Multidecadal changes in winter circulation-climate relationship in Europe: frequency variations, within-type modifications, and long-term trends

Using pressure fields classified by the SANDRA algorithm, this study investigates the changes in the relationship between North Atlantic/European sea level pressure (SLP) and gridded European winter (DJF) temperature and precipitation back to 1750. Important changes in the frequency of the SLP clusters are found, though none of them indicating significant long-term trends. However, for the majority of the SLP clusters a tendency toward overall warmer and partly wetter winter conditions is found, most pronounced over the last decades. This suggests important within-type variations, i.e. the temperature and precipitation fields related to a particular SLP pattern change their characteristics over time. Using a decomposition scheme we find for temperature and precipitation that within-type-related variations dominate over those due to changed frequencies of the SLP clusters: Approximately 70% (60%) of European winter temperature (precipitation) variations can be explained by within-type changes, most strongly expressed over Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. This indicates that the current European winter warming cannot be explained by changed frequencies of the SLP patterns alone, but to a larger degree by changed characteristics of the patterns themselves. Potential sources of within-type variations are discusse

How important are the parties' Brexit pledges to voters?

Is this really the 'Brexit election', or do voters care as much (if not more) about other issues? Heinz Brandenburg (University of Strathclyde), Fraser McMillan (University of Glasgow) and Marcel Hanegraaff (Universiteit van Amsterdam) tested the relative importance of Brexit vis-a-vis health, education and the environment. They found that Labour supporters are less attached to ensuring the party fulfills its pledges on Brexit than Conservative and Lib Dem voters

Preparation and properties of model glasses of historic enamels of the Green Vault Museum, Dresden

Many enamelled art objects of the Green Vauk Museum, Dresden, have been suffering a severe deterioration of the enamel layers during the last 20 to 30 years. The authors obtained three splinters of about 200 mg weight each of green, blue, and opaque turquoise enamel of the Aurangzeb ensemble. Model glasses of these originals were prepared which should match them as closely as possible. The investigations showed that the simple degree of network polymerization related to the SiO2/Na2O ratio is insufficient to understand their chemical properties even if one takes components such as MgO, CaO or AI2O3 also into consideration. To understand further structural influences IR, UV/VIS, and EPR spectroscopy studies were performed on the enamels, and it could be evidenced that components such as MnO, Fe2O3, CuO, CoO, PbO and SnO2 not only act as colorants or opacifiers but also as stabilizers of these materials. Taking this into account the chemical and physical behavior of the respective enamels in the museum can be elucidated

Comparison of climate field reconstruction techniques: application to Europe

This paper presents a comparison of principal component (PC) regression and regularized expectation maximization (RegEM) to reconstruct European summer and winter surface air temperature over the past millennium. Reconstruction is performed within a surrogate climate using the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Climate System Model (CSM) 1.4 and the climate model ECHO-G 4, assuming different white and red noise scenarios to define the distortion of pseudoproxy series. We show how sensitivity tests lead to valuable "a priori” information that provides a basis for improving real world proxy reconstructions. Our results emphasize the need to carefully test and evaluate reconstruction techniques with respect to the temporal resolution and the spatial scale they are applied to. Furthermore, we demonstrate that uncertainties inherent to the predictand and predictor data have to be more rigorously taken into account. The comparison of the two statistical techniques, in the specific experimental setting presented here, indicates that more skilful results are achieved with RegEM as low frequency variability is better preserved. We further detect seasonal differences in reconstruction skill for the continental scale, as e.g. the target temperature average is more adequately reconstructed for summer than for winter. For the specific predictor network given in this paper, both techniques underestimate the target temperature variations to an increasing extent as more noise is added to the signal, albeit RegEM less than with PC regression. We conclude that climate field reconstruction techniques can be improved and need to be further optimized in future application

Value Propositions in the Internet of Things: A Taxonomy of B2B Smart Services

Connected and smart products give rise to smart services that leverage their advanced capabilities and promise profitable business models. However, many companies in the Internet of Things domain are still struggling to incorporate smart services into their portfolios, and more research is needed to facilitate service innovation and adoption. We, therefore, identify common characteristics of the value propositions of B2B smart services and summarize them in a taxonomy. The taxonomy development follows established methods and is based on a systematic literature review and the study of 100 empirical objects. To confirm the validity of our findings, we conduct two ex-post evaluations. Our research provides descriptive knowledge about B2B smart services that can serve as a foundation for further research on smart service innovation

Structural insights on ionizable Dlin-MC3-DMA lipids in DOPC layers by combining accurate atomistic force fields, molecular dynamics simulations and neutron reflectivity

Ionizable lipids such as the promising Dlin-MC3-DMA (MC3) are essential for the successful design of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) as drug delivery agents. Combining molecular dynamics simulations with experimental data, such as neutron reflectivity experiments and other scattering techniques, is essential to provide insights into the internal structure of LNPs, which is not fully understood to date. However, the accuracy of the simulations relies on the choice of force field parameters and high-quality experimental data is indispensable to verify the parametrization. For MC3, different parameterizations in combination with the CHARMM and the Slipids force fields have recently emerged. Here, we complement the existing efforts by providing parameters for cationic and neutral MC3 compatible with the AMBER Lipid17 force field. Subsequently, we carefully assess the accuracy of the different force fields by providing a direct comparison to neutron reflectivity experiments of mixed lipid bilayers consisting of MC3 and DOPC at different pHs. At low pH (cationic MC3) and at high pH (neutral MC3) the newly developed MC3 parameters in combination with AMBER Lipid17 for DOPC give good agreement with the experiments. Overall, the agreement is similar compared to the Park-Im parameters for MC3 in combination with the CHARMM36 force field for DOPC. The Ermilova-Swenson MC3 parameters in combination with the Slipids force field underestimate the bilayer thickness. While the distribution of cationic MC3 is very similar, the different force fields for neutral MC3 reveal distinct differences ranging from strong accumulation in the membrane center (current MC3/AMBER Lipid17 DOPC), over mild accumulation (Park-Im MC3/CHARMM36 DOPC) to surface accumulation (Ermilova-Swenson MC3/Slipids DOPC). These pronounced differences highlight the importance of accurate force field parameters and their experimental validation

Barriers to Data Sharing among Private Sector Organizations

In today’s digital world, sharing data among private sector organizations to realm mutual benefits, such as innovation and value co-creation, is considered a promising yet barely explored and realized approach. Although private sector organizations are pursuing data sharing, successful real-world examples are sparse due to a multitude of barriers. However, knowledge on barriers to data sharing among private sector organizations is scarcely existent in scientific literature. Therefore, we apply an exploratory research approach by triangulating insights from fourteen expert interviews and a systematic literature review to identify barriers which we group along five distinct perspectives. By exploring the multi-faceted barriers to data sharing among private sector organizations, our work contributes to a better understanding of data sharing in this field and lays the foundation for future studies. For practitioners, we identify key challenges to successful data sharing among private sector organizations and, hence call for additional endeavors in data sharing

Professional judges’ disbelief in free will does not decrease punishment

There is a debate in psychology and philosophy on the societal consequences of casting doubts about individuals’ belief in free will. Research suggests that experimentally reducing free will beliefs might affect how individuals evaluate others’ behavior. Past research has demonstrated that reduced free will beliefs decrease laypersons’ tendency toward retributive punishment. This finding has been used as an argument for the idea that promoting anti-free will viewpoints in the public media might have severe consequences for the legal system because it may move judges toward softer retributive punishments. However, actual implications for the legal system can only be drawn by investigating professional judges. In the present research, we investigated whether judges ( N = 87) are affected by reading anti-free will messages. The results demonstrate that although reading anti-free will texts reduces judges’ belief in free will, their recommended sentences are not influenced by their (manipulated) belief in free will

Pressed into Party Support? : Media Influence on Partisan Attitudes during the 2005 UK General Election Campaign

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

When long-distance relationships don't work out: Representational distance and satisfaction with democracy in Europe

We assess the impact of party representation on satisfaction with democracy. Our proposition is that such representation is not only about having a chosen party in government; citizens also derive satisfaction from having their views represented by a political party. We test this through an individual-level measure of policy (in)congruence: the ideological distance between a voter and his or her closest party. Via multi-level modelling of European Election Study data from 1989 to 2009, we find that perceived policy distance matters: the further away that voters see themselves from their nearest party – on either a left-right or a European unification policy dimension – the less satisfied they are with democracy. Notably, this effect is not moderated by party incumbency or size. Voters derive satisfaction from feeling represented by a nearby party even if it is small and out of office. Our results caution against a purely outcomes-driven understanding of democratic satisfaction