A climatology of cell mergers with supercells and their association with mesocyclone evolution

In this study, we present a climatology of observed cell mergers along the paths of 342 discrete, right-moving supercells and their association with temporal changes in low-level mesocyclone strength (measured using azimuthal shear). Nearly half of the examined supercells experience at least one cell merger. The frequency of cell merger occurrence varies somewhat by geographical region and the time of day. No general relationship exists between cell merger occurrence and temporal changes in low-level azimuthal shear; this corroborates prior studies in showing that the outcome of a merger is probably sensitive to storm-scale and environmental details not captured in this study. Interestingly, we find a significant inverse relationship between pre-merger azimuthal shear and the subsequent temporal evolution of azimuthal shear. In other words, stronger low-level mesocyclones are more likely to weaken after cell mergers, and weaker low-level mesocyclones are more likely to strengthen. We also show that shorter-duration cell merger “events” (comprised of multiple individual mergers) are more likely to be associated with a steady or weakening low-level mesocyclone, while longer-duration cell merger events (3–4 individual mergers) are more likely to be associated with a strengthening low-level mesocyclone. These findings suggest what physical processes may influence the outcome of a merger in different scenarios and that the impact of these processes on low-level mesocyclone strength may change depending on storm maturity. We establish a baseline understanding of the supercell-cell merger climatology and highlight areas for future research in how to better anticipate the outcomes of cell mergers.

Representation and the problem of bibliographic imagination on Wikipedia

Purpose The astonishing thing about Wikipedia is that despite the way it is produced, the product is as good as it is and not far worse. But this is no reason for complacency. As others have documented, Wikipedia has representational blind spots, produced by the nature of its editorial community and their discursive conventions. This article wishes to look at the potential effect of sources on certain of these blind spots.Design/methodology/approach The author used an extended example, the Wikipedia article on the Philippine–American War, to illustrate the unfortunate effects that accompany a lack of attention to the kind of sources used to produce narratives for the online encyclopaedia. The Philippine–American War article was chosen because of its importance to American history. The war brought to the fore a debate over the future of the USA and the legitimacy of a republic acquiring overseas colonies. It remains controversial today, making it essential that its representation on Wikipedia is soundly constructed.Findings Inattention to sources (a lack of bibliographical imagination) produces representational anomalies. Certain sources are privileged when they should not be and others are ignored or considered as sub-standard. Overall, the epistemological boundaries of the article in terms of what the editorial community considers reliable and what the community of scholars producing knowledge about the war think as reliable do not overlap to the extent that they should. The resulting narrative is therefore less rich than it otherwise could be.Originality/value While there exists a growing literature on the representational blind spots of Wikipedia (gender, class, geographical region and so on), the focus has been on the composition of the demographics of the editorial community. But equally important to the problem of representation are the sources used by that community. Much literature has been written that seeks to portray the social world of the marginalized, but it is not used on Wikipedia, despite it easily meeting the criteria for reliability set by the Wikipedia community. This is a tragic oversight that makes Wikipedia's aim to be a repository for the knowledge of the world, a laudable goal to strive for, even if in reality unobtainable, even harder to achieve than ever.

Influence of solar activity on climate : Poles to Tropics

Solar activities are directly or indirectly responsible for climate variability around the globe. Evidences of such correspondences between solar activities and palaeoclimatic proxy data have been reported from polar as well as tropical regions, suggesting solar influence over climate dynamics. However, these findings need to be further strengthened by covering vast geographical region for generating palaeoclimatic data and corresponding variations in solar activities. A better time control on proxy data is essential to arrive at conclusive understanding and plausible causal linkages between solar activity and climate changes from poles to tropics.

Data Exploration of Social Determinants of Health, Health Access and Quality in a Global Health Setting

Diseases have no borders, and global health operates from both within and beyond. Global health informatics can adopt an assets-oriented approach to mitigate concerns by maximizing global health data, principles, and resources combined with geographic information systems’ use case mapping. This exploratory study utilizes an assets-oriented approach to analyze four global social determinants of health indicators, including Skilled Birth Attendance, Measles Immunization Coverage, Education (Female), and the Healthcare Access and Quality Index in relation to countries’ income and geographical region. Data were extracted and analyzed from two publicly available datasets. Positive trends and variations were detected among all variables aggregated by countries’ income category and geographical region. These findings pinpoint potential health assets that the discipline of nursing can leverage to build healthier global health communities.

Socioeconomic inequalities in child growth failure in Ethiopia: findings from the 2000 and 2016 Demographic and Health Surveys

ObjectiveSocioeconomic inequalities in child growth failure (CGF) remain one of the main challenges in Ethiopia. This study examined socioeconomic inequalities in CGF and determinants that contributed to these inequalities in Ethiopia.MethodsThe Ethiopia Demographic and Health Surveys 2000 and 2016 data were used in this study. A pooled unweighted sample of the two surveys yielded 21514 mother–child pairs (10873 in 2000 and 10641 in 2016). We assessed socioeconomic inequalities in CGF indicators using the concentration curve and concentration index (CI). We then decomposed the CI to identify percentage contribution of each determinant to inequalities.ResultsSocioeconomic inequalities in CGF have increased in Ethiopia between 2000 and 2016. The CI increased from −0.072 and −0.139 for stunting, −0.088 and −0.131 for underweight and −0.015 and −0.050 for wasting between 2000 and 2016, respectively. Factors that mainly contributed to inequalities in stunting included geographical region (49.43%), number of antenatal care visits (31.40%) and child age in months (22.20%) in 2000. While in 2016, inequality in stunting was contributed mainly by wealth quintile (46.16%) and geographical region (−13.70%). The main contributors to inequality in underweight were geographical regions (82.21%) and wealth quintile (27.21%) in 2000, while in 2016, wealth quintile (29.18%), handwashing (18.59%) and access to improved water facilities (−17.55%) were the main contributors. Inequality in wasting was mainly contributed to by maternal body mass index (−66.07%), wealth quintile (−45.68%), geographical region (36.88%) and paternal education (33.55%) in 2000, while in 2016, wealth quintile (52.87%) and urban areas of residence (-17.81%) were the main driving factors.ConclusionsThis study identified substantial socioeconomic inequalities in CGF, and factors that relatively contributed to the disparities. A plausible approach to tackling rising disparities may involve developing interventions on the identified predictors and prioritising actions for the most socioeconomically disadvantaged groups.

Factors associated with early receipt of COVID-19 vaccination and adherence to second dose in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system

Background We aimed to determine factors independently associated with early COVID-19 vaccination and adherence to two-dose regimens. Methods Among persons receiving care in the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system (n = 5,766,638), we identified those who received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccination through the VA, during the first ~3months following emergency use authorization, from December 11, 2020 to March 9, 2021 (n = 1,569,099, or 27.2%, including 880,200 (56.1%) Moderna, 676,279 (43.1%) Pfizer-BioNTech and 12,620 (0.8%) Janssen vaccines). Results Follow-up for receipt of vaccination began on December 11, 2020. After adjustment for baseline characteristics ascertained as of December 11, 2020, factors significantly associated with vaccination included older age, higher comorbidity burden, higher body mass index category, Black (vs. White) race (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR] 1.19, 95% CI 1.19–1.20), Hispanic (vs. non-Hispanic) ethnicity (AHR 1.12, 95% CI 1.11–1.13), urban (vs. rural) residence (AHR 1.31, 95% CI 1.31–1.31), and geographical region, while AI/AN race (vs. White), was associated with lower vaccination rate (AHR 0.85, 95% CI 0.84–0.87). Among persons who received both doses of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, 95.3% received the second dose within ±4 days of the recommended date. Among persons who received the first vaccine dose, only 3.2% did not receive the second dose within 42 days for Pfizer versus 4.0% for Moderna (p<0.001). Factors independently associated with higher likelihood of missing the second dose included younger age (10.83% in 18–50 yo vs. 2.72% in 70–75 yo), AI/AN race, female sex, rural location, geographical region and prior positive test for SARS-CoV-2. Conclusions We identified sociodemographic and clinical factors that may be used to target vaccination efforts and to further improve adherence to second vaccine dosing.

Nature and Extent of International Diversification: Empirical Evidence from India

The paper aims to measure the extent of international diversification achieved by Indian companies in the recent time period. The study also investigates the nature of international diversification of companies during their transition beyond national boundaries. This evaluation of the firm’s nature and extent of internationalization is further extended to cover the period of COVID-19 as well. The Jacquemin and Berry Entropy Approach (1979) is applied to operationalize the firm’s international diversification. It facilitates the measurement of both inter-region and intra-region diversification. World Bank Geographical Region Classification Framework (2018) has been used to facilitate the applicability of the approach applied. Results indicate that Indian companies were inclined to grow beyond their home territories. However, the extent of international diversification is low as ‘Internationally Low Diversification (ILD)’ reveals to be the most popular strategy amongst Indian companies. Nature depicts a preference for relatedness than unrelatedness for overseas expansion as firms prefer intra-region expansion as compared to moving inter-region. Stagnation and halt are witnessed in the global expansion of companies in the period of the pandemic. The present study is novel as it comprehensively evaluates the international growth strategies preferred by Indian companies in the pre-pandemic and the pandemic period.