Report of the workshop on assessing governance in the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem, Bangkok, Thailand, 28-30 October, 2014

The objective of the workshop was to begin a structured discussion on regional governance in the BOBLME, drawing on lessons from a region with similar issues, the Carribean. Conclusions were made about principles, regional governance arrangements, national-regional interface and national science-policy interfaces. Future work was also planned

Maximizing sustainable ground-water withdrawals: comparing accuracy and computational requirements for steady-state and transient digital modeling approaches

Rigorous models for maximizing sustainable groundwater withdrawals may require more computer memory for their constraint set than is available. In some situations, alternative constraint formulations yield similar or identical answers resulting in great saving in computer memory requirements. In order to evaluate the efficiency of using alternative constraints1 maximum ground-water withdrawal pumping strategies were computed by three digital models for a hypothetical area for a five-decade period. Model A maximized steady ground-water withdrawal. Model B maximized unsteady ground-water mining. Model C maximized unsteady ground-water mining subject to a constraint that final pumping be sustainable after the end of the 50-year period. Change in pumping with time was forced to be monotonic (variably increasing or decreasing but not oscillating) in time. The models were tested by assuming constant transmissivity and by using a range of recharge constraints for four scenarios with stressed and unstressed initial potentiometric surfaces and with constant and changing upper limits on pumping. In situations where upper limits on pumping changed with time, Model A was run repetitively, by using monotonicity constraints. In -those situations, optimality of solution is not assured in all cells. Models A and C computed pumping strategies sustainable after the end of the 50-year period. Model C was the most detailed in that it allowed pumping to vary in time and recharge constraints were based both on unsteady-state flow at 50 years and on steady flow after that time. Model A considered only steady pumping and recharge constraints. Pumping strategies from Model B were not necessarily sustainable because it considered only recharge constraints at 50 years. Results indicate that, when recharge through the study area periphery is unconstrained, all models compute identical pumping. For an initially undeveloped aquifer, or for a developed aquifer if steady pumping is assumed, Model A computes strategies very similar to those computed with Model C and requires only 28 percent of the computer memory and 38 percent of the execution time. For an initially overdeveloped aquifer, Model B computes identical pumping strategies to those computed with Model C and requires 73 percent of the computer memory and 78 percent of the computation time. For that situation, Model A is more conservative and computes less pumping than Model C if pumping in Model C is permitted to vary. Although Model A may compute lower pumping rates during the first 50 years, the sustainable pumping rate thereafter may be greater for Model A than for Model C

Learning intrinsic excitability in medium spiny neurons

We present an unsupervised, local activation-dependent learning rule for intrinsic plasticity (IP) which affects the composition of ion channel conductances for single neurons in a use-dependent way. We use a single-compartment conductance-based model for medium spiny striatal neurons in order to show the effects of parametrization of individual ion channels on the neuronal activation function. We show that parameter changes within the physiological ranges are sufficient to create an ensemble of neurons with significantly different activation functions. We emphasize that the effects of intrinsic neuronal variability on spiking behavior require a distributed mode of synaptic input and can be eliminated by strongly correlated input. We show how variability and adaptivity in ion channel conductances can be utilized to store patterns without an additional contribution by synaptic plasticity (SP). The adaptation of the spike response may result in either "positive" or "negative" pattern learning. However, read-out of stored information depends on a distributed pattern of synaptic activity to let intrinsic variability determine spike response. We briefly discuss the implications of this conditional memory on learning and addiction.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figure

Water resources development alternatives for the Mississippi Alluvial Plain in Eastern Arkansas

Effective management of the water resources of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain in eastern Arkansas involves understanding the nature of existing problems, estimating total water demands, predicting how much of the total demand can be provided by the underlying aquifer and available surface-water sources, and deducing how much water must come from alternate sources. Various Federal and State agencies have cooperatively provided hydrologic information for the area to evaluate water-resources development alternatives ensuring that (1) the use of water from the aquifer be maximized while maintaining a minimum of 20 feet of saturated thickness, (2) the use of surface water be maximized where it is currently available, and (3) alternate sources of water (surplus surface water) be identified for use in deficit areas. Water-resources development alternatives are being evaluated by using digital groundwater flow and optimization models. The optimization model is used to maximize withdrawals from the aquifer and from available surface-water sources, while maintaining a minimum saturated thickness in the aquifer. The validity of predictions in both the flow and optimization models depends on the accuracy of historic and projected water use. Optimization model by-products include estimates of unmet water-use demands and the location of surplus surface water that would be available for transport to and utilization in deficient areas

Inspiring to inspire: Developing teaching in higher education

Following a three-year staff development initiative within one faculty in a UK university, the authors reflected on inspiring teaching and the role that staff development can play in enhancing individual practice. Teaching is a core component of Higher Education and is complex and multi-faceted both theoretically and in practice. Through individual reflections to a set of pre-determined questions, a group of Higher Education teachers (n = 5) with a responsibility for the development of learning, teaching and assessment, share their thoughts, feelings and beliefs on inspiring teaching. The interpretive analysis of the data shows from a staff perspective that the notion of inspiring teaching has three main components which are all interrelated, those being; the actual teaching and learning experience; the design of the curriculum and the teacher/student relationship. Staff development initiatives were found to help people explore and develop their own teaching philosophy, to develop new practices and to share and learn from others. However, individual’s mindset, beliefs and attitudes were found to be a challenge. Teachers can frame their development around the different aspects of inspiring teaching and with support from senior leadership as well as a positive culture, teaching communities can work together towards inspiring teaching

The impact of universal newborn hearing screening on long-term literacy outcomes: a prospective cohort study

Objective: To determine whether the benefits of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) seen at age 8?years persist through the second decade.Design: Prospective cohort study of a population sample of children with permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) followed up for 17?years since birth in periods with (or without) UNHS.Setting: Birth cohort of 100?000 in southern England.Participants: 114 teenagers aged 13-19?years, 76 with PCHI and 38 with normal hearing. All had previously their reading assessed aged 6-10?years.Interventions: Birth in periods with and without UNHS; confirmation of PCHI before and after age 9?months.Main outcome measure: Reading comprehension ability. Regression modelling took account of severity of hearing loss, non-verbal ability, maternal education and main language.Results: Confirmation of PCHI by age 9?months was associated with significantly higher mean z-scores for reading comprehension (adjusted mean difference 1.17, 95% CI 0.36 to 1.97) although birth during periods with UNHS was not (adjusted mean difference 0.15, 95% CI -0.75 to 1.06). The gap between the reading comprehension z-scores of teenagers with early compared with late confirmed PCHI had widened at an adjusted mean rate of 0.06 per year (95% CI -0.02 to 0.13) during the 9.2-year mean interval since the previous assessment.Conclusions: The benefit to reading comprehension of confirmation of PCHI by age 9?months increases during the teenage years. This strengthens the case for UNHS programmes that lead to early confirmation of permanent hearing loss

The relationships of certain psychological factors to speech development in primary grade children

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University. 1962