The Tohoku earthquake of March 11, 2011, caused gigantic tsunamis and widespread devastation. Various high-resolution satellites quickly captured the details of affected areas, and were used for emergency response. In this study, high-resolution preand post-event TerraSAR-X intensity images were used to identify damaged buildings. Since the damaged buildings show changes in backscatter intensit...

EARTHQUAKES T recent earthquakes in Taiwan, Turkey, and India tragically demonstrate the abruptness with which earthquakes occur and the devastation that often accompanies them. Scientists, emergency officials, and the public are greatly interested in earthquakes-sudden fractures in Earth's crust followed by ground shaking-and have Seismologists have never directly observed rupture in Earth's i...

This paper presents causal evidence on the long run consequences of WWII destruction on educational attainment and health status of German households. I combine a unique dataset on WWII bombing intensity in Raumordnungsregionen (Regional Policy Regions) level with the individual survey data, German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to study the long-lasting effects of WWII devastation. The identific...

In 1992, experts at the National Science Foundation Workshop titled "Low-Frequency Electrical Precursors to Earthquakes: Fact or Fiction?" concluded that "seismic electric signals observed in Greece are generated in the Earth, and the apparent correlation with earthquakes is promising" [Park, 1992]. On March 5 and 26,1993, strong earthquakes hit Pirgos City, Greece. Despite heavy damage, there ...

We examine the integrability, in terms of the Painlevé singularity analysis and of the Lie symmetry analysis, of systems of nonlinear first-order ordinary differential equations that arise in the particular area of Mathematical Modelling known as Rational Epidemiology. These analyses are presented as being complementary to the standard analysis using the methods of Dynamical Systems. The import...

There is growing concern that the traditional "protectionist" approach to conservation is expensive and fails to deliver the desired environmental outcomes. Encouraged by economists, “supply side” policies to conserve endangered species have drawn support. By generating supplies from captive–bred animals, wildlife commodity prices are expected to fall, thereby lowering the incentive to poach sp...

Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of health mainly based on plant drugs is of late, regaining the confidence of the people in India and abroad. Quite ironically, our vegetal wealth is getting more and more impoverished due to indiscriminate deforestation. This is ominous for Ayurveda and its enthusiasts. The article highlights the portends that this devastation holds for this science. Probab...

Crops can be devastated by pathogenic strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens that cause crown gall tumors. This devastation can be prevented by the nonpathogenic biocontrol agent A. radiobacter K84, which prevents disease by production of the "Trojan horse" toxin agrocin 84, which is specifically imported into tumorgenic A. tumefaciens strains to cause cell death. We demonstrate that this biocont...

SARS Resources is an extremely useful practical website organized by members of the unfortunate group faced with containing the North American epicenter of the SARS outbreak (Greater Toronto Area Critical Care/Emergency Medicine Advisory Group). It provides materials that have been developed to assist health care providers in caring for patients with SARS, and it meets the needs of those trying...