PES Celebration

Students reflect on a project that was to engage students to showcase a practical events module in order to celebrate the achievements of the events management students and attract clients to consider commissioning the students to manage events for them for the following academic years

Predictive Entropy Search for Efficient Global Optimization of Black-box Functions

We propose a novel information-theoretic approach for Bayesian optimization called Predictive Entropy Search (PES). At each iteration, PES selects the next evaluation point that maximizes the expected information gained with respect to the global maximum. PES codifies this intractable acquisition function in terms of the expected reduction in the differential entropy of the predictive distribution. This reformulation allows PES to obtain approximations that are both more accurate and efficient than other alternatives such as Entropy Search (ES). Furthermore, PES can easily perform a fully Bayesian treatment of the model hyperparameters while ES cannot. We evaluate PES in both synthetic and real-world applications, including optimization problems in machine learning, finance, biotechnology, and robotics. We show that the increased accuracy of PES leads to significant gains in optimization performance

Payments for Environmental Services: Some Nuts and Bolts

Payments for environmental services (PES) are part of a new and more direct conservation paradigm, explicitly recognizing the need to bridge the interests of landowners and outsiders. Eloquent theoretical assessments have praised the absolute advantages of PES over traditional conservation approaches. Some pilot PES exist in the tropics, but many fi eld practitioners and prospective service buyers and sellers remain skeptical about the concept. This paper aims to help demystify PES for non-economists, starting with a simple and coherent defi nition of the term. It then provides practical 'how-to' hints for PES design. It considers the likely niche for PES in the portfolio of conservation approaches. This assessment is based on a literature review, combined with fi eld observations from research in Latin America and Asia. It concludes that service users will continue to drive PES, but their willingness to pay will only rise if schemes can demonstrate clear additionality vis-à-vis carefully established baselines, if trust-building processes with service providers are sustained, and PES recipients' livelihood dynamics is better understood. PES best suits intermediate and/or projected threat scenarios, often in marginal lands with moderate conservation opportunity costs. People facing credible but medium-sized environmental degradation are more likely to become PES recipients than those living in relative harmony with Nature. The choice between PES cash and in-kind payments is highly context-dependent. Poor PES recipients are likely to gain from participation, though their access might be constrained and non-participating landless poor could lose out. PES is a highly promising conservation approach that can benefi t buyers, sellers and improv

Determinants of the intention to use performance-enhancing substances among Portuguese gym users

The present study examined the determinants of the intentions to use prohibited performance- enhancing substances (PES) and the hypothesis of gender and PES use influencing Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) variables. A TPB approach was used. A convenience sample of Portuguese gym users (n = 453) completed an anonymous web-based survey. Variance-based structural equation modeling, multigroup analysis strategy, latent mean analysis approach and one-way ANOVA analysis were used. The findings showed that, at structural level, results support the TPB framework in terms of characterizing and predicting intentions to PES use in the gym users sample, and that subjective norms were the strongest predictor of PES use intentions. Female and male differed in intentions to use PES, subjective norms and beliefs. However, the predictive model in study remains invariable in both groups. Concerning PES use, results showed the existence of a significant difference, regarding all the TPB´s constructs of the PES users and nonusers’ groups, and that the predictive capacity of each predictor was different for each group. Psychological strategies should be based on subjective norms, alongside beliefs and attitudes towards PES use, since these variables influence the intention to use PES in that particular population

Ion exchange membranes based upon crosslinked sulfonated polyethersulfone for electrochemical applications

Synthesis and characterization of new ion exchange membranes made from chlorosulfonated polyethersul- fone (SO2Cl-PES) crosslinked by polyaminated crosslinking reagents have been performed. Two examples are described: one crosslinked by hexane diamine, the other by amino-polyethersulfone (NH2-PES). Sulfonated polyether sulfone (S-PES) and NH2-PES have similar chemical structures that allow compatibility. Surpris- ingly enough, better results were obtained using amino-polyethersulfone. The best results have been obtained using SO2Cl-PES with 1.3 SO2Cl group per monomer unit crosslinked by 0.2 equivalent of NH2-PES. The membranes, less brittle than pristine SPES and insoluble in solvents such as DMAc, were characterized by TGA, DMA, DSC, ionic conductivity, transport numbers, and water swelling. The results showed that these membranes presented very promising performances for use in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Laying the Foundation: An Analytical Tool for Assessing Legal and Institutional Readiness for PES

This booklet has been created as an initial resource for public sector officials interested in fostering an environment in which PES transactions can occur. While PES legal and policy readiness is likely to look very different from one country to another -- depending on legal frameworks, as well as historical and current circumstances and pressures -- understanding policy options for getting ready for PES transactions is an important first step towards assessing readiness within a specific national and subnational context.This booklet offers an analytical framework for assessing legal and institutional readiness for PES transactions. It is divided into three sections based on timing and the order of addressing issues, with an eye to what will be most important to investors and buyers in payment for ecosystem services agreements. Specifically, the first level of preparing for PES agreements should be ensuring that fundamental or threshold conditions are in place for buyers to feel that there is sufficient stability in place to consider entering in these business arrangements. The second level of preparedness, while important for well-functioning PES, may be developed adaptively as needs and options become clearer via PES experience on the ground. Finally, level three includes non-urgent aspects that may be important to streamline or scale up PES, depending on the particular circumstances

Market-based Approaches to Environmental Management: A Review of Lessons from Payment for Environmental Services in Asia

Market-based approaches to environmental management, such as payment for environmental services (PES), have attracted unprecedented attention during the past decade. PES policies, in particular, have emerged to realign private and social benefits such as internalizing ecological externalities and diversifying sources of conservation funding as well as making conservation an attractive land-use paradigm. In this paper, we review several case studies from Asia on payment for environmental services to understand how landowners decide to participate in PES schemes. The analysis demonstrates the significance of four major elements facilitating the adoption and implementation of PES schemes: property rights and tenure security, transaction costs, household and community characteristics, communications, and the availability of PES-related information. PES schemes should target win-win options through intervention in these areas, aimed at maintaining the provision of ecological services and improving the conditions for local inhabitants

Suppressing Roughness of Virtual Times in Parallel Discrete-Event Simulations

In a parallel discrete-event simulation (PDES) scheme, tasks are distributed among processing elements (PEs), whose progress is controlled by a synchronization scheme. For lattice systems with short-range interactions, the progress of the conservative PDES scheme is governed by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation from the theory of non-equilibrium surface growth. Although the simulated (virtual) times of the PEs progress at a nonzero rate, their standard deviation (spread) diverges with the number of PEs, hindering efficient data collection. We show that weak random interactions among the PEs can make this spread nondivergent. The PEs then progress at a nonzero, near-uniform rate without requiring global synchronizations

E(5), X(5), and Prolate to Oblate Shape Phase Transitions in Relativistic Hartree Bogoliubov Theory

Relativistic mean field theory with the NL3 force is used for producing potential energy surfaces (PES) for series of isotopes suggested as exhibiting critical point symmetries. Relatively flat PES are obtained for nuclei showing the E(5) symmetry, while in nuclei corresponding to the X(5) case, PES with a bump are obtained. The PES corresponding to the Pt chain of isotopes suggest a transition from prolate to oblate shapes at 186-Pt.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, including 14 .eps figure

The different dimensions of livelihood impacts of Payments for Environmentals Services (PES) schemes: A systematic review

Through a systematic review of peer-reviewed and grey literature, this paper analyzes evidence of the livelihood impacts of Payments for Environmental Services (PES). Forty-six studies assessed PES livelihood impacts. The assessments presented more positive livelihood impacts than negative ones, focusing on financial benefits. Non-monetary and non-material impacts of PES were largely understudied. Most reviews focused on ES providers, hindering the understanding of broader societal impacts. The review yielded examples where participants lost from their participation or where improvements in one livelihood dimension paralleled deterioration in another. Consequently, we identified key research gaps in: i) understanding the social and cultural impacts of PES, ii) evaluating environmental and economic additionality from improving other ES at the expense of cultural ones, iii) and assessing PES impacts in terms of trade-offs between multiple livelihood dimensions. Moreover, increased knowledge is needed on the impact of PES on changes in household expenditure and choice, and on trade-offs between household income and inequality in ES provider communities. Finally, if PES schemes are implemented to sustainably improve livelihoods, targeting disaggregated populations, understanding equity and social power relations within and between ES providers and users, and better monitoring and evaluation systems that consider locally relevant livelihood dimensions are needed