Experimental Design and the Retention of Oil on Arctic Test Beaches

Oil was laid down in a series of experiments at Cape Hatt, Baffin Island, N.W.T., on pairs of control plots in the upper intertidal zone at four beach sites, each with a different wave exposure, and on backshore pairs of control plots at two sites. The control plots were established as a basis for comparison with a series of intertidal shoreline cleanup experiments. Sites with different wave-energy exposures were selected in order to provide a range of energy level environments and also a variety of intertidal sediment characteristics. The experimental design of this phase of the project attempted to reproduce conditions similar to those that would result from a large spill. At each location one plot was oiled with an aged Lagomedio crude oil and the other with an emulsion of water in aged crude oil. ... Observations and analytical results indicate that after seven or eight days dispersion and edge effects became significant on the intertidal plots. Data from the intertidal plots, therefore, were considered to replicate patchy oil contamination and were not representative of large natural spill situations beyond one week after the oil was laid down.Key words: Arctic, shoreline experiments, oil spills, oil retention, maximum oil loadingMots clés: Arctique, expériences sur le littoral, marée noire, rétention de pétrole, charge maximum de pétrol

Computable general equilibrium modelling for urban transport planning and appraisal

In the transport planning process, decision makers use cost benefit analyses (CBAs) to quantify the impacts of proposals. However, CBAs assume that markets operate perfectly, resulting in uncaptured impacts from externalities, taxes and other imperfections. Another shortcoming is that it can be difficult to determine the distribution of impacts, which is often a serious concern to governments and the community. Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models simulate entire economies by representing markets from microeconomic behavioural functions of households, firms and others. The magnitude and distribution of both direct and wider economic impacts can be assessed within CGE models through welfare, GDP, prices and other economic measures. However, few CGE models have the necessary features for urban transport planning and appraisal, such as spatial detail at an urban scale, endogenous trip generation and the representation of transport networks. Furthermore, scant literature exists on how to develop CGE models for transport applications and there are few reviews of CGE models of transport. This thesis has three aims: (1) to review CGE models of transport and their applicability to appraisal, (2) to review the concepts, theory and assumptions of CGE modelling in relation to transport, and (3) to formulate and apply an integrated CGE and transport model for Sydney. The first main chapter explores urban, regional, congestion, externality and other non-spatial CGE models for transport, and discusses the theoretical and practical issues of CGE modelling for appraisal. The next three main chapters synthesise the foundations of CGE modelling as an exposition for transport planners and engineers to develop their own models. This includes mathematical modelling and optimisation problems, microeconomic models of agent and market behaviour and the fundamentals of CGE modelling. The final three chapters formulate, calibrate and demonstrate CGE models of transport. The first formulates a full integrated CGE and transport model for transport appraisal, and the second calibrates it for the Sydney transport network and economy. However, this model is not demonstrated due to issues with model assumptions, resource constraints and a lack of data. The third chapter develops a condensed version of the full model, which is demonstrated for Sydney

A Field Evaluation of Selected Beach-Cleaning Techniques

A series of experiments was conducted to evaluate selected countermeasures for the cleanup of oil on remote beaches. These experiments formed part of the Baffin Island Oil Spill (BIOS) Project, which was conducted at Cape Hatt, N.W.T., between 1980 and 1983. An isolated lagoon was selected with a series of segregated bays that could be used for discrete experiments with control and countermeasure plots. Intertidal control plots were established in 1980 at an exposed site and at a relatively sheltered location. The oil on the exposed intertidal control plot was removed rapidly by natural processes so that subsequent attention was focused on low wave energy sites. Countermeasure experiments were conducted in 1981 in the intertidal zone at a relatively sheltered site and in 1982 in the intertidal and backshore zones at a very sheltered beach. At each of these two locations, control and countermeasure plots were duplicated using an aged Lagomedio crude oil and a water in aged Lagomedio emulsion. Countermeasures were selected for testing on the basis of existing experimental or practical knowledge and the applicability to remote or arctic beach environments. The selected techniques were incendiary combustion, mechanical mixing, chemical dispersion, solidifying and low-pressure flushing. ...Key words: countermeasures, dispersants, flushing, incendiary devices, mixing, natural cleaning, oil spill, shoreline, solidifying agentMots clés: mesures d’intervention, agents de dispersion, lavage à grande eau, mécanismes incendiaires, brassage, nettoyage naturel, déversement depétrole, littoral, agent solidifian

Word and spirit in Ezekiel

Two fundamental experiences of Yahweh in the Old Testament are an encounter with the 'word' of Yahweh and an encounter with the 'spirit' or 'wind' or 'breath' (rüah) of Yahweh. This thesis explores 'word', ruah, and their relationship in the book of Ezekiel. It argues that the relationship between Yahweh's rüah and Yahweh's word is to be understood not so much in terms of the inspiration and authentication of the prophet but in terms of the transformation of the book's addressees. According to the dominant paradigm for explaining the emphasis on ruah and its relation to Yahweh's word within the book of Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel is recovering from the pre-classical prophets, or even pioneering, an emphasis on ruah in prophecy that is conspicuously absent from the classical, writing prophets. This reading interprets the emphasis on ruah in Ezekiel in terms of the self-authentication of the ministry of the prophet. This thesis examines the relationship between ruah and prophecy in Ezekiel and in the rest of the Old Testament, and shows that the dominant paradigm requires modification. The emphasis on Yahweh's ruah in Ezekiel, even the 'prophetic spirit', is best understood in relation to the book's concern for the transformation of its addressees. The prophet Ezekiel's experience of Yahweh's ruah and his own obedience to Yahweh's call are clearly contrasted with the disobedience of the prophet's addressees in order to present Ezekiel as a model for the addressees of the book. His experience illuminates for them how the dramatic vision of the future can become a reality in their experience. This provides a different perspective on the conundrum of the presence in the book of calls to repentance alongside declarations of Yahweh's unilateral salvific actions. Further, it provides an integrated account of the different occurrences of ruah in relation to the rhetorical function of the book. Yahweh's ruah has a fundamental role in the envisaged obedient response to Yahweh's word, both of Ezekiel and of the book's addressees.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Teacher characteristics and children’s educational attainment in Ghana: do some teacher characteristics matter more for children attending disadvantaged schools?

Funding Information: The authors are grateful to both the Government of Ghana and their partners for permission to use the data. All results from this research are the responsibility of the authors and do not implicate the custodians of the primary data in any way. Funding. This research relied on data from the Ghana Education Service and RTI International in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development. This study was partly supported through the Scottish Funding Council GCRF Institutional grant awarded to ES. Publisher Copyright: © Copyright © 2020 Nyatsikor, Sosu, Mtika and Robson. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The integration of tertiary education within the framework of further education with special reference to the problems envisaged in the design and implementation of staff development programmes.

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Non-positive experiences encountered by pupils during participation in a mindfulness-informed school-based intervention

Mindfulness-informed school-based mental health curricula show much promise in cultivating a positive school climate which supports the well-being and mental health of pupils and staff. However, non-positive pupil outcomes and experiences of school-based mental health interventions are often under-recognised and under-reported. This study sought to capture non-positive pupil experiences of a popular mindfulness-informed curriculum. Some pupils across all schools in the study described non-positive experiences, including having troubling thoughts and emotions, and not finding the programme effective. Contexts surrounding these experiences are explored and linked to existing literature, and subsequent recommendations for improvements are made, including the importance of having clear programme structure, definitions and aims, acknowledging and accommodating fidelity issues as best as possible, and better highlighting the potential for non-positive experiences and how they may be reduced

Open-set face recognition with maximal entropy and Objectosphere loss

Open-set face recognition characterizes a scenario where unknown individuals, unseen during the training and enrollment stages, appear on operation time. This work concentrates on watchlists, an open-set task that is expected to operate at a low false-positive identification rate and generally includes only a few enrollment samples per identity. We introduce a compact adapter network that benefits from additional negative face images when combined with distinct cost functions, such as Objectosphere Loss (OS) and the proposed Maximal Entropy Loss (MEL). MEL modifies the traditional Cross-Entropy loss in favor of increasing the entropy for negative samples and attaches a penalty to known target classes in pursuance of gallery specialization. The proposed approach adopts pre-trained deep neural networks (DNNs) for face recognition as feature extractors. Then, the adapter network takes deep feature representations and acts as a substitute for the output layer of the pre-trained DNN in exchange for an agile domain adaptation. Promising results have been achieved following open-set protocols for three different datasets: LFW, IJB-C, and UCCS as well as state-of-the-art performance when supplementary negative data is properly selected to fine-tune the adapter network

Great Canadian Lagerstätten 3. Late Ordovician Konservat-Lagerstätten in Manitoba

Konservat-Lagerstätten, deposits in which soft-bodied or lightly sclerotized fossils are preserved, are very rare in Ordovician strata. Three significant sites are known from Upper Ordovician rocks in Manitoba: at Cat Head – McBeth Point, William Lake, and Airport Cove. These sites are in two distinct sedimentary basins: the former two are in the Williston Basin, while the latter is in the Hudson Bay Basin. All three sites contain marine fossils, but each has a different assemblage that contributes a distinct piece of the diversity picture. Important groups represented at one or more of the sites include seaweeds (algae), sponges, cnidarian medusae (jellyfish), conulariids, trilobites, eurypterids, xiphosurids (horseshoe crabs), and pycnogonids (‘sea spiders’). The different biotas reflect depositional conditions at each site. Many of the fossils are unknown elsewhere in the Ordovician at the family level or higher. The province of Manitoba therefore makes a significant contribution to knowledge of Late Ordovician biodiversity.SOMMAIRELes lagerstätten de conservation, ces sédiments contenant des fossiles d’organismes à corps mou ou légèrement sclérotisés particulièrement bien conservés, sont très rares dans les strates ordoviciennes.  Trois sites d’importance sont connus dans des roches de l'Ordovicien supérieur à Cat Head, Manitoba, soit McBeth Point, William Lake et  Airport Cove.  Ces sites sont situés dans deux bassins sédimentaires distincts : les deux premiers sont situés dans le bassin de Williston, tandis que le second est situé dans le bassin de la baie d'Hudson.  Les trois sites contiennent des fossiles marins, mais chacun présente un assemblage différent, chacun montrant une composante distincte de la diversité biologique d’alors.  Les groupes les plus importants représentés, dans un ou plusieurs de ces sites, sont les algues, les éponges, les cnidarian medusae (méduses), les conularides, les trilobites, les euryptérides, xiphosurides (limules) et pycnogonides.  Les différents biotopes reflètent les conditions de dépôt de chaque site.  Nombre de ces fossiles sont inconnus ailleurs dans l'Ordovicien, au niveau de la famille ou du taxon supérieur de la classification.  Ainsi, la province du Manitoba offre-t-elle une contribution importante à la connaissance de la biodiversité de l'Ordovicien supérieur

A new era of wide-field submillimetre imaging: on-sky performance of SCUBA-2

SCUBA-2 is the largest submillimetre wide-field bolometric camera ever built. This 43 square arc-minute field-of-view instrument operates at two wavelengths (850 and 450 microns) and has been installed on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. SCUBA-2 has been successfully commissioned and operational for general science since October 2011. This paper presents an overview of the on-sky performance of the instrument during and since commissioning in mid-2011. The on-sky noise characteristics and NEPs of the 450 and 850 micron arrays, with average yields of approximately 3400 bolometers at each wavelength, will be shown. The observing modes of the instrument and the on-sky calibration techniques are described. The culmination of these efforts has resulted in a scientifically powerful mapping camera with sensitivities that allow a square degree of sky to be mapped to 10 mJy/beam rms at 850 micron in 2 hours and 60 mJy/beam rms at 450 micron in 5 hours in the best weather.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures.SPIE Conference series 8452, Millimetre, Submillimetre and Far-infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VI 201