Changing climate and outbreaks of forest pest insects in a cold northern country, Finland

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On the exhaust of electromagnetic drive

Recent reports about propulsion without reaction mass have been met on one hand with enthusiasm and on the other hand with some doubts. Namely, closed metal cavities, when fueled with microwaves, have delivered thrust that could eventually maintain satellites on orbits using solar power. However, the measured thrust appears to be without any apparent exhaust. Thus the Law of Action-Reaction seems to have been violated. We consider the possibility that the exhaust is in a form that has so far escaped both experimental detection and theoretical attention. In the thruster's cavity microwaves interfere with each other and invariably some photons will also end up co-propagating with opposite phases. At the destructive interference electromagnetic fields cancel. However, the photons themselves do not vanish for nothing but continue in propagation. These photon pairs without net electromagnetic field do not reflect back from the metal walls but escape from the resonator. By this action momentum is lost from the cavity which, according to the conservation of momentum, gives rise to an equal and opposite reaction. We examine theoretical corollaries and practical concerns that follow from the paired-photon conclusion. (C) 2016 Author(s).Peer reviewe

Econometric Information Recovery in Behavioral Networks

In this paper, we suggest an approach to recovering behavior-related, preference-choice network information from observational data. We model the process as a self-organized behavior based random exponential network-graph system. To address the unknown nature of the sampling model in recovering behavior related network information, we use the Cressie-Read (CR) family of divergence measures and the corresponding information theoretic entropy basis, for estimation, inference, model evaluation, and prediction. Examples are included to clarify how entropy based information theoretic methods are directly applicable to recovering the behavioral network probabilities in this fundamentally underdetermined ill posed inverse recovery problem

Revisiting the Gaia Hypothesis: Maximum Entropy, Kauffman’s ‘Fourth Law’ and Physiosemeiosis

Recently, Kleidon suggested to analyze Gaia as a non-equilibrium thermodynamic system that continuously moves away from equilibrium, driven by maximum entropy production which materializes in hierarchically coupled mechanisms of energetic flows via dissipation and physical work. I relate this view with Kauffman's 'Fourth Law of Thermodynamics', which I interprete as a proposition about the accumulation of information in evolutionary processes. The concept of physical work is expanded to including work directed at the capacity to work: I offer a twofold specification of Kauffman's concept of an 'autonomous agent', one as a 'self-referential heat engine', and the other in terms of physiosemeiosis, which is a naturalized application of Peirce's theory of signs. The conjunction of these three theoretical sources, Maximum Entropy, Kauffman's Fourth Law, and physiosemeiosis, shows that the Kleidon restatement of the Gaia hypothesis is equivalent to the proposition that the biosphere is generating, processing and storing information, thus directly treating information as a physical phenomenon. There is a fundamental ontological continuity between the biological processes and the human economy, as both are seen as information processing and entropy producing systems. Knowledge and energy are not substitutes, with energy and information being two aspects of the same underlying physical process

Extent of moisture and mould damage in structures of public buildings

The study concentrated on the extent of moisture and mould damage in different structures in 25 public buildings in Finland. Users of all the buildings had health symptoms suspected to be the result of moisture and mould damage, which is why moisture performance assessments had been performed. The assessment reports on each building were available as research material. The reports indicated that the examined buildings suffered from multiple moisture and mould problems in several different structures. On average, however, a relatively small proportion of the total number of structures had suffered damage. On the basis of the research material, damage was most extensive in walls in soil contact (16.3%) and base floor structures (12.5%). The lowest damage rates were found in partition walls (2.4%), external walls (2.6%) and intermediate floors (2.5%). The results of the study underline the importance of thorough moisture performance assessments to ensure that all point-sized moisture and mould damage is detected

Quaternary Structure Buildt from Subunuts Combining NMR and Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering Data

A new principle in constructing molecular complexes from the known high-resolution domain structures joining data from NMR and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements is described. Structure of calmodulin in complex with trifluoperazine was built from N- and C-terminal domains oriented based on residual dipolar couplings measured by NMR in a dilute liquid crystal, and the overall shape of the complex was derived from SAXS data. The residual dipolar coupling data serves to reduce angular degrees of freedom, and the small-angle scattering data serves to confine the translational degrees of freedom. The complex built by this method was found to be consistent with the known crystal structure. The study demonstrates how approximate tertiary structures of modular proteins or quaternary structures composed of subunits can be assembled from high-resolution structures of domains or subunits using mutually complementary NMR and SAXS data