Understanding Observed and Projected Climate Changes in the Antarctic, and their Global Impacts

The Antarctic climate has undergone complex changes over the last fifty years, driven largely by stratospheric ozone depletion. By the end of this century, under the current trajectory of anthropogenic emissions, the climate of Antarctica is projected to be significantly wetter, warmer and prone to the collapse of ice shelves and loss of sea ice cover. The overarching aim of this thesis is to increase our understanding of recent and projected Antarctic climate change and its drivers. We also investigate the potential global implications of these changes and show that the effects will not be limited to the southern high latitudes. In the first half, we investigate the drivers of Antarctic climate change over the observational period. Specifically, we study the influence of the stratosphere on the southern high latitude surface climate, through stratosphere-troposphere dynamic coupling as well as stratospheric ozone depletion. We examine the impact of these on the Amundsen Sea Low, a key circulation feature near West Antarctica. We demonstrate using reanalysis that stratospheric heat flux extremes are linked to high latitude tropospheric anomalies in the Amundsen Sea region. During extreme negative (positive) events there is a westward (eastward) shift of the Amundsen Sea Low, a warming (cooling) and increase (decrease) of geopotential height over the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas. We find that most CMIP5 models are not able to capture this relationship. Next, we demonstrate that, since 1965, stratospheric ozone depletion has acted to deepen the Amundsen Sea Low in austral summer by 1 hPa per decade. This result was consistent across two different comprehensive climate models, each with very different model physics and climate sensitivity. It must be noted that the ozone depletion signal on the Amundsen Sea Low is small compared to the internal climate variability in this region. Using ensembles of model integrations and analysing them over the full period of ozone depletion (which started a couple of decades before the satellite era) is necessary to detect a robust signal. In the second half, we investigate the effects of future Antarctic climate change, specifically the effects of projected sea ice loss over the coming century. Climate model simulations are used to isolate the effect of end-of-the-century Antarctic sea ice loss which is compared and contrasted with the effects of projected Arctic sea ice loss. We first study the effects of projected Antarctic sea ice loss used atmosphere-only simulations. As for the Arctic, results indicated that Antarctic sea ice loss will act to shift the tropospheric jet equatorward, an internal negative feedback to the poleward shift associated with increased greenhouse gases. Antarctic sea ice loss is shown to have an important effect throughout the year whereas Arctic sea ice loss will have more seasonally varying impacts. Building upon these results we the use the same climate model but in a fully coupled setup to study the effects of projected Antarctic sea ice loss on the climate system. We show that both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice loss will have important global effects, causing a ‘mini global warming’ signal. The tropical response to Antarctic sea ice loss is shown to be remarkably similar to that of Arctic sea ice loss, with enhanced warming in the Eastern Tropical Pacific and increased precipitation throughout much of the equatorial Pacific. These results highlight how intimately coupled the Antarctic climate is to the rest of the climate system

The Resolution of International Financial Crises: Private Finance and Public Funds

Over the past year and a half, authors Andy Haldane of the Bank of England and Mark Kruger of the Bank of Canada have been developing a framework for the resolution of international financial crises that aligns incentives for all parties in a way that deals with the crisis and preserves the integrity of the international financial system. The framework is built on principles, not rules. It attempts to be clear about the respective roles and responsibilities of the public and private sectors. A central element in shaping private sector expectations is knowledge that the official sector will behave predictably. Constraints on lending by the International Monetary Fund are a key step in that direction. They ensure that private sector involvement is a crucial part of crisis resolution, and they help encourage debtors and creditors to seek co-operative solutions to a crisis. Characterized by constraints, clarity, and orderliness, the framework has the potential to reduce the incidence and cost of financial crises.

An outsider's inside view of ethnic entrepreneurship

Purpose: This paper aims to critically reflect upon the qualitative research strategy adopted by an outsider investigating business practices between first and second-generation South Asian entrepreneurs. The paper presents, explains and justifies the methodological design and outsider strategy used to help overcome a number of operational research issues. In addition, for those considering the use of qualitative methodology for similar research, practical advice is offered to researchers whom do not share the same ethnicity as the informants under investigation. Design/methodology/approach: To implement an outsider strategy, the methodological design draws its theoretical underpinning via a phenomenological paradigm. Issues appertaining to sample design, negotiating access, adopted research instruments are examined, and their uses to overcome potential operational issues justified. Findings: The complexities, difficulties and successes of an outsider looking in are highlighted. Evident is the impact of personal and structural power relations between researcher and interviewee, as well as potential research problems as a result thereof. The paper stresses the need to ensure the preservation of researcher integrity, credibility and confidentiality, as he/she will encounter situations wherein he/she will be tested to the fullest. Research limitations/implications: The research environment within the Greater London area where the respondents are located may not be as generalisable when compared with other parts of the UK and ethnic entrepreneurs therein. Originality/value: The paper presents an evaluation of a qualitative research strategy used by an outsider to gain an inside view of ethnic entrepreneurship. Paper type Research pape

An Alternative Mechanism for the Delivery of Scholarly Journal Articles: ReadCube Access at the University of Utah

Traditional collection management of serials through site licenses and subscriptions is increasingly unsustainable due to rising costs and steady or falling library budgets. The ensuing gaps in access have led to widespread illicit file sharing, resulting in the disintermediation of libraries and the devaluing of publishers. It has therefore become essential to explore alternatives for the delivery of journal literature. We report on the exploration of a new mechanism for the provision of scholarly articles using patron-driven acquisition (PDA). During the 2012–2013 academic year, the University of Utah Marriott Library, ReadCube, and Nature Publishing Group collaborated on the development and testing of ReadCube Access, an article delivery service designed to allow researchers to immediately access individual articles at a cost lower than traditional interlibrary loan, pay per view, or document delivery. The goal of this session is to explore the economics of collection management from the perspective of supplying needed scholarly articles and discuss how new technologies like ReadCube Access and PDA can support that aim. The session will involve a frank discussion of the effects of and attitudes toward illicit file sharing, from which the audience will learn about the scale of file sharing and how it affects the perceived value and, therefore, funding of libraries. An interactive workshop on cost-per-use assessment for various acquisition mechanisms will elucidate how the economics of acquisition mechanisms change with demand and under which conditions PDA will save libraries money while increasing patron engagement and satisfaction

Radionuclide Leaching from Residual Soils: Screening Study

Four soil samples, collected from a National Priorities Listed site contaminated with uranium, thorium, and radium, were leached for two, seven, and 30 days. The nonleached soils, leached soils, and leachates were analyzed using gamma spectroscopy, alpha spectroscopy, and delayed neutron activation. Unleached and leached soils had low radionuclide activities, and four different leaching solutions had no significant observable effect upon the resulting leachate activity. Three of the soils produced leachates with uranium activities below the expected primary drinking water standard of 30 µg/L for uranium, but the leachate from the fourth soil had an unacceptably high concentration of uranium (653 µg/L) despite the low activity of the original, unleached soil. Distribution coefficients calculated for uranium ranged from 100 to 12,000 mL/g, while distribution coefficients for 226Ra, 228Ra, 228Th, 137Cs, and 40K ranged from 1 to 20 mL/g. The uranium distribution coefficient was strongly correlated to the leachate alkalinity, suggesting that conditions resulting in high alkalinity yield a high potential to leach uranium