Short Note: Report of mummified leopard seal carcass in the southern Dry Valleys, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.

The wide spread occurrence of mummified seal and penguin carcasses tens of kilometres from the open ocean is an interesting phenomenon occurring in the Antarctic Dry Valleys. Mummified seal carcasses were first reported by Scott’s expedition in 1903 (Scott 1969), and live seals and seal carcasses have since been reported many kilometres from the nearest ice-free ocean. Seal carcasses found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys are predominantly crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophaga (Hombron & Jacquinot)) with a smaller number of Weddell seals, (Leptonychotes weddellii (Lesson)), also reported. Here we present only the second published report of a leopard seal carcass from the McMurdo Dry Valleys

A Comparison of Methods for Portraying School Demography Using Census Data

Several ways of indexing the demography of a school from Canadian census data were devised and compared. In one comparison, statistics based on the complete catchment area of a school were set against statistics specific to the neighborhoods inhabited by the students actually attending the school. In a second comparison, catchment-area statistics, which were based on the total population in the area, were compared with statistics based on the subpopulation of mothers of school-aged children residing in the area. The results indicate that the methods are not interchangeable, although the degree of discrepancy observed between methods varied with the demographic variable considered. The demography-indexing methods were also compared for degree of correlation with student achievement in language or mathematics. The demographic indicators obtained using the enrollment method were found to correlate a little more strongly with achievement than the indicators obtained using the catchment area method. All results are merely suggestive, however, pending further study.On a conçu et comparé plusieurs façons d'indexer la démographie d'une école à partir des résultats du recensement canadien. Dans une comparaison, les statistiques basées sur toute l'aire de recrutement d'une école ont été juxtaposées à des statistiques spécifiques aux quartiers où vivaient les élèves qui fréquentaient l'école. Une deuxième étude a comparé des statistiques basées sur la totalité de la population de l'aire de recrutement et des statistiques basées sur une sous-population de mères d'enfants d'âge scolaire vivant dans l'aire. Les résultats nous indiquent que les deux méthodes ne sont pas interchangeables, bien que le degré de divergence que l'on observe entre les méthodes varie selon la variable démographique à l'étude. Les méthodes basées sur l'indexation démographique ont également été comparées quant à leur corrélation avec la performance langagière et en mathématiques des étudiants. Cette performance entrait dans une corrélation plus élevée avec les indices démographiques découlant de la méthode basée sur l'inscription à l'école qu'avec ceux découlant de la méthode basées sur l'aire de recrutement. Cependant, jusqu'à ce que la recherche soit poursuivie, tous les résultats sont à titre indicatif

Missingness’ in health care : associations between hospital utilization and missed appointments in general practice. A retrospective cohort study.

Funding: AEW DAE AMcC and PW received funding for this research from a Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office research grant (CZH/4/41118) https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/ with Safe Haven and data linkage costs supported in lieu by the DSLS at Scottish Government. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Acknowledgments Thank you to all the GP practices who participated in this study and for strategic support from Ellen Lynch (Health and Social Care Analytical Services, Scottish Government). The general practice data expertise of Dave Kelly (Albasoft) was invaluable. Thanks also to the eDRIS team who facilitated the safe use of our data in the Safehaven, especially Dionysis Vragkos.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Quantifying unmet need in General Practice : a retrospective cohort study of administrative data

Funding This work was supported by a grant from Chief Scientist Office, Scottish Government (reference CZH/4/1118) with Safe Haven and data linkage costs supported in lieu by the DSLS at Scottish Government.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Demographic and practice factors predicting repeated non-attendance in primary care : a national retrospective cohort analysis

This study was supported by a Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office research grant (CZH/4/41118) with Safehaven and data linkage costs supported in lieu by the DSLS at Scottish Government. These funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, or collection, analysis, and interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript. The authors declare no conflict of interest.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

General practice recording of adverse childhood experiences : a retrospective cohort study of GP records

This study was supported by a Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office research grant (reference number: CZH/4/41118) with Safe Haven and data linkage costs supported in lieu by the Data Sharing and Linkage Service (DSLS) at Scottish Government. These funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, nor in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, nor in writing the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Morbidity, mortality and missed appointments in healthcare : a national retrospective data linkage study

Acknowledgments We thank all practices who participated in this study. The authors acknowledge funding from the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office (CZH/4/41118). We acknowledge strategic support from Ellen Lynch (Health and Social Care Analytical Services, Scottish Government) and the general practice data expertise of Dave Kelly (Albasoft). Funding This study was supported by a Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office research grant (CZH/4/41118) with Safe Haven and data linkage costs supported in lieu by the DSLS at Scottish Government. These funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, nor in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, nor in writing the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

In Situ Measurement of the Aerosol Size Distribution in Stratospheric Solid Rocket Motor Exhaust Plumes

The concentration and size distribution of aerosol in the stratospheric exhaust plumes of two Space Shuttle rockets and one Titan IV rocket were measured using a two component aerosol sampling system carried aboard a WB‐57F aircraft. Aerosol size distribution in the 0.01 µm to 4 µm diameter size range was measured using a two component sampling system. The measured distributions display a trimodal form with modes near 0.005 µm, 0.09 µm, and 2.03 µm and are used to infer the relative mass fractionation among the three modes. While the smallest mode has been estimated to contain as much as 10% of the total mass of SRM exhaust alumina, we find show that the smallest mode contains less than 0.05% of the alumina mass. This fraction is so small so as to significantly reduce the likelihood that heterogeneous reactions on the SRM alumina surfaces could produce a significant global impact on stratospheric chemistry

Spatial and seasonal variability of metocean design criteria in the Southern South China Sea from covariate extreme value analysis

This paper describes spatial and seasonal variability of metocean design criteria in the southern South China Sea. Non-stationary extreme value analysis was performed using the CEVA approach (Covariate Extreme Value Analysis,[1]) for a 59-year long SEAFINE hindcast of winds and waves, estimating metocean design criteria up to 10,000-year return period. Wind design criteria are mostly driven by large-scale monsoonal events; at higher return periods infrequent cyclonic events have strong influence on the tail of the extreme value distribution but confined to a limited geographical area. The CEVA analysis of waves showed much less dependence on the tropical cyclone events; the spatial metocean design criteria were smoother, mostly influenced by the monsoonal wind strength, fetch and local bathymetry. Return value estimates illustrate the strong seasonality of metocean design criteria, with boreal winter (December-February, Northeasterly monsoon) contributing most to the extremes, while April and May are the mildest months. Estimates for the ratio of 10,000/100-year return values are also presented, both for winds and waves. There is empirical evidence that the range of “typical” values of generalised Pareto shape parameter observed for Hs is different to that observed for wind speed. For this reason, an upper bound of +0.2 for generalised Pareto shape was specified for wind speed analysis, compared to 0.0 for Hs. In some cases, increase of upper bound for waves to 0.1 is justified, leading to slightly more conservative Hs values. We confirmed that the upper end point constraint was not too influential on the distributions of generalised Pareto shape parameter estimated. Nevertheless, it is apparent that specification of bounds for generalised Pareto shape is a critical, but problematic choice in metocean applications