1,497 research outputs found
Global analysis of night marine air temperature and its uncertainty since 1880: the HadNMAT2 Dataset
No full textAn updated version of the Met Office Hadley Centre’s monthly night marine air temperature dataset is presented. It is available on a 5? latitude-longitude grid from 1880 as anomalies relative to 1961-1990 calendar-monthly climatological average night marine air temperature (NMAT). Adjustments are made for changes in observation height; these depend on estimates of the stability of the near surface atmospheric boundary layer. In previous versions of the dataset, ad hoc adjustments were also made for three periods and regions where poor observational practice was prevalent. These adjustments are re-examined. Estimates of uncertainty are calculated for every grid box and result from: measurement errors; uncertainty in adjustments applied to the observations; uncertainty in the measurement height and under-sampling. The new dataset is a clear improvement over previous versions in terms of coverage because of the recent digitization of historical observations from ships' logbooks. However, the periods prior to about 1890 and around World War 2 remain particularly uncertain and sampling is still sparse in some regions in other periods. A further improvement is the availability of uncertainty estimates for every grid box and every month. Previous versions required adjustments that were dependent on contemporary measurements of sea surface temperature (SST); to avoid these, the new dataset starts in 1880 rather than 1856. Overall agreement with variations of SST is better for the updated dataset than for previous versions, maintaining existing estimates of global warming and increasing confidence in the global record of temperature variability and change
Perspectives on safety culture
No full textOverviewing selected elements from the literature, this paper locates the notion of safety culture within its parent concept of organisational culture. A distinction is drawn between functionalist and interpretive perspectives on organisational culture. The terms ‘culture’ and ‘climate’ are clarified as they are typically applied to organisations and to safety. A contrast is drawn between strategic top down and data-driven bottom up approaches to human factors as an illustrative aspect of safety. A safety case study is used to illustrate two measurement approaches. Key issues for future study include valid measurement of safety culture and developing methods to adequately represent mechanisms through which safety culture might influence, and be influenced by, other safety factors
Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late Nineteenth Century
No full textWe present the Met Office Hadley Centre's sea ice and sea surface temperature (SST) data set, HadISST1, and the nighttime marine air temperature (NMAT) data set, HadMAT1. HadISST1 replaces the global sea ice and sea surface temperature (GISST) data sets and is a unique combination of monthly globally complete fields of SST and sea ice concentration on a 1° latitude-longitude grid from 1871. The companion HadMAT1 runs monthly from 1856 on a 5° latitude-longitude grid and incorporates new corrections for the effect on NMAT of increasing deck (and hence measurement) heights. HadISST1 and HadMAT1 temperatures are reconstructed using a two-stage reduced-space optimal interpolation procedure, followed by superposition of quality-improved gridded observations onto the reconstructions to restore local detail. The sea ice fields are made more homogeneous by compensating satellite microwave-based sea ice concentrations for the impact of surface melt effects on retrievals in the Arctic and for algorithm deficiencies in the Antarctic and by making the historical in situ concentrations consistent with the satellite data. SSTs near sea ice are estimated using statistical relationships between SST and sea ice concentration. HadISST1 compares well with other published analyses, capturing trends in global, hemispheric, and regional SST well, containing SST fields with more uniform variance through time and better month-to-month persistence than those in GISST. HadMAT1 is more consistent with SST and with collocated land surface air temperatures than previous NMAT data sets
Deriving a sea surface temperature record suitable for climate change research from the along-track scanning radiometers
No full textRethinking Eurasianism: the Eurasian Union Project of N.A. Nazarbaev
No full textThe article is dedicated to the analysis of basic patterns of the Eurasian Union Project of N.A. Nazarbaev. The author explains the reasons determined absence of interest from the direction of Russian leaders and governments of other CIS’s countries to the initiative of Kazakhstan President in 1990’s and the renewal of Eurasianism in 2000’s. The author also emphasizes the factors defining a special role of Kazakhstan in the processes of integration on the area of Eurasia
Work schedules, wages, and employment in a general equilibrium model with team production
No full textAn analysis of working hours, wages, and employment when production requires coordinating the work schedules of heterogeneous workers. The author shows that this coordination aspect of production can have important policy implications.Hours of labor ; Employment (Economic theory) ; Wages
Very high energy gamma ray astronomy and non pulsating low mass x-ray binaries
No full textThis thesis is concerned with non pulsating Low Mass X-Ray Binaries as Very High Energy γ-ray sources, in particular Scorpius X-1; the brightest of these objects in X-rays, and the most likely to be detectable at energies above 250 GeV. After a first introductory chapter, experimental techniques presently used in Very High Energy γ-ray Astronomy are reviewed. In the third chapter statistical techniques used to quantify count rate excesses and orbital modulations are described and applied to data from Scorpius X-1. Data taken in 1988 and 1989 showing a 3cr count excess, reported previously elsewhere, are found to show orbital modulation at the 3% statistical level. The analysis of data taken on 1990 shows no signal. Periodicity tests, in particular the Rayleigh test, are also described. The principles of a segmented fast algorithm for period searches in Cerenkov data using memory limited, but relatively fast, micro-computers are shown in the fourth chapter. Various of these machines can be used simultaneously in order to achieve a large efficiency. A method to perform various trials per independent frequency is also presented. The results of period searches in data from three selected objects (Scorpius X-1, GX 5-1 and Supernova 1987A) are presented. No periodicity is found at significant level in these data. The complete power spectrum of four segments of data from Cygnus X-3 showing a signal near to 12.59 ms are also shown. The final chapter considers theoretical models developed previously for more massive systems accounting for the different physical scenario of these low mass systems. The process of pair production between high energy photons and the radiation field of the accretion disc appears as the tightest constraint on how close to the neutron star high energy photons can be produced
Environmental impacts during the operational phase of residential buildings
No full textTo date, the focus in the field of sustainable building has been on new building design. However, existing residential buildings inflict great environmental burden through three causes: continuous energy consumption, regular building maintenance and replacements. This publication analyses and compares these three causes of environmental burden and shows that material resources needed for replacements generally have a limited potential to reduce environmental impact. Reducing energy consumption for climate control and electrical appliances is much more effective. According to the author, sustainable measures should be tested for shifts in the kind of environmental impact caused due to the use of alternative types of energy resources and altered material quantities. The sustainability of the electricity supply is essential to decrease the total environmental impact of the residential building stock.Sustainable and Healthy HousingOTB Research Institut
Animal Blood Sacrifice in Left-Hand Path and Satanic Milieu: Case Study of the Author N.A-A.218
No full textKrvavá zvířecí oběť v Left-Hand Path a satanském milieu: Případová studie autora N.A-A.218 Matouš Mokrý English Abstract: The main aim of this paper was to study the meaning and nature of Chaos-gnostic animal sacrifice in the texts of N.A-A.218, to describe its social functions and to put it in its social and discoursive context, and thus to provide further understanding of its occurrence within the Left-Hand Path and satanic milieu whose dominant actors have rejected the act of animal sacrifice. The work deals in more detail mainly with discourses found in the texts of N.A- A.218 which are expressing the conception of sacrificial blood as magically potent substance constituting the seat of animal's life; do ut des principle; traditionality and duty of animal sacrifice and the conception of sacrifice as gradual killing of one's own ego which constitutes the part of a Chaos-gnostic's personality that is tying him to the demiurgic material world and its society. Whereas the discourses of blood as a magically potent substance and do ut des principle harmonize the Chaos-gnostic animal sacrifice with intuitive conceptions arising in connection with animal sacrifice across individual human cultures, the discourse of compulsory tradition shapes animal sacrifice as a tool of building, maintaining and control of..
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