World energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions : 1950-2050

Emissions of carbon dioxide form combustion of fossil fuels, which may contribute to long-term climate change, are projected through 2050 using reduced form models estimated with national-level panel data for the period 1950-1990. We employ a flexible form for income effects, along with fixed time and country effects, and we handle forecast uncertainty explicitly. We find an "inverse-U" relation with a within-sample peak between carbon dioxide emissions (and energy use) per capita and per capita income. Using the income and population growth assumptions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we obtain projections significantly and substantially above those of the IPCC

Economic development and the structure of the demand for commerial energy

To deepen the understanding of the relation between economic development and energy demand, this study estimates the Engel curves that relate per-capita energy consumption in major economic sectors to per-capita GDP. Panel data covering up to 123 nations are employed, and measurement problems are treated both in dataset construction and in estimation. Time and country fixed effects are assumed, and flexible forms for income effect are employed. There are substantial differences among sectors in the structure of country, time, and income effects. In particular, the household sector's share of aggregate energy consumption tends to fall with income, the share of transportation tends to rise, and the share of industry follows an inverse-U pattern.Financial assistance provided by the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research

Contemplating Mindfulness at Work: An Integrative Review

Mindfulness research activity is surging within organizational science. Emerging evidence across multiple fields suggests that mindfulness is fundamentally connected to many aspects of workplace functioning, but this knowledge base has not been systematically integrated to date. This review coalesces the burgeoning body of mindfulness scholarship into a framework to guide mainstream management research investigating a broad range of constructs. The framework identifies how mindfulness influences attention, with downstream effects on functional domains of cognition, emotion, behavior, and physiology. Ultimately, these domains impact key workplace outcomes, including performance, relationships, and well-being. Consideration of the evidence on mindfulness at work stimulates important questions and challenges key assumptions within management science, generating an agenda for future research

A High-Density Linkage Map of the Ancestral Diploid Strawberry, Fragaria iinumae, Constructed with Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Markers from the IStraw90 Array and Genotyping by Sequencing

Fragaria iinumae Makino is recognized as an ancestor of the octoploid strawberry species, which includes the cultivated strawberry, Fragaria ×ananassa Duchesne ex Rozier. Here we report the construction of the first high-density linkage map for F. iinumae. The F. iinumae linkage map (Fii map) is based on two high-throughput techniques of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping: the IStraw90 Array (hereafter “Array”), and genotyping by sequencing (GBS). The F2 generation mapping population was derived by selfing F. iinumae hybrid F1D, the product of a cross between two divergent F. iinumae accessions collected from Hokkaido, Japan. The Fii map consists of seven linkage groups (LGs) and has an overall length of 451.7 cM as defined by 496 loci populated by 4173 markers: 3280 from the Array and 893 from GBS. Comparisons with two versions of the Fragaria vesca ssp. vesca L. ‘Hawaii 4’ pseudo-chromosome (PC) assemblies reveal substantial conservation of synteny and colinearity, yet identified differences that point to possible genomic divergences between F. iinumae and F. vesca, and/or to F. vesca genomic assembly errors. The Fii map provides a basis for anchoring a F. iinumae genome assembly as a prerequisite for constructing a second diploid reference genome for Fragaria

Cascading the use of Web 2.0 technology in secondary schools in the United Kingdom: identifying the barriers beyond pre-service training

This paper reports on research that took place at Nottingham Trent University and Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom, over two years. The research focuses on the use of Web 2.0 technology, specifically web logs, with pre-service teachers, both during their university programme and the first year of teaching as full-time newly qualified teachers (NQTs). The purpose of this research was to add a developing body of knowledge by identifying whether technology used by pre-service teachers during their training course can be cascaded into their practice once qualified. Key findings identify a number of enablers and barriers to cascading technology in the classroom; these include curriculum time, pupil skills and support. The research concludes that early professional support and development should be on-going and assumptions about new teachers as champions of cascading innovative use of Web 2 technologies into their practice as NQTs may be over optimisti

A new technique for elucidating β\beta-decay schemes which involve daughter nuclei with very low energy excited states

A new technique of elucidating $\beta$-decay schemes of isotopes with large density of states at low excitation energies has been developed, in which a Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detector is used in conjunction with coaxial hyper-pure germanium detectors. The power of this technique has been demonstrated on the example of 183Hg decay. Mass-separated samples of 183Hg were produced by a deposition of the low-energy radioactive-ion beam delivered by the ISOLDE facility at CERN. The excellent energy resolution of the BEGe detector allowed $\gamma$ rays energies to be determined with a precision of a few tens of electronvolts, which was sufficient for the analysis of the Rydberg-Ritz combinations in the level scheme. The timestamped structure of the data was used for unambiguous separation of $\gamma$ rays arising from the decay of 183Hg from those due to the daughter decays

SIMPLIFIED MARKER SETS FOR THE CALCULATION OF CENTRE OF MASS LOCATION DURING BEND SPRINTING

Simplified marker sets for the calculation of whole body centre of mass (CoM) location and associated variables (velocity, touchdown distance and turn of CoM) used in the analysis of bend sprinting performance were examined. CoM related variables were compared between a whole-body (13 segment), lower limb and trunk and lower limb model. Both simplified models showed strong agreement with whole-body CoM (Intraclass correlation: 0.873 - 0.998). The lower limb and trunk model (LLT) was the most accurate representation of whole body calculations, with acceptably low differences in all variables examined. Therefore, the LLT model is recommended for future use

Transform-limited pulses are not optimal for resonant multiphoton transitions

Maximizing nonlinear light-matter interactions is a primary motive for compressing laser pulses to achieve ultrashort transform limited pulses. Here we show how, by appropriately shaping the pulses, resonant multiphoton transitions can be enhanced significantly beyond the level achieved by maximizing the pulse's peak intensity. We demonstrate the counterintuitive nature of this effect with an experiment in a resonant two-photon absorption, in which, by selectively removing certain spectral bands, the peak intensity of the pulse is reduced by a factor of 40, yet the absorption rate is doubled. Furthermore, by suitably designing the spectral phase of the pulse, we increase the absorption rate by a factor of 7.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Hormonal impact of the 17α-hydroxylase/C17,20-lyase inhibitor abiraterone acetate (CB7630) in patients with prostate cancer

A series of three dose escalating studies were conducted to investigate the ability of the 17-hydroxylase/C17,20-lyase inhibitor abiraterone acetate, to cause maximum suppression of testosterone synthesis when delivered to castrate and noncastrate males with prostate cancer. Study A was a single dose study in castrate males. Study B was a single dose study in noncastrate males and study C was a multiple dose study in noncastrate males. The drug was given orally in a once-daily dose and blood samples taken to assess pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters and hormone levels in all patients. The study drug was well tolerated with some variability in PKs. Suppression of testosterone levels to <0.14 nmol l-1 was seen in four out of six castrate males treated with a single dose of 500 mg. At 800 mg given days 1–12 in noncastrate males, target suppression was achieved in three out of three patients, but a two- to three-fold increase of Luteinising Hormone (LH) levels in two out of three patients overcame suppression within 3 days. All patients in the multiple dose study developed an abnormal response to a short Synacthen test by day 11, although baseline cortisol levels remained normal. This is the first report of the use of a specific 17-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase inhibitor in humans. Repeated treatment of men with intact gonadal function with abiraterone acetate at a dose of 800 mg can successfully suppress testosterone levels to the castrate range. However, this level of suppression may not be sustained in all patients due to compensatory hypersecretion of LH. The enhanced testosterone suppression achieved in castrate men merits further clinical study as a second-line hormonal treatment for prostate cancer. Adrenocortical suppression may necessitate concomitant administration of replacement glucocorticoid