposals for public health nutrition taxation judged against the global agenda for tax reform. The global tax reform agenda shapes decisions of tax policy makers in all countries. By understanding this agenda, public health nutritionists can make feasible taxation proposals and thus improve the development, uptake and implementation of recommendations for nutrition-related taxation. The priorities of the global tax reform agenda relevant to public health nutrition taxation are streamlining of taxes, adoption of value-added tax (VAT), minimisation of excise taxes (except to correct for externalities) and removal of import taxes in line with trade liberalisation policies. Proposals consistent with the global tax reform agenda have included excise taxes, extension of VAT to currently exempted (unhealthy) foods and tariff reductions for healthy foods. Proposals for public health nutrition taxation should (i) use existing types and rates of taxes where possible, (ii) use excise taxes that specifically address externalities, (iii) avoid differential VAT on foods and (iv) use import taxes in ways that comply with trade liberalisation priorities.

Dark matter and global symmetries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yann Mambrini

2016-09-01

Full Text Available General considerations in general relativity and quantum mechanics are known to potentially rule out continuous global symmetries in the context of any consistent theory of quantum gravity. Assuming the validity of such considerations, we derive stringent bounds from gamma-ray, X-ray, cosmic-ray, neutrino, and CMB data on models that invoke global symmetries to stabilize the dark matter particle. We compute up-to-date, robust model-independent limits on the dark matter lifetime for a variety of Planck-scale suppressed dimension-five effective operators. We then specialize our analysis and apply our bounds to specific models including the Two-Higgs-Doublet, Left–Right, Singlet Fermionic, Zee–Babu, 3-3-1 and Radiative See-Saw models. Assuming that (i global symmetries are broken at the Planck scale, that (ii the non-renormalizable operators mediating dark matter decay have O(1 couplings, that (iii the dark matter is a singlet field, and that (iv the dark matter density distribution is well described by a NFW profile, we are able to rule out fermionic, vector, and scalar dark matter candidates across a broad mass range (keV–TeV, including the WIMP regime.

Inter-relations between regional and global approaches to nuclear non-proliferation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simpson, J.

1995-01-01

It is now becoming evident that the end of the East-West conflict has had a significant effect upon both global and regional security structures. From a situation where regional arrangements were, in the main, determined and driven by pressures arising from the bipolar division which permeated all aspects of the global political system, they increasingly have an independent existence. This has enabled such arrangements to be tailored to local circumstances in a manner which is not possible with global agreements. In particular, it has become apparent that enhanced constraints on peaceful nuclear activities and much more intrusive inspection and monitoring procedures, can more easily be negotiated on a regional basis than a global one. It also appears that nuclear weapon states are prepared to make unconditional commitments about nuclear weapon use on a regional basis, whereas they may not be prepared to do so on a global one. In short, regional approaches enable fine-tuning of the international non-proliferation regime to occur, and for measures to be taken on a regional level that would be politically unacceptable on the global level, due to their discriminatory nature. In the years ahead additional Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) agreements may be negotiated, covering more of the land area of the globe. In parallel, regional nuclear cooperation and safeguarding agreements might also be expected to develop along the lines of EURATOM and ABACC. This in turn may move the states which remain outside of the NPT to a similar position to Argentina and Brazil at the moment: to an acceptance that whatever their opposition in principle to the NPT and the system of supplier export guidelines, the commitments they have already accepted on a regional level are more intrusive and constraining than those they would incur if they were to have acceded to the Treaty. In these circumstances, accession to the NPT becomes a distinct possibility, and thus the regional approach to non

Global D-brane models with stabilised moduli and light axions

Science.gov (United States)

Cicoli, Michele

2014-03-01

We review recent attempts to try to combine global issues of string compactifications, like moduli stabilisation, with local issues, like semi-realistic D-brane constructions. We list the main problems encountered, and outline a possible solution which allows globally consistent embeddings of chiral models. We also argue that this stabilisation mechanism leads to an axiverse. We finally illustrate our general claims in a concrete example where the Calabi-Yau manifold is explicitly described by toric geometry.

The present global financial and economic crisis and the oil crises of the 1970s. Opposite turning points in the development of economic growth, energy supply, and the role of nuclear power?; Die gegenwaertige globale Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise und die Oelkrisen der 1970er-Jahre. Gegensaetzliche Trendwenden in der Entwicklung von Wirtschaftswachstum, Energieversorgung und Rolle der Kernenergie?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Herrmann, Dieter

2012-08-15

After decades of extensive economic growth, the oil crises in the 1970s enforced the transition to intensive growth in a manner conserving resources, combined with a fundamental turnaround in the development of global energy supply and the role of nuclear power. Meanwhile, the world has changed considerably as a result of population growth, technical progress, and globalization - and it is in the throes of another crisis. The contribution shows, on the basis of empirical indicators, that higher commodity prices halted the period of intense growth already in late 2007. The following global financial and economic crisis can be interpreted plausibly as a return to extensive economic growth worldwide. This is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the future development of global energy supply and the role of nuclear power. (orig.)

The Global Geodetic Observing System: Recent Activities and Accomplishments

Science.gov (United States)

Gross, R. S.

2017-12-01

The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) provides the basis on which future advances in geosciences can be built. By considering the Earth system as a whole (including the geosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere and biosphere), monitoring Earth system components and their interactions by geodetic techniques and studying them from the geodetic point of view, the geodetic community provides the global geosciences community with a powerful tool consisting mainly of high-quality services, standards and references, and theoretical and observational innovations. The mission of GGOS is: (a) to provide the observations needed to monitor, map and understand changes in the Earth's shape, rotation and mass distribution; (b) to provide the global frame of reference that is the fundamental backbone for measuring and consistently interpreting key global change processes and for many other scientific and societal applications; and (c) to benefit science and society by providing the foundation upon which advances in Earth and planetary system science and applications are built. The goals of GGOS are: (1) to be the primary source for all global geodetic information and expertise serving society and Earth system science; (2) to actively promote, sustain, improve, and evolve the integrated global geodetic infrastructure needed to meet Earth science and societal requirements; (3) to coordinate with the international geodetic services that are the main source of key parameters and products needed to realize a stable global frame of reference and to observe and study changes in the dynamic Earth system; (4) to communicate and advocate the benefits of GGOS to user communities, policy makers, funding organizations, and society. In order to accomplish its mission and goals, GGOS depends on the IAG Services, Commissions, and Inter-Commission Committees. The Services provide the infrastructure and products on which all contributions

Distribution and Validation of CERES Irradiance Global Data Products Via Web Based Tools

Science.gov (United States)

Rutan, David; Mitrescu, Cristian; Doelling, David; Kato, Seiji

2016-01-01

The CERES SYN1deg product provides climate quality 3-hourly globally gridded and temporally complete maps of top of atmosphere, in atmosphere, and surface fluxes. This product requires efficient release to the public and validation to maintain quality assurance. The CERES team developed web-tools for the distribution of both the global gridded products and grid boxes that contain long term validation sites that maintain high quality flux observations at the Earth's surface. These are found at: http://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/order_data.php. In this poster we explore the various tools available to users to sub-set, download, and validate using surface observations the SYN1Deg and Surface-EBAF products. We also analyze differences found in long-term records from well-maintained land surface sites such as the ARM central facility and high quality buoy radiometers, which due to their isolated nature cannot be maintained in a similar manner to their land based counterparts.

Using Trait-State Models to Evaluate the Longitudinal Consistency of Global Self-Esteem From Adolescence to Adulthood

OpenAIRE

Donnellan, M. Brent; Kenny, David A.; Trzesniewski, Kali H.; Lucas, Richard E.; Conger, Rand D.

2012-01-01

The present research used a latent variable trait-state model to evaluate the longitudinal consistency of self-esteem during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Analyses were based on ten administrations of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965) spanning the ages of approximately 13 to 32 for a sample of 451 participants. Results indicated that a completely stable trait factor and an autoregressive trait factor accounted for the majority of the variance in latent self-est...

Attributional processes in the learned helplessness paradigm: behavioral effects of global attributions.

Science.gov (United States)

Mikulincer, M

1986-12-01

Following the learned helplessness paradigm, I assessed in this study the effects of global and specific attributions for failure on the generalization of performance deficits in a dissimilar situation. Helplessness training consisted of experience with noncontingent failures on four cognitive discrimination problems attributed to either global or specific causes. Experiment 1 found that performance in a dissimilar situation was impaired following exposure to globally attributed failure. Experiment 2 examined the behavioral effects of the interaction between stable and global attributions of failure. Exposure to unsolvable problems resulted in reduced performance in a dissimilar situation only when failure was attributed to global and stable causes. Finally, Experiment 3 found that learned helplessness deficits were a product of the interaction of global and internal attribution. Performance deficits following unsolvable problems were recorded when failure was attributed to global and internal causes. Results were discussed in terms of the reformulated learned helplessness model.

Self-consistent neutral point current and fields from single particle dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, R.F. Jr.

1988-01-01

In order to begin to build a global model of the magnetotail-auroral region interaction, it is of interest to understand the role of neutral points as potential centers of particle energization in the tail. In this paper, the single particle current is calculated near a magnetic neutral point with magnetotail properties. This is balanced with the Ampere's law current producing the magnetic field to obtain the self-consistent electric field for the problem. Also calculated is the current-electric field relationship and, in the regime where this relation is linear, an effective conductivity. Results for these macroscopic quantities are surprisingly similar to the values calculated for a constant normal field current sheet geometry. Application to magnetotail modeling is discussed. 11 references

Local and Global Illumination in the Volume Rendering Integral

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Max, N; Chen, M

2005-10-21

This article is intended as an update of the major survey by Max [1] on optical models for direct volume rendering. It provides a brief overview of the subject scope covered by [1], and brings recent developments, such as new shadow algorithms and refraction rendering, into the perspective. In particular, we examine three fundamentals aspects of direct volume rendering, namely the volume rendering integral, local illumination models and global illumination models, in a wavelength-independent manner. We review the developments on spectral volume rendering, in which visible light are considered as a form of electromagnetic radiation, optical models are implemented in conjunction with representations of spectral power distribution. This survey can provide a basis for, and encourage, new efforts for developing and using complex illumination models to achieve better realism and perception through optical correctness.

Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during 1990-2013

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Murray, Christopher J L; Ortblad, Katrina F; Guinovart, Caterina

2014-01-01

BACKGROUND: The Millennium Declaration in 2000 brought special global attention to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria through the formulation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study provides a consistent and comprehensive approach to disease estimation for betw...

Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Coastlines

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1) consists of estimates of human population for the years 1990, 1995, and 2000 by 30 arc-second (1km) grid...

Consistently violating the non-Gaussian consistency relation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mooij, Sander; Palma, Gonzalo A.

2015-01-01

Non-attractor models of inflation are characterized by the super-horizon evolution of curvature perturbations, introducing a violation of the non-Gaussian consistency relation between the bispectrum's squeezed limit and the power spectrum's spectral index. In this work we show that the bispectrum's squeezed limit of non-attractor models continues to respect a relation dictated by the evolution of the background. We show how to derive this relation using only symmetry arguments, without ever needing to solve the equations of motion for the perturbations

Convergence of soil nitrogen isotopes across global climate gradients

Science.gov (United States)

Craine, Joseph M.; Elmore, Andrew J.; Wang, Lixin; Augusto, Laurent; Baisden, W. Troy; Brookshire, E. N. J.; Cramer, Michael D.; Hasselquist, Niles J.; Hobbie, Erik A.; Kahmen, Ansgar; Koba, Keisuke; Kranabetter, J. Marty; Mack, Michelle C.; Marin-Spiotta, Erika; Mayor, Jordan R.; McLauchlan, Kendra K.; Michelsen, Anders; Nardoto, Gabriela B.; Oliveira, Rafael S.; Perakis, Steven S.; Peri, Pablo L.; Quesada, Carlos A.; Richter, Andreas; Schipper, Louis A.; Stevenson, Bryan A.; Turner, Benjamin L.; Viani, Ricardo A. G.; Wanek, Wolfgang; Zeller, Bernd

2015-01-01

Quantifying global patterns of terrestrial nitrogen (N) cycling is central to predicting future patterns of primary productivity, carbon sequestration, nutrient fluxes to aquatic systems, and climate forcing. With limited direct measures of soil N cycling at the global scale, syntheses of the 15 N: 14 N ratio of soil organic matter across climate gradients provide key insights into understanding global patterns of N cycling. In synthesizing data from over 6000 soil samples, we show strong global relationships among soil N isotopes, mean annual temperature (MAT), mean annual precipitation (MAP), and the concentrations of organic carbon and clay in soil. In both hot ecosystems and dry ecosystems, soil organic matter was more enriched in 15 N than in corresponding cold ecosystems or wet ecosystems. Below a MAT of 9.8°C, soil δ15N was invariant with MAT. At the global scale, soil organic C concentrations also declined with increasing MAT and decreasing MAP. After standardizing for variation among mineral soils in soil C and clay concentrations, soil δ15N showed no consistent trends across global climate and latitudinal gradients. Our analyses could place new constraints on interpretations of patterns of ecosystem N cycling and global budgets of gaseous N loss.

Simulation analysis of globally integrated logistics and recycling strategies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Song, S.J.; Hiroshi, K. [Hiroshima Inst. of Tech., Graduate School of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Dept. of In formation and Intelligent Systems Engineering, Hiroshima (Japan)

2004-07-01

This paper focuses on the optimal analysis of world-wide recycling activities associated with managing the logistics and production activities in global manufacturing whose activities stretch across national boundaries. Globally integrated logistics and recycling strategies consist of the home country and two free trading economic blocs, NAFTA and ASEAN, where significant differences are found in production and disassembly cost, tax rates, local content rules and regulations. Moreover an optimal analysis of globally integrated value-chain was developed by applying simulation optimization technique as a decision-making tool. The simulation model was developed and analyzed by using ProModel packages, and the results help to identify some of the appropriate conditions required to make well-performed logistics and recycling plans in world-wide collaborated manufacturing environment. (orig.)

The dynamics of a food web consisting of two preys and a harvesting predator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gakkhar, Sunita; Singh, Brahampal

2007-01-01

This paper investigates the dynamical behavior of an exploited system consisting of two preys and a predator which is being harvested. The existence of biological, economic and optimum equilibrium of the system is examined. The local and global stability analysis of the model has been carried out. The optimal harvesting policy for harvesting the predator species is studied. The bifurcation diagram is drawn for biologically feasible choice of parameters and the harvest parameter is chosen in the range for which optimum equilibrium also exist. It is observed that harvesting can control the chaos

Global temperature evolution 1979–2010

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Foster, Grant; Rahmstorf, Stefan

2011-01-01

We analyze five prominent time series of global temperature (over land and ocean) for their common time interval since 1979: three surface temperature records (from NASA/GISS, NOAA/NCDC and HadCRU) and two lower-troposphere (LT) temperature records based on satellite microwave sensors (from RSS and UAH). All five series show consistent global warming trends ranging from 0.014 to 0.018 K yr −1 . When the data are adjusted to remove the estimated impact of known factors on short-term temperature variations (El Niño/southern oscillation, volcanic aerosols and solar variability), the global warming signal becomes even more evident as noise is reduced. Lower-troposphere temperature responds more strongly to El Niño/southern oscillation and to volcanic forcing than surface temperature data. The adjusted data show warming at very similar rates to the unadjusted data, with smaller probable errors, and the warming rate is steady over the whole time interval. In all adjusted series, the two hottest years are 2009 and 2010.

Future emissions pathways consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C

Science.gov (United States)

Millar, R.; Fuglestvedt, J. S.; Grubb, M.; Rogelj, J.; Skeie, R. B.; Friedlingstein, P.; Forster, P.; Frame, D. J.; Pierrehumbert, R.; Allen, M. R.

2016-12-01

The stated aim of the 2015 UNFCCC Paris Agreement is `holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit temperature increases to 1.5°C'. We show that emissions reductions proportional to those achieved in an ambitious mitigation scenario, RCP2.6, but beginning in 2017, give a median estimated peak warming of 1.5°C, with a likely (66% probability) range of uncertainty of 1.2-2.0°C. Such a scenario would be approximately consistent with the most ambitious interpretation of the 2030 emissions pledges, but requires reduction rates exceeding 0.3GtC/yr/yr after 2030. A steady reduction at less than half this rate would achieve the same temperature outcome if initiated in 2020. Limiting total CO2 emissions after 2015 to 200GtC would limit future warming to likely less than 0.6°C above present, consistent with 1.5°C above pre-industrial, based on the distribution of responses of the CMIP5 Earth System, but the CMIP5 simulations do not correspond to scenarios that aim to limit warming to such low levels. If future CO2 emissions are successfully adapted to the emerging climate response so as to limit warming in 2100 to 0.6°C above present, and non-CO2 emissions follow the ambitious RCP2.6 scenario, then we estimate that resulting CO2 emissions will unlikely be restricted to less than 250GtC given current uncertainties in climate system response, although still-poorly-modelled carbon cycle feedbacks, such as release from permafrost, may encroach on this budget. Even under a perfectly successful adaptive mitigation regime, emissions consistent with limiting warming to 0.6°C above present are unlikely to be greater than 500GtC.These estimates suggest the 1.5°C goal may not yet be geophysically insurmountable but will nevertheless require, at minimum, the full implementation of the most ambitious interpretation of the Paris pledges followed by accelerated and more fundamental changes in our

Do Health Systems Have Consistent Performance Across Locations and Is Consistency Associated With Higher Performance?

Science.gov (United States)

Crespin, Daniel J; Christianson, Jon B; McCullough, Jeffrey S; Finch, Michael D

This study addresses whether health systems have consistent diabetes care performance across their ambulatory clinics and whether increasing consistency is associated with improvements in clinic performance. Study data included 2007 to 2013 diabetes care intermediate outcome measures for 661 ambulatory clinics in Minnesota and bordering states. Health systems provided more consistent performance, as measured by the standard deviation of performance for clinics in a system, relative to propensity score-matched proxy systems created for comparison purposes. No evidence was found that improvements in consistency were associated with higher clinic performance. The combination of high performance and consistent care is likely to enhance a health system's brand reputation, allowing it to better mitigate the financial risks of consumers seeking care outside the organization. These results suggest that larger health systems are most likely to deliver the combination of consistent and high-performance care. Future research should explore the mechanisms that drive consistent care within health systems.

Consistency argued students of fluid

Science.gov (United States)

Viyanti; Cari; Suparmi; Winarti; Slamet Budiarti, Indah; Handika, Jeffry; Widyastuti, Fatma

2017-01-01

Problem solving for physics concepts through consistency arguments can improve thinking skills of students and it is an important thing in science. The study aims to assess the consistency of the material Fluid student argmentation. The population of this study are College students PGRI Madiun, UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta and Lampung University. Samples using cluster random sampling, 145 samples obtained by the number of students. The study used a descriptive survey method. Data obtained through multiple-choice test and interview reasoned. Problem fluid modified from [9] and [1]. The results of the study gained an average consistency argmentation for the right consistency, consistency is wrong, and inconsistent respectively 4.85%; 29.93%; and 65.23%. Data from the study have an impact on the lack of understanding of the fluid material which is ideally in full consistency argued affect the expansion of understanding of the concept. The results of the study as a reference in making improvements in future studies is to obtain a positive change in the consistency of argumentations.

The description of morality and manners in Vsevolod Solovyov’s short prose

OpenAIRE

Nikolsky Evgeny Vladimirovich

2013-01-01

This article contains a genre specificity of short prose by Vsevolod Solovyov, whose work is devoted to the Russian history between the 18th and 19th centuries. According to professor N.L. Vershinina, the author distinguishes the difference between the description of morality and manners. The main difference is in the presence of author’s point of view on the describing occurrences. In this case, such works are considered to be a kind of morality, which characterizes Solovyov’s works. Showing...

Educating Young People on Global Determinants of Health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bruselius-Jensen, Maria; Renwick, Kerry; Aagaard-Hansen, Jens

, and their impact on health practices. Findings from the programme consist of 18 focus group interviews, with a total of 72 Danish and 36 Kenyan students. Results: Students gain insight into the daily life of peers in Kenya and Denmark. The cultural meetings awaken students interest and general engagement in global...... health. They gained insight into their own and their peers’ conditions for health. E.g. connected to access to education, food cultures, gender and family structure. Conclusion: Mirroring ones own health practices in that of peers from another culture appeared to support learning process of global health......, understanding and agency towards global inequality in health. Methods: MEL facilitates cultural meetings, primarily Skype-based, between students from Kenya and Denmark, with the aim to promote reflections on differences and similarities in the everyday living conditions across cultures and nations...

Positive biodiversity-productivity relationship predominant in global forests.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Jingjing; Crowther, Thomas W; Picard, Nicolas; Wiser, Susan; Zhou, Mo; Alberti, Giorgio; Schulze, Ernst-Detlef; McGuire, A David; Bozzato, Fabio; Pretzsch, Hans; de-Miguel, Sergio; Paquette, Alain; Hérault, Bruno; Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael; Barrett, Christopher B; Glick, Henry B; Hengeveld, Geerten M; Nabuurs, Gert-Jan; Pfautsch, Sebastian; Viana, Helder; Vibrans, Alexander C; Ammer, Christian; Schall, Peter; Verbyla, David; Tchebakova, Nadja; Fischer, Markus; Watson, James V; Chen, Han Y H; Lei, Xiangdong; Schelhaas, Mart-Jan; Lu, Huicui; Gianelle, Damiano; Parfenova, Elena I; Salas, Christian; Lee, Eungul; Lee, Boknam; Kim, Hyun Seok; Bruelheide, Helge; Coomes, David A; Piotto, Daniel; Sunderland, Terry; Schmid, Bernhard; Gourlet-Fleury, Sylvie; Sonké, Bonaventure; Tavani, Rebecca; Zhu, Jun; Brandl, Susanne; Vayreda, Jordi; Kitahara, Fumiaki; Searle, Eric B; Neldner, Victor J; Ngugi, Michael R; Baraloto, Christopher; Frizzera, Lorenzo; Bałazy, Radomir; Oleksyn, Jacek; Zawiła-Niedźwiecki, Tomasz; Bouriaud, Olivier; Bussotti, Filippo; Finér, Leena; Jaroszewicz, Bogdan; Jucker, Tommaso; Valladares, Fernando; Jagodzinski, Andrzej M; Peri, Pablo L; Gonmadje, Christelle; Marthy, William; O'Brien, Timothy; Martin, Emanuel H; Marshall, Andrew R; Rovero, Francesco; Bitariho, Robert; Niklaus, Pascal A; Alvarez-Loayza, Patricia; Chamuya, Nurdin; Valencia, Renato; Mortier, Frédéric; Wortel, Verginia; Engone-Obiang, Nestor L; Ferreira, Leandro V; Odeke, David E; Vasquez, Rodolfo M; Lewis, Simon L; Reich, Peter B

2016-10-14

The biodiversity-productivity relationship (BPR) is foundational to our understanding of the global extinction crisis and its impacts on ecosystem functioning. Understanding BPR is critical for the accurate valuation and effective conservation of biodiversity. Using ground-sourced data from 777,126 permanent plots, spanning 44 countries and most terrestrial biomes, we reveal a globally consistent positive concave-down BPR, showing that continued biodiversity loss would result in an accelerating decline in forest productivity worldwide. The value of biodiversity in maintaining commercial forest productivity alone-US$166 billion to 490 billion per year according to our estimation-is more than twice what it would cost to implement effective global conservation. This highlights the need for a worldwide reassessment of biodiversity values, forest management strategies, and conservation priorities. Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Consistency of orthodox gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bellucci, S. [INFN, Frascati (Italy). Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati; Shiekh, A. [International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste (Italy)

1997-01-01

A recent proposal for quantizing gravity is investigated for self consistency. The existence of a fixed-point all-order solution is found, corresponding to a consistent quantum gravity. A criterion to unify couplings is suggested, by invoking an application of their argument to more complex systems.

OpenStack Swift as Multi-Region Eventual Consistency Storage for ownCloud Primary Storage

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2014-01-01

As more users adopt AARNet’s CloudStor Plus offering within Australia, interim solutions deployed to overcome failures of various distributed replicated storage technologies haven’t kept pace with the growth in data volume. AARNet’s original design goal of user proximal data storage, combined with national and even international data replication for redundancy reasons continues to be a key driver for design choices. AARNet’s national network is over 90ms from end to end, and accommodating this has been a key issue with numerous software solutions, hindering attempts to provide both original design goals in a reliable real-time manner. With the addition of features to the ownCloud software allowing primary data storage on OpenStack Swift, AARNet has chosen to deploy Swift in a nation spanning multi-region ring to take advantage of Swift’s eventual consistency capabilities and the local region quorum functionality for fast writes. The scaling capability of Swift resolves the twin problems of geogr...

The Global Geostationary Wildfire ABBA: Current Implementation and Future Plans

Science.gov (United States)

Prins, E.; Schmidt, C. C.; Hoffman, J.; Brunner, J.; Hyer, E. J.; Reid, J. S.

2012-12-01

The Wild Fire Automated Biomass Burning Algorithm (WF_ABBA), developed at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), has a long legacy of operational near real-time wildfire detection and characterization in the Western Hemisphere. The first phase of the global geostationary WF_ABBA was made operational at NOAA NESDIS in 2009 and currently includes diurnal active fire monitoring from GOES-East, GOES-South America, GOES-West, Meteosat-9 and MTSAT-1R/-2. This allows for near global active fire monitoring with coverage of Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific utilizing distinct geostationary sensors and a consistent algorithm. Version 6.5.006 of the WF_ABBA was specifically designed to address the capabilities and limitations of diverse geostationary sensors and requests from the global fire monitoring and user community. This presentation will provide an overview of version 6.5.006 of the global WF_ABBA fire product including the new fire and opaque cloud mask and associated metadata. We will demonstrate the WF_ABBA showing examples from around the globe with a focus on the capabilities and plans for integrating new geostationary platforms with coverage of Eastern Europe and Asia (INSAT-3D, Korean COMS, Russian GOMS Elektro-L MSU-GS). We are also preparing for future fire monitoring in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and Africa utilizing the next generation GOES-R Imager and Meteosat Third Generation Flexible Combined Imager (MTG - FCI). The goal is to create a globally consistent long-term fire product utilizing the capabilities of each of these unique operational systems and a common fire detection algorithm. On an international level, development of a global geostationary fire monitoring system is supported by the IGOS GOFC/GOLD Fire Implementation Team. This work also generally supports Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) activities and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

Supplementary Material for: A global sensitivity analysis approach for morphogenesis models

KAUST Repository

Boas, Sonja; Navarro, Marí a; Merks, Roeland; Blom, Joke

2015-01-01

) represent cell properties and behaviors that drive the mechanisms of angiogenic sprouting. The global sensitivity analysis correctly identified the dominant parameters in the model, consistent with previous studies. Additionally, the analysis provided

GLOBALIZATION AND THE DECLINE OF THE UNITED STATES ECONOMIC INSTRUMENT OF POWER

Science.gov (United States)

2017-06-01

of global trade relations. Whereas forty years ago, 90 percent of international trade consisted of mercantilist goods; today , 90 percent of... GLOBALIZATION AND THE DECLINE OF THE UNITED STATES ECONOMIC INSTRUMENT OF POWER BY MAJOR JOSH WATKINS A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE...bachelor of business administration degree from Old Dominion University in 2001. He was commissioned through Officer Training School in 2002 and his

Global health and global health ethics

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Benatar, S. R; Brock, Gillian

2011-01-01

...? What are our responsibilities and how can we improve global health? Global Health and Global Health Ethics addresses these questions from the perspective of a range of disciplines, including medicine, philosophy and the social sciences...

Competing With the Use of Business Model innovation - an Exploratory Case Study of the Journey of Born Global Firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marlene Johansson

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this article is to investigate how business models are used by born global firms to act upon new business opportunities and how they manage business model innovation over time to prosper and grow. Design/Methodology: The study is based on three exploratory case studies of born global firms in mobile communication, financial services and digital music distribution. Findings: Three interrelated capabilities to manage business model innovation are articulated in the context of born global firms; sensing capabilities, entrepreneurial capabilities and relational capabilities and four propositions are formulated. We find that business model innovations are used as a tool by maturing born global firms to navigate the value chains and achieve international growth. We further propose that born global need the capabilities to balance different business model designs simultaneously and to manage its business model innovation in a timely manner. Originality: This article contributes to both the business model literature and research of international entrepreneurship. By putting business model research into the dynamic context of rapidly internationalizing born global firms, we contribute to the field of business model research with findings of how business models are used in the internationalization processes. Certain capabilities are needed to manage business model innovation for born global firms to dynamically use business models as a tool in the international growth overtime.

FLUXNET: A Global Network of Eddy-Covariance Flux Towers

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, R. B.; Holladay, S. K.; Margle, S. M.; Olsen, L. M.; Gu, L.; Heinsch, F.; Baldocchi, D.

2003-12-01

The FLUXNET global network was established to aid in understanding the mechanisms controlling the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy across a variety of terrestrial ecosystems. Flux tower data are also being used to validate ecosystem model outputs and to provide information for validating remote sensing based products, including surface temperature, reflectance, albedo, vegetation indices, leaf area index, photosynthetically active radiation, and photosynthesis derived from MODIS sensors on the Terra and Aqua satellites. The global FLUXNET database provides consistent and complete flux data to support global carbon cycle science. Currently FLUXNET consists of over 210 sites, with most flux towers operating continuously for 4 years or longer. Gap-filled data are available for 53 sites. The FLUXNET database contains carbon, water vapor, sensible heat, momentum, and radiation flux measurements with associated ancillary and value-added data products. Towers are located in temperate conifer and broadleaf forests, tropical and boreal forests, crops, grasslands, chaparral, wetlands, and tundra on five continents. Selected MODIS Land products in the immediate vicinity of the flux tower are subsetted and posted on the FLUXNET Web site for 169 flux-towers. The MODIS subsets are prepared in ASCII format for 8-day periods for an area 7 x 7 km around the tower.

Using nudging to improve global-regional dynamic consistency in limited-area climate modeling: What should we nudge?

Science.gov (United States)

Omrani, Hiba; Drobinski, Philippe; Dubos, Thomas

2015-03-01

Regional climate modelling sometimes requires that the regional model be nudged towards the large-scale driving data to avoid the development of inconsistencies between them. These inconsistencies are known to produce large surface temperature and rainfall artefacts. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the synoptic circulation within the simulation domain consistent with the synoptic circulation at the domain boundaries. Nudging techniques, initially developed for data assimilation purposes, are increasingly used in regional climate modeling and offer a workaround to this issue. In this context, several questions on the "optimal" use of nudging are still open. In this study we focus on a specific question which is: What variable should we nudge? in order to maintain the consistencies between the regional model and the driving fields as much as possible. For that, a "Big Brother Experiment", where a reference atmospheric state is known, is conducted using the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model over the Euro-Mediterranean region. A set of 22 3-month simulations is performed with different sets of nudged variables and nudging options (no nudging, indiscriminate nudging, spectral nudging) for summer and winter. The results show that nudging clearly improves the model capacity to reproduce the reference fields. However the skill scores depend on the set of variables used to nudge the regional climate simulations. Nudging the tropospheric horizontal wind is by far the key variable to nudge to simulate correctly surface temperature and wind, and rainfall. To a lesser extent, nudging tropospheric temperature also contributes to significantly improve the simulations. Indeed, nudging tropospheric wind or temperature directly impacts the simulation of the tropospheric geopotential height and thus the synoptic scale atmospheric circulation. Nudging moisture improves the precipitation but the impact on the other fields (wind and temperature) is not significant. As

Methodology and consistency of slant and vertical assessments for ionospheric electron content models

Science.gov (United States)

Hernández-Pajares, Manuel; Roma-Dollase, David; Krankowski, Andrzej; García-Rigo, Alberto; Orús-Pérez, Raül

2017-12-01

A summary of the main concepts on global ionospheric map(s) [hereinafter GIM(s)] of vertical total electron content (VTEC), with special emphasis on their assessment, is presented in this paper. It is based on the experience accumulated during almost two decades of collaborative work in the context of the international global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) service (IGS) ionosphere working group. A representative comparison of the two main assessments of ionospheric electron content models (VTEC-altimeter and difference of Slant TEC, based on independent global positioning system data GPS, dSTEC-GPS) is performed. It is based on 26 GPS receivers worldwide distributed and mostly placed on islands, from the last quarter of 2010 to the end of 2016. The consistency between dSTEC-GPS and VTEC-altimeter assessments for one of the most accurate IGS GIMs (the tomographic-kriging GIM `UQRG' computed by UPC) is shown. Typical error RMS values of 2 TECU for VTEC-altimeter and 0.5 TECU for dSTEC-GPS assessments are found. And, as expected by following a simple random model, there is a significant correlation between both RMS and specially relative errors, mainly evident when large enough number of observations per pass is considered. The authors expect that this manuscript will be useful for new analysis contributor centres and in general for the scientific and technical community interested in simple and truly external ways of validating electron content models of the ionosphere.

Studies of global warming and global energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inaba, Atsushi

1993-01-01

Global warming caused by increase in atmospheric CO 2 concentration has been the focus of many recent global energy studies. CO 2 is emitted to the atmosphere mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels. This means that global warming is fundamentally a problem of the global energy system. An analysis of the findings of recent global energy studies is made in this report. The results are categorized from the viewpoint of concern about global warming. The analysis includes energy use and CO 2 emissions, measures taken to restrain CO 2 emissions and the cost of such measure, and suggestions for long term global energy generation. Following this comparative analysis, each of the studies is reviewed in detail. (author) 63 refs

Systematic homogenization and self-consistent flux and pin power reconstruction for nodal diffusion methods. 1: Diffusion equation-based theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, H.; Rizwan-uddin; Dorning, J.J.

1995-01-01

A diffusion equation-based systematic homogenization theory and a self-consistent dehomogenization theory for fuel assemblies have been developed for use with coarse-mesh nodal diffusion calculations of light water reactors. The theoretical development is based on a multiple-scales asymptotic expansion carried out through second order in a small parameter, the ratio of the average diffusion length to the reactor characteristic dimension. By starting from the neutron diffusion equation for a three-dimensional heterogeneous medium and introducing two spatial scales, the development systematically yields an assembly-homogenized global diffusion equation with self-consistent expressions for the assembly-homogenized diffusion tensor elements and cross sections and assembly-surface-flux discontinuity factors. The rector eigenvalue 1/k eff is shown to be obtained to the second order in the small parameter, and the heterogeneous diffusion theory flux is shown to be obtained to leading order in that parameter. The latter of these two results provides a natural procedure for the reconstruction of the local fluxes and the determination of pin powers, even though homogenized assemblies are used in the global nodal diffusion calculation

Using Systems Thinking to Advance Global Health Engagement in Education and Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Janet M; Stalter, Ann M

2018-04-01

The integration of global health into nursing practice within complex systems requires a strategic approach. The System-Level Awareness Model (SAM) can be used to guide the process of enhancing systems thinking for global health. The purpose of this article is to explain the SAM and how to use it for integrating systems thinking into nursing education in academic, professional development, and continuing education settings to promote global health across the nursing continuum. Tips are provided on how to teach systems thinking for global health in nursing education and practice, consistent with continuing education national learning competencies for health care professionals. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2018;49(4):154-156. Copyright 2018, SLACK Incorporated.

Framework for e-learning assessment in dental education: a global model for the future.

Science.gov (United States)

Arevalo, Carolina R; Bayne, Stephen C; Beeley, Josie A; Brayshaw, Christine J; Cox, Margaret J; Donaldson, Nora H; Elson, Bruce S; Grayden, Sharon K; Hatzipanagos, Stylianos; Johnson, Lynn A; Reynolds, Patricia A; Schönwetter, Dieter J

2013-05-01

The framework presented in this article demonstrates strategies for a global approach to e-curricula in dental education by considering a collection of outcome assessment tools. By combining the outcomes for overall assessment, a global model for a pilot project that applies e-assessment tools to virtual learning environments (VLE), including haptics, is presented. Assessment strategies from two projects, HapTEL (Haptics in Technology Enhanced Learning) and UDENTE (Universal Dental E-learning), act as case-user studies that have helped develop the proposed global framework. They incorporate additional assessment tools and include evaluations from questionnaires and stakeholders' focus groups. These measure each of the factors affecting the classical teaching/learning theory framework as defined by Entwistle in a standardized manner. A mathematical combinatorial approach is proposed to join these results together as a global assessment. With the use of haptic-based simulation learning, exercises for tooth preparation assessing enamel and dentine were compared to plastic teeth in manikins. Equivalence for student performance for haptic versus traditional preparation methods was established, thus establishing the validity of the haptic solution for performing these exercises. Further data collected from HapTEL are still being analyzed, and pilots are being conducted to validate the proposed test measures. Initial results have been encouraging, but clearly the need persists to develop additional e-assessment methods for new learning domains.

Towards monitoring land-cover and land-use changes at a global scale: the global land survey 2005

Science.gov (United States)

Gutman, G.; Byrnes, Raymond A.; Masek, J.; Covington, S.; Justice, C.; Franks, S.; Headley, Rachel

2008-01-01

Land cover is a critical component of the Earth system, infl uencing land-atmosphere interactions, greenhouse gas fl uxes, ecosystem health, and availability of food, fi ber, and energy for human populations. The recent Integrated Global Observations of Land (IGOL) report calls for the generation of maps documenting global land cover at resolutions between 10m and 30m at least every fi ve years (Townshend et al., in press). Moreover, despite 35 years of Landsat observations, there has not been a unifi ed global analysis of land-cover trends nor has there been a global assessment of land-cover change at Landsat-like resolution. Since the 1990s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have supported development of data sets based on global Landsat observations (Tucker et al., 2004). These land survey data sets, usually referred to as GeoCover ™, provide global, orthorectifi ed, typically cloud-free Landsat imagery centered on the years 1975, 1990, and 2000, with a preference for leaf-on conditions. Collectively, these data sets provided a consistent set of observations to assess land-cover changes at a decadal scale. These data are freely available via the Internet from the USGS Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) (see http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov or http://glovis.usgs.gov). This has resulted in unprecedented downloads of data, which are widely used in scientifi c studies of land-cover change (e.g., Boone et al., 2007; Harris et al., 2005; Hilbert, 2006; Huang et al. 2007; Jantz et al., 2005, Kim et al., 2007; Leimgruber, 2005; Masek et al., 2006). NASA and USGS are continuing to support land-cover change research through the development of GLS2005 - an additional global Landsat assessment circa 20051 . Going beyond the earlier initiatives, this data set will establish a baseline for monitoring changes on a 5-year interval and will pave the way toward continuous global land

Market-consistent actuarial valuation

CERN Document Server

Wüthrich, Mario V

2016-01-01

This is the third edition of this well-received textbook, presenting powerful methods for measuring insurance liabilities and assets in a consistent way, with detailed mathematical frameworks that lead to market-consistent values for liabilities. Topics covered are stochastic discounting with deflators, valuation portfolio in life and non-life insurance, probability distortions, asset and liability management, financial risks, insurance technical risks, and solvency. Including updates on recent developments and regulatory changes under Solvency II, this new edition of Market-Consistent Actuarial Valuation also elaborates on different risk measures, providing a revised definition of solvency based on industry practice, and presents an adapted valuation framework which takes a dynamic view of non-life insurance reserving risk.

Nuclear stockpiles globalization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jouffray, Fabien

2016-01-01

For technological reasons, but more importantly political ones, the spread of nuclear weapons is foreseen as inevitable especially with the multiplication of so-called 'threshold states'. On the one hand, technological barriers will gradually disappear with globalization and information sharing in our societies. Furthermore, becoming a threshold power appears today as key to get freedom of action, a tool of counter-deterrence or blackmail according to the camp you belong to, like in the Iranian and north Korean cases. For proliferant countries, it will now consist in an enforcement of an embryonic, even though rather deterrent or even threatening, nuclear program thanks to new technologies, reducing completion times and even allowing to skip the final nuclear test

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Rapid Clock Product Summary from NASA CDDIS

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This derived product set consists of Global Navigation Satellite System Rapid Clock Product Summary from the NASA Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS)....

Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during 1990—2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

J L Murray, Christopher; F Ortblad, Katrina; Guinovart, Caterina

2014-01-01

Background The Millennium Declaration in 2000 brought special global attention to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria through the formulation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study provides a consistent and comprehensive approach to disease estimation for between...... with and without antiretroviral therapy (ART). For concentrated epidemics, we calibrated Spectrum models to fit vital registration data corrected for misclassification of HIV deaths. In generalised epidemics, we minimised a loss function to select epidemic curves most consistent with prevalence data...... and demographic data for all-cause mortality. We analysed counterfactual scenarios for HIV to assess years of life saved through prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) and ART. For tuberculosis, we analysed vital registration and verbal autopsy data to estimate mortality using cause of death ensemble...

PENDIDIKAN KEWARGANEGARAAN UNTUK MEMBANGUN WAWASAN GLOBAL WARGA NEGARA MUDA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mukhamad Murdiono

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan nilai-nilai dasar yang perlu dikembangkan dalam pendidikan kewarganegaraan untuk membangun wawasan global warga negara muda. Penelitian menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan metode grounded theory. Sumber data terdiri atas sumber kepustakaan dan responden yang dipilih dengan menggunakan metode purposive sampling.Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan studi dokumentasi, wawancara, dan observasi. Analisis data menggunakan analisis induktif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa nilai-nilai dasar yang perlu dikembangkan dalam pendidikan kewarganegaraan untuk membangun wawasan global warga negara muda dalam konteks Indonesia antara lain adalah ketuhanan, kemanusiaan, persatuan, kerakyatan, keadilan sosial, kompetisi, menghormati orang lain, kemerdekaan, dan perdamaian. Kata Kunci: pendidikan kewarganegaraan, wawasan global, warga negara muda CIVIC EDUCATION TO BUILD YOUNG CITIZENS’ GLOBAL INSIGHT Abstract: This study was aimedtofind thebasic valueswhich needed tobe developedin civic education to build young citizens’ global insight. This study utilized the qualitative apporach with the grounded theory method. The data source consisted of literature and respondents selected using the purposive sampling method. The data were collected using the documentation, interviews, and observations. The data were analyzed using the inductive analysis. The findings showed that the basic values which needed tobe developed in civic education to build a global insight of young citizens in the context of Indonesia include: divinity, humanity, unity, democracy, social justice, competition, respect for others, freedom, and peace. Keywords: civic education, global insight, young citizens

Bioethics of Universal Knowledge: How Space Science is Transforming Global Culture

Science.gov (United States)

Perkins, Kala

A new universal culture is championing the human race; never before has immersion in the cosmological environment been so clearly presented nor invited as revolutionary a sense of participatory identity to the human race. We are delving into the awareness of a complex relatedness with the expanse of spatial architectures and life that astrophysics and cosmology are revealing. History is marked by waves of interest and inquiry into the possibilities of the existence of other worlds. Since the Renaissance, building of telescopes has been pursued in their quest; now Kepler and other space missions are leading us into direct apprehension of these worlds, scattered across the cosmological landscape. This affords a unique repertoire of dimensionalities in which to re-construe our global cultural evolution and identity. Spatial education, with related social science and humanities, are facilitating the actualization of a universal culture, redefining the collective global heritage, with infinity as our home. The potential significance of space sciences to the human cognitive environment is yet to be fully ascertained. We now understand that the entire history of the universe informs each and every particle and spin of the fabric of existence. The implications of this knowledge have the power to facilitate our overcoming many social diseases such as racism, nationalism and the ideological delusions that tolerate such activities as warfare. Space sciences may help to purge the human cognitive atmosphere of those ills and ignorance that sap global resources, challenging global sustainability, from the economic to the psychosocial. Were the full implications of our united origins and destiny as a cosmic organism to be applied to how we live as a species on the Earth, there would be adequate funds for all manner of science and education such as to transform the global human and ecological landscape in ways as yet only dreamt or fictionalized. The bioethics of universal

Globalization challenges in a globalized world

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr.Sc. Gjon Boriçi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Globalization is an ongoing phenomenon trying to redefine the economic, social, cultural and political dynamics of contemporary societies. The communication among countries and not only them, has been increased expanding political ties, making possible greater economic integration and wider cultural relations combined with augmented global wealth across the world. But, the process of globalization is in wider terms considered a beneficial one, but also viewed by some countries as a menace to national sovereignty and national culture. This paper tries to explain the obstacles to the process of globalization and its attendant benefits. Although globalization has arisen as a result of a more stable world, the factors that had contributed to its rise also help the factions interested to bring destabilization. In an academic approach in this article, between the research and comparative methods, I have been trying to get the maxims between economy, politics and diplomacy in their efforts of affecting the global era.

Global optimization for quantum dynamics of few-fermion systems

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xikun; Pecak, Daniel; Sowiński, Tomasz; Sherson, Jacob; Nielsen, Anne E. B.

2018-03-01

Quantum state preparation is vital to quantum computation and quantum information processing tasks. In adiabatic state preparation, the target state is theoretically obtained with nearly perfect fidelity if the control parameter is tuned slowly enough. As this, however, leads to slow dynamics, it is often desirable to be able to carry out processes more rapidly. In this work, we employ two global optimization methods to estimate the quantum speed limit for few-fermion systems confined in a one-dimensional harmonic trap. Such systems can be produced experimentally in a well-controlled manner. We determine the optimized control fields and achieve a reduction in the ramping time of more than a factor of four compared to linear ramping. We also investigate how robust the fidelity is to small variations of the control fields away from the optimized shapes.

Biological Terrorism: US Policies to Reduce Global Biothreats

Science.gov (United States)

2008-09-01

program for pro- jects that advance BEP objectives. Global Cooperation to develop bio- safety and pathogen security stan- dards that are consistent with...security. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD ) has recently developed voluntary biosecurity guidelines for implementation...Abbreviations AG Australia Group BEP Biosecurity Engagement Program BSL Biosafety level BWC Biological Weapons Convention BWC-ISU Biological Weapons

A self-consistent mean-field approach to the dynamical symmetry breaking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kunihiro, Teiji; Hatsuda, Tetsuo.

1984-01-01

The dynamical symmetry breaking phenomena in the Nambu and Jona-Lasimio model are reexamined in the framework of a self-consistent mean-field (SCMF) theory. First, we formulate the SCMF theory in a lucid manner based on a successful decomposition of the Lagrangian into semiclassical and residual interaction parts by imposing a condition that ''the dangerous term'' in Bogoliubov's sense should vanish. Then, we show that the difference of the energy density between the super and normal phases, the correct expression of which the original authors failed to give, can be readily obtained by applying the SCMF theory. Futhermore, it is shown that the expression thus obtained is identical to that of the effective potential (E.P.) given by the path-integral method with an auxiliary field up to the one loop order in the loop expansion, then one finds a new and simple way to get the E.P. Some numerical results of the E.P. and the dynamically generated mass of fermion are also shown. As another demonstration of the powerfulness of the SCMF theory, we derive, in the Appendix, the energy density of the O(N)-phi 4 model including the higher order corrections in the sense of large N expansion. (author)

Field Simulation of Global Change: Transplanting Northern Bog Mesocosms Southward

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Breeuwer, A.J.G.; Heijmans, M.M.P.D.; Robroek, B.J.M.; Berendse, F.

2010-01-01

A large proportion of northern peatlands consists of Sphagnum-dominated ombrotrophic bogs. In these bogs, peat mosses (Sphagnum) and vascular plants occur in an apparent stable equilibrium, thereby sustaining the carbon sink function of the bog ecosystem. How global warming and increased nitrogen

The global compendium of Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus occurrence

Science.gov (United States)

Kraemer, Moritz U. G.; Sinka, Marianne E.; Duda, Kirsten A.; Mylne, Adrian; Shearer, Freya M.; Brady, Oliver J.; Messina, Jane P.; Barker, Christopher M.; Moore, Chester G.; Carvalho, Roberta G.; Coelho, Giovanini E.; van Bortel, Wim; Hendrickx, Guy; Schaffner, Francis; Wint, G. R. William; Elyazar, Iqbal R. F.; Teng, Hwa-Jen; Hay, Simon I.

2015-07-01

Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus are the main vectors transmitting dengue and chikungunya viruses. Despite being pathogens of global public health importance, knowledge of their vectors’ global distribution remains patchy and sparse. A global geographic database of known occurrences of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus between 1960 and 2014 was compiled. Herein we present the database, which comprises occurrence data linked to point or polygon locations, derived from peer-reviewed literature and unpublished studies including national entomological surveys and expert networks. We describe all data collection processes, as well as geo-positioning methods, database management and quality-control procedures. This is the first comprehensive global database of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus occurrence, consisting of 19,930 and 22,137 geo-positioned occurrence records respectively. Both datasets can be used for a variety of mapping and spatial analyses of the vectors and, by inference, the diseases they transmit.

Linking global scenarios to national assessments: Experiences from the Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Linda L. Langner; Peter J. Ince

2012-01-01

The Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment provides a nationally consistent analysis of the status and trends of the Nation's renewable forest resources. A global scenario approach was taken for the 2010 RPA Assessment to provide a shared world view of potential futures. The RPA Assessment scenarios were linked to the global scenarios and climate projections used...

Local flow regulation and irrigation raise global human water consumption and footprint.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaramillo, Fernando; Destouni, Georgia

2015-12-04

Flow regulation and irrigation alter local freshwater conditions, but their global effects are highly uncertain. We investigated these global effects from 1901 to 2008, using hydroclimatic observations in 100 large hydrological basins. Globally, we find consistent and dominant effects of increasing relative evapotranspiration from both activities, and decreasing temporal runoff variability from flow regulation. The evapotranspiration effect increases the long-term average human consumption of fresh water by 3563 ± 979 km(3)/year from 1901-1954 to 1955-2008. This increase raises a recent estimate of the current global water footprint of humanity by around 18%, to 10,688 ± 979 km(3)/year. The results highlight the global impact of local water-use activities and call for their relevant account in Earth system modeling. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Effect of hydrogel elasticity and ephrinB2-immobilized manner on Runx2 expression of human mesenchymal stem cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Toda, Hiroyuki; Yamamoto, Masaya; Uyama, Hiroshi; Tabata, Yasuhiko

2017-08-01

The objective of this study is to design the manner of ephrinB2 immobilized onto polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels with varied elasticity and evaluate the effect of hydrogels elasticity and the immobilized manner of ephrinB2 on the Runx2 expression of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). The PAAm hydrogels were prepared by the radical polymerization of acrylamide (AAm), and N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (BIS). By changing the BIS concentration, the elasticity of PAAm hydrogels changed from 1 to 70kPa. For the bio-specific immobilization of ephrinB2, a chimeric protein of ephrinB2 and Fc domain was immobilized onto protein A-conjugated PAAm hydrogels by making use of the bio-specific interaction between the Fc domain and protein A. When hMSC were cultured on the ephrinB2-immobilized PAAm hydrogels with varied elasticity, the morphology of hMSC was of cuboidal shape on the PAAm hydrogels immobilized with ephrinB2 compared with non-conjugated ones, irrespective of the hydrogels elasticity. The bio-specific immobilization of ephrinB2 enhanced the level of Runx2 expression. The expression level was significantly high for the hydrogels of 3.6 and 5.9kPa elasticity with bio-specific immobilization of ephrinB2 compared with other hydrogels with the same elasticity. The hydrogels showed a significantly down-regulated RhoA activity. It is concluded that the Runx2 expression of hMSC is synergistically influenced by the hydrogels elasticity and their immobilized manner of ephrinB2 immobilized. Differentiation fate of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) is modified by biochemical and biophysical factors, such as elasticity and signal proteins. However, there are few experiments about combinations of them. In this study, to evaluate the synergistic effect of them on cell properties of MSC, we established to design the manner of Eph signal ligand, ephrinB2, immobilized onto polyacrylamide hydrogels with varied elasticity. The gene expression level of an osteogenic maker, Runx2, was enhanced

Binnie, Jon, The Globalization of Sexuality.

OpenAIRE

Santos, Ana Cristina

2012-01-01

Jon Binnie tem um longo trabalho no âmbito da Geografia das Sexualidades, partilhando tal reconhecimento científico com nomes como Gill Valentine ou David Bell. Neste seu mais recente livro, Binnie retoma algumas perplexidades formuladas em The Sexual Citizen: Queer Politics and Beyond (com D. Bell, 2000) ou Pleasure Zones: Bodies, Cities, Spaces (com R. Holliday, R. Longhurst e R. Peace, 2001). O objectivo principal de The Globalization of Sexuality consiste em dar conta da heteronormativid...

Anti-Globalization or Alter-Globalization? Mapping the Political Ideology of the Global Justice Movement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B. Steger, Manfred; Wilson, E.K.

Steger, Manfred B. and Erin K. Wilson. (2012) Anti-Globalization or Alter-Globalization? Mapping the Political Ideology of the Global Justice Movement. International Studies Quarterly, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2012.00740.x?(c) 2012 International Studies Association Globalization has unsettled

Amazon Forests Maintain Consistent Canopy Structure and Greenness During the Dry Season

Science.gov (United States)

Morton, Douglas C.; Nagol, Jyoteshwar; Carabajal, Claudia C.; Rosette, Jacqueline; Palace, Michael; Cook, Bruce D.; Vermote, Eric F.; Harding, David J.; North, Peter R. J.

2014-01-01

The seasonality of sunlight and rainfall regulates net primary production in tropical forests. Previous studies have suggested that light is more limiting than water for tropical forest productivity, consistent with greening of Amazon forests during the dry season in satellite data.We evaluated four potential mechanisms for the seasonal green-up phenomenon, including increases in leaf area or leaf reflectance, using a sophisticated radiative transfer model and independent satellite observations from lidar and optical sensors. Here we show that the apparent green up of Amazon forests in optical remote sensing data resulted from seasonal changes in near-infrared reflectance, an artefact of variations in sun-sensor geometry. Correcting this bidirectional reflectance effect eliminated seasonal changes in surface reflectance, consistent with independent lidar observations and model simulations with unchanging canopy properties. The stability of Amazon forest structure and reflectance over seasonal timescales challenges the paradigm of light-limited net primary production in Amazon forests and enhanced forest growth during drought conditions. Correcting optical remote sensing data for artefacts of sun-sensor geometry is essential to isolate the response of global vegetation to seasonal and interannual climate variability.

Nation state and the challenge of globalization: Project draft

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Obrenović Zoran G.

2002-01-01

Full Text Available This project draft discusses the issues facing a nation state in the dynamic processes of globalization. First, the term globalization is tentatively defined as a decentralized process of condensation and homogenization of space and time. Then, the ambivalent structure of the globalization discourse, i.e. its semantic and pragmatic dimensions, are shown. The neo-liberal viewpoint is explored of the erosion and weakening of the nation state within the global capitalist power, both in terms of its (state's traditional functions, and in terms of its internal and external sovereignty. Against the neo-liberal thesis about the decline of the nation state many empirical arguments have been offered. Some of these are presented in this text. The main point of this argumentation consists in a general view that the decline of the nation state is strongly linked with the process of globalization. In view of the critical argumentation included in the paper, it is argued that in the environment of global processes only the societies which have a strong state behind them have a chance to succeed. Politics, not economy, still dominates international relations. Emphasis on state politics opens a new perspective in discussing the process of globalization. Current globalization processes cannot be judged accurately unless geopolitical interests and the changing balance of world power are understood. Finally, the paper points to the ideological nature of the neo-liberal discourse of globalization, questioning another basic assumption of the latter, namely, the idea that the process of globalization is at the same time a process of emancipation. By challenging the positing of a necessary link between globalization and emancipation we formulate a position that allows for a normative critique of current processes.

Global marine radioactivity database (GLOMARD)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Povinec, P.P.; Gayol, J.; Togawa, O.

1999-01-01

In response to the request of Member States and under the IAEA's mandate, the IAEA Marine Environment Laboratory (MEL) in Monaco has established and maintains a Global Marine Radioactivity Database (GLOMARD). It is a vast project compiling radionuclide measurements taken in the marine environment. It consists of systematic input of all radionuclide concentration data available for sea water, sediment, biota and suspended matter. The GLOMARD is therefore a powerful tool for the researchers of MEL as it integrates the results of analyses in most of the areas of the marine environment which have been investigated

Consistent estimate of ocean warming, land ice melt and sea level rise from Observations

Science.gov (United States)

Blazquez, Alejandro; Meyssignac, Benoît; Lemoine, Jean Michel

2016-04-01

Based on the sea level budget closure approach, this study investigates the consistency of observed Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) estimates from satellite altimetry, observed Ocean Thermal Expansion (OTE) estimates from in-situ hydrographic data (based on Argo for depth above 2000m and oceanic cruises below) and GRACE observations of land water storage and land ice melt for the period January 2004 to December 2014. The consistency between these datasets is a key issue if we want to constrain missing contributions to sea level rise such as the deep ocean contribution. Numerous previous studies have addressed this question by summing up the different contributions to sea level rise and comparing it to satellite altimetry observations (see for example Llovel et al. 2015, Dieng et al. 2015). Here we propose a novel approach which consists in correcting GRACE solutions over the ocean (essentially corrections of stripes and leakage from ice caps) with mass observations deduced from the difference between satellite altimetry GMSL and in-situ hydrographic data OTE estimates. We check that the resulting GRACE corrected solutions are consistent with original GRACE estimates of the geoid spherical harmonic coefficients within error bars and we compare the resulting GRACE estimates of land water storage and land ice melt with independent results from the literature. This method provides a new mass redistribution from GRACE consistent with observations from Altimetry and OTE. We test the sensibility of this method to the deep ocean contribution and the GIA models and propose best estimates.

Tearing relaxation and the globalization of transport in field-reversed configurations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Steinhauer, Loren; Barnes, D. C.

2009-01-01

Tearing instability of field-reversed configurations (FRC) is investigated using the method of neighboring equilibria. It is shown that the conducting wall position in experiment lies very close to the location needed for tearing stability. This strongly suggests that vigorous but benign tearing modes, acting globally, are the engine of continual self-organization in FRCs, i.e., tearing relaxation. It also explains the ''profile consistency'' and anomalous loss rate of magnetic flux. In effect, tearing globalizes the effect of edge-driven transport.

A reliable and consistent production technology for high volume compacted graphite iron castings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liu Jincheng

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The demands for improved engine performance, fuel economy, durability, and lower emissions provide a continual challenge for engine designers. The use of Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI has been established for successful high volume series production in the passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle and industrial power sectors over the last decade. The increased demand for CGI engine components provides new opportunities for the cast iron foundry industry to establish efficient and robust CGI volume production processes, in China and globally. The production window range for stable CGI is narrow and constantly moving. Therefore, any one step single addition of magnesium alloy and the inoculant cannot ensure a reliable and consistent production process for complicated CGI engine castings. The present paper introduces the SinterCast thermal analysis process control system that provides for the consistent production of CGI with low nodularity and reduced porosity, without risking the formation of flake graphite. The technology is currently being used in high volume Chinese foundry production. The Chinese foundry industry can develop complicated high demand CGI engine castings with the proper process control technology.

Global Patterns of the Isotopic Composition of Soil and Plant Nitrogen

Science.gov (United States)

Amundson, R.; Yoo, K.

2014-12-01

From a societal perspective, soil N follows only soil C in the importance of soil to 21st century environmental issues. Amundson et al (2003) developed a mass balance model for soil N and the ratio of 15N/14N, and provided the first global projections of the spatial patterns of soil and plant δ15N values. It was hypothesized that state factors, particularly climate, should drive broad patterns of soil and plant δ15N values in a manner analogous to the known patterns of total soil N (e.g. Post et al., 1984). At that time, the N isotope data available to explore the effect of individual factors was modest. In the past decade, numerous papers from a broad spectrum of locations have created a rich database that can be used to further refine the initial projections made more than a decade ago. In this paper, hundreds of published measurements will be used to more deeply examine the climatic impacts on soil and plant δ15N values. Additionally, we will focus on the local controls of topography on ecosystem N cycling, which can create local isotopic variation that is similar in magnitude to the global effects of climate. The adoption of process-based models from the hillslope geomorphology community appears to be a powerful tool for explaining some existing data from toposequences, designing new studies of topographic controls on biogeochemistry, and particularly for parameterization in global models. Amundson, R., A.T. Austin, E.A.G. Schuur, K. Yoo, V. Matzek, C. Kendall, A. Uebersax, D. Brenner, and W.T. Baisden. 2003. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 17(1):1031.

Regulation of AKT phosphorylation at Ser473 and Thr308 by endoplasmic reticulum stress modulates substrate specificity in a severity dependent manner.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hong Wa Yung

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Endoplasmic reticulum (ER stress is a common factor in the pathophysiology of diverse human diseases that are characterised by contrasting cellular behaviours, from proliferation in cancer to apoptosis in neurodegenerative disorders. Coincidently, dysregulation of AKT/PKB activity, which is the central regulator of cell growth, proliferation and survival, is often associated with the same diseases. Here, we demonstrate that ER stress modulates AKT substrate specificity in a severity-dependent manner, as shown by phospho-specific antibodies against known AKT targets. ER stress also reduces both total and phosphorylated AKT in a severity-dependent manner, without affecting activity of the upstream kinase PDK1. Normalisation to total AKT revealed that under ER stress phosphorylation of Thr308 is suppressed while that of Ser473 is increased. ER stress induces GRP78, and siRNA-mediated knock-down of GRP78 enhances phosphorylation at Ser473 by 3.6 fold, but not at Thr308. Substrate specificity is again altered. An in-situ proximity ligation assay revealed a physical interaction between GRP78 and AKT at the plasma membrane of cells following induction of ER stress. Staining was weak in cells with normal nuclear morphology but stronger in those displaying rounded, condensed nuclei. Co-immunoprecipitation of GRP78 and P-AKT(Ser473 confirmed the immuno-complex consists of non-phosphorylated AKT (Ser473 and Thr308. The interaction is likely specific as AKT did not bind to all molecular chaperones, and GRP78 did not bind to p70 S6 kinase. These findings provide one mechanistic explanation for how ER stress contributes to human pathologies demonstrating contrasting cell fates via modulation of AKT signalling.

Regulation of AKT Phosphorylation at Ser473 and Thr308 by Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Modulates Substrate Specificity in a Severity Dependent Manner

Science.gov (United States)

Yung, Hong Wa

2011-01-01

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is a common factor in the pathophysiology of diverse human diseases that are characterised by contrasting cellular behaviours, from proliferation in cancer to apoptosis in neurodegenerative disorders. Coincidently, dysregulation of AKT/PKB activity, which is the central regulator of cell growth, proliferation and survival, is often associated with the same diseases. Here, we demonstrate that ER stress modulates AKT substrate specificity in a severity-dependent manner, as shown by phospho-specific antibodies against known AKT targets. ER stress also reduces both total and phosphorylated AKT in a severity-dependent manner, without affecting activity of the upstream kinase PDK1. Normalisation to total AKT revealed that under ER stress phosphorylation of Thr308 is suppressed while that of Ser473 is increased. ER stress induces GRP78, and siRNA-mediated knock-down of GRP78 enhances phosphorylation at Ser473 by 3.6 fold, but not at Thr308. Substrate specificity is again altered. An in-situ proximity ligation assay revealed a physical interaction between GRP78 and AKT at the plasma membrane of cells following induction of ER stress. Staining was weak in cells with normal nuclear morphology but stronger in those displaying rounded, condensed nuclei. Co-immunoprecipitation of GRP78 and P-AKT(Ser473) confirmed the immuno-complex consists of non-phosphorylated AKT (Ser473 and Thr308). The interaction is likely specific as AKT did not bind to all molecular chaperones, and GRP78 did not bind to p70 S6 kinase. These findings provide one mechanistic explanation for how ER stress contributes to human pathologies demonstrating contrasting cell fates via modulation of AKT signalling. PMID:21445305

Consistent-handed individuals are more authoritarian.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyle, Keith B; Grillo, Michael C

2014-01-01

Individuals differ in the consistency with which they use one hand over the other to perform everyday activities. Some individuals are very consistent, habitually using a single hand to perform most tasks. Others are relatively inconsistent, and hence make greater use of both hands. More- versus less-consistent individuals have been shown to differ in numerous aspects of personality and cognition. In several respects consistent-handed individuals resemble authoritarian individuals. For example, both consistent-handedness and authoritarianism have been linked to cognitive inflexibility. Therefore we hypothesised that consistent-handedness is an external marker for authoritarianism. Confirming our hypothesis, we found that consistent-handers scored higher than inconsistent-handers on a measure of submission to authority, were more likely to identify with a conservative political party (Republican), and expressed less-positive attitudes towards out-groups. We propose that authoritarianism may be influenced by the degree of interaction between the left and right brain hemispheres, which has been found to differ between consistent- and inconsistent-handed individuals.

Education, globalization, and income inequality in Asia

OpenAIRE

Park, Kang Hoon

2017-01-01

This study considers how education and globalization affect income inequality in Asia, with unbalanced panel data. The evidence supports the validity of Kuznets' inverted-U hypothesis for the connection between income level and income inequality. However, when more variables are integrated into the model, the consistency of the inverse U-shaped curve becomes weaker. The empirical results suggest that educational variables are highly influential in affecting income distribution. Our analysis i...

Recent reversal in loss of global terrestrial biomass

KAUST Repository

Liu, Yi Y.; Van Dijk, Albert I J M; De Jeu, Richard A M; Canadell., Josep G.; McCabe, Matthew; Evans, Jason P.; Wang, Guojie

2015-01-01

Vegetation change plays a critical role in the Earth's carbon (C) budget and its associated radiative forcing in response to anthropogenic and natural climate change. Existing global estimates of aboveground biomass carbon (ABC) based on field survey data provide brief snapshots that are mainly limited to forest ecosystems. Here we use an entirely new remote sensing approach to derive global ABC estimates for both forest and non-forest biomes during the past two decades from satellite passive microwave observations. We estimate a global average ABC of 362 PgC over the period 1998-2002, of which 65% is in forests and 17% in savannahs. Over the period 1993-2012, an estimated '0.07 PgC yr '1 ABC was lost globally, mostly resulting from the loss of tropical forests ('0.26 PgC yr '1) and net gains in mixed forests over boreal and temperate regions (+0.13 PgC yr '1) and tropical savannahs and shrublands (+0.05 PgC yr '1). Interannual ABC patterns are greatly influenced by the strong response of water-limited ecosystems to rainfall variability, particularly savannahs. From 2003 onwards, forest in Russia and China expanded and tropical deforestation declined. Increased ABC associated with wetter conditions in the savannahs of northern Australia and southern Africa reversed global ABC loss, leading to an overall gain, consistent with trends in the global carbon sink reported in recent studies. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

Recent reversal in loss of global terrestrial biomass

KAUST Repository

Liu, Yi Y.

2015-03-30

Vegetation change plays a critical role in the Earth\\'s carbon (C) budget and its associated radiative forcing in response to anthropogenic and natural climate change. Existing global estimates of aboveground biomass carbon (ABC) based on field survey data provide brief snapshots that are mainly limited to forest ecosystems. Here we use an entirely new remote sensing approach to derive global ABC estimates for both forest and non-forest biomes during the past two decades from satellite passive microwave observations. We estimate a global average ABC of 362 PgC over the period 1998-2002, of which 65% is in forests and 17% in savannahs. Over the period 1993-2012, an estimated \\'0.07 PgC yr \\'1 ABC was lost globally, mostly resulting from the loss of tropical forests (\\'0.26 PgC yr \\'1) and net gains in mixed forests over boreal and temperate regions (+0.13 PgC yr \\'1) and tropical savannahs and shrublands (+0.05 PgC yr \\'1). Interannual ABC patterns are greatly influenced by the strong response of water-limited ecosystems to rainfall variability, particularly savannahs. From 2003 onwards, forest in Russia and China expanded and tropical deforestation declined. Increased ABC associated with wetter conditions in the savannahs of northern Australia and southern Africa reversed global ABC loss, leading to an overall gain, consistent with trends in the global carbon sink reported in recent studies. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.

Self-consistent asset pricing models

Science.gov (United States)

Malevergne, Y.; Sornette, D.

2007-08-01

We discuss the foundations of factor or regression models in the light of the self-consistency condition that the market portfolio (and more generally the risk factors) is (are) constituted of the assets whose returns it is (they are) supposed to explain. As already reported in several articles, self-consistency implies correlations between the return disturbances. As a consequence, the alphas and betas of the factor model are unobservable. Self-consistency leads to renormalized betas with zero effective alphas, which are observable with standard OLS regressions. When the conditions derived from internal consistency are not met, the model is necessarily incomplete, which means that some sources of risk cannot be replicated (or hedged) by a portfolio of stocks traded on the market, even for infinite economies. Analytical derivations and numerical simulations show that, for arbitrary choices of the proxy which are different from the true market portfolio, a modified linear regression holds with a non-zero value αi at the origin between an asset i's return and the proxy's return. Self-consistency also introduces “orthogonality” and “normality” conditions linking the betas, alphas (as well as the residuals) and the weights of the proxy portfolio. Two diagnostics based on these orthogonality and normality conditions are implemented on a basket of 323 assets which have been components of the S&P500 in the period from January 1990 to February 2005. These two diagnostics show interesting departures from dynamical self-consistency starting about 2 years before the end of the Internet bubble. Assuming that the CAPM holds with the self-consistency condition, the OLS method automatically obeys the resulting orthogonality and normality conditions and therefore provides a simple way to self-consistently assess the parameters of the model by using proxy portfolios made only of the assets which are used in the CAPM regressions. Finally, the factor decomposition with the

Monitoring the Extent of Forests on National to Global Scales

Science.gov (United States)

Townshend, J.; Townshend, J.; Hansen, M.; DeFries, R.; DeFries, R.; Sohlberg, R.; Desch, A.; White, B.

2001-05-01

Information on forest extent and change is important for many purposes, including understanding the global carbon cycle and managing natural resources. International statistics on forest extent are generated using many different sources often producing inconsistent results spatially and through time. Results will be presented comparing forest extent derived from the recent global Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO) FRA 2000 report with products derived using wall-to-wall Landsat, AVHRR and MODIS data sets. The remotely sensed data sets provide consistent results in terms of total area despite considerable differences in spatial resolution. Although the location of change can be satisfactorily detected with all three remotely sensed data sets, reliable measurement of change can only be achieved through use of Landsat-resolution data. Contrary to the FRA 2000 results we find evidence of an increase in deforestation rates in the late 1990s in several countries. Also we have found evidence of considerable changes in some countries for which little or no change is reported by FAO. The results indicate the benefits of globally consistent analyses of forest cover based on multiscale remotely sensed data sets rather than a reliance on statistics generated by individual countries with very different definitions of forest and methods used to derive them.

Weighting of Acoustic Cues to a Manner Distinction by Children with and without Hearing Loss

Science.gov (United States)

Nittrouer, Susan; Lowenstein, Joanna H.

2015-01-01

Purpose: Children must develop optimal perceptual weighting strategies for processing speech in their first language. Hearing loss can interfere with that development, especially if cochlear implants are required. The three goals of this study were to measure, for children with and without hearing loss: (a) cue weighting for a manner distinction,…

Changes in forest productivity across Alaska consistent with biome shift.

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Pieter S A; Juday, Glenn P; Alix, Claire; Barber, Valerie A; Winslow, Stephen E; Sousa, Emily E; Heiser, Patricia; Herriges, James D; Goetz, Scott J

2011-04-01

Global vegetation models predict that boreal forests are particularly sensitive to a biome shift during the 21st century. This shift would manifest itself first at the biome's margins, with evergreen forest expanding into current tundra while being replaced by grasslands or temperate forest at the biome's southern edge. We evaluated changes in forest productivity since 1982 across boreal Alaska by linking satellite estimates of primary productivity and a large tree-ring data set. Trends in both records show consistent growth increases at the boreal-tundra ecotones that contrast with drought-induced productivity declines throughout interior Alaska. These patterns support the hypothesized effects of an initiating biome shift. Ultimately, tree dispersal rates, habitat availability and the rate of future climate change, and how it changes disturbance regimes, are expected to determine where the boreal biome will undergo a gradual geographic range shift, and where a more rapid decline. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/CNRS.

Self-consistent quark bags

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rafelski, J.

1979-01-01

After an introductory overview of the bag model the author uses the self-consistent solution of the coupled Dirac-meson fields to represent a bound state of strongly ineteracting fermions. In this framework he discusses the vivial approach to classical field equations. After a short description of the used numerical methods the properties of bound states of scalar self-consistent Fields and the solutions of a self-coupled Dirac field are considered. (HSI) [de

Global biogeography since Pangaea.

Science.gov (United States)

McIntyre, Sarah R N; Lineweaver, Charles H; Groves, Colin P; Chopra, Aditya

2017-06-14

The break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea around 180 Ma has left its imprint on the global distribution of species and resulted in vicariance-driven speciation. Here, we test the idea that the molecular clock dates, for the divergences of species whose geographical ranges were divided, should agree with the palaeomagnetic dates for the continental separations. Our analysis of recently available phylogenetic divergence dates of 42 pairs of vertebrate taxa, selected for their reduced ability to disperse, demonstrates that the divergence dates in phylogenetic trees of continent-bound terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates are consistent with the palaeomagnetic dates of continental separation. © 2017 The Author(s).

Global Citizenship and Global Universities. The Age of Global Interdependence and Cosmopolitanism

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, Carlos Alberto

2015-01-01

This article focuses on the role of global universities and globalisations in an age of global interdependence and cosmopolitanism. Competing agendas that result from actions and reactions to multiple globalisations are considered in relation to global citizenship education. These agendas are crucial in understanding dilemmas of the local and the…

Globalization and Self-Organization in the Knowledge-Based Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christian Fuchs

2008-07-01

Full Text Available In this paper I suggest that a theory of self-organization can be used as a consistent background theory for explaining the dynamics and logics of globalization. Globalization is not confined to the human realm, it is an attribute of all complex, self-organizing systems. Globalization in a synchronous sense means a micro-macro-link where bottom-up-emergence of new qualities in the self-reproduction of complex systems takes place, it is accompanied by a macro-micro-link of top-down-localization. A dynamic interaction between a global and a local level (glocalization results in the permanent overall self-reproduction of the system. Globalization in a diachronic sense means the emergence of a new, higher level of self-organization during a phase of instability and heavy fluctuations by order through fluctuation. Globalization is shaped by a dialectic of change and continuity: in the hierarchy that stems from emergent evolution there are both general aspects of globalization and aspects that are specific for each organizational level. Applying this general notion of globalization to society means that human globalization is both a general process that can be found in all societies and a specific process with emergent qualities in concrete phases of societal development. Globalization processes in modern society are based on structural antagonisms that result in uneven developments in the technosphere, the ecosphere, the economy, polity, and culture. The transition to Postfordist, informational capitalism has been a consequence of the development of the structural antagonisms of Fordism and has been accompanied by a new phase of globalization that has transformed the subsystems of society and has resulted in new antagonism that are an expression of general antagonisms that shape modern societies. Hence we find antagonistic tendencies of contemporary globalization in all subsystems of society that result in both risks and opportunities. Human beings

Organizing artistic activities in a recurrent manner : (on the nature of) entrepreneurship in the performing arts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergamini, Michela; Van de Velde, Ward; Van Looy, Bart; Visscher, Klaasjan

2017-01-01

A majority of performing arts organizations active in classical music, theatre, and contemporary dance rely on funding from "third parties" in order to organize productions in a recurrent manner. We adopt an entrepreneurial perspective to inform the debate on the economic sustainability of

The description of morality and manners in Vsevolod Solovyov’s short prose

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nikolsky Evgeny Vladimirovich

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This article contains a genre specificity of short prose by Vsevolod Solovyov, whose work is devoted to the Russian history between the 18th and 19th centuries. According to professor N.L. Vershinina, the author distinguishes the difference between the description of morality and manners. The main difference is in the presence of author’s point of view on the describing occurrences. In this case, such works are considered to be a kind of morality, which characterizes Solovyov’s works. Showing every-day life, he examined the process of turning barbarism into a civilizing society.

Self-consistent model of the low-latitude boundary layer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phan, T.D.; Sonnerup, B.U.Oe.; Lotko, W.

1989-01-01

A simple two-dimensional, steady state, viscous model of the dawnside and duskside low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL) has been developed. It incorporates coupling to the ionosphere via field-aligned currents and associated field-aligned potential drops, governed by a simple conductance law, and it describes boundary layer currents, magnetic fields, and plasma flow in a self-consistent manner. The magnetic field induced by these currents leads to two effects: (1) a diamagnetic depression of the magnetic field in the equatorial region and (2) bending of the field lines into parabolas in the xz plane with their vertices in the equatorial plane, at z = 0, and pointing in the flow direction, i.e., tailward. Both effects are strongest at the magnetopause edge of the boundary layer and vanish at the magnetospheric edge. The diamagnetic depression corresponds to an excess of plasma pressure in the equatorial boundary layer near the magnetopause. The boundary layer structure is governed by a fourth-order, nonlinear, ordinary differential equation in which one nondimensional parameter, the Hartmann number M, appears. A second parameter, introduced via the boundary conditions, is a nondimensional flow velocity v 0 * at the magnetopause. Numerical results from the model are presented and the possible use of observations to determine the model parameters is discussed. The main new contribution of the study is to provide a better description of the field and plasma configuration in the LLBL itself and to clarify in quantitative terms the circumstances in which induced magnetic fields become important

Global assessment of internal audit competence: Does one size fi t all?

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Data from the Institute of Internal Auditors' (IIA's) latest global Common Body of Knowledge ... Australia consistently indicated different perceptions of the levels of ... Australia's need for a country-specifi c internal audit competency assessment.

Global embedding of fibre inflation models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cicoli, Michele [Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna,via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna (Italy); INFN - Sezione di Bologna,viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna (Italy); Abdus Salam ICTP,Strada Costiera 11, Trieste 34151 (Italy); Muia, Francesco [Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford,1 Keble Rd., Oxford OX1 3NP (United Kingdom); Shukla, Pramod [Abdus Salam ICTP,Strada Costiera 11, Trieste 34151 (Italy)

2016-11-30

We present concrete embeddings of fibre inflation models in globally consistent type IIB Calabi-Yau orientifolds with closed string moduli stabilisation. After performing a systematic search through the existing list of toric Calabi-Yau manifolds, we find several examples that reproduce the minimal setup to embed fibre inflation models. This involves Calabi-Yau manifolds with h{sup 1,1}=3 which are K3 fibrations over a ℙ{sup 1} base with an additional shrinkable rigid divisor. We then provide different consistent choices of the underlying brane set-up which generate a non-perturbative superpotential suitable for moduli stabilisation and string loop corrections with the correct form to drive inflation. For each Calabi-Yau orientifold setting, we also compute the effect of higher derivative contributions and study their influence on the inflationary dynamics.

High Predictive Skill of Global Surface Temperature a Year Ahead

Science.gov (United States)

Folland, C. K.; Colman, A.; Kennedy, J. J.; Knight, J.; Parker, D. E.; Stott, P.; Smith, D. M.; Boucher, O.

2011-12-01

We discuss the high skill of real-time forecasts of global surface temperature a year ahead issued by the UK Met Office, and their scientific background. Although this is a forecasting and not a formal attribution study, we show that the main instrumental global annual surface temperature data sets since 1891 are structured consistently with a set of five physical forcing factors except during and just after the second World War. Reconstructions use a multiple application of cross validated linear regression to minimise artificial skill allowing time-varying uncertainties in the contribution of each forcing factor to global temperature to be assessed. Mean cross validated reconstructions for the data sets have total correlations in the range 0.93-0.95,interannual correlations in the range 0.72-0.75 and root mean squared errors near 0.06oC, consistent with observational uncertainties.Three transient runs of the HadCM3 coupled model for 1888-2002 demonstrate quite similar reconstruction skill from similar forcing factors defined appropriately for the model, showing that skilful use of our technique is not confined to observations. The observed reconstructions show that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) likely contributed to the re-commencement of global warming between 1976 and 2010 and to global cooling observed immediately beforehand in 1965-1976. The slowing of global warming in the last decade is likely to be largely due to a phase-delayed response to the downturn in the solar cycle since 2001-2, with no net ENSO contribution. The much reduced trend in 2001-10 is similar in size to other weak decadal temperature trends observed since global warming resumed in the 1970s. The causes of variations in decadal trends can be mostly explained by variations in the strength of the forcing factors. Eleven real-time forecasts of global mean surface temperature for the year ahead for 2000-2010, based on broadly similar methods, provide an independent test of the

Grazing the Commons. Global Carbon Emissions Forever?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Melenberg, B. [CentER and Department of Econometrics and Operations Research, Tilburg University, Tilburg (Netherlands); Vollebergh, H.R.J. [Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency PBL, Bilthoven (Netherlands); Dijkgraaf, E. [SEOR-ECRi and Tinbergen Institute, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam (Netherlands)

2011-02-15

This paper presents the results from our investigation of the per-capita, long-term relation between carbon dioxide emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) for the world, obtained with the use of a new, flexible estimator. Consistent with simple economic growth models, we find that regional, population-weighted per-capita emissions systematically increase with income (scale effect) and usually decline over time (composition and technology effect). Both our in-sample results and out-of-sample scenarios indicate that this negative time effect is unlikely to compensate for the upward-income effect at a global level, in the near future. In particular, even if China's specialization in carbon-intensive industrial sectors would come to a halt, recent trends outside China make a reversal of the overall global trend very unlikely.

Strategic Positioning of IT in Global Organizations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Siurdyban, Artur

2010-01-01

understanding of the role of IT in value creation from a business process perspective, and at the same time practitioners may use it to diagnose, communicate and plan IT positioning in their companies. The tool consists of visual maps assigning different steps of the business process management lifecycle......Executives in large global corporations are faced with a number of non-alternative decision parameters determining the strategic positioning of their IT units. These parameters include organizational structures, competence development and distribution among central and local levels, goal setting...... and type of value contributed to the organization. Although the existing body of research addresses these issues in numerous ways, the concepts have not been fully applied in practice. This paper proposes a tool for strategic positioning of IT in large global companies. It contributes to the overall...

Binnie, Jon, The Globalization of Sexuality.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Cristina Santos

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Jon Binnie tem um longo trabalho no âmbito da Geografia das Sexualidades, partilhando tal reconhecimento científico com nomes como Gill Valentine ou David Bell. Neste seu mais recente livro, Binnie retoma algumas perplexidades formuladas em The Sexual Citizen: Queer Politics and Beyond (com D. Bell, 2000 ou Pleasure Zones: Bodies, Cities, Spaces (com R. Holliday, R. Longhurst e R. Peace, 2001. O objectivo principal de The Globalization of Sexuality consiste em dar conta da heteronormativid...

Hydrodynamic modelling and global datasets: Flow connectivity and SRTM data, a Bangkok case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Trigg, M. A.; Bates, P. B.; Michaelides, K.

2012-04-01

The rise in the global interconnected manufacturing supply chains requires an understanding and consistent quantification of flood risk at a global scale. Flood risk is often better quantified (or at least more precisely defined) in regions where there has been an investment in comprehensive topographical data collection such as LiDAR coupled with detailed hydrodynamic modelling. Yet in regions where these data and modelling are unavailable, the implications of flooding and the knock on effects for global industries can be dramatic, as evidenced by the recent floods in Bangkok, Thailand. There is a growing momentum in terms of global modelling initiatives to address this lack of a consistent understanding of flood risk and they will rely heavily on the application of available global datasets relevant to hydrodynamic modelling, such as Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data and its derivatives. These global datasets bring opportunities to apply consistent methodologies on an automated basis in all regions, while the use of coarser scale datasets also brings many challenges such as sub-grid process representation and downscaled hydrology data from global climate models. There are significant opportunities for hydrological science in helping define new, realistic and physically based methodologies that can be applied globally as well as the possibility of gaining new insights into flood risk through analysis of the many large datasets that will be derived from this work. We use Bangkok as a case study to explore some of the issues related to using these available global datasets for hydrodynamic modelling, with particular focus on using SRTM data to represent topography. Research has shown that flow connectivity on the floodplain is an important component in the dynamics of flood flows on to and off the floodplain, and indeed within different areas of the floodplain. A lack of representation of flow connectivity, often due to data resolution limitations, means

Forest Loss in Protected Areas and Intact Forest Landscapes: A Global Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Heino, Matias; Kummu, Matti; Makkonen, Marika; Mulligan, Mark; Verburg, Peter H; Jalava, Mika; Räsänen, Timo A

2015-01-01

In spite of the high importance of forests, global forest loss has remained alarmingly high during the last decades. Forest loss at a global scale has been unveiled with increasingly finer spatial resolution, but the forest extent and loss in protected areas (PAs) and in large intact forest landscapes (IFLs) have not so far been systematically assessed. Moreover, the impact of protection on preserving the IFLs is not well understood. In this study we conducted a consistent assessment of the global forest loss in PAs and IFLs over the period 2000-2012. We used recently published global remote sensing based spatial forest cover change data, being a uniform and consistent dataset over space and time, together with global datasets on PAs' and IFLs' locations. Our analyses revealed that on a global scale 3% of the protected forest, 2.5% of the intact forest, and 1.5% of the protected intact forest were lost during the study period. These forest loss rates are relatively high compared to global total forest loss of 5% for the same time period. The variation in forest losses and in protection effect was large among geographical regions and countries. In some regions the loss in protected forests exceeded 5% (e.g. in Australia and Oceania, and North America) and the relative forest loss was higher inside protected areas than outside those areas (e.g. in Mongolia and parts of Africa, Central Asia, and Europe). At the same time, protection was found to prevent forest loss in several countries (e.g. in South America and Southeast Asia). Globally, high area-weighted forest loss rates of protected and intact forests were associated with high gross domestic product and in the case of protected forests also with high proportions of agricultural land. Our findings reinforce the need for improved understanding of the reasons for the high forest losses in PAs and IFLs and strategies to prevent further losses.

Globalization

OpenAIRE

Tulio Rosembuj

2006-01-01

There is no singular globalization, nor is the result of an individual agent. We could start by saying that global action has different angles and subjects who perform it are different, as well as its objectives. The global is an invisible invasion of materials and immediate effects.

Consistently Showing Your Best Side? Intra-individual Consistency in #Selfie Pose Orientation

Science.gov (United States)

Lindell, Annukka K.

2017-01-01

Painted and photographic portraits of others show an asymmetric bias: people favor their left cheek. Both experimental and database studies confirm that the left cheek bias extends to selfies. To date all such selfie studies have been cross-sectional; whether individual selfie-takers tend to consistently favor the same pose orientation, or switch between multiple poses, remains to be determined. The present study thus examined intra-individual consistency in selfie pose orientations. Two hundred selfie-taking participants (100 male and 100 female) were identified by searching #selfie on Instagram. The most recent 10 single-subject selfies for the each of the participants were selected and coded for type of selfie (normal; mirror) and pose orientation (left, midline, right), resulting in a sample of 2000 selfies. Results indicated that selfie-takers do tend to consistently adopt a preferred pose orientation (α = 0.72), with more participants showing an overall left cheek bias (41%) than would be expected by chance (overall right cheek bias = 31.5%; overall midline bias = 19.5%; no overall bias = 8%). Logistic regression modellng, controlling for the repeated measure of participant identity, indicated that sex did not affect pose orientation. However, selfie type proved a significant predictor when comparing left and right cheek poses, with a stronger left cheek bias for mirror than normal selfies. Overall, these novel findings indicate that selfie-takers show intra-individual consistency in pose orientation, and in addition, replicate the previously reported left cheek bias for selfies and other types of portrait, confirming that the left cheek bias also presents within individuals’ selfie corpora. PMID:28270790

Contextualizing the global relevance of local land change observations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magliocca, N R; Ellis, E C; Oates, T; Schmill, M

2014-01-01

To understand global changes in the Earth system, scientists must generalize globally from observations made locally and regionally. In land change science (LCS), local field-based observations are costly and time consuming, and generally obtained by researchers working at disparate local and regional case-study sites chosen for different reasons. As a result, global synthesis efforts in LCS tend to be based on non-statistical inferences subject to geographic biases stemming from data limitations and fragmentation. Thus, a fundamental challenge is the production of generalized knowledge that links evidence of the causes and consequences of local land change to global patterns and vice versa. The GLOBE system was designed to meet this challenge. GLOBE aims to transform global change science by enabling new scientific workflows based on statistically robust, globally relevant integration of local and regional observations using an online social-computational and geovisualization system. Consistent with the goals of Digital Earth, GLOBE has the capability to assess the global relevance of local case-study findings within the context of over 50 global biophysical, land-use, climate, and socio-economic datasets. We demonstrate the implementation of one such assessment – a representativeness analysis – with a recently published meta-study of changes in swidden agriculture in tropical forests. The analysis provides a standardized indicator to judge the global representativeness of the trends reported in the meta-study, and a geovisualization is presented that highlights areas for which sampling efforts can be reduced and those in need of further study. GLOBE will enable researchers and institutions to rapidly share, compare, and synthesize local and regional studies within the global context, as well as contributing to the larger goal of creating a Digital Earth

Geometric methods of global attraction in systems of delay differential equations

Science.gov (United States)

El-Morshedy, Hassan A.; Ruiz-Herrera, Alfonso

2017-11-01

In this paper we deduce criteria of global attraction in systems of delay differential equations. Our methodology is new and consists in "dominating" the nonlinear terms of the system by a scalar function and then studying some dynamical properties of that function. One of the crucial benefits of our approach is that we obtain delay-dependent results of global attraction that cover the best delay-independent conditions. We apply our results in a gene regulatory model and the classical Nicholson's blowfly equation with patch structure.

A Global Navigation Management Architecture Applied to Autonomous Robots in Urban Environments

OpenAIRE

Kenmogne , Ide-Flore; Alves De Lima , Danilo; Corrêa Victorino , Alessandro

2015-01-01

International audience; This paper presents a global behavioral architecture used as a coordinator for the global navigation of an autonomous vehicle in an urban context including traffic laws and other features. As an extension to our previous work, the approach presented here focuses on how this manager uses perceived information (from low cost cameras and laser scanners) combined with digital road-map data to take decisions. This decision consists in retrieving the car's state regarding th...

Impacts of Dams and Global Warming on Fish Biodiversity in the Indo-Burma Hotspot.

Science.gov (United States)

Kano, Yuichi; Dudgeon, David; Nam, So; Samejima, Hiromitsu; Watanabe, Katsutoshi; Grudpan, Chaiwut; Grudpan, Jarungjit; Magtoon, Wichan; Musikasinthorn, Prachya; Nguyen, Phuong Thanh; Praxaysonbath, Bounthob; Sato, Tomoyuki; Shibukawa, Koichi; Shimatani, Yukihiro; Suvarnaraksha, Apinun; Tanaka, Wataru; Thach, Phanara; Tran, Dac Dinh; Yamashita, Tomomi; Utsugi, Kenzo

2016-01-01

Both hydropower dams and global warming pose threats to freshwater fish diversity. While the extent of global warming may be reduced by a shift towards energy generation by large dams in order to reduce fossil-fuel use, such dams profoundly modify riverine habitats. Furthermore, the threats posed by dams and global warming will interact: for example, dams constrain range adjustments by fishes that might compensate for warming temperatures. Evaluation of their combined or synergistic effects is thus essential for adequate assessment of the consequences of planned water-resource developments. We made projections of the responses of 363 fish species within the Indo-Burma global biodiversity hotspot to the separate and joint impacts of dams and global warming. The hotspot encompasses the Lower Mekong Basin, which is the world's largest freshwater capture fishery. Projections for 81 dam-building scenarios revealed progressive impacts upon projected species richness, habitable area, and the proportion of threatened species as generating capacity increased. Projections from 126 global-warming scenarios included a rise in species richness, a reduction in habitable area, and an increase in the proportion of threatened species; however, there was substantial variation in the extent of these changes among warming projections. Projections from scenarios that combined the effects of dams and global warming were derived either by simply adding the two threats, or by combining them in a synergistic manner that took account of the likelihood that habitat shifts under global warming would be constrained by river fragmentation. Impacts on fish diversity under the synergistic projections were 10-20% higher than those attributable to additive scenarios, and were exacerbated as generating capacity increased-particularly if CO2 emissions remained high. The impacts of dams, especially those on river mainstreams, are likely to be greater, more predictable and more immediately pressing for

Impacts of Dams and Global Warming on Fish Biodiversity in the Indo-Burma Hotspot.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuichi Kano

Full Text Available Both hydropower dams and global warming pose threats to freshwater fish diversity. While the extent of global warming may be reduced by a shift towards energy generation by large dams in order to reduce fossil-fuel use, such dams profoundly modify riverine habitats. Furthermore, the threats posed by dams and global warming will interact: for example, dams constrain range adjustments by fishes that might compensate for warming temperatures. Evaluation of their combined or synergistic effects is thus essential for adequate assessment of the consequences of planned water-resource developments. We made projections of the responses of 363 fish species within the Indo-Burma global biodiversity hotspot to the separate and joint impacts of dams and global warming. The hotspot encompasses the Lower Mekong Basin, which is the world's largest freshwater capture fishery. Projections for 81 dam-building scenarios revealed progressive impacts upon projected species richness, habitable area, and the proportion of threatened species as generating capacity increased. Projections from 126 global-warming scenarios included a rise in species richness, a reduction in habitable area, and an increase in the proportion of threatened species; however, there was substantial variation in the extent of these changes among warming projections. Projections from scenarios that combined the effects of dams and global warming were derived either by simply adding the two threats, or by combining them in a synergistic manner that took account of the likelihood that habitat shifts under global warming would be constrained by river fragmentation. Impacts on fish diversity under the synergistic projections were 10-20% higher than those attributable to additive scenarios, and were exacerbated as generating capacity increased-particularly if CO2 emissions remained high. The impacts of dams, especially those on river mainstreams, are likely to be greater, more predictable and more

Global Awareness in the Classroom: Global Classroom Initiative

Science.gov (United States)

Education Canada, 2004

2004-01-01

As countries around the world move toward global integration, knowledge of how Canada interrelates globally is becoming an increasingly useful asset. It is important that young Canadians learn what it means to become responsible global citizens. Awareness about global issues and appreciation of Canada's efforts in international development offer a…

Interface Consistency

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staunstrup, Jørgen

1998-01-01

This paper proposes that Interface Consistency is an important issue for the development of modular designs. Byproviding a precise specification of component interfaces it becomes possible to check that separately developedcomponents use a common interface in a coherent matter thus avoiding a very...... significant source of design errors. Awide range of interface specifications are possible, the simplest form is a syntactical check of parameter types.However, today it is possible to do more sophisticated forms involving semantic checks....

Derivation and analysis of a high-resolution estimate of global permafrost zonation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Gruber

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Permafrost underlies much of Earth's surface and interacts with climate, eco-systems and human systems. It is a complex phenomenon controlled by climate and (sub- surface properties and reacts to change with variable delay. Heterogeneity and sparse data challenge the modeling of its spatial distribution. Currently, there is no data set to adequately inform global studies of permafrost. The available data set for the Northern Hemisphere is frequently used for model evaluation, but its quality and consistency are difficult to assess. Here, a global model of permafrost extent and dataset of permafrost zonation are presented and discussed, extending earlier studies by including the Southern Hemisphere, by consistent data and methods, by attention to uncertainty and scaling. Established relationships between air temperature and the occurrence of permafrost are re-formulated into a model that is parametrized using published estimates. It is run with a high-resolution (<1 km global elevation data and air temperatures based on the NCAR-NCEP reanalysis and CRU TS 2.0. The resulting data provide more spatial detail and a consistent extrapolation to remote regions, while aggregated values resemble previous studies. The estimated uncertainties affect regional patterns and aggregate number, and provide interesting insight. The permafrost area, i.e. the actual surface area underlain by permafrost, north of 60° S is estimated to be 13–18 × 10⁶ km² or 9–14 % of the exposed land surface. The global permafrost area including Antarctic and sub-sea permafrost is estimated to be 16–21 × 10⁶ km². The global permafrost region, i.e. the exposed land surface below which some permafrost can be expected, is estimated to be 22 ± 3 × 10⁶ km². A large proportion of this exhibits considerable topography and spatially-discontinuous permafrost, underscoring the importance of attention to scaling issues

Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Climate Data Record (CDR), Version 2.3 (Monthly)

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) consists of monthly satellite-gauge and associated precipitation error estimates and covers the period January...

Developing offshore outsourcing practices in a global selective outsourcing environment – the IT supplier’s viewpoint

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anne-Maarit University of Turku

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Currently, internal IT organizations use outsourcing and offshore arrangements to achieve cost savings and gain access to new capabilities. It was found that suppliers’ personnel at the operational level can face challenges with internalizing their operations based on the agreed outsourcing practices and transferred responsibilities. This study gives voice to the supplier and studies the impact of offshore outsourcing operation development activities. The internal IT unit from Nokia Devices selectively outsourced global IT service activities and responsibilities to the IT supplier. The outsourced activities were implemented by offshore centers in India and China. It was found that the global selective outsourcing environment (GSOE did not provide a solution to all of their expectations, and new unexpected challenges occurred. Several practices, communication and information sharing, and behavior-related lessons learned items were identified. It was found that the GSOE operation needs to be developed and implemented in an agile and incremental manner, instead of a singular implementation approach. Also, the globally distributed teams’ group dynamics critically impacted on the teams’ ability to work. The lessons learned items and recommendations can be utilized by other companies during their mode-of-operation development.

The Economic Sovereignty of the State as the Defining Instrument of Economic Policy in the Context of Globalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mykytas Viktoriia V.

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The modern world is characterized by rapid integration and globalization processes, which have both a positive and a negative impact on the development of each country. National economies operate in the midst of global uncertainty, which is becoming the platform for the formation and implementation of the State economic policy, which should not only describe the conditions for strategic development of country but also adequately respond to the risks emerging out of the complex integration processes. The failure of the State to respond in a timely and adequate manner to the risks will result in lesser benefits and positive effects of integration processes than the impact of destabilizing factors. In such circumstances, economic sovereignty becomes the most important instrument of the State through which it can defend its national economic interests and form an effective economic policy.

Globalization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tulio Rosembuj

2006-12-01

Full Text Available There is no singular globalization, nor is the result of an individual agent. We could start by saying that global action has different angles and subjects who perform it are different, as well as its objectives. The global is an invisible invasion of materials and immediate effects.

Low diversity Cryptococcus neoformans variety grubii multilocus sequence types from Thailand are consistent with an ancestral African origin.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sitali P Simwami

2011-04-01

Full Text Available The global burden of HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis is estimated at nearly one million cases per year, causing up to a third of all AIDS-related deaths. Molecular epidemiology constitutes the main methodology for understanding the factors underpinning the emergence of this understudied, yet increasingly important, group of pathogenic fungi. Cryptococcus species are notable in the degree that virulence differs amongst lineages, and highly-virulent emerging lineages are changing patterns of human disease both temporally and spatially. Cryptococcus neoformans variety grubii (Cng, serotype A constitutes the most ubiquitous cause of cryptococcal meningitis worldwide, however patterns of molecular diversity are understudied across some regions experiencing significant burdens of disease. We compared 183 clinical and environmental isolates of Cng from one such region, Thailand, Southeast Asia, against a global MLST database of 77 Cng isolates. Population genetic analyses showed that Thailand isolates from 11 provinces were highly homogenous, consisting of the same genetic background (globally known as VNI and exhibiting only ten nearly identical sequence types (STs, with three (STs 44, 45 and 46 dominating our sample. This population contains significantly less diversity when compared against the global population of Cng, specifically Africa. Genetic diversity in Cng was significantly subdivided at the continental level with nearly half (47% of the global STs unique to a genetically diverse and recombining population in Botswana. These patterns of diversity, when combined with evidence from haplotypic networks and coalescent analyses of global populations, are highly suggestive of an expansion of the Cng VNI clade out of Africa, leading to a limited number of genotypes founding the Asian populations. Divergence time testing estimates the time to the most common ancestor between the African and Asian populations to be 6,920 years ago (95% HPD

Replica consistency in a Data Grid

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Domenici, Andrea; Donno, Flavia; Pucciani, Gianni; Stockinger, Heinz; Stockinger, Kurt

2004-01-01

A Data Grid is a wide area computing infrastructure that employs Grid technologies to provide storage capacity and processing power to applications that handle very large quantities of data. Data Grids rely on data replication to achieve better performance and reliability by storing copies of data sets on different Grid nodes. When a data set can be modified by applications, the problem of maintaining consistency among existing copies arises. The consistency problem also concerns metadata, i.e., additional information about application data sets such as indices, directories, or catalogues. This kind of metadata is used both by the applications and by the Grid middleware to manage the data. For instance, the Replica Management Service (the Grid middleware component that controls data replication) uses catalogues to find the replicas of each data set. Such catalogues can also be replicated and their consistency is crucial to the correct operation of the Grid. Therefore, metadata consistency generally poses stricter requirements than data consistency. In this paper we report on the development of a Replica Consistency Service based on the middleware mainly developed by the European Data Grid Project. The paper summarises the main issues in the replica consistency problem, and lays out a high-level architectural design for a Replica Consistency Service. Finally, results from simulations of different consistency models are presented

The Global Financial Crisis and currency crises in Latin America

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boonman, Tjeerd M.; Jacobs, Jan P.A.M.; Kuper, Gerard H.

2012-01-01

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has aected many regions including Latin America. This paper focuses on currency crises in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. We estimate an Early Warning System, consisting of a dynamic factor model and an ordered logit model, with monthly data for 1990-2007. Ex ante

Response of coral assemblages to thermal stress: are bleaching intensity and spatial patterns consistent between events?

Science.gov (United States)

Penin, Lucie; Vidal-Dupiol, Jeremie; Adjeroud, Mehdi

2013-06-01

Mass bleaching events resulting in coral mortality are among the greatest threats to coral reefs, and are projected to increase in frequency and intensity with global warming. Achieving a better understanding of the consistency of the response of coral assemblages to thermal stress, both spatially and temporally, is essential to determine which reefs are more able to tolerate climate change. We compared variations in spatial and taxonomic patterns between two bleaching events at the scale of an island (Moorea Island, French Polynesia). Despite similar thermal stress and light conditions, bleaching intensity was significantly lower in 2007 (approximately 37 % of colonies showed signs of bleaching) than in 2002, when 55 % of the colonies bleached. Variations in the spatial patterns of bleaching intensity were consistent between the two events. Among nine sampling stations at three locations and three depths, the stations at which the bleaching response was lowest in 2002 were those that showed the lowest levels of bleaching in 2007. The taxonomic patterns of susceptibility to bleaching were also consistent between the two events. These findings have important implications for conservation because they indicate that corals are capable of acclimatization and/or adaptation and that, even at small spatial scales, some areas are consistently more susceptible to bleaching than others.

Silence and table manners : When environments activate norms (Retracted article. See vol. 38, pg. 1378, 2012)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Joly, Janneke F.; Stapel, Diederik A.; Lindenberg, Siegwart M.

Two studies tested the conditions under which an environment (e. g., library, restaurant) raises the relevance of environment-specific social norms (e. g., being quiet, using table manners). As hypothesized, the relevance of such norms is raised when environments are goal relevant ("I am going there

Global competence of employees in Hispanic Enterprises in the south of United States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mónica Blanco Jimenez

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Developing interculturally competent students who can compete successfully in the global market is one of the challenges for institutions of higher education in the United States. Some researchers think that Colleges and universities must make a deeper commitment to prepare globally competent graduates. A common assumption is that the processes by which people are educated need to be broadly consistent with the way in which organizations operate in a globalizing environment. With this in mind, we turned to managers of Hispanic enterprises to report whether they believed their employees possess the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experiences deemed necessary for attaining global competency. We developed a questionnaire based on one created by Hunter (2004 to measure global competencies. We sent them to managers of some Hispanic enterprises who are members of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. In our results we found that employees of the Hispanic enterprises that were targeted do not generally have a high level of global competence according to our indicators.

Similar Estimates of Temperature Impacts on Global Wheat Yield by Three Independent Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Bing; Asseng, Senthold; Muller, Christoph; Ewart, Frank; Elliott, Joshua; Lobell, David B.; Martre, Pierre; Ruane, Alex C.; Wallach, Daniel; Jones, James W.;

Similar estimates of temperature impacts on global wheat yield by three independent methods

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Bing; Asseng, Senthold; Müller, Christoph; Ewert, Frank; Elliott, Joshua; Lobell, David B.; Martre, Pierre; Ruane, Alex C.; Wallach, Daniel; Jones, James W.; Rosenzweig, Cynthia; Aggarwal, Pramod K.; Alderman, Phillip D.; Anothai, Jakarat; Basso, Bruno; Biernath, Christian; Cammarano, Davide; Challinor, Andy; Deryng, Delphine; Sanctis, Giacomo De; Doltra, Jordi; Fereres, Elias; Folberth, Christian; Garcia-Vila, Margarita; Gayler, Sebastian; Hoogenboom, Gerrit; Hunt, Leslie A.; Izaurralde, Roberto C.; Jabloun, Mohamed; Jones, Curtis D.; Kersebaum, Kurt C.; Kimball, Bruce A.; Koehler, Ann-Kristin; Kumar, Soora Naresh; Nendel, Claas; O'Leary, Garry J.; Olesen, Jørgen E.; Ottman, Michael J.; Palosuo, Taru; Prasad, P. V. Vara; Priesack, Eckart; Pugh, Thomas A. M.; Reynolds, Matthew; Rezaei, Ehsan E.; Rötter, Reimund P.; Schmid, Erwin; Semenov, Mikhail A.; Shcherbak, Iurii; Stehfest, Elke; Stöckle, Claudio O.; Stratonovitch, Pierre; Streck, Thilo; Supit, Iwan; Tao, Fulu; Thorburn, Peter; Waha, Katharina; Wall, Gerard W.; Wang, Enli; White, Jeffrey W.; Wolf, Joost; Zhao, Zhigan; Zhu, Yan

2016-12-01

The potential impact of global temperature change on global crop yield has recently been assessed with different methods. Here we show that grid-based and point-based simulations and statistical regressions (from historic records), without deliberate adaptation or CO2 fertilization effects, produce similar estimates of temperature impact on wheat yields at global and national scales. With a 1 °C global temperature increase, global wheat yield is projected to decline between 4.1% and 6.4%. Projected relative temperature impacts from different methods were similar for major wheat-producing countries China, India, USA and France, but less so for Russia. Point-based and grid-based simulations, and to some extent the statistical regressions, were consistent in projecting that warmer regions are likely to suffer more yield loss with increasing temperature than cooler regions. By forming a multi-method ensemble, it was possible to quantify `method uncertainty’ in addition to model uncertainty. This significantly improves confidence in estimates of climate impacts on global food security.

Coordinating user interfaces for consistency

CERN Document Server

Nielsen, Jakob

2001-01-01

In the years since Jakob Nielsen's classic collection on interface consistency first appeared, much has changed, and much has stayed the same. On the one hand, there's been exponential growth in the opportunities for following or disregarding the principles of interface consistency-more computers, more applications, more users, and of course the vast expanse of the Web. On the other, there are the principles themselves, as persistent and as valuable as ever. In these contributed chapters, you'll find details on many methods for seeking and enforcing consistency, along with bottom-line analys

Global Strategy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Peter Ping

2013-01-01

Global strategy differs from domestic strategy in terms of content and process as well as context and structure. The content of global strategy can contain five key elements, while the process of global strategy can have six major stages. These are expounded below. Global strategy is influenced...... by rich and complementary local contexts with diverse resource pools and game rules at the national level to form a broad ecosystem at the global level. Further, global strategy dictates the interaction or balance between different entry strategies at the levels of internal and external networks....

High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change.

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, M C; Potapov, P V; Moore, R; Hancher, M; Turubanova, S A; Tyukavina, A; Thau, D; Stehman, S V; Goetz, S J; Loveland, T R; Kommareddy, A; Egorov, A; Chini, L; Justice, C O; Townshend, J R G

2013-11-15

Quantification of global forest change has been lacking despite the recognized importance of forest ecosystem services. In this study, Earth observation satellite data were used to map global forest loss (2.3 million square kilometers) and gain (0.8 million square kilometers) from 2000 to 2012 at a spatial resolution of 30 meters. The tropics were the only climate domain to exhibit a trend, with forest loss increasing by 2101 square kilometers per year. Brazil's well-documented reduction in deforestation was offset by increasing forest loss in Indonesia, Malaysia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Zambia, Angola, and elsewhere. Intensive forestry practiced within subtropical forests resulted in the highest rates of forest change globally. Boreal forest loss due largely to fire and forestry was second to that in the tropics in absolute and proportional terms. These results depict a globally consistent and locally relevant record of forest change.

Considerations on the manner to account for fast fracture risk in the design of PWR vessels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pellisier-Tanon, A.; Grandemange, J.M.

1985-08-01

The way followed in France for analyzing fast fracture resistance of PWR primary components is the one of a deterministic analysis with safety coefficients imposed in the fracture criteria. The study of margins towards fast fracture of the 900 MWe program vessels undertaken in 1982 includes parametric evaluations of the influence of essential variables. It has stimulated further thoughts on the level of safety to fix in the analysis methodology, on the orientations for the choice of safety factors and on the manner to introduce them in the analysis. A first chapter tries to characterize the French approach in comparison to those of other countries. A second chapter examines the manner according to which safety factors can be introduced in the deterministic analysis. It presents the principle for a logical approach accounting for the interdependency of all factors and variables. It establishes criteria for the selection of defect kind and size for the computation

MODIS/Terra Vegetation Indices Monthly L3 Global 1km SIN Grid V005

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Global MODIS vegetation indices are designed to provide consistent spatial and temporal comparisons of vegetation conditions. Blue, red, and near-infrared...

MODIS/Terra Vegetation Indices Monthly L3 Global 0.05Deg CMG V005

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Global MODIS vegetation indices are designed to provide consistent spatial and temporal comparisons of vegetation conditions. Blue, red, and near-infrared...

MODIS/Aqua Vegetation Indices Monthly L3 Global 1km SIN Grid V005

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Global MODIS vegetation indices are designed to provide consistent spatial and temporal comparisons of vegetation conditions. Blue, red, and near-infrared...

The identification of sites of biodiversity conservation significance: progress with the application of a global standard

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.N. Foster

2012-08-01

Full Text Available As a global community, we have a responsibility to ensure the long-term future of our natural heritage. As part of this, it is incumbent upon us to do all that we can to reverse the current trend of biodiversity loss, using all available tools at our disposal. One effective mean is safeguarding of those sites that are highest global priority for the conservation of biodiversity, whether through formal protected areas, community managed reserves, multiple-use areas, or other means. This special issue of the Journal of Threatened Taxa examines the application of the Key Biodiversity Area (KBA approach to identifying such sites. Given the global mandate expressed through policy instruments such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, the KBA approach can help countries meet obligations in an efficient and transparent manner. KBA methodology follows the well-established general principles of vulnerability and irreplaceability, and while it aims to be a globally standardized approach, it recognizes the fundamental need for the process to be led at local and national levels. In this series of papers the application of the KBA approach is explored in seven countries or regions: the Caribbean, Indo-Burma, Japan, Macedonia, Mediterranean Algeria, the Philippines and the Upper Guinea region of West Africa. This introductory article synthesizes some of the common main findings and provides a comparison of key summary statistics.

Report: EPA Needs Policies and Procedures to Manage Public Pesticide Petitions in a Transparent and Efficient Manner

Science.gov (United States)

Report #16-P-0019, October 27, 2015. OPP’s lack of policies and procedures to manage public pesticide petitions in a transparent and efficient manner can result in unreasonable delay lawsuits costing the agency time and resources.

Effects of land use on zoonotic host communities: a global correlative analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rory Gibb, MRes

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Environmental trade-offs associated with land use—for example, between food security and biodiversity conservation—are crucial dimensions of planetary health. Land use-driven biodiversity change might predictably affect disease risk if reservoir host species are consistently more likely to persist under human disturbance (ie, if ecological communities in modified habitats generally have a higher zoonotic potential than those in unmodified habitats. Such a phenomenon has been observed in specific disease systems, but with substantial change in global land use projected for this century, assessing its global and taxonomic generality would shed light on an important hypothesised driver of environmental synergies or trade-offs between conservation and public health. Methods: We collated data on hosts of human parasites and pathogens from the published literature, and combined these with the Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity in Changing Terrestrial Systems (PREDICTS global database of local ecological communities and associated land use data. We analysed the effects of land use on host richness and abundance across 7330 sites globally, controlling for disease-related research effort and differences in survey methods. Findings: Ecological communities in anthropogenic land uses (managed and urban ecosystems contained a consistently higher richness and abundance of host species than did communities in nearby primary (undisturbed sites. However, among mammal hosts of zoonotic pathogens, we found considerable taxonomic variation in host responses to land use, with abundances of rodents and bats generally increasing and those of primates and carnivores generally declining in modified landscapes. Interpretation: Our results suggest that future change in global land use has the potential to drive overall increasing contact between people and ecological communities with increased shared pathogen potential (ie, more potential hosts

Multiphase flows of N immiscible incompressible fluids: A reduction-consistent and thermodynamically-consistent formulation and associated algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, S.

2018-05-01

We present a reduction-consistent and thermodynamically consistent formulation and an associated numerical algorithm for simulating the dynamics of an isothermal mixture consisting of N (N ⩾ 2) immiscible incompressible fluids with different physical properties (densities, viscosities, and pair-wise surface tensions). By reduction consistency we refer to the property that if only a set of M (1 ⩽ M ⩽ N - 1) fluids are present in the system then the N-phase governing equations and boundary conditions will exactly reduce to those for the corresponding M-phase system. By thermodynamic consistency we refer to the property that the formulation honors the thermodynamic principles. Our N-phase formulation is developed based on a more general method that allows for the systematic construction of reduction-consistent formulations, and the method suggests the existence of many possible forms of reduction-consistent and thermodynamically consistent N-phase formulations. Extensive numerical experiments have been presented for flow problems involving multiple fluid components and large density ratios and large viscosity ratios, and the simulation results are compared with the physical theories or the available physical solutions. The comparisons demonstrate that our method produces physically accurate results for this class of problems.

Category-selective attention interacts with partial awareness processes in a continuous manner: An fMRI study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shen Tu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Recently, our team found that category-selective attention could modulate tool processing at the partial awareness level and unconscious face processing in the middle occipital gyrus (MOG. However, the modulation effects in MOG were in opposite directions across the masked tool and masked face conditions in that study: MOG activation decreased in the masked faces condition but increased in the masked tools condition under the consistent compared with the inconsistent cue-selective-attentional modulation. In the present study, in order to confirm that the opposite effects were due to the changed contours of the tools, using the same tool pictures and fMRI technique, we devised another two conditions: variant mirror tool picture condition and invariant tool picture condition. The results showed that, during the variant mirror tool picture condition, activation in the MOG decreased under tool-selective attention compared with face-selective attention. Interestingly, however, during the invariant tool picture condition, activation in the MOG revealed neither positive nor negative changes. Combined with the result of increased MOG activity in the changed different tool condition, the three different effects demonstrated not only that the unconscious component of partial awareness processing (no knowledge of the identity of the tool could be modulated by the category-selective attention in the earlier visual cortex but also that the modulation effect could further interact with the conscious component of partial awareness processing (consciousness of the changing contour of the tool in a continuous manner.

Global warming and local dimming. The statistical evidence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Magnus, J.R.; Melenberg, B. [Department of Econometrics and Operations Research, Tilburg University, Tilburg (Netherlands); Muris, C. [CentER, Tilburg University, Tilburg (Netherlands)

2011-01-15

Two effects largely determine global warming: the well-known greenhouse effect and the less well-known solar radiation effect. An increase in concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases contributes to global warming: the greenhouse effect. In addition, small particles, called aerosols, reflect and absorb sunlight in the atmosphere. More pollution causes an increase in aerosols, so that less sunlight reaches the Earth (global dimming). Despite its name, global dimming is primarily a local (or regional) effect. Because of the dimming the Earth becomes cooler: the solar radiation effect. Global warming thus consists of two components: the (global) greenhouse effect and the (local) solar radiation effect, which work in opposite directions. Only the sum of the greenhouse effect and the solar radiation effect is observed, not the two effects separately. Our purpose is to identify the two effects. This is important, because the existence of the solar radiation effect obscures the magnitude of the greenhouse effect. We propose a simple climate model with a small number of parameters. We gather data from a large number of weather stations around the world for the period 1959-2002. We then estimate the parameters using dynamic panel data methods, and quantify the parameter uncertainty. Next, we decompose the estimated temperature change of 0.73C (averaged over the weather stations) into a greenhouse effect of 1.87C, a solar radiation effect of -1.09C, and a small remainder term. Finally, we subject our findings to extensive sensitivity analyses.

A Simple Model of Global Aerosol Indirect Effects

Science.gov (United States)

Ghan, Steven J.; Smith, Steven J.; Wang, Minghuai; Zhang, Kai; Pringle, Kirsty; Carslaw, Kenneth; Pierce, Jeffrey; Bauer, Susanne; Adams, Peter

2013-01-01

Most estimates of the global mean indirect effect of anthropogenic aerosol on the Earth's energy balance are from simulations by global models of the aerosol lifecycle coupled with global models of clouds and the hydrologic cycle. Extremely simple models have been developed for integrated assessment models, but lack the flexibility to distinguish between primary and secondary sources of aerosol. Here a simple but more physically based model expresses the aerosol indirect effect (AIE) using analytic representations of cloud and aerosol distributions and processes. Although the simple model is able to produce estimates of AIEs that are comparable to those from some global aerosol models using the same global mean aerosol properties, the estimates by the simple model are sensitive to preindustrial cloud condensation nuclei concentration, preindustrial accumulation mode radius, width of the accumulation mode, size of primary particles, cloud thickness, primary and secondary anthropogenic emissions, the fraction of the secondary anthropogenic emissions that accumulates on the coarse mode, the fraction of the secondary mass that forms new particles, and the sensitivity of liquid water path to droplet number concentration. Estimates of present-day AIEs as low as 5 W/sq m and as high as 0.3 W/sq m are obtained for plausible sets of parameter values. Estimates are surprisingly linear in emissions. The estimates depend on parameter values in ways that are consistent with results from detailed global aerosol-climate simulation models, which adds to understanding of the dependence on AIE uncertainty on uncertainty in parameter values.

Global warming and local dimming. The statistical evidence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magnus, J.R.; Melenberg, B.; Muris, C.

2011-01-01

Two effects largely determine global warming: the well-known greenhouse effect and the less well-known solar radiation effect. An increase in concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases contributes to global warming: the greenhouse effect. In addition, small particles, called aerosols, reflect and absorb sunlight in the atmosphere. More pollution causes an increase in aerosols, so that less sunlight reaches the Earth (global dimming). Despite its name, global dimming is primarily a local (or regional) effect. Because of the dimming the Earth becomes cooler: the solar radiation effect. Global warming thus consists of two components: the (global) greenhouse effect and the (local) solar radiation effect, which work in opposite directions. Only the sum of the greenhouse effect and the solar radiation effect is observed, not the two effects separately. Our purpose is to identify the two effects. This is important, because the existence of the solar radiation effect obscures the magnitude of the greenhouse effect. We propose a simple climate model with a small number of parameters. We gather data from a large number of weather stations around the world for the period 1959-2002. We then estimate the parameters using dynamic panel data methods, and quantify the parameter uncertainty. Next, we decompose the estimated temperature change of 0.73C (averaged over the weather stations) into a greenhouse effect of 1.87C, a solar radiation effect of -1.09C, and a small remainder term. Finally, we subject our findings to extensive sensitivity analyses.

Global analysis of genes involved in freshwater adaptation in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Science.gov (United States)

DeFaveri, Jacquelin; Shikano, Takahito; Shimada, Yukinori; Goto, Akira; Merilä, Juha

2011-06-01

Examples of parallel evolution of phenotypic traits have been repeatedly demonstrated in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) across their global distribution. Using these as a model, we performed a targeted genome scan--focusing on physiologically important genes potentially related to freshwater adaptation--to identify genetic signatures of parallel physiological evolution on a global scale. To this end, 50 microsatellite loci, including 26 loci within or close to (directional selection were detected in 24 loci, including 17 physiologically important genes, in at least one location. Although no loci showed consistent signatures of selection in all divergent population pairs, several outliers were common in multiple locations. In particular, seven physiologically important genes, as well as reference ectodysplasin gene (EDA), showed signatures of selection in three or more locations. Hence, although these results give some evidence for consistent parallel molecular evolution in response to freshwater colonization, they suggest that different evolutionary pathways may underlie physiological adaptation to freshwater habitats within the global distribution of the threespine stickleback. © 2011 The Author(s). Evolution© 2011 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

L-carnosine affects the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a metabolism-dependent manner.

Science.gov (United States)

Cartwright, Stephanie P; Bill, Roslyn M; Hipkiss, Alan R

2012-01-01

The dipeptide L-carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine) has been described as enigmatic: it inhibits growth of cancer cells but delays senescence in cultured human fibroblasts and extends the lifespan of male fruit flies. In an attempt to understand these observations, the effects of L-carnosine on the model eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were examined on account of its unique metabolic properties; S. cerevisiae can respire aerobically, but like some tumor cells, it can also exhibit a metabolism in which aerobic respiration is down regulated. L-Carnosine exhibited both inhibitory and stimulatory effects on yeast cells, dependent upon the carbon source in the growth medium. When yeast cells were not reliant on oxidative phosphorylation for energy generation (e.g. when grown on a fermentable carbon source such as 2% glucose), 10-30 mM L-carnosine slowed growth rates in a dose-dependent manner and increased cell death by up to 17%. In contrast, in media containing a non-fermentable carbon source in which yeast are dependent on aerobic respiration (e.g. 2% glycerol), L-carnosine did not provoke cell death. This latter observation was confirmed in the respiratory yeast, Pichia pastoris. Moreover, when deletion strains in the yeast nutrient-sensing pathway were treated with L-carnosine, the cells showed resistance to its inhibitory effects. These findings suggest that L-carnosine affects cells in a metabolism-dependent manner and provide a rationale for its effects on different cell types.

L-carnosine affects the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in a metabolism-dependent manner.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie P Cartwright

Full Text Available The dipeptide L-carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine has been described as enigmatic: it inhibits growth of cancer cells but delays senescence in cultured human fibroblasts and extends the lifespan of male fruit flies. In an attempt to understand these observations, the effects of L-carnosine on the model eukaryote, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, were examined on account of its unique metabolic properties; S. cerevisiae can respire aerobically, but like some tumor cells, it can also exhibit a metabolism in which aerobic respiration is down regulated. L-Carnosine exhibited both inhibitory and stimulatory effects on yeast cells, dependent upon the carbon source in the growth medium. When yeast cells were not reliant on oxidative phosphorylation for energy generation (e.g. when grown on a fermentable carbon source such as 2% glucose, 10-30 mM L-carnosine slowed growth rates in a dose-dependent manner and increased cell death by up to 17%. In contrast, in media containing a non-fermentable carbon source in which yeast are dependent on aerobic respiration (e.g. 2% glycerol, L-carnosine did not provoke cell death. This latter observation was confirmed in the respiratory yeast, Pichia pastoris. Moreover, when deletion strains in the yeast nutrient-sensing pathway were treated with L-carnosine, the cells showed resistance to its inhibitory effects. These findings suggest that L-carnosine affects cells in a metabolism-dependent manner and provide a rationale for its effects on different cell types.

Do risk factors for problem behaviour act in a cumulative manner? An examination of ethnic minority and majority children through an ecological perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Atzaba-Poria, Naama; Pike, Alison; Deater-Deckard, Kirby

2004-05-01

Extensive research has identified risk factors for problem behaviour in childhood. However, most of this research has focused on isolated variables, ignoring possible additive influences. The purpose of this study was to examine whether risk factors for problem behaviour act in a cumulative manner, and to investigate whether cumulative risk stemming from distinct ecological levels (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) differentially influences the manifestation of problem behaviours in middle childhood. In addition, ethnic differences between minority (i.e., Indian) and majority (i.e., English) families were examined. The sample consisted of 125 children (59 English and 66 of Indian origin) between the ages of 7 and 9.6 (M = 8.51, SD = 0.62) and their parents. Both mothers and fathers completed questionnaires regarding the children's problem behaviour and provided reports of the children's characteristics and environment. Children were also assessed and provided reports about themselves and their relationships. Finally, parent-child mutuality and parenting behaviour were coded from a videotaped parent-child interaction task. Risk factors acted in a cumulative manner - the more risk children experienced, the more problem behaviour they exhibited. Total problem behaviour was predicted by all three levels: individual, microsystem and exosystem. However, externalising problems were mainly predicted by microsystem-level cumulative risk, whereas internalising problems were predicted by both individual-level cumulative risk and exosystem-level cumulative risk. These results were similar for both ethnic groups. The support for the cumulative hypothesis highlights the importance of having a broad picture of children's characteristics and environmental components when analysing children's adjustment. The distinct influence of risk stemming from the different ecological levels suggests that the trajectories of internalising, externalising and total problem behaviour may be different.

f(R) global monopole revisited

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Carames, Thiago R.P.; Fabris, Julio C.; Belich, H. [Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo (UFES), Vitoria, ES (Brazil); Bezerra de Mello, E.R. [Universidade Federal da Paraiba, Departamento de Fisica, Joao Pessoa, PB (Brazil)

2017-07-15

In this paper the f(R) global monopole is reexamined. We provide an exact solution for the modified field equations in the presence of a global monopole for regions outside its core, generalizing previous results. Additionally, we discuss some particular cases obtained from this solution. We consider a setup consisting of a possible Schwarzschild black hole that absorbs the topological defect, giving rise to a static black hole endowed with a monopole's charge. Besides, we demonstrate how the asymptotic behavior of the Higgs field far from the monopole's core is shaped by a class of spacetime metrics which includes the ones analyzed here. In order to assess the gravitational properties of this system, we analyze the geodesic motion of both massive and massless test particles moving in the vicinity of such configuration. For the material particles we set the requirements they have to obey in order to experience stable orbits. On the other hand, for the photons we investigate how their trajectories are affected by the gravitational field of this black hole. (orig.)

Integrated and global pseudotargeted metabolomics strategy applied to screening for quality control markers of Citrus TCMs.

Science.gov (United States)

Shu, Yisong; Liu, Zhenli; Zhao, Siyu; Song, Zhiqian; He, Dan; Wang, Menglei; Zeng, Honglian; Lu, Cheng; Lu, Aiping; Liu, Yuanyan

2017-08-01

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) exerts its therapeutic effect in a holistic fashion with the synergistic function of multiple characteristic constituents. The holism philosophy of TCM is coincident with global and systematic theories of metabolomics. The proposed pseudotargeted metabolomics methodologies were employed for the establishment of reliable quality control markers for use in the screening strategy of TCMs. Pseudotargeted metabolomics integrates the advantages of both targeted and untargeted methods. In the present study, targeted metabolomics equipped with the gold standard RRLC-QqQ-MS method was employed for in vivo quantitative plasma pharmacochemistry study of characteristic prototypic constituents. Meanwhile, untargeted metabolomics using UHPLC-QE Orbitrap HRMS with better specificity and selectivity was employed for identification of untargeted metabolites in the complex plasma matrix. In all, 32 prototypic metabolites were quantitatively determined, and 66 biotransformed metabolites were convincingly identified after being orally administered with standard extracts of four labeled Citrus TCMs. The global absorption and metabolism process of complex TCMs was depicted in a systematic manner.

The Use of Proba-V data for Global Agricultural Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Gilliams, S. J. B.; Bydekerke, L.; Smets, B.; De Ronde, B.

2014-12-01

Land conversion, forest cutting, urban growth, agricultural expansion, take place at scales which are unprecedented in history and at such a pace that they are not only subject of scientific studies but also have a strong economic impact. Understanding and measuring dynamics becomes a prerequisite for companies, governments, agencies, NGO's, research institutes and society in general. In many of these cases the temporal frequency of the information is a clear requirement to detect phenomena that can occur within a few days (related to crops, forests and other ecosystems) and at a certain geographic scale. For example frequent updates on crop condition and production is needed to stabilize agricultural markets. This is already being picked up by large initiatives like the GEOGLAM AMIS system. Observations over large areas are available through satellites, however challenges remain; on the one hand side obtaining frequent and consistent observations at sufficient level of detail to identify spatial phenomena. At present, no single mission is capable of providing near daily information of any place in the world at scales in which changes in land cover/use can be identified in a consistent manner. On the other hand side the need for a historical reference. For agricultural monitoring and early warning purposes the comparison of the actual data with the historical reference is of the utmost importance. The Proba-V mission is a first attempt to overcome these challenges. From its design and within the GIO-Global Land component a lot of work has been done to ensure the integration of the Proba-V data with the 15 years historical archive of SPOT-VEGETATION. In this respect Proba-V observation will be intercomparable with the SPOT-VGT historical baseline which will ensure the continuation of the standard agricultural monitoring products. Next to this integration with the historical archive, Proba-V also ensures an increase in spatial resolution of the data sets, from 1km to

Observations of geographically correlated orbit errors for TOPEX/Poseidon using the global positioning system

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, E. J.; Haines, B. J.; Mccoll, K. C.; Nerem, R. S.

1994-01-01

We have compared Global Positioning System (GPS)-based dynamic and reduced-dynamic TOPEX/Poseidon orbits over three 10-day repeat cycles of the ground-track. The results suggest that the prelaunch joint gravity model (JGM-1) introduces geographically correlated errors (GCEs) which have a strong meridional dependence. The global distribution and magnitude of these GCEs are consistent with a prelaunch covariance analysis, with estimated and predicted global rms error statistics of 2.3 and 2.4 cm rms, respectively. Repeating the analysis with the post-launch joint gravity model (JGM-2) suggests that a portion of the meridional dependence observed in JGM-1 still remains, with global rms error of 1.2 cm.

The CORDEX archive in ESGF: a global archive for regional data

Science.gov (United States)

Juckes, Martin; Lautenschlager, Michael; Legutke, Stephanie; Bøssing Christensen, Ole; Kolax, Michael; Denvil, Sébastien

2013-04-01

The CORDEX program will produce regional model simulations for all areas of the globe, run by many modelling centres but with a consistent set of experimental parameters. Following the example set with the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project, Phase 5 (CMIP5) archive of global climate simulations, a federated archive infrastructure will be exploited to support efficient distribution of the data and provide a single catalogue with a flexible search interface. Initial work towards establishing the European component of federated archive for CORDEX using the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) software has been started in the FP7 project IS-ENES (InfraStructure for the European Network for Earth System Modelling http://is.enes.org) and will be continued under IS-ENES2 (with additional support for an archive node at the University of Cape Town, S. Africa). The ESGF system allows data held at multiple sites to be accessed by users in a transparent manner. This poster will describe key adaptations of the ESGF CMIP5 infrastructure for CORDEX and some of the data services the system will provide. The vocabularies which underpin the facets of the search interface have been adapted and extended, a strategy for quality control has been developed. For the CMIP5 archive, most modelling centres contributing data also deployed an ESGF archive node. For the CORDEX archive a different approach will be followed because data is expected from a larger number of contributors without the resources needed to run such software. Instead, the CORDEX federated archive will be hosted at a moderate number of institutions with the required resources and expertise.

Observer variability in a phase II trial. Assessing consistency in RECIST application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Skougaard, Kristin; Nielsen, Dorte; Vittrup Jensen, Benny; Dusgaard McCullagh, Mark James; Hjorth Johannesen, Helle; Westergren Hendel, Helle

2012-01-01

Objective: To assess the consistency of Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours (RECIST) application in a phase II trial. Material and methods: Patients with metastatic non-resectable colorectal cancer treated with a combination of an antibody and a chemotherapeutic drug, were included. Computed tomography (CT) scans (thorax, abdomen and pelvis) were performed at baseline and after every fourth treatment cycle. RECIST was intended for response evaluation. The scans were consecutively read by a heterogeneous group of radiologists as a part of daily work and hereafter retrospectively reviewed by a dedicated experienced radiologist. Agreement on best overall response (BOR) between readers and reviewer was quantified using κ-coefficients and the discrepancy rate was correlated with the number of different readers per patient using a χ 2 -test. Results: One hundred patients with 396 CT scans were included. Discrepancies between the readers and the reviewer were found in 47 patients. The majority of discrepancies concerned the application of RECIST. With the review, BOR changed in 17 patients, although, only in six patients the change was potentially treatment altering. Overall, the κ-coefficient of agreement between readers and reviewer was 0.71 (good). However, in the subgroup of responding patients the κ-coefficient was 0.21 (fair). The number of patients with discrepancies was significantly higher with three or more different readers per patient than with less (p =0.0003). Conclusion: RECIST was not consistently applied and the majority of the reader discrepancies were RECIST related. Post review, 17 patients changed BOR; six patients in a potentially treatment altering manner. Additionally, we found that the part of patients with discrepancies increased significantly with more than three different readers per patient. The findings support a peer-review approach where a few dedicated radiologists perform double blinded readings of all the on-going cancer

The importance of fungi and mycology for addressing major global challenges*.

Science.gov (United States)

Lange, Lene

2014-12-01

In the new bioeconomy, fungi play a very important role in addressing major global challenges, being instrumental for improved resource efficiency, making renewable substitutes for products from fossil resources, upgrading waste streams to valuable food and feed ingredients, counteracting life-style diseases and antibiotic resistance through strengthening the gut biota, making crop plants more robust to survive climate change conditions, and functioning as host organisms for production of new biological drugs. This range of new uses of fungi all stand on the shoulders of the efforts of mycologists over generations: the scientific discipline mycology has built comprehensive understanding within fungal biodiversity, classification, evolution, genetics, physiology, ecology, pathogenesis, and nutrition. Applied mycology could not make progress without this platform. To unfold the full potentials of what fungi can do for both environment and man we need to strengthen the field of mycology on a global scale. The current mission statement gives an overview of where we are, what needs to be done, what obstacles to overcome, and which potentials are within reach. It further provides a vision for how mycology can be strengthened: The time is right to make the world aware of the immense importance of fungi and mycology for sustainable global development, where land, water and biological materials are used in a more efficient and more sustainable manner. This is an opportunity for profiling mycology by narrating the role played by fungi in the bioeconomy. Greater awareness and appreciation of the role of fungi can be used to build support for mycology around the world. Support will attract more talent to our field of study, empower mycologists around the world to generate more funds for necessary basic research, and strengthen the global mycology network. The use of fungi for unlocking the full potentials of the bioeconomy relies on such progress. The fungal kingdom can be an

Consistency Anchor Formalization and Correctness Proofs

OpenAIRE

Miguel, Correia; Bessani, Alysson

2014-01-01

This is report contains the formal proofs for the techniques for increasing the consistency of cloud storage as presented in "Bessani et al. SCFS: A Cloud-backed File System. Proc. of the 2014 USENIX Annual Technical Conference. June 2014." The consistency anchor technique allows one to increase the consistency provided by eventually consistent cloud storage services like Amazon S3. This technique has been used in the SCFS (Shared Cloud File System) cloud-backed file system for solving rea...

The present global financial and economic crisis and the oil crises of the 1970s. Opposite turning points in the development of economic growth, energy supply, and the role of nuclear power?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herrmann, Dieter

2012-01-01

After decades of extensive economic growth, the oil crises in the 1970s enforced the transition to intensive growth in a manner conserving resources, combined with a fundamental turnaround in the development of global energy supply and the role of nuclear power. Meanwhile, the world has changed considerably as a result of population growth, technical progress, and globalization - and it is in the throes of another crisis. The contribution shows, on the basis of empirical indicators, that higher commodity prices halted the period of intense growth already in late 2007. The following global financial and economic crisis can be interpreted plausibly as a return to extensive economic growth worldwide. This is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the future development of global energy supply and the role of nuclear power. (orig.)

The global chemical systematics of arc front stratovolcanoes: Evaluating the role of crustal processes

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Stephen J.; Langmuir, Charles H.

2015-07-01

Petrogenetic models for convergent margins should be consistent with the global systematics of convergent margin volcanic compositions. A newly developed tool for compiling and screening data from the GEOROC database was used to generate a global dataset of whole rock chemical analyses from arc front stratovolcano samples. Data from 227 volcanoes within 31 volcanic arc segments were first averaged by volcano and then by arc to explore global systematics. Three different methods of data normalization produce consistent results that persist across a wide range of Mg# [Mg# =Mg / (Mg +Fe) ]. Remarkably coherent systematics are present among major and trace element concentrations and ratios, with the exception of three arcs influenced by mantle plumes and Peru/N. Chile, which is built on exceptionally thick crust. Chemical parameters also correlate with the thickness of the overlying arc crust. In addition to previously established correlations of Na6.0 with Ca6.0 and crustal thickness, correlations are observed among major elements, trace elements, and trace element ratios (e.g. La/Yb, Dy/Yb, Zr/Sm, Zr/Ti). Positive correlations include "fluid mobile," "high field strength," and "large ion lithophile" element groups, with concentrations that vary by a factor of five in all groups. Incompatible element enrichments also correlate well with crustal thickness, with the greatest enrichment found at arcs with the thickest crust. Intra-crustal processes, however, do not reproduce the global variations. High pressure fractionation produces intermediate magmas enriched in aluminum, but such magmas are rare. Furthermore, differences among magma compositions at various volcanic arcs persist from primitive to evolved compositions, which is inconsistent with the possibility that global variations are produced by crystal fractionation at any pressure. Linear relationships among elements appear to be consistent with mixing between depleted primary magma and an enriched contaminant

Virtualization of work in global supply chains

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabina Wyrwich-Płotka

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background: The paper is devoted to the notion and benefits of implementing virtual work in global supply chains. Virtual work must be understood as an intentional activity of a human being, aimed at rendering services (tangible and intangible, by means of ITC tools, performed in a distance from the traditional place of work, in a mobile manner. The empirical research were conducted on the basis of 4 case studies of global leaders of supply chains, which in accordance with M. Fisher's classification, represent two types. The case studies confirmed the positive influence of virtual work both in effective and flexible supply chains. Favourable market and technological conditions and increasing awareness of benefits of virtual work will make it more and more widespread in companies comprising global supply chains. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the cause and effect relationships between virtual work and competitiveness of efficient and flexible supply chain. Methods: The paper is based on the available recent scientific-theoretical research and publication.  The authors analyzed 4 enterprises in Poland. The enterprises representing a flexible or an effective supply chain, either using or not a virtual work. The study carried out the authors had the form of individual interviews. The authors used case studies to show that virtual work brings notable benefits in an effective and flexible supply chain.  Results: Based on these case studies, the authors demonstrated reasons to implement virtual work in selected enterprises. The reasons to implement virtual work are determinants of possible achieve economies in effective and flexible supply chain Conclusions: The examined case studies show that virtual work brings different benefits. In the effective supply chain, virtual workers enable to increase effectiveness and financial results for example. In the flexible supply chain the virtual work can be a way to maintain and build long

Global Peace through the Global University System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cengiz Hakan AYDIN

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Utopia is defined in Encarta Dictionary as “an ideal and perfect place or state, where everyone lives in harmony and everything is for the best.” Developments all around the world especially in the last decade have supported the idea that global peace is nothing but just a utopian dream. However, for centuries a group of believers have always been in search of global peace via different means. This book, titled as “Global Peace through the Global University System”, can be considered as one of the artifacts of this search.Actually this book is a collection of papers presented in working conference on the Global University System (GUS hosted by the University of Tampere, Finland in 1999. The main goal of the conference was bringing international experts to share their philosophy, past and present experiences about the GUS. The conference was held by the University of Tampere because UNESCO has an agreement with the University to establish the UNESCOChair in Global e-Learning.

Global population structure and demographic history of the grey seal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Klimova, A.; Phillips, C. D.; Fietz, Katharina

2014-01-01

Although the grey seal Halichoerus grypus is one of the most familiar and intensively studied of all pinniped species, its global population structure remains to be elucidated. Little is also known about how the species as a whole may have historically responded to climate-driven changes in habitat...... a little over 10 000 years ago, consistent with the last proposed isolation of the Baltic Sea. Approximate Bayesian computation also identified genetic signals consistent with postglacial population expansion across much of the species range, suggesting that grey seals are highly responsive to changes...

The Global Politics of Gay Rights: The Straining Relations between the West and Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hakeem Onapajo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the contemporary global politics of gay rights as it relates to the straining relations between the Western powers and many African states that oppose sexual minorities’ rights. While the West (with emphasis on the United States, EU, and Britain advocates for the protection of gay rights in the world, Africa provides the largest concentration of states opposed to them. Therefore, there has been rising tension between both regions. This became more apparent after Nigeria and Uganda, respectively, signed their anti-gay bills into law in January and February 2014. In response to this, the Western powers decided to take some punitive measures, especially imposition of sanctions, against the countries to pressurise them to repeal their laws. In an unusual manner, the African states are radically determined to go ahead with their anti-gay laws in open defiance to the demands of the Western powers. This development, which is informed by a number of factors, shows a rather new pattern of behaviour by African states in global politics.

Virtual Global Accelerator Network (VGAN)(LCC-0083)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larsen, R

2003-01-01

The concept of a Global Accelerator Network (GAN) has been proposed by key members of ICFA as a cornerstone of a future International Linear Collider (LC). GAN would provide a tool for the participants of an international collaboration to participate in the actual running of the machine from different parts of the world. Some technical experts view the concept as technologically trivial, and instead point out the significant sociological, organizational and administrative problems that must be surmounted in creating a truly workable system. This note proposes that many real issues can be explored by building a simulator (VGAN) consisting of a virtual accelerator model, a global controls model, and a functioning human organizational model, a tool that would explore and resolve many real problems of GAN and the LC enterprise during the LC preliminary design and testing phase

Center for Environmental Information's Ninth International Conference on Global Energy Strategies : Living with Restricted Greenhouse Gas Emissions

CERN Document Server

1993-01-01

The world is getting warmer. Among scientists concerned with global climate change this is the broad consensus. How fast and by how much, are questions which cannot be answered quantitatively, but the probability of rising temperatures must be faced in a prudent manner - there is enough certainty of change so that we must anticipate and prepare before irreparable damage is done to our world. Even if it isn't going to be as bad as some people think, the actions we propose will benefit the earth and give us a kind of insurance. The root of the change is population growth, and its attendant demand for energy. While the developed world expects to hold future emissions relatively steady, the developing countries, where population growth is most rampant, will expand the use of energy as they aspire to a better quality of life. H greater energy use is inevitable it behooves us to produce that energy in the least objectionable manner, and to produce it where the cost is lowest in dollars, GNP, and environmental chang...

Enhanced deep ocean ventilation and oxygenation with global warming

Science.gov (United States)

Froelicher, T. L.; Jaccard, S.; Dunne, J. P.; Paynter, D.; Gruber, N.

2014-12-01

Twenty-first century coupled climate model simulations, observations from the recent past, and theoretical arguments suggest a consistent trend towards warmer ocean temperatures and fresher polar surface oceans in response to increased radiative forcing resulting in increased upper ocean stratification and reduced ventilation and oxygenation of the deep ocean. Paleo-proxy records of the warming at the end of the last ice age, however, suggests a different outcome, namely a better ventilated and oxygenated deep ocean with global warming. Here we use a four thousand year global warming simulation from a comprehensive Earth System Model (GFDL ESM2M) to show that this conundrum is a consequence of different rates of warming and that the deep ocean is actually better ventilated and oxygenated in a future warmer equilibrated climate consistent with paleo-proxy records. The enhanced deep ocean ventilation in the Southern Ocean occurs in spite of increased positive surface buoyancy fluxes and a constancy of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds - circumstances that would otherwise be expected to lead to a reduction in deep ocean ventilation. This ventilation recovery occurs through a global scale interaction of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation undergoing a multi-centennial recovery after an initial century of transient decrease and transports salinity-rich waters inform the subtropical surface ocean to the Southern Ocean interior on multi-century timescales. The subsequent upwelling of salinity-rich waters in the Southern Ocean strips away the freshwater cap that maintains vertical stability and increases open ocean convection and the formation of Antarctic Bottom Waters. As a result, the global ocean oxygen content and the nutrient supply from the deep ocean to the surface are higher in a warmer ocean. The implications for past and future changes in ocean heat and carbon storage will be discussed.

Cervical cancer: A global health crisis.

Science.gov (United States)

Small, William; Bacon, Monica A; Bajaj, Amishi; Chuang, Linus T; Fisher, Brandon J; Harkenrider, Matthew M; Jhingran, Anuja; Kitchener, Henry C; Mileshkin, Linda R; Viswanathan, Akila N; Gaffney, David K

2017-07-01

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common malignancy diagnosed in women worldwide. Nearly all cases of cervical cancer result from infection with the human papillomavirus, and the prevention of cervical cancer includes screening and vaccination. Primary treatment options for patients with cervical cancer may include surgery or a concurrent chemoradiotherapy regimen consisting of cisplatin-based chemotherapy with external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy. Cervical cancer causes more than one quarter of a million deaths per year as a result of grossly deficient treatments in many developing countries. This warrants a concerted global effort to counter the shocking loss of life and suffering that largely goes unreported. This article provides a review of the biology, prevention, and treatment of cervical cancer, and discusses the global cervical cancer crisis and efforts to improve the prevention and treatment of the disease in underdeveloped countries. Cancer 2017;123:2404-12. © 2017 American Cancer Society. © 2017 American Cancer Society.

Rising Temperatures Reduce Global Wheat Production

Science.gov (United States)

Asseng, S.; Ewert, F.; Martre, P.; Rötter, R. P.; Lobell, D. B.; Cammarano, D.; Kimball, B. A.; Ottman, M. J.; Wall, G. W.; White, J. W.;

Consistent structures and interactions by density functional theory with small atomic orbital basis sets.

Science.gov (United States)

Grimme, Stefan; Brandenburg, Jan Gerit; Bannwarth, Christoph; Hansen, Andreas

2015-08-07

A density functional theory (DFT) based composite electronic structure approach is proposed to efficiently compute structures and interaction energies in large chemical systems. It is based on the well-known and numerically robust Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhoff (PBE) generalized-gradient-approximation in a modified global hybrid functional with a relatively large amount of non-local Fock-exchange. The orbitals are expanded in Ahlrichs-type valence-double zeta atomic orbital (AO) Gaussian basis sets, which are available for many elements. In order to correct for the basis set superposition error (BSSE) and to account for the important long-range London dispersion effects, our well-established atom-pairwise potentials are used. In the design of the new method, particular attention has been paid to an accurate description of structural parameters in various covalent and non-covalent bonding situations as well as in periodic systems. Together with the recently proposed three-fold corrected (3c) Hartree-Fock method, the new composite scheme (termed PBEh-3c) represents the next member in a hierarchy of "low-cost" electronic structure approaches. They are mainly free of BSSE and account for most interactions in a physically sound and asymptotically correct manner. PBEh-3c yields good results for thermochemical properties in the huge GMTKN30 energy database. Furthermore, the method shows excellent performance for non-covalent interaction energies in small and large complexes. For evaluating its performance on equilibrium structures, a new compilation of standard test sets is suggested. These consist of small (light) molecules, partially flexible, medium-sized organic molecules, molecules comprising heavy main group elements, larger systems with long bonds, 3d-transition metal systems, non-covalently bound complexes (S22 and S66×8 sets), and peptide conformations. For these sets, overall deviations from accurate reference data are smaller than for various other tested DFT methods

Consistent structures and interactions by density functional theory with small atomic orbital basis sets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grimme, Stefan; Brandenburg, Jan Gerit; Bannwarth, Christoph; Hansen, Andreas

2015-01-01

A density functional theory (DFT) based composite electronic structure approach is proposed to efficiently compute structures and interaction energies in large chemical systems. It is based on the well-known and numerically robust Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhoff (PBE) generalized-gradient-approximation in a modified global hybrid functional with a relatively large amount of non-local Fock-exchange. The orbitals are expanded in Ahlrichs-type valence-double zeta atomic orbital (AO) Gaussian basis sets, which are available for many elements. In order to correct for the basis set superposition error (BSSE) and to account for the important long-range London dispersion effects, our well-established atom-pairwise potentials are used. In the design of the new method, particular attention has been paid to an accurate description of structural parameters in various covalent and non-covalent bonding situations as well as in periodic systems. Together with the recently proposed three-fold corrected (3c) Hartree-Fock method, the new composite scheme (termed PBEh-3c) represents the next member in a hierarchy of “low-cost” electronic structure approaches. They are mainly free of BSSE and account for most interactions in a physically sound and asymptotically correct manner. PBEh-3c yields good results for thermochemical properties in the huge GMTKN30 energy database. Furthermore, the method shows excellent performance for non-covalent interaction energies in small and large complexes. For evaluating its performance on equilibrium structures, a new compilation of standard test sets is suggested. These consist of small (light) molecules, partially flexible, medium-sized organic molecules, molecules comprising heavy main group elements, larger systems with long bonds, 3d-transition metal systems, non-covalently bound complexes (S22 and S66×8 sets), and peptide conformations. For these sets, overall deviations from accurate reference data are smaller than for various other tested DFT

Progress towards developing consistent design and evaluation guidelines for DOE facilities subjected to natural phenomena hazards

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kennedy, R.P.; Short, S.A.; McDonald, J.R.; McCann, M.W. Jr.; Reed, J.W.

1985-01-01

Probabilistic definitions of earthquake, wind and tornado natural phenomena hazards for many Department of Energy (DOE) facilities throughout the United States have been developed. In addition, definitions of the flood hazards which might affect these locations are currently being developed. The Department of Energy Natural Phenomena Hazards Panel is now preparing a document to provide guidance and criteria for DOE facility managers to assure that DOE facilities are adequately constructed to resist the effects of natural phenomena such as earthquake, strong wind and flood. The intent of this document is to provide instruction on how to utilize the hazard definitions to evaluate existing facilities and design new facilities in a manner such that the risk of adverse consequences is consistent with the cost, function, and danger to the public or environment of the facility. Potential effects on facilities of natural phenomena hazards are emphasized in this paper. The philosophy for mitigating these effects to be employed in the design and evaluation guidelines is also presented

Self-consistent nonlinear transmission line model of standing wave effects in a capacitive discharge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chabert, P.; Raimbault, J.L.; Rax, J.M.; Lieberman, M.A.

2004-01-01

It has been shown previously [Lieberman et al., Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 11, 283 (2002)], using a non-self-consistent model based on solutions of Maxwell's equations, that several electromagnetic effects may compromise capacitive discharge uniformity. Among these, the standing wave effect dominates at low and moderate electron densities when the driving frequency is significantly greater than the usual 13.56 MHz. In the present work, two different global discharge models have been coupled to a transmission line model and used to obtain the self-consistent characteristics of the standing wave effect. An analytical solution for the wavelength λ was derived for the lossless case and compared to the numerical results. For typical plasma etching conditions (pressure 10-100 mTorr), a good approximation of the wavelength is λ/λ 0 ≅40 V 0 1/10 l -1/2 f -2/5 , where λ 0 is the wavelength in vacuum, V 0 is the rf voltage magnitude in volts at the discharge center, l is the electrode spacing in meters, and f the driving frequency in hertz

Time-Consistent and Market-Consistent Evaluations (Revised version of 2012-086)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stadje, M.A.; Pelsser, A.

2014-01-01

Abstract: We consider evaluation methods for payoffs with an inherent financial risk as encountered for instance for portfolios held by pension funds and insurance companies. Pricing such payoffs in a way consistent to market prices typically involves combining actuarial techniques with methods from

Against Globalization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Philipsen, Lotte; Baggesgaard, Mads Anders

2013-01-01

In order to understand globalization, we need to consider what globalization is not. That is, in order to understand the mechanisms and elements that work toward globalization, we must, in a sense, read against globalization, highlighting the limitations of the concept and its inherent conflicts....... Only by employing this as a critical practice will we be analytically able to gain a dynamic understanding of the forces of globalization as they unfold today and as they have developed historically....

Speed Consistency in the Smart Tachograph.

Science.gov (United States)

Borio, Daniele; Cano, Eduardo; Baldini, Gianmarco

2018-05-16

In the transportation sector, safety risks can be significantly reduced by monitoring the behaviour of drivers and by discouraging possible misconducts that entail fatigue and can increase the possibility of accidents. The Smart Tachograph (ST), the new revision of the Digital Tachograph (DT), has been designed with this purpose: to verify that speed limits and compulsory rest periods are respected by drivers. In order to operate properly, the ST periodically checks the consistency of data from different sensors, which can be potentially manipulated to avoid the monitoring of the driver behaviour. In this respect, the ST regulation specifies a test procedure to detect motion conflicts originating from inconsistencies between Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and odometry data. This paper provides an experimental evaluation of the speed verification procedure specified by the ST regulation. Several hours of data were collected using three vehicles and considering light urban and highway environments. The vehicles were equipped with an On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) data reader and a GPS/Galileo receiver. The tests prescribed by the regulation were implemented with specific focus on synchronization aspects. The experimental analysis also considered aspects such as the impact of tunnels and the presence of data gaps. The analysis shows that the metrics selected for the tests are resilient to data gaps, latencies between GNSS and odometry data and simplistic manipulations such as data scaling. The new ST forces an attacker to falsify data from both sensors at the same time and in a coherent way. This makes more difficult the implementation of frauds in comparison to the current version of the DT.

Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Apisit Tongchai

2011-07-01

Full Text Available We recently developed a multiple-choice conceptual survey in mechanical waves. The development, evaluation, and demonstration of the use of the survey were reported elsewhere [A. Tongchai et al., Developing, evaluating and demonstrating the use of a conceptual survey in mechanical waves, Int. J. Sci. Educ. 31, 2437 (2009ISEDEB0950-069310.1080/09500690802389605]. We administered the survey to 902 students from seven different groups ranging from high school to second year university. As an outcome of that analysis we were able to identify several conceptual models which the students seemed to be using when answering the questions in the survey. In this paper we attempt to investigate the strength with which the students were committed to these conceptual models, as evidenced by the consistency with which they answered the questions. For this purpose we focus on the patterns of student responses to questions in one particular subtopic, wave propagation. This study has three main purposes: (1 to investigate the consistency of student conceptions, (2 to explore the relative usefulness of different analysis techniques, and (3 to determine what extra information a study of consistency can give about student understanding of basic concepts. We used two techniques: first, categorizing and counting, which is widely used in the science education community, and second, model analysis, recently introduced into physics education research. The manner in which categorizing and counting is used is very diverse while model analysis has been employed only in prescriptive ways. Research studies have reported that students often use their conceptual models inconsistently when solving a series of questions that test the same idea. Our results support their conclusions. Moreover, our findings suggest that students who have had more experiences in physics learning seem to use the scientifically accepted models more consistently. Further, the two analysis techniques

Consistency of students’ conceptions of wave propagation: Findings from a conceptual survey in mechanical waves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chernchok Soankwan

2011-07-01

Full Text Available We recently developed a multiple-choice conceptual survey in mechanical waves. The development, evaluation, and demonstration of the use of the survey were reported elsewhere [ A. Tongchai et al. Int. J. Sci. Educ. 31 2437 (2009]. We administered the survey to 902 students from seven different groups ranging from high school to second year university. As an outcome of that analysis we were able to identify several conceptual models which the students seemed to be using when answering the questions in the survey. In this paper we attempt to investigate the strength with which the students were committed to these conceptual models, as evidenced by the consistency with which they answered the questions. For this purpose we focus on the patterns of student responses to questions in one particular subtopic, wave propagation. This study has three main purposes: (1 to investigate the consistency of student conceptions, (2 to explore the relative usefulness of different analysis techniques, and (3 to determine what extra information a study of consistency can give about student understanding of basic concepts. We used two techniques: first, categorizing and counting, which is widely used in the science education community, and second, model analysis, recently introduced into physics education research. The manner in which categorizing and counting is used is very diverse while model analysis has been employed only in prescriptive ways. Research studies have reported that students often use their conceptual models inconsistently when solving a series of questions that test the same idea. Our results support their conclusions. Moreover, our findings suggest that students who have had more experiences in physics learning seem to use the scientifically accepted models more consistently. Further, the two analysis techniques have different advantages and disadvantages. Our findings show that model analysis can be used in more diverse ways, provides

EOF analysis of COSMIC observations on the global zonal mean temperature structure of the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere from 2007 to 2013

Science.gov (United States)

Salinas, Cornelius Csar Jude H.; Chang, Loren C.

2018-06-01

This work presents the results of a Conventional Empirical Orthogonal Function Analysis on daily global zonal mean temperature profiles in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (15-35 km), as measured by the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission from January 2007 to June 2013. For validation, results were compared with ERA-Interim reanalysis. Results show that, the leading global EOF mode (27%) from COSMIC is consistent with temperature anomalies due to the tropical cooling associated with boreal winter Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSW). The second global EOF mode from COSMIC (15.3%) is consistent with temperature anomalies due to the Quasi-biennial Oscillation (QBO). The third global mode from COSMIC (10.9%) is consistent with temperature anomalies due to the El Nino Southern Oscillation. This work also shows that the second northern hemisphere EOF mode from COSMIC (16.8%) is consistent with temperature anomalies due Rossby-wave breaking (RWB) which is expected to only be resolved by a high vertical and temporal resolution dataset like COSMIC. Our work concludes that the use of a high vertical and temporal resolution dataset like COSMIC yields non-seasonal EOF modes that are consistent with relatively more intricate temperature anomalies due to the SSW, QBO, ENSO and RWB.

Research Investments in Global Health: A Systematic Analysis of UK Infectious Disease Research Funding and Global Health Metrics, 1997-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Head, Michael G; Fitchett, Joseph R; Nageshwaran, Vaitehi; Kumari, Nina; Hayward, Andrew; Atun, Rifat

2016-01-01

Infectious diseases account for a significant global burden of disease and substantial investment in research and development. This paper presents a systematic assessment of research investments awarded to UK institutions and global health metrics assessing disease burden. We systematically sourced research funding data awarded from public and philanthropic organisations between 1997 and 2013. We screened awards for relevance to infection and categorised data by type of science, disease area and specific pathogen. Investments were compared with mortality, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and years lived with disability (YLD) across three time points. Between 1997-2013, there were 7398 awards with a total investment of £3.7 billion. An increase in research funding across 2011-2013 was observed for most disease areas, with notable exceptions being sexually transmitted infections and sepsis research where funding decreased. Most funding remains for pre-clinical research (£2.2 billion, 59.4%). Relative to global mortality, DALYs and YLDs, acute hepatitis C, leishmaniasis and African trypanosomiasis received comparatively high levels of funding. Pneumonia, shigellosis, pertussis, cholera and syphilis were poorly funded across all health metrics. Tuberculosis (TB) consistently attracts relatively less funding than HIV and malaria. Most infections have received increases in research investment, alongside decreases in global burden of disease in 2013. The UK demonstrates research strengths in some neglected tropical diseases such as African trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis, but syphilis, cholera, shigellosis and pneumonia remain poorly funded relative to their global burden. Acute hepatitis C appears well funded but the figures do not adequately take into account projected future chronic burdens for this condition. These findings can help to inform global policymakers on resource allocation for research investment.

The Global Ethics Corner: foundations, beliefs, and the teaching of biomedical and scientific ethics around the world.

Science.gov (United States)

Jakubowski, Henry; Xie, Jianping; Kumar Mitra, Arup; Ghooi, Ravindra; Hosseinkhani, Saman; Alipour, Mohsen; Hajipour, Behnam; Obiero, George

2017-09-01

The profound advances in the biomolecular sciences over the last decades have enabled similar advances in biomedicine. These advances have increasingly challenged our abilities to deploy them in an equitable and ethically acceptable manner. As such, it has become necessary and important to teach biomedical and scientific ethics to our students who will become the researchers, medical professionals, and global citizens of the future. As advances in the biosciences and medicine are made, developed, and used across the globe, our survival on an endangered planet requires global dialog and consensual action. To that end, a group of us from around the world have come together to describe the differing foundations of our ethical beliefs, and how ethical issues in biomedicine and in science are described and confronted in our countries. We hope to show the commonality in our beliefs and practices and to encourage readers from around the world to contribute to a continuing discussion through a new section of the journal, The Global Ethics Corner. © 2017 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(5):385-395, 2017. © 2017 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Real-time global illumination on mobile device

Science.gov (United States)

Ahn, Minsu; Ha, Inwoo; Lee, Hyong-Euk; Kim, James D. K.

2014-02-01

We propose a novel method for real-time global illumination on mobile devices. Our approach is based on instant radiosity, which uses a sequence of virtual point lights in order to represent the e ect of indirect illumination. Our rendering process consists of three stages. With the primary light, the rst stage generates a local illumination with the shadow map on GPU The second stage of the global illumination uses the re ective shadow map on GPU and generates the sequence of virtual point lights on CPU. Finally, we use the splatting method of Dachsbacher et al 1 and add the indirect illumination to the local illumination on GPU. With the limited computing resources in mobile devices, a small number of virtual point lights are allowed for real-time rendering. Our approach uses the multi-resolution sampling method with 3D geometry and attributes simultaneously and reduce the total number of virtual point lights. We also use the hybrid strategy, which collaboratively combines the CPUs and GPUs available in a mobile SoC due to the limited computing resources in mobile devices. Experimental results demonstrate the global illumination performance of the proposed method.

Absence of auditory 'global interference' in autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Foxton, Jessica M; Stewart, Mary E; Barnard, Louise; Rodgers, Jacqui; Young, Allan H; O'Brien, Gregory; Griffiths, Timothy D

2003-12-01

There has been considerable recent interest in the cognitive style of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). One theory, that of weak central coherence, concerns an inability to combine stimulus details into a coherent whole. Here we test this theory in the case of sound patterns, using a new definition of the details (local structure) and the coherent whole (global structure). Thirteen individuals with a diagnosis of autism or Asperger's syndrome and 15 control participants were administered auditory tests, where they were required to match local pitch direction changes between two auditory sequences. When the other local features of the sequence pairs were altered (the actual pitches and relative time points of pitch direction change), the control participants obtained lower scores compared with when these details were left unchanged. This can be attributed to interference from the global structure, defined as the combination of the local auditory details. In contrast, the participants with ASD did not obtain lower scores in the presence of such mismatches. This was attributed to the absence of interference from an auditory coherent whole. The results are consistent with the presence of abnormal interactions between local and global auditory perception in ASD.

Development of a Global Lifelong Learning Index for Future Education