THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTEGRATED COMPUTER PACKAGE FOR CREATING, STORING AND ASSESSING SAMPLING INSPECTION PLANS

This thesis deals with the theory and implementation of acceptance sampling by attributes. It culminates in the design and development of a user friendly software package for creating, storing and indexing sampling inspection plans. A detailed review of the most widely used sampling inspection schemes is carried out, with particular emphasis on the methods for indexing sampling plans. In addition, the existing methods for constructing single and double sampling plans are studied with and without cost structures. The design of a software package for sampling inspection theory is constructed on the basis of this review. This software incorporates some new algorithms as well as refirement of existing algorithms. Throughout the design of the software package, particular emphasis is placed on the need for a friendly man-machine interface. The description of the package is made through three main routes: description of the "logic", description of the man-machine interface and implementation using algorithms.Sheffield City Polytechni

Increasing extremes of heat and drought associated with recent severe wildfires in southern Greece

Mountains of the northern Mediterranean basin face two major threats under global change. Aridity and available fuel are both expected to increase because of climatic and land-use changes, increasing fire danger. There may already be signs of such effects in the case of the Pinus nigra and Abies cephalonica forests on Mt. Taygetos (southern Greece). We reconstructed climate (mid- to late-fire-season drought) using tree-rings for the last 150 years and compared it with the mountain's fire history reconstructed from P. nigra fire scars. Seven, out of the ten, large fires Mt. Taygetos experienced were associated with below-normal precipitation (P) or above-normal maximum temperature (T max). The largest fires occurred in late summer of 1879, 1944, 1998, and 2007. However, only the recent fires (1998 and 2007) had both low P and high T max, also confirmed from long-term meteorological data. The synergy between climate and fuel availability may explain the very high intensity of 1998 and 2007 fires that burned mostly as stand-replacing crown fires. The other two large fire events (1879 and 1944) most likely occurred under reduced availability in burning fuel and were related to above-normal T max. Our findings are among the first based on long-term and site-specific empirical data to support the prediction that Mediterranean mountainous areas will face a very large threat from wildfires in the twenty-first century, if socioeconomic changes leading to land abandonment and thus burning fuel accumulation are combined with the drought intensification projected for the region under global warming. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg