Book review: surrealism in Egypt: modernism and the art and liberty group by Sam Bardaouil

In Surrealism in Egypt: Modernism and the Art and Liberty Group, Sam Bardaouil provides the first comprehensive account of the Egypt-based Surrealist collective’s artworks, literary texts and critical writings. This is an innovative analysis that invites us to reconsider existing definitions and understandings of the Surrealist movement, balancing detailed historical inquiry with provocative theoretical questioning, writes Johannes Makar

Analysis of meteorology-chemistry interactions during air pollution episodes using online coupled models within AQMEII Phase-2

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).This study reviews the top ranked meteorology and chemistry interactions in online coupled models recommended by an experts’ survey conducted in COST Action EuMetChem and examines the sensitivity of those interactions during two pollution episodes: the Russian forest fires 25 Jul -15 Aug 2010 and a Saharan dust transport event from 1 Oct -31 Oct 2010 as a part of the AQMEII phase-2 exercise. Three WRF-Chem model simulations were performed for the forest fire case for a baseline without any aerosol feedback on meteorology, a simulation with aerosol direct effects only and a simulation including both direct and indirect effects. For the dust case study, eight WRF-Chem and one WRF-CMAQ simulations were selected from the set of simulations conducted in the framework of AQMEII. Of these two simulations considered no feedbacks, two included direct effects only and five simulations included both direct and indirect effects. The results from both episodes demonstrate that it is important to include the meteorology and chemistry interactions in online-coupled models. Model evaluations using routine observations collected in AQMEII phase-2 and observations from a station in Moscow show that for the fire case the simulation including only aerosol direct effects has better performance than the simulations with no aerosol feedbacks or including both direct and indirect effects. The normalized mean biases are significantly reduced by 10-20% for PM10 when including aerosol direct effects. The analysis for the dust case confirms that models perform better when including aerosol direct effects, but worse when including both aerosol direct and indirect effects, which suggests that the representation of aerosol indirect effects needs to be improved in the model.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Trace gas/aerosol boundary concentrations and their impacts on continental-scale AQMEII modeling domains

Copyright 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Over twenty modeling groups are participating in the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) in which a variety of mesoscale photochemical and aerosol air quality modeling systems are being applied to continental-scale domains in North America and Europe for 2006 full-year simulations for model inter-comparisons and evaluations. To better understand the reasons for differences in model results among these participating groups, each group was asked to use the same source of emissions and boundary concentration data for their simulations. This paper describes the development and application of the boundary concentration data for this AQMEII modeling exercise. The European project known as GEMS (Global and regional Earth-system Monitoring using Satellite and in-situ data) has produced global-scale re-analyses of air quality for several years, including 2006 (http://gems.ecmwf.int). The GEMS trace gas and aerosol data were made available at 3-hourly intervals on a regular latitude/longitude grid of approximately 1.9° resolution within 2 "cut-outs" from the global model domain. One cut-out was centered over North America and the other over Europe, covering sufficient spatial domain for each modeling group to extract the necessary time- and space-varying (horizontal and vertical) concentrations for their mesoscale model boundaries. Examples of the impact of these boundary concentrations on the AQMEII continental simulations are presented to quantify the sensitivity of the simulations to boundary concentrations. In addition, some participating groups were not able to use the GEMS data and instead relied upon other sources for their boundary concentration specifications. These are noted, and the contrasting impacts of other data sources for boundary data are presented. How one specifies four-dimensional boundary concentrations for mesoscale air quality simulations can have a profound impact on the model results, and hence, this aspect of data preparation must be performed with considerable care.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

A single-point modeling approach for the intercomparison and evaluation of ozone dry deposition across chemical transport models (Activity 2 of AQMEII4)

A primary sink of air pollutants and their precursors is dry deposition. Dry deposition estimates differ across chemical transport models, yet an understanding of the model spread is incomplete. Here, we introduce Activity 2 of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative Phase 4 (AQMEII4). We examine 18 dry deposition schemes from regional and global chemical transport models as well as standalone models used for impact assessments or process understanding. We configure the schemes as single-point models at eight Northern Hemisphere locations with observed ozone fluxes. Single-point models are driven by a common set of site-specific meteorological and environmental conditions. Five of eight sites have at least 3 years and up to 12 years of ozone fluxes. The interquartile range across models in multiyear mean ozone deposition velocities ranges from a factor of 1.2 to 1.9 annually across sites and tends to be highest during winter compared with summer. No model is within 50 % of observed multiyear averages across all sites and seasons, but some models perform well for some sites and seasons. For the first time, we demonstrate how contributions from depositional pathways vary across models. Models can disagree with respect to relative contributions from the pathways, even when they predict similar deposition velocities, or agree with respect to the relative contributions but predict different deposition velocities. Both stomatal and nonstomatal uptake contribute to the large model spread across sites. Our findings are the beginning of results from AQMEII4 Activity 2, which brings scientists who model air quality and dry deposition together with scientists who measure ozone fluxes to evaluate and improve dry deposition schemes in the chemical transport models used for research, planning, and regulatory purposes

BD-ProExC as adjunct molecular marker for improved detection of CIN2(+) after HPV primary screening

Background and Methods: We investigated the efficacy of 8 cervical cancer screening strategies relative to cytology with emphasis on immunocytochemical detection of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV)- induced cell transformation (BD-ProExC) as a tool of triage following primary cytology or hrHPV testing. 3,126 women were tested with BD-SurePath liquid-based cytology, hrHPV PCR genotyping and BD-ProExC immunostaining, and colposcopy verification to calculate sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) in detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2(+)). Results: Compared to cytology screening, double testing with cytology and hrHPV resulted in the same sensitivity with a significant increase in the PPV (relative PPV: 1.83). However, twice as many tests were needed. Cytology with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) triage and hrHPV testing showed comparative results to double testing requiring only a small increase in number of tests. Screening for hrHPV subtypes 16/18, and ASC-US triage with hrHPV16/18 resulted in significant reductions in sensitivity (ratio: 0.74 and 0.96, respectively). Primary hrHPV/BD-ProExC screening was significantly more sensitive (ratio: 1.63/1.33), but had a significantly lower PPV (ratio: 0.64/0.88). ASC-US triage by BD-ProExC increased the PPV (ratio: 1.90) but decreased the sensitivity (ratio: 0.96). Primary hrHPV screening followed by BD-ProExC triage, led to significant increases in sensitivity (ratio: 1.30) and PPV (ratio: 2.89), and resulted in 55% fewer referrals for colposcopy. Conclusions: From the investigated screening strategies, primary hrHPV DNA-based screening followed by BD-ProExC triage was determined to be the best screening strategy. Impact: Immunocytological triage could be used to perfect hrHPV primary screening

BD-ProExC as adjunct molecular marker for improved detection of <tex>CIN2^{+}$</tex> after HPV primary screening

Background and Methods: We investigated the efficacy of 8 cervical cancer screening strategies relative to cytology with emphasis on immunocytochemical detection of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV)- induced cell transformation (BD-ProExC) as a tool of triage following primary cytology or hrHPV testing. 3,126 women were tested with BD-SurePath liquid-based cytology, hrHPV PCR genotyping and BD-ProExC immunostaining, and colposcopy verification to calculate sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) in detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2(+)). Results: Compared to cytology screening, double testing with cytology and hrHPV resulted in the same sensitivity with a significant increase in the PPV (relative PPV: 1.83). However, twice as many tests were needed. Cytology with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) triage and hrHPV testing showed comparative results to double testing requiring only a small increase in number of tests. Screening for hrHPV subtypes 16/18, and ASC-US triage with hrHPV16/18 resulted in significant reductions in sensitivity (ratio: 0.74 and 0.96, respectively). Primary hrHPV/BD-ProExC screening was significantly more sensitive (ratio: 1.63/1.33), but had a significantly lower PPV (ratio: 0.64/0.88). ASC-US triage by BD-ProExC increased the PPV (ratio: 1.90) but decreased the sensitivity (ratio: 0.96). Primary hrHPV screening followed by BD-ProExC triage, led to significant increases in sensitivity (ratio: 1.30) and PPV (ratio: 2.89), and resulted in 55% fewer referrals for colposcopy. Conclusions: From the investigated screening strategies, primary hrHPV DNA-based screening followed by BD-ProExC triage was determined to be the best screening strategy. Impact: Immunocytological triage could be used to perfect hrHPV primary screening

Comparative analysis of meteorological performance of coupled chemistry-meteorology models in the context of AQMEII phase 2

Date of Acceptance: 12/12/2014 Copyright The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)Air pollution simulations critically depend on the quality of the underlying meteorology. In phase 2 of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII-2), thirteen modeling groups from Europe and four groups from North America operating eight different regional coupled chemistry and meteorology models participated in a coordinated model evaluation exercise. Each group simulated the year 2010 for a domain covering either Europe or North America or both. Here were present an operational analysis of model performance with respect to key meteorological variables relevant for atmospheric chemistry processes and air quality. These parameters include temperature and wind speed at the surface and in the vertical profile, incoming solar radiation at the ground, precipitation, and planetary boundary layer heights. A similar analysis was performed during AQMEII phase 1 (Vautard etal., 2012) for offline air quality models not directly coupled to the meteorological model core as the model systems investigated here. Similar to phase 1, we found significant overpredictions of 10-m wind speeds by most models, more pronounced during night than during daytime. The seasonal evolution of temperature was well captured with monthly mean biases below 2K over all domains. Solar incoming radiation, precipitation and PBL heights, on the other hand, showed significant spread between models and observations suggesting that major challenges still remain in the simulation of meteorological parameters relevant for air quality and for chemistry-climate interactions at the regional scale.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio