Role of tropical Pacific SSTs in global medieval hydroclimate: A modeling study

The role of tropical Pacific SSTs in driving global medieval hydroclimate is assessed. Using fossil coral records from Palmyra Atoll, tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) boundary conditions are derived for the period 1320-1462 A.D. These boundary conditions consist of La Niña-like mean state conditions in the tropical Pacific with inter-annual and decadal variability about that altered state. The reconstructed SSTs in the tropical Pacific are used to force a 16 member ensemble of atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) simulations, coupled to a one layer ocean model outside of the tropical Pacific. The AGCM simulations of medieval climate are compared with modern climate simulations for the period 1856-2005 A.D. and are shown to reproduce many aspects of medieval hydroclimate found in paleo-proxy records for much of the Western Hemisphere, northern Eurasia, and the northern tropics. These results suggest that many features of global medieval hydroclimate changes can be explained by changes in tropical Pacific SSTs, though the potential role for other oceans is also discussed

Volunteer Coordinators’ Practices to Motivate and Retain Volunteers in Animal Welfare Organizations

Animal welfare organizations depend on volunteers to continue to take care of animals and rehome them. Animal overpopulation is estimated at 70 million animals and without enough volunteers to help socialize them, they can be unadoptable and subject to euthanasia. The problem addressed through this study was volunteer turnover in animal welfare organizations and resulting negative impacts on animal welfare. Researchers have examined person-organization fit related to employee retention in for-profit environments but not the experience of volunteer coordinators in animal welfare organizations. The purpose of this general qualitative study was to examine practices and experiences of volunteer coordinators to motivate, personalize experiences, and retain volunteers in animal welfare organizations. Eight participants were interviewed via semi-structured interviews and data were interpreted through the lens of person-organization fit theory. Each question was analyzed with holistic coding as well as in vivo coding. Results of the analysis indicated that when volunteer coordinators aligned volunteer interests with tasks they performed, personalized experiences through task alignment, communication, and recognized volunteers’ efforts, volunteers were more motivated and more likely to remain in their role long-term. If values were not aligned and training was not adequately provided, volunteers were less motivated to remain with the organization. Findings may provide information to volunteer coordinators regarding the importance of designing and employing a structured training program that determines the values fit and outlines expectations of the volunteer, to avoid dissatisfaction and burnout among volunteers and increase retention

The effects of orbital precession on tropical precipitation: Mechanisms controlling precipitation changes over land and ocean

The tropical precipitation response to precessional forcing is investigated using idealized precession experiments from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Coupled Model version 2.1 and mid-Holocene experiments from ten general circulation models participating in the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project Phase III. Both sets of experiments show a seasonal land-ocean asymmetry in the tropical precipitation response: precipitation increases over land and decreases over ocean in the season with increased insolation and the opposite is true in the season with decreased insolation. This response is examined using a framework that describes how changes in net top-of-atmosphere radiation affect the atmosphere and surface energy balances. Over land, surface energy storage is small and changes in precipitation are balanced by changes in moist static energy flux divergence. Over ocean, surface energy storage is large, moist static energy flux divergence is small, and changes in precipitation are ultimately driven by changes in circulation and atmospheric stability

Extreme low-lying carotid bifurcations

A 52-year-old male with no past medical history was referred to the transient ischaemic attack (TIA) clinic following an event at home. The transient symptoms were of an inability to move his left arm and leg for a period of approximately 15 minutes. The patient denied any numbness of the face, headaches or blurring of vision. A careful history revealed two previous transient attacks of blurred vision approximately 1–2 years prior to this presentation. He had no other co-morbidities or associated syndromes. Given this history, suggestive of TIA(s) in the right anterior circulation, an ultrasound examination of the carotid vessels was performed to include or exclude an atherosclerotic source of embolus. The ultrasound scan demonstrated an extremely short common carotid artery (CCA) of just 2.5 cm on the right, with apparently normal flows and velocities in both the external and internal carotids (ECA and ICA) but poor views of the bifurcation. Similarly, the flows and velocities in the left ICA and ECA were also normal, with the carotid bulb lying low in the base of the neck, so further imaging with a magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA) was performed (Panel A) to clarify the anatomic and ultrasound findings. This confirmed extremely low-lying bilateral carotid bifurcations (highlighted in Panel A). The short, right-side CCA bifurcates at the level of C7/T1 (Panel B) and the left carotid bifurcation is at the level of C6/C7 (Panel C)

Surfaces, depths and hypercubes: Meyerholdian scenography and the fourth dimension

An appreciation of Meyerhold’s engagement with theatrical space is fundamental to understanding his directorial and pedagogic practice. This article begins by establishing Meyerhold’s theoretical and practical engagement with theatre as a fundamentally scenographic process, arguing for a reconceptualisation of the director as ‘director-scenographer’. Focusing on the construction of depth and surface in Meyerholdian theatre, the article goes on to identify trends in the director’s approach to space, with an emphasis on the de-naturalisation of depth on stage. This denaturalisation is seen as taking three forms: the rejection of depth as a prerequisite in theatrical space, the acknowledgement of the two-dimensional surface as surface, and the restructuring of depth space into a series of restricted planes. The combination of these trends indicates a consistent and systematic process of experimentation in Meyerhold’s work. In addition, this emphasis on depth and surface, and the interaction between the two, also highlights the contextualisation of Meyerhold’s practice within the visual, philosophical and scientific culture of the early twentieth century, echoing the innovations in n-dimensional geometry and particularly, the model of the fourth spatial dimension seen in the work of Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky

Assessing the Australian termite diversity anomaly: how habitat and rainfall affect termite assemblages

Termites are important ecosystem engineers in tropical habitats, with different feeding groups able to decompose wood, grass, litter, and soil organic matter. In most tropical regions, termite abundance and species diversity are assumed to increase with rainfall, with highest levels found in rainforests. However, in the Australian tropics, this pattern is thought to be reversed, with lower species richness and termite abundance found in rainforest than drier habitats. The potential mechanisms underlying this pattern remain unclear. We compared termite assemblages (abundance, activity, diversity, and feeding group composition) across five sites along a precipitation gradient (ranging from ∼800 to 4,000 mm annual rainfall), spanning dry and wet savanna habitats, wet sclerophyll, and lowland and upland rainforests in tropical North Queensland. Moving from dry to wet habitats, we observed dramatic decreases in termite abundance in both mounds and dead wood occupancy, with greater abundance and activity at savanna sites (low precipitation) compared with rainforest or sclerophyll sites (high precipitation). We also observed a turnover in termite species and feeding group diversity across sites that were close together, but in different habitats. Termite species and feeding group richness were highest in savanna sites, with 13 termite species from wood-, litter-, grass-, dung-, and soil-feeding groups, while only five termite species were encountered in rainforest and wet sclerophyll sites—all wood feeders. These results suggest that the Australian termite diversity anomaly may be partly driven by how specific feeding groups colonized habitats across Australia. Consequently, termites in Australian rainforests may be less important in ecosystem processes, such as carbon and nutrient cycling during decomposition, compared with termites in other tropical rainforests

Audiovisual Metadata Platform Pilot Development (AMPPD), Final Project Report

This report documents the experience and findings of the Audiovisual Metadata Platform Pilot Development (AMPPD) project, which has worked to enable more efficient generation of metadata to support discovery and use of digitized and born-digital audio and moving image collections. The AMPPD project was carried out by partners Indiana University Libraries, AVP, University of Texas at Austin, and New York Public Library between 2018-2021

Air-sea interaction and the seasonal cycle of the subtropical anticyclones

The causes of the seasonal cycles of the subtropical anticyclones, and the associated zonal asymmetries of sea surface temperature (SST) across the subtropical oceans, are examined. In all basins the cool waters in the east and warm waters in the west are sustained by a mix of atmosphere and ocean processes. When the anticyclones are best developed, during local summer, subsidence and equatorward advection on the eastern flanks of the anticyclones cool SSTs, while poleward flow on the western flanks warms SSTs. During local winter the SST asymmetry across the subtropical North Atlantic and North Pacific is maintained by warm water advection in the western boundary currents that offsets the large extraction of heat by advection of cold, dry air of the continents and by transient eddies. In the Southern Hemisphere ocean processes are equally important in cooling the eastern oceans by upwelling and advection during local winter. Ocean dynamics are important in amplifying the SST asymmetry, as experiments with general circulation models show. This amplification has little impact on the seasonal cycle of the anticyclones in the Northern Hemisphere, strengthens the anticyclones in the Southern Hemisphere, and helps position the anticyclones over the eastern basins in both hemispheres. Experiments with an idealized model are used to suggest that the subtropical anticyclones arise fundamentally as a response to monsoonal heating over land but need further amplification to bring them up to observed strength. The amplification is provided by local air–sea interaction. The SST asymmetry, generated through local air–sea interaction by the weak anticyclones forced by heating over land, stabilizes the atmosphere to deep convection in the east and destabilizes it in the west. Convection spreads from the land regions to the adjacent regions of the western subtropical oceans, and the enhanced zonal asymmetry of atmospheric heating strengthens the subtropical anticyclones