Flood realities, perceptions, and the depth of divisions on climate

Research has led to broad agreement among scientists that anthropogenic climate change is happening now and likely to worsen. In contrast to scientific agreement, US public views remain deeply divided, largely along ideological lines. Science communication has been neutralised in some arenas by intense counter-messaging, but as adverse climate impacts become manifest they might intervene more persuasively in local perceptions. We look for evidence of this occurring with regard to realities and perceptions of flooding in the northeastern US state of New Hampshire. Although precipitation and flood damage have increased, with ample news coverage, most residents do not see a trend. Nor do perceptions about past and future local flooding correlate with regional impacts or vulnerability. Instead, such perceptions follow ideological patterns resembling those of global climate change. That information about the physical world can be substantially filtered by ideology is a common finding from sociological environment/society research

Ventilation coefficient trends in the recent decades over four major Indian metropolitan cities

Thirty years radiosonde data (1971-2000) at 00 UTC for winter months over four major Indian metros, viz., Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai is analysed to study the trends and long term variations in ventilation coefficients and the consequences on the air quality due to these variations in the four metros. A decreasing trend in ventilation coefficient is observed in all the four metros during the 30 years period indicating increasing pollution potential and a degradation in the air quality over these urban centers. In Delhi, the ventilation coefficient decreased at the rate of 49 and 32 m2/s/year in the months of December and February, respectively during the 30-year period. In Mumbai, the average decrease in ventilation coefficient in winter months is about 15 m2/s/year whereas for Kolkata it is 14 and 17 m2/s/year in December and February, respectively. A decreasing trend in ventilation coefficient is observed in Chennai too although it is not significant. The decreasing ventilation coefficient increased the ground level pollution thereby deteriorating the air quality for the urban population. For Mumbai and Kolkata, decreasing mixing depths and decreasing wind speed contributed to the decreasing ventilation coefficient whereas for Delhi and Chennai decreasing wind speed was responsible for the decrease in ventilation coefficient. Further, the pollution potential was much higher in Delhi which is an inland station as compared to Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai which are coastal stations under the influence of marine environment. Compared to Delhi, the pollution potential over these three metros was lower as the prevailing sea-breeze helped in the dispersal of pollutants thereby reducing their ground level concentration

Respiratory distress in a newborn

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Prevalence of drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems in cerebral palsy across the lifespan: a systematic review and meta‐analyses

Aim: To determine the prevalence of drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems in persons with cerebral palsy (CP) across the lifespan. Method: A systematic review was conducted using five different databases (AMED, CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, and PubMed). The selection process was completed by two independent researchers and the methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the STROBE and AXIS guidelines. Meta-analyses were conducted to determine pooled prevalence estimates of drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems with stratified group analyses by type of assessment and Gross Motor Function Classification System level. Results: A total of 42 studies were included. Substantial variations in selected outcome measures and variables were observed, and data on adults were limited. Pooled prevalence estimates determined by meta-analyses were as high as 44.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] 35.6–52.7) for drooling, 50.4% (95% CI 36.0–64.8) for swallowing problems, and 53.5% (95% CI 40.7–65.9) for feeding problems. Group analyses for type of assessments were non-significant; however, more severely impaired functioning in CP was associated with concomitant problems of increased drooling, swallowing, and feeding. Interpretation: Drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems are very common in people with CP. Consequently, they experience increased risks of malnutrition and dehydration, aspiration pneumonia, and poor quality of life. What this paper adds: Drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems are very common in persons with cerebral palsy (CP). The prevalence of drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems is 44.0%, 50.4%, and 53.5% respectively. There are limited data on the prevalence of drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems in adults. Higher Gross Motor Function Classification System levels are associated with higher prevalence of drooling, swallowing, and feeding problems. There is increased risk for malnutrition, dehydration, aspiration pneumonia, and poor quality of life in CP

SPICA:revealing the hearts of galaxies and forming planetary systems : approach and US contributions

How did the diversity of galaxies we see in the modern Universe come to be? When and where did stars within them forge the heavy elements that give rise to the complex chemistry of life? How do planetary systems, the Universe's home for life, emerge from interstellar material? Answering these questions requires techniques that penetrate dust to reveal the detailed contents and processes in obscured regions. The ESA-JAXA Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) mission is designed for this, with a focus on sensitive spectroscopy in the 12 to 230 micron range. SPICA offers massive sensitivity improvements with its 2.5-meter primary mirror actively cooled to below 8 K. SPICA one of 3 candidates for the ESA's Cosmic Visions M5 mission, and JAXA has is committed to their portion of the collaboration. ESA will provide the silicon-carbide telescope, science instrument assembly, satellite integration and testing, and the spacecraft bus. JAXA will provide the passive and active cooling system (supporting the

The limits of social class in explaining ethnic gaps in educational attainment

This paper reports an analysis of the educational attainment and progress between age 11 and age 14 of over 14,500 students from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE). The mean attainment gap in national tests at age 14 between White British and several ethnic minority groups were large, more than three times the size of the gender gap, but at the same time only about one-third of the size of the social class gap. Socio-economic variables could account for the attainment gaps for Black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi students, but not for Black Caribbean students. Further controls for parental and student attitudes, expectations and behaviours indicated minority ethnic groups were on average more advantaged on these measures than White British students, but this was not reflected proportionately in their levels of attainment. Black Caribbean students were distinctive as the only group making less progress than White British students between age 11 and 14 and this could not be accounted for by any of the measured contextual variables. Possible explanations for the White British-Black Caribbean gap are considered

Investigation of initiation of gigantic jets connecting thunderclouds to the ionosphere

The initiation of giant electrical discharges called as "gigantic jets" connecting thunderclouds to the ionosphere is investigated by numerical simulation method in this paper. Using similarity relations, the triggering conditions of streamer formation in laboratory situations are extended to form a criterion of initiation of gigantic jets. The energy source causing a gigantic jet is considered due to the quasi-electrostatic field generated by thunderclouds. The electron dynamics from ionization threshold to streamer initiation are simulated by the Monte Carlo technique. It is found that gigantic jets are initiated at a height of ~18-24 km. This is in agreement with the observations. The method presented in this paper could be also applied to the analysis of the initiation of other discharges such as blue jets and red sprites.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

ASEAN matters for America / America matters for ASEAN

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/This publication covers US relations with the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and is a collaboration between the East-West Center, the US-ASEAN Business Council and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore (ISEAS).Click here to see a full map of all congressional district exports to ASEAN

An approach to propagate streamflow statistics along the river network

Streamflow at ungauged sites is often predicted by means of regional statistical procedures. The standard regional approaches do not preserve the information related to the hierarchy among gauged stations deriving from their location along the river network. However, this information is important when estimating runoff at a site located immediately upstream or downstream of a gauging station. We propose here a novel approach, referred to as the Along-Stream Estimation (ASE) method, to improve runoff estimation at ungauged sites. The ASE approach starts from the regional estimate at an ungauged (target) site, and corrects it based on regional and sample estimates of the same variable at a donor site, where sample data are available. A criterion to define the domain of application around each donor site of the ASE approach is proposed, and the uncertainty inherent in the estimates obtained is evaluated. This allows one to compare the variance of the along-stream estimates to that of other models that eventually become available for application (e.g. regional models), and thus to choose the most accurate method (or to combine different estimates). The ASE model was applied in the northwest of Italy in connection with an existing regional model for flood frequency analysis. The analysed variables are the first L-moments of the annual discharge maxima. The application demonstrates that the ASE approach can be used effectively to improve the regional estimates for the L-moment of order one (the index flood), particularly when the area ratio of a pair of donor-target basins is less than or equal to ten. However, in this case study, the method does not provide significant improvements to the estimation of higher-order L-moment