Hydrologic verification: A call for action and collaboration

Traditionally, little attention has been focused on the systematic verification of operational hydrologic forecasts. This paper summarizes the results of forecasts verification from 15 river basins in the United States. The verification scores for these forecast locations do not show improvement over the periods of record despite a number of forecast process improvements. In considering a root cause for these results, the authors note that the current paradigm for designing hydrologic forecast process improvements is driven by expert opinion and not by objective verification measures. The authors suggest that this paradigm should be modified and objective verification metrics should become the primary driver for hydrologic forecast process improvements. ©2007 American Meteorological Society

The Commercial Application of Missile/Space Technology, Parts 1 and 2

This report is concerned with the transfer of technology from missile and space programs to non-missile/space applications in the United States. It presents the findings of a University of Denver Research Institute study sponsored by a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant awarded in November 1961. Initial stimulation for the unsolicited proposal leading to this study came from a 1960 Brookings Institution report to NASA, Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs

The channels of technology acquisition in commercial firms, and the NASA dissemination program

Technology acquisition in commercial firms, and NASA dissemination progra

The Ferromagnetic Potts model under an external magnetic field: an exact renormalization group approach

The q-state ferromagnetic Potts model under a non-zero magnetic field coupled with the 0^th Potts state was investigated by an exact real-space renormalization group approach. The model was defined on a family of diamond hierarchical lattices of several fractal dimensions d_F. On these lattices, the renormalization group transformations became exact for such a model when a correlation coupling that singles out the 0^th Potts state was included in the Hamiltonian. The rich criticality presented by the model with q=3 and d_F=2 was fully analyzed. Apart from the Potts criticality for the zero field, an Ising-like phase transition was found whenever the system was submitted to a strong reverse magnetic field. Unusual characteristics such as cusps and dimensional reduction were observed on the critical surface.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted to be published in Phys. Rev B (2006

A New Elasmosaur from the Eagle Ford Shale of Texas: Systematic Description

The elasmosaurs were marine reptiles, plesiosaurs with extremely long necks and proportionately very small heads. The larger individuals of the Upper Cretaceous attained a length of forty feet, with necks over twenty feet long. Their limbs were so highly modified into paddles that progress on land must have been extremely difficult, if not impossible. Their long sharp teeth indicate a fish-eating habit, and this has been confirmed by the fossilized stomach contents. The fish were evidently gulped down whole and ground up in a gizzard-like organ which contained stomach stones

Effect of pre-cardiac and adult stages of Dirofilaria immitis in pulmonary disease of cats: CBC, bronchial lavage cytology, serology, radiographs, CT images, bronchial reactivity, and histopathology

AbstractA controlled, blind study was conducted to define the initial inflammatory response and lung damage associated with the death of precardiac stages of Dirofilaria immitis in cats as compared to adult heartworm infections and normal cats. Three groups of six cats each were used: UU: uninfected untreated controls; PreS I: infected with 100 D. immitis L3 by subcutaneous injection and treated topically with selamectin 32 and 2 days pre-infection and once monthly for 8 months); IU: infected with 100 D. immitis L3 and left untreated. Peripheral blood, serum, bronchial lavage, and thoracic radiographic images were collected from all cats on Days 0, 70, 110, 168, and 240. CT images were acquired on Days 0, 110, and 240. Cats were euthanized, and necropsies were conducted on Day 240 to determine the presence of heartworms. Bronchial rings were collected for in vitro reactivity. Lung, heart, brain, kidney, and liver tissues were collected for histopathology. Results were compared for changes within each group. Pearson and Spearman correlations were performed for association between histologic, radiographic, serologic, hematologic and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) results. Infected cats treated with selamectin did not develop radiographically evident changes throughout the study, were heartworm antibody negative, and were free of adult heartworms and worm fragments at necropsy. Histologic lung scores and CT analysis were not significantly different between PreS I cats and UU controls. Subtle alveolar myofibrosis was noted in isolated areas of several PreS I cats and an eosinophilic BAL cytology was noted on Days 75 and 120. Bronchial ring reactivity was blunted in IU cats but was normal in PreS I and UU cats. The IU cats became antibody positive, and five cats developed adult heartworms. All cats with heartworms were antigen positive at one time point; but one cat was antibody positive, antigen negative, with viable adult females at necropsy. The CT revealed early involvement of all pulmonary arteries and a random pattern of parenchymal disease with severe lesions immediately adjacent to normal areas. Analysis of CT 3D reconstruction and Hounsfield units demonstrated lung disease consistent with restrictive pulmonary fibrosis with an interstitial infiltrate, absence of air trapping, and decrease in total lung volume in Group IU as compared to Groups UU and PreS I. The clinical implications of this study are that cats pretreated with selamectin 1 month before D. immitis L3 infection did not become serologically positive and did not develop pulmonary arterial hypertrophy and myofibrosis

Osteology of the cryptocleidoid plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis, with comments on the taxonomic status of the Cimoliasauridae

Recent field work in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming has recovered significant new material of the plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis. The majority of cryptocleidoid plesiosaurs have been recovered from Middle and Upper Jurassic units (Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays, respectively) in the United Kingdom, but Tatenectes laramiensis is one of at least two cryptocleidoids known from the Upper Sundance Member of the Sundance Formation (Oxfordian) of North America. Although poorly known, they bear directly on both the phylogeny and biogeography of the cryptocleidoid plesiosaurs. Here we describe new fossil material of Tatenectes, and reevaluate the phylogenetic position of this genus based on all known material. New material includes a partial skeleton comprising cranial elements, axial column, and a partial pectoral girdle, as well as an isolated humerus and vertebrae. The pectoral girdle closely resembles that of Muraenosaurus beloclis from the Oxford Clay, but is even shorter anteriorly. The cervical vertebrae are more compressed antero-posteriorly than in other Jurassic cryptocleidoids. The humerus is less derived, resembling that of Tricleidus seeleyi. Two most parsimonious trees were obtained, and the consensus tree solidifies the phylogenetic position of Tatenectes as being most closely related to the Oxford Clay taxon Kimmerosaurus

An archival case study : revisiting the life and political economy of Lauchlin Currie

This paper forms part of a wider project to show the significance of archival material on distinguished economists, in this case Lauchlin Currie (1902-93), who studied and taught at Harvard before entering government service at the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Board as the intellectual leader of Roosevelt's New Deal, 1934-39, as FDR's White House economic adviser in peace and war, 1939-45, and as a post-war development economist. It discusses the uses made of the written and oral material available when the author was writing his intellectual biography of Currie (Duke University Press 1990) while Currie was still alive, and the significance of the material that has come to light after Currie's death

Non-Markovian Effects on Overdamped Systems

We study the consequences of adopting the memory dependent, non-Markovian, physics with the memory-less over-damped approximation usually employed to investigate Brownian particles. Due to the finite correlation time scale associated with the noise, the stationary behavior of the system is not described by the Boltzmann-Gibbs statistics. However, the presence of a very weak external white noise can be used to regularize the equilibrium properties. Surprisingly, the coupling to another bath effectively restores the dynamical aspects missed by the over-damped treatment.Comment: 10 page