An Earth Networks Lightning Climatology Using Thunder Hours 

Author(s):  
Jeff Lapierre ◽  
Elizabeth DiGangi ◽  
Michael Stock

<p>Lightning data are often used to measure the location and intensity of thunderstorms. Long term trends of thunderstorm activity can be a helpful tool for understanding our changing climate. This study presents data from the Earth Networks Global Lightning Network (ENGLN) in the form of thunder hours. A thunder hour is defined as an hour during which thunder can be heard from a given location. Thunder hours are an intuitive measure of lightning since the one-hour interval represents the life span of most airmass thunderstorms. Examining long-term lightning patterns in the context of thunder hours lends insight into thunderstorm activity without being heavily influenced by individual storm intensity, shedding light on patterns in storm activity associated with weaker thunderstorms. Thunder hour observations also reduce network performance dependencies in the dataset, making thunder hours particularly useful for studying climatology. Thunder hours have been calculated for the entire globe using 5 years of data from the ENGLN. To translate lightning flash locations to thunder hours, we converted the entire globe to a 0.05° grid, and we have slightly modified the definition of thunder-hour to an UTC hour during which lightning was located within 15 km of a given grid point. The 15 km criteria here is based on the approximate range at which thunder can be heard from a lightning flash. This study will examine global thunderstorm activity, highlighting diurnal and seasonal patterns observed across the globe.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Krueger ◽  
Frauke Feser ◽  
Christopher Kadow ◽  
Ralf Weisse

<p>Global atmospheric reanalyses are commonly applied for the validation of climate models, diagnostic studies, and driving higher resolution numerical models with the emphasis on assessing climate variability and long-term trends. Over recent years, longer reanalyses spanning a period of more than hundred years have become available. In this study, the variability and long-term trends of storm activity is assessed over the northeast Atlantic in modern centennial reanalysis datasets, namely ERA-20cm, ERA-20c, CERA-20c, and the 20CR-reanalysis suite with 20CRv3 being the most recent one. All reanalyses, except from ERA-20cm, assimilate surface pressure observations, whereby ERA-20C and CERA-20c additionally assimilate surface winds. For the assessment, the well-established storm index of higher annual percentiles of geostrophic wind speeds derived from pressure observations at sea level over a relatively densely monitored marine area is used.</p><p>The results indicate that the examined centennial reanalyses are not able to represent long-term trends of storm activity over the northeast Atlantic, particularly in the earlier years of the period examined when compared with the geostrophic wind index based on pressure observations. Moreover, the reanalyses show inconsistent long-term behaviour when compared with each other. Only in the latter half of the 20th century, the variability of reanalysed and observed storminess time series starts to agree with each other. Additionally, 20CRv3, the most recent centennial reanalysis examined, shows markedly improved results with increased uncertainty, albeit multidecadal storminess variability does not match observed values in earlier times before about 1920.</p><p>The behaviour shown by the centennial reanalyses are likely caused by the increasing number of assimilated observations, changes in the observational databases used, and the different underlying numerical model systems. Furthermore, the results derived from the ERA-20cm reanalysis that does not assimilate any pressure or wind observations suggests that the variability and uncertainty of storminess over the northeast Atlantic is high making it difficult to determine storm activity when numerical models are not bound by observations. The results of this study imply and reconfirm previous findings that the assessment of long-term storminess trends and variability in centennial reanalyses remains a rather delicate matter, at least for the northeast Atlantic region.</p>


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Giovanni Carta ◽  
Antonio Preti

Adjustment disorder is a condition of subjective emotional distress triggered as a consequence of a meaningful change in life. The diagnosis of adjustment disorder is hindered by the difficult operational definition of stress and of its related concept of “vulnerability,” by the problem of disentangling symptoms of adjustment disorder from those attributable to comorbid anxiety and mood disorders, and by the poor boundaries of the disorder with other stress-related conditions on the one hand and with common adaptation to life events on the other. Despite the high frequency of its diagnosis in clinical settings, there has been relatively little research on the adjustment disorder and, consequently, very few hints about its treatments. Several psychotherapies have been developed to deal with patients diagnosed with adjustment disorder, with inconclusive evidence on their effectiveness. Antidepressants may abate the symptoms and help patients reacquire occupational and social functioning. The medium-term outcome of adjustment disorder is good, with 70 to 80% of those diagnosed with it showing no evidence of psychopathology when reassessed 5 years from the episode. However, when comorbid with a personality disorder or a substance use disorder, the short-term risk of suicide may be increased. The long-term outcome of adjustment disorder seems to be worse in children and adolescents than in adults. In particular, adolescents diagnosed with adjustment disorder were more likely than adults to have received a diagnosis of a severe mental disorder at the 5-year follow-up, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder. This review contains 1 figure, 6 tables, and 52 references. Key words: adaptation, adjustment disorder, anxiety, depression, stress, trauma, treatment, vulnerability


Author(s):  
A. B. Bosshof ◽  
M. De V Visser

An operational definition of the concept of conflict is given and the implications of the definition discussed. The course of a conflict and the processes involved are described. An effort is made to show that the typical sequence of events in a conflict can be used to explain the (postulated) bad relationship between the motorist on the one hand and the traffic officer on the other hand. The negative effects of residual elements of unsatisfactorily resolved conflict situations between the two groups are emphasized. It is suggested that industrial psychologists have a role to play in the long-term solution of the negative relationship. Opsomming 'n Operasionele definisie van die begrip konflik word gegee en die implikasies daarvan bespreek. Die verloop van 'n konflik en die prosesse betrokke, word beskrywe. 'n Poging word aangewend om aan te toon dat die tipiese verloop van 'n konflik gebruik kan word om die (gepostuleerde) swak verhouding tussen motoriste aan die een kant en die verkeersbeamptes aan die ander kant te verklaar. Die negatiewe uitwerking van residuele effekte van onbevredigend opgeloste konfliksituasies tussen die twee groepe persone word beklemtoon. Daar word aan die hand gedoen dat bedryfsielkundiges 'n rol speel in die langtermynoplossing van die negatiewe verhouding.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Giovanni Carta ◽  
Antonio Preti

Adjustment disorder is a condition of subjective emotional distress triggered as a consequence of a meaningful change in life. The diagnosis of adjustment disorder is hindered by the difficult operational definition of stress and of its related concept of “vulnerability,” by the problem of disentangling symptoms of adjustment disorder from those attributable to comorbid anxiety and mood disorders, and by the poor boundaries of the disorder with other stress-related conditions on the one hand and with common adaptation to life events on the other. Despite the high frequency of its diagnosis in clinical settings, there has been relatively little research on the adjustment disorder and, consequently, very few hints about its treatments. Several psychotherapies have been developed to deal with patients diagnosed with adjustment disorder, with inconclusive evidence on their effectiveness. Antidepressants may abate the symptoms and help patients reacquire occupational and social functioning. The medium-term outcome of adjustment disorder is good, with 70 to 80% of those diagnosed with it showing no evidence of psychopathology when reassessed 5 years from the episode. However, when comorbid with a personality disorder or a substance use disorder, the short-term risk of suicide may be increased. The long-term outcome of adjustment disorder seems to be worse in children and adolescents than in adults. In particular, adolescents diagnosed with adjustment disorder were more likely than adults to have received a diagnosis of a severe mental disorder at the 5-year follow-up, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder. This review contains 1 figure, 6 tables, and 52 references. Key words: adaptation, adjustment disorder, anxiety, depression, stress, trauma, treatment, vulnerability


Asian Survey ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 970-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip C. Saunders

Long-term political, economic, and military trends are reshaping the security environment in the Taiwan Strait in potentially destabilizing ways and undermining the ““one China”” framework. The United States has become more deeply involved in cross-strait relations to maintain stability and preserve the status quo, but this approach may not be sustainable.


Author(s):  
Małgorzata Kirschenstein ◽  
Kamil Krasuski ◽  
Jaroslaw Kozuba ◽  
Miroslav Kelemen

The article presents an assessment of the long-term variability of storm activity in the aspect of potential threats to aircraft. The analysis of data from the period 1970–2018 was conducted for selected airports in Poland: Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport, IATA code: GDN, ICAO code: EPGD (54°22′39″N 18°27′59″E, altitude above sea level 149 m above sea level); Solidarity Szczecin- Goleniow Airport, IATA code: SZZ, ICAO code: EPSC (53°35′05″ N 14°54′08″ E, altitude above sea level 47 m above sea level); Poznań-Ławica Henryk Wieniawski Airport, IATA code: POZ, ICAO code: EPPO (52°25′16″ N 16°49′35″ E, altitude above sea level 94 m above sea level); Warsaw Chopin Airport, IATA code: WAW, ICAO code: EPWA (52°09′57″ N 20°58′02″ E, altitude above sea level 110 m above sea level); Copernicus Airport Wrocław, IATA code: WRO, ICAO code: EPWR (51°06′10″ N 16°53′10″ E, altitude above sea level 123 m above sea level); John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice, IATA code: KRK, ICAO code: EPKK (50°04′40″ N 19°47′06″ E, altitude above sea level 241 m above sea level). The purpose of this paper is to assess the long-term variability of storm activity in the aspect of potential threats to air operations in Poland with the examples of six selected airports. In order to achieve the goal, an analysis of the frequency of storm phenomena in Poland was carried out both in annual and long- term terms. The analysis will allow the assessment of the geographical diversity of the distribution of storm phenomena and their variability in the years 1970–2018. The next stage of the work will be to determine the climatic conditions that exert the greatest impact on the formation of storms. The important factors include atmospheric circulation, which, over the Polish territory, is shaped by the influence of air masses from the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea and in addition, from the vast continental area. All these air masses clash over the area of Poland causing large variability in the frequency of occurrence of hazardous atmospheric phenomena. For this reason, the Polish climate is defined as a moderate warm climate with transitory features. The important factors affecting regional diversity are local conditions, such as terrain, nature of the land, and distance from water reservoirs. The thermal, humidity and aerodynamic properties of the substrate, which are components of radiation processes, determine the exchange of energy at the interface between the atmosphere and the earth, and largely determine the intensity of selected hazardous atmospheric phenomena. Each occurrence of a storm is a potentially dangerous meteorological event that threatens the environment and human activities, including all types of transport. The studied phenomenon of storms is particularly dangerous for air transport. Literature shows that storm phenomena in Poland are characterized by a large regional diversity, both during the year and over many years. The greatest threat of storm phenomena occurs in the warm period of the year—spring and summer.


Author(s):  
Egils Bogans ◽  
Zanda Gavare ◽  
Anda Svagere ◽  
Rita Poikane ◽  
Jānis Skudra

Mercury Pollution Exploration in Latvia with High-Sensitivity Zeeman Atomic Absorption Spectrometry This research presents Hg pollution measurements performed in Latvia with sensitive method using Zeeman AAS analyzer RA-915+ and necessary attachments. Air in Riga city and water samples from a number of rivers and lakes of Latvia were analyzed for presence of low-level Hg concentrations. Ombrotrophic bog peat was analyzed to get insight into long-term trends. Environment in the sites sampled is relatively clean according to the results obtained, but there are local spots of pollution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 21-58
Author(s):  
Gaston Gross

A given predicate is defined by a set of properties which combine and which automatically generate all the sentences it allows. Among them, we note the number and the semantic class of the arguments which characterize it, the adjectival and adverbial modifiers which can be added tothe scheme of arguments as well as all the transformations which affect each of these units. The speaker is responsible for attributing to sentences the set of all the forms that language allows him to generate. What has just been said can be considered as a definition of syntax.But this situation is far from exhausting the description of a language. J. Dubois and especially Maurice Gross have devoted large-scale work to fixed expressions, that is to say, to the restrictions relating to the combinatorics usually observed around a given predicate. These studies have focused on the limitations of grammar rules as they are generally described. These two authors have drawn up lists of tens of thousands of “fixed” verbs and have highlighted the limits of this fixing. However, they made an observation without highlighting the causes of the fixing, which is a much more complex linguistic fact than this work suggests. The purpose of this article is twofold. On the one hand, it emphasizes what can be called discursive equivalences: in a given situation, the same idea can be translated by expressions which have no obvious link between them, as in: con comme la lune, con comme un balai, con comme une baleine, con comme une bite, con comme une valise. Another example: voici belle lurette, voici longtemps, voici un temps fou, voici une paille, voici une paye. It goes without saying that the speaker is not master of these expressions, because they are written in the language. This article shows that these equivalences are very numerous. On the other hand, I. Mel’čuk initiated important work on pragmatemes. Again the “regular” syntax is defective. All these cases are in fact examples of pre-constructed sequences, of which this article attempts to make a first classification. These sequences are explained by specific communication conditions as seen with these examples:a) Doubt or reluctance in the face of information that one can hardly believe:à d’autres !, à d’autres mais pas à moi !, à d’autres mais pas à nous ! b) Criticism of a work that is considered null and uninteresting:c’est de la bouillie pour les chats, c’est de la bricole, c’est de la briquette, c’est de la couille,c’est de la merde, c’est de la piquette, c’est du flan, c’est du pipeau, c’est du vent.This is long-term work, which allows us to renew certain theoretical perspectives.  


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-55
Author(s):  
Jasna Podreka

The author addresses the question of why, after more than half a century of feminist heritage in the field of conceptualisation and understanding of violence against women, its importance should be re-established and re-examined within a scientific context. The author starts from the premise that the definition of what actually constitutes violence is no longer at the forefront of public discussions. There is also a lack of contextual examination of violent events through the lens of power relations in the existing gender order. Public discourse, which is characterised by quick and superficial reflections on individual events that are taken out of context is completely devoid of any insight into the problem of violence against women, due to the continued gender inequality in society. Therefore, the main purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of understanding violence against women through the prism of gender or gender inequality, which is the key contribution of feminist structuralist theory. In light of this, a critique of feminist structuralist theory is presented, as it is the one that has laid down the foundation for understanding violence against women, while not providing all the tools needed for a complex understanding of the problem in its entirety. The author uses the example of the Harvey Weinstein scandal to attempt to illuminate the issue.


1989 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-24
Author(s):  
P. A. J. Ryke

Under various circumstances and in different species the outward expression of learning varies considerably, and this has led to the classification of different categories of learning. Just as there is no generally agreed on definition of learning, there is no one system of classification. Types of learning commonly recognized are: Habituation, sensitization, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, trial and error, taste aversion, latent learning, cultural learning, imprinting, insight learning, learning-set learning and instinct. The term memory must include at least two separate processes. It must involve, on the one hand, that of learning something and on the other, at some later date, recalling that thing. What lies between the learning and (he remembering must be some permanent record — a memory trace — within the brain. Memory exists in at least two forms: memory for very recent events (short-term) which is relatively labile and easily disruptable; and long-term memory, which is much more stable. Not everything that gets into short-term memory becomes fixed in the long-term store; a filtering mechanism selects things that might be important and discards the rest.


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