Antarctica's ice shelves modulate the grounded ice flow, and weakening of ice shelves due to climate forcing will decrease their ‘buttressing’ effect, causing a response in the grounded ice. While the processes governing ice-shelf weakening are complex, uncertainties in the response of the grounded ice sheet are also difficult to assess. The Antarctic BUttressing Model Intercomparison Project (ABUMIP) compares ice-sheet model responses to decrease in buttressing by investigating the ‘end-member’ scenario of total and sustained loss of ice shelves. Although unrealistic, this scenario enables gauging the sensitivity of an ensemble of 15 ice-sheet models to a total loss of buttressing, hence exhibiting the full potential of marine ice-sheet instability. All models predict that this scenario leads to multi-metre (1–12 m) sea-level rise over 500 years from present day. West Antarctic ice sheet collapse alone leads to a 1.91–5.08 m sea-level rise due to the marine ice-sheet instability. Mass loss rates are a strong function of the sliding/friction law, with plastic laws cause a further destabilization of the Aurora and Wilkes Subglacial Basins, East Antarctica. Improvements to marine ice-sheet models have greatly reduced variability between modelled ice-sheet responses to extreme ice-shelf loss, e.g. compared to the SeaRISE assessments.

This study aims to investigate the climate–malaria associations in nine cities selected from malaria high-risk areas in China. Daily reports of malaria cases in Anhui, Henan, and Yunnan Provinces for 2005–2012 were obtained from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Generalized estimating equation models were used to quantify the city-specific climate–malaria associations. Multivariate random-effects meta-regression analyses were used to pool the city-specific effects. An inverted-U-shaped curve relationship was observed between temperatures, average relative humidity, and malaria. A 1 °C increase of maximum temperature (Tmax) resulted in 6·7% (95% CI 4·6–8·8%) to 15·8% (95% CI 14·1–17·4%) increase of malaria, with corresponding lags ranging from 7 to 45 days. For minimum temperature (Tmin), the effect estimates peaked at lag 0 to 40 days, ranging from 5·3% (95% CI 4·4–6·2%) to 17·9% (95% CI 15·6–20·1%). Malaria is more sensitive to Tmin in cool climates and Tmax in warm climates. The duration of lag effect in a cool climate zone is longer than that in a warm climate zone. Lagged effects did not vanish after an epidemic season but waned gradually in the following 2–3 warm seasons. A warming climate may potentially increase the risk of malaria resurgence in China.

This study aimed to investigate the spatial clustering and dynamic dispersion of dengue incidence in Queensland, Australia. We used Moran's I statistic to assess the spatial autocorrelation of reported dengue cases. Spatial empirical Bayes smoothing estimates were used to display the spatial distribution of dengue in postal areas throughout Queensland. Local indicators of spatial association (LISA) maps and logistic regression models were used to identify spatial clusters and examine the spatio-temporal patterns of the spread of dengue. The results indicate that the spatial distribution of dengue was clustered during each of the three periods of 1993–1996, 1997–2000 and 2001–2004. The high-incidence clusters of dengue were primarily concentrated in the north of Queensland and low-incidence clusters occurred in the south-east of Queensland. The study concludes that the geographical range of notified dengue cases has significantly expanded in Queensland over recent years.

The annealing response of amorphous Al based alloy samples were investigated to assess the role of the as-quenched state on primary crystallization of Al nanocrystals(nc). Continuous heating differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) traces of amorphous Al87Ni10Ce3 powders were compared to those from melt spun ribbon (MSR) to examine the effect of sample subdivision on primary crystallization. While the powders exhibited the same onset temperature as MSR, thermal cycling experiments show fine powder sizes reacting at the onset temperature and coarse powder sizes with the lowest melt quench rate transforming at the highest primary reaction temperature. In Al92Sm8 MSR, a kinetics analysis of Al nc distributions indicates a notable effect of the as-quenched state on primary crystallization during isothermal annealing. With Al88Y7Fe5 MSR intense deformation can induce thedevelopment of an Al nc distribution without thermal annealing. In each case examined, the results support the inclusion of quenched in clusters in the analysis of primary crystallization reactions.

We have deposited carbon films from mixtures of methane and N2 using Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition. By changing the percentage of N2 in the feed gas, we were able to produce films that have various aspect ratios and sp2/sp3 contents. The film with the highest field emission contains spears of aspect ratio of 10:1. We also found that in our sp3-rich films, higher sp2 content enhanced field emission. This is ascribed to improved charge transport to the field emission sites.

The growth of CuCl/CaF2 heterostructures has been studied with an atomic force microscope (AFM). We have grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) CuCl thin films at various substrate temperatures and thicknesses on CaF2(111) substrates. AFM studies reveal that islanding is the dominant growth mechanism. We calculated the height-height correlation function, 〈lh(qt)|2〉, for each of our films and compared them to the predictions made by the Shadowing Growth Theory, a preexisting growth model that enabled us to extract the important kinetic parameter of surface diffusion length for the growth condition of each of the four films.