ALTKAL: An optimum linear filter for GEOS-3 altimeter data

ALTKAL is a computer program designed to smooth sea surface height data obtained from the GEOS 3 altimeter, and to produce minimum variance estimates of sea surface height and sea surface slopes, along with their standard derivations. The program operates by processing the data through a Kalman filter in both the forward and backward directions, and optimally combining the results. The sea surface height signal is considered to have a geoid signal, modeled by a third order Gauss-Markov process, corrupted by additive white noise. The governing parameters for the signal and noise processes are the signal correlation length and the signal-to-noise ratio. Mathematical derivations of the filtering and smoothing algorithms are presented. The smoother characteristics are illustrated by giving the frequency response, the data weighting sequence and the transfer function of a realistic steady-state smoother example. Based on nominal estimates for geoidal undulation amplitude and correlation length, standard deviations for the estimated sea surface height and slope are 12 cm and 3 arc seconds, respectively

New Policies to Facilitate Affordable Housing in Central and Eastern Europe

Affordable housing construction is a lagging sector in most of the CEE countries. Recent increases in housing production have mainly served the top end of the market. In some countries, policy schemes for public housing have been established. However, actual construction of housing for moderate-income households has yet to take place. Wolfgang Amann describes the approach of the Austria-based IIBW – Institute for Real Estate, Construction and Housing aimed at rectifying this unsatisfactory situation. The framework for a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in housing will be established, with two parallel strategies. First, a legal framework will be established to allow for a new business model of PPP housing. Second, financing tools will be implemented, similar to structured financing, implementing the different layers of sources. This approach refers to lessons learned in many Western European countries, e.g., the Netherlands and Austria, where a Third Sector in housing contributes substantially to good housing provision for large parts of the population. IIBW is currently implementing this new approach in several CEE countries, including Romania, Montenegro and Albania.

Calculation of Cause-specific Mortality Impacts of Fine Particulate Matter in GAINS

In the early 2000s, the GAINS (Greenhouse gas - Air pollution Interactions and Synergies) model used emerging epidemiological evidence to estimate premature mortality of the European population that can be attributed to the exposure to fine particulate matter and to identify cost-effective emission control strategies that reduce health impacts at least cost (Amann et al., 2011, p.accepted for publication). Based on the review of available studies on the health effects of PM conducted by the UNECE Task Force on Health (UNECE/WHO, 2003), the GAINS impact assessment employed the associations between population exposure to PM2.5 and all-cause mortality of the American Cancer Society study (Pope et al., 2002). In the meantime, a wealth of new epidemiological studies have sharpened the evidence about health effects of particulate matter and revealed more specific associations between ambient concentrations of PM2.5 and health impacts (e.g., Pope et al., 2009). In particular, new studies establish robust relationships between exposure to fine particles and specific causes of deaths. These new insights should facilitate a more specific estimate of the role of particular death causes that are associated with bad air quality, and a more precise estimate of the total mortality impacts in different countries as baseline death rates from different diseases vary over countries. This background paper describes a revised approach of the health impact assessment in GAINS that employs cause-specific concentration-response relationships for lung cancer, cardio-vascular and respiratory diseases for the European countries. Data on cause-specific deaths in the European countries have been extracted from the 2010 version of the World Health Organization database on mortality indicators by 67 causes of death, age and sex (HFA-MDB) for the latest available year. As a result, the cause-specific approach results in higher impact estimates than the former calculation for all-cause mortality. The difference depends on the relative shares of death causes in the various countries; for the EU-27, cause-specific calculations for the year 2000 result in 16% higher health effects, keeping all other factors constant (i.e., PM exposure, population, etc.). In the non-EU countries, the difference amounts to 54%, essentially due to the higher share of cardio-vascular deaths

Utilization of tmRNA sequences for bacterial identification

In recent years, molecular approaches based on nucleotide sequences of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) have become widely used tools for identification of bacteria [1-4]. The high degree of evolutionary conservation makes 16S and 23S rRNA molecules very suitable for phylogenetic studies above the species level [3-5]. More than 16,000 sequences of 16S rRNA are presently available in public databases [4,6]. The 16S rRNA sequences are commonly used to design fluorescently labeled oligonucleotide probes. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with these probes followed by observation with epifluorescence microscopy allows the identification of a specific microorganism in a mixture with other bacteria [2-4]. By shifting probe target sites from conservative to increasingly variable regions of rRNA, it is possible to adjust the probe specificity from kingdom to species level. Nevertheless, 16S rRNA sequences of closely related strains, subspecies, or even of different species are often identical and therefore can not be used as differentiating markers [3]. Another restriction concerns the accessibility of target sites to the probe in FISH experiments. The presence of secondary structures, or protection of rRNA segments by ribosomal proteins in fixed cells can limit the choice of variable regions as in situ targets for oligonucleotide probes [7,8]. One way to overcome the limitations of in situ identification of bacteria is to use molecules other than rRNA for phylogenetic identification of bacteria, for which nucleotide sequences would be sufficiently divergent to design species specific probes, and which would be more accessible to oligonucleotide probes. For this purpose we investigated the possibility of using tmRNA (also known as 10Sa RNA; [9-11]). This molecule was discovered in E. coli and described as small stable RNA, present at ~1,000 copies per cell [9,11]. The high copy number is an important prerequisite for FISH, which works best with naturally amplified target molecules. In E. coli, tmRNA is encoded by the ssrA gene, is 363 nucleotides long and has properties of tRNA and mRNA [12,13]. tmRNA was shown to be involved in the degradation of truncated proteins: the tmRNA associates with ribosomes stalled on mRNAs lacking stop codons, finally resulting in the addition of a C-terminal peptide tag to the truncated protein. The peptide tag directs the abnormal protein to proteolysis [14,15]. 165 tmRNA sequences have so far (August 2001; The tmRNA Website: http://www.indiana.edu/~tmrna/) been determined [16,17]. The tmRNA is likely to be present in all bacteria and has also been found in algae chloroplasts, the cyanelle of Cyanophora paradoxa and the mitochondrion of the flagellate Reclinomonas americana[10,17,18]

A Class of Free Boundary Problems with Onset of a new Phase

A class of diffusion driven Free Boundary Problems is considered which is characterized by the initial onset of a phase and by an explicit kinematic condition for the evolution of the free boundary. By a domain fixing change of variables it naturally leads to coupled systems comprised of a singular parabolic initial boundary value problem and a Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Even though the one dimensional case has been thoroughly investigated, results as basic as well-posedness and regularity have so far not been obtained for its higher dimensional counterpart. In this paper a recently developed regularity theory for abstract singular parabolic Cauchy problems is utilized to obtain the first well-posedness results for the Free Boundary Problems under consideration. The derivation of elliptic regularity results for the underlying static singular problems will play an important role

A Methodology to Estimate Changes in Statistical Life Expectancy Due to the Control of Particulate Matter in Air Pollution

Studies in the United States have shown that those living in less polluted cities live longer than those living in more polluted cities. After adjustments for other factors, an association remained between ambient concentrations of fine particles and shorter life expectancy. This paper presents a methodology to apply the findings of these epidemiological studies to scenarios to control fine particulate matter in Europe and to estimate the resulting losses in statistical life expectancy that can be attributed to particulate matter pollution. Calculations are carried out for all of Europe with a 50*50 km resolution, distinguishing higher PM2.5 levels in urban areas. The methodology uses population statistics and projections from the United Nations, and applies changes in mortality risk identified by the epidemiological studies to the life tables for the individual countries. The preliminary implementation suggests that, for constant 1990 pollution levels, statistical life expectancy is reduced by approximately 500 days (95 percent confidence interval ranging from 168 - 888 days). By 2010, the control measures presently decided for emissions of primary particles and the precursors of secondary aerosols are expected to reduce these losses to about 280 days (94 -497), while the theoretical maximum technically feasible emission reductions could bring reduced life expectancy below 200 (65 -344) days. While the quantifications in this study must be considered as preliminary, the methodology will allow the introduction of health impacts from fine particulate matter into a multi-pollutant/multi-effect framework so that control measures can be explored taking full account of their ancillary benefits for acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone

UN/ECE Workshop on Exploring European Sulfur Abatement Strategies

This paper, prepared as a background document for the UN/ECE "Workshop on Exploring European Sulfur Abatement Strategies" (24-26 June 1991, Laxenburg, Austria), provides an analysis of the major approaches presently being explored for further reducing SO2 emissions in Europe. By using an integrated assessment model, the analysis reflects the current stake of various model developments, taking into account the most recent information on energy strategies, emission projections, atmospheric long-range transport and sensitivities of ecosystems in Europe. The paper provides quantitative results from the the "Regional Acidification Information and Simulation" (RAINS) model by analyzing various scenarios. Some more general qualitative conclusions and lessons are drawn from the model results. Further, the paper also attempts to illustrate the current limitations for scenario analysis caused by the limited availability and reliability of present data and models. The paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of alternative approaches by analyzing and evaluating different aspects of the various abatement strategies, such as relative emission reductions (compared to the baseyear 1980); cost of abatement measures; the burden to national economies as implied by emission control expenditures (i.e. the fraction of GDP required for emission reductions); the consequences on acid deposition; and their environmental impacts in terms of critical loads achievement. It should be noted however, that it is not the intention of this paper to perform any value judgments on the various strategies. Such preferences have to be established by negotiators. Undoubtedly, other considerations, which are not incorporated into this formalized analysis, will also influence the decisionmaking on the topic

The GAINS Optimization Module as of 1 February 2007

This document describes the optimization framework of the GAINS model for Europe. The approach is compared to the approach used in the RAINS model and a detailed description of the objective function, the constraints and the impact functions is given. Finally a comparison of individual single pollutant cost curves generated from the RAINS model and with the optimization module of GAINS is given to illustrate the consistency of the two approaches for single pollutant measures