Elephant cognition in primate perspective

On many of the staple measures of comparative psychology, elephants show no obvious differences from other mammals, such as primates: discrimination learning, memory, spontaneous tool use, etc. However, a range of more naturalistic measures have recently suggested that elephant cognition may be rather different. Wild elephants sub-categorize humans into groups, independently making this classification on the basis of scent or colour. In number discrimination, elephants show no effects of absolute magnitude or relative size disparity in making number judgements. In the social realm, elephants show empathy into the problems faced by others, and give hints of special abilities in cooperation, vocal imitation and perhaps teaching. Field data suggest that the elephant’s vaunted reputation for memory may have a factual basis, in two ways. Elephants’ ability to remember large-scale space over long periods suggests good cognitive mapping skills. Elephants’ skill in keeping track of the current locations of many family members implies that working memory may be unusually developed, consistent with the laboratory finding that their quantity judgements do not show the usual magnitude effects.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Improving technology transfer through national systems of innovation: climate relevant innovation-system builders (CRIBs)

The Technology Executive Committee (TEC) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recently convened a workshop seeking to understand how strengthening national systems of innovation (NSIs) might help to foster the transfer of climate technologies to developing countries. This article reviews insights from the literatures on Innovation Studies and Socio-Technical Transitions to demonstrate why this focus on fostering innovation systems has potential to be more transformative as an international policy mechanism for climate technology transfer than anything the UNFCCC has considered to date. Based on insights from empirical research, the article also articulates how the existing architecture of the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism could be usefully extended by supporting the establishment of CRIBs (climate relevant innovation-system builders) in developing countries – key institutions focused on nurturing the climate-relevant innovation systems and building technological capabilities that form the bedrock of transformative, climate-compatible technological change and development

A multiphase model describing vascular tumour growth

In this paper we present a new model framework for studying vascular tumour growth, in which the blood vessel density is explicitly considered. Our continuum model comprises conservation of mass and momentum equations for the volume fractions of tumour cells, extracellular material and blood vessels. We include the physical mechanisms that we believe to be dominant, namely birth and death of tumour cells, supply and removal of extracellular fluid via the blood and lymph drainage vessels, angiogenesis and blood vessel occlusion. We suppose that the tumour cells move in order to relieve the increase in mechanical stress caused by their proliferation. We show how to reduce the model to a system of coupled partial differential equations for the volume fraction of tumour cells and blood vessels and the phase averaged velocity of the mixture. We consider possible parameter regimes of the resulting model. We solve the equations numerically in these cases, and discuss the resulting behaviour. The model is able to reproduce tumour structure that is found `in vivo' in certain cases. Our framework can be easily modified to incorporate the effect of other phases, or to include the effect of drugs

Study of Civil Markets for Heavy-Lift Airships

The civil markets for heavy lift airships (HLAs) were defined by first identifying areas of most likely application. The operational suitability of HLAs for the applications identified were then assessed. The operating economics of HLAs were established and the market size for HLA services estimated by comparing HLA operating and economic characteristics with those of competing modes. The sensitivities of the market size to HLA characteristics were evaluated and the number and sizes of the vehicles required to service the more promising markets were defined. Important characteristics for future HLAs are discussed that were derived from the study of each application, including operational requirements, features enhancing profitability, military compatibility, improved design requirements, approach to entry into service, and institutional implications for design and operation

A note on heat and mass transfer from a sphere in Stokes\ud flow at low Péclet number

We consider the low Péclet number, Pe ≪ 1, asymptotic solution for steady-state heat and mass transfer from a sphere immersed in Stokes flow with a Robin boundary condition on its surface, representing Newton cooling or a first-order chemical reaction. The application of van Dyke’s rule up to terms of O(Pe3) shows that the O(Pe3 log Pe) terms in the expression for the average Nusselt/Sherwood number are double those previously derived in the literature. Inclusion of the O(Pe3) terms is shown to increase significantly the range of validity of the expansion

AN EVALUATION OF CONSUMER PESTICIDE RESIDUE CONCERNS AND RISK INFORMATION SOURCES

Marginal probability effects of demographic variables on consumer concerns about pesticide residues were assessed as well as the likelihood of consumer beliefs given different channels of information on produce safety and risks. This was done using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) of ordered logit models. The empirical results showed that pesticide residue concern levels appeared to be lower for more highly educated and high income households. Safety information from the academic community was found to have the highest likelihood of acceptance by consumers.Risk and Uncertainty,

Wave climate model of the Mid-Atlantic shelf and shoreline (Virginian Sea): Model development, shelf geomorphology, and preliminary results

A computerized wave climate model is developed that applies linear wave theory and shelf depth information to predict wave behavior as they pass over the continental shelf as well as the resulting wave energy distributions along the coastline. Reviewed are also the geomorphology of the Mid-Atlantic Continental Shelf, wave computations resulting from 122 wave input conditions, and a preliminary analysis of these data

Research and development of the dry tape battery concept Quarterly report no. 2, 9 Sep. - 8 Dec. 1965

Magnesium-aluminum chloride, hydrogen chloride- trichlorotriazinetrione system for dry tape batterie

Laser application to measure vertical sea temperature and turbidity, design phase

An experiment to test a new method was designed, using backscattered radiation from a laser beam to measure oceanographic parameters in a fraction of a second. Tyndall, Rayleigh, Brillouin, and Raman scattering all are utilized to evaluate the parameters. A beam from a continuous argon ion laser is used together with an interferometer and interference filters to gather the information. The results are checked by direct measurements. Future shipboard and airborne experiments are described