Persistence of Depositional Features in a Strongly Seasonal, Tide-Dominated Delta

The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) Delta is one of the largest deltas in the world, covering more than 100,000 km2. The GBM River system transports over one billion tons of sediment annually and delivers ~750 million tons to the Bay of Bengal, ~25% of which is advected by tides into the fluvially abandoned western delta plain. The Sundarbans National Forest (SNF) is located within the GBM Delta and, covering more than 10,000 km2, is the world’s largest continuous mangrove stand. The present rate of sediment delivery allows the SNF platform elevation to keep pace with regional sea level rise, but India’s National River Linking Project (NRLP) could decrease the suspended sediment loads of Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers by 39-75% and 9-25% respectively, and thus may change future sedimentation. In this study, we examine the idea that sediment stored in the tidal channels throughout the year is being resuspended and delivered to the mangrove platform during the dry season when sediment input to the system is at a minimum. Over two field seasons 70 shallow (cm) sediment cores were collected from the channel banks, imaged using x-radiography to observe fine scale changes in depositional characteristics on tidal channel banks, and subsampled for subsequent textural analysis. In more than half of the cores examined there is no change in the style of the laminations, suggesting that the processes controlling deposition remain constant throughout the year, despite a change in the external sediment supply. Cores where the depth of laminations decreases from wet to dry season demonstrate that sediment is being eroded from the banks and advected elsewhere, with the mangrove platform a likely sink. Over 70% of cores showed surface (0-2 cm) grain sizes coarsening between the monsoon to the dry season, which could be the product of the winnowing of fine sediments as overall sediment supply decreases and material with lower bulk density is preferentially taken away. Total organic carbon (TOC) results indicate constant reworking of sediment on the banks throughout the year. These results demonstrate that sediment in this system is constantly being reworked, and a portion of the sediment delivered to the platform during the dry season can be sourced from the banks

Preliminary Study of Communication Network Characterization Towards Improved Organizational Behavior

Nearly one third of the Air Force acquisition system’s large programs are over cost and half are over budget; performance must improve. This research applies a systems perspective to this challenge and frames the acquisition system as a complex system of systems. It is a system composed of people in multiple organizations; organizations interacting with one another to develop, acquire and sustain weapon programs. The system’s performance is an emergent behavior of its components (people), structure and processes. Communication networks are a view of a system’s structure, revealing the flows and interactions between components (people) as the system accomplishes its functions. Literature demonstrates that these networks are key to the effective performance of various system functions (ex. innovation). Further, established methods in organization behavior literature allow for characterization of these networks. Yet, limits to existing methods reduce their utility. This research validates a method to characterize communication networks within large technical organizations. This research compares communication network mapping with two separate data sources: interviews (existing) and archival e-mail log files (new). Ego-centric networks for five volunteers are characterized with both data sources and compared via case study methods. This research makes three contributions. First, it demonstrates the effect of archival data inclusion on the observed network completeness. Second, it compares the content of the networks observed with both data sources. Third, it compares established network measures obtained with both data sources. Future research can leverage this method validation to explore the use of e-mail-based network characterization to improve organizational performance

Impact of Working Capital Management on Firm’S Profitability

Management of working capital play very essential role in the firm’s profitability. Therefore, this study aims to inquire the impact of working capital management on firm’s profitability.  For measuring working capital management inventory conversion period, debtor’s conversion period, creditor’s conversion period, cash conversion cycle, and cash conversion efficiencyare taken as independent variables. Firm’s profitability is measured by using the four dependent variables which are net profit margin, return on assets, return on equity, and return on capital employed. Regression analysis is used to discover the impact of working capital management on firm’s profitability by using secondary data. This data is gathered from annual reports of 45 companies listed at KSE for five years from 2008-2012. Manufacturing industry is selected because major portion of total assets contain current assets so working capital management efficiency is necessary in this industry. From results of this study, working capital management has significant impact on firm’s net profit margin, return on assets, and returns on capital employed and insignificant impact is find out on return on equity of firms. Therefore, it is concluded that working capital management has significant impact on firm’s profitability in food sector. It is concluded that if firms in food sector efficiently manage working capital then, firm’s profitability is enhanced. This study also find descriptive statistics which tells how well performance of firms in food sector is and how efficiently these firms are managing working capital. Keywords: Working capital, food sector, financial performance, cash conversion cycle, ICP, CCE, DC

Letter from Dorotha Flaxington Whitman to Thomas Bernard (September 24, 1985)

A letter from Dorotha Flaxington Whitman to Thomas Bernard written on September 24, 1985. In the letter, Flaxington writes that she is glad the materials regarding her father, W. Herbert Flaxington, have been accepted as valuable to the YMCA collection. Flaxington also includes that she is sending more excerpts from her father's time at the front

Letter from Dorotha Flaxington Whitman to Gerald F. Davis (September 24, 1985)

A letter from Dorotha Flaxington Whitman to Gerald F. Davis, dated September 24th, 1985. In this letter, Whitman first thanks Davis for accepting the printed accounts of her father’s experiences serving as YMCA Overseas Secretary during World War 1. She also states her excitement about additional materials, such as letters from her father being added to the Archives through Dr. Thomas Bernard. She also informs that she identified a mistake Davis made in a previous letter. He referred to her father as “Mr. Ward A. Flexington” instead of W. Herbert Flaxington and hoped that the Archives would file his materials under his proper name

Excerpts from letters written "Somewhere in France"

this is a five-page manuscript titled, "Excerpts from letters written 'Somewhere in France'" and written by W. Herbert Flaxington, the YMCA Overseas Secretary. The letters were written between May 1918 - May 1919

As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary [first line of chorus]

Performance Medium: Piano, Voice and Chord

As it began to dawn. An Easter anthem

For four-part mixed voices and organ. --- Words from the Bible and a hymn. --- Caption title

Pieces, organ, op. 43.

2 v. of music ; 32 cm. For organ. In the twilight (prayer) Meditation In binder’s collection