A Variational Assimilation Method for Satellite and Conventional Data: a Revised Basic Model 2B

A variational objective analysis technique that modifies observations of temperature, height, and wind on the cyclone scale to satisfy the five 'primitive' model forecast equations is presented. This analysis method overcomes all of the problems that hindered previous versions, such as over-determination, time consistency, solution method, and constraint decoupling. A preliminary evaluation of the method shows that it converges rapidly, the divergent part of the wind is strongly coupled in the solution, fields of height and temperature are well-preserved, and derivative quantities such as vorticity and divergence are improved. Problem areas are systematic increases in the horizontal velocity components, and large magnitudes of the local tendencies of the horizontal velocity components. The preliminary evaluation makes note of these problems but detailed evaluations required to determine the origin of these problems await future research

Analogs of Schur functions for rank two Weyl groups obtained from grid-like posets

In prior work, the authors, along with M. McClard, R. A. Proctor, and N. J. Wildberger, studied certain distributive lattice models for the "Weyl bialternants" (aka "Weyl characters") associated with the rank two root systems/Weyl groups. These distributive lattices were uniformly described as lattices of order ideals taken from certain grid-like posets, although the arguments connecting the lattices to Weyl bialternants were case-by-case depending on the type of the rank two root system. Using this connection with Weyl bialternants, these lattices were shown to be rank symmetric and rank unimodal, and their rank generating functions were shown to have beautiful quotient-of-products expressions. Here, these results are re-derived from scratch using completely uniform and elementary combinatorial reasoning in conjunction with some new combinatorial methodology developed elsewhere by the second listed author.Comment: 15 page

Age-related differentiation of sensorimotor control strategies during pursuit and compensatory tracking

Motor control deficits during aging have been well-documented. Various causes of neuromotor decline, including both peripheral and central neurological deficits, have been hypothesized. Here, we use a model of closed-loop sensorimotor control to examine the functional causes of motor control deficits during aging. We recruited 14 subjects aged 19-61 years old to participate in a study in which they performed single-joint compensatory and pursuit tracking tasks with their dominant hand. We found that visual response delay and visual noise increased with age, while reliance on visual feedback, especially during compensatory tracking decreased. Increases in visual noise were also positively correlated with increases in movement error during a reach and hold task. The results suggest an increase in noise within the visuomotor control system may contribute to the decline in motor performance during early aging

Visual and Proprioceptive Contributions to Compensatory and Pursuit Tracking Movements in Humans

An ongoing debate in the field of motor control considers how the brain uses sensory information to guide the formation of motor commands to regulate movement accuracy. Recent research has shown that the brain may use visual and proprioceptive information differently for stabilization of limb posture (compensatory movements) and for controlling goal-directed limb trajectory (pursuit movements). Using a series of five experiments and linear systems identification techniques, we modeled and estimated the sensorimotor control parameters that characterize the human motor response to kinematic performance errors during continuous compensatory and pursuit tracking tasks. Our findings further support the idea that pursuit and compensatory movements of the limbs are differentially controlled

How Citizens can use the Initiative Power

The purpose of this discussion is to demonstrate how the initiative power may be employed by citizens wishing to pass a law independent of the state legislature. Although the initiative power is granted in many state constitutions, in the past it has been used sparingly. However during these days of political activism the initiative power has been given new vitality. For example, in the area of environmental law it has been employed by citizens groups in such states as California, Illinois, and Wisconsin to reserve greater individual rights against environmental polluters

The Objectivity of Debate Judges

The problem of securing competent judges of debate is always with us. \u27 This statement is as true in 19J4 as it was in 1917 when Lew Sarett made it. At the turn of the century, however, important personages, governors and judges, for example, were invited or hired to sit as debate judges and to render their decisions. Today the average intercollegiate debate situation is the tournament debate. Two teams debate before a critic-judge, generally a coach from some other school entered in the tournament, who designates the winning team and who is often required to give oral or written criticisms and to assign quality ratings to the debaters

Factor Returns, Institutions, and Geography: A View From Trade

We examine the importance of institutions and geography for determining workers' wages and the return to capital. These returns to labor and capital are examined through the lens of labor and capital's productivities, which are directly related to the factors' returns. We estimate productivities of labor and capital based on trade flows across countries and present statistical evidence that these productivities are related to total factor productivities which rationalize output differences across countries. We examine whether these labor and capital productivities are related to countries' political institutions and geography. Protection of property rights is the dominant influence on both labor and capital productivity. There is some evidence that a democratic government affects productivity, but once property rights are included in the analysis, the overall democracy index has little influence on factor productivity.. Geography is only important in terms of distance to a large market. Factors such as the incidence of malaria are relatively unimportant. The unimportance of geography is not only statistical. For example, if the Philippines kept its geography but had the United Kingdom 's institutions, the Philippines ' labor productivity would increase from seven percent to 75 percent of the U.S. 's and capital productivity would increase from 25 percent to 58 percent of the U.S. 's. On the other hand, if the Philippines were to keep its institutions and were magically more to the United Kingdom 's geographic location, labor productivity would increase only from seven percent to 28 percent and capital productivity would increase from 25 percent to 26 percent.

A Variational Assimilation Method for Satellite and Conventional Data: Development of Basic Model for Diagnosis of Cyclone Systems

A summary is presented of the progress toward the completion of a comprehensive diagnostic objective analysis system based upon the calculus of variations. The approach was to first develop the objective analysis subject to the constraints that the final product satisfies the five basic primitive equations for a dry inviscid atmosphere: the two nonlinear horizontal momentum equations, the continuity equation, the hydrostatic equation, and the thermodynamic equation. Then, having derived the basic model, there would be added to it the equations for moist atmospheric processes and the radiative transfer equation

How important are capital and total factor productivity for economic growth?

The authors examine the relative importance of the growth of physical and human capital and the growth of total factor productivity (TFP) using newly organized data on 145 countries that span more than one hundred years for twenty-four of these countries. For all countries, only 3 percent of average output growth per worker is associated with TFP growth. This world average masks interesting variations across countries and regions. Of the nine regions, TFP growth accounts for about twenty percent of average output growth in three regions and between ten and zero percent in the other three regions. In three regions, TFP growth is negative on average. The authors use priors from theories to construct estimates of the relative importance of the variances of aggregate input growth and TFP growth for the variance of output growth across countries. Across all countries, variation in aggregate input growth per worker could account for as much as 35 percent of the variance of the growth of output per worker across countries, and variation in TFP growth could account for as much as 87 percent of that variance. Much of the importance of the variance of TFP growth appears to be associated with negative TFP growth.Productivity ; Economic development ; Capital ; Industrial productivity

Photometry of the comet 2060 Chiron

The comet 2060 Chiron has proven to be an interesting and enigmatic object. Situated between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, it was originally classified as the most distant asteroid. It began to show cometary behavior in 1987 by increasing a full magnitude in brightness and developing a coma; there is evidence also for similar earlier outbursts. A thorough study of Chiron is important for two reasons: (1) it is a transition object defining the relationship between comets, asteroids, and meteorites; and (2) a full description of its changes in brightness - particularly on time scale of hours - will provide an empirical foundation for understanding the physical mechanisms (including outgassing, sublimation of volatiles, and even significant mass ejections) driving the evolution of comets. Short term outbursts were observed in early 1989, and a rapid decrease in brightness of Chiron's coma was observed in 1990 in the V and R filters. Also, a rotational lightcurve was detected of the nucleus with an amplitude only 1/4 that observed in its quiescent state: this fact indicates the increased importance of the optically thin coma to the observed brightness