An Alternative Derivation of the Nimbus 7 Total Solar Irradiance Variations

Nimbus 7 solar irradiance values have been made available to the scientific community through the open literature (e.g., Hickey et al., 1988) and through NASA data centers. A comparison of these measurements to the Solar Maximum Mission/Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (SSM/ACRIM) time series indicated differences which might be caused in part by the method of converting the Nimbus 7 raw data counts to solar irradiance values. In an effort to see if the derivation of the solar irradiance could be improved, the raw counts were extracted from the tapes and analyzed to see how a new algorithm could be constructed. The basic form of the calibration remains the same as in the previous solar irradiance derivations. However, the input values to the equation differ from what was used before. In particular, improved values of the Earth-sun distance are incorporated and new temperature sensitivities were derived. Several problems with the instrument were uncovered which previously had not been noticed. The sun did not appear to cross the center of field of the radiometer but was systematically off by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees. The analog to digital convertor changed its properties in July 1980. The gain of the electronics apparently increased by 0.03 percent in September 1987. Applying these and other changes in the processing, the day to day variations appear much more like the SMM observations. In fact, the Nimbus 7 observations are sufficiently stable that a problem with the SSM observations in the spin mode period of 1981 to 1984 can be detected when the two time series are compared

Reducing Voltage Volatility with Step Voltage Regulators: A Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of Korean Solar Photovoltaic Distributed Generation

To meet the United Nation’s sustainable development energy goal, the Korean Ministry of Commerce announced they would increase renewable energy generation to 5.3% by 2029. These energy sources are often produced in small-scale power plants located close to the end users, known as distributed generation (DG). The use of DG is an excellent way to reduce greenhouse gases but has also been found to reduce power quality and safety reliability through an increase in voltage volatility. This paper performs a life-cycle cost analysis on the use of step voltage regulators (SVR) to reduce said volatility, simulating the impact they have on existing Korean solar photovoltaic (PV) DG. From the data collected on a Korean Electrical Power Corporation 30 km/8.2 megawatts (MW) feeder system, SVRs were found to increase earnings by one million USD. SVR volatile voltage mitigation increased expected earnings by increasing the estimated allowable PV power generation by 2.7 MW. While this study is based on Korean PV power generation, its findings are applicable to any DG sources worldwide.11Nsciescopu

Optimal Money Burning: Theory and Application to Corporate Dividend Policy

We explore signaling behavior in settings with a discriminating signal and several costly nondiscriminating ( money burning ) activities. In settings where informed parties have many options for burning money, existing theory provides no basis for selecting one nondiscriminating activity over another. When senders have private information about the costs of these activities, each sender's indifference is resolved, the taxation of a nondiscriminating signal is Pareto improving, and the use of the taxed activity becomes more widespread as the tax rate rises. We apply this analysis to the theory of dividend signaling. The central testable implication of the model is verified empirically.

Secret Spending in the States

Six years after Citizens United enabled unfettered spending in our elections, the use of so-called dark money has become disturbingly common. Contrary to the Supreme Court's assumption that this unlimited spending would be transparent to voters, at the federal level powerful groups have since 2010 poured hundreds of millions of dollars into influencing elections while obscuring the sources of their funding. But it is at the state and local levels that secret spending is arguably at its most damaging. For a clear understanding of the degree to which dark money is warping American democracy, state ballot referenda and local school board contests may be a better starting point than the presidential campaign or even congressional races. As Chris Herstam, a former Republican majority whip in the Arizona House of Representatives and now lobbyist, put it, "In my 33 years in Arizona politics and government, dark money is the most corrupting influence I have seen."This report documents how far outside spending -- election spending that is not coordinated with candidates -- at the state and local levels has veered from the vision of democratic transparency the Citizens United Court imagined, drawing on an extensive database of news accounts, interviews with a range of stakeholders, campaign finance and tax records, court cases, and social science research. For the first time, it also measures changes in dark money – and a thus far unrecognized rise in what we term "gray money" – at the state level, by analyzing spender and contributor reports in six of nine states where sufficient usable data were available. This set of six geographically and demographically diverse states, comprising Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine, and Massachusetts, represents approximately 20 percent of the nation's population.

Herbaceous Filter Strips in Agroecosystems: Implications for Ground Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Conservation and Invertebrate Weed Seed Predation

A 9.3-ha crop field flanked by two filter strips was selected to: 1) assess carabid beetle activity-density and community composition and 2) assess post-dispersal weed seed predation by invertebrates in these habitats. Over- all during 1997 and 1998, 12,937 carabid beetles comprising 58 species were collected. Greater species richness and activity-density was observed in filter strips than in the field. A multivariate ordination revealed that year of capture and habitat were important variables conditioning carabid beetle com­munities. While two omnivorous species known to eat weed seeds [Harpalus erraticus (Say), Anisodactylus sanctaecrucis (F.)] dominated the 1997 captures, two carnivorous [Pterostichus melanarius (Ill), Pterostichus permundus (Say)] were predominant in 1998. Two omnivorous species, Harpalus pensylvanicus (DeG) and H. erraticus, were primarily captured in filter strips. Weed seed removal was greater in filter strips than in the field. This study shows that habitat management represents a feasible approach to con­serve beneficial organisms in farmlands

Aditu baten begirada: zientzia forentse subjuntiboak eta ikuspegi partekatuak Espainiako artxibo forentsean

Durante dos décadas, los familiares de las víctimas del franquismo han recurrido a la ciencia forense para desenterrar diversas formas de evidencia que arrojan luz sobre la mecánica de la represión fascista que surgió durante la Guerra Civil española y que continuó a lo largo de la dictadura franquista. Debido a los efectos duraderos de la Ley de Amnistía, que prohíbe definir a las víctimas de Franco como víctimas de un delito, estos proyectos de exhumación existen al borde de los límites cambiantes y flexibles del procedimiento legal. Tomando en cuenta la ausencia de tribunales equipados para manejar las pruebas exhumadas y producidas en estos esfuerzos, las fotografías que documentan la labor forense no son secuestradas por la ley. En cambio, están hechas para ser vistas. La autora introduce el concepto de la ciencia subjuntiva para analizar el surgimiento de nuevos cuerpos de conocimiento que componen lo que ella llama el archivo forense. Este mismo concepto también ayuda a comprender cómo la evidencia visual fotográfica que ocupa simultáneamente espacios científicos y políticos es producida, circulada, cuidada y salvaguardada en la España contemporánea. Basándose en métodos etnográficos y su propia experiencia fotografiando las exhumaciones de fosas comunes, la autora explora cómo se producen, se adquieren y se comparten miradas compartidas entre aquellos que componen la comunidad de práctica que rodea la labor memorialista. Al centrarse en cómo se constituyen miradas o 'visiones' profesionales y hábiles, el artículo sostiene que es a través de la producción, circulación y exhibición de la fotografía forense como los activistas de la memoria en España visualizan un pasado incómodo y al mismo tiempo imaginan futuros políticos alternativos.Azken bi hamarkadetan, frankismoaren biktimen senideek zientzia forentsera jo dute Espainiako Gerra Zibilean sortu zen eta diktadura frankistan jarraitu zuen errepresio faxistaren mekanika argitzen lagunduko duten ebidentziak lurpetik ateratzeko. Amnistiaren Legearen ondorio iraunkorrak direla-eta, zeinak Francoren biktimak delitu baten biktima gisara definitzea debekatzen baitu, exhumazio-proiektu horiek legezko prozeduraren muga aldakor eta malguetatik hurbil daude. Kontuan izanik ez dagoela auzitegirik hilobietatik ateratako eta ahalegin horietan lortutako frogak maneiatzen duenik, legeak ez ditu bahitzen lan forentsea dokumentatzen duten argazkiak; aitzitik, jendeak ikusteko egiten dira. Egileak zientzia subjuntiboaren kontzeptua proposatzen du berak artxibo forentsea deritzona osatzen duten ezagutza-gorputz berrien sorrera aztertzeko. Kontzeptu hori bera lagungarria da ulertzeko nola ekoizten, zirkulatzen, zaintzen eta babesten den Espainia garaikidean ikusizko ebidentzia, argazkigintza alegia, aldi berean espazio zientifikoak eta politikoak betetzen dituena. Bai metodo etnografikoetan eta bai hobi komunen exhumazioen argazkiak egitetik lortutako esperientzian oinarrituta, egileak aztertzen du nola sortzen, eskuratzen eta konpartitzen diren lan memorialistaren inguruko komunitatea osatzen dutenen arteko ikuspegi partekatuak. Begirada edo 'ikuspegi' profesional eta trebeak nola eratzen diren aztertzearekin batera, artikuluak dio argazki forentseen ekoizpenaren, zirkulazioaren eta erakusketaren bidez Espainiako memoriaren ekintzaileek iragan deseroso bat ikusarazten dutela eta, aldi berean, etorkizun politiko alternatiboak irudikatzen dituztela.For two decades, Spaniards have turned to forensic science as a mode of unearthing diverse forms of evidence that shed light on the mechanics of fascist repression that emerged during the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship that followed it. Due to the lasting effects of Spain's Amnesty Law, which prohibits defining Franco's victims as victims of crime, these exhumation projects exist at the unruly boundaries of legal procedure. In the absence of courts equipped to manage the evidence exhumed and produced in these endeavors, photographs documenting the forensic process are not sequestered by the law. Instead, they are made to be seen. Drawing on what the author describes as subjunctive forensics, she analyzes the emergence of new bodies of knowledge-or what could be called the forensic archive-in order to understand how visual evidence that straddles the scientific and the political, particularly photography, is produced, circulated and safe-guarded in contemporary Spain. Drawing on ethnographic research and the experience of photographing mass grave exhumations, the author explores how shared forms of seeing are produced, acquired, and shared among the community of practice surrounding historical memory work. By focusing on how professional and skilled visions are constituted, the article argues that it is in the production, circulation, and display of forensic photography that Spaniards visualize an uncomfortable past while also imagining alternative political futures.This article has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklowdowska-Curie grant agreement No 895197

The Probable Revolution: Archival Images, (Im)materiality, and the Reactivation of Portuguese Militant Cooperative Cinema

On April 25, 1974, everyday Portuguese citizens transformed a military coup into collective popular resistance, thus initiating a revolutionary process that marked an end to the Estado Novo. Image-makers, aware of the historical event unraveling in plain view, occupied public plazas and roamed city avenues to document a popular uprising that marked a clear end to Portugal’s Fascist project. In this impetus to record radical change, film and its associated technologies promised not only to document, capture, and freeze history in the making but also to make it material, to transform the push and pull of the revolutionary project into something that could be preserved and kept. The article questions the notion that digitization produces a straightforward dematerialization of the analogue print by proposing the concept of digital (im)materiality. This (im)materiality, it argues, not only allows the transformation of revolutionary images into heritage but also makes possible their (re)activation in ways that both speak to the past and reinvent the future. Attending to the (im)materiality of Portuguese militant cinema makes it possible to approach these images not as texts to be interpreted but as social artifacts through which meaning, knowledge, and memories are made. Following Morgan Adamson’s call to consider how “images of resistance endure” and how “enduring images resist,” the article traces the (im)materiality of Portugal’s revolutionary filmic images with the aim of thinking across temporalities. So while, on one hand. the text unpacks how images of the Portuguese Revolution were produced and, subsequently, transformed into heritage, it also reflects on the author’s own engagement with the Revolution’s visual archives and her co-direction of the film essay "A revolução (é) provável" ("The Revolution [Is] Probable," 2022), where splicing, cutting, and juxtaposing digitized images makes it possible to interrogate the material texture of history while also producing other forms or knowledge and knowing