What's going on here? : the Collinwoods subdivision lead contamination problem.

Caption title.

The life of the great preacher, Reverend George Whitefield, "prince of pulpit orators", with the secret of his success, and specimens of his sermons.

Mode of access: Internet.

Our currency problem,

Mode of access: Internet.

A world problem : Jews--Poland--humanity, : a psychological and historical study tr. from Polish.

In two parts; pt. I tr. by A.J. Zieliński and W. K...; pt. II, by Casimir Sypniewski and Ch. O. C.

The strange case of Eric Marotté : a modern-historical problem-romance of Chicago /

Colored frontispiece and plates facing p. 48, 90, 108, 128, 192, 198, 216, 298 and 342.

Post-war economic policy and planning. Preliminary report of the Special committee on post-war economic policy and planning, pursuant to S.Res.102, a resolution creating a Special committee on post-war economic policy and planning ... [and Report[s]].

Submitted by Mr. George.

Distinguished successful Americans of our day; containing biographies of prominent Americans now living, noteworthy as having achieved success in their chosen avocations in the various civil, military, educational, religious, industrial, commercial and other lines of human effort--men of thought and men of action who have been effective in the establishment and maintenance of our commonwealth, prominent citizens in all walks of life who are really the founders, makers and builders of our great republic as manifested in America's great institutions of finance, commerce and trade, and its unparalleled progress in education, literature, art, science, and in the development of our nation in all lines of human endeavor.

Mode of access: Internet.

Spatial and temporal characteristics of summer precipitation over Central Europe in a suite of high-resolution climate models

High-impact, localized intense rainfall episodes represent a major socio-economic problem for societies worldwide, and at the same time these events are notoriously difficult to simulate properly in climate models. Here, the authors investigate how horizontal resolution and model formulation influence this issue by applying the HARMONIE regional climate model (HCLIM) with three different setups; two using convection parameterization at 15 and 6.25 km horizontal resolution (the latter within the “grey-zone” scale), with lateral boundary conditions provided by ERA-Interim reanalysis and integrated over a pan-European domain, and one with explicit convection at 2 km resolution (HCLIM2) over the Alpine region driven by the 15 km model. Seven summer seasons were sampled and validated against two high-resolution observational data sets. All HCLIM versions underestimate the number of dry days and hours by 20-40%, and overestimate precipitation over the Alpine ridge. Also, only modest added value were found of “grey-zone” resolution. However, the single most important outcome is the substantial added value in HCLIM2 compared to the coarser model versions at sub-daily time scales. It better captures the local-to-regional spatial patterns of precipitation reflecting a more realistic representation of the local and meso-scale dynamics. Further, the duration and spatial frequency of precipitation events, as well as extremes, are closer to observations. These characteristics are key ingredients in heavy rainfall events and associated flash floods, and the outstanding results using HCLIM in convection-permitting setting are convincing and encourage further use of the model to study changes in such events in changing climates.

Ground water model calibration using pilot points and regularization

Use of nonlinear parameter estimation techniques is now commonplace in ground water model calibration. However, there is still ample room for further development of these techniques in order to enable them to extract more information from calibration datasets, to more thoroughly explore the uncertainty associated with model predictions, and to make them easier to implement in various modeling contexts. This paper describes the use of pilot points as a methodology for spatial hydraulic property characterization. When used in conjunction with nonlinear parameter estimation software that incorporates advanced regularization functionality (such as PEST), use of pilot points can add a great deal of flexibility to the calibration process at the same time as it makes this process easier to implement. Pilot points can be used either as a substitute for zones of piecewise parameter uniformity, or in conjunction with such zones. In either case, they allow the disposition of areas of high and low hydraulic property value to be inferred through the calibration process, without the need for the modeler to guess the geometry of such areas prior to estimating the parameters that pertain to them. Pilot points and regularization can also be used as an adjunct to geostatistically based stochastic parameterization methods. Using the techniques described herein, a series of hydraulic property fields can be generated, all of which recognize the stochastic characterization of an area at the same time that they satisfy the constraints imposed on hydraulic property values by the need to ensure that model outputs match field measurements. Model predictions can then be made using all of these fields as a mechanism for exploring predictive uncertainty.

Drawing a line in the Taiwan Strait: 'strategic ambiguity' and its discontents

The Bush administration's continuing emphasis on US military deterrence of the PRC on behalf of Taiwan threatens to undermine the posture of 'strategic ambiguity' that the United States has proclaimed since 1979. This article argues for the retention of 'strategic ambiguity' and traces the origins of revisionist sentiment towards this effective conflict avoidance mechanism to reactions within the US foreign policy community to the 1995-96 Taiwan Strait crisis. Case studies of this crisis and its predecessors in 1954-55 and 1958 demonstrate that US military deterrence was not a decisive factor in their resolution. US and PRC initiatives and responses in the 1950s crises introduced the essential elements of 'strategic ambiguity' into the triangular relationship between themselves and Taiwan. In particular, they established a precedent for the United States and the PRC in circumscribing the issue of Taiwan so as to achieve a political accommodation.

Serious lead poisoning in childhood: Still a problem after a century

Objective: To describe a series of patients with clinically significant lead poisoning. Methodology: A case series of nine patients with lead poisoning who required inpatient management, identified through a Clinical Toxicology Service. Results: Nine children presented with clinically significant lead poisoning. The median serum lead was 2.5 mumol/L (range 1.38-4.83). Eight of the children were exposed to lead-based paint, with seven due to dust from sanded lead paint during house renovations. Serial blood determinations suggested re-exposure in four of the patients, and in one of these patients the re-exposure was from a different source of lead. Eight of the patients required chelation therapy. Conclusions: Serious lead poisoning continues to occur and there appears to be complacency regarding the hazard posed by lead paint in old houses.

An advanced regularization methodology for use in watershed model calibration

A calibration methodology based on an efficient and stable mathematical regularization scheme is described. This scheme is a variant of so-called Tikhonov regularization in which the parameter estimation process is formulated as a constrained minimization problem. Use of the methodology eliminates the need for a modeler to formulate a parsimonious inverse problem in which a handful of parameters are designated for estimation prior to initiating the calibration process. Instead, the level of parameter parsimony required to achieve a stable solution to the inverse problem is determined by the inversion algorithm itself. Where parameters, or combinations of parameters, cannot be uniquely estimated, they are provided with values, or assigned relationships with other parameters, that are decreed to be realistic by the modeler. Conversely, where the information content of a calibration dataset is sufficient to allow estimates to be made of the values of many parameters, the making of such estimates is not precluded by preemptive parsimonizing ahead of the calibration process. White Tikhonov schemes are very attractive and hence widely used, problems with numerical stability can sometimes arise because the strength with which regularization constraints are applied throughout the regularized inversion process cannot be guaranteed to exactly complement inadequacies in the information content of a given calibration dataset. A new technique overcomes this problem by allowing relative regularization weights to be estimated as parameters through the calibration process itself. The technique is applied to the simultaneous calibration of five subwatershed models, and it is demonstrated that the new scheme results in a more efficient inversion, and better enforcement of regularization constraints than traditional Tikhonov regularization methodologies. Moreover, it is argued that a joint calibration exercise of this type results in a more meaningful set of parameters than can be achieved by individual subwatershed model calibration. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An inverse method for designing loaded RF coils in MRI

Radio-frequency ( RF) coils are designed such that they induce homogeneous magnetic fields within some region of interest within a magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) scanner. Loading the scanner with a patient disrupts the homogeneity of these fields and can lead to a considerable degradation of the quality of the acquired image. In this paper, an inverse method is presented for designing RF coils, in which the presence of a load ( patient) within the MRI scanner is accounted for in the model. To approximate the finite length of the coil, a Fourier series expansion is considered for the coil current density and for the induced fields. Regularization is used to solve this ill-conditioned inverse problem for the unknown Fourier coefficients. That is, the error between the induced and homogeneous target fields is minimized along with an additional constraint, chosen in this paper to represent the curvature of the coil windings. Smooth winding patterns are obtained for both unloaded and loaded coils. RF fields with a high level of homogeneity are obtained in the unloaded case and a limit to the level of homogeneity attainable is observed in the loaded case.

Resolution and characterisation of multiple isoforms of bovine kappa-casein by 2-DE following a reversible cysteine-tagging enrichment strategy

Visualisation of multiple isoforms of kappa-casein on 2-D gels is restricted by the abundant alpha- and beta-caseins that not only limit gel loading but also migrate to similar regions as the more acidic kappa-casein isoforms. To overcome this problem, we took advantage of the absence of cysteine residues in alpha(S1)- and beta-casein by devising an affinity enrichment procedure based on reversible biotinylation of cysteine residues. Affinity capture of cysteine-containing proteins on avidin allowed the removal of the vast majority of alpha(S1)- and beta-casein, and on subsequent 2-D gel analysis 16 gel spots were identified as kappa-casein by PMF. Further analysis of the C-terminal tryptic peptide along with structural predictions based on mobility on the 2-D gel allowed us to assign identities to each spot in terms of genetic variant (A or B), phosphorylation status (1, 2 or 3) and glycosylation status (from 0 to 6). Eight isoforms of the A and B variants with the same PTMs were observed. When the casein fraction of milk from a single cow, homozygous for the B variant of kappa-casein, was used as the starting material, 17 isoforms from 13 gel spots were characterised. Analysis of isoforms of low abundance proved challenging due to the low amount of material that could be extracted from the gels as well as the lability of the PTMs during MS analysis. However, we were able to identify a previously unrecognised site, T-166, that could be phosphorylated or glycosylated. Despite many decades of analysis of milk proteins, the reasons for this high level of heterogeneity are still not clear.

Linking riparian vegetation spatial structure in Australian tropical savannas to ecosystem health indicators: semi-variogram analysis of high spatial resolution satellite imagery

Government agencies responsible for riparian environments are assessing the combined utility of field survey and remote sensing for mapping and monitoring indicators of riparian zone health. The objective of this work was to determine if the structural attributes of savanna riparian zones in northern Australia can be detected from commercially available remotely sensed image data. Two QuickBird images and coincident field data covering sections of the Daly River and the South Alligator River - Barramundie Creek in the Northern Territory were used. Semi-variograms were calculated to determine the characteristic spatial scales of riparian zone features, both vegetative and landform. Interpretation of semi-variograms showed that structural dimensions of riparian environments could be detected and estimated from the QuickBird image data. The results also show that selecting the correct spatial resolution and spectral bands is essential to maximize the accuracy of mapping spatial characteristics of savanna riparian features. The distribution of foliage projective cover of riparian vegetation affected spectral reflectance variations in individual spectral bands differently. Pan-sharpened image data enabled small-scale information extraction (< 6 m) on riparian zone structural parameters. The semi-variogram analysis results provide the basis for an inversion approach using high spatial resolution satellite image data to map indicators of savanna riparian zone health.