A system concept for wide swath constant incident angle coverage

Multiple beam approach readily overcomes radar ambiguity constraints associated with orbital systems and therefore permits imagery over swaths much wider than 100 kilometers. Furthermore, the antenna technique permits imagery at nearly constant incident angles. When frequency scanning is employed, the center angle may be programmed. The redundant use of the antenna aperture during reception results in lower transmitted power and in shorter antenna lengths in comparison to conventional designs. Compatibility of the approach with passive imagery is also considered

Greening Income Support and Supporting Green

A multitude of design decisions influence the performance of voluntary conservation programs. This Economic Brief is one of a set of five exploring the implications of decisions policymakers and program managers must make about who is eligible to receive payments, how much can be received, for what action, and the means by which applicants are selected. In particular, this Brief focuses on potential tradeoffs in combining income support and environmental objectives in a single program.Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The recovery of microwave scattering parameters from scatterometric measurements with special application to the sea

As part of an effort to demonstrate the value of the microwave scatterometer as a remote sea wind sensor, the interaction between an arbitrarily polarized scatterometer antenna and a noncoherent distributive target was derived and applied to develop a measuring technique to recover all the scattering parameters. The results are helpful for specifying antenna polarization properties for accurate retrieval of the parameters not only for the sea but also for other distributive scenes

The Ethanol Decade: An Expansion of U.S. Corn Production, 2000-09

The recent 9-billion-gallon increase in corn-based ethanol production, which resulted from a combination of rising gasoline prices and a suite of Federal bioenergy policies, provides evidence of how farmers altered their land-use decisions in response to increased demand for corn. As some forecasts had suggested, corn acreage increased mostly on farms that previously specialized in soybeans. Other farms, however, offset this shift by expanding soybean production. Farm-level data reveal that the simultaneous net expansion of corn and soybean acreage resulted from a reduction in cotton acreage, a shift from uncultivated hay to cropland, and the expansion of double cropping (consecutively producing two crops of either like or unlike commodities on the same land within the same year).Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS), bioenergy, ethanol, indirect effects, land use, corn production, environmental impacts, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Xenon forms stable compound with fluorine

Experiments show that xenon and fluorine combine readily at 400 deg C to form xenon tetrafluoride, which is colorless, crystalline, chemically stable and solid at room temperature. This process can be used for the separation of xenon from mixtures with other noble gases

Mite and cockroach sensitisation in patients with allergic rhinitis in the Free State

Background. Studies in patients with allergic rhinitis living in the Free State have shown grass pollens to be the predominant allergens, with house-dust mite sensitisation being less prevalent than in the coastal areas and a low rate of sensitisation to the storage mite Lepidoglyphus destructor. No studies have been conducted on sensitisation to the other storage mites, spider mites or cockroaches. We aimed todetermine the prevalence of sensitisation to various housedustmites, storage mites, spider mites and cockroaches in patients with allergic rhinitis living in the Free State.Methods. Fifty consecutive patients with allergic rhinitis attending the ear, nose and throat clinic at Universitas Hospital underwent skin-prick testing and/or ImmunoCAP RAST testing for common aero-allergens, house-dust mites, storage mites, spider mites and cockroaches.Results. Forty-six per cent of patients were sensitised to one of the house-dust mites, with house mite sensitisation being significantly more common in patients who had previously lived at the coast. Storage mites were not common aeroallergens, while 46% of patients were sensitised to the spider mite Tetranychus urticae. Blatella germanica was the cockroach species to which patients were most commonly found to be sensitised on ImmunoCAP RAST testing, with 38% of patients being sensitised to this aero-allergen.Conclusions. House-dust mites, T. urticae and the cockroach B. germanica appear to be important aero-allergens in the Free State. Storage mite sensitisation is not common

OVID'S EXILIC VOCABULARY

Introduction Ovid's artistry with words has been called "logodaedaly", creative word magic.2 His "painting with words" lies partly in a controlled use of synonyms.3 The poet's originality in creating new words has also been much commented upon.4 His artistry with words when in exile offers continued pleasure. Words were of paramount importance for an exiled poet who was reaching out to his friends and to the enemy who exiled him. In the process he created a word-portrait of himself as suppliant; as Downing (1993:13) puts it: "The author makes a self, while the self makes a book of the self." Ovid's readership in Rome would have been familiar with the whole of his earlier oeuvre as context for a particular diction. In the context of his exile, the poet's choice of words and the uses to which he put his vocabulary were a powerful means of influencing public thought. Augustus, as very particular member of the more general readership, had to be persuaded that his previous works were innocuous, if ever the exile were to be allowed to return. At the same time the poet seems to have sought a means of criticizing the emperor without antagonising him