Revisiting the Past: Replicability of a Historic Long-Term Vegetation Dynamics Assessment in the Era of Big Data Analytics

Open and analysis-ready data, as well as methodological and technical advancements have resulted in an unprecedented capability for observing the Earth’s land surfaces. Over 10 years ago, Landsat time series analyses were inevitably limited to a few expensive images from carefully selected acquisition dates. Yet, such a static selection may have introduced uncertainties when spatial or inter-annual variability in seasonal vegetation growth were large. As seminal pre-open-data-era papers are still heavily cited, variations of their workflows are still widely used, too. Thus, here we quantitatively assessed the level of agreement between an approach using carefully selected images and a state-of-the-art analysis that uses all available images. We reproduced a representative case study from the year 2003 that for the first time used annual Landsat time series to assess long-term vegetation dynamics in a semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystem in Crete, Greece. We replicated this assessment using all available data paired with a time series method based on land surface phenology metrics. Results differed fundamentally because the volatile timing of statically selected images relative to the phenological cycle introduced systematic uncertainty. We further applied lessons learned to arrive at a more nuanced and information-enriched vegetation dynamics description by decomposing vegetation cover into woody and herbaceous components, followed by a syndrome-based classification of change and trend parameters. This allowed for a more reliable interpretation of vegetation changes and even permitted us to disentangle certain land-use change processes with opposite trajectories in the vegetation components that were not observable when solely analyzing total vegetation cover. The long-term budget of net cover change revealed that vegetation cover of both components has increased at large and that this process was mainly driven by gradual processes. We conclude that study designs based on static image selection strategies should be critically evaluated in the light of current data availability, analytical capabilities, and with regards to the ecosystem under investigation. We recommend using all available data and taking advantage of phenology-based approaches that remove the selection bias and hence reduce uncertainties in results.Peer Reviewe

Migration of the Ukrainian Population

"Ukraine is a 'border' society, situated culturally and socio-politically between Eurasian and Euro-Atlantic poles of attraction. The influence of these two distinct cultures can be seen throughout Ukrainian society, but particularly in its migration patterns. In this book, Dr Hab. Y. Bilan analyses external migration from Ukraine using the system analysis approach combining econometric analysis and statistical modelling, historiographical and institutional analyses along with quantitative and qualitative sociological analysis with special attention to media discourse and congregational, demographic, gender and regional dimensions.

Hydroformylation of Higher Olefins Using Radium Phosphite Complex Catalyst

Hydroformylation of olefins with CO and Hz at total pressure of IS to 50 bar and temperature of 80 to l20°C, in presence of rhodium (Rh)-based homogeneous catalysts for production of aldehydes has demonstrated high yields and selectivity. Rh-based catalysts are expensive and the commercial viability of a process that uses such catalysts substantially depends on the efficiency of catalyst recovery and product separation. In this work, a novel temperature dependent multi-component solvent (TMS) or 'thermomorphic solvent' system has been used as the reaction medium to investigate hydroformylation of two higher olefins - 1-octene and 1-dodecene - to synthesize the corresponding aldehydes at a lower pressure of 15-25 bar and temperature of 80 to 100°C. Such a solvent mixture changes thermally from biphasic to monophasic with distribution of the products and of the catalyst in the non-polar and polar phases thus simplifying the process of separation and recycling of the catalyst. A TMS- system consisting of three components - propylene carbonate (PC), ndodecane and 1,4-dioxane was used in this study. The presence of 1,4-dioxane imparts the thermomorphic character to the solvent mixture. For a gas-liquid reaction, the solubility of the reactant gas in the liquid medium is an important parameter required for the interpretation of reaction kinetics. Therefore experimental measurement of solubility of the gaseous reactants - CO and Hz - in the individual components of the solvent as well as in their mixtures was performed up to a pressure of 1.5 MPa and temperature range of 298-343 K. The effects of solvent composition, partial pressures of the gaseous reactants - CO and Hz, reaction temperature and catalyst loading on the rate, yield and selectivity of the linear aldehydes were also investigated. At a reaction temperature of 363 K and total pressure of 1.5 MPa and 0.68 mM HRh(CO)(PPh3)3, the conversion of 1- octene and the yield of aldehyde were 97 % and 95 %, respectively. The aldehyde product was recovered in the non polar phase whereas the catalyst remained in the polar phase with low catalyst loss of 3 %. With a reaction-time of 2 h and a selectivity of 89 %, this catalytic system can be considered as highly reactive and selective. The rate was found to be first order with respect to catalyst, 1-octene and PH, . The rate vs. Pco resembled a typical case of substrate inhibited kinetics. Hydroformylation of Higher Olefins Using Radium Phosphite Complex Catalys

Modern Telemetry

Telemetry is based on knowledge of various disciplines like Electronics, Measurement, Control and Communication along with their combination. This fact leads to a need of studying and understanding of these principles before the usage of Telemetry on selected problem solving. Spending time is however many times returned in form of obtained data or knowledge which telemetry system can provide. Usage of telemetry can be found in many areas from military through biomedical to real medical applications. Modern way to create a wireless sensors remotely connected to central system with artificial intelligence provide many new, sometimes unusual ways to get a knowledge about remote objects behaviour. This book is intended to present some new up to date accesses to telemetry problems solving by use of new sensors conceptions, new wireless transfer or communication techniques, data collection or processing techniques as well as several real use case scenarios describing model examples. Most of book chapters deals with many real cases of telemetry issues which can be used as a cookbooks for your own telemetry related problems

Deliverable 1.1 review document on the management of marine areas with particular regard on concepts, objectives, frameworks and tools to implement, monitor, and evaluate spatially managed areas

The main objectives if this document were to review the existing information on spatial management of marine areas, identifying the relevant policy objectives, to identify parameters linked to the success or failure of the various Spatially Managed marine Areas (SMAs) regimes, to report on methods and tools used in monitoring and evaluation of the state of SMAs, and to identify gaps and weaknesses in the existing frameworks in relation to the implementation, monitoring, evaluation and management of SMAs. The document is naturally divided in two sections: Section 1 reviews the concepts, objectives, drivers, policy and management framework, and extraneous factors related to the design, implementation and evaluation of SMAs; Section 2 reviews the tools and methods to monitor and evaluate seabed habitats and marine populations.peer-reviewe

Hydroformylation of Higher Olefins Using Radium Phosphite Complex Catalyst

Hydroformylation of olefins with CO and Hz at total pressure of IS to 50 bar and temperature of 80 to l20°C, in presence of rhodium (Rh)-based homogeneous catalysts for production of aldehydes has demonstrated high yields and selectivity. Rh-based catalysts are expensive and the commercial viability of a process that uses such catalysts substantially depends on the efficiency of catalyst recovery and product separation. In this work, a novel temperature dependent multi-component solvent (TMS) or 'thermomorphic solvent' system has been used as the reaction medium to investigate hydroformylation of two higher olefins - 1-octene and 1-dodecene - to synthesize the corresponding aldehydes at a lower pressure of 15-25 bar and temperature of 80 to 100°C. Such a solvent mixture changes thermally from biphasic to monophasic with distribution of the products and of the catalyst in the non-polar and polar phases thus simplifying the process of separation and recycling of the catalyst. A TMS- system consisting of three components - propylene carbonate (PC), ndodecane and 1,4-dioxane was used in this study. The presence of 1,4-dioxane imparts the thermomorphic character to the solvent mixture. For a gas-liquid reaction, the solubility of the reactant gas in the liquid medium is an important parameter required for the interpretation of reaction kinetics. Therefore experimental measurement of solubility of the gaseous reactants - CO and Hz - in the individual components of the solvent as well as in their mixtures was performed up to a pressure of 1.5 MPa and temperature range of 298-343 K. The effects of solvent composition, partial pressures of the gaseous reactants - CO and Hz, reaction temperature and catalyst loading on the rate, yield and selectivity of the linear aldehydes were also investigated. At a reaction temperature of 363 K and total pressure of 1.5 MPa and 0.68 mM HRh(CO)(PPh3)3, the conversion of 1- octene and the yield of aldehyde were 97 % and 95 %, respectively. The aldehyde product was recovered in the non polar phase whereas the catalyst remained in the polar phase with low catalyst loss of 3 %. With a reaction-time of 2 h and a selectivity of 89 %, this catalytic system can be considered as highly reactive and selective. The rate was found to be first order with respect to catalyst, 1-octene and PH, . The rate vs. Pco resembled a typical case of substrate inhibited kinetics. Hydroformylation of Higher Olefins Using Radium Phosphite Complex Catalys

Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Conservation and Biology, 2-6 March 1999 South Padre Island, Texas, U.S.A.

The 19th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation was the largest to date. The beautiful venue was the South Padre Island Convention Centre on South Padre Island, Texas from March 2-6, 1999. Key features of the 19th were invited talks on the theme The Promise, the Pain, and the Progress of 50 years of Sea Turtle Research and Conservation, a mini-symposium on the Kemp's ridley and an increased emphasis on high quality poster sessions. Hosts for the meeting included Texas A&M University, the Texas Sea Grant College Program, The Gladys Porter Zoo and Sea Turtle, Inc. Co-sponsors included the National Marine Fisheries Service-Southeast Fisheries Science Center, the National Marine Fisheries Service-Protected Resources Branch, Padre Island National Seashore and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. With the assistance of Jack Frazier, we were fortunate to obtain a $30,000 grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. This grant provided travel support to 49 individuals from 24 nations who presented a total of 50 presentations. (PDF contains 309 pages

U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform

The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform was created by Congress to assess U.S. immigration policy and make recommendations regarding its implementation and effects. Mandated in the Immigration Act of 1990 to submit an interim report in 1994 and a final report in 1997, the Commission has undertaken public hearings, fact-finding missions, and expert consultations to identify the major immigration-related issues facing the United States today.LBJ School of Public Affair