1,462 research outputs found
Recovery through contradiction?
No full textWith this new drug strategy, the circle has turned. It was a Conservative government
that introduced the first drug strategy, Tackling Drugs Together, in 1995. This aimed
to reduce drug related crime, protect young people and reduce health harms by
discouraging drug use. It was criticised at the time for having unrealistic, intangible
aims and for not providing the necessary funding. New Labour’s strategies introduced
increasingly specific targets and massively expanded the funding of treatment. This
new Coalition strategy has no targets and provides no new funding
Supplemental Material - Systematic Review of GIS and Remote Sensing Applications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Mining
No full textSupplemental Material for Systematic Review of GIS and Remote Sensing Applications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Mining by Michelle Li Ern Ang, John R. Owen, Christopher N. Gibbins, Éléonore Lèbre, Deanna Kemp, Muhamad R. U. Saputra, Jo-Anne Everingham, and Alex M. Lechner in The Journal of Environment & Development</p
105 - Alex M Fout
No full textIncludes bibliographical references.This poster was presented at the 2017 Colorado State University Graduate Student Showcase, 9 November 2017.Determining the interface between two interacting proteins can help illuminate cellular biology, improve our understanding of disease, and aid pharmaceutical research. Such determination is expensive and time consuming using wet-lab experiments, which has motivated the development of computational methods. Inspired by the success of deep learning in image processing and other application areas, we adapt convolutional neural networks to work with irregularly structured data, such as proteins. We construct a novel pairwise classification architecture which is trained and tested with data from the Docking Benchmark Dataset versions 4.0 and 5.0. This outperforms the existing state-of-the-art prediction method, PAIRpred.Graduate Student Council - New Graduate Student - Research Top Scholar
Selective logging causes the decline of large-sized mammals including those in unlogged patches surrounded by logged and agricultural areas
No full textLegal and illegal logging is prevalent throughout the tropics, impacting on natural habitat and wildlife. This study aimed to investigate the sensitivity of forest mammals to selective logging in the lowland dipterocarp forests of South-West Peninsular Malaysia and identify the underlying factors that determine species occurrence. A total of 120 camera trap locations were deployed within selectively logged and unlogged forests. We found that unlogged forest had greater wildlife occurrences compared to selectively logged forests, including two endangered mammal species not found in logged forest. Forest vegetation structure characteristics such as the abundance of lianas, large trees, saplings, palms, bamboo and seedlings were associated with mammal species richness. Mammal species richness increased with number of forest trees, particularly those with a DBH of >45 cm, but this was limited to high altitude forest. Worryingly, we did not detect any large mammalian apex predators such as leopards or tigers in either unlogged or selectively logged forests. The absence of these animals may be the result of poaching, habitat degradation or other pressures; these mammals are expected to be present in intact forests in Peninsular Malaysia. Restoring logged forests and preserving the remaining unlogged lowland dipterocarp forests are critically important to safeguard mammalian biodiversity in the region. Besides that, we recommend that conventional logging practices are replaced with reduced impact logging methods
Infrastructure bottlenecks, private provision, and industrial productivity : a study of Indonesian and Thai cities
No full textThis research project followed an earlier similar project on Nigeria, applying the same methods. A sample of manufacturers was surveyed to document their responses to infrastructure deficiencies in electricity, water, transport, telecommunications, and waste disposal. They found the manufacturers undertook significant expenditures to offset deficiencies in publicly provided infrastructure services, and that changing public policy toward privately supplied infrastructure and changing the pricing of public infrastructure could yield significant savings in social costs. Thailand and Indonesia have made significant strides in following the policies for private sector participation in infrastructure provision. Nigeria, where public infrastructure monopolies still dominate, lags behind, yet stands to benefit most from such policy reform. Government policy toward the industrial organization and pricing of infrastructure sectors can significantly help a developing economy realize the benefits of private sector participation in the provision of infrastructure services.Banks&Banking Reform,Decentralization,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Municipal Financial Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Services to the Poor,Urban Services to the Poor,Public Sector Economics&Finance
Urban forest fragmentation impoverishes native mammalian biodiversity in the tropics
No full textUrban expansion has caused major deforestation and forest fragmentation in the tropics. The impacts of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity are understudied in urban forest patches, especially in the tropics and little is known on the conservation value of the patches for maintaining mammalian biodiversity. In this study, camera trapping was used to determine the species composition and species richness of medium- and large-sized mammals in three urban forest patches and a contiguous forest in Peninsular Malaysia. We identified the key vegetation attributes that predicted mammal species richness and occurrence of herbivores and omnivores in urban forest patches. A total number of 19 mammal species from 120 sampling points were recorded. Contiguous forest had the highest number of species compared to the urban forest patches. Sunda Pangolin and Asian Tapir were the only conservation priority species recorded in the urban forest patches and contiguous forest, respectively. Top predators such as Malayan Tiger and Melanistic Leopard were completely absent from the forest patches as well as the contiguous forest. This was reflected by the abundance of wild boars. We found that mammal species richness increased with the number of trees with DBH less than 5\ua0cm, trees with DBH more than 50\ua0cm, and dead standing trees. In the future, the remaining mammal species in the urban forest patches are expected to be locally extinct as connecting the urban forest patches may be infeasible due to land scarcity. Hence, to maintain the ecological integrity of urban forest patches, we recommend that stakeholders take intervention measures such as reintroduction of selected species and restocking of wild populations in the urban forest patches to regenerate the forest ecosystems
Correction to: The ‘can do, do do’ concept in COPD; quadrant interpretation, affiliation and tracking longitudinal changes
No full textFollowing publication of the original article [1], the authors identified a mistake in the author names, as both forename and initials were stated. Initially published author names: A. J. Alex van ’t Hul, E. H. Noortje Koolen, H. W. Jeroen van Hees, B. Bram van den Borst and M. A. Martijn Spruit Correct author names: Alex J. van ‘t Hul, Noortje H. Koolen, Jeroen W. van Hees, Bram van den Borst, Martijn A. Spruit. The original article has been corrected.</p
When the lights go down in Chinatown. / Words by / ALEX GERBER. / Music by / MALIVIN M FRANKLIN.
No full textBox no. 1This item has been bound together with items gma-doc-00525 and gma-doc-00034.Malvin M. Franklin: When the lights go down in Chinatown; music printItem type: book | Content type: music and text | Counting of pages: page numbersVocal-instrumental score | staff notation; tonic sol-fa | voice; piano"Ev'ry evening when the sun goes down [...]
Multi-Objective Calibration For Agent-Based Models
No full textAgent-based modelling is already proving to be an immensely useful tool for scientific and industrial modelling applications. Whilst the building of such models will always be something between an art and a science, once a detailed model has been built, the process of parameter calibration should be performed as precisely as possible. This task is often made difficult by the proliferation of model parameters with non-linear interactions. In addition to this, these models generate a large number of outputs, and their ‘accuracy’ can be measured by many different, often conflicting, criteria. In this paper we demonstrate the use of multi-objective optimisation tools to calibrate just such an agent-based model. We use an agent-based model of a financial market as an exemplar and calibrate the model using a multi-objective genetic algorithm. The technique is automated and requires no explicit weighting of criteria prior to calibration. The final choice of parameter set can be made after calibration with the additional input of the domain expert
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