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Recent studies show that wars were more prevalent during colder periods in human history. Nevertheless, the temporal consistency of the climate-war correlation in Europe over extended period has ra...

Although Earth’s surface parameters obtained from satellite data have become more and more precise, it is still difficult to guarantee temporal consistency and spatial continuity for large-scale ge...

Rapid land-use/land-cover LULC changes such as urbanization have tremendous impacts on regional climate and environment. Satellite images acquired by fast-developing remote-sensing techniques provide frequent observations of the land surface, thereby allowing for continuous mapping of urbanization activities. In this study, we investigated the annual urbanization activities over the past three decades in Guangzhou, one of the largest metropolises in China. To enhance the efficiency of training sample extraction in long-term land-cover mapping, we developed a three-step method: 1 three spectral indices were derived to extract the candidates of training samples based on decision trees; 2 a spatial filter was used to extract homogenous samples for each land-cover type; and 3 temporal consistency checking was performed for the samples of urban areas. We applied the developed method to time-series Landsat images and produced annual land-cover maps of Guangzhou from 1987 to 2015. We evaluated the produced land-cover maps and found an average overall accuracy of 89.80% for all studied years. Our results show that dramatic urbanization has occurred in the region of the Guangzhou city, where built-up areas have mostly expanded to the northwest, east, and south of the central regions of Guangzhou. The average growth rate of urban areas in Guangzhou from 1987 to 2015 was at 38.72 km2 per year, which was generally consistent with the government survey data. Future studies are required to understand how rapid urbanization in Guangzhou influences social economy and environmental sustainability.

We examine the coordination of policy priorities among the Arctic Council, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, the Council of Baltic Sea States, and the Nordic Council of Ministers. The member states of these groups established these institutions to coordinate their regional cooperation. However, the member states ended up having to coordinate the parallel work of these institutions. This coordination effort influenced their cooperation, creating an institutional coordination dilemma. We analyze how interests, leadership, and identity politics influence this dilemma and how negative, problem-solving, and positive forms of coordination can amend its effects regarding the temporal consistency of policy priorities and their sectoral overlap.

The spatial and temporal consistency of seasonal air temperature and precipitation in eight widely used gridded observation-based climate datasets (CANGRD, CRU-TS3.1, CRUTEM4.1, GISTEMP, GPCC, GPCP, HadCRUT3, and UDEL) and eight reanalyses (20CR, CFSR, ERA-40, ERA-Interim, JRA25, MERRA, NARR, and NCEP2) was evaluated over the Canadian Arctic for the 1950–2010 period. The evaluation used the CANGRD dataset, which is based on homogenized temperature and adjusted precipitation from climate stations, as a reference. Dataset agreement and bias were observed to exhibit important spatial, seasonal, and temporal variability over the Canadian Arctic with the largest spread occurring between datasets over mountain and coastal regions and over the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Reanalysis datasets were typically warmer and wetter than surface observation-based datasets, with CFSR and 20CR exhibiting biases in total annual precipitation on the order of 300 mm. Warm bias in 20CR exceeded 12°C in winter over the ...

Remote sensing monitoring of inland or coastal waters is frequently impeded by insufficient spatial and temporal coverage. Limited by small sizes of estuaries, lakes, ponds, etc., and weather conditions, conventional ocean colour sensors, including Terra/Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), are often inadequate. Medium- or higher-resolution sensors, such as the Chinese HJ-1A CCD1, provide great potential to complement the spatial–temporal gap of MODIS-like sensors, when multi-sensor and temporal consistency are achieved. This paper examines the radiometric performance of HJ-1A CCD1 over aquatic environment, in terms of the long-term radiometric stability and consistency, with reference to Terra MODIS. A high correlation is found in the remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) between these two sensors, using regression analysis of rigorously selected matching data after accurate Rayleigh scattering correction and removal of outliers. Validations using an independent data set demonstrate tha...

Although the temporal consistency of resting metabolic rate in individual animals is generally considered to be a universal phenomenon, studies on invertebrates are still scarce. Here, we studied the repeatability of standard metabolic rate in the signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus). We measured oxygen consumption twice on the same individuals, on average in 97-day intervals. At intermolt stage, the standard metabolic rate was a repeatable trait. However, molting increased significantly the minimum metabolic rate, thus emphasizing the role of animal physiological state in determining the rate of metabolism.

Monitoring land cover over large areas on a yearly basis is challenging. The spatial and temporal consistency of an object-based change detection algorithm was tested through a multi-year application on the forest of Borneo, using SPOT-VEGETATION time series from 2000 to 2008. Continuous change thresholds allowed the tuning of the algorithm according to specific requirements in terms of omission and commission errors. The accuracy of the method was assessed using the ROC relative operating characteristics curves, which were found useful to evaluate the performance of the method independently of the selected threshold and to support the selection of an optimal threshold. The forest area that annually changed between 2000 and 2008 was detected and a cumulative change map was produced. The resulting change rates and the distribution of the forest change patterns were in agreement with other sources of information. These results demonstrated the very promising temporal consistency of the proposed approach. Further work aims at testing it at larger scales.

Between-orchard variation in fruit dry matter (DM) content at harvest of 341 commercial ‘Hayward’ kiwifruit orchards was spatially modelled across a production region over consecutive growing seasons (2003–08). Within seasons there were spatial patterns to the distribution of fruit DM between orchards. The temporal consistency of the spatial variation enabled segregation of the production region into two geographic zones which contained orchards that consistently produced fruit of distinct DM both within and across seasons. The differences in fruit DM between geographic zones were statistically significant, but were not of sufficient magnitude to be of commercial interest. Although the location of an orchard within the production region had an effect on the DM of the fruit produced, orchard location was not predictive of fruit DM. Therefore, it is concluded that in this situation zonation between orchards should not be where the effort in managing variation in fruit quality is concentrated.

The authors studied whether the drawing variability in young children is best explicable by (a) demands on the explicit timing system, (b) an underdeveloped ability to control limb dynamics, or (c) both. The explicit timing demands were lower in continuous drawing in comparison with the discontinuous task. The authors manipulated limb dynamics by changing the number of joints involved, with line drawing requiring fewer joints than circle drawing. Results showed that young children had high temporal variability in discontinuous circling but not in other conditions. The authors argue that both explicit timing and dynamic complexity of limb control may be determinants of temporal consistency and may thus play an important role in the development of drawing and writing skills in children.

Various compositing criteria have been proposed to produce cloud-free images from optical time series. However, they often favour specific atmospheric and geometric conditions, which may cause serious inconsistencies in the syntheses. Algorithms including BRDF normalization minimize variations induced by the anisotropy of the target. However, their operational implementation faces some issues. This study proposes to avoid these issues by using a new strategy based on a statistical approach, i.e. Mean Compositing, and by comparing it with three existing techniques. A quantitative evaluation methodology with statistical tests on reflectance and texture values as well as visual comparisons were applied to numerous SPOT VEGETATION time series. The performance criterion was to best mimic the information content of a single cloud-free near-nadir view image. Moreover a quantitative approach was used to assess the temporal consistency of the syntheses. The results showed that the proposed strategy combined with an efficient quality control produces images with greater spatial consistency than currently available VEGETATION products but produces slightly more uneven time series than the most advanced compositing algorithm.

This study examined the consistency of pre-performance routines in international rugby union goal kickers on kicks of varying difficulty and under different amounts of situational pressure. Concentration times and physical preparation times were calculated from video recordings of the 572 place kicks taken during the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup. In contrast to the view that performers should seek consistent pre-performance routine times, the results revealed a strong positive relationship between kick difficulty and concentration time. Analysis of the effect of situational pressure, determined by the difference in score before the kick, revealed that players tended to have longer concentration times and shorter physical preparation times when the scores were close. There were no differences between the best and worst kickers in the tournament on routine time, consistency or rhythmicity. The view that increasing the temporal consistency of a routine will result in improved performance is challenged.

Accounting systems are analysed from a theoretical perspective using mathematical methods of analysis and proof, supplemented by numerical illustrations. Earlier work which applied to capital maintenance systems, is developed and extended to encompass full accounting systems, which include valuation systems together with capital maintenance systems. An important possible property of accounting systems is temporal consistency and this requires the existence of two other properties, perdurability and revaluation neutrality. A general theorem is proved, which implies that, of six alternative accounting systems examined, only one, pure historical cost accounting, possesses all of these properties. This analysis is interpreted not as a basis for rejecting alternative accounting systems, but rather as affording an insight into their structures and properties. A particularly important insight is that even within a common accounting system, accounting measurements may not be strictly comparable if they do not sha...

This paper presents a case study of county spending in Wyoming during the 1970s and 1980s to test the applicability of several competing perspectives upon budget policy derived from higher level and more visible governments in the United States. Our findings about the consequences of Wyoming's boom and bust cycle during the 1970s and 1980s for county finances possess several implications for the competing theories of budget policy. Concerning how budgets are made, they confirm the growing consensus that models of “budgetary incrementalism” are inadequate, as well as providing some evidence consistent with the “garbage can” model of decision-making. However, they also suggest that “the baby should not be thrown out with the bath water,” since temporal consistency and incrementalism are evident in several areas. Turning to the factors affecting budget substance, resource base turned out to be the most important factor influencing Wyoming county budgets. Several instances of special social needs and politica...

Snow avalanches in Cascade Canyon, Grand Teton National Park, have a significant effect on the region's vegetation mosaic, increasing the area's community diversity and creating a fragmented vegetation pattern. The structure and persistence of communities within avalanche tracks is a function of the frequency of avalanche occurrence. In many areas, shrub cover and conifer density increase as avalanche frequency increases. Conifers decrease in size yet increase in age as avalanches occur more often, a consequence of slower growth rates in trees within avalanche tracks. Because the probability of avalanche damage to conifers is related to the size of the tree, slow growth rates result in small trees that can survive many years in avalanche tracks, contributing to the persistence of the avalanche community. The canyon's vegetation patterns appear fairly stable due to the spatial and temporal consistency of avalanche occurrence and the persistence of communities in avalanche tracks. The primary effect avalanches have on this landscape is to increase the fragmentation of the vegetation patterns rather than to drive dynamic changes in the landscape mosaic.

One hundred nonpatient adults, screened for evidence of personality disorganization, were retested after a three-year interval to study the temporal consistency of the Rorschach. In general, the correlational analysis for 19 basic variables studied, and a directionality analysis for five ratios, illustrate a considerable sturdiness over time. It is postulated that these variables can be separated into situational related indices (state variables), and more stable scores indicative of durable response styles (trait variables), based on the assumption that variables with lower correlations would identify state variables, while the higher correlations would signify the trait features. Nine of the 19 variables yield retest correlations in excess of.

The nature of the Rorschach is discussed using data from three temporal consistency studies with children of different ages, plus two other studies in which the retest reliability question was approached by experimental manipulation. It is postulated that the test response reflects the basic psychological styles or response tendencies that have developed within the personality, plus representations of the more private world of the person. The challenge for interpretation and research is to differentiate which of the test elements reflect each of these features, and to determine how they merge to create the response during a very brief time interval.