An assessment of warm fog: Nucleation, control, and recommended research

A state-of-the-art survey is given of warm fog research which has been performed up to, and including, 1974. Topics covered are nucleation, growth, coalescence, fog structures and visibility, effects of surface films, drop size spectrum, optical properties, instrumentation, liquid water content, condensation nuclei. Included is a summary of all reported fog modification experiments. Additional data is provided on air flow, turbulence, a summary of recommendations on instruments to be developed for determining turbulence, air flow, etc., as well as recommendations of various fog research tasks which should be performed for a better understanding of fog microphysics

From Soft Walls to Infrared Branes

Five dimensional warped spaces with soft walls are generalizations of the standard Randall-Sundrum compactifications, where instead of an infrared brane one has a curvature singularity (with vanishing warp factor) at finite proper distance in the bulk. We project the physics near the singularity onto a hypersurface located a small distance away from it in the bulk. This results in a completely equivalent description of the soft wall in terms of an effective infrared brane, hiding any singular point. We perform explicitly this calculation for two classes of soft wall backgrounds used in the literature. The procedure has several advantages. It separates in a clean way the physics of the soft wall from the physics of the five dimensional bulk, facilitating a more direct comparison with standard two-brane warped compactifications. Moreover, consistent soft walls show a sort of universal behavior near the singularity which is reflected in the effective brane Lagrangian. Thirdly, for many purposes, a good approximation is obtained by assuming the bulk background away from the singularity to be the usual Randall-Sundrum metric, thus making the soft wall backgrounds better analytically tractable. We check the validity of this procedure by calculating the spectrum of bulk fields and comparing it to the exact result, finding very good agreement.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, v2: subsection on IR brane potentials and appendix on fermions added, version to appear in PR

Can Self-Tracking Solutions Help with Understanding Quality of Smart, Connected Products?

Smart connected products (SCPs) have gained significant attention in different domains because they offer numerous benefits and change the form of competition and value creation. While quality is im-portant for SCPs, no holistic quality model is available to target the present quality problems. Further-more, since the concept of an SCP is quite abstract, a bottom-up approach that starts with a concrete example seems suitable. Therefore, this paper identifies the five key components of SCPs and maps them to self-tracking solutions (STS) in order to show that STSs are appropriate examples. We also analyse quality models in corresponding areas to verify the absence of a holistic quality model for the selected example. This contribution identifies the research gap regarding holistic, stakeholder-oriented quality models and helps researchers understand SCPs better

Disasters and climate change in the Pacific: adaptive capacity of humanitarian response organizations

© 2014, © 2014 Taylor & Francis. Climate change is likely to affect the pattern of disasters in the Pacific and, by extension, the organizations and systems involved in disaster response. This research focused on how immediate humanitarian health-related needs following disasters are met using the concept of adaptive capacity to investigate the resilience of organizations and the robustness of the broader system of disaster response. Four case study countries (Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu) were chosen for deeper investigation of the range of issues present in the Pacific. Key findings were that adaptive capacity was enhanced by strong informal communication and relationships as well as formal relationships, appropriate participation of traditional leaders and churches, and recognition and support for the critical role national disaster management offices play in disaster coordination. Adaptive capacity was found to be constrained by lack of clear policies for requesting international assistance, lack of coordinated disaster assessments, and limited human resources for health in disaster response. Limitations in psychosocial support and Australian medical services to meet specific needs were observed. Finally, the research revealed that both Pacific and Australian disaster-response agencies would benefit from a strengthened ‘future’ focus to better plan for uncertainty and changing risks

A qualitative examination of the health workforce needs during climate change disaster response in Pacific Island Countries

Background: There is a growing body of evidence that the impacts of climate change are affecting population health negatively. The Pacific region is particularly vulnerable to climate change; a strong health-care system is required to respond during times of disaster. This paper examines the capacity of the health sector in Pacific Island Countries to adapt to changing disaster response needs, in terms of: (i) health workforce governance, management, policy and involvement; (ii) health-care capacity and skills; and (iii) human resources for health training and workforce development.Methods: Key stakeholder interviews informed the assessment of the capacity of the health sector and disaster response organizations in Pacific Island Countries to adapt to disaster response needs under a changing climate. The research specifically drew upon and examined the adaptive capacity of individual organizations and the broader system of disaster response in four case study countries (Fiji, Cook Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa).Results: 'Capacity' including health-care capacity was one of the objective determinants identified as most significant in influencing the adaptive capacity of disaster response systems in the Pacific. The research identified several elements that could support the adaptive capacity of the health sector such as: inclusive involvement in disaster coordination; policies in place for health workforce coordination; belief in their abilities; and strong donor support. Factors constraining adaptive capacity included: weak coordination of international health personnel; lack of policies to address health worker welfare; limited human resources and material resources; shortages of personnel to deal with psychosocial needs; inadequate skills in field triage and counselling; and limited capacity for training.Conclusion: Findings from this study can be used to inform the development of human resources for health policies and strategic plans, and to support the development of a coordinated and collaborative approach to disaster response training across the Pacific and other developing contexts. This study also provides an overview of health-care capacity and some of the challenges and strengths that can inform future development work by humanitarian organizations, regional and international donors involved in climate change adaptation, and disaster risk reduction in the Pacific region. © 2014 Rumsey et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd