Applications of remote sensing data to the Alaskan environment

The ERTS program provides a means to overcome the formidable logistic and economic costs of preparing environmental surveys of the vast and relatively unexplored regions of Alaska. There is an excellent potential in satellite remote sensing to benefit Federal, state, local, and private agencies, by providing a new synoptic data base which is necessary for the preparation of the needed surveys and the search for solutions to environmental management problems. One approach in coupling satellite data to Alaskan problems is a major program initiated by the University of Alaska and funded by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This included 12 projects whose aims were to study the feasibility of applying ERTS data to the disciplines of ecology, agriculture, hydrology, wildlife management, oceanography, geology, glaciology, volcanology, and archaeology

IT-adoption and the interaction of task, technology and individuals: a fit framework and a case study

BACKGROUND: Factors of IT adoption have largely been discussed in the literature. However, existing frameworks (such as TAM or TTF) are failing to include one important aspect, the interaction between user and task. METHOD: Based on a literature study and a case study, we developed the FITT framework to help analyse the socio-organisational-technical factors that influence IT adoption in a health care setting. RESULTS: Our FITT framework ("Fit between Individuals, Task and Technology") is based on the idea that IT adoption in a clinical environment depends on the fit between the attributes of the individual users (e.g. computer anxiety, motivation), attributes of the technology (e.g. usability, functionality, performance), and attributes of the clinical tasks and processes (e.g. organisation, task complexity). We used this framework in the retrospective analysis of a three-year case study, describing the adoption of a nursing documentation system in various departments in a German University Hospital. We will show how the FITT framework helped analyzing the process of IT adoption during an IT implementation: we were able to describe every found IT adoption problem with regard to the three fit dimensions, and any intervention on the fit can be described with regard to the three objects of the FITT framework (individual, task, technology). We also derive facilitators and barriers to IT adoption of clinical information systems. CONCLUSION: This work should support a better understanding of the reasons for IT adoption failures and therefore enable better prepared and more successful IT introduction projects. We will discuss, however, that from a more epistemological point of view, it may be difficult or even impossible to analyse the complex and interacting factors that predict success or failure of IT projects in a socio-technical environment

Radioisotopes for medical and industrial use during the 50-year history of the Institute of Nuclear Research

The paper summarises the 50-years long history of the development of research programmes related to the practical applications of radionuclides in various fields of the Polish economy. The changing trends of interest of the potential users are reflected in the research and development activities of the Radioisotope Centre POLATOM. In the 1960's and 1970's the main areas of activity were focused on the sealed sources and radiolabelled compounds for the investigation of industrial processes. The introduction to the routine practice of the RIA and the IRMA kits for hormonal in vitro diagnostics in the 70-ties and 80-ties resulted in the general availability of this diagnostic technique in Poland. The number of radioisotopes having the required radiation type, energy and half-life is steadily increasing due to the progress in irradiation facilities and in chemical separation processes. The need for modern radiopharmaceuticals, more specific and providing higher diagnostic and therapeutic potential as an alternative to other medical modalities is reflected in the research programmes carried out and implemented currently at the Radioisotope Centre POLATOM

in intensively managed pine forests of Arkansas

Streamside management zones (SMZs), composed primarily of hardwoods in the southeastern United States, provide habitat diversity within intensively managed pine (Pinus spp.) plantations. However, effects of SMZ width and adjacent plantation structure on riparian wildlife communities are poorly understood. Therefore, during 1990-1995, we examined small mammal communities within 5 SMZ width classes (1-20 to> 100 m) embedded within three types of pine plantations (young, open canopy; closed canopy: and thinned) and three natural riparian stands in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, USA. We captured small mammals for 10 consecutive days each February using four to six traplines each consisting of nine trap stations with three snap traps at each station. We estimated relative abundance [catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE)], species richness, species diversity, and species evenness for all captures and captures just along the stream course. Within the SMZlplantation settings and three natural stands, we captured 1701 small mammals of 11 species in 114,285 trapnights. Golden mice (Ochrotomys nuttalli), southern short-tailed shrews (Blarina carolinensis), and Perornyscus spp. comprised 88 % of all captures. Our study suggests that narrow (520 m wide) SMZs in managed pine forests tend to have higher small mammal abundance and species richness than wider SMZs. Additionally, species richness and CPUE was greater in SMZs within young, open canopy and thinned plantation

Electron-beam flue-gas treatment for multicomponent air-pollution control

During coal combustion, different pollutants such as fly ash, sulfur oxides (SO2 and SO3), nitrogen oxides (NOx=NO+NO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted. These pollutants are harmful to the environment and human health. Therefore different air-pollution-control technologies are used. Usually these technologies are designed for removing only a single pollutant. An integrated system for SO2, NOx and VOC simultaneous emission control is presented in the paper. The technology uses a high-energy electron-beam from an accelerator and ammonia to treat simultaneously SO2 and NOx, the obtained by-product can be used as a fertilizer. The industrial-demonstration plant at EPS Pomorzany in Szczecin is under optimization tests now. Moreover, the tests carried out with the pilot plant at EPS Kawêczyn have demonstrated the possibility of volatile-organic-compounds destruction and their final toxicity reduction.Electron beam Flue-gas treatment Pollution control Irradiation vessel Volatile organic compounds