Congestion and residential moving behaviour

In this paper we study how congestion and residential movingbehaviour are interrelated using a two-region job search model. Workerschoose optimally between interregional commuting and residential movingto live closer to the place of work. This choice affects the external costs ofcommuting due to congestion. The welfare maximizing road tax is derived.We demonstrate that road pricing may not only reduce congestion but alsoincrease total residential moving costs in the economy. One of the mainconsequences is that the road tax does not necessarily increase welfare

Ammonium chloride ingestion attenuates exercise-induced mRNA levels in human muscle

Minimizing the decrease in intracellular pH during high-intensity exercise training promotes greater improvements in mitochondrial respiration. This raises the intriguing hypothesis that pH may affect the exercise-induced transcription of genes that regulate mitochondrial biogenesis. Eight males performed 10x2-min cycle intervals at 80% VO2speak intensity on two occasions separated by ~2 weeks. Participants ingested either ammonium chloride (ACID) or calcium carbonate (PLA) the day before and on the day of the exercise trial in a randomized, counterbalanced order, using a crossover design. Biopsies were taken from the vastus lateralis muscle before and after exercise. The mRNA level of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor co-activator 1α (PGC-1α), citrate synthase, cytochome c and FOXO1 was elevated at rest following ACID (P<0.05). During the PLA condition, the mRNA content of mitochondrial- and glucose-regulating proteins was elevated immediately following exercise (P<0.05). In the early phase (0-2 h) of post-exercise recovery during ACID, PGC-1α, citrate synthase, cytochome C, FOXO1, GLUT4, and HKII mRNA levels were not different from resting levels (P>0.05); the difference in PGC-1α mRNA content 2 h post-exercise between ACID and PLA was not significant (P = 0.08). Thus, metabolic acidosis abolished the early post-exercise increase of PGC-1α mRNA and the mRNA of downstream mitochondrial and glucose-regulating proteins. These findings indicate that metabolic acidosis may affect mitochondrial biogenesis, with divergent responses in resting and post-exercise skeletal muscle

A Taxonomy of Causality-Based Biological Properties

We formally characterize a set of causality-based properties of metabolic networks. This set of properties aims at making precise several notions on the production of metabolites, which are familiar in the biologists' terminology. From a theoretical point of view, biochemical reactions are abstractly represented as causal implications and the produced metabolites as causal consequences of the implication representing the corresponding reaction. The fact that a reactant is produced is represented by means of the chain of reactions that have made it exist. Such representation abstracts away from quantities, stoichiometric and thermodynamic parameters and constitutes the basis for the characterization of our properties. Moreover, we propose an effective method for verifying our properties based on an abstract model of system dynamics. This consists of a new abstract semantics for the system seen as a concurrent network and expressed using the Chemical Ground Form calculus. We illustrate an application of this framework to a portion of a real metabolic pathway

Quality control of CarboEurope flux data &ndash; Part 1: Coupling footprint analyses with flux data quality assessment to evaluate sites in forest ecosystems

We applied a site evaluation approach combining Lagrangian Stochastic footprint modeling with a quality assessment approach for eddy-covariance data to 25 forested sites of the CarboEurope-IP network. The analysis addresses the spatial representativeness of the flux measurements, instrumental effects on data quality, spatial patterns in the data quality, and the performance of the coordinate rotation method. Our findings demonstrate that application of a footprint filter could strengthen the CarboEurope-IP flux database, since only one third of the sites is situated in truly homogeneous terrain. Almost half of the sites experience a significant reduction in eddy-covariance data quality under certain conditions, though these effects are mostly constricted to a small portion of the dataset. Reductions in data quality of the sensible heat flux are mostly induced by characteristics of the surrounding terrain, while the latent heat flux is subject to instrumentation-related problems. The Planar-Fit coordinate rotation proved to be a reliable tool for the majority of the sites using only a single set of rotation angles. Overall, we found a high average data quality for the CarboEurope-IP network, with good representativeness of the measurement data for the specified target land cover types

Quality Control of CarboEurope Flux Data - Part I: Coupling Footprint Analyses with Flux Data Quality Assessment to Evaluate Sites in Forest Ecosystems

We applied a site evaluation approach combining Lagrangian Stochastic footprint modelling with a quality assessment approach for eddy-covariance data to 25 forested sites of the CarboEurope-IP network. The analysis addresses the spatial representativeness 5 of the flux measurements, instrumental effects on data quality, spatial patterns in the data quality, and the performance of the coordinate rotation method. Our findings demonstrate that application of a footprint filter could strengthen the CarboEurope-IP flux database, since only one third of the sites is situated in truly homogeneous terrain. Almost half of the sites experience a significant reduction in eddy-covariance data 10 quality under certain conditions, though these effects are mostly constricted to a small portion of the dataset. Reductions in data quality of the sensible heat flux are mostly induced by characteristics of the surrounding terrain, while the latent heat flux is subject to instrumentation-related problems. The Planar-Fit coordinate rotation proved to be a reliable tool for the majority of the sites using only a single set of rotation angles. 15 Overall, we found a high average data quality for the CarboEurope-IP network, with good representativeness of the measurement data for the specified target land cover types.JRC.H.2-Air and Climat

Are researchers deliberately bypassing the technology transfer office? An analysis of TTO awareness

Most universities committed to the commercialization of academic research have established technology transfer offices (TTOs). Nonetheless, many researchers bypass these TTOs and take their inventions directly to the marketplace. While TTO bypassing has typically been portrayed as deliberate and undesirable behavior, we argue that it could be unintentional as many researchers may simply be unaware of the TTO’s existence. Taking an information-processing perspective and using data on 3250 researchers in 24 European universities, we examine researcher attributes associated with TTO awareness. Our evidence confirms that only a minority of researchers are aware of the existence of a TTO at their university. TTO awareness is greater among researchers who possess experience as entrepreneurs, closed many research and consulting contracts with industry partners, conduct research in medicine, engineering or life sciences, or occupy postdoctoral positions. Policy implications of these findings are discussed

Quality control of CarboEurope flux data – Part I: Footprint analyses to evaluate sites in forest ecosystems

International audienceWe applied a site evaluation approach combining Lagrangian Stochastic footprint modelling with a quality assessment approach for eddy-covariance data to 25 forested sites of the CarboEurope-IP network. The analysis addresses the spatial representativeness of the flux measurements, instrumental effects on data quality, spatial patterns in the data quality, and the performance of the coordinate rotation method. Our findings demonstrate that application of a footprint filter could strengthen the CarboEurope-IP flux database, since only one third of the sites is situated in truly homogeneous terrain. Almost half of the sites experience a significant reduction in eddy-covariance data quality under certain conditions, though these effects are mostly constricted to a small portion of the dataset. Reductions in data quality of the sensible heat flux are mostly induced by characteristics of the surrounding terrain, while the latent heat flux is subject to instrumentation-related problems. The Planar-Fit coordinate rotation proved to be a reliable tool for the majority of the sites using only a single set of rotation angles. Overall, we found a high average data quality for the CarboEurope-IP network, with good representativeness of the measurement data for the specified target land cover types