Who benefits from the US withdrawal of the Kyoto Protocol? An application of the MMEA method to measure power

Since 1992, the international community is trying to arrive at a multilateral agreement on the reduction of emissions for greenhouse gases. A collective decision mechanism was adopted in 1997: An agreement is ratified if and only if it is approved by a coalition gathering more than 55 countries. Moreover, the ratifying industrialized countries - included in the Annex I of the Kyoto Protocol - must represent a total weight corresponding to at least 55% of the total CO2 emissions of the countries of the Annex I, taking the year 1990 as a reference point.One way to study the theoretical power distribution induced by this voting procedure is to compute the Banzhaf index for each country. Firstly, the results of the computation show that the power distribution is largely heterogeneous and benefits to the United-States. Secondly, we analyze the modifications generated by the European coalition scenario in order to prove that the European strategy to act as a single block counterbalanced the US leadership. Finally, we conclude that Japan and Russia benefited from the United States withdrawal in term of a priori decisional power.Power indices, environment, Kyoto Protocol, empirical game theory

Timing and correction of stepping movements with a virtual reality avatar

Research into the ability to coordinate one’s movements with external cues has focussed on the use of simple rhythmic, auditory and visual stimuli, or interpersonal coordination with another person. Coordinating movements with a virtual avatar has not been explored, in the context of responses to temporal cues. To determine whether cueing of movements using a virtual avatar is effective, people’s ability to accurately coordinate with the stimuli needs to be investigated. Here we focus on temporal cues, as we know from timing studies that visual cues can be difficult to follow in the timing context. Real stepping movements were mapped onto an avatar using motion capture data. Healthy participants were then motion captured whilst stepping in time with the avatar’s movements, as viewed through a virtual reality headset. The timing of one of the avatar step cycles was accelerated or decelerated by 15% to create a temporal perturbation, for which participants would need to correct to, in order to remain in time. Step onset times of participants relative to the corresponding step-onsets of the avatar were used to measure the timing errors (asynchronies) between them. Participants completed either a visual-only condition, or auditory-visual with footstep sounds included, at two stepping tempo conditions (Fast: 400ms interval, Slow: 800ms interval). Participants’ asynchronies exhibited slow drift in the Visual-Only condition, but became stable in the Auditory-Visual condition. Moreover, we observed a clear corrective response to the phase perturbation in both the fast and slow tempo auditory-visual conditions. We conclude that an avatar’s movements can be used to influence a person’s own motion, but should include relevant auditory cues congruent with the movement to ensure a suitable level of entrainment is achieved. This approach has applications in physiotherapy, where virtual avatars present an opportunity to provide the guidance to assist patients in adhering to prescribed exercises

TEM and SAED Characterization of Metakaolin. Pozzolanic Activity

The present study deals with a characterization of metakaolin pozzolanic activity and its chemical character exhibited in the Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) blends by means of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Selected-Area Electron Diffraction (SAED) techniques principally. Metakaolin sample was prepared by calcination of kaolin rock (Guadalajara, Spain) at 780°C. Two OPC of different chemical composition from the tricalcium aluminate content point of view were chosen and Portland cement blends series elaborated and then submitted to the pozzolanic activity test (EN 196-5 or Frattini test). The main mineralogical components of the metakaolin are determined qualitatively: χ-alumina and quartz. The chemical character of the metakaolin is described because of its final composition as well as due to its Al atoms possible coordination. The crystalline order of the material is found to be of both amorphous and polycrystalline, being an intimate amorphous mixture of alumina and silica. Finally, all the alumina capable of reacting chemically is denominated and classified as reactive alumina component, Al2O3r−, of pozzolans, as well as the aluminic chemical character of metakaolin in OPC blends is once again proved and exhibited by means of Friedel's salt formation studied already at 4 h-age

Physical - mechanical behaviour on cementic blended with ceramic block incorporation

Se analiza el comportamiento de morteros y hormigones con Bloque Cerámico como reemplazo del cemento portland (8, 24 y 40% en peso). En los morteros se estudió la fluidez, la resistencia a flexión y a compresión y la porosidad; para los hormigones se determinó la resistencia a compresión y a tracción por compresión diametral y la succión capilar. Todos los ensayos se realizaron a 2, 7 y 28 días. Los resultados muestran que a medida que aumenta el porcentaje de reemplazo de residuo cerámico, la fluidez y la resistencia mecánica de los morteros disminuye, mientras que la porosidad aumenta. Por su parte en los hormigones, la resistencia mecánica decrece con el incremento del porcentaje de reemplazo y la succión capilar aumenta.The behavior of mortar and concrete with ceramic block as replacement of portland cement (8, 24 and 40% by weight) is analyzed. In mortars were studied the flowability, the flexural strength, the compressive strength and the porosity. For concrete were determined the compressive strength, the splitting tensile strength and capillary suction. All tests were performed at 2, 7 and 28 days. The results show that as the ceramic block replacement increases, fluidity and mechanical strength of mortars decreases, while the porosity increases. On the other hand in concrete, mechanical strength decreases and capillary suction increases with ceramic block replacement increases.Fil: Zito, Silvina Vanessa. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingenieria de Olavarria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Irassar, Edgardo Fabián. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingenieria de Olavarria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Rahhal, Viviana Fátima. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería Olavarría; Argentin

Weaknesses in Palestinian Income Tax System: Reasons and Possible Remedies

Since 1994 the year of Palestinian Authority establishment, Palestinian public budget suffered from a large deficit which affects negatively on its financial power to pay its obligations. According to the budget of Palestinian Authority in 2010, income tax revenues represent about 3% of GDP and only about 8 % of total tax revenues. Therefore, this paper tried to discuss the main reasons behind the weaknesses in Palestinian income tax revenues in the view of tax administrators and tax officers using descriptive survey methodology by preparing a detailed questionnaire contain 26 paragraphs tried to find an interpretation to the problem of this study, this questionnaire distributed to a sample of 60 tax administrators were working in tax administrations in different cities of Palestine Our finding shows that the main reasons behind weakness in Palestinian income tax revenues are due to the followings: weaknesses in income tax control system, low level of income in Palestine, lack of tax and nontax incentives

TGFb-facilitated optic fissure fusion and the role of bone morphogenetic protein antagonism

The optic fissure is a transient gap in the developing vertebrate eye, which must be closed as development proceeds. A persisting optic fissure, coloboma, is a major cause for blindness in children. Although many genes have been linked to coloboma, the process of optic fissure fusion is still little appreciated, especially on a molecular level. We identified a coloboma in mice with a targeted inactivation of transforming growth factor β2 (TGFβ2). Notably, here the optic fissure margins must have touched, however failed to fuse. Transcriptomic analyses indicated an effect on remodelling of the extracellular matrix (ECM) as an underlying mechanism. TGFβ signalling is well known for its effect on ECM remodelling, but it is at the same time often inhibited by bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signalling. Notably, we also identified two BMP antagonists among the downregulated genes. For further functional analyses we made use of zebrafish, in which we found TGFβ ligands expressed in the developing eye, and the ligand binding receptor in the optic fissure margins where we also found active TGFβ signalling and, notably, also gremlin 2b ( grem2b ) and follistatin a ( fsta ), homologues of the regulated BMP antagonists. We hypothesized that TGFβ is locally inducing expression of BMP antagonists within the margins to relieve the inhibition from its regulatory capacity regarding ECM remodelling. We tested our hypothesis and found that induced BMP expression is sufficient to inhibit optic fissure fusion, resulting in coloboma. Our findings can likely be applied also to other fusion processes, especially when TGFβ signalling or BMP antagonism is involved, as in fusion processes during orofacial development. </jats:p

Integration of Cloud-native ETSI TeraFlowSDN controller with ContainerLab

This master thesis focuses on bridging the gap towards facilitating novel spine-leaf¿based intra-data center connectivity controlled through the TeraFlowSDN controller and using the L2EVPN technology. The thesis provides a detailed overview of the project phases, from pre-documentation to implementation and experimental validation

The Reasons of Tax Evasion in Palestine: View of Tax Managers in Income Tax Department

Tax evasion phenomena is one of the most challenges faced the physical stability of Palestinian government. Lack of tax revenues caused annual high deficit in the public budget. This study aims to explore the causes of tax evasion phenomena in the view of income tax managers in Palestine. For that a questionnaire of 37 paragraphs has been developed and distributed to employees of income tax administration in west bank of Palestine. Then SPSS software has been used for statistical analysis. Depending on statistical study the main causes of income tax evasion in Palestine are due to: economic agreement between Palestine and Israel (Paris protocol), lack of detailed applicable control plan in tax administrations, inefficiency of some employees in tax administration and complicated procedures in tax collection. This study offered several recommendations to deal with causes mentioned above

Adoption of Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in Palestinian Corporations

This paper examines the extent of Balanced Scorecard (BSC) adoption and implementation among Palestinian listed corporations as a performance evaluation tool, and explores whether Palestinian corporations realize the importance of non-financial measures of BSC in their performance evaluation process as well. For that, collected data through questionnaire directed to top level management of Palestinian Corporation including Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Internal Auditor and Controller has been analyzed using statistical software of SPSS. Our findings show only 30% of surveyed corporations have fully adoption of BSC, 42% of them have partially adoption while rest corporations have not been adopted BSC at all. Although the majority of Palestinians corporations realize the importance of BSC adoption in full, financial measurements are still considered the most important indicators in evaluation process of corporation’s performance. In case of non-financial measurements, all surveyed corporations realize the importance of BSC customer perspective while importance of other perspectives has different views between corporations. Only Banking sector realize the importance of growth and learning perspective and has the priority in periodically performance evaluation process in order financial perspective. Finally, respondents of questionnaire who realize the importance of BSC implementation, indicate corporations readiness to bear cost and to recruit all needed human and non-human resources toward BSC fully adoption

HEAT TRANSFER ANALYSIS OF MICROCHANNELS HEAT SINK WITH SIDEWALL FINS

This study aims to investigate Microchannel Heat Sinks with side wall fins through a model-based approach. The primary objective of the project is to design and analyze the thermal performance of straight Microchannel Heat Sinks with square and triangle-shaped fins on sidewalls. To examine their performance, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation study is conducted using the ANSYS Fluent software. The study starts by creating a CAD model of the heat sink and then analyzing its thermal properties with the ANSYS Fluent software. From the CFD simulation study, numerical results are obtained for different operational and geometrical conditions. The study employed the Figure of Merit (FOM) approach to balance the advantages of thermal enhancement with the drawbacks of increased pressure drop. The study demonstrates that incorporating square or triangle-shaped fins enhances thermal performance, but at the cost of increased pressure drop. Moreover, increasing the size of the fins lowers thermal resistance; however, Design 1, which features smaller fins, yields a higher Figure of Merit (FOM) for both designs. Furthermore, reducing the spacing between the fins lowers thermal resistance, but Design 4, which has larger spacing than Design 5, yields a higher FOM in both designs. Additionally, smaller channel sizes reduce thermal resistance, but Design 6 with larger size than Design 7 offers higher FOM in both designs. The study also indicates that reducing the spacing between channels results in higher FOM values in both designs. Importantly, square-shaped fin microchannels consistently outperformed triangle fin microchannels in all cases. These results highlight the importance of achieving a balance between thermal performance and Pumping Power in heat sink design