Representing Space: A Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Aesthetic Graph Layout

This paper describes a hybrid Genetic Algorithm (GA) that is used to improve the layout of a graph according to a number of aesthetic criteria. The GA incorporates spatial and topological information by operating directly with a graph based representation. Initial results show this to be a promising technique for positioning graph nodes on a surface and may form the basis of a more general approach for problems involving multi-criteria spatial optimisation

Synthesis of the boll weevil pheromone and some photochemical reactions

Imperial Users onl

Individual aerosol particles from biomass burning in southern Africa: 2. Compositions and aging of inorganic particles

Individual aerosol particles collected over southern Africa during the SAFARI 2000 field study were studied using transmission electron microscopy and field- emission scanning electron microscopy. The sizes, shapes, compositions, mixing states, surface coatings, and relative abundances of aerosol particles from biomass burning, in boundary layer hazes, and in the free troposphere were compared, with emphasis on aging and reactions of inorganic smoke particles. Potassium salts and organic particles were the predominant species in the smoke, and most were internally mixed. More KCl particles occur in young smoke, whereas more K2SO4 and KNO3 particles were present in aged smoke. This change indicates that with the aging of the smoke, KCl particles from the fires were converted to K2SO4 and KNO3 through reactions with sulfur- and nitrogen-bearing species from biomass burning as well as other sources. More soot was present in smoke from flaming grass fires than bush and wood fires, probably due to the predominance of flaming combustion in grass fires. The high abundance of organic particles and soluble salts can affect the hygroscopic properties of biomass- burning aerosols and therefore influence their role as cloud condensation nuclei. Particles from biomass burning were important constituents of the regional hazes

The use of an airborne lidar for mapping cirrus clouds in FIRE, phase 2

The Univ. of Washington (UW) and Georgia Tech have recently built a dual wavelength airborne lidar for operation on the UW's Convair C-131A research aircraft. This lidar was used in studying aerosols and clouds. These studies demonstrated the utility of airborne lidar in a variety of atmospheric research and prompt the suggestion that this facility be included in the next FIRE cirrus experiment. The vertically pointing airborne lidar would be used as a complement to ground based lidars. The airborne lidar would ensure extended coverage of IFO cases that develop upwind of the surface lidars or which miss the ground based lidars while still being the focus of satellite and aircraft in situ studies. The airborne lidar would help assure that cirrus clouds were simultaneously viewed by satellite, sampled by aircraft, and structurally characterized by lidar. System specifications are listed and a schematic is shown of the lidar system aboard the C-131A

Excerpt from "The Tale of the Sarnia Nose" (a toxic comic book)

The Tale of the Sarnia Nose is one of three comic book chapters that appear in Chemical Intimacies and Toxic Publics, Hobbs' 2016 dissertation. This text mixes archival research, ethnography, and comic book drawings to produce a creative hybrid: part political critique, part environmental activism, and part artist publication...Find full piece in .pdf below

Chemical Intimacies and Toxic Publics

In this dissertation, I detail how capitalism has turned pollution into a generally accepted form of violence perpetuated in the name of economic health. Complete with a corps of risk managers and environmental consultants, neoliberal capitalism has fashioned pollution into a universal standard that functions as an ambient form of socialization. Pollution, I contend, serves as a social apparatus, an atmospheric example of what Jacques Rancire refers to as distributing the sensible (2004). Instead of being simply a by-product or unavoidable consequence, pollution serves as a constant reminder of the production/flow of capital and of modernitys dependency on heavy industries. But beyond its obvious emissions, spills, dumps, and tailing ponds, much of the fallout of pollution remains hidden. Thus, in mapping the social significance of pollution, the dissertation stresses these two conflicting principles: pollution is constantly present but also invisible. Pollution exists in the form of microscopic particles that travel on the wind and in waterways, penetrating ecosystems, neighbourhoods, homes, and bodies so that people are exposed to its poisons as a matter of fact, as a condition of the everyday, as an emblem of ones modernity. To counter this general acceptance of pollution, I engage in an ecological storytelling that utilizes comic book imagery, along with a mixture of archival and everyday material (government reports, tourist guides, newspaper clippings, postcards, and childrens drawings), to situate the specific harm done by the ambient toxins, chemicals emitted from specific polluting industries and imposed on specific people and ecologies. I concentrate on two ethnographic sites and two polluting industries, as half of the dissertation examines the politics of lead in Toronto (tracing its historical influence and public acceptance in two working class neighbourhoods), while the other half focuses on a massive petrochemical corridor that is located in and around the small city of Sarnia (in southwestern Ontario) and immediately adjacent to the First Nation of Aamjiwnaang. In addition to the more traditional ethnographic methods adopted in the textual chapters, the comics provide a stream of countermemories that refute neoliberal capitalism and its demand for more of the same

East Cliff Landslide, Bournemouth

On 24 April 2016, the BGS Landslide Response Team received reports of a landslide on a 35 m high section of the East Cliff in Bournemouth, Dorset. It was reported that the landslide had damaged an Edwardian funicular railway as well as a toilet block and an array of fences and benches from the top of the cliff

Spectral absorption of marine stratocumulus clouds derived from in situ cloud radiation measurements

A multiwavelength scanning radiometer was used to measure the angular distribution of scattered radiation deep within a cloud layer at discrete wavelengths between 0.5 and 2.3 microns. The relative angular distribution of the intensity field at each wavelength is used to determine the similarity parameter, and hence single scattering albedo, of the cloud at that wavelength using the diffusion domain method. In addition to the spectral similarity parameter, the analysis provides a good estimate of the optical thickness of the cloud beneath the aircraft. In addition to the radiation measurements, microphysical and thermodynamic measurements were obtained from which the expected similarity parameter spectrum was calculated using accepted values of the refractive index of liquid water and the transmission function of water vapor. An analysis is presented for the results obtained for a 50 km section of clean marine stratocumulus clouds on 10 July 1987. These observations were obtained off the coast of California from the University of Washington Convair C-131A aircraft as part of the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE). A comparison of the experimentally-derived similarity parameter spectrum with that expected theoretically from the cloud droplet size distribution measured simultaneously from the aircraft is presented. The measurements and theory are in very close agreement for this case of clean maritime clouds

Cloud absorption properties as derived from airborne measurements of scattered radiation within clouds

Researchers briefly review the diffusion domain method for deriving the cloud similarity parameter and present preliminary analyses of the results thus far obtained. The presentation concentrates on the following points: (1) intercomparison of calibrated reflected intensities between the cloud absorption radiometer and the U.K. multispectral cloud radiometer; (2) quality control tests required to select those portions of an aircraft flight for which measurements are obtained within the diffusion domain; (3) case studies of the spectral similarity parameter of marine stratocumulus clouds; and comparisons of the experimentally-derived similarity parameter spectrum with that expected theoretically from the cloud droplet size distribution obtained from in situ observations

THE CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT OF THE ACROMIOCLAVICULAR JOINT INJURY WITH SPECIAL RELATION TO PHYSIOTHERAPY TREATMENT1 1Received June, 1971

Injury to the acromioclavicular joint typically occurs when the point of the shoulder is speared into the ground. The clavicle tends to be displaced in the line of the action, resulting in a swelling in the acromioclavicular joint area, on the superior surface of the shoulder. The lateral and posterior section of the superior ligament is generally either strained or torn. It is probable the coraco-clavicular ligament is also strained, but it is not obvious