4,676 research outputs found
Observations of vertical velocity power spectra with the SOUSY VHF radar
A data set taken with the SOUSY VHF radar from October 28 to November 13, 1981 was used to calculate the power spectrum of the vertical velocities directly from the vertical beam measurements. The spectral slopes for the frequency spectra have been determined out to periods of several days and have been found to have values near -1 in the troposphere and shallower slopes in the lower stratosphere. The value of -1 is in agreement with the value found by Larsen et al. (1985) and Balsley and Carter (1982) in the range from a few minutes to 1 hr
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Coming of age
Copyright at Demos 2011. This work is made available under the terms of the Demos licence.Britainβs ageing population is often described as a demographic time-bomb. As a society we often view ageing as a βproblemβ which must be βmanagedβ β how to cope with the pressure on national health services of growing numbers of older people, the cost of sustaining them with pensions and social care, and the effect on families and housing needs. But ageing is not a policy problem to be solved. Instead it is a normal part of life, which varies according to personal characteristics, experience and outlook, and for many people growing older can be a very positive experience. Drawing on the Mass Observation project, one of the longest-running longitudinal life-writing projects anywhere in the world, Coming of Age grounds public policy in peopleβs real, lived experiences of ageing. It finds that the experience of ageing is changing, so that most people who are now reaching retirement do not identify themselves as old. One-size-fits-all policy approaches that treat older people as if they are all alike are alienating and inappropriate. Instead, older people need inclusive policy approaches that enable them to live their lives on their own terms. To ensure that older people are actively engaged, policy makers should stop emphasising the costs posed by an ageing population and start building on the many positive contributions that older people already make to our society.The Research Support and Development Office
(RSDO) at Brunel University and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC
Soliton-like phenomena in one-dimensional cross-diffusion systems: a predator-prey pursuit and evasion example
We have studied properties of nonlinear waves in a mathematical model of a
predator-prey system with pursuit and evasion. We demonstrate a new type of
propagating wave in this system. The mechanism of propagation of these waves
essentially depends on the ``taxis'', represented by nonlinear
``cross-diffusion'' terms in the mathematical formulation. We have shown that
the dependence of the velocity of wave propagation on the taxis has two
distinct forms, ``parabolic'' and ``linear''. Transition from one form to the
other correlates with changes in the shape of the wave profile. Dependence of
the propagation velocity on diffusion in this system differs from the
square-root dependence typical of reaction-diffusion waves. We demonstrate also
that, for systems with negative and positive taxis, for example, pursuit and
evasion, there typically exists a large region in the parameter space, where
the waves demonstrate quasisoliton interaction: colliding waves can penetrate
through each other, and waves can also reflect from impermeable boundaries.Comment: 15 pages, 18 figures, submitted to Physica
Irish Dairy Farming: Effects of Introducing a Maize Component on Grassland Management Over the Next 50 Years
Typical management of Irish dairy units is based on a low-cost spring-calving strategy with 90% of annual feed derived from grass grown on the farm. Almost 70% of feed is from grazed grass managed by rotational grazing, the remainder is conserved forage and concentrates. The objectives of the work were to examine how the management system has to be modified when part of the dairy unit land is allocated to maize silage instead of grass silage production, and to examine how climate change over the next 50 years will impact on grass and maize management within the production system
Anomalous oxygen isotope effect on the in-plane FIR conductivity of detwinned YBa2Cu3O
We observe an anomalous oxygen isotope effect on the a-axis component of the
far-infrared electronic response of detwinned YBa2Cu3O. For
O a pronounced low-energy electronic mode (LEM) appears around 240
cm. This a-axis LEM exhibits a clear aging effect, after one year it is
shifted to 190 cm. For O we cannot resolve a corresponding a-axis
LEM above 120 cm. We interpret the LEM in terms of a collective
electronic mode that is pinned by `isotopic defects', i.e. by the residual
O in the matrix of O.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
UHF and VHF radar observations of thunderstorms
A study of thunderstorms was made in the Summer of 1985 with the 430-MHz and 50-MHz radars at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Both radars use the 300-meter dish, which gives a beam width of less than 2 degrees even at these long wavelengths. Though the radars are steerable, only vertical beams were used in this experiment. The height resolution was 300 and 150 meters for the UHF and VHF, respectively. Lightning echoes, as well as returns from precipitation and clear-air turbulence were detected with both wavelengths. Large increases in the returned power were found to be coincident with increasing downward vertical velocities at UHF, whereas at VHF the total power returned was relatively constant during the life of a storm. This was attributed to the fact that the VHF is more sensitive to scattering from the turbulence-induced inhomogeneities in the refractive index and less sensitive to scatter from precipitation particles. On occasion, the shape of the Doppler spectra was observed to change with the occurrence of a lightning discharge in the pulse volume. Though the total power and mean reflectivity weighted Doppler velocity changed little during these events, the power is Doppler frequency bins near that corresponding to the updraft did increase substantially within a fraction of a second after a discharge was detected in the beam. This suggests some interaction between precipitation and lightning
Peatlands and the carbon cycle: from local processes to global implications - a synthesis
Peatlands cover only 3% of the Earth's land surface but boreal and subarctic peatlands store about 15-30% of the world's soil carbon ( C) as peat. Despite their potential for large positive feedbacks to the climate system through sequestration and emission of greenhouse gases, peatlands are not explicitly included in global climate models and therefore in predictions of future climate change. In April 2007 a symposium was held in Wageningen, the Netherlands, to advance our understanding of peatland C cycling. This paper synthesizes the main findings of the symposium, focusing on (i) small-scale processes, (ii) C fluxes at the landscape scale, and (iii) peatlands in the context of climate change. The main drivers controlling most are related to some aspects of hydrology. Despite high spatial and annual variability in Net Ecosystem Exchange ( NEE), the differences in cumulative annual NEE are more a function of broad scale geographic location and physical setting than internal factors, suggesting the existence of strong feedbacks. In contrast, trace gas emissions seem mainly controlled by local factors. Key uncertainties remain concerning the existence of perturbation thresholds, the relative strengths of the CO2 and CH4 feedback, the links among peatland surface climate, hydrology, ecosystem structure and function, and trace gas biogeochemistry as well as the similarity of process rates across peatland types and climatic zones. Progress on these research areas can only be realized by stronger co-operation between disciplines that address different spatial and temporal scales
Building professional discourse in emerging markets: Language, context and the challenge of sensemaking
Using ethnographic evidence from the former Soviet republics, this article examines a relatively new and mainly unobserved in the International Business (IB) literature phenomenon of communication disengagement that manifests itself in many emerging markets. We link it to the deficiencies of the local professional business discourse rooted in language limitations reflecting lack of experience with the market economy. This hampers cognitive coherence between foreign and local business entities, adding to the liability of foreignness as certain instances of professional experience fail to find adequate linguistic expression, and complicates cross-cultural adjustments causing multi-national companies (MNCs) financial losses. We contribute to the IB literature by examining cross-border semantic sensemaking through a retrospectively constructed observational study. We argue that a relative inadequacy of the national professional idiom is likely to remain a feature of business environment in post-communist economies for some time and therefore should be factored into business strategies of MNCs. Consequently, we recommend including discursive hazards in the risk evaluation of international projects
Pursuit-evasion predator-prey waves in two spatial dimensions
We consider a spatially distributed population dynamics model with excitable
predator-prey dynamics, where species propagate in space due to their taxis
with respect to each other's gradient in addition to, or instead of, their
diffusive spread. Earlier, we have described new phenomena in this model in one
spatial dimension, not found in analogous systems without taxis: reflecting and
self-splitting waves. Here we identify new phenomena in two spatial dimensions:
unusual patterns of meander of spirals, partial reflection of waves, swelling
wavetips, attachment of free wave ends to wave backs, and as a result, a novel
mechanism of self-supporting complicated spatio-temporal activity, unknown in
reaction-diffusion population models.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Chao
The discontinuous Galerkin method for fractional degenerate convection-diffusion equations
We propose and study discontinuous Galerkin methods for strongly degenerate
convection-diffusion equations perturbed by a fractional diffusion (L\'evy)
operator. We prove various stability estimates along with convergence results
toward properly defined (entropy) solutions of linear and nonlinear equations.
Finally, the qualitative behavior of solutions of such equations are
illustrated through numerical experiments
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