A multispectral study of an extratropical cyclone with Nimbus 3 medium resolution infrared radiometer data

Four registered channels (0.2 to 4, 6.5 to 7, 10 to 11, and 20 to 23 microns) of the Nimbus 3 Medium Resolution Infrared Radiometer (MRIR) were used to study 24-hr changes in the structure of an extratropical cyclone during a 6-day period in May 1969. Use of a stereographic-horizon map projection insured that the storm was mapped with a single perspective throughout the series and allowed the convenient preparation of 24-hr difference maps of the infrared radiation fields. Single-channel and multispectral analysis techniques were employed to establish the positions and vertical slopes of jetstreams, large cloud systems, and major features of middle and upper tropospheric circulation. Use of these techniques plus the difference maps and continuity of observation allowed the early detection of secondary cyclones developing within the circulation of the primary cyclone. An automated, multispectral cloud-type identification technique was developed, and comparisons that were made with conventional ship reports and with high-resolution visual data from the image dissector camera system showed good agreement

BIOENERGETICS: CURRENT STATE, PERSPECTIVES, FOREIGN EXPERIENCE

Ukraine has good preconditions and sufficient potential for dynamic development of the bioenergy sector. The main driving forces of this process are the constant rise in prices for traditional energy sources and the availability of large biomass potential available for energy use. The most favorable direction for solving the problem is the search for and use of renewable energy sources, among which a new segment of the economy, which is possible on all continents, which includes the production of energy sources of biological origin or biofuels: biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas, is becoming a widespread development. Biofuels throughout the developed world slowly, but confidently squeeze traditional energy. In the context of the aggravation of Ukraine's energy supply, there is a need to revise the structure of available energy sources in favor of renewable energy technologies. The search for and use of biofuels is the most conducive to solving the problem. For Ukraine, bioenergy is one of the strategic directions for the development of the renewable energy sector, given the high dependence of the country on imported energy resources, first of all, on natural gas, and the great potential of biomass available for energy production. Unfortunately, the pace of bioenergy development in Ukraine still lags far behind European ones

ВЗАЄМОЗВ′ЯЗОК МІЖ ПАРИТЕТОМ КУПІВЕЛЬНОЇ СПРОМОЖНОСТІ І РЕАЛЬНИМ ВАЛЮТНИМ КУРСОМ В КОНТЕКСТІ ЦІНОВОЇ КОНКУРЕНТОСПРОМОЖНОСТІ ЕКСПОРТУ

In the article we examined long-term dynamics of a real currency exchange rate of the main currency pairs of the Forex market in comparison with similar dynamics of currency pair USD/UAH. The separate attention is given an estimation of interrelation between purchasing power parity of national monetary unit and its real currency exchange rate with corresponding allocation and empirical confirmation of attributive property of a real currency exchange rate which follows from the purchasing power parity concept. A context of the outlined analysis is price competitiveness of export.Целью статьи является анализ долгосрочной динамики реального валютного курса главных валютных пар международного валютного рынка в сравнении с аналогичной динамикой валютной пары USD/UAH. Отдельное внимание уделено оценке взаимосвязи между паритетом покупательной способности национальной денежной единицы и ее реальным валютным курсом с соответствующим выделением и эмпирическим подтверждением атрибутивного свойства реального валютного курса, которое следует из концепции ППС. Контекстом очерченного анализа является ценовая конкурентоспособность экспортоориентированных товаров страны.За умови стабільності реального валютного курсу, міжнародна цінова конкурентоспроможність експортоорієнтованих товарів також залишається незмінною. Інший спосіб прояснити сказане полягає у тому, що коли в країні панує висока інфляція, її експортоорієнтовані товари стають пропорційно неконкурентними. Для відновлення цінової конкурентоспроможності, країна з високим рівнем інфляції повинна знецінити номінальний валютний курс власної валюти відносно валюти країни, в яку здійснюється експорт національних товарів. Однак для відновлення конкурентоспроможності, країна потребує реального знецінення національної валюти, а не лише знецінення в номінальній відносній вартості валютного курсу.

Air-sea interaction in the tropical Pacific Ocean

Charts of 3-month sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean were produced for the period 1949 to 1970. The anomalies along the United States and South American west coasts and in the eastern tropical Pacific appeared to be oscillating in phase during this period. Similarly, the satellite-derived cloudiness for each of four quadrants of the Pacific Ocean (130 deg E to 100 deg W, 30 deg N to 25 deg S) appeared to be oscillating in phase. In addition, a global tropical cloudiness oscillation from 30 deg N to 30 deg S was noted from 1965 to 1970, by using monthly satellite television nephanalyses. The SST anomalies were found to have a good degree of correlation both positive and negative with the following monthly geophysical parameters: (1) satellite-derived cloudiness, (2) strength of the North and South Pacific semipermanent anticyclones, (3) tropical Pacific island rainfall, and (4) Darwin surface pressure. Several strong direct local and crossequatorial relationships were noted. In particular, the high degree of correlation between the tropical island rainfall and the SST anomalies (r = +0.93) permitted the derivation of SST's for the tropical Pacific back to 1905. The close occurrence of cold tropical SST and North Pacific 700-mb positive height anomalies with central United States drought conditions was noted

Ringtail Disorder observed in Cotton Rats (Sigmodon hispidus)

This is the first description of ringtail syndrome in cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus). The disorder was sporadically observed in a laboratory reared breeding colony. Incidence of tail lesions decreased after standardization of environmental humidityin the laboratory animal facility

Radio Labelings of Distance Graphs

A radio $k$-labeling of a connected graph $G$ is an assignment $c$ of non negative integers to the vertices of $G$ such that $$|c(x) - c(y)| \geq k+1 - d(x,y),$$ for any two vertices $x$ and $y$, $x\ne y$, where $d(x,y)$ is the distance between $x$ and $y$ in $G$. In this paper, we study radio labelings of distance graphs, i.e., graphs with the set $\Z$ of integers as vertex set and in which two distinct vertices $i, j \in \Z$ are adjacent if and only if $|i - j| \in D$.Comment: 14 page

Natural history of Arabidopsis thaliana and oomycete symbioses

Molecular ecology of plant–microbe interactions has immediate significance for filling a gap in knowledge between the laboratory discipline of molecular biology and the largely theoretical discipline of evolutionary ecology. Somewhere in between lies conservation biology, aimed at protection of habitats and the diversity of species housed within them. A seemingly insignificant wildflower called Arabidopsis thaliana has an important contribution to make in this endeavour. It has already transformed botanical research with deepening understanding of molecular processes within the species and across the Plant Kingdom; and has begun to revolutionize plant breeding by providing an invaluable catalogue of gene sequences that can be used to design the most precise molecular markers attainable for marker-assisted selection of valued traits. This review describes how A. thaliana and two of its natural biotrophic parasites could be seminal as a model for exploring the biogeography and molecular ecology of plant–microbe interactions, and specifically, for testing hypotheses proposed from the geographic mosaic theory of co-evolution

A note on best approximation and invertibility of operators on uniformly convex Banach spaces

It is shown that if X is a uniformly convex Banach space and S a bounded linear operator on X for which ‖I−S‖=1, then S is invertible if and only if ‖I−12S‖<1. From this it follows that if S is invertible on X then either (i) dist(I,[S])<1, or (ii) 0 is the unique best approximation to I from [S], a natural (partial) converse to the well-known sufficient condition for invertibility that dist(I,[S])<1

Report on a Symposium ‘Islam and the Changing Identity of Europe’

In October 1998, The Middle East and West Europe Centers of the University of California at Berkeley jointly sponsored a two-day symposium, ‘Islam and the Changing Identity of Europe: Culture, Politics and Citizenship in an Era of Globalization’. The programme focused on the deep ideational changes which have been taking place in Europe due to the Muslim populations which have sprung up in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and elsewhere. The symposium explored political and cultural aspects of the emerging identities of these relatively new citizens Ð how they view themselves and how they are viewed by non-Muslim Europeans, as well as how the relatively indigenous populations of Europe are being forced to rethink their own collective identities, both as Europeans and as citizens of specific countries. In their symposium prospectus and introductory remarks the organizers argued that these are no longer migration issues in the traditional sense, because most Muslims in Europe are no longer migrants. Muslim populations have been present in Europe for several generations, although many Europeans have been slow to recognize that Islam is now a European religion

The molecular basis of host specialization in bean pathovars of Pseudomonas syringae

Biotrophic phytopathogens are typically limited to their adapted host range. In recent decades, investigations have teased apart the general molecular basis of intraspecific variation for innate immunity of plants, typically involving receptor proteins that enable perception of pathogen-associated molecular patterns or avirulence elicitors from the pathogen as triggers for defense induction. However, general consensus concerning evolutionary and molecular factors that alter host range across closely related phytopathogen isolates has been more elusive. Here, through genome comparisons and genetic manipulations, we investigate the underlying mechanisms that structure host range across closely related strains of Pseudomonas syringae isolated from different legume hosts. Although type III secretionindependent virulence factors are conserved across these three strains, we find that the presence of two genes encoding type III effectors (hopC1 and hopM1) and the absence of another (avrB2) potentially contribute to host range differences between pathovars glycinea and phaseolicola. These findings reinforce the idea that a complex genetic basis underlies host range evolution in plant pathogens. This complexity is present even in host–microbe interactions featuring relatively little divergence among both hosts and their adapted pathogens