George Warde Norman, Taxation and the Promotion of Human Happiness : An Essay by George Warde Norman, ed. D. P. O’Brien, with assistance from John Creedy

Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2009), pp. xilll, 209, £59.95. ISBN 978184844485

Off-nadir antenna bias correction using Amazon rain sigma(0) data

The radar response from the Amazon rain forest was studied to determine the suitability of this region for use as a standard target to calibrate a scatterometer like that proposed for the National Oceanic Satellite System (NOSS). Backscattering observations made by the SEASAT Scatterometer System (SASS) showed the Amazon rain forest to be a homogeneous, azimuthally-isotropic, radar target which was insensitive to polarization. The variation with angle of incidence was adequately modeled as scattering coefficient (dB) = a theta b with typical values for the incidence-angle coefficient from 0.07 to 0.15 dB/deg. A small diurnal effect occurs, with measurements at sunrise being 0.5 dB to 1 dB higher than the rest of the day. Maximum-likelihood estimation algorithms presented here permit determination of relative bias and true pointing angle for each beam. Specific implementation of these algorithms for the proposed NOSS scatterometer system is also discussed

Morphology and tructure of the pollen cone and pollen grain of the Araucaria species from Argentina

The pollen cone and the pollen grain of the two Argentinean species of Araucaria are described with LM, SEM and TEM. Primordia of pollen cones are formed in April and May and reach maturity by mid-October in A. angustifolia (Bert.) O. Kuntze and by mid-November in A. araucana. (Mol.) K. Koch. Characters of the mature pollen cones and microsporophylls between both taxa are clearly differentiated. Pollen grains are spheroidal-subspheroidal, inaperturate, and asaccate with granulate exine and a subequatorial annular area that corresponds to the sexine thickness. Sculpturing consists of irregularly dispersed granules that are sometimes fused to each other (A. angustifolia) or forming microrugulae (A. araucana). Microgranules and microspinules are also present. The pollen wall ultrastructure is formed by a granular ectexine and lamellated endexine. Granular elements in A. angustifolia are more loosely disposed, form more interstices, and are gradually smaller towards the endexine than in A. araucana. To asses the probable relationships within the family, we compared the pollen grains of the two Araucaria species with those of other extant genera (Agathis, Wollemia) and also with fossil pollen (Araucariacites, Balmeiopsis, Cyclusphaera, Dilwynites) attributed to Araucariaceae.Fil: del Fueyo, Georgina Marisa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; ArgentinaFil: Caccavari, Marta Alicia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; Argentina. Provincia de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; ArgentinaFil: Dome, Elizabeth. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; Argentin

Estimates of oceanic surface wind speed and direction using orthogonal beam scatterometer measurements and comparison of recent sea scattering theories

The wind direction properties of radar backscatter from the sea were empirically modelled using a cosine Fourier series through the 4th harmonic in wind direction (referenced to upwind). A comparison with 1975 JONSWAP (Joint North Sea Wave Project) scatterometer data, at incidence angles of 40 and 65, indicates that effects to third and fourth harmonics are negligible. Another important result is that the Fourier coefficients through the second harmonic are related to wind speed by a power law expression. A technique is also proposed to estimate the wind speed and direction over the ocean from two orthogonal scattering measurements. A comparison between two different types of sea scatter theories, one type presented by the work of Wright and the other by that of Chan and Fung, was made with recent scatterometer measurements. It demonstrates that a complete scattering model must include some provisions for the anisotropic characteristics of the sea scatter, and use a sea spectrum which depends upon wind speed

Relationship between physiological maturity and commercial maturity of kiwifruit 'Hayward' growing at the South-East of Buenos Aires province (Argentina)

Los frutos climatéricos, como el kiwi, deben cosecharse una vez que alcanzan la madurez fisiológica, a fin de no comprometer su calidad gustativa. El propósito del presente trabajo fue determinar la instancia del desarrollo cuando los frutos del cv. 'Hayward' alcanzaron la madurez fisiológica, mediante la medición de índices de madurez objetivos. Para tal fin, un lote comercial de kiwi cv 'Hayward' situado en el sudeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina) s e c o s e c h ó s e m a n a l m e n t e d e s d e l a s 11 semanas después de plena floración (sdpf) hasta la cosecha comercial, a las 18 sdpf. La fruta fue analizada a la cosecha y después de un período de almacenamiento (53 días a 2°C) y maduración (7 días a 20°C). A cosecha, el contenido de materia seca de la fruta, la firmeza de la pulpa y la acidez titulable del jugo no sufrieron cambios significativos a partir de las 16 sdpf. Al final del período de almacenamiento y maduración, los sólidos solubles y la acidez titulable, así como la pérdida de peso de los frutos, no variaron significativamente en frutos cosechados a partir de las 16 sdpf. Estos resultados sugieren que la madurez fisiológica se alcanzó dos semanas antes de la cosecha comercial. Con mayores exigencias protocolares de contenido de materia seca, la madurez comercial se habría logrado recién a las 18 sdpf. A madurez fisiológica, los índices de madurez registraron los siguientes valores: 5,4% sólidos solubles, 1,18% acidez titulable, 14,2% materia seca y 49% semillas negras.Climacteric fruits, like kiwifruit, must be harvested at physiological maturity, in order to not affecting their organoleptic quality. The aim of the present work was to determinate the developmental time at which 'Hayward' fruits reached physiological maturity, by measuring objective ripening indexes. A commercial kiwifruit orchard, which was located at the South-East of Buenos Aires province in Argentina, was harvested weekly from 11 weeks after full bloom (wafb) to commercial harvest, at 18 wafb. Fruits were analyzed at harvest and after storage (53 days at 2°C) and ripening (7 days at 20°C) time. At harvest, fruit dry matter content, pulp firmness, and juice tirtratable acidity did not significantly change from 16 wafb. At the end of storage and ripening time, juice soluble solids content, tirtratable acidity, and fruit loss weight did not significantly change in fruits harvested from 16 wafb. These results suggests that physiological maturity was reached two weeks before commercial harvest. If higher standard requirements of dry matter content had to be fulfilled, commercial maturity would be just achieved at 18 wafb. At physiological maturity, the ripening indexes gave the following values: 5.4% soluble solids, 1.18% tirtratable acidity, 14.2% dry matter, and 49% black seeds.Fil: Godoy, Carlos. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias AgrariasFil: Dome, Claudia. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Agraria

Off-nadir antenna bias correction using Amazon rain forest sigma deg data

The radar response from the Amazon rain forest was studied to determine the suitability of this region for use as a standard target to calibrate a scatterometer like that proposed for the National Ocean Satellite System (NOSS). Backscattering observations made by the SEASAT-1 scatterometer system show the Amazon rain forest to be a homogeneous, azimuthally-isotropic, radar target which is insensitive to polarization. The variation with angle of incidence may be adequately modeled as sigma deg (dB) = alpha theta + beta with typical values for the incidence-angle coefficient from 0.07 dB deg to 0.15 dB/deg. A small diurnal effect occurs, with measurements at sunrise being 0.5 dB to 1 dB higher than the rest of the day. Maximum likelihood estimation algorithms are presented which permit determination of relative bias and true pointing angle for each beam. Specific implementation of these algorithms for the proposed NOSS scatterometer system is also discussed

Effect of forest management on productivity and carbon sequestration

With an increasing fraction of the world's forests being intensively managed for meeting humanity's need for wood, fiber and ecosystem services, quantitative understanding of the functional changes in these ecosystems in comparison with natural forests is needed. Inparticular, the role of managed forests as long-term carbon (C) sinks and for mitigating climate change require a detailed assessment of their carbon cycle on different temporal scales. In the current review we assess available data on the structure and function of the world's forests, explore the main differences in the C exchange between managed and unmanaged stands, and explore potential physiological mechanisms behind both observed and expected changes. Two global databases that include classification for management indicate that managed forests are about 50 years younger, include 25% more coniferous stands, and have about 50% lower C stocks than unmanaged forests. The gross primary productivity (GPP) and total net primary productivity (NPP) are the similar, but relatively more of the assimilated carbon is allocated to aboveground pools in managed than in unmanagedforests, whereas allocation tofine roots and rhizosymbiontsis lower. This shift inallocation patterns ispromotedbyincreasing plant size, and by increased nutrient availability. Long-term carbon sequestration potential in soils is assessed through the ratio of heterotrophic respiration tototaldetritus production, which indicatesthat (i) the forestsoils maybe losing more carbon on an annual basis than they regain in detritus inputs, and (ii) the deficit appearstobegreater in managedforests. While climate change and management factors (esp. fertilization) both contribute to greater carbon accumulation potential in the soil, the harvest-related increase in decomposition affects the C budget over the entire harvest cycle. Although the findings do not preclude the use of forests for climate mitigation, maximizing merchantable productivity may have significant carbon costs for the soil pool. We conclude that optimal management strategies for maximizing multiple benefits from ecosystem services require better understanding of the dynamics of belowground allocation, carbohydrate availability, heterotrophic respiration, and carbon stabilization inthe soil

Evolutionary algorithms for financial trading

Genetic programming (GP) is increasingly popular as a research tool for applications in finance and economics. One thread in this area is the use of GP to discover effective technical trading rules. In a seminal article, Allen & Karjalainen (1999) used GP to find rules that were profitable, but were nevertheless outperformed by the simple “buy and hold” trading strategy. Many succeeding attempts have reported similar findings. This represents a clear example of a significant open issue in the field of GP, namely, generalization in GP [78]. The issue of generalisation is that GP solutions may not be general enough, resulting in poor performance on unseen data. There are a small handful of cases in which such work has managed to find rules that outperform buyand- hold, but these have tended to be difficult to replicate. Among previous studies, work by Becker & Seshadri (2003) was the most promising one, which showed outperformance of buy-and-hold. In turn, Becker & Seshadri’s work had made several modifications to Allen & Karjalainen’s work, including the adoption of monthly rather than daily trading. This thesis provides a replicable account of Becker & Seshadri’s study, and also shows how further modifications enabled fairly reliable outperformance of buy-and-hold, including the use of a train/test/validate methodology [41] to evolve trading rules with good properties of generalization, and the use of a dynamic form of GP [109] to improve the performance of the algorithm in dynamic environments like financial markets. In addition, we investigate and compare each of daily, weekly and monthly trading; we find that outperformance of buy-and-hold can be achieved even for daily trading, but as we move from monthly to daily trading the performance of evolved rules becomes increasingly dependent on prevailing market conditions. This has clarified that robust outperformance of B&H depends on, mainly, the adoption of a relatively infrequent trading strategy (e.g. monthly), as well as a range of factors that amount to sound engineering of the GP grammar and the validation strategy. Moreover, v we also add a comprehensive study of multiobjective approaches to this investigation with assumption from that, and find that multiobjective strategies provide even more robustness in outperforming B&H, even in the context of more frequent (e.g. weekly) trading decisions. Last, inspired by a number of beneficial aspects of grammatical evolution (GE) and reports on the successful performance of various kinds of its applications, we introduce new approach for (GE) with a new suite of operators resulting in an improvement on GE search compared with standard GE. An empirical test of this new GE approach on various kind of test problems, including financial trading, is provided in this thesis as well