247 research outputs found
Modelling Interregional Trade of Energy Crops in Eastern Germany
No full textRenewable resources gain in importance in our modern society. The line of reasoning is based on their positive effects on agriculture, the environment and the economy. To support renewable energy from biomass the EU promotes the cultivation of energy crops. A spatial equilibrium model is applied based on the concept of maximizing net welfare, to provide information whether energy crop production competes with food production for land area. The Model of Interregional Trade of Energy Crops (ITEC) refers to Eastern Germany and adjacent areas of Poland. First results show that the regions have enough feedstocks to meet the required demand for food and biofuel production. In many cases both food crops and biofuels are either traded on interregional basis or exported to "Rest of Europe" indicating that there is no competition between food and energy crops. Only green maize for biogas production strongly competes in areas where the crop is required as feed for cattle.Energy crops, spatial equilibrium analysis, interregional trade, International Relations/Trade,
In-situ study of emerging metallicity and memory effect on ion-beam bombarded strontium titanate surface:
No full textIn this work we present an investigation of the occurrence of conductivity on the surface of SrTiO3 due to argon ion bombardment. We created a model to describe this process and found that the temperature during the ion milling is a crucial factor for the conductivity. Depending on the temperatures we found surface carrier densities ranging from 1.5*10^18 to 2.6*10^20cm^-3 by just analyzing the conductivity behavior.
Clustering of vacancies goes along with temperature and affects the conductivity significantly. Furthermore we found that ion milling is a gentle way create vacancies because the clustering rate is small compared to annealing samples in high vacuum. The amount of clusters at room temperature was measured to be around 3-4 times higher than at -140C.
We found that samples with a conducting surface change their resistance over time at room temperature due to the ongoing process of oxygen vacancy clustering. This effect may be suppressed by decreasing the temperature.
The bistable switching behavior in oxygen deficient SrTiO3 is shown without any additional doping. The vacancy migration is the major mechanism behind this memory effect. Comparing this behavior with annealed samples in high vacuum shows that the therein present amount of vacancy clusters must be much larger and has a negative effect on the bistable switching behavior.M.S.Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-87)by Heiko Gros
Handle with Care : Implementation of the List Experiment and Crosswise Model in a Large-Scale Survey on Academic Misconduct
No full textAcknowledgments We thank the anonymous reviewers as well as Alexander Ehlert, Isabel Raabe, and Justus Rathmann for their concise comments and constructive feedback on our work. Co-authors in alphabetical order. Study Design: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Heiko Rauhut, Kathrin Thomas, Antonia Velicu. Coding and Analysis: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Kathrin Thomas, Antonia Velicu. First draft: Julia Jerke, Heiko Rauhut, Kathrin Thomas, Antonia Velicu. Revisions: David Johann, Kathrin Thomas, Antonia Velicu. Final approval of the paper: Julia Jerke, David Johann, Heiko Rauhut, Kathrin Thomas, Antonia Velicu. Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Starting Grant “CONCISE” BSSGIO 155981 of Heiko Rauhut.Peer reviewe
The Definitive Guide to NetBeans Platform
No full textThe Definitive Guide to NetBeans(t) Platform is a thorough and definitive introduction to the NetBeans Platform, covering all its major APIs in detail, with relevant code examples used throughout. The original German book on which this title is based was well received. The NetBeans Platform Community has put together this English translation, which author Heiko Bock updated to cover the latest NetBeans Platform 6.5 APIs. With an introduction by known NetBeans Platform experts Jaroslav Tulach, Tim Boudreau, and Geertjan Wielenga, this is the most up-to-date book on this topic at the moment. Al
An adaptive system for patient-controlled analgesia vol.1
No full textVolume 2 is the actual data. Please contact the author for this information. Heiko Rudolph [[email protected]] http://www.set.rmit.edu.au/~e55643/Deposited with permission of the author. © 1995 Dr. Heiko E. R. Rudolph.Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA) has become accepted as an important means of self-regulated relief from post-surgical pain. In commonly used PCA systems, patients use a hand-held push-button to indicate the presence of pain and initiate a predetermined bolus of drug infusion. A disadvantage of this system is that no means is provided to accommodate variations in the intensity of pain or the sensitivity of the patient to the analgesic in use apart from the frequency of button pushing. A fixed rate background infusion is usually an option. A new adaptive PCA system is proposed to provide improved PCA through the use a variable background infusion, the provision for an extended high range of analgesic dosages and a novel handset which allows patients to rate their pain. The total system is under the control of an expert algorithm and is proposed to overcome some of the shortcomings of current systems. (For complete abstract open document
Bicycle Ambulances in rural Uganda - Analysis of factors influencing its usage
No full textThis article reports on a study undertaken to analyze the usage of the bicycle ambulances in Uganda. Since 1997, approximately 400 bicycle ambulances have been distributed to villages in rural Uganda to improve accessibility to health centers. Approximately 20% of the population of Uganda have to travel more than 5 km to a health center, in a country where most transportation is by foot. A bicycle ambulance is a bicycle with an attached trailer used to transport seriously sick patients up to 15 km. The author conducted guided interviews with receivers and the distributors of bicycle ambulances in selected villages. Factors have been defined that influence the usage of bicycle ambulances, including individual village characteristics, the features of the bicycle ambulance, the system of distribution, and the organization of the groups using the bicycle ambulances. The distance to the health center, nor the distance to the main road and quality of the road itself significantly influenced the usage of the bicycle ambulance. The frequency of usage of the bicycle ambulances was limited to a few cases in a month or year. The only significant influence on the frequency of usage was observed based on the different organizational structures of the bicycle ambulance groups. The author considers some of the barriers to use, including long distances to health centers and costs of repairs, but notes that these and other barriers can be overcome through the positive attitude of group members
Bicycle Ambulances in rural Uganda - Analysis of factors influencing its usage
No full textThis article reports on a study undertaken to analyze the usage of the bicycle ambulances in Uganda. Since 1997, approximately 400 bicycle ambulances have been distributed to villages in rural Uganda to improve accessibility to health centers. Approximately 20% of the population of Uganda have to travel more than 5 km to a health center, in a country where most transportation is by foot. A bicycle ambulance is a bicycle with an attached trailer used to transport seriously sick patients up to 15 km. The author conducted guided interviews with receivers and the distributors of bicycle ambulances in selected villages. Factors have been defined that influence the usage of bicycle ambulances, including individual village characteristics, the features of the bicycle ambulance, the system of distribution, and the organization of the groups using the bicycle ambulances. The distance to the health center, nor the distance to the main road and quality of the road itself significantly influenced the usage of the bicycle ambulance. The frequency of usage of the bicycle ambulances was limited to a few cases in a month or year. The only significant influence on the frequency of usage was observed based on the different organizational structures of the bicycle ambulance groups. The author considers some of the barriers to use, including long distances to health centers and costs of repairs, but notes that these and other barriers can be overcome through the positive attitude of group members
Extending the geological calibration of the geological time scale
No full textThis thesis arises from the fact that changes in the geometry of the Earth-Sun system, due to the gravitational interaction among the planets, cause quasi-cyclic climatic variations that are imprinted in the geological record.A speech-recognition method is adapted to provide an automated procedure to calibrate cyclic geological data to astronomical calculations. Synthetic data are used to test the performance of the new method. The new algorithm is then applied to lithological data. Results show that the method is well suited to objectively match geological data to astronomical calculations of the Earth’s orbit.The calibration of the geological time scale is extended into the late Paleogene. This is achieved by generating a lithological proxy record employing an X-ray fluorescence Core Scanner that non-destructively determines elemental concentrations of calcium and iron on split sediment cores. These data exhibit cyclic variations that are shown to be of astronomical origin, and are then used to calibrate the relative duration of magnetochrons C16 through C18. Advanced time series analysis methods are used to extract the astronomical signal. It is shown that the most recent published astronomical solution is not compatible with geological data from the late Paleogene.This new late Eocene time scale is independently confirmed by measurements of stable isotope ratios of oxygen and carbon, obtained from the same material, providing a high-resolution record of climatic variations over intervals of the late Middle and Late Eocene for the first time.Astronomically calibrated geological data are analysed to extract parameters that are required for the calculation of detailed astronomical models. Very small changes in the precession constant of the Earth are extracted by developing a new interference method. This leads to the extraction of the long-term evolution of the tidal dissipation and dynamical ellipticity parameters of the Earth.Geological data spanning the last ~37 million years are used to extract long term amplitude modulation patterns of the climatic signal. A comparison of the long term amplitude modulation derived from published astronomical calculations on the one hand, and those derived from a new calculation on the other hand (J. Laskar, 2001, unpublished) shows that the geological record supports the validity of the new solution. This study forms the basis for a further extension of the astronomical calibration of the geological time scale into earlier parts of the Paleogene
Efficient Token Distribution and Load Balancing on Reconfigurable Meshes with Restricted Bus Length
No full textA solution to the token distribution problem is presented for the 2-dimensional reconfigurable mesh with restricted bus length. The algorithm is shown to be asymptotically worst-case optimal in reducing the discrepancy \Delta between maximum and minimum processor loads to ffi in optimal \Theta((\Delta\Gammaffi) \Delta n) time steps. The algorithm meets the time complexity of current state-of-the-art algorithms for sorting and permutation routing, but remains a factor of 2 from the bisection bound. Publishing Information Submitted: Australian Computer Science Conference, ACSC'97, Sydney Australia Author Information Heiko Schroder studied mathematics, physics, and computer science at CAU in Kiel (Germany) where he received his Ph.D. in computer science in 1977. Until 1989 he was Assistant Professor of Computer Science at CAU and Kansas University (U.S.A.) and Senior Research Fellow at ANU in Canberra (Australia). Until 1994 he was Professor of Microelectronics in Newcastle (Australia)..
Testing the impact of diagenesis on the delta O-18 and delta C-13 of benthic foraminiferal calcite from a sediment burial depth transect in the equatorial Pacific
No full textStable oxygen and carbon isotope (O-18 and C-13) values measured in foraminiferal calcite are one of the primary tools used in paleoceanography. Diagenetic recrystallization of foraminiferal calcite can act to reset primary isotopic values, but its effects are typically poorly quantified. Here we test the impact of early stage diagenesis on stable isotope records generated from a suite of drill sites in the equatorial Pacific Ocean recovered during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 199 and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 320. Our selected sites form paleowater and burial depth transects, with excellent stratigraphic control allowing us to confidently correlate our records. We observe large intersite differences in the preservation state of benthic foraminiferal calcite, implying very different recrystallization histories, but negligible intersite offsets in benthic O-18 and C-13 values. We infer that diagenetic alteration of benthic foraminiferal calcite (in sedimentary oozes) must predominantly occur at shallow burial depths (</p
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