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A survey experiment that manipulates the portrayal of LGBT people as holding similar, or different, political views from those of straight people. Outcome variables are straight respondents' affective views of LGBT people and attitudes on LGBT rights.

Additional file 4. This file contains the SPARQL SELECT queries; their results appear in Tables 9 and 11.

A global inventory of early instrumental meteorological measurements is compiled. It comprises thousands of series, many of which have not been digitized, pointing to the potential of weather data rescue. Instrumental meteorological measurements from periods prior to the start of national weather services are designated “early instrumental data”. They have played an important role in climate research as they allow daily-to-decadal variability and changes of temperature, pressure, and precipitation, including extremes, to be addressed. Early instrumental data can also help place 21st century climatic changes into a historical context such as to define pre-industrial climate and its variability. Until recently, the focus was on long, high-quality series, while the large number of shorter series (which together also cover long periods) received little to no attention. The shift in climate and climate impact research from mean climate characteristics towards weather variability and extremes, as well as the success of historical reanalyses which make use of short series, generates a need for locating and exploring further early instrumental measurements. However, information on early instrumental series has never been electronically compiled on a global scale. Here we attempt a worldwide compilation of metadata on early instrumental meteorological records prior to 1850 (1890 for Africa and the Arctic). Our global inventory comprises information on several thousand records, about half of which have not yet been digitized (not even as monthly means), and only approximately 20% of which have made it to global repositories. The inventory will help to prioritize data rescue efforts and can be used to analyze the potential feasibility of historical weather data products. The inventory will be maintained as a living document and is a first, critical, step towards the systematic rescue and re-evaluation of these highly valuable early records. Additions to the inventory are welcomed.

Additional file 2. This file contains the guidelines developed for “Step 4: Named entity recognition task”. The file also contains the section “Avoiding pitfalls from the SemDeep pipeline when extracting locality-based modules with SNOMED CT”.

The eruption of Tambora (Indonesia) in April 1815 had substantial effects on global climate and led to the ‘Year Without a Summer’ of 1816 in Europe and North America. Although a tragic event—tens of thousands of people lost their lives—the eruption also was an ‘experiment of nature’ from which science has learned until today. The aim of this study is to summarize our current understanding of the Tambora eruption and its effects on climate as expressed in early instrumental observations climate proxies and geological evidence climate reconstructions and model simulations. Progress has been made with respect to our understanding of the eruption process and estimated amount of SO2 injected into the atmosphere although large uncertainties still exist with respect to altitude and hemispheric distribution of Tambora aerosols. With respect to climate effects the global and Northern Hemispheric cooling are well constrained by proxies whereas there is no strong signal in Southern Hemisphere proxies. Newly recovered early instrumental information for Western Europe and parts of North America regions with particularly strong climate effects allow Tambora's effect on the weather systems to be addressed. Climate models respond to prescribed Tambora like forcing with a strengthening of the wintertime stratospheric polar vortex global cooling and a slowdown of the water cycle weakening of the summer monsoon circulations a strengthening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and a decrease of atmospheric CO2. Combining observations climate proxies and model simulations for the case of Tambora a better understanding of climate processes has emerged.

This chapter critically reviews the state-of-the-art in spatial microsimulation and agent-based modelling approaches with an emphasis on efforts to combine them in order to address applied geography problems. Spatial microsimulation typically involves the merging of census and social survey data to simulate a population of individuals within households (for different geographical units) whose characteristics are as close to the real population as it is possible to estimate (and for small areas for which this information is not available from published sources). Microsimulation is closely linked conceptually to another type of individual-level modelling: agent-based models (ABM). ABM are normally associated with the behaviour of multiple agents in a social or economic system. This chapter offers an overview of the state-of-the-art of both modelling approaches as well as a discussion of attempts to combine them, with an articulation of a relevant research agenda.

This paper explores discrete changes in age--specific mortality risk across periods and cohorts, using data from 40 countries during the twentieth century with a particular focus on the UK.Our interest is in the discrete changes in mortality seen as a result of global events, rather than the overall changes in mortality throughout the twentieth century.We use innovative exploratory visual and statistical methods to explore these changes.First, Lexis surface plots are used to visualise period and cohort 'scars' in age--specific period and cohort mortality in the population across the twentieth century.Second, we use a version of the hierarchical age--period--cohort (APC) model to statistically separate discrete period and cohort effects.We avoid the APC identification problem by analysing only discrete deviations net of any linear APC effects.We find period and cohort effects in mortality associated with the First World War of 1914--18, the influenza pandemic of 1918, the Second World War of 1939--45, and, intriguingly, a decline in mortality in many western countries associated with the 1948 birth cohort.We believe a combination of factors influenced this improvement in mortality, including the developments of post--war social welfare, the economic investment in Europe by the United States, the accessibility of antibiotics such as penicillin, and, in the UK, the NHS.Our findings suggest universal or accessible health care make significant and detectable improvements to population mortality for those born under it.These methods could productively be used by epidemiologists and others to explore deviations from APC trends in other longitudinal research contexts.

Number of animals stratified by species, British country and Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Species assessed include dogs, cats and other species. IMD category 1 indicates the least deprived areas and category 5 the most deprived. The percentage that each species made up within each IMD category in each country is shown in brackets. (DOCX 13Â kb)

Results of the mixed effects logistic regression models, assessing the association between a range of an animal’s characteristics and the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Shown are odds ratios of fixed effects IMD in England, Wales and Scotland from the final mixed effects logistic regression models of; the probability of animals being a dog in the veterinary-visiting population; the probability of animals being a cat in the veterinary-visiting population; and of the probability of dogs and cats being purebred in the veterinary-visiting dog and cat population, respectively. Three asterisks (***), two asterisks (**) and one asterisk (*) indicate p

Demographics of the SAVSNET veterinary-visiting population of dogs, cats and rabbits by each region considered in the study. (DOCX 18Â kb)

Results of the mixed effects logistic regression models, assessing the association between a range of an animal’s key performance indicators and the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Shown are odds ratios of fixed effects IMD in England, Wales and Scotland from the final mixed effects logistic regression models of; the probability of dogs and cats being neutered by sex; the probability of dogs and cats being insured; and of the probability of dogs and cats being microchipped. Asterisk (*) indicates p

This study assessed practice variations in secondary prevention medication prescriptions among coronary artery disease (CAD) patients treated in outpatient practices participating in the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) Practice Innovation and Clinical Excellence (PINNACLE) registry.Among patients with CAD, secondary prevention with a combination of beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, and statins reduces cardiac mortality and myocardial infarction (MI). Accordingly, every CAD patient should receive the combination of these medications for which they are eligible. However, little is known about current prescription patterns of these medications and the variation in use among outpatient cardiology clinics.Using data from NCDR PINNACLE registry, a national outpatient cardiology practice registry, we assessed medication prescription patterns among eligible CAD patients, between July 2008 and December 2010. Overall rates of prescription and variation by practice were calculated, adjusting for patient characteristics.Among 156,145 CAD patients in 58 practices, 103,830 (66.5%) patients were prescribed the optimal combination of medications for which they were eligible. The median rate of optimal combined prescription by practice was 73.5% and varied from 28.8% to 100%. After adjustment for patient factors, the practice median rate ratio for prescription was 1.25 (95% confidence interval: 1.20 to 1.32), indicating a 25% likelihood that 2 random practices would differ in treating identical CAD patients.Among a national registry of CAD patients treated in outpatient cardiology practices, over one-third of patients failed to receive their optimal combination of secondary prevention medications. Significant variation was observed across practices, even after adjusting for patient characteristics, suggesting that quality improvement efforts may be needed to support more uniform practice.

Ponencia presentada en: VI Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Tarragona del 8 al 11 de octubre de 2008. [ES]El Grupo de Expertos en Detección e Índices de Cambio Climático (ETCCDI) ha venido impulsando a escala global el cálculo de índices de cambio climático a partir de datos diarios. El uso sistemático de dichos índices ha permitido mejorar el diagnóstico global de los cambios en extremos de temperatura y precipitación contribuyendo al reporte de evaluación del Panel Intergubernamental de Cambio Climático. Lo anterior sin embargo, sólo ha marcado el inicio de una estrategia de detección de cambio climático que requiere continuarse en la escala regional. Utilizando las mejores series de tiempo de temperatura y precipitación diaria se calcularon los índices de cambio climático del ETCCDI para la región estatal de Veracruz en el Golfo de México. Los datos diarios fueron sometidos a procedimientos de control de calidad y análisis de homogeneidad. Los resultados muestran evidencia de un aumento de temperatura en años recientes consistente con el aumento de temperatura del planeta; se detecta incremento en la frecuencia de días calurosos y disminución de los días frescos. En la precipitación no se detectan cambios significativos. La evidencia encontrada será utilizada por otras iniciativas de la región orientadas a la implementación de acciones climáticas. [EN]The Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) has encouraged the global use of a set of climate change indices derived from daily data. The use of such indices has improved the global diagnostics of changes in temperature and precipitation extremes, revealing the picture reported in the last IPCC Assessment Report. This, however, is only the beginning of further developments required on climate change detection at regional scales. Using the best temperature and precipitation daily time-series available in the state of Veracruz, in the Gulf of Mexico, a subset of the ETCCDI indices was calculated for the region. The data were previously quality controlled and an homogeneity test was applied. Results show evidence of a recent increase in the regional temperature as well as a higher frequency of warm days and a lower frequency of cool days. On the contrary, no significant changes in precipitation were detected. The evidence of warming here obtained will support other initiatives aimed to design climate-related actions.

This Life-Cycle Costing (LCC) analysis deals with the feasibility of measures taken to improve thermal performance of building envelope in order to reduce energy demands for space heating. LCC analysis is carried out on one exemplary apartment in multifamily buildings with recently refurbished facades in Karaburma, a settlement in Belgrade. Results of the analysis show that by improving properties of envelope with poor thermal U value, the reduction of electricity consumed for heating in Belgrade climate is 28 %. Considering Serbian system for electricity charging, reduction of monthly costs for electricity can be doubled.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA, 2005) set out a framework for understanding the benefits that humans derive from the environment in order to inform decision making. It categorized these benefits as: provisioning services, such as food, water, timber; regulating services, such as climate control, waste, water quality; supporting services, such as soil formation, photosynthesis, nutrient cycling; and cultural services, such as recreational, spiritual and aesthetic benefits. Since then there has been a plethora of research and wider interest in devising ways of assessing and measuring those services (Haines-Young and Potschin, 2009; Sagoff, 2011; Shan and Swinton, 2011), often involving economic valuation techniques devised by economists and ecologists. While these can be useful for assessing the provisioning, supporting and regulating services, measuring or assessing the cultural services that humans receive from ecosystems has proved to be more problematic. However, there is increasing recognition of the role of multiple disciplines in understanding the complex and multi-faceted ways that ecosystems shape culture and cultural value.