Exploration for fossil and nuclear fuels from orbital altitudes

Results from the ERTS program pertinent to exploration for oil, gas, and uranium are discussed. A review of achievements in relevant geological studies from ERTS, and a survey of accomplishments oriented towards exploration for energy sources are presented along with an evaluation of the prospects and limitations of the space platform approach to fuel exploration, and an examination of continuing programs designed to prove out the use of ERTS and other space system in exploring for fuel resources

States That Have Not Met Their Constitutional Requirements

The importance of sound financial risk management has become increasingly emphasised in recent years, especially with the financial crisis of 2007-08. The Basel Committee sets the international standards and regulations for banks and financial institutions, and in particular under market risk, they prescribe the internal application of the measure Value-at-Risk. However, the most established non-parametric Value-at-Risk model, historical simulation, has been criticised for some of its unrealistic assumptions. This thesis investigates alternative approaches for estimating non-parametric Value-at-Risk, by examining and comparing the capability of three counterbalancing weighting methodologies for historical simulation: an exponentially decreasing time weighting approach, a volatility updating method and, lastly, a more general weighting approach that enables the specification of central moments of a return distribution. With real financial data, the models are evaluated from a performance based perspective, in terms of accuracy and capital efficiency, but also in terms of their regulatory suitability, with a particular focus on the Swedish market. The empirical study shows that the capability of historical simulation is improved significantly, from both performance perspectives, by the implementation of a weighting methodology. Furthermore, the results predominantly indicate that the volatility updating model with a 500-day historical observation window is the most adequate weighting methodology, in all incorporated aspects. The findings of this paper offer significant input both to existing research on Value-at-Risk as well as to the quality of the internal market risk management of banks and financial institutions.Betydelsen av sund finansiell riskhantering har blivit alltmer betonad på senare år, i synnerhet i och med finanskrisen 2007-08. Baselkommittén fastställer internationella normer och regler för banker och finansiella institutioner, och särskilt under marknadsrisk föreskriver de intern tillämpning av måttet Value-at-Risk. Däremot har den mest etablerade icke-parametriska Value-at-Risk-modellen, historisk simulering, kritiserats för några av dess orealistiska antaganden. Denna avhandling undersöker alternativa metoder för att beräkna icke-parametrisk Value-at‑Risk, genom att granska och jämföra prestationsförmågan hos tre motverkande viktningsmetoder för historisk simulering: en exponentiellt avtagande tidsviktningsteknik, en volatilitetsuppdateringsmetod, och slutligen ett mer generellt tillvägagångssätt för viktning som möjliggör specifikation av en avkastningsfördelnings centralmoment. Modellerna utvärderas med verklig finansiell data ur ett prestationsbaserat perspektiv, utifrån precision och kapitaleffektivitet, men också med avseende på deras lämplighet i förhållande till existerande regelverk, med särskilt fokus på den svenska marknaden. Den empiriska studien visar att prestandan hos historisk simulering förbättras avsevärt, från båda prestationsperspektiven, genom införandet av en viktningsmetod. Dessutom pekar resultaten i huvudsak på att volatilitetsuppdateringsmodellen med ett 500 dagars observationsfönster är den mest användbara viktningsmetoden i alla berörda aspekter. Slutsatserna i denna uppsats bidrar i väsentlig grad både till befintlig forskning om Value-at-Risk, liksom till kvaliteten på bankers och finansiella institutioners interna hantering av marknadsrisk

Earth observations from space: Outlook for the geological sciences

Remote sensing from space platforms is discussed as another tool available to geologists. The results of Nimbus observations, the ERTS program, and Skylab EREP are reviewed, and a multidisciplinary approach is recommended for meeting the challenges of remote sensing

ChromaStarPy: A stellar atmosphere and spectrum modeling and visualization lab in python

We announce ChromaStarPy, an integrated general stellar atmospheric modeling and spectrum synthesis code written entirely in python V. 3. ChromaStarPy is a direct port of the ChromaStarServer (CSServ) Java modeling code described in earlier papers in this series, and many of the associated JavaScript (JS) post-processing procedures have been ported and incorporated into CSPy so that students have access to ready-made "data products". A python integrated development environment (IDE) allows a student in a more advanced course to experiment with the code and to graphically visualize intermediate and final results, ad hoc, as they are running it. CSPy allows students and researchers to compare modeled to observed spectra in the same IDE in which they are processing observational data, while having complete control over the stellar parameters affecting the synthetic spectra. We also take the opportunity to describe improvements that have been made to the related codes, ChromaStar (CS), CSServ and ChromaStarDB (CSDB) that, where relevant, have also been incorporated into CSPy. The application may be found at the home page of the OpenStars project: http://www.ap.smu.ca/~ishort/OpenStars/ .Comment: See DOI zenodo.1095687. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Comparative composition, diversity, and abundance of oligosaccharides in early lactation milk from commercial dairy and beef cows.

Prebiotics are nondigestible dietary ingredients, usually oligosaccharides (OS), that provide a health benefit to the host by directly modulating the gut microbiota. Although there is some information describing OS content in dairy-source milk, no information is available to describe the OS content of beef-source milk. Given the different trait emphasis between dairy and beef for milk production and calf survivability, it is plausible that OS composition, diversity, and abundance differ between production types. The goal of this study was to compare OS in milk from commercial dairy and beef cows in early lactation. Early-lactation multiparous cows (5-12 d in milk) from 5 commercial Holstein dairy herds and 5 Angus or Angus hybrid beef herds were sampled once. Milk was obtained from each enrolled cow and frozen on the farm. Subsequently, each milk sample was assessed for total solids, pH, and OS content and relative abundance. Oligosaccharide diversity and abundance within and between samples was transformed through principal component analysis to reduce data complexity. Factors from principal component analysis were used to create similarity clusters, which were subsequently used in a multivariate logistic regression. In total, 30 OS were identified in early-lactation cow milk, including 21 distinct OS and 9 isomers with unique retention times. The majority of OS detected in the milk samples were present in all individual samples regardless of production type. Two clusters described distribution patterns of OS for the study sample; when median OS abundance was compared between the 2 clusters, we found that overall OS relative abundance was consistently greater in the cluster dominated by beef cows. For several of the structures, including those with known prebiotic effect, the difference in abundance was 2- to 4-fold greater in the beef-dominated cluster. Assuming that beef OS content in milk is the gold standard for cattle, it is likely that preweaning dairy calves are deprived of dietary-source OS. Although supplementing rations with OS is an approach to rectify this deficiency, understanding the health and productivity effects of improving OS abundance being fed to preweaning calves is a necessary next step before recommending supplementation. These studies should account for the observation that OS products are variable for both OS diversity and structural complexity, and some products may not be suitable as prebiotics

An index to assess and monitor the progression of wasting disease in eelgrass Zostera marina

An index based on rapid visual determination of the relative amount of necrotic tissue on eelgrass shoots infected with wasting disease is described. The utility of the index for assessing and monitoring disease levels in natural and experimental populations of eelgrass is illustrated with examples from the field and a mesocosm experiment. Using the Wasting Index, monitoring of the disease along with environmental variables provided correlational data that aided understanding of the disease progression and linked disease severity with salinity. Once salinity increased above a threshold, disease spread rapidly and was inversely correlated with leave are

Quantum equilibration in finite time

It has recently been shown that small quantum subsystems generically equilibrate, in the sense that they spend most of the time close to a fixed equilibrium state. This relies on just two assumptions: that the state is spread over many different energies, and that the Hamiltonian has non-degenerate energy gaps. Given the same assumptions, it has also been shown that closed systems equilibrate with respect to realistic measurements. We extend these results in two important ways. First, we prove equilibration over a finite (rather than infinite) time-interval, allowing us to bound the equilibration time. Second, we weaken the non degenerate energy gaps condition, showing that equilibration occurs provided that no energy gap is hugely degenerate.Comment: 7 page

Automated reduction of instantaneous flow field images

An automated data reduction system for the analysis of interference fringe patterns obtained using the particle image velocimetry technique is described. This system is based on digital image processing techniques that have provided the flexibility and speed needed to obtain more complete automation of the data reduction process. As approached here, this process includes scanning/searching for data on the photographic record, recognition of fringe patterns of sufficient quality, and, finally, analysis of these fringes to determine a local measure of the velocity magnitude and direction. The fringe analysis as well as the fringe image recognition are based on full frame autocorrelation techniques using parallel processing capabilities