The hilltop enclosure on Cluny Hill, Forres: description, destruction, disappearance

This is the author accepted manuscript.This report addresses the documented history of a fortified enclosure on Cluny Hill in Forres, Moray. It reviews the published evidence to date, finding it to be both limited and and often unreliable. Three primary sources are established in Pococke (1887), Chalmers (1907) and Algie (1887). Additional evidence is identified in the Chalmers Archive (National Library of Scotland) and 19th century press reports. These reinforce the claim of a significant earthwork being visible c. 1800, extensively modified through construction of paths, and memorialised by the planting of yew trees in 1846. This information is compared with the current state of the hill through LIDAR and direct visual inspection. Extensive ditch-like depressions and yew trees are found to correspond closely with the historical testimony. The process by which a probable enclosure was both partially destroyed and obscured by the creation of a wooded parkland is documented. The report concludes with brief reflections on interpretation and recommends further non-invasive survey

Developing downloadable TUIs for online pedagogic activities

The Web has changed how we interact with the World’s information and knowledge. As a result there have been several changes to the education sector, especially in online distance learning. Nevertheless, most of the e-Learning activities struggle to break the GUI paradigm. The HCI community has focused on the use of Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) for pedagogic purposes thus producing some evidence of the potential that embodied cognition might bring to constructivist learning. New education movements such as the Edupunk movement argue for an empowerment of independent learners, following the constructivist perspective where learners have to have a more active role by experimenting and discovering concepts on their own. However, we think that accessing TUI systems via Web can lead to pedagogic activities that break the GUI paradigm in education on the Web. This paper presents a case study: three prototypes of TUIs for online learning and exploration were developed and tested, investigating the usability and engagement provided by this kind of interactive tools

Optimal pseudorandom sequence selection for online c-VEP based BCI control applications

<div><p>Background</p><p>In a c-VEP BCI setting, test subjects can have highly varying performances when different pseudorandom sequences are applied as stimulus, and ideally, multiple codes should be supported. On the other hand, repeating the experiment with many different pseudorandom sequences is a laborious process.</p><p>Aims</p><p>This study aimed to suggest an efficient method for choosing the optimal stimulus sequence based on a fast test and simple measures to increase the performance and minimize the time consumption for research trials.</p><p>Methods</p><p>A total of 21 healthy subjects were included in an online wheelchair control task and completed the same task using stimuli based on the m-code, the gold-code, and the Barker-code. Correct/incorrect identification and time consumption were obtained for each identification. Subject-specific templates were characterized and used in a forward-step first-order model to predict the chance of completion and accuracy score.</p><p>Results</p><p>No specific pseudorandom sequence showed superior accuracy on the group basis. When isolating the individual performances with the highest accuracy, time consumption per identification was not significantly increased. The Accuracy Score aids in predicting what pseudorandom sequence will lead to the best performance using only the templates. The Accuracy Score was higher when the template resembled a delta function the most and when repeated templates were consistent. For completion prediction, only the shape of the template was a significant predictor.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>The simple and fast method presented in this study as the Accuracy Score, allows c-VEP based BCI systems to support multiple pseudorandom sequences without increase in trial length. This allows for more personalized BCI systems with better performance to be tested without increased costs.</p></div

Peripleo: a tool for exploring heterogenous data through the dimensions of space and time

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Code4Lib via the URL in this record.This article introduces Peripleo, a prototype spatiotemporal search and visualization tool. Peripleo enables users to explore the geographic, temporal and thematic composition of distributed digital collections in their entirety, and then to progressively filter and drill down to explore individual records. We provide an overview of Peripleo's features, and present the underlying technical architecture. Furthermore, we discuss how datasets that differ vastly in terms of size, content type and theme can be made uniformly accessible through a set of lightweight metadata conventions we term “connectivity through common references”. Our current demo installation links approximately half a million records from 25 datasets. These datasets originate from a spectrum of sources, ranging from the small personal photo collection with 35 records, to the large institutional database with 134.000 objects. The product of research in the Andrew W. Mellon-funded Pelagios 3 project, Peripleo is Open Source software.The authors wish to thank the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for funding this work

Practitioners’ perspectives on quality of life in aphasia rehabilitation in Denmark

Objective: This study reports on Danish speech and language therapists’ knowledge and understanding of quality of life (QOL) in aphasia, including therapists’ views on education and training in relation to preparedness for working on QOL, use of measures, and barriers to applying QOL in practice. Methods: 14 Danish clinicians completed a 48-item online questionnaire regarding their views, perspectives and practices that included multiple-choice questions, rating scales, and boxes permitting free text responses. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the numerical data, and content analysis was applied to text responses. Results: The clinicians interpreted QOL as subjective wellbeing and participation, and explored it with most clients and relatives using informal methods, primarily conversation, for the purposes of identifying relevant goals to direct treatment. Clinicians perceived a need for greater theoretical, practical and experiential knowledge regarding QOL. They also identified a need for translated QOL instruments and training in these measures in practice. Conclusion: Despite a reported lack of knowledge about and tools for measuring QOL, Danish clinicians are applying QOL issues in their practice and perceive these issues as valuable and important in assessment and therapy. The findings have clear implications for tool development, and workforce education

A consistent interpretation of the stochastic version of the Ensemble Kalman Filter

Ensemble Kalman Filters are used extensively in all geoscience areas. Often a stochastic variant is used, in which each ensemble member is updated via the Kalman Filter equation with an extra perturbation in the innovation. These perturbations are essential for the correct ensemble spread in a stochastic Ensemble Kalman Filter, and are applied either to the observations or to the modeled observations. This paper investigates if there is a preference for any of these two perturbation methods. Both versions lead to the same posterior mean and covariance when the prior and the likelihood are Gaussian in the state. However, ensemble verification methods, Bayes Theorem and the Best Linear Unbiased Estimate (BLUE) suggest that one should perturb the modeled observations. Furthermore, it is known that in non-Gaussian settings the perturbed modeled observation scheme is preferred, illustrated here for a skewed likelihood. Existing reasons for the perturbed observation scheme are shown to be incorrect, and no new arguments in favor of that scheme have been found. Finally, a new and consistent derivation and interpretation of the stochastic version of the EnKF equations is derived based on perturbing modeled observations. It is argued that these results have direct consequences for (iterative) Ensemble Kalman Filters and Smoothers, including 'perturbed observation' 3D- and 4DVars, both in terms of internal consistency and implementation

Relative effects on stratospheric ozone of halogenated methanes and ethanes of social and industrial interest

Four atmospheric modeling groups have calculated relative effects of several halocarbons (chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's)-11, 12, 113, 114, and 115; hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC's) 22, 123, 124, 141b, and 142b; hydrofluorocarbons (HFC's) 125, 134a, 143a, and 152a, carbon tetrachloride; and methyl chloroform) on stratospheric ozone. Effects on stratospheric ozone were calculated for each compound and normalized relative to the effect of CFC-11. These models include the representations for homogeneous physical and chemical processes in the middle atmosphere but do no account for either heterogeneous chemistry or polar dynamics which are important in the spring time loss of ozone over Antarctica. Relative calculated effects using a range of models compare reasonably well. Within the limits of the uncertainties of these model results, compounds now under consideration as functional replacements for fully halogenated compounds have modeled stratospheric ozone reductions of 10 percent or less of that of CFC-11. Sensitivity analyses examined the sensitivity of relative calculated effects to levels of other trace gases, assumed transport in the models, and latitudinal and seasonal local dependencies. Relative effects on polar ozone are discussed in the context of evolving information on the special processes affecting ozone, especially during polar winter-springtime. Lastly, the time dependency of relative effects were calculated

Permafrost temperatures and active layer thickness in Svalbard during 2017/2018 (PermaSval)

This report follows up on the report published in the SESS Report 2018 (Christiansen et al. 2019). Since 2018, the Norwegian Environment Agency has released the Climate in Svalbard 2100 report summarizing observed trends in permafrost conditions over the period of field measurements and a forecast for the future, based on recent climate and permafrost modelling (Hanssen-Bauer et al. 2019). It is well established that the terrestrial cryosphere in Svalbard has changed since modern permafrost monitoring efforts began in the late 1990s. In central Svalbard in the Adventdalen area, ground temperatures have risen by as much as 0.15°C per year (10 m depth) and the thickness of the seasonally-unfrozen active layer increased by 0.6 cm per year since 2000 in sediments and 1.6 cm/year in bedrock (Hanssen-Bauer et al. 2019), while in Ny-Ålesund ground temperatures increased by 0.18°C/year and the thickness of active layer increased by 5 cm/year (Boike et al. 2018). Modern monitoring techniques mean that it is relatively easy to quantify permafrost change in terms of temperature. The visible effects of warming permafrost are, however, more ambiguous. A prolonged thaw season is anticipated to result in a thicker active layer, and increased rainfall intensity can result in more frequent landslides. The strength of frozen soil decreases when warming and permafrost change may expectedly result in infrastructure problems in cases where climate change was not considered during the initial design. The aims of this part of the State of Environmental Science in Svalbard reporting are to: (1) provide an overview of permafrost data collected during the 2017-2018 hydrological year (1 September 2017 – 31 August 2018), (2) contrast these results with the 2016-2017 hydrological year as presented in Christiansen et al. (2019), (3) summarise developments in permafrost monitoring in Svalbard, and (4) provide recommendations for future permafrost investigations. Understanding the spatial distribution of permafrost conditions is critical to predicting geomorphological change and understanding the variability in climate impacts. 2371

Radiative forcing in the 21st century due to ozone changes in the troposphere and the lower stratosphere

Radiative forcing due to changes in ozone is expected for the 21st century. An assessment on changes in the tropospheric oxidative state through a model intercomparison ("OxComp'') was conducted for the IPCC Third Assessment Report (IPCC-TAR). OxComp estimated tropospheric changes in ozone and other oxidants during the 21st century based on the "SRES'' A2p emission scenario. In this study we analyze the results of 11 chemical transport models (CTMs) that participated in OxComp and use them as input for detailed radiative forcing calculations. We also address future ozone recovery in the lower stratosphere and its impact on radiative forcing by applying two models that calculate both tropospheric and stratospheric changes. The results of OxComp suggest an increase in global-mean tropospheric ozone between 11.4 and 20.5 DU for the 21st century, representing the model uncertainty range for the A2p scenario. As the A2p scenario constitutes the worst case proposed in IPCC-TAR we consider these results as an upper estimate. The radiative transfer model yields a positive radiative forcing ranging from 0.40 to 0.78 W m(-2) on a global and annual average. The lower stratosphere contributes an additional 7.5-9.3 DU to the calculated increase in the ozone column, increasing radiative forcing by 0.15-0.17 W m(-2). The modeled radiative forcing depends on the height distribution and geographical pattern of predicted ozone changes and shows a distinct seasonal variation. Despite the large variations between the 11 participating models, the calculated range for normalized radiative forcing is within 25%, indicating the ability to scale radiative forcing to global-mean ozone column change