Sustainable inland transportation

Inland navigation is often mentioned as a ‘green’ alternative for the two other main inland transport modes: rail and road transport. In order to investigate the opportunities for inland navigation we first analyze the competitive position of inland navigation vis-àvis the other main inland transport modes. For that, we perform a comparative study on the current sustainability performance of the three modes. Second, through a case study, we analyze a recent initiative for sustainable innovation of inland navigation in order to assess the barriers and opportunities for improving the competitive position of sustainable inland navigation

Comparison of continuous in situ CO2 observations at Jungfraujoch using two different measurement techniques

Since 2004, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is being measured at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch by the division of Climate and Environmental Physics at the University of Bern (KUP) using a nondispersive infrared gas analyzer (NDIR) in combination with a paramagnetic O2 analyzer. In January 2010, CO2 measurements based on cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) as part of the Swiss National Air Pollution Monitoring Network were added by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa). To ensure a smooth transition – a prerequisite when merging two data sets, e.g., for trend determinations – the two measurement systems run in parallel for several years. Such a long-term intercomparison also allows the identification of potential offsets between the two data sets and the collection of information about the compatibility of the two systems on different time scales. A good agreement of the seasonality, short-term variations and, to a lesser extent mainly due to the short common period, trend calculations is observed. However, the comparison reveals some issues related to the stability of the calibration gases of the KUP system and their assigned CO2 mole fraction. It is possible to adapt an improved calibration strategy based on standard gas determinations, which leads to better agreement between the two data sets. By excluding periods with technical problems and bad calibration gas cylinders, the average hourly difference (CRDS – NDIR) of the two systems is −0.03 ppm ± 0.25 ppm. Although the difference of the two data sets is in line with the compatibility goal of ±0.1 ppm of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the standard deviation is still too high. A significant part of this uncertainty originates from the necessity to switch the KUP system frequently (every 12 min) for 6 min from ambient air to a working gas in order to correct short-term variations of the O2 measurement system. Allowing additional time for signal stabilization after switching the sample, an effective data coverage of only one-sixth for the KUP system is achieved while the Empa system has a nearly complete data coverage. Additionally, different internal volumes and flow rates may affect observed differences

Does increasing the sample size always increase the accuracy of a consistent estimator?

Birnbaum (1948) introduced the notion of peakedness about \theta of a random variable T, defined by P(| T - \theta | <\epsilon), \epsilon > 0. What seems to be not well-known is that, for a consistent estimator Tn of \theta, its peakedness does not necessarily converge to 1 monotonically in n. In this article some known results on how the peakedness of the sample mean behaves as a function of n are recalled. Also, new results concerning the peakedness of the median and the interquartile range are presented

Subset selection for the best of two populations : tables of the expected subset size

Assume two independent populations are given. The associated independent random variables have Normal distributions with unknown expectations \theta_1 and \theta_2, respectively, and known common variance \sigma^2. The selection goal of Gupta's subset selection for two populations is to select a non-empty subset which contains the best, in the sense of largest expectation, population with confidence level P* (½ &lt;P* &lt;1). In Van der Laan and Van Eeden (1992) a generalized selection goal has been introduced and investigated. In this report extended tables with values of the expected subset size are given

Some generalized subset selection procedures

In this paper some generalizations of Gupta's subset selection procedure are discussed. Assume k(\geq 2) populations are given and assume that the associated random variables have distributions with unknown location parameters \theta_i, i = 1, ..., k. The ordered parameters are denoted by \theta_[1] \leq ... \leq \theta_[k] . On the basis of independent samples from these populations, Gupta (1965) selects a subset, as small as possible, which contains, with probability at least P*, the best population, i.e. the one with the largest location parameter, \theta_[k]. The two generalizations discussed in this paper are those of van der Laan (1991, 1992a, b) and of van der Laan and van Eeden (1993). Each one of these is designed to give a smaller expected subset size, ES, than Gupta's procedure, for which ES is large when \theta_[k] is close to the other \theta_i 's. The procedure of van der Laan (1992a) selects, with probability at least P*, an \epsilon-best population whose location parameter is at least \theta_[k] - \epsilon (with \epsilon \geq 0). Some efficiency results for normal populations, comparing van der Laan's procedure with Gupta's, are presented. The procedure of van der Laan and van Eeden (1993) uses a loss function and it upperbounds either the expected loss or the expected subset size, or both. The loss is taken as zero when the subset contains an \epsilon-best population and as an increasing function of \theta_[k] - \epsilon - max { \theta_i I i-th population in the subset } if not. Some properties of this procedure, for the case of two normal populations, are presented

Parental child-feeding strategies in relation to Dutch children's fruit and vegetable intake

Objective: To identify parental child-feeding strategies that may increase children's fruit or vegetable intake, since the relationship between these strategies and children's intake has never been investigated for fruit and vegetables as two separate food groups. Design: A survey study, where parents provided information about their practices in relation to feeding their children and about their own and their children's fruit and vegetable intake. Children completed a preference questionnaire about fruit and vegetables. To find underlying parental child-feeding strategies, factor analysis was applied to parents' practices in relation to fruit and vegetables separately. Regression analysis was used to predict the effect of these strategies on children's fruit and vegetable intake. The impact of the strategies was further analysed by estimating children's intake based on the frequency of use of specific strategies. Setting: The study was conducted at three primary schools in The Netherlands. Subjects: A total of 259 children between 4 and 12 years old and their parents (n242). Results: Parents used different strategies for fruit as compared with vegetables. The vegetable-eating context was more negative than the fruit-eating context. Parental intake and presenting the children with choice were positive predictors of children's intake of both fruit and vegetables. The intake difference based on frequency of use of the strategy 'Choice' was 40 g/d for vegetables and 72 g/d for fruit (

Accounting for Intellectual Property: inconsistencies and challenges

The recognition of the rights attached to some forms of intellectual property is a contested domain in legal frameworks, such as the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement. The same can be said of economic frameworks, such as accounting which attempt to recognise and value intellectual property for the purposes of providing information for decision making. In this paper we explore the discourse of accounting in the recognition of intellectual property as an asset according to the new International Accounting Standards. We then contrast the legal and accounting discourses in which intellectual property rights are acknowledged, concluding that these discourses are not necessarily aligned. The effects and implications of the development of a global regime for accounting for intangibles may eventually harmonise the accounting treatment for intellectual property but does not resolve the contentious issue of the inconsistencies in the recognition of intellectual property rights under different frameworks and the implications for economic decision making