Town of Hampton Stormwater Management PREP Natural Resources Outreach Coalition Grant Final Project Report

PREP provided $3,500 towards the project which was matched by municipal funds to pay for consulting advice on improving the regulations. The Planning Board provided exceptional in-kind match on the project, with many hours of work spent by a volunteer engineer serving on the Board. On February 12th 2009, Hampton’s Innovative Land Use Team, in coordination with NROC, hosted a community workshop on stormwater issues that was well attended by municipal officials, town staff, and members of the public. After many revisions, the Planning Board formally adopted the approved stormwater management provisions into the town site plan and subdivision regulations at their July 2009 meeting

Robust Stability Assessment in the Presence of Load Dynamics Uncertainty

Dynamic response of loads has a significant effect on system stability and directly determines the stability margin of the operating point. Inherent uncertainty and natural variability of load models make the stability assessment especially difficult and may compromise the security of the system. We propose a novel mathematical “robust stability” criterion for the assessment of small-signal stability of operating points. Whenever the criterion is satisfied for a given operating point, it provides mathematical guarantees that the operating point will be stable with respect to small disturbances for any dynamic response of the loads. The criterion can be naturally used for identification of operating regions secure from the occurrence of Hopf bifurcation. Several possible applications of the criterion are discussed, most importantly the concept of robust stability assessment (RSA), that could be integrated in dynamic security assessment packages and used in contingency screening and other planning and operational studies

Enabling Data-Driven Transportation Safety Improvements in Rural Alaska

Safety improvements require funding. A clear need must be demonstrated to secure funding. For transportation safety, data, especially data about past crashes, is the usual method of demonstrating need. However, in rural locations, such data is often not available, or is not in a form amenable to use in funding applications. This research aids rural entities, often federally recognized tribes and small villages acquire data needed for funding applications. Two aspects of work product are the development of a traffic counting application for an iPad or similar device, and a review of the data requirements of the major transportation funding agencies. The traffic-counting app, UAF Traffic, demonstrated its ability to count traffic and turning movements for cars and trucks, as well as ATVs, snow machines, pedestrians, bicycles, and dog sleds. The review of the major agencies demonstrated that all the likely funders would accept qualitative data and Road Safety Audits. However, quantitative data, if it was available, was helpful

Efficient Privacy Preserving Viola-Jones Type Object Detection via Random Base Image Representation

A cloud server spent a lot of time, energy and money to train a Viola-Jones type object detector with high accuracy. Clients can upload their photos to the cloud server to find objects. However, the client does not want the leakage of the content of his/her photos. In the meanwhile, the cloud server is also reluctant to leak any parameters of the trained object detectors. 10 years ago, Avidan & Butman introduced Blind Vision, which is a method for securely evaluating a Viola-Jones type object detector. Blind Vision uses standard cryptographic tools and is painfully slow to compute, taking a couple of hours to scan a single image. The purpose of this work is to explore an efficient method that can speed up the process. We propose the Random Base Image (RBI) Representation. The original image is divided into random base images. Only the base images are submitted randomly to the cloud server. Thus, the content of the image can not be leaked. In the meanwhile, a random vector and the secure Millionaire protocol are leveraged to protect the parameters of the trained object detector. The RBI makes the integral-image enable again for the great acceleration. The experimental results reveal that our method can retain the detection accuracy of that of the plain vision algorithm and is significantly faster than the traditional blind vision, with only a very low probability of the information leakage theoretically.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, To appear in the proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), Jul 10, 2017 - Jul 14, 2017, Hong Kong, Hong Kon

The Birth of a New Industry: Entry by Start-ups and the Drivers of Firm Growth. The Case of Encryption Software

The paper analyses the birth of the Encryption Software Industry (ESI), a new niche in the software industry. Using a Chandlerian perspective, this work reports the main facts about firm entry and growth, with a particular focus on start-up strategies and actions. Since scale economies do not play a major role in ESI, the paper investigates the different sources of firm competitive advantages. This work shows that innovation and product differentiation, along with investments in co-specialised assets, are variables strongly correlated to young firm probability to survive and grow. In so doing, we have collected highly detailed information on product introduction, US patents granted, worldwide alliances and biographical data of firm founders.Entry, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Software.

Identification of quantitative trait loci controlling root and shoot traits associated with drought tolerance in a lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) recombinant inbred line population

Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses limiting lentil productivity in rainfed production systems. Specific rooting patterns can be associated with drought avoidance mechanisms that can be used in lentil breeding programs. In all, 252 co-dominant and dominant markers were used for Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) analysis on 132 lentil recombinant inbred lines based on greenhouse experiments for root and shoot traits during two seasons under progressive drought-stressed conditions. Eighteen QTLs controlling a total of 14 root and shoot traits were identified. A QTL-hotspot genomic region related to a number of root and shoot characteristics associated with drought tolerance such as dry root biomass, root surface area, lateral root number, dry shoot biomass and shoot length was identified. Interestingly, a QTL (QRSratioIX-2.30) related to root-shoot ratio, an important trait for drought avoidance, explaining the highest phenotypic variance of 27.6 and 28.9% for the two consecutive seasons, respectively, was detected. This QTL was closed to the co-dominant SNP marker TP6337 and also flanked by the two SNP TP518 and TP1280. An important QTL (QLRNIII-98.64) related to lateral root number was found close to TP3371 and flanked by TP5093 and TP6072 SNP markers. Also, a QTL (QSRLIV-61.63) associated with specific root length was identified close to TP1873 and flanked by F7XEM6b SRAP marker and TP1035 SNP marker. These two QTLs were detected in both seasons. Our results could be used for marker-assisted selection in lentil breeding programs targeting root and shoot characteristics conferring drought avoidance as an efficient alternative to slow and labor-intensive conventional breeding methods

Work/Community Engagement Requirement Stakeholder Roundtable

Over the next twelve months, New Hampshire will transition to a new coverage model for the Medicaid expansion program (the Granite Advantage Program ), and will implement a demonstration engagement requirement, approved focus on the population covered by an emphasis on work status and New Hampshire, see Covering the Care: A Focus on the NH Marketplace)

Biological activities and chemical composition of methanolic extracts of selected Autochthonous microalgae strains from the Red Sea

Four lipid-rich microalgal species from the Red Sea belonging to three different genera (Nannochloris, Picochlorum and Desmochloris), previously isolated as novel biodiesel feedstocks, were bioprospected for high-value, bioactive molecules. Methanol extracts were thus prepared from freeze-dried biomass and screened for different biological activities. Nannochloris sp. SBL1 and Desmochloris sp. SBL3 had the highest radical scavenging activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl, and the best copper and iron chelating activities. All species had potent butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory activity (>50%) and mildly inhibited tyrosinase. Picochlorum sp. SBL2 and Nannochloris sp. SBL4 extracts significantly reduced the viability of tumoral (HepG2 and HeLa) cells with lower toxicity against the non-tumoral murine stromal (S17) cells. Nannochloris sp. SBL1 significantly reduced the viability of Leishmania infantum down to 62% (250 mu g/mL). Picochlorum sp. SBL2 had the highest total phenolic content, the major phenolic compounds identified being salicylic, coumaric and gallic acids. Neoxanthin, violaxanthin, zeaxanthin, lutein and -carotene were identified in the extracts of all strains, while canthaxanthin was only identified in Picochlorum sp. SBL2. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that the microalgae included in this work could be used as sources of added-value products that could be used to upgrade the final biomass value.National Science, Technology and Innovation Program of King Abdulaziz Medical City for Science and Technology, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia [NPST, 11-ENE 1719-02]; Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal [SFRH/BD/78062/2011]; FCT [IF/00049/2012, SFRH/BPD/86071/2012, Pest-OE/QUI/UI0612/2013]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Indian family on UK reality television: Convivial culture in salient contexts

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below, copyright 2012 @ the author.This article demonstrates how The Family (2009), a fly-on-the wall UK reality series about a British Indian family, facilitates both current public service broadcasting requirements and mass audience appeal. From a critical cultural studies perspective, the author examines the journalistic and viewer responses to the series where authenticity, universality, and comedy emerge as major themes. Textual analysis of the racialized screen representations also helps locate the series within the contexts of contested multiculturalism, genre developments in reality television and public service broadcasting. Paul Gilroy’s concept of convivial culture is used as a frame in understanding how meanings of the series are produced within a South Asian popular representational space. The author suggests that the social comedy taxonomy is a prerequisite for the making of this particular observational documentary. Further, the popular (comedic) mode of conviviality on which the series depends is both expedient and necessary within the various sociopolitical contexts outlined

Staffing and Managing Benefits Planning, Assistance, and Outreach Programs: Tips for Coordinators and Managers

This publication is a human resources guide to staffing and managing effective benefits planning, assistance and outreach programs. Specifically the publication provides helpful tips and strategies for staff recruitment; interviewing; developing competitive benefits packages; developing practical job descriptions; staff development and advancement; and, tools for effective management including resume screening tools, benefits counseling surveys, satisfaction surveys and sample service tracking forms