Spartan Daily September 9, 2009

Volume 133, Issue 7https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/1276/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily November 9, 2009

Volume 133, Issue 37https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/1304/thumbnail.jp

EPI Update, October 9, 2009

Weekly newsletter for Center For Acute Disease Epidemiology of Iowa Department of Public Health

Spartan Daily, February 9, 2009

Volume 132, Issue 8https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10545/thumbnail.jp

Toward an estimation of the relationship between cyclonic structures and damages at the ground in Europe

Cyclonic systems dominate European and Mediterranean meteorology throughout the year and often induce severe weather in terms of heavy and/or long-lasting precipitation with related phenomena such as strong winds and lightning. Surface cyclonic structures are often related to well defined precipitation patterns with different scales, duration and intensity. Cyclones confined in the upper troposphere, usually referred to as cut off low, may induce instability at lower levels and the development of convective precipitation. In this work the occurrence of cyclonic events (discriminated between surface ones and cut-off lows) is analyzed and matched with an economic losses database to highlight a relation between the atmospheric structures and the impact on the social environment in terms of casualties and material damages. The study focus on the continental Europe and, based on the ERA-40 reanalysis, two databases of surface cyclones and cut-off lows have been constructed by means of automatic pattern recognition algorithms. The impact on the local communities is estimated from an insurance company record, which provides the location, date and type of the events, as well as related losses in terms of damages and casualties. Results show the relatively high impact of cyclonic structures on human life in Europe: most of the weather induced damages occur close to a cyclonic center, especially during warm months. Damages and human losses are more frequent from late summer to January, and precipitation is the most relevant meteorological damaging feature throughout the year

Efficiency in the Romanian Banking System: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis

The paper analyzes the efficiency and productivity of the Romanian banks from 2006-08. It uses a non-parametric approach, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to analyze banks’ efficiency. Based on a sample of 15 commercial banks, our findings reveal that although the efficiency of the Romanian commercial banks improved since 2006, the cost efficiency scores are relatively low. Also, even if in 2007 the total factor productivity increased, in 2008 this score of the average productivity of banks decreased.bank performance, cost efficiency, productivity, data envelopment analysis, Malmquist Index

AN APPROACH TO SOCIAL POLICY IN ROMANIA FROM THE LIFECYCLE PERSPECTIVE

The demographic reality and the changes of population compositions, families and communities from the urban and, respectively, the rural area contain several challenges for reconfiguring the social policies in the future. This study proposes an approach of the Romanian social policy in the context of ageing, of changes and risks it generates from the lifecycle perspective. First, the main arguments are reviewed that motivate such an approach by highlighting the modification trends of risks and opportunities during the individuals’ lifetime. Next, an analysis is realised with respect to the opportunities of adjusting the social policy to the risks associated to the main stages of the lifecycle: years of growing and learning (childhood and adolescence); the period of forming families and the working life years; the post-active period. A special emphasis is laid on taking into account the differences between men and women. The study contains recommendations for policies oriented on diminishing the risks during the lifecycle in the context of ageing.lifecycle, social policy; Romania; ageing social policy; ageing gender; social risk

Scanning and data extraction from crop collecting mission documents

Poster presented at TDWG 2009, Montpellier (France). 9 - 13 Nov 2009

Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds Inferred From Airborne Flux Measurements over a Megacity

Toluene and benzene are used for assessing the ability to measure disjunct eddy covariance (DEC) fluxes of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) using Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) on aircraft. Statistically significant correlation between vertical wind speed and mixing ratios suggests that airborne VOC eddy covariance (EC) flux measurements using PTR-MS are feasible. City-median midday toluene and benzene fluxes are calculated to be on the order of 14.1±4.0 mg/m<sup>2</sup>/h and 4.7±2.3 mg/m<sup>2</sup>/h, respectively. For comparison the adjusted CAM2004 emission inventory estimates toluene fluxes of 10 mg/m<sup>2</sup>/h along the footprint of the flight-track. Wavelet analysis of instantaneous toluene and benzene measurements during city overpasses is tested as a tool to assess surface emission heterogeneity. High toluene to benzene flux ratios above an industrial district (e.g. 10–15 g/g) including the International airport (e.g. 3–5 g/g) and a mean flux (concentration) ratio of 3.2±0.5 g/g (3.9±0.3 g/g) across Mexico City indicate that evaporative fuel and industrial emissions play an important role for the prevalence of aromatic compounds. Based on a tracer model, which was constrained by BTEX (BTEX– Benzene/Toluene/Ethylbenzene/m, p, o-Xylenes) compound concentration ratios, the fuel marker methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether (MTBE) and the biomass burning marker acetonitrile (CH<sub>3</sub>CN), we show that a combination of industrial, evaporative fuel, and exhaust emissions account for >87% of all BTEX sources. Our observations suggest that biomass burning emissions play a minor role for the abundance of BTEX compounds in the MCMA (2–13%)