[1] Balloon-borne stratospheric condensation nuclei (CN) measurements have been made from McMurdo Station, Antarctica (78°S), 1986-2010, and from Laramie, Wyoming (41°N), 1982 to the present. In the Antarctic region, the measurements show the formation of a layer of enhanced concentrations of stratospheric CN, between 21 and 27 km, around mid August, reaching its maximum extent between September and early October. CN concentrations increase from backgrounds of 10-20 cm À3 to over 100 cm À3 in the layer. In the northern midlatitudes, the measurements show a quasi-annual and smaller layer of enhanced CN concentrations between 25 and 31 km in late winter and early spring. In the quasi-annual layers, CN concentrations increase from backgrounds of 1-10 cm À3 to over 20 cm À3. Volcanic eruptions appear to enhance the CN layers observed over Laramie and McMurdo. The Arctic Oscillation generally correlates with the magnitude of the Laramie CN layer, suggesting the importance of meridional transport. Volatility measurements and nucleation modeling support a sulfuric acid and water composition and binary homogeneous nucleation as the likely CN formation mechanism in both locations. Bimonthly measurements above Laramie support coagulation as the main reason for the dissipation of the CN layer. Air parcel trajectory modeling confirms that the CN layer forms locally to McMurdo and that it is related to solar exposure, while above Laramie trajectory analysis indicates that Arctic conditions and ambient temperature changes during northerly transport impact the magnitude of the CN layer above Laramie.

The Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF/Chem) v3.6.1 with the Carbon Bond 2005 (CB05) gas-phase mechanism is evaluated for its first decadal application during 2001-2010 using the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP 8.5) emissions to assess its capability and appropriateness for long-term climatological simulations. The initial and boundary conditions are downscaled from the modified Community Earth System Model/Community Atmosphere Model (CESM/CAM5) v1.2.2. The meteorological initial and boundary conditions are bias-corrected using the National Center for Environmental Protection's Final (FNL) Operational Global Analysis data. Climatological evaluations are carried out for meteorological, chemical, and aerosol-cloud-radiation variables against data from surface networks and satellite retrievals. The model performs very well for the 2 m temperature (T2) for the 10-year period, with only a small cold bias of −0.3 • C. Biases in other meteorological variables including relative humidity at 2 m, wind speed at 10 m, and precipitation tend to be site-and season-specific; however, with the exception of T2, consistent annual biases exist for most of the years from 2001 to 2010. Ozone mixing ratios are slightly overpredicted at both urban and rural locations with a normalized mean bias (NMB) of 9.7 % but underpredicted at rural locations with an NMB of −8.8 %. PM 2.5 concentrations are moderately overpredicted with an NMB of 23.3 % at rural sites but slightly underpredicted with an NMB of −10.8 % at urban/suburban sites. In general, the model performs relatively well for chemical and meteorological variables, and not as well for aerosol-cloud-radiation variables. Cloudaerosol variables including aerosol optical depth, cloud water path, cloud optical thickness, and cloud droplet number concentration are generally underpredicted on average across the continental US. Overpredictions of several cloud variables over the eastern US result in underpredictions of radiation variables (such as net shortwave radiation -GSW -with a mean bias -MB -of −5.7 W m −2 ) and overpredictions of shortwave and longwave cloud forcing (MBs of ∼ 7 to 8 W m −2 ), which are important climate variables. While the current performance is deemed to be acceptable, improvements to the bias-correction method for CESM downscaling and the model parameterizations of cloud dynamics and thermodynamics, as well as aerosol-cloud interactions, can potentially improve model performance for long-term climate simulations.Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.

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Introduction Vaginal laxity is increasingly recognized as an important condition, although little is known regarding its prevalence and associated symptoms. Aim To report the prevalence of self-reported vaginal laxity in women attending a urogynecology clinic and investigate its association with pelvic floor symptoms and female sexual dysfunction. Method Data were analyzed from 2,621 women who completed the electronic Personal Assessment Questionnaire-Pelvic Floor (ePAQ-PF). Main Outcome Measure Response data from ePAQ-PF questionairre. Results Vaginal laxity was self-reported by 38% of women and significantly associated with parity, symptoms of prolapse, stress urinary incontinence, overactive bladder, reduced vaginal sensation during intercourse, and worse general sex life (P < .0005). Clinical Implications Clinicians should be aware that vaginal laxity is prevalent and has an associated influence and impact on sexual function. Strength & Limitations The main strength of this study is the analysis of prospectively collected data from a large cohort of women using a validated questionnaire. The main limitation is lack of objective data to measure pelvic organ prolapse. Conclusion Vaginal laxity is a highly prevalent condition that impacts significantly on a woman’s sexual health and quality of life.

Regional, state, and local environmental regulatory agencies often use Eulerian models to investigate the potential impacts on pollutant deposition and air quality from changes in land use, anthropogenic and natural emissions, and climate. The Noah land surface model (LSM) in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is widely used with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model for such investigations, but there are many inconsistencies that need to be changed so that they are consistent with dry deposition and emission processes. In this work, the Noah LSM in WRFv3.8.1 is improved in its linkage to CMAQv5.2 by adding important parameters to the WRF/Noah output, updating the WRF soil and vegetation reference tables that influence CMAQ wet and dry photochemical deposition processes, and decreasing WRF/Noah's top soil layer depth to be consistent with CMAQ processes (e.g., windblown dust and bidirectional ammonia exchange). The modified WRF/Noah‐CMAQ system (both off‐line and coupled) impacts meteorological predictions of 2‐m temperature (T2; increases and decreases), 2‐m mixing ratio (Q2; decreases), and 10‐m wind speed (WSPD10; decreases) in the United States. These changes are mostly driven by leaf area index values and aerodynamic roughness lengths updated in the vegetation tables based on satellite data, with additional impacts from soil tables updated based on recent soil data. Improvements in the consistency in the treatment of land surface processes between CMAQ and WRF resulted in improvements in both estimated meteorological (e.g., T2, WSPD10, and latent heat fluxes) and chemical (e.g., ozone, sulfur dioxide, and windblown dust) model estimates.