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An attempt was made to estimate the value of group composition by computer-assisted analyses of variance, in three psychotherapy groups. The results showed that more homogeneous groups were quicker to improve in overall symptomatology than was the more heterogeneous group.

Although no GM crops currently are licensed for commercial production in the UK, as opposition to GM crops by consumers softens, this could change quickly. Although past studies have examined attitudes of UK farmers toward GM technologies in general, there has been little work on the impact of possible coexistence measures on their attitudes toward GM crop production. This could be because the UK Government has not engaged in any public dialogue on the coexistence measures that might be applied on farms. Based on a farm survey, this article examines farmers' attitudes toward GM technologies and planting intentions for three crops (maize, oilseed rape, and sugar beet) based on a GM availability scenario. The article then nuances this analysis with a review of farmer perceptions of the level of constraint associated with a suite of notional farm-level coexistence measures and issues, based on current European Commission guidelines and practice in other EU Member States.

Abstract. Two recently-available daily gridded datasets are used to investigate trends in Mediterranean temperature extremes since the mid-20th century. The underlying trends are found to be generally consistent with global trends of temperature and their extremes: cold extremes decrease and warm/hot extremes increase. This consistency is better manifested in the western part of the Mediterranean where changes are most pronounced since the mid-1970s. In the eastern part, a cooling is observed, with a near reversal in the last two decades. This inter-basin discrepancy is clearer in winter, while in summer changes are more uniform and the west-east difference is restricted to the rate of increase of warm/hot extremes, which is higher in central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean over recent decades. Linear regression and correlation analysis reveals some influence of major large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns on the occurrence of these extremes – both in terms of trend and interannual variability. These relationships are not, however, able to account for the most striking features of the observations – in particular the intensification of the increasing trend in warm/hot extremes, which is most evident over the last 15–20 yr in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean.

This paper describes a heat pump investigation for GreenSCIES (GS), a fifth Generation district heating and cooling (5DHC) network in Islington, London. The paper describes the GreenSCIES concept integrating Mobility, Power and Heat into a Smart Local Energy System (SLES). At the heart of the system is an ultra-low temperature ambient loop network, which permits bi-directional flow within the pipes to allow energy exchange between heating and cooling customers at different times and in different locations, depending on where demand is at any given time. An existing data centre provides the primary source of waste heat for the scheme. Heat pumps in distributed energy centres are utilised to amplify the temperature of the ambient loop to deliver heat in connected buildings. The energy centres integrate heat pumps with building-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and electric vehicle (EV) charging points. The paper provides an overview of the integrated SLES concept, focussing on the heat pump selection and the short and long-term thermal storage options designed for the scheme. The results show that even the smaller constructible 'New River' scheme will save 5,000 tons of CO2e annually. This will tend to 100% as the grid decarbonise further. Therefore, the GS SLES concept applied to urban areas could deliver significant carbon emission savings in the UK and elsewhere. Practical application: Project GreenSCIES, is a detailed design study to develop a Smart, Local Energy System (SLES) for a large community in the London Borough of Islington. Our consortium have developed an innovative SLES concept, centred around a fifth generation district heating and cooling network. The GS ambient loop systems have negligible losses and much greater efficiencies than traditional district heat networks. As recognised by the UK Government's Heat and Buildings Strategy, ambient loop systems should be considered where large-scale neighbourhood regeneration occurs. The proposed SLES concept applied to wider urban areas could deliver significant carbon emission savings in the UK.

We compare versions of six interpolation methods for the interpolation of daily precipitation, mean, minimum and maximum temperature, and sea level pressure from station data over Europe from 1961 to 1990. The interpolation methods evaluated are global and local kriging, two versions of angular distance weighting, natural neighbor interpolation, regression, 2D and 3D thin plate splines, and conditional interpolation. We first evaluated, using station cross-validation and several skill scores, relative skill of each method at estimating point values, looking at spatial and temporal patterns and the frequency distribution of the variables. We then compared, for precipitation, gridded area averages from the candidate interpolation methods against existing high-resolution gridded data sets for the UK and the Alps, which are derived from a much denser network of stations. In both point and area-average cases, differences in skill between interpolation methods at any one point are smaller than the range in skill for a single method either across the domain, or in different seasons. The main control on spatial patterns of interpolation skill is density of the station network, with topographic complexity a compounding factor. The relative skill of different methods remains relatively constant through time, despite a varying station network. Skill in interpolating extreme events is lower than for average days, but relative skill of different methods remains the same. We select global kriging as the best perfoming method overall, for use in the development of a daily, high-resolution, long-term, European data set of climate variables as part of the EU funded ENSEMBLES project.

Community severance (or the "barrier effect") arises when transport infrastructure (e.g. railways and motorways) or roads bearing high volume or speed of motorized traffic cut through communities, disrupting access to goods, services, and people. The impact is especially severe on older people, who are more vulnerable to losses in walking mobility, and spend more time in their home area. Despite the growing awareness of its potential impact on the health and social wellbeing of local communities, severance is not usually assessed quantitatively or assigned a monetary value in transport scheme appraisal, which tends to rely on subjective qualitative scales. There is a growing need for objective indicators that can be used in a consistent way for understanding the nature, incidence and intensity of the problem. This paper reviews critically the existing methods for quantifying severance , exploring the reasons for the slow integration of these methods into actual transport plans. A conceptual framework is proposed for decomposing the severance problem into a series of questions: a) what are the barriers restricting mobility? b) how do people move? c) where do they go? and d) who is affected? These questions are then used as a base to review the existing literature. The objective was to consolidate the knowledge that has been produced since the 1970s in several countries and which is scattered in governmental guidance documents, technical reports, and academic studies which in many cases have had limited dissemination and applications. The review revealed a tendency for the simplification over time of the methods in official guidance documents for transport appraisal. However, the concept of severance used by researchers has become wider. Several methodological issues are also unresolved. Indicators are sensitive to inputs such as the set of pedestrian destinations, the traffic volumes and speed thresholds that define severance, the walking distances and speeds, and the measurement of pedestrian routes. Severance also depends on the spatial context (urban, suburban or rural), the distance to the barriers and on how long the barrier has been present in a community. The valuation of severance using methods based on people's stated or revealed preferences poses additional challenges, as it is also difficult to disentangle the value of severance from those of other nuisances of transport such as noise and collision risk. Despite the challenges, there is great potential for the integration of quantitative measures of severance in appraisal methods such as cost-benefit analysis, multi-criteria analysis and environment and community impact assessments. However, this potential can only be realized if the development of tools by researchers adopts a multidisciplinary approach and involves the stakeholders on the problem.