European precipitation connections with large-scale mean sea-level pressure (MSLP) fields

Abstract

To advance understanding of hydroclimatological processes, this paper links spatiotemporal variability in gridded European precipitation and large-scale mean sea-level pressure (MSLP) time series (1957–2002) using monthly concurrent correlation. Strong negative (positive) correlation near Iceland and (the Azores) is apparent for precipitation in northwest Europe, confirming a positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) association. An opposing pattern is found for southwest Europe, and the Mediterranean in winter. In the lee of mountains, MSLP correlation is lower reflecting reduced influence of westerlies on precipitation generation. Importantly, European precipitation is shown to be controlled by physically interpretable climate patterns that change in extent and position from month to month. In spring, MSLP–precipitation correlation patterns move and shrink, reaching a minimum in summer, before expanding in the autumn, and forming an NAO-like dipole in winter. These space–time shifts in correlation regions explain why fixed-point NAO indices have limited ability to resolve precipitation for some European locations and seasons.

Editor Z.W. Kundzewicz; Associate editor A. Montanari

Citation Lavers, D., Prudhomme, C., and Hannah, D.M., 2013. European precipitation connections with large-scale mean sea-level pressure (MSLP) fields. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 58 (2), 310–327.     

Mediating good food and moments of possibility with Jamie Oliver: Problematising celebrity chefs as talking labels

This paper explores the powerful and mediating role of celebrity chefs over audience relationships with food through analysis of Jamie Oliver and his recent series Save with Jamie. The paper firstly situates the role of celebrity chefs theoretically, defining them as ‘talking labels’ who may act both as knowledge intermediaries and boundary objects to connect audiences with food in multiple ways. Here chefs actively construct and mediate discourses around ‘good food’. As trusted, credible, well-liked public figures, chefs step into out private home spaces through our televisions to convey food information in a charismatic, entertaining and accessible way. Like traditional food labels, chef’s words can be ‘sticky’ and take hold in public imaginations in a way that goes far beyond the capacity of food products labels. Yet the relationship between chefs and audiences is far from straightforward and so the paper secondly aims to explore how these talking labels are understood and ‘used’ by audiences in their everyday food practices. Drawing selectively from a large scale audience survey (n = 600) as well as the series, Save with Jamie, this paper reveals the different ways that audiences ‘talk back’ to chefs both positively and negatively to create moments of simultaneous possibility and resistance for audience relations with food. This revealed complex relationships between audiences, chefs and food. It also suggests that the powerful work on celebrity chefs functions as part of a new mediated mechanism within today’s food governance.     

铷原子频标中微波功率频移的研究及其控制方法

针对铷原子频标中微波功率频移的传统解释与实验现象不相符合的矛盾，曾提出以ＡＣＺｅｅｍａｎ效应为核心的新解释．本文以实验检验了该解释，尤其是ＡＣＺｅｅｍａｎ效应频移公式的正确性，实验结果与理论相符合；最后探讨了控制微波功率频移的方法。     

From matters of fact to places of concern? Energy,environmental movements and place-making in Chile and Thailand

As demand for energy is growing and resources become scarcer, energy increasingly becomes the site of heated controversies. In Latour’s terms, energy turns from a “matter of fact” into a “matter of concern”. In these energy controversies, environmental movements frequently play a central role, highlighting what is at stake in these developments. While these movements have often been studied, these studies rarely focus on the interaction between controversies, environmental movements, and place-making. In this article, we not only argue that energy is frequently turned from matter of fact into a matter of concern, but that this argument also extends to the notion of place. As such, energy controversies turn villages, cities, or regions themselves into “places of concern”. The article delves deeper into the production of places of concern through two case studies of energy controversies around power plants: a proposed coal plant in Bo Nok, Thailand, and HidroAysen, a hydropower project in Chilean Patagonia. We specifically focus on the issues that were opened up for debate in both countries, and on the role of environmental movements in the production of these places. Our examples are based on fieldwork and interviews in these two areas, as well as media and document analysis. While the two cases are from two different countries, we nonetheless find surprising parallels between them. These insights are instrumental to link theoretical debates on controversies and place-making. Moreover, they provide empirical insights into the transformative and lasting effects of energy controversies on people and places.     

Domestic actions contributing to the mitigation of GHG emissions from power generation in Brazil

Abstract

Continued growth and the privatisation of Brazil's electricity system, which is largely based upon hydropower, is projected to lead to big expansion mainly of natural gas but also coal power stations with a resulting huge growth in greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions unless steps are taken to avoid this. The Brazilian National Program of Power Conservation and Efficient Use of Electrical Energy in terms of avoided GHG emissions (PROCEL), originally created in 1985, is a multi-stakeholder program coordinated by Eletrobrás aimed to reduce the waste of electrical power on both supply and demand side. Initially crippled by lack of funds, a new finance structure introduced in 1994 has greatly increased PROCEL's impact. Here we develop scenarios that suggest that continued expansion of PROCEL's programme, including resources that might be drawn through clean development mechanism (CDM) projects, to meet projected PROCEL targets over the next two decades could avoid approximately one-third of the GHG emissions from the Brazilian power sector. This contribution demonstrates the significant global environmental benefits of PROCEL in addition to national benefits of this innovative programme.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing Aerial photography and image interpretation for Resource Management . DAVID P. PAINE . Analytical Models and Techniques Spatial Processes Models and Applications A. D. CLIFF AND J. K. ORD Quantitative and Statistical Approaches to Geography: A Practical Manual JOHN A. MATTHEWS . Cartography and Maps Map Data Processing . HERBERT FREEMAN AND GOFFREDO G. PIERONI , eds. Computer-assisted Cartography: Principles and Prospects, 1982 . MARK S. MONMONIER . Cultural Navajo Architecture: Forms, History, Distributions . STEPHEN C. JETT AND VIRGINIA E . SPENCER . Rational Landscapes and Humanistic Geography . EDWARD RELPH . Economic The Structure and Control of a State Economy . W. L. L'ESPERANCE . Economic Geography . JAMES O. WHEELER AND PETER O. MULLER . The Myth of the Family Farm: Agribusiness Dominance of U.S. Agriculture . INGOLF VOCELER . Libya: The Experience of Oil . J. A. ALLEN . Geography of Public Finance, Welfare Under Fiscal Federalism and local Government Finance . ROBERT BENNETT . Environmental Management, Resources, and Systems Mountains and Man . LARRY W. PRICE . Environmental Geology . DONALD R. COATES . An Introduction to Environmental Systems . G. H. DURY . The Environment: Chinese and American Views . Edited by LAURENCE J. C. MA AND ALLEN G. NOBLE . Land Use in America . RICHARD H. JACKSON . Medical Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Medical Geography . MELINDA S. MEADE (ed.). Philosophy and Geographic Thought Birds in Egg/Eggs in Bird . GUNNAR OLSSON . PhysicaI Climatology: Selected Applications . J. E. OLIVER . Geomorphological Techniques . ANDREW GOUDIE (ed.). Political Politics, Geography and Behaviour . RICHARD MUIR AND RONAN PADDISON . The State of the World Atlas . MICHAEL KIDRON AND RONALD SECAL . Population The Population of the South . DUDLEY L. POSTON , JR . AND ROBERT H. WELLER , eds. Regional Latin America: Economic Development and Regional Differentiation . ARTHUR MORRIS . Developing the Amazon . EMILIO F. MORAN . Western Europe: A Systematic Human Geography . BRIAN W. ILBERY . Settlement Systems in Sparsely Settled Regions: The United States and Australia . RICHARD E. LONSDALEAND JOHN H. HOLMES , eds. African Perspectives: The Economic Geography of Nine African States . HARM DE BUJ AND ESMOND MARTIN , eds. Rural Nonmetropolitan America in Transition . AMOS H. HAWLEY AND SARA MILLS MAZIE , eds. Social Crime and Environment . R. NORMAN DAVIDSON . The Ghetto: Readings with Interpretations . JOE T. DARDEN , ed. Urban Urban Problems and Planning in the Developed World . MICHAEL PACIONE (ed.) Problems and Planning in Third World Cities . Edited by MICHAEL PACIONE . The City in West Europe . D. BURTENSHAW , M. BATEMAN , AND C. J. ASHWORTH .     

Amino acid diagenesis in the marine bivalve Arctica islandica Linné from northwest European sites: Only time and temperature?

Collections of the molluscan species Arctica islandica from seven sites in Norway, Scotland and the North Sea, ranging in age from recent to Early Pleistocene, have been sampled for amino acid analyses. The shells were sampled in profiles through the valves at different distances from the umbo. In the fossil material a general trend of increasing degree of isoleucine (lle) epimerisation and decreasing amino acid concentrations were found going from the inner part of the valve to the outer. Although less pronounced, there is a similar trend from the central part of the valve to the margin. As the concentration of alloisoleucine (alle) remains nearly constant, the observed changes in alle/lle ratios are a result of variations in the amount of isoleucine. The amino acid composition is fairly uniform in recent shells and the observed gradients are established in mid-Holocene samples. Therefore, it is suggested that the gradients are established during rapid early degradation of the protein, possibly due to microbiological activity. Differences in alle/lle ratios observed in molluscs from sites of the same age and same thermal history could be explained by differences in the exposure to amino-acid-consuming microorganisms during the very early stage of diagenesis.     

RAPID ESTIMATION OF THE NUMBER OF COELUTING COMPONENTS IN LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY BY FACTOR ANALYSIS

Evaluation of the results of factor analysis of sets of spectroscopically detected chromatograms is carriedout by examining the shapes of the abstract factors.This is done either by visual inspection or by analysisof the power density spectra produced from them.Owing to constraints imposed by the column functionand the spectroscopic instrument function,the information content of the chromatograms necessarilyoccurs at low spatial frequencies.As a consequence,it appears as relatively broad features in the abstractchromatograms and as a peak in the low-frequency region of the corresponding power density plot.Onthe basis of examination of the power density distribution,a well-defined distinction is made betweenprimary and secondary abstract factors.The major uncertainty encountered in determining the numberof chemical components appears to arise from effects of contaminants in reagents.     

欧亚黄土沉积环境对比研究

本文对采自中国、法国、比利时等国43块黄土样品进行实验室处理后,分析对比了它们在碳酸盐含量、粒度组成、重矿物组成及粘土矿物成分方面的共同特性及差异性。结果表明,中国黄土碳酸盐含量稳定,西欧不同类型的黄土碳酸盐含量差别很大。在粒度组成上,欧亚黄土并没有本质的差别,但西欧不同层位的黄土粒度组成呈有规律变化。对西欧重矿物的分析可以追溯黄土的物质来源,粘土矿物含量在欧亚不同黄土中也有差别。比较结果说明,欧洲的黄土堆积受第四纪冰期、间冰期的气候波动影响较大,中国黄土在堆积期间始终处在干旱、半干旱的气候条件下。     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Marine Resources of Kuwait: Their Role in the Development of Non-oil Resources . Fatimah H. Y. al -Abdul -Razzak Recollections of a Revolution: Geography as Spatial Science . Mark Billinge , Derek Gregory and Ron Martin Entre l'Eden et l'Utopie . Luc Bureau Developments in Political Geography . M. A. Busteed The Elements of Graphing Data . William S. Cleveland Rural Resource Management . Paul J. Cloke and Chris C. Park Third World Atlas . Ben Crow and Alan Thomas Exploitation, Conservation, Preservation: A Geographic Perspective on Natural Resource Use . Susan L. Cutter , Hilary Lambert Renwick, and William H. Renwick . Wine Regions of the Southern Hemisphere . Harm Jan de Blij Regional Development: Problems and Policies in Eastern and Western Europe . George Demko The Geographer at Work . Peter R. Gould Change in the Amazon Basin . John Hemming Geography Since the Second World War . R. J. Johnston and P. Claval Urbanization in China: Town and Countryside in a Developing Economy 1949–2000 A.D. , R. J. R. Kirkby Transport and Communications for Pacific Microstates: Issues in Organisation and Management . Christopher C. Kissling Fluvial Forms and Processes . David Knighton The Urban Millennium . Josef W. Konvitz Technological Transition in Cartography . Mark Stephen Monmonier Field Guide to Soils and the Environment: Applications of Soil Surveys . Gerald W. Olson Northern Australia: The Arenas of Life and Ecosystems on Half a Continent . Don Parkes A Killing Rain: The Global Threat of Acid Rain . Thomas Pawlick From the Family Farm to Agribusiness: The Irrigation Crusade in California and the West, 1850–1931 . Donald J. Pisani Hybrid Maize Diffusion in Kenya . Franz -Michael Rundquist Warning and Response to the Mount St. Helens Eruption . Thomas F. Saarinen and James L. Sell Coastal Geomorphology in Australia . B. G. Thom Tropical Rain Forests of the Far East , 2nd ed . T. C. Whitmore The Dark Side of the Earth . Robert Muir Wood Categorical Data Analysis for Geographers and Environmental Scientists , Neil Wrigley