Comparing Agriculture‐Related Characteristics of Flash and Normal Drought Reveals Heterogeneous Crop Response

Despite rapid progress in the burgeoning field of flash drought research, few studies directly compare the differences in characteristics between flash drought (commonly understood as quick, rapid-onset drought) and drought traditionally defined as slow-moving (henceforth normal drought), particularly over agricultural regions where drought effects may be economically the most disastrous. In this study, flash and normal drought events are identified using reanalysis of soil moisture in the data-rich agricultural region of the California Central Valley for investigation of characteristics related to agriculture. In particular, we investigate the relative duration of pixels in drought events, the correlation of drought intensity with vegetation condition, the impact of aridity on vegetation response and drought, and the differences in the different characteristics between rainfed and irrigated agriculture. Overall, we found considerable differences between flash and normal drought, particularly in their spatial distributions and behavior in relation to aridity. Flash droughts even indicate a counterintuitive improvement in vegetation condition in the northern, more humid regions, likely due to the release of growth limiting factors (e.g., below-optimum temperature and radiation) associated with drought. Results also indicate improvements in vegetation conditions during normal drought for irrigated land over rainfed, highlighting the importance of irrigation as a drought protection strategy in agriculture

KINETICS OF SIMULATED ON-WATER DRAGON BOAT PADDLING

INTRODUCTION: Dragon boat racing involves 20 paddlers propelling the boat through power at the blade which is transferred to boat movement through the paddler’s contact with the boat at the feet and seat. However, the magnitude of these forces and their synchronisation and contribution to boat movement is unknown. Thus the aim of this study is to investigate the kinetics of simulated on-water paddling

EFFECT OF STROKE RATE ON KINEMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SIMULATED ON-WATER DRAGON BOAT PADDLING

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of stroke rate on the 3D kinematics of simulated on-water dragon boat paddling. Twenty dragon boat paddlers (female=12, male=8) ranging in experience level, paddled in a simulated on-water dragon boat condition in a motion laboratory at stroke rates of 40, 50 and 60 strokes·min-1. With an increase in stroke rate, there was a significant decrease in stroke length and increase in drive time to total stroke time ratio (

Communication, Social Norms, and the Intention to Get Vaccinated Against Covid-19

Social norms are a promising factor for pandemic control, as they motivate people to engage in preventive behaviours. However, little is known about the influence of perceived social norms on the intention to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and the role of communication in shaping such normative perceptions. Moreover, despite the pandemic’s global scale, a cross-cultural perspective is scant in research on Covid-19 preventive behaviour. The present study examined the relationships between communication (i.e., attention to mass media and social media), social norms (i.e., perceived norms in the population and personal environment), and people’s intention to get vaccinated against Covid-19 using a cross-national survey in Singapore (N = 998) and Switzerland (N = 1,022). Multigroup structural equation modelling revealed that attention to mass media was positively correlated with perceived norms in both countries, whereas attention to social media was correlated with normative perceptions only in Singapore. Normative perceptions regarding the population and personal environment were positively correlated with vaccination intention in Singapore. However, in Switzerland, only perceived norms in the personal environment were positively related to vaccination intention. The results are discussed against the background of both countries’ media systems and cultural values (i.e., individualism/collectivism) and are instructive for norms-based interventions in times of crises

Szemer\'edi's theorem in the primes

Green and Tao famously proved in 2005 that any subset of the primes of fixed positive density contains arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions. Green had previously shown that in fact any subset of the primes of relative density tending to zero sufficiently slowly contains a 3-term term progression. This was followed by work of Helfgott and de Roton, and Naslund, who improved the bounds on the relative density in the case of 3-term progressions. The aim of this note is to present an analogous result for longer progressions by combining a quantified version of the relative Szemer\'edi theorem given by Conlon, Fox and Zhao with Henriot's estimates of the enveloping sieve weights.Comment: 11 page

Learning for Sustainability: Partnership for the Goals

No abstract provided