Nitrogen in current European policies

Europe, and especially the European Union (EU), has many governmental policy measures aimed at decreasing unwanted reactive nitrogen (N_r) emissions from combustion, agriculture and urban wastes. Many of these policy measures have an "effects-based approach", and focus on single N_r compounds, single sectors and either on air or waters. This chapter addresses the origin, objectives and targets of EU policy measures related to N_r emissions, considers which instruments are being used to implement the policies and briefly discusses the effects of the policy measures

Strategies to De-Risk Faults in the Subsurface for CO2 Storage: A Case Study from Smeaheia

Developing an accurate understanding of fault growth can aid risk management of sites for CO2 storage purposes. Areas of fault interaction lead to differences in the stress field, resulting in an increased strain, which is often accommodated by a high intensity of deformation bands and/or fracturing alter the permeability of the faults. Hence, detecting areas of interaction of pre-existing structures may indicate locations of high risk in terms of the fault’s hydraulic properties. The Vette Fault Zone (VFZ), bounding the Alpha prospect within the potential CO2 Smeaheia storage site developed from a minimum of seven fault segments. Using data from the adjacent Tusse Fault Zone (TFZ), we can identify potential areas of high-risk, where fluids may have the ability to flow across or along the VFZ. The TFZ and VFZ have a high seal potential through gouge and smear mechanisms. Instead of any membrane breaching, areas of high risk have been identified at locations of relict fault-fault intersections where the initial displacement and area of overlap is high, and corresponds with the spill point of Troll East. Using the same assumptions for the VFZ, we can observe one potential high-risk zone, which occurs within the area of potential CO2 accumulation

Carbonaceous aerosols in Norwegian urban areas

Little is known regarding levels and source strength of carbonaceous aerosols in Scandinavia. In the present study, ambient aerosol (PM<sub>10</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub>) concentrations of elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), water-insoluble organic carbon (WINSOC), and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) are reported for a curbside site, an urban background site, and a suburban site in Norway in order to investigate their spatial and seasonal variations. Aerosol filter samples were collected using tandem filter sampling to correct for the positive sampling artefact introduced by volatile and semivolatile OC. Analyses were performed using the thermal optical transmission (TOT) instrument from Sunset Lab Inc., which corrects for charring during analysis. Finally, we estimated the relative contribution of OC from wood burning based on the samples content of levoglucosan. <br><br> Levels of EC varied by more than one order of magnitude between sites, likely due to the higher impact of vehicular traffic at the curbside and the urban background sites. In winter, the level of particulate organic carbon (OC<sub><i>p</i></sub>) at the suburban site was equal to (for PM<sub>10</sub>) or even higher (for PM<sub>2.5</sub>) than the levels observed at the curbside and the urban background sites. This finding was attributed to the impact of residential wood burning at the suburban site in winter, which was confirmed by a high mean concentration of levoglucosan (407 ng m<sup>−3</sup>). This finding indicates that exposure to primary combustion derived OC<sub><i>p</i></sub> could be equally high in residential areas as in a city center. It is demonstrated that OC<sub><i>p</i></sub> from wood burning (OC<sub>wood</sub>) accounted for almost all OC<sub><i>p</i></sub> at the suburban site in winter, allowing a new estimate of the ratio TC<sub><i>p</i></sub>/levoglucosan for both PM<sub>10</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub>. Particulate carbonaceous material (PCM=Organic matter+Elemental matter) accounted for 46–83% of PM<sub>10</sub> at the sites studied, thus being the major fraction

How Fault Interpretation Method May Influence the Assessment of a Fault-bound CO2 Storage Site

Interpretation of faults in the subsurface hinges on utilising an optimum picking strategy, i.e. the seismic line spacing. Differences in line spacing lead to significant changes in subsequent fault analyses such as fault growth, fault seal and fault stability, all of which are crucial when analysing a fault-bound CO2 storage site. With the ever-advancing technologies, machine learning techniques, such as Deep Neural Networks (DNN), used for fault extraction are becoming increasingly common, however their limitations and corresponding uncertainty is still largely unknown. We show how fault extraction using DNN compares with faults that have been picked manually, and with different line spacing. Uncertainty related to both manual and automated fault extraction methods are heavily reliant on seismic quality. As such, faults that are well-imaged show a closer similarity to those that have been manually picked. Conversely, DNN picking of poorly imaged faults creates a fault surface that is more irregular and with a lower predicted stability than the smoother and simpler fault model created by manual picking. We conclude that fault picking by DNN without in-depth expertise works for well-imaged faults; poorly imaged faults require additional considerations and quality control for both manually and DNN picked faults

Stability and Representation Dependence of the Quantum Skyrmion

A constructive realization of Skyrme's conjecture that an effective pion mass ``may arise as a self consistent quantal effect'' based on an ab initio quantum treatment of the Skyrme model is presented. In this quantum mechanical Skyrme model the spectrum of states with $I=J$, which appears in the collective quantization, terminates without any infinite tower of unphysical states. The termination point depends on the model parameters and the dimension of the SU(2) representation. Representations, in which the nucleon and $\Delta_{33}$ resonance are the only stable states, exist. The model is developed for both irreducible and reducible representations of general dimension. States with spin larger than 1/2 are shown to be deformed. The representation dependence of the baryon observables is illustrated numerically.Comment: 19 pages, Late

Access to health care for persons with disabilities in rural South Africa

BACKGROUND: Global research suggests that persons with disabilities face barriers when accessing health care services. Yet, information regarding the nature of these barriers, especially in low-income and middle-income countries is sparse. Rural contexts in these countries may present greater barriers than urban contexts, but little is known about access issues in such contexts. There is a paucity of research in South Africa looking at "triple vulnerability" - poverty, disability and rurality. This study explored issues of access to health care for persons with disabilities in an impoverished rural area in South Africa. METHODS: The study includes a quantitative survey with interviews with 773 participants in 527 households. Comparisons in terms of access to health care between persons with disabilities and persons with no disabilities were explored. The approach to data analysis included quantitative data analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics. Frequency and cross tabulation, comparing and contrasting the frequency of different phenomena between persons with disabilities and persons with no disabilities, were used. Chi-square tests and Analysis of Variance tests were then incorporated into the analysis. RESULTS: Persons with disabilities have a higher rate of unmet health needs as compared to non-disabled. In rural Madwaleni in South Africa, persons with disabilities faced significantly more barriers to accessing health care compared to persons without disabilities. Barriers increased with disability severity and was reduced with increasing level of education, living in a household without disabled members and with age. CONCLUSIONS: This study has shown that access to health care in a rural area in South Africa for persons with disabilities is more of an issue than for persons without disabilities in that they face more barriers. Implications are that we need to look beyond the medical issues of disability and address social and inclusion issues as well

A 10-Year Retrospective Analysis of Methyl Aminolevulinate Photodynamic Therapy Consultation at the Hospital de Braga

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a well-established treatment for actinic keratosis (AK), basal cell carcinoma (BCC), and Bowen's disease (BD). The object of this study was to describe the results of a retrospective analysis of patients treated with methyl aminolevulinate PDT (MAL-PDT) with red light, over the past decade at the Hospital de Braga (Braga, Portugal)

Photochemical modelling in the Po basin with focus on formaldehyde and ozone

As part of the EU project FORMAT ( Formaldehyde as a Tracer of Oxidation in the Troposphere), a field campaign was carried out in the vicinity of Milan during the summer of 2002. Results from a 3-D regional chemical transport model (NILU RCTM) were used to interpret the observations focusing primarily on HCHO and ozone. The performance of the model was assessed by comparing model results with ground based and aircraft measurements. The model results show good agreement with surface measurements, and the model is able to reproduce the photochemical episodes during fair weather days. The comparison indicates that the model can represent well the HCHO concentrations as well as their temporal and spatial variability. The relationship between HCHO and (O-3 x H2O) was used to validate the model ability to predict the HCHO concentrations. Further analysis revealed the importance of the representativeness of different instruments: in-situ concentrations might be locally enhanced by emissions, while long path measurements over a forest can be influenced by rapid formation of HCHO from isoprene. The model is able to capture the plume from the city of Milan and the modelled levels agree generally well with the aircraft measurements, although the wind fields used in the model can lead to a displacement of the ozone plume. During the campaign period, O3 levels were seldom higher than 80 ppb, the peak surface ozone maxima reached 90 ppb. Those relatively low values can be explained by low emissions during the August vacation and unstable weather conditions in this period. The modelled Delta O-3/Delta NOz slope at Alzate of 5.1 agrees well with the measured slope of 4.9