Cellular Handling of Protein Aggregates by Disaggregation Machines.

Science.gov (United States)

Mogk, Axel; Bukau, Bernd; Kampinga, Harm H

2018-01-18

Both acute proteotoxic stresses that unfold proteins and expression of disease-causing mutant proteins that expose aggregation-prone regions can promote protein aggregation. Protein aggregates can interfere with cellular processes and deplete factors crucial for protein homeostasis. To cope with these challenges, cells are equipped with diverse folding and degradation activities to rescue or eliminate aggregated proteins. Here, we review the different chaperone disaggregation machines and their mechanisms of action. In all these machines, the coating of protein aggregates by Hsp70 chaperones represents the conserved, initializing step. In bacteria, fungi, and plants, Hsp70 recruits and activates Hsp100 disaggregases to extract aggregated proteins. In the cytosol of metazoa, Hsp70 is empowered by a specific cast of J-protein and Hsp110 co-chaperones allowing for standalone disaggregation activity. Both types of disaggregation machines are supported by small Hsps that sequester misfolded proteins. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Disaggregation of Rainy Hours: Compared Performance of Various Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Ben Haha, M.; Hingray, B.; Musy, A.

In the urban environment, the response times of catchments are usually short. To de- sign or to diagnose waterworks in that context, it is necessary to describe rainfall events with a good time resolution: a 10mn time step is often necessary. Such in- formation is not always available. Rainfall disaggregation models have thus to be applied to produce from rough rainfall data that short time resolution information. The communication will present the performance obtained with several rainfall dis- aggregation models that allow for the disaggregation of rainy hours into six 10mn rainfall amounts. The ability of the models to reproduce some statistical character- istics of rainfall (mean, variance, overall distribution of 10mn-rainfall amounts; ex- treme values of maximal rainfall amounts over different durations) is evaluated thanks to different graphical and numerical criteria. The performance of simple models pre- sented in some scientific papers or developed in the Hydram laboratory as well as the performance of more sophisticated ones is compared with the performance of the basic constant disaggregation model. The compared models are either deterministic or stochastic; for some of them the disaggregation is based on scaling properties of rainfall. The compared models are in increasing complexity order: constant model, linear model (Ben Haha, 2001), Ormsbee Deterministic model (Ormsbee, 1989), Ar- tificial Neuronal Network based model (Burian et al. 2000), Hydram Stochastic 1 and Hydram Stochastic 2 (Ben Haha, 2001), Multiplicative Cascade based model (Olsson and Berndtsson, 1998), Ormsbee Stochastic model (Ormsbee, 1989). The 625 rainy hours used for that evaluation (with a hourly rainfall amount greater than 5mm) were extracted from the 21 years chronological rainfall series (10mn time step) observed at the Pully meteorological station, Switzerland. The models were also evaluated when applied to different rainfall classes depending on the season first and on the

Probabilistic disaggregation model with application to natural hazard risk assessment of portfolios

OpenAIRE

Custer, Rocco; Nishijima, Kazuyoshi

2012-01-01

In natural hazard risk assessment, a resolution mismatch between hazard data and aggregated exposure data is often observed. A possible solution to this issue is the disaggregation of exposure data to match the spatial resolution of hazard data. Disaggregation models available in literature are usually deterministic and make use of auxiliary indicator, such as land cover, to spatially distribute exposures. As the dependence between auxiliary indicator and disaggregated number of exposures is ...

Daily disaggregation of simulated monthly flows using different rainfall datasets in southern Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D.A. Hughes

2015-09-01

New hydrological insights for the region: There are substantial regional differences in the success of the monthly hydrological model, which inevitably affects the success of the daily disaggregation results. There are also regional differences in the success of using global rainfall data sets (Climatic Research Unit (CRU datasets for monthly, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration African Rainfall Climatology, version 2 (ARC2 satellite data for daily. The overall conclusion is that the disaggregation method presents a parsimonious approach to generating daily flow simulations from existing monthly simulations and that these daily flows are likely to be useful for some purposes (e.g. water quality modelling, but less so for others (e.g. peak flow analysis.

Disaggregated Futures and Options Commitments of Traders

Data.gov (United States)

Commodity Futures Trading Commission — The Disaggregated Futures and Options Commitments of Traders dataset provides a breakdown of each week's open interest for agriculture, energy, metals, lumber, and...

Erosion of atmospherically deposited radionuclides as affected by soil disaggregation mechanisms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Claval, D.; Garcia-Sanchez, L.; Real, J.; Rouxel, R.; Mauger, S.; Sellier, L.

2004-01-01

The interactions of soil disaggregation with radionuclide erosion were studied under controlled conditions in the laboratory on samples from a loamy silty-sandy soil. The fate of 134 Cs and 85 Sr was monitored on soil aggregates and on small plots, with time resolution ranging from minutes to hours after contamination. Analytical experiments reproducing disaggregation mechanisms on aggregates showed that disaggregation controls both erosion and sorption. Compared to differential swelling, air explosion mobilized the most by producing finer particles and increasing five-fold sorption. For all the mechanisms studied, a significant part of the contamination was still unsorbed on the aggregates after an hour. Global experiments on contaminated sloping plots submitted to artificial rainfalls showed radionuclide erosion fluctuations and their origin. Wet radionuclide deposition increased short-term erosion by 50% compared to dry deposition. A developed soil crust when contaminated decreased radionuclide erosion by a factor 2 compared to other initial soil states. These erosion fluctuations were more significant for 134 Cs than 85 Sr, known to have better affinity to soil matrix. These findings confirm the role of disaggregation on radionuclide erosion. Our data support a conceptual model of radionuclide erosion at the small plot scale in two steps: (1) radionuclide non-equilibrium sorption on mobile particles, resulting from simultaneous sorption and disaggregation during wet deposition and (2) later radionuclide transport by runoff with suspended matter

Energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth in Saudi Arabia: An aggregate and disaggregate analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alkhathlan, Khalid; Javid, Muhammad

2013-01-01

The objective of this study is to examine the relationship among economic growth, carbon emissions and energy consumption at the aggregate and disaggregate levels. For the aggregate energy consumption model, we use total energy consumption per capita and CO 2 emissions per capita based on the total energy consumption. For the disaggregate analysis, we used oil, gas and electricity consumption models along with their respective CO 2 emissions. The long-term income elasticities of carbon emissions in three of the four models are positive and higher than their estimated short-term income elasticities. These results suggest that carbon emissions increase with the increase in per capita income which supports the belief that there is a monotonically increasing relationship between per capita carbon emissions and per capita income for the aggregate model and for the oil and electricity consumption models. The long- and short-term income elasticities of carbon emissions are negative for the gas consumption model. This result indicates that if the Saudi Arabian economy switched from oil to gas consumption, then an increase in per capita income would reduce carbon emissions. The results also suggest that electricity is less polluting than other sources of energy. - Highlights: • Carbon emissions increase with the increase in per capita income in Saudi Arabia. • The income elasticity of CO 2 is negative for the gas consumption model. • The income elasticity of CO 2 is positive for the oil consumption model. • The results suggest that electricity is less polluting than oil and gas

Photoinduced disaggregation of TiO₂ nanoparticles enables transdermal penetration.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel W Bennett

Full Text Available Under many aqueous conditions, metal oxide nanoparticles attract other nanoparticles and grow into fractal aggregates as the result of a balance between electrostatic and Van Der Waals interactions. Although particle coagulation has been studied for over a century, the effect of light on the state of aggregation is not well understood. Since nanoparticle mobility and toxicity have been shown to be a function of aggregate size, and generally increase as size decreases, photo-induced disaggregation may have significant effects. We show that ambient light and other light sources can partially disaggregate nanoparticles from the aggregates and increase the dermal transport of nanoparticles, such that small nanoparticle clusters can readily diffuse into and through the dermal profile, likely via the interstitial spaces. The discovery of photoinduced disaggregation presents a new phenomenon that has not been previously reported or considered in coagulation theory or transdermal toxicological paradigms. Our results show that after just a few minutes of light, the hydrodynamic diameter of TiO(2 aggregates is reduced from ∼280 nm to ∼230 nm. We exposed pigskin to the nanoparticle suspension and found 200 mg kg(-1 of TiO(2 for skin that was exposed to nanoparticles in the presence of natural sunlight and only 75 mg kg(-1 for skin exposed to dark conditions, indicating the influence of light on NP penetration. These results suggest that photoinduced disaggregation may have important health implications.

Evolution of an intricate J-protein network driving protein disaggregation in eukaryotes.

Science.gov (United States)

Nillegoda, Nadinath B; Stank, Antonia; Malinverni, Duccio; Alberts, Niels; Szlachcic, Anna; Barducci, Alessandro; De Los Rios, Paolo; Wade, Rebecca C; Bukau, Bernd

2017-05-15

Hsp70 participates in a broad spectrum of protein folding processes extending from nascent chain folding to protein disaggregation. This versatility in function is achieved through a diverse family of J-protein cochaperones that select substrates for Hsp70. Substrate selection is further tuned by transient complexation between different classes of J-proteins, which expands the range of protein aggregates targeted by metazoan Hsp70 for disaggregation. We assessed the prevalence and evolutionary conservation of J-protein complexation and cooperation in disaggregation. We find the emergence of a eukaryote-specific signature for interclass complexation of canonical J-proteins. Consistently, complexes exist in yeast and human cells, but not in bacteria, and correlate with cooperative action in disaggregation in vitro. Signature alterations exclude some J-proteins from networking, which ensures correct J-protein pairing, functional network integrity and J-protein specialization. This fundamental change in J-protein biology during the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition allows for increased fine-tuning and broadening of Hsp70 function in eukaryotes.

Validating CDIAC's population-based approach to the disaggregation of within-country CO2 emissions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cushman, R.M.; Beauchamp, J.J.; Brenkert, A.L.

1998-01-01

The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center produces and distributes a data base of CO 2 emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and cement production, expressed as global, regional, and national estimates. CDIAC also produces a companion data base, expressed on a one-degree latitude-longitude grid. To do this gridding, emissions within each country are spatially disaggregated according to the distribution of population within that country. Previously, the lack of within-country emissions data prevented a validation of this approach. But emissions inventories are now becoming available for most US states. An analysis of these inventories confirms that population distribution explains most, but not all, of the variance in the distribution of CO 2 emissions within the US. Additional sources of variance (coal production, non-carbon energy sources, and interstate electricity transfers) are explored, with the hope that the spatial disaggregation of emissions can be improved

A rainfall disaggregation scheme for sub-hourly time scales: Coupling a Bartlett-Lewis based model with adjusting procedures

Science.gov (United States)

Kossieris, Panagiotis; Makropoulos, Christos; Onof, Christian; Koutsoyiannis, Demetris

2018-01-01

Many hydrological applications, such as flood studies, require the use of long rainfall data at fine time scales varying from daily down to 1 min time step. However, in the real world there is limited availability of data at sub-hourly scales. To cope with this issue, stochastic disaggregation techniques are typically employed to produce possible, statistically consistent, rainfall events that aggregate up to the field data collected at coarser scales. A methodology for the stochastic disaggregation of rainfall at fine time scales was recently introduced, combining the Bartlett-Lewis process to generate rainfall events along with adjusting procedures to modify the lower-level variables (i.e., hourly) so as to be consistent with the higher-level one (i.e., daily). In the present paper, we extend the aforementioned scheme, initially designed and tested for the disaggregation of daily rainfall into hourly depths, for any sub-hourly time scale. In addition, we take advantage of the recent developments in Poisson-cluster processes incorporating in the methodology a Bartlett-Lewis model variant that introduces dependence between cell intensity and duration in order to capture the variability of rainfall at sub-hourly time scales. The disaggregation scheme is implemented in an R package, named HyetosMinute, to support disaggregation from daily down to 1-min time scale. The applicability of the methodology was assessed on a 5-min rainfall records collected in Bochum, Germany, comparing the performance of the above mentioned model variant against the original Bartlett-Lewis process (non-random with 5 parameters). The analysis shows that the disaggregation process reproduces adequately the most important statistical characteristics of rainfall at wide range of time scales, while the introduction of the model with dependent intensity-duration results in a better performance in terms of skewness, rainfall extremes and dry proportions.

Technological shape and size: A disaggregated perspective on sectoral innovation systems in renewable electrification pathways

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Ulrich Elmer; Gregersen, Cecilia; Lema, Rasmus

2018-01-01

important analytical implications because the disaggregated perspective allows us to identify trajectories that cut across conventionally defined core technologies. This is important for ongoing discussions of electrification pathways in developing countries. We conclude the paper by distilling......The sectoral innovation system perspective has been developed as an analytical framework to analyse and understand innovation dynamics within and across various sectors. Most of the research conducted on sectoral innovation systems has focused on an aggregate-level analysis of entire sectors....... This paper argues that a disaggregated (sub-sectoral) focus is more suited to policy-oriented work on the development and diffusion of renewable energy, particularly in countries with rapidly developing energy systems and open technology choices. It focuses on size, distinguishing between small-scale (mini...

Spatial Disaggregation of Areal Rainfall Using Two Different Artificial Neural Networks Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sungwon Kim

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study is to develop artificial neural network (ANN models, including multilayer perceptron (MLP and Kohonen self-organizing feature map (KSOFM, for spatial disaggregation of areal rainfall in the Wi-stream catchment, an International Hydrological Program (IHP representative catchment, in South Korea. A three-layer MLP model, using three training algorithms, was used to estimate areal rainfall. The Levenberg–Marquardt training algorithm was found to be more sensitive to the number of hidden nodes than were the conjugate gradient and quickprop training algorithms using the MLP model. Results showed that the networks structures of 11-5-1 (conjugate gradient and quickprop and 11-3-1 (Levenberg-Marquardt were the best for estimating areal rainfall using the MLP model. The networks structures of 1-5-11 (conjugate gradient and quickprop and 1-3-11 (Levenberg–Marquardt, which are the inverse networks for estimating areal rainfall using the best MLP model, were identified for spatial disaggregation of areal rainfall using the MLP model. The KSOFM model was compared with the MLP model for spatial disaggregation of areal rainfall. The MLP and KSOFM models could disaggregate areal rainfall into individual point rainfall with spatial concepts.

Aggregating and Disaggregating Flexibility Objects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Siksnys, Laurynas; Valsomatzis, Emmanouil; Hose, Katja

2015-01-01

In many scientific and commercial domains we encounter flexibility objects, i.e., objects with explicit flexibilities in a time and an amount dimension (e.g., energy or product amount). Applications of flexibility objects require novel and efficient techniques capable of handling large amounts...... and aiming at energy balancing during aggregation. In more detail, this paper considers the complete life cycle of flex-objects: aggregation, disaggregation, associated requirements, efficient incremental computation, and balance aggregation techniques. Extensive experiments based on real-world data from...

Spatial and temporal disaggregation of transport-related carbon dioxide emissions in Bogota - Colombia

Science.gov (United States)

Hernandez-Gonzalez, L. A.; Jimenez Pizarro, R.; Néstor Y. Rojas, N. Y.

2011-12-01

16% lower, mainly due to uncertainty in activity factors. With only 4% of Bogota's fleet, diesel use accounts for 42% of the CO2 emissions. The emissions are almost evenly shared between public (9% of the fleet) and private transport. Peak emissions occur at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. with maximum values over a densely industrialized area at the northwest of Bogota. This investigation allowed estimating the relative contribution of fuel and vehicle categories to spatially- and temporally-resolved CO2 emissions. Fuel consumption time series indicate a near-stabilization trend on energy consumption for transportation, which is unexpected taking into account the sustained economic and vehicle fleet growth in Bogota. The comparison of the disaggregation methodology with the IPCC methodology contributes to the analysis of possible error sources on activity factor estimations. This information is very useful for uncertainty estimation and adjustment of primary air pollutant emissions inventories.

Disaggregating Qualitative Data from Asian American College Students in Campus Racial Climate Research and Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Museus, Samuel D.; Truong, Kimberly A.

2009-01-01

This article highlights the utility of disaggregating qualitative research and assessment data on Asian American college students. Given the complexity of and diversity within the Asian American population, scholars have begun to underscore the importance of disaggregating data in the empirical examination of Asian Americans, but most of those…

Load Disaggregation via Pattern Recognition: A Feasibility Study of a Novel Method in Residential Building

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Younghoon Kwak

2018-04-01

Full Text Available In response to the need to improve energy-saving processes in older buildings, especially residential ones, this paper describes the potential of a novel method of disaggregating loads in light of the load patterns of household appliances determined in residential buildings. Experiments were designed to be applicable to general residential buildings and four types of commonly used appliances were selected to verify the method. The method assumes that loads are disaggregated and measured by a single primary meter. Following the metering of household appliances and an analysis of the usage patterns of each type, values of electric current were entered into a Hidden Markov Model (HMM to formulate predictions. Thereafter, the HMM repeatedly performed to output the predicted data close to the measured data, while errors between predicted and the measured data were evaluated to determine whether they met tolerance. When the method was examined for 4 days, matching rates in accordance with the load disaggregation outcomes of the household appliances (i.e., laptop, refrigerator, TV, and microwave were 0.994, 0.992, 0.982, and 0.988, respectively. The proposed method can provide insights into how and where within such buildings energy is consumed. As a result, effective and systematic energy saving measures can be derived even in buildings in which monitoring sensors and measurement equipment are not installed.

Context-Based Energy Disaggregation in Smart Homes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesca Paradiso

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we address the problem of energy conservation and optimization in residential environments by providing users with useful information to solicit a change in consumption behavior. Taking care to highly limit the costs of installation and management, our work proposes a Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM approach, which consists of disaggregating the whole-house power consumption into the individual portions associated to each device. State of the art NILM algorithms need monitoring data sampled at high frequency, thus requiring high costs for data collection and management. In this paper, we propose an NILM approach that relaxes the requirements on monitoring data since it uses total active power measurements gathered at low frequency (about 1 Hz. The proposed approach is based on the use of Factorial Hidden Markov Models (FHMM in conjunction with context information related to the user presence in the house and the hourly utilization of appliances. Through a set of tests, we investigated how the use of these additional context-awareness features could improve disaggregation results with respect to the basic FHMM algorithm. The tests have been performed by using Tracebase, an open dataset made of data gathered from real home environments.

Is disaggregation the holy grail of energy efficiency? The case of electricity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carrie Armel, K.; Gupta, Abhay; Shrimali, Gireesh; Albert, Adrian

2013-01-01

This paper aims to address two timely energy problems. First, significant low-cost energy reductions can be made in the residential and commercial sectors, but these savings have not been achievable to date. Second, billions of dollars are being spent to install smart meters, yet the energy saving and financial benefits of this infrastructure – without careful consideration of the human element – will not reach its full potential. We believe that we can address these problems by strategically marrying them, using disaggregation. Disaggregation refers to a set of statistical approaches for extracting end-use and/or appliance level data from an aggregate, or whole-building, energy signal. In this paper, we explain how appliance level data affords numerous benefits, and why using the algorithms in conjunction with smart meters is the most cost-effective and scalable solution for getting this data. We review disaggregation algorithms and their requirements, and evaluate the extent to which smart meters can meet those requirements. Research, technology, and policy recommendations are also outlined. - Highlights: ► Appliance energy use data can produce many consumer, industry, and policy benefits. ► Disaggregating smart meter data is the most cost-effective and scalable solution. ► We review algorithm requirements, and ability of smart meters to meet those. ► Current technology identifies ∼10 appliances; minor upgrades could identify more. ► Research, technology, and policy recommendations for moving forward are outlined.

Development of an Asset Value Map for Disaster Risk Assessment in China by Spatial Disaggregation Using Ancillary Remote Sensing Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Jidong; Li, Ying; Li, Ning; Shi, Peijun

2018-01-01

The extent of economic losses due to a natural hazard and disaster depends largely on the spatial distribution of asset values in relation to the hazard intensity distribution within the affected area. Given that statistical data on asset value are collected by administrative units in China, generating spatially explicit asset exposure maps remains a key challenge for rapid postdisaster economic loss assessment. The goal of this study is to introduce a top-down (or downscaling) approach to disaggregate administrative-unit level asset value to grid-cell level. To do so, finding the highly correlated "surrogate" indicators is the key. A combination of three data sets-nighttime light grid, LandScan population grid, and road density grid, is used as ancillary asset density distribution information for spatializing the asset value. As a result, a high spatial resolution asset value map of China for 2015 is generated. The spatial data set contains aggregated economic value at risk at 30 arc-second spatial resolution. Accuracy of the spatial disaggregation reflects redistribution errors introduced by the disaggregation process as well as errors from the original ancillary data sets. The overall accuracy of the results proves to be promising. The example of using the developed disaggregated asset value map in exposure assessment of watersheds demonstrates that the data set offers immense analytical flexibility for overlay analysis according to the hazard extent. This product will help current efforts to analyze spatial characteristics of exposure and to uncover the contributions of both physical and social drivers of natural hazard and disaster across space and time. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

A rank-based approach for correcting systematic biases in spatial disaggregation of coarse-scale climate simulations

Science.gov (United States)

Nahar, Jannatun; Johnson, Fiona; Sharma, Ashish

2017-07-01

Use of General Circulation Model (GCM) precipitation and evapotranspiration sequences for hydrologic modelling can result in unrealistic simulations due to the coarse scales at which GCMs operate and the systematic biases they contain. The Bias Correction Spatial Disaggregation (BCSD) method is a popular statistical downscaling and bias correction method developed to address this issue. The advantage of BCSD is its ability to reduce biases in the distribution of precipitation totals at the GCM scale and then introduce more realistic variability at finer scales than simpler spatial interpolation schemes. Although BCSD corrects biases at the GCM scale before disaggregation; at finer spatial scales biases are re-introduced by the assumptions made in the spatial disaggregation process. Our study focuses on this limitation of BCSD and proposes a rank-based approach that aims to reduce the spatial disaggregation bias especially for both low and high precipitation extremes. BCSD requires the specification of a multiplicative bias correction anomaly field that represents the ratio of the fine scale precipitation to the disaggregated precipitation. It is shown that there is significant temporal variation in the anomalies, which is masked when a mean anomaly field is used. This can be improved by modelling the anomalies in rank-space. Results from the application of the rank-BCSD procedure improve the match between the distributions of observed and downscaled precipitation at the fine scale compared to the original BCSD approach. Further improvements in the distribution are identified when a scaling correction to preserve mass in the disaggregation process is implemented. An assessment of the approach using a single GCM over Australia shows clear advantages especially in the simulation of particularly low and high downscaled precipitation amounts.

Probabilistic disaggregation of a spatial portfolio of exposure for natural hazard risk assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Custer, Rocco; Nishijima, Kazuyoshi

2018-01-01

In natural hazard risk assessment situations are encountered where information on the portfolio of exposure is only available in a spatially aggregated form, hindering a precise risk assessment. Recourse might be found in the spatial disaggregation of the portfolio of exposure to the resolution...... of a portfolio of buildings in two communes in Switzerland and the results are compared to sample observations. The relevance of probabilistic disaggregation uncertainty in natural hazard risk assessment is illustrated with the example of a simple flood risk assessment....

Development of a Disaggregation Framework toward the Estimation of Subdaily Reference Evapotranspiration: 2- Estimation of Subdaily Reference Evapotranspiration Using Disaggregated Weather Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Parchami Araghi

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Subdaily estimates of reference evapotranspiration (ET o are needed in many applications such as dynamic agro-hydrological modeling. However, in many regions, the lack of subdaily weather data availability has hampered the efforts to quantify the subdaily ET o. In the first presented paper, a physically based framework was developed to desegregate daily weather data needed for estimation of subdaily reference ET o, including air temperature, wind speed, dew point, actual vapour pressure, relative humidity, and solar radiation. The main purpose of this study was to estimate the subdaily ETo using disaggregated daily data derived from developed disaggregation framework in the first presented paper. Materials and Methods: Subdaily ET o estimates were made, using ASCE and FAO-56 Penman–Monteith models (ASCE-PM and FAO56-PM, respectively and subdaily weather data derived from the developed daily-to-subdaily weather data disaggregation framework. To this end, long-term daily weather data got from Abadan (59 years and Ahvaz (50 years synoptic weather stations were collected. Sensitivity analysis of Penman–Monteith model to the different meteorological variables (including, daily air temperature, wind speed at 2 m height, actual vapor pressure, and solar radiation was carried out, using partial derivatives of Penman–Monteith equation. The capability of the two models for retrieving the daily ETo was evaluated, using root mean square error RMSE (mm, the mean error ME (mm, the mean absolute error ME (mm, Pearson correlation coefficient r (-, and Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient EF (-. Different contributions to the overall error were decomposed using a regression-based method. Results and Discussion: The results of the sensitivity analysis showed that the daily air temperature and the actual vapor pressure are the most significant meteorological variables, which affect the ETo estimates. In contrast, low sensitivity

Long-run relationship between sectoral productivity and energy consumption in Malaysia: An aggregated and disaggregated viewpoint

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rahman, Md Saifur; Junsheng, Ha; Shahari, Farihana; Aslam, Mohamed; Masud, Muhammad Mehedi; Banna, Hasanul; Liya, Ma

2015-01-01

This paper investigates the causal relationship between energy consumption and economic productivity in Malaysia at both aggregated and disaggregated levels. The investigation utilises total and sectoral (industrial and manufacturing) productivity growth during the 1971–2012 period using the modified Granger causality test proposed by Toda and Yamamoto [1] within a multivariate framework. The economy of Malaysia was found to be energy dependent at aggregated and disaggregated levels of national and sectoral economic growth. However, at disaggregate level, inefficient energy use is particularly identified with electricity and coal consumption patterns and their Granger caused negative effects upon GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and manufacturing growth. These findings suggest that policies should focus more on improving energy efficiency and energy saving. Furthermore, since emissions are found to have a close relationship to economic output at national and sectoral levels green technologies are of a highest necessity. - Highlights: • At aggregate level, energy consumption significantly influences GDP (Gross Domestic Product). • At disaggregate level, electricity & coal consumption does not help output growth. • Mineral and waste are found to positively Granger cause GDP. • The results reveal strong interactions between emissions and economic growth

Analysis of Fuel Cell Markets in Japan and the US: Experience Curve Development and Cost Reduction Disaggregation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wei, Max [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Smith, Sarah J. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Sohn, Michael D. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2016-07-15

Fuel cells are both a longstanding and emerging technology for stationary and transportation applications, and their future use will likely be critical for the deep decarbonization of global energy systems. As we look into future applications, a key challenge for policy-makers and technology market forecasters who seek to track and/or accelerate their market adoption is the ability to forecast market costs of the fuel cells as technology innovations are incorporated into market products. Specifically, there is a need to estimate technology learning rates, which are rates of cost reduction versus production volume. Unfortunately, no literature exists for forecasting future learning rates for fuel cells. In this paper, we look retrospectively to estimate learning rates for two fuel cell deployment programs: (1) the micro-combined heat and power (CHP) program in Japan, and (2) the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) in California. These two examples have a relatively broad set of historical market data and thus provide an informative and international comparison of distinct fuel cell technologies and government deployment programs. We develop a generalized procedure for disaggregating experience-curve cost-reductions in order to disaggregate the Japanese fuel cell micro-CHP market into its constituent components, and we derive and present a range of learning rates that may explain observed market trends. Finally, we explore the differences in the technology development ecosystem and market conditions that may have contributed to the observed differences in cost reduction and draw policy observations for the market adoption of future fuel cell technologies. The scientific and policy contributions of this paper are the first comparative experience curve analysis of past fuel cell technologies in two distinct markets, and the first quantitative comparison of a detailed cost model of fuel cell systems with actual market data. The resulting approach is applicable to

Disaggregating Assessment to Close the Loop and Improve Student Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Rawls, Janita; Hammons, Stacy

2015-01-01

This study examined student learning outcomes for accelerated degree students as compared to conventional undergraduate students, disaggregated by class levels, to develop strategies for then closing the loop with assessment. Using the National Survey of Student Engagement, critical thinking and oral and written communication outcomes were…

GIS aided spatial disaggregation of emission inventories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orthofer, R.; Loibl, W.

1995-10-01

We have applied our method to produce detailed NMVOC and NO x emission density maps for Austria. While theoretical average emission densities for the whole country would be only 5 t NMVOC and 2.5 t NO x per km 2 , the actual emission densities range from zero in the many uninhabited areas up to more than 3,000 t/km 2 along major highways. In Austria, small scale disaggregation is necessary particularly for the differentiated topography and population patterns in alpine valleys. (author)

New Insight into the Finance-Energy Nexus: Disaggregated Evidence from Turkish Sectors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mert Topcu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Seeing that reshaped energy economics literature has adopted some new variables in energy demand function, the number of papers looking into the relationship between financial development and energy consumption at the aggregate level has been increasing over the last few years. This paper, however, proposes a new framework using disaggregated data and investigates the nexus between financial development and sectoral energy consumption in Turkey. To this end, panel time series regression and causality techniques are adopted over the period 1989–2011. Empirical results confirm that financial development does have a significant impact on energy consumption, even with disaggregated data. It is also proved that the magnitude of financial development is larger in energy-intensive industries than in less energy-intensive ones.

Disaggregated seismic hazard and the elastic input energy spectrum: An approach to design earthquake selection

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, Martin Colby

1998-12-01

The design earthquake selection problem is fundamentally probabilistic. Disaggregation of a probabilistic model of the seismic hazard offers a rational and objective approach that can identify the most likely earthquake scenario(s) contributing to hazard. An ensemble of time series can be selected on the basis of the modal earthquakes derived from the disaggregation. This gives a useful time-domain realization of the seismic hazard, to the extent that a single motion parameter captures the important time-domain characteristics. A possible limitation to this approach arises because most currently available motion prediction models for peak ground motion or oscillator response are essentially independent of duration, and modal events derived using the peak motions for the analysis may not represent the optimal characterization of the hazard. The elastic input energy spectrum is an alternative to the elastic response spectrum for these types of analyses. The input energy combines the elements of amplitude and duration into a single parameter description of the ground motion that can be readily incorporated into standard probabilistic seismic hazard analysis methodology. This use of the elastic input energy spectrum is examined. Regression analysis is performed using strong motion data from Western North America and consistent data processing procedures for both the absolute input energy equivalent velocity, (Vsbea), and the elastic pseudo-relative velocity response (PSV) in the frequency range 0.5 to 10 Hz. The results show that the two parameters can be successfully fit with identical functional forms. The dependence of Vsbea and PSV upon (NEHRP) site classification is virtually identical. The variance of Vsbea is uniformly less than that of PSV, indicating that Vsbea can be predicted with slightly less uncertainty as a function of magnitude, distance and site classification. The effects of site class are important at frequencies less than a few Hertz. The regression

Statistical Models for Disaggregation and Reaggregation of Natural Gas Consumption Data

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Brabec, Marek; Konár, Ondřej; Malý, Marek; Kasanický, Ivan; Pelikán, Emil

2015-01-01

Roč. 42, č. 5 (2015), s. 921-937 ISSN 0266-4763 Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : natural gas consumption * semiparametric model * standardized load profiles * aggregation * disaggregation * 62P30 Subject RIV: BB - Applied Statistics , Operational Research Impact factor: 0.419, year: 2015

Disaggregation of small, cohesive rubble pile asteroids due to YORP

Science.gov (United States)

Scheeres, D. J.

2018-04-01

The implication of small amounts of cohesion within relatively small rubble pile asteroids is investigated with regard to their evolution under the persistent presence of the YORP effect. We find that below a characteristic size, which is a function of cohesive strength, density and other properties, rubble pile asteroids can enter a "disaggregation phase" in which they are subject to repeated fissions after which the formation of a stabilizing binary system is not possible. Once this threshold is passed rubble pile asteroids may be disaggregated into their constituent components within a finite time span. These constituent components will have their own spin limits - albeit potentially at a much higher spin rate due to the greater strength of a monolithic body. The implications of this prediction are discussed and include modification of size distributions, prevalence of monolithic bodies among meteoroids and the lifetime of small rubble pile bodies in the solar system. The theory is then used to place constraints on the strength of binary asteroids characterized as a function of their type.

An Iterative Load Disaggregation Approach Based on Appliance Consumption Pattern

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huijuan Wang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM, monitoring single-appliance consumption level by decomposing the aggregated energy consumption, is a novel and economic technology that is beneficial to energy utilities and energy demand management strategies development. Hardware costs of high-frequency sampling and algorithm’s computational complexity hampered NILM large-scale application. However, low sampling data shows poor performance in event detection when multiple appliances are simultaneously turned on. In this paper, we contribute an iterative disaggregation approach that is based on appliance consumption pattern (ILDACP. Our approach combined Fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm, which provide an initial appliance operating status, and sub-sequence searching Dynamic Time Warping, which retrieves single energy consumption based on the typical power consumption pattern. Results show that the proposed approach is effective to accurately disaggregate power consumption, and is suitable for the situation where different appliances are simultaneously operated. Also, the approach has lower computational complexity than Hidden Markov Model method and it is easy to implement in the household without installing special equipment.

A Replication of ``Using self-esteem to disaggregate psychopathy, narcissism, and aggression (2013''

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Durand, Guillaume

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The present study is a replication of Falkenbach, Howe, and Falki (2013. Using self-esteem to disaggregate psychopathy, narcissism, and aggression. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(7, 815-820.

Equity in health care financing in Palestine: the value-added of the disaggregate approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Abu-Zaineh, Mohammad; Mataria, Awad; Luchini, Stéphane; Moatti, Jean-Paul

2008-06-01

This paper analyzes the redistributive effect and progressivity associated with the current health care financing schemes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, using data from the first Palestinian Household Health Expenditure Survey conducted in 2004. The paper goes beyond the commonly used "aggregate summary index approach" to apply a more detailed "disaggregate approach". Such an approach is borrowed from the general economic literature on taxation, and examines redistributive and vertical effects over specific parts of the income distribution, using the dominance criterion. In addition, the paper employs a bootstrap method to test for the statistical significance of the inequality measures. While both the aggregate and disaggregate approaches confirm the pro-rich and regressive character of out-of-pocket payments, the aggregate approach does not ascertain the potential progressive feature of any of the available insurance schemes. The disaggregate approach, however, significantly reveals a progressive aspect, for over half of the population, of the government health insurance scheme, and demonstrates that the regressivity of the out-of-pocket payments is most pronounced among the worst-off classes of the population. Recommendations are advanced to improve the performance of the government insurance schemes to enhance its capacity in limiting inequalities in health care financing in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Disaggregating Orders of Water Scarcity - The Politics of Nexus in the Wami-Ruvu River Basin, Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Mdee

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This article considers the dilemma of managing competing uses of surface water in ways that respond to social, ecological and economic needs. Current approaches to managing competing water use, such as Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM and the concept of the water-energy-food nexus do not adequately disaggregate the political nature of water allocations. This is analysed using Mehta’s (2014 framework on orders of scarcity to disaggregate narratives of water scarcity in two ethnographic case studies in the WamiRuvu River Basin in Tanzania: one of a mountain river that provides water to urban Morogoro, and another of a large donor-supported irrigation scheme on the Wami River. These case studies allow us to explore different interfaces in the food-water-energy nexus. The article makes two points: that disaggregating water scarcity is essential for analysing the nexus; and that current institutional frameworks (such as IWRM mask the political nature of the nexus, and therefore do not provide an adequate platform for adjudicating the interfaces of competing water use.

Modelling OAIS Compliance for Disaggregated Preservation Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gareth Knight

2007-07-01

Full Text Available The reference model for the Open Archival Information System (OAIS is well established in the research community as a method of modelling the functions of a digital repository and as a basis in which to frame digital curation and preservation issues. In reference to the 5th anniversary review of the OAIS, it is timely to consider how it may be interpreted by an institutional repository. The paper examines methods of sharing essential functions and requirements of an OAIS between two or more institutions, outlining the practical considerations of outsourcing. It also details the approach taken by the SHERPA DP Project to introduce a disaggregated service model for institutional repositories that wish to implement preservation services.

Disaggregating radar-derived rainfall measurements in East Azarbaijan, Iran, using a spatial random-cascade model

Science.gov (United States)

Fouladi Osgouei, Hojjatollah; Zarghami, Mahdi; Ashouri, Hamed

2017-07-01

The availability of spatial, high-resolution rainfall data is one of the most essential needs in the study of water resources. These data are extremely valuable in providing flood awareness for dense urban and industrial areas. The first part of this paper applies an optimization-based method to the calibration of radar data based on ground rainfall gauges. Then, the climatological Z-R relationship for the Sahand radar, located in the East Azarbaijan province of Iran, with the help of three adjacent rainfall stations, is obtained. The new climatological Z-R relationship with a power-law form shows acceptable statistical performance, making it suitable for radar-rainfall estimation by the Sahand radar outputs. The second part of the study develops a new heterogeneous random-cascade model for spatially disaggregating the rainfall data resulting from the power-law model. This model is applied to the radar-rainfall image data to disaggregate rainfall data with coverage area of 512 × 512 km2 to a resolution of 32 × 32 km2. Results show that the proposed model has a good ability to disaggregate rainfall data, which may lead to improvement in precipitation forecasting, and ultimately better water-resources management in this arid region, including Urmia Lake.

The Behaviour of Disaggregated Public Expenditures and Income in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Tang, Chor-Foon; Lau, Evan

2011-01-01

The present study attempts to re-investigate the behaviour of disaggregated public expenditures data and national income for Malaysia. This study covers the sample period of annual data from 1960 to 2007. The Bartlett-corrected trace tests proposed by Johansen (2002) were used to ascertain the presence of long run equilibrium relationship between public expenditures and national income. The results show one cointegrating vector for each specification of public expenditures. The relatively new...

Soil map disaggregation improved by soil-landscape relationships, area-proportional sampling and random forest implementation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Møller, Anders Bjørn; Malone, Brendan P.; Odgers, Nathan

implementation generally improved the algorithm’s ability to predict the correct soil class. The implementation of soil-landscape relationships and area-proportional sampling generally increased the calculation time, while the random forest implementation reduced the calculation time. In the most successful......Detailed soil information is often needed to support agricultural practices, environmental protection and policy decisions. Several digital approaches can be used to map soil properties based on field observations. When soil observations are sparse or missing, an alternative approach...... is to disaggregate existing conventional soil maps. At present, the DSMART algorithm represents the most sophisticated approach for disaggregating conventional soil maps (Odgers et al., 2014). The algorithm relies on classification trees trained from resampled points, which are assigned classes according...

Amyloid formation and disaggregation of α-synuclein and its tandem repeat (α-TR)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bae, Song Yi; Kim, Seulgi; Hwang, Heejin; Kim, Hyun-Kyung; Yoon, Hyun C.; Kim, Jae Ho; Lee, SangYoon; Kim, T. Doohun

2010-01-01

Research highlights: → Formation of the α-synuclein amyloid fibrils by [BIMbF 3 Im]. → Disaggregation of amyloid fibrils by epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and baicalein. → Amyloid formation of α-synuclein tandem repeat (α-TR). -- Abstract: The aggregation of α-synuclein is clearly related to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Therefore, detailed understanding of the mechanism of fibril formation is highly valuable for the development of clinical treatment and also of the diagnostic tools. Here, we have investigated the interaction of α-synuclein with ionic liquids by using several biochemical techniques including Thioflavin T assays and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Our data shows a rapid formation of α-synuclein amyloid fibrils was stimulated by 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide [BIMbF 3 Im], and these fibrils could be disaggregated by polyphenols such as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and baicalein. Furthermore, the effect of [BIMbF 3 Im] on the α-synuclein tandem repeat (α-TR) in the aggregation process was studied.

Converged photonic data storage and switch platform for exascale disaggregated data centers

Science.gov (United States)

Pitwon, R.; Wang, K.; Worrall, A.

2017-02-01

We report on a converged optically enabled Ethernet storage, switch and compute platform, which could support future disaggregated data center architectures. The platform includes optically enabled Ethernet switch controllers, an advanced electro-optical midplane and optically interchangeable generic end node devices. We demonstrate system level performance using optically enabled Ethernet disk drives and micro-servers across optical links of varied lengths.

The importance of disaggregated freight flow forecasts to inform transport infrastructure investments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan H. Havenga

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This article presents the results of a comprehensive disaggregated commodity flow model for South Africa. The wealth of data available enables a segmented analysis of future freight transportation demand in order to assist with the prioritisation of transportation investments, the development of transport policy and the growth of the logistics service provider industry. In 2011, economic demand for commodities in South Africa’s competitive surface-freight transport market amounted to 622 million tons and is predicted to increase to 1834m tons by 2041, which is a compound annual growth rate of 3.67%. Fifty percent of corridor freight constitutes break bulk; intermodal solutions are therefore critical in South Africa. Scenario analysis indicates that 80%of corridor break-bulk tons can by serviced by four intermodal facilities – in Gauteng, Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. This would allow for the development of an investment planning hierarchy, enable industry targeting (through commodity visibility, ensure capacity development ahead of demand and lower the cost of logistics in South Africa.

A disaggregate model to predict the intercity travel demand

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Damodaran, S.

1988-01-01

This study was directed towards developing disaggregate models to predict the intercity travel demand in Canada. A conceptual framework for the intercity travel behavior was proposed; under this framework, a nested multinomial model structure that combined mode choice and trip generation was developed. The CTS (Canadian Travel Survey) data base was used for testing the structure and to determine the viability of using this data base for intercity travel-demand prediction. Mode-choice and trip-generation models were calibrated for four modes (auto, bus, rail and air) for both business and non-business trips. The models were linked through the inclusive value variable, also referred to as the long sum of the denominator in the literature. Results of the study indicated that the structure used in this study could be applied for intercity travel-demand modeling. However, some limitations of the data base were identified. It is believed that, with some modifications, the CTS data could be used for predicting intercity travel demand. Future research can identify the factors affecting intercity travel behavior, which will facilitate collection of useful data for intercity travel prediction and policy analysis.

Characteristics and Performance of Existing Load Disaggregation Technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mayhorn, Ebony T. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Sullivan, Greg P. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Butner, Ryan S. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Hao, He [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Baechler, Michael C. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2015-04-10

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) or non-intrusive appliance load monitoring (NIALM) is an analytic approach to disaggregate building loads based on a single metering point. This advanced load monitoring and disaggregation technique has the potential to provide an alternative solution to high-priced traditional sub-metering and enable innovative approaches for energy conservation, energy efficiency, and demand response. However, since the inception of the concept in the 1980’s, evaluations of these technologies have focused on reporting performance accuracy without investigating sources of inaccuracies or fully understanding and articulating the meaning of the metrics used to quantify performance. As a result, the market for, as well as, advances in these technologies have been slowly maturing.To improve the market for these NILM technologies, there has to be confidence that the deployment will lead to benefits. In reality, every end-user and application that this technology may enable does not require the highest levels of performance accuracy to produce benefits. Also, there are other important characteristics that need to be considered, which may affect the appeal of NILM products to certain market targets (i.e. residential and commercial building consumers) and the suitability for particular applications. These characteristics include the following: 1) ease of use, the level of expertise/bandwidth required to properly use the product; 2) ease of installation, the level of expertise required to install along with hardware needs that impact product cost; and 3) ability to inform decisions and actions, whether the energy outputs received by end-users (e.g. third party applications, residential users, building operators, etc.) empower decisions and actions to be taken at time frames required for certain applications. Therefore, stakeholders, researchers, and other interested parties should be kept abreast of the evolving capabilities, uses, and characteristics

Navigating between Disaggregating Nation States and Entrenching Processes of Globalisation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Michael

2007-01-01

on the international community for its economic survival this dependency on the global has as a consequence that it rolls back aspects of national sovereignty thus opening up the national hinterland for further international influences. These developments initiate a process of disaggregating state and nation, meaning...... that a gradual disarticulation of the relationship between state and nation produces new societal spaces, which are contested by non-statist interest groups and transnational more or less deterritorialised ethnic affiliated groups and networks. The argument forwarded in this article is that the ethnic Chinese...

Analysis of aggregation and disaggregation effects for grid-based hydrological models and the development of improved precipitation disaggregation procedures for GCMs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. S. Wheater

1999-01-01

Full Text Available Appropriate representation of hydrological processes within atmospheric General Circulation Models (GCMs is important with respect to internal model dynamics (e.g. surface feedback effects on atmospheric fluxes, continental runoff production and to simulation of terrestrial impacts of climate change. However, at the scale of a GCM grid-square, several methodological problems arise. Spatial disaggregation of grid-square average climatological parameters is required in particular to produce appropriate point intensities from average precipitation. Conversely, aggregation of land surface heterogeneity is necessary for grid-scale or catchment scale application. The performance of grid-based hydrological models is evaluated for two large (104km2 UK catchments. Simple schemes, using sub-grid average of individual land use at 40 km scale and with no calibration, perform well at the annual time-scale and, with the addition of a (calibrated routing component, at the daily and monthly time-scale. Decoupling of hillslope and channel routing does not necessarily improve performance or identifiability. Scale dependence is investigated through application of distribution functions for rainfall and soil moisture at 100 km scale. The results depend on climate, but show interdependence of the representation of sub-grid rainfall and soil moisture distribution. Rainfall distribution is analysed directly using radar rainfall data from the UK and the Arkansas Red River, USA. Among other properties, the scale dependence of spatial coverage upon radar pixel resolution and GCM grid-scale, as well as the serial correlation of coverages are investigated. This leads to a revised methodology for GCM application, as a simple extension of current procedures. A new location-based approach using an image processing technique is then presented, to allow for the preservation of the spatial memory of the process.

The Disaggregation of Value-Added Test Scores to Assess Learning Outcomes in Economics Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Walstad, William B.; Wagner, Jamie

2016-01-01

This study disaggregates posttest, pretest, and value-added or difference scores in economics into four types of economic learning: positive, retained, negative, and zero. The types are derived from patterns of student responses to individual items on a multiple-choice test. The micro and macro data from the "Test of Understanding in College…

Disaggregated Energy Consumption and Sectoral Outputs in Thailand: ARDL Bound Testing Approach

OpenAIRE

Thurai Murugan Nathan; Venus Khim-Sen Liew; Wing-Keung Wong

2016-01-01

From an economic perspective, energy-output relationship studies have become increasingly popular in recent times, partly fuelled by a need to understand the effect of energy on production outputs rather than overall GDP. This study dealt with disaggregated energy consumption and outputs of some major economic sectors in Thailand. ARDL bound testing approach was employed to examine the co-integration relationship. The Granger causality test of the aforementioned ARDL framework was done to inv...

Employment in Disequilibrium: a Disaggregated Approach on a Panel of French Firms

OpenAIRE

Brigitte Dormont

1989-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to understand disequilibrium phenomena at a disaggregated level. By using data on French firms, we carry out the estimation of labor demand model with two regimes, which correspond to the Keynesian and classical hypotheses. The results enable us to characterize classical firms as being particularly good performers: they have more rapid growth, younger productive plant and higher productivity gains and profitability. Classical firms stand out, with respect to their...

The Long-Run Macroeconomic Effects of Aid and Disaggregated Aid in Ethiopia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gebregziabher, Fiseha Haile

2014-01-01

positively, whereas it is negatively associated with government consumption. Our results concerning the impacts of disaggregated aid stand in stark contrast to earlier work. Bilateral aid increases investment and GDP and is negatively associated with government consumption, whereas multilateral aid is only...... positively associated with imports. Grants contribute to GDP, investment and imports, whereas loans affect none of the variables. Finally, there is evidence to suggest that multilateral aid and loans have been disbursed in a procyclical fashion...

The use of continuous functions for a top-down temporal disaggregation of emission inventories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kalchmayr, M.; Orthofer, R.

1997-11-01

This report is a documentation of a presentation at the International Speciality Conference 'The Emission Inventory: Planning for the Future', October 28-30, 1997 in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA. The Conference was organized by the Air and Waste Management Association (AWMA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Emission data with high temporal resolution are necessary to analyze the relationship between emissions and their impacts. In many countries, however, emission inventories refer only to the annual countrywide emission sums, because underlying data (traffic, energy, industry statistics) are available for statistically relevant territorial units and for longer time periods only. This paper describes a method for the temporal disaggregation of yearly emission sums through application of continuous functions which simulate emission generating activities. The temporal patterns of the activities are derived through overlay of annual, weekly and diurnal variation functions which are based on statistical data of the relevant activities. If applied to annual emission data, these combined functions describe the dynamic patterns of emissions over year. The main advantage of the continuous functions method is that temporal emission patterns can be smoothed throughout one year, thus eliminating some of the major drawbacks from the traditional standardized fixed quota system. For handling in models, the continuous functions and their parameters can be directly included and the emission quota calculated directly for a certain hour of the year. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated with NMVOC emission data for Austria. Temporally disaggregated emission data can be used as input for ozone models as well as for visualization and animation of the emission dynamics. The analysis of the temporal dynamics of emission source strengths, e.g. during critical hours for ozone generation in summer, allows the implementation of efficient emission reduction

How sex- and age-disaggregated data and gender and generational analyses can improve humanitarian response.

Science.gov (United States)

Mazurana, Dyan; Benelli, Prisca; Walker, Peter

2013-07-01

Humanitarian aid remains largely driven by anecdote rather than by evidence. The contemporary humanitarian system has significant weaknesses with regard to data collection, analysis, and action at all stages of response to crises involving armed conflict or natural disaster. This paper argues that humanitarian actors can best determine and respond to vulnerabilities and needs if they use sex- and age-disaggregated data (SADD) and gender and generational analyses to help shape their assessments of crises-affected populations. Through case studies, the paper shows how gaps in information on sex and age limit the effectiveness of humanitarian response in all phases of a crisis. The case studies serve to show how proper collection, use, and analysis of SADD enable operational agencies to deliver assistance more effectively and efficiently. The evidence suggests that the employment of SADD and gender and generational analyses assists in saving lives and livelihoods in a crisis. © 2013 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2013.

Value of time determination for the city of Alexandria based on a disaggregate binary mode choice model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mounir Mahmoud Moghazy Abdel-Aal

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In the travel demand modeling field, mode choice is the most important decision that affects the resulted road congestion. The behavioral nature of the disaggregate models and the associated advantages of such models over aggregate models have led to their extensive use. This paper proposes a framework to determine the value of time (VoT for the city of Alexandria through calibrating a disaggregate linear-in parameter utility-based binary logit mode choice model of the city. The mode attributes (travel time and travel cost along with traveler attributes (car ownership and income were selected as the utility attributes of the basic model formulation which included 5 models. Three additional alternative utility formulations based on the transformation of the mode attributes including relative travel cost (cost divided by income and log (travel time and the combination of the two transformations together were introduced. The parameter estimation procedure was based on the likelihood maximization technique and was performed in EXCEL. Out of 20 models estimated, only 2 models are considered successful in terms of the parameters estimates correct signs and the magnitude of their significance (t-statistics value. The determination of the VoT serves also in the model validation. The best two models estimated the value of time at LE 11.30/hr and LE 14.50/hr with a relative error of +3.7% and +33.0%, respectively, of the hourly salary of LE 10.9/hr. The proposed two models prove to be sensitive to trip time and income levels as factors affecting the choice mechanism. The sensitivity analysis was performed and proved the model with higher relative error is marginally more robust. Keywords: Transportation modeling, Binary mode choice, Parameter estimation, Value of time, Likelihood maximization, Sensitivity analysis

Determining the disaggregated economic value of irrigation water in the Musi sub-basin in India

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hellegers, P.J.G.J.; Davidson, B.

2010-01-01

In this paper the residual method is used to determine the disaggregated economic value of irrigation water used in agriculture across crops, zones and seasons. This method relies on the belief that the value of a good (its price by its quantity) is equal to the summation of the quantity of each

The Economic Impact of Higher Education Institutions in Ireland: Evidence from Disaggregated Input-Output Tables

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qiantao; Larkin, Charles; Lucey, Brian M.

2017-01-01

While there has been a long history of modelling the economic impact of higher education institutions (HEIs), little research has been undertaken in the context of Ireland. This paper provides, for the first time, a disaggregated input-output table for Ireland's higher education sector. The picture painted overall is a higher education sector that…

A theoretically consistent stochastic cascade for temporal disaggregation of intermittent rainfall

Science.gov (United States)

Lombardo, F.; Volpi, E.; Koutsoyiannis, D.; Serinaldi, F.

2017-06-01

Generating fine-scale time series of intermittent rainfall that are fully consistent with any given coarse-scale totals is a key and open issue in many hydrological problems. We propose a stationary disaggregation method that simulates rainfall time series with given dependence structure, wet/dry probability, and marginal distribution at a target finer (lower-level) time scale, preserving full consistency with variables at a parent coarser (higher-level) time scale. We account for the intermittent character of rainfall at fine time scales by merging a discrete stochastic representation of intermittency and a continuous one of rainfall depths. This approach yields a unique and parsimonious mathematical framework providing general analytical formulations of mean, variance, and autocorrelation function (ACF) for a mixed-type stochastic process in terms of mean, variance, and ACFs of both continuous and discrete components, respectively. To achieve the full consistency between variables at finer and coarser time scales in terms of marginal distribution and coarse-scale totals, the generated lower-level series are adjusted according to a procedure that does not affect the stochastic structure implied by the original model. To assess model performance, we study rainfall process as intermittent with both independent and dependent occurrences, where dependence is quantified by the probability that two consecutive time intervals are dry. In either case, we provide analytical formulations of main statistics of our mixed-type disaggregation model and show their clear accordance with Monte Carlo simulations. An application to rainfall time series from real world is shown as a proof of concept.

Disaggregate energy consumption and industrial output in the United States

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ewing, Bradley T.; Sari, Ramazan; Soytas, Ugur

2007-01-01

This paper investigates the effect of disaggregate energy consumption on industrial output in the United States. Most of the related research utilizes aggregate data which may not indicate the relative strength or explanatory power of various energy inputs on output. We use monthly data and employ the generalized variance decomposition approach to assess the relative impacts of energy and employment on real output. Our results suggest that unexpected shocks to coal, natural gas and fossil fuel energy sources have the highest impacts on the variation of output, while several renewable sources exhibit considerable explanatory power as well. However, none of the energy sources explain more of the forecast error variance of industrial output than employment

Commercial demand for energy: a disaggregated approach. [Model validation for 1970-1975; forecasting to 2000

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jackson, J.R.; Cohn, S.; Cope, J.; Johnson, W.S.

1978-04-01

This report describes the structure and forecasting accuracy of a disaggregated model of commercial energy use recently developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The model forecasts annual commercial energy use by ten building types, five end uses, and four fuel types. Both economic (utilization rate, fuel choice, capital-energy substitution) and technological factors (equipment efficiency, thermal characteristics of buildings) are explicitly represented in the model. Model parameters are derived from engineering and econometric analysis. The model is then validated by simulating commercial energy use over the 1970--1975 time period. The model performs well both with respect to size of forecast error and ability to predict turning points. The model is then used to evaluate the energy-use implications of national commercial buildings standards based on the ASHRAE 90-75 recommendations. 10 figs., 12 tables, 14 refs.

Spatial accuracy of a simplified disaggregation method for traffic emissions applied in seven mid-sized Chilean cities

Science.gov (United States)

Ossés de Eicker, Margarita; Zah, Rainer; Triviño, Rubén; Hurni, Hans

The spatial accuracy of top-down traffic emission inventory maps obtained with a simplified disaggregation method based on street density was assessed in seven mid-sized Chilean cities. Each top-down emission inventory map was compared against a reference, namely a more accurate bottom-up emission inventory map from the same study area. The comparison was carried out using a combination of numerical indicators and visual interpretation. Statistically significant differences were found between the seven cities with regard to the spatial accuracy of their top-down emission inventory maps. In compact cities with a simple street network and a single center, a good accuracy of the spatial distribution of emissions was achieved with correlation values>0.8 with respect to the bottom-up emission inventory of reference. In contrast, the simplified disaggregation method is not suitable for complex cities consisting of interconnected nuclei, resulting in correlation valuessituation to get an overview on the spatial distribution of the emissions generated by traffic activities.

Integration properties of disaggregated solar, geothermal and biomass energy consumption in the U.S

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Apergis, Nicholas; Tsoumas, Chris

2011-01-01

This paper investigates the integration properties of disaggregated solar, geothermal and biomass energy consumption in the U.S. The analysis is performed for the 1989-2009 period and covers all sectors which use these types of energy, i.e., transportation, residence, industrial, electric power and commercial. The results suggest that there are differences in the order of integration depending on both the type of energy and the sector involved. Moreover, the inclusion of structural breaks traced from the regulatory changes for these energy types seem to affect the order of integration for each series. - Highlights: → Increasing importance of renewable energy sources. → Integration properties of solar, geothermal and biomass energy consumption in the U.S. → The results show differences in the order of integration depending on the type of energy. → Structural breaks traced for these energy types affect the order of integration. → The order of integration is less than 1, so energy conservation policies are transitory.

Spatial and temporal disaggregation of anthropogenic CO2 emissions from the City of Cape Town

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alecia Nickless

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the methodology used to spatially and temporally disaggregate carbon dioxide emission estimates for the City of Cape Town, to be used for a city-scale atmospheric inversion estimating carbon dioxide fluxes. Fossil fuel emissions were broken down into emissions from road transport, domestic emissions, industrial emissions, and airport and harbour emissions. Using spatially explicit information on vehicle counts, and an hourly scaling factor, vehicle emissions estimates were obtained for the city. Domestic emissions from fossil fuel burning were estimated from household fuel usage information and spatially disaggregated population data from the 2011 national census. Fuel usage data were used to derive industrial emissions from listed activities, which included emissions from power generation, and these were distributed spatially according to the source point locations. The emissions from the Cape Town harbour and the international airport were determined from vessel and aircraft count data, respectively. For each emission type, error estimates were determined through error propagation techniques. The total fossil fuel emission field for the city was obtained by summing the spatial layers for each emission type, accumulated for the period of interest. These results will be used in a city-scale inversion study, and this method implemented in the future for a national atmospheric inversion study.

Disaggregating measurement uncertainty from population variability and Bayesian treatment of uncensored results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strom, Daniel J.; Joyce, Kevin E.; Maclellan, Jay A.; Watson, David J.; Lynch, Timothy P.; Antonio, Cheryl L.; Birchall, Alan; Anderson, Kevin K.; Zharov, Peter

2012-01-01

In making low-level radioactivity measurements of populations, it is commonly observed that a substantial portion of net results are negative. Furthermore, the observed variance of the measurement results arises from a combination of measurement uncertainty and population variability. This paper presents a method for disaggregating measurement uncertainty from population variability to produce a probability density function (PDF) of possibly true results. To do this, simple, justifiable, and reasonable assumptions are made about the relationship of the measurements to the measurands (the 'true values'). The measurements are assumed to be unbiased, that is, that their average value is the average of the measurands. Using traditional estimates of each measurement's uncertainty to disaggregate population variability from measurement uncertainty, a PDF of measurands for the population is produced. Then, using Bayes's theorem, the same assumptions, and all the data from the population of individuals, a prior PDF is computed for each individual's measurand. These PDFs are non-negative, and their average is equal to the average of the measurement results for the population. The uncertainty in these Bayesian posterior PDFs is all Berkson with no remaining classical component. The methods are applied to baseline bioassay data from the Hanford site. The data include 90Sr urinalysis measurements on 128 people, 137Cs in vivo measurements on 5,337 people, and 239Pu urinalysis measurements on 3,270 people. The method produces excellent results for the 90Sr and 137Cs measurements, since there are nonzero concentrations of these global fallout radionuclides in people who have not been occupationally exposed. The method does not work for the 239Pu measurements in non-occupationally exposed people because the population average is essentially zero.

NIR-Red Spectra-Based Disaggregation of SMAP Soil Moisture to 250 m Resolution Based on SMAPEx-4/5 in Southeastern Australia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nengcheng Chen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available To meet the demand of regional hydrological and agricultural applications, a new method named near infrared-red (NIR-red spectra-based disaggregation (NRSD was proposed to perform a disaggregation of Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP products from 36 km to 250 m resolution. The NRSD combined proposed normalized soil moisture index (NSMI with SMAP data to obtain 250 m resolution soil moisture mapping. The experiment was conducted in southeastern Australia during SMAP Experiments (SMAPEx 4/5 and validated with the in situ SMAPEx network. Results showed that NRSD performed a decent downscaling (root-mean-square error (RMSE = 0.04 m3/m3 and 0.12 m3/m3 during SMAPEx-4 and SMAPEx-5, respectively. Based on the validation, it was found that the proposed NSMI was a new alternative indicator for denoting the heterogeneity of soil moisture at sub-kilometer scales. Attributed to the excellent performance of the NSMI, NRSD has a higher overall accuracy, finer spatial representation within SMAP pixels and wider applicable scope on usability tests for land cover, vegetation density and drought condition than the disaggregation based on physical and theoretical scale change (DISPATCH has at 250 m resolution. This revealed that the NRSD method is expected to provide soil moisture mapping at 250-resolution for large-scale hydrological and agricultural studies.

Flexible hydrological modeling - Disaggregation from lumped catchment scale to higher spatial resolutions

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Quoc Quan; Willems, Patrick; Pannemans, Bart; Blanckaert, Joris; Pereira, Fernando; Nossent, Jiri; Cauwenberghs, Kris; Vansteenkiste, Thomas

2015-04-01

Based on an international literature review on model structures of existing rainfall-runoff and hydrological models, a generalized model structure is proposed. It consists of different types of meteorological components, storage components, splitting components and routing components. They can be spatially organized in a lumped way, or on a grid, spatially interlinked by source-to-sink or grid-to-grid (cell-to-cell) routing. The grid size of the model can be chosen depending on the application. The user can select/change the spatial resolution depending on the needs and/or the evaluation of the accuracy of the model results, or use different spatial resolutions in parallel for different applications. Major research questions addressed during the study are: How can we assure consistent results of the model at any spatial detail? How can we avoid strong or sudden changes in model parameters and corresponding simulation results, when one moves from one level of spatial detail to another? How can we limit the problem of overparameterization/equifinality when we move from the lumped model to the spatially distributed model? The proposed approach is a step-wise one, where first the lumped conceptual model is calibrated using a systematic, data-based approach, followed by a disaggregation step where the lumped parameters are disaggregated based on spatial catchment characteristics (topography, land use, soil characteristics). In this way, disaggregation can be done down to any spatial scale, and consistently among scales. Only few additional calibration parameters are introduced to scale the absolute spatial differences in model parameters, but keeping the relative differences as obtained from the spatial catchment characteristics. After calibration of the spatial model, the accuracies of the lumped and spatial models were compared for peak, low and cumulative runoff total and sub-flows (at downstream and internal gauging stations). For the distributed models, additional

A disaggregated analysis of the environmental Kuznets curve for industrial CO_2 emissions in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Yuan; Zhang, Chen; Lu, Aitong; Li, Li; He, Yanmin; ToJo, Junji; Zhu, Xiaodong

2017-01-01

Highlights: • The existence of EKC hypothesis for industrial carbon emissions is tested for China. • A semi-parametric panel regression is used along with the STIRPAT model. • The validity of the EKC hypothesis varies across industry sectors. • The EKC relation to income exists in the electricity and heat production sector. • The EKC relation to urbanization exists in the manufacturing sector. - Abstract: The present study concentrates on a Chinese context and attempts to explicitly examine the impacts of economic growth and urbanization on various industrial carbon emissions through investigation of the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve. Within the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology framework, this is the first attempt to simultaneously explore the income/urbanization and disaggregated industrial carbon dioxide emissions nexus, using panel data together with semi-parametric panel fixed effects regression. Our dataset is referred to a provincial panel of China spanning the period 2000–2013. With this information, we find evidence in support of an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions in the electricity and heat production sector, but a similar inference only for urbanization and those emissions in the manufacturing sector. The heterogeneity in the EKC relationship across industry sectors implies that there is urgent need to design more specific policies related to carbon emissions reduction for various industry sectors. Also, these findings contribute to advancing the emerging literature on the development-pollution nexus.

Energy consumption and economic growth: Evidence from China at both aggregated and disaggregated levels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuan Jiahai; Kang Jiangang; Zhao Changhong; Hu Zhaoguang

2008-01-01

Using a neo-classical aggregate production model where capital, labor and energy are treated as separate inputs, this paper tests for the existence and direction of causality between output growth and energy use in China at both aggregated total energy and disaggregated levels as coal, oil and electricity consumption. Using the Johansen cointegration technique, the empirical findings indicate that there exists long-run cointegration among output, labor, capital and energy use in China at both aggregated and all three disaggregated levels. Then using a VEC specification, the short-run dynamics of the interested variables are tested, indicating that there exists Granger causality running from electricity and oil consumption to GDP, but does not exist Granger causality running from coal and total energy consumption to GDP. On the other hand, short-run Granger causality exists from GDP to total energy, coal and oil consumption, but does not exist from GDP to electricity consumption. We thus propose policy suggestions to solve the energy and sustainable development dilemma in China as: enhancing energy supply security and guaranteeing energy supply, especially in the short run to provide adequate electric power supply and set up national strategic oil reserve; enhancing energy efficiency to save energy; diversifying energy sources, energetically exploiting renewable energy and drawing out corresponding policies and measures; and finally in the long run, transforming development pattern and cut reliance on resource- and energy-dependent industries

ESTIMATION OF COB-DOUGLAS AND TRANSLOG PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS WITH CAPITAL AND GENDER DISAGGREGATED LABOR INPUTS IN THE USA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gertrude Sebunya Muwanga

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This is an empirical investigation of the homogeneity of gender disaggregated labor using the Douglas, single/multi-factor translog production functions; and labor productivity functions for the USA.   The results based on the single factor translog model, indicated that: an increase in the capita/female labor ratio increases aggregate output; male labor is more productive than female labor, which is more productive than capital; a simultaneous increase in quantity allocated and productivity of the leads to an increase in output; female labor productivity has grown slower than male labor productivity; it much easier to substitute male labor for capital compared to female labor; and the three inputs are neither perfect substitutes nor perfect complements. As a consequence, male and female labor are not homogenous inputs. Efforts to investigate the factors influencing gender disaggregated labor productivity; and designing policies to achieve gender parity in numbers/productivity in the labor force and increasing the ease of substitutability between male labor and female labor are required.

Specific effect of the linear charge density of the acid polysaccharide on thermal aggregation/ disaggregation processes in complex carrageenan/lysozyme systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Antonov, Y.; Zhuravleva, I.; Cardinaels, R.M.; Moldenaers, P.

2017-01-01

We study thermal aggregation and disaggregation processes in complex carrageenan/lysozyme systems with a different linear charge density of the sulphated polysaccharide. To this end, we determine the temperature dependency of the turbidity and the intensity size distribution functions in complex

Assessing gendered roles in water decision-making in semi-arid regions through sex-disaggregated water data with UNESCO-WWAP gender toolkit

Science.gov (United States)

Miletto, Michela; Greco, Francesca; Belfiore, Elena

2017-04-01

Global climate change is expected to exacerbate current and future stresses on water resources from population growth and land use, and increase the frequency and severity of droughts and floods. Women are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than men not only because they constitute the majority of the world's poor but also because they are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change. In addition, social, economic and political barriers often limit their coping capacity. Women play a key role in the provision, management and safeguarding of water, nonetheless, gender inequality in water management framework persists around the globe. Sharp data are essential to inform decisions and support effective policies. Disaggregating water data by sex is crucial to analyse gendered roles in the water realm and inform gender sensitive water policies in light of the global commitments to gender equality of Agenda 2030. In view of this scenario, WWAP has created an innovative toolkit for sex-disaggregated water data collection, as a result of a participatory work of more than 35 experts, part of the WWAP Working Group on Sex-Disaggregated Indicators (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/water/wwap/water-and-gender/un-wwap-working-group-on-gender-disaggregated-indicators/#c1430774). The WWAP toolkit contains four tools: the methodology (Seager J. WWAP UNESCO, 2015), set of key indicators, the guideline (Pangare V.,WWAP UNESCO, 2015) and a questionnaire for field survey. WWAP key gender-sensitive indicators address water resources management, aspects of water quality and agricultural uses, water resources governance and management, and investigate unaccounted labour in according to gender and age. Managing water resources is key for climate adaptation. Women are particularly sensitive to water quality and the health of water-dependent ecosystems, often source of food and job opportunities

Disaggregated regulation in network sections: The normative and positive theory; Disaggregierte Regulierung in Netzsektoren: Normative und positive Theorie

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Knieps, G. [Inst. fuer Verkehrswissenschaft und Regionalpolitik, Albert-Ludwigs-Univ. Freiburg i.B. (Germany)

2007-09-15

The article deals with the interaction of normative and positive theorie of regulation. Those parts of the network which need regulation could be localised and regulated with the help of the normative theory of the monopolistic bottlenecks. Using the positive theory, the basic elements of a mandate for regulation in the sense of the disaggregated economy of regulation are derived.

Disaggregation of MODIS surface temperature over an agricultural area using a time series of Formosat-2 images

OpenAIRE

Merlin, O.; Duchemin, Benoit; Hagolle, O.; Jacob, Frédéric; Coudert, B.; Chehbouni, Abdelghani; Dedieu, G.; Garatuza, J.; Kerr, Yann

2010-01-01

No of Pages 13; International audience; The temporal frequency of the thermal data provided by current spaceborne high-resolution imagery systems is inadequate for agricultural applications. As an alternative to the lack of high-resolution observations, kilometric thermal data can be disaggregated using a green (photosynthetically active) vegetation index e.g. NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) collected at high resolution. Nevertheless, this approach is only valid in the condition...

The influence of energy consumption of China on its real GDP from aggregated and disaggregated viewpoints

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Wei; Yang, Shuyun

2013-01-01

This paper investigated the causal relationship between energy consumption and gross domestic product (GDP) in China at both aggregated and disaggregated levels during the period of 1978–2009 by using a modified version of the Granger (1969) causality test proposed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995) within a multivariate framework. The empirical results suggested the existence of a negative bi-directional Granger causality running from aggregated energy consumption to real GDP. At disaggregated level of energy consumption, the results were complicated. For coal, empirical findings suggested that there was a negative bi-directional Granger causality running from coal consumption to real GDP. However, for oil and gas, empirical findings suggested a positive bi-directional Granger causality running from oil as well as gas consumption to real GDP. Though these results supported the feedback hypothesis, the negative relationship might be attributed to the growing economy production shifting towards less energy intensive sectors and excessive energy consumption in relatively unproductive sectors. The results indicated that policies with reducing aggregated energy consumption and promoting energy conservation may boost China's economic growth. - Highlights: ► A negative bi-directional Granger causality runs from energy consumption to real GDP. ► The same result runs from coal consumption to real GDP, but oil and gas it does not. ► The results partly derive from excessive energy consumption in unproductive sectors. ► Reducing aggregated energy consumption probably promotes the development of China's economy

Foreign labor and regional labor markets: aggregate and disaggregate impact on growth and wages in Danish regions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schmidt, Torben Dall; Jensen, Peter Sandholt

2013-01-01

non-negative effects on the job opportunities for Danish workers in regional labor markets, whereas the evidence of a regional wage growth effect is mixed. We also present disaggregated results focusing on regional heterogeneity of business structures, skill levels and backgrounds of foreign labor....... The results are interpreted within a specific Danish labor market context and the associated regional outcomes. This adds to previous findings and emphasizes the importance of labor market institutions for the effect of foreign labor on regional employment growth....

Assessing a disaggregated energy input: using confidence intervals around translog elasticity estimates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hisnanick, J.J.; Kyer, B.L.

1995-01-01

The role of energy in the production of manufacturing output has been debated extensively in the literature, particularly its relationship with capital and labor. In an attempt to provide some clarification in this debate, a two-step methodology was used. First under the assumption of a five-factor production function specification, we distinguished between electric and non-electric energy and assessed each component's relationship with capital and labor. Second, we calculated both the Allen and price elasticities and constructed 95% confidence intervals around these values. Our approach led to the following conclusions: that the disaggregation of the energy input into electric and non-electric energy is justified; that capital and electric energy and capital and non-electric energy are substitutes, while labor and electric energy and labor and non-electric energy are complements in production; and that capital and energy are substitutes, while labor and energy are complements. (author)

An initial assessment of a SMAP soil moisture disaggregation scheme using TIR surface evaporation data over the continental United States

Science.gov (United States)

Mishra, Vikalp; Ellenburg, W. Lee; Griffin, Robert E.; Mecikalski, John R.; Cruise, James F.; Hain, Christopher R.; Anderson, Martha C.

2018-06-01

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is dedicated toward global soil moisture mapping. Typically, an L-band microwave radiometer has spatial resolution on the order of 36-40 km, which is too coarse for many specific hydro-meteorological and agricultural applications. With the failure of the SMAP active radar within three months of becoming operational, an intermediate (9-km) and finer (3-km) scale soil moisture product solely from the SMAP mission is no longer possible. Therefore, the focus of this study is a disaggregation of the 36-km resolution SMAP passive-only surface soil moisture (SSM) using the Soil Evaporative Efficiency (SEE) approach to spatial scales of 3-km and 9-km. The SEE was computed using thermal-infrared (TIR) estimation of surface evaporation over Continental U.S. (CONUS). The disaggregation results were compared with the 3 months of SMAP-Active (SMAP-A) and Active/Passive (AP) products, while comparisons with SMAP-Enhanced (SMAP-E), SMAP-Passive (SMAP-P), as well as with more than 180 Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) stations across CONUS were performed for a 19 month period. At the 9-km spatial scale, the TIR-Downscaled data correlated strongly with the SMAP-E SSM both spatially (r = 0.90) and temporally (r = 0.87). In comparison with SCAN observations, overall correlations of 0.49 and 0.47; bias of -0.022 and -0.019 and unbiased RMSD of 0.105 and 0.100 were found for SMAP-E and TIR-Downscaled SSM across the Continental U.S., respectively. At 3-km scale, TIR-Downscaled and SMAP-A had a mean temporal correlation of only 0.27. In terms of gain statistics, the highest percentage of SCAN sites with positive gains (>55%) was observed with the TIR-Downscaled SSM at 9-km. Overall, the TIR-based downscaled SSM showed strong correspondence with SMAP-E; compared to SCAN, and overall both SMAP-E and TIR-Downscaled performed similarly, however, gain statistics show that TIR-Downscaled SSM slightly outperformed SMAP-E.

Prediction of kharif rice yield at Kharagpur using disaggregated extended range rainfall forecasts

Science.gov (United States)

Dhekale, B. S.; Nageswararao, M. M.; Nair, Archana; Mohanty, U. C.; Swain, D. K.; Singh, K. K.; Arunbabu, T.

2017-08-01

The Extended Range Forecasts System (ERFS) has been generating monthly and seasonal forecasts on real-time basis throughout the year over India since 2009. India is one of the major rice producer and consumer in South Asia; more than 50% of the Indian population depends on rice as staple food. Rice is mainly grown in kharif season, which contributed 84% of the total annual rice production of the country. Rice cultivation in India is rainfed, which depends largely on rains, so reliability of the rainfall forecast plays a crucial role for planning the kharif rice crop. In the present study, an attempt has been made to test the reliability of seasonal and sub-seasonal ERFS summer monsoon rainfall forecasts for kharif rice yield predictions at Kharagpur, West Bengal by using CERES-Rice (DSSATv4.5) model. These ERFS forecasts are produced as monthly and seasonal mean values and are converted into daily sequences with stochastic weather generators for use with crop growth models. The daily sequences are generated from ERFS seasonal (June-September) and sub-seasonal (July-September, August-September, and September) summer monsoon (June to September) rainfall forecasts which are considered as input in CERES-rice crop simulation model for the crop yield prediction for hindcast (1985-2008) and real-time mode (2009-2015). The yield simulated using India Meteorological Department (IMD) observed daily rainfall data is considered as baseline yield for evaluating the performance of predicted yields using the ERFS forecasts. The findings revealed that the stochastic disaggregation can be used to disaggregate the monthly/seasonal ERFS forecasts into daily sequences. The year to year variability in rice yield at Kharagpur is efficiently predicted by using the ERFS forecast products in hindcast as well as real time, and significant enhancement in the prediction skill is noticed with advancement in the season due to incorporation of observed weather data which reduces uncertainty of

Silicon Photonics towards Disaggregation of Resources in Data Centers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miltiadis Moralis-Pegios

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we demonstrate two subsystems based on Silicon Photonics, towards meeting the network requirements imposed by disaggregation of resources in Data Centers. The first one utilizes a 4 × 4 Silicon photonics switching matrix, employing Mach Zehnder Interferometers (MZIs with Electro-Optical phase shifters, directly controlled by a high speed Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA board for the successful implementation of a Bloom-Filter (BF-label forwarding scheme. The FPGA is responsible for extracting the BF-label from the incoming optical packets, carrying out the BF-based forwarding function, determining the appropriate switching state and generating the corresponding control signals towards conveying incoming packets to the desired output port of the matrix. The BF-label based packet forwarding scheme allows rapid reconfiguration of the optical switch, while at the same time reduces the memory requirements of the node’s lookup table. Successful operation for 10 Gb/s data packets is reported for a 1 × 4 routing layout. The second subsystem utilizes three integrated spiral waveguides, with record-high 2.6 ns/mm2, delay versus footprint efficiency, along with two Semiconductor Optical Amplifier Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (SOA-MZI wavelength converters, to construct a variable optical buffer and a Time Slot Interchange module. Error-free on-chip variable delay buffering from 6.5 ns up to 17.2 ns and successful timeslot interchanging for 10 Gb/s optical packets are presented.

Disaggregation of SMOS soil moisture over West Africa using the Temperature and Vegetation Dryness Index based on SEVIRI land surface parameters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tagesson, T.; Horion, S.; Nieto, H.

2018-01-01

the Temperature and Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) that served as SM proxy within the disaggregation process. West Africa (3 N, 26 W; 28 N, 26 E) was selected as a case study as it presents both an important North-South climate gradient and a diverse range of ecosystem types. The main challenge was to set up...... resolution of SMOS SM, with potential application for local drought/flood monitoring of importance for the livelihood of the population of West Africa....

Elements in nucleotide sensing and hydrolysis of the AAA+ disaggregation machine ClpB: a structure-based mechanistic dissection of a molecular motor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zeymer, Cathleen, E-mail: cathleen.zeymer@mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de; Barends, Thomas R. M.; Werbeck, Nicolas D.; Schlichting, Ilme; Reinstein, Jochen, E-mail: cathleen.zeymer@mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de [Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, Jahnstrasse 29, 69120 Heidelberg (Germany)

2014-02-01

High-resolution crystal structures together with mutational analysis and transient kinetics experiments were utilized to understand nucleotide sensing and the regulation of the ATPase cycle in an AAA+ molecular motor. ATPases of the AAA+ superfamily are large oligomeric molecular machines that remodel their substrates by converting the energy from ATP hydrolysis into mechanical force. This study focuses on the molecular chaperone ClpB, the bacterial homologue of Hsp104, which reactivates aggregated proteins under cellular stress conditions. Based on high-resolution crystal structures in different nucleotide states, mutational analysis and nucleotide-binding kinetics experiments, the ATPase cycle of the C-terminal nucleotide-binding domain (NBD2), one of the motor subunits of this AAA+ disaggregation machine, is dissected mechanistically. The results provide insights into nucleotide sensing, explaining how the conserved sensor 2 motif contributes to the discrimination between ADP and ATP binding. Furthermore, the role of a conserved active-site arginine (Arg621), which controls binding of the essential Mg{sup 2+} ion, is described. Finally, a hypothesis is presented as to how the ATPase activity is regulated by a conformational switch that involves the essential Walker A lysine. In the proposed model, an unusual side-chain conformation of this highly conserved residue stabilizes a catalytically inactive state, thereby avoiding unnecessary ATP hydrolysis.

Elements in nucleotide sensing and hydrolysis of the AAA+ disaggregation machine ClpB: a structure-based mechanistic dissection of a molecular motor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zeymer, Cathleen; Barends, Thomas R. M.; Werbeck, Nicolas D.; Schlichting, Ilme; Reinstein, Jochen

2014-01-01

High-resolution crystal structures together with mutational analysis and transient kinetics experiments were utilized to understand nucleotide sensing and the regulation of the ATPase cycle in an AAA+ molecular motor. ATPases of the AAA+ superfamily are large oligomeric molecular machines that remodel their substrates by converting the energy from ATP hydrolysis into mechanical force. This study focuses on the molecular chaperone ClpB, the bacterial homologue of Hsp104, which reactivates aggregated proteins under cellular stress conditions. Based on high-resolution crystal structures in different nucleotide states, mutational analysis and nucleotide-binding kinetics experiments, the ATPase cycle of the C-terminal nucleotide-binding domain (NBD2), one of the motor subunits of this AAA+ disaggregation machine, is dissected mechanistically. The results provide insights into nucleotide sensing, explaining how the conserved sensor 2 motif contributes to the discrimination between ADP and ATP binding. Furthermore, the role of a conserved active-site arginine (Arg621), which controls binding of the essential Mg 2+ ion, is described. Finally, a hypothesis is presented as to how the ATPase activity is regulated by a conformational switch that involves the essential Walker A lysine. In the proposed model, an unusual side-chain conformation of this highly conserved residue stabilizes a catalytically inactive state, thereby avoiding unnecessary ATP hydrolysis

A Novel Magnetic Actuation Scheme to Disaggregate Nanoparticles and Enhance Passage across the Blood–Brain Barrier

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Kafash Hoshiar

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The blood–brain barrier (BBB hinders drug delivery to the brain. Despite various efforts to develop preprogramed actuation schemes for magnetic drug delivery, the unmodeled aggregation phenomenon limits drug delivery performance. This paper proposes a novel scheme with an aggregation model for a feed-forward magnetic actuation design. A simulation platform for aggregated particle delivery is developed and an actuation scheme is proposed to deliver aggregated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs using a discontinuous asymmetrical magnetic actuation. The experimental results with a Y-shaped channel indicated the success of the proposed scheme in steering and disaggregation. The delivery performance of the developed scheme was examined using a realistic, three-dimensional (3D vessel simulation. Furthermore, the proposed scheme enhanced the transport and uptake of MNPs across the BBB in mice. The scheme presented here facilitates the passage of particles across the BBB to the brain using an electromagnetic actuation scheme.

Human papillomavirus vaccine initiation in Asian Indians and Asian subpopulations: a case for examining disaggregated data in public health research.

Science.gov (United States)

Budhwani, H; De, P

2017-12-01

Vaccine disparities research often focuses on differences between the five main racial and ethnic classifications, ignoring heterogeneity of subpopulations. Considering this knowledge gap, we examined human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine initiation in Asian Indians and Asian subpopulations. National Health Interview Survey data (2008-2013), collected by the National Center for Health Statistics, were analyzed. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted on adults aged 18-26 years (n = 20,040). Asian Indians had high income, education, and health insurance coverage, all positive predictors of preventative health engagement and vaccine uptake. However, we find that Asian Indians had comparatively lower rates of HPV vaccine initiation (odds ratio = 0.41; 95% confidence interval = 0.207-0.832), and foreign-born Asian Indians had the lowest rate HPV vaccination of all subpopulations (2.3%). Findings substantiate the need for research on disaggregated data rather than evaluating vaccination behaviors solely across standard racial and ethnic categories. We identified two populations that were initiating HPV vaccine at abysmal levels: foreign-born persons and Asian Indians. Development of culturally appropriate messaging has the potential to improve these initiation rates and improve population health. Copyright © 2017 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hyperforin prevents beta-amyloid neurotoxicity and spatial memory impairments by disaggregation of Alzheimer's amyloid-beta-deposits.

Science.gov (United States)

Dinamarca, M C; Cerpa, W; Garrido, J; Hancke, J L; Inestrosa, N C

2006-11-01

The major protein constituent of amyloid deposits in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta). In the present work, we have determined the effect of hyperforin an acylphloroglucinol compound isolated from Hypericum perforatum (St John's Wort), on Abeta-induced spatial memory impairments and on Abeta neurotoxicity. We report here that hyperforin: (1) decreases amyloid deposit formation in rats injected with amyloid fibrils in the hippocampus; (2) decreases the neuropathological changes and behavioral impairments in a rat model of amyloidosis; (3) prevents Abeta-induced neurotoxicity in hippocampal neurons both from amyloid fibrils and Abeta oligomers, avoiding the increase in reactive oxidative species associated with amyloid toxicity. Both effects could be explained by the capacity of hyperforin to disaggregate amyloid deposits in a dose and time-dependent manner and to decrease Abeta aggregation and amyloid formation. Altogether these evidences suggest that hyperforin may be useful to decrease amyloid burden and toxicity in AD patients, and may be a putative therapeutic agent to fight the disease.

Convergence of in-Country Prices for the Turkish Economy : A Panel Data Search for the PPP Hypothesis Using Sub-Regional Disaggregated Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mustafa METE

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This paper tries to examine that in-country prices from the Turkish economy can be specified as a stationary relationship giving support to the long-run purchasing power parity in economics theory. For this purpose, a sub-regional categorization of the economy is considered over the investigation period of 2005-2012, and, following Esaka (2003, the study uses a panel estimation framework consisting of 12 disaggregated consumer price indices to search for whether the relative prices of goods between sub-regions of the Turkish economy can be represented by stationary time series properties.

Defining the spatial scale in modern regional analysis new challenges from data at local level

CERN Document Server

Fernández Vázquez, Esteban

2014-01-01

This book discusses the concept of region, including techniques of ecological inference applied to estimating disaggregated data from observable aggregates. The final part presents applications in line with the functional areas definition in regional analysis.

Improving the Communication Pattern in Matrix-Vector Operations for Large Scale-Free Graphs by Disaggregation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kuhlemann, Verena [Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States); Vassilevski, Panayot S. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2013-10-28

Matrix-vector multiplication is the key operation in any Krylov-subspace iteration method. We are interested in Krylov methods applied to problems associated with the graph Laplacian arising from large scale-free graphs. Furthermore, computations with graphs of this type on parallel distributed-memory computers are challenging. This is due to the fact that scale-free graphs have a degree distribution that follows a power law, and currently available graph partitioners are not efficient for such an irregular degree distribution. The lack of a good partitioning leads to excessive interprocessor communication requirements during every matrix-vector product. Here, we present an approach to alleviate this problem based on embedding the original irregular graph into a more regular one by disaggregating (splitting up) vertices in the original graph. The matrix-vector operations for the original graph are performed via a factored triple matrix-vector product involving the embedding graph. And even though the latter graph is larger, we are able to decrease the communication requirements considerably and improve the performance of the matrix-vector product.

Household energy consumption in the UK: A highly geographically and socio-economically disaggregated model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Druckman, A.; Jackson, T.

2008-01-01

Devising policies for a low carbon society requires a careful understanding of energy consumption in different types of households. In this paper, we explore patterns of UK household energy use and associated carbon emissions at national level and also at high levels of socio-economic and geographical disaggregation. In particular, we examine specific neighbourhoods with contrasting levels of deprivation, and typical 'types' (segments) of UK households based on socio-economic characteristics. Results support the hypothesis that different segments have widely differing patterns of consumption. We show that household energy use and associated carbon emissions are both strongly, but not solely, related to income levels. Other factors, such as the type of dwelling, tenure, household composition and rural/urban location are also extremely important. The methodology described in this paper can be used in various ways to inform policy-making. For example, results can help in targeting energy efficiency measures; trends from time series results will form a useful basis for scenario building; and the methodology may be used to model expected outcomes of possible policy options, such as personal carbon trading or a progressive tax regime on household energy consumption

A DISAGGREGATED MEASURES APPROACH OF POVERTY STATUS OF FARMING HOUSEHOLDS IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grace Oluwabukunmi Akinsola

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In a bid to strengthen the agricultural sector in Nigeria, the Kwara State Government invited thirteen Zimbabwean farmers to participate in agricultural production in Kwara State in 2004. The main objective of this study therefore was to examine the effect of the activities of these foreign farmers on local farmers’ poverty status. A questionnaire was administered on the heads of farming households. A total of 240 respondents were used for the study, which was comprised of 120 contact and 120 non-contact heads of farming households. The analytical tools employed included descriptive statistics and the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke method. The result indicated that the non-contact farming households are poorer than the contact farming households. Using the disaggregated poverty profile, poverty is most severe among the age group of above 60 years. The intensity of poverty is also higher among the married group than the singles. Based on the education level, poverty seems to be most severe among those without any formal education. It is therefore recommended that a minimum of secondary school education should be encouraged among the farming households to prevent higher incidence of poverty in the study area.

Disaggregating and mapping crop statistics using hypertemporal remote sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, M. R.; de Bie, C. A. J. M.; van Keulen, H.; Smaling, E. M. A.; Real, R.

2010-02-01

Governments compile their agricultural statistics in tabular form by administrative area, which gives no clue to the exact locations where specific crops are actually grown. Such data are poorly suited for early warning and assessment of crop production. 10-Daily satellite image time series of Andalucia, Spain, acquired since 1998 by the SPOT Vegetation Instrument in combination with reported crop area statistics were used to produce the required crop maps. Firstly, the 10-daily (1998-2006) 1-km resolution SPOT-Vegetation NDVI-images were used to stratify the study area in 45 map units through an iterative unsupervised classification process. Each unit represents an NDVI-profile showing changes in vegetation greenness over time which is assumed to relate to the types of land cover and land use present. Secondly, the areas of NDVI-units and the reported cropped areas by municipality were used to disaggregate the crop statistics. Adjusted R-squares were 98.8% for rainfed wheat, 97.5% for rainfed sunflower, and 76.5% for barley. Relating statistical data on areas cropped by municipality with the NDVI-based unit map showed that the selected crops were significantly related to specific NDVI-based map units. Other NDVI-profiles did not relate to the studied crops and represented other types of land use or land cover. The results were validated by using primary field data. These data were collected by the Spanish government from 2001 to 2005 through grid sampling within agricultural areas; each grid (block) contains three 700 m × 700 m segments. The validation showed 68%, 31% and 23% variability explained (adjusted R-squares) between the three produced maps and the thousands of segment data. Mainly variability within the delineated NDVI-units caused relatively low values; the units are internally heterogeneous. Variability between units is properly captured. The maps must accordingly be considered "small scale maps". These maps can be used to monitor crop performance of

Reducing out-of-pocket expenditures to reduce poverty: a disaggregated analysis at rural-urban and state level in India.

Science.gov (United States)

Garg, Charu C; Karan, Anup K

2009-03-01

Out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure on health care has significant implications for poverty in many developing countries. This paper aims to assess the differential impact of OOP expenditure and its components, such as expenditure on inpatient care, outpatient care and on drugs, across different income quintiles, between developed and less developed regions in India. It also attempts to measure poverty at disaggregated rural-urban and state levels. Based on Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) data from the National Sample Survey (NSS), conducted in 1999-2000, the share of households' expenditure on health services and drugs was calculated. The number of individuals below the state-specific rural and urban poverty line in 17 major states, with and without netting out OOP expenditure, was determined. This also enabled the calculation of the poverty gap or poverty deepening in each region. Estimates show that OOP expenditure is about 5% of total household expenditure (ranging from about 2% in Assam to almost 7% in Kerala) with a higher proportion being recorded in rural areas and affluent states. Purchase of drugs constitutes 70% of the total OOP expenditure. Approximately 32.5 million persons fell below the poverty line in 1999-2000 through OOP payments, implying that the overall poverty increase after accounting for OOP expenditure is 3.2% (as against a rise of 2.2% shown in earlier literature). Also, the poverty headcount increase and poverty deepening is much higher in poorer states and rural areas compared with affluent states and urban areas, except in the case of Maharashtra. High OOP payment share in total health expenditures did not always imply a high poverty headcount; state-specific economic and social factors played a role. The paper argues for better methods of capturing drugs expenditure in household surveys and recommends that special attention be paid to expenditures on drugs, in particular for the poor. Targeted policies in just five poor states to reduce

Spatially disaggregated population estimates in the absence of national population and housing census data

Science.gov (United States)

Wardrop, N. A.; Jochem, W. C.; Bird, T. J.; Chamberlain, H. R.; Clarke, D.; Kerr, D.; Bengtsson, L.; Juran, S.; Seaman, V.; Tatem, A. J.

2018-01-01

Population numbers at local levels are fundamental data for many applications, including the delivery and planning of services, election preparation, and response to disasters. In resource-poor settings, recent and reliable demographic data at subnational scales can often be lacking. National population and housing census data can be outdated, inaccurate, or missing key groups or areas, while registry data are generally lacking or incomplete. Moreover, at local scales accurate boundary data are often limited, and high rates of migration and urban growth make existing data quickly outdated. Here we review past and ongoing work aimed at producing spatially disaggregated local-scale population estimates, and discuss how new technologies are now enabling robust and cost-effective solutions. Recent advances in the availability of detailed satellite imagery, geopositioning tools for field surveys, statistical methods, and computational power are enabling the development and application of approaches that can estimate population distributions at fine spatial scales across entire countries in the absence of census data. We outline the potential of such approaches as well as their limitations, emphasizing the political and operational hurdles for acceptance and sustainable implementation of new approaches, and the continued importance of traditional sources of national statistical data. PMID:29555739

Conditions for the Occurrence of Slaking and Other Disaggregation Processes under Rainfall

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Frédéric Darboux

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Under rainfall conditions, aggregates may suffer breakdown by different mechanisms. Slaking is a very efficient breakdown mechanism. However, its occurrence under rainfall conditions has not been demonstrated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of slaking under rain. Two soils with silt loam (SL and clay loam (CL textures were analyzed. Two classes of aggregates were utilized: 1–3 mm and 3–5 mm. The aggregates were submitted to stability tests and to high intensity (90 mm·h−1 and low intensity (28 mm·h−1 rainfalls, and different kinetic energy impacts (large and small raindrops using a rainfall simulator. The fragment size distributions were determined both after the stability tests and rainfall simulations, with the calculation of the mean weighted diameter (MWD. After the stability tests the SL presented smaller MWDs for all stability tests when compared to the CL. In both soils the lowest MWD was obtained using the fast wetting test, showing they were sensitive to slaking. For both soils and the two aggregate classes evaluated, the MWDs were recorded from the early beginning of the rainfall event under the four rainfall conditions. The occurrence of slaking in the evaluated soils was not verified under the simulated rainfall conditions studied. The early disaggregation was strongly related to the cumulative kinetic energy, advocating for the occurrence of mechanical breakdown. Because slaking requires a very high wetting rate on initially dry aggregates, it seems unlikely to occur under field conditions, except perhaps for furrow irrigation.

Disaggregation of remotely sensed soil moisture under all sky condition using machine learning approach in Northeast Asia

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, S.; Kim, H.; Choi, M.; Kim, K.

2016-12-01

Estimating spatiotemporal variation of soil moisture is crucial to hydrological applications such as flood, drought, and near real-time climate forecasting. Recent advances in space-based passive microwave measurements allow the frequent monitoring of the surface soil moisture at a global scale and downscaling approaches have been applied to improve the spatial resolution of passive microwave products available at local scale applications. However, most downscaling methods using optical and thermal dataset, are valid only in cloud-free conditions; thus renewed downscaling method under all sky condition is necessary for the establishment of spatiotemporal continuity of datasets at fine resolution. In present study Support Vector Machine (SVM) technique was utilized to downscale a satellite-based soil moisture retrievals. The 0.1 and 0.25-degree resolution of daily Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) L3 soil moisture datasets from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) were disaggregated over Northeast Asia in 2015. Optically derived estimates of surface temperature (LST), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and its cloud products were obtained from MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for the purpose of downscaling soil moisture in finer resolution under all sky condition. Furthermore, a comparison analysis between in situ and downscaled soil moisture products was also conducted for quantitatively assessing its accuracy. Results showed that downscaled soil moisture under all sky condition not only preserves the quality of AMSR2 LPRM soil moisture at 1km resolution, but also attains higher spatial data coverage. From this research we expect that time continuous monitoring of soil moisture at fine scale regardless of weather conditions would be available.

Spatial and temporal disaggregation of the on-road vehicle emission inventory in a medium-sized Andean city. Comparison of GIS-based top-down methodologies

Science.gov (United States)

Gómez, C. D.; González, C. M.; Osses, M.; Aristizábal, B. H.

2018-04-01

Emission data is an essential tool for understanding environmental problems associated with sources and dynamics of air pollutants in urban environments, especially those emitted from vehicular sources. There is a lack of knowledge about the estimation of air pollutant emissions and particularly its spatial and temporal distribution in South America, mainly in medium-sized cities with population less than one million inhabitants. This work performed the spatial and temporal disaggregation of the on-road vehicle emission inventory (EI) in the medium-sized Andean city of Manizales, Colombia, with a spatial resolution of 1 km × 1 km and a temporal resolution of 1 h. A reported top-down methodology, based on the analysis of traffic flow levels and road network distribution, was applied. Results obtained allowed the identification of several hotspots of emission at the downtown zone and the residential and commercial area of Manizales. Downtown exhibited the highest percentage contribution of emissions normalized by its total area, with values equal to 6% and 5% of total CO and PM10 emissions per km2 respectively. These indexes were higher than those obtained in residential-commercial area with values of 2%/km2 for both pollutants. Temporal distribution showed strong relationship with driving patterns at rush hours, as well as an important influence of passenger cars and motorcycles in emissions of CO both at downtown and residential-commercial areas, and the impact of public transport in PM10 emissions in the residential-commercial zone. Considering that detailed information about traffic counts and road network distribution is not always available in medium-sized cities, this work compares other simplified top-down methods for spatially assessing the on-road vehicle EI. Results suggested that simplified methods could underestimate the spatial allocation of downtown emissions, a zone dominated by high traffic of vehicles. The comparison between simplified methods

A Practical Methodology for Disaggregating the Drivers of Drug Costs Using Administrative Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Lungu, Elena R; Manti, Orlando J; Levine, Mitchell A H; Clark, Douglas A; Potashnik, Tanya M; McKinley, Carol I

2017-09-01

Prescription drug expenditures represent a significant component of health care costs in Canada, with estimates of $28.8 billion spent in 2014. Identifying the major cost drivers and the effect they have on prescription drug expenditures allows policy makers and researchers to interpret current cost pressures and anticipate future expenditure levels. To identify the major drivers of prescription drug costs and to develop a methodology to disaggregate the impact of each of the individual drivers. The methodology proposed in this study uses the Laspeyres approach for cost decomposition. This approach isolates the effect of the change in a specific factor (e.g., price) by holding the other factor(s) (e.g., quantity) constant at the base-period value. The Laspeyres approach is expanded to a multi-factorial framework to isolate and quantify several factors that drive prescription drug cost. Three broad categories of effects are considered: volume, price and drug-mix effects. For each category, important sub-effects are quantified. This study presents a new and comprehensive methodology for decomposing the change in prescription drug costs over time including step-by-step demonstrations of how the formulas were derived. This methodology has practical applications for health policy decision makers and can aid researchers in conducting cost driver analyses. The methodology can be adjusted depending on the purpose and analytical depth of the research and data availability. © 2017 Journal of Population Therapeutics and Clinical Pharmacology. All rights reserved.

Musings on privacy issues in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Boulos, Maged N Kamel; Curtis, Andrew J; Abdelmalik, Philip

2009-07-20

This paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of the intertwined privacy, confidentiality, and security issues that are commonly encountered in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals. Key definitions are provided, along with some examples of actual and potential security and confidentiality breaches and related incidents that captured mainstream media and public interest in recent months and years. The paper then goes on to present a brief survey of the research literature on location privacy/confidentiality concerns and on privacy-preserving solutions in conventional health research and beyond, touching on the emerging privacy issues associated with online consumer geoinformatics and location-based services. The 'missing ring' (in many treatments of the topic) of data security is also discussed. Personal information and privacy legislations in two countries, Canada and the UK, are covered, as well as some examples of recent research projects and events about the subject. Select highlights from a June 2009 URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association) workshop entitled 'Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality of Geographic Data in Health Research' are then presented. The paper concludes by briefly charting the complexity of the domain and the many challenges associated with it, and proposing a novel, 'one stop shop' case-based reasoning framework to streamline the provision of clear and individualised guidance for the design and approval of new research projects (involving geographical identifiers about individuals), including crisp recommendations on which specific privacy-preserving solutions and approaches would be suitable in each case.

Monetary Policy and Real Estate Prices: A Disaggregated Analysis for Switzerland

OpenAIRE

Berlemann, Michael; Freese, Julia

2010-01-01

Most empirical studies found that monetary policy has a significant effect on house prices while stock markets remain unaffected by interest rate shocks. In this paper we conduct a more detailed analysis by studying various sub-segments of the real estate market. Em-ploying a new dataset for Switzerland we estimate vector autoregressive models and find substitution effects between house and apartment prices on the one hand and rental prices on the other. Interestingly enough, commercial prope...

Musings on privacy issues in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

AbdelMalik Philip

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract This paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of the intertwined privacy, confidentiality, and security issues that are commonly encountered in health research involving disaggregate geographic data about individuals. Key definitions are provided, along with some examples of actual and potential security and confidentiality breaches and related incidents that captured mainstream media and public interest in recent months and years. The paper then goes on to present a brief survey of the research literature on location privacy/confidentiality concerns and on privacy-preserving solutions in conventional health research and beyond, touching on the emerging privacy issues associated with online consumer geoinformatics and location-based services. The 'missing ring' (in many treatments of the topic of data security is also discussed. Personal information and privacy legislations in two countries, Canada and the UK, are covered, as well as some examples of recent research projects and events about the subject. Select highlights from a June 2009 URISA (Urban and Regional Information Systems Association workshop entitled 'Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality of Geographic Data in Health Research' are then presented. The paper concludes by briefly charting the complexity of the domain and the many challenges associated with it, and proposing a novel, 'one stop shop' case-based reasoning framework to streamline the provision of clear and individualised guidance for the design and approval of new research projects (involving geographical identifiers about individuals, including crisp recommendations on which specific privacy-preserving solutions and approaches would be suitable in each case.

Differential Targeting of Hsp70 Heat Shock Proteins HSPA6 and HSPA1A with Components of a Protein Disaggregation/Refolding Machine in Differentiated Human Neuronal Cells following Thermal Stress

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ian R. Brown

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Heat shock proteins (Hsps co-operate in multi-protein machines that counter protein misfolding and aggregation and involve DNAJ (Hsp40, HSPA (Hsp70, and HSPH (Hsp105α. The HSPA family is a multigene family composed of inducible and constitutively expressed members. Inducible HSPA6 (Hsp70B' is found in the human genome but not in the genomes of mouse and rat. To advance knowledge of this little studied HSPA member, the targeting of HSPA6 to stress-sensitive neuronal sites with components of a disaggregation/refolding machine was investigated following thermal stress. HSPA6 targeted the periphery of nuclear speckles (perispeckles that have been characterized as sites of transcription. However, HSPA6 did not co-localize at perispeckles with DNAJB1 (Hsp40-1 or HSPH1 (Hsp105α. At 3 h after heat shock, HSPA6 co-localized with these members of the disaggregation/refolding machine at the granular component (GC of the nucleolus. Inducible HSPA1A (Hsp70-1 and constitutively expressed HSPA8 (Hsc70 co-localized at nuclear speckles with components of the machine immediately after heat shock, and at the GC layer of the nucleolus at 1 h with DNAJA1 and BAG-1. These results suggest that HSPA6 exhibits targeting features that are not apparent for HSPA1A and HSPA8.

Analysis of uncertainties in the estimates of nitrous oxide and methane emissions in the UK's greenhouse gas inventory for agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Milne, Alice E.; Glendining, Margaret J.; Bellamy, Pat; Misselbrook, Tom; Gilhespy, Sarah; Rivas Casado, Monica; Hulin, Adele; van Oijen, Marcel; Whitmore, Andrew P.

2014-01-01

The UK's greenhouse gas inventory for agriculture uses a model based on the IPCC Tier 1 and Tier 2 methods to estimate the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture. The inventory calculations are disaggregated at country level (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland). Before now, no detailed assessment of the uncertainties in the estimates of emissions had been done. We used Monte Carlo simulation to do such an analysis. We collated information on the uncertainties of each of the model inputs. The uncertainties propagate through the model and result in uncertainties in the estimated emissions. Using a sensitivity analysis, we found that in England and Scotland the uncertainty in the emission factor for emissions from N inputs (EF1) affected uncertainty the most, but that in Wales and Northern Ireland, the emission factor for N leaching and runoff (EF5) had greater influence. We showed that if the uncertainty in any one of these emission factors is reduced by 50%, the uncertainty in emissions of nitrous oxide reduces by 10%. The uncertainty in the estimate for the emissions of methane emission factors for enteric fermentation in cows and sheep most affected the uncertainty in methane emissions. When inventories are disaggregated (as that for the UK is) correlation between separate instances of each emission factor will affect the uncertainty in emissions. As more countries move towards inventory models with disaggregation, it is important that the IPCC give firm guidance on this topic.

A state-level analysis of the economic impacts of medical tourism in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Klijs, J.; Ormond, M.E.; Mainil, T.; Peerlings, J.H.M.; Heijman, W.J.M.

2016-01-01

In Malaysia, a country that ranks among the world's most recognised medical tourism destinations, medical tourism is identified as a potential economic growth engine for both medical and non-medical sectors. A state-level analysis of economic impacts is important, given differences between states in economic profiles and numbers, origins, and expenditure of medical tourists. We applied input–output (I–O) analysis, based on state-specific I–O data and disaggregated foreign patient data. The an...

Benefit Incidence Analysis of Government Spending on Public-Private Partnership Schooling under Universal Secondary Education Policy in Uganda

Science.gov (United States)

Wokadala, J.; Barungi, M.

2015-01-01

The study establishes whether government spending on private universal secondary education (USE) schools is equitable across quintiles disaggregated by gender and by region in Uganda. The study employs benefit incidence analysis tool on the Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS 2009/10) data to establish the welfare impact of public subsidy on…

A pretreatment method for grain size analysis of red mudstones

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Zaixing; Liu, Li'an

2011-11-01

Traditional sediment disaggregation methods work well for loose mud sediments, but not for tightly cemented mudstones by ferric oxide minerals. In this paper, a new pretreatment method for analyzing the grain size of red mudstones is presented. The experimental samples are Eocene red mudstones from the Dongying Depression, Bohai Bay Basin. The red mudstones are composed mainly of clay minerals, clastic sediments and ferric oxides that make the mudstones red and tightly compacted. The procedure of the method is as follows. Firstly, samples of the red mudstones were crushed into fragments with a diameter of 0.6-0.8 mm in size; secondly, the CBD (citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite) treatment was used to remove ferric oxides so that the cementation of intra-aggregates and inter-aggregates became weakened, and then 5% dilute hydrochloric acid was added to further remove the cements; thirdly, the fragments were further ground with a rubber pestle; lastly, an ultrasonicator was used to disaggregate the samples. After the treatment, the samples could then be used for grain size analysis or for other geological analyses of sedimentary grains. Compared with other pretreatment methods for size analysis of mudstones, this proposed method is more effective and has higher repeatability.

Disaggregating Within- and Between-Person Effects of Social Identification on Subjective and Endocrinological Stress Reactions in a Real-Life Stress Situation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ketturat, Charlene; Frisch, Johanna U; Ullrich, Johannes; Häusser, Jan A; van Dick, Rolf; Mojzisch, Andreas

2016-02-01

Several experimental and cross-sectional studies have established the stress-buffering effect of social identification, yet few longitudinal studies have been conducted within this area of research. This study is the first to make use of a multilevel approach to disaggregate between- and within-person effects of social identification on subjective and endocrinological stress reactions. Specifically, we conducted a study with 85 prospective students during their 1-day aptitude test for a university sports program. Ad hoc groups were formed, in which students completed several tests in various disciplines together. At four points in time, salivary cortisol, subjective strain, and identification with their group were measured. Results of multilevel analyses show a significant within-person effect of social identification: The more students identified with their group, the less stress they experienced and the lower their cortisol response was. Between-person effects were not significant. Advantages of using multilevel approaches within this field of research are discussed. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Success in Undergraduate Engineering Programs: A Comparative Analysis by Race and Gender

Science.gov (United States)

Lord, Susan

2010-03-01

Interest in increasing the number of engineering graduates in the United States and promoting gender equality and diversification of the profession has encouraged considerable research on women and minorities in engineering programs. Drawing on a framework of intersectionality theory, this work recognizes that women of different ethnic backgrounds warrant disaggregated analysis because they do not necessarily share a common experience in engineering education. Using a longitudinal, comprehensive data set of more than 79,000 students who matriculated in engineering at nine universities in the Southeastern United States, this research examines how the six-year graduation rates of engineering students vary by disaggregated combinations of gender and race/ethnicity. Contrary to the popular opinion that women drop out of engineering at higher rates, our results show that Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and White women who matriculate in engineering are as likely as men to graduate in engineering in six years. In fact, Asian, Black, Hispanic, and Native American women engineering matriculants graduate at higher rates than men and there is a small difference for white students. 54 percent of White women engineering matriculants graduate in six-years compared with 53 percent of white men. For male and female engineering matriculants of all races, the most likely destination six years after entering college is graduation within engineering. This work underscores the importance of research disaggregated by race and gender and points to the critical need for more recruitment of women into engineering as the low representation of women in engineering education is primarily a reflection of their low representation at matriculation.

Stepwise data envelopment analysis (DEA); choosing variables for measuring technical efficiency in Norwegian electricity distribution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kittelsen, S.A.C.

1993-04-01

Electric power distribution is an activity that in principle delivers a separate product to each customer. A specification of products for a utility as a whole leads potentially to a large number of product aspects including topographic and climatic conditions, and the level of disaggregation of factors and products may give the production and cost functions a high dimensionality. Some aggregation is therefore necessary. Non-parametric methods like Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) have the advantage that they may give meaningful results when parametric methods would not have enough degrees of freedom, but will have related problems if the variables are collinear or are irrelevant. Although aggregate efficiency measures will not be much affected, rates of transformation will be corrupted and observations with extreme values may be measured as efficient by default. Little work has been done so far on the statistical properties of the non-parametric efficiency measure. This paper utilizes a suggestion by Rajiv Banker to measure the significance of the change in results when disaggregating or introducing an extra variable, and shows how one can let the data participate in deciding which variables should be included in the analysis. 32 refs., 7 figs., 4 tabs

Applying DEA sensitivity analysis to efficiency measurement of Vietnamese universities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thi Thanh Huyen Nguyen

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The primary purpose of this study is to measure the technical efficiency of 30 doctorate-granting universities, the universities or the higher education institutes with PhD training programs, in Vietnam, applying the sensitivity analysis of data envelopment analysis (DEA. The study uses eight sets of input-output specifications using the replacement as well as aggregation/disaggregation of variables. The measurement results allow us to examine the sensitivity of the efficiency of these universities with the sets of variables. The findings also show the impact of variables on their efficiency and its “sustainability”.

Multiple pathways to gender-sensitive budget support in the education sector: Analysing the effectiveness of sex-disaggregated indicators in performance assessment frameworks and gender working groups in (education) budget support to Sub-Saharan Africa countries

OpenAIRE

Holvoet, Nathalie; Inberg, Liesbeth

2013-01-01

In order to correct for the initial gender blindness of the Paris Declaration and related aid modalities as general and sector budget support, it has been proposed to integrate a gender dimension into budget support entry points. This paper studies the effectiveness of (joint) gender working groups and the integration of sex-disaggregated indicators and targets in performance assessment frameworks in the context of education sector budget support delivered to a sample of 17 Sub-Saharan Africa...

Travel behaviour and the total activity pattern

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Hoorn, A.I.J.M.

1979-01-01

the past years the behavioural basis of travel demand models has been considerably extended. In many cases individual behaviour is taken as the starting point of the analysis. Conventional aggregate models have been complemented by disaggregate models. However, even in most disaggregate models there

Modeling of photochemical air pollution in the Barcelona area with highly disaggregated anthropogenic and biogenic emissions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Toll, I.; Baldasano, J.M.

2000-01-01

The city of Barcelona and its surrounding area, located in the western Mediterranean basin, can reach high levels of O 3 in spring and summertime. To study the origin of this photochemical pollution, a numerical modeling approach was adopted and the episode that took place between 3 and 5 August 1990 was chosen. The main meteorological mesoscale flows were reproduced with the meteorological non-hydrostatic mesoscale model MEMO for 5 August 1990, when weak pressure synoptic conditions took place. The emissions inventory was calculated with the EIM-LEM model, giving highly disaggregated anthropogenic and biogenic emissions in the zone studied, an 80 x 80 km 2 area around the city of Barcelona. Major sources of VOC were road traffic (51%) and vegetation (34%), while NO x were mostly emitted by road traffic (88%). However, emissions from some industrial stacks can be locally important and higher than those from road traffic. Photochemical simulation with the MARS model revealed that the combination of mesoscale wind flows and the above-mentioned local emissions is crucial in the production and transport of O 3 in the area. On the other hand, the geostrophic wind also played an important role in advecting the air masses away from the places O 3 had been generated. The model simulations were also evaluated by comparing meteorological measurements from nine surface stations and concentration measurements from five surface stations, and the results proved to be fairly satisfactory. (author)

A Categorical Content Analysis of Highly Cited Literature Related to Trends and Issues in Special Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Arden, Sarah V; Pentimonti, Jill M; Cooray, Rochana; Jackson, Stephanie

2017-07-01

This investigation employs categorical content analysis processes as a mechanism to examine trends and issues in a sampling of highly cited (100+) literature in special education journals. The authors had two goals: (a) broadly identifying trends across publication type, content area, and methodology and (b) specifically identifying articles with disaggregated outcomes for students with learning disabilities (LD). Content analyses were conducted across highly cited (100+) articles published during a 20-year period (1992-2013) in a sample ( n = 3) of journals focused primarily on LD, and in one broad, cross-categorical journal recognized for its impact in the field. Results indicated trends in the article type (i.e., commentary and position papers), content (i.e., reading and behavior), and methodology (i.e., small proportions of experimental and quasi-experimental designs). Results also revealed stability in the proportion of intervention research studies when compared to previous analyses and a decline in the proportion of those that disaggregated data specifically for students with LD.

A Sub-category Disaggregated Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory for the Bogota Region, Colombia

Science.gov (United States)

Pulido-Guio, A. D.; Rojas, A. M.; Ossma, L. J.; Jimenez-Pizarro, R.

2012-12-01

Several international organizations, such as UNDP and UNEP, have recently recognized the importance of empowering sub-national decision levels on climatic governance according to the subsidiarity principle. Regional and municipal authorities are directly responsible for land use management and for regulating economic sectors that emit greenhouse gases (GHG) and are vulnerable to climate change. Sub-national authorities are also closer to the population, which make them better suited for educating the public and for achieving commitment among stakeholders. This investigation was developed within the frame of the Regional Integrated Program on Climate Change for the Cundinamarca-Bogota Region (PRICC), an initiative aimed at incorporating the climate dimension into the regional and local decision making. The region composed by Bogota and its nearest, semi-rural area of influence (Province of Cundinamarca) is the most important population and economic center of Colombia. Our investigation serves two purposes: a) to establish methodologies for estimating regional GHG emissions appropriate to the Colombian context, and b) to disaggregate GHG emissions by economic sector as a mitigation decision-making tool. GHG emissions were calculated using IPCC 1996 - Tier 1 methodologies, as there are no regional- or country-specific emission factors available for Colombia. Top-Down (TD) methodologies, based on national and regional energy use intensity, per capita consumption and fertilizer use, were developed and applied to estimate activities for following categories: fuel use in industrial, commercial and residential sectors (excepting NG and LPG), use of ozone depleting substances (ODS) and substitutes, and fertilizer use (for total emissions of agricultural soils). The emissions from the remaining 22 categories were calculated using Bottom-Up (BU) methodologies given the availability of regional information. The total GHG emissions in the Cundinamarca-Bogota Region on 2008 are

A programmable Si-photonic node for SDN-enabled Bloom filter forwarding in disaggregated data centers

Science.gov (United States)

Moralis-Pegios, M.; Terzenidis, N.; Vagionas, C.; Pitris, S.; Chatzianagnostou, E.; Brimont, A.; Zanzi, A.; Sanchis, P.; Marti, J.; Kraft, J.; Rochracher, K.; Dorrestein, S.; Bogdan, M.; Tekin, T.; Syrivelis, D.; Tassiulas, L.; Miliou, A.; Pleros, N.; Vyrsokinos, K.

2017-02-01

Programmable switching nodes supporting Software-Defined Networking (SDN) over optical interconnecting technologies arise as a key enabling technology for future disaggregated Data Center (DC) environments. The SDNenabling roadmap of intra-DC optical solutions is already a reality for rack-to-rack interconnects, with recent research reporting on interesting applications of programmable silicon photonic switching fabrics addressing board-to-board and even on-board applications. In this perspective, simplified information addressing schemes like Bloom filter (BF)-based labels emerge as a highly promising solution for ensuring rapid switch reconfiguration, following quickly the changes enforced in network size, network topology or even in content location. The benefits of BF-based forwarding have been so far successfully demonstrated in the Information-Centric Network (ICN) paradigm, while theoretical studies have also revealed the energy consumption and speed advantages when applied in DCs. In this paper we present for the first time a programmable 4x4 Silicon Photonic switch that supports SDN through the use of BF-labeled router ports. Our scheme significantly simplifies packet forwarding as it negates the need for large forwarding tables, allowing for its remote control through modifications in the assigned BF labels. We demonstrate 1x4 switch operation controlling the Si-Pho switch by a Stratix V FPGA module, which is responsible for processing the packet ID and correlating its destination with the appropriate BF-labeled outgoing port. DAC- and amplifier-less control of the carrier-injection Si-Pho switches is demonstrated, revealing successful switching of 10Gb/s data packets with BF-based forwarding information changes taking place at a time-scale that equals the duration of four consecutive packets.

Performance, labour flexibility and migrant workers in hotels: An establishment and departmental level analysis

OpenAIRE

Yaduma, N; Williams, A; Lockwood, A; Park, S

2015-01-01

© 2015. This paper analyses flexible working, and the employment of migrants, as determinants of performance in hotels, utilising a highly disaggregated data set of actual hours worked and outputs, on a monthly basis, over an 8 year period for 25 establishments within a single firm. It examines not only inter-establishment, but also intra-establishment (departmental) variations in performance. The analysis also systematically compares the findings based on financial versus physical measures, ...

Changes in Food Intake in Australia: Comparing the 1995 and 2011 National Nutrition Survey Results Disaggregated into Basic Foods.

Science.gov (United States)

Ridoutt, Bradley; Baird, Danielle; Bastiaans, Kathryn; Hendrie, Gilly; Riley, Malcolm; Sanguansri, Peerasak; Syrette, Julie; Noakes, Manny

2016-05-25

As nations seek to address obesity and diet-related chronic disease, understanding shifts in food intake over time is an imperative. However, quantifying intake of basic foods is not straightforward because of the diversity of raw and cooked wholefoods, processed foods and mixed dishes actually consumed. In this study, data from the Australian national nutrition surveys of 1995 and 2011, each involving more than 12,000 individuals and covering more than 4500 separate foods, were coherently disaggregated into basic foods, with cooking and processing factors applied where necessary. Although Australians are generally not eating in a manner consistent with national dietary guidelines, there have been several positive changes. Australians are eating more whole fruit, a greater diversity of vegetables, more beans, peas and pulses, less refined sugar, and they have increased their preference for brown and wholegrain cereals. Adult Australians have also increased their intake of nuts and seeds. Fruit juice consumption markedly declined, especially for younger Australians. Cocoa consumption increased and shifts in dairy product intake were mixed, reflecting one of several important differences between age and gender cohorts. This study sets the context for more detailed research at the level of specific foods to understand individual and household differences.

Changes in Food Intake in Australia: Comparing the 1995 and 2011 National Nutrition Survey Results Disaggregated into Basic Foods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bradley Ridoutt

2016-05-01

Full Text Available As nations seek to address obesity and diet-related chronic disease, understanding shifts in food intake over time is an imperative. However, quantifying intake of basic foods is not straightforward because of the diversity of raw and cooked wholefoods, processed foods and mixed dishes actually consumed. In this study, data from the Australian national nutrition surveys of 1995 and 2011, each involving more than 12,000 individuals and covering more than 4500 separate foods, were coherently disaggregated into basic foods, with cooking and processing factors applied where necessary. Although Australians are generally not eating in a manner consistent with national dietary guidelines, there have been several positive changes. Australians are eating more whole fruit, a greater diversity of vegetables, more beans, peas and pulses, less refined sugar, and they have increased their preference for brown and wholegrain cereals. Adult Australians have also increased their intake of nuts and seeds. Fruit juice consumption markedly declined, especially for younger Australians. Cocoa consumption increased and shifts in dairy product intake were mixed, reflecting one of several important differences between age and gender cohorts. This study sets the context for more detailed research at the level of specific foods to understand individual and household differences.

L-band brightness temperature disaggregation for use with S-band and C-band radiometer data for WCOM

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, P.; Shi, J.; Zhao, T.; Cosh, M. H.; Bindlish, R.

2017-12-01

There are two passive microwave sensors onboard the Water Cycle Observation Mission (WCOM), which includes a synthetic aperture radiometer operating at L-S-C bands and a scanning microwave radiometer operating from C- to W-bands. It provides a unique opportunity to disaggregate L-band brightness temperature (soil moisture) with S-band C-bands radiometer data. In this study, passive-only downscaling methodologies are developed and evaluated. Based on the radiative transfer modeling, it was found that the TBs (brightness temperature) between the L-band and S-band exhibit a linear relationship, and there is an exponential relationship between L-band and C-band. We carried out the downscaling results by two methods: (1) downscaling with L-S-C band passive measurements with the same incidence angle from payload IMI; (2) downscaling with L-C band passive measurements with different incidence angle from payloads IMI and PMI. The downscaling method with L-S bands with the same incident angle was first evaluated using SMEX02 data. The RMSE are 2.69 K and 1.52 K for H and V polarization respectively. The downscaling method with L-C bands is developed with different incident angles using SMEX03 data. The RMSE are 2.97 K and 2.68 K for H and V polarization respectively. These results showed that high-resolution L-band brightness temperature and soil moisture products could be generated from the future WCOM passive-only observations.

Causes of Corruption in Russia: A Disaggregated Analysis

OpenAIRE

Belousova, Veronika; Rajeev, K. Goel; Korhonen, Iikka

2011-01-01

This paper examines determinants of corruption across Russian regions. Key contributions include: (i) a formal study of economic corruption determinants across Russian regions; (ii) comparisons of determinants of perceived corruption versus those of actual corruption; and (iii) studying the influence of market competition and other factors on corruption. The results show that economic prosperity, population, market competition and urbanization are significant determinants of Russian corruptio...

Core-size regulated aggregation/disaggregation of citrate-coated gold nanoparticles (5-50 nm) and dissolved organic matter: Extinction, emission, and scattering evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Esfahani, Milad Rabbani; Pallem, Vasanta L.; Stretz, Holly A.; Wells, Martha J. M.

2018-01-01

Knowledge of the interactions between gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and dissolved organic matter (DOM) is significant in the development of detection devices for environmental sensing, studies of environmental fate and transport, and advances in antifouling water treatment membranes. The specific objective of this research was to spectroscopically investigate the fundamental interactions between citrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles (CT-GNPs) and DOM. Studies indicated that 30 and 50 nm diameter GNPs promoted disaggregation of the DOM. This result-disaggregation of an environmentally important polyelectrolyte-will be quite useful regarding antifouling properties in water treatment and water-based sensing applications. Furthermore, resonance Rayleigh scattering results showed significant enhancement in the UV range which can be useful to characterize DOM and can be exploited as an analytical tool to better sense and improve our comprehension of nanomaterial interactions with environmental systems. CT-GNPs having core size diameters of 5, 10, 30, and 50 nm were studied in the absence and presence of added DOM at 2 and 8 ppm at low ionic strength and near neutral pH (6.0-6.5) approximating surface water conditions. Interactions were monitored by cross-interpretation among ultraviolet (UV)-visible extinction spectroscopy, excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectroscopy (emission and Rayleigh scattering), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). This comprehensive combination of spectroscopic analyses lends new insights into the antifouling behavior of GNPs. The CT-GNP-5 and -10 controls emitted light and aggregated. In contrast, the CT-GNP-30 and CT-GNP-50 controls scattered light intensely, but did not aggregate and did not emit light. The presence of any CT-GNP did not affect the extinction spectra of DOM, and the presence of DOM did not affect the extinction spectra of the CT-GNPs. The emission spectra (visible range) differed only slightly between calculated and actual

Not All Large Customers are Made Alike: Disaggregating Response to Default-Service Day-Ahead Market Pricing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hopper, Nicole; Goldman, Charles; Neenan, Bernie

2006-01-01

For decades, policymakers and program designers have gone on the assumption that large customers, particularly industrial facilities, are the best candidates for realtime pricing (RTP). This assumption is based partly on practical considerations (large customers can provide potentially large load reductions) but also on the premise that businesses focused on production cost minimization are most likely to participate and respond to opportunities for bill savings. Yet few studies have examined the actual price response of large industrial and commercial customers in a disaggregated fashion, nor have factors such as the impacts of demand response (DR) enabling technologies, simultaneous emergency DR program participation and price response barriers been fully elucidated. This second-phase case study of Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation (NMPC)'s large customer RTP tariff addresses these information needs. The results demonstrate the extreme diversity of large customers' response to hourly varying prices. While two-thirds exhibit some price response, about 20 percent of customers provide 75-80 percent of the aggregate load reductions. Manufacturing customers are most price-responsive as a group, followed by government/education customers, while other sectors are largely unresponsive. However, individual customer response varies widely. Currently, enabling technologies do not appear to enhance hourly price response; customers report using them for other purposes. The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)'s emergency DR programs enhance price response, in part by signaling to customers that day-ahead prices are high. In sum, large customers do currently provide moderate price response, but there is significant room for improvement through targeted programs that help customers develop and implement automated load-response strategies

Estimation of future levels and changes in profitability: The effect of the relative position of the firm in its industry and the operating-financing disaggregation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borja Amor-Tapia

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper we examine how the relative position of a firm's Return on Equity (ROE in industries affects the predictability of the next-year ROE levels, and the ROE changes from year to year. Using Nissim and Penman breakdown into operating and financing drivers, the significant role of the industry factor is established, although changes in signs suggest subtle non-linear relations in the drivers. Our study avoids problems originating from negative signs by analyzing sorts and by making new regressions with disaggregated second-order drivers by signs. This way, our results provide evidence of some different patterns in the influence of the first-level drivers of ROE (the operating factor and the financing factor, and the second-level drivers (profit margin, asset turnover, leverage and return spread on future profitability, depending on the industry spread. The results on the role of contextual factors to improve the estimation of future profitability remain consistent for small and large firms, although adding some nuances.

Disaggregate demand for conventional and alternative fuelled vehicles in the Census Metropolitan Area of Hamilton, Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Potoglou, Dimitrios

The focus of this thesis is twofold. First, it offers insight on how households' car-ownership behaviour is affected by urban form and availability of local-transit at the place of residence, after controlling for socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Second, it addresses the importance of vehicle attributes, household and individual characteristics as well as economic incentives and urban form to potential demand for alternative fuelled vehicles. Data for the empirical analyses of the aforementioned research activities were obtained through an innovative Internet survey, which is also documented in this thesis, conducted in the Census Metropolitan Area of Hamilton. The survey included a retrospective questionnaire of households' number and type of vehicles and a stated choices experiment for assessing the potential demand for alternative fuelled vehicles. Established approaches and emerging trends in automobile demand modelling identified early on in this thesis suggest a disaggregate approach and specifically, the estimation of discrete choice models both for explaining car ownership and vehicle-type choice behaviour. It is shown that mixed and diverse land uses as well as short distances between home and work are likely to decrease the probability of households to own a large number of cars. Regarding the demand for alternative fuelled vehicles, while vehicle attributes are particularly important, incentives such as free parking and access to high occupancy vehicle lanes will not influence the choice of hybrids or alternative fuelled vehicles. An improved understating of households' behaviour regarding the number of cars as well as the factors and trade-offs for choosing cleaner vehicles can be used to inform policy designed to reduce car ownership levels and encourage adoption of cleaner vehicle technologies in urban areas. Finally, the Internet survey sets the ground for further research on implementation and evaluation of this data collection method.

The added value of stochastic spatial disaggregation for short-term rainfall forecasts currently available in Canada

Science.gov (United States)

Gagnon, Patrick; Rousseau, Alain N.; Charron, Dominique; Fortin, Vincent; Audet, René

2017-11-01

Several businesses and industries rely on rainfall forecasts to support their day-to-day operations. To deal with the uncertainty associated with rainfall forecast, some meteorological organisations have developed products, such as ensemble forecasts. However, due to the intensive computational requirements of ensemble forecasts, the spatial resolution remains coarse. For example, Environment and Climate Change Canada's (ECCC) Global Ensemble Prediction System (GEPS) data is freely available on a 1-degree grid (about 100 km), while those of the so-called High Resolution Deterministic Prediction System (HRDPS) are available on a 2.5-km grid (about 40 times finer). Potential users are then left with the option of using either a high-resolution rainfall forecast without uncertainty estimation and/or an ensemble with a spectrum of plausible rainfall values, but at a coarser spatial scale. The objective of this study was to evaluate the added value of coupling the Gibbs Sampling Disaggregation Model (GSDM) with ECCC products to provide accurate, precise and consistent rainfall estimates at a fine spatial resolution (10-km) within a forecast framework (6-h). For 30, 6-h, rainfall events occurring within a 40,000-km2 area (Québec, Canada), results show that, using 100-km aggregated reference rainfall depths as input, statistics of the rainfall fields generated by GSDM were close to those of the 10-km reference field. However, in forecast mode, GSDM outcomes inherit of the ECCC forecast biases, resulting in a poor performance when GEPS data were used as input, mainly due to the inherent rainfall depth distribution of the latter product. Better performance was achieved when the Regional Deterministic Prediction System (RDPS), available on a 10-km grid and aggregated at 100-km, was used as input to GSDM. Nevertheless, most of the analyzed ensemble forecasts were weakly consistent. Some areas of improvement are identified herein.

Short circuit: Disaggregation of adrenocorticotropic hormone and cortisol levels in HIV-positive, methamphetamine-using men who have sex with men.

Science.gov (United States)

Carrico, Adam W; Rodriguez, Violeta J; Jones, Deborah L; Kumar, Mahendra

2018-01-01

This study examined if methamphetamine use alone (METH + HIV-) and methamphetamine use in combination with HIV (METH + HIV+) were associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation as well as insulin resistance relative to a nonmethamphetamine-using, HIV-negative comparison group (METH-HIV-). Using an intact groups design, serum levels of HPA axis hormones in 46 METH + HIV- and 127 METH + HIV+ men who have sex with men (MSM) were compared to 136 METH-HIV- men. There were no group differences in prevailing adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) or cortisol levels, but the association between ACTH and cortisol was moderated by METH + HIV+ group (β = -0.19, p < .05). Compared to METH-HIV- men, METH + HIV+ MSM displayed 10% higher log 10 cortisol levels per standard deviation lower ACTH. Both groups of methamphetamine-using MSM had lower insulin resistance and greater syndemic burden (i.e., sleep disturbance, severe depression, childhood trauma, and polysubstance use disorder) compared to METH-HIV- men. However, the disaggregated functional relationship between ACTH and cortisol in METH + HIV+ MSM was independent of these factors. Further research is needed to characterize the bio-behavioral pathways that explain dysregulated HPA axis functioning in HIV-positive, methamphetamine-using MSM. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

U.S.-China trade: A disaggregated analysis, 1996-2006

OpenAIRE

Spadafora, Francesco

2007-01-01

The rising importance of China as a major U.S. trading partner is the most important change in the international specialization pattern of the U.S. over the last decade. Using a multi-dimensional approach and a detailed dataset, we analyze the evolution over time of the trad relationship between China and the U.S. in order to highlight its major quantitative and qualitative changes. In this regard, the role of China as a major trading partner to the U.S. has significantly increased following ...

Dis-aggregation of airborne flux measurements using footprint analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hutjes, R.W.A.; Vellinga, O.S.; Gioli, B.; Miglietta, F.

2010-01-01

Aircraft measurements of turbulent fluxes are generally being made with the objective to obtain an estimate of regional exchanges between land surface and atmosphere, to investigate the spatial variability of these fluxes, but also to learn something about the fluxes from some or all of the land

Political ideology and health in Japan: a disaggregated analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Subramanian, S V; Hamano, Tsuyoshi; Perkins, Jessica M; Koyabu, Akio; Fujisawa, Yoshikazu

2010-09-01

Recent studies from the USA and Europe suggest an association between an individual's political ideology and their health status, with those claiming to be conservatives reporting better health. The presence of this association is examined in Japan. Individual-level data from the 2000-3, 2005 and 2006 Japan General Social Survey were analysed. The outcomes of interest were self-rated poor health and smoking status. The independent variable of interest was reported political beliefs on a 5-point 'left'-to-'right' scale. Covariates included age, sex, education, income, occupational status and fixed effects for survey periods. Logistic regression models were estimated. There was an inverse association between political ideology (left to right) and self-rated poor health as well as between ideology and smoking status even after adjusting for age, sex, socioeconomic status and fixed effects for survey periods. Compared with those who identified as 'left', the OR for reporting poor health and smoking among those who identified as 'right' was 0.86 (95% CI 0.74 to 0.99) and 0.80 (95% CI 0.70 to 0.91), respectively. Health differences by political ideology have typically been interpreted as reflecting socioeconomic differences. The results from Japan corroborate the previous findings from the USA and Europe that socioeconomic differences do not account for health differences by political ideologies. Political ideology is likely to be a marker of several latent values and attitudes (eg, religiosity, individual responsibility and/or community participation) that might be beneficial for health at the individual level.

Value of a statistical life in road safety: a benefit-transfer function with risk-analysis guidance based on developing country data.

Science.gov (United States)

Milligan, Craig; Kopp, Andreas; Dahdah, Said; Montufar, Jeannette

2014-10-01

We model a value of statistical life (VSL) transfer function for application to road-safety engineering in developing countries through an income-disaggregated meta-analysis of scope-sensitive stated preference VSL data. The income-disaggregated meta-analysis treats developing country and high-income country data separately. Previous transfer functions are based on aggregated datasets that are composed largely of data from high-income countries. Recent evidence, particularly with respect to the income elasticity of VSL, suggests that the aggregate approach is deficient because it does not account for a possible change in income elasticity across income levels. Our dataset (a minor update of the OECD database published in 2012) includes 123 scope-sensitive VSL estimates from developing countries and 185 scope-sensitive estimates from high-income countries. The transfer function for developing countries gives VSL=1.3732E-4×(GDP per capita)(∧)2.478, with VSL and GDP per capita expressed in 2005 international dollars (an international dollar being a notional currency with the same purchasing power as the U.S. dollar). The function can be applied for low- and middle-income countries with GDPs per capita above $1268 (with a data gap for very low-income countries), whereas it is not useful above a GDP per capita of about $20,000. The corresponding function built using high-income country data is VSL=8.2474E+3×(GDP per capita)(∧).6932; it is valid for high-income countries but over-estimates VSL for low- and middle-income countries. The research finds two principal significant differences between the transfer functions modeled using developing-country and high-income-country data, supporting the disaggregated approach. The first of these differences relates to between-country VSL income elasticity, which is 2.478 for the developing country function and .693 for the high-income function; the difference is significant at peconomic performance measures for road

Fuel demand and fuel efficiency in the US commercial-airline industry and the trucking industry: an analysis of trends and implications. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1982-03-31

A study of trends in fuel use and efficiency in the US commercial airlines industry is extended back to 1967 in order to compare the relative contributions of the factors influencing efficiency during a period of stable fuel prices (1967 to 1972) versus a period of fuel price growth (1973 to 1980). A similar analysis disaggregates the components of truck efficiency and evaluates their relative impact on fuel consumption in the trucking industry. (LEW)

A biodiversity indicators dashboard: addressing challenges to monitoring progress towards the Aichi biodiversity targets using disaggregated global data.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Xuemei; Smyth, Regan L; Young, Bruce E; Brooks, Thomas M; Sánchez de Lozada, Alexandra; Bubb, Philip; Butchart, Stuart H M; Larsen, Frank W; Hamilton, Healy; Hansen, Matthew C; Turner, Will R

2014-01-01

Recognizing the imperiled status of biodiversity and its benefit to human well-being, the world's governments committed in 2010 to take effective and urgent action to halt biodiversity loss through the Convention on Biological Diversity's "Aichi Targets". These targets, and many conservation programs, require monitoring to assess progress toward specific goals. However, comprehensive and easily understood information on biodiversity trends at appropriate spatial scales is often not available to the policy makers, managers, and scientists who require it. We surveyed conservation stakeholders in three geographically diverse regions of critical biodiversity concern (the Tropical Andes, the African Great Lakes, and the Greater Mekong) and found high demand for biodiversity indicator information but uneven availability. To begin to address this need, we present a biodiversity "dashboard"--a visualization of biodiversity indicators designed to enable tracking of biodiversity and conservation performance data in a clear, user-friendly format. This builds on previous, more conceptual, indicator work to create an operationalized online interface communicating multiple indicators at multiple spatial scales. We structured this dashboard around the Pressure-State-Response-Benefit framework, selecting four indicators to measure pressure on biodiversity (deforestation rate), state of species (Red List Index), conservation response (protection of key biodiversity areas), and benefits to human populations (freshwater provision). Disaggregating global data, we present dashboard maps and graphics for the three regions surveyed and their component countries. These visualizations provide charts showing regional and national trends and lay the foundation for a web-enabled, interactive biodiversity indicators dashboard. This new tool can help track progress toward the Aichi Targets, support national monitoring and reporting, and inform outcome-based policy-making for the protection of

A biodiversity indicators dashboard: addressing challenges to monitoring progress towards the Aichi biodiversity targets using disaggregated global data.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuemei Han

Full Text Available Recognizing the imperiled status of biodiversity and its benefit to human well-being, the world's governments committed in 2010 to take effective and urgent action to halt biodiversity loss through the Convention on Biological Diversity's "Aichi Targets". These targets, and many conservation programs, require monitoring to assess progress toward specific goals. However, comprehensive and easily understood information on biodiversity trends at appropriate spatial scales is often not available to the policy makers, managers, and scientists who require it. We surveyed conservation stakeholders in three geographically diverse regions of critical biodiversity concern (the Tropical Andes, the African Great Lakes, and the Greater Mekong and found high demand for biodiversity indicator information but uneven availability. To begin to address this need, we present a biodiversity "dashboard"--a visualization of biodiversity indicators designed to enable tracking of biodiversity and conservation performance data in a clear, user-friendly format. This builds on previous, more conceptual, indicator work to create an operationalized online interface communicating multiple indicators at multiple spatial scales. We structured this dashboard around the Pressure-State-Response-Benefit framework, selecting four indicators to measure pressure on biodiversity (deforestation rate, state of species (Red List Index, conservation response (protection of key biodiversity areas, and benefits to human populations (freshwater provision. Disaggregating global data, we present dashboard maps and graphics for the three regions surveyed and their component countries. These visualizations provide charts showing regional and national trends and lay the foundation for a web-enabled, interactive biodiversity indicators dashboard. This new tool can help track progress toward the Aichi Targets, support national monitoring and reporting, and inform outcome-based policy-making for the

A Biodiversity Indicators Dashboard: Addressing Challenges to Monitoring Progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets Using Disaggregated Global Data

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Xuemei; Smyth, Regan L.; Young, Bruce E.; Brooks, Thomas M.; Sánchez de Lozada, Alexandra; Bubb, Philip; Butchart, Stuart H. M.; Larsen, Frank W.; Hamilton, Healy; Hansen, Matthew C.; Turner, Will R.

2014-01-01

Recognizing the imperiled status of biodiversity and its benefit to human well-being, the world's governments committed in 2010 to take effective and urgent action to halt biodiversity loss through the Convention on Biological Diversity's “Aichi Targets”. These targets, and many conservation programs, require monitoring to assess progress toward specific goals. However, comprehensive and easily understood information on biodiversity trends at appropriate spatial scales is often not available to the policy makers, managers, and scientists who require it. We surveyed conservation stakeholders in three geographically diverse regions of critical biodiversity concern (the Tropical Andes, the African Great Lakes, and the Greater Mekong) and found high demand for biodiversity indicator information but uneven availability. To begin to address this need, we present a biodiversity “dashboard” – a visualization of biodiversity indicators designed to enable tracking of biodiversity and conservation performance data in a clear, user-friendly format. This builds on previous, more conceptual, indicator work to create an operationalized online interface communicating multiple indicators at multiple spatial scales. We structured this dashboard around the Pressure-State-Response-Benefit framework, selecting four indicators to measure pressure on biodiversity (deforestation rate), state of species (Red List Index), conservation response (protection of key biodiversity areas), and benefits to human populations (freshwater provision). Disaggregating global data, we present dashboard maps and graphics for the three regions surveyed and their component countries. These visualizations provide charts showing regional and national trends and lay the foundation for a web-enabled, interactive biodiversity indicators dashboard. This new tool can help track progress toward the Aichi Targets, support national monitoring and reporting, and inform outcome-based policy-making for the

Disaggregation of collective dose-a worked example based on future discharges from the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing site, UK

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, S R; Lambers, B; Stevens, A

2004-01-01

Collective dose has long been advocated as an important measure of the detriment associated with practices that involve the use of radioactivity. Application of collective dose in the context of worker protection is relatively straightforward, whereas its application in the context of discharges to the environment can yield radically different conclusions depending upon the population groups and integration times that are considered. The computer program PC-CREAM98 has been used to provide an indicative disaggregation into individual dose bands of the collective dose due to potential future radioactive discharges from the nuclear fuel reprocessing site at Sellafield in the UK. Two alternative discharge scenarios are considered, which represent a 'stop reprocessing early, minimum discharge' scenario and a 'reprocessing beyond current contracts' scenario. For aerial discharges, collective dose at individual effective dose rates exceeding 0.015 μSv y -1 is only incurred within the UK, and at effective dose rates exceeding 1.5 μSv y -1 is only incurred within about 20 km of Sellafield. The geographical distribution of collective dose from liquid discharges is harder to assess, but it appears that collective dose incurred outside the UK is at levels of individual effective dose rate below 1.5 μSv y -1 , with the majority being incurred at rates of 0.002 μSv y -1 or less. In multi-attribute utility analyses, the view taken on the radiological detriment to be attributed to the two discharge scenarios will depend critically on the weight or monetary value ascribed to collective doses incurred within the differing bands of individual dose rate

Improving and disaggregating N_2O emission factors for ruminant excreta on temperate pasture soils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krol, D.J.; Carolan, R.; Minet, E.; McGeough, K.L.; Watson, C.J.; Forrestal, P.J.; Lanigan, G.J.; Richards, K.G.

2016-01-01

Cattle excreta deposited on grazed grasslands are a major source of the greenhouse gas (GHG) nitrous oxide (N_2O). Currently, many countries use the IPCC default emission factor (EF) of 2% to estimate excreta-derived N_2O emissions. However, emissions can vary greatly depending on the type of excreta (dung or urine), soil type and timing of application. Therefore three experiments were conducted to quantify excreta-derived N_2O emissions and their associated EFs, and to assess the effect of soil type, season of application and type of excreta on the magnitude of losses. Cattle dung, urine and artificial urine treatments were applied in spring, summer and autumn to three temperate grassland sites with varying soil and weather conditions. Nitrous oxide emissions were measured from the three experiments over 12 months to generate annual N_2O emission factors. The EFs from urine treated soil was greater (0.30–4.81% for real urine and 0.13–3.82% for synthetic urine) when compared with dung (− 0.02–1.48%) treatments. Nitrous oxide emissions were driven by environmental conditions and could be predicted by rainfall and temperature before, and soil moisture deficit after application; highlighting the potential for a decision support tool to reduce N_2O emissions by modifying grazing management based on these parameters. Emission factors varied seasonally with the highest EFs in autumn and were also dependent on soil type, with the lowest EFs observed from well-drained and the highest from imperfectly drained soil. The EFs averaged 0.31 and 1.18% for cattle dung and urine, respectively, both of which were considerably lower than the IPCC default value of 2%. These results support both lowering and disaggregating EFs by excreta type. - Highlights: • N_2O emissions were measured from cattle excreta applied to pasture. • N_2O was universally higher from urine compared with dung. • N_2O was driven by rainfall, temperature and soil moisture deficit. • Emission

We don’t like (to) party. A typology of Independents in Irish political life, 1922–2007

OpenAIRE

Weeks, Liam

2009-01-01

This article examines the phenomenon of Independents, or non-party candidates, in Irish political life. It has two main aims: the first is to disaggregate Independents from ‘others’ to provide a definitive dataset of their electoral performance, and to enable more reliable and valid analysis about this actor. The second, and primary, aim is to use this disaggregation to construct a typology of Independents. The background of every Independent candidate contesting a general election between 19...

Stimulation of Cysteine-Coated CdSe/ZnS Quantum Dot Luminescence by meso-Tetrakis (p-sulfonato-phenyl) Porphyrin

Science.gov (United States)

Parra, Gustavo G.; Ferreira, Lucimara P.; Gonçalves, Pablo J.; Sizova, Svetlana V.; Oleinikov, Vladimir A.; Morozov, Vladimir N.; Kuzmin, Vladimir A.; Borissevitch, Iouri E.

2018-02-01

Interaction between porphyrins and quantum dots (QD) via energy and/or charge transfer is usually accompanied by reduction of the QD luminescence intensity and lifetime. However, for CdSe/ZnS-Cys QD water solutions, kept at 276 K during 3 months (aged QD), the significant increase in the luminescence intensity at the addition of meso-tetrakis (p-sulfonato-phenyl) porphyrin (TPPS4) has been observed in this study. Aggregation of QD during the storage provokes reduction in the quantum yield and lifetime of their luminescence. Using steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence techniques, we demonstrated that TPPS4 stimulated disaggregation of aged CdSe/ZnS-Cys QD in aqueous solutions, increasing the quantum yield of their luminescence, which finally reached that of the fresh-prepared QD. Disaggregation takes place due to increase in electrostatic repulsion between QD at their binding with negatively charged porphyrin molecules. Binding of just four porphyrin molecules per single QD was sufficient for total QD disaggregation. The analysis of QD luminescence decay curves demonstrated that disaggregation stronger affected the luminescence related with the electron-hole annihilation in the QD shell. The obtained results demonstrate the way to repair aged QD by adding of some molecules or ions to the solutions, stimulating QD disaggregation and restoring their luminescence characteristics, which could be important for QD biomedical applications, such as bioimaging and fluorescence diagnostics. On the other hand, the disaggregation is important for QD applications in biology and medicine since it reduces the size of the particles facilitating their internalization into living cells across the cell membrane.

Savannah River Site disaggregated seismic spectra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stephenson, D.E.

1993-02-01

The objective of this technical note is to characterize seismic ground motion at the Savannah River Site (SRS) by postulated earthquakes that may impact facilities at the site. This task is accomplished by reviewing the deterministic and probabilistic assessments of the seismic hazard to establish the earthquakes that control the hazard to establish the earthquakes that control the hazard at the site and then evaluate the associated seismic ground motions in terms of response spectra. For engineering design criteria of earthquake-resistant structures, response spectra serve the function of characterizing ground motions as a function of period or frequency. These motions then provide the input parameters that are used in the analysis of structural response. Because they use the maximum response, the response spectra are an inherently conservative design tool. Response spectra are described in terms of amplitude, duration, and frequency content, and these are related to source parameters, travel path, and site conditions. Studies by a number of investigators have shown by statistical analysis that for different magnitudes the response spectrum values are different for differing periods. These facts support Jennings' position that using different shapes of design spectra for earthquakes of different magnitudes and travel paths is a better practice than employing a single, general-purpose shape. All seismic ground motion characterization results indicate that the PGA is controlled by a local event with M w < 6 and R < 30km. The results also show that lower frequencies are controlled by a larger, more distant event, typically the Charleston source. The PGA of 0.2 g, based originally on the Blume study, is consistent with LLNL report UCRL-15910 (1990) and with the DOE position on LLNL/EPRI

Demand modelling of passenger air travel: An analysis and extension, volume 2

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobson, I. D.

1978-01-01

Previous intercity travel demand models in terms of their ability to predict air travel in a useful way and the need for disaggregation in the approach to demand modelling are evaluated. The viability of incorporating non-conventional factors (i.e. non-econometric, such as time and cost) in travel demand forecasting models are determined. The investigation of existing models is carried out in order to provide insight into their strong points and shortcomings. The model is characterized as a market segmentation model. This is a consequence of the strengths of disaggregation and its natural evolution to a usable aggregate formulation. The need for this approach both pedagogically and mathematically is discussed. In addition this volume contains two appendices which should prove useful to the non-specialist in the area.

Energy rent and public policy: an analysis of the Canadian coal industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gunton, Thomas

2004-01-01

This paper analyses issues in resource rent through a case study of the Canadian coal industry. A model of the coal industry is constructed to estimate the magnitude of rent and distribution of coal rent between government and industry over the 30-year period from 1970 to 2000. Disaggregation of results by coal sector shows that rent varied widely, with one sector generating substantial rent and other sectors incurring large losses. The pattern of development of the coal sector followed what can be termed a 'rent dissipation cycle' in which the generation of rent in the profitable sector created excessively optimistic expectations that encouraged new entrants to dissipate rent by developing uneconomic capacity. The analysis also shows that the system used to collect rent was ineffective. The public owner collected only one-third of the rent on the profitable mines and collected royalty revenue from the unprofitable mines even though no rent was generated. The case study illustrates that improvements in private sector planning based on a better appreciation of resource market fundamentals, elimination of government subsidies that encourage uneconomic expansion and more effective rent collection are all needed to avoid rent dissipation and increase the benefits of energy development in producing jurisdictions. The study also illustrates that estimates of rent in the resource sector should disaggregate results by sector and make adjustments for market imperfections to accurately assess the magnitude of potential rent

The use of SVAR analysis in determining the effects of fiscal shocks in Croatia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raafel Ravnik

2011-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper we use multivariate Blanchard-Perotti SVAR methodology to analyze disaggregated short-term effects of fiscal policy on economic activity, inflation and short-term interest rates. The results suggest that the effects of government expenditure shocks and the shock of government revenues are relatively the highest on interest rates and the lowest on inflation. A tax shock in the short term increases the inflation rate and also decreases the short-term interest rate, and after one year stabilization occurs at the initial level, while spending shock leads to a reverse effect. The effects of fiscal policies on the proxy variable of output, i.e. industrial production, are less economically intuitive, because the shock of expenditure decreases and revenue shock permanently increases industrial production. The empirical result shows that a tax shock has a permanent effect on future taxes; while future levels of government spending are not related to current expenditure shocks. Interactions between the components of fiscal policy are also examined and it is concluded that a tax shock increases expenditures permanently, while an expenditure shock does not significantly affect government revenues, which is consistent with the tendency of growth in public debt. Furthermore, it was found that government revenue and expenditure shocks do not have a mirror effect, which justifies disaggregated analysis of fiscal policy shocks.

Bias-correction and Spatial Disaggregation for Climate Change Impact Assessments at a basin scale

Science.gov (United States)

Nyunt, Cho; Koike, Toshio; Yamamoto, Akio; Nemoto, Toshihoro; Kitsuregawa, Masaru

2013-04-01

Basin-scale climate change impact studies mainly rely on general circulation models (GCMs) comprising the related emission scenarios. Realistic and reliable data from GCM is crucial for national scale or basin scale impact and vulnerability assessments to build safety society under climate change. However, GCM fail to simulate regional climate features due to the imprecise parameterization schemes in atmospheric physics and coarse resolution scale. This study describes how to exclude some unsatisfactory GCMs with respect to focused basin, how to minimize the biases of GCM precipitation through statistical bias correction and how to cover spatial disaggregation scheme, a kind of downscaling, within in a basin. GCMs rejection is based on the regional climate features of seasonal evolution as a bench mark and mainly depends on spatial correlation and root mean square error of precipitation and atmospheric variables over the target region. Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) and Japanese 25-uear Reanalysis Project (JRA-25) are specified as references in figuring spatial pattern and error of GCM. Statistical bias-correction scheme comprises improvements of three main flaws of GCM precipitation such as low intensity drizzled rain days with no dry day, underestimation of heavy rainfall and inter-annual variability of local climate. Biases of heavy rainfall are conducted by generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) fitting over a peak over threshold series. Frequency of rain day error is fixed by rank order statistics and seasonal variation problem is solved by using a gamma distribution fitting in each month against insi-tu stations vs. corresponding GCM grids. By implementing the proposed bias-correction technique to all insi-tu stations and their respective GCM grid, an easy and effective downscaling process for impact studies at the basin scale is accomplished. The proposed method have been examined its applicability to some of the basins in various climate

Improving and disaggregating N{sub 2}O emission factors for ruminant excreta on temperate pasture soils

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Krol, D.J., E-mail: kroldj@tcd.ie [Teagasc, Crops, Land Use and Environment Programme, Johnstown Castle, Co., Wexford (Ireland); Carolan, R. [Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Belfast BT9 5PX (Ireland); Minet, E. [Teagasc, Crops, Land Use and Environment Programme, Johnstown Castle, Co., Wexford (Ireland); McGeough, K.L.; Watson, C.J. [Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Belfast BT9 5PX (Ireland); Forrestal, P.J. [Teagasc, Crops, Land Use and Environment Programme, Johnstown Castle, Co., Wexford (Ireland); Lanigan, G.J., E-mail: gary.lanigan@teagasc.ie [Teagasc, Crops, Land Use and Environment Programme, Johnstown Castle, Co., Wexford (Ireland); Richards, K.G. [Teagasc, Crops, Land Use and Environment Programme, Johnstown Castle, Co., Wexford (Ireland)

2016-10-15

Cattle excreta deposited on grazed grasslands are a major source of the greenhouse gas (GHG) nitrous oxide (N{sub 2}O). Currently, many countries use the IPCC default emission factor (EF) of 2% to estimate excreta-derived N{sub 2}O emissions. However, emissions can vary greatly depending on the type of excreta (dung or urine), soil type and timing of application. Therefore three experiments were conducted to quantify excreta-derived N{sub 2}O emissions and their associated EFs, and to assess the effect of soil type, season of application and type of excreta on the magnitude of losses. Cattle dung, urine and artificial urine treatments were applied in spring, summer and autumn to three temperate grassland sites with varying soil and weather conditions. Nitrous oxide emissions were measured from the three experiments over 12 months to generate annual N{sub 2}O emission factors. The EFs from urine treated soil was greater (0.30–4.81% for real urine and 0.13–3.82% for synthetic urine) when compared with dung (− 0.02–1.48%) treatments. Nitrous oxide emissions were driven by environmental conditions and could be predicted by rainfall and temperature before, and soil moisture deficit after application; highlighting the potential for a decision support tool to reduce N{sub 2}O emissions by modifying grazing management based on these parameters. Emission factors varied seasonally with the highest EFs in autumn and were also dependent on soil type, with the lowest EFs observed from well-drained and the highest from imperfectly drained soil. The EFs averaged 0.31 and 1.18% for cattle dung and urine, respectively, both of which were considerably lower than the IPCC default value of 2%. These results support both lowering and disaggregating EFs by excreta type. - Highlights: • N{sub 2}O emissions were measured from cattle excreta applied to pasture. • N{sub 2}O was universally higher from urine compared with dung. • N{sub 2}O was driven by rainfall, temperature

Granulometric data 241-U tank farm monitoring well sediments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fecht, K.R.; Price, W.H.

1977-12-01

This report documents the quantitative analysis of disaggregated grains according to a grain size grouping scheme, termed herein granulometric analysis. The sediments analyzed were collected during the drilling of monitoring wells in the 241-U Tank Farm and were utilized to prepare a series of geologic maps and cross sections. The relative proportions of different sediment size fractions found in the sediments underlying the tank farm are important for the purposes of: (1) defining the relationships of various sediment types, (2) developing approximations of engineering and hydrological properties of sediments, and (3) determining sedimentary genesis. Approximately 790 sediment samples in the 241-U Tank Farm were analyzed for grain size with disaggregated intermediate diameters ranging from 64 to 0.063 millimeters. Size analysis was conducted utilizing a nest of nine screens with wire mesh size openings coinciding to the Wentworth-grade scale divisions. The granulometric data were input to a computer program (ROC) to categorize sediment samples into one of nineteen disaggregated sediment classes. Also included in ROC are calcium carbonate data which were determined by a semiquantitative carbon dioxide displacement method. A discussion of drilling and sampling methods, grain size nomenclature, sediment classification, sieving, calcium carbonate analysis, ROC computer program, and procedures is included to aid in understanding granulometric analysis. The background discussion is followed by the granulometric data from 241-U Tank Farm monitoring well sediment samples

Examining Pedestrian Injury Severity Using Alternative Disaggregate Models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abay, Kibrom Araya

2013-01-01

This paper investigates the injury severity of pedestrians considering detailed road user characteristics and alternative model specification using a high-quality Danish road accident data. Such detailed and alternative modeling approach helps to assess the sensitivity of empirical inferences...... to the choice of these models. The empirical analysis reveals that detailed road user characteristics such as crime history of drivers and momentary activities of road users at the time of the accident provides an interesting insight in the injury severity analysis. Likewise, the alternative analytical...... specification of the models reveals that some of the conventionally employed fixed parameters injury severity models could underestimate the effect of some important behavioral attributes of the accidents. For instance, the standard ordered logit model underestimated the marginal effects of some...

Energy consumption and economic growth: A causality analysis for Greece

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsani, Stela Z.

2010-01-01

This paper investigates the causal relationship between aggregated and disaggregated levels of energy consumption and economic growth for Greece for the period 1960-2006 through the application of a later development in the methodology of time series proposed by Toda and Yamamoto (1995). At aggregated levels of energy consumption empirical findings suggest the presence of a uni-directional causal relationship running from total energy consumption to real GDP. At disaggregated levels empirical evidence suggests that there is a bi-directional causal relationship between industrial and residential energy consumption to real GDP but this is not the case for the transport energy consumption with causal relationship being identified in neither direction. The importance of these findings lies on their policy implications and their adoption on structural policies affecting energy consumption in Greece suggesting that in order to address energy import dependence and environmental concerns without hindering economic growth emphasis should be put on the demand side and energy efficiency improvements.

Chemosensitivity of human small cell carcinoma of the lung detected by flow cytometric DNA analysis of drug-induced cell cycle perturbations in vitro

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Engelholm, S A; Spang-Thomsen, M; Vindeløv, L L

1986-01-01

A method based on detection of drug-induced cell cycle perturbation by flow cytometric DNA analysis has previously been described in Ehrlich ascites tumors as a way to estimate chemosensitivity. The method is extended to test human small-cell carcinoma of the lung. Three tumors with different...... sensitivities to melphalan in nude mice were used. Tumors were disaggregated by a combined mechanical and enzymatic method and thereafter have incubated with different doses of melphalan. After incubation the cells were plated in vitro on agar, and drug induced cell cycle changes were monitored by flow...

Econometrics analysis of consumer behaviour: a linear expenditure system applied to energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Giansante, C.; Ferrari, V.

1996-12-01

In economics literature the expenditure system specification is a well known subject. The problem is to define a coherent representation of consumer behaviour through functional forms easy to calculate. In this work it is used the Stone-Geary Linear Expenditure System and its multi-level decision process version. The Linear Expenditure system is characterized by an easy calculating estimation procedure, and its multi-level specification allows substitution and complementary relations between goods. Moreover, the utility function separability condition on which the Utility Tree Approach is based, justifies to use an estimation procedure in two or more steps. This allows to use an high degree of expenditure categories disaggregation, impossible to reach the Linear Expediture System. The analysis is applied to energy sectors

Satellite Leaf Area Index: Global Scale Analysis of the Tendencies Per Vegetation Type Over the Last 17 Years

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon Munier

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this study is to detect and quantify changes in the vegetation dynamics of each vegetation type at the global scale over the last 17 years. With recent advances in remote sensing techniques, it is now possible to study the Leaf Area Index (LAI seasonal and interannual variability at the global scale and in a consistent way over the last decades. However, the coarse spatial resolution of these satellite-derived products does not permit distinguishing vegetation types within mixed pixels. Considering only the dominant type per pixel has two main drawbacks: the LAI of the dominant vegetation type is contaminated by spurious signal from other vegetation types and at the global scale, significant areas of individual vegetation types are neglected. In this study, we first developed a Kalman Filtering (KF approach to disaggregate the satellite-derived LAI from GEOV1 over nine main vegetation types, including grasslands and crops as well as evergreen, broadleaf and coniferous forests. The KF approach permits the separation of distinct LAI values for individual vegetation types that coexist within a pixel. The disaggregated LAI product, called LAI-MC (Multi-Cover, consists of world-wide LAI maps provided every 10 days for each vegetation type over the 1999–2015 period. A trend analysis of the original GEOV1 LAI product and of the disaggregated LAI time series was conducted using the Mann-Kendall test. Resulting trends of the GEOV1 LAI (which accounts for all vegetation types compare well with previous regional or global studies, showing a greening over a large part of the globe. When considering each vegetation type individually, the largest global trend from LAI-MC is found for coniferous forests (0.0419 m 2 m − 2 yr − 1 followed by summer crops (0.0394 m 2 m − 2 yr − 1 , while winter crops and grasslands show the smallest global trends (0.0261 m 2 m − 2 yr − 1 and 0.0279 m 2 m − 2 yr − 1 , respectively. The LAI

The multiple decrement life table: a unifying framework for cause-of-death analysis in ecology.

Science.gov (United States)

Carey, James R

1989-01-01

The multiple decrement life table is used widely in the human actuarial literature and provides statistical expressions for mortality in three different forms: i) the life table from all causes-of-death combined; ii) the life table disaggregated into selected cause-of-death categories; and iii) the life table with particular causes and combinations of causes eliminated. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the multiple decrement life table to the ecological literature by applying the methods to published death-by-cause information on Rhagoletis pomonella. Interrelations between the current approach and conventional tools used in basic and applied ecology are discussed including the conventional life table, Key Factor Analysis and Abbott's Correction used in toxicological bioassay.

Optimal Data Interval for Estimating Advertising Response

OpenAIRE

Gerard J. Tellis; Philip Hans Franses

2006-01-01

The abundance of highly disaggregate data (e.g., at five-second intervals) raises the question of the optimal data interval to estimate advertising carryover. The literature assumes that (1) the optimal data interval is the interpurchase time, (2) too disaggregate data causes a disaggregation bias, and (3) recovery of true parameters requires assumption of the underlying advertising process. In contrast, we show that (1) the optimal data interval is what we call , (2) too disaggregate data do...

Invariances and diversities in the evolution of manufacturing industries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bottazzi, Giulio; Cefis, E.; Dosi, Giovanni; Secchi, Angelo

2003-01-01

In this work we explore some basic properties of the size distributions of firms and of their growth processes both at aggregate and disaggregate levels. First, we investigate which properties of firm s size distributions and growth dynamics are robust under disaggregation. Second, at a disaggregate

Logistics flows and enterprise input-output models: aggregate and disaggregate analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Albino, V.; Yazan, Devrim; Messeni Petruzzelli, A.; Okogbaa, O.G.

2011-01-01

In the present paper, we propose the use of enterprise input-output (EIO) models to describe and analyse the logistics flows considering spatial issues and related environmental effects associated with production and transportation processes. In particular, transportation is modelled as a specific

Determinants of Advertising Effectiveness: The Development of an International Advertising Elasticity Database and a Meta-Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sina Henningsen

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Increasing demand for marketing accountability requires an efficient allocation of marketing expenditures. Managers who know the elasticity of their marketing instruments can allocate their budgets optimally. Meta-analyses offer a basis for deriving benchmark elasticities for advertising. Although they provide a variety of valuable insights, a major shortcoming of prior meta-analyses is that they report only generalized results as the disaggregated raw data are not made available. This problem is highly relevant because coding of empirical studies, at least to a certain extent, involves subjective judgment. For this reason, meta-studies would be more valuable if researchers and practitioners had access to disaggregated data allowing them to conduct further analyses of individual, e.g., product-level-specific, interests. We are the first to address this gap by providing (1 an advertising elasticity database (AED and (2 empirical generalizations about advertising elasticities and their determinants. Our findings indicate that the average current-period advertising elasticity is 0.09, which is substantially smaller than the value 0f 0.12 that was recently reported by Sethuraman, Tellis, and Briesch (2011. Furthermore, our meta-analysis reveals a wide range of significant determinants of advertising elasticity. For example, we find that advertising elasticities are higher (i for hedonic and experience goods than for other goods; (ii for new than for established goods; (iii when advertising is measured in gross rating points (GRP instead of absolute terms; and (iv when the lagged dependent or lagged advertising variable is omitted.

The transition of emotions in collective action. The #Yo Soy 132 youth discourse analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Verónica García Martínez

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Emotions belong human nature, they must not be disaggregated, however, they have been rejected by many disciplinary perspectives that overlap rational action to emotional in the analysis of collective action. Although recently the interest arises to analyze how emotions boost social mobilizations. The objective of this work is analyze the emotions arising in the context of the collective action which was taken by young Mexicans in the movement #Yo Soy 132 through social constructionism of emotions as the theoretical perspective and using as method the discourse analysis. This paper is presented in five parts: in the first the emotions in the collective action are discussed, subsequently the studied phenomenon is contextualized, in the third the analysis method is detailed, in the fourth, results are presented, and in the last section, the findings are confronted on the basis of theoretical approaches recovered. It is concluded that regardless of the context, emotions keep on a similar path in collective action, and the emerged emotions are not positive or negative, instead they are impulsor and detractor of such action.

Randomizing world trade. II. A weighted network analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Squartini, Tiziano; Fagiolo, Giorgio; Garlaschelli, Diego

2011-10-01

Based on the misleading expectation that weighted network properties always offer a more complete description than purely topological ones, current economic models of the International Trade Network (ITN) generally aim at explaining local weighted properties, not local binary ones. Here we complement our analysis of the binary projections of the ITN by considering its weighted representations. We show that, unlike the binary case, all possible weighted representations of the ITN (directed and undirected, aggregated and disaggregated) cannot be traced back to local country-specific properties, which are therefore of limited informativeness. Our two papers show that traditional macroeconomic approaches systematically fail to capture the key properties of the ITN. In the binary case, they do not focus on the degree sequence and hence cannot characterize or replicate higher-order properties. In the weighted case, they generally focus on the strength sequence, but the knowledge of the latter is not enough in order to understand or reproduce indirect effects.

ASSESSING AND FORECASTING, BY PLAY, NATURAL GAS ULTIMATE RECOVERY GROWTH AND QUANTIFYING THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS IN THE TEXAS GULF COAST BASIN AND EAST TEXAS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

William L. Fisher; Eugene M. Kim

2000-12-01

A detailed natural gas ultimate recovery growth (URG) analysis of the Texas Gulf Coast Basin and East Texas has been undertaken. The key to such analysis was determined to be the disaggregation of the resource base to the play level. A play is defined as a conceptual geologic unit having one or more reservoirs that can be genetically related on the basis of depositional origin of the reservoir, structural or trap style, source rocks and hydrocarbon generation, migration mechanism, seals for entrapment, and type of hydrocarbon produced. Plays are the geologically homogeneous subdivision of the universe of petroleum pools within a basin. Therefore, individual plays have unique geological features that can be used as a conceptual model that incorporates geologic processes and depositional environments to explain the distribution of petroleum. Play disaggregation revealed important URG trends for the major natural gas fields in the Texas Gulf Coast Basin and East Texas. Although significant growth and future potential were observed for the major fields, important URG trends were masked by total, aggregated analysis based on a broad geological province. When disaggregated by plays, significant growth and future potential were displayed for plays that were associated with relatively recently discovered fields, deeper reservoir depths, high structural complexities due to fault compartmentalization, reservoirs designated as tight gas/low-permeability, and high initial reservoir pressures. Continued technology applications and advancements are crucial in achieving URG potential in these plays.

Float glass innovation in the flat glass industry

CERN Document Server

Uusitalo, Olavi

2014-01-01

A thorough industry analysis is of utmost importance for a study on the impact of technological changes on industry structure. This book evaluates the consequences of a vaguely chosen level of an industry analysis. Too broad a definition of the industry may disaggregate sub-industries, processing industries and international aspects. This is illustrated by revisiting an industry study upon which the dominant design model was based. Readers will see and understand the consequences of too broadly defined industries together with quantitative research approach can have. The book argues that the nature of the industry should define the level of the analysis. This is done by revisiting the flat glass industry study, on which Anderson and Tushman’s (1990) dominant design model is partly based. In their study Anderson and Tushman defined the flat glass industry based on four-digit SIC codes. It is argued that this definition was too broad and it disaggregated important sub-industries, processing industries and int...

Analysis of the importance of structural change in non-energy intensive industry for prospective modelling: The French case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seck, Gondia Sokhna; Guerassimoff, Gilles; Maïzi, Nadia

2016-01-01

A large number of studies have been conducted on the contribution of technological progress and structural change to the evolution of aggregate energy intensity in the industrial sector. However, no analyses have been done to examine theses changes in the non-energy intensive industry in France. We analyzed their importance in French industry with respect to their energy intensity, energy costs, value added, labour and the diffusion of production sites by using data at the 3-digit level with 236 sectors. Using a new decomposition method that gives no residual, this paper attempted to examine, over 10 years from 1996 to 2005, the changes that occurred in an area that has been neglected in energy analysis. We found that structural change had an overwhelming effect on the decline of aggregate energy intensity. Furthermore, we found that the higher the level of sector disaggregation, the more significant the changes that can be attributed to structural change, due to the homogeneity of this industrial group. The results of our study show that it is important to take into account the effects of structural change in “bottom-up” modelling exercises so as to improve the accuracy of energy demand forecasting for policy-makers and scientists. - Highlights: • Defining NEI industries with a quantitative approach from relevant indicators in France. • Developing new decomposition method given in additive form with no residual in NEI. • Structural change is the overwhelming factor in improving energy performance within NEI. • Revealed consistent trend with level of sector disaggregation if homogeneous industries.

Exploratory mapping of commuter flows in England and Wales

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Thomas Alexander Sick; Hovgesen, Henrik Harder; Lassen, Claus

2005-01-01

The availability of representative and disaggregate interaction data allows for a new range of “realistic” analysis with geographical information systems and spatial statistics. The paper uses the origin-destination commute data published from Census 2001 to analyse interaction patterns generally...

A transaction cost analysis of micropayments in mobile commerce

OpenAIRE

Gille, Daniel

2005-01-01

Personalised, location-related and differentiated services in the mobile digital economy create a demand for suitable pricing models. In the case of disaggregated “microservices” (e.g., small digitalized information or service units), as well as for the acquisition of low-value physical goods, the deployment of micropayments seems appropriate. This paper analyzes the economic efficiency of marginal transaction amounts in the m-commerce area by applying the theoretical approach of transact...

Disaggregating asthma: Big investigation versus big data.

Science.gov (United States)

Belgrave, Danielle; Henderson, John; Simpson, Angela; Buchan, Iain; Bishop, Christopher; Custovic, Adnan

2017-02-01

We are facing a major challenge in bridging the gap between identifying subtypes of asthma to understand causal mechanisms and translating this knowledge into personalized prevention and management strategies. In recent years, "big data" has been sold as a panacea for generating hypotheses and driving new frontiers of health care; the idea that the data must and will speak for themselves is fast becoming a new dogma. One of the dangers of ready accessibility of health care data and computational tools for data analysis is that the process of data mining can become uncoupled from the scientific process of clinical interpretation, understanding the provenance of the data, and external validation. Although advances in computational methods can be valuable for using unexpected structure in data to generate hypotheses, there remains a need for testing hypotheses and interpreting results with scientific rigor. We argue for combining data- and hypothesis-driven methods in a careful synergy, and the importance of carefully characterized birth and patient cohorts with genetic, phenotypic, biological, and molecular data in this process cannot be overemphasized. The main challenge on the road ahead is to harness bigger health care data in ways that produce meaningful clinical interpretation and to translate this into better diagnoses and properly personalized prevention and treatment plans. There is a pressing need for cross-disciplinary research with an integrative approach to data science, whereby basic scientists, clinicians, data analysts, and epidemiologists work together to understand the heterogeneity of asthma. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Opening Perspectives from an Integrated Analysis: Language Attitudes, Place of Birth and Self-Identification

Science.gov (United States)

Lapresta-Rey, Cecilio; Huguet-Canalís, Ángel; Janés-Carulla, Judit

2018-01-01

There is a theoretical and empirical tradition demonstrating the influence of the place of birth and self-identification in the shaping of language attitudes. But very few works analyse their joint effects. The main aim of this study is to analyse both the disaggregated and joint impact of these variables on the shaping of attitudes towards…

Covariance among North Sea nutrient and climate drivers: consequences for plankton dynamics.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

McQuatters-Gollop, A.; Vermaat, J.E.

2011-01-01

Regime shift and principal component analysis of a spatially disaggregated database capturing time-series of climatic, nutrient and plankton variables in the North Sea revealed considerable covariance between groups of ecosystem indicators. Plankton and climate time-series span the period 1958-2003,

Solid KHT tumor dispersal for flow cytometric cell kinetic analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pallavicini, M.G.; Folstad, L.J.; Dunbar, C.

1981-01-01

A bacterial neutral protease was used to disperse KHT solid tumors into single cell suspensions suitable for routine cell kinetic analysis by flow cytometry and for clonogenic cell survival. Neutral protease disaggregation under conditions which would be suitable for routine tumor dispersal was compared with a trypsin/DNase procedure. Cell yield, clonogenic cell survival, DNA distributions of untreated and drug-perturbed tumors, rates of radioactive precursor incorporation during the cell cycle, and preferential cell cycle phase-specific cell loss were investigated. Tumors dispersed with neutral protease yielded approximately four times more cells than those dispersed with trypsin/DNase and approximately a 1.5-fold higher plating efficiency in a semisolid agar system. Quantitative analysis of DNA distributions obtained from untreated and cytosine-arabinoside-perturbed tumors produced similar results with both dispersal procedures. The rates of incorporation of tritiated thymidine during the cell cycle were also similar with neutral protease and trypsin/DNase dispersal. Preferential phase-specific cell loss was not obseved with either technique. We find that neutral protease provides good single cell suspensions of the KHT tumor for cell survival measurements and for cell kinetic analysis of drug-induced perturbations by flow cytometry. In addition, the high cell yields facilitate electronic cell sorting where large numbers of cells are often required

Geographic distribution of hospital beds throughout China: a county-level econometric analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Jay; Shallcross, David

2016-11-08

Geographical distribution of healthcare resources is an important dimension of healthcare access. Little work has been published on healthcare resource allocation patterns in China, despite public equity concerns. Using national data from 2043 counties, this paper investigates the geographic distribution of hospital beds at the county level in China. We performed Gini coefficient analysis to measure inequalities and ordinary least squares regression with fixed provincial effects and additional spatial specifications to assess key determinants. We found that provinces in west China have the least equitable resource distribution. We also found that the distribution of hospital beds is highly spatially clustered. Finally, we found that both county-level savings and government revenue show a strong positive relationship with county level hospital bed density. We argue for more widespread use of disaggregated, geographical data in health policy-making in China to support the rational allocation of healthcare resources, thus promoting efficiency and equity.

Public Transit Equity Analysis at Metropolitan and Local Scales: A Focus on Nine Large Cities in the US.

Science.gov (United States)

Griffin, Greg Phillip; Sener, Ipek Nese

2016-01-01

Recent studies on transit service through an equity lens have captured broad trends from the literature and national-level data or analyzed disaggregate data at the local level. This study integrates these methods by employing a geostatistical analysis of new transit access and income data compilations from the Environmental Protection Agency. By using a national data set, this study demonstrates a method for income-based transit equity analysis and provides results spanning nine large auto-oriented cities in the US. Results demonstrate variability among cities' transit services to low-income populations, with differing results when viewed at the regional and local levels. Regional-level analysis of transit service hides significant variation through spatial averaging, whereas the new data employed in this study demonstrates a block-group scale equity analysis that can be used on a national-scale data set. The methods used can be adapted for evaluation of transit and other modes' transportation service in areas to evaluate equity at the regional level and at the neighborhood scale while controlling for spatial autocorrelation. Transit service equity planning can be enhanced by employing local Moran's I to improve local analysis.

Data Warehousing: Beyond Disaggregation.

Science.gov (United States)

Rudner, Lawrence M.; Boston, Carol

2003-01-01

Discusses data warehousing, which provides information more fully responsive to local, state, and federal data needs. Such a system allows educators to generate reports and analyses that supply information, provide accountability, explore relationships among different kinds of data, and inform decision-makers. (Contains one figure and eight…

Graig Lwyd (Group VII Lithic Assemblages from the Excavations at Parc Bryn Cegin, Llandygai, Gwynedd, Wales – Analysis and Interpretation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Ll. W. Williams

2009-09-01

Full Text Available This article draws attention to a unique sequence of flaked debitage at Bryn Cegin and describes the conscious exfoliation of carefully and laboriously executed ground and polished axes of Graig Lwyd source rock over a protracted time-span, covering the whole of the Neolithic period in Wales. It also draws attention to the same phenomenon being practised in other parts of Britain, establishing it as one of a number of specialised acts involving the burial of stone and flint axes. It is argued that Graig Lwyd polished axes, unflaked nuclei, and axe-making debitage were brought from the source area to Bryn Cegin, where they were systematically disaggregated and the resultant flaked assemblage buried in a series of pits. The act of disaggregation appears not to have been undertaken for any domestic/utilitarian purpose, but may be considered as an example of the ritual fragmentation of a highly valued commodity, a phenomenon that has been identified elsewhere in the Neolithic of Britain.

An assessment of gender sensitivity in a selection of transport surveys

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mashiri, M

2006-12-01

Full Text Available at worst (Mashiri, 2001). The starting point for engendering transport data has generally been to gender-disaggregate figures and analyses in transport surveys (ibid). Gender differences in time spent on travel and transport, as well as socio...-economic and health costs relating to transport, have thus far primarily been highlighted in gender-disaggregated quantitative transport data (Venter et al, 2006). Gender- disaggregated travel time data has, in particular, raised awareness of women’s significant...

Energy production from tannery solid wastes : thermal balance, models of process yields and economic analysis; Produzione di energia da residui conciariprocesso e analisi di fattibilita`

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Manzo, G; Grasso, G.; Bufalo, G. [Stazione Sperimentale per l`Industria delle Pelli e Materie Concianti, Naples (Italy)

1996-01-01

Present paper deals with a modeling approach to the recovery of thermal energy, chromium and compost from tannery solid wastes, by incineration to ash and biomethanization to digested biomass. A thermal balance on the whole industrial Italian production of tanning residues firstly quantifies the impact of the matter. A model was successively developed in order to compute the caloric content of the different kinds of residues, starting from their elementary composition. Proper models of the process yields, for both the incineration and biomethanization, were also derived. Finally an economic cost analysis of the incineration process was presented, conveniently disaggregated on the single cost elements. This analysis was based on the previously obtained data both of heat and chromium recovery and on matter-balance data of a typical tanning process (chromium shoe upper produced from salted bovine hide).

Capital-energy complementarity in aggregate energy-economic analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hogan, W.W.

1979-10-01

The interplay between capital and energy will affect the outcome of energy-policy initiatives. A static model clarifies the interpretation of the conflicting empirical evidence on the nature of this interplay. This resolves an apparent conflict between engineering and economc interpretations and points to an additional ambiguity that can be resolved by distinguishing between policy issues at aggregated and disaggregated levels. Restrictions on aggregate energy use should induce reductions in the demand for capital and exacerbate the economic impacts of the energy policy. 32 references.

Road Safety Data, Collection, Transfer and Analysis DaCoTa. Workpackage 3, Data Warehouse: Deliverable 3.1: Annual statistical report 2010.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brandstaetter, C. Evgenikos, P. Yannis, G. Papantoniou, P. Argyropoulou E. Broughton, J. Knowles, J. Reurings, M. Vis, M. Pace, J.F. López de Cozar, E. Pérez-Fuster, P. Sanmartín J. & Haddak, M.

2012-01-01

The CARE database brings together the disaggregate details of road accidents and casualties across Europe, by combining the national accident databases that are maintained by all EU member states. Access to the CARE database is restricted, however, so it is important that a comprehensive range of

Application of dynamic programming for the analysis of complex water resources systems : a case study on the Mahaweli River basin development in Sri Lanka

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kularathna, M.D.U.P.

1992-01-01

The technique of Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) is ideally suited for operation policy analyses of water resources systems. However SDP has a major drawback which is appropriately termed as its "curse of dimensionality".

Aggregation/Disaggregation techniques based on SDP and

Analysis of the cooperative ATPase cycle of the AAA+ chaperone ClpB from Thermus thermophilus by using ordered heterohexamers with an alternating subunit arrangement.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamasaki, Takashi; Oohata, Yukiko; Nakamura, Toshiki; Watanabe, Yo-hei

2015-04-10

The ClpB/Hsp104 chaperone solubilizes and reactivates protein aggregates in cooperation with DnaK/Hsp70 and its cofactors. The ClpB/Hsp104 protomer has two AAA+ modules, AAA-1 and AAA-2, and forms a homohexamer. In the hexamer, these modules form a two-tiered ring in which each tier consists of homotypic AAA+ modules. By ATP binding and its hydrolysis at these AAA+ modules, ClpB/Hsp104 exerts the mechanical power required for protein disaggregation. Although ATPase cycle of this chaperone has been studied by several groups, an integrated understanding of this cycle has not been obtained because of the complexity of the mechanism and differences between species. To improve our understanding of the ATPase cycle, we prepared many ordered heterohexamers of ClpB from Thermus thermophilus, in which two subunits having different mutations were cross-linked to each other and arranged alternately and measured their nucleotide binding, ATP hydrolysis, and disaggregation abilities. The results indicated that the ATPase cycle of ClpB proceeded as follows: (i) the 12 AAA+ modules randomly bound ATP, (ii) the binding of four or more ATP to one AAA+ ring was sensed by a conserved Arg residue and converted another AAA+ ring into the ATPase-active form, and (iii) ATP hydrolysis occurred cooperatively in each ring. We also found that cooperative ATP hydrolysis in at least one ring was needed for the disaggregation activity of ClpB. © 2015 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Quantitative analysis of investment allocation over various resources of health care systems by using views of product lines

Science.gov (United States)

Tai, Guangfu; Williams, Peter

2013-11-01

Hospitals can be viewed as service enterprises, of which the primary function is to provide specific sets of diagnostic and therapeutic medical services to individual patients. Each patient has certain diagnosis and therapeutic attributes in common with some other patients. Thus, patients with similar medical attributes could be 'processed' in one 'product line' of medical services, and individual treatments for patients within one 'product line' can be regarded as incurring identical consumption of health care resources. This article presents a theoretical framing for resource planning and investment allocation of various resources from a macro perspective of costs that demonstrates the need to plan capacity at the disaggregated resource level. The result of a balanced line ('optimal') is compared with an alternative scheme of 'the same ratio composing of resources' under the same monetary constraints. Thus, it is demonstrated that planning at the disaggregated level affords much better use of resources than achieved in common practice of budget control by simple percentage increase/decrease in distributing a financial vote.

Market potential for solar thermal energy supply systems in the United States industrial and commercial sectors: 1990--2030

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1991-12-01

This report revises and extends previous work sponsored by the US DOE on the potential industrial market in the United States for solar thermal energy systems and presents a new analysis of the commercial sector market potential. Current and future industrial process heat demand and commercial water heating, space heating and space cooling end-use demands are estimated. The PC Industrial Model (PCIM) and the commercial modules of the Building Energy End-Use Model (BEEM) used by the DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) to support the recent National Energy Strategy (NES) analysis are used to forecast industrial and commercial end-use energy demand respectively. Energy demand is disaggregated by US Census region to account for geographic variation in solar insolation and regional variation in cost of alternative natural gas-fired energy sources. The industrial sector analysis also disaggregates demand by heat medium and temperature range to facilitate process end-use matching with appropriate solar thermal energy supply technologies. The commercial sector analysis disaggregates energy demand by three end uses: water heating, space heating, and space cooling. Generic conceptual designs are created for both industrial and commercial applications. Levelized energy costs (LEC) are calculated for industrial sector applications employing low temperature flat plate collectors for process water preheat; parabolic troughs for intermediate temperature process steam and direct heat industrial application; and parabolic dish technologies for high temperature, direct heat industrial applications. LEC are calculated for commercial sector applications employing parabolic trough technologies for low temperature water and space heating. Cost comparisons are made with natural gas-fired sources for both the industrial market and the commercial market assuming fuel price escalation consistent with NES reference case scenarios for industrial and commercial sector gas markets

Gendered vulnerability to AIDS and its research implications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wiegers, E.S.

2008-01-01

According to the various studies, AIDS affects all facets of people’s livelihoods through illness and death and the subsequent care for orphaned children. Much of this literature uses rural households affected by HIV/AIDS as the unit of analysis and do not disaggregate data by hosting orphans,

Economic shocks, governance and violence: A subnational level analysis of Africa

OpenAIRE

Kibriya, Shahriar; Xu, Zhicheng P.; Zhang, Yu

2015-01-01

By using a geo-coded disaggregated dataset in sub-Saharan Africa over the period 1997–2013, we exploit year-to-year rainfall variation as an instrumental variable to estimate the causal effect of economic shocks on civil conflict conditional on governance quality. We confirm earlier findings that adverse rainfall shocks increase the likelihood of conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. We also investigate the role of governance quality on conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. The results underscore that im...

Analysis of the effects of section 29 tax credits on reserve additions and production of gas from unconventional resources

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1990-09-01

Federal tax credits for production of natural gas from unconventional resources can stimulate drilling and reserves additions at a relatively low cost to the Treasury. This report presents the results of an analysis of the effects of a proposed extension of the Section 29 alternative fuels production credit specifically for unconventional gas. ICF Resources estimated the net effect of the extension of the credit (the difference between development activity expected with the extension of the credit and that expected if the credit expires in December 1990 as scheduled). The analysis addressed the effect of tax credits on project economics and capital formation, drilling and reserve additions, production, impact on the US and regional economies, and the net public sector costs and incremental revenues. The analysis was based on explicit modeling of the three dominant unconventional gas resources: Tight sands, coalbed methane, and Devonian shales. It incorporated the most current data on resource size, typical well recoveries and economics, and anticipated activity of the major producers. Each resource was further disaggregated for analysis based on distinct resource characteristics, development practices, regional economics, and historical development patterns.

Analysis of the effects of section 29 tax credits on reserve additions and production of gas from unconventional resources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-09-01

Federal tax credits for production of natural gas from unconventional resources can stimulate drilling and reserves additions at a relatively low cost to the Treasury. This report presents the results of an analysis of the effects of a proposed extension of the Section 29 alternative fuels production credit specifically for unconventional gas. ICF Resources estimated the net effect of the extension of the credit (the difference between development activity expected with the extension of the credit and that expected if the credit expires in December 1990 as scheduled). The analysis addressed the effect of tax credits on project economics and capital formation, drilling and reserve additions, production, impact on the US and regional economies, and the net public sector costs and incremental revenues. The analysis was based on explicit modeling of the three dominant unconventional gas resources: Tight sands, coalbed methane, and Devonian shales. It incorporated the most current data on resource size, typical well recoveries and economics, and anticipated activity of the major producers. Each resource was further disaggregated for analysis based on distinct resource characteristics, development practices, regional economics, and historical development patterns

A framework for joint management of regional water-energy systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cardenal, Silvio Javier Pereira

in unrealistic operation rules, such as emptying the reservoir during the month with the highest price, which can only be avoided through the inclusion of additional constraints. In contrast, including a simple representation of the power market into a hydro-economic model resulted in more realistic reservoir...... operation policies that adapted to changing inflow conditions. The effects of spatial aggregation on the analysis of water-power systems were evaluated by comparing results from an aggregated and a partially disaggregated model. The aggregated model, where all reservoirs were represented as a single...... equivalent energy reservoir, provided valuable insights into the management of water and power systems, but only at the Peninsula scale. The disaggregated model revealed that optimal allocations were achieved by managing water resources differently in each river basin according to local inflow, storage...

Destabilization of Human Insulin Fibrils by Peptides of Fruit Bromelain Derived From Ananas comosus (Pineapple).

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Sromona; Bhattacharyya, Debasish

2017-12-01

Deposition of insulin aggregates in human body leads to dysfunctioning of several organs. Effectiveness of fruit bromelain from pineapple in prevention of insulin aggregate was investigated. Proteolyses of bromelain was done as par human digestive system and the pool of small peptides was separated from larger peptides and proteins. Under conditions of growth of insulin aggregates from its monomers, this pool of peptides restricted the reaction upto formation of oligomers of limited size. These peptides also destabilized preformed insulin aggregates to oligomers. These processes were followed fluorimetrically using Thioflavin T and 1-ANS, size-exclusion HPLC, dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Sequences of insulin (A and B chains) and bromelain were aligned using Clustal W software to predict most probable sites of interactions. Synthetic tripeptides corresponding to the hydrophobic interactive sites of bromelain showed disaggregation of insulin suggesting specificity of interactions. The peptides GG and AAA serving as negative controls showed no potency in destabilization of aggregates. Disaggregation potency of the peptides was also observed when insulin was deposited on HepG2 liver cells where no formation of toxic oligomers occurred. Amyloidogenic des-octapeptide (B23-B30 of insulin) incapable of cell signaling showed cytotoxicity similar to insulin. This toxicity could be neutralized by bromelain derived peptides. FT-IR and far-UV circular dichroism analysis indicated that disaggregated insulin had structure distinctly different from that of its hexameric (native) or monomeric states. Based on the stoichiometry of interaction and irreversibility of disaggregation, the mechanism/s of the peptides and insulin interactions has been proposed. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 4881-4896, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Changing Attitudes Toward Euthanasia and Suicide for Terminally Ill Persons, 1977 to 2016: An Age-Period-Cohort Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Attell, Brandon K

2017-01-01

Several longitudinal studies show that over time the American public has become more approving of euthanasia and suicide for terminally ill persons. Yet, these previous findings are limited because they derive from biased estimates of disaggregated hierarchical data. Using insights from life course sociological theory and cross-classified logistic regression models, I better account for this liberalization process by disentangling the age, period, and cohort effects that contribute to longitudinal changes in these attitudes. The results of the analysis point toward a continued liberalization of both attitudes over time, although the magnitude of change was greater for suicide compared with euthanasia. More fluctuation in the probability of supporting both measures was exhibited for the age and period effects over the cohort effects. In addition, age-based differences in supporting both measures were found between men and women and various religious affiliations.

Statictical Analysis Of The Conditioning Factors Of Urban Electric Consumption

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Segura D'Rouville, Juan Joel; Suárez Carreño, Franyelit María

2017-01-01

This research work presents the analysis of the most important factors that condition the urban residential electricity consumption. This study shows the quantitative parameters conditioning the electricity consumption. This sector of analysis has been chosen because there is disaggregated information of which are the main social and technological factors that determine its behavior, growth, with the objective of elaborating policies in the management of the electric consumption. The electrical demand considered as the sum of the powers of all the equipment that are used in each of the instants of a full day, is related to the electrical consumption, which is not but the value of the power demanded by a determined consumer Multiplied by the time in which said demand is maintained. In this report we propose the design of a probabilistic model of prediction of electricity consumption, taking into account mainly influential social and technological factors. The statistical process of this database is done through the Stat Graphics software version 4.1, for its extensive didactic in the accomplishment of calculations and associated methods. Finally, the correlation of the variables was performed to classify the determinants in a specific way and thus to determine the consumption of the dwellings. (author)

Phenomenology and Qualitative Data Analysis Software (QDAS: A Careful Reconciliation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brian Kelleher Sohn

2017-01-01

Full Text Available An oft-cited phenomenological methodologist, Max VAN MANEN (2014, claims that qualitative data analysis software (QDAS is not an appropriate tool for phenomenological research. Yet phenomenologists rarely describe how phenomenology is to be done: pencil, paper, computer? DAVIDSON and DI GREGORIO (2011 urge QDAS contrarians such as VAN MANEN to get over their methodological loyalties and join the digital world, claiming that all qualitative researchers, whatever their methodology, perform processes aided by QDAS: disaggregation and recontextualization of texts. Other phenomenologists exemplify DAVIDSON and DI GREGORIO's observation that arguments against QDAS often identify problems more closely related to the researchers than QDAS. But the concerns about technology of McLUHAN (2003 [1964], HEIDEGGER (2008 [1977], and FLUSSER (2013 cannot be ignored. In this conceptual article I answer the questions of phenomenologists and the call of QDAS methodologists to describe how I used QDAS to carry out a phenomenological study in order to guide others who choose to reconcile the use of software to assist their research. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1701142

"Analyzing the Longitudinal K-12 Grading Histories of Entire Cohorts of Students: Grades, Data Driven Decision Making, Dropping out and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis"

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alex J. Bowers

2010-05-01

Full Text Available School personnel currently lack an effective method to pattern and visually interpret disaggregated achievement data collected on students as a means to help inform decision making. This study, through the examination of longitudinal K-12 teacher assigned grading histories for entire cohorts of students from a school district (n=188, demonstrates a novel application of hierarchical cluster analysis and pattern visualization in which all data points collected on every student in a cohort can be patterned, visualized and interpreted to aid in data driven decision making by teachers and administrators. Additionally, as a proof-of-concept study, overall schooling outcomes, such as student dropout or taking a college entrance exam, are identified from the data patterns and compared to past methods of dropout identification as one example of the usefulness of the method. Hierarchical cluster analysis correctly identified over 80% of the students who dropped out using the entire student grade history patterns from either K-12 or K-8.

The Role of Bioeconomy Sectors and Natural Resources in EU Economies: A Social Accounting Matrix-Based Analysis Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patricia D. Fuentes-Saguar

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The bio-based economy will be crucial in achieving a sustainable development, covering all ranges of natural resources. In this sense, it is very relevant to analyze the economic links between the bioeconomic sectors and the rest of the economy, determining their total and decomposed impact on economic growth. One of the major problems in carrying out this analysis is the lack of information and complete databases that allow analysis of the bioeconomy and its effects on other economic activities. To overcome this issue, disaggregated social accounting matrices have been obtained for the highly bio-based sectors of the 28 European Union member states. Using this complex database, a linear multiplier analysis shows the future key role of bio-based sectors in boosting economic development in the EU. Results show that the bioeconomy has not yet unleashed its full potential in terms of output and job creation. Thus, output and employment multipliers show that many sectors related to the bioeconomy are still underperforming compared to the EU average, particularly those with higher value added; although, they are still crucial sectors for the wealth creation.

Energy use for economic growth: A trivariate analysis from Tunisian agriculture sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sebri, Maamar; Abid, Mehdi

2012-01-01

Following the importance of energy in the agrarian economies, the investigation of the causal relationship between energy consumption in agriculture sector and economic growth has a fundamental role in implementing suitable policies. This paper examines the causal relationship between energy consumption and agricultural value added, controlling for trade openness, in Tunisia from 1980 to 2007. The relationship is investigated at aggregated as well as disaggregated components of energy consumption, including oil and electricity. Using Granger's technique, it is shown that various results are obtained regarding the direction of causality between competing variables. Nevertheless, the most common finding suggest that trade openness and both aggregated and disaggregated energy consumption Granger causes agricultural value added. Therefore, the energy-led growth and trade-led growth hypotheses are supported in the Tunisian agriculture sector. An important policy implication resulting from this study is that energy can be considered as a limiting factor to agriculture value added and, therefore, shocks to energy supply would have a negative impact onto agriculture performance. Furthermore, trade liberalization seems to be a stimulus factor to the Tunisian agriculture development. - Highlights: ► We study the energy consumption-economic growth nexus of Tunisian agriculture sector. ► We use Johansen's cointegration approach and Granger causality. ► Energy consumption can be considered as limiting factor to agricultural performance. ► Electrical energy will represent an important input to agricultural production growth.

Multivariate exploration of non-intrusive load monitoring via spatiotemporal pattern network

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Chao; Akintayo, Adedotun; Jiang, Zhanhong; Henze, Gregor P.; Sarkar, Soumik

2018-02-01

Non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) of electrical demand for the purpose of identifying load components has thus far mostly been studied using univariate data, e.g., using only whole building electricity consumption time series to identify a certain type of end-use such as lighting load. However, using additional variables in the form of multivariate time series data may provide more information in terms of extracting distinguishable features in the context of energy disaggregation. In this work, a novel probabilistic graphical modeling approach, namely the spatiotemporal pattern network (STPN) is proposed for energy disaggregation using multivariate time-series data. The STPN framework is shown to be capable of handling diverse types of multivariate time-series to improve the energy disaggregation performance. The technique outperforms the state of the art factorial hidden Markov models (FHMM) and combinatorial optimization (CO) techniques in multiple real-life test cases. Furthermore, based on two homes' aggregate electric consumption data, a similarity metric is defined for the energy disaggregation of one home using a trained model based on the other home (i.e., out-of-sample case). The proposed similarity metric allows us to enhance scalability via learning supervised models for a few homes and deploying such models to many other similar but unmodeled homes with significantly high disaggregation accuracy.

[Trend analysis of acquired syphilis in Mexico from 2003 to 2013].

Science.gov (United States)

Herrera-Ortiz, Antonia; Uribe-Salas, Felipe J; Olamendi-Portugal, Ma Leonidez; García-Cisneros, Santa; Conde-Glez, Carlos Jesús; Sánchez-Alemán, Miguel A

2015-01-01

To identify the population group in which syphilis increase was concentrated. The information was collected from the Mexico health statistical yearbooks. The information disaggregated by sex, age group and state during the period 2003 to 2013 was used to form different databases. Linear regression analysis with confidence interval at 95% was used to evaluate changes over time in different population groups. An increase of 0.67 cases per 100,000 population (95%CI 0.30-1.04) in men was detected from 2010. The increase was concentrated in each group of 20-24 and 25-44. The highest incidence of acquired syphilis was reported in the last two years: 2012 and 2013. The last year reported a 1.85 times higher incidence than reported in 2003. Aguascalientes, Distrito Federal, Durango, Mexico, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Zacatecas reported that syphilis increased during the study period. Acquired syphilis may be reemerging in our country among young men; this increase is not uniform across the country, it is necessary to focus intervention measures for this sexually transmitted infection.

Secondary analysis of data can inform care delivery for Indigenous women in an acute mental health inpatient unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Bradley, Pat; Cunningham, Teresa; Lowell, Anne; Nagel, Tricia; Dunn, Sandra

2017-02-01

There is a paucity of research exploring Indigenous women's experiences in acute mental health inpatient services in Australia. Even less is known of Indigenous women's experience of seclusion events, as published data are rarely disaggregated by both indigeneity and gender. This research used secondary analysis of pre-existing datasets to identify any quantifiable difference in recorded experience between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women, and between Indigenous women and Indigenous men in an acute mental health inpatient unit. Standard separation data of age, length of stay, legal status, and discharge diagnosis were analysed, as were seclusion register data of age, seclusion grounds, and number of seclusion events. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and where warranted, inferential statistical methods used SPSS software to apply analysis of variance/multivariate analysis of variance testing. The results showed evidence that secondary analysis of existing datasets can provide a rich source of information to describe the experience of target groups, and to guide service planning and delivery of individualized, culturally-secure mental health care at a local level. The results are discussed, service and policy development implications are explored, and suggestions for further research are offered. © 2016 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Development of a transplantable glioma tumour model from genetically engineered mice: MRI/MRS/MRSI characterisation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ciezka, Magdalena; Acosta, Milena; Herranz, Cristina; Canals, Josep M; Pumarola, Martí; Candiota, Ana Paula; Arús, Carles

2016-08-01

The initial aim of this study was to generate a transplantable glial tumour model of low-intermediate grade by disaggregation of a spontaneous tumour mass from genetically engineered models (GEM). This should result in an increased tumour incidence in comparison to GEM animals. An anaplastic oligoastrocytoma (OA) tumour of World Health Organization (WHO) grade III was obtained from a female GEM mouse with the S100β-v-erbB/inK4a-Arf (+/-) genotype maintained in the C57BL/6 background. The tumour tissue was disaggregated; tumour cells from it were grown in aggregates and stereotactically injected into C57BL/6 mice. Tumour development was followed using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), while changes in the metabolomics pattern of the masses were evaluated by Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy/Spectroscopic Imaging (MRS/MRSI). Final tumour grade was evaluated by histopathological analysis. The total number of tumours generated from GEM cells from disaggregated tumour (CDT) was 67 with up to 100 % penetrance, as compared to 16 % in the local GEM model, with an average survival time of 66 ± 55 days, up to 4.3-fold significantly higher than the standard GL261 glioblastoma (GBM) tumour model. Tumours produced by transplantation of cells freshly obtained from disaggregated GEM tumour were diagnosed as WHO grade III anaplastic oligodendroglioma (ODG) and OA, while tumours produced from a previously frozen sample were diagnosed as WHO grade IV GBM. We successfully grew CDT and generated tumours from a grade III GEM glial tumour. Freezing and cell culture protocols produced progression to grade IV GBM, which makes the developed transplantable model qualify as potential secondary GBM model in mice.

Profitable ultrasonic assisted microwave disintegration of sludge biomass: Modelling of biomethanation and energy parameter analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kavitha, S; Rajesh Banu, J; Kumar, Gopalakrishnan; Kaliappan, S; Yeom, Ick Tae

2018-04-01

In this study, microwave irradiation has been employed to disintegrate the sludge biomass profitably by deagglomerating the sludge using a mechanical device, ultrasonicator. The outcomes of the study revealed that a specific energy input of 3.5 kJ/kg TS was found to be optimum for deagglomeration with limited cell lysis. A higher suspended solids (SS) reduction and biomass lysis efficiency of about 22.5% and 33.2% was achieved through ultrasonic assisted microwave disintegration (UMWD) when compared to microwave disintegration - MWD (15% and 20.9%). The results of biochemical methane potential (BMP) test were used to estimate biodegradability of samples. Among the samples subjected to BMP, UMWD showed better amenability towards anaerobic digestion with higher methane production potential of 0.3 L/g COD representing enhanced liquefaction potential of disaggregated sludge biomass. Economic analysis of the proposed method of sludge biomass pretreatment showed a net profit of 2.67 USD/Ton respectively. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Relative Importance of the Service Sector in the Mexican Economy: A Time Series Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Alberto Flores

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We conduct a study of the secondary and tertiary sectors with the goal of highlighting the relative im-portance of services in the Mexican economy. We consider a time series analysis approach designed to identify the stochastic nature of the series, as well as to define their long-run and-short run relationships with Gross Domestic Product (GDP. The results of cointegration tests suggest that, for the most part, activities in the secondary and tertiary sectors share a common trend with GDP. Interestingly, the long-run elasticities of GDP with respect to services are on average larger than those with respect to secondary activities. Common cycle tests results identify the existence of common cycles between GDP and the disaggregated sectors, as well as with manufacturing, commerce, real estate and transportation. In this case, the short-run elasticities of secondary activities are on average larger than those corresponding to services.

Disaggregating Corporate Freedom of Religion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lægaard, Sune

2015-01-01

The paper investigates arguments for the idea in recent American Supreme Court jurisprudence that freedom of religion should not simply be understood as an ordinary legal right within the framework of liberal constitutionalism but as an expression of deference by the state and its legal system...... to religion as a separate and independent jurisdiction with its own system of law over which religious groups are sovereign. I discuss the relationship between, on the one hand, ordinary rights of freedom of association and freedom of religion and, on the other hand, this idea of corporate freedom of religion...

Regionalisation of asset values for risk analyses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. H. Thieken

2006-01-01

Full Text Available In risk analysis there is a spatial mismatch of hazard data that are commonly modelled on an explicit raster level and exposure data that are often only available for aggregated units, e.g. communities. Dasymetric mapping techniques that use ancillary information to disaggregate data within a spatial unit help to bridge this gap. This paper presents dasymetric maps showing the population density and a unit value of residential assets for whole Germany. A dasymetric mapping approach, which uses land cover data (CORINE Land Cover as ancillary variable, was adapted and applied to regionalize aggregated census data that are provided for all communities in Germany. The results were validated by two approaches. First, it was ascertained whether population data disaggregated at the community level can be used to estimate population in postcodes. Secondly, disaggregated population and asset data were used for a loss evaluation of two flood events that occurred in 1999 and 2002, respectively. It must be concluded that the algorithm tends to underestimate the population in urban areas and to overestimate population in other land cover classes. Nevertheless, flood loss evaluations demonstrate that the approach is capable of providing realistic estimates of the number of exposed people and assets. Thus, the maps are sufficient for applications in large-scale risk assessments such as the estimation of population and assets exposed to natural and man-made hazards.

[Gender analysis of papers published in Revista de Neurología (2002-2006)].

Science.gov (United States)

Aleixandre-Benavent, R; Alonso-Arroyo, A; González-Alcaide, G; González de Dios, J; Sempere, A P; Valderrama-Zurián, J C

There is an ongoing interest in the society in promoting gender equality and in women integration in research activities. The purpose of this work is to identify from a gender perspective the bibliometric characteristics of articles published in Revista de Neurología journal during the 2002-2006 period. Records were obtained from Science Citation Index database of ISI-Thomson platform. The following indicators were determined, disaggregated by gender: year of publication, type of document, number and order of signatures, number of collaborators, signature/papers index and in the institutional and geographical level. 4527 authors were identified, 2614 (57.74%) men and 1913 (42.,26%) women. The highest women's participation took place in original articles (39.01% of signatures). 44.5% of authors with one published article were women, while 'big women producers' (those with more than 9 articles) only were 16.67%. A greater productivity in men and a greater rate of collaboration in women has been detected. Scientific activity studies disaggregated by gender give an essential information in order to establish the basis of a scientific policy for promoting the woman as researcher. The evolution in the number of female authors in Revista de Neurología journal does not present an aiming growth to reach the parity in the next years. A low presence of women in positions of high productivity has been detected, whose causes should be identified.

Action of trypsin on structural changes of collagen fibres from sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus).

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zi-Qiang; Tuo, Feng-Yan; Song, Liang; Liu, Yu-Xin; Dong, Xiu-Ping; Li, Dong-Mei; Zhou, Da-Yong; Shahidi, Fereidoon

2018-08-01

Trypsin, a representative serine proteinase, was used to hydrolyse the collagen fibres from sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus) to highlight the role of serine proteinase in the autolysis of sea cucumber. Partial disaggregation of collagen fibres into collagen fibrils upon trypsin treatment occurred. The trypsin treatment also caused a time-dependent release of water-soluble glycosaminoglycans and proteins. Therefore, the degradation of the proteoglycan bridges between collagen fibrils might account for the disaggregation of collagen fibrils. For trypsin-treated collagen fibres (72 h), the collagen fibrils still kept their structural integrity and showed characteristic D-banding pattern, and the dissolution rate of hydroxyproline was just 0.21%. Meanwhile, Fourier transform infrared analysis showed the collagen within trypsin-treated collagen fibres (72 h) still retaining their triple-helical conformation. These results suggested that serine proteinase participated in the autolysis of S. japonicus body wall by damaging the proteoglycan bridges between collagen fibrils and disintegrating the latter. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PETRA. The Forecast Model. Synthesis report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-09-01

The aim of the PETRA project was to develop a model that could recreate the main aspects involved in the demand for travel. The attainment of this objective requires that the model system should retain a high degree of detail and be based on disaggregate models. This was both to ensure an accurate representation of the underlying behavioural intentions, and allow analysis of the underlying travel demand and related aspects across a number of dimensions. This has been achieved in all main respects. The model system is capable of close reproduction of the observed behaviour and generally responds as expected to changes, exhibiting consistent and plausible reactions. The dis-aggregation of the forecast population, according to the various criteria, allows the model to clearly illustrates the behavioural differences between different population segments. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that PETRA is capable of detailed analyses of the distributional and behavioural effects of policy changes. (au) EFP-94. 20 refs.

Disaggregating tree and grass phenology in tropical savannas

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Qiang

method was better for extracting the green tree phenology, but the original decomposition method was better for retrieval of understory grass phenology. Both methods, however, were less accurate than in the Cerrado than in Australia due to intermingling and intergrading of grass and small woody components. Since African savanna trees are predominantly deciduous, the frequency method was combined with the linear unmixing of fractional cover to attempt to separate the relatively similar phenology of deciduous trees and seasonal grasses. The results for Africa revealed limitations associated with both methods. There was spatial and seasonal variation in the spectral indices used to unmix fractional cover resulting in poor validation for NPV in particular. The frequency analysis revealed significant phase variation indicative of different phenology, but these could not be clearly ascribed to separate grass and tree components. Overall findings indicate that site-specific variation and vegetation structure and composition, along with MODIS pixel resolution, and the simple vegetation index approach used was not robust across the different savanna biomes. The approach showed generally better performance for estimating PV fraction, and separating green phenology, but there were major inconsistencies, errors and biases in estimation of NPV and BS outside of the Australian savanna environment.

Estimation of future levels and changes in profitability: The effect of the relative position of the firm in its industry and the operating-financing disaggregation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Borja Amor-Tapia

2014-06-01

Full Text Available In this paper we examine how the relative position of a firm’s Return on Equity (ROE in industries affects the predictability of the next-year ROE levels, and the ROE changes from year to year. Using Nissim and Penman breakdown into operating and financing drivers, the significant role of the industry factor is established, although changes in signs suggest subtle non-linear relations in the drivers. Our study avoids problems originating from negative signs by analyzing sorts and by making new regressions with disaggregated second-order drivers by signs. This way, our results provide evidence of some different patterns in the influence of the first-level drivers of ROE (the operating factor and the financing factor, and the second-level drivers (profit margin, asset turnover, leverage and return spread on future profitability, depending on the industry spread. The results on the role of contextual factors to improve the estimation of future profitability remain consistent for small and large firms, although adding some nuances En este trabajo examinamos si la posición relativa del ROE de la empresa en el sector afecta a la estimación del nivel de ROE en el a˜no posterior, y a la estimación de su variación. Empleando el desglose operativo-financiero de Nissim y Penman, encontramos que el factor sectorial es significativo, aunque las variaciones de los signos sugieren la presencia de relaciones no lineales. Nuestro trabajo evita los problemas generados por los signos negativos en los ratios al emplear cuantiles y realizar regresiones independientes para los diferentes signos que toman las variables. De esta forma, los resultados muestran diferentes patrones en el impacto de los inductores del ROE de primer nivel (los factores operativo y financiero y de segundo nivel (margen de resultados, rotaciones de los activos, endeudamiento y diferencial de rentabilidad sobre la rentabilidad futura, dependiendo del diferencial de rentabilidad con

Social vulnerability to climate-induced natural disasters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rubin, Olivier

2014-01-01

This paper conducts an analysis of the socioeconomic determinants of Vietnam's cross-provincial variations in natural disaster vulnerability. The purpose is twofold: (i) to capture disaggregated vulnerability variations normally obscured by national statistics, thereby providing more nuanced...... insights into Vietnam's vulnerability to natural disasters; and (ii) to take advantage of the fact that the overall political system and key institutional structures to a large extent are constant across Vietnam's provinces, which makes the analysis a novel addition to the many disaster studies based...

Economic Loss to the Brazilian Regions Due to the Doha Round Failure

OpenAIRE

Pereira, Matheus Wemerson Gomes; Teixeira, Erly Cardoso; Gurgel, Angelo Costa

2009-01-01

We build a database and model to develop general equilibrium analysis of the Brazilian economy at the level of the five macro regions. The model is multiregional at global level as also at the Brazilian level. The project is coupled to the GTAP model through disaggregation of the original Brazilian input-output matrix and trade flows and follows the GTAPinGAMS structure and syntax to generate the General Equilibrium Analysis Project for the Brazilian Economy (PAEG). The regional database is t...

Parametric sensitivity analysis of an agro-economic model of management of irrigation water

Science.gov (United States)

El Ouadi, Ihssan; Ouazar, Driss; El Menyari, Younesse

2015-04-01

The current work aims to build an analysis and decision support tool for policy options concerning the optimal allocation of water resources, while allowing a better reflection on the issue of valuation of water by the agricultural sector in particular. Thus, a model disaggregated by farm type was developed for the rural town of Ait Ben Yacoub located in the east Morocco. This model integrates economic, agronomic and hydraulic data and simulates agricultural gross margin across in this area taking into consideration changes in public policy and climatic conditions, taking into account the competition for collective resources. To identify the model input parameters that influence over the results of the model, a parametric sensitivity analysis is performed by the "One-Factor-At-A-Time" approach within the "Screening Designs" method. Preliminary results of this analysis show that among the 10 parameters analyzed, 6 parameters affect significantly the objective function of the model, it is in order of influence: i) Coefficient of crop yield response to water, ii) Average daily gain in weight of livestock, iii) Exchange of livestock reproduction, iv) maximum yield of crops, v) Supply of irrigation water and vi) precipitation. These 6 parameters register sensitivity indexes ranging between 0.22 and 1.28. Those results show high uncertainties on these parameters that can dramatically skew the results of the model or the need to pay particular attention to their estimates. Keywords: water, agriculture, modeling, optimal allocation, parametric sensitivity analysis, Screening Designs, One-Factor-At-A-Time, agricultural policy, climate change.

Competitiveness in the Southern Euro Area; France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain

OpenAIRE

Bogdan Lissovolik; Julio Escolano; Stefania Fabrizio; Werner Schule; Herman Z Bennett; Stephen Tokarick; Yuan Xiao; Marialuz Moreno Badia; Eva Gutierrez; Iryna V. Ivaschenko

2008-01-01

This collection of studies analyzes developments in nonprice external competitiveness of France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. While France, Italy, and Portugal have experienced substantial export market share losses, Greece and Spain performed relatively well. Export market share losses appear associated with rigidities in resource allocation (sectoral, geographical, technological) relative to peers and lower productivity gains in high value-added sectors. Disaggregated analysis of goo...

Advancing Cost-Effective Readiness by Improving the Supply Chain Management of Sparse, Intermittently-Demanded Parts

Science.gov (United States)

2015-03-26

strategy and the actual measures they take/look at for management review decision support. Shaw, Meixell & Tuggle [31] recognize the lack of integrated...have proposed new performance measures and metrics that reflect the changes in markets and enterprise environments...” 5.1.2 Multiple Processes to...Petropoulos and V. Assimakopoulos, "An aggregate-disaggregate intermittent demand approach ( ADIDA ) to forecasting: an empirical proposition and analysis

Time-Series Analysis of Continuously Monitored Blood Glucose: The Impacts of Geographic and Daily Lifestyle Factors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sean T. Doherty

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Type 2 diabetes is known to be associated with environmental, behavioral, and lifestyle factors. However, the actual impacts of these factors on blood glucose (BG variation throughout the day have remained relatively unexplored. Continuous blood glucose monitors combined with human activity tracking technologies afford new opportunities for exploration in a naturalistic setting. Data from a study of 40 patients with diabetes is utilized in this paper, including continuously monitored BG, food/medicine intake, and patient activity/location tracked using global positioning systems over a 4-day period. Standard linear regression and more disaggregated time-series analysis using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA are used to explore patient BG variation throughout the day and over space. The ARIMA models revealed a wide variety of BG correlating factors related to specific activity types, locations (especially those far from home, and travel modes, although the impacts were highly personal. Traditional variables related to food intake and medications were less often significant. Overall, the time-series analysis revealed considerable patient-by-patient variation in the effects of geographic and daily lifestyle factors. We would suggest that maps of BG spatial variation or an interactive messaging system could provide new tools to engage patients and highlight potential risk factors.

Determinants of energy demand in the French service sector: A decomposition analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mairet, Nicolas; Decellas, Fabrice

2009-01-01

This paper analyzes the changes in the energy consumption of the service sector in France over the period 1995-2006, using the logarithmic mean Divisia index I (LMDI I) decomposition method. The analysis is carried out at various disaggregation levels to highlight the specifics of each sub-sector and end-use according to their respective determinants. The results show that in this period the economic growth of the service sector was the main factor that led to the increase in total energy consumption. Structure, productivity, substitution and intensity effects restricted this growth, but with limited effect. By analyzing each end-use, this paper enables a more precise understanding of the impact of these factors. The activity effect was the main determinant of the increase in energy consumption for all end-uses except for air conditioning, for which the equipment rate effect was the main factor. Structural changes in the service sector primarily impacted energy consumption for space heating and cooking. Improvements in productivity limited the growth of energy consumption for all end-uses except for cooking. Finally, energy efficiency improvements mainly affected space-heating energy use.

Non-renewable and renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions in OECD countries: A comparative analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shafiei, Sahar; Salim, Ruhul A.

2014-01-01

This paper attempts to explore the determinants of CO 2 emissions using the STIRPAT model and data from 1980 to 2011 for OECD countries. The empirical results show that non-renewable energy consumption increases CO 2 emissions, whereas renewable energy consumption decreases CO 2 emissions. Further, the results support the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve between urbanisation and CO 2 emissions, implying that at higher levels of urbanisation, the environmental impact decreases. Therefore, the overall evidence suggests that policy makers should focus on urban planning as well as clean energy development to make substantial contributions to both reducing non-renewable energy use and mitigating climate change. - Highlights: • Examine the relationship between disaggregated energy consumption and CO 2 emission. • The STIRPAT econometric model is used for empirical analysis. • Investigate the popular environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis between urbanisation and CO 2 emissions. • Non-renewable energy consumption increases CO 2 emissions whereas renewable energy consumption decreases CO 2 emissions. • There is evidence of the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve between urbanisation and CO 2 emissions

Metal oxide nanoparticle transport in porous media – an analysis about (un)certainties in environmental research

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heidmann, I

2013-01-01

Research about the fate and behavior of engineered nanoparticles in the environment is despite its wide applications still in the early stages. The fast-growing area of nanoparticle research and the high level of uncertainty create a big challenge for describing clearly the recent state of the current scientific knowledge. Therefore, in this study the certain knowledge, the known uncertainties and the identified knowledge gaps concerning mobility of engineered metal oxide nanoparticles in porous media are analyzed. The mobility of nanoparticles is mainly investigated in model laboratory studies under well-defined conditions, which are often not realistic for natural systems. In these model systems, nanoparticles often retain in the pore system due to aggregation and sedimentation. However, under environmental conditions, the presence of natural organic matter may cause stabilization or disaggregation of nanoparticles and favors therefore higher mobility of nanoparticles. Additionally, potential higher mobility of particles using preferential flow paths is not considered. Knowledge of the long-term behavior of nanoparticles concerning disaggregation, dissolution or remobilization in soils under environmental conditions is scarce. Scientific uncertainty itself is rarely mentioned in the research papers. Seldom known methodically uncertainties in nanoparticle characterization are referred to. The uncertainty about the transferability of the results to environmental conditions is discussed more often. Due to the sparse studies concerning natural material or natural pore systems, certain conclusions concerning the mobility of nanoparticles in the soil environment are not possible to drawn.

Multivariate Bioclimatic Ecosystem Change Approaches

Science.gov (United States)

2015-02-06

course the sandy soils of the Sandhills will not migrate. This observation suggests that a new nomenclature for ecosystems must be developed if...Coast Sandhills. At that time period, not only will the climate be similar, but the soil character will also be similar. Therefore about the year 2115...Disaggregation of global circulation model outputs decision and policy analysis. Working Paper No. 2. Cali, Colombia : International Centre for Tropical

Competition for public project funding in a small research system: the case of Estonia

OpenAIRE

Jaan Masso; Kadri Ukrainski

2009-01-01

The extensive literature that deals with competition for research funding has focused on the mechanisms and outcomes of funding, but has not systematically studied the allocation of funding among research performers across different financing instruments. The analysis of a small research system on the basis of funding volumes disaggregated according to beneficiaries and funding instruments showed a very high and growing degree of market concentration strengthening existing dominant research i...

Speculation and the 2008 oil bubble: The DCOT Report analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tokic, Damir

2012-01-01

This article analyzes the CFTC's Disaggregated Commitments of Traders (DCOT) Report to get more insights into the behavior of different traders during the 2008 oil bubble. The analysis shows that: (1) the Money Manager category perfectly played the oil bubble, got in early and started selling shortly before the bubble peak; (2) the Producer/Merchant/Processor/User category and the Nonreportable category were covering their short positions into the peak of the bubble; (3) the Swap/Dealer category benefited while the price of oil was rising, but incurred heavy losses as the price of oil collapsed; (4) we find no indications of speculation by any group of traders via the positive feedback trading or rational destabilization; and (5) we do, however, criticize the commercial hedgers for failing to arbitrage the soaring oil prices in 2008. - Highlights: ► We analyze the DCOT Report to study the behavior of traders during the 2008 oil bubble. ► the Money Manger category perfectly played the oil bubble. ► the Producer/Merchant/Processor/User and the Nonreportables engaged in short covering. ► the Swap/Dealer incurred heavy losses as the price of oil collapsed. ► We find no indications of speculation by any category.

Taxonomy for science and engineering indicators: a reassessment

OpenAIRE

Mary Kathleen Feeney; Barry Bozeman

2005-01-01

Science policy researchers and scientists themselves know reflexively that differences among scientific fields matter. However, sets of government-sponsored science and engineering (S&E) indicators are quite general and in most instances do not report differences among fields. We evaluate the current limitations of S&E indicators, identifying particular data needs about scientific fields. We suggest developing a disaggregated, flexible S&E classification. We argue that disaggregating S&E indi...

FDI spillovers at different levels of industrial and spatial aggregation: Evidence from the electricity sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Del Bo, Chiara F.

2013-01-01

The European electricity sector has undergone significant reforms in recent years, in the direction of market opening, integration and privatization. National and regional markets are now characterized by the presence of domestic and foreign firms, both privately and publicly owned. Did foreign entry induce positive productivity spillovers to domestic firms in the electricity sector, both at the aggregate and disaggregated level, while also controlling for domestic firms' ownership? This paper examines this issue by focusing on regional foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers in the aggregated electricity sector and in the disaggregated sub-sectors of generation and distribution. The results show the importance of industry aggregation in determining the existence and sign of regional FDI spillovers for domestic firms. FDI spillovers are then calculated based on a purely geographic scale, by considering the distance between each firm's city of location and firms in neighboring cities. The importance and sign of FDI spillovers is different with respect to the analysis based on regional administrative boundaries, suggesting that spatial aggregation, along with industrial aggregation, is relevant in accounting for productivity spillover effects of foreign presence in the EU electricity sector. - Highlights: • Has the post-reform entry of foreign firms in the EU electricity sector induced spillover effects? • Spatial and industrial disaggregation are important when evaluating foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers. • Positive horizontal spillovers are found only in the distribution segment of the industry. • Vertical spillovers in generation are negative; positive in distribution. • Spillover intensity in distribution decreasing with distance; regional dimension relevant in generation

Choice Model and Influencing Factor Analysis of Travel Mode for Migrant Workers: Case Study in Xi’an, China

OpenAIRE

Hong Chen; Zuo-xian Gan; Yu-ting He

2015-01-01

Based on the basic theory and methods of disaggregate choice model, the influencing factors in travel mode choice for migrant workers are analyzed, according to 1366 data samples of Xi’an migrant workers. Walking, bus, subway, and taxi are taken as the alternative parts of travel modes for migrant workers, and a multinomial logit (MNL) model of travel mode for migrant workers is set up. The validity of the model is verified by the hit rate, and the hit rates of four travel modes are all great...

The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Developing Countries: A Comparative Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dasgupta, S. [World Bank, Washington, DC (United States)

2008-07-01

Sea-level rise (SLR) due to climate change is a serious global threat: The scientific evidence is now overwhelming. In this paper, Geographic Information System software has been used to overlay the best available, spatially-disaggregated global data on land, population, agriculture, urban extent, wetlands, and GDP, to assess the consequences of continued SLR for 84 coastal developing countries. Estimates suggest that even a one-meter rise in sea level in coastal countries of the developing world would submerge 194,000 square kilometers of land area, and turn at least 56 million people into environmental refugees. At the country level results are extremely skewed.

The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Developing Countries: A Comparative Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dasgupta, Susmita (World Bank, Washington, DC (United States))

2008-07-01

Sea-level rise (SLR) due to climate change is a serious global threat: The scientific evidence is now overwhelming. In this paper, Geographic Information System software has been used to overlay the best available, spatially-disaggregated global data on land, population, agriculture, urban extent, wetlands, and GDP, to assess the consequences of continued SLR for 84 coastal developing countries. Estimates suggest that even a one-meter rise in sea level in coastal countries of the developing world would submerge 194,000 square kilometers of land area, and turn at least 56 million people into environmental refugees. At the country level results are extremely skewed

The Search for Hydrologic Signatures: The Effect of Data Transformations on Bayesian Model Calibration

Science.gov (United States)

Sadegh, M.; Vrugt, J. A.

2011-12-01

In the past few years, several contributions have begun to appear in the hydrologic literature that introduced and analyzed the benefits of using a signature based approach to watershed analysis. This signature-based approach abandons the standard single criteria model-data fitting paradigm in favor of a diagnostic approach that better extracts the available information from the available data. Despite the prospects of this new viewpoint, rather ad-hoc criteria have hitherto been proposed to improve watershed modeling. Here, we aim to provide a proper mathematical foundation to signature based analysis. We analyze the information content of different data transformation by analyzing their convergence speed with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation using the Generalized Likelihood function of Schousp and Vrugt (2010). We compare the information content of the original discharge data against a simple square root and Box-Cox transformation of the streamflow data. We benchmark these results against wavelet and flow duration curve transformations that temporally disaggregate the discharge data. Our results conclusive demonstrate that wavelet transformations and flow duration curves significantly reduce the information content of the streamflow data and consequently unnecessarily increase the uncertainty of the HYMOD model parameters. Hydrologic signatures thus need to be found in the original data, without temporal disaggregation.

財務諸表の表示の一体性の論拠 : 財政状態変動表の現代的意義

OpenAIRE

小西, 範幸; KONISHI, Noriyuki

2012-01-01

There are some gaps between cash flow and income flow in the financial statements, because of existence of time lag and non-cash in the transactions. This study aims to examine the relations between cash flow and income flow by report of changes in financial position. There are core financial statement presentation principles - cohesiveness and disaggregation. Cohesiveness means that the relationship among items across the financial statements is clear. Disaggregation means separating resourc...

Energy use in the Greek manufacturing sector: A methodological framework based on physical indicators with aggregation and decomposition analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salta, Myrsine; Polatidis, Heracles; Haralambopoulos, Dias

2009-01-01

A bottom-up methodological framework was developed and applied for the period 1985-2002, to selected manufacturing sub-sectors in Greece namely, food, beverages and tobacco, iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, non-metallic minerals and paper. Disaggregate physical data were aggregated according to their specific energy consumption (SEC) values and physical energy efficiency indicators were estimated. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia index method was also used and the effects of the production, structure and energy efficiency to changes in sub-sectoral manufacturing energy use were further assessed. Primary physical energy efficiency improved by 28% for the iron and steel and by 9% for the non-metallic minerals industries, compared to the base year 1990. For the food, beverages and tobacco and the paper sub-sectors, primary efficiency deteriorated by 20% and by 15%, respectively; finally electricity efficiency deteriorated by 7% for the non-ferrous metals. Sub-sectoral energy use is mainly driven by production output and energy efficiency changes. Sensitivity analysis showed that alternative SEC values do not influence the results whereas the selected base year is more critical for this analysis. Significant efficiency improvements refer to 'heavy' industry; 'light' industry needs further attention by energy policy to modernize its production plants and improve its efficiency

Energy use in the Greek manufacturing sector: A methodological framework based on physical indicators with aggregation and decomposition analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Salta, Myrsine; Polatidis, Heracles; Haralambopoulos, Dias [Energy Management Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, University Hill, Mytilene 81100 (Greece)

2009-01-15

A bottom-up methodological framework was developed and applied for the period 1985-2002, to selected manufacturing sub-sectors in Greece namely, food, beverages and tobacco, iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, non-metallic minerals and paper. Disaggregate physical data were aggregated according to their specific energy consumption (SEC) values and physical energy efficiency indicators were estimated. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia index method was also used and the effects of the production, structure and energy efficiency to changes in sub-sectoral manufacturing energy use were further assessed. Primary physical energy efficiency improved by 28% for the iron and steel and by 9% for the non-metallic minerals industries, compared to the base year 1990. For the food, beverages and tobacco and the paper sub-sectors, primary efficiency deteriorated by 20% and by 15%, respectively; finally electricity efficiency deteriorated by 7% for the non-ferrous metals. Sub-sectoral energy use is mainly driven by production output and energy efficiency changes. Sensitivity analysis showed that alternative SEC values do not influence the results whereas the selected base year is more critical for this analysis. Significant efficiency improvements refer to ''heavy'' industry; ''light'' industry needs further attention by energy policy to modernize its production plants and improve its efficiency. (author)

Underestimated Benefits from Periphery: Internal Migration and Subjective Well-being

OpenAIRE

Kopmann, Angela; Rehdanz, Katrin

2014-01-01

This paper is among the first to link internal migration and subjective well-being in developed countries. Economic theory predicts that individuals migrate towards urban agglomerations, if the potential gain in income is sufficient to cover costs. However, this narrow view cannot explain why migration exists also to the rural periphery. In our analysis, we investigate non-monetary benefits beyond economics from internal migration. Using highly disaggregated spatial information on people s mi...

Physical Properties of Human Whole Salivary Mucin:A Dynamic Light Scattering Study

Science.gov (United States)

Mahajan, Manish; Kumar, Vijay; Saraswat, Mayank; Yadav, Savita; Shukla, N. K.; Singh, T. P.

2008-04-01

Human salivary mucin, a primary mucous membrane coating glycoprotein forms the first line of defense against adverse environments, attributed to the complex formation between mucin subunits and non mucin species. Aim of the study was to emphasize the effect of pH, denaturants (guanidinum hydrochloride, urea) and detergents (CHAPS, TRITON X -100, SDS on human whole salivary mucin. Hydrodynamic size distribution was measured using DLS. It was observed that aggregation was due to increase in hydrophobic interactions, believed to be accomplished by unfolding of the protein core. Whereas, the detergents which solubilize the proteins by decreasing hydrophobicity lead to disaggregation of mucin into smaller fragments. Mucin subjected to tobacco extract and upon subsequent addition of nicotine was found to have a disaggregating effect on it, suggesting nicotine may be one of the factors responsible for the disaggregating effect of tobacco on mucin, an important carcinogenetic mechanism.

The Science of Salt: A focused review on salt-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors, and gender differences.

Science.gov (United States)

McKenzie, Briar; Santos, Joseph Alvin; Trieu, Kathy; Thout, Sudhir Raj; Johnson, Claire; Arcand, JoAnne; Webster, Jacqui; McLean, Rachael

2018-05-02

The aim of the current review was to examine the scope of studies published in the Science of Salt Weekly that contained a measure of self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and behavior (KAB) concerning salt. Specific objectives were to examine how KAB measures are used to evaluate salt reduction intervention studies, the questionnaires used, and whether any gender differences exist in self-reported KAB. Studies were reviewed from the commencement of Science of Salt Weekly, June 2013 to the end of August 2017. Seventy-five studies had relevant measures of KAB and were included in this review, 13 of these were salt-reduction intervention-evaluation studies, with the remainder (62) being descriptive KAB studies. The KAB questionnaires used were specific to the populations studied, without evidence of a best practice measure. 40% of studies used KAB alone as the primary outcome measure; the remaining studies used more quantitative measures of salt intake such as 24-hour urine. Only half of the descriptive studies showed KAB outcomes disaggregated by gender, and of those, 73% showed women had more favorable KAB related to salt. None of the salt intervention-evaluation studies showed disaggregated KAB data. Therefore, it is likely important that evaluation studies disaggregate, and are appropriately powered to disaggregate all outcomes by gender to address potential disparities. ©2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

China's numerical management system for reducing national energy intensity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Huimin; Zhao, Xiaofan; Yu, Yuqing; Wu, Tong; Qi, Ye

2016-01-01

In China, the national target for energy intensity reduction, when integrated with target disaggregation and information feedback systems, constitutes a numerical management system, which is a hallmark of modern governance. This paper points out the technical weaknesses of China's current numerical management system. In the process of target disaggregation, the national target cannot be fully disaggregated to local governments, sectors and enterprises without omissions. At the same time, governments at lower levels face pressure for reducing energy intensity that exceeds their respective jurisdictions. In the process of information feedback, information failure is inevitable due to statistical inaccuracy. Furthermore, the monitoring system is unable to correct all errors, and data verification plays a limited role in the examination system. To address these problems, we recommend that the government: use total energy consumption as the primary indicator of energy management; reform the accounting and reporting of energy statistics toward greater consistency, timeliness and transparency; clearly define the responsibility of the higher levels of government. - Highlights: •We assess drawbacks of China's numerical management system for energy intensity. •The national energy intensity target cannot be fully disaggregated without omissions. •Data distortion is due to failures in statistics, monitoring and examination system. •Lower-level governments’ ability to meet energy target is weaker than their pressure. •We provide three policy recommendations for China's policy-makers.

Measuring industrial energy savings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelly Kissock, J.; Eger, Carl

2008-01-01

Accurate measurement of energy savings from industrial energy efficiency projects can reduce uncertainty about the efficacy of the projects, guide the selection of future projects, improve future estimates of expected savings, promote financing of energy efficiency projects through shared-savings agreements, and improve utilization of capital resources. Many efforts to measure industrial energy savings, or simply track progress toward efficiency goals, have had difficulty incorporating changing weather and production, which are frequently major drivers of plant energy use. This paper presents a general method for measuring plant-wide industrial energy savings that takes into account changing weather and production between the pre and post-retrofit periods. In addition, the method can disaggregate savings into components, which provides additional resolution for understanding the effectiveness of individual projects when several projects are implemented together. The method uses multivariable piece-wise regression models to characterize baseline energy use, and disaggregates savings by taking the total derivative of the energy use equation. Although the method incorporates search techniques, multi-variable least-squares regression and calculus, it is easily implemented using data analysis software, and can use readily available temperature, production and utility billing data. This is important, since more complicated methods may be too complex for widespread use. The method is demonstrated using case studies of actual energy assessments. The case studies demonstrate the importance of adjusting for weather and production between the pre- and post-retrofit periods, how plant-wide savings can be disaggregated to evaluate the effectiveness of individual retrofits, how the method can identify the time-dependence of savings, and limitations of engineering models when used to estimate future savings

Essays on the effects of human capital, innovation and technology on economic performance

OpenAIRE

Tiruneh, Esubalew Alehegn

2014-01-01

This thesis is on human capital (HC) and innovation in Germany and comprises of three essays. The first essay provides a comparative analysis on the economic performance impacts of creative class and HC at regional level with the purpose of testing whether the contemporary occupation-based creative class or the conventional education-based HC can be used as a better driver of regional economy. In doing so, I disaggregate creative class into creative core (scientific experts), creative profess...

Unión Europea e integración comercial : ¿resulta relevante el efecto frontera?

OpenAIRE

Martínez San Román, Valeriano; Bengoa Calvo, Marta; Sánchez-Robles Rute, Blanca

2012-01-01

ABSTRACT. This paper analyses the size of the border effect or home bias within the European Union (EU) with the aim to quantify its impact in the trade integration process which started in 1992. The gravity model serves as a general framework where the use of sectoral data allows obtaining a more accurate measure of the border effects. The econometric analysis applied to a gravity model that contains a high disaggregation in the data introduces heteroskedasticity problems t...

China's evolving role in global production networks: Implications for Trump's trade war

OpenAIRE

Athukorala, Prema-chandra

2017-01-01

This paper examines China's evolving role in global production networks and its implications for assessing the potential impact of the "trade war" declared by President Trump. The analysis, which is based on a systematic disaggregation of trade based on global production sharing into components and final assembly, suggests that the Sino-US trade gap is a structural phenomenon driven by the pivotal role played by China within East Asia cantered production networks. The global competitiveness o...

Gendered vulnerability to AIDS and its research implications

OpenAIRE

Wiegers, E.S.

2008-01-01

According to the various studies, AIDS affects all facets of people’s livelihoods through illness and death and the subsequent care for orphaned children. Much of this literature uses rural households affected by HIV/AIDS as the unit of analysis and do not disaggregate data by hosting orphans, AIDS-related chronic illness and AIDS death. However, the AIDS epidemic has resulted in increased appearance of households headed by widows, elderly and orphans; households with orphaned children; house...

Aid allocation through various official and private channels: need, merit and self-interest as motives of German donors

OpenAIRE

Nunnenkamp, Peter; Öhler, Hannes

2009-01-01

Previous literature largely ignores the heterogeneity of aid channels used by each single donor country. We estimate Tobit models to assess the relative importance of recipient need, recipient merit and self-interest of donors for various channels of official and private German aid across a large sample of recipient countries in 2005-2007. Our findings strongly underscore the need for a disaggregated analysis of aid allocation. Aid channels differ significantly in the extent to which need and...

On gender inequality and life satisfaction: Does discrimination matter?

OpenAIRE

Bjørnskov, Christian; Dreher, Axel; Fischer, Justina A. V.

2007-01-01

This paper analyzes the impact of gender discrimination on individual life satisfaction using a cross-section of 66 countries. We employ measures of discrimination of women in the economy, in politics, and in society more generally. According to our results, discrimination in politics is important to individual well-being. Overall, men and women are more satisfied with their lives when societies become more equal. Disaggregated analysis suggests that our results for men are driven by the effe...

From water use to water scarcity footprinting in environmentally extended input-output analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ridoutt, Bradley George; Hadjikakou, Michalis; Nolan, Martin; Bryan, Brett A

2018-05-18

Environmentally extended input-output analysis (EEIOA) supports environmental policy by quantifying how demand for goods and services leads to resource use and emissions across the economy. However, some types of resource use and emissions require spatially-explicit impact assessment for meaningful interpretation, which is not possible in conventional EEIOA. For example, water use in locations of scarcity and abundance is not environmentally equivalent. Opportunities for spatially-explicit impact assessment in conventional EEIOA are limited because official input-output tables tend to be produced at the scale of political units which are not usually well aligned with environmentally relevant spatial units. In this study, spatially-explicit water scarcity factors and a spatially disaggregated Australian water use account were used to develop water scarcity extensions that were coupled with a multi-regional input-output model (MRIO). The results link demand for agricultural commodities to the problem of water scarcity in Australia and globally. Important differences were observed between the water use and water scarcity footprint results, as well as the relative importance of direct and indirect water use, with significant implications for sustainable production and consumption-related policies. The approach presented here is suggested as a feasible general approach for incorporating spatially-explicit impact assessment in EEIOA.

An Alternative Approach to the Operation of Multinational Reservoir Systems: Application to the Amistad & Falcon System (Lower Rio Grande/Rí-o Bravo)

Science.gov (United States)

Serrat-Capdevila, A.; Valdes, J. B.

2005-12-01

An optimization approach for the operation of international multi-reservoir systems is presented. The approach uses Stochastic Dynamic Programming (SDP) algorithms, both steady-state and real-time, to develop two models. In the first model, the reservoirs and flows of the system are aggregated to yield an equivalent reservoir, and the obtained operating policies are disaggregated using a non-linear optimization procedure for each reservoir and for each nation water balance. In the second model a multi-reservoir approach is applied, disaggregating the releases for each country water share in each reservoir. The non-linear disaggregation algorithm uses SDP-derived operating policies as boundary conditions for a local time-step optimization. Finally, the performance of the different approaches and methods is compared. These models are applied to the Amistad-Falcon International Reservoir System as part of a binational dynamic modeling effort to develop a decision support system tool for a better management of the water resources in the Lower Rio Grande Basin, currently enduring a severe drought.

Energy prediction using spatiotemporal pattern networks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jiang, Zhanhong; Liu, Chao; Akintayo, Adedotun; Henze, Gregor P.; Sarkar, Soumik

2017-11-01

This paper presents a novel data-driven technique based on the spatiotemporal pattern network (STPN) for energy/power prediction for complex dynamical systems. Built on symbolic dynamical filtering, the STPN framework is used to capture not only the individual system characteristics but also the pair-wise causal dependencies among different sub-systems. To quantify causal dependencies, a mutual information based metric is presented and an energy prediction approach is subsequently proposed based on the STPN framework. To validate the proposed scheme, two case studies are presented, one involving wind turbine power prediction (supply side energy) using the Western Wind Integration data set generated by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for identifying spatiotemporal characteristics, and the other, residential electric energy disaggregation (demand side energy) using the Building America 2010 data set from NREL for exploring temporal features. In the energy disaggregation context, convex programming techniques beyond the STPN framework are developed and applied to achieve improved disaggregation performance.

Economic impacts of higher oil and gas prices. The role of international trade for Germany

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lutz, Christian; Meyer, Bernd

2009-01-01

The analysis concentrates on direct and indirect price increases, induced shifts in international trade and structural changes in the oil importing economies. The paper at hand asks, whether a stabilizing effect via international trade and domestic structural change on the GDP of oil importing countries can be observed, if a permanent oil price increase occurs. At least for Germany, structural change from consumer goods to investment goods industry and an improvement of international competitiveness limit negative impacts of increased energy prices. Analysis is based on the extensive and disaggregated global GINFORS model and the detailed INFORGE model for the German economy. (author)

Force Displacement Model of Compliant Mechanisms Using Assur Sub-Chains

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Durango, Sebastian; Correa, Jorge; Aristizabal, Mauricio

2011-01-01

of ordinary mechanisms, (ii) to solve the equilibrium problem by means of a static analysis and (iii) to model the flexures behavior through a deflection analysis. The novel contribution of this article relies on the fact that a division strategy of the CM into Assur sub-chains is implemented, so that any CM...... subjected to such disaggregation can be accurately modeled. For this purpose a mathematical model for the leaf-spring flexure type is presented and used through this paper. However, any other flexure model can be used instead. To support the technique, a three Degree-Of-Freedom (3-DOF) flexurebased parallel...

Newly independent Bank of Japan reduces information disclosure

OpenAIRE

Werner, Richard A.

1998-01-01

To assess the economy and the role of the central bank, data on bank credit creation is crucial. Such data is produced by the central bank, creating a conflict of interest. The Japanese central bank, like many other central banks, only publishes such data after substantial time delays, although available to the central bank virtually in real time. Furthermore, the central bank has stopped the publication of detailed disaggregated credit data, which is vital for economic analysis and the appli...

Development of State Interindustry Models for Rocky Mountain Region and California

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sathaye, Jayant A.; Kunin, Leonard

1976-02-01

Interindustry tables have been developed for the eight Rocky Mountain States and California. These tables are based on the 367-order 1967 national interindustry table. The national matrix was expanded to 404 sectors by disaggregating the seven minerals industries to 44 industries. The state tables can be used for energy and other resource analysis. Regional impacts of alternate development strategies can be evaluated with their use. A general computer program has been developed to facilitate construction of state interindustry tables.

Handling the Multiplicity of Solutions in a Moea Based PDA-THESEUS Framework for Multi-Criteria Sorting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Covantes Edgar

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes the combination of the THESEUS multi-criteria sorting method with an evolutionary optimization-based preference-disaggregation analysis. The main features of the combined method are studied by performing an extensive computer experiment that explores many models of preferences and sizes of problems as well as different degrees of decision-maker involvement. As a result of the experiment, the effectiveness of the combined framework and the importance of the decision-maker’s involvement are characterized.

Applied systems theory as a means for studying the function and dynamics of living space used for agro-silviculture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grossmann, W D; Schneider, T W

1980-09-01

Applied systems theories are sensitive tools for analysing the functions and dynamics of agrosilvicultural systems. Major interactions within and between agrosilvicultural systems and the natural and socio-economic environment are represented by corresponding interactions within a hierarchy of system models. A new meta-criteria analysis quantifies the variables of agrosilvicultural systems and produces indicators for assessing the stability or instability of the whole system complex. Two highly disaggregated models predict growth and yield and analyse structure and floristic variation of forest systems.

34 CFR 200.7 - Disaggregation of data.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... minimum group size, interact to affect the statistical reliability of the data and to ensure the maximum... group size meets the requirements of paragraph (a)(2)(i) of this section; (B) An explanation of how... size to produce statistically reliable results, the State must still include students in that subgroup...

Democratic Legitimacy, International Institutions and Cosmopolitan Disaggregation

OpenAIRE

Álvarez, David

2016-01-01

The paper explores Thomas Christiano’s conception of international legitimacy. It argues that his account fails to fully appreciate the instrumental constraints that international legitimacy imposes on national democracies. His model of Fair Voluntary Association articulates the transmission of political legitimacy through a double aggregation of political consent. First, it “pools” its authority from the foundational cosmopolitan claims of individuals involved in a deeply i...

Risk-based input-output analysis of influenza epidemic consequences on interdependent workforce sectors.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Joost R; May, Larissa; Haimar, Amine El

2013-09-01

Outbreaks of contagious diseases underscore the ever-looming threat of new epidemics. Compared to other disasters that inflict physical damage to infrastructure systems, epidemics can have more devastating and prolonged impacts on the population. This article investigates the interdependent economic and productivity risks resulting from epidemic-induced workforce absenteeism. In particular, we develop a dynamic input-output model capable of generating sector-disaggregated economic losses based on different magnitudes of workforce disruptions. An ex post analysis of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in the national capital region (NCR) reveals the distribution of consequences across different economic sectors. Consequences are categorized into two metrics: (i) economic loss, which measures the magnitude of monetary losses incurred in each sector, and (ii) inoperability, which measures the normalized monetary losses incurred in each sector relative to the total economic output of that sector. For a simulated mild pandemic scenario in NCR, two distinct rankings are generated using the economic loss and inoperability metrics. Results indicate that the majority of the critical sectors ranked according to the economic loss metric comprise of sectors that contribute the most to the NCR's gross domestic product (e.g., federal government enterprises). In contrast, the majority of the critical sectors generated by the inoperability metric include sectors that are involved with epidemic management (e.g., hospitals). Hence, prioritizing sectors for recovery necessitates consideration of the balance between economic loss, inoperability, and other objectives. Although applied specifically to the NCR, the proposed methodology can be customized for other regions. © 2012 Society for Risk Analysis.

Investment behaviour in individual nontransferable quota systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Frank; Andersen, Jesper Levring; Jensen, Carsten Lynge

2012-01-01

This article studies the investment behaviour of the Danish demersal fishery in the North Sea. For the study period, this fishery is regulated by variants of individual nontransferable quotas. It is shown that interest rates and capital stocks are primary determinants of investments. Another......, the variance of the estimated parameters is lower in the disaggregated models. This result arises because vessels in the disaggregated models are more homogeneous. Furthermore, investments in machinery, electronics and vessels are governed by one year lagged variables, while investment in gears is governed...

A generic method for improving the spatial interoperability of medical and ecological databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghenassia, A; Beuscart, J B; Ficheur, G; Occelli, F; Babykina, E; Chazard, E; Genin, M

2017-10-03

The availability of big data in healthcare and the intensive development of data reuse and georeferencing have opened up perspectives for health spatial analysis. However, fine-scale spatial studies of ecological and medical databases are limited by the change of support problem and thus a lack of spatial unit interoperability. The use of spatial disaggregation methods to solve this problem introduces errors into the spatial estimations. Here, we present a generic, two-step method for merging medical and ecological databases that avoids the use of spatial disaggregation methods, while maximizing the spatial resolution. Firstly, a mapping table is created after one or more transition matrices have been defined. The latter link the spatial units of the original databases to the spatial units of the final database. Secondly, the mapping table is validated by (1) comparing the covariates contained in the two original databases, and (2) checking the spatial validity with a spatial continuity criterion and a spatial resolution index. We used our novel method to merge a medical database (the French national diagnosis-related group database, containing 5644 spatial units) with an ecological database (produced by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, and containing with 36,594 spatial units). The mapping table yielded 5632 final spatial units. The mapping table's validity was evaluated by comparing the number of births in the medical database and the ecological databases in each final spatial unit. The median [interquartile range] relative difference was 2.3% [0; 5.7]. The spatial continuity criterion was low (2.4%), and the spatial resolution index was greater than for most French administrative areas. Our innovative approach improves interoperability between medical and ecological databases and facilitates fine-scale spatial analyses. We have shown that disaggregation models and large aggregation techniques are not necessarily the best ways to

A coupled weather generator - rainfall-runoff approach on hourly time steps for flood risk analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Winter, Benjamin; Schneeberger, Klaus; Dung Nguyen, Viet; Vorogushyn, Sergiy; Huttenlau, Matthias; Merz, Bruno; Stötter, Johann

2017-04-01

The evaluation of potential monetary damage of flooding is an essential part of flood risk management. One possibility to estimate the monetary risk is to analyze long time series of observed flood events and their corresponding damages. In reality, however, only few flood events are documented. This limitation can be overcome by the generation of a set of synthetic, physically and spatial plausible flood events and subsequently the estimation of the resulting monetary damages. In the present work, a set of synthetic flood events is generated by a continuous rainfall-runoff simulation in combination with a coupled weather generator and temporal disaggregation procedure for the study area of Vorarlberg (Austria). Most flood risk studies focus on daily time steps, however, the mesoscale alpine study area is characterized by short concentration times, leading to large differences between daily mean and daily maximum discharge. Accordingly, an hourly time step is needed for the simulations. The hourly metrological input for the rainfall-runoff model is generated in a two-step approach. A synthetic daily dataset is generated by a multivariate and multisite weather generator and subsequently disaggregated to hourly time steps with a k-Nearest-Neighbor model. Following the event generation procedure, the negative consequences of flooding are analyzed. The corresponding flood damage for each synthetic event is estimated by combining the synthetic discharge at representative points of the river network with a loss probability relation for each community in the study area. The loss probability relation is based on exposure and susceptibility analyses on a single object basis (residential buildings) for certain return periods. For these impact analyses official inundation maps of the study area are used. Finally, by analyzing the total event time series of damages, the expected annual damage or losses associated with a certain probability of occurrence can be estimated for

An economic analysis of migration in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenwood, M J; Ladman, J R

1978-07-01

This paper analyzes internal migration in Mexico over the 1960-70 period. A model of the determinants of migration is specified and estimated for aggregated interstate migration flows. Results show that distance serves as a significant deterrent to migration, that higher destination earning levels are attractive to migrants, and that regions with high unemployment rates experience lower rates of inmigration. An unanticipated finding is that regions with higher earning levels have greater rates of outmigration. The data are disaggregated to examine separate migration relationships for each state. The results are that distance is a lesser deterrent for those migrants with more accessible alternatives, that higher earning levels reduce the deterring effects of distance, and that regions with higher earning levels have lower associated elasticities of migration. It is concluded that economic factors have played a crucial role in internal migration and thus in the changing occupational and geographic structure of the Mexican labor force.

Disaggregating the Distal, Proximal, and Time-Varying Effects of Parent Alcoholism on Children's Internalizing Symptoms

Science.gov (United States)

Hussong, A. M.; Cai, L.; Curran, P. J.; Flora, D. B.; Chassin, L. A.; Zucker, R. A.

2008-01-01

We tested whether children show greater internalizing symptoms when their parents are actively abusing alcohol. In an integrative data analysis, we combined observations over ages 2 through 17 from two longitudinal studies of children of alcoholic parents and matched controls recruited from the community. Using a mixed modeling approach, we tested…

Input-output model of regional environmental and economic impacts of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, M.H.; Bennett, J.T.

1979-01-01

The costs of delayed licensing of nuclear power plants calls for a more-comprehensive method of quantifying the economic and environmental impacts on a region. A traditional input-output (I-O) analysis approach is extended to assess the effects of changes in output, income, employment, pollution, water consumption, and the costs and revenues of local government disaggregated among 23 industry sectors during the construction and operating phases. Unlike earlier studies, this model uses nonlinear environmental interactions and specifies environmental feedbacks to the economic sector. 20 references

Spatial Disaggregation of CO2 Emissions for the State of California

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

de la Rue du Can, Stephane; de la Rue du Can, Stephane; Wenzel, Tom; Fischer, Marc

2008-06-11

This report allocates California's 2004 statewide carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fuel combustion to the 58 counties in the state. The total emissions are allocated to counties using several different methods, based on the availability of data for each sector. Data on natural gas use in all sectors are available by county. Fuel consumption by power and combined heat and power generation plants is available for individual plants. Bottom-up models were used to distribute statewide fuel sales-based CO2 emissions by county for on-road vehicles, aircraft, and watercraft. All other sources of CO2 emissions were allocated to counties based on surrogates for activity. CO2 emissions by sector were estimated for each county, as well as for the South Coast Air Basin. It is important to note that emissions from some sources, notably electricity generation, were allocated to counties based on where the emissions were generated, rather than where the electricity was actually consumed. In addition, several sources of CO2 emissions, such as electricity generated in and imported from other states and international marine bunker fuels, were not included in the analysis. California Air Resource Board (CARB) does not include CO2 emissions from interstate and international air travel, in the official California greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, so those emissions were allocated to counties for informational purposes only. Los Angeles County is responsible for by far the largest CO2 emissions from combustion in the state: 83 Million metric tonnes (Mt), or 24percent of total CO2 emissions in California, more than twice that of the next county (Kern, with 38 Mt, or 11percent of statewide emissions). The South Coast Air Basin accounts for 122 MtCO2, or 35percent of all emissions from fuel combustion in the state. The distribution of emissions by sector varies considerably by county, with on-road motor vehicles dominating most counties, but large stationary sources and rail travel

Model for Analysis of Energy Demand (MAED-2)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

The IAEA has been supporting its Member States in the area of energy planning for sustainable development. Development and dissemination of appropriate methodologies and their computer codes are important parts of this support. This manual has been produced to facilitate the use of the MAED model: Model for Analysis of Energy Demand. The methodology of the MAED model was originally developed by. B. Chateau and B. Lapillonne of the Institute Economique et Juridique de l'Energie (IEJE) of the University of Grenoble, France, and was presented as the MEDEE model. Since then the MEDEE model has been developed and adopted to be appropriate for modelling of various energy demand system. The IAEA adopted MEDEE-2 model and incorporated important modifications to make it more suitable for application in the developing countries, and it was named as the MAED model. The first version of the MAED model was designed for the DOS based system, which was later on converted for the Windows system. This manual presents the latest version of the MAED model. The most prominent feature of this version is its flexibility for representing structure of energy consumption. The model now allows country-specific representations of energy consumption patterns using the MAED methodology. The user can now disaggregate energy consumption according to the needs and/or data availability in her/his country. As such, MAED has now become a powerful tool for modelling widely diverse energy consumption patterns. This manual presents the model in details and provides guidelines for its application

A multi-sectoral decomposition analysis of city-level greenhouse gas emissions: Case study of Tianjin, China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Jidong; Zhao, Tao; Liu, Nan; Zhang, Xin; Xu, Xianshuo; Lin, Tao

2014-01-01

To better understand how city-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have evolved, we performed a multi-sectoral decomposition analysis to disentangle the GHG emissions in Tianjin from 2001 to 2009. Five sectors were considered, including the agricultural, industrial, transportation, commercial and other sectors. An industrial sub-sector decomposition analysis was further performed in the six high-emission industrial branches. The results show that, for all five sectors in Tianjin, economic growth was the most important factor driving the increase in emissions, while energy efficiency improvements were primarily responsible for the decrease in emissions. In comparison, the influences from energy mix shift and emission coefficient changes were relatively marginal. The disaggregated decomposition in the industry further revealed that energy efficiency improvement has been widely achieved in the industrial branches, which was especially true for the Smelting and Pressing of Ferrous Metals and Chemical Raw Materials and Chemical Products sub-sectors. However, the energy efficiency declined in a few branches, e.g., Petroleum Processing and Coking Products. Moreover, the increased emissions related to industrial structure shift were primarily due to the expansion of Smelting and Pressing of Ferrous Metals; its share in the total industry output increased from 5.62% to 16.1% during the examined period. - Highlights: • We perform the LMDI analysis on the emissions in five sectors of Tianjin. • Economic growth was the most important factor for the emissions increase. • Energy efficiency improvements mainly contributed to the emission decrease. • Negative energy intensity effect was observed in most of the industrial sub-sectors. • Industrial structure change largely resulted in emission increase

Effects of Contrast Media on Blood Rheology: Comparison in Humans, Pigs, and Sheep

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laurent, Alexandre; Durussel, Jean Jacques; Dufaux, Jacques; Penhouet, Laurence; Bailly, Anne Laure; Bonneau, Michel; Merland, Jean Jacques

1999-01-01

Purpose: To compare whole blood viscosity and erythrocyte aggregation in humans, pigs, and sheep, before and after adding water-soluble iodinated contrast medium (CM). Methods: Two CMs were studied: iopromide (nonionic) and ioxaglate (ionic). The blood-CM viscosity was measured with a Couette viscometer. Erythrocyte aggregation was measured with an erythroaggregometer. Results: The blood-CM viscosity was increased up to +20% (relative to pure blood) with a CM concentration of 0%-10%. At CM concentrations from 10% to 50%, the viscosity decreased. The disaggregation shear stress was increased (relative to pure blood) at low CM concentration (0%-10%). When the CM concentration increased from 10% to 20%, the disaggregation shear stress was decreased, except with the pig blood-ioxaglate mixture. Conclusion: At low CM concentration the blood viscosity was increased in pig, sheep, and humans and the disaggregation shear stress was increased in pig and humans. The aggregation of sheep blood was too low to be detected by the erythroaggregometer. This rise can be explained by the formation of poorly deformable echinocytes. At higher CM concentration, the viscosity and the disaggregation shear stress decreased in relation to the blood dilution. We conclude that pig blood and sheep blood can both be used to study the effect of CM injection on blood viscosity. Nevertheless, the rheologic behavior of pig blood in terms of erythrocyte aggregation is closer to that of human blood than is sheep blood when mixed with CM. Pigs could thus be more suitable than sheep for in vivo studies of CM miscibility with blood during selective cannulation procedures

Seasonal streamflow prediction by a combined climate-hydrologic system for river basins of Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Kuo, Chun-Chao; Gan, Thian Yew; Yu, Pao-Shan

2010-06-01

SummaryA combined, climate-hydrologic system with three components to predict the streamflow of two river basins of Taiwan at one season (3-month) lead time for the NDJ and JFM seasons was developed. The first component consists of the wavelet-based, ANN-GA model (Artificial Neural Network calibrated by Genetic Algorithm) which predicts the seasonal rainfall by using selected sea surface temperature (SST) as predictors, given that SST are generally predictable by climate models up to 6-month lead time. For the second component, three disaggregation models, Valencia and Schaake (VS), Lane, and Canonical Random Cascade Model (CRCM), were tested to compare the accuracy of seasonal rainfall disaggregated by these three models to 3-day time scale rainfall data. The third component consists of the continuous rainfall-runoff model modified from HBV (called the MHBV) and calibrated by a global optimization algorithm against the observed rainfall and streamflow data of the Shihmen and Tsengwen river basins of Taiwan. The proposed system was tested, first by disaggregating the predicted seasonal rainfall of ANN-GA to rainfall of 3-day time step using the Lane model; then the disaggregated rainfall data was used to drive the calibrated MHBV to predict the streamflow for both river basins at 3-day time step up to a season's lead time. Overall, the streamflow predicted by this combined system for the NDJ season, which is better than that of the JFM season, will be useful for the seasonal planning and management of water resources of these two river basins of Taiwan.

A strategy for reducing CO_2 emissions from buildings with the Kaya identity – A Swiss energy system analysis and a case study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mavromatidis, Georgios; Orehounig, Kristina; Richner, Peter; Carmeliet, Jan

2016-01-01

Within the general context of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions reduction, decomposition analysis allows the quantification of the contribution of different factors to changes in emissions as well as the assessment of the effectiveness of policy and technology measures. The Kaya identity has been widely used for that purpose in order to disaggregate carbon emissions into various driving forces. In this paper, it is applied for the analysis of emissions resulting from energy use at three different scales. First, a decomposition analysis of the carbon emissions for the complete Swiss energy system is presented using the future projections from the Swiss Energy Strategy 2050. The Kaya identity is then applied to the Swiss building sector after it is adapted with factors that are more relatable to building parameters, such as floor area instead of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Finally, the last level of analysis is a small scale community energy system for a unique Swiss village that aims to significantly reduce its emissions. An energy strategy is developed and its effectiveness is assessed with the adapted Kaya identity and benchmarked against the Swiss average values. The presented method demonstrates how the performance of buildings under various retrofitting scenarios can be benchmarked against future emission targets. - Highlights: • The Kaya identity is used to perform multi-scale emission decomposition analysis. • The original Kaya identity is updated with building-related parameters. • The main drivers of emissions reduction of the Swiss building stock are determined. • An energy strategy to transform the building stock of a Swiss village is developed. • The performance of efficiency measures are benchmarked using the Kaya identity.

High-pressure homogenization associated hydrothermal process of palygorskite for enhanced adsorption of Methylene blue

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Zhifang [Center of Eco-materials and Green Chemistry, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China); University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China); Wang, Wenbo [Center of Eco-materials and Green Chemistry, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China); R& D Center of Xuyi Attapulgite Applied Technology, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xuyi 211700 (China); Wang, Aiqin, E-mail: aqwang@licp.cas.cn [Center of Eco-materials and Green Chemistry, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000 (China); R& D Center of Xuyi Attapulgite Applied Technology, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xuyi 211700 (China)

2015-02-28

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Palygorskite was modified by a homogenization associated hydrothermal process. • The crystal bundles of PAL were disaggregated efficiently after modification. • The adsorption of palygorskite for Methylene blue was greatly enhanced. • MB-loaded palygorskite exhibits excellent resistance to acid and alkali solution. - Abstract: Palygorskite (PAL) was modified by a high-pressure homogenization assisted hydrothermal process. The effects of modification on the morphology, structure and physicochemical properties of PAL were systematically investigated by Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Zeta potential analysis techniques, and the adsorption properties were systematically evaluated using Methylene blue (MB) as the model dye. The results revealed that the crystal bundles were disaggregated and the PAL nanorods became more even after treated via associated high-pressure homogenization and hydrothermal process, and the crystal bundles were dispersed as nanorods. The intrinsic crystal structure of PAL was remained after hydrothermal treatment, and the pore size calculated by the BET method was increased. The adsorption properties of PAL for MB were evidently improved (from 119 mg/g to 171 mg/g) after modification, and the dispersion of PAL before hydrothermal reaction is favorable to the adsorption. The desorption evaluation confirms that the modified PAL has stronger affinity with MB, which is benefit to fabricate a stable organic–inorganic hybrid pigment.

A model-based evaluation of Marine Protected Areas: the example of eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua callarias L.)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kraus, Gerd; Pelletier, Dominique; Dubreuil, Julien

2009-01-01

The eastern Baltic cod stock collapsed as a consequence of climate-driven adverse hydrographic conditions and over fishing and has remained at historically low levels. Spatio-temporal fishing closures [Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)] have been implemented since 1995, to protect and restore......, combining an age-structured population module with a multifleet exploitation module and a management module in a single model environment. The model is parameterized based on (i) the large amount of biological knowledge available for cod and (ii) an analysis of existing spatially disaggregated fishery data...

Protein supply and nutritional status in nineteenth century Bavaria, Prussia and France.

Science.gov (United States)

Baten, Joerg

2009-07-01

What determined regional height differences in the 19th century? We compare anthropometric evidence with production estimates of different food products and other economic variables. To this end, we concentrate on 179 rural regions and 29 towns in Bavaria (Southeast Germany). This regionally disaggregated level of analysis enables us to study the influence of the local supply of different food products on the nutritional status of the population, among which milk turned out particularly important. This result is tested and confirmed with regional data from Prussia and France.

Residential energy use in Mexico: Structure, evolution, environmental impacts, and savings potential

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Masera, O.; Friedmann, R.; deBuen, O.

1993-05-01

This article examines the characteristics of residential energy use in Mexico, its environmental impacts, and the savings potential of the major end-uses. The main options and barriers to increase the efficiency of energy use are discussed. The energy analysis is based on a disaggregation of residential energy use by end-uses. The dynamics of the evolution of the residential energy sector during the past 20 years are also addressed when the information is available. Major areas for research and for innovative decision-making are identified and prioritized.

Modular organization and hospital performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuntz, Ludwig; Vera, Antonio

2007-02-01

The concept of modularization represents a modern form of organization, which contains the vertical disaggregation of the firm and the use of market mechanisms within hierarchies. The objective of this paper is to examine whether the use of modular structures has a positive effect on hospital performance. The empirical section makes use of multiple regression analyses and leads to the main result that modularization does not have a positive effect on hospital performance. However, the analysis also finds out positive efficiency effects of two central ideas of modularization, namely process orientation and internal market mechanisms.

Spatial econometrics using microdata

CERN Document Server

Dubé, Jean

2014-01-01

This book provides an introduction to spatial analyses concerning disaggregated (or micro) spatial data.Particular emphasis is put on spatial data compilation and the structuring of the connections between the observations. Descriptive analysis methods of spatial data are presented in order to identify and measure the spatial, global and local dependency.The authors then focus on autoregressive spatial models, to control the problem of spatial dependency between the residues of a basic linear statistical model, thereby contravening one of the basic hypotheses of the ordinary least squares appr

NEW APPROACHES TO EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alina Petronela NEGREA

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The economic literature and the political discourse typically look at international competitiveness mainly by the means of export market shares. However, globalisation, production fragmentation and the growing importance of global value chains (GVCs increasingly challenge traditional approaches of export competitiveness and call for a more accurate and disaggregated level of analysis. Due to the growing fragmentation of production, a country exports now include a significant amount of imports of intermediate goods which are part of the export value. In this case, a simple analysis of the evolution of exports can distort the international competitive position of a country. The article suggests a new approach based on the value-added content of international trade measured by means of global value chain analysis.

Spatial configuration trends in coastal Louisiana from 1985 to 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Couvillion, Brady; Fischer, Michelle; Beck, Holly J.; Sleavin, William J.

2016-01-01

From 1932 to 2010, coastal Louisiana has experienced a net loss of 4877 km2 of wetlands. As the area of these wetlands has changed, so too has the spatial configuration of the landscape. The resulting landscape is a mosaic of patches of wetlands and open water. This study examined the spatial and temporal variability of trajectories of landscape configuration and the relation of those patterns to the trajectories of land change in wetlands during a 1985–2010 observation period. Spatial configuration was quantified using multi-temporal satellite imagery and an aggregation index (AI). The results of this analysis indicate that coastal Louisiana experienced a reduction in the AI of coastal wetlands of 1.07 %. In general, forested wetland and fresh marsh types displayed the highest aggregation and stability. The remaining marsh types, (intermediate, brackish, and saline) all experienced disaggregation during the time period, with increasing severity of disaggregation along an increasing salinity gradient. Finally, a correlation (r 2 = 0.5562) was found between AI and the land change rate for the subsequent period, indicating that fragmentation can increase the vulnerability of wetlands to further wetland loss. These results can help identify coastal areas which are susceptible to future wetland loss.

Environmental degradation, economic growth and energy consumption: Evidence of the environmental Kuznets curve in Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saboori, Behnaz; Sulaiman, Jamalludin

2013-01-01

This paper tests for the short and long-run relationship between economic growth, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and energy consumption, using the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) by employing both the aggregated and disaggregated energy consumption data in Malaysia for the period 1980–2009. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) methodology and Johansen–Juselius maximum likelihood approach were used to test the cointegration relationship; and the Granger causality test, based on the vector error correction model (VECM), to test for causality. The study does not support an inverted U-shaped relationship (EKC) when aggregated energy consumption data was used. When data was disaggregated based on different energy sources such as oil, coal, gas and electricity, the study does show evidences of the EKC hypothesis. The long-run Granger causality test shows that there is bi-directional causality between economic growth and CO 2 emissions, with coal, gas, electricity and oil consumption. This suggests that decreasing energy consumption such as coal, gas, electricity and oil appears to be an effective way to control CO 2 emissions but simultaneously will hinder economic growth. Thus suitable policies related to the efficient consumption of energy resources and consumption of renewable sources are required. - Highlights: • We investigated the EKC hypothesis by using Malaysian energy aggregated and disaggregated data. • It was found that the EKC is not supported, using the aggregated data (energy consumption). • However using disaggregated energy data (oil, coal and electricity) there is evidence of EKC. • Causality shows no causal relationship between economic growth and energy consumption in the short-run. • Economic growth Granger causes energy consumption and energy consumption causes CO 2 emissions in long-run

Relative health effects of education, socioeconomic status and domestic gender inequity in Sweden: a cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Susan P; Hammarström, Anne

2011-01-01

Limited existing research on gender inequities suggests that for men workplace atmosphere shapes wellbeing while women are less susceptible to socioeconomic or work status but vulnerable to home inequities. Using the 2007 Northern Swedish Cohort (n = 773) we identified relative contributions of perceived gender inequities in relationships, financial strain, and education to self-reported health to determine whether controlling for sex, examining interactions between sex and other social variables, or sex-disaggregating data yielded most information about sex differences. Men had lower education but also less financial strain, and experienced less gender inequity. Overall, low education and financial strain detracted from health. However, sex-disaggregated data showed this to be true for women, whereas for men only gender inequity at home affected health. In the relatively egalitarian Swedish environment where women more readily enter all work arenas and men often provide parenting, traditional primacy of the home environment (for women) and the work environment (for men) in shaping health is reversing such that perceived domestic gender inequity has a significant health impact on men, while for women only education and financial strain are contributory. These outcomes were identified only when data were sex-disaggregated.

Biofuels policy and the US market for motor fuels: Empirical analysis of ethanol splashing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Walls, W.D., E-mail: wdwalls@ucalgary.ca [Department of Economics, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4 (Canada); Rusco, Frank; Kendix, Michael [US GAO (United States)

2011-07-15

Low ethanol prices relative to the price of gasoline blendstock, and tax credits, have resulted in discretionary blending at wholesale terminals of ethanol into fuel supplies above required levels-a practice known as ethanol splashing in industry parlance. No one knows precisely where or in what volume ethanol is being blended with gasoline and this has important implications for motor fuels markets: Because refiners cannot perfectly predict where ethanol will be blended with finished gasoline by wholesalers, they cannot know when to produce and where to ship a blendstock that when mixed with ethanol at 10% would create the most economically efficient finished motor gasoline that meets engine standards and has comparable evaporative emissions as conventional gasoline without ethanol blending. In contrast to previous empirical analyses of biofuels that have relied on highly aggregated data, our analysis is disaggregated to the level of individual wholesale fuel terminals or racks (of which there are about 350 in the US). We incorporate the price of ethanol as well as the blendstock price to model the wholesaler's decision of whether or not to blend additional ethanol into gasoline at any particular wholesale city-terminal. The empirical analysis illustrates how ethanol and gasoline prices affect ethanol usage, controlling for fuel specifications, blend attributes, and city-terminal-specific effects that, among other things, control for differential costs of delivering ethanol from bio-refinery to wholesale rack. - Research Highlights: > Low ethanol prices and tax credits have resulted in discretionary blending of ethanol into fuel supplies above required levels. > This has important implications for motor fuels markets and vehicular emissions. > Our analysis incorporates the price of ethanol as well as the blendstock price to model the wholesaler's decision of whether or not to blend additional ethanol into gasoline at any particular wholesale city

Biofuels policy and the US market for motor fuels: Empirical analysis of ethanol splashing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walls, W.D.; Rusco, Frank; Kendix, Michael

2011-01-01

Low ethanol prices relative to the price of gasoline blendstock, and tax credits, have resulted in discretionary blending at wholesale terminals of ethanol into fuel supplies above required levels-a practice known as ethanol splashing in industry parlance. No one knows precisely where or in what volume ethanol is being blended with gasoline and this has important implications for motor fuels markets: Because refiners cannot perfectly predict where ethanol will be blended with finished gasoline by wholesalers, they cannot know when to produce and where to ship a blendstock that when mixed with ethanol at 10% would create the most economically efficient finished motor gasoline that meets engine standards and has comparable evaporative emissions as conventional gasoline without ethanol blending. In contrast to previous empirical analyses of biofuels that have relied on highly aggregated data, our analysis is disaggregated to the level of individual wholesale fuel terminals or racks (of which there are about 350 in the US). We incorporate the price of ethanol as well as the blendstock price to model the wholesaler's decision of whether or not to blend additional ethanol into gasoline at any particular wholesale city-terminal. The empirical analysis illustrates how ethanol and gasoline prices affect ethanol usage, controlling for fuel specifications, blend attributes, and city-terminal-specific effects that, among other things, control for differential costs of delivering ethanol from bio-refinery to wholesale rack. - Research highlights: → Low ethanol prices and tax credits have resulted in discretionary blending of ethanol into fuel supplies above required levels. → This has important implications for motor fuels markets and vehicular emissions. → Our analysis incorporates the price of ethanol as well as the blendstock price to model the wholesaler's decision of whether or not to blend additional ethanol into gasoline at any particular wholesale city-terminal. �

Organization, structure, and performance in the US nuclear power industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lester, R.K.

1986-01-01

Several propositions are advanced concerning the effects of industry organization and structure on the economic performance of the American commercial nuclear power industry. Both the electric utility industry and the nuclear power plant supply industry are relatively high degree of horizontal disaggregation. The latter is also characterized by an absence of vertical integration. The impact of each of these factors on construction and operating performance is discussed. Evidence is presented suggesting that the combination of horizontal and vertical disaggregation in the industry has had a significant adverse effect on economic performance. The relationship between industrial structure and regulatory behavior is also discussed. 43 references, 4 figures, 9 tables

Brookhaven Regional Energy Facility Siting Model (REFS): model development and application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meier, P.; Hobbs, B.; Ketcham, G.; McCoy, M.; Stern, R.

1979-06-01

A siting methodology developed specifically to bridge the gap between regional-energy-system scenarios and environmental transport models is documented. Development of the model is described in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 described the basic structure of such a model. Additional chapters on model development cover: generation, transmission, demand disaggregation, the interface to other models, computational aspects, the coal sector, water resource considerations, and air quality considerations. These subjects comprise Part I. Part II, Model Applications, covers: analysis of water resource constraints, water resource issues in the New York Power Pool, water resource issues in the New England Power Pool, water resource issues in the Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland Power Pool, and a summary of water resource constraint analysis. (MCW)

Model for Analysis of Energy Demand (MAED-2). User's manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

The IAEA has been supporting its Member States in the area of energy planning for sustainable development. Development and dissemination of appropriate methodologies and their computer codes are important parts of this support. This manual has been produced to facilitate the use of the MAED model: Model for Analysis of Energy Demand. The methodology of the MAED model was originally developed by. B. Chateau and B. Lapillonne of the Institute Economique et Juridique de l'Energie (IEJE) of the University of Grenoble, France, and was presented as the MEDEE model. Since then the MEDEE model has been developed and adopted to be appropriate for modelling of various energy demand system. The IAEA adopted MEDEE-2 model and incorporated important modifications to make it more suitable for application in the developing countries, and it was named as the MAED model. The first version of the MAED model was designed for the DOS based system, which was later on converted for the Windows system. This manual presents the latest version of the MAED model. The most prominent feature of this version is its flexibility for representing structure of energy consumption. The model now allows country-specific representations of energy consumption patterns using the MAED methodology. The user can now disaggregate energy consumption according to the needs and/or data availability in her/his country. As such, MAED has now become a powerful tool for modelling widely diverse energy consumption patterns. This manual presents the model in details and provides guidelines for its application

Model for Analysis of Energy Demand (MAED-2). User's manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

The IAEA has been supporting its Member States in the area of energy planning for sustainable development. Development and dissemination of appropriate methodologies and their computer codes are important parts of this support. This manual has been produced to facilitate the use of the MAED model: Model for Analysis of Energy Demand. The methodology of the MAED model was originally developed by. B. Chateau and B. Lapillonne of the Institute Economique et Juridique de l'Energie (IEJE) of the University of Grenoble, France, and was presented as the MEDEE model. Since then the MEDEE model has been developed and adopted to be appropriate for modelling of various energy demand system. The IAEA adopted MEDEE-2 model and incorporated important modifications to make it more suitable for application in the developing countries, and it was named as the MAED model. The first version of the MAED model was designed for the DOS based system, which was later on converted for the Windows system. This manual presents the latest version of the MAED model. The most prominent feature of this version is its flexibility for representing structure of energy consumption. The model now allows country-specific representations of energy consumption patterns using the MAED methodology. The user can now disaggregate energy consumption according to the needs and/or data availability in her/his country. As such, MAED has now become a powerful tool for modelling widely diverse energy consumption patterns. This manual presents the model in details and provides guidelines for its application

A space-time hybrid hourly rainfall model for derived flood frequency analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. Haberlandt

2008-12-01

Full Text Available For derived flood frequency analysis based on hydrological modelling long continuous precipitation time series with high temporal resolution are needed. Often, the observation network with recording rainfall gauges is poor, especially regarding the limited length of the available rainfall time series. Stochastic precipitation synthesis is a good alternative either to extend or to regionalise rainfall series to provide adequate input for long-term rainfall-runoff modelling with subsequent estimation of design floods. Here, a new two step procedure for stochastic synthesis of continuous hourly space-time rainfall is proposed and tested for the extension of short observed precipitation time series.

First, a single-site alternating renewal model is presented to simulate independent hourly precipitation time series for several locations. The alternating renewal model describes wet spell durations, dry spell durations and wet spell intensities using univariate frequency distributions separately for two seasons. The dependence between wet spell intensity and duration is accounted for by 2-copulas. For disaggregation of the wet spells into hourly intensities a predefined profile is used. In the second step a multi-site resampling procedure is applied on the synthetic point rainfall event series to reproduce the spatial dependence structure of rainfall. Resampling is carried out successively on all synthetic event series using simulated annealing with an objective function considering three bivariate spatial rainfall characteristics. In a case study synthetic precipitation is generated for some locations with short observation records in two mesoscale catchments of the Bode river basin located in northern Germany. The synthetic rainfall data are then applied for derived flood frequency analysis using the hydrological model HEC-HMS. The results show good performance in reproducing average and extreme rainfall characteristics as well as in

Accountability after Structural Disaggregation: Comparing Agency Accountability Arrangements

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Overman, Sjors; Van Genugten, Marieke; Van Thiel, Sandra

2015-01-01

New accountability instruments – performance indicators, audits, and financial incentives – are expected to replace traditional accountability instruments in NPM reforms. We test this expectation by looking at the accountability arrangements of semi-autonomous agencies as a typical example of NPM

Convincing State-Builders? Disaggregating Internal Legitimacy in Abkhazia

OpenAIRE

Bakke, K. M.; O Loughlin, J.; Toal, G.; Ward, M. D.

2013-01-01

De facto states, functional on the ground but unrecognized by most states, have long been black boxes for systematic empirical research. This study investigates de facto states’ internal legitimacy—people's confidence in the entity itself, the regime, and institutions. While internal legitimacy is important for any state, it is particularly important for de facto states, whose lack of external legitimacy has made internal legitimacy integral to their quest for recognition. We propose that the...

Demand modelling of passenger air travel: An analysis and extension. Volume 1: Background and summary

Science.gov (United States)

Jacobson, I. D.

1978-01-01

The framework for a model of travel demand which will be useful in predicting the total market for air travel between two cities is discussed. Variables to be used in determining the need for air transportation where none currently exists and the effect of changes in system characteristics on attracting latent demand are identified. Existing models are examined in order to provide insight into their strong points and shortcomings. Much of the existing behavioral research in travel demand is incorporated to allow the inclusion of non-economic factors, such as convenience. The model developed is characterized as a market segmentation model. This is a consequence of the strengths of disaggregation and its natural evolution to a usable aggregate formulation. The need for this approach both pedagogically and mathematically is discussed.

Development of a natural gas systems analysis model (GSAM). Annual report, July 1996--July 1997

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1997-01-01

The objective of GSAM development is to create a comprehensive, non-proprietary, microcomputer model of the North American natural gas system. GSAM explicitly evaluates the key components of the system, including the resource base, exploration and development practices, extraction technology performance and costs, project economics, transportation costs and restrictions, storage, and end-use. The primary focus is the detailed characterization of the resource base at the reservoir and subreservoir level. This disaggregation allows direct evaluation of alternative extraction technologies based on discretely estimated, individual well productivity, required investments, and associated operating costs. GSAM's design allows users to evaluate complex interactions of current and alternative future technology and policy initiatives as they directly impact the gas market. GSAM development has been ongoing for the past five years. Key activities completed during the past year are described

Understanding the spectrum of residential energy-saving behaviours: French evidence using disaggregated data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Belaïd, Fateh; Garcia, Thomas

2016-01-01

Analysing household energy-saving behaviours is crucial to improve energy consumption predictions and energy policy making. How should we quantitatively measure them? What are their determinants? This study explores the main factors influencing residential energy-saving behaviours based on a bottom-up multivariate statistical approach using data from the recent French PHEBUS survey. Firstly, we assess energy-saving behaviours on a one-dimension scale using IRT. Secondly, we use linear regression with an innovative variable selection method via adaptive lasso to tease out the effects of both macro and micro factors on the behavioural score. The results highlight the impact of five main attributes incentivizing energy-saving behaviours based on cross-variable analyses: energy price, household income, education level, age of head of household and dwelling energy performance. In addition, our results suggest that the analysis of the inverted U-shape impact of age enables the expansion of the energy consumption life cycle theory to energy-saving behaviours. - Highlights: • We examine the main factors influencing residential energy-saving behaviours. • We use data from the recent French PHEBUS survey. • We use IRT to assess energy-saving behaviours on a one-dimension scale. • We use linear regression with an innovative variable selection method via adaptive lasso. • We highlight the impact of five main attributes incentivizing energy-saving behaviours.

Climate Change Impact on Variability of Rainfall Intensity in Upper Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia

Science.gov (United States)

Worku, L. Y.

2015-12-01

Extreme rainfall events are major problems in Ethiopia with the resulting floods that usually could cause significant damage to agriculture, ecology, infrastructure, disruption to human activities, loss of property, loss of lives and disease outbreak. The aim of this study was to explore the likely changes of precipitation extreme changes due to future climate change. The study specifically focuses to understand the future climate change impact on variability of rainfall intensity-duration-frequency in Upper Blue Nile basin. Precipitations data from two Global Climate Models (GCMs) have been used in the study are HadCM3 and CGCM3. Rainfall frequency analysis was carried out to estimate quantile with different return periods. Probability Weighted Method (PWM) selected estimation of parameter distribution and L-Moment Ratio Diagrams (LMRDs) used to find the best parent distribution for each station. Therefore, parent distributions for derived from frequency analysis are Generalized Logistic (GLOG), Generalized Extreme Value (GEV), and Gamma & Pearson III (P3) parent distribution. After analyzing estimated quantile simple disaggregation model was applied in order to find sub daily rainfall data. Finally the disaggregated rainfall is fitted to find IDF curve and the result shows in most parts of the basin rainfall intensity expected to increase in the future. As a result of the two GCM outputs, the study indicates there will be likely increase of precipitation extremes over the Blue Nile basin due to the changing climate. This study should be interpreted with caution as the GCM model outputs in this part of the world have huge uncertainty.

Validation of Metrics as Error Predictors

Science.gov (United States)

Mendling, Jan

In this chapter, we test the validity of metrics that were defined in the previous chapter for predicting errors in EPC business process models. In Section 5.1, we provide an overview of how the analysis data is generated. Section 5.2 describes the sample of EPCs from practice that we use for the analysis. Here we discuss a disaggregation by the EPC model group and by error as well as a correlation analysis between metrics and error. Based on this sample, we calculate a logistic regression model for predicting error probability with the metrics as input variables in Section 5.3. In Section 5.4, we then test the regression function for an independent sample of EPC models from textbooks as a cross-validation. Section 5.5 summarizes the findings.

The disproportionate economic burden associated with severe and complicated obesity: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Grieve, E; Fenwick, E; Yang, H-C; Lean, M

2013-11-01

Burden of disease studies typically classify individuals with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg m(-2) as a single group ('obese') and make comparisons to those with lower BMIs. Here, we review the literature on the additional economic burden associated with severe obesity or classes 3 and 4 obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg m(-2) ), the fastest growing category of obesity, with the aim of exploring and disaggregating differences in resource use as BMI increases beyond 40 kg m(-2) . We recognize the importance of comparing classes 3 and 4 obesity to less severe obesity (classes 1 and 2) as well as quantifying the single sub-class impacts (classes 3 and 4). Although the latter analysis is the aim of this review, we include results, where found in the literature, for movement between the recognized subclasses and within classes 3 and 4 obesity. Articles presenting data on the economic burden associated with severe obesity were identified from a search of Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBSCO CINAHL and Cochrane Library databases. Data were extracted on the direct costs, productivity costs and resource use associated with severe obesity along with estimates of the multiplier effects associated with increasing BMI. Fifteen studies were identified, of which four disaggregated resource use for BMI ≥ 40 kg m(-2) . The multiplier effects derived for a variety of different types of costs incurred by the severely obese compared with those of normal weight (18.5 kg m(-2)  productivity costs. There are few published data on the economic burden of obesity disaggregated by BMI ≥ 40 kg m(-2) . By grouping people homogenously above a threshold of BMI 40 kg m(-2) , the multiplier effects for those at the highest end of the spectrum are likely to be underestimated. This will, in turn, impact on the estimates of cost-effectiveness for interventions and policies aimed at the severely obese. © 2013 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2013 International

The macro-sectoral effects of an EC-wide tax. Simulation experiments for 1993-2005

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Standaert, S. [Department of Quantitative Economics. Rijksuniversiteit Limburg, Maastricht (Netherlands)

1992-03-01

The results of simulations of the possible macro-sectoral effects of an EC-wide energy tax of 10$ per barrel of oil over the period 1993-2005 are presented. The level of the tax is held constant in real terms. Two alternative redistribution schemes ensure that the tax is budget-neutral country-wise: a reduction of personal income taxes (Direct Taxation scenario or DT), and a reduction of employers social security contributions (Social Security scenario or SS). The simulations were performed with linked multi-sectoral Hermes models maintained at the DG 12 of the Committee of the European Communities. The eventual goal is to shed some light on the implications of an EC-wide environmental policy relying on economic instruments. The tool used enables to present results which are original in certain respects. In particular, in contrast with most existing studies in this area, we use a disaggregated model over a fairly long period of time. The disaggregation has two dimensions, since we link national models, which are themselves disaggregated into industries. This should enable us to get a firmer grip on the implications of the policies followed on the structure of the European economies. In order to limit the costs of disaggregation we have included only four complete country models (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) in the simulations, which cover nevertheless a substantial proportion of EC value-added. Another noteworthy feature of the model is its fairly detailed treatment of energy. This and other characteristics of the model are reviewed in greater detail in Section 2, which provides general information on the model and on the way in which the various shocks have been calibrated. The sections 3 and 4 discuss respectively the DT and the SS scenarios. Additional variants are reviewed in section 5, before the conclusions.

Advertising media and cigarette demand.

Science.gov (United States)

Goel, Rajeev K

2011-01-01

Using state-level panel data for the USA spanning three decades, this research estimates the demand for cigarettes. The main contribution lies in studying the effects of cigarette advertising disaggregated across five qualitatively different groups. Results show cigarette demand to be near unit elastic, the income effects to be generally insignificant and border price effects and habit effects to be significant. Regarding advertising effects, aggregate cigarette advertising has a negative effect on smoking. Important differences across advertising media emerge when cigarette advertising is disaggregated. The effects of public entertainment and Internet cigarette advertising are stronger than those of other media. Anti-smoking messages accompanying print cigarette advertising seem relatively more effective. Implications for smoking control policy are discussed.

Forecasting Uncertainty in Electricity Smart Meter Data by Boosting Additive Quantile Regression

KAUST Repository

Taieb, Souhaib Ben

2016-03-02

Smart electricity meters are currently deployed in millions of households to collect detailed individual electricity consumption data. Compared with traditional electricity data based on aggregated consumption, smart meter data are much more volatile and less predictable. There is a need within the energy industry for probabilistic forecasts of household electricity consumption to quantify the uncertainty of future electricity demand in order to undertake appropriate planning of generation and distribution. We propose to estimate an additive quantile regression model for a set of quantiles of the future distribution using a boosting procedure. By doing so, we can benefit from flexible and interpretable models, which include an automatic variable selection. We compare our approach with three benchmark methods on both aggregated and disaggregated scales using a smart meter data set collected from 3639 households in Ireland at 30-min intervals over a period of 1.5 years. The empirical results demonstrate that our approach based on quantile regression provides better forecast accuracy for disaggregated demand, while the traditional approach based on a normality assumption (possibly after an appropriate Box-Cox transformation) is a better approximation for aggregated demand. These results are particularly useful since more energy data will become available at the disaggregated level in the future.

Structural pathway of regulated substrate transfer and threading through an Hsp100 disaggregase.

Science.gov (United States)

Deville, Célia; Carroni, Marta; Franke, Kamila B; Topf, Maya; Bukau, Bernd; Mogk, Axel; Saibil, Helen R

2017-08-01

Refolding aggregated proteins is essential in combating cellular proteotoxic stress. Together with Hsp70, Hsp100 chaperones, including Escherichia coli ClpB, form a powerful disaggregation machine that threads aggregated polypeptides through the central pore of tandem adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) rings. To visualize protein disaggregation, we determined cryo-electron microscopy structures of inactive and substrate-bound ClpB in the presence of adenosine 5'- O -(3-thiotriphosphate), revealing closed AAA+ rings with a pronounced seam. In the substrate-free state, a marked gradient of resolution, likely corresponding to mobility, spans across the AAA+ rings with a dynamic hotspot at the seam. On the seam side, the coiled-coil regulatory domains are locked in a horizontal, inactive orientation. On the opposite side, the regulatory domains are accessible for Hsp70 binding, substrate targeting, and activation. In the presence of the model substrate casein, the polypeptide threads through the entire pore channel and increased nucleotide occupancy correlates with higher ATPase activity. Substrate-induced domain displacements indicate a pathway of regulated substrate transfer from Hsp70 to the ClpB pore, inside which a spiral of loops contacts the substrate. The seam pore loops undergo marked displacements, along with ordering of the regulatory domains. These asymmetric movements suggest a mechanism for ATPase activation and substrate threading during disaggregation.

Relative health effects of education, socioeconomic status and domestic gender inequity in Sweden: a cohort study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susan P Phillips

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Limited existing research on gender inequities suggests that for men workplace atmosphere shapes wellbeing while women are less susceptible to socioeconomic or work status but vulnerable to home inequities. METHODS: Using the 2007 Northern Swedish Cohort (n = 773 we identified relative contributions of perceived gender inequities in relationships, financial strain, and education to self-reported health to determine whether controlling for sex, examining interactions between sex and other social variables, or sex-disaggregating data yielded most information about sex differences. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Men had lower education but also less financial strain, and experienced less gender inequity. Overall, low education and financial strain detracted from health. However, sex-disaggregated data showed this to be true for women, whereas for men only gender inequity at home affected health. In the relatively egalitarian Swedish environment where women more readily enter all work arenas and men often provide parenting, traditional primacy of the home environment (for women and the work environment (for men in shaping health is reversing such that perceived domestic gender inequity has a significant health impact on men, while for women only education and financial strain are contributory. These outcomes were identified only when data were sex-disaggregated.

Generating Daily Synthetic Landsat Imagery by Combining Landsat and MODIS Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Mingquan; Huang, Wenjiang; Niu, Zheng; Wang, Changyao

2015-09-18

Owing to low temporal resolution and cloud interference, there is a shortage of high spatial resolution remote sensing data. To address this problem, this study introduces a modified spatial and temporal data fusion approach (MSTDFA) to generate daily synthetic Landsat imagery. This algorithm was designed to avoid the limitations of the conditional spatial temporal data fusion approach (STDFA) including the constant window for disaggregation and the sensor difference. An adaptive window size selection method is proposed in this study to select the best window size and moving steps for the disaggregation of coarse pixels. The linear regression method is used to remove the influence of differences in sensor systems using disaggregated mean coarse reflectance by testing and validation in two study areas located in Xinjiang Province, China. The results show that the MSTDFA algorithm can generate daily synthetic Landsat imagery with a high correlation coefficient (R) ranged from 0.646 to 0.986 between synthetic images and the actual observations. We further show that MSTDFA can be applied to 250 m 16-day MODIS MOD13Q1 products and the Landsat Normalized Different Vegetation Index (NDVI) data by generating a synthetic NDVI image highly similar to actual Landsat NDVI observation with a high R of 0.97.

Skill-Biased Technological Change in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj; Rose Skaksen, Jan

2003-01-01

Skill-Biased Technological Change in Denmark:A Disaggregate Perspective@*In this paper, we provide an industry-level analysis of skill-biased technological change(SBTC) in Denmark over the last two decades. The analysis shows that SBTC has variedconsiderably across industries, and traditionally...... large Danish industries have experiencedrelatively less SBTC. This may partly explain why wage inequality between skilled and lessskilled has risen less in Denmark than in other countries. We also find that SBTC has beenconcentrated in already skill-intensive industries. This contains important...... information aboutfuture labour requirements, as the relative importance of these industries must be expectedto grow, thereby reinforcing the shift in demand for skilled labour.JEL Classification: J24, J31, L6Keywords: skill-biased technological change, Danish industries...

Consumption of productive electric power and value of agricultural production in Botucatu region; O consumo de energia eletrica produtiva e o valor da producao agropecuaria na regiao de Botucatu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oliveira, Paulo Andre de [Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Botucatu, SP (Brazil). Faculdade de Ciencias Agronomicas. Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Agronomia], e-mail: pauloandre@fca.unesp.br; Simon, Elias Jose [Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Botucatu, SP (Brazil). Fac. de Ciencias Agronomicas. Dept. de Gestao e Tecnologia Agroindustrial], e-mail: ejsimon@fca.unesp.br

2004-07-01

This paper objective was to settle the electric energy consumption in the countryside and the agriculture and cattle raisin production value in the counties of the Rural Development Office (EDR) of Botucatu, in the period of 1990 to 2000, trying to establish an analysis pattern to do future studies in other regions. This pattern could be used as an analysis instrument to make decisions to implement programs that look for an increase of use of electric energy as an input to join value to the rural product. In conclusion the data adjoined as EDR region do not present enough information to the relation between the production rough value and the electric energy consumption, being necessary, therefore, its disaggregation in counties. (author)

What's in a country average? Wealth, gender, and regional inequalities in immunization in India.

Science.gov (United States)

Pande, Rohini P; Yazbeck, Abdo S

2003-12-01

Recent attention to Millennium Development Goals by the international development community has led to the formation of targets to measure country-level achievements, including achievements on health status indicators such as childhood immunization. Using the example of immunization in India, this paper demonstrates the importance of disaggregating national averages for a better understanding of social disparities in health. Specifically, the paper uses data from the India National Family Health Survey 1992-93 to analyze socioeconomic, gender, urban-rural and regional inequalities in immunization in India for each of the 17 largest states. Results show that, on average, southern states have better immunization levels and lower immunization inequalities than many northern states. Wealth and regional inequalities are correlated with overall levels of immunization in a non-linear fashion. Gender inequalities persist in most states, including in the south, and seem unrelated to overall immunization or the levels of other inequalities measured here. This suggests that the gender differentials reflect deep-seated societal factors rather than health system issues per se. The disaggregated information and analysis used in this paper allows for setting more meaningful targets than country averages. Additionally, it helps policy makers and planners to understand programmatic constraints and needs by identifying disparities between sub-groups of the population, including strong and weak performers at the state and regional levels.

Exploring the influence of EGCG on the β-sheet-rich oligomers of human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP1-37 and identifying its possible binding sites from molecular dynamics simulation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qianqian Wang

Full Text Available EGCG possesses the ability of disaggregating the existing amyloid fibrils which were associated with many age-related degenerative diseases. However, the molecular mechanism of EGCG to disaggregate these fibrils is poorly known. In this work, to study the influence of EGCG on the full-length human islet amyloid polypeptide 1-37 (hIAPP1-37 oligomers, molecular dynamics simulations of hIAPP1-37 pentamer and decamer with EGCG were performed, respectively. The obtained results indicate that EGCG indeed destabilized the hIAPP1-37 oligomers. The nematic order parameter and secondary structure calculations coupled with the free-energy landscape indicate that EGCG broke the initial ordered pattern of two polymers, greatly reduced their β-sheet content and enlarged their conformational space. On this basis, three possible target sites were identified with the binding capacity order of S1>S2>S3. After a deeper analysis of each site, we found that S1 was the most possible site on which residues B-Ile26/Ala25, A-Phe23, B/C-Leu27 and E-Tyr37 played an important role for their binding. The proposal of this molecular mechanism can not only provide a prospective interaction figure between EGCG and β-sheet-rich fibrils of hIAPP1-37, but also is useful for further discovering other potential inhibitors.

Legal Immigration and Adjustment of Status Report Fiscal Year 2017, Quarter 3

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Homeland Security — A quarterly report that details the number of adjustments of immigration status that occurred during the reporting period, disaggregated by type of adjustment, type...

Development of a natural gas systems analysis model (GSAM). Annual report, July 1996--July 1997

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1997-12-31

The objective of GSAM development is to create a comprehensive, non-proprietary, microcomputer model of the North American natural gas system. GSAM explicitly evaluates the key components of the system, including the resource base, exploration and development practices, extraction technology performance and costs, project economics, transportation costs and restrictions, storage, and end-use. The primary focus is the detailed characterization of the resource base at the reservoir and subreservoir level. This disaggregation allows direct evaluation of alternative extraction technologies based on discretely estimated, individual well productivity, required investments, and associated operating costs. GSAM`s design allows users to evaluate complex interactions of current and alternative future technology and policy initiatives as they directly impact the gas market. GSAM development has been ongoing for the past five years. Key activities completed during the past year are described.

The impact of eliminating within-country inequality in health coverage on maternal and child mortality: a Lives Saved Tool analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrienne Clermont

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Inequality in healthcare across population groups in low-income countries is a growing topic of interest in global health. The Lives Saved Tool (LiST, which uses health intervention coverage to model maternal, neonatal, and child health outcomes such as mortality rates, can be used to analyze the impact of within-country inequality. Methods Data from nationally representative household surveys (98 surveys conducted between 1998 and 2014, disaggregated by wealth quintile, were used to create a LiST analysis that models the impact of scaling up health intervention coverage for the entire country from the national average to the rate of the top wealth quintile (richest 20% of the population. Interventions for which household survey data are available were used as proxies for other interventions that are not measured in surveys, based on co-delivery of intervention packages. Results For the 98 countries included in the analysis, 24–32% of child deaths (including 34–47% of neonatal deaths and 16–19% of post-neonatal deaths could be prevented by scaling up national coverage of key health interventions to the level of the top wealth quintile. On average, the interventions with most unequal coverage rates across wealth quintiles were those related to childbirth in health facilities and to water and sanitation infrastructure; the most equally distributed were those delivered through community-based mass campaigns, such as vaccines, vitamin A supplementation, and bednet distribution. Conclusions LiST is a powerful tool for exploring the policy and programmatic implications of within-country inequality in low-income, high-mortality-burden countries. An “Equity Tool” app has been developed within the software to make this type of analysis easily accessible to users.

Linear and Nonlinear Causality between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth: The Case of Mexico 1965–2014

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Gómez

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes the causal link between aggregated and disaggregated levels of energy consumption and economic growth in Mexico between 1965 and 2014, with the presence of structural breaks stemming from the series. To that end, unit root with structural breaks, cointegration, and linear and nonlinear causality tests are employed. The results show that there is a long-run relationship between production, capital, labor, and energy, and linear causal links from total and disaggregated energy consumption to economic growth. A nonlinear causality also exists from energy consumption, the transport sector, capital, and labor to output. These results support the growth hypothesis, which maintains that energy is an important input factor for economic activity and that energy conservation policies impact the economic growth in Mexico.

An analysis of population and social change in London wards in the 1980s.

Science.gov (United States)

Congdon, P

1989-01-01

"This paper discusses the estimation and projection of small area populations in London, [England] and considers trends in intercensal social and demographic indices which can be calculated using these estimates. Information available annually on vital statistics and electorates is combined with detailed data from the Census Small Area Statistics to derive demographic component based population estimates for London's electoral wards over five year periods. The availability of age disaggregated population estimates permits derivation of small area social indicators for intercensal years, for example, of unemployment and mortality. Trends in spatial inequality of such indicators during the 1980s are analysed and point to continuing wide differentials. A typology of population and social indicators gives an indication of the small area distribution of the recent population turnaround in inner London, and of its association with other social processes such as gentrification and ethnic concentration." excerpt

Inferring modules from human protein interactome classes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chaurasia Gautam

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The integration of protein-protein interaction networks derived from high-throughput screening approaches and complementary sources is a key topic in systems biology. Although integration of protein interaction data is conventionally performed, the effects of this procedure on the result of network analyses has not been examined yet. In particular, in order to optimize the fusion of heterogeneous interaction datasets, it is crucial to consider not only their degree of coverage and accuracy, but also their mutual dependencies and additional salient features. Results We examined this issue based on the analysis of modules detected by network clustering methods applied to both integrated and individual (disaggregated data sources, which we call interactome classes. Due to class diversity, we deal with variable dependencies of data features arising from structural specificities and biases, but also from possible overlaps. Since highly connected regions of the human interactome may point to potential protein complexes, we have focused on the concept of modularity, and elucidated the detection power of module extraction algorithms by independent validations based on GO, MIPS and KEGG. From the combination of protein interactions with gene expressions, a confidence scoring scheme has been proposed before proceeding via GO with further classification in permanent and transient modules. Conclusions Disaggregated interactomes are shown to be informative for inferring modularity, thus contributing to perform an effective integrative analysis. Validation of the extracted modules by multiple annotation allows for the assessment of confidence measures assigned to the modules in a protein pathway context. Notably, the proposed multilayer confidence scheme can be used for network calibration by enabling a transition from unweighted to weighted interactomes based on biological evidence.

Gender blind? An analysis of global public-private partnerships for health.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkes, Sarah; Buse, Kent; Kapilashrami, Anuj

2017-05-12

The Global Public Private Partnerships for Health (GPPPH) constitute an increasingly central part of the global health architecture and carry both financial and normative power. Gender is an important determinant of health status, influencing differences in exposure to health determinants, health behaviours, and the response of the health system. We identified 18 GPPPH - defined as global institutions with a formal governance mechanism which includes both public and private for-profit sector actors - and conducted a gender analysis of each. Gender was poorly mainstreamed through the institutional functioning of the partnerships. Half of these partnerships had no mention of gender in their overall institutional strategy and only three partnerships had a specific gender strategy. Fifteen governing bodies had more men than women - up to a ratio of 5:1. Very few partnerships reported sex-disaggregated data in their annual reports or coverage/impact results. The majority of partnerships focused their work on maternal and child health and infectious and communicable diseases - none addressed non-communicable diseases (NCDs) directly, despite the strong role that gender plays in determining risk for the major NCD burdens. We propose two areas of action in response to these findings. First, GPPPH need to become serious in how they "do" gender; it needs to be mainstreamed through the regular activities, deliverables and systems of accountability. Second, the entire global health community needs to pay greater attention to tackling the major burden of NCDs, including addressing the gendered nature of risk. Given the inherent conflicts of interest in tackling the determinants of many NCDs, it is debatable whether the emergent GPPPH model will be an appropriate one for addressing NCDs.

Couple relationship quality and offspring attachment security: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Evelyn S; McIntosh, Jennifer E; Kothe, Emily J; Opie, Jessica E; Olsson, Craig A

2017-11-16

This paper provides a meta-analytic examination of strength and direction of association between parents' couple relationship quality and early childhood attachment security (5 years and under). A comprehensive search of four EBSCOhost databases, Informit, Web of Science, and grey literature yielded 24 studies meeting eligibility criteria. Heterogeneity of the couple quality construct and measurement was marked. To disaggregate potentially differentially acting factors, we grouped homogeneous studies, creating two predictor variables defined as "positive dyadic adjustment" and "inter-parental conflict". Associations of each construct with offspring attachment security were examined in two separate meta-analyses. Inter-parental conflict was inversely associated (8 studies, k = 17, r = -0.28, CI = [-0.39 to -0.18]), and dyadic adjustment was not associated with offspring attachment security (5 studies, k = 12, r = 0.14, CI = [-0.03 to 0.32]). The study supports finer distinctions of couple relationship constructs and measurement in developmental research, assessment, and intervention.

The distribution of selected CORINE land cover classes in different natural landscapes in Slovakia: Methodological framework and applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pazúr Róbert

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The distribution of selected CORINE land cover classes in different physical conditions was subject to modelling, analysis and evaluation in this article. In three regions with different geo-relief, the occurrence of land cover classes was analysed by using determinants commonly used in land-use models. Using three different modelling frameworks, the importance of methodological design in land-cover modelling was demonstrated. High levels of explanatory power for the factors defined here were found in landscapes of high heterogeneity. Findings derived from the statistical models highlight the importance of landscape disaggregation by natural conditions in complex land-cover or land-use models.

Assessment and management of Cape horse mackerel Trachurus ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

disaggregated age-structured production model including historical International Commission for the Southeast Atlantic Fisheries (ICSEAF) and current data. Data from acoustic biomass surveys, on commercial catch per unit effort and on commercial ...

The Challenge of City-Level Data-Gathering for Implementing SDG 11 in Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Elias, P. O.

2017-12-01

Implementing sustainable development goal 11 in Africa which includes measuring and monitoring social and economic welfare indicators at the city-level requires data of the best quality. In recent years, there have been progress in national statistics and censuses survey yet data gathering in many African countries are not accurate, timely, disaggregated and widely usable. This often diminish the capability of governments to tackle urban development challenges, which are particularly exacerbated by inequality, poverty and uncontrolled development especially in cities. To support knowledge driven decisions and policies there is need to improve data-gathering systems about health, education, and safety, economy and poverty, land, housing and environment, trade and commerce, population and demography. Also, the underlying dynamics, processes, distributions, patterns, trends or disparities inherent in African cities require the breaking down of aggregated data into their component parts or smaller units, which underscores urban data revolution towards achieving SDG 11. In Africa, the process of bringing together diverse data communities to embrace a diverse range of data sources, tools, and innovative technologies, to provide disaggregated data for decision-making, service delivery and citizen engagement is still emerging. Several factors are inhibiting urban data revolution and need to be overturned before we can provide more evidence, more data and more certainty for decision makers towards achieving urban development targets and sustainable cities for Africa. The paper examines the challenge of city-level data-gathering for implementing SDG 11 in Africa. Specifically, it examines the role of cities in implementing SDG 11 in Africa and the need to disaggregate data at city-level; it assesses existing data sources, compilation and dissemination channels as well as the challenges of deploying innovative techniques and strategies including digital and social media

Climate change vulnerability in Ethiopia : disaggregation of Tigray Region

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gidey Gebrehiwot, T.; Gidey, T.G.; van der Veen, A.

2013-01-01

Climate change and variability severely affect rural livelihoods and agricultural productivity, yet they are causes of stress vulnerable rural households have to cope with. This paper investigated farming communities' vulnerability to climate change and climate variability across 34

Illicit Financial Flows and Governance : The Importance of Disaggregation

OpenAIRE

Reuter, Peter

2017-01-01

After decades of billion dollar scandals around long-serving dictators removing vast fortunes from their impoverished nations, the broader phenomenon of which this is part has acquired a label: Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). The term encompasses the international transfer of moneys generated by bribery, tax evasion and illegal markets. IFFs have been the object of much attention from high...

Recycling energy taxes. Impacts on a disaggregated labour market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bosello, F.; Carraro, C.

2001-01-01

This paper analyses the impacts of energy taxes whose revenue is recycled to reduce gross wages and increase employment. The main novel feature of this paper, is the attempt to assess the effectiveness of this fiscal reform by using a labour market model in which both skilled and unskilled workers are used in the production process. This segmentation enables us to compare a policy which aims at reducing unskilled workers' wages, as in the original Delors' White book, with a policy in which the environmental fiscal revenue is used to reduce the gross wage of all workers. Moreover, two policy scenarios will be considered. A non-co-operative one in which each country determines the optimal domestic energy tax to achieve a given employment target and a co-operative one, in which the energy taxes are harmonised to equalise marginal abatement costs in the EU and in which the employment target is set for the EU. Our results show that: (1) an employment double dividend can be achieved in the short run only, even if a trade-off between environment and employment always exists; (2) the effect on employment is larger when the fiscal revenue is recycled into all workers' gross wages rather than into unskilled workers only; (3) a co-operative policy leads to even larger benefits in terms of employment provided that an adequate redistribution of fiscal revenues is adopted by EU countries

Disaggregating and mapping crop statistics using hypertemporal remote sensing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Khan, M.R.; Bie, de C.A.J.M.; Keulen, van H.; Smaling, E.M.A.; Real, R.

2010-01-01

Governments compile their agricultural statistics in tabular form by administrative area, which gives no clue to the exact locations where specific crops are actually grown. Such data are poorly suited for early warning and assessment of crop production. 10-Daily satellite image time series of

Neighborhood size of training data influences soil map disaggregation

Science.gov (United States)

Soil class mapping relies on the ability of sample locations to represent portions of the landscape with similar soil types; however, most digital soil mapping (DSM) approaches intersect sample locations with one raster pixel per covariate layer regardless of pixel size. This approach does not take ...

Effects of volcanic deposit disaggregation on exposed water composition

Science.gov (United States)

Back, W. E.; Genareau, K. D.

2016-12-01

Explosive volcanic eruptions produce a variety of hazards. Pyroclastic material can be introduced to water through ash fallout, pyroclastic flows entering water bodies, and/or lahars. Remobilization of tephras can occur soon after eruption or centuries later, introducing additional pyroclastic material into the environment. Introduction of pyroclastic material may alter the dissolved element concentration and pH of exposed waters, potentially impacting drinking water supplies, agriculture, and ecology. This study focuses on the long-term impacts of volcanic deposits on water composition due to the mechanical breakup of volcanic deposits over time. Preliminary work has shown that mechanical milling of volcanic deposits will cause significant increases in dissolved element concentrations, conductivity, and pH of aqueous solutions. Pyroclastic material from seven eruptions sites was collected, mechanically milled to produce grain sizes Soufriere Hills, Ruapehu), mafic (Lathrop Wells) and ultramafic (mantle xenoliths) volcanic deposits. Lathrop Wells has an average bulk concentration of 49.15 wt.% SiO2, 6.11 wt. % MgO, and 8.39 wt. % CaO and produces leachate concentrations of 85.69 mg/kg for Ca and 37.22 mg/kg for Mg. Taupo and Valles Caldera samples have a bulk concentration of 72.9 wt.% SiO2, 0.59 wt. % MgO, and 1.48 wt. % CaO, and produces leachate concentrations of 4.08 mg/kg for Ca and 1.56 mg/kg for Mg. Similar testing will be conducted on the intermediate and ultramafic samples to test the hypothesis that bulk magma composition and mineralogy will directly relate to the increased dissolved element concentration of exposed waters. The measured effects on aqueous solutions will aid in evaluation of impacts to marine and freshwater systems exposed to volcanic deposits.

Disaggregated Imaging Spacecraft Constellation Optimization with a Genetic Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

2014-03-27

Management Air Force Institute of Technology Air University Air Education and Training Command In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree...distinct mod- ules which, once ‘assembled’ on orbit, deliver the capability of the original monolithic system [5].” Jerry Sellers includes a comic in

Global Rice Atlas: Disaggregated seasonal crop calendar and production

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Balanza, Jane Girly; Gutierrez, Mary Anne; Villano, Lorena; Nelson, A.D.; Zwart, S.J.; Boschetti, Mirco; Koo, Jawoo; Reinke, Russell; Murty, M. V.R.; Laborte, Alice G.

2014-01-01

Purpose: Rice is an important staple crop cultivated in more than 163 million ha globally. Although information on the distribution of global rice production is available by country and, at times, at subnational level, information on its distribution within a year is often lacking in different rice

Estimating Intermittent Individual Spawning Behavior via Disaggregating Group Data

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — In order to understand fish biology and reproduction it is important to know the fecundity patterns of individual fish, as frequently established by recording the...

Hydrological model calibration for derived flood frequency analysis using stochastic rainfall and probability distributions of peak flows

Science.gov (United States)

Haberlandt, U.; Radtke, I.

2014-01-01

Derived flood frequency analysis allows the estimation of design floods with hydrological modeling for poorly observed basins considering change and taking into account flood protection measures. There are several possible choices regarding precipitation input, discharge output and consequently the calibration of the model. The objective of this study is to compare different calibration strategies for a hydrological model considering various types of rainfall input and runoff output data sets and to propose the most suitable approach. Event based and continuous, observed hourly rainfall data as well as disaggregated daily rainfall and stochastically generated hourly rainfall data are used as input for the model. As output, short hourly and longer daily continuous flow time series as well as probability distributions of annual maximum peak flow series are employed. The performance of the strategies is evaluated using the obtained different model parameter sets for continuous simulation of discharge in an independent validation period and by comparing the model derived flood frequency distributions with the observed one. The investigations are carried out for three mesoscale catchments in northern Germany with the hydrological model HEC-HMS (Hydrologic Engineering Center's Hydrologic Modeling System). The results show that (I) the same type of precipitation input data should be used for calibration and application of the hydrological model, (II) a model calibrated using a small sample of extreme values works quite well for the simulation of continuous time series with moderate length but not vice versa, and (III) the best performance with small uncertainty is obtained when stochastic precipitation data and the observed probability distribution of peak flows are used for model calibration. This outcome suggests to calibrate a hydrological model directly on probability distributions of observed peak flows using stochastic rainfall as input if its purpose is the

The Logistics Performance Effect in International Trade

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Azmat Gani

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The continuous growth in world trade depends on the efficiency of trade support structures such as the logistics services. Despite logistics integral role in supporting commercial activities, there has generally been a low level of analysis and trade policy research focus from trade practitioners. This paper explores the effect of logistics performance in international trade. The analysis draws on overall logistics performance as well as disaggregated measures of logistics specificities data for a large sample of countries. The empirical analysis involved the estimation of standard export and import equations incorporating measures of logistics performance. The findings show that the overall logistics performance is positively and statistically significantly correlated with exports and imports. The analysis is also extended by investigating if logistics specificities mattered for international trade. The findings reveal that several dimensions capturing logistics performance have statistically significant and positive effect, mostly on exports. The main policy implication is that continuous investment in logistics infrastructure and services can positively impact international trade.

Measuring the energy intensity of domestic activities from smart meter data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stankovic, L.; Stankovic, V.; Liao, J.; Wilson, C.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Innovative method linking appliance usage and energy use with domestic activities. • Inferring the energy and time use profile of activities based on smart meter data. • Standardised metrics quantifying energy intensity + temporal routines of activities. • Insights from analysing electricity consumption through the lens of activities. - Abstract: Household electricity consumption can be broken down to appliance end-use through a variety of methods such as modelling, sub-metering, load disaggregation or non-intrusive appliance load monitoring (NILM). We advance and complement this important field of energy research through an innovative methodology that characterises the energy consumption of domestic life by making the linkages between appliance end-use and activities through an ontology built from qualitative data about the household and NILM data. We use activities as a descriptive term for the common ways households spend their time at home. These activities, such as cooking or laundering, are meaningful to households’ own lived experience. Thus, besides strictly technical algorithmic approaches for processing quantitative smart meter data, we also draw on social science time use approaches and interview and ethnography data. Our method disaggregates a households total electricity load down to appliance level and provides the start time, duration, and total electricity consumption for each occurrence of appliance usage. We then make inferences about activities occurring in the home by combining these disaggregated data with an ontology that formally specifies the relationships between electricity-using appliances and activities. We also propose two novel standardised metrics to enable easy quantifiable comparison within and across households of the energy intensity and routine of activities of interest. Finally, we demonstrate our results over a sample of ten households with an in-depth analysis of which activities can be inferred with

The true costs of participatory sanitation: Evidence from community-led total sanitation studies in Ghana and Ethiopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Crocker, Jonny; Saywell, Darren; Shields, Katherine F; Kolsky, Pete; Bartram, Jamie

2017-12-01

Evidence on sanitation and hygiene program costs is used for many purposes. The few studies that report costs use top-down costing methods that are inaccurate and inappropriate. Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is a participatory behavior-change approach that presents difficulties for cost analysis. We used implementation tracking and bottom-up, activity-based costing to assess the process, program costs, and local investments for four CLTS interventions in Ghana and Ethiopia. Data collection included implementation checklists, surveys, and financial records review. Financial costs and value-of-time spent on CLTS by different actors were assessed. Results are disaggregated by intervention, cost category, actor, geographic area, and project month. The average household size was 4.0 people in Ghana, and 5.8 people in Ethiopia. The program cost of CLTS was $30.34-$81.56 per household targeted in Ghana, and $14.15-$19.21 in Ethiopia. Most program costs were from training for three of four interventions. Local investments ranged from $7.93-$22.36 per household targeted in Ghana, and $2.35-$3.41 in Ethiopia. This is the first study to present comprehensive, disaggregated costs of a sanitation and hygiene behavior-change intervention. The findings can be used to inform policy and finance decisions, plan program scale-up, perform cost-effectiveness and benefit studies, and compare different interventions. The costing method is applicable to other public health behavior-change programs. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Human resources for health and burden of disease: an econometric approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Castillo-Laborde, Carla

2011-01-26

The effect of health workers on health has been proven to be important for various health outcomes (e.g. mortality, coverage of immunisation or skilled birth attendants). The study aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between health workers and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which represents a much broader concept of health outcome, including not only mortality but also morbidity. Cross-country multiple regression analyses were undertaken, with DALYs and DALYs disaggregated according to the three different groups of diseases as the dependent variable. Aggregate health workers and disaggregate physicians, nurses, and midwives were included as independent variables, as well as a variable accounting for the skill mix of professionals. The analysis also considers controlling for the effects of income, income distribution, percentage of rural population with access to improved water source, and health expenditure. This study presents evidence of a statistically negative relationship between the density of health workers (especially physicians) and the DALYs. An increase of one unit in the density of health workers per 1000 will decrease, on average, the total burden of disease between 1% and 3%. However, in line with previous findings in the literature, the density of nurses and midwives could not be said to be statistically associated to DALYs. If countries increase their health worker density, they will be able to reduce significantly their burden of disease, especially the burden associated to communicable diseases. This study represents supporting evidence of the importance of health workers for health.

Measuring the security of energy exports demand in OPEC economies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dike, Jude Chukwudi

2013-01-01

One of the objectives of OPEC is the security of demand for the crude oil exports of its members. Achieving this objective is imperative with the projected decline in OECD countries' crude oil demand among other crude oil demand shocks. This paper focuses on determining the external crude oil demand security risks of OPEC member states. In assessing these risks, this study introduces two indexes. The first index, Risky Energy Exports Demand (REED), indicates the level of energy export demand security risks for OPEC members. It combines measures of export dependence, economic dependence, monopsony risk and transportation risk. The second index, Contribution to OPEC Risk Exposure (CORE), indicates the individual contribution of the OPEC members to OPEC's risk exposure. This study utilises the disaggregated index approach in measuring energy demand security risks for crude oil and natural gas and involves a country level analysis. With the disaggregated approach, the study shows that OPEC's energy export demand security risks differ across countries and energy types. - Highlights: • REED and CORE indexes are suitable measures for energy exports demand security risk. • The indexes show that energy demand security risk is different for each OPEC country. • The countries contribution to OPEC's energy demand security risk is also different. • The outcome is necessary for OPEC's common energy and climate change policies. • The outcome makes a case for oil demand security as a topical issue in the literature

Texas-specific drive cycles and idle emissions rates for using with EPA's MOVES model : final report.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-05-01

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) newest emissions model, MOtor Vehicle : Emission Simulator (MOVES), uses a disaggregate approach that enables the users of the model to create : and use local drive schedules (drive cycles) in order ...

Motivational predictors of physical education students' effort, exercise intentions, and leisure-time physical activity: a multilevel linear growth analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Ian M; Ntoumanis, Nikos; Standage, Martyn; Spray, Christopher M

2010-02-01

Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000), the current study explored whether physical education (PE) students' psychological needs and their motivational regulations toward PE predicted mean differences and changes in effort in PE, exercise intentions, and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) over the course of one UK school trimester. One hundred and seventy-eight students (69% male) aged between 11 and 16 years completed a multisection questionnaire at the beginning, middle, and end of a school trimester. Multilevel growth models revealed that students' perceived competence and self-determined regulations were the most consistent predictors of the outcome variables at the within- and between-person levels. The results of this work add to the extant SDT-based literature by examining change in PE students' motivational regulations and psychological needs, as well as underscoring the importance of disaggregating within- and between-student effects.

Analysis of clonogenic human brain tumour cells: preliminary results of tumour sensitivity testing with BCNU

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rosenblum, M L; Dougherty, D A; Deen, D F; Hoshino, T; Wilson, C B [California Univ., San Francisco (USA). Dept. of Neurology

1980-04-01

Biopsies from 6 patients with glioblastoma multiforme were disaggregated and single cells were treated in vitro with various concentrations of 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitroso urea (BCNU) and plated for cell survival. One patient's cells were sensitive to BCNU in vitro; after a single dose of BCNU her brain scan reverted to normal and she was clinically well. Five tumours demonstrated resistance in vitro. Three of these tumours progressed during the first course of chemotherapy with a nitrosourea and the patients died at 21/2, 4 and 81/2 months after operation. Two patients who showed dramatic responses to radiation therapy were considered unchanged after the first course of nitrosourea therapy (although one demonstrated tumour enlargement on brain scan). The correlation of in vitro testing of tumour cell sensitivity with actual patient response is encouraging enough to warrant further work to determine whether such tests should weigh in decisions on patient therapy.

The relationship among biodiversity, governance, wealth, and scientific capacity at a country level: Disaggregation and prioritization.

Science.gov (United States)

Lira-Noriega, Andrés; Soberón, Jorge

2015-09-01

At a global level, the relationship between biodiversity importance and capacity to manage it is often assumed to be negative, without much differentiation among the more than 200 countries and territories of the world. We examine this relationship using a database including terrestrial biodiversity, wealth and governance indicators for most countries. From these, principal components analysis was used to construct aggregated indicators at global and regional scales. Wealth, governance, and scientific capacity represent different skills and abilities in relation to biodiversity importance. Our results show that the relationship between biodiversity and the different factors is not simple: in most regions wealth and capacity varies positively with biodiversity, while governance vary negatively with biodiversity. However, these trends, to a certain extent, are concentrated in certain groups of nations and outlier countries. We discuss our results in the context of collaboration and joint efforts among biodiversity-rich countries and foreign agencies.

Exposure data and risk indicators for safety performance assessment in Europe.

Science.gov (United States)

Papadimitriou, Eleonora; Yannis, George; Bijleveld, Frits; Cardoso, João L

2013-11-01

The objective of this paper is the analysis of the state-of-the-art in risk indicators and exposure data for safety performance assessment in Europe, in terms of data availability, collection methodologies and use. More specifically, the concepts of exposure and risk are explored, as well as the theoretical properties of various exposure measures used in road safety research (e.g. vehicle- and person-kilometres of travel, vehicle fleet, road length, driver population, time spent in traffic, etc.). Moreover, the existing methods for collecting disaggregate exposure data for risk estimates at national level are presented and assessed, including survey methods (e.g. travel surveys, traffic counts) and databases (e.g. national registers). A detailed analysis of the availability and quality of existing risk exposure data is also carried out. More specifically, the results of a questionnaire survey in the European countries are presented, with detailed information on exposure measures available, their possible disaggregations (i.e. variables and values), their conformity to standard definitions and the characteristics of their national collection methods. Finally, the potential of international risk comparisons is investigated, mainly through the International Data Files with exposure data (e.g. Eurostat, IRTAD, ECMT, UNECE, IRF, etc.). The results of this review confirm that comparing risk rates at international level may be a complex task, as the availability and quality of exposure estimates in European countries varies significantly. The lack of a common framework for the collection and exploitation of exposure data limits significantly the comparability of the national data. On the other hand, the International Data Files containing exposure data provide useful statistics and estimates in a systematic way and are currently the only sources allowing international comparisons of road safety performance under certain conditions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All

Evidence from Individual Inference for High-Dimensional Coexistence: Long-Term Experiments on Recruitment Response

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, James S.; Soltoff, Benjamin D.; Powell, Amanda S.; Read, Quentin D.

2012-01-01

Background For competing species to coexist, individuals must compete more with others of the same species than with those of other species. Ecologists search for tradeoffs in how species might partition the environment. The negative correlations among competing species that would be indicative of tradeoffs are rarely observed. A recent analysis showed that evidence for partitioning the environment is available when responses are disaggregated to the individual scale, in terms of the covariance structure of responses to environmental variation. That study did not relate that variation to the variables to which individuals were responding. To understand how this pattern of variation is related to niche variables, we analyzed responses to canopy gaps, long viewed as a key variable responsible for species coexistence. Methodology/Principal Findings A longitudinal intervention analysis of individual responses to experimental canopy gaps with 12 yr of pre-treatment and 8 yr post-treatment responses showed that species-level responses are positively correlated – species that grow fast on average in the understory also grow fast on average in response to gap formation. In other words, there is no tradeoff. However, the joint distribution of individual responses to understory and gap showed a negative correlation – species having individuals that respond most to gaps when previously growing slowly also have individuals that respond least to gaps when previously growing rapidly (e.g., Morus rubra), and vice versa (e.g., Quercus prinus). Conclusions/Significance Because competition occurs at the individual scale, not the species scale, aggregated species-level parameters and correlations hide the species-level differences needed for coexistence. By disaggregating models to the scale at which the interaction occurs we show that individual variation provides insight for species differences. PMID:22393349

Evidence from individual inference for high-dimensional coexistence: long-term experiments on recruitment response.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James S Clark

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: For competing species to coexist, individuals must compete more with others of the same species than with those of other species. Ecologists search for tradeoffs in how species might partition the environment. The negative correlations among competing species that would be indicative of tradeoffs are rarely observed. A recent analysis showed that evidence for partitioning the environment is available when responses are disaggregated to the individual scale, in terms of the covariance structure of responses to environmental variation. That study did not relate that variation to the variables to which individuals were responding. To understand how this pattern of variation is related to niche variables, we analyzed responses to canopy gaps, long viewed as a key variable responsible for species coexistence. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A longitudinal intervention analysis of individual responses to experimental canopy gaps with 12 yr of pre-treatment and 8 yr post-treatment responses showed that species-level responses are positively correlated--species that grow fast on average in the understory also grow fast on average in response to gap formation. In other words, there is no tradeoff. However, the joint distribution of individual responses to understory and gap showed a negative correlation--species having individuals that respond most to gaps when previously growing slowly also have individuals that respond least to gaps when previously growing rapidly (e.g., Morus rubra, and vice versa (e.g., Quercus prinus. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Because competition occurs at the individual scale, not the species scale, aggregated species-level parameters and correlations hide the species-level differences needed for coexistence. By disaggregating models to the scale at which the interaction occurs we show that individual variation provides insight for species differences.

Subjective time pressure: general or domain specific?

Science.gov (United States)

Kleiner, Sibyl

2014-09-01

Chronic time pressure has been identified as a pervasive societal problem, exacerbated by high demands of the labor market and the home. Yet time pressure has not been disaggregated and examined separately across home and work contexts, leaving many unanswered questions regarding the sources and potentially stressful consequences of time pressure. Using data collected in the United States General Social Survey waves 2002 and 2004, this study disaggregates time pressure into the domains of home and work, and asks whether considering time pressures within distinct work and home contexts reveals distinct predictors or associations with stress. Findings show that both predictors and stress associations differ across work and home pressures, revealing both methodological and theoretical implications for the study of time pressure and work and family life more generally. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Preparation of Amyloid Fibrils Seeded from Brain and Meninges.

Science.gov (United States)

Scherpelz, Kathryn P; Lu, Jun-Xia; Tycko, Robert; Meredith, Stephen C

2016-01-01

Seeding of amyloid fibrils into fresh solutions of the same peptide or protein in disaggregated form leads to the formation of replicate fibrils, with close structural similarity or identity to the original fibrillar seeds. Here we describe procedures for isolating fibrils composed mainly of β-amyloid (Aβ) from human brain and from leptomeninges, a source of cerebral blood vessels, for investigating Alzheimer's disease and cerebral amyloid angiopathy. We also describe methods for seeding isotopically labeled, disaggregated Aβ peptide solutions for study using solid-state NMR and other techniques. These methods should be applicable to other types of amyloid fibrils, to Aβ fibrils from mice or other species, tissues other than brain, and to some non-fibrillar aggregates. These procedures allow for the examination of authentic amyloid fibrils and other protein aggregates from biological tissues without the need for labeling the tissue.

The importance of partnerships, mergers and acquisitions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Trabandt, C.A. [Merrill Lynch, New York, NY (United States)

1998-09-01

An overview of the electric utility industry was presented. The main factors driving mergers and acquisitions in the industry were identified as being consolidation, disaggregation, convergence and international expansion. To prove the point, statistics from recent merger and acquisition transactions in the U.S. were presented. The importance of disaggregation of the utility business and convergence as the major themes of the electricity and natural gas industries were demonstrated. They are driven by a new competitive marketplace and fewer regulations. The driving forces behind them were explained, buttressing the arguments with recent statistics reflecting an upsurge in convergence transactions. Significant opportunities abroad and recent foreign acquisitions by U. S. utilities were also reviewed. With regard to convergence, it was shown to be occurring in both the generation/wholesale and distribution/retail marketing segment of the electric power industry. 3 figs.

Derived flood frequency analysis using different model calibration strategies based on various types of rainfall-runoff data - a comparison

Science.gov (United States)

Haberlandt, U.; Radtke, I.

2013-08-01

Derived flood frequency analysis allows to estimate design floods with hydrological modelling for poorly observed basins considering change and taking into account flood protection measures. There are several possible choices about precipitation input, discharge output and consequently regarding the calibration of the model. The objective of this study is to compare different calibration strategies for a hydrological model considering various types of rainfall input and runoff output data sets. Event based and continuous observed hourly rainfall data as well as disaggregated daily rainfall and stochastically generated hourly rainfall data are used as input for the model. As output short hourly and longer daily continuous flow time series as well as probability distributions of annual maximum peak flow series are employed. The performance of the strategies is evaluated using the obtained different model parameter sets for continuous simulation of discharge in an independent validation period and by comparing the model derived flood frequency distributions with the observed one. The investigations are carried out for three mesoscale catchments in Northern Germany with the hydrological model HEC-HMS. The results show that: (i) the same type of precipitation input data should be used for calibration and application of the hydrological model, (ii) a model calibrated using a small sample of extreme values works quite well for the simulation of continuous time series with moderate length but not vice versa, (iii) the best performance with small uncertainty is obtained when stochastic precipitation data and the observed probability distribution of peak flows are used for model calibration. This outcome suggests to calibrate a hydrological model directly on probability distributions of observed peak flows using stochastic rainfall as input if its purpose is the application for derived flood frequency analysis.

Nations need national land administration infrastructures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bennett, Rohan; Rajabifard, Abbas; Williamson, Ian; Wallace, Jude

2012-01-01

Many nations lack a coherent national approach to land administration. Instead, land information and processes are frequently disaggregated across states, provinces, cantons, counties, and municipalities. This is particularly the case in federated countries. The growing body of land administration

Cellular strategies to cope with protein aggregation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scior, Annika; Juenemann, Katrin; Kirstein, Janine

2016-01-01

Nature has evolved several mechanisms to detoxify intracellular protein aggregates that arise upon proteotoxic challenges. These include the controlled deposition of misfolded proteins at distinct cellular sites, the protein disaggregation and refolding by molecular chaperones and/or degradation of

[New design of the Health Survey of Catalonia (Spain, 2010-2014): a step forward in health planning and evaluation].

Science.gov (United States)

Alcañiz-Zanón, Manuela; Mompart-Penina, Anna; Guillén-Estany, Montserrat; Medina-Bustos, Antonia; Aragay-Barbany, Josep M; Brugulat-Guiteras, Pilar; Tresserras-Gaju, Ricard

2014-01-01

This article presents the genesis of the Health Survey of Catalonia (Spain, 2010-2014) with its semiannual subsamples and explains the basic characteristics of its multistage sampling design. In comparison with previous surveys, the organizational advantages of this new statistical operation include rapid data availability and the ability to continuously monitor the population. The main benefits are timeliness in the production of indicators and the possibility of introducing new topics through the supplemental questionnaire as a function of needs. Limitations consist of the complexity of the sample design and the lack of longitudinal follow-up of the sample. Suitable sampling weights for each specific subsample are necessary for any statistical analysis of micro-data. Accuracy in the analysis of territorial disaggregation or population subgroups increases if annual samples are accumulated. Copyright © 2013 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Anti-aggregation-based spectrometric detection of Hg(II) at physiological pH using gold nanorods

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rajeshwari, A.; Karthiga, D.; Chandrasekaran, Natarajan; Mukherjee, Amitava, E-mail: amit.mookerjea@gmail.com

2016-10-01

An efficient detection method for Hg (II) ions at physiological pH (pH 7.4) was developed using tween 20-modified gold nanorods (NRs) in the presence of dithiothreitol (DTT). Thiol groups (-SH) at the end of DTT have a higher affinity towards gold atoms, and they can covalently interact with gold NRs and leads to their aggregation. The addition of Hg(II) ions prevents the aggregation of gold NRs due to the covalent bond formation between the -SH group of DTT and Hg(II) ions in the buffer system. The changes in the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance peak of gold NRs were characterized using a UV–visible spectrophotometer. The absorption intensity peak of gold NRs at 679 nm was observed to reduce after interaction with DTT, and the absorption intensity was noted to increase by increasing the concentration of Hg(II) ions. The TEM analysis confirms the morphological changes of gold NRs before and after addition of Hg(II) ions in the presence of DTT. Further, the aggregation and disaggregation of gold NRs were confirmed by particle size and zeta potential analysis. The developed method shows an excellent linearity (y = 0.001 x + 0.794) for the graph plotted between the absorption ratio and Hg(II) concentration (1 to 100 pM) under the optimized conditions. The limit of detection was noted to be 0.42 pM in the buffer system. The developed method was tested in simulated body fluid, and it was found to have a good recovery rate. - Highlights: • Tween-20 modified gold NRs used as a probe for Hg(II) at physiological pH. • TEM, particle size and surface charge analysis confirm the aggregation and • disaggregation of NRs • The sensitivity of the probe for Hg(II) ions detection was 0.42 pM. • Hg(II) estimation in simulated body fluids with good recovery.

Analyzing the environmental impact of transportation in reengineered supply chains: a case study from a leather upholstery company

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yazan, Devrim Murat; Yazan, Devrim; Petruzzelli, Antonio Messeni; Albino, Vito

2011-01-01

This paper examines the impact of process disaggregation and specialization on the environmental performance of the supply chain of a leather upholstery company. An enterprise input–output model that relates geographical information with production processes and transportation routes is developed.

Rural Nonfarm Activities and Poverty in the Brazilian Northeast

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ferreira, FHG; Lanjouw, P.F.

2001-01-01

This paper combines two complementary data sets to present a disaggregated spatial profile of poverty in the Brazilian Northeast, and to investigate the importance of nonagricultural activities for its rural dwellers. We present both univariate and multivariate profiles of nonagricultural employment

A profile of non-farm household enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nagler, Paula

2017-01-01

This paper provides a comprehensive descriptive profile of non-farm household enterprises in ten Sub-Saharan African countries, disaggregated by the households' consumption quintiles. Various enterprise-related aspects are covered, such as the share of households that operate an enterprise, the

Parents’ uptake of human papillomavirus vaccines for their children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies

Science.gov (United States)

Tepjan, Suchon; Rubincam, Clara; Doukas, Nick; Asey, Farid

2018-01-01

reducing out-of-pocket costs. Limitations of this meta-analysis include the lack of intervention studies and high risk of bias in most studies reviewed. Further studies should disaggregate HPV vaccine uptake by sex of child and parent. PMID:29678965

Part 1. Short-term effects of air pollution on mortality: results from a time-series analysis in Chennai, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Balakrishnan, Kalpana; Ganguli, Bhaswati; Ghosh, Santu; Sankar, S; Thanasekaraan, Vijaylakshmi; Rayudu, V N; Caussy, Harry

2011-03-01

This report describes the results of a time-series analysis of the effect of short-term exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter part of its Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) initiative. The study involved integration and analysis of retrospective data for the years 2002 through 2004. The data were obtained from relevant government agencies in charge of routine data collection. Data on meteorologic confounders (including temperature, relative humidity, and dew point) were available on all days of the study period. Data on mortality were also available on all days, but information on cause-of-death (including accidental deaths) could not be reliably ascertained. Hence, only all-cause daily mortality was used as the major outcome for the time-series analyses. Data on PM10, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) were limited to a much smaller number of days, but spanned the full study period. Data limitations resulting from low sensitivity of gaseous pollutant measurements led to using only PM10 in the main analysis. Of the eight operational ambient air quality monitor (AQM) stations in the city, seven met the selection criteria set forth in the common protocol developed for the three PAPA studies in India. In addition, all raw data used in the analysis were subjected to additional quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) criteria to ensure the validity of the measurements. Two salient features of the PM10 data set in Chennai were a high percentage of missing readings and a low correlation among daily data recorded by the AQMs. The latter resulted partly because each AQM had a small footprint (approximate area over which the air pollutant measurements recorded in the AQM are considered valid), and partly because of differences in source profiles among the 10 zones within the city. The zones were defined by the Chennai Corporation based on population density. Alternative exposure series were developed to control for

A dynamic analysis of motorcycle ownership and usage: a panel data modeling approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Wen, Chieh-Hua; Chiou, Yu-Chiun; Huang, Wan-Ling

2012-11-01

This study aims to develop motorcycle ownership and usage models with consideration of the state dependence and heterogeneity effects based on a large-scale questionnaire panel survey on vehicle owners. To account for the independence among alternatives and heterogeneity among individuals, the modeling structure of motorcycle ownership adopts disaggregate choice models considering the multinomial, nested, and mixed logit formulations. Three types of panel data regression models--ordinary, fixed, and random effects--are developed and compared for motorcycle usage. The estimation results show that motorcycle ownership in the previous year does exercise a significantly positive effect on the number of motorcycles owned by households in the current year, suggesting that the state dependence effect does exist in motorcycle ownership decisions. In addition, the fixed effects model is the preferred specification for modeling motorcycle usage, indicating strong evidence for existence of heterogeneity. Among various management strategies evaluated under different scenarios, increasing gas prices and parking fees will lead to larger reductions in total kilometers traveled. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coupling Poisson rectangular pulse and multiplicative microcanonical random cascade models to generate sub-daily precipitation timeseries

Science.gov (United States)

Pohle, Ina; Niebisch, Michael; Müller, Hannes; Schümberg, Sabine; Zha, Tingting; Maurer, Thomas; Hinz, Christoph

2018-07-01

To simulate the impacts of within-storm rainfall variabilities on fast hydrological processes, long precipitation time series with high temporal resolution are required. Due to limited availability of observed data such time series are typically obtained from stochastic models. However, most existing rainfall models are limited in their ability to conserve rainfall event statistics which are relevant for hydrological processes. Poisson rectangular pulse models are widely applied to generate long time series of alternating precipitation events durations and mean intensities as well as interstorm period durations. Multiplicative microcanonical random cascade (MRC) models are used to disaggregate precipitation time series from coarse to fine temporal resolution. To overcome the inconsistencies between the temporal structure of the Poisson rectangular pulse model and the MRC model, we developed a new coupling approach by introducing two modifications to the MRC model. These modifications comprise (a) a modified cascade model ("constrained cascade") which preserves the event durations generated by the Poisson rectangular model by constraining the first and last interval of a precipitation event to contain precipitation and (b) continuous sigmoid functions of the multiplicative weights to consider the scale-dependency in the disaggregation of precipitation events of different durations. The constrained cascade model was evaluated in its ability to disaggregate observed precipitation events in comparison to existing MRC models. For that, we used a 20-year record of hourly precipitation at six stations across Germany. The constrained cascade model showed a pronounced better agreement with the observed data in terms of both the temporal pattern of the precipitation time series (e.g. the dry and wet spell durations and autocorrelations) and event characteristics (e.g. intra-event intermittency and intensity fluctuation within events). The constrained cascade model also

Low-power Appliance Recognition using Recurrent Neural Networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rizky Pratama, Azkario; Simanjuntak, Frans Juanda; Lazovik, Aliaksandr; Aiello, Marco

2018-01-01

Indoor energy consumption can be understood by breaking overall power consumption down into individual components and appliance activations. The clas- sification of components of energy usage is known as load disaggregation or ap- pliance recognition. Most of the previous efforts address the

Eco-innovation: reflections on an evolving research agenda

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkhout, F.G.H.

2011-01-01

This short paper reviews some trends in social science research on eco-innovation, drawing attention to four trends in particular: better disaggregated empirical research on firms, research on knowledge and technology flows, linkage of economic and physical models and growing sophistication in the

Molecular mechanisms used by chaperones to reduce the toxicity of aberrant protein oligomers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mannini, Benedetta; Cascella, Roberta; Zampagni, Mariagioia; Van Waarde-Verhagen, Maria; Meehan, Sarah; Roodveldt, Cintia; Campioni, Silvia; Boninsegna, Matilde; Penco, Amanda; Relini, Annalisa; Kampinga, Harm H.; Dobson, Christopher M.; Wilson, Mark R.; Cecchi, Cristina; Chiti, Fabrizio

2012-01-01

Chaperones are the primary regulators of the proteostasis network and are known to facilitate protein folding, inhibit protein aggregation, and promote disaggregation and clearance of misfolded aggregates inside cells. We have tested the effects of five chaperones on the toxicity of misfolded

Growing together or growing apart? : a Village-Level Study of the Impact of the Doha Round on Rural China

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuiper, M.H.; Tongeren, van F.W.

2006-01-01

Most studies of the opening of the Chinese economy focus at the national level. The few existing disaggregated analyses are limited to analyzing changes in agricultural production. In this paper we employ an innovative village equilibrium model that accounts for nonseparability of household

Measuring regional authority

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marks, G.W.; Hooghe, E.A.E.B.; Schakel, A.H.

2008-01-01

This article sets out a conceptual basis for measuring regional authority and engages basic measurement issues. Regional authority is disaggregated into two domains (self-rule and shared rule) and these are operationalised in eight dimensions. The article concludes by examining the robustness of

Accessibility appraisal of integrated land-use/transport policy strategies: more than just adding up travel time savings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Geurs, Karst Teunis; Zondag, Barry; de Jong, Gerard; de Bok, Michiel

2010-01-01

We examine the accessibility benefits associated with some land-use policy strategies for the Netherlands that anticipate on expected climate change. A disaggregate logsum accessibility measure using the Dutch national land-use/transport interaction model TIGRIS XL is used to compute changes in

A research agenda for a people-centred approach to energy access in the urbanizing global south

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Broto, Vanesa Castán; Stevens, Lucy; Ackom, Emmanuel

2017-01-01

focused on three key issues: understanding the needs of urban energy users; enabling the use of context-specific, disaggregated data; and engaging with effective modes of energy and urban governance. This agenda requires interdisciplinary scholarship across the social and physical sciences to support...

Reconceptualising Hierarchies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nell, Phillip Christopher; Kappen, Philip; Laamanen, Tomi

2017-01-01

In this paper, we provide an introduction to the Special Issue entitled ‘Divide and Rule? The Emergence and Implications of Increasingly Disaggregated and Dispersed Headquarters Activities in Contemporary Firms’. The purpose is two-fold. First, we propose a conceptualization of headquarters activ...

Association of Supply Type with Fecal Contamination of Source Water and Household Stored Drinking Water in Developing Countries: A Bivariate Meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Shields, Katherine F; Bain, Robert E S; Cronk, Ryan; Wright, Jim A; Bartram, Jamie

2015-12-01

Access to safe drinking water is essential for health. Monitoring access to drinking water focuses on water supply type at the source, but there is limited evidence on whether quality differences at the source persist in water stored in the household. We assessed the extent of fecal contamination at the source and in household stored water (HSW) and explored the relationship between contamination at each sampling point and water supply type. We performed a bivariate random-effects meta-analysis of 45 studies, identified through a systematic review, that reported either the proportion of samples free of fecal indicator bacteria and/or individual sample bacteria counts for source and HSW, disaggregated by supply type. Water quality deteriorated substantially between source and stored water. The mean percentage of contaminated samples (noncompliance) at the source was 46% (95% CI: 33, 60%), whereas mean noncompliance in HSW was 75% (95% CI: 64, 84%). Water supply type was significantly associated with noncompliance at the source (p water (OR = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.1, 0.5) and HSW (OR = 0.3; 95% CI: 0.2, 0.8) from piped supplies had significantly lower odds of contamination compared with non-piped water, potentially due to residual chlorine. Piped water is less likely to be contaminated compared with other water supply types at both the source and in HSW. A focus on upgrading water services to piped supplies may help improve safety, including for those drinking stored water.

Small Open Economy Firms in International Trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eriksson, Tor Viking; Smeets, Valérie; Warzynski, Frederic

In this paper, we use a rich dataset disaggregating imports and exports decisions by product and origin/destination of all Danish companies for the period 1993-2003 to provide key elements in characterizing Danish firms in international trade. Most evidence to date emanates from the U.S. or devel......In this paper, we use a rich dataset disaggregating imports and exports decisions by product and origin/destination of all Danish companies for the period 1993-2003 to provide key elements in characterizing Danish firms in international trade. Most evidence to date emanates from the U...... in Denmark than in the U.S. There are few traces of the European Union's Single Market Program and the adoption the Euro in 1998. We observe no impact of these changes on the number of exporters, but some signs of impacts on the number of products and export destination countries. Finally, we find that trade...

Bilateral Trade Flows and Income Distribution Similarity

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

Current models of bilateral trade neglect the effects of income distribution. This paper addresses the issue by accounting for non-homothetic consumer preferences and hence investigating the role of income distribution in the context of the gravity model of trade. A theoretically justified gravity model is estimated for disaggregated trade data (Dollar volume is used as dependent variable) using a sample of 104 exporters and 108 importers for 1980–2003 to achieve two main goals. We define and calculate new measures of income distribution similarity and empirically confirm that greater similarity of income distribution between countries implies more trade. Using distribution-based measures as a proxy for demand similarities in gravity models, we find consistent and robust support for the hypothesis that countries with more similar income-distributions trade more with each other. The hypothesis is also confirmed at disaggregated level for differentiated product categories. PMID:27137462

Human resources for health and burden of disease: an econometric approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Castillo-Laborde Carla

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The effect of health workers on health has been proven to be important for various health outcomes (e.g. mortality, coverage of immunisation or skilled birth attendants. The study aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between health workers and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs, which represents a much broader concept of health outcome, including not only mortality but also morbidity. Methods Cross-country multiple regression analyses were undertaken, with DALYs and DALYs disaggregated according to the three different groups of diseases as the dependent variable. Aggregate health workers and disaggregate physicians, nurses, and midwives were included as independent variables, as well as a variable accounting for the skill mix of professionals. The analysis also considers controlling for the effects of income, income distribution, percentage of rural population with access to improved water source, and health expenditure. Results This study presents evidence of a statistically negative relationship between the density of health workers (especially physicians and the DALYs. An increase of one unit in the density of health workers per 1000 will decrease, on average, the total burden of disease between 1% and 3%. However, in line with previous findings in the literature, the density of nurses and midwives could not be said to be statistically associated to DALYs. Conclusions If countries increase their health worker density, they will be able to reduce significantly their burden of disease, especially the burden associated to communicable diseases. This study represents supporting evidence of the importance of health workers for health.

Revisiting the impact of macroeconomic conditions on health behaviours.

Science.gov (United States)

Di Pietro, Giorgio

2018-02-01

This paper estimates the average population effect of macroeconomic conditions on health behaviours accounting for the heterogeneous impact of the business cycle on individuals. While previous studies use models relying on area-specific unemployment rates to estimate this average effect, this paper employs a model based on area-specific unemployment rates by gender and age group. The rationale for breaking down unemployment rates is that the severity of cyclical upturns and downturns does not only significantly vary across geographical areas, but also across gender and age. The empirical analysis uses microdata from the Italian Multipurpose Household Survey on Everyday Life Issues. The estimates suggest that models employing aggregated and disaggregated unemployment rate measures as a proxy for the business cycle produce similar findings for some health behaviours (such as smoking), whereas different results are obtained for others. While using unemployment rates by gender and age group, fruits and/or vegetables consumption turns out to be procyclical (a 1pp increase in this unemployment rate decreases the probability of consuming at least five daily fruit and/or vegetable servings by 0.0016pp), the opposite effect, though statistically insignificant, is observed once general unemployment rates are used. While both models conclude that physical activity declines during economic downturns, the size of the procyclical effect is much smaller when employing disaggregated rather than aggregated unemployment rates (a 1pp increase in the unemployment rate by gender and age group decreases the probability of doing any physical activity by 0.0017pp). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Calibration of MATSim in the context of natural hazards in Belgium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saadi, I.; Mustafa, A.; Teller, J.; Cools, M.

2016-07-01

In Belgium, river floods are among the most frequent natural disasters and they may cause important changes on travel demand. In this regard, we propose to set up a large scale scenario using MATSim for guarantying an accurate assessment of the river floods impact on the transportation systems. In terms of inputs, agent-based models require a base year population. In this context, a synthetic population with a respective set of attributes is generated as a key input. Afterwards, agents are assigned activity chains through an activity-based generation process. Finally, the synthetic population and the transportation network are integrated into the dynamic traffic assignment simulator, i.e. MATSim. With respect to data, households travel surveys are the main inputs for synthesizing the populations. Besides, a steady-state inundation map is integrated within MATSim for simulating river floods. To our knowledge, very few studies have focused on how river floods affect transportation systems. In this regard, this research will undoubtedly provide new insights in term of methodology and traffic pattern analysis under disruptions, especially with regard to spatial scale effects. The results indicate that at the municipality level, it is possible to capture the effects of disruptions on travel behavior. In this context, further disaggregation is needed in future studies for identifying to what extent results are sensitive to disaggregation. In addition, results also suggest that the target sub-population exposed to flood risk should be isolated from the rest of the travel demand to reach have more sensitive effects. (Author)

SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Krysanova, V; Wechsung, F; Arnold, J; Srinivasan, R; Williams, J

2000-12-01

The model SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model) was developed in order to provide a comprehensive GIS-based tool for hydrological and water quality modelling in mesoscale and large river basins (from 100 to 10,000 km{sup 2}), which can be parameterised using regionally available information. The model was developed for the use mainly in Europe and temperate zone, though its application in other regions is possible as well. SWIM is based on two previously developed tools - SWAT and MATSALU (see more explanations in section 1.1). The model integrates hydrology, vegetation, erosion, and nutrient dynamics at the watershed scale. SWIM has a three-level disaggregation scheme 'basin - sub-basins - hydrotopes' and is coupled to the Geographic Information System GRASS (GRASS, 1993). A robust approach is suggested for the nitrogen and phosphorus modelling in mesoscale watersheds. SWIM runs under the UNIX environment. Model test and validation were performed sequentially for hydrology, crop growth, nitrogen and erosion in a number of mesoscale watersheds in the German part of the Elbe drainage basin. A comprehensive scheme of spatial disaggregation into sub-basins and hydrotopes combined with reasonable restriction on a sub-basin area allows performing the assessment of water resources and water quality with SWIM in mesoscale river basins. The modest data requirements represent an important advantage of the model. Direct connection to land use and climate data provides a possibility to use the model for analysis of climate change and land use change impacts on hydrology, agricultural production, and water quality. (orig.)

On the Fidelity of Semi-distributed Hydrologic Model Simulations for Large Scale Catchment Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Ajami, H.; Sharma, A.; Lakshmi, V.

2017-12-01

Application of semi-distributed hydrologic modeling frameworks is a viable alternative to fully distributed hyper-resolution hydrologic models due to computational efficiency and resolving fine-scale spatial structure of hydrologic fluxes and states. However, fidelity of semi-distributed model simulations is impacted by (1) formulation of hydrologic response units (HRUs), and (2) aggregation of catchment properties for formulating simulation elements. Here, we evaluate the performance of a recently developed Soil Moisture and Runoff simulation Toolkit (SMART) for large catchment scale simulations. In SMART, topologically connected HRUs are delineated using thresholds obtained from topographic and geomorphic analysis of a catchment, and simulation elements are equivalent cross sections (ECS) representative of a hillslope in first order sub-basins. Earlier investigations have shown that formulation of ECSs at the scale of a first order sub-basin reduces computational time significantly without compromising simulation accuracy. However, the implementation of this approach has not been fully explored for catchment scale simulations. To assess SMART performance, we set-up the model over the Little Washita watershed in Oklahoma. Model evaluations using in-situ soil moisture observations show satisfactory model performance. In addition, we evaluated the performance of a number of soil moisture disaggregation schemes recently developed to provide spatially explicit soil moisture outputs at fine scale resolution. Our results illustrate that the statistical disaggregation scheme performs significantly better than the methods based on topographic data. Future work is focused on assessing the performance of SMART using remotely sensed soil moisture observations using spatially based model evaluation metrics.

Dynamic Hydrological Modeling in Drylands with TRMM Based Rainfall

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Tarnavsky

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces and evaluates DryMOD, a dynamic water balance model of the key hydrological process in drylands that is based on free, public-domain datasets. The rainfall model of DryMOD makes optimal use of spatially disaggregated Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM datasets to simulate hourly rainfall intensities at a spatial resolution of 1-km. Regional-scale applications of the model in seasonal catchments in Tunisia and Senegal characterize runoff and soil moisture distribution and dynamics in response to varying rainfall data inputs and soil properties. The results highlight the need for hourly-based rainfall simulation and for correcting TRMM 3B42 rainfall intensities for the fractional cover of rainfall (FCR. Without FCR correction and disaggregation to 1 km, TRMM 3B42 based rainfall intensities are too low to generate surface runoff and to induce substantial changes to soil moisture storage. The outcomes from the sensitivity analysis show that topsoil porosity is the most important soil property for simulation of runoff and soil moisture. Thus, we demonstrate the benefit of hydrological investigations at a scale, for which reliable information on soil profile characteristics exists and which is sufficiently fine to account for the heterogeneities of these. Where such information is available, application of DryMOD can assist in the spatial and temporal planning of water harvesting according to runoff-generating areas and the runoff ratio, as well as in the optimization of agricultural activities based on realistic representation of soil moisture conditions.

Monetary Value of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALY) among Patients with Cardiovascular Disease: a Willingness to Pay Study (WTP).

Science.gov (United States)

Moradi, Najmeh; Rashidian, Arash; Rasekh, Hamid Reza; Olyaeemanesh, Alireza; Foroughi, Mahnoosh; Mohammadi, Teymoor

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to estimate the monetary value of a QALY among patients with heart disease and to identify its determinants. A cross-sectional survey was conducted through face-to-face interview on 196 patients with cardiovascular disease from two heart hospitals in Tehran, Iran, to estimate the value of QALY using disaggregated and aggregated approaches. The EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Time Trade-Off (TTO) and contingent valuation WTP techniques were employed, first to elicit patients' preferences and then, to estimate WTP for QALY. The association of patients' characteristics with WTP for QALY, was assessed through Heckman selection model. The Mean willingness to pay per QALY, estimated by the disaggregated approach ranged from 2,799 to 3599 US dollars. It is higher than the values, estimated from aggregated methods (USD 2,256 to 3,137). However, in both approaches, the values were less than one Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of Iran. Significant variables were: Current health state, education, age, marital status, number of comorbidities, and household's cost group. Our results challenge two major issues: the first, is a policy challenge which concerns the WHO recommendation to use less than 3 GDP per capita as a cost-effectiveness threshold value. The second, is an analytical challenge related to patients with zero QALY gain. More scrutiny is suggested on the issue of how patients with full health state valuation should be dealt with and what arbitrary value could be included in the estimation value of QALY when the disaggregated approach used.

Novel recycle technology for recovering rare metals (Ga, In) from waste light-emitting diodes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhan, Lu; Xia, Fafa; Ye, Qiuyu; Xiang, Xishu; Xie, Bing, E-mail: bxie@des.ecnu.edu.cn

2015-12-15

Highlights: • Rare metals (Ga, In) are separated and recycled from waste light-emitting diodes. • Pyrolysis, physical disaggregation and vacuum metallurgy separation are proposed. • There is no hazardous materials produced in this process. - Abstract: This work develops a novel process of recycling rare metals (Ga, In) from waste light-emitting diodes using the combination of pyrolysis, physical disaggregation methods and vacuum metallurgy separation. Firstly, the pure chips containing InGaN/GaN are adopted to study the vacuum separation behavior of rare metals, which aims to provide the theoretical foundation for recycling gallium and indium from waste light-emitting diodes. In order to extract the rare-metal-rich particles from waste light-emitting diodes, pyrolysis and physical disaggregation methods (crushing, screening, grinding and secondly screening) are studied respectively, and the operating parameters are optimized. With low boiling points and high saturation vapor pressures under vacuum, gallium and indium are separated from rare-metal-rich particles by the process of evaporation and condensation. By reference to the separating parameters of pure chips, gallium and indium in waste light-emitting diodes are recycled with the recovery efficiencies of 93.48% and 95.67% under the conditions as follows: heating temperature of 1373 K, vacuum pressure of 0.01–0.1 Pa, and holding time of 60 min. There are no secondary hazardous materials generated in the whole processes. This work provides an efficient and environmentally friendly process for recycling rare metals from waste light-emitting diodes.

Nanoblock aggregation-disaggregation of zeolite nanoparticles: Temperature control on crystallinity

KAUST Repository

Gao, Feifei; Sougrat, Rachid; Albela, Belé n; Bonneviot, Laurent

2011-01-01

performed at 90 °C, most of the final aggregates exhibit ill-oriented assembly. This is consistent with a trial-and-error block-by-block building mechanism that turns into an irreversible and apparently faster process at 90 °C, causing definitively ill

Disaggregated export demand of Malaysia: evidence from the electronics industry

OpenAIRE

Koi Nyen Wong

2008-01-01

This study estimates the determinants of foreign demand for Malaysia's top five electronics exports by SITC (Standard International Trade Classification) product groups from 1990 to 2001. Cointegration results indicate a unique long-run relationship between export demand for electronic products and relative prices and foreign income. Both the estimated long-run income and price elasticities of export demand are greater than 1, conforming to a pattern found in most fast-growing economies and i...

Estimation of disaggregated canal water deliveries in Pakistan using geomatics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mobin-ud-Din, A.; Stein, A.; Bastiaanssen, W.G.M.

2004-01-01

Lack of accurate information on water distribution within an irrigation system is a major roadblock for effective management of scarce water resources. Numerical techniques to estimate canal water distribution require large amounts of data with respect to hydraulic parameters and operation of the

Nanoblock aggregation-disaggregation of zeolite nanoparticles: Temperature control on crystallinity

KAUST Repository

Gao, Feifei

2011-04-21

During the induction period of silicalite-1 formation at 80 °C, primary nanoblocks of 8-11 nm self-assemble together into fragile nanoflocculates of ca. 60 nm that dislocate and reappear according to a slow pseudoperiodical process. Between 22 and 32 h, the nanoflocculates grow up to 350 nm and contain ill- and well-oriented aggregates of ca. 40 nm. After 48 h, only ill-faceted monodomains of ca. 90 nm remains, which self-assemble into larger flocculates of ca. 450 nm. For crystal growth performed at 90 °C, most of the final aggregates exhibit ill-oriented assembly. This is consistent with a trial-and-error block-by-block building mechanism that turns into an irreversible and apparently faster process at 90 °C, causing definitively ill-oriented product. The nanoblocks, aggregates, and flocculates were characterized in nondiluted, nondiluted and ultrasonicated, or diluted and ultrasonicated solutions, using mainly dynamic light scattering and cryo-high-resolution transmission electron microscopy at various tilted angles. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

Clustering disaggregated load profiles using a Dirichlet process mixture model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Granell, Ramon; Axon, Colin J.; Wallom, David C.H.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • We show that the Dirichlet process mixture model is scaleable. • Our model does not require the number of clusters as an input. • Our model creates clusters only by the features of the demand profiles. • We have used both residential and commercial data sets. - Abstract: The increasing availability of substantial quantities of power-use data in both the residential and commercial sectors raises the possibility of mining the data to the advantage of both consumers and network operations. We present a Bayesian non-parametric model to cluster load profiles from households and business premises. Evaluators show that our model performs as well as other popular clustering methods, but unlike most other methods it does not require the number of clusters to be predetermined by the user. We used the so-called ‘Chinese restaurant process’ method to solve the model, making use of the Dirichlet-multinomial distribution. The number of clusters grew logarithmically with the quantity of data, making the technique suitable for scaling to large data sets. We were able to show that the model could distinguish features such as the nationality, household size, and type of dwelling between the cluster memberships

Monetary dynamics in the euro area : a disaggregate panel approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Liu, J.; Kool, C.J.M.

In this paper, we use panel cointegration estimation to analyze the determinants of heterogeneous monetary dynamics in ten euro area member countries over the period 1999-2013. In particular, we investigate the role of real house prices, real equity prices and cross border bank credit. For the

Quantifying and Disaggregating Consumer Purchasing Behavior for Energy Systems Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Consumer behaviors such as energy conservation, adoption of more efficient technologies, and fuel switching represent significant potential for greenhouse gas mitigation. Current efforts to model future energy outcomes have tended to use simplified economic assumptions ...

Religious governance in the Netherlands: associative freedoms and non-discrimination after "pillarization": the example of faith-based schools

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maussen, M.

2014-01-01

This paper conceptualizes Dutch traditions of religious governance in terms of a model of "principled pluralism" (Monsma and Soper 2009). It approaches church-state traditions in a disaggregate way, meaning it is sensitive to domain specificities and takes notice of the actual constitutional and

Glutamate carboxypeptidase II does not process amyloid-beta peptide

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Sedlák, František; Šácha, Pavel; Blechová, Miroslava; Březinová, Anna; Šafařík, Martin; Šebestík, Jaroslav; Konvalinka, Jan

2013-01-01

Roč. 27, č. 7 (2013), s. 2626-2632 ISSN 0892-6638 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP304/12/0847 Institutional support: RVO:61388963 Keywords : PSMA * Alzheimer's disease * disaggregation * exopeptidase * substrate specificity * depsipeptide Subject RIV: CE - Biochemistry Impact factor: 5.480, year: 2013

How do candidates spend their money? Objects of campaign spending and the effectiveness of diversification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sudulich, M.L.; Wall, M.

2011-01-01

We present a novel approach to the study of campaign effectiveness using disaggregated spending returns from the 2007 Irish general election. While previous studies have focused on overall levels of expenditure as a predictor of electoral success, we consider the types of activities on which

Scrutinizing individuals’ leisure-shopping travel decisions to appraise activity-based models of travel demand

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D. Kusamastuti (Diana); E. Hannes (Els); D. Janssens (Davy); G. Wets (Geert); B.G.C. Dellaert (Benedict)

2010-01-01

textabstractActivity-based models for modeling individuals’ travel demand have come to a new era in addressing individuals’ and households’ travel behavior on a disaggregate level. Quantitative data are mainly used in this domain to enable a realistic representation of individual choices and a true

Acquisition of Space Systems. Volume 7. Past Problems and Future Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

smaller space systems to enable disaggregated mission architectures. The Commercially Hosted Nonimaging Infrared Program developed and launched a wide...new missions.24 21 In June 2008, an $82.5 million contract (which included launch and operations) was awarded for the Com- mercially Hosted Nonimaging

Annual mileage, driving violations, and accident involvement in relation to drivers' sex, age, and level of education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lourens, PF; Vissers, JAMM; Jessurun, M

The paper presents results of some analyses on a Dutch database that contains disaggregated data on both the traffic system input variables of the driver population (characteristics of drivers, including their annual mileage) and the output variables of the driver population in terms of habitual

Inter-regional spillovers of seaports: the case of North-West Europe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Merk, O.M.; Manshanden, W.J.J.; Dröes, M.I.

2013-01-01

This article describes the inter-regional spillover of seaports by assessing four large ports in Northwest Europe: Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and Le Havre. The authors disaggregate national input/output-tables to the level of the functional port area and calculate the relevant Leontief multipliers

Taking Over: A new US/UK productivity benchmark and the nature of American economic leadership ca. 1910

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Woltjer, P.J.

2013-01-01

This paper offers a direct industry-of-origin benchmark for the United States and the United Kingdom around 1910. The industry-of-origin approach allows for a disaggregation of international productivity differentials at the industry level, which enhances a deeper understanding of the comparative

Productivity convergence and spatial dependence among Spanish regions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dall'erba, S.D.

2005-01-01

This paper estimates the evolution of labor productivity disparities among 48 Spanish regions over 1980-1996 according to the concepts of β- and σ-convergence. The results of β-convergence emphasize the importance of including the impact of neighboring locations' productivity and a disaggregate

Logistic Regression in the Identification of Hazards in Construction

Science.gov (United States)

Drozd, Wojciech

2017-10-01

The construction site and its elements create circumstances that are conducive to the formation of risks to safety during the execution of works. Analysis indicates the critical importance of these factors in the set of characteristics that describe the causes of accidents in the construction industry. This article attempts to analyse the characteristics related to the construction site, in order to indicate their importance in defining the circumstances of accidents at work. The study includes sites inspected in 2014 - 2016 by the employees of the District Labour Inspectorate in Krakow (Poland). The analysed set of detailed (disaggregated) data includes both quantitative and qualitative characteristics. The substantive task focused on classification modelling in the identification of hazards in construction and identifying those of the analysed characteristics that are important in an accident. In terms of methodology, resource data analysis using statistical classifiers, in the form of logistic regression, was the method used.

Mercury emissions from coal combustion in Silesia, analysis using geostatistics

Science.gov (United States)

Zasina, Damian; Zawadzki, Jaroslaw

2015-04-01

Data provided by the UNEP's report on mercury [1] shows that solid fuel combustion in significant source of mercury emission to air. Silesia, located in southwestern Poland, is notably affected by mercury emission due to being one of the most industrialized Polish regions: the place of coal mining, production of metals, stone mining, mineral quarrying and chemical industry. Moreover, Silesia is the region with high population density. People are exposed to severe risk of mercury emitted from both: industrial and domestic sources (i.e. small household furnaces). Small sources have significant contribution to total emission of mercury. Official and statistical analysis, including prepared for international purposes [2] did not provide data about spatial distribution of the mercury emitted to air, however number of analysis on Polish public power and energy sector had been prepared so far [3; 4]. The distribution of locations exposed for mercury emission from small domestic sources is interesting matter merging information from various sources: statistical, economical and environmental. This paper presents geostatistical approach to distibution of mercury emission from coal combustion. Analysed data organized in 2 independent levels: individual, bottom-up approach derived from national emission reporting system [5; 6] and top down - regional data calculated basing on official statistics [7]. Analysis, that will be presented, will include comparison of spatial distributions of mercury emission using data derived from sources mentioned above. Investigation will include three voivodeships of Poland: Lower Silesian, Opole (voivodeship) and Silesian using selected geostatistical methodologies including ordinary kriging [8]. References [1] UNEP. Global Mercury Assessment 2013: Sources, Emissions, Releases and Environmental Transport. UNEP Chemicals Branch, Geneva, Switzerland, 2013. [2] NCEM. Poland's Informative Inventory Report 2014. NCEM at the IEP-NRI, 2014. http

Nutritional surveillance.

Science.gov (United States)

Mason, J B; Mitchell, J T

1983-01-01

disaggregated to village level, but are of unknown representativeness and often cannot be linked with other variables of interest; sample surveys provide integrated data of more or less known representativeness, but sample sizes usually do not allow disaggregation to, for example, specific villages. A combination of these sources, with a capability for ad hoc surveys (formal or informal) is often the best solution. Finally, much depends on adequate facilities for data analysis, even though simple, comprehensible data outputs are what is required. Intersectoral cooperation is needed to provide realistic options for the decision-making process.

Ethnic differences in adverse drug reactions to asthma medications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hu, Yusun; Cantarero-Arévalo, Lourdes

2016-01-01

, intervention, and types and severities of ADRs. RESULTS: Among the selected 15 randomised clinical trials, six pooled analyses of randomized clinical trials, and five prospective observational studies, only six studies compared ADRs across different ethnic groups. The majority of the comparisons were either...... studies disaggregated information by ethnic background, and reports of ADRs to asthma medications in different ethnic groups were rare. We suggest that the inclusion of ADR analysis by different ethnic backgrounds is desirable....... and to examine the relationship between ethnic background and ADRs to asthma medications. METHODS: MEDLINE was searched until March 2014. All types of studies reporting ADRs to asthma medications involving more than one ethnic group were included. Extracted information includes study designs, ethnic backgrounds...

Drugs and Domesticity: Fencing the Nation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kane Race

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Indirect techniques for controlling individuals are advanced, promoted in terms of a moral vocabulary of ‘self-care’. One of the challenges for a national culture disaggregating in this way is how to contain, channel, even profit from the fears, resentment and anxiety that accompanies the loss of various prior forms of security. Here I explore, through analysis of a number of texts, the ways in which the representation of drugs is rallied to this purpose—inciting, concentrating and managing the fear surrounding changes to the economic, political, racial and sexual landscape of our time, while refiguring expectations, demarcations and investments in the public and private domains, and how these spheres of action are made to appear.

Modern methods of material accounting for mixed-oxide fuel-fabrication facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eggers, R.F.; Brouns, R.J.; Brite, D.W.; Pindak, J.L.

1981-07-01

The generic requirements loss detection, and response to alarms of a contemporary material control and accounting (MC and A) philosophy have been applied to a mixed-oxide fuel-fabrication plant to produce a detailed preliminary MC and A system design that is generally applicable to facilities of this type. This paper summarizes and discusses detailed results of the mixed-oxide fuel-fabrication plant study. Topics covered in this paper include: mixed-oxide fuel-fabrication process description, process disaggregation into MC and A system control units, quantitative results of analysis of control units for abrupt and recurring loss-detection capability, impact of short- and long-term holdup on loss-detection capability, response to alarms for abrupt loss, and response to alarms for recurring loss

Making Plans and Budgets Gender Responsive with CBMS: The ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Celia Reyes

Lack of disaggregated data on local socioeconomic conditions. • Insufficient knowledge on priority issues. / sectors. • Difficulty identifying individuals and households for targeted programs. • Very little knowledge of the socioeconomic and welfare status of the women and men in the localities. • Limited participation of other.

Sales Models For Many Items Using Attribute Data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.E.M. van Nierop; D. Fok (Dennis); Ph.H.B.F. Franses (Philip Hans)

2002-01-01

textabstractSales models are mainly used to analyze markets with a fairly small number of items, obtained after aggregating to the brand level. In practice one may require analyses at a more disaggregate level. For example, brand managers may be interested in a comparison across product

Globalization of R&D: Leveraging Offshoring for Innovative Capability and Organizational Flexibility

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D. Moitra (Deependra)

2008-01-01

textabstractWithin the realm of globalization of R&D, offshoring is a relatively recent and still emerging phenomenon. Rooted in the notion of comparative advantage, offshoring of R&D involves disaggregation and global distribution of the firm’s R&D value chain activities to leverage innovation

Assessing and forecasting groundwater development costs in Sub ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Greater use of groundwater in Sub-Saharan Africa is a pre-requisite for improved human welfare; however, the costs associated with groundwater development are prohibitively high and poorly defined. This study identifies and disaggregates the costs of groundwater development in 11 Sub-Saharan African countries, while ...

Gender and international crisis response

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eklund, Lisa; Tellier, Siri

2012-01-01

For more than a decade the humanitarian community has been mandated to mainstream gender in its response to crises. One element of this mandate is a repeated call for sex-disaggregated data to help guide the response. This study examines available analyses, assessments and academic literature to ...

A history of recent bases for management and the development of a ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The bases for historical catch limits placed on the hake fishery are reviewed in brief for ... Management Procedure (OMP) approach was introduced for this fishery. ... species-disaggregated assessments of the resource as Operating Models. ... (substantial Merluccius paradoxus and catch per unit effort [CPUE] recovery, and ...

Shades of darkness : A pecking order of trading venues

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Menkveld, Albert J.; Yueshen, Bart Zhou; Zhu, Haoxiang

2017-01-01

We characterize the dynamic fragmentation of U.S. equity markets using a unique data set that disaggregates dark transactions by venue types. The “pecking order” hypothesis of trading venues states that investors “sort” various venue types, putting low-cost-low-immediacy venues on top and

Manpower Theory and Policy and the Residual Occupational Elasticity of Substitution.

Science.gov (United States)

Rostker, Bernard Daniel

By developing the short-run policy implications of a structurally disaggregated labor market, this study attempts to show that fiscal and manpower policies are complementary means to achieve full employment. Using a constant elasticity of substitution production function, the study demonstrates mathematically that the smaller the residual…

Manpower Planning: A Research Bibliography and Supplement. Bulletin 45 and Supplement I.

Science.gov (United States)

Keaveny, Timothy J.; Herman, Georgianna

This bibliography is composed of 260 citations ranging in date from 1942 to 1967, but emphasizing the 1960 to 1967 period. Listings are arranged alphabetically according to author under the general divisions of Introduction to Manpower Planning, Aggregate Manpower Planning, Disaggregate Manpower Planning, Foreign Manpower Planning, Manpower…

Spatial Intensity Duration Frequency Relationships Using Hierarchical Bayesian Analysis for Urban Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Rupa, Chandra; Mujumdar, Pradeep

2016-04-01

algorithm within a Gibbs sampler) is used to obtain the samples of parameters from the posterior distribution of parameters. The spatial maps of return levels for specified return periods, along with the associated uncertainties, are obtained for the summer, monsoon and annual maxima rainfall. Considering various covariates, the best fit model is selected using Deviance Information Criteria. It is observed that the geographical covariates outweigh the climatological covariates for the monsoon maxima rainfall (latitude and longitude). The best covariates for summer maxima and annual maxima rainfall are mean summer precipitation and mean monsoon precipitation respectively, including elevation for both the cases. The scale invariance theory, which states that statistical properties of a process observed at various scales are governed by the same relationship, is used to disaggregate the daily rainfall to hourly scales. The spatial maps of the scale are obtained for the study area. The spatial maps of IDF relationships thus generated are useful in storm water designs, adequacy analysis and identifying the vulnerable flooding areas.

Heat recovery with heat pumps in non-energy intensive industry: A detailed bottom-up model analysis in the French food and drink industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seck, Gondia Sokhna; Guerassimoff, Gilles; Maïzi, Nadia

2013-01-01

Highlights: • First bottom-up energy model for NEI at 4-digit level of NACE for energy analysis. • Energy end-use modelling due to the unsuitability of end-product/process approach. • Analysis of heat recovery with HP on industrial processes up to 2020 in French F and D. • Energy consumption and emissions drop respectively by 10% compared to 2001 and 9% to 1990. • Results only achieved at heat temperature below 100 °C, concentrated in 1/3 of F and D sectors. - Abstract: Rising energy prices and environmental impacts inevitably encourage industrials to get involved in promoting energy efficiency and emissions reductions. To achieve this goal, we have developed the first detailed bottom-up energy model for Non-Energy Intensive industry (NEI) to study its global energy efficiency and the potential for CO 2 emissions reduction at a 4-digit level of NACE classification. The latter, which is generally neglected in energy analyses, is expected to play an important role in reducing industry energy intensity in the long term due to its economic and energy significance and relatively high growth rate. In this paper, the modelling of NEI is done by energy end-use owing to the unsuitability of the end-product/process approach used in the Energy Intensive industry modelling. As an example, we analysed the impact of heat recovery with heat pumps (HP) on industrial processes up to 2020 on energy savings and CO 2 emissions reductions in the French food and drink industry (F and D), the biggest NEI sector. The results showed HP could be an excellent and very promising energy recovery technology. For further detailed analysis, the depiction of HP investment cost payments is given per temperature range for each F and D subsector. This model constitutes a useful decision-making tool for assessing potential energy savings from investing in efficient technologies at the highest level of disaggregation, as well as a better subsectoral screening

Modeling Stochastic Energy and Water Consumption to Manage Residential Water Uses

Science.gov (United States)

Abdallah, A. M.; Rosenberg, D. E.; Water; Energy Conservation

2011-12-01

Water energy linkages have received growing attention from the water and energy utilities as utilities recognize that collaborative efforts can implement more effective conservation and efficiency improvement programs at lower cost with less effort. To date, limited energy-water household data has allowed only deterministic analysis for average, representative households and required coarse assumptions - like the water heater (the primary energy use in a home apart from heating and cooling) be a single end use. Here, we use recent available disaggregated hot and cold water household end-use data to estimate water and energy consumption for toilet, shower, faucet, dishwasher, laundry machine, leaks, and other household uses and savings from appliance retrofits. The disaggregated hot water and bulk water end-use data was previously collected by the USEPA for 96 single family households in Seattle WA and Oakland CA, and Tampa FL between the period from 2000 and 2003 for two weeks before and four weeks after each household was retrofitted with water efficient appliances. Using the disaggregated data, we developed a stochastic model that represents factors that influence water use for each appliance: behavioral (use frequency and duration), demographical (household size), and technological (use volume or flowrate). We also include stochastic factors that govern energy to heat hot water: hot water fraction (percentage of hot water volume to total water volume used in a certain end-use event), heater water intake and dispense temperatures, and energy source for the heater (gas, electric, etc). From the empirical household end-use data, we derive stochastic probability distributions for each water and energy factor where each distribution represents the range and likelihood of values that the factor may take. The uncertainty of the stochastic water and energy factors is propagated using Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the composite probability distribution for water

Physical inactivity as a policy problem: applying a concept from policy analysis to a public health issue.

Science.gov (United States)

Rütten, Alfred; Abu-Omar, Karim; Gelius, Peter; Schow, Diana

2013-03-07

Despite the recent rapid development of policies to counteract physical inactivity (PI), only a small number of systematic analyses on the evolution of these policies exists. In this article we analyze how PI, as a public health issue, "translates" into a policy-making issue. First, we discuss why PI has become an increasingly important public health issue during the last two decades. We then follow Guy Peters and conceptualize PI as a "policy problem" that has the potential to be linked to policy instruments and policy impact. Analysis indicates that PI is a policy problem that i) is chronic in nature; ii) involves a high degree of political complexity; iii) can be disaggregated into smaller scales; iv) is addressed through interventions that can be difficult to "sell" to the public when their benefits are not highly divisible; v) cannot be solved by government spending alone; vi) must be addressed through a broad scope of activities; and vii) involves interdependencies among both multiple sectors and levels of government.We conclude that the new perspective on PI proposed in this article might be useful and important for i) describing and mapping policies to counteract PI in different contexts; ii) evaluating whether or not existing policy instruments are appropriate to the policy problem of PI, and iii) explaining the factors and processes that underlie policy development and implementation. More research is warranted in all these areas. In particular, we propose to focus on comparative analyses of how the problem of PI is defined and tackled in different contexts, and on the identification of truly effective policy instruments that are designed to "solve" the PI policy problem.

EDITORIAL Healthy urban: An agenda of the day

African Journals Online (AJOL)

EPHA USER33

1School of Public Health, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, E-mail mirgissk@yahoo.com ... better living conditions, better food security and ... for inequities in services including health (6). One of the major concerns to track urban settings and determinants of health is the lack of disaggregated evidence.

77 FR 26987 - Connect America Fund; A National Broadband Plan for Our Future; Establishing Just and Reasonable...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-08

... ETCs and incumbent LECs serving competitive areas, disaggregation plans (which permit incumbent LECs to...'' exception to the interim cap for competitive ETCs. The interim cap limited the total annual amount of high-cost support competitive ETCs in any state could receive to the amount competitive ETCs in that state...

A Crisis of Missed Opportunities?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gabriel, Stuart; Iacoviello, Matteo; Lutz, Chandler

that these policies increased house prices by 6 percent and in doing so created $300 billion of housing wealth. Findings further indicate that gains in housing wealth translated into increased durable consumption as measured by auto sales. Disaggregated county and zip-code level estimates reveal that the CFPL house...

The Morphing of Academic Practice: Unbundling and the Rise of the Para-Academic

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Macfarlane, Bruce

2011-01-01

Teaching, research and service are the three conventional elements of academic practice, recognised on an international basis. However, evidence suggests that academic practice is rapidly disaggregating, or "unbundling", as a result of a variety of forces including the massification of national systems, the application of technology in teaching…

The Drivers of Women Farmers' Participation in Cash Crop Production: The Case of Women Smallholder Farmers in Northern Ghana

Science.gov (United States)

Zakaria, Hudu

2017-01-01

Purpose: Participation in labour markets and high-value crops among men and women smallholder farmers has always been an important strategy for poverty alleviation and attainment of food and income security. In contributing to the generation of gender-disaggregated empirical literature, this paper examined determinants of women smallholder…

40 CFR 52.138 - Conformity procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... considering any growth likely to result from the project; (3) for each transportation control measure in the... described in 40 CFR 81.303 (i.e., the MAG urban planning area). (7) Transportation control measure (TCM...) the disaggregated population projections and employment which were assumed in: (1) the applicable plan...

Liposomes bi-functionalized with phosphatidic acid and an ApoE-derived peptide affect Aβ aggregation features and cross the blood-brain-barrier: implications for therapy of Alzheimer disease

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bana, Laura; Minniti, Stefania; Salvati, Elisa; Sesana, Silvia; Zambelli, Vanessa; Cagnotto, Alfredo; Orlando, Antonina; Cazzaniga, Emanuela; Zwart, Rob; Scheper, Wiep; Masserini, Massimo; Re, Francesca

2014-01-01

Targeting amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) within the brain is a strategy actively sought for therapy of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We investigated the ability of liposomes bi-functionalized with phosphatidic acid and with a modified ApoE-derived peptide (mApoE-PA-LIP) to affect Aβ aggregation/disaggregation

Publications | Page 225 | IDRC - International Development ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Explore outputs from more than four decades of IDRC-supported research. ... and access to electricity are the three (out of six) key variables that played a critical positive ... Qualitative data for the study was collected through gender disaggregated group discussions (GDs) in two districts, Mvomero and Kongwa in Tanzania.

75 FR 14145 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request

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2010-03-24

... made in response to usability testing as well as internal review. Changes have also been made to...)''. These columns are needed in order to disaggregate the estimation methods and associated ratings reported... emission inventory methods used by respondents. EIA also revised some of the emission sources listed in the...

76 FR 52915 - Periodic Reporting

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2011-08-24

... proportion to direct tallies from all NDC cost pools; and mixed mail costs associated with allied labor in... Labor Distribution Codes or MODS operation number. They are generally more disaggregated than the cost... with allied labor in MODS processing plants are currently distributed in proportion to direct tallies...

Proposed Method for Disaggregation of Secondary Data: The Model for External Reliance of Localities in the Coastal Management Zone (MERLIN-CMZ)

Science.gov (United States)

The Model for External Reliance of Localities In (MERLIN) Coastal Management Zones is a proposed solution to allow scaling of variables to smaller, nested geographies. Utilizing a Principal Components Analysis and data normalization techniques, smaller scale trends are linked to ...

The Role of Exchange Rates in Korea’s Commodity Trade with China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gab-Je Jo

2010-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper I investigate the link between Korea's trade balance and the exchange rate, using both aggregated and disaggregated data. Employing the bounds testing approach to cointegration, and error-correction modeling, when I use the aggregate trade balance as a dependent variable, I find no support for the J-curve in the short-run; and also find that in the long-run, the exchange rate had a significant positive impact on the trade balance. However, in both the short and the long-run, I find that the exchange rate does not play a significant role in deterIn this paper I investigate the link between Korea's trade balance and the exchange rate, using both aggregated and disaggregated data. Employing the bounds testing approach to cointegration, and error-correction modeling, when I use the aggregate trade balance as a dependent variable, I find no support for the J-curve in the short-run; and also find that in the long-run, the exchange rate had a significant positive impact on the trade balance. However, in both the short and the long-run, I find that the exchange rate does not play a significant role in determining the bilateral trade balance between Korea and China, nor does it improve the disaggregated trade balance. This is because the exchange rate elasticity of the trade balance depends on the nature of the commodity. Especially if the commodity is an intermediate good or a raw material, the exchange rate elasticity in trade balance could be inelastic because the demand for the intermediate good is a derived demand from the final good.

Disaggregating the Truth: A Re-Analysis of the Costs and Benefits of Michigan's Public Universities. Professional File. Number 125, Summer 2012

Science.gov (United States)

Daun-Barnett, Nathan J.

2012-01-01

For more than 50 years, human capital theory has been the cornerstone for understanding the value of investing in individuals' productive capacities in terms of both personal social and economic gain and the collective benefits that accrue to society. Vedder and Denhart (2007) challenge the hypothesis that public investment in higher education…

Parents' uptake of human papillomavirus vaccines for their children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Newman, Peter A; Logie, Carmen H; Lacombe-Duncan, Ashley; Baiden, Philip; Tepjan, Suchon; Rubincam, Clara; Doukas, Nick; Asey, Farid

2018-04-20

To examine factors associated with parents' uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for their children. Systematic review and meta-analysis. Cochrane Library, AIDSLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Social Sciences Abstracts, Ovid MEDLINE, Scholars Portal, Social Sciences Citation Index and Dissertation Abstracts International from inception through November 2017. We included studies that sampled parents and assessed uptake of HPV vaccines for their children (≤18 years) and/or sociodemographics, knowledge, attitudes or other factors associated with uptake. Study risk of bias was assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project tool. We pooled data using random-effects meta-analysis and conducted moderation analyses to examine variance in uptake by sex of child and parent. Seventy-nine studies on 840 838 parents across 15 countries were included. The pooled proportion of parents' uptake of HPV vaccines for their children was 41.5% (range: 0.7%-92.8%), twofold higher for girls (46.5%) than for boys (20.3%). In the meta-analysis of 62 studies, physician recommendation (r=0.46 (95% CI 0.34 to 0.56)) had the greatest influence on parents' uptake, followed by HPV vaccine safety concerns (r=-0.31 (95% CI -0.41 to -0.16)), routine child preventive check-up, past 12 months (r=0.22 (95% CI 0.11 to 0.33)) and parents' belief in vaccines (r=0.19 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.29)). Health insurance-covered HPV vaccination (r=0.16 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.29)) and lower out-of-pocket cost (r=-0.15 (95% CI -0.22 to -0.07)) had significant effects on uptake. We found significant moderator effects for sex of child. Findings indicate suboptimal levels of HPV vaccine uptake, twofold lower among boys, that may be improved by increasing physician recommendations, addressing parental safety concerns and promoting parents' positive beliefs about vaccines, in addition to expanding insurance coverage and reducing out-of-pocket costs. Limitations of this meta-analysis include the lack of

Evaluating Value-at-Risk Models with Desk-Level Data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christoffersen, Peter; Berkowitz, Jeremy; Pelletier, Denis

We present new evidence on disaggregated profit and loss (P/L) and Value-at-Risk (VaR) forecasts obtained from a large international commercial bank. Our dataset includes the actual daily P/L generated by four separate business lines within the bank. All four business lines are involved in securi...

High School Diploma Options That Meet Federal Graduation Rate Calculation Requirements. Education Trends

Science.gov (United States)

Zinth, Jennifer

2018-01-01

Federal requirements stipulate that states and local education agencies annually calculate and report an Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate, disaggregated by student group. The ACGR includes all students who graduate from high school in four years with a regular high school diploma, plus all students with the most significant cognitive disabilities…

The privately owned timber resources of western Oregon.

Science.gov (United States)

Donald R. Gedney

1983-01-01

Timber resource statistics from a 1973-76 inventory are presented for private timberland in western Oregon. Inventories usually classify private owners as either forest industry or nonindustrial private. For this report, however, the nonindustrial private classification has been further disaggregated into farmer, individual, and corporate owners. For all private owner...

Author Details

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Aziakpono, Meshach Jesse. Vol 9, No 2 (2017) - Articles The relationship between financial inclusion and income inequality in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from disaggregated data. Abstract. ISSN: 2042-1478. AJOL African Journals Online. HOW TO USE AJOL... for Researchers · for Librarians · for Authors · FAQ's · More ...

Coping Styles and Sex Differences in Depressive Symptoms and Delinquent Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Kort-Butler, Lisa A.

2009-01-01

Building on research that links gender to differences in well-being and differences in stress exposure and vulnerability, the current study examines how coping styles are gendered in ways that may contribute to sex differences in depressive symptoms and delinquent behavior. The study disaggregates stress measures to reflect gender differences in…

77 FR 31767 - Aggregation, Position Limits for Futures and Swaps

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-30

... submitted in English, or if not, accompanied by an English translation. Comments will be posted as received... significant costs to monitor positions on an intra-day basis, notwithstanding the current lack of control over... filing for disaggregation relief and the owned entity do not have knowledge of the trading decisions of...

A Scorecard on Gender Equality and Girls' Education in Asia, 1990-2000. Advocacy Brief

Science.gov (United States)

Unterhalter, Elaine; Rajagopalan, Rajee; Challender, Chloe

2005-01-01

Background: Existing measures for access to and efficiency in the school system are very limited as measures of gender equality, even though there have been marked improvements in sex-disaggregated data. A methodology for developing a scorecard which measures gender equality in schooling and education partly based on Amartya Sen's capability…

Early Warning Signs: Identifying Opportunities to Disrupt Racial Inequities in School Discipline through Data-Based Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Blake, Jamilia J.; Gregory, Anne; James, Marlon; Hasan, Gwen Webb

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate how school psychologists can proactively address disparities in school suspension through the examination of office discipline referrals (ODR). Results of two studies examining high school ODRs suggest that there is value in school psychologists disaggregating and analyzing ODRs at the school level and…

Comparisons of Student Achievement Levels by District Performance and Poverty. ACT Research Report Series 2016-11

Science.gov (United States)

Dougherty, Chrys; Shaw, Teresa

2016-01-01

This report looks at student achievement levels in Arkansas school districts disaggregated by district poverty and by the district's performance relative to other districts. We estimated district performance statistics by subject and grade level (4, 8, and 11-12) for longitudinal student cohorts, using statistical models that adjusted for district…

Essays on Technology and Forecasting in Macroeconomics

Science.gov (United States)

Samuels, Jon Devin

2012-01-01

The three chapters in this dissertation use disaggregated models and data to provide new insights on well-established questions in macroeconomics. In the first chapter, to analyze how productivity impacts the business cycle, I model aggregate production with a production possibility frontier that accommodates sector-and factor-biased productivity.…

Investigating the Nature of GxE Interaction under Different ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

selection of stress-tolerant genotypes under managed stress conditions. ... breeding and work towards disaggregating it and adjusting parameters for its ... About 51% of trials in 2008 were classified as low yielders, which was high .... flexible and have several benefits, often a maximum of FA(2) is fitted and the Eigen.

Exploring the Relationship between Self-Efficacy and Retention in Introductory Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Sawtelle, Vashti; Brewe, Eric; Kramer, Laird H.

2012-01-01

The quantitative results of Sources of Self-Efficacy in Science Courses-Physics (SOSESC-P) are presented as a logistic regression predicting the passing of students in introductory Physics with Calculus I, overall as well as disaggregated by gender. Self-efficacy as a theory to explain human behavior change [Bandura [1977] "Psychological…

Gender, Sibship Composition, and Education in Egypt

Science.gov (United States)

Tfaily, Rania

2016-01-01

This article examines the relationship between gender, sibship, and education over time in Egypt, focusing on how the number, sex, and birth order configuration of siblings affected boys' and girls' education during 1991-2008, a period characterized by significant social and economic changes in Egypt. This study disaggregates schooling into…

77 FR 41394 - Notice Reopening the Request for Information (RFI) To Gather Technical Expertise Pertaining to...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-13

... (RFI) To Gather Technical Expertise Pertaining to the Disaggregation of Asian and Native Hawaiian and... the Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Island student population. The deadline for written... available via the Federal Digital System at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys . At this site you can view this document, as...

Ensuring America's Future by Increasing Latino College Completion: Latino College Completion in 50 States. Executive Summary

Science.gov (United States)

Santiago, Deborah; Soliz, Megan

2012-01-01

In 2009, Excelencia in Education launched the Ensuring America's Future initiative to inform, organize, and engage leaders in a tactical plan to increase Latino college completion. This initiative included the release of a benchmarking guide for projections of degree attainment disaggregated by race/ethnicity that offered multiple metrics to track…

Effective Leadership Is Not Enough: Critical Approaches to Closing the Racial Discipline Gap

Science.gov (United States)

DeMatthews, David

2016-01-01

A review of student discipline and suspension data disaggregated by race highlights how school leader biases influence disciplinary decisions. Yet, the majority of principal preparation programs have failed to develop structures and norms that result in critical conversations pertaining to race and racial inequities. This article is written from a…

Evidence for Agile Policy Makers: The Contribution of Transformative Realism

Science.gov (United States)

Room, Graham

2013-01-01

Advocates of evidence-based policy making (EBPM) are typically concerned with the impact of particular interventions. This implicit ontology of the policy world, as disaggregated into a variety of independent interventions, has been challenged by Pawson (2006), in terms of the contingencies that activate, inhibit or reshape the impact of any…

Identification of the core ecosystem services and their spatial heterogeneity in Poyang Lake area

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Nana SHI; Jinyan ZHAN; Feng WU; Jifu DU

2009-01-01

According to the ecosystem assessment framework developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), this paper designs an evaluation system of ecosystem services in Poyang Lake area. On the basis of relevant variables disaggregated to 1 km grid using the gridded 1 km, this paper employs factor analysis to extract a number of factors which characterize the ecosystem services of Poyang Lake area. The extracted principal component are then represented onto 1 km ×1 km grids by spatial clustering analysis to recognize and identify the minimal but consistent mapping units for ecosystem services which can be used to delimit the boundaries of ecological service zones. The research identifies ten ecosystem service zones in Poyang Lake area according to the consistent principle of core ecosystem service unit.Four kinds of core ecosystem services including supporting function, provisioning function, regulating function and cultural function are identified and represented. The research results could provide both spatially and temporally valuable decision-making information for sustainable ecosystem management in the targeted area.

Effects of endogenous cysteine proteinases on structures of collagen fibres from dermis of sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus).

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yu-Xin; Zhou, Da-Yong; Ma, Dong-Dong; Liu, Zi-Qiang; Liu, Yan-Fei; Song, Liang; Dong, Xiu-Ping; Li, Dong-Mei; Zhu, Bei-Wei; Konno, Kunihiko; Shahidi, Fereidoon

2017-10-01

Autolysis of sea cucumber, caused by endogenous enzymes, leads to postharvest quality deterioration of sea cucumber. However, the effects of endogenous proteinases on structures of collagen fibres, the major biologically relevant substrates in the body wall of sea cucumber, are less clear. Collagen fibres were prepared from the dermis of sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus), and the structural consequences of degradation of the collagen fibres caused by endogenous cysteine proteinases (ECP) from Stichopus japonicus were examined. Scanning electron microscopic images showed that ECP caused partial disaggregation of collagen fibres into collagen fibrils by disrupting interfibrillar proteoglycan bridges. Differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared analysis revealed increased structural disorder of fibrillar collagen caused by ECP. SDS-PAGE and chemical analysis indicated that ECP can liberate glycosaminoglycan, hydroxyproline and collagen fragments from collagen fibres. Thus ECP can cause disintegration of collagen fibres by degrading interfibrillar proteoglycan bridges. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Firm and Product Heterogeneity in China's Automotive Exports

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Wang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the anatomy of China's automotive exports, relying on the literature on firm and product heterogeneity. For this purpose, we use highly disaggregated HS 8-digit product-category level data collected by the Chinese Customs Office for 2000 and 2008, and we distinguish between foreign firms, domestic public firms, and domestic private firms. We also decompose automotive products into autos and auto parts and components (P/C. We then calculate both the extensive margins – number of products exported – and intensive margins – average value of exports per product – of China's automotive exports. We estimate gravity equations to assess the determinants of China's exports of autos and auto P/C. Overall, our analysis yields a number of new, interesting stylized facts about China's automotive exports by confirming the need for taking into account different types of heterogeneity in analyzing international trade.

Rainfall: State of the Science

Science.gov (United States)

Testik, Firat Y.; Gebremichael, Mekonnen

Rainfall: State of the Science offers the most up-to-date knowledge on the fundamental and practical aspects of rainfall. Each chapter, self-contained and written by prominent scientists in their respective fields, provides three forms of information: fundamental principles, detailed overview of current knowledge and description of existing methods, and emerging techniques and future research directions. The book discusses • Rainfall microphysics: raindrop morphodynamics, interactions, size distribution, and evolution • Rainfall measurement and estimation: ground-based direct measurement (disdrometer and rain gauge), weather radar rainfall estimation, polarimetric radar rainfall estimation, and satellite rainfall estimation • Statistical analyses: intensity-duration-frequency curves, frequency analysis of extreme events, spatial analyses, simulation and disaggregation, ensemble approach for radar rainfall uncertainty, and uncertainty analysis of satellite rainfall products The book is tailored to be an indispensable reference for researchers, practitioners, and graduate students who study any aspect of rainfall or utilize rainfall information in various science and engineering disciplines.

Simulation analysis of the possibility of introducing massive renewable energy and nuclear fuel cycle in the scenario to halve global CO2 emissions by the year 2050

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hosoya, Yoshifumi; Komiyama, Ryoichi; Fujii, Yasumasa

2011-01-01

There is growing attention to the regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to mitigate the global warming. Hence, the target of 50% reduction of global GHG emissions by the year 2050 has been investigated in this paper. The authors have been revising the regionally disaggregated world energy model which is formulated as a large scale linear optimization model from the aspect of nuclear and photovoltaic power generation technologies. This paper explains the structure of the revised world energy model considering the intermittent characteristics of photovoltaic power generation derived from the changes in weather conditions. And also this paper shows the simulation results to halve global CO 2 emissions by the year 2050 and evaluates the long-term technological options such as nuclear fuel cycle and renewable energies. Finally the authors discuss the future step for extensive revision of the energy model. (author)

The causal relationship between energy resources and economic growth in Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pao, Hsiao-Tien; Fu, Hsin-Chia

2013-01-01

This study investigates the causal relationship between clean and non-clean energy consumption and economic growth in Brazil over the period of 1980–2009. Clean energy consumption at aggregated level of total renewable energy consumption and disaggregated levels of hydroelectric, new renewables, and nuclear energy consumption are tested within a production function framework. A cointegration test reveals a long-term equilibrium relationship between real output, capital, labor, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption at aggregated level, and a long-term equilibrium relationship between real output, capital, labor, and hydroelectric/new renewables/nuclear and fossil fuel energy consumption at disaggregated level. The capital, labor, and new renewables elasticities of real output are positive and statistically significant, other energy consumption item's elasticities are insignificant. The results from error correction model reveal the interdependencies between new renewables, nuclear, fossil fuel, and total non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth, the unidirectional causality from hydroelectric/total renewable consumption to economic growth, the substitutability between new renewables and fossil fuel consumption, and the substitutability between new renewables and nuclear energy consumption. Additionally, nuclear and new renewables energy consumption responds to bring the system back to equilibrium. Overall, aggregated analysis may obscure the relationship between different types of clean energy consumption and economic growth. - Highlights: • We model three kinds of clean energy and non-clean energy consumption and real GDP. • There is fossil fuel consumption–economic growth bidirectional causality. • There is new renewables consumption–economic growth bidirectional causality. • There is nuclear energy consumption–economic growth bidirectional causality. • Substitutability exists for new renewables–fossil fuel or new

Regional energy rebound effect: The impact of economy-wide and sector level energy efficiency improvement in Georgia, USA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Xuewei; Moreno-Cruz, Juan; Crittenden, John C.

2015-01-01

Rebound effect is defined as the lost part of ceteris paribus energy savings from improvements on energy efficiency. In this paper, we investigate economy-wide energy rebound effects by developing a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for Georgia, USA. The model adopts a highly disaggregated sector profile and highlights the substitution possibilities between different energy sources in the production structure. These two features allow us to better characterize the change in energy use in face of an efficiency shock, and to explore in detail how a sector-level shock propagates throughout the economic structure to generate aggregate impacts. We find that with economy-wide energy efficiency improvement on the production side, economy-wide rebound is moderate. Energy price levels fall very slightly, yet sectors respond to these changing prices quite differently in terms of local production and demand. Energy efficiency improvements in particular sectors (epicenters) induce quite different economy-wide impacts. In general, we expect large rebound if the epicenter sector is an energy production sector, a direct upstream/downstream sector of energy production sectors, a transportation sector or a sector with high production elasticity. Our analysis offers valuable insights for policy makers aiming to achieve energy conservation through increasing energy efficiency. - Highlights: • We developed a CGE model to investigate economy-wide energy rebound in Georgia, USA. • The CGE model has detailed treatment for different energy inputs for production. • The model has a highly disaggregated sector profile helpful for policy making. • We compared the economy-wide impact shocks in different epicenter sectors. • We analyzed why epicenters generate dramatically different economy-wide impacts.

Assets and Affect in the Study of Social Capital in Rural Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Martin

2015-01-01

Abstract Shucksmith (2012) has recently suggested that rural research might be refreshed by incorporating theoretical insights that have emerged through a renewal of class analysis. This article seeks to advance this proposed research agenda by exploring the concept of asset‐based class analysis and its association with the concept of social capital. The article explores connections between social capital, class analysis and understandings of community, noting how all have been associated with long running and unresolved debates. Attention is drawn to the problems of modernist legislative approaches to these debates and the value of adopting more interpretive perspectives. A distinction between ‘infrastructural’ and ‘culturalist’ interpretations of social capital is explored in relation to ‘asset‐based’ theorisations of class and culture. It is argued that an infrastructural conception of social capital might usefully be employed in association with a disaggregated conception of cultural capital that includes consideration of emotion and affect, as well as institutional, objectified and technical assets. These arguments are explored using studies of rural communities, largely within Britain. PMID:27563158

Save production: a bottom-up energy model for Dutch industry and agriculture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daniels, B.W.; Dril, A.W.N. van

2007-01-01

A new version of the model Save production simulates the development of energy use in the Dutch industry and agriculture, including combined heat and power generation. The model disaggregates national energy consumption into fuel types, industrial sectors, energy functions and energy technologies. Simulation is based on microeconomic investment behavior. Examples of model application show results on the penetration of combined heat and power in relation to policy instruments such as CO 2 prices, electricity price support and investment subsidies. Policies that discriminate on CO 2 emissions result in a slightly more efficient heat and power generation. Tailored to the Dutch situation, Save production is well equipped to generate outlooks for the Dutch industrial and agricultural energy use, and for analyzing the role of policies in detail. Its main strength lies in the middle term simulation of decision-making on energy saving technologies and analysis of policy effects. Specific precautions are required when the model is used for analysis on the longer-term, for simulating extreme policies or for the analysis of extremely fluctuating energy prices. (author)

Provincial-level spatial statistical modelling of the change in per capita disposable Family Income in Spain, 1975-1983

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel A. Griffith

1998-02-01

Full Text Available Computational simplifications for a space-time autoregressive response model specification are explored for the change in Spain's per capita disposable family income between 1975 and 1983. The geographic resolution for this analysis is the provincial partitioning of part of the Iberian peninsula into Spain's 47 coterminous provinces coupled with its 3 island clusters provinces. In keeping with the Paelinckian tradition of spatial econometrics, exploration focuses on both new spatial econometric estimators and model specifications that emphasize the capturing of spatial dependency effects in the mean response term. One goal of this analysis is to differentiate between spatial, temporal, and space-time interaction information contained in the per capita disposable family income data. A second objective of the application is to illustrate the utility of extending computational simplifications from the spatial to the space-time domain. And a third purpose is to gain some substantive insights into the economic development of one country in a changing Europe. A serendipitous outcome of this investigation is a detailed analysis of locational information latent in Spain's regionally disaggregated per capita disposable family income.

Journal Quality in Mathematics Education

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Steven R.; Leatham, Keith R.

2017-01-01

We present the results of 2 studies, a citation-based study and an opinion-based study, that ranked the relative quality of 20 English-language journals that exclusively or extensively publish mathematics education research. We further disaggregate the opinion-based data to provide insights into variations in judgment of journal quality based on…

Behaviour of humic-bentonite aggregates in diluted suspensions ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Formation and disaggregation of micron-size aggregates in a diluted suspension made up of HSs and bentonite (B) were studied by tracing distribution of aggregate sizes and their counts in freshly prepared and aged suspensions, and at high (10 000) and low (1.0) [HS]/[B] ratios. Diluted HSB suspensions are unstable ...

Globalization and Growth of US University Patenting (2009-2014)

Science.gov (United States)

Leydesdorff, Loet; Etzkowitz, Henry; Kushnir, Duncan

2016-01-01

Following a pause, with a relatively flat rate, from 1998 to 2008, the long-term trend of university patenting rising as a share of all patenting has resumed, driven by the internationalization of academic entrepreneurship and the persistence of US university technology transfer. The authors disaggregate this recent growth in university patenting…

Socioeconomic inequities and payment coping mechanisms used in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A socioeconomic status (SES) index was used to divide the respondents into SES quartiles (Q1 (poorest), Q2, Q3, Q4 (least poor)). The coping mechanisms were disaggregated by SES. Results: The mean monthly expenditure for the treatment of diabetes was .56,245.11 ($356). Expenditures were mostly incurred through ...

The Budgeting Mechanism in Development Companies

Science.gov (United States)

Kovaleva, Tatiana M.; Khvostenko, Oleg A.; Glukhova, Alla G.; Nikeryasova, Veronica V.; Gavrilov, Denis E.

2016-01-01

Relevance of the researched problem is caused by the fact that today there is a requirement for a unique, generalized, theoretically and methodically elaborated budgeting mechanism disaggregating the aims of strategic level to the level of structural units of the company. The aim of article is to develop methodical provisions and practical…

The Differential Effects of Internship Participation on End-of-Fourth-Year GPA by Demographic and Institutional Characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Eugene T., III.; Kilgo, Cindy A.; Sheets, Jessica K. Ezell; Pascarella, Ernest T.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of internship participation on college students, specifically the effect on college GPA. Further, because of the capacity to disaggregate students by race in the sample, this study is significant because it provides much needed empirical evidence surrounding the impact of participation in…

Envisioning the Future of Christian Higher Education: Leadership for Embracing, Engaging, and Executing in a Changing Landscape

Science.gov (United States)

Reynolds, John; Wallace, Jon

2016-01-01

The focus of this article centers on three specific themes of disruption that are likely to affect the future of Christian higher education. The first theme examines the juxtaposition of faith-based institutional identity and its influence on a post-modern society. The second theme explores the disaggregation of traditional faculty functions and…

Estimating pesticide emission fractions for use in LCA: A global consensus-building effort

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fantke, Peter; Anton, Assumpcio; Basset-Mens, Claudine

2016-01-01

agreement on recommended default agricultural pesticide emission fractions to environmental media. Consensual decisions on the assessment framework are (a) primary distributions are used as inputs for LCIA, while further investigating how to assess secondary emissions, (b) framework and LCA application...... and application method scenarios will be based on sensitiv ity analysis, (g) default emission estimates for LCA will be derived from production-weighted averages, and (h) emission fractions will be reported spatially disaggregated. Recommendations for LCA practitioners and database developers are (a) LCA studies...... the field as part of technosphere and ecosphere, (e) fate and exposure processes should be included in LCIA (e.g. crop uptake), (f) default emission estimates should be used in absence of detailed scenario data, (g) and all assumptions should be reported. The recommended pesticide emission fractions results...

Attitudinal Analyses of Toleration and Respect, and the Problem of Institutional Applicability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lægaard, Sune

2010-01-01

have a sufficiently similar meaning when applied to institutions such as the state as to individual persons? The paper presents the standard analyses and explains in what sense they are attitudinal and why the attitudinal component is necessary. It then presents the problem of institutional...... applicability that the attitudinal component brings about: the ascription of the requisite attitudes to institutions in general and the state in particular is problematic since institutions arguably cannot have attitudes of the required kind. This problem is distinguished from other problems, including...... the problem of making sense of political toleration raised by Glen Newey, and some possible responses to the problem are considered, including Peter Jones’ disaggregative response to Newey, all of which are found inadequate. The paper instead proposes that the analysis of institutional toleration and respect...

Does Foreign Aid Increase Foreign Direct Investment?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Selaya, Pablo; Sunesen, Eva Rytter

  The notion that foreign aid and foreign direct investment (FDI) are complementary sources of capital is conventional among governments and international cooperation agencies. This paper argues that the notion is incomplete. Within the framework of an open economy Solow model we show...... that the theoretical relationship between foreign aid and FDI is indeterminate. Aid may raise the marginal productivity of capital by financing complementary inputs, such as public infrastructure projects and human capital investment. However, aid may also crowd out productive private investments if it comes...... in the shape of physical capital transfers. We therefore turn to an empirical analysis of the relationship between FDI and disaggregated aid flows. Our results strongly support the hypotheses that aid invested in complementary inputs draws in foreign capital while aid invested in physical capital crowds out...

Job displacement effects of Canadian immigrants by country of origin and occupation.

Science.gov (United States)

Roy, A S

1997-01-01

"Some previous Canadian studies have shown that considering the labor market as a whole and also pooling all immigrants as a group, immigrants do not have any job displacement effects on the Canadian born. This study presents some new evidence. It disaggregates immigrants by country of origin and by occupation groups and provides an analysis of job displacement effects of immigrants on the native-born Canadians by these dimensions. The study finds that (1) U.S. immigrants and the Canadians are substitutes [for] competing groups in the labor market and the effect is quite significant; (2) Canadians and Europeans are competing groups in certain occupations, while they have complementary skills in others; and (3) immigrants from the Third World and the Canadians are slightly competing groups in certain occupations." excerpt

Short-term residential load forecasting: Impact of calendar effects and forecast granularity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lusis, Peter; Khalilpour, Kaveh Rajab; Andrew, Lachlan

2017-01-01

forecasting for a single-customer or even down at an appliance level. Access to high resolution data from smart meters has enabled the research community to assess conventional load forecasting techniques and develop new forecasting strategies suitable for demand-side disaggregated loads. This paper studies...... how calendar effects, forecasting granularity and the length of the training set affect the accuracy of a day-ahead load forecast for residential customers. Root mean square error (RMSE) and normalized RMSE were used as forecast error metrics. Regression trees, neural networks, and support vector...... regression yielded similar average RMSE results, but statistical analysis showed that regression trees technique is significantly better. The use of historical load profiles with daily and weekly seasonality, combined with weather data, leaves the explicit calendar effects a very low predictive power...

Managing Hidden Costs of Offshoring

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Marcus M.; Pedersen, Torben

2014-01-01

This chapter investigates the concept of the ‘hidden costs’ of offshoring, i.e. unexpected offshoring costs exceeding the initially expected costs. Due to the highly undefined nature of these costs, we position our analysis towards the strategic responses of firms’ realisation of hidden costs....... In this regard, we argue that a major response to the hidden costs of offshoring is the identification and utilisation of strategic mechanisms in the organisational design to eventually achieving system integration in a globally dispersed and disaggregated organisation. This is heavily moderated by a learning......-by-doing process, where hidden costs motivate firms and their employees to search for new and better knowledge on how to successfully manage the organisation. We illustrate this thesis based on the case of the LEGO Group....

Desagregation des debits mensuels en debits journaliers

Science.gov (United States)

Ypou, Tanou Ya Kouassi

been analysis by Statistics, climate and water for weather series criteria. An automatic calibration of the two models is made with the Matlab software. The results of the calibration of Outardes's and Saint-Maurice's water systems are presented in this report. The modeling of ground conditions is made for input data needs of different models using the features included in the models are generally presented in this report and in particularly the model for HYDROTEL and PHYSITEL. The historical simulation flows is performed using meteorological data and physical field data on the periods of 1965 to 2014. Based on the quality of input data available and the goal of generating daily historical supply series using monthly series of natural inputs, the quality criteria have been defined to qualify the model to choose. Indeed, the quality criteria for comparing the two models are the criterion of NSE and KGE. Analysis of the results led to the conclusion that the HYDROTEL model is most appropriate in the operational framework of HQ to disaggregate monthly historical series of daily flows in series. The HYDROTEL model enabled to disaggregate monthly debits daily flows. The daily discharges simulated ponds Beaumont, Vermillion, La tuque are presented and analyzed in this report. Keywords: disaggregation, natural flow, HYDROTEL, HSAMI, data reconstruction .

Bayesian analysis of data and model error in rainfall-runoff hydrological models

Science.gov (United States)

Kavetski, D.; Franks, S. W.; Kuczera, G.

2004-12-01

A major unresolved issue in the identification and use of conceptual hydrologic models is realistic description of uncertainty in the data and model structure. In particular, hydrologic parameters often cannot be measured directly and must be inferred (calibrated) from observed forcing/response data (typically, rainfall and runoff). However, rainfall varies significantly in space and time, yet is often estimated from sparse gauge networks. Recent work showed that current calibration methods (e.g., standard least squares, multi-objective calibration, generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation) ignore forcing uncertainty and assume that the rainfall is known exactly. Consequently, they can yield strongly biased and misleading parameter estimates. This deficiency confounds attempts to reliably test model hypotheses, to generalize results across catchments (the regionalization problem) and to quantify predictive uncertainty when the hydrologic model is extrapolated. This paper continues the development of a Bayesian total error analysis (BATEA) methodology for the calibration and identification of hydrologic models, which explicitly incorporates the uncertainty in both the forcing and response data, and allows systematic model comparison based on residual model errors and formal Bayesian hypothesis testing (e.g., using Bayes factors). BATEA is based on explicit stochastic models for both forcing and response uncertainty, whereas current techniques focus solely on response errors. Hence, unlike existing methods, the BATEA parameter equations directly reflect the modeler's confidence in all the data. We compare several approaches to approximating the parameter distributions: a) full Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods and b) simplified approaches based on linear approximations. Studies using synthetic and real data from the US and Australia show that BATEA systematically reduces the parameter bias, leads to more meaningful model fits and allows model comparison taking

Separación y purificación de fibras de sepiolita: contribución al procesamiento de arcillas especiales para uso industrial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciana Castillo

2011-12-01

other molecules. This particular hydrophilicity is due to the presence of active adsorption centers on the surface of sepiolite. Taking into account this mineral is used as absorbent and as reinforcement in plastics, the highest length/diameter ratio is needed in order to maximize properties. Then, fiber disaggregation would increase its application field and the added value of this untapped mineral in Argentina. In this work, different methods as liofilization, sonication and acid leaching are explored, focusing in the optimization of disaggregation and purification of the fibers. The comparative analysis was made through the sepiolite characterization before and after each treatment by electronic and optical microscopy, x ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and thermal analysis. The results obtained from the acid leaching describe it as the better treatment respect to the sepiolite purification due to carbonates elimination. The sonication allows a particular disaggregation, leading to a gel structure development, product of the high entanglement of nanofibers which retain water molecules inside the network. In the case of the liofilization, it produces a substantial morphological variation of the fibers respect to their disaggregation. This method is the best for conserving the initial length of the fibers. These results allow inferring that the sepiolite can be easily processed and be used in different industries in our country with a high added value, replacing its importation.

Hydro-meteorological evaluation of downscaled global ensemble rainfall forecasts

Science.gov (United States)

Gaborit, Étienne; Anctil, François; Fortin, Vincent; Pelletier, Geneviève

2013-04-01

Ensemble rainfall forecasts are of high interest for decision making, as they provide an explicit and dynamic assessment of the uncertainty in the forecast (Ruiz et al. 2009). However, for hydrological forecasting, their low resolution currently limits their use to large watersheds (Maraun et al. 2010). In order to bridge this gap, various implementations of the statistic-stochastic multi-fractal downscaling technique presented by Perica and Foufoula-Georgiou (1996) were compared, bringing Environment Canada's global ensemble rainfall forecasts from a 100 by 70-km resolution down to 6 by 4-km, while increasing each pixel's rainfall variance and preserving its original mean. For comparison purposes, simpler methods were also implemented such as the bi-linear interpolation, which disaggregates global forecasts without modifying their variance. The downscaled meteorological products were evaluated using different scores and diagrams, from both a meteorological and a hydrological view points. The meteorological evaluation was conducted comparing the forecasted rainfall depths against nine days of observed values taken from Québec City rain gauge database. These 9 days present strong precipitation events occurring during the summer of 2009. For the hydrologic evaluation, the hydrological models SWMM5 and (a modified version of) GR4J were implemented on a small 6 km2 urban catchment located in the Québec City region. Ensemble hydrologic forecasts with a time step of 3 hours were then performed over a 3-months period of the summer of 2010 using the original and downscaled ensemble rainfall forecasts. The most important conclusions of this work are that the overall quality of the forecasts was preserved during the disaggregation procedure and that the disaggregated products using this variance-enhancing method were of similar quality than bi-linear interpolation products. However, variance and dispersion of the different members were, of course, much improved for the

How Does Disaggregating a Pooled Inventory Affect a Marine Aircraft Group?

Science.gov (United States)

2014-12-01

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION from the NAVAL...Kang Dr. William R. Gates, Dean Graduate School of Business and Public Policy iv THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK v HOW DOES...Kenneth Doerr and Dr. Keebom Kang, for their guidance and patience throughout the thesis process. Dr. Doerr, thanks for all the Skype chats. Our

Joint Cost, Production Technology and Output Disaggregation in Regulated Motor Carriers

Science.gov (United States)

1978-11-01

The study uses a sample of 252 Class I Instruction 27 Motor Carriers (Instruction 27 carriers earned at least 75 percent of their revenues from intercity transportation of general commodities over a three year period) of general freight that existed ...

Measuring and explaining inflation persistence: disaggregate evidence on the Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Babetskii, Ian; Coricelli, F.; Horváth, R.

-, č. 1 (2007), s. 1-36 Keywords : inflation dynamics * inflation targeting * persistence Subject RIV: AH - Economics http://www.cnb.cz/m2export/sites/www.cnb.cz/en/research/research_publications/cnb_wp/download/cnbwp_2007_01.pdf

A Methodology for the Optimization of Disaggregated Space System Conceptual Designs

Science.gov (United States)

2015-06-18

the Aqua and Terra satellites, part of the EOS. Additionally, the imaging payloads on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES... Terra ) «block» EOS PM-1 satellite (Aqua) «block» MODIS «block» MODIS 39 The second cost model used for the OFUEGO example is the Small Satellite Cost...assessed under sparse or incomplete vegetation cover. For low density vegetation the equation for estimating soil moisture is: Equation 17

The Climate-Agriculture-Modeling and Decision Tool (CAMDT) for Climate Risk Management in Agriculture

Science.gov (United States)

Ines, A. V. M.; Han, E.; Baethgen, W.

2017-12-01

Advances in seasonal climate forecasts (SCFs) during the past decades have brought great potential to improve agricultural climate risk managements associated with inter-annual climate variability. In spite of popular uses of crop simulation models in addressing climate risk problems, the models cannot readily take seasonal climate predictions issued in the format of tercile probabilities of most likely rainfall categories (i.e, below-, near- and above-normal). When a skillful SCF is linked with the crop simulation models, the informative climate information can be further translated into actionable agronomic terms and thus better support strategic and tactical decisions. In other words, crop modeling connected with a given SCF allows to simulate "what-if" scenarios with different crop choices or management practices and better inform the decision makers. In this paper, we present a decision support tool, called CAMDT (Climate Agriculture Modeling and Decision Tool), which seamlessly integrates probabilistic SCFs to DSSAT-CSM-Rice model to guide decision-makers in adopting appropriate crop and agricultural water management practices for given climatic conditions. The CAMDT has a functionality to disaggregate a probabilistic SCF into daily weather realizations (either a parametric or non-parametric disaggregation method) and to run DSSAT-CSM-Rice with the disaggregated weather realizations. The convenient graphical user-interface allows easy implementation of several "what-if" scenarios for non-technical users and visualize the results of the scenario runs. In addition, the CAMDT also translates crop model outputs to economic terms once the user provides expected crop price and cost. The CAMDT is a practical tool for real-world applications, specifically for agricultural climate risk management in the Bicol region, Philippines, having a great flexibility for being adapted to other crops or regions in the world. CAMDT GitHub: https://github.com/Agro-Climate/CAMDT

AN ACTIVE-PASSIVE COMBINED ALGORITHM FOR HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION RETRIEVAL OF SOIL MOISTURE FROM SATELLITE SENSORS (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Lakshmi, V.; Mladenova, I. E.; Narayan, U.

2009-12-01

Soil moisture is known to be an essential factor in controlling the partitioning of rainfall into surface runoff and infiltration and solar energy into latent and sensible heat fluxes. Remote sensing has long proven its capability to obtain soil moisture in near real-time. However, at the present time we have the Advanced Scanning Microwave Radiometer (AMSR-E) on board NASA’s AQUA platform is the only satellite sensor that supplies a soil moisture product. AMSR-E coarse spatial resolution (~ 50 km at 6.9 GHz) strongly limits its applicability for small scale studies. A very promising technique for spatial disaggregation by combining radar and radiometer observations has been demonstrated by the authors using a methodology is based on the assumption that any change in measured brightness temperature and backscatter from one to the next time step is due primarily to change in soil wetness. The approach uses radiometric estimates of soil moisture at a lower resolution to compute the sensitivity of radar to soil moisture at the lower resolution. This estimate of sensitivity is then disaggregated using vegetation water content, vegetation type and soil texture information, which are the variables on which determine the radar sensitivity to soil moisture and are generally available at a scale of radar observation. This change detection algorithm is applied to several locations. We have used aircraft observed active and passive data over Walnut Creek watershed in Central Iowa in 2002; the Little Washita Watershed in Oklahoma in 2003 and the Murrumbidgee Catchment in southeastern Australia for 2006. All of these locations have different soils and land cover conditions which leads to a rigorous test of the disaggregation algorithm. Furthermore, we compare the derived high spatial resolution soil moisture to in-situ sampling and ground observation networks

Evaluation of Medium Spatial Resolution BRDF-Adjustment Techniques Using Multi-Angular SPOT4 (Take5 Acquisitions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Claverie

2015-09-01

Full Text Available High-resolution sensor Surface Reflectance (SR data are affected by surface anisotropy but are difficult to adjust because of the low temporal frequency of the acquisitions and the low angular sampling. This paper evaluates five high spatial resolution Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF adjustment techniques. The evaluation is based on the noise level of the SR Time Series (TS corrected to a normalized geometry (nadir view, 45° sun zenith angle extracted from the multi-angular acquisitions of SPOT4 over three study areas (one in Arizona, two in France during the five-month SPOT4 (Take5 experiment. Two uniform techniques (Cst, for Constant, and Av, for Average, relying on the Vermote–Justice–Bréon (VJB BRDF method, assume no variation in space of the BRDF shape. Two methods (VI-dis, for NDVI-based disaggregation and LC-dis, for Land-Cover based disaggregation are based on disaggregation of the MODIS-derived BRDF VJB parameters using vegetation index and land cover, respectively. The last technique (LUM, for Look-Up Map relies on the MCD43 MODIS BRDF products and a crop type data layer. The VI-dis technique produced the lowest level of noise corresponding to the most effective adjustment: reduction from directional to normalized SR TS noises by 40% and 50% on average, for red and near-infrared bands, respectively. The uniform techniques displayed very good results, suggesting that a simple and uniform BRDF-shape assumption is good enough to adjust the BRDF in such geometric configuration (the view zenith angle varies from nadir to 25°. The most complex techniques relying on land cover (LC-dis and LUM displayed contrasting results depending on the land cover.

Lost Instruction: The Disparate Impact of the School Discipline Gap in California

Science.gov (United States)

Losen, Daniel J.; Whitaker, Amir

2017-01-01

This report is the first to analyze California's school discipline data as measured by days of missed instruction due to suspension. The state reports the number of suspensions for each district, disaggregated by racial/ethnic groups, but it does not provide any information on how much instructional time was lost. The authors used information from…

High Expectations, Strong Support: Faculty Behaviors Predicting Latina/o Community College Student Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Lundberg, Carol A.; Kim, Young K.; Andrade, Luis M.; Bahner, Daniel T.

2018-01-01

In this study we investigated the extent to which faculty interaction contributed to Latina/o student perceptions of their learning, using a sample of 10,071 Latina/o students who took the Community College Survey of Student Engagement. Findings were disaggregated for men and women, but results were quite similar between the 2 groups. Frequent…

Closing the School Discipline Gap in California: Signs of Progress

Science.gov (United States)

Losen, Daniel J.; Keith, Michael A., II; Hodson, Cheri L.; Martinez, Tia E.; Belway, Shakti

2015-01-01

This report describes the most current state and district suspension rates, and covers both trends and racial disparities in the use of suspension in California. A spreadsheet accompanying this report enables any reader to find their own district's most recent disaggregated data, as well as three-year trends for out-of-school suspensions, all of…

Community College Enrollment, College Major, and the Gender Wage Gap.

Science.gov (United States)

Gill, Andrew M.; Leigh, Duane E.

2000-01-01

Independent cross-sections developed using National Longitudinal Survey data reveal a decrease in the gender wage gap from 1989-1994 due to fewer differences in tenure and full-time employment. Disaggregating education by two- and four-year providers and college major accounts for 8.5-11% of the narrower wage gap for the period. (SK)

Trends in Income Disparity and Equality Enhancing (?) Education Policies in the Development Stages of Singapore

Science.gov (United States)

Mukhopadhaya, P.

2003-01-01

This paper examines the trends in income diversity in Singapore at the total and disaggregated level using Labour Force Survey data. The income inequality in Singapore is found to be significantly high. One reason is the selective migration policy of the government of Singapore. The government has made conscious efforts to bring equality in…

Contextualising Water Use in Residential Settings: A Survey of Non-Intrusive Techniques and Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Davide Carboni

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Water monitoring in households is important to ensure the sustainability of fresh water reserves on our planet. It provides stakeholders with the statistics required to formulate optimal strategies in residential water management. However, this should not be prohibitive and appliance-level water monitoring cannot practically be achieved by deploying sensors on every faucet or water-consuming device of interest due to the higher hardware costs and complexity, not to mention the risk of accidental leakages that can derive from the extra plumbing needed. Machine learning and data mining techniques are promising techniques to analyse monitored data to obtain non-intrusive water usage disaggregation. This is because they can discern water usage from the aggregated data acquired from a single point of observation. This paper provides an overview of water usage disaggregation systems and related techniques adopted for water event classification. The state-of-the art of algorithms and testbeds used for fixture recognition are reviewed and a discussion on the prominent challenges and future research are also included.

The UK-DALE dataset, domestic appliance-level electricity demand and whole-house demand from five UK homes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, Jack; Knottenbelt, William

2015-01-01

Many countries are rolling out smart electricity meters. These measure a home's total power demand. However, research into consumer behaviour suggests that consumers are best able to improve their energy efficiency when provided with itemised, appliance-by-appliance consumption information. Energy disaggregation is a computational technique for estimating appliance-by-appliance energy consumption from a whole-house meter signal. To conduct research on disaggregation algorithms, researchers require data describing not just the aggregate demand per building but also the 'ground truth' demand of individual appliances. In this context, we present UK-DALE: an open-access dataset from the UK recording Domestic Appliance-Level Electricity at a sample rate of 16 kHz for the whole-house and at 1/6 Hz for individual appliances. This is the first open access UK dataset at this temporal resolution. We recorded from five houses, one of which was recorded for 655 days, the longest duration we are aware of for any energy dataset at this sample rate. We also describe the low-cost, open-source, wireless system we built for collecting our dataset.

The emission abatement policy paradox in Australia: evidence from energy-emission nexus.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Khalid; Ozturk, Ilhan

2016-09-01

This paper attempts to investigate the emissions embodied in Australia's economic growth and disaggregate primary energy sources used for electricity production. Using time series data over the period of 1990-2012, the ARDL bounds test approach to cointegration technique is applied to test the long-run association among the underlying variables. The regression results validate the long-run equilibrium relationship among all vectors and confirm that CO2 emissions, economic growth, and disaggregate primary energy consumption impact each other in the long-run path. Afterwards, the long- and short-run analyses are conducted using error correction model. The results show that economic growth, coal, oil, gas, and hydro energy sources have positive and statistically significant impact on CO2 emissions both in long and short run, with an exception of renewables which has negative impact only in the long run. The results conclude that Australia faces wide gap between emission abatement policies and targets. The country still relies on emission intensive fossil fuels (i.e., coal and oil) to meet the indigenous electricity demand.

A study of the rebound effect on China's current energy conservation and emissions reduction: Measures and policy choices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Boqiang; Yang, Fang; Liu, Xia

2013-01-01

Energy efficiency improvement leads to a reduction in the real cost of energy services per unit, thus bringing about an increase in the demand for energy services. Therefore, the potential energy savings and emission reduction from efficiency improvements might be offset, which is known as “the rebound effect”. This study disaggregates the effect into the direct and indirect effects based on the Slutsky Equation and finds that the rebound effect of Chinese urban households is approximately 22%. It is found that the indirect effect is stronger than the direct effect. These findings prove that the initial goals of the government on energy conservation and emission reduction could not be achieved by improving energy efficiency alone, but need to be supplemented with relevant energy pricing reforms. - Highlights: • This study disaggregates the effect into the direct and indirect effects. • The rebound effect of Chinese urban households is approximately 22%. • The indirect effect is stronger than the direct effect. • Energy pricing reform is needed to mitigate the rebound effect

Prevalence of Smokeless Tobacco among Low Socioeconomic Populations: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Nurul Azam

Full Text Available Cost, social acceptability and non-stringent regulations pertaining to smokeless tobacco (SLT product sales have made people choose and continue using SLT. If disaggregated data on smokeless forms and smoked practices of tobacco are reviewed, the incidence of SLT remains static. There is a strong positive correlation of SLT intake with the occurrence of adverse cardiovascular disease, particularly in the low socioeconomic populations.To investigate the prevalence of smokeless tobacco, its initiation influence and risk factors associated with the practice among lower socioeconomic populations of Bangladesh. In this study, we explore the utilization of SLT among lower socioeconomic populations in industrialized zone of Bangladesh.A cross-sectional analysis using both quantitative and categorical approaches was employed. Using systematic random sampling method, four focus group discussions (FGDs were conducted and 459 participants were interviewed. Multiple logistic regression model was applied to distinguish the significant factors among the SLT users.Almost fifty percent of the respondents initiated SLT usage at the age of 15-24 years and another 22 percent respondents were smoking and using SLT concurrently. The bulk of the women respondents used SLT during their pregnancy. Nearly twenty five percent of the respondents tried to quit the practice of SLT and one-quarter had a plan to quit SLT in the future. More than twenty percent respondents were suffering from dental decay. A noteworthy correlation was found by gender (p<0.01, sufferings from SLT related disease (p<0.05. The multiple logistic regression analysis suggested that, males were 2.7 times more knowledgeable than that of females (p<0.01 about the adversative health condition of SLT usage. The respondents suffering from SLT related diseases were 3.7 times as more knowledgeable about the effect of the practice of SLT than the respondents without diseases (p<0.01. Regarding the knowledge

230Th and 234Th as coupled tracers of particle cycling in the ocean: A maximum likelihood approach

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wei-Lei; Armstrong, Robert A.; Cochran, J. Kirk; Heilbrun, Christina

2016-05-01

We applied maximum likelihood estimation to measurements of Th isotopes (234,230Th) in Mediterranean Sea sediment traps that separated particles according to settling velocity. This study contains two unique aspects. First, it relies on settling velocities that were measured using sediment traps, rather than on measured particle sizes and an assumed relationship between particle size and sinking velocity. Second, because of the labor and expense involved in obtaining these data, they were obtained at only a few depths, and their analysis required constructing a new type of box-like model, which we refer to as a "two-layer" model, that we then analyzed using likelihood techniques. Likelihood techniques were developed in the 1930s by statisticians, and form the computational core of both Bayesian and non-Bayesian statistics. Their use has recently become very popular in ecology, but they are relatively unknown in geochemistry. Our model was formulated by assuming steady state and first-order reaction kinetics for thorium adsorption and desorption, and for particle aggregation, disaggregation, and remineralization. We adopted a cutoff settling velocity (49 m/d) from Armstrong et al. (2009) to separate particles into fast- and slow-sinking classes. A unique set of parameters with no dependence on prior values was obtained. Adsorption rate constants for both slow- and fast-sinking particles are slightly higher in the upper layer than in the lower layer. Slow-sinking particles have higher adsorption rate constants than fast-sinking particles. Desorption rate constants are higher in the lower layer (slow-sinking particles: 13.17 ± 1.61, fast-sinking particles: 13.96 ± 0.48) than in the upper layer (slow-sinking particles: 7.87 ± 0.60 y-1, fast-sinking particles: 1.81 ± 0.44 y-1). Aggregation rate constants were higher, 1.88 ± 0.04, in the upper layer and just 0.07 ± 0.01 y-1 in the lower layer. Disaggregation rate constants were just 0.30 ± 0.10 y-1 in the upper

A model for development of freight transport; En model for godstransportens udvikling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kveiborg, O. [National Environmental Res., Systems Analysis Dept. Roskilde (Denmark)

2001-01-01

This report describes the results of a large project conducted in a corporation between Statistics Denmark and the Danish National Environmental Research Institute. The main objective of the project has been to analyse the possibilities of prescribing the development in the Danish freight transport in a more appropriate and precise way than it is done by existing models. A secondary objective of the project was to develop a model based on the findings of the analysis. The intention was to be able to describe all areas of freight transport. The analysis has proven it impossible to improve the existing calculations in some areas of transport. Hence, the project has been narrowed down to focus exclusively on road freight transport. The developed model distinguishes itself from existing models by a much higher level of detail in the calculations. This enables the model to describe the structural relations between transport and economic activity, which has previously been subsumed in the aggregate calculations of existing models. The work carried out in the process of developing a model for the freight transport has encountered many difficulties. The findings described in this report are merely one step towards a better understanding of the relation between economic development and transport. The descriptions on the following pages will describe some of the difficulties we have had in achieving an appropriate statistical description of the different linkages. Furthermore, the calculations carried out with the model point at other unsolved problems. There is an indication that the model tends to overestimate the developments in freight transport. In this respect, the very disaggregate calculations of the model can be seen as both an advantage and as a disadvantage because each extra calculation gives rise to further uncertainties in the overall result. Even though we have had great difficulties finding adequate descriptions of the development in the factors in the model

A Statistical Model for Natural Gas Standardized Load Profiles

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Brabec, Marek; Konár, Ondřej; Malý, Marek; Pelikán, Emil; Vondráček, Jiří

2009-01-01

Roč. 58, č. 1 (2009), s. 123-139 ISSN 0035-9254 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR 1ET400300513 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10300504 Keywords : disaggregation * generalized additive models * multiplicative model * non-linear effects * segmentation * semiparametric regression model Subject RIV: JE - Non-nuclear Energetics, Energy Consumption ; Use Impact factor: 1.060, year: 2009

Complicated Politics to the Core

Science.gov (United States)

McGuinn, Patrick

2015-01-01

People dislike the Common Core for several different reasons, and so it is important to disaggregate the sources of opposition and to assess and then to dispel some of the myths that have built up around it. It also is important to understand the unusual political alliances that have emerged in opposition to Common Core implementation and how they…

Projecting southern timber supply for multiple products by subregion

Science.gov (United States)

Robert C. Abt; Frederick W. Cubbage; Karen L. Abt

2009-01-01

While timber supply modeling has been of importance in the wood-producing regions of the United States for decades, it is only more recently that the technology and data have allowed disaggregation of supply and demand to substate regions, including product specific breakdowns and endogenous land use and plantation changes. Using southwide data and an economic supply...

45 CFR 265.5 - May States use sampling?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false May States use sampling? 265.5 Section 265.5... REQUIREMENTS § 265.5 May States use sampling? (a) Each State may report the disaggregated data in the TANF Data... the use of a scientifically acceptable sampling method that we have approved. States may use sampling...

Large Country-Lot Quality Assurance Sampling : A New Method for Rapid Monitoring and Evaluation of Health, Nutrition and Population Programs at Sub-National Levels

OpenAIRE

Hedt, Bethany L.; Olives, Casey; Pagano, Marcello; Valadez, Joseph J.

2008-01-01

Sampling theory facilitates development of economical, effective and rapid measurement of a population. While national policy maker value survey results measuring indicators representative of a large area (a country, state or province), measurement in smaller areas produces information useful for managers at the local level. It is often not possible to disaggregate a national survey to obt...

Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program. Final Project Report. California Energy Balance Update and Decomposition Analysis for the Industry and Building Sectors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

de la Rue du Can, Stephane [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Hasanbeigi, Ali [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Sathaye, Jayant [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2010-12-01

This report on the California Energy Balance version 2 (CALEB v2) database documents the latest update and improvements to CALEB version 1 (CALEB v1) and provides a complete picture of how energy is supplied and consumed in the State of California. The CALEB research team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) performed the research and analysis described in this report. CALEB manages highly disaggregated data on energy supply, transformation, and end-use consumption for about 40 different energy commodities, from 1990 to 2008. This report describes in detail California's energy use from supply through end-use consumption as well as the data sources used. The report also analyzes trends in energy demand for the "Manufacturing" and "Building" sectors. Decomposition analysis of energy consumption combined with measures of the activity driving that consumption quantifies the effects of factors that shape energy consumption trends. The study finds that a decrease in energy intensity has had a very significant impact on reducing energy demand over the past 20 years. The largest impact can be observed in the industry sector where energy demand would have had increased by 358 trillion British thermal units (TBtu) if subsectoral energy intensities had remained at 1997 levels. Instead, energy demand actually decreased by 70 TBtu. In the "Building" sector, combined results from the "Service" and "Residential" subsectors suggest that energy demand would have increased by 264 TBtu (121 TBtu in the "Services" sector and 143 TBtu in the "Residential" sector) during the same period, 1997 to 2008. However, energy demand increased at a lesser rate, by only 162 TBtu (92 TBtu in the "Services" sector and 70 TBtu in the "Residential" sector). These energy intensity reductions can be indicative of energyefficiency improvements during the past 10 years. The research presented in this report provides a basis for developing an energy-efficiency performance index to measure

Brazilian Energy Balance 2016 - calendar year 2015; Balanco energetico nacional 2016 - ano base 2015

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2016-07-01

The BEB is divided into eight chapters and ten annexes, whose contents are as follow. Chapter 1 - Energy Analysis and Aggregated Data - presents energy highlights per source in 2015 and analyses the evolution of the domestic energy supply and its relationship with economic growth. Chapter 2 - Energy Supply and Demand by Source - has the accountancy, per primary and secondary energy sources, of the production, import, export, variation of stocks, losses, adjustments and total consumption disaggregated per socioeconomic sector in the country. Chapter 3 - Energy Consumption by Sector - presents the final energy consumption classified by primary and secondary source for each sector of the economy. Chapter 4 - Energy Imports and Exports - presents the evolution of the data on the import and export of energy and the dependence on external energy. Chapter 5 - Balance of Transformation Centers - presents the energy balances for the energy transformation centers including their losses. Chapter 6 - Energy Resources and Reserves - has the basic concepts use in the survey of resources and reserves of primary energy sources. Chapter 7 - Energy and Socioeconomics - contains a comparison of energy, economic and population parameters, specific consumption, energy intensities, average prices and spending on petroleum imports. Chapter 8 - State Energy Data - presents energy data for the states by Federal Unit, main energy source production, energy installations, reserves and hydraulic potential. Relating to annexes the current structure is presented bellow: Annex I - Installed Capacity - shows the installed capacity of electricity generation, the installed capacity of Itaipu hydro plant and the installed capacity for oil refining. Annex II - Self-production of Electricity - presents disaggregated data of self-production, considering sources and sectors. Annex III - World Energy Data - presents the main indicators for the production, import, export and consumption per energy source

Multi-level Bayesian analyses for single- and multi-vehicle freeway crashes.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Rongjie; Abdel-Aty, Mohamed

2013-09-01

This study presents multi-level analyses for single- and multi-vehicle crashes on a mountainous freeway. Data from a 15-mile mountainous freeway section on I-70 were investigated. Both aggregate and disaggregate models for the two crash conditions were developed. Five years of crash data were used in the aggregate investigation, while the disaggregate models utilized one year of crash data along with real-time traffic and weather data. For the aggregate analyses, safety performance functions were developed for the purpose of revealing the contributing factors for each crash type. Two methodologies, a Bayesian bivariate Poisson-lognormal model and a Bayesian hierarchical Poisson model with correlated random effects, were estimated to simultaneously analyze the two crash conditions with consideration of possible correlations. Except for the factors related to geometric characteristics, two exposure parameters (annual average daily traffic and segment length) were included. Two different sets of significant explanatory and exposure variables were identified for the single-vehicle (SV) and multi-vehicle (MV) crashes. It was found that the Bayesian bivariate Poisson-lognormal model is superior to the Bayesian hierarchical Poisson model, the former with a substantially lower DIC and more significant variables. In addition to the aggregate analyses, microscopic real-time crash risk evaluation models were developed for the two crash conditions. Multi-level Bayesian logistic regression models were estimated with the random parameters accounting for seasonal variations, crash-unit-level diversity and segment-level random effects capturing unobserved heterogeneity caused by the geometric characteristics. The model results indicate that the effects of the selected variables on crash occurrence vary across seasons and crash units; and that geometric characteristic variables contribute to the segment variations: the more unobserved heterogeneity have been accounted, the better

Brazilian Energy Balance 2016 - calendar year 2015

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-01-01

The BEB is divided into eight chapters and ten annexes, whose contents are as follow. Chapter 1 - Energy Analysis and Aggregated Data - presents energy highlights per source in 2015 and analyses the evolution of the domestic energy supply and its relationship with economic growth. Chapter 2 - Energy Supply and Demand by Source - has the accountancy, per primary and secondary energy sources, of the production, import, export, variation of stocks, losses, adjustments and total consumption disaggregated per socioeconomic sector in the country. Chapter 3 - Energy Consumption by Sector - presents the final energy consumption classified by primary and secondary source for each sector of the economy. Chapter 4 - Energy Imports and Exports - presents the evolution of the data on the import and export of energy and the dependence on external energy. Chapter 5 - Balance of Transformation Centers - presents the energy balances for the energy transformation centers including their losses. Chapter 6 - Energy Resources and Reserves - has the basic concepts use in the survey of resources and reserves of primary energy sources. Chapter 7 - Energy and Socioeconomics - contains a comparison of energy, economic and population parameters, specific consumption, energy intensities, average prices and spending on petroleum imports. Chapter 8 - State Energy Data - presents energy data for the states by Federal Unit, main energy source production, energy installations, reserves and hydraulic potential. Relating to annexes the current structure is presented bellow: Annex I - Installed Capacity - shows the installed capacity of electricity generation, the installed capacity of Itaipu hydro plant and the installed capacity for oil refining. Annex II - Self-production of Electricity - presents disaggregated data of self-production, considering sources and sectors. Annex III - World Energy Data - presents the main indicators for the production, import, export and consumption per energy source