Is There Evidence that Legislative Ambition Matches Development? Evaluating the Factors Influencing Wind Energy Development

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Optimal dairy feed input selection under alternative feeds availability and relative prices

Feed formulation is essential in the dairy production chain from economic, nutritional, and environmental perspectives. Optimizing the feed formulation across those three domains – given uncertainty of input prices, input availability, and regional climatic conditions – is a challenge for those in the industry. The diet formulation method that is widely used by trading firms and feed production facilities employs a static linear programming (LP) approach. This approach does not allow for intertemporal feed formulations and switches between dietary feed commodities under feed availability conditions, which result in foregone economic gains for feed producers. The current study develops a multi-period LP feed model that uses historical data to capture ration switch opportunities between available feed resources for dairy cows and demonstrates the potential use of the method in different commodity feed availability situations. We apply 14 diet formulations, each covering 150 months, representing a total of 2100 diets. The diet formulation considers a specific milk production level for a “model cow”, alternative feed formulations available, and volatility in feed prices. The results demonstrate that there is an opportunity for efficiency gains in the dairy industry with respect to feed formulation. Based on dietary feed inclusion and price spreads, barley can be an important dairy feed grain which completely replaces wheat, corn, and sorghum at price spreads of less than 94%, less than 78%, and less than 67%, respectively. Grain-based feed scenarios represent the lowest nutrient variation while multiple meal feeds had the lowest costs. Furthermore, and on average, multiple meal feed scenarios provided 10% higher dietary crude protein contents compared to grain based feed scenarios (i.e. 163 vs 179 g/kg DM formulated feed). Meanwhile, multiple meal feeding cost was 11% lower than that in the grain based feeding scenarios. Additionally, the use of multiple meals reduces alfalfa dietary inclusion by 7% on dry matter basis. Our analysis shows a strong reduction in feed cost associated with dietary crude protein reduction equivalent to 7.6 USD/tonne per 1% reduction in dietary crude protein level. The modeling approach allows for the interaction between feed components over time taking into consideration volatile global feed prices, thereby improving feed availability and feed formulation. Overall, the model provides a decision making tool to improve the use of feed resources in the dairy sector.</p

Dancing to the Partisan Beat: A First Analysis of Political Communication on TikTok

TikTok is a video-sharing social networking service, whose popularity is increasing rapidly. It was the world's second-most downloaded app in 2019. Although the platform is known for having users posting videos of themselves dancing, lip-syncing, or showcasing other talents, user-videos expressing political views have seen a recent spurt. This study aims to perform a primary evaluation of political communication on TikTok. We collect a set of US partisan Republican and Democratic videos to investigate how users communicated with each other about political issues. With the help of computer vision, natural language processing, and statistical tools, we illustrate that political communication on TikTok is much more interactive in comparison to other social media platforms, with users combining multiple information channels to spread their messages. We show that political communication takes place in the form of communication trees since users generate branches of responses to existing content. In terms of user demographics, we find that users belonging to both the US parties are young and behave similarly on the platform. However, Republican users generated more political content and their videos received more responses; on the other hand, Democratic users engaged significantly more in cross-partisan discussions.Comment: Accepted as a full paper at the 12th International ACM Web Science Conference (WebSci 2020). Please cite the WebSci version; Second version includes corrected typo

An ALMA Survey of H₂CO in Protoplanetary Disks

H₂CO is one of the most abundant organic molecules in protoplanetary disks and can serve as a precursor to more complex organic chemistry. We present an Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array survey of H₂CO toward 15 disks covering a range of stellar spectral types, stellar ages, and dust continuum morphologies. H₂CO is detected toward 13 disks and tentatively detected toward a fourteenth. We find both centrally peaked and centrally depressed emission morphologies, and half of the disks show ring-like structures at or beyond expected CO snowline locations. Together these morphologies suggest that H₂CO in disks is commonly produced through both gas-phase and CO-ice-regulated grain-surface chemistry. We extract disk-averaged and azimuthally-averaged H₂CO excitation temperatures and column densities for four disks with multiple H₂CO line detections. The temperatures are between 20–50 K, with the exception of colder temperatures in the DM Tau disk. These temperatures suggest that H₂CO emission in disks generally emerges from the warm molecular layer, with some contributions from the colder midplane. Applying the same H₂CO excitation temperatures to all disks in the survey, we find that H₂CO column densities span almost three orders of magnitude (~5 × 10¹¹–5 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻²). The column densities appear uncorrelated with disk size and stellar age, but Herbig Ae disks may have less H₂CO compared to T Tauri disks, possibly because of less CO freeze-out. More H₂CO observations toward Herbig Ae disks are needed to confirm this tentative trend, and to better constrain under which disk conditions H₂CO and other oxygen-bearing organics efficiently form during planet formation

Concert recording 2013-12-04

[Track 01]. Omaggio / Manuel de Falla -- [Track 02]. Bossa cancao / Frank Basan -- [Track 03]. Spanish study / Frederick Noad -- [Track 04]. Adelita / Francisco Tarrega -- [Track 05]. Everything happens to me / Dennis & Adair -- [Track 06]. 4 on 6 / Wes Montgomery -- [Track 07]. All of me / Simons and Marks -- [Track 08]. Exactly like you / McHugh & Fields -- [Track 09]. Pent up house / Sonny Rollins -- [Track 10]. Ornithology / Charlie Parker -- [Track 11]. Black Orpheus / Luiz Bonfa -- [Track 12]. Bluesette / Toots Thielemans -- [Track 13]. Asturias / Isaac Albeniz

An unbiased ALMA spectral survey of the LkCa 15 and MWC 480 protoplanetary disks

Funding: R.A.L. gratefully acknowledges funding from ALMA Student Observing Support and a Jansky Fellowship. K.I.O. acknowledges funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and from the Simons Foundation (SCOL #321183). J.H. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant No. DGE-1144152. E.A.B. acknowledges funding through NSF grant AST-1514670 and NASA NNX16AB48G. C.W. acknowledges financial support from STFC (grant reference ST/R000549/1) and the University of Leeds.The volatile contents of protoplanetary disks both set the potential for planetary chemistry and provide valuable probes of defining disk system characteristics such as stellar mass, gas mass, ionization, and temperature structure. Current disk molecular inventories are fragmented, however, giving an incomplete picture: unbiased spectral line surveys are needed to assess the volatile content. We present here an overview of such a survey of the protoplanetary disks around the Herbig Ae star MWC 480 and the T Tauri star LkCa 15 in ALMA Band 7, spanning ∼36 GHz from 275 to 317 GHz and representing an order of magnitude increase in sensitivity over previous single-dish surveys. We detect 14 molecular species (including isotopologues), with five species (C34S, 13CS, H2CS, DNC, and C2D) detected for the first time in protoplanetary disks. Significant differences are observed in the molecular inventories of MWC 480 and LkCa 15, and we discuss how these results may be interpreted in light of the different physical conditions of these two disk systems.PostprintPeer reviewe

An ALMA Survey of H₂CO in Protoplanetary Disks

H₂CO is one of the most abundant organic molecules in protoplanetary disks and can serve as a precursor to more complex organic chemistry. We present an Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array survey of H₂CO toward 15 disks covering a range of stellar spectral types, stellar ages, and dust continuum morphologies. H₂CO is detected toward 13 disks and tentatively detected toward a fourteenth. We find both centrally peaked and centrally depressed emission morphologies, and half of the disks show ring-like structures at or beyond expected CO snowline locations. Together these morphologies suggest that H₂CO in disks is commonly produced through both gas-phase and CO-ice-regulated grain-surface chemistry. We extract disk-averaged and azimuthally-averaged H₂CO excitation temperatures and column densities for four disks with multiple H₂CO line detections. The temperatures are between 20–50 K, with the exception of colder temperatures in the DM Tau disk. These temperatures suggest that H₂CO emission in disks generally emerges from the warm molecular layer, with some contributions from the colder midplane. Applying the same H₂CO excitation temperatures to all disks in the survey, we find that H₂CO column densities span almost three orders of magnitude (~5 × 10¹¹–5 × 10¹⁴ cm⁻²). The column densities appear uncorrelated with disk size and stellar age, but Herbig Ae disks may have less H₂CO compared to T Tauri disks, possibly because of less CO freeze-out. More H₂CO observations toward Herbig Ae disks are needed to confirm this tentative trend, and to better constrain under which disk conditions H₂CO and other oxygen-bearing organics efficiently form during planet formation

Intensive Goal-Directed Treatments in Enriched Environments Augments Patient Outcomes Post-Stroke

Objective: Previous research indicates that patients post-stroke, average 400-800 steps within physical therapy sessions and demonstrate heart rate values of 24-35% of HR Max. This dosage and intensity is inadequate to promote neuroplastic changes and maximize recovery. The goal of this study was to quantify and examine the amount of high-intensity stepping practice that was delivered within an Acute Inpatient Rehabilitation (AIR) setting for individuals with sub-acute stroke. Methods: 14 patients with a diagnosis of sub-acute stroke were admitted to AIR. Standardized outcomes included the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), 10-Meter Walk Test (10MWT), the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients (PASS). A step activity monitor with an internal accelerometer was applied on the non-paretic extremity from the hours of 7 am to 5 pm. During therapy sessions, subjects were exposed to a plan of care that involved high-intensity, high-frequency stepping practice through Body Weight Supported Treadmill Training (BWSTT), over-ground stepping, stair climbing, obstacle navigation, dynamic standing balance activities and error augmentation tasks. All individuals were continuously monitored with heart rate monitors, and perceived intensity was recorded within 5-minute intervals and after modification of activity with the Borg Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale. Target intensity was defined with heart rate values of 70-85% of HR Max and RPE values of 14-20 (hard to maximal exertion). Time spent in target intensity ranges was collected. Each subject was scheduled for 1-2 hours of physical therapy per day. Results: During the 2-month collection period, subjects demonstrated ability to tolerate a high-intensity, high-frequency stepping gait training program within the intensities defined. Stepping data indicated that subjects received an average daily stepping dosage of 2000-8000 steps per day, well above previously reported values. Conclusion: It is possible to implement a high-intensity, high-frequency stepping gait training program within an acute inpatient rehabilitation setting for the stroke population. However, future research concerning therapy intensity and frequency of stepping should be designed with a larger sample size