High leverage interventions: three cases of defensive action and their lessons for OR/MS today.

This paper has two aims. First, to present cases in which scientists developed a defensive system for their homeland: Blackett and the air defense of Britain in WWII, Forrester and the SAGE system for North America in the Cold War, and Archimedes’ work defending Syracuse during the Second Punic War. In each case the historical context and the individual’s other achievements are outlined, and a description of the contribution’s relationship to OR/MS is given. The second aim is to consider some of the features the cases share and examine them in terms of contemporary OR/MS methodology. Particular reference is made to a recent analysis of the field’s strengths and weaknesses. This allows both a critical appraisal of the field and a set of potential responses for strengthening it. Although a mixed set of lessons arise, the overall conclusion is that the cases are examples to build on and that OR/MS retains the ability to do high stakes work.

The Italian Academies, 1525-1700: a themed collection database, London, British Library

A database of books published by Italian Academies between 1525 and 1700. The Italian Academies Themed Collection provides a detailed searchable database for locating printed material relating to the Italian learned Academies active in Avellino, Bari, Benevento, Bologna, Brindisi, Caltanissetta, Catania, Catanzaro, Enna, L’Aquila, Lecce, Mantua, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Rome, Salerno, Siena, Syracuse, Trapani, and Venice in the period 1525-1700 and now held in the collections of the British Library.

Ricerca e applicazione di metodologie ecotossicologiche nel monitoraggio di ambienti marino-costieri: Sviluppo di nuovi bioassay e biomarker

Obiettivo del lavoro è stato lo sviluppo e la validazione di nuovi bioassay e biomarker quali strumenti da utilizzare in un approccio ecotossicologico integrato per il biomonitoraggio di ambienti marino-costieri interessati da impatto antropico negli organismi che vivono in tali ambienti. L’ambiente reale impiegato per l’applicazione in campo è la Rada di Augusta (Siracusa, Italia). Una batteria di bioassay in vivo e in vitro è stata indagata quale strumento di screening per la misura della tossicità dei sedimenti. La batteria selezionata ha dimostrato di possedere i requisiti necessari ad un applicazione di routine nel monitoraggio di ambienti marino costieri. L’approccio multimarker basato sull’impiego dell’organismo bioindicatore Mytilus galloprovincialis in esperimenti di traslocazione ha consentito di valutare il potenziale applicativo di nuovi biomarker citologici e molecolari di stress chimico parallelamente a biomarker standardizzati di danno genotossico ed esposizione a metalli pesanti. I mitili sono stati traslocati per 45 giorni nei siti di Brucoli (SR) e Rada di Augusta, rispettivamente sito di controllo e sito impattato. I risultati ottenuti supportano l’applicabilità delle alterazioni morfometriche dei granulociti quale biomarker di effetto, direttamente correlato allo stato di salute degli organismi che vivono in un dato ambiente. Il significativo incremento dell’area dei lisosomi osservato contestualmente potrebbe riflettere un incremento dei processi degradativi e dei processi autofagici. I dati sulla sensibilità in campo suggeriscono una valida applicazione della misura dell’attività di anidrasi carbonica in ghiandola digestiva come biomarker di stress in ambiente marino costiero. L’utilizzo delle due metodologie d’indagine (bioassay e biomarker) in un approccio ecotossicologico integrato al biomonitoraggio di ambienti marino-costieri offre uno strumento sensibile e specifico per la valutazione dell’esposizione ad inquinanti e del danno potenziale esercitato dagli inquinanti sugli organismi che vivono in un dato ambiente, permettendo interventi a breve termine e la messa a punto di adeguati programmi di gestione sostenibile dell’ambiente.

Studio geomorfologico dell'area carsica attorno alla Grotta Palombara (Melilli, Siracusa)

The following thesis attempts to study and analyse the geomorphological evolution of a relatively small coastal area located to the North of Syracuse (Southeastern Sicily). The presently inactive Palombara Cave is located in this area. The 800 metres of passages in this cave show an evolution in some way linked to the local topographic and environmental changes. This portion of coastline was affected more or less constantly by the tectonic uplift during the Pleistocene, which simultaneously to the eustatic variations have played a key role in the genesis of the marine terraces and the cave. Starting from a DTM made from Lidar data, using a GIS procedure several marine terraces have been mapped. These informations combinated with a geomorphological study of the area, allowed to identify and recognise the different orders of the Middle Pleistocene terraced surfaces. Four orders of terraces between 180-75 m a.s.l have been observed, illustrated and described. Furthermore, two other supposed terrace edges located respectively at 60 and 35 m, which would indicate the presence of two more orders, have been recognised. All these marine terraces appear to have formed in the last million years. The morphological data of the Palombara cave, highlights a genesis related to the rising of CO2 rich waters coming from the depths through the fractures of the rock mass, that ranks it as a hypogenic cave. The development has been influenced by the changes in the water table, in turn determined by the fluctuations in the sea level. In fact, the cave shows a speleogenetic evolution characterised by phases of karstification in phreatic and epiphreatic environment and fossilization stages of the upper branches in vadose conditions. These observations indicate that the cave probably started forming around 600 Ky ago, contemporary to the start of volcanic processes in the area.

Characterizing the effects of turbulence on sediment oxygen and sediment nitrate demand using flow-through reactors

Onondaga Lake has received the municipal effluent and industrial waste from the city of Syracuse for more than a century. Historically, 75 metric tons of mercury were discharged to the lake by chlor-alkali facilities. These legacy deposits of mercury now exist primarily in the lake sediments. Under anoxic conditions, methylmercury is produced in the sediments and can be released to the overlying water. Natural sedimentation processes are continuously burying the mercury deeper into the sediments. Eventually, the mercury will be buried to a depth where it no longer has an impact on the overlying water. In the interim, electron acceptor amendment systems can be installed to retard these chemical releases while the lake naturally recovers. Electron acceptor amendment systems are designed to meet the sediment oxygen demand in the sediment and maintain manageable hypolimnion oxygen concentrations. Historically, designs of these systems have been under designed resulting in failure. This stems from a mischaracterization of the sediment oxygen demand. Turbulence at the sediment water interface has been shown to impact sediment oxygen demand. The turbulence introduced by the electron amendment system can thus increase the sediment oxygen demand, resulting in system failure if turbulence is not factored into the design. Sediment cores were gathered and operated to steady state under several well characterized turbulence conditions. The relationship between sediment oxygen/nitrate demand and turbulence was then quantified and plotted. A maximum demand was exhibited at or above a fluid velocity of 2.0 mm•s-1. Below this velocity, demand decreased rapidly with fluid velocity as zero velocity was approached. Similar relationships were displayed by both oxygen and nitrate cores.

The HERMES cold-water coral database

The HERMES cold-water coral database is a combination of historical and published sclerectinia cold-water coral occurrences (mainly Lophelia pertusa) and new records of the HERMES project along the European margin. This database will be updated if new findings are reported. New or historical data can be sent to Ben De Mol (mailto:bendemol@ub.edu). Besides geocodes a second category indicates the coral species and if they are sampled alive or dead. If absolute dating is available of the corals this is provide together with the method. Only the framework building cold-water corals are selected: Lophelia pertusa, Madrepora oculata and common cold-water corals often associated with the framework builders like: Desmophyllum sp and Dendrophylia sp. in comments other observed corals are indicated. Another field indicates if the corals are part of a large build-up or solitary. A third category of parameters is referencing to the quality of the represented data. In this category are the following parameters indicated: source of reference, source type (such as Fishermen location, scientific paper, cruise reports). sample code and or name and sample type (e.g. rock dredge, grab, video line). These parameters must allow an assessment of the quality of the described parameters.

Low-complexity timing synchronization scheme for MB-OFDM UWB receiver based on sign-bit

A unified low complexity sign-bit correlation based symbol timing synchronization scheme for Multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MB-OFDM) Ultra Wideband (UWB) receiver system is proposed. By using the time domain sequence of the packet/frame synchronization preamble, the proposed scheme is in charge of detecting the upcoming MB-OFDM symbol and it estimates the exact boundary of the start of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) window. The proposed algorithm is implemented by using an efficient Hardware-Software co-simulation methodology. The effectiveness of the proposed synchronization scheme and the optimization criteria is confirmed by hardware implementation results.

Glen Rice, UM Men's Basketball, 1987

[jump shot vs Syracuse]

Mistakes in teaching,

Mode of access: Internet.

Soil biology as related to land use practices : proceedings of the VII International Soil Zoology Colloquium of the International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) /

Item 473-B-1

New approaches to the preservation of contaminants in water samples /

Jan. 1979.

The price of freedom; Greece in world affairs, 1939-1953.

Mode of access: Internet.