Derivation of the UK national and regional runoff series

This technical report details the derivation and updating of the daily and monthly outflow series for the UK and its constituent parts. These series are widely exploited in the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (NHMP), to meet international data exchange obligations, and in an extensive range of research applications particularly those relating to the detection and quantification of hydrological trends at the macro scale. The selection criteria for the individual gauging stations which provide the basis for the calculation of the national and regional outflow series are discussed together with the methodology used to assess flows for the ungauged areas in each domain (here taken to include both national and regional divisions) and thence to derive a time series of total daily outflows for the post‑1960 period

"Nah, musing is fine. You don't have to be 'doing science'": emotional and descriptive meaning-making in online non-professional discussions about science

In this thesis I use online settings to explore how descriptive and emotional forms of meaning-making interact in non-professional discussions around ‘science’. Data was collected from four participatory online fora, from March 2015 to February 2016. Posts and comments from these fora were examined through discourse analysis, supplemented by interviews with participants and computer-aided text analysis, over the period August 2015 to August 2017. Theoretical background drew on Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Fan Studies (FS), to examine how science was presented in both descriptive and emotional terms. There were two main findings. Firstly, discussions were shaped by an expectation that members should respect mainstream scientific consensus. In a manner familiar from STS, participants treated claims which went against scientific consensus as incorrect or noncredible. Responses also showed emotional aspects which shaped participation. Respect for scientific consensus facilitated social bonding and expression of community values, while disrespect was met with anger and/or ridicule. Through normalisation of such behaviour, scientific authority was maintained by communal sanctions rather than accredited expertise. The second main finding was a distinction between two forms of discourse, which I refer to as musing and identifying. In musing, participants focussed on specific phenomena, technologies and science-related concepts. Emotional language in such discourse was generally positive, but explicit mentions of people were rare. In identifying, participants reflected on processes of discussing and making/assessing claims; in doing so they foregrounded references to people. Emotional references in identifying tended to involve frustration, concern, and scorn. These findings develop STS understanding of how engagement with science takes place outside of professional research, communication, and/or education; and, more broadly, how discourse around science can be shaped by emotional attachments and informal norms. This thesis also contributes a discourse analytic perspective to recent debates around the interaction of expertise and emotion online

Climate Dynamics

A Masters level modul

NCPT – managing environmental gains and losses

How a new practical tool enables non-specialists to systematically assess and manage planning and development impacts on natural capital

Fuzzy Navigation Engine: Mitigating the Cognitive Demands of Semi-Natural Locomotion

Many interfaces exist for locomotion in virtual reality, although they are rarely considered fully natural. Past research has found that using such interfaces places cognitive demands on the user, with unnatural actions and concurrent tasks competing for finite cognitive resources. Notably, using semi-natural interfaces leads to poor performance on concurrent tasks requiring spatial working memory. This paper presents an adaptive system designed to track a user\u27s concurrent cognitive task load and adjust interface parameters accordingly, varying the extent to which movement is fully natural. A fuzzy inference system is described and the results of an initial validation study are presented. Users of this adaptive interface demonstrated better performance than users of a baseline interface on several movement metrics, indicating that the adaptive interface helped users manage the demands of concurrent spatial tasks in a virtual environment. However, participants experienced some unexpected difficulties when faced with a concurrent verbal task

Prevalence and clinical characteristics of phenobarbitone-associated adverse effects in epileptic cats

Objectives: The study objective was to investigate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of phenobarbitone-associated adverse effects in epileptic cats. Methods: The medical records of two veterinary referral clinics from 2007 to 2017 were searched for cats fulfilling the inclusion criteria of a diagnosis of epilepsy, treatment with phenobarbitone and available follow-up information on the occurrence of adverse effects. Follow-up information was obtained from the medical records of the primary veterinarian and referral institutions and a questionnaire completed by the cats’ owners. Results: Seventy-seven cats met the inclusion criteria. Fifty-eight were affected by idiopathic epilepsy and 19 by structural epilepsy. One or more of the following adverse effects were reported in 47% of the cats: sedation (89%); ataxia (53%); polyphagia (22%); polydipsia (6%); polyuria (6%); and anorexia (6%). Logistic regression analyses revealed significant associations between adverse effect occurrence and both phenobarbitone starting dosage and administration of a second antiepileptic drug (AED). For each 1 mg/kg q12h increment of phenobarbitone, the likelihood of adverse effects increased 3.1 times. When a second AED was used, the likelihood of adverse effects increased 3.2 times. No association was identified between epilepsy aetiology and adverse effect occurrence. An idiosyncratic adverse effect, characterised by severe neutropenia and granulocytic hypoplasia, was diagnosed in one cat. This resolved following phenobarbitone discontinuation. Conclusions and relevance: The prevalence of phenobarbitone-associated adverse effects was 47%. Sedation and ataxia were most common. These are type A adverse effects and are predictable from phenobarbitone’s known pharmacological properties. In the majority of cases, adverse effects occurred within the first month of treatment and were transient. Idiosyncratic (type B) adverse effects, which were not anticipated given the known properties of the drug, occurred in one cat. Increased phenobarbitone starting dosage and the addition of a second AED were significantly associated with the occurrence of adverse effects

Basal conditions of two Transantarctic Mountains outlet glaciers from observation-constrained diagnostic modelling

This is the published version. Copyright 2014 International Glaciological SocietyWe present a diagnostic glacier flowline model parameterized and constrained by new velocity data from ice-surface GPS installations and speckle tracking of TerraSAR-X satellite images, newly acquired airborne-radar data, and continental gridded datasets of topography and geothermal heat flux, in order to better understand two outlet glaciers of the East Antarctic ice sheet. Our observational data are employed as primary inputs to a modelling procedure that first calculates the basal thermal regime of each glacier, then iterates the basal sliding coefficient and deformation rate parameter until the fit of simulated to observed surface velocities is optimized. We find that the two glaciers have both frozen and thawed areas at their beds, facilitating partial sliding. Glacier flow arises from a balance between sliding and deformation that fluctuates along the length of each glacier, with the amount of sliding typically varying by up to two orders of magnitude but with deformation rates far more constant. Beardmore Glacier is warmer and faster-flowing than Skelton Glacier, but an up-glacier deepening bed at the grounding line, coupled with ice thicknesses close to flotation, lead us to infer a greater vulnerability of Skelton Glacier to grounding-line recession if affected by ocean-forced thinning and concomitant acceleration