Seasonality and the isotope hydrology of Lochnagar, a Scottish mountain lake : implications for palaeoclimate reasearch

The relationship between isotope ratios in precipitation and lake waters was monitored by bi-weekly measurements taken over a five and a half year period between May 2000 and September 2005 (a period of 1964 days) at Lochnagar, a remote mountain lake in eastern Scotland. Short-term changes in the oxygen isotope composition of lake water (18OL) at Lochnagar follow a seasonal pattern similar to isotopes in local precipitation (18OP), however changes in catchment residence time, snow accumulation, lake ice cover and lake stratification modify the temporal structure of 18OL over the seasonal cycle. Of particular importance is precipitation amount, which controls catchment and lake residence times, and determines the degree of phase lag and amplitude change between 18OL and 18OP. A simple mass balance model replicates these effects and demonstrates that the degree of phase lag and amplitude reduction is predictable given known input/volume ratio. The implications of these observations for the use of 18O records in palaeoclimatology are important, since it is rare that authigenic and biogenic minerals or organic compounds (from which 18O and/or 2H can be measured) are produced in a lake evenly throughout the year

Reducing wildfire risk to urban developments: Simulation of cost-effective fuel treatment solutions in south eastern Australia

Wildfires can result in significant economic and social losses. Prescribed fire is commonly applied to reduce fuel loads and thereby decrease future fire risk to life and property. Fuel treatments can occur in the landscape or adjacent to houses. Location of the prescribed burns can significantly alter the risk of house loss. Furthermore the cost of treating fuels in the landscape is far cheaper than treating fuels adjacent to the houses. Here we develop a Bayesian Network to examine the relative reduction in risk that can be achieved by prescribed burning in the landscape compared with a 500 m interface zone adjacent to houses. We then compare costs of management treatments to determine the most cost-effective method of reducing risk to houses. Burning in the interface zone resulted in the greatest reduction in risk of fires reaching the houses and the intensity of these fires. Fuel treatment in the interface zone allows for a direct transfer of benefits from the fuel treatment. Costs of treating fuels in the interface were significantly higher on a per hectare basis, but the extent of area requiring treatment was considerably lower. Results of this study demonstrate that treatment of fuels at the interface is not only the best means of reducing risk, it is also the most cost-effective

The Relationship of Play Activity and Gender to Parent and Child Sex-typed Communication

The influence of contextual factors on parent-child interactions, and the role of these factors in the incidence of gender differences in communication, was examined. Twelve daughters and twelve sons (mean age = 43 months) visited a university laboratory on separate occasions, once with their mothers and once with their fathers. During both visits, the parent-child pair played with a relatively masculine-stereotyped toy set, oriented toward construction play (a take-apart car), and a relatively feminine-stereotyped toy set, oriented toward social-dramatic play (props for a grocery store). Transcripts of the parent and child speech acts were coded while listening to audiotape recordings of the interactions. The results indicated that the play activity, and not the speaker's gender, significantly affected both parents' and children's use of different speech acts. Parent gender was an additional predictor of children's speech. All of the significant effects had large effect sizes. The findings support theoretical models and other research reports that emphasise the importance of activity settings in the sex-typing process

A Meta-Analytic Review of Gender Variations in Adults' Language Use: Talkativeness, Affiliative Speech, and Assertive Speech

Three separate sets of meta-analyses were conducted of studies testing for gender differences in adults' talkativeness, affiliative speech, and assertive speech. Across independent samples, statistically significant but negligible average effects sizes were obtained with all three language constructs: Contrary to the prediction, men were more talkative (d = -.14) than were women. As expected, men used more assertive speech (d = .09), whereas women used more affiliative speech (d = .12). In addition, 17 moderator variables were tested that included aspects of the interactive context (e.g., familiarity, gender composition, activity), measurement qualities (e.g., operational definition, observation length), and publication characteristics (e.g., author gender, publication source). Depending on particular moderators, more meaningful effect sizes (d > .2) occurred for each language construct. In addition, the direction of some gender differences was significantly reversed under particular conditions. The results are interpreted in relation to social-constructionist, socialization, and biological interpretations of gender-related variations in social behavior