Putting a Floor on Energy Savings: Comparing State Energy Efficiency Resource Standards

Energy efficiency resource standards (EERS) refer to policies that require utilities and other covered entities to achieve quantitative goals for reducing energy use by a certain year. EERS policies generally apply to electricity and natural gas sales and electricity peak demand, though they also cover other energy sources in Europe. Our study aggregates information about the requirements of existing EERS policies for electricity sales in the United States. We convert quantitative goals into comparable terms to compare the nominal stringency of EERS programs across states. EERS programs also differ in their nonquantitative requirements, including flexibility measures, measurement and verification programs, and penalties and positive incentives. We compare the U.S. policies to similar policies in the European Union and discuss important policy issues, including exogenous changes in fuel prices and issues with utility management of energy efficiency programs.energy efficiency, electricity, energy efficiency resource standards, state regulation

Circulation, frontières, mobilités séfarades à l’époque moderne

Les notions de frontière et de circulation figurent au cœur de toute problématique d’histoire des séfarades à l’époque moderne. Elles renvoient tout d’abord au thème de la migration, indissociable de la genèse de cette diaspora inaugurée par un exil forcé de péninsule ibérique, et prolongée du xvie au xviiiesiècle, selon des temporalités et des flux de débit variables, par une émigration de nouveaux-chrétiens, dans la direction continuée de l’espace méditerranéen, puis avec un infléchissement..

Réseaux intercommunautaires et communication dans la diaspora séfarade et le monde juif moderne

Évelyne Oliel-Grausz, professeur agrégée Un premier cycle de conférences avait proposé une approche des sociétés juives modernes en rupture avec les lectures monographiques traditionnelles, centrée sur l’étude des flux, des circuits et des réseaux, avec pour objet la diaspora séfarade d’Occident dans un espace s’étendant de Livourne aux établissements du Nouveau Monde, dans un cadre chronologique embrassant les XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Nous avions dessiné un portrait des aires de relation et ..

Relations, réseaux intercommunautaires et communication dans la diaspora séfarade et le monde juif moderne

Évelyne Oliel-Grausz, professeur agrégée Nous nous proposions d’approcher les sociétés juives modernes en nous démarquant des lectures monographiques habituelles, et en prenant pour objet la diaspora judéo-portugaise dite d’Occident, de Livourne jusqu’aux établissements du Nouveau Monde. Nous avons abordé le premier volet de cette enquête, centré sur l’idée de mobilité et de circulation. Circulation des modèles institutionnels durant les phases successives de gestation des communautés de cett..

Histoire intellectuelle des techniques (XVIIIe-XXe siècle)

Liliane Perez, directrice d’étudesJean Baumgarten, directeur de recherche au CNRSÉvelyne Oliel-Grausz, maître de conférences à l’Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne Histoire économique des Juifs à l’époque moderne : archives, pratiques et réseaux marchands (Europe, empires) Compte rendu non communiqu

Lucy's Flat Feet: The Relationship between the Ankle and Rearfoot Arching in Early Hominins

BACKGROUND. In the Plio-Pleistocene, the hominin foot evolved from a grasping appendage to a stiff, propulsive lever. Central to this transition was the development of the longitudinal arch, a structure that helps store elastic energy and stiffen the foot during bipedal locomotion. Direct evidence for arch evolution, however, has been somewhat elusive given the failure of soft-tissue to fossilize. Paleoanthropologists have relied on footprints and bony correlates of arch development, though little consensus has emerged as to when the arch evolved. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS. Here, we present evidence from radiographs of modern humans (n=261) that the set of the distal tibia in the sagittal plane, henceforth referred to as the tibial arch angle, is related to rearfoot arching. Non-human primates have a posteriorly directed tibial arch angle, while most humans have an anteriorly directed tibial arch angle. Those humans with a posteriorly directed tibial arch angle (8%) have significantly lower talocalcaneal and talar declination angles, both measures of an asymptomatic flatfoot. Application of these results to the hominin fossil record reveals that a well developed rearfoot arch had evolved in Australopithecus afarensis. However, as in humans today, Australopithecus populations exhibited individual variation in foot morphology and arch development, and "Lucy" (A.L. 288-1), a 3.18 Myr-old female Australopithecus, likely possessed asymptomatic flat feet. Additional distal tibiae from the Plio-Pleistocene show variation in tibial arch angles, including two early Homo tibiae that also have slightly posteriorly directed tibial arch angles. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE. This study finds that the rearfoot arch was present in the genus Australopithecus. However, the female Australopithecus afarensis "Lucy" has an ankle morphology consistent with non-pathological flat-footedness. This study suggests that, as in humans today, there was variation in arch development in Plio-Pleistocene hominins.Leakey Foundatio

Gene Network Disruptions and Neurogenesis Defects in the Adult Ts1Cje Mouse Model of Down Syndrome

Background: Down syndrome (DS) individuals suffer mental retardation with further cognitive decline and early onset Alzheimer's disease. Methodology/Principal Findings: To understand how trisomy 21 causes these neurological abnormalities we investigated changes in gene expression networks combined with a systematic cell lineage analysis of adult neurogenesis using the Ts1Cje mouse model of DS. We demonstrated down regulation of a number of key genes involved in proliferation and cell cycle progression including Mcm7, Brca2, Prim1, Cenpo and Aurka in trisomic neurospheres. We found that trisomy did not affect the number of adult neural stem cells but resulted in reduced numbers of neural progenitors and neuroblasts. Analysis of differentiating adult Ts1Cje neural progenitors showed a severe reduction in numbers of neurons produced with a tendency for less elaborate neurites, whilst the numbers of astrocytes was increased. Conclusions/Significance: We have shown that trisomy affects a number of elements of adult neurogenesis likely to result in a progressive pathogenesis and consequently providing the potential for the development of therapies to slow progression of, or even ameliorate the neuronal deficits suffered by DS individuals.Chelsee A. Hewitt, King-Hwa Ling, Tobias D. Merson, Ken M. Simpson, Matthew E. Ritchie, Sarah L. King, Melanie A. Pritchard, Gordon K. Smyth, Tim Thomas, Hamish S. Scott and Anne K. Vos

La surveillance des négociants de passage : les juifs de signal à Lisbonne au XVIIIe siècle

International audienc

Dispute Resolution and Kahal Kadosh Talmud Torah: Community Forum and Legal Acculturation in Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam

International audienc

Log Analyzer for IoT Applications

Internet of Things applications touch numerous facets of our lives with a great potential for exponential growth. This implies the rapid growth of the amount of newly generated and collected data. Consequently, the demand to have immediate insights into the data and to turn this immense amount of generated data into valuable information increases simultaneously. In the world of IoT networking, most devices are connected to the internet and realize machine to machine (M2M) communication amongst themselves. A sensor or machine sends recorded data to the application software that processes the data for further usage. In most cases, all the steps or events occurring in an IoT system are recorded and gathered in log files. One possible approach to turn data into actionable insights and these insights into value is to analyze historical data produced by IoT applications, such as log files. This thesis presents a Log Analyzer for IoT applications with the use of stochastic methods. The log file entries of an IoT application can be considered as a collection of process step variations, so-called sub-sequences. This thesis presents an approach to find remarkable deviations between the analyzed sub-sequences and compare sub-sequences according to different similarity measures. In addition, an approach to visualize a graphical model of the underlying dynamic process, which represents a well-defined probabilistic model showing sets and exact sequences of states, is presented