NMDB@Home 2020: Proceedings of the 1st virtual symposium on cosmic ray studies with neutron detectors

With the 'Proceedings of the 1st virtual symposium on cosmic ray studies with neutron detectors' launches the new open access series 'Cosmic ray studies with neutron detectors'. The volume comprises the papers presented at the online meeting held in July 2020. The contributions show that neutron detectors on the ground provide significant results for studying the interaction of galactic cosmic rays with magnetic fields in the heliosphere, for accelerating energetic particles, and for a growing number of applications, including geophysics and space weather. The easily accessible databases around the project 'Real-Time database for high resolution Neutron Monitor measurements' (NMDB) make the original data readily available to a large user community.Die 'Proceedings of the 1st virtual symposium on cosmic ray studies with neutron detectors' eröffenen die neue Open-Access-Reihe 'Cosmic ray studies with neutron detectors'. Der Band umfasst die bei dem im Juli 2020 veranstalteten Online-Treffen präsentierten wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten. Die Beiträge zeigen, dass Neutronendetektoren am Boden bedeutende Ergebnisse liefern: zur Erforschung der Wechselwirkung der galaktischen kosmischen Strahlung mit Magnetfeldern in der Heliosphäre, zur Beschleunigung von energetischen Teilchen sowie für eine wachsenden Anzahl von Anwendungen, unter anderem in Bezug auf die Geophysik und das Weltraumwetter. Die leicht zugänglichen Datenbanken rund um das Projekt 'Real-Time database for high resolution Neutron Monitor measurements' (NMDB) machen die Originaldaten für eine große Nutzergemeinschaft leicht zugänglich

Unusual decrease of the cosmic ray intensity in May 2019 on the background of the minima solar activity

In May 2019 there was a long and sloping decreasing of cosmic ray’s intensity (up to ~4%), which was observed on neutron monitors. Despite this was a small decreasing compared to quasi-eleven-period variation, it stands out well in 24th cycle of solar activity. According to LASCO/SOHO and STEREO-A data from spectrometer in different UHF bands and from coronograph, there was a series of CMEs which affected on modulation of cosmic rays by creating a series of Forbush decrea - sing, which didn’t restore. This series was connected to two active regions on sun and began on April 30 from “reversed halo” CME. This CME didn’t reach the earth, but led to significant additional modulation of cosmic rays, mostly on east side. Later there was a series of smaller CMEs on May 1-6, which also didn’t reach the earth, but were gradually approaching to Earth. Recent CMEs on 8-9 and 12-13 created a normal Forbush decreasing. In May 2019, cosmic rays shown again, that they can collect information about distant objects of geliosphere and transmit it to Earth. The ground-level detectors sometimes can observe an interaction of interplanetary distur- bances, which didn‘t reach the earth. East CMEs are especially effective, because they closing magnetic field lines beyond the orbit of earth and can interfere the restoring of cosmic ray’s intensity

A Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement for Services?

Services are regulated for a variety of reasons. Regulation is typically influenced by political economy forces and may thus at times reflect protectionist motivations. Similar considerations arise for goods, but the potential for protectionist capture may be greater in services as many sectors are self-regulated by domestic industry. There are specific disciplines on regulation of goods (product standards) in the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). This encourages the use of international standards and requires that norms restrict trade only to the extent necessary to achieve the regulatory objective. WTO disciplines on domestic regulation of services are weaker and differ in key respects from those for goods. We discuss reasons for this discrepancy and assess whether consideration should be given to seeking to adopt the TBT-type disciplines that apply to trade in goods

Science and Risk Analysis in CPTPP/SPS-Plus: Role Model or Unbearable Burden?

Trade in food and agricultural products accounts for a major part of global trade, and the trade continues to alert domestic consumers to the risks associated with modern food processing and production methods. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), now rebranded as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), represents a new model of mega-regional trade pacts posed to set higher standards for promoting and streamlining trade liberalization. Because of concerns with national food safety regulations that could constitute forms of non-tariff barriers, the CPTPP, in contrast to the World Trade Organization (WTO), stipulates further rules on parties’ sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), achieving a type of role model of SPS-plus. This article explores the legal implications and progressiveness of the SPS-plus design, particularly focusing on the requirements of scientific evidence and risk analysis. The SPS-plus that sets hurdles for national regulatory regimes largely reflects WTO jurisprudence, international health standards, and the national regulations of the United States. I argue that the role model may provide momentum to modernize parties’ food safety regimes, but the cost of full compliance could be high. Genuine collaboration, experience-sharing, and technological and financial support between developed countries and less developed countries may alleviate the difficulties of implementation and promote coherence

Ignazio Saverio Mifsud, 1722-1773 : commemoration

Ignazio Saverio Mifsud ( 1722-1773 ), together with Count Giovanni Antonio Ciantar (1696-1778)1 and Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis (1712-1770)2 f01med the nucleus of Maltese letterati active in Malta during the mid to late eighteenth centu1y. Other personalities including, amongst others, Gaetano Reboul, Baitolomeo Mifsud better known as Padre Pelagio, Giuseppe Giacomo Testafenata, Francesco Maria Tonigiani and Giovanni Nicolo Muscat pe1tained to this quite remai·kable group, producing an extensive corpus of published and manuscript literature, much of which still awaits in-depth analysis as to its significance to the contemporaiy audience.peer-reviewe

Factors associated with financial risk due to health spending in Argentina

This article aims to assess the association between household demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) in Argentina during 2017-2018. CHE was estimated as the proportion of household consumption capacity (using both income and total consumption in separate estimations) allocated for Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure (OOP). For assessing the determinants, we estimated a generalized ordered logit model using different intensities of CHE (10%, 15%, 20% and 25%) as the ordinal dependent variable, and socioeconomic, demographic, and geographical variables as explanatory factors. We found that having members older than 65 years and with long-term difficulties increased the likelihood of incurring CHE. Additionally, having an economically inactive household head was identified as a factor that increases this probability. However, the research did not yield consistent results regarding the relationship between public and private health insurance and consumption capacity. Our results, along with the robustness checks, suggest that the magnitude of the coefficients for the household head characteristics could be exaggerated in studies that overlook the attributes of other household members. In addition, these results emphasize the significance of accounting for long-term difficulties and indicate that omitting this factor could overestimate the impact of members aged over 65.Fil: Virdis, Juan Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Economía. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur; Argentina. University of Manchester; Reino UnidoFil: Elorza, Maria Eugenia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Economía. Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Delbianco, Fernando Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Matemática Bahía Blanca. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Matemática. Instituto de Matemática Bahía Blanca; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Economía; Argentin

Review of solar energetic particle models

Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events are interesting from a scientific perspective as they are the product of a broad set of physical processes from the corona out through the extent of the heliosphere, and provide insight into processes of particle acceleration and transport that are widely applicable in astrophysics. From the operations perspective, SEP events pose a radiation hazard for aviation, electronics in space, and human space exploration, in particular for missions outside of the Earth’s protective magnetosphere including to the Moon and Mars. Thus, it is critical to improve the scientific understanding of SEP events and use this understanding to develop and improve SEP forecasting capabilities to support operations. Many SEP models exist or are in development using a wide variety of approaches and with differing goals. These include computationally intensive physics-based models, fast and light empirical models, machine learning-based models, and mixed-model approaches. The aim of this paper is to summarize all of the SEP models currently developed in the scientific community, including a description of model approach, inputs and outputs, free parameters, and any published validations or comparisons with data.</p

Assessing the impact of EVFTA on Vietnam's textile and garment exports to the UK

Purpose: The study assesses the impact of the EVFTA on textile exports from Vietnam to the UK and provides some policy implications for Vietnam.   Originality/value: The study used the data of Vietnam's textile and garment exports to the UK in the period 2010 - 2019 and the data of countries' textile exports to the UK in 2019 to propose 3 export scenarios for Vietnam.   Design/methodology/approach: The study uses the SMART model combined with qualitative research methods to analyze and evaluate the positive and negative impacts of UKVFTA on Vietnam's textile and garment exports.   Findings: Research has shown the positive effects and limitations of UVK on textile exports from Vietnam to the UK. Since then, several short-term and long-term measures have been proposed to develop Vietnam's textile and garment industry