THEORETICAL AND POLICY BACKGROUND TO THE TOP-MARD PROJECT (TOWARDS A POLICY MODEL OF MULTIFUNCTIONAL AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT)

The TOP-MARD project is a 3-year, 11 country, project supported by the EU’s Framework 6 Programme for Research and Technology Development1. The aim of the research project was to build a policy model of multifunctional agriculture and rural development which would link the multiple functions of agriculture with the development and quality of life of rural regions, and explore the influence of different policies on rural development outcomes. In order to deal with both market and non-market outputs, and to explore dynamics over time, a systems modelling approach was adopted.Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Hispanic silverwork

Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria, 201

Spin-orbit misalignments, planet candidate validation, and nodal precession via Doppler tomography

Transiting planets around intermediate-mass stars (1.5 MSun < M* < 2.5MSun , or 6500 K < Teff < 10000 K on the main sequence) occupy a largely unexplored part of parameter space; these stars tend to rotate rapidly, and thus are unsuitable for the precise radial velocity observations that are typically used to follow up and confirm transiting planet candidates. In this dissertation I demonstrate the use of Doppler tomography, where I spectroscopically resolve the perturbation to the rotationally broadened stellar line profile during the transit due to the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, to confirm transiting planet candidates around rapidly-rotating stars and to measure the (mis)alignment of the planetary orbit with respect to the stellar rotation. The demographics of planets around intermediate-mass stars are important for constraining models of planet formation as a function of stellar mass, while the distribution of spin-orbit misalignments of transiting planets is a powerful statistical tracer of planet migration processes. Using Doppler tomography, I show that the hot Jupiter Kepler-13 Ab has a misaligned but prograde orbit; I improve upon the precision of the misalignment measurement for the hot Jupiter WASP-79 b, which has a nearly polar orbit; and I measure an aligned orbit for the warm Jupiter Kepler-448 b, and two degenerate solutions (both prograde) for the hot Jupiter HAT-P-41 b. I also analyze observations of several Kepler planet candidates–KOI-366.01, KOI-368.01, and KOI-972.01–in an attempt to validate them as bona fide planets. Unfortunately, due to small planetary radii and/or limited amounts of data, I am able to achieve only a ∼ 2σ detection of KOI-368.01, and am unable to detect KOI-366.01 or KOI-972.01. I also analyze two epochs of Doppler tomographic observations of the highly inclined hot Jupiter WASP-33 b taken six years apart, and show that the path of the transit across the stellar disk has changed between the two epochs due to nodal precession of the planetary orbit. This allows me to measure the precession rate, and constrain the stellar gravitational quadrupole moment J2. Overall, I show that Doppler tomography is an effective tool for confirming and characterizing transiting planets around rapidly-rotating stars, where typical methods have difficulty.Astronom

Bond-Order Time Series Analysis for Detecting Reaction Events in Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Ab initio molecular dynamics is able to predict novel reaction mechanisms by directly observing the individual reaction events that occur in simulation trajectories. In this article, we describe an approach for detecting reaction events from simulation trajectories using a physically motivated model based on time series analysis of ab initio bond orders. We found that applying a threshold to the bond order was insufficient for accurate detection, whereas peak finding on the first time derivative resulted in significantly improved accuracy. The model is trained on a reference set of reaction events representing the ideal result given unlimited computing resources. Our study includes two model systems: a heptanylium carbocation that undergoes hydride shifts and an unsaturated iron carbonyl cluster that features CO ligand migration and bridging behavior. The results indicate a high level of promise for this analysis approach to be used in mechanistic analysis of reactive AIMD simulations more generally

The Importance of Being Useless: Revolution and Judgment in \u27The Picture of Dorian Gray\u27

The preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray is often dismissed as merely an addendum to the novel intended to detract hostile readers and absolve the text itself of any accusations of immorality. When coupled with the narrative itself, however, the novel shows both the impossibility of producing the new through traditional notions of revolution, as well as the way in which the Deleuzian conception of judgment inhibits Dorian from ever viewing the portrait as insignificantly amoral, as not symbolic of his sins. Yet the preface, coupled with the various aesthetic objects in the text, is productive of a new form of judgment, one that does not reproduce the same moral order. This takes the form of a useless judgment. When Lord Henry claims he wishes to change nothing in England but the weather, this is the same as the portrait, returned to its original form, hanging over Dorian\u27s body at the novel\u27s end: neither is a judgment with a use, but rather a judgment of a work of art that produces nothing in the work of art. Lord Henry cannot change the weather, and the portrait\u27s changes do not help or affect Dorian in any way. Thus we see the answer to Deleuze\u27s question of what the refusal of work would look like. Art is quite useless in that it is both extremely removed from any and all spheres concerned with moral order, and also fairly indifferent to this fact and Dorian\u27s concern with maintaining a world organized by useful symbols

Measurement of the Nodal Precession of WASP-33 b via Doppler Tomography

We have analyzed new and archival time series spectra taken six years apart during transits of the hot Jupiter WASP-33 b, and spectroscopically resolved the line profile perturbation caused by the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. The motion of this line profile perturbation is determined by the path of the planet across the stellar disk, which we show to have changed between the two epochs due to nodal precession of the planetary orbit. We measured rates of change of the impact parameter and the sky-projected spin-orbit misalignment of $db/dt=-0.0228_{-0.0018}^{+0.0050}$ yr$^{-1}$ and $d\lambda/dt=-0.487_{-0.076}^{+0.089}$~$^{\circ}$ yr$^{-1}$, respectively, corresponding to a rate of nodal precession of $d\Omega/dt=0.373_{-0.083}^{+0.031}$~$^{\circ}$ yr$^{-1}$. This is only the second measurement of nodal precession for a confirmed exoplanet transiting a single star. Finally, we used the rate of precession to set limits on the stellar gravitational quadrupole moment of $9.4\times10^{-5}<J_2<6.1\times10^{-4}$.Comment: Published in ApJL. 5 pages, 3 figures. Corrected error in the calculation of J_

Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef: a vulnerability assessment

The combination of sensitivity and exposure to climate change render the GBR ecosystem highly vulnerable to climate change. While the components and processes that comprise the ecosystem vary in their vulnerability, the implications of climate change are far-reaching and, in many cases, severe. Overall, the GBR ecosystem has features that will afford it some protection from climate change compared with tropical marine reef ecosystems. These features include its immense size, its location adjacent to a relatively sparsely populated and developed country, and its protection under a management regime that is recognised as the best in the world. However, coral reefs are one of the most vulnerable of all of the earth’s ecosystems to climate change, and the GBR will continue to be affected. Even under the most optimistic climate change scenarios, the GBR is destined for significant change over this century; under pessimistic scenarios, catastrophic impacts are possible. In this section, we provide an overview of the exposure of the GBR to climate factors, including a summary of predicted changes to the GBR climate, followed by a review of the reasons for the sensitivity of the GBR to climate change. We then provide a synopsis of current and emerging knowledge about the vulnerability of GBR species groups and habitats to climate change.This is Chapter 24 of Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef: a vulnerability assessment. The entire book can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11017/137 ID: 7

Recent Contributions of Theory to Our Understanding of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

Revolutionary observational arrays, together with a new generation of ocean and climate models, have provided new and intriguing insights into the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) over the last two decades. Theoretical models have also changed our view of the AMOC, providing a dynamical framework for understanding the new observations and the results of complex models. In this paper we review recent advances in conceptual understanding of the processes maintaining the AMOC. We discuss recent theoretical models that address issues such as the interplay between surface buoyancy and wind forcing, the extent to which the AMOC is adiabatic, the importance of mesoscale eddies, the interaction between the middepth North Atlantic Deep Water cell and the abyssal Antarctic Bottom Water cell, the role of basin geometry and bathymetry, and the importance of a three‐dimensional multiple‐basin perspective. We review new paradigms for deep water formation in the high‐latitude North Atlantic and the impact of diapycnal mixing on vertical motion in the ocean interior. And we discuss advances in our understanding of the AMOC's stability and its scaling with large‐scale meridional density gradients. Along with reviewing theories for the mean AMOC, we consider models of AMOC variability and discuss what we have learned from theory about the detection and meridional propagation of AMOC anomalies. Simple theoretical models remain a vital and powerful tool for articulating our understanding of the AMOC and identifying the processes that are most critical to represent accurately in the next generation of numerical ocean and climate models