The Cyprus Institute

About: The Cyprus Institute is a other organization based out in Nicosia, Cyprus. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Aerosol & Environmental science. The organization has 418 authors who have published 1252 publications receiving 32586 citations.

A Novel Method for the Homogenization of Daily Temperature Series and Its Relevance for Climate Change Analysis

Abstract: Instrumental daily series of temperature are often affected by inhomogeneities. Several methods are available for their correction at monthly and annual scales, whereas few exist for daily data. Here, an improved version of the higher-order moments (HOM) method, the higher-order moments for autocorrelated data (HOMAD), is proposed. HOMAD addresses the main weaknesses of HOM, namely, data autocorrelation and the subjective choice of regression parameters. Simulated series are used for the comparison of both methodologies. The results highlight and reveal that HOMAD outperforms HOM for small samples. Additionally, three daily temperature time series from stations in the eastern Mediterranean are used to show the impact of homogenization procedures on trend estimation and the assessment of extremes. HOMAD provides an improved correction of daily temperature time series and further supports the use of corrected daily temperature time series prior to climate change assessment.

The epidemiology of childhood poisonings in Cyprus.

Abstract: Information on childhood poisonings in Cyprus is limited. Our objective was to examine the epidemiology of poisonings among children in Cyprus. All children up to 15 years of age admitted for poisoning to the Archbishop Makarios Hospital in Nicosia, Cyprus between 2005 and 2008 were included in our study. All hospital poisoning records were reviewed. A total of 257 children were admitted for poisoning. The mean age of children was 3.1 years, of which 83.7% were below the age of 5 years old, while 53% were boys. The poisoning hospitalizations accounted for about 3% of all admissions to the pediatric department during the study period (4 years). The annual cumulative incidence of childhood poisoning hospitalizations was 116 per 100,000 children. Medications accounted for 46.1% of all poisonings, the most frequent cause being paracetamol (9.8%), cardiovascular medications (5.3%), antitussive medications (4.5%), and other painkillers (4.1%). Another 37.6% of hospitalizations involved household products such as household cleaning products (11.8%), petroleum products (11.0%), and rodenticides (5.7%). Among children who ingested petroleum distillates, 55.6% developed clinical symptomatology. The vast majority of cases were accidental (93.8%). Suicidal cases involved children 8-14 years old, mainly girls, and the most frequent poisoning ingested was paracetamol (46.7%). Poisoning hospitalizations represent an important cause of morbidity among children in Cyprus. Preventive strategies should include the education of caregivers on the handling of medications and household products as well as legislation requiring child-resistant packaging for all medications and household products including petroleum distillates.

Beyond water security: asecuritisation and identity in Cyprus

Abstract: Forty years after the division of Cyprus, the unstable political agenda still prevents a meaningful bi-communal discourse on the joint management of natural resources, especially water, a vital resource for all islanders. Until now, both communities have deployed unilateral, tactical methods to securitise the water discourse by linking it to high politics; yet, the situation remains deadlocked. Processes by which the water discourse in Cyprus acquired multiple meanings of securitisation over time and across different groups remains understudied, as does the concept of asecurity. We suggest moving water management in Cyprus into an asecuritisation realm, where decision-making processes are founded on a shared social identity with water acting as a unifying agent. Based on empirical findings from multiple methods employed dealing with social dilemmas involving scarce natural resources, we conclude that an alternative way of organizing political space with no a priori reference to the securitisation logic would create new opportunities for transforming the discourse beyond the political lock-in and incorporating bi-communal dynamics into natural resource management, laying the groundwork for future cooperation on other emblematic issues.

Green manufacturing of metallic nanoparticles: a facile and universal approach to scaling up

Abstract: High-yield and continuous synthesis of ultrapure inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) of well-defined size and composition has invariably been one of the major challenges in nanotechnology. Employing green techniques that avoid the use of poisonous and expensive chemicals has been realized as a necessity for manufacturing NPs on an industrial scale. In this communication, we show that a newly developed high-frequency spark (HFS) quenched by a high-purity gas yields a series of monometallic and bimetallic NPs in large quantities, with well-defined (primary) particle size (sub-10 nm) and chemical composition. The mass production rate is linearly dependent on the operating frequency, and can reach up to 1 g h−1, providing a universal and facile technology for producing multicomponent hybrid NPs. Considering also that the methodology requires neither any specialized machinery, nor any chemical reagents, product purification, or any further waste processing, it provides a green, sustainable and versatile platform for manufacturing key building blocks toward industrial scale production.

Pion vector form factor from lattice QCD at the physical point

Abstract: We present an investigation of the electromagnetic pion form factor, ${F}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}({Q}^{2})$, at small values of the four-momentum transfer ${Q}^{2}$ ($\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.25\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{2}$), based on the gauge configurations generated by the European Twisted Mass Collaboration with ${N}_{f}=2$ twisted-mass quarks at maximal twist including a clover term. Momentum is injected using nonperiodic boundary conditions and the calculations are carried out at a fixed lattice spacing ($a\ensuremath{\simeq}0.09\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fm}$) and with pion masses equal to its physical value, 240 MeV and 340 MeV. Our data are successfully analyzed using chiral perturbation theory at next-to-leading order in the light-quark mass. For each pion mass two different lattice volumes are used to take care of finite size effects. Our final result for the squared charge radius is $⟨{r}^{2}{⟩}_{\ensuremath{\pi}}=0.443(29)\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fm}}^{2}$, where the error includes several sources of systematic errors except the uncertainty related to discretization effects. The corresponding value of the SU(2) chiral low-energy constant ${\overline{\ensuremath{\ell}}}_{6}$ is equal to ${\overline{\ensuremath{\ell}}}_{6}=16.2(1.0)$.