Forest-savanna boundary shift on the plateau of Serra Sul dos Carajás (southeastern Amazonia) since the mid-Holocene; driving forces and limiting factors

2017 ◽  
Vol 449 ◽  
pp. 12-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamaleddin Alizadeh ◽  
Isabelle Matthias ◽  
Paula A. Rodríguez-Zorro ◽  
Barbara Hermanowski ◽  
Marcondes Lima da Costa ◽  
...  
Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1167
Author(s):  
Shaohua Zhang ◽  
Kun Yang ◽  
Yuling Ma ◽  
Mingchan Li

Different urban growth patterns have various impact degrees on the urban ecosystem and environment. Impervious surface, a typical artificial construction can be used to reflect urban development. Therefore, this study estimated the spatiotemporal dynamics and expansion patterns of impervious surface area (ISA) in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau (GHM) Bay Area since the establishment of the “Pearl River Delta economic zone” in 1994. Landsat time-series images were used to map the distribution of the ISA based on the combinational biophysical composition index (CBCI) and the bidirectional temporal filtering method (BTFM). The results indicated that the ISA in the GHM Bay Area drastically expanded from 569.23 km2 in 1994 to 10,200.53 km2 in 2016. In addition, the aggregation index (AI) value of the high-density area showed a decreasing trend from 1994 to 2004. However, the value of each landscape metric rapidly increased after 2004. Moreover, the mean ratio of the major axis to the minor axis of standard deviational ellipses from 1994 to 2004 was higher than that from 2005 to 2016. The results of landscape metrics and standard deviational ellipses indicated that the ISA growth pattern changed from edge expanding and leapfrogging to infilling and consolidation, with a turning point in 2004. Moreover, the principal sprawl orientation of the ISA was northwest to southeast before 2004. After 2004, the expansion direction of the ISA was less obvious due to the development pattern of infilling and consolidation. The rapid increase of GDP and population are the driving forces of urban expansion. However, topography and ecological protection policies as the limiting factors, which caused the infilling of the inner city and redevelopment of old urban areas.


Author(s):  
T. V. Fadeeva ◽  

The aim of the study is to study the experience of implementing cluster policy in the Russian Federation and offer recommendations for improving cluster policy and strengthening cluster processes. The article presents the results of the analysis of clusters and cluster policy in Russia. During the research, general scientific and special methods are used: analysis and synthesis, comparison and generalization, system analysis. As a result of the study, the driving forces of the functioning of clusters, the risks of implementing cluster policy in Russia and a list of limiting factors when choosing clusters-objects for financing are identified. The article reveals the peculiarities of cluster policy in Russia and gives recommendations for conducting cluster policy based on the domestic experience of clustering. In contrast to the existing ones, the recommendations proposed in the article are novel, since they take into account the current stage of development at which cluster associations in Russia are located. When developing the recommendations, the latest trends in the organizational development of clusters in an innovative economy are taken into account. The presented developments will be useful to public authorities in the formation of regional programs for the development of clusters in the regional economy, as well as for making decisions on the support of clusters


Author(s):  
P. R. Okamoto ◽  
N.Q. Lam ◽  
R. L. Lyles

During irradiation of thin foils in a high voltage electron microscope (HVEM) defect gradients will be set up between the foil surfaces and interior. In alloys defect gradients provide additional driving forces for solute diffusion since any preferential binding and/or exchange between solute atoms and mobile defects will couple a net flux of solute atoms to the defect fluxes. Thus, during irradiation large nonequilibrium compositional gradients can be produced near the foil surfaces in initially homogeneous alloys. A system of coupled reaction-rate and diffusion equations describing the build up of mobile defects and solute redistribution in thin foils and in a semi-infinite medium under charged-particle irradiation has been formulated. Spatially uniform and nonuniform damage production rates have been used to model solute segregation under electron and ion irradiation conditions.An example calculation showing the time evolution of the solute concentration in a 2000 Å thick foil during electron irradiation is shown in Fig. 1.


Author(s):  
K. Cowden ◽  
B. Giammara ◽  
T. Devine ◽  
J. Hanker

Plaster of Paris (calcium sulfate hemihydrate, CaSO4. ½ H2O) has been used as a biomedical implant material since 1892. One of the primary limiting factors of these implants is their mechanical properties. These materials have low compressive and tensile strengths when compared to normal bone. These are important limiting factors where large biomechanical forces exist. Previous work has suggested that sterilization techniques could affect the implant’s strength. A study of plaster of Paris implant mechanical and physical properties to find optimum sterilization techniques therefore, could lead to a significant increase in their application and promise for future use as hard tissue prosthetic materials.USG Medical Grade Calcium Sulfate Hemihydrate Types A, A-1 and B, were sterilized by dry heat and by gamma radiation. Types A and B were additionally sterilized with and without the setting agent potassium sulfate (K2SO4). The plaster mixtures were then moistened with a minimum amount of water and formed into disks (.339 in. diameter x .053 in. deep) in polyethylene molds with a microspatula. After drying, the disks were fractured with a Stokes Hardness Tester. The compressive strengths of the disks were obtained directly from the hardness tester. Values for the maximum tensile strengths σo were then calculated: where (P = applied compression, D = disk diameter, and t = disk thickness). Plaster disks (types A and B) that contained no setting agent showed a significant loss in strength with either dry heat or gamma radiation sterilization. Those that contained potassium sulfate (K2SO4) did not show a significant loss in strength with either sterilization technique. In all comparisons (with and without K2SO4 and with either dry heat or gamma radiation sterilization) the type B plaster had higher compressive and tensile strengths than that of the type A plaster. The type A-1 plaster however, which is specially modified for accelerated setting, was comparable to that of type B with K2SO4 in both compressive and tensile strength (Table 1).


Author(s):  
J.D. Geller ◽  
C.R. Herrington

The minimum magnification for which an image can be acquired is determined by the design and implementation of the electron optical column and the scanning and display electronics. It is also a function of the working distance and, possibly, the accelerating voltage. For secondary and backscattered electron images there are usually no other limiting factors. However, for x-ray maps there are further considerations. The energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometers (EDS) have a much larger solid angle of detection that for WDS. They also do not suffer from Bragg’s Law focusing effects which limit the angular range and focusing distance from the diffracting crystal. In practical terms EDS maps can be acquired at the lowest magnification of the SEM, assuming the collimator does not cutoff the x-ray signal. For WDS the focusing properties of the crystal limits the angular range of acceptance of the incident x-radiation. The range is dependent upon the 2d spacing of the crystal, with the acceptance angle increasing with 2d spacing. The natural line width of the x-ray also plays a role. For the metal layered crystals used to diffract soft x-rays, such as Be - O, the minimum magnification is approximately 100X. In the worst case, for the LEF crystal which diffracts Ti - Zn, ˜1000X is the minimum.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Barth

Abstract Scientific findings have indicated that psychological and social factors are the driving forces behind most chronic benign pain presentations, especially in a claim context, and are relevant to at least three of the AMA Guides publications: AMA Guides to Evaluation of Disease and Injury Causation, AMA Guides to Work Ability and Return to Work, and AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. The author reviews and summarizes studies that have identified the dominant role of financial, psychological, and other non–general medicine factors in patients who report low back pain. For example, one meta-analysis found that compensation results in an increase in pain perception and a reduction in the ability to benefit from medical and psychological treatment. Other studies have found a correlation between the level of compensation and health outcomes (greater compensation is associated with worse outcomes), and legal systems that discourage compensation for pain produce better health outcomes. One study found that, among persons with carpal tunnel syndrome, claimants had worse outcomes than nonclaimants despite receiving more treatment; another examined the problematic relationship between complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) and compensation and found that cases of CRPS are dominated by legal claims, a disparity that highlights the dominant role of compensation. Workers’ compensation claimants are almost never evaluated for personality disorders or mental illness. The article concludes with recommendations that evaluators can consider in individual cases.


2005 ◽  
pp. 133-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Balashova

The method of analyzing and modeling cyclical fluctuations of economy initiated by F. Kydland and E. Prescott - the 2004 Nobel Prize winners in Economics - is considered in the article. They proposed a new business cycle theory integrating the theory of long-run economic growth as well as the microeconomic theory of consumers and firms behavior. Simple version of general dynamic and stochastic macroeconomic model is described. The given approach which was formulated in their fundamental work "Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations" (1982) gave rise to an extensive research program and is still used as a basic instrument for investigating cyclical processes in economy nowadays.


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