Projected changes in Australian fire regimes during the 21st century and consequences for ecosystems

Climate projections show Australia becoming significantly warmer during the 21st century, while precipitation decreases over much of the continent. Such changes are generally considered to increase wildfire risk. Nevertheless, using a process-based model of vegetation dynamics and vegetation–fire interactions, we show that while burnt area increases in southern and central Australia, it decreases in northern Australia. Overall the projected increase in fire by the end of the 21st century is small (0.7–1.3% of land area equivalent to 12–24% of current burnt area, depending on the climate scenario). The direct effects of increasing CO2 on vegetation productivity and water-use efficiency influence simulated fire regimes: CO2 effects tend to increase burnt area in arid regions, but increase vegetation density and reduce burnt area in forested regions. Increases in fire promotes a shift to more fire-adapted trees in wooded areas and their encroachment into grasslands, with an overall increase in forested area of 3.9–11.9% of land area by the end of the century. The decrease in fire in northern Australia leads to an increase in tree cover (ca 20%) and an expansion of tropical forest. Thus, although the overall change in burnt area is small it has noticeable consequences for vegetation patterns across the continent

IVOA Recommendation: Simple Image Access Specification Version 1.0

This specification defines a protocol for retrieving image data from a variety of astronomical image repositories through a uniform interface. The interface is meant to be reasonably simple to implement by service providers. A query defining a rectangular region on the sky is used to query for candidate images. The service returns a list of candidate images formatted as a VOTable. For each candidate image an access reference URL may be used to retrieve the image. Images may be returned in a variety of formats including FITS and various graphics formats. Referenced images are often computed on the fly, e.g., as cutouts from larger images

Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration - 3 (ATD-3): Operational Concept for the Integration of ATD-3 Capabilities Version 1.0

ATD-3 has developed four capabilities to address its goal and objectives. The four ATD-3 capabilities include: Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR), Multi-Flight Common Routes (MFCR), Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR), and Dynamic Routes for Arrivals in Weather (DRAW). This document describes the long-term, mature vision for the use and incorporation of the ATD-3 capabilities into the National Airspace System (NAS). This vision describes their complementary interaction and the benefit capture that accrues from use. Recognizing that all capabilities are unlikely to be implemented in unison, each of the capabilities is designed and able to be implemented independently. As discrete portions of the integrated capabilities are planned, additional integration efforts should be undertaken to validate the complementary interactions and benefit pool are realized from the selected subset

KSFNM: Faculty Chamber Players, Soldier\u27s and Devil\u27s Tales

This special performance of the 2017 Kennesaw State Festival of New Music (KSFNM) features KSU faculty performing Igor Stravinsky\u27s L\u27Histoire du soldat (The Soldier\u27s Tale) followed by The Devil\u27s Tale, James M. Stephenson\u27s sequel to Stravinsky\u27s esteemed work.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1878/thumbnail.jp

Atmospheric CO2 Column Measurements with an Airborne Intensity-Modulated Continuous-Wave 1.57-micron Fiber Laser Lidar

The 2007 National Research Council (NRC) Decadal Survey on Earth Science and Applications from Space recommended Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) as a mid-term, Tier II, NASA space mission. ITT Exelis, formerly ITT Corp., and NASA Langley Research Center have been working together since 2004 to develop and demonstrate a prototype Laser Absorption Spectrometer for making high-precision, column CO2 mixing ratio measurements needed for the ASCENDS mission. This instrument, called the Multifunctional Fiber Laser Lidar (MFLL), operates in an intensity-modulated, continuous-wave mode in the 1.57- micron CO2 absorption band. Flight experiments have been conducted with the MFLL on a Lear-25, UC-12, and DC-8 aircraft over a variety of different surfaces and under a wide range of atmospheric conditions. Very high-precision CO2 column measurements resulting from high signal-to-noise (great than 1300) column optical depth measurements for a 10-s (approximately 1 km) averaging interval have been achieved. In situ measurements of atmospheric CO2 profiles were used to derive the expected CO2 column values, and when compared to the MFLL measurements over desert and vegetated surfaces, the MFLL measurements were found to agree with the in situ-derived CO2 columns to within an average of 0.17% or approximately 0.65 ppmv with a standard deviation of 0.44% or approximately 1.7 ppmv. Initial results demonstrating ranging capability using a swept modulation technique are also presented

Right care, right time, right place: improving outcomes for people with spinal cord injury through early access to intervention and improved access to specialised care: study protocol

Background: Traumatic spinal cord injury is a devastating condition impacting adversely on the health and wellbeing, functioning and independence, social participation and quality of life of the injured person. In Australia, there are approximately 15 new cases per million population per year; economic burden estimates suggest 2 billion dollars annually. For optimal patient outcomes expert consensus recommends expeditious transfer (“24 hours) in a Spinal Cord Injury Unit. Examining current health service and clinical intervention pathways in this Australian population-based sample, in relation to their outcomes, will provide an understanding of factors associated with patient flow, resource utilisation and cost, and patient and family quality of life. Barriers to streamlined effective early-care pathways and facilitators of optimal treatment for these patients will be identified

Meteorological training for the digital age: A Blueprint for a new curriculum

Almost all professional meteorologists take part in meteorological training during their undergraduate or graduate study or professional job training in the public or private sector. Increased benefits can be accrued by employers and employees, if this training is based on the same underpinning skills and attributes, aimed to equip people entering meteorology for the wide range of future roles they might undertake. While there is a great deal of excellent, innovative practice in our community, the time is now right to look again at the nature of the meteorological curriculum. Meteorology faces significant challenges in the 21st century to deal with the twin challenges of increases in the number and severity of extreme weather events and the increased complexity of forecasts demanded by end-users. Here, a blueprint which describes a number of key principles which should be used to design, evaluate and enhance curricula for students entering our field in the next 10 years is proposed. The blueprint does not discuss in detail the core mathematical and physical principles which underlie any high quality training in meteorology but rather focuses on the key skills and attributes needed to make the next-generation of meteorologists innovative and effective which include: • Meteorological competencies, • Personal and inter-personal attributes, • Core skills as a scientist and • Ethical and professional interaction with broader society. The blueprint is intended to encourage debate about how we equip new meteorologists for the digital age. We plan to use these principles to review and enhance our own curricula in the near future