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Merging weather surveillance radar precipitation estimates from different sources: a quality‐index approach
Get PDFWeather surveillance radar (WSR) provide distributed quantitative precipitation estimates (QPEs) of great value to the modelling, understanding and management of many hydro-meteorological processes. To obtain these observations over regional or larger scale domains it is necessary to composite data from multiple WSRs. These composites are often produced operationally by national or international meteorological agencies yet valuable data from ad-hoc sources such as research groups and local-level WSR operators are not included in these products. This study presents a methodology for incorporating data from a research radar deployment (the National Centre for Atmospheric Science mobile X-band weather radar, NXPol-1) into a national scale composite (the UK Met Office British Isles gridded composite) using a quality-index. Firstly a quality-index is developed for NXPol-1 using an intuitive, multi-factor approach. The quality-index is then cross-referenced with the existing quality-index for the national composite, to allow production of a dynamically merged two source WSR QPE. The method developed is then evaluated using surface precipitation measurements from an extensive rain gauge network. Merging QPE from the two sources using a quality-index improves the accuracy of WSR QPE when compared to either individual data source, showing it is possible to combine ad-hoc WSR data with national products dynamically such that precipitation estimation is improved. Improving local QPE using additional radar deployments will benefit flood forecasting accuracy and local incident response, particularly when that data is used to enhance existing coverage
GloSAT LATsdb: a global compilation of land air temperature station records with updated climatological normals from local expectation kriging
Get PDFESG Ratings Disagreement and Trading Behaviour
Get PDFGiven the scale of ESG ratings disagreement, we examine its impact on trading behaviour and find that a one standard deviation increase in disagreement leads to a 1.3% decline in abnormal trading volume, suggesting ESG disagreement introduces uncertainty rather than belief divergence. This effect holds across various robustness tests and is stronger for firms with low ESG performance, limited analyst coverage, or high volatility. The relationship becomes more pronounced after 2016 and is driven by norm-constrained institutional investors. Disagreement is also associated with wider bid-ask spreads, indicating reduced information efficiency
Cessation of smoking in people attending UK emergency departments:the COSTED RCT with economic and process evaluation
Get PDFBackground The emergency department represents a potentially valuable opportunity to support smoking cessation. Evidence is lacking around the use of e-cigarettes in opportunistic settings like the emergency department. Objective To undertake a randomised controlled trial in people who smoke attending United Kingdom emergency departments, testing a brief intervention which included provision of an e-cigarette versus signposting to smoking cessation services, assessing smoking abstinence. Design A two-arm pragmatic, multicentre, parallel-group, individually randomised, controlled superiority trial with an internal pilot, economic evaluation and mixed-methods process evaluation. Setting Six emergency departments across England and Scotland. Participants Adults who smoked daily, who were attending the emergency department for medical treatment or accompanying someone attending for medical treatment, were invited to participate. People were excluded if they had an expired carbon monoxide of < 8 parts per million, required immediate medical treatment, were in police custody, had a known allergy to nicotine, were daily e-cigarette users, were considered not to have capacity to consent or had already taken part in the trial. Intervention Brief stop smoking advice, e-cigarette starter kit and referral to stop smoking services. Main outcome measures The primary outcome was biochemically validated sustained abstinence at 6 months. Those lost to follow-up, or not providing biochemical verification, were considered not to be abstinent. Secondary outcomes were: self-reported 7-day smoking abstinence, number of quit attempts, number of cigarettes per day, nicotine dependence and incidence of self-reported dry cough or mouth or throat irritation. Results At 6 months, of 972 participants randomised, biochemically verified smoking abstinence was 7.2% in the intervention group and 4.1% in the control group (percentage difference = 3.3%) (95% confidence interval 0.3 to 6.3; p = 0.032) [relative risk 1.76 (95% confidence interval 1.03 to 3.01)]. Self-reported 7-day abstinence at 6 months was 23.3% in the intervention group and 12.9% in the control group (percentage difference = 10.6%) (95% confidence interval 5.86 to 15.41; p < 0.001) [relative risk 1.80 (95% confidence interval 1.36 to 2.38)]. Daily e-cigarette use was 39.4% in the intervention group and 17.5% in the control group at 6 months. No serious adverse events related to taking part in the trial were reported. The economic evaluation found the intervention was likely to be cost-effective, judged by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence threshold. The process evaluation found the intervention to be acceptable to both staff delivering it and participants receiving it. The brief nature of the intervention was highly adaptable to context, and interviews demonstrated how the intervention supported different pathways towards cessation. Limitations The inability to blind participants or researchers, the relatively low level of biochemical verification due to the nature of the population recruited and the fact that those in the control group did not receive usual care. Conclusions An opportunistic smoking cessation intervention comprising brief advice, an e-cigarette starter kit and referral to stop smoking services is effective for sustained smoking abstinence with few reported adverse events. Future work Future work will include testing other behaviour change interventions in the emergency department and adapting the Cessation of Smoking Trial in the emergency department intervention for other settings. Funding This synopsis presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme as award number NIHR129438
Dynamics of proximity-induced magnetism at cobalt/molecular interfaces
Get PDFInterfacing ferromagnetic metals with organic molecules is a versatile strategy to control key parameters in magnetic and spintronic technologies. Hybridization between the metal’s surface d orbitals and molecular p orbitals profoundly alters both the interfacial molecular layer and adjacent metal interface atomic layers, causing substantial changes in the magnetic properties of metal/molecule heterostructures. While magnetic modifications within the metallic layer are relatively well understood, the interfacial magnetism remains elusive. Using ultrafast time-resolved magneto-optical spectroscopy, we investigate the magnetic dynamics in such heterostructures and identify a distinct interfacial magnetic component that appears universal across various cobalt/molecule combinations. Our findings reveal a highly anisotropic magnetic layer localized at the interface, which has remained undetected in static measurements. This interfacial layer likely originates from strong chemical modifications in the cobalt surface induced by chemisorbed molecules. These results underscore the crucial role of molecular chemisorption in shaping interfacial magnetic properties, offering further opportunities for tuning functionalities in molecule-based spintronic devices
Methanethiol Abundance and Oxidation in a Polluted Marine Atmosphere
Get PDFBiological activity in the surface ocean leads to emissions of methanethiol (MeSH) and dimethyl sulfide (DMS). Measurements of MeSH in the marine atmosphere are sparse and the impact of NOx pollution on MeSH oxidation remains unexplored. We present measurements of MeSH and DMS at a coastal site with NOx up to 24.3 ppb in the United Kingdom during May and June. Winds coming from the seaward (northerly) direction showed a median (25th quantiles) MeSH mixing ratio of 15.7 (7.9–26.9) ppt. The measurements reveal significantly lower MeSH during daytime. Atmospheric box model calculations suggest that ∼25% of the MeSH oxidation is initiated by NO3 at this site and that NOx pollution can reduce the SO2 yield from MeSH. This work is further evidence for the prevalence of MeSH and illustrates the impact of NOx pollution on MeSH oxidation with associated implications for its role in aerosol-cloud processes, and climate
Hemispheric Asymmetry in Stratospheric Trends of HCl and Ozone: Impact of Chemical Feedback on Ozone Recovery
Get PDFWe use trace gas profiles from Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment - Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) satellite measurements and the TOMCAT three-dimensional chemical transport model to diagnose stratospheric trends in O₃, HCl and N₂O. We find that the 2004–2021 ACE-FTS trends exhibit a clear lower stratosphere (LS) interhemispheric asymmetry with positive (negative) O₃ and N₂O (HCl) trends in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), and trends of opposite sign in the Northern Hemisphere (NH). The trends are larger for the shorter time period of 2004–2018. TOMCAT qualitatively agrees with the ACE-FTS LS N₂O and HCl trends, confirming that transport variability drives such patterns, despite some discrepancies for O₃. An additional model simulation is used to quantify the sensitivity of O₃ to long-term changes in chlorine and bromine and thus determine the chemical contribution of the spatially varying halogen trends to both observed and modeled O₃ trends. Overall, the recent dynamically induced variation in mid-latitude LS halogen abundance has, through chemical feedback, accentuated the O₃ recovery signal in the SH and delayed it in the NH, reflecting the enhanced dynamical variability of the NH. These results further indicate the complexities that exist in the search for the signal of ozone recovery in the mid-latitude LS
Aerosol jet printing on Kapton for affordable millimeter wave antenna prototyping
Get PDFIn this work, we have examined the feasibility of 3D printed antennas on Kapton for mm-wave applications. Initially, a series-fed patch antenna array at 47 GHz was designed and fabricated on a low-loss Rogers substrate. Subsequently, aerosol jet printing was employed to prototype the antenna on Kapton film, which was adhered to the Rogers substrate. Experimental results showed that the Kapton antenna demonstrated similar performance to the copper etched Rogers antenna. Therefore, this method can be adopted for prototyping high-frequency antennas on expensive low-loss substrates, enabling rapid prototyping and allowing the substrates to be reused by peeling off the Kapton films
Soil extracellular enzymes as drivers of soil carbon storage under nitrogen addition
Get PDFEnhanced anthropogenic nitrogen (N) inputs to ecosystems may have substantial impacts on microbially mediated soil organic carbon (SOC) cycling. One way to link species-rich soil microbial communities with SOC cycling processes is via soil extracellular enzyme activities (EEAs). However, the effects of N addition on EEAs and the associated driving factors remain poorly understood. By conducting a meta-analysis, we find that N addition increases hydrolytic C-degrading EEAs that target simple polysaccharides decomposition by 12.8%, but decreases oxidative C-degrading EEAs that degrade complex phenolic macromolecules by 11.9%. The net effect of N addition on SOC storage is determined by the shifts between these two types of C-degrading EEAs, and the impacts varied across different ecosystem types. These insights highlight the crucial but understudied roles of hydrolytic and oxidative C-degrading EEAs on SOC dynamics with ongoing enhanced anthropogenic N loading. Understanding the mechanisms behind these C-degrading EEAs could help optimize SOC sequestration and inform climate mitigation strategies across different ecosystems
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