This paper evaluates the radiometric accuracy of observations from the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) onboard Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership and Sondeur Atmospherique du ...Profil d' Humidité Intropicale par Radiométrie (SAPHIR) onboard Megha-Tropiques through intercalibration and validation versus in situ radiosonde and Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS-RO) observations. SAPHIR and ATMS water vapor channels operate at slightly different frequencies. We calculated the bias due to radiometric errors as the difference between the observed and simulated differences between the two instruments. This difference, which is often referred to as double difference, ranges between 0.3 and 0.7 K, which shows good consistency between the instruments. We used a radiative transfer model to simulate the satellite brightness temperatures (Tbs) using radiosonde and GPS-RO profiles and then compared simulated and observed Tbs. The difference between radiosonde and ATMS Tbs for the middle and upper tropospheric temperature sounding channels was less than 0.5 K at most stations, but the difference between radiosonde and ATMS/SAPHIR Tbs for water vapor channels was between 0.5 and 2.0 K. The larger bias for the water vapor channels is mainly due to several errors in radiosonde humidity observations. The mean differences between the ATMS observations and the Tbs simulated using GPS-RO profiles were 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.2, and -0.2 K for channels 10-14, respectively; and the uncertainty increases from 0.02 K for channel 10 to 0.07 K for channel 14.
Whether meant to improve public policy, private lending, or personal choices by individuals, investing in successful entrepreneurs is essential. Successful entrepreneurs typically have high human ...capital. Investment in entrepreneurs who have lower human capital involves more risk. Research has shown that one type of entrepreneur, franchisees, typically possess lower human capital than entrepreneurs generally. Examining a unique data set of loans by the US government to small businesses, we compare all recipients of these loans, controlling for other relevant lending, economic, and social factors. We find that franchisees have higher default rates and higher lending losses than independents.
A search for flavour-changing neutral current decays of a top quark into an up-type quark (q = u, c) and the Standard Model Higgs boson, t Hq, is presented. The search is based on a dataset of pp ...collisions at = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). Two complementary analyses are performed to search for top-quark pair events in which one top quark decays into Wb and the other top quark decays into Hq, and target the Hbb and H (+-) decay modes, respectively. The high multiplicity of b-quark jets, or the presence of hadronically decaying -leptons, is exploited in the two analyses respectively. Multivariate techniques are used to separate the signal from the background, which is dominated by top-quark pair production. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found, and 95% CL upper limits on the t Hq branching ratios are derived. The combination of these searches with ATLAS searches in diphoton and multilepton final states yields observed (expected) 95% CL upper limits on the t Hc and t Hu branching ratios of 1.1 x 10(-3) (8.3 x 10(-4)) and 1.2 x 10(-3) (8.3 x 10(-4)), respectively. The corresponding combined observed (expected) upper limits on the |(tcH)| and |(tuH)| couplings are 0.064 (0.055) and 0.066 (0.055), respectively.
This article addresses the situation of Mexican cartels in relation to the applicability of international humanitarian law (IHL). The analysis starts with a theoretical examination of the ...International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia criteria on intensity of violence and level of organization established for assessing the existence of an organized armed group in the context of a non-international armed conflict. The article further examines legal and non-legal literature with the purpose of providing elements to consider the rightness of applying IHL to criminal organizations, also considering similar scenarios in Latin America. The aim of this assessment is to provide additional elements for the consideration of whether IHL is suitable when addressing confrontations between certain criminal gangs and States. Additionally, the article assesses how the commercial purposes of these groups affect their organization and the nature of the violence in which they engage.
Sarajevo Under Siegeoffers a richly detailed account of the lived experiences of ordinary people in this multicultural city between 1992 and 1996, during the war in the former Yugoslavia. Moving ...beyond the shelling, snipers, and shortages, it documents the coping strategies people adopted and the creativity with which they responded to desperate circumstances.
Ivana Maček, an anthropologist who grew up in the former Yugoslavia, argues that the division of Bosnians into antagonistic ethnonational groups was the result rather than the cause of the war, a view that was not only generally assumed by Americans and Western Europeans but also deliberately promoted by Serb, Croat, and Muslim nationalist politicians. Nationalist political leaders appealed to ethnoreligious loyalties and sowed mistrust between people who had previously coexisted peacefully in Sarajevo. Normality dissolved and relationships were reconstructed as individuals tried to ascertain who could be trusted.
Over time, this ethnography shows, Sarajevans shifted from the shock they felt as civilians in a city under siege into a "soldier" way of thinking, siding with one group and blaming others for the war. Eventually, they became disillusioned with these simple rationales for suffering and adopted a "deserter" stance, trying to take moral responsibility for their own choices in spite of their powerless position. The coexistence of these contradictory views reflects the confusion Sarajevans felt in the midst of a chaotic war.
Maček respects the subjectivity of her informants and gives Sarajevans' own words a dignity that is not always accorded the viewpoints of ordinary citizens. Combining scholarship on political violence with firsthand observation and telling insights, this book is of vital importance to people who seek to understand the dynamics of armed conflict along ethnonational lines both within and beyond Europe.
This book details the author's research in the last decade in understanding the need for economic reforms with 'human face' or equitable development. Indian experience with reforms in the last ...sixteen years reveals that there have been achievements on economic growth but inequalities have increased and exclusion continued. This book examines the performance, issues and challenges in most important and inter-related elements of inclusive growth: agriculture, poverty, food security and employment, social sector and, regional disparities. In order to achieve inclusive growth, the study argues for macro pro-poor and people centric policies. Since challenges for achieving inclusive growth are much more than raising economic growth, the volume also argues that public policy should give priority to the 'inclusive' sectors rather than concentrating on policies to improve lop sided growth benefiting few sections of the population. It also suggests that growth and equity objectives should be pursued simultaneously rather than growth in the first phase and equity in the next round. The book also emphasis on the importance of women's economic and social empowerment and socially disadvantaged sections like SCs and STs for realizing inclusive growth.
In today's complex and fast evolving environment, understanding India's economy is not just an intellectual challenge, but, with the country emerging as a major global player, also a requirement. ...This concise and reader-friendly volume addresses this need. Culled from the collective wisdom of distinguished contributors, the volume provides a comprehensive and engaging account of the trends and issues across various sectors of the Indian economy. More than 100 pertinent entries, organized thematically, cover the evolution of the Indian economy from relative obscurity to an emergent global force. They span the recent cover stories of India's phenomenal growth, and also document the backwaters-widespread poverty, farmer suicides, child labour, and the large and impoverished informal sector. A new introduction and some new entries cover the developments since the first edition was written, and also focus on the economic crises. An appendix presents relevant statistics on Indian economic indicators, which will serve as a handy reference for students of the Indian economy and, more generally, of development economics.
Gulf War and Health Institute of Medicine; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Committee on Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of Depleted Uranium
09/2008
eBook
Odprti dostop
The 1991 Persian Gulf War was considered a brief and successful military operation with few injuries and deaths. A large number of returning veterans, however, soon began reporting health problems ...that they believed to be associated with their service in the gulf. Under a Congressional mandate, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is reviewing a wide array of biologic, chemical, and physical agents to determine if exposure to these agents may be responsible for the veterans' health problems. In a 2000 report, Gulf War and Health, Volume 1: Depleted Uranium, Sarin, Pyridostigmine Bromide, and Vaccines, the IOM concluded that there was not enough evidence to draw conclusions as to whether long-term health problems are associated with exposure to depleted uranium, a component of some military munitions and armor. In response to veterans' ongoing concerns and recent publications in the literature, IOM updated its 2000 report. In this most recent report, Gulf War and Health: Updated Literature Review of Depleted Uranium, the committee concluded that there is still not enough evidence to determine whether exposure to depleted uranium is associated with long-term health problems. The report was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The 2009 instalment of the Review covers the continuation of 2008's economic and political crises from the end of Parliament's first prorogation at the beginning of the year to the start of its ...unprecedented second prorogation at the end.
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