The Future of Natural Gas in China: Effects of Pricing Reform and Climate Policy

China is currently attempting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase natural gas consumption as a part of broader national strategies to reduce the air pollution impacts of the nation’s energy system. To assess the scenarios of natural gas development up to 2050, we employ a global energy-economic model—the MIT Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model. The results show that a cap-and-trade policy will enable China to achieve its climate mitigation goals, but will also reduce natural gas consumption. An integrated policy that uses a part of the carbon revenue obtained from the cap-and-trade system to subsidize natural gas use promotes natural gas consumption, resulting in a further reduction in coal use relative to the cap-and-trade policy case. The integrated policy has a very moderate welfare cost; however, it reduces air pollution and allows China to achieve both the climate objective and the natural gas promotion objective.The Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change is funded by a consortium of Federal awards and industrial and foundation sponsors (for the complete list see: http://globalchange.mit.edu/sponsors/all). Support from the U.S. Federal Government in the past three years was received from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science under grants DE-FG02-94ER61937, DE-SC0007114, DE-FG02-08ER64597; the U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory under subcontract 4000109855; the U.S. Department of Agriculture under grant 58-6000-2-0099; the U.S. Energy Information Administration under grant DE-EI0001908; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under grants XA-83505101-0, XA-83600001-1, and RD-83427901-0; the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration under agreement 09-C-NE-MIT; the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration under grants NNX13AH91A, NNX11AN72G, and sub-awards 4103-60255 and 4103-30368; the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory under grant UGA-0-41029-15; the U.S. National Science Foundation under grants OCE-1434007, IIS-1028163, EF-1137306, AGS-1216707, ARC-1203526, AGS-1339264 , AGS-0944121, and sub-awards UTA08.950 and 1211086Z1; the U.S. Department of Transportation under grant DTRT57-10-C-10015; and the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under grant NA13OAR4310084

Improved production of chlorogenic acid from cell suspension cultures of Lonicera macranthoids

Purpose: To evaluate the potential of Lonicera macranthoides Hand. -Mazz. Yulei1 suspension culture system for enhanced production of the main secondary metabolite, chlorogenic acid.Methods: The callus of L. macranthoides Hand.-Mazz. “Yulei1” was suspension cultured in B5 liquid medium supplemented with different plant growth regulators. Biomass accumulation was calculated by weight method and chlorogenic acid production was measured using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). HPLC was carried out on C18 analytical column at 35 °C and the detection wavelength was set at 324 nm.Results: The results showed that maximum accumulation of biomass and chlorogenic acid were achieved 15 days after culture growth. The optimized conditions for biomass accumulation and chlorogenic acid production were 50 g/L of inoculum on fresh weight basis, B5 medium supplemented with plant growth regulators, 30 - 40 g/L sucrose and initial medium pH of 5.5. Maximum accumulation of chlorogenic acid and biomass were observed when the culture medium was supplemented with 2.0 mg/L6-BA. Optimal accumulation of chlorogenic acid was observed using combination of hormones 2.0 mg/L 6-Benzyladenine (BA) + 0.5 mg/L2, 4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), while optimal accumulation of biomass was observed with 2.0 mg/L 6-BA + 2.0 mg/L2, 4-D. In addition, phenylalanine also contributed to the synthesis of chlorogenic acid at a concentration > 50 mg/L.Conclusion: Cell suspension cultures of L. macranthoides Hand.-Mazz. “Yulei1” have successfully been established. The findings provide a potential basis for large scale production of chlorogenic acid using cell suspension cultures of L. macranthoides.Keywords: Lonicera macranthoides, Cell suspension culture, Chlorogenic acid, Phenylalanine, Optimizatio

AdaTT: Adaptive Task-to-Task Fusion Network for Multitask Learning in Recommendations

Multi-task learning (MTL) aims at enhancing the performance and efficiency of machine learning models by training them on multiple tasks simultaneously. However, MTL research faces two challenges: 1) modeling the relationships between tasks to effectively share knowledge between them, and 2) jointly learning task-specific and shared knowledge. In this paper, we present a novel model Adaptive Task-to-Task Fusion Network (AdaTT) to address both challenges. AdaTT is a deep fusion network built with task specific and optional shared fusion units at multiple levels. By leveraging a residual mechanism and gating mechanism for task-to-task fusion, these units adaptively learn shared knowledge and task specific knowledge. To evaluate the performance of AdaTT, we conduct experiments on a public benchmark and an industrial recommendation dataset using various task groups. Results demonstrate AdaTT can significantly outperform existing state-of-the-art baselines

NTU4DRadLM: 4D Radar-centric Multi-Modal Dataset for Localization and Mapping

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is moving towards a robust perception age. However, LiDAR- and visual- SLAM may easily fail in adverse conditions (rain, snow, smoke and fog, etc.). In comparison, SLAM based on 4D Radar, thermal camera and IMU can work robustly. But only a few literature can be found. A major reason is the lack of related datasets, which seriously hinders the research. Even though some datasets are proposed based on 4D radar in past four years, they are mainly designed for object detection, rather than SLAM. Furthermore, they normally do not include thermal camera. Therefore, in this paper, NTU4DRadLM is presented to meet this requirement. The main characteristics are: 1) It is the only dataset that simultaneously includes all 6 sensors: 4D radar, thermal camera, IMU, 3D LiDAR, visual camera and RTK GPS. 2) Specifically designed for SLAM tasks, which provides fine-tuned ground truth odometry and intentionally formulated loop closures. 3) Considered both low-speed robot platform and fast-speed unmanned vehicle platform. 4) Covered structured, unstructured and semi-structured environments. 5) Considered both middle- and large- scale outdoor environments, i.e., the 6 trajectories range from 246m to 6.95km. 6) Comprehensively evaluated three types of SLAM algorithms. Totally, the dataset is around 17.6km, 85mins, 50GB and it will be accessible from this link: https://github.com/junzhang2016/NTU4DRadLMComment: 2023 IEEE International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC 2023

FABRICATION TECHNIQUES FOR GEOMETRICALLY-COMPLEX AND MULTI-MATERIAL STRUCTURES BY CERAMICS ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (FOE

The EU-Canada CETA and the diversity of cultural industries: hegemony or resistance

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), between Canada and the European Union (EU), was leaked to the public opinion in August 2014 after five years of negotiations. The consolidated CETA text was not released until the end of last September, raising deeper issues about the secrecy and democratic deficit surrounding the agreement. As some have already noted (notably civil society organizations), this treaty is about much more than trade. Even though the preamble states that it aims to streghthen though the preamble states that it though the preamble states though that the preamble states that it aims to strengthen economic relationships, the text includes an explicit reference to the commitments of both Parties to the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions andunderlies their right to preserve, develop and implement their cultural policies, and to support their cultural industries for the purpose of strengthening the diversity of cultural expressions and preserving their cultural identity (including the use of regulatory measures and financial support). Beyond these intentions enunciated in the preamble, there are only five chapters containing articles exempting culture (Subsidies, Investment, Cross--‐ Border Trade in Services, Domestic Regulation and Government Procurement). Therefore, the text lacks a general exception clause protecting culture. The question about the capacity of this free trade agreement to actually protect and promote the diversity of culture is therefore valid because, for example, whereas for the EU the exception applies only to audiovisual services, for Canada it covers all Cultural industries (as usually defined in its trade agreements). Is this a missed opportunity for both Canada and the EU to safeguard culture from trade, to reconcile rules of free trade and cultural policies? Can the inclusion of the UNESCO Convention in the CETA text help counterbalance and resist those of free trade that undermine necessary and legitimate cultural policies and regulations aiming to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions? This contribution will aim to explore answers to these questions taking the consolidated CETA text as a point of departure. After providing contextual information about the agreement itself and its evolution, key points concerning cultural exemptions will be examined with a political economy perspective to clarify up to what extent there will be room for manoeuvre to political actually protect and promote the diversity of cultural industries.This work is based on research undertaken for the project ‘Diversity of the Audiovisual Industry in the Digital Age’ [CSO2014-­‐52354R], supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness within the National Programme Aimed at the Challenges of Society

Practical iterative learning control with frequency domain design and sampled data implementation

This book is on the iterative learning control (ILC) with focus on the design and implementation. We approach the ILC design based on the frequency domain analysis and address the ILC implementation based on the sampled data methods. This is the first book of ILC from frequency domain and sampled data methodologies. The frequency domain design methods offer ILC users insights to the convergence performance which is of practical benefits. This book presents a comprehensive framework with various methodologies to ensure the learnable bandwidth in the ILC system to be set with a balance between learning performance and learning stability. The sampled data implementation ensures effective execution of ILC in practical dynamic systems. The presented sampled data ILC methods also ensure the balance of performance and stability of learning process. Furthermore, the presented theories and methodologies are tested with an ILC controlled robotic system. The experimental results show that the machines can work in much higher accuracy than a feedback control alone can offer. With the proposed ILC algorithms, it is possible that machines can work to their hardware design limits set by sensors and actuators. The target audience for this book includes scientists, engineers and practitioners involved in any systems with repetitive operations

Multirate repetitive control for PWM DC/AC converters

In this paper, a multirate repetitive control (RC) scheme is developed and applied to constant-voltage constant-frequency pulsewidth modulation converter systems. In this scheme, the converter has a fast sampling rate, while the repetitive controller has a reduced sampling rate. The learning is based on the downsampled input and error signals in previous periods. The multirate RC synthesis method, as well as its convergence and stability conditions, is discussed in detail. Systematic experiments are also carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of multirate RC. Experimental results show that, with a well-designed multirate RC, the total harmonic distortion can be very low. This approach can reduce the computation delay caused by the plug-in RC in each switching control period and will enhance the system stability. Consequently, the switching control frequency of the converter can be increased to compensate the control performance loss. This approach is suitable for design of cost-effective and flexible converter control systems