The Community Land Model (CLM) is the land component of the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and is used in several global and regional modeling systems. In this paper, we introduce model developments included in CLM version 5 (CLM5), which is the default land component for CESM2. We assess an ensemble of simulations, including prescribed and prognostic vegetation state, multiple forcing data sets, and CLM4, CLM4.5, and CLM5, against a range of metrics including from the International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMBv2) package. CLM5 includes new and updated processes and Key Points: • Updated Community Land Model has more hydrological and ecological process fidelity and more comprehensive representation of land management. • The model is systematically evaluated using International Land Model Benchmarking system and shows marked improvement over prior versions. parameterizations: (1) dynamic land units, (2) updated parameterizations and structure for hydrology and snow (spatially explicit soil depth, dry surface layer, revised groundwater scheme, revised canopy interception and canopy snow processes, updated fresh snow density, simple firn model, and Model for Scale Adaptive River Transport), (3) plant hydraulics and hydraulic redistribution, (4) revised nitrogen cycling (flexible leaf stoichiometry, leaf N optimization for photosynthesis, and carbon costs for plant nitrogen uptake), (5) global crop model with six crop types and time-evolving irrigated areas and fertilization rates, (6) updated urban building energy, (7) carbon isotopes, and (8) updated stomatal physiology. New optional features include demographically structured dynamic vegetation model (Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator), ozone damage to plants, and fire trace gas emissions coupling to the atmosphere. Conclusive establishment of improvement or degradation of individual variables or metrics is challenged by forcing uncertainty, parametric uncertainty, and model structural complexity, but the multivariate metrics presented here suggest a general broad improvement from CLM4 to CLM5. Plain Language Summary The Community Land Model (CLM) is the land component of the widely used Community Earth System Model (CESM). Here, we introduce model developments included in CLM version 5 (CLM5), the default land component for CESM2 which will be used for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). CLM5 includes many new and updated processes including (1) hydrology and snow features such as spatially explicit soil depth, canopy snow processes, a simple firn model, and a more mechanistic river model, (2) plant hydraulics and hydraulic redistribution, (3) revised nitrogen cycling with flexible leaf stoichiometry, leaf N optimization for photosynthesis, and carbon costs for plant nitrogen uptake, (4) expansion to six crop types (global) and time-evolving irrigated areas and fertilization rates, (5) improved urban building energy model, and (6) carbon isotopes. New optional features include a demographically structured dynamic vegetat...

Soil moisture predictability on seasonal to decadal (S2D) continuum timescales over North America is examined from the Community Earth System Modeling (CESM) experiments. The effects of ocean and land initializations are disentangled using two large ensemble datasets—initialized and uninitialized experiments from the CESM. We find that soil moisture has significant predictability on S2D timescales despite limited predictability in precipitation. On sub-seasonal to seasonal timescales, precipitation variability is an order of magnitude greater than soil moisture, suggesting land surface processes, including soil moisture memory, reemergence, land–atmosphere interactions, transform a less predictable precipitation signal into a more predictable soil moisture signal.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in reducing Infant Mortality in India. The study will help the government in deciding its future course of action regarding the infant mortality rate (IMR) reduction in India. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts the interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) approach with a control group to study the role of NRHM in reducing the IMR in India. The authors examined infant mortality in rural areas of India for the level and trend change before and after the implementation of NRHM. The authors then applied a suitable ARMA model to estimate the coefficients of the regression model. From the estimated results, the study predicts the counterfactuals for both the rural IMR and urban IMR and plots the results. Findings The study found the evidence supporting the hypotheses that the NRHM has led to a reduction in the difference between urban IMR and rural IMR. The research shows that the rural IMR declined at steeper rates in the post-NRHM period (2005–2015). Originality/value None of the existing studies analyses the impact of a social scheme like NRHM on the reduction of IMR in India by applying the ITSA. The study is unique as it estimates the counterfactuals and plots the results which show the impact of NRHM on reducing IMR.

Precursor gas flow rate variation (30–80 sccm) in the plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process of intrinsic a‐Si:H layer deposition using SiH4/H2 (equal ratio) plasma is explored and its effect on the i‐a‐Si:H/c‐Si interface passivation is investigated. A window of intermediate gas flow rates is determined for good quality surface passivation of n‐type c‐Si. Maximum effective minority carrier lifetime (τeff) above 1 ms, implied open‐circuit voltage (iVoc) ≈ 710 mV, and low interface defect density (Dit) ≈3.5 × 109 cm−2 eV−1 are obtained at an intermediate gas flow rate. The SiH4:H2 discharge emission characteristics, and the a‐Si:H film characteristics such as hydrogen concentration, film density, optical band gap, and refractive index, are also investigated. To examine the effect of the flow rate variation on the performance of the final device, front‐junction silicon heterojunction solar cells are fabricated on n‐type Si wafers, and ≈17% efficient cells are fabricated with an open‐circuit voltage (Voc) close to 690 mV at an optimized gas flow rate. This study provided information related to the transient plasma instability, SiH4 depletion, secondary reactions in the plasma, and flux of radicals toward the substrate for the film growth with a good level of surface passivation.

No abstract

The purpose of this study is to find the demographic factors associated with the spread of COVID-19 and to suggest a measure for identifying the effectiveness of government policies in controlling COVID-19. The study hypothesizes that the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 patients depends on the urban population, rural population, number of persons older than 50, population density, and poverty rate. A log-linear model is used to test the stated hypothesis, with the cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 patients up to period [Formula: see text] as a dependent variable and demographic factors as an independent variable. The policy effectiveness indicator is calculated by taking the difference of the COVID rank of the [Formula: see text]th state based on the predicted model and the actual COVID rank of the [Formula: see text]th state[Formula: see text]Our study finds that the urban population significantly impacts the spread of COVID-19. On the other hand, demographic factors such as rural population, density, and age structure do not impact the spread of COVID-19 significantly. Thus, people residing in urban areas face a significant threat of COVID-19 as compared to people in rural areas.

Developing countries are facing challenges in sustaining urban traffic congestion due to rapid urbanization. In order to manage urban traffic, a traffic engineer first need to assess the current operational condition on urban roads. ‘Level of Service (LOS)’ is used to define the operational traffic condition within a traffic stream in terms of service quality that a facility is providing to its user. This paper proposes a novel approach to estimate ‘Speed Ratio’ by considering individual Free-Flow Speed (FFS) of different vehicle categories. This study also provides a comparison between FFS estimated using the methods given in Highway Capacity Manual 2010 and Indian-Highway Capacity Manual 2018. LOS criteria was developed using five clustering technique; K-means, K-medoids, Clustering Large Applications, Fuzzy-C Means and Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering. Both internal and external cluster validation indices were used to find the optimal number of clusters and suitable clustering algorithms.

No abstract