On the importance of including vegetation dynamics in Budyko's hydrological model

The Budyko curve describes the patterns observed between between climate, evapotranspiration and run-off and has proven to be a useful model for predicting catchment energy and water balances. In this paper we review the Budyko curve's underlying framework and, based on the literature, present an argument for why it is important to include vegetation dynamics into the framework for some purposes. The Budyko framework assumes catchments are at steady-state and are driven by the macro-climate, two conditions dependent on the scales of application, such that the framework's reliability is greatest when applied using long-term averages (≫1 year) and to large catchments (> 10 000 km2). At these scales previous experience has shown that the hydrological role of vegetation does not need to be explicitly considered within the framework. By demonstrating how dynamics in the leaf area, photosynthetic capacity and rooting depth of vegetation affect not only annual and seasonal vegetation water use, but also steady-state conditions, we argue that it is necessary to explicitly include vegetation dynamics into the Budyko framework before it is applied at small scales. Such adaptations would extend the framework not only to applications at small timescales and/or small catchments but to operational activities relating to vegetation and water management

Performance indicators for primary care groups; an evidence-based approach

The NHS Executive and Department of Health have proposed a wide range of performance indicators many of which are applicable to future primary care groups Some of these indicators reflect access and efficiency, but few of the effectiveness indicators are based on primary care interventions for which there is evidence that increased uptake results in improved health outcomes We present a method to identify important primary care interventions of proved efficacy and suggest performance indicators that could monitor their use Our evidence based approach may be a complementary way of identifying areas for performance indicators to those proposed by the NHS Executive and Department of Health Our suggested indicators are more likely to help turn evidence into everyday practice and to have an impact on the population's healt

Impact of CO2 fertilization on maximum foliage cover across the globe's warm, arid environments

Satellite observations reveal a greening of the globe over recent decades. The role in this greening of the "CO2 fertilization" effect-the enhancement of photosynthesis due to rising CO2 levels-is yet to be established. The direct CO2 effect on vegetatio

Rational Voters and the Recall Election

The 2003 California recall election presented voters with a pair of choices. The first was whether or not to recall Gray Davis as Governor of the state. They were then faced with a list of 135 potential replacement candidates, one of whom would be chosen in the event Davis lost on the initial recall question. The two ballot questions were formally separate questions, but they were interrelated and conditional in nature. If I vote in favor of recalling Davis as Governor, whom should I support to replace him? Alternatively, voters who opposed recalling Davis as Governor had to decide who to vote for as replacement candidate to try to insure that, if Davis were recalled, an acceptable replacement candidate would be elected

The complexity of the California recall election

The October 7, 2003 California Recall Election strained California’s direct democracy. In recent California politics there has not been a statewide election conducted on such short notice; county election officials were informed on July 24 that the election would be held on October 7. Nor has California recently seen a ballot with so many candidates running for a single statewide office (see Mueller 1970). Under easy ballot access requirements, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley certified 135 candidates for the official ballot on August 13^1. In the recall, voters cast votes on (1) whether to recall Governor Davis from office, and (2) his possible successor. These two voting decisions were made independent by the federal district court’s decision on July 29. The court’s decision invalidated a state law requiring a vote on the recall question in order for a vote on the successor election to be counted (Partnoy et al. 2003). The abbreviated election calendar also led to many improvisations, including a dramatically reduced number of precinct poll sites throughout the state and the unprecedented ability of military personnel, their dependents, and civilians living overseas to return their absentee ballots by fax. These problems produced litigation and speculation that substantial problems would mar the election and throw the outcome of both the recall and a possible successor’s election into doubt. In the end, the litigation failed to stall the recall election, and the large final vote margins on both the recall question and the successor ballot seemingly overwhelmed Election Day problems. In this paper, we concentrate on some of the problems produced by the complexity of the recall election, but we do not attempt an exhaustive presentation of these problems. We focus on polling place problems on election day, the problems associated with translating the complicated recall election ballot into six languages, how the long ballot influenced voter behavior, and voter difficulties with the ballot measured with survey data. We conclude with a short discussion of the possible impact of these problems on the recall election

Food Access in Petersburg, Virginia: Final Report and Recommendations

The City of Petersburg has long suffered with issues of limited access to food and food insecurity. Food deserts, or areas underserved by retail food options, are prevalent throughout the City. As a result, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has ranked the city last of Virginia\u27s 133 counties in their annual health rankings. For the Fall 2019 semester, students from Virginia Commonwealth University\u27s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, through Dr. John Accordino\u27s Urban Commercial Revitalization course, focused on planning solutions to address food deserts in commercial areas, with the City of Petersburg being one of their clients. The class assessed the potential for commercial revitalization and made five recommendations

The contribution of reduction in evaporative cooling to higher surface air temperatures during drought

Higher temperatures are usually reported during meteorological drought and there are two prevailing interpretations for this observation. The first is that the increase in temperature (T) causes an increase in evaporation (E) that dries the environment. The second states that the decline in precipitation (P) during drought reduces the available water thereby decreasing E, and in turn the consequent reduction in evaporative cooling causes higher T. To test which of these interpretations is correct, we use climatic data (T, P) and a recently released database (CERES) that includes incoming and outgoing shortwave and longwave surface radiative fluxes to study meteorological drought at four sites (parts of Australia, US, and Brazil), using the Budyko approximation to calculate E. The results support the second interpretation at arid sites. The analysis also showed that increases in T due to drought have a different radiative signature from increases in T due to elevated CO₂.This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (CE11E0098), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91125018), and the China Scholarship Council (201306210089)

Simple biophysics underpins collective conformations of the intrinsically disordered proteins of the Nuclear Pore Complex

Nuclear Pore Complexes (NPCs) are key cellular transporter that control nucleocytoplasmic transport in eukaryotic cells, but its transport mechanism is still not understood. The centerpiece of NPC transport is the assembly of intrinsically disordered polypeptides, known as FG nucleoporins, lining its passageway. Their conformations and collective dynamics during transport are difficult to assess in vivo. In vitro investigations provide partially conflicting results, lending support to different models of transport, which invoke various conformational transitions of the FG nucleoporins induced by the cargo-carrying transport proteins. We show that the spatial organization of FG nucleoporin assemblies with the transport proteins can be understood within a first principles biophysical model with a minimal number of key physical variables, such as the average protein interaction strengths and spatial densities. These results address some of the outstanding controversies and suggest how molecularly divergent NPCs in different species can perform essentially the same function

Ten years of Malta’s EU membership - the impact on Maltese environmental NGOs

This paper investigates the impact of Malta’s European Union (EU) accession on Environmental NGOs (ENGOs). For this purpose, environmental politics in relation to Malta’s EU accession are analysed. This is carried out by focusing on a selection of issues involving Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) (land development; climate change; hunting of birds and fishing of ‘blue fin’ tuna), as well as through data involving interviews with ENGO representatives. This paper verifies whether EU accession has effected lobbying by ENGOs; whether EU accession has enhanced the empowerment of ENGOs; and whether EU accession has led to the institutionalisation of ENGOs.peer-reviewe