Western Mediterranean precipitation over the last 300 years from instrumental observations

The paper reports the results of the analysis of the 14 longest precipitation instrumental series, covering the last 300 years, that have been recovered in six subareas of the Western Mediterranean basin, i.e., Portugal, Northern and Southern Spain, Southern France, Northern and Southern Italy. This study extends back by one century our knowledge about the instrumental precipitation over theWestern Mediterranean, and by two centuries in some specific subareas. All the time series show repeated swings. No specific trends have been found over the whole period, except in a few cases, but with modest time changes and sometimes having opposite tendency. The same can be said for the most recent decades although with some more marked departures from the average. The correlation between the various Mediterranean subareas is generally not significant, or almost uncorrelated. The Wavelet Spectral Analysis applied to the precipitation identifies only a minor 56-year cycle in autumn, i.e., the same return period that has been found in literature for the Sea Surface Temperature over North Atlantic. A comparison with a gridded dataset reconstruction based on mixed multiproxy and instrumental observations, shows that the grid reconstruction is in good agreement with the observed data for the period after 1900, less for the previous period

Extreme events in Italy from documentary sources: Venice as a case study

Venice risks to be submerged as a consequence of two problems: local land subsidence and sea level rise due to global warming. They both contribute to what is referred as Apparent Sea Level Rise (ASLR). Flooding Tides (locally: Acqua Alta) submerge Venice with an exponentially increasing frequency. The Acqua Alta is generated by a number of factors, the main of them being the Sirocco wind blowing over the Adriatic Sea, that ultimately displaces waters towards Venice. These extreme events have been investigated by using the documentary description of past floods, accurately reported over the last millennium, and tide gauge records for the recent period. A fundamental problem is to know the trend of the ASLR, possibly distinguishing between land subsidence and sea level components. Instrumental data go back to 1872 and a key point is to extend ourkno wledge back in time. Long-term ASLR has been investigated with the help of a biological indicator, i.e. the height of the green belt of the algae that live in the tidal range and whose upper front shows the average high tide level. Fortunately, in the first half of the 18th century, this indicator was accurately drawn by the famous painter Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768) and his pupils, mainly Bernardo Bellotto (1722-1780), in their photographic paintings made with an optical camera obscura. It has been possible to compare the tidal level, as it was in the 1700s and today. After careful spot investigation and minor corrections for some changes to the hydrological system occurred in the meantime, the bulk submersion of Venice estimated from the paintings is 61 ± 11 cm with average yearly trend 1.9 mm y−1

Biomarkers of low-level environmental exposure to benzene and oxidative dna damage in primary school children in Sardinia, Italy

Background: The main anthropic sources of exposure to airborne benzene include vehicular traffic, cigarette smoke, and industrial emissions. Methods: To detect early genotoxic effects of environmental exposure to benzene, we monitored environmental, personal, and indoor airborne benzene in children living in an urban area and an area near a petrochemical plant. We also used urinary benzene and S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA) as biomarkers of benzene exposure and urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) as a biomarker of early genotoxic effects. Results: Although always below the European Union limit of 5 µg/m3, airborne benzene levels were more elevated in the indoor, outdoor, and personal samples from the industrial surroundings compared to the urban area (p = 0.026, p = 0.005, and p = 0.001, respectively). Children living in the surroundings of the petrochemical plant had urinary benzene values significantly higher than those from the urban area in both the morning and evening samples (p = 0.01 and p = 0.02, respectively). Results of multiple regression modelling showed that age was a significant predictor of 8-OHdG excretion, independent of the sampling hour. Moreover, at the low exposure level experienced by the children participating in this study, neither personal or indoor airborne benzene level, nor personal monitoring data, affected 8-OHdG excretion. Conclusions: Our results suggest the importance of biological monitoring of low-level environmental exposure and its relation to risk of genotoxic effects among children

Does accounting treatment of share-based payments impact performance measures for banks?

This paper identifies, evaluates and analyses the resulting impact of mandatory expensing of share‐based compensation (SBC) under IFRS2/FASB123R on a set of widely used performance measures in the EU and US banking industry. The paper shows that the accounting treatment of SBC schemes, following the mandatory adoption of IFRS2/FAS123R, has a statistically significant negative impact on the selected performance measures over the period 2004–11. The impact also seems to be material, yet modest, for US banks and only for large and high‐growth EU banks, indicating that earlier public concerns and criticisms of the implementation of IFRS2/FAS123R are largely unsubstantiated. The findings also show that banks continue to use SBC, but there is a reduction, albeit insignificant, in the recognised SBC expense over the period 2009–11. That is, earlier public concerns that firms would curtail employing SBC in their employees’ compensation schemes to avoid the effect of SBC expense recognition on their financial ratios came to light after the first option life‐cycle in the post‐adoption period was over. The findings also show a marked movement towards using cash‐settled‐based payments, possibly due to their manipulative accounting treatment, a potentially interesting issue for related accounting research and accounting standard setters

An analysis of factors that influence personal exposure to toluene and xylene in residents of Athens, Greece

BACKGROUND: Personal exposure to pollutants is influenced by various outdoor and indoor sources. The aim of this study was to evaluate the exposure of Athens citizens to toluene and xylene, excluding exposure from active smoking. METHODS: Passive air samplers were used to monitor volunteers, their homes and various urban sites for one year, resulting in 2400 measurements of toluene and xylene levels. Since both indoor and outdoor pollution contribute significantly to human exposure, volunteers were chosen from occupational groups who spend a lot of time in the streets (traffic policemen, bus drivers and postmen), and from groups who spend more time indoors (teachers and students). Data on individual and house characteristics were obtained using a questionnaire completed at the beginning of the study; a time-location-activity diary was also completed daily by the volunteers in each of the six monitoring campaigns. RESULTS: Average personal toluene exposure varied over the six monitoring campaigns from 53 to 80 μg/m(3). Urban and indoor concentrations ranged from 47 – 84 μg/m(3 )and 30 – 51 μg/m(3), respectively. Average personal xylene exposure varied between 56 and 85 μg/m(3 )while urban and indoor concentrations ranged from 53 – 88 μg/m(3 )and 27 – 48 μg/m(3), respectively. Urban pollution, indoor residential concentrations and personal exposures exhibited the same pattern of variation during the measurement periods. This variation among monitoring campaigns might largely be explained by differences in climate parameters, namely wind speed, humidity and amount of sunlight. CONCLUSION: In Athens, Greece, the time spent outdoors in the city center during work or leisure makes a major contribution to exposure to toluene and xylene among non-smoking citizens. Indoor pollution and means of transportation contribute significantly to individual exposure levels. Other indoor residential characteristics such as recent painting and mode of heating used might also contribute significantly to individual levels. Groups who may be subject to higher exposures (e.g. those who spent more time outdoors because of occupational activities) need to be surveyed and protected against possible adverse health effects

Maternal exposure to air pollution before and during pregnancy related to changes in newborn's cord blood lymphocyte subpopulations. The EDEN study cohort

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Toxicants can cross the placenta and expose the developing fetus to chemical contamination leading to possible adverse health effects, by potentially inducing alterations in immune competence. Our aim was to investigate the impacts of maternal exposure to air pollution before and during pregnancy on newborn's immune system.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Exposure to background particulate matter less than 10 μm in diameter (PM₁₀) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) was assessed in 370 women three months before and during pregnancy using monitoring stations. Personal exposure to four volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was measured in a subsample of 56 non-smoking women with a diffusive air sampler during the second trimester of pregnancy. Cord blood was analyzed at birth by multi-parameter flow cytometry to determine lymphocyte subsets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among other immunophenotypic changes in cord blood, decreases in the CD4+CD25+ T-cell percentage of 0.82% (p = 0.01), 0.71% (p = 0.04), 0.88% (p = 0.02), and 0.59% (p = 0.04) for a 10 μg/m³increase in PM₁₀levels three months before and during the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy, respectively, were observed after adjusting for confounders. A similar decrease in CD4+CD25+ T-cell percentage was observed in association with personal exposure to benzene. A similar trend was observed between NO₂exposure and CD4+CD25+ T-cell percentage; however the association was stronger between NO₂exposure and an increased percentage of CD8+ T-cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that maternal exposure to air pollution before and during pregnancy may alter the immune competence in offspring thus increasing the child's risk of developing health conditions later in life, including asthma and allergies.</p

The western Mediterranean climate: how will it respond to global warming?

The paper discusses the newly produced temperature and precipitation series from instrumental observations in the Western Mediterranean (WM) area, dating back to 1654. The two series had a continuous swing and unstable coupling passing from correlation to anti-correlation. Only after 1950 are they permanently anti-correlated with increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation. It is not clear how long this coupling will persist. The analysis of the correlation between the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and the WM temperature anomalies and their trends shows a certain variability from 1850 to 1950; later a strong coupling between NH and WM. Results suggest that the WM climate is approaching a turning point that might locally oppose the adverse effects of Global Warming.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Western Mediterranean precipitation over the last 300 years from instrumental observations

International audienceThe paper reports the results of the analysis of the 14 longest precipitation instrumental series, covering the last 300 years, that have been recovered in six subareas of the Western Mediterranean basin, i.e., Portugal, Northern and Southern Spain, Southern France, Northern and Southern Italy. This study extends back by one century our knowledge about the instrumental precipitation over the Western Mediterranean, and by two centuries in some specific subareas. All the time series show repeated swings. No specific trends have been found over the whole period, except in a few cases, but with modest time changes and sometimes having opposite tendency. The same can be said for the most recent decades although with some more marked departures from the average. The correlation between the various Mediterranean subareas is generally not significant, or almost uncorrelated. The Wavelet Spectral Analysis applied to the precipitation identifies only a minor 56-year cycle in autumn, i.e., the same return period that has been found in literature for the Sea Surface Temperature over North Atlantic. A comparison with a gridded dataset reconstruction based on mixed multiproxy and instrumental observations, shows that the grid reconstruction is in good agreement with the observed data for the period after 1900, less for the previous period.*** URL : http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-012-0539-9 (consulté le 27/06/2014