State of the climate in 2018

In 2018, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth’s atmosphere—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—continued their increase. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth’s surface was 407.4 ± 0.1 ppm, the highest in the modern instrumental record and in ice core records dating back 800 000 years. Combined, greenhouse gases and several halogenated gases contribute just over 3 W m−2 to radiative forcing and represent a nearly 43% increase since 1990. Carbon dioxide is responsible for about 65% of this radiative forcing. With a weak La Niña in early 2018 transitioning to a weak El Niño by the year’s end, the global surface (land and ocean) temperature was the fourth highest on record, with only 2015 through 2017 being warmer. Several European countries reported record high annual temperatures. There were also more high, and fewer low, temperature extremes than in nearly all of the 68-year extremes record. Madagascar recorded a record daily temperature of 40.5°C in Morondava in March, while South Korea set its record high of 41.0°C in August in Hongcheon. Nawabshah, Pakistan, recorded its highest temperature of 50.2°C, which may be a new daily world record for April. Globally, the annual lower troposphere temperature was third to seventh highest, depending on the dataset analyzed. The lower stratospheric temperature was approximately fifth lowest. The 2018 Arctic land surface temperature was 1.2°C above the 1981–2010 average, tying for third highest in the 118-year record, following 2016 and 2017. June’s Arctic snow cover extent was almost half of what it was 35 years ago. Across Greenland, however, regional summer temperatures were generally below or near average. Additionally, a satellite survey of 47 glaciers in Greenland indicated a net increase in area for the first time since records began in 1999. Increasing permafrost temperatures were reported at most observation sites in the Arctic, with the overall increase of 0.1°–0.2°C between 2017 and 2018 being comparable to the highest rate of warming ever observed in the region. On 17 March, Arctic sea ice extent marked the second smallest annual maximum in the 38-year record, larger than only 2017. The minimum extent in 2018 was reached on 19 September and again on 23 September, tying 2008 and 2010 for the sixth lowest extent on record. The 23 September date tied 1997 as the latest sea ice minimum date on record. First-year ice now dominates the ice cover, comprising 77% of the March 2018 ice pack compared to 55% during the 1980s. Because thinner, younger ice is more vulnerable to melting out in summer, this shift in sea ice age has contributed to the decreasing trend in minimum ice extent. Regionally, Bering Sea ice extent was at record lows for almost the entire 2017/18 ice season. For the Antarctic continent as a whole, 2018 was warmer than average. On the highest points of the Antarctic Plateau, the automatic weather station Relay (74°S) broke or tied six monthly temperature records throughout the year, with August breaking its record by nearly 8°C. However, cool conditions in the western Bellingshausen Sea and Amundsen Sea sector contributed to a low melt season overall for 2017/18. High SSTs contributed to low summer sea ice extent in the Ross and Weddell Seas in 2018, underpinning the second lowest Antarctic summer minimum sea ice extent on record. Despite conducive conditions for its formation, the ozone hole at its maximum extent in September was near the 2000–18 mean, likely due to an ongoing slow decline in stratospheric chlorine monoxide concentration. Across the oceans, globally averaged SST decreased slightly since the record El Niño year of 2016 but was still far above the climatological mean. On average, SST is increasing at a rate of 0.10° ± 0.01°C decade−1 since 1950. The warming appeared largest in the tropical Indian Ocean and smallest in the North Pacific. The deeper ocean continues to warm year after year. For the seventh consecutive year, global annual mean sea level became the highest in the 26-year record, rising to 81 mm above the 1993 average. As anticipated in a warming climate, the hydrological cycle over the ocean is accelerating: dry regions are becoming drier and wet regions rainier. Closer to the equator, 95 named tropical storms were observed during 2018, well above the 1981–2010 average of 82. Eleven tropical cyclones reached Saffir–Simpson scale Category 5 intensity. North Atlantic Major Hurricane Michael’s landfall intensity of 140 kt was the fourth strongest for any continental U.S. hurricane landfall in the 168-year record. Michael caused more than 30 fatalities and $25 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages. In the western North Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut led to 160 fatalities and$6 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages across the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was responsible for 170 fatalities in Vietnam and Laos. Nearly all the islands of Micronesia experienced at least moderate impacts from various tropical cyclones. Across land, many areas around the globe received copious precipitation, notable at different time scales. Rodrigues and Réunion Island near southern Africa each reported their third wettest year on record. In Hawaii, 1262 mm precipitation at Waipā Gardens (Kauai) on 14–15 April set a new U.S. record for 24-h precipitation. In Brazil, the city of Belo Horizonte received nearly 75 mm of rain in just 20 minutes, nearly half its monthly average. Globally, fire activity during 2018 was the lowest since the start of the record in 1997, with a combined burned area of about 500 million hectares. This reinforced the long-term downward trend in fire emissions driven by changes in land use in frequently burning savannas. However, wildfires burned 3.5 million hectares across the United States, well above the 2000–10 average of 2.7 million hectares. Combined, U.S. wildfire damages for the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons exceeded $40 billion (U.S. dollars)

United States Justice System

Abstract The criminal justice system of the United States is very complex. It has several different departments that constitute what we know today as the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system is comprised of police or local authority’s, federal police that constitutes the federal government authorities, and state level police that make up the law enforcement divisions of the justice system. Courts are the next step in the process; courts exist at the local and federal levels, consisting of circuit courts, appeal courts, supreme courts, and the supreme court of the United States. Corrections is the final step in the criminal justice system, here violators of the law will serve out the courts sentence. In this paper we will explore a brief history of law enforcement, courts, military, and corrections. We will explore the rights of the people, the ethics of policing, policing environment, use of force, and police training

Short interest in mergers: anomalies in the overvaluation hypothesis

Purpose: High short interest is associated with overvaluation, and the purpose of this paper is to find contradictions to the commonly held “overvaluation hypothesis” when merger and acquisition (M&A) targets are examined. This paper extends the work of Ben-David et al. (2015), who confirm high short interest indicates overvaluation when focused on acquiring firms. Design/methodology/approach: Short interest is examined as a predictor of acquisition likelihood using longitudinal data for US firms from 2003 to 2013. How short interest impacts the premiums paid by acquiring firms is examined with target, acquirer and deal characteristics. Findings: M&A targets have high short interest and short interest increases acquisition likelihood, suggesting undervaluation. Highly shorted firms also experience outsized reductions in share price prior to merger announcements, and the premiums paid are also significantly predicted by short interest levels. Research limitations/implications: Short selling activity can be motivated for reasons other than overvaluation, and many short positions can be held for long periods before they are closed, leading to high short interest levels for extended periods. Therefore, investors and researchers are cautioned that high short interest levels may exist in stocks that have already declined in price and could be poised for a reversal. Originality/value: This study adds to the growing body of work indicating that short interest might not be the signal of overvaluation most researchers accept it to be

Recommendations for a National Research Agenda in UDL: Outcomes From the UDL-IRN Preconference on Research

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that continues to receive increased attention at federal and state levels. The benefits of UDL include providing an approach to curriculum and instructional design that creates flexible instructional goals, methods, materials, and assignments. Despite the growing popularity of UDL in national policies, measuring the implementation of the UDL framework remains elusive. In March 2017, the research committee of the Universal Design for Learning–Implementation and Research Network (UDL-IRN) convened a preconference of researchers and practitioners to discuss and make recommendations for a national research agenda. Four workgroups address issues related to UDL. These included (a) operationalizing and applying UDL, (b) instruments for the measurement of UDL, (c) teacher education/professional development (PD) in UDL, and (d) UDL tools, technologies, and resources. The results of the workgroups’ effort to identify issues and strategic actions in UDL implementation and research are reported

Annual program review, forest biology

"March 25-26, 1999."Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers: status report for project F010 / Gerald Pullman ... [et al.] ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers - initiation / Gerald Pullman ... [et al.] ; Variation in initiation and the number of zygotic embryos in the seed / John MacKay ... [et al.] ; Survival of initiated cultures after direct transfer into liquid media: the effect of maltose, auxin type, and genotype / Gary Peter , Teresa Vales ; Embryo development improvements based on elemental analysis of female gametophyte, zygotic and somatic embryo tissues / Gerald Pullman , Paul Montello , Xiaorong Feng ; Optimizing the percent of embryos that develop into cotyledonary embryos: the role of plating density and ABA concentration / Gary Peter , Teresa Vales ; Field establishment of somatic embryo derived loblolly pine seedlings / Jerry Pullman , Paul Montello , Mike Cunningham ; Analysis of free amino acids, nitrate, and ammonium in zygotic female gametophyte and embryo tissues / Gerald Pullman ... [et al.] ; Functional analysis of pinus taeda zygotic embryo germination: the effect of partial drying and the acquisition of desiccation tolerance / Gary Peter ... [et al.] ; Gene expression in pine embryos; developing tools / John Cairney , Gerald Pullman , John MacKay ; Differential gene expression in the suspensor of zygotic embryos / John MacKay ... [et al.] ; Analysis of a late stage-specific clone of loblolly pine by a non-radioactive method of cDNA labeling and detection / Barbara Johns and John Cairney ; Externally funded research in 1998-1999 supporting F010 / John Cairney ... [et al.] ; Developing reliable systems for evaluating gene expression using DNA arrays / Lin Ge , Jerry Pullman and John Cairney ; Early-specific gene expression in loblolly pine zygotic and somatic embryos: cDNS cloning, sequencing and expression analysis / Vincent Ciavatta , Gerald Pullman , John Cairney ; Fundamental biological mechanisms: improved stem growth rates and fiber properties: status reports for project F011 / Gary Peter ... [et al.] ; Externally funded research in 1998-1999 supporting F011 / Gary Peter ... [et al.] ; Transformation methods for southern pine: building an efficient transformation method for loblolly pine / Gary Peter ... [et al.] ; Environmental and genetic regulation of microfibril angle in southern pine: determination of the microfibril angle in the s2 layer of pinus taeda using differential interference contrast microscopy: validation of the method / Douglas Benton , Keith Bennett , Gary Peter ; Trees containing built-in pulping catalysts / Jerry Pullman ... [et al.] ; Lignin reactivity during pulping and bleaching of CAD-deficient pine / John MacKay ... [et al.] ; IPST forest biology research proposals ; Student research -- Slide Material

Annual program review, forest biology, October 14-15, 1998

"October 14-15, 1998."Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers: project F010 / Jerry Pullman ... [et al.] ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers - initiation / Gerald Pullman ... [et al.] ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers: genetic control of initiation and the number of zygotic embryos in the seed / John MacKay ... [et al.] ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers: survival of initiated cultures after direct transfer to liquid media / Gary Peter ... [et al.] ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers - embryo development improvements based on elemental analysis of female gametophyte, zygotic and somatic embryo tissues / Gerald Pullman, Paul Montello, Xiaorong Feng ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers: optimizing the percent of embryos that develop into cotyledonary embryos by altering embryo plating densities and ABA concentration / Teresa Vales, Gary Peter ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers: field establishment of somatic embryo derived loblolly pine seedlings / Jerry Pullman, Paul Montello, Mike Cunningham ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers: functional anaylsis of pinus taeda zygotic embryo germination: the effect of partial drying and the acquisition of desiccation tolerance / Gary Peter ... [et al.] ; Mass clonal propagation of improved conifers: differential gene expression in the suspensor of zygotic embryos - update / John MacKay ... [et al.] ; Externally funded research in 1998-1999 supporting F010 / John Cairney ... [et al.] ; Gene expression studies with developing embryos: the effect of ABA treatment / Nanfei Xu ... [et al.] ; Early-stage-specific gene expression in loblolly pine zygotic and somatic embryos: cDNA cloning, sequencing and expression analysis / Vincent Ciavatta, Gerald Pullman and John Cairney ; Identification and cloning of cDNAs for novel female-, male- and vegetatively expressed genes / Lin Ge, Gerald Pullman, and John Cairney ; Fundamental biological mechanisms: improved stem growth rates and fiber properties: project F011 / Gary Peter ... [et al.] ; Fundamental biological mechanisms: improved fiber properties and rates of wood cell formation: cellulose biosynthesis / Gary Peter, Chris Ricker ; Externally funded reserach in 1998-1999 supporting F011 / Gary Peter ... [et al.] ; Towards genetic engineering of forest trees with anthraquinones: endogenous anthraquinones in pulpwood trees and the cloning of a key gene for anthraquinone biosynthesis / Huabin Meng ... [et al.] ; Environmental and genetic regulation of microfibril angle in southern pine: determination of the microfibril angle in the S2 layer of pinus taeda using differential interference contrast microscopy: validation of the method / Douglas Benton, Keith Bennett, Gary Peter ; Genetically modified lignin in pine: structure and properties: lignin reactivity in CAD-deficient trees during pulping and bleaching / Donald Dimmel ... [et al.] -- Slide material

Safety and immunogenicity of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2: a preliminary report of a phase 1/2, single-blind, randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) might be curtailed by vaccination. We assessed the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of a viral vectored coronavirus vaccine that expresses the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: We did a phase 1/2, single-blind, randomised controlled trial in five trial sites in the UK of a chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19) expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein compared with a meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY) as control. Healthy adults aged 18-55 years with no history of laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection or of COVID-19-like symptoms were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 at a dose of 5 × 1010 viral particles or MenACWY as a single intramuscular injection. A protocol amendment in two of the five sites allowed prophylactic paracetamol to be administered before vaccination. Ten participants assigned to a non-randomised, unblinded ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 prime-boost group received a two-dose schedule, with the booster vaccine administered 28 days after the first dose. Humoral responses at baseline and following vaccination were assessed using a standardised total IgG ELISA against trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, a muliplexed immunoassay, three live SARS-CoV-2 neutralisation assays (a 50% plaque reduction neutralisation assay [PRNT50]; a microneutralisation assay [MNA50, MNA80, and MNA90]; and Marburg VN), and a pseudovirus neutralisation assay. Cellular responses were assessed using an ex-vivo interferon-γ enzyme-linked immunospot assay. The co-primary outcomes are to assess efficacy, as measured by cases of symptomatic virologically confirmed COVID-19, and safety, as measured by the occurrence of serious adverse events. Analyses were done by group allocation in participants who received the vaccine. Safety was assessed over 28 days after vaccination. Here, we report the preliminary findings on safety, reactogenicity, and cellular and humoral immune responses. The study is ongoing, and was registered at ISRCTN, 15281137, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04324606. FINDINGS: Between April 23 and May 21, 2020, 1077 participants were enrolled and assigned to receive either ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (n=543) or MenACWY (n=534), ten of whom were enrolled in the non-randomised ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 prime-boost group. Local and systemic reactions were more common in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group and many were reduced by use of prophylactic paracetamol, including pain, feeling feverish, chills, muscle ache, headache, and malaise (all p<0·05). There were no serious adverse events related to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. In the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group, spike-specific T-cell responses peaked on day 14 (median 856 spot-forming cells per million peripheral blood mononuclear cells, IQR 493-1802; n=43). Anti-spike IgG responses rose by day 28 (median 157 ELISA units [EU], 96-317; n=127), and were boosted following a second dose (639 EU, 360-792; n=10). Neutralising antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 32 (91%) of 35 participants after a single dose when measured in MNA80 and in 35 (100%) participants when measured in PRNT50. After a booster dose, all participants had neutralising activity (nine of nine in MNA80 at day 42 and ten of ten in Marburg VN on day 56). Neutralising antibody responses correlated strongly with antibody levels measured by ELISA (R2=0·67 by Marburg VN; p<0·001). INTERPRETATION: ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 showed an acceptable safety profile, and homologous boosting increased antibody responses. These results, together with the induction of both humoral and cellular immune responses, support large-scale evaluation of this candidate vaccine in an ongoing phase 3 programme. FUNDING: UK Research and Innovation, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Thames Valley and South Midland's NIHR Clinical Research Network, and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Partner site Gießen-Marburg-Langen