662 research outputs found
Interactions between Economic Growth and Environmental Quality in Shenzhen, China's First Special Economic Zone
The relationship between economic development and environmental quality is a debated topic. Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is one prominent hypothesis, positing an inverted U-shaped development-environment relationship. Here we test this hypothesis using data from Shenzhen, Peoples Republic of China. Established in 1980 as the first special economic zone in China, Shenzhen has developed from a small village into a large urban-industrial agglomeration with the highest income level in the country. The enormous expansion of infrastructure, industrial sites and urban settlements has profoundly changed the local environment. We utilize environmental monitoring data from Shenzhen on concentration of pollutants in ambient air, main rivers, and near shore waters from 1989 to 2003. The results show that production-induced pollutants support EKC while consumption-induced pollutants do not support it
Effects of electrojet turbulence on a magnetosphere-ionosphere simulation of a geomagnetic storm
Ionospheric conductance plays an important role in regulating the response of the magnetosphereâionosphere system to solar wind driving. Typically, models of magnetosphereâionosphere coupling include changes to ionospheric conductance driven by extreme ultraviolet ionization and electron precipitation. This paper shows that effects driven by the FarleyâBuneman instability can also create significant enhancements in the ionospheric conductance, with substantial impacts on geospace. We have implemented a method of including electrojet turbulence (ET) effects into the ionospheric conductance model utilized within geospace simulations. Our particular implementation is tested with simulations of the LyonâFedderâMobarry global magnetosphere model coupled with the Rice Convection Model of the inner magnetosphere. We examine the impact of including ETâmodified conductances in a case study of the geomagnetic storm of 17 March 2013. Simulations with ET show a 13% reduction in the cross polar cap potential at the beginning of the storm and up to 20% increases in the Pedersen and Hall conductance. These simulation results show better agreement with Defense Meteorological Satellite Program observations, including capturing features of subauroral polarization streams. The fieldâaligned current (FAC) patterns show little differences during the peak of storm and agree well with Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (AMPERE) reconstructions. Typically, the simulated FAC densities are stronger and at slightly higher latitudes than shown by AMPERE. The inner magnetospheric pressures derived from TsyganenkoâSitnov empirical magnetic field model show that the inclusion of the ET effects increases the peak pressure and brings the results into better agreement with the empirical model.This material is based upon work supported by NASA grants NNX14AI13G, NNX13AF92G, and NNX16AB80G. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This work used the XSEDE and TACC computational facilities, supported by National Science Foundation grant ACI-1053575. We would like to acknowledge high-performance computing support from Yellowstone (ark:/85065/d7wd3xhc) provided by NCAR's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. We thank the AMPERE team and the AMPERE Science Center for providing the Iridium derived data products. All model output, simulation codes, and analysis routines are being preserved on the NCAR High-Performance Storage System and will be made available upon written request to the lead author of this publication. (NNX14AI13G - NASA; NNX13AF92G - NASA; NNX16AB80G - NASA; National Science Foundation; ACI-1053575 - National Science Foundation
Chiral effect in plane isotropic micropolar elasticity and its application to chiral lattices
In continuum mechanics, the non-centrosymmetric micropolar theory is usually
used to capture the chirality inherent in materials. However when reduced to a
two dimensional (2D) isotropic problem, the resulting model becomes non-chiral.
Therefore, influence of the chiral effect cannot be properly characterized by
existing theories for 2D chiral solids. To circumvent this difficulty, based on
reinterpretation of isotropic tensors in a 2D case, we propose a continuum
theory to model the chiral effect for 2D isotropic chiral solids. A single
material parameter related to chirality is introduced to characterize the
coupling between the bulk deformation and the internal rotation which is a
fundamental feature of 2D chiral solids. Coherently, the proposed continuum
theory is also derived for a triangular chiral lattice from a homogenization
procedure, from which the effective material constants of the lattice are
analytically determined. The unique behavior in the chiral lattice is
demonstrated through the analyses of a static tension problem and a plane wave
propagation problem. The results, which cannot be predicted by the non-chiral
model, are validated by the exact solution of the discrete model.Comment: 33 pages, 7 figure
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Ion-ion interaction and energy transfer of 4+ transuranium ions in cerium tetrafluoride
Dynamics of excited 5f electron states of the transuranium ions Cm{sup 4+} and Bk{sup 4+} in CeF{sub 4} are compared. Based on time- and wavelength-resolved laser-induced fluorescence, excitation energy transfer processes have been probed. Depending on concentration and electronic energy level structure of the studied 4+ transuranium ion, the dominant energy transfer mechanisms were identified as cross relaxation, exciton-exciton annihilation, and trapping. Energy transfer rates derived from the fitting of the observed fluorescence decays to theoretical models, based on electric multipolar ion-ion interactions, are contrasted with prior studies of 4f states of 3+ lanthanide and 3d states of transition metal ions. 16 refs., 1 tab
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A laser spectroscopic study of Nd-doped Zirconia
High-surface-area rare-earth (RE) modified zirconia powders prepared by solution methods can be used as catalytic support of noble metals and as electrolyte oxygen sensors in automobile exhaust-emission- control systems. Previous neutron-scattering study showed that substituting Zr with trivalent RE ions not only stabilizes the cubic and tetrgonal phases over a wide range of temperatures but also creates oxygen vacancies in the RE-Zr oxide solid solution. This work focuses on Nd fluorescence in Nd{sub 0.1}Zr{sub 0.9}O{sub 1.95} powders under laser excitation of the Nd{sup 3+} ground state to the {sup 4}G{sub 7.2} states. Distinct features were found at 8K in the {sup 4}I{sub 9/2}{r_arrow}{sup 4}G{sub 7/2} excitation and {sup 4}F{sub 3.2}{r_arrow}{sup 4}I{sub 9/2} emission spectra using two sets of incident and emission frequencies, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of site-sensitive local structures surrounding the Nd ions in the two-phased oxide structure
Bayesian solutions to the label switching problem
The label switching problem, the unidentifiability of the permutation of clusters or more generally latent variables, makes interpretation of results computed with MCMC sampling difficult. We introduce a fully Bayesian treatment of the permutations which performs better than alternatives. The method can be used to compute summaries of the posterior samples even for nonparametric Bayesian methods, for which no good solutions exist so far. Although being approximative in this case, the results are very promising. The summaries are intuitively appealing: A summarized cluster is defined as a set of points for which the likelihood of being in the same cluster is maximized
Leading Order Textures for Lepton Mass Matrices
In theories with three light neutrinos, certain simplicity assumptions allow
the construction of a complete list of leading order lepton mass matrices.
These matrices are consistent with m_{tau} \neq 0, Delta m^2_{12} \ll Delta
m^2_{23}, theta_{23} approx 1, and theta_{13} = 0, as suggested by measurements
of atmospheric and solar neutrino fluxes. The list contains twelve generic
cases: two have three degenerate neutrinos, eight have two neutrinos forming a
Dirac state, and in only two cases is one neutrino much heavier than the other
two. For each of these twelve generic cases the possible forms for the
perturbations which yield m_{mu} are given. Ten special textures are also
found.Comment: 17 pages, added reference
Penetration depth anisotropy in two-band superconductors
The anisotropy of the London penetration depth is evaluated for two-band
superconductors with arbitrary inter- and intra-band scattering times. If one
of the bands is clean and the other is dirty in the absence of inter-band
scattering, the anisotropy is dominated by the Fermi surface of the clean band
and is weakly temperature dependent. The inter-band scattering also suppress
the temperature dependence of the anisotropy
Scalar Decay in Chaotic Mixing
I review the local theory of mixing, which focuses on infinitesimal blobs of
scalar being advected and stretched by a random velocity field. An advantage of
this theory is that it provides elegant analytical results. A disadvantage is
that it is highly idealised. Nevertheless, it provides insight into the
mechanism of chaotic mixing and the effect of random fluctuations on the rate
of decay of the concentration field of a passive scalar.Comment: 35 pages, 15 figures. Springer-Verlag conference style svmult.cls
(included). Published in "Transport in Geophysical Flows: Ten Years After,"
Proceedings of the Grand Combin Summer School, 14-24 June 2004, Valle
d'Aosta, Italy. Fixed some typo
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