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Photochemical grid models are being used in technical analyses by the Visibility Improvement State and Tribal Association of the Southeast (VISTAS), a regional air quality planning organization in the southeastern United States, to support state implementation plans for regional haze and related air quality issues. VISTAS has embarked on a multi-phase process of testing and evaluating regional meteorological, emissions and air quality models that will be used to project visibility improvements as required by the regional haze rule. VISTAS has generated 2002 annual emissions and meteorological inputs for two photochemical grid models, the community multi-scale air quality (CMAQ) and the comprehensive air-quality model with extensions (CAMx), at a 36 km resolution for the continental US and at 12 km resolution for the eastern US. The two models were evaluated using speciated PM measurements from various monitoring networks and detailed analysis was performed for organic carbon (OC) mass using the IMPROVE, STN, and SEARCH networks. The differences in model performance between CMAQ and CAMx were used as a diagnostic tool to investigate performance issues for several compounds. CAMx performed substantially better than CMAQ for OC (defined as 1.4×measured organic carbon) which led to investigations into methods for improving the CMAQ OC model performance. The treatment of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) was identified as an area needing improvements in both models. The impact of replacing the CMAQ SOA parameters with those from CAMx was investigated. Further analysis identified several processes that are potentially important for SOA formation that are not treated in either model including, polymerization of the SOA into non-volatile particles and SOA formation from sesquiterpene, isoprene and other biogenic VOCs. A prototype mechanism for several of these missing processes was developed and the CMAQ SOA module was enhanced to include these SOA formation processes. SOA yields, specifically from biogenic emissions, were increased by the modified SOA module and CMAQ model performance for particulate OC at the IMPROVE, SEARCH, and STN sites in the VISTAS region was improved. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In the context of texts that depicted either a minimally confrontational conversation (study 1) or a more confrontational argument (study 2) with a close friend, the use of ironic criticism was rated as being more humorous, polite, and positive, yet also as more sarcastic and mocking than direct criticism. Although our results were consistent with those reported previously, the results of both studies did not support two theoretical explanations of the function ironic criticism. We were unable to demonstrate that participant interpretation of ironic criticism was significantly influenced by the magnitude of the contrast created between criticism and the context in which the criticism is embedded, or by the focus of attention to either speaker's intent or the impression. Two novel findings emerged. First, ironic expression (but not direct expression) caused failed expectations targeted by criticism to appear less negative. Second, we found greater concordance between ratings of speaker intention and social impression for ratings of ironic expression than for directly expressed criticism. (Contains 2 tables.)

ABSTRACT As part of the Southern Appalachian Mountains Initiative, a comprehensive air quality modeling system was developed to evaluate potential emission control strategies to reduce atmospheric pollutant levels at the [...]

ABSTRACT The Visibility Improvement State and Tribal Association of the Southeast (VISTAS) is one of five Regional Planning Organizations that is charged with the management of haze, visibility, and other [...]

ABSTRACT Recently, a comprehensive air quality modeling system was developed as part of the Southern Appalachians Mountains Initiative (SAMI) with the ability to simulate meteorology, emissions, ozone, size- and composition-resolved [...]

PULITZER'S SCHOOL: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, 1903-2003 BY JAMES BOYLAN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS. 400 PP. $37.50 In 1903, the publisher Joseph Pulitzer provided $2 million ($40 million in today's [...]

Those involved in press criticism are becoming less certain as the 21st century approaches about whether they are doing good and whether they are using appropriate forms. It may now be time for an honest review of press criticism. It is vital that press criticism in the 21st century is based in the journalist's working environment, subscribes to high moral standards, is well-written and approachable by everybody. Valid press criticism must support individual responsibility.

This is the book that occupied the last seven years of the life of J. Anthony Lukas. It was finished, but not yet published, when he died on June 5. [...]

The 1990s have been a humbling time for journalism, particularly investigative television journalism. An NBC News magazine program had to apologize for fakery in its investigation of General Motors trucks; [...]

Whitewater has tested the proposition stated nearly a century and a half ago by the orator Wendell Phillips: 'We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.' Phillips spoke [...]

It has been just over 100 years since the publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, which certainly was a keystone in the arch of American's literature of reform. By means of a reconsideration at the work's centennial, these four essays explore a variety of historical issues: the origins and progress of the reformist impulse in U.S. journalism; the varied literary roots of American journalistic practices; the unresolved tensions between fictive and nonfictive writing; and the historiographic is, sues raised by the recent discovery of an unpublished, significantly longer version of the work. As an inspiration to all muckraking journalists over the years, the seminal position of The Jungle in American letters is matched by few other works. It is hoped these essays will encourage a diverse conversation about the book, its causes, and its effects.