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Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic posed a global threat to nearly every society around the world. Individuals turned to their political leaders to safely guide them through this crisis. The most direct way political leaders communicated with their citizens was through official speeches and press conferences. In this report, we compare psychological language markers of four different heads of state during the early stage of the pandemic. Specifically, we collected all pandemic-related speeches and press conferences delivered by political leaders in the USA (Trump), UK (Johnson), Germany (Merkel), and Switzerland (Swiss Federal Council) between February 27th and August 31st, 2020. We used natural language analysis to examine language markers of expressed positive and negative emotions, references to the community (we-talk), analytical thinking, and authenticity and compare these language markers across the four nations. Level differences in the language markers between the leaders can be detected: Trump's language was characterized by a high expression of positive emotion, Merkel's by a strong communal focus, and Johnson's and the Swiss Federal Council by a high level of analytical thinking. Overall, these findings mirror different strategies used by political leaders to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 16th IAEE European Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 25-28 August 2019 ; Electricity market design is evolving with the increase in electricity generated from renewable sources. The market system was originally designed for dispatchable fossil fuel electricity generation with high marginal costs rather than renewable electricity generation with nearly zero marginal costs and high upfront capital costs. When short term prices no longer cover long term investment costs, new market design is needed. An alternative is to increase interconnection to facilitate increased trade between markets (Pollitt and Chyong, 2018). Economic theory would suggest that eliminating barriers to trade across a regional market will decrease consumer costs and producer profits in areas that increase imports, while increasing producer profits and consumer costs in areas that increase exports (Dahlke, 2018). Trade through interconnectors can exploit differences in wind and sun conditions across regions and so reduce supply variability; higher shares of renewable electricity raises the value of market integration even further (Newbery et al., 2018). In this context, the EU has been progressively harmonizing national and regional electricity markets, to form a single market that includes more than 500 million people. The Multi-Regional Coupling organized through European power exchanges coordinates the clearing of day-ahead markets and determines day-ahead prices across the countries involved (Politico, 2018). In the 1996, 2003 and 2009 EU electricity directives, the development of integrated wholesale power markets across the continent was encouraged in order to incentivise market-driven investment in generation across Europe. The Internal Energy Market (IEM) in Europe provides for free trade across border and non-discrimination between internal and cross-border transactions. On October 1st 2018, Ireland was one of the final countries to integrate with this market due to the small isolated nature of this synchronous system which required additional precautions to put in place new market arrangements. The Irish electricity market has been a wholesale all-island market (including Northern Ireland, called the SEM) since 2007. The integration of the all-island electricity market with European electricity markets was expected to increase the use of the interconnector with Great Britain which should "deliver increased levels of competition which should help put a downward pressure on prices as well as encouraging greater levels of security of supply and transparency" (EirGrid, 2016). In addition to integration with Europe, other features were included in the new I-SEM market, such as changes to how energy is bought and sold; how generators are remunerated for availability; forward trading arrangements and market liquidity; market power controls; and the systems, policies and procedures that are required to operate the market (EirGrid, 2016). This has led to new balancing, capacity, and intraday markets that did not previously exist in the Irish market. With the integration of the Irish market, the IEM now comprises 20 countries, with 38 interconnectors and a total generating capacity of over 3,000 TW (EirGrid, 2016). The European Target model sets out the common rules and arrangements for market coupling in Europe. It includes a common price coupling algorithm for scheduling day-ahead markets and determining flows between geographic regions. The energy transactions involving sellers and buyers from different bidding zones are centrally collected to maximise the most efficient and effective trades. In theory, unless the network is congested, markets should converge to a single price. When the network is congested, prices diverge. The integration of the Irish electricity market with the IEM provides a natural experiment with which to test economic theory relating to the benefits of interconnection, regional electricity trade, and market rule changes for consumers,producers and markets. While there is an extensive literature on electricity market design and theory, it is rare to find empirical data such as this with which to test the theory. This integration is relatively recent, yet it provides an ideal opportunity to examine in detail several features over the period directly before and after the change. Ireland, as an isolated market. Ireland has been identified as a country at the forefront of market change due to the high share of renewable electricity and its isolated market (Polllitt and Chyong, 2018). It also serves as a good case study, as there are less confounding factors in an analysis of market design, compared with more geographically integrated countries. ; Science Foundation Ireland ; Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment

AbstractThe loss of a spouse is associated with a host of negative health outcomes. While bereaved individuals commonly report somatic symptoms, no investigations exist of the association between reactivation of latent Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and somatic symptoms among this population. Further, how an individual perceives the quality of their lost relationship in retrospect may impact loss outcomes. Among 99 bereaved spouses, elevated EBV antibody titers were associated with somatic symptoms for those who retrospectively reported high or mean levels of relationship satisfaction (RS), but not among those less satisfied. Further, higher RS was associated with greater grief symptoms. This study identifies higher retrospective RS as a possible risk factor for negative physical and mental health outcomes during bereavement.

Containment conditions after certain postulated severe accident scenarios in nuclear power plants might result in the accumulation of hydrogen in the vessel dome. Inspired by these accident scenarios an experiment for the OECD/NEA benchmark exercise (2014) was carried out in the large scale PANDA facility at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland. The benchmark experiment was conducted at room temperature and under conditions characterized by an initially positively buoyant jet which becomes negatively buoyant while interacting with a helium layer. The experiment addresses (i) the initial conditions especially at the tube exit and (ii) the details of the entrainment of the helium stratification into the jet and the transport of the mixture towards the lower parts of the vessel. For the tube exit velocity mean and fluctuating quantities we find a reasonable agreement with pipe flow data, but a lack of agreement between past tube exit measurements and our results. It is shown that the axial velocity of the jet experiences a strong deceleration in the vicinity of the helium-rich layer and is finally stopped. Fluid accumulates in this zone and part of this fluid is flowing back in a narrow annular region around the upward flowing jet. Consequently, part of the annular flow is reentrained into the rising jet. During the layer erosion, the flow structure changes from a more downwards oriented annular type to a more horizontally oriented mushroom type of flow. It is found that locations for which we record considerable turbulent kinetic energykextends above the region where the velocity magnitudevhas decayed to almost zero, indicating that the jet deceleration and redirection introduces considerable turbulence in the helium stratification.

This report documents the findings and recommendations from a study focused on helping the Air Force refine its emergent Multi-Capable Airmen (MCA) concept and identify next steps for developing an Air Force–wide approach to build and sustain MCA.

Background: Air pollution exposure during fetal life has been related to impaired child neurodevelopment, but it is unclear if brain structural alterations underlie this association. The authors assessed whether air pollution exposure during fetal life alters brain morphology and whether these alterations mediate the association between air pollution exposure during fetal life and cognitive function in school-age children. Methods: We used data from a population-based birth cohort set up in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2002–2006). Residential levels of air pollution during the entire fetal period were calculated using land-use regression models. Structural neuroimaging and cognitive function were performed at 6 to 10 years of age (n = 783). Models were adjusted for several socioeconomic and lifestyle characteristics. Results: Mean fine particle levels were 20.2 μg/m3 (range, 16.8–28.1 μg/m3). Children exposed to higher particulate matter levels during fetal life had thinner cortex in several brain regions of both hemispheres (e.g., cerebral cortex of the precuneus region in the right hemisphere was 0.045 mm thinner (95% confidence interval, 0.028–0.062) for each 5-μg/m3 increase in fine particles). The reduced cerebral cortex in precuneus and rostral middle frontal regions partially mediated the association between exposure to fine particles and impaired inhibitory control. Air pollution exposure was not associated with global brain volumes. Conclusions: Exposure to fine particles during fetal life was related to child brain structural alterations of the cerebral cortex, and these alterations partially mediated the association between exposure to fine particles during fetal life and impaired child inhibitory control. Such cognitive impairment at early ages could have significant long-term consequences. ; This work was supported by European Community Seventh Framework Program Grant Nos. GA#211250 (to BB) and GA#243406 (BB; principal investigator, Ranjeet S. Sokhi) for air pollution exposure assessment; The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (Geestkracht Program Grant No. 10.000.1003 (to HT) and Grant No. TOP 40-00812-98-11021 [to TW]); the Health Effects Institute, an organization jointly funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Assistance Award Grant No. R-82811201), and certain motor vehicle and engine manufacturers (to MG); The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development Grant Nos. VIDI 016.136.361 (to VWVJ) and The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research Grant No. 016.VICI.170.200 (to HT); European Research Council Grant No. ERC-2014-CoG-64916 (to VWVJ); European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program Grant Nos. 633595 (DynaHEALTH) (to HT) and 733206 (LifeCycle) (to VWVJ); a personal fellowship (EUR Fellow 2014) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam (to HEM); and Miguel Servet fellowship Grant Nos. MS13/00054 and CP13/00054 (to MG) awarded by the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness).

Background: Air pollution has been related to brain structural alterations, but a relationship with white matter microstructure is unclear. Objectives: We assessed whether pregnancy and childhood exposures to air pollution are related to white matter microstructure in preadolescents. Methods: We used data of 2,954 children from the Generation R Study, a population-based birth cohort from Rotterdam, Netherlands (2002-2006). Concentrations of 17 air pollutants including nitrogen oxides (NOX), particulate matter (PM), and components of PM were estimated at participants' homes during pregnancy and childhood using land-use regression models. Diffusion tensor images were obtained at child's 9-12 years of age, and fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were computed. We performed linear regressions adjusting for socioeconomic and lifestyle characteristics. Single-pollutant analyses were followed by multipollutant analyses using the Deletion/Substitution/Addition (DSA) algorithm. Results: In the single-pollutant analyses, higher concentrations of several air pollutants during pregnancy or childhood were associated with significantly lower FA or higher MD (p<0.05). In multipollutant models of pregnancy exposures selected by DSA, higher concentration of fine particles was associated with significantly lower FA [−0.71 (95% CI: −1.26, −0.16) per 5μg/m3 fine particles] and higher concentration of elemental silicon with significantly higher MD [0.06 (95% CI: 0.01, 0.11) per 100ng/m3 silicon]. Multipollutant models of childhood exposures selected by DSA indicated significant associations of NOX with FA [−0.14 (95% CI: −0.23, −0.04) per 20-μg/m3 NOX increase], and of elemental zinc and the oxidative potential of PM with MD [0.03 (95% CI: 0.01, 0.04) per 10-ng/m3 zinc increase and 0.07 (95% CI: 0.00, 0.44) per 1-nmolDTT/min/m3 oxidative potential increase]. Mutually adjusted models of significant exposures during pregnancy and childhood indicated significant associations of silicon during pregnancy, and zinc during childhood, with MD. Discussion: Exposure in pregnancy and childhood to air pollutants from tailpipe and non-tailpipe emissions were associated with lower FA and higher MD in white matter of preadolescents. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4709. ; The general design of the Generation R Study is made possible by financial support from the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam; the Erasmus University Rotterdam; Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw); the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO); and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Air pollution exposure assessment was made possible by funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Program (Grant Agreement no. 211250, Grant Agreement no. 243406). In addition, the study was made possible by financial support from the ZonMw (Geestkracht Program 10.000.1003 and TOP 40-00812-98-11021). Neuroimaging was supported by the ZonMw TOP project no. 91211021 to T.W., Sophia Foundation Project S18-20 to R.L.M., and super computing computations for imaging processing were supported by the NWO Physical Sciences Division (Exacte Wetenschappen) and SURFsara (Cartesius compute cluster, https://www.surf.nl). Research described in this article was also conducted under contract to the HEI, an organization jointly funded by the U.S. EPA (Assistance Award No. R-82811201) and certain motor vehicle and engine manufacturers. The contents of this article do not necessarily reflect the views of HEI, or its sponsors, nor do they necessarily reflect the views and policies of the U.S. EPA or motor vehicle and engine manufacturers. V.W.V.J. and H.T. received funding from the ZonMw (VIDI 016.136.361 and NWO-grant 016.VICI.170.200, respectively), the European Research Council (ERC-2014-CoG-64916), and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 633595 (DynaHEALTH) and no. 733206 (LifeCycle). H.E.M. was supported by Stichting Volksbond Rotterdam and the Dutch Brain Foundation (De Hersenstichting, project number GH2016.2.01), and by the 2019 NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. M.G. is funded by a Miguel Servet fellowship (MS13/00054, CP13/00054, CI18/00018) awarded by the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III. W.D. is funded in part by the Research Council of Norway (RCN) (grant 249779) and through the RCN Centers of Excellence funding scheme (grant 262700).