543 research outputs found
Broad-toothed rat, Mastacomys fuscus (Rodentia, Muridae), found in alpine heathland in Tasmania.
No full textTHE broad-toothed rat Mastacomys fuscus is a
native, herbivorous rodent that occurs in New South
Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. On the Australian
mainland the species has been recorded in several
habitats at altitudes ranging from sea level to 1800 m.
In alpine and sub-alpine areas of New South Wales
and Victoria it has been recorded in heathlands, open
eucalypt woodlands and wet sedgelands (Calaby and
Wimbush 1964; Dixon 1971; Seebeck 1971; Bubela
et al. 1991). At lower altitudes in Victoria, it has
been recorded in wet sclerophyll forests with a dense
undergrowth, coastal heathland, coastal grassland and
in a pine plantation (Seebeck 1971; Wallis et al.
1982; Warneke 1960). In Tasmania, M. fuscus has
been previously recorded only in buttongrass
moorlands of western Tasmania at altitudes ranging
from sea level to 900 m (Finlayson 1933; Andrews
1968; Green 1968, 1984; Hocking and Guiler 1983;
Driessen and Comfort 1991; Slater 1992; Driessen
1998). Buttongrass moorland (also referred to as
sedgeland) is a treeless vegetation typically
dominated by Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus
(buttongrass) that covers more than a million hectares
in Tasmania, predominantly in the western part of the
State (Jarman et al. 1988). Buttongrass moorland is a
very variable vegetation group and not all
communities recognised within buttongrass moorland
provide habitat for M. fuscus (Driessen and Comfort
1991; Slater 1992; Driessen 1998).
The purpose of this note is to report the results of
a survey for M. fuscus in alpine heathland, a habitat
in which the species has not been previously recorded
in Tasmania. This finding has significant
implications for the conservation status of this
species.</jats:p
Interinstitutional convention as checks and balances in EU law
No full textThis study investigates the extent to which arrangements concluded between European institutions contribute to the separation of powers underlying the European Union’s political system.
The point of departure is an analysis of different separation of powers models. The author posits that the European Union’s political system is best interpreted against the background of a ‘separation of institutions’, implying that no European institution should exercise its legal powers in an unchecked manner. This approach builds on the Court of Justice’ institutional balance doctrine. It differs from the more traditional constitutional law theory known as ‘trias politica’ according to which no government authority ought to combine two ‘governmental functions’. Seen from this perspective, separation of powers is a matter of autonomous institutions subject to ‘checks and balances’.
Some checks and balances find their basis in EU law. However, many others are based on arrangements between the European institutions. Many of such arrangements are not based on law. An enquiry into the possible general legal bases for such interinstitutional agreements finds all of them unsound.
Driessen argues that interinstitutional arrangements without a legal basis (‘interinstitutional conventions’) cannot be legally enforceable. Although there are differences, to a certain extent they can be equated to the ‘constitutional conventions’ known in British constitutional law. An analysis of such interinstitutional conventions suggests their omnipresence in European constitutional practice.
The study analyses the effects of interinstitutional arrangements on different fields of EU law. This includes, inter alia, an analysis of the political responsibility of the Commission and of its members towards the European Parliament, of the interinstitutional conventions that govern the Parliament’s rights of oversight, and those governing legislative procedures, the budgetary procedure and external relations.
The analysis shows that many interinstitutional conventions are important instruments for the daily management of the Union. Other interinstitutional conventions concern the details of the relations between the institutions. They can tangibly affect the balance of influence between the European institutions. For example, in the budgetary field, the European Parliament successfully used interinstitutional agreements to ensure that about one half of expenditure is subject to its approval as non-compulsory expenditure. Additionally, it acquired some control over the remainder through the financial perspectives, which are equally based on interinstitutional conventions.
Driessen researches the limitations on the use of such interinstitutional arrangements. Although they certainly cannot replace the procedures foreseen in European law, they can affect such them. Jurists often fail to notice the extent to which this happens. The study is based on current law but also takes on board the changes proposed in the Constitutional Treaty.status: Publishe
An Examination of the Globalisation of Authorship in Publishing in 20 Leading Marketing Journals
No full textPurpose of this paper is to examine the global contribution of academics to marketing literature between 1999 and 2003, based on an examination of the location of academics institution of employment, as reported in published works. The data is used to evaluate the global dispersion of publishing.\ud
Design/approach. The paper uses the method of content analysis where the authorship of all articles in 20 leading marketing journals between 1999 and 2003 is examined. An empirical examination of performance was undertaken across geographic regions. There was also an examination of whether the quality of journal affected regional performance.\ud
Findings. The research found that there is a significant "bias" of authorship within the 20 journals examined, with the majority of works published by academics at institutions in North America. There is some variation in regional performance based on the type of journal examined. Limitations. There was no attempt to empirically examine why differences might exist. The study only focused on a sample of 20 English language journals over 5 years. These journals have been included in studies that list the leading marketing journal for US and European academics. Practical Implications. The research suggests that there may in fact be regional differences in publishing behaviour. It is unclear if these differences relate to variations in the "objectives" of institutions within each country or other factors, such as the North American publish-or-perish mentality. The research posits that a marketing knowledge may be unnecessarily restricted, if there is a bias against non-North American perspectives. Originality. While there have been other works examining research performance of institutions, there has been limited examination in marketing on the nation in which authors work and none have used a broad cross-section of journals. This work takes a global "snapshot" of national research performance within marketing
Sensory nerve conduction and nociception in the equine lower forelimb during perineural bupivacaine infusion along the palmar nerves
No full textThe purpose of this investigation was to study lateral palmar nerve (LPN) and medial palmar nerve (MPN) morphology and
determine nociception and sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) following placement of continuous peripheral nerve block
(CPNB) catheters along LPN and MPN with subsequent bupivacaine (BUP) infusion. Myelinated nerve fiber distribution in
LPN and MPN was examined after harvesting nerve specimens in 3 anesthetized horses and processing them for morphometric
analysis. In 5 sedated horses, CPNB catheters were placed along each PN in both forelimbs. Horses then received in one forelimb
3 mL 0.125% BUP containing epinephrine 1:200 000 and 0.04% NaHCO3 per catheter site followed by 2 mL/h infusion over a 6-day
period, while in the other forelimb equal amounts of saline (SAL) solution were administered. The hoof withdrawal response
(HWR) threshold during pressure loading of the area above the dorsal coronary band was determined daily in both forelimbs.
On day 6 SNCV was measured under general anesthesia of horses in each limb’s LPN and MPN to detect nerve injury, followed by CPNB catheter removal. The SNCV was also recorded in 2 anesthetized non-instrumented horses (sham controls). In both
LPN and MPN myelinated fiber distributions were bimodal. The fraction of large fibers (. 7 mm) was greater in the MPN than
LPN (P , 0.05). Presence of CPNB catheters and SAL administration did neither affect measured HWR thresholds nor SNCVs,
whereas BUP infusion suppressed HWRs. In conclusion, CPNB with 0.125% BUP provides pronounced analgesia by inhibiting sensory nerve conduction in the distal equine forelimb
Historical Discourse on Occasion of the Reopening and Dedication of the Reformed (Dutch) Church of Pompton Plains: Pompton Plains Memorial
No full textHistory of church begins with a history of settlement by Dutch immigrants from established settlements of former New Netherlands, beginning in 1695. Describes native inhabitants and the deeds obtained from them. Then covers the ecclesiastical history from 1710 to 1871, through profiles of pastors. Most attention is given to first 5 pastors, up to 1812.
First pastor: Johannes Van Driessen
Second pastor: David Marinus
Third pastor: Cornelius Blaw
Fourth pastor: Hermanus Meyer
Fifth pastor: Stephen Ostrander.
Address delivered by Rev. John Van Neste Schenck, November 22, 1871, published posthumously the following year
Sensor management for surveillance and tracking: An operational perspective
No full textRadars have gained increased popularity as sensing devices due to their unique capability to sense objects of interest at very long distances and without being severely limited by weather conditions. Advances in technology have led to the possibility of choosing the sensing parameters of a radar in order to further improve its performance. Especially in the class of active phased array radars, the control of the agile beam is of paramount importance. By controlling the radar beam improved estimation results can be achieved leading to better situation awareness. In the literature, several approaches to sensor (including radar) management can be found. These can be roughly grouped into: a) rule-based or heuristics; b) task-based; c) information-driven; and d) risk/threat-based. These approaches are compared in this thesis and it is found that there is not a single approach that is both Bayes-optimal and takes into account explicitly the user requirements in different operational contexts. In order to overcome the challenges with the existing approaches, this thesis proposes managing the uncertainty in higher-level quantities (as per the JDL model) that are directly of interest to the operator and directly related to the operational goal of the radar system. The proposed approach is motivated by the threat assessment process, which is an integral part of defence missions. Accordingly, a prominent example of a commonly used higher-level quantity is the threat-level of a target. The key advantage of the proposed approach is that it results in Bayes-optimal sensor control that also takes into account the operational context in a model-based manner. In other words: a) a radar operator can select the aspects of threat that are relevant to the operational context at hand; and b) external information about the arrival of targets and other scenario parameters can be included when defining the models used in the signal processing algorithms, leading to context-adaptive sensor management. The proposed approach is initially used in simple tracking examples in order to demonstrate its potential and flexibility. Subsequently, it is used for controlling an agile radar beam such that multiple targets can be tracked while taking into account detection uncertainty and presence of spurious measurements. In these examples, a state-of-the art signal processing algorithm is used, i.e. a CB-MeMBer filter. Finally, the proposed approach is used for area surveillance, i.e. for detection and tracking of multiple targets while taking into account detection uncertainty and presence of spurious measurements. In this context, a density that estimates where any undetected targets might be (denoted as unDTD) plays a key role in balancing the search-to-track time ratio. The presented examples have been drawn both from the civilian and the military domain. From the civilian domain, air-traffic-control examples are shown where threat is modeled based on how fast and how close to each other two aircrafts might come. From the defence domain, asset protection examples are shown where threat is modeled based on how fast and how close to an asset of interest a target might come. Furthermore, the deviation from expected trajectories has been modeled because it can be of interest for anomaly detection purposes. The proposed approach has outperformed all the other approaches in the simulated examples presented in this thesis in achieving lower uncertainty in the threat-level of all targets. In all examples, the proposed approach has outperformed naïve approaches, such as periodic or random selection of sensing actions, in a) estimating the correct number of targets present in the considered scenarios; b) localizing the detected targets; and c) maintaining less tracks, thus lowering the computation time at the update step. When only tracking of targets is considered, the proposed approach was only outperformed in tracking accuracy by a scheme that minimizes the expected variance of the estimated number of targets present in the considered scenario and by a derived rule-based scheme. The main challenge when implementing the proposed approach is the mathematical description of threat. Several interesting aspects of threat have been modeled in this thesis but there are even more to be modeled. Taking into account non-measurable aspects of threat poses an added challenge. Other challenges that might be encountered are a) lower tracking accuracy; and b) higher computational complexity, when compared to other sensor management schemes. The presented research can be extended both within the radar domain and by exploring its application to other domains. Two prominent extensions of interest within the radar domain are: a) taking more aspects of threat into account; and b) addressing the target classification problem. Robotics applications, such as autonomous robot path-planning, offer a promising alternative domain for applying the proposed method.Microelectronics & Computer EngineeringElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Using Golay Sequences to Improve the Range Performance of Hybrid Codes for MIMO Radar
No full textIn this paper, waveforms for MIMO phased array radar to enhance cross-range resolution are investigated. The problem of high sidelobes in range created by the use of Hybrid Codes with a single waveform and spatial coding is considered and a method to reduce these sidelobes by the use of Golay sequences as spatial codes is proposed. It is shown that the proposed method achieves the same range performance as a phased array radar with one waveform, despite creating additional sidelobes in Doppler.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Microwave Sensing, Signals & System
Design of a particle filter: for robust target tracking in object-induced clutter
No full textElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer ScienceMicroelectronic
Radar Resource Management for Multi-Target Tracking Using Model Predictive Control
No full textThe radar resource management problem in a multi-target tracking scenario is considered. Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) are used to describe each tracking task. Model predictive control is applied to solve the POMDPs in a non-myopic way. As a result, the computational complexity compared to stochastic optimization methods such as policy rollout is dramatically reduced while the resource allocation results maintain similar. This is shown through simulations of dynamic multi-target tracking scenarios in which the cost and computational complexity of different approaches are compared.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Microwave Sensing, Signals & System
Target Selection for Tracking in Multifunction Radar Networks: Nash and Correlated Equilibria
No full textWe consider a target selection problem for multitarget tracking in a multifunction radar network from a gametheoretic perspective. The problem is formulated as a noncooperative game. The radars are considered to be players in this game with utilities modeled using a proper tracking accuracy criterion and their strategies are the observed targets whose number is known. Initially, for the problem of coordination, the Nash equilibria are characterized and, in order to find equilibria points, a distributed algorithm based on the bestresponse dynamics is proposed. Afterwards, the analysis is extended to the case of partial target observability and radar connectivity and heterogeneous interests among radars. The solution concept of correlated equilibria is employed and a distributed algorithm based on the regret-matching is proposed. The proposed algorithms are shown to perform well compared to the centralized approach of significantly higher complexityGreen Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Microwave Sensing, Signals & System
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