bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Adaptation
Authors: Reznick David , Travis Joseph
Published: November 2020

When Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace proposed their theory of evolution by natural selection, the concepts of evolution and speciation were not new. Darwin introduced The Origin with “An Historical Sketch,” in which he summarized the work of 34 previous authors who had speculated on evolution and the origin of species. What was new about Darwin and Wallace’s proposition was natural selection as the mechanism of evolutionary change. Darwin further proposed that natural selection was a unifying process that accounts for adaptation, for speciation, and hence for the diversity of life on earth. Darwin and Wallace proposed natural selection as a process that caused evolution. Adaptations are features of organisms that were shaped by this process. The modern version of Darwin and Wallace’s theory allows for other agents of evolution, such as genetic drift, migration, and mutation, but adaptation remains a product of natural selection alone. The virtue of their proposal is that it allows us to develop testable hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships between features of the environment and presumed adaptations. Natural selection immediately became a source of controversy, although the nature of the controversy has shifted over time. First, there has been considerable debate about the definition of adaptation (e.g., Reeve and Sherman 1993). We do not wish to add to or summarize this debate because we feel that Darwin got it right the first time. Besides defining a cause-and-effect relationship between selection and adaptation, Darwin emphasized that we should not expect organisms to be perfectly adapted to their environment. In fact, this emphasis was a large component of his argument against divine creation. For example, Darwin recognized, through his experience with artificial selection, that different aspects of morphology were in some way “tied” to one another so that selection on one trait would cause correlated changes in others that were not necessarily adaptive. He also recognized that organisms were subject to constraints that might limit their ability to adapt. Finally, he argued that how organisms evolved was a function of their history, so that the response to selection on the same trait would vary among lineages. A more telling criticism considers the application of cause-and-effect reasoning to the interpretation of features of organisms as adaptations, and hence to the empirical study of adaptation.
Ecological Specialization and Generalization
Authors: Futuyma Douglas J.
Published: November 2020

Anyone who is even slightly acquainted with plants or animals knows that different species inhabit different parts of the world, live in different habitats, and, in the case of animals, eat some imaginable kinds of food and not others. As with many other familiar facts, it may not occur to us to ask why the geographic and ecological ranges of species are limited, until we realize that species vary drastically in their geographic, ecological, and physiological amplitudes. The bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) is broadly distributed in temperate climates of every continent (except Antarctica), whereas the curly-grass fern (Schizaea pusilla) is limited to parts of eastern Canada and central New Jersey in the United States. The black-billed magpie (Pica pica) is a familiar bird from western Europe through eastern Asia and from Alaska to the Great Plains of North America, but the very similar yellow-billed magpie (Pica nuttalli) is restricted to central California. What accounts for the much narrower distribution of one than the other species? Related species often differ in the variety of habitats they occupy. The thistle Cirsium canescens is restricted to well-drained sandhills in the American prairie, whereas Cirsium arvense is a European species that has become a rampant weed in North America, growing in many types of soil. The endangered Kirtland's warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii) nests only in stands of jack pine of a certain age, while its relatives, such as the yellow warbler (Dendroica aestiva), nest in many types of vegetation and have far broader geographic ranges as well. (Species with narrow and broad habitat associations are referred to as stenotopic and eurytopic, respectively.) Stenotopic species or populations frequently have a narrower tolerance of certain physical variables than do others. Most plants and animals from warm tropical environments cannot survive freezing temperatures, and Antarctic notothenioid fishes cannot tolerate temperatures above 6°C. In contrast, species that inhabit environments where the temperature varies widely often have broad temperature tolerance. In many such species, individuals are capable of biochemical and physiological alterations that acclimate them to pronounced changes in temperature.
Plant-Herbivore Interactions
Authors: Berenbaum May
Published: November 2020

As is the case with most supposedly modern concepts in evolutionary biology, the idea of coevolution, or reciprocal evolutionary change between interacting species, actually goes back to Charles Darwin. In the introduction to The Origin of Species (1859), he wrote: …In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts, might come to the conclusion that species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species. Nevertheless, such a conclusion, even if wellfounded, would be unsatisfactory, until it could be shown how the innumerable species inhabiting this world have been modified, so as to acquire that perfection of structure and coadaptation which justly excites our admiration. It is, therefore, of the highest importance to gain a clear insight into the means of modification and coadaptation…. Early on, then, Darwin pointed out the importance of interactions among organisms in determining evolutionary change, as opposed to “external conditions such as climate, food,” or even “the volition” of the organism itself. Interactions among organisms, however, take many forms. Antagonistic interactions, in which one species benefits and the other is harmed, are themselves diverse. Among those interactions in which both species are animals, the gamut runs from predation, in which one species kills and consumes several individuals of the other species during its lifetime, to parasitism, in which one species merely saps the “reserves” and rarely kills its host. Intermediate and unique to the phylum Arthropoda is parasitoidism, in which one species kills its prey, as does a predator, but, like a parasite, is normally restricted to a single host individual. A comparable continuum exists for interactions between an animal and a plant species; these associations are usually referred to as forms of herbivory (with parasitoidism akin to internal seed feeders of plants). In mutualistic interactions, both species benefit from the interaction. Mutualisms can involve interactions between animals and plants, generally in which a food reward from the plant is exchanged for mobility provided by the animal partner.
Swarm Intelligence
Authors: Bonabeau Eric , Dorigo Marco , Theraulaz Guy
Published: November 2020

Social insects--ants, bees, termites, and wasps--can be viewed as powerful problem-solving systems with sophisticated collective intelligence. Composed of simple interacting agents, this intelligence lies in the networks of interactions among individuals and between individuals and the environment. A fascinating subject, social insects are also a powerful metaphor for artificial intelligence, and the problems they solve--finding food, dividing labor among nestmates, building nests, responding to external challenges--have important counterparts in engineering and computer science. This book provides a detailed look at models of social insect behavior and how to apply these models in the design of complex systems. The book shows how these models replace an emphasis on control, preprogramming, and centralization with designs featuring autonomy, emergence, and distributed functioning. These designs are proving immensely flexible and robust, able to adapt quickly to changing environments and to continue functioning even when individual elements fail. In particular, these designs are an exciting approach to the tremendous growth of complexity in software and information. Swarm Intelligence draws on up-to-date research from biology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, robotics, operations research, and computer graphics, and each chapter is organized around a particular biological example, which is then used to develop an algorithm, a multiagent system, or a group of robots. The book will be an invaluable resource for a broad range of disciplines.
Evolution of Inference
Authors: Skyrms Brian
Published: November 2020

Rousseau began his discussion of the origin of language with a paradox that echoes through modern philosophy of language. How can we explain the genesis of speech without presupposing speech, reference without presupposing reference, meaning without presupposing meaning? A version of this paradox forms the basis of Quine's attack on the logical empiricist doctrine that logic derives its warrant from conventions of meaning—that logical truths are true and logical inferences are valid by virtue of such conventions. Quine raised the general skeptical question of how conventions of language could be established without preexisting language, as well as calling attention to more specific skeptical circularities. If conventions of logic are to be set up by explicit definition, or by axioms, must we not presuppose logic to unpack those conventions? David Lewis (1969) sought to answer these skeptical doubts within a game theoretical framework in his book, Convention. This account contains fundamental new insights, and I regard it as a major advance in the theory of meaning. Lewis sees a convention as being a special kind of strict Nash equilibrium in a game that models the relevant social interaction. To say that a convention is a Nash equilibrium is to say that if an individual deviates from a convention which others observe, he is no better off for that. To say that it is a strict Nash equilibrium is to say that he is actually worse off. To this, Lewis adds the additional requirement that an individual unilateral deviation makes everyone involved in the social interaction worse off, so that it is in the common interest to avoid such deviations. A theory of convention must answer two fundamental questions: how do we arrive at conventions?, and by virtue of what considerations do conventions remain in force? Within Lewis' game-theoretic setting, these questions become, respectively, the problems of equilibrium selection and equilibrium maintenance. On the face of it, the second problem may seem to have a trivial solution— the equilibrium is maintained because it is an equilibrium! No one has an incentive to deviate.
Trajectories to Complexity in Artificial Societies: Rationality, Belief, and Emotions
Authors: Doran Jim E.
Published: November 2020

This chapter illustrates and discusses the use of agent-based artificial societies to explore possible trajectories into social complexity through the integration of ideas from both anthropology and agent technology. Particular attention is paid to the role of rational cooperation, collective belief, and emotional dynamics in these trajectories. Some methodological problems associated with the use of artificial societies to build social theory are also discussed, especially how best to reduce the impact of our own cultural preconceptions. Computer simulation work in archaeology and anthropology is more than 25 years old (see Doran and Hodson 1975, chapter 11; Doran 1990; and compare Halpin to appear). After a period of enthusiasm in the early 1980s interest waned, but recently there have been a number of important computer-based studies of (human) social phenomena using so-called agent-based modeling (e.g., Kohler et al. this volume) and agent-based artificial societies (e.g., Epstein and Axtell 1996), and more are in progress. Both types of study involve (software) agents, that is, according to a standard textbook definition, entities which perceive and act in an environment (Russell and Norvig 1995:49). Reactive agents are typically built around a small number of relatively simple situation-to-action rules. Deliberative agents are more complex, typically posting goals and then forming and executing plans to achieve them. It is this rapidly developing "agent technology," largely based upon artificial intelligence studies, that is the driving force behind the new work. The methodology associated with both agent-based modeling and agentbased artificial societies emphasizes the ability to address explicitly processes of cognition, and hence phenomena that previous models could not tackle, and also the ability to explore what could happen rather than what has happened or is happening. However, unlike agent-based modeling, artificial societies are, in essence, models without a specific target system, and it has been argued that this type of modeling permits the study of societies and their processes in the abstract (Epstein and Axtell 1996; Doran 1997). An underlying assumption is that it is possible and useful for social scientists to explore wide-ranging and abstract social theories and that these theories can be expressed in terms of computational processes.
Modeling Sociality: The View from Europe
Authors: Gilbert Nigel
Published: November 2020

Social science research based on computer simulation, much of it using multiagent, multilevel models, has grown dramatically in Europe since the early 1990s. This growth has been inspired by the recent upsurge of work within computer science on distributed artificial intelthe metaphor between agents and people/social actors. This chapter reviews some recent and influential European examples of the multiagent simulation of social phenomena. One common thread running through what is otherwise a very heterogeneous collection of studies is the description and exploration of a small number of generalized "logics" or "abstract social processes." It has been possible to investigate these through the construction of "artificial societies," and it is this methodological discovery that partly accounts for the current energy and excitement in the field of computational social simulation. However, the assumption of a simple correspondence between agents and social actors needs to be applied with some care if it is to be useful in understanding human societies. The same epistemological puzzles and problems that sociologists have struggled over during the last hundred years can recur in trying to understand soci eties through computer simulations. Some of these problems will be described, again with reference to current European studies. While the use of simulation as a methodological tool is a commonplace in the natural sciences and engineering (e.g., Shannon 1975; Zeigler 1976), it still strikes many people as remarkable that one could use simulation in the social sciences. The very idea of modeling the obvious complexity, unpredictability, and autonomy of humans and their societies using computer simulation is considered by some social scientists as absurd. They suggest that if simulation of social phenomena could ever be possible, it would have to involve such simplification that nothing of value could be learned. Clearly, the whole enterprise is just an excuse for playing around with computers. While I do not agree with this view, there is a real question at the heart of many social scientists' skepticism.
Evaluation of the Synthetic Product
Authors: Grant Gregory A.
Published: November 2020

In 1987, an article appeared in the International Journal of Peptide and Protein Research commemorating the 25th anniversary of the development of solid phase peptide synthesis (Barany et al., 1987). While that article dealt with many aspects of peptide synthesis, one statement in particular stands out as exemplifying the rationale for this chapter. It states: “No synthetic endeavor can be considered complete until the product has been adequately purified and subjected to a battery of analytical tests to verify its structure.” The characterization or evaluation of a synthetic peptide is the one step in its production and experimental utilization that will validate the experimental data obtained. Unfortunately, it is also the one step that many investigators all too often give too little attention. If the synthetic product, upon which the theory and performance of the experimental investigation is based, is not the intended product, the conclusions will be incorrect. Without proper characterization, the investigator will either have to be lucky, or be wrong. Worse yet, he or she will not know which is the case. Although today the synthesis of a given peptide is often considered routine, the product should never be taken for granted. Peptide synthesis chemistry, although quite sophisticated, is complex and subject to a variety of problems. These problems, which can manifest themselves as unwanted side reactions and decreased reaction efficiency, are subject to a variety of factors such as reagent quality, incompatible chemistries, instrument malfunctions, sequence specific effects, and operator error. Although every effort is made to eliminate their causes and to plan for potential problems in the design and synthesis steps, it is not always successful and the eventual outcome of a synthesis is not always predictable. One must never assume that the final product is the expected one until that has been proven to be the case. To do otherwise may seriously jeopardize the outcome of the research. Used and performed properly, the evaluation stage is where the fruits of the synthesis are scrutinized and the decision is made to use the peptide as intended, submit it to further purification, or resynthesize it and possibly change elements of the design or synthesis protocols.
Four Factors That Determine Climate
Authors: Whiteman C. David
Published: November 2020

Climate differs from one location to another because of differences in • latitude, the angular distance north or south from the equator • altitude, the height above sea level • continentality, the distance from the sea • exposure to regional circulations, including winds and ocean currents. The latitude of a given site determines the length of the day and the angle of incoming sunlight and therefore the amount of solar radiation received at that site. Seasonal and diurnal (day—night) variations in the amount of solar radiation received cause seasonal and diurnal variations in the weather. Near the equator, the days of the year are all about the same length, and the noon sun is nearly overhead year-round. Because day length and solar angle change little with the season, there is little seasonal variability in the weather. In the polar regions, on the other hand, the sun does not rise at all in the winter, and in the summer it never sets, although it remains low in the sky. Thus, polar weather has a high seasonal variability, but a low diurnal variability. In the midlatitudes, the climate is characterized by both seasonal and diurnal changes. Except at the equator, day length varies throughout the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year is at the summer solstice (June 21), the shortest day of the year is at the winter solstice (December 21), and the day is 12 hours long on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes (March 20 and September 22). The altitude angle of the sun also varies throughout the year, with an increase of about 47° from winter to summer. The more direct summer sunlight produces more heating than the slanted rays of the winter sun. The latitude of a given site affects its climate not only because it determines the angle of solar radiation and the length of a day, but also because it determines the site’s exposure to latitudinal belts of surface high and low pressure that encircle the earth.
The Kinetic Background
Authors: Martinho Simões José A. , da Piedade Manuel Minas
Published: November 2020

Kinetic studies in solution and in the gas phase have been playing an increasingly important role as a source of thermochemical data. Here we discuss how to relate thermochemical and kinetic information by approaching the subject as we did in the previous chapter: by highlighting important practical issues and reducing to a minimum the description of theoretical models. In other words, the present chapter also relies on the material usually covered at the undergraduate level. Further details can be found in more specialized books. The transition-state theory (TST) provides the framework to derive accurate relationships between kinetic and thermochemical parameters. Consider the common case of the gas-phase bimolecular reaction 3.1, where the transient activated complex C‡ is considered to be in equilibrium with the reactants and the products: . . . A(g) + B(g) ⇋ C‡(g)⇋ D(g)+E(g) (3.1) . . . From the rate law of this reaction in the forward direction, defined in terms of concentrations, . . . ν1 = k1[A][B] (3.2) . . .
Titration Calorimetry
Authors: Martinho Simões José A. , da Piedade Manuel Minas
Published: November 2020

Titration calorimetry is a method in which one reactant inside a calorimetric vessel is titrated with another delivered from a burette at a controlled rate. This technique has been adapted to a variety of calorimeters, notably of the isoperibol and heat flow types. The output of a titration calorimetric experiment is usually a plot of the temperature change or the heat flow associated with the reaction or physical interaction under study as a function of time or the amount of titrant added. A primary use of titration calorimetry is the determination of enthalpies of reaction in solution. The obtained results may of course lead to enthalpies of formation of compounds in the standard state by using appropriate thermodynamic cycles and auxiliary data, as described in chapter 8 for reaction-solution calorimetry. Moreover, when reactions are not quantitative, both the equilibrium constant and the enthalpy of reaction can often be determined from a single titration run. This also yields the corresponding ΔrGo and ΔrSo through equations 2.54 and 2.55. Extensive use has been made of titration calorimetry as an analytical tool. These applications, which are outside the scope of this book, have been covered in various reviews. The historical development of titration calorimetry has been addressed by Grime. The technique is credited to have been born in 1913, when Bell and Cowell used an apparatus consisting of a 200 cm3 Dewar vessel, a platinum stirrer, a thermometer graduated to tenths of degrees, and a volumetric burette to determine the end point of the titration of citric acid with ammonia from a plot of the observed temperature change against the volume of ammonia added. The capabilities of titration calorimetry have enormously evolved since then, and the accuracy limits of modern titration calorimeters are comparable to those obtained in conventional isoperibol or heat-flow instruments. The titration procedures described in the literature can be classified as continuous or incremental, depending on the mode of titrant addition. In the first case the titrant is continuously introduced in the reaction vessel at a programmed (not necessarily constant) rate during a run.
Physical Oceanography
Authors: Álvarez-Borrego Saul
Published: November 2020

The nature of the relationships between physical and biological processes in the ocean is subtle and complex. Not only do the physical phenomena create a structure, such as a shallow, mixed layer or a front, within which biological processes may proceed, but they also influence the rates of biological processes in many indirect ways. In the ocean, physical phenomena control the distribution of nutrients necessary for phytoplankton photosynthesis. Places with higher kinetic energy have higher concentrations of planktonic organisms, and that makes the whole food web richer (Mann and Lazier 1996). For example, in the midriff region of the Sea of Cortés (Tiburón and Ángel de la Guarda; fig. 1.2), tidal currents are strong, and intense mixing occurs, creating a situation similar to constant upwelling. Thus, primary productivity is high, and this area supports large numbers of sea birds and marine mammals (Maluf 1983). The Gulf of California is a dynamic marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean and has been described as an area of great fertility since the time of early explorers. Gilbert and Allen (1943) described it as fabulously rich in marine life, with waters fairly teeming with multitudes of fish, and to maintain these large numbers, there must be correspondingly huge crops of their ultimate food, the phytoplankton. Topographically the gulf is divided into a series of basins and trenches, deepening to the south and separated from each other by transverse ridges (Shepard 1950; fig. 3.1). Input of nutrients into the gulf from rivers is low and has only local coastal effects. The Baja peninsula has only one, very small river, near 27°N; rivers in mainland Mexico and the Colorado River have dams that divert most of the water for agricultural and urban use. The gulf has three main natural fertilization mechanisms: wind-induced upwelling, tidal mixing, and thermohaline circulation. Upwelling occurs off the eastern coast with northwesterly winds (winter conditions from December through May) and off the Baja California coast with southeasterly winds (summer conditions from July through October), with June and November as transition periods (Álvarez-Borrego and Lara- Lara 1991).
Ants
Authors: Boulton April M. , Ward Philip S.
Published: November 2020

The distribution and abundance of ants on islands has attracted considerable attention from ecologists and biogeographers, especially since the classic studies by Wilson on the ants of Melanesia and the Pacific islands (Wilson 1961; Wilson and Taylor 1967a,b; see also updates by Morrison 1996, 1997). The species-area curve for Polynesian ants was an important contribution in the development of island biogeography theory (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). Subsequent studies of other island ant faunas, such as those of the Caribbean (Levins et al. 1973; Wilson 1988; Morrison 1998a,b), Japan (Terayama 1982a,b, 1983, 1992), Korea (Choi and Bang 1993; Choi et al. 1993), and island archipelagos in Europe (Baroni Urbani 1971, 1978; Pisarski et al. 1982; Vepsäläínen and Pisarski 1982; Ranta et al. 1983; Boomsma et al. 1987) and North America (Goldstein 1976; Cole 1983a,b), have confirmed the general features of this relationship, although the underlying causative agents and the relative contribution of stochastic and deterministic processes to ant community composition remain points of controversy. The islands in the Sea of Cortés are particularly interesting from a biogeographic standpoint because they vary considerably in size, topography, and isolation. In addition, both oceanic and landbridge islands occur in the gulf, allowing comparisons between faunas that resulted from colonization (assembly) versus relaxation. Nevertheless, the ant assemblages of the gulf islands have received little study. There are a few scattered island records in taxonomic and faunistic papers (Smith 1943; Cole 1968; MacKay et al. 1985). Bernstein (1979) listed 16 ant species from a total of nine Gulf of California islands, but a number of evident misidentifications occur in her list. To the best of our knowledge, no other publications have appeared on the ant communities of these islands. In this chapter, we document the ant species known from islands in the Sea of Cortés and analyze species composition in a selected subset of the better sampled islands. Most of the data come from recent collections made within the last two decades.
Paleoecological Archives in Lake Deposits I: Problems and Methods
Authors: Cohen Andrew S.
Published: November 2020

Fossils provide some of the most detailed sources of information for environmental reconstruction available to the paleolimnologist. The use of lacustrine fossils to infer paleoenvironmental conditions is fundamentally based on inferences derived from modern correlations between the distribution of organisms and environmental variables, coupled with an understanding of taphonomy, the study of the fossilization process. No single group of organisms provides a comprehensive picture of lake ecosystems or environmental change, so it is always desirable to gather paleoecological records from multiple clades and habitats in a paleolimnological study. Analysis of multiple clades provides a means of establishing or testing ecological hypotheses that may not be possible from the study of one group alone. For example, many limnological processes affect the plankton, littoral organisms, and benthos in predictable sequences, and with predictable intensities. The most comprehensive study of fossil data and data analysis will be meaningless if the fossils studied are misidentified. A good taxonomic framework is an essential element of paleoecological studies. Accurate identification of described species, and the curation of voucher specimens, photographs, and other descriptive materials of undescribed species is important, to insure the quality of a paleolimnologist’s ongoing work, and to avoid future errors based on previously misidentified fossil specimens. Using fossils to interpret lacustrine paleoenvironments requires not only an understanding of modern organism distributions, but also an understanding of four additional factors we did not consider in chapter 5: (1) ecological causality and scale, (2) taphonomy and time-averaging, (3) historical contingency, and (4) evolutionary processes. One of the most common uses of fossil data in lakes is to try and reconstruct changes in some physical or biological forcing process from changes in abundance or morphology of the fossil organisms affected by the process. We might be interested in reconstructing changes in nutrient flux to the lake, based on changes in the relative abundances of some fossil animals. However, these animals actually responded to nutrient load only indirectly, through the effect of nutrient load on autotrophs and/or organic detritus. Now suppose that our ultimate objective is not really to understand productivity changes or nutrients, so much as to understand climate changes that may be driving productivity changes.
Dynamic Performance Characteristics, Part 2
Authors: Brock Fred V. , Richardson Scott J.
Published: November 2020

The first-order model discussed in chap. 6 is inadequate when there is more than one energy storage reservoir in the system to be modeled. If the sensor is linear it can be modeled with a higher-order dynamic performance model. Here the term ‘system’ refers to a physical device such as a sensor while the equation refers to the corresponding mathematical model. There exists a dual set of terms corresponding to consideration of the physical system or of the mathematical model. For example, an are coefficients of the mathematical model (see eqn. 8.1) but they also represent some physical aspect of the sensor being modeled; thus they can also be called system parameters. The general dynamic performance model is the linear ordinary differential equation where t = time, the independent variable, x = the dependent variable, an = equation coefficients or system parameters, and xi(t) = input or forcing function. This equation is ordinary because there is only one independent variable. It is linear because the dependent variable and its derivatives occur to the first degree only. This excludes powers, products, and functions such as sin(x). If the system parameters an are constant, the system is time invariant.
Visibility and Cloud Height
Authors: Brock Fred V. , Richardson Scott J.
Published: November 2020

Visibility measurement is the most human-oriented measurement discussed because the objective of such measurement is to determine the distance at which humans (pilots, seamen, etc.) can see objects. Thus we are concerned with light that can be seen by humans (0.4 to 0.7μm), the way human eyes perceive such light, and then with the transparency of the atmosphere. Throughout this chapter, in the discussion of atmospheric transparency or absorption, the range of wavelengths from 0.4 (violet) to 0.7μm (red light) will be assumed. Cloud height is a remote sensing measurement but is included here because airport meteorological systems usually include a cloud height sensor. According to the WMO, meteorological visibility by day is defined as the greatest distance that a black object of suitable dimensions, situated near the ground, can be seen and recognized when observed against a background of fog, sky, etc. Visibility at night is defined as the greatest distance at which lights of moderate intensity can be seen and identified.
Four Life Histories
Authors: Bramadat Paul A.
Published: November 2020

One of the challenges of ethnography is that it requires one to enter into a community and become enmeshed in the web of affinities, opinions, gossip, rhetoric, and beliefs that characterize this group. Then, at the end of fieldwork, one must step outside the others’ world and interpret it for (other) others and oneself. This analytical stage, however, compels one to condense one’s experiences and, indeed, one’s newly acquired friends, to make them more manageable, less indeterminate elements of an academic study. This challenge constitutes both ethnography’s strength and its weakness. Moreover, such a challenge is what makes ethnography a social science: that the vast array of fieldwork experiences must be distilled and communicated in a nonidiosyncratic manner. Unfortunately, the very analytical processes by which the ethnographer’s personal experiences are rendered communicable often flatten out the most interesting parts of the “other.” Ethnographer David Mandelbaum describes this dilemma with poignant clarity: . . . When an anthropologist goes to live among the people he studies, he is likely to make some good friends among them. As he writes his account of their way of life, he may feel uncomfortably aware that his description and analysis omitted something of great importance. His clear friends have been dissolved into faceless norms; their vivid adventures have somehow been turned into pattern profiles or statistical types. (1973:178) . . . Such diminishing of the unique features of specific individuals is rarely the intention of the ethnographer; rather, this effacement is a natural by-product of analyses in which one attempts to make, as I do, for example, broader claims about the place and coping strategies of traditionally religious individuals in a secular culture. Even when the means of making such assertions is a “thick” description (Geertz 1973) of a religious group, it is inevitable that individual differences are sometimes effaced by broader conceptual reflections. Throughout the following chapters, I refer to and often quote many IVCF members at length. The ideal way to render these students’ comments comprehensible would be for me to provide a life history of each speaker before quoting him or her.
The Role of Women
Authors: Bramadat Paul A.
Published: November 2020

Whenever I describe the IVCF to non-Christian academic peers, they almost invariably express their astonishment at the fact that at virtually every IVCF event I attend, approximately 70% of the participants are women. Perhaps this level of involvement is not unusual in the world of contemporary Protestantism; after all, in many of the churches IVCF members attend every Sunday, women outnumber men. However, the proportion of women to men is not as high in evangelical churches as it is in the IVCF (Bibby 1987:102; Rawlyk 1996:143). As well, women’s roles are usually much more tightly controlled in many if not most evangelical churches than they are in the IVCF. In fact, IVCF participants who attend churches in the Fellowship Baptist, Christian Reformed, and Brethren traditions may never see a woman in the pulpit, or, if women are allowed to speak at the front of the church, they are not usually permitted to become senior pastors or interpret the Bible. At the IVCF functions I have attended, however, women are in no way restricted in their abilities to lead worship, deliver sermons, organize events, or perform any of the myriad tasks involved in maintaining the group. In fact, the chapter’s paid staff worker is a woman, and she tries to ensure that the position of president alternates between a male and a female student every other year. I began to wonder how to make sense of the high level of female participation at every McMaster IVCF event I attended, especially in light of the fact that the scholarly literature on evangelicalism in North America often depicts the tradition as inimical or opposed to the egalitarian or feminist values that are so prevalent at universities. During my research, I found that many, but not all, of the evangelical women I interviewed maintain nonegalitarian views on the role of women. In other words, the common academic depiction of the place of women in evangelicalism seems to be confirmed by my experience, even though I hope to nuance this portrayal somewhat.
Satan and the Spiritual Realm
Authors: Bramadat Paul A.
Published: November 2020

Although the prominence of women in the McMaster IVCF challenged my presuppositions about several elements of evangelicalism, the role of Satan in this group’s discourse simply bewildered me. Whenever this topic arose during conversations with IVCF students, I became somewhat disoriented. For the first several interviews, I was incredulous and found myself rephrasing the open-ended questions I had posed, seeking more and more details in the answers that were offered to me. I had encountered references to Satan, demons, and angels in most of the scholarly and popular texts I had read before I started fieldwork. However, there is a significant and sometimes categorical difference between what one reads about in the comfort of one’s home and what one experiences in the field. In other words, although I was intellectually prepared to encounter Satan, demons, and angels in evangelical discourse, on a deeper level, I was unable to accept that contemporary North American university students would believe in the existence of such entities in quite the way that IVCF students actually do. Eventually, I was able to understand more clearly and without puzzlement what IVCF members mean when they speak of the spiritual realm. In fact, by the end of my fieldwork, I found myself interpreting several unsettling experiences in my own life according to the IVCF’s relatively “enchanted” worldview. Initially, I began investigating this issue by asking students questions about the role of Satan in their lives at McMaster. However, my respondents rarely referred solely to Satan, but rather to a much more elaborate array of nonhuman entities working for and against Satan. In referring to these entities, I use the phrase “spiritual realm” in addition to God, Satan, demons, and angels, partly for the sake of brevity but in addition because I seek to connote by this phrase an entire cxtrahuman dimension that includes all these figures. Because students talk about the demonic elements of the spiritual realm much more frequently than the angelic elements, this chapter focuses on the former. The evangelical discourse on the spiritual realm is rooted in both ancient Christianity and recent popular fiction.
Causes, Predictions, and Outcomes of El Niño 1997-1998
Authors: Kousky Vernon E. , Bell Gerald D.
Published: November 2020

One of the most prominent aspects of our weather and climate is its variability. This variability ranges over many time and space scales, from small-scale weather phenomena such as wind gusts, localized thunderstorms, and tornadoes, to larger-scale weather features such as fronts and storms and to prolonged climate features such as droughts, floods, and fluctuations occurring on multiseasonal, multiyear, and multidecade time scales. Some examples of these longer time-scale fluctuations include abnormally hot and dry summers, abnormally cold and snowy winters, a series of abnormally mild or exceptionally severe winters, and even a mild winter followed by a severe winter. In general, the longer time-scale variations are often associated with changes in the atmospheric circulation that encompass areas far larger than a particular affected region. At times, these persistent circulation features affect vast parts of the globe, resulting in abnormal temperature and precipitation patterns in many areas. During the past several decades, scientists have discovered that important aspects of interannual variability in global weather patterns are linked to a naturally occurring phenomenon known as the El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. The heart of ENSO lies in the tropical Pacific, where there is strong coupling between variations in ocean surface temperatures and the circulation of the overlying atmosphere. The terms El Niño and La Niña represent opposite extremes of the ENSO cycle, and they cause very different rainfall outcomes, as illustrated in Figure 2-1. Before describing the oceanic and atmospheric characteristics of the ENSO cycle, it is necessary to describe the average climatic conditions and how they vary throughout the year. Interannual climate variability is often measured by comparing the observed conditions to the long-term mean conditions. The mean state of the tropical Pacific Ocean is identified by both its surface and its subsurface characteristics, each of which exhibits considerable evolution across the eastern half of the tropical Pacific during the course of the year. Throughout the year, the ocean surface is warmest in the west and coldest in the east. The largest difference between the two regions is observed during September and October, when temperatures in the eastern Pacific reach their annual minimum.
Who Used and Benefited from the El Niño Forecasts?
Authors: Changnon David
Published: November 2020

The long-range seasonal climate forecasts based on El Niño 97-98 conditions and issued from June through August 1997 for the fall, winter, and early spring conditions across the United States were accurate for many parts of the nation (see chapter 2). An important question concerns whether decision makers in weather-sensitive public and private organizations used these El Niño -derived seasonal forecasts. Most seasonal forecasters viewed with great confidence the predictions of a strong El Niño and associated precipitation, temperature, and storm anomalies expected across the United States. From their perspective, it was an opportune time to use and, presumably, to benefit from the forecasts. Our assessment of a large group of potential users of the seasonal forecasts sought to identify who used and did not use the forecasts, the reasons for their use or non use, and the applications and potential value of the forecasts derived from their use. Sector differences were assessed by sampling decision makers in agribusiness, water resources, utilities, and other sectors. Results of such use and non use investigations will help develop better, more effective strategies for disseminating climate forecasts (Pfaff et al, 1999). Another objective of this study was to understand the perceptions decision makers had of seasonal forecasts and how the successful predictions based on El Niño 97-98 may have modified those perceptions. Figure 5-1 presents a typical humorous media view of the forecasts. A survey of individuals was conducted to gather the desired information about how the seasonal forecasts based on El Niño 97-98 were obtained, evaluated, and incorporated into decisions. The study was designed to focus on decision makers in weather-sensitive positions and to employ sampling techniques tested and developed in prior surveys. These previous studies had developed, tested, and used questionnaires as the tool by which to gather information about the use of climate information by weather-sensitive users in water resources, agribusiness, and utilities (Changnon, 1982, 1991, 1992; Changnon and Changnon, 1990; Changnon etal, 1988, 1995; Sonka etal, 1992).
Summary
Authors: Changnon Stanley A. , Pielke Roger A., Jr.
Published: November 2020

Much has been said about El Niño 97-98, some of it profound and some not. Several of the key findings from this assessment are reflected in an excellent short summary published by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in January 1999. . . . The 1997/1998 El Niño was probably the strongest in recorded history; it disrupted the lives of millions of people on all the Earth’s inhabited continents. Not all climate extremes and severe weather events of the period, however, can be directly attributed to the El Niño event. Further, not all its impacts were negative, and some regions that were expected to suffer were not seriously affected. (Obasi, 1999) . . . As the WMO found on a global scale, we have documented the profound impacts of El Niño 97-98 in the United States. But, perhaps contrary to conventional wisdom, the impacts in the United States were, in the aggregate, positive. Because El Niño shifted the geographical distribution of seasonal anomalies and because scientists were able to anticipate these shifts, many decision makers were able to profit from the early warnings to take compensatory actions. The accuracy of the predictions, and the successful use by decision makers of those predictions, offers the promise of the development of a more robust climate service in the United States. The remainder of this chapter summarizes the surprises, the lessons learned, and the legacy of El Niño 97-98. Once the rapid onset of El Niño conditions was detected late in the spring of 1997, forecasters successfully predicted the event’s strength and duration. The oceanic predictions reinforced the ensuing seasonal climate forecasts. The official seasonal outlooks issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the summer of 1997 skillfully predicted the fall, winter, and early spring 1997-1998 conditions in many parts of the United States many months in advance. The seasonal forecasts had an accuracy of greater than 50 percent for temperatures and of between 30 percent and 50 percent for precipitation, the highest levels of accuracy ever attained, a reflection of the benefits of the considerable research and ocean-monitoring efforts directed at the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) over the past twenty years.