Fire behavior and smoke modeling: Model improvement and measurement needs for next-generation smoke research and forecasting systems

There is an urgent need for next-generation smoke research and forecasting (SRF) systems to meet the challenges of the growing air quality, health, and safety concerns associated with wildland fire emissions. This review paper presents simulations and experiments of hypothetical prescribed burns with a suite of selected fire behavior and smoke models and identifies major issues for model improvement and the most critical observational needs. The results are used to understand the new and improved capability required for the next-generation SRF systems and to support the design of the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) and other field campaigns. The next-generation SRF systems should have more coupling of fire, smoke, and atmospheric processes to better simulate and forecast vertical smoke distributions and multiple sub-plumes, dynamical and high-resolution fire processes, and local and regional smoke chemistry during day and night. The development of the coupling capability requires comprehensive and spatially and temporally integrated measurements across the various disciplines to characterize flame and energy structure (e.g., individual cells, vertical heat profile and the height of well mixing flaming gases), smoke structure (vertical distributions and multiple sub-plumes), ambient air processes (smoke eddy, entrainment and radiative effects of smoke aerosols), fire emissions (for different fuel types and combustion conditions from flaming to residual smoldering), as well as night-time processes (smoke drainage and super-fog formation).

Stimulus generalization and anxiety in schizophrenic and normal subjects

Sixty schizophrenics and 60 normal subjects were compared on a test of stimulus generalization. The generalization stimuli were lines differing in length. Both schizophrenics and normals were divided into two groups (30 subjects each) and trained either on a short line or on a long line. In addition to the generalization stimuli, subjects were presented with an irrelevant stimulus (circle). Although there was a significant difference between the generalization gradients of the groups, this difference was limited to generalization stimuli away from the negative training stimulus. The concept of peak shift was invoked to interpret these data. That the groups did not respond to the irrelevant stimulus is inconsistent with interference theory and gives some support to the differentiation between conceptual overinclusion and perceptual overinclusion. The relationship between stimulus generalization and scores on the Manifest Anxiety Scale was inconsistent.