War on the Wards: The collapse of health care infrastructure resulting from violent conflict

Introduction: While utilizing satellite images to verify reports of hospital damage resulting from armed conflict allows for remote assessment, the use of private satellites to gain access to images prohibits widespread use. The questions this study sought to answer were: Is it possible to replicate the findings of previous reports of hospital damage that used the services of private satellite imagery using open source software, such as Google Earth? What variations exist among the different sites where damage to hospitals is visible, and what gradation is possible? Is this methodology applicable to other examples of armed conflict? Methods: Using the map of bombed Syrian hospitals published and maintained by Physicians for Human Rights, hospitals were selected according to their location and the time period of the attack. These coordinates were entered into Google maps and once the attack was verified, a grade of damage was assigned. This methodology was then applied to reports of similar attacks in Iraq. Results: While much information can be gleaned from open source data such as Google Earth, the level of detail in satellite images is lower and coordinates data is less specific. [Further results pending.] Conclusion: There is room for the use of open source satellite technology to track and grade the damage done to health care infrastructure during armed conflict. [More conclusions pending.

Large inductive dimension of the Smirnov remainder

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the large inductive dimension of the remainder of the Smirnov compactification of the n-dimensional Euclidean space with the usual metric, and give an application of it.Comment: 8 pages, accepted for publication in Houston Journal of Mathematic

The benefits trickled up: The political geography of water provision in Paris, Ontario, 1882-1924

The social and political factors which affected nineteenth-century waterworks development have been relatively well researched in the United States. The few Canadian studies have found inequities in the systems of water provision. Using Paris, Ontario as a case study, an attempt is made to fill this research gap in Canada. The research centres on the identification of the social classes which paid for the Paris waterworks and which received the benefits. The spatial distribution of these social classes is determined and then compared to the spatial pattern of waterworks development. A similar comparison is done between the functional zonation of the town and the spatial pattern of waterworks in order to test an hypothesized emphasis on the needs of the owners of the means of production. The correlations found are explained in the course of an examination of nineteenth-century laws concerning council membership and municipal voting. The legislative bias in favour of the owners of capital is anticipated by both Marxism and critical theory. The primary data source used were the local newspapers of the day, which in many instances propagated much of the prodevelopment misinformation. In addition to the analysis of events which occurred after the completion of the waterworks system, there is a detailed examination of the statements and actions of the proponents and opponents of the system before the undertaking was authorized by council and by the electors. The proponents are prominent industrialists and merchants whose coordinated development efforts are generally well-received by municipal politicians and newspaper editors. Support is thus found for Habermas\u27 theories concerning the legitimizing role ol the state, and the systematic distortion of communication which is characteristic of capitalism

Irrigation effects on growth, stress, visual quality and evapotranspiration of ornamental grasses

2016 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Deficit irrigation research has proven extremely effective for reducing the amount of irrigation applied to various types of landscape plants including trees, shrubs, and herbaceous ornamental plants. This research has yet to delve into one of the most common classes of drought tolerant plants, ornamental grasses. Deficit irrigation treatments were based on evapotranspiration of a short reference crop (Kentucky bluegrass evapotranspirtation, ETo). In 2012 three ornamental grass species were planted, and an on-site atmometer was used to estimate ETo. The three species used for trialing were Panicum virgatum ‘Rotstrahlbusch’ (Rotstrahlbusch Switchgrass), Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Blaze’ (Blaze Little Bluestem), and Calamgrostis brachytricha (Korean Feather Reed Grass). Treatments were applied and data was collected in 2014 and 2015 on two separate studies. The first study was in-ground and consisted of four treatments based on ETo (0%, 25%, 50%, and 100%). The second study was a mini-lysimeter and consisted of three treatments based on ETo (25%, 50%, and 100%). Only Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Blaze’ (Blaze Little Bluestem) was used in the lysimeter study. Data collected in both studies included plant water potential, biomass accumulation, green up date, flowering date, height, width, circumference, floral impact, landscape impact, overall habit, self-seeding, and color. The in-ground component also measured infrared canopy temperature and soil water content, while the lysimeter study included daily weight measurements which were then transferred to evapotranspiration readings. Plants in the 0% treatment were smaller and not considered visually suitable for landscape use. All three species in the 25% treatment performed equivalent to the 50% and 100% treatments in all categories. The only exception was plants in the 25% mini-lysimeter study were more stressed than the 50% or 100% treatments during periods of drought. These plants were all considered visually suitable for landscape use based on visual ratings. This suggests that as long as ornamental grasses are kept on a strict weekly regiment of 25% ETo, and are never exposed to periods of drought, they will be physiologically as well as aesthetically usable in the landscape trade. A weekly amount of 0.25 inches of irrigation on weeks without precipitation was determined to be a usable number for those installing and maintaining ornamental grasses

Reactions of chlorine atoms with olefines

The work presented in this thesis was directed primarily towards the study of the kinetics of chlorine atom addition to olefines, using the competitive technique.In the field of gas phase halogen reactions, the competitive technique had, up to the time of commencement of this work, been applied mainly to hydrogen abstraction reactions. It was hoped that by a simple extension of this method it would be possible to obtain absolute Arrhenius parameters for reactions of the type:-A + Cl. = ..AC1 (2)where A is an olefine molecule. (The chlorine atoms were produced photochemically

Joseph Brant vs. Peter Russell: A Re-examination of the Six Nations' Land Transactions in the Grand River Valley

Some historians have not sufficiently appreciated the importance of the legal context to understanding the Six Nations’ dispute with the colonial Upper Canadian government over land transactions in the Grand River Valley. Viewed with an emphasis on the right of restricted use accorded Amerindians in the Proclamation of 1763, the historical appraisal of both major actors must be reconsidered. Peter Russell, faced with the threat posed by Six Nations’ agitation for a clear title he could not provide, emerges not as the weak-willed administrator of earlier histories, but as a skilled negotiator who diffused a heated situation, reducing it to a bureaucratic exercise which ultimately ended in his favour. Joseph Brant’s tenacious, if illinformed, pursuit of an expanded title for the Six Nations renders suspect the allegations of corruption and embezzlement which have been levelled at him.Des historiens n’ont pas tenu compte suffisamment de l’importance du contexte légal dans lequel s’inscrivait le conflit opposant les Six-Nations au gouvernement colonial du Haut-Canada sur les transactions dans la vallée de la rivière Grand pour comprendre cette dispute. Dans l’optique du droit à l’usage restreint consenti aux Amérindiens dans la Proclamation de 1763, il faut revoir l’évaluation historique que l’on a faite des deux grands acteurs. Devant la menace posée par l’agitation des Six-Nations pour l’obtention d’un titre clair qu’il ne pouvait leur accorder, Peter Russell apparaît non pas comme un administrateur mou, mais plutôt comme un négociateur habile ayant su neutraliser une situation délicate, la réduisant à une exercice bureaucratique qui tourna en sa faveur. La quête obstinée, bien que mal informée, de Joseph Brant pour l’obtention d’un titre élargi pour les Six-Nations rend suspectes les allégations de corruption et de malversation portées à son endroit