Mosaic Approach Research Articles

Development and testing of a subgrid glacier mass balance model for nesting in the Canadian Regional Climate Model

The aim of this study is to develop and test a methodology to explicitly resolve glacier energy and mass balance in regional climate models (RCMs). There is increasing interest in the ability to represent mountain glaciers in climate models, to enable either one-way forced or fully-coupled simulations of glacier response to climate change. However, mountain glaciers are generally subgrid features (areas of less than 10 km2) occupying high elevations in complex mountain terrain, and it is important to examine whether RCM-derived meteorological fields in mountain regions are accurate enough to model glacier mass balance. We use downscaled RCM data to force a glacier model at five different sites in western North America, where long-term glacier mass balance observations allow us to evaluate different glacier modelling and climate downscaling strategies. The model runs on a pre-processed, gridded database of 100-m resolution topographic characteristics. Our reference glacier simulations use this high resolution grid to explicitly simulate glacier surface and energy balance, but this is computationally demanding. We test different mosaic approaches for subgrid characterization of the glaciers, where glaciers in an RCM grid cell are distributed over different terrain classes, similar to hydrological response units. The subgrid mosaic approach drastically increases computational efficiency without affecting mass balance simulations for the five glaciers by more than a few percent. Elevation distribution within a grid cell is the most important element of the subgrid terrain characterization; subgrid elevation bands need to be resolved to 200 m or less in order to keep seasonal mass balance biases lower than 2%. Good simulations of glacier mass balance can be achieved with glacier-specific tuning, with correlation coefficients of ~ 0.8 between modelled and measured annual glacier mass balances over the period 1995–2014. However, there are large and regionally-variable biases in the modelled meteorological fields, and we cannot achieve good results without local bias correction.

How preschool children think about libraries: Evidence from six children’s libraries in China

Listening to young children’s voices is crucial to improving children’s library services. The first step is unveiling how young children think about the library. Thus, researchers recruited the Mosaic approach including photography, interview, and drawing to explore the features of children’s libraries in children’s perspectives in six libraries in China. The results indicate that first, the children’s library is a “primary third place”. Second, the children’s library is an overlapping of home and society. Third, children can read books in the children’s library, but not just read. Fourth, the children’s library improves children’s awareness as patrons. It is suggested that young patrons already form initial understandings of the library, begin to complain about any problems, and put forward requirements for the library. Additionally, their interpersonal needs should be paid attention to. Therefore, librarians and researchers should respect the rights of children and listen to their voice when designing and providing library services associated with children.

Drosophila Genetics: The Power of Genetic Mosaic Approaches.

Drosophila melanogaster has been a central player in the discovery of the Hippo pathway and in understanding its in vivo functions. From a technique standpoint, the Flp-FRT system for the generation of genetic mosaics has been a principle tool. It has broadly been used in the discovery of Hippo pathway members in mutagenesis screens, in the analysis of target gene expression, and in genetic epistasis. Here we briefly introduce this tool, summarize its use in the Hippo pathway field, and provide a protocol for the generation of Flp-FRT clones in imaginal discs with dissection and staining for reporter gene expression to characterize candidate Hippo pathway genes.

Redefining the importance of children's voices in personal social emotional development curriculum using the Mosaic Approach

ABSTRACTThe research explores the implementation of the Mosaic Approach into a Greek early years’ setting. For the data collection, 21 children were observed using cameras, tours, mapping, and researcher's interviews with teachers and parents. Special consideration was given to the newly added tool of peer-to-peer interviews. Results depicted children's need for quality relationships with peers and adults and their favourite and least favourite places in their school. The authors suggest the adaptation of the Mosaic Approach into the Personal, Social and Emotional Development curriculum as an educational tool of children's rights which empowers their voices, as well as reinforcing their self-esteem and ability to form quality relationships.

Do Analysts Gain an Informational Advantage by Visiting Listed Companies?

ABSTRACTWe examine the improvements in forecast accuracy that result from analysts' visits to listed companies. We find that company visits significantly enhance the accuracy of the analysts' earnings forecasts for those companies. The benefit from company visits is more pronounced for companies that are more neglected or less accessible and for brokerage firms that face less pressure for optimistic forecasts from buy‐side clients. Our results are robust and remain significant after controlling for endogeneity and selection bias. Overall, our findings show that private interactions with company management provide analysts with an informational advantage and suggest that company visits facilitate the mosaic approach to information acquisition.

Towards Productive Cities: Environmental Assessment of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus of the Urban Roof Mosaic.

SummaryCities are rapidly growing and need to look for ways to optimize resource consumption. Metropolises are especially vulnerable in three main systems, often referred to as the FEW (i.e., food, energy, and water) nexus. In this context, urban rooftops are underutilized areas that might be used for the production of these resources.We developed the Roof Mosaic approach, which combines life cycle assessment with two rooftop guidelines, to analyze the technical feasibility and environmental implications of producing food and energy, and harvesting rainwater on rooftops through different combinations at different scales. To illustrate, we apply the Roof Mosaic approach to a densely populated neighborhood in a Mediterranean city. The building‐scale results show that integrating rainwater harvesting and food production would avoid relatively insignificant emissions (13.9–18.6 kg CO2 eq/inhabitant/year) in the use stage, but their construction would have low environmental impacts. In contrast, the application of energy systems (photovoltaic or solar thermal systems) combined with rainwater harvesting could potentially avoid higher CO2 eq emissions (177–196 kg CO2 eq/inhabitant/year) but generate higher environmental burdens in the construction phase.When applied at the neighborhood scale, the approach can be optimized to meet between 7% and 50% of FEW demands and avoid up to 157 tons CO2 eq/year. This approach is a useful guide to optimize the FEW nexus providing a range of options for the exploitation of rooftops at the local scale, which can aid cities in becoming self‐sufficient, optimizing resources, and reducing CO2 eq emissions.

Evaluating land use change impacts on rainfall in various categories using the Weather Research and Forecasting‐mosaic approach

To evaluate land use change impacts on rainfall in various categories, satellite‐based images representing land use change between 1980 and 2010 were adopted to perform numerical experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting regional climate model. The mosaic approach, rather than the dominant approach, was employed to describe the land surface characteristics and their corresponding changes, for which the changes in the land surface physical parameters were closer to the actual values. Changes in rainfall displayed marked subregional characteristics, which could be interpreted by changes in local upward and large‐scale moisture fluxes. Meanwhile, changes in the total rainfall (RCN) in various categories displayed remarkably different characteristics. Among these characteristics, storm and heavy storm rain expressed larger changes (relative values) and displayed stronger sensitivities over semi‐arid subregions. Storm and heavy storm rainfall increased up to 10.5% in the eastern part of northwestern China (NWE) and 13.6% over northeastern China and decreased up to 6.5% over the Tibetan Plateau and 11.9% over NWE. According to changes in the convective (RC) and non‐convective (RN) rainfall, the RCN for both storm and heavy storm rain were influenced by changes not only in the RC, RN, and RCN intensities, but also in the rain areas and number of rain days. The impacts of land use change on the summed RC, RN, and RCN for various categories might be less, whereas changes in the RC, RN, and RCN for individual various categories could be much larger. The rainfall impacts in various categories were higher over the subregions of China compared to China overall or the East Asian land areas, and those impacts demonstrated smaller influences at the regional scale (country‐wide, China) compared to the local scale (subregions of China). Therefore, the impacts of land use change on rainfall in various categories are important for climatic change studies.

Mosaic of care: Preschool children’s caring expressions and enactments

Children engage in a multitude of reciprocal relationships of care within Early Childhood Care and Education settings; they act as both care-receivers and care-givers. In order to better understand the ways in which children construct care (i.e. as they receive it and provide it to others), this study investigated how 15 three- to five-year-olds expressed, enacted, and then subsequently described and explained their experiences of care in one preschool classroom in the Midwestern United States. Data were captured using the Mosaic approach and included observations, photographs, videos, child conferences, and book-making. Analysis of the data revealed that children constructed care in five ways: to minimize the discomfort or pain of others, support relationships, promote positive emotion, enhance healthy and safe habits, and ensure the longevity and sustainability of their shared resources. Interpretations and implications of the mosaic of care generated in the site are discussed.

Young children’s use of their setting’s internal floor space affordances: evidence from an ethnographic case study

ABSTRACT Young children’s use of their Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) environment affordances, and especially the affordances of the floor, is an under researched area, both in Greece and internationally. This paper draws on findings from an ethnographic case study research conducted in Greece and presents an account of children’s multidimensional use of their settings and particularly the floor space within the settings. Ten children, under the age of three, participated in the study. Data was collected using an adaptation of the Mosaic Approach (Clark & Moss, 2001, Listening to young children: The mosaic approach. London: Jessica Kingsley) and analyzed using data-driven thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998, Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. London: Sage). The findings suggest that the case study children value, more than adults, the floor’s affordances and the vast opportunities it offers for play, exploration and socialization, whilst it also assists them to express agency.

Native Plant Diversity and Composition Across a Pinus radiata D.Don Plantation Landscape in South-Central Chile—The Impact of Plantation Age, Logging Roads and Alien Species

Alien tree plantations are expanding globally with potential negative effects for native biodiversity. We investigated plant species diversity and composition in a Pinus radiata landscape in south-central Chile, a biodiversity hotspot, by sampling understory vegetation in different plantation age classes, along forest roads and in natural forest remnants in order to find effective conservation measures for native biodiversity. Plantations, including different age classes and roadsides, maintained high native species richness at the landscape scale but supported a completely different community composition than natural forests. Thus, natural forest remnants must be conserved as plantations cannot replace them. Certain natural forest species occurred frequently in mature plantations and can represent starting points for retaining natural elements in plantations. Generalist native and alien species benefited from plantation management, mainly in young plantations and along roadsides. Stand maturation and a closed canopy, though, reduced alien species occurrences within plantations. Along roads, shade-tolerant aliens should be monitored and removed as they can potentially invade natural forests. Native species conservation in plantations requires a holistic approach of the full mosaic of land uses including the protection of remaining natural forests, alien species monitoring along roadsides and patches with continuous canopy cover to reduce pressure by alien species.

Rethinking “Chinese Community” in the Context of Transnationalism: the Case of Chinese Economic Immigrants in Canada

The current research on transnationalism has paid little attention to the impacts of immigrants’ sustained ties to their homelands on their relationships with ethnic communities in the host countries. Drawing on data from a qualitative study of economic immigrants from China to Canada, this article explores the new generation of Chinese immigrants’ definitions and perceptions of and experiences with the “Chinese community” as both an ideational and an empirical entity. Having faced various barriers to settlement and integration in Canada, these individuals tend to see China as “closer” to them than the established ethnic Chinese communities in Canada when it comes to fulfilling their needs for economic security, social support and, even, a sense of belonging. The findings suggest the urgent need to understand the relationship between the new waves of immigration, the ethnic community, and transnationalism, and to reflect on the mosaic multicultural approach to ethnicity and immigrant governance in the context of diversification of diversity.

'You feel like you're an artist. Like Leonardo da Vinci': Capturing young children’s voices and attitudes towards visual arts

Abstract Early childhood research is focusing increasingly on issues of acknowledging and respecting the ‘voices’ of young children. Much of the focus in arts education research, however, has explored adult attitudes, resulting in what seems the invisibility of young children’s opinions. Conducted in the context of early childhood education in Australia, the study, following a phenomenological approach, sought to understand the place of visual arts in the lives of four young children aged five to six years in a combined Kindergarten/Year One classroom located in Sydney. A range of childsensitive research tools were adapted from the ‘Mosaic approach’ to explore how children understand and conceive their early experiences of visual arts learning. In acknowledging the views of children, possibilities for improving arts pedagogy were considered as new questions emerged. The study confirmed the need to acknowledge and validate children’s rich and perceptive attitudes through meaningful experiences and valued conversations.

Toddlers taking pictures of their preschool life: towards a reflexive approach of qualitative research with young children

ABSTRACT In our research on the quality of ECEC settings in France, we were inspired by the ‘Mosaic approach’ developed by Clark and Moss to take into account the viewpoint of the children aged 2–3 years, who are welcomed in this study through the ‘voice’ of photography. The aim of this article is to analyse the results of the children’s practices of photography, rather than the content of their photographic images. The range and diversity of children’s ways of handling the camera, of how they frame their images and their roles as photographer are all analysed in as much depth as any cultural learning taking place. Through these means, this article demonstrates how to apply critical reflexivity to the methodology used for researching both on and with the children. It explains in conclusion, how our study sheds light on the challenges relating to the definition of quality in ECEC settings.

Fish community composition and diversity at restored estuarine habitats in Tampa Bay, Florida, United States

Estuary restoration in Tampa Bay, Florida, United States, is an ongoing focus of natural resource managers because of pressure from an increasing coastal population, historic habitat loss, and restoration's importance to economic development, recreational activities, and fish habitat. A growing population can also limit future large‐scale restorations due to associations with cost and land availability. This limitation might be overcome by applying the habitat mosaic approach to restoration, which creates distinct habitat types at small spatial scales. This approach was applied to create three types of estuarine habitat, reconnected tidal creek, salt marsh, and tidal pond. The objectives of this study were to (1) initiate monitoring of a restored wetland mosaic and (2) determine how fish diversity and community structure vary among restored habitat types. Replicated sampling using a 3‐mm mesh seine was used to characterize the fish communities. Our results indicate that the habitat mosaic approach creates suitable habitat for a variety of fish species where 37% of fish species were captured in just one habitat type. In particular, the recreationally important Centropomus undecimalis (common snook) was more common in the mangrove‐lined creek and the non‐native Sarotherodon melanotheron (blackchin tilapia) was common in the tidal pond. Greater emphasis should be placed on applied restoration research to identify how habitat types within a larger restoration mosaic contribute to local species diversity and recreationally and commercially important fishes, while limiting non‐natives. This emphasis could reveal how restoration approaches can be modified to include habitat mosaics, maximizing their contribution to productive fish habitat.

Young children’s agency: exploring children’s interactions with practitioners and ancillary staff members in Greek early childhood education and care settings

ABSTRACTMost research in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings, in Greece and internationally, focuses on children’s relationships with their early years practitioners, but evidence regarding young children’s role in the formation of these relationships is limited. This paper focuses on 10 children, under the age of three, recognizing children’s agency and their significant contribution to the formation of interpersonal relationships with practitioners and ancillary staff members. The paper draws on findings from an ethnographic case study, conducted in two Greek day-care settings over the course of six months, which used an adaptation of the Mosaic Approach. The analysis suggests that children’s relationships with significant adults beyond the home are paramount for children and influence and shape the way they perceive and experience the settings.

An In Depth Review Paper on Numerous Image Mosaicing Approaches and Techniques

Image mosaicing is one of the most important subjects of research in computer vision at current. Image mocaicing requires the integration of direct techniques and feature based techniques. Direct techniques are found to be very useful for mosaicing large overlapping regions, small translations and rotations while feature based techniques are useful for small overlapping regions. Feature based image mosaicing is a combination of corner detection, corner matching, motion parameters estimation and image stitching. Furthermore, image mosaicing is considered the process of obtaining a wider field-of-view of a scene from a sequence of partial views, which has been an attractive research area because of its wide range of applications, including motion detection, resolution enhancement, monitoring global land usage, and medical imaging. Numerous algorithms for image mosaicing have been proposed over the last two decades. In this paper the authors present a review on different approaches for image mosaicing and the literature over the past few years in the field of image masaicing methodologies. The authors take an overview on the various methods for image mosaicing. This review paper also provides an in depth survey of the existing image mosaicing algorithms by classifying them into several groups. For each group, the fundamental concepts are first clearly explained. Finally this paper also reviews and discusses the strength and weaknesses of all the mosaicing groups.

Redefining Doctrine Concepts in Modern Military Actions

Abstract The mosaic approach to conflict requires redefinition of some doctrinal concepts that can influence the way in which the response to the risks and threats to the state of security, the future of military actions and the acceptance that the technological development will be a factor for the success of the wars future. The issues addressed could be important elements in the architecture of a possible future strategic concept of integrated use of the basic elements of national power - diplomatic, informational, military and economic. At the same time, the results of this theoretical approach can contribute, as a reference point, to proposing viable and innovative doctrinal and operational solutions to counteract aggressions to national security, regardless of their nature or origin.

Representational Systems in Zoosemiotics and Anthroposemiotics Part II: On Meta-Representation and Human Language

AbstractFollowing the conclusions of the previous paper (Uhlir, this issue), this paper adopts a theory that is based on the notion that the essence of language is uniquely human, with no homologue elsewhere in nature, and advances the possibility that human language is discontinuous not only within communication systems but also within representational systems. Linguistic data from disparate sources inHomo sapiensare contrasted with evidence from animals. After briefly discussing the dialectics between the mosaic approach to language and the holistic approach to an integrated left hemisphere, the paper culminates in a proposal of a general zoosemiotic theory of “Representational Systems” and a special anthroposemiotic theory of “Meta-representational Systems”.

Habitat mosaics and path analysis can improve biological conservation of aquatic biodiversity in ecosystems with low-head dams

Conserving native biodiversity depends on restoring functional habitats in the face of human-induced disturbances. Low-head dams are a ubiquitous human impact that degrades aquatic ecosystems worldwide. To improve our understanding of how low-head dams impact habitat and associated biodiversity, our research examined complex interactions among three spheres of the total environment. i.e., how low-head dams (anthroposphere) affect aquatic habitat (hydrosphere), and native biodiversity (biosphere) in streams and rivers. Creation of lake-like habitats upstream of low-head dams is a well-documented major impact of dams. Alterations downstream of low head dams also have important consequences, but these downstream dam effects are more challenging to detect. In a multidisciplinary field study at five dammed and five undammed sites within the Neosho River basin, KS, we tested hypotheses about two types of habitat sampling (transect and mosaic) and two types of statistical analyses (analysis of covariance and path analysis). We used fish as our example of biodiversity alteration. Our research provided three insights that can aid environmental professionals who seek to conserve and restore fish biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems threatened by human modifications. First, a mosaic approach identified habitat alterations below low-head dams (e.g. increased proportion of riffles) that were not detected using the more commonly-used transect sampling approach. Second, the habitat mosaic approach illustrated how low-head dams reduced natural variation in stream habitat. Third, path analysis, a statistical approach that tests indirect effects, showed how dams, habitat, and fish biodiversity interact. Specifically, path analysis revealed that low-head dams increased the proportion of riffle habitat below dams, and, as a result, indirectly increased fish species richness. Furthermore, the pool habitat that was created above low-head dams dramatically decreased fish species richness. As we show here, mosaic habitat sampling and path analysis can help conservation practitioners improve science-based management plans for disturbed aquatic systems worldwide.

The impact of land use and land cover changes on East Asian summer monsoon precipitation using the WRF‐mosaic approach

AbstractBased on satellite‐derived land surface data, the impact of land use and land cover (LULC) changes between the 1980s and 2010s on the monsoon‐related circulation and precipitation over East Asia was explored using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model with the mosaic approach, which could consider subgrid‐scale LULC characteristics and the corresponding changes. Simulated results using the satellite‐based LULC data show that the monsoon‐related precipitation and rain belt movement could be well reproduced, whereas the precipitation was generally overestimated. In terms of the general effect of LULC changes between the 1980s and 2010s, the precipitation decreased in the north and increased in the south. Significant subregional characteristics are apparent in China, especially with respect to East Asian summer monsoon (EASM)‐related precipitation. The increased roughness induced weakened near‐surface wind speeds in the southern part of the EASM region, while the decreased roughness resulted in intensified values in the northern part. Meanwhile, the impacted EASM‐related circulation and moisture flux, which could be well explained by the LULC changes induced, influenced the pressure gradient and temperature gradient at low to middle latitudes, resulting in a weakened moisture flux from the southwest and the southeast, whereas it intensified from the South China Sea and at middle to high latitudes. In general, with weakened moisture flux at low to high latitudes, the EASM‐related rain belt's northward movement was restrained. Although the enhanced westerly currents contributed to the increased moisture flux at middle to high latitudes, the precipitation there decreased due to the stronger weakened northward moisture flux.