Procedure for applying Muskingum Method Essay Example

Procedure for applying Muskingum Method Paper For Muskingum method which is a hydrologic method, the discharge measurements alone are sufficient for routing. This is because it is assumed that the parameters of the Muskingum model capture the combined flood-propagating characteristics of a river reach. When the water resources schemes to be built are in their initial planning stages, the river gauging system may remain either underdeveloped or insufficient to give precise and rigorous measurements of flow depths and discharges. The Muskingum method is useful for predicting the preliminary outflow hydrographs required at the initial stages of planning spillway capacities. In addition, these outflow hydrographs can also aid the design of stream gauges for future use. Hence, the Muskingum model has a high significance for modern civil engineers (Das 2004 p. 130) The Muskingum equation is frequently used for routing of floods in river channels. The Muskingum method for routing flood waves in rivers and channels has been widely used in applied hydrology, since its first use in connection with a flood control project in the Muskingum County of Ohio about fifty years ago. Since its development around 1934 by McCarthy, the Muskingum method has also been a subject of many investigations (Strupczewski, Napiorkowski Dooge 2002 p. 235) The figure below shows the translational and storage processes in stream channel routing. We will write a custom essay sample on Procedure for applying Muskingum Method specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Procedure for applying Muskingum Method specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Procedure for applying Muskingum Method specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer (Gill 1979 22) The Muskingum method as explained above is a widely used hydrologic method for routing flood waves in rivers and channels. The standard procedure for applying the Muskingum method involves two basic steps: calibration and prediction. In the calibration step, inflow-outflow hydrograph data is taken from historical records to determine the parameter values for the Muskingum model of a river. This is used to solve the parameter-estimation problem. The prediction step is the solution of a routing problem in which the outflow hydrograph for a given inflow hydrograph is determined by using the routing equations. Figure below shows an example of routing using Muskingum method (Elizabeth 1994) Disadvantages of Hydrologic Routing The primary disadvantage is that the dynamic flow effect is not taken into account. In addition it is assumed that stage and storage is a single–valued function of discharge implying flow is changing slowly with time. This may not be true always, and is a case of oversimplifying things. Muskingum Equations Muskingum equation is a spatially lumped form of continuity equation and linear-storage and discharge relationship for a specified river reach. The first equation is common to all conceptual models. It is a physical continuity equation i. e. law of conservation of mass, which is later integrated over the entire river reach   (1) Muskingum method differs from other conceptual models with the second equations, which relates storage in the river reach, inflow and outflow. The equation (2) given above can be obtained by assuming that the total storage in the river reach is a weighted sum of the storages, corresponding to steady-state flow rates in terminating cross-sections, and that a linear relation exists between the prismatic storage and the flow rate. As we have seen in the sections above the two types of storages prism and wedge, and the functions which they depend on. Revisiting the same we get Prism storage = ; Wedge storage = The above equations can be rewritten as Prism storage = ; Wedge storage = The total storage volume at any time instant, t, can be calculating the above two storages.

The Rise of Youtube and the Causes of Internet Music piracy The WritePass Journal

The Rise of Youtube and the Causes of Internet Music piracy Bibliography The Rise of Youtube and the Causes of Internet Music piracy IntroductionBibliographyRelated Introduction Sharing of illegal musical contents is becoming very popular nowadays. Sharing tools and many websites such as Kazza and Pirates bay are considered as a major source for downloading musical tracks and albums from the Internet around the globe. There are many reasons which have caused these illegal acts to emerge. One of the possible causes is the high cost of some albums and concert tickets. Many musical concerts might ask for very high entry fee. Example of this is the ticket price of a local concert for an artist named Stevie Wonders at Yas Island which is set to a price of Dhs250! Some CD and DVD packages might be little overpriced as well; however, several websites such as Amazon offer used CD albums while other websites such as iTunes offer cheap Mp3 tracks and albums for as low as 1$ Â  ( 4Dhs). Another possible cause is the diversity of tools and methods used by the pirates to publish the stolen and illegal material. Tools such Ares, Shareeza, and Kazza could be downloaded easily into your computer and use the P2P technology to acquire all the latest albums. The P2P (peer to peer) technology allows thousands of persons to share the same album and even allow the illegal users to comment on and rate these contents. There are several search engines created to find the illegal peers (distributors) such as torrentz.com website which connects thousands of violating sites. There are also several website where you can search for recorded musical events too. Several sites exist like YouTube where people can upload and watch HD quality full concerts for free with subtitles which make it more convenient for them than paying for the ticket money. Some people might also use forums and blogs to distribute such albums. Twitter (which is a blogging site) is an excellent source for the leak ed mp3 tracks downloads. A third cause of this major issue is the lack of moral and legal knowledge about this issue. For instance, many of the teens nowadays think that it’s not bad to download songs from the Internet. A recent study made by Barna group discovered that only eight percent of the sample of 1448 teenagers thinks it’s morally wrong to download music illegally from the internet (Ventura, 2004). As a result, several laws are enforced to protect Artist’s rights such as the UAE Copyright Law .These laws range from huge fines to impressments of copy-right violators, but these laws are mostly implemented heavily on companies rather than particular persons and this might seem quite disappointing. As a conclusion, it’s hard to ignore the several causes that made some Internet users distribute copied music contents through the Internet. It will be better to educate these persons on the possible effects of their actions. Bibliography Moore, C. W. (2003, August 8). Is Music Piracy Stealing? Retrieved March 12, 2011, from Applelinks: applelinks.com/mooresviews/pirate.shtml Stevie Wonders. (n.d.). Retrieved 03 12, 2011, from Yas Island: yasisland.ae/en/events-calendar/flash-events/yas-island-show-weekends/concerts/stevie-wonder-live-on-yas-island/ Ventura. (2004, April 26). Fewer Than 1 in 10 Teenagers Believe that Music Piracy is Morally Wrong. Retrieved 03 12, 2011, from The Barna Group: barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/139-fewer-than-1-in-10-teenagers-believe-that-music-piracy-is-morally-wrong

Pro's Google Medical Records Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pro's Google Medical Records - Essay Example Medical information has long been stored by doctors, hospitals, clinics and housewives. Doctors, hospitals and clinics have always used the medical charting system, keeping notes in thick files. Medical information was misread, misplaced, faded, and suffered a variety of accidents. Information was shared over telephones and FAX machines, or more often not shared at all. Bits and pieces would perhaps find their ways to a summer camp director, a human resource department, an insurance representative or some other storage destination, where it would become buried and inaccessible to the person whose body was the subject. Each member of the medical team responsible for the health of a given patient, stored only a limited set of medical information and there was little to no coordination of care (Gassee, 2010). To further complicate the patient’s fractured health picture, given the notoriously illegible handwriting of overly-busy doctors, what information there was in storage was o ften inaccurately interpreted. Without access, a patient could not take responsibility to correct inaccurate information. Inaccuracies became compounded. Google’s medical records storage system digitizes all the information and stores it in a central location, online. All members of the medical team, and patient-designated others, have easy access to accurate information, along with the patient (Seidman, 2011). Accuracy is enhanced by patient access to clearly organized records which, like credit card information or educational transcript information, can be corrected when errors are pointed out. Security, a critical issue, is well-assured with Google. Under the old charting system, the patient could not keep track of who had what personal medical information. There was no way to take information access away from those who had access. Google increases medical information security by linking access invitation, always generated by the patient, to specific e-dresses, keeping acc ess power and access-revocation power under patient control (Gassee, 2010). The patient can always see who has viewed personal medical information. Shared records are read-only (Kincaid, 2009). Probably the most important policy implemented by Google, with regard to use of their EMR, is that they will not share any information with anybody, without specific user permission to do so (Google Health, 2011). This policy clearly puts the patient, and not Google or â€Å"Big Brother†, in charge. Without this policy being in place and assured, those forecasting science fiction nightmares about lack of privacy and loss of self-determination, would have a point. Google is a technological giant. Such a massive undertaking as this EMR represents, requires human expertise and impressive computer capability. Google has more success in scalability than most other organizations. They have more than 2.5 million servers indexing and storing data daily, so they are experienced with this sort o f thing (Gassee, 2010). Furthermore, Google has joined forces with a consortium, to develop a software platform that automatically uploads medical information from home healthcare devices (Kirkpatrick 2009). They have associated with partner hospitals, pharmacies, etc., to link information, for the convenience of doctors and patients alike (Google Health, 2011). Google’

Suggested Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Suggested - Essay Example An educator needs to figure out which category best fits needs of every student. The educator should not try to fit all adult learners into one group as each student has different goals in his mind. Understanding life circumstance of an adult learner may also help educators to anticipate their needs. A student typically returns to school for a better professional image and increased career opportunities. Educators need to be aware of trends while assessing how to address need of each student. Some of these needs are: students who work in occupations generally labeled nonprofessional, professionals who want to change career fields, displaced professionals, workers who are concerned about being displaced and professionals who need a degree to make the next vertical step within their organizations. As listed above, there are many reasons why an adult student feels the need to continue with hiseducation. Educators need to educate themselves so they can better help each student to choose the best career path for what they desire to accomplish. However, understanding the circumstances surrounding return of an adult to school is imperative when providing quality suggestions as how to accomplish each goals of each student. Some students will not have the desire or time for a typical four year college program, so will be looking for shorter programs that offer quicker access to better paying jobs. Short term programs that provide rewarding work and better pay hold a strong appeal to most time-strapped adults. Educators and students need to be aware that students who have been in the workforce for a significant amount of time will have earned substantial school credits from work-time experience. This will help encourage adults to continue with their education. This article also state s â€Å"students with a high number of undergraduate credits can often complete a General Studies

Applied managment & theory - xerox case study Assignment

Applied managment & theory - xerox case study - Assignment Example In order to analyse the change of management in Xerox, it is necessary to adopt many management theories to analyse friction by friction. PEST analysis, comprising of Political, Economical, sociocultural and technological factors, according to which the marketing environment is made up of three aspects, internal environment, micro environment, macro environment etc. The internal environment consists of staff that is also called internal customers, office technology, wages and finance etc. Micro environment is external customers, agents and distributors, suppliers, out competitors etc. Macro environment consists of Political and legal forces, economic forces, sociocultural forces and technological forces etc. PEST is concerned only with the Macro Environment, which is concerned with the production of the company. "The first is efficiency in the production of a given set of outputs. That is, with a given capital stock a given technology and a given set of resource prices, firms should be producing goods and services with a minimum expenditure of the economy's resources," (Cyert, 1988, p.36). Xerox had to overcome many problems while going through Change Management. It could not compete with the Japanese competitors because of high manufacturing cost. Internal culture and leadership suffered due to mindsets bordering towards complacent inertia. But later, leadership went through an immense transformation that led to the present enviable state of the company. It improved the quality of its products and the organisation turned the corner. In 1990s, Xerox introduced digital photocopiers, high-end laser printers with attached scanners and these products made Xerox march ahead of its competitors in this mercurial field. "Xerox worked to turn its product into a service, providing a complete "document service" to companies including supply, maintenance, configuration and user support." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox Xerox created excellent name for itself in the employment front as well. Company received 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign in 2002. "They have maintained this rating in 2003, 2004, 2005. Xerox has been recognized by a number of other organizations for its diversity leadership as well." Ibid. As far as the political factors are concerned, the political scenario has a very large influence on business. It depends on the stability of the political environment, how could the tax regulation going to affect the company, what could be the Government's stand in marketing ethics, government's economic and industrial policy etc. It also depends on its religious or secular policies and if they are religion oriented enough to disturb other cultures or if there are any regional or international agreements and compulsions. Xerox did not face many problems due to political problems in home country, but it must have faced problems in other countries like Asian Specific countries, and to some extent, in India. "But, according to a recent article (Cordtz, 1974, "Xerox is moving into an awkward agethe company resembles a muscular adolescent who has grown so fast that he finds it difficult to coordinate his newly acquired strength" (page 117)" (Burke, 1977, p.22). In economic factors deal with market trends, economic predictions, theories of long and short term both, international market trend, any upcoming national and

Discussions Of Population Growth And Resources Environmental Sciences Essay

Discussions Of Population Growth And Resources Environmental Sciences Essay Natural resources are a subject of constant debate in the contemporary political and economic scene. Forms of appropriation, exploitation and trade of such resources affect in crucial way international relationships, and they are even a cause of violent conflicts. But its importance goes further. Their allocation has been always a crucial element due to its effects in the economy; its possession determines the economical organization and political development of a region. Today, there is an increasing awareness of the need for production systems to incorporate the objective of sustainable development. In order to manage this, natural resources should be renewal, in the sense that they are the determining condition for sustaining a long-term economic dynamic. Looking at this approach, natural resources are regarded as a link between societies and the environment. But what is the really relationship between population and natural resources? Is it sustainable? The study of interactions between population growth and the environment has a long history. According to Malthus 1, a growing population exerts pressure on agricultural land, forcing the cultivation of land of poorer and poorer quality. This environmental degradation affects natural resources and reduces the marginal product of labor and, through its effect on income, lessens the rate of population growth. The result is an equilibrium population that enjoys low levels of both income and environmental quality. But, the modern economic models replace agricultural land with nonrenewable resources. In this model, natural resources impose a limit to economic growth, with population pressures reducing economic development as scarce natural resources are exploited more intensively. However, a more recent theme in discussions of population growth and resources is the importance of environmental quality, measured by the stock of forests or by absence of air and water pollution. In this view the environment is seen not as a factor that limits productivity as populations expands, but as good whose quality is degraded by a growing population. In fact, population pressures, for example, are frequently cited as a cause of deforestation: population growth, by increasing the need for arable land, encourages the conversion of forest land to other uses. Moreover, it is related to the major cause of air, water and solid-waste pollution. In the past, the main cause of alarm was the depletion of natural resources. Many specialists repeatedly calculated how long the reserves of coal, oil, etc., will last. Now source of alarm is an entire complex of questions relating to the interaction between man and the environment. As in any other natural ecosystem, the increase in population means an increasing pressure on it. In the case of the human population, such pressure is even greater because it is not only a numerical increase, but also associated with the creation and diversification of new needs. This qualitative aspect is reflected in demands on resources, which are scarcer and scarcer. 2Nevertheless, the effects of population growth cannot be discussed independent of other factors that can cause resource and environmental pressures. While it makes sense to ask about relative importance of population in causing these pressures, it cannot be forgotten tastes, technology, institution policies and international relations. These and other determinants strongly condition the resource and pressure generated by population growth; they often change and affect the situation more than do demographic changes within specific time periods; and they often interact with each other and with demographic variables. But focusing on the sustainability of this relationship; there are at least three reason of why concerns about population growth have retreated over the last years. First,3 the demographic transition, which refers to the idea that at sufficiently high incomes, fertility tends to fall, owing to voluntary family size decisions. Indeed, fertility has fallen significantly in those parts of the world where most educated people live such as Unite States, Europe and East Asia. In spite this trend, population for the world as a whole is still growing rapidly. Second, population growth can be related to the technology optimism, which points out that increasing population is a positive force on living standards, largely because of induced innovation arising from population pressure. This model put an end on the Malthusian problem which 1said that there was a possibly tendency of human population to grow more rapidly that can be accommodated by arable land and other components of the source base. Third, it is related to political or ideological considerations. Population concerns are often in conflict with the strongly pro-natal positions of several major religions, particularly with the fundamentalist elements that have grown in influence over the past few decades. Cornering now about environmental degradation, especially air and water pollution, and concerning about depletion of natural resources like forests and oil reserves has become a significant issue. Both, environmental damage and resource depletion derive from the same fundamental question regarding the interaction of economic activity and the natural environment. Thus, important natural resources include environmental resources such as air and water, agricultural resources in the form of land and soil; renewable resources such as forests, fisheries and wildlife; and non-renewable resources such as oil and various metals and minerals. Global warming is a somewhat distinct topic, although it interacts closely with environmental, agricultural and renewable resources and is an important cause of resource degradation. Following studies like Limit to growth 4 put on the table whether the present growth trends continue unchanged, the limit to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next 100 years. The most probable result will be a sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity. Looking at this premonition, the word sustainability becomes widely used in discussion of resource use. Unfortunately, the term was used in a variety of different ways, leading to significant semantic confusions. Therefore, extending this sustainable concept to an entire economy seems difficult. 5This concept cannot apply to non-renewable resources. Petroleum that is used up cannot be replaced by new petroleum. So, it makes more sense to apply the concept to energy sources that can replace the non-renewable ones. Building the right infrastructures might include facilities to produce hydroelectric power, solar energy, wind energy, and so on. The issue is whether this sustainable word has appeared too late, because human has already cause huge damages. Some of them have even affected our own specie. 5About 3 million people die annually due to contamination. In the past decade and in every environmental sector, conditions have not improved. For example, contaminated water, together with poor sanitation, kills over 12 million people a years, mostly in developing countries. Air pollution kills another 3 millions. And heavy metals and other contaminates also cause widespread health problems; Will we have enough food to feed everyone? In 64 of the 105 developing countries studied by FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture), the population has been growing faster than food availability. The population pressures have degraded some 2.000 million hectares of arable land, an area the size of Canada and the United States together. About the fresh water: The availability of freshwater is finite, but demand is rising rapidly as the population grows and increasing use per capita. By 2025, when projected to the worlds population reaches 8.000 billion is expected that 48 countries, containing 3.000 million people will face water shortages. Focusing now in coastal and oceans; half of all coastal ecosystems are under pressure due to high population densities and urban development. In the worlds oceans is rising tide of pollution. The ocean fishery is being overexploited, and fish catches or harvests have declined. 1 Clausen, AW 1985, Population Growth and Economic and Social Development, Journal of Economic Education, 16, 3, pp. 165-176. 2 Ridker, Ronald G. Population and Economic Growth: Resource and Amenity Implications of Population Changes. American Economic Review 64, no. 2 (May 1974): 33 3 Peyrache-Gadeau, V 2007, Natural Resources, Innovative Milieux and the Environmentally Sustainable Development of Regions, European Planning Studies, 15, 7, pp. 945-959 . 4Smith, V. Kerry, and John V. Krutilla. Economic Growth, Resource Availability, and Environmental Quality. American Economic Review 74, no. 2 (May 1984): 226 4HOMER-DIXON, T 2011, GROWTH WONT LAST FOREVER, Foreign Policy, 184, p. 56 5 Don Hinrichsen and Bryant Robey; Population and the Environment: The Global Challenge Johns Hopkins University report, september 2000

An Introduction To Expert Systems Essay examples -- Technology Compute

An Insight into Expert Systems Abstract To improve speed of operations, programming practices for practical purposes are moving away from the data centric, procedural problem solving paradigm to a heuristic, declarative problem solving paradigm. Though theoretically there is no guarantee that a solution shall be found and even if it is found, that it be correct, practically it has been proven that expert systems employing , heuristics are indeed a faster and more effective manner of problem solving , with an added advantage of having an explanation for the answer arrived at. Having started out as a diagnostic tool, it has now found acceptance all over, be it Manufacturing Firms or IT Solution Providers and is definitely here to stay. Its dependence on Artificial Intelligence furthermore proves its capabilities to branch out to more areas of deployment. With the advent of commercial-off-the-shelf expert system development tools making the process of designing an expert system a simple task, now the real challenge lies with the experts to be able to put these their knowledge and expertise in their domain to effective use to create systems which can be put to use effectively. Expert Systems are a branch of Artificial Intelligence that makes an extensive use of specialized knowledge to solve problems at the level of a human expert. AI's scientific goal is to understand intelligence by building computer programs that exhibit intelligent behavior. The term intelligence covers many cognitive skills, including the ability to solve problems, learn, and understand language; AI addresses all of those. But most progress to date in AI has been made in the area of problem solving -- concepts and methods for building programs that reas... ...tive. The IFE may also use a variety of techniques, particularly when carrying out the dialogue with the user to produce the specification of the user's problem. Research has flattened out when compared to the days of its inception as a practice, as more efforts have been employed in tapping its commercial value. To maximize this, other systems such as database and fuzzy logic systems are being embedded into expert systems. Drawbacks Expert systems are said to have a narrow domain and limited focus. Also they do not have a learning ability which is something AI systems are expected to. They require rigorous maintenance procedures and incur huge developmental costs. Bibliography 1. Knowledge Based Systems in Japan (http://www.wtec.org/loyola/kb/) 2. Databases and Artificial Intelligence 3 by Alison Cawsey (http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~alison/ai3notes/)