Correcting citizen‐science air temperature measurements across the Netherlands for short wave radiation bias

Citizen‐science thermometer measurements have the potential to provide information about surface air temperature fields on scales smaller than is typically quantified by the official monitoring network. As such, national meteorological services are becoming increasingly interested in these measurements as a possible source of data for use in weather monitoring or forecasting. However, in order for the information to be used, biases in the data need to be assessed. The most important source of bias is the potential overheating of the thermometer due to inadequate shielding or exposure. Previous research has indicated that information about the nature of the instrument and its exposure is important for correcting this bias. However, in the majority of cases this information is unavailable for amateur stations. In this paper a statistical correction for short wave radiation bias is developed for the air temperature data recorded at 159 Weather Observations Website (WOW) stations across the Netherlands during the period 2015–2016. Generalized additive mixed modelling (GAMM) is used to quantify and correct for short wave radiation bias in the hourly measurements using a background temperature field generated from the official 34 automatic weather stations along with satellite‐derived short wave radiation estimates. It is demonstrated that the corrected WOW data add local detail to the hourly temperature field, which may provide a useful source of data to supplement official measurements

Design and Fabrication of n-ISFET using Si3N4 as a Sensing Membrane for pH Measurement

This project is about the development of n-type ISFET using silicon nitride (Si3N4) as a sensing membrane for pH measurement in biomedical applications. The theory, design, and fabrication methods, along with the experimental results are presented in this report. The gate of the ISFET is replaced by the Si3N4 sensing membrane layer that has been deposited using PECVD system to cover the gate area. Both exposed membrane of ISFET and reference electrode were immersed in pH buffer solution to measured electrical IDVD (drain current-drain voltage) and IDVG (drain current-gate voltage) characteristic in order to identify the ISFET behavior. The best pH sensitivity achieved from the experimental testing is 40.35 mV/pH

A ZEN Approach to Post-2015: Addressing the Range of Perspectives across Asia and the Pacific

The paper discusses key challenges faced throughout the Asia and the Pacific region as a number of its developing economies graduate from low-income status to middle-income status at the same time as the region remains home to the majority of the world's poor people and a number of fragile states. The region is gaining increased influence in the world economy but is still grappling to overcome interrelated challenges of poverty and sustainable development, so its priorities will be of significant importance in informing the contents of any post- 2015 global development framework. Drawing from the ongoing lessons of the Millennium Development Goal process, this paper suggests a conceptual framework for setting a new generation of goals and, informed by these concepts, proposes an intergovernmental approach to implementation. The "ZEN" framework stresses the distinct challenges of achieving zero extreme poverty (Z), setting country-specific "Epsilon" benchmarks for broader development challenges (E), and promoting environmental sustainability both within and across borders (N)

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance.

Investment in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing in Africa over the past year has led to a major increase in the number of sequences that have been generated and used to track the pandemic on the continent, a number that now exceeds 100,000 genomes. Our results show an increase in the number of African countries that are able to sequence domestically and highlight that local sequencing enables faster turnaround times and more-regular routine surveillance. Despite limitations of low testing proportions, findings from this genomic surveillance study underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic and illuminate the distinct dispersal dynamics of variants of concern-particularly Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron-on the continent. Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve while the continent faces many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Combination of the W boson polarization measurements in top quark decays using ATLAS and CMS data at s = 8 TeV

Abstract: The combination of measurements of the W boson polarization in top quark decays performed by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations is presented. The measurements are based on proton-proton collision data produced at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 20 fb−1 for each experiment. The measurements used events containing one lepton and having different jet multiplicities in the final state. The results are quoted as fractions of W bosons with longitudinal (F0), left-handed (FL), or right-handed (FR) polarizations. The resulting combined measurements of the polarization fractions are F0 = 0.693 ± 0.014 and FL = 0.315 ± 0.011. The fraction FR is calculated from the unitarity constraint to be FR = −0.008 ± 0.007. These results are in agreement with the standard model predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics and represent an improvement in precision of 25 (29)% for F0 (FL) with respect to the most precise single measurement. A limit on anomalous right-handed vector (VR), and left- and right-handed tensor (gL, gR) tWb couplings is set while fixing all others to their standard model values. The allowed regions are [−0.11, 0.16] for VR, [−0.08, 0.05] for gL, and [−0.04, 0.02] for gR, at 95% confidence level. Limits on the corresponding Wilson coefficients are also derived

Analysing the Sustainability of Urban Development: A review on the Potential Use of Volunteered Geographic Information

The challenges of how to ensure sustainable urban development are currently one of the important agenda among governments around the world. The stakeholders require the latest and high volume of geographic information for the decision making process to efficiently respond to challenges, improve service delivery to citizens, and plan a successful future of the city. However, it is time-consuming and costly to get the available information and some of the information is not up-to-date. Recently, GeoWeb 2.0 technological advances have increased the number of volunteers from non-professional citizen to contribute to the collection, sharing, and distribution of geographic information. The information known as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has generated another approach of spatial data sources that can give up-to-date, huge volume of data, and available geographic information in a low cost for various applications. With this in mind, this paper presents a review of literature based on the potential use of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) in measuring sustainability of urban development. The review highlighted that social, economic, and environment as three pertinent pillars relating to the use of VGI for measurement sustainable urban development