A study of the influence of soil moisture on future precipitation

Forty years of precipitation and surface temperature data observed over 261 Local Climatic Data (LCD) stations in the Continental United States was utilized in a ground hydrology model to yield soil moisture time series at each station. A month-by-month soil moisture dataset was constructed for each year. The monthly precipitation was correlated with antecedent monthly precipitation, soil moisture and vapotranspiration separately. The maximum positive correlation is found to be in the drought prone western Great Plains region during the latter part of summer. There is also some negative correlation in coastal regions. The correlations between soil moisture and precipitation particularly in the latter part of summer, suggest that large scale droughts over extended periods may be partially maintained by the feedback influence of soil moisture on rainfall. In many other regions the lack of positive correlation shows that there is no simple answer such as higher land-surface evapotranspiration leads to more precipitation, and points out the complexity of the influence of soil moisture on the ensuring precipitation

Evaluation of a Hot Print System for the development of latent fingermarks on thermal paper:a pseudo-operational trial

Enhancement of latent fingermarks on thermal paper poses a number of problems when using traditional methods used for porous substrates due to blackening of the thermal layer as a result of polar solvents present within the reagents and high temperatures oxidising the acid/dye complex. Thus, methods which prevent such reactions are favoured for the development of latent prints on said substrates. A comparative pseudo-operational trial using UV, Hot Print System (HPS), ninhydrin and ThermaNIN was performed on 1000 thermal paper substrates gathered from various sources. The results indicated that the most effective method was an acetone pre-wash followed by ninhydrin. The sequence of HPS-ninhydrin was similarly effective when compared to ninhydrin as a sole technique. ThermaNIN produced fewer marks than ninhydrin but was superior to HPS. Whilst the HPS developed some fingermarks, there was only a very small number of marks uniquely developed by it.</p

The Contribution of Participatory Research: On-Farm Research

Participatory research in agriculture may range from research and technology development (R&D), carried out on a research station with some involvement of farmers, through to genuine participatory research involving researchers and farmers working together. The latter involves the end-user in actually carrying out aspects of the research and/or in the development and evaluation of technology that is appropriate to commercial enterprises. Researchers often question the validity of the ‘findings of on-farm participatory research’ as they are more comfortable with the ‘controlled’ environment of the research station. However if research is to be applied appropriately on farms, it must go through a period of evaluation on-farm. This paper summarises perspectives relating to participatory on-farm research, highlighting some opportunities that new technology is providing by considering five key areas as follows: • Participatory research within the agricultural research enterprise (current situation); • On-farm research compared with in-station research (options); • A New Zealand example of on-farm research; • New opportunities in on-farm research; • Future models for participatory on-farm research

Carnival of invention

© 2019, Institut für Qualitative Forschung,Internationale Akademie Berlin gGmbH. All rights reserved. In this report we present a reflection on the Collaborative Poetics Network’s first “Carnival of Invention” which was held on 15th June 2018 at the University of Brighton, England. Collaborative poetics is an arts-based research method that brings together expertise from artists, academics, and community participants, to share knowledge and promote social change through engaging and accessible ways. On the day of the Carnival over 40 contributors from around the world came to participate in a series of workshops, presentations, installations and displays. In this article we outline the themes addressed on the day and the media utilized in these interactive and experiential sessions. We argue that this event supported the benefits of arts-based research in developing, analyzing, and communicating rich data sets. Finally, we provide evaluation and reflections from the event (including in haiku, a traditional Japanese form of poetry), in an attempt to creatively capture the events of the day

The Importance of Organic Content to Fractal Floc Properties in Estuarine Surface Waters: Insights From Video, LISST, and Pump Sampling

To better understand the nature of flocs of varying organic content in estuarine surface waters, Laser in situ Scattering and Transmissometry, video settling, and pump sampling were deployed in the York River estuary. A new in situ method was developed to simultaneously solve the floc fractal dimension (F), primary particle size (d p ), and primary particle density (ρ p ) by fitting a simple fractal model to observations of effective floc density (∆ρ) as a function of floc diameter (d f ), while ensuring that the integrated particle size distribution was consistent with measurements of bulk apparent density (ρ a ). When fractal fits were statistically justified, application of the above methods showed the bulk fraction of organic matter (f org ) to be well correlated to multiple floc properties. As f org increased, d p and ρ a also increased, while ρ p , total suspended solids (TSS), and median floc size decreased. Notably for microflocs, neither F nor ∆ρ was significantly related to either f org or TSS. This indicates that organic matter may partially displace water content within microflocs without fundamentally changing the flocs’ inorganic structure. When pooling multiple samples, a marked decrease in F was seen at the transition to macroflocs, and most strongly for high f org cases. This suggested that settling velocities \u3e_ ~1 mm/s may produce turbulent stresses that tend to tear macroflocs apart. This study also found that when the fractal theory held, ρ p had a near 1:1 correlation with the bulk dry density of filtered TSS, implying that primary particles are tightly bound aggregates of combined mineral and organic component

Epinephelus chlorostigma, Brownspotted Grouper

Epinephelus chlorostigma is a fairly widespread and relatively abundant species that inhabits reefs in both shallow and deep waters. There are signs of localised declines due to fishing effort in some areas, particularly in the Seychelles, and suspected declines in others (Indonesia). Catches of this species are generally low in comparison to other groupers in many parts of its range, which may be a function of its deeper depth preference. Population declines are not suspected on a global level at this time; therefore, it is listed as Least Concern. It is recommended that catches, particularly in areas where groupers are lumped, should be monitored carefully and frequently to provide more species-specific quantitative information

USING BIRD STRIKE DATA TO MONITOR BIRD-HAZARD CONTROL

An effective definition of a bird strike is the basis for quantifying the scale of bird hazard problems. Here we present a working definition of a bird strike, which in turn forms the basis of an analysis of 32 years’ data collected at Dublin Airport, Ireland. A variety of datasets are analysed including the number of bird strikes per ten thousand aircraft movements, the mass of the bird species being struck, the time of year at which bird strikes occur and the dimensions of the aircraft utilising the airfield. In addition, we have analysed the mean number of strikes per year and the mean number of birds struck per bird strike. Following a very serious incident involving a Boeing 737-200 which struck a flock of gulls in the mid -1980’s, a new regime of control measures was put in place. Therefore our study permits us to evaluate the effectiveness of this management programme. The results suggest that the most significant impact of control measures is to reduce the number of birds being struck per bird strike

Conference Report: Carnival of Invention

In this report we present a reflection on the Collaborative Poetics Network's first "Carnival of Invention" which was held on 15th June 2018 at the University of Brighton, England. Collaborative poetics is an arts-based research method that brings together expertise from artists, academics, and community participants, to share knowledge and promote social change through engaging and accessible ways. On the day of the Carnival over 40 contributors from around the world came to participate in a series of workshops, presentations, installations and displays. In this article we outline the themes addressed on the day and the media utilized in these interactive and experiential sessions. We argue that this event supported the benefits of arts-based research in developing, analyzing, and communicating rich data sets. Finally, we provide evaluation and reflections from the event (including in haiku, a traditional Japanese form of poetry), in an attempt to creatively capture the events of the day