The cartographic application of ERTS/RBV imagery in polar regions

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

The cartographic application of ERTS/RBV imagery in polar regions

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Solar sailing

An introduction to solar sailing is presented. The physical principles are briefly reviewed along with an introduction to the historical context of solar sailing. Potential solar sail configurations are briefly introduced, while placing these in the context of the current hardware development programmes. Following the introduction to solar sailing we progress onto a discussion of solar sail orbital dynamics in a planet-centred environment. The development of solar sail trajectory generation is presented, from Earth escape trajectories through to lunar fly-by trajectories and more accurate Earth escape methods. Much of this work relies on assumptions to generate near-optimal solutions rather than true globally optimal solutions, which are computationally difficult to determine for multiple revolution trajectories. Many of these traditional planet-centred solar sail applications, such as Earth escape, also require rapid attitude slew manoeuvres to achieve. This first lecture is based on theory development and application with a view towards future missions, such as planetary sample return

What next? Rewilding as a radical future for the British countryside

Rewilding is an optimistic environmental agenda to reverse the loss of biodiversity and reconnect society with nature. This chapter explores Britain’s ecological history, back to the Last Interglacial before the arrival of modern humans, when the climate was similar to today, to analyse how conservationists can learn from the past to rewild the ecosystems of the present and prepare for an uncertain future. Because there is no single point in history that should or could be recreated, rewilding focuses on re-establishing naturally dynamic ecological processes that, through an appropriate sequence of species reintroductions, attempts to move the ecosystem towards a more appropriately biodiverse and functional state. A state that is self-sustaining in the present climate, and that projected for the near future. Specifically, this chapter explores a rewilding solution to conservation challenges associated with over-grazing, limited germination niche availability, and river dynamics: the reintroduction of wolves, wild boar, and beaver respectively. This sequence of reintroductions is suggested to be complimentary, each altering ecosystem dynamics to facilitate the return of the next. Evidence indicates wolves will reduce deer abundance and re-distribute browsing intensity promoting tree regeneration, particularly in riparian areas, increasing woodland availability to the more habitat-dependent wild boar and beaver. An important message behind rewilding is that a rich biodiversity with all guilds well represented, including the ones that polarize public opinion, such as large predators, are important components of ecosystem service rich and self-sustaining ecosystems, particularly in core areas

Design Patterns for Fusion-Based Object Retrieval

We address the task of ranking objects (such as people, blogs, or verticals) that, unlike documents, do not have direct term-based representations. To be able to match them against keyword queries, evidence needs to be amassed from documents that are associated with the given object. We present two design patterns, i.e., general reusable retrieval strategies, which are able to encompass most existing approaches from the past. One strategy combines evidence on the term level (early fusion), while the other does it on the document level (late fusion). We demonstrate the generality of these patterns by applying them to three different object retrieval tasks: expert finding, blog distillation, and vertical ranking.Comment: Proceedings of the 39th European conference on Advances in Information Retrieval (ECIR '17), 201

Association between body condition score and live weight in pasture-based Holstein-Friesian dairy cows

peer-reviewedThe objective was to quantify the strength of the relationship between body condition score (BCS) and live weight (LW) in pasture-based Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle, and to determine the kg LW per unit BCS. A total of 26021 test-day records with information on both BCS (1–10 scale, where 1 is emaciated and 10 is obese) and LW across 1110 lactations from one research farm were used in the analysis. Correlation and regression analyses were used to determine the degree of association between BCS and LW in different parities, stages of the inter-calving interval and years. Correlations between BCS and LW were relatively consistent, with the mean correlation between BCS and LW across all data of 0·55 implying that differences in BCS explain approximately 30% of the variation in LW. Significantly different regressions of LW on BCS were present within stage of inter-calving interval by parity subclasses. Excluding calving, LW per unit BCS varied from 17 kg (early to mid lactation in parity 1) to 36 kg (early lactation in parity 4 and 5). However, LW per unit BCS was greatest at calving varying from 44 kg in first parity animals to 62 kg in second parity animals. On average, 1 BCS unit equated to 31 kg LW across all data

The natural resources of Carpinteria Marsh: their status and future

The purpose of this report is: 1) to document the natural resources of Carpinteria Marsh, 2) outline the uses those resources receive, 3) enumerate the problems and conflicts of use that affect those resources, and 4) recommend measures that will protect and enhance the marsh and its resources. It is intended as a guide for citizens, planners and administrators of all private and public entities interested in the status and future of the marsh. This report has been prepared under contract to and fully funded by the Office of Biological Services of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The goals and purpose of this federal office are to review the impact on fish and wildlife resources of land, mineral and water development practices, such as offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production; construction of inshore pipeline canals and refineries; power plant construction/operation and urban development. This report, and five other southern California reports, covering Agua Hedionda (San Diego County), Anaheim Bay-Huntington Harbor (Orange County), Mugu Lagoon (Ventura County), the Northern Santa Barbara County Coastal Wetlands and the Nipomo Dunes and Wetlands (San Luis Obispo County), are scheduled to be part of the Department's "Coastal Wetland Series" that includes reports on the natural resources of Upper Newport Bay (Orange County), Goleta Slough (Santa Barbara county), Bolinas Lagoon (Marin County), Elkhorn Slough (Monterey County), San Diego Bay and Los Penasquitos Lagoon (San Diego County), Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo County), Humboldt Bay and the Eel River Delta (Humboldt County), Lake Earl and the Smith River Delta (Del Norte County) and Bodega Harbor (Sonoma County). (103pp.

Estimating the Undercoverage of a Sampling Frame due to Reporting Delays

One of the imperfections of a sampling frame is miscoverage caused by delays in recording real- life events that change the eligibility of population units. For example, new units generally appear on the frame some time after they came into existence and units that have ceased to exist are not removed from the frame immediately. We provide methodology for predicting the undercoverage due to delays in reporting new units. The approach presented here is novel in a business survey context, and is equally applicable to overcoverage due to delays in reporting the closure of units. As a special case, we also predict the number of new-born units per month. The methodology is applied to the principal business register in the UK, maintained by the Office for National Statistics. <br/