A Stratigraphic Analysis of The Slieve Bloom Mountains in Offaly/Laois Counties, Ireland

This is a study of the Slieve Bloom Mountains of Ireland, situated between Offaly and Laois County. The Slieve Bloom is the oldest mountain range in Europe, which once reached a peak elevation of 3,700m but stands at an elevation of 527m today. The mountains, formed during the Cordilleran Orogeny, provide profound evidence of depositional history through excellent preservation of several rock types. Most notably, the mountain range contains a notorious unconformity between Silurian age rocks and the Devonian age Old Red Sandstone, a time gap of roughly 70 million years. The Silurian rocks constitute a single formation (the Capard Formation), outcropping in 16 inliers of the area. The Old Red Sandstone overlies the Capard Formation, making up the unconformity

Crop coefficients, growth rates and quality of cool-season turfgrasses

Determination of crop coefficients (Kc), the ratio between actual (ETa) and reference evapotranspiration (ET0), is necessary to schedule irrigation. Our objective was to determine Kc, turf quality and growth rate under daily irrigation to field capacity (FC = −3 kPa tension) and drying. Minilysimeters installed in a green (mowing height 3–5 mm) and fairway (15 mm) were weighed during four periods of 4–10 days duration in 2009 and 2010. Crop coefficients on the second and subsequent days after irrigation were not significantly different among species and averaged 0.81 and 0.91 on green and fairway, respectively. On the first day after irrigation, the Kc varied from 1.67 to 2.85 and decreased in the order Agrostis capillaris > Festuca rubra ssp. litoralis > F. rubra ssp. commutata > A. stolonifera > A. canina on the green, and F. rubra ssp. litoralis > Lolium perenne > F.rubra ssp. rubra > Poa pratensis > F. rubra ssp. commutata on the fairway. Drying reduced the average daily height growth from 0.98 to 0.74 mm on the green and 1.97–1.72 mm on the fairway. Scores for turf quality were reduced but remained acceptable. Although the Kc during the first day after irrigation to FC may be overestimated due to latent soil heat and a possible oasis effect, we conclude that irrigation to FC should be avoided as it causes excessive water use

FLORIDA AND THE FRESH STRAWBERRY INDUSTRY

Agribusiness,

The Public Interest Inquiry for Permanent Injunctions or Exclusion Orders: Shedding the Myopic Lens

President Obama\u27s 2013 veto of a US International Trade Commission (ITC) exclusion order, issued to address Apple Inc.\u27s infringement of a patent owned by Samsung, thrust the ITC\u27s public interest inquiry into the spotlight. Historically, however, these factors rarely weighed against a remedy at the ITC. Likewise, US district courts have rarely declined to issue a permanent injunction after finding a patent valid and infringed due solely to the public interest factor--the last of the four factors that the Supreme Court put in place in eBay Inc. v. Merc Exchange, L.L.C. More recent decisions addressing the public interest in both forums, however, show a willingness by the adjudicators to weigh both traditional public interest issues, such as health and well-being, and non-traditional arguments, such as public reliance and environmental concerns, against a patent owner\u27s right to exclude. In this Article, we examine some of the successful traditional and non-traditional public interest arguments, both at the ITC and in US district courts. From this analysis, the Article outlines how parties involved in high-stakes patent litigation in either forum can craft public interest arguments to combat the threat of a permanent injunction or an ITC exclusion order

Forward Flux Sampling-type schemes for simulating rare events: Efficiency analysis

We analyse the efficiency of several simulation methods which we have recently proposed for calculating rate constants for rare events in stochastic dynamical systems, in or out of equilibrium. We derive analytical expressions for the computational cost of using these methods, and for the statistical error in the final estimate of the rate constant, for a given computational cost. These expressions can be used to determine which method to use for a given problem, to optimize the choice of parameters, and to evaluate the significance of the results obtained. We apply the expressions to the two-dimensional non-equilibrium rare event problem proposed by Maier and Stein. For this problem, our analysis gives accurate quantitative predictions for the computational efficiency of the three methods.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figure

An Architectural Design to Address the Impact of Adaptations on Intrusion Detection Systems

Many self-adaptive, autonomous systems rely on component technologies to report anomalies to planning processes that can choose adaptations. What if the analysis technologies themselves need to be adapted? We consider an intrusion detection system (IDS) supported by two component technologies that assist its decision making: a neural network that finds security anomalies and an attack graph that informs the IDS about system states of interest. The IDS’s purpose is to send alerts regarding security anomalies. Planning processes respond to alerts by selecting mitigation strategies. Mitigations are imposed system-wide and can result in adaptations to the analysis technology, such as the IDS. Thus, without adaptation it may reach a state of stagnation in its detection quality. In this paper, we describe an architectural design for an adaptive layer that works directly with an IDS. We examine two use cases involving different mitigation strategies and their impact on the IDS’s supporting components

The Role of Special Operations Forces in Operations Against Theater Missiles

The U.S. military has never been able to prevent theater missiles (TMs) from being launched at U.S. and Allied or Coalition forces and citizens. Post-war analysis of interdiction efforts during World War II and the Persian Gulf War could not identify a single instance where either a German V weapon or an Iraqi SCUD missile was destroyed before launch. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the best estimate that the Air Force could provide the National Command Authority was that ninety percent of the Soviet missiles in Cuba would be destroyed by an airstrike. To correct this deficiency, the military developed joint theater missile defense (JTMD) doctrine. This doctrine attempts to integrate synergistically all U.S. military assets and capabilities. However, this doctrine does not fully integrate Special Operations Forces (SOF) into attack operations against TMs. Additionally, the joint tactics, techniques, and procedures (JTTPs) needed to implement this doctrine have not been developed. The integration of SOF's capability to conduct pre-strike and post-strike reconnaissance, critical material recovery operations and target acquisition tasks can immediately improve JTMD capabilities.http://archive.org/details/theroleofspecial1094544388Captain, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

How We Complain: The Effect of Personality on Consumer Complaint Channels

The purpose of this study was to explore any connections that may exist between personality types and consumer complaint channels. A sample of 490 undergraduate students at the University of Nevada Las Vegas was surveyed during class time with a paper and pencil survey. The survey consisted of four service failure scenarios each with eleven possible courses of action. Respondents were asked to rate their likelihood to participate in each action on a seven point Likert-type scale. The three personality factors measured against the complaint behavior were Locus of Control, The California Psychological Inventory measure of Sociability, and Cattel\u27s 16 personality factor of Relaxed vs. Tense. The three factors of consumer complaint channels proposed prior to conducting the study were; direct, indirect, and delayed. Through factor analysis it was revealed that while three factors existed, it was not the factors originally proposed. The three factors that emerged were; active, passive, and delayed. It was found that both Sociability and the interaction of Relaxed vs. Tense have significant or marginally significant effect on consumer complaint channels. Sociability had a measurable effect of several active and one passive factor in complaint scenarios. The interaction of Locus of Control and Relaxed vs. Tense had a measurable effect on two passive and two delayed factors in the complaint scenarios

Some Lake Level Control Alternatives for the Great Salt Lake

Fluctuations of the level of the Great Salt Lake cause large changes in both surface area and shoreline. Developments adjacent to the lake have been damaged by both high and low lake levels; and unless measures are implemented to regulate lake level fluctuations or otherwise to protect these developments, damages will continue. Various possible managment alternatives for mitigating potential damages from lake level fluctuations need to be examined and evaluated. In this study, three possible techniques are examined for reducing damages from fluctuating water levels at the lake, namely: 1. Consumptively using an increased proportion of the inflowing fresh waters on irrigated crop lands during periods of high lake inflow. 2. Protecting important properties and facilities around the lake through the construction of a system of dikes. 3. Removing lake water through pumping into the West Dester for evaporation. The above three alternatives are evaluated only for economic feasibility, with physical, legal, and institutional constraints being neglected. The philosophy behind this approach was that if economic feasibility could be demonstrated, other investigations could follow. With reference to the first alternative, the additional irrigation is assumed to occur within the Bear River Basin. The Bear River, which contributes approximately 56 percent of the total inflow to the Great Salt Lake, drains the only tributary basin which contains significant areas of irrigable but not yet irrigated lands. A reconnaissance level economic analysis of each of the above management alternatives is presented. Bapital and annual costs are estimated and compared with estimates of the flood control venefits generated. The overall feasibility, the optimum design, and the optimum time of construction are thus determined for each alternative. From the results of the study, it is concluded that irrigation in the Bear River Basin, except perhaps as part of a multiple purpose project, and the West Desert pumping alternatives are not economically feasible. Particular configurations of the dike alternatives are economically attracive if construction is commenced when lake levels rise to elevations exceeding 4202 feet