A Large International River: The Danube. Summary of Hydrological Conditions and Water Management Problems in the Danube Basin

The demand of policy makers and managers to find environmentally sound and sustainable economic development is obvious. At the same time, various branches of sciences dealing with environmental issues have become more and more specialized. The solution to problems -- often of a global character -- requires the interdisciplinary analysis of versatile systems consisting of natural, economic and social elements of the environment. Within the long series of water related topics of IIASA's Environment Program, a new project "Decision Support Systems for Managing Large International Rivers" (LIR) was recently launched. The formulation of environmentally sound management policy for land-use and water resources development requires the reliable prediction of the impacts of different human interventions in order to eliminate conflicts between different interest groups, and to preserve the quality of life in both the biosphere and society. Several models for the assessment of various environmental impacts already exist, but the large scale of river basins and the amount of data -- the availability of which is even limited in some cases -- require the development of aggregated systems of models that can provide decision makers with easily understandable information at various hierarchical levels. Considering this requirement, the objective of the project is to construct a computer-based interactive data and information system to facilitate the effective participation of policy making authorities in determining current conditions and expected changes in hydrological systems. The outline of LIR emphasizes the importance of the preparation of case studies. Their role is not only to check the applicability on the system for solving actually occurring problems, but the analysis of the basins as cases will assist in selecting the crucial questions that should be answered by the Decision Support System. The Danube basin was chosen as the first case study to be investigated in the framework of LIR. The reason for this choice is partly that IIASA is located in the basin, and, thus all information easily accessible. The international character of the river (there are 8 riparian countries and 3 others sharing a small part of the catchment), the rapidly developing problems of the utilization of water (canalization, increasing transboundary pollution, seasonal water shortage), and the efforts of the riparian countries to improve the conditions of water resources development within the basin (which is clearly indicated by the fact that a joint declaration was signed) are also reasons supporting the selection of the Danube as the first case study. Naturally, the hydrological conditions of the river system and the water management problems occurring within the catchment are well known for the experts in water sciences working in the riparian countries. For experts participating in the project and coming from other countries, or, representing other scientific disciplines, it is necessary, however, to summarize the most important information describing the water regime of the river system and the obstacles hindering the development of water resources in the basin. This working paper and the detailed list of references provide more information on water management in the Danube basin

Mechanisms and Observations of Coronal Dimming for the 2010 August 7 Event

Coronal dimming of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) emission has the potential to be a useful forecaster of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). As emitting material leaves the corona, a temporary void is left behind which can be observed in spectral images and irradiance measurements. The velocity and mass of the CMEs should impact the character of those observations. However, other physical processes can confuse the observations. We describe these processes and the expected observational signature, with special emphasis placed on the differences. We then apply this understanding to a coronal dimming event with an associated CME that occurred on 2010 August 7. Data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory's (SDO) Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and EUV Variability Experiment (EVE) are used for observations of the dimming, while the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory's (SOHO) Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) and the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory's (STEREO) COR1 and COR2 are used to obtain velocity and mass estimates for the associated CME. We develop a technique for mitigating temperature effects in coronal dimming from full-disk irradiance measurements taken by EVE. We find that for this event, nearly 100% of the dimming is due to mass loss in the corona

WEFES - Web explorer of forest ecosystems services under climate change

PosterClimate change will change the dynamics of forest environmental services. All the change complexity involved is difficult to visualize under an easy and accessible information tool capable to integrate several services that forests can provide. A preliminary Web-Explorer of Forest Ecosystems Services was developed for New Zealand where forest managers and the general public can observe what are the predictions of the different forest environmental services under current and future climate for each location in the territory. Carbon storage, soil erosion, biodiversity, nitrate leaching, water balance are the preliminary forest environmental services envisaged. The tool uses a mix of programming languages and techniques (HTML, Javascript, PHP, and Ajax) as well as the GoogleMaps© application programming interface to interact with New Zealand online-stored geographical information to supply different models´ needs. A score system is calculated for the user reference where tradeoffs can be observed by changing the climate variables in the models. The tool (see link below) is under development and expecting “expressions of interest” for further improvement but already enabled a good interaction between different scientific background as well as interest from private forest organizations. Tool link: http://home.isa.utl.pt/~joaopalma/projects/tranzfor/wefesTRANZFOR - SCION - ISA/UTL - MORST - FFR - FCT/MCTE

Periosteum: biology, regulation, and response to osteoporosis therapies

Periosteum contains osteogenic cells that regulate the outer shape of bone and work in coordination with inner cortical endosteum to regulate cortical thickness and the size and position of a bone in space. Induction of periosteal expansion, especially at sites such as the lumbar spine and femoral neck, reduces fracture risk by modifying bone dimensions to increase bone strength. The cell and molecular mechanisms that selectively and specifically activate periosteal expansion, as well as the mechanisms by which osteoporosis drugs regulate periosteum, remain poorly understood. We speculate that an alternate strategy to protect human bones from fracture may be through targeting of the periosteum, either using current or novel agents. In this review, we highlight current concepts of periosteal cell biology, including their apparent differences from endosteal osteogenic cells, discuss the limited data regarding how the periosteal surface is regulated by currently approved osteoporosis drugs, and suggest one potential means through which targeting periosteum may be achieved. Improving our understanding of mechanisms controlling periosteal expansion will likely provide insights necessary to enhance current and develop novel interventions to further reduce the risk of osteoporotic fractures

Surface velocity and ice discharge of the ice cap on King George Island, Antarctica

Glaciers on King George Island, Antarctica, have shown retreat and surface lowering in recent decades, concurrent with increasing air temperatures. A large portion of the glacier perimeter is ocean-terminating, suggesting possible large mass losses due to calving and submarine melting. Here we estimate the ice discharge into the ocean for the King George Island ice cap. L-band synthetic aperture radar images covering the time-span January 2008 to January 2011 over King George Island are processed using an intensity-tracking algorithm to obtain surface velocity measurements. Pixel offsets from 40 pairs of radar images are analysed and inverted to estimate a weighted average surface velocity field. Ice thicknesses are derived from simple principles of ice flow mechanics using the computed surface velocity fields and in situ thickness data. The maximum ice surface speeds reach mayor que 225 m/yr, and the total ice discharge for the analysed flux gates of King George Island is estimated to be 0.720+/-0.428 Gt/yr, corresponding to a specific mass loss of 0.64+/-0.38 m w.e./yr over the area of the entire ice cap (1127 km2)

Die Wirkung von FBL-Übungen während der Arbeitszeit

Treten bei vorwiegend sitzenden Tätigkeiten während der Arbeitszeit, z.B. an Bildschirmarbeitsplätzen, über kurz oder lang körperliche Beschwerden auf und kann man diese im Rahmen der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung beeinflussen? Diese Frage wurde im Rahmen einer Studienarbeit , die während der Physiotherapieausbildung an der staatlichen Schule für Physiotherapie des Universitätsklinikums Münster durchgeführt wurde, untersucht. Den Probanden wurden Übungen aus der Funktionellen Bewegungslehre gezeigt, die Auswertung ergab keine unmittelbare Schmerzlinderung, aber eine Steigerung des körperlichen Wohlbefindens

A Droplet State in an Interacting Two-Dimensional Electron System

It is well known that the dielectric constant of two-dimensional (2D) electron system goes negative at low electron densities. A consequence of the negative dielectric constant could be the formation of the droplet state. The droplet state is a two-phase coexistence region of high density liquid and low density "gas". In this paper, we carry out energetic calculations to study the stability of the droplet ground state. The possible relevance of the droplet state to recently observed 2D metal-insulator transition is also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communications