Application of a Spatially Explicit Scaling Factor Method on CO2 Emissions From New York

An effective scaling frequency factor method for harmonic vibrational frequencies: The factors’ transferability problem

A comparison of top-down and bottom-up approaches to benthic habitat mapping to inform offshore wind energy development

An effective scaling frequency factor method for scaling of harmonic vibrational frequencies: The use of redundant primitive coordinates

An effective scaling frequency factor method for scaling of harmonic vibrational frequencies: theory and preliminary application to toluene

Jennings Bryant is one of the last true generalists in the field of mass communication. The name of this prolific scholar is inexorably linked with entertainment theory, media effects, television and children, and mass communication theory. The successful journal Media Psychology, developed under his conceptualization and tutelage, continues to thrive. In any good library, one can fill an entire shelf with his classic scholarly volumes and textbooks, and the Erlbaum Communication Series that he edits could fill a complete library stack. Bryant is renowned for all dimension of his scholarship--his research, teaching, and service. For 14 years, Bryant served as director of the Institute for Communication Research at the University of Alabama, where he directed research contracts totaling more than $7.6 million for governmental agencies, foundations, and corporate clients. From 2002 to 2003, he served as president of the International Communication Association, one of the discipline's most prestigious scholarly organizations. In 2006, he received a BEA Distinguished Scholar Award. Through the years, he has spoken at conferences and universities around the world. His books have been published in a number of different languages, including Spanish, Russian, Romanian, Korean, and Chinese. But Bryant is not your typical, run-of-the-mill famous research scientist. He is not narrowly focused on one particular area of scholarly interest (thus, the epithet, the scholar, using the archaic spelling denoting the idea of a true Renaissance man; cf. Walton, The Compleat Angler, 1653/2003). He enjoys theoretical and applied research in a number of different areas, and his contributions have always been and continue to be substantial. As the director of a research institute, he proved himself highly successful and productive. As a writer and editor, his brilliance has always been and remains unmatched. In the areas of instruction and mentoring, Bryant is again the compleat scholar, as he excels not only in research and service but also in the classroom. Despite the fact that he is so famous (or, as he would say, infamous), he is not a stuffy, egotistical bore. Quite the opposite. He is kindhearted. He's friendly. He is a voracious reader--he especially loves mystery novels--and he's an avid media consumer. His intellectual versatility makes him a brilliant conversationalist. While engaged in conversation with him, one soon recognizes a delightful sense of humor (one that can take a slightly wicked turn around those he knows well) accompanied by a hearty laugh. He is a large man with a generous supply of graying hair and a graying beard to match, with Newman-blue eyes that sparkle whenever one of those warm, infectious laughs erupts. Bryant earned an A.B. in history from Davidson College in 1967 and a master's of divinity in communications and counseling from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1971. He received his Ph.D. in mass communication from Indiana University in 1974. Bryant has three beautiful and brilliant women in his life, his wife Sara and his daughters, J. Alison and Adrienne, and one handsome and brilliant young man, his son Todd. Sara (formerly Poteat) Bryant, his wife of 38 years, teaches gifted children in Tuscaloosa. Oldest daughter Alison Bryant earned her Ph.D. in communication from the University of Southern California and is now director of research for Nickelodeon. Todd Bryant graduated in 2005 with a master's in telecommunication and film from the University of Alabama and is working as a freelance multimedia specialist in New York City, doing production and postproduction work for the likes of HBO and the Sundance Channel. Adrienne Bryant, the youngest, received her B.A. magna cum laude from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2005, with minors in philosophy and dance, and she is currently assistant manager of the Mark Morris Dance Group in New York City. …

To effectively address the unprecedented acceleration of climate change, cities across the United States are leading efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Coherent, aggressive, and lasting mitigation policies in controlling carbon emissions are beginning to be adopted to help strengthen climate resilience across different sectors. However, evaluating the effectiveness of current climate legislation requires careful monitoring of emissions through measurable and verifiable means to inform policy decisions. As a part of this effort, we developed a new method to spatially allocate aircraft-based mass balance carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In this work, we conducted 7 aircraft flights, performed downwind of New York City (NYC) to quantify CO2 emissions during the nongrowing seasons between 2018 and 2020. We used an ensemble of emission inventories and transport models to calculate the fraction of enhancements (Φ) produced by sources within the policy-relevant boundaries of the 5 NYC boroughs and then applied that to the bulk emissions calculated using the mass balance approach. We derived a campaign-averaged source-apportioned mass balance CO2 emission rate of (57 ± 24) (1σ) kmol/s for NYC. We evaluated the performance of this approach against other top-down methods for NYC including inventory scaling and inverse modeling, with our mean emissions estimate resulting in a 6.5% difference from the average emission rate reported by the 2 complementary approaches. By combining mass balance and transport model approaches, we improve upon traditional mass balance experiment methods to enable quantification of emissions in complex emission environments. We conducted an assessment using an ensemble of emission inventories and transport models to determine the sources of variability in the final calculated emission rates. Our findings indicate that the choice of inventory accounted for 2.0% of the variability in the emission estimates and that the atmospheric transport model contributed 3.9% at the campaign level. Additionally, on average, at the daily scale, the transport model contributed 7.6% and the inventory accounted for 14.1%. The daily flight-to-flight variability contributed a significant portion, at 42.1%. This approach provides a solution to the difficulty of interpreting aircraft-based mass balance results in complex emission environments.

A Bayesian framework to update scaling factors for radioactive waste characterization

Selection and modification of ground motion records using a weighted scaling method based on the Newmark-Hall target spectrum

From the 30s to the 60s: The folk music revival in the United States

Better information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation potential in the agricultural sector is necessary to manage these emissions and identify responses that are consistent with the food security and economic development priorities of countries. Critical activity data (what crops or livestock are managed in what way) are poor or lacking for many agricultural systems, especially in developing countries. In addition, the currently available methods for quantifying emissions and mitigation are often too expensive or complex or not sufficiently user friendly for widespread use.The purpose of this focus issue is to capture the state of the art in quantifying greenhouse gases from agricultural systems, with the goal of better understanding our current capabilities and near-term potential for improvement, with particular attention to quantification issues relevant to smallholders in developing countries. This work is timely in light of international discussions and negotiations around how agriculture should be included in efforts to reduce and adapt to climate change impacts, and considering that significant climate financing to developing countries in post-2012 agreements may be linked to their increased ability to identify and report GHG emissions (Murphy et al 2010, CCAFS 2011, FAO 2011).

Internal radiation dose estimates for diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures are typically calculated for a reference individual. Resultantly, there is uncertainty when determining the organ doses to patients who are not at 50th percentile on either height or weight. This study aims to better personalize internal radiation dose estimates for individual patients by modifying the dose estimates calculated for reference individuals based on easily obtainable morphometric characteristics of the patient. Phantoms of different sitting heights and waist circumferences were constructed based on computational reference phantoms for the newborn, 10 year-old, and adult. Monoenergetic photons and electrons were then simulated separately at 15 energies. Photon and electron specific absorbed fractions (SAFs) were computed for the newly constructed non-reference phantoms and compared to SAFs previously generated for the age-matched reference phantoms. Differences in SAFs were correlated to changes in sitting height and waist circumference to develop scaling factors that could be applied to reference SAFs as morphometry corrections. A further set of arbitrary non-reference phantoms were then constructed and used in validation studies for the SAF scaling factors. Both photon and electron dose scaling methods were found to increase average accuracy when sitting height was used as the scaling parameter (~11%). Photon waist circumference-based scaling factors showed modest increases in average accuracy (~7%) for underweight individuals, but not for overweight individuals. Electron waist circumference-based scaling factors did not show increases in average accuracy. When sitting height and waist circumference scaling factors were combined, modest average gains in accuracy were observed for photons (~6%), but not for electrons. Both photon and electron absorbed doses are more reliably scaled using scaling factors computed in this study. They can be effectively scaled using sitting height alone as patient-specific morphometric parameter.

BackgroundPerindopril erbumine is a specific inhibitor of angiotensin-converting enzyme, indapamide is the one providing thiazide diuretic effect, and amlodipine besylate is a calcium antagonist which belongs to the dihydropyridines which helps to maintain the pressure of the blood in the patient having arterial hypertension. The literature survey discloses that only one method is available for the estimation of the combination in the quantitative analytical liquid chromatographic method. Moreover to this, the literature review also reveals that HPTLC, UV spectroscopy, and HPLC methods are available for the analysis of either of the two in combination. Hence, our area of interest is to develop and validate the RP-HPLC in order to quantify perindopril erbumine, indapamide, and amlodipine besylate simultaneously in bulk and formulation.ResultSensitive and accurate RP-HPLC method was developed for the simultaneous estimation of indapamide, perindopril erbumine, and amlodipine besylate in bulk and available as triplixam-marketed tablet dosage form which is a combination of these drugs. The Phenomenex C-18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) was used as a stationary phase, and acetonitrile: methanol: water (30:20:50, v/v/v) was found to be optimized mobile phase which was further adjusted to pH 3.0 by utilizing 1.0% orthophosphoric acid; the flow rate kept was 1 ml/min and experiments were performed using PDA detector. The common detection wavelength for all the three APIs was found to be 215.0 nm. The method was validated as per ICH Q2 (R1). The linearity range for amlodipine besylate was found to be 0.500–9.500 μg/ml; for perindopril erbumine was found to be 0.400–7.600 μg/ml, and for indapamide was found to be 0.125–2.375 μg/ml. The correlation coefficient was found to be more than 0.9975 for all three of them, whereas the mean percentage recovery was found to be 99.52–100.71%, 99.49–100.89%, and 99.90–100.78%, respectively.ConclusionThe proposed RP-HPLC method is found to be accurate and robust enough to estimate the perindopril erbumine, indapamide, and amlodipine besylate simultaneously in bulk and available tablet dosage form of combination.

Development a detailed inventory framework for estimating major pollutants emissions inventory for Yunnan Province, China

The International Energy Agency (IEA) (2020) states that “Global energy-related CO2 emissions flattened in 2019 at around 33 gigatons, following 2 years of increases. This resulted mainly from a sharp decline in CO2 emissions from the power sector in advanced economies, thanks to the expanding role of renewable sources (mainly wind and solar photovoltaics), fuel switching from coal to natural gas and higher nuclear power output.” The decarbonization mechanism agreed to at 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) held in Paris urges all members to commit to Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, but it is natural for developing economies to be reluctant to make ambitious commitments because they depend more on coal and oil as they are cheaper energy sources than renewables or gas for economic growth. Arimura and Sugino (2021) describe how Asian economies have tried to reduce their CO2 emissions. Arimura and Sugino (2021) do correctly pick up air pollution issues among the many environmental issues as the primary environmental concern for Asian countries. Air quality is indeed very important for the welfare of the domestic population, but global warming seems more important for someone else in the world. Here, I add an “energy security” aspect to the discussion. Reducing a country's import dependency on oil and gas by using more indigenous renewables and enforcing energy efficiency will increase its national energy security. Security is directly linked to the welfare of the population. The International Energy Agency (IEA) was established in 1974 at the time of the first oil crisis to secure the oil supply by the strategic stockpiling of petroleum. But IEA (2019, p. 255) states that “Electricity is at the heart of modern economies and it is providing a rising share of energy services.” The steady and affordable supply of clean electricity with less air pollution is the key energy security and environment policy for the future. Security cannot be achieved by one country alone; a European style of collective undertaking is essential in Asia, in areas such as power grid connectivity or gas pipeline connections for scaling up the use of renewables as well as natural gas. Arimura and Sugino (2021) also touch upon market policy instruments for CO2 reductions. They explain very well where Asian countries stand in relation to carbon pricing by emissions trading schemes (ETS) or carbon tax measures. Carbon pricing is theoretically the best way to reduce emissions. It was first introduced by the EU and followed by some Asian countries like Chinese provinces. Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries as a group may consider ETS. Arimura and Sugino (2021) discuss a variety of cases in different countries, but unfortunately these countries introduced carbon prices or taxes that are far too low or reduction targets that are not ambitious enough to make an effective carbon rate. Arimura and Sugino (2021) say that it should be more than US$30 or 30 Euros. IEA (2019, p. 758) assumes that effective rate of carbon for the Sustainable Development Scenario (2° containment) should be as high as US$100 in advanced countries and about US$20 in developing countries in 2030. With such low rates, it would be very difficult to evaluate quantitatively the impact of carbon pricing on fuel switching from coal to gas, efficiency improvement or the deployment of renewables. ETS is theoretically the best way to achieve a certain level of emissions reduction though it is highly political to make a commitment and not much has been achieved during decades of futile discussion. International harmonization of an ETS or carbon tax seems to me to be a “scientific fiction.” Rather than discussing the theoretical advantages of carbon pricing forever, applying internal carbon pricing mechanisms for corporate investment decisions may be more realistic and constructive. It is not a top-down approach, but rather a bottom-up approach. Many European corporations already have internal carbon pricing, while this is much less the case in either Japan or Asia. In 2018, the Japanese government took very seriously the recommendations of the Task Force for Climate Financial Disclosure (TCFD). The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry organized a working group for the TCFD and developed guidelines for Japanese corporations. More than 200 Japanese corporations have signed up with TCFD so far and will disclose their climate risks in due course. They are requested to make internal carbon price assumptions to evaluate their risks when the 2° scenario comes true. Financial investors will divest from corporations with high risks of depending on coal. There are more than 229 global corporations (including 30 Japanese corporations) claiming themselves to be RE100 (Renewable Energy 100%). These corporations pledge to use only carbon free energy sources to produce their products by 2030. Some companies like Apple demand their supply chain companies to do the same regardless of their home country. Those corporations who wish to stay in Apple's supply chain will not buy electricity generated by using coal. This movement together with the financial sector's selection of TCFD standards will force the electricity supply structure to change. As Arimura and Sugino (2021) conclude, fuel switching from coal to natural gas and further to renewables is happening in Asia and will be strengthened much more and occur much faster than anybody thinks. TCFD has become a mainstream issue in Japanese business circles within the space of a year. I call this a “Demand-side Driven Transformation.” This transformation will be the force to change the Asian energy sector.

This paper presents a novel single-image super-resolution (SR) procedure, which upscales a given low-resolution (LR) input image to a high-resolution image while preserving the textural and structural information. First, we construct a new type of bivariate rational fractal interpolation model and investigate its analytical properties. This model has different forms of expression with various values of the scaling factors and shape parameters; thus, it can be employed to better describe image features than current interpolation schemes. Furthermore, this model combines the advantages of rational interpolation and fractal interpolation, and its effectiveness is validated through theoretical analysis. Second, we develop a single-image SR algorithm based on the proposed model. The LR input image is divided into texture and non-texture regions, and then, the image is interpolated according to the characteristics of the local structure. Specifically, in the texture region, the scaling factor calculation is the critical step. We present a method to accurately calculate scaling factors based on local fractal analysis. Extensive experiments and comparisons with the other state-of-the-art methods show that our algorithm achieves competitive performance, with finer details and sharper edges.