21 research outputs found
Low-level mesoscale wind field generation from cloud-track wings using GOES-8 imagery
Spring 1996.Bibliography: leaves 80-81
Vocational Agriculture Curriculum Changes in Schools in Urban-Influenced Areas
Agriculture Educatio
Escherichia coil growth dynamics: A three-pool biochemically based description
A three-pool growth model of an individual Escherichia coli cell is described herein. The model is based on a previously developed chemically structured complex single cell growth model. The reduction in model complexity and the identification of the essential modes of motion, over the time scale of growth, is achieved by temporal decomposition and analysis of hierarchy in relaxation times. The three-pool model faithfully simulates the changes in cell size, cell shape, cell macromolecular composition, DNA initiation and termination periods, and the dependence of cell growth under abiotic glucose limitation. The predictions made by the reduced model compare favorably with both the experimental data and those of the full single cell model (SCM) without any parameter adjustments. The three-pool model has very few significant parameters and has the potential to find immediate practical use in bioreactor design and process control strategies. The model development illustrates the use of modal analysis to yield reduced physiologically realistic dynamic model of complex microbial system such as E. coll.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37894/1/260310203_ftp.pd
The End of Civilizations: The Role of Religion in the Evolution of Subnational Conflict, 1946-2007
<p>Conflict between states in an anarchic international system is generally the result of an inability among state leaders to successfully negotiate perceived power imbalances within the system. Interstate conflicts are relatively rare events and are generally short in duration; international pressures to quickly and permanently resolve conflicts before their effects are felt outside the region of conflict are often intense. In an increasingly global community, an international order in turmoil ripples through the global financial system, often leading to a weakening of state power within it. </p>
<p>Violent conflicts within state borders have been historically more common, with causative issues ranging from polity dissatisfaction or inequities in the economic structure of the state to disputes over territorial integrity and autonomy. Pressure to rapidly resolve conflict within states is differentially applied cross-regionally; however, where strategic interests of major-power states are involved, such conflicts are usually quickly addressed. Where no such interests exist, these conflicts can and do persist for decades, at often huge costs to state resources. </p>
<p>In the mid-1990s the number of ongoing subnational conflicts appeared to be trending upward and increasingly between dissimilar people groups; Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations thesis posited that future conflict at the subnational and international levels would be increasingly between groups of differing civilizational origin. This study disputes this claim, intending instead to show that conflict between groups of dissimilar religious beliefs is more likely to escalate to violence than that occurring between civilizational groupings, especially after the end of the Cold War.</p>
<p>This study covers nearly 200 countries during the period 1946-2007, including those granted independence within the period and new republics formed in the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union. If Huntington's thesis is correct, states located along defined civilizational "fault-lines" should experience a higher incidence of violent conflict at the state level. States that contain sufficiently large populations from differing civilizations (defined as cleft states) should also be more conflict prone. The differential advantages gained during modernization processes in the post-Cold War era should result in an upward trend in such conflict after 1989. </p>
<p>This study uses conflict data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, recording 1,670 conflict-years in over 100 countries within the observation period. Descriptive statistics suggest subnational conflicts have not become increasingly civilizational as Huntington described. Instead, conflict between dissimilar religious groups has become more common since the end of the Cold War. Multivariate analysis is used to estimate the relative importance of religious differences on the initiation of violent subnational conflict. In addition to the existence of religious cleavages, the salience of a number of realist variables is also considered. </p>
<p>Results show Huntington's theory to be insufficient to describe this evolution of subnational conflict. Civilizations are too broad to engender the necessary inclusivity in times of crisis, and the number of classifications theorized too narrow. However, results suggest religious cleavages to be equally weak predictors of future conflict likelihood at the subnational level. As in prior studies of civil wars, religion seems epiphenomenal in causative predictions of low-level subnational conflict initiation in the modern era.</p>Dissertatio
American penology: Words, deeds, and consequences
A primary argument underlying this paper is that it is possible to capture a particular theory or conceptual rationale in the development of a penal program strategy. Further, it is possible to implement the program in a way that corresponds to both the program strategy and theory and then to evaluate the program to determine the adequacy of both the program strategy and the theory upon which it is based. The history of U.S. penal reform does not illustrate this potential, however. Rather, U.S. penal reforms have been implemented without evaluation and have resulted in a pattern of unintended consequences, most notably increased social control and an associated undermining of democratic rights and individual freedoms, without any corresponding decline in crime. These trends and outcomes are documented in order to draw penal program and evaluation policy implications for the U.S. and their ever expanding penal complex and the Czech Republic in their ongoing efforts to implement a penal system consistent with their newly emerging democratic society. © 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers