Browsing by Subject "Journal article"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Open Access
    Applying behavioural science to issues of public health in South Africa: The case for social norms intervention
    (2017) Ganz, Gary; Neville, Fergus G; Ward, Catherine L
    In the effort to address behavioural risk factors – which contribute significantly to the global burden of disease – there is a growing movement in public health towards the use of interventions informed by behavioural science. These interventions have the benefit of being amenable to testing in randomised controlled trials, are cost-effective and, when scaled up, can have significant public health benefits. A subset of these interventions attempts to change behaviour by shifting social norms perception (what I think everyone else does and thinks). We surveyed the work on social norms intervention and considered its applicability to issues of public health in South Africa. Social norms interventions have widespread and significant potential to address issues of public health in South Africa; policymakers should look to these interventions as cost-effective tools to address key issues. More broadly, we advocate for an expansion of the use of behavioural science in developing public policy in South Africa.
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    Open Access
    Evaluating two numerical advection schemes in HYCOM for eddy-resolving modelling of the Agulhas Current
    (2009) Backeberg, B C; Bertino, L; Johannessen, J A
    A 4th order advection scheme is applied in a nested eddy-resolving Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) of the greater Agulhas Current system for the purpose of testing advanced numerics as a means for improving the model simulation for eventual operational implementation. Model validation techniques comparing sea surface height variations, sea level skewness and variogram analyses to satellite altimetry measurements quantify that generally the 4th order advection scheme improves the realism of the model simulation. The most striking improvement over the standard 2nd order momentum advection scheme, is that the Southern Agulhas Current is simulated as a well-defined meandering current, rather than a train of successive eddies. A better vertical structure and stronger poleward transports in the Agulhas Current core contribute toward a better southwestward penetration of the current, and its temperature field, implying a stronger Indo-Atlantic inter-ocean exchange. It is found that the transport, and hence this exchange, is sensitive to the occurrences of mesoscale features originating upstream in the Mozambique Channel and Southern East Madagascar Current, and that the improved HYCOM simulation is well suited for further studies of these inter-actions.
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    Open Access
    Event-by-event mean pT fluctuations in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC
    (2014) Abelev, B; Adam, J; Adamová, D; Aggarwal, M M; Rinella, G Aglieri; Agnello, M; Agostinelli, A; Agrawal, N; Ahammed, Z; Ahmad, N; Ahmed, I; Ahn, S U; Ahn, S A; Aimo, I; Aiola, S; Ajaz, M; Akindinov, A; Alam, S N; Aleksandrov, D; Alessandro, B; Alexandre, D; Alici, A; Alkin, A; Alme, J; Alt, T; Altinpinar, S; Altsybeev, I; Alves Garcia Prado, C; Andrei, C; Andronic, A; Anguelov, V; Anielski, J
    Event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum of charged particles produced in pp collisions at √s = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV, and Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV are studied as a function of the chargedparticle multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the LHC. Dynamical fluctuations indicative of correlated particle emission are observed in all systems. The results in pp collisions show little dependence on collision energy. The Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET are in qualitative agreement with the data. Peripheral Pb–Pb data exhibit a similar multiplicity dependence as that observed in pp. In central Pb–Pb, the results deviate from this trend, featuring a significant reduction of the fluctuation strength. The results in Pb– Pb are in qualitative agreement with previous measurements in Au–Au at lower collision energies and with expectations from models that incorporate collective phenomena.
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    Open Access
    Inhomogeneities in molecular layers of Mira atmospheres
    (2011) Wittkowski, M; Boboltz, D A; Ireland, M; Karovicova, I; Ohnaka, K; Scholz, M; van Wyk, F; Whitelock, P; Wood, P R; Zijlstra, A A
    Aims. We investigate the structure and shape of the photospheric and molecular layers of the atmospheres of four Mira variables.