'John James' and 'The White Stones' p. 71: Music, rhyme, and home

An essay relating 'The Dragon House' by John James to 'Thoughts on the Esterhazy Court Uniform' by J. H. Prynne

Reduced space optimal interpolation of daily rain gauge precipitation in Switzerland

The coarse spacing of automatic rain gauges complicates near-real- time spatial analyses of precipitation. We test the possibility of improving such analyses by considering, in addition to the in situ measurements, the spatial covariance structure inferred from past observations with a denser network. To this end, a statistical reconstruction technique, reduced space optimal interpolation (RSOI), is applied over Switzerland, a region of complex topography. RSOI consists of two main parts. First, principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to obtain a reduced space representation of gridded high- resolution precipitation fields available for a multiyear calibration period in the past. Second, sparse real-time rain gauge observations are used to estimate the principal component scores and to reconstruct the precipitation field. In this way, climatological information at higher resolution than the near-real-time measurements is incorporated into the spatial analysis. PCA is found to efficiently reduce the dimensionality of the calibration fields, and RSOI is successful despite the difficulties associated with the statistical distribution of daily precipitation (skewness, dry days). Examples and a systematic evaluation show substantial added value over a simple interpolation technique that uses near-real-time observations only. The benefit is particularly strong for larger- scale precipitation and prominent topographic effects. Small-scale precipitation features are reconstructed at a skill comparable to that of the simple technique. Stratifying the reconstruction method by the types of weather type classifications yields little added skill. Apart from application in near real time, RSOI may also be valuable for enhancing instrumental precipitation analyses for the historic past when direct observations were sparse.

Frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption and blood antioxidants in the Caerphilly cohort of older men

Objective: To assess the number of portions of fruit and vegetables consumed daily by a large representative sample of older men, and to determine how blood antioxidant (vitamins E, A and carotenoids) concentrations vary with fruit and vegetable consumption. Design: Cross-sectional study of free-living men. Subjects: Men aged 55-69 y (dietary data, n=1957; blood data, n=1874) participating in Phase III (1989-1993) of the Caerphilly and Speedwell Collaborative Heart Disease Studies. Methods: Dietary data were obtained by semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire and blood samples were analysed for antioxidant vitamins. Men were subdivided into groups on the basis of portions per day of fruit and vegetables. Within these sub-groups, mean and 95% ranges of intakes and of blood antioxidant levels were obtained. Log transformations were performed where appropriate. Results: Only 4.3% of the men met the recommended target of five portions, while 33.3% of the men consumed one or fewer portions of fruit and vegetables per day. Those men who consumed the poorest diets with respect to fruit and vegetable intakes were more likely to be from lower socio-economic classes, drink more alcohol and be current smokers. Fruit and vegetable intake reflected plasma concentrations of antioxidants, which showed a dose-response relationship to frequency of consumption. Conclusions: Older men in the UK consume much less fruit and vegetables than current recommendations. Major difficulties are likely to be encountered in trying to meet a dietary target that is clearly much higher than the fruit and vegetable consumption of large sections of the older population in the UK.

Mountain ranges favour vigorous Atlantic Meridional Overturning

We use a global Ocean-Atmosphere General Circulation Model (OAGCM) to show that the major mountain ranges of the world have a significant role in maintenance of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). A simulation with mountains has a maximum AMOC of 18 Sv (1 Sv=106 m3 s-1) compared with ~0 Sv for a simulation without mountains. Atlantic heat transport at 25N is 1.1 PW with mountains compared to 0.2 PW without. The difference in AMOC is due to major changes in surface heat and freshwater (FW) fluxes over the Atlantic. In the Pacific changed surface fluxes lead to a meridional overturning circulation of 10 Sv. Our results suggest that the effects of mountains on the large-scale atmospheric circulation is to force the ocean towards a state with a vigorous AMOC and with no overturning in the Pacific.

Race-to-the-bottom or -top at home or abroad: Health and safety standards and the multinational firm

We develop a model to illustrate potential complexities in the relationship between corporate geographical diversification and the health and safety (H&S) standards set in national jurisdictions. A firm, that initially has a plant in its home country, may choose to also have one or two foreign plants in order to improve its bargaining position versus local governments, and so ensure reduced H&S standards, i.e. a race-to-the-bottom. However, contrary to the main focus of the popular debate on this topic, we note the potential for the race-to-the-bottom tendency to be exerted on H&S standards in the multinational company’s home rather than host country, and also for an upward push on H&S to instead result.

Integrating augmented reality with home systems

Augmented Reality systems overlay computer generated information onto a user's natural senses. Where this additional information is visual, the information is overlaid on the user's natural visual field of view through a head mounted (or “head-up”) display device. Integrated Home Systems provides a network that links every electrical device in the home which provides to a user both control and data transparency across the network.

Why the home region matters: location and regional multinationals

Much of the literature in international business analysing the multinational enterprise uses the country as the relevant environmental parameter. This paper presents both theoretical and empirical evidence to demonstrate that country-level analysis now needs to be augmented by analysis at the ‘regional’ level of the broad triad markets of Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific. The great majority of the world's 500 largest firms concentrate their activities within their home region of the triad. This study uses variance component analysis and finds that this home region effect outperforms the country effect. Together, the regional and industry effects explain most of the geographic expansion of multinational enterprises (MNEs), whereas country, firm and year effects are very minor. The new data and variance component analysis on the activities of large MNEs reported here suggest that new thinking is required about the importance of large regions of the triad as the relevant unit of analysis for business strategy to supplement the conventional focus on the country.

Energy consumption feedback in perspective: integrating Australian data to meta-analyses on in home displays

Providing homeowners with real-time feedback on their electricity consumption through a dedicated display device has been shown to reduce consumption by approximately 6-10%. However, recent advances in smart grid technology have enabled larger sample sizes and more representative sample selection and recruitment methods for display trials. By analyzing these factors using data from current studies, this paper argues that a realistic, large-scale conservation effect from feedback is in the range of 3-5%. Subsequent analysis shows that providing real-time feedback may not be a cost effective strategy for reducing carbon emissions in Australia, but that it may enable additional benefits such as customer retention and peak-load shift.