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.

Ambient Air Pollution Increases the Risk of Cerebrovascular and Neuropsychiatric Disorders through Induction of Inflammation and Oxidative Stress.

Abstract: Exposure to ambient air pollution is a well-established determinant of health and disease. The Lancet Commission on pollution and health concludes that air pollution is the leading environmental cause of global disease and premature death. Indeed, there is a growing body of evidence that links air pollution not only to adverse cardiorespiratory effects but also to increased risk of cerebrovascular and neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite being a relatively new area of investigation, overall, there is mounting recent evidence showing that exposure to multiple air pollutants, in particular to fine particles, may affect the central nervous system (CNS) and brain health, thereby contributing to increased risk of stroke, dementia, Parkinson's disease, cognitive dysfunction, neurodevelopmental disorders, depression and other related conditions. The underlying molecular mechanisms of susceptibility and disease remain largely elusive. However, emerging evidence suggests inflammation and oxidative stress to be crucial factors in the pathogenesis of air pollution-induced disorders, driven by the enhanced production of proinflammatory mediators and reactive oxygen species in response to exposure to various air pollutants. From a public health perspective, mitigation measures are urgent to reduce the burden of disease and premature mortality from ambient air pollution.

A survey of specularity removal methods

Abstract: The separation of reflection components is an important issue in computer graphics, computer vision and image processing. It provides useful information for the applications that need consistent object surface appearance, such as stereo reconstruction, visual recognition, tracking, objects re-illumination and dichromatic editing. In this paper we will present a brief survey of recent advances in separation of reflection components, also known as specularity (highlights) removal. Several techniques that try to tackle the problem from different points of view have been proposed so far. In this survey, we will overview these methods and we will present a critical analysis of their benefits and drawbacks.

Determinants of regional resilience to economic crisis: a European perspective

Abstract: The impact of the economic crisis has been highly asymmetric across the European regions. The objective of this paper is to investigate the determinants of resilience to economic crisis across European regions. Regional economic resilience was assessed based on employment changes during 2008–2013, while socioeconomic determinants were analysed pre-crisis (2002–2007). A highly heterogeneous pattern of resilience was observed within countries, while significant differences were also revealed between the continental northern-central regions and the southern periphery. A multilevel logistic regression model indicated the magnitude of country-effects on the performance of regional employment during crisis periods. Both EU-referenced and country-referenced regional resilience identified the positive effect of accessibility and the negative effect of a large manufacturing sector in the ability of regions to withstand recessionary shocks. Education and economic development level positively affected the re...

Light-Cone Parton Distribution Functions from Lattice QCD.

Abstract: We extract parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the nucleon from lattice QCD using an ensemble of gauge field configurations simulated with light quark masses fixed to their physical values. Theoretical and algorithmic improvements that allow such a calculation include momentum smearing to reach large nucleon boosts with reduced statistical errors, nonperturbative renormalization, target mass corrections, and a novel modified matching of lattice QCD results to connect to what is extracted from experimental measurements. We give results on the unpolarized and helicity PDFs in the modified minimal subtraction scheme at a scale of 2 GeV and reproduce the main features of the experimentally determined quantities, showing an overlap for a range of Bjorken-x values. This first direct nonperturbative evaluation opens a most promising path to compute PDFs in an ab initio way on the lattice and provides a framework for investigating also a wider class of similar quantities, which require the evaluation of hadronic matrix elements of nonlocal operators.

Intercomparison and evaluation of global aerosol microphysical properties among AeroCom models of a range of complexity

Abstract: Many of the next generation of global climate models will include aerosol schemes which explicitly simulate the microphysical processes that determine the particle size distribution. These models enable aerosol optical properties and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations to be determined by fundamental aerosol processes, which should lead to a more physically based simulation of aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcings. This study examines the global variation in particle size distribution simulated by 12 global aerosol microphysics models to quantify model diversity and to identify any common biases against observations. Evaluation against size distribution measurements from a new European network of aerosol supersites shows that the mean model agrees quite well with the observations at many sites on the annual mean, but there are some seasonal biases common to many sites. In particular, at many of these European sites, the accumulation mode number concentration is biased low during winter and Aitken mode concentrations tend to be overestimated in winter and underestimated in summer. At high northern latitudes, the models strongly underpredict Aitken and accumulation particle concentrations compared to the measurements, consistent with previous studies that have highlighted the poor performance of global aerosol models in the Arctic. In the marine boundary layer, the models capture the observed meridional variation in the size distribution, which is dominated by the Aitken mode at high latitudes, with an increasing concentration of accumulation particles with decreasing latitude. Considering vertical profiles, the models reproduce the observed peak in total particle concentrations in the upper troposphere due to new particle formation, although modelled peak concentrations tend to be biased high over Europe. Overall, the multi-model-mean data set simulates the global variation of the particle size distribution with a good degree of skill, suggesting that most of the individual global aerosol microphysics models are performing well, although the large model diversity indicates that some models are in poor agreement with the observations. Further work is required to better constrain size-resolved primary and secondary particle number sources, and an improved understanding of nucleation and growth (e.g. the role of nitrate and secondary organics) will improve the fidelity of simulated particle size distributions. © 2014 Author(s).