Primary Cosmic Ray and Solar Protons II

During July and August 1961 the energy spectrum of primary cosmic ray protons was investigated in the energy range from 80 to 350 MeV. The observations were made in five high altitude balloon flights at geomagnetic latitudes lambda is greater than 73 degrees N. Solar flare and quiet day spectra were obtained. A comparison of the 1960 and 1961 results leads to the conclusions that, 1. A significant flux of low energy protons is continually present in the primary radiation in the years of high solar activity; 2. This flux decreases with the declining level of solar activity as the galactic cosmic ray flux increases, It is, therefore, suggested that it is of solar origin; 3. The time dependence of the observed proton flux suggests the following alternatives: a) The particles are produced or released more or less continuously by the sun and do not originate only in the large flare events; or b) The particles are produced in individual large solar flares and subsequently stored over long periods of time. This second alternative would require a new and as yet unknown storage mechanism with a characteristic time of about 30 or more days

"Liquidity, Uncertainty, and the Declining Predictive Power of the Paper-bill Spread"

This paper addresses two questions. First, what causes the paper-bill spread to vary over time in anticipation of income fluctuations’? Second, why has the predictive power of the spread declined in recent years? Consistent with previous empirical work, the paper provides evidence for the default-risk, monetary, and cash-flow hypotheses. Moreover, new evidence is provided for the liquidity hypothesis by showing that uncertainty has a strong impact on the paper-bill spread. This finding holds for two different approaches used to measure uncertainty - financial market volatility and forecaster discord - and for uncertainty about five different variables: the federal funds rate, the Treasury bill rate, the long-term corporate bond rate, stock returns, and industrial production. Using a Kalman filter to recursively estimate the reduced-form model for the paper-bill spread, the paper shows that the impact of monetary policy and uncertainty on the spread declined during the 1980s, while the impact of default risk increased. These findings are explained by two financial market developments occurring during the 1980s: 1) the rapid growth in the volume and liquidity of the commercial paper market, and 2) increased financial fragility of commercial paper issuers.

ReJeX-iT(TM)AG-36, A POTENTIAL TOOL TO PROTECT SEEDS FROM BIRD DEPREDATION

The ever increasing bird populations (e.g., Black birds, geese etc.) are known to cause considerable losses to agriculture. This problem has reached serious proportions for crops that are farmed on large tracts and are seeded by aerial application such as rice and canola. ReJeX-iTTM AG-36, a non-toxic, biodegradable bird aversion formulation, derived from food grade ingredients, has been proven in pen tests and field trials to be effective as a seed treatment to prevent birds from eating the treated seeds. The product does not harm the seeds or the effected birds in any way, even if ingested; it just makes the seeds unpalatable to further feeding

ReJeX-iT™AG-36, a Potential Tool to Protect Seeds from Bird Depredation

The ever increasing bird populations (e.g., Black birds, geese etc.) are known to cause considerable losses to agriculture. This problem has reached serious proportions for crops that are farmed on large tracts and are seeded by aerial application such as rice and canola. ReJeX-iT™AG-36, a non-toxic, biodegradable bird aversion formulation, derived from food grade ingredients, has been proven in pen tests and field trials to be effective as a seed treatment to prevent birds from eating the treated seeds. The product does not harm the seeds or the effected birds in any way, even if ingested; it just makes the seeds unpalatable to further feeding

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis thesis analyzed biped stability through a qualitative likelihood of falling and quantitative Potential to Fall (PF) analysis. Both analyses were applied to walking and skiing to better understand behaviors across a wider spectrum of bipedal gaits. For both walking and skiing, two types of locomotion were analyzed. Walking studies compared normal locomotion (gait) to an unexpected slip. Skiing studies compared wedge style locomotion (more common to beginning and intermediate skiers) to parallel style locomotion (more common to advanced and expert skiers). Two mediums of data collection were used. A motion capture laboratory with stereographic cameras and force plates were used for walking studies, and instrumented insoles, capable of force and inertial measurement, were used for skiing studies. Both kinematics and kinetics were used to evaluate the likelihood of falling. The PF metric, based on root mean squared error, was used to quantify the likelihood of falling for multiple subjects both in walking and skiing. PF was based on foot kinematics for walking and skiing studies. PF also included center of pressure for skiing studies. The PF was lower for normal gaits in walking studies and wedge style locomotion for skiing studies

FOGGING OF REJEX-IT® TP-40. EFFECTIVENESS AS A FUNCTION OF DROPLET SIZE TO REPEL BIRDS

Fogging of Rejex-it® TP-40 (Fog Force) offers a very efficient method for the management of nuisance birds in many diverse areas without any adverse effects to non-target animals. Despite its effectiveness, there are many factors that influence the effectiveness and desired results. The product alone does not guarantee the desired success. It is not always the quantity that determines fast reaction, but more the form for the specific application. Smaller droplets in the 10-micron range are theoretically 27 times more effective than 30 micron droplets and five micron droplets even 216 times more effective for the same quantity of product applied. It has been shown that droplets below 10 microns are inhaled by birds much more and therefore show an increase in effectiveness. Also, birds in flight with a breathing rate of 50-100 times higher than the resting rate show increased effectiveness. Large droplets not only are relatively ineffective, they also tend to drop to the ground prematurely and are lost. Smaller droplets stay in the air much longer and disappear by evaporation and do not drop to the ground. In large warehouses or hangars it is therefore advisable to bring the fogger to the height where the birds are, so that the fog stays in the upper regions without disturbing any operation on the ground floor. Depending on the situation, it sometimes is still advantageous to use foggers, which do not produce the ideal droplet size, but have other advantages that are needed for success. In strong wind or with thermal currents sometimes larger droplets are needed to reach the nuisance birds. Also, many times automated ULV foggers (e.g., Hurricane, BICO 2000), that work without much noise are more effective than hand held thermal foggers

Control of erythroid differentiation: asynchronous expression of the anion transporter and the peripheral components of the membrane skeleton in AEV- and S13-transformed cells

Chicken erythroblasts transformed with avian erythroblastosis virus or S13 virus provide suitable model systems with which to analyze the maturation of immature erythroblasts into erythrocytes. The transformed cells are blocked in differentiation at around the colony-forming unit- erythroid stage of development but can be induced to differentiate in vitro. Analysis of the expression and assembly of components of the membrane skeleton indicates that these cells simultaneously synthesize alpha-spectrin, beta-spectrin, ankyrin, and protein 4.1 at levels that are comparable to those of mature erythroblasts. However, they do not express any detectable amounts of anion transporter. The peripheral membrane skeleton components assemble transiently and are subsequently rapidly catabolized, resulting in 20-40-fold lower steady-state levels than are found in maturing erythrocytes. Upon spontaneous or chemically induced terminal differentiation of these cells expression of the anion transporter is initiated with a concommitant increase in the steady- state levels of the peripheral membrane-skeletal components. These results suggest that during erythropoiesis, expression of the peripheral components of the membrane skeleton is initiated earlier than that of the anion transporter. Furthermore, they point a key role for the anion transporter in conferring long-term stability to the assembled erythroid membrane skeleton during terminal differentiation

Understanding cities and citizens: Developing novel participatory development methods and public service concepts

The European Commission (EC) aims to facilitate bottom-up initiatives to speed up economic growth. For that it is necessary to empower citizens and businesses. Open data is key to this, as easy access to the right data opens the door for them to contribute as active and efficient actors in European cities. The EC-funded project Smarticipate , which is driven by the pilot cities of Hamburg, Rome and London, will foster citizen involvement on four levels: to join forces of committed key stakeholders, to gather local knowledge, to enable exploratory planning exercises and to create new public services. This will be realized by innovative tools, designed within Smarticipate, that provide immediate context-tailored feedback to each contribution made by citizens via online participation services. This paper outlines a novel methodology that is currently being developed within the project to co-design new public services. Our methodology enables close coordination via an iterative process with diverse urban stakeholders and end users. Citizens and businesses can create and plug their own apps for new public services into the Smarticipate platform we are developing. The overall principle is to interact in co-creation with the cities and citizens of Hamburg, Rome and London and adjust our planning and products directly to their needs. An iterative process is being carried out on three levels: participatory urban planning, user-centered design of applications and user interfaces & software engineering. The first results of this process are presented in this paper, along with an outline of the next steps