bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Advances in NORM management in Norway and the application of ICRP's 2007 Recommendations
Authors: Liland A. , Strand P. , Amundsen I. , Natvig H. , Nilsen M. , Lystad R. , Frogg K.E.
Published: August 2012

In Norway, the largest reported quantities of radioactive discharges and radioactive waste containing naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) come from the oil and gas sector, and smaller quantities of other NORM waste are also produced by industrial or mining processes. The Gulen final repository for radioactive waste from the oil and gas industry from the Norwegian continental shelf was opened in 2008 and has a capacity of 6000 tonnes.

As of 1 January 2011, a new regulation was enforced whereby radioactive waste and radioactive pollution was integrated in the Pollution Control Act from 1981. This means that radioactive waste and radioactive pollution are now regulated under the same legal framework as all other pollutants and hazardous wastes. The regulation establishes two sets of criteria defining radioactive waste: a lower value for when waste is considered to be radioactive waste, and a higher value, in most cases, for when this waste must be disposed of in a final waste repository. For example, waste containing ≥1 Bq/g of Ra-226 is defined as radioactive waste, while radioactive waste containing ≥10 Bq/g of Ra-226 must be disposed of in a final repository. Radioactive waste between 1 and 10 Bq/g can be handled and disposed of by waste companies who have a licence for handling hazardous waste according to the Pollution Control Act. Alternatively, they will need a separate licence for handling radioactive waste from the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority.

The goal of the new regulation is that all radioactive waste should be handled and stored in a safe manner, and discharges should be controlled through a licensing regime in order to avoid/not pose unnecessary risk to humans or the environment. This paper will elaborate on the new regulation of radioactive waste and the principles of NORM management in Norway in view of the International Commission on Radiological Protection's 2007 Recommendations.
Doses from radiation exposure
Authors: Menzel H-G. , Harrison J.D.
Published: August 2012

Practical implementation of the International Commission on Radiological Protection's (ICRP) system of protection requires the availability of appropriate methods and data. The work of Committee 2 is concerned with the development of reference data and methods for the assessment of internal and external radiation exposure of workers and members of the public. This involves the development of reference biokinetic and dosimetric models, reference anatomical models of the human body, and reference anatomical and physiological data. Following ICRP's 2007 Recommendations, Committee 2 has focused on the provision of new reference dose coefficients for external and internal exposure. As well as specifying changes to the radiation and tissue weighting factors used in the calculation of protection quantities, the 2007 Recommendations introduced the use of reference anatomical phantoms based on medical imaging data, requiring explicit sex averaging of male and female organ-equivalent doses in the calculation of effective dose. In preparation for the calculation of new dose coefficients, Committee 2 and its task groups have provided updated nuclear decay data (ICRP Publication 107) and adult reference computational phantoms (ICRP Publication 110). New dose coefficients for external exposures of workers are complete (ICRP Publication 116), and work is in progress on a series of reports on internal dose coefficients to workers from inhaled and ingested radionuclides. Reference phantoms for children will also be provided and used in the calculation of dose coefficients for public exposures. Committee 2 also has task groups on exposures to radiation in space and on the use of effective dose.
Genetic predisposition to radiation-related cancer and potential implications for risk assessment
Authors: Sigurdson A.J. , Stram D.O.
Published: August 2012

Several lines of evidence suggest that risk estimates for cancer associated with radiation exposure incorporate individuals who are more and less inherently susceptible to the carcinogenic effects of radiation, and the technology to further evaluate this issue is now available. For example, genome-wide association scan studies could be undertaken to address, at least in part, the direction of causality in the observations of differential sensitivity to radiomimetic agents in cancer cases compared with normal individuals, thereby building on previous observations that sensitivity to these agents is higher in apparently normal individuals carrying gene mutations in NBS and ATM. Direct studies of risk of second cancers in relation to radiation are underway, and some results have been reported (e.g. for the PRDM1 gene as related to sensitivity to radiation-related cancers after treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma). It is important to understand the risk synergies between variants affecting associations with various cancers defining susceptibility in unexposed populations and the excess risk in populations therapeutically or occupationally exposed to radiation for the purpose of risk protection, especially as additional baseline risk variants are discovered in increasingly large-scale analyses. While there are studies that are beginning to address these questions, there have been no compelling new discoveries, to date, to indicate that predisposition information should be included in risk assessment. The conclusions in ICRP Publications 79 and 103 appear relevant today.
Mechanisms and dose-response relationships for radiation-induced cardiovascular disease
Authors: Stewart F.A.
Published: August 2012

Epidemiological studies have shown a clear association between therapeutic doses of thoracic irradiation and increased risk of cardiovascular disease in long-term cancer survivors. Survivors of Hodgkin's lymphoma and childhood cancers, for example, show 2- to >7-fold increases in risk of cardiac death after total tumour doses of 30–40 Gy, given in 2-Gy fractions. The risk of cardiac mortality increases linearly with dose, although there are large uncertainties for mean cardiac doses <5 Gy. Experimental studies show that doses of ⩾2 Gy induce the expression of inflammatory and thrombotic molecules in endothelial cells. In the heart, this causes progressive loss of capillaries and eventually leads to reduced perfusion, myocardial cell death, and fibrosis. In large arteries, doses of ⩾8 Gy, combined with elevated cholesterol, initiates atherosclerosis and predisposes to the formation of inflammatory, unstable lesions, which are prone to rupture and may cause a fatal heart attack or stroke. In contrast, doses <1 Gy inhibit inflammatory cell adhesion to endothelial cells and inhibit the development of atherosclerosis in mice. It seems likely that mechanisms other than accelerated atherosclerosis are responsible for cardiovascular effects after low total-body exposures of radiation (e.g. impaired T-cell immunity or persistent increase in systemic cytokines).
Atypical femoral fracture after long‐term alendronate treatment: Report of a case evidenced with magnetic resonance imaging
Authors: Kao Chih‐Ming , Huang Peng‐Ju , Chen Chung‐Hwan , Chen Shu‐Jung , Cheng Yuh‐Min
Published: August 2012

Postmenopausal osteoporosis is commonly treated with alendronate, one of the bisphosphonates used for the prevention and treatment of osteoporotic fractures. However, the correlation between atypical femoral fractures and long‐term bisphosphonate therapy has not been clearly identified. We report here the case of a 69‐year‐old woman with postmenopausal osteoporosis who presented with an atypical femoral subtrochanteric fracture on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmation after having received alendronate therapy for about 3 years. The fracture united after refixation and after administration of alendronate was stopped. Several published reports were reviewed, and some clinical characteristics of this atraumatic fracture were revealed, including the clinical symptoms of thigh pain, stress reaction or stress fracture, and transverse fracture with unicortical beak in an area of cortical hypertrophy. In addition to a regular radiographic survey, MRI, which may provide early information, and bone biopsy for pathologic analysis may be used as tools for early detection and final diagnosis. Once an insufficiency fracture is suspected or proved to be related to bisphosphonate, the withholding of bisphosphonate should be highly recommended to enhance fracture healing. Prophylactic fixation should be considered if fracture healing is not good or if the patient cannot tolerate protection of weight‐bearing.
Pathways and consequences of unsafe abortion: A comparison among women with complications after induced and spontaneous abortions in Madhya Pradesh, India
Authors: Banerjee Sushanta K. , Andersen Kathryn L. , Warvadekar Janardan
Published: August 2012

This study aimed to understand women's pathways of seeking care for postabortion complications in Madhya Pradesh, India. The study recruited 786 women between July and November 2007. Data were collected on service provision, abortion‐related complications, care‐seeking behavior, knowledge about abortion legality and availability, methods used, symptoms, referral source, and out‐of‐pocket costs. Women seeking care for complications from induced abortion followed more complex pathways to treatment than women with complications of spontaneous abortion. More complex pathways were associated with higher out‐of‐pocket costs. Improving community awareness on legal aspects, safe abortion methods, and trained providers are necessary to reduce morbidity associated with unsafe abortion.
Investigating social consequences of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion in Malawi: The role of stigma
Authors: Levandowski Brooke A. , Kalilani‐Phiri Linda , Kachale Fannie , Awah Paschal , Kangaude Godfrey , Mhango Chisale
Published: August 2012

Malawian women in all sectors of society are suffering from social implications of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion. Unwanted pregnancies occur among women who have limited access to family planning and safe abortion. A legally restrictive setting for safe abortion services leads many women to unsafe abortion, which has consequences for them and their families. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 485 Malawian stakeholders belonging to different political and social structures. Interviewees identified the impact of unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion to be the greatest on young women. Premarital and extramarital pregnancies were highly stigmatized; stigma directly related to abortion was also found. Community‐level discussions need to focus on reduction of stigma.
Review Article: Rethinking Party Politics and the Welfare State – Recent Advances in the Literature
Authors: Häusermann Silja , Picot Georg , Geering Dominik
Published: August 2012

This article discusses recent research on party politics and the welfare state that differs from traditional ‘partisan politics theory’. The traditional approach states that left-wing and right-wing parties hold contrasting positions on welfare issues, depending on the interests of their respective electorates. This view has recently been challenged by three strands of research, which emphasize (1) the effects of electoral change on parties’ policy positions, (2) the role of context, notably electoral institutions, party competition and the configuration of party systems, and (3) the impact of different linkages between parties and electorates (particularistic versus programmatic). The implications of these arguments for the applicability of partisan theory are presented, and theoretical and empirical issues are identified for further research.
Agricultural Productivity Across Prussia During the Industrial Revolution: A Thünen Perspective
Authors: KOPSIDIS MICHAEL , WOLF NIKOLAUS
Published: August 2012

This article explores the pattern of land rents and agricultural productivity across nineteenth-century Prussia to gain new insights on the causes of the “Little Divergence” between European regions. We argue that agriculture reacted to urban and industrial development rather than shaping it. In the spirit of Johann von Thünen and Ernst Engel, we develop a theoretical model to test how access to urban demand affected agricultural development. We show that the effect of urban demand is causal and that it is in line with recent findings on a limited degree of interregional market integration in nineteenth-century Prussia.
The Integration of Grain Markets in the Eighteenth Century: Early Rise of Globalization in the West
Authors: DOBADO-GONZÁLEZ RAFAEL , GARCÍA-HIERNAUX ALFREDO , GUERRERO DAVID E.
Published: August 2012

Globalization, if defined as the integration of international commodity markets, started in the eighteenth century and progressed gradually and with some setbacks into the nineteenth century, instead of suddenly appearing at some point after the 1820s. We use grain prices in Europe and the Americas to determine the extent and dynamics of market integration throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. An innovative methodology, with special attention being paid to changes in residual dispersion of the univariate models of relative prices between markets, permits us to obtain a measure of market integration over time.
Pork-Barrel Politics in Semi-Democracies: The Spanish “Parliamentary Roads,” 1880–1914
Authors: CURTO-GRAU MARTA , HERRANZ-LONCÁN ALFONSO , SOLÉ-OLLÉ ALBERT
Published: August 2012

This article analyzes the effects of parliamentary representation on road infrastructure expenditure during the Spanish Restoration. Using a panel data set of Spanish provinces in 1880–1914, we find that the allocation of administrative resources among provinces depended both on the delegation characteristics (such as the share of MPs with party leadership positions, and their degree of electoral independence), and the regime's global search for stability. These results point to the importance of electoral dynamics within semi-democratic political systems, and offer an example of the influence of government tactics on infrastructure allocation.
Review of recent applied linguistics research in Finland and Sweden, with specific reference to foreign language learning and teaching
Authors: Ringbom Håkan
Published: August 2012

This review covers recent applied linguistic research in Finland and Sweden during the years 2006–2011, with particular emphasis on foreign language learning and teaching. Its primary aim is to inform the international research community on the type of research that is going on in these countries. Special attention is given to topics which have attracted a lot of interest in the area: language immersion schools and CLIL, cross-linguistic influence, corpus linguistics (English as a lingua franca) and language use in multilingual urban settings.
The Secularisation of the British Constitution
Authors: Rivers Julian
Published: August 2012

In recent years, the relationship between law and religion has been subject to increased scholarly interest. In part this is the result of new laws protecting religious liberty and non-discrimination, and it may be that overall levels of litigation have increased as well. In all this activity, there are signs that the relationship between law and religion is changing. While unable to address every matter of detail, this article seeks to identify the underlying themes and trends. It starts by suggesting that the constitutional settlement achieved by the end of the nineteenth century has often been overlooked, religion only appearing in the guise of inadequately theorised commitments to individual liberty and equality. The article then considers the role of multiculturalism in promoting recent legal changes. However, the new commitment to multiculturalism cannot explain a number of features of the law: the minimal impact of the Human Rights Act 1998, the uncertain effect of equality legislation, an apparent rise in litigation in established areas of law and religion, and some striking cases in which acts have been found to be unlawful in surprising ways. In contrast, the article proposes a new secularisation thesis. The law is coming to treat religions as merely recreational and trivial. This has the effect of reducing the significance of religion as a matter of conscience, as legal system and as a context for public service. As a way of managing the ever-deepening forms of religious diversity present within the United Kingdom, such a secularisation strategy is implausible.1
Ecclesiological and Canonical Observations on The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion
Authors: Hill Christopher
Published: August 2012

In the Archbishop of Canterbury's Foreword to the findings of the Anglican Communion Legal Advisers' Network, Rowan Williams argues that law is a way of securing two things for the common good: equity and responsibility. Law is against arbitrariness and for knowing who is responsible for this or that. Law in the Church is also about equitable life in the communion of the Body of Christ and the mutual obligations of our interdependence. As Convenor of the Legal Advisers' Network, Canon John Rees observes that their work, which emerged as The Principles of Canon Law Common to the Churches of the Anglican Communion, is not a quick fix to the contemporary problems of the Anglican Communion. Nor is it a covert device for the introduction of a universal canon law for the whole Anglican Communion with an aim to impose covenantal sanctions for churches which do not toe the line.
A NOTE ON TIME VARIATION IN A FORWARD-LOOKING MONETARY POLICY RULE: EVIDENCE FROM EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Authors: Kishor N. Kundan
Published: August 2012

This paper estimates time-varying forward-looking monetary policy reaction functions for the central banks of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. We utilize the framework developed by Kim [Economics Letters91 (2006) 21–26] and Kim and Nelson [Journal of Monetary Economics(2006) 1949–1966] to deal with the issue of endogeneity in a time varying–parameter model. Our results find substantial time variation in the conduct of monetary policy in these four countries, which cannot be adequately captured by the conventional fixed-coefficient approach. Our findings suggest that there was a significant decline in the Bank of France's and the Bank of Italy's response to the German interest rate in 1992, and it coincided with the breakdown of the exchange rate management system in Europe. Our results suggest that the Bank of England was slower than the Bundesbank to increase its response to expected inflation, as its response to inflation became more than one-for-one only in the early 1980s.
CAPITAL–LABOR SUBSTITUTION, SECTOR-SPECIFIC EXTERNALITIES, AND INDETERMINACY
Authors: Photphisutthiphong Nopphawan , Weder Mark
Published: August 2012

This paper examines the effect of the elasticity of technological substitution on the existence of equilibrium indeterminacy in two-sector economies. Following recent empirical evidence, the elasticity of substitution between capital and labor is below unity and we find that this requires a higher degree of productive externalities in order to still be able to produce indeterminate equilibria. However, empirically realistic rates of substitution do not rule out indeterminacy.
LOCAL INDETERMINACY IN CONTINUOUS-TIME MODELS: THE ROLE OF RETURNS TO SCALE
Authors: Garnier Jean-Philippe , Nishimura Kazuo , Venditti Alain
Published: August 2012

The aim of this paper is to discuss the effect on returns to scale on the local determinacy properties of the steady state in a continuous-time two-sector economy with endogenous labor supply and sector-specific externalities. First we show that when labor is inelastic and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption is large enough, for any configuration of the returns to scale, local indeterminacy is obtained if there is a capital intensity reversal between the private and the social levels. Second, we prove that when labor is infinitely elastic, saddlepoint stability is obtained if the investment good sector has constant social returns, whereas local indeterminacy arises if the investment good sector has increasing social returns and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption admits intermediate values. Finally, our main conclusion shows that local indeterminacy requires a low elasticity of labor when the investment good has constant social returns, but requires either a low enough or a large enough elasticity of labor when the investment good has increasing social returns.
The Impact of Domestic and Transnational Conditions
Authors: Yoo Eunhye
Published: August 2012

As global society has observed the rise of women's rights and their
development in a context of globalization, much research has focused on the
conditions under which women's rights are acquired (e.g., Fallon 2003;
Ferree 2006; Viterna and Fallon 2008). These include domestic conditions,
such as democratization, economic development, and women's representation in
national politics, as well as transnational conditions, such as neoliberal
restructuring and transnational women's movements. Most studies, however,
focus merely on one dimension of women's rights or explore one case in
depth. Few studies compare cases of women's rights cross-nationally or
longitudinally. This limitation can create much confusion in determining the
factors that are influential or negligible for women's rights. By
replicating and extending a recently published article focusing on women's
social rights (Yoo 2011), I seek to distinguish the factors that are more
and less influential in explaining women's political, economic, and social
rights globally.
What Does Queer Theory Teach Us about Intersectionality?
Authors: Duong Kevin
Published: August 2012

“What does queer theory teach us about x?”
ask Berlant and Warner (1995). “As difficult as it would be to spell out
programmatic content for an answer, this simple question still has the power
to wrench frames” (p. 348). This challenge comes from an early essay
published to circumvent queer theory's appropriation. Its power “to wrench
frames” is what I am posing to intersectional research, not only to reflect
on what intersectionality has allowed feminists to accomplish but also to
identify some existing shortcomings in the scope and domain of its
employment. Because there is little disputing intersectionality's
theoretical contribution to feminist research in the past decades—one
scholar calls it “the most important theoretical contribution that women's
studies . . . has made so far” (McCall 2005, 1771)—it is important for us to
take stock of the sorts of political problems that intersectional
scholarship has addressed and the ones to which it has often been
inattentive.
Intersectionality in Time: Sexuality and the Shifting Boundaries of
Intersectional Marginalization
Authors: Strolovitch Dara Z.
Published: August 2012

“Here Come the (Stylish) Grooms,” declared the headline, which was
accompanied by a 9 1/2-inch-high photograph of two smiling, dancing, and,
yes, stylish grooms. The article appeared on the front page of the
Thursday Styles section of the October 20,
2011 edition of the New York Times. Alluding to
the New York State law passed in June of that year that gave legal
recognition to same-sex marriage, it began, “As they walk down the aisle,
gay couples are making new rules while keeping some old ones.”
Using cluster analysis to organize and explore regional GPS velocities
Authors: Simpson Robert W. , Thatcher Wayne , Savage James C.
Published: August 2012

Cluster analysis offers a simple visual exploratory tool for the initial investigation of regional Global Positioning System (GPS) velocity observations, which are providing increasingly precise mappings of actively deforming continental lithosphere. The deformation fields from dense regional GPS networks can often be concisely described in terms of relatively coherent blocks bounded by active faults, although the choice of blocks, their number and size, can be subjective and is often guided by the distribution of known faults. To illustrate our method, we apply cluster analysis to GPS velocities from the San Francisco Bay Region, California, to search for spatially coherent patterns of deformation, including evidence of block‐like behavior. The clustering process identifies four robust groupings of velocities that we identify with four crustal blocks. Although the analysis uses no prior geologic information other than the GPS velocities, the cluster/block boundaries track three major faults, both locked and creeping.
Aerosol contribution to the rapid warming of near‐term climate under RCP 2.6
Authors: Chalmers N. , Highwood E. J. , Hawkins E. , Sutton R. , Wilcox L. J.
Published: August 2012

The importance of aerosol emissions for near term climate projections is investigated by analysing simulations with the HadGEM2‐ES model under two different emissions scenarios: RCP2.6 and RCP4.5. It is shown that the near term warming projected under RCP2.6 is greater than under RCP4.5, even though the greenhouse gas forcing is lower. Rapid and substantial reductions in sulphate aerosol emissions due to a reduction of coal burning in RCP2.6 lead to a reduction in the negative shortwave forcing due to aerosol direct and indirect effects. Indirect effects play an important role over the northern hemisphere oceans, especially the subtropical northeastern Pacific where an anomaly of 5–10 Wm−2 develops. The pattern of surface temperature change is consistent with the expected response to this surface radiation anomaly, whilst also exhibiting features that reflect redistribution of energy, and feedbacks, within the climate system. These results demonstrate the importance of aerosol emissions as a key source of uncertainty in near term projections of global and regional climate.
Seismic wavespeed images across the Iapetus and Tornquist suture zones
Authors: Zhu Hejun , Bozdağ Ebru , Peter Daniel , Tromp Jeroen
Published: August 2012

Closures of the Iapetus Ocean and the Tornquist Sea lead to the collision of the paleocontinents of Laurentia, Baltica and Eastern Avalonia during the Caledonian orogeny. It has been speculated that relicts of these two closures may be preserved within the crust or upper mantle. Over the past decades, numerous wide‐angle seismic profiles were gathered in northwestern Europe to search for related subsurface features. Although active source studies revealed detailed crustal structures across the Iapetus and Tornquist suture zones, there are relatively few clear three‐dimensional upper mantle images beneath this region. We use a new European crust and upper mantle model, EU30, determined based on continental scale, nonlinear adjoint tomography, to explore upper mantle structures across these two suture zones. Model EU30 reveals two fast anomalies within the upper mantle: one dips in a northwesterly direction down to approximately 400 km beneath the North Sea, and the other dips in a southwesterly direction down to nearly 250 km across the Tornquist Suture Zone. In addition, we observe a “gap” between the lithospheres of Laurentia and Eastern Avalonia across the Iapetus Suture Zone beneath the central British Isles. These seismic images suggest that heterogeneity related to the closures of the Iapetus Ocean and the Tornquist Sea have been preserved within the upper mantle over hundreds of millions of years.
Observed connection between stratospheric sudden warmings and the Madden‐Julian Oscillation
Authors: Garfinkel Chaim I. , Feldstein Steven B. , Waugh Darryn W. , Yoo Changhyun , Lee Sukyoung
Published: August 2012

The effect of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO) on the Northern Hemisphere wintertime stratospheric polar vortex and major, mid‐winter stratospheric sudden warmings (SSWs) is evaluated using a meteorological reanalysis dataset. The MJO influences the region in the tropospheric North Pacific sector that is most strongly associated with a SSW. Consistent with this, SSWs in the reanalysis record have tended to follow certain MJO phases. The magnitude of the influence of the MJO on the vortex is comparable to that associated with the Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation and El Niño. The MJO could be used to improve intra‐seasonal projections of the Northern Hemisphere high latitude circulation, and in particular of the tropospheric Northern Annular Mode, at lags exceeding one month.
Energetic particle injections to geostationary orbit: Relationship to flow bursts and magnetospheric state
Authors: Sergeev V. A. , Chernyaev I. A. , Dubyagin S. V. , Miyashita Y. , Angelopoulos V. , Boakes P. D. , Nakamura R. , Henderson M. G.
Published: August 2012

To address the mechanism and factors controlling the injection of energetic particles to the geostationary orbit (GEO), we analyzed the appearance of injections at the GEO drift shell as observed by LANL spacecraft in the cases where the flow bursts and associated transient dipolarization were detected at the entry to the inner magnetosphere, in the high beta plasma sheet region on the nightside between 8 and 13 Re. We analyzed two different data sets, one including Geotail observations in 1995–2005 and another including a set of Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) observations in 2008–2009. We found that only a small portion of all flow bursts at 8–13 Re were associated with particle injection at GEO but that those injection‐associated flows had smaller values of plasma tube entropy parameter (PV5/3) as well as larger change of magnetic field north‐south component (dBz). This confirms a scenario that the bursty flows at the entry of the inner magnetosphere (8–13 Re) penetrate into GEO and produce there the energetic particles flux increase. According to the bubble theory of magnetotail plasma flows, the probability of the deep plasma penetration critically depends on how stretched the magnetospheric configuration is, and this dependence is statistically confirmed in a large database to be the major factor controlling the occurrence of GEO injections. We suggest using the background plasma tube entropy value in the nightside part of the GEO drift shell as a suitable parameter to predict the probability of particle injection to GEO. One more outcome of this study is that the energetic particle injections cannot reliably serve as a tool to identify the substorm onset times, as has been done in many past studies.
New method for tracking the movement of ionospheric plasma
Authors: Benton C. J. , Mitchell C. N.
Published: August 2012

A method to track the flow of plasma in the Earth's ionosphere is presented. This takes maps of total electron content (TEC) at various times, and by comparing them derives a map of bulk velocities. The method is a modification of the Horn‐Schunck scheme used in computer vision, whereby the aperture problem (caused by the scalar input field not containing enough information to uniquely constrain the vector output field) is overcome by making pragmatic assumptions about the divergence and rotation of the flow. The continuity equation linking plasma velocity and density is given source terms constrained by models of plasma generation and recombination. This can be used to mitigate solar terminator effects, where the close proximity of daytime plasma generation and nighttime recombination causes the impression of plasma flow. The method successfully reconstructs the behavior of test data. It also gives plausible results with real electron density maps from the 2003 Halloween Storms.
Global S4 index variations observed using FORMOSAT‐3/COSMIC GPS RO technique during a solar minimum year
Authors: Brahmanandam P. S. , Uma G. , Liu J. Y. , Chu Y. H. , Latha Devi N. S. M. P. , Kakinami Y.
Published: August 2012

In this paper, presented for the first time the three‐dimensional global morphology and seasonal variations of scintillation index (S4 index) measured from the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) intensity fluctuations of L1 channel of GPS radio occultation (RO) signals using FORMOSAT‐3/COSMIC (in short, F3/C) satellites for a low solar activity year 2008. The S4 index, which confined around ±30° magnetic latitudes, is found to start around post‐sunset hours (1900 MLT, magnetic local time) and often persists till post‐midnight hours (0300 MLT) between 150 and 350 km altitudes during equinox and northern winter seasons while no activity is observed during southern winter season. However, high latitudes are characterized with no scintillation activity beyond 150 km during any season, which implying that in the solar minimum period the drives of instabilities in the auroral, cusp and polar cap regions, namely the gradient drift and velocity shear, are absent. The S4 index at F region altitudes during magnetically quiet times is more intense and extends to higher latitudes than that observed during disturbed time consistent with earlier studies. The equatorial S4 index appears below the peak of F2 layer (hmF2) during most of the seasons although the associated intensities and the time of maximum occurrences are relatively higher and earlier during vernal equinox followed by autumn equinox. This equinoctial asymmetry could be primarily attributed to the asymmetries in eastward drift velocities, thermospheric meridional winds and plasma densities. Further, the global maps of S4 index at E region altitudes (between 75 and 125 km) show strong seasonal variations with highest activity during northern and southern summer solstice in the middle latitudes while it appears on both sides of magnetic equator with less or no activity at and around the equator during equinox seasons. The absence of S4 index along the equator can be understood in terms of the vanishing vertical component of the magnetic field lines that can inhibit the vertical movement and layered deposition of ionized particles of thin irregular electron density layers such as Es‐layers. Keeping in view the importance of these valuable database, we would like to emphasize that the F3/C GPS RO technique can be used to study the ionospheric irregularities at GHz frequency globally directly from the high‐rate L1 data, which reiterating its importance as a powerful tool to explore the terrestrial ionosphere on a global scale.
Constraints from rocks in the Taiwan orogen on crustal stress levels and rheology
Authors: Kidder Steven , Avouac Jean‐Philippe , Chan Yu‐Chang
Published: August 2012

Taiwan's Hsüehshan range experienced penetrative coaxial deformation within and near the brittle‐plastic transition between ∼6.5 and 3 Ma. This recent and short‐lasting deformation in an active, well‐studied orogen makes it an ideal natural laboratory for studying crustal rheology. Recrystallized grain size piezometry in quartz and Ti‐in‐quartz thermobarometry yield peak differential stresses of ∼200 MPa at 250–300°C that taper off to ∼80 MPa at ∼350°C and ∼14 MPa at ∼400–500°C. Stress results do not vary with lithology: recrystallized quartz veins in slates and metasiltstones yield equivalent stresses as recrystallized grains in quartzites. A minimum strain rate of 2.9 × 10−15 s−1 associated with this deformation is calculated by dividing a strain measurement (axial strain ∼0.3) in a strongly deformed quartzite by the available 3.5 m.y. deformation interval. We estimate a maximum strain rate of 7.0 × 10−14 s−1by distributing the geodetic convergence rate throughout a region homogeneously deformed under horizontal compression. These stress, strain rate and temperature estimates are consistent with the predictions of widely applied dislocation creep flow laws for quartzite. The samples record stress levels at the brittle‐plastic transition, indicating a coefficient of friction (μ) of 0.37 in the upper crust consistent with results based on critical taper. Integrated crustal strength of the Hsüehshan range amounts to 1.7 × 1012 N/m based on our analysis, consistent with potential energy constraints based on topography. Other strength profiles are considered, however high crustal stresses (>300 MPa) conflict with our analysis. The study supports the use of the recrystallized grain size piezometer in quartz as a quick and inexpensive method for resolving stress histories in greenschist facies rocks. For consistency with the independent constraints presented here, we find it accurate to within +20%/−40%, significantly better than previously recognized.
Soil moisture‐vegetation‐precipitation feedback over North America: Its sensitivity to soil moisture climatology
Authors: Kim Yeonjoo , Wang Guiling
Published: August 2012

Our previous studies examined how vegetation feedback at the seasonal time scale influenced the impact of soil moisture anomalies (SMAs) on subsequent summer precipitation with a modified version of the coupled Community Atmosphere Model‐Community Land Model 3 that includes a predictive phenology scheme. Here we investigate the climatology sensitivity of soil moisture‐vegetation‐precipitation feedback using the same model as the baseline model (BASE) and its derivative with modifications to the model runoff parameterization as the experiment model (EXP), in which we eliminate the subsurface lateral drainage to reduce the known dry biases of BASE. With vegetation feedback ignored, precipitation is more sensitive to wet SMAs than dry SMAs in BASE; opposite to BASE, the wetter mean soil moisture in EXP leads to higher sensitivity of precipitation to dry SMAs than to wet SMAs. However, in both BASE and EXP, the impact of dry SMAs on subsequent precipitation persists longer than the impact of wet SMAs. With vegetation feedback included, EXP shows a positive feedback between vegetation and precipitation following both dry and wet SMAs in summer, while BASE shows a positive feedback following wet SMAs only, with no clear signal following dry SMAs due to dry soil biases. In BASE, the magnitude of precipitation changes due to vegetation feedback is comparable to that due to soil moisture feedback when more realistic SMAs are applied. In addition, a major difference is found in spring when the vegetation impact on subsequent precipitation is negative and significant in BASE, but not significant in EXP.
Forecasting of global data‐binning parameters for high‐resolution empirical geomagnetic field models
Authors: Sitnov M. I. , Ukhorskiy A. Y. , Stephens G. K.
Published: August 2012

A recently developed empirical model, TS07D (http://geomag_field.jhuapl.edu/model/), has provided for the first time a realistic description of the storm‐scale geomagnetic field, free from a priori assumptions about the shape of the main magnetospheric current systems. The model uses information about the global state of the magnetosphere and its solar wind driving in the form of the Sym‐H index averaged over substorm scales, its time derivative, and a similarly averaged solar wind electric field. The set of global parameters is used to bin a large number of points in a historical magnetic field database and to fit the model using only a part of the database composed of points taken at times when the global data‐binning parameters were close to those at the time of interest. Transition from modeling to forecasting in such models requires a modification of their data binning procedure to use only the information about the state of the solar wind and the magnetosphere prior to the time of interest. This can be done using another (forecasting) set of binning parameters, which is optimized to provide the best prediction of the original (modeling) binning set. Several sets of such parameters are investigated. It is shown that the original (modeling) set contains spurious information, which appears because of the averaging of the solar wind electric field and Sym‐H index over future moments in time. As a result, the problem of the optimization of the forecasting set becomes ill‐posed, and the prediction efficiency of the original binning parameters, especially the averaged time derivative of the Sym‐H index, is strongly limited. The predictions are shown to be substantially improved when the forecasting set includes an exponential decay function of the solar wind electric field proposed originally by Burton et al. (1975) with the e‐folding time of the order of one hour.
Approximation of inverse Laplace transform solution to heat transport in a stream system
Authors: Heavilin J. E. , Neilson B. T.
Published: August 2012

The Laplace transform is a powerful tool used in solving partial differential equations. However, due to considerable difficulty associated with inverting analytical solutions from Laplace space to the original time variable, this final step is often performed by numerical techniques. Unfortunately, this does not deliver a closed form solution to the original model. Here we illustrate a technique for approximating a closed form inversion to the Laplace transformed solution of a heat transport model for a natural river system. We show the approximation method provides good results when compared to the analytical solution that is dependent upon numerical techniques for the inversion of the Laplace transform. Our approximation results in a simple and concise expression in terms of the model parameters without relying on difficult numerical computations. We focus on the contribution to downstream temperatures from upstream boundary conditions, illustrating how boundary condition temperature decays in terms of model parameters.
Spin-orbit density wave induced hidden topological order in URu2Si2
Authors: Das Tanmoy
Published: August 2012

The conventional order parameters in quantum matters are often characterized by ‘spontaneous’ broken symmetries. However, sometimes the broken symmetries may blend with the invariant symmetries to lead to mysterious emergent phases. The heavy fermion metal URu2Si2 is one such example, where the order parameter responsible for a second-order phase transition at Th = 17.5 K has remained a long-standing mystery. Here we propose via ab-initio calculation and effective model that a novel spin-orbit density wave in the f-states is responsible for the hidden-order phase in URu2Si2. The staggered spin-orbit order spontaneously breaks rotational and translational symmetries while time-reversal symmetry remains intact. Thus it is immune to pressure, but can be destroyed by magnetic field even at T = 0 K, that means at a quantum critical point. We compute topological index of the order parameter to show that the hidden order is topologically invariant. Finally, some verifiable predictions are presented.
Multiple isoforms of the translation initiation factor eIF4GII are generated via use of alternative promoters, splice sites and a non-canonical initiation codon
Authors: Coldwell Mark J. , Sack Ulrike , Cowan Joanne L. , Barrett Rachel M. , Vlasak Markete , Sivakumaran Keiley , Morley Simon J.
Published: August 2012

During the initiation stage of eukaryotic mRNA translation, the eIF4G (eukaryotic initiation factor 4G) proteins act as an aggregation point for recruiting the small ribosomal subunit to an mRNA. We previously used RNAi (RNA interference) to reduce expression of endogenous eIF4GI proteins, resulting in reduced protein synthesis rates and alterations in the morphology of cells. Expression of EIF4G1 cDNAs, encoding different isoforms (f–a) which arise through selection of alternative initiation codons, rescued translation to different extents. Furthermore, overexpression of the eIF4GII paralogue in the eIF4GI-knockdown background was unable to restore translation to the same extent as eIF4GIf/e isoforms, suggesting that translation events governed by this protein are different. In the present study we show that multiple isoforms of eIF4GII exist in mammalian cells, arising from multiple promoters and alternative splicing events, and have identified a non-canonical CUG initiation codon which extends the eIF4GII N-terminus. We further show that the rescue of translation in eIF4GI/eIF4GII double-knockdown cells by our novel isoforms of eIF4GII is as robust as that observed with either eIF4GIf or eIF4GIe, and more than that observed with the original eIF4GII. As the novel eIF4GII sequence diverges from eIF4GI, these data suggest that the eIF4GII N-terminus plays an alternative role in initiation factor assembly.
Scar/WAVE3 contributes to motility and plasticity of lamellipodial dynamics but not invasion in three dimensions
Authors: Spence Heather J. , Timpson Paul , Tang Hao Ran , Insall Robert H. , Machesky Laura M.
Published: August 2012

The Scar (suppressor of cAMP receptor)/WAVE [WASP (Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome protein) verprolin homologous] complex plays a major role in the motility of cells by activating the Arp2/3 complex, which initiates actin branching and drives protrusions. Mammals have three Scar/WAVE isoforms, which show some tissue-specific expression, but their functions have not been differentiated. In the present study we show that depletion of Scar/WAVE3 in the mammalian breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 results in larger and less dynamic lamellipodia. Scar/WAVE3-depleted cells move more slowly but more persistently on a two-dimensional matrix and they typically only show one lamellipod. However, Scar/WAVE3 appears to have no role in driving invasiveness in a three-dimensional Matrigel™ invasion assay or a three-dimensional collagen invasion assay, suggesting that lamellipodial persistence as seen in two-dimensions is not crucial in three-dimensional environments.
Effects of pistachio by-product in replacement of lucerne hay on microbial protein synthesis and fermentative parameters in the rumen of sheep
Authors: Ghasemi S. , Naserian A. A. , Valizadeh R. , Tahmasebi A. M. , Vakili A. R. , Behgar M.
Published: August 2012

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of partial and total substitution of lucerne hay with pistachio by-product on nutrient intake, apparent digestibility, rumen fermentation, digesta kinetics, blood metabolites, nitrogen retention and microbial protein synthesis in Baloochi sheep. Six sheep with a bodyweight of 40.1 ± 1.77 kg fitted with ruminal and abomasal cannulae were assigned at random to three diets in a double 3 × 3 Latin-square design. The dietary treatments included a control (basal diet), low pistachio by-product diet (50% of the lucerne hay in the basal diet was replaced by pistachio by-product), and high pistachio by-product diet (all of the lucerne hay in the basal diet was replaced by pistachio by-product). The daily basal diet was 500 g/kg DM lucerne hay, 250 g/kg DM wheat straw, 210 g/kg DM barley grain, 30 g/kg DM cotton seed meal, 8 g/kg DM vitamin–mineral supplement and 2 g/kg DM salt. Faeces and urine were collected for 8 days and used to estimate digestibility, nitrogen retention and microbial protein synthesis. Sheep were dosed ruminally with Cr-EDTA (2.27 g/L) and rumen samples were evaluated for pH, volatile fatty acids, ammonia nitrogen concentrations and digesta kinetics. The intake of neutral detergent fibre, purine derivatives excretion, volatile fatty acid concentrations in the rumen and ammonia nitrogen in the abomasum decreased (P < 0.05). Ether extract intake and ruminal pH was increased at 5 h after feeding (P < 0.05) as the level of pistachio by-product in the diet increased. Total pistachio by-product replacement for lucerne hay increased (P < 0.05) apparent digestibility of nitrogen, ether extract, organic matter and nitrogen retention and decreased (P < 0.05) microbial protein synthesis, efficiency of microbial protein synthesis and ammonia nitrogen in the rumen. The inclusion of pistachio by-product had no effect on blood metabolites and digesta kinetics. Based on these results it was concluded that pistachio by-product can be considered as a useful replacement for lucerne hay in the diet of Baloochi sheep without any negative impacts on their responses. Moreover, pistachio by-product inclusion in diet improved nitrogen metabolism in Baloochi sheep.