Self-reported sleep disturbance and incidence of dementia in ageing men

Background Sleep disturbance is suggested to contribute to the development of dementia. However, prospective longitudinal data from middle-aged populations are scarce. Methods We investigated a population-based sample of 2386 men aged 42-62 years at baseline during 1984-1989. Participants having a history of mental illnesses, psychiatric medication, Parkinson's disease or dementia within 2 years after baseline (n=296) were excluded. Difficulty falling asleep or maintaining sleep, sleep duration and daytime tiredness were enquired. Dementia diagnoses (n=287) between 1984 and 2014 were obtained through linkage with hospital discharge, national death and special reimbursement registers. Cox proportional hazards analyses were performed for all dementias, and separately for Alzheimer's disease (n=234) and other phenotypes (n=53). Additional analyses were performed on a subsample of an apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype-tested population (n=1199). Results The risk ratio for dementia was 1.58 (95% CI 1.10 to 2.27) in men with frequent sleep disturbance after adjustments for age, examination year, elevated depressive symptoms, physical activity, alcohol consumption, cumulative smoking history, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-sensitivity C reactive protein, cardiovascular disease history, education years and living alone. Daytime tiredness and sleep duration were not associated with dementia in adjusted analysis. In the APOE subsample, both APOE epsilon 4 genotype and frequent sleep disturbance were associated with increased dementia risk, but in the interaction analysis they had no joint effect. Conclusions Self-reported frequent sleep disturbance in middle-aged men may relate to the development of dementia in later life. Having an APOE e4 genotype did not affect the relationship

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

State of the climate in 2013

In 2013, the vast majority of the monitored climate variables reported here maintained trends established in recent decades. ENSO was in a neutral state during the entire year, remaining mostly on the cool side of neutral with modest impacts on regional weather patterns around the world. This follows several years dominated by the effects of either La Niña or El Niño events. According to several independent analyses, 2013 was again among the 10 warmest years on record at the global scale, both at the Earths surface and through the troposphere. Some regions in the Southern Hemisphere had record or near-record high temperatures for the year. Australia observed its hottest year on record, while Argentina and New Zealand reported their second and third hottest years, respectively. In Antarctica, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station reported its highest annual temperature since records began in 1957. At the opposite pole, the Arctic observed its seventh warmest year since records began in the early 20th century. At 20-m depth, record high temperatures were measured at some permafrost stations on the North Slope of Alaska and in the Brooks Range. In the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, anomalous meridional atmospheric circulation occurred throughout much of the year, leading to marked regional extremes of both temperature and precipitation. Cold temperature anomalies during winter across Eurasia were followed by warm spring temperature anomalies, which were linked to a new record low Eurasian snow cover extent in May. Minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic was the sixth lowest since satellite observations began in 1979. Including 2013, all seven lowest extents on record have occurred in the past seven years. Antarctica, on the other hand, had above-average sea ice extent throughout 2013, with 116 days of new daily high extent records, including a new daily maximum sea ice area of 19.57 million km2 reached on 1 October. ENSO-neutral conditions in the eastern central Pacific Ocean and a negative Pacific decadal oscillation pattern in the North Pacific had the largest impacts on the global sea surface temperature in 2013. The North Pacific reached a historic high temperature in 2013 and on balance the globally-averaged sea surface temperature was among the 10 highest on record. Overall, the salt content in nearsurface ocean waters increased while in intermediate waters it decreased. Global mean sea level continued to rise during 2013, on pace with a trend of 3.2 mm yr-1 over the past two decades. A portion of this trend (0.5 mm yr-1) has been attributed to natural variability associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation as well as to ongoing contributions from the melting of glaciers and ice sheets and ocean warming. Global tropical cyclone frequency during 2013 was slightly above average with a total of 94 storms, although the North Atlantic Basin had its quietest hurricane season since 1994. In the Western North Pacific Basin, Super Typhoon Haiyan, the deadliest tropical cyclone of 2013, had 1-minute sustained winds estimated to be 170 kt (87.5 m s-1) on 7 November, the highest wind speed ever assigned to a tropical cyclone. High storm surge was also associated with Haiyan as it made landfall over the central Philippines, an area where sea level is currently at historic highs, increasing by 200 mm since 1970. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide all continued to increase in 2013. As in previous years, each of these major greenhouse gases once again reached historic high concentrations. In the Arctic, carbon dioxide and methane increased at the same rate as the global increase. These increases are likely due to export from lower latitudes rather than a consequence of increases in Arctic sources, such as thawing permafrost. At Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for the first time since measurements began in 1958, the daily average mixing ratio of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 ppm on 9 May. The state of these variables, along with dozens of others, and the 2013 climate conditions of regions around the world are discussed in further detail in this 24th edition of the State of the Climate series. © 2014, American Meteorological Society. All rights reserved

State of the climate in 2018

In 2018, the dominant greenhouse gases released into Earth’s atmosphere—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—continued their increase. The annual global average carbon dioxide concentration at Earth’s surface was 407.4 ± 0.1 ppm, the highest in the modern instrumental record and in ice core records dating back 800 000 years. Combined, greenhouse gases and several halogenated gases contribute just over 3 W m−2 to radiative forcing and represent a nearly 43% increase since 1990. Carbon dioxide is responsible for about 65% of this radiative forcing. With a weak La Niña in early 2018 transitioning to a weak El Niño by the year’s end, the global surface (land and ocean) temperature was the fourth highest on record, with only 2015 through 2017 being warmer. Several European countries reported record high annual temperatures. There were also more high, and fewer low, temperature extremes than in nearly all of the 68-year extremes record. Madagascar recorded a record daily temperature of 40.5°C in Morondava in March, while South Korea set its record high of 41.0°C in August in Hongcheon. Nawabshah, Pakistan, recorded its highest temperature of 50.2°C, which may be a new daily world record for April. Globally, the annual lower troposphere temperature was third to seventh highest, depending on the dataset analyzed. The lower stratospheric temperature was approximately fifth lowest. The 2018 Arctic land surface temperature was 1.2°C above the 1981–2010 average, tying for third highest in the 118-year record, following 2016 and 2017. June’s Arctic snow cover extent was almost half of what it was 35 years ago. Across Greenland, however, regional summer temperatures were generally below or near average. Additionally, a satellite survey of 47 glaciers in Greenland indicated a net increase in area for the first time since records began in 1999. Increasing permafrost temperatures were reported at most observation sites in the Arctic, with the overall increase of 0.1°–0.2°C between 2017 and 2018 being comparable to the highest rate of warming ever observed in the region. On 17 March, Arctic sea ice extent marked the second smallest annual maximum in the 38-year record, larger than only 2017. The minimum extent in 2018 was reached on 19 September and again on 23 September, tying 2008 and 2010 for the sixth lowest extent on record. The 23 September date tied 1997 as the latest sea ice minimum date on record. First-year ice now dominates the ice cover, comprising 77% of the March 2018 ice pack compared to 55% during the 1980s. Because thinner, younger ice is more vulnerable to melting out in summer, this shift in sea ice age has contributed to the decreasing trend in minimum ice extent. Regionally, Bering Sea ice extent was at record lows for almost the entire 2017/18 ice season. For the Antarctic continent as a whole, 2018 was warmer than average. On the highest points of the Antarctic Plateau, the automatic weather station Relay (74°S) broke or tied six monthly temperature records throughout the year, with August breaking its record by nearly 8°C. However, cool conditions in the western Bellingshausen Sea and Amundsen Sea sector contributed to a low melt season overall for 2017/18. High SSTs contributed to low summer sea ice extent in the Ross and Weddell Seas in 2018, underpinning the second lowest Antarctic summer minimum sea ice extent on record. Despite conducive conditions for its formation, the ozone hole at its maximum extent in September was near the 2000–18 mean, likely due to an ongoing slow decline in stratospheric chlorine monoxide concentration. Across the oceans, globally averaged SST decreased slightly since the record El Niño year of 2016 but was still far above the climatological mean. On average, SST is increasing at a rate of 0.10° ± 0.01°C decade−1 since 1950. The warming appeared largest in the tropical Indian Ocean and smallest in the North Pacific. The deeper ocean continues to warm year after year. For the seventh consecutive year, global annual mean sea level became the highest in the 26-year record, rising to 81 mm above the 1993 average. As anticipated in a warming climate, the hydrological cycle over the ocean is accelerating: dry regions are becoming drier and wet regions rainier. Closer to the equator, 95 named tropical storms were observed during 2018, well above the 1981–2010 average of 82. Eleven tropical cyclones reached Saffir–Simpson scale Category 5 intensity. North Atlantic Major Hurricane Michael’s landfall intensity of 140 kt was the fourth strongest for any continental U.S. hurricane landfall in the 168-year record. Michael caused more than 30 fatalities and $25 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages. In the western North Pacific, Super Typhoon Mangkhut led to 160 fatalities and$6 billion (U.S. dollars) in damages across the Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Tropical Storm Son-Tinh was responsible for 170 fatalities in Vietnam and Laos. Nearly all the islands of Micronesia experienced at least moderate impacts from various tropical cyclones. Across land, many areas around the globe received copious precipitation, notable at different time scales. Rodrigues and Réunion Island near southern Africa each reported their third wettest year on record. In Hawaii, 1262 mm precipitation at Waipā Gardens (Kauai) on 14–15 April set a new U.S. record for 24-h precipitation. In Brazil, the city of Belo Horizonte received nearly 75 mm of rain in just 20 minutes, nearly half its monthly average. Globally, fire activity during 2018 was the lowest since the start of the record in 1997, with a combined burned area of about 500 million hectares. This reinforced the long-term downward trend in fire emissions driven by changes in land use in frequently burning savannas. However, wildfires burned 3.5 million hectares across the United States, well above the 2000–10 average of 2.7 million hectares. Combined, U.S. wildfire damages for the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons exceeded $40 billion (U.S. dollars)

The Arctic

peer reviewe

From a momentary experience to a lasting one:the concept of and research on expanded user experience of mobile devices

Abstract In order to respond to the challenges posed by technological development, new interdisciplinary concepts and methods in the fields of research and design of information and communication technology are required. The researchers in this fields have been trying to solve design problems by, for example, concentrating on designing for the user experience (UX). Nevertheless, the concept of UX has been widely disseminated and rapidly adapted in many areas of design without it being clearly defined or deeply understood. Not only theoretical study of the phenomenon is needed but also analytical tools to more comprehensively analyse and understand UX. Such an important tool would be a concept that can be used to study practical phenomena in a comprehensive manner. The theoretical objective of this thesis was to formulate a new, “expanded” concept of UX that can be used to describe human experience with technology so that both short-term and longer-term aspects of this experience can be taken into account. Based on the review of the literature, it seemed that Dewey’s concept of aesthetic experience could provide a theoretical frame of reference for an approach aiming at understanding UX in a more comprehensive manner. A broad theoretical concept, such as Dewey’s concept of aesthetic experience, is not directly applicable to empirical research, however. The practical objective of the thesis was to outline a method or a set of methods how the concept can be operationalised. A comprehensive and operational concept of UX is generated based on Dewey’s concept of aesthetic experience that is divided into two levels utilising Leontjev’s activity theory. As a result of the research, the concept of expanded user experience (eUX) and the reflective research method for studying it has been created. This research has shown that by studying longer-term UX in addition to temporal UX and by focusing on analysing the user’s activity it is possible to see a larger and more meaningful view on UX. The reflective research method is particularly beneficial as a long-term research method focusing on the everyday environments of users.Tiivistelmä Teknologian kehityksen asettamiin haasteisiin vastaaminen edellyttää uusia tieteen rajat ylittäviä käsitteitä ja menettelytapoja informaatio- ja kommunikaatioteknologian alan tutkimuksessa ja suunnittelussa. Alan tutkijat ovat alkaneet etsiä ratkaisuja suunnittelun ongelmiin mm. keskittymällä käyttäjäkokemuksen suunnitteluun. Käyttäjäkokemus käsitteen käyttö on yleistynyt ja se on omaksuttu nopeasti monilla suunnittelun alueilla huolimatta siitä, että käsitettä ei ole selkeästi määritelty tai syvällisesti ymmärretty. Käyttäjäkokemuksen tutkimuksessa tarvitaan paitsi tutkittavan ilmiön teoreettista tarkastelua, myös analyyttisiä välineitä käyttäjäkokemuksen kokonaisvaltaisempaan analysoimiseen ja ymmärtämiseen. Keskeinen väline on käyttäjäkokemuksen kokonaisvaltaista, moniulotteista ja reflektiivistä luonnetta kuvaava käsite, jonka avulla käytännön ilmiöitä voidaan tarkastella kokonaisvaltaisesti. Tämän tutkimuksen teoreettinen tavoite oli kehittää uusi ”laajennettu” käyttäjäkokemuksen käsite, jolla voidaan kuvata käyttäjäkokemusta ottamalla huomioon inhimillisen kokemuksen muodostumiseen vaikuttavia lyhyt- ja pitkäkestoisia aspekteja. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen perusteella vaikutti siltä, että Dewey’n esteettisen kokemuksen käsite voisi ratkaista useita aikaisemman käyttäjäkokemuksen tutkimuksessa ilmenneitä puutteellisuuksia tarjoamalla teoreettisen viitekehyksen lähestymistavalle, jonka tavoitteena on ymmärtää käyttäjäkokemusta aikaisempaa kokonaisvaltaisemmin. Laaja teoreettinen käsite, kuten Dewey’n esteettisen kokemuksen käsite, ei kuitenkaan ole suoraan sovellettavissa empiiriseen tutkimukseen. Näin ollen tutkimuksen käytännöllinen tavoite oli hahmotella menetelmä tai joukko menetelmiä, joiden avulla Dewey’n esteettisen kokemuksen käsite voidaan operationalisoida. Tutkimuksessa kehitetty, aikaisempaa kokonaisvaltaisempi ja operationaalinen käyttäjäkokemuksen käsite perustuu Dewey’n esteettisen kokemuksen käsitteeseen, joka on operationalisoitu jakamalla se kahteen tasoon Leontjev’n toiminnan teorian avulla. Tutkimuksen tuloksena syntyi laajennettu käyttäjäkokemuksen käsite (the expanded user experience), ja sen tutkimiseen tarkoitettu reflektiivinen käyttäjätutkimusmenetelmä (the reflective research method). Tässä tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että keskittymällä pidempikestoisen käyttäjäkokemuksen tutkimiseen hetkellisesti muodostuvan käyttäjäkokemuksen rinnalla sekä analysoimalla käyttäjän toimintaa, voidaan käyttäjäkokemus nähdä aikaisempaa laajempana ja merkityksellisempänä ilmiönä. Reflektiivinen tutkimusmenetelmä soveltuu erityisesti käyttäjien jokapäiväisessä arjessa tapahtuvaan pitempiaikaiseen käyttäjätutkimukseen

Terrestrial Snow Cover

International audienceSnow accumulation during the 2017/18 winter was well above average across the Eurasian Arctic, consistent with an early start to the snow season . North American Arctic snow accumulation was near normal until May and June when what snow remained was generally deeper than usual for the time of year. Snow cover extent for Eurasia was above average during April, slightly above average for May, and below average by June (relative to the 1981-2010 average). This month-to-month change is consistent with unusually high early spring accumulation combined with rapid late spring snow loss. Despite relatively high spring snow accumulation and snow cover extent over the Arctic during the previous two spring seasons, long-term trends remain negative.https://arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Report-Card-2018/ArtMID/7878/ArticleID/782/Terrestrial-Snow-Cove

User requirements for the snow and land ice services - CryoLand

CryoLand (2011-2015) is a project carried out within the 7th Framework of the European Commission aimed at developing downstream services for monitoring seasonal snow, glaciers and lake/river ice primarily based on satellite remote sensing. The services target private and public users from a wide variety of application areas, and aim to develop sustainable services after the project is completed. The project has performed a thorough user requirement survey in order to derive targeted requirements for the service and provide recommendations for the design and priorities of the service. In this paper we describe the methods used, the major findings in this user survey, and how we used the results to design and specify the CryoLand snow and land ice service. The user requirement analysis shows that a European operational snow and land ice service is required and that there exists developed cryosphere products that can meet the specific needs. The majority of the users were mainly interested not only in the snow services, but also the lake/river ice products and the glacier products were desired