Can we detect changes in high-latitude soil respiration over decadal time scales?

Soil respiration (RS), the soil surface CO~2~ flux, is the second-largest terrestrial carbon flux, but because of its high variability and the inaccessibility of the soil medium it remains one of the least well-constrained parts of the terrestrial carbon cycle. If the carbon stored in high-latitude ecosystems is being mobilized by climate changes (whether by increasing temperature, changing precipitation, altered disturbance regimes, etc.) we may be able to detect RS changes in the now forty-year record of RS chamber measurements. We searched the published literature and found 194 RS observations from 1964 to 2008 at high latitudes, and paired their known measurement locations with a global climate data set spanning the time period. Linear regression was used to examine the effects of various parameters on RS. The data showed a strong temporal trend, with RS measurements increasing ~4%/yr after the effects of mean annual temperature and moisture had been accounted for. Precipitation anomaly (the deviation of precipitation from the mean 1961-1990 value) was positively correlated with RS, while temperature anomaly was, surprisingly, negatively correlated with it. The small size of the data set limits its inferential power; nonetheless, our results suggest that high-latitude RS is changing due to climate and disturbance changes

The Effects of Chronic Migraine And Tension Headache On Neuropsychological Functioning

The present study was designed to examine possible neuropsychological deficits in migraine and tension headache subjects. Past research has been inconclusive, with some studies indicating that chronic migraine headache sufferers do exhibit some neuropsychological deficits such as short-term memory difficulties, gross motor slowing, and verbal memory deficits, while other studies have indicated that no deficits are seen in this group Also examined were headache precipitant and headache-related behaviors that these groups partake in when experiencing headache pain. Past research has suggested that migraine headache sufferers tend to deal with their headache pain differently than tension headache sufferers. Ninety undergraduate psychology students took part in a 1 1/2 hour testing session where they completed a series of questionnaires about their headaches and neuropsychological testing. Analysis of questionnaire data revealed that both tension and migraine headache sufferers consistently attributed their headaches to the same types of precipitants, though they tended to cope with headache pain in different ways. Analysis of neuropsychological data revealed that once the effects of depression had been factored out by ANCOVA, no significant differences between migraine headache sufferers and the other groups existed. In fact, the migraine headache sufferers showed a tendency to perform better than the other groups while experiencing depression. Chisquare revealed a significant number of subjects from all three groups scored in the impaired range on many of the tests, though there were no significant differences between groups in the number of subjects scoring in the impaired range. It remains puzzling as to exactly why this is the case and findings certainly require replication. Future neuropsychological investigations of migraine conducted longitudinally would be helpful in delineating the neuropsychological changes that may or may not occur in migraine headache sufferers

The certification of the absorbed energy (150 J nominal) of charpy V-notch reference test pieces: ERM®-FA415v

This certification report describes the processing and characterisation of ERM®-FA415v, a batch of Charpy V-notch certified reference test pieces certified for the absorbed energy (KV). Sets of five of these test pieces are used for the verification of pendulum impact test machines according to ISO 148-2 (Metallic materials - Charpy pendulum impact test - Part 2: Verification of testing machines). The absorbed energy (KV) is procedurally defined and refers to the impact energy required to break a V-notched test piece of standardised dimensions, as defined in ISO 148-1 [2]. The certified value of ERM®- FA415v is made traceable to the SI, via the SI-traceable certified value of the master batch ERM®-FA415b, by testing samples of ERM®- FA415v and ERM®-FA415b under repeatability conditions on an impact pendulum verified and calibrated with SI-traceably calibrated tools. The certified value is valid only for strikers with a 2 mm tip radius. The certified value is valid at (20 ± 2) °C.JRC.D.2-Standards for Innovation and sustainable Developmen

Forest cover estimation in Ireland using radar remote sensing: a comparative analysis of forest cover assessment methodologies

Quantification of spatial and temporal changes in forest cover is an essential component of forest monitoring programs. Due to its cloud free capability, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an ideal source of information on forest dynamics in countries with near-constant cloud-cover. However, few studies have investigated the use of SAR for forest cover estimation in landscapes with highly sparse and fragmented forest cover. In this study, the potential use of L-band SAR for forest cover estimation in two regions (Longford and Sligo) in Ireland is investigated and compared to forest cover estimates derived from three national (Forestry2010, Prime2, National Forest Inventory), one pan-European (Forest Map 2006) and one global forest cover (Global Forest Change) product. Two machine-learning approaches (Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees) are evaluated. Both Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees classification accuracies were high (98.1–98.5%), with differences between the two classifiers being minimal (<0.5%). Increasing levels of post classification filtering led to a decrease in estimated forest area and an increase in overall accuracy of SAR-derived forest cover maps. All forest cover products were evaluated using an independent validation dataset. For the Longford region, the highest overall accuracy was recorded with the Forestry2010 dataset (97.42%) whereas in Sligo, highest overall accuracy was obtained for the Prime2 dataset (97.43%), although accuracies of SAR-derived forest maps were comparable. Our findings indicate that spaceborne radar could aid inventories in regions with low levels of forest cover in fragmented landscapes. The reduced accuracies observed for the global and pan-continental forest cover maps in comparison to national and SAR-derived forest maps indicate that caution should be exercised when applying these datasets for national reporting

The certification of the absorbed energy (120 J nominal) of Charpy V-notch reference test pieces for tests at 20 °C: ERM®-FA016bg

This certification report describes the processing and characterisation of ERM®-FA016bg, a batch of Charpy V-notch certified reference test pieces certified for the absorbed energy KV (= energy required to break a V-notched test piece using a pendulum impact test machine). Sets of five of these test pieces are used for the verification of pendulum impact test machines according to ISO 148-2 (Metallic materials - Charpy pendulum impact test – Part 2: Verification of testing machines). The absorbed energy (KV) is procedurally defined (or method defined) and refers to the impact energy required to break a V-notched test piece of standardised dimensions, as defined in ISO 148-1. The certified value of ERM®- FA016bg is made traceable to the SI, via the SI-traceable certified value of the master batch ERM®-FA016ax, by testing samples of ERM®- FA016bg and ERM®-FA016ax under repeatability conditions on an impact pendulum verified and calibrated with SI-traceably calibrated tools. The certified value is valid only for strikers with a 2 mm tip radius. The certified value is valid at (20 ± 2) °C.JRC.D.2-Standards for Innovation and sustainable Developmen

Certification of Charpy V-notch Reference Test Pieces of 30 J Nominal Absorbed Energy - Certified Reference Material ERM®-FA013be

This certification report describes the processing and characterisation of ERM®-FA013be, a batch of Charpy V-notch certified reference test pieces. Sets of five of these test pieces are used for the verification of pendulum impact test machines according to EN 10045-2 (Charpy impact test on metallic materials, Part 2. Method for the verification of impact testing machines [1]) or according to ISO 148-2 (Metallic materials - Charpy pendulum impact test - Part 2: Verification of test machines [2]). The certified value for KV (= energy required to break a V-notched test piece using a pendulum impact test machine) is 26.0 J. The associated uncertainty (0.9 J, k = 2 corresponding to a confidence level of about 95 %) is calculated for the mean of a set of five test pieces. The absorbed energy (KV) is procedurally defined and refers to the impact energy required to break a V-notched bar of standardised dimensions, as defined in EN 10045-1 [3] and ISO 148-1 [4]. The certified value of ERM®-FA013be is traceable to the SI, via the SI-traceable certified value of the master batch ERM®-FA013ba, by testing samples of ERM®-FA013ba and ERM®-FA013be under repeatability conditions on an impact pendulum verified and calibrated with SI-traceably calibrated tools. The certified value is valid only for strikers with a 2 mm tip radius. The certified value is valid at (20 ± 2) °C.JRC.DG.D.2-Reference material

The certification of the absorbed energy (150 J nominal) of Charpy V-notch reference test pieces for tests at 20 °C: ERM®-FA415aa

This certification report describes the processing and characterisation of ERM®-FA415aa, a batch of Charpy V-notch certified reference test pieces certified for the absorbed energy (KV) for tests at 20 °C. Sets of five of these test pieces are used for the verification of pendulum impact test machines according to ISO 148-2 (Metallic materials - Charpy pendulum impact test – Part 2: Verification of testing machines). The absorbed energy (KV) is procedurally defined and refers to the impact energy required to break a V-notched test piece of standardised dimensions, as defined in ISO 148-1. The certified value of ERM- FA415aa is traceable to the SI, via the SI-traceable certified value of the master batch ERM-FA415s, by testing samples of ERM-FA415aa and ERM-FA415s under repeatability conditions on an impact pendulum verified and calibrated with SI-traceably calibrated tools. The certified value is valid only for strikers with a 2 mm tip radius. The certified values are valid at (20 ± 2) °C.JRC.D.2-Standards for Innovation and sustainable Developmen