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A letter to the editor is presented in response the article "RETHINKING THE PAPER HELICOPTER: COMBINING STATISTICAL AND ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE" in a previous issue.

The article discusses the editor's experience of being associated with journal "The American Statistician." The editor has reviewed 120 new manuscript since July 1, 2005. A new section called "Interdisciplinary" has been added to the journal to bring good statistical science to a variety of disciplines and to bring good discipline-specific science to statisticians. Papers in this section might contain overviews of discipline-specific issues in need of statistical solutions. The journal has adopted an online manuscript management system since October 1, 2005.

In a recent issue of Water International, three authors discuss their views of the virtual water metaphor that is used to describe the water embedded in crops that are traded in international markets. The term 'virtual water' was created originally to gain the attention of public officials responsible for choosing policies that influence water use in arid regions. Over time, both the terminology and the scope of the virtual water metaphor have been extended beyond the original purpose. This paper supports the view that the virtual water metaphor is helpful in encouraging public officials to consider the scarcity value (opportunity cost) of water when designing policies that influence water use. The paper proposes, also, that the policy relevance of the virtual water metaphor is found primarily in its application to issues regarding the supply of agricultural products, rather than demand. The distinction between supply and demand issues and the potential value of the virtual water metaphor in policy discussions regarding supply are demonstrated using three examples of water allocation decisions, described within the framework of economic optimization. The examples include wheat production in Saudi Arabia and the production of sudangrass and ethanol in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater plays a critical role in arid West China where water is the limiting factor for development. This paper first describes groundwater characteristics in a region of four arid inland river watersheds and the problems associated with groundwater consumption. This region exhibits a unique alternating pattern of high mountains and depressions, which results in extensive interactions of surface water and groundwater. Then the authors propose six strategies to support adequate exploitation and use of groundwater in the region. These strategies are: 1) setting up a groundwater monitoring system; 2) forming a unified watershed authority, 3) protecting mountain ecology; 4) increasing the efficiency of groundwater usage; 5) protecting groundwater; and 6) supporting advanced research. The implementation of these strategies should be built upon the promotion of sustainable economic development and broad public support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various articles published within the issue, including one on statistician Samuel S. Wilks' contributions to statistics and another by W. Edwards Deming on Wilks award.

A response by the author is presented to a letter to the editor about his article "RETHINKING THE PAPER HELICOPTER: COMBINING STATISTICAL AND ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE" in a previous issue.

This article recalls and comments on the varied contributions, many of enduring value, made by Samuel Wilks to the theory and practice of statistics. Multivariate analysis, order statistics, and statistical inference have especially benefited from his research. His unflagging work on behalf of the profession as teacher, writer, editor, advisor, and committee member raised the visibility of the field of statistics and increased recognition of its wide relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the properties of Graeco-Latin squares enumerated by mathematician Leonhard Euler. Euler suggested that a Graeco-Latin square of size n could never exist for any n of the form 4k +2, although he was not able to prove it. A Latin square is an n-by-n array of n distinct symbols in which each symbol appears exactly once in each row and column. On the other hand a Graeco-Latin square is an n-by-n array of ordered pairs from a set of n symbols such that in each row and each column of the array, each symbol appears exactly once in each coordinate. In one of his papers on Graeco-Latin squares, Euler used magic squares, which are closely related to Graeco-Latin squares. Magic squares were constructed by using Graeco-Latin squares of orders 3, 4 and 5. He showed that a Graeco-Latin square of order n can be converted into a magic square by the use of an algorithm. One can construct Graeco-Latin squares of every order n except those values for which the prime factorization of n contains only a single factor of 2.

A framework that integrates two data-driven techniques is proposed and developed to assess fecal coliform loadings in natural streams. A relationship between transport medium (streamflow) and non-conservative pollutant (fecal coliform) load is first developed using conventional regression technique. The spatial distribution of the fecal load over watersheds is then captured using artificial neural networks through a disaggregation scheme. Streamflow, as a surrogate for non-conservative fecal load, has been used in the disaggregation process. The framework is applied to an area that encompasses four USGS 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) watersheds in the southeastern region of Kentucky, USA. The study attempts to address two major issues: (i) assessment of relative pollutant loads from watersheds and (ii) evaluation into possible reduction in the number of monitoring stations to meet the budgetary constraints. Preliminary results indicate the potential of this approach in assessing the relative fecal loading contribution from different watersheds with the help of conservative hydrological parameters, especially in data-poor conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of the papers related to gap junction presented at the Poster Sessions of the 2005 International Gap Junction Conference held in Whistler, British Columbia. They include "Functional Analysis of Connexins Associated with Epidermal Disease and Syndromes," "Fate of Gap Junction Plaques During Cell Migration," "Molecular Cloning and Functional Analysis of a Novel Gene KDN Encoding Cx43 Partner Protein," "Glucose Represses Connexin36 in Insulin-Secreting Cells," and "Regulation of Cx43 Gap-Junctional Hemichannels (GJH) by PKC-Mediated Phosphorylation."

The article presents abstracts of papers related to cell communication and adhesion presented at the 2005 International Gap Junction Conference held in Whistler, British Columbia. They include "Exogenous Overexpression of Connexins Induces Premature Assembly of Connexons in the ER," "Binding of a Thioredoxin-Fold Protein to Connexin43 Correlates with Oligomerization State," "Cell Adhesion Proteins Facilitate Gap Junction Formation," "ZO-1 Regulates Connexin43 Gap Junction Patterning via Control of Channel Accretion," and "Novel Rab GAP-Like Protein, CIP8S, Interacts with Connexin43 and Induces Its Degradation."

This article presents information on the achievements and activities of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) of the United States. IWRA has achieved considerable landmarks in the year 2005. The Association has leaped forward despite major water disasters in the world starting with South Asian Tsunami and the major damage of Hurricanes in the United States and the persistent drought in Africa. The Association has also completed the 12th World Water Congress in New Delhi, India. Around 500 participants from 50 countries attended the conference. They presented some 200 papers and key note addresses focusing on the contemporary water issues of the day. In this conference, the members of the Association added several special sessions to highlight specific regional water issues of interest to all the participants. It was a learning experience for all the participants. The occasion was accompanied by an excellent dose of cultural events and surrounded with traditional Indian hospitality. Apart from the New Delhi conference IWRA has sponsored and co-sponsored several events in the United States, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Egypt, China and elsewhere to strengthen the dialogue on water issues across the world.

The article reviews the scientific word processing software Scientific WorkPlace 5.5 from the firm MacKichan Software.

The article presents information related to the establishment of a sound pattern of statistical education for college undergraduates. The uses of statistics and statistical methods have become evident throughout business, industry, government, and scientific research in recent years that this matter concerns not only the professional statisticians themselves, but many thousands of persons in these fields who are finding it necessary to become intelligent consumers of statistics and statistical methods. The validity of the urgent need of a better educational set- up for statistics should be based on the premise that statistics is fundamentally important and in fact indispensable to modern society.

The article discusses errors in surveys. In the planning of a survey, effort should be directed toward the reduction of all of the errors that it is possible to reduce. Consideration of all the errors that will affect the ultimate usefulness of a survey largely determines whether errors should be taken at all. A thorough-going plan of theoretical and experimental investigation into the nature of bias and variability in response is needed to avoid errors. Sampling errors have the characteristics of being controllable through the size and design of the sample.

The Water Evaluation and Planning Version 21 (WEAP21) Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) model seamlessly integrates water supplies generated through watershed-scale hydrologic processes with a water management model driven by water demands and environmental requirements and is governed by the natural watershed and physical network of reservoirs, canals, and diversions. This version (WEAP21) extends the previous WEAP model by introducing the concept of demand priorities and supply preferences, which are used in a linear programming heuristic to solve the water allocation problem as an alternative to multi-criteria weighting or rule-based logic approaches. WEAP21 introduces a transparent set of model objects and procedures that can be used to analyze a full range of issues faced by water planners through a scenario-based approach. These issues include climate variability and change, watershed condition, anticipated demands, ecosystem needs, the regulatory environment, operational objectives, and available infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water quality is an urgent problem in Harare's main water supply source, Lake Chivero, while water scarcity will be a problem soon. This study focuses on sustainable ways of urban water and nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) management in Harare, part of the Lake Chivero catchment. The Dublin Principles on water conservation, environmental protection, reuse, and economic utilization of water were used as a basis for formulating innovative and responsive solutions. External and internal drivers for future evolution of wastewater approaches are identified. Water conservation, treatment, and reuse strategies are developed including water-saving devices, regulation, leak detection and repair and including wastewater treatment and reuse. The three levels where wastewater can be handled – onsite, decentralized, and centralized – are discussed and solutions formulated. Based on this, a strategic framework, the so-called "3-Step Strategic Approach," is then developed aimed at the sustainable use of water nutrients, and other resources in the urban environment. This 3-Step Strategic Approach consists of pollution prevention and minimization (Step 1), reuse after treatment (Step 2), and discharge into the environment with stimulation of self-purification capacity of the receiving environment (Step 3). The 3-Step Strategic Approach was subsequently applied to the Lake Chivero catchment, which demonstrated that these strategies could substantially reduce current water pollution and future water scarcity problems in Harare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a noticeable increase in the amount of pollution in water resources in Turkey in recent years. Negative environmental developments, such as industrialization, increasing urbanization, improper pesticide and fertilizer applications in agricultural lands, and the drainage of domestic and industrial wastewater into water resources without any waste treatment applications, cause rapid pollution of both surface and groundwater resources. Therefore, it is necessary to allocate more attention to water resources monitoring and evaluation studies to prevent the pollution of water resources, and to reclaim these resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the historical development path of water rights in South Africa during the last 300 years or so. The basic finding is that water rights have come full circle. As early as 1652, the Dutch Company rulers declared water as public commodity and dominus fluminis status of the state, and they imposed the Roman-Dutch law in the country. The British, in contrast, privatized water and linked it with land tenure, thus establishing the supremacy of the riparian principle, and the apartheid government tried to swing the balance again to the Roman-Dutch law However, the modern law under the democratic regime has appointed the central government as trustee of water resources with the major objective of promoting the efficient, sustainable, and beneficial use of water in the public interest and providing equitable access to water to all. However it has brought much more responsibility than that envisaged by the law-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally accepted that conflicting demands over international rivers will intensify. There is an active debate on whether this will lead to "water wars" or to unprecedented cooperation. Framing the debate in this manner, however, tends to cast the concept of cooperation as all-or-nothing, imp lying that "cooperation" is an extreme, in direct opposition to "war." This conceptual construct obscures the many practical levels of cooperation that states can undertake to their mutual advantage. It is important to recognize that it is entirely rational that states will always have a "national agenda" for a river that they share with other states, and that they will cooperate if it serves that national agenda. In practice, there can be a continuum of levels of cooperation,from simple information sharing, to joint ownership and management of infrastructure investments. Furthermore, it may not necessarily be the case that "more" cooperation reaps "more " benefits in all river basins. There are many different types of benefits that can be secured through the cooperative management of international waters, with each individual basin offering different potential cooperative benefits with different associated costs. For each international basin, the optimal mode of cooperation will depend on a mix of factors including hydrologic characteristics, the economics of cooperative investments, numbers and the relationships of riparians, and the costs of parties coming together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the 2005 International Gap Junction Conference held in Whistler, British Columbia. Dr. Daniel Goodenough from Harvard Medical School opened the meeting with a historical review of the gap junction field as seen through the "eye of a lens." 14 platform sessions were held over the course of this 5-day meeting covering the entire field of gap junction biology. Apart from the main program, two alternate proposals for revising the current human and rodent connexin gene names, in an attempt to reduce the confusion in the field, was presented by a subcommittee on connexin gene nomenclature.

A response by the author is presented to a letter to the editor about his article "GRAPHICAL VIEWS OF SUPPRESSION AND MULTICOLLINEARITY IN MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION" in a previous issue.