Recent radical proposals to overhaul the methods of biological classification are reviewed. The proposals of phylogenetic nomenclature are to translate cladistic phylogenies directly into classifications, and to define taxon names in terms of clades. The method has a number of radical consequences for biologists: taxon names must depend rigidly on the particular cladogram favoured at the moment...

Climate change and associated sea level rise (SLR) are already impacting low-lying coastal areas, including islands, throughout the world. Many of these areas are inhabited, many will need to be abandoned in coming decades as SLR continues. We examine the evolution (1850-2013) of the last inhabited offshore island in Virginia waters of Chesapeake Bay USA, the Tangier Islands. Three SLR scenario...

OBJECTIVE To analyze and summarize the characteristics of the death cases of the abandoned babies in Shanghai, and to explore the main points and features in forensic investigation. METHODS Twenty-seven death cases of the abandoned babies were selected from 2007 to 2011 in the Institute of Forensic Science of Shanghai Public Security Bureau. The cases were retrospectively analyzed in the resp...

The presence of ground subsidence near abandoned coal mine areas can be hazardous to people and property because of its tendency to happen without warning. The prognostication has recently become a serious social problem in Korea, since almost all underground coal mines have been abandoned, and few remain since 1989. However, the effort of scientifically assessment of susceptible ground subside...

The aim of this work was to evaluate New York State's regulatory program for plugging inactive oil and gas wells. Analysis of reports from the Division of Mineral Resources, Department of Environmental Conservation, reveals that three-fourths of the state's abandoned oil and gas wells were never plugged. Inadequate enforcement efforts have resulted in steady increases of unplugged oil and gas w...

To investigate potential health risks associated with exposure to metals from an abandoned metal mine, the authors studied people living near an abandoned mine (n=102) and control groups (n=149). Levels of cadmium, copper, arsenic, lead, and zinc were measured in the air, soil, drinking water, and agricultural products. To assess individual exposure, biomarkers of each metal in blood and urine ...

Almost two decades have passed since Chile began its pioneering effort to restructure its electricity sector, followed by Argentina and England and Wales about a decade later. In almost all of the countries that have undertaken restructuring, the results have been at least a qualified success – and often a resounding success. California’s results, however, have been an unmitigated disaster. Thi...

We present the software architecture of a robotic system for mapping abandoned mines. The software is capable of acquiring consistent 2D maps of large mines with many cycles, represented as Markov random fields. 3D C-space maps are acquired from local 3D range scans, which are used to identify navigable paths using A* search. Our system has been deployed in three abandoned mines, two of which i...