Scientific community

The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many "sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional activities are also significant. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method. Peer review, through discussion and debate within journals and conferences, assists in this objectivity by maintaining the quality of research methodology and interpretation of results.

History of scientific communities

See also: History of science

The eighteenth century had some societies made up of men who studied nature, also known as natural philosophers and natural historians, which included even amateurs. As such these societies were more like local clubs and groups with diverse interests than actual scientific communities, which usually had interests on specialized disciplines. Though there were a few older societies of men who studied nature such as the Royal Society of London, the concept of scientific communities emerged in the second half of the 19th century, not before, because it was in this century that the language of modern science emerged, the professionalization of science occurred, specialized institutions were created, and the specialization of scientific disciplines and fields occurred.

For instance, the term scientist was first coined by the naturalist-theologian William Whewell in 1834 and the wider acceptance of the term along with the growth of specialized societies allowed for researchers to see themselves as a part of a wider imagined community, similar to the concept of nationhood.

Membership, status and interactions

Membership in the community is generally, but not exclusively, a function of education, employment status, research activity and institutional affiliation. Status within the community is highly correlated with publication record, and also depends on the status within the institution and the status of the institution. Researchers can hold roles of different degrees of influence inside the scientific community. Researchers of a stronger influence can act as mentors for early career researchers and steer the direction of research in the community like agenda setters. Scientists are usually trained in academia through universities. As such, degrees in the relevant scientific sub-disciplines are often considered prerequisites in the relevant community. In particular, the PhD with its research requirements functions as a marker of being an important integrator into the community, though continued membership is dependent on maintaining connections to other researchers through publication, technical contributions, and conferences. After obtaining a PhD an academic scientist may continue through being on an academic position, receiving a post-doctoral fellowships and onto professorships. Other scientists make contributions to the scientific community in alternate ways such as in industry, education, think tanks, or the government.

Members of the same community do not need to work together. Communication between the members is established by disseminating research work and hypotheses through articles in peer reviewed journals, or by attending conferences where new research is presented and ideas exchanged and discussed. There are also many informal methods of communication of scientific work and results as well. And many in a coherent community may actually not communicate all of their work with one another, for various professional reasons.

Speaking for the scientific community

Solvay Conference of 1927, with prominent physicists such as Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Max Planck, Marie Curie and Paul Dirac.

Unlike in previous centuries when the community of scholars were all members of few learned societies and similar institutions, there are no singular bodies or individuals which can be said today to speak for all science or all scientists. This is partly due to the specialized training most scientists receive in very few fields. As a result, many would lack expertise in all the other fields of the sciences. For instance, due to the increasing complexity of information and specialization of scientists, most of the cutting-edge research today is done by well funded groups of scientists, rather than individuals. However, there are still multiple societies and academies in many countries which help consolidate some opinions and research to help guide public discussions on matters of policy and government-funded research. For example, the United States' National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and United Kingdom's Royal Society sometimes act as surrogates when the opinions of the scientific community need to be ascertained by policy makers or the national government, but the statements of the National Academy of Science or the Royal Society are not binding on scientists nor do they necessarily reflect the opinions of every scientist in a given community since membership is often exclusive, their commissions are explicitly focused on serving their governments, and they have never "shown systematic interest in what rank-and-file scientists think about scientific matters". Exclusivity of membership in these types of organizations can be seen in their election processes in which only existing members can officially nominate others for candidacy of membership. It is very unusual for organizations like the National Academy of Science to engage in external research projects since they normally focus on preparing scientific reports for government agencies. An example of how rarely the NAS engages in external and active research can be seen in its struggle to prepare and overcome hurdles, due to its lack of experience in coordinating research grants and major research programs on the environment and health.

Nevertheless, general scientific consensus is a concept which is often referred to when dealing with questions that can be subject to scientific methodology. While the consensus opinion of the community is not always easy to ascertain or fix due to paradigm shifting, generally the standards and utility of the scientific method have tended to ensure, to some degree, that scientists agree on some general corpus of facts explicated by scientific theory while rejecting some ideas which run counter to this realization. The concept of scientific consensus is very important to science pedagogy, the evaluation of new ideas, and research funding. Sometimes it is argued that there is a closed shop bias within the scientific community toward new ideas. Protoscience, fringe science, and pseudoscience have been topics that discuss demarcation problems. In response to this some non-consensus claims skeptical organizations, not research institutions, have devoted considerable amounts of time and money contesting ideas which run counter to general agreement on a particular topic.

Philosophers of science argue over the epistemological limits of such a consensus and some, including Thomas Kuhn, have pointed to the existence of scientific revolutions in the history of science as being an important indication that scientific consensus can, at times, be wrong. Nevertheless, the sheer explanatory power of science in its ability to make accurate and precise predictions and aid in the design and engineering of new technology has ensconced "science" and, by proxy, the opinions of the scientific community as a highly respected form of knowledge both in the academy and in popular culture.

Political controversies

President Clinton meets the 1998 U.S. Nobel Prize winners in the White House

The high regard with which scientific results are held in Western society has caused a number of political controversies over scientific subjects to arise. An alleged conflict thesis proposed in the 19th century between religion and science has been cited by some as representative of a struggle between tradition and substantial change and faith and reason. A popular example used to support this thesis is when Galileo was tried before the Inquisition concerning the heliocentric model. The persecution began after Pope Urban VIII permitted Galileo to write about the Copernican model. Galileo had used arguments from the Pope and put them in the voice of the simpleton in the work "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" which caused great offense to him. Even though many historians of science have discredited the conflict thesis it still remains a popular belief among many including some scientists. In more recent times, the creation–evolution controversy has resulted in many religious believers in a supernatural creation to challenge some naturalistic assumptions that have been proposed in some of the branches of scientific fields such as evolutionary biology, geology, and astronomy. Although the dichotomy seems to be of a different outlook from a Continental European perspective, it does exist. The Vienna Circle, for instance, had a paramount (i.e. symbolic) influence on the semiotic regime represented by the Scientific Community in Europe.

In the decades following World War II, some were convinced that nuclear power would solve the pending energy crisis by providing energy at low cost. This advocacy led to the construction of many nuclear power plants, but was also accompanied by a global political movement opposed to nuclear power due to safety concerns and associations of the technology with nuclear weapons. Mass protests in the United States and Europe during the 1970s and 1980s along with the disasters of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island led to a decline in nuclear power plant construction.

In the last decades or so, both global warming and stem cells have placed the opinions of the scientific community in the forefront of political debate.

Abilene paradox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene_paradox

The Abilene paradox is a collective fallacy, in which a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of most or all individuals in the group, while each individual believes it to be aligned with the preferences of most of the others. It involves a breakdown of group communication in which each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the group's, and therefore does not raise objections. They even go so far as to state support for an outcome they do not want.

A common phrase related to the Abilene paradox is a desire to not "rock the boat". Like in groupthink, group members jointly decide on a course of action that they would not choose as individuals. However, while in groupthink, individuals undergo self-deception and distortion of their own views (driven by, for example, not wanting to suffer in anticipation of a future they sense they cannot avoid by speaking out), in the Abilene Paradox, individuals are unable to perceive the views or preferences of others, or to manage an agreement.

Overview

The term was introduced by a management expert Jerry B. Harvey in his 1974 article "The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement". The name of the phenomenon comes from an anecdote that Harvey uses in the article to elucidate the paradox:

On a hot afternoon visiting in Coleman, Texas, the family is comfortably playing dominoes on a porch, until the father-in-law suggests that they take a [50-mile (80-km)] trip to Abilene for dinner. The wife says, "Sounds like a great idea." The husband, despite having reservations because the drive is long and hot, thinks that his preferences must be out-of-step with the group and says, "Sounds good to me. I just hope your mother wants to go." The mother-in-law then says, "Of course I want to go. I haven't been to Abilene in a long time."

The drive is hot, dusty, and long. When they arrive at the cafeteria, the food is as bad as the drive. They arrive back home four hours later, exhausted.

One of them dishonestly says, "It was a great trip, wasn't it?" The mother-in-law says that, actually, she would rather have stayed home, but went along since the other three were so enthusiastic. The husband says, "I wasn't delighted to be doing what we were doing. I only went to satisfy the rest of you." The wife says, "I just went along to keep you happy. I would have had to be crazy to want to go out in the heat like that." The father-in-law then says that he only suggested it because he thought the others might be bored.

The group sits back, perplexed that they together decided to take a trip that none of them wanted. They each would have preferred to sit comfortably but did not admit to it when they still had time to enjoy the afternoon.

The Abilene Paradox consists of five components:

1. The first component refers to mutual agreement of a group that the current situation is not acceptable. However, on the individual level, the members may be satisfied with the existing setting after they have compared it with proposed alternatives.
2. The second component stands for ineffective communication within the group when several members express considerable support for a decision because they assume that is the desire of others. This process of communication reinforces assumptions that individual thoughts are a minority in the group.
3. The third component of the Abilene Paradox is the vocalisation of group sentiment which arose from inaccurate assumptions or incorrect interpretation of the "signals" given by other members.
4. The fourth component refers to the decision-maker's reflections on the actions taken, usually in the form of questions as follows: "Why did we do this?", "How can we justify our decision to others?".
5. The fifth component refers to the defeat of the group leader to poor decision making in order to avoid making similar decisions in the future.

There are several factors that may indicate the presence of the Abilene Paradox in the decision-making process:

• Leaders who publicly do not fear the unknown. Such arrogance leads them to go along as they do not possess sufficient understanding of complex problems. Rather, they stick to the "that sounds good to me" attitude.
• A group with no-conflict or no-debate type of decision-making. When such views are supported in the cohort, the lack of diverse opinions becomes the foundation for mismanagement of agreement. This can be visible by the emergence of the "I will go along with that" attitude.
• Overriding leaders and a strong organisation culture. A strong leader and solid organisation may become a powerful asset, it may also intimidate other members of subordinates to the point of submission. This results in the inclination of supporting more dominant ideas.
• Lack of diversity and pluralistic perspective in a group. Homogeneous groups tend to be conformal. Such groups tend to achieve consensus rather than searching for the "right" decision.
• Recognition of a dysfunctional decision-making environment. Management in this environment has lost control, as the directional prerogative of management has succumbed to wanting to be liked by avoiding conflict.
• The feeling of a "messiah" in the organisation and action anxiety on the part of management. When the group handles complex tasks, there is usually one person or a small cohort within the group who has required expertise to manage in this situation. As a result, there is a tendency to acquiesce to them.
• The development of a "spiral of silence" in the organisation. The spiral of silence occurs when one's perception of the majority opinion in the organisation suppresses one's willingness to express any challenging opinion against the most visible point of view.

Research

Based on an online experiment with more than 600 participants, being prosocial and generally caring about the implications of one's actions on others (measured by the social value orientation measure) has been shown to increase the likelihood that an individual finds themselves in an Abilene Paradox with others, especially if they are not the first to have a say.

The study at Makerere University Business School described the case of the Abilene Paradox in the process of decision-making in 2006: The institution was in a dispute with its parent institution, Makerere University, over its status as an independent university. A meeting of the MUBS Academic Staff Association (MUBASA) was called to discuss the issue, and the attendees voted to support MUBS council's decision to sue the Ministry of Education for interfering in a high court pronouncement. Each member of the association was to contribute towards the legal costs. By interviewing 68 employees, the researcher found that the majority of them never considered it a solution but thought that others strongly support the idea of starting the trial.

Chen and Chang conducted a study about the effects, causes, and influences of the Abilene paradox, if any, on their elementary school; and this study involved twelve faculty members. Results of this Abilene paradox study showed a negative effect on the school’s operation, through poor communication, inadequate interaction, isolation, exclusion, and rising gossip.

Applications of the concept

The theory is often used to help explain poor group decisions, especially notions of the superiority of "rule by committee". For example, Harvey cited the Watergate scandal as a potential instance of the Abilene paradox in action. The Watergate scandal occurred in the United States in the 1970s when many high officials of the Nixon administration colluded in the cover-up and perhaps the execution of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. Harvey quotes several people indicted for the coverup as indicating that they had personal qualms about the decision but feared to voice them. In one instance, campaign aide Herbert Porter said that he "was not one to stand up in a meeting and say that this should be stopped", a decision that he attributed to "the fear of the group pressure that would ensue, of not being a team player".

Another notable example of applying the Abilene paradox to the notorious real-world event can be seen during and in the aftermath of the 1989 United Kingdom Hillsborough tragedy and its cover-up by the authorities, which was characterised by individually hesitant, but otherwise compliant, government agents and the narrative and available information moulded and manipulated by the state. The other frequently cited example is the case of Challenger disaster, thought in that case researchers use both the concepts of groupthink and the Abilene paradox as possible explanation of the events.

The phenomenon of the Abilene paradox can also be used in information systems development, to conceptualise and operationalise the relationship between systems analysts, users, and other organisational stakeholders in situations of illusory agreement.

Related concepts and explanations

Other theories add to the Abilene paradox’s explanation of poor decision-making in groups, notably, such phenomena as groupthink and pluralistic ignorance.

The concept of groupthink posits that individuals correctly perceive the preferences of others, undergo some form of motivated reasoning, which distorts their true preferences, and then willingly choose to conform; hence, they generally feel positively about the resulting group decisions. The success of groupthink also hinges on the long-term homogeneity of the group, which seeks to keep that same cohesiveness and therefore to avoid all potential conflict. However, while groupthink, to some extent, depends on the ability of individuals to perceive attitudes and desires of others, the Abilene paradox hinges on the inability to gage true wants and intentions of group members.

The concept of pluralistic ignorance, on the other hand, is also defined as the situation where an individual underestimates the extent to which their views are shared by the other members of the group or organisation. In some ways, pluralistic ignorance can be considered as a factor inciting situations where the Abilene paradox occurs — individuals’ inability to correctly estimate the share of potential supporters lead to the assumption of ‘the worst case scenario’ and in-advance mitigation of potential risks of dealing with the opponents. Some researchers consider pluralistic ignorance to be a wider-ranging concept: while both groupthink and the Abilene paradox are usually discussed as the detriments to successful group decision-making, pluralistic ignorance is sometimes evaluated neutrally.

Rat race

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_race

Artist's depiction of the modern day rat race

A rat race is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. The phrase equates humans to rats attempting to earn a reward such as cheese, in vain. It may also refer to a competitive struggle to get ahead financially or routinely.

The term is commonly associated with an exhausting, repetitive lifestyle that leaves no time for relaxation or enjoyment.

Etymology

In the late 1800s, the term "rat-run" was used meaning "maze-like passages by which rats move about their territory", commonly used in a derogatory sense.

By the 1930s actual rat races of some sort are frequently mentioned among carnival and gambling attractions.

By 1934, "rat-race" was also used in reference to aviation training, referring to a "follow-the-leader" game in which a trainee fighter pilot had to copy all the actions (loops, rolls, spins, Immelmann turns etc.) performed by an experienced pilot.

From 1939, the phrase took on the meaning of "competitive struggle" referring to a person's work and life.

Historical usage

The Rat Race was used as a title for a novel written by Jay Franklin in 1947 for Colliers Magazine and first published in book form in 1950. It is dedicated To those few rats in Washington who do not carry brief-cases.

The term "rat race" was used in an article about Samuel Goudsmit published in 1953 entitled: A Farewell to String and Sealing Wax~I in which Daniel Lang wrote:

Sometimes when his sardonic mood is on him, he wonders whether the synchrotrons, the betatrons, the cosmotrons, and all the other contrivances physicists have lately rigged up to create energy by accelerating particles of matter aren't playing a wry joke on their inventors. "They are accelerating us too," he says, in a voice that still betrays a trace of the accent of his native Holland. In protesting against the speedup, Goudsmit can speak with authority, for in the course of only a few years, he, like many other contemporary physicists, has seen his way of life change from a tranquil one of contemplation to a rat race.

Philip K. Dick used the term in "The Last of the Masters" published in 1954:

"Maybe," McLean said softly, "you and I can then get off this rat race. You and I and all the rest of us. And live like human beings." "Rat race," Fowler murmured. "Rats in a maze. Doing tricks. Performing chores thought up by somebody else." McClean caught Fowler's eye. "By somebody of another species."

Jim Bishop used the term rat race in his book The Golden Ham: A Candid Biography of Jackie Gleason. The term occurs in a letter Jackie Gleason wrote to his wife in which he says: "Television is a rat race, and remember this, even if you win you are still a rat."

William H. Whyte used the term rat race in The Organization Man published in 1956:

The word collective most of them can't bring themselves to use—except to describe foreign countries or organizations they don't work for—but they are keenly aware of how much more deeply beholden they are to organization than were their elders. They are wry about it, to be sure; they talk of the "treadmill," the "rat race," of the inability to control one's direction.

Merle A. Tuve used the term rat race in a 1959 article entitled "Is Science Too Big for the Scientist?", writing:

There is a growing conviction among many of my friends in academic circles that the university today is no place for a scholar in science. A professor's life nowadays is a rat-race of busyness and activity, managing contracts and projects, guiding teams of assistants, bossing crews of technicians, making numerous trips, sitting on committees for government agencies, and engaging in other distractions necessary to keep the whole frenetic business from collapse.

David Foster Wallace used the term rat race in his 2005 commencement speech entitled "The Most Precious Freedom":

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, (unglamourous) ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.

Solutions

"Escaping the rat race" can have a number of different meanings:

• Movement from work or geographical location into (typically) a more rural area
• Retirement, quitting or ceasing work
• Moving from a job of high strenuosity to one of lesser strenuosity
• Adopting a Buddha-like mindset
• Changing to a different job altogether
• Remote work
• Becoming financially independent from an employer
• Living in harmony with nature
• Developing an inner attitude of detachment from materialistic pursuits
• Alienation from the norms of society

Music

• "Rat Race" by British rock band Enter Shikari (2013)
• Have a Blast Periphery II by Periphery (2012)
• "Slave to the Wage" by English alternative rock band Placebo (2000)
• "Escape (Free Yo Mind From This Rat Race)" by American singer Prince
• "Rat Race" by English ska band The Specials (1980)
• "Mice Race" by British anarcho-punk band Rudimentary Peni (1982)
• "Rat Race" by Billy Idol (2005)
• "Rat Race" by Bob Marley (1976)
• "Rat Race" by Babbu Maan (2020)
• "The Clockwise Witness" by DeVotchKa describes the futility of the rat race (2008)
• "Even if You Win, You're Still a Rat" by British metalcore band Architects (2012)
• RatRace by English metal band Skindred (2007)
• "The Racing Rats" by English rock band Editors (2007)
• Mentioned in the song "Country House" by English rock band Blur (1995)

Status epilepticus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_epilepticus 

 

Status epilepticus
Generalized 3 Hz spike-and-wave discharges on an electroencephalogram

Status epilepticus (SE), or status seizure, is a medical condition consisting of a single seizure lasting more than 5 minutes, or 2 or more seizures within a 5-minute period without the person returning to normal between them. Previous definitions used a 30-minute time limit. The seizures can be of the tonic–clonic type, with a regular pattern of contraction and extension of the arms and legs, or of types that do not involve contractions, such as absence seizures or complex partial seizures. Status epilepticus is a life-threatening medical emergency, particularly if treatment is delayed.

Status epilepticus may occur in those with a history of epilepsy as well as those with an underlying problem of the brain. These underlying brain problems may include trauma, infections, or strokes, among others. Diagnosis often involves checking the blood sugar, imaging of the head, a number of blood tests, and an electroencephalogram. Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures may present similarly to status epilepticus. Other conditions that may also appear to be status epilepticus include low blood sugar, movement disorders, meningitis, and delirium, among others. Status epilepticus can also appear when tuberculous meningitis becomes very severe.

Benzodiazepines are the preferred initial treatment, after which typically phenytoin is given. Possible benzodiazepines include intravenous lorazepam as well as intramuscular injections of midazolam. A number of other medications may be used if these are not effective, such as phenobarbital, propofol, or ketamine. After initial treatment with benzodiazepines, typical antiseizure drugs should be given, including valproic acid (valproate), fosphenytoin, levetiracetam, or a similar substance(s). While empirically based treatments exist, few head-to-head clinical trials exist, so the best approach remains undetermined. This said, "consensus-based" best practices are offered by the Neurocritical Care Society. Intubation may be required to help maintain the person's airway. Between 10% and 30% of people who have status epilepticus die within 30 days. The underlying cause, the person's age, and the length of the seizure are important factors in the outcome. Status epilepticus occurs in up to 40 per 100,000 people per year. Those with status epilepticus make up about 1% of people who visit the emergency department.

Signs and symptoms

Status epilepticus can be divided into two categories: convulsive and nonconvulsive (NCSE).

Convulsive

Convulsive status epilepticus presents an urgent neurological condition, which is characterized by an elongated and uncontrollable onsets of seizures in which a regular pattern of contraction and extension of the arms and legs will be observed from the patient. The symptoms can be managed by initially introducing a seizure suppressing medication as the first stage of the treatment, which optimally works only for that stage because any delay will reduce the efficacy of those medications. Convulsive status epilepticus commonly affects the elderly and young children, with a mortality rate of up to 20–30% of elderly patients and 0–3% of young children. Patients who survive initial onset are often left with cognitive and neurological defects.

Epilepsia partialis continua is a variant involving hour-, day-, or even week-long jerking. It is a consequence of vascular disease, tumors, or encephalitis, and is drug-resistant.

Generalized myoclonus is commonly seen in comatose people following cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and is seen by some as an indication of catastrophic damage to the neocortex; myoclonus status in this situation can usually (but not always) be considered an agonal phenomenon.

Refractory status epilepticus is defined as status epilepticus that continues despite treatment with benzodiazepines and one antiepileptic drug.

Super-refractory status epilepticus is defined as status epilepticus that continues or recurs 24 hours or more after the onset of anaesthetic therapy, including those cases where status epilepticus recurs on the reduction or withdrawal of anesthesia.

Nonconvulsive

Nonconvulsive status epilepticus is a relatively long duration change in a person's level of consciousness without large-scale bending and extension of the limbs due to seizure activity. It is of two main types with either prolonged complex partial seizures or absence seizures. Up to a quarter of cases of SE are nonconvulsive.

In the case of complex partial status epilepticus, the seizure is confined to a small area of the brain, normally the temporal lobe. Absence status epilepticus is marked by a generalized seizure affecting the whole brain. An electroencephalogram (EEG) is needed to differentiate between the two conditions.

The cases of nonconvulsive status epilepticus are characterized by a long-lasting stupor, staring, and unresponsiveness. Recent studies indicated 50% of cases involve patients that are semi-conscious in a way that they can respond but are confused spontaneously. Only 6% have shown a decelerated thought process. About 44% of cases of nonconvulsive status epilepticus are marked by a prolonged or fragmentary coma.

Causes

Only 25% of people who experience seizures or status epilepticus have epilepsy. The following is a list of possible causes:

• Stroke
• Hemorrhage
• Intoxicants or adverse reactions to drugs
• Insufficient dosage or sudden withdrawal of a medication (especially anticonvulsants)
• Insufficient dosage or sudden withdrawal of benzodiazepine(s) medication (akin to alcohol withdrawal); itself a class of antiseizure/anticonvulsant medications
• Consumption of alcoholic beverages while on an anticonvulsant, or alcohol withdrawal
• Dieting or fasting while on an anticonvulsant
• Starting on a new medication that reduces the effectiveness of the anticonvulsant or changes drug metabolism, decreasing its half-life, leading to decreased blood concentrations
• Developing a resistance to an anticonvulsant already being used
• Gastroenteritis while on an anticonvulsant, where lower levels of anticonvulsant may exist in the bloodstream due to vomiting of gastric contents or reduced absorption due to mucosal edema
• Developing a new, unrelated condition in which seizures are coincidentally also a symptom, but are not controlled by an anticonvulsant already used
• Metabolic disturbances—such as affected kidney and liver
• Sleep deprivation of more than a short duration is often the cause of a (usually, but not always, temporary) loss of seizure control
• Dehydration – moderate- to severe, especially when combined with any single factor above

Diagnosis

Diagnostic criteria vary, though most practitioners diagnose as status epilepticus for: one continuous, unremitting seizure lasting longer than five minutes, or recurrent seizures without regaining consciousness between seizures for greater than five minutes. Previous definitions used a 30-minute time limit.

Nonconvulsive status epilepticus is believed to be under-diagnosed.

New-onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) is defined as status epilepticus that does not respond to an anticonvulsant and lacks an obvious cause after two days of investigation.

Treatments

Diazepam that can be inserted rectally is often prescribed to caregivers of people with epilepsy. This enables treatment of multiple seizures prior to being able to seek medical care.

Benzodiazepines are the preferred initial treatment after which typically phenytoin or fosphenytoin is given. First aid guidelines for seizures state that, as a rule, an ambulance should be called for seizures lasting longer than five minutes (or sooner if this is the person's first seizure episode and no precipitating factors are known, or if said SE happens to a person with epilepsy whose seizures were previously absent or well-controlled for a considerable time).

Benzodiazepines

When given intravenously, lorazepam appears to be superior to diazepam for stopping seizure activity. Intramuscular midazolam appears to be a reasonable alternative especially in those who are not in hospital.

The benzodiazepine of choice in North America for initial treatment is lorazepam, due to its relatively long duration of action (2–8 hours) when injected, and particularly due to its rapid onset of action, which is thought to be due to its high affinity for GABA receptors and low lipid solubility. This causes the drug to remain in the vascular compartment. If lorazepam is not available, or intravenous access is not possible, then diazepam should be given. Alternatively, medication, such as glucagon, should be given through the bone (intraosseously).

In several countries outside North America, such as the Netherlands, intravenous clonazepam is regarded as the drug of first choice. Cited advantages of clonazepam include a longer duration of action than diazepam and a lower propensity for the development of acute tolerance than lorazepam. The use of clonazepam for this indication is not recognized in North America, perhaps because it is not available as an intravenous formulation there.

Particularly in children, another popular treatment choice is midazolam, given into the side of the mouth or the nose. Sometimes, the failure of lorazepam alone is considered to be enough to classify a case of SE as refractory–that is, resistant to treatment.

Phenytoin and fosphenytoin

Phenytoin was once another first-line therapy, although the prodrug fosphenytoin can be administered three times as fast and with far fewer injection site reactions. If these or any other hydantoin derivatives are used, then cardiac monitoring is necessary if they are administered intravenously. Because the hydantoins take 15–30 minutes to work, a benzodiazepine or barbiturate is often coadministered. Because of diazepam's short duration of action, they were often administered together anyway. At present, these remain recommended second-line, follow-up treatments in the acute setting per guidelines by groups like Neurocritical Care Society (United States).

Barbiturates

Before the benzodiazepines were invented, barbiturates were used for purposes similar to benzodiazepines in general. Some are still used today in SE, for instance, if benzodiazepines or the hydantoins are not an option. These are used to induce a barbituric coma. The barbiturate most commonly used for this is phenobarbital. Thiopental or pentobarbital may also be used for that purpose if the seizures have to be stopped immediately or if the person has already been compromised by the underlying illness or toxic/metabolic-induced seizures; however, in those situations, thiopental is the agent of choice. That said, even when benzodiazepines are available, certain algorithms–including in the United States–indicate the use of phenobarbital as a second- or third-line treatment in SE. Such use is adjunctive. At least one U.S. study showed phenobarbital, when used alone, controlled about 60% of seizures, hence its preference as an add-on therapy.

Carbamazepine and valproate

Valproate is available to be given intravenously, and may be used for status epilepticus. Carbamazepine is not available in an intravenous formulation, and does not play a role in status epilepticus. It was found that all of valproate, phenobarbital, fosphenytoin (phenytoin), midazolam or levetiracetam are considered to the second line drugs after benzodiazepine is used as the first line treatment. It was found that especially valproate in contrast to antiepileptic drugs is more effective to the treatment of nonconvulsive status epilepticus and more commonly used for it.

Others

If this proves ineffective or if barbiturates cannot be used for some reason, then a general anesthetic such as propofol may be tried; sometimes it is used second after the failure of lorazepam. This would entail putting the person on artificial ventilation. Propofol has been shown to be effective in suppressing the jerks seen in myoclonus status epilepticus.

Ketamine, an NMDA antagonist drug, can be used as a last resort for drug-resistant status epilepticus.

Lidocaine has been used in cases that do not improve with other more typical medications. One concern is that seizures often begin again 30 minutes after it is stopped. Additionally, it is not recommended in those with heart or liver problems.

Prognosis

While sources vary, about 16 to 20% of first-time SE patients die; with other sources indicating between 10 and 30% of such patients die within 30 days. Further, 10-50% of first-time SE patients experience lifelong disabilities. In the 30% mortality figure, the great majority of these people have an underlying brain condition causing their status seizure such as brain tumor, brain infection, brain trauma, or stroke. People with diagnosed epilepsy who have a status seizure also have an increased risk of death if their condition is not stabilized quickly, their medication and sleep regimen adapted and adhered to, and stress and other stimulant (seizure trigger) levels controlled. However, with optimal neurological care, adherence to the medication regimen, and a good prognosis (no other underlying uncontrolled brain or other organic disease), the person—even people who have been diagnosed with epilepsy—in otherwise good health can survive with minimal or no brain damage, and can decrease risk of death and even avoid future seizures.

Prognosis of refractory status epilepticus

A different prognosis method was developed for refractory status epilepticus (RSE). Prognosis studies have shown that there is no clear structure of the symptoms; since they range from gastrointestinal to flu-like symptoms, which are considered to be mild and only represent 10%, while the remaining majority of 90% of the clinical cases were unknown. It was found that it takes a period of 1 to 14 days for the patient to reach the prodromal stage in which the episode is yet to come for the first time. It was found that the frequency of those initial seizures starts from a short and inconsistent seizures that lasts for a few hours and may extend to few days. It can simply strike to hundreds of seizures per day, which is the stage that needed an urgent medical intervene in which the patient expected to be in the intensive care unit (ICU) as soon as possible. Typically focal seizures are the most common among those cases.

Epidemiology

In the United States, about 40 cases of SE occur annually per 100,000 people. This includes about 10–20% of all first seizures.

Prevalence

It was found that status epilepticus is more prevalent among African Americans than Caucasian Americans by threefold in North London, and that Asian children have recorded a relatively higher susceptibility of developing the more severe form of febrile seizures. These ethnic distribution rates indicate the genetic contribution to the susceptibility of status epilepticus. Also, studies have shown that status epilepticus is more common in males.

Aetiology

Many studies have found out that age is the most related factor to the etiology of status epilepticus, since 52% of febrile seizures was found in children, while for adults acute cerebralvascular cases was more common, side by side with hypoxia and other metabolic causes.

Research

Allopregnanolone was being studied as a treatment for super-resistant status epilepticus, but was found to have no benefit over placebo.

Person

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person

A person (pl.: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts.

In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes.

The plural form "people" is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of person. The plural form "persons" is often used in philosophical and legal writing.

Personhood

An abstract painting of a person by Paul Klee. The concept of a person can be very challenging to define.

Main article: Personhood

The criteria for being a person... are designed to capture those attributes which are the subject of our most humane concern with ourselves and the source of what we regard as most important and most problematical in our lives.

— Harry G. Frankfurt

Personhood is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law, and is closely tied to legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to common worldwide general legal practice, only a natural person or legal personality has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal liability. Personhood continues to be a topic of international debate, and has been questioned during the abolition of slavery and the fight for women's rights, in debates about abortion, fetal rights, and in animal rights advocacy.

Various debates have focused on questions about the personhood of different classes of entities. Historically, the personhood of women, and slaves has been a catalyst of social upheaval. In most societies today, postnatal humans are defined as persons. Likewise, certain legal entities such as corporations, sovereign states and other polities, or estates in probate are legally defined as persons. However, some people believe that other groups should be included; depending on the theory, the category of "person" may be taken to include or not pre-natal humans or such non-human entities as animals, artificial intelligences, or extraterrestrial life.

Personal identity

What does it take for individuals to persist from moment to moment – or in other words, for the same individual to exist at different moments?

Main article: Personal identity

Personal identity is the unique identity of persons through time. That is to say, the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time can be said to be the same person, persisting through time. In the modern philosophy of mind, this concept of personal identity is sometimes referred to as the diachronic problem of personal identity. The synchronic problem is grounded in the question of what features or traits characterize a given person at one time.

Identity is an issue for both continental philosophy and analytic philosophy. A key question in continental philosophy is in what sense we can maintain the modern conception of identity, while realizing many of our prior assumptions about the world are incorrect.

Proposed solutions to the problem of personal identity include continuity of the physical body, continuity of an immaterial mind or soul, continuity of consciousness or memory, the bundle theory of self, continuity of personality after the death of the physical body, and proposals that there are actually no persons or selves who persist over time at all.

Development of the concept

In ancient Rome, the word persona (Latin) or prosopon (πρόσωπον; Ancient Greek) originally referred to the masks worn by actors on stage. The various masks represented the various "personae" in the stage play.

The concept of person was further developed during the Trinitarian and Christological debates of the 4th and 5th centuries in contrast to the word nature. During the theological debates, some philosophical tools (concepts) were needed so that the debates could be held on common basis to all theological schools. The purpose of the debate was to establish the relation, similarities and differences between the logos (Ancient Greek: Λóγος, romanized: Lógos/Verbum) and God. The philosophical concept of person arose, taking the word "prosopon" (Ancient Greek: πρόσωπον, romanized: prósōpon) from the Greek theatre. Therefore, the logos (the Ancient Greek: Λóγος, romanized: Lógos/Verbum), which was identified with the Christ, was defined as a "person" of God. This concept was applied later to the Holy Ghost, the angels and to all human beings. Trinitarianism holds that God has three persons.

Since then, a number of important changes to the word's meaning and use have taken place, and attempts have been made to redefine the word with varying degrees of adoption and influence. According to Jörg Noller, at least six approaches can be distinguished:

1. "The ontological definition of the person as "an individual substance of a rational nature" (Boethius).
2. The self-consciousness-based definition of the person as a being that "can conceive itself as itself" (John Locke).
3. The moral-philosophical definition of the person as "an end in itself" (Immanuel Kant). In current analytical debate, the focus has shifted to the relationship between bodily organism and person.
4. The theory of animalism (Eric T. Olson) states that persons are essentially animals and that mental or psychological attributes play no role in their identity.
5. Constitution theory (Lynne Baker), on the other hand, attempts to define the person as a natural and at the same time self-conscious being: the bodily organism constitutes the person without being identical to it. Rather, it forms with it a "unity without identity".
6. [... Another idea] for conceiving the natural-rational unity of the person has emerged recently in the concept of the "person life" (Marya Schechtman)."

Other theories attribute personhood to those states that are viewed to possess intrinsic or universal value. Value theory attempts to capture those states that are universally considered valuable by their nature, allowing one to assign the concept of personhood upon those states. For example, Chris Kelly argues that the value that is intuitively bestowed upon humans, their possessions, animals, and aspects of the natural environment is due to a value monism known as "richness." Richness, Kelly argues, is a product of the "variety" and the "unity" within an entity or agent. According to Kelly, human beings and animals are morally valued and entitled to the status of persons because they are complex organisms whose multitude of psychological and biological components are generally unified towards a singular purpose in any moment, existing and operating with relative harmony.

Primus defines people exclusively as their desires, whereby desires are states which are sought for arbitrary or nil purpose(s). Primus views that desires, by definition, are each sought as ends in and of themselves and are logically the most precious (valuable) states that one can conceive. Primus distinguishes states of desire (or 'want') from states which are sought instrumentally, as a means to an end (on the basis of perceived 'need'). Primus' approach can thus be contrasted to Kant's moral-philosophical definition of a person: whereas Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative states that rational beings must never be treated merely as a means to an end and that they must also always be treated as an end, Primus offers that the aspects that humans (and some animals) desire, and only those aspects, are ends, by definition.

Atmospheric river

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river

An explanation from the National Weather Service on atmospheric rivers

An atmospheric river (AR) is a narrow corridor or filament of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere. Other names for this phenomenon are tropical plume, tropical connection, moisture plume, water vapor surge, and cloud band.

Composite satellite photos of an atmospheric river connecting Asia to North America in October 2017

Atmospheric rivers consist of narrow bands of enhanced water vapor transport, typically along the boundaries between large areas of divergent surface air flow, including some frontal zones in association with extratropical cyclones that form over the oceans. Pineapple Express storms are the most commonly represented and recognized type of atmospheric rivers; the name is due to the warm water vapor plumes originating over the Hawaiian tropics that follow various paths towards western North America, arriving at latitudes from California and the Pacific Northwest to British Columbia and even southeast Alaska.

In some parts of the world, changes in atmospheric humidity and heat caused by climate change are expected to increase the intensity and frequency of extreme weather and flood events caused by atmospheric rivers. This is expected to be especially prominent in the Western United States and Canada.

Description

Layered precipitable water imagery of particularly strong atmospheric rivers on 5 December 2015. The first, caused by Storm Desmond, stretched from the Caribbean to the United Kingdom; the second originated from the Philippines and crossing the Pacific Ocean extended to the west coast of North America.

The term was originally coined by researchers Reginald Newell and Yong Zhu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1990s to reflect the narrowness of the moisture plumes involved. Atmospheric rivers are typically several thousand kilometers long and only a few hundred kilometers wide, and a single one can carry a greater flux of water than Earth's largest river, the Amazon River. There are typically 3–5 of these narrow plumes present within a hemisphere at any given time. These have been increasing in intensity slightly over the past century.

In the current research field of atmospheric rivers, the length and width factors described above in conjunction with an integrated water vapor depth greater than 2.0 cm are used as standards to categorize atmospheric river events.

A January 2019 article in Geophysical Research Letters described them as "long, meandering plumes of water vapor often originating over the tropical oceans that bring sustained, heavy precipitation to the west coasts of North America and northern Europe."

As data modeling techniques progress, integrated water vapor transport (IVT) is becoming a more common data type used to interpret atmospheric rivers. Its strength lies in its ability to show the transportation of water vapor over multiple time steps instead of a stagnant measurement of water vapor depth in a specific air column (integrated water vapor – IWV). In addition, IVT is more directly attributed to orographic precipitation, a key factor in the production of intense rainfall and subsequent flooding.

Scale

Cat	Strength	Impact	Max. IVT	Duration
1	Weak	Primarily beneficial	≥500–750	<24 hours
			≥250–500	24–48 hours
2	Moderate	Mostly beneficial, also hazardous	≥750–1000	<24 hours
			≥500–750	24–48 hours
			≥250–500	>48 hours
3	Strong	Balance of beneficial and hazardous	≥1000–1250	<24 hours
			≥750–1000	24–48 hours
			≥500–750	>48 hours
4	Extreme	Mostly hazardous, also beneficial	≥1250	<24 hours
			≥1000–1250	24-48 hours
			≥750–1000	>48 hours
5	Exceptional	Primarily hazardous	≥1250	24–48 hours
			≥1000	>48 hours
Notes

Maximum vertically integrated water vapor transport, 3-hour average, units of ${\displaystyle \frac{kg}{m^2\cdot s}}$

The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography released a five-level scale in February 2019 to categorize atmospheric rivers, ranging from "weak" to "exceptional" in strength, or "beneficial" to "hazardous" in impact. The scale was developed by F. Martin Ralph, director of CW3E, who collaborated with Jonathan Rutz from the National Weather Service and other experts. The scale considers both the amount of water vapor transported and the duration of the event. Atmospheric rivers receive a preliminary rank according to the 3-hour average maximum vertically integrated water vapor transport. Those lasting less than 24 hours are demoted by one rank, while those lasting longer than 48 hours are increased by one rank.

Examples of different atmospheric river categories include the following historical storms:

1. February 2, 2017; lasted 24 hours
2. November 19–20, 2016; lasted 42 hours
3. October 14–15, 2016; lasted 36 hours and produced 5–10 inches of rainfall
4. January 8–9, 2017; lasted 36 hours and produced 14 inches of rainfall
5. December 29, 1996 – January 2, 1997; lasted 100 hours and caused >$1 billion in damage

Typically, the Oregon coast averages one Cat 4 atmospheric river (AR) each year; Washington state averages one Cat 4 AR every two years; the San Francisco Bay Area averages one Cat 4 AR every three years; and southern California, which typically experiences one Cat 2 or Cat 3 AR each year, averages one Cat 4 AR every ten years.

Usage: In practice, the AR scale can be used to refer to "conditions" without reference to the word "category", as in this excerpt from the CW3E Scripps Twitter feed: "Late-season atmospheric river to bring precipitation to the high elevations over northern California, western Oregon, and Washington this weekend, with AR 3 conditions forecast over southern Oregon."

Impacts

Atmospheric rivers have a central role in the global water cycle. On any given day, atmospheric rivers account for over 90% of the global meridional (north-south) water vapor transport, yet they cover less than 10% of any given extratropical line of latitude. Atmospheric rivers are also known to contribute to about 22% of total global runoff.

They are also the major cause of extreme precipitation events that cause severe flooding in many mid-latitude, westerly coastal regions of the world, including the west coast of North America, Western Europe, the west coast of North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Iran and New Zealand. Equally, the absence of atmospheric rivers has been linked with the occurrence of droughts in several parts of the world, including South Africa, Spain and Portugal.

United States

Water vapor imagery of the eastern Pacific Ocean from the GOES 11 satellite, showing a large atmospheric river aimed across California in December 2010. This particularly intense storm system produced as much as 26 in (660 mm) of precipitation in California and up to 17 ft (5.2 m) of snowfall in the Sierra Nevada during December 17–22, 2010.

The inconsistency of California's rainfall is due to the variability in strength and quantity of these storms, which can produce strenuous effects on California's water budget. The factors described above make California a perfect case study to show the importance of proper water management and prediction of these storms. The significance that atmospheric rivers have for the control of coastal water budgets juxtaposed against their creation of detrimental floods can be constructed and studied by looking at California and the surrounding coastal region of the western United States. In this region atmospheric rivers have contributed 30–50% of total annual rainfall according to a 2013 study. The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA) report, released by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) on November 23, 2018 confirmed that along the U.S. western coast, landfalling atmospheric rivers "account for 30%–40% of precipitation and snowpack. These landfalling atmospheric rivers "are associated with severe flooding events in California and other western states."

The USGCRP team of thirteen federal agencies—the DOA, DOC, DOD, DOE, HHS, DOI, DOS, DOT, EPA, NASA, NSF, Smithsonian Institution, and the USAID—with the assistance of "1,000 people, including 300 leading scientists, roughly half from outside the government" reported that, "As the world warms, the "landfalling atmospheric rivers on the West Coast are likely to increase" in "frequency and severity" because of "increasing evaporation and higher atmospheric water vapor levels in the atmosphere."

Based on the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) analyses, a team led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Paul J. Neiman, concluded in 2011 that landfalling ARs were "responsible for nearly all the annual peak daily flow (APDF)s in western Washington" from 1998 through 2009.

According to a May 14, 2019 article in San Jose, California's The Mercury News, atmospheric rivers, "giant conveyor belts of water in the sky", cause the moisture-rich "Pineapple Express" storm systems that come from the Pacific Ocean several times annually and account for about 50 percent of California's annual precipitation University of California at San Diego's Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes's director Marty Ralph, who is one of the United States' experts on atmospheric river storms and has been active in AR research for many years, said that, atmospheric rivers are more common in winter. For example, from October 2018 to spring 2019, there were 47 atmospheric rivers, 12 of which were rated strong or extreme, in Washington, Oregon and California. The rare May 2019 atmospheric rivers, classified as Category 1 and Category 2, are beneficial in terms of preventing seasonal wildfires but the "swings between heavy rain and raging wildfires" are raising questions about moving from "understanding that the climate is changing to understanding what to do about it. Atmospheric rivers have caused an average of $1.1 billion in damage annually, much of it occurring in Sonoma County, California, according to a December 2019 study by the Scripps Institution on Oceanography at UC San Diego and the US Army Corps of Engineers, which analyzed data from the National Flood Insurance Program and the National Weather Service. Just twenty counties suffered almost 70% of the damage, the study found, and that one of the main factors in the scale of damage appeared to be the number of properties located in a flood plain. These counties were:

• Snohomish County, WA ($1.2 billion)
• King County, WA ($2 billion)
• Pierce County, WA ($900 million)
• Lewis County, WA ($3 billion)
• Cowlitz County WA ($500 million)
• Columbia County, OR ($700 million)
• Clackamas, County, OR ($900 million)
• Washoe County, NV ($1.3 billion)
• Placer County, CA ($800 million)
• Sacramento County, CA ($1.7 billion)
• Napa County, CA ($1.3 billion)
• Sonoma County, CA ($5.2 billion)
• Marin County, CA ($2.2 billion)
• Santa Clara County, CA ($1 billion)
• Monterey County, CA ($1.3 billion)
• Los Angeles County, CA ($2.7 billion)
• Riverside County, CA ($500 million)
• Orange County, CA ($800 million)
• San Diego County, CA ($800 million)
• Maricopa County, AZ ($600 million)

Canada

According to a January 22, 2019 article in Geophysical Research Letters, the Fraser River Basin (FRB), a "snow-dominated watershed" in British Columbia, is exposed to landfalling ARs, originating over the tropical Pacific Ocean that bring "sustained, heavy precipitation" throughout the winter months. The authors predict that based on their modelling "extreme rainfall events resulting from atmospheric rivers may lead to peak annual floods of historic proportions, and of unprecedented frequency, by the late 21st century in the Fraser River Basin."

In November 2021, massive flooding in the Fraser River Basin near Vancouver was attributed to a series of atmospheric rivers.

Iran

While a large body of research has shown the impacts of the atmospheric rivers on weather-related natural disasters over the western U.S. and Europe, little is known about their mechanisms and contribution to flooding in the Middle East. However, a rare atmospheric river was found responsible for the record floods of March 2019 in Iran that damaged one-third of the country's infrastructures and killed 76 people.

That AR was named Dena, after the peak of the Zagros Mountains, which played a crucial role in precipitation formation. AR Dena started its long, 9000 km journey from the Atlantic Ocean and travelled across North Africa before its final landfall over the Zagros Mountains. Specific synoptic weather conditions, including tropical-extratropical interactions of the atmospheric jets, and anomalously warm sea-surface temperatures in all surrounding basins provided the necessary ingredients for formation of this AR. Water transport by AR Dena was equivalent to more than 150 times the aggregated flow of the four major rivers in the region (Tigris, Euphrates, Karun and Karkheh).

The intense rains made the 2018-2019 rainy season the wettest in the past half century, a sharp contrast with the prior year, which was the driest over the same period. Thus, this event is a compelling example of rapid dry-to-wet transitions and intensification of extremes, potentially resulting from the climate change.

Australia

In Australia, northwest cloud bands are sometimes associated with atmospheric rivers that originate in the Indian Ocean and cause heavy rainfall in northwestern, central, and southeastern parts of the country. They are more frequent when temperatures in the eastern Indian Ocean near Australia are warmer than those in the western Indian Ocean (i.e. a negative Indian Ocean Dipole). Atmospheric rivers also form in the waters to the east and south of Australia and are most common during the warmer months.

Europe

According to an article in Geophysical Research Letters by Lavers and Villarini, 8 of the 10 highest daily precipitation records in the period 1979–2011 have been associated with atmospheric rivers events in areas of Britain, France and Norway.

Satellites and sensors

According to a 2011 Eos magazine article by 1998, the spatiotemporal coverage of water vapor data over oceans had vastly improved through the use of "microwave remote sensing from polar-orbiting satellites", such as the special sensor microwave/imager (SSM/I). This led to greatly increased attention to the "prevalence and role" of atmospheric rivers. Prior to the use of these satellites and sensors, scientists were mainly dependent on weather balloons and other related technologies that did not adequately cover oceans. SSM/I and similar technologies provide "frequent global measurements of integrated water vapor over the Earth's oceans."