Environmental and ecological economics in the 21st century: an age adjusted citation analysis of the most influential articles, journals, authors and institutions

We investigate the influence of articles, authors, journals and institutions in the field of environmental and ecological economics. We depart from studies that investigated the literature until 2001 and include a time period that has witnessed an enormous increase of importance in the field. We adjust for the age effect given the huge impact of the year of an article's publication on its influence and we show that this adjustment does make a substantial difference — especially for disaggregated units of analysis with diverse age characteristics such as articles or authors. We analyse 6597 studies on environmental and ecological economics published between 2000 and 2009. We provide rankings of the influential articles, authors, journals and institutions and find that Ecological Economics, Energy Economics and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management have the most influential articles, they publish very influential authors and their articles are cited most. The University of Maryland, Resources for the Future, the University of East Anglia and the World Bank appear to be the most influential institutions in the field of environmental and ecological economics.

Evaluation of moisture sources for the Central European summer flood of May/June 2013 based on regional climate model simulations

Heavy precipitation affected Central Europe in May/June 2013, triggering damaging floods both on the Danube and the Elbe rivers. Based on a modelling approach with COSMO-CLM, moisture fluxes, backward trajectories, cyclone tracks and precipitation fields are evaluated for the relevant time period 30 May–2 June 2013. We identify potential moisture sources and quantify their contribution to the flood event focusing on the Danube basin through sensitivity experiments: Control simulations are performed with undisturbed ERA-Interim boundary conditions, while multiple sensitivity experiments are driven with modified evaporation characteristics over selected marine and land areas. Two relevant cyclones are identified both in reanalysis and in our simulations, which moved counter-clockwise in a retrograde path from Southeastern Europe over Eastern Europe towards the northern slopes of the Alps. The control simulations represent the synoptic evolution of the event reasonably well. The evolution of the precipitation event in the control simulations shows some differences in terms of its spatial and temporal characteristics compared to observations. The main precipitation event can be separated into two phases concerning the moisture sources. Our modelling results provide evidence that the two main sources contributing to the event were the continental evapotranspiration (moisture recycling; both phases) and the North Atlantic Ocean (first phase only). The Mediterranean Sea played only a minor role as a moisture source. This study confirms the importance of continental moisture recycling for heavy precipitation events over Central Europe during the summer half year.

The SPARC Data Initiative: comparisons of CFC-11, CFC-12, HF and SF6 climatologies from international satellite limb sounders

A quality assessment of the CFC-11 (CCl3F), CFC-12 (CCl2F2), HF, and SF6 products from limb-viewing satellite instruments is provided by means of a detailed intercomparison. The climatologies in the form of monthly zonal mean time series are obtained from HALOE, MIPAS, ACE-FTS, and HIRDLS within the time period 1991–2010. The intercomparisons focus on the mean biases of the monthly and annual zonal mean fields and aim to identify their vertical, latitudinal and temporal structure. The CFC evaluations (based on MIPAS, ACE-FTS and HIRDLS) reveal that the uncertainty in our knowledge of the atmospheric CFC-11 and CFC-12 mean state, as given by satellite data sets, is smallest in the tropics and mid-latitudes at altitudes below 50 and 20 hPa, respectively, with a 1σ multi-instrument spread of up to ±5 %. For HF, the situation is reversed. The two available data sets (HALOE and ACE-FTS) agree well above 100 hPa, with a spread in this region of ±5 to ±10 %, while at altitudes below 100 hPa the HF annual mean state is less well known, with a spread ±30 % and larger. The atmospheric SF6 annual mean states derived from two satellite data sets (MIPAS and ACE-FTS) show only very small differences with a spread of less than ±5 % and often below ±2.5 %. While the overall agreement among the climatological data sets is very good for large parts of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (CFCs, SF6) or middle stratosphere (HF), individual discrepancies have been identified. Pronounced deviations between the instrument climatologies exist for particular atmospheric regions which differ from gas to gas. Notable features are differently shaped isopleths in the subtropics, deviations in the vertical gradients in the lower stratosphere and in the meridional gradients in the upper troposphere, and inconsistencies in the seasonal cycle. Additionally, long-term drifts between the instruments have been identified for the CFC-11 and CFC-12 time series. The evaluations as a whole provide guidance on what data sets are the most reliable for applications such as studies of atmospheric transport and variability, model–measurement comparisons and detection of long-term trends. The data sets will be publicly available from the SPARC Data Centre and through PANGAEA (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.849223).

Changes in soluble carbohydrates and starch amounts during somatic and zygotic embryogenesis of Acca sellowiana (Myrtaceae)

Comparative analysis of zygotic and somatic embryogenesis of Acca sellowiana showed higher amounts of sucrose, fructose, raffinose, and myo-inositol in zygotic embryos at different developmental stages than in corresponding somatic ones. These differences were mostly constant. In general, glucose levels were significantly lower than the other soluble carbohydrates analyzed, showing minor variation in each embryo stage. Despite the presence of sucrose in the culture medium, its levels conspicuously diminished in somatic embryos compared with the zygotic ones. Raffinose enhanced parallel to embryo development, regardless of its zygotic or somatic origin. Analysis of the soluble carbohydrate composition of mature zygotic cotyledon used as explant pointed out fructose, glucose, myo-inositol, sucrose, and raffinose as the most important. Similar composition was also found in the corresponding somatic cotyledon. Total soluble carbohydrates varied inversely, decreasing in zygotic embryos and increasing in somatic embryos until the 24th d, at which time they increased rapidly about sixfold in zygotic embryos until the 27th d, a period coinciding with the zygotic proembryos formation. Such condition seems to reflect directly the variation of endogenous sucrose level, mainly because glucose and fructose diminished continuously during this time period. This means that, in terms of soluble sugars, zygotic embryo formation occurred under a situation represented by high sucrose amounts, simultaneously with low fructose and glucose levels, while in contrast, somatic embryo formation took place under an endogenous sugar status characterized by a substantial fructose enhancement. Starch levels increased continuously in zygotic embryos and decreased in somatic ones, the reverse to what was found in fructose variation. Starch accumulation was significantly higher in somatic torpedo and cotyledonary embryos than in the corresponding zygotic ones.

Evolutionary history of Dengue virus type 4: Insights into genotype phylodynamics

Dengue virus type 4 (DENV-4) circulates in tropical and subtropical countries from Asia and the Americas. Despite the importance of dengue virus distribution, little is known about the worldwide viral spread. Following a Bayesian phylogenetic approach we inferred the evolutionary history of 310 isolates sampled from 37 countries during the time period 1956-2008 and the spreading dynamics for genotypes I and II. The region (tropical rainforest biome) comprised by Malaysia-Thailand was the most likely ancestral area from which the serotype has originated and spread. Interestingly, cross-correlation analysis on demographic time series with the Asian sequences showed a statistically significant negative correlation that could be suggestive of competition among genotypes within the same serotype. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Combination Efficacy of Voriconazole and Amphotericin B in the Experimental Disease in Immunodeficient Mice Caused by Fluconazole-resistant Cryptococcus neoformans

The therapeutic efficacy of amphotericin B and voriconazole alone and in combination with one another were evaluated in immunodeficient mice (BALB/c-SCID) infected with a fluconazole-resistant strain of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii. The animals were infected intravenously with 3 x 10(5) cells and intraperitoneally treated with amphotericin B (1.5 mg/kg/day) in combination with voriconazole (40 mg/kg/days). Treatment began 1 day after inoculation and continued for 7 and 15 days post-inoculation. The treatments were evaluated by survival curves and yeast quantification (CFUs) in brain and lung tissues. Treatments for 15 days significantly promoted the survival of the animals compared to the control groups. Our results indicated that amphotericin B was effective in assuring longest-term survival of infected animals, but these animals still harbored the highest CFU of C. neoformans in lungs and brain at the end of the experiment. Voriconazole was not as effective alone, but in combination with amphotericin B, it prolonged survival for the second-longest time period and provided the lowest colonization of target organs by the fungus. None of the treatments were effective in complete eradication of the fungus in mice lungs and brain at the end of the experiment.

Random sums of exchangeable variables and actuarial applications

In this paper we study the accumulated claim in some fixed time period, skipping the classical assumption of mutual independence between the variables involved. Two basic models are considered: Model I assumes that any pair of claims are equally correlated which means that the corresponding square-integrable sequence is exchangeable one. Model 2 states that the correlations between the adjacent claims are the same. Recurrence and explicit expressions for the joint probability generating function are derived and the impact of the dependence parameter (correlation coefficient) in both models is examined. The Markov binomial distribution is obtained as a particular case under assumptions of Model 2. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Immobilization of primary cultures of insulin-releasing human pancreatic cells

Transplantation of pancreatic islets isolated from organ donors constitutes a promising alternative treatment for type 1 diabetes, however, it is severely limited by the shortage of organ donors. Ex vivo islet cell cultures appear as an attractive but still elusive approach for curing type 1 diabetes. It has recently been shown that, even in the absence of fibrotic over-growth, several factors, such as insufficient nutrition of the islet core, represent a major barrier for long-term survival of islets grafts. The use of immobilized dispersed cells may contribute to solve this problem due to conceivably easier nutritional and oxygen support to the cells. Therefore, we set out to establish an immobilization method for primary cultures of human pancreatic cells by adsorption onto microcarriers (MCs). Dispersed human islets cells were seeded onto Cytodex1 microcarriers and cultured in bioreactors for up to eight days. The cell number increased and islet cells maintained their insulin secretion levels throughout the time period studied. Moreover, the cells also presented a tendency to cluster upon five days culturing. Therefore, this procedure represents a useful tool for controlled studies on islet cells physiology and, also, for biotechnological applications.

THE EXTENT OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY AUTHORSHIP OF ARTICLES ON SCIENTOMETRICS AND BIBLIOMETRICS IN BRAZIL

The publications in scientometrics and bibliometrics with Brazilian authorship expanded exponentially in the 1990-2006 period, reaching 13 times in the Web of Science database and 19.5 times in the Google Scholar database. This increase is rather superior to that of the total Brazilian scientific production in the same time period (5.6 times in the Web of Science). Some characteristics to be noticed in this rise are: 1) The total number of articles during this period was 197; in that, 78% were published in 57 Brazilian journals and 22% in 13 international journals. 2) The national and international articles averaged 4.3 and 5.9 citations/article, respectively; two journals stood out among these, the national Ciencia da Informacao (44 articles averaging 6.7 citations/article) and the international Scientometrics (32 articles averaging 6.2 citations/article). 3) The articles encompass an impressive participation of authors from areas other than information science; only one-fourth of the authors are bound to the information science field, the remaining ones being distributed among the areas of humanities/business administration, biology/biomedicine, health and hard sciences. The occurrence of adventitious authors at this level of multidisciplinarity is uncommon in science. However, the possible benefits of such patterns are not clear in view of a fragmented intercommunication among the authors, as noticed through the citations. The advantages of changing this trend and of using other scientometric and bibliometric databases, such as SciELO, to avoid an almost exclusive use of the Web of Science database, are discussed.

Polydimethylsiloxane/polypyrrole stir bar sorptive extraction and liquid chromatography (SBSE/LC-UV) analysis of antidepressants in plasma samples

A new polymeric coating consisting of a dual-phase, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polypyrrole (PPY) was developed for the stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) of antidepressants (mirtazapine, citalopram, paroxetine, duloxetine, fluoxetine and sertraline) from plasma samples, followed by liquid chromatography analysis (SBSE/LC-UV). The extractions were based on both adsorption (PPY) and sorption (PDMS) mechanisms. SBSE variables, such as extraction time, temperature, pH of the matrix, and desorption time were optimized, in order to achieve suitable analytical sensitivity in a short time period. The PDMS/PPY coated stir bar showed high extraction efficiency (sensitivity and selectivity) toward the target analytes. The quantification limits (LOQ) of the SBSE/LC-UV method ranged from 20 ng mL(-1) to 50 ng mL(-1), and the linear range was from LOQ to 500 ng mL(-1), with a determination coefficient higher than 0.99. The inter-day precision of the SBSE/LC-UV method presented a variation coefficient lower than 15%. The efficiency of the SBSE/LC-UV method was proved by analysis of plasma samples from elderly depressed patients. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Kriminalitetens geografi : vardagsbrottslighetens spatiala fördelning i Borlänge

The aim of this thesis is to describe and analyze the geographical distribution of everyday criminality in the town of Borlänge during the year 2002 and to analyze which measures to be taken in the physical social planning to decrease this everyday criminality there. The term everyday criminality is here to be understood as those categories of crime that appear most frequently in the records of reports to the police every year. Here two kinds of crime have been in focus, thefts from cars and office burglary.In fulfilling this aim two main questions have been answered. The first one is how the everyday criminality was distributed geographically in the town of Borlänge during the year 2002. The second one is which measures to be taken in the physical social planning to decrease this everyday criminality in the town of Borlänge.In order to answer the first question a spatial autocorrelation analysis, Local Moran LISA has been used. This method is based on the measurement Moran´s I and shows the spatial autocorrelation for every single location. To answer the second question three different theories of crime prevention through environmental design have been studied and applied in the analysis. These are Jane Jacobs’ ideas about ”the living city”, Oscar Newman´s ideas about ”defensible space” and Ronald V. Clarke´s theories about crime prevention.The major conclusions that can be drawn from this thesis are that the risk of being exposed to thefts from cars, during the analyzed time period, was highest in Centrum and Hagalund and their surroundings. The lowest risk of being exposed to this type of crime was found in Domnarvet and Islingby, during the year 2002. The highest risk of being a victim of the crime office burglary was found in Hagalund and its surroundings and in the single area of Kvarnsveden. The corresponding lowest risk was found in Lergärdet and its surroundings and in Norra Backa and Kupolen. The measures that should be taken in order to decrease these types of criminality can be divided into overall changes and place-specific changes. When it comes to the crime thefts from cars a more attractive central business district, a better view of parking lots from nearby buildings, dividing of larger parking lot zones into smaller ones, migration of hidden parking lots and stronger access control to parking lots where problems with this kind of crime have occurred have been suggested as overall changes. The corresponding place-specific changes are to remove vegetation that is blocking the view, better lighting and to put up signs with information about increased risk of exposure to crime at parking lots with the most problems. To decrease the amount of office burglaries overall changes as to create a better view of the area from nearby surroundings, move bigger office compartments or divide them into smaller units, rebuild characteristic buildings and increase security by strengthening the access control to offices with these kinds of problems could be useful. Finally there are possibilities to decrease office burglary by using place-specific measures as surveillance cameras combined with signs containing information about these, high fences and better lighting around the buildings where a higher risk of being exposed to this kind of criminality is present.

The determinants of internationalstudent mobility : An empirical study on U.S. Data

The increase in foreign students in countries such as the US, the UK and Francesuggests that the international ‘education industry’ is growing in importance. Thepurpose of this paper is to investigate the empirical determinants of internationalstudent mobility. A secondary purpose is to give tentative policy suggestions to hostcountry, source country and also to provide some recommendations to students whowant to study abroad. Using pooled cross-sectional time series data for the US overthe time period 1993-2006, we estimate an econometric model of enrolment rates offoreign students in the US. Our results suggest that tuition fees, US federal support ofeducation, and the size of the ‘young’ generation of source countries have asignificant influence on international student mobility. We also consider other factorsthat may be relevant in this context.

PERFORMANCE EVOLUTION OF PEER TO PEER NETWORKS

This thesis work concerns about the Performance evolution of peer to peer networks, where we used different distribution technique’s of peer distribution like Weibull, Lognormal and Pareto distribution process. Then we used a network simulator to evaluate the performance of these three distribution techniques.During the last decade the Internet has expanded into a world-wide network connecting millions of hosts and users and providing services for everyone. Many emerging applications are bandwidth-intensive in their nature; the size of downloaded files including music and videos can be huge, from ten megabits to many gigabits. The efficient use of network resources is thus crucial for the survivability of the Internet. Traffic engineering (TE) covers a range of mechanisms for optimizing operational networks from the traffic perspective. The time scale in traffic engineering varies from the short-term network control to network planning over a longer time period.Here in this thesis work we considered the peer distribution technique in-order to minimise the peer arrival and service process with three different techniques, where we calculated the congestion parameters like blocking time for each peer before entering into the service process, waiting time for a peers while the other peer has been served in the service block and the delay time for each peer. Then calculated the average of each process and graphs have been plotted using Matlab to analyse the results

Travel Report from the first field trip within the SIDA supported project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility : Including visits to Ihushi Development Center, Tweyambe Secondary School and Mavuno Project in Tanzania. Conducted in April 2011

This report describes the outcome of the first visit to Tanzania, within the project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility". The trip included visits to three different organizations; Ihushi Development Center (IDC) near Mwanza, TIDESO near Bukoba, and Mavuno Project in Karagwe. At IDC, a brief evaluation of the current power system was done and measuring equipment for long term measurements were installed. At all three locations investigations regarding the current and future electricity demand were conducted and connections to people relevant to the study were established. The report is including as well some technical specifications as some observations regarding organization and management of the technical systems. The trip was including only short visits and therefore only brief introductions to the different organizations, based on observations done by the author. The report is hence describing the author’s understanding of the technical system and social structures after only short visits to each of the organizations, and may differ from observations done at another point in time, over a different time period, or by some other person.This report describes the outcome of the first visit to Tanzania, within the project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility". The trip included visits to three different organizations; Ihushi Development Center (IDC) near Mwanza, TIDESO near Bukoba, and Mavuno Project in Karagwe. At IDC, a brief evaluation of the current power system was done and measuring equipment for long term measurements were installed. At all three locations investigations regarding the current and future electricity demand were conducted and connections to people relevant to the study were established. The report is including as well some technical specifications as some observations regarding organization and management of the technical systems. The trip was including only short visits and therefore only brief introductions to the different organizations, based on observations done by the author. The report is hence describing the author’s understanding of the technical system and social structures after only short visits to each of the organizations, and may differ from observations done at another point in time, over a different time period, or by some other person.

Economic growth in Sweden, 2000-2010 : The dot-com bubble and the financial crisis

    Economic growth is the increase in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economy over time. The total output is the quantity of goods or servicesproduced in a given time period within a country. Sweden was affected by two crises during the period 2000-2010: a dot-com bubble and a financial crisis. How did these two crises affect the economic growth?     The changes of domestic output can be separated into four parts: changes in intermediate demand, final domestic demand, export demand and import substitution. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the economic growth during the period 2000-2010, with focus on the dot-com bubble in the beginning of the period 2000-2005, and the financial crisis at the end of the period 2005-2010. The methodology to be used is the structural decomposition method.     This investigation shows that the main contributions to the Swedish total domestic output increase in both the period 2000-2005 and the period 2005-2010 were the effect of domestic demand. In the period 2005-2010, financial crisis weakened the effect of export. The output of the primary sector went from a negative change into a positive, explained mainly by strong export expansion. In the secondary sector, export had most effect in the period 2000-2005. Nevertheless, domestic demand and import ratio had more effect during the financial crisis period. Lastly, in the tertiary sector, domestic demand can mainly explain the output growth in the whole period 2000-2010.