Performance discrepancies on the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II) in the standardization sample.

The standardization data for the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II; D. C. Delis, J. H. Kramer, E. Kaplan, & B. A. Ober, 2000) were used to evaluate the base rate of 6 specific discrepancies between various key variables. The results indicated that CVLT-II performance discrepancies should equal or exceed 1 or 1.5 z score points (depending on the individual comparison) in the hypothesized direction to be considered potentially unusual. However, because about 1 in 3 persons in the standardization sample displayed at least 1 such large discrepancy, it is concluded that these base rates should be viewed only as a starting point for interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The spatial economics of geothermal district energy in a small, low-density town: a case study of Mammoth Lakes, California

This research focuses on the spatial economics of geothermal district energy (DE) systems that distribute hot fluids through a pipeline network to multiple thermal customers. We argue here that DE is held back by uncertainty about its economic feasibility when implemented in real places. DE works best with high urban densities, but in the US the best geothermal resources are in the less-populated west. Economic geography theory suggests that the optimal size of a DE firm's service area should depend on the trade-off between the economies of scale inherent in a large service area and the greater network development costs and heat loss involved in serving a large area. The HEATMAP© software program developed by Washington State University was used to study the feasibility of numerous scenarios for a proposed DE system in Mammoth Lakes, California. Results indicate that the core area of the town is large enough, dense enough, and in close enough proximity to the resource for profitable DE development. Proposed ski village developments would increase the thermal load density and significantly enhance its ability to remain competitive with other fuels, even in pessimistic sensitivity analyses regarding geothermal heat input costs, public participation, and retro-fitting costs.     

A case study: California utilities and the progressive business model

Concentration on the new technological and funding requirements for decarbonizing utilities has obfuscated the reality that there is a new utility business model. The Progressive Business Model is legislation and regulatory actions taken to address climate change. Lacking a feedback loop for policy correction, it has raised utility rates, coopted utility management’s operational and investment independence, and sacrificed ratepayer safety and reliability.     

基于LVQ神经网络的城市快速路事件自动检测算法

基于具有自组织功能的学习矢量量化(LVQ)神经网络设计了城市快速路异常事件的自动检测算法,提出分车道检测的构想。研究了原始数据筛选、输入向量模式、神经元个数及检测时段等参数的选择。基于小波分析技术对原始数据的高频噪声进行滤波,引入长车流量作为输入参数,并对比了引入前后的检测效果。选用加利福尼亚算法作为评价的参考依据,对其执行过程和门限值的选择进行了研究。     

MODIS imagery of turbid plumes in San Diego coastal waters during rainstorm events

Data of normalized water-leaving radiance, nLw, obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite at spatial resolution of 250 m (band 1 centered at 645 nm) and 500 m (band 4 at 555 nm) are used to study turbid plumes in coastal waters of southern California during rainstorm events in winter of 2004-2005. Our study area includes San Diego coastal waters, which extend approximately 25 km offshore between Point Loma and 10 km south of the US-Mexican border. These waters are influenced by terrigenous input of particulate and dissolved materials from San Diego and Tijuana watersheds and non-point sources along the shore. Optimum threshold values of satellite-derived normalized water-leaving radiances at both wavebands were established for distinguishing the plume from ambient ocean waters. These threshold values were determined by searching for a maximum correlation between the estimates of satellite-derived plume area calculated using a broad range of nLw values and the environmental variables characterizing rainfall, river discharge, wind, and tides. A correlation analysis involving the amount of precipitated water accumulated during a storm event over the San Diego and Tijuana watersheds was selected as the basis for final determinations of the optimum threshold nLw_thr and subsequent calculations of the plume area. By applying this method to a sequence of MODIS imagery, we demonstrate the spatial extent and evolution of the plume during rainstorm events under various conditions of precipitation, river discharge, wind forcing, and coastal currents.     

Describing Near Surface, Transient Flow Processes in Unconfined Aquifers below Irrigated Lands: Model Application in the Western San Joaquin Valley, California

In order to rigorously examine near surface, field to field interactions between irrigation management regimes and a shallow fluctuating water table, an enhanced deforming finite element (DFE) model was recently developed. The enhanced DFE model, through a process of iteration within each time step, avoids making common assumptions regarding the changing geometry of an aquifer free surface. This paper demonstrates the usefulness and effectiveness of the model by employing it to an irrigated region in the western San Joaquin Valley, Calif., where shallow subsurface tile drains have been installed to control shallow water tables. By virtue of the problems created by the need to dispose off the drainage water, this region has been the focus of several important regional scale modeling exercises, which have evaluated the utility of management strategies, such as source control, groundwater pumping, and land retirement. By refining the focus of the analysis, the enhanced DFE model is found to be able to show that both sources control and managed pumping could be more effective drainage control strategies than predicted based on the results of regional models.     

Seismic Performance and Deformation of Levees: Four Case Studies

During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake the Pajaro River levees near Watsonville, Calif., spread laterally at multiple locations. Four of these locations are discussed in this paper. At one location, an industrial facility was also damaged and a dispute arose as to whether lateral spreading of the adjacent levee was the cause. Stability analyses were made of the industrial site for conditions before, during, and after the earthquake. To confirm the findings, analyses were also made of three other nearby locations where the actual deformation was documented and the subsurface conditions are well defined. The calculated levee deformations at the four locations are quite consistent with the observed movements (up to 60 cm). This experience provides increased confidence in the methods of analysis described, for the characterized subsurface conditions, and the range of ground motions experienced. Additional analyses made using the more recently developed multilinear regression lateral-spreading model (e.g., Youd et al. in 1999) yielded inconsistent results.     

Photography and the Elphinstone Institution of Bombay

Abstract

Ralizing the potentials of photography, the Court of Directors of the East India company recommended to the Government of Bombay as early as 1845 ‘the encouragement of the study of this useful art of photography in any of the seientific or educational institutions under the control or inf1uence of your government’. They also offered to furnish students with the requisite apparatus, if they found it necessary to procure them from England¹. The proposal was repeated in their dispatch dated 29th December 1854, when they again expressed their desire to establish training in photography. Thereupon, W. Hart, Secretary to the Government of Bombay, requested the Board of Education of Bombay Presidency to submit a scheme for carrying out this project². Mr Stowell, Secretary to the Board of Education, called for the opinions of the Principal of the Elphinstone Institution, and of its Professor of Chemistry³. A small but interesting episode of early photography in India had its beginning in this way.     

Upgrading Computational Design

Shajay Bhooshan heads up the computation and design ZHACODE group at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and is a course master at the Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory (AADRL). Here he argues that Parametricism 2.0 has a vital role to play in the progressing of computational design. Assimilating the exploratory developments of the last 15 years, he asserts how the next phase of Parametricism will enable a further consolidation and evolution of digital practices.