The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Study of the Organization through the Lens of Popular Films of the Western World

This chapter examined portrayals of the morality of organizations using the lens of Western films. The work explored six decades of film, analyzing the organizational contexts and their agents, in order to understand filmmakers’ and audiences’ perceptions of organizational settings. In order to examine the organization as an entity within film, this chapter provided a content analysis of plot summaries from a purposefully selected body of top grossing box office films spanning 60 years. The plot summaries constituted a strong basis for identifying the characteristics of the organization as they are largely descriptive in nature and as such do not offer any evaluation or analysis of the film. Any assumptions about the character of organizations (or their members/employees) are unconscious, and as such they constitute a verbal description of what competent observers would say has occurred within the film. The plots were coded to reveal perceptions of positive, neutral, or negative organizational contexts and actions. This approach exposed the filmmakers symbolic placing of the organization in order to provide backdrops for the narrative. The plot analysis revealed that throughout the decades there has been a sophisticated portrayal in film of the role of the organization and the agents therein. A generally negative view of organizational contexts was demonstrated, with only religion and education shown as positive within the films selected. It was recognized that there would be value in extending this research to analyze a larger body of works. The selection criteria resulted in a wide but not comprehensive corpus of film genres. The body of works was sufficient to reveal the complexity of attitudes to organizational values and delivery which has evolved through time. Different selection criteria and more substantial narrative text could serve to confirm these results. Further implications for future research were discussed. While in the real-life sphere, there has been an emphasis on organizational standards and “corporate governance” delivering ethical exemplars, the film contexts highlight the complexities of delivering trusted organizations. The reality that there remains the potential for organizational corruption is well understood by the general public and clearly depicted within the film world. The conceptual contribution is original as limited work has been conducted on the organizational context in films. This work revealed the possibility of using this approach to further develop a greater understanding of perceptions of organizations

Silicone coating system for improving the corrosion resistance of steel

Due to German policy an interim storage of radioactive waste during additional 30 years is needed. This requires a high standard of storage containers especially in terms of corrosion resistance. Silicon elastomeres (polysiloxanes) have favourable physical and chemical properties and seem to be appropriate for either outer or inner coating of storage containers.In this paper corrosion protection of different silicon coating systems has been investigated. The addition-curing polysiloxane RT622 (Wacker Chemie) was used for experiments. This is a low-viscosity material that could be modified by corrosion protecting pigments like zinc powder and micaceous iron ore. The pigment coatings assured better corrosion protection than unmodified silicon covering. Furthermore, the zinc powder caused the most notable improvement of corrosion protection. The best coating system consisted of a zinc paint and a polysiloxane coating

Atmospheric aerosols in Rome, Italy: sources, dynamics and spatial variations during two seasons

Investigations on atmospheric aerosols and their sources were carried out in October/November 2013 and May/June 2014 consecutively in a suburban area of Rome (Tor Vergata) and in central Rome (near St Peter's Basilica). During both years a Saharan dust advection event temporarily increased PM10 concentrations at ground level by about 12-17 mu g m(-3). Generally, in October/November the ambient aerosol was more strongly influenced by primary emissions, whereas higher relative contributions of secondary particles (sulfate, aged organic aerosol) were found in May/June. Absolute concentrations of anthropogenic emission tracers (e.g. NOx, CO2, particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, traffic-related organic aerosol) were generally higher at the urban location. Positive matrix factorization was applied to the PM1 organic aerosol (OA) fraction of aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) data to identify different sources of primary OA (POA): traffic, cooking, biomass burning and (local) cigarette smoking. While biomass burning OA was only found at the suburban site, where it accounted for the major fraction of POA (18-24% of total OA), traffic and cooking were more dominant sources at the urban site. A particle type associated with cigarette smoke emissions, which is associated with a potential characteristic marker peak (m/z 84, C5H10N+, a nicotine fragment) in the mass spectrum, was only found in central Rome, where it was emitted in close vicinity to the measurement location. Regarding secondary OA, in October/November, only a very aged, regionally advected oxygenated OA was found, which contributed 42-53% to the total OA. In May/June total oxygenated OA accounted for 56-76% of the OA. Here a fraction (18-26% of total OA) of a fresher, less oxygenated OA of more local origin was also observed. New particle formation events were identified from measured particle number concentrations and size distributions in May/June 2014 at both sites. While they were observed every day at the urban location, at the suburban location they were only found under favourable meteorological conditions, but were independent of advection of the Rome emission plume. Particles from sources in the metropolitan area of Rome and particles advected from outside Rome contributed 42-70 and 30-58% to the total measured PM1, respectively. Apart from the general aerosol characteristics, in this study the properties (e.g. emission strength) and dynamics (e.g. temporal behaviour) of each identified aerosol type is investigated in detail to provide a better understanding of the observed seasonal and spatial differences

Chemical and meteorological influences on the lifetime of NO3 at a semi-rural mountain site during PARADE

Through measurements of NO2, O3 and NO3 during the PARADE campaign (PArticles and RAdicals, Diel observations of mEchanisms of oxidation) in the German Taunus mountains we derive nighttime steady-state lifetimes (τss) of NO3 and N2O5. During some nights, high NO3 (∼ 200 pptv) and N2O5 (∼ 1 ppbv) mixing ratios were associated with values of τss that exceeded 1 h for NO3 and 3 h for N2O5 near the ground. Such long boundary-layer lifetimes for NO3 and N2O5 are usually only encountered in very clean/unreactive air masses, whereas the PARADE measurement site is impacted by both biogenic emissions from the surrounding forest and anthropogenic emissions from the nearby urbanised/industrialised centres. Measurement of several trace gases which are reactive towards NO3 indicates that the inferred lifetimes are significantly longer than those calculated from the summed loss rate. Several potential causes for the apparently extended NO3 and N2O5 lifetimes are examined, including additional routes to formation of NO3 and the presence of a low-lying residual layer. Overall, the most likely cause of the anomalous lifetimes are related to the meteorological conditions, though additional NO3 formation due to reactions of Criegee intermediates may contribute

Impact of the temporary closure of a major bridge on local air quality in two large German cities: an accountability study

Despite recent achievements in reducing the contribution of road traffic to air pollution, agreed pollutant standards are exceeded frequently in large parts of Europe. Previous studies assessed the effectiveness of traffic interventions in improving local air quality. However, little research exists on the effect of closures of short road sections over longer periods. The multi-week maintenances on the Theodor Heuss Bridge, the main connection over the river Rhine between the German cities Mainz and Wiesbaden, offered the opportunity to investigate its effect on local air pollution. We measured ambient concentrations of major air pollutants and meteorological parameters at the Theodor Heuss Bridge before, during, and after its closure on 800 m in early 2020. We carried out time-series and closure-dependent evaluations of pollutant concentrations at the bridge accounting for wind direction. Furthermore, we performed regression analyses accounting for wind speed additionally. We compared the results with data from surrounding monitoring stations. We recorded higher concentrations at the Theodor Heuss Bridge compared to outside the closure, especially for particulate matter, nitric oxide, and black carbon. Only with wind from specific directions, we could detect reductions of concentrations during the closure for many pollutants as nitrogen dioxide (− 9.8%; 95% confidence interval: − 10.8– − 8.7%), but not for particulate matter. Since we found similar meteorology-dependent pollution reductions during the closure at both the bridge and the surrounding monitoring stations, we assume that regional meteorological factors overlaid a potential closure-related effect on local air quality. These factors must be accounted for in accountability studies on interventions focusing on short roads