Estimation of the carbon footprint of student halls of residence in the University of Strathclyde

There is a rapid increase in environmental awareness, which has led to legislative and governmental policy developments addressing the reduction in carbon emissions to the atmosphere. As an example of a local level response, the University of Strathclyde has developed its Environmental Management System. This paper presents the detailed estimation of the carbon footprint of one of the University halls of residence that will assist the University in assessing its environmental impact. The procedure adopted, and the sensitivity studies undertaken, will help to inform the extension of the carbon footprint study to the whole university campus

The evolution of the Greenland Ice Sheet from the Last Glacial Maximum to present-day: An assessment using glaciological and Glacial Isostatic Adjustment modelling

In this thesis we constrain a three-dimensional thermomechanical model of Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) evolution from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 ka BP) to the present-day using, primarily, observations of relative sea level (RSL) as well as field data on past ice extent. The new model (Huy2) fits a majority of the observations and is characterised by a number of key features: (i) the ice sheet had an excess volume (relative to present) of 4.1 m ice-equivalent sea level at the LGM, which increased to reach a maximum value of 4.6 m at 16.5 ka BP; (ii) retreat from the continental shelf was not continuous around the entire margin, as there was a Younger Dryas readvance in some areas. The final episode of marine retreat was rapid and relatively late (c. 12 ka BP), leaving the ice sheet land based by 10 ka BP; (iii) in response to the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) the ice margin retreated behind its present-day position by up to 80 km in the southwest, 20 km in the south and 80 km in a small area of the northeast. As a result of this retreat the modelled ice sheet reaches a minimum extent between 5 and 4 ka BP, which corresponds to a deficit volume (relative to present) of 0.17 m ice-equivalent sea level. The results suggest that remaining discrepancies between the model and the observations are likely associated with non-Greenland ice load, differences between modelled and observed present-day ice elevation around the margin, lateral variations in Earth structure and/or the pattern of ice margin retreat. Predictions of present-day vertical land motion generated using the new Huy2 model are highly sensitive to variations of upper mantle viscosity. Depending on the Earth model adopted, different periods of post-LGM ice loading change dominate the present-day response in particular regions of Greenland. These results will be a useful resource when interpreting existing and future observations of vertical land motion in Greenland. In comparison to the sparse number of GPS observations available, predictions from the Huy2 model are in good agreement to the absolute measurements from south and southwest Greenland. This suggests that the response of the ice sheet to the HTM is reasonably well produced by the Huy2 model and, thus, corroborates our earlier findings. Uplift predictions generated using a surface mass balance reconstruction of the GrIS (Wake et al., 2009), which covers the period 1866-2005, show that decadal-scale ice mass variability over the last c. 140 years plays a small role in determining the present-day viscous response (it is as large as ±0.2 mm/yr). Results from the same reconstruction show that high rates of peripheral thinning in west and southwest Greenland from 1995 to 2005 (due to surface mass balance changes) generate elastic uplift rates over 6 mm/yr. In the final part of the thesis, we examine how non-Greenland ice mass loss influenced vertical land motion and sea-level change around Greenland over the last deglaciation and consider the implications for GrIS evolution. Results from this analysis suggest non-Greenland solid Earth deformation had little impact on the evolution ice sheet. Sea-level change around Greenland which is driven by non-Greenland ice mass loss departs from the associated eustatic signal; largely because of the close proximity of the late North American ice sheets (NAIS). Non-Greenland RSL change is also spatially non-uniform and is characterised by a distinct east-west gradient. For example, we find that from 16 to 14 ka BP rates of sea-level rise remained relatively low in the west (0-2 m/ka), whereas, those in the east reach values between 6 and 8 m/ka (although these results are sensitive to the source of meltwater, in particular, the relative partitioning of meltwater pulse 1A (mwp-1A, 14.2 ka BP) between the North American and Antarctic ice sheets). If the marine breakup of the GrIS was forced by non-Greenland RSL change, then we would expect the retreat of the ice sheet to reflect the sea-level changes described. A preliminary modelling study suggests that, assuming a conventional ice sheet model calving treatment, a more realistic sea-level forcing results in a pattern of ice margin retreat which is at least partly due to spatial variations in non-Greenland RSL change. Thus, the modelled marine retreat is generally earlier in east Greenland and later in the west than for when non-Greenland RSL change is not accounted for - this pattern of ice margin retreat is generally consistent with observations from the continental shelf

A spatio-temporal model for Red Sea surface temperature anomalies

This paper details the approach of team Lancaster to the 2019 EVA data challenge, dealing with spatio-temporal modelling of Red Sea surface temperature anomalies. We model the marginal distributions and dependence features separately; for the former, we use a combination of Gaussian and generalised Pareto distributions, while the dependence is captured using a localised Gaussian process approach. We also propose a space-time moving estimate of the cumulative distribution function that takes into account spatial variation and temporal trend in the anomalies, to be used in those regions with limited available data. The team's predictions are compared to results obtained via an empirical benchmark. Our approach performs well in terms of the threshold-weighted continuous ranked probability score criterion, chosen by the challenge organiser

A temporal framework of large wildfire suppression in practice, a qualitative descriptive study

Suppression activities on large wildfires are complicated. Existing suppression literature does not take into account this complexity which leaves existing suppression models and measures of resource productivity incomplete. A qualitative descriptive analysis was performed on the suppression activities described in operational documents of 10 large wildfires in Victoria, Australia. A five-stage classification system summarises suppression in the everyday terms ofwildfire management. Suppression can be heterogeneous across different sectors with different stages occurring across sectors on the same day. The stages and the underlying 20 suppression tasks identified provide a fundamental description of how suppression resources are being used on largewildfires. We estimate that at least 57% of resource use on our sample of 10 large wildfires falls outside of current suppression modelling and productivity research

Exercise-induced distal atrioventricular block

Three patients with 1:1 atrioventricular (AV) conduction at rest developed fixed 2:1 or 3:1 AV block during treadmill exercise testing. Electrophysiologic study documented block distal to the AV node in all three patients, and suggested that the exercise-induced block occurred because of increased atrial rate and abnormal refractoriness of the His-Purkinje conduction system. The findings in these three patients suggest that high grade AV block appearing during exercise reflects conduction disease of the His-Purkinje system rather than of the AV node, even in the absence of bundle branch block. Patients with this diagnosis should be considered for permanent cardiac pacing

A Survey: Services for Maladjusted School Children

There is strong evidence to support the contention that programs for meeting the needs of all behaviorally disordered and socially maladjusted school age children simply do not exist

Allele specific expression analysis identifies regulatory variation associated with stress-related genes in the Mexican highland maize landrace Palomero Toluqueño.

BackgroundGene regulatory variation has been proposed to play an important role in the adaptation of plants to environmental stress. In the central highlands of Mexico, farmer selection has generated a unique group of maize landraces adapted to the challenges of the highland niche. In this study, gene expression in Mexican highland maize and a reference maize breeding line were compared to identify evidence of regulatory variation in stress-related genes. It was hypothesised that local adaptation in Mexican highland maize would be associated with a transcriptional signature observable even under benign conditions.MethodsAllele specific expression analysis was performed using the seedling-leaf transcriptome of an F1 individual generated from the cross between the highland adapted Mexican landrace Palomero Toluqueño and the reference line B73, grown under benign conditions. Results were compared with a published dataset describing the transcriptional response of B73 seedlings to cold, heat, salt and UV treatments.ResultsA total of 2,386 genes were identified to show allele specific expression. Of these, 277 showed an expression difference between Palomero Toluqueño and B73 alleles under benign conditions that anticipated the response of B73 cold, heat, salt and/or UV treatments, and, as such, were considered to display a prior stress response. Prior stress response candidates included genes associated with plant hormone signaling and a number of transcription factors. Construction of a gene co-expression network revealed further signaling and stress-related genes to be among the potential targets of the transcription factors candidates.DiscussionPrior activation of responses may represent the best strategy when stresses are severe but predictable. Expression differences observed here between Palomero Toluqueño and B73 alleles indicate the presence of cis-acting regulatory variation linked to stress-related genes in Palomero Toluqueño. Considered alongside gene annotation and population data, allele specific expression analysis of plants grown under benign conditions provides an attractive strategy to identify functional variation potentially linked to local adaptation