Comment on "Support Vector Machines with Applications"

Comment on "Support Vector Machines with Applications" [math.ST/0612817]Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000475 in the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Cryogenic Insulation System

This invention relates to reusable, low density, high temperature cryogenic foam insulation systems and the process for their manufacture. A pacing technology for liquid hydrogen fueled, high speed aircraft is the development of a fully reusable, flight weight cryogenic insulation system for propellant tank structures. In the invention cryogenic foam insulation is adhesively bonded to the outer wall of the fuel tank structure. The cryogenic insulation consists of square sheets fabricated from an array of abutting square blocks. Each block consists of a sheet of glass cloth adhesively bonded between two layers of polymethacrylimide foam. Each block is wrapped in a vapor impermeable membrane, such as Kapton(R) aluminum Kapton(R), to provide a vapor barrier. Very beneficial results can be obtained by employing the present invention in conjunction with fibrous insulation and an outer aeroshell, a hot fuselage structure with an internal thermal protection system

Data, and sample sources thereof, on water quality life cycle impact assessments pertaining to catchment scale acidification and eutrophication potentials and the benefits of on-farm mitigation strategies

Based on recent spatially aggregated June Agriculture Survey data and site-specific environmental data, information from common farm types in the East of England was sourced and collated. These data were subsequently used as key inputs to a mechanistic environmental modelling tool, the Catchment Systems Model, which predicts environmental damage arising from various farm types and their management strategies. The Catchment Systems Model, which utilises real-world agricultural productivity data (samples and appropriate consent provided within the Mendeley Data repository) is designed to assess not only losses to nature such as nitrate, phosphate, sediment and ammonia, but also to predict how on-farm intervention strategies may affect environmental performance. The data reported within this article provides readers with a detailed inventory of inputs such as fertiliser, outputs including nutrient losses, and impacts to nature for 1782 different scenarios which cover both arable and livestock farming systems. These 1782 scenarios include baseline (i.e., no interventions), business-as-usual (i.e., interventions already implemented in the study area) and optimised (i.e., best-case scenarios) data. Further, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, the dataset reports acidification and eutrophication potentials for each scenario under two (eutrophication) and three (acidification) impact assessments to offer an insight into the importance of impact assessment choice. Finally, the dataset also provides its readers with percentage changes from baseline to best-case scenario for each farm type

Consideration of the listener in the assessment and treatment of dysarthria

Traditionally, speech production deficits have been the focus of clinical practice and research in dysarthria. However, recent research has begun to examine the role of the listener in communication interaction. This article provides an overview of perceptual processing theory relevant to dysarthria. In addition, it discusses the relationship of current theoretical models of speech perception to the assessment and treatment of dysarthria. Finally, it provides insight into how this information may inform current clinical practices and future research in the field

Assessing catchment scale water quality of agri-food systems and the scope for reducing unintended consequences using spatial life cycle assessment (LCA)

Life cycle assessment is a multidisciplinary framework usually deployed to appraise the sustainability of various product or service supply-chains. Over recent decades, its use in the agri-food sector has risen sharply, and alongside this, a wide range of methodological advances have been generated. Spatial-life cycle assessment, defined in the current document as the interpretation of life cycle assessment results within a geographical nature, has not gone unexplored entirely, yet its rise as a sub-method of life cycle assessment has been rather slow relative to other avenues of research (e.g., including the nutritional sciences within life cycle assessment). With this relative methodological stagnation as a motivating factor, our paper combines a process-based model, the Catchment Systems Model, with various life cycle impact assessments (ReCiPe, Centre for Environmental Studies and Environmental Product Declaration) to propose a simple, yet effective, approach for visualising the technically feasible efficacy of various on-farm intervention strategies. As water quality was the primary focus of this study, interventions reducing acidification and eutrophication potentials of both arable and livestock farm types in the Southeast of England were considered. The study site is an area with a marked range of agricultural practices in terms of intensity. All impacts to acidification potential and eutrophication potential are reported using a functional unit of 1 ha. Percentage changes relative to baseline farm types, i.e., those without any interventions, arising from various mitigation strategies, are mapped using geographical information systems. This approach demonstrates visually how a spatially-orientated life cycle assessment could provide regional-specific information for farmers and policymakers to guide the restoration of certain waterbodies. A combination of multiple mitigation strategies was found to generate the greatest reductions in pollutant losses to water, but in terms of individual interventions, optimising farm-based machinery (acidification potential) and fertiliser application strategies (eutrophication potential) were found to have notable benefits

© Author(s) 2008. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences

Abstract. A major impediment to an understanding of the links between climate and landscape change, has been the relatively coarse resolution of landscape response measures (rates of weathering, sediment production, erosion and transport) relative to the higher resolution of the climatic signal (precipitation and temperature on hourly to annual time scales). A combination of high temporal and spatial resolution dendroclimatic and dendrogeomorphic approaches were used to study relationships between climatic variability and hillslope and valley floor dynamics in a small drainage basin in the Colorado Plateau of northeastern Arizona, USA Dendrogeomorphic and vegetation evidence from slopes and valley bottoms, including root exposure, bending of trunks, change in plant cover and burial and exhumation of valley bottom trees and shrubs, suggest that the currently observe

Exercises for improving quick perception grades I, II, III.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University N.B.: Page 242 is misnumbered. No content is missing from thesis