Digital Commons Network^™

Model-Data Fusion In The Studies Of Terrestrial Carbon Sink, G. A. Alexandrov, D. Chan, M. Chen, K. Gurney, K. Higuchi, A. Ito, C. D. Jones, Alexander Komarov, K. Mabuchi, D. M. Matross, F. Veroustraete, W. W. Verstraeten

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Current uncertainty in quantifying the global carbon budget remains a major contributing source of uncertainty in reliably projecting future climate change. Furthermore, quantifying the global carbon budget and characterizing uncertainties have emerged as critical to a successful implementation of United National Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. Beyond fundamental quantification, attribution of the processes responsible for the so-called ‘residual terrestrial uptake’ is important to the carbon cycle communities’ ability to simulated the future response of the terrestrial biosphere to climate change and intentional sequestration activities. This paper’s objective is to describe the efforts of the workshop participants …

Ten Steps Applied To Development And Evaluation Of Process-Based Biogeochemical Models Of Estuaries, Barbara J. Robson, Ian T. Webster, David P. Hamilton, Terence Chan, Teemu Kokkonen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The procedures involved in model development may be set out ten-step process, beginning with defining the purpose of the model and ending with evaluation of the appropriateness and utility of the completed model. This process, recently outlined by Jakerman et al. [2006], is often iterative as model development is a continuous process that refines and improves the indented capacity of the model. Here, we show how the ten steps of model development are relevant to process-based biogeochemical modeling of aquatic systems, using examples from two case studies: a model of phytoplankton succession and nutrient concentrations in the Swan-Canning Estuary (Western …

Systematic Simplification Of Mechanistic Models, Neil Crout, Glen Cox, James Gibbons

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Models of environmental systems are often complex, reflecting the complexity of the systems they try and describe. This complexity is difficult to manage and, especially in the face of limited observed data, there is a risk that models become over-parameterised with the result that predictions are less reliable than they need be. An approach to investigating the influence of model complexity on prediction accuracy is to compare the performance of alternative (simpler) model formulations. However this is difficult to achieve in practice as the process of simplification can be time-consuming with the consequence that only a few alternative formulations can …

Vol. 1, No. 4, Summer 2006

Cornerstone

No abstract provided.

Bayesian Decision Networks - Going Beyond Expert Elicitation For Parameterisation And Evaluation Of Ecological Endpoints., C. A. Pollino, Barry T. Hart

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Ecological and integrative analyses routinely involve the synthesis of a range of information sources into a single model. Bayesian decision networks (BDN) are increasingly being used for this purpose because they are flexible, transparent and relatively easy to use. Indeed, BDNs offer a scientific and pragmatic approach to improve decision-making in environmental management, directly addressing management needs, while promoting stakeholder participatory processes. However, despite their advantages, many BDNs developed to meet such needs are not being developed or applied to their full potential. The majority of BDNs published to date rely only on expert opinion to parameterise and evaluate ecologically …

Mike Basin, David Wood

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

MIKE BASIN addresses water allocation, conjunctive use, reservoir operation, or water quality issues. It couples ArcGIS with hydrologic modeling to provide basin-scale solutions. The MIKE BASIN philosophy is to keep modeling simple and intuitive, yet provide in-depth insight for planning and management. In MIKE BASIN, the emphasis is on both simulation and visualization in both space and time, making it appropriate for building understanding and consensus. MIKE BASIN is a quasi-steady-state mass balance model, allowing for routed river flows. The water quality solution assumes purely advective transport. Decay during transport can be modeled. The groundwater description uses the linear reservoir …

Model-Data Fusion In The Studies Of Terrestrial Carbon Sink, G. A. Alexandrov, D. Chan, M. Chen, K. Gurney, K. Higuchi, A. Ito, C. D. Jones, Alexander Komarov, K. Mabuchi, D. M. Matross, F. Veroustraete, W. W. Verstraeten

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Current uncertainty in quantifying the global carbon budget remains a major contributing source of uncertainty in reliably projecting future climate change. Furthermore, quantifying the global carbon budget and characterizing uncertainties have emerged as critical to a successful implementation of United National Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. Beyond fundamental quantification, attribution of the processes responsible for the so-called ‘residual terrestrial uptake’ is important to the carbon cycle communities’ ability to simulated the future response of the terrestrial biosphere to climate change and intentional sequestration activities. This paper’s objective is to describe the efforts of the workshop participants …

Prescriptive Treatment Optimization Using A Genetic Algorithm: A Tool For Forest Management, John Dewey, Frederick Maier, Walter D. Potter, Donald Nute, H. M. Rauscher, Mark Twery, Peter Knopp, Scott Thomasma

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper describes research on the use of a multiobjective genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize prescriptive treatment plans for forest management. The algorithm is novel, in that (1) the plans generated by the algorithm are highly specific, stating precisely when and where treatments are to be applied; and (2) logical rules and inference engines developed for a decision support system are used to evaluate the fitness of each plan. Fitness is based upon satisfaction of varied and often incompatible goals. The current (generational) GA has been compared in experiments to hill-climbing and simulated annealing algorithms, as well as to a …

Imagine – Scenario Development For Environmental Impact Assessment Studies, T. Wagener, Y. Liu, S. Stewart, H. Hartman, M. Mahmoud

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Scenario analysis is a process of evaluating possible future events through the consideration of alternative possible (though not equally likely) outcomes (scenarios). The analysis is designed to enable improved decision-making and assessment through a more complete consideration of possible outcomes and their implications. The development of strategies for water resources planning and management and the assessment of impacts of potential environmental change are often guided by analyzing multiple future scenarios within an Integrated Modeling (IM) framework, usually driven by forcing derived from global climate models and/or possible future socio-economic changes. The process of scenario development involves making explicit and/or implicit …

Prescriptive Treatment Optimization Using A Genetic Algorithm: A Tool For Forest Management, John Dewey, Frederick Maier, Walter D. Potter, Donald Nute, H. M. Rauscher, Mark Twery, Peter Knopp, Scott Thomasma

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

This paper describes research on the use of a multiobjective genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize prescriptive treatment plans for forest management. The algorithm is novel, in that (1) the plans generated by the algorithm are highly specific, stating precisely when and where treatments are to be applied; and (2) logical rules and inference engines developed for a decision support system are used to evaluate the fitness of each plan. Fitness is based upon satisfaction of varied and often incompatible goals. The current (generational) GA has been compared in experiments to hill-climbing and simulated annealing algorithms, as well as to a …

Data Mining As A Tool For Environmental Scientists, J. M. Spate, Karina Gibert, Miquel Sànchez-Marrè, E. Frank, Joaquim Comas, Ioannis N. Athanasiadis

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Over recent years a huge library of data mining algorithms has been developed to tackle a variety of problems in fields such as medical imaging and network traffic analysis. Many of these techniques are far more flexible than more classical modelling approaches and could be usefully applied to data-rich environmental problems. Certain techniques such as Artificial Neural Networks, Clustering, Case-Based Reasoning and more recently Bayesian Decision Networks have found application in environmental modelling while other methods, for example classification and association rule extraction, have not yet been taken up on any wide scale. We propose that these and other data …

Integrated Modeling: Examining The Fate And Transport Of Contaminants In Canadian Lakes And Rivers., William Booty, David Lam, Craig Mccrimmon

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

With the ever increasing introduction of chemicals to the environment (approx. 4000 new chemicals are registered each day), scientists and program managers are faced with an apparently endless and overwhelming task of examining the possible ecological risks of these new chemicals as well as the existing chemicals in aquatic ecosystems. It is also well recognized that no single model will be capable of dealing with all of the different types of chemicals and the environments that these chemicals are released into. It is therefore necessary to be able to integrate a spectrum of best practice models into a system that …

Dealing With Uncertainty And Sensitivity Issues In Process-Based Models Of Carbon And Nitrogen Cycles In Northern Forest Ecosystems, G. R. Larocque, J. S. Bhatti, A. M. Gordon, N. Luckai, Jinxun Liu, Shuguang Liu, P. A. Arp, C. -F Zhang, Alexander Komarov, Pavel Grabarnik, M. Wattenbach, C. Peng, Jianfeng Sun, Thomas White

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Many process-based models on carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles have been developed for northern forest ecosystems. These models are widely used to evaluate the long-term decisions in forest management dealing with effects like particulate pollution, productivity and climate change. Regarding climate change, one of the key questions that have sensitive political implications is whether northern forests will sequester atmospheric C or not. Whilst many process-based models have been tested for accuracy by evaluating or validating against observed data, few have dealt with the complexity of the incorporated procedures to estimate uncertainties associated with model predictions or the sensitivity of …

On The Prediction Of The Ecological Status Of Human-Altered Streams And Its Rule-Based Interpretation, Terence A. Etchells, Alfredo Vellido, E. Martí, Paulo J. G. Lisboa, Joaquim Comas

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

The recent Water Framework Directive of the European Union set year 2015 as their target for freshwater and coastal ecosystems all across Europe to achieve good ecological status. This study concerns the analysis of the empirical data from the knowledge base of an environmental decision support system developed within the European project STREAMES. These data, which come from several low-order streams located mostly on the Mediterranean region, consist of measurements of several physical, chemical and biological variables. We aim to classify these data according to the ecological status of the streams they correspond to, where stream nutrient retention efficiency (a …

Upscaling Terrestrial Carbon Dynamics From Sites To Regions With Uncertainty Measures: The Gems Experience, Shuguang Liu, Z. Li, Jinxun Liu, Thomas R. Loveland, M. Chen, Larry L. Tieszen

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Upscaling the spatial and temporal changes of carbon stocks and fluxes from sites to regions is challenging owing to the spatial and temporal variances and covariance of driving variables and the uncertainties in both the model and the input data. Although various modeling approaches have been developed to facilitate the upscaling process, few deal with error transfer from model input to output, and error propagation in time and space. We develop the General Ensemble Biogeochemical Modeling System (GEMS) for upscaling carbon stocks and fluxes from sites to regions with measures of uncertainty. GEMS relies on site-scale biogeochemical models (e.g., the …

Numerical Simulation Of Flow And Tracer Transport In A Disinfection Contact Tank, C. Gualtieri

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Chlorine is extensively used to disinfect drinking water supply. However, the design of chlorine contact tank is usually based on the volume displacement criterion, paying attention that detention time would be at least of half an hour. This criterion relies upon the assumption that plug-flow conditions hold along the tank. However, the existence and arrangement of baffles in the tank, and the tank inlet and outlet configurations can result in a much more complex flow pattern, where turbulent mixing, dead-zones and short-circuiting exist. This situation could result in an inefficient use of chlorine due to the formation of potentially carcinogenic …

Tornado: A Versatile And Efficient Modelling And Virtual Experimentation Kernel For Water Quality Systems, Filip Claeys, Dirk J. W. De Pauw, Lorenzo Benedetti, Ingmar Nopens, Peter A. Vanrolleghem

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Recently, a new kernel for modelling and virtual experimentation (i.e. any evaluation of a model) in the domain of water quality management was developed. This kernel was named “Tornado” and will be included in the new generation of the WEST product family, as well as in several other products (e.g. DHI’s MOUSE-TRAP) and projects. Most important issues during development were versatility and efficiency. This paper focuses mainly on the rationale for the new development, and the major features of the resulting kernel. It is argued that classical approaches (such as the adoption of MATLAB/SIMULINK, custom FORTRAN codes and/or domain-specific simulators) …

Character Education Instruction Integrated Through Literature In Elementary Classrooms, Jamie Marshall

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This country is suffering from a values vacuum, clearly evidenced by the increase in youth violence, as revealed in this researcher's review of literature in Chapter 2. The purpose of this project was to facilitate elementary school educators in their critical need for the implementation of character education in their classrooms. To address the need for positive character education and development, this researcher developed a 6 week literature based curricular unit. The project was designed to provide Grades 1-3 educators with six introductory lessons and strategies for the integration of each of six core character traits throughout core curriculum. Further, …

Analysis Of Minority Student Recruiting Within The Denver Health Paramedic School, Mike Nugent

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Since its inception in 1999, the Denver Health Paramedic School has had central to its mission the successful recruitment of minority paramedic students. Thus far, the education program has failed to produce a student body representative of minority ratios found within the state of Colorado. An action research model was employed to study the myriad of issues affecting successful minority recruitment. Through data collection including training program surveys and minority paramedic graduate interviews, the causative factors for this recruitment failure were identified and data-driven intervention strategies to improve this situation were recommended. Following consultation and discussion between the research collaborative …

Reexamining Relational Youth Ministry: Implications From The Theology Of Bonhoeffer, Andrew Root

Faculty Publications

Youth ministry often focuses on building relationships between youth ministers and adolescents. But to what end? A relationship designed to influence the other is no relationship and is unworthy of Christ. In a true relationship Christians must be willing fully to share the place of another.

The Joint Archives Quarterly, Volume 16.02: Summer 2006, Michael Douma, Geoffrey D. Reynolds

The Joint Archives Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Macalester Today Summer 2006, Macalester College

Macalester Today

No abstract provided.

Acer Enews 07 July 2006, Acer

ACER eNews Archive 2001-2013

No abstract provided.

Identification Of Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) Marajoara (Diptera: Culicidae) In Bolivia Using Polymerase Chain Reaction And A Restriction Endonuclease, Gary Fritz, C. Brelsfoard, R. Rodriguez

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) marajoara Galvão & Damasceno (Diptera: Culicidae) is a member of the Albitarsis cryptic species complex and is a primary vector of human Plasmodium in parts of Brazil. We report the first record of An. marajoara in the department of Cochabamba and confirm its presence in the department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We also describe a PCR protocol producing a single amplicon (≈340 bp) of a section of the internal transcribed spacer 2 specific for members of the Albitarsis species complex; the polymerase chain reaction protocol did not amplify the DNA of 17 other species in the subgenus Nyssorhynchus. …

Ex Libris, Summer 2006, West Virginia University. Library.

Ex Libris: The WVU Libraries Magazine

Campus Perks Up to Eliza’s, Bacon Collection Enriches Rare Books Room and WV History OnView Hits 12,000 Photos

Cc: Connecticut College Magazine, Summer 2006, Connecticut College

Alumni News/Connecticut College Magazine

No abstract provided.

Assessing Livestock Gross Margin For Cattle, Matthew A. Diersen

SDSU Extension Fact Sheets

No abstract provided.

Inquiry, Summer 2006, Office Of Vice President For Research

Research and Discovery News

• NSF grand for a promising career
• Technology commercialization
• Research development award recipients 2006
• Answering the call
• Grant awards

Longwood Magazine 2006 Vol 07 No 01 Summer, Longwood University

Alumni Newsletters & Bulletins

No abstract provided.

The Value Of New Jersey's Ecosystem Services And Natural Capital, Robert Costanza, Matthew A. Wilson, Austin Troy, Alexey Voinov, Shang Liu, John D'Agostino

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

This report summarizes the results of a two-year study of the economic value of New Jersey's natural capital. Natural capital consists of those components of the natural environment that provide a long-term stream of benefits to individual people and to society as a whole; the value of natural capital is defined in this report as the present value of that benefit stream. Many of the benefits provided by natural capital come from ecological systems ('ecosystems'); an ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and their nonliving environment, all interacting as a functional unit. The benefits provided …