Weather radar rainfall data in urban hydrology Thorndahl, Søren; Einfalt, Thomas; Willems, Patrick ...
Hydrology and earth system sciences,
03/2017, Letnik:
21, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Application of weather radar data in urban hydrological applications has evolved significantly during the past decade as an alternative to traditional rainfall observations with rain gauges. Advances ...in radar hardware, data processing, numerical models, and emerging fields within urban hydrology necessitate an updated review of the state of the art in such radar rainfall data and applications. Three key areas with significant advances over the past decade have been identified: (1) temporal and spatial resolution of rainfall data required for different types of hydrological applications, (2) rainfall estimation, radar data adjustment and data quality, and (3) nowcasting of radar rainfall and real-time applications. Based on these three fields of research, the paper provides recommendations based on an updated overview of shortcomings, gains, and novel developments in relation to urban hydrological applications. The paper also reviews how the focus in urban hydrology research has shifted over the last decade to fields such as climate change impacts, resilience of urban areas to hydrological extremes, and online prediction/warning systems. It is discussed how radar rainfall data can add value to the aforementioned emerging fields in current and future applications, but also to the analysis of integrated water systems.
8000 years ago, prior to Neolithic agriculture, Europe was mostly a wooded continent. Since then, its forest cover has been progressively fragmented, so that today it covers less than half of ...Europe's land area, in many cases having been cleared to make way for fields and pasture-land. Establishing the origin of Europe's current, more open land-cover mosaic requires a long-term perspective, for which pollen analysis offers a key tool. In this study we utilise and compare three numerical approaches to transforming pollen data into past forest cover, drawing on >1000
C-dated site records. All reconstructions highlight the different histories of the mixed temperate and the northern boreal forests, with the former declining progressively since ~6000 years ago, linked to forest clearance for agriculture in later prehistory (especially in northwest Europe) and early historic times (e.g. in north central Europe). In contrast, extensive human impact on the needle-leaf forests of northern Europe only becomes detectable in the last two millennia and has left a larger area of forest in place. Forest loss has been a dominant feature of Europe's landscape ecology in the second half of the current interglacial, with consequences for carbon cycling, ecosystem functioning and biodiversity.
Objective
To identify risk factors for fear of childbirth (FOC) according to parity and socioeconomic status, and to evaluate associations between FOC and adverse perinatal outcomes.
Design
A cohort ...study.
Setting
The Finnish Medical Birth Register.
Population
All 788 317 singleton births during 1997–2010 in Finland.
Methods
Fear of childbirth was defined according to the International Classification of Diseases code O99.80, and its associations with several risk factors and perinatal outcomes were analysed by multivariable logistic regression.
Main outcome measures
Prevalence of, risk factors for and outcomes of FOC.
Results
Fear of childbirth was experienced by 2.5% of nulliparous women and 4.5% of multiparous women. The strongest risk factors for FOC in nulliparous women were depression adjusted odds ratio (aOR), 6.35; 95% confidence interval (CI), 5.25–7.68, advanced maternal age (aOR, 3.78; 95% CI, 3.23–4.42) and high or unspecified socioeconomic status. In multiparous women, the strongest risk factors for FOC were depression (aOR, 5.47; 95% CI, 4.67–6.41), previous caesarean section (CS) (aOR, 3.02; 95% CI, 2.93–3.11) and high or unspecified socioeconomic status. Among both nulliparous and multiparous women, FOC was associated with higher rates of CS (3.3‐fold and 4.5‐fold higher, respectively) and a lower incidence of low birthweight (<2500 g), small for gestational age babies, preterm birth and low Apgar scores at 1 minute.
Conclusions
High and unspecified socioeconomic status, advanced maternal age and depression are predisposing factors for FOC regardless of parity. Among multiparous women, a previous CS increases vulnerability to FOC. FOC is associated with increased rates of CS, but does not adversely affect other pregnancy outcomes.
Lanthanide luminescence is characterised by "forbidden" 4
f-
4
f
transitions and a complicated electronic structure. Our understanding of trivalent lanthanide(
iii
) ion luminescence is centered on ...Eu
3+
because absorbing and emitting transitions in Eu
3+
occur from a single electronic energy level. In Sm
3+
both absorbing and emitting multiplets have a larger multiplicity. A band arising in transitions from the first emitting state multiplet to the ground state multiplet will have nine lines for a Sm
3+
complex. In this study, high-resolution emission and excitation spectra were used to determine the electronic energy levels for the lowest multiplet and first emitting multiplet in four Sm
3+
compounds with either tricapped trigonal prismatic
TTP
or capped square antiprismatic
cSAP
coordination polyhedra but different site symmetry. This was achieved by the use of Boltzmann distribution population analysis and experimentally determined transition probabilities from emission and excitation spectra. Using this analysis it was possible to show the effect of changing three oxygen atoms with three nitrogen atoms in the donor set for two compounds with the same coordination polyhedra and site symmetry. This work celebrates the 40
th
anniversary of Kirby and Richardson's first report of Eu(ODA)
3
3−
luminescence.
Lanthanide luminescence is characterised by "forbidden" 4
f-
4
f
transitions and a complicated electronic structure.
Context.
The sub-Jovian, or Neptunian, desert is a previously identified region of parameter space where there is a relative dearth of intermediate-mass planets with short orbital periods.
Aims.
We ...present the discovery of a new transiting planetary system within the Neptunian desert, NGTS-14.
Methods.
Transits of NGTS-14Ab were discovered in photometry from the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS). Follow-up transit photometry was conducted from several ground-based facilities, as well as extracted from TESS full-frame images. We combine radial velocities from the HARPS spectrograph with the photometry in a global analysis to determine the system parameters.
Results.
NGTS-14Ab has a radius that is about 30 per cent larger than that of Neptune (0.444 ± 0.030
R
Jup
) and is around 70 per cent more massive than Neptune (0.092 ± 0.012
M
Jup
). It transits the main-sequence K1 star, NGTS-14A, with a period of 3.54 days, just far away enough to have maintained at least some of its primordial atmosphere. We have also identified a possible long-period stellar mass companion to the system, NGTS-14B, and we investigate the binarity of exoplanet host stars inside and outside the Neptunian desert using
Gaia
.
The dissociative sticking probability for H
2 on Pd films supported on sputtered Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) has been derived from measurements of the rate of the H–D exchange reaction ...at 1
bar. The sticking probability for H
2,
S, is higher on Pd hydride than on Pd (a factor of 1.4 at 140
°C), but the apparent desorption energy derived from
S is the same on Pd and Pd hydride within the uncertainty of the experiment. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations for the (1
1
1) surfaces of Pd and Pd hydride show that, at a surface H coverage of a full mono layer, H binds less strongly to Pd hydride than to Pd. The activation barrier for desorption at a H coverage of one mono layer is slightly lower on Pd hydride, whereas the activation energy for adsorption is similar on Pd and Pd hydride. It is concluded that the higher sticking probability on Pd hydride is most likely caused by a slightly lower equilibrium coverage of H, which is a consequence of the lower heat of adsorption for H on Pd hydride.
Summary Background Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, for which no satisfactory treatment presently exists, accounts for most of the disability in patients with multiple sclerosis. ...Simvastatin, which is widely used for treatment of vascular disease, with its excellent safety profile, has immunomodulatory and neuroprotective properties that could make it an appealing candidate drug for patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Methods We undertook a double-blind, controlled trial between Jan 28, 2008, and Nov 4, 2011, at three neuroscience centres in the UK. Patients aged 18–65 years with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis were randomly assigned (1:1), by a centralised web-based service with a block size of eight, to receive either 80 mg of simvastatin or placebo. Patients, treating physicians, and outcome assessors were masked to treatment allocation. The primary outcome was the annualised rate of whole-brain atrophy measured from serial volumetric MRI. Analyses were by intention to treat and per protocol. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT00647348. Findings 140 participants were randomly assigned to receive either simvastatin (n=70) or placebo (n=70). The mean annualised atrophy rate was significantly lower in patients in the simvastatin group (0·288% per year SD 0·521) than in those in the placebo group (0·584% per year 0·498). The adjusted difference in atrophy rate between groups was −0·254% per year (95% CI −0·422 to −0·087; p=0·003); a 43% reduction in annualised rate. Simvastatin was well tolerated, with no differences between the placebo and simvastatin groups in proportions of participants who had serious adverse events (14 20% vs nine 13%). Interpretation High-dose simvastatin reduced the annualised rate of whole-brain atrophy compared with placebo, and was well tolerated and safe. These results support the advancement of this treatment to phase 3 testing. Funding The Moulton Foundation charity number 1109891, Berkeley Foundation 268369, the Multiple Sclerosis Trials Collaboration 1113598, the Rosetrees Trust 298582 and a personal contribution from A Pidgley, UK National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) University College London Hospitals/UCL Biomedical Research Centres funding scheme.
The structure of molecular systems dictates the physical properties, and symmetry is the determining factor for all electronic properties. This makes group theory a powerful tool in quantum mechanics ...to compute molecular properties. For inorganic compounds, the coordination geometry has been estimated as idealized polyhedra with high symmetry, which, through ligand field theory, provides predictive capabilities. However, real samples rarely have ideal symmetry, and although continuous shape measures (CShM) can be used to evaluate deviation from an ideal reference structure σideal, this often fails for lanthanide(III) complexes with high coordination numbers, no obvious choice of principal axes, and no obvious reference structure. In lanthanide complexes, the unique electronic structures and associated properties are intricately tied to the symmetry around the lanthanide center. Therefore, robust methodologies to evaluate and estimate point group symmetry are instrumental for building structure–property relationships. Here, we have demonstrated an algorithmic approach that orients a molecular structure Q in the best possible way to the symmetry axis of any given point group G and computes a deviation from the ideal symmetry σsym(G,Q). This approach does not compute the deviation from an ideal reference system, but the intrinsic deviation in the structure induced by symmetry operations. If the structure contains the symmetry operation, there is no deviation and σsym(G,Q) = 0. The σsym deviation is generated from all of the symmetry operation ÔS in a point group G using the most correct orientation of the sample structure in each group G. The best orientation is found by an algorithm that minimizes the orientation of the structure with respect to G. To demonstrate the methodology, we have investigated the structure and symmetry of 8- and 9-coordinated lanthanide(III) aqua complexes and correlated the luminescence from 3 europium(III) crystals to their actual symmetry. To document the methodology, the approach has been tested on 26 molecules with different symmetries. It was concluded that the method is robust and fully autonomous.
Abstract
Understanding the distribution and abundance of heat tolerant corals across seascapes is imperative for predicting responses to climate change and to support novel management actions. ...Thermal tolerance is variable in corals and intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of tolerance are not well understood. Traditional experimental evaluations of coral heat and bleaching tolerance typically involve ramp-and-hold experiments run across days to weeks within aquarium facilities with limits to colony replication. Field-based acute heat stress assays have emerged as an alternative experimental approach to rapidly quantify heat tolerance in many samples yet the role of key methodological considerations on the stress response measured remains unresolved. Here, we quantify the effects of coral fragment size, sampling time point, and physiological measures on the acute heat stress response in adult corals. The effect of fragment size differed between species (
Acropora tenuis
and
Pocillopora damicornis
). Most physiological parameters measured here declined over time (tissue colour, chlorophyll-
a
and protein content) from the onset of heating, with the exception of maximum photosynthetic efficiency (
F
v
/
F
m
) which was surprisingly stable over this time scale. Based on our experiments, we identified photosynthetic efficiency, tissue colour change, and host-specific assays such as catalase activity as key physiological measures for rapid quantification of thermal tolerance. We recommend that future applications of acute heat stress assays include larger fragments (> 9 cm
2
) where possible and sample between 10 and 24 h after the end of heat stress. A validated high-throughput experimental approach combined with cost-effective genomic and physiological measurements underpins the development of markers and maps of heat tolerance across seascapes and ocean warming scenarios.
Summary Background Remote ischaemic preconditioning attenuates cardiac injury at elective surgery and angioplasty. We tested the hypothesis that remote ischaemic conditioning during evolving ...ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and done before primary percutaneous coronary intervention, increases myocardial salvage. Methods 333 consecutive adult patients with a suspected first acute myocardial infarction were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio by computerised block randomisation to receive primary percutaneous coronary intervention with (n=166 patients) versus without (n=167) remote conditioning (intermittent arm ischaemia through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of a blood-pressure cuff). Allocation was concealed with opaque sealed envelopes. Patients received remote conditioning during transport to hospital, and primary percutaneous coronary intervention in hospital. The primary endpoint was myocardial salvage index at 30 days after primary percutaneous coronary intervention, measured by myocardial perfusion imaging as the proportion of the area at risk salvaged by treatment; analysis was per protocol. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , number NCT00435266. Findings 82 patients were excluded on arrival at hospital because they did not meet inclusion criteria, 32 were lost to follow-up, and 77 did not complete the follow-up with data for salvage index. Median salvage index was 0·75 (IQR 0·50–0·93, n=73) in the remote conditioning group versus 0·55 (0·35–0·88, n=69) in the control group, with median difference of 0·10 (95% CI 0·01–0·22; p=0·0333); mean salvage index was 0·69 (SD 0·27) versus 0·57 (0·26), with mean difference of 0·12 (95% CI 0·01–0·21; p=0·0333). Major adverse coronary events were death (n=3 per group), reinfarction (n=1 per group), and heart failure (n=3 per group). Interpretation Remote ischaemic conditioning before hospital admission increases myocardial salvage, and has a favourable safety profile. Our findings merit a larger trial to establish the effect of remote conditioning on clinical outcomes. Funding Fondation Leducq.
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