Deglaciation in the Andean Region

human development, climate change

Media representations of uncertainty about climate change

This commentary first explains why it is important to study media representations of uncertainty around climate change. It then surveys the extensive literature on climate change and the media, and within this, the two bodies of scholarship relevant to media representations of uncertainty: i) ‘uncertainty’ as a dominant frame or discourse in media treatments; and ii) the presence of scepticism, in its various manifestations, in traditional and new media. The commentary then shows how the four submitted works have added to the existing literature: i) they have deepened understanding of the country differences between a wide variety of ‘Anglosphere’ countries and non-‘Anglosphere’ countries. Three of the works stand out for including three of the BRIC countries (Brazil, China and India) who are major emitters and major players in international negotiations; ii) they were the first to apply a taxonomy of scepticism to the content analysis, which gave a more nuanced appreciation of what type of climate scepticism can be found in which part of which newspaper in which country; iii) together they provide very large data sets over a period stretching from 2007 to 2012, which have not been replicated in the academic literature; and iv) one of the studies was the first to compare an uncertainty framing with other dominant frames such as ‘disaster’ and ‘explicit risk’. A critique is then given of the heavily quantitative approach used in the content analysis found in the works. It argues that a combination of a quantitative and a qualitative approach would have supplied more nuanced results. It revisits articles in the UK print media in 2009/10 and applies a different research method. The results suggest that a newspaper’s ideological leaning is an important driver of the treatment of climate science and scientists not just in its opinion pages, but in its news pages too. It concludes by placing this finding and others demonstrated in the submitted works within future priority areas of research identified by other scholars: the global characteristics of climate reporting and the drivers of country differences; the changing nature of sceptical discourse; and the role the media plays in fuelling, or reflecting, the political polarisation around climate change

Rocket nozzle thermal shock tests in an arc heater facility

A rocket motor nozzle thermal structural test technique that utilizes arc heated nitrogen to simulate a motor burn was developed. The technique was used to test four heavily instrumented full-scale Star 48 rocket motor 2D carbon/carbon segments at conditions simulating the predicted thermal-structural environment. All four nozzles survived the tests without catastrophic or other structural failures. The test technique demonstrated promise as a low cost, controllable alternative to rocket motor firing. The technique includes the capability of rapid termination in the event of failure, allowing post-test analysis

Book Review: climate change in the media: reporting risk and uncertainty by James Painter

With extreme weather on the rise across the globe, the way that the media reports climate change and its potential for damage is becoming increasingly important. In Climate Change in the Media: Reporting Risk and Uncertainty, James Painter looks at the way in which newspapers have shifted the way that they report climate change from a language of uncertainty to one of risk. Christopher Shaw finds this book to be a useful summary of climate politics and climate risk, but critiques the lack of discussion on how newspapers’ commercial pressures help to contribute to the wider discourse of excessive consumption, which in turn contributes to climate change

Disaster, uncertainty, opportunity or risk? : key messages from the television coverage of the IPCC's 2013/2014 reports

This article examines the television coverage of the three 2013 and 2014 reports by the Working Groups of the IPCC in five European countries: Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. The presence, salience and dominance of four frames (disaster, uncertainty, explicit risk and opportunity) were examined in each of the bulletins monitored. The «disaster» frame was the strongest of all the frames, measured by all three metrics. «Opportunity» was the next most present, followed by «uncertainty». Although the IPCC put considerable emphasis on a risk management approach to tackling climate change in its communication of the WG2 report, the «explicit risk» frame was hardly present. The UK stood out for including some coverage of sceptical viewpoints

Radioptimization - Goal based rendering

Journal ArticleThis paper presents a method for designing the illumination in an environment using optimization techniques applied to a radiosity based image synthesis system. An optimization of lighting parameters is performed based on user specified constraints and objectives for the illumination of t h e environment. The system solves for t h e "best" possible settings for: light source emissivities, element reflectivities, and spot light directionality parameters so that the design goals, such as to minimize energy or to give the the room an impression of privacy, are met. The system absorbs much of the burden for searching the design space allowing the user to focus on the goals of the illumination design rather than the intricate details of a complete lighting specification. A software implementation is described and some results of using the system are reported. The system employs an object space perceptual model based on work by Tumblin and Rushmeier to account for psychophysical effects such as subjective brightness and the visual adaptation level of a viewer. This provides a higher fidelity when comparing the illumination in a computer simulated environment against what would be viewed in the "real" world. Optimization criteria are based on subjective impressions of illumination with qualities such as "pleasantness", and "privateness". The qualities were selected based on Flynn's work in illuminating engineering. These criteria were applied to the radiosity context through an experiment conducted with subjects viewing rendered images, and the respondents evaluated with a Multi-Dimensional Scaling analysis

A Review and update of the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS)

Summary Aims and method: The Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) and older adults version (HoNOS 65+) have been used widely for 20 years but their glossaries have not been revised to reflect clinicians’ experiences or changes in service delivery. The Royal College of Psychiatrists convened an international advisory board, with UK, Australian and New Zealand expertise, to identify desirable amendments. The aim was to improve rater experience by removing ambiguity and inconsistency in the glossary rather than more radical revision. Results Changes proposed to the HoNOS are reported. HoNOS65+ changes will be reported separately. Based on the views and experience of the countries involved a series of amendments were identified. Clinical implications While effective clinician training remains critically important, these revisions aim to improve intra- and inter-rater reliability and improve validity. Next steps will depend on feedback from HoNOS users. Reliability and validity testing will depend on funding. Declaration of interest None

Effect of Nutrition Education on Nutrition Knowledge and Dietary Intake of Elderly Residents at University Village Retirement Center

Food, Nutrition and Institution Administratio