Geological landscape character assessment, Northumberland National Park and surrounding area

This report describes work carried out by BGS as part of the wider Northumberland National Park Authority Land Characterisation Project. It incorporates an innovative method of categorising the geological contribution to the physical landscape and was undertaken in association with a geodiversity audit of the area. Data from the study was provided to the Authority for incorporation in its GIS. Further description of the landscape will be included in the reports arising from the Geodiversity study

Laminar fMRI: applications for cognitive neuroscience

The cortex is a massively recurrent network, characterized by feedforward and feedback connections between brain areas as well as lateral connections within an area. Feedforward, horizontal and feedback responses largely activate separate layers of a cortical unit, meaning they can be dissociated by lamina-resolved neurophysiological techniques. Such techniques are invasive and are therefore rarely used in humans. However, recent developments in high spatial resolution fMRI allow for non-invasive, in vivo measurements of brain responses specific to separate cortical layers. This provides an important opportunity to dissociate between feedforward and feedback brain responses, and investigate communication between brain areas at a more fine- grained level than previously possible in the human species. In this review, we highlight recent studies that successfully used laminar fMRI to isolate layer-specific feedback responses in human sensory cortex. In addition, we review several areas of cognitive neuroscience that stand to benefit from this new technological development, highlighting contemporary hypotheses that yield testable predictions for laminar fMRI. We hope to encourage researchers with the opportunity to embrace this development in fMRI research, as we expect that many future advancements in our current understanding of human brain function will be gained from measuring lamina-specific brain responses

Flat space physics from holography

We point out that aspects of quantum mechanics can be derived from the holographic principle, using only a perturbative limit of classical general relativity. In flat space, the covariant entropy bound reduces to the Bekenstein bound. The latter does not contain Newton's constant and cannot operate via gravitational backreaction. Instead, it is protected by - and in this sense, predicts - the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor correction

Motivation factors for beef processor-producer linkages

A survey was conducted of the 15 largest beef processors to identify the mix of procurement practices being used and to understand reasons motivating recent processorproducer linkages. Processors are shifting away from cash-market live, fed-cattle trade, which represents only 36% of cattle procured by survey respondents in 1999. Processorowned cattle feeding represents only approximately 5%, where it has been for more than a decade. Various other forms of pricing such as carcass weight, grid, and formula represented the largest portion of purchases at 49%. Processors indicated the two most important reasons they get involved in contracts and marketing agreements with producers is to secure higher and more consistent quality cattle. Assuring food safety was also a motivation for linking more closely with cattle producers. In the future, processors felt these motivational factors would increase in importance. As cattle feeders explore grid pricing and alliance opportunities, it is important they understand why processors desire to enter into contracts and marketing agreements

Safety and security issues in developing and operating in intelligent transportation systems

The purpose of this panel is to introduce the safety and security issues related to the development and operation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to Compass participants. Many of these issues need to be addressed by the system safety and computer security communities prior to the development and deployment of ITS. For example, how can information technology be applied in the context of a fully automated highway system (AHS) such that the safety, security, and performance of the system are not compromised? At present, the US and other countries are funding academia and industry to build prototype automated highway systems in which vehicles are controlled via drive-by-wire technology, with vehicles traveling at high speeds (in excess of 30 m/s) at close spacing (1 to 4 m). The potential impact of software errors or hardware errors on system safety and security are great

An overview of software safety standards

The writing of standards for software safety is an increasingly important activity. This essay briefly describes the two primary standards-writing organizations, IEEE and IEC, and provides a discussion of some of the more interesting software safety standards

Software safety hazard analysis

Techniques for analyzing the safety and reliability of analog-based electronic protection systems that serve to mitigate hazards in process control systems have been developed over many years, and are reasonably well understood. An example is the protection system in a nuclear power plant. The extension of these techniques to systems which include digital computers is not well developed, and there is little consensus among software engineering experts and safety experts on how to analyze such systems. One possible technique is to extend hazard analysis to include digital computer-based systems. Software is frequently overlooked during system hazard analyses, but this is unacceptable when the software is in control of a potentially hazardous operation. In such cases, hazard analysis should be extended to fully cover the software. A method for performing software hazard analysis is proposed in this paper