The Role of Clouds: An Introduction and Rapporteur Report

This paper presents an overview of discussions during the Cloud s Role session at the Observing and Modelling Earth s Energy Flows Workshop. N. Loeb and B. Soden convened this session including 10 presentations by B. Stevens, B. Wielicki, G. Stephens, A. Clement, K. Sassen, D. Hartmann, T. Andrews, A. Del Genio, H. Barker, and M. Sugi addressing critical aspects of the role of clouds in modulating Earth energy flows. Presentation topics covered a diverse range of areas from cloud microphysics and dynamics, cloud radiative transfer, and the role of clouds in large-scale atmospheric circulations patterns in both observations and atmospheric models. The presentations and discussions, summarized below, are organized around several key questions raised during the session. (1) What is the best way to evaluate clouds in climate models? (2) How well do models need to represent clouds to be acceptable for making climate predictions? (3) What are the largest uncertainties in clouds? (4) How can these uncertainties be reduced? (5) What new observations are needed to address these problems? Answers to these critical questions are the topics of ongoing research and will guide the future direction of this area of research

Teaching with student response systems (SRS): teacher-centric aspects that can negatively affect students’ experience of using SRS

In this article, we describe and discuss the most significant teacher-centric aspects of student response systems (SRS) that we have found to negatively affect students’ experience of using SRS in lecture settings. By doing so, we hope to increase teachers’ awareness of how they use SRS and how seemingly trivial choices or aspects when using SRS can have a significant negative impact on students’ experiences, especially when these aspects are often repeated. We cover areas such as consistency when using SRS, time usage, preparation, the experience level of the teachers with regard to SRS, teacher commitment and attitudes, teacher explanations, and how students fear that voting results can mislead the teacher. The data are based on 3 years of experience in developing and using an online SRS in classroom lectures, and they consist of focused (semistructured) student group interviews, student surveys and personal observations

On the Capital Structure of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

Much of the literature on capital structure excludes Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) due mainly to the unique regulatory environment of these firms. As such, the issue of how REITs choose among different financing options when they raise external capital is largely unexplored. In this paper, we explore two issues on the capital structure of REITs: is there a relationship between market-to-book and leverage ratios, and, is the relationship between market-to-book and leverage ratio temporary or persistent. Our results suggest that REITs with historically high market-to-book ratio tend to have persistently high leverage ratio. In essence, REITs with high growth opportunity and high market valuation raise funds through debt issues. This finding, which is robust to various specifications and econometric tests, is contrary to the financing decisions of non-regulated firms. We attribute it to the special regulatory environment of REITs where, despite no apparent benefits to debt financing, management issues debt. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007Capital structure, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), External capital, Market-to-book, Leverage ratio,

Modelling and management of a Mediterranean karstic coastal aquifer under the effects of seawater intrusion and climate change

The study and management of the groundwater resources of a large, deep, coastal, karstic aquifer represent a very complex hydrogeological problem. Here, this problem is successfully approached by using an equivalent porous continuous medium (EPCM) to represent a karstic Apulian aquifer (southern Italy). This aquifer, which is located on a peninsula and extends to hundreds of metres depth, is the sole local source of high-quality water resources. These resources are at risk due to overexploitation, climate change and seawater intrusion. The model was based on MODFLOW and SEAWAT codes. Piezometric and salinity variations from 1930 to 2060 were simulated under three past scenarios (up to 1999) and three future scenarios that consider climate change, different types of discharge, and changes in sea level and salinity. The model was validated using surveyed piezometric and salinity data. An evident piezometric drop was confirmed for the past period (until 1999); a similar dramatic drop appears to be likely in the future. The lateral intrusion and upconing effects of seawater intrusion were non-negligible in the past and will be considerable in the future. All phenomena considered here, including sea level and sea salinity, showed non-negligible effects on coastal groundwater.Published115-1285A. Energia e georisorseJCR Journalembargoed_2016050