2,846 research outputs found
Connecting dynamic vegetation models to data - an inverse perspective
No full textDynamic vegetation models provide process-based explanations of the dynamics and the distribution of plant ecosystems. They offer significant advantages over static, correlative modelling approaches, particularly for ecosystems that are outside their equilibrium due to global change or climate change. A persistent problem, however, is their parameterization. Parameters and processes of dynamic vegetation models (DVMs) are traditionally determined independently of the model, while model outputs are compared to empirical data for validation and informal model comparison only. But field data for such independent estimates of parameters and processes are often difficult to obtain, and the desire to include better descriptions of processes such as biotic interactions, dispersal, phenotypic plasticity and evolution in future vegetation models aggravates limitations related to the current parameterization paradigm. In this paper, we discuss the use of Bayesian methods to bridge this gap. We explain how Bayesian methods allow direct estimates of parameters and processes, encoded in prior distributions, to be combined with inverse estimates, encoded in likelihood functions. The combination of direct and inverse estimation of parameters and processes allows a much wider range of vegetation data to be used simultaneously, including vegetation inventories, species traits, species distributions, remote sensing, eddy flux measurements and palaeorecords. The possible reduction of uncertainty regarding structure, parameters and predictions of DVMs may not only foster scientific progress, but will also increase the relevance of these models for policy advice
Generating the full transformation semigroup using order preserving mappings
No full textFor a linearly ordered set X we consider the relative rank of the semigroup of all order preserving mappings O-X on X modulo the full transformation semigroup Ex. In other words, we ask what is the smallest cardinality of a set A of mappings such that = T-X. When X is countably infinite or well-ordered (of arbitrary cardinality) we show that this number is one, while when X = R (the set of real numbers) it is uncountable.Peer reviewe
The importance of degree versus type of maltreatment: a cluster analysis of child abuse types
No full textThe author conducted secondary data analysis of 3 previously reported studies (D. J. Higgins & M. P McCabe, 1998, 20(K)b, 2(X)3) to examine whether respondents are best classified according to their experience of separate maltreatment types (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, neglect, and witnessing family violence) or whether their experience reflects a single unifying concept: child maltreatment.<br
The chemistry of carbon retention during non-oxidative binder removal from ceramic greenware
No full textThesis (Sc. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1990.Vita.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-162).by Richard James Higgins.Sc.D
Substantiating a political public sphere in the Scottish press : a comparative analysis
No full textThis article uses content analysis to characterize the performance of the media in a national public sphere, by setting apart those qualities that typify internal press coverage of a political event. The article looks at the coverage of the 1999 devolved Scottish election from the day before the election until the day after. It uses a word count to measure the election material in Scottish newspapers the Herald, the Press and Journal and the Scotsman, and United Kingdom newspapers the Guardian, the Independent and The Times, and categorizes that material according to discourse type, day and page selection. The article finds a number of qualities that typify the Scottish sample in particular, and might be broadly indicative of a political public sphere in action. Firstly, and not unexpectedly, it finds that the Scottish newspapers carry significantly more election coverage. Just as tellingly, though, the article finds that the Scottish papers offer a greater proportion of advice and background information, in the form of opinion columns and feature articles. It also finds that the Scottish papers place a greater concentration of both informative and evaluative material in the period before the vote, consistent with their making a contribution to informed political action. Lastly, the article finds that the Scottish sample situates coverage nearer the front of the paper and places a greater proportion on recto pages. The article therefore argues that the Scottish papers display features that distinguish them from the UK papers, and are broadly consistent with their forming part of a deliberative public sphere, and suggests that these qualities might be explored as a means of judging future media performance
Politicising stardom: Jane Fonda, IPC Films and Hollywood, 1977-1982
No full textPhDThis thesis is an empirical analysis of Jane Fonda’s films, stardom, and political activism during the most commercially successful period of her career. At the outset, Fonda’s early stardom is situated in relation to contemporaneous moral and political ideologies in the United States and how she functioned as both an agent and symbol of these ideologies. Her anti-war activism in the early-1970s constituted the apex of Fonda’s radicalisation and the nadir of her popular appeal; a central question of this thesis, therefore, is how her stardom was rehabilitated for the American mainstream to the point of becoming Hollywood’s most bankable actress.
As the star and producer of IPC Films, Fonda developed political projects using commercial formats, namely Coming Home (1978), The China Syndrome (1979), Nine to Five (1980), and Rollover (1981). The final IPC film, On Golden Pond (1981), signalled an ideological breach in this political strategy by favouring a familial spectacle, and duly outperformed its predecessors significantly. The first and last chapters of this work provide historical parameters for IPC in Fonda’s career, while the remaining chapters are structured by the conceptual and political aspects of each IPC project. Julia (1977) is discussed as an IPC prototype through its dramatisation of political consciousness. Coming Home, The China Syndrome, Nine to Five, and Rollover all exhibit this motif whereas On Golden Pond employs melodramatic nostalgia. Often discussed reductively as a star symbolising change, this thesis instead uses archival and published sources to analyse Fonda’s individual agency in historical context, as well as the cultural and political impact of her stardom. The IPC enterprise provided cinematic apparatus for Fonda’s political recuperation within the American mainstream, which, more broadly, harboured significance for the nation’s conservative resurgence at the end of the 1970s
Report of James Higgins , M. D., State Agricultural Chemist, to the House of Delegates of Maryland
No full textReport of James Higgins , M. D., State Agricultural Chemist, to the House of Delegates of Maryland
No full text185
Report of James Higgins , M. D., State Agricultural Chemist, to the House of Delegates of Maryland
No full text184
M-CSF and GM-CSF influence naïve murine alveolar macrophage differentiation and function in vitro
No full textThis research has been published in Relative Levels of M-CSF and GM-CSF Influence the Specific Generation of Macrophage Populations during Infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis by Higgins, D et al. in Journal of Immunology, 2008, 180: 4892-4900.The objective of this study was to compare the effect of M-CSF and GM-CSF in their abilities to affect the functional and phenotypical characteristics of AMs. In this study, we harvested naïve uninfected murine alveolar macrophages by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and cultured in the presence of M-CSF, GM-CSF or both. GM-CSF stimulated cell proliferation at a higher rate when measured by relative loss of CFDA-SE dye and had higher phagocytic capacity than M-CSF cultured cells. In contrast, alveolar macrophages cultured in the presence of M-CSF exhibited a dendritic-cell-like morphology and upregulated expression of dendriticcell- associated markers like CCR7, MHC II and DEC205. The dendritic cell character of M-CSF-treated AMs was also manifested in their higher capacity to stimulate CD4+ T cell proliferation in a mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR). This study demonstrates that M-CSF has a strong ability to differentiate AMs into DC-like cells.Highest Honors
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