Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Innovative Approaches for Reducing GHG Emissions: Feebates for Appliances and Buildings

A feebate is a market-based policy that can encourage greater energy efficiency and associated greenhouse gas emission reductions by levying surcharges on low-efficiency/highemitting products and refunding the revenue generated to purchasers of high-efficiency/lowemitting products through a rebate. Feebates, which can be designed to be revenue neutral, can be used to create incentives that shift markets toward lower emission products by influencing purchasing decisions. This paper provides an overview of feebate design considerations and implementation options for programs that target appliances and buildings in California. A significant energy savings opportunity exists in bridging existing voluntary and involuntary market interventions. Well designed incentive programs are effective at motivating customers to purchase energy efficient products and services in a specific targeted market, but their effectiveness is usually limited to a small fraction of that market. Regulations for buildings and appliances are extremely cost effective at improving efficiency for an entire market, but codes and standards are blunt instruments that usually leave a lot of potential savings “on the table. ” Feebates can be used to bridge gaps between California’s incentive programs and codes and standards as well as the gap between state and federal regulations. In particular, feebates could allow California to achieve additional energy and greenhouse gas emissions savings from appliances that are federally preempted from state-level codes and standards. From a policy perspective, federal regulations for buildings and appliances are effective at moving the entire nation towards a more sustainable future, but they are less effective than state policies at developing innovative regulations suitable for individual climate and economic conditions.
The contribution of knowledge bases to compliance assessment : a case study of industrial maintenance in the gas sector

The question of compliance arises for companies interested in sustainability. In trying to meet the expectations of its various stakeholders, a company determines the scope of its responsibilities, outlines its internal regulations and identifies the evaluative framework. Whatever standard the company uses, the compliance assessment of its practices should operate simply and consistently. However, it is interesting to note that this exercise appears generally complex to implement for most companies. Various alternative solutions are developed. Nevertheless, an examination of these tools reveals that for the most part, they only provide a partial solution, which is poorly suited to the deployment of an effective compliance management system. This paper therefore discusses the criteria for a knowledge base management tool, tailored to meet the various needs of businesses, which addresses the issue of compliance management from a more global angle. The context for the analysis is industrial maintenance in the gas sector. In this domain the issue of industrial safety compliance is particularly relevant, as it touches upon many sensitive issues (human, financial, infrastructure). Moreover, the nature and variety of the applicable requirements, and the characteristics of the population affected by the compliance assessment create a particularly suitable environment. The application of the analysis to this technical field makes it possible to verify general assumptions, which can be applied to less sensitive sectors. We first highlight the regulatory context that applies to industrial maintenance in the gas sector. We then present some criteria for the proposed tool, which include; a method to identify the scope of applicable requirements, a way to evaluate regulatory compliance, and an investigation of other possible applications for the results obtained. Finally, we explore the potential uses for a knowledge database, as a complement to a compliance assessment tool.
Direct experimental visualization of waves and band structure in 2D photonic crystal slabs

We demonstrate for the first time the ability to perform time resolved imaging of terahertz (THz) waves propagating within a photonic crystal (PhC) slab. For photonic lattices with different orientations and symmetries, we used the electro-optic effect to record the full spatiotemporal evolution of THz fields across a broad spectral range spanning the photonic band gap. In addition to revealing real-space behavior, the data let us directly map the band diagrams of the PhCs. The data, which are in good agreement with theoretical calculations, display a rich set of effects including photonic band gaps, eigenmodes and leaky modes.
Business strategies and the transition to low‐carbon cities

Cities are key drivers of global climate change, with the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions being tied to urban life. Local actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change are essential for stabilization of the global climate and can also help to address other urban ecological problems such as pollution, decreasing biodiversity, etc. Companies are important urban actors in the development of low-carbon cities because they provide a multitude of goods and services to city populations and directly influence urban carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This is a new area of research. While studies on corporate sustainability are numerous, there is little, if any, existing research that examines the role of companies in climate change adaptation and mitigation within specific urban areas. Urban ecologists also have not examined how corporate activity affects urban systems. Taking a multi-disciplinary systems approach, we present a conceptual model of the role of companies in managing urban interactions with the climate system. We also present empirical findings illustrating how one company ‘partners’ with the city of Rotterdam to test electric vehicles as a pilot project for urban climate adaptation and mitigation.
Unpacking perceived control in risk perception: The mediating role of anticipated regret

A welding system with an automatically operated helmet closes the helmet's hood, and thus its face mask, before turning on a welding electrode. The system includes an actuator with a piston that mount to the helmet's headband and hood, respectively. Only when the system detects that the mask is closed will power to the electrode be actuated. This system is controlled by a safety circuit, which the welder simply plugs the helmet into for automatic control. If the welder does not plug into the safety circuit, the system operates similar to a conventional welding system.
SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC RESOURCES IN THE QUEST FOR MENTAL HEALTH

Integrating religion and spirituality in psychotherapy is still controversial despite the growing body of research showing positive impact on mental health. The present paper analyzes the relationship between spirituality, religion and mental health and its implications in psychotherapy. Firstly the concepts of religion and spirituality are explained and assessment issues are discussed. The second part of the paper offers a selective review of studies analysing the impact of religion and spirituality on mental health. Mechanisms and possible mediators are analysed. Finally, advantages and risks of integrating religion and spirituality into psychotherapeutic treatment are explored.
Parenting and Politics: Exploring Early Moral Bases of Political Orientation

Based on Lakoff’s (2002) Strict Father and Nurturant Parent metaphors for political conservatism and liberalism respectively, two studies explored parenting styles, political ideology, and the moral orientations that might link the two. Restrictive parenting (by both mother and father) predicted political conservatism, and this path was mediated by a strong Social Order orientation (Study 1) reflecting, more broadly, an inhibition-based proscriptive morality (Study 2). Political liberalism was associated with a Social Justice orientation, but was not predicted by nurturant parenting in either study. Study 1 included mothers’ reports of their own parenting, and these were correlated with the students’ responses. Findings support a restrictive moral underpinning for conservatism, but raise questions about the assumed unique association between parental nurturance and political liberalism, which is addressed in the discussion.
Estimating the risk-adjusted capital is an affair in the tails

(Re)insurance companies need to model their liabilities' portfolio to compute the risk-adjusted capital (RAC) needed to support their business. The RAC depends on both the distribution and the dependence functions that are applied among the risks in a portfolio. We investigate the impact of those assumptions on an important concept for (re)insurance industries: the diversification gain. Several copulas are considered in order to focus on the role of dependencies. To be consistent with the frameworks of both Solvency II and the Swiss Solvency Test, we deal with two risk measures: the Value-at-Risk and the expected shortfall. We highlight the behavior of different capital allocation principles according to the dependence assumptions and the choice of the risk measure.
The effect of country level factors on the trade-off between cost and flexibility in mass customization

Insufficient attention has been paid to both the relationship between mass customization capability and operational performance and the contingency factors affecting this relationship. We propose a model that conceptualizes the relationship between mass customization capability, flexibility performance, and cost performance. The hypotheses are empirically tested using data collected from 5th round of GMRG and secondary data obtained from World Bank and UNIDO. The results show that mass customization capability positively impacts both flexibility performance and cost performance. In addition, national logistics performance and a country’s risk level impact the relationship between mass customization capability and cost performance in different ways.
Mass Concentrations of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and Heavy Metals in Different Size Fractions of Hospital Solid Waste Incinerator Fly Ash Particles

ABSTRACTHospital solid waste incinerator (HSWI) fly ash is an extremely complex mixture because it contains carbon constituents, toxic heavy metals, and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). We investigated the distribution of carbon constituents, PCDD/Fs, and heavy metals in the five different particle size fractions (+106 µm, –106 + 75 µm, –75 + 38 µm, –38 + 25 µm, and –25 µm) of HSWI fly ash. The loss on ignition (LOI) in the particle size fraction of –25 µm was higher than that in the particle size fractions of other sizes. Moreover, 82.63% of the fly ash particles were in the size range of –75 + 25 µm, and this particle size range was suitable for direct flotation treatment. Because powder-activated carbon adsorbed a higher amount of low-chlorinated PCDD/Fs in the gaseous phase, the concentration of each PCDD/F congener, particularly of low-chlorinated PCDD/Fs, generally increased with a decrease in the particle size. The total toxic equivalent (TEQ) of the fraction of –75 µm did not satisfy the landfill site standard (3 ng-TEQ g–1). The highest concentration of Pb, Zn, and Cd was observed in the fraction of –38 + 25 µm rather than in the fraction of –25 µm. The exchangeable speciation of Zn, Pb, and Cd was relatively high in the particle size fraction of –75 µm. The carbonate speciation of Pb and Zn was the highest in the particle size fraction of –38 + 25 µm. The leaching concentrations of Pb and Cd in all particle size fractions exceeded landfill allowable thresholds.
Genetic Divergence in Bread Wheat F 3 Populations for Morphological and Yield Traits

To study genetic divergence for morphological traits in bread wheat F3 populations, an experiment was conducted comprising 13 F3 populations and 6 parental cultivars during 2011-2012 at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Agricultural University Peshawar, Pakistan. The experiment was conducted in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Results of the data exhibited significant (P≤0.01) variation among wheat genotypes regarding days to heading, days to maturity, flag leaf area, spikes m -2 , grains spike -1 , grain weight spike -1 , 1000-grain weight and grain yield. Differences among parental (P) cultivars and F3 populations were also highly significant for all the traits. Differences among the P vs F3 were also significant for all the traits except 1000-grain weight. Heritability estimates for all the traits varied between 0.72-0.97. Genetic advance were 2.30 days for days to heading, 2.25 days for days to maturity, 5.54 cm 2 for flag leaf area, 175.22 spikes for spikes m -2 , 12.13 for grains spike -1 , 0.42 g for grain weight spike -1 , 8.81 g for 1000-grain weight and 683.16 kg ha -1 for grain yield. Based on the results of this study, G-98/PS-2004 and PS-2005/FS in
The Influence of Employee Empowerment on Employee Job Satisfaction in Five-Star Hotels in Jordan

This paper examines the influence of empowerment on job satisfaction in five-star hotels in Jordan. The influence of empowerment on job satisfaction remains a relatively unexplored area. A 52-item questionnaire, measuring empowerment and job satisfaction, was distributed to 332 employees in 12 five-star hotels in Jordan with a 56% response rate. Principal components analysis determined the factor structure and regression analysis determined the influence of empowerment on job satisfaction. The results revealed both structural and psychological empowerment have significant individual influences on job satisfaction, but more significant when structural and psychological empowerment are combined. Most of previous studies were conducted in western economies and little in the Middle East generally and Jordan in particular. This research contributes to the literature by including both dimensions of empowerment where previous scholars used only one.
Pastoral plants for rehabilitation of degraded soil in Tunisia: the case for use of Calicotome villosa and Genista spachiana (Fabaceae)

Calicotome villosa and Genista spachiana are classified as vulnerable in Tunisia and they are of great interest for the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems, food for goats and camelids, and for the use of its essential oils in phytotherapy. The aim of this study was to examine the germination characteristics of both species through analysis of the effects of the salt stress and water stress on germination. We monitored and evaluated different germination characteristics (germination percentage, mean time to germination and germination speed) in the presence of the salt and water stress. Calicotome villosa and Genista spachiana can withstand salinity of up to 15 g/l of salt (31–37% germination at 15 g/l) and also tolerate large doses of PEG 6000 (30–40% germination at –1.6 MPa: Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a hydrophilic polymer). The tolerance of the two species to salinity and water stress allows them to be a source of food for goats and camelids during drought.
Heterotic string plus five-brane systems with asymptotic AdS 3

We present NS1+NS5-brane solutions of heterotic supergravity on curved geometries. They interpolate between a near horizon AdS3 × X k × T 7−k region and R 1,1 × c(X k ) × T 7−k , where X k (with k = 3,5,6,7) is a k-dimensional geometric Killing spinor manifold, c(X k ) its Ricciflat cone and T 7−k a (7 k)-torus. The solutions require first order � ′ -corrections to the field equations, and special point-like instantons play an important role, whose singular support is a calibrated submanifold wrapped by the NS5-brane. It is also possible to add a gauge anti-5brane. We determine the super isometries of the near horizon geometry which are supposed to appear as symmetries of the holographically dual two-dimensional conformal field theory.
Long-Term Post-Treatment MR and PET/CT Imaging in Prostate Cancer Patients in Complete Remission after Curative Radiotherapy with or without Androgen Deprivation: The Image of Cure

18 F- Fluorocholine, 11 C-acetate, MRI Abstract Purpose: To investigate the risk of false positive MRI and 18F-Fluorocholine (FCH) or 11Cacetate (AC) PET/ CT in prostate cancer patients with long term biochemical and clinical remission after curative radiation therapy (RT). Methods and Materials: Twenty patients underwent MRI studies including T2-weighted, diffusion weighted, dynamic contrast-enhanced, and spectroscopic imaging. Nine of these patients were selected to have FCH and 10 AC PET/CT studies.
Characterization and source apportionment of organic aerosol at 260 m on a meteorological tower in Beijing, China

Abstract. Despite extensive efforts toward the characterization of submicron aerosols at ground level in the megacity of Beijing, our understanding of aerosol sources and processes at high altitudes remains low. Here we conducted a 3-month real-time measurement of non-refractory submicron aerosol (NR- PM1 ) species at a height of 260 m from 10 October 2014 to 18 January 2015 using an aerosol chemical speciation monitor. Our results showed a significant change in aerosol composition from the non-heating period (NHP) to the heating period (HP). Organics and chloride showed clear increases during HP due to coal combustion emissions, while nitrate showed substantial decreases from 28 to 15–18 %. We also found that NR- PM1 species in the heating season can have average mass differences of 30–44 % under similar emission sources yet different meteorological conditions. Multi-linear engine 2 (ME-2) using three primary organic aerosol (OA) factors as constraints, i.e., fossil-fuel-related OA (FFOA) dominantly from coal combustion emissions, cooking OA (COA), and biomass burning OA (BBOA) resolved from ground high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometer measurements, was applied to OA mass spectra of ACSM. Two types of secondary OA (SOA) that were well correlated with nitrate and chloride–CO, respectively, were identified. SOA played a dominant role in OA during all periods at 260 m although the contributions were decreased from 72 % during NHP to 58–64 % during HP. The SOA composition also changed significantly from NHP to HP. While the contribution of oxygenated OA (OOA) was decreased from 56–63 to 32–40 %, less oxidized OOA (LO-OOA) showed a large increase from 9–16 to 24–26 %. COA contributed a considerable fraction of OA at high altitude, and the contribution was relatively similar across different periods (10–13 %). In contrast, FFOA showed a large increase during HP due to the influences of coal combustion emissions. We also observed very different OA composition between ground level and 260 m . Particularly, the contributions of COA and BBOA at the ground site were nearly twice those at 260 m , while SOA at 260 m was ∼ 15–34 % higher than that at ground level. Bivariate polar plots and back-trajectory analysis further illustrated the different source regions of OA factors in different seasons.
FURTHER RESULTS INVOLVING THE MIT ORDER AND THE IMIT CLASS

The purpose of this article is to study several preservation properties of the mean inactivity time order under the reliability operations of convolution, mixture, and shock models. In that context, the increasing mean inactivity time class of lifetime distributions is characterized by means of right spread order and increasing convex order. Some applications in reliability theory are described. Finally, a new test of such a class is discussed.
AN ULTRA-FAINT GALAXY CANDIDATE DISCOVERED IN EARLY DATA FROM THE MAGELLANIC SATELLITES SURVEY

We report a new ultra-faint stellar system found in Dark Energy Camera data from the first observing run of the Magellanic Satellites Survey (MagLiteS). MagLiteS J0644−5953 (Pictor II or Pic II) is a low surface brightness ( within its half-light radius) resolved overdensity of old and metal-poor stars located at a heliocentric distance of . The physical size ( ) and low luminosity ( ) of this satellite are consistent with the locus of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-faint galaxies. MagLiteS J0644−5953 (Pic II) is located from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and comparisons with simulation results in the literature suggest that this satellite was likely accreted with the LMC. The close proximity of MagLiteS J0644−5953 (Pic II) to the LMC also makes it the most likely ultra-faint galaxy candidate to still be gravitationally bound to the LMC.
Implementation of optimized cost, Load andService monitoring for Grid Computing

Managing resources and smartly valuation them on computing systems may be a difficult task. Resource sharing demands careful load leveling and sometimes strives to attain a win-win state of affairs between resource suppliers and users. Toward this goal, we consider a joint treatment of load leveling and valuation. we have a tendency to don't assume static valuation to see load leveling, or the other way around. Instead, we have a tendency to study the link between the worth that a computing node is charged and therefore the load and revenue that it receives. We find that there exists associate degree optimum worth that maximizes the revenue. we have a tendency to then contemplate a multi-user surroundings and explore however the load from a user is balanced on processors with existing hundreds. Finally, we have a tendency to derive associate degree optimum worth that maximizes the revenue in the multi-user surroundings. we have a tendency to appraise the performance of the papered algorithms through simulations.
An Attributional Analysis of the Rejection of Information Technology

The major relationships depicted by attributional models of the process by which individuals accept or reject new information technologies were tested with path analyses in a field setting. The results confirmed that attributions regarding ability were directly related to efficacy expectations, whereas attributions regarding task difficulty and effort were related to outcome expectations. The results further confirmed that both efficacy and outcome expectations were directly related to outcomes including both job performance and end-user satisfaction. In addition, the research showed how attributions affected outcome measures indirectly through expectations.
Feedback from active galactic nuclei: energy- versus momentum-driving

We employ hydrodynamical simulations using the moving-mesh code AREPO to investigate the role of energy and momentum input from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in driving large-scale galactic outflows. We start by reproducing analytic solutions for both energy- and momentum-driven outflowing shells in simulations of a spherical isolated dark matter potential with gas in hydrostatic equilibrium and with no radiative cooling. We confirm that for this simplified setup, galactic outflows driven by a momentum input rate of order L_Edd/c can establish an M_BH - sigma relation with slope and normalisation similar to that observed. We show that momentum input at a rate of L_Edd/c is however insufficient to drive efficient outflows once cooling and gas inflows as predicted by cosmological simulations at resolved scales are taken into account. We argue that observed large-scale AGN-driven outflows are instead likely to be energy-driven and show that such outflows can reach momentum fluxes exceeding 10 L_Edd/c within the innermost 10 kpc of the galaxy. The outflows are highly anisotropic, with outflow rates and a velocity structure found to be inadequately described by spherical outflow models. We verify that the hot energy-driven outflowing gas is expected to be strongly affected by metal-line cooling, leading to significant amounts (>10^9 M_sun) of entrained cold gas.