The effects of springtime mid-latitude storms on trace gas composition determined from the MACC reanalysis

The relationship between springtime air pollution transport of ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) and mid-latitude cyclones is explored for the first time using the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) reanalysis for the period 2003–2012. In this study, the most intense spring storms (95th percentile) are selected for two regions, the North Pacific (NP) and the North Atlantic (NA). These storms (∼60 storms over each region) often track over the major emission sources of East Asia and eastern North America. By compositing the storms, the distributions of O3 and CO within a "typical" intense storm are examined. We compare the storm-centered composite to background composites of "average conditions" created by sampling the reanalysis data of the previous year to the storm locations. Mid-latitude storms are found to redistribute concentrations of O3 and CO horizontally and vertically throughout the storm. This is clearly shown to occur through two main mechanisms: (1) vertical lifting of CO-rich and O3-poor air isentropically, from near the surface to the mid- to upper-troposphere in the region of the warm conveyor belt; and (2) descent of O3-rich and CO-poor air isentropically in the vicinity of the dry intrusion, from the stratosphere toward the mid-troposphere. This can be seen in the composite storm's life cycle as the storm intensifies, with area-averaged O3 (CO) increasing (decreasing) between 200 and 500 hPa. The influence of the storm dynamics compared to the background environment on the composition within an area around the storm center at the time of maximum intensity is as follows. Area-averaged O3 at 300 hPa is enhanced by 50 and 36% and by 11 and 7.6% at 500 hPa for the NP and NA regions, respectively. In contrast, area-averaged CO at 300 hPa decreases by 12% for NP and 5.5% for NA, and area-averaged CO at 500 hPa decreases by 2.4% for NP while there is little change over the NA region. From the mid-troposphere, O3-rich air is clearly seen to be transported toward the surface, but the downward transport of CO-poor air is not discernible due to the high levels of CO in the lower troposphere. Area-averaged O3 is slightly higher at 1000 hPa (3.5 and 1.8% for the NP and NA regions, respectively). There is an increase of CO at 1000 hPa for the NP region (3.3%) relative to the background composite and a~slight decrease in area-averaged CO for the NA region at 1000 hPa (-2.7%)

Application of Room Temperature Ionic Liquids to the Development of Electrochemical Lipase Biosensing Systems for Water-Insoluble Analytes

Biosensors have been prepared by modification of glassy carbon electrodes with functionalised multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) dispersed in the room temperature ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide (BmimNTF2) and with lipase cross-linked with glutaraldehyde. The biosensor was applied to the determination of olive oil triglycerides by cyclic voltammetry. A phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) / BmimNO3 mixture is a better electrolyte than aqueous buffer alone. The response signal in the buffer-BmimNO3 mixture was found to increase with the number of cycles until a constant current was achieved. The calibration curve obtained exhibited a sigmoid-shape and a fourparameter model was used to fit the data which gave a limit of detection of 0.11 μg mL−1. Close inspection of such calibration curves showed two distinct linear regions indicating changes in the mechanism of the electrochemical response. Overall, the oxidative analytical response was found to be due to phenolic compounds present in the olive oil, released in the presence of lipase, rather than due to triglycerides per se. It was also found that there were no interferences from either cholesterol or glycerol. A possible mechanism of olive oil determination at a MWCNT-BmimNTF2/Lip biosensor is proposed

Influence of Mid-Latitude Cyclones on European Background Surface Ozone Investigated in Observations, MACC and MERRA-2 Reanalyses

The relationship between springtime mid-latitude cyclones and background ozone at two rural monitoring sites on the west coast of Europe -- Mace Head, Ireland and Monte Velho, Portugal -- is explored using a combination of observations and three reanalyses: 1) the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts' (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis, 2) the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) reanalysis and 3) NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version-2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis. The ERA-Interim cyclone tracks are used here to establish the long-term relationship between cyclones and ozone observations (since 1988). The MACC reanalysis data set, which covers the period 2003-2012, is produced with the ECMWF integrated forecast system (IFS) model two-way coupled to a chemistry transport model (CTM). Since the MACC reanalysis uses a similar atmospheric model to ERA-Interim, MACC is used to explore the mechanisms within the case study cyclones that can influence surface ozone concentrations at Mace Head and Monte Velho. The MERRA-2 reanalysis also provides 3D distributions of ozone, although less ideal for analysis of surface ozone concentrations since MERRA-2 ozone under represents ozone variability outside the stratosphere as it does not have a detailed chemistry scheme or emission sources for the troposphere. The MERRA-2 reanalysis, which has the potential to identify more features within the cyclones as the resolution is higher than the MACC reanalysis, is used in conjunction with the MACC reanalysis to provide a measure of uncertainty to the case study analysis. We found the main source of high ozone to these two sites is from the stratosphere, which is well represented in both the MERRA-2 and the MACC reanalyses, either from direct injection into the cyclone or associated with aged airstreams from decaying downstream cyclones that can become entrained and descend toward the surface within new cyclones over the NA region

Highly efficient aqueous phase reduction of nitroarenes catalyzed by phosphine-decorated polymer immobilized ionic liquid stabilized PdNPs

Palladium nanoparticles stabilized by lightly cross-linked phosphine-decorated polymer immobilized ionic liquids (PIIL) and their PEGylated counterparts (PEGPIIL) are highly effective catalysts for the aqueous phase hydrogenation and sodium borohydride-based reduction of a wide range of nitroaromatic and heteroaromatic compounds under mild conditions with low catalyst loadings. Introduction of extensive cross-linking with tris(4-vinylphenyl)phosphine to isolate the phosphine-based heteroatom and limit the number of surface Pd⋯P interactions did not have a significant influence on catalyst performance. Comparative testing revealed PdNPs immobilized on lightly cross-linked phsophine-decoarted PEGylated polymer to be a highly efficient catalyst for the aqueous phase reduction of nitroarenes with a TON of 36 000 (TOF = 2580 h−1) for hydrogenation and a TON of 274 000 (TOF = 17 125 h−1) for transfer hydrogenation. Even though these reactions occur under diffusion control due the poor solubility of the substrate these values are the highest to be reported for the room temperature aqueous phase reduction of nitroarenes catalyzed by a nanoparticle-based system. A continuous flow reduction of nitrobenzene in a packed bed reactor operated over a period of 250 min with no sign of catalyst deactivation and the corresponding space-time-yield of 0.738 g L−1 min−1 is a marked improvement on that of 0.384 g L−1 min−1 obtained in batch. The same system also catalyzes a tandem Suzuki–Miyaura cross coupling-nitroarene reduction sequence to afford high yields of biaryl amine in an operationally straightforward single-pot procedure. This is a highly versatile protocol which will enable the aromatic nitro fragment to be introduced as a nitro-substituted aryl or heteroaryl halide and as such will lend itself to rapid diversification for the synthesis of a wide range of amines

Electricity Demand Due to Policy Change in the U.K.

This paper examines United Kingdom Electricity Demand with regards to the Climate Change Act, which was enacted in November of 2008. Through actual demand data obtained from Nationalgrid, a U.K. based gas and electric utility company, this paper seeks to find out if the Climate Change Act has started to achieve its goal of reducing carbon emissions by looking at trends of electricity demand. Burning fossil fuels to produce electricity is a major contributor to global warming in the U.K. and policies enacted do not always live up to their ultimate goals. This paper tests how on track the Climate Change Act actually is to meeting its long term goals of cutting emissions and if an individual policy can actually have more than minimal effects on decreasing electricity demand GHG emissions. I find that their need to be a more large scale efforts towards reducing emissions and that no one individual policy like the Climate Change Act of 2008 will have any large significant effect on reduction in emissions

SAGE-GROUSE AND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT: INTEGRATING SCIENCE WITH CONSERVATION PLANNING TO REDUCE IMPACTS

Effective conservation planning in the face of rapid land use change requires knowledge of which habitats are selected at landscape scales, where those habitats are located, and how species ultimately respond to anthropogenic disturbance. I assessed sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) large scale habitat ecology and response to energy development in the winter and nesting seasons using radio-marked individuals in the Powder River Basin, Montana and Wyoming, USA. Landscape scale percent sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) cover at 4-km2 was the strongest predictor of use by sage-grouse in winter. After controlling for vegetation and topography, the addition the density of coal-bed natural gas wells within 4 km2 improved model fit (AIC -6.66, wi = 0.965) and indicated that sage-grouse avoided energy development. Nesting analyses showed that landscape context must be considered in addition to local scale habitat features (wi = 0.96). Findings provide managers a hierarchical filter in which to manage breeding habitats. Twice the amount of nesting habitat at 3, 5 and 10-km scales surrounded active leks versus random locations. Spatially explicit nesting and wintering models predicted independent sage-grouse locations (validation R2 ≥ 0.98). I incorporated knowledge of energy impacts into a study design that tested for threshold responses at regional scales analyzing 1,344 leks in Wyoming from 1997-2007. Potential impacts were indiscernible at 1-12 wells within 32.2 km2 of a lek (~1 well / 640 ac). At higher wells densities a time-lag showed higher rates of lek inactivity and steeper declines in bird abundance 4 years after than immediately following development. I spatially prioritized core areas for breeding sage-grouse across Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah and the Dakotas and assessed risk of future energy development. Findings showed that bird abundance varies by state, core areas contain a disproportionately large segment of the breeding population and that risk of development within core areas varies regionally. My analyses document behavioral and demographic responses to energy development, offer new insights into large scale ecology of greater sage-grouse and provide resource managers with practical tools to guide conservation

Engaging Undergraduates in Science Research: Not Just About Faculty Willingness.

Despite the many benefits of involving undergraduates in research and the growing number of undergraduate research programs, few scholars have investigated the factors that affect faculty members' decisions to involve undergraduates in their research projects. We investigated the individual factors and institutional contexts that predict faculty members' likelihood of engaging undergraduates in their research project(s). Using data from the Higher Education Research Institute's 2007-2008 Faculty Survey, we employ hierarchical generalized linear modeling to analyze data from 4,832 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty across 194 institutions to examine how organizational citizenship behavior theory and social exchange theory relate to mentoring students in research. Key findings show that faculty who work in the life sciences and those who receive government funding for their research are more likely to involve undergraduates in their research project(s). In addition, faculty at liberal arts or historically Black colleges are significantly more likely to involve undergraduate students in research. Implications for advancing undergraduate research opportunities are discussed