The effect of switching mobile sources to natural gas on the ozone in the great smoky mountains national park

Mobile sources are among the largest contributors of NOx in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park region (GSMNP). In 2001, these sources contributed 45% of NOx emissions. From 1990 to 2001, the growth of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) increased 60% and 55% in neighboring Sevier and Blount counties respectively. These emissions combined with the high volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions in the Southeast area have caused the ozone ground level concentration to be as high as some major metropolitan areas in the summer season. In 2001, the maximum 8-hr ozone concentration inside the park was 103 parts per billion. In response to high ozone levels in other areas, federal, state, and local governments are promoting the use of alternative, clean, and reformulated fuel vehicles as a means to improve local air pollution. One of these fuels is compressed natural gas (CNG). The purpose of this project was to use USEPA's CMAQ system in order to model the air quality and compare the ozone ground level formation in the GSMNP from light duty vehicles (LDVs) operating with 100% CNG within 100 miles around GSMNP. A severe southeast ozone episode between August and September 1999 was used as a reference and 2004 was used as a future case. Results showed that LDVs fueled with 100% CNG in the domain could reduce ozone level by 10% and 8% for 1-hr and 8-hr ozone formation respectively in the GSMNP on the modeled time period. Scavenging occurred around the GSMNP in the morning time during the selected episode

¿Cómo influye la riqueza genética de los abetos pirenaicos en su respuesta al cambio climático?

Noticia publicada por la Agencia Sinc: El Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas (SINC) es la primera agencia pública de ámbito estatal especializada en información sobre ciencia, tecnología e innovación en español. En la página web de iAguaUn estudio demuestra que los abetares más antiguos son más tolerantes a condiciones de aumento de temperatura y disminución de precipitación. El mantenimiento de la diversidad ayuda a los expertos a contar con individuos adaptados, idóneos en las restauraciones, que eviten el decaimiento de la especie.N

Estructura de varianza y tamaño de muestra en contrastes lineales de medias

Se sugiere la estructura de varianza apropiada en diferentes casos de asignación de número de replicaciones de un tratamiento, para modelos de una vía de clasificación. También se dete; rmina el número de observaciones, con restricción de costos, para combinaciones de tratamientos

Genes y edad de los abetos pirenaicos, claves en su respuesta al cambio climático

Noticial en el Blog de la Web Fundación Descubre: Fundación Andaluza para la Divulgación de la Innovación y el ConocimientoUn estudio demuestra que los abetares más antiguos son más tolerantes a condiciones de aumento de temperatura y disminución de precipitación. El mantenimiento de la diversidad ayuda a los expertos a contar con individuos adaptados, idóneos en las restauraciones, que eviten el decaimiento de la especie.Peer reviewe

Understanding the 8 micron vs. Pa-alpha relationship on sub-arcsecond scales in Luminous Infrared Galaxies

This work explores in detail the relation between the 8 micron and the Pa-alpha emissions for 122 HII regions identified in a sample of 10 low-z LIRGs with nearly constant metallicity (12 + log (O/H) ~ 8.8). We use Gemini/T-ReCS high-spatial resolution (<~ 0.4" ~ 120 pc for the average distance of 60 Mpc of our sample) mid-infrared imaging (at 8.7 micron or 10.3 micron) together with HST/NICMOS continuum and Pa-alpha images. The LIRG HII regions extend the L_8micron vs. L_Pa-alpha relation found for HII knots in the high-metallicity SINGS galaxies by about two orders of magnitude to higher luminosities. Since the metallicity of the LIRG sample is nearly constant, we can rule out this effect as a cause for the scatter seen in the relationship. In turn, it is attributed to two effects: age and PAH features. The L_8micron/L_Pa-alpha ratio, which varies by a factor of ten for the LIRG HII regions, is reproduced by a model with instantaneous star formation and ages ranging from ~ 4 to 7.5 Myr. The remaining dispersion around the model predictions for a given age is probably due to differential contributions of the PAH features (the 8.6 micron, in our case) to the 8 micron emission from galaxy to galaxy.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ; paper with full-resolution figures can be found at: http://damir.iem.csic.es/extragalactic

Conformance Verification of Normative Specifications using C-O Diagrams

C-O Diagrams have been introduced as a means to have a visual representation of normative texts and electronic contracts, where it is possible to represent the obligations, permissions and prohibitions of the different signatories, as well as what are the penalties in case of not fulfillment of their obligations and prohibitions. In such diagrams we are also able to represent absolute and relative timing constrains. In this paper we consider a formal semantics for C-O Diagrams based on a network of timed automata and we present several relations to check the consistency of a contract in terms of realizability, to analyze whether an implementation satisfies the requirements defined on its contract, and to compare several implementations using the executed permissions as criteria.Comment: In Proceedings FLACOS 2012, arXiv:1209.169

Unified phantom cosmologies

We present a general algorithm based on the concept of form-invariance which can be used for generating phantom cosmologies. It involves linear transformations between the kinetic energy and the potential of the scalar field, and transforms solutions of the Einstein-Klein-Gordon equations which preserve the weak energy condition into others which violate it, while keeping the energy density of the field positive. All known solutions representing phantom cosmologies are unified by this procedure. Using the general algorithm we obtain those solutions and show the relations between them. In addition, the scale factors of the product and seed solutions are related by a generalization of the well-known $a\to a^{-1}$ duality.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figur

Design of beams and slabs of self-compacting concrete fittings working to flexion

Numerous experimental studies indicate that addition of fibers substantially increases the shear strength of concrete and mortar beams, and that stirrups and reinforcing fibers combination can be really effective. When steel fibers are used as a supplement or substitute for vertical stirrups or folded bars, we obtain the following characteristics: The fibers are distributed randomly by the volume of the concrete with a closer separation than can be achieved with the Armor; The tensile strength at first crack, the ultimate tensile strength and the shear friction resistance are increased