3,051 research outputs found
Quantifying recent acceleration in sea level unrelated to internal climate variability
No full textSea level observations suggest that the rate of sea level rise has accelerated during the last 20?years. However, the presence of considerable decadal-scale variability, especially on a regional scale, makes it difficult to assess whether the observed changes are due to natural or anthropogenic causes. Here we use a regression model with atmospheric pressure, wind, and climate indices as independent variables to quantify the contribution of internal climate variability to the sea level at nine tide gauges from around the world for the period 1920–2011. Removing this contribution reveals a statistically significant acceleration (0.022?±?0.015?mm/yr2) between 1952 and 2011, which is unique over the whole period. Furthermore, we have found that the acceleration is increasing over time. This acceleration appears to be the result of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, along with changes in volcanic forcing and tropospheric aerosol loading
Inter-annual to decadal sea-level variability in the coastal zones of the Norwegian and Siberian Seas: The role of atmospheric forcing
No full textInter-annual to decadal sea-level variations from tide gauge records in the coastal zones of the Norwegian and Siberian Seas are examined for the period 1950–2010 using a combination of hydrographic observations, wind data, and theory. We identify two large areas of highly coherent sea-level variability: one that includes the Norwegian, Barents, and Kara Seas, and another one that includes the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi Seas. We provide evidence of a new contribution to the sea-level variability along the Norwegian coast associated with the poleward propagation of sea-level fluctuations along the eastern boundary of the North Atlantic. When this propagating signal is combined with the local wind, we are able to explain over 70% of the variance along the Norwegian coast. The steric component explains ~61% of the sea-level (corrected for the inverse barometer) variability along the Norwegian coast. The high coherency between the sea level along the Norwegian coast and that in the Barents and Kara Seas suggests that part of the Norwegian signal propagates further north into these regions. We introduce an atmospheric vorticity index that explains much of the sea-level variability in the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi Seas with correlations ranging from 0.73 to 0.81. In the East Siberian Sea, we identify a sea-level increase of ~22 cm between 2000 and 2003, which is partly explained by the vorticity index, and a decline of ~15 cm after 2003, which we relate to the strengthening of the Beaufort Gyre
Mechanisms of decadal sea level variability in the eastern North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea
No full textDecadal sea level variations from tide gauge records along the western European coast and in the Mediterranean Sea commencing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are examined relative to large-scale atmospheric forcing. Recent studies have provided evidence for a link between sea level in the eastern North Atlantic and atmospheric forcing, however the nature of this relationship is still unclear. Here the outputs of a regional barotropic model and a nearly global baroclinic model are used in conjunction with wind stress and heat flux data to explore the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed sea level variability. All tide gauge records show significant decadal variability (up to 15 cm) and are highly correlated with the NAO and among themselves at decadal periods. There is a coherent sea level signal that affects the eastern boundary of the North Atlantic northward of 25°N and is limited to a narrow band of the order of a few hundred kilometers along the coast. This band tends to become narrower towards higher latitudes. We find that longshore wind and wave propagation along the boundary are the major contributors to coastal sea level variability but no significant contribution from mass redistribution linked to changes in the strength of the subtropical gyre is observed. The mass component dominates sea level in the Mediterranean and is mainly driven by mass exchanges with the Atlantic, which explains the correlation between both regions. Southward of 25°N, sea level changes are mainly driven by heat advection through Ekman fluxes
On the ability of global sea level reconstructions to determine trends and variability
No full textWe investigate how well methods based on empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) can reconstruct global mean sea level (GMSL). We first explore the analytical solution of the method and then perform a series of numerical experiments using modelled data. In addition, we present a new GMSL reconstruction for the period 1900-2011 computed both with and without a spatially uniform EOF (EOF0). The method without the EOF0 uses global information, which leads to a better reconstruction of the variability, though with some underestimation. The trend, however, is not captured, which motivates the use of the EOF0. When the EOF0 is used the method reduces to the generalized weighted mean with regularization of altimetry records at tide gauge locations, and thus it uses no global information. This results in a poor reconstruction of the variability. Although the trend is better captured (biases smaller than ±25%) with the EOF0, using the covariance matrix of deseasonalized monthly time series as the basis for determining the contribution of each tide gauge to the trend is dubious because it assumes that the inter-annual variability and the trend are driven by the same mechanisms. A significant fraction of the inter-annual to decadal variability (~4mm peak-to-peak and ~2mm standard error) in the new GMSL reconstruction without the EOF0 is consistent with land hydrology changes associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). When the EOF0 is used, we find no correlation with either the ENSO or land hydrology changes, and decadal fluctuations are ~5 times greater
Qaisra Shahraz in Interview with Claire Chambers
No full textQaisra Shahraz is a popular and acclaimed Pakistan-born and Manchester-resident screenwriter, educationalist, novelist and short story author. She was recently recognised as number 1 out of the 50 most influential women in Manchester. Last year she won the National Diversity “Lifetime Achiever” Award for services to literature, education, women’s rights and interfaith relationships. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and advisor to Asia Pacific Writers & Translators partnerships. Her novels have been translated into many languages including Mandarin. In this interview, Claire Chambers discusses her new short story collection The Concubine and the Slave-Catcher in detail with Shahraz, as well as asking her to give readers a preview of her current work
Holding chambers (spacers) versus nebulisers for beta-agonist treatment of acute asthma
No full textBackground
In acute asthma inhaled beta₂-agonists are often administered by nebuliser to relieve bronchospasm, but some have argued that metered-dose inhalers with a holding chamber (spacer) can be equally effective. Nebulisers require a power source and need regular maintenance, and are more expensive in the community setting.
Objectives
To assess the effects of holding chambers (spacers) compared to nebulisers for the delivery of beta₂-agonists for acute asthma.
Search methods
We searched the Cochrane Airways Group Trial Register and reference lists of articles. We contacted the authors of studies to identify additional trials. Date of last search: February 2013.
Selection criteria
Randomised trials in adults and children (from two years of age) with asthma, where spacer beta₂-agonist delivery was compared with wet nebulisation.
Data collection and analysis
Two review authors independently applied study inclusion criteria (one review author for the first version of the review), extracted the data and assessed risks of bias. Missing data were obtained from the authors or estimated. Results are reported with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Main results
This review includes a total of 1897 children and 729 adults in 39 trials. Thirty-three trials were conducted in the emergency room and equivalent community settings, and six trials were on inpatients with acute asthma (207 children and 28 adults). The method of delivery of beta₂-agonist did not show a significant difference in hospital admission rates. In adults, the risk ratio (RR) of admission for spacer versus nebuliser was 0.94 (95% CI 0.61 to 1.43). The risk ratio for children was 0.71 (95% CI 0.47 to 1.08, moderate quality evidence). In children, length of stay in the emergency department was significantly shorter when the spacer was used. The mean duration in the emergency department for children given nebulised treatment was 103 minutes, and for children given treatment via spacers 33 minutes less (95% CI -43 to -24 minutes, moderate quality evidence). Length of stay in the emergency department for adults was similar for the two delivery methods. Peak flow and forced expiratory volume were also similar for the two delivery methods. Pulse rate was lower for spacer in children, mean difference -5% baseline (95% CI -8% to -2%, moderate quality evidence), as was the risk of developing tremor (RR 0.64; 95% CI 0.44 to 0.95, moderate quality evidence).
Authors' conclusions
Nebuliser delivery produced outcomes that were not significantly better than metered-dose inhalers delivered by spacer in adults or children, in trials where treatments were repeated and titrated to the response of the participant. Spacers may have some advantages compared to nebulisers for children with acute asthma
Letter From William Bell Scott to Mr Chambers
No full textabstract: Concerning Scott's thanks, his writings about his own works, and a manuscript of "The Nightingale Unheard."Seller's Description: Reads "A.L.S. from Author to Mr. Chambers explaining how busy he is... The sonnet is printed in the book. Fredeman: 56.7 £87.50"Handwritten Note: Unknown handwriting at top right reads "June 1st 1877."Publication Details: "The Nightingale Unheard" published in "Poems" by William Bell Scott.Creation Date Details: Undated range is the author's lifespan.Provenance: Removed from:
Poems / by William Bell Scott. Ballads, studies from nature, sonnets, etc. / illustrated by seventeen etchings by the author and L. Alma Tadema. Publisher London : Longmans, Green, 1875. CALL #
HAYDEN SPECIAL COLL SPEC PRB-13
Letter from M.L.A. Tom Chambers
No full textLetter from Tom Chambers (M.L.A. for Edmonton Calder Constituency) to Mr. John Birzgalis describing a monitary award of $1,000.00 from Horst A. Schmidt, Miniter of Culture toward's the Edmonton Latvian Society's Imanta.1.0 Imanta, 1.1.1 Histor of Imanta in Albert
A treatise on civil architecture : in which the principles of that art are laid down, and illustrated by a great number of plates, accurately designed, and elegantly engraved by the best hands
No full textby William Chambers ..
Another Map, another History, another Modernity
No full textIn this article, the author criticizes the consensual cultural configuration of present-day Italy by displacing concerns of historical and intellectual identity onto a wider Mediterranean map. Elaborating an interdisciplinary and intercultural position that looks to languages and histories that Italian academic life and institutional culture tends to ignore, or repress, the disparaged sides of modernity – the South, the Mediterranean, the Muslim world – become the sites of a diverse critical understanding. Drawing upon the metaphorical powers of the sea itself, this “Mediterranean” view of modern Italy, of the formation of its cultural and critical languages, proposes a more unsettled and fluid cartography that renders inherited questions and “solutions” vulnerable to an inquiry that a national culture is unable to authorize. In particular, the desire for cultural and critical continuity, sustained in a diffuse historicist syntax and policed by moribund disciplinary protocols, is challenged via a “postcolonial” elaboration of Italy as both a Mediterranean and modern formation. This leads to a proposed rupture with the mold of a fundamentally patrician and provincial understanding of native culture. In particular, the contemporary figure of the so-called illegal migrant announces the hidden colonial histories that planetary process return to disturb the surfaces of everyday life. It is the unwelcome turbulence of migration, as one of the central chapters of modernity itself, which now cuts into the historical, political, and cultural body of Italy, exposing it in a global frame that can only be registered in “worldly thinking” (Antonio Gramsci). Precisely at this point, it becomes imperative to draw up another map, narrate another history, and seek another modernity
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