A Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for Nebraska: Livestock and Coal Loom Large

Mitigation of climate change requires the systematic identification and cataloging of emissions sources at city, state, and national levels. In this study, an inventory of annual greenhouse gas emissions from the state of Nebraska was created based on industry data, and emissions inventories were completed each year from 1990 to 2016. Nebraska’s net emissions were found to increase from 56.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (MMtCO2e) in 1990 to 87.4 MMtCO2e in 2016. Agriculture was found to be the sector with the most emissions (36 MMtCO2e) followed by electricity generation (21 MMtCO2e). In 2016, emissions from beef cattle made up 55% of agricultural emissions and 23.7% of net state emissions; if all beef were substituted with pork, net state emissions could be reduced by 17.9%. Coal for electricity had the largest increase in emissions from 1990 to 2016 (7.4 MMtCO2e) and made up 23.7% of the state’s net emissions in 2016. Net emissions per capita in Nebraska were found to be 46.2 metric tons CO2e per capita (MtCO2e) in 2015, which is more than double US average emissions at 18.4 MtCO2e, though potentially similar to those of other agricultural states when emissions from agriculture are included in state inventories

Photopolymerizable monomer formulations for nanoporous proton conducting membranes

Several monomers and crosslinker in a broad range of concentrations in water and 1-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) respectively were screened for their mechanical properties, water uptake and conductivity by photo polymerization with a polar photo initiator in porous membranes made of polypropylene and polyethersulfone respectively. As conductive polymer, primarily poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid) (PAMPS) and poly(2-sulfoethyl methacrylate) (PSEM) respectively as well as polymers of phosphonic acid containing monomers or newly synthesized monomers were used. The conductive monomers were crosslinked with varying hydrophobic and hydrophilic multifunctional monomers like N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA), 2-Propenoic acid, 2-methyl-, 1,1'-(1,10-decanediyl) ester (D3MA) or polyethyleneglycol diacrylates with two varying chainlengths (PEG-DA700, PEG-DA330). Furthermore several new multifunctional crosslinker with enhanced thermal and ageing stability have been synthesized and tested.\ud The advantage of several different building blocks with known characteristics is the possibility to tune the polymer to special needs of an application. For example, some polymer compositions have good conductivity at lower temperatures whereas other polymers develop better properties at elevated temperatures

A review of the importance of the Caribbean region in Oligo-Miocene low latitude planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy and the implications for modern biogeochronological schemes

Planktonic foraminifera are widely used in marine biostratigraphy thanks to their small size, limited stratigraphic range and abundance in oceanic sediments. The utility of planktonic foraminifera in biostratigraphy was first fully recognised within the Caribbean region during the middle of the 20th century. The area was critical for the subsequent development of the low latitude biostratigraphic schemes and remains fundamental for modern day biogeochronologies. This study presents a historical review of the Oligo-Miocene component of these biostratigraphic schemes, including the first proposed scheme of Cushman and Stainforth (1945) and the subsequent development. The work of Hans Bolli and Walter Blow is particularly highlighted due to their heavy influence on modern day biostratigraphy, including these authors initially recognising the biostratigraphic utility of a number of bioevents still applied today. These Caribbean-centric schemes are correlated to the modern-day low latitude biogeochronology of Wade et al. (2011), with this synthesis highlighting that a number of bioevents (e.g. Top Paragloborotalia kugleri and Top Catapsydrax dissimilis) have been applied consistently since their initial recognition. This in turn allows the recognisability of these bioevents to be deduced based on how consistently applied each datum has been. In addition, the range charts of six studies focusing heavily on the Caribbean have been reassessed to determine whether there is potential to apply a given bioevent, and the original author merely did not recognise the biostratigraphic utility of the species or favoured another bioevent. In considering this historical review, a number of amendments to Wade et al. (2011) and future priorities to planktonic foraminifera biogeochronologies are suggested. Most notably, the re-introduction of Base Globigerinatella insueta as a primary bioevent due to the historical biostratigraphic importance of this species. This event now defines early Miocene Subzone M3b (Gt. insueta/Ct. dissimilis PRZ) dividing Zone M3 into an upper Subzone M3b (Base Gt. insueta) and lower Subzone M3a (Base Globigerinatella sp.). Finally, the Miocene to Recent timescale of Wade et al. (2011) has been recalibrated following more recent updates to the magnetostratigraphy (Kochhann et al., 2016; Ogg et al., 2016; Drury et al., 2017; Beddow et al., 2018) and cyclostratigraphy (Wilkens et al., 2017). The overall effect on the planktonic foraminifera biogeochronology is minor but our results become the suggested biostratigraphic framework for the low latitudes

Pengembangan Instrumen Tes Kemampuan Berpikir Tingkat Tinggi Tema Energi Ramah Lingkungan Pada Siswa Kelas IX

The problem with test instruments made by teachers tends to test more aspects of memory without honing the ability to think at a high level of students is what prompted this research. The purpose of this study was to develop a high level thinking test instrument designed for grade IX students on the theme of environmentally friendly energy. The method used is Research and Development (R&D) consisting of potential problems, data collection, product design, design validation, design revision and product trials. This research resulted in the form of a high level thinking test instrument. The test instrument has been tested for feasibility based on expert validation obtaining a validity level of 98.36% (very valid) with details of material expert validation of 97.77% and science teacher experts of 98.96%. Based on the test of test instruments on 105 students measured by Anates software version 4.0.5, the results obtained 20 valid questions with moderate difficulty, reliability of 0.85 (high reliability) and good differentiating power as many as 5 questions and sufficient differentiating power as many as 15 questions. Therefore, it can be concluded that the test instrument with an overall product efficiency value obtained based on student responses is 89.12% (very efficient).  The results of the development of test instruments can be used for further research that will measure the level of ability with high level thinking in class IX students on the theme of environmentally friendly energy.Permasalahan pada instrumen tes yang dibuat oleh guru cenderung lebih banyak menguji aspek ingatan tanpa mengasah kemampuan dengan berpikir dalam tingkat tinggi siswa inilah yang mendorong dilakukannya penelitian ini. Tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk mengembangkan instrumen tes kemampuan dengan berpikir dalam tingkat tinggi yang dirancang untuk siswa kelas IX pada tema energi ramah lingkungan. Metode yang digunakan adalah Research and Development (R&D) dengan model Sugiyono yang terdiri dari potensi masalah, pengumpulan data, desain produk, validasi desain, revisi desain dan uji coba produk. Penelitian ini menghasilkan berupa instrumen tes berpikir dalam tingkat tinggi. Instrumen tes telah diuji kelayakan berdasarkan validasi ahli memperoleh tingkat kevalidan sebesar 98,36% (sangat valid) dengan rincian validasi ahli materi sebesar 97,77% dan ahli guru IPA sebesar 98,96%. Berdasarkan uji coba instrumen tes pada 105 siswa yang diukur dengan software Anates versi 4.0.5 didapatkan hasil 20 soal valid dengan tingkat kesukaran sedang, reliabilitas sebesar 0,85 (reliabilitas tinggi) dan daya pembeda baik sebanyak 5 soal serta daya pembeda cukup sebanyak 15 soal. Oleh karena itu, dapat disimpulkan instrumen tes dengan nilai efisiensi produk secara keseluruhan yang diperoleh berdasarkan respon siswa sebesar 89,12% (sangat efisien). Dari hasil pengembangan instrumen tes dapat digunakan untuk penelitian selanjutnya yang akan mengukur tingkat kemampuan dengan berpikir dalam tingkat tinggi pada siswa kelas IX tema energi ramah lingkungan

Creating Composite Indicators with DEA and Robustness Analysis: the case of the Technology Achievement Index

Composite indicators are regularly used for benchmarking countries’ performance, but equally often stir controversies about the unavoidable subjectivity that is connected with their construction. Data Envelopment Analysis helps to overcome some key limitations, viz., the undesirable dependence of final results from the preliminary normalization of sub-indicators, and, more cogently, from the subjective nature of the weights used for aggregating. Still, subjective decisions remain, and such modelling uncertainty propagates onto countries’ composite indicator values and relative rankings. Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis are therefore needed to assess robustness of final results and to analyze how much each individual source of uncertainty contributes to the output variance. The current paper reports on these issues, using the Technology Achievement Index as an illustration.factor is more important in explaining the observed progress.composite indicators, aggregation, weighting, Internal Market

Creating composite indicators with DEA and robustness analysis: The case of the technology achievement index.

Composite indicators are regularly used for benchmarking countries’ performance, but equally often stir controversies about the unavoidable subjectivity that is connected with their construction. Data Envelopment Analysis helps to overcome some key limitations, viz., the undesirable dependence of final results from the preliminary normalization of sub-indicators, and, more cogently, from the subjective nature of the weights used for aggregating. Still, subjective decisions remain, and such modelling uncertainty propagates onto countries’ composite indicator values and relative rankings. Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis are therefore needed to assess robustness of final results and to analyze how much each individual source of uncertainty contributes to the output variance. The current paper reports on these issues, using the Technology Achievement Index as an illustration.Indexes; Indicators; Robustness; Technology;

Fish schooling as a basis for vertical axis wind turbine farm design

Most wind farms consist of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) due to the high power coefficient (mechanical power output divided by the power of the free-stream air through the turbine cross-sectional area) of an isolated turbine. However when in close proximity to neighbouring turbines, HAWTs suffer from a reduced power coefficient. In contrast, previous research on vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) suggests that closely-spaced VAWTs may experience only small decreases (or even increases) in an individual turbine's power coefficient when placed in close proximity to neighbours, thus yielding much higher power outputs for a given area of land. A potential flow model of inter-VAWT interactions is developed to investigate the effect of changes in VAWT spatial arrangement on the array performance coefficient, which compares the expected average power coefficient of turbines in an array to a spatially-isolated turbine. A geometric arrangement based on the configuration of shed vortices in the wake of schooling fish is shown to significantly increase the array performance coefficient based upon an array of 16x16 wind turbines. Results suggest increases in power output of over one order of magnitude for a given area of land as compared to HAWTs.Comment: Submitted for publication in BioInspiration and Biomimetics. Note: The technology described in this paper is protected under both US and international pending patents filed by the California Institute of Technolog

Happiness, environmental protection and market economy

The manufacturing sector is leaving the West for Asia’s low wages and good working culture. Europe would be better off keeping these manufacturing activities, slowing down wage inflation and what is more, letting a young, cheaper workforce from the East settle down within their borders. This would aid in preserving the diverse economic structure which has been characteristic for Europe.Beside the economic growth there are two more concepts which have turned into the “holy cows” of economics during the last fifty years. One is the need to constantly improve labor productivity and the other is increasing competitiveness of nations. The high labor productivity of some countries, induces severe unemployment in the globalized world. In the other hand it is high time we understood that it is not competition, but cooperation that brings more happiness to humanity.Should we still opt for “happiness” and “sanity”, it is quite obvious that we all should, in economists’ terms, define our individual welfare functions corresponding to our own set of values, staying free from the influence of media, advertisements and fashion. The cornerstone to all this is the intelligent citizen who prefers local goods and services