he role of additives has long been a theme in sintering science. Recently, it has been discovered that ceramics may contain multiple different rain boundary phases (complexions) that are chemically induced by certain additives. These complexions are useful in explaining a number of nomalous phenomena associated with sintering, such as abnormal grain growth. The current work investigates how tra...

High-resolution rainfall data sequences serve as inputs for a range of applications in planning, design and management of small (mostly urban) water resources systems. These applications include continuous flow simulation, rain water tank design, and the evaluation of alternate policies for assessment of environmental impacts. However, high-resolution rainfall data are often not available, sinc...

Activity rhythms are ubiquitous in nature, and generally synchronized with the day-night cycle. Several taxa have been shown to switch between nocturnal and diurnal activity in response to environmental variability, and these relatively uncommon switches provide a basis for greater understanding of the mechanisms and adaptive significance of circadian (approx. 24 h) rhythms. Plasticity of activ...

We demonstrate how, from the point of view of energy flow through an open system, rain is analogous to many other relaxational processes in nature such as earthquakes. By identifying rain events as the basic entities of the phenomenon, we show that the number density of rain events per year is inversely proportional to the released water column raised to the power of 1.4. This is the rain equiv...

A methodology is presented for estimating, at the city scale, the amount of biocide released from facades during rain events. The methodology consists of two elements. First, leaching of a single facade is simulated using a two-region model, one region for the biocide in the facade and the other for that in the flow over the facade surface. In the latter region, water advection moves the biocid...

Archaeological research suggests significant human occupation in the arid Andean highlands during the 13th to 15th centuries, whereas paleoclimatic studies reveal prolonged drier and colder conditions during that period. Which subsistence strategy supported local societies in this harsh environment? Our field and aerial surveys of archaeological dwelling sites, granaries, and croplands provide ...

A binding study of nickel ions by a new recombinant human Growth Hormone (hGH), produced as an injected drug, has been done at 27˚C in NaCl solution (50 mM) using an isothermal titration calorimetry. There is a set of three identical and non-interacting binding sites for nickel ions. The intrinsic dissociation equilibrium constant and the molar enthalpy of binding are 40 μM and -16...

Inclement weather on election day is widely seen to benefit certain political parties at the expense of others. Empirical evidence for this weather-vote share hypothesis is sparse however. We examine the effects of rainfall and temperature on share of the votes of eight political parties that participated in 13 national parliament elections, held in the Netherlands from 1971 to 2010. This paper...