Investigating missing sources of glyoxal over China using a regional air quality model (RAMS-CMAQ)

Currently, modeling studies tend to significantly underestimate observed space-based glyoxal(CHOCHO) vertical column densities(VCDs), implying the existence of missing sources of glyoxal. Several recent studies suggest that the emissions of aromatic compounds and molar yields of glyoxal in the chemical mechanisms may both be underestimated, which can affect the simulated glyoxal concentrations. In this study, the influences of these two factors on glyoxal amounts over China were investigated using the RAMS-CMAQ modeling system for January and July 2014. Four sensitivity simulations were performed, and the results were compared to satellite observations. These results demonstrated significant impacts on glyoxal concentrations from these two factors.In case 1, where the emissions of aromatic compounds were increased three-fold,improvements to glyoxal VCDs were seen in high anthropogenic emissions regions. In case 2, where molar yields of glyoxal from isoprene were increased five-fold, the resulted concentrations in July were 3–5-fold higher, achieving closer agreement between the modeled and measured glyoxal VCDs. The combined changes from both cases 1 and 2 were applied in case 3, and the model succeeded in further reducing the underestimations of glyoxal VCDs. However, the results over most of the regions with pronounced anthropogenic emissions were still underestimated. So the molar yields of glyoxal from anthropogenic precursors were considered in case 4. With these additional mole yield changes(a two-fold increase), the improved concentrations agreed better with the measurements in regions of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River in January but not in July.     

Die Wirkung des Isonikotinsäurehydrazids auf die Zellmorphologie von Mykobakterien

The Science of Nature -     

Implementation of the ecosystem services approach in Swedish municipal planning

While ecosystem-based planning approaches are increasingly promoted through international and national policies, municipalities are still struggling with translating them into practice. Against this background, this paper aims to increase the knowledge of current advances and possible ways to support the implementation of the ecosystem services (ES) approach at the municipal level. More specifically, we analyze how ES have been integrated into comprehensive planning within the municipality of Malmö in Sweden over the last 60 years, a declared forerunner in local environmental governance. Based on a content analysis of comprehensive plans over the period 1956–2014 and interviews with municipal stakeholders, this paper demonstrates how planning has shifted over time toward a more holistic view of ES and their significance for human well-being and urban sustainability. Both explicit and implicit applications of the ES concept were found in the analyzed comprehensive plans and associated programs and projects. Our study shows how these applications reflect international, national, and local policy changes, and indicates how municipalities can gradually integrate the ES approach into comprehensive planning and facilitate the transition from implicit to more explicit knowledge use.     

Evaluation of trajectories calculated from ecmwf data against constant volume balloon flights during etex

This paper validates trajectories calculated from ECMWF analyses against the tracks of constant volume balloons (CVBs) released during the European tracer experiment (ETEX). The altitudes of the calculated trajectories were adjusted to the altitudes of the respective balloons in short intervals to allow direct comparisons. The agreement between the calculated trajectories and the balloon tracks was very good for the first experiment (individual errors from 1 to 26%, average 15%), and excellent (errors from 2 to 11%, average 6%) for the second one. The agreement for the second experiment was probably partly better because the CVBs travelled above the planetary boundary layer, but the small errors also indicate that the ECMWF fields of the horizontal wind were of exceptionally good quality in the second experiment. This is in sharp contrast to the results of the dispersion models which all failed in the prediction of the perfluorocarbon tracer dispersion for the second experiment. A likely explanation for this is that vertical motions, possibly on small scales, were not correctly captured by the ECMWF analyses, but it is not possible to clarify this with the CVB data.     

Experimental evidence for the effects of task repetitiveness on mental strain and objective work performance

People frequently have to work in high repetitive jobs. Previous research has focused exclusively on the effects of task repetitiveness on well‐being, while neglecting effects on work performance. In the present study, we aimed to fill this void by conducting two workplace simulations with experimental manipulations of task repetitiveness. Participants worked for about 5 hours at either a computer workstation, compiling computer hardware packages according to customer requests (Experiment 1, N = 160), or at an assembly line, piecing together equipment sets for furniture (Experiment 2, N = 213). Both experiments provide consistent evidence that high repetitiveness has a detrimental effect on well‐being, whereas work performance increases under conditions of high repetitiveness. On a practical level, our study hence shows that high task repetitiveness is a double‐edged sword for both employees and organizations. On a conceptual level, our findings emphasize the necessity to account for both mental strain and work performance when examining the effects of task repetitiveness. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Photocrosslinking of an Acrylated Epoxidized Linseed Oil: Kinetics and its Application for Optimized Wood Coatings

Over the past few decades, the industry developed an increasing interest in using renewable, bio-based thermosetting polymers as matrix systems for composites and coating systems. In the present paper an acrylated epoxidized linseed oil (AELO) was synthesized from epoxidized linseed oil (ELO) through ring opening of the oxirane group using acrylic acid as the ring opening agent. The synthesized AELO was mixed with three different photoinitiators and cured under monochromatic conditions (???=?365?nm) at different light intensities and at different temperatures. The concentration of the initiators was aligned that all initiators absorb at 365?nm the same amount of light. The evolution of cure was monitored by using real-time infrared spectroscopy with a heated attenuated total reflection unit. The decrease of absorption in the measured spectra at 1,406?cm^?1 was used to calculate the conversion of acrylic double bonds with increasing time of UV light exposure to get information about the cure kinetics for each AELO mixture at different light intensities and different temperatures. Wood substrates were coated in a preliminary work with the AELO mixtures and after UV-curing some technological coating properties like gloss, scratch resistance, adhesion, and solvent resistance were tested. In combination with the information about the cure kinetics in the present work the coating properties were correlated with the cure evolution and the final degree of double bond conversion. The found correlation can be used in the future to find optimized coating conditions for the AELO mixtures on wood substrates.     

The smell of desperadoes? Beavers distinguish between dominant and subordinate intruders

Olfactory signals can contain information, such as age and social status, and play a vital role in competitor assessment. In many territorial species, subordinates must leave their natal colony to obtain their own territory and mate. These individuals could be aggressive opponents in agonistic encounters, as they will have little to lose (the desperado effect). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that dominance and age are coded in the anal gland secretion (AGS) of the monogamous and highly territorial Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber), and if this information is used by conspecifics to evaluate the potential threat posed by an intruder. Territorial intrusions were simulated by presenting residents with a two-way choice test of AGS from an unknown male territory owner (i.e., dominant) and his son (i.e., subordinate; either 1 or ≥2 years old). Residents spent more time investigating AGS from subordinates than their fathers and responded more aggressively to subordinates than their fathers when subordinates were ≥2 years old. Chemical analyses gas chromatography and multivariate data analysis supported our behavioral findings and revealed differences between chemical profiles of territory owners and subordinates, as well as between the subordinates in different age classes. This study reveals that information about age and social status is coded in AGS of beavers and that this information is used to determine the level of an eventual future response to the signaler.     

Future ocean acidification will be amplified by hypoxia in coastal habitats

Ocean acidification is elicited by anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions and resulting oceanic uptake of excess CO₂ and might constitute an abiotic stressor powerful enough to alter marine ecosystem structures. For surface waters in gas-exchange equilibrium with the atmosphere, models suggest increases in CO₂ partial pressure (pCO₂) from current values of ca. 390 μatm to ca. 700–1,000 μatm by the end of the century. However, in typically unequilibrated coastal hypoxic regions, much higher pCO₂ values can be expected, as heterotrophic degradation of organic material is necessarily related to the production of CO₂ (i.e., dissolved inorganic carbon). Here, we provide data and estimates that, even under current conditions, maximum pCO₂ values of 1,700–3,200 μatm can easily be reached when all oxygen is consumed at salinities between 35 and 20, respectively. Due to the nonlinear nature of the carbonate system, the approximate doubling of seawater pCO₂ in surface waters due to ocean acidification will most strongly affect coastal hypoxic zones as pCO₂ during hypoxia will increase proportionally: we calculate maximum pCO₂ values of ca. 4,500 μatm at a salinity of 20 (T = 10 °C) and ca. 3,400 μatm at a salinity of 35 (T = 10 °C) when all oxygen is consumed. Upwelling processes can bring these CO₂-enriched waters in contact with shallow water ecosystems and may then affect species performance there as well. We conclude that (1) combined stressor experiments (pCO₂ and pO₂) are largely missing at the moment and that (2) coastal ocean acidification experimental designs need to be closely adjusted to carbonate system variability within the specific habitat. In general, the worldwide spread of coastal hypoxic zones also simultaneously is a spread of CO₂-enriched zones. The magnitude of expected changes in pCO₂ in these regions indicates that coastal systems may be more endangered by future global climate change than previously thought.     

Does the stock market value the inclusion in a sustainability stock index? An event study analysis for German firms

This paper empirically analyzes the effect of the inclusion of German corporations in the Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Index (DJSI STOXX) and the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) on stock performance. In order to receive robust estimation results, we apply an (short-term) event study approach that is based on both a modern asset pricing model, namely the three-factor model according to Fama and French [24], and additionally a t-GARCH(1,1) model. Our empirical results suggest that stock markets may penalize the inclusion of a firm in sustainability stock indexes. This finding is mainly driven by a strongly negative effect of the inclusion in the DJSI World. In contrast, we do not find significant average cumulative abnormal returns for the inclusion in the DJSI STOXX. This suggests that the inclusion in a more visible sustainability stock index may have larger negative impacts.