Causality of the drought in the southwestern United States based on observations

Slow feature analysis is used to extract driving forces from the monthly mean anomaly time series of the precipitation in the southwestern United States (1895-2015). Four major spectral scales pass the 95% confidence test after wavelet analysis of the derived driving forces. Further harmonic analysis indicates that only two fundamental frequencies are dominant in the spectral domain. The frequencies represent the influence of the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and solar activity on the precipitation from the southwestern United States. In addition, solar activity has exerted a greater effect than the PDO on the precipitation in the southwestern United States over the past 120 years. By comparing the trend of droughts with the two fundamental frequencies, it is found that both the droughts in the 1900s and in the twenty-first century were affected by the PDO and solar activity, whereas the droughts from the 1950s to the 1970s were mainly affected by solar activity

Performance of MAX-DOAS measurements of aerosols at Tsukuba, Japan: a comparison with lidar and sky radiometer measurements

International audienceGround-based Multi-Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) measurements were performed at Tsukuba, Japan (36.1° N, 140.1° E), in November?December 2006. The measured spectra of scattered sunlight are analyzed by DOAS and optimal estimation methods to retrieve the aerosol optical depth (?) and the vertical profile of the aerosol extinction coefficient (?) at 476 nm in the lower troposphere. We characterize these retrieved quantities through comparisons with coincident lidar and sky radiometer measurements. The retrieved ? values for layers of 0?1 and 1?2 km agree with lidar data to within 30% and 60%, respectively, for most cases, including partly cloudy conditions. Results similar to ? at 0?1 km are obtained for the retrieved ? values, demonstrating that MAX-DOAS provides the new, unique aerosol dataset in the lower troposphere

Outside interference or Hong Kong embracing its unique identity? : The Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival

Ongoing clashes between Hong Kong citizens and its government have foregrounded questions about outside interference in Hong Kong’s politics (largely from the government and media of People’s Public of China), as well as debate about what institutions in Hong Kong are neo-colonial, heavily inflected with nostalgia for British colonialism, or in the process of being ‘colonised’ by the People’s Republic of China. This article looks at Shakespeare in Hong Kong (and, to some extent, greater Chinese) theatre and education as one of those contested institutions, using the particular case of the now-defunct Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival. The author probes their initial, surface impression of the festival as a simple outpouring of colonial sentiment and impulse, using its sizeable archives to realise a reading of the institution that highlights the complexities of international and intra-regional politics, culture and identity in Hong Kong and greater China. It builds on the Hong Kong literary critic Michael Ingham’s call for attention to Hong Kong’s quest – sometimes overt (as in the demonstrations of 2019), sometimes implicit (in the body of literature Ingham explores in his cultural and literary history) – for a unique, post-colonial identity that is inspired – but, critically, not confined – by its Chinese and British histories. The article briefly outlines the origins and set-up of the festival before juxtaposing the dominance of English language and culture in it with the opportunities it presents (seized by several teams) for intra-regional cooperation, competition and sharing diverse, greater Chinese cultures. The article offers a model for critically appraising other institutions and cultural products in Hong Kong in ways that resist easy binaries of British or Chinese, colonial or indigenous

800-km long N-S spreading system of the North Fiji Basin

International audienc

Application of PDT for Uterine Cervical Cancer

We have been performing PDT using Excimer Dye Laser (EDL) or YAG-OPO laser, a type of low power laser, both of which have a considerably higher degree of tissue penetration even when compared to PDT using Argon Dye Laser (ADL)