scholarly journals Regional Differences in Spatiotemporal Drought Characteristics in Great Britain

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maliko Tanguy ◽  
Klaus Haslinger ◽  
Cecilia Svensson ◽  
Simon Parry ◽  
Lucy J. Barker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Transition Region ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Spatial Coherence ◽  
Grid Cell ◽  
Extreme Drought ◽  
North West ◽  
Drought Characteristics

Despite being one of the most damaging natural hazards, droughts and their spatiotemporal dynamics are typically not well understood. Great Britain, which is the focus of this work, has experienced many major drought episodes in the past, causing a range of socioeconomic and environmental impacts. Here, we apply a recently developed technique to identify and characterise past droughts, using space-time connectivity to extract events from a monthly gridded precipitation dataset covering 1862–2015, without imposing fixed geographical boundaries or time-frames. For each grid cell, the data was aggregated into four new time series using moving averages over 3-, 6-, 12- and 24-month windows. These reflect a range of response times for different types of drought impacts. Drought events were then extracted for each time window separately. In order to assess regional differences in drought characteristics, each extracted drought was assigned to one of three regions: the South-East (SE), the North-West (NW) and a “Transition” region in-between them. A frequency analysis of drought characteristics (duration, area, intensity and severity) highlighted differences between regions: for short and medium accumulation periods (3, 6, and 12 months), short and less severe droughts are more frequent in the NW than in the SE, whereas long, spatially extended and more severe droughts are more frequent in the SE than in the NW. However, for long accumulation periods (24 months), fewer differences are observed between the NW and the SE. In the “Transition” region, severe droughts are less frequent than in the other two regions. A timeline of historic drought events detected by our method included the vast majority of known drought events from previous studies, with a few additional ones, and we shed important new light on the relative severity of these historical drought episodes. Finally, an analysis of the spatial coherence between regions showed that the most extreme drought events presented little spatial coherence, whereas less severe droughts tend to be more spatially coherent. This has important implications for water resources planning and drought management strategies, particularly given the increasing emphasis on inter-regional water transfers as a potential solution in situations of extreme drought.

Recession and the Regions in Great Britain, 1976–1980: Analyses of Redundancy Data

1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 1389-1404 ◽  
Author(s):  
A R Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Regional Data ◽  
The West ◽  
Industrial Composition ◽  
British Economy ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
Policy Interest

The severe downturn in the British economy in 1980 is apparent in regional data for employment (provisional), redundancies, and unemployment. Five shift-share analyses are used here to explore the data on employment and redundancies, three of them conducted at ‘minimum list heading’ level. The period 1976 to 1979 is one of poor performance by regions of traditional policy interest, whereas the events of 1980 are seen as essentially a national phenomenon. However, bias in the industrial composition of the recession towards manufacturing in general and towards certain individual products is sufficient to focus its very worst effects on Wales, the West Midlands, and the North West.

scholarly journals Investigating Gender Differences in Human Interactions with a Transparent Swarm

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 853-857
Author(s):  
Aya Hussein ◽  
Sondoss Elsawah ◽  
Hussein Abbass
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
User Study ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Team Collaboration ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
And Performance

Research suggests that different operationalisations of automation transparency can influence team collaboration and performance. Yet, little is known about how gender differences can affect humans’ ability to process the information provided by their automation teammate when the automation is transparent. The significance of this research question stems from the fact that the broader areas of judgment and decision making show that females and males deploy different information processing strategies. The aim of this paper is to explore whether gender differences exist in the way people interact with a transparent swarm. We conducted a user study in which 33 subjects (15 males and 18 females) interacted with a simulated swarm under two conditions: with and without transparency. While no significant differences were detected under the control condition, results indicate that when transparency was added, males were able to utilise transparency early on, while females needed significantly more time to benefit from it. Besides, under the transparency condition, females exhibited significantly longer response times than males. However, as time progresses and towards the last time window of the experiment, females could achieve slightly higher decision accuracy than males. These findings stress the need to consider gender differences when designing transparent human-machine interaction and its training protocols.

Transfer to terrestrial surfaces

1984 ◽  
Vol 305 (1124) ◽  
pp. 281-297 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Stomatal Conductance ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Dry Deposition ◽  
Wet Deposition ◽  
Atmospheric Pollutants ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
Particulate Pollutants

The processes by which atmospheric pollutants are transferred to the ground may be placed into two categories. Wet deposition, which includes all pollution reaching the surface in precipitation, and dry deposition which includes the sorption of gases and capture of particulate pollutants by terrestrial surfaces. The properties of each of the removal mechanisms are described for the gases SO 2 , NO 2 , HNO 3 and the atmospheric aerosols containing sulphate and nitrate. Following a description of the processes, rates of deposition appropriate for a range of vegetation and atmospheric conditions are provided. The influence of changes in the properties of absorbing surfaces due to the presence of water or for vegetation to changes in stomatal conductance is discussed. The use of transfer resistances to describe the mechanism of deposition is then extended to provide estimates of dry deposition of SO 2 on to Great Britain which are contrasted with wet deposition. The resulting maps show that over most of England, including central, eastern and southern areas, dry deposition exceeds wet deposition. For north west England, Wales and northern Scotland, particularly the large rainfall districts of the west, wet deposition exceeds dry deposition.

scholarly journals New bioeroding sponges from Mingulay coldwater reefs, north-west Scotland

2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob W.M. van Soest ◽  
Elly J. Beglinger
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
The Other ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
North West ◽  
Deep Waters ◽  
Superficial Resemblance ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
First Occurrence ◽  
The Pacific Ocean

The relatively shallow coldwater coral reefs growing off the eastern coast of Mingulay, north-west Scotland, are excavated by five sponge species, three of which, Alectona millari, Pione vastifica and Cliona lobata, were known previously from Scottish waters. The other two species are new to Scotland and Great Britain. One species is here described as new to science: Cliona caledoniae sp. nov. The species shows a superficial resemblance in colour (orange) and spiculation (possession of tylostyles and knobby microscleres) to Cliothosa hancocki described disjunctly from the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, but it differs clearly in lacking the characteristic Cliothosa amphiasters with branching rays. The Scottish species only possesses peculiar thick-rayed streptasters, which at first glance appear rather similar to the second microsclere type reported for Cliothosa hancocki, knobby-rayed amphiasters. However, the majority of the microscleres in the Mingulay species appear to be genuine spirasters (not amphiasters), and exhaustive search for true amphiasters, branching or otherwise, was in vain. The new species is extensively illustrated. Furthermore, we also report the first occurrence in British waters of Spiroxya levispira, originally described from Azorean deep waters, and subsequently reported from Madeira and several Mediterranean localities. It was found to occur not uncommonly in the Mingulay reefs, and additionally also in reefs of the Rockall Bank, west of Ireland. The spicular characters generally match those of the southern locations. The newly recorded species is described and amply illustrated.

scholarly journals Vitamin D: seasonal and regional differences in preschool children in Great Britain

1999 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
PSW Davies ◽  
CJ Bates ◽  
TJ Cole ◽  
A Prentice ◽  
PC Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin D ◽  
Preschool Children ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Regional Differences

Lead isotope abundance studies on mineral occurrences in the British Isles and their geological significance

1962 ◽  
Vol 254 (1042) ◽  
pp. 295-360 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Excellent Agreement ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Lead Isotope ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
North West ◽  
Basement Rocks ◽  
Metamorphic Basement

Lead isotope abundances are reported for ninety-eight galena specimens from Great Britain and Ireland. The analyses were made with a solid-source mass spectrometer. Comparison analyses show excellent agreement with results from other laboratories using solid-source techniques, but differences of 1 to 5% may occur for individual abundances when comparison is made with laboratories utilizing the lead tetramethyl vapour technique. The model chosen for calculation of ages from the isotopic composition is that of Holmes and Houtermans, using the published values of Patterson for the isotopic comparison of primeval lead in iron meteorites and modern lead in ocean sediments. This model permits calculation of the parameters uranium-238/lead-204 and thorium-232/uranium-238 in the source of the ores, which may exhibit small regional differences. The Holmes-Houtermans model ages of three suites of galenas from south-west England, northern England and southern Norway give excellent agreement with published values of the absolute ages of genetically associated igneous rocks. Other models used for interpreting lead isotope abundances do not generally give such satisfactory agreement. The significance of the isotope data from Great Britain and Ireland is discussed regionally in terms of the age of mineralization as well as the possible correlation and origin of different deposits. Of the ninety-eight leads investigated, eighty-six are assumed to be normal and to obey the conditions of the Holmes-Houtermans model. The remaining twelve are B -type leads, as defined by Houtermans, i.e. the model ages are demonstrably older than the true age of mineralization. The main criteria for recognizing normal leads are, first, the close regional grouping of isotope abundances and, secondly, that the model age does not exceed the age of the enclosing sedimentary rocks on the basis of the most recently published geological time-scales of the fossiliferous strata. Detailed consideration of normal leads suggests the existence of six periods of mineralization in the British Isles, ranging in age from Lower Palaeozoic to Upper Mesozoic. The two most important and clearly defined groups are associated with the Caledonian and Hercynian orogenies, respectively. There is, as yet, no isotopic evidence for Tertiary mineralization in the British Isles. A discussion of the causes of normal lead isotope abundances indicates that the latter could be the result of large-scale crustal homogenization processes in continental geosynclinal-orogenic belts. However, there is not enough critical evidence to identify definitely the source of normal lead ores with either crust or mantle. B -type leads probably arise by comparatively localized remobilization and regeneration of lead from metamorphic basement complexes with high lead/uranium ratios, or low radiogenic lead content. The source of such leads frequently appears to be somewhat heterogeneous and ore solutions may not have the opportunity for extensive mixing before the site of deposition is reached. However, B -type leads in some cases give an approximation to the true age of the basement rocks from which they are derived. Processes of this type probably account for the 5-type leads in the north-west and central highlands of Scotland and in County Galway, western Ireland, where the occurrences are situated in metamorphic basement rocks. No cases have been definitely recognized within the British Isles in which lead has a negative, or anomalously young, model age ( J -type leads). The results presented in this paper do not support the view of Russell and co-workers that most vein-type deposits which have traversed sedimentary rocks exhibit J -type anomalies—a consequence of their suggestion that B -type leads, as defined by Houtermans, should be regarded as normal leads.

scholarly journals Statistical Downscaling Using Localized Constructed Analogs (LOCA)*

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 2558-2585 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Pierce ◽  
Daniel R. Cayan ◽  
Bridget L. Thrasher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Model ◽  
Spatial Coherence ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Grid Cell ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Climate Model Simulations ◽  
A New Technique ◽  
The One

Abstract A new technique for statistically downscaling climate model simulations of daily temperature and precipitation is introduced and demonstrated over the western United States. The localized constructed analogs (LOCA) method produces downscaled estimates suitable for hydrological simulations using a multiscale spatial matching scheme to pick appropriate analog days from observations. First, a pool of candidate observed analog days is chosen by matching the model field to be downscaled to observed days over the region that is positively correlated with the point being downscaled, which leads to a natural independence of the downscaling results to the extent of the domain being downscaled. Then, the one candidate analog day that best matches in the local area around the grid cell being downscaled is the single analog day used there. Most grid cells are downscaled using only the single locally selected analog day, but locations whose neighboring cells identify a different analog day use a weighted combination of the center and adjacent analog days to reduce edge discontinuities. By contrast, existing constructed analog methods typically use a weighted average of the same 30 analog days for the entire domain. By greatly reducing this averaging, LOCA produces better estimates of extreme days, constructs a more realistic depiction of the spatial coherence of the downscaled field, and reduces the problem of producing too many light-precipitation days. The LOCA method is more computationally expensive than existing constructed analog techniques, but it is still practical for downscaling numerous climate model simulations with limited computational resources.

scholarly journals Stimulus Specific to Age-Related Audio-Visual Integration in Discrimination Tasks

i-Perception ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 204166952097841
Author(s):  
Yanna Ren ◽  
Zhihan Xu ◽  
Sa Lu ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Weiping Yang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Race Model ◽  
Compensatory Mechanism ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Visual Integration ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Mean

Age-related audio-visual integration (AVI) has been investigated extensively; however, AVI ability is either enhanced or reduced with ageing, and this matter is still controversial because of the lack of systematic investigations. To remove possible variates, 26 older adults and 26 younger adults were recruited to conduct meaningless and semantic audio-visual discrimination tasks to assess the ageing effect of AVI systematically. The results for the mean response times showed a significantly faster response to the audio-visual (AV) target than that to the auditory (A) or visual (V) target and a significantly faster response to all targets by the younger adults than that by the older adults (A, V, and AV) in all conditions. In addition, a further comparison of the differences between the probability of audio-visual cumulative distributive functions (CDFs) and race model CDFs showed delayed AVI effects and a longer time window for AVI in older adults than that in younger adults in all conditions. The AVI effect was lower in older adults than that in younger adults during simple meaningless image discrimination (63.0 ms vs. 108.8 ms), but the findings were inverse during semantic image discrimination (310.3 ms vs. 127.2 ms). In addition, there was no significant difference between older and younger adults during semantic character discrimination (98.1 ms vs. 117.2 ms). These results suggested that AVI ability was impaired in older adults, but a compensatory mechanism was established for processing sematic audio-visual stimuli.

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