Stratospheric Influence on the Tropospheric Circulation Revealed by Idealized Ensemble Forecasts

The coupling between the stratosphere and troposphere following Stratospheric Sudden Warming (SSW) events is investigated in an idealized atmospheric General Circulation Model, with focus on the influence of stratospheric memory on the troposphere. Ensemble forecasts are performed to confirm the role of the stratosphere in the observed equatorward shift of the tropospheric midlatitude jet following an SSW. It is demonstrated that the tropospheric response to the weakening of the lower stratospheric vortex is robust, but weak in amplitude and thus easily masked by tropospheric variability. The amplitude of the response in the troposphere is crucially sensitive to the depth of the SSW. The persistence of the response in the troposphere is attributed to both the increased predictability of the stratosphere following an SSW, and the dynamical coupling between the tropospheric jet and lower stratosphere. These results suggest value in resolving the stratosphere and assimilating upper atmospheric data in forecast models

Ionic liquids in the solvent extraction of platinum-group metals : how far can they go?

ABSTRACT: Ionic liquids (ILs) are molten salts that are liquid at room temperature. Although their existence has been known from the beginning of the 20th century, only at the end of the 80's - beginning of 90´s their characteristic properties and potential advantages began to be widely explored. Nowadays there is no doubt that ILs have become a major subject of research for modern chemistry, and the industry progressively starts to include ILs in chemical processes. This communication presents and discusses some relevant results found in literature concerning the application of ILs to recover platinum-group metals (PGMs) from complex leaching solutions by solvent extraction (SX). Based on the available data, an evaluation about the forthcoming of ILs to recover PGMs from real leaching solutions of spent catalysts will be assessed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Preferences of children in grades two through eight in social studies subject areas

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Shape of the spatial mode function of photons generated in noncollinear spontaneous parametric downconversion

We show experimentally how noncollinear geometries in spontaneous parametric downconversion induce ellipticity of the shape of the spatial mode function. The degree of ellipticity depends on the pump beam width, especially for highly focused beams. We also discuss the ellipticity induced by the spectrum of the pump beam

Correction: Boat noise interferes with Lusitanian toadfish acoustic communication

Anthropogenic noise is considered a major underwater pollutant as increasing ocean background noise due to human activities is impacting aquatic organisms. One of the most prevalent anthropogenic sounds is boat noise. Although motorboat traffic has increased in the past few decades, its impact on the communication of fish is still poorly known. The highly vocal Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus) is an excellent model to test the impact of this anthropogenic stressor as it relies on acoustic communication to attractmates.Here,we performed two experiments to test the impact of boat noise on the acoustic communication of the Lusitanian toadfish. Using the auditory evoked potential (AEP) technique, we first compared the maximum distance a fish can perceive a boatwhistle (BW), the mate attraction acoustic signal, before and after embedding it in boat noise. Noises from a small motorboat and from a ferryboat reduced the active space from a control value of 6.4–10.4 m to 2.0–2.5 m and 6.3–6.7 m, respectively. In the second experiment we monitored the acoustic behaviour of breeding males exposed to boat noise playbacks and we observed an increase in the inter-onset interval ofBWs and a disruption of the usual vocal interactions between singing males. These results demonstrate that boat noise can severely reduce the acoustic active space and affect the chorusing behaviour in this species, which may have consequences in breeding success for individuals and could thus affect fitness.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Attention modulates psychophysical and electrophysiological response to visual texture segmentation in humans

none5noTo investigate whether processing underlying texture segmentation is limited when texture is not attended, we measured orientation discrimination accuracy and visual evoked potentials (VEPs) while a texture bar was cyclically alternated with a uniform texture, either attended or not. Orientation discrimination was maximum when the bar was explicitly attended, above threshold when implicitly attended, and fell to just chance when unattended, suggesting that orientation discrimination based on grouping of elements along texture boundary requires explicit attention. We analyzed tsVEPs (variations in VEP amplitude obtained by algebraic of uniform-texture from segmented-texture VEPs) elicited by the texture boundary orientation discrimination task. When texture was unattended, tsVEPs still reflected local texture segregation. We found larger amplitudes of early tsVEP components (N75, P100, N150, N200) when texture boundary was parallel to texture elements, indicating a saliency effect, perhaps at V1 level. This effect was modulated by attention, disappearing when the texture was not attended, a result indicating that attention facilitates grouping by collinearity in the direction of the texture boundary.openCasco, C; Grieco, A; Campana, G; CORVINO M., P; Caputo, GIOVANNI BATTISTACasco, C; Grieco, A; Campana, G; CORVINO M., P; Caputo, GIOVANNI BATTIST

Reducing early neonatal heat loss in low resourced context an Indian exemplar

Background: Although there has been a favorable trend in the Infant Mortality Rate in India in the last decade, the country is still unlikely to meet the Millennium Development Goal #4. Of significance, there has been minimal improvement in the early neonatal mortality rate, which is an indicator of quality of perinatal care. In the efforts to address this aspect, a range of efforts and interventions have been considered. One such effort is in addressing and reducing hypothermia in neonates. Two low tech strategies, professional mummying/swaddling (PM/S) and ‘Kangaroo mother care’ (KMC), are seen as critical in the continuum of neonatal care. Objective: This study compared the effects of KMC and professional mummying/swaddling (PM/S) on select neonatal outcomes (temperature and weight) in a postnatal hospital unit in Chennai India. Methodology: This quasi-experimental study used a repeat measures time series approach monitoring weight and temperatures for neonates across the two interventions. Results: Significant findings were found in the retention of temperature which indicated that the KMC intervention aligned with higher neonatal temperatures than the PM/S interventions. Further, neither maternal or neonate indicators were found to impact significantly on weight or temperature changes in either group. Conclusions: KMC was found to provide a viable and meritous alternative to PM/S as a thermoregulatory strategy for full term neonates in a low resource setting. The study suggest that ongoing research will be necessary to ascertain the optimal approaches and potentials in both methods with such culturally diverse populations

Intensive Outpatient Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Exposure and Response Prevention for Adolescents

Intensive treatments for youth obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are important and underresearched. This study used three adolescent cases to assess the preliminary efficacy of an intensive treatment combining acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with exposure and response prevention (ERP) for OCD. Participants received intensive treatment for 15 hours per week for three weeks. Assessments were collected at pre-treatment, weekly during treatment, and at posttreatment. All participants ended treatment in the mild range of OCD severity with 32-60% reductions in symptoms. Participants also reported notable improvements in psychological flexibility and ended treatment in the non-clinical range of depression, anxiety, and stress. These results indicate promise and preliminary support for the use of ACT+ERP in intensive settings for adolescents with OCD. This paper focuses on the clinical application of these techniques