Supporting Early Modeling and End-to-end Timing Analysis of Vehicular Distributed Real-Time Applications

REACTION 2012. 1st International workshop on Real-time and distributed computing in emerging applications. December 4th, 2012, San Juan, Puerto Rico.The current model- and component-based development approaches for automotive distributed real-time systems have non-existing, or limited, support for modeling network traffic originating from outside the vehicle, i.e., vehicle-tovehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and cloud-based applications. We present novel modeling and analysis techniques to allow early end-to-end timing analysis of distributed applications based on their models and simple models of network traffic that originates from outside of the model. As a proof of concept, we implement these techniques in the existing industrial tool suite Rubus- ICE which is used for the development of software for vehicular embedded systems by several international companies. We also conduct an application-case study to validate our techniques.This work is supported by the Swedish Knowledge Foundation (KKS) within the project FEMMVA. We thank the industrial partners Arcticus Systems, BAE Systems Hägglunds and Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE), Sweden

Late Little Ice Age palaeoenvironmental records from the Anzali and Amirkola Lagoons (south Caspian Sea): Vegetation and sea level changes

This is a postprint version of the article. The official published article can be found from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 Elsevier Ltd.Two internationally important Ramsar lagoons on the south coast of the Caspian Sea (CS) have been studied by palynology on short sediment cores for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic investigations. The sites lie within a small area of very high precipitation in a region that is otherwise dry. Vegetation surveys and geomorphological investigations have been used to provide a background to a multidisciplinary interpretation of the two sequences covering the last four centuries. In the small lagoon of Amirkola, the dense alder forested wetland has been briefly disturbed by fire, followed by the expansion of rice paddies from AD1720 to 1800. On the contrary, the terrestrial vegetation reflecting the diversity of the Hyrcanian vegetation around the lagoon of Anzali remained fairly complacent over time. The dinocyst and non-pollen palynomorph assemblages, revealing changes that have occurred in water salinity and water levels, indicate a high stand during the late Little Ice Age (LIA), from AD < 1620 to 1800–1830. In Amirkola, the lagoon spit remained intact over time, whereas in Anzali it broke into barrier islands during the late LIA, which merged into a spit during the subsequent sea level drop. A high population density and infrastructure prevented renewed breaking up of the spit when sea level reached its maximum (AD1995). Similar to other sites in the region around the southern CS, these two lagoonal investigations indicate that the LIA had a higher sea level as a result of more rainfall in the drainage basin of the CS.The coring and the sedimentological analyses were funded by the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography in the framework of a research project entitled “Investigation of the Holocene sediment along the Iranian coast of Caspian Sea: central Guilan”. The radiocarbon date of core HCGL02 was funded by V. Andrieu (Europôle Méditerranéen de l'Arbois, France) and that of core HCGA04 by Brunel University

Forest vegetation management in Europe: current practice and future requirements

The book provides a record of the co-operation within Europe in the field of forest vegetation management through the Cost Action E47. The aims are: i)to provide a summary of the current state of the art' as it applies to forest vegetation management in Europe for scientists, practitioners and policymakers, affiliated to state, non-governmental or private commercial organizations; ii)to document existing forest weed control practices across Europe, and hence provide a resource of alternative solutions for individual countries sharing similar conditions and challenges; and iii)to identify common information gaps and future research needs, and hence potential future areas of collaboration for forest vegetation management scientists across Europe, along with barriers that may need to be overcome to achieve that aim.FORET;PEUPLEMENT FORESTIER;VEGETATION;CONCURRENCE VEGETALE;LUTTE;MODE DE TRAITEMENT;COOPERATION INTERNATIONALE;RECHERCHE DEVELOPPEMENT;DEVELOPPEMENT DURABLE;AMENAGEMENT FORESTIER;MAUVAISE HERBE;CONTROLE DE LA VEGETATION;PESTICIDE;LUTTE PHYTOSANITAIRE;IMPACT SUR L'ENVIRONNEMENT;DYNAMIQUE DE VEGETATION;HERBICIDE;BIODIVERSITE;ECOSYSTEME;HISTOIRE;GESTION FORESTIERE;EUROPE;VEGETATION FORESTIERE;ADVENTICE;ALTERNATIVES AUX HERBICIDES;

A Post-Pneumonia Epizootic Evaluation of the Rapid City, South Dakota Bighorn Sheep Herd

Pneumonia is a major factor affecting populations of free-ranging bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) across western North America. Pneumonia can occur in large-scale epizootics, during which greater than half of the population typically dies. After these epizootics, surviving ewes continue to conceive and bear lambs. However, lamb recruitment may remain low due to periodic or annual pneumonia outbreaks causing high lamb mortality rates, sometimes greater than 90%. Our study focused on the Rapid City, South Dakota bighorn sheep (BHS) herd that has recorded pneumonia-induced population decline since 2009. The first objective was to improve lamb health and survival by identifying and removing individuals that chronically carry the pathogen (Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae [Movi]). A previous study that treated the Custer State Park, South Dakota BHS herd during 2016–2017 with the same techniques successfully eliminated chronic Movi carriers and increased lamb recruitment. We treated the Rapid City BHS herd from January 2018 to November 2020. We tested individual BHS for Movi upper respiratory infections using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and exposure to Movi by a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). If individual sheep tested positive via RT-PCR for the presence of Movi twice consecutively it was considered a chronic carrier and was removed from the herd. We identified an intermittent carrier as testing positive and negative on different occasions and non-carriers as testing negative for every test. We identified patterns of Movi carriage using Movi testing data from 2016–2020 and deemed individuals as chronic, intermittent, or non-carriers. Over the course of the study, we removed four chronic and five intermittent carriers, and our results suggested that removing intermittent carriers may be necessary to reduce or eliminate Movi persistence in a BHS herd. We monitored the survival of lambs prior to and during carrier removal and our analysis indicated that carrier removal increased lamb survival up to six months in both sub-herds in the Rapid City BHS herd (Spring Creek survival prior to removal= 35.3% [95% CI 15.5%, 56.6%], Spring Creek Survival during removal= 75.5% [95% CI 51.4%, 91.3%]; Rapid Creek survival prior to removal= 8.54% [95% CI 0.45%, 27.4%], Rapid Creek survival during removal= 50.8% [95% CI 28.3%, 72.6%]). Subsequent field testing revealed that we removed all known chronic carriers from the herd and thereafter we documented no pneumonia-related mortalities supporting previous conclusions that carrier removal can increase lamb survival and health. The second objective was to quantify the body condition, diet quality, and diet composition of the ewes (14) in the Rapid City BHS herd post-pneumonia epizootic to better understand the current herd productivity to use as a baseline for future management. Further, we focused on how a ewe\u27s lactation status (i.e., lactating or not lactating) affected its digestive capabilities and diet selection. We collected data from March–August 2020. We used ultrasonography technology and body palpations to obtain body condition data and assessed diet quality and composition through percent fecal nitrogen and metabarcoding analyses, respectively. No significant relationships were found in the body condition and diet data collected. However, we identified that browse species were the primary forage consumed, making up 86.8% of lactating ewe samples and 58.3% of non-lactating ewe samples. This study represents the first attempt to understand the potential effects of nutritional condition post-pneumonia epizootic and provided an additional case study that illuminates diet composition differences between lactating and non-lactating ungulates

Forest structural controls on boreal peatland eco-hydrology

Boreal peatlands are globally important carbon stores, holding ~22% of terrestrial Carbon. The composition and structure of their vegetation controls the rates and direction of globally important mass and energy fluxes. However, the effect of system structure on functioning and disturbance response remains largely un-known. This PhD investigates how forested peatland structure and organisation influences key eco-hydrological processes at the peatland-atmosphere interface. The primary research outcomes are: (1) disturbance of forest-canopy layers changes the spatio-temporal dynamics of peatland surface temperatures which, vary substantially in space and time, (2) different system structural layers have varying controls on peat-surface temperatures, and their disturbance changes the thermal regime even when no change in mean temperature is observed, (3) meter-scale spatial variability in surface energy balance induced by the tree-canopy, substantially impacts simulated peatland evapotranspiration (ET), increasing ET by 25% and reducing unexplained variance between modelled and measured ET by 8%, (4) responses of key bryophytes to canopy removal is lagged in peatlands (unlike mineral soils), highlighting the potentially important influence of transition periods (system lags) on eco-hydrological feedbacks mechanisms to disturbance. This research provides important new understating of the eco-hydrological functioning of peatland-atmosphere interfaces. It characterises the dynamics of system variability (both intact and disturbed), evidences of how energy and mass flux estimates may be improved, and details how small scale-research could yield important information for assessing changes to system functioning

Changes in Land Cover and Breeding Bird Populations with Restoration of Riparian Habitats in East-central Iowa

Conversion of Midwestern riparian areas for agricultural production has greatly altered their function and suitability for birds and other wildlife. Recently, however, restoration of riparian functions has been a major focus of land management agencies in the Midwest. We used historic land-use data to describe land-cover changes since European settlement and the subsequent effects of habitat restoration efforts on the landscape along a section of the Iowa River in east-central Iowa. We then used bird-density data collected in a subset of the study area in 2001 and 2002 to estimate changes in breeding bird populations of the entire study area resulting from these habitat restoration efforts. Before settlement, the (\u3e24,000 ha) Iowa River Corridor was dominated by herbaceous vegetation (72%), with wooded areas accounting for less than one-third of the area. Between the mid-1800s and 1992, agricultural conversion decreased the amount of herbaceous cover by \u3e75%, and the cover of woody vegetation increased by \u3e25%. After the 1993 flood, establishment of USDA conservation easements increased the amount of herbaceous cover in the corridor by \u3e135% (\u3e5,000 ha). Populations of most grassland and wetland bird species in the corridor (13 of 17) increased with habitat restoration, although some species associated with open habitats, such as those that often breed in rowcrop fields, decreased. We estimated that these restored habitats provide habitat for \u3e12,000 additional birds of grassland- or wetland-dependent species in the Iowa River Corridor, 5,000 of which are members of eight species that are of moderate or high conservation priority. An understanding of presettlement land cover, the extent of land-cover alteration, and the effects of habitat restoration on the landscape and breeding bird populations provides a useful guide for both evaluating the efficacy of past restoration and for guiding future conservation and restoration efforts

The Numerical Analysis Of Vegetation Plots In Denali National Park And Preserve

Thesis (M.Sc.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 198

Refinement and standardization of storage procedures for clonal crops. Global Public Goods Phase 2: Part 1. Project landscape and general status of clonal crop in vitro conservation technologies

Among the collective actions of the World Bank-funded Global Public Goods Phase II Project (GPG2), the following collaborative activity: “Refinement and standardization of storage procedures for clonal crops” was given to the CGIAR’s In Vitro Genebanks, represented by the Clonal Crop Task Force (CCTF) composed of genetic resources research staff from the four centres: Bioversity International, CIAT, CIP and IITA. These hold the in trust collections of Musa, cassava, potato, sweetpotato, yam and Andean root and tuber crops (ARTCs). The overarching aims of this activity were to: (1) review the status of vitro conservation in the context of the GPG2 project with an emphasis on the mandated clonal crops; (2) survey the facilities, storage protocols and practices of CGIAR’s clonal crop genebanks; (3) collate and review this information with a view to developing quality and risk management systems to support the production and validation of multi-crop best practice guidelines. Outputs from this activity are designated as a three part ‘trilogy’: Part I, entitled “Project landscape and general status of clonal crop in vitro conservation technologies” introduces the GPG2 project within the CGIAR landscape and overviews the status of in vitro plant conservation in the wider conservation community of practice. This part describes the role of risk and quality management for the effective maintenance of in vitro genebanks in the context of research and the development and validation of best practices