bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Carrots and Sticks: Impact of an Incentive/disincentive Employee Flexible Credit Benefit Plan on Health Status and Medical Costs
Authors: Stein Aryeh D. , Karel Tom , Zuidema Roy
Published: December 2011

Purpose.

Employee wellness programs aim to assist in controlling employer costs by improving the health status and fitness of employees, potentially increasing productivity, decreasing absenteeism, and reducing medical claims. Most such programs offer no disincentive for nonparticipation. We evaluated an incentive/disincentive program initiated by a large teaching hospital in western Michigan.

Methods.

The HealthPlus Health Quotient program is an incentive/disincentive approach to health promotion. The employer's contribution to the cafeteria plan benefit package is adjusted based on results of an annual appraisal of serum cholesterol, blood pressure, tobacco use, body fat, physical fitness, motor vehicle safety, nutrition, and alcohol consumption. The adjustment (health quotient [HQ]) can range from –$25 to +$25 per pay period. We examined whether appraised health improved between 1993 and 1996 and whether the HQ predicted medical claims.

Results.

Mean HQ increased slightly (+$0.47 per pay period in 1993 to +$0.89 per pay period in 1996). Individuals with HQs of less than –$10 per pay period incurred approximately twice the medical claims of the other groups (test for linear trend, p = .003). After adjustment, medical claims of employees in the worst category (HQ < –$10 per pay period) were $1078 (95% confidence interval $429-$1728) greater than those for the neutral (HQ between –$2 and +$2 per pay period) category. A decrease in HQ of at least $6 per pay period from 1993 to 1995 was associated with $956 (95% confidence interval $264-$1647) greater costs in 1996 than was a stable HQ.

Conclusions.

The HealthPlus Health Quotient program is starting to yield benefits. Most employees are impacted minimally, but savings are accruing to the employer from reductions in medical claims paid and in days lost to illness and disability.
Self-Efficacy and Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables: Validation of a Summated Scale
Authors: Ling Annie Mei Chuan , Horwath Caroline
Published: December 2011

Purpose.

To develop and validate a scale to assess self-efficacy for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, and to assess the ability of the scale to discriminate individuals at different stages of readiness to change.

Methods.

Data were collected using a combination of self-administered mail questionnaires and phone interviews from a sample of 1200 Chinese Singaporeans randomly selected from residential phone listings. Principal-components analysis was conducted with half the sample, and model fit was measured using structural modeling procedures on the other half. Analyses of variance were used to determine whether self-efficacy differed across the stages of change.

Setting.

Data were collected as part of a larger study investigating factors influencing consumption of fruit, vegetables, and cereal foods.

Measures.

Fruit and vegetable intake was measured using a validated seven-item food frequency questionnaire. Subjects were assigned to stages using a phone-administered staging algorithm. Self-efficacy items were scored on a five-point Likert scale from very confident to not at all confident.

Results.

Principal-components analysis revealed a two-factor structure that was highly stable across two split-half samples and gender, and accounted for 57% of the variance in self-efficacy. The two factors demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.77 and 0.89), with loadings ranging from 0.59 to 0.86 (mean= 0.70). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated good model fit (goodness-of-fit index = 0.99), with all parameters significant. Scores on the scale were significantly higher among subjects assigned to maintenance than among those assigned to precontemplation, contemplation, and preparation.

Conclusions.

Results of this study provide preliminary evidence for the utility of the scale to guide development and monitoring of community programs and therapeutic interventions.
From Function to Competence: Engaging with the New Politics of Family
Authors: Gillies Val
Published: December 2011

This paper argues for a critical reclaiming of family and highlights the risks associated with decentring such a powerful and pervasive concept. Influential critiques of family as an organising category are considered in the context of a contemporary trend towards reorienting it within broader studies foregrounding personal and intimate realms of human connectedness. It is suggested that while concepts of personal lives and intimacy have much to offer they can not capture the full range and nature of relations raised through the lens of family. In particular the political consequences of subsuming family within wider approaches are set out through reference to a new public politics of family in which emphasis is placed less on structure and function, and more on knowledge and competence. Through an exploration of the key changes characterising this shift a case is made for retaining family (alongside intimacy and personal life) as a flexible, enduring and necessary sociological framework.
Placing Research: ‘City Publics’ and the ‘Public Sociologist’
Authors: Taylor Yvette , Addison Michelle
Published: December 2011

This article raises questions about who becomes the proper subject for (non)academic attention in a time when ‘city publics’ might be positioned as democratising and open or, conversely, as curtailed and shaped through specific and pre-determined economies of value and use. The use of the city and its residents are echoed in regeneration politics and objectives, attached to and brought forward by specific ‘regenerative' subjects, now deemed ‘resilient' and capacitated. Such rhetorics of inclusion and measurable impact are echoed within ideas of a ‘public sociology’, which the engaged researcher should practice as she re-engages differently located spaces and subjects. Here, questions are raised about the place of a ‘public sociology' as part of a ‘city publics’, where understanding local disseminations and disparities is important in considering where different users, interviewees and indeed researchers are coming from. Having situated the fieldwork site, we initially focus on the expert advisory group and their constructions of the project's ‘use-value’. We then consider the background ‘shadows' in and out of ‘expert' space, as a trailing presence of research intentions and trajectories. Ideas of public sociology – as with an open ‘city publics' - often assumes that all users are interested, willing to hear and appear as equal members of a ‘community’. In contrast, the experience of engaging a user group may involve dis-engaging the research-researcher-researched and here we provide disruptions to a straightforward ‘travelling through' research space as we walk through our research methodologies. This article presents professional and personal reflections on research experience as well as interpretative accounts of navigating fieldwork and city space.
Family Lives and Relational Living: Taking Account of Otherness
Authors: Gabb Jacqui
Published: December 2011

Contemporary research has shown that families are constituted through everyday practices of intimacy with affinities being fashioned around the structuring principles of openness and reciprocity alongside or superseding traditional ties of obligation and responsibility. Paradoxically in many instances powerful differences and inequalities among intimates remain intransigent, undermining claims on the democratisation of intimacy. In this article I want to examine how people make sense of difference and significant otherness in family lives, focusing attention on embedded practices that span across interpersonal, human-object, natural-cultural boundaries. I focus on three examples; these are relations between humans and animals, parents and children, people and objects. These relations are structured through species, gendered, generational and subject-object differences, but these categorical distinctions do not set apart the self and other. Instead they demonstrate how otherness is part of everyday relational living. Thus, to put personal relationships and families in context, I contend that we need to reframe the analytical lens around an ethics of otherness.
‘They Eat Potatoes, I Eat Rice’: Symbolic Boundary Making and Space in Neighbour Relations
Authors: Van Eijk Gwen
Published: December 2011

This article examines ‘neighbouring’ as the setting in which cross-category relations develop and symbolic boundaries are constructed. The study is based on thirty in-depth interviews with residents living in a multi-ethnic and a mono-ethnic neighbourhood in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The findings challenge the hoped-for outcomes of social mixing in neighbourhoods, as well as the view that boundary making is something inherent to multi-ethnic neighbourhoods only. Neighbour relations are often setting-specific (relations are interchangeable, scripted and bounded, and passively maintained), which is relevant for understanding the spatiality of neighbouring and the limited exchange of personal information between neighbours. Because neighbouring involves the balancing of personal privacy and close spatial proximity, the exchange of personal information is limited, while spatial proximity ensures easy access to observable (through seeing, hearing and smelling) categorical markers that signify class, ethnicity, lifestyle, etc. In this way, neighbour interaction reconstructs symbolic boundaries rather than breaking them down.
Governing Low Profile Issues: A Frame Analysis of Drug Addiction in a Local Setting
Authors: Svraka Dragana , Ossewaarde Ringo
Published: December 2011

Frame analysis was developed by Erving Goffman as a sociological concept, used for understanding how individual actors relate themselves to the world, creating coherent frames out of individual social experiences. We apply frame analysis in the emergent field of sociology of governance, using the example of low profile public issue of drug addiction in a specific local social and political context of a municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to understand the roles of governance actors and their social interactions in the attribution of meaning. We focus on mental organization of governance experiences related to drug addiction and the strategic involvement of different governance actors which use given frames. We discuss the importance of frame coherence and ways in which it can be achieved for the low profile issues.
A Comparative Analysis of Inequality in Health across Europe
Authors: Bella Sara Della , Sarti Simone , Lucchini Mario , Bordogna Mara Tognetti
Published: December 2011

The study of inequality in health concerns the relationship between socially structured characteristics and health outcomes. Howewer, health disparities are also linked to purely individual characteristics and contextual ones. In particular, the contextual effect at a national level may reflect differences in the functioning and performing of national health institutions, that may be conceived as further determinants of health inequalities. In this work we aim at estimating the effect of education on self-assessed health across European countries, taking into account potential confounders like age, gender and family social background. Using a multilevel model with individuals nested in countries, we can achieve two aims. First, we can see whether countries differ in their average self-assessed health score. Second, we can test our hypothesis about the existence of a European social gradient, that is that education exerts a relatively constant effect on self-assessed health. We develop our models using data from European Social Surveys (88,842 interviews).
King Mob: Perceptions, Prescriptions and Presumptions about the Policing of England's Riots
Authors: Gorringe Hugo , Rosie Michael
Published: December 2011

As journalists and academics, politicians and other commentators struggled to make sense of the social unrest across England, they reached for theoretical understandings of the crowd that have long since been discredited. The powerful imagery of the madding crowd has always been a popular trope with journalists, but what concerned us was the way in which even sociological commentators echoed such ideas. This paper, therefore, draws on our past research, informal interviews with senior police officers and media accounts to offer an analysis of the riots, how they were policed, and contemporary understandings of crowd behaviour. In so doing we question whether current understandings of collective behaviour, deriving from socio-political expressions of anger or protest, are equipped to make sense of the English riots. Similarly, we ask whether police public order tactics need to change. We conclude that the residual attachment to myths of the madding crowd continues to hamper the search for flexible, graded and legitimate means of managing social unrest.
Lost in Transnationalism: Unraveling the Conceptualisation of Families and Personal Life through a Transnational Gaze
Authors: Heath Sue , McGhee Derek , Trevena Paulina
Published: December 2011

This paper compares and contrasts some of the conceptual language used to engage with the realm of family and personal life within the parallel fields of transnational family studies (TFS) and British family studies (BFS). Key concepts which are now widely referenced within BFS - such as ‘family practices’, ‘family display’, ‘families of choice’ and ‘connectedness' - have not been widely drawn upon within TFS. Instead, TFS scholars are developing alternative concepts such as ‘ways of being' versus ‘ways of belonging' and ‘frontiering and relativising’, often to capture very similar ideas to those current within BFS. This paper critically explores some of the concepts currently being used within transnational family studies, highlighting points of similarity and difference with the BFS tradition, and considers what these parallel literatures might learn from each other. The paper is illustrated by examples drawn from ESRC-funded research on the experiences of post-accession Polish migrants living in the UK.
Locating ‘Family Practices’
Authors: Morgan David H. G.
Published: December 2011

The idea of ‘family practices’ is now quite widely used in British family sociology. The aim of this article is to locate this reformulation by looking, firstly, at the term's place within more general discussions of practices and, secondly, to explore the implications of a more specific focus on family practices. Through a comparison with some other possible and overlapping approaches, I consider the extent and ways in which the family practices approach successfully goes ‘beyond' more established understandings of family.
Personal Life, Pragmatism and Bricolage
Authors: Duncan Simon
Published: December 2011

Individualisation theory misrepresents and romanticises the nature of agency as a primarily discursive and reflexive process where people freely create their personal lives in an open social world divorced from tradition. But empirically we find that people usually make decisions about their personal lives pragmatically, bounded by circumstances and in connection with other people, not only relationally but also institutionally. This pragmatism is often non-reflexive, habitual and routinised, even unconscious. Agents draw on existing traditions - styles of thinking, sanctioned social relationships, institutions, the presumptions of particular social groups and places, lived law and social norms - to ‘patch’ or ‘piece together' responses to changing situations. Often it is institutions that ‘do the thinking’. People try to both conserve social energy and seek social legitimation in this adaption process, a process which can lead to a ‘re-serving' of tradition even as institutional leakage transfers meanings from past to present, and vice versa. But this process of bricolage will always be socially contested and socially uneven. In this way bricolage describes how people actually link structure and agency through their actions, and can provide a framework for empirical research on doing family.
Social Protest in 2011: Material and Cultural Aspects of Economic Inequalities
Authors: Grover Chris
Published: December 2011

The wave of social protest that swept across England in August 2011 has predominantly been explained by political elites through appeals to various approaches that have in common individualistic frameworks of reference. Issues related to the material condition of society are either little analysed or, among the political elite, ruled out as an explanation of the protests. However, it is clear from both the historical literature on social protest and the contemporary literature on relationships between crime and inequality that explanations ignoring inequalities, particularly economic inequalities, are problematic.
Consumer Culture and the 2011 ‘Riots’
Authors: Moxon David
Published: December 2011

This paper argues that in order to be properly comprehended, the ‘riots’ of August 2011 must be located in the context of an increasingly consumerist society. The suggestion is that the riots represented conformity to the underlying values of a consumerist society, if, momentarily, not its norms. To make this case, the riots are divided into three constituent ‘moments’; the initial, the acquisitive and the nihilistic. Themes and ideas from the literature on consumer culture and crime are applied to the latter two.
Veblen in the (Inner) City: On the Normality of Looting
Authors: Varul Matthias Zick
Published: December 2011

Drawing on Veblen's concept of ‘pecuniary prowess’ I will argue that the August riots can be understood not so much in terms of protest but as an appropriation of the underlying acquisitive logic of capitalism. The violent realisation of that logic across class divides has become more likely due to an erosion in plausibility of discourses of meritocratic legitimacy. Recent denigrating discourses around “chavs” as dangerous and undeserving poor can be understood as attempts to reinstate meritocratic legitimacy rhetorically, but in an increasingly unequal society this becomes an ever more difficult enterprise. On the other hand, the assertion of the order of property through an effective police response may have eased the pressure by providing evidence that anxieties about a full scale insurgence are unfounded.
Aerosol mass spectrometer constraint on the global secondary organic aerosol budget
Authors: Spracklen D. V. , Jimenez J. L. , Carslaw K. S. , Worsnop D. R. , Evans M. J. , Mann G. W. , Zhang Q. , Canagaratna M. R. , Allan J. , Coe H. , McFiggans G. , Rap A. , Forster P.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. The budget of atmospheric secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is very uncertain, with recent estimates suggesting a global source of between 12 and 1820 Tg (SOA) a−1. We used a dataset of aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) observations from 34 different surface locations to evaluate the GLOMAP global chemical transport model. The standard model simulation (which included SOA from monoterpenes only) underpredicted organic aerosol (OA) observed by the AMS and had little skill reproducing the variability in the dataset. We simulated SOA formation from biogenic (monoterpenes and isoprene), lumped anthropogenic and lumped biomass burning volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and varied the SOA yield from each precursor source to produce the best overall match between model and observations. We assumed that SOA is essentially non-volatile and condenses irreversibly onto existing aerosol. Our best estimate of the SOA source is 140 Tg (SOA) a−1 but with a large uncertainty range which we estimate to be 50–380 Tg (SOA) a−1. We found the minimum in normalised mean error (NME) between model and the AMS dataset when we assumed a large SOA source (100 Tg (SOA) a−1) from sources that spatially matched anthropogenic pollution (which we term antropogenically controlled SOA). We used organic carbon observations compiled by Bahadur et al. (2009) to evaluate our estimated SOA sources. We found that the model with a large anthropogenic SOA source was the most consistent with these observations, however improvement over the model with a large biogenic SOA source (250 Tg (SOA) a−1) was small. We used a dataset of 14C observations from rural locations to evaluate our estimated SOA sources. We estimated a maximum of 10 Tg (SOA) a−1 (10 %) of the anthropogenically controlled SOA source could be from fossil (urban/industrial) sources. We suggest that an additional anthropogenic source is most likely due to an anthropogenic pollution enhancement of SOA formation from biogenic VOCs. Such an anthropogenically controlled SOA source would result in substantial climate forcing. We estimated a global mean aerosol direct effect of −0.26 ± 0.15 Wm−2 and indirect (cloud albedo) effect of −0.6+0.24−0.14 Wm−2 from anthropogenically controlled SOA. The biogenic and biomass SOA sources are not well constrained with this analysis due to the limited number of OA observations in regions and periods strongly impacted by these sources. To further improve the constraints by this method, additional OA observations are needed in the tropics and the Southern Hemisphere.
Observation of a mesospheric front in a thermal-doppler duct over King George Island, Antarctica
Authors: Bageston J. V. , Wrasse C. M. , Batista P. P. , Hibbins R. E. , C Fritts D. , Gobbi D. , Andrioli V. F.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. A mesospheric front was observed with an all-sky airglow imager on the night of 9–10 July 2007 at Ferraz Station (62° S, 58° W), located on King George island on the Antarctic Peninsula. The observed wave propagated from southwest to northeast with a well defined wave front and a series of crests behind the main front. The wave parameters were obtained via a 2-D Fourier transform of the imager data providing a horizontal wavelength of 33 km, an observed period of 6 min, and a horizontal phase speed of 92 m s−1. Simultaneous mesospheric winds were measured with a medium frequency (MF) radar at Rothera Station (68° S, 68° W) and temperature profiles were obtained from the SABER instrument on the TIMED satellite. These wind and temperature profiles were used to estimate the propagation environment of the wave event. A wavelet technique was applied to the wind in the plane of wave propagation at the OH emission height spanning three days centered on the front event to define the dominant periodicities. Results revealed a dominance of near-inertial periods, and semi-diurnal and terdiurnal tides suggesting that the ducting structure enabling mesospheric front propagation occurred on large spatial scales. The observed tidal motions were used to reconstruct the winds employing a least-squares method, which were then compared to the observed ducting environment. Results suggest an important contribution of large-scale winds to the ducting structure, but with buoyancy frequency variations in the vertical also expected to be important. These results allow us to conclude that the wave front event was supported by a duct including contributions from both winds and temperature.
ACE-FTS measurements of trace species in the characterization of biomass burning plumes
Authors: Tereszchuk K. A. , González Abad G. , Clerbaux C. , Hurtmans D. , Coheur P.-F. , Bernath P. F.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. To further our understanding of the effects of biomass burning emissions on atmospheric composition, we report measurements of trace species in biomass burning plumes made by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) instrument on the SCISAT-1 satellite. An extensive set of 15 molecules, C2H2, C2H6, CH3OH, CH4, CO, H2CO, HCN, HCOOH, HNO3, NO, NO2, N2O5, O3, OCS and SF6 are used in our analysis. Even though most biomass burning smoke is typically confined to the boundary layer, some of these emissions are injected directly into the free troposphere via fire-related convective processes and transported away from the emission source. Further knowledge of the aging of biomass burning emissions in the free troposphere is needed. Tracer-tracer correlations are made between known pyrogenic species in these plumes in an effort to characterize them and follow their chemical evolution. Criteria such as age and type of biomass material burned are considered.
Importance of relative humidity in the oxidative ageing of organic aerosols: case study of the ozonolysis of maleic acid aerosol
Authors: Gallimore P. J. , Achakulwisut P. , Pope F. D. , Davies J. F. , Spring D. R. , Kalberer M.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. Many important atmospheric aerosol processes depend on the chemical composition of the aerosol, e.g. water uptake and particle cloud interactions. Atmospheric ageing processes, such as oxidation reactions, significantly and continuously change the chemical composition of aerosol particles throughout their lifetime. These ageing processes are often poorly understood. In this study we utilize an aerosol flow tube set up and an ultra-high resolution mass spectrometer to explore the effect of relative humidity (RH) in the range of <5–90% on the ozonolysis of maleic acid aerosol which is employed as model organic aerosol system. Due to the slow reaction kinetics relatively high ozone concentrations of 160–200 ppm were used to achieve an appreciable degree of oxidation of maleic acid. The effect of oxidative ageing on the hygroscopicity of maleic acid particles is also investigated using an electrodynamic balance and thermodynamic modelling. RH has a profound effect on the oxidation of maleic acid particles. Very little oxidation is observed at RH < 50% and the only observed reaction products are glyoxylic acid and formic acid. In comparison, when RH > 50% there are about 15 oxidation products identified. This increased oxidation was observed even when the particles were exposed to high humidities long after a low RH ozonolysis reaction. This result might have negative implications for the use of water as an extraction solvent for the analysis of oxidized organic aerosols. These humidity-dependent differences in the composition of the ozonolyzed aerosol demonstrate that water is both a key reactant in the oxidation scheme and a determinant of particle phase and hence diffusivity. The measured chemical composition of the processed aerosol is used to model the hygroscopic growth, which compares favourably with water uptake results from the electrodynamic balance measurements. A reaction mechanism is presented which takes into account the RH dependent observations. This study emphasises the importance of studying the combined effects of several atmospheric parameters such as oxidants and RH to accurately describe the complex oxidation scheme of organic aerosols.
Stratospheric ozone chemistry in the Antarctic: what determines the lowest ozone values reached and their recovery?
Authors: Grooß J.-U. , Brautzsch K. , Pommrich R. , Solomon S. , Müller R.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. Balloon-borne observations of ozone from the South Pole Station have been reported to reach ozone mixing ratios below the detection limit of about 10 ppbv at the 70 hPa level by late September. After reaching a minimum, ozone mixing ratios increase to above 1 ppmv on the 70 hPa level by late December. While the basic mechanisms causing the ozone hole have been known for more than 20 yr, the detailed chemical processes determining how low the local concentration can fall, and how it recovers from the minimum have not been explored so far. Both of these aspects are investigated here by analysing results from the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS). As ozone falls below about 0.5 ppmv, a balance is maintained by gas phase production of both HCl and HOCl followed by heterogeneous reaction between these two compounds in these simulations. Thereafter, a very rapid, irreversible chlorine deactivation into HCl can occur, either when ozone drops to values low enough for gas phase HCl production to exceed chlorine activation processes or when temperatures increase above the polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) threshold. As a consequence, the timing and mixing ratio of the minimum ozone depends sensitively on model parameters, including the ozone initialisation. The subsequent ozone increase between October and December is linked mainly to photochemical ozone production, caused by oxygen photolysis and by the oxidation of carbon monoxide and methane.
Measurements of ozone and its precursors in Beijing during summertime: impact of urban plumes on ozone pollution in downwind rural areas
Authors: Xu J. , Ma J. Z. , Zhang X. L. , Xu X. B. , Xu X. F. , Lin W. L. , Wang Y. , Meng W. , Ma Z. Q.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. Sea-land and mount-valley circulations are the dominant mesoscale synoptic systems affecting the Beijing area during summertime. Under the influence of these two circulations, the prevailing wind is southwesterly from afternoon to midnight, and then changes to northeasterly till forenoon. In this study, surface ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) were measured at four sites located along the route of prevailing wind, including two upwind urban sites (Fengtai "FT" and Baolian "BL"), an upwind suburban site (Shunyi "SY") and a downwind rural site (Shangdianzi "SDZ") during 20 June–16 September 2007. The purpose is to improve our understanding of ozone photochemistry in urban and rural areas of Beijing and the influence of urban plumes on ozone pollution in downwind rural areas. It is found that ozone pollution was synchronism in the urban and rural areas of Beijing, coinciding with the regional-scale synoptic processes. Due to the high traffic density and local emissions, the average levels of reactive gases NOx and NMHCs at the non-rural sites were much higher than those at SDZ. The level of long-lived gas CO at SDZ was comparable to, though slightly lower than, at the urban sites. We estimate the photochemical reactivity (LOH and the ozone formation potential (OFP) in the urban (BL) and rural (SDZ) areas using measured CO and NMHCs. The OH loss rate coefficient (LOH by total NMHCs at the BL and SDZ sites are estimated to be 50.7 s-1 and 15.8 s-1, respectively. While alkenes make a major contribution to the LOH, aromatics dominate OFP at both urban and rural sites. With respect to the individual species, CO has the largest ozone formation potential at the rural site, and at the urban site aromatic species are the leading contributors. While the O3 diurnal variations at the four sites are typical for polluted areas, the ozone peak values are found to lag behind one site after another along the route of prevailing wind from SW to NE. Intersection analyses of trace gases reveal that polluted air masses arriving at SDZ were more aged with both higher O3 and Ox concentrations than those at BL. The results indicate that urban plume can transport not only O3 but its precursors, the latter leading more photochemical O3 production when being mixed with background atmosphere in the downwind rural area.
Do tropospheric clouds influence Polar Stratospheric cloud occurrence in the Arctic?
Authors: Achtert P. , Karlsson Andersson M. , Khosrawi F. , Gumbel J.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. The type of Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) as well as their temporal and spatial extent are important for the occurrence of heterogeneous reactions in the polar stratosphere. The formation of PSCs depends strongly on temperature. However, the mechanisms of the formation of solid PSCs are still poorly understood. Recent satellite studies of Antarctic PSCs have shown that their formation can be associated with deep-tropospheric clouds which have the ability to cool the lower stratosphere radiatively and/or adiabatically. In the present study, lidar measurements aboard the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite were used to investigate whether the formation of Arctic PSCs can be associated with deep-tropospheric clouds as well. Deep-tropospheric cloud systems have a vertical extent of more than 6.5 km with a cloud top height above 7 km altitude. PSCs observed by CALIPSO during the Arctic winter 2007/2008 were classified according to their type (STS, NAT, or ice) and to the kind of underlying tropospheric clouds. Our analysis reveals that 172 out of 211 observed PSCs occurred in connection with tropospheric clouds. 72% of these 172 observed PSCs occured above deep-tropospheric clouds. We also find that the type of PSC seems to be connected to the characteristics of the underlying tropospheric cloud system. During the Arctic winter 2007/2008 PSCs consisting of ice were mainly observed in connection with deep-tropospheric cloud systems while no ice PSC was detected above cirrus. Furthermore, we find no correlation between the occurrence of PSCs and the top temperature of tropospheric clouds. These findings suggest that Arctic PSC formation is connected to adiabatice cooling, i.e. dynamic effects rather than radiative cooling.
Volcanic ash detection and retrievals using MODIS data by means of neural networks
Authors: Picchiani M. , Chini M. , Corradini S. , Merucci L. , Sellitto P. , Del Frate F. , Stramondo S.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. Volcanic ash clouds detection and retrieval represent a key issue for aviation safety due to the harming effects on aircraft. A lesson learned from the recent Eyjafjallajokull eruption is the need to obtain accurate and reliable retrievals on a real time basis. In this work we have developed a fast and accurate Neural Network (NN) approach to detect and retrieve volcanic ash cloud properties from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data in the Thermal InfraRed (TIR) spectral range. Some measurements collected during the 2001, 2002 and 2006 Mt. Etna volcano eruptions have been considered as test cases. The ash detection and retrievals obtained from the Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) algorithm are used as training for the NN procedure that consists in two separate steps: ash detection and ash mass retrieval. The ash detection is reduced to a classification problem by identifying two classes: "ashy" and "non-ashy" pixels in the MODIS images. Then the ash mass is estimated by means of the NN, replicating the BTD-based model performances. A segmentation procedure has also been tested to remove the false ash pixels detection induced by the presence of high meteorological clouds. The segmentation procedure shows a clear advantage in terms of classification accuracy: the main drawback is the loss of information on ash clouds distal part. The results obtained are very encouraging; indeed the ash detection accuracy is greater than 90%, while a mean RMSE equal to 0.365 t km−2 has been obtained for the ash mass retrieval. Moreover, the NN quickness in results delivering makes the procedure extremely attractive in all the cases when the rapid response time of the system is a mandatory requirement.
A hypothesis linking sub-optimal seawater pCO2 conditions for cnidarian-Symbiodinium symbioses with the exceedence of the interglacial threshold (> 260 ppmv)
Authors: Wooldridge S. A.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. Most scleractinian corals and many other cnidarians host intracellular photosynthetic dinoflagellate symbionts ("zooxanthellae"). The zooxanthellae contribute to host metabolism and skeletogenesis to such an extent that this symbiosis is well recognised for its contribution in creating the coral reef ecosystem. The stable functioning of cnidarian symbioses is however dependent upon the host's ability to maintain demographic control of its algal partner. In this review, I explain how the modern envelope of seawater conditions found within many coral reef ecosystems (characterised by elevated temperatures, rising pCO2, and enriched nutrient levels) are antagonistic toward the dominant host processes that restrict excessive symbiont proliferation. Moreover, I outline a new hypothesis and initial evidence base, which support the suggestion that the additional "excess" zooxanthellae fraction permitted by seawater pCO2 levels beyond 260 ppmv significantly increases the propensity for symbiosis breakdown ("bleaching") in response to temperature and irradiance extremes. The relevance of this biological threshold is discussed in terms of historical reef extinction events, glacial-interglacial climate cycles and the modern decline of coral reef ecosystems.
Application of optical tomography in the study of discolouration in drinking water distribution systems
Authors: van Thienen P. , Floris R. , Meijering S.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. Theories describing the turbulent deposition of particles from aerosols have recently been applied to drinking water distribution. In order to allow the study of these processes in a quantitative way and internally observe a cloud of suspended particles in a pipe, we have developed an optical tomography technique and measuring device using low cost electronic components specifically for this application. The mathematical methodology and the electronic device are described in this paper, and tests of both the mathematical approach and the actual device are presented. We conclude that the mathematical framework presented is suitable and that the technical implementation works in a test setting. The described methodology may provide a valuable tool for the study of processes related to drinking water discolouration in the lab.
Experimental, numerical and analytical modelling of a newly developed rockfall protective cable-net structure
Authors: Dhakal S. , Bhandary N. P. , Yatabe R. , Kinoshita N.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. An innovative configuration of pocket-type rockfall protective cable-net structure, known as Long-span Pocket-type Rock-net (LPR), has been developed in Japan. The global performance of the proposed system was initially checked by the experimental (full-scale) modelling. Given the various limitations of the physical experiments, particularly for the parametric study to have a detailed understanding of the newly developed system, a reliable and simplified method of numerical modelling is felt necessary. Again, given the sophistication involved with the method of numerical simulation, a yet simplified modelling approach may prove more effective. On top of this background, this paper presents a three-tier modelling of a design of LPR. After physical modelling, which has revealed that the displacement response may be taken more vital for LPR performance, Finite Element based numerical modelling is presented. The programme LS-DYNA is used and the models are calibrated and verified with the element- and structure-level experiments. Finally, a simple analytical modelling consisting of the equivalently linear and elastic, lumped-mass, single-degree-of-freedom system, capable of predicting the global displacement response, is proposed based on the basic principles of conservation of linear momentum and energy. The model is back-calculated and modified from the analyses of the verified numerical model.
Extraction of spatial-temporal rules from mesoscale eddies in the South China Sea based on rough set theory
Authors: Du Y. , Fan X. , He Z. , Su F. , Zhou C. , Mao H. , Wang D.
Published: December 2011

Abstract. In this paper, a rough set theory is introduced to represent spatial-temporal relationships and extract the corresponding rules from typical mesoscale-eddy states in the South China Sea (SCS). Three decision attributes are adopted in this study, which make the approach flexible in retrieving spatial-temporal rules with different features. The results demonstrate that this approach is effective, and therefore provides a powerful approach to forecasts in the future studies. Spatial-temporal rules in the SCS indicate that warm eddies following the rules are generally in the southeastern and central SCS around 2000 m isobaths in winter. Their intensity and vorticity are weaker than those of cold eddies. They usually move a shorter distance. By contrast, cold eddies are in 2000 m and deeper regions of the southwestern and northeastern SCS in spring and fall. Their intensity and vorticity are strong. Usually they move a long distance. In winter, a few rules are followed by cold eddies in the northern tip of the basin and southwest of Taiwan Island rather than warm eddies, indicating cold eddies may be well-regulated in the region. Several warm-eddy rules are achieved west of Luzon Island, indicating warm eddies may be well-regulated in the region as well. Otherwise, warm and cold eddies are distributed not only in the jet flow off southern Vietnam induced by intraseasonal wind stress in summer-fall, but also in the northern shallow water, which should be a focus of a future study.
El movimiento de mujeres y las luchas sociales por la democratización en la Nicaragua postrevolucionaria (1990-2010)
Authors: Chaguaceda Armando
Published: December 2011

El trabajo aborda los antecedentes históricos y los elementos organizativos, identitarios e ideológicos que caracterizan al movimiento de mujeres en la Nicaragua postrevolucionaria (1990 2010). Se describe su desarrollo en relación con una agenda democratizadora de la política y sociedad nicaragüenses, en las coordenadas abiertas tras el fin de la Revolución Sandinista y a partir de la compleja (y convulsa) situación de una Nicaragua inmersa en la transición y consolidación de un modelo neoliberaly la persistencia de prácticas políticas tradicionales.
Estrategias de vida y rutas de desarrollo de jóvenes rurales en Nicaragua: los casos en Muy Muy y Matiguás
Authors: Steel Griet , Sosa Carlos
Published: December 2011

Existe una preocupación creciente en la industria del desarrollo sobre la situación de hombres y mujeres jóvenes creciendo en contextos de pobreza. Sin embargo, aún hay una escasez de investigación que dé cuenta de lo que ocurre en la vida diaria de los jóvenes y la forma en que éstos experimentan y tratan de manejar las situaciones de pobreza. Los estudios de juventud generalmente consideran a las personas jóvenes como pasivos receptáculos de las decisiones y políticas definidas por los adultos, y tienden a ignorar la capacidad que tienen las personas jóvenes de generar riqueza. En el presente artículo enfatizamos la necesidad de hacer investigación más profunda sobre las estrategias de vida de los jóvenes y su transición hacia la adultez. Sobre la base de estudios de caso de jóvenes rurales nicaragüenses, analizamos cómo los jóvenes de Muy Muy y Matiguás negocian sus estrategias de vida con sus padres, con la perspectiva de acumular recursos necesarios para lograr independizarse. En el desenvolvimiento de sus estrategias de vida reconocemos a los jóvenes como agentes activos del desarrollo de sus hogares y localidades. En esta medida, promovemos que las instituciones de desarrollo razonen sobre las iniciativas de los jóvenes en sus intervenciones de desarrollo. En este sentido, el presente estudio tiene la perspectiva no sólo de enriquecer el debate académico alrededor de las estrategias de vida de  os jóvenes sino también de proveer insumos a las organizaciones que implementan estrategias de desarrollo con jóvenes en Nicaragua y la región.
En búsqueda de los salvadoreños en los Estados Unidos: contextualizando los datos etnográficos
Authors: Machuca Milton Ricardo
Published: December 2011

En este artículo presento una visión de conjunto de la literatura etnográfica sobre los salvadoreños en Estados Unidos. La migración salvadoreña a los Estados Unidos comienza a finales del siglo XIX, sin embargo los salvadoreños no llegan en masa a ese país hasta principios de la década de los ochenta, a principios de la guerra civil que duraría doce años (1980-1992). En las pasadas tres décadas, la literatura general sobre salvadoreños en Estados Unidos es extensa y cubre una amplia variedad de disciplinas. Muchos trabajos académicos estudian a los migrantes salvadoreños bajo la categoría de “centroamericanos”. Con el notable incremento de la migración salvadoreña a los Estados Unidos a partir de 1980, se ha publicado un número significativo de etnografías sobre su experiencia migratoria en las pasadas dos décadas.En este artículo se discuten y comparan nueve de esos trabajos académicos. Estos trabajos tratan a los salvadoreños desde temas, tópicos y perspectivas particulares, los cuales incluyen inmigración y emigración, diáspora y transnacionalismo, cambios en relaciones de género, leyes migratorias estadounidenses y estatus migratorio, remesas y derecho al voto. A medida que los migrantes salvadoreños forjan nuevas redes de conexión e interacción social entre su país de origen y los Estados Unidos, los trabajos académicos buscan entender y teorizar sobre estos emergentes espacios transnacionales.
Migraciones en Centroamérica: en la médula de un cambio estructural
Authors: Cañada Ernest
Published: December 2011

Durante las últimas tres décadas Centroamérica ha sufrido una importante transformación en su estructura económica y en su forma de inserción en el mercado internacional. De la agroexportación tradicional se ha pasado a un modelo más diversificado y complejo, en el que adquieren un especial protagonismo la emigración y las remesas como principal fuente de entrada de divisas. Tomando en cuenta esta centralidad, a continuación se analizan los territorios de destino de la migración dentro de la propia Centroamérica, con especial atención a Guanacaste y la Zona Norte de Costa Rica, que han atraído mano de obra nicaragüense asociada a la construcción y el turismo en el primer caso, y a la cosecha de nuevos cultivos para la exportación, como la piña, en el segundo. La precariedad e informalidad que caracteriza el trabajo en estos destinos da pie a la acentuación de la vulnerabilidad de los trabajadores ante sus empleadores. Seguidamente se examinan los impactos provocados en los territorios de origen de la migración, poniendo el acento en cuestiones como la desagregación familiar y comunitaria, el papel contradictorio de las remesas, los procesos de diferenciación social o la afectación sobre los recursos naturales.
Investigación exploratoria sobre migración de mujeres de Somoto (Nicaragua) a San Sebastián (España)
Authors: González Miranda José Luis
Published: December 2011

El presente artículo analiza la migración de mujeres de Somoto (Madriz, Nicaragua) a San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa, España), fenómeno iniciado a raíz del hermanamiento de Somoto con la ciudad de Lasarte, después del paso del huracán Mitch. El crecimiento acelerado de esta población migrante hacia España, así como la feminización del fenómeno, caracterizan este hecho que ha marcado al municipio de Somoto en la última década. En el registro de extranjeros residentes en España, la población nicaragüense creció un 53.3% entre junio de 2010 y junio de 2011. En esta última fecha las mujeres nicaragüenses son el 73.5% del total de población nicaragüense residente en España. Suponemos que la migración irregular ofrecerá cifras parecidas. Esta feminización acompaña a la globalización de las tareas de cuidado, lo que es denominado por otros autores como “la mundialización del amor materno”. Para cuidar niños, ancianos y hogares en San Sebastián, las mujeres somoteñas dejan muchos de sus hogares a cargo de abuelas, tías e hijas, a veces menores de edad. Los receptores de remesas son también mayoritariamente mujeres. Por medio de estas cadenas globales de cuidado asistimos al “robo del cariño” más que a la redistribución de las tareas de cuidado entre hombres y mujeres. Se explora aquí el impacto que este fenómeno migratorio provoca en las migrantes, en sus familias, y en el municipio de Somoto, para sugerir políticas públicas y recomendaciones que incidan en la mejora de las condiciones sociales de esta población migrante y de sus familias.