A Price Worth Paying: The Case for Controlling Marine Emissions in the Pearl River Delta

The Pearl River Delta (PRD) is a region with a single airshed, but different administrative and legal practices for controlling air quality. Under the Regional Cooperation Plan on Building a Quality Living Area (QLA Plan) released in June 2012 the Governments of Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macau have outlined a strategy to collaborate in reducing emissions from vessels throughout the PRD. This report provides evidence designed to assist policymakers in the region with this objective. It focuses on regulating toxic exhaust emissions from ocean-going vessels (OGVs) -- the most significant contributors of marine emissions. The findings show that marine sources of sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions currently account for 519 premature deaths per annum in the PRD. These deaths could be reduced by 91% should an Emission Control Area (ECA) mandating the use of fuels with lower sulphur content be introduced. The report also demonstrates that three less comprehensive control measures would also reduce OGV emissions and associated public health impacts by 41-62%. Policymakers are encouraged to introduce these measures as stepping-stones on the way to establishment of an ECA for the PRD

4f-spin dynamics in La(2-x-y)Sr(x)Nd(y)CuO(4)

We have performed inelastic magnetic neutron scattering experiments on La(2-x-y)Sr(x)Nd(y)CuO(4) in order to study the Nd 4f-spin dynamics at low energies. In all samples we find at high temperatures a quasielastic line (Lorentzian) with a line width which decreases on lowering the temperature. The temperature dependence of the quasielastic line width Gamma/2(T) can be explained with an Orbach-process, i.e. a relaxation via the coupling between crystal field excitations and phonons. At low temperatures the Nd-4f magnetic response S(Q,omega) correlates with the electronic properties of the CuO(2)-layers. In the insulator La(2-y)Nd(y)CuO(4) the quasielastic line vanishes below 80 K and an inelastic excitation occurs. This directly indicates the splitting of the Nd3+ ground state Kramers doublet due to the static antiferromagnetic order of the Cu moments. In La(1.7-x)Sr(x)Nd(0.3)CuO(4) with x = 0.12, 0.15 and La(1.4-x)Sr(x)Nd(0.6)CuO(4) with x = 0.1, 0.12, 0.15, 0.18 superconductivity is strongly suppressed. In these compounds we observe a temperature independent broad quasielastic line of Gaussian shape below T about 30 K. This suggests a distribution of various internal fields on different Nd sites and is interpreted in the frame of the stripe model. In La(1.8-y)Sr(0.2)Nd(y)CuO(4) (y = 0.3, 0.6) such a quasielastic broadening is not observed even at lowest temperature.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures included, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Siding in a workplace dispute in China: the impact of legitimacy, sanction, and Guanxi

Employees in the role of outsider can be faced with a dispute between colleagues. Taking sides is a crucially important, yet neglected tactic in handling disputes. In a study of 226 Chinese employees, we investigated the influence of employees’ moral and expedient orientations on their siding intentions in a workplace dispute characterized by different distributions of legitimacy, negative sanctions and guanxi. Results indicate that legitimacy information leads moral-oriented employees to side with a legitimacy party whereas sanction information leads expedient-oriented employees to side with a sanction party. However, the Chinese employees also take guanxi into account. Guanxi as contrasting information decreased both the extent to which the strong-moral, weak-expedient-oriented Chinese employees sided with a legitimacy party, and the extent to which weak-moral, strong-expedient-oriented employees sided with a sanction party. Implications of these results for developing a universal theory of siding are discussed

The effect of mirabegron on energy expenditure and brown adipose tissue in healthy lean SouthAsian and Europidmen

Aim To compare the effects of cold exposure and the beta 3-adrenergic receptor agonist mirabegron on plasma lipids, energy expenditure and brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity in South Asians versus Europids. Materials and Methods Ten lean Dutch South Asian (aged 18-30 years; body mass index [BMI] 18-25 kg/m(2)) and 10 age- and BMI-matched Europid men participated in a randomized, double-blinded, cross-over study consisting of three interventions: short-term (similar to 2 hours) cold exposure, mirabegron (200 mg one dose p.o.) and placebo. Before and after each intervention, we performed lipidomic analysis in serum, assessed resting energy expenditure (REE) and skin temperature, and measured BAT fat fraction by magnetic resonance imaging. Results In both ethnicities, cold exposure increased the levels of several serum lipid species, whereas mirabegron only increased free fatty acids. Cold exposure increased lipid oxidation in both ethnicities, while mirabegron increased lipid oxidation in Europids only. Cold exposure and mirabegron enhanced supraclavicular skin temperature in both ethnicities. Cold exposure decreased BAT fat fraction in both ethnicities. After the combination of data from both ethnicities, mirabegron decreased BAT fat fraction compared with placebo. Conclusions In South Asians and Europids, cold exposure and mirabegron induced beneficial metabolic effects. When combining both ethnicities, cold exposure and mirabegron increased REE and lipid oxidation, coinciding with a higher supraclavicular skin temperature and lower BAT fat fraction