Effects of weather types on hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in Castilla-La Mancha,Spain

The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between the risk of hospital admission for respiratory diseases (RD) and the daily weather types during the period 2000-2006. A synoptic climatological approach is used to investigate links between air-mass types (weather situations) and all respiratory hospital admissions in the Castilla-La Mancha (CLM) area in Spain. This afforded the main circulation weather types (CWTs) for the winter and spring periods (since respiratory hospital admissions reached their maximum during these seasons) and the frequency distributions of these types were analyzed. A summary of the main characteristics of the hospital admission series and their distribution over the seven years studied, together with the frequency distributions of the admissions classified by sex and ages, for season, month and for each day of the week, is reported. In addition, a comparison between air-mass classification and hospital admissions is made using an admission index (AI). The results reveal different responses of respiratory admission rates to the eight air-mass types identified in winter and in spring. In winter, three air massess southwesterly (SW), anti-cyclonic (A) and hybrid anti-cyclonic southwesterly (HASW), are associated with values 1.5 times higher than the respective average admission rates, while in spring no significant differences are seen.     

A Review of “Geographies of Media and Communication”

Contemporary cartographic research on mapmaking and map use has a broad mandate and, as a consequence, researchers need a broad suite of methods. Consistent with research developments in other geographic subdisciplines, cartographic researchers now use qualitative methods. They offer the advantage of bringing research closer to the problem-solving realms of mapmakers and map users. Our purpose here is to discuss an array of qualitative methods for mapmaking and map use. Questionnaires, interviews, and protocol methods are used to gather verbal data about mapmaking and map use. Ethnographies produce data from direct observation of mapmakers and users. Maps also are sources for document analysis. We use examples of published cartographic research to elaborate on each of these methods.     

Artificial macrophytes as fish habitat in a Mediterranean reservoir subjected to seasonal water level disturbances

Artificial macrophytes were experimentally deployed in Boadella Reservoir (NE Spain) and assessed for fish use throughout the first 3 months of the 2007 summer drawdown. In total, 1,832 individuals of seven fish species were recorded through visual censuses, with introduced perch Perca fluviatilis being the prevalent species. Fish richness and abundance were significantly higher in artificial macrophytes than in rocky shores and sandy beaches, displaying a unimodal variation through time. P. fluviatilis, Rutilus rutilus and Abramis brama were significantly more abundant in artificial macrophytes than in the other two naturally submersed habitats, where no individuals of these species were recorded. The abundances of Squalius laietanus, Lepomis gibbosus, Micropterus salmoides and Cyprinus carpio were overall greater in artificial macrophytes than in rocky shores but displayed significant habitat × time interactions. A decrease in predation risk was apparently the key-factor of the intensive use of artificial macrophytes by small fish (≤100 mm TL) in Boadella Reservoir, since most species reduced drastically or completely the use of submerged structures when body size increased. This study demonstrates that adding artificial structures mimicking aquatic macrophytes can be an interesting tool to mitigate the adverse effects of water level fluctuations on fish assemblages in structure-less and homogeneous ecosystems, and to understand the mechanisms affecting habitat use and species replacement.     

Geodemographics as a tool for targeting neighbourhoods in public health campaigns

Geodemographics offers the prospects of integrating, modelling and mapping health care needs and other health indicators that are useful for targeting neighbourhoods in public health campaigns. Yet reports about this application domain has to date been sporadic. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of a bespoke geodemographic system for neighbourhood targeting in an inner city public health authority, Southwark Primary Care Trust, London. This system, the London Output Area Classification (LOAC), is compared to six other geodemographic systems from both governmental and commercial sources. The paper proposes two new indicators for assessing the performance of geodemographic systems for neighbourhood targeting based on local hospital demand data. The paper also analyses and discusses the utility of age- and sex standardisation of geodemographic profiles of health care demand.     

Winter and summer characterization of biogenic enantiomeric monoterpenes and anthropogenic BTEX compounds at a Mediterranean Stone Pine forest site

Measurements of biogenic gases including enantiomeric monoterpenes and isoprene, and anthropogenic gases such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, ortho-, meta- and para- xylene (BTEX) compounds were made by GC-MS in November and December 2008 within a stone pine (Pinus pinea L) forest located on the Southwest coast of Spain (37.10°N, 6.70°W). Mixing ratios of the biogenic species were found to be low (mean circa 10 pptv) consistent with previously observed low wintertime regional forest emission rates. In contrast, anthropogenic species were significantly higher (mean 10–156 pptv), the dominant emissions originating from the city of Huelva and associated petrochemical activities, located 25 km north west of the measurement site. In wintertime the monoterpene (?)-α-pinene was found to be in slight enantiomeric excess over (+)-α-pinene at night but by day the measured ratio was closer to one i.e. racemic. Samples taken the following summer in the same location showed much higher monoterpene mixing ratios and revealed a strong enantiomeric excess of (?)-α-pinene. This indicates a strong seasonal variance in the enantiomeric emission ratio which is not manifested in the day/night temperature cycles in wintertime. Mixing ratios of the xylene isomers (meta- and para-) and ethylbenzene, which are all well resolved on the beta-cyclodextrin column, were exploited to estimate average OH radical exposures to VOCs from the Huelva industrial area. These were compared to empirical estimates of OH based on JNO₂ measured at the site. The deficiencies of each estimation method are discussed.     

Measurements of Turbulence and Dispersion in Three Idealized Urban Canopies with Different Aspect Ratios and Comparisons with a Gaussian Plume Model

Water-tunnel measurements of velocity, turbulence and scalar concentration for three model urban canopies with aspect ratios A _r of building height-to-width of 0.25, 1 and 3 are presented. The measurements for the canopies with A _r = 1 and 3 are new, while the measurements for A _r = 0.25 were previously published. A passive scalar was continuously released from a near-ground point source, and the concentration was measured at several distances from the source and at different heights above the ground. Plume spreads, concentration and distance from the source were non-dimensionalized using length, time and velocity scales reflecting the geometry of the buildings. The scaling collapses the data for all aspect ratios and is valid when the vertical extent of the plume is smaller than the canopy height. The observed plume spreads are compared with analytical relations, which predict linear growth in both transverse and vertical directions. The observed mean concentration is compared with a Gaussian dispersion model that predicts a ?2 power-law decay with distance from the source.     

Exploratory and Instantaneous Swimming Speeds of Amphidromous Fish School in Shallow-Water Coastal Lagoon Channels

Fish school swimming speeds is essential for ecological and management studies. The multibeam sonar in horizontal beaming provided dynamic echo traces of mobile fish schools. We used two school swimming speed indicators: the average of a series of instantaneous speed values, and the exploratory speed. These swimming speeds were estimated for each fish school observed on the basis of their Euclidian position within the sonar beams. The average ISS values per school ranged from 0.15 m s⁻¹ to 4.46 m s⁻¹, while the ESS values per school were lower, ranging from 0.04 m s⁻¹ to 3.77 m s⁻¹. Multibeam sonar technology makes it possible to measure fish school swimming speeds in their natural habitat at small spatio-temporal scales. This methodology can therefore be used to analyse in situ their movements, and has a wide range of applications in behavioural studies and management purposes.     

The Bransfield current system

We use hydrographic data collected during two interdisciplinary cruises, CIEMAR and BREDDIES, to describe the mesoscale variability observed in the Central Basin of the Bransfield Strait (Antarctica). The main mesoscale feature is the Bransfield Front and the related Bransfield Current, which flows northeastward along the South Shetland Island Slope. A laboratory model suggests that this current behaves as a gravity current driven by the local rotation rate and the density differences between the Transitional Zonal Water with Bellingshausen influence (TBW) and the Transitional Zonal Water with Weddell Sea influence (TWW). Below the Bransfield Front we observe a narrow (10 km wide) tongue of Circumpolar Deep Water all along the South Shetland Islands Slope. At the surface, the convergence of TBW and TWW leads to a shallow baroclinic front close to the Antarctic Peninsula (hereafter Peninsula Front). Between the Bransfield Front and the Peninsula Front we observe a system of TBW anticyclonic eddies, with diameters about 20 km that can reach 300 m deep. This eddy system could be originated by instabilities of the Bransfield Current. The Bransfield Current, the anticyclonic eddy system, the Peninsula Front and the tongue of Circumpolar Deep Water, are the dynamically connected components of the Bransfield Current System.