University of Arkansas

About: University of Arkansas is a education organization based out in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 17225 authors who have published 33329 publications receiving 941102 citations. The organization is also known as: Arkansas & UA.

Responses of terrestrial aridity to global warming

Abstract: The dryness of terrestrial climate can be measured by the ratio of annual precipitation (P) to potential evapotranspiration (PET), where the latter represents the evaporative demand of the atmosphere, which depends on the surface air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and available energy. This study examines how the terrestrial mean aridity responds to global warming in terms of P/PET using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 transient CO2 increase to 2 × CO2 simulations. We show that the (percentage) increase (rate) in P averaged over land is ~1.7%/°C ocean mean surface air temperature increase, while the increase in PET is 5.3%/°C, leading to a decrease in P/PET (i.e., a drier terrestrial climate) by ~3.4%/°C. Noting a similar rate of percentage increase in P over land to that in evaporation (E) over ocean, we propose a framework for examining the change in P/PET, in which we compare the change in PET over land and E over ocean, both expressed using the Penman–Monteith formula. We show that a drier terrestrial climate is caused by (i) enhanced land warming relative to the ocean, (ii) a decrease in relative humidity over land but an increase over ocean, (iii) part of increase in net downward surface radiation going into the deep ocean, and (iv) different responses of PET over land and E over ocean for given changes in atmospheric conditions (largely associated with changes in temperatures). The relative contributions to the change in terrestrial mean aridity from these four factors are about 35%, 35%, 15%, and 15%, respectively. The slight slowdown of the surface wind over both land and ocean has little impact on the terrestrial mean aridity.

On the Use of Neurophysiological Tools in IS Research: Developing a Research Agenda for NeuroIS

Abstract: This article aims to discuss the use of common neurophysiological tools, such as psychophysiological tools (e.g., EKG, eye tracking) and neuroimaging tools (e.g., fMRI, EEG) in Information Systems (IS) research. There is much interest in the social sciences in capturing objective data directly from the human body, and this interest has also been gaining momentum in IS research (termed NeuroIS). This article first introduces several commonly-used neurophysiological tools, and it then discusses several application areas and research questions where IS researchers can benefit from neurophysiological data toward developing a research agenda for NeuroIS. The proposed research areas are presented within four fundamental levels of analysis - individuals, groups, organizations, and markets - that are typically used to examine the use of IT.The article concludes with a set of recommendations on how to use neurophysiological tools in IS research along with practical suggestions for establishing NeuroIS as a viable sub-field in the IS literature.

Detection of Urban-Induced Rainfall Anomalies in a Major Coastal City

Abstract: There is increasing evidence that large coastal cities, like Houston, Texas, can influence weather through complex urban land use- weather-climate feedbacks. Recent work in the literature establishes the ex- istence of enhanced lightning activity over and downwind of Houston. Since lightning is a signature of convection in the atmosphere, it would seem rea- sonable that urbanized Houston would also impact the distribution of rainfall. This paper presents results using data from the world's first satellite-based precipitation radar (PR) aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and ground-based rain gauges to quantify rainfall anomalies that we hypothesize to be linked to extensive urbanization in the Houston area. It is one of the first rigorous efforts to quantify an urban-induced rainfall anomaly near a major U.S. coastal city and one of the first applications of space-borne radar data to the problem. Quantitative results reveal the presence of annual and warm season rainfall anomalies over and downwind of Houston. Several hypotheses have surfaced to explain how the sea breeze, coastline curvature,