Web-Based Spatial Decision Support System and Watershed Management with a Case Study

In order to maintain a proper balance between development pressure and water resources protection, and also to improve public participation, efficient tools and techniques for soil and water conservation projects are needed. This paper describes the development and application of a web-based watershed management spatial decision support system, WebWMPI. The WebWMPI uses the Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) approach which is a prioritizing method for watershed management planning and it integrates land use/cover, hydrological data, soils, slope, roads, and other spatial data. The land is divided into three categories: Conservation Priority Index (CPI) land, Restoration Priority Index (RPI) land, and Stormwater Management Priority Index (SMPI) land. Within each category, spatial factors are rated based on their influence on water resources and critical areas can be identified for soil conservation, water quality protection and improvement. The WebWMPI has user-friendly client side graphical interfaces which enable the public to interactively run the server side Geographic Information System to evaluate different scenarios for watershed planning and management. The system was applied for Dry Run Creek watershed (Cedar Falls, Iowa, US) as a demonstration and it can be easily used in other watersheds to prioritize crucial areas and to increase public participation for soil and water conservation projects

Research Report No. 36, Yield Prediction Spreadsheets written in Lotus 1-2-3 ™ for PCs and Excel™ for Macintoshes

Recently developed stand-level yield prediction functions for loblolly and slash pine plantations in East Texas have been incorporated Into computerized spreadsheets

Apolipoprotein E ε4 and testosterone interact in the risk of Alzheimer's disease in men

Apolipoprotein E ε4 and testosterone interact in the risk of Alzheimer's disease in me

Μελέτη επιπτώσεων συνδρομολόγησηςεφαρμογών σε πολυπύρηνες αρχιτεκτονικές

Understanding viral transmission dynamics within populations of reservoir hosts can facilitate greater knowledge of the spillover of emerging infectious diseases. While bat-borne viruses are of concern to public health, investigations into their dynamics have been limited by a lack of longitudinal data from individual bats. Here, we examine capture-mark-recapture (CMR) data from a species of Australian bat (Myotis macropus) infected with a putative novel Alphacoronavirus within a Bayesian framework. Then, we developed epidemic models to estimate the effect of persistently infectious individuals (which shed viruses for extensive periods) on the probability of viral maintenance within the study population. We found that the CMR data analysis supported grouping of infectious bats into persistently and transiently infectious bats. Maintenance of coronavirus within the study population was more likely in an epidemic model that included both persistently and transiently infectious bats, compared with the epidemic model with non-grouping of bats. These findings, using rare CMR data from longitudinal samples of individual bats, increase our understanding of transmission dynamics of bat viral infectious diseases

Entangling interactions between artificial atoms mediated by a multimode left-handed superconducting ring resonator

Superconducting metamaterial transmission lines implemented with lumped circuit elements can exhibit left-handed dispersion, where the group and phase velocity have opposite sign, in a frequency range relevant for superconducting artificial atoms. Forming such a metamaterial transmission line into a ring and coupling it to qubits at different points around the ring results in a multimode bus resonator with a compact footprint. Using flux-tunable qubits, we characterize and theoretically model the variation in the coupling strength between the two qubits and each of the ring resonator modes. Although the qubits have negligible direct coupling between them, their interactions with the multimode ring resonator result in both a transverse exchange coupling and a higher order $ZZ$ interaction between the qubits. As we vary the detuning between the qubits and their frequency relative to the ring resonator modes, we observe significant variations in both of these inter-qubit interactions, including zero crossings and changes of sign. The ability to modulate interaction terms such as the $ZZ$ scale between zero and large values for small changes in qubit frequency provides a promising pathway for implementing entangling gates in a system capable of hosting many qubits.Comment: 8 + 11 pages, 5 + 5 figures, 0 + 3 table

Primary appendiceal mucinous adenocarcinoma in two first-degree relatives: case report and review

Carcinomas of the appendix are exceedingly rare tumors and have an annual age-adjusted incidence of around 0.4 cases per 100,000. Appendiceal adenocarcinoma accounts for < 0.5% of all gastrointestinal neoplasms and, of these, mucinous adenocarcinomas account for the majority. Published accounts of familial instances of primary appendiceal tumors are strikingly rare. We report two siblings who both developed primary mucinous adenocarcinomas. A genetics evaluation was conducted to determine if there was a recognizable underlying single gene disorder; no DNA mismatch repair defect was evident, and no other diagnosis was apparent. A review of appendiceal cancers seen at Mayo Clinic from l997 to the present was conducted to search for additional familial cases. Among 316 cases of primary appendiceal cancer of any histologic type, this sib pair was the only family reporting a second affected family member. The occurrence of appendiceal cancer in siblings may represent a random occurrence. An exceedingly rare predisposition syndrome cannot be ruled out

Encouraging developing country involvement in a post-2012 climate change regime: carrots, sticks or both?

The climate-trade nexus has become the focus of academic debate, and has gained increasing attention as governments are taking great efforts to forge a post-2012 climate change regime to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. With concerns about their own competitiveness and growing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, some industrialized countries, if not all, are considering whether to impose unilateral trade measures against developing country trading partners. While it is clear that greenhouse gas emissions targets of developed countries need to be tightened further in a post-2012 climate change regime, developing country involvement is also crucial for climate change mitigation and adaptation, given that climate change is a global problem requiring a global response. This raises the issue of which approach would be most likely to stimulate developing countries to take appropriate actions in the post-2012 climate regime. Would positive or negative incentives work best, in other words, do we need carrots, sticks or both? This paper seeks to answer this question. By revisiting the six options for China that I envisioned a decade ago and examining a variety of factors, the paper first discusses how far developing country commitments can go in an immediate post-2012 climate regime. It argues that developing country commitments are most unlikely to go beyond defined policies and measures in this timeframe. The type of border adjustment provisions currently being discussed by most developed countries include more sticks than carrots for developing countries. Sticks can be incorporated, but only if they are credible and realistic and serve as a useful supplement to push developing countries to take actions or adopt policies and measures earlier than would otherwise have been the case. In order to encourage developing countries to do more to combat climate change, the paper suggests that developed countries should rather focus on carrots