What The World Can Learn From Sri Lanka's Post-tsunami Experiences

When the tsunami devastated communities along two-thirds of Sri Lanka's coast at the end of 2004, the national community rallied impressively and, for a brief period, there was an opportunity to turn a fragile "ceasefire" agreement into an enduring peace settlement. That opportunity was wasted and underlying weaknesses in governance have bedevilled the recovery process. The world must learn from Sri Lanka's difficult experience

The Life Cycle of Northern Hemisphere Downward Wave Coupling between the Stratosphere and Troposphere

The life cycle of Northern Hemisphere downward wave coupling between the stratosphere and troposphere via wave reflection is analyzed. Downward wave coupling events are defined by extreme negative values of a wave coupling index based on the leading principal component of the daily wave-1 heat flux at 30 hPa. The life cycle occurs over a 28-day period. In the stratosphere there is a transition from positive to negative total wave-1 heat flux and westward to eastward phase tilt with height of the wave-1 geopotential height field. In addition, the zonal-mean zonal wind in the upper stratosphere weakens leading to negative vertical shear. Following the evolution in the stratosphere there is a shift toward the positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in the troposphere. The pattern develops from a large westward-propagating wave-1 anomaly in the high-latitude North Atlantic sector. The subsequent equatorward propagation leads to a positive anomaly in midlatitudes. The near-surface temperature and circulation anomalies are consistent with a positive NAO phase. The results suggest that wave reflection events can directly influence tropospheric weather. Finally, winter seasons dominated by extreme wave coupling and stratospheric vortex events are compared. The largest impacts in the troposphere occur during the extreme negative seasons for both indices, namely seasons with multiple wave reflection events leading to a positive NAO phase or seasons with major sudden stratospheric warmings (weak vortex) leading to a negative NAO phase. The results reveal that the dynamical coupling between the stratosphere and NAO involves distinct dynamical mechanisms that can only be characterized by separate wave coupling and vortex indices

On the Control of the Residual Circulation and Stratospheric Temperatures in the Arctic by Planetary Wave Coupling

It is well established that interannual variability of eddy (meridional) heat flux near the tropopause controls the variability of Arctic lower-stratospheric temperatures during spring via a modification of the strength of the residual circulation. While most studies focus on the role of anomalous heat flux values, here the impact of total (climatology plus anomaly) negative heat flux events on the Arctic stratosphere is investigated. Utilizing the Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) dataset, it is found that total negative heat flux events coincide with a transient reversal of the residual circulation and cooling of the Arctic lower stratosphere. The negative events weaken the seasonally averaged adiabatic warming. The analysis provides a new interpretation of the winters of 1997 and 2011, which are known to have the lowest March Arctic lower-stratospheric temperatures in the satellite era. While most winters involve positive and negative heat flux extremes, the winters of 1997 and 2011 are unique in that they only involved extreme negative events. This behavior contributed to the weakest adiabatic downwelling in the satellite era and suggests a dynamical contribution to the extremely low temperatures during those winters that could not be accounted for by diabatic processes alone. While it is well established that dynamical processes contribute to the occurrence of stratospheric sudden warming events via extreme positive heat flux events, the results show that dynamical processes also contribute to cold winters with subsequent impact on Arctic ozone loss. The results highlight the importance of interpreting stratospheric temperatures in the Arctic in the context of the dynamical regime with which they are associated

Supplement 20, Part 5, Parasite-Subject Catalogue: Parasites: Arthropoda and Miscellaneous Phyla

United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industr

Creating innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises:evaluating the short-term effects of the creative credits pilot

This working paper looks at the short-term impact of the Creative Credits pilot scheme which operated in the Manchester City Region in the North West of England from September 2009 to September 2010, and was funded by NESTA, Manchester City Council, the North West Development Agency, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Creative Credits is a business-to-business (B2B) voucher mechanism designed to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to work innovatively with creative companies. Businesses receive credits worth £4,000, which they must match with at least £1,000, to spend with creative firms on a variety of creative services

Perspectives and limitations of gene expression profiling in rheumatology: new molecular strategies

The deciphering of the sequence of the human genome has raised the expectation of unravelling the specific role of each gene in physiology and pathology. High-throughput technologies for gene expression profiling provide the first practical basis for applying this information. In rheumatology, with its many diseases of unknown pathogenesis and puzzling inflammatory aspects, these advances appear to promise a significant advance towards the identification of leading mechanisms of pathology. Expression patterns reflect the complexity of the molecular processes and are expected to provide the molecular basis for specific diagnosis, therapeutic stratification, long-term monitoring and prognostic evaluation. Identification of the molecular networks will help in the discovery of appropriate drug targets, and permit focusing on the most effective and least toxic compounds. Current limitations in screening technologies, experimental strategies and bioinformatic interpretation will shortly be overcome by the rapid development in this field. However, gene expression profiling, by its nature, will not provide biochemical information on functional activities of proteins and might only in part reflect underlying genetic dysfunction. Genomic and proteomic technologies will therefore be complementary in their scientific and clinical application