Climate Change – What Do We Know, What Do We Not Know, and What May Be the Consequences For Electric Overhead Line Systems?

The validity of global climate beinginfluenced by emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gasesfrom human activities is now globally recognized. Althoughthe global temperature is expected to rise, and consequentlyalso precipitation amounts, many secondary effects are stilluncertain, concerning for example flooding, stormfrequencies, atmospheric icing and so on. However, manyelectrical utilities around the world are already consideringpreventive measures for their network, based on thephilosophy that proactive measures in the long run arecheaper than taking extra costs for maintenance and repairafter expected increases in damage and outage frequencies

Assessing environmental actions from modern meteorology

This paper gives an overview of current achievements where modern weather forecasting techniques are implemented for the assessment of especially ice and wind loadings on electrical overhead lines, TV towers, masts and similar infrastructure. Modern numerical weather prediction models (NWP ) incorporate far more details on e.g. cloud physics and dynamics than those generally necessary for regular weather forecasts. Such models describe in principle all physical and dynamical processes in the atmosphere in 3-D. In combination with detailed data on the physical properties of land and water surfaces, it is now possible to obtain realistic values of weather parameters related to wind, turbulence, precipitation and atmospheric icing down to a horizontal scale of a few hundred meters. Such models are therefore powerful tools for the planning and final design for various infrastructures in remote terrain where little or no weather data can provide sufficient bases for the establishment of extreme weather loads necessary for their design

Utprøving av intervensjon for optimalisering av funksjon, fysisk aktivitet og arbeidsdeltakelse ved multippel sklerose

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Summary of the Meeting on 11 December 2015 on Adaptation of Structural Design to Climate Change

The objectives of the meeting were as follows: 1. Discuss the feasibility and needs for creating snow map for structural design which accounts for the climate change: • availability of methodology and data; • scope of a snow map project – geographic, time span; • support / resources needed. 2. Set-up a group to create a document on the rational and needs for a snow map for structural design which accounts for the climate change. 3. Discuss the interaction with CEN/TC 250 Project Team (PT) on SC1.T5 (the Project Team on the CEN report on adaptation of the Eurocodes to the climate change, Task 5 of SC1, under Mandate M/515). 4. Identify other actions on structures whose effect on structures shall be consideredJRC.G.4-European laboratory for structural assessmen

The sky in Edvard Munch's "The Scream"

“The Scream” is a well-known painting by Edvard Munch (1863–1944). The Norwegian word used by Munch was “Skrik,” which can be translated as “shriek” or “scream”. “The Scream” may be of interest to meteorologists because of the quite striking representation of the sky. It has been suggested that the dramatic red-colored sky was inspired by a volcanic sunset seen by Munch, after the Krakatau eruption in 1883, that it was inspired by a sighting of stratospheric nacreous clouds and also that it is part of the artist’s expression of a scream from nature. The evidence for the volcanic sunset theory and Munch’s psyche are briefly reviewed. We provide support that Munch’s inspiration may have been from a sighting of nacreous clouds, observable from southern Norway during the winter months. We show that the colors and patterns of the sky in Munch’s painting match the sunset colors better if nacreous clouds are present. Their sudden appearance around and after sunset creates an impressive and dramatic effect. By comparing the color content of photographs and paintings of regular sunsets, volcanic sunsets, and nacreous clouds after sunset, with the color content of the sky in “The Scream”, the match is better with nacreous clouds present. If this conjecture is correct then Munch’s sky in “The Scream” represents one of the earliest visual documentations of a nacreous cloud display

Analysis of a seeder-feeder and freezing drizzle event

Surface icing can cause dramatic consequences on human activities. What is more, numerical weather prediction models are not very accurate in determining freezing drizzle, which creates uncertainty when forecasting this type of weather phenomenon. Therefore, it is essential to improve the forecast accuracy of these models for such phenomena to mitigate risks caused by unforeseen freezing drizzle events. On 5 February 2012, an episode of freezing drizzle took place in the Guadarrama Mountains, at the center of the Iberian Peninsula. This episode was preceded by weak snowfall. After the freezing drizzle, moderate snowfall was recorded in the study area. This event was simulated using the Weather Research and Forecasting model. Through this analysis, we identified the meteorological factors at both synoptic scale and mesoscale that caused this episode. Wind perpendicular to an orographic barrier-generated updrafts and retention of moisture upwind, which caused orographic clouds to appear on the north side of the Guadarrama Mountains. Atmospheric stability prevented cloud formation at midlevels at the time of the freezing drizzle, which maintained cloud top temperatures warmer than −15ºC during the episode. The entrance of moisture and instability at midlevels caused cloud top temperatures substantially colder than −15º C, which coincided with snow in the mountain range. Cloud top temperature and thickness control the efficiency of the glaciation process, thereby determining the type of precipitation at the surface. Freezing drizzle risk and in-cloud icing algorithms were developed with the aim of predicting similar events in the study area, which could mitigate impacts on human activities.This paper was supported by the following grants: TEcoAgua, METEORISK PROJECT (RTC-2014-1872-5), Granimetro (CGL2010-15930) and CGL2011-25327 of MINECO, and LE220A11-2 and LE003B009 awarded by the Junta de Castilla y León

Impulsivity and self-harm in adolescence: a systematic review

Research supports an association between impulsivity and self-harm, yet inconsistencies in methodology across studies have complicated understanding of this relationship. This systematic review examines the association between impulsivity and self-harm in community-based adolescents aged 11-25 years and aims to integrate findings according to differing concepts and methods. Electronic searches of EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINAHL, PubMed and The Cochrane Library, and manual searches of reference lists of relevant reviews, identified 4,496 articles published up to July 2015, of which 28 met inclusion criteria. Twenty-four of the studies reported an association between broadly specified impulsivity and self-harm. However, findings varied according to the conception and measurement of impulsivity and the precision with which self-harm behaviours were specified. Specifically, lifetime non-suicidal self-injury was most consistently associated with mood-based impulsivity related traits. However, cognitive facets of impulsivity (relating to difficulties maintaining focus or acting without forethought) differentiated current self-harm from past self-harm. These facets also distinguished those with thoughts of self-harm (ideation) from those who acted on thoughts (enaction). The findings suggested that mood-based impulsivity is related to the initiation of self-harm, while cognitive facets of impulsivity are associated with the maintenance of self-harm. In addition, behavioural impulsivity is most relevant to self-harm under conditions of negative affect. Collectively, the findings indicate that distinct impulsivity facets confer unique risks across the life-course of self-harm. From a clinical perspective, the review suggests that interventions focusing on reducing rash reactivity to emotions or improving self-regulation and decision-making may offer most benefit in supporting those who self-harm

Electric/Electronic-Architectures - Automating and optimizing communication matrices

This research aims at optimizing the Electric/Electronic-Architecture of modern day vehicles. Due to the massive increase in new Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, currently implemented communication technologies are no longer sufficient to deal with the massive increase in transmitted information. Instead of the costly procedure of introducing yet another communication technology in the vehicle, this research targets an previously unsolved problem inherent to the current design process: The complex task of optimally assigning signals with a range of different parameters (such as size, timing, receivers) to payloads of communication frames. This NP-hard Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization Problem is solved using a Genetic Algorithm, combined with modified heuristic operators to develop an automated process, capable of reducing the systems bus load and number of transmitted communication frames considerably.Telecommunication and SensingEmbedded SoftwareElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc