The Upper Guinean region of West Africa exhibits strong geographic variation in land use, climate, vegetation, and human population and has experienced phenomenal biophysical and socio-economic changes in recent decades. All of these factors influence spatial heterogeneity and temporal trends in fires, but their combined effects on fire regimes are not well understood. The main objectives of this study were to characterize the spatial patterns and interrelationships of multiple fire regime components, identify recent trends in fire activity, and explore the relative influences of climate, topography, vegetation type, and human activity on fire regimes. Fire regime components, including active fire density, burned area, fire season length, and fire radiative power, were characterized using MODIS fire products from 2003 to 2015. Both active fire and burned area were most strongly associated with vegetation type, whereas fire season length was most strongly influenced by climate and topography variables, and fire radiative power was most strongly influenced by climate. These associations resulted in a gradient of increasing fire activity from forested coastal regions to the savanna-dominated interior, as well as large variations in burned area and fire season length within the savanna regions and high fire radiative power in the westernmost coastal regions. There were increasing trends in active fire detections in parts of the Western Guinean Lowland Forests ecoregion and decreasing trends in both active fire detections and burned area in savanna-dominated ecoregions. These results portend that ongoing regional landscape and socio-economic changes along with climate change will lead to further changes in the fire regimes in West Africa. Efforts to project future fire regimes and develop regional strategies for adaptation will need to encompass multiple components of the fire regime and consider multiple drivers, including land use as well as climate.
Wildfires are a principal force shaping ecological patterns and processes across diverse terrestrial ecosystems. The complex interactions of ignition sources with vegetation, climate, and topography give rise to fire regimes, an ecological concept describing the range of fire characteristics occurring at a given geographic location and time period [1,2]. Fire regimes can be characterized by various metrics, including fire size, seasonality, frequency, intensity, and severity. Examining multiple components of the fire regime is therefore necessary for understanding the geographic patterns, drivers, and ecological effects of fire . This knowledge is essential for projecting how fire regimes will respond to future changes in climate and land use, and for developing strategies to adapt to these changes. West Africa, in particular, is a region where fire has a significant impact on terrestrial ecosystems [4,5]. The region also exhibits strong geographic variation in land use, climate, vegetation types, and human population, all of which influence spatial heterogeneity of fire regimes. The main goal of this study was to explore the influences of climate, vegetation, and land use on multiple fire regime components across the forest and woody savanna zones of West Africa.
Over the past four decades West Africa has lost a substantial portion of its natural vegetation, including savannas, woodlands, and forests, to expanding croplands and human settlements. As a result, the remaining natural vegetation is highly fragmented [5,6]. A recent analysis of satellite remote sensing data indicated a decreasing trend of woody vegetation cover across the savanna ecoregions along with widespread degradation of the humid forests . The tropical humid forest (also known as the Upper Guinean forest, UGF), a globally significant biodiversity hotspot , is estimated to have lost over 80% of its original forest cover, with the remainder distributed in a fragmented agriculture-forest mosaic [9,10]. Moreover, West Africa's population almost doubled between 1990 and 2015 (180 to 353 million), and it is projected to nearly double again by 2050, from 353 million to 797 million . The region has also been experiencing climate change in recent decades. Temperatures have become warmer, and precipitation has either not changed or declined for many locations below the Sahel, especially along the Guinea Coast .
In the rapidly changing environment of West Africa, fire regimes are affected by changes that alter fuel conditions and ignitions, but fire also serves as a driver of vegetation and land use change. As a result, fire and vegetation change are linked via strong positive and negative feedbacks . Yet, studies of fire regimes in this region are rare. Quite recently, Prichard et al.  reviewed fire regimes across the world's major bioregions and pointed out the relative scarcity of literature on African savannas. Surprisingly this review did not include any examples of research on tropical forest fires in Africa.
Much of our knowledge of fire regimes in West Africa has been gleaned from studies conducted at broader continental to global extents. In a global characterization of fire regimes, Archibald et al.  found that most of the region was dominated by relatively frequent, small-sized fires with low intensity. Additionally, the West African fire regime was largely controlled by human impacts . Another global analysis of burned areas also indicated that human activities strongly influence fire size distribution in West Africa through land cover changes, fire ignitions, landscape fragmentation, and fire management [15,16]. Multiple studies have found evidence of decreasing fire activity in the dry, savanna-dominated regions across Africa [17,18,19]. Most regional to continental scale fire studies have not explicitly addressed the tropical forest regions of West Africa, where fire is relatively rare. However, there is evidence that fires have encroached into the northern portions of the dry tropical forest zone in recent decades, leading to degradation and eventual loss of forest vegetation .
What are the spatial patterns and interrelationships of multiple fire regime components in the Upper Guinean region?
What are the overall trends in fire activity and how do they differ amongst the humid forest and the savanna-dominated ecoregions?
How do the relative influences of climate, topography, vegetation type, and human activity vary across different fire regime components?
Our study area encompassed a portion of the UGF region and consisted of five West African countries distributed along the Atlantic coast between Senegal and Togo. This area covered 985,480 km2 and included Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea (Figure 1). The climate is characterized by a strong rainfall gradient with peak rainfall (≈4000 mm/year) near the coasts of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Rainfall decreases rapidly in a north-easterly direction to only ≈1200 mm/year at the forest savannah-boundary  and less than 1200 mm/year in the driest portions of the study area. Generally, decreasing rainfall is associated with a longer dry season and higher inter-annual variability of rainfall . The rainfall regimes are modulated by the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the West Africa Monsoon (WAM) and are influenced by teleconnections with climate modes, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) [21,22].
Along this rainfall gradient, natural vegetation varies from dense evergreen rainforests, to moist and dry closed-canopy semi-deciduous forests, to woodlands and savannas . The area is mainly covered by four of the World Wide Fund (WWF) terrestrial ecoregions of the world . These are the Eastern Guinean Forests (EGF) and Western Guinean Lowland Forests (WGLF), together comprising the Upper Guinean Forests; and the Guinean Forest–Savanna Mosaic (GFSM) and West Sudanian Savanna (WSS) ecoregions (Figure 1a). The principal land use is agriculture based on food and cash crops, chiefly cereals, cocoa, tubers, rubber, and fruit trees . Other important land use practices include mining and timber exploitation in the forested regions, agro-pastoralism, and tree harvesting for fuel-wood, especially charcoal, in the drier savanna-dominated regions .
We obtained active fire detections at 1-km resolution from the combined MODIS Terra (10:30 am/pm Equatorial nominal overpass time) and Aqua (1:30 pm/am Equatorial nominal overpass time) active fire product MCD14ML, level 3 Collection 6 [24,25]. We used the detection confidence and hot-spot type fields in the MCD14ML data to respectively remove low confidence fires (<30%) and non-vegetation fires. We used the fire radiative power (FRP) measurement associated with each MODIS active fire detection as a measure of fire intensity . FRP is the rate of fire energy released per unit time, and this information is retrieved using MODIS mid-infrared wavelengths . In Collection 6 of the MCD14ML product, FRP retrieval uses a radiance-based approach in which the 4-μm radiance of individual fire pixels and surrounding background pixels are compared [24,26]. FRP can be interpreted as a measure of biomass combustion rate, and is increasingly used by the atmospheric emissions modeling community to estimate vegetation burning emissions [27,28].
We used the MODIS burned area product, MCD64A1 Collection 6, to measure burned area. This product uses an improved algorithm that incorporates both surface reflectance and active fire input data . Consequently, this product has generally improved burned area detection than the previous product MCD45A1, with higher accuracy and significantly better detection of small burns . The MCD64A1 product has a spatial resolution of 500 m at a daily time step.
We summarized the active fire and burned area data from 2003 to 2015, covering the period within which data were simultaneously collected by both MODIS Terra and Aqua satellites. Four main grid-based fire regime metrics were calculated: mean annual active fire density, percent mean annual burned area, fire season length, and mean fire radiative power (Table 1). We also generated other indicators of fire seasonality, including peak fire month, the percentage of active fire detections occurring in the peak month, and the percent monthly distributions of active fires and area burned by ecoregion. Variables were summarized for a grid of 0.25° raster cells and for the four major ecoregions described previously.
We summarized the active fire data into time series of monthly and annual active fire counts for each grid cell and ecoregion. We used the annual active fire densities to compute the mean annual active fire density (fires km−2 year−1) for each grid cell and ecoregion.
Monthly and annual burned areas were calculated for each grid cell and ecoregion and summarized as a percent of the total land area. We used the annual burned area data to compute the mean annual burned area (% year−1) for each grid cell and ecoregion.
We used the grid-based monthly time series data to compute a monthly climatology of active fire density for each grid cell using methods developed by Chuvieco et al.  and Moreno and Chuvieco . Following these same authors, we computed fire season length as the number of calendar months within a year in which the monthly fire climatology was greater than the long-term average annual fire density per each grid . We further identified the peak fire month for each grid cell as the calendar month in which the maximum climatological fire density was recorded . We also calculated the percentage of active fire detections recorded in the peak fire month as a proportion of the total annual active fire detections for each grid cell. To examine the intra-annual variability of fire activity by ecoregion, we used the ecoregion-based monthly fire data to calculate the percent of total active fire counts and the percent of total burned area that occurred during each month.
We calculated the mean fire radiative power (MW km−2) for each climate grid by averaging fire radiative power values of all fire pixels over all years in each grid cell. The distribution of mean fire radiative power was heavily right-skewed. Therefore, we carried out a logarithmic (base 10) transformation to make the distribution more symmetric and reduce the influence of outlying values.
Predictor variables were selected to characterize the major climatic, land cover/land use, and human factors that we expected to be associated with the geographic pattern of fire regimes [34,35] (Table 1). We used the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) monthly product 3B43-v7 at 0.25° spatial resolution to generate mean annual rainfall and annual maximum cumulative water deficit (MCWD). MCWD estimates accumulated water deficit within a particular year and is an indicator of the intensity and length of the dry season . More negative values of MCWD indicate higher levels of moisture stress. We computed MCWD using methods described by Aragão et al. . We also included annual potential evapotranspiration estimates from the CGIAR-CSI Global-Aridity and Global-PET Geospatial Database . Higher values of potential evapotranspiration indicate greater moisture stress. All predictor variables were aggregated to match the 0.25° spatial resolution of the TRMM data.
We generated vegetation cover and vegetation change maps from 2-km spatial resolution USGS region-specific land cover/use maps for West Africa for 2000 and 2013, which were created through visual interpretation of Landsat images . Some of the detailed USGS cover types were aggregated into broader classes. The "forest" class included forest, degraded forest, woodland, and swamp forest. The "savanna" class included savanna, bowe, and herbaceous savanna. The "cropland" class included agriculture, irrigated agriculture, agriculture in shallows and recession, and cropland and fallow with oil palms. We expressed these classes as percent cover at the 0.25° grid cell resolution.
We obtained a protected area (PA) boundaries polygon layer from the World Database on Protected Areas (accessed in November 2016). We reclassified PAs into two classes (production reserve and eco-reserve) based on their level of protection as defined by the Protected Categories System of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Production reserve (PR) encompassed PAs of IUCN category VI, which are designated for natural ecosystems' protection and sustainable use. Eco-reserves (ER) encompassed PAs of IUCN category I to V, which are designated to maintain and protect biodiversity and ecosystem integrity with minimal human influence. We assigned all areas outside PAs to non-protected (NP) status. We rasterized the PA polygons by resampling to the TRMM grid, and retaining PA status as the raster values.
The new Gridded Population of the World (GPWv4) dataset, at 1 km grid resolution (CIESIN, 2015) was used to obtain 2010 population density estimates. We extracted the major roads (functional class 0-3) GIS layer from the Global Roads Open Access Data Set (gROADSv1, ). We ran the Euclidean distance function in ArcGIS 10.2 to generate a raster grid of distances to the nearest major road. We calculated slope from a 90 m spatial resolution digital elevation model using ArcGIS 10.2.
To check for excessive data redundancy, we screened the intercorrelations among the predictors and found that nearly all had Pearson correlations <0.65 and >−0.65 (Table 1). An exception was MCWD which had stronger correlations with the savanna and forest variables.
2.5.1. Question 1: What Are the Spatial Patterns and Interrelationships of Multiple Fire Regime Components in the Upper Guinean Region?
To characterize the spatial patterns of fire activity in the Upper Guinean region, we mapped the four main fire regime components: mean annual active fire density, percent mean annual burned area, fire season length, and mean fire radiative power. We graphed the bivariate relationships amongst these fire regime components, and used the Kendall non-parametric rank correlation coefficient test to determine the direction and the strength of correlations among their spatial patterns. We also mapped peak fire month and the corresponding percent of fire detections and graphed the seasonal cycle of fire distribution and tabulated summaries of fire regime characteristics by ecoregion.
2.5.2. Question 2: What Are the Overall Trends in Fire Activity and How Do They Differ Amongst the Humid Forest and the Savanna-Dominated Ecoregions?
We used the non-parametric Mann–Kendall test to test for increasing monotonic upward or downward trends in annual time series active fire density and burned area for each grid cell and ecoregion. The Mann–Kendall test was used for trend detection in previous fire regime analysis . We followed criteria outlined in Liu et al.  for the grid-based trend test and set a significance level of 0.1. Trends were calculated only for grid cells with at least six data points, and at most eight consecutive missing data points.
2.5.3. Question 3: How Do the Relative Influences of Climate, Topography, Vegetation Type, and Human Activity Vary across Different Fire Regime Components?
We used Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) to determine the most important environmental drivers of each of the four main fire regime components: active fire density, burned area, fire season length, and fire radiative power. BRT is a nonparametric machine-learning approach combining the advantages of regression trees, which relate a response to their predictors by recursive binary splits, and boosting algorithms, which combine many simple models to give improved predictive performance . It is relatively insensitive to outliers and is able to handle various data types, accommodate missing data in predictor variables, automatically model interactions among explanatory variables, and produce easily interpretable results . We implemented BRT analyses using the gbm functions in the dismo package in R 3.4.1 .
In order to avoid overfitting, we used cross-validation procedure to identify optimal model parameters (tree complexity-tc, learning rate-lr, and number of trees-nt), and the best combination of these parameters was selected by maximizing the variance explained by the model. Model fitting were evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation correlation between observed and model fitted datasets . We used a Gaussian error model and a bag fraction of 0.75, and obtained the best tc = 3 for all BRT models of the four fire regime components. In the active fire density model, lr of 0.075, and nt of 2400 were selected. In the burned area model, lr of 0.05, and nt of 2160 were selected. In the fire season length model, lr of 0.025, and nt of 2100 were selected. In the fire radiative power model, lr of 0.075, and nt of 1800 were selected.
BRT measured the relative influence of each predictor variable based on the number of times that variable was selected for splitting, weighted by the squared improvement to the model resulting from these splits, and averaged over all trees . The relative influence of each variable was scaled to a total of 100%, with higher values indicating stronger influence on the fire regime component. The marginal effect of each variable was visualized using partial dependence graphs, which showed the effect of that variable on a fire regime component after accounting for the average effects of all other variables .
3.1. Question 1: What Are the Spatial Patterns and Interrelationships of Multiple Fire Regime Components in the Upper Guinean Region?
Figure 2 depicts geographic distributions of the four main fire regime components. An overarching gradient of fire activity were evident in relation to patterns of precipitation and vegetation, with the highest values of active fire density, burned area, and fire radiative power clustered in the Guinean Forest–Savanna Mosaic (GFSM) and Western Sudanian Savanna (WSS) ecoregions in the North. In contrast, there was much lower fire activity in the Western Guinean Lowland Forest (WGLF) and Eastern Guinean Forest (EGF) ecoregions located in the South. However, the different fire regime components also exhibited distinctive patterns. Unusually high active fire density and relatively long fire seasons ranging from 4 to 6 months were observed in the western portion of the study area at the boundary between the WGLF and the GFSM (Figure 2). The highest fire radiative power was concentrated near the coast in the westernmost portion of the study area. In contrast, burned area was highest in the WSS and GFSM ecoregions in the northeastern portion of the study area. This area also had slightly lower active fire density than the northwestern region, along with a relatively short fire season length of 2–3 months.
Among the fire regime components, the strongest relationship was between active fire density and burned area (τ = 0.61, p < 0.0001, Figure 3). Active fire density had a moderate relationship with fire radiative power (τ = 0.48, p < 0.0001). All other relationships were weak and mostly nonlinear (Figure 3).
At the ecoregion scale, active fire density was highest in the GFSM, followed by WSS and then WGLF; and burned area was highest in the WSS, followed by GFSM, and then WGLF (Table 2). Among all ecoregions, the forested EGF recorded the lowest active fire density, burned area, and fire radiative power (Table 2). Fire season averaged about 3-months in all ecoregions (Table 2). Within ecoregions fire season length was spatially heterogeneous, with fire seasons longer than three months localized in the north-western part of the study area and in portions of the EGF.
The fire season generally occurred between November and May, with variation in seasonal patterns across ecoregions (Figure 4). In the savanna ecoregions, most fires occurred between November and February, while in the forested ecoregions most fires occurred between January and May. The savanna-dominated ecoregions had earlier peak fire months, mainly December and January (Figure 5a). On the contrary, in the forested ecoregions fire activity peaked later in the fire season, mainly in March and April. The percentage of active fire detections during the peak fire month was highly spatially varied (Figure 5b).
3.2. Question 2: What Are the Overall Trends in Fire Activity and How Do They Differ Amongst the Humid Forest and the Savanna-Dominated Ecoregions?
At the ecoregion level, the trend in active fire density was weakly positive in the WGLF ecoregion and weakly negative in the EGF and WSS ecoregions (Figure 6a, Table 3). There were also weak decreasing trends in burned area in the EGF, GFSM, and WSS ecoregions (Figure 6b, Table 3). However, the temporal trends in fire activity also varied geographically within ecoregions (Figure 7). We found clusters of increasing active fire detections in parts of the WGLF, particularly in Sierra Leone and western Liberia (Figure 7a). There were also clusters of decreasing active fire and burned area in the central portions of the WSS and the GFSM, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire (Figure 7).
3.3. Question 3: How Do the Relative Influences of Climate, Topography, Vegetation Type, and Human Activity Vary across Different Fire Regime Components?
Cross-validated correlations between the BRT predictions and observed values were 0.91 for active fire density, 0.88 for burned area, 0.64 for fire season length, and 0.89 for fire radiative power. The most important predictor variables identified by the BRT algorithm varied among the four fire regime components (Figure 8).
For active fire density, savanna cover was the most influential variable followed by precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, and maximum cumulative water deficit (MCWD). All these variables were positively associated with active fire density, except MCWD (Figure 9a). MCWD had a nonlinear relationship, in which active fire density was highest at intermediate water deficits (MCWD ≈ −150, Figure 9a) which may provide dry conditions favorable for fire activity. In contrast, high moisture stress (low MCWD values) may suppress fire activity due to low primary productivity and fuel availability, and low moisture stress (high MCWD values) may limit fire activity because of high fuel moisture. Forest cover and distance to roads had weaker influences on active fire density (4.8%, and 4.2% relative importance, respectively; Supplementary Materials Figure S1).
For burned area, the most important predictor variables were savanna cover, forest cover, slope, savanna cover change, MCWD, cropland change, potential evapotranspiration, precipitation, and protected area status in order of decreasing importance. Burned area was positively associated with savanna cover, but negatively associated with forest cover and slope. Loss of savanna cover during the study period was associated with lower burned area, whereas gain in savanna cover was associated with higher burned area (Figure 9b). A higher gain in cropland was generally associated with higher burned area (Supplementary Materials Figure S2). Burned area was lowest at the highest water stress (low MCWD values) and increased with decreasing water stress (increasing MCWD values).
For fire season length, the three climatic indices, slope, population density, and forest cover were the most important predictor variables (Figure 9c and Figure S3). The fire season was longest when water deficit was high (lowest MCWD values). Fire season length decreased with decreasing water stress up to an MCWD value of −200 mm/year, and then increased slightly at the lowest levels of water stress (highest MCWD values). Annual precipitation was negatively associated with fire season length except at the lowest precipitation levels (≤1200 mm/year). Potential evapotranspiration was positively associated with fire season length. Thus, for all three climatic variables, longer fire seasons were generally associated with drier conditions. Slope had a nonlinear relationship with fire season length, with a positive association at low slope values and a negative association at higher slope values. Population density was positively associated fire season length. Forest cover also had a unimodal relationship with fire season length, where the longest fire seasons were associated with 20–40% forested land cover (Supplementary Materials Figure S3).
For fire radiative power, the three climatic indices had the strongest influences followed by savanna cover and slope (Figure 9d and Supplementary Materials Figure S4). Thus, the four most influential drivers were the same for fire radiative power and active fire density, although their levels of influence varied and the relationships with MCWD and potential evapotranspiration were different. Fire radiative power was positively associated with higher annual precipitation and negatively associated with evapotranspiration, suggesting that fire intensity was highest in wetter and more productive environments. In contrast, fire radiative power was highest when water deficit was high (lowest MCWD values) and decreased with decreasing water stress (highest MCWD values), suggesting that greater moisture stress during the dry season was also associated with more intense burning (Figure 9d).
There was strong variability in the spatial and temporal patterns of fires across the Upper Guinean region. As expected, the savanna-dominated ecoregions were the epicenters of fire activity, with the highest density of active fires, burned area, and to large extent fire intensity. Savannas are fire-adapted ecosystems, with abundant fine fuels and low fuel moisture during the dry season [45,46,47]. Savanna also constitutes the most widespread vegetation type in the study area (Figure 1 and Figure S5) and thus provides the majority of fuels that support ignition and fire spread. Therefore, concentration of fire activity in the savanna and mixed forest–savanna ecoregions was not surprising. Less fire activity was observed in the humid forest ecoregions because these forests tend to offer some buffering against fire encroachment. Tropical forests are usually fire resistant because they have relatively low amounts of herbaceous fuels and relatively high fuel moisture in their shaded understories .
In the BRT analyses, active fires and burned area both had the strongest associations with savanna vegetation type. The geographic distribution of savanna was in turn related to the overarching regional gradients of precipitation and moisture stress, but the BRT results emphasized that vegetation, rather than climate per se, had the strongest proximal influence on fire activity. Recent vegetation change was also identified as an important driver of fire. Our finding that savanna loss was associated with lower burned area is consistent with previous studies which found reductions in burned area due to conversion of savannas to agriculture [17,18,49]. However, cropland gain during the study period was also associated with higher burned area, and this relationship may reflect the use of fire to clear forested areas for agriculture. In contrast to savanna, forest areas with lower cover were associated with more burned area. These results emphasize that whereas human disturbances through forest fragmentation and degradation tend to enhance fire activity in forested areas, such disturbances tend to diminish fire activity in savanna-dominated landscapes.
We also observed trends in fire activity that are likely associated with regional changes in land use and vegetation patterns. Increasing trends in active fire detections were identified in the Western Guinean Lowland Forest (WGLF) ecoregion. This result affirms recent findings by Ichoku et al.  who reported increasing active fire detections in parts of forested West Africa. Recently, Liu et al.  observed decreasing trends of woody vegetation in the WGLF, an indication of forest loss and degradation in that area. Thus, increasing active fire detections here may be connected with a generally decreasing tree cover and increasing amounts of herbaceous/shrub vegetation and fine fuels, as has been documented in other forested regions of West Africa . Furthermore, our observation of a generally decreasing trend in fire activity in savanna-dominated ecoregions is consistent with previous studies which reported declining fire activity in African savannas [5,17,18]. Liu et al.  reported decreasing trends in woody cover and increasing enhanced vegetation index (EVI) across much of the woody savanna and forest–savanna mosaic ecoregions, suggesting that decreasing fire activity is indeed linked with increasing agriculture and declining tree cover in these areas.
Differences in multiple fire regime components between the northeastern and the northwestern parts of the study area underscored the complexity of factors controlling fire regimes. When the fire season is long with a late peak, as in the northwestern subregion, the fires that start early in the season are usually smaller in size  and thus have the potential to break up fuel continuity and reduce total burned area later in the season. It has been shown in a variety of ecosystems that fires reduce fuel loads and thereby inhibit spread of subsequent fires and reduce burned area [50,51]. Moreover, many parts of the northwestern landscape have rugged topography (Supplementary Materials Figure S5), which may have inhibited fire spread leading to lower area burned in the northwestern subregion. These relationships were reflected in the BRT analyses, which found that rugged landscapes with steeper slopes had generally lower burned area and longer fire seasons than landscapes with lower slopes and more gentle terrain.
In contrast, the shorter fire season and earlier peak fire month in the northeastern subregion suggest that flammable and contiguous fuels allowed large areas to burn within a shorter period. These findings are consistent with experimental results from the Kruger National Park in South Africa which found that total burned area was mainly controlled by fuel availability rather than the number of fire events . The northeastern landscape was generally flat and encompassed the largest protected areas of savanna in the study area, located in central and northern Ghana and north-eastern Côte d'Ivoire (Figure 1 and Figure S5), thereby providing the most contiguous savanna cover with continuous fuel beds that are conducive to ignition and rapid fire spread. The BRT results showed that protected eco-reserves, which are mostly savannas, had more burned area than other protection categories (Supplementary Materials Figure S2), meaning that fires were more likely to burn in continuous savanna landscapes where human interference is minimal.
Notwithstanding these explanations, we acknowledge that this observed dichotomy between active fire and burned area may also reflect the geographic variability in the probability of ignitions growing into fires large enough to be detectable by the MODIS burned area algorithm. Although the current burned area product, MCD64A1, has improved detection of small burned areas , its performance in highly heterogeneous landscapes such as this study area has not been quantified. Thus, burned area may be underestimated in the northwestern portion of our study area if the fire regime there is comprised of many small fires. However, we believe that relative geographic differences in fire regimes that we have observed are valid: many smaller fires occurring over a longer fire season in the northwest versus fewer, larger fires burning more area over a shorter fire season in the northeast.
Archibald et al.  reported that small-sized and low intensity fires dominate the West African fire regime. However, we found particularly high fire intensity values in western part of the study area. This distinct pattern of fire intensity could be partly explained by the climatic conditions in the far western portion of the study area. This area is unique in that it has high annual precipitation combined with high moisture stress during the dry season as reflected in high maximum cumulative water deficits (Supplementary Materials Figure S5), as well as the latest peak fire months within the study area. The BRT results confirmed that precipitation and maximum cumulative water deficit were the two most important drivers of fire radiative power. Thus, the high fire radiative power in this region may reflect a combination of high fuel loads generated during the growing season followed by low fuel moisture during the fire season, leading to relatively high fire intensity compared to other portions of the study area with either lower fuel loads or higher fuel moisture during the fire season. Furthermore, the late peak fire month in this area likely increased the potential for high intensity fires because fuels later in the fire season are exposed to prolonged dry and warm conditions and therefore have lower fuel moisture than in the early season .
Our findings that more severe moisture deficits were associated with fewer active fires and less burned area, but were also associated with longer fire season lengths and higher fire radiative power (FRP), emphasize the heterogeneous impacts of moisture stress on the fire regime. The general association between drier conditions and lower fire activity indicates that after accounting for differences between major vegetation types, fuel loads rather than fuel moisture are the primary factor limiting fire initiation and spread. High levels of moisture stress lead to reduced primary productivity and consequently result in reduced fuel loads that limit fire activity, whereas more rainfall and lower moisture stress lead to increased fuel loads and fuel continuity.
The overriding influence of the three moisture variables on FRP (Figure 9d and Figure S4) emphasize that climatic variables, rather than vegetation type, were the main determinants of fire intensity [2,52]. As discussed in the previous section, the BRT results indicate that FRP is constrained by a combination of productivity and fuel moisture effects. The highest FRP levels occurred where annual precipitation was high and evapotranspiration was low, indicating the potential for high productivity throughout the growing season, but cumulative moisture stress was high, indicating severe moisture stress and low fuel moisture during the dry season.
Fire season length was most strongly influenced by climate, topography, and population density. Although vegetation types and their associated fuels primarily control the spatial variability in ignition and fire spread, they have less influence on the timing of fire activity during the year. The association of longer fire season length with higher cumulative moisture deficit supports earlier observation by Giglio et al.  that fire season length in the tropics is largely controlled by duration of the dry season. This relationship was further supported by the positive associations of fire season length with potential evapotranspiration and negative association with precipitation. Nonetheless, our analyses also showed that human population density was an important modifier of fire season length but not active fire density nor burned area. The association of population density with longer fire seasons suggests that anthropogenic activities have more control on the timing of fires than the amount of fire events in these highly-human modified landscapes. Thus, the longer fire seasons in the Eastern Guinean Forest ecoregion may reflect the constraints of climate as well as land use practices, which tend to make fires more persistent even though they are less widespread .
In the Upper Guinean Region of West Africa, different components of the fire regime were influenced by different environmental drivers. As a result, the various combinations of these environmental factors create distinctive fire regimes throughout the region. The strong gradient of increasing fire activity from the wetter coastal regions to the drier regions in the north was related primarily to the shift from forest to savanna vegetation types rather than direct climatic effects. Within the savanna zone, there was a distinction between fire regimes with high active fire density, low burned area, long fire seasons, and late peak fire months compared to fire regimes with fewer active fires, higher burned area, shorter fire seasons, and earlier peak fire months. There was also an area of particularly high fire intensity located in the westernmost coastal regions of the study area. These differences were attributable to the combined effects of vegetation cover, recent land use changes, topography, and climate. Increasing trends in active fire detections in parts of the forested zone and decreasing trends in both active fire detections and burned area in the savanna zone were likely associated with differential impacts of land use change in these distinctive ecoregions. We conclude that while ongoing climate change will continue to influence fire regimes throughout the region, land use change and the resulting feedbacks between fire and vegetation will have a major impact as well. Efforts to project future fire regimes and develop regional strategies for adaptation will therefore need to encompass multiple components of the fire regime and consider multiple drivers, including land use as well as climate. It will also be essential to develop a stronger understanding of how these drivers affect the timing and spatial pattern of ignitions, the abundance and spatial connectivity of available fuels, and the amount of biomass consumed by fire.
The following are available online at www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/9/11/1117/s1: Figure S1: Partial dependence plots of the nine most important variables influencing the spatial pattern of active fire density. Figure S2: Partial dependence plots of the nine most important variables influencing the spatial pattern of burned area. Figure S3: Partial dependence plots of the nine most important variables influencing the spatial pattern of fire season length. Figure S4: Partial dependence plots of the nine most important variables influencing the spatial pattern of fire radiative power. Figure S5: Maps of the 10 most important independent variables in the BRT models.
This work was supported by a NASA Earth and Space Science (NESSF) Fellowship awarded to Francis Dwomoh. We also acknowledge support from the USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station through cooperative agreements 11-CA-11330136-098 and 14-CA-11330136-015, and from the NASA SERVIR program through grant NNX16AN22G. We thank Gray Tappan, USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, for providing the land use/cover data and assisting in its interpretation. Many thanks to Zhihua Liu for his technical assistance.
Francis Dwomoh and Michael Wimberly conceived of and designed the experiments. Francis Dwomoh processed and analyzed the data. Francis Dwomoh and Michael Wimberly wrote the paper.
CILSS. Landscapes of West Africa—A Window on a Changing World; U.S. Geological Survey EROS: Garretson, SD, USA, 2016.
Giglio, L. MODIS Collection 5 Active Fire Product User's Guide Version 2.5. 2013. Available online: http://modis-fire.umd.edu/pages/manuals.php (accessed on 25 July 2015).
Giglio, L.; Boschetti, L.; Roy, D.; Hoffman, A.A.; Humber, M. Collection 6 MODIS Burned Area Product User's Guide Version 1.0. 2016. Available online: http://modis-fire.umd.edu/pages/manuals.php (accessed on 12 May 2017).
Trabucco, A.; Zomer, R.J. Global Aridity Index (Global-Aridity) and Global Potential Evapo-Transpiration (Global-PET) Geospatial Database. CGIAR Consortium for Spatial Information. 2009. Available online: http://www.csi.cgiar.org (accessed on 3 November 2016).
Jarvis, A.; Reuter, H.I.; Nelson, A.; Guevara, E. Hole-Filled Seamless SRTM Data V4, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 2008. Available online: http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org (accessed on 2 November 2016).
Elith, J.; Leathwick, J.R. Boosted Regression Trees for Ecological Modeling. 2016. Available online: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/dismo/vignettes/brt.pdf (accessed on 24 October 2016).
Figure 1. Map of study the area overlaid with: (a) terrestrial ecoregions of the world ; and (b) a 2 km spatial resolution West African land cover/land use map for 2013 developed by the USGS. We aggregated the original cover types into eight general classes.
Figure 2. Maps of four major fire regime components, which were the response variables in the BRT models: (a) active fire density; (b) percent burned area; (c) fire season length; (d) fire radiative power.
Figure 3. Bivariate relationships amongst the four fire-regime components, with Kendall non-parametric rank correlation coefficients indicating the direction and strength of correlations among each component pairs. Each variable's name (Table 1) is shown on the diagonal. The lower triangle shows the bivariate scatter plots with a fitted smoothed line. The upper triangle shows the correlations and associated p-values: *** p <0.001, ** p < 0.05, ▪ p ≥ 0.05. Larger font sizes indicate stronger correlations.
Figure 4. Seasonal cycle of fire activity represented by the monthly percent distribution of: (a) MODIS active fire detections; (b) burned area, across ecoregions and the entire study area.
Figure 5. Maps indicating: (a) calendar month with the maximum active fire detections; (b) the percentage of the total annual active fire detections recorded in the peak fire month.
Figure 6. Time series of: (a) annual MODIS active fire density; (b) total burned area across ecoregions and the entire study area for the period 2003–2015.
Figure 7. Results of Mann–Kendall trend test of annual: (a) MODIS active fire density; (b) percent burned area for each grid cell for the period 2003–2015. Cells with p-values less than or equal to 0.1 are highlighted in the maps. Grid cells without enough data points to calculate trend are shown in white.
Figure 8. Relative influences of the top 10 predictors from the BRT models of fire regime components. Only variables with relative importance values ≥5% of the variation are plotted here. Abbreviations of predictor variables and their descriptions are provided in Table 1.
Figure 9. Partial dependence plots of the top four (4) predictors from the BRT model for each fire regime component: (a) active fire density; (b) percent burned area; (c) fire season length; (d) fire radiative power. The plots represent the effect of each predictor on fire activity after considering the average effect of all predictors in the model. Abbreviations of predictor variables and their corresponding full names are described in Table 1.
Table 1. Data layers used in the analyses. All variables were re-scaled to the TRMM spatial resolution of 0.25°.
Table 2. Summary of fire regime characteristics (mean ± standard deviation) across ecoregions for the period 2003–2015.
Table 3. Nonparametric Mann–Kendall tests to detect trends in fire activity at ecoregion scale from 2003–2015. Positive Kandall's tau statistic values indicate increasing trends, whilst negative values indicate decreasing trends.


Afternoon traffic anchor Sheryl Raines is a Bay Area native who enjoys helping people navigate the region's crowded roads and highways. Sheryl graduated from San Francisco State University with a major in broadcasting and, a minor in "trafficology." She joined KCBS in 1990, earning her stripes behind the scenes in the newsroom before sitting behind the traffic microphone. Sheryl is also the producer of the award winning KCBS weekend news interview program, In Depth. Sheryl lives in San Francisco with her husband, son and daughter.


Where should I go while visiting Fredericksburg, va.
Virginia has public golf courses?
Looking for recommendations for an apple orchard experience in Virginia. Pick-your-own... Cider... Pretty Sights.
What fun night scene is there in Lynchburg, VA or Lexington, VA? We are looking for some amazing clubs or hookah bars?


*If you're not a resident of the U.S., all isn't lost. Scroll down to the paragraphs pertaining to you very special people.
If eligible, how do you enter the book giveaway? Complete and submit a quick entry form. The information you share on the form will be used only for the purpose of this giveaway. Then it will be discarded.
What are the books to be gifted (one copy each)?
When is the deadline? Submit your entry form by midnight on December 8, 2015. Ten recipients will be selected at random and announced throughout the month of December. All books will be mailed to the recipients no later than January 15, 2016.
What if you live outside the U.S.? Unfortunately you're not allowed to participate in the book giveaway, for legal reasons. But in lieu of that, please accept a free gift of music: `Tis a Gift: Christmas by Guitar, an album of tranquil holiday selections arranged and digitally recorded by Phyllis Cole-Dai, curator of A Year of Being Here. You can listen to its tracks here, and even download them as singles by clicking on the orange download link next to the titles.
Go to Dropbox by clicking here (you don't need a Dropbox account).
If you're prompted to sign up for Dropbox, click on the "No thanks, continue" option.
Once you see the album playlist on your screen, click the blue "download" button in the upper-right corner of the window.
Choose "Download as .zip" from the dropdown menu.
Soon your computer should ask whether you wish to save the music in a certain location or to open (unzip) the files. Choose "Open with" [the name of a zip utility software will be displayed], then press "Enter."
The software will eventually open or expand the album. This might take a few minutes. Your computer will store the music as "`Tis a Gift", probably in your "Downloads" folder. Click on "`Tis a Gift" to display the individual track titles. You can either play them from there or save them to another location.
Amazing giveaway! A year's worth of meditation. Do the winners receive a copy of every book listed?
You're very welcome! Hope you win a book, but if you don't, you might enjoy reading some on the list!
I think, in some ways, we humans all live in some sort of "space between"--it can be painful, it can be joyous. To choose to live "spaciously" requires courage and intention, not to mention compassion. I bow to your choice. You inspire me.
Thank you so much for your generous sharing of these fabulous contributions to my life view and emotional support. So many times the poem was meant for me on that day! They changed my view, garnered compassion, and eased my well being. I will miss your emails more than I can say! May you be on to more wonderful experiences and a life of "Well Being"!
As for the poems often seeming "meant for you on that day," I think that speaks both to the power of the poetry and to your own receptivity. May you always be so.
I remember your comment about that at the time. Poetry has such power to cross boundaries, unite, and comfort. May it continue to do so in your life, long after this project ends. And may your mother be always close in memory, Lucy.
Your work, bringing together the beauty captured in photography and the profound wisdom captured in words has been a balm to the soul and a source of ongoing inspiration. Bless you for this work.
Thank you, so much. I'm glad the poetry and artwork has comforted and inspired!


text:
Pacific Crossing 2010-11
March Logs
Passage to the Galapagos
Tuesday, March 1st,
We got up early Tuesday morning and decided it was an auspicious day to depart on our passage to the Galapagos. The weather forecasts had been promising several days of wind out of a northerly quadrant for days. Each successive GRIB file pushed this wind yet another day away. We decided we didn't want to wait forever so we pulled up the anchor at 7:00 a.m. and headed out. We checked in with Pyewacket via VHF as we passed and told them we were on our way and that unless we found something awful once we got out from behind the Island we'd probably keep going. Of course we knew we wouldn't find anything awful once we got around the corner except for the rain that had moved in over the Island, so we were off and running.
The promised wind had yet to make an appearance but it felt good to be moving, even in the rain with the engine on. We were able to make the most of the downpour by filling the stern water tank. By noon things were looking up as the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds. We had checked in with the Pan Pacific Net at 9:00 a.m. giving our position in the "boats underway" category. At last.
We were able to raise the main by early afternoon when a light breeze began to build. Unfortunately the bottom of the main got caught on the reefing horns as it was raised and we put a small hole/tear into our new sail. Drat! Out came the sticky Dacron, a palm, needle and hand sewing thread. I had hoped that I was out of the sail repair business with the arrival of the new sails but accidents happen. The only other mishap on day one involved a temporarily clogged head. Thankfully it was only a brief glitch and we didn't have to resort to the bucket.
All in all it wasn't a bad first day. We managed to get a bit of sailing in and it looked like the wind was gaining momentum.
Wednesday, March 2nd, 06 16N/ 79 53W
Night one was quite pleasant despite a soaking rain shower. We checked into the Net at 9:00 a.m.Wednesday to discover that both Pyewacket and Reality had departed the Perlas several hours after we had. We were several hours ahead but they are both 50+ feet. It was going to be interesting. By mid-morning the wind was moving us along nicely. It was a beauty of a day. We were in the gentle hands of a southerly flowing current. South was just the way we were going for the first two days of our trip. It was a very nice treat to repeatedly see our speed over the ground reach 9+ knots. Sadly, by eight in the evening we had to turn on the engine again for a bit as the wind went from fickle to nonexistant. The stars were beautiful as they glowed out from the Milky Way. We weren't complaining too much.
Thursday, March 3rd, 03 46N/ 81 07W
I should probably mention that the passage to the Galapagos from Panama is generally known to be a slog. It passes through a weather area called the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), otherwise known as "The Doldrums." Not only is there generally very little wind but there is usually a good deal of convective activity (read: thunder & lightening storms). For that reason we were pinching ourselves to make sure our spectacular weather wasn't just a dream. We were simply flying along. The days were blazingly sunny and the nights star-filled. We checked in twice daily on the SSB radio. Once on the official morning net, then again in the afternoon on a casual passage net that Pyewacket and Reality had initiated when the trip began. By Thursday morning there were about ten boats underway to the Galapagos, checking in regularly. Early Thursday morning we rounded Isla Malpelo and headed for our Galapagos waypoint on a broad reach. Happily the current rounded the bend with us. By mid-afternoon we went to wing on wing which we were able to maintain all night long. There were two glitches during the day, both involving rigging. First, we managed to jam the sheave at the end of the boom while reefing. Roger was able to unjam the sheave, fortunately. Glitch two was the breaking of the loop that holds the whisker pole topping lift to the end of the pole. That fix required a bit of jury rigging. Other than that it was another amazing day.
Friday, March 4th, 02 33N/83 48W
Thursday night went well except for re-tearing the main while shaking out the reef. We spent a certain amount of time Friday rigging a sort of straight jacket for the reefing horns to prevent another incident. It was an amazingly quiet twenty four hours but we managed to cover 186 miles. "Good on us" as the Aussies would say. Nine boats checked in on the net this morning. It's a regular migration. The wind and the current both continue. We are in a constant state of amazement at the conditions.
Saturday, March 5th, 0 59N/86 39W
We were 200 miles out of Wreck Bay Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. We had covered seven hundred miles in four days. Friday night was another wonderful stretch of wing on wing till about four a.m. when Roger switched to a broad reach, port tack. His competitive nature was starting to show itself. At this point we could pick up Pyewacket on radar, nine miles behind us. Reality was out in front, having cleverly gone west of Isla Malpelo. Saturday was another in a string of sailing days we will remember for a long time. We just rolled along.
Pyewacket presented "Musketeers Rally" passage awards during the afternoon net. Highlights included Reality winning line honors (though they had yet to finish) and a case of beer which they had to forfeit for not rounding the windward mark (Isla Malpelo). Shango won handicap honors and a bottle of scotch which we had to forfeit for admitting on the radio that we had turned on our engine at some point during the trip. The most amusing honor went to an Australian boat which won the Bravery Award for admitting on the radio to being from Melbourne. Pyewacket awarded himself Best Husband Honors. In all seriousness Shango's crew was very proud. Over 900 miles she averaged 7.1 knots and kept pace with boats 10 feet longer than she. Way to go Bill Crealock.
By the beginning of my Saturday midnight watch we were getting distinctly close to the equator. I pried Roger out of his bunk mere moments after he had crawled in so we could prepare for our crossing ceremony. In sailing tradition those crossing the equator for the first time undergo an initiation. We thought we'd stick to just the ceremonial recitation. I donned my special fishing lure earrings and forced Roger to wear a pirate eye patch and we each promoted the other from pollywog to shellback using a U.S. Navy text from the 1960's. Some rum went over the side to appease King Neptune and a tiny bit of rum went to each of the new initiates. Sadly there was a problem with the camera and we didn't quite capture the important lat/lon perfectly on film. We were nonetheless in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time in our lives.
Sunday, March 6th, 0 32S/89 14W
We sailed abreast of Pyewacket all night, watching their tricolor bob along next to us. At 7:00 a.m. I spied San Cristobal on the horizon. We had a magical morning sailing down the coast of the Island. Its landscape was other worldly. Volcanic cones, greatly eroded over time, were surrounded by gentle hillsides clad in brilliant green foliage. The equatorial sun blazed down from above and the water was a spectacular shade of deep blue. We had 15 knots of offshore breeze making for ideal sailing conditions. Shango and Pyewacket bubbled along, threading between Kicker Rock and the coast, madly snapping pictures as we went. Two miles from the Harbor a wind shadow slowed us almost to a halt and our sailing day was over. Our amazing passage came to a close at two p.m. when we dropped anchor in Wreck Bay, five days, six hours and 899 miles after leaving Las Perlas.
With the wonderful weather and good companionship this passage had set a standard that will be hard to beat. We'll keep our fingers crossed though.
Monday, March 7th, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (Wreck Bay), Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos
Joseph, an agent's representative, turned up almost immediately after we anchored Sunday afternoon, saying he would return shortly with a variety of officials. For two people who wanted only to shower, drink a bottle of champagne and go to bed, "shortly" could have been a bit sooner for us. Two hours later he returned with someone from the Port Captain's office, someone from what we guessed was Agriculture and someone from the National Park. Everyone was very pleasant and the paperwork got done, the boat got fumigated (sprayed with a can of something "non-toxic" to humans) and we were free to enjoy our evening. Joseph departed saying that he would fetch us for the trip to Immigration in the a.m.
Bright and early Monday we made our way around the Harbor in a water taxi as Joseph collected his recent arrivees for the trip up the hill. Having already visited the Galapagos, Noel & Jackie on Pyewacket had wanted to get a seventy two hour provisioning stay but had been told the previous afternoon that it was no longer the easy option that they had hoped for. They needed to leave within twenty four hours. As we and Reality trudged down the hill after our morning round of paperwork Jackie spotted us from her seat at Rosita's Restaurant and proposed a celebration/farewell luncheon. We swapped stories and photos and whiled away the afternoon knowing that we'd all soon be going our separate ways.
Tuesday, March 8th, Wreck Bay, Galapagos
We waved goodbye to Pyewacket as they departed at dawn, headed for Easter Island. Partings are sad but inevitable. We spent the morning wandering around town. While checking out the Laundromat we met Eddie and Glenda from the boat Helena. Over lunch Eddie told us about his career as a coal miner in Brussels. You don't meet many former coal miners out here. After lunch it was off to the National Park Interpretive Center. The exhibits were well done, covering the natural and cultural histories of the Galapagos. We were unsettled to learn that only 6% of tourist dollars go to the local population. Ecuador is trying to find a balance that will allow the residents of the Galapagos to thrive while protecting the environment of the Islands. It's a complicated task.
After our tour, we went in search of a spot to hide from the sun. Under a tree overlooking a beach we encountered a couple who looked like cruisers. It turned out that they were the crew of Curare, one of the other boats which were checking in on our recent passage net.
Wednesday, March 9th, Wreck Bay, Galapagos
Wednesday was snorkeling day. The crews of Reality and Shango gathered at 8:30 a.m. at Franklin's Dive Center. Charlie (known to only his parents as Franklin) loaded us into a taxi and headed for the dock. The major destination of the day was Leon Dormido, otherwise known as Kicker Rock. The five snorkelers and two divers slipped into the water beside the two towering (148 meter) rocks. We drifted along, amazed by the spectacular colors of the walls and the varied sea creatures that make their home there. In addition to the small, colorful "tropical" fish, there were sea turtles, sea lions and sharks. For her birthday Sharon was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a hammerhead. In the air above our tour boat, riding the air currents that surround the rocks were Giant Frigate Birds and Long-tailed Tropicbirds. Standing on rock ledges were the famous Blue Footed and Masked Boobies. I love birds that are so easy to identify.
After snorkeling two different areas at Kicker Rock we headed back the way we had come. On our return trip we stopped briefly at a beautiful beach where we were immediately ravaged by biting flies. Vamos! Our last stop was at Isla Lobos where we snorkeled past many marine iguanas and into a small pool where young sea lions were playing. It was an amazing day.
Thursday, March 10th, Wreck Bay, Galapagos
Thursday dawned an unfortunate shade of gray. There were low hanging clouds which threatened to open up at any minute. Naturally this was to be our land tour day. Despite the weather the crews of Shango, Reality, Curare and One World packed ourselves into two taxis and headed inland. The first stop was at a two hundred year old tree house set in a giant Cibao tree. Sadly we were unable to go inside. It beckoned to me in a very tempting way.
The Cerro Colorado Giant Tortoise Reserve, our second stop, was located in the Island's highlands. We drove through fog-like cloud cover and arrived at the Reserve shortly after feeding time. The first tortoises we saw were the young ones who are raised from hatchlings in cages clad in protective wire. Apparently cats and rats, non-native species, enjoy a bit of tortoise for dinner so the Reserve was founded just over ten years ago to prevent the collapse of the giant tortoise population on San Cristobal. After seeing the babies we walked on a path through the Reserve till we encountered the more senior residents. At one lucky mud hole we saw tortoises breeding (slowly) and tortoises having a row (slowly). Giant Tortoises are truly giant.
Our last two stops, a pretty beach and a lake in the crater of a volcano were briefer. The lake, El Junco, was quite stunning. We looked down on it from high above, wishing we could go for a swim after our climb to the top of the volcano. No such luck. Getting rained on would have to do.
To complete our day we made our way to the Cormoran Restaurant and feasted on ceviche and fish in coconut sauce. Reality, autografo in hand, was headed out in the morning towards Floreana so this was another farewell. Although damp, it was a good day in the Galapagos.
Friday, March 11th, Wreck Bay, Galapagos
Friday was to be "Do Internet, buy a tee-shirt, drop off the laundry day" but instead it was "Evacuate the Harbor for 10+ hours while the Galapagos awaits a tsunami day"
Shortly before nine in the morning a fellow in a water taxi came to each boat saying that we all had to leave the Harbor till further notice because of a tsunami warning. It's not something you expect to hear while you are enjoying coffee in the cockpit. The tsunami, generated by the earthquake off Japan, was predicted to make landfall at five forty in the afternoon. There was a certain amount of foot dragging as boats anticipated a long day of bobbing around five miles outside of Wreck Bay. Eventually the harbor emptied out and the horizon was speckled with a variety of boats doing not much of anything. There was no wind for sailing initially so we took some time to do a turbo wash, which the engine needed. Around noon a breeze picked up and we sailed back and forth in the sunshine. There was a bit of chatter on the VHF about how many waves were expected and how diminished they would be by the time they covered the distance from Japan.
At five forty-five and eight miles out we headed for the Harbor. We had felt nothing wave-like, other than the swell that was around all day. Our Spanish is pretty poor but by seven when we were outside the entrance, many boats were headed in so we assumed that the Port Captain had given the go ahead. Apparently not. What concerned us more than the tsunami was the thought of 50+ boats all charging into the harbor to anchor en mass in the dark. We followed our previous track back in and dropped the hook in the same spot. Some boats were still outside but eventually everyone dribbled back, exhausted and ready to call it a day. We learned the next day that there had been several waves, the third as we were reentering the Harbor (before permission had been given apparently). There had been enough of a wave to lift the water taxi dock above its intended maximum. The dock wiped out two spotlights meant to light it during evening use. The only hint that we had of the last wave was that our anchor wouldn't set properly at first. All in all I think I would have preferred the "Internet, tee-shirt, laundry day".
Saturday, March 12th, Wreck Bay, Galapagos
We arose to an anchorage that looked fairly orderly given Friday's event. Our neighbors all looked familiar and at an appropriate distance away, amazingly. We were eager to try to do Saturday what we had intended to do on Friday. That is just what we did. Whew!
Sunday, March 13th, Wreck Bay, Galapagos
We started to watch the weather in hopes of seeing a window to the Marquesas. What we were actually looking for was a window to get away from the Galapagos. There had been almost no wind for five days and it wasn't looking too promising going forward. Boat projects had crept back to the forefront. No playtime was on the immediate agenda.
Wednesday, March 16th, Wreck Bay, Galapagos
Provisioning done. Cooking done (including a barnacle ceviche). Engine maintenance performed. Still no wind in the forecast. The thinking amongst the boats waiting to leave is that there will be no wind in this neighborhood till the trades work their way further north in April. We don't want to wait till April so we're going to drift, in what we hope will be a somewhat southwesterly direction till we find the wind. Others are reaching this conclusion as well. We have been doing a lot of kissing and waving goodbye over the last few days.
When we leave tomorrow or Friday for the Marquesas we will be starting not only our longest passage of the year, but what will be our longest passage ever at 20+ days. We are excited and anxious to be underway.
Passage to the Marquesas, March 18th – April 9th, 2011
Twenty two days after leaving San Cristobal, as the early morning light displaced the darkness, we saw the towering silhouette of Fatu Hiva appear in the distance. At no point was the Island a "tiny smudge" on the horizon that it might have been if we had arrived later in the day. It was amazing to see its volcanic flanks rising out of the sea and into the clouds which gathered around its high peaks. We had successfully sailed across the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
When we left the Galapagos on March 18th we hoped, as everyone does, for a swift and uneventful passage. In the end we did slightly better in the uneventful department than we did in the swift department but there are no complaints aboard.
Our departure day forecast proclaimed that our sought after tradewinds, blowing out of the southeast to send us westward, were still down at ten degrees south latitude . We were leaving from roughly the latitude of the equator (0) and a longitude of 89 degrees. Our destination, Fatu Hiva, is located at latitude ten degrees south (each degree of latitude =sixty miles) and longitude 138 degrees west, a distance of approximately 3050 miles as the crow flies. Sailboats should never be mistaken for crows. Instead of following the rhumb line southwest (the route of the crow) we headed almost due south to try to find the wind. We were not alone in this quest. Several boats had left the Galapagos for the Marquesas on "Tsunami Day" the week before. We listened to their reports on the morning net. "Found wind at eight south." "Found wind at ten south." This wasn't encouraging. The further south we found the wind the more downwind our angle to our destination would eventually be. Such is life.
For the first two days we had a whisper of wind allowing us to move along under asymmetrical. Day three saw the complete collapse of the breeze. Engine on, we continued south in pursuit of our elusive air. At six degrees south on day five we were greeted by rain showers, and with them came the wind. We had found the Trades.
For the next week we had 20-25 knots of wind off our port quarter. In our minds the wind continued all the way to our destination, the Bay of Virgins, Fatu Hiva. Sadly, reality wasn't quite so sweet. Two weeks into the trip the wind began to drop. To add insult to injury we had reached ten degrees south and needed only westerly progress. It was downwind time. Downwind sailing can be lovely. There is no slamming of seas, minimal spray flying and a generally comfortable ride, if occasionally a bit rolly. The trouble comes when the wind drops. Downwind sailing in light winds requires an increased amount of sail handling. During the day the asymmetrical sail went up. At night, to avoid unpleasant foredeck work, the genoa was poled out in its place. As the wind increased and decreased, variations on this scenario were played out. Spirits occasionally flagged but were revived by such highlights as "half way pizza" and the popular "under 1000 miles cocktail" We checked in daily on an informal SSB net, reporting our position to another ten or so boats on the same passage. We seemed to be moving well and avoiding some of the squallier weather that others were encountering. While we were lucky in the squall department we didn't fare so well with our fishing luck. Zippo. I was ok with the good weather option.
All the while we spent our days sail handling, doing chores or relaxing while our nights, divided into three hour shifts, were spent reading and peering at the stars.
On the last day of the passage we rounded the southern tip of Fatu Hiva and headed for the Bay of Virgins which has to be the mother of all landfalls. It was a spectacular place to drop the hook. Once the forward motion of the boat ceased we just stood on the deck in amazement. Surrounded by peaks and spires, the landscape was something out of a fantasy of paradise. Anchored amongst the small group of cruisers from around the world we definitely felt like we had completed a classic voyage.
Home Pacific Logs
April Logs

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Why are infinitesimal deformation defined to be over Artin rings? I am wondering what is the motivation for defining infinitesimal deformations to be over the spectrum of Artinian rings, i.e rings that have a finite number of prime maximal ideals.
I have been trying to understand the connection between deformations and the functorial description of moduli, i.e as as a functor from, let us say schemes, to sets. However, this is is becoming difficult because I don't understand the motivation in defining (infinitesimal) deformations to be over Artinian rings

A: I found "Elementary deformation theory" in FGA explained very helpful in learning some basic deformation theory.
In the following whenever I say local artinian ring I really mean local artinian $k$-algebra.
The basic motivation comes from the fact that tangent space of a scheme $X$ at a point $x\in X$ can be described as the vector space consisting of maps $\operatorname{Spec} k[t]/(t^2) \rightarrow X$ sending the underlying closed point to $x$. Now if $X$ is some moduli space parametrising certain objects $S$ , then a map from $\operatorname{Spec} k[t]/(t^2)\rightarrow X$ is equivalent to giving a first order deformation $S$ over $\operatorname{Spec}k[t]/(t^2)$.
In general the local behaviour of $x\in X$ can be understood via the completion $\hat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}$ of the local ring $\mathcal{O}_{X,x}$. For example $\mathcal{O}_{X,x}$ is regular iff $\hat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}$ is regular and $\dim_k \mathcal{O}_{X,x} = \dim_k \mathcal{O}_{X,x}$. Now $\hat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}$ is something which can be understood by understanding maps from local artinian rings to $X$ mapping the underlying closed point to $x\in X$. In particular, the deformation functor $D: (Loc/k) \rightarrow Sets$ sending local artinian rings $A$ to the set of maps $\operatorname{Spec} A \rightarrow X$ satisfying the above is representable by $\hat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}$. So understanding deformations of objects over local artinian rings is equivalent to understanding this functor, which is equivalent to understanding $\hat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}$.
A concrete example of how all this is used to understand the moduli space is via constructing a tangent-obstruction theory. The tangent-obstruction theory for a deformation functor $D$ (a functor from $(Loc/k) \rightarrow Sets$) consists of two vector spaces $V_1$ (tangent space) and $V_2$ (obstruction space) such that
(1) whenever you have a small extension
$$0\rightarrow M \rightarrow B \rightarrow A \rightarrow 0$$
i.e. $A,B$ are local artinian rings, and $\mathfrak{m}_B \cdot M = 0$, there exists an exact sequence of sets $$ V_1\otimes_k M \rightarrow D(B) \rightarrow D(A) \stackrel{ob}{\rightarrow} V_2\otimes_k M$$
where exactness at $D(A)$ means that if $ob(x) = 0$ for some $x\in D(A)$ then there exists $x'\in D(B)$ mapping to $x\in D(A)$ (i.e. if the obstruction vanishes then you can lift your deformation), and that exactness at $D(B)$ means that $V_1\otimes_k M$ acts transitively on the fibers.
(2) If $M=k$, then $D(A)$ forms an affine space under $V_1\otimes_k M$.
It is a fact that if $R$ represents $D$, then $\dim_k V_1 - \dim_k V_2 \le \dim R \le \dim_k V_1$. As above if your moduli problem is representable by a scheme $X$, then the deformation functor above $D$ is representable by $\hat{\mathcal{O}_{X,x}}$. It turns out that while you might not know what your scheme looks like (e.g. Hilbert scheme), it is quite often not too hard to construct $V_1,V_2$. So this allows you to deduce some information about the moduli space at $x\in X$. For example, the proof of the existence of rational curves passing through any $x\in X$, when $X$ is smooth projective Fano (which can be found in e.g. Debarre's "higher dimensional algebraic geometry") relies on knowing that some moduli space has positive dimension at some point, which is done by understanding its tangent obstruction theory to give a lower bound.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Has anyone replaced the oil sending unit on a 99 Accord 3.0 V-6? If so; How is the best way to replace it? Any advice and replies would be appreciated?
I never did this on a V6 accord, but did it on a 4-cylinder. The hardest part was removing the rubber boot from the connector that had hardened to almost plastic. Not sure if the 99 has the single wire connector like my old 95 accord or a 2 wire connector.
The next part is to unscrew the pressure switch. Clean up the oil around the area. The older accords said to use a bit of RTV on the threads to help seal. Don't see those instructions in the 99 shop manual. Then you thread in the new pressure switch. Don't put too much force to tighten as you can twist and damage the unit and cause an oil leak. You can check the old pressure switch to see if any sealant was used on the threads.
What type of thread sealer for Oil Pressure Sending Unit??? Help!!!


text:
<code_scheme name="TET Project codestyle">
    <XML>
        <option name="XML_LEGACY_SETTINGS_IMPORTED" value="true"/>
    </XML>
    <codeStyleSettings language="JAVA">
        <option name="ALIGN_MULTILINE_CHAINED_METHODS" value="true"/>
        <option name="ALIGN_MULTILINE_PARAMETERS_IN_CALLS" value="true"/>
        <option name="ALIGN_MULTILINE_EXTENDS_LIST" value="true"/>
        <option name="CALL_PARAMETERS_WRAP" value="5"/>
        <option name="PREFER_PARAMETERS_WRAP" value="true"/>
        <option name="CALL_PARAMETERS_RPAREN_ON_NEXT_LINE" value="true"/>
        <option name="METHOD_PARAMETERS_WRAP" value="5"/>
        <option name="THROWS_LIST_WRAP" value="1"/>
        <option name="EXTENDS_KEYWORD_WRAP" value="1"/>
        <option name="METHOD_CALL_CHAIN_WRAP" value="5"/>
        <option name="BINARY_OPERATION_WRAP" value="1"/>
        <option name="ASSIGNMENT_WRAP" value="1"/>
        <option name="IF_BRACE_FORCE" value="3"/>
    </codeStyleSettings>
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
package com.owolp.comicsand.provider;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
import android.support.annotation.NonNull;
import android.support.annotation.StringRes;
import com.owolp.comicsand.provider.base.Dialog;
import javax.inject.Inject;

public class MaterialDialog implements Dialog {
  private final com.afollestad.materialdialogs.MaterialDialog.Builder builder;
  private com.afollestad.materialdialogs.MaterialDialog dialog;

  @Inject
  public MaterialDialog(Activity activity) {
    this.builder = new com.afollestad.materialdialogs.MaterialDialog.Builder(activity);
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog withTitle(
      @StringRes
          int title) {
    this.builder.title(title);

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog withContent(
      @StringRes
          int content) {
    this.builder.content(content);

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog withPositiveText(
      @StringRes
          int positiveText) {
    this.builder.positiveText(positiveText);

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog withNegativeText(
      @StringRes
          int negativeText) {
    this.builder.negativeText(negativeText);

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog withNeutralText(
      @StringRes
          int neutralText) {
    this.builder.neutralText(neutralText);
    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog withIcon(Drawable icon) {
    this.builder.icon(icon);

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog withProgress() {
    this.builder.progress(true,
        0);

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog onPositiveClick(
      @NonNull
      final onDialogButtonClickListener listener) {
    this.builder.onPositive((dialog, which) -> listener.onClick());

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog onNeutralClick(
      @NonNull
      final onDialogButtonClickListener listener) {
    this.builder.onNeutral((dialog, which) -> listener.onClick());

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog onNegativeClick(
      @NonNull
      final onDialogButtonClickListener listener) {
    this.builder.onNegative((dialog, which) -> listener.onClick());

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public Dialog onAnyClick(
      @NonNull
      final onDialogButtonClickListener listener) {
    this.builder.onAny((dialog, which) -> listener.onClick());

    return this;
  }

  @Override
  public void show() {
    this.dialog = this.builder.show();
  }

  @Override
  public void dismiss() {
    this.dialog.dismiss();
  }
}


This will be a trouble to the individuals who are not utilizing solar and wind energy as their alternative supply. As these alternate sources could be pricey, a number of people claim that they do not actually need this at this time.
Power rates for Houston typically range in price between 4.19 to 15.41 cents a kWh depending on current market condition and where the property is located - these prices will not be guaranteed and are only used as examples.


text:
Slow Burning Car: Jan. 20 @ Crimsin
By Tom Kidd
Los Angeles ends at the Santa Monica Freeway, or at least it might as well. The fact is, you can always get people to drive up from the South Bay or the beach for a night of music in Hollywood, but almost no one has the gas to go the other way.
Pity those poor Hollywood types. They are missing out on bands who are truly pushing the envelope; bands who are intelligent, bands who rock, bands like Slow Burning Car.
This guitar-driven machine plays full-throttle rock like you seldom hear further north. Call them metal if you will, but this is metal that's been tempered with the heat of passion, fun and the kind of intimacy that just isn't possible at those larger clubs up on the Sunset Strip.
For this show at the comparably intimate Crimsin in San Pedro, singer/bassist Troy Spiropoulos led the band through an impressive set of songs from Blowback, their debut, and the recently released Vol. 2 – The Scattering. Spiropoulos uses his lyrical melodies to really connect with his audience, most notably on "Marry Me," a song written for his wife. He was singing directly to her on this night, and by the time he got finished, there wasn't a woman in the house who wasn't feeling he was singing directly to them as well.
Spiropoulos, who hosts the Internet radio show "Troy's Room" on LA Talk Radio, is the star of the show, but that doesn't mean the rest of the band is just along for the ride. Guitarist Brian Butler plays with a passion, emotion and intensity characteristic of the greatest axesmiths in rock. Victor Bishop adds a completely different level to the metal with his keyboard work. Drummer Mike Zimmerman keeps the whole fire cooking whether propelling the harder tracks or subtly underlining the softer works.
This is a band that deserves something bigger. If they keep up the quality, there's no reason opportunity shouldn't come their way as long as opportunity isn't afraid to drive a little farther than it's used to. Did I mention that parking is a whole lot easier in San Pedro than it is in Hollywood? That alone almost makes the trip worthwhile.
Article posted on 2/2/2011


text:
The propensity of individuals to deposit DNA and secondary transfer of low level DNA from individuals to inert surfaces
The propensity of individuals to deposit DNA and secondary transfer of low level DNA from... Lowe, Alex; Murray, Caroline; Whitaker, Jonathan; Tully, Gillian; Gill, Peter 2002-09-10 00:00:00 We have shown that there is a difference between individuals in their tendency to deposit DNA on an item when it is touched. While a good DNA shedder may leave behind a full DNA profile immediately after hand washing, poor DNA shedders may only do so when their hands have not been washed for a period of 6 h. We have also demonstrated that transfer of DNA from one individual (A) to another (B) and subsequently to an object is possible under specific laboratory conditions using the AMPFISTR ® SGM Plus™ multiplex at both 28 and 34 PCR cycles. This is a form of secondary transfer. If a 30 min or 1 h delay was introduced before contact of individual B with the object then at 34 cycles a mixture of profiles from both individuals was recovered. We have also determined that the quantity and quality of DNA profiles recovered is dependent upon the particular individuals involved in the transfer process. The findings reported here are preliminary and further investigations are underway in order to further add to understanding of the issues of DNA transfer and persistence. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Forensic Science International Elsevier http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/elsevier/the-propensity-of-individuals-to-deposit-dna-and-secondary-transfer-of-0rRUnck4u4
Lowe, Alex; Murray, Caroline; Whitaker, Jonathan; Tully, Gillian; Gill, Peter
Forensic Science International
, Volume 129 (1) – Sep 10, 2002
/lp/elsevier/the-propensity-of-individuals-to-deposit-dna-and-secondary-transfer-of-0rRUnck4u4
Forensic Science International /
Volume 129 Issue 1
Medicine /
Copyright © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd
We have shown that there is a difference between individuals in their tendency to deposit DNA on an item when it is touched. While a good DNA shedder may leave behind a full DNA profile immediately after hand washing, poor DNA shedders may only do so when their hands have not been washed for a period of 6 h. We have also demonstrated that transfer of DNA from one individual (A) to another (B) and subsequently to an object is possible under specific laboratory conditions using the AMPFISTR ® SGM Plus™ multiplex at both 28 and 34 PCR cycles. This is a form of secondary transfer. If a 30 min or 1 h delay was introduced before contact of individual B with the object then at 34 cycles a mixture of profiles from both individuals was recovered. We have also determined that the quantity and quality of DNA profiles recovered is dependent upon the particular individuals involved in the transfer process. The findings reported here are preliminary and further investigations are underway in order to further add to understanding of the issues of DNA transfer and persistence.
Forensic Science International – Elsevier
DNA fingerprints from fingerprints
van Oorschot, R.A.H.; Jones, M.J.
Reliable genotyping of samples with very low DNA quantities using PCR
Taberlet, P.; Griffin, S.; Goossens, B.; Questiau, S.; Manceau, V.; Escaravage, N.; Waits, L.P.; Bouvet, J.
Use of nested PCR to identify charred human remains and minute amounts of blood
Strom, C.M.; Rechitsky, S.
Reliability of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of single cells for preimplantation genetic analysis
Strom, C.M.; Rechitsky, S.; Wolf, G.; Verlinsky, Y.
DNA fingerprinting from single cells
Findlay, I.; Taylor, A.; Quirke, P.; Frazier, R.; Urquhart, A.
Validation of the AMPFISTR ® SGM Plus™ system for use in forensic casework
Cotton, E.A.; Allsop, R.; Guest, J.; Frazier, R.; Kuomi, P.; Callow, I.P.; Seager, A.; Sparkes, R.
An investigation of the rigor of interpretation rules for STRs derived from less than 100 pg of DNA
Gill, P.; Whitaker, J.P.; Flaxman, C.; Brown, N.; Buckleton, J.
A comparison of the characteristics of profiles produced with the AMPFISTR ® SGM Plus™ multiplex system for both standard and low copy number (LCN) STR DNA analysis
Whitaker, J.P.; Cotton, E.A.; Gill, P.
A hierarchy of propositions: deciding which level to address in casework
Cook, R.; Evett, I.W.; Jackson, G.; Jones, P.J.; Lambert, J.A.
Application of low copy number DNA profiling
Gill, P.
A systematic analysis of secondary DNA transfer
Ladd, C.; Adamowicz, M.S.; Bourke, M.T.; Scherczinger, C.A.; Lee, H.C.
DNA typing of epithelial cells after strangulation
Wiegand, P.; Kleiber, M.
Interpreting simple STR mixtures using allele peak areas
Gill, P.; Sparkes, R.; Pinchin, R.; Clayton, T.; Whitaker, J.; Buckleton, J.
Lowe, A., Murray, C., Whitaker, J., Tully, G., & Gill, P. (2002). The propensity of individuals to deposit DNA and secondary transfer of low level DNA from individuals to inert surfaces. Forensic Science International, 129(1), 25-34.
Lowe, Alex, Caroline Murray, Jonathan Whitaker, Gillian Tully, and Peter Gill. "The propensity of individuals to deposit DNA and secondary transfer of low level DNA from individuals to inert surfaces." Forensic Science International 129.1 (2002): 25-34.


The slightly tart fruit is versatile, able to be used in a vast number of ways and recipes, or just enjoyed fresh right off the fruit shelf.
Apricot (Prunus armeniaca), stone fruit of the family Rosaceae. (Order Rosales), closely related to peaches, almonds, plums, and cherries. Sweet, fragrant rich, golden-orange apricot fruits are another summer delicacy of Asian origin.
These much-prized fruits were first brought to Europe by Greeks who called them "golden eggs of the sun.
Apricot trees are small and spreading, with broad ovate leaves that have pointed tips. The leaves are bright green in colour and are held erect on the twigs. The self-pollinated flowers are white in full bloom and borne singly or doubly at a node on very short stems.
The apricot was originally domesticated in China but is now cultivated over the world.
Archaeological evidence shows that apricots were eaten in ancient Armenia, and they were first introduced to the New World in the early 18th century by Spanish missionaries in California. In 2011, the top five producers of apricots were Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Italy, and Algeria.
The varieties of nutrients found in apricots are very beneficial for good eyesight and also help to prevent heart disease. Apricots are also rich in powerful antioxidants, such as Lycopene, helping to promote wellness and strengthen the immune system.
The healthy fruits are also a good source of fiber which is beneficial for healthy digestion.
Ripe apricot is rich in mucilage, which soothes and protects irritated or inflamed tissue. It reduces irritation down the whole length of the bowel by reducing the sensitivity of the bowel from potentially corrosive gastric acids. It helps to prevent diarrhea and reduce the muscle spasms that cause colic.
Apricot fruit is highly valued as a gentle laxative, which is beneficial in the treatment of constipation due to its insoluble and soluble fiber, pectin in the fruit provides bulk, helping to keep bowel movement regular, balances the PH level in the intestines and binds toxins for removal from the body.
Apricot provides a significant source of potassium. Potassium is a mineral and electrolyte that helps you maintain proper fluid balance, aids in muscle function, and helps regulate heartbeat.
Potassium also promotes healthy digestion and strong bones. Getting sufficient amounts of potassium each day can help you maintain normal blood pressure and might reduce your risk of getting a stroke.


text:
Nintendo v Playables [2010] EWHC 1932 (Ch)
Case Summary | Judgment | 28 July 2010
Martin Howe QC and Jonathan Hill acted for Nintendo in their successful application for summary judgment against a substantial dealer in devices used for circumventing the copyright protection measures used by Nintendo to protect Nintendo DS handheld games consoles and the games and storage media designed for use with them. Floyd J considered the application of s.296ZD and s.296 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Departing from the earlier decision of Laddie J in Sony v Ball, he held that under s.296ZD it was not necessary to show that the devices under consideration would actually be used for circumvention within the UK – one only needed to consider whether the devices were capable of being used to circumvent.


Art Gallery, Adelaide and Michael Reid, Sydney & Berlin. 5 Raffle available all weekend James Thredgold Jeweller is renowned for truly exquisite handmade jewellery. Melanie well understands the pressure cooker of the creative process.
They called pressure cooker courses, or something like that, that they put people through in twelve months to be able to do primary school teaching. was only in Adelaide for about a month for his training and then he went over to Streaky Bay.


text:
No Justice for Acid Attack Victims after Four Years
Shima Shahrabi
Soheyla Joarkesh was 27 when she suffered an acid attack in Isfahan
Almost four years have passed since the day of the attacks. On that day, in an instant, three women felt as if their faces and eyes were on fire. Since then, they struggle every day. Their daily lives are now centered around treatment and medication. Everything in their lives has changed. And yet there has been no change in Iran's justice system. On July 18, it was announced that the court has closed the case.
In 2014, three young women were victims of acid attacks in Isfahan, and were left with life-changing injuries — their faces were disfigured and their eyesight damaged. The attacks shook Iran, and people demanded that those responsible be found and punished to the limit of the law. Instead, authorities clashed with protesters calling for justice and arrested journalists reporting on the attacks. And now, after four years, no one has been charged with the crime and the motives for the attack remain unknown.
On July 18, the lawyer for the victims, Hossein Abbas Alizadeh, announced that his clients had received their diya, or "blood money," they were entitled to from the public funds, and that the case was now closed. "My clients had asked for diya and the court ruled that since nobody has been accused of the crime they must be paid from the public funds," he told Tasnim news agency [Persian link]. "The diya was paid after taking into account the medical examiner's report on injuries suffered by my clients, the court's ruling and the efforts by the prosecutor."
Soheyla Joarkesh is one the victims of the Isfahan acid attacks. She was 27 at the time of the attack and suffered the worst injuries among the victims. She lost one eye completely. After undergoing multiple surgeries in Iran, Spain and the US, she has regained partial eyesight in the other eye. "We have received only a small part of the diya," Soheyla's father told IranWire. After the attack, he said, "several parts of my daughter's body were burned and damaged. The Isfahan Medical Examiner documented [the injuries] and communicated them to the prosecutor and the responsible authorities. The case was completed and was sent to Tehran but, unfortunately, the responsible officials disputed the opinion of the medical examiners about the percentage of burns and injuries. We objected to their objection and the case is yet to be decided."
Zero Clues
The Joarkesh family has talked to the media about the tragedy and their daughter's condition more than the families of the other victims have. The family has repeatedly asked the judiciary to do more to try to find and identify those responsible, but nothing has come out of it. "Our follow-ups have produced no results and no clues about the culprits have been discovered," Soheyla's father said. "Sometimes we go to the judiciary, but we receive no answers. The people that claim they can do anything and everything have yet to catch the perpetrator or perpetrators of the acid attacks in Isfahan. They have zero clues about them."
What pains them more than anything else is, of course, Soheyla's health. "For four years we have been struggling with this," her father said. "We have continued her treatment in Isfahan, in Tehran, in Spain and in America. Just recently she has been able to see partially with the help of a lens." He said that she still needs help — at any given time, at least two people care for her.
Soheyla's family has done everything it can. "The cost of traveling back and forth to the US and Europe is astronomical," her father said. "We sold our house and our properties to pay for the expenses. We were doing well — otherwise we could not have done these things — but the expenses are really high."
From America to Isfahan — On Ice
Her father said that part of the expensehasve been paid by the Ministry of Health on orders from the health minister himself. But Soheyla's ongoing treatment and the expenses are not their only concerns. "I give you just one example," he told IranWire. "With the help of friends we found the eyedrops our child needs in the US. Our friends went to the hospital in America and got the drops. Now we have to find somebody to bring them to Iran. After that somebody has to go to Imam Khomeini airport to pick up the drops. Then they have to be brought from Tehran to Isfahan. All throughout this journey the drops must be kept on ice. For 20 days now we have been looking for somebody to bring Soheyla's drops from America."
After a pause he said: "This is only part of the trouble we must go through to treat Soheyla. Now the officials dispute the findings of the medical examiner, [who said the authorities had to] pay damages. Well, it is not important. But tell people to pray for my daughter's health."
More on acid attacks on women in Isfahan and elsewhere in Iran:
Protester Starves in Jail While Criminals go Free, January 6, 2017
Police Clash with Acid Attack Protesters, July 21, 2015
Acid Attacks in Western Azerbaijan, July 15, 2015
Acid Attack Death Exposes Iran's Dangerous Laws, May 13, 2015
Grieving Father Speaks about Acid Attacks, April 23, 2015
Acid Attack Victim Dies, April 16, 2015
"Well, you know, we haven't found the acid throwers. That's all I can say.", December 12, 2014
What is Behind the Acid Attacks?, November 10, 2014
Isfahan Gripped by Fear as Authorities Fail to Arrest Acid Attackers, November 3, 2014
Authorities Release Isfahan Journalists, October 29, 2014
Journalists Detained for Reporting Acid Attack Protest, October 28, 2014
Iran's Top Security Body Orders Arrest of Photographer, October 27, 2014
Panic in Isfahan, as Police Fail to Arrest Acid Attack Assailants, October 22, 2014
Demonstration in Isfahan Against Acid Attacks, October 22, 2014
Contradiction and Conspiracy Around Acid Attacks, October 21, 2014
Acid Attack Horror Grows in Iran, October 20, 2014
Harassed for a Handshake and Other Stories


Plantation, FL – April 6, 2019 – Greenspoon Marder is proud to support the Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El Annual Gala. The Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El seeks to create profound and meaningful connections with members of the congregation through inspirational and creative services, cutting-edge educational programming, as well as innovative social action initiatives. Click here to purchase tickets to the event.