Models of Dynamic Data for Emergency Response: A Comparative Study

The first hours after a disaster happens are very chaotic and difficult but perhaps the most important for successfully fighting the consequences, saving human lives and reducing damages in private and public properties. Despite some advances, complete inventory of the information needed during the emergency response remains challenging. In the last years several nationally and internationally funded projects have concentrated on inventory of emergency response processes, structures for storing dynamic information and standards and services for accessing needed data sets. A good inventory would clarify many aspects of the information exchange such as data sets, models, representations; a good structuring would facilitate the fast access to a desired piece of information, as well as the automation of analysis of the information. Consequently the information can be used better in the decision-making process.\ud This paper presents our work on models for dynamic data for different disasters and incidents in Europe. The Dutch data models are derived from a thorough study on emergency response procedure in the Netherlands. Two more models developed within the project HUMBOLDT reflect several cross border disaster management scenarios in Europe. These models are compared with the Geospatial Data Model of the Department of Homeland Security in USA. The paper draws conclusions about the type of geographical information needed to perform emergency response operations and the possibility to have a generic model to be used world-wide

Coexistence of bulk and surface states probed by Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in Bi2_2Se3_3 with high charge-carrier density

Topological insulators are ideally represented as having an insulating bulk with topologically protected, spin-textured surface states. However, it is increasingly becoming clear that these surface transport channels can be accompanied by a finite conducting bulk, as well as additional topologically trivial surface states. To investigate these parallel conduction transport channels, we studied Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in Bi$_2$Se$_3$ thin films, in high magnetic fields up to 30 T so as to access channels with a lower mobility. We identify a clear Zeeman-split bulk contribution to the oscillations from a comparison between the charge-carrier densities extracted from the magnetoresistance and the oscillations. Furthermore, our analyses indicate the presence of a two-dimensional state and signatures of additional states the origin of which cannot be conclusively determined. Our findings underpin the necessity of theoretical studies on the origin of and the interplay between these parallel conduction channels for a careful analysis of the material's performance.Comment: Manuscript including supplemental materia

Disordering to Order: de Vries behavior from a Landau theory for smectics

We show that Landau theory for the isotropic, nematic, smectic A, and smectic C phases generically, but not ubiquitously, implies de Vries behavior. I.e., a continuous AC transition can occur with little layer contraction; the birefringence decreases as temperature T is lowered above this transition, and increases again below the transition. This de Vries behavior occurs in models with unusually small orientational order, and is preceded by a first order I − A transition. A first order AC transition with elements of de Vries behavior can also occur. These results correspond well with experimental work to date.Comment: 4 pages, 2 page appendi

Modification of the simple mass balance equation for calculation of critical loads of acidity.

Over the last few years, the simple mass balance equation for the calculation of critical loads of acidity has been gradually modified as the underlying critical load concepts have developed and as problems with particular forms of the equation have been identified, through application in particular countries. The first major update of the equation took place following a workshop held in Vienna, Austria (Hojesky et al. 1993). The workshop was held to discuss problems which had been identified when the then current form of the equation was applied in countries with high rainfall. The problems had largely arisen because of simplifications and assumptions incorporated into the early formulation of the equation. The equation was reformulated to overcome the problems identified at the workshop. However, further problems were identified when the reformulated equation was applied in the UK in situations with a combination of high rainfall, large marine inputs and widespread occurrence of organic soils. A small workshop was, therefore held in Grange-over-Sands, UK in late 1993 to dicuss the problems and to further re-evaluate the equation. The problems had arisen in the UK because of simplifications and assumptions made in the formulation concerning, in particular, cation leaching and uptake. As a result, a more rigorous treatment of these variables was incorporated into the equation. The reformulation of the equation, as derived at the September 1993 workshop is described below

A Penalty Branch-and-Bound Method for Mixed Binary Linear Complementarity Problems

Linear complementarity problems (LCPs) are an important modeling tool for many practically relevant situations and also have many important applications in mathematics itself. Although the continuous version of the problem is extremely well-studied, much less is known about mixed-integer LCPs (MILCPs) in which some variables have to be integer valued in a solution. In particular, almost no tailored algorithms are known besides reformulations of the problem that allow us to apply general purpose mixed integer linear programming solvers. In this paper, we present, theoretically analyze, enhance, and test a novel branch-and bound method for MILCPs. The main property of this method is that we do not "branch " on constraints as usual but by adding suitably chosen penalty terms to the objective function. By doing so, we can either provably compute an MILCP solution if one exists or compute an approximate solution that minimizes an infeasibility measure combining integrality and complementarity conditions. We enhance the method by MILCP-tailored valid inequalities, node selection strategies, branching rules, and warm-starting techniques. The resulting algorithm is shown to clearly outperform two benchmark approaches from the literature

Evidence for precession of the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125

The XMM-Newton spectra of the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125 obtained over 4.5 years can be described by sinusoidal variations in the inferred blackbody temperature, the size of the emitting area and the depth of the absorption line with a period of 7.1 +/- 0.5 years, which we suggest to be the precession period of the neutron star. Precession of a neutron star with two hot spots of different temperature and size, probably not located exactly in antipodal positions, may account for the variations in the X-ray spectra, changes in the pulsed fraction, shape of the light curve and the phase-lag between soft and hard energy bands observed from RX J0720.4-3125. An independent sinusoidal fit to published and new pulse timing residuals from a coherent analysis covering ~12 years yields a consistent period of 7.7 +/- 0.6 years supporting the precession model.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letters, 5 pages, 5 figure

Fusarium species and mycotoxin profiles on commercial maize hybrids in Germany

Abstract High year-to-year variability in the incidence of Fusarium spp. and mycotoxin contamination was observed in a two-year survey investigating the impact of maize ear rot in 84 field samples from Germany. Fusarium verticillioides, F. graminearum, and F. proliferatum were the predominant species infecting maize kernels in 2006, whereas in 2007 the most frequently isolated species were F. graminearum, F. cerealis and F. subglutinans. Fourteen Fusariumrelated mycotoxins were detected as contaminants of maize kernels analyzed by a multi-mycotoxin determination method. In 2006, a growth season characterized by high temperature and low rainfall during anthesis and early grain filling, 75% of the maize samples were contaminated with deoxynivalenol, 34% with fumonisins and 27% with zearalenone. In 2007, characterized by moderate temperatures and frequent rainfall during the entire growth season, none of the 40 maize samples had quantifiable levels of fumonisins while deoxynivalenol and zearalenone were detected in 90% and 93% of the fields, respectively. In addition, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxnivalenol, moniliformin, beauvericin, nivalenol and enniatin B were detected as common contaminants produced in both growing seasons. The results demonstrate a significant mycotoxin contamination associated with maize ear rots in Germany and indicate, with regard to anticipated climate change, that fumonisins-producing species already present in German maize production may become more important. Keywords Deoxynivalenol . Ear rot . F. verticillioides . F. graminearum . Fumonisin . Zearalenon

UV Aerosol Indices from SCIAMACHY: introducing the SCattering Index (SCI)

The Absorbing Aerosol Index (AAI) is a useful tool for detecting aerosols that absorb UV radiation – especially in cases where other aerosol retrievals fail, such as over bright surfaces (e.g. desert) and in the presence of clouds. The AAI does not, however, consider contributions from scattering (hardly absorbing) aerosols and clouds: they cause negative AAI values and are usually disregarded. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of the AAI's negative counterpart, the SCattering Index (SCI) to detect scattering aerosols. Consideration of the full UV Aerosol Index scale is of importance if the Aerosol Index is to be used for the quantification of aerosol absorption in the future. <br><br> Maps of seasonally averaged SCI show significantly enhanced values in summer in Southeast USA and Southeast Asia, pointing to a high production of scattering aerosols (presumably mainly sulphate aerosols and secondary organic aerosols) in this season. The application of a cloud filter makes the presence of scattering aerosols even more clear. Radiative transfer calculations were performed to investigate the sensitivity of AAI and SCI to cloud parameters, and it is demonstrated that clouds cause significant SCI, in some special cases even small AAI values. The results from cloud modelling imply that cloud effects need to be taken into account when AAI and SCI are used in a quantitative manner. <br><br> The paper concludes with a comparison of aerosol parameters from AERONET and our Aerosol Indices (AAI and SCI) from SCIAMACHY, where reasonable agreement was found for six AERONET stations in Southeast USA, Southeast Asia, and Africa. These findings corroborate the suitability of SCI as a tool to detect scattering aerosols

Climbing the water ladder: multiple-use water services for poverty reduction

Multiple use / Models / Water productivity / Research projects / Water supply / Domestic water / Irrigation water / Water governance / Poverty / Gender / Rural areas / Wells / Water harvesting / Runoff / Water storage / Water purification / Appropriate technology / Costs / Local government / Non governmental organizations / Case studies / Ehiopia / Nepal / Zimbabwe / Bolivia / India / Colombia / Thailand / South Africa