<p> Interest in renewable energy and governmental mandates has motivated land managers to consider cellulosic feedstocks for bioenergy. I investigated plant community response to a system including switchgrass (<i> Panicum virgatum</i>) as a feedstock intercropped with loblolly pine (<i>Pinus taeda</i>). I estimated plant species evenness, richness, and diversity and biomass production, with emphasis on white-tailed deer (<i> Odocoileus virginianus</i>) forages. I detected 225 species in 2,220 1-m² quadrats, and 7,495 biomass samples (96.4 kg dry weight) from 960 quadrats. Intercropping reduced plant species diversity, total non-pine tree biomass, and biomass of deer forages during switchgrass establishment. These effects were no longer apparent at treatment level two years after switchgrass establishment, except that deer browse and total deer forage biomass remained less in intercropped interbeds. Intercropping in managed pines may temporarily effect plant communities but further studies are needed to examine longer term effects and to quantify effects on nutritional carrying capacity for deer.</p>

Sammanfattning Titel:                                   Talent Management inom den svenska banksektorn. Författare:                         Martin Eriksson och Oscar Alfelt  Handledare:                      Timurs Umans Nivå:                                  Kandidatuppsats 15 hp, Ledarskap, VT 2012  Frågeställning:                  Hur använder svenska banker talent management processen som en del av sitt HR-arbete?  Syfte:                                  Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur banker använder talent management processen som en del av sitt HR-arbete och på så sätt öka sin konkurrenskraft och effektivisera sitt arbete. Vi ämnar undersöka hur processen kan anpassas till en specifik sektor vilket i vårt fall är den svenska banksektorn. Metod:                               Studien gjordes med ett beskrivande angreppssätt. Vi använde en kvalitativ ansatts med individuella öppna intervjuer. Intervjuerna gjordes över telefon med fem stycken respondenter från svenska banker.  Teoretisk referensram:    Den teoretiska referensramen består av tre delar där första delen handlar om att förklara vad talent management är för att sedan presentera två talent management processer samt att beskriva HR inom banksektorn. Detta ligger som grund för vår talent management modell som presenteras i slutet.  Resultat:                            Här återges vad respondenterna uppgav under intervjuerna.  Analys:                               I analysen jämförs respondenternas empiri och analyseras efter den teori som vi har använt. Slutsatser:                          Här presenteras de ändringar som gjorts i modellen sedan den först presenterades i den teoretiska referensramen. Med hjälp av teorin och informationen från respondenterna har vi kunnat skapa en relevant och giltig talent management modell för den svenska banksektorn. Nyckelord:                         Talent Management, Human Resource Management, banksektorn, personalarbete. Centrala begrepp:            HRM (Human Resource Management): Handlar om arbetet med personal och humana resurser. Talent Management: Ett verktyg inom HRM med fokus på arbetet med att attrahera, bibehålla och utveckla nyckelpersoner inom företaget.

<p> There is an undisputed need to increase accuracy of snow cover estimation in regions comprised of complex terrain, especially in areas dependent on winter snow accumulation for a substantial portion of their annual water supply, such as the Western United States, Central Asia, and the Andes. Presently, the most pertinent monitoring and research needs related to alpine snow cover area (SCA) are: (1) to improve SCA monitoring by providing detailed fractional snow cover (FSC) products which perform well in temporal/spatial heterogeneous forested and/or alpine terrains; and (2) to provide accurate measurements of FSC at the watershed scale for use in snow water equivalent (SWE) estimation for regional water management. </p><p> To address the above, the presented research approach is based on Landsat Fractional Snow Cover (Landsat-FSC), as a measure of the temporal/spatial distribution of alpine SCA. A fusion methodology between remotely sensed multispectral input data from Landsat TM/ETM+, terrain information, and IKONOS are utilized at their highest respective spatial resolutions. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are used to capture the multi-scale information content of the input data compositions by means of the ANN training process, followed by the ANN extracting FSC from all available information in the Landsat and terrain input data compositions. The ANN Landsat-FSC algorithm is validated (RMSE ~ 0.09; mean error ~ 0.001-0.01 FSC) in watersheds characterized by diverse environmental factors such as: terrain, slope, exposition, vegetation cover, and wide-ranging snow cover conditions. ANN input data selections are evaluated to determine the nominal data information requirements for FSC estimation. Snow/non-snow multispectral and terrain input data are found to have an important and multi-faced impact on FSC estimation. Constraining the ANN to linear modeling, as opposed to allowing unconstrained function shapes, results in a weak FSC estimation performance and therefore provides evidence of non-linear bio-geophysical and remote sensing interactions and phenomena in complex mountain terrains. The research results are presented for rugged areas located in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, and the hilly regions of Black Hills of Wyoming, USA. </p>

<p> In this paper, we study solute transport in an individual fracture and the surrounding porous rock. Specifically, we consider a parallel-plate model of a single fracture that allows for the diffusion of solute within the matrix and the adsorption of solute to the fracture walls. We developed two stochastic particle-tracking methods to numerically solve for the concentration of the fracture model. The first is the hi-res method which captures the solute dynamics at a micro-scale. The second algorithm we develop, the upscaled method, captures the large-scale dynamics of the system at vastly reduced computational cost. We verified the accuracy of these methods by comparing their results to numerical results from the literature. We also compared the efficiency of the developed particle tracking methods to an existing particle tracking method from the literature in the case of no interface absorption.</p>

<p> The hydrogeologic controls, flow velocities and paths, groundwater delineation, and physical characteristics in a joint controlled dendritic conduit-spring system have been characterized. The known conduit branches from C My Shovel (CM) Cave with 4475 meters (m) of measurable passages and tributaries. Surface entrance to CM Cave is located 1360 m upstream from discharge at Magic Springs. </p><p> Four storm events were measured characterizing the dynamics. The maximum discharge of these four events was 1.2 m³/s (41 ft³/s) with 0.08 m³/s (3 ft³/s) baseflow conditions at Magic Springs. The characteristic shape and response of discharge are well defined with a rise time between 5.5 and 6.5 hours (hr). The half flow period time (t_0.5) ranges between 12.9 and 15.7 hr, depending on peak discharge. The rise time and t0.5 occur in less than one day and the conduit volume exceeds 0.5 x 10⁶ m³. The conduit-spring system drains within 3.7 to 7.5 days after the storm event. The thermal effects are event driven, maintaining 85% of the temperature change over 1300 m. The spring discharge has total dissolved solids around 350 mg/L and is chemically stable. </p><p> The field component of this study include a karst density survey, four dye traces, and continuous monitoring of specific conductance, pressure, temperature, water-level stage height, and discharge at Magic Springs and in the conduit below CM Cave. The general karst density survey identifies caves and dolines within given area. There is a sinking stream that transfers flow from Spring Branch Creek into the conduit system and two focused regions in a karst plain having densities of 20 and 44 karst features/0.16 km². </p><p> Hydrographs and chemographs show patterns interpreted as pulses of dilute water recharging through exposed caves, sinkholes, and sinking streams. These pulses have minimal reaction with the rock or matrix during recharge, which is superimposed on baseflow from the joint controlled dendritic conduit-spring system in this karst terrane. </p><p> The groundwater drainage basin has been defined. The dye tracing results identified groundwater piracy across surface water divides and helped define the groundwater drainage basin. Groundwater velocities were measured between 1800 m/d and 3000 m/d under baseflow conditions. The discharge at Magic Springs under these four storm events showed velocities between 8,700 and 15,120 m/d. </p><p> An autosampler and charcoal packets were both employed during dye tracing. Both detected fluorescence from all four injection sites. The measured velocities ranged between 1865 up to 2929 m/d under baseflow conditions. All dye trace tests were conducted under baseflow. Under baseflow conditions, dye was only traced to the Magic Springs locations from the eleven charcoal monitoring locations.</p>

<p> To avoid unintended complications of invasive species eradication, it is important to understand the potential implications of the techniques used in species eradication efforts. This study aimed to compare how different methods of removing <i>Malephora crocea</i> affect the survivorship of planted seedlings of native perennial plants on Anacapa Island. Employing a randomized complete block design in an <i>M. crocea</i> stand, three removal treatments were tested: 1) hand-pull; 2) spray with herbicide and leave skeletons; and 3) spray and then remove skeletons after 2.5 months. In each treatment, seedlings of three species (<i>Leptosyne gigantea, Frankenia salina</i>, and <i>Grindelia stricta</i>) and seeds of two species (<i>L. gigantea</i> and <i>G. stricta</i>) were planted. Survivorship and seed establishment were monitored quarterly between March 2010 and January 2011. For transplanted seedlings, the spray-and-leave treatment resulted in higher survivorship, while no difference was observed between the pull-treatments. Seed establishment was very low overall, but results of seeding of <i>G. stricta</i> showed that the spray-and-pull treatment provided for higher establishment than other treatments. <i> L. gigantea</i> seed establishment was inconclusive. The spray-and-leave treatment also provided the highest relative soil moisture. My results suggest that the spray-and-leave treatment provided the most suitable conditions for survival of transplanted native perennial vegetation.</p>

<p> This thesis examines the significance of a micro-level approach to the Israeli-Palestinian water conflict. By rethinking scale of analysis and examining local insecurities, Palestinian experiences reveal how water conflict plays out in latent and discursive ways. In a step-by-step method, I detail the processes and outcomes of the water struggle in the West Bank. First, I show how technical challenges ((i) poor water supply, (ii) antiquated water infrastructure, (iii) failed institutions) are shaped by political imperatives. Second, I show how Palestinians have responded to local water sector challenges: (iv) nonpayment to the Palestinian Water Authority for their water supply, (v) increasing rural to urban migration by Palestinian farmers. As a result, Palestinian society is stuck in cycles of crisis that make the conditions increasingly ungovernable. While Palestinians are stuck in a mode of ungovernability, their position in the peace process with Israel is undermined.</p>

<p> The Runoff Risk Advisory Forecast (RRAF) provides Wisconsin's farmers with an innovative decision support tool which communicates the threat of undesirable conditions for manure and nutrient spreading for up to 10 days in advance. The RRAF is a pioneering example of applying the National Weather Service's hydrologic forecasting abilities towards the Nation's water quality challenges. Relying on the North Central River Forecast Center's (NCRFC) operational Snow17 and Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting Models, runoff risk is predicted for 216 modeled watersheds in Wisconsin. The RRAF is the first-of-its-kind real-time forecast tool to incorporate 5-days of future precipitation as well as 10-days of forecast temperatures to generate runoff risk guidance. The forecast product is updated three times daily and hosted on the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) website. Developed with inter-agency collaboration, the RRAF model was validated against both edge-of-field observed runoff as well as small USGS gauged basin response. This analysis indicated promising results with a Bias Score of 0.93 and a False Alarm Ratio (FAR) of only 0.34 after applying a threshold method. Although the threshold process did dampen the Probability of Detection (POD) from 0.71 to 0.53, it was found that the magnitude of the events categorized as hits was 10-times larger than those classified as misses. The encouraging results from this first generation tool are aiding State of Wisconsin officials in increasing awareness of risky runoff conditions to help minimize contaminated agriculture runoff from entering the State's water bodies.</p>

<p> The road network in the U.S. is immense, and vehicle use has expanded to incredible proportions since the early 1900s. While the use of this network has proven useful to people, roads and vehicles cause severe environmental degradation. An important part of this degradation is direct mortality of wildlife due to road-kill, with some estimates of vertebrate fatalities reaching the hundreds of millions each year in the U.S. alone. Until the last few decades, little attention was given to the problem of road-kill. A few recent studies have conducted statistical and GIS analyses to identify and predict locations of road-kill in order to strategically implement mitigation strategies. These road-kill studies focused on few species and/or limited study areas. </p><p> In the U.S., suburban areas have been expanding in recent years, but have been largely absent from the research on road-kill. This study investigates road-kill of the small vertebrate community on the fringe of the St. Louis metropolitan area and identifies significant land use/land cover attributes surrounding road-kill and hotspot locations using logistic regression models and hotspot analyses. The findings clearly show that rates of road-kill in this area are substantial and worthy of mitigation. Locations were identified for reducing overall rates of road-kill, such as areas nearer to forest fragments and farther from cultivated lands that are surrounded by greater amounts of open and low intensity developed areas and lesser amounts of cultivated lands. If mitigation were targeted in locations identified in this study, it could lead to reductions of thousands of road-kills each year.</p>

Cloud computing has recently gained popularity as a cost-effective model for hosting and delivering services over the Internet. In a cloud computing environment, a cloud provider packages its physical resources in data centers into virtual resources and offers them to service providers using a pay-as-you-go pricing model. Meanwhile, a service provider uses the rented virtual resources to host its services. This large-scale multi-tenant architecture of cloud computing systems raises key challenges regarding how data centers resources should be controlled and managed by both service and cloud providers. This thesis addresses several key challenges pertaining to resource management in cloud environments. From the perspective of service providers, we address the problem of selecting appropriate data centers for service hosting with consideration of resource price, service quality as well as dynamic reconfiguration costs. From the perspective of cloud providers, as it has been reported that workload in real data centers can be typically divided into server-based applications and MapReduce applications with different performance and scheduling criteria, we provide separate resource management solutions for each type of workloads. For server-based applications, we provide a dynamic capacity provisioning scheme that dynamically adjusts the number of active servers to achieve the best trade-off between energy savings and scheduling delay, while considering heterogeneous resource characteristics of both workload and physical machines. For MapReduce applications, we first analyzed task run-time resource consumption of a large variety of MapReduce jobs and discovered it can vary significantly over-time, depending on the phase the task is currently executing. We then present a novel scheduling algorithm that controls task execution at the level of phases with the aim of improving both job running time and resource utilization. Through detailed simulations and experiments using real cloud clusters, we have found our proposed solutions achieve substantial gain compared to current state-of-art resource management solutions, and therefore have strong implications in the design of real cloud resource management systems in practice.