Report of the Second External Programme and Management Review of ICLARM

Second External Program and Management Review (EPMR) of ICLARM, carried out between September 1998 and February 1999 by a panel chaired by Hans Gregersen. The document also contains an excerpt from the report of the CGIAR 1999 Mid Term Meeting, a transmittal from the TAC Chair and CGIAR Executive Secretary, TAC's commentary, ICLARM's response, and a transmittal from the review panel chair.The review panel recommended further development of ICLARM's tactical plan for Africa and West Asia, and the representation of other countries from the region on the staff at the regional headquarters in Egypt. It suggested use of external mechanisms for the review of all ICLARM research. The panel also suggested that ICLARM find an alternative to the ten year limit on staff tenure. The center should continue on the path it is on, and seek additional resources. TAC was encouraged to note a major effort at strategic planning. It hoped that ICLARM would undertake reviews of all of its research activities.The report was discussed at TAC 76, and considered by an ad hoc committee at the CGIAR Mid-Term Meeting in May 1999. The committee endorsed the panel recommendations, and its report was approved by the Group, including the decision to transfer ICLARM's headquarters to Malaysia

Fourth Aircraft Interior Noise Workshop

The fourth in a series of NASA/SAE Interior Noise Workshops was held on May 19 and 20, 1992. The theme of the workshop was new technology and applications for aircraft noise with emphasis on source noise prediction; cabin noise prediction; cabin noise control, including active and passive methods; and cabin interior noise procedures. This report is a compilation of the presentations made at the meeting which addressed the above issues

Huleveden biosuodatus Suomen ilmasto-olosuhteissa

Stormwater is traditionally drained from the source as fast as possible to receiving waters. However, along with rapidly increasing urbanization, the adverse effects of stormwater on the environment are recognized and new management strategies are developed with the aim to mimic the predevelopment state of urban areas. Relatively new techniques that rely on these kinds of principles are referred to as Low Impact Development (LID) systems in the USA, Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) in Australia and Sustainable Urban Design Systems (SUDS) in the UK. This study investigated the suitability of one of the LID techniques, biofiltration, for treating stormwater generated on a traffic area in Finnish climate conditions. The aim of this study was to define general guidelines for implementing biofiltration systems in the urban context. Additionally, the goal was to find effective design recommendations for a filtration system, which is to be built in Vantaa in southern Finland to manage and treat the stormwater generated on a new roundabout and its surroundings. Biofiltration systems work also as delaying structures but this study focused primarily on the stormwater quality issues. This study is divided into literature review and design work. The literature review focused on presenting and comparing implemented biofiltration designs and their performance and the identification of the city areas where biofiltration systems could be integrated. Furthermore, the aim was to find the optimal structure for the conditions of the planned site and define the required reduction rates for selected pollutants by comparing stormwater pollutant concentrations to reference values defined in Stockholm. The information obtained from the literature was applied to practice in the design work. The design catchment was modeled with the rainfall-runoff simulation model SWMM (Storm Water Management Model), the response of the catchment area to rainfall data was analyzed, and the hydrological effects of different filtration structures were modeled. The modeling objective was to identify the correct dimension and the best parameter combination for the designed structure for stormwater management in Vantaa. The performance of biofiltration as a treatment system for stormwater is based on filtration of water through the soil layers of the structure and partly on the uptake of the nutrients by vegetation. According to literature, biofiltration is capable to efficiently remove heavy metals and suspended solids from stormwater whereas the effectiveness of nutrient removal has been shown to vary more and to be significantly lower. Even leaching of nitrogen and phosphorus from the growth media has been reported in various studies. In addition, proper maintenance of the biofiltration units has been proved to be essential for maintaining the good performance.Hulevedet on perinteisesti johdettu suoraan vesistöihin ja niiden hallinta on tyypillisesti perustunut nopeaan pois johtamiseen valunnan syntyalueelta. Tiivistyvän kaupunkirakenteen myötä hulevesien haitalliset vaikutukset ympäristöön on kuitenkin tunnistettu ja näiden vaikutusten ehkäisemiseksi on kehitetty uusia, huleveden laatua parantavia hallintamenetelmiä. Veden luonnollista kiertokulkua jäljitteleviin hallintaratkaisuihin viitataan maailmalla hieman sijainnista riippuen joko termeillä LID (Low Impact Development), WSUD (Water Sensitive Urban Design) tai SUDS (Sustainable Urban Design Systems). Tässä työssä selvitetään erään LID-menetelmän, biosuodatuksen, soveltumista tiealueen hulevesien käsittelymenetelmäksi Suomen ilmasto-olosuhteissa. Tavoitteena on tunnistaa suodatusalueiden suunnitteluun liittyviä keskeisiä seikkoja ja suosituksia biosuodatusalueiden sijoittamiseen kaupunkiympäristössä. Tämän lisäksi tavoitteena on suunnitella Vantaalle biosuodatusalue, jolla tullaan käsittelemään suunnitteilla olevan liikenneympyrän ja sen ympäristön hulevedet. Biosuodatusalueet toimivat myös hulevettä viivyttävinä rakenteina, mutta tässä työssä keskitytään erityisesti huleveden laatuun ja sen parantamiseen. Työ jakaantuu kirjallisuusosioon ja varsinaiseen suunnittelutyöhön. Kirjallisuusosio keskittyy ympäri maailman tehtyihin tutkimuksiin ja niiden tuloksiin biosuodatusalueiden rakenteesta ja toiminnasta. Työssä tunnistettiin keskeiset parametrit biosuodatusalueen suunnittelussa sekä kaupunkiympäristön kohteet, joiden hulevesien käsittelyyn biosuodatus soveltuu parhaiten. Vantaan biosuodatusalueelle määriteltiin mahdollisimman optimaalinen rakenne-ehdotus. Suunnittelutyön ohella arvioitiin biosuodatusalueelle vaadittava puhdistusteho vertaamalla kirjallisuudessa esitettyjä huleveden laatuparametreja Tukholmassa määriteltyihin raja-arvoihin. Vantaan biosuodatusalueen suunnittelussa hyödynnettiin SWMM:ia (Storm Water Management Model). Suunnittelualueen valuma-alue mallinnettiin ja alueella syntyvä hulevesien valunta määritettiin käytettävissä olevien sadantatietojen perusteella. Mallinnuksen tuloksena biosuodatusalueelle määriteltiin tarvittava koko ja rakenne vertailemalla erilaisia rakenneratkaisuja. Biosuodatus perustuu pääasiassa huleveden suodattumiseen rakennekerrosten läpi. Kirjallisuuden perusteella biosuodatuksella pystytään poistamaan hulevedestä tehokkaasti metalleja ja kiintoainesta. Sen sijaan ravinteiden osalta puhdistustulokset ovat vaihtelevampia ja jopa ravinteiden huuhtoutumista on havaittu erityisesti vastarakennetuilta, ravinteikkaan kasvualustan sisältäviltä biosuodatusalueilta. Hyvän puhdistustehon saavuttamiseksi ja ylläpitämiseksi rakenteen huolellinen suunnittelu ja ylläpito on todettu tärkeäksi

Diffusion and Risks of House Prices in the Netherlands

The rate of home-ownership has increased significantly in many countries over the past decades. One motivating factor for this increase has been the creation of wealth through the accumulation of housing equity, which also forms the basic tenet of the asset-based welfare system. In generating the home equity, house price developments play an important role. Generally, house prices show an increasing trend over long time period, however, there are short-term negative appreciations that may have inherent risks for the housing equity. Following the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), for example, the collapse of house prices has caused many recent home buyers to run into negative equity. Some housing researchers and experts have suggested that a better understanding of the spatial diffusion mechanisms of house prices will aid resuscitating the housing market after the GFC. Others also advocated adopting insurance schemes to protect the home equity that yields the welfare benefits. Unfortunately, however, little research insight exists on the Dutch house price diffusion process, although there are empirical results for countries such as the UK, US and China, where the contexts differ from the Netherlands. Furthermore, the current existing home-value insurance scheme in the literature is found to be less efficient and eliminates only up to 50% of the house price risks. This dissertation covers important aspects of house price diffusion and risks in the Netherlands. The aim is to better understand the diffusion mechanism and the risks of house prices, while it also contributes to the measurement of these housing risks. More specifically, there are three objectives: first, to discover the diffusion mechanism of house prices in the Netherlands and the pattern particularly from the capital Amsterdam; second, to examine the spatial distribution of the house price risk; and third, to investigate the efficiency of the index-based home-value insurance for reducing the house price risk in the Dutch context. The diffusion mechanism relates to the so-called ripple or spillover effect, for which movements of house prices in one location temporarily or permanently spread over their influence to other regions. The risks analyses capture the probability of selling the residential property below the purchase price. The index-based home-value insurance scheme is concerned with the reduction of the house price risk, while its efficiency and loss coverage are analysed. The contributions of the dissertation are specifically elaborated in five chapters. The chapters are self-contained, four of them having been published separately in international journals and the other being currently under review. Chapter 2 is a literature study that presents the general trend and an overview of the risks in home-ownership. It particularly discusses the government mortgage guarantee and tax deduction, among other factors, which contribute to home-ownership in the Netherlands. Mortgage default risk and house price risk, which are the two important risks from the perspective of the home-owners are also discussed in the context of the Dutch market. Chapter 3 investigates the house price diffusion mechanism between the twelve provinces in the Netherlands. The methodology adopts a new Bayesian graphical approach which enables a data-driven identification of the important regions where the diffusion may predominantly emerge. Using quarterly house price indexes, the findings suggest that house price diffusion exists in the Netherlands with a pattern varying over the period of time. Focusing specifically on the period prior to the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the house price diffusion predominantly originated from Noord-Holland. House prices in Amsterdam – the capital and an important economic hub of the Netherlands, are more likely to diffuse to other parts of the country. Thus in Chapter 4, attention is paid to the house price diffusion pattern from the capital Amsterdam to the other Dutch regional housing markets. The Granger causality and cointegration techniques are used, while controlling for the important house price fundamentals. The results suggest a possible house price diffusion existing from Amsterdam to all regions in the Netherlands except for Zeeland. The strongest long-run impact of Amsterdam house price diffusion potentially occur in Utrecht. As one of the largest and most dynamic in the Netherlands, the Amsterdam housing market is itself an interesting case study. One part of Chapter 5, therefore, deals with the diffusion pattern by studying the spatial interrelationships between house prices in Amsterdam. The other part of the chapter studies the house price risks. Using the Granger causality test, a general causal flow of house prices is observed from the central business districts to the peripherals. Simple statistics similarly reveal that house prices grow faster and are more risky in the central business districts than those on the peripherals of the city. Chapter 6 is concerned with the efficiency and loss coverage of the index-based home-value insurance scheme. It proposes a modification of the index-based home-value insurances policy, which seeks to reduce the large idiosyncratic residual house price risks. The modification uses aggregate measures of the reference index. Using the hedonic and repeated sales indexes, the empirical analysis suggests the proposed modified scheme is highly efficient and may eliminate up to 70% of the residual risks. In general, the dissertation adopts innovative empirical methodological approach that combines standard statistical analyses and more recent and complex econometric modelling techniques in the study of the diffusion and risks of house prices in the Netherlands. The application of the graphical approach to the study of diffusions particularly in Chapter 3, is the first of its kind in the context of the housing market. Furthermore, this dissertation is among the first to entirely provide a comprehensive analysis and the much needed body of knowledge regarding the house price diffusion and risks for the highly regulated Dutch housing market. The results have important policy implications and applications for households, commercial investors and financial institutions in the Netherlands. The results may also generally apply and replicable in other countries and economies with similar housing market conditions

Robot Manipulators

Robot manipulators are developing more in the direction of industrial robots than of human workers. Recently, the applications of robot manipulators are spreading their focus, for example Da Vinci as a medical robot, ASIMO as a humanoid robot and so on. There are many research topics within the field of robot manipulators, e.g. motion planning, cooperation with a human, and fusion with external sensors like vision, haptic and force, etc. Moreover, these include both technical problems in the industry and theoretical problems in the academic fields. This book is a collection of papers presenting the latest research issues from around the world

Simulation of Electro-Optic Modulators by a Time-Domain Beam-Propagation Method

Electro-optic modulators (EOMs) are components which convert electric signals to optical ones. They are needed, e.g., at the transmitter end of fiber-optic communication systems and in time-stretch analog-to-digital converters. The development of new EOM designs to handle electric signals with higher frequencies is driven by the demand for ever-increasing bandwidths in telecommunications. As the process of building prototypes is time-consuming and expensive, it is highly desirable to increase the use of numerical simulations in the design process. The topic of this thesis is numerical methods for simulation of high-speed EOMs. Two main challenges arise in this context: first, the device is optically very large; a wave propagation problem must be solved over tens of thousands of wavelengths. Second, due to the high frequencies of the modulating signal, the problem must be solved in time domain, rather than in frequency domain, as is otherwise common for waveguiding problems. A suitable method for this type of problem is the time-domain beam-propagation method (TD-BPM), which is particularly efficient for propagation over long distances, occurring mainly along a specified direction. If further the geometry varies slowly along that direction, a simplified formulation, called the paraxial TD-BPM, has previously been employed. Based on an analysis of the equations, and comparison to the related analysis of (linear) optical fibers, a modified paraxial formulation is suggested in the current work. We show that the modification, while adding neither complexity nor computational effort to the method, increases its accuracy significantly, especially for short pulses. The TD-BPM has previously been discretized using finite differences. In this work we derive a weak formulation and a novel discretization based on tensor product finite elements. By using finite elements, discontinuities in material parameters at material interfaces can be represented in an exact manner, which is not possible with finite differences. Furthermore, non-uniform meshes with higher resolution where the data varies rapidly can be readily used with finite elements, and function spaces can be chosen flexibly. Full-vector and scalar versions of the weak and discrete formulations are derived. Numerical results are presented for the scalar TD-BPM. The implementation is validated against analytic data for the case of pulse propagation in a straight waveguide. In addition, the results are compared to those of the finite-difference time-domain method, and the TD-BPM is shown to have higher accuracy for short pulses (pulse widths 10 - 50fs), when the modified paraxial approximation, suggested in this work, is employed. Finally, as a proof-of-concept case, the method is applied to an electro-optic modulator with simplified geometry but realistic modulating signal

\u3ci\u3eThe Conference Proceedings of the 1997 Air Transport Research Group (ATRG) of the WCTR Society Vol. 2, No. 2\u3c/i\u3e

UNOAI Report 97-6https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1159/thumbnail.jp