A spatial statistic to determine appropriate field sampling size for linking image and field data

Proceedings of the 11th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference

Estimation and mapping of foliar chemical levels in a coastal eucalypt forest using CASI data

Proceedings of the 11th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference

Public and private hospital services reform:an investigation in Iranian hospitals

This research aimed to present a model of efficiency for selected public and private hospitals of East Azerbaijani province of Iran by making use of DEA approach in order to recognize and suggest the best practice standards. In other words, its aim was to suggest a suitable context to develop efficient hospital systems while maintaining the quality of care at minimum expenditures. It is recommended for inefficient hospitals to make use of the followings: transferring, selling, or renting idle/unused beds; transferring excess doctors and nurses to the efficient hospitals or other health centers; pensioning off, early retirement clinic officers, technicians/technologists, and other technical staff. The saving obtained from the above approaches could be used to improve remuneration for remaining staff and quality of health care services of hospitals, rural and urban health centers, support communities to start or sustain systematic risk and resource pooling and cost sharing mechanisms for protecting beneficiaries against unexpected health care costs, compensate the capital depreciation, increasing investments, and improve diseases prevention services and facilities in the provincial and national levels.

A techno-economic comparison of power production by biomass fast pyrolysis with gasification and combustion

This paper presents an assessment of the technical and economic performance of thermal processes to generate electricity from a wood chip feedstock by combustion, gasification and fast pyrolysis. The scope of the work begins with the delivery of a wood chip feedstock at a conversion plant and ends with the supply of electricity to the grid, incorporating wood chip preparation, thermal conversion, and electricity generation in dual fuel diesel engines. Net generating capacities of 1–20 MWe are evaluated. The techno-economic assessment is achieved through the development of a suite of models that are combined to give cost and performance data for the integrated system. The models include feed pretreatment, combustion, atmospheric and pressure gasification, fast pyrolysis with pyrolysis liquid storage and transport (an optional step in de-coupled systems) and diesel engine or turbine power generation. The models calculate system efficiencies, capital costs and production costs. An identical methodology is applied in the development of all the models so that all of the results are directly comparable. The electricity production costs have been calculated for 10th plant systems, indicating the costs that are achievable in the medium term after the high initial costs associated with novel technologies have reduced. The costs converge at the larger scale with the mean electricity price paid in the EU by a large consumer, and there is therefore potential for fast pyrolysis and diesel engine systems to sell electricity directly to large consumers or for on-site generation. However, competition will be fierce at all capacities since electricity production costs vary only slightly between the four biomass to electricity systems that are evaluated. Systems de-coupling is one way that the fast pyrolysis and diesel engine system can distinguish itself from the other conversion technologies. Evaluations in this work show that situations requiring several remote generators are much better served by a large fast pyrolysis plant that supplies fuel to de-coupled diesel engines than by constructing an entire close-coupled system at each generating site. Another advantage of de-coupling is that the fast pyrolysis conversion step and the diesel engine generation step can operate independently, with intermediate storage of the fast pyrolysis liquid fuel, increasing overall reliability. Peak load or seasonal power requirements would also benefit from de-coupling since a small fast pyrolysis plant could operate continuously to produce fuel that is stored for use in the engine on demand. Current electricity production costs for a fast pyrolysis and diesel engine system are 0.091/kWh at 1 MWe when learning effects are included. These systems are handicapped by the typical characteristics of a novel technology: high capital cost, high labour, and low reliability. As such the more established combustion and steam cycle produces lower cost electricity under current conditions. The fast pyrolysis and diesel engine system is a low capital cost option but it also suffers from relatively low system efficiency particularly at high capacities. This low efficiency is the result of a low conversion efficiency of feed energy into the pyrolysis liquid, because of the energy in the char by-product. A sensitivity analysis has highlighted the high impact on electricity production costs of the fast pyrolysis liquids yield. The liquids yield should be set realistically during design, and it should be maintained in practice by careful attention to plant operation and feed quality. Another problem is the high power consumption during feedstock grinding. Efficiencies may be enhanced in ablative fast pyrolysis which can tolerate a chipped feedstock. This has yet to be demonstrated at commercial scale. In summary, the fast pyrolysis and diesel engine system has great potential to generate electricity at a profit in the long term, and at a lower cost than any other biomass to electricity system at small scale. This future viability can only be achieved through the construction of early plant that could, in the short term, be more expensive than the combustion alternative. Profitability in the short term can best be achieved by exploiting niches in the market place and specific features of fast pyrolysis. These include: •countries or regions with fiscal incentives for renewable energy such as premium electricity prices or capital grants; •locations with high electricity prices so that electricity can be sold direct to large consumers or generated on-site by companies who wish to reduce their consumption from the grid; •waste disposal opportunities where feedstocks can attract a gate fee rather than incur a cost; •the ability to store fast pyrolysis liquids as a buffer against shutdowns or as a fuel for peak-load generating plant; •de-coupling opportunities where a large, single pyrolysis plant supplies fuel to several small and remote generators; •small-scale combined heat and power opportunities; •sales of the excess char, although a market has yet to be established for this by-product; and •potential co-production of speciality chemicals and fuel for power generation in fast pyrolysis systems.

Water resources assessment and geographic information system (GIS)-based stormwater runoff estimates for artificial recharge of freshwater aquifers in New Providence, Bahamas

The Bahamas is a small island nation that is dealing with the problem of freshwater shortage. All of the country’s freshwater is contained in shallow lens aquifers that are recharged solely by rainfall. The country has been struggling to meet the water demands by employing a combination of over-pumping of aquifers, transport of water by barge between islands, and desalination of sea water. In recent decades, new development on New Providence, where the capital city of Nassau is located, has created a large area of impervious surfaces and thereby a substantial amount of runoff with the result that several of the aquifers are not being recharged. A geodatabase was assembled to assess and estimate the quantity of runoff from these impervious surfaces and potential recharge locations were identified using a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. This study showed that runoff from impervious surfaces in New Providence represents a large freshwater resource that could potentially be used to recharge the lens aquifers on New Providence.

"New" Social Movements: Alternative Modernities, (Trans)local Nationalisms, and Solidarity Economies

My dissertation is the first project on the Haitian Platform for Advocacy for an Alternative Development- PAPDA, a nation-building coalition founded by activists from varying sectors to coordinate one comprehensive nationalist movement against what they are calling an Occupation. My work not only provides information on this under-theorized popular movement but also situates it within the broader literature on the postcolonial nation-state as well as Latin American and Caribbean social movements. The dissertation analyzes the contentious relationship between local and global discourses and practices of citizenship. Furthermore, the research draws on transnational feminist theory to underline the scattered hegemonies that intersect to produce varied spaces and practices of sovereignty within the Haitian postcolonial nation-state. The dissertation highlights how race and class, gender and sexuality, education and language, and religion have been imagined and co-constituted by Haitian social movements in constructing ‘new’ collective identities that collapse the private and the public, the rural and the urban, the traditional and the modern. My project complements the scholarship on social movements and the postcolonial nation-state and pushes it forward by emphasizing its spatial dimensions. Moreover, the dissertation de-centers the state to underline the movement of capital, goods, resources, and populations that shape the postcolonial experience. I re-define the postcolonial nation-state as a network of local, regional, international, and transnational arrangements between different political agents, including social movement actors. To conduct this interdisciplinary research project, I employed ethnographic methods, discourse and textual analysis, as well as basic mapping and statistical descriptions in order to present a historically-rooted interpretation of individual and organizational negotiations for community-based autonomy and regional development.

Habitat map of Danajon Bank, Philippines, derived from a high-spatial-resolution multi-spectral satellite image and georeferenced point intercept transect and spot-check survey field data, using an object-based image classification method

A mosaic of two WorldView-2 high resolution multispectral images (Acquisition dates: October 2010 and April 2012), in conjunction with field survey data, was used to create a habitat map of the Danajon Bank, Philippines (10°15'0'' N, 124°08'0'' E) using an object-based approach. To create the habitat map, we conducted benthic cover (seafloor) field surveys using two methods. Firstly, we undertook georeferenced point intercept transects (English et al., 1997). For ten sites we recorded habitat cover types at 1 m intervals on 10 m long transects (n= 2,070 points). Second, we conducted geo-referenced spot check surveys, by placing a viewing bucket in the water to estimate the percent cover benthic cover types (n = 2,357 points). Survey locations were chosen to cover a diverse and representative subset of habitats found in the Danajon Bank. The combination of methods was a compromise between the higher accuracy of point intercept transects and the larger sample area achievable through spot check surveys (Roelfsema and Phinn, 2008, doi:10.1117/12.804806). Object-based image analysis, using the field data as calibration data, was used to classify the image mosaic at each of the reef, geomorphic and benthic community levels. The benthic community level segregated the image into a total of 17 pure and mixed benthic classes.

Circumarctic wetland dataset based on ENVISAT ASAR Global Monitoring Mode with links to geotiff image and NetCDF files (2005-01 to 2011-12)

A circumpolar representative and consistent wetland map is required for a range of applications ranging from upscaling of carbon fluxes and pools to climate modelling and wildlife habitat assessment. Currently available data sets lack sufficient accuracy and/or thematic detail in many regions of the Arctic. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from satellites have already been shown to be suitable for wetland mapping. Envisat Advanced SAR (ASAR) provides global medium-resolution data which are examined with particular focus on spatial wetness patterns in this study. It was found that winter minimum backscatter values as well as their differences to summer minimum values reflect vegetation physiognomy units of certain wetness regimes. Low winter backscatter values are mostly found in areas vegetated by plant communities typically for wet regions in the tundra biome, due to low roughness and low volume scattering caused by the predominant vegetation. Summer to winter difference backscatter values, which in contrast to the winter values depend almost solely on soil moisture content, show expected higher values for wet regions. While the approach using difference values would seem more reasonable in order to delineate wetness patterns considering its direct link to soil moisture, it was found that a classification of winter minimum backscatter values is more applicable in tundra regions due to its better separability into wetness classes. Previous approaches for wetland detection have investigated the impact of liquid water in the soil on backscatter conditions. In this study the absence of liquid water is utilized. Owing to a lack of comparable regional to circumpolar data with respect to thematic detail, a potential wetland map cannot directly be validated; however, one might claim the validity of such a product by comparison with vegetation maps, which hold some information on the wetness status of certain classes. It was shown that the Envisat ASAR-derived classes are related to wetland classes of conventional vegetation maps, indicating its applicability; 30% of the land area north of the treeline was identified as wetland while conventional maps recorded 1-7%.

Orexigenic Gene Expression in Late Gestation Ovine Foetal Hypothalamus is Sensitive to Maternal Undernutrition and Realimentation

Acknowledgements Research was funded by the Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS), including the Strategic Partnership for Animal Science Excellence (SPASE). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Orexigenic Gene Expression in Late Gestation Ovine Foetal Hypothalamus is Sensitive to Maternal Undernutrition and Realimentation

Acknowledgements Research was funded by the Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS), including the Strategic Partnership for Animal Science Excellence (SPASE). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Vitamin E homologues α - and γ-tocopherol are not associated with bone turnover markers or bone mineral density in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women

This study was supported by the Foods Standards Agency and the UK Department of Health (grant number N05086) and the Scottish Funding Council. We are grateful for funding from the Scottish Government's Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) Food, Land and People Programme. Any views expressed are the authors’ own; none of the funders had a role in design, analysis, or writing of the present study.

Global cropland and greenhouse gas impacts of UK food supply are increasingly located overseas

Date of Acceptance: 04/12/2016 © 2016 The Author(s). This work was supported by a University of Aberdeen Environment and Food Security Theme/the James Hutton Institute PhD studentship, and contributes to the Scottish Food Security Alliance-Crops and the Belmont Forum supported DEVIL project (NERC fund UK contribution: NE/M021327/1). J.M. and R.B.M. acknowledge funding from the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services, Scottish Government. T.K. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council Grant ERC-263522 (LUISE).

Whole body and splanchnic amino acid metabolism in sheep during an acute endotoxin challenge

Acknowledgements The expertise of A. Graham Calder and Susan Anderson for the various stable isotope analyses is gratefully recognised. Ngaire Dennison is also thanked for her surgical expertise with the trans-splanchnic tissue catheter preparations. This study was supported by funds provided to the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen and Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland by the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government. S. O. H. was a recipient of a FoRST (NZ) award to study abroad.

Perceived barriers towards healthy eating and their association with fruit and vegetable consumption

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewer, staff at the Health Economics Research Unit and the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health for helpful comments on the manuscript. Funding This work was supported by the Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) division.

Mobility and toxicity of heavy metal(loid)s arising from contaminated wood ash application to a pasture grassland soil

The authors acknowledge the financial support the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environmental Sciences and Analytical Services (RESAS) in order to complete some of the soil and pore water sample analysis as well as the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (COST CZ LD13068), the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR 14-02183P) and EU COST actionFP1407 (‘ModWoodLife’) short term scientific mission grant in order to complete the column leaching test.