Summary of results and conclusions based on analysis of volume imaging and high spectral resolution lidar data acquired during FIRE phase 1, part 1

The collection of long term global statistics on cloud cover may be most easily accomplished with satellite based observations; however, measurements derived from passive satellite retrieval methods must be calibrated and verified by in situ or ground based remote sensor observations. Verification is not straight forward, however, because the highly variable nature of cloud altitude, morphology, and optical characteristics complicates the scaling of point measurements to satellite footprint sized areas. This is particularly evident for cirrus clouds which may be organized on horizontal scales of 10's of meters to 8 km or more, and have optical depths ranging from less than .003 to greater than 3. Cirrus clouds can strongly influence earths' radiative balance, but, because they are often transmissive, cirrus clouds are difficult to detect and characterize from satellite measurements. Because of its precise ranging capabilities, spatial resolution and sensitivity, lidar observations have played an important role in the detection, depiction, and characterization of cirrus clouds. Some of the characteristics of cirrus clouds are summarized which observed the High Spectral Resolution and Volume Imaging Lidars during the phase 1 IFO and ETO periods

Summary of results and conclusions based on analysis of volume imaging and high spectral resolution lidar data acquired during FIRE phase 1, part 2

Since the fall of 1986, cirrus clouds were observed with backscatter cross sections ranging from less than 1 x 10(exp -7) to 4.2 x 10(exp -5)m/sr, optical thicknesses ranging from less than .003 to greater than 2.7, and bulk average backscatter phase functions from .02 to .065/sr. Cirrus cloud structures were recorded ranging in vertical extent from 0.1 to 8 km, having horizontal scales from 10's of meters to 266 km, and exhibiting aspect ratios of from 1:5 to 1:100. The altitude relationship between cloud top and bottom boundaries and the optical center of the cloud is influenced by the type of formation observed. Cirrus morphology and generation processes appear to be related to the wind field. The high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) was adapted to the task of cirrus cloud optical property measurement. The HSRL data reported were collected with the CuCl2 transmitter producing 50 mW of output power, achieving eye safe, direct optical depth and backscatter cross section measurements with 10 minute averaging times

Predictors of Health Promoting Lifestyles in Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Background: Nurses comprise the largest segment of healthcare professionals. As nursing students become health professionals, they will have a significant role in modeling health promoting lifestyles and educating patients regarding healthy lifestyle choices. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the predictors of health promoting lifestyles in baccalaureate nursing students. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional design was used to determine associations between variables including gender, age, basic metabolic index (BMI), financial need, race, ethnicity, relationship status, living situation, general health status, self-reported depressive symptoms, social support, academic outcomes, self-efficacy, and heath promoting lifestyles. A convenience sample of participants from baccalaureate colleges in the mid-west completed a demographic questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory II, the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-College Version, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile, II to determine predictors of health promoting lifestyle. Results:\u3c Discussion: The paucity of research regarding health-promoting lifestyles of future nursing professionals is of particular interest given the national policy initiatives concerning healthcare reform. The predictive model that met criteria for goodness of fit and significance of parameters found direct and indirect relationships between the parameters and health promoting lifestyles. Of particular interest is the finding that self-efficacy is a mediating variable between social support and health promoting lifestyles in the baccalaureate nursing student population. This finding contributes new knowledge, identifying this significant relationship that is not demonstrated on Pender\u27s health promotion model. Knowledge regarding predictors of health promoting lifestyles for nursing students will facilitate future intervention studies that will target strategies of significance for baccalaureate nursing students

The Eye of the Needle

Elsewhere in this volume, Pates and Wichter (chapter1) trace the birth and development of the needle and syringe and the first medical and recreational experiences with this technical innovation—famous and infamous at once, because of its association with both the global eradication and diffusion of life-threatening infectious diseases. Recreational or non-medical drug injecting remained a primarily western phenomenon until late into the 20th century. But globalization and global drug prohibition have resulted in the world-wide diffusion of drug injection, most strikingly into drug production areas and adjacent sub-regions, where traditionally milder preparations of the same alkaloids (or their precursors) were being consumed through less hazardous modes of administration

From the Straw to the Needle?

The central focus of this article is the spread of heroin smoking in the Netherlands. Globally, injecting heroin users are outnumbered by those who ingest this drug by method of smoking or, more correctly, inhalation. It is argued that heroin adminstration patterns are determined by an interaction of primarily economic and socio-cultural factors, which are moderated by drug policy and enforcement. A theoretical diffusion model of the spread of this social phenomena is developed utilizing data from the Netherlands. Utilizing the concept of diffusion, other large scale transitions in route of administration of opiates that have occurred in the USA and in England will briefly be discussed. The article concludes with an assessment of future developments

Drug use as a social ritual

This dissertation brings together results of my NWO-funded ethnography --into the drug taking rituals of regular users of heroin, cocaine and other psychoactive substances--, resulting studies and some twenty years of puzzlement and subsequent pondering. The NWO study was initiated in the former Erasmus University Institute for Preventive and Social Psychiatry (IPSP) by professor Charles D. Kaplan and the late institute director professor Kees Trimbos. The work was completed within the walls of the new-born lnstituut voor Verslavingsonderzoek (IVO), Addiction Research Institute, and the safety of my home. The assumed failure of users of illicit drugs to conform with common standards of socially appropriate conduct is directly associated with the use of a substance which supposedly renders them powerless. This image is not only part of popular wisdom, but, in different forms also recognized in several scientific theories.' Many theories emphasize the powerful pharmacological properties of psychoactive drugs. others relate (problematic) substance use to f.e. deficient personality structures, ego problems, impaired psychological development, acute distress or psychiatric problems. Again other theories associate drug use with environmental deficits, such as poverty. All of these factors may, indeed, explain part of the phenomenon, but the frequent emphasis on only one aspect, be it a pharmacological, psychological or social factor, is in my opinion erroneous. Until now, none of these schools has produced specific correlations between cause and effect. A number of recent studies have questioned these (rather) mono-causal explanations and emphasized the multi· dimensionality of drug taking behaviors

Lidar cloud studies for FIRE and ECLIPS

Optical remote sensing measurements of cirrus cloud properties were collected by one airborne and four ground-based lidar systems over a 32 h period during this case study from the First ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program) Regional Experiment (FIRE) Intensive Field Observation (IFO) program. The lidar systems were variously equipped to collect linear depolarization, intrinsically calibrated backscatter, and Doppler velocity information. Data presented describe the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of cirrus clouds over an area encompassing southern and central Wisconsin. The cirrus cloud types include: dissipating subvisual and thin fibrous cirrus cloud bands, an isolated mesoscale uncinus complex (MUC), a large-scale deep cloud that developed into an organized cirrus structure within the lidar array, and a series of intensifying mesoscale cirrus cloud masses. Although the cirrus frequently developed in the vertical from particle fall-streaks emanating from generating regions at or near cloud tops, glaciating supercooled (-30 to -35 C) altocumulus clouds contributed to the production of ice mass at the base of the deep cirrus cloud, apparently even through riming, and other mechanisms involving evaporation, wave motions, and radiative effects are indicated. The generating regions ranged in scale from approximately 1.0 km cirrus uncinus cells, to organized MUC structures up to approximately 120 km across

Coffee Shops and Compromise

Building on a long history and culture of tolerance, the Dutch responded to illicit drugs with decades of pragmatic measures free of judgment. A central element of modern Dutch drug policy was a crucial decision to establish a legal and practical separation of cannabis— judged to pose “acceptable” risks to consumers and society—from hard drugs associated with unacceptable risk. This policy effectively decriminalized possession and use of cannabis and opened the door for tolerated outlets for small-scale cannabis sales that eventually took the form of the well-known Dutch “coffee shops.” By all measures, the coffee shops suc- ceeded in enabling cannabis consumers to avoid exposure to hard drug scenes and markets. Dutch cannabis consumers have also been spared the profound costs of carrying a criminal record, and the public has not had to bear the cost of incarceration for minor offenses. Drug policy in the Netherlands was characterized by a pragmatic bottom up development in which policies developed through trial and error at a local level often initiated by local officials in consultation with representatives from civil society who were supported by national policy makers. With respect to heroin and other hard drugs, the Dutch government at national and municipal level put a premium on reduction of individual and social harm. This commit- ment has been reflected in the government’s investment in comprehensive health and social services. Low-threshold methadone and safe consumption rooms as well as needle exchange programs proliferated earlier and with higher coverage than in most of Europe. Even before these services were established, however, tolerance for sale and consumption of illicit hard drugs in designated “house addresses” greatly reduced the dangers of an open drug scene, including exposure to uncontrolled criminal elements. It also contributed to a preference for drug consumption not involving injection. The Netherlands was spared the major drug- linked HIV epidemic that devastated drug users and their families in other European coun- tries. An important element of this success, at times, was not only pragmatic national policy but also the degree of autonomy that municipal officials had to exercise of practices that did not conform to the letter of the law. None of this was without its challenges. For example, while the coffee shops provided a venue for safe and controlled consumption of cannabis without exposing consumers to harmful hard drug scenes, successive governments have not successfully addressed the so- called back door problem—coffee shops being supplied with cannabis by an illegal market. While there were instances of popular support for the complete legalization or government regulation of the cannabis market, which would address this problem, there were always political challenges to securing such a policy. Though confidently preserving the core of their policy and continuing to focus on reduction of individual and social drug-related harm, suc- cessive Dutch governments have felt international pressure to not “step over the line” into areas such as legalization and regulation of drugs. In addition, attempts to address drug tourism by making coffee shops exclusive Dutch-only clubs seem to create more problems than they solve, evoking opposition from proprietors, patrons, civil society, legal experts and city mayors alike. Nevertheless, some municipalities continue to complain of drug tourism while enjoying the substantial revenue generated by coffee shops. This report is an in-depth analysis of the politics and the practicalities that enabled or led the Dutch authorities at national and local levels to make the drug policy decisions that have shaped the lives of people who use or are otherwise affected by drugs in the Neth- erlands. It is the authors’ hope that it will be of use to those outside the Netherlands, in government and civil society, who seek drug policy solutions that are respectful of human rights and based strongly in science and good public health practice. If there is one lesson to take away from the Dutch experience, it is that when taking steps toward regulating cannabis or other psychoactive substances meant for human consumption, these should include the entire chain of supply, from production to consumption

Interpretation of cirrus cloud properties using coincident satellite and lidar data during the FIRE cirrus IFO

The First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Cirrus Intensive Field Observations (IFO) provide an opportunity to examine the relationships between the satellite observed radiances and various parameters which describe the bulk properties of clouds, such as cloud amount and cloud top height. Lidar derived cloud altitude data, radiosonde data, and satellite observed radiances are used to examine the relationships between visible reflectance, infrared emittance, and cloud top temperatures for cirrus clouds

The 27-28 October 1986 FIRE IFO cirrus case study: Cirrus parameter relationships derived from satellite and lidar data

Cirrus cloud radiative and physical characteristics are determined using a combination of ground-based, aircraft, and satellite measurements taken as part of the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE) Cirrus Intensive Field Observations (IFO) during October and November 1986. Lidar backscatter data are used to define cloud base, center, and top heights and the corresponding temperatures. Coincident GOES 4 km visible (0.65 microns) and 8 km infrared window (11.5 microns) radiances are analyzed to determine cloud emittances and reflectances. Infrared optical depth is computed from the emittance results. Visible optical depth is derived from reflectance using a theoretical ice crystal scattering model and an empirical bidirectional reflectance mode. No clouds with visible optical depths greater than 5 or infrared optical depths less than 0.1 were used in the analysis. Average cloud thickness ranged from 0.5 km to 8 km for the 71 scenes. An average visible scattering efficiency of 2.1 was found for this data set. The results reveal a significant dependence of scattering efficiency on cloud temperature