The effect of small urban areas on cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning activity is analysed for Spain. The results shown that the CG-flash number is enhanced within and downwind the most of towns considered and that large population and higher SO2 concentration contribute to the increase of the number of CG-flashes. INTRODUCTION AND DATA Several studies have reported that large cities of the USA are...

This discussion of the problem of depopulation in Melanesia limits itself to oudine form and brief treatment. Moreover, it is unwise to be dogmatic about the relative importance of the factors invQlved. Depopulation, wherever it occurs, is a phenomenon of complex derivation and of wide societal relationships, which vary accQrding to locus and are in some cases evanescent. The problem is one tha...

Context. Using Greenwich sunspot data for 120 years it was recently observed that activity regions on the Sun’s surface tend to lie along smoothly changing longitude strips 180◦apart from each other. After critique of the original paper, the new arguments were found to substantiate the claim. Aims. In this paper we analyse new arguments in some detail. Methods. To check basic arguments about pe...

OBJECTIVE To examine the prevalence of and risk factors for cornea guttata in a rural southwestern island of Japan. DESIGN Cross-sectional, population-based study. All residents of Kumejima Island, Japan, located in southwestern Japan (eastern longitude, 126° 48'; northern latitude, 26° 20'), 40 years or older were asked to undergo a comprehensive questionnaire and ocular examination, includi...

Ionospheric diurnal double-maxima (DDM) pattern is a special phenomenon of the ionosphere, which shows that ionospheric electron density/total content (TEC) presents two-peak structure during daytime. This paper uses Beidou geostationary (GEO) vertical total (VTEC) data from MGEX tracking stations in Asian-Australian area 2019 to 2020 study DDM phenomenon. The results show occurrence rate rough...

In reinforcement learning, we often define goals by specifying rewards within desirable states. One problem with this approach is that we typically need to redefine the rewards each time the goal changes, which often requires some understanding of the solution in the agent’s environment. When humans are learning to complete tasks, we regularly utilize alternative sources that guide our understa...