Life-Time Effects of the German Food Crisis: Earnings, Employment, and Retirement

Using German register data for the period between 1970 and 2010, this paper studies the labor market consequences of being born during the German food crisis after World War II. The paper finds that those born during the first half of 1946---about nine months after the period of most severe malnutrition---have significantly lower earnings than those born shortly before and after. The effect persists throughout their entire labor market careers, so that their total earnings losses accumulate to about one and a half year of average annual earnings. In addition, those affected by the malnutrition early in life have lower employment prospects and retire earlier. The paper provides novel insights to better understand how nutritional conditions early in life influence economic outcomes over the entire life course

Multi-Scale Variability Analysis of Wheat Straw-Based Ethanol Biorefineries Identifies Bioprocess Designs Robust Against Process Input Variations

Bioprocesses based on (ligno-)cellulosic biomass are highly prone to batch-to-batch variations. Varying raw material compositions and enzyme activities hamper the prediction of process yields, economic feasibility and environmental impacts. Commonly, these performance indicators are averaged over several experiments to select suitable process designs. The variabilities in performance indicators resulting from variable process inputs are often neglected, causing a risk for faulty performance predictions and poor process design choices during scale-up. In this paper, a multi-scale variability analysis framework is presented that quantifies the effects of process input variations on performance indicators. Using the framework, a kinetic model describing simultaneous saccharification and ethanol fermentation was integrated with a flowsheet process model, techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment in order to evaluate a wheat straw-based ethanol biorefinery. Hydrolytic activities reported in the literature for the enzyme cocktail Cellic\uae CTec2, ranging from 62 to 266 FPU\ub7mL−1, were used as inputs to the multi-scale model to compare the variability in performance indicators under batch and multi-feed operation for simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. Bioprocess simulations were stopped at ethanol productivities ≤0.1 g\ub7L−1\ub7h−1. The resulting spreads in process times, hydrolysis yields, and fermentation yields were incorporated into flowsheet, techno-economic and life cycle scales. At median enzymatic activities the payback time was 7%, equal to 0.6 years, shorter under multi-feed conditions. All other performance indicators showed insignificant differences. However, batch operation is simpler to control and well-established in industry. Thus, an analysis at median conditions might favor batch conditions despite the disadvantage in payback time. Contrary to median conditions, analyzing the input variability favored multi-feed operation due to a lower variability in all performance indicators. Variabilities in performance indicators were at least 50% lower under multi-feed operation. Counteracting the variability in enzymatic activities by adjusting the amount of added enzyme instead resulted in higher uncertainties in environmental impacts. The results show that the robustness of performance indicators against input variations must be considered during process development. Based on the multi-scale variability analysis process designs can be selected which deliver more precise performance indicators at multiple system levels

The phonon spectrum of the octagonal tiling

A study of the phonon spectrum of the octagonal tiling is presented, by calculating and analysing the properties of the spectrum of perfect and randomized commensurate approximants with unit cells containing up to 8119 vertices. The total density of states, obtained by numerical integration over the Brillouin zone, exhibits much structure, and in the low frequency range of the spectrum there is deviation from the normal linear behaviour in the form of pseudogaps. For randomized approximants these pseudogaps disappear and the density of states is globally smoothened. It turns out that the widths of the gaps in the dispersion vanish in the low frequency limit. Therefore the scaling behaviour of the lowest branches tends to the behaviour of an absolutely continuous spectrum, which is not the case at higher frequencies. As an application, the vibrational specific heat of the different tiling models is calculated and compared to the specific heat of a square lattice and of a Debye model

Lattice dynamics of 3-dimensional tilings modelling icosahedral quasicrystals

A study of the lattice dynamics of three-dimensional tilings modelling icosahedral quasicrystals is presented. The phonon density of states is calculated, and the character of the eigenstates is determined. Three different types of commensurate approximants are considered, namely symmetrized, perfect and randomized approximants. It appears that the density of states is smoothed by randomization. The participation ratio, which measures the rate of localization of an eigenmode, is given as a function of frequency. Only the states at the very upper end of the frequency spectrum appear to be localized, whereas all other states are extended. The density of states at low frequencies is analyzed in more detail, by applying a Brillouin zone integration over the lowest branches. It is found that these lowest branches scale for successive approximants

Nonequilibrium dynamics of urn models

Dynamical urn models, such as the Ehrenfest model, have played an important role in the early days of statistical mechanics. Dynamical many-urn models generalize the former models in two respects: the number of urns is macroscopic, and thermal effects are included. These many-urn models are exactly solvable in the mean-field geometry. They allow analytical investigations of the characteristic features of nonequilibrium dynamics referred to as aging, including the scaling of correlation and response functions in the two-time plane and the violation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. This review paper contains a general presentation of these models, as well as a more detailed description of two dynamical urn models, the backgammon model and the zeta urn model.Comment: 15 pages. Contribution to the Proceedings of the ESF SPHINX meeting `Glassy behaviour of kinetically constrained models' (Barcelona, March 22-25, 2001). To appear in a special issue of J. Phys. Cond. Mat

Quantum theta functions and Gabor frames for modulation spaces

Representations of the celebrated Heisenberg commutation relations in quantum mechanics and their exponentiated versions form the starting point for a number of basic constructions, both in mathematics and mathematical physics (geometric quantization, quantum tori, classical and quantum theta functions) and signal analysis (Gabor analysis). In this paper we try to bridge the two communities, represented by the two co--authors: that of noncommutative geometry and that of signal analysis. After providing a brief comparative dictionary of the two languages, we will show e.g. that the Janssen representation of Gabor frames with generalized Gaussians as Gabor atoms yields in a natural way quantum theta functions, and that the Rieffel scalar product and associativity relations underlie both the functional equations for quantum thetas and the Fundamental Identity of Gabor analysis.Comment: 38 pages, typos corrected, MSC class change

Response of non-equilibrium systems at criticality: Ferromagnetic models in dimension two and above

We study the dynamics of ferromagnetic spin systems quenched from infinite temperature to their critical point. We show that these systems are aging in the long-time regime, i.e., their two-time autocorrelation and response functions and associated fluctuation-dissipation ratio are non-trivial scaling functions of both time variables. This is exemplified by the exact analysis of the spherical model in any dimension D>2, and by numerical simulations on the two-dimensional Ising model. We show in particular that, for $1\ll s$ (waiting time) $\ll t$ (observation time), the fluctuation-dissipation ratio possesses a non-trivial limit value $X_\infty$, which appears as a dimensionless amplitude ratio, and is therefore a novel universal characteristic of non-equilibrium critical dynamics. For the spherical model, we obtain $X_\infty=1-2/D$ for 24 (mean-field regime). For the two-dimensional Ising model we measure $X_\infty\approx0.26\pm0.01$.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figure

Multi-scale uncertainty analysis – A tool to systematically consider variability in lignocellulosic bioethanol processes

Bioethanol production processes from lignocellulosic raw materials are highly prone to batch-to-batch variations. For example, raw material compositions and enzymatic activities required to release fermentable sugars from lignocellulose vary significantly between batches. To develop lignocellulosic biofuel processes and evaluate their performance regarding economics and sustainability consistently, tools are required to cope with this variability.\ua0In this presentation we will propose a multi-scale uncertainty analysis strategy to propagate input variability throughout system scales. In a first step, we use meta-data obtained from literature to define uncertainties in the process inputs. Utilizing these meta-data, uncertainty analysis is performed on a macro-kinetic model by sampling from the defined uncertain input space. The results of this uncertainty analysis are transferred to process simulations to analyze the impact of input uncertainties on the process mass- and energy balances, and on the economics of building this type of bioprocess. The generated data from process simulations (mass flows, energy integration, and economic data) are in the next step extracted and used as input to an environmental impact assessment of the process. This is done whilst keeping the simulation and systems modeling parameters constant, thus the input variability is propagated throughout the different system scales. The data generated in this integrated approach will then be compared with the variations and uncertainties observed with relevance to the estimated parameters in the process simulation and environmental impact assessment. Based on this consistent strategy, we can analyze the impact of input variability from different system perspectives, identify important bottlenecks for development, and suggest robust and sustainable process designs for different conditions and under given uncertainties. \ua0In a case study we demonstrate how integrated kinetic modeling (in Matlab), process simulation (in SuperPro Designer), and environmental impact assessment together with statistical analysis can be used for assessing how variability in enzymatic activities in bioethanol production can be propagated throughout system scales. A macro-kinetic model is used to describe the enzymatic breakdown of lignocellulose-derived polysaccharides into fermentable sugars (saccharification) and the simultaneous fermentation to bioethanol. We discuss the integration of the simulation results of the macro-kinetic model into the flowsheeting software for mass and energy balance generation, and then further on to assess environmental impacts of the process. We will evaluate different process designs regarding their robustness towards input variability. Finally, we also show how propagated uncertainties at different system scales can be integrated to design experiments at laboratory scale so that these focus on the most important parameters for developing robust kinetic models, and include the parameters that are most important for sustainable design of processes and value chains

Uncertainty analysis as a tool to consistently evaluate lignocellulosic bioethanol processes at different system scales

Lignocellulosic processes are highly prone to batch-to batch variability, e.g. of raw materials and enzyme activities. Thisvariability can be propagated throughout system scales during process development and optimization, influencing the outputs ofbioreaction models, techno-economic analyses and life cycle assessments. As these outputs are the main decision variablesfor designing and developing lignocellulose-based processes, tools are required to evaluate the influences of process variation atdifferent system scales.Uncertainty analysis quantifies the effects of model input variations on model outputs. It is an effective tool to consistentlypropagate process variation throughout scales and analyse its influence on model outputs. As an example, we use a modeldescribing multi-feed simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF) of wheat straw. During the process enzymeshydrolyse the lignocellulosic material to release glucose which can be converted by microorganisms into ethanol. To investigatethe impact of batch-to-batch variability in enzyme cocktails, we collected literature data on the enzymatic activity of CellicCTec2. Retrieved data were propagated in models at bioreactor, techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment scale. Weshow how uncertainty analysis can be used to guide process development by comparing different modes of operation. Themethod can identify economically feasible process ranges with low environmental impact while increasing the robustness ofbioprocesses with high variation in raw material inputs. Furthermore, uncertainty analysis could help to identify relevantparameters to choose as response variables in experimental designs

Aging in ferromagnetic systems at criticality near four dimensions

We study the off-equilibrium response and correlation functions and the corresponding fluctuation-dissipation ratio for a purely dissipative relaxation of an O(N) symmetric vector model (Model A) below its upper critical dimension. The scaling behavior of these quantities is analyzed and the associated universal functions are determined at first order in epsilon expansion in the high-temperature phase and at criticality. A non trivial limit of the fluctuation-dissipation ratio is found in the aging regime.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur