Geodetic reanalysis of annual glaciological mass balances (2001-2011) of Hintereisferner, Austria

This study presents a reanalysis of the glaciologically obtained annual glacier mass balances at Hintereisferner, Ötztal Alps, Austria, for the period 2001-2011. The reanalysis is accomplished through a comparison with geodetically derived mass changes, using annual high-resolution airborne laser scanning (ALS). The grid-based adjustments for the method-inherent differences are discussed along with associated uncertainties and discrepancies of the two methods of mass balance measurements. A statistical comparison of the two datasets shows no significant difference for seven annual, as well as the cumulative, mass changes over the 10-year record. Yet, the statistical view hides significant differences in the mass balance years 2002/03 (glaciological minus geodetic records=+0.92mw.e.), 2005/06 (+0.60mw.e.), and 2006/07 (-0.45mw.e.). We conclude that exceptional meteorological conditions can render the usual glaciological observational network inadequate. Furthermore, we consider that ALS data reliably reproduce the annual mass balance and can be seen as validation or calibration tools for the glaciological method.(VLID)3146447Version of recor

Combined Use of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 for Glacier Mapping: an Application over Central East Alps

The systematic monitoring of glaciers is essential to both evaluate water resource availability and better understand the effects of climate change. The increased speed of glacier changes observed in the past few years requires a more frequent update of the glacier inventories than in the past; however, the high human supervision required by the state-of-the-art techniques is discouraging their systematic application over large areas. This article proposes a novel approach to exploit the large volume of data provided by Copernicus Sentinel missions for detecting glacier outlines, including debris-covered glaciers. In detail, our method exploits the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 multitemporal images to build a composite image representing the glacier conditions during the yearly maximum ablation period. The Sentinel-2 multispectral images are classified with a support vector machine and composed to a mosaic that represents the information of the maximum glacier ablation. At the same time, the Sentinel-1 time series are exploited to build a multitemporal coherence composite that represents all the snow-covered and glaciated areas together with all the moving surfaces. This information is used together with the Sentinal-2 composite to detect the debris-covered part of the glaciers. The proposed method was tested in the Central East Alps and presented an overall accuracy of 92% with respect to a reference inventory over South Tyrol and an agreement of 90% with respect to the latest glacier inventory of the Alps from Sentinel-2. The proposed approach enables to assist glacier experts in identifying glacier outlines over large areas and in short time

The Effects of Gay Sexually Explicit Media on the HIV Risk Behavior of Men Who Have Sex with Men

This study sought to study consumption patterns of gay-oriented sexually explicit media (SEM) by men who have sex with men (MSM); and to investigate a hypothesized relationship between gay SEM consumption and HIV risk behavior. Participants were 1391 MSM living in the US, recruited online to complete a SEM consumption and sexual risk survey. Almost all (98.5%) reported some gay SEM exposure over the last 90 days. While 41% reported a preference to watch actors perform anal sex without condoms (termed “bareback SEM”), 17% preferred to actors perform anal sex with condoms (termed “safer sex SEM”) and 42% reported no preference. Overall SEM consumption was not associated with HIV risk; however participants who watched more bareback SEM reported significantly greater odds of engaging in risk behavior. The results suggest that a preference for bareback SEM is associated with engaging in risk behavior. More research to understand how MSM develop and maintain preferences in viewing SEM, and to identify new ways to use SEM in HIV prevention, is recommended

The association of intake of energy boosting drinks with the academic performance of 1st year to 3rd year medical students of De La Salle Health Sciences for the 1st semester, S.Y. 2016-2017

The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of high intake of energy boosting drinks and its association with self-reported academic performance of 1st-3rd year medical students of De La Salle Health Sciences Institute for the 1st semester, SY 2016-2017. Analytic cross-sectional research design was used where Stratified random sampling was used as sampling technique. Student participants were asked to fill up a questionnaire to determine their frequency, amount and pattern of the intake of energy boosting drinks and their corresponding academic performance during 1st semester, SY 2016-2017. Study habits and social factors were also determined in relation to the intake of energy boosting drinks and academic performance percentage of those with high intake was estimated and their academic performance was compared to those with average intake. Prevalence ratio and 95% confidence interval was computed to describe the association between intake of energy boosting drinks and academic performance. Chi-square test statistic was used to determine if association was statically significant at 0.05 level. Seventy two percent of the medical students increase their intake of energy boosting drinks during evaluations. However, there was insufficient evidence to conclude an association between the intake of energy-boosting drinks and academic performance. Students were not likely to have better or poor academic performance based on their intake of these drinks, in contrast with other literature which proved otherwise. The study focused solely on self-reported grades of students; hence, future studies should explore other factors which may have an effect on student performance