California Carbon Market Watch: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Golden State's Cap-and-Trade Program, Year One - 2012-2013

January 1, 2014 marked one year since the start of California's landmark cap-and-trade program, a market-based system to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution. The program will be the second-largest carbon market in the world, after the European Union's, and will cover 85% of all carbon pollution in the state by 2015. It is the most discussed program in a suite of strategies being deployed to achieve the goal of California's Global Warming Solutions Act -- also known as Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32) -- a 2006 law requiring the state to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. California is the eighth-largest economy in the world and the first state in the nation to employ an economy-wide cap-and-trade program. While no state or country can stop climate change alone, California's environmental policies have a history of success and replication. The importance of California's program is thus magnified by the example it sets, and the world is watching to see whether the state's carbon market will succeed.One year into the program, the outlook is positive. California's cap-and-trade system weathered legal challenges and demonstrated a successful launch and viability during its initial year. In the first five auctions, all of the offered emission allowances usable for compliance in 2013 were sold. Similarly, the secondary market for carbon allowances has shown stability, and carbon prices close to the floor indicate the long-term possibility of low marginal abatement costs for regulated entities. Contrary to some predictions of harsh economic damage, capping carbon pollution in California has occurred amidst sustained and promising economic recovery and growth, including a stronger housing market and lower unemployment rate.This report provides an overview and analysis of California's carbon market after one year in operation. Included are a background on the cap-and-trade program, an account of the carbon market's progress to date, and an analysis of what the market's performance means for California's environmental and economic goals. This analysis includes in-depth summaries and trends observed from the quarterly auctions and secondary market activity, along with evaluations of market performance by industry experts and academics. Updates regarding litigation, proposed regulatory amendments, and international agreements are also discussed

Guide to Geographical Indications: Linking Products and Their Origins (Summary)

Geographical Indications present significant opportunities for differentiating products or services that are uniquely related to their geographic origin. While they can offer many positive economic, social, cultural, and even environmental benefits, they can also be problematic and therefore caution is warranted when pursuing them. The publication distills the relevant lessons that could apply, particularly to developing countries, from a review of more than 200 documents and a number of original Case Studies. It presents a groundwork to better understand the costs and the benefits of undertaking Geographical Indications by outlining the basic processes, covering the pros and cons of different legal instruments, and offering insights into the important factors of success. It reviews and presents current data on the key issues of global GIs such as: economic results, public and private benefits; and market relevance.Geographical Indications, developing country, marketing, local, traditional, culture, appellation, legal protection, Denomination of Origin

Improving data driven decision making through integration of environmental sensing technologies

Coastal and estuarine zones contain vital and increasingly exploited resources. Traditional uses in these areas (transport, fishing, tourism) now sit alongside more recent activities (mineral extraction, wind farms). However, protecting the resource base upon which these marine-related economic and social activities depend requires access to reliable and timely data. This requires both acquisition of background (baseline) data and monitoring impacts of resource exploitation on aquatic processes and the environment. Management decisions must be based on analysis of collected data to reduce negative impacts while supporting resource-efficient, environmentally sustainable uses. Multi-modal sensing and data fusion offer attractive possibilities for providing such data in a resource efficient and robust manner. In this paper, we report the results of integrating multiple sensing technologies, including autonomous multi-parameter aquatic sensors with visual sensing systems. By focussing on salinity measurements, water level and freshwater influx into an estuarine system; we demonstrate the potential of modelling and data mining techniques in allowing deployment of fewer sensors, with greater network robustness. Using the estuary of the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland, as an example, we present the outputs and benefits resulting from fusion of multi-modal sensing technologies to predict and understand freshwater input into estuarine systems and discuss the potential of multi-modal datasets for informed management decisions

Resident satisfaction, resident retention and improved business results in multifamily housing

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1995.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-83).by Timothy W. O'Connor.M.S

Abraham Lincoln and the American presidency

Thesis (B.A.) in Liberal Arts and Sciences -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1986.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-159)Microfiche of typescript. [Urbana, Ill.] : Photographic Services, University of Illinois, U of I Library, [1990]. 4 microfiches (186 frames) : negative

Analysis of long branch extraction and long branch shortening.

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.BACKGROUND: Long branch attraction (LBA) is a problem that afflicts both the parsimony and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis techniques. Research has shown that parsimony is particularly vulnerable to inferring the wrong tree in Felsenstein topologies. The long branch extraction method is a procedure to detect a data set suffering from this problem so that Maximum Likelihood could be used instead of Maximum Parsimony. RESULTS: The long branch extraction method has been well cited and used by many authors in their analysis but no strong validation has been performed as to its accuracy. We performed such an analysis by an extensive search of the branch length search space under two topologies of six taxa, a Felsenstein-like topology and Farris-like topology. We also examine a long branch shortening method. CONCLUSIONS: The long branch extraction method seems to mask the majority of the search space rendering it ineffective as a detection method of LBA. A proposed alternative, the long branch shortening method, is also ineffective in predicting long branch attraction for all tree topologies

Coastal fog detection using visual sensing

Use of visual sensing techniques to detect low visibility conditions may have a number of advantages when combined with other methods, such as satellite based remote sensing, as data can be collected and processed in real or near real time. Camera-enabled visual sensing can provide direct confirmation of modelling and forecasting results. Fog detection, modelling and prediction are a priority for maritime communities and coastal cities due to economic impacts of fog on aviation, marine, and land transportation. Canadian and Irish coasts are particularly vulnerable to dense fog under certain environmental conditions. Offshore oil and gas production on Grand Bank (off the Canadian East Coast) can be adversely affected by weather and sea state conditions. In particular, fog can disrupt the transfer of equipment and people to/from the production platforms by helicopter. Such disruptions create delays and the delays cost money. According to offshore oil and gas industry representatives at a recent workshop on metocean monitoring and forecasting for the NL offshore, there is a real need for improved forecasting of visibility (fog) out to 3 days. The ability to accurately forecast future fog conditions would improve the industry’s ability to adjust its schedule of operations accordingly. In addition, it was recognized by workshop participants that the physics of Grand Banks fog formation is not well understood, and that more and better data are needed

Detection of Salmonella Enteritidis in Pooled Poultry Environmental Samples Using a Serotype-Specific Real-Time–Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay

While real-time–polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) has been used as a rapid test for detection of Salmonella Enteritidis in recent years, little research has been done to assess the feasibility of pooling poultry environmental samples with aSalmonella Enteritidis–specific RT PCR assay. Therefore the objective of this study was to compare RT PCR SalmonellaEnteritidis detection in individual and pooled (in groups of two, three, and four) poultry environmental drag swab samples to traditional cultural methods. The drag swabs were collected from poultry facilities previously confirmed positive forSalmonella Enteritidis and were cultured according to National Poultry Improvement Plan guidelines. Initial, SalmonellaEnteritidis–specific RT PCR assay threshold cycle cutoff values of ≤36, ≤30, and ≤28 were evaluated in comparison to culture. The average limit of detection of the RT PCR assay was 2.4 × 103 colony-forming units (CFUs)/ml, which corresponded to an average threshold cycle value of 36.6. Before enrichment, samples inoculated with concentrations from 102 to 105 CFUs/ml were detected by RT PCR, while after enrichment, samples inoculated from 100 to 105 CFUs/ml were detected by RT PCR. Threshold cycle cutoff values were used in the subsequent field trial from which Salmonella Enteritidis was cultured in 7 of 208 environmental samples (3.4%). Individual samples were 99.0%, 100%, and 100% in agreement with the RT PCR at threshold cycle (Ct) cutoff values of ≤36, ≤30, and ≤28 respectively. The agreement for pooled samples also followed the same trend with highest agreement at Ct ≤ 28 (pool of 2  =  100.0%, pool of 3  =  100.0%, pool of 4  =  100.0%), midrange agreement at Ct ≤ 30 (pool of 2  =  99.0%, pool of 3  =  100.0%, pool of 4  =  100.0%), and lowest agreement at Ct ≤ 36 (pool of 2  =  98.1%, pool of 3  =  97.1%, pool of 4  =  98.1%). In conclusion, regardless of the level of pooling after tetrathionate enrichment, sensitivity was very good, and results would be comparable to what would have been found with individual culture or individual RT PCR at Ct ≤ 36