COSHes Help Build Healthy Unions

[Excerpt] Boston\u27s current fiscal crisis has made the refrain we have no money to fix it seem like a broken record. Yet, recently, Boston City Hospital workers have won improved ventilation, larger work rooms, air conditioning in certain areas, and the closing of a particularly noxious area with the transfer of workers who had been assigned there. A key to these victories was the establishment of a well-trained three-union hospital-wide health and safety committee that meets regularly to tackle both ongoing problems and crises

Darwin's Avatars: a Novel Combination of Gameplay and Procedural Content Generation

The co-evolution of morphology and control for virtual crea-tures enables the creation of a novel form of gameplay and procedural content generation. Starting with a creature evolved to perform a simple task such as locomotion and removing its brain, the remaining body can be employed in a compelling interactive control problem. Just as we en-joy the challenge and reward of mastering helicopter flight or learning to play a musical instrument, learning to con-trol such a creature through manual activation of its actu-ators presents an engaging and rewarding puzzle. Impor-tantly, the novelty of this challenge is inexhaustible, since the evolution of virtual creatures provides a way to proce-durally generate content for such a game. An endless series of creatures can be evolved for a task, then have their brains removed to become the game’s next human-control chal-lenge. To demonstrate this new form of gameplay and con-tent generation, a proof-of-concept game—tentatively titled Darwin’s Avatars—was implemented using evolved creature content, and user tested. This implementation also provided a unique opportunity to compare human and evolved control of evolved virtual creatures, both qualitatively and quanti-tatively, with interesting implications for improvements and future work

Impacto do aumento da concentração de CO2 atmosférico sobre a ferrugem asiática e o desenvolvimento de plantas de soja.

Resumo: A concentração de dióxido de carbono (CO2) na atmosfera tem aumentado significativamente nas últimas décadas e as previsões indicam que os valores atuais podem dobrar até o final do século. O presente estudo teve por objetivo avaliar o efeito do aumento da concentração de CO2 atmosférico na severidade da ferrugem asiática da soja, causada por Phakopsora pachyrhizi, e no desenvolvimento da planta. O experimento foi conduzido em estufas de topo aberto (OTC), com e sem injeção de CO2, e teve como testemunha o tratamento sem estufa, correspondendo, em média, às concentrações de 664 ppm, 463 ppm e 448 ppm, respectivamente. A alta concentração de CO2 reduziu a severidade da doença, mas não alterou a quantidade de uredósporos produzidos; estimulou o crescimento e a nodulação das plantas; no entanto, a massa seca das plantas não diferiu significativamente entre os tratamentos. Os resultados indicam que o aumento da concentração de CO2 atmosférico resultará em uma tendência de redução da importância da doença. Abstract: The atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is rising significantly in recent decades and projections indicate that current values may double by the end of the century. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of increased atmospheric CO2 concentration on the severity of Asian soybean rust caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi, and plant development. The experiment was conducted in open-top chambers (OTC) with and without CO2 injection and a control treatment without OTC, corresponding to concentrations of 664 ppm, 463 ppm and 448 ppm, on average, respectively. The high concentration of CO2 reduced the severity of the disease, but not the amount of uredospores produced; stimulated the growth and nodulation of the plants; however, the plants dry weight did not differ significantly. The results indicate that the increase in CO2 atmospheric concentration can reduce the importance of the disease.bitstream/item/34450/1/boletim-57.pd

Modelling the influence of Major Baltic Inflows on near-bottom conditions at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland

A coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model was implemented in order to estimate the effects of Major Baltic Inflows on the near-bottom hydrophysical and biogeochemical conditions in the northern Baltic Proper and the western Gulf of Finland during the period 1991-2009. We compared results of a realistic reference run to the results of an experimental run where Major Baltic Inflows were suppressed. Further to the expected overall decrease in bottom salinity, this modelling experiment confirms that in the absence of strong saltwater inflows the deep areas of the Baltic Proper would become more anoxic, while in the shallower areas (western Gulf of Finland) near-bottom average conditions improve. Our experiment revealed that typical estuarine circulation results in the sporadic emergence of short-lasting events of near- bottom anoxia in the western Gulf of Finland due to transport of water masses from the Baltic Proper. Extrapolating our results beyond the modelled period, we speculate that the further deepening of the halocline in the Baltic Proper is likely to prevent inflows of anoxic water to the Gulf of Finland and in the longer term would lead to improvement in near-bottom conditions in the Baltic Proper. Our results reaffirm the importance of accurate representation of salinity dynamics in coupled Baltic Sea models serving as a basis for credible hindcast and future projection simulations of biogeochemical conditions.JRC.H.1-Water Resource

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

A carbon budget for the northwest European continental shelf seas (NWES) was synthesized using available estimates for coastal, pelagic and benthic carbon stocks and flows. Key uncertainties were identified and the effect of future impacts on the carbon budget were assessed. The water of the shelf seas contains between 210 and 230 Tmol of carbon and absorbs between 1.3 and 3.3 Tmol from the atmosphere annually. Off-shelf transport and burial in the sediments account for 60–100 and 0–40% of carbon outputs from the NWES, respectively. Both of these fluxes remain poorly constrained by observations and resolving their magnitudes and relative importance is a key research priority. Pelagic and benthic carbon stocks are dominated by inorganic carbon. Shelf sediments contain the largest stock of carbon, with between 520 and 1600 Tmol stored in the top 0.1 m of the sea bed. Coastal habitats such as salt marshes and mud flats contain large amounts of carbon per unit area but their total carbon stocks are small compared to pelagic and benthic stocks due to their smaller spatial extent. The large pelagic stock of carbon will continue to increase due to the rising concentration of atmospheric CO2, with associated pH decrease. Pelagic carbon stocks and flows are also likely to be significantly affected by increasing acidity and temperature, and circulation changes but the net impact is uncertain. Benthic carbon stocks will be affected by increasing temperature and acidity, and decreasing oxygen concentrations, although the net impact of these interrelated changes on carbon stocks is uncertain and a major knowledge gap. The impact of bottom trawling on benthic carbon stocks is unique amongst the impacts we consider in that it is widespread and also directly manageable, although its net effect on the carbon budget is uncertain. Coastal habitats are vulnerable to sea level rise and are strongly impacted by management decisions. Local, national and regional actions have the potential to protect or enhance carbon storage, but ultimately global governance, via controls on emissions, has the greatest potential to influence the long-term fate of carbon stocks in the northwestern European continental shelf

Multi-Level Multi-Objective Programming and Optimization for Integrated Air Defense System Disruption

The U.S. military\u27s ability to project military force is being challenged. This research develops and demonstrates the application of three respective sensor location, relocation, and network intrusion models to provide the mathematical basis for the strategic engagement of emerging technologically advanced, highly-mobile, Integrated Air Defense Systems. First, we propose a bilevel mathematical programming model for locating a heterogeneous set of sensors to maximize the minimum exposure of an intruder\u27s penetration path through a defended region. Next, we formulate a multi-objective, bilevel optimization model to relocate surviving sensors to maximize an intruder\u27s minimal expected exposure to traverse a defended border region, minimize the maximum sensor relocation time, and minimize the total number of sensors requiring relocation. Lastly, we present a trilevel, attacker-defender-attacker formulation for the heterogeneous sensor network intrusion problem to optimally incapacitate a subset of the defender\u27s sensors and degrade a subset of the defender\u27s network to ultimately determine the attacker\u27s optimal penetration path through a defended network

Estimating the Probability of Being the Best System: A Generalized Method and Nonparametric Hypothesis Test

This thesis provides two new approaches for comparing competing systems. Instead of making comparisons based on long run averages or mean performance, the first paper presents a generalized method for calculating the probability that a single system is the best among all systems in a single trial. Unlike current empirical methods, the generalized method calculates the exact multinomial probability that a single system is best among competing systems. The ability to avoid time consuming empirical estimate techniques could potentially result in significant savings in both time and money when comparing alternate systems. A Monte Carlo simulation is conducted comparing the empirical probability estimates of the generalized integral method, calculated using a bootstrapping procedure and density estimation technique, with those of two related estimation techniques, Procedure BEM (Bechhofer, Elmaghraby, and Morse) and Procedure AVC (All Vector Comparisons). All test cases show comparable performance in empirical estimation accuracy of the generalized integral method with that of the current methods analyzed. The second paper proposes the use of a distribution-free ordered comparisons procedure to test whether one population is stochastically larger (or smaller) than the other. This procedure is suggested as a useful alternative to the well-known Wilcoxon rank sum and Mann-Whitney tests. A Monte Carlo study is conducted, comparing the methods based on simulated power and type I error. All test cases show a marked improvement in performance of the ordered comparisons test versus the Wilcoxon rank sum test, when testing for stochastic dominance. A table of critical values is presented and a large sample approximation is given

Voting for Balance: The Third Circuit Splits with the Sixth Circuit over the Press\u27s Right to Access Polling Stations in \u3cem\u3ePG Publishing Co. v. Aichele\u3c/em\u3e

In 2013, in PG Publishing Co. v. Aichele, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit applied the experience and logic test to the voting process, contradicting the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit’s previous application of a traditional forum analysis to the voting process in its 2004 Beacon Journal Publishing Co. v. Blackwell decision. This Comment argues that the experience and logic test properly balances the government’s interest in privacy against the public’s interest in access to information. In contrast, applying a traditional forum analysis to the right of access creates the potential for the government to hide behind a veil of secrecy