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Above-ground biomass change accumulated during four growth seasons in a hemi-boreal forest was predicted using airborne L- and P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter. The radar data were collected in the BioSAR 2007 and BioSAR 2010 campaigns over the Remningstorp test site in southern Sweden. Regression models for biomass change were developed from biomass maps created using airborne LiDAR data and field measurements. To facilitate training and prediction on image pairs acquired at different dates, a backscatter offset correction method for L-band data was developed and evaluated. The correction, based on the HV/VV backscatter ratio, facilitated predictions across image pairs almost identical to those obtained using data from the same image pair for both training and prediction. For P-band, previous positive results using an offset correction based on the HH/VV ratio were validated. The best L-band model achieved a root mean square error (RMSE) of 21 t/ha, and the best P-band model achieved an RMSE of 19 t/ha. Those accuracies are similar to that of the LiDAR-based biomass change of 18 t/ha. The limitation of using LiDAR-based data for training was considered. The findings demonstrate potential for improved biomass change predictions from L-band backscatter despite varying environmental conditions and calibration uncertainties.

The objective of this study was to estimate forest variables using TanDEM-X interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data acquired over the Shastkalate forest of Gorgan in northern Iran. Inventory variables, including diameter at breast height, tree height (Lorey’s mean tree height), basal area and volume, were collected from 112 circular sample plots with a size of 0.1 ha. Interferometric phase height and coherence were computed from TanDEM-X data. Stepwise multiple linear regression was used to develop models describing the relationship between field-derived forest variables and the InSAR based statistical metrics. The validation was carried out using the leave-one-out cross-validation method. The estimation accuracy results in terms of relative RMSE for Lorey’s mean tree height, basal area and volume were 11.0, 34.1, and 37.8%, respectively, whereas the corresponding figures for R2adj were 32.0, 10.0, and 16.0%, respectively. The results were good enough for estimating forest variables and it was concluded that TanDEM-X could be used in Hyrcanian hardwood forests.

Implementation of diffuse ceiling ventilation (DCV) is slowly gaining momentum and applications in building ventilation have taken off with countries like Denmark, Finland and Netherlands taking the lead in Europe. However, DCV is yet to gain a foothold in Sweden and so not many installations are known, and their performance in relation to Swedish building practice is not yet established. A school in southern Sweden was subsequently renovated and two classrooms were equipped with a sound-absorbent suspended ceiling compatible with DCV. DCV has possible benefits for educational environments including improved thermal comfort as well as lower costs and noise levels. However, it is currently still unknown how supply conditions in the plenum affect the diffusion of air and resulting conditions within the room. To assess airflow characteristics and whether these influence flow conditions in the classroom, we investigated and compared the performance of DCV with two different supply conditions in the plenum. Air speeds and temperature distribution measurements in the plenum and classroom were performed with constant temperature anemometers and thermocouples respectively. The general observation from this study and the system setup herein is that airflow and temperature characteristics in the classroom were independent of the airflow conditions in the plenum. Further investigations in a controlled climate chamber are recommended to investigate and optimise system performance in accordance with Swedish building practice.

The focus of this article is the ways in which Gisèle Pineau and Fabienne Kanor are positioned and position themselves in relation to the divide between on the one hand French and the other Francophone literature. Presentations of the authors in editorial paratexts as well as interviews and essays written by the writers in question are analyzed. The result shows that both editorial paratext and authorial discourse place Pineau almost exclusively in the category “guadeloupean”. However, from the studied texts cannot be determined whether this characterization makes a French or a Francophone writer out of her. In Kanor’s case, the authorial discourse violently rejects the label Francophone without embracing Frenchness either. One possible interpretation of the result would consist in saying that the rejection of the term Francophone in the editorial paratext as well as in the authorial discourse puts into question its very use. Cet article traite la manière dont Gisèle Pineau et Fabienne Kanor sont positionnées et se positionnent par rapport aux deux pôles de la littérature française d’un côté et francophone de l’autre. L’analyse porte sur des présentations des auteures sous forme de paratexte éditorial, mais aussi sur des interviews et des essais écrits par les écrivaines en question. Le résultat montre que le paratexte éditorial aussi bien que le discours auctorial placent Pineau de manière quasi exclusive dans la catégorie « guadeloupéenne ». Cependant, les textes étudiés ne permettent pas de déterminer si cette caractérisation fait d’elle une auteure française ou francophone. Pour ce qui est de Kanor, le discours auctorial rejette de façon véhémente l’appellatif francophone sans pour autant se positionner en tant qu’auteure française. Une interprétation possible du résultat consisterait à dire que le terme de francophone tend à être rejeté autant par le paratexte éditorial que par le discours auctorial, mettant ainsi en question son utilisation.

The statistical framework of data assimilation provides methods for utilizing new data for obtaining up-to-date forest data: existing forest data are forecasted and combined with each new remote sensing data set. This new paradigm for updating forest database, well known from other fields of study, will provide a framework for utilizing all available remote sensing data in proportion to their quality to improve prediction. It also solves the problem that not all remote sensing data sets provide information for the entire area of interest, since areas with no remote sensing data can be forecasted until new remote sensing data become available. In this study, extended Kalman filtering was used for assimilating data from 19 TanDEM-X InSAR images on 137 sample plots, each of 10-meter radius at a test site in southern Sweden over a period of 4 years. At almost all time points data assimilation resulted in predictions closer to the reference value than predictions based on data from that single time point. For the study variables Lorey's mean height, basal area, and stem volume, the median reduction in root mean square error was 0.4 m, 0.9 m2/ha, and 15.3 m3/ha (2, 3, and 6 percentage points), respectively.

Texture in materials is important as it contributes to anisotropy in the bulk mechanical properties. Ti-6Al-4V built with the additive manufacturing process (AM) electron beam melting (EBM) has been found to have anisotropic mechanical properties. Therefore, this work has been performed to investigate the texture variations of EBM built Ti-6Al-4V with neutron time of flight (TOF). For the work, samples were produced with different build geometries off-set by 90 degrees. A cast sample was additionally analyzed to investigate the bulk texture of conventionally manufactured material. Microstructural characterization was performed and the cast material was found to have a coarse colony α microstructure, whereas the EBM built material had a finer basket weave microstructure. Overall, the texture of the EBM built material was found to be weak having an multiple of random distribution (MRD) index of ~1 for the α phase, whilst the cast material possessed more than twice the amount of preferred orientation i.e. MRD 2.51 for the α phase.

In a cohort of premature infants, consecutively included in the study at birth and followed to 18 months of age, the neonatal status of essential fatty acids and longchain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) were investigated and correlated to the development at 40 and 44 weeks gestational age and at 3, 6, 10 and 18 months corrected age. The diet reported by the mothers contained low EFA, 98% had an intake < 1 energy% of n-3 fatty acids. Fatty acid analyses were performed in early breast milk and in mothers’ and infants’ plasma phospholipids early after birth and at gestational age 40 and 44 weeks. The development of the infants were assessed with Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (BNBAS) at 40 and 44 weeks and with Bayley’s Scales of Infant Development (Second Edition (BSID-II) at 3, 6, 10 and 18 months corrected age. At 40 weeks and 3 months videotapes were made of the infants’ spontaneous motor behavior to assess the quality of their general movements. Adjustments for confounding background factors were made in multiple logistic regression analyses and mothers’ education had the highest impact of the background variables. At all ages tested the n-6 fatty acid concentrations, expressed as total concentrations, LA, AA or as ratios to n-3 fatty acids in breast milk and early plasma phospholipids were negatively associated with development. Positive associations with LCPUFA, especially DHA, were mainly found after 10 months of age. Both mental and motor developments had similar pattern of associations, fatty acid concentrations and background factors explaining 20-50% (R2) of the developmental scores. This was only an observational study, and it cannot be excluded that the highly negative influence of n- 6 fatty acids was an effect of the low intake of n-3 fatty acids, which in the context of the changes generally seen in Western diet imply urgent need for larger studies.

Early detection and treatment of psychological problems amongst refugee and immigrant youth is crucial to improve their developmental outcomes and their social integration. Multiple informants approach is a standard practice in detecting psychological problems. Based on its extensive empirical use, this approach is recommended in order to avoid bias or misinterpretation during the assessment of the youth mental health needs. However, very few studies have investigated the inter-informant agreement between teachers and youth in a multiethnic context. The current study explores teacher-youth inter-informant agreement in a culturally heterogeneous sample of refugee and immigrant adolescents from three high schools in Montreal. The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was administered to 113 recently arrived migrant adolescents (female, n = 55; male, n= 58) to assess their own emotional and behavioural symptoms. The SDQ was also administered to their teachers (n = 7) so that a comparison between self- and teacher reports could be made. Teacher-youth agreement was significant for the Emotional symptoms subscale, but this inter-informant agreement was significant for males only. These results underscore the need to raise school personnel awareness about potential undetected emotional problems in newly arrived refugee and immigrant female adolescents.

Background: Partnership with parents is a vital part of pediatric medical education, yet few studies have examined parent attitudes towards learners in pediatric settings. Methods: Questionnaires were used to determine parent and student assessment of professional and clinical skills (primary outcome) and parent attitudes towards 3rd year medical students (secondary outcome) at the University of Alberta. Chi Square, Kendall’s Tau and Kappa coefficients were calculated to compare parent and student responses in 8 areas: communication, respect, knowledge, listening, history taking, physical examination, supervision, and overall satisfaction. Results: Overall satisfaction with medical student involvement by parents was high: 56.7% of all parents ranked the encounter as ‘excellent’. Areas of lesser satisfaction included physician supervision of students. Compared to the parent assessment, students tended to underrate many of their skills, including communication, history taking and physical exam. There was no relationship between parent demographics and their attitude to rating any of the students’ skills. Conclusions: Parents were satisfied with medical student involvement in the care of their children. Areas identified for improvement included increased supervision of students in both history taking and physical examination. This is one of the largest studies examining parent attitudes towards pediatric students. The results may enhance undergraduate curriculum development and teaching in pediatric ambulatory clinics and strengthen the ongoing partnership between the community and teaching clinics.

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Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage is becoming more frequent with increased traffic and loading conditions in the railway industry. Defects which are characterized by a two-lobe darkened surface and a V-shaped surface-breaking crack are often so-called squats. The origination and propagation of squats in railway rails is the topic of many recent studies; the associated crack networks develop with complicated geometry near the surface of rails that is difficult to characterise using most non-destructive methods. The cracks can be examined with repeated metallographic sectioning, but the process is time-consuming and destructive. In order to reduce time, as well as information and material loss, high-resolution and high-energy X-ray imaging of railway rails was done in the current study. Combining the exposures from a range of angles using image analysis, a 3D representation of the complex crack network is achieved. The latter was complemented with metallographic sectioning to determine the accuracy of prediction of the geometrical reconstruction.

Haynes 282 is a newly introduced Ni-based superallony, developed to provide a combination of high-temperature mechanical properties, thermal stability and processability. The present contribution investigates the effect of dynamic strain aging (DSA) on the deformation behaviour of Haynes 282 during monotonic and cyclic loading. It is shown that DSA (presumably related to carbon diffusion based on rough estimates of the activation energy) completely dominates the development of the stress during cycling at intermediate temperatures, leading to extensive cyclic hardening and serrated yielding. However, no clear effects on the fatigue life or the resulting dislocation structure could be observed. The tensile properties were not severely affected, in spite of the presence of extensive serrated yielding, although a reduction in ductility was observed in the DSA temperature regime. During monotonic loading at lower strain rates indications of an additional DSA mechanism due to substitutional elements were observed.

Includes the following reviews: p. 101. Ann-Marie Svensson. Lightfoot, D., The Development of Language, Acquisition, Change, and Evolution. p. 101-103. Marko Modiano. Ronowicz, E. & Yallop, C. (eds), English: One Language, Different Cultures. p. 103-105. Angela Karstadt. Klintborg, S., The Transience of American English. p. 105-106. Mats Mobärg. Pinker, S., Words and Rules. The Ingredients of Language. p. 106-107. Åke Persson. Cartmell, D. & Whelehan, I. (eds), Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text. p. 108. Monica Armini. Rivkin, J. & Ryan, M. (eds), Literary Theory: An Anthology. p. 108-109. Peter Boxall. Paul, R., Dissonant Voices: Literature and Society in Britain from Chaucer to the Present Day. p. 109-110. Maria Proitsaki. Dove, R., On the Bus with Rosa Parks. p. 110-111. Ronald Paul. Arundhati, R., The Cost of Living. p. 111. Sabina Kielow. Chouliaraki, L. & Fairclough, N., Discourse in late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis. + Mills, S., Discourse. The New Critical Idiom. p. 112-114. Lars-Olof Nyhlén. Ammon, U. Ist deutsch noch internationale Wissenschaftssprache? p. 114-115. Sigurd Rothstein. Treichel, H. -U., Der Verlone. p. 116-117. M. Martin Guiney. Horlitz, M. Germanistische Schlaglichter. p. 118-119. M. Martin Guiney. Conner, T., Chateaubriand's Mémoires d'outre-tombe. A portrait of the Artist as Exile.

The Cauchy problem for a non-linear system of regularized measure differential equations is studied. It is proved that the solutions of the regularized problems converges to a solution of an integral equation involving measures. In general this equation differs from the formal one corresponding to the original measure differential equation. This theorem generalizes a special result by Kurzweil [2] and a linear result by the author [5]. Sesekin [10] has proved an analogous theorem for a more restricted system in a wider class of regularizations.

Resumo O objetivo deste artigo é discutir o caráter ideológico dos delineamentos teóricos de Jürgen Habermas acerca de sua noção de esfera pública no bojo de sua teoria democrática deliberativa, bem como sua apropriação teórico-conceitual pela gestão social no campo da administração. Nosso propósito é contribuir com uma abordagem crítica à influência do pensamento habermasiano na conformação da concepção de gestão social, sobretudo no que tange à categoria da esfera pública, recorrendo ao tema ideologia à luz do Estado capitalista e da sociedade de classes. Para tanto, analisamos a evolução e as continuidades do pensamento de Habermas acerca da categoria da esfera pública e discutimos o alinhamento da gestão social com os pressupostos teórico-conceituais da teoria deliberativa habermasiana. Em seguida, defendemos o argumento de que o esforço teórico habermasiano aponta uma ideologia do consenso quanto aos desenvolvimentos sociais, bem como o de que, ao supor a possibilidade de um diálogo completamente espontâneo e não condicionado, Habermas acaba por projetar idealisticamente a comunicação intersubjetiva e a esfera pública enquanto instância “ideal” de discurso como garantias apriorísticas de sucesso. Concluímos que a esfera pública “real” deve ser tomada menos como arena de condições comunicativas idealísticas e mais como espaço deliberativo originariamente conflitual e assimétrico e que uma esfera pública eficaz deve abranger tanto a formação informal da opinião pública quanto a tomada formal de decisão coletiva, isto é, deve promover a efetiva partilha de poder decisório, tal como preconizada pela gestão social.