Changes in water vapor transports of the ascending branch of the tropical circulation

Recent studies have found contradicting results on whether tropical atmospheric circulation (TAC) has intensified or weakened in recent decades. We here re-investigate recent changes in TAC derived from moisture transports into the tropics using high temporal and spatial resolution reanalyses from ERA-interim. We found a significant strengthening of both, the lower level inward transports and the mid level outward transports over the recent two decades. However the signal in the total budget is weak, because strengthening of the in and outflow neutralize each other, at least to some extent. We found atmospheric humidity to be relatively stable, so suggest that the intensification is mainly caused by an intensification of the wind related circulation strength. The exact quantitative values were found to heavily depend on whether the calculations are based on mean or instantaneous values. We highlight the importance for using the instantaneous ones for transport calculations, as they represent the coincidence of high wind speeds and high atmospheric humidity

Expressing OWL axioms by English sentences: dubious in theory, feasible in practice

With OWL (Web Ontology Language) established as a standard for encoding ontologies on the Semantic Web, interest has begun to focus on the task of verbalising OWL code in controlled English (or other natural language). Current approaches to this task assume that axioms in OWL can be mapped to sentences in English. We examine three potential problems with this approach (concerning logical sophistication, information structure, and size), and show that although these could in theory lead to insuperable difficulties, in practice they seldom arise, because ontology developers use OWL in ways that favour a transparent mapping. This result is evidenced by an analysis of patterns from a corpus of over 600,000 axioms in about 200 ontologies

Alaska Correctional Requirements: A Forecast of Prison Population through the Year 2000

This report is part of the Fire Island Prison Feasibility Study, a project conducted jointly by the School of Justice and School of Engineering at University of Alaska, Anchorage under contract to the Alaska Department of Corrections. The project undertook to assess the feasibility of locating a correctional facility on a 4,240 acre tract of land on Fire Island, which lies in Upper Cook Inlet about three miles off Point Campbell within the Municipality of Anchorage. The project was divided into three major phases: (1) an assessment of future bed space needs of the Alaska Department of Corrections; (2) an evaluation of the physical site and cost estimates for prison construction and operation; and (3) a public opinion survey and open discussion.The growth of the Alaska prison inmate population over the past fifteen years has been substantial. According to available statistics there were 482 institutionalized adult prisoners under control of the Alaska Division of Corrections in January 1971; by January 1980 this population had increased to 770 inmates; and between 1980 and 1985, the number of Alaska inmates almost tripled, rising from 770 to 2,073. Accurate forecasts of the future size and makeup of the prison population are needed as a basis for long-range programs and capital planning. This report presents long and short-term forecasts of the Alaska incarcerated prisoner population and bedspace needs of the Alaska Department of Corrections through the year 2000. The forecasts were developed by taking into consideration historical facts and status quo assumptions. Attention is also given to the impact of the 1980 Alaska criminal code revision on unsentenced and sentenced populations. The forecast derived from this study provides evidence of the need for additional institutional capacity in Southcentral Alaska by 1990. Planning should proceed for a capacity of 1,000 beds to be available for use by 1990.Alaska Department of CorrectionsAcknowledgments / Summary of Study / I. Introduction / II. Long-Range Forecasts / III. Short-Range Forecasts / IV. Regional Forecasts / V. Conclusions / APPENDICES / A. Inmate Population Forecasting: Statistical Model / B. JUSSIM Forecasting Model / C. Bibliography of Inmate Population Forecastin

Reviewing factors affecting the effectiveness of decentralised domestic wastewater treatment systems for phosphorus and pathogen removal

Environmental pollution and risks to human health can result from diffuse sources of pollution originating from decentralised wastewater treatment systems (DWTS). In particular phosphorus pollution can lead to eutrophication and the downgrading of the quality of water bodies, for example, under the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in the EU, and pathogen pollution can result in increased risks of human exposure to pathogens and impacts on industries such as shellfish growing and tourism. The study reported in this paper reviews the effectiveness of various DWTS in removing phosphorus and pathogens from onsite systems. It was found that DWTS are typically not designed to specifically treat these pollutants and the most common type of DWTS, septic tanks, provide only basic treatment. Additional treatment such as filtration-based or wetland systems must be used to achieve desired levels of treatments. The performance of these systems is affected by site specific conditions, such as input load and sources, and climatic conditions and as such operational characteristics and treatment measures must be designed to take account of these factors

Preliminary Results From the Long-Term Inmate Survey: Focus on Child Abuse Histories

This preliminary report of long-term inmates in Alaska correctional facilities finds that over 80 percent of long-term inmates report having been physically abused as children, over 65 percent report having suffered neglect. Other findings related to the child abuse histories of long-term inmates are also reported.Alaska Department of Correction

Results From the Long-Term Inmate Survey: Focus on Child Abuse Histories

This report of long-term inmates in Alaska correctional facilities attempts to describe the childhood experiences of a sample of long-term inmates, address the "cycle of abuse" issue; and present the correlates of abuse which may impact the pattern of offending or inmate functioning. Over 80 percent of long-term inmates report having been physically abused as children; over 65 percent report having suffered neglect.Alaska Department of CorrectionsResults from the Long Term Inmate Study: Focus on Child Abuse Histories / Incidence of Child Abuse and the Relationship to Criminality / Measuring Child Abuse and Neglect: A Review of Methods / Survey Methods and Administration / An Assessment of Survey Biases / Tables to Support Profile Analysis / Personal Interview Administration and Results / Correlates of Abus

Seasonal changes in the North Atlantic cold anomaly: the influence of cold surface waters from coastal Greenland and warming trends associated with variations in subarctic sea ice cover

Worldwide sea surface temperatures (SST) have increased on average by about 1oC since 1900 with the exception of a region of the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (SPG) near 50oN which has cooled by up to 0.9oC over the same period, generating the negative feature on temperature anomaly maps which has been colloquially described by Rahmstorf et al. (2015) as the ‘cold blob’ (abbreviated here CB). This unique long term surface cooling trend is most evident in February but in August net warming is observed even at CB epicentre and the CB itself is reduced to a mere ‘warming hole’. These seasonal changes in the intensity of the CB are the product of two separate factors: (1) a long term winter cooling specific for the CB region which appears to be associated with cooling of Greenland coastal waters in autumn, plausibly linked to summer meltwater from icebergs and sea ice and (2) summer warming effects which derive from (a) dramatic reductions in summer sea ice cover in the sub‐Arctic over the last 30 years that allows enhanced absorption of sunlight by the new open water in summer and (b) an unusual period of increased summer sub‐Arctic ice cover in the early 20th century which lowers the SST baseline measured from 1900, thus increasing the calculated linear rate of change of SST with time. Both of these effects could contribute to the observed Arctic amplification of warming

The impact of regulation, ownership arrangements, and management culture on risk management practices within the water industry

Although the specifics of water utility ownership, regulation and management culture have been explored in terms of their impact on economic and customer value, there has been little meaningful engagement with their influence on the risk environment and risk management. Using a two phase case study approach as the primary source of information, this thesis asks what are the particular features of regulation, ownership arrangements and management culture which influence risk management, and what are the implications of these relationships in the context of ambitions for resilient organizations? In addressing these queries, the thesis considers the mindful choices and adjustments a utility must make to its risk management strategy to manage strategic tensions between efficiency, risk and delivery of safe drinking water. The case studies expose a tension between the ambition of the water service providers` strategic objectives to provide safe drinking water and the priority that executives place on corporate financial health. This leads to the conclusion that public health risk rankings need re-evaluation in relation to financial risks. There was no evidence to demonstrate that public health risk mitigation had been costed and evaluated against the strategic objectives of the studied organisations. Furthermore, the nature of risk conversations varied within organisations, changing the meaning of risk vertically within the business. A proposed model for the reporting of risk tolerance and risk appetite with respect to mitigating public health risk is the result. Such approaches to risk reporting and costing will support water authorities in meeting corporate aspirations to become ‘high reliability’ services while retaining the capacity to out-perform financial and service level targets, irrespective of regulation, ownership arrangements or management culture

Real, complex and quaternionic toric spaces

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mathematics, 1993.Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62).by Richard A. Scott.Ph.D