Compensation between resolved wave driving and parameterized orographic gravity wave driving of the Brewer–Dobson circulation and its response to climate change

Following recent findings, the interaction between resolved (Rossby) wave drag and parameterized orographic gravity wave drag (OGWD) is investigated, in terms of their driving of the Brewer–Dobson circulation (BDC), in a comprehensive climate model. To this end, the parameter that effectively determines the strength of OGWD in present-day and doubled CO2 simulations is varied. The authors focus on the Northern Hemisphere during winter when the largest response of the BDC to climate change is predicted to occur. It is found that increases in OGWD are to a remarkable degree compensated by a reduction in midlatitude resolved wave drag, thereby reducing the impact of changes in OGWD on the BDC. This compensation is also found for the response to climate change: changes in the OGWD contribution to the BDC response to climate change are compensated by opposite changes in the resolved wave drag contribution to the BDC response to climate change, thereby reducing the impact of changes in OGWD on the BDC response to climate change. By contrast, compensation does not occur at northern high latitudes, where resolved wave driving and the associated downwelling increase with increasing OGWD, both for the present-day climate and the response to climate change. These findings raise confidence in the credibility of climate model projections of the strengthened BDC.

A case study and interview with Jill McDonald CEO and President of McDonald's Northern Europe Division

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how strategy is developed and implemented within a subsidiary of a global organization, the relationship between subsidiary and headquarters and the need for continuous change and adaption to remain relevant. Furthermore, this case study describes a successful process of invention and adoption. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on documentary evidence and a semistructured interview with Jill McDonald CEO and President of McDonald’s Northern Europe Division with responsibility for the UK, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and the Republic of Ireland. Management research rarely captures the views of the top executive, yet the top executives have a broad picture and are key strategic decision makers. Findings – The case study and interview offers a unique insight into factors contributing to McDonald’s unprecedented success (it has paid an increased dividend for the past 37 years). It also sheds light on its successful internationalization strategy. Originality/value – The case study draws on published material and augments this with an in-depth interview with the Chief Executive. Very few case studies offer insight into the thinking of a Chief Executive managing a subsidiary of a global organization. Its value lies in the lessons that managers and students of management can draw on the approach adopted by a highly successful global organization.

Energy compensation following consumption of sugar-reduced products: a randomized controlled trial

PURPOSE: Consumption of sugar-reformulated products (commercially available foods and beverages that have been reduced in sugar content through reformulation) is a potential strategy for lowering sugar intake at a population level. The impact of sugar-reformulated products on body weight, energy balance (EB) dynamics and cardiovascular disease risk indicators has yet to be established. The REFORMulated foods (REFORM) study examined the impact of an 8-week sugar-reformulated product exchange on body weight, EB dynamics, blood pressure, arterial stiffness, glycemia and lipemia. METHODS: A randomized, controlled, double-blind, crossover dietary intervention study was performed with fifty healthy normal to overweight men and women (age 32.0 ± 9.8 year, BMI 23.5 ± 3.0 kg/m2) who were randomly assigned to consume either regular sugar or sugar-reduced foods and beverages for 8 weeks, separated by 4-week washout period. Body weight, energy intake (EI), energy expenditure and vascular markers were assessed at baseline and after both interventions. RESULTS: We found that carbohydrate (P < 0.001), total sugars (P < 0.001) and non-milk extrinsic sugars (P < 0.001) (% EI) were lower, whereas fat (P = 0.001) and protein (P = 0.038) intakes (% EI) were higher on the sugar-reduced than the regular diet. No effects on body weight, blood pressure, arterial stiffness, fasting glycemia or lipemia were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Consumption of sugar-reduced products, as part of a blinded dietary exchange for an 8-week period, resulted in a significant reduction in sugar intake. Body weight did not change significantly, which we propose was due to energy compensation.

L'effet de compensation morale ou comment les 'bonnes actions' peuvent aboutir à une situation indésirable

Des recherches récentes arguent qu’une « bonne action » pourrait contribuer à « désinhiber » l’individu en lui permettant d’entreprendre des actions « moins souhaitables » par la suite. Cet effet de compensation morale reste un domaine peu étudié, en dépit des conséquences potentielles considérables sur l’efficacité des politiques publiques. L’objectif de notre contribution est de définir et de caractériser cet effet tout en soulignant les risques d’effets pervers associés. Nous utilisons à cet effet des études et des exemples tirés de divers domaines, comme la consommation alimentaire ou les comportements prosociaux, et identifions des pistes de recherche visant à mieux comprendre les conséquences directes et indirectes de cet effet, tout en mentionnant quelques stratégies envisageables afin d’atténuer ce biais.

Compensation and Rewards for Environmental Services (CRES) and efficient design of contracts in developing countries. Behavioral insights from a natural field experiment

The use of economic incentives for biodiversity (mostly Compensation and Reward for Environmental Services including Payment for ES) has been widely supported in the past decades and became the main innovative policy tools for biodiversity conservation worldwide. These policy tools are often based on the insight that rational actors perfectly weigh the costs and benefits of adopting certain behaviors and well-crafted economic incentives and disincentives will lead to socially desirable development scenarios. This rationalist mode of thought has provided interesting insights and results, but it also misestimates the context by which ‘real individuals’ come to decisions, and the multitude of factors influencing development sequences. In this study, our goal is to examine how these policies can take advantage of some unintended behavioral reactions that might in return impact, either positively or negatively, general policy performances. We test the effect of income's origin (‘Low effort’ based money vs. ‘High effort’ based money) on spending decisions (Necessity vs. Superior goods) and subsequent pro social preferences (Future pro-environmental behavior) within Madagascar rural areas, using a natural field experiment. Our results show that money obtained under low effort leads to different consumption patterns than money obtained under high efforts: superior goods are more salient in the case of low effort money. In parallel, money obtained under low effort leads to subsequent higher pro social behavior. Compensation and rewards policies for ecosystem services may mobilize knowledge on behavioral biases to improve their design and foster positive spillovers on their development goals.

Endogenous managerial compensation contracts in experimental quantity-setting duopolies

Given the ongoing debate on managerial compensation schemes, our paper offers empirical insights on the strategic choice of firms' owners over the terms of a managerial compensation contract, as a commitment device aiming at gaining competitive advantage in the product market. In a quantity setting duopoly we experimentally test whether firms' owners compensate their managers through contracts combining own profits either with revenues or with relative performance, and the resulting managerial behaviour in the product market. Prominent among our results is that firms' owners choose relative performance over profit revenue contracts more frequently. Further, firms' owners successfully induce a more aggressive behaviour by their managers in the market, by setting incentives which deviate from strict profit maximization.

Risk taking of executives under different incentive contracts: experimental evidence

Classic financial agency theory recommends compensation through stock options rather than shares to counteract excessive risk aversion in agents. In a setting where any kind of risk taking is suboptimal for shareholders, we show that excessive risk taking may occur for one of two reasons: risk preferences or incentives. Even when compensated through restricted company stock, experimental CEOs take large amounts of excessive risk. This contradicts classical financial theory, but can be explained through risk preferences that are not uniform over the probability and outcome spaces, and in particular, risk seeking for small probability gains and large probability losses. Compensation through options further increases risk taking as expected. We show that this effect is driven mainly by the personal asset position of the experimental CEO, thus having deleterious effects on company performance.

Improvement in the Reduction Behavior of Novel ZrO(2)-CeO(2) Solid Solutions with a Tubular Nanostructure by Incorporation of Pd

In this work, 1 wt % Pd/ZrO(2)-CeO(2) mixed oxide nanotubes with 90 mol % CeO(2) were synthesized following a very simple, high-yield procedure and their properties were characterized by synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction, X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), and scanning and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (SEM and HRTEM). In situ XANES experiments were carried out under reducing conditions to investigate the reduction behavior of these novel nanotube materials. The Pd/CeO(2)-based nanotubes exhibited the cubic phase (Fm3m space group). The nanotube walls were composed of nanoparticles with an average crystallite size of about 7 nm, and the nanotubes exhibited a large specific surface area (85 m(2).g(-1)). SEM and HRTEM studies showed that individual nanotubes were composed of a curved sheet of these nanoparticles. Elemental analysis showed that the Ce:Zr:Pd ratios appeared to be approximately constant across space, suggesting compositional homogeneity in the samples. XANES results indicated that the extent of reduction of these materials is low and that the Ce(4+) state is in the majority over the reduced Ce(3+) state. The results suggest that Pd cations-most likely Pd(2+)-form a Pd-Ce-Zr oxide solid solution and that the Pd(2+) is stabilized against reduction in this phase. However, incorporation of the Pd (1 wt %) into the crystal lattice of the nanotubes also appeared to destabilize Ce(4+) against reduction to Ce(3+) and caused a significant increase in its reducibility.

CeO(2)-catalyzed ozonation of phenol

Three different cerium citrate-based precursors were used for synthesizing CeO(2) through thermal treatment. Three morphological types of CeO(2) were obtained. Characterization of these oxides was carried out by XRD patterns, SEM microscopy, N(2) adsorption isotherms, Raman spectroscopy, zeta potential, and UV/Vis luminescence. Ozonation of phenol catalyzed by CeO(2) was studied as a representative reaction of environmental interest. The differences on the catalytic activity showed by these three oxides could be correlated to amounts of Ce(3+) on CeO(2) surface and, consequently, to the demand for oxygen needed to burn each precursor.

Electro-oxidation of ethanol on PtSn/CeO(2)-C electrocatalyst

PtSn/CeO(2)-C electrocatalyst was prepared in a single step by an alcohol-reduction process using ethylene glycol as solvent and reducing agent and CeO(2) (15 wt%) and Vulcan XC72 (85 wt%) as supports. The performance for ethanol oxidation was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and in situ FTIR spectroscopy. The electrocatalytic activity of the PtSn/CeO(2)-C electrocatalyst was higher than that of the PtSn/C electrocatalyst. FTIR studies for ethanol oxidation on PtSn/C electrocatalyst showed that acetaldehyde and acetic acid were the principal products formed, while on PtSn/CeO(2)-C electrocatalyst the principal products formed were CO(2) and acetic acid.

Production of hydrogen via steam reforming of biofuels on Ni/CeO(2)-Al(2)O(3) catalysts promoted by noble metals

The catalytic activity of Ni/CeO(2)-Al(2)O(3) catalysts modified with noble metals (Pt, Ir, Pd and Ru) was investigated for the steam reform of ethanol and glycerol. The catalysts were characterized by the following techniques: Energy-dispersive X-ray, BET, X-ray diffraction, temperature-programmed reduction, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). The results showed that the formation of inactive nickel aluminate was prevented by the presence of CeO(2) dispersed on alumina. The promoting effect of noble metals included a decrease in the reduction temperatures of NiO species interacting with the support, due to the hydrogen spillover effect. It was seen that the addition of noble metal stabilized the Ni sites in the reduced state along the reforming reaction, increasing the ethanol and glycerol conversions and decreasing the coke formation. The higher catalytic performance for the ethanol steam reforming at 600 degrees C and glycerol steam reforming was obtained for the NiPd and NiPt catalysts, respectively, which presented an effluent gaseous mixture with the highest H(2) yield with reasonably low amounts of CO. (c) 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Temperature (over) compensation in an oscillatory surface reaction

Biological rhythms are regulated by homeostatic mechanisms that assure that physiological clocks function reliably independent of temperature changes in the environment. Temperature compensation, the independence of the oscillatory period on temperature, is known to play a central role in many biological rhythms, but it is rather rare in chemical oscillators. We study the influence of temperature on the oscillatory dynamics during the catalytic oxidation of formic acid on a polycrystalline platinum electrode. The experiments are performed at five temperatures from 5 to 25 degrees C, and the oscillations are studied under galvanostatic control. Under oscillatory conditions, only non-Arrhenius behavior is observed. Overcompensation with temperature coefficient (q(10), defined as the ratio between the rate constants at temperature T + 10 degrees C and at T) < I is found in most cases, except that temperature compensation with q(10) approximate to I predominates at high applied currents. The behavior of the period and the amplitude result from a complex interplay between temperature and applied current or, equivalently, the distance from thermodynamic equilibrium. High, positive apparent activation energies were obtained under voltammetric, nonoscillatory conditions, which implies that the non-Arrhenius behavior observed under oscillatory conditions results from the interplay among reaction steps rather than, from a weak temperature dependence of the individual steps.

Hydrogen purification for fuel cell using CuO/CeO(2)-Al(2)O(3) catalyst

CuO/CeO(2), CuO/Al(2)O(3) and CuO/CeO(2)-Al(2)O(3) catalysts, with CuO loading varying from 1 to 5 wt.%, were prepared by the citrate method and applied to the preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide in a reaction medium containing large amounts of hydrogen (PROX-CO). The compounds were characterized ex situ by X-ray diffraction, specific surface area measurements, temperature-programmed reduction and temperature-programmed reduction of oxidized surfaces; XANES-PROX in situ experiments were also carried out to study the copper oxidation state under PROX-CO conditions. These analyses showed that in the reaction medium the Cu(0) is present as dispersed particles. On the ceria, these metallic particles are smaller and more finely dispersed, resulting in a stronger metal-support interaction than in CuO/Al(2)O(3) or CuO/CeO(2)-Al(2)O(3) catalysts, providing higher PROX-CO activity and better selectivity in the conversion of CO to CO(2) despite the greater BET area presented by samples supported on alumina. It is also shown that the lower CuO content, the higher metal dispersion and consequently the catalytic activity. The redox properties of the ceria support also contributed to catalytic performance. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CuO and CuO-ZnO catalysts supported on CeO(2) and CeO(2)-LaO(3) for low temperature water-gas shift reaction

This paper describes an investigation on CuO and CuO-ZnO catalysts supported on CeO(2) and CeO(2)-La(2)O(3) oxides, which were designed for the low temperature water-gas shift reaction (WGSR). Bulk catalysts were prepared by co-precipitation of metal nitrates and characterized by energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area (by the BET method), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and in situ X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES). The catalysts` activities were tested in the forward WGSR, and the CuO/CeO(2) catalyst presented the best catalytic performance. The reasons for this are twofold: (1) the presence of Zn inhibits the interaction between Cu and Ce ions, and (2) lanthanum oxide forms a solid solution with cerium oxide, which will cause a decrease in the surface area of the catalysts. Also the CuO/CeO(2) catalyst presented the highest Cu content on the surface, which could influence its catalytic behavior. Additionally, the Cu and Cu(1+) species could influence the catalytic activity via a reduction-oxidation mechanism, corroborating to the best catalytic performance of the Cu/Ce catalyst. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.