High atmospheric horizontal resolution eliminates the wind-driven coastal warm bias in the southeastern tropical Atlantic

We investigate the strong warm bias in sea surface temperatures (SST) of the southeastern tropical Atlantic that occurs in most of the current global climate models. We analyse this bias in the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model at different horizontal resolutions ranging from 0.1° to 0.4° in the ocean and 0.5° to 1.8° in the atmosphere. High atmospheric horizontal resolution eliminates the SST bias close to the African coast, due to an improved representation of surface wind-stress near the coast. This improvement affects coastal upwelling and horizontal ocean circulation, as confirmed with dedicated sensitivity experiments. The wind-stress improvements are partly caused by the better represented orography at higher horizontal resolution in the spectral atmospheric model. The reductions of the coastal SST bias obtained through higher horizontal resolution do not, however, translate to a reduction of the large-scale bias extending westward from the African coast into the southeastern tropical Atlantic

Gaps and opportunities in addressing the needs of older adults in the Philippines and Vietnam: a qualitative exploration of health and social workers’ experiences in urban care settings

BackgroundDespite numerous government initiatives, concerns and disparities among older adults have continually been growing. Empirical studies focused on older adults in the Philippines and Vietnam appear minimal and mostly regarding perceptions of aging. An effective geriatric care strongly relies on functional service providers requiring their perspectives to be explored toward inclusive service delivery.ObjectiveTo investigate the perceived gaps and opportunities in geriatric care service delivery among health and social care workers in selected urban areas in the Philippines and Vietnam.MethodsA qualitative case study approach drawn on social constructivism theory, examined working experiences, observed characteristics of older adults, geriatric services and needs, difficulties on service delivery, and recommended solutions. A total of 12 semi-structured interviews and 29 focus group discussions were conducted in the Philippines, with 174 health and social care workers, while in Vietnam, there were 23 semi-structured interviews and 29 focus group discussions with 124 participants. An inductive thematic analysis was employed.ResultsInterview participants highlighted the increasing unmet needs such as accessibility, availability, and acceptability of geriatric care services. The implementation of interventions on the older population faced multiple challenges, including issues related to older adult conundrums and dilemmas in geriatric care providers and facilities. The participants from the two countries felt that strengthening implementation of collaboration toward an integrated geriatric care structure and expansion of training and capability in handling older adults can be potential in addressing the gaps at both individual and institutional levels. Additionally, a committed leadership was viewed to be the important step to effectively operationalize the strategy.ConclusionHealth and social workers emphasized that the needs of older adults are exacerbated by various challenges within a fragmented geriatric care system. To address this issue, an establishment of an integrated service delivery mechanism with dedicated leadership is needed. The findings from this study may help develop appropriate solutions for addressing the health and social care needs of older adults in similar settings across Southeast Asia. Further examination of the impact of these challenges and solutions on service delivery and the wellbeing of older adults is essential

Multi-model evaluation of the sensitivity of the global energy budget and hydrological cycle to resolution

This study undertakes a multi-model comparison with the aim to describe and quantify systematic changes of the global energy and water budgets when the horizontal resolution of atmospheric models is increased and to identify common factors of these changes among models. To do so, we analyse an ensemble of twelve atmosphere-only and six coupled GCMs, with different model formulations and with resolutions spanning those of state-of-the-art coupled GCMs, i.e. from resolutions coarser than 100 km to resolutions finer than 25 km. The main changes in the global energy budget with resolution are a systematic increase in outgoing longwave radiation and decrease in outgoing shortwave radiation due to changes in cloud properties, and a systematic increase in surface latent heat flux; when resolution is increased from 100 to 25 km, the magnitude of the change of those fluxes can be as large as 5 W m−2. Moreover, all but one atmosphere-only model simulate a decrease of the poleward energy transport at higher resolution, mainly explained by a reduction of the equator-to-pole tropospheric temperature gradient. Regarding hydrological processes, our results are the following: (1) there is an increase of global precipitation with increasing resolution in all models (up to 40 × 103 km3 year−1) but the partitioning between land and ocean varies among models; (2) the fraction of total precipitation that falls on land is on average 10% larger at higher resolution in grid point models, but it is smaller at higher resolution in spectral models; (3) grid points models simulate an increase of the fraction of land precipitation due to moisture convergence twice as large as in spectral models; (4) grid point models, which have a better resolved orography, show an increase of orographic precipitation of up to 13 × 103 km3 year−1 which explains most of the change in land precipitation; (5) at the regional scale, precipitation pattern and amplitude are improved with increased resolution due to a better simulated seasonal mean circulation. We discuss our results against several observational estimates of the Earth's energy budget and hydrological cycle and show that they support recent high estimates of global precipitation

Phytochemical and microbiological screening of the soft corals at the De La Salle University Marine Biological Station

This research study is focused on two types of screening: phytochemical and microbiological screening of ten samples of soft corals gathered from the De La Salle University Marine Biological Station at Matuod, Batangas. The phytochemical screening includes the detection of six chemical constituents namely: alkaloids, saponins, cardenolides, flavonoids, tannins and antraquinones. Of the six, only four were confirmed to be present. The microbiological screening involves the testing for antimicrobial activity of the samples. The ethanol extract of the samples was tested against 7 test organisms. Significantly, all samples showed varying degrees of antimicrobial activity

Sensitivity of the summertime tropical Atlantic precipitation distribution to convective parameterization and model resolution in ECHAM6

A realistic simulation of the tropical Atlantic precipitation distribution remains a challenge for atmospheric general circulation models, owing to their too coarse resolution that makes it necessary to parameterize convection. During boreal summer, models tend to underestimate the northward shift of the tropical Atlantic rain belt, leading to deficient precipitation over land and an anomalous precipitation maximum over the west Atlantic ocean. In this study, the model ECHAM6 is used to test the sensitivity of the precipitation biases to convective parameterization and horizontal resolution. Two sets of sensitivity experiments are performed. In the first set of experiments, modifications are applied to the convection scheme in order to investigate the relative roles of the trigger, entrainment, and closure formulations. In the second set, the model is run at high resolution with low-resolution boundary conditions in order to identify the relative contributions of a high-resolution atmosphere, orography, and surface. Results show that the dry bias over land in the model can be reduced by weakening the entrainment rate over land. Over ocean, it is found that the anomalous precipitation maximum occurs because of model choices that decrease the sensitivity of convection to the monsoon circulation in the east Atlantic. A reduction of the west Atlantic precipitation bias can be achieved by (i) using a moisture convergence closure, (ii) increasing the resolution of orography, or (iii) enhancing the production of deep convection in the east Atlantic. The biases over land and over ocean do not impact each other. © 2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved

Muli short feature on loss and self-forgiveness

This study aims to explore the effects of parental bereavement towards a child. It will present and discuss psychological, psychosocial and other mental dimensions that a child might experience when a parent dies. With this pretense, the group shall then associate the effects of such early loss with the child\u27s transition into the adult life, by gathering sufficient data that will attempt to understand the grown adults behavior in his latter life. In the short feature, 24-year old Inigo Laurel lives a repetitive life due to the haunting memories of his past. Ever since Inigo\u27s father\u27s death when he was a mere child, he has long blamed himself for the incident, and thus, to keep his sanity submerges himself in his work and mountain hikes. Everything changes once he meets a little Sherpa boy named Gino. As the two grows closer, Inigo finds himself slowly remembering the buried memories of him and his father more vividly. On one of their hikes together, Gino tries to convince Inigo to go with him to this amazing spot he discovered at the hill top, but Inigo, realizing that it was the same spot he and his father used to always go to, refuses. After much failed attempts of convincing Inigo, Gino goes to the mountain peak alone. Moments later, Gino screams. Inigo hearing the boy hesitates and struggles but eventually dashes Gino\u27s rescue. As he arrives, he sees Gino uninjured and flashbacks resurface. Inigo shares his happiness with Gino and finds resilience within himself