earth science
cumulative long-term effects absorb more land reclamation have all produced changes
Minitab Drives
social and economic resources. These effects in local sedimentation, sea current and
are also more amenable to computationally climate. The effects in the areas concerned are
derived ameliorative planning. Research demonstrable, and untangling their relation
Quality Improvement.
into medical, search and rescue effectiveness through erosion and sedimentation patterns
in the immediate aftermath of catastrophic to larger trends is painstaking but progressing.
events (see, for example, comments by Analysis of morphological data from both the
Ashkenazi on the Sichuan earthquake in western and eastern margins of the Atlantic
China last year [22]) shows that the actions [29], for instance, illuminates the feedback
costa rica earthquake planning, January 2009,
of bystanders are more signifi cant in saving
from the european space agency website.
processes by which sedimentation changes
life than even the best planned professional seabed profi le at landmass edges, validating
interventions. some predictive models and sidelining others.
Subsequently, however, the balance shifts The technologies which result can then, All of this, even before the size of remotely
rapidly. As time passes, good planning and as prices drop, enhance future developing- sensed data sets is taken into account, is
well designed infrastructures soon become the world response. completely dependent upon computing
best indicators for survival and recovery. In Global interdependence with respect power. Even with quite small inputs, the
Sichuan, the numbers of seriously injured and to causes is even more fundamental, but interactions involved in a bi-directional
homeless were three times and 140 times the human impacts in this direction are more and cyclic view of human interaction with
fatality count, respectively. That both a major contentious as they open questions of the planet rapidly become too complex
disease outbreak and a secondary mass death deep shifts in economic behaviour. Much for unaided analysis. One geographer
rate from hypothermia were avoided is down of the argument here is based on high- commented, in discussion during preparation
to large-scale prepared outside intervention. performance computer models for prediction, of this article, that ‘it’s not too much of an
There has recently been increasing interest combined with examination of the past for exaggeration to say that there was no earth
in modelling to maximise the effectiveness of corroborative evidence. The Colombaroli science before the arrival of computers in
medium-term medical and reconstructive study [6], mentioned above, suggests that universities; the best we could do was earth The World Trusts Minitab
The best way to deliver better products and services
intervention. The fl ooding of New Orleans the comparatively thin human population speculation... and even then, it would have
for Quality
by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 shocked the (probably only 10-15 million globally, ) at hit a plateau without the arrival of the
is to use Minitab
®

Statistical Software to analyse and
USA and gave a particular boost to this, the Mesolithic/Neolithic boundary (roughly internet as a global mechanism for data
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when events seen as endemic to the third 4000 HE) managed to unseat a complete repositories... now, the various fl avours of
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world showed that they could strike the most Mediterranean broad-leafed evergreen forest high performance computing, from multiple Boeing
advanced societies. Complex input/output ecology dominated by holm oak and replace desktop cores and kernels upward, are vital to
Caterpillar
Quality professionals worldwide use Minitab because it:
table models [23] take into account bidirec- it with a new one based on an open textured continuing progress... earth science and earth
Dell
• Contains the essential methods, including Descriptive Statistics,
tional propagation of economic processes mix of shrub and deciduous woodland. science computing are the same thing’.
DuPont
and the impact of degraded production on Related work shows a subsequent dramatic Statistical Process Control (SPC), Process Capability, Gage R&R,
response and reconstruction. Bayesian analy- rise in the European beech population and,
references
Eastman Kodak
and more.
ses of exposure risk allow buffering of the along the Mediterranean in Lebanon’s
ExxonMobil
degree to which vital databases may be com- Bekaa Valley [26], deforestation associated
The references cited in this article can be
accessed through the Scientifi c computing World
Ford Motor Company • Produces vivid graphs that clarify every phase of a project.
promised [24]. Attention has been turning with major disruptions to sedimentation.
website. Please go to www.scientifi c-computing. General Electric
to simulation and gaming approaches with, Over the last 2,500 years, deforestation,
com/features/referencesfeb09.php
• Is easy to use, thanks to its intuitive interface and features like
Nestlé
in the words of one paper [25], ‘a library of destruction of raised peat bogs [27], [28], and
interoperable component models that can be
Royal Bank of Scotland
StatGuide
™
and ReportPad
™
which help you interpret and present
assembled together in different combinations
Toshiba
your results.
to represent a range of scenarios’.
Sources
Whirlpool
The increasing interdependence of
• Comes with flexible licensing options and free technical support.
source item contact
Wyeth
such work is gradually producing a global
bmT arGOSS marine environmental info@bmtargoss.com
network of mutual interest which is easy to
Plus the leading Six Sigma
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see but diffi cult to quantify. Investment by
consultants and more than 4,000
envirtech S.p.a. Tsunanameter www.envirtech.org/feedback.htm
technologically advanced societies in remote
colleges and universities worldwide. To learn more, visit www.minitab.co.uk
eSa european Space agency www.esa.int/esacP/index.html
sensing, databases, warning systems and
mathWorks matlab, Simulink info@mathworks.co.uk
so on, are amortised indirectly by return of
National Oceanographic Satellite climate research www.noaa.gov
analyses and methods from developing ones. To speak with a Minitab representative, call +44 (0)24 7643 7500 or e-mail sales@minitab.co.uk
and atmospheric Group; international satellite
An analysis-driven system which works in
administration based observations archive
a developing-world disaster may depend on
SPSS Inc SPSS software info@spss.com
data derived in a high-technology economy,
Visual Numerics PV-Wave; Numerical and http://www.vni.com/contact/index.
and can be applied back to other catastrophic
visual data analysis tools php#Informationrequest
events in industrialised regions.
14
scientiFic cOMPUtinG WOrLD february/march 2009 www.scientifi c-computing.com
SCWfeb09 pp12-15 EarthSciences.indd 14 4/2/09 10:41:42
MinitabUK-ENG.indd 1 1/11/09 9:55:10 PM
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