Application of airborne multispectral digital imagery to quantify riverine habitats at different base flows

We employed an integrated system of airborne remote sensing and ground surveys for regional mapping of instream habitats under variable flows over a 70 km section of the Lower Yakima River in southern Washington, USA. Airborne multispectral digital imagery was obtained in conjunction with field survey measurements and used to quantify the spatial extent, condition and temporal changes of selected river habitat characteristics under two different flows (14 and 28 m³ s^?1). Under each flow, geomorphic measures were quantified (e.g. channel complexity, number and size of habitats). Water depth and velocity were also classified for instream habitats, and temperature and turbidity were recorded. Remote sensing classification accuracies for islands, exposed rocks and water surfaces were greater than 99%, while more detailed depth/flow classifications were less accurate (68% and 72%, for the high and low flows, respectively). While high turbidity (>4 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU)), shadows and bidirectional reflectance factor reduced classification accuracies, the overall effect of these factors was minimal. Under the low‐flow situation, off‐channel habitats were less abundant, more isolated and had shallower depths and warmer temperatures. Our analysis suggests that airborne multispectral imagery, coupled with appropriate ground truth data, can be a viable method for regional mapping of diverse riverine habitats under variable flows. We concluded from this analysis that the higher flow situation provided substantially better habitat than currently exists in the Lower Yakima River. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Functional reconstitution of protein ion channels into planar polymerizable phospholipid membranes

We demonstrate that polymerizable planar membranes permit reconstitution of protein ion channels formed by the bacterial toxins Staphylococcus aureus alpha-hemolysin (alphaHL) and Bacillus anthracis protective antigen 63. The alphaHL channel remained functional even after membrane polymerization. Surface pressure measurements suggest that the ease of forming membranes depends on membrane surface elasticity estimated from Langmuir-Blodgett monolayer pressure-area isotherms. The ability to stabilize nanoscale pores in robust ultrathin films may prove useful in single molecule sensing applications.     

Economic growth,employment and energy

The importance of energy in achieving economic growth emerged as an issue in the USA at the end of the 1960s, when readily usable domestic supplies of inexpensive oil and natural gas began to dwindle. Because of this, energy considerations may, for the first time, begin to constrain society's freedom to explore future options for continued economic and social progress. Prudent planning requires that the US energy supply goal should be high enough to avoid energy constraints. This article estimates how much energy will be needed in the year 2000 for the USA to achieve social progress, unconstrained by energy availability. These estimates are based on examination of the interactions between economic growth, employment, and energy use. The USA may choose not to follow the historical trend of economic growth. If so, the authors feel that this should be a decision, reached on the basis of broad national economic policy, and should not be an unintended and unrecognized side-effect of energy policy.     

A study of intramolecular reaction and gelation during non-linear polyurethane formation

Intramolecular reaction and gelation in reactions of a poly (propylene oxide) triol and hexamethylene di-isocyanate in benzene at 70° have been investigated. The numbers of ring structures formed in the pre-gelation region have been evaluated from cryoscopic measurements of M_n and overall extents of reaction of isocyanate groups. It is found that intramolecular reaction increases with initial dilution, and at a given dilution is a maximum for equimolar concentrations of reactive groups. Again, at a given initial dilution, more intramolecular reaction occurs than for linear polymerisations. Various ways of presenting the results are discussed, and one of them in particular, the extent of intermolecular reaction, p_ch, as a function of overall extent of reaction of the minority group, p, gives useful linear relationships. Also, by combining gelation and intramolecular reaction in terms of plots of p_ch vs. p, a distinction can be drawn between what may be termed the chemical and physical gel points. Finally, values of the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter, X, have been determined from the cryoscopic data. These show fairly normal behaviour - they are generally less than 0.5 — with some dependence on the density of hydroxyl groups and the proportion of polyoxypropylene units present. Such behaviour is in sharp contrast with that found previously for poly (ethylene-oxide)/hexamethylene di-isocyanate systems.     

The core curriculum is a dependent variable.

"Let us pass the traditional question of what should be the content of the core curriculum for a PhD psychologist. Rather we might try to identify and examine some of the major issues and concepts that lie behind the decisions made by any department when it prescribes its common core. The specific entries in a core curriculum represent the dependent variables telling us about the independent or controlling variables in the PhD learning situation." 11 dimensions along which decisions are made by each psychology department conducting its own educational affairs are listed and discussed. These are: controlled curriculum vs. laissez faire course selection, professional control vs. institutional freedom, early vs. late selection, generalization vs. specialization, job market orientation vs. internal criteria, science and research vs. practitioner or service, content vs. method, empirical and quantitative vs. conceptual and qualitative, interdisciplinary vs. "pure" psychology, expansion vs. restriction of curriculum, eclectic vs. doctrinaire. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A sequential weighted Laplacian‐regularized optimal design for response surface modeling of expensive functions with outliers: An application in linear elastic fracture mechanics

There are several sequential and adaptive strategies designed to reduce the number of experiments in response surface methodology (RSM). However, most of the existing sequential and adaptive methods are sensitive to the existence of possible outliers. In this paper, we propose an active learning methodology based on the fundamental idea of adding a Laplacian penalty to the D‐optimal design and integrate that with robust regression to look for the most informative settings to be measured, while reducing the influence of possible outliers. To leverage the intrinsic geometry of the factor settings in highly nonlinear spaces, we extend the proposed methodology to reproducing Kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). Through an extensive simulation study accompanied by a thorough sensitivity analysis, we show that the proposed framework outperforms traditional RSM designs in the presence of outliers. We also conduct a study utilizing a hierarchical function used in linear elastic fracture mechanics to illustrate practicality of the proposed methodology.     

Monitoring Escherichia coli O157:H7 in inoculated and naturally colonized feedlot cattle and their environment

On-farm methods of monitoring Escherichia coli O157:H7 were assessed in 30 experimentally inoculated steers housed in four pens over a 12-week period and in 202,878 naturally colonized feedlot cattle housed in 1,160 pens on four commercial Alberta feedlots over a 1-year period. In the challenge study, yearling steers were experimentally inoculated with 10(10) CFU of a four-strain mixture of nalidixic acid-resistant E. coli O157:H7. After inoculation, shedding of E. coli O157:H7 was monitored weekly by collecting rectal fecal samples (FEC), oral swabs (ORL), pooled fecal pats (PAT), manila ropes (ROP) orally accessed for 4 h, feed samples, water, and water bowl interface. Collection of FEC from all animals per pen provided superior isolation (P < 0.01) of E. coli O157:H7 compared with other methods, although labor and animal restraint requirements for fecal sample collection were high. When one sample was collected per pen of animals, E. coli O157:H7 was more likely to be detected from the ROP than from the FEC, PAT, or ORL (P < 0.001). In the commercial feedlot study, samples were limited to ROP and PAT, and E. coli O157:H7 was isolated in 18.8% of PAT and 6.8% of ROP samples. However, for animals that had been resident in the feedlot pen for at least 1 month, isolation of E. coli O157:H7 from ROP was not different from that from PAT (P = 0.35). Pens of animals on feed for <30 days were six times more likely to shed E. coli O157:H7 than were animals on feed for >30 days. However, change in diet did not affect shedding of the organism (P > 0.23) provided that animals had acclimated to the feedlot for 1 month or longer. Findings from this study indicate the importance of introduction of mitigation strategies early in the feeding period to reduce transference and the degree to which E. coli O157:H7 is shed into the environment.     

Preozonation Effects on the Reduction of Reverse Osmosis Membrane Fouling in Water Reuse

The purpose of this bench-top study was to demonstrate the feasibility and effect of applying ozone and ozone/peroxide upstream of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes as a means of controlling organic fouling during reuse applications. A series of ozone or ozone/peroxide doses was applied to surface water and a membrane bioreactor (MBR) filtrate using a HiPOx® reactor skid, with ozone-to-dissolved organic carbon ratios of approximately 0.25 to 1.75. Results from the flat-sheet testing indicate that both ozone- and ozone/peroxide-treated waters, even at the lowest ozone dose of 1.5 mg/L, fouled the membranes less than the MBR filtrate and surface control waters while both treated and control waters maintained consistent levels of salt rejection throughout the tests.     

Reduction of PbS and Sb2S3 with elemental Fe and Mg in dusty plasma environment created during electrical discharge assisted mechanical milling (EDAMM)

The newly developed synthesis technique of electrical discharge assisted mechanical milling (EDAMM) is used to reduce Pb and Sb sulfides using Fe and Mg as reduction agents. It is demonstrated that both Fe and Mg can successfully be used to fully reduce PbS and Sb₂S₃ in only 5 min using EDAMM. This is the fastest sulfide reduction technique so far developed, and has the added advantage of not requiring external heating of the reactants during processing. The reaction products are a solid mixture of larger crystal sizes than would be achieved through conventional milling.