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Tipping Point (tipping + point)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Medical Sciences50%

Selected Abstracts

Introduction to the Geriatrics-for-Specialists Initiative: Geriatrics Specialty Care at the Tipping Point

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 1 2010
David H. Solomon MD
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

At the Tipping Point: Accomplishing Population-Wide Sodium Reduction in the United States

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL HYPERTENSION, Issue 1 2008
Lawrence J. Appel MD
First page of article [source]

Tipping point for Afghanistan?

PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009
Stephen Carter
The compromised elections in Afghanistan created a crisis that threatened to derail the international effort, particularly through their stark impact on Western public opinion. They have also produced a shift in policy that Stephen Carter argues could just prove a tipping point of another kind , but only if it can be followed through [source]

Evidence, early intervention and the tipping point

EARLY INTERVENTION IN PSYCHIATRY, Issue 1 2010
Patrick McGorry
No abstract is available for this article. [source]

Adverse trends in male reproductive health: we may have reached a crucial ,tipping point'

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ANDROLOGY, Issue 2 2008
A.-M. Andersson
Summary Healthy men produce an enormous number of sperms, far more than necessary for conception. However, several studies suggest that semen samples where the concentration of sperms is below 40 mill/mL may be associated with longer time to pregnancy or even subfertility, and specimens where the concentration of sperms is below 15 mill/mL may carry a high risk of infertility. Historic data from the 1940s show that the bulk of young men at that time had sperm counts far above 40 mill/mL with averages higher than 100 mill/mL. However, recent surveillance studies of young men from the general populations of young men in Northern Europe show that semen quality is much poorer. In Denmark approximately 40 percent of the men have now sperm counts below 40 mill/mL. A simulation assuming that average sperm count had declined from 100 mill/mL in ,old times' to a current level close to 40 mill/mL indicated that the first decline in average sperm number of 20,40 mill/mL might not have had much effect on pregnancy rates, as the majority of men would still have had counts far above the threshold value. However, due to the assumed decline in semen quality, the sperm counts of the majority of 20 year old European men are now so low that we may be close to the crucial tipping point of 40 mill/mL spermatozoa. Consequently, we must face the possibility of more infertile couples and lower fertility rates in the future. [source]

Tipping point for Afghanistan?

PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH, Issue 3 2009
Stephen Carter
The compromised elections in Afghanistan created a crisis that threatened to derail the international effort, particularly through their stark impact on Western public opinion. They have also produced a shift in policy that Stephen Carter argues could just prove a tipping point of another kind , but only if it can be followed through [source]

Doctrine and fairness in the law of contract*

LEGAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2009
Andrew Phang
This paper explores, through illustrations from the law of contract, the important central theme to the effect that the rules and principles, which constitute the doctrine of the law, are not ends in themselves but are, rather, the means through which the courts arrive at substantively fair outcomes in the cases before them. The paper focuses on the concept of ,radicalism', which relates to the point at which the courts decide that it is legally permissible to hold that a contract should come to an end because a radical or fundamental ,legal tipping point' has not only been arrived at but has, in fact, been crossed. It explores the role of this concept as embodied in the doctrines of frustration, common mistake, discharge by breach, as well as fundamental breach in the context of exception clauses , in particular, how ,radicalism' with regard to these doctrines can be viewed from the (integrated) perspectives of structure, linkage and fairness. The paper also touches briefly on linkages amongst the doctrines of economic duress, undue influence and unconscionability, as well as the ultimate aim these doctrines share of achieving fair outcomes in the cases concerned. [source]

Thermodynamic analysis of snowball Earth hysteresis experiment: Efficiency, entropy production and irreversibility

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 646 2010
Valerio Lucarini
Abstract We present an extensive thermodynamic analysis of a hysteresis experiment performed on a simplified yet Earth-like climate model. We slowly vary the solar constant by 20% around the present value and detect that for a large range of values of the solar constant the realization of snowball or of regular climate conditions depends on the history of the system. Using recent results on the global climate thermodynamics, we show that the two regimes feature radically different properties. The efficiency of the climate machine monotonically increases with decreasing solar constant in present climate conditions, whereas the opposite takes place in snowball conditions. Instead, entropy production is monotonically increasing with the solar constant in both branches of climate conditions, and its value is about four times larger in the warm branch than in the corresponding cold state. Finally, the degree of irreversibility of the system, measured as the fraction of excess entropy production due to irreversible heat transport processes, is much higher in the warm climate conditions, with an explosive growth in the upper range of the considered values of solar constants. Whereas in the cold climate regime a dominating role is played by changes in the meridional albedo contrast, in the warm climate regime changes in the intensity of latent heat fluxes are crucial for determining the observed properties. This substantiates the importance of addressing correctly the variations of the hydrological cycle in a changing climate. An interpretation of the climate transitions at the tipping points based upon macro-scale thermodynamic properties is also proposed. Our results support the adoption of a new generation of diagnostic tools based on the second law of thermodynamics for auditing climate models and outline a set of parametrizations to be used in conceptual and intermediate-complexity models or for the reconstruction of the past climate conditions. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society [source]