Multirelational organization of large-scale social networks in an online world.

Science.gov (United States)

Szell, Michael; Lambiotte, Renaud; Thurner, Stefan

2010-08-03

The capacity to collect fingerprints of individuals in online media has revolutionized the way researchers explore human society. Social systems can be seen as a nonlinear superposition of a multitude of complex social networks, where nodes represent individuals and links capture a variety of different social relations. Much emphasis has been put on the network topology of social interactions, however, the multidimensional nature of these interactions has largely been ignored, mostly because of lack of data. Here, for the first time, we analyze a complete, multirelational, large social network of a society consisting of the 300,000 odd players of a massive multiplayer online game. We extract networks of six different types of one-to-one interactions between the players. Three of them carry a positive connotation (friendship, communication, trade), three a negative (enmity, armed aggression, punishment). We first analyze these types of networks as separate entities and find that negative interactions differ from positive interactions by their lower reciprocity, weaker clustering, and fatter-tail degree distribution. We then explore how the interdependence of different network types determines the organization of the social system. In particular, we study correlations and overlap between different types of links and demonstrate the tendency of individuals to play different roles in different networks. As a demonstration of the power of the approach, we present the first empirical large-scale verification of the long-standing structural balance theory, by focusing on the specific multiplex network of friendship and enmity relations.

Climate change adaptation and social sciences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Charles, L.

2013-01-01

Climate change subjects societies to a large range of uncertainties concerning the future and their development orientation. It came up as a scientific global problem, extended to political concerns first at a global and then national scales. Though it has long been the object of economic approaches which have notably contributed to its recognition, particularly the Stern Report, social sciences have hardly been mobilized as part of policies to counteract it. Social sciences strongly question the notion of climate change being built as a global scale transcendent phenomenon, analyzed by several authors. With the rise of adaptation policies, the question becomes even more important. Adaptation first comes up as a spontaneous behaviour, independent of policy, in close relationship to social dimensions as a basic way through which climate change is grasped collectively. Thus adaptation policies' social aspects need to be carefully worked in relation with more general goals for adaptation policies to be implemented efficiently, on the basis of wide interactions between local and global scales. (author)

Perceptions of Human Services Students about Social Change Education

Science.gov (United States)

Herzberg, Judith T.

2010-01-01

Human services educators and scholars maintain that they are teaching social change theory and skills that will allow students to engage in large-scale social change. A review of the literature, from a critical theory perspective, offered little evidence that social change is being taught in human services programs. In this collective case study,…

Large scale atmospheric tropical circulation changes and consequences during global warming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gastineau, G.

2008-01-01

The changes of the tropical large scale circulation during climate change can have large impacts on human activities. In a first part, the meridional atmospheric tropical circulation was studied in the different coupled models. During climate change, we find, on the one hand, that the Hadley meridional circulation and the subtropical jet are significantly shifted poleward, and on the other hand, that the intensity of the tropical circulation weakens. The slow down of the atmospheric circulation results from the dry static stability changes affecting the tropical troposphere. Secondly, idealized simulations are used to explain the tropical circulation changes. Ensemble simulation using the model LMDZ4 are set up to study the results from the coupled model IPSLCM4. The weakening of the large scale tropical circulation and the poleward shift of the Hadley cells are explained by both the uniform change and the meridional gradient change of the sea surface temperature. Then, we used the atmospheric model LMDZ4 in an aqua-planet configuration. The Hadley circulation changes are explained in a simple framework by the required poleward energy transport. In a last part, we focus on the water vapor distribution and feedback in the climate models. The Hadley circulation changes were shown to have a significant impact on the water vapour feedback during climate change. (author)

Large-Scale Ocean Circulation-Cloud Interactions Reduce the Pace of Transient Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

Trossman, D. S.; Palter, J. B.; Merlis, T. M.; Huang, Y.; Xia, Y.

2016-01-01

Changes to the large scale oceanic circulation are thought to slow the pace of transient climate change due, in part, to their influence on radiative feedbacks. Here we evaluate the interactions between CO2-forced perturbations to the large-scale ocean circulation and the radiative cloud feedback in a climate model. Both the change of the ocean circulation and the radiative cloud feedback strongly influence the magnitude and spatial pattern of surface and ocean warming. Changes in the ocean circulation reduce the amount of transient global warming caused by the radiative cloud feedback by helping to maintain low cloud coverage in the face of global warming. The radiative cloud feedback is key in affecting atmospheric meridional heat transport changes and is the dominant radiative feedback mechanism that responds to ocean circulation change. Uncertainty in the simulated ocean circulation changes due to CO2 forcing may contribute a large share of the spread in the radiative cloud feedback among climate models.

Climatological changing effects on wind, precipitation and erosion: Large, meso and small scale analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aslan, Z.

2004-01-01

The Fourier transformation analysis for monthly average values of meteorological parameters has been considered, and amplitudes, phase angles have been calculated by using ground measurements in Turkey. The first order harmonics of meteorological parameters show large scale effects, while higher order harmonics show the effects of small scale fluctuations. The variations of first through sixth order harmonic amplitudes and phases provide a useful means of understanding the large and local scale effects on meteorological parameters. The phase angle can be used to determine the time of year the maximum or minimum of a given harmonic occurs. The analysis helps us to distinguish different pressure, relative humidity, temperature, precipitation and wind speed regimes and transition regions. Local and large scale phenomenon and some unusual seasonal patterns are also defined near Keban Dam and the irrigation area. Analysis of precipitation based on long term data shows that semi-annual fluctuations are predominant in the study area. Similarly, pressure variations are mostly influenced by semi-annual fluctuations. Temperature and humidity variations are mostly influenced by meso and micro scale fluctuations. Many large and meso scale climate change simulations for the 21st century are based on concentration of green house gases. A better understanding of these effects on soil erosion is necessary to determine social, economic and other impacts of erosion. The second part of this study covers the time series analysis of precipitation, rainfall erosivity and wind erosion at the Marmara Region. Rainfall and runoff erosivity factors are defined by considering the results of field measurements at 10 stations. Climatological changing effects on rainfall erosion have been determined by monitoring meteorological variables. In the previous studies, Fournier Index is defined to estimate the rainfall erosivity for the study area. The Fournier Index or in other words a climatic index

How the Internet Will Help Large-Scale Assessment Reinvent Itself

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Randy Elliot Bennett

2001-02-01

Full Text Available Large-scale assessment in the United States is undergoing enormous pressure to change. That pressure stems from many causes. Depending upon the type of test, the issues precipitating change include an outmoded cognitive-scientific basis for test design; a mismatch with curriculum; the differential performance of population groups; a lack of information to help individuals improve; and inefficiency. These issues provide a strong motivation to reconceptualize both the substance and the business of large-scale assessment. At the same time, advances in technology, measurement, and cognitive science are providing the means to make that reconceptualization a reality. The thesis of this paper is that the largest facilitating factor will be technological, in particular the Internet. In the same way that it is already helping to revolutionize commerce, education, and even social interaction, the Internet will help revolutionize the business and substance of large-scale assessment.

Future changes in large-scale transport and stratosphere-troposphere exchange

Science.gov (United States)

Abalos, M.; Randel, W. J.; Kinnison, D. E.; Garcia, R. R.

2017-12-01

Future changes in large-scale transport are investigated in long-term (1955-2099) simulations of the Community Earth System Model - Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (CESM-WACCM) under an RCP6.0 climate change scenario. We examine artificial passive tracers in order to isolate transport changes from future changes in emissions and chemical processes. The model suggests enhanced stratosphere-troposphere exchange in both directions (STE), with decreasing tropospheric and increasing stratospheric tracer concentrations in the troposphere. Changes in the different transport processes are evaluated using the Transformed Eulerian Mean continuity equation, including parameterized convective transport. Dynamical changes associated with the rise of the tropopause height are shown to play a crucial role on future transport trends.

The Dutch Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale: Reliability, Validity, and Clinical Utility

OpenAIRE

de Beurs, Edwin; Tielen, Deirdre; Wollmann, Lisa

2014-01-01

The social interaction anxiety scale (SIAS) and the social phobia scale (SPS) assess anxiety in social interactions and fear of scrutiny by others. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Dutch versions of the SIAS and SPS using data from a large group of patients with social phobia and a community-based sample. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the SIAS is unidimensional, whereas the SPS is comprised of three subscales. The internal consistency of the scales and subsc...

Large system change challenges: addressing complex critical issues in linked physical and social domains

Science.gov (United States)

Waddell, Steve; Cornell, Sarah; Hsueh, Joe; Ozer, Ceren; McLachlan, Milla; Birney, Anna

2015-04-01

Most action to address contemporary complex challenges, including the urgent issues of global sustainability, occurs piecemeal and without meaningful guidance from leading complex change knowledge and methods. The potential benefit of using such knowledge is greater efficacy of effort and investment. However, this knowledge and its associated tools and methods are under-utilized because understanding about them is low, fragmented between diverse knowledge traditions, and often requires shifts in mindsets and skills from expert-led to participant-based action. We have been engaged in diverse action-oriented research efforts in Large System Change for sustainability. For us, "large" systems can be characterized as large-scale systems - up to global - with many components, of many kinds (physical, biological, institutional, cultural/conceptual), operating at multiple levels, driven by multiple forces, and presenting major challenges for people involved. We see change of such systems as complex challenges, in contrast with simple or complicated problems, or chaotic situations. In other words, issues and sub-systems have unclear boundaries, interact with each other, and are often contradictory; dynamics are non-linear; issues are not "controllable", and "solutions" are "emergent" and often paradoxical. Since choices are opportunity-, power- and value-driven, these social, institutional and cultural factors need to be made explicit in any actionable theory of change. Our emerging network is sharing and building a knowledge base of experience, heuristics, and theories of change from multiple disciplines and practice domains. We will present our views on focal issues for the development of the field of large system change, which include processes of goal-setting and alignment; leverage of systemic transitions and transformation; and the role of choice in influencing critical change processes, when only some sub-systems or levels of the system behave in purposeful ways

Political consultation and large-scale research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bechmann, G.; Folkers, H.

1977-01-01

Large-scale research and policy consulting have an intermediary position between sociological sub-systems. While large-scale research coordinates science, policy, and production, policy consulting coordinates science, policy and political spheres. In this very position, large-scale research and policy consulting lack of institutional guarantees and rational back-ground guarantee which are characteristic for their sociological environment. This large-scale research can neither deal with the production of innovative goods under consideration of rentability, nor can it hope for full recognition by the basis-oriented scientific community. Policy consulting knows neither the competence assignment of the political system to make decisions nor can it judge succesfully by the critical standards of the established social science, at least as far as the present situation is concerned. This intermediary position of large-scale research and policy consulting has, in three points, a consequence supporting the thesis which states that this is a new form of institutionalization of science: These are: 1) external control, 2) the organization form, 3) the theoretical conception of large-scale research and policy consulting. (orig.) [de

A large-scale perspective on stress-induced alterations in resting-state networks

Science.gov (United States)

Maron-Katz, Adi; Vaisvaser, Sharon; Lin, Tamar; Hendler, Talma; Shamir, Ron

2016-02-01

Stress is known to induce large-scale neural modulations. However, its neural effect once the stressor is removed and how it relates to subjective experience are not fully understood. Here we used a statistically sound data-driven approach to investigate alterations in large-scale resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) induced by acute social stress. We compared rsfMRI profiles of 57 healthy male subjects before and after stress induction. Using a parcellation-based univariate statistical analysis, we identified a large-scale rsFC change, involving 490 parcel-pairs. Aiming to characterize this change, we employed statistical enrichment analysis, identifying anatomic structures that were significantly interconnected by these pairs. This analysis revealed strengthening of thalamo-cortical connectivity and weakening of cross-hemispheral parieto-temporal connectivity. These alterations were further found to be associated with change in subjective stress reports. Integrating report-based information on stress sustainment 20 minutes post induction, revealed a single significant rsFC change between the right amygdala and the precuneus, which inversely correlated with the level of subjective recovery. Our study demonstrates the value of enrichment analysis for exploring large-scale network reorganization patterns, and provides new insight on stress-induced neural modulations and their relation to subjective experience.

Water limited agriculture in Africa: Climate change sensitivity of large scale land investments

Science.gov (United States)

Rulli, M. C.; D'Odorico, P.; Chiarelli, D. D.; Davis, K. F.

2015-12-01

The past few decades have seen unprecedented changes in the global agricultural system with a dramatic increase in the rates of food production fueled by an escalating demand for food calories, as a result of demographic growth, dietary changes, and - more recently - new bioenergy policies. Food prices have become consistently higher and increasingly volatile with dramatic spikes in 2007-08 and 2010-11. The confluence of these factors has heightened demand for land and brought a wave of land investment to the developing world: some of the more affluent countries are trying to secure land rights in areas suitable for agriculture. According to some estimates, to date, roughly 38 million hectares have been acquired worldwide by large scale investors, 16 million of which in Africa. More than 85% of large scale land acquisitions in Africa are by foreign investors. Many land deals are motivated not only by the need for fertile land but for the water resources required for crop production. Despite some recent assessments of the water appropriation associated with large scale land investments, their impact on the water resources of the target countries under present conditions and climate change scenarios remains poorly understood. Here we investigate irrigation water requirements by various crops planted in the acquired land as an indicator of the pressure likely placed by land investors on ("blue") water resources of target regions in Africa and evaluate the sensitivity to climate changes scenarios.

Towards Agent-Based Simulation of Emerging and Large-Scale Social Networks. Examples of the Migrant Crisis and MMORPGs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schatten, Markus

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Large-scale agent based simulation of social networks is described in the context of the migrant crisis in Syria and the EU as well as massively multi-player on-line role playing games (MMORPG. The recipeWorld system by Terna and Fontana is proposed as a possible solution to simulating large-scale social networks. The initial system has been re-implemented using the Smart Python multi-Agent Development Environment (SPADE and Pyinteractive was used for visualization. We present initial models of simulation that we plan to develop further in future studies. Thus this paper is research in progress that will hopefully establish a novel agent-based modelling system in the context of the ModelMMORPG project.

The Use of Online Social Networks by Polish Former Erasmus Students: A Large-Scale Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Bryla, Pawel

2014-01-01

There is an increasing role of online social networks in the life of young Poles. We conducted a large-scale survey among Polish former Erasmus students. We have received 2450 completed questionnaires from alumni of 115 higher education institutions all over Poland. 85.4% of our respondents reported they kept in touch with their former Erasmus…

Scaling Climate Change Communication for Behavior Change

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez, V. C.; Lappé, M.; Flora, J. A.; Ardoin, N. M.; Robinson, T. N.

2014-12-01

Ultimately, effective climate change communication results in a change in behavior, whether the change is individual, household or collective actions within communities. We describe two efforts to promote climate-friendly behavior via climate communication and behavior change theory. Importantly these efforts are designed to scale climate communication principles focused on behavior change rather than soley emphasizing climate knowledge or attitudes. Both cases are embedded in rigorous evaluations (randomized controlled trial and quasi-experimental) of primary and secondary outcomes as well as supplementary analyses that have implications for program refinement and program scaling. In the first case, the Girl Scouts "Girls Learning Environment and Energy" (GLEE) trial is scaling the program via a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for Troop Leaders to teach the effective home electricity and food and transportation energy reduction programs. The second case, the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) Assembly Program, is advancing the already-scaled assembly program by using communication principles to further engage youth and their families and communities (school and local communities) in individual and collective actions. Scaling of each program uses online learning platforms, social media and "behavior practice" videos, mastery practice exercises, virtual feedback and virtual social engagement to advance climate-friendly behavior change. All of these communication practices aim to simulate and advance in-person train-the-trainers technologies.As part of this presentation we outline scaling principles derived from these two climate change communication and behavior change programs.

Long-term, Ecosystem-Scale Changes in the Southern Benguela Marine Pelagic Social-Ecological System: Interaction of Natural and Human Drivers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Astrid Jarre

2013-12-01

Full Text Available South Africa's small pelagics fishery is currently the largest in volume and second largest in value in the southern Benguela. It exploits short-lived, small pelagic fishes such as anchovy (for reduction into fish meal and oil and sardine (for reduction as well as human consumption through canned products, and to a lesser extent redeye round herring and mesopelagics, largely for reduction. We explore the recent history (1940s to present of the social-ecological system around this fishery. The natural subsystem, at the scales of the ocean environment and the ecosystem, is characterized by high interannual and documented decadal-scale variability. We characterize the human social subsystem at the scales of the fishing industry, legislation, and west coast fishing towns, and demonstrate interdependencies between the natural and social subsystems by following system-scale changes. The pelagic fishing industry has evolved to deal with variability through consolidation, diversification, and range expansion. Legislation has increasingly looked for conservation of the resource while ensuring economic viability of the industry, and hence factory- and vessel-related jobs. Fishing communities under apartheid stayed largely dependent on company-generated infrastructure, combining seasonal employment in the fishing factories with inshore fishing, targeting rock lobster and line fish. While the pelagic industry persisted and communities survived, the resource base for both offshore and inshore fisheries gradually eroded. The advent of democracy in the mid-1990s brought allocation of long-term fishing rights to individuals or companies under conditions of depleted inshore resources aggravated by a shift in the distribution of pelagic fish away from the west coast towards the Cape south coast in the second half of the 1990s. The resultant loss of employment and fishing rights in the inshore has generated community coping strategies that include poaching and

Sustainability of small reservoirs and large scale water availability under current conditions and climate change

OpenAIRE

Krol, Martinus S.; de Vries, Marjella J.; van Oel, P.R.; Carlos de Araújo, José

2011-01-01

Semi-arid river basins often rely on reservoirs for water supply. Small reservoirs may impact on large-scale water availability both by enhancing availability in a distributed sense and by subtracting water for large downstream user communities, e.g. served by large reservoirs. Both of these impacts of small reservoirs are subject to climate change. Using a case-study on North-East Brazil, this paper shows that climate change impacts on water availability may be severe, and impacts on distrib...

Recent Regional Climate State and Change - Derived through Downscaling Homogeneous Large-scale Components of Re-analyses

Science.gov (United States)

Von Storch, H.; Klehmet, K.; Geyer, B.; Li, D.; Schubert-Frisius, M.; Tim, N.; Zorita, E.

2015-12-01

Global re-analyses suffer from inhomogeneities, as they process data from networks under development. However, the large-scale component of such re-analyses is mostly homogeneous; additional observational data add in most cases to a better description of regional details and less so on large-scale states. Therefore, the concept of downscaling may be applied to homogeneously complementing the large-scale state of the re-analyses with regional detail - wherever the condition of homogeneity of the large-scales is fulfilled. Technically this can be done by using a regional climate model, or a global climate model, which is constrained on the large scale by spectral nudging. This approach has been developed and tested for the region of Europe, and a skillful representation of regional risks - in particular marine risks - was identified. While the data density in Europe is considerably better than in most other regions of the world, even here insufficient spatial and temporal coverage is limiting risk assessments. Therefore, downscaled data-sets are frequently used by off-shore industries. We have run this system also in regions with reduced or absent data coverage, such as the Lena catchment in Siberia, in the Yellow Sea/Bo Hai region in East Asia, in Namibia and the adjacent Atlantic Ocean. Also a global (large scale constrained) simulation has been. It turns out that spatially detailed reconstruction of the state and change of climate in the three to six decades is doable for any region of the world.The different data sets are archived and may freely by used for scientific purposes. Of course, before application, a careful analysis of the quality for the intended application is needed, as sometimes unexpected changes in the quality of the description of large-scale driving states prevail.

Large Scale Chromosome Folding Is Stable against Local Changes in Chromatin Structure.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana-Maria Florescu

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Characterizing the link between small-scale chromatin structure and large-scale chromosome folding during interphase is a prerequisite for understanding transcription. Yet, this link remains poorly investigated. Here, we introduce a simple biophysical model where interphase chromosomes are described in terms of the folding of chromatin sequences composed of alternating blocks of fibers with different thicknesses and flexibilities, and we use it to study the influence of sequence disorder on chromosome behaviors in space and time. By employing extensive computer simulations, we thus demonstrate that chromosomes undergo noticeable conformational changes only on length-scales smaller than 105 basepairs and time-scales shorter than a few seconds, and we suggest there might exist effective upper bounds to the detection of chromosome reorganization in eukaryotes. We prove the relevance of our framework by modeling recent experimental FISH data on murine chromosomes.

Sustained Large-Scale Collective Climate Action Supported by Effective Climate Change Education Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Niepold, F., III; Crim, H.; Fiorile, G.; Eldadah, S.

2017-12-01

Since 2012, the Climate and Energy Literacy community have realized that as cities, nations and the international community seek solutions to global climate change over the coming decades, a more comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to climate literacy—one that includes economic and social considerations—will play a vital role in knowledgeable planning, decision-making, and governance. City, county and state leaders are now leading the American response to a changing climate by incubating social innovation to prevail in the face of unprecedented change. Cities are beginning to realize the importance of critical investments to support the policies and strategies that will foster the climate literacy necessary for citizens to understand the urgency of climate actions and to succeed in a resilient post-carbon economy and develop the related workforce. Over decade of federal and non-profit Climate Change Education effective methods have been developed that can support municipality's significant educational capabilities for the purpose of strengthening and scaling city, state, business, and education actions designed to sustain and effectively address this significant social change. Looking to foster the effective and innovative strategies that will enable their communities several networks have collaborated to identify recommendations for effective education and communication practices when working with different types of audiences. U.S. National Science Foundation funded Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP) Alliance, the National Wildlife Federation, NOAA Climate Program Office, Tri-Agency Climate Change Education Collaborative and the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) are working to develop a new web portal that will highlight "effective" practices that includes the acquisition and use of climate change knowledge to inform decision-making. The purpose of the web portal is to transfer effective practice to support communities to be

Safety Effect Analysis of the Large-Scale Design Changes in a Nuclear Power Plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Eun-Chan; Lee, Hyun-Gyo [Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

These activities were predominantly focused on replacing obsolete systems with new systems, and these efforts were not only to prolong the plant life, but also to guarantee the safe operation of the units. This review demonstrates the safety effect evaluation using the probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of the design changes, system improvements, and Fukushima accident action items for Kori unit 1 (K1). For the large scale of system design changes for K1, the safety effects from the PSA perspective were reviewed using the risk quantification results before and after the system improvements. This evaluation considered the seven significant design changes including the replacement of the control building air conditioning system and the performance improvement of the containment sump using a new filtering system as well as above five system design changes. The analysis results demonstrated that the CDF was reduced by 12% overall from 1.62E-5/y to 1.43E-5/y. The CDF reduction was larger in the transient group than in the loss of coolant accident (LOCA) group. In conclusion, the analysis using the K1 PSA model supports that the plant safety has been appropriately maintained after the large-scale design changes in consideration of the changed operation factors and failure modes due to the system improvements.

Management of social and economic impacts associated with the construction of large-scale projects: experiences from the Western coal development communities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Greene, M.R.; Curry, M.G.

1977-06-01

The construction and operation of large-scale energy or resource development projects are accompanied by environmental, social, and economic changes or impacts. Impact assessment is the key tool used to determine which impact areas will most severely affect the community and will thus need to be managed. Impact management, only recently recognized as part of the assessment process, includes public and private actions to ameliorate impacts. The use of available impact management strategies can affect the outcome or change in the social and economic environment in a community. Therefore, an inventory of available strategies and the capabilities of local governments to use such strategies should be an integral part of any social and economic impact assessment. This provides a link between impact assessment and management. This report provides an introductory analysis to some of the more complex issues raised by social and economic impact management, with experiences cited from Western coal-development communities. Following an introduction, the paper is divided into sections corresponding to the major social and economic impacts experienced by rural communities surrounding an energy development. Each section contains a brief introductory description of the types of problems typically associated with the impact sector, and a discussion of management strategies either proposed or implemented for the impact. The management strategies are presented in tabular form, indicating the level of government responsible for implementation. 10 tables, 72 references. (MCW)

MOCC: A Fast and Robust Correlation-Based Method for Interest Point Matching under Large Scale Changes

OpenAIRE

Wang Hao; Gao Wen; Huang Qingming; Zhao Feng

2010-01-01

Similarity measures based on correlation have been used extensively for matching tasks. However, traditional correlation-based image matching methods are sensitive to rotation and scale changes. This paper presents a fast correlation-based method for matching two images with large rotation and significant scale changes. Multiscale oriented corner correlation (MOCC) is used to evaluate the degree of similarity between the feature points. The method is rotation invariant and capable of matchin...

MOCC: A Fast and Robust Correlation-Based Method for Interest Point Matching under Large Scale Changes

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Feng; Huang, Qingming; Wang, Hao; Gao, Wen

2010-12-01

Similarity measures based on correlation have been used extensively for matching tasks. However, traditional correlation-based image matching methods are sensitive to rotation and scale changes. This paper presents a fast correlation-based method for matching two images with large rotation and significant scale changes. Multiscale oriented corner correlation (MOCC) is used to evaluate the degree of similarity between the feature points. The method is rotation invariant and capable of matching image pairs with scale changes up to a factor of 7. Moreover, MOCC is much faster in comparison with the state-of-the-art matching methods. Experimental results on real images show the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Inducing a health-promoting change process within an organization the Effectiveness of a Large-Scale Intervention on Social Capital, Openness, and Autonomous Motivation Toward Health

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scheppingen, A.R. van; Vroome, E.M.M. de; Have, K.C.J.M. ten; Bos, E.H.; Zwetsloot, G.I.J.M.; Mechelen, W. van

2014-01-01

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of an organizational large-scale intervention applied to induce a health-promoting organizational change process. Design and Methods: A quasi-experimental, "as-treated" design was used. Regression analyses on data of employees of a Dutch dairy company (n =324)

Critical thinking, politics on a large scale and media democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Antonio IBÁÑEZ-MARTÍN

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The first approximation to the social current reality offers us numerous motives for the worry. The spectacle of violence and of immorality can scare us easily. But more worrying still it is to verify that the horizon of conviviality, peace and wellbeing that Europe had been developing from the Treaty of Rome of 1957 has compromised itself seriously for the economic crisis. Today we are before an assault to the democratic politics, which is qualified, on the part of the media democracy, as an exhausted system, which is required to be changed into a new and great politics, a politics on a large scale. The article analyses the concept of a politics on a large scale, primarily attending to Nietzsche, and noting its union with the great philosophy and the great education. The study of the texts of Nietzsche leads us to the conclusion of how in them we often find an interesting analysis of the problems and a misguided proposal for solutions. We cannot think to suggest solutions to all the problems, but we outline various proposals about changes of political activity, that reasonably are defended from the media democracy. In conclusion, we point out that a politics on a large scale requires statesmen, able to suggest modes of life in common that can structure a long-term coexistence.

Effect Of A Large-Scale Social Franchising And Telemedicine Program On Childhood Diarrhea And Pneumonia Outcomes In India.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohanan, Manoj; Babiarz, Kimberly S; Goldhaber-Fiebert, Jeremy D; Miller, Grant; Vera-Hernández, Marcos

2016-10-01

Despite the rapid growth of social franchising, there is little evidence on its population impact in the health sector. Similar in many ways to private-sector commercial franchising, social franchising can be found in sectors with a social objective, such as health care. This article evaluates the World Health Partners (WHP) Sky program, a large-scale social franchising and telemedicine program in Bihar, India. We studied appropriate treatment for childhood diarrhea and pneumonia and associated health care outcomes. We used multivariate difference-in-differences models to analyze data on 67,950 children ages five and under in 2011 and 2014. We found that the WHP-Sky program did not improve rates of appropriate treatment or disease prevalence. Both provider participation and service use among target populations were low. Our results do not imply that social franchising cannot succeed; instead, they underscore the importance of understanding factors that explain variation in the performance of social franchises. Our findings also highlight, for donors and governments in particular, the importance of conducting rigorous impact evaluations of new and potentially innovative health care delivery programs before investing in scaling them up. Published by Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Hydrometeorological variability on a large french catchment and its relation to large-scale circulation across temporal scales

Science.gov (United States)

Massei, Nicolas; Dieppois, Bastien; Fritier, Nicolas; Laignel, Benoit; Debret, Maxime; Lavers, David; Hannah, David

2015-04-01

In the present context of global changes, considerable efforts have been deployed by the hydrological scientific community to improve our understanding of the impacts of climate fluctuations on water resources. Both observational and modeling studies have been extensively employed to characterize hydrological changes and trends, assess the impact of climate variability or provide future scenarios of water resources. In the aim of a better understanding of hydrological changes, it is of crucial importance to determine how and to what extent trends and long-term oscillations detectable in hydrological variables are linked to global climate oscillations. In this work, we develop an approach associating large-scale/local-scale correlation, enmpirical statistical downscaling and wavelet multiresolution decomposition of monthly precipitation and streamflow over the Seine river watershed, and the North Atlantic sea level pressure (SLP) in order to gain additional insights on the atmospheric patterns associated with the regional hydrology. We hypothesized that: i) atmospheric patterns may change according to the different temporal wavelengths defining the variability of the signals; and ii) definition of those hydrological/circulation relationships for each temporal wavelength may improve the determination of large-scale predictors of local variations. The results showed that the large-scale/local-scale links were not necessarily constant according to time-scale (i.e. for the different frequencies characterizing the signals), resulting in changing spatial patterns across scales. This was then taken into account by developing an empirical statistical downscaling (ESD) modeling approach which integrated discrete wavelet multiresolution analysis for reconstructing local hydrometeorological processes (predictand : precipitation and streamflow on the Seine river catchment) based on a large-scale predictor (SLP over the Euro-Atlantic sector) on a monthly time-step. This approach

Using social-ecological systems theory to evaluate large-scale comanagement efforts: a case study of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William Tyson

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Comanagement efforts are increasingly tasked with overseeing natural resource governance at a large scale. I examine comanagement of subsistence harvesting in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR of the western Canadian Arctic, using a social-ecological systems framework. In doing so, this study joins a growing list of research that reviews design principles commonly found in successful small-scale commons management and applies them to a large resource area. This research uses the management of beluga (Delphinapterus leucas and barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus as case studies in understanding the management framework of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, as each species is important in Inuvialuit culture and is actively managed and monitored. Comanagement bodies in the study area display many of the institutional design principles that are characteristic of successful social-ecological systems. Particularly mentionable are the presence of well-organized nested enterprises and a strong incorporation of local knowledge and monitoring. This supports the application of institutional design principles in large-scale analyses of resource management. However, due to the network of policy and management outside the ISR that influences each species, this research suggests that in cases of wide-ranging resource bases, these types of analyses may be better suited to evaluating broad management networks rather than discrete governing regions.

Large scale electrolysers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

B Bello; M Junker

2006-01-01

Hydrogen production by water electrolysis represents nearly 4 % of the world hydrogen production. Future development of hydrogen vehicles will require large quantities of hydrogen. Installation of large scale hydrogen production plants will be needed. In this context, development of low cost large scale electrolysers that could use 'clean power' seems necessary. ALPHEA HYDROGEN, an European network and center of expertise on hydrogen and fuel cells, has performed for its members a study in 2005 to evaluate the potential of large scale electrolysers to produce hydrogen in the future. The different electrolysis technologies were compared. Then, a state of art of the electrolysis modules currently available was made. A review of the large scale electrolysis plants that have been installed in the world was also realized. The main projects related to large scale electrolysis were also listed. Economy of large scale electrolysers has been discussed. The influence of energy prices on the hydrogen production cost by large scale electrolysis was evaluated. (authors)

MOCC: A Fast and Robust Correlation-Based Method for Interest Point Matching under Large Scale Changes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Hao

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Similarity measures based on correlation have been used extensively for matching tasks. However, traditional correlation-based image matching methods are sensitive to rotation and scale changes. This paper presents a fast correlation-based method for matching two images with large rotation and significant scale changes. Multiscale oriented corner correlation (MOCC is used to evaluate the degree of similarity between the feature points. The method is rotation invariant and capable of matching image pairs with scale changes up to a factor of 7. Moreover, MOCC is much faster in comparison with the state-of-the-art matching methods. Experimental results on real images show the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

The causality analysis of climate change and large-scale human crisis.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, David D; Lee, Harry F; Wang, Cong; Li, Baosheng; Pei, Qing; Zhang, Jane; An, Yulun

2011-10-18

Recent studies have shown strong temporal correlations between past climate changes and societal crises. However, the specific causal mechanisms underlying this relation have not been addressed. We explored quantitative responses of 14 fine-grained agro-ecological, socioeconomic, and demographic variables to climate fluctuations from A.D. 1500-1800 in Europe. Results show that cooling from A.D. 1560-1660 caused successive agro-ecological, socioeconomic, and demographic catastrophes, leading to the General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century. We identified a set of causal linkages between climate change and human crisis. Using temperature data and climate-driven economic variables, we simulated the alternation of defined "golden" and "dark" ages in Europe and the Northern Hemisphere during the past millennium. Our findings indicate that climate change was the ultimate cause, and climate-driven economic downturn was the direct cause, of large-scale human crises in preindustrial Europe and the Northern Hemisphere.

Scaling-Up Youth-Led Social Justice Efforts through an Online School-Based Social Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Kornbluh, Mariah; Neal, Jennifer Watling; Ozer, Emily J

2016-06-01

The exploration of social networking sites (SNS) in promoting social change efforts offers great potential within the field of community psychology. Online communities on SNS provide opportunities for bridging across groups, thus fostering the exchange of novel ideas and practices. Currently, there have only been limited efforts to examine SNS within the context of youth-led efforts. To explore the potential of SNS to facilitate the diffusion of social justice efforts between distinct youth groups, we linked three school-based youth-led participatory action research projects involving 54 high school students through a SNS. This study offers an innovative methodological approach and framework, utilizing social network analysis and strategic sampling of key student informants to investigate what individual behaviors and online network features predict student adoption of social change efforts. Findings highlight prospective facilitators and barriers to diffusion processes within a youth-led online network, as well as key constructs that may inform future research. We conclude by providing suggestions for scholars and practitioners interested in examining how SNS can be used to enhance the diffusion of social justice strategies, youth-led engagement efforts, and large-scale civic organizing. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

Mental Health Workforce Change through Social Work Education: A California Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, Gwen; Morris, Meghan Brenna; Sirojudin, Sirojudin

2013-01-01

The 2004 California Mental Health Services Act requires large-scale system change in the public mental health system through a shift to recovery-oriented services for diverse populations. This article describes an innovative strategy for workforce recruitment and retention to create and sustain these systemic changes. The California Social Work…

Managing small-scale commercial fisheries for adaptive capacity: insights from dynamic social-ecological drivers of change in Monterey Bay.

Science.gov (United States)

Aguilera, Stacy E; Cole, Jennifer; Finkbeiner, Elena M; Le Cornu, Elodie; Ban, Natalie C; Carr, Mark H; Cinner, Joshua E; Crowder, Larry B; Gelcich, Stefan; Hicks, Christina C; Kittinger, John N; Martone, Rebecca; Malone, Daniel; Pomeroy, Carrie; Starr, Richard M; Seram, Sanah; Zuercher, Rachel; Broad, Kenneth

2015-01-01

Globally, small-scale fisheries are influenced by dynamic climate, governance, and market drivers, which present social and ecological challenges and opportunities. It is difficult to manage fisheries adaptively for fluctuating drivers, except to allow participants to shift effort among multiple fisheries. Adapting to changing conditions allows small-scale fishery participants to survive economic and environmental disturbances and benefit from optimal conditions. This study explores the relative influence of large-scale drivers on shifts in effort and outcomes among three closely linked fisheries in Monterey Bay since the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976. In this region, Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax), northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax), and market squid (Loligo opalescens) fisheries comprise a tightly linked system where shifting focus among fisheries is a key element to adaptive capacity and reduced social and ecological vulnerability. Using a cluster analysis of landings, we identify four modes from 1974 to 2012 that are dominated (i.e., a given species accounting for the plurality of landings) by squid, sardine, anchovy, or lack any dominance, and seven points of transition among these periods. This approach enables us to determine which drivers are associated with each mode and each transition. Overall, we show that market and climate drivers are predominantly attributed to dominance transitions. Model selection of external drivers indicates that governance phases, reflected as perceived abundance, dictate long-term outcomes. Our findings suggest that globally, small-scale fishery managers should consider enabling shifts in effort among fisheries and retaining existing flexibility, as adaptive capacity is a critical determinant for social and ecological resilience.

Keeping the ‘Great’ in the Great Barrier Reef: large-scale governance of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Louisa S. Evans

2014-08-01

Full Text Available As part of an international collaboration to compare large-scale commons, we used the Social-Ecological Systems Meta-Analysis Database (SESMAD to systematically map out attributes of and changes in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP in Australia. We focus on eight design principles from common-pool resource (CPR theory and other key social-ecological systems governance variables, and explore to what extent they help explain the social and ecological outcomes of park management through time. Our analysis showed that commercial fisheries management and the re-zoning of the GBRMP in 2004 led to improvements in ecological condition of the reef, particularly fisheries. These boundary and rights changes were supported by effective monitoring, sanctioning and conflict resolution. Moderate biophysical connectivity was also important for improved outcomes. However, our analysis also highlighted that continued challenges to improved ecological health in terms of coral cover and biodiversity can be explained by fuzzy boundaries between land and sea, and the significance of external drivers to even large-scale social-ecological systems (SES. While ecological and institutional fit in the marine SES was high, this was not the case when considering the coastal SES. Nested governance arrangements become even more important at this larger scale. To our knowledge, our paper provides the first analysis linking the re-zoning of the GBRMP to CPR and SES theory. We discuss important challenges to coding large-scale systems for meta-analysis.

Helping organizations help others: organization development as a facilitator of social change.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyd, Neil M

2011-01-01

This article explores organization development (OD) interventions and their likelihood of increasing social change outcomes in public agencies. The central argument of this work is that public and nonprofit organizations can deliver better social outcomes by systematically engaging in OD interventions. An in-depth survey was conducted in 3 agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the end of the gubernatorial administration of Tom Ridge (1995-2002). During his administration, Governor Ridge led the agencies of Pennsylvania government through a large-scale change effort to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The change effort was a remarkable event for the Commonwealth because no other governor in the history of the state had attempted to conceptualize and deliver a comprehensive large-scale change management initiative. The successes and setbacks served as a fertile context to shed light on the following research question: Do OD interventions increase the likelihood that public organizations will deliver better social outcomes? This question is important in that public organizations may need to engage in organization development activities to improve their internal operations, which in turn may help them provide exemplary social outcomes to those whom they serve. In short, organization development interventions might allow public organizations to help themselves to help others.

Large Scale Community Detection Using a Small World Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ranjan Kumar Behera

2017-11-01

Full Text Available In a social network, small or large communities within the network play a major role in deciding the functionalities of the network. Despite of diverse definitions, communities in the network may be defined as the group of nodes that are more densely connected as compared to nodes outside the group. Revealing such hidden communities is one of the challenging research problems. A real world social network follows small world phenomena, which indicates that any two social entities can be reachable in a small number of steps. In this paper, nodes are mapped into communities based on the random walk in the network. However, uncovering communities in large-scale networks is a challenging task due to its unprecedented growth in the size of social networks. A good number of community detection algorithms based on random walk exist in literature. In addition, when large-scale social networks are being considered, these algorithms are observed to take considerably longer time. In this work, with an objective to improve the efficiency of algorithms, parallel programming framework like Map-Reduce has been considered for uncovering the hidden communities in social network. The proposed approach has been compared with some standard existing community detection algorithms for both synthetic and real-world datasets in order to examine its performance, and it is observed that the proposed algorithm is more efficient than the existing ones.

Group music performance causes elevated pain thresholds and social bonding in small and large groups of singers

Science.gov (United States)

Weinstein, Daniel; Launay, Jacques; Pearce, Eiluned; Dunbar, Robin I. M.; Stewart, Lauren

2016-01-01

Over our evolutionary history, humans have faced the problem of how to create and maintain social bonds in progressively larger groups compared to those of our primate ancestors. Evidence from historical and anthropological records suggests that group music-making might act as a mechanism by which this large-scale social bonding could occur. While previous research has shown effects of music making on social bonds in small group contexts, the question of whether this effect ‘scales up’ to larger groups is particularly important when considering the potential role of music for large-scale social bonding. The current study recruited individuals from a community choir that met in both small (n = 20 – 80) and large (a ‘megachoir’ combining individuals from the smaller subchoirs n = 232) group contexts. Participants gave self-report measures (via a survey) of social bonding and had pain threshold measurements taken (as a proxy for endorphin release) before and after 90 minutes of singing. Results showed that feelings of inclusion, connectivity, positive affect, and measures of endorphin release all increased across singing rehearsals and that the influence of group singing was comparable for pain thresholds in the large versus small group context. Levels of social closeness were found to be greater at pre- and post-levels for the small choir condition. However, the large choir condition experienced a greater change in social closeness as compared to the small condition. The finding that singing together fosters social closeness – even in large contexts where individuals are not known to each other – is consistent with evolutionary accounts that emphasize the role of music in social bonding, particularly in the context of creating larger cohesive groups than other primates are able to manage. PMID:27158219

Quantifying streamflow change caused by forest disturbance at a large spatial scale: A single watershed study

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Xiaohua; Zhang, Mingfang

2010-12-01

Climatic variability and forest disturbance are commonly recognized as two major drivers influencing streamflow change in large-scale forested watersheds. The greatest challenge in evaluating quantitative hydrological effects of forest disturbance is the removal of climatic effect on hydrology. In this paper, a method was designed to quantify respective contributions of large-scale forest disturbance and climatic variability on streamflow using the Willow River watershed (2860 km2) located in the central part of British Columbia, Canada. Long-term (>50 years) data on hydrology, climate, and timber harvesting history represented by equivalent clear-cutting area (ECA) were available to discern climatic and forestry influences on streamflow by three steps. First, effective precipitation, an integrated climatic index, was generated by subtracting evapotranspiration from precipitation. Second, modified double mass curves were developed by plotting accumulated annual streamflow against annual effective precipitation, which presented a much clearer picture of the cumulative effects of forest disturbance on streamflow following removal of climatic influence. The average annual streamflow changes that were attributed to forest disturbances and climatic variability were then estimated to be +58.7 and -72.4 mm, respectively. The positive (increasing) and negative (decreasing) values in streamflow change indicated opposite change directions, which suggest an offsetting effect between forest disturbance and climatic variability in the study watershed. Finally, a multivariate Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model was generated to establish quantitative relationships between accumulated annual streamflow deviation attributed to forest disturbances and annual ECA. The model was then used to project streamflow change under various timber harvesting scenarios. The methodology can be effectively applied to any large-scale single watershed where long-term data (>50

Large-scale brain networks in affective and social neuroscience: Towards an integrative functional architecture of the brain

Science.gov (United States)

Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Satpute, Ajay

2013-01-01

Understanding how a human brain creates a human mind ultimately depends on mapping psychological categories and concepts to physical measurements of neural response. Although it has long been assumed that emotional, social, and cognitive phenomena are realized in the operations of separate brain regions or brain networks, we demonstrate that it is possible to understand the body of neuroimaging evidence using a framework that relies on domain general, distributed structure-function mappings. We review current research in affective and social neuroscience and argue that the emerging science of large-scale intrinsic brain networks provides a coherent framework for a domain-general functional architecture of the human brain. PMID:23352202

Refining and validating the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Carleton, R Nicholas; Collimore, Kelsey C; Asmundson, Gordon J G; McCabe, Randi E; Rowa, Karen; Antony, Martin M

2009-01-01

The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale are companion measures for assessing symptoms of social anxiety and social phobia. The scales have good reliability and validity across several samples, however, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have yielded solutions comprising substantially different item content and factor structures. These discrepancies are likely the result of analyzing items from each scale separately or simultaneously. The current investigation sets out to assess items from those scales, both simultaneously and separately, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in an effort to resolve the factor structure. Participants consisted of a clinical sample (n 5353; 54% women) and an undergraduate sample (n 5317; 75% women) who completed the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale, along with additional fear-related measures to assess convergent and discriminant validity. A three-factor solution with a reduced set of items was found to be most stable, irrespective of whether the items from each scale are assessed together or separately. Items from the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale represented one factor, whereas items from the Social Phobia Scale represented two other factors. Initial support for scale and factor validity, along with implications and recommendations for future research, is provided. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Comparing short forms of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Carleton, R Nicholas; Thibodeau, Michel A; Weeks, Justin W; Teale Sapach, Michelle J N; McEvoy, Peter M; Horswill, Samantha C; Heimberg, Richard G

2014-12-01

The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS; Mattick & Clarke, 1998) are companion scales developed to measure anxiety in social interaction and performance situations, respectively. The measures have strong discriminant and convergent validity; however, their factor structures remain debated, and furthermore, the combined administration length (i.e., 39 items) can be prohibitive for some settings. There have been 4 attempts to assess the factor structures of the scales and reduce the item content: the 14-item Social Interaction Phobia Scale (SIPS; Carleton et al., 2009), the 12-item SIAS-6/SPS-6 (Peters, Sunderland, Andrews, Rapee, & Mattick, 2012), the 21-item abbreviated SIAS/SPS (ASIAS/ASPS; Kupper & Denollet, 2012), and the 12-item Readability SIAS and SPS (RSIAS/RSPS; Fergus, Valentiner, McGrath, Gier-Lonsway, & Kim, 2012). The current study compared the short forms on (a) factor structure, (b) ability to distinguish between clinical and non-clinical populations, (c) sensitivity to change following therapy, and (d) convergent validity with related measures. Participants included 3,607 undergraduate students (55% women) and 283 patients with social anxiety disorder (43% women). Results of confirmatory factor analyses, sensitivity analyses, and correlation analyses support the robust utility of items in the SIPS and the SPS-6 and SIAS-6 relative to the other short forms; furthermore, the SIPS and the SPS-6 and SIAS-6 were also supported by convergent validity analyses within the undergraduate sample. The RSIAS/RSPS and the ASIAS/ASPS were least supported, based on the current results and the principle of parsimony. Accordingly, researchers and clinicians should consider carefully which of the short forms will best suit their needs. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

A Chain Perspective on Large-scale Number Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grijpink, J.H.A.M.

2012-01-01

As large-scale number systems gain significance in social and economic life (electronic communication, remote electronic authentication), the correct functioning and the integrity of public number systems take on crucial importance. They are needed to uniquely indicate people, objects or phenomena

Understanding protected area resilience: a multi-scale, social-ecological approach

Science.gov (United States)

Cumming, Graeme S.; Allen, Craig R.; Ban, Natalie C.; Biggs, Duan; Biggs, Harry C.; Cumming, David H.M; De Vos, Alta; Epstein, Graham; Etienne, Michel; Maciejewski, Kristine; Mathevet, Raphael; Moore, Christine; Nenadovic, Mateja; Schoon, Michael

2015-01-01

Protected areas (PAs) remain central to the conservation of biodiversity. Classical PAs were conceived as areas that would be set aside to maintain a natural state with minimal human influence. However, global environmental change and growing cross-scale anthropogenic influences mean that PAs can no longer be thought of as ecological islands that function independently of the broader social-ecological system in which they are located. For PAs to be resilient (and to contribute to broader social-ecological resilience), they must be able to adapt to changing social and ecological conditions over time in a way that supports the long-term persistence of populations, communities, and ecosystems of conservation concern. We extend Ostrom's social-ecological systems framework to consider the long-term persistence of PAs, as a form of land use embedded in social-ecological systems, with important cross-scale feedbacks. Most notably, we highlight the cross-scale influences and feedbacks on PAs that exist from the local to the global scale, contextualizing PAs within multi-scale social-ecological functional landscapes. Such functional landscapes are integral to understand and manage individual PAs for long-term sustainability. We illustrate our conceptual contribution with three case studies that highlight cross-scale feedbacks and social-ecological interactions in the functioning of PAs and in relation to regional resilience. Our analysis suggests that while ecological, economic, and social processes are often directly relevant to PAs at finer scales, at broader scales, the dominant processes that shape and alter PA resilience are primarily social and economic.

Scale Mismatches in Social-Ecological Systems: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Graeme S. Cumming

2006-06-01

Full Text Available Scale is a concept that transcends disciplinary boundaries. In ecology and geography, scale is usually defined in terms of spatial and temporal dimensions. Sociological scale also incorporates space and time, but adds ideas about representation and organization. Although spatial and temporal location determine the context for social and ecological dynamics, social-ecological interactions can create dynamic feedback loops in which humans both influence and are influenced by ecosystem processes. We hypothesize that many of the problems encountered by societies in managing natural resources arise because of a mismatch between the scale of management and the scale(s of the ecological processes being managed. We use examples from southern Africa and the southern United States to address four main questions: (1 What is a "scale mismatch?" (2 How are scale mismatches generated? (3 What are the consequences of scale mismatches? (4 How can scale mismatches be resolved? Scale mismatches occur when the scale of environmental variation and the scale of social organization in which the responsibility for management resides are aligned in such a way that one or more functions of the social-ecological system are disrupted, inefficiencies occur, and/or important components of the system are lost. They are generated by a wide range of social, ecological, and linked social-ecological processes. Mismatches between the scales of ecological processes and the institutions that are responsible for managing them can contribute to a decrease in social-ecological resilience, including the mismanagement of natural resources and a decrease in human well-being. Solutions to scale mismatches usually require institutional changes at more than one hierarchical level. Long-term solutions to scale mismatch problems will depend on social learning and the development of flexible institutions that can adjust and reorganize in response to changes in ecosystems. Further research is

Growth Limits in Large Scale Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Thomas Phillip

limitations. The rising complexity of network management with the convergence of communications platforms is shown as problematic for both automatic management feasibility and for manpower resource management. In the fourth step the scope is extended to include the present society with the DDN project as its......The Subject of large scale networks is approached from the perspective of the network planner. An analysis of the long term planning problems is presented with the main focus on the changing requirements for large scale networks and the potential problems in meeting these requirements. The problems...... the fundamental technological resources in network technologies are analysed for scalability. Here several technological limits to continued growth are presented. The third step involves a survey of major problems in managing large scale networks given the growth of user requirements and the technological...

Does changing social influence engender changes in alcohol intake? A meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Prestwich, Andrew; Kellar, Ian; Conner, Mark; Lawton, Rebecca; Gardner, Peter; Turgut, Liz

2016-10-01

Past research has suggested that social influences on drinking can be manipulated with subsequent reductions in alcohol intake. However, the experimental evidence for this and the best strategies to positively change these social influences have not been meta-analyzed. This research addressed these gaps. Randomized controlled trials testing social influence-based interventions on adults' drinking were systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed. The behavior change techniques used in each study were coded and the effect sizes showing the impact of each intervention on (a) social influence and (b) alcohol intake were calculated. Metaregressions identified the association between these effect sizes, as well as the effect of specific behavior change techniques on social influences. Forty-one studies comprising 17,445 participants were included. Changes in social influences were significantly associated with changes in alcohol intake. However, even moderate-to-large changes in social influences corresponded with only a small change in drinking behavior and changing social influences did not reduce alcohol-related problems. Providing normative information about others' behavior and experiences was the most effective technique to change social influences. Social influences and normative beliefs can be changed in drinkers, particularly by providing normative information about how much others' drink. However, even generating large changes in these constructs are likely to engender only small changes in alcohol intake. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

ability in Large Scale Land Acquisitions in Kenya

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

Corey Piccioni

Kenya's national planning strategy, Vision 2030. Agri- culture, natural resource exploitation, and infrastruc- ... sitions due to high levels of poverty and unclear or in- secure land tenure rights in Kenya. Inadequate social ... lease to a private company over the expansive Yala. Swamp to undertake large-scale irrigation farming.

Geospatial Optimization of Siting Large-Scale Solar Projects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Macknick, Jordan [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Quinby, Ted [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Caulfield, Emmet [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Gerritsen, Margot [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); Diffendorfer, Jay [U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, CO (United States); Haines, Seth [U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, CO (United States)

2014-03-01

Recent policy and economic conditions have encouraged a renewed interest in developing large-scale solar projects in the U.S. Southwest. However, siting large-scale solar projects is complex. In addition to the quality of the solar resource, solar developers must take into consideration many environmental, social, and economic factors when evaluating a potential site. This report describes a proof-of-concept, Web-based Geographical Information Systems (GIS) tool that evaluates multiple user-defined criteria in an optimization algorithm to inform discussions and decisions regarding the locations of utility-scale solar projects. Existing siting recommendations for large-scale solar projects from governmental and non-governmental organizations are not consistent with each other, are often not transparent in methods, and do not take into consideration the differing priorities of stakeholders. The siting assistance GIS tool we have developed improves upon the existing siting guidelines by being user-driven, transparent, interactive, capable of incorporating multiple criteria, and flexible. This work provides the foundation for a dynamic siting assistance tool that can greatly facilitate siting decisions among multiple stakeholders.

Adoption of innovative energy systems in social housing: Lessons from eight large-scale renovation projects in The Netherlands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoppe, Thomas

2012-01-01

Thanks to new insights on the impacts that dwellings have throughout their life cycles, there has been increased attention to retrofitting innovative energy systems (IES) in existing housing. This paper uses an explorative case study design to gain more knowledge about the governance aspects of this under-researched topic. The central research question is: Which factors influence the adoption of innovative energy systems in social housing sites during renovation projects? To answer this question, eight large-scale renovation projects in The Netherlands were investigated. These case studies allowed the identification of barriers, enabling factors and perspectives from three main actors—housing associations, tenants and local authorities. It turns out that adopting IES encounters many barriers: lack of trust between project partners, delay in project progress, financial feasibility considerations, lack of support from tenants, lengthy legal permit procedures, over-ambitious project goals, poor experiences in previous projects, and IES ambitions that are not taken serious by key decision-makers. Furthermore, IES were only successfully fitted in three of the eight projects. Moreover, ambitions were lowered as the projects progressed in all the cases investigated. The study calls for further systematic, in-depth comparison of fitting IES in large-scale renovation projects in social housing. - Highlights: ► Attention to adoption of innovative energy systems in social housing. ► Several non-technical factors influence adoption. ► In-depth analysis of eight local-level renovation projects. ► Ambitions are lowered as projects progress. ► Barriers: financial feasibility, over-ambitious goals, delay, lack of trust.

Large-scale coastal impact induced by a catastrophic storm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fruergaard, Mikkel; Andersen, Thorbjørn Joest; Johannessen, Peter N

breaching. Our results demonstrate that violent, millennial-scale storms can trigger significant large-scale and long-term changes on barrier coasts, and that coastal changes assumed to take place over centuries or even millennia may occur in association with a single extreme storm event....

Scale-Free Relationships between Social and Landscape Factors in Urban Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chunzhu Wei

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Urban planners and ecologists have long debated the relationship between the structure of urban landscapes and social activities. There have, however, been very few discussions as to whether any such relationships might depend on the scales of observation. This work applies a hierarchical zoning technique to data from the city of Quito, Ecuador, to examine how relationships between typical spatial landscape metrics and social indicators depend on zoning scales. Our results showed that the estimates of both landscape heterogeneity features and social indicators significantly depend on the zoning scale. The mean values of the typical landscape metrics and the social indicators all exhibited predictable responses to a changing zoning scale, suggesting a consistent and significant scaling relationship within the multiple zoning scales. Yet relationships between these pairs of variables remain notably invariant to scale. This quantitative demonstration of the scale-free nature of the relationship between landscape characteristics and social indicators furthers our understanding of the relationships between landscape structures and social aspects of urban spaces, including deprivation and public service accessibility. The relationships between social indicators and one typical landscape aggregation metric (represented as the percentage of like adjacencies were nevertheless significantly dependent on scale, suggesting the importance of zoning scale decisions for analyzing the relationships between the social indicators and the landscape characteristics related with landscape adjacency. Aside from this typical landscape aggregation metric, the general invariance to the zoning scale of relationships between landscape structures and socioeconomic indicators in Quito suggests the importance of applying these scale-free relationships in understanding complex socio-ecological systems in other cities, which are shaped by the conflated influences of both

Problematic Social Media Use: Results from a Large-Scale Nationally Representative Adolescent Sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Bányai, Fanni; Zsila, Ágnes; Király, Orsolya; Maraz, Aniko; Elekes, Zsuzsanna; Griffiths, Mark D; Andreassen, Cecilie Schou; Demetrovics, Zsolt

2017-01-01

Despite social media use being one of the most popular activities among adolescents, prevalence estimates among teenage samples of social media (problematic) use are lacking in the field. The present study surveyed a nationally representative Hungarian sample comprising 5,961 adolescents as part of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) and based on latent profile analysis, 4.5% of the adolescents belonged to the at-risk group, and reported low self-esteem, high level of depression symptoms, and elevated social media use. Results also demonstrated that BSMAS has appropriate psychometric properties. It is concluded that adolescents at-risk of problematic social media use should be targeted by school-based prevention and intervention programs.

Resolute large scale mining company contribution to health services of

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Resolute large scale mining company contribution to health services of Lusu ... in terms of socio economic, health, education, employment, safe drinking water, ... The data were analyzed using Scientific Package for Social Science (SPSS).

Problematic Social Media Use: Results from a Large-Scale Nationally Representative Adolescent Sample.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fanni Bányai

Full Text Available Despite social media use being one of the most popular activities among adolescents, prevalence estimates among teenage samples of social media (problematic use are lacking in the field. The present study surveyed a nationally representative Hungarian sample comprising 5,961 adolescents as part of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD. Using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS and based on latent profile analysis, 4.5% of the adolescents belonged to the at-risk group, and reported low self-esteem, high level of depression symptoms, and elevated social media use. Results also demonstrated that BSMAS has appropriate psychometric properties. It is concluded that adolescents at-risk of problematic social media use should be targeted by school-based prevention and intervention programs.

Predicting Positive and Negative Relationships in Large Social Networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guan-Nan Wang

Full Text Available In a social network, users hold and express positive and negative attitudes (e.g. support/opposition towards other users. Those attitudes exhibit some kind of binary relationships among the users, which play an important role in social network analysis. However, some of those binary relationships are likely to be latent as the scale of social network increases. The essence of predicting latent binary relationships have recently began to draw researchers' attention. In this paper, we propose a machine learning algorithm for predicting positive and negative relationships in social networks inspired by structural balance theory and social status theory. More specifically, we show that when two users in the network have fewer common neighbors, the prediction accuracy of the relationship between them deteriorates. Accordingly, in the training phase, we propose a segment-based training framework to divide the training data into two subsets according to the number of common neighbors between users, and build a prediction model for each subset based on support vector machine (SVM. Moreover, to deal with large-scale social network data, we employ a sampling strategy that selects small amount of training data while maintaining high accuracy of prediction. We compare our algorithm with traditional algorithms and adaptive boosting of them. Experimental results of typical data sets show that our algorithm can deal with large social networks and consistently outperforms other methods.

Predicting Positive and Negative Relationships in Large Social Networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Guan-Nan; Gao, Hui; Chen, Lian; Mensah, Dennis N A; Fu, Yan

2015-01-01

In a social network, users hold and express positive and negative attitudes (e.g. support/opposition) towards other users. Those attitudes exhibit some kind of binary relationships among the users, which play an important role in social network analysis. However, some of those binary relationships are likely to be latent as the scale of social network increases. The essence of predicting latent binary relationships have recently began to draw researchers' attention. In this paper, we propose a machine learning algorithm for predicting positive and negative relationships in social networks inspired by structural balance theory and social status theory. More specifically, we show that when two users in the network have fewer common neighbors, the prediction accuracy of the relationship between them deteriorates. Accordingly, in the training phase, we propose a segment-based training framework to divide the training data into two subsets according to the number of common neighbors between users, and build a prediction model for each subset based on support vector machine (SVM). Moreover, to deal with large-scale social network data, we employ a sampling strategy that selects small amount of training data while maintaining high accuracy of prediction. We compare our algorithm with traditional algorithms and adaptive boosting of them. Experimental results of typical data sets show that our algorithm can deal with large social networks and consistently outperforms other methods.

Research on the Construction Management and Sustainable Development of Large-Scale Scientific Facilities in China

Science.gov (United States)

Guiquan, Xi; Lin, Cong; Xuehui, Jin

2018-05-01

As an important platform for scientific and technological development, large -scale scientific facilities are the cornerstone of technological innovation and a guarantee for economic and social development. Researching management of large-scale scientific facilities can play a key role in scientific research, sociology and key national strategy. This paper reviews the characteristics of large-scale scientific facilities, and summarizes development status of China's large-scale scientific facilities. At last, the construction, management, operation and evaluation of large-scale scientific facilities is analyzed from the perspective of sustainable development.

The sea-level budget along the Northwest Atlantic coast : GIA, mass changes, and large-scale ocean dynamics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frederikse, T.; Simon, K.M.; Katsman, C.A.; Riva, R.E.M.

2017-01-01

Sea-level rise and decadal variability along the northwestern coast of the North Atlantic Ocean are studied in a self-consistent framework that takes into account the effects of solid-earth deformation and geoid changes due to large-scale mass redistribution processes. Observations of sea and

The factor structure of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Heidenreich, Thomas; Schermelleh-Engel, Karin; Schramm, Elisabeth; Hofmann, Stefan G; Stangier, Ulrich

2011-05-01

The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) are two compendium measures that have become some of the most popular self-report scales of social anxiety. Despite their popularity, it remains unclear whether it is necessary to maintain two separate scales of social anxiety. The primary objective of the present study was to examine the factor analytic structure of both measures to determine the factorial validity of each scale. For this purpose, we administered both scales to 577 patients at the beginning of outpatient treatment. Analyzing both scales simultaneously, a CFA with two correlated factors showed a better fit to the data than a single factor model. An additional EFA with an oblique rotation on all 40 items using the WLSMV estimator further supported the two factor solution. These results suggest that the SIAS and SPS measure similar, but not identical facets of social anxiety. Thus, our findings provide support to retain the SIAS and SPS as two separate scales. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Large-scale solar purchasing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

The principal objective of the project was to participate in the definition of a new IEA task concerning solar procurement (''the Task'') and to assess whether involvement in the task would be in the interest of the UK active solar heating industry. The project also aimed to assess the importance of large scale solar purchasing to UK active solar heating market development and to evaluate the level of interest in large scale solar purchasing amongst potential large scale purchasers (in particular housing associations and housing developers). A further aim of the project was to consider means of stimulating large scale active solar heating purchasing activity within the UK. (author)

Stability and Control of Large-Scale Dynamical Systems A Vector Dissipative Systems Approach

CERN Document Server

Haddad, Wassim M

2011-01-01

Modern complex large-scale dynamical systems exist in virtually every aspect of science and engineering, and are associated with a wide variety of physical, technological, environmental, and social phenomena, including aerospace, power, communications, and network systems, to name just a few. This book develops a general stability analysis and control design framework for nonlinear large-scale interconnected dynamical systems, and presents the most complete treatment on vector Lyapunov function methods, vector dissipativity theory, and decentralized control architectures. Large-scale dynami

Cross-scale intercomparison of climate change impacts simulated by regional and global hydrological models in eleven large river basins

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hattermann, F. F.; Krysanova, V.; Gosling, S. N.; Dankers, R.; Daggupati, P.; Donnelly, C.; Flörke, M.; Huang, S.; Motovilov, Y.; Buda, S.; Yang, T.; Müller, C.; Leng, G.; Tang, Q.; Portmann, F. T.; Hagemann, S.; Gerten, D.; Wada, Y.; Masaki, Y.; Alemayehu, T.; Satoh, Y.; Samaniego, L.

2017-01-04

Ideally, the results from models operating at different scales should agree in trend direction and magnitude of impacts under climate change. However, this implies that the sensitivity of impact models designed for either scale to climate variability and change is comparable. In this study, we compare hydrological changes simulated by 9 global and 9 regional hydrological models (HM) for 11 large river basins in all continents under reference and scenario conditions. The foci are on model validation runs, sensitivity of annual discharge to climate variability in the reference period, and sensitivity of the long-term average monthly seasonal dynamics to climate change. One major result is that the global models, mostly not calibrated against observations, often show a considerable bias in mean monthly discharge, whereas regional models show a much better reproduction of reference conditions. However, the sensitivity of two HM ensembles to climate variability is in general similar. The simulated climate change impacts in terms of long-term average monthly dynamics evaluated for HM ensemble medians and spreads show that the medians are to a certain extent comparable in some cases with distinct differences in others, and the spreads related to global models are mostly notably larger. Summarizing, this implies that global HMs are useful tools when looking at large-scale impacts of climate change and variability, but whenever impacts for a specific river basin or region are of interest, e.g. for complex water management applications, the regional-scale models validated against observed discharge should be used.

Large-scale patterns of turnover and Basal area change in Andean forests.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Selene Báez

Full Text Available General patterns of forest dynamics and productivity in the Andes Mountains are poorly characterized. Here we present the first large-scale study of Andean forest dynamics using a set of 63 permanent forest plots assembled over the past two decades. In the North-Central Andes tree turnover (mortality and recruitment and tree growth declined with increasing elevation and decreasing temperature. In addition, basal area increased in Lower Montane Moist Forests but did not change in Higher Montane Humid Forests. However, at higher elevations the lack of net basal area change and excess of mortality over recruitment suggests negative environmental impacts. In North-Western Argentina, forest dynamics appear to be influenced by land use history in addition to environmental variation. Taken together, our results indicate that combinations of abiotic and biotic factors that vary across elevation gradients are important determinants of tree turnover and productivity in the Andes. More extensive and longer-term monitoring and analyses of forest dynamics in permanent plots will be necessary to understand how demographic processes and woody biomass are responding to changing environmental conditions along elevation gradients through this century.

A new method for large-scale assessment of change in ecosystem functioning in relation to land degradation

Science.gov (United States)

Horion, Stephanie; Ivits, Eva; Verzandvoort, Simone; Fensholt, Rasmus

2017-04-01

Ongoing pressures on European land are manifold with extreme climate events and non-sustainable use of land resources being amongst the most important drivers altering the functioning of the ecosystems. The protection and conservation of European natural capital is one of the key objectives of the 7th Environmental Action Plan (EAP). The EAP stipulates that European land must be managed in a sustainable way by 2020 and the UN Sustainable development goals define a Land Degradation Neutral world as one of the targets. This implies that land degradation (LD) assessment of European ecosystems must be performed repeatedly allowing for the assessment of the current state of LD as well as changes compared to a baseline adopted by the UNCCD for the objective of land degradation neutrality. However, scientifically robust methods are still lacking for large-scale assessment of LD and repeated consistent mapping of the state of terrestrial ecosystems. Historical land degradation assessments based on various methods exist, but methods are generally non-replicable or difficult to apply at continental scale (Allan et al. 2007). The current lack of research methods applicable at large spatial scales is notably caused by the non-robust definition of LD, the scarcity of field data on LD, as well as the complex inter-play of the processes driving LD (Vogt et al., 2011). Moreover, the link between LD and changes in land use (how land use changes relates to change in vegetation productivity and ecosystem functioning) is not straightforward. In this study we used the segmented trend method developed by Horion et al. (2016) for large-scale systematic assessment of hotspots of change in ecosystem functioning in relation to LD. This method alleviates shortcomings of widely used linear trend model that does not account for abrupt change, nor adequately captures the actual changes in ecosystem functioning (de Jong et al. 2013; Horion et al. 2016). Here we present a new methodology for

Large-scale dam removal on the Elwha River, Washington, USA: river channel and floodplain geomorphic change

Science.gov (United States)

East, Amy E.; Pess, George R.; Bountry, Jennifer A.; Magirl, Christopher S.; Ritchie, Andrew C.; Logan, Joshua; Randle, Timothy J.; Mastin, Mark C.; Minear, Justin T.; Duda, Jeffrey J.; Liermann, Martin C.; McHenry, Michael L.; Beechie, Timothy J.; Shafroth, Patrick B.

2015-01-01

A substantial increase in fluvial sediment supply relative to transport capacity causes complex, large-magnitude changes in river and floodplain morphology downstream. Although sedimentary and geomorphic responses to sediment pulses are a fundamental part of landscape evolution, few opportunities exist to quantify those processes over field scales. We investigated the downstream effects of sediment released during the largest dam removal in history, on the Elwha River, Washington, USA, by measuring changes in riverbed elevation and topography, bed sediment grain size, and channel planform as two dams were removed in stages over two years.

Large-scale fracture mechancis testing -- requirements and possibilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brumovsky, M.

1993-01-01

Application of fracture mechanics to very important and/or complicated structures, like reactor pressure vessels, brings also some questions about the reliability and precision of such calculations. These problems become more pronounced in cases of elastic-plastic conditions of loading and/or in parts with non-homogeneous materials (base metal and austenitic cladding, property gradient changes through material thickness) or with non-homogeneous stress fields (nozzles, bolt threads, residual stresses etc.). For such special cases some verification by large-scale testing is necessary and valuable. This paper discusses problems connected with planning of such experiments with respect to their limitations, requirements to a good transfer of received results to an actual vessel. At the same time, an analysis of possibilities of small-scale model experiments is also shown, mostly in connection with application of results between standard, small-scale and large-scale experiments. Experience from 30 years of large-scale testing in SKODA is used as an example to support this analysis. 1 fig

RESTRUCTURING OF THE LARGE-SCALE SPRINKLERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paweł Kozaczyk

2016-09-01

Full Text Available One of the best ways for agriculture to become independent from shortages of precipitation is irrigation. In the seventies and eighties of the last century a number of large-scale sprinklers in Wielkopolska was built. At the end of 1970’s in the Poznan province 67 sprinklers with a total area of 6400 ha were installed. The average size of the sprinkler reached 95 ha. In 1989 there were 98 sprinklers, and the area which was armed with them was more than 10 130 ha. The study was conducted on 7 large sprinklers with the area ranging from 230 to 520 hectares in 1986÷1998. After the introduction of the market economy in the early 90’s and ownership changes in agriculture, large-scale sprinklers have gone under a significant or total devastation. Land on the State Farms of the State Agricultural Property Agency has leased or sold and the new owners used the existing sprinklers to a very small extent. This involved a change in crop structure, demand structure and an increase in operating costs. There has also been a threefold increase in electricity prices. Operation of large-scale irrigation encountered all kinds of barriers in practice and limitations of system solutions, supply difficulties, high levels of equipment failure which is not inclined to rational use of available sprinklers. An effect of a vision of the local area was to show the current status of the remaining irrigation infrastructure. The adopted scheme for the restructuring of Polish agriculture was not the best solution, causing massive destruction of assets previously invested in the sprinkler system.

Scaling identity connects human mobility and social interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Deville, Pierre; Song, Chaoming; Eagle, Nathan; Blondel, Vincent D; Barabási, Albert-László; Wang, Dashun

2016-06-28

Massive datasets that capture human movements and social interactions have catalyzed rapid advances in our quantitative understanding of human behavior during the past years. One important aspect affecting both areas is the critical role space plays. Indeed, growing evidence suggests both our movements and communication patterns are associated with spatial costs that follow reproducible scaling laws, each characterized by its specific critical exponents. Although human mobility and social networks develop concomitantly as two prolific yet largely separated fields, we lack any known relationships between the critical exponents explored by them, despite the fact that they often study the same datasets. Here, by exploiting three different mobile phone datasets that capture simultaneously these two aspects, we discovered a new scaling relationship, mediated by a universal flux distribution, which links the critical exponents characterizing the spatial dependencies in human mobility and social networks. Therefore, the widely studied scaling laws uncovered in these two areas are not independent but connected through a deeper underlying reality.

Creating Large Scale Database Servers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Becla, Jacek

2001-01-01

The BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is designed to perform a high precision investigation of the decays of the B-meson produced from electron-positron interactions. The experiment, started in May 1999, will generate approximately 300TB/year of data for 10 years. All of the data will reside in Objectivity databases accessible via the Advanced Multi-threaded Server (AMS). To date, over 70TB of data have been placed in Objectivity/DB, making it one of the largest databases in the world. Providing access to such a large quantity of data through a database server is a daunting task. A full-scale testbed environment had to be developed to tune various software parameters and a fundamental change had to occur in the AMS architecture to allow it to scale past several hundred terabytes of data. Additionally, several protocol extensions had to be implemented to provide practical access to large quantities of data. This paper will describe the design of the database and the changes that we needed to make in the AMS for scalability reasons and how the lessons we learned would be applicable to virtually any kind of database server seeking to operate in the Petabyte region

Creating Large Scale Database Servers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Becla, Jacek

2001-12-14

The BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is designed to perform a high precision investigation of the decays of the B-meson produced from electron-positron interactions. The experiment, started in May 1999, will generate approximately 300TB/year of data for 10 years. All of the data will reside in Objectivity databases accessible via the Advanced Multi-threaded Server (AMS). To date, over 70TB of data have been placed in Objectivity/DB, making it one of the largest databases in the world. Providing access to such a large quantity of data through a database server is a daunting task. A full-scale testbed environment had to be developed to tune various software parameters and a fundamental change had to occur in the AMS architecture to allow it to scale past several hundred terabytes of data. Additionally, several protocol extensions had to be implemented to provide practical access to large quantities of data. This paper will describe the design of the database and the changes that we needed to make in the AMS for scalability reasons and how the lessons we learned would be applicable to virtually any kind of database server seeking to operate in the Petabyte region.

Balancing selfishness and norm conformity can explain human behavior in large-scale prisoner's dilemma games and can poise human groups near criticality

Science.gov (United States)

Realpe-Gómez, John; Andrighetto, Giulia; Nardin, Luis Gustavo; Montoya, Javier Antonio

2018-04-01

Cooperation is central to the success of human societies as it is crucial for overcoming some of the most pressing social challenges of our time; still, how human cooperation is achieved and may persist is a main puzzle in the social and biological sciences. Recently, scholars have recognized the importance of social norms as solutions to major local and large-scale collective action problems, from the management of water resources to the reduction of smoking in public places to the change in fertility practices. Yet a well-founded model of the effect of social norms on human cooperation is still lacking. Using statistical-physics techniques and integrating findings from cognitive and behavioral sciences, we present an analytically tractable model in which individuals base their decisions to cooperate both on the economic rewards they obtain and on the degree to which their action complies with social norms. Results from this parsimonious model are in agreement with observations in recent large-scale experiments with humans. We also find the phase diagram of the model and show that the experimental human group is poised near a critical point, a regime where recent work suggests living systems respond to changing external conditions in an efficient and coordinated manner.

Minimal detectable change of the Personal and Social Performance scale in individuals with schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Shu-Chun; Tang, Shih-Fen; Lu, Wen-Shian; Huang, Sheau-Ling; Deng, Nai-Yu; Lue, Wen-Chyn; Hsieh, Ching-Lin

2016-12-30

The minimal detectable change (MDC) of the Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP) has not yet been investigated, limiting its utility in data interpretation. The purpose of this study was to determine the MDCs of the PSP administered by the same rater or different raters in individuals with schizophrenia. Participants with schizophrenia were recruited from two psychiatric community rehabilitation centers to complete the PSP assessments twice, 2 weeks apart, by the same rater or 2 different raters. MDC values were calculated from the coefficients of intra- and inter-rater reliability (i.e., intraclass correlation coefficients). Forty patients (mean age 36.9 years, SD 9.7) from one center participated in the intra-rater reliability study. Another 40 patients (mean age 44.3 years, SD 11.1) from the other center participated in the inter-rater study. The MDCs (MDC%) of the PSP were 10.7 (17.1%) for the same rater and 16.2 (24.1%) for different raters. The MDCs of the PSP appeared appropriate for clinical trials aiming to determine whether a real change in social functioning has occurred in people with schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Long-term change of potential evapotranspiration over Southwest China and teleconnections with large-scale climate anomalies

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, B.; Chen, X.; Li, Y.; Chen, Z.

2017-12-01

bstract: Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is a sensitive factor for atmospheric and ecological systems over Southwest China which is characterized by intensive karst geomorphology and fragile environment. Based on daily meteorological data of 94 stations during 1961-2013, the spatiotemporal characteristics of PET are analyzed. The changing characteristics of local meteorological factors and large-scale climatic features are also investigated to explain the potential reasons for changing PET. Study results are as follows: (1) The high-value center of PET with a mean value of 1097 mm/a locates in the south mainly resulted from the regional climatic features of higher air temperature (TEM), sunshine duration (SSD) and lower relative humidity (RHU); and the low-value center of PET with a mean value of 831 mm/a is in the northeast primarily attributed to higher RHU and weaker SSD. (2) Annual PET decreases at -10.04 mm decade-1 before the year 2000 but increases at 50.65 mm decade-1 thereafter; and the dominant factors of PET change are SSD, RHU and wind speed (WIN), with the relative contributions of 33.29%, 25.42% and 22.16%, respectively. (3) The abrupt change of PET in 2000 is strongly dominated by large-scale climatic anomalies. The strengthened 850hPa geostrophic wind (0.51 ms-1 decade-1), weakened total cloud cover (-2.25 % decade-1) and 500hPa water vapor flux (-2.85 % decade-1) have provided advantageous dynamic, thermal and dry conditions for PET over Southwest China since the 21st century.

Energy transfers in large-scale and small-scale dynamos

Science.gov (United States)

Samtaney, Ravi; Kumar, Rohit; Verma, Mahendra

2015-11-01

We present the energy transfers, mainly energy fluxes and shell-to-shell energy transfers in small-scale dynamo (SSD) and large-scale dynamo (LSD) using numerical simulations of MHD turbulence for Pm = 20 (SSD) and for Pm = 0.2 on 10243 grid. For SSD, we demonstrate that the magnetic energy growth is caused by nonlocal energy transfers from the large-scale or forcing-scale velocity field to small-scale magnetic field. The peak of these energy transfers move towards lower wavenumbers as dynamo evolves, which is the reason for the growth of the magnetic fields at the large scales. The energy transfers U2U (velocity to velocity) and B2B (magnetic to magnetic) are forward and local. For LSD, we show that the magnetic energy growth takes place via energy transfers from large-scale velocity field to large-scale magnetic field. We observe forward U2U and B2B energy flux, similar to SSD.

Digital and social media opportunities for dietary behaviour change.

Science.gov (United States)

McGloin, Aileen F; Eslami, Sara

2015-05-01

The way that people communicate, consume media and seek and receive information is changing. Forty per cent of the world's population now has an internet connection, the average global social media penetration is 39% and 1·5 billion people have internet access via mobile phone. This large-scale move in population use of digital, social and mobile media presents an unprecedented opportunity to connect with individuals on issues concerning health. The present paper aims to investigate these opportunities in relation to dietary behaviour change. Several aspects of the digital environment could support behaviour change efforts, including reach, engagement, research, segmentation, accessibility and potential to build credibility, trust, collaboration and advocacy. There are opportunities to influence behaviour online using similar techniques to traditional health promotion programmes; to positively affect health-related knowledge, skills and self-efficacy. The abundance of data on citizens' digital behaviours, whether through search behaviour, global positioning system tracking, or via demographics and interests captured through social media profiles, offer exciting opportunities for effectively targeting relevant health messages. The digital environment presents great possibilities but also great challenges. Digital communication is uncontrolled, multi-way and co-created and concerns remain in relation to inequalities, privacy, misinformation and lack of evaluation. Although web-based, social-media-based and mobile-based studies tend to show positive results for dietary behaviour change, methodologies have yet to be developed that go beyond basic evaluation criteria and move towards true measures of behaviour change. Novel approaches are necessary both in the digital promotion of behaviour change and in its measurement.

Modelling bark beetle disturbances in a large scale forest scenario model to assess climate change impacts and evaluate adaptive management strategies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Seidl, R.; Schelhaas, M.J.; Lindner, M.; Lexer, M.J.

2009-01-01

To study potential consequences of climate-induced changes in the biotic disturbance regime at regional to national scale we integrated a model of Ips typographus (L. Scol. Col.) damages into the large-scale forest scenario model EFISCEN. A two-stage multivariate statistical meta-model was used to

Punctuated equilibrium in the large-scale evolution of programming languages†

Science.gov (United States)

Valverde, Sergi; Solé, Ricard V.

2015-01-01

The analogies and differences between biological and cultural evolution have been explored by evolutionary biologists, historians, engineers and linguists alike. Two well-known domains of cultural change are language and technology. Both share some traits relating the evolution of species, but technological change is very difficult to study. A major challenge in our way towards a scientific theory of technological evolution is how to properly define evolutionary trees or clades and how to weight the role played by horizontal transfer of information. Here, we study the large-scale historical development of programming languages, which have deeply marked social and technological advances in the last half century. We analyse their historical connections using network theory and reconstructed phylogenetic networks. Using both data analysis and network modelling, it is shown that their evolution is highly uneven, marked by innovation events where new languages are created out of improved combinations of different structural components belonging to previous languages. These radiation events occur in a bursty pattern and are tied to novel technological and social niches. The method can be extrapolated to other systems and consistently captures the major classes of languages and the widespread horizontal design exchanges, revealing a punctuated evolutionary path. PMID:25994298

Punctuated equilibrium in the large-scale evolution of programming languages.

Science.gov (United States)

Valverde, Sergi; Solé, Ricard V

2015-06-06

The analogies and differences between biological and cultural evolution have been explored by evolutionary biologists, historians, engineers and linguists alike. Two well-known domains of cultural change are language and technology. Both share some traits relating the evolution of species, but technological change is very difficult to study. A major challenge in our way towards a scientific theory of technological evolution is how to properly define evolutionary trees or clades and how to weight the role played by horizontal transfer of information. Here, we study the large-scale historical development of programming languages, which have deeply marked social and technological advances in the last half century. We analyse their historical connections using network theory and reconstructed phylogenetic networks. Using both data analysis and network modelling, it is shown that their evolution is highly uneven, marked by innovation events where new languages are created out of improved combinations of different structural components belonging to previous languages. These radiation events occur in a bursty pattern and are tied to novel technological and social niches. The method can be extrapolated to other systems and consistently captures the major classes of languages and the widespread horizontal design exchanges, revealing a punctuated evolutionary path. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Cytology of DNA Replication Reveals Dynamic Plasticity of Large-Scale Chromatin Fibers.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Xiang; Zhironkina, Oxana A; Cherepanynets, Varvara D; Strelkova, Olga S; Kireev, Igor I; Belmont, Andrew S

2016-09-26

In higher eukaryotic interphase nuclei, the 100- to >1,000-fold linear compaction of chromatin is difficult to reconcile with its function as a template for transcription, replication, and repair. It is challenging to imagine how DNA and RNA polymerases with their associated molecular machinery would move along the DNA template without transient decondensation of observed large-scale chromatin "chromonema" fibers [1]. Transcription or "replication factory" models [2], in which polymerases remain fixed while DNA is reeled through, are similarly difficult to conceptualize without transient decondensation of these chromonema fibers. Here, we show how a dynamic plasticity of chromatin folding within large-scale chromatin fibers allows DNA replication to take place without significant changes in the global large-scale chromatin compaction or shape of these large-scale chromatin fibers. Time-lapse imaging of lac-operator-tagged chromosome regions shows no major change in the overall compaction of these chromosome regions during their DNA replication. Improved pulse-chase labeling of endogenous interphase chromosomes yields a model in which the global compaction and shape of large-Mbp chromatin domains remains largely invariant during DNA replication, with DNA within these domains undergoing significant movements and redistribution as they move into and then out of adjacent replication foci. In contrast to hierarchical folding models, this dynamic plasticity of large-scale chromatin organization explains how localized changes in DNA topology allow DNA replication to take place without an accompanying global unfolding of large-scale chromatin fibers while suggesting a possible mechanism for maintaining epigenetic programming of large-scale chromatin domains throughout DNA replication. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Short forms of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Fergus, Thomas A; Valentiner, David P; McGrath, Patrick B; Gier-Lonsway, Stephanie L; Kim, Hyun-Soo

2012-01-01

Mattick and Clarke's (1998) Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS) are commonly used self-report measures that assess 2 dimensions of social anxiety. Given the need for short, readable measures, this research proposes short forms of both scales. Item-level analyses of readability characteristics of the SIAS and SPS items led to the selection of 6 items from each scale for use in the short forms. The SIAS and SPS short forms had reading levels at approximately the 6th and 5th grade level, respectively. Results using nonclinical (Study 1: N = 469) and clinical (Study 2: N = 145) samples identified these short forms as being factorially sound, possessing adequate internal consistency, and having strong convergence with their full-length counterparts. Moreover, these short forms showed convergence with other measures of social anxiety, showed divergence from measures assessing related constructs, and predicted concurrent interpersonal functioning. Recommendations for the use of these short forms are discussed.

Social identity framing: Leader communication for social change

Science.gov (United States)

Seyranian, Viviane

Social identity framing (SIF) delineates a process of intergroup communication that leaders may engage in to promote a vision of social change. As a step towards social change, social identity may need to be altered to accommodate a new view of the group, its collective goals, and its place alongside other groups. Thus, social identity content may be deconstructed and reconstructed by the leader en route to change. SIF suggests that this may be achieved through a series of 16 communication tactics, which are largely derived from previous research (Seyranian & Bligh, 2008). This research used an experimental design to test the effectiveness of three SIF communication tactics - inclusion, similarity to followers, and positive social identity - on a number of follower outcomes. Students ( N=246) were randomly assigned to read one of eight possible speeches promoting renewable energy on campus that was ostensibly from a student leader. The speeches were varied to include or exclude the three communication tactics. Following the speech, participants completed a dependent measures questionnaire. Results indicated that similarity to followers and positive social identity did not affect follower outcomes. However, students exposed to inclusion were more likely to indicate that renewable energy was ingroup normative; intend to engage in collective action to bring renewable energy to campus; experience positive emotional reactions towards change; feel more confident about the possibility of change; and to view the leader more positively. The combination of inclusion and positive social identity increased perceptions of charismatic leadership. Perceived leader prototypicality and cognitive elaboration of the leader's message resulted in more favorable attitudes towards renewable energy. Perceived leader prototypicality was also directly related to social identification, environmental values, ingroup injunctive norms, and self-stereotypes. Overall, these results support SIF

A large scale field experiment in the Amazon basin (LAMBADA/BATERISTA)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dolman, A.J.; Kabat, P.; Gash, J.H.C.; Noilhan, J.; Jochum, A.M.; Nobre, C.

1995-01-01

A description is given of a large-scale field experiment planned in the Amazon basin, aimed at assessing the large-scale balances of energy, water and carbon dioxide. The embedding of this experiment in global change programmes is described, viz. the Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle

Understanding large social-ecological systems: introducing the SESMAD project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Cox

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This article introduces the Social-ecological systems meta-analysis database (SESMAD project, which is the project behind the case studies and synthetic articles contained in this special issue of the International Journal of the Commons. SESMAD is an internationally collaborative meta-analysis project that builds on previous seminally synthetic work on small-scale common-pool resource systems conducted at the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University. This project is guided by the following research question: can the variables found to be important in explaining outcomes on small-scale systems be scaled up to explain outcomes in large-scale environmental governance? In this special issue we report on our findings thus far through a set of case studies of large-scale environmental governance, a paper that describes our conceptual advances, and a paper that compares these five case studies to further examine our central research question.

Did Large-Scale Vaccination Drive Changes in the Circulating Rotavirus Population in Belgium?

Science.gov (United States)

Pitzer, Virginia E.; Bilcke, Joke; Heylen, Elisabeth; Crawford, Forrest W.; Callens, Michael; De Smet, Frank; Van Ranst, Marc; Zeller, Mark; Matthijnssens, Jelle

2015-01-01

Vaccination can place selective pressures on viral populations, leading to changes in the distribution of strains as viruses evolve to escape immunity from the vaccine. Vaccine-driven strain replacement is a major concern after nationwide rotavirus vaccine introductions. However, the distribution of the predominant rotavirus genotypes varies from year to year in the absence of vaccination, making it difficult to determine what changes can be attributed to the vaccines. To gain insight in the underlying dynamics driving changes in the rotavirus population, we fitted a hierarchy of mathematical models to national and local genotype-specific hospitalization data from Belgium, where large-scale vaccination was introduced in 2006. We estimated that natural- and vaccine-derived immunity was strongest against completely homotypic strains and weakest against fully heterotypic strains, with an intermediate immunity amongst partially heterotypic strains. The predominance of G2P[4] infections in Belgium after vaccine introduction can be explained by a combination of natural genotype fluctuations and weaker natural and vaccine-induced immunity against infection with strains heterotypic to the vaccine, in the absence of significant variation in strain-specific vaccine effectiveness against disease. However, the incidence of rotavirus gastroenteritis is predicted to remain low despite vaccine-driven changes in the distribution of genotypes. PMID:26687288

Large Scale Processes and Extreme Floods in Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Ribeiro Lima, C. H.; AghaKouchak, A.; Lall, U.

2016-12-01

Persistent large scale anomalies in the atmospheric circulation and ocean state have been associated with heavy rainfall and extreme floods in water basins of different sizes across the world. Such studies have emerged in the last years as a new tool to improve the traditional, stationary based approach in flood frequency analysis and flood prediction. Here we seek to advance previous studies by evaluating the dominance of large scale processes (e.g. atmospheric rivers/moisture transport) over local processes (e.g. local convection) in producing floods. We consider flood-prone regions in Brazil as case studies and the role of large scale climate processes in generating extreme floods in such regions is explored by means of observed streamflow, reanalysis data and machine learning methods. The dynamics of the large scale atmospheric circulation in the days prior to the flood events are evaluated based on the vertically integrated moisture flux and its divergence field, which are interpreted in a low-dimensional space as obtained by machine learning techniques, particularly supervised kernel principal component analysis. In such reduced dimensional space, clusters are obtained in order to better understand the role of regional moisture recycling or teleconnected moisture in producing floods of a given magnitude. The convective available potential energy (CAPE) is also used as a measure of local convection activities. We investigate for individual sites the exceedance probability in which large scale atmospheric fluxes dominate the flood process. Finally, we analyze regional patterns of floods and how the scaling law of floods with drainage area responds to changes in the climate forcing mechanisms (e.g. local vs large scale).

Large-scale data analytics

CERN Document Server

Gkoulalas-Divanis, Aris

2014-01-01

Provides cutting-edge research in large-scale data analytics from diverse scientific areas Surveys varied subject areas and reports on individual results of research in the field Shares many tips and insights into large-scale data analytics from authors and editors with long-term experience and specialization in the field

The Saskatchewan River Basin - a large scale observatory for water security research (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Wheater, H. S.

2013-12-01

multiple jurisdictions. The SaskRB has therefore been developed as a large scale observatory, now a Regional Hydroclimate Project of the World Climate Research Programme's GEWEX project, and is available to contribute to the emerging North American Water Program. State-of-the-art hydro-ecological experimental sites have been developed for the key biomes, and a river and lake biogeochemical research facility, focussed on impacts of nutrients and exotic chemicals. Data are integrated at SaskRB scale to support the development of improved large scale climate and hydrological modelling products, the development of DSS systems for local, provincial and basin-scale management, and the development of related social science research, engaging stakeholders in the research and exploring their values and priorities for water security. The observatory provides multiple scales of observation and modelling required to develop: a) new climate, hydrological and ecological science and modelling tools to address environmental change in key environments, and their integrated effects and feedbacks at large catchment scale, b) new tools needed to support river basin management under uncertainty, including anthropogenic controls on land and water management and c) the place-based focus for the development of new transdisciplinary science.

Large-scale grid management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langdal, Bjoern Inge; Eggen, Arnt Ove

2003-01-01

The network companies in the Norwegian electricity industry now have to establish a large-scale network management, a concept essentially characterized by (1) broader focus (Broad Band, Multi Utility,...) and (2) bigger units with large networks and more customers. Research done by SINTEF Energy Research shows so far that the approaches within large-scale network management may be structured according to three main challenges: centralization, decentralization and out sourcing. The article is part of a planned series

Using Social Media to Measure Student Wellbeing: A Large-Scale Study of Emotional Response in Academic Discourse

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Volkova, Svitlana; Han, Kyungsik; Corley, Courtney D.

2016-11-15

Student resilience and emotional well-being are essential for both academic and social development. Earlier studies on tracking students' happiness in academia showed that many of them struggle with mental health issues. For example, a 2015 study at the University of California Berkeley found that 47% of graduate students suffer from depression, following a 2005 study that showed 10% had considered suicide. This is the first large-scale study that uses signals from social media to evaluate students' emotional well-being in academia. This work presents fine-grained emotion and opinion analysis of 79,329 tweets produced by students from 44 universities. The goal of this study is to qualitatively evaluate and compare emotions and sentiments emanating from students' communications across different academic discourse types and across universities in the U.S. We first build novel predictive models to categorize academic discourse types generated by students into personal, social, and general categories. We then apply emotion and sentiment classification models to annotate each tweet with six Ekman's emotions -- joy, fear, sadness, disgust, anger, and surprise and three opinion types -- positive, negative, and neutral. We found that emotions and opinions expressed by students vary across discourse types and universities, and correlate with survey-based data on student satisfaction, happiness and stress. Moreover, our results provide novel insights on how students use social media to share academic information, emotions, and opinions that would pertain to students academic performance and emotional well-being.

Psychometric Properties of a Social Abilities Evaluation Scale: C-scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María José Rabazo Méndez

2004-11-01

Full Text Available In this paper the psychometric data of a scale of evaluation of the social abilities (social expression and motor skills are presented. The scale was constructed to investigate social competence and antisocial conduct in adolescence. The process of the scale’s construction is explained; and the data on its internal consistency, its test-retest reliability, and its concurrent validity are presented. The scale was filled out by 325 teachers from different schools in the city of Badajoz (Spain; however, 20 scales were rejected because they were not properly completed. As well, the scale was analyzed, giving as a result 9 factors that explain 59.4% of the total variance. With the results obtained, the position of situational specificity with regard to social abilities is supported.

Exploring dimensions, scales, and cross-scale dynamics from the perspectives of change agents in social-ecological systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vervoort, J.M.; Rutting, L.; Kok, K.; Hermans, F.L.P.; Veldkamp, A.; Bregt, A.K.; Lammeren, van R.J.A.

2012-01-01

Issues of scale play a crucial role in the governance of social–ecological systems. Yet, attempts to bridge interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of scale have thus far largely been limited to the science arena. This study has extended the scale vocabulary to allow for the inclusion of

How do large-scale agricultural investments affect land use and the environment on the western slopes of Mount Kenya? Empirical evidence based on small-scale farmers' perceptions and remote sensing.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaehringer, Julie G; Wambugu, Grace; Kiteme, Boniface; Eckert, Sandra

2018-05-01

Africa has been heavily targeted by large-scale agricultural investments (LAIs) throughout the last decade, with scarcely known impacts on local social-ecological systems. In Kenya, a large number of LAIs were made in the region northwest of Mount Kenya. These large-scale farms produce vegetables and flowers mainly for European markets. However, land use in the region remains dominated by small-scale crop and livestock farms with less than 1 ha of land each, who produce both for their own subsistence and for the local markets. We interviewed 100 small-scale farmers living near five different LAIs to elicit their perceptions of the impacts that these LAIs have on their land use and the overall environment. Furthermore, we analyzed remotely sensed land cover and land use data to assess land use change in the vicinity of the five LAIs. While land use change did not follow a clear trend, a number of small-scale farmers did adapt their crop management to environmental changes such as a reduced river water flows and increased pests, which they attributed to the presence of LAIs. Despite the high number of open conflicts between small-scale land users and LAIs around the issue of river water abstraction, the main environmental impact, felt by almost half of the interviewed land users, was air pollution with agrochemicals sprayed on the LAIs' land. Even though only a low percentage of local land users and their household members were directly involved with LAIs, a large majority of respondents favored the presence of LAIs nearby, as they are believed to contribute to the region's overall economic development. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Social Interpretation Bias in Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders: Psychometric Examination of the Self-report of Ambiguous Social Situations for Youth (SASSY) Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, Araceli; Rozenman, Michelle; Langley, Audra K; Kendall, Philip C; Ginsburg, Golda S; Compton, Scott; Walkup, John T; Birmaher, Boris; Albano, Anne Marie; Piacentini, John

2017-06-01

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health problems in youth, and faulty interpretation bias has been positively linked to anxiety severity, even within anxiety-disordered youth. Quick, reliable assessment of interpretation bias may be useful in identifying youth with certain types of anxiety or assessing changes on cognitive bias during intervention. This study examined the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Self-report of Ambiguous Social Situations for Youth (SASSY) scale, a self-report measure developed to assess interpretation bias in youth. Participants (N=488, age 7 to 17) met diagnostic criteria for Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and/or Separation Anxiety Disorder. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on baseline data from youth participating in a large randomized clinical trial. Exploratory factor analysis yielded two factors (Accusation/Blame, Social Rejection). The SASSY full scale and Social Rejection factor demonstrated adequate internal consistency, convergent validity with social anxiety, and discriminant validity as evidenced by non-significant correlations with measures of non-social anxiety. Further, the SASSY Social Rejection factor accurately distinguished children and adolescents with Social Phobia from those with other anxiety disorders, supporting its criterion validity, and revealed sensitivity to changes with treatment. Given the relevance to youth with social phobia, pre- and post-intervention data were examined for youth social phobia to test sensitivity to treatment effects; results suggested that SASSY scores reduced for treatment responders. Findings suggest the potential utility of the SASSY Social Rejection factor as a quick, reliable, and efficient way of assessing interpretation bias in anxious youth, particularly as related to social concerns, in research and clinical settings.

Environment and host as large-scale controls of ectomycorrhizal fungi.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Linde, Sietse; Suz, Laura M; Orme, C David L; Cox, Filipa; Andreae, Henning; Asi, Endla; Atkinson, Bonnie; Benham, Sue; Carroll, Christopher; Cools, Nathalie; De Vos, Bruno; Dietrich, Hans-Peter; Eichhorn, Johannes; Gehrmann, Joachim; Grebenc, Tine; Gweon, Hyun S; Hansen, Karin; Jacob, Frank; Kristöfel, Ferdinand; Lech, Paweł; Manninger, Miklós; Martin, Jan; Meesenburg, Henning; Merilä, Päivi; Nicolas, Manuel; Pavlenda, Pavel; Rautio, Pasi; Schaub, Marcus; Schröck, Hans-Werner; Seidling, Walter; Šrámek, Vít; Thimonier, Anne; Thomsen, Iben Margrete; Titeux, Hugues; Vanguelova, Elena; Verstraeten, Arne; Vesterdal, Lars; Waldner, Peter; Wijk, Sture; Zhang, Yuxin; Žlindra, Daniel; Bidartondo, Martin I

2018-06-06

Explaining the large-scale diversity of soil organisms that drive biogeochemical processes-and their responses to environmental change-is critical. However, identifying consistent drivers of belowground diversity and abundance for some soil organisms at large spatial scales remains problematic. Here we investigate a major guild, the ectomycorrhizal fungi, across European forests at a spatial scale and resolution that is-to our knowledge-unprecedented, to explore key biotic and abiotic predictors of ectomycorrhizal diversity and to identify dominant responses and thresholds for change across complex environmental gradients. We show the effect of 38 host, environment, climate and geographical variables on ectomycorrhizal diversity, and define thresholds of community change for key variables. We quantify host specificity and reveal plasticity in functional traits involved in soil foraging across gradients. We conclude that environmental and host factors explain most of the variation in ectomycorrhizal diversity, that the environmental thresholds used as major ecosystem assessment tools need adjustment and that the importance of belowground specificity and plasticity has previously been underappreciated.

Analysis of Multi-Scale Changes in Arable Land and Scale Effects of the Driving Factors in the Loess Areas in Northern Shaanxi, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lina Zhong

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In this study, statistical data on the national economic and social development, including the year-end actual area of arable land, the crop yield per unit area and 10 factors, were obtained for the period between 1980 and 2010 and used to analyze the factors driving changes in the arable land of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi, China. The following areas of arable land, which represent different spatial scales, were investigated: the Baota District, the city of Yan’an, and the Northern Shaanxi region. The scale effects of the factors driving the changes to the arable land were analyzed using a canonical correlation analysis and a principal component analysis. Because it was difficult to quantify the impact of the national government policies on the arable land changes, the contributions of the national government policies to the changes in arable land were analyzed qualitatively. The primary conclusions of the study were as follows: between 1980 and 2010, the arable land area decreased. The trends of the year-end actual arable land proportion of the total area in the northern Shaanxi region and Yan’an City were broadly consistent, whereas the proportion in the Baota District had no obvious similarity with the northern Shaanxi region and Yan’an City. Remarkably different factors were shown to influence the changes in the arable land at different scales. Environmental factors exerted a greater effect for smaller scale arable land areas (the Baota District. The effect of socio-economic development was a major driving factor for the changes in the arable land area at the city and regional scales. At smaller scales, population change, urbanization and socio-economic development affected the crop yield per unit area either directly or indirectly. Socio-economic development and the modernization of agricultural technology had a greater effect on the crop yield per unit area at the large-scales. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis

Validation of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and the Social Phobia Scale across the Anxiety Disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Elissa J.; And Others

1997-01-01

The psychometric adequacy of the Social Interaction Scale and the Social Phobia Scale (both by R. P. Mattick and J. C. Clark, 1989) was studied with 165 patients with anxiety disorders and 21 people without anxiety. Results support the usefulness of the scales for screening and treatment design and evaluation. (SLD)

Continental-scale quantification of landscape values using social media data.

Science.gov (United States)

van Zanten, Boris T; Van Berkel, Derek B; Meentemeyer, Ross K; Smith, Jordan W; Tieskens, Koen F; Verburg, Peter H

2016-11-15

Individuals, communities, and societies ascribe a diverse array of values to landscapes. These values are shaped by the aesthetic, cultural, and recreational benefits and services provided by those landscapes. However, across the globe, processes such as urbanization, agricultural intensification, and abandonment are threatening landscape integrity, altering the personally meaningful connections people have toward specific places. Existing methods used to study landscape values, such as social surveys, are poorly suited to capture dynamic landscape-scale processes across large geographic extents. Social media data, by comparison, can be used to indirectly measure and identify valuable features of landscapes at a regional, continental, and perhaps even worldwide scale. We evaluate the usefulness of different social media platforms-Panoramio, Flickr, and Instagram-and quantify landscape values at a continental scale. We find Panoramio, Flickr, and Instagram data can be used to quantify landscape values, with features of Instagram being especially suitable due to its relatively large population of users and its functional ability of allowing users to attach personally meaningful comments and hashtags to their uploaded images. Although Panoramio, Flickr, and Instagram have different user profiles, our analysis revealed similar patterns of landscape values across Europe across the three platforms. We also found variables describing accessibility, population density, income, mountainous terrain, or proximity to water explained a significant portion of observed variation across data from the different platforms. Social media data can be used to extend our understanding of how and where individuals ascribe value to landscapes across diverse social, political, and ecological boundaries.

A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Korndörfer, Martin; Egloff, Boris; Schmukle, Stefan C

2015-01-01

Does being from a higher social class lead a person to engage in more or less prosocial behavior? Psychological research has recently provided support for a negative effect of social class on prosocial behavior. However, research outside the field of psychology has mainly found evidence for positive or u-shaped relations. In the present research, we therefore thoroughly examined the effect of social class on prosocial behavior. Moreover, we analyzed whether this effect was moderated by the kind of observed prosocial behavior, the observed country, and the measure of social class. Across eight studies with large and representative international samples, we predominantly found positive effects of social class on prosociality: Higher class individuals were more likely to make a charitable donation and contribute a higher percentage of their family income to charity (32,090 ≥ N ≥ 3,957; Studies 1-3), were more likely to volunteer (37,136 ≥N ≥ 3,964; Studies 4-6), were more helpful (N = 3,902; Study 7), and were more trusting and trustworthy in an economic game when interacting with a stranger (N = 1,421; Study 8) than lower social class individuals. Although the effects of social class varied somewhat across the kinds of prosocial behavior, countries, and measures of social class, under no condition did we find the negative effect that would have been expected on the basis of previous results reported in the psychological literature. Possible explanations for this divergence and implications are discussed.

Large-scale simulations with distributed computing: Asymptotic scaling of ballistic deposition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farnudi, Bahman; Vvedensky, Dimitri D

2011-01-01

Extensive kinetic Monte Carlo simulations are reported for ballistic deposition (BD) in (1 + 1) dimensions. The large system sizes L observed for the onset of asymptotic scaling (L ≅ 2 12 ) explains the widespread discrepancies in previous reports for exponents of BD in one and likely in higher dimensions. The exponents obtained directly from our simulations, α = 0.499 ± 0.004 and β = 0.336 ± 0.004, capture the exact values α = 1/2 and β = 1/3 for the one-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation. An analysis of our simulations suggests a criterion for identifying the onset of true asymptotic scaling, which enables a more informed evaluation of exponents for BD in higher dimensions. These simulations were made possible by the Simulation through Social Networking project at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences in 2007, which was re-launched in November 2010.

Large-scale land transformations in Indonesia: The role of ...

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

... enable timely responses to the impacts of large-scale land transformations in Central Kalimantan ... In partnership with UNESCO's Organization for Women in Science for the ... New funding opportunity for gender equality and climate change.

Meteorological impact assessment of possible large scale irrigation in Southwest Saudi Arabia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maat, ter H.W.; Hutjes, R.W.A.; Ohba, R.; Ueda, H.; Bisselink, B.; Bauer, T.

2006-01-01

On continental to regional scales feedbacks between landuse and landcover change and climate have been widely documented over the past 10¿15 years. In the present study we explore the possibility that also vegetation changes over much smaller areas may affect local precipitation regimes. Large scale

Large-scale changes in network interactions as a physiological signature of spatial neglect.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldassarre, Antonello; Ramsey, Lenny; Hacker, Carl L; Callejas, Alicia; Astafiev, Serguei V; Metcalf, Nicholas V; Zinn, Kristi; Rengachary, Jennifer; Snyder, Abraham Z; Carter, Alex R; Shulman, Gordon L; Corbetta, Maurizio

2014-12-01

networks in the right hemisphere; and (iii) increased intrahemispheric connectivity with the basal ganglia. These patterns of functional connectivity:behaviour correlations were stronger in patients with right- as compared to left-hemisphere damage and were independent of lesion volume. Our findings identify large-scale changes in resting state network interactions that are a physiological signature of spatial neglect and may relate to its right hemisphere lateralization. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

When the globe is your classroom: teaching and learning about large-scale environmental change online

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, E. A.; Coleman, K. J.; Barford, C. L.; Kucharik, C.; Foley, J. A.

2005-12-01

Understanding environmental problems that cross physical and disciplinary boundaries requires a more holistic view of the world - a "systems" approach. Yet it is a challenge for many learners to start thinking this way, particularly when the problems are large in scale and not easily visible. We will describe our online university course, "Humans and the Changing Biosphere," which takes a whole-systems perspective for teaching regional to global-scale environmental science concepts, including climate, hydrology, ecology, and human demographics. We will share our syllabus and learning objectives and summarize our efforts to incorporate "best" practices for online teaching. We will describe challenges we have faced, and our efforts to reach different learner types. Our goals for this presentation are: (1) to communicate how a systems approach ties together environmental sciences (including climate, hydrology, ecology, biogeochemistry, and demography) that are often taught as separate disciplines; (2) to generate discussion about challenges of teaching large-scale environmental processes; (3) to share our experiences in teaching these topics online; (4) to receive ideas and feedback on future teaching strategies. We will explain why we developed this course online, and share our experiences about benefits and challenges of teaching over the web - including some suggestions about how to use technology to supplement face-to-face learning experiences (and vice versa). We will summarize assessment data about what students learned during the course, and discuss key misconceptions and barriers to learning. We will highlight the role of an online discussion board in creating classroom community, identifying misconceptions, and engaging different types of learners.

Large-scale multimedia modeling applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Droppo, J.G. Jr.; Buck, J.W.; Whelan, G.; Strenge, D.L.; Castleton, K.J.; Gelston, G.M.

1995-08-01

Over the past decade, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and other agencies have faced increasing scrutiny for a wide range of environmental issues related to past and current practices. A number of large-scale applications have been undertaken that required analysis of large numbers of potential environmental issues over a wide range of environmental conditions and contaminants. Several of these applications, referred to here as large-scale applications, have addressed long-term public health risks using a holistic approach for assessing impacts from potential waterborne and airborne transport pathways. Multimedia models such as the Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System (MEPAS) were designed for use in such applications. MEPAS integrates radioactive and hazardous contaminants impact computations for major exposure routes via air, surface water, ground water, and overland flow transport. A number of large-scale applications of MEPAS have been conducted to assess various endpoints for environmental and human health impacts. These applications are described in terms of lessons learned in the development of an effective approach for large-scale applications

When the world collapses: changed worldview and social reconstruction in a traumatized community

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dinka Corkalo Biruski

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Background: Traumatic experience can affect the individual's basic beliefs about the world as a predictable and safe place. One of the cornerstones in recovery from trauma is reestablishment of safety, connectedness, and the shattered schema of a worldview. Objective: This study explored the role of negatively changed worldview in the relationship between war-related traumatization and readiness for social reconstruction of intergroup relations in a post-conflict community measured by three processes: intergroup rapprochement, rebuilding trust, and need for apology. It was hypothesized that more traumatized people are less supportive of social reconstruction and that this relationship is mediated by the changed worldview. Method: The study included a community random sample of 333 adults in the city of Vukovar, Croatia, that was most devastated during the 1991–1995 war. Six instruments were administered: Stressful Events Scale, Impact of Event Scale-Revised, Changed Worldview Scale, and three scales measuring the post-conflict social reconstruction processes: Intergroup Rapprochement, Intergroup Trust and Need for Apology. Results: Mediation analyses showed that the worldview change fully mediated between traumatization and all three aspects of social reconstruction. Conclusions: In a population exposed to war traumatization the worldview change mediates post-conflict social recovery of community relations.

Large Scale Analyses and Visualization of Adaptive Amino Acid Changes Projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Vázquez, Noé; Vieira, Cristina P; Amorim, Bárbara S R; Torres, André; López-Fernández, Hugo; Fdez-Riverola, Florentino; Sousa, José L R; Reboiro-Jato, Miguel; Vieira, Jorge

2018-03-01

When changes at few amino acid sites are the target of selection, adaptive amino acid changes in protein sequences can be identified using maximum-likelihood methods based on models of codon substitution (such as codeml). Although such methods have been employed numerous times using a variety of different organisms, the time needed to collect the data and prepare the input files means that tens or hundreds of coding regions are usually analyzed. Nevertheless, the recent availability of flexible and easy to use computer applications that collect relevant data (such as BDBM) and infer positively selected amino acid sites (such as ADOPS), means that the entire process is easier and quicker than before. However, the lack of a batch option in ADOPS, here reported, still precludes the analysis of hundreds or thousands of sequence files. Given the interest and possibility of running such large-scale projects, we have also developed a database where ADOPS projects can be stored. Therefore, this study also presents the B+ database, which is both a data repository and a convenient interface that looks at the information contained in ADOPS projects without the need to download and unzip the corresponding ADOPS project file. The ADOPS projects available at B+ can also be downloaded, unzipped, and opened using the ADOPS graphical interface. The availability of such a database ensures results repeatability, promotes data reuse with significant savings on the time needed for preparing datasets, and effortlessly allows further exploration of the data contained in ADOPS projects.

Matching Social and Biophysical Scales in Extensive Livestock Production as a Basis for Adaptation to Global Change

Science.gov (United States)

Sayre, N. F.; Bestelmeyer, B.

2015-12-01

Global livestock production is heterogeneous, and its benefits and costs vary widely across global contexts. Extensive grazing lands (or rangelands) constitute the vast majority of the land dedicated to livestock production globally, but they are relatively minor contributors to livestock-related environmental impacts. Indeed, the greatest potential for environmental damage in these lands lies in their potential for conversion to other uses, including agriculture, mining, energy production and urban development. Managing such conversion requires improving the sustainability of livestock production in the face of fragmentation, ecological and economic marginality and climate change. We present research from Mongolia and the United States demonstrating methods of improving outcomes on rangelands by improving the fit between the scales of social and biophysical processes. Especially in arid and semi-arid settings, rangelands exhibit highly variable productivity over space and time and non-linear or threshold dynamics in vegetation; climate change is projected to exacerbate these challenges and, in some cases, diminish overall productivity. Policy and governance frameworks that enable landscape-scale management and administration enable range livestock producers to adapt to these conditions. Similarly, livestock breeds that have evolved to withstand climate and vegetation change improve producers' prospects in the face of increasing variability and declining productivity. A focus on the relationships among primary production, animal production, spatial connectivity, and scale must underpin adaptation strategies in rangelands.

A Large Scale Test of the Effect of Social Class on Prosocial Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Korndörfer, Martin; Egloff, Boris; Schmukle, Stefan C.

2015-01-01

Does being from a higher social class lead a person to engage in more or less prosocial behavior? Psychological research has recently provided support for a negative effect of social class on prosocial behavior. However, research outside the field of psychology has mainly found evidence for positive or u-shaped relations. In the present research, we therefore thoroughly examined the effect of social class on prosocial behavior. Moreover, we analyzed whether this effect was moderated by the kind of observed prosocial behavior, the observed country, and the measure of social class. Across eight studies with large and representative international samples, we predominantly found positive effects of social class on prosociality: Higher class individuals were more likely to make a charitable donation and contribute a higher percentage of their family income to charity (32,090 ≥ N ≥ 3,957; Studies 1–3), were more likely to volunteer (37,136 ≥N ≥ 3,964; Studies 4–6), were more helpful (N = 3,902; Study 7), and were more trusting and trustworthy in an economic game when interacting with a stranger (N = 1,421; Study 8) than lower social class individuals. Although the effects of social class varied somewhat across the kinds of prosocial behavior, countries, and measures of social class, under no condition did we find the negative effect that would have been expected on the basis of previous results reported in the psychological literature. Possible explanations for this divergence and implications are discussed. PMID:26193099

Best practices: Strategic stigma change (SSC): five principles for social marketing campaigns to reduce stigma.

Science.gov (United States)

Corrigan, Patrick W

2011-08-01

This column describes strategic stigma change (SSC), which comprises five principles and corresponding practices developed as a best practice to erase prejudice and discrimination associated with mental illness and promote affirming behaviors and social inclusion. SSC principles represent more than ten years of insights from the National Consortium on Stigma and Empowerment. The principles, which are centered on consumer contact that is targeted, local, credible, and continuous, were developed to inform the growth of large-scale social marketing campaigns supported by governments and nongovernmental organizations. Future social marketing efforts to address stigma and the need for evidence to determine SSC's penetration and impact are also discussed.

Global Climate Forcing from Albedo Change Caused by Large-scale Deforestation and Reforestation: Quantification and Attribution of Geographic Variation

Science.gov (United States)

Jiao, Tong; Williams, Christopher A.; Ghimire, Bardan; Masek, Jeffrey; Gao, Feng; Schaaf, Crystal

2017-01-01

Large-scale deforestation and reforestation have contributed substantially to historical and contemporary global climate change in part through albedo-induced radiative forcing, with meaningful implications for forest management aiming to mitigate climate change. Associated warming or cooling varies widely across the globe due to a range of factors including forest type, snow cover, and insolation, but resulting geographic variation remain spoorly described and has been largely based on model assessments. This study provides an observation-based approach to quantify local and global radiative forcings from large-scale deforestation and reforestation and further examines mechanisms that result in the spatial heterogeneity of radiative forcing. We incorporate a new spatially and temporally explicit land cover-specific albedo product derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer with a historical land use data set (Land Use Harmonization product). Spatial variation in radiative forcing was attributed to four mechanisms, including the change in snow-covered albedo, change in snow-free albedo, snow cover fraction, and incoming solar radiation. We find an albedo-only radiative forcing (RF) of -0.819 W m(exp -2) if year 2000 forests were completely deforested and converted to croplands. Albedo RF from global reforestation of present-day croplands to recover year 1700 forests is estimated to be 0.161 W m)exp -2). Snow-cover fraction is identified as the primary factor in determining the spatial variation of radiative forcing in winter, while the magnitude of the change in snow-free albedo is the primary factor determining variations in summertime RF. Findings reinforce the notion that, for conifers at the snowier high latitudes, albedo RF diminishes the warming from forest loss and the cooling from forest gain more so than for other forest types, latitudes, and climate settings.

Scale dependency in effectiveness, isolation, and social-ecological spillover of protected areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Ament, Judith M; Cumming, Graeme S

2016-08-01

Protected areas are considered vital for the conservation of biodiversity. Given their central role in many conservation strategies, it is important to know whether they adequately protect biodiversity within their boundaries; whether they are becoming more isolated from other natural areas over time; and whether they play a role in facilitating or reducing land-cover change in their surroundings. We used matching methods and national and local analyses of land-cover change to evaluate the combined effectiveness (i.e., avoided natural-cover loss), isolation (i.e., changes in adjacent areas), and spillover effects (i.e., impacts on adjacent areas) of 19 national parks in South Africa from 2000 to 2009. All parks had either similar or lower rates of natural-cover loss than matched control samples. On a national level, mean net loss of natural cover and mean net gain of cultivation cover decreased with distance from park boundary, but there was considerable variation in trends around individual parks, providing evidence for both increased isolation and buffering of protected areas. Fourteen parks had significant positive spillover and reduced natural-cover loss in their surroundings, whereas five parks experienced elevated levels of natural-cover loss. Conclusions about social-ecological spillover effects from protected areas depended heavily on the measures of land-cover change used and the scale at which the results were aggregated. Our findings emphasize the need for high-resolution data when assessing spatially explicit phenomena such as land-cover change and challenge the usefulness of large-scale (coarse grain, broad extent) studies for understanding social-ecological dynamics around protected areas. © 2016 Society for Conservation Biology.

Decentralized Large-Scale Power Balancing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Halvgaard, Rasmus; Jørgensen, John Bagterp; Poulsen, Niels Kjølstad

2013-01-01

problem is formulated as a centralized large-scale optimization problem but is then decomposed into smaller subproblems that are solved locally by each unit connected to an aggregator. For large-scale systems the method is faster than solving the full problem and can be distributed to include an arbitrary...

BUSINESS MODELS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

OpenAIRE

Dr. Rasananda Panda; Dr. Bijal Mehta; Ms. Anushree Karani

2017-01-01

Internet and Social Media have made a significant impact on all spheres including individual, corporate and businesses. Given the current scenario, the nature of the business sector is changing rapidly. Globalization and digitization has revolutionized the business practices. This change is evident in all types of business ventures from small scale to large scale. Role of social media is considered as a crucial aspect in today’s global business environment (Abuhashesh, 2014). Hence, busines...

The intertidal community in West Greenland: Large-scale patterns and small-scale variation on ecosystem dynamics along a climate gradient

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thyrring, Jakob; Blicher, Martin; Sejr, Mikael Kristian

are largely unknown. The West Greenland coast is north - south orientated. This provides an ideal setting to study the impact of climate change on marine species population dynamics and distribution. We investigated the latitudinal changes in the rocky intertidal community along 18° latitudes (59-77°N......) in West Greenland. Using cleared quadrats we quantified patterns in abundance, biomass and species richness in the intertidal zone. We use this data to disentangle patterns in Arctic intertidal communities at different scales. We describe the effects of different environmental drivers and species...... interactions on distribution and dynamics of intertidal species. Our results indicate that changes in distribution and abundance of foundation species can have large effects on the ecosystem. We also show that the importance of small-scale variation may be of same magnitude as large- scale variation. Only...

Automating large-scale reactor systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kisner, R.A.

1985-01-01

This paper conveys a philosophy for developing automated large-scale control systems that behave in an integrated, intelligent, flexible manner. Methods for operating large-scale systems under varying degrees of equipment degradation are discussed, and a design approach that separates the effort into phases is suggested. 5 refs., 1 fig

The Phoenix series large scale LNG pool fire experiments.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simpson, Richard B.; Jensen, Richard Pearson; Demosthenous, Byron; Luketa, Anay Josephine; Ricks, Allen Joseph; Hightower, Marion Michael; Blanchat, Thomas K.; Helmick, Paul H.; Tieszen, Sheldon Robert; Deola, Regina Anne; Mercier, Jeffrey Alan; Suo-Anttila, Jill Marie; Miller, Timothy J.

2010-12-01

The increasing demand for natural gas could increase the number and frequency of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanker deliveries to ports across the United States. Because of the increasing number of shipments and the number of possible new facilities, concerns about the potential safety of the public and property from an accidental, and even more importantly intentional spills, have increased. While improvements have been made over the past decade in assessing hazards from LNG spills, the existing experimental data is much smaller in size and scale than many postulated large accidental and intentional spills. Since the physics and hazards from a fire change with fire size, there are concerns about the adequacy of current hazard prediction techniques for large LNG spills and fires. To address these concerns, Congress funded the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2008 to conduct a series of laboratory and large-scale LNG pool fire experiments at Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This report presents the test data and results of both sets of fire experiments. A series of five reduced-scale (gas burner) tests (yielding 27 sets of data) were conducted in 2007 and 2008 at Sandia's Thermal Test Complex (TTC) to assess flame height to fire diameter ratios as a function of nondimensional heat release rates for extrapolation to large-scale LNG fires. The large-scale LNG pool fire experiments were conducted in a 120 m diameter pond specially designed and constructed in Sandia's Area III large-scale test complex. Two fire tests of LNG spills of 21 and 81 m in diameter were conducted in 2009 to improve the understanding of flame height, smoke production, and burn rate and therefore the physics and hazards of large LNG spills and fires.

The Software Reliability of Large Scale Integration Circuit and Very Large Scale Integration Circuit

OpenAIRE

Artem Ganiyev; Jan Vitasek

2010-01-01

This article describes evaluation method of faultless function of large scale integration circuits (LSI) and very large scale integration circuits (VLSI). In the article there is a comparative analysis of factors which determine faultless of integrated circuits, analysis of already existing methods and model of faultless function evaluation of LSI and VLSI. The main part describes a proposed algorithm and program for analysis of fault rate in LSI and VLSI circuits.

Changing Social and Environmental Reporting Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kaspersen, Mia; Riise Johansen, Thomas

2016-01-01

Based on a case study of a large multinational group, this paper addresses the way in which social and environmental reporting (SER) systems were changed and the consequences and controversies associated with this change. Drawing on Power's work on the processes by which things are made auditable...... via underlying systems, we focus on how and why a specific programme with auditability as its ultimate aim changed the basis on which the external social and environmental report was prepared. Our analysis demonstrates that the perceived alignment with the financial report preparation and the explicit...... pursuit of auditability legitimized SER and paved the way for data systems to be changed. The programme borrowed authority from financial accounting technologies not only to make a system change but also to push SER internally, as we suggest that an intraorganizational group used the programme to ensure...

Social Network Analysis and Mining to Monitor and Identify Problems with Large-Scale Information and Communication Technology Interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

da Silva, Aleksandra do Socorro; de Brito, Silvana Rossy; Vijaykumar, Nandamudi Lankalapalli; da Rocha, Cláudio Alex Jorge; Monteiro, Maurílio de Abreu; Costa, João Crisóstomo Weyl Albuquerque; Francês, Carlos Renato Lisboa

2016-01-01

The published literature reveals several arguments concerning the strategic importance of information and communication technology (ICT) interventions for developing countries where the digital divide is a challenge. Large-scale ICT interventions can be an option for countries whose regions, both urban and rural, present a high number of digitally excluded people. Our goal was to monitor and identify problems in interventions aimed at certification for a large number of participants in different geographical regions. Our case study is the training at the Telecentros.BR, a program created in Brazil to install telecenters and certify individuals to use ICT resources. We propose an approach that applies social network analysis and mining techniques to data collected from Telecentros.BR dataset and from the socioeconomics and telecommunications infrastructure indicators of the participants' municipalities. We found that (i) the analysis of interactions in different time periods reflects the objectives of each phase of training, highlighting the increased density in the phase in which participants develop and disseminate their projects; (ii) analysis according to the roles of participants (i.e., tutors or community members) reveals that the interactions were influenced by the center (or region) to which the participant belongs (that is, a community contained mainly members of the same region and always with the presence of tutors, contradicting expectations of the training project, which aimed for intense collaboration of the participants, regardless of the geographic region); (iii) the social network of participants influences the success of the training: that is, given evidence that the degree of the community member is in the highest range, the probability of this individual concluding the training is 0.689; (iv) the North region presented the lowest probability of participant certification, whereas the Northeast, which served municipalities with similar

A novel artificial fish swarm algorithm for solving large-scale reliability-redundancy application problem.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Qiang; Hu, Xiangtao; Ren, Hong; Zhang, Hongqi

2015-11-01

A novel artificial fish swarm algorithm (NAFSA) is proposed for solving large-scale reliability-redundancy allocation problem (RAP). In NAFSA, the social behaviors of fish swarm are classified in three ways: foraging behavior, reproductive behavior, and random behavior. The foraging behavior designs two position-updating strategies. And, the selection and crossover operators are applied to define the reproductive ability of an artificial fish. For the random behavior, which is essentially a mutation strategy, the basic cloud generator is used as the mutation operator. Finally, numerical results of four benchmark problems and a large-scale RAP are reported and compared. NAFSA shows good performance in terms of computational accuracy and computational efficiency for large scale RAP. Copyright © 2015 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Phylogenetic distribution of large-scale genome patchiness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hackenberg Michael

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The phylogenetic distribution of large-scale genome structure (i.e. mosaic compositional patchiness has been explored mainly by analytical ultracentrifugation of bulk DNA. However, with the availability of large, good-quality chromosome sequences, and the recently developed computational methods to directly analyze patchiness on the genome sequence, an evolutionary comparative analysis can be carried out at the sequence level. Results The local variations in the scaling exponent of the Detrended Fluctuation Analysis are used here to analyze large-scale genome structure and directly uncover the characteristic scales present in genome sequences. Furthermore, through shuffling experiments of selected genome regions, computationally-identified, isochore-like regions were identified as the biological source for the uncovered large-scale genome structure. The phylogenetic distribution of short- and large-scale patchiness was determined in the best-sequenced genome assemblies from eleven eukaryotic genomes: mammals (Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus, and Canis familiaris, birds (Gallus gallus, fishes (Danio rerio, invertebrates (Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, plants (Arabidopsis thaliana and yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found large-scale patchiness of genome structure, associated with in silico determined, isochore-like regions, throughout this wide phylogenetic range. Conclusion Large-scale genome structure is detected by directly analyzing DNA sequences in a wide range of eukaryotic chromosome sequences, from human to yeast. In all these genomes, large-scale patchiness can be associated with the isochore-like regions, as directly detected in silico at the sequence level.

Managing large-scale models: DBS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-05-01

A set of fundamental management tools for developing and operating a large scale model and data base system is presented. Based on experience in operating and developing a large scale computerized system, the only reasonable way to gain strong management control of such a system is to implement appropriate controls and procedures. Chapter I discusses the purpose of the book. Chapter II classifies a broad range of generic management problems into three groups: documentation, operations, and maintenance. First, system problems are identified then solutions for gaining management control are disucssed. Chapters III, IV, and V present practical methods for dealing with these problems. These methods were developed for managing SEAS but have general application for large scale models and data bases

Large Scale Self-Organizing Information Distribution System

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Low, Steven

2005-01-01

This project investigates issues in "large-scale" networks. Here "large-scale" refers to networks with large number of high capacity nodes and transmission links, and shared by a large number of users...

Disruptive innovation for social change.

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, Clayton M; Baumann, Heiner; Ruggles, Rudy; Sadtler, Thomas M

2006-12-01

Countries, organizations, and individuals around the globe spend aggressively to solve social problems, but these efforts often fail to deliver. Misdirected investment is the primary reason for that failure. Most of the money earmarked for social initiatives goes to organizations that are structured to support specific groups of recipients, often with sophisticated solutions. Such organizations rarely reach the broader populations that could be served by simpler alternatives. There is, however, an effective way to get to those underserved populations. The authors call it "catalytic innovation." Based on Clayton Christensen's disruptive-innovation model, catalytic innovations challenge organizational incumbents by offering simpler, good-enough solutions aimed at underserved groups. Unlike disruptive innovations, though, catalytic innovations are focused on creating social change. Catalytic innovators are defined by five distinct qualities. First, they create social change through scaling and replication. Second, they meet a need that is either overserved (that is, the existing solution is more complex than necessary for many people) or not served at all. Third, the products and services they offer are simpler and cheaper than alternatives, but recipients view them as good enough. Fourth, they bring in resources in ways that initially seem unattractive to incumbents. And fifth, they are often ignored, put down, or even encouraged by existing organizations, which don't see the catalytic innovators' solutions as viable. As the authors show through examples in health care, education, and economic development, both nonprofit and for-profit groups are finding ways to create catalytic innovation that drives social change.

A NeISS collaboration to develop and use e-infrastructure for large-scale social simulation

OpenAIRE

Doherty, Thomas; Skipsey, Samuel; Turner, Andy; Watt, John

2011-01-01

The National e-Infrastructure for Social Simulation (NeISS) project is focused on\\ud developing e-Infrastructure to support social simulation research. Part of NeISS aims to\\ud provide an interface for running contemporary dynamic demographic social simulation\\ud models as developed in the GENESIS project. These GENESIS models operate at the\\ud individual person level and are stochastic. This paper focuses on support for a simplistic\\ud demographic change model that has a daily time steps, an...

Abnormal binding and disruption in large scale networks involved in human partial seizures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bartolomei Fabrice

2013-12-01

Full Text Available There is a marked increase in the amount of electrophysiological and neuroimaging works dealing with the study of large scale brain connectivity in the epileptic brain. Our view of the epileptogenic process in the brain has largely evolved over the last twenty years from the historical concept of “epileptic focus” to a more complex description of “Epileptogenic networks” involved in the genesis and “propagation” of epileptic activities. In particular, a large number of studies have been dedicated to the analysis of intracerebral EEG signals to characterize the dynamic of interactions between brain areas during temporal lobe seizures. These studies have reported that large scale functional connectivity is dramatically altered during seizures, particularly during temporal lobe seizure genesis and development. Dramatic changes in neural synchrony provoked by epileptic rhythms are also responsible for the production of ictal symptoms or changes in patient’s behaviour such as automatisms, emotional changes or consciousness alteration. Beside these studies dedicated to seizures, large-scale network connectivity during the interictal state has also been investigated not only to define biomarkers of epileptogenicity but also to better understand the cognitive impairments observed between seizures.

Social welfare as small-scale help: evolutionary psychology and the deservingness heuristic.

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Michael Bang

2012-01-01

Public opinion concerning social welfare is largely driven by perceptions of recipient deservingness. Extant research has argued that this heuristic is learned from a variety of cultural, institutional, and ideological sources. The present article provides evidence supporting a different view: that the deservingness heuristic is rooted in psychological categories that evolved over the course of human evolution to regulate small-scale exchanges of help. To test predictions made on the basis of this view, a method designed to measure social categorization is embedded in nationally representative surveys conducted in different countries. Across the national- and individual-level differences that extant research has used to explain the heuristic, people categorize welfare recipients on the basis of whether they are lazy or unlucky. This mode of categorization furthermore induces people to think about large-scale welfare politics as its presumed ancestral equivalent: small-scale help giving. The general implications for research on heuristics are discussed.

Sustainability of small reservoirs and large scale water availability under current conditions and climate change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krol, Martinus S.; de Vries, Marjella J.; van Oel, Pieter R.; Carlos de Araújo, José

2011-01-01

Semi-arid river basins often rely on reservoirs for water supply. Small reservoirs may impact on large-scale water availability both by enhancing availability in a distributed sense and by subtracting water for large downstream user communities, e.g. served by large reservoirs. Both of these impacts

Large scale structure and baryogenesis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kirilova, D.P.; Chizhov, M.V.

2001-08-01

We discuss a possible connection between the large scale structure formation and the baryogenesis in the universe. An update review of the observational indications for the presence of a very large scale 120h -1 Mpc in the distribution of the visible matter of the universe is provided. The possibility to generate a periodic distribution with the characteristic scale 120h -1 Mpc through a mechanism producing quasi-periodic baryon density perturbations during inflationary stage, is discussed. The evolution of the baryon charge density distribution is explored in the framework of a low temperature boson condensate baryogenesis scenario. Both the observed very large scale of a the visible matter distribution in the universe and the observed baryon asymmetry value could naturally appear as a result of the evolution of a complex scalar field condensate, formed at the inflationary stage. Moreover, for some model's parameters a natural separation of matter superclusters from antimatter ones can be achieved. (author)

Automatic management software for large-scale cluster system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weng Yunjian; Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing; Sun Gongxing

2007-01-01

At present, the large-scale cluster system faces to the difficult management. For example the manager has large work load. It needs to cost much time on the management and the maintenance of large-scale cluster system. The nodes in large-scale cluster system are very easy to be chaotic. Thousands of nodes are put in big rooms so that some managers are very easy to make the confusion with machines. How do effectively carry on accurate management under the large-scale cluster system? The article introduces ELFms in the large-scale cluster system. Furthermore, it is proposed to realize the large-scale cluster system automatic management. (authors)

Evaluation of the psychometric properties of two short forms of the social interaction anxiety scale and the social phobia scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Le Blanc, Allura L; Bruce, Laura C; Heimberg, Richard G; Hope, Debra A; Blanco, Carlos; Schneier, Franklin R; Liebowitz, Michael R

2014-06-01

The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale are widely used measures of social anxiety. Using data from individuals with social anxiety disorder (n = 435) and nonanxious controls (n = 86), we assessed the psychometric properties of two independently developed short forms of these scales. Indices of convergent and discriminant validity, diagnostic specificity, sensitivity to treatment, and readability were examined. Comparisons of the two sets of short forms to each other and the original long forms were conducted. Both sets of scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency in the patient sample, showed expected patterns of correlation with measures of related and unrelated constructs, adequately discriminated individuals with social anxiety disorder from those without, and showed decreases in scores over the course of cognitive-behavioral therapy and/or pharmacotherapy. However, some significant differences in scale performance were noted. Implications for the clinical assessment of social anxiety are discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.

Social Conduct Scale (SCS: a psychometric investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caroline Tozzi Reppold

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract The social conduct of an individual comprises all the interpersonal behaviors that he or she exhibits in the social contexts he or she is exposed to. The Social Conduct Scale (SCS is a self-report instrument developed to provide researchers and clinicians with information on prosocial, antisocial and oppositional-defiant tendencies of Portuguese-speaking children and adolescents. In the present study, we conducted an analysis of the criterion validity of the SCS by comparing the scores obtained from a large population-based sample (N= 1,172 against an offender (N= 129, a scholar (N= 31, and a clinic-referred (N= 24 sample of adolescents with marked previous conduct problems. As expected, antisocial youths had significantly higher means on antisocial behaviors and lower means on prosocial tendencies when compared to the population-based sample. Overall, findings supported the hypothesized criterion validity of the SCS. The instrument might play a role as a helpful resource for researchers, clinicians and practitioners interested in assessing the social conduct of Brazilian children and adolescents.

The Role of Remote Sensing for Understanding Large-Scale Rubber Concession Expansion in Southern Laos

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mutlu Özdoğan

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Increasing global demand for natural rubber began in the mid-2000s and led to large-scale expansion of plantations in Laos until rubber latex prices declined greatly beginning in 2011. The expansion of rubber did not, however, occur uniformly across the country. While the north and central Laos experienced mostly local and smallholder plantations, rubber expansion in the south was dominated by transnational companies from Vietnam, China and Thailand through large-scale land concessions, often causing conflicts with local communities. In this study we use satellite remote sensing to identify and map the expansion of large-scale rubber plantations in Champasak Province—the first area in southern Laos to host large-scale rubber development—and document the biophysical impacts on the local landscape, which of course is linked to social impacts on local people. Our study demonstrates that the expansion of rubber in the province was rapid and did not always conform to approved concession area locations. The mono-culture nature of rubber plantations also had the effect of homogenizing the landscape, eclipsing the changes caused by local populations. We argue that by providing a relatively inexpensive way to track the expansion of rubber plantations over space and time, remote sensing has the potential to provide advocates and other civil society groups with data that might otherwise remain limited to the restricted domains of state regulation and private sector reporting. However, we also caution that while remote sensing has the potential to provide strong public evidence about plantation expansion, access to and control of this information ultimately determines its value.

Prospects for investment in large-scale, grid-connected solar power in Africa

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Ulrich Elmer; Nygaard, Ivan; Pedersen, Mathilde Brix

since the 1990s have changed the competiveness of solar PV in all markets, ranging from individual households via institutions to mini-grids and grid-connected installations. In volume and investment, the market for large-scale grid-connected solar power plants is by far the most important......-scale investments in grid-connected solar power plants and local assembly facilities for PV panels, have exceeded even optimistic scenarios. Finally, therefore, there seem to be bright prospects for investment in large-scale grid-connected solar power in Africa....

Selecting Large Portfolios of Social Projects in Public Organizations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Igor Litvinchev

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We address the portfolio selection of social projects in public organizations considering interdependencies (synergies affecting project funds requirements and tasks. A mixed integer linear programming model is proposed incorporating the most relevant aspects of the problem found in the literature. The model supports both complete (all or nothing and partial (a certain amount from a given interval of funding resource allocation policies. Numerical results for large-scale problem instances are presented.

The Principle of Social Scaling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paulo L. dos Santos

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper identifies a general class of economic processes capable of generating the first-moment constraints implicit in the observed cross-sectional distributions of a number of economic variables: processes of social scaling. Across a variety of settings, the outcomes of economic competition reflect the normalization of individual values of certain economic quantities by average or social measures of themselves. The resulting socioreferential processes establish systematic interdependences among individual values of important economic variables, which under certain conditions take the form of emergent first-moment constraints on their distributions. The paper postulates a principle describing this systemic regulation of socially scaled variables and illustrates its empirical purchase by showing how capital- and labor-market competition can give rise to patterns of social scaling that help account for the observed distributions of Tobin’s q and wage income. The paper’s discussion embodies a distinctive approach to understanding and investigating empirically the relationship between individual agency and structural determinations in complex economic systems and motivates the development of observational foundations for aggregative, macrolevel economic analysis.

A comparison of large scale changes in surface humidity over land in observations and CMIP3 general circulation models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Willett, Katharine M; Thorne, Peter W; Jones, Philip D; Gillett, Nathan P

2010-01-01

Observed changes in the HadCRUH global land surface specific humidity and CRUTEM3 surface temperature from 1973 to 1999 are compared to CMIP3 archive climate model simulations with 20th Century forcings. Observed humidity increases are proportionately largest in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in winter. At the largest spatio-temporal scales moistening is close to the Clausius-Clapeyron scaling of the saturated specific humidity (∼7% K -1 ). At smaller scales in water-limited regions, changes in specific humidity are strongly inversely correlated with total changes in temperature. Conversely, in some regions increases are faster than implied by the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. The range of climate model specific humidity seasonal climatology and variance encompasses the observations. The models also reproduce the magnitude of observed interannual variance over all large regions. Observed and modelled trends and temperature-humidity relationships are comparable except for the extratropical Southern Hemisphere where observations exhibit no trend but models exhibit moistening. This may arise from: long-term biases remaining in the observations; the relative paucity of observational coverage; or common model errors. The overall degree of consistency of anthropogenically forced models with the observations is further evidence for anthropogenic influence on the climate of the late 20th century.

Mapping change in large networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Rosvall

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Change is a fundamental ingredient of interaction patterns in biology, technology, the economy, and science itself: Interactions within and between organisms change; transportation patterns by air, land, and sea all change; the global financial flow changes; and the frontiers of scientific research change. Networks and clustering methods have become important tools to comprehend instances of these large-scale structures, but without methods to distinguish between real trends and noisy data, these approaches are not useful for studying how networks change. Only if we can assign significance to the partitioning of single networks can we distinguish meaningful structural changes from random fluctuations. Here we show that bootstrap resampling accompanied by significance clustering provides a solution to this problem. To connect changing structures with the changing function of networks, we highlight and summarize the significant structural changes with alluvial diagrams and realize de Solla Price's vision of mapping change in science: studying the citation pattern between about 7000 scientific journals over the past decade, we find that neuroscience has transformed from an interdisciplinary specialty to a mature and stand-alone discipline.

A large scale field experiment in the Amazon Basin (Lambada/Bateristca)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dolman, A.J.; Kabat, P.; Gash, J.H.C.; Noilhan, J.; Jochum, A.M.; Nobre, C. [Winand Staring Centre, Wageningen (Netherlands)

1994-12-31

A description is given of a large scale field experiment planned in the Amazon Basin, aiming to assess the large scale balances of energy, water and CO{sub 2}. The background for this experiment, the embedding in global change programmes of IGBP/BAHC and WCRP/GEWEX is described. A proposal by four European groups aimed at designing the experiment with the help of mesoscale models is described and a possible European input to this experiment is suggested. 24 refs., 1 app.

Large scale network-centric distributed systems

CERN Document Server

Sarbazi-Azad, Hamid

2014-01-01

A highly accessible reference offering a broad range of topics and insights on large scale network-centric distributed systems Evolving from the fields of high-performance computing and networking, large scale network-centric distributed systems continues to grow as one of the most important topics in computing and communication and many interdisciplinary areas. Dealing with both wired and wireless networks, this book focuses on the design and performance issues of such systems. Large Scale Network-Centric Distributed Systems provides in-depth coverage ranging from ground-level hardware issu

Punishment sustains large-scale cooperation in prestate warfare

Science.gov (United States)

Mathew, Sarah; Boyd, Robert

2011-01-01

Understanding cooperation and punishment in small-scale societies is crucial for explaining the origins of human cooperation. We studied warfare among the Turkana, a politically uncentralized, egalitarian, nomadic pastoral society in East Africa. Based on a representative sample of 88 recent raids, we show that the Turkana sustain costly cooperation in combat at a remarkably large scale, at least in part, through punishment of free-riders. Raiding parties comprised several hundred warriors and participants are not kin or day-to-day interactants. Warriors incur substantial risk of death and produce collective benefits. Cowardice and desertions occur, and are punished by community-imposed sanctions, including collective corporal punishment and fines. Furthermore, Turkana norms governing warfare benefit the ethnolinguistic group, a population of a half-million people, at the expense of smaller social groupings. These results challenge current views that punishment is unimportant in small-scale societies and that human cooperation evolved in small groups of kin and familiar individuals. Instead, these results suggest that cooperation at the larger scale of ethnolinguistic units enforced by third-party sanctions could have a deep evolutionary history in the human species. PMID:21670285

Large-scale impact of climate change vs. land-use change on future biome shifts in Latin America

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boit, Alice; Sakschewski, Boris; Boysen, Lena; Cano-Crespo, Ana; Clement, Jan; Garcia-alaniz, Nashieli; Kok, Kasper; Kolb, Melanie; Langerwisch, Fanny; Rammig, Anja; Sachse, René; Eupen, van Michiel; Bloh, von Werner; Clara Zemp, Delphine; Thonicke, Kirsten

2016-01-01

Climate change and land-use change are two major drivers of biome shifts causing habitat and biodiversity loss. What is missing is a continental-scale future projection of the estimated relative impacts of both drivers on biome shifts over the course of this century. Here, we provide such a

Factor solutions of the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) in a Swedish population.

Science.gov (United States)

Mörtberg, Ewa; Reuterskiöld, Lena; Tillfors, Maria; Furmark, Tomas; Öst, Lars-Göran

2017-06-01

Culturally validated rating scales for social anxiety disorder (SAD) are of significant importance when screening for the disorder, as well as for evaluating treatment efficacy. This study examined construct validity and additional psychometric properties of two commonly used scales, the Social Phobia Scale and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, in a clinical SAD population (n = 180) and in a normal population (n = 614) in Sweden. Confirmatory factor analyses of previously reported factor solutions were tested but did not reveal acceptable fit. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) of the joint structure of the scales in the total population yielded a two-factor model (performance anxiety and social interaction anxiety), whereas EFA in the clinical sample revealed a three-factor solution, a social interaction anxiety factor and two performance anxiety factors. The SPS and SIAS showed good to excellent internal consistency, and discriminated well between patients with SAD and a normal population sample. Both scales showed good convergent validity with an established measure of SAD, whereas the discriminant validity of symptoms of social anxiety and depression could not be confirmed. The optimal cut-off score for SPS and SIAS were 18 and 22 points, respectively. It is concluded that the factor structure and the additional psychometric properties of SPS and SIAS support the use of the scales for assessment in a Swedish population.

Large-Scale Outflows in Seyfert Galaxies

Science.gov (United States)

Colbert, E. J. M.; Baum, S. A.

1995-12-01

\\catcode`\\@=11 \\ialign{m @th#1hfil ##hfil \\crcr#2\\crcr\\sim\\crcr}}} \\catcode`\\@=12 Highly collimated outflows extend out to Mpc scales in many radio-loud active galaxies. In Seyfert galaxies, which are radio-quiet, the outflows extend out to kpc scales and do not appear to be as highly collimated. In order to study the nature of large-scale (>~1 kpc) outflows in Seyferts, we have conducted optical, radio and X-ray surveys of a distance-limited sample of 22 edge-on Seyfert galaxies. Results of the optical emission-line imaging and spectroscopic survey imply that large-scale outflows are present in >~{{1} /{4}} of all Seyferts. The radio (VLA) and X-ray (ROSAT) surveys show that large-scale radio and X-ray emission is present at about the same frequency. Kinetic luminosities of the outflows in Seyferts are comparable to those in starburst-driven superwinds. Large-scale radio sources in Seyferts appear diffuse, but do not resemble radio halos found in some edge-on starburst galaxies (e.g. M82). We discuss the feasibility of the outflows being powered by the active nucleus (e.g. a jet) or a circumnuclear starburst.

Participatory Design of Large-Scale Information Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Jesper; Hertzum, Morten

2008-01-01

into a PD process model that (1) emphasizes PD experiments as transcending traditional prototyping by evaluating fully integrated systems exposed to real work practices; (2) incorporates improvisational change management including anticipated, emergent, and opportunity-based change; and (3) extends initial...... design and development into a sustained and ongoing stepwise implementation that constitutes an overall technology-driven organizational change. The process model is presented through a largescale PD experiment in the Danish healthcare sector. We reflect on our experiences from this experiment......In this article we discuss how to engage in large-scale information systems development by applying a participatory design (PD) approach that acknowledges the unique situated work practices conducted by the domain experts of modern organizations. We reconstruct the iterative prototyping approach...

The Stability of Social Desirability: A Latent Change Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Haberecht, Katja; Schnuerer, Inga; Gaertner, Beate; John, Ulrich; Freyer-Adam, Jennis

2015-08-01

Social desirability has been shown to be stable in samples with higher school education. However, little is known about the stability of social desirability in more heterogeneous samples differing in school education. This study aimed to investigate the stability of social desirability and which factors predict interindividual differences in intraindividual change. As part of a randomized controlled trial, 1,243 job seekers with unhealthy alcohol use were systematically recruited at three job agencies. A total of 1,094 individuals (87.8%) participated in at least one of two follow-ups (6 and 15 months after baseline) and constitute this study's sample. The Social Desirability Scale-17 was applied. Two latent change models were conducted: Model 1 tested for interindividual differences in intraindividual change of social desirability between both follow-ups; Model 2 included possible predictors (age, sex, education, current employment status) of interindividual differences in intraindividual change. Model 1 revealed a significant decrease of social desirability over time. Model 2 revealed school education to be the only significant predictor of change. These findings indicate that stability of social desirability may depend on school education. It may not be as stable in individuals with higher school education as in individuals with lower education. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Active power reserves evaluation in large scale PVPPs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Crăciun, Bogdan-Ionut; Kerekes, Tamas; Sera, Dezso

2013-01-01

The present trend on investing in renewable ways of producing electricity in the detriment of conventional fossil fuel-based plants will lead to a certain point where these plants have to provide ancillary services and contribute to overall grid stability. Photovoltaic (PV) power has the fastest...... growth among all renewable energies and managed to reach high penetration levels creating instabilities which at the moment are corrected by the conventional generation. This paradigm will change in the future scenarios where most of the power is supplied by large scale renewable plants and parts...... of the ancillary services have to be shared by the renewable plants. The main focus of the proposed paper is to technically and economically analyze the possibility of having active power reserves in large scale PV power plants (PVPPs) without any auxiliary storage equipment. The provided reserves should...

Spatio-temporal Characteristics of Land Use Land Cover Change Driven by Large Scale Land Transactions in Cambodia

Science.gov (United States)

Ghosh, A.; Smith, J. C.; Hijmans, R. J.

2017-12-01

Since mid-1990s, the Cambodian government granted nearly 300 `Economic Land Concessions' (ELCs), occupying approximately 2.3 million ha to foreign and domestic organizations (primarily agribusinesses). The majority of Cambodian ELC deals have been issued in areas of both relatively low population density and low agricultural productivity, dominated by smallholder production. These regions often contain highly biodiverse areas, thereby increasing the ecological cost associated with land clearing for extractive purposes. These large-scale land transactions have also resulted in substantial and rapid changes in land-use patterns and agriculture practices by smallholder farmers. In this study, we investigated the spatio-temporal characteristics of land use change associated with large-scale land transactions across Cambodia using multi-temporal multi-reolution remote sensing data. We identified major regions of deforestation during the last two decades using Landsat archive, global forest change data (2000-2014) and georeferenced database of ELC deals. We then mapped the deforestation and land clearing within ELC boundaries as well as areas bordering or near ELCs to quantify the impact of ELCs on local communities. Using time-series from MODIS Vegetation Indices products for the study period, we also estimated the time period over which any particular ELC deal initiated its proposed activity. We found evidence of similar patterns of land use change outside the boundaries of ELC deals which may be associated with i) illegal land encroachments by ELCs and/or ii) new agricultural practices adopted by local farmers near ELC boundaries. We also detected significant time gaps between ELC deal granting dates and initiation of land clearing for ELC purposes. Interestingly, we also found that not all designated areas for ELCs were put into effect indicating the possible proliferation of speculative land deals. This study demonstrates the potential of remote sensing techniques

SCALE INTERACTION IN A MIXING LAYER. THE ROLE OF THE LARGE-SCALE GRADIENTS

KAUST Repository

Fiscaletti, Daniele

2015-08-23

The interaction between scales is investigated in a turbulent mixing layer. The large-scale amplitude modulation of the small scales already observed in other works depends on the crosswise location. Large-scale positive fluctuations correlate with a stronger activity of the small scales on the low speed-side of the mixing layer, and a reduced activity on the high speed-side. However, from physical considerations we would expect the scales to interact in a qualitatively similar way within the flow and across different turbulent flows. Therefore, instead of the large-scale fluctuations, the large-scale gradients modulation of the small scales has been additionally investigated.

Explaining Large-N Cooperation: Generalized Social Trust and the Social Exchange Heuristic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar

2011-01-01

This article presents a new argument that links generalized social trust and collective action in situations with a large number of actors, who do not have specific information on each other. Generalized social trust enhances large-N cooperation through the social exchange heuristic, which...... stimulate conditional cooperation in social dilemmas. Using data from a survey in four countries and recycling behavior as an indicator of collective action, this explanation is tested with individual level data. While the relationship between generalized social trust and large-N collective action is often...... hypothesized, there is scant micro level evidence as it has mainly been tested at the macro level. The results show that people holding generalized social trust cooperate more readily in large-N dilemmas, and that they most likely do so because of the social exchange heuristic....

Dissecting the large-scale galactic conformity

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, Seongu

2018-01-01

Galactic conformity is an observed phenomenon that galaxies located in the same region have similar properties such as star formation rate, color, gas fraction, and so on. The conformity was first observed among galaxies within in the same halos (“one-halo conformity”). The one-halo conformity can be readily explained by mutual interactions among galaxies within a halo. Recent observations however further witnessed a puzzling connection among galaxies with no direct interaction. In particular, galaxies located within a sphere of ~5 Mpc radius tend to show similarities, even though the galaxies do not share common halos with each other ("two-halo conformity" or “large-scale conformity”). Using a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, Illustris, we investigate the physical origin of the two-halo conformity and put forward two scenarios. First, back-splash galaxies are likely responsible for the large-scale conformity. They have evolved into red galaxies due to ram-pressure stripping in a given galaxy cluster and happen to reside now within a ~5 Mpc sphere. Second, galaxies in strong tidal field induced by large-scale structure also seem to give rise to the large-scale conformity. The strong tides suppress star formation in the galaxies. We discuss the importance of the large-scale conformity in the context of galaxy evolution.

Multiresolution comparison of precipitation datasets for large-scale models

Science.gov (United States)

Chun, K. P.; Sapriza Azuri, G.; Davison, B.; DeBeer, C. M.; Wheater, H. S.

2014-12-01

Gridded precipitation datasets are crucial for driving large-scale models which are related to weather forecast and climate research. However, the quality of precipitation products is usually validated individually. Comparisons between gridded precipitation products along with ground observations provide another avenue for investigating how the precipitation uncertainty would affect the performance of large-scale models. In this study, using data from a set of precipitation gauges over British Columbia and Alberta, we evaluate several widely used North America gridded products including the Canadian Gridded Precipitation Anomalies (CANGRD), the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis, the Water and Global Change (WATCH) project, the thin plate spline smoothing algorithms (ANUSPLIN) and Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA). Based on verification criteria for various temporal and spatial scales, results provide an assessment of possible applications for various precipitation datasets. For long-term climate variation studies (~100 years), CANGRD, NCEP, WATCH and ANUSPLIN have different comparative advantages in terms of their resolution and accuracy. For synoptic and mesoscale precipitation patterns, CaPA provides appealing performance of spatial coherence. In addition to the products comparison, various downscaling methods are also surveyed to explore new verification and bias-reduction methods for improving gridded precipitation outputs for large-scale models.

Large-scale Vertical Motions, Intensity Change and Precipitation Associated with Land falling Hurricane Katrina over the Gulf of Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Reddy, S. R.; Kwembe, T.; Zhang, Z.

2016-12-01

We investigated the possible relationship between the large- scale heat fluxes and intensity change associated with the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. After reaching the category 5 intensity on August 28th , 2005 over the central Gulf of Mexico, Katrina weekend to category 3 before making landfall (August 29th , 2005) on the Louisiana coast with the maximum sustained winds of over 110 knots. We also examined the vertical motions associated with the intensity change of the hurricane. The data for Convective Available Potential Energy for water vapor (CAPE), sea level pressure and wind speed were obtained from the Atmospheric Soundings, and NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC), respectively for the period August 24 to September 3, 2005. We also computed vertical motions using CAPE values. The study showed that the large-scale heat fluxes reached maximum (7960W/m2) with the central pressure 905mb. The Convective Available Potential Energy and the vertical motions peaked 3-5 days before landfall. The large atmospheric vertical motions associated with the land falling hurricane Katrina produced severe weather including thunderstorm, tornadoes, storm surge and floods Numerical model (WRF/ARW) with data assimilations have been used for this research to investigate the model's performances on hurricane tracks and intensities associated with the hurricane Katrina, which began to strengthen until reaching Category 5 on 28 August 2005. The model was run on a doubly nested domain centered over the central Gulf of Mexico, with grid spacing of 90 km and 30 km for 6 hr periods, from August 28th to August 30th. The model output was compared with the observations and is capable of simulating the surface features, intensity change and track associated with hurricane Katrina.

PERSEUS-HUB: Interactive and Collective Exploration of Large-Scale Graphs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Di Jin

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Graphs emerge naturally in many domains, such as social science, neuroscience, transportation engineering, and more. In many cases, such graphs have millions or billions of nodes and edges, and their sizes increase daily at a fast pace. How can researchers from various domains explore large graphs interactively and efficiently to find out what is ‘important’? How can multiple researchers explore a new graph dataset collectively and “help” each other with their findings? In this article, we present Perseus-Hub, a large-scale graph mining tool that computes a set of graph properties in a distributed manner, performs ensemble, multi-view anomaly detection to highlight regions that are worth investigating, and provides users with uncluttered visualization and easy interaction with complex graph statistics. Perseus-Hub uses a Spark cluster to calculate various statistics of large-scale graphs efficiently, and aggregates the results in a summary on the master node to support interactive user exploration. In Perseus-Hub, the visualized distributions of graph statistics provide preliminary analysis to understand a graph. To perform a deeper analysis, users with little prior knowledge can leverage patterns (e.g., spikes in the power-law degree distribution marked by other users or experts. Moreover, Perseus-Hub guides users to regions of interest by highlighting anomalous nodes and helps users establish a more comprehensive understanding about the graph at hand. We demonstrate our system through the case study on real, large-scale networks.

Clinical validation of a non-heteronormative version of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS)

OpenAIRE

Lindner, Philip; Martell, Christopher; Bergström, Jan; Andersson, Gerhard; Carlbring, Per

2013-01-01

Introduction: Despite welcomed changes in societal attitudes and practices towards sexual minorities, instances of heteronormativity can still be found within healthcare and research. The Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) is a valid and reliable self-rating scale of social anxiety, which includes one item (number 14) with an explicit heteronormative assumption about the respondents sexual orientation. This heteronormative phrasing may confuse, insult or alienate sexual minority responde...

Large-scale perspective as a challenge

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Plomp, M.G.A.

2012-01-01

1. Scale forms a challenge for chain researchers: when exactly is something ‘large-scale’? What are the underlying factors (e.g. number of parties, data, objects in the chain, complexity) that determine this? It appears to be a continuum between small- and large-scale, where positioning on that

Large-scale Meteorological Patterns Associated with Extreme Precipitation Events over Portland, OR

Science.gov (United States)

Aragon, C.; Loikith, P. C.; Lintner, B. R.; Pike, M.

2017-12-01

Extreme precipitation events can have profound impacts on human life and infrastructure, with broad implications across a range of stakeholders. Changes to extreme precipitation events are a projected outcome of climate change that warrants further study, especially at regional- to local-scales. While global climate models are generally capable of simulating mean climate at global-to-regional scales with reasonable skill, resiliency and adaptation decisions are made at local-scales where most state-of-the-art climate models are limited by coarse resolution. Characterization of large-scale meteorological patterns associated with extreme precipitation events at local-scales can provide climatic information without this scale limitation, thus facilitating stakeholder decision-making. This research will use synoptic climatology as a tool by which to characterize the key large-scale meteorological patterns associated with extreme precipitation events in the Portland, Oregon metro region. Composite analysis of meteorological patterns associated with extreme precipitation days, and associated watershed-specific flooding, is employed to enhance understanding of the climatic drivers behind such events. The self-organizing maps approach is then used to characterize the within-composite variability of the large-scale meteorological patterns associated with extreme precipitation events, allowing us to better understand the different types of meteorological conditions that lead to high-impact precipitation events and associated hydrologic impacts. A more comprehensive understanding of the meteorological drivers of extremes will aid in evaluation of the ability of climate models to capture key patterns associated with extreme precipitation over Portland and to better interpret projections of future climate at impact-relevant scales.

Large-scale river regulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petts, G.

1994-01-01

Recent concern over human impacts on the environment has tended to focus on climatic change, desertification, destruction of tropical rain forests, and pollution. Yet large-scale water projects such as dams, reservoirs, and inter-basin transfers are among the most dramatic and extensive ways in which our environment has been, and continues to be, transformed by human action. Water running to the sea is perceived as a lost resource, floods are viewed as major hazards, and wetlands are seen as wastelands. River regulation, involving the redistribution of water in time and space, is a key concept in socio-economic development. To achieve water and food security, to develop drylands, and to prevent desertification and drought are primary aims for many countries. A second key concept is ecological sustainability. Yet the ecology of rivers and their floodplains is dependent on the natural hydrological regime, and its related biochemical and geomorphological dynamics. (Author)

Algorithm 896: LSA: Algorithms for Large-Scale Optimization

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Lukšan, Ladislav; Matonoha, Ctirad; Vlček, Jan

2009-01-01

Roč. 36, č. 3 (2009), 16-1-16-29 ISSN 0098-3500 R&D Pro jects: GA AV ČR IAA1030405; GA ČR GP201/06/P397 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : algorithms * design * large-scale optimization * large-scale nonsmooth optimization * large-scale nonlinear least squares * large-scale nonlinear minimax * large-scale systems of nonlinear equations * sparse pro blems * partially separable pro blems * limited-memory methods * discrete Newton methods * quasi-Newton methods * primal interior-point methods Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics, Operational Research Impact factor: 1.904, year: 2009

Scale interactions in a mixing layer – the role of the large-scale gradients

KAUST Repository

Fiscaletti, D.

2016-02-15

© 2016 Cambridge University Press. The interaction between the large and the small scales of turbulence is investigated in a mixing layer, at a Reynolds number based on the Taylor microscale of , via direct numerical simulations. The analysis is performed in physical space, and the local vorticity root-mean-square (r.m.s.) is taken as a measure of the small-scale activity. It is found that positive large-scale velocity fluctuations correspond to large vorticity r.m.s. on the low-speed side of the mixing layer, whereas, they correspond to low vorticity r.m.s. on the high-speed side. The relationship between large and small scales thus depends on position if the vorticity r.m.s. is correlated with the large-scale velocity fluctuations. On the contrary, the correlation coefficient is nearly constant throughout the mixing layer and close to unity if the vorticity r.m.s. is correlated with the large-scale velocity gradients. Therefore, the small-scale activity appears closely related to large-scale gradients, while the correlation between the small-scale activity and the large-scale velocity fluctuations is shown to reflect a property of the large scales. Furthermore, the vorticity from unfiltered (small scales) and from low pass filtered (large scales) velocity fields tend to be aligned when examined within vortical tubes. These results provide evidence for the so-called \\'scale invariance\\' (Meneveau & Katz, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., vol. 32, 2000, pp. 1-32), and suggest that some of the large-scale characteristics are not lost at the small scales, at least at the Reynolds number achieved in the present simulation.

Bio-inspired wooden actuators for large scale applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Rüggeberg, Markus; Burgert, Ingo

2015-01-01

Implementing programmable actuation into materials and structures is a major topic in the field of smart materials. In particular the bilayer principle has been employed to develop actuators that respond to various kinds of stimuli. A multitude of small scale applications down to micrometer size have been developed, but up-scaling remains challenging due to either limitations in mechanical stiffness of the material or in the manufacturing processes. Here, we demonstrate the actuation of wooden bilayers in response to changes in relative humidity, making use of the high material stiffness and a good machinability to reach large scale actuation and application. Amplitude and response time of the actuation were measured and can be predicted and controlled by adapting the geometry and the constitution of the bilayers. Field tests in full weathering conditions revealed long-term stability of the actuation. The potential of the concept is shown by a first demonstrator. With the sensor and actuator intrinsically incorporated in the wooden bilayers, the daily change in relative humidity is exploited for an autonomous and solar powered movement of a tracker for solar modules.

Large-scale atmospheric circulation biases and changes in global climate model simulations and their importance for climate change in Central Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. P. van Ulden

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The quality of global sea level pressure patterns has been assessed for simulations by 23 coupled climate models. Most models showed high pattern correlations. With respect to the explained spatial variance, many models showed serious large-scale deficiencies, especially at mid-latitudes. Five models performed well at all latitudes and for each month of the year. Three models had a reasonable skill. We selected the five models with the best pressure patterns for a more detailed assessment of their simulations of the climate in Central Europe. We analysed observations and simulations of monthly mean geostrophic flow indices and of monthly mean temperature and precipitation. We used three geostrophic flow indices: the west component and south component of the geostrophic wind at the surface and the geostrophic vorticity. We found that circulation biases were important, and affected precipitation in particular. Apart from these circulation biases, the models showed other biases in temperature and precipitation, which were for some models larger than the circulation induced biases. For the 21st century the five models simulated quite different changes in circulation, precipitation and temperature. Precipitation changes appear to be primarily caused by circulation changes. Since the models show widely different circulation changes, especially in late summer, precipitation changes vary widely between the models as well. Some models simulate severe drying in late summer, while one model simulates significant precipitation increases in late summer. With respect to the mean temperature the circulation changes were important, but not dominant. However, changes in the distribution of monthly mean temperatures, do show large indirect influences of circulation changes. Especially in late summer, two models simulate very strong warming of warm months, which can be attributed to severe summer drying in the simulations by these models. The models differ also

Large-scale matrix-handling subroutines 'ATLAS'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsunematsu, Toshihide; Takeda, Tatsuoki; Fujita, Keiichi; Matsuura, Toshihiko; Tahara, Nobuo

1978-03-01

Subroutine package ''ATLAS'' has been developed for handling large-scale matrices. The package is composed of four kinds of subroutines, i.e., basic arithmetic routines, routines for solving linear simultaneous equations and for solving general eigenvalue problems and utility routines. The subroutines are useful in large scale plasma-fluid simulations. (auth.)

Time-scale invariant changes in atmospheric radon concentration and crustal strain prior to a large earthquake

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Kawada

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Prior to large earthquakes (e.g. 1995 Kobe earthquake, Japan, an increase in the atmospheric radon concentration is observed, and this increase in the rate follows a power-law of the time-to-earthquake (time-to-failure. This phenomenon corresponds to the increase in the radon migration in crust and the exhalation into atmosphere. An irreversible thermodynamic model including time-scale invariance clarifies that the increases in the pressure of the advecting radon and permeability (hydraulic conductivity in the crustal rocks are caused by the temporal changes in the power-law of the crustal strain (or cumulative Benioff strain, which is associated with damage evolution such as microcracking or changing porosity. As the result, the radon flux and the atmospheric radon concentration can show a temporal power-law increase. The concentration of atmospheric radon can be used as a proxy for the seismic precursory processes associated with crustal dynamics.

Large-scale solar heat

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tolonen, J.; Konttinen, P.; Lund, P. [Helsinki Univ. of Technology, Otaniemi (Finland). Dept. of Engineering Physics and Mathematics

1998-12-31

In this project a large domestic solar heating system was built and a solar district heating system was modelled and simulated. Objectives were to improve the performance and reduce costs of a large-scale solar heating system. As a result of the project the benefit/cost ratio can be increased by 40 % through dimensioning and optimising the system at the designing stage. (orig.)

Validation of the Croatian Version of the Social Self-Esteem Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Margareta Jelić

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Within the frame of Social Identity Theory (SIT self-esteem was given a central role in explaining intergroup discrimination. Furthermore, SIT emphasized the difference between personal and social identity and thus tried to avoid explaining group process and intergroup relations in terms of personal characteristics. However, social identity theory hypotheses are largely tested using measures of personal self-esteem due to the lack of social self-esteem measures. The Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES (Luhtanen i Crocker, 1992, has thus been adapted for use in Croatia. The scale measures social identity level based on belonging to the group in focus and has proved to be a useful tool in many studies. The aim of this research was the validation of the Collective Self-esteem Scale. The research was conducted on 1014 citizens of Vukovar and 273 pupils and students from Zagreb and Velika Gorica. Firstly, metric characteristics of the Croatian version of the scale were checked. Secondly, its validity and connections to related constructs were determined. Although the obtained 4-factor solution does not fully meet the structure proposed by the authors of the scale, it has had a stable factor structure on the Croatian sample, confirmed on two different samples. It gives information on the positive and negative social self-esteem level; on how one thinks other perceive his/her group; and how important that group is for one’s self-concept. All four types of information proved useful in explanation of the ethnic identity level, ingroup bias and intergroup attitudes in general. Reliability and validity values obtained in two research projects have shown the Collective Self-Esteem Scale’s potential as a useful tool when investigating group processes and intergroup relations in Croatia.

Integration, Provenance, and Temporal Queries for Large-Scale Knowledge Bases

OpenAIRE

Gao, Shi

2016-01-01

Knowledge bases that summarize web information in RDF triples deliver many benefits, including support for natural language question answering and powerful structured queries that extract encyclopedic knowledge via SPARQL. Large scale knowledge bases grow rapidly in terms of scale and significance, and undergo frequent changes in both schema and content. Two critical problems have thus emerged: (i) how to support temporal queries that explore the history of knowledge bases or flash-back to th...

Probes of large-scale structure in the Universe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suto, Yasushi; Gorski, K.; Juszkiewicz, R.; Silk, J.

1988-01-01

Recent progress in observational techniques has made it possible to confront quantitatively various models for the large-scale structure of the Universe with detailed observational data. We develop a general formalism to show that the gravitational instability theory for the origin of large-scale structure is now capable of critically confronting observational results on cosmic microwave background radiation angular anisotropies, large-scale bulk motions and large-scale clumpiness in the galaxy counts. (author)

Socially responsible marketing decisions - scale development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dina Lončarić

2009-07-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this research is to develop a measurement scale for evaluating the implementation level of the concept of social responsibility in taking marketing decisions, in accordance with a paradigm of the quality-of-life marketing. A new scale of "socially responsible marketing decisions" has been formed and its content validity, reliability and dimensionality have been analyzed. The scale has been tested on a sample of the most successful Croatian firms. The research results lead us to conclude that the scale has satisfactory psychometric characteristics but that it is necessary to improve it by generating new items and by testing it on a greater number of samples.

III. FROM SMALL TO BIG: METHODS FOR INCORPORATING LARGE SCALE DATA INTO DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis-Kean, Pamela E; Jager, Justin

2017-06-01

For decades, developmental science has been based primarily on relatively small-scale data collections with children and families. Part of the reason for the dominance of this type of data collection is the complexity of collecting cognitive and social data on infants and small children. These small data sets are limited in both power to detect differences and the demographic diversity to generalize clearly and broadly. Thus, in this chapter we will discuss the value of using existing large-scale data sets to tests the complex questions of child development and how to develop future large-scale data sets that are both representative and can answer the important questions of developmental scientists. © 2017 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

How large-scale subsidence affects stratocumulus transitions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. J. van der Dussen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Some climate modeling results suggest that the Hadley circulation might weaken in a future climate, causing a subsequent reduction in the large-scale subsidence velocity in the subtropics. In this study we analyze the cloud liquid water path (LWP budget from large-eddy simulation (LES results of three idealized stratocumulus transition cases, each with a different subsidence rate. As shown in previous studies a reduced subsidence is found to lead to a deeper stratocumulus-topped boundary layer, an enhanced cloud-top entrainment rate and a delay in the transition of stratocumulus clouds into shallow cumulus clouds during its equatorwards advection by the prevailing trade winds. The effect of a reduction of the subsidence rate can be summarized as follows. The initial deepening of the stratocumulus layer is partly counteracted by an enhanced absorption of solar radiation. After some hours the deepening of the boundary layer is accelerated by an enhancement of the entrainment rate. Because this is accompanied by a change in the cloud-base turbulent fluxes of moisture and heat, the net change in the LWP due to changes in the turbulent flux profiles is negligibly small.

Large-scale grid management; Storskala Nettforvaltning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Langdal, Bjoern Inge; Eggen, Arnt Ove

2003-07-01

The network companies in the Norwegian electricity industry now have to establish a large-scale network management, a concept essentially characterized by (1) broader focus (Broad Band, Multi Utility,...) and (2) bigger units with large networks and more customers. Research done by SINTEF Energy Research shows so far that the approaches within large-scale network management may be structured according to three main challenges: centralization, decentralization and out sourcing. The article is part of a planned series.

Foundational perspectives on causality in large-scale brain networks

Science.gov (United States)

Mannino, Michael; Bressler, Steven L.

2015-12-01

A profusion of recent work in cognitive neuroscience has been concerned with the endeavor to uncover causal influences in large-scale brain networks. However, despite the fact that many papers give a nod to the important theoretical challenges posed by the concept of causality, this explosion of research has generally not been accompanied by a rigorous conceptual analysis of the nature of causality in the brain. This review provides both a descriptive and prescriptive account of the nature of causality as found within and between large-scale brain networks. In short, it seeks to clarify the concept of causality in large-scale brain networks both philosophically and scientifically. This is accomplished by briefly reviewing the rich philosophical history of work on causality, especially focusing on contributions by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell, and Christopher Hitchcock. We go on to discuss the impact that various interpretations of modern physics have had on our understanding of causality. Throughout all this, a central focus is the distinction between theories of deterministic causality (DC), whereby causes uniquely determine their effects, and probabilistic causality (PC), whereby causes change the probability of occurrence of their effects. We argue that, given the topological complexity of its large-scale connectivity, the brain should be considered as a complex system and its causal influences treated as probabilistic in nature. We conclude that PC is well suited for explaining causality in the brain for three reasons: (1) brain causality is often mutual; (2) connectional convergence dictates that only rarely is the activity of one neuronal population uniquely determined by another one; and (3) the causal influences exerted between neuronal populations may not have observable effects. A number of different techniques are currently available to characterize causal influence in the brain. Typically, these techniques quantify the statistical

Detecting Change in Landscape Greenness over Large Areas: An Example for New Mexico, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Monitoring and quantifying changes in vegetation cover over large areas using remote sensing can potentially detect large-scale, slow changes (e.g., climate change), as well as more local and rapid changes (e.g., fire, land development). A useful indicator for detecting change i...

Applications of Data Assimilation to Analysis of the Ocean on Large Scales

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Robert N.; Busalacchi, Antonio J.; Hackert, Eric C.

1997-01-01

It is commonplace to begin talks on this topic by noting that oceanographic data are too scarce and sparse to provide complete initial and boundary conditions for large-scale ocean models. Even considering the availability of remotely-sensed data such as radar altimetry from the TOPEX and ERS-1 satellites, a glance at a map of available subsurface data should convince most observers that this is still the case. Data are still too sparse for comprehensive treatment of interannual to interdecadal climate change through the use of models, since the new data sets have not been around for very long. In view of the dearth of data, we must note that the overall picture is changing rapidly. Recently, there have been a number of large scale ocean analysis and prediction efforts, some of which now run on an operational or at least quasi-operational basis, most notably the model based analyses of the tropical oceans. These programs are modeled on numerical weather prediction. Aside from the success of the global tide models, assimilation of data in the tropics, in support of prediction and analysis of seasonal to interannual climate change, is probably the area of large scale ocean modeling and data assimilation in which the most progress has been made. Climate change is a problem which is particularly suited to advanced data assimilation methods. Linear models are useful, and the linear theory can be exploited. For the most part, the data are sufficiently sparse that implementation of advanced methods is worthwhile. As an example of a large scale data assimilation experiment with a recent extensive data set, we present results of a tropical ocean experiment in which the Kalman filter was used to assimilate three years of altimetric data from Geosat into a coarsely resolved linearized long wave shallow water model. Since nonlinear processes dominate the local dynamic signal outside the tropics, subsurface dynamical quantities cannot be reliably inferred from surface height

The Long Tail Issue in Large Scale Deployment of Personal Informatics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cuttone, Andrea; Larsen, Jakob Eg

2014-01-01

We describe the challenges and the open questions arising during the design and deployment of SensibleJournal, a mobile personal informatics system with interactive visualizations of mobility and social interactions based on data acquired from embedded smartphone sensors. The SensibleJournal system...... was evaluated in a large scale (N=136) mobile sensing field study. We report issues in deployment, limitations in user engagement and uptake, and the challenges in measuring the effect of the system....

Japanese large-scale interferometers

CERN Document Server

Kuroda, K; Miyoki, S; Ishizuka, H; Taylor, C T; Yamamoto, K; Miyakawa, O; Fujimoto, M K; Kawamura, S; Takahashi, R; Yamazaki, T; Arai, K; Tatsumi, D; Ueda, A; Fukushima, M; Sato, S; Shintomi, T; Yamamoto, A; Suzuki, T; Saitô, Y; Haruyama, T; Sato, N; Higashi, Y; Uchiyama, T; Tomaru, T; Tsubono, K; Ando, M; Takamori, A; Numata, K; Ueda, K I; Yoneda, H; Nakagawa, K; Musha, M; Mio, N; Moriwaki, S; Somiya, K; Araya, A; Kanda, N; Telada, S; Sasaki, M; Tagoshi, H; Nakamura, T; Tanaka, T; Ohara, K

2002-01-01

The objective of the TAMA 300 interferometer was to develop advanced technologies for kilometre scale interferometers and to observe gravitational wave events in nearby galaxies. It was designed as a power-recycled Fabry-Perot-Michelson interferometer and was intended as a step towards a final interferometer in Japan. The present successful status of TAMA is presented. TAMA forms a basis for LCGT (large-scale cryogenic gravitational wave telescope), a 3 km scale cryogenic interferometer to be built in the Kamioka mine in Japan, implementing cryogenic mirror techniques. The plan of LCGT is schematically described along with its associated R and D.

How to Measure and Explain Achievement Change in Large-Scale Assessments: A Rejoinder

Science.gov (United States)

Hickendorff, Marian; Heiser, Willem J.; van Putten, Cornelis M.; Verhelst, Norman D.

2009-01-01

In this rejoinder, we discuss substantive and methodological validity issues of large-scale assessments of trends in student achievement, commenting on the discussion paper by Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, Robitzsch, Treffers, and Koller (2009). We focus on methodological challenges in deciding what to measure, how to measure it, and how to foster…

: Translated Scales in French: Social Anxiety and Taijin Kyofusho

OpenAIRE

Lacroix , Franca; Zhou , Biru

2015-01-01

This document contains 6 in-house translated scales (in French) that are related to social anxiety and Taijin Kyofusho. These translated scales are: Self Construal Scale (30 items), Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (12 items), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (20 items), Social Anxiety - Causing Discomfort to Others (26 items), Taijin Kyofusho Scale (31 items), Modified version of Taijin Kyofusho Questionnaire (40 items).; Ce document contient la traduction en français de 6 échelles de...

Large-scale building energy efficiency retrofit: Concept, model and control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Zhou; Wang, Bo; Xia, Xiaohua

2016-01-01

BEER (Building energy efficiency retrofit) projects are initiated in many nations and regions over the world. Existing studies of BEER focus on modeling and planning based on one building and one year period of retrofitting, which cannot be applied to certain large BEER projects with multiple buildings and multi-year retrofit. In this paper, the large-scale BEER problem is defined in a general TBT (time-building-technology) framework, which fits essential requirements of real-world projects. The large-scale BEER is newly studied in the control approach rather than the optimization approach commonly used before. Optimal control is proposed to design optimal retrofitting strategy in terms of maximal energy savings and maximal NPV (net present value). The designed strategy is dynamically changing on dimensions of time, building and technology. The TBT framework and the optimal control approach are verified in a large BEER project, and results indicate that promising performance of energy and cost savings can be achieved in the general TBT framework. - Highlights: • Energy efficiency retrofit of many buildings is studied. • A TBT (time-building-technology) framework is proposed. • The control system of the large-scale BEER is modeled. • The optimal retrofitting strategy is obtained.

The Development of Social Competence Scale for Adolescent

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming-Fu Tsai

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The purposes of this study were 1 to develop a social behavior assessment system for adolescent - social competence scale; and 2 to evaluate the reliability and validity of this proposed scale. The social behavior assessment system for adolescent comprised three scales: the teacher rating scale (TRS, parent rating scale (PRS, and self-report scale (SRS. TRS, PRS, and SRS all included 110 items in two scales: social competence scale (SCS and problem behavior scale (PBS. The social competence scale consisted of 48 items divided into seven subscales for measuring three theoretical dimensions: self-control, interpersonal interaction, and academic behavior. The development of social competence scale yielded the following results regarding validity: 1 evidence based on test content was established and supported by exploring literature and expert validity; 2 TRS-SCS, PRS-SCS, and SRS-SCS all have high internal consistency reliability and 4-week-interval re-test reliability. Besides, the inter-rater reliability between teachers, parents and students were lower to moderate; 3 the concurrent criterion related evidence of the TRS-SCS and PRS-SCS to the behavioral and emotional rating scale and the SRS-SCS to the Beck youth inventories were all significant; 4 the discriminant evidence of TRS-SCS was found to be considerably satisfactory in discriminating children with emotional and behavioral problems from those without; 5 evidence based on internal structure indicates that the results of confirmatory factory analysis were found considerably satisfactory in TRS-SCS, PRS-SCS, and SRS-SCS. In general, the reliability and validity of the study were satisfactory. Finally, the percentile rank and t-score norms were developed for 607 subjects in TRS-SCS, 1,168 subjects in PRS-SCS and 1,246 subjects in SRS-SCS.

Complex modular structure of large-scale brain networks

Science.gov (United States)

Valencia, M.; Pastor, M. A.; Fernández-Seara, M. A.; Artieda, J.; Martinerie, J.; Chavez, M.

2009-06-01

Modular structure is ubiquitous among real-world networks from related proteins to social groups. Here we analyze the modular organization of brain networks at a large scale (voxel level) extracted from functional magnetic resonance imaging signals. By using a random-walk-based method, we unveil the modularity of brain webs and show modules with a spatial distribution that matches anatomical structures with functional significance. The functional role of each node in the network is studied by analyzing its patterns of inter- and intramodular connections. Results suggest that the modular architecture constitutes the structural basis for the coexistence of functional integration of distant and specialized brain areas during normal brain activities at rest.

Large scale model testing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brumovsky, M.; Filip, R.; Polachova, H.; Stepanek, S.

1989-01-01

Fracture mechanics and fatigue calculations for WWER reactor pressure vessels were checked by large scale model testing performed using large testing machine ZZ 8000 (with a maximum load of 80 MN) at the SKODA WORKS. The results are described from testing the material resistance to fracture (non-ductile). The testing included the base materials and welded joints. The rated specimen thickness was 150 mm with defects of a depth between 15 and 100 mm. The results are also presented of nozzles of 850 mm inner diameter in a scale of 1:3; static, cyclic, and dynamic tests were performed without and with surface defects (15, 30 and 45 mm deep). During cyclic tests the crack growth rate in the elastic-plastic region was also determined. (author). 6 figs., 2 tabs., 5 refs

The social construct of climate and climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stehr, N.

1994-01-01

Different time scales of climate change and their differential perception in society are discussed. A historical examination of natural climate changes during the past millennium suggests that short-term changes, especially crucial changes, trigger a significant response in and by society. Short-term changes correspond to the 'time horizon of everyday life', that is, to a time scale from days and weeks to a few years. The anticipated anthropogenic climate changes, however, are expected to occur on a longer time scale. They require a response by society not on the basis of primary experience but on the basis of scientifically constructed scenarios and ways in which such information is represented in the modern media for example. Socio-economic impact research relies on concepts that are based on the premise of perfectly informed actors for the development of optimal adaptation strategies. In contrast to such a conception, we develop the concept of a 'social construct of climate' as decisive for the public perception of scientific knowledge about climate and for public policy on climate change. The concept is illustrated using a number of examples. (orig.)

Presenting an Approach for Conducting Knowledge Architecture within Large-Scale Organizations.

Science.gov (United States)

Varaee, Touraj; Habibi, Jafar; Mohaghar, Ali

2015-01-01

Knowledge architecture (KA) establishes the basic groundwork for the successful implementation of a short-term or long-term knowledge management (KM) program. An example of KA is the design of a prototype before a new vehicle is manufactured. Due to a transformation to large-scale organizations, the traditional architecture of organizations is undergoing fundamental changes. This paper explores the main strengths and weaknesses in the field of KA within large-scale organizations and provides a suitable methodology and supervising framework to overcome specific limitations. This objective was achieved by applying and updating the concepts from the Zachman information architectural framework and the information architectural methodology of enterprise architecture planning (EAP). The proposed solution may be beneficial for architects in knowledge-related areas to successfully accomplish KM within large-scale organizations. The research method is descriptive; its validity is confirmed by performing a case study and polling the opinions of KA experts.

Climate change and large-scale land acquisitions in Africa: Quantifying the future impact on acquired water resources

Science.gov (United States)

Chiarelli, Davide Danilo; Davis, Kyle Frankel; Rulli, Maria Cristina; D'Odorico, Paolo

2016-08-01

Pressure on agricultural land has markedly increased since the start of the century, driven by demographic growth, changes in diet, increasing biofuel demand, and globalization. To better ensure access to adequate land and water resources, many investors and countries began leasing large areas of agricultural land in the global South, a phenomenon often termed "large-scale land acquisition" (LSLA). To date, this global land rush has resulted in the appropriation of 41million hectares and about 490 km3 of freshwater resources, affecting rural livelihoods and local environments. It remains unclear to what extent land and water acquisitions contribute to the emergence of water-stress conditions in acquired areas, and how these demands for water may be impacted by climate change. Here we analyze 18 African countries - 20 Mha (or 80%) of LSLA for the continent - and estimate that under present climate 210 km3 year-1of water would be appropriated if all acquired areas were actively under production. We also find that consumptive use of irrigation water is disproportionately contributed by water-intensive biofuel crops. Using the IPCCA1B scenario, we find only small changes in green (-1.6%) and blue (+2.0%) water demand in targeted areas. With a 3 °C temperature increase, crop yields are expected to decrease up to 20% with a consequent increase in the water footprint. When the effect of increasing atmospheric CO2concentrations is accounted for, crop yields increase by as much as 40% with a decrease in water footprint up to 29%. The relative importance of CO2 fertilization and warming will therefore determine water appropriations and changes in water footprint under climate change scenarios.

Why small-scale cannabis growers stay small: five mechanisms that prevent small-scale growers from going large scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Hammersvik, Eirik; Sandberg, Sveinung; Pedersen, Willy

2012-11-01

Over the past 15-20 years, domestic cultivation of cannabis has been established in a number of European countries. New techniques have made such cultivation easier; however, the bulk of growers remain small-scale. In this study, we explore the factors that prevent small-scale growers from increasing their production. The study is based on 1 year of ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews conducted with 45 Norwegian cannabis growers, 10 of whom were growing on a large-scale and 35 on a small-scale. The study identifies five mechanisms that prevent small-scale indoor growers from going large-scale. First, large-scale operations involve a number of people, large sums of money, a high work-load and a high risk of detection, and thus demand a higher level of organizational skills than for small growing operations. Second, financial assets are needed to start a large 'grow-site'. Housing rent, electricity, equipment and nutrients are expensive. Third, to be able to sell large quantities of cannabis, growers need access to an illegal distribution network and knowledge of how to act according to black market norms and structures. Fourth, large-scale operations require advanced horticultural skills to maximize yield and quality, which demands greater skills and knowledge than does small-scale cultivation. Fifth, small-scale growers are often embedded in the 'cannabis culture', which emphasizes anti-commercialism, anti-violence and ecological and community values. Hence, starting up large-scale production will imply having to renegotiate or abandon these values. Going from small- to large-scale cannabis production is a demanding task-ideologically, technically, economically and personally. The many obstacles that small-scale growers face and the lack of interest and motivation for going large-scale suggest that the risk of a 'slippery slope' from small-scale to large-scale growing is limited. Possible political implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright

Large Scale Relationship between Aquatic Insect Traits and Climate.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhowmik, Avit Kumar; Schäfer, Ralf B

2015-01-01

Climate is the predominant environmental driver of freshwater assemblage pattern on large spatial scales, and traits of freshwater organisms have shown considerable potential to identify impacts of climate change. Although several studies suggest traits that may indicate vulnerability to climate change, the empirical relationship between freshwater assemblage trait composition and climate has been rarely examined on large scales. We compared the responses of the assumed climate-associated traits from six grouping features to 35 bioclimatic indices (~18 km resolution) for five insect orders (Diptera, Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Plecoptera and Trichoptera), evaluated their potential for changing distribution pattern under future climate change and identified the most influential bioclimatic indices. The data comprised 782 species and 395 genera sampled in 4,752 stream sites during 2006 and 2007 in Germany (~357,000 km² spatial extent). We quantified the variability and spatial autocorrelation in the traits and orders that are associated with the combined and individual bioclimatic indices. Traits of temperature preference grouping feature that are the products of several other underlying climate-associated traits, and the insect order Ephemeroptera exhibited the strongest response to the bioclimatic indices as well as the highest potential for changing distribution pattern. Regarding individual traits, insects in general and ephemeropterans preferring very cold temperature showed the highest response, and the insects preferring cold and trichopterans preferring moderate temperature showed the highest potential for changing distribution. We showed that the seasonal radiation and moisture are the most influential bioclimatic aspects, and thus changes in these aspects may affect the most responsive traits and orders and drive a change in their spatial distribution pattern. Our findings support the development of trait-based metrics to predict and detect climate

Distributed large-scale dimensional metrology new insights

CERN Document Server

Franceschini, Fiorenzo; Maisano, Domenico

2011-01-01

Focuses on the latest insights into and challenges of distributed large scale dimensional metrology Enables practitioners to study distributed large scale dimensional metrology independently Includes specific examples of the development of new system prototypes

Large scale parallel FEM computations of far/near stress field changes in rocks

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Blaheta, Radim; Byczanski, Petr; Jakl, Ondřej; Kohut, Roman; Kolcun, Alexej; Krečmer, Karel; Starý, Jiří

2006-01-01

Roč. 22, č. 4 (2006), s. 449-459 ISSN 0167-739X R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA105/02/0492; GA AV ČR(CZ) 1ET400300415 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30860518 Keywords : large scale finite element analysis Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.722, year: 2006

A Polytomous Item Response Theory Analysis of Social Physique Anxiety Scale

Science.gov (United States)

Fletcher, Richard B.; Crocker, Peter

2014-01-01

The present study investigated the social physique anxiety scale's factor structure and item properties using confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory. An additional aim was to identify differences in response patterns between groups (gender). A large sample of high school students aged 11-15 years (N = 1,529) consisting of n =…

SCALE INTERACTION IN A MIXING LAYER. THE ROLE OF THE LARGE-SCALE GRADIENTS

KAUST Repository

Fiscaletti, Daniele; Attili, Antonio; Bisetti, Fabrizio; Elsinga, Gerrit E.

2015-01-01

from physical considerations we would expect the scales to interact in a qualitatively similar way within the flow and across different turbulent flows. Therefore, instead of the large-scale fluctuations, the large-scale gradients modulation of the small scales has been additionally investigated.

Geo-spatial Cognition on Human's Social Activity Space Based on Multi-scale Grids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZHAI Weixin

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Widely applied location aware devices, including mobile phones and GPS receivers, have provided great convenience for collecting large volume individuals' geographical information. The researches on the human's society behavior space has attracts an increasingly number of researchers. In our research, based on location-based Flickr data From 2004 to May, 2014 in China, we choose five levels of spatial grids to form the multi-scale frame for investigate the correlation between the scale and the geo-spatial cognition on human's social activity space. The HT-index is selected as the fractal inspired by Alexander to estimate the maturity of the society activity on different scales. The results indicate that that the scale characteristics are related to the spatial cognition to a certain extent. It is favorable to use the spatial grid as a tool to control scales for geo-spatial cognition on human's social activity space.

Social media campaigns that make a difference: what can public health learn from the corporate sector and other social change marketers?

Science.gov (United States)

Freeman, Becky; Potente, Sofia; Rock, Vanessa; McIver, Jacqueline

2015-03-30

A great deal of enthusiasm and interest exists in using social media for public health communications, but few research studies have examined its success in promoting and adopting protective health behaviours. To begin to understand how best to develop effective online social marketing campaigns, this paper provides a summary of success factors and key lessons learnt from selected social media campaign case studies. Case study review Methods: A selection of case studies was reviewed for lessons in campaign development, delivery and evaluation from both the corporate and public health sectors. Information about the objective of the campaign, the tactics used and the lessons learnt was extracted from each case study. Lessons learnt from across the case studies were then sorted according to themes. Lessons from the nine case studies selected were categorised into eight themes: planning, use of social media tools, community, content, personal benefits, promotion, costs and challenges. Outcome evaluation data were lacking in the case studies. Overall, the nine case studies show that social media hold promise in changing user behaviours and that social media are highly effective in recruiting participants and motivating them to take small, concrete actions. The case studies also demonstrate that there is room in social media for targeted, inexpensive, small-scale projects, as well as large, well-funded, mass-reach marketing blitzes. Social media campaign process and impact evaluation measures are readily available. Outcome evaluation models and measures are needed to better assess the effectiveness of social media campaigns in changing health behaviours.

Probing the Mechanism of pH-Induced Large-Scale Conformational Changes in Dengue Virus Envelope Protein Using Atomistic Simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Prakash, Meher K.; Barducci, Alessandro; Parrinello, Michele

2010-01-01

Abstract One of the key steps in the infection of the cell by dengue virus is a pH-induced conformational change of the viral envelope proteins. These envelope proteins undergo a rearrangement from a dimer to a trimer, with large conformational changes in the monomeric unit. In this article, metadynamics simulations were used to enable us to understand the mechanism of these large-scale changes in the monomer. By using all-atom, explicit solvent simulations of the monomers, the stability of the protein structure is studied under low and high pH conditions. Free energy profiles obtained along appropriate collective coordinates demonstrate that pH affects the domain interface in both the conformations of E monomer, stabilizing one and destabilizing the other. These simulations suggest a mechanism with an intermediate detached state between the two monomeric structures. Using further analysis, we comment on the key residue interactions responsible for the instability and the pH-sensing role of a histidine that could not otherwise be studied experimentally. The insights gained from this study and methodology can be extended for studying similar mechanisms in the E proteins of the other members of class II flavivirus family. PMID:20643078

Social psychiatry in a rapidly changing world

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas K. J. Craig

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Many societies around the world are experiencing a period of unprecedented change in traditional social roles and customs. Globalisation has contributed to materialism and a me-first individualism that heightens awareness of income inequality that itself is one of the most robust markers of unhappiness in society. Ever increasing urbanisation has driven an erosion of large ‘joint’ family arrangements to be replaced by smaller and relatively isolated nuclear families and single parent living. Mass migration has unmasked deep seated fear and prejudice towards the outsider in society. These global changes are fertile ground for the social conditions that have long been known to be risks for mental illness – poverty, poor quality child care, social isolation and the active discrimination and exclusion of the alien, the physically disabled and mentally ill. While there is little we can do to reverse global change, there is much a social psychiatrist can do to mitigate the effect, ensuring his/her voice is added to other calls for reducing discriminatory practice, promoting evidence-based social interventions such as parenting advice and peer support and ensuring that the success of a treatment is measured not just in terms of symptomatic improvement but in whether it results in an outcome that is valued by the patient.

Bio-inspired wooden actuators for large scale applications.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus Rüggeberg

Full Text Available Implementing programmable actuation into materials and structures is a major topic in the field of smart materials. In particular the bilayer principle has been employed to develop actuators that respond to various kinds of stimuli. A multitude of small scale applications down to micrometer size have been developed, but up-scaling remains challenging due to either limitations in mechanical stiffness of the material or in the manufacturing processes. Here, we demonstrate the actuation of wooden bilayers in response to changes in relative humidity, making use of the high material stiffness and a good machinability to reach large scale actuation and application. Amplitude and response time of the actuation were measured and can be predicted and controlled by adapting the geometry and the constitution of the bilayers. Field tests in full weathering conditions revealed long-term stability of the actuation. The potential of the concept is shown by a first demonstrator. With the sensor and actuator intrinsically incorporated in the wooden bilayers, the daily change in relative humidity is exploited for an autonomous and solar powered movement of a tracker for solar modules.

Trends in large-scale testing of reactor structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blejwas, T.E.

2003-01-01

Large-scale tests of reactor structures have been conducted at Sandia National Laboratories since the late 1970s. This paper describes a number of different large-scale impact tests, pressurization tests of models of containment structures, and thermal-pressure tests of models of reactor pressure vessels. The advantages of large-scale testing are evident, but cost, in particular limits its use. As computer models have grown in size, such as number of degrees of freedom, the advent of computer graphics has made possible very realistic representation of results - results that may not accurately represent reality. A necessary condition to avoiding this pitfall is the validation of the analytical methods and underlying physical representations. Ironically, the immensely larger computer models sometimes increase the need for large-scale testing, because the modeling is applied to increasing more complex structural systems and/or more complex physical phenomena. Unfortunately, the cost of large-scale tests is a disadvantage that will likely severely limit similar testing in the future. International collaborations may provide the best mechanism for funding future programs with large-scale tests. (author)

Predicting anxious response to a social challenge: the predictive utility of the social interaction anxiety scale and the social phobia scale in a college population.

Science.gov (United States)

Gore, K L; Carter, M M; Parker, S

2002-06-01

Trait anxiety is believed to be a hierarchical construct composed of several lower-order factors (Adv. Behav. Res. Therapy, 15 (1993) 147; J. Anxiety Disorders, 9 (1995) 163). Assessment devices such as the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, the Social Phobia Scale (SIAS and SPS; Behav. Res. Therapy, 36 (4) (1998) 455), and the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; Behav. Res. Therapy, 24 (1986) 1) are good measures of the presumably separate lower-order factors. This study compared the effectiveness of the SIAS, SPS, ASI-physical scale and STAI-T (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press (1970)) as predictors of anxious response to a social challenge (asking an aloof confederate out on a date). Consistent with the hierarchical model of anxiety, the measures of trait anxiety were moderately correlated with each other and each was a significant predictor of anxious response. The specific measures of trait social anxiety were slightly better predictors of anxious response to the social challenge than was either the ASI-physical scale or the STAI-T. The results provide evidence of the predictive validity of these social trait measures and some support for their specificity in the prediction of anxious response to a social challenge.

Automated Topographic Change Detection via Dem Differencing at Large Scales Using The Arcticdem Database

Science.gov (United States)

Candela, S. G.; Howat, I.; Noh, M. J.; Porter, C. C.; Morin, P. J.

2016-12-01

In the last decade, high resolution satellite imagery has become an increasingly accessible tool for geoscientists to quantify changes in the Arctic land surface due to geophysical, ecological and anthropomorphic processes. However, the trade off between spatial coverage and spatial-temporal resolution has limited detailed, process-level change detection over large (i.e. continental) scales. The ArcticDEM project utilized over 300,000 Worldview image pairs to produce a nearly 100% coverage elevation model (above 60°N) offering the first polar, high spatial - high resolution (2-8m by region) dataset, often with multiple repeats in areas of particular interest to geo-scientists. A dataset of this size (nearly 250 TB) offers endless new avenues of scientific inquiry, but quickly becomes unmanageable computationally and logistically for the computing resources available to the average scientist. Here we present TopoDiff, a framework for a generalized. automated workflow that requires minimal input from the end user about a study site, and utilizes cloud computing resources to provide a temporally sorted and differenced dataset, ready for geostatistical analysis. This hands-off approach allows the end user to focus on the science, without having to manage thousands of files, or petabytes of data. At the same time, TopoDiff provides a consistent and accurate workflow for image sorting, selection, and co-registration enabling cross-comparisons between research projects.

Presenting an Approach for Conducting Knowledge Architecture within Large-Scale Organizations

Science.gov (United States)

Varaee, Touraj; Habibi, Jafar; Mohaghar, Ali

2015-01-01

Knowledge architecture (KA) establishes the basic groundwork for the successful implementation of a short-term or long-term knowledge management (KM) program. An example of KA is the design of a prototype before a new vehicle is manufactured. Due to a transformation to large-scale organizations, the traditional architecture of organizations is undergoing fundamental changes. This paper explores the main strengths and weaknesses in the field of KA within large-scale organizations and provides a suitable methodology and supervising framework to overcome specific limitations. This objective was achieved by applying and updating the concepts from the Zachman information architectural framework and the information architectural methodology of enterprise architecture planning (EAP). The proposed solution may be beneficial for architects in knowledge-related areas to successfully accomplish KM within large-scale organizations. The research method is descriptive; its validity is confirmed by performing a case study and polling the opinions of KA experts. PMID:25993414

Large-scale climatic anomalies affect marine predator foraging behaviour and demography

Science.gov (United States)

Bost, Charles A.; Cotté, Cedric; Terray, Pascal; Barbraud, Christophe; Bon, Cécile; Delord, Karine; Gimenez, Olivier; Handrich, Yves; Naito, Yasuhiko; Guinet, Christophe; Weimerskirch, Henri

2015-10-01

Determining the links between the behavioural and population responses of wild species to environmental variations is critical for understanding the impact of climate variability on ecosystems. Using long-term data sets, we show how large-scale climatic anomalies in the Southern Hemisphere affect the foraging behaviour and population dynamics of a key marine predator, the king penguin. When large-scale subtropical dipole events occur simultaneously in both subtropical Southern Indian and Atlantic Oceans, they generate tropical anomalies that shift the foraging zone southward. Consequently the distances that penguins foraged from the colony and their feeding depths increased and the population size decreased. This represents an example of a robust and fast impact of large-scale climatic anomalies affecting a marine predator through changes in its at-sea behaviour and demography, despite lack of information on prey availability. Our results highlight a possible behavioural mechanism through which climate variability may affect population processes.

Large-scale bioenergy production: how to resolve sustainability trade-offs?

Science.gov (United States)

Humpenöder, Florian; Popp, Alexander; Bodirsky, Benjamin Leon; Weindl, Isabelle; Biewald, Anne; Lotze-Campen, Hermann; Dietrich, Jan Philipp; Klein, David; Kreidenweis, Ulrich; Müller, Christoph; Rolinski, Susanne; Stevanovic, Miodrag

2018-02-01

Large-scale 2nd generation bioenergy deployment is a key element of 1.5 °C and 2 °C transformation pathways. However, large-scale bioenergy production might have negative sustainability implications and thus may conflict with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) agenda. Here, we carry out a multi-criteria sustainability assessment of large-scale bioenergy crop production throughout the 21st century (300 EJ in 2100) using a global land-use model. Our analysis indicates that large-scale bioenergy production without complementary measures results in negative effects on the following sustainability indicators: deforestation, CO2 emissions from land-use change, nitrogen losses, unsustainable water withdrawals and food prices. One of our main findings is that single-sector environmental protection measures next to large-scale bioenergy production are prone to involve trade-offs among these sustainability indicators—at least in the absence of more efficient land or water resource use. For instance, if bioenergy production is accompanied by forest protection, deforestation and associated emissions (SDGs 13 and 15) decline substantially whereas food prices (SDG 2) increase. However, our study also shows that this trade-off strongly depends on the development of future food demand. In contrast to environmental protection measures, we find that agricultural intensification lowers some side-effects of bioenergy production substantially (SDGs 13 and 15) without generating new trade-offs—at least among the sustainability indicators considered here. Moreover, our results indicate that a combination of forest and water protection schemes, improved fertilization efficiency, and agricultural intensification would reduce the side-effects of bioenergy production most comprehensively. However, although our study includes more sustainability indicators than previous studies on bioenergy side-effects, our study represents only a small subset of all indicators relevant for the

Predicting the effect of fire on large-scale vegetation patterns in North America.

Science.gov (United States)

Donald McKenzie; David L. Peterson; Ernesto. Alvarado

1996-01-01

Changes in fire regimes are expected across North America in response to anticipated global climatic changes. Potential changes in large-scale vegetation patterns are predicted as a result of altered fire frequencies. A new vegetation classification was developed by condensing Kuchler potential natural vegetation types into aggregated types that are relatively...

Explaining Large-N Cooperation: Generalized Social Trust and the Social Exchange Heuristic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sønderskov, Kim Mannemar

This paper argues that generalized social trust enhances collective action in situations with a large number of actors, who do not have specific information on each other. This effect comes about through the social exchange heuristic, which stimulate conditional cooperation in social dilemmas....... This paper tests this explanation in an individual level test. While the relationship between generalized social trust and large-N collective action is often hypothesized, there is scant micro level evidence as it has mainly been tested at the macro level. Using recycling behavior as an indicator...... of collective action, the paper shows that people holding generalized social trust cooperate more readily in large-N dilemmas. These results are based on a unique survey of respondents in four countries....

Evaluating stream trout habitat on large-scale aerial color photographs

Science.gov (United States)

Wallace J. Greentree; Robert C. Aldrich

1976-01-01

Large-scale aerial color photographs were used to evaluate trout habitat by studying stream and streambank conditions. Ninety-two percent of these conditions could be identified correctly on the color photographs. Color photographs taken 1 year apart showed that rehabilitation efforts resulted in stream vegetation changes. Water depth was correlated with film density:...

Large Scale Computations in Air Pollution Modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zlatev, Z.; Brandt, J.; Builtjes, P. J. H.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Large Scale Computations in Air Pollution Modelling, Sofia, Bulgaria, 6-10 July 1998......Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Large Scale Computations in Air Pollution Modelling, Sofia, Bulgaria, 6-10 July 1998...

Social and health dimensions of climate change in the Amazon.

Science.gov (United States)

Brondízio, Eduardo S; de Lima, Ana C B; Schramski, Sam; Adams, Cristina

2016-07-01

The Amazon region has been part of climate change debates for decades, yet attention to its social and health dimensions has been limited. This paper assesses literature on the social and health dimensions of climate change in the Amazon. A conceptual framework underscores multiple stresses and exposures created by interactions between climate change and local social-environmental conditions. Using the Thomson-Reuter Web of Science, this study bibliometrically assessed the overall literature on climate change in the Amazon, including Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, Anthropology, Environmental Science/Ecology and Public, Environmental/Occupational Health. From this assessment, a relevant sub-sample was selected and complemented with literature from the Brazilian database SciELO. This sample discusses three dimensions of climate change impacts in the region: livelihood changes, vector-borne diseases and microbial proliferation, and respiratory diseases. This analysis elucidates imbalance and disconnect between ecological, physical and social and health dimensions of climate change and between continental and regional climate analysis, and sub-regional and local levels. Work on the social and health implications of climate change in the Amazon falls significantly behind other research areas, limiting reliable information for analytical models and for Amazonian policy-makers and society at large. Collaborative research is called for.

Large-scale hydrology in Europe : observed patterns and model performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gudmundsson, Lukas

2011-06-15

In a changing climate, terrestrial water storages are of great interest as water availability impacts key aspects of ecosystem functioning. Thus, a better understanding of the variations of wet and dry periods will contribute to fully grasp processes of the earth system such as nutrient cycling and vegetation dynamics. Currently, river runoff from small, nearly natural, catchments is one of the few variables of the terrestrial water balance that is regularly monitored with detailed spatial and temporal coverage on large scales. River runoff, therefore, provides a foundation to approach European hydrology with respect to observed patterns on large scales, with regard to the ability of models to capture these.The analysis of observed river flow from small catchments, focused on the identification and description of spatial patterns of simultaneous temporal variations of runoff. These are dominated by large-scale variations of climatic variables but also altered by catchment processes. It was shown that time series of annual low, mean and high flows follow the same atmospheric drivers. The observation that high flows are more closely coupled to large scale atmospheric drivers than low flows, indicates the increasing influence of catchment properties on runoff under dry conditions. Further, it was shown that the low-frequency variability of European runoff is dominated by two opposing centres of simultaneous variations, such that dry years in the north are accompanied by wet years in the south.Large-scale hydrological models are simplified representations of our current perception of the terrestrial water balance on large scales. Quantification of the models strengths and weaknesses is the prerequisite for a reliable interpretation of simulation results. Model evaluations may also enable to detect shortcomings with model assumptions and thus enable a refinement of the current perception of hydrological systems. The ability of a multi model ensemble of nine large-scale

The Cultural Socialization Scale: Assessing Family and Peer Socialization toward Heritage and Mainstream Cultures

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yijie; Benner, Aprile D.; Kim, Su Yeong

2015-01-01

In a culturally diverse society, youth learn about multiple cultures from a variety of sources, yet the existing assessment of cultural socialization has been limited to parents' efforts to teach youth about their heritage culture. The current study adapted and extended an existing cultural socialization measure (Umaña-Taylor & Fine, 2004) to assess four types of socialization practices encountered specifically during adolescence: cultural socialization by families and peers toward both one's heritage culture and the mainstream culture. In a pilot study, we developed the cultural socialization scale based on retrospective reports from 208 young adults, maximizing young adults' ability to reason and reflect their adolescent experiences with various socialization practices. In the primary study, we examined the psychometric properties of the scale using reports from 252 adolescents. Cultural socialization occurred from both socialization agents toward both cultures. Our cultural socialization scale demonstrated stable factor structures and high reliabilities. We observed strong factorial invariance across the four subscales (six items). MIMIC models also demonstrated invariance for each subscale across adolescents' demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, race/ethnicity, nativity, SES, language of assessment). The implications of the cultural socialization scale are discussed. PMID:25961139

Large-Scale 3D Printing: The Way Forward

Science.gov (United States)

Jassmi, Hamad Al; Najjar, Fady Al; Ismail Mourad, Abdel-Hamid

2018-03-01

Research on small-scale 3D printing has rapidly evolved, where numerous industrial products have been tested and successfully applied. Nonetheless, research on large-scale 3D printing, directed to large-scale applications such as construction and automotive manufacturing, yet demands a great a great deal of efforts. Large-scale 3D printing is considered an interdisciplinary topic and requires establishing a blended knowledge base from numerous research fields including structural engineering, materials science, mechatronics, software engineering, artificial intelligence and architectural engineering. This review article summarizes key topics of relevance to new research trends on large-scale 3D printing, particularly pertaining (1) technological solutions of additive construction (i.e. the 3D printers themselves), (2) materials science challenges, and (3) new design opportunities.

Small, medium and large scale strategies: cases of social response and change in Greenland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rasmussen, Rasmus Ole

2005-01-01

Greenland has experienced several socio-economic shifts during the 20th century, characterised by interations between natural systems, climate change and the socio-economic and socio-technical systemm of resource exploitation. The focus is on the socio-economic characteristics of the two recent s...

Accelerating sustainability in large-scale facilities

CERN Multimedia

Marina Giampietro

2011-01-01

Scientific research centres and large-scale facilities are intrinsically energy intensive, but how can big science improve its energy management and eventually contribute to the environmental cause with new cleantech? CERN’s commitment to providing tangible answers to these questions was sealed in the first workshop on energy management for large scale scientific infrastructures held in Lund, Sweden, on the 13-14 October.   Participants at the energy management for large scale scientific infrastructures workshop. The workshop, co-organised with the European Spallation Source (ESS) and  the European Association of National Research Facilities (ERF), tackled a recognised need for addressing energy issues in relation with science and technology policies. It brought together more than 150 representatives of Research Infrastrutures (RIs) and energy experts from Europe and North America. “Without compromising our scientific projects, we can ...

creating social presence in large classes

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Social presence refers to the ability of students to project themselves as 'real people' in an online learning community. While it is difficult to create social presence in large classes, educational technologies can enhance the social dimension of online learning if educators relinquish the use of technology as an instrument of ...

Large scale reflood test

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirano, Kemmei; Murao, Yoshio

1980-01-01

The large-scale reflood test with a view to ensuring the safety of light water reactors was started in fiscal 1976 based on the special account act for power source development promotion measures by the entrustment from the Science and Technology Agency. Thereafter, to establish the safety of PWRs in loss-of-coolant accidents by joint international efforts, the Japan-West Germany-U.S. research cooperation program was started in April, 1980. Thereupon, the large-scale reflood test is now included in this program. It consists of two tests using a cylindrical core testing apparatus for examining the overall system effect and a plate core testing apparatus for testing individual effects. Each apparatus is composed of the mock-ups of pressure vessel, primary loop, containment vessel and ECCS. The testing method, the test results and the research cooperation program are described. (J.P.N.)

Etoile Project : Social Intelligent ICT-System for very large scale education in complex systems

Science.gov (United States)

Bourgine, P.; Johnson, J.

2009-04-01

The project will devise new theory and implement new ICT-based methods of delivering high-quality low-cost postgraduate education to many thousands of people in a scalable way, with the cost of each extra student being negligible (Socially Intelligent Resource Mining system to gather large volumes of high quality educational resources from the internet; new methods to deconstruct these to produce a semantically tagged Learning Object Database; a Living Course Ecology to support the creation and maintenance of evolving course materials; systems to deliver courses; and a ‘socially intelligent assessment system'. The system will be tested on one to ten thousand postgraduate students in Europe working towards the Complex System Society's title of European PhD in Complex Systems. Étoile will have a very high impact both scientifically and socially by (i) the provision of new scalable ICT-based methods for providing very low cost scientific education, (ii) the creation of new mathematical and statistical theory for the multiscale dynamics of complex systems, (iii) the provision of a working example of adaptation and emergence in complex socio-technical systems, and (iv) making a major educational contribution to European complex systems science and its applications.

Being Disruptive: How Open Growth is Delivering Effective Social Change at a Fast Pace

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Delyse Sylvester

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Both innovators and funders need tools that map the entire constellation of solutions in a sector. Innovators, often labeled and isolated as system disruptors, need to be linked with their global peers offering and seeking each others proven strategies to accelerate positive change. The impact investing space needs a simple, open, and transparent way to find, convene, support, and track the progress of innovators. This article describes how the Ashoka Changemakers.com online community creates a space for: investors to find and support multiple innovations; social innovators to find each other, work together, and source funds; and disruptive innovations to grow over time where disruptive change is needed, fast. Crowd-sourcing, transparency, and open growth are keys to accelerating large-scale change and creating a world of changemakers.

Large Scale Cosmological Anomalies and Inhomogeneous Dark Energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leandros Perivolaropoulos

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A wide range of large scale observations hint towards possible modifications on the standard cosmological model which is based on a homogeneous and isotropic universe with a small cosmological constant and matter. These observations, also known as “cosmic anomalies” include unexpected Cosmic Microwave Background perturbations on large angular scales, large dipolar peculiar velocity flows of galaxies (“bulk flows”, the measurement of inhomogenous values of the fine structure constant on cosmological scales (“alpha dipole” and other effects. The presence of the observational anomalies could either be a large statistical fluctuation in the context of ΛCDM or it could indicate a non-trivial departure from the cosmological principle on Hubble scales. Such a departure is very much constrained by cosmological observations for matter. For dark energy however there are no significant observational constraints for Hubble scale inhomogeneities. In this brief review I discuss some of the theoretical models that can naturally lead to inhomogeneous dark energy, their observational constraints and their potential to explain the large scale cosmic anomalies.

Large-scale patterns in Rayleigh-Benard convection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hardenberg, J. von; Parodi, A.; Passoni, G.; Provenzale, A.; Spiegel, E.A.

2008-01-01

Rayleigh-Benard convection at large Rayleigh number is characterized by the presence of intense, vertically moving plumes. Both laboratory and numerical experiments reveal that the rising and descending plumes aggregate into separate clusters so as to produce large-scale updrafts and downdrafts. The horizontal scales of the aggregates reported so far have been comparable to the horizontal extent of the containers, but it has not been clear whether that represents a limitation imposed by domain size. In this work, we present numerical simulations of convection at sufficiently large aspect ratio to ascertain whether there is an intrinsic saturation scale for the clustering process when that ratio is large enough. From a series of simulations of Rayleigh-Benard convection with Rayleigh numbers between 10 5 and 10 8 and with aspect ratios up to 12π, we conclude that the clustering process has a finite horizontal saturation scale with at most a weak dependence on Rayleigh number in the range studied

Effects of tectonics and large scale climatic changes on the evolutionary history of Hyalomma ticks.

Science.gov (United States)

Sands, Arthur F; Apanaskevich, Dmitry A; Matthee, Sonja; Horak, Ivan G; Harrison, Alan; Karim, Shahid; Mohammad, Mohammad K; Mumcuoglu, Kosta Y; Rajakaruna, Rupika S; Santos-Silva, Maria M; Matthee, Conrad A

2017-09-01

-Diva, we also propose that the closure of the Tethyan seaway allowed for the genus to first enter Africa approximately 17.73Mya. In concert, our data supports the notion that tectonic events and large scale global changes in the environment contributed significantly to produce the rich species diversity currently found in the genus Hyalomma. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Topographically Engineered Large Scale Nanostructures for Plasmonic Biosensing

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Bo; Pradhan, Sangram K.; Santiago, Kevin C.; Rutherford, Gugu N.; Pradhan, Aswini K.

2016-04-01

We demonstrate that a nanostructured metal thin film can achieve enhanced transmission efficiency and sharp resonances and use a large-scale and high-throughput nanofabrication technique for the plasmonic structures. The fabrication technique combines the features of nanoimprint and soft lithography to topographically construct metal thin films with nanoscale patterns. Metal nanogratings developed using this method show significantly enhanced optical transmission (up to a one-order-of-magnitude enhancement) and sharp resonances with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of ~15nm in the zero-order transmission using an incoherent white light source. These nanostructures are sensitive to the surrounding environment, and the resonance can shift as the refractive index changes. We derive an analytical method using a spatial Fourier transformation to understand the enhancement phenomenon and the sensing mechanism. The use of real-time monitoring of protein-protein interactions in microfluidic cells integrated with these nanostructures is demonstrated to be effective for biosensing. The perpendicular transmission configuration and large-scale structures provide a feasible platform without sophisticated optical instrumentation to realize label-free surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing.

The Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia: Analyzing Regional Land Use Change Effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Michael Keller; Maria Assunção Silva-Dias; Daniel C. Nepstad; Meinrat O. Andreae

2004-01-01

The Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) is a multi-disciplinary, multinational scientific project led by Brazil. LBA researchers seek to understand Amazonia in its global context especially with regard to regional and global climate. Current development activities in Amazonia including deforestation, logging, cattle ranching, and agriculture...

Large scale tracking algorithms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hansen, Ross L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Love, Joshua Alan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Melgaard, David Kennett [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Karelitz, David B. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Pitts, Todd Alan [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Zollweg, Joshua David [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Anderson, Dylan Z. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Nandy, Prabal [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Whitlow, Gary L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Bender, Daniel A. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Byrne, Raymond Harry [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-01-01

Low signal-to-noise data processing algorithms for improved detection, tracking, discrimination and situational threat assessment are a key research challenge. As sensor technologies progress, the number of pixels will increase signi cantly. This will result in increased resolution, which could improve object discrimination, but unfortunately, will also result in a significant increase in the number of potential targets to track. Many tracking techniques, like multi-hypothesis trackers, suffer from a combinatorial explosion as the number of potential targets increase. As the resolution increases, the phenomenology applied towards detection algorithms also changes. For low resolution sensors, "blob" tracking is the norm. For higher resolution data, additional information may be employed in the detection and classfication steps. The most challenging scenarios are those where the targets cannot be fully resolved, yet must be tracked and distinguished for neighboring closely spaced objects. Tracking vehicles in an urban environment is an example of such a challenging scenario. This report evaluates several potential tracking algorithms for large-scale tracking in an urban environment.

Impact of climate change on large scale coastal currents of South Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Meyer, A

2010-09-01

Full Text Available of temperature trends in the southern indian ocean. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L14611, doi:10.1029/2007gL030380. • De Ruijter, W.P.M., van Aken, H.M., Beier, E.J., Lutjeharms, J.R.E., Matano, R.P. Schouten, M.W. 2004. eddies and dipoles around South... Madagascar: formation, pathways and large- scale impact. Deep-Sea Research I, 51, 383-400. • Lutjeharms, J. R. E. and van Ballegooyen, R. C. 1988. Anomalous upstream retroflection in the agulhas current. Science, 240, 1770-1772. • Rouault, M., Penven...

Large-scale conformational changes of Trypanosoma cruzi proline racemase predicted by accelerated molecular dynamics simulation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

César Augusto F de Oliveira

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Chagas' disease, caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi, is a life-threatening illness affecting 11-18 million people. Currently available treatments are limited, with unacceptable efficacy and safety profiles. Recent studies have revealed an essential T. cruzi proline racemase enzyme (TcPR as an attractive candidate for improved chemotherapeutic intervention. Conformational changes associated with substrate binding to TcPR are believed to expose critical residues that elicit a host mitogenic B-cell response, a process contributing to parasite persistence and immune system evasion. Characterization of the conformational states of TcPR requires access to long-time-scale motions that are currently inaccessible by standard molecular dynamics simulations. Here we describe advanced accelerated molecular dynamics that extend the effective simulation time and capture large-scale motions of functional relevance. Conservation and fragment mapping analyses identified potential conformational epitopes located in the vicinity of newly identified transient binding pockets. The newly identified open TcPR conformations revealed by this study along with knowledge of the closed to open interconversion mechanism advances our understanding of TcPR function. The results and the strategy adopted in this work constitute an important step toward the rationalization of the molecular basis behind the mitogenic B-cell response of TcPR and provide new insights for future structure-based drug discovery.

Evaluation of Large-Scale Public-Sector Reforms: A Comparative Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Breidahl, Karen N.; Gjelstrup, Gunnar; Hansen, Hanne Foss; Hansen, Morten Balle

2017-01-01

Research on the evaluation of large-scale public-sector reforms is rare. This article sets out to fill that gap in the evaluation literature and argues that it is of vital importance since the impact of such reforms is considerable and they change the context in which evaluations of other and more delimited policy areas take place. In our…

Large-Scale Assessment of Change in Student Achievement: Dutch Primary School Students' Results on Written Division in 1997 and 2004 as an Example

Science.gov (United States)

van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, Marja; Robitzsch, Alexander; Treffers, Adri; Koller, Olaf

2009-01-01

This article discusses large-scale assessment of change in student achievement and takes the study by Hickendorff, Heiser, Van Putten, and Verhelst (2009) as an example. This study compared the achievement of students in the Netherlands in 1997 and 2004 on written division problems. Based on this comparison, they claim that there is a performance…

Manufacturing test of large scale hollow capsule and long length cladding in the large scale oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) martensitic steel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Narita, Takeshi; Ukai, Shigeharu; Kaito, Takeji; Ohtsuka, Satoshi; Fujiwara, Masayuki

2004-04-01

Mass production capability of oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) martensitic steel cladding (9Cr) has being evaluated in the Phase II of the Feasibility Studies on Commercialized Fast Reactor Cycle System. The cost for manufacturing mother tube (raw materials powder production, mechanical alloying (MA) by ball mill, canning, hot extrusion, and machining) is a dominant factor in the total cost for manufacturing ODS ferritic steel cladding. In this study, the large-sale 9Cr-ODS martensitic steel mother tube which is made with a large-scale hollow capsule, and long length claddings were manufactured, and the applicability of these processes was evaluated. Following results were obtained in this study. (1) Manufacturing the large scale mother tube in the dimension of 32 mm OD, 21 mm ID, and 2 m length has been successfully carried out using large scale hollow capsule. This mother tube has a high degree of accuracy in size. (2) The chemical composition and the micro structure of the manufactured mother tube are similar to the existing mother tube manufactured by a small scale can. And the remarkable difference between the bottom and top sides in the manufactured mother tube has not been observed. (3) The long length cladding has been successfully manufactured from the large scale mother tube which was made using a large scale hollow capsule. (4) For reducing the manufacturing cost of the ODS steel claddings, manufacturing process of the mother tubes using a large scale hollow capsules is promising. (author)

Cross-Sector Social Partnerships for Social Change: The Roles of Non-Governmental Organizations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xinya Yan

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Complex social and environmental issues call for broader collaboration across different sectors so as to instigate transformative social change. While previous scholars have emphasized the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs in facilitating social change, they have not provided a nuanced assessment of NGOs’ different roles. We use the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO research partnership as a study case and explore NGO partners’ different roles in a large cross-sector social partnership (CSSP. By interviewing 12 NGO partners and 4 non-NGO partners involved in the PEPSO research partnership, our research results show that NGOs primarily have 10 roles in a CSSP. They include enabling roles such as consultant, capacity builder, analyst, and funder; coordinating roles such as broker and communicator; and facilitating roles such as initiator, leader, advocate, and monitor. These roles allow NGOs to fulfil their duties to make substantial contributions to a CSSP.

Large-scale impact of climate change vs. land-use change on future biome shifts in Latin America.

Science.gov (United States)

Boit, Alice; Sakschewski, Boris; Boysen, Lena; Cano-Crespo, Ana; Clement, Jan; Garcia-Alaniz, Nashieli; Kok, Kasper; Kolb, Melanie; Langerwisch, Fanny; Rammig, Anja; Sachse, René; van Eupen, Michiel; von Bloh, Werner; Clara Zemp, Delphine; Thonicke, Kirsten

2016-11-01

Climate change and land-use change are two major drivers of biome shifts causing habitat and biodiversity loss. What is missing is a continental-scale future projection of the estimated relative impacts of both drivers on biome shifts over the course of this century. Here, we provide such a projection for the biodiverse region of Latin America under four socio-economic development scenarios. We find that across all scenarios 5-6% of the total area will undergo biome shifts that can be attributed to climate change until 2099. The relative impact of climate change on biome shifts may overtake land-use change even under an optimistic climate scenario, if land-use expansion is halted by the mid-century. We suggest that constraining land-use change and preserving the remaining natural vegetation early during this century creates opportunities to mitigate climate-change impacts during the second half of this century. Our results may guide the evaluation of socio-economic scenarios in terms of their potential for biome conservation under global change. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Amplification of large-scale magnetic field in nonhelical magnetohydrodynamics

KAUST Repository

Kumar, Rohit

2017-08-11

It is typically assumed that the kinetic and magnetic helicities play a crucial role in the growth of large-scale dynamo. In this paper, we demonstrate that helicity is not essential for the amplification of large-scale magnetic field. For this purpose, we perform nonhelical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation, and show that the large-scale magnetic field can grow in nonhelical MHD when random external forcing is employed at scale 1/10 the box size. The energy fluxes and shell-to-shell transfer rates computed using the numerical data show that the large-scale magnetic energy grows due to the energy transfers from the velocity field at the forcing scales.

Protecting who? Small state roles in large-scale military interventions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rodt, Annemarie Peen; Wivel, Anders

of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P). The aim of this paper is to explore how policy-makers of one small European state, Denmark, have navigated competing and sometimes conflicting protection agendas and calls for action. We argue that Danish military polices since 2001 have been formulated at the intersection...... of external demands in the form of socialization to the unipolar world order and domestic demands reflecting Danish strategic culture. We explore how different ‘logics of protection’ have served to legitimize Danish military participation in large-scale US-led interventions. Based on this analysis, we discuss...

NASA's Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment: A large-scale study of environmental change in Western North America and its implications for ecological systems and society

Science.gov (United States)

Kasischke, E. S.; Hayes, D. J.; Griffith, P. C.; Larson, E. K.; Wickland, D. E.

2013-12-01

Climate change in high northern latitudes is unfolding faster than anywhere else on Earth, resulting in widespread changes in landscape structure and ecosystem function in the Arctic-Boreal Region (ABR). Recognizing its sensitivity, vulnerability and global importance, national- and international-level scientific efforts are now advancing our ability to observe, understand and model the complex, multi-scale processes that drive the ABR's natural and social systems. Long at the edge of our mental map of the world, environmental change in the ABR is increasingly becoming the focus of numerous policy discussions at the highest levels of decision-making. To improve our understanding of environmental change and its impacts in the ABR, the Terrestrial Ecology Program of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is planning its next major field campaign for Western Canada and Alaska. The field campaign will be based on the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) concept as described in the Revised Executive Summary from the ABoVE Scoping Study Report. The original Scoping Study Report provided the proof-of-concept demonstration of scientific importance and feasibility for this large-scale study. In early 2013, NASA announced the selection of the ABoVE Science Definition Team, which is charged with developing the Concise Experiment Plan for the campaign. Here, we outline the conceptual basis for ABoVE and present the compelling rationale explaining the scientific and societal importance of the study. We present the current status of the planning process, which includes development of the science questions to drive ABoVE research; the study design for the field campaign to address them; and the interagency and international collaborations necessary for implementation. The ABoVE study will focus on 1) developing a fuller understanding of ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the ABR, and 2) providing the scientific information required to

Cosmological large-scale structures beyond linear theory in modified gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bernardeau, Francis; Brax, Philippe, E-mail: francis.bernardeau@cea.fr, E-mail: philippe.brax@cea.fr [CEA, Institut de Physique Théorique, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cédex (France)

2011-06-01

We consider the effect of modified gravity on the growth of large-scale structures at second order in perturbation theory. We show that modified gravity models changing the linear growth rate of fluctuations are also bound to change, although mildly, the mode coupling amplitude in the density and reduced velocity fields. We present explicit formulae which describe this effect. We then focus on models of modified gravity involving a scalar field coupled to matter, in particular chameleons and dilatons, where it is shown that there exists a transition scale around which the existence of an extra scalar degree of freedom induces significant changes in the coupling properties of the cosmic fields. We obtain the amplitude of this effect for realistic dilaton models at the tree-order level for the bispectrum, finding them to be comparable in amplitude to those obtained in the DGP and f(R) models.

Integrating Data Streams from in-situ Measurements, Social Networks and Satellite Earth Observation to Augment Operational Flood Monitoring and Forecasting: the 2017 Hurricane Season in the Americas as a Large-scale Test Case

Science.gov (United States)

Matgen, P.; Pelich, R.; Brangbour, E.; Bruneau, P.; Chini, M.; Hostache, R.; Schumann, G.; Tamisier, T.

2017-12-01

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria generated large streams of heterogeneous data, coming notably from three main sources: imagery (satellite and aircraft), in-situ measurement stations and social media. Interpreting these data streams brings critical information to develop, validate and update prediction models. The study addresses existing gaps in the joint extraction of disaster risk information from multiple data sources and their usefulness for reducing the predictive uncertainty of large-scale flood inundation models. Satellite EO data, most notably the free-of-charge data streams generated by the Copernicus program, provided a wealth of high-resolution imagery covering the large areas affected. Our study is focussing on the mapping of flooded areas from a sequence of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery using a classification algorithm recently implemented on the European Space Agency's Grid Processing On Demand environment. The end-to-end-processing chain provided a fast access to all relevant imagery and an effective processing for near-real time analyses. The classification algorithm was applied on pairs of images to rapidly and automatically detect, record and disseminate all observable changes of water bodies. Disaster information was also retrieved from photos as well as texts contributed on social networks and the study shows how this information may complement EO and in-situ data and augment information content. As social media data are noisy and difficult to geo-localize, different techniques are being developed to automatically infer associated semantics and geotags. The presentation provides a cross-comparison between the hazard information obtained from the three data sources. We provide examples of how the generated database of geo-localized disaster information was finally integrated into a large-scale hydrodynamic model of the Colorado River emptying into the Matagorda Bay on the Gulf of Mexico in order to reduce its predictive uncertainty. We describe the

Superconducting materials for large scale applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dew-Hughes, D.

1975-01-01

Applications of superconductors capable of carrying large current densities in large-scale electrical devices are examined. Discussions are included on critical current density, superconducting materials available, and future prospects for improved superconducting materials. (JRD)

Large-scale influences in near-wall turbulence.

Science.gov (United States)

Hutchins, Nicholas; Marusic, Ivan

2007-03-15

Hot-wire data acquired in a high Reynolds number facility are used to illustrate the need for adequate scale separation when considering the coherent structure in wall-bounded turbulence. It is found that a large-scale motion in the log region becomes increasingly comparable in energy to the near-wall cycle as the Reynolds number increases. Through decomposition of fluctuating velocity signals, it is shown that this large-scale motion has a distinct modulating influence on the small-scale energy (akin to amplitude modulation). Reassessment of DNS data, in light of these results, shows similar trends, with the rate and intensity of production due to the near-wall cycle subject to a modulating influence from the largest-scale motions.

TOPOLOGY OF A LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE AS A TEST OF MODIFIED GRAVITY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Xin; Chen Xuelei; Park, Changbom

2012-01-01

The genus of the isodensity contours is a robust measure of the topology of a large-scale structure, and it is relatively insensitive to nonlinear gravitational evolution, galaxy bias, and redshift-space distortion. We show that the growth of density fluctuations is scale dependent even in the linear regime in some modified gravity theories, which opens a new possibility of testing the theories observationally. We propose to use the genus of the isodensity contours, an intrinsic measure of the topology of the large-scale structure, as a statistic to be used in such tests. In Einstein's general theory of relativity, density fluctuations grow at the same rate on all scales in the linear regime, and the genus per comoving volume is almost conserved as structures grow homologously, so we expect that the genus-smoothing-scale relation is basically time independent. However, in some modified gravity models where structures grow with different rates on different scales, the genus-smoothing-scale relation should change over time. This can be used to test the gravity models with large-scale structure observations. We study the cases of the f(R) theory, DGP braneworld theory as well as the parameterized post-Friedmann models. We also forecast how the modified gravity models can be constrained with optical/IR or redshifted 21 cm radio surveys in the near future.

Development of a short form Social Interaction Anxiety (SIAS) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS) using nonparametric item response theory: the SIAS-6 and the SPS-6.

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Lorna; Sunderland, Matthew; Andrews, Gavin; Rapee, Ronald M; Mattick, Richard P

2012-03-01

Shortened forms of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) were developed using nonparametric item response theory methods. Using data from socially phobic participants enrolled in 5 treatment trials (N = 456), 2 six-item scales (the SIAS-6 and the SPS-6) were developed. The validity of the scores on the SIAS-6 and the SPS-6 was then tested using traditional methods for their convergent validity in an independent clinical sample and a student sample, as well as for their sensitivity to change and diagnostic sensitivity in the clinical sample. The scores on the SIAS-6 and the SPS-6 correlated as well as the scores on the original SIAS and SPS, with scores on measures of related constructs, discriminated well between those with and without a diagnosis of social phobia, providing cutoffs for diagnosis and were as sensitive to measuring change associated with treatment as were the SIAS and SPS. Together, the SIAS-6 and the SPS-6 appear to be an efficient method of measuring symptoms of social phobia and provide a brief screening tool.

How to correct long-term system externality of large scale wind power development by a capacity mechanism?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cepeda, Mauricio; Finon, Dominique

2013-04-01

This paper deals with the practical problems related to long-term security of supply in electricity markets in the presence of large-scale wind power development. The success of renewable promotion schemes adds a new dimension to ensuring long-term security of supply. It necessitates designing second-best policies to prevent large-scale wind power development from distorting long-run equilibrium prices and investments in conventional generation and in particular in peaking units. We rely upon a long-term simulation model which simulates electricity market players' investment decisions in a market regime and incorporates large-scale wind power development either in the presence of either subsidised wind production or in market-driven development. We test the use of capacity mechanisms to compensate for the long-term effects of large-scale wind power development on the system reliability. The first finding is that capacity mechanisms can help to reduce the social cost of large scale wind power development in terms of decrease of loss of load probability. The second finding is that, in a market-based wind power deployment without subsidy, wind generators are penalized for insufficient contribution to the long term system's reliability. (authors)

Social-ecological resilience and geomorphic systems

Science.gov (United States)

Chaffin, Brian C.; Scown, Murray

2018-03-01

Governance of coupled social-ecological systems (SESs) and the underlying geomorphic processes that structure and alter Earth's surface is a key challenge for global sustainability amid the increasing uncertainty and change that defines the Anthropocene. Social-ecological resilience as a concept of scientific inquiry has contributed to new understandings of the dynamics of change in SESs, increasing our ability to contextualize and implement governance in these systems. Often, however, the importance of geomorphic change and geomorphological knowledge is somewhat missing from processes employed to inform SES governance. In this contribution, we argue that geomorphology and social-ecological resilience research should be integrated to improve governance toward sustainability. We first provide definitions of engineering, ecological, community, and social-ecological resilience and then explore the use of these concepts within and alongside geomorphology in the literature. While ecological studies often consider geomorphology as an important factor influencing the resilience of ecosystems and geomorphological studies often consider the engineering resilience of geomorphic systems of interest, very few studies define and employ a social-ecological resilience framing and explicitly link the concept to geomorphic systems. We present five key concepts-scale, feedbacks, state or regime, thresholds and regime shifts, and humans as part of the system-which we believe can help explicitly link important aspects of social-ecological resilience inquiry and geomorphological inquiry in order to strengthen the impact of both lines of research. Finally, we discuss how these five concepts might be used to integrate social-ecological resilience and geomorphology to better understand change in, and inform governance of, SESs. To compound these dynamics of resilience, complex systems are nested and cross-scale interactions from smaller and larger scales relative to the system of interest

PKI security in large-scale healthcare networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Mantas, Georgios; Lymberopoulos, Dimitrios; Komninos, Nikos

2012-06-01

During the past few years a lot of PKI (Public Key Infrastructures) infrastructures have been proposed for healthcare networks in order to ensure secure communication services and exchange of data among healthcare professionals. However, there is a plethora of challenges in these healthcare PKI infrastructures. Especially, there are a lot of challenges for PKI infrastructures deployed over large-scale healthcare networks. In this paper, we propose a PKI infrastructure to ensure security in a large-scale Internet-based healthcare network connecting a wide spectrum of healthcare units geographically distributed within a wide region. Furthermore, the proposed PKI infrastructure facilitates the trust issues that arise in a large-scale healthcare network including multi-domain PKI infrastructures.

Assessing social isolation in motor neurone disease: a Rasch analysis of the MND Social Withdrawal Scale.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibbons, Chris J; Thornton, Everard W; Ealing, John; Shaw, Pamela J; Talbot, Kevin; Tennant, Alan; Young, Carolyn A

2013-11-15

Social withdrawal is described as the condition in which an individual experiences a desire to make social contact, but is unable to satisfy that desire. It is an important issue for patients with motor neurone disease who are likely to experience severe physical impairment. This study aims to reassess the psychometric and scaling properties of the MND Social Withdrawal Scale (MND-SWS) domains and examine the feasibility of a summary scale, by applying scale data to the Rasch model. The MND Social Withdrawal Scale was administered to 298 patients with a diagnosis of MND, alongside the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. The factor structure of the MND Social Withdrawal Scale was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Model fit, category threshold analysis, differential item functioning (DIF), dimensionality and local dependency were evaluated. Factor analysis confirmed the suitability of the four-factor solution suggested by the original authors. Mokken scale analysis suggested the removal of item five. Rasch analysis removed a further three items; from the Community (one item) and Emotional (two items) withdrawal subscales. Following item reduction, each scale exhibited excellent fit to the Rasch model. A 14-item Summary scale was shown to fit the Rasch model after subtesting the items into three subtests corresponding to the Community, Family and Emotional subscales, indicating that items from these three subscales could be summed together to create a total measure for social withdrawal. Removal of four items from the Social Withdrawal Scale led to a four factor solution with a 14-item hierarchical Summary scale that were all unidimensional, free for DIF and well fitted to the Rasch model. The scale is reliable and allows clinicians and researchers to measure social withdrawal in MND along a unidimensional construct. © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emerging large-scale solar heating applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wong, W.P.; McClung, J.L.

2009-01-01

Currently the market for solar heating applications in Canada is dominated by outdoor swimming pool heating, make-up air pre-heating and domestic water heating in homes, commercial and institutional buildings. All of these involve relatively small systems, except for a few air pre-heating systems on very large buildings. Together these applications make up well over 90% of the solar thermal collectors installed in Canada during 2007. These three applications, along with the recent re-emergence of large-scale concentrated solar thermal for generating electricity, also dominate the world markets. This paper examines some emerging markets for large scale solar heating applications, with a focus on the Canadian climate and market. (author)

Emerging large-scale solar heating applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wong, W.P.; McClung, J.L. [Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC Canada), Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)

2009-07-01

Currently the market for solar heating applications in Canada is dominated by outdoor swimming pool heating, make-up air pre-heating and domestic water heating in homes, commercial and institutional buildings. All of these involve relatively small systems, except for a few air pre-heating systems on very large buildings. Together these applications make up well over 90% of the solar thermal collectors installed in Canada during 2007. These three applications, along with the recent re-emergence of large-scale concentrated solar thermal for generating electricity, also dominate the world markets. This paper examines some emerging markets for large scale solar heating applications, with a focus on the Canadian climate and market. (author)

Birth Cohort Changes in Chinese College Students' Loneliness and Social Support

Science.gov (United States)

Xin, Sufei; Xin, Ziqiang

2016-01-01

With the dramatic recent changes in Chinese society, Chinese college students' average levels of loneliness and social support might also have changed across their birth cohorts. The present cross-temporal meta-analysis of 56 studies (N = 21,541) found that Chinese college students' scores on the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3) increased…

Social capital at work: psychometric analysis of a short scale in Spanish among Mexican health workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Idrovo, Alvaro J; Camacho-Avila, Anabel; García-Rivas, Javier; Juárez-García, Arturo

2012-09-01

Most studies on social capital and health are carried out with large home-based surveys, neglecting that many interactions among individuals occur in the workplace. The objective of this study was to explore the psychometric properties of a scale in Spanish used to measure social capital at work. The scale designed by Kouvonen et al was translated into Spanish and tested under classical test theory, item response theory, and confirmatory factorial analysis; 152 public health workers from different socio-cultural contexts participated in the survey. Internal consistency was high (Chronbach's alpha = 0.88). Social capital at work correlated properly with two Job Content Questionnaire dimensions. A ceiling effect was detected and item difficulty was quantified. The confirmatory factor analysis showed the expected theoretical components of social capital: bonding, bridging and trust. The scale has acceptable psychometric properties, thus it can be used in future studies.

Large-scale regions of antimatter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grobov, A. V.; Rubin, S. G.

2015-01-01

Amodified mechanism of the formation of large-scale antimatter regions is proposed. Antimatter appears owing to fluctuations of a complex scalar field that carries a baryon charge in the inflation era

Large-scale regions of antimatter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grobov, A. V., E-mail: alexey.grobov@gmail.com; Rubin, S. G., E-mail: sgrubin@mephi.ru [National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Russian Federation)

2015-07-15

Amodified mechanism of the formation of large-scale antimatter regions is proposed. Antimatter appears owing to fluctuations of a complex scalar field that carries a baryon charge in the inflation era.

A probabilistic assessment of large scale wind power development for long-term energy resource planning

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, Scott Warren

A steady decline in the cost of wind turbines and increased experience in their successful operation have brought this technology to the forefront of viable alternatives for large-scale power generation. Methodologies for understanding the costs and benefits of large-scale wind power development, however, are currently limited. In this thesis, a new and widely applicable technique for estimating the social benefit of large-scale wind power production is presented. The social benefit is based upon wind power's energy and capacity services and the avoidance of environmental damages. The approach uses probabilistic modeling techniques to account for the stochastic interaction between wind power availability, electricity demand, and conventional generator dispatch. A method for including the spatial smoothing effect of geographically dispersed wind farms is also introduced. The model has been used to analyze potential offshore wind power development to the south of Long Island, NY. If natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) and integrated gasifier combined cycle (IGCC) are the alternative generation sources, wind power exhibits a negative social benefit due to its high capacity cost and the relatively low emissions of these advanced fossil-fuel technologies. Environmental benefits increase significantly if charges for CO2 emissions are included. Results also reveal a diminishing social benefit as wind power penetration increases. The dependence of wind power benefits on natural gas and coal prices is also discussed. In power systems with a high penetration of wind generated electricity, the intermittent availability of wind power may influence hourly spot prices. A price responsive electricity demand model is introduced that shows a small increase in wind power value when consumers react to hourly spot prices. The effectiveness of this mechanism depends heavily on estimates of the own- and cross-price elasticities of aggregate electricity demand. This work makes a valuable

Leading Educational Change and Improvement at Scale: Some Inconvenient Truths about System Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Alma; Jones, Michelle

2017-01-01

The challenges of securing educational change and transformation, at scale, remain considerable. While sustained progress has been made in some education systems (Fullan, 2009; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2009) generally, it remains the case that the pathway to large-scale, system improvement is far from easy or straightforward. While large-scale…

Studies of Sub-Synchronous Oscillations in Large-Scale Wind Farm Integrated System

Science.gov (United States)

Yue, Liu; Hang, Mend

2018-01-01

With the rapid development and construction of large-scale wind farms and grid-connected operation, the series compensation wind power AC transmission is gradually becoming the main way of power usage and improvement of wind power availability and grid stability, but the integration of wind farm will change the SSO (Sub-Synchronous oscillation) damping characteristics of synchronous generator system. Regarding the above SSO problem caused by integration of large-scale wind farms, this paper focusing on doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind farms, aim to summarize the SSO mechanism in large-scale wind power integrated system with series compensation, which can be classified as three types: sub-synchronous control interaction (SSCI), sub-synchronous torsional interaction (SSTI), sub-synchronous resonance (SSR). Then, SSO modelling and analysis methods are categorized and compared by its applicable areas. Furthermore, this paper summarizes the suppression measures of actual SSO projects based on different control objectives. Finally, the research prospect on this field is explored.

Large-Scale Analysis of Art Proportions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Karl Kristoffer

2014-01-01

While literature often tries to impute mathematical constants into art, this large-scale study (11 databases of paintings and photos, around 200.000 items) shows a different truth. The analysis, consisting of the width/height proportions, shows a value of rarely if ever one (square) and with majo......While literature often tries to impute mathematical constants into art, this large-scale study (11 databases of paintings and photos, around 200.000 items) shows a different truth. The analysis, consisting of the width/height proportions, shows a value of rarely if ever one (square...

The Expanded Large Scale Gap Test

Science.gov (United States)

1987-03-01

NSWC TR 86-32 DTIC THE EXPANDED LARGE SCALE GAP TEST BY T. P. LIDDIARD D. PRICE RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT ’ ~MARCH 1987 Ap~proved for public...arises, to reduce the spread in the LSGT 50% gap value.) The worst charges, such as those with the highest or lowest densities, the largest re-pressed...Arlington, VA 22217 PE 62314N INS3A 1 RJ14E31 7R4TBK 11 TITLE (Include Security CIlmsilficatiorn The Expanded Large Scale Gap Test . 12. PEIRSONAL AUTHOR() T

Integrating an agent-based model into a large-scale hydrological model for evaluating drought management in California

Science.gov (United States)

Sheffield, J.; He, X.; Wada, Y.; Burek, P.; Kahil, M.; Wood, E. F.; Oppenheimer, M.

2017-12-01

California has endured record-breaking drought since winter 2011 and will likely experience more severe and persistent drought in the coming decades under changing climate. At the same time, human water management practices can also affect drought frequency and intensity, which underscores the importance of human behaviour in effective drought adaptation and mitigation. Currently, although a few large-scale hydrological and water resources models (e.g., PCR-GLOBWB) consider human water use and management practices (e.g., irrigation, reservoir operation, groundwater pumping), none of them includes the dynamic feedback between local human behaviors/decisions and the natural hydrological system. It is, therefore, vital to integrate social and behavioral dimensions into current hydrological modeling frameworks. This study applies the agent-based modeling (ABM) approach and couples it with a large-scale hydrological model (i.e., Community Water Model, CWatM) in order to have a balanced representation of social, environmental and economic factors and a more realistic representation of the bi-directional interactions and feedbacks in coupled human and natural systems. In this study, we focus on drought management in California and considers two types of agents, which are (groups of) farmers and state management authorities, and assumed that their corresponding objectives are to maximize the net crop profit and to maintain sufficient water supply, respectively. Farmers' behaviors are linked with local agricultural practices such as cropping patterns and deficit irrigation. More precisely, farmers' decisions are incorporated into CWatM across different time scales in terms of daily irrigation amount, seasonal/annual decisions on crop types and irrigated area as well as the long-term investment of irrigation infrastructure. This simulation-based optimization framework is further applied by performing different sets of scenarios to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness

Youth Mental Health Services Utilization Rates After a Large-Scale Social Media Campaign: Population-Based Interrupted Time-Series Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Booth, Richard G; Allen, Britney N; Bray Jenkyn, Krista M; Li, Lihua; Shariff, Salimah Z

2018-04-06

Despite the uptake of mass media campaigns, their overall impact remains unclear. Since 2011, a Canadian telecommunications company has operated an annual, large-scale mental health advocacy campaign (Bell Let's Talk) focused on mental health awareness and stigma reduction. In February 2012, the campaign began to explicitly leverage the social media platform Twitter and incented participation from the public by promising donations of Can $0.05 for each interaction with a campaign-specific username (@Bell_LetsTalk). The intent of the study was to examine the impact of this 2012 campaign on youth outpatient mental health services in the province of Ontario, Canada. Monthly outpatient mental health visits (primary health care and psychiatric services) were obtained for the Ontario youth aged 10 to 24 years (approximately 5.66 million visits) from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2015. Interrupted time series, autoregressive integrated moving average modeling was implemented to evaluate the impact of the campaign on rates of monthly outpatient mental health visits. A lagged intervention date of April 1, 2012 was selected to account for the delay required for a patient to schedule and attend a mental health-related physician visit. The inclusion of Twitter into the 2012 Bell Let's Talk campaign was temporally associated with an increase in outpatient mental health utilization for both males and females. Within primary health care environments, female adolescents aged 10 to 17 years experienced a monthly increase in the mental health visit rate from 10.2/1000 in April 2006 to 14.1/1000 in April 2015 (slope change of 0.094 following campaign, Pcampaign, Pcampaign (slope change of 0.005, P=.02; slope change of 0.003, P=.005, respectively). For young adults aged 18 to 24 years, females who used primary health care experienced the most significant increases in mental health visit rates from 26.5/1000 in April 2006 to 29.2/1000 in April 2015 (slope change of 0.17 following

Large scale and big data processing and management

CERN Document Server

Sakr, Sherif

2014-01-01

Large Scale and Big Data: Processing and Management provides readers with a central source of reference on the data management techniques currently available for large-scale data processing. Presenting chapters written by leading researchers, academics, and practitioners, it addresses the fundamental challenges associated with Big Data processing tools and techniques across a range of computing environments.The book begins by discussing the basic concepts and tools of large-scale Big Data processing and cloud computing. It also provides an overview of different programming models and cloud-bas

Development and Assessment of the Social Issues Advocacy Scale

Science.gov (United States)

Nilsson, Johanna E.; Marszalek, Jacob M.; Linnemeyer, Rachel M.; Bahner, Angela D.; Misialek, Leah Hanson

2011-01-01

This article describes the development and the initial psychometric evaluation of the Social Issues Advocacy Scale in two studies. In the first study, an exploratory factor analysis (n = 278) revealed a four-factor scale, accounting for 71.4% of the variance, measuring different aspects of social issue advocacy: Political and Social Advocacy,…

Large scale cluster computing workshop

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dane Skow; Alan Silverman

2002-01-01

Recent revolutions in computer hardware and software technologies have paved the way for the large-scale deployment of clusters of commodity computers to address problems heretofore the domain of tightly coupled SMP processors. Near term projects within High Energy Physics and other computing communities will deploy clusters of scale 1000s of processors and be used by 100s to 1000s of independent users. This will expand the reach in both dimensions by an order of magnitude from the current successful production facilities. The goals of this workshop were: (1) to determine what tools exist which can scale up to the cluster sizes foreseen for the next generation of HENP experiments (several thousand nodes) and by implication to identify areas where some investment of money or effort is likely to be needed. (2) To compare and record experimences gained with such tools. (3) To produce a practical guide to all stages of planning, installing, building and operating a large computing cluster in HENP. (4) To identify and connect groups with similar interest within HENP and the larger clustering community

Recent developments in large-scale ozone generation with dielectric barrier discharges

Science.gov (United States)

Lopez, Jose L.

2014-10-01

Large-scale ozone generation for industrial applications has been entirely based on the creation of microplasmas or microdischarges created using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactors. Although versions of DBD generated ozone have been in continuous use for over a hundred years especially in water treatment, recent changes in environmental awareness and sustainability have lead to a surge of ozone generating facilities throughout the world. As a result of this enhanced global usage of this environmental cleaning application various new discoveries have emerged in the science and technology of ozone generation. This presentation will describe some of the most recent breakthrough developments in large-scale ozone generation while further addressing some of the current scientific and engineering challenges of this technology.

Development and Examination of Personal and Social Responsibility Behaviors Scale

OpenAIRE

Bijen FİLİZ; Gıyasettin DEMİRHAN

2018-01-01

In this study, “Personal and Social Responsibility Behaviors Scale (PSRB-S)” was developed in order to determine students’ responsibility behaviors in accordance with “Personal and Social Responsibility” model developed by Don Hellison and students’ personal and social responsibility levels were examined in terms of gender, age and years of sport practice through this scale. Pertaining to personal and social dimension of responsibility, four-category Likert type trial scale consisting of 52 i...

Social Network Changes and Life Events across the Life Span: A Meta-Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Wrzus, Cornelia; Hanel, Martha; Wagner, Jenny; Neyer, Franz J.

2013-01-01

For researchers and practitioners interested in social relationships, the question remains as to how large social networks typically are, and how their size and composition change across adulthood. On the basis of predictions of socioemotional selectivity theory and social convoy theory, we conducted a meta-analysis on age-related social network…

Complementary Social Science?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blok, Anders; Pedersen, Morten Axel

2014-01-01

of measurement device deployed. At the same time, however, we also expect new interferences and polyphonies to arise at the intersection of Big and Small Data, provided that these are, so to speak, mixed with care. These questions, we stress, are important not only for the future of social science methods......The rise of Big Data in the social realm poses significant questions at the intersection of science, technology, and society, including in terms of how new large-scale social databases are currently changing the methods, epistemologies, and politics of social science. In this commentary, we address...

Large-Scale Agriculture and Outgrower Schemes in Ethiopia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wendimu, Mengistu Assefa

, the impact of large-scale agriculture and outgrower schemes on productivity, household welfare and wages in developing countries is highly contentious. Chapter 1 of this thesis provides an introduction to the study, while also reviewing the key debate in the contemporary land ‘grabbing’ and historical large...... sugarcane outgrower scheme on household income and asset stocks. Chapter 5 examines the wages and working conditions in ‘formal’ large-scale and ‘informal’ small-scale irrigated agriculture. The results in Chapter 2 show that moisture stress, the use of untested planting materials, and conflict over land...... commands a higher wage than ‘formal’ large-scale agriculture, while rather different wage determination mechanisms exist in the two sectors. Human capital characteristics (education and experience) partly explain the differences in wages within the formal sector, but play no significant role...

Factor validation of the portuguese version of the social skills scale of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria João Seabra-Santos

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The assessment of preschoolers’ social skills represents a topic of growing importance in research recently developed in the field. The purpose of this article is to present confirmatory factor analyses studies for the Social Skills scale of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales – Second Edition (PKBS-2, a behavior rating scale that evaluates social skills and problem behaviors, adapted and validated for Portuguese preschool children. The 34 items of the Social Skills scale, distributed on three subscales (Social Cooperation/Adjustment, Social Interaction/Empathy and Social Independence/Assertiveness, were grouped into item-parcels. Model adjustment was analyzed for the total sample (N = 2000 and the analyses were replicated for the subsamples collected in the home (n = 1000 and school settings (n = 1000. The factor structure was very stable for the three samples, with high internal consistency levels and correlations between parcels/scales. The results highlight the utility/validity of the Social Skills scale of the PKBS-2 (Portuguese version.

Economically viable large-scale hydrogen liquefaction

Science.gov (United States)

Cardella, U.; Decker, L.; Klein, H.

2017-02-01

The liquid hydrogen demand, particularly driven by clean energy applications, will rise in the near future. As industrial large scale liquefiers will play a major role within the hydrogen supply chain, production capacity will have to increase by a multiple of today’s typical sizes. The main goal is to reduce the total cost of ownership for these plants by increasing energy efficiency with innovative and simple process designs, optimized in capital expenditure. New concepts must ensure a manageable plant complexity and flexible operability. In the phase of process development and selection, a dimensioning of key equipment for large scale liquefiers, such as turbines and compressors as well as heat exchangers, must be performed iteratively to ensure technological feasibility and maturity. Further critical aspects related to hydrogen liquefaction, e.g. fluid properties, ortho-para hydrogen conversion, and coldbox configuration, must be analysed in detail. This paper provides an overview on the approach, challenges and preliminary results in the development of efficient as well as economically viable concepts for large-scale hydrogen liquefaction.

Large scale chromatographic separations using continuous displacement chromatography (CDC)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taniguchi, V.T.; Doty, A.W.; Byers, C.H.

1988-01-01

A process for large scale chromatographic separations using a continuous chromatography technique is described. The process combines the advantages of large scale batch fixed column displacement chromatography with conventional analytical or elution continuous annular chromatography (CAC) to enable large scale displacement chromatography to be performed on a continuous basis (CDC). Such large scale, continuous displacement chromatography separations have not been reported in the literature. The process is demonstrated with the ion exchange separation of a binary lanthanide (Nd/Pr) mixture. The process is, however, applicable to any displacement chromatography separation that can be performed using conventional batch, fixed column chromatography

Contribution of large-scale circulation anomalies to changes in extreme precipitation frequency in the United States

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Lejiang; Zhong, Shiyuan; Pei, Lisi; Bian, Xindi; Heilman, Warren E

2016-01-01

The mean global climate has warmed as a result of the increasing emission of greenhouse gases induced by human activities. This warming is considered the main reason for the increasing number of extreme precipitation events in the US. While much attention has been given to extreme precipitation events occurring over several days, which are usually responsible for severe flooding over a large region, little is known about how extreme precipitation events that cause flash flooding and occur at sub-daily time scales have changed over time. Here we use the observed hourly precipitation from the North American Land Data Assimilation System Phase 2 forcing datasets to determine trends in the frequency of extreme precipitation events of short (1 h, 3 h, 6 h, 12 h and 24 h) duration for the period 1979–2013. The results indicate an increasing trend in the central and eastern US. Over most of the western US, especially the Southwest and the Intermountain West, the trends are generally negative. These trends can be largely explained by the interdecadal variability of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), with the AMO making a greater contribution to the trends in both warm and cold seasons. (letter)

A mixed-layer model study of the stratocumulus response to changes in large-scale conditions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Roode, S.R.; Siebesma, A.P.; Dal Gesso, S.; Jonker, H.J.J.; Schalkwijk, J.; Sival, J.

2014-01-01

A mixed-layer model is used to study the response of stratocumulus equilibrium state solutions to perturbations of cloud controlling factors which include the sea surface temperature, the specific humidity and temperature in the free troposphere, as well as the large-scale divergence and horizontal

Computing in Large-Scale Dynamic Systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pruteanu, A.S.

2013-01-01

Software applications developed for large-scale systems have always been difficult to de- velop due to problems caused by the large number of computing devices involved. Above a certain network size (roughly one hundred), necessary services such as code updating, topol- ogy discovery and data

Fires in large scale ventilation systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gregory, W.S.; Martin, R.A.; White, B.W.; Nichols, B.D.; Smith, P.R.; Leslie, I.H.; Fenton, D.L.; Gunaji, M.V.; Blythe, J.P.

1991-01-01

This paper summarizes the experience gained simulating fires in large scale ventilation systems patterned after ventilation systems found in nuclear fuel cycle facilities. The series of experiments discussed included: (1) combustion aerosol loading of 0.61x0.61 m HEPA filters with the combustion products of two organic fuels, polystyrene and polymethylemethacrylate; (2) gas dynamic and heat transport through a large scale ventilation system consisting of a 0.61x0.61 m duct 90 m in length, with dampers, HEPA filters, blowers, etc.; (3) gas dynamic and simultaneous transport of heat and solid particulate (consisting of glass beads with a mean aerodynamic diameter of 10μ) through the large scale ventilation system; and (4) the transport of heat and soot, generated by kerosene pool fires, through the large scale ventilation system. The FIRAC computer code, designed to predict fire-induced transients in nuclear fuel cycle facility ventilation systems, was used to predict the results of experiments (2) through (4). In general, the results of the predictions were satisfactory. The code predictions for the gas dynamics, heat transport, and particulate transport and deposition were within 10% of the experimentally measured values. However, the code was less successful in predicting the amount of soot generation from kerosene pool fires, probably due to the fire module of the code being a one-dimensional zone model. The experiments revealed a complicated three-dimensional combustion pattern within the fire room of the ventilation system. Further refinement of the fire module within FIRAC is needed. (orig.)

COMBINED EFFECTS OF GALAXY INTERACTIONS AND LARGE-SCALE ENVIRONMENT ON GALAXY PROPERTIES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Changbom; Choi, Yun-Young

2009-01-01

We inspect the coupled dependence of physical parameters of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey galaxies on the small-scale (distance to and morphology of the nearest neighbor galaxy) and the large-scale (background density smoothed over 20 nearby galaxies) environments. The impacts of interaction on galaxy properties are detected at least out to the neighbor separation corresponding to the virial radius of galaxies, which is typically between 200 and 400 h -1 kpc for the galaxies in our sample. To detect these long-range interaction effects, it is crucial to divide galaxy interactions into four cases dividing the morphology of target and neighbor galaxies into early and late types. We show that there are two characteristic neighbor-separation scales where the galaxy interactions cause abrupt changes in the properties of galaxies. The first scale is the virial radius of the nearest neighbor galaxy r vir,nei . Many physical parameters start to deviate from those of extremely isolated galaxies at the projected neighbor separation r p of about r vir,nei . The second scale is at r p ∼ 0.05r vir,nei = 10-20 h -1 kpc, and is the scale at which the galaxies in pairs start to merge. We find that late-type neighbors enhance the star formation activity of galaxies while early-type neighbors reduce it, and that these effects occur within r vir,nei . The hot halo gas and cold disk gas must be participating in the interactions at separations less than the virial radius of the galaxy plus dark halo system. Our results also show that the role of the large-scale density in determining galaxy properties is minimal once luminosity and morphology are fixed. We propose that the weak residual dependence of galaxy properties on the large-scale density is due to the dependence of the halo gas property on the large-scale density.

Large-scale Complex IT Systems

OpenAIRE

Sommerville, Ian; Cliff, Dave; Calinescu, Radu; Keen, Justin; Kelly, Tim; Kwiatkowska, Marta; McDermid, John; Paige, Richard

2011-01-01

This paper explores the issues around the construction of large-scale complex systems which are built as 'systems of systems' and suggests that there are fundamental reasons, derived from the inherent complexity in these systems, why our current software engineering methods and techniques cannot be scaled up to cope with the engineering challenges of constructing such systems. It then goes on to propose a research and education agenda for software engineering that identifies the major challen...

Large-scale complex IT systems

OpenAIRE

Sommerville, Ian; Cliff, Dave; Calinescu, Radu; Keen, Justin; Kelly, Tim; Kwiatkowska, Marta; McDermid, John; Paige, Richard

2012-01-01

12 pages, 2 figures This paper explores the issues around the construction of large-scale complex systems which are built as 'systems of systems' and suggests that there are fundamental reasons, derived from the inherent complexity in these systems, why our current software engineering methods and techniques cannot be scaled up to cope with the engineering challenges of constructing such systems. It then goes on to propose a research and education agenda for software engineering that ident...

Empirical Models of Social Learning in a Large, Evolving Network.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayşe Başar Bener

Full Text Available This paper advances theories of social learning through an empirical examination of how social networks change over time. Social networks are important for learning because they constrain individuals' access to information about the behaviors and cognitions of other people. Using data on a large social network of mobile device users over a one-month time period, we test three hypotheses: 1 attraction homophily causes individuals to form ties on the basis of attribute similarity, 2 aversion homophily causes individuals to delete existing ties on the basis of attribute dissimilarity, and 3 social influence causes individuals to adopt the attributes of others they share direct ties with. Statistical models offer varied degrees of support for all three hypotheses and show that these mechanisms are more complex than assumed in prior work. Although homophily is normally thought of as a process of attraction, people also avoid relationships with others who are different. These mechanisms have distinct effects on network structure. While social influence does help explain behavior, people tend to follow global trends more than they follow their friends.

First Mile Challenges for Large-Scale IoT

KAUST Repository

Bader, Ahmed; Elsawy, Hesham; Gharbieh, Mohammad; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Adinoyi, Abdulkareem; Alshaalan, Furaih

2017-01-01

The Internet of Things is large-scale by nature. This is not only manifested by the large number of connected devices, but also by the sheer scale of spatial traffic intensity that must be accommodated, primarily in the uplink direction. To that end

Quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of large-scale water transfer project on water resource area in a changing environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. H. Yan

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The interbasin long-distance water transfer project is key support for the reasonable allocation of water resources in a large-scale area, which can optimize the spatio-temporal change of water resources to secure the amount of water available. Large-scale water transfer projects have a deep influence on ecosystems; besides, global climate change causes uncertainty and additive effect of the environmental impact of water transfer projects. Therefore, how to assess the ecological and environmental impact of megaprojects in both construction and operation phases has triggered a lot of attention. The water-output area of the western route of China's South-North Water Transfer Project was taken as the study area of the present article. According to relevant evaluation principles and on the basis of background analysis, we identified the influencing factors and established the diagnostic index system. The climate-hydrology-ecology coupled simulation model was used to simulate and predict ecological and environmental responses of the water resource area in a changing environment. The emphasis of impact evaluation was placed on the reservoir construction and operation scheduling, representative river corridors and wetlands, natural reserves and the water environment below the dam sites. In the end, an overall evaluation of the comprehensive influence of the project was conducted. The research results were as follows: the environmental impacts of the western route project in the water resource area were concentrated on two aspects: the permanent destruction of vegetation during the phase of dam construction and river impoundment, and the significant influence on the hydrological situation of natural river corridor after the implementation of water extraction. The impact on local climate, vegetation ecology, typical wetlands, natural reserves and the water environment of river basins below the dam sites was small.

Quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of large-scale water transfer project on water resource area in a changing environment

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, D. H.; Wang, H.; Li, H. H.; Wang, G.; Qin, T. L.; Wang, D. Y.; Wang, L. H.

2012-08-01

The interbasin long-distance water transfer project is key support for the reasonable allocation of water resources in a large-scale area, which can optimize the spatio-temporal change of water resources to secure the amount of water available. Large-scale water transfer projects have a deep influence on ecosystems; besides, global climate change causes uncertainty and additive effect of the environmental impact of water transfer projects. Therefore, how to assess the ecological and environmental impact of megaprojects in both construction and operation phases has triggered a lot of attention. The water-output area of the western route of China's South-North Water Transfer Project was taken as the study area of the present article. According to relevant evaluation principles and on the basis of background analysis, we identified the influencing factors and established the diagnostic index system. The climate-hydrology-ecology coupled simulation model was used to simulate and predict ecological and environmental responses of the water resource area in a changing environment. The emphasis of impact evaluation was placed on the reservoir construction and operation scheduling, representative river corridors and wetlands, natural reserves and the water environment below the dam sites. In the end, an overall evaluation of the comprehensive influence of the project was conducted. The research results were as follows: the environmental impacts of the western route project in the water resource area were concentrated on two aspects: the permanent destruction of vegetation during the phase of dam construction and river impoundment, and the significant influence on the hydrological situation of natural river corridor after the implementation of water extraction. The impact on local climate, vegetation ecology, typical wetlands, natural reserves and the water environment of river basins below the dam sites was small.

Reliability and validity of a physical activity social support assessment scale in adolescents - ASAFA Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Cazuza de Farias Júnior

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Objective: To analyze the reliability and validity of a scale used to measure social support for physical activity in adolescents - ASAFA Scale. Methods: This study included 2,755 adolescents (57.6% girls, 16.5 ± 1.2 years of age, from Joao Pessoa, Paraiba, Brazil. Initially, the scale was consisted of 12 items (6 for social support from parents and 6 from friends. The reliability of the scale was estimated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α, by the Composite Reliability (CR, and by the model with two factors and factorial invariance by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA adequacy. Results: The CFA results confirmed that the social support scale contained two factors (factor 1: social support from parents; factor 2: social support from friends with five items each (one item was excluded from each scale, all with high factor loadings (> 0.65 and acceptable adjustment indexes (RMR = 0.050; RMSEA = 0.063; 90%CI: 0.060 - 0.067; AGFI = 0.903; GFI = 0.940; CFI = 0.934, NNFI = 0.932. The internal consistency was satisfactory (parents: α ≥ 0.77 and CR ≥ 0.83; friends: α ≥ 0.87 and CR ≥ 0.91. The scale's factorial invariance was confirmed (p > 0.05; Δχ2 and ΔCFI ≤ 0.01 across all subgroups analyzed (gender, age, economic class. The construct validity was evidenced by the significant association (p < 0.05 between the adolescents physical activity level and the social support score of parents (rho = 0.29 and friends (rho = 0.39. Conclusions: The scale showed reliability, factorial invariance and satisfactory validity, so it can be used in studies with adolescents.

Side effects of problem-solving strategies in large-scale nutrition science: towards a diversification of health.

Science.gov (United States)

Penders, Bart; Vos, Rein; Horstman, Klasien

2009-11-01

Solving complex problems in large-scale research programmes requires cooperation and division of labour. Simultaneously, large-scale problem solving also gives rise to unintended side effects. Based upon 5 years of researching two large-scale nutrigenomic research programmes, we argue that problems are fragmented in order to be solved. These sub-problems are given priority for practical reasons and in the process of solving them, various changes are introduced in each sub-problem. Combined with additional diversity as a result of interdisciplinarity, this makes reassembling the original and overall goal of the research programme less likely. In the case of nutrigenomics and health, this produces a diversification of health. As a result, the public health goal of contemporary nutrition science is not reached in the large-scale research programmes we studied. Large-scale research programmes are very successful in producing scientific publications and new knowledge; however, in reaching their political goals they often are less successful.

Large diurnal temperature range increases bird sensitivity to climate change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Briga, Michael; Verhulst, Simon

2015-01-01

Climate variability is changing on multiple temporal scales, and little is known of the consequences of increases in short-term variability, particularly in endotherms. Using mortality data with high temporal resolution of zebra finches living in large outdoor aviaries (5 years, 359.220 bird-days),

Prospects for large scale electricity storage in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krog Ekman, Claus; Jensen, Søren Højgaard

2010-01-01

In a future power systems with additional wind power capacity there will be an increased need for large scale power management as well as reliable balancing and reserve capabilities. Different technologies for large scale electricity storage provide solutions to the different challenges arising w...

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Combined Social Phobia Scale and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale: Support for a Bifactor Model

OpenAIRE

Gomez, Rapson; Watson, Shaun D.

2017-01-01

For the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) together, this study examined support for a bifactor model, and also the internal consistency reliability and external validity of the factors in this model. Participants (N = 526) were adults from the general community who completed the SPS and SIAS. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of their ratings indicated good support for the bifactor model. For this model, the loadings for all but six items were higher o...

Evolution of scaling emergence in large-scale spatial epidemic spreading.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Lin; Li, Xiang; Zhang, Yi-Qing; Zhang, Yan; Zhang, Kan

2011-01-01

Zipf's law and Heaps' law are two representatives of the scaling concepts, which play a significant role in the study of complexity science. The coexistence of the Zipf's law and the Heaps' law motivates different understandings on the dependence between these two scalings, which has still hardly been clarified. In this article, we observe an evolution process of the scalings: the Zipf's law and the Heaps' law are naturally shaped to coexist at the initial time, while the crossover comes with the emergence of their inconsistency at the larger time before reaching a stable state, where the Heaps' law still exists with the disappearance of strict Zipf's law. Such findings are illustrated with a scenario of large-scale spatial epidemic spreading, and the empirical results of pandemic disease support a universal analysis of the relation between the two laws regardless of the biological details of disease. Employing the United States domestic air transportation and demographic data to construct a metapopulation model for simulating the pandemic spread at the U.S. country level, we uncover that the broad heterogeneity of the infrastructure plays a key role in the evolution of scaling emergence. The analyses of large-scale spatial epidemic spreading help understand the temporal evolution of scalings, indicating the coexistence of the Zipf's law and the Heaps' law depends on the collective dynamics of epidemic processes, and the heterogeneity of epidemic spread indicates the significance of performing targeted containment strategies at the early time of a pandemic disease.

Large-Scale Structure and Hyperuniformity of Amorphous Ices

Science.gov (United States)

Martelli, Fausto; Torquato, Salvatore; Giovambattista, Nicolas; Car, Roberto

2017-09-01

We investigate the large-scale structure of amorphous ices and transitions between their different forms by quantifying their large-scale density fluctuations. Specifically, we simulate the isothermal compression of low-density amorphous ice (LDA) and hexagonal ice to produce high-density amorphous ice (HDA). Both HDA and LDA are nearly hyperuniform; i.e., they are characterized by an anomalous suppression of large-scale density fluctuations. By contrast, in correspondence with the nonequilibrium phase transitions to HDA, the presence of structural heterogeneities strongly suppresses the hyperuniformity and the system becomes hyposurficial (devoid of "surface-area fluctuations"). Our investigation challenges the largely accepted "frozen-liquid" picture, which views glasses as structurally arrested liquids. Beyond implications for water, our findings enrich our understanding of pressure-induced structural transformations in glasses.

Measurement error in the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale: results from a general adult population in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Takada, Koki; Takahashi, Kana; Hirao, Kazuki

2018-01-17

Although the self-report version of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) is frequently used to measure social anxiety, data is lacking on the smallest detectable change (SDC), an important index of measurement error. We therefore aimed to determine the SDC of LSAS. Japanese adults aged 20-69 years were invited from a panel managed by a nationwide internet research agency. We then conducted a test-retest internet survey with a two-week interval to estimate the SDC at the individual (SDC ind ) and group (SDC group ) levels. The analysis included 1300 participants. The SDC ind and SDC group for the total fear subscale (scoring range: 0-72) were 23.52 points (32.7%) and 0.65 points (0.9%), respectively. The SDC ind and SDC group for the total avoidance subscale (scoring range: 0-72) were 32.43 points (45.0%) and 0.90 points (1.2%), respectively. The SDC ind and SDC group for the overall total score (scoring range: 0-144) were 45.90 points (31.9%) and 1.27 points (0.9%), respectively. Measurement error is large and indicate the potential for major problems when attempting to use the LSAS to detect changes at the individual level. These results should be considered when using the LSAS as measures of treatment change.

LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE AS A COSMIC STANDARD RULER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Park, Changbom; Kim, Young-Rae

2010-01-01

We propose to use the large-scale structure (LSS) of the universe as a cosmic standard ruler. This is possible because the pattern of large-scale distribution of matter is scale-dependent and does not change in comoving space during the linear-regime evolution of structure. By examining the pattern of LSS in several redshift intervals it is possible to reconstruct the expansion history of the universe, and thus to measure the cosmological parameters governing the expansion of the universe. The features of the large-scale matter distribution that can be used as standard rulers include the topology of LSS and the overall shapes of the power spectrum and correlation function. The genus, being an intrinsic topology measure, is insensitive to systematic effects such as the nonlinear gravitational evolution, galaxy biasing, and redshift-space distortion, and thus is an ideal cosmic ruler when galaxies in redshift space are used to trace the initial matter distribution. The genus remains unchanged as far as the rank order of density is conserved, which is true for linear and weakly nonlinear gravitational evolution, monotonic galaxy biasing, and mild redshift-space distortions. The expansion history of the universe can be constrained by comparing the theoretically predicted genus corresponding to an adopted set of cosmological parameters with the observed genus measured by using the redshift-comoving distance relation of the same cosmological model.

Latent structure of the social anxiety scale and relations between social anxiety and irrational beliefs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tovilović Snežana

2004-01-01

Full Text Available The research which was realized belongs to one of three research fields within framework of rational-emotional-behavioral therapy (REBT - to the theory of emotional disorders. It was undertaken with the aim to establish presence and nature of relations between social anxiety, treated as dimension and the construct of irrational beliefs from REBT theory. The research was carried out on the sample of 261 students of Novi Sad University, both genders, age 18 to 26. First of all, the latent structure of newly constructed Scale of Social Anxiety (SA of the author Tovilović S. was tested. SA scale was proved to be of satisfying reliability (α =0.92. Principal-component factor analysis was conducted under gathered data. Four factors of social anxiety, which explain 44,09% of total variance of the items of SA scale, were named: social-evaluation anxiety, inhibition in social-uncertain situations, low self-respect and hypersensitivity on rejection. The other test that was used is Scale of General Attitudes and Beliefs of the author Marić Z. Reliability of the sub-scale of irrational beliefs that was got on our sample is α =0.91 yet the subscale of rational beliefs is α =0.70. Canonical correlational analysis was conducted under manifest variables of both scales. Three pairs of statistically significant canonical factors were got, with correlations within the span between Rc=0.78 and Rc=0.64. We discussed nature of correlation between social anxiety and irrational beliefs in the light of REBT model of social phobia, REBT theory of emotional disorder, researches and model of social anxiety in wider, cognitive-behavioral framework.

Communication for Social Change Anthology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gumucio-Dagron, Alfonso; Tufte, Thomas

for social change. The book is organised in two parts: the first part being cronological, from 1927-1995, and the second part containing 'the contemporary debate' in communication for social change, organised in 5 sub-themes: 1) Popular Culture, Narrative and Identity, 2) Social Movements & Community...

Change in Urban Albedo in London: A Multi-scale Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Susca, T.; Kotthaus, S.; Grimmond, S.

2013-12-01

climate is calculated using numerical modelling to mitigate the urban heat island in London. The co-benefits from decreasing the urban temperature are then considered. These include a reduction in the peak of tropospheric ozone formation, a decrease heat stress to the city dwellers as well as in energy demand. The extreme summer temperatures have most of the impact on people socially and physically vulnerable people. The decrease in summer temperatures has positive effects on human health decreasing the mortality for natural causes as well as for respiratory and cardio-vascular diseases promoting socially equality. The increase in urban albedo - with a particular reference to changes in pavements and rooftops - can be easily integrated in urban and building maintenance plans. Since the increase in urban albedo can affect both the global and local scale, the results of this extensive and multi-level study are useful to address-policy-relevant strategies for coping with the effects of climate. In particular, they can provide insights for multi-level governance strategies and for shaping mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Double inflation: A possible resolution of the large-scale structure problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Turner, M.S.; Villumsen, J.V.; Vittorio, N.; Silk, J.; Juszkiewicz, R.

1986-11-01

A model is presented for the large-scale structure of the universe in which two successive inflationary phases resulted in large small-scale and small large-scale density fluctuations. This bimodal density fluctuation spectrum in an Ω = 1 universe dominated by hot dark matter leads to large-scale structure of the galaxy distribution that is consistent with recent observational results. In particular, large, nearly empty voids and significant large-scale peculiar velocity fields are produced over scales of ∼100 Mpc, while the small-scale structure over ≤ 10 Mpc resembles that in a low density universe, as observed. Detailed analytical calculations and numerical simulations are given of the spatial and velocity correlations. 38 refs., 6 figs

Evolution of a large online social network

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Haibo; Wang Xiaofan

2009-01-01

Although recently there are extensive research on the collaborative networks and online communities, there is very limited knowledge about the actual evolution of the online social networks (OSN). In the Letter, we study the structural evolution of a large online virtual community. We find that the scale growth of the OSN shows non-trivial S shape which may provide a proper exemplification for Bass diffusion model. We reveal that the evolutions of many network properties, such as density, clustering, heterogeneity and modularity, show non-monotone feature, and shrink phenomenon occurs for the path length and diameter of the network. Furthermore, the OSN underwent a transition from degree assortativity characteristic of collaborative networks to degree disassortativity characteristic of many OSNs. Our study has revealed the evolutionary pattern of interpersonal interactions in a specific population and provided a valuable platform for theoretical modeling and further analysis

English Validation of the Parental Socialization Scale?ESPA29

OpenAIRE

Mart?nez, Isabel; Cruise, Edie; Garc?a, ?scar F.; Murgui, Sergio

2017-01-01

Parenting styles have traditionally been studied following the classical two-dimensional orthogonal model of parental socialization. The Parental Socialization Scale ESPA29 is used to measure the four styles of parental socialization through the acceptance/involvement and strictness/imposition dimensions. The ESPA29 scale is a developmentally appropriate measure of parenting styles, which has been validated in several languages including Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese. In this stu...

LARGE-SCALE MAGNETIC HELICITY FLUXES ESTIMATED FROM MDI MAGNETIC SYNOPTIC CHARTS OVER THE SOLAR CYCLE 23

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang Shangbin; Zhang Hongqi, E-mail: yangshb@nao.cas.cn [Key Laboratory of Solar Activity, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100012 Beijing (China)

2012-10-10

To investigate the characteristics of large-scale and long-term evolution of magnetic helicity with solar cycles, we use the method of Local Correlation Tracking to estimate the magnetic helicity evolution over solar cycle 23 from 1996 to 2009 using 795 MDI magnetic synoptic charts. The main results are as follows: the hemispheric helicity rule still holds in general, i.e., the large-scale negative (positive) magnetic helicity dominates the northern (southern) hemisphere. However, the large-scale magnetic helicity fluxes show the same sign in both hemispheres around 2001 and 2005. The global, large-scale magnetic helicity flux over the solar disk changes from a negative value at the beginning of solar cycle 23 to a positive value at the end of the cycle, while the net accumulated magnetic helicity is negative in the period between 1996 and 2009.

LARGE-SCALE MAGNETIC HELICITY FLUXES ESTIMATED FROM MDI MAGNETIC SYNOPTIC CHARTS OVER THE SOLAR CYCLE 23

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Shangbin; Zhang Hongqi

2012-01-01

To investigate the characteristics of large-scale and long-term evolution of magnetic helicity with solar cycles, we use the method of Local Correlation Tracking to estimate the magnetic helicity evolution over solar cycle 23 from 1996 to 2009 using 795 MDI magnetic synoptic charts. The main results are as follows: the hemispheric helicity rule still holds in general, i.e., the large-scale negative (positive) magnetic helicity dominates the northern (southern) hemisphere. However, the large-scale magnetic helicity fluxes show the same sign in both hemispheres around 2001 and 2005. The global, large-scale magnetic helicity flux over the solar disk changes from a negative value at the beginning of solar cycle 23 to a positive value at the end of the cycle, while the net accumulated magnetic helicity is negative in the period between 1996 and 2009.

Comparison Between Overtopping Discharge in Small and Large Scale Models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Helgason, Einar; Burcharth, Hans F.

2006-01-01

The present paper presents overtopping measurements from small scale model test performed at the Haudraulic & Coastal Engineering Laboratory, Aalborg University, Denmark and large scale model tests performed at the Largde Wave Channel,Hannover, Germany. Comparison between results obtained from...... small and large scale model tests show no clear evidence of scale effects for overtopping above a threshold value. In the large scale model no overtopping was measured for waveheights below Hs = 0.5m as the water sunk into the voids between the stones on the crest. For low overtopping scale effects...

Social Change Education: Context Matters

Science.gov (United States)

Choules, Kathryn

2007-01-01

Social change educators challenge social, economic, and political injustices that exist locally and globally. Their students may be people marginalized by these injustices or conversely, people who benefit from unjust systems. Much of the current social change pedagogy derives from the foundational work of Paulo Freire, developed in Brazil in…

Biopolitics problems of large-scale hydraulic engineering construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romanenko, V.D.

1997-01-01

The XX century which will enter in a history as a century of large-scale hydraulic engineering constructions come to the finish. Only on the European continent 517 large reservoirs (more than 1000 million km 3 of water were detained, had been constructed for a period from 1901 till 1985. In the Danube basin a plenty for reservoirs of power stations, navigations, navigating sluices and other hydraulic engineering structures are constructed. Among them more than 40 especially large objects are located along the main bed of the river. A number of hydro-complexes such as Dnieper-Danube and Gabcikovo, Danube-Oder-Labe (project), Danube-Tissa, Danube-Adriatic Sea (project), Danube-Aegean Sea, Danube-Black Sea ones, are entered into operation or are in a stage of designing. Hydraulic engineering construction was especially heavily conducted in Ukraine. On its territory some large reservoirs on Dnieper and Yuzhny Bug were constructed, which have heavily changed the hydrological regime of the rivers. Summarised the results of river systems regulating in Ukraine one can be noted that more than 27 thousand ponds (3 km 3 per year), 1098 reservoirs of total volume 55 km 3 , 11 large channels of total length more than 2000 km and with productivity of 1000 m 2 /s have been created in Ukraine. Hydraulic engineering construction played an important role in development of the industry and agriculture, water-supply of the cities and settlements, in environmental effects, and maintenance of safe navigation in Danube, Dnieper and other rivers. In next part of the paper, the environmental changes after construction of the Karakum Channel on the Aral Sea in the Middle Asia are discussed

Valuation framework for large scale electricity storage in a case with wind curtailment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loisel, Rodica; Mercier, Arnaud; Gatzen, Christoph; Elms, Nick; Petric, Hrvoje

2010-01-01

This paper investigates the value of large scale applications of electricity storage in selected European power systems in the context of wind generation confronted with a grid bottleneck. It analyzes the market value to 2030 of two storage technologies, assuming the market situation projected for Germany and France. The analysis assesses the evolution of storage economics based on the net present value of cash flows. Sensitivities to market and regulatory drivers of value are assessed, e.g. electricity price spreads, ancillary services revenues, wind curtailment and the level of carbon prices. The paper concludes by suggesting possible ways to improve the competitiveness of electricity storage, such as research and development and deployment programmes, and changes to the design of power markets and regulatory arrangements to enable storage owners to better capture the benefits of storage. Such changes would allow electricity storage, where economically viable, to play a critical role in establishing a future sustainable European power system. - Research highlights: →CAES and PHS are not cost-effective for current market design in France and Germany → Market reforms are run to reward bottleneck avoiding and ancillary reserves → Storage is profitable when all potential socio-economic benefits are aggregated → R and D and D programs for storage improvement are economically and socially justified.

An agent-based model of centralized institutions, social network technology, and revolution.

Science.gov (United States)

Makowsky, Michael D; Rubin, Jared

2013-01-01

This paper sheds light on the general mechanisms underlying large-scale social and institutional change. We employ an agent-based model to test the impact of authority centralization and social network technology on preference falsification and institutional change. We find that preference falsification is increasing with centralization and decreasing with social network range. This leads to greater cascades of preference revelation and thus more institutional change in highly centralized societies and this effect is exacerbated at greater social network ranges. An empirical analysis confirms the connections that we find between institutional centralization, social radius, preference falsification, and institutional change.

The Climate-G testbed: towards a large scale data sharing environment for climate change

Science.gov (United States)

Aloisio, G.; Fiore, S.; Denvil, S.; Petitdidier, M.; Fox, P.; Schwichtenberg, H.; Blower, J.; Barbera, R.

2009-04-01

The Climate-G testbed provides an experimental large scale data environment for climate change addressing challenging data and metadata management issues. The main scope of Climate-G is to allow scientists to carry out geographical and cross-institutional climate data discovery, access, visualization and sharing. Climate-G is a multidisciplinary collaboration involving both climate and computer scientists and it currently involves several partners such as: Centro Euro-Mediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace (IPSL), Fraunhofer Institut für Algorithmen und Wissenschaftliches Rechnen (SCAI), National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), University of Reading, University of Catania and University of Salento. To perform distributed metadata search and discovery, we adopted a CMCC metadata solution (which provides a high level of scalability, transparency, fault tolerance and autonomy) leveraging both on P2P and grid technologies (GRelC Data Access and Integration Service). Moreover, data are available through OPeNDAP/THREDDS services, Live Access Server as well as the OGC compliant Web Map Service and they can be downloaded, visualized, accessed into the proposed environment through the Climate-G Data Distribution Centre (DDC), the web gateway to the Climate-G digital library. The DDC is a data-grid portal allowing users to easily, securely and transparently perform search/discovery, metadata management, data access, data visualization, etc. Godiva2 (integrated into the DDC) displays 2D maps (and animations) and also exports maps for display on the Google Earth virtual globe. Presently, Climate-G publishes (through the DDC) about 2TB of data related to the ENSEMBLES project (also including distributed replicas of data) as well as to the IPCC AR4. The main results of the proposed work are: wide data access/sharing environment for climate change; P2P/grid metadata approach; production-level Climate-G DDC; high quality tools for

Needs, opportunities, and options for large scale systems research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Thompson, G.L.

1984-10-01

The Office of Energy Research was recently asked to perform a study of Large Scale Systems in order to facilitate the development of a true large systems theory. It was decided to ask experts in the fields of electrical engineering, chemical engineering and manufacturing/operations research for their ideas concerning large scale systems research. The author was asked to distribute a questionnaire among these experts to find out their opinions concerning recent accomplishments and future research directions in large scale systems research. He was also requested to convene a conference which included three experts in each area as panel members to discuss the general area of large scale systems research. The conference was held on March 26--27, 1984 in Pittsburgh with nine panel members, and 15 other attendees. The present report is a summary of the ideas presented and the recommendations proposed by the attendees.

Large-scale structure of the Universe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doroshkevich, A.G.

1978-01-01

The problems, discussed at the ''Large-scale Structure of the Universe'' symposium are considered on a popular level. Described are the cell structure of galaxy distribution in the Universe, principles of mathematical galaxy distribution modelling. The images of cell structures, obtained after reprocessing with the computer are given. Discussed are three hypothesis - vortical, entropic, adiabatic, suggesting various processes of galaxy and galaxy clusters origin. A considerable advantage of the adiabatic hypothesis is recognized. The relict radiation, as a method of direct studying the processes taking place in the Universe is considered. The large-scale peculiarities and small-scale fluctuations of the relict radiation temperature enable one to estimate the turbance properties at the pre-galaxy stage. The discussion of problems, pertaining to studying the hot gas, contained in galaxy clusters, the interactions within galaxy clusters and with the inter-galaxy medium, is recognized to be a notable contribution into the development of theoretical and observational cosmology

A compact to revitalise large-scale irrigation systems: A ‘theory of change’ approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruce A. Lankford

2016-02-01

Full Text Available In countries with transitional economies such as those found in South Asia, large-scale irrigation systems (LSIS with a history of public ownership account for about 115 million ha (Mha or approximately 45% of their total area under irrigation. In terms of the global area of irrigation (320 Mha for all countries, LSIS are estimated at 130 Mha or 40% of irrigated land. These systems can potentially deliver significant local, regional and global benefits in terms of food, water and energy security, employment, economic growth and ecosystem services. For example, primary crop production is conservatively valued at about US$355 billion. However, efforts to enhance these benefits and reform the sector have been costly and outcomes have been underwhelming and short-lived. We propose the application of a 'theory of change' (ToC as a foundation for promoting transformational change in large-scale irrigation centred upon a 'global irrigation compact' that promotes new forms of leadership, partnership and ownership (LPO. The compact argues that LSIS can change by switching away from the current channelling of aid finances controlled by government irrigation agencies. Instead it is for irrigators, closely partnered by private, public and NGO advisory and regulatory services, to develop strong leadership models and to find new compensatory partnerships with cities and other river basin neighbours. The paper summarises key assumptions for change in the LSIS sector including the need to initially test this change via a handful of volunteer systems. Our other key purpose is to demonstrate a ToC template by which large-scale irrigation policy can be better elaborated and discussed.

Seismic safety in conducting large-scale blasts

Science.gov (United States)

Mashukov, I. V.; Chaplygin, V. V.; Domanov, V. P.; Semin, A. A.; Klimkin, M. A.

2017-09-01

In mining enterprises to prepare hard rocks for excavation a drilling and blasting method is used. With the approach of mining operations to settlements the negative effect of large-scale blasts increases. To assess the level of seismic impact of large-scale blasts the scientific staff of Siberian State Industrial University carried out expertise for coal mines and iron ore enterprises. Determination of the magnitude of surface seismic vibrations caused by mass explosions was performed using seismic receivers, an analog-digital converter with recording on a laptop. The registration results of surface seismic vibrations during production of more than 280 large-scale blasts at 17 mining enterprises in 22 settlements are presented. The maximum velocity values of the Earth’s surface vibrations are determined. The safety evaluation of seismic effect was carried out according to the permissible value of vibration velocity. For cases with exceedance of permissible values recommendations were developed to reduce the level of seismic impact.

Visual attention mitigates information loss in small- and large-scale neural codes

Science.gov (United States)

Sprague, Thomas C; Saproo, Sameer; Serences, John T

2015-01-01

Summary The visual system transforms complex inputs into robust and parsimonious neural codes that efficiently guide behavior. Because neural communication is stochastic, the amount of encoded visual information necessarily decreases with each synapse. This constraint requires processing sensory signals in a manner that protects information about relevant stimuli from degradation. Such selective processing – or selective attention – is implemented via several mechanisms, including neural gain and changes in tuning properties. However, examining each of these effects in isolation obscures their joint impact on the fidelity of stimulus feature representations by large-scale population codes. Instead, large-scale activity patterns can be used to reconstruct representations of relevant and irrelevant stimuli, providing a holistic understanding about how neuron-level modulations collectively impact stimulus encoding. PMID:25769502

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF A SOCIAL SKILLS SCALE FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, H-Y; Lin, C-K

2015-10-01

The objective of this study was to develop a social skills scale for high school students in Taiwan. This study adopted stratified random sampling. A total of 1,729 high school students were included. The students ranged in age from 16 to 18 years. A Social Skills Scale was developed for this study and was designed for classroom teachers to fill out. The test-retest reliability of this scale was tested by Pearson's correlation coefficient. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine construct validity. The Social Skills Scale had good overall test-retest reliability of .92, and the internal consistency of the five subscales was above .90. The results of the factor analysis showed that the Social Skills Scale covered the five domains of classroom learning skills, communication skills, individual initiative skills, interaction skills, and job-related social skills, and the five factors explained 68.34% of the variance. Thus, the Social Skills Scale had good reliability and validity and would be applicable to and could be promoted for use in schools.

Image-based Exploration of Large-Scale Pathline Fields

KAUST Repository

Nagoor, Omniah H.

2014-05-27

While real-time applications are nowadays routinely used in visualizing large nu- merical simulations and volumes, handling these large-scale datasets requires high-end graphics clusters or supercomputers to process and visualize them. However, not all users have access to powerful clusters. Therefore, it is challenging to come up with a visualization approach that provides insight to large-scale datasets on a single com- puter. Explorable images (EI) is one of the methods that allows users to handle large data on a single workstation. Although it is a view-dependent method, it combines both exploration and modification of visual aspects without re-accessing the original huge data. In this thesis, we propose a novel image-based method that applies the concept of EI in visualizing large flow-field pathlines data. The goal of our work is to provide an optimized image-based method, which scales well with the dataset size. Our approach is based on constructing a per-pixel linked list data structure in which each pixel contains a list of pathlines segments. With this view-dependent method it is possible to filter, color-code and explore large-scale flow data in real-time. In addition, optimization techniques such as early-ray termination and deferred shading are applied, which further improves the performance and scalability of our approach.

Analysis using large-scale ringing data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baillie, S. R.

2004-06-01

survival and recruitment estimates from the French CES scheme to assess the relative contributions of survival and recruitment to overall population changes. He develops a novel approach to modelling survival rates from such multi–site data by using within–year recaptures to provide a covariate of between–year recapture rates. This provided parsimonious models of variation in recapture probabilities between sites and years. The approach provides promising results for the four species investigated and can potentially be extended to similar data from other CES/MAPS schemes. The final paper by Blandine Doligez, David Thomson and Arie van Noordwijk (Doligez et al., 2004 illustrates how large-scale studies of population dynamics can be important for evaluating the effects of conservation measures. Their study is concerned with the reintroduction of White Stork populations to the Netherlands where a re–introduction programme started in 1969 had resulted in a breeding population of 396 pairs by 2000. They demonstrate the need to consider a wide range of models in order to account for potential age, time, cohort and “trap–happiness” effects. As the data are based on resightings such trap–happiness must reflect some form of heterogeneity in resighting probabilities. Perhaps surprisingly, the provision of supplementary food did not influence survival, but it may havehad an indirect effect via the alteration of migratory behaviour. Spatially explicit modelling of data gathered at many sites inevitably results in starting models with very large numbers of parameters. The problem is often complicated further by having relatively sparse data at each site, even where the total amount of data gathered is very large. Both Julliard (2004 and Doligez et al. (2004 give explicit examples of problems caused by needing to handle very large numbers of parameters and show how they overcame them for their particular data sets. Such problems involve both the choice of appropriate

Combined process automation for large-scale EEG analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Sfondouris, John L; Quebedeaux, Tabitha M; Holdgraf, Chris; Musto, Alberto E

2012-01-01

Epileptogenesis is a dynamic process producing increased seizure susceptibility. Electroencephalography (EEG) data provides information critical in understanding the evolution of epileptiform changes throughout epileptic foci. We designed an algorithm to facilitate efficient large-scale EEG analysis via linked automation of multiple data processing steps. Using EEG recordings obtained from electrical stimulation studies, the following steps of EEG analysis were automated: (1) alignment and isolation of pre- and post-stimulation intervals, (2) generation of user-defined band frequency waveforms, (3) spike-sorting, (4) quantification of spike and burst data and (5) power spectral density analysis. This algorithm allows for quicker, more efficient EEG analysis. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling the impact of large-scale energy conversion systems on global climate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Williams, J.

There are three energy options which could satisfy a projected energy requirement of about 30 TW and these are the solar, nuclear and (to a lesser extent) coal options. Climate models can be used to assess the impact of large scale deployment of these options. The impact of waste heat has been assessed using energy balance models and general circulation models (GCMs). Results suggest that the impacts are significant when the heat imput is very high and studies of more realistic scenarios are required. Energy balance models, radiative-convective models and a GCM have been used to study the impact of doubling the atmospheric CO 2 concentration. State-of-the-art models estimate a surface temperature increase of 1.5-3.0 0 C with large amplification near the poles, but much uncertainty remains. Very few model studies have been made of the impact of particles on global climate, more information on the characteristics of particle input are required. The impact of large-scale deployment of solar energy conversion systems has received little attention but model studies suggest that large scale changes in surface characteristics associated with such systems (surface heat balance, roughness and hydrological characteristics and ocean surface temperature) could have significant global climatic effects. (Auth.)

The Case for the Perceived Social Competence Scale II

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson-Butcher, Dawn; Amorose, Anthony J.; Lower, Leeann M.; Riley, Allison; Gibson, Allison; Ruch, Donna

2016-01-01

Objective: This study examines the psychometric properties of the revised Perceived Social Competence Scale (PSCS), a brief, user-friendly tool used to assess social competence among youth. Method: Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) examined the factor structure and invariance of an enhanced scale (PSCS-II), among a sample of 420 youth.…

Strategic Environmental Assessment and Environmental Auditing in Large-scale Public Infrastructure Construction: the case of Qinghai-Tibet Railway

NARCIS (Netherlands)

He, G.; Zhang, L.; Lu, Y.

2009-01-01

Large-scale public infrastructure projects have featured in China’s modernization course since the early 1980s. During the early stages of China’s rapid economic development, public attention focused on the economic and social impact of high-profile construction projects. In recent years, however,

Homogenization of Large-Scale Movement Models in Ecology

Science.gov (United States)

Garlick, M.J.; Powell, J.A.; Hooten, M.B.; McFarlane, L.R.

2011-01-01

A difficulty in using diffusion models to predict large scale animal population dispersal is that individuals move differently based on local information (as opposed to gradients) in differing habitat types. This can be accommodated by using ecological diffusion. However, real environments are often spatially complex, limiting application of a direct approach. Homogenization for partial differential equations has long been applied to Fickian diffusion (in which average individual movement is organized along gradients of habitat and population density). We derive a homogenization procedure for ecological diffusion and apply it to a simple model for chronic wasting disease in mule deer. Homogenization allows us to determine the impact of small scale (10-100 m) habitat variability on large scale (10-100 km) movement. The procedure generates asymptotic equations for solutions on the large scale with parameters defined by small-scale variation. The simplicity of this homogenization procedure is striking when compared to the multi-dimensional homogenization procedure for Fickian diffusion,and the method will be equally straightforward for more complex models. ?? 2010 Society for Mathematical Biology.

Social Discounting of Large Dams with Climate Change Uncertainty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marc Jeuland

2010-06-01

This paper reviews the recent discounting controversy and examines its implications for the appraisal of an illustrative hydropower project in Ethiopia. The analysis uses an integrated hydro-economic model that accounts for how the dam’s transboundary impacts vary with climate change. The real value of the dam is found to be highly sensitive to assumptions about future economic growth. The argument for investment is weakest under conditions of robust global economic growth, particularly if these coincide with unfavourable hydrological or development factors related to the project. If however long-term growth is reduced, the value of the dam tends to increase. There may also be distributional or local arguments favouring investment, if growth in the investment region lags behind that of the rest of the globe. In such circumstances, a large dam can be seen as a form of insurance that protects future vulnerable generations against the possibility of macroeconomic instability or climate shocks.

Large scale expression changes of genes related to neuronal signaling and developmental processes found in lateral septum of postpartum outbred mice.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian E Eisinger

Full Text Available Coordinated gene expression changes across the CNS are required to produce the mammalian maternal phenotype. Lateral septum (LS is a brain region critically involved with aspects of maternal care, and we recently examined gene expression of whole septum (LS and medial septum in selectively bred maternal mice. Here, we expand on the prior study by 1 conducting microarray analysis solely on LS in virgin and postpartum mice, 2 using outbred mice, and 3 evaluating the role of sensory input on gene expression changes. Large scale changes in genes related to neuronal signaling were identified, including four GABAA receptor subunits. Subunits α4 and δ were downregulated in maternal LS, likely reflecting a reduction in the extrasynaptic, neurosteroid-sensitive α4/δ containing receptor subtype. Conversely, subunits ε and θ were increased in maternal LS. Fifteen K+ channel related genes showed altered expression, as did dopamine receptors Drd1a and Drd2 (both downregulated, hypocretin receptor 1 (Hcrtr1, kappa opioid receptor 1 (Oprk1, and transient receptor potential channel 4 (Trpc4. Expression of a large number of genes linked to developmental processes or cell differentiation were also altered in postpartum LS, including chemokine (C-X-C motif ligand 12 (Cxcl12, fatty acid binding protein 7 (Fabp7, plasma membrane proteolipid (Pllp, and suppressor of cytokine signaling 2 (Socs2. Additional genes that are linked to anxiety, such as glutathione reductase (Gsr, exhibited altered expression. Pathway analysis also identified changes in genes related to cyclic nucleotide metabolism, chromatin structure, and the Ras gene family. The sensory presence of pups was found to contribute to the altered expression of a subset of genes across all categories. This study suggests that both large changes in neuronal signaling and the possible terminal differentiation of neuronal and/or glial cells play important roles in producing the maternal state.

Status: Large-scale subatmospheric cryogenic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peterson, T.

1989-01-01

In the late 1960's and early 1970's an interest in testing and operating RF cavities at 1.8K motivated the development and construction of four large (300 Watt) 1.8K refrigeration systems. in the past decade, development of successful superconducting RF cavities and interest in obtaining higher magnetic fields with the improved Niobium-Titanium superconductors has once again created interest in large-scale 1.8K refrigeration systems. The L'Air Liquide plant for Tore Supra is a recently commissioned 300 Watt 1.8K system which incorporates new technology, cold compressors, to obtain the low vapor pressure for low temperature cooling. CEBAF proposes to use cold compressors to obtain 5KW at 2.0K. Magnetic refrigerators of 10 Watt capacity or higher at 1.8K are now being developed. The state of the art of large-scale refrigeration in the range under 4K will be reviewed. 28 refs., 4 figs., 7 tabs

Large-scale weakly supervised object localization via latent category learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Chong Wang; Kaiqi Huang; Weiqiang Ren; Junge Zhang; Maybank, Steve

2015-04-01

Localizing objects in cluttered backgrounds is challenging under large-scale weakly supervised conditions. Due to the cluttered image condition, objects usually have large ambiguity with backgrounds. Besides, there is also a lack of effective algorithm for large-scale weakly supervised localization in cluttered backgrounds. However, backgrounds contain useful latent information, e.g., the sky in the aeroplane class. If this latent information can be learned, object-background ambiguity can be largely reduced and background can be suppressed effectively. In this paper, we propose the latent category learning (LCL) in large-scale cluttered conditions. LCL is an unsupervised learning method which requires only image-level class labels. First, we use the latent semantic analysis with semantic object representation to learn the latent categories, which represent objects, object parts or backgrounds. Second, to determine which category contains the target object, we propose a category selection strategy by evaluating each category's discrimination. Finally, we propose the online LCL for use in large-scale conditions. Evaluation on the challenging PASCAL Visual Object Class (VOC) 2007 and the large-scale imagenet large-scale visual recognition challenge 2013 detection data sets shows that the method can improve the annotation precision by 10% over previous methods. More importantly, we achieve the detection precision which outperforms previous results by a large margin and can be competitive to the supervised deformable part model 5.0 baseline on both data sets.

Measurement of alienation among adolescents: construct validity of three scales on powerlessness, meaninglessness and social isolation.

Science.gov (United States)

Rayce, Signe Boe; Kreiner, Svend; Damsgaard, Mogens Trab; Nielsen, Tine; Holstein, Bjørn Evald

2017-01-01

Psychological alienation is an important concept in the study of adolescents' health and behavior but no gold standard for measuring alienation among adolescents exists. There is a need for new scales with high validity for use in adolescent health and social research. The purpose of the present study was to develop and validate alienation scales in accordance with Seeman's conceptualization of alienation focusing on three independent variants specifically relevant in adolescent health research: powerlessness, meaninglessness and social isolation. Cross-sectional data from 3083 adolescents aged 13 to 15 years from the Danish contribution to the cross-national study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) were used. We identified and developed items, addressed content and face validity through interviews, and examined the criterion-related construct validity of the scales using graphical loglinear Rasch models (GLLRM). The three scales each comprised three to five face valid items. The powerlessness scale reflected the adolescent's expectancy as to whether his/her behavior can determine the outcome or reinforcement he/she seeks. The meaninglessness scale reflected the expectancy as to whether satisfactory predictions regarding the effects of one's behavior are possible. Finally, the social isolation scale reflected whether the adolescent had a low expectancy for inclusion and social acceptance. All scales contained some uniform local dependency and differential item functioning. However, only to a limited degree, which could be accounted for using GLLRM. Thus the scales fitted GLLRMs and can therefore be considered to be essentially construct valid and essentially objective. The three alienation scales appear to be content and face valid and fulfill the psychometric properties of a good construct valid reflective scale. This suggests that the scales may be appropriate in future large-scale surveys to examine the relation between alienation and a range of

Large-scale networks in engineering and life sciences

CERN Document Server

Findeisen, Rolf; Flockerzi, Dietrich; Reichl, Udo; Sundmacher, Kai

2014-01-01

This edited volume provides insights into and tools for the modeling, analysis, optimization, and control of large-scale networks in the life sciences and in engineering. Large-scale systems are often the result of networked interactions between a large number of subsystems, and their analysis and control are becoming increasingly important. The chapters of this book present the basic concepts and theoretical foundations of network theory and discuss its applications in different scientific areas such as biochemical reactions, chemical production processes, systems biology, electrical circuits, and mobile agents. The aim is to identify common concepts, to understand the underlying mathematical ideas, and to inspire discussions across the borders of the various disciplines.  The book originates from the interdisciplinary summer school “Large Scale Networks in Engineering and Life Sciences” hosted by the International Max Planck Research School Magdeburg, September 26-30, 2011, and will therefore be of int...

Interactive exploration of large-scale time-varying data using dynamic tracking graphs

KAUST Repository

Widanagamaachchi, W.

2012-10-01

Exploring and analyzing the temporal evolution of features in large-scale time-varying datasets is a common problem in many areas of science and engineering. One natural representation of such data is tracking graphs, i.e., constrained graph layouts that use one spatial dimension to indicate time and show the "tracks" of each feature as it evolves, merges or disappears. However, for practical data sets creating the corresponding optimal graph layouts that minimize the number of intersections can take hours to compute with existing techniques. Furthermore, the resulting graphs are often unmanageably large and complex even with an ideal layout. Finally, due to the cost of the layout, changing the feature definition, e.g. by changing an iso-value, or analyzing properly adjusted sub-graphs is infeasible. To address these challenges, this paper presents a new framework that couples hierarchical feature definitions with progressive graph layout algorithms to provide an interactive exploration of dynamically constructed tracking graphs. Our system enables users to change feature definitions on-the-fly and filter features using arbitrary attributes while providing an interactive view of the resulting tracking graphs. Furthermore, the graph display is integrated into a linked view system that provides a traditional 3D view of the current set of features and allows a cross-linked selection to enable a fully flexible spatio-temporal exploration of data. We demonstrate the utility of our approach with several large-scale scientific simulations from combustion science. © 2012 IEEE.

Characterizing Temperature Variability and Associated Large Scale Meteorological Patterns Across South America

Science.gov (United States)

Detzer, J.; Loikith, P. C.; Mechoso, C. R.; Barkhordarian, A.; Lee, H.

2017-12-01

South America's climate varies considerably owing to its large geographic range and diverse topographical features. Spanning the tropics to the mid-latitudes and from high peaks to tropical rainforest, the continent experiences an array of climate and weather patterns. Due to this considerable spatial extent, assessing temperature variability at the continent scale is particularly challenging. It is well documented in the literature that temperatures have been increasing across portions of South America in recent decades, and while there have been many studies that have focused on precipitation variability and change, temperature has received less scientific attention. Therefore, a more thorough understanding of the drivers of temperature variability is critical for interpreting future change. First, k-means cluster analysis is used to identify four primary modes of temperature variability across the continent, stratified by season. Next, composites of large scale meteorological patterns (LSMPs) are calculated for months assigned to each cluster. Initial results suggest that LSMPs, defined using meteorological variables such as sea level pressure (SLP), geopotential height, and wind, are able to identify synoptic scale mechanisms important for driving temperature variability at the monthly scale. Some LSMPs indicate a relationship with known recurrent modes of climate variability. For example, composites of geopotential height suggest that the Southern Annular Mode is an important, but not necessarily dominant, component of temperature variability over southern South America. This work will be extended to assess the drivers of temperature extremes across South America.

Evaluation of the utility of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale in the diagnosis of social anxiety, impulsivity and depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Tyrała, Kinga; Seweryn, Mariusz; Bonk, Magdalena; Bulska, Weronika; Orszulak, Kamila; Bratek, Agnieszka; Krysta, Krzysztof

2015-09-01

Often mental disorders are serious problems concerning psychological well-being. They require comprehensive and specialized psychiatric and psychological help, but there are no public methods of controlling your mental state. The aim of study was the evaluation of the utility of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale in the diagnosis of social anxiety, impulsivity and depression. The study included 85 persons. The study group had 34 patients treated in an open ward of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of Medical University of Silesia in Katowice. The control group included 51 persons without mental disorders. Three self-rating questionnaires were used: Beck Depression Inventory, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. Statistica v10 Statsoft software was used for statistical analysis. The analyzed groups had significant differences in terms of Beck Scale (U Mann-Whitney test p=0.000001). Average score in study group: 22.94±12.50; in control group: 7.15±6.44. Groups had significant differences in terms of Liebowitz Scale (U test Mann-Whitney test, p=0.000164). Average score in the study group: 60.41±30.30; in control group: 35.01±23.94. Groups had significant differences in terms of Barratt Scale (t-student test p=0.000601). Average in study group: 66.35±9,49; in control group: 59.54±7.87. Significant positive correlation was observed between the results of Beck Scale and Liebowitz Scale (r=0.64465). Correlation was not observed between the results of the Liebowitz and Barrat (r=0.12091 and Beck and Barrat (r=0.21482). The intensity of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale is directly proportional to the severity of depression according to the Beck Depression Inventory. The degree of impulsivity by Barrat Impulsiveness Scale does not correlate with the level of depression according to Beck Depression Inventory. The analyzed scales are relevant in the diagnosis of mental disorders.

Superimposing various biophysical and social scales in a rapidly changing rural area (SW Niger)

Science.gov (United States)

Leduc, Christian; Massuel, Sylvain; Favreau, Guillaume; Cappelaere, Bernard; Leblanc, Marc; Bachir, Salifou; Ousmane, Boureïma

2014-05-01

transboundary aquifer that extends far beyond the study area, over about 150 000 km2. It is also heterogeneous. Like surface flows, but at a different scale, groundwater flows are marked by a strong endorheism. For example the Dantiandou closed piezometric depression extends over about approximately 5000 km2. These natural closed depressions are explained only by evapotranspiration uptake, weak in absolute terms (a few mm.a-1) but with a very high impact on hydrodynamics because of poor permeability and porosity. Both density of observations and hydraulic continuity of the CT3 aquifer give a fine idea of groundwater changes in the whole area. Human activities, continuously adapting in this poor rural area, add another complexity to the hydrological diversity in surface and ground water. The replacement of the natural vegetation with millet fields and fallow increased the surface runoff, and consequently water accumulation in temporary pools and then CT3 recharge. In the SE part of the study area, the water table has risen up to outcropping in the lowest valley bottoms. These new permanent ponds reflect groundwater while temporary ponds still reflect surface dynamics. This new component of the hydrological landscape induces several consequences, in physical and human dimensions. Evaporation strongly affects the permanent water and increases its salinity while the natural mineralization of groundwater is very low. The easier access to water resources allows a significant development of local gardening, which modifies the social functioning of villages (e.g. land rights between villages and within a village, diversification of crops and sources of income, new sales channels). Different physically based models (for surface and ground water) were built, with a significant discrepancy between their respective quantification of water flows at the region scale. Extrapolation of surface fluxes from the few instrumented catchments to a much larger mosaic of non-instrumented catchments is

The use of production management techniques in the construction of large scale physics detectors

CERN Document Server

Bazan, A; Estrella, F; Kovács, Z; Le Flour, T; Le Goff, J M; Lieunard, S; McClatchey, R; Murray, S; Varga, L Z; Vialle, J P; Zsenei, M

1999-01-01

The construction process of detectors for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments is large scale, heavily constrained by resource availability and evolves with time. As a consequence, changes in detector component design need to be tracked and quickly reflected in the construction process. With similar problems in industry engineers employ so-called Product Data Management (PDM) systems to control access to documented versions of designs and managers employ so- called Workflow Management software (WfMS) to coordinate production work processes. However, PDM and WfMS software are not generally integrated in industry. The scale of LHC experiments, like CMS, demands that industrial production techniques be applied in detector construction. This paper outlines the major functions and applications of the CRISTAL system (Cooperating Repositories and an information System for Tracking Assembly Lifecycles) in use in CMS which successfully integrates PDM and WfMS techniques in managing large scale physics detector ...

Natural Resource Management at Four Social Scales: Psychological Type Matters

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, Helen; Hobbs, Richard

2010-03-01

Understanding organisation at different social scales is crucial to learning how social processes play a role in sustainable natural resource management. Research has neglected the potential role that individual personality plays in decision making in natural resource management. In the past two decades natural resource management across rural Australia has increasingly come under the direct influence of voluntary participatory groups, such as Catchment Management Authorities. The greater complexity of relationships among all stakeholders is a serious management challenge when attempting to align their differing aspirations and values at four social institutional scales—local, regional, state and national. This is an exploratory study on the psychological composition of groups of stakeholders at the four social scales in natural resource management in Australia. This article uses the theory of temperaments and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) to investigate the distribution of personality types. The distribution of personality types in decision-making roles in natural resource management was markedly different from the Australian Archive sample. Trends in personality were found across social scales with Stabilizer temperament more common at the local scale and Theorist temperament more common at the national scale. Greater similarity was found at the state and national scales. Two temperaments comprised between 76 and 90% of participants at the local and regional scales, the common temperament type was Stabilizer. The dissimilarity was Improviser (40%) at the local scale and Theorist (29%) at the regional scale. Implications for increasing participation and bridging the gap between community and government are discussed.

An Novel Architecture of Large-scale Communication in IOT

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Wubin; Deng, Su; Huang, Hongbin

2018-03-01

In recent years, many scholars have done a great deal of research on the development of Internet of Things and networked physical systems. However, few people have made the detailed visualization of the large-scale communications architecture in the IOT. In fact, the non-uniform technology between IPv6 and access points has led to a lack of broad principles of large-scale communications architectures. Therefore, this paper presents the Uni-IPv6 Access and Information Exchange Method (UAIEM), a new architecture and algorithm that addresses large-scale communications in the IOT.

Challenges and Opportunities for Integrating Social Science Perspectives into Climate and Global Change Assessments

Science.gov (United States)

Larson, E. K.; Li, J.; Zycherman, A.

2017-12-01

Integration of social science into climate and global change assessments is fundamental for improving understanding of the drivers, impacts and vulnerability of climate change, and the social, cultural and behavioral challenges related to climate change responses. This requires disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge as well as integrational and translational tools for linking this knowledge with the natural and physical sciences. The USGCRP's Social Science Coordinating Committee (SSCC) is tasked with this challenge and is working to integrate relevant social, economic and behavioral knowledge into processes like sustained assessments. This presentation will discuss outcomes from a recent SSCC workshop, "Social Science Perspectives on Climate Change" and their applications to sustained assessments. The workshop brought academic social scientists from four disciplines - anthropology, sociology, geography and archaeology - together with federal scientists and program managers to discuss three major research areas relevant to the USGCRP and climate assessments: (1) innovative tools, methods, and analyses to clarify the interactions of human and natural systems under climate change, (2) understanding of factors contributing to differences in social vulnerability between and within communities under climate change, and (3) social science perspectives on drivers of global climate change. These disciplines, collectively, emphasize the need to consider socio-cultural, political, economic, geographic, and historic factors, and their dynamic interactions, to understand climate change drivers, social vulnerability, and mitigation and adaptation responses. They also highlight the importance of mixed quantitative and qualitative methods to explain impacts, vulnerability, and responses at different time and spatial scales. This presentation will focus on major contributions of the social sciences to climate and global change research. We will discuss future directions for

Social Norms of Cooperation in Small-Scale Societies.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando P Santos

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Indirect reciprocity, besides providing a convenient framework to address the evolution of moral systems, offers a simple and plausible explanation for the prevalence of cooperation among unrelated individuals. By helping someone, an individual may increase her/his reputation, which may change the pre-disposition of others to help her/him in the future. This, however, depends on what is reckoned as a good or a bad action, i.e., on the adopted social norm responsible for raising or damaging a reputation. In particular, it remains an open question which social norms are able to foster cooperation in small-scale societies, while enduring the wide plethora of stochastic affects inherent to finite populations. Here we address this problem by studying the stochastic dynamics of cooperation under distinct social norms, showing that the leading norms capable of promoting cooperation depend on the community size. However, only a single norm systematically leads to the highest cooperative standards in small communities. That simple norm dictates that only whoever cooperates with good individuals, and defects against bad ones, deserves a good reputation, a pattern that proves robust to errors, mutations and variations in the intensity of selection.

Social Norms of Cooperation in Small-Scale Societies.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Fernando P; Santos, Francisco C; Pacheco, Jorge M

2016-01-01

Indirect reciprocity, besides providing a convenient framework to address the evolution of moral systems, offers a simple and plausible explanation for the prevalence of cooperation among unrelated individuals. By helping someone, an individual may increase her/his reputation, which may change the pre-disposition of others to help her/him in the future. This, however, depends on what is reckoned as a good or a bad action, i.e., on the adopted social norm responsible for raising or damaging a reputation. In particular, it remains an open question which social norms are able to foster cooperation in small-scale societies, while enduring the wide plethora of stochastic affects inherent to finite populations. Here we address this problem by studying the stochastic dynamics of cooperation under distinct social norms, showing that the leading norms capable of promoting cooperation depend on the community size. However, only a single norm systematically leads to the highest cooperative standards in small communities. That simple norm dictates that only whoever cooperates with good individuals, and defects against bad ones, deserves a good reputation, a pattern that proves robust to errors, mutations and variations in the intensity of selection.

Benefits of transactive memory systems in large-scale development

OpenAIRE

Aivars, Sablis

2016-01-01

Context. Large-scale software development projects are those consisting of a large number of teams, maybe even spread across multiple locations, and working on large and complex software tasks. That means that neither a team member individually nor an entire team holds all the knowledge about the software being developed and teams have to communicate and coordinate their knowledge. Therefore, teams and team members in large-scale software development projects must acquire and manage expertise...

Large-scale genome-wide association studies and meta-analyses of longitudinal change in adult lung function.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenbo Tang

Full Text Available Genome-wide association studies (GWAS have identified numerous loci influencing cross-sectional lung function, but less is known about genes influencing longitudinal change in lung function.We performed GWAS of the rate of change in forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1 in 14 longitudinal, population-based cohort studies comprising 27,249 adults of European ancestry using linear mixed effects model and combined cohort-specific results using fixed effect meta-analysis to identify novel genetic loci associated with longitudinal change in lung function. Gene expression analyses were subsequently performed for identified genetic loci. As a secondary aim, we estimated the mean rate of decline in FEV1 by smoking pattern, irrespective of genotypes, across these 14 studies using meta-analysis.The overall meta-analysis produced suggestive evidence for association at the novel IL16/STARD5/TMC3 locus on chromosome 15 (P  =  5.71 × 10(-7. In addition, meta-analysis using the five cohorts with ≥3 FEV1 measurements per participant identified the novel ME3 locus on chromosome 11 (P  =  2.18 × 10(-8 at genome-wide significance. Neither locus was associated with FEV1 decline in two additional cohort studies. We confirmed gene expression of IL16, STARD5, and ME3 in multiple lung tissues. Publicly available microarray data confirmed differential expression of all three genes in lung samples from COPD patients compared with controls. Irrespective of genotypes, the combined estimate for FEV1 decline was 26.9, 29.2 and 35.7 mL/year in never, former, and persistent smokers, respectively.In this large-scale GWAS, we identified two novel genetic loci in association with the rate of change in FEV1 that harbor candidate genes with biologically plausible functional links to lung function.

Study of a large scale neutron measurement channel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Amarouayache, Anissa; Ben Hadid, Hayet.

1982-12-01

A large scale measurement channel allows the processing of the signal coming from an unique neutronic sensor, during three different running modes: impulses, fluctuations and current. The study described in this note includes three parts: - A theoretical study of the large scale channel and its brief description are given. The results obtained till now in that domain are presented. - The fluctuation mode is thoroughly studied and the improvements to be done are defined. The study of a fluctuation linear channel with an automatic commutation of scales is described and the results of the tests are given. In this large scale channel, the method of data processing is analogical. - To become independent of the problems generated by the use of a an analogical processing of the fluctuation signal, a digital method of data processing is tested. The validity of that method is improved. The results obtained on a test system realized according to this method are given and a preliminary plan for further research is defined [fr

The Emergence of Large-Scale Computer Assisted Summative Examination Facilities in Higher Education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Draaijer, S.; Warburton, W. I.

2014-01-01

A case study is presented of VU University Amsterdam where a dedicated large-scale CAA examination facility was established. In the facility, 385 students can take an exam concurrently. The case study describes the change factors and processes leading up to the decision by the institution to

Self-* and Adaptive Mechanisms for Large Scale Distributed Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Fragopoulou, P.; Mastroianni, C.; Montero, R.; Andrjezak, A.; Kondo, D.

Large-scale distributed computing systems and infrastructure, such as Grids, P2P systems and desktop Grid platforms, are decentralized, pervasive, and composed of a large number of autonomous entities. The complexity of these systems is such that human administration is nearly impossible and centralized or hierarchical control is highly inefficient. These systems need to run on highly dynamic environments, where content, network topologies and workloads are continuously changing. Moreover, they are characterized by the high degree of volatility of their components and the need to provide efficient service management and to handle efficiently large amounts of data. This paper describes some of the areas for which adaptation emerges as a key feature, namely, the management of computational Grids, the self-management of desktop Grid platforms and the monitoring and healing of complex applications. It also elaborates on the use of bio-inspired algorithms to achieve self-management. Related future trends and challenges are described.

On the scaling features of high-latitude geomagnetic field fluctuations during a large geomagnetic storm

Science.gov (United States)

De Michelis, Paola; Federica Marcucci, Maria; Consolini, Giuseppe

2015-04-01

Recently we have investigated the spatial distribution of the scaling features of short-time scale magnetic field fluctuations using measurements from several ground-based geomagnetic observatories distributed in the northern hemisphere. We have found that the scaling features of fluctuations of the horizontal magnetic field component at time scales below 100 minutes are correlated with the geomagnetic activity level and with changes in the currents flowing in the ionosphere. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the dynamical changes of the magnetic field scaling features as a function of the geomagnetic activity level during the well-known large geomagnetic storm occurred on July, 15, 2000 (the Bastille event). The observed dynamical changes are discussed in relationship with the changes of the overall ionospheric polar convection and potential structure as reconstructed using SuperDARN data. This work is supported by the Italian National Program for Antarctic Research (PNRA) - Research Project 2013/AC3.08 and by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme ([FP7/2007-2013]) under Grant no. 313038/STORM and

Identifying influential nodes in large-scale directed networks: the role of clustering.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Duan-Bing; Gao, Hui; Lü, Linyuan; Zhou, Tao

2013-01-01

Identifying influential nodes in very large-scale directed networks is a big challenge relevant to disparate applications, such as accelerating information propagation, controlling rumors and diseases, designing search engines, and understanding hierarchical organization of social and biological networks. Known methods range from node centralities, such as degree, closeness and betweenness, to diffusion-based processes, like PageRank and LeaderRank. Some of these methods already take into account the influences of a node's neighbors but do not directly make use of the interactions among it's neighbors. Local clustering is known to have negative impacts on the information spreading. We further show empirically that it also plays a negative role in generating local connections. Inspired by these facts, we propose a local ranking algorithm named ClusterRank, which takes into account not only the number of neighbors and the neighbors' influences, but also the clustering coefficient. Subject to the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) spreading model with constant infectivity, experimental results on two directed networks, a social network extracted from delicious.com and a large-scale short-message communication network, demonstrate that the ClusterRank outperforms some benchmark algorithms such as PageRank and LeaderRank. Furthermore, ClusterRank can also be applied to undirected networks where the superiority of ClusterRank is significant compared with degree centrality and k-core decomposition. In addition, ClusterRank, only making use of local information, is much more efficient than global methods: It takes only 191 seconds for a network with about [Formula: see text] nodes, more than 15 times faster than PageRank.

Identifying influential nodes in large-scale directed networks: the role of clustering.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duan-Bing Chen

Full Text Available Identifying influential nodes in very large-scale directed networks is a big challenge relevant to disparate applications, such as accelerating information propagation, controlling rumors and diseases, designing search engines, and understanding hierarchical organization of social and biological networks. Known methods range from node centralities, such as degree, closeness and betweenness, to diffusion-based processes, like PageRank and LeaderRank. Some of these methods already take into account the influences of a node's neighbors but do not directly make use of the interactions among it's neighbors. Local clustering is known to have negative impacts on the information spreading. We further show empirically that it also plays a negative role in generating local connections. Inspired by these facts, we propose a local ranking algorithm named ClusterRank, which takes into account not only the number of neighbors and the neighbors' influences, but also the clustering coefficient. Subject to the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR spreading model with constant infectivity, experimental results on two directed networks, a social network extracted from delicious.com and a large-scale short-message communication network, demonstrate that the ClusterRank outperforms some benchmark algorithms such as PageRank and LeaderRank. Furthermore, ClusterRank can also be applied to undirected networks where the superiority of ClusterRank is significant compared with degree centrality and k-core decomposition. In addition, ClusterRank, only making use of local information, is much more efficient than global methods: It takes only 191 seconds for a network with about [Formula: see text] nodes, more than 15 times faster than PageRank.

Identifying Influential Nodes in Large-Scale Directed Networks: The Role of Clustering

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Duan-Bing; Gao, Hui; Lü, Linyuan; Zhou, Tao

2013-01-01

Identifying influential nodes in very large-scale directed networks is a big challenge relevant to disparate applications, such as accelerating information propagation, controlling rumors and diseases, designing search engines, and understanding hierarchical organization of social and biological networks. Known methods range from node centralities, such as degree, closeness and betweenness, to diffusion-based processes, like PageRank and LeaderRank. Some of these methods already take into account the influences of a node’s neighbors but do not directly make use of the interactions among it’s neighbors. Local clustering is known to have negative impacts on the information spreading. We further show empirically that it also plays a negative role in generating local connections. Inspired by these facts, we propose a local ranking algorithm named ClusterRank, which takes into account not only the number of neighbors and the neighbors’ influences, but also the clustering coefficient. Subject to the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) spreading model with constant infectivity, experimental results on two directed networks, a social network extracted from delicious.com and a large-scale short-message communication network, demonstrate that the ClusterRank outperforms some benchmark algorithms such as PageRank and LeaderRank. Furthermore, ClusterRank can also be applied to undirected networks where the superiority of ClusterRank is significant compared with degree centrality and k-core decomposition. In addition, ClusterRank, only making use of local information, is much more efficient than global methods: It takes only 191 seconds for a network with about nodes, more than 15 times faster than PageRank. PMID:24204833

Exploiting Proximity-Based Mobile Apps for Large-Scale Location Privacy Probing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shuang Zhao

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Proximity-based apps have been changing the way people interact with each other in the physical world. To help people extend their social networks, proximity-based nearby-stranger (NS apps that encourage people to make friends with nearby strangers have gained popularity recently. As another typical type of proximity-based apps, some ridesharing (RS apps allowing drivers to search nearby passengers and get their ridesharing requests also become popular due to their contribution to economy and emission reduction. In this paper, we concentrate on the location privacy of proximity-based mobile apps. By analyzing the communication mechanism, we find that many apps of this type are vulnerable to large-scale location spoofing attack (LLSA. We accordingly propose three approaches to performing LLSA. To evaluate the threat of LLSA posed to proximity-based mobile apps, we perform real-world case studies against an NS app named Weibo and an RS app called Didi. The results show that our approaches can effectively and automatically collect a huge volume of users’ locations or travel records, thereby demonstrating the severity of LLSA. We apply the LLSA approaches against nine popular proximity-based apps with millions of installations to evaluate the defense strength. We finally suggest possible countermeasures for the proposed attacks.

Large-scale straw supplies to existing coal-fired power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gylling, M.; Parsby, M.; Thellesen, H.Z.; Keller, P.

1992-08-01

It is considered that large-scale supply of straw to power stations and decentral cogeneration plants could open up new economical systems and methods of organization of straw supply in Denmark. This thesis is elucidated and involved constraints are pointed out. The aim is to describe to what extent large-scale straw supply is interesting with regard to monetary savings and available resources. Analyses of models, systems and techniques described in a foregoing project are carried out. It is reckoned that the annual total amount of surplus straw in Denmark is 3.6 million tons. At present, use of straw which is not agricultural is limited to district heating plants with an annual consumption of 2-12 thousand tons. A prerequisite for a significant increase in the use of straw is an annual consumption by power and cogeneration plants of more than 100.000 tons. All aspects of straw management are examined in detail, also in relation to two actual Danish coal-fired plants. The reliability of straw supply is considered. It is concluded that very significant resources of straw are available in Denmark but there remain a number of constraints. Price competitiveness must be considered in relation to other fuels. It is suggested that the use of corn harvests, with whole stems attached (handled as large bales or in the same way as sliced straw alone) as fuel, would result in significant monetary savings in transport and storage especially. An equal status for whole-harvested corn with other forms of biomass fuels, with following changes in taxes and subsidies could possibly reduce constraints on large scale straw fuel supply. (AB) (13 refs.)

Changes in the Social Responsibility Attitudes of Engineering Students Over Time.

Science.gov (United States)

Bielefeldt, Angela R; Canney, Nathan E

2016-10-01

This research explored how engineering student views of their responsibility toward helping individuals and society through their profession, so-called social responsibility, change over time. A survey instrument was administered to students initially primarily in their first year, senior year, or graduate studies majoring in mechanical, civil, or environmental engineering at five institutions in September 2012, April 2013, and March 2014. The majority of the students (57 %) did not change significantly in their social responsibility attitudes, but 23 % decreased and 20 % increased. The students who increased, decreased, or remained the same in their social responsibility attitudes over time did not differ significantly in terms of gender, academic rank, or major. Some differences were found between institutions. Students who decreased in social responsibility initially possessed more positive social responsibility attitudes, were less likely to indicate that college courses impacted their views of social responsibility, and were more likely to have decreased in the frequency that they participated in volunteer activities, compared to students who did not change or increased their social responsibility. Although the large percentage of engineering students who decreased their social responsibility during college was disappointing, it is encouraging that courses and participation in volunteer activities may combat this trend.

Emergence of scale-free close-knit friendship structure in online social networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ai-Xiang Cui

Full Text Available Although the structural properties of online social networks have attracted much attention, the properties of the close-knit friendship structures remain an important question. Here, we mainly focus on how these mesoscale structures are affected by the local and global structural properties. Analyzing the data of four large-scale online social networks reveals several common structural properties. It is found that not only the local structures given by the indegree, outdegree, and reciprocal degree distributions follow a similar scaling behavior, the mesoscale structures represented by the distributions of close-knit friendship structures also exhibit a similar scaling law. The degree correlation is very weak over a wide range of the degrees. We propose a simple directed network model that captures the observed properties. The model incorporates two mechanisms: reciprocation and preferential attachment. Through rate equation analysis of our model, the local-scale and mesoscale structural properties are derived. In the local-scale, the same scaling behavior of indegree and outdegree distributions stems from indegree and outdegree of nodes both growing as the same function of the introduction time, and the reciprocal degree distribution also shows the same power-law due to the linear relationship between the reciprocal degree and in/outdegree of nodes. In the mesoscale, the distributions of four closed triples representing close-knit friendship structures are found to exhibit identical power-laws, a behavior attributed to the negligible degree correlations. Intriguingly, all the power-law exponents of the distributions in the local-scale and mesoscale depend only on one global parameter, the mean in/outdegree, while both the mean in/outdegree and the reciprocity together determine the ratio of the reciprocal degree of a node to its in/outdegree. Structural properties of numerical simulated networks are analyzed and compared with each of the four

Emergence of scale-free close-knit friendship structure in online social networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Ai-Xiang; Zhang, Zi-Ke; Tang, Ming; Hui, Pak Ming; Fu, Yan

2012-01-01

Although the structural properties of online social networks have attracted much attention, the properties of the close-knit friendship structures remain an important question. Here, we mainly focus on how these mesoscale structures are affected by the local and global structural properties. Analyzing the data of four large-scale online social networks reveals several common structural properties. It is found that not only the local structures given by the indegree, outdegree, and reciprocal degree distributions follow a similar scaling behavior, the mesoscale structures represented by the distributions of close-knit friendship structures also exhibit a similar scaling law. The degree correlation is very weak over a wide range of the degrees. We propose a simple directed network model that captures the observed properties. The model incorporates two mechanisms: reciprocation and preferential attachment. Through rate equation analysis of our model, the local-scale and mesoscale structural properties are derived. In the local-scale, the same scaling behavior of indegree and outdegree distributions stems from indegree and outdegree of nodes both growing as the same function of the introduction time, and the reciprocal degree distribution also shows the same power-law due to the linear relationship between the reciprocal degree and in/outdegree of nodes. In the mesoscale, the distributions of four closed triples representing close-knit friendship structures are found to exhibit identical power-laws, a behavior attributed to the negligible degree correlations. Intriguingly, all the power-law exponents of the distributions in the local-scale and mesoscale depend only on one global parameter, the mean in/outdegree, while both the mean in/outdegree and the reciprocity together determine the ratio of the reciprocal degree of a node to its in/outdegree. Structural properties of numerical simulated networks are analyzed and compared with each of the four real networks. This

Capabilities of the Large-Scale Sediment Transport Facility

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-01

pump flow meters, sediment trap weigh tanks , and beach profiling lidar. A detailed discussion of the original LSTF features and capabilities can be...ERDC/CHL CHETN-I-88 April 2016 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Capabilities of the Large-Scale Sediment Transport...describes the Large-Scale Sediment Transport Facility (LSTF) and recent upgrades to the measurement systems. The purpose of these upgrades was to increase

Analysis on the Critical Rainfall Value For Predicting Large Scale Landslides Caused by Heavy Rainfall In Taiwan.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Kuang-Jung; Chiang, Jie-Lun; Lee, Ming-Hsi; Chen, Yie-Ruey

2017-04-01

Analysis on the Critical Rainfall Value For Predicting Large Scale Landslides Caused by Heavy Rainfall In Taiwan. Kuang-Jung Tsai 1, Jie-Lun Chiang 2,Ming-Hsi Lee 2, Yie-Ruey Chen 1, 1Department of Land Management and Development, Chang Jung Christian Universityt, Tainan, Taiwan. 2Department of Soil and Water Conservation, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan. ABSTRACT The accumulated rainfall amount was recorded more than 2,900mm that were brought by Morakot typhoon in August, 2009 within continuous 3 days. Very serious landslides, and sediment related disasters were induced by this heavy rainfall event. The satellite image analysis project conducted by Soil and Water Conservation Bureau after Morakot event indicated that more than 10,904 sites of landslide with total sliding area of 18,113ha were found by this project. At the same time, all severe sediment related disaster areas are also characterized based on their disaster type, scale, topography, major bedrock formations and geologic structures during the period of extremely heavy rainfall events occurred at the southern Taiwan. Characteristics and mechanism of large scale landslide are collected on the basis of the field investigation technology integrated with GPS/GIS/RS technique. In order to decrease the risk of large scale landslides on slope land, the strategy of slope land conservation, and critical rainfall database should be set up and executed as soon as possible. Meanwhile, study on the establishment of critical rainfall value used for predicting large scale landslides induced by heavy rainfall become an important issue which was seriously concerned by the government and all people live in Taiwan. The mechanism of large scale landslide, rainfall frequency analysis ,sediment budge estimation and river hydraulic analysis under the condition of extremely climate change during the past 10 years would be seriously concerned and recognized as a required issue by this

Technological change and social change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Janshen, D.; Keck, O.; Webler, W.D.

1981-01-01

Political disputes about the risks and social consequences of modern technologies let many people ask whether society still has an independent capacity to act on the technological change or whether it is not rather the passive object of an obscure development. Modern technology is a challenge not only to the analytical capacity of social sciences. This volume describes the contributions of a conference which took place in April 1979. The first part deals with the social consequences of new technologies. Hereby new communication technologies are the main theme. The contributions of the second part deal with political, organizational, and methodical problems of the sociologic accessory research of technical and social innovations. The texts of the third part analyse experience so far made in the state support of research and technical development. (orig./HP) [de

Spatiotemporal property and predictability of large-scale human mobility

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Hai-Tao; Zhu, Tao; Fu, Dongfei; Xu, Bowen; Han, Xiao-Pu; Chen, Duxin

2018-04-01

Spatiotemporal characteristics of human mobility emerging from complexity on individual scale have been extensively studied due to the application potential on human behavior prediction and recommendation, and control of epidemic spreading. We collect and investigate a comprehensive data set of human activities on large geographical scales, including both websites browse and mobile towers visit. Numerical results show that the degree of activity decays as a power law, indicating that human behaviors are reminiscent of scale-free random walks known as Lévy flight. More significantly, this study suggests that human activities on large geographical scales have specific non-Markovian characteristics, such as a two-segment power-law distribution of dwelling time and a high possibility for prediction. Furthermore, a scale-free featured mobility model with two essential ingredients, i.e., preferential return and exploration, and a Gaussian distribution assumption on the exploration tendency parameter is proposed, which outperforms existing human mobility models under scenarios of large geographical scales.

Visual attention mitigates information loss in small- and large-scale neural codes.

Science.gov (United States)

Sprague, Thomas C; Saproo, Sameer; Serences, John T

2015-04-01

The visual system transforms complex inputs into robust and parsimonious neural codes that efficiently guide behavior. Because neural communication is stochastic, the amount of encoded visual information necessarily decreases with each synapse. This constraint requires that sensory signals are processed in a manner that protects information about relevant stimuli from degradation. Such selective processing--or selective attention--is implemented via several mechanisms, including neural gain and changes in tuning properties. However, examining each of these effects in isolation obscures their joint impact on the fidelity of stimulus feature representations by large-scale population codes. Instead, large-scale activity patterns can be used to reconstruct representations of relevant and irrelevant stimuli, thereby providing a holistic understanding about how neuron-level modulations collectively impact stimulus encoding. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Drivers of fishing at the household scale in Fiji

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachel Dacks

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Coral reefs sustain millions of people worldwide, yet in recent years, social, environmental, and climate change have caused major declines in coral reef fisheries. Small-scale coral reef fisheries research has largely focused on community-level drivers of fishing, ignoring the heterogeneities that exist within communities. We used social-ecological indicators from 20 coastal villages in Fiji to identify potential fine-scale, context-appropriate drivers of estimated household fish catch. Indicators were developed based on a review of the literature, discussions with local experts, and a pilot study. Using structural equation models, we found that importance of fishing to income, household fish consumption, livelihood diversity, travel time to market, and coral reef area all positively affect estimated household-level fish catch. Our results contrast with findings from other larger scale studies by identifying that households further from markets had higher fishing frequency. We highlight the role of middlemen in these small-scale fisheries, who have been largely overlooked as drivers of fisheries catch. Our findings emphasize the need for household-level analyses to better understand the complexities in coral reef social-ecological systems to more effectively manage small-scale fisheries in communities.

A comparison of working in small-scale and large-scale nursing homes: A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Vermeerbergen, Lander; Van Hootegem, Geert; Benders, Jos

2017-02-01

Ongoing shortages of care workers, together with an ageing population, make it of utmost importance to increase the quality of working life in nursing homes. Since the 1970s, normalised and small-scale nursing homes have been increasingly introduced to provide care in a family and homelike environment, potentially providing a richer work life for care workers as well as improved living conditions for residents. 'Normalised' refers to the opportunities given to residents to live in a manner as close as possible to the everyday life of persons not needing care. The study purpose is to provide a synthesis and overview of empirical research comparing the quality of working life - together with related work and health outcomes - of professional care workers in normalised small-scale nursing homes as compared to conventional large-scale ones. A systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies. A systematic literature search (April 2015) was performed using the electronic databases Pubmed, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL and Web of Science. References and citations were tracked to identify additional, relevant studies. We identified 825 studies in the selected databases. After checking the inclusion and exclusion criteria, nine studies were selected for review. Two additional studies were selected after reference and citation tracking. Three studies were excluded after requesting more information on the research setting. The findings from the individual studies suggest that levels of job control and job demands (all but "time pressure") are higher in normalised small-scale homes than in conventional large-scale nursing homes. Additionally, some studies suggested that social support and work motivation are higher, while risks of burnout and mental strain are lower, in normalised small-scale nursing homes. Other studies found no differences or even opposing findings. The studies reviewed showed that these inconclusive findings can be attributed to care workers in some

Problems of large-scale vertically-integrated aquaculture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Webber, H H; Riordan, P F

1976-01-01

The problems of vertically-integrated aquaculture are outlined; they are concerned with: species limitations (in the market, biological and technological); site selection, feed, manpower needs, and legal, institutional and financial requirements. The gaps in understanding of, and the constraints limiting, large-scale aquaculture are listed. Future action is recommended with respect to: types and diversity of species to be cultivated, marketing, biotechnology (seed supply, disease control, water quality and concerted effort), siting, feed, manpower, legal and institutional aids (granting of water rights, grants, tax breaks, duty-free imports, etc.), and adequate financing. The last of hard data based on experience suggests that large-scale vertically-integrated aquaculture is a high risk enterprise, and with the high capital investment required, banks and funding institutions are wary of supporting it. Investment in pilot projects is suggested to demonstrate that large-scale aquaculture can be a fully functional and successful business. Construction and operation of such pilot farms is judged to be in the interests of both the public and private sector.

Social networks and environmental outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, Michele L; Lynham, John; Kalberg, Kolter; Leung, PingSun

2016-06-07

Social networks can profoundly affect human behavior, which is the primary force driving environmental change. However, empirical evidence linking microlevel social interactions to large-scale environmental outcomes has remained scarce. Here, we leverage comprehensive data on information-sharing networks among large-scale commercial tuna fishers to examine how social networks relate to shark bycatch, a global environmental issue. We demonstrate that the tendency for fishers to primarily share information within their ethnic group creates segregated networks that are strongly correlated with shark bycatch. However, some fishers share information across ethnic lines, and examinations of their bycatch rates show that network contacts are more strongly related to fishing behaviors than ethnicity. Our findings indicate that social networks are tied to actions that can directly impact marine ecosystems, and that biases toward within-group ties may impede the diffusion of sustainable behaviors. Importantly, our analysis suggests that enhanced communication channels across segregated fisher groups could have prevented the incidental catch of over 46,000 sharks between 2008 and 2012 in a single commercial fishery.

Large-scale computing with Quantum Espresso

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giannozzi, P.; Cavazzoni, C.

2009-01-01

This paper gives a short introduction to Quantum Espresso: a distribution of software for atomistic simulations in condensed-matter physics, chemical physics, materials science, and to its usage in large-scale parallel computing.

Dynamics of soil carbon stocks due to large-scale land use changes across the former Soviet Union during the 20th century

Science.gov (United States)

Kurganova, Irina; Prishchepov, Alexander V.; Schierhorn, Florian; Lopes de Gerenyu, Valentin; Müller, Daniel; Kuzyakov, Yakov

2016-04-01

Land use change is a major driver of land-atmosphere carbon (C) fluxes. The largest net C fluxes caused by LUC are attributed to the conversion of native unmanaged ecosystems to croplands and vice versa. Here, we present the changes of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in response to large-scale land use changes in the former Soviet Union from 1953-2012. Widespread and rapid conversion of native ecosystems to croplands occurred in the course of the Virgin Lands Campaign (VLC) between 1954 to 1963 in the Soviet Union, when more than 45 million hectares (Mha) were ploughed in south-eastern Russia and northern Kazakhstan in order to expand domestic food production. After 1991, the collapse of the Soviet Union triggered the abandonment of around 75 Mha across the post-Soviet states. To assess SOC dynamics, we generated a static cropland mask for 2009 based on three global cropland maps. We used the cropland mask to spatially disaggregate annual sown area statistics at province level based on the suitability of each plot for crop production, which yielded land use maps for each year from 1954 to 2012 for all post-Soviet states. To estimate the SOC-dynamics due to the VLC and post-Soviet croplands abandonment, we used available experimental data, own field measurements, and soil maps. A bookkeeping approach was applied to assess the total changes in SOC-stocks in response to large-scale land use changes in the former Soviet Union. The massive croplands expansion during VLC resulted in a substantial loss of SOC - 611±47 Mt C and 241±11 Mt C for the upper 0-50 cm soil layer during the first 20 years of cultivation for Russia and Kazakhstan, respectively. These magnitudes are similar to C losses due to the plowing up of the prairies in USA in the mid-1930s. The total SOC sequestration due to post-Soviet croplands abandonment was estimated at 72.2±6.0 Mt C per year from 1991 to 2010. This amount of carbon equals about 40% of the current fossil fuel emission for this

How to correct for long-term externalities of large-scale wind power development by a capacity mechanism?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cepeda, Mauricio; Finon, Dominique

2013-01-01

This paper deals with the practical problems related to long-term security of supply in electricity markets in the presence of large-scale wind power development. The success of recent renewable promotion schemes adds a new dimension to ensuring long-term security of supply: it necessitates designing second-best policies to prevent large-scale wind power development from distorting long-run equilibrium prices and investments in conventional generation and in particular in peaking units. We rely upon a long-term simulation model which simulates electricity market players' investment decisions in a market regime and incorporates large-scale wind power development in the presence of either subsidized or market driven development scenarios. We test the use of capacity mechanisms to compensate for long-term effects of large-scale wind power development on prices and reliability of supply. The first finding is that capacity mechanisms can help to reduce the social cost of large scale wind power development in terms of decrease of loss of load probability. The second finding is that, in a market-based wind power deployment without subsidy, wind generators are penalised for insufficient contribution to the long term system's reliability. - Highlights: • We model power market players’ investment decisions incorporating wind power. • We examine two market designs: an energy-only market and a capacity mechanism. • We test two types of wind power development paths: subsidised and market-driven. • Capacity mechanisms compensate for the externalities of wind power developments

TensorFlow: Large-Scale Machine Learning on Heterogeneous Distributed Systems

OpenAIRE

Abadi, Martín; Agarwal, Ashish; Barham, Paul; Brevdo, Eugene; Chen, Zhifeng; Citro, Craig; Corrado, Greg S.; Davis, Andy; Dean, Jeffrey; Devin, Matthieu; Ghemawat, Sanjay; Goodfellow, Ian; Harp, Andrew; Irving, Geoffrey; Isard, Michael

2016-01-01

TensorFlow is an interface for expressing machine learning algorithms, and an implementation for executing such algorithms. A computation expressed using TensorFlow can be executed with little or no change on a wide variety of heterogeneous systems, ranging from mobile devices such as phones and tablets up to large-scale distributed systems of hundreds of machines and thousands of computational devices such as GPU cards. The system is flexible and can be used to express a wide variety of algo...

Canary in the coal mine: Historical oxygen decline in the Gulf of St. Lawrence due to large scale climate changes

Science.gov (United States)

Claret, M.; Galbraith, E. D.; Palter, J. B.; Gilbert, D.; Bianchi, D.; Dunne, J. P.

2016-02-01

The regional signature of anthropogenic climate change on the atmosphere and upper ocean is often difficult to discern from observational timeseries, dominated as they are by decadal climate variability. Here we argue that a long-term decline of dissolved oxygen concentrations observed in the Gulf of S. Lawrence (GoSL) is consistent with anthropogenic climate change. Oxygen concentrations in the GoSL have declined markedly since 1930 due primarily to an increase of oxygen-poor North Atlantic Central Waters relative to Labrador Current Waters (Gilbert et al. 2005). We compare these observations to a climate warming simulation using a very high-resolution global coupled ocean-atmospheric climate model. The numerical model (CM2.6), developed by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, is strongly eddying and includes a biogeochemical module with dissolved oxygen. The warming scenario shows that oxygen in the GoSL decreases and it is associated to changes in western boundary currents and wind patterns in the North Atlantic. We speculate that the large-scale changes behind the simulated decrease in GoSL oxygen have also been at play in the real world over the past century, although they are difficult to resolve in noisy atmospheric data.

The European Union Solidarity Fund: An Important Tool in the Recovery After Large-Scale Natural Disasters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria IONCICĂ

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses the situation of the European Union Solidarity Fund, as an important tool in the recovery after large-scale natural disasters. In the last millennium, the European Union countries have faced climate change, which lead to events with disastrous consequences. There are several ex-post financial ways to respond to the challenges posed by large-scale natural disasters, among which EU Solidarity Fund, government funds, budget reallocation, donor assistance, domestic and/or external credit. The EU Solidarity Fund was created in 2002 after the massive floods from the Central Europe as the expression of the solidarity of EU countries. Romania has received financial assistance from the EU Solidarity Fund after the occurrence of major natural disasters, regional and neighbouring country disasters. The assessment of large-scale natural disasters in EU is very important and in order to analyse if there is a concentration of large-scale natural disasters in EU we used the Gini coefficient. In the paper, the method of the statistical analysis and the correlation between several indicators were used to study the financial impacts of large-scale natural disasters in Europe, and especially in Romania.

Size Reduction Techniques for Large Scale Permanent Magnet Generators in Wind Turbines

Science.gov (United States)

Khazdozian, Helena; Hadimani, Ravi; Jiles, David

2015-03-01

Increased wind penetration is necessary to reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, combat climate change and increase national energy security. The U.S Department of Energy has recommended large scale and offshore wind turbines to achieve 20% wind electricity generation by 2030. Currently, geared doubly-fed induction generators (DFIGs) are typically employed in the drivetrain for conversion of mechanical to electrical energy. Yet, gearboxes account for the greatest downtime of wind turbines, decreasing reliability and contributing to loss of profit. Direct drive permanent magnet generators (PMGs) offer a reliable alternative to DFIGs by eliminating the gearbox. However, PMGs scale up in size and weight much more rapidly than DFIGs as rated power is increased, presenting significant challenges for large scale wind turbine application. Thus, size reduction techniques are needed for viability of PMGs in large scale wind turbines. Two size reduction techniques are presented. It is demonstrated that 25% size reduction of a 10MW PMG is possible with a high remanence theoretical permanent magnet. Additionally, the use of a Halbach cylinder in an outer rotor PMG is investigated to focus magnetic flux over the rotor surface in order to increase torque. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1069283 and a Barbara and James Palmer Endowment at Iowa State University.

Modification of large-scale motions in a turbulent pipe flow

Science.gov (United States)

Senshu, Kohei; Shinozaki, Hiroaki; Sakakibara, Jun

2017-11-01

We performed experiments to modify the flow structures in a fully developed turbulent flow in a straight round pipe. The modification of the flow was achieved by installing a short coaxial inner pipe. The inner pipe has ability to add continuous suction or blowing disturbance through its outer surface. The experiments were conducted at a Reynolds number of 44,000 with seven different disturbance patterns. The wall static pressure was measured and pipe friction coefficient was evaluated. The velocity distribution was measured with PIV and very large scale motions (VLSMs) were visualized. Pipe friction coefficient was increased by installing the inner pipe, while turbulence intensities over the cross section were reduced. Slight change of the friction was observed if the disturbance was added. We decomposed fluctuating velocity field in the azimuthal direction by a Fourier series expansion. As a result, we obtained that contribution of lower azimuthal mode numbers (m = 2, 3, 4) reduced while the higher modes increased. This was consistent with the observation of visualized very large scale motions.

VESPA: Very large-scale Evolutionary and Selective Pressure Analyses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew E. Webb

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Background Large-scale molecular evolutionary analyses of protein coding sequences requires a number of preparatory inter-related steps from finding gene families, to generating alignments and phylogenetic trees and assessing selective pressure variation. Each phase of these analyses can represent significant challenges, particularly when working with entire proteomes (all protein coding sequences in a genome from a large number of species. Methods We present VESPA, software capable of automating a selective pressure analysis using codeML in addition to the preparatory analyses and summary statistics. VESPA is written in python and Perl and is designed to run within a UNIX environment. Results We have benchmarked VESPA and our results show that the method is consistent, performs well on both large scale and smaller scale datasets, and produces results in line with previously published datasets. Discussion Large-scale gene family identification, sequence alignment, and phylogeny reconstruction are all important aspects of large-scale molecular evolutionary analyses. VESPA provides flexible software for simplifying these processes along with downstream selective pressure variation analyses. The software automatically interprets results from codeML and produces simplified summary files to assist the user in better understanding the results. VESPA may be found at the following website: http://www.mol-evol.org/VESPA.

Impacts of forest changes on hydrology: a case study of large watersheds in the upper reach of Yangtze River Basin

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, X.; Liu, S.; Wei, X.

2012-05-01

Quantifying the effects of forest changes on hydrology in large watersheds is important for designing forest or land management and adaptation strategies for watershed ecosystem sustainability. Minjiang River watershed located in the upper reach of the Yangtze River Basin plays a strategic role in environmental protection and economic and social wellbeing for both the watershed and the entire Yangtze Basin. The watershed lies in the transition zone from Sichuan Basin to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with a size of 24 000 km2. Due to its strategic significance, severe historic deforestation and high sensitivity to climate change, the watershed has long been one of the highest priority watersheds in China for scientific research and resource management. The purpose of this review paper is to provide a state-of-the-art summary on what we have learned from several recently-completed research programs (one of them known as "973 of the China National Major Fundamental Science" with funding of 3.5 million USD in 2002 to 2008). This summary paper focused on how land cover or forest change affected hydrology at both forest stand and watershed scales in this large watershed. Inclusion of two different spatial scales is useful because the results from a small spatial scale (e.g. forest stand level) can help interpret the findings at a large spatial scale. Our review suggests that historic forest harvesting or land cover change has caused significant water increase due to reduction of forest canopy interception and evapotranspiration caused by removal of forest vegetation at both spatial scales. The impact magnitudes caused by forest harvesting indicate that the hydrological effects of forest or land cover changes can be as important as those caused by climate change, while the opposite impact directions suggest their offsetting effects on water yields in the Minjiang River watershed. In addition, different types of forests have different magnitudes of ET with old-growth natural

Potential climatic impacts and reliability of large-scale offshore wind farms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Chien; Prinn, Ronald G

2011-01-01

The vast availability of wind power has fueled substantial interest in this renewable energy source as a potential near-zero greenhouse gas emission technology for meeting future world energy needs while addressing the climate change issue. However, in order to provide even a fraction of the estimated future energy needs, a large-scale deployment of wind turbines (several million) is required. The consequent environmental impacts, and the inherent reliability of such a large-scale usage of intermittent wind power would have to be carefully assessed, in addition to the need to lower the high current unit wind power costs. Our previous study (Wang and Prinn 2010 Atmos. Chem. Phys. 10 2053) using a three-dimensional climate model suggested that a large deployment of wind turbines over land to meet about 10% of predicted world energy needs in 2100 could lead to a significant temperature increase in the lower atmosphere over the installed regions. A global-scale perturbation to the general circulation patterns as well as to the cloud and precipitation distribution was also predicted. In the later study reported here, we conducted a set of six additional model simulations using an improved climate model to further address the potential environmental and intermittency issues of large-scale deployment of offshore wind turbines for differing installation areas and spatial densities. In contrast to the previous land installation results, the offshore wind turbine installations are found to cause a surface cooling over the installed offshore regions. This cooling is due principally to the enhanced latent heat flux from the sea surface to lower atmosphere, driven by an increase in turbulent mixing caused by the wind turbines which was not entirely offset by the concurrent reduction of mean wind kinetic energy. We found that the perturbation of the large-scale deployment of offshore wind turbines to the global climate is relatively small compared to the case of land

Irreversible social change

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pols, A.J.K.; Romijn, H.A.; Collste, G.; Reuter, L.

2014-01-01

In this paper we evaluate how irreversible social change should be evaluated from an ethical perspective. First; we analyse the notion of irreversibility in general terms. We define a general notion of what makes a change irreversible; drawing on discussions in ecology and economics. This notion is

Composition and structure of a large online social network in The Netherlands.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rense Corten

Full Text Available Limitations in data collection have long been an obstacle in research on friendship networks. Most earlier studies use either a sample of ego-networks, or complete network data on a relatively small group (e.g., a single organization. The rise of online social networking services such as Friendster and Facebook, however, provides researchers with opportunities to study friendship networks on a much larger scale. This study uses complete network data from Hyves, a popular online social networking service in The Netherlands, comprising over eight million members and over 400 million online friendship relations. In the first study of its kind for The Netherlands, I examine the structure of this network in terms of the degree distribution, characteristic path length, clustering, and degree assortativity. Results indicate that this network shares features of other large complex networks, but also deviates in other respects. In addition, a comparison with other online social networks shows that these networks show remarkable similarities.

Composition and structure of a large online social network in The Netherlands.

Science.gov (United States)

Corten, Rense

2012-01-01

Limitations in data collection have long been an obstacle in research on friendship networks. Most earlier studies use either a sample of ego-networks, or complete network data on a relatively small group (e.g., a single organization). The rise of online social networking services such as Friendster and Facebook, however, provides researchers with opportunities to study friendship networks on a much larger scale. This study uses complete network data from Hyves, a popular online social networking service in The Netherlands, comprising over eight million members and over 400 million online friendship relations. In the first study of its kind for The Netherlands, I examine the structure of this network in terms of the degree distribution, characteristic path length, clustering, and degree assortativity. Results indicate that this network shares features of other large complex networks, but also deviates in other respects. In addition, a comparison with other online social networks shows that these networks show remarkable similarities.

Development and Examination of Personal and Social Responsibility Behaviors Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bijen FİLİZ

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In this study, “Personal and Social Responsibility Behaviors Scale (PSRB-S” was developed in order to determine students’ responsibility behaviors in accordance with “Personal and Social Responsibility” model developed by Don Hellison and students’ personal and social responsibility levels were examined in terms of gender, age and years of sport practice through this scale. Pertaining to personal and social dimension of responsibility, four-category Likert type trial scale consisting of 52 items and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA were applied to 330 high-school students. Items that did not apply as a result of the analysis were omitted from 52-item trial scale and the scale was reduced to 14 items. A final scale consisting of two factors was created. Obtained scale was applied to different 250 high-school students for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA. It has been determined that EFA and CFA results of two-factor PSRB-S and reliability and validity of internal consistency coefficients are at an acceptable level. It was not detected a significance difference in total scores of athlete students’ responsibility behaviors in terms of gender and age variables while there were significant difference in their total scores of years of sport practice.

Large-scale synthesis of YSZ nanopowder by Pechini method

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Administrator

structure and chemical purity of 99⋅1% by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy on a large scale. Keywords. Sol–gel; yttria-stabilized zirconia; large scale; nanopowder; Pechini method. 1. Introduction. Zirconia has attracted the attention of many scientists because of its tremendous thermal, mechanical ...

Downscaling the Impacts of Large-Scale LUCC on Surface Temperature along with IPCC RCPs: A Global Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiangzheng Deng

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This study focuses on the potential impacts of large-scale land use and land cover changes (LUCC on surface temperature from a global perspective. As important types of LUCC, urbanization, deforestation, cultivated land reclamation, and grassland degradation have effects on the climate, the potential changes of the surface temperature caused by these four types of large-scale LUCC from 2010 to 2050 are downscaled, and this issue analyzed worldwide along with Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC. The first case study presents some evidence of the effects of future urbanization on surface temperature in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States of America (USA. In order to understand the potential climatological variability caused by future forest deforestation and vulnerability, we chose Brazilian Amazon region as the second case study. The third selected region in India as a typical region of cultivated land reclamation where the possible climatic impacts are explored. In the fourth case study, we simulate the surface temperature changes caused by future grassland degradation in Mongolia. Results show that the temperature in built-up area would increase obviously throughout the four land types. In addition, the effects of all four large-scale LUCC on monthly average temperature change would vary from month to month with obviously spatial heterogeneity.

The cultural validation of two scales to assess social stigma in leprosy.

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Ruth M H; Dadun; Van Brakel, Wim H; Zweekhorst, Marjolein B M; Damayanti, Rita; Bunders, Joske F G; Irwanto

2014-01-01

Stigma plays in an important role in the lives of persons affected by neglected tropical diseases, and assessment of stigma is important to document this. The aim of this study is to test the cross-cultural validity of the Community Stigma Scale (EMIC-CSS) and the Social Distance Scale (SDS) in the field of leprosy in Cirebon District, Indonesia. Cultural equivalence was tested by assessing the conceptual, item, semantic, operational and measurement equivalence of these instruments. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted to increase our understanding of the concept of stigma in Cirebon District. A process of translation, discussions, trainings and a pilot study followed. A sample of 259 community members was selected through convenience sampling and 67 repeated measures were obtained to assess the psychometric measurement properties. The aspects and items in the SDS and EMIC-CSS seem equally relevant and important in the target culture. The response scales were adapted to ensure that meaning is transferred accurately and no changes to the scale format (e.g. lay out, statements or questions) of both scales were made. A positive correlation was found between the EMIC-CSS and the SDS total scores (r=0.41). Cronbach's alphas of 0.83 and 0.87 were found for the EMIC-CSS and SDS. The exploratory factor analysis indicated for both scales an adequate fit as unidimensional scale. A standard error of measurement of 2.38 was found in the EMIC-CSS and of 1.78 in the SDS. The test-retest reliability coefficient was respectively, 0.84 and 0.75. No floor or ceiling effects were found. According to current international standards, our findings indicate that the EMIC-CSS and the SDS have adequate cultural validity to assess social stigma in leprosy in the Bahasa Indonesia-speaking population of Cirebon District. We believe the scales can be further improved, for instance, by adding, changing and rephrasing certain items. Finally, we provide suggestions for use with other

The Cultural Validation of Two Scales to Assess Social Stigma in Leprosy

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Ruth M. H.; Dadun; Van Brakel, Wim H.; Zweekhorst, Marjolein B. M.; Damayanti, Rita; Bunders, Joske F. G.; Irwanto

2014-01-01

Background Stigma plays in an important role in the lives of persons affected by neglected tropical diseases, and assessment of stigma is important to document this. The aim of this study is to test the cross-cultural validity of the Community Stigma Scale (EMIC-CSS) and the Social Distance Scale (SDS) in the field of leprosy in Cirebon District, Indonesia. Methodology/principle findings Cultural equivalence was tested by assessing the conceptual, item, semantic, operational and measurement equivalence of these instruments. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted to increase our understanding of the concept of stigma in Cirebon District. A process of translation, discussions, trainings and a pilot study followed. A sample of 259 community members was selected through convenience sampling and 67 repeated measures were obtained to assess the psychometric measurement properties. The aspects and items in the SDS and EMIC-CSS seem equally relevant and important in the target culture. The response scales were adapted to ensure that meaning is transferred accurately and no changes to the scale format (e.g. lay out, statements or questions) of both scales were made. A positive correlation was found between the EMIC-CSS and the SDS total scores (r = 0.41). Cronbach's alphas of 0.83 and 0.87 were found for the EMIC-CSS and SDS. The exploratory factor analysis indicated for both scales an adequate fit as unidimensional scale. A standard error of measurement of 2.38 was found in the EMIC-CSS and of 1.78 in the SDS. The test-retest reliability coefficient was respectively, 0.84 and 0.75. No floor or ceiling effects were found. Conclusions/significance According to current international standards, our findings indicate that the EMIC-CSS and the SDS have adequate cultural validity to assess social stigma in leprosy in the Bahasa Indonesia-speaking population of Cirebon District. We believe the scales can be further improved, for instance, by adding, changing and

Effects of large-scale deforestation on precipitation in the monsoon regions: remote versus local effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Devaraju, N; Bala, Govindasamy; Modak, Angshuman

2015-03-17

In this paper, using idealized climate model simulations, we investigate the biogeophysical effects of large-scale deforestation on monsoon regions. We find that the remote forcing from large-scale deforestation in the northern middle and high latitudes shifts the Intertropical Convergence Zone southward. This results in a significant decrease in precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere monsoon regions (East Asia, North America, North Africa, and South Asia) and moderate precipitation increases in the Southern Hemisphere monsoon regions (South Africa, South America, and Australia). The magnitude of the monsoonal precipitation changes depends on the location of deforestation, with remote effects showing a larger influence than local effects. The South Asian Monsoon region is affected the most, with 18% decline in precipitation over India. Our results indicate that any comprehensive assessment of afforestation/reforestation as climate change mitigation strategies should carefully evaluate the remote effects on monsoonal precipitation alongside the large local impacts on temperatures.

A see-saw of pre-Columbian boom regions in southern Peru, determined by large-scale circulation changes

Science.gov (United States)

Mächtle, B.; Schittek, K.; Forbriger, M.; Schäbitz, F.; Eitel, B.

2012-04-01

Environmental changes and cultural transitions during several periods of Peruvian history show a strong coincidence between humid and dry climatic oscillations and the rise and decline of cultures. It is noteworthy, that alternating periods of geo-ecological fragility and stability occurred in time and space between the coastal Nasca region (14.5° S) and the high Andean northern Titicaca basin, just a few hundred kilometers to the east. Based on a multi-proxy palynological and sedimentological approach to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental changes, we found that the Nasca region received a maximum of precipitation during the archaeological boom times of the Early Horizon and the Early Intermediate Period (800 BC - 650 AD, Paracas and Nasca cultures) as well as during the late intermediate period (1150-1450 AD), whereas, in contrast, the Titicaca region further to the south-east experienced drought and cultural depression during that times. During the Middle Horizon (650 - 1150 AD), the Tiwanaku agronomy and culture boomed in the Titicaca region and expanded to the west, contemporaneous with a raised lake level and more humid conditions. In the Nasca region, runoff for irrigation purposes was reduced and less reliable due to drought. Considering a coincidence between environmental and cultural changes, we state that success and decline of civilizations were controlled by hydrological oscillations, triggering fertility as well as a critical loss of natural resources. In response to spatial changing resources, cultural foci were shifted. Therefore, the success of pre-Columbian civilizations was closely coupled to areas of geo-ecological favorability, which were directly controlled by distinct regional impacts of large-scale circulation mechanisms, including El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Changes in the position of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and the Bolivian anticyclone determined meridional shifts in moisture transport across the Andes, which

Efficient graph-based dynamic load-balancing for parallel large-scale agent-based traffic simulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Xu, Y.; Cai, W.; Aydt, H.; Lees, M.; Tolk, A.; Diallo, S.Y.; Ryzhov, I.O.; Yilmaz, L.; Buckley, S.; Miller, J.A.

2014-01-01

One of the issues of parallelizing large-scale agent-based traffic simulations is partitioning and load-balancing. Traffic simulations are dynamic applications where the distribution of workload in the spatial domain constantly changes. Dynamic load-balancing at run-time has shown better efficiency

Large-scale Agricultural Land Acquisitions in West Africa | IDRC ...

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

This project will examine large-scale agricultural land acquisitions in nine West African countries -Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Benin, Mali, Togo, Senegal, Niger, and Côte d'Ivoire. ... They will use the results to increase public awareness and knowledge about the consequences of large-scale land acquisitions.

IKONOS imagery for the Large Scale Biosphere–Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA).

Science.gov (United States)

George Hurtt; Xiangming Xiao; Michael Keller; Michael Palace; Gregory P. Asner; Rob Braswell; Brond& #305; Eduardo S. zio; Manoel Cardoso; Claudio J.R. Carvalho; Matthew G. Fearon; Liane Guild; Steve Hagen; Scott Hetrick; Berrien Moore III; Carlos Nobre; Jane M. Read; S& aacute; Tatiana NO-VALUE; Annette Schloss; George Vourlitis; Albertus J. Wickel

2003-01-01

The LBA-ECO program is one of several international research components under the Brazilian-led Large Scale Biosphere–Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA). The field-oriented research activities of this study are organized along transects and include a set of primary field sites, where the major objective is to study land-use change and ecosystem dynamics, and a...

Large-scale geographic variation in distribution and abundance of Australian deep-water kelp forests.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ezequiel M Marzinelli

Full Text Available Despite the significance of marine habitat-forming organisms, little is known about their large-scale distribution and abundance in deeper waters, where they are difficult to access. Such information is necessary to develop sound conservation and management strategies. Kelps are main habitat-formers in temperate reefs worldwide; however, these habitats are highly sensitive to environmental change. The kelp Ecklonia radiate is the major habitat-forming organism on subtidal reefs in temperate Australia. Here, we provide large-scale ecological data encompassing the latitudinal distribution along the continent of these kelp forests, which is a necessary first step towards quantitative inferences about the effects of climatic change and other stressors on these valuable habitats. We used the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV facility of Australia's Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS to survey 157,000 m2 of seabed, of which ca 13,000 m2 were used to quantify kelp covers at multiple spatial scales (10-100 m to 100-1,000 km and depths (15-60 m across several regions ca 2-6° latitude apart along the East and West coast of Australia. We investigated the large-scale geographic variation in distribution and abundance of deep-water kelp (>15 m depth and their relationships with physical variables. Kelp cover generally increased with latitude despite great variability at smaller spatial scales. Maximum depth of kelp occurrence was 40-50 m. Kelp latitudinal distribution along the continent was most strongly related to water temperature and substratum availability. This extensive survey data, coupled with ongoing AUV missions, will allow for the detection of long-term shifts in the distribution and abundance of habitat-forming kelp and the organisms they support on a continental scale, and provide information necessary for successful implementation and management of conservation reserves.

Socialization Sequences and Student Attitudes Towards Non-Violent Social Change.

Science.gov (United States)

Boulding, Elise

Examined is a general model of the socialization process based on Polak's theory of social change which identifies key agents of the process which shape perceptions of the possibility of creative change instead of defensiveness or aggression in situations where old behaviors are inadequate. Six agents of socialization are identified: family,…

Large-scale motions in the universe: a review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burstein, D.

1990-01-01

The expansion of the universe can be retarded in localised regions within the universe both by the presence of gravity and by non-gravitational motions generated in the post-recombination universe. The motions of galaxies thus generated are called 'peculiar motions', and the amplitudes, size scales and coherence of these peculiar motions are among the most direct records of the structure of the universe. As such, measurements of these properties of the present-day universe provide some of the severest tests of cosmological theories. This is a review of the current evidence for large-scale motions of galaxies out to a distance of ∼5000 km s -1 (in an expanding universe, distance is proportional to radial velocity). 'Large-scale' in this context refers to motions that are correlated over size scales larger than the typical sizes of groups of galaxies, up to and including the size of the volume surveyed. To orient the reader into this relatively new field of study, a short modern history is given together with an explanation of the terminology. Careful consideration is given to the data used to measure the distances, and hence the peculiar motions, of galaxies. The evidence for large-scale motions is presented in a graphical fashion, using only the most reliable data for galaxies spanning a wide range in optical properties and over the complete range of galactic environments. The kinds of systematic errors that can affect this analysis are discussed, and the reliability of these motions is assessed. The predictions of two models of large-scale motion are compared to the observations, and special emphasis is placed on those motions in which our own Galaxy directly partakes. (author)

State of the Art in Large-Scale Soil Moisture Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Ochsner, Tyson E.; Cosh, Michael Harold; Cuenca, Richard H.; Dorigo, Wouter; Draper, Clara S.; Hagimoto, Yutaka; Kerr, Yan H.; Larson, Kristine M.; Njoku, Eni Gerald; Small, Eric E.;