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A coastal eddy is modelled as a barotropic vortex propagating along a coastal shelf. If the vortex speed matches the phase speed of any coastal trapped shelf wave modes, a shelf wave wake is generated leading to a flux of energy from the vortex into the wave field. Using a simple shelf geometry, we determine analytic expressions for the wave wake and the leading-order flux of wave energy. By considering the balance of energy between the vortex and wave field, this energy flux is then used to make analytic predictions for the evolution of the vortex speed and radius under the assumption that the vortex structure remains self-similar. These predictions are examined in the asymptotic limit of small rotation rate and shelf slope and tested against numerical simulations. If the vortex speed does not match the phase speed of any shelf wave, steady vortex solutions are expected to exist. We present a numerical approach for finding these nonlinear solutions and examine the parameter dependence of their structure.

This chapter in the 2007 first edition book pointed out the serious flaws in past ecological understanding of dune vegetation development (conventional dune succession) and proposed the necessity of coupling physical and ecological processes to advance knowledge and understanding of the coastal dune ecosystem. It provided some basic explanations of the key role of sand budgets (sand availability and eolian sand transport) from the geomorphological literature that had been largely ignored by ecologists and proposed that an understanding of sand budgets could offer better explanations for the patterns of vegetation observed on coastal dunes. Since 2007, significant advances have been made in coastal and eolian geomorphology, including the development of models that incorporate plant growth/death and their interaction with the physical processes of sand transport to produce the various coastal dune forms (foredunes, barchan dunes, parabolic dunes, etc.). The current chapter provides an update on some of these advances.

Natural or anthropogenic disturbance was traditionally viewed as an event that initiated primary or secondary succession, and succession explained the development of vegetation in the absence of disturbance. Thus, the concepts of disturbance and succession are inextricably linked in plant ecology, which are clearly explained in this chapter. Succession has been used in so many different ways and situations that it is almost useless as a precise idea. However, no matter whether succession has been considered a population, community, or ecosystem phenomenon or process, it has contained certain common ideas. Succession is an orderly unidirectional process of community change in which communities replace each other sequentially until a stable community is reached. Succession is often not well defined by users of the concept, and its meaning has undergone a shift from the clear definition given by its original proponents to a vague and all-inclusive concept of simply vegetation change over time. The chapter proposes a change in viewpoint of vegetation dynamics that not only accepts the pervasive nature of disturbance in ecosystems but also incorporates the understanding that has developed of the physical disturbance processes. All disturbances have differential impacts on different populations within communities and on different ecological processes. Therefore, to advance one's understanding of the ecological effects of disturbances, one must couple the disturbance processes with ecological processes.

Dryocopus pileatus (Pileated Woodpecker) is an endemic North American woodpecker that, following widespread declines during the mid-to-late 19th century, rebounded and has become relatively common resident throughout its range. In New York City, Pileated Woodpeckers were breeding residents until the early to mid-1800s, but were extirpated due to the city's rapid urbanization. Since the 1930s, however, the number of reports of Pileated Woodpeckers has increased dramatically in the area. Here we document the re-establishment of Pileated Woodpeckers in New York City within 2 old-growth greenspaces on Staten Island from 2015 to 2019. We further describe and validate a previously unpublished breeding attempt on Staten Island from 1989. The establishment of Pileated Woodpeckers in New York City is reflective of their ongoing colonization of urban and suburban areas throughout North America, and highlights the importance of unfragmented greenspaces within urban and suburban areas.

A number of recent results have shown that within the shallow water, rigid-lid approximation, alongshore variations in the bathymetry, i.e. a submerged ridge, can lead to continental shelf waves (CSWs) that are localised geographically at the ridge and then decay both along and away from the coast. Removing the rigid-lid assumption, introduces the superinertial Poincare waves and a Kelvin wave that is present at all frequencies. This implies that the spectrum of the associated wave operator, which is bounded for the rigid lid case, is continuous and unbounded for the free-surface case. In the rigid-lid case the localisation of modes are isolated eigenvalues lying above the continuous spectrum whereas any localised modes for the free-surface problem must necessarily be embedded in the continuous spectrum. The purpose of this work is to construct trapped CSWs analytically and numerically for a non-rectilinear shelf. A regular asymptotic method is employed by considering a slowly varying, non-rectilinear shelf with an approximate boundary condition at the shelf–ocean boundary. It is shown that even with the free-surface present, trapped CSWs do indeed exist for the submerged ridge topography. Comparison with highly accurate numerical results demonstrates the accuracy of the asymptotic method and also allows the consideration of shelves that abut an open ocean so avoiding the approximate boundary condition at the shelf–ocean boundary.

Submesoscale processes along coastal boundaries provide a potential mechanism for the dissipation of mesoscale kinetic energy in the ocean. Since these processes occur on scales not generally resolved by global ocean models, a physically motivated parametrisation is required to accurately describe their effects. Submesoscale dynamics is characterised by strong turbulent mixing, nonlinearity and topographic effects; all of which significantly modify the flow. A major component of the submesoscale boundary response to mesoscale forcing is the Kelvin – or coastally trapped – wave field, which has been shown to transport energy over large distances. This paper thus examines the influence of vertical mixing, nonlinearity and steep-slope topography on baroclinic Kelvin waves with the aim of assessing the importance of these effects. We consider the limit of a steep coastal boundary, weak mixing and weak nonlinearity and perform an asymptotic analysis to determine the modification of the classical Kelvin wave solution by these effects. Linear and nonlinear solutions are given and different mixing limits are discussed and compared with previous work. We find that vertical mixing acts to damp slowly propagating Kelvin waves while nonlinearity can cause wave breaking which may be important for fast waves. Steep-slope topography acts to modify the wave speed and structure consistent with previous work.

The accurate prediction of wildfire behavior and spread is possible only when fire and atmosphere simulations are coupled. In this work, we present a mechanism that causes a small fire to intensify by altering the atmosphere. These alterations are caused by fire-related fluxes at the surface. The fire plume and fluxes increase the convective available potential energy (CAPE) and the chance of the development of a strong pyroconvection system. To study this possible mechanism, we used WRF-Fire to capture fire line propagation as the result of interactions between heat and moisture fluxes, pressure perturbations, wind shear development and dry air downdraft. The wind patterns and dynamics of the pyroconvection system are simulated for the Horse River wildfire at Fort McMurray, Canada. The results revealed that the updraft speed reached up to 12 m/s. The entrainment mixed the mid and upper-level dry air and lowered the atmospheric moisture. The mid-level and upper-level dew point temperature changed by 5&ndash, 10 ∘ C in a short period of time. The buoyant air strengthened the ascent as soon as the nocturnal inversion was eliminated by daytime heating. The 887 J/kg total increase of CAPE in less than 5 h and the high bulk Richardson number (BRN) of 93 were indicators of the growing pyro-cumulus cell. The presented simulation has not improved the original model or supported leading-edge numerical weather prediction (NWP) achievements, except for adapting WRF-Fire for Canadian biomass fuel. However, we were able to present a great deal of improvements in wildfire nowcasting and short-term forecasting to save lives and costs associated with wildfires. The simulation is sufficiently fast and efficient to be considered for a real-time operational model. While the project was designed and succeeded as an NWP application, we are still searching for a solution for the intractable problems associated with political borders and the current liable authorities for the further development of a new generation of national atmosphere&ndash, wildfire forecasting systems.

The first year of university is associated with the heaviest alcohol and drug use for young adults. Trait mindfulness decreases risk for harmful substance use broadly, but less is known about its protective role against alcohol and drug use during the first year of university. We hypothesized that specific facets of trait mindfulness (acting with awareness, nonjudging of inner experience, and nonreactivity to inner experience) would predict reduced alcohol and drug use among first-year university students. Given that the same facets of trait mindfulness protect against anxiety and depression (i.e., emotional psychopathology), we expected low levels of emotional psychopathology to mediate these effects. First-year undergraduates (N = 308) completed online self-reports in a longitudinal study. Facets of trait mindfulness were assessed at the beginning of the semester (Time 1). Emotional psychopathology, alcohol use, and drug use were assessed 4 months later (Time 2). Results revealed that the acting with awareness, nonjudging of inner experience, and nonreactivity to inner experience facets predicted decreased alcohol and drug use at Time 2 (controlling for Time 1 outcomes). These effects were mediated by low levels of emotional psychopathology. Our study demonstrates that first-year students who are high in specific facets of trait mindfulness are less likely to experience elevated emotional psychopathology, and in turn, are less likely to engage in harmful alcohol and drug use.

The long-wave, reduced-gravity, shallow-water equations (the semi-geostrophic equations) are used to study the outflow of a river into the ocean. While previous models have studied dynamics driven by gradients in density, the focus here is on the effects of potential vorticity anomaly (PVa). The river water is taken to have the same density as a finite-depth upper layer of oceanic fluid, but the two fluids have different, uniform, potential vorticities. Under these assumptions, the governing equations reduce to two first-order, nonlinear partial differential equations which are integrated numerically for a prescribed efflux of river water and PVa. Results are found to depend strongly on the sign of the PVa, with all fluid turning downstream (in the direction of Kelvin-wave propagation) when the river water has positive PVa and anticyclonic flow upstream of the river mouth when the PVa is negative. In all cases, a nonlinear Kelvin wave propagates at finite speed ahead of the river water. Away from the river mouth, the uniformity of one set of Riemann invariants allows for similarity solutions that describe the shape of the outflow, as well as a theory that predicts properties of the Kelvin wave. A range of behaviours is observed, including flows that develop shocks and flows that continue to expand offshore. The qualitative behaviour of the outflow is strongly correlated with the value of a single dimensionless parameter that expresses the ratio of the speed of the flow driven by the Kelvin wave to that driven by image vorticity.

Modifications to the environment around a weather station or changes in instrument result in discontinuities or shift in weather data. This paper asks the often ignored questions such as, “what are the impacts of inhomogenized data?” and “does using homogenized weather data affect the conclusions of environmental research?” To answer these questions, we used the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (CFFWI) System for our studies. Weather station data are used to calculate wildfire danger indices. The homogenized data and raw (inhomogenized) observations for sixteen weather stations spread across Canada were used to calculate the CFFWI indices. The sixteen weather stations were further divided into three subset of stations based on the length of the accessible data during the fire season (April to end of September). The first set included stations that covered just 27 years of data and the second data sets had 49 years of data, while the third set included only five stations with the longest time period of 66 years. The majority of the stations, as measured by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, rejected the null hypothesis (difference between the pairs follows a symmetric distribution around zero). The rejection rate increases to 100% as the length of data record increases from 27 to 66 years. Homogenization of 66 years data reduced the indices values approximately 0.7–8.4% and also reversed the long-term trend in some stations such as Kapuskasing.

Based on a variable-coefficient Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) equation, the topographic effect on the wave interactions between two oblique internal solitary waves is investigated. In the absence of rotation and background shear, the model set-up featuring idealised shoaling topography and continuous stratification is motivated by the large expanse of continental shelf in the South China Sea. When the bottom is flat, the evolution of an initial wave consisting of two branches of internal solitary waves can be categorised into six patterns depending on the respective amplitudes and the oblique angles measured counterclockwise from the transverse axis. Using theoretical multi-soliton solutions of the constant-coefficient KP equation, we select three observed patterns and examine each of them in detail both analytically and numerically. The effect of shoaling topography leads to a complicated structure of the leading waves and the emergence of two types of trailing wave trains. Further, the case when the along-crest width is short compared with the transverse domain of interest is examined and it is found that although the topographic effect can still modulate the wave field, the spreading effect in the transverse direction is dominant.

Background Alcohol and gambling problems are common in young adults. Self-medication theory states that young adults with depression drink and/or gamble to escape negative emotions. Research shows that depression is a risk factor for drinking/gambling problems, but more work is needed to examine mediators underlying these associations. One potential mediator is shame. Shame is a self-directed emotion that follows a negative life event and is characterized by intense feelings of inferiority, worthlessness, and embarrassment. Depressed individuals are especially susceptible to shame (and associated emotions). Shame has also been implicated in risk for addiction. Accordingly, we predicted that elevated shame would explain why depression is associated with both alcohol and gambling problems. Methods A longitudinal design was used to examine this hypothesis. Undergraduates (N = 210) completed self-reports of depression at baseline (Time 1) and then completed self-reports of shame, alcohol misuse, gambling problems one month later (Time 2). Results Results showed that individuals with elevated depression at Time 1 endorsed high levels of shame at Time 2, which in turn predicted more gambling (β = .038, 95% CI [.010, .087]) and alcohol problems (β = .249, 95% CI [.123, .435]) at Time 2. We found that increased levels of shame explained the effects of depression on problem drinking and gambling. Conclusions Study findings improve our understanding of the depressive pathway to addiction by providing evidence for shame as a potential mechanism of this pathway. Impact Reducing shame can be a target of clinical interventions for young adults with depression and alcohol/gambling problems.

Objective: HIV-1 infection of the brain and related cognitive impairment remain prevalent in HIV-1-infected individuals despite combination antiretroviral therapy. Sterile alpha motif and histidine-aspartate domain-containing protein 1 (SAMHD1) is a newly identified host restriction factor that blocks the replication of HIV-1 and other retroviruses in myeloid cells. Cell cycle-regulated phosphorylation at residue Thr592 and viral protein X (Vpx)-mediated degradation of SAMHD1 have been shown to bypass SAMHD1 restriction in vitro. Herein, we investigated expression and phosphorylation of SAMHD1 in vivo in relation to macrophage infection and proliferation during the neuropathogenesis of HIV-1 and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) encephalitis. Methods: Using brain and other tissues from uninfected and SIV-infected macaques with or without encephalitis, we performed immunohistochemistry, multilabel fluorescence microscopy and western blot to examine the expression, localization and phosphorylation of SAMHD1. Results: The number of SAMHD1+ nuclei increased in encephalitic brains despite the presence of Vpx. Many of these cells were perivascular macrophages, although subsets of SAMHD1+ microglia and endothelial cells were also observed. The SAMHD1+ macrophages were shown to be both infected and proliferating. Moreover, the presence of cycling SAMHD1+ brain macrophages was confirmed in the tissue of HIV-1-infected patients with encephalitis. Finally, western blot analysis of brain-protein extracts from SIV-infected macaques showed that SAMHD1 protein exists in the brain mainly as an inactive Thr592-phosphorylated form. Conclusion: The ability of SAMHD1 to act as a restriction factor for SIV/HIV in the brain is likely bypassed in proliferating brain macrophages through the phosphorylation-mediated inactivation, not Vpx-mediated degradation of SAMHD1.

This paper presents a horizontally two-dimensional theory based on a variable-coefficient Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation, which is developed to investigate oceanic internal solitary waves propagating over variable bathymetry, for general background density stratification and current shear. To illustrate the theory, a typical monthly averaged density stratification is used for the propagation of an internal solitary wave over either a submarine canyon or a submarine plateau. The evolution is essentially determined by two components, nonlinear effects in the main propagation direction and the diffraction modulation effects in the transverse direction. When the initial solitary wave is located in a narrow area, the consequent spreading effects are dominant, resulting in a wave field largely manifested by a significant diminution of the leading waves, together with some trailing shelves of the opposite polarity. On the other hand, if the initial solitary wave is uniform in the transverse direction, then the evolution is more complicated, though it can be explained by an asymptotic theory for a slowly varying solitary wave combined with the generation of trailing shelves needed to satisfy conservation of mass. This theory is used to demonstrate that it is the transverse dependence of the nonlinear coefficient in the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili equation rather than the coefficient of the linear transverse diffraction term that determines how the wave field evolves. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) general circulation model is used to provide a comparison with the variable-coefficient Kadomtsev–Petviashvili model, and good qualitative and quantitative agreements are found.

A study of the propagation of a mode-2 internal solitary wave over a slope-shelf topography is presented. The methodology is based on a variable-coefficient Korteweg–de Vries (vKdV) equation, using both analysis and numerical simulations, and simulations using the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm). Two configurations are considered. One is a mode-2 internal solitary wave propagating up the slope, from one three-layer system to another three-layer system. Depending on the height of the shelf, which determines the variation of the nonlinear coefficient of the vKdV equation, this can be classified into two cases. First, the case of a polarity change, in which the coefficient of the quadratic nonlinear term changes sign at a certain critical point on the slope, and second, the case with no such polarity change. In both these cases there is a small transfer of energy from the mode-2 wave to mode-1 waves. The other configuration is when the lower layer in the three-layer system goes to zero at a transition point on the slope, and beyond that point, there is a two-layer fluid system. A mode-2 internal solitary wave propagating up the slope cannot exist past this transition point. Instead it is extinguished and replaced by a mode-1 bore and trailing wave packet which moves onto the shelf.

Rockfall is a significant geomorphic process in many mountainous regions that also poses a notable natural hazard risk. Most previous studies of rockfall erosion have investigated the mechanics and rates of local rockwall retreat and talus deposition, with only a few investigations of rockfall and/or associated talus considering larger spatial scales (i.e., drainage basin, mountain range). The purpose of the current research is to investigate the areal extent of rockfall-talus and controlling factors of its distribution over regional spatial scales (of order 102 km2) in Kananaskis, Canadian Rockies to inform our understanding of its significance in mountain development. To achieve this goal, a large talus inventory is collected and analyzed for 11 steep tributaries of the Kananaskis River, Canadian Rockies. Talus accumulations associated with rockfall provide evidence about the nature and rates of rockfall activity that supplies sediment to these deposits and are the focus of the present study. To quantify the controls of rockfall-talus activity in this region, we analyze the association of talus deposits with structural geology, glacial topography, and temperature-related weathering (i.e., frost cracking). A total of 324 talus polygons covering a surface area of 28.51 km2 are delineated within the 11 study basins, with the number of talus polygons in each study basin ranging from 1 to 73. Analysis of the talus inventory shows that cirques and glacially sculpted valleys are locations of notable talus accumulation in Kananaskis, with other locations of significant talus deposition being associated with thrust faults. We also found that the upper elevations at which talus deposits are typically found are the general range of elevations experiencing a notable number of days in the frost cracking window when this window is defined as − 3 to − 15 °C; no such association is found for the frost cracking window of − 3 to − 8 °C. Estimates of average erosion rates for all study basins combined are between 0.15 mm y− 1 (lower estimate) to 3.1 mm y− 1 (upper estimate). Rockfall activity is expected to have been most active for the several millennia following deglaciation (during the paraglacial period) when hillslopes were oversteepened.

International audience; Ocean circulation modeling requires parameterizations of sub-grid scale processes, which in turn involves two separate issues. First, the parameterization should mirror the effect of important sub-grid dynamics and second, constants and boundary conditions as required by the parameterization must be determined. In modern ocean circulation modeling, many parameterizations take the form of viscous operators with poorly known coefficients, and the boundary conditions options are free-slip, partial-slip or no-slip, suitably adjusted for the order of the operator. The extent to which viscous operators are dynamically apt is unclear and there is virtually no dynamical guidance on how to choose between the boundary conditions. Often the decision about the suitability of the parameterizations and the boundary conditions is made based on qualitative characteristics of the solution, which is somewhat subjective. Here, a dynamical boundary layer model is developed that explicitly determines the boundary potential vorticity fluxes resulting from the sub-grid scale interactions of the resolved flow with the boundaries. When applied to a quasi-geostrophic model, comparisons of model evolution with high resolution primitive equation simulations are favorable. The recipe outlined here, while far from a complete parameterization of boundary dynamics, represents a step toward resolving the issues currently surrounding sub-grid scale parameterization. The results also argue that boundary dynamics naturally dissipate balanced energy and are likely to represent a principal means by which the oceanic mesoscale energy budget is balanced.

Climatic, hydraulics, hydrologic, and fluvial geomorphic processes are the main drivers of riparian white alder ( Alnus rhombifolia Nutt.) distribution in northern California. The Mediterranean climate and canyon bound, bedrock-gravel morphology of the South Fork Eel have a distinct effect on these processes. White alder seeds are preferentially deposited on river bars where river hydraulics create eddies coinciding with the downstream part of riffles and the upstream part of pools. Seeds are generally deposited below bankfull elevations by the descending hydrograph during the spring season in this Mediterranean climate. For successful germination and establishment, the seeds must be deposited at a location such that they are not remobilized by late spring flows. The summer establishment period is defined from the date of seed deposition and germination to the fall/winter date of river sediment mobilization. Seedling root growth rate decreases exponentially with decreasing water potential. However, seedlings are shown not to be generally limited by water availability at the elevations they are most commonly deposited. The establishment of white alder seedlings following the first summer will therefore depend on their ability to resist fall/winter high flows. The method proposed here compares the predicted rooting depth to predicted sediment scour rates. The length of the establishment period rather than water availability determines final seedling rooting depth. Over the past 40 years, very few years had establishment periods that were long enough or had fast enough alder growth rates to survive winter floods that often scour deeper than the total root length. The low survival of seedlings in the first autumn season following germination is believed to be a principal reason for the missing age classes often found in alder distributions along rivers.

Large-amplitude, horizontally-propagating internal wave trains are commonly observed in the coastal ocean, fjords and straits. They are long nonlinear waves and hence can be modelled by equations of the Korteweg-de Vries type. However, typically they propagate through regions of variable background hydrology and currents, and over variable bottom topography. Hence a variable-coefficient Korteweg-de Vries equation is needed to model these waves. Although this equation is now well-known and heavily used, a term representing non-conservative effects, arising from dissipative or forcing terms in the underlying basic state, has usually been omitted. In particular this term arises when the hydrology varies in the horizontal direction. Our purpose in this paper is to examine the possible significance of this term. This is achieved through analysis and numerical simulations, using both a two-layer fluid model and a re-examination of previous studies of some specific ocean cases.

A simple quasigeostrophic model is used to examine the outflow from a river, estuary, or strait into a coastal ocean. As shown by Johnson et al., these quasigeostrophic outflows are accurately described by analytical long-wave solutions. This paper first uses these solutions and contour dynamics simulations to discuss the behavior of coastal outflows. Second, it extends the model and the long-wave theory to consider the effects of ambient currents, tides, winds, or a variable source flux. Third, consideration of the momentum flux at the source is used to understand the turning of the current, showing that steady solutions conserve momentum, hence resolving the momentum imbalance paradox of Pichevin and Nof. Finally, a new numerical scheme to compute steady outflow boundaries is developed. The model focuses on the key dynamics driven by the source velocity and the generation of vorticity as the buoyant fluid adjusts. The simplicity of the model, and insight given by the long-wave solutions, enables a full understanding of the dynamics. The outflows display a range of behaviors, including indefinitely growing near-source bulges, steady boundary profiles with varying offshore width, bidirectional currents, and rarefying or eddy-like leading heads, all of which can be understood with the long-wave theory. Despite the simplicity of the model, the results show good agreement in comparison with observations, experiments, and numerical models.

This paper studies the propagation of free, long waves on a potential vorticity front in the presence of a vertical coast, using a -layer, quasi-geostrophic model with piecewise-constant potential vorticity. The coastal boundary induces flow through image vorticity and a Kelvin wave, either of which can reinforce or oppose the Rossby wave dynamics at the front. The behaviour of the front depends strongly on the relative strengths of these three mechanisms, which are explicit in our model. The richest behaviour, which includes kink solitons (under-compressive shocks) and compound-wave structures, occurs in the regime where vortical effects are dominant. The evolution of the front is described by a fully nonlinear finite-amplitude equation including first-order dispersive effects, which is related to the modified Korteweg–de Vries equation. The different behaviours are classified using the canonical example of the Riemann problem, which we analyse using El’s technique of ‘dispersive shock-fitting’. Contour-dynamic simulations show that the dispersive long-wave theory captures the behaviour of the full quasi-geostrophic system to a high degree of accuracy.

We use the forced Ostrovsky equation to investigate the generation of internal waves excited by a constant background current flowing over localized topography in the presence of background rotation. As is now well known in the absence of background rotation, the evolution scenarios fall into three cases, namely subcritical, transcritical, and supercritical. Here an analysis of the linearized response divides the waves into steady and unsteady waves. In all three cases, steady waves occur downstream but no steady waves can occur upstream, while unsteady waves can arise upstream only when there is a negative minimum of the group velocity. The regions occupied by the steady and unsteady waves are determined by their respective group velocities. When the background current is increased, the wave number of the steady waves decreases. In addition, the concavity (canyon or sill), the topographic width, and the relative strength of the rotation play an important role in the generation mechanism. Nonlinear effects modulate the wave amplitude and lead to the emergence of coherent wave packets. All these findings are confirmed by numerical simulations.

Progress in the digital area has been quite significant in the past few years in terms of data monitoring, remote collaborative work, telecommunications and robotics to the point that disruptive ways to operate and to design surface installations can now be envisioned with HSE benefits and substantial cost reductions without compromising production efficiency. Normally Unattended Installations with presence of people on site only once a year (NUI-1Y) for maintenance campaigns is the ultimate aim of unmanned concepts and a new frontier for cost reduction. This approach is particularly relevant for remote production sites where operations usually require a continuous presence of a large crew and heavy logistical means. Although, this concept seems very challenging, it is in fact a natural extension of what has been applied with success on subsea developments starting over twenty years ago where wells, valves, separators, pumps and now compressors have been remotely operated from a host facility, together with the occasional assistance of Remote Operated Vehicles. A NUI-1Y development, in its philosophy, is very similar to a subsea architecture that would be applied to a surface installation. A successful NUI-1Y development would also be the result of an optimization where from the initial design phase, the project would try to reduce as much as possible Site Working Hours, both planned and unplanned. This is accomplished through careful selection of new architectures, a fully electrified concept, extensive use of digitalization, low maintenance and highly reliable components or technologies. These technologies exist or are under development and include autonomous ground robots which can operate in routine or downgraded situations during the period between site visits. Along with the design, traditional operating philosophies must also be amended to address operations in a fully remote mode. This paper will give an overview and examples on how Total is: – Maturing new designs, focusing first on reduction of Site Working Hours as a new Key Performance Indicator, alongside other KPIs such as topside weight reduction and equipment uptime. – Challenging traditional safety concept and bases of design and philosophies which were previously biased towards design and safety of permanently manned installations. This includes developing remote or automated technical solutions that previously required human presence for specific operations. – Piloting autonomous ground robots and adapting installations so that they can be robotically operated.

This study describes the understanding, experiences and expectations of families living in rural and remote Australia regarding core concepts relating to disability service provision, including person-centred practice (PCP), family-centred practice (FCP), transdisciplinary practice (TDP), choice, control, inclusion, and equity. Thirteen parents or carers, each with a child with an intellectual disability aged between 6 and 16 years, living in rural and remote areas as described by the Australian Standard Geographical Classification - Remoteness Area (ASGC-RA) and Modified Monash Model (MMM) - were recruited through distribution of flyers (hard copies or by email) to clinicians, schools, and advocacy agencies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants either in-person or via telephone between July and October 2015. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants reported that their understanding of many of the disability principles (PCP, FCP, choice, control, inclusion, and equity) was different from providers, and that many providers struggled to understand families, and therefore they did not share meaning of the principles of best practice disability supports. Families did not identify transdisciplinary practice as a core issue or tenet of effective service delivery. Families also reported experiences of missing out on services, feeling a sense of isolation in their communities, struggling to access skilled therapists, and difficulty finding supports and goals that were relevant to their child. The quality of supports that these families accessed was often below the standard that they expected. They did not expect that support standards will change in rural and remote Australia, so many have very low expectations of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in the future. Although more data will need to be collected as the NDIS and its markets mature, these data show that many rural and remote participants and their supporters have a variety of concerns about how they will access quality allied health services through the Scheme.

Rainfall, snowmelt and/or other mass movements are possible triggers to initiate debris flows. In supply-limited landscapes, clastic and organic materials (together termed debris) accumulate in the gully via various geomorphic processes that occur on gully sidewalls. The conceptualization of this phenomenon has been termed the gully recharge rate, with several recent field studies measuring such rates in coastal British Columbia. In the present study, a simple numerical model is introduced to estimate debris flow volumes in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia based on debris flow recurrence intervals, gully recharge rates and factors affecting deposition of debris flow material. Debris flow volumes obtained in model runs are somewhat lower than field-based values by about half, which is a reasonable result for this exploratory study. The annual erosion rate (clastic material) for debris flows in the model run is 0.031 mm yr− 1. This value is about 0.57 × of the field-based value and is lower than the erosion rate for debris slides in Haida Gwaii of ~ 0.1 mm yr− 1. Deposition of debris flows in the model occurs in 60% of cases due to a decrease in channel gradient, with deposition resulting from high stream junction angles being less common. Locations for initiation of debris flow deposition were situated in stream orders 3 and 4 in 60% of cases. Sensitivity analysis shows that in comparison to other model variables, recharge rate has the greatest effect on the statistics and frequency distributions of debris flow volumes and total debris flow volume (summation of all debris activity in a basin) over the study time period.

The observed basic weather variables are the main representative of climate trends and the atmosphere. The unresolved meteorological scale in weather observation such as micro scale, can produce a noticeable bias in amplitude, frequency, phase and climate trend of each observed variable time series. The bias in climate trend due to a small scale eddy can be as high as the amplitude of the eddy which could be greater than 1°C in a temperature trend. Such biased measurements of the state of the atmosphere limit all climate related studies.