Participatory floodplain management in the Red River Basin, Canada

Floodplain management is a subject in which everyone in the floodplain is a stakeholder. Real participation only takes place when stakeholders are part of the decision-making process. This can occur directly when local communities come together to make floodplain management choices or if democratically elected or otherwise accountable agencies or groups can represent stakeholders. Real participation is more than consultation and requires that stakeholders at all levels of the social structure have an impact on decisions at different levels of floodplain management. A participatory approach is the only means for achieving long-lasting consensus and common agreement. However, for this to occur, stakeholders and officials from water management agencies have to recognize that the sustainability of floodplain management decisions is a common problem and that all parties are going to have to sacrifice some desires for the common good. There is common responsibility for making participation possible. This involves (a) the creation of mechanisms for stakeholder consultation at various scales (from local, over watershed to national) and (b) the creation of participatory capacity, particularly amongst marginalized social groups. This may include awareness raising, confidence building and education, as well as the provision of the economic resources needed to facilitate participation and the establishment of good and transparent sources of information.

This work focuses on the methodology for stakeholder participation in floodplain management. Floodplain management problems are characterized by multiple objectives and large number of stakeholders. The solution methodologies adapted for multi-criteria multi participant decision problems are generally based on aggregation of decisions obtained for individual decision makers. This approach seems somewhat inadequate when the number of stakeholders is very large. We have developed a methodology to include the views of multiple stakeholders using fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic. Three possible different response types: scale (crisp), linguistic (fuzzy), and conditional (fuzzy) are analyzed to obtain the resultant input by using Fuzzy Expected Value. Fuzzy Expected Value input is used with the multi-criteria decision-making tool named Fuzzy Compromise Programming.

The methodology has been applied to floodplain management in the Red River Basin, Canada that faces periodical flooding. We have demonstrated that the empowerment of stakeholders can improve the floodplain management process and provide decisions acceptable to a wider group of stakeholders.     

在FPGA中实施4G无线球形检测器

WiMAX对宽带互联网接入如同手机对语音通信一样意义非凡。它可以取代DSL和有线服务，随时随地提供互联网接入。只需要打开计算机，连接到最近的WiMAX天线，就可以畅游全世界的网络了。     

A New Post-filter Algorithm Combined with Two-step Adaptive Beamformer

The optimal microphone array, in the sense of minimum mean square errors (MMSE), includes two processing blocks: the minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer and the single-channel Wiener filter, which acts as post-filter. In this paper, we propose a new post-filter algorithm based on assumptions that both the noise power attenuation factor (NPAF) and signal power attenuation factor (SPAF) are time invariant in the reverberant room. The algorithm recursively estimates both factors from available measurements and uses them in estimation of the post-filter parameters. Additionally, to overcome the problem of the poor performance of the MVDR beamformer in reverberant conditions, we propose the usage of the two-step (TS) MVDR algorithm. This algorithm improves the robustness of the beamformer and its ability to suppress the interferences using an estimate of the desired speaker transfer function. Although TS MVDR beamformer and proposed post-filter can work separately, or combined with other algorithms, the best performance is obtained when they work together. The performance of the proposed combination of new post-filter algorithm and TS MVDR beamformer is tested in a simulated reverberant room and compared with similar algorithms, which gave rather good results.     

Einfluß der Änderung des Ordnungsgrades des Ethylens mit der Druckerhöhung auf den Verlauf der radikalischen Polymerisation

According to Kargin and Kabanov¹ the polymerization of monomers in a higher degree of order is characterized by the phenomena: induction period, self-acceleration of the reaction, low energy of activation and absence of a chain termination reaction. In this article it is shown that all these phenomena are detected in the radical polymerization of ethylene under such a pressure and a temperature where ethylene is in a higher degree of order, as taught by our model of ethylene behaviour at high pressure². This article supports our model of ethylene behaviour at high pressure and contributes to closer understanding of the radical polymerization of ethylene.     

Estimation of the Genetic Diversity in Tetraploid Alfalfa Populations Based on RAPD Markers for Breeding Purposes

Alfalfa is an autotetraploid, allogamous and heterozygous forage legume, whose varieties are synthetic populations. Due to the complex nature of the species, information about genetic diversity of germplasm used in any alfalfa breeding program is most beneficial. The genetic diversity of five alfalfa varieties, involved in progeny tests at Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, was characterized based on RAPD markers. A total of 60 primers were screened, out of which 17 were selected for the analysis of genetic diversity. A total of 156 polymorphic bands were generated, with 10.6 bands per primer. Number and percentage of polymorphic loci, effective number of alleles, expected heterozygosity and Shannon's information index were used to estimate genetic variation. Variety Zuzana had the highest values for all tested parameters, exhibiting the highest level of variation, whereas variety RSI 20 exhibited the lowest. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 88.39% of the total genetic variation was attributed to intra-varietal variance. The cluster analysis for individual samples and varieties revealed differences in their population structures: variety Zuzana showed a very high level of genetic variation, Banat and Ghareh were divided in subpopulations, while Pecy and RSI 20 were relatively uniform. Ways of exploiting the investigated germplasm in the breeding programs are suggested in this paper, depending on their population structure and diversity. The RAPD analysis shows potential to be applied in analysis of parental populations in semi-hybrid alfalfa breeding program in both, development of new homogenous germplasm, and identification of promising, complementary germplasm.     

Bioaccessibility of uranium in soil samples from port hope, ontario, Canada

Adequate assessment of human health risk of uranium contamination at hazardous waste sites, which is an important step in determining the cleanup strategy, is based on bioavailability data. Bioavailability of uranium from contaminated soil has not been properly determined yet. Bioaccessibility is an in vitro conservative estimate of bioavailability and is thus frequently used for site-specific risk assessment. Bioaccessibility of uranium was measured in 33 soil samples from the Port Hope area in Ontario, Canada, by the physiologically based extraction test (PBET). Higher bioaccessibility values in the gastric plus intestinal phase, 48.4% ± 16.8%, than in the gastric phase, 20.8% ± 11.7%, are very probably the result of more efficient extraction of uranium from soil by intestinal fluid rich in carbonate ions. The observed variability of measured bioaccessibility values is discussed in light of the results of scanning electron microscope examination of the soil samples. Uranium bioaccessibility values in both gastric (acidic) and gastric plus intestinal (neutral) phases are higher in soil samples with smaller uranium-bearing particles and lower in samples where the uranium-bearing particles are larger. We postulate that the most important reason for variability of measured bioaccessibility values in Port Hope soil samples may be the difference in particle size of uranium-bearing particles.     

Applications of moving window two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy to analysis of phase transitions and spectra classification

Our recently proposed idea of moving window two-dimensional (2D) correlation spectroscopy, which partitions a data set into series of relatively small submatrices (windows) and calculates their covariance maps in succession, is tested for three convoluted data set. Phase-transition temperatures of oleic acid and poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide) in an aqueous solution are sought by analyzing covariances of their temperature-dependent near-infrared and infrared spectra, respectively, while Raman spectra of three kinds of polyethylene (PE) pellets are investigated to find the spectral differences among them and to classify randomly ordered spectra by a sample-sample (SS) covariance map. The criterion of mean of standard deviation of covariance matrices is used as an indicator of the crucial information present in these matrices so that only a few of them are discussed in details. The results are obtained quickly after very simple calculations and are studied at length. The baseline variation is not removed prior to the calculations but is found to be of use for the determination of the phase-transition temperatures. Randomly ordered Raman spectra of the PE pellets are classified by innovatively used and interpreted SS slice spectra, with the relation to principal component analysis discussed.