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Airborne measurements within the urban mixing layer (360 m) over Greater London are used to quantify CO(2) emissions at the meso-scale. Daytime CO(2) fluxes, calculated by the Integrative Mass Boundary Layer (IMBL) method, ranged from 46 to 104 μmol CO(2) m(-2) s(-1) for four days in October 2011. The day-to-day variability of IMBL fluxes is at the same order of magnitude as for surface eddy-covariance fluxes observed in central London. Compared to fluxes derived from emissions inventory, the IMBL method gives both lower (by 37%) and higher (by 19%) estimates. The sources of uncertainty of applying the IMBL method in urban areas are discussed and guidance for future studies is given.

The energies, geometries, and NMR chemical shifts have been calculated at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level for 17 structures of the anticonvulsant drug Lamotrigine and 29 structures of protonated Lamotrigine, including tautomers and E/Z isomers of the imino groups. The calculations were compared with solid state (X-ray and CPMAS NMR) and solution experimental results both reported in the literature and determined in this work. The conclusion is that Lamotrigine exists as the diamino tautomer and that its protonation takes place on the N2 atom. Using ABTE and/or deuterated ABTE as chiral solvating agent, it has been demonstrated for the first time by NMR in solution that Lamotrigine is a racemate of rapidly interconverting enantiomers. The crystal structure of two new solvated salts of Lamotrigine, both saccharinates, has been determined. Both salts present the same arrangement in chains of Lamotrigine and saccharinate joined by hydrogen bonds and stacking interactions. No isostructurality is present because of the different arrangement of the chains in both crystal structures. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

To determine clinical variables related to recurrent lacunar infarction following a previous lacunar stroke.A total of 122 out of 733 consecutive patients with lacunar infarction collected from a hospital based registry between 1986 and 2004 were readmitted because of a recurrent lacunar infarction. In a subset of 59 patients, cognition was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Predictors of lacunar infarction recurrence were assessed by logistic regression analysis.First lacunar infarction recurrence occurred in 101 patients (83%) and multiple recurrences in 21. The mean time between first ever lacunar infarction and recurrent lacunes was 58.3 months (range 2-240). In the subset of 59 patients in whom cognition was studied, cognitive impairment, defined as an MMSE score24, was detected in 16% (8/49) of patients with first lacunar infarction recurrence and in 40% (4/10) of those with multiple lacunar infarction recurrences. In the multivariate analysis, hypertension (odds ratio 2.01, 95% CI 1.23 to 3.30) and diabetes (odds ratio 1.62, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.46) were significant predictors of lacunar stroke recurrence, whereas hyperlipidaemia was inversely associated (odds ratio 0.52, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.90).Hypertension and diabetes were significant factors related to recurrent lacunar infarction. Hyperlipidaemia appeared to have a protective role. Cognitive impairment was a frequent finding in patients with multiple lacunar infarction recurrences.

Mapping the transport and deposition of tephra is important for the assessment of an eruption’s impact on health, transport, vegetation and infrastructure, but it is challenging at large distances from a volcano (> 1000 km), where it may not be visible to the naked eye. Here we describe a range of methods used to quantify tephra deposition and impact on air quality during the 21–28 May 2011 explosive basaltic eruption of Grímsvötn volcano, Iceland. Tephra was detected in the UK with tape-on-paper samples, rainwater samples, rainwater chemistry analysis, pollen slides and air quality measurements. Combined results show that deposition was mainly in Scotland, on 23–25 May. Deposition was patchy, with adjacent locations recording different results. Tape-on-paper samples, collected by volunteer citizen scientists, and giving excellent coverage across the UK, showed deposition at latitudes >55°N, mainly on 24 May. Rainwater samples contained ash grains mostly 20–30 μ m long (maximum recorded grainsize 80 μ m) with loadings of up to 116 g r a i n s c m-2. Analysis of rainwater chemistry showed high concentrations of dissolved Fe and Al in samples from N Scotland on 24–27 May. Pollen slides recorded small glass shards (3–4 μ m long) deposited during rainfall on 24–25 May and again on 27 May. Air quality monitoring detected increased particulate matter concentrations in many parts of the country. An hourly concentration of particles 53°N) on 24 May but no negative effects on health were reported. Although the eruption column reached altitudes of 20 km above sea level, air mass trajectories suggest that only tephra from the lowest 4 km above sea level of the eruption plume was transported to the UK. This demonstrates that even low plumes could deliver tephra to the UK and suggests that the relative lack of basaltic tephra in the tephrochronological record is not due to transport processes.

Data obtained from eleven flight surveys on six days during October 2011 were used to characterize the urban CO2 dome in Greater London (GL) and to calculate CO2 fluxes at the city scale. Flights crossed GL along two transects (SW-NE and SSE-NNW) at an altitude of 360 m. Increments as high as 23 ppmv were measured. The maximum CO2 mixing ratios were localized over GL under low wind speeds, whereas a displacement of the urban plume downwind from the centre of the urban area occurred during high wind speeds. The urban-regional surface CO2 flux was calculated for four days by the Integrative Mass Boundary Layer (IMBL) method. The diurnal CO2 flux in GL obtained from the aircraft observations ranged from 46 to 104 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 during the day time. The mean CO2 fluxes estimated from the IMBL method were statistically similar to those observed by eddy-covariance systems located in central London and a spatially integrated emissions inventory for GL. This study provides an important cross-validation of two independent measurement-based methods to infer the contribution of urban areas to climate change in terms of CO2 surface fluxes, both of which complement bottom-up emissions inventories. The uncertainties of fluxes estimated by the IMBL method are considered and the limits of implementation of atmospheric methods to infer city-scale fluxes are discussed.

An intensive aircraft campaign measuring atmospheric CO 2 mixing ratios was carried out in the central part of the Ebre watershed on late June 2007 to characterize the CO 2 dynamics in the Ebre basin and to calculate the regional cumulative carbon surface flux. CO 2 concentrations were obtained from vertical profiles over La Muela (LMU; 41.60°N, 1.1°W) from 900 to 4000 m above the sea level (masl), horizontal transects at ∼2000 m 100 km west from LMU, and continuous measurements at ∼650 masl. Different estimates of surface flux from changes in the convective boundary layer (CBL) CO 2 concentration were obtained following the Integral CBL budgeting equation (ICBL) and the carbon content integration (CCI) method. Values of the mean surface flux calculated from the different approaches range from −2.4 to −7.9 μmolCO 2 /m 2 s. Regional surface flux calculated from vertical profiling appears to be consistent in a distance of 70 km away from the measurement site. The ICBL method is very sensitive to the accurate determination of the concentration in the entrainment zone. The overall uncertainty from fluxes calculated from the ICBL method rises to a value of 70%, whereas the uncertainty linked to the CCI method is 55%. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0889.2010.00469.x

Evaluate the effectiveness of educational intervention of perioperative nursing by providing graphic material for the management of postoperative pain in patients operated on for hernia in an Ambulatory Surgery Unit (ASU).A quasi-experimental (non-randomised) study, with a control group with patients undergoing hernia between July 2006 and June 2007 and an intervention group with patients treated between July 2007 and June 2008. Both groups were given the same training on the surgical and postoperative recommendations for perioperative nursing clinics. The intervention group was reinforced with the provision of information in graphic form. The data was collected using a questionnaire at admission and phone call within 24 hours postoperative. Pain measurement was made with the visual analogue scale / verbal numerical rating scale (VAS/VNRS).A total 205 patients were included in the control group and 292 in the intervention group. In the bivariate analysis, the percentage of patients with VAS3 was 23.9% for the control group and 15.1% for the intervention group. In the multivariate analysis, the variables associated with postoperative pain were: low age, female sex, mobility and walking problems, and lack of knowledge about post-discharge home-care guidelines.Nursing educational intervention with the provision of graphic material, suggests that it may reduce the individual's perception of postoperative pain, decrease the percentage of patients with mobility and walking problems, and improve compliance and adherence to treatment.

[1] Vertical distribution of atmospheric CO2 mixing ratios, as well as CO2 vertical variance and gradient are related to the vertical stability at the time of measurement, to the transport of coherent upstream plumes studied through changes in the upstream surface influence or to the historic mixing processes and dispersive behavior. Three vertical profiles of CO2 mixing ratios measured from 900 to 4200 m above sea level (masl) in 2006 at La Muela, Spain (LMU, 41.60°N 1.10°W, 570 masl) are examined. Changes in CO2 mixing ratio are associated with changes of the atmospheric physical parameters on the day of the survey; and with the transport of coherent air masses. Its consistency is examined through changes of the historical horizontal dispersion and chaotic mixing dynamics of air masses during the four days prior to measurements. A climatology of Lagrangian backward simulations run once a week at four altitudes (600, 1200, 2500 and 4000 masl) at LMU for 2006 shows that dispersion in these altitudes is superdiffusive (exponent coefficient γ > 1/2) and mixing follows a chaotic dynamics (power law exponent λ > 0) at all altitudes and in all seasons. Furthermore, a Horizontal Mixing Discontinuity (HMD) at ∼2500 masl separates two layers with different constraints on vertical mixing. Above the HMD, more coherent air masses and laminar transport characterizes the dynamics of atmospheric horizontal mixing whereas below it, filamentation and chaotic mixing dominate horizontal mixing. In the lower part of the vertical profile, within the ABL, mixing takes place by convection. Chaotic mixing below the HMD induces the boundary layer entrainment. Results highlight that there are two main discontinuities in the air column which separates different atmospheric dynamics. The ABL is driven by local meteorological conditions of the site at the sampling time; the HMD is driven by the synoptic-scale historical mixing conditions of air masses. The effect of horizontal transport in the free troposphere should be considered equally as important as the local vertical mixing processes in the atmospheric boundary layer when interpreting CO2 vertical gradients. The dispersive exponents can be used to identify the transport of coherent plumes from anthropogenic emissions with different carbon composition that the one-single backtrajectories models do not detect.

[1] The new “Crown” aircraft sampling (CAS) approach integrates CO2 data obtained through horizontal transects and vertical profiles, sampling a specific volume of air at different atmospheric sections: 600 m, 1200 m, and 2500 m above the sea level (masl). This approach provides new tools to model fluxes in relation with meteorological conditions. It has been applied over a plain in the basin of the river called Ebre in the North East of Spain, with a triangular section defined by Linyola, Mequinensa's dam and Binefar, taking up 1500 km2. The main human activity is agriculture, either irrigated or dry land. Horizontal transects at 600 and 1200 masl were sampled for CO2, with vertical profiles at the vertexes from 600 to 2500 masl (ground level is around 400 masl). The three-dimensional configuration of the CAS Design enables the study of the CO2 fluxes between sections. Data have been obtained on a monthly basis since February 2006 until nowadays. In order to study the influence of forced turbulence in the atmospheric CO2 spatial distribution, two data sets are examined: the flight of 7 February 2006, performed under stable anticyclonic weather conditions; and the 6 March 2006 flight, characterized by strong northerly winds. The presence of stable/unstable layers in the February flight resulted in a stepwise vertical distribution of CO2 (with an increase from the free troposphere, 383 ppmv, to 400 ppmv close to the ground) whereas the unstable low troposphere sampled in March 2006 provided flat CO2 vertical profiles (concentrations ranging from 385 to 387 ppmv). In regard to the variability in the horizontal sections, the calculation of the Hurst exponents (H) provides a way to measure the persistence of vertical transport along the horizontal transects. In the February flight, CO2 concentration in transects shows the imprint of a spreading vertical transport from land (H > 0.90) but it is partially wiped away by high turbulence levels in the March flight (H = 0.79). From these results we expect CAS Design to provide better estimates of CO2 fluxes in the future.

Després de més de 20 anys a l’ensenyament fent de mestres, intentant renovar la nostra pedagogia per apropar-la cada cop més als interessos i a les motivacions dels nostres alumnes, vàrem tenir l’oportunitat d’adquirir una nova visió de l’ensenyament de les ciències a partir del curs Intercanvi d’experiències de ciències que impartia en Jordi Martí Feixas.

Anna Font-Gonzalez (1)*, Elske Sieswe rda (1)*, Marcel G.W. Dijkgraaf (2), Richard C. Heinen (1), Helena J.H. van der Pal (1,3), Flora van Leeuwen (4), Huib N. Caron (1), J.B. (Hans) Reitsma (5), Leontien C.M. Kremer (1) (1) Department of Paediatric Oncology, Emma Children’s Hospital / Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam (2) Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (3) Department of Internal Medicine, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (4) Department of Epidemiology, National Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (5) Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, the Netherlands * These authors contributed equally to this work.

This study aimed to fingerprint emissions from six municipal waste incinerators (MWIs) and then test if these fingerprint ratios could be found in ambient air samples. Stack emissions tests from MWIs comprised As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Mn, Ni, V and Hg. Those pairs of metals showing good correlation (R > 0.75) were taken as tracers of MWI emissions and ratios calculated: Cu/Pb; Cd/Pb; Cd/Cu and Cr/Pb. Emissions ratios from MWIs differed significantly from those in ambient rural locations and those close to traffic. In order to identify MWI emissions in ambient air two analysis tests were carried out. The first, aimed to explore if MWI emissions dominate the ambient concentrations. The mean ambient ratio of each of the four metal ratios were calculated for six ambient sampling sites within 10 km from a MWI under stable meteorological conditions when the wind blew from the direction of the incinerator. Under these meteorological conditions ambient Cd/Pb was within the range of MWI emissions at one location, two monitoring sites measured mean Cr/Pb ratios representative of the MWI emissions and the four sites measured values of Cu/Pb within the range of MWI emissions. No ambient measurements had mean Cd/Cu ratios within the MWI values. Even though MWI was not the main source determining the ambient metal ratios, possible occasional plume grounding might have occurred. The second test then examined possible plume grounding by identifying the periods when all metal ratios differed from rural and traffic values at the same time and were consistent with MWI emissions. Metal ratios consistent with MWI emissions were found in ambient air within 10 km of one MWI for about 0.2% of study period. Emissions consistent with a second MWI were similarly detected at two ambient measurement sites about 0.1% and 0.02% of the time. Where plume grounding was detected, the maximum annual mean particulate matter (PM) from the MWI was estimated to be 0.03 μg m-3 to 0.12 μg m-3; 2-3 orders of magnitude smaller than background ambient PM10 concentrations. Ambient concentrations of Cr increased by 1.6-3.0 times when MWI emissions were detected. From our analysis we found no evidence of incinerator emissions in ambient metal concentrations around four UK MWIs. The six UK MWIs studied contributed little to ambient PM10 concentrations.

Organic aerosol (OA) is a key component of total submicron particulate matter (PM1), and comprehensive knowledge of OA sources across Europe is crucial to mitigate PM1 levels. Europe has a well-established air quality research infrastructure from which yearlong datasets using 21 aerosol chemical speciation monitors (ACSMs) and 1 aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) were gathered during 2013–2019. It includes 9 non-urban and 13 urban sites. This study developed a state-of-the-art source apportionment protocol to analyse long-term OA mass spectrum data by applying the most advanced source apportionment strategies (i.e., rolling PMF, ME-2, and bootstrap). This harmonised protocol was followed strictly for all 22 datasets, making the source apportionment results more comparable. In addition, it enables quantification of the most common OA components such as hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA), biomass burning OA (BBOA), cooking-like OA (COA), more oxidised-oxygenated OA (MO-OOA), and less oxidised-oxygenated OA (LO-OOA). Other components such as coal combustion OA (CCOA), solid fuel OA (SFOA: mainly mixture of coal and peat combustion), cigarette smoke OA (CSOA), sea salt (mostly inorganic but part of the OA mass spectrum), coffee OA, and ship industry OA could also be separated at a few specific sites. Oxygenated OA (OOA) components make up most of the submicron OA mass (average = 71.1%, range from 43.7 to 100%). Solid fuel combustion-related OA components (i.e., BBOA, CCOA, and SFOA) are still considerable with in total 16.0% yearly contribution to the OA, yet mainly during winter months (21.4%). Overall, this comprehensive protocol works effectively across all sites governed by different sources and generates robust and consistent source apportionment results. Our work presents a comprehensive overview of OA sources in Europe with a unique combination of high time resolution (30–240 min) and long-term data coverage (9–36 months), providing essential information to improve/validate air quality, health impact, and climate models., Environment International, 166, ISSN:0160-4120, ISSN:1873-6750