The regional geopolitics of the strait of Gibraltar

Security of passage of the Strait of Gibraltar is an imperative for the world community. To achieve this, there must be stability on the northern and southern shores of the Strait. Peace in the region is currently threatened by the "creeping jurisdiction" which both Spain and Morocco wish to exert over the waters of the Strait. Other factors which threaten stability are the historical rivalry which exists between Spain and the Islamic southern shore; the legacy of disputed sovereignty in the Crown Colony of Gibraltar and the Spanish Plazas in North Africa; the economic divide betwen the EC and Maghreb along the Strait axis; and the possible threat of militant Islam. Contentions also exist between Morocco and Algeria, eg the Western Saharan War. The re-establishment of a strong "power hierarchy" in the area must be supported by such international instruments as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982). The Crown Colony and the Spanish Plazas must be decolonized once Spain is firmly integrated into the EC and NATO, and once Morocco has reached a level of economic and political development that is condusive to closer ties with Western institutions

Collisions, Design & The Swerve

If only everything were formed of neat laminar flows, with easy to understand conditions, and determinable outcomes: there would be no risk to manage out, messy inconsistencies and uncertainties to disrupt well-laid out plans. Things are not so clear-cut however. Indeed, as scientists, poets and philosophers of science have pointed out it is under conditions of nondeterminism and complexity that everything comes into being. There is an issue, then, when creative disciplines in particular find such complexity problematic enough to design systems and models in which uncertainty, disruption and aleatory collisions are if not destroyed, then dampened. We wonder: what might become of a creative practice that championed its encounter with The Swerve, Lucretius's clinamen? This article examines the role, value and applicability of the concept of collision to design. It takes a philosophical approach to examining this concept and mapping the possibilities of its use in design. We will argue using concepts mainly from Lucretius and Serres – but also Deleuze and others – that collision is an important aspect of all creativity, and that there would be nothing were it not for collisions, disruptive deviation and swerves from equilibrium. The aim will be to articulate the conditions for the possibility of designing that is a 'fan of collisions'

Short-circuit and ground fault analyses and location in VSC-based DC network cables

The application of high-power voltage-source converters (VSCs) to multiterminal dc networks is attracting research interest. The development of VSC-based dc networks is constrained by the lack of operational experience, the immaturity of appropriate protective devices, and the lack of appropriate fault analysis techniques. VSCs are vulnerable to dc-cable short-circuit and ground faults due to the high discharge current from the dc-link capacitance. However, faults occurring along the interconnecting dc cables are most likely to threaten system operation. In this paper, cable faults in VSC-based dc networks are analyzed in detail with the identification and definition of the most serious stages of the fault that need to be avoided. A fault location method is proposed because this is a prerequisite for an effective design of a fault protection scheme. It is demonstrated that it is relatively easy to evaluate the distance to a short-circuit fault using voltage reference comparison. For the more difficult challenge of locating ground faults, a method of estimating both the ground resistance and the distance to the fault is proposed by analyzing the initial stage of the fault transient. Analysis of the proposed method is provided and is based on simulation results, with a range of fault resistances, distances, and operational conditions considered

Enhanced power system stability by coordinated PSS design [Correction]

A step-by-step coordinated design procedure for PSSs and AVRs in a strongly-coupled system is described. It is shown that it is possible to separate the design of individual PSSs and to separate the design of individual AVRs. Thereby, the designs of AVR and PSS devices at a given machine can be coordinated to achieve near optimal overall power system stability performance, including oscillation stability performance and transient stability performance. The proposed coordinated PSS/AVR design procedure is established within a frequency domain framework and serves as a most useful small-signal complement to established large-signal transient simulation studies

Biomedical image sequence analysis with application to automatic quantitative assessment of facial paralysis

Facial paralysis is a condition causing decreased movement on one side of the face. A quantitative, objective, and reliable assessment system would be an invaluable tool for clinicians treating patients with this condition. This paper presents an approach based on the automatic analysis of patient video data. Facial feature localization and facial movement detection methods are discussed. An algorithm is presented to process the optical flow data to obtain the motion features in the relevant facial regions. Three classification methods are applied to provide quantitative evaluations of regional facial nerve function and the overall facial nerve function based on the House-Brackmann scale. Experiments show the radial basis function (RBF) neural network to have superior performance

Sea bass angling in Ireland: A structural equation model of catch and effort. ESRI WP574, November 2017

The relationship between angling effort and catch is well-recognised, in particular that effort influences catch rates. But increased catch, which can be considered an attribute of fishery quality, may influence effort in terms of number of fishing trips. This suggests bi-directional feedback between catch and effort. In many travel cost applications little attention has been given to this endogeneity problem. In this paper we expand the application of structural equation models to address this issue by jointly estimating demand (effort) and catch functions. Using a cross-section dataset of sea bass anglers we propose two separate joint models. First, we include expected catch as an explanatory variable in the demand equation. In the second, we reverse the causality and use the expected number of fishing days as a covariate in the catch function. The two approaches produce similar model estimates, and perform better at predicting anglers' catch and effort than standard models. The findings confirm that ‘catch & release’ does not curtail fishing activity and that sea bass angling is highly valued. Furthermore higher catches result more days fished, on average in a 2:1 ratio. Whereas on average, an additional fishing day results in 3-4 additional bass caught

Anglers' views on stock conservation: Sea Bass angling in Ireland. ESRI WP578, December 2017

Bottom-up approaches to natural resource management are considered to be more effective for conservation than traditional top-down approaches because the policy-making process is legitimized by stakeholders. In particular, when decisions are shared with direct users of the resource, compliance with the law may be achieved more easily and potential sources of conflict averted. However, empirical evidence on this topic is still limited. In this paper, we investigate how recreational anglers perceive stricter legislation for sea bass fishing, using Ireland as a case study. The new legislation aims to limit harvest rates to restore a viable bass population following years of declining stocks. Data were collected by means of an angler survey and analysed with a seemingly unrelated ordered probit model. Results suggest that most respondents are willing to trade harvested fish for a healthier and long-term sustainable bass population, suggesting strong compliance with this new law