The United Arab Emirates is a new country that has had little time to accumulate a scientific heritage. Meteorologically researched and documented weather material for forecasters is virtually non-existent and that available is fragmented and anecdotal. The thesis tackles this problem by identifying weather phenomena significant to aviation in the Emirates and particularly at Abu Dhabi International Airport (ADIA). Mechanisms responsible for their development are described and applicable forecasting rules and principles are derived. Surface and upper air observation data at ADIA from 1983 to 2002 were analysed to identify the weather phenomena, their associated weather systems and for statistical analyses. When relevant, observation data at Al Ain was also used. Post-processed numerical weather prediction Global Forecast Service Eta model data are used and when and where possible radar and satellite imagery. A secondary aim is to provide information of the general seasonal climate. This was achieved by means of a literature study of the dominating weather systems and the presentation of surface and upper air mean circulation charts. Fog is the most important weather phenomenon and serious disrupter of aviation at ADIA throughout the year. It does not occur during Shamal conditions, but fog can form well inland on the edge of the Empty Quarter at the Liwa Oasis when the Shamal wind becomes light. Contrary to local belief, fog is unlikely to occur on two, or more, consecutive nights. The Shamal can last for several days and disrupt helicopter flights to the oil rigs, while anabatic and katabatic effects often make it gustier and stronger inland at Al Ain than ADIA. While dust storms occur in strong southerly winds off the desert, the Shamal can bring dust from further afield from the north as can the previously unreported Nashi wind. The sea breeze can extend about 150 km inland to Al Ain and the Liwa Oasis. Thunderstorms associated with winter upper air troughs from the west, are the main producers of rain, while occasional thunderstorms off the Hajar Mountains in the east bring some rain in summer. Tropical depressions are a rare event. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / PhD / Unrestricted

När samhällen byggs ut och mer genomsläpplig naturmark ersätts av hårdgjorda ytor ökar också mängden dagvatten. Dagvatten är regn eller smältvatten från snö och is som rinner av ytor så som tak, vägar och andra hårda ytor som skapats av människor. Dagvatten kan orsaka stora problem, exempelvis översvämningar och utsläpp av föroreningar till sjöar och vattendrag. För att förebygga dessa problem har många kommuner tagit fram dagvattenstrategier med krav och riktlinjer för hur dagvattnet ska tas hand om på bästa hållbara sätt. Ett exempel på hållbar dagvattenhantering är så kallad trög avrinning, det vill säga olika lösningar för att fördröja dagvattnet med syftet att undvika stora flöden och rena vattnet från föroreningar.  En av kommunerna som tagit fram en strategi för dagvattenhanteringen är Täby kommun. Denna dagvattenstrategi används som underlag vid planering av exploatering av områden, till exempel vid byggnation av bostadsområden. I det nya bostadsområdet Täby Park i Täby har två kvarter anlagts med lösningar för dagvattenhanteringen efter dagvattenutredningar utförda av Structor Uppsala. Det här projektet ämnade att undersöka om de lösningar som föreslogs för och sedan implementerades i de två kvarteren uppnådde Täby kommuns krav på dagvattenhantering. Kvarteren som undersöktes, vilka benämns kvarter 1:6 Opalen och kvarter 1:7 Klövern, var av liknande storlek och med liknande dagvattenlösningar. För att undersöka dagvattenflödet utfördes flödes- och nederbördsmätningar under en månads tid och en modell ställdes upp i Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis för att simulera vattenflödet. Beräkningar baserade på samma metod som i dagvattenutredningen utfördes även för den slutgiltiga utformningen av respektive kvarter.  Till följd av små regnmängder samt en initial felprogrammering av en flödesmätare behövde datat från flödesmätarna bearbetas för att få fram ett resultat för fördröjningen i samband med regnhändelserna. Dessutom behövde en av flödesmätarnas data bortses från på grund av felaktiga värden, vilket innebar att det uppmätta dagvattenflödet endast speglade ungefär halva utredningsområdet. Fördröjningen mellan regnets inträffande och flödesmätarnas utslag kunde inte fastsällas som ett resultat av dagvattenlösningarnas implementering, till stor del på grund av bristande data. Dagvattenflödena som beräknades utifrån mätdatat, teoretiskt och med modellen skildes åt, men även här övervägande på grund av felkällor och bristande data. Fortsatt undersökning för modellens optimering och fler mätningar skulle kunna ge en bättre korrelation för både fördröjningen i tid (regnhändelse och flödesmätares utslag) och fördröjningen i volym som fördröjningsåtgärderna bidrar med. / When urbanization increases, one consequence of permeable land being replaced by impermeable surfaces is an increase in stormwater. Stormwater, which is water from rain or melted snow and ice that runs off from impermeable surfaces such as roofs and roads, can cause problems for infrastructure. Some of these problems entail flooding and transport of pollutants to lakes and rivers. To counteract these issues, many Swedish municipalities have compiled so called stormwater strategies (''dagvattenstrategier'') containing requirements and guidelines on how to sustainably manage stormwater. One method for sustainable stormwater management is stormwater detention, i.e. slowing down the water, which can be achieved in several ways. Through detention, large flows can be reduced and pollutants can be filtered out of the water. The municipality of Täby is one of the above mentioned municipalities with stormwater strategies. This strategy is used by exploiters when planning, for instance, new residential areas, as a mean to ensure that the stormwater is properly taken care of within the boundaries of the premise. Two apartment blocks in Täby Park, a newly built residential area in Täby, have been built with detention measures for stormwater management suggested by Structor Uppsala in their stormwater investigations for both blocks respectively. The aim of this project was to investigate whether the suggested detention measures were enough to reach the requirements in Täby's stormwater strategy. The studied apartment blocks were of similar size and had approximately the same fraction of stormwater detention measures. During the project time, precipitation and stormwater flow were measured for approximately a month and a model was made in Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis to simulate the flow in the project area. Calculations for the water flow in the project were made with the rational method, which was used for the calculations done in Structor Uppsala's stormwater investigation.  As a result of little precipitation during the period of measurements, and an unfortunate initial error in a flow meter, the data from the flow measurements needed to be modified to get the resulting relationship between rain events and the detention of stormwater within the project area. An additional error came from false values from one of the flow meters, which led to it and it's data to become discarded and thus only giving the stormwater flow for roughly half of the project area. From the results a certain time delay between rain event and stormwater flow was seen. However, this could not be determined to be solely from the detention measures due to insufficient data. The stormwater flows calculated from the measured data, the theoretical calculations, and the model were significantly different. Here, the sources of error and insufficient data were certainly a contributing factor. Continued studies with an optimization of the model and more measurements could give a better correlation between the time delay between rain event and flow and the flow detention from the stormwater measures.

<p>Hourly archived rainfall records are separated into individual rainfall events with</p> <p>an Inter-Event Time Denition. Individual storms are characterized by their depth,</p> <p>duration, and peak intensity. Severe events are selected from among the events for</p> <p>a given station. A lower limit, or threshold depth is used to make this selection,</p> <p>and an upper duration limit is established. A small number of events per year are</p> <p>left, which have relatively high depth and average intensity appropriate to small</p> <p>to medium catchment responses. The Generalized Pareto Distributions are tted</p> <p>to the storm depth data, and a bounded probability distribution is tted to storm</p> <p>duration. Peak storm intensity is bounded by continuity imposed by storm depth</p> <p>and duration. These physical limits are used to develop an index measure of peak</p> <p>storm intensity, called intensity peak factor, bounded on (0; 1), and tted to the Beta</p> <p>distribution. The joint probability relationship among storm variables is established,</p> <p>combining increasing storm depth, increasing intensity peak factor, with decreasing</p> <p>storm duration as being the best description of increasing rainstorm severity. The</p> <p>joint probability of all three variables can be modelled with a bivariate copula of</p> <p>the marginal distributions of duration and intensity peak factor, combined simply</p> <p>with the marginal distribution of storm depth. The parameters of the marginal</p> <p>distributions of storm variables, and the frequency of occurrence of threshold-excess</p> <p>events are used to assess possible shifts in their values as a function of time and</p> <p>temperature, in order to evaluate potential climate change eects for several stations.</p> <p>Example applications of the joint probability of storm variables are provided that</p> <p>illustrate the need to apply the methods developed.</p> <p>The overall contributions of this research combine applications of existing probabilistic</p> <p>tools, with unique characterizations of rainstorm variables. Relationships</p> <p>between these variables are examined to produce a new description of storm severity,</p> <p>and to begin the assessment of the eects of climate change upon severe rainstorm</p> <p>events.</p> <p>i</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis: M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, 1978 / Bibliography : leaves 138-139. / M.S. / M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering

No description available.

Under efterkrigstiden har ett antal operationer med luftmakt genomförts. Dessa krig har haft olika förlopp där vissa operationer har nått relativt enkla framgångar medan andra haft större svårigheter att effektivt uppnå framgång, trots överlägsna resurser. Genom en fallstudie av två moderna luftoperationer, operation Desert Storm i Irak år 1991 och operation Allied Force i Kosovo år 1999, undersöks tre luftmaktsteoretiska variablers betydelse för dessa operationers väg till framgång. Variablerna som undersöks är hämtade ur den moderna luftmaktsteori som John Warden har bidragit till att bilda och vars syfte är att bidra till att förklara hur strategisk förlamning av motståndaren uppkommer. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att systemperspektiv sannolikt bidrar till luftoperativ framgång, däremot kan inte parallell attack visas ha betydelse för att uppnå framgång. Den tredje undersökta variabeln, luftoperativ kontroll, befinns vara betydelsefull som en förutsättning för de övriga två variablernas funktion.

Broadcasting is used in on-demand routing protocols to discover routes in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs). On-demand routing protocols, such as Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) commonly employ pure flooding based broadcasting to discover new routes. In pure flooding, a route request (RREQ) packet is broadcast by the source node and each receiving node rebroadcasts it. This continues until the RREQ packet arrives at the destination node. Pure flooding generates excessive redundant routing traffic that may lead to the broadcast storm problem (BSP) and deteriorate the performance of MANETs significantly. A number of probabilistic broadcasting schemes have been proposed in the literature to address BSP. However, these schemes do not consider thermal noise and interference which exist in real life MANETs, and therefore, do not perform well in real life MANETs. Real life MANETs are noisy and the communication is not error free. This research argues that a broadcast scheme that considers the effects of thermal noise, co-channel interference, and node density in the neighbourhood simultaneously can reduce the broadcast storm problem and enhance the MANET performance. To achieve this, three investigations have been carried out: First, the effect of carrier sensing ranges on on-demand routing protocol such as AODV and their impact on interference; second, effects of thermal noise on on-demand routing protocols and third, evaluation of pure flooding and probabilistic broadcasting schemes under noisy and noiseless conditions. The findings of these investigations are exploited to propose a Channel Adaptive Probabilistic Broadcast (CAPB) scheme to disseminate RREQ packets efficiently. The proposed CAPB scheme determines the probability of rebroadcasting RREQ packets on the fly according to the current Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) and node density in the neighbourhood. The proposed scheme and two related state of the art (SoA) schemes from the literature are implemented in the standard AODV to replace the pure flooding based broadcast scheme. Ns-2 simulation results show that the proposed CAPB scheme outperforms the other schemes in terms of routing overhead, average end-to-end delay, throughput and energy consumption.

Dispersal is a fundamental process that shapes many aspects of population ecology and evolution. Dramatic local population declines brought about by anthropogenic-driven changes to ecological processes are unfortunately becoming ubiquitous and increasing the urgency to understand dispersal behaviour in many species. For species where direct methods of tracking movement and dispersal are unsuitable, other indirect methods need to be employed to understand and characterise these behaviours. The steep population decline, due to predation, at the largest EU population of Leach’s storm-petrels Oceanodroma leucorhoa (St Kilda, Scotland), and the potential part immigrant birds have in buffering this threat, highlighted the need to understand dispersal and connectivity of widely spaced colonies in this species. The implications for the persistence of local colonies and the wider population of Leach’s storm-petrels could then be assessed. A population genetic analysis of 9 colonies across the North Pacific and Atlantic distribution, using two DNA markers (mtDNA control region and microsatellites), revealed ocean basin differentiation (Global ST = 0.32 P <0.0001, Global FST = 0.04, P <0.0001) but also identified a migrant individual in the Pacific population (STRUCTURE migrant assignment). The Atlantic population was found to be genetically homogenous, with patterns of historical and contemporary gene flow, indicating that long-distance effective dispersal is prevalent in Leach’s storm-petrels within the ocean basin. Bayesian stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen (13C & 15N) provides evidence for natal dispersal as an important dispersal mechanism, and reveals movement of immature birds between colonies during the breeding season as a likely mechanism to promote inter-colony exchange and gene flow. Stable isotope comparison also identified mixing on wintering grounds as another possible influence on dispersal. The potential for immigrant birds to offset the loss caused by predation at the St Kilda colony is supported by these studies, and will likely help the persistence of the colony in the short-term. However, future viability is debateable considering the evidence for both avian and mammalian predation. This research provides a better understanding of the extent and mechanism of dispersal in the Leach’s storm-petrel, which is important to predict the potential impact of environmental change and, where possible, implement effective population management for this species.

This study explores controlling images as essential to the representation of black women’s lives within the media, especially the comic book character, Storm from the X-Men series. The researcher uses content analysis to examine the graphic images, text and dialogue of the comic books chosen for this study. Furthermore, the researcher juxtaposes Storm to the main controlling images that Patricia Hill Collins discusses in her seminal work, Black Feminist Thought, but also to expand this discussion to include the stereotype of the Magical Negro.

Wood is a material with an enormous number of applications. For decades, the development of wastewater treatment technologies tailored for the wood sector has focused on those industries that have water as an integral part of the industrial production, such as paper and pulp. However, there is a large and potentially growing sector that has been neglected, which is formed by industries in which water is not part of their production line, as for example, the wood floor and furniture industries (named wood-based dry industries). These industries still produces relatively low volumes of highly polluted wastewaters, with COD up to 30,000 mg/L, due to cleaning/washing procedure (named cleaning wastewaters). These cleaning wastewaters are often sent to the municipal wastewater treatment plant after dilution with potable water. Once there, recalcitrant pollutants are diluted and discharged into recipient water bodies or trapped in the municipal wastewater sludge. Another type of contaminated water these “dry industries” often generate in high volumes, and which is usually discharged with no previous treatment, is storm-water containing contaminants that have leached from large wood storage areas. The overall aim of this thesis was to increase the level of knowledge and competence and to present on-site wastewater treatment options for wood-based dry industries using the wood floor industry as a case-study, with a focus on combined treatment methods and solutions applicable to both the cleaning wastewater and storm-water. Among the treatment technologies investigated, electrocoagulation was studied both as a standalone treatment and combined with sorption using activated carbon. The combined treatment achieved a COD reduction of approximately 70%. Some advanced oxidation processes (AOP) were also studied: a COD reduction of approximately 70% was achieved by photo-Fenton, but the most successful AOP was ozone combined with UV light, were a COD reduction around 90% was achieved, with additional improvement in the biodegradability of the treated effluent. Ozone also proved to be effective in degrading organic compounds (approximately 70% COD reduction) and enhanced the biodegradability of the storm-water runoff from wood storage areas. The results have shown that the application of ozone can be considered an option for treatment of cleaning wastewaters and possibly for storm-water biodegradation enhancement. / Trä är ett material med ett stort antal möjliga användningsområden. Inom träindustrin har utvecklingen av vattenbehandlingsmetoder varit inriktat på de branscher som har vatten som en del av produktionen, såsom papper- och massaindustrin. Men det finns en stor och potentiellt växande sektor inom träindustrin som har försummats, den utgörs av industrier som inte har vatten som en del av produktionen, t.ex. trägolv och trämöbel industrier. Trots detta så producerar dessa industrier fortfarande relativt kraftigt förorenade avloppsvatten med t.ex. COD-värden upp till 30000 mg/l men i relativt låga volymer. Dessa avloppsvatten uppkommer vid rengöring av maskiner och städning av lokaler, varefter de oftast efter utspädning med dricksvatten skickas till det kommunala reningsverket. Väl där späds det förorenade vattnet vidare ut med annat inkommande vatten men passerar dock till stor del obehandlat och släpps ut i mottagande vattendrag eller så fastnar föroreningarna i avloppsslamet. Dagvatten är en annan typ av förorenat vatten från dessa "torra industrier" som ofta genereras i stora volymer och innehåller föroreningar som lakats från de trämaterial som förvaras i de stora upplag som ofta förekommer vid denna typ av industrier. Det övergripande syftet med avhandlingen var att öka kunskapen och kompetensen för att kunna miljömässigt riktigt och ekonomiskt billigt behandla industriavloppsvatten lokalt på plats inom trävaruindustrin, genom att använda en trä-golvsindustri som fallstudie. Fokus lades på kombinerade behandlingsmetoder och lösningar som skulle kunna vara lämpliga både för industriavloppsvatten och dagvatten. Ett antal behandlingstekniker har undersökts; elektrokoagulering studerades både som en fristående behandling och i kombination med aktivt kol. Den kombinerade behandlingen gav en COD-reduktion på ungefär 70 %. Flera avancerade oxidationsprocesser (AOP) studerades också, och en COD-reduktion på cirka 70% uppnåddes med en kombination av UV-ljus och Fenton behandling. Den mest framgångsrika behandlingen var ozon i kombination med UV-ljus där en COD-reduktion runt 90 % uppnåddes varvid en avsevärd förbättring av den biologisk nedbrytbarhet på det behandlade avloppsvattenet erhölls. Ozon visade sig också vara effektivt för nedbrytning av organiska föreningar (ca 70% COD reduktion) och förbättrade den biologiska nedbrytbarheten av föroreningarna i dagvattnet från den studerade industrin. Resultaten har visat att ozon kan anses vara ett lämpligt alternativ för att behandla industriavloppsvatten inom trävarusektorn och möjligen för att öka den biologiska nedbrytbarheten av dagvattnet från dessa industrier / Integrated Approach for Handling of Industrial Wastewater and Stormwater / Triple Helix Collaboration on Industrial Water Conservation in Småland and the Islands