161 research outputs found

    The past to unravel the future: Deoxygenation events in the geological archive and the anthropocene oxygen crisis

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    Despite the observation that we are witnessing a true oxygen crisis, the ocean deoxygenation theme is getting less attention from the media and population compared to other environmental stressors concerning climate change. The current ocean oxygen crisis is characterized by a complex interplay of climatic, biological, and oceanographic processes acting at different time scales. Earth system models offer insights into future deoxygenation events and their potential extent; however, their capacity to precisely constrain these events is complicated by the intricate interplay of various interconnected feedback mechanisms. The Earth's geological history has been punctuated by regional and global deoxygenation events, which are usually expressed by organic-rich sediment in the geological record and can be useful past analogues of the present-day and future oxygenation crisis related to current climatic stress. Accordingly, we provide an overview of the key elements characterizing past deoxygenation events, aiming for a better understanding of the Anthropocene oxygen crisis and its potential evolution. We suggest that past global deoxygenation events during hypethermals may bear similarities to present-day dynamics in the open ocean. Additionally, we explore the significance of regional deoxygenation events with cyclical occurrences for better constraining environmental dynamics and ecological impacts in semi-enclosed, restricted, and marginal basins. Despite the unprecedented magnitude and rate of current anthropogenic pressures, it is essential to consider the comparison of triggers and feedbacks from ancient deoxygenation events when investigating the future of this concealed but ecologically impactful problem

    LAPPD operation using ToFPETv2 PETSYS ASIC

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    Single photon sensitive detectors used in high energy physics are, in some applications, required to cover very large areas, and more specifically in very strong demand with an ever finer imaging and timing capability for Cherenkov Ring Imaging Detector (RICH) configurations. We are evaluating the Large Area Picosecond Photo-detector (LAPPD) produced by INCOM company, as a possible candidate for future RICH detector upgrades. In this work we perform tests on the first generation device, which is capacitively coupled to a custom designed anode back plane, consisting of various pixels and strips varying in size, that allows for connecting various readout systems such as standard laboratory equipment, as well as the TOFPET2 ASIC from PETsys company [2]. Our aim is to evaluate what can be achieved by merging currently available technology, in order to find directions for future developments adapted for specific uses.Comment: Twepp 2022 workshop proceeding

    Mapping neighborhood scale survey responses with uncertainty metrics

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    This paper presents a methodology of mapping population-centric social, infrastructural, and environmental metrics at neighborhood scale. This methodology extends traditional survey analysis methods to create cartographic products useful in agent-based modeling and geographic information analysis. It utilizes and synthesizes survey microdata, sub-upazila attributes, land use information, and ground truth locations of attributes to create neighborhood scale multi-attribute maps. Monte Carlo methods are employed to combine any number of survey responses to stochastically weight survey cases and to simulate survey cases\u27 locations in a study area. Through such Monte Carlo methods, known errors from each of the input sources can be retained. By keeping individual survey cases as the atomic unit of data representation, this methodology ensures that important covariates are retained and that ecological inference fallacy is eliminated. These techniques are demonstrated with a case study from the Chittagong Division in Bangladesh. The results provide a population-centric understanding of many social, infrastructural, and environmental metrics desired in humanitarian aid and disaster relief planning and operations wherever long term familiarity is lacking. Of critical importance is that the resulting products have easy to use explicit representation of the errors and uncertainties of each of the input sources via the automatically generated summary statistics created at the application\u27s geographic scale

    New risks and trends in the safety and health of women at work

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    In 2009 and 2010, the Agency commissioned an update to its previous research on gender issues at work (EU-OSHA, 2003), which found that inequality both within and outside the workplace can have an effect on the health and safety of women at work. This report provides that update and the first figures on the effects of the recent economic downturn on women at work. It aims to fulfil the task outlined by the European strategy on health and safety at work (EC, 2002) for EU-OSHA’s European Risk Observatory: ‘examining the specific challenges in terms of health and safety posed by the more extensive integration of women in the labour market’. Gender inequalities in the workplace and work–life balance issues have become increasingly important as the employment rates of women have continued to grow in all Member States. Although in 2012 58.6 % of working age women (in the EU-27) were in employment and women filled 59 % of all newly created jobs in 2009(1 ), the extent to which women contribute economically still seems to be underestimated. At its start, women were affected less than men by the recent economic crisis, as the first jobs to be lost were mostly in the male-dominated construction and manufacturing industries. However, between 2008 and 2012, European gender differences in employment fell by an average of 7.6 to 6.3 percentage points, mainly because male employment rates fell more than those of women, which have returned to the 2007 level. A modern organisation of work, a knowledge economy, competitiveness and more and better jobs are central to the post-2010 Lisbon Strategy and the EU’s 2020 Strategy. Women are essential to the workforce in terms of providing an active and sustainable source of labour, and in June 2010 the European Council set a new, ambitious target aiming to raise the employment rate for women and men aged 20–64 to 75 % by 2020, partly through the greater participation of young people, older workers and low-skilled workers and the better integration of legal migrants. However, although employment rates for women are rising, much remains to be done, especially for older and younger women, to reach this goal and at the same time ensure decent work for all. The issue of occupational safety and health (OSH) for women who work in the European Union (EU) is central to an understanding of the working environment. Previous research has shown that women’s OSH has to be improved. Research from the European Commission illustrates that, even by 1995, women accounted for close to or above half of all cases of work-associated ill health, including allergies (45 %), infectious illnesses (61 %), neurological complaints (55 %) and hepatic and dermatological complaints (48 %). The situation has not improved. Further, for ‘women’s jobs’, such as those in the health and social services, retail and hospitality sectors, there is a stagnation in accident rates in some countries; women are more likely to be bullied and harassed, subjected to sexual harassment and have to use poorly fitting personal protective equipment that is not usually sized for a smaller frame. The aims of this review are to: Provide a statistical overview of the trends in employment and integration of women in the labour market, and explore how they impact on their occupational safety and health. Identify and highlight the main issues and trends in employment characteristics, working conditions, hazard exposure and work-related accidents and health problems for women at work and explore more in-depth selected issues not addressed thoroughly before, such as combined exposures, informal work and the rehabilitation of women into work. Identify emerging issues for OSH research and the prevention of occupational diseases and accidents affecting women at work. This focus on OSH benefits not only women but also men who work, and thus reinforces the considerable potential to be gained by improved workplaces. A summary of the findings and trends and a more detailed list of suggestions is included in every chapter of this report and in the conclusions

    Establishing ZIF-8 as a reference material for hydrogen cryoadsorption: An interlaboratory study

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    Hydrogen storage by cryoadsorption on porous materials has the advantages of low material cost, safety, fast kinetics, and high cyclic stability. The further development of this technology requires reliable data on the H2 uptake of the adsorbents, however, even for activated carbons the values between different laboratories show sometimes large discrepancies. So far no reference material for hydrogen cryoadsorption is available. The metal-organic framework ZIF-8 is an ideal material possessing high thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability that reduces degradation during handling and activation. Here, we distributed ZIF-8 pellets synthesized by extrusion to 9 laboratories equipped with 15 different experimental setups including gravimetric and volumetric analyzers. The gravimetric H2 uptake of the pellets was measured at 77 K and up to 100 bar showing a high reproducibility between the different laboratories, with a small relative standard deviation of 3–4 % between pressures of 10–100 bar. The effect of operating variables like the amount of sample or analysis temperature was evaluated, remarking the calibration of devices and other correction procedures as the most significant deviation sources. Overall, the reproducible hydrogen cryoadsorption measurements indicate the robustness of the ZIF-8 pellets, which we want to propose as a reference material.M. Maiwald, J. A. Villajos, R. Balderas and M. Hirscher acknowledge the EMPIR programme from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for funding. F. Cuevas and F. Couturas acknowledge support from France 2030 program under project ANR-22-PEHY-0007. D. Cazorla and A. Berenguer-Murcia thank the support by PID2021-123079OB-I00 project funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and “ERDF A way of making Europe”. K. N. Heinselman, S. Shulda and P. A. Parilla acknowledge the support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding provided by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Office through the HyMARC Energy Materials Network

    Dense carbon monoliths for supercapacitors with outstanding volumetric capacitances

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    A commercially available dense carbon monolith (CM) and four carbon monoliths obtained from it have been studied as electrochemical capacitor electrodes in a two-electrode cell. CM has: (i) very high density (1.17 g cm−3), (ii) high electrical conductivity (9.3 S cm−1), (iii) well-compacted and interconnected carbon spheres, (iv) homogeneous microporous structure and (v) apparent BET surface area of 957 m2g−1. It presents interesting electrochemical behaviors (e.g., excellent gravimetric capacitance and outstanding volumetric capacitance). The textural characteristics of CM (porosity and surface chemistry) have been modified by means of different treatments. The electrochemical performances of the starting and treated monoliths have been analyzed as a function of their porous textures and surface chemistry, both on gravimetric and volumetric basis. The monoliths present high specific and volumetric capacitances (292 F g−1 and 342 F cm−3), high energy densities (38 Wh kg−1 and 44 Wh L−1), and high power densities (176 W kg−1 and 183 W L−1). The specific and volumetric capacitances, especially the volumetric capacitance, are the highest ever reported for carbon monoliths. The high values are achieved due to a suitable combination of density, electrical conductivity, porosity and oxygen surface content.Financial support from projects MAT2011-25198, MP1004 and PROMETEO/2009/047 is gratefully acknowledged. V.B. thanks MINECO for R&C contract

    Search for an invisible ZZ^\prime in a final state with two muons and missing energy at Belle II

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    The LμLτL_{\mu}-L_{\tau} extension of the standard model predicts the existence of a lepton-flavor-universality-violating ZZ^{\prime} boson that couples only to the heavier lepton families. We search for such a ZZ^\prime through its invisible decay in the process e+eμ+μZe^+ e^- \to \mu^+ \mu^- Z^{\prime}. We use a sample of electron-positron collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 10.58GeV collected by the Belle II experiment in 2019-2020, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 79.7fb1^{-1}. We find no excess over the expected standard-model background. We set 90%\%-confidence-level upper limits on the cross section for this process as well as on the coupling of the model, which ranges from 3×1033 \times 10^{-3} at low ZZ^{\prime} masses to 1 at ZZ^{\prime} masses of 8GeV/c2GeV/c^{2}
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