Digital Commons Network^™

Software Tools For Large Scale Interactive Hydrodynamic Modeling, Gennadii Donchyts, Fedor Baart, Arthur Van Dam, Bert Jagers, Sander Van Der Pijl

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Running hydrodynamic models interactively allows both visual exploration and change of model state during simulation. One of the main characteristics of an interactive model is that it should provide immediate feedback to the user, for example respond to changes in model state or view settings. For this reason, such features are usually only available for models with a relatively small number of computational cells, which are used mainly for demonstration and educational purposes. It would be useful if interactive modeling would also work for models typically used in consultancy projects involving large scale simulations. This results in a number of …

Inverse Modeling Of Groundwater System Using Coupled Pso-Mlpg Techniques, Swathi Boddula, Eldho T I

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

The effective management of groundwater systems relies on the adequate knowledge of its hydro-geological parameters. In large aquifer systems, it is often computationally expensive to estimate the spatially distributed aquifer parameters. Inverse modeling of these parameters are usually required in simulation of flow and contaminant transport in the problem domain for its meaningful system prediction. In the present study, a new approach for inverse modeling is adopted based on Meshless Local Petrov Galerkin (MLPG) flow simulation model which is coupled with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) model. MLPG is one of the meshless techniques, which are recently developed to solve many …

Hydrauric Analysis On Water Stage Change Along The Submerged Weir And Tides Effect In Han River, Suk-Hwan Jang, Ji-Hwan Oh, Hong-Soo Kim, Man-Kyu Song, Dal-Sik Woo

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Sinkok submerged weir in Han river, Seoul Korea was built in early 1980’s for the purpose of water level maintenance and protection from sea water intrusion from the estuary. Its length is almost 1 km and 2.4 meter height which has two composite structures of rigid and movable weir. Huge wetland developed as the results of weir construction just down to the weir. However, recently social conflicts for the weir removal occurred for the river rehabilitation and aqua-eco system recover. This study focused on hydraulic analysis, especially water level changes in terms of with and without submerged weir along the …

Hydrometeorological Data Collection, Publication And Analysis Using Open-Source Hardware And Software, Paul Celicourt, Michael Piasecki

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Hydrometeorological data is exiguous in developing countries due to the exorbitant price of actual weather monitoring systems acquisition and communication infrastructure built mostly in developed countries. Another impediment to large scale data collection in developed countries is the lack or limited local resources to ensure the maintenance of stations equipments. However, recent advanced progresses made in information and communication technologies have paved the way to access to a large set of free software and low-cost and low-power hardware to sense and monitor the environment. Many researchers and practitioners have grasped the opportunities offered by those technological advances, but, have applied …

A Web Gis Based Simulation Tool For Coastal Urban Flood Prediction, T. Iype Eldho, A.T. Kulkarni, J. Mohanty, E.P. Rao, B.K. Mohan

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Flooding in urban areas due to heavy rainfall coupled with high tides is a major concern affecting development of coastal cities all over the world. There is a spectrum of models such as 2D distributed flood models to simplified storage cell models using analytical expressions. All such models demand a high level of skill to handle geospatial data making it difficult for decision makers. Thus development of web GIS based hydrological application becomes essential. Traditionally, most web GIS based applications have used conceptual model because of low data requirements and parameter calibrations. In this paper web GIS based integrated flood …

Induction Of Governing Differential Equations From Hydrologic Time Series Data Using Genetic Programming, Jayashree Chadalawada, Vladan Babovic

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Induction of Governing Differential Equations from Hydrologic Time Series Data using Genetic Programming Jayashree Chadalawada and Vladan Babovic This contribution describes an evolutionary method for identifying causal model from the observed time-series data. In the present case, we use a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) as the causal model. Usefulness of the approach is demonstrated on real-world time series of hydrologic processes and the unknown function of governing factors are determined. To explore the evolutionary search space more effectively, the right hand sides of ODEs are inferred by genetic programming (GP). The importance of different fitness criteria, as well …

Dynamic Water Quality Modelling Of Tannery Effluents – Bogotá River (Colombia), Tania Fernanda Santos Santos, Luis Alejandro Camacho

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Untreated tannery discharges to rivers are still a common practice in developing countries causing severe pollution. In this paper the development and application of a dynamic water quality model to simulate the impact caused by tannery effluents with high contents of sulphides, chlorides and chromium is presented. The proposed model subroutines, designed and implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK in this work, were coupled to an existing efficient aggregated dynamic river transport and water quality model of conventional determinands. A Chromium (Cr) transport and fate modeling subroutine was implemented to determine the speciation of Cr3 and Cr6 and the dissolved and particulate fractions …

Modeling The Effects Sea Level Rise On Flooding In The Lower Niger River, Zahrah Naankwat Musa, Ioana Popescu, Arthur E. Mynett

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

The Niger River bifurcates into the Nun and Forcados rivers as it flows through the Niger delta, with the Forcados River taking 46% of the discharge and the Nun River taking 54%. Within the last fifteen years the Niger delta coastal zone has experienced peak floods between September and October due to intense rains from upstream. Many studies including the United Nations Framework on Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) indicate that the Niger delta region could be inundated with water due to the effects of climate change. According to local experts, the Niger delta is subsiding at over 25mm/annum; a …

Graduate School And University Center Archives Finding Aid - Record Group V-B: Presidents' Files: Proshansky, Graduate Center Library, Cuny

Finding Aids

This is part of the finding aid to the Graduate School and University Center (GSUC) Archives. Record Group V-B is the papers of Harold M. Proshansky from when he was president of the GSUC (1972-1990).

Should Sociology Care About Theories Of Human Nature?: Some Durkheimian Considerations On The ‘Social’ Individual, Michael W. Raphael

Graduate Student Publications and Research

Theories of human nature underlie major positions not only in social science but also in the public sphere and its relationship to inequality. When it comes to Durkheim, his theory of human nature is often confused with his critiques of intellectual individualism and his historical argument concerning moral individualism. This paper proposes to analytically separate Durkheim’s apparently intertwined positions to show Durkheim’s concept of the ‘social individual’ as found within his theory of human nature. This is the difference between society as the object of analysis where the individual is slowly expressed historically in regard to the transition from mechanical …

The Hydro-Modeling Platform (Hydromp) - Enabling Cloud-Based Environmental Modeling Using Software-As-A-Service (Saas) Cloud Computing, Ronghua Liu, Jiahua Wei, Haiyan Liu

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Hydro-model has become important tool for water resources management, with higher demand in simulation precision and speed of decision support, models designed for sectoral application becoming outmoded, and original mode that massive schemes are run sequentially cannot meet the real-time requirements, especially with the computation increase by finer discretization granularity and broader research range. Water management organizations are increasingly looking for new generation tools that allow integration across domains, and can provide extensible computing resources to assist their decision making processes. In response to this need, a hydro-modeling platform(HydroMP) based on cloud computing is designed and implemented, which can deployed …

Real-Time Water Decision Support Services For Droughts, Tingting Zhao, Barbara Minsker, Jong Lee, Fernando Salas, David R. Maidment, Cedric David

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Through application of computational methods and an integrated information system, real-time data and river modeling systems can help decision makers identify more effective actions for management practice. The purpose of this study is to develop a real-time decision support model to recommend optimal curtailments during water shortages for decision makers. To enable ease of use and re-use, the workflows (i.e., analysis and model steps) of the real-time decision support model are published as Web services delivered through an internet browser, including model inputs, a published workflow service, and visualized outputs. The model consists of two major components: the real-time river …

The Benthic Geoecology Model Within The Modular System For Shelves And Coasts (Mossco), Mohammad Hassan Nasermoaddeli, Carsten Lemmen, Richard Hofmeister, Frank Koesters, Knut Klingbeil

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

The Modular System for Shelves and Coasts (MOSSCO) integrates physical, biological, chemical and geological models of shelves and coasts for the North Sea and Baltic Sea in an exchangeable way. The MOSSCO software forms a coupling framework for exchanging data and models, which distinguishes between physical domains (Earth System compartments such as the benthic and pelagic zone) and processes (such as benthic geochemistry, physical erosion and biological stabilization). Information exchange across physical domains with different grids and time steps are managed using the ESMF (Earth System Modelling Framework), whereas coupling of processes within individual modules is achieved using FABM (Framework …

Interactive Web-Based Flood Simulation System As An Education Platform For Hydrological Concepts, Ibrahim Demir

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Recent developments in web technologies make it easy to manage and visualize large data sets with general public. Novel visualization techniques and dynamic user interfaces allow users to create realistic environments, and interact with data to gain insight from simulations and environmental observations. The floodplain simulation system is a web-based 3D interactive flood simulation environment to create real world flooding scenarios. The simulation systems provides a visually striking platform with realistic terrain information, and water simulation. Students can create and modify predefined scenarios, control environmental parameters, and evaluate flood mitigation techniques. The web-based simulation system provides an environment for students …

Real-Time Flood Forecasting Systems In Flanders, Joost Dewelde, Sven Verbeke, Els Quintelier, Pieter Cabus, Annemie Vermeulen, Thomas Vansteenkiste, Inge De Jongh, Kris Cauwenberghs

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

As a highly urbanized and flood prone region, Flanders has experienced multiple floods causing significant damage in the past. In response to the floods of 1998 and 2002 the Flemish Environment Agency, responsible for managing 1 400 km of unnavigable rivers, started setting up a real time flood forecasting system in 2003. Currently the system covers almost 2 000 km of unnavigable rivers, for which flood forecasts are accessible online (www.waterinfo.be). The forecasting system comprises more than 1 000 hydrologic and 50 hydrodynamic models which are supplied with radar rainfall, rainfall forecasts and on-site observations. Forecasts for the next 2 …

Water Resources Contribution To Economic Growth In Erdos City: Model And Demonstration, Yong Zhao, Guiqing Jiang, Fuliang Yu, Jiaqi Zhai, Benqing Ruan, Kai Wang

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Erdos City has been one of the fastest growing economic regions in China in the past twenty years, whose average annual economic growth rate has exceeded 20%. However, water resources shortage is becoming increasingly significant in constraint on social development and has gradually developed to be one of primary weakest factors. Based on the analysis of main factors promoting economic growth in Erdos City with Cobb-Douglas production function in economics, the economic growth model involving water resources availability and coal output has been established and the data conversion method considering water consumption efficiency and water consumption structural change has been …

Development And Testing Of Data Driven Nowcasting Models Of Beach Water Quality, Jainy Mavani, Lianghao Chen, Darko Joksimovic, Songnian Li

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Beach water issues are gaining worldwide attention due to their impact on health and other environmental problems. The Ontario beaches require beach managers to issue swimming advisories when water quality standards are exceeded since users of recreational waters may be exposed to elevated pathogen levels through various point and non-point sources. Typical daily notifications rely on microbial analysis of indicator organisms (e.g. Escherichia coli), which require 18-24 hours to provide an adequate response. This research evaluated the use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Evolutionary Polynomial Regression (EPR) for real time prediction of E.coli in the beach waters of Toronto …

Vulnerability Index For Urban Flooding: Understanding Social Vulnerabilities And Risks, Mae Brigitt Bernadel Loyloy Villordon, Philippe Gourbesville

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

According to the World Risk Report released by the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, the Philippines is ranked third globally in terms of disaster risk. One of those disaster risks is flooding which poses a serious challenge to development and the lives of the people. Public health risks and social vulnerability were usually overlooked, undermined and only very little attention is given. Thus, this study focuses on these aspects. This study was an exploratory step towards assessing vulnerability particularly to fluvial flooding, it was a rapid assessment of the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) of the …

A Web-Based Hydroinformatic Platform For Water Quality Modelling And Simulation In A River Basin, Jose Pinho, Jose Vieira

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

In recent years a major effort has been done to make water quality modelling tools available for water resources management at a river basin scale. The European water framework directive clear states that these tools must be used in making the diagnostic of surface water bodies water quality status and to anticipate the impact of measures to be implemented in order to achieve a good ecological status by 2015 in European waters. In order to make modelling tools usable by all the actors enrolled in water resources management process at river basins, these tools must be simple, user-friendly and robust. …

Application Of Water Cycle Algorithm For Optimal Cost Design Of Water Distribution Systems, Ali Sadollah, Do Guen Yoo, Jafar Yazdi, Joong Hoon Kim, Younghwan Choi

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

Water distribution system (WDS) design is considered as a class of large combinatorial non-linear optimization problems having complex implicit constraints such as conservation of mass and energy equations. Due to the complexity and large feasible solution, traditional optimization techniques are not capable to tackle these kinds of problems. Recently, applications of metaheuristic algorithms, due to their efficiencies and performances, are increased dramatically. In this paper, water cycle algorithm (WCA), a recently developed population-based algorithm, coupled with hydraulic simulator, EPANET, are applied for finding the optimal cost design of WDS. The performance of the WCA is shown using well-known Balerma benchmark …

Graduate School And University Center Archives Finding Aid - Record Group I: Subjects, Graduate Center Library, Cuny

Finding Aids

This is part of the finding aid to the Graduate School and University Center (GSUC) Archives, City University of New York. Record Group I lists the subjects covered in the collection.

Review: Zinc’S Functional Significance In The Vertebrate Retina, Harris Ripps, Richard L. Chappell

Publications and Research

This review covers a broad range of topics related to the actions of zinc on the cells of the vertebrate retina. Much of this review relies on studies in which zinc was applied exogenously, and therefore the results, albeit highly suggestive, lack physiologic significance. This view stems from the fact that the concentrations of zinc used in these studies may not be encountered under the normal circumstances of life. This caveat is due to the lack of a zinc-specific probe with which to measure the concentrations of Zn2+ that may be released from neurons or act upon them. However, a …

Differential Basolateral–Apical Distribution Of Scavenger Receptor, Class B, Type I In Cultured Cells And The Liver, Stefanie Fruhwürth, Werner J. Kovacs, Robert Bittman, Simon Messner, Clemens Röhrl, Herbert Stangl

Publications and Research

The high-density lipoprotein (HDL) receptor, scavenger receptor class B, type I (SR-BI), mediates selective cholesteryl ester uptake into the liver, which finally results in cholesterol secretion into the bile. Despite several reports, the distribution of hepatic SR-BI between the sinusoidal and canalicular membranes is still under debate. We present immunohistological data using specific markers showing that the bulk of SR-BI is present in sinusoidal membranes and, to a lesser extent, in canalicular membranes in murine and human liver sections. In addition, SR-BI was detected in preparations of rat liver canalicular membranes. We also compared the in vivo findings to HepG2 …

Collective Behaviour Without Collective Order In Wild Swarms Of Midges, Alessandro Attanasi, Andrea Cavagna, Lorenzo Del Castello, Irene Giardina, Stefania Melillo, Leonardo Parisi, Oliver Pohl, Bruno Rossaro, Edward Shen, Edmondo Silvestri, Massimilano Viale

Publications and Research

Collective behaviour is a widespread phenomenon in biology, cutting through a huge span of scales, from cell colonies up to bird flocks and fish schools. The most prominent trait of collective behaviour is the emergence of global order: individuals synchronize their states, giving the stunning impression that the group behaves as one. In many biological systems, though, it is unclear whether global order is present. A paradigmatic case is that of insect swarms, whose erratic movements seem to suggest that group formation is a mere epiphenomenon of the independent interaction of each individual with an external landmark. In these cases, …

Comorbidity Of Infectious Diseases And Anxiety Disorders In Adults And Its Association With Quality Of Life: A Community Study, Cornelia Witthauer, Andrew T. Gloster, Andrea Hans Meyer, Renee D. Goodwin, Roselind Lieb

Publications and Research

Objective: Infectious diseases and anxiety disorders are common and both are associated with substantial burden to individual, families, and society. A better understanding of their association may be helpful in explicating possible etiological mechanisms related to both. The goal of the current study was to investigate the relationship between specific infectious diseases and anxiety disorders among adults in the community, and to examine whether the co-occurrence of the two is associated with poorer quality of life compared to subjects with one or neither condition.

Methods: We used data from the 1998 German Mental Health survey with 4181 subjects aged 18–65. …

Inter- And Intralimb Adaptations To A Sensory Perturbation During Activation Of The Serotonin System After A Low Spinal Cord Transection In Neonatal Rats, Misty M. Strain, Sierra D. Kauer, Tina Kao, Michele R. Brumley

Publications and Research

Activation of the serotonin system has been shown to induce locomotor activity following a spinal cord transection. This study examines how the isolated spinal cord adapts to a sensory perturbation during activation of the serotonergic system. Real-time and persistent effects of a perturbation were examined in intact and spinal transected newborn rats. Rats received a spinal surgery (sham or low thoracic transection) on postnatal day 1 and were tested 9 days later. At test, subjects were treated with the serotonergic receptor agonist quipazine (3.0 mg/kg) to induce stepping behavior. Half of the subjects experienced range of motion (ROM) restriction during …

Transpinal And Transcortical Stimulation Alter Corticospinal Excitability And Increase Spinal Output, Maria Knikou

Publications and Research

The objective of this study was to assess changes in corticospinal excitability and spinal output following noninvasive transpinal and transcortical stimulation in humans. The size of the motor evoked potentials (MEPs), induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and recorded from the right plantar flexor and extensor muscles, was assessed following transcutaneous electric stimulation of the spine (tsESS) over the thoracolumbar region at conditioning-test (C-T) intervals that ranged from negative 50 to positive 50 ms. The size of the transpinal evoked potentials (TEPs), induced by tsESS and recorded from the right and left plantar flexor and extensor muscles, was assessed following …

Increasing Maternal Or Post-Weaning Folic Acid Alters Gene Expression And Moderately Changes Behavior In The Offspring, Subit Barua, Kathryn K. Chadman, Salomon Kuizon, Diego Buenaventura, Nathan W. Stapley, Felicia Ruocco, Umme Begum, Sara R. Guariglia, W. Ted Brown, Mohamad Junaid

Publications and Research

Background: Studies have indicated that altered maternal micronutrients and vitamins influence the development of newborns and altered nutrient exposure throughout the lifetime may have potential health effects and increased susceptibility to chronic diseases. In recent years, folic acid (FA) exposure has significantly increased as a result of mandatory FA fortification and supplementation during pregnancy. Since FA modulates DNA methylation and affects gene expression, we investigated whether the amount of FA ingested during gestation alters gene expression in the newborn cerebral hemisphere, and if the increased exposure to FA during gestation and throughout the lifetime alters behavior in C57BL/6J mice.

Methods …

A Good Compromise: Rapid And Robust Species Proxies For Inventorying Biodiversity Hotspots Using The Terebridae (Gastropoda: Conoidea), Maria Vittoria Modica, Nicolas Puillandre, Magalie Castelin, Yu Zhang, Mandë Holford

Publications and Research

Devising a reproducible approach for species delimitation of hyperdiverse groups is an ongoing challenge in evolutionary biology. Speciation processes combine modes of passive and adaptive trait divergence requiring an integrative taxonomy approach to accurately generate robust species hypotheses. However, in light of the rapid decline of diversity on Earth, complete integrative approaches may not be practical in certain species-rich environments. As an alternative, we applied a two-step strategy combining ABGD (Automated Barcode Gap Discovery) and Klee diagrams, to balance speed and accuracy in producing primary species hypotheses (PSHs). Specifically, an ABGD/Klee approach was used for species delimitation in the Terebridae, …

Punishment Without End, Douglas N. Evans

Publications and Research

Criminal justice punishments are an investment that societies make to protect the safety and order of communities. Following decades of rising prison populations, however, U.S. policymakers are beginning to wonder if they have invested too much in punishment. Policies adopted in previous decades now incarcerate large numbers of Americans and impose considerable costs on states. Mass incarceration policies are costly and potentially iatrogenic—i.e., they may transform offenders into repeat offenders. Public officials and citizens alike often assume that known offenders pose a permanent risk of future offending. This belief entangles millions of offenders in the justice system for life, with …