Maternal educational level and preterm birth: Exploring inequalities in a hospital-based cohort study.

Preterm birth has been related to inequalities in maternal educational level, but the causal mechanism is not entirely known. Some factors associated with preterm birth and low educational level such as chronic medical conditions, pregnancy complications and related-health behaviours could have a mediation role in the pathway. This study aimed to evaluate the association between maternal educational level and preterm birth, analysing the mediation role of these factors.

Equivalent latitude computation using regions of interest (ROI).

This paper introduces a novel algorithm to compute equivalent latitude by applying regions of interest (ROI). The technique is illustrated using code written in Interactive Data Language (IDL). The ROI method is compared with the "piecewise-constant" method, the approach commonly used in atmospheric sciences, using global fields of atmospheric potential vorticity.

The deep atmospheric boundary layer and its significance to the stratosphere and troposphere exchange over the Tibetan Plateau.

In this study the depth of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) over the Tibetan Plateau was measured during a regional radiosonde observation campaign in 2008 and found to be deeper than indicated by previously measurements. Results indicate that during fair weather conditions on winter days, the top of the mixed layers can be up to 5 km above the ground (9.4 km above sea level).

Recovery of meteorological data for the observatory of A Guarda, Spain.

We herein describe the recovery of a series of data on temperature, humidity, precipitation, evaporation, wind, and local weather conditions from documentary sources obtained from the Jesuit observatory of A Guarda (Galicia, Spain) for the period 1881-1896. The data were digitized and made available in accessible electronic formats. Comparisons were made with present-day meteorological data obtained from two nearby stations.

On the origin of the air between multiple tropopauses at midlatitudes.

Multiple tropopauses are structures that regularly recur in the midlatitudes. Recent studies have relied on the notion of the excursion of tropical air from the upper troposphere into higher latitudes, thereby overlaying the tropopause of the midlatitudes. We herein analyse the origin and characteristics of the air at the Boulder radiosonde station, between the first and second tropopauses combining an analysis of radiosonde data with a Lagrangian approach based on the FlexPart model and ERA-40 analysis data.

A climatology based on reanalysis of baroclinic developmental regions in the extratropical northern hemisphere.

Regions of the occurrence of different phenomena related to the development of baroclinic disturbances are reviewed for the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, using National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis data. The occurrence of height lows appears to be related to the orography near the earth's surface and with surface- and upper-air cyclogenesis in the upper troposphere. Over the cyclone tracks, the surface maxima appear to be trapped by land masses, whereas over the Mediterranean Sea they are located on the lee side of mountain ranges.

Changes in tropopause height for the Eurasian region determined from CARDS radiosonde data.

Previous studies have identified the tropopause height (TH) as a promising fingerprint of climatic change. In the present paper, we report variations in TH for the Eurasian region over the period 1973-1998 and analyse the influence of the Northern Annular Mode (NAM) on these variations. As previous studies indicate that the greatest increases in TH occur in the extratropics, we focused our attention on this area.