Quality Assurance of CO2 from Natural Gas Source For the SPRUCE Experiment

The goal of the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment project, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is to observe and assess ecological responses of peatland ecosystems to increased temperatures and elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Control plots are maintained at ambient temperatures and/or CO2 concentrations. Treatments are applied in a full factorial design; plots are warmed to +2.25, +4.5, +6.75, and +9oC and exposed to an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 800 to 900 ppm. These parameters are set to reflect projected temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels in the next century. The source for the CO2 that is added comes from natural gas, a fossil fuel, which is depleted in 13C and 14C. New CO2 source tanks are delivered one to two times a week. We wanted to make sure the CO2 was consistently coming from natural gas and not other sources. We measured the δ13C and Δ14C of mixed ambient and elevated CO2 in treatment plots and ambient CO2 in control plots. Using the δ13C and Δ14C for mixed (treatment) and ambient (control) atmospheric CO2, we were able to calculate δ13C and Δ14C for elevated CO2. We found that the CO2 source consistently comes from natural gas

Un dramma satiresco in latino. Il Ciclope nell\u2019Italia del Cinquecento

This article is concerned with an artistic Latin translation of Euripides\u2019 Cyclops, which was published in 1556 by the Calabrian humanist Coriolano Martirano (1503-1557). It illustrates the way in which Euripides\u2019 text is reworked in the broader context of the reception of the satirical drama in sixteenth-century Italy. An analysis of the work shows that Martirano intervenes on the text, modifying and integrating it, not only under the influence of other ancient sources dedicated to the figure of the cyclops, ranging from Homer to Ovid and from Theocritus to Virgil, but also in a dialogue with the Neo-Latin and vernacular production that other exponents of Calabrian humanism, such as Antonio Telesio and Coriolano\u2019s brother Bernardino, dedicated to the cyclops in the 1520s and 1530s

Nowcasting Indian GDP

We propose a nowcasting model for the Indian real GDP growth rate which uses the flow of relevant information to update predictions on a daily basis and can serve as a timely barometer to track the Indian development process. There are several challenges faced when nowcasting GDP in developing economies such as India. The first challenge is to proxy important missing variables such as international trade in the service sector. Our novel solution augments a baseline model with series on US and Euro-area output which improves predictions, particularly during the 2008-2009 global crisis. The second challenge is the impact of sizeable revisions to the GDP data. We construct a new series for real-time Indian GDP using press releases from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), finding that data revisions have a non-trivial influence on our results. Therefore, caution should be taken when evaluating predictions using the preliminary GDP release

Multivariate Transvariation Analysis and Currency Crises

The aim of this paper is to understand currency crises by selecting the macroeconomic fundamentals with a high predictive power, defining the latter as the variable ability of discriminating between two groups of countries: the sound and the distressed. We consider a sample of over one hundred countries which experienced a currency crash, following Frankel and Rose (1996) and we apply the statistical methodology, transvariation analysis, which measures the amount of overlap between the distributions of the sound and the distressed countries. The result of this methodology is a ranking of the groups of variables who tend to better distinguish the two groups. In order to test the informative power of the selected indicators, we calculate the leave one out predictive error using a transvariation based linear discriminant function. Our results seem to outperform Frankel and Rose (1996) probit analysis

Cicerone nella Controriforma. Girolamo Ragazzoni umanista e vescovo

In the history of Cicero\u2019s fortune, the age of the Counter-Reformation is not a specifically examinated period, despite the presence of the orator being fundamental in the education of many of the protagonists of Catholic renovation and essential in the new didactic system for a better qualified clergy. This article is intended to highlight Cicero\u2019s central role in such a delicate historical phase, focusing in particular on the example of Girolamo Ragazzoni (around 1537-1592), who commented on the Epistulae ad Familiares and vulgarised the Filippiche; as a young humanist in close contact with Paolo Manuzio and Carlo Sigonio, he will take part in the Council, holding its final oration, to later become Bishop of Bergamo in 1577: there, in collaboration with Carlo Borromeo, he will reveal himself as one of the most diligent agents of the reformation within the Church, especially in the pedagogical and scholastic sector

Optimal Inflation Weights for EU Countries

What is the appropriate stabilization goal of monetary policy in the Euro Area? We would like to answer this question considering ten Euro Area countries, heterogeneous in the degree of price stickiness, affected by asymmetric real disturbances both on the demand and the supply side. According to the academic literature, in this environment, the optimal target is an asymmetric price index in which higher weight is given to the region where the level of price stickiness is higher. This paper has the aim of verifying this result in a more realistic European setting in which we consider a multi-region model and we use the country micro data on price stickiness

Consequential Life Cycle Optimization: General Conceptual Framework and Application to Algal Renewable Diesel Production

Life cycle optimization (LCO) enables static life cycle analysis (LCA) and techno-economic analysis to be performed dynamically for automatic generation and optimization of process alternatives. Existing LCO models are developed following an attributional LCA approach, which overlooks the environmental consequences in response to the changes in the market. In this study, we develop a consequential LCO framework that simultaneously optimizes consequential environmental impacts and economic performance. We propose a general system boundary that encloses processes linked by markets. On the basis of the general system boundary, we develop a multiobjective optimization model, which integrates process models and market models with the tenets of consequential LCA and techno-economic analysis methodologies. To efficiently solve the resulting nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem, a global optimization algorithm is proposed to integrate the inexact parametric algorithm and the branch-and-refine algorithm. The application of the proposed framework is illustrated through a case study of producing renewable diesel from microalgae. We conduct detailed market analysis to identify the consequences associated with the renewable diesel production process. The environmental impacts of the optimal process designs based on the proposed consequential LCO framework are significantly lower than those based on the existing attributional LCO framework

Now-casting the Japanese Economy

This paper proposes a formal statistical framework for the real-time monitoring of current economic conditions in Japan. We identify the ‘market moving’ indicators that are monitored constantly by market participants, statistical offices, newspapers, and policy makers. This results in the selection of around 30 variables. We track the release calendar and use vintages of real-time data in order to reconstruct the exact same information set that was available at the time when the forecasts were made. These variables are used to estimate a dynamic factor model (DFM) which is updated continuously at each new data release over a historical period of 11 years. Our results show that the proposed now-casting model tracks GDP realizations well throughout the evaluation period. The forecasts produced by the sophisticated yet transparent model are comparable with both the markets and the professional forecasts

Tra Aristotele e Orazio. L’esegesi dell’Ars poetica nell’Italia tardo-cinquecentesca e il trattato di Ercole Manzoni (1604)

If, since the Renaissance, the 'Ars poetica' has known a widespread diffusion, as demonstrated by the huge number of its interpreters who supported different positions and views, it is however especially in the later Cinquecento, in the context of the Tridentine cultural reorganisation, that the reception of 'Ars poetica' is inextricably linked to the topical issues of the period, as the redefinition of poetry and its role in society. During the Counter-reformation, especially among the scholars educated at the Studio Padovano, the tendency to trace back Horace’s work to Aristotle’s 'Poetics' arose, in order to establish the authority of both of these masterpieces; this trend finds the most explicit theorisation in a commentary published in 1604 by Ercole Manzoni, a relatively unknown priest from Bergamo. This article aims at illustrating the ways used to assert and discuss the Aristotelian influence in the 'Ars poetica', showing the links between this topic and other aspects of the exegesis on Horace’s works

PDF-Based Heterogeneous Multiscale Filtration Model

Motivated by modeling of gasoline particulate filters (GPFs), a probability density function (PDF) based heterogeneous multiscale filtration (HMF) model is developed to calculate filtration efficiency of clean particulate filters. A new methodology based on statistical theory and classic filtration theory is developed in the HMF model. Based on the analysis of experimental porosimetry data, a pore size probability density function is introduced to represent heterogeneity and multiscale characteristics of the porous wall. The filtration efficiency of a filter can be calculated as the sum of the contributions of individual collectors. The resulting HMF model overcomes the limitations of classic mean filtration models which rely on tuning of the mean collector size. Sensitivity analysis shows that the HMF model recovers the classical mean model when the pore size variance is very small. The HMF model is validated by fundamental filtration experimental data from different scales of filter samples. The model shows a good agreement with experimental data at various operating conditions. The effects of the microstructure of filters on filtration efficiency as well as the most penetrating particle size are correctly predicted by the model