Determining how atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have changed during the history of the Earth

The reconstruction of ancient atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is essential to understanding the history of the Earth and life. It is also an important guide to identifying the sensitivity of the Earth system to this greenhouse gas and, therefore, constraining its future impact on climate. However, determining the concentration of CO2 in ancient atmospheres is a challenging endeavour requiring the application of state-of-the-art analytical chemistry to geological materials, underpinned by an understanding of photosynthesis and biochemistry. It is truly an interdisciplinary challenge

An interdisciplinary study to explore impacts from policies for the introduction of low carbon vehicles

Driven by concerns of climate change, governments across the world are introducing a number of policies to accelerate the uptake of low carbon vehicles (LCVs), with a specific focus on electric motors. However, there is uncertainty in the effectiveness of such policies and technology pathways, which are inherently interlinked. This article considers the short-term situation to 2020 and focuses on the concern that these policies may bring about some disproportionate impacts in society due to changes in mobility. An ethical framework is established that seeks to balance obligations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and rights to car ownership, then selected policies are modelled within this framework to assess acceptability of implementation. Although these policies are successful in introducing LCVs and reducing GHG emissions, findings also indicate uneven cost burdens and reduced affordability of car ownership. Following this, recommendations for policy amendments and model improvements are made

Validity, reliability, acceptability, and utility of the Social Inclusion Questionnaire User Experience (SInQUE): a clinical tool to facilitate social inclusion amongst people with severe mental health problems.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with severe mental health problems are at risk of social exclusion, which may complicate their recovery. Mental health and social care staff have, until now, had no valid or reliable way of assessing their clients' social inclusion. The Social Inclusion Questionnaire User Experience (SInQUE) was developed to address this. It assesses five domains: social integration; productivity; consumption; access to services; and political engagement, in the year prior to first psychiatric admission (T1) and the year prior to interview (T2) from which a total score at each time point can be calculated. AIMS: To establish the validity, reliability, and acceptability of the SInQUE in individuals with a broad range of psychiatric diagnoses receiving care from community mental health services and its utility for mental health staff. METHOD: Participants were 192 mental health service users with psychosis, personality disorder, or common mental disorder (e.g., depression, anxiety) who completed the SInQUE alongside other validated outcome measures. Test-retest reliability was assessed in a sub-sample of 30 participants and inter-rater reliability was assessed in 11 participants. SInQUE ratings of 28 participants were compared with those of a sibling with no experience of mental illness to account for shared socio-cultural factors. Acceptability and utility of the tool were assessed using completion rates and focus groups with staff. RESULTS: The SInQUE demonstrated acceptable convergent validity. The total score and the Social Integration domain score were strongly correlated with quality of life, both in the full sample and in the three diagnostic groups. Discriminant validity and test-retest reliability were established across all domains, although the test-retest reliability on scores for the Service Access and Political Engagement domains prior to first admission to hospital (T1) was lower than other domains. Inter-rater reliability was excellent for all domains at T1 and T2. CONCLUSIONS: The component of the SInQUE that assesses current social inclusion has good psychometric properties and can be recommended for use by mental health staff

Spatial Relationship between Solar Flares and Coronal Mass Ejections

We report on the spatial relationship between solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed during 1996-2005 inclusive. We identified 496 flare-CME pairs considering limb flares (distance from central meridian > 45 deg) with soft X-ray flare size > C3 level. The CMEs were detected by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). We investigated the flare positions with respect to the CME span for the events with X-class, M-class, and C-class flares separately. It is found that the most frequent flare site is at the center of the CME span for all the three classes, but that frequency is different for the different classes. Many X-class flares often lie at the center of the associated CME, while C-class flares widely spread to the outside of the CME span. The former is different from previous studies, which concluded that no preferred flare site exists. We compared our result with the previous studies and conclude that the long-term LASCO observation enabled us to obtain the detailed spatial relation between flares and CMEs. Our finding calls for a closer flare-CME relationship and supports eruption models typified by the CSHKP magnetic reconnection model.Comment: 7 pages; 4 figures; Accepted by the Astrophysical Journa

Fermi Surface of Cr1−x_{1-x}Vx_x across the Quantum Critical Point

We have measured de Haas-van Alphen oscillations of Cr$_{1-x}$V$_x$, $0 \le x \le 0.05$, at high fields for samples on both sides of the quantum critical point at $x_c=0.035$. For all samples we observe only those oscillations associated with a single small hole band with magnetic breakdown orbits of the reconstructed Fermi surface evident for $x<x_c$. The absence of oscillations from Fermi surface sheets most responsible for the spin density wave (SDW) in Cr for $x>x_c$ is further evidence for strong fluctuation scattering of these charge carriers well into the paramagnetic regime. We find no significant mass enhancement of the carriers in the single observed band at any $x$. An anomalous field dependence of the dHvA signal for our $x=0.035$ crystal at particular orientations of the magnetic field is identified as due to magnetic breakdown that we speculate results from a field induced SDW transition at high fields.Comment: 8 pages with 7 figure