Comparing modern and Pleistocene ENSO-like influences in NW Argentina using nonlinear time series analysis methods

Higher variability in rainfall and river discharge could be of major importance in landslide generation in the north-western Argentine Andes. Annual layered (varved) deposits of a landslide dammed lake in the Santa Maria Basin (26 deg S, 66 deg W) with an age of 30,000 14C years provide an archive of precipitation variability during this time. The comparison of these data with present-day rainfall observations tests the hypothesis that increased rainfall variability played a major role in landslide generation. A potential cause of such variability is the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The causal link between ENSO and local rainfall is quantified by using a new method of nonlinear data analysis, the quantitative analysis of cross recurrence plots (CRP). This method seeks similarities in the dynamics of two different processes, such as an ocean-atmosphere oscillation and local rainfall. Our analysis reveals significant similarities in the statistics of both modern and palaeo-precipitation data. The similarities in the data suggest that an ENSO-like influence on local rainfall was present at around 30,000 14C years ago. Increased rainfall, which was inferred from a lake balance modeling in a previous study, together with ENSO-like cyclicities could help to explain the clustering of landslides at around 30,000 14C years ago.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

Pengimbasan Ketahanan Tanaman Pisang Terhadap Penyakit Darah (Ralstonia Solanacearum Phylotipe IV) MengGunakan Bakteri Endofit

Induced resistance of banana against blood disease (Ralstonia solanacearum Phylotipe IV) using endophytic bacteria. Endophytic bacteria play a role to control plant pathogenic bacteria indirectly by inducing the plant to increase production of the metabolites in activating the plant resistance. This study aimed to determine the ability of endophytic bacteria to induce resistance in banana plants against blood disease. Indicators of induced resistance of banana plant were analyzed through the existence of defense enzyme activities (peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase) and the amount of salicylic acid on banana roots. The results showed that endophytic bacteria isolates EAL15, EKK10, EKK20 and EKK22 suppressed the incidence of blood disease in Cavendish banana by 70-85%. Increased activity of peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase in roots of banana plants were higher in plants treated with endophytic bacteria compared to untreated plants. Salicylic acid content in banana plants treated with isolates EAL15, EKK10 and EKK20 was higher than that of EKK22 isolates and control plants

Impact Of Gender Related Legal Reugulations On Pursuing Sustainable Development: A Study Of Kuwait's National Development Plan (2035)

This thesis seeks to analyze the impact of gender inequality on the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 as expressed in the UN Post-Millennium global program. More specifically, it aims to illustrate how gender equality and empowerment are essential to sustainable development, and argues that gender-based discrimination hinders national development visions and goals. In order to illustrate the effect of gender inequality on political and economic development, the thesis will focus on the institutional and legal discrimination in the Kuwaiti Nationality Law in order to show how structural gender discrimination in public policy will challenge and hinder the Kuwait National Development Plan 2035. Recognizing the complexity of gender, class and tribal dynamics in Kuwaiti society, and notwithstanding the pitfalls of some of the global development paradigms, the thesis contends that gender equality, legally, economically, and politically, provide the most viable platform for achieving and realizing national development aspirations in Kuwait. Finally, this thesis will present the challenges and prospects for national development strategies and provide policy recommendations

Illustrating field emission theory by using Lauritsen plots of transmission probability and barrier strength

This technical note relates to the theory of cold field electron emission (CFE). It starts by suggesting that, to emphasize common properties in relation to CFE theory, the term 'Lauritsen plot' could be used to describe all graphical plots made with the reciprocal of barrier field (or the reciprocal of a quantity proportional to barrier field) on the horizontal axis. It then argues that Lauritsen plots related to barrier strength (G) and transmission probability (D) could play a useful role in discussion of CFE theory. Such plots would supplement conventional Fowler-Nordheim (FN) plots. All these plots would be regarded as particular types of Lauritsen plot. The Lauritsen plots of -G and lnD can be used to illustrate how basic aspects of FN tunnelling theory are influenced by the mathematical form of the tunnelling barrier. These, in turn, influence local emission current density and emission current. Illustrative applications used in this note relate to the well-known exact triangular and Schottky-Nordheim barriers, and to the Coulomb barrier (i.e., the electrostatic component of the electron potential energy barrier outside a model spherical emitter). For the Coulomb barrier, a good analytical series approximation has been found for the barrier-form correction factor; this can be used to predict the existence (and to some extent the properties) of related curvature in FN plots.Comment: Based on a poster presented at the 25th International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference, Jeju, S. Korea, July 2012. Version 3 incorporates small changes made at proof stag

How to avoid potential pitfalls in recurrence plot based data analysis

Recurrence plots and recurrence quantification analysis have become popular in the last two decades. Recurrence based methods have on the one hand a deep foundation in the theory of dynamical systems and are on the other hand powerful tools for the investigation of a variety of problems. The increasing interest encompasses the growing risk of misuse and uncritical application of these methods. Therefore, we point out potential problems and pitfalls related to different aspects of the application of recurrence plots and recurrence quantification analysis

Management outcomes of ectopic pregnancy depending on different treatment modalities: a cohort study

Background: Ectopic pregnancy is the most common cause of maternal morbidity and mortality during the first trimester of pregnancy. The present study aimed to review and evaluate the management outcomes of ectopic pregnancy in Damascus University Maternity Hospital, Syria.Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed on women referring to Damascus University Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) for ectopic pregnancy. Patients were assigned into groups by method of treatment: expectant management (Group 1), single-dose methotrexate regimen (Group 2), two-dose methotrexate regimen (Group 3), and surgical intervention (Group 4). Parameters assessed were risk factors for ectopic pregnancies, transvaginal ultrasonography findings, serum human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels on Days 0, 4, 7, and types of surgical intervention in women that underwent any surgical intervention. A treatment modality was considered successful when hCG levels declined to less than 5 mIU/L without further administration of methotrexate dose or need for surgery.Results: Seventy-seven women with ectopic pregnancy were admitted to the hospital during the study period. Groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 constituted 20.8%, 13.0%, 6.5% and 59.7% of the patients respectively. The most common encountered risk factors for ectopic pregnancy in the patients were history of previous intra-abdominal or pelvic surgery (57.1%) and history of miscarriage (41.6%). A statistically significant difference in the serum hCG concentrations measured on day 0, day 4, and day 7 were observed between the groups.Conclusions: The success rate in ectopic pregnancy treatment was 56.25% for the expectant management, 70% for the single-dose methotrexate regimen, and 40% for two-dose methotrexate regimen

The backbone of the climate network

We propose a method to reconstruct and analyze a complex network from data generated by a spatio-temporal dynamical system, relying on the nonlinear mutual information of time series analysis and betweenness centrality of complex network theory. We show, that this approach reveals a rich internal structure in complex climate networks constructed from reanalysis and model surface air temperature data. Our novel method uncovers peculiar wave-like structures of high energy flow, that we relate to global surface ocean currents. This points to a major role of the oceanic surface circulation in coupling and stabilizing the global temperature field in the long term mean (140 years for the model run and 60 years for reanalysis data). We find that these results cannot be obtained using classical linear methods of multivariate data analysis, and have ensured their robustness by intensive significance testing.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Finite element analysis of protective bicycle helmet & dummy head under dynamic loading

Cycling is a good activities particularly for recreation, exercise, and transportation. However, cycling related to the head injury is a significant contributor to hospitalization and death. Previous literatures indicates that the available helmets have less effective in preventing head injuries among cyclists. Moreover, most of the available helmets have been tested for only a few loading conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to use finite element models to evaluate the protective effect of a helmet against various impact velocities. The head and helmet model has been developed using computational software. This study focus on the explicit dynamic analysis which performed in ANSY-WORKBENCH with loading condition in term of various impact velocity impacted on front and side of the head model. The results indicates the differences between the frontal and side simulations. They have been compared to identify the protective effect of the helmet and head

Pengembangan Pendekatan Matriks Hubungan untuk Pengukuran Similaritas

Perhitungan similaritas adalah fungsi dasar yang digunakan oleh berbagai aplikasi pengolahan informasi seperti mencari clustering dan klasifikasi. Ada berbagai jenis hubungan dapat digunakan untuk memperkuat nilai kesamaan objek data berpasangan dan untuk membantu meningkatkan kualitas perhitungan kesamaan antara objek data. Hal ini membantu untuk melacak bagaimana hubungan antara objek data yang digunakan untuk mengukur kesamaan objek data. Hasil penelitian ini dapat menunjukkan bahwa Unified Relationship Matrix (URM) dapat digunakan untuk menyediakan data objek heterogen dan hubungan antara masing-masing objek data secara terpadu