Data sources for rescuing the rich heritage of Mediterranean historical surface climate data

10.1002/gdj3.4Availability of long-term and high-quality instrumental climate records is still insufficient and the rich heritage of meteorological surface observations is largely underexploited in many parts of the world. This is particularly striking over the Greater Mediterranean region (GMR), where meteorological observations have been taken since the 18th century at some locations. The lack of high quality and long series here is despite this region being regarded as a climate change hot spot. This article mainly assesses relevant sources containing Mediterranean historical climate data and metadata either from online repositories worldwide or physical archives, with the emphasis here on the rich holdings kept at French archives. A particular case study is the data rescue (DARE) program undertaken by the Algerian National Meteorological Service, as well as some of the past and ongoing projects and initiatives aimed at enhancing climate data availability and accessibility over the GMR. Our findings point to the high potential for undertaking DARE activities over the GMR and the need for bringing longer and higher quality climate time series to support a diverse number of scientific and technical assessments and policies

Coherent Pion Radiation From Nucleon Antinucleon Annihilation

A unified picture of nucleon antinucleon annihilation into pions emerges from a classical description of the pion wave produced in annihilation and the subsequent quantization of that wave as a coherent state. When the constraints of energy-momentum and iso-spin conservation are imposed on the coherent state, the pion number distribution and charge ratios are found to be in excellent agreement with experiment.Comment: LaTex, 8 text pages, 1 PostScript figure, PSI-PR-93-2

Placebos in der Psychotherapieforschung – eine systematische Analyse am Beispiel der systematischen Desensibilisierung

Hintergrund: Die Voraussetzungen der randomisierten, Placebo-kontrollierten Evaluation - die Ununterscheidbarkeit der Therapiebedingungen für die Patienten und die Verblindung der Therapeuten - sind in der Psychotherapieforschung nicht uneingeschränkt gegeben. Das Ziel dieser qualitativen systematischen Übersichtsarbeit ist es, am Beispiel der systematischen Desensibilisierung (SD) die Vorgehensweisen zur Bestimmung der Behandlungsspezifität zu beschreiben und deren theoretische und praktische Implikationen zu diskutieren. Methodik: Auf der Basis einer systematischen Literaturrecherche in PsycINFO und PubMed für den Zeitraum von 1976-2015 wurden Psychotherapiestudien gesucht, in denen Patienten mit Angstsymptomen einer SD- oder Placebo-Gruppe zugewiesen und verglichen wurden. Nach Extraktion der gewählten Moderator-Variablen konnten 11 Studien eingeschlossen werden. Ergebnisse: Die Ergebnisse zu den spezifischen Effekten der SD waren nicht einheitlich. Eine durchgeführte Moderator-Analyse zeigte, dass der Nachweis spezifischer Effekte von der Glaubwürdigkeit des Placebos und dem dabei erlebten Ausmaß emotionaler Erfahrungen abhängig ist. Schlussfolgerung: Ob ein bestimmtes psychotherapeutisches Verfahren als spezifisch einzustufen ist, hängt von der Operationalisierung der Placebo-Kontrolle ab. Insbesondere bei SD scheint die Einschränkung des zu bearbeitenden Themas und in der Folge die Unterbindung der emotionalen Erfahrung des Patienten innerhalb der Kontrollbedingung eine Voraussetzung dafür zu sein, spezifische Effekte der SD zu finden

Effects of aeration and mineral supply on growth and mineral content of shoots and roots of apple trees (var. 'Golden Delicious' on M.IX).

One- or 2-year-old Golden Delicious apple trees on M.IX were grown either in a clay loam (in 60-1 containers) or in nutrient solution and the effects were studied of several aeration regimes. With the soil-grown trees these comprised flooding to various soil depths and for different times. With the trees grown in nutrient solution the aeration regimes compared were nutrient solution without aeration, tap water with or without aeration, and aerated nutrient solution (control). Shoot growth was depressed by high water tables, and that of trees receiving non-aerated nutrient solution or tap water (whether aerated or not) ceased after about 2 weeks. The root growth of trees receiving non-aerated nutrient solution or tap water was similarly depressed, but, by contrast, aerated tap water enhanced root growth. Details are given of treatment effects on the Ca, K, N and soluble sugar contents of the young and old leaves and of the young roots. The uptake of all mineral elements was similarly affected by lack of aeration, suggesting that the relationship between low Ca content and increased bitter pit incidence is not associated with differential absorption but rather with differential Ca distribution. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission